THIS...... I LIKE

We all know Music/Video/Software theft is a crime. Only today Virgin Media made it into the news by announcing it will be working with the "British Phonographic Industry" (BPI) to stamp out illegal downloaders.


Its refreshing to see then, that the very same level of corporates who are doing their very best to stamp out this kind of illegal activity. Have been busted for running pirated software on four of their servers.

How were they found out you wonder?

"An IT department employee requested assistance for the use of a product called Ideal Migration. When technical support looked into the case, they discovered that the key used to activate the software was a pirated version".

From Zeropaid

I wonder what illegal software Mr Branson has on his virgin network.

Pulling my Finger Out

I have 3 things I really need to do*

1. Re-do my website
2. Sort out Photos of Leah
3. Create a Leah DVD from my Camcorder


1. Redo my Site
I stupidly decided to re-design my website, I say stupidly as rather than do the redesign then upload and replace the current version, I took the site down with a "Coming Soon" message. After a few months, the site is still coming soon, I am intending on using a template site to base it on, with tabbed tops that link to photos, family, gadgets and other stuff. I have yet to find the template to use but will ned to get it done very soon.

2. Sort out Photos of Leah
I have thousands of photos of Leah, I want to pick the best 100 and create a photo album from birth.

3. Create a DVDI now have lots of footage which I intend on creating a DVD from, the trouble with home movies however is the 100 hours of footage you start with ends up being 5 minutes of decent film. I have a HD (Hard Drive) Camera so the transfer to my PC will be easy, I intend on using Sony Vegas to capture the footage, something like Adobe Premier for editing and maybe After Effects for any special effects, titles etc.

I guess it all boils down to a: being arsed and b: having the inspiration/creative flair to do so, Unlike Taoski, I'm far from creative, getting my ideas from t'internet bores the hell out of me.

Therefore

• My website is will be a very basic, quick loading site
• Leahs Photo Album is fairly straightforward, I have messed around ith Photoshop and created some half-decent photos
• The DVD will be a "pre-release" therefore not have any special effects

Any ideas greatly welcomed.


* I actually have about 33 things to do but SWMBO doesn't read my blog so the other 30 "house things" can go on hold.

HTC Tytn II - Back to Geeksville
It's here and more importantly I have one, the follow-up to the wonderful HTC Hermes/Tytn/v1605.

This time with an even faster connection (3.5G), built in GPS, Windows Mobile 6, sliding/tilting screen, finger navigation, 3 Megapixel Camera.

Setup has been easy, put the battery, Mini SD card and SIM Card and turn the device on, you are asked to set your locale, the time and your mobile phone provider, the rest is then setup,

The display is now less colourful, in fact it's black/grey but looks very impressive and seems to work better than with lots of colours, a case of less in more.

The icons are designed for navigating by fingers, meaning you don't have to keep using (and losing) the stylus.
The main screen has icons for home, contacts, weather, launcher and phone settings, each of these having sub-menus.

Home
Shows the time in digital format, emails, text messages and missed calls
Contacts
This is actually called "favourite people" and shows 10 shortcuts to you favourite/mostly dialled people, allowing for photo shortcut, this is something I had on my "OLD" PDA the HTC Hermes, lifted from the Palm Treo 700w
Weather
This is the same as aftermarket software such as SPB Weather and does exactly what is says on the tin, shows todays weather for your chosen location (it even has Derby - Useful only if you live there), clicking again shows the forecast for the next 5 days. Warning : this will use GPRS to update
Launcher
Similar to a start menu, gives you the option of creating shorcuts to your applications and programs,.
Phone Settings
Sound settings, ringtones etc.

All in all I'm very impressed with the device, it's definately a stepup from the Hermes, especially with the buiilt-in GPS which will make it a big seller. The tilting screen is more of a gimmik than useful, but might help in some ways, the keyboard is also improved, the keys are now more repsonsive and you (I) tend to make a lot less spelling mistakes, where you have missed letters out of words.

I've yet to test the GPS /TomTom as people keep calling me, however I'll be installing my aftermarket applications tonight and will update as soon as I can (be arsed).

These are due to replace the V1605 on Vodafone and should be known as the v1615, I guess other providers will follow suit.

Broken
In the space of 2 weeks my personal laptpo has died twice, the first time due to installing some software whih knackered the registry rendering the machine completely 'kin useless, the second time I dropped it and it didnt work afterwards.

I work in IT, and have done for almost 10 years now, so I have to be my own (and my familys') IT guy. That also means I can't take my machine to someone and tell them

Not sure what's wrong, it just happened

...like everyone tells me,

Trust me, nobody working in IT believes people who say that. We may say "OK" but that's just so we can get on and fix the problem/s.

Death 1
I managed to use a piece of software called GetDataBack by Runtime Software. This software can read even the most dead of dead hard drives, and get hundreds of photos (of Leah) back. Just because I work in IT and tell everyone and their dog to back up their hard drive doesn't mean I do it.....

Death 2
I learned my lesson from death 1 and backed up my data, although admittedly, didn;t have that much time to put much on to lose in the first place.

So I am now on the 3rd install and have decided to;

A - Take a backup/clone of my laptop in it's current state
B - Save the applications I regard as essential on a USB Drive.
C - List them here for reference as well as


My Essential Apps.

1. MOST IMPORTANT - Drivers for your machine - remember you might not get internet access after a crash
2. Firefox Mozilla - Internet Browser
3. Smart Bookmarks Bar for Firefox (Hides text on the bookmarks toolbar thus allowing more bookmarks).
4. Media Players - Video Lan & K-Lite Codec Pack (Media Player Classic) (Free)
   
5. Burst Bit Torrent Client (Free) - Others available
   
6. Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) Free or Commercial
7. Winrar (Free - Nagscreen)
   
8. Quickpar - (Free) - Geek Alert
   
9. Foxit PDF Reader - Small file and doesn't take over your machine like Adobe Reader (Free)
   

I know I'm missing a lot, these are just the essentials I need to get me started, additionally I would also have. (Links are to free/opensource versions)

• Office Suite (MS Office or Open Office),
• Imaging Software (Photoshop, GIMP or Paint.net),
• Web suite (Dreamweaver or Nvu),
• Ipod Synchronisation (Anapod Explorer or YamIpod or iTunes if you must)

and many several others.

Links
- 1 - 2 -

Looks like TomTom are evolving
.
I have used TomTom personally for anout 5 years and think its great, although I haven't had much experience with other Sat Nav products, TomTom does exactly what I want - It gets me where I want to go and tells me where the speed cameras are. (for safety reasons obviously)

Recent reports show that TomTom have patented an idea to use a live video camera style device with the directions overlayed the live feed.

Sounds very interesting.

If ony they could spend some time and money on the support side of things, still, as they are based in the middle of the Red Light District in Amsterdam, I guess they have better things to do during their working day.