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 -

Newsgroups

Newsgroups are (apart from IRC) probably the oldest form of file sharing / downloading / P2P(ish) I know of.

I've used newsgroups as long as I've used computers, back in the days of outlook express newsgroups I had access to 20,000+ newsgroups although they weren't brilliant.

About 5 years ago when I moved up to broadband with Pipex, I had access to their newsgroups, again more than 20,000 and again not brilliant,
I then tried out Easynews, the first difference being I had to pay (Yes Lee, Pay !!!!) for this, $9.98 per month for 4Gb usage per month, however there were more groups and the retention was 30 odd days, the retention meant the files stayed on the servers longer and therefore had better availability for everyone.

Over the years the price has stayed the same, but the usage increased to 6Gb, 10Gb and now 20Gb per month.

I have not had a single problem with Easynews. the search pages are great, the Zip Manager is great and all in all, I would and have recommended him to anyone.

NOW...
I read on NewZbin, Giganews, a similar service had a retention of 120 days, which they have now increased to 200 days.

they also have a different levels of usage plans

• Bronze - 2Gb/Month for $7.99
• Sliver - 25Gb/Month for $12.99
• Platinum -Unlimited/Month for $24.99
• Diamond - Unlimited/Month (plus SSL) for $29.99 ($19.99 for first Month)

I'm not, and never have been sure of the legal implications of newsgroups, you can download all types of files from newsgroups as you can with torrents etc, I guess the difference being you are not uploading files, which made P2P illegal.

I am not yet tempted, unlimited access and longer retention just mean my broadband connection get hammered more, giving the ISPs more reason and justification for limiting & throttling my download speed.

Happy Birthday Hugh

It is my stepdads' birthday today, he says he's 39... Unfortnately I'm not allowed to blog how old he really in case he is discriminated against because of his age.

Oops - Sorry, forgot about the "50 year old" Mug you were holding.

Im Moving to Sweden.. .....................................
.I'm not really, but this report states a 75 year old woman has a 40Gpbs internet connection, that's not just opening the gates, thats ploughing the whole field.

What does a 75 year old woman with an internet connection that fast....

In fact. I don't want to know.

Silver "Bullet" surfing indeed.

Xbox 360 - E3 Edition
The only problem I have with my Xbox 360 is...

Let me start again.

The problems I have with my Xbox 360 are

• I was forced into buying one in the first place
• I then had to buy an HD Television
• I have to pay for the games as I'm not getting my Xbox chipped
• Playing real friends online causes tourette-like symptoms
  

When new games are released, our "clan" try their hardest to refrain from going out spending our more than well-earned money on, then to be beaten into submission 3 minutes later, we have got to the point where we don't even put up a fight now (as Stuart, Martin and SteveC will agree).
So the next few months see the price reduction for the Xbox 360, meaning we can persuade more people to buy them. Also the release of a few "Must Have" games

Project Gotham Racing 4
Call of Duty 4
Halo 3
GTA IV

That'll be another £160+ then....

Santa???

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.

New....er Gadgets
.
I blogged earlier this month on what I thought would be couple of perfect gadgets for the (Mobile) worker and the everyday phone user.

The HTC Athena was great, however lacked a decent enough screen resolution, that is really the only fault I have with it (so far)

The HTC Vox was and still is a great mobile phone/email phone, and I this is the perfect device and I still (after at least 2 months) have no complaints.

As usual however, these "perfect" devices have been perfected.

The HTC Omni is the replacement to the crappy clamshell devices of old (HTC Universal/Vodafone v1460, XDA Exec) and will be good competion for the HTC Athena/Advantage
The HTC Wings is the successor to the stll brand new HTC Vox, and has built in GPS and 3G. Only downside remains is the lack of touchscreen, but as I've known for years, you can't have everything. Apparently this device might now be cancelled - Nooooooooo

Come on You Rams

So...
We're in the premiership
We are favourites to get relegated next season (3-2)

The 2007-08 Fixtures are out

August 11 Portsmouth H 15 Man City A, 7.45pm 18 Tottenham A 25 Birmingham H

September 1 Liverpool A 17 Newcastle H, 8pm 22 Arsenal A 29 Bolton H

October 7 Reading A, 2pm 20 Fulham A 27 Everton H

November 3 Aston Villa A 10 West Ham H 24 Chelsea H

December 1 Sunderland A 8 Man Utd A 15 Middlesbrough H 22 Newcastle A 26 Liverpool H 29 Blackburn H

January 1 Bolton A 12 Wigan H 19 Portsmouth A 29 Man City H, 7.45pm

February 2 Birmingham A 9 Tottenham H 23 Wigan A

March 1 Sunderland H 8 Chelsea A 15 Man Utd H 22 Middlesbrough A 29 Fulham H

April 5 Everton A 12 Aston Villa H 19 West Ham A 26 Arsenal H

May 3 Blackburn A 11 Reading H

There's a new crest
We have new signings - (Andy Todd, Claude Davis, Robert Earnshaw)

The New Kit is revealed
Here we go...

Concerts - Live Earth v Diana

Heres Further proof that it's not just myself and the Cookie Monster that think the Live Earth concert and artists was a pile of non-recyclable crap. People woud rather watch a real hero who touched so many and helped so many people that a bunch of tossers who don't practive what they preach.

The BBC reports.

BBC One's average ratings between 2000 and 2200 BST on Saturday were 3.1 million, compared with 11.4 million for the Diana gig on the previous Sunday

It's also funny that 130 people compained about bad language, (such as Chris Rock shouting "Mother Fucker" in the late afternoon - oops) but 400 people complained about Metallicas act being cut short.

Ouch Ow Ouch

This would have been the perfect weekend for me,

• Friday was a work party with unlimited free beer and food.
• Saturday was lads night, an evening away from reality, having "a few" drinks in town with the boys
• Ending the weekend on Sunday with a free - YES FREE ticket to the British Grand Prix at Silverstone, not just a normal ticket, but full corporate hospitality courtesy of "someone very nice"!!!!!

However today was my big day for something more important... my operation

I got the hospital at 7.30 where I was led to my room, my operation was scheduled for 12.00 however it could be earlier.

The consultant came to see me to explain and make sure I was happy with everything, the anaesthetist came to see me to explain the procedure and again, make sure I was happy. My only question was...

"Will I be able to go to the Grand Prix tomorrow"

"Not very likely" was their response, - Well I tried my best

At 9.30 I was humiliated, I was asked to shave my knee, wear a backless gown and some paper pants. This is not fashion but I did it nonetheless

at 10.00 I was taken for my operation, given an injection in my hand to "ease me" followed by a spinal epidural. Had my leg painted yellow and off I went.

The op was weird, I could feel anything but a tugging sensation as the Doctor (Sorry Mr) shoved a camera and some other instruments deep into my knee, the strange but amazing thing was that I was able to see everything they were doing on the monitor in front of me, I could actually see inside of my own knee... WOW

There was some damage to my cartilage, along with some other damage to something else that I can't now remember, hopefully me notes will tell me this.

After the op I was taken back to my room for observations, no pain I thought, this was great, a little surgery but no pain.

I had some lunch and was allowed back home at 4.30pm - when the pain started as a slight twinge, as I write this at 23.32.... MY KNEE IS HUGE - AND KILLING ME...

It'll all be worth it however, in 3 weeks time I'm going back to the gym

Oh and the F1 tickets... I gave them to someone who I hope I’ll have a great day - but owes me BIGTIME.

Live Earth

I don't get this Live Earth concert

While I appreciate that we all must play our part in stopping the world from breaking, it seems very hypocricial for the people such as Madonna, The Pussycat Dolls and the like giving such a message.

Are these not the very same people that fly private jets, helicopters, have entourages with many cars, demand

For Example
Madonna has demanded the following for the actual Live Earth rehearsal - "She has asked for 12 dozen boxes of strawberries, eight full-length mirrors, a skipping rope, Yorkshire Tea, organic green tea, and vanilla room spray" source

Kanye Wests' usual demands include - security personnel (40 security officers, 11 University Police officers and five or six parking patrollers) and a detailed catering menu covering three full meals, three dressing rooms and a bus full of people.

The list goes on, but as far as I am concerned, I'd rather these pompous, diva-like arseholes not preach how we should stop destorying our planet when they are far more destructive than the "average Joe"

And how much damage did the 7 concerts do to the envinment, I know they were very caeful, but why not have "energy efficient" concerts in public parks.

And for the record, I use low energy lighbulbs, have energy efficient appliances, car-share to work, recylce all my paper, glasss, plastic, card and garden waste.

EDIT: 08/07//07 07:37 - I may stand corrected judging by some reports today.
digitalspy - 2

New Gadgets

Despite the fact I cannot get to work, it doesn't stop me working, I have a couple more gadgets to test, namely the HTC Athena and the HTC Panda.

My Perfect PDA would have the following

• Codecs for all video format
• Hard Drive
• Fast internet connectivity (3G/UMTS/HSPDA etc)
• Wi-Fi
• Keyboard
• Large screen

Here it is

HTC Athena

Billed as the UMPC beater, with Windows Mobile 6 (soon), built in GPS, attachable keyboard, 8Gb Hard Drive, 3G connectivity however....

Still the old screen resoolution of 640 * 480 meaning a screen larger than all of the other PDAs but showing the same amount of info.

Also available ...

HTC Panda
If (like me) you need a replacement for the Qtek 2020i, O2 XDA 2i, this is it, this is "The" DIRECT REPLACEMENT.

Good points

• works with the majority of applications developed for the older devices
• Windows Mobile 5 - (No more losing data with Windows Mobile 2003)
• USB Charging
• Camera button has been moved

Bad Points

• No car cradle yet
• No 3G
• No built-in GPS
• No operator as yet (come on vodaphone)

Testing still ongoing but the Panda (also known as the HTC P6300) will be a big seller.

Happy Birthday Uncle Stephen

Happy birthday Old Bast..... I mean uncle Stephen

21 - YET - Again (Note the Damo Crutches in the foreground)
Oh and happy birthday Tao (Right) too, Geeky old man is also another year older.

Apple iPhone

The Apple iPhone is here (Well in the states anyway).

I cannot believe the amount of hype something has just because of the branding, I must say Steve Jobs must have the easiest job in the world, simply badge a product "apple" and it will sell by the millions and even have stupid people queing for days to get one.

Then the money makers who queue, buy one and make a couple of hundred quid on ebay.

I love my gadgets, but am definately not going to shedding out £500 on a mobile phone.

I have an iPod - its only 4Gb and doesn't play videos, but it does me.
I have a phone - which makes calls, has 1Gb of memory for music and 2Mp camera
I have a PDA - which gets my emails, tasks, internet access and a broadband modem
I have a camera - Its small and fantastic.

and now (fanfare please).....I have a iPhone (ish)

Video

Knee Update

3 weeks on, I am still in agony with my knee, luckily thanks to my company healthcare, I managed to get referred to a consultant at the local private hospital, a 2 week wait and today was my appointment.

8.45am - appointment with the consultant, who advised I would need an MRI Scan as he thinks it may be lose cartilage in my knee (Meniscus Tear), he doubts it is ligament issues or "I'd know about it".

MRI scan arranged for 12.30 TODAY - now that is fast

I have now had the MRI scan and although not obvious from the scans, the consultant believes it is what he first thought, so I have to have some keyhole surgery (Arthroscopy) to sort it.


Booked in for next Saturday.

I must say I am very impressed with private healthcare, and nervous of having my first ever "operation".

OMFG

From Britains Got Talent
Paul Potts - A guy who works at Carphone Warehouse and sings like bleeding Pavarotti. Surely the winner



Clip from Youtube - myredroom

Off the road I have knackered my knee and I don't know how....

After wetting Leahs head on Saturday (and boy did it get wet), I have knackered my knee, not through drunken dancing, not through falling over, but by doing nothing. I don't know how it happened, but woke up Sunday morning in absolute agony, unable to bend my leg, unable to straighten my leg, i thought I could "walk it off".

All day Sunday I tried walking it off - no joy

After googling for "inner knee pain" it sounds like ligament damage.

Went to work Monday thinking it was just a twinge, had to get colllected from work as I couldn't move. My lovely work colleagues told me to go and get it sorted and call BUPA (after taking the p*ss of course)

I don't really like wasting peoples time, so didn't call the Doctors, didnt call BUPA and didnt go to the hospital...

Then I finally gave in and went to A&E on Tuesday night

I sometimes wonder why we have A&E, why not just "E"
My evening consisted of;

• Waiting to be seen by triage (20 minutes)
• Waiting to see a Doctor (1 Hour 30 minutes)
• Being seen by a nurse (3 minutes)
• Waiting to see a Doctor (1 Hour 15 minutes)
• Being seen by a Doctor (3 minutes)
• Waiting for some pain killers (ETA 3 hours)

Doctor asked what I'd done, i explainined everything and said I think it's my ligament, after shooting me down for appearing to be a know-it-all, he advised that I have damaged my ligament and te Rest/Move/Ice/Raise my knee.

I gave up waiting for some pain killers and decided to go and see my Doctor/Bupa
After seeing my Doctor I now have an appointment with BUPA on 6th July by which time I expect my knee to have healed or my leg to have fallen off.
NHS eh, gotta love em.

Gadgets.

Its been ages since I've had gadgets to talk about, I have been through a few but nothing really worth a mention.

Till very recently, my personal phone has been the QTek 8500, a small flip smartphone perfect as a "socialising phone" (a phone you could take out on the p*ss with you).

Unfortunately due to a major problem with my jean back pocket, some keys, my arse and a chair, I managed to sit on the phone cracking the screen.

This led me to revert to my officially upgraded Orange phone, a Nokia N73...
I havent had a Nokia since back in the days before SPVs came out, needless to say I ave been completely useless with it, different operating system (I know it's a phone), different way of synching, texting, accessing contacts, and altogether not for me.

After a nice chat with my Vodafone man, I managed to get my hands on a HTC Vox, which accepted my Orange Sim with a smile and I am now in the process of setting up.
Good Points
Windows Mobile 6
Brilliant for working with MS Office Documents
Bluetooth
Wi-Fi
Sliding keyboard
2MP Camera

Bad Points No 3G
eMoze synchrnosation does't work
No touchscreen
Larger than a standard "Candy Bar" Phone
No Built-in GPS

My work phone is split between the HTC Artemis or the HTC Hermes (depending on what I need it for). The Artemis is great for the built-in GPS and is size, the Hermes is just a great all-rounder and has the keyboard.

The only devices out there worth looking at are the HTC s420 (the next Qtek 8500) and the HTC Athena (Hmmm).

Handyman Byrne

• Leah is now here
• The football season is over and we have been promoted
• I'm back at work (tomorrow)

Its time to focus on something to keep me busy....

As Bigfoot "Jamaica Feet" Cookie has blogged on numerous occasions, he's a dab hand at building and creating things, rather like a one-man A-Team

I have therefore decided to do 2 things.

1. Easy
Install a 2nd sky box in the bedroom, this way I can send SWMBO upstairs to watch crap soaps while I sit downstairs watching HD football, HD Discovery channel etc.
2. Not So Easy
Convert part of my garage to my office*

Rather than use up a bedroom for my office that could otherwise be used as a 3rd bedroom (by who I don't know), I had a Jack Daniels induced brainwave to convert part of the garage

My (our) garage was great when we moved in, so much room, it's now full of the crap SWMBO wouldn't let me bring in the house. I am going to sort it out and bin /sell/give away.

As said garage is 24ft Lond and 11 foot wide, I guess I could use the last 8 foot depth and 11 foot width as my office, add a door, bars across the window and Bobs yer uncle.

So there you go, the planning is straightforward, lets see how easy it is in practice. I haven't yet set a goal to have this done by - why fail.....

Links
Sky - 1 2 3
Building - 1 2 3 4 5

* When I say "Office" I also mean a Boys room, to include another sky box, LCD TV, Music System etc....

Super Duper RamsWe are Premiership, say we are premiership

Well done Derby County

A day out to Wembley, next years season ticket purchase and the stress of the playoffs has most definatlely been worth the wait/money/stress.

Unlike my Nottingham Forest and Yeovil Town supporting friends, we went all the way in what has been dubbed the most expensive football game in the world. (worth £60 million to the winner).

and we did it...... Oh yes we did it.

Well done super Rams, well done Billy Davis, and well done me for not getting completely rat-arsed that I slept through the game.

Shame it was/wasn't a sellout. The attendance was 74,500 of the 90,000 capacity, maths definately didn't add up there. Derby sold out in less than a day of the tickets going on general sale.

Garstang - Nothing to say?, if not, please change to your blog, Villa are no longer the "Midlands only Premiership Team", you will get beat by Birmingham AND Derby next year.