With the near certain demise of the HD DVD format recently, you will probably find that stand alone players will soon be getting quite cheap as shops on websites try to sell off their remaining stock.
Sony appear to have won the format war this time (I’m just about old enough to remember the VHS vs. Betamax ‘war’, when the superior technology of Betamax lost to the better marketing skills of JVC et al when they abandoned Betamax in favour of VHS ). Anyway enough history on video tapes, back to HD-DVD. If you come across a player at a bargain price, that has good reviews, video and audio quality wise, it might make sense to buy one. Why? Well most (all?) of these HD-DVD players can playback DVDs and upscale the picture, so if your display is HD (720 or 1080 lines), the DVD picture will appear to be of a higher quality.
Of course, as a main player, Blu-ray really only makes sense, but if you have a TV in the bed room, or kitchen, and are looking for a disc player, the cost benefit of HD DVD players may make enough (short term) sense. For playstation 3 owners, Blu-ray discs are already playable through their console, and although the X-Box 360 has a HD-DVD external drive available, it is still not clear whether a Blu-ray version will be released.

Scratch the original plans, here are the links I mentioned, not enough time left after having got everything ready for our trip to actually create proper posts. Now the DVD burner is fubared, and I wanted to burn another 3 discs of MP3s for driving to. Hey ho.

Kyrgyzstan elections not fair either - see this article and this one for more details. For those not familiar with the country, no that isn’t where we live (we’re in KAZAKHstan), however international monitors similarly do not think that the elections were free, fair and transparent there either…

Discounting apparently rife in stores - BBC article - Actually I’d call it pretty piss poor ‘professional’ journalism. They trot out the same rubbish each year, closely followed by an article in January saying how shoppers actually spent a lot more than expected. I especially loved the headline - attention grabbing, discounts sound significant, then followed in the main body of the text that this year’s reductions average at 36% off, not 35% ! Yep, 1% difference…

Wives Tales or Valid Medical Info? - Article here. If you don’t drink 8 glasses of water per day, you will use less than 10% of your brain, meaning you won’t be able to read in the dark, turkey will make you drowsy and your hair will continue to grow after death, no matter whether you shaved it or not. Or something like that I have heard before that the ban on mobile phone usage within hospitals is rubbish, espcially when you consider the power of the transmitters they need to use for their own internal walkie-talkies etc.

Eco-friendly consoles requested - BBC article - I know that some PC component manufacturers are already trying, but apparently the big three gaming giants (Sony, Nintendo & Microsoft) are being pressured to lower the amount of toxic chemicals used to produce their consoles, amongst other things.

Take care when you google - info here - My thanks to Irina for noticing this report, and also on the shoddy workmanship of the journalist once again. The article reads in parts as though they did no investigation, and simply read from Google’s press release, with contradictions in places. Anyway, bad people had been setting up sites to try and hack unprotected PCs, and were trying to drive traffic by optimizing for popular keywords.

Dynamic advert placement within PDF files - article - the title says it all here…

Info on Amazon’s ‘Kindle” - here and here - Amazon’s e-book reader, an attempt by another company to crack the market. Once again, the aims have been praised, the actual product is not so popular in some circles.

Terry Pratchett has Alzheimers - check here - A long time favourite author of mine, Mr Pratchett has revealed he has the condition, though is doing OK so far. Whilst I selfishly hope he will be able to continue to write such well crafter novels, I do hope that if/when the time comes that the balance between personal well being and writing output tips the wrong way, his fans will let him retire with grace.

One for Alex - here - Poorly kangaroo goes for a swim, and gets snapped up by a shark! (As you may have guessed, based in Australia)

W00t - BBC article - Like ‘all your base are belong to us ‘ from a few years back, but certainly a lot snappier, w00t appears to have started its life in the gaming world, and is used as an exclamation, normally positive.

Not an article, but Wikileaks may interest you. Has a small section for Kazakhstan. Not going to discuss that sort of thing right now, no time.

Excuse me whilst I don’t cry - boo-hoo - with any luck the BNP will eventually go the same way as the old National Front did. I just hope any splinter groups don’t survive, and aren’t too radical whilst they are around. Don’t have much time for racist, lying, Lowest Common Denominator politics and politicians, as you may have guessed.

Misbehaving pupils shocked into towing the line - article here - I can never imagine Mr Owen having given this sort of punishment in his lessons…

Right thats it, I’m off to bed, and won’t be posting for a couple of days probably. Hope all who read this do so in good health…

As it really is time to make sure you have presents for family and friends sorted, I thought I would make another post in the vouchers and coupons category here at this blog. eDealFinder have a range of frequently updated promotions running, from Sony vouchers to ShoeBuy coupons.
Do make sure you check all the available discounts, as you may find that some purchases are cheaper using different coupons. As an example, if you head on over to the ShoeBuy discounts section, you will notice that there both percentage based coupons (such as 20% off) as well as straight money off vouchers (such as $5 off). Now before deciding which of these examples to use, you need to consider your total bill - if this comes to more than $25, then the first offer makes more sense, however if you find a bargain at $20 (for example), then the $5 off would actually save you more money.

As you may remember from April’s posts, we bought a new TV this year, our first ever flat screen. The process of researching availability, models, other customer’s opinions etc. took a while, but we ended up with a good screen. We did look at a couple of hitachi 50 LCD televisions, but plumped for a Sony in the end. Had I been located somewhere other Kazakhstan, I may well have ended up at Krillion’s web site. Globally, the marker for such screens is worth more than $15 billion, so there is a lot of healthy competition present, ensuring that manufacturers and sales points (be they real world shops or online sites) work hard to get the best deals for their prospective customers.
Without the internet, I would have found it incredibly difficult to decide which TV to go for, the choice of models, sizes and features can be over whelming. Following the trend of more than 90% of other flat screen purchases, after my intensive online research, I bought a screen in a real world shop, as with something that expensive, I wanted a real location and people to speak to should any problems arise. It also obviously helps if you can see the screen performing along side other models. (That said, Kazakhstan’s retailers really need to learn that composite connections are NOT a good way to show off HD models ) Krillion search their database for retailers local to you, making sure you do not waste a trip to the shop, just to find they sold out earlier in the week of the particular make and model of TV you want.

Sony Ericcson have teamed up with The Times Online, Heat and FHM to organize a competition. The requirements for entry are really quite simple - if you have mobile phone with a camera, and fancy taking a photo that could be categorized into ‘News & Sport’, ‘Fashion’ or ‘Adventure’, then you could win a trip round the world, attending an FHM shoot or other great prizes.

To learn more, check out The Search website, with a nice little introduction by a Josh Ash (apparently a Pro-Surfer).

For anyone currently searching for a Direct Distributor of Apple, Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft Products, then BestPricedBrands have a web site that will be of interest to you. The first time I loaded the site, there were no products on the front page, though a quick refresh sorted that temporary issue out.

When you arrive at the site, all you need to do is click on the link that most interests you at the top of the page in their menu. You will then be taken to a page listing all the items the site currently has available. In most cases, you will find that their prices mean savings for you, compared to buying them at Amazon for example. Thankfully, each item has a price comparison section, so you can quickly see just how much cheaper they are.

Should you require a little more background information about the product, simply click on it, and you will be taken to a further page that details all the relevant information. One thing that immediately stood out is that they do accept PayPal as a form of payment, which means earning I make from the blog could be spent there immediately, rather than having to wait four or five days for the money to transfer to my bank account, as I would with other sites that only accept debit and credit cards.

Yep, 14 and a half days, and I’ll be waiting to board the plane from Kaliningrad to Amsterdam. I have checked with the hotel about their luggage storage facilities, and all is OK there. (I can not check into the apartment they own until 5pm, and Alex & ChrisD arrive 4 hours after me anyway.) I have tried updating a couple of GPS related PDA programs, with varying success. As I do not want to risk losing the use of the older versions, I will leave trying to fix the problems (related to .NET Framework issues) until I am back in Kazakhstan, in five and a bit weeks. I am sort of itching to sort the problem now, but I know from experience that if something works, it is best to leave until the need is not there before attempting un-necessary upgrades. Anyway, I need to double check on a few forums that I have made fair and accurate summaries of what, where and how much to spend in Amsterdam, and then make sure the data is replicated across the PDA, Smartphone and real world paper and ink No flat battery is going to throw this break into a mess for me I discovered that there was no point in checking for Java based GPS applets to install on my Sony Ericsson K700 (my backup phone that will have my UK SIM card in it) does not allow access to bluetooth services through JARs, unfortunately. Given that Alex is bringing her (newer) Smartphone as well, and the installation files I need are on my mini-SD mem card, I guess I’ll just have to survive somehow

In the past, many Australians have found problems ordering goods online, and even when American, European or East Asian sites accept an Aussie’s order, the postage and packing charge can make purchases over priced. However, for anyone searching for a digital photo frame, good news has arrived - Digital Framez is an Australian based site, with pretty impressive prices on their digital picture frames. I have to admit I am not very familiar with the exchange rate for Australian dollars, but as the site allows you to view all prices in a range of currencies, I was able to confirm the prices, from the smallest 7″(~17.5cm) to the largest 10″ (~25cm) digital frames were pretty competitive, especially compared to the prices we paid when we bought one for Ira’s mum.

If you want to buy one for an elderly relative, to bring them into the 21st century, but are concerned about how complicated digital photo frames are to use, just check the simple diagram above; that is how easy they are to use! The frames can accept the following types of memory cards - Compact Flash, XD, Sony’s Memory Stick variants and SD/MMC. All frames come with a built in pair of speakers, and a remote control.

When describing technical issues, I’m often called upon to supply the specifications of my IT equipment.
This post has been put together so I can easily refer people to the pertinent information…

System Specifications - PC

Intel D945 PVS Motherboard with 10/01/07 BIOS
Intel P4 660 3.6 GHz CPU
2 Gb RAM (2 X 1Gb 667MHz DDR2)
Asus 7900GT – PCIe x16 256Mb Grfx card - on Forceware 97.73
BenQ FP91V 19″ , Subini S-6811T 8″ & Sony KDL 40W2000 40″

NoName 550 Watt Twin Fan PSU
APC ES 525 Uninterruptable Power Supply - battery knackered
other UPS must update details here
Innovision EIO AP1680 PCI ATA133 RAID Controller (ITE IT8211 based)
Seagate Barracuda ST3320620AS 320Gb 7200rpm 16Mb Cache SATAII
Seagate Barracuda ST3160023A 160Gb 7200 rpm 8Mb Cache PATA-100
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus8 40 Gb PATA-133
Buffalo External 80Gb PATA/USB
WD External 250Gb PATA/USB
2 x Lite-On SHW-16H5S DVD-RR
EIO USB2 & Firewire PCI card

NetGear router - UPDATE
SafeCom IC+ 56K Ext. Modem (SEMT-5600)
TDK Bluetooth v1.2 Adapter (TRBLU03)

Logitech USB Cordless Trackman Trackball
Genius Keyboard - KKB-2050HS
XFX Executioner Dual Impact USB Gamepad (PSX-like force feedback controller)
Logitech Formula Force GP Force Feedback Steering Wheel & Pedals

Sony Ericssion K700i (used as a Bluetooth Remote Control/Phone for UK SIM card)
PC Line PC-100 TV Card - TV tuner/RCA/S-Video/InfraRed input (Based on Phillips 7134 chipset)
Genius VideoCAM Look WebCam
Canon DC080W (3Mp Digital Camera)
Microsoft Fingerprint Reader (Model 1033)
HP 1513 MFD
Various USB Thumbdrives

Redundant Spares
SafeCom SWAMR-54108 ADSL Modem/Router/AP - Now with Mother-in-law
D-Link 604T ADSL Modem/Router/AP - Now with Mum
Origo ASU-8000 USB ADSL modem
D-Link DWL-G122 USB2 Wi-Fi 802.11g Dongle
D-Link DGE-528T 1GBps PCI LAN Card
SafeCom USB 11Mbps WLAN Dongle - Now with brother
Nisis DV Cam 2 (Rev.1) - Photo, Video & Webcam

Software & Services Used :
Win XP Pro SP2 - All updates applied
No-Ip (Dynamic IP pointing)
TightVNC/WinVNC
ShoutCast
WebCamXP

System Specifications - PDA/PPC

iPaq 2210
240×320 Display
Intel PXA255 CPU
64Mb RAM
OS - Windows 2003 Mobile Edition (WinCE 4.20)
1Gb SD Card
11Mbps CF Wireless Card
GPS - 16 Sat
Bluetooth
Broken D-Pad - 4 hardware buttons re-assigned to navigational duties

System Specifications - SmartPhone

Orange SPV C550 (HTC Hurricane rebadged by Orange UK)
OS - Windows Mobile 2003 for Smartphones (2nd Edition)
GSM & GPRS, triband 900/1800/1900 MHz
2.2 inch screen 240×320 pixels TFT transflective LCD, 64k colours
Camera 1.3 Mp
TI OMAP 750 Processor
64Mb ROM, 32Mb RAM
2 Gb Mini-SD Card
GPS - 16 Satellite
TomTom Mobile5, Battery Monitor, CellTrack, TCPMP, SmartVNC, GPRS Traffic Monitor, Smurf, Doom, GNUBoy, PicoDrive, NES Emulator, Worms World Party