Almost a completely apple household

I've been having a few networking issues at home, partly due to my existing router getting on a bit and some new rules it randomly decided to implement to block most of my iTunes streaming and syncing traffic only over the Wireless Network. As a result I had some elaborate system to get ethernet to all of the devices that really needed to talk, ie the iMac iTunes Server and the AppleTV. This still meant that all of the iDevices were blocked out from being used as remotes etc.

This week I finally bit the bullet and got an Airport Extreme and a Time Capsule and put them into play. I have to say it was probably one of the easiest setups I've every had to implement (even for apple products). I picked up both the items from ebay and if the Time Capsule had come up first I probably wouldn't have bothered with the Airport Extreme but the solution is markedly better with both devices. Adding the Time Capsule wirelessly to the Airport Extreme extends the wireless network (genius) and acts as an ethernet bridge.

The only real problem is it now has me thinking about getting an Airport Express so I can Stream to the nicely wired Tivoli Setup.

The Tivoli Model Two gets rewired...

Now ordinarily this wouldn't rate as post worthy (or even tweet worthy) but it's on here because a. I didn't rewire it... and b. it looks pretty amazing... much better than my last effort.

Time for a new blog

I've been posting about gluten free stuff here for a little while but I thought it was about time I put it all in one central spot.

So here it is... a new blog Gluten Free in BNE (Brisbane)

I'm going to try and list all the places I know in Brisbane/Queensland that stocks and serves Gluten Free stuff.

Airplay disappointments.

I'm not normally a forum/comment complainer but I'd consider it after today's disappointing iOS update. I was pretty excited about the possibilities of airplay and how it would aid some nice touches to my home theatre setup, especially when another iPad/iPhone user dropped round and wanted to show off something on my lounge room tv.

I've been running with an appletv as the centre of my media setup for some time and it's been such a success we dropped our cable tv subscription and almost never tune into a regular commercial station. When they announced that the old appletv wasn't going to receive any updates after the release of the gen 2 I was hoping that we would still be able to do airplay from the iDevices (especially the airplay icon works from my iMac). However after the release today it's obvious this support is only for the new appletv which I'm not really interested in cross grading too.

The new appletv doesn't suit the australian market very well with it's rent only interface for a store with few rentable movies and no rentable tv shows. This fact combined with the stream only option which means my iMac has to be powered on to watch any content rules me out.

I'd like to be able to run airplay but it's not a deal breaker. In reality it's a requirement I only had after it existed. It's disappointing that those who were loyal to the old apple home entertainment tech have missed out on some of their nicest new features but have to sacrifice features to upgrade.

End rant here.
Sent from my iPhone

The AppleTV encode continues.

So the encoding of my DVD library has been going on for a while now and I've now stored over 200 of them but there seems to be and endless list to go. I'll warn you now. I've been accused of having a "geek out" about this so read on if you dare.

I did some experimenting with the bit rates and conversion settings in handbrake this week. On the whole the conversions using the standard handbrake appletv settings have been excellent. I watched Galaxy Quest the other night and even with it upscaled on my 54" Panasonic plasma the picture was fantastic. Of course it wasn't hd and lacked the crispness of a HD transfer, but in comparison to a full DVD there was very little noticeable difference. There certainly wasn't anything that you would pick up without a direct side by side comparison.

The quest for better transfer came from the (numerous) animated movies I have as they seem to look the worst on the standard preset. The first option I tried was to simply increase the constant quality factor for the movie but quickly discovered that putting this marker too high hit the limitations of the Apple TV and it just turned into a blocky mess. The key seems to be a balance between keeping the quality high enough whilst still ensuring but rate spikes stay below
1200kbps.

In the end I captured the same sequence of a movie with various quality settings and bit rate limits ( about 9 different combos to be honest) until I came to something that appeared a good compromise. Monsters Inc. Was my first animated movie that I did a full transfer on and the size ended about 1.85GB for the whole movie compared with the standard preset transfer coming it at 1.38 and the iTunes version at 1.31.

I had a chance to watch the whole thing today and the transfer was great apart from a few spots in the credits (of all places) where it gets blocky so I fear there might be a few more tweaks to be done. Stay tuned

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54 vs 40... a comparison

In short.... a new TV (really busy today but here's a comparison of the upgrade)

The box

The new (54")

The old (40")

A blog from the plane. One hour to go

I must have managed more sleep than I thought turns out it's only an hour to go and I'm feeling pretty good.

It is only 1045 at home though so I wouldn't normally be too exhausted by then.

I did manage to get through the what hifi reviews of tvs before I fell asleep. Looks like it's much of a muchness between panasonic and samsung. The former has a slightly better picture for the trade against the latter on Internet and streaming features.

As for any of the other entertainment I had planned looks like I slept too much to use it.

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A blog from the plane. Hour 1

So I thought I'd keep myself amused on the flight by blogging. So here we are only just an hour into the flight and there is no sight of in flight entertainment. The system has crashed so we are going to go without mostly. I'm not too bothered as I've got about a thousand media capable devices and a DS a couple of magazines and a Terry Prachet to keep me going. There are going to be some very bored people though.

I'm pretty used to work travel but this trip was especially hard and I must admit I had a few tears saying goodbye and it was only for a week. It probably wasn't helped by the fact the littleone was saying I should stay home or asking if he could come too.

Also it was a little odd but the guy who caught the same lift to the terminal ended up sitting next to me. A pretty nice guy who is taking a his first OS trip and making it a big one doing pretty much ever continent for a year. Its lucky (he's a nice guy) because the flight is packed without a spare seat in sight.

Also if you are flying long haul flight and in economy always order a special meal even if you don't need one. You get special service first. You have to be prepared for angry stares from your fellow passengers though when you're eating.

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Operation: digitize physical media

I've doing it for a long time with CDs, I suspect many people have, converting all my physical media to iTunes (or whatever format you happen to support). There are lots of reasons for it but generally the biggest driver is to have out music on the go and easily organized into those fantastic things known as playlists and genres.

Now the iPad and the AppleTV are my main sources of video content I've made the decision to digitize all my video media as well. The hardest decision was really which format to convert to. I'd originally embarked down the VOB or ISO path due to the speed of transfer and using the ATVFlash Nito plug-in to play them. The biggest problem with this is that you need to have a different interface and half my content is only available in each interface. There iso format doesn't allow for any meta data so a lot of the searching advantages are lost (this is important on 500+ movies) and I can't use them on any of the mobile devices I have.

So I've settled on the iTunes compatible MP4 format. It's a slow process though. Even with 3 machines running compressions it's going to take a while. I'm obviously prioritizing any that I'm yet to watch and all the kids movies (for obvious reasons). The interface on the AppleTV is brilliant for navigation on the TV so it makes sense that all the movies are accessible there especially all my new movie purchases are from iTunes.

I'm using the ATVflash to give my AppleTV access to 2TB storage so I can keep most of the library available even when my Media server is offline. The only thing left on the list is to get a DROBO to give the Media server some redundancy and easily upgradable storage.

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What would you buy that was "refurbished"

I've been shopping for a new TV lately (don't worry there will be more
to come on that in a later post I'm sure) and a lot of of online deals
are around for refurbished product. I started wondering what I would
buy that was refurbished and whether the risks of failure are higher
or not with a refurbished product (especially something predominantly
electronic). My first thought is that something that has Bern repaired
once is likely to have undergone closer scrutiny and therefore less
likely to fail. That said however, my Xbox 360 is staring down the
barrel of it's 3rd RROD and would tend to suggest otherwise.

I don't have a conclusion but would love to find some data on the subject. .

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An actual lunch break

I know this is my 3rd blog post in two days, what is going on.

My last project has been pretty flat out with plenty of late nights, early mornings and weekends spent working away. It's very much the culture of my workplace and I'm working toward changing that starting this week by actually taking lunch breaks, rather than just grabbiong something and heading back to my desk.

So as I took a break I left my phone on my desk, took the iPad packed with weeks of missed articles and sat down for lunch.

It's such an occasion I thought I'd post about it.

Sent from my iPad

The death of Foxtel (at my house)

Last month after much deliberating I decided to drop my foxtel subscription. This was probably a long time overdue as almost everything we were watching was from abc kids or was on the AppleTV. With the recent addition of atvflash making it vey simple to add DVDs I already owned to my instant access library the foxtel iQ2 was lucky to get turned on.

With my subscription dropped I've moved the funds normally allocated to that to iTunes vouchers (either US or AUS) hopefully when they are on sale. The reality of this is that $100+ per month equates to more than we can watch in a month even at the sometimes inflated iTunes prices for shows. I'm still running on the $100 US credit I bought 2 months ago and there are plenty of episodes of Stargate: Universe or DollHouse to go. The key for me however is having the US account not only for the additional content available but also for the availability of TV in HD which the AUS store doesn't offer.

The only real loser in the whole equation are the lifestyle watchers in the house due to the lack of shows on iTunes. I have a cunning plan however to enlist the help of a certain relative currently in the UK and setup another account with access to all the Channel 4 like 'location location location' and still be ahead of my foxtel subscription cost.

It is annoying that all this content isn't available on each store and it's yet another reason why it's easier to be a pirate than actually purchase digital media. It's something that the digital distributers need to address if they ever have a hope of reducing the piracy levels.

Sent from my iPad

Would I buy another 360?

So I was playing some Battlefield: Bad Company 2  last night (my current shooter of choice) and my Xbox 360 started locking up. It's a behaviour I've seen before, just before it started giving me the RROD (or NRROD E74) error. After a few more lock ups I gave up and decided to catch up on some more TV.  Today it started me thinking, my warranty is all but expired would I be bothered getting another 360 if this one died? I know there is the new Xbox 360 Elite Slim Console is available with better cooling and whisper quiet fans, but would I bother supporting the console again after 2 RROD incidents.

I still have the Wii which is actually getting more gaming time as the littleone is quite the fan of Mario Kart and Super Mario Galaxy 2 (commonly referred to as "Wah Hah"). And while I'd miss the FPS Gaming (the main reason the 360 gets switched on) there area a few new Wii titles, like Golden Eye Wii and Metroid: Other M, that could go some way to filling the void.

It's only really a musing at the moment as my 360 hasn't actually died yet but given the signs it's looking likely.

Maybe it's time to dust off the DS and pick up Puzzle Quest 2 or the new Dragon's Quest, it's been a while since I've play any decent RPGs. There is also Monster Hunter 3 and Fire Emblem that can more than consume my gaming time as well. It's just a pity that Nintendo is still to implement some good online co-op or multiplayer experiences.

AppleTV and atvflash the first month (part 2)

Deciding on exactly how I was and should store all the media and make it accessible to the appleTV (and hopefully the other MacBook and iDevices) should have had more thought before I lobbed headlong into the setup of the system.

In the end I have a NAS that both serves as backup and streamer for all the iTunes content which hasn't changed. It's in the use of local storage and external that it all started to go a little crazy. Originally with the rush of blood of increased capacity, I could and did add external USB drives and move my apple storage. However my first choice of drive was non powered and turned out to just get too hot all the time. Then (after another lengthy syncing process) i moved to a mirrored 2tb USB option which worked well except for the power management settings which turned the drives off when not being used which only served to confuse the poor appletv every time it tried to access it.

In the end the best solution (and current option) was to leave the main apple storage internal and managed by the iTunes sync and add the external drive for all the DVD backups and access them through nitoTV. This is working quite well although I chose to reorganize the derive format aft the initial media scan which caused me more grief. The media system recognized the drive but was horribly confused when the partitioning was different to the original config. Every time I scrolled passed the menu it crashed the appletv. After some creative telnet manipulation I managed to restore the setup and the system is running fairly smoothly now.

The new features and extra storage are fantastic but there are a few lessons to be learnt in planning the drive layouts well in advance of flashing your appletv.

Sent from my iPad

AppleTV and atvflash the first month (part 1)

I'd like to be writing this covering all the awesomeness of the
appletv after it's smooth update to atvflash but sadly it hasn't
really worked out like that.

To be fair I don't think it's entirely the fault of atvflash I think
it's starting to get on a little and the constant life on at
reasonably high temps of the media cabinet are taking their toll. That
combined with it's recent role of toy car circuit aid hasn't helped
either. I think the extra load of atvflash have just been a bit much
for it.

Having said that now it's mostly setup it's running smoothly again and
hopefully won't be too many more hiccups.

The biggest lesson learn is planning (which really should have been
obvious given I'm always going on about it at work). Many if the
issues and much of the time could have been avoided by having a clear
setup in mind before reallocating external storage for the 4th time.

Back to the setup though, the main reason for going to atvflash in the
first place was to give me a good solution for playing DVD backups.
With a little set of hands in the house it's a dangerous place for
physical media and now running a bluray player it's a very long time
from startup to movie which can be hazardous when trying to satisfy
the content demands of a sub 2yo. I could have taken the option to
convert to mp4 but my main machine is a G5 iMac and the processing
time for an average movie can be in excess of 25hrs vs 25min for a
straight DVD backup. There are the obvious size savings when using
h264 but given the cost of storage and the ability to expand the
appletv via USB there seemed to be no reason to waste processing
cycles on space saving.

It was the storage setup that ultimately caused all my hassles but
that will have to wait for part 2

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iMac G5 ikea PS H(ome)office Hack

After all the re-arranging for storing media I needed a new home for the iMac... The Ikea PS seemed like the logical space, but there were a few bits that had to make way for the size of the iMac as it's really only designed for laptops.

I'm pretty happy with the end result although I might put the screen just a little higher.

How much media storage is enough?

Well currently I'm hoping 4.5TB should cover it for now but you never know.

The weekend just gone I started working on the new central media hub for the house based around the iMac delivering all of my iTunes content around the place and backing up to some RAID via FireWire solution. Since then I discovered Twonky Server that comes installed natively on my WD worldbook drive which can stream all of my itunes content to all of my apple hardware (well except the AppleTV but I'll get to that).

This changed my whole media plan now that I can happily watch movies/tv shows on the iPad from the WD drive. The new setup goes a little something like this... 

The iMac is still the central hub storing all of the iTunes content via a 1TB removable drive (via USB, I'd like to move to a firewire option, if only to free up some USB ports but I had the 1TB drive already), this then syncs with the two iPhones (mostly for music), the iPad (mostly for photos and apps) and the appleTV (for you name it). This all works like a charm but it's a bit light on redundancy and streaming which is where the WD drives come in. 

Using the WD Anywhere Backup software to monitor the iTunes movies and TV directories and instantly copy any updates to a 2TB drive attached to the WD World Book. (This also means I can remove items from the current iTunes library and still have them in the archive) The Twonky Server then publishes these files instantly for streaming via a web interface.

Similarly Photos are copied to another WD World Book for archiving and then some are marked as "photos to keep" and moved to a sharing folder for easy access via iPhone/Digital Photo Frame.

This brings me to my last addition to the concept which is ATVFlash  for the appleTV which has opened up endless possibilities. The two most useful features are the ability to use external storage also serving my 2nd Archive for my iTunes library/Photos and the ability to stream media from the Twonky Server (specifically DVD images cutting down the disk archive time on my G5 iMac). I've got a pretty extensive DVD library but since the appleTV I barely use it, mostly because 1. my BluRay player is about the slowest thing to load a disk on earth and 2. I don't have to sit through all the menus and "Don't Pirate Me" messages. I do convert a select few directly to iTunes format but it's a much slower process so I'll only reserve this for those movies that are going to hit high rotation (I'm thinking pixars with the littleone in the house).

So in a nut shell the whole thing works like this:

-iMac hosts the current iTunes library and Picture Library on an external drive array

-iMac (including external array) backed up to WD World Book NAS as time machine

-all iTunes data is archived from the iMac to a WD World Book NAS

-all Picture data is archived from the iMac to a WD World Book NAS

-AppleTV syncs iTunes Library and Pictures to an External Drive

-Twonky Server on WD World Book NAS delivers all iTunes content for streaming

It sounds like a bit of overkill but it's all too easy to lose a drive (as I discovered the other day) and drop all your DRMed or Photo data which can be a scary proposition to replace.

Sent from my iPad

The Mac, the AppleTV and media storage

I had a bit of a scare on the weekend when my main iTunes library storage drive died and it started me thinking about the best way to ensure my iTunes library is always highly available.

Currently my old G5 runs as the household media server. All the media is stored on a removable drive via USB to keep the OS HDD as clean as possible. This is then copied to a media NAS on a regular basis. This was all well and good until the USB drive would no longer mount.

While everything was being backed up due to the size of HD media files there were a number of files that were in the process of being copied when the drive died and they were lost. It only meant a couple of dollars of iTunes TV shows but the potential is for a loss to be much worse.

The new design is both for performance and for reliability

IMac G5 running SSD SATA drive for OS
USB -> RAID (mirrored) iTunes library
USB -> Single Drive time Machine
Ethernet -> Media NAS for Shared itunes Library and shared Photos
Ethernet -> full-time sync to appleTV

While the G5 is quite old now it still serves media more than adequately for the whole house and has a relatively small footprint with the monitor integrated. All I need to do now ISA find a USB raid enclosure

Sent from my iPad

Teneriffe festival

Yesterday was the inaugural Teneriffe festival and it turned out to be a fantastic day. I wasn't expecting it to be as big an event with Vernon terrace packed for most of the morning. It was like having our own mini ekka on our street but with much better food.

I'm really happy it's going to be an annual event for the suburb and I can only imagine it will get better from here.

I'm not sure what the littleone enjoyed more having a street he could ride his bike up and down all morning with no worry of cars or all the animals he could pat.

I did plan on taking some shots of the day but even though I packed the pentax I neglected to check it was equipped with SD card before I left the house.

It was a great way to spend a Saturday and I'll definitely be going off to it next year.

Sent from my iPhone

My New Favourite Photo of the Littleone

There is no mistake that the littleone loves his tech. At every opportunity he wants to get his hands on the iPhones or the iPad... I snapped this one while he was playing with my iPhone the other day.

My Favourite Dilbert Comic of all time

I think the main reason is because it describes my work life so accurately

It's Official

86% Geek

Last of the sacred long weekends

This weekend is the Queens birthday holiday and the last of the long
weekends for a while. This one in uncharacteristiy quiet for us.

Disappointingly the only place I knew to get gluten free pancakes in
Brisbane for breakfast has closed. To top it off my favourite French
patisserie (bonjour on Brunswich St) has changed hands but I'm hoping
they will keep their mostly gluten free menu.

We took a nice drive up the coast for a birthday party and some nice
wintery time on the beach. I'm out of practice doing the long drives
and was happy to come home to some couch time to watch Avatar.

With thr world cup on I managed to drag myself out of bed for the
England USA match which I was suprised to see ended in a draw.

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A weekend in singletown

This weekend Ness and the littleone are headed off to Melbourne for a belated mothers day visit. Due to fact my current project is coming to and end it was too hard to organize the time for me to go as well so I've been left at home to mind the fort.

This of course means I get the chance (however briefly) to return to a time when the littleone wasn't running around.

So this morning I dropped the travelers at the airport and came home to start my weekend of self indulgence. As it was too early to go out for breakfast I plonked myself on the couch and cruised through a few rounds of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 long enough for blowfly to open. I packed up the iPad and settled in to catch up on the weeks news over some coffees and some eggs without a trip to find some rocks in sight.

This being a fairly rare opportunity there has been some seriously planning to optimize the time available: Gaming on every platform I can find, catching up on all the movies I have missed over that last months, some ikea hacks for the lounge, tech shopping and the final parts of the arcade table upgrade. The most geeking out I can possibly fit into a weekend.

While this sounds Like a perfect escape the missing has already started as I spy all the other neighborhood families head out for their breakfasts. Maybe I'll have to pick up some rocks on my way home and push them around the train tracks just for good measure.

Sent from my iPad

Remembering the joys of being a kid

It dawned on me yesterday when I was watching the littleone playing
with some cardboard that had transformed into a train and was "choo
chooing" it's way over my face that generally I don't spend enough
time just having fun. Obviously there are plenty if things that get in
the way, work being the big one. I'm not really sure what I can do
about it or what the real purpose of this post is.

I guess it should just remind me that there is no point working to
live if you don't do the living bit in the end.

Sent from my iPhone

Some early morning ramblings

It's quite early in the morning and the sun is still yet to show but
I'm awake so I thought I'd should take this time to write a blogpost.
I don't have a subject to write about but I'm hoping one will form
while I type this.

Seem my body decided falling alseep a higher priority.

Sent from my iPhone

Time to let the projector go (but not time for 3D)

It's been a while since I've posts about audio/visual gear here but
this is a pretty big decision so it's probably with a post. We've been
toying with the idea of changing our lounge room layout and some of
the wall placements for a while now and have come up with a layout
(thanks to some invaluable advice) that will make the space much more
usable. This is in no small part to make unit living work a bit longer
while Zachary is still little (but getting a lot bigger). The
consequence of all this is however there is no real place for the
projector anymore. I tried very hard to make it work in the new space
layouts but there was nothing that was going to give a suitable result.

Fortunately not all is lost for big screen viewing though, we will
probably replace the projector/LCD TV combination that we have
currently with a single 55"+ display. The front runner at the moment
is a 58" Samsung Plasma.

I thought about holding off for a 3D set but after trying out one of
the offerings for Samsung I don't think first gen 3D is going to sit
well with me. First off they are able to produce a great sense of
depth in the picture. There was a demo disk running had a staged band
performance and a beach scene. In both cases the picture felt like it
was coming out from the screen toward you but I had a few problems
with it and one of the reasons I think it needs a few more generations.

1."Sweet Spot" - I had to stand in a sweet spot to be able to "see the
image perfectly" according to the Samsung rep. The difference between
being in this spot and out was pretty dramatic though. Best way to
describe it is though the image is focused at that spot and everywhere
else was like dialing back the focus. It didn't go blurry but the 3D
depth decreased and the crispness of the edges dropped.
Why I think this is a problem - while I'm pretty picky about the sweet
spot for my surround and there is a drop in the sound imaging it
doesn't make it more difficult to enjoy the movie. The other reason is
you might be able to the sweet spot concept work for a movie where
you're probably curled up in your favourite couch but for sports and
normal tv viewing I'm often wandering around the house doing other
things (especially if you've got a few mates around to watch a big
game) there is almost no chance of being in the "sweet spot" not to
mention it's going to get very cosy in there

2. Where did all my definitions go? - the picture just didn't seem
as sharp or crisp as I've come to expect from even a mid-level HD set.
This is probably not helped by the problem in point two and also from
a fair bit of ghosting in the background images

3. Headaches - I have this problem with the colour wheel in DLP
projectors. I could always see the rainbow on every dlp projector the
slower the wheel the worse it was. It only took a few minutes and I'd
have a headache. It seems that the effect that creates the 3D image
has the same problem for me. I probably had under a minutes viewin and
had a headache for most of the rest of the day. Samsung recently
released a list of people that would have issues with watching 3D so
it certainly isn't for everyone.

4. Glasses - Last but not least you have to watch the image. It
certainly isn't watchable without. And on top of the fact that you
have to wear glasses logistically if you want someone else to watch
with you they need glasses. The set we looked at only came with two
pairs so you'd easily need another two pairs just for normal visitors.
They also make you look stoopid. Nuf said

Sent from my iPhone

Disabling front row via the apple remote

This is really just a post so I remember to do this when I get home...

http://theappleblog.com/2008/08/18/disable-apple-remote-control/

I'm sick of the laptops bursting into life every time I'm trying to control the appletv

So that last post was supposed to be longer

... I was mid sentence in that post when I accidentally hit send and then after it posted I was going to finish it but STREET FIGHTER IV for iPhone somehow got started and well.... that was the end of any more blogging...

So back to what I was saying, I don't know what I would do if I didn't have the river walk to calm/occupy/put to sleep the cranky pants. I know in a lot of suburban places they have some pathways and footpaths by the road but I know from the walk to day care in the mornings this can be about as stressful as the scream at home with all the dodging of traffic crossing roads etc.
We are out on the walk almost every morning it's fine and on the weekends (or afternoons if it's light enough) we're out there as much as we can. I think if I was still with a little one I would find it very hard to get through the loud patches without a similar sort of space.

The reason it's such a topic today is it's been a week of very long nights and the escape to the river walk has probably been a little overused (in defence of the too young to blog he does have a cold/cough and is getting some new teeth all in one go). But there is nothing like a 5:30am walk to watch the sunrise and a double macchiato to cure some sleep deprivation.

I must admit that I restarted this post with something else insightful to add, but of course now I'm halfway through it I can't remember what it was....

Anyway... on to other events of the weekend, we took advantage of the waterpark at southbank after a very cruisy bike ride with a few other friends. Fortunately the off and on rain for the day meant there were only a handful of kids in the water and we could roam free the whole time.

I finally did some gaming on the Wii that didn't involve "New Super Mario Bros. Wii" and plugged away at another level of Fire Emblem. I swear the AI is targeting healers because it knows if you loose a character it's game over. It's possibly one of the most difficult games I've every played and it's not difficult in a good way... Never the less this just seems to make me want to play it more... either that or throw the controller at the TV, such a fine line.

The iPad was available for preorder in the States yesterday and I've been trying to steer clear of the news because I know I want to buy one and the release seems like such a way off for Australia. I'm thinking that the WiFi only device is the one to get because with two iPhones and a 3G enabled MacBook Pro how often am I going to need the iPad to be online out of the house.

Lastly but not least... is one of the best things about having someone little running around the house... no one wonders why you're sitting on the floor playing with toy cars (complete with brum brum noises. Yes I'm still that much of a kid at heart)

A quiet afternoon....

It's not often I get to sit and just type out all my random musings
any longer. Not that I'm really complaining most of that time now is
filled with playing and running around like a crazy thing. As I
haven't really grown up myself it's really the perfect past time for
me. This afternoon though the little time occupier was particularly
cranky (because he's tired from running around the waterpark for ages
and going for a long ride and refuses to have a nap) so we set off for
a walk along the river. Of course after about 2 mins he was asleep and
rather than tempt fate and move him we've camped on a park bench
(obviously he's in his pram) and are watching the afternoon pass by.
This is how I've managed to have a quiet afternoon and have time to
ponder my thoughts. The wind is just strong enough to be rocking the
pram and keep him peacefully asleep.
It made me wonder "what do people in the suburbs do. The walk by the
river is really my coping mechanism and having a small child I think
you need one.

Photo by TiltShift Generator

A pointless post while on a train.

First off let's get the point of this post is to pass the time while
I'm crammed into a train (which means I can't effectively game).

It's been a long time since i've travelled on a train in peak hour.
And after all the cramming at the station and now in the train I think
I'd almost prefer the bus. The bus I catch (which I don't do much
anymore) is almost always full 3 or 4 stops after I catch it and I'm
more often than not standing but it somehow feels a little less cattle
like. I think it's all the people in the doorway of the train doing
the shuffle at each and every stop.
In either case I still think (given the distance) walking or the bike
is the best option and it makes me feel a little less guilty about the
environmental impact the rest of my gadget obsession has.

In other news it seams that many more of my childhood memories are
getting remakes. I wonder if this generation will be remembered as
"remakeorama"? Probably not but still is nothing safe from a remake.
When I see remakes for "gone with the wind" I know it'll have gone too
far. We've already had Astro boy with A-Team, Tron (ok this one is a
sequel but I do wonder) and karate kid. It seems that popular media is
just living off the remake which is sad, certainly people are thinking
of great original content.

On the gaming front I worry for the longevity of my DS. Since I've
picked up the iPhone the DS has suffered a lot in play time. One of
the major reasons I think is cost vs play time. A new DS game retails
for $70 and an iPhone release fo a lot less and with the addition of
titles such as Final Fantasy it's hard to justify the games on the ds
at the high price as I typically use it as a pick up and play
console. Obviously big titles such as Mario will always have appeal
but smaller mini game style titles will probably be an iPhone
purchase. I imagine Nintendo are having similar fears even with their
strong "we aren't worried by the iPhone" exterior.
Sent from my iPhone

February and another festival

Almost a exactly a month since we went to Big Day Out in Adelaide and
we backed it up with a trip to Future Music. First of all I'd like to
point out that it was wet and by wet I mean probably the most
saturated I've been when not swimming. It's definately the muddiest
i've ever been. So in that light I'd take any review with a grain of
salt.

Overall I was pretty disappointed. I think I was still basking in the
afterglow of Big Day Out and combined with the weather it was going to
be hard slog for it. I found the change overs took entirely too long
and the sets were too short in comparison. No one I saw (with the
exception of the fill DJ baby gee) seemed to play their full set time
and a quite a few of them started late.

Ok enough of the complaining there were highlights.
Franz Ferdinand: these guys were pretty good. Heaps of hits and some
great drum improvisation at the end of their set.
Prodigy: Great. Perfect run of songs from breath (almost opener) to
firestarter. I spent pretty much all of the set jumping. Almost felt
like I was back in highschool when voodoo people hit.

Unfortunately that was about the end of the highlights other than done
excellent crowd movement control.

Empire of the Sun: I was really looking forward to these guys and
after being very late, which was not their fault, I imagine the
continual downpours gave the set crews a major headache they were just
a bit weird. They really put on a show but it was more like a bad
musical theatre performance than a set. There was a comment that the
choreography was akin to a performance by Phoenix musical company.

I could go on and on but I think overall the stage setup, the sound
setup and the lineup were far below the standard of Big Day Out and
for the same (or more for VIP) ticket price combined with the weather
made it disappointing. While Prodigy were really good they weren't
enough to save the festival for me.

The biggest thing of note was the weather though it rained so much. We
were lucky we went late and had VIP tickets so we could hide in the
tents but by the end of the night we were all soaked to the bone and
covered in mud. When I saw the weather I chose to wear some water
proof shoes which was a great idea *until* they filled up with water
then they were not so great. For empire I was ankle deep in mud. The
shoes are all heading for the bin, hours of walking around in a horse
track filled with mud (or worse) makes them not worth resurrecting.
I'm just thankful that I came home with my shoes, more than I can say
for many other goers.

I didn't get many photos as I was trying to save the iPhone from the
weather (I had to keep it in a bag in the end because my pockets were
soaked through) but I will post some soon (mostly shoe mud progress).

Sent from my iPhone

This was supposed to be a post

I was going to post something informative and insightful today,
somewhere between thinking of that and actually putting finger to
touch screen it's disappeared.

There had been a lot going on lately but nothing of very much interest
to those browsing the interons.

The only real technology based news is I've decided to go back and
give 'Buzz' another try. With much of the security plugged back up i'm
willing to give it a second run. Still not sure if I can support yet
more social media services but I like the levels of potential
integration.

Well that's about all the padding on this I'm willing to do. Until
next time when I actually have something to blog about.

Sent from my iPhone

Clearoutathon

I am a bit of a hoarder. I come from a family of hoarders so it's not
surprising I've picked up the behaviour. I've tried to cut back but
every so often I slip back into some hoarding. This week though it's
been the complete opposite. Ness was watching an (heart wrenching)
show on compulsive hoarders. These people (often as a coping mechanism
for some incredible hardship) have so much stuff in there houses they
haven't seen the insides of rooms for over 5 years. This was enough
for me (one because I found it depressing to watch and two if they
could throw out things then I could at least clear out my study). In
the end it was pretty easy all thd documentation from my past working
life went and the odds and ends went with it. The bug seems to have
stuck though as I've continued to the kitchen tonight. Who knows where
it will go next.

In case any of you are wondering why there is a rather self indulgent
post at midnight. The Littleone(tm) is sick and has woken up with a
high temp again tonight. After some nurafen, milk and a cuddle he's
back asleep. I'm trying to stay awake to make sure his temp keeps
heading away from the 40 mark, hence the blogging.

Sent from my iPhone

Biking, a little one and a semi review of the Townie

Since he was about 6 months old our little one has been fascinated by bicycles. Doesn't seem to matter what type, he just wants to go and see what it's all about. He can spot a cyclist on a bike long before any one else does. The obvious solution to this was to get a bike and baby seat and take him for rides. We bought an Electra townie and appropriate seat and have since spent many hours cruising around the bike paths along the river.

So here is the townie semi-review:
I've had the townie for almost 6 months now and it's fantastic. It's actually become my preferred bike to ride. This is especially the case if I'm not in a hurry. There is something extremely relaxing about crusing around on it. It's certainly more work on the hills and while you can make to to +25km/h on the flat it's no cake walk. Somehow none of it seems to matter when you're riding a townie. It always makes me want to kick back, feel the wind and enjoy the scenery. It's never going to be the bike for you if you're going to spend the weekend claiming hills or heading up the peloton in the next road run, but as enjoyable way to get from A to B I can't recommend it enough.

Now back to the rest of this brain dump. After being at day care last week someone has a new found love for riding on bikes. The small trikes in the centre are the number one pick each day. So I renewed my search for the first cycle for him. I'd always intended to get him a Hudora Joey from My First Bike, but I spotted this awesome pre-bike from wishbone.

It seems like the perfect design, a trike to start with the option to change it to a balance bike when he's a bit older. Now all I need is a reason to give it to him, his birthday seems such a long way away.

Big Day Out 2010 in Photos

A festival day in Adelaide

When Muse announced they were touring with (and headlining) The Big
Days Out I was determined to see them. Ever since i saw them when they
toured with the 'absolution' album they have been one of my three must
see artists (the others being Jamiroquai and Daft Punk).

Unfortunately when I tired to grab tickets for the Gold Coast show
they sold out so fast I couldn't get a ticket. From there it was a
case of trying to track down some others in other cities. In the end I
managed to pick up some in the second round for Adelaide. Having been
there fairly often for work in 2009 I had a fairly good idea on how
easy it to get there.

So with flights and hotels booked it quickly became a mini holiday and
the longest stint away from Zz since he was born. Fortunately it's
only us that feel badly about that and the littleone feels like he's
getting a little holiday.

The venue for Adelaide was great all but the main stages were
undercover. Two of them were even in airconditioned buildings. It is a
bit of a sign that I'm getting old but it certainly was a much needed
break from the sun. After the line up was announced I was bit
disappointed with my mainstreamness with most of the acts we were
going to see booked on the main stages. In the end though some of the
best acts of the day were from side stage acts that in my muse
blindness I'd missed when I first checked the timetable. We caught Jet
with a surprisingly small crowd in the green stage and the were just
as energetic as the first BDO I saw them play. Hard not to get up
dancing to 'Are you gonna be my girl?'. Dizzee Rascal was a jump fest,
I think my ankles will be sore from 'Bonkers' for days. While we
weren't dedicated enough to make it into the 'D' the crowd packed it
into the main area and lifted as one when that beat kicked in. Dizzee
was one of the great showmen of the day and knew just how to get the
festival goers in the mood.

Passion Pit were fantastic but I only caught a little of the set with
travel and bathroom breaks. Kisschasey were a big surprise for me,
they really kicked us into the mood for the day.

We also saw Kasabian, Eskimo Joe and parts of Lily Allen who were
great and very listenable but just don't have set lists to get the
crowd jumping into the air hands aloft. Which is the whole reason for
going to festivals in the first place.

Grinspoon were just hitting their stride when we had to drop them in
favour of getting as close to the stage as possible for Muse.
Powderfinger were just as consistent as ever. As generically good as
their music is they do work at festivals. There was much debate
whether they (or Jet) are really just the cold chisel of our generation.

Muse were the stand out (although I was always going to say that) and
really played to their headlining status. The stage roof high screens
were just amazing. Every time I see Muse I say that they are the best
show I've ever been too. This was no different. Really I could write
this blog for another 5000 words and I couldn't do it justice. I think
ness summed up my feelings the best 'you're like a kid in a candy store'

It was just a fantastic day. Worth every minute and dollar of the
530am flight in and the 9am flight home.

Sent from my iPhone

Hottest 100 Votes in

I finally got around to Voting in the Hottest 100

Here's the list, but my hope for number one is Muse - Uprising

Art Vs Science - Parlez Vous Francais?
Basics, The - With This Ship
Dizzee Rascal & Armand Van Helden - Bonkers
Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
Jet - She's A Genius
La Roux - Bulletproof
Lily Allen - 22
Muse - Unnatural Selection
Muse - Uprising
Passion Pit - Little Secrets

A new decade and some new directions

2010 looks like it will be a big year for me... For the past decade I've been working with one product set and this year I've taken the plunge and dropped it all for a new one.

It was a pretty big decision to make and essentially means I'm moving from a Big Fish in the pond to a Small Fish. It will be an interesting time for me because I haven't been in this position for at least 10 years.

For the most part I'm looking forward to it. There is the obvious apprehension as I'm leaving a job I've basically been working in for 10 years.

I haven't had to learn something completely new for a long time so I'm really looking forward to getting stuck into some new technology.

It should be a fun year full of change.... at least that's the plan