I've moved!

If you are reading this, then you must have subscribed to my Blogspot site via RSS or email or divine audience or something.. I have now left Blogger for Wordpress and you can find my new blog at http://taoskiblog.wordpress.com. You can also get the new RSS feed at http://taoskiblog.wordpress.com/feed See you there!

Anti Lurker Week

I know there are lots of "lurkers" who read my blog but never leave comments or feedback. Of course you are more than welcome to come, read and go - but the idea behind blogging is about sharing, discussion and feedback. So...

• Say hello or ask me a question.
• Tell me you hate it or that you love it.
• What would you like more of?
• Should I buy www.taoskiblog.com and move there and dump Blogger all together?

Open For business

Some of you may have seen that picture on here recently. Sorry for the confusion. This blog is NOT closed and will continue to operate normally under my usual mis-management. And no, Robert... it's not a Butterfly! It's a hacked image I did on Illustrator, of an XBox360 controller. Tsk.

Easter Weekend

Had a great Easter weekend over the last four days. Friday: Went to the Cotswold Wildlife Park with the wife and kids. We went with Mr and Mrs Swimpig and their daughter too. A very nice day out all in all and ended off with some late night card playing and Jack Daniels drinking fun. As usual, Mr Swimpig won. Saturday: It was the mother-in-laws birthday, so we were over at her house for dinner. The kids got to play easter egg hunting in the garden, so we have again got a cupboard full of chocolate eggs, chocolate bars and assorted chocolate bunny shaped sweets. And all that after we just threw away the eggs that never got eaten from over two years ago! Sunday: Had a lazy day around the house and then went for a dog walk with friends through the local fields. Very nice. Monday: Went to my first ever football match to watch the MK Dons beat Hartlepool 2-1 at the Milton Keynes National Hockey Stadium. My eldest son took part in a Football In The Community scheme where the MK Dons came to his school to teach them football skills. As part of a fund raising Penalty Shoot-out competition, we got a free pass for one adult and one child. I then bought two more tickets so that the wife and my other son could come too. It was quite exciting being in the crowd and we only just won after trickling a shot off the post about 4 minutes before the final whistle. As you may know, I am a seasoned FIFA player on my XBox, so it was nice to see the real thing for a change. There was only a few times when I got confused and thought I would watch the replay of the goal again... only to find I was pressing the head of the bloke sitting in front of me instead of the start button... Hartlepool were certainly the best side and at times The Dons were quite comical, falling over the ball and passing straight to the other team. Some decisions did not go their way though after Hartlepool scored by barging the goalie down after he had grabbed the ball and vollying the shot in. I did enjoy it though and might go to the next, and last, home game later this month. Anyone else up for that? Report: BBC SPORT | Football | League One | MK Dons 2-1 Hartlepool Tuesday: Back to work on the push bike. Microsoft Patch issues ahoy! Great... Technorati Tags: mk dons, easter, football, hartlepool, walk, eggs, chocolate, jack daniels, cards, dog

Google Calendar

As per a wish in my recent gripes about Whats Missing From Gmail, the Google Calendar has now been released! Shame it still does not appear to be bolted into Gmail though...

April 06 A-List

Its about time of the year that I did another A-List. A detail of my favorite software that I am installing/using these days. It's probably not going to be much different from the previous list, but here goes... OS: Windows XP Media Center editon with Office 2003. Installed this version of Windows so I could stream video to my Xbox 360. Virus/Spyware: I have ditched the Symantec AntiVirus 10 and the Giant Anti Spyware (now known as Microsoft Defender) and am using ZoneAlarm Security Suite. Since having this installed I have had nothing unusual turn up on the PC, only cookies. Even with Symantec and Giant installed before, if I ran a scan it always found something, but ZoneAlarm seems excellent! Plus with the ZoneAlarm firewall built in you can't go wrong. Browser: Firefox, firefox, firefox!!! Get it! This is a no-brainer really. Since using this my spyware infections have literally dropped off the planet. I have also installed the FasterFox extension which makes it even faster! I also have the Web Developer Toolbar installed into Firefox which makes checking and testing CSS changes in my blog all the easier. It also makes me into a god when helping people over at the Blogger Help Group. Torrent Sites:

• Demonoid
• Mininova
• ISOHunt

I still use torrents frequently and they are the three sites that I use most often. I have started using uTorrent to download torrent files as I found that the webs most popular torrent client, Azureus was big, bloated, built from Java and made my router hang all the time (despite its numerous awards) . uTorrent is small, runs from a folder with no installation needed and is fast! I have also found that on my 2mb ADSL line, if I limit my upload to 18kbps on each torrent, the download speed goes up like a rocket (seeds pending out course). I am thinking of doing a basic "uTorrent users guide" soon - so watch this space. P2P Apps: None. Yep - thats right - none! I have given up on using these. The last time I was bothering, Warez was still my favorite but now that the torrents have really picked up and downloading stuff does not seem so important any more, I have stopped using it. Bookmarks: Some new bookmarks that I go to each day are the Del.icio.us popular links, my Bloglines subscriptions and the Digg.com homepage. There is always something new and amazing on there to look at over lunch. I have started using Del.icio.us more to store my bookmarks now. With Firefox's Live Bookmarks feature, they are available immediately regardless of if I am at home or work. Recap: Away Goal: ZoneAlarm, uTorrent, Del.icio.us, Digg, Torrents Own Goal: Symantec, Giant Antispyware, P2P apps, Azureus Technorati Tags: a-list, symantec, zonelabs, zonealarm, spyware, virus, microsoft, defender, bittorrent, utorrent, azureus, firefox, media center, fasterfox, delicious, bloglines, digg
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us |

iSwitch

I was just reading my RSS feeds at Bloglines and noticed this one via Gizmodo. Help me become a switcher! Basically, a bloke in the US wants people to donate money to him to get an iMac worth over $2000! Now thats a cool idea. Shame my version of the same thing, that I started back in Janurary 2005 did'nt get any attention from anyone! The US may be the most powerful country in the world, but it's also graced with the loudest and laziest people. A message to my fellow "would be switcher"...

GET A FUCKING JOB YOU LAZY GIT! Flipping burgers for minimum wage makes more sense!

Maybe I should revive my idea and start a rival blog to see who wins first? Nah.. too lazy. Technorati Tags: apple, mac, imac, switcher, paypal, donate, blog
Add to: | Technorati | Digg | del.icio.us |

Nildram

Does anyone have any experioence with Nildram as an ISP? I am still with AOL who I went with after moving house and having to cancel my BT Internet account. Instead of just moving the service from one house to another, they insist that you cancel your account and then re-apply at the new house! Even though the previous owner of my new property was also with BT Internet! Also, at the time, AOL were (pretty much) the only provider with no download limits, which BT were just bringing into force. My "downloading" action is no way near as bad as it used to be though. Nildram offer up-to 8mb broadband with a 50gb per month download limit. I think it should be enough for what I need I suppose. Although, my mate has a ratio on torrent site where his upload is over 1 Terrabyte! His download amount is something pretty scary too! Might see what ISP he is with. Can't remember off hand although I set it up for him. So. Any experience with Nildram , let me know. Or can you recommend a good ISP that won't release the dogs on me if I decide to download more that 1mb a month? Technorati Tags: AOL, internet, ISP, nildram, broadband, BT, BT Internet Add to: Technorati Digg del.icio.us

In the bank!

It was another of the annual horse killing events yesterday, otherwise known as the Grand National. We did a family sweepstake and all put a pound in and got 4 horse each, drawn at random from a hat. We also all put in real bets at the local betting office. Just a few pounds here and there. Luckily, after my horse Numbersixvalverde won, I netted the £20 family sweepstake and my wife won £24 from her £2 bet at 11/1 odds. Sweet. Now, what shall I spend my £20 on? Any ideas? Technorati Tags: grand national, horse racing, horses, numbersixvalverde, betting EDIT: Just went and got FIFA06 for my 360 from the Birmingham branch of CEX. Only £28 second hand!

Xtrememac Airplay

When I was in New York, I purchased a XtremeMac Airplay FM transmitter for my iPod and have been using it in my car to and from work each day. The thing is tiny and the quality is pretty good - although I have doubts as to wether the signal is in stereoscopic sound or not. When I shuffle to some Beatles tracks, that should tell me. There is also some background hum and hiss from interferance which gets worse when its raining. The signal is better when plugged into my nipple. Well... what I mean is - when it's in my shirt pocket and my metal endo-skeleton is acting as a signal conductor. It also makes me look quite "star trek" when changing tracks - but makes me look all "cheap porn nipple caressing" when increasing the volume! Generally the product is very good and I am impressed with it. I was even more suprised to find that ipod ubersite, iLounge gave it an A marking and said that it was even better that the iTrip, which was the device I had been planning to get. I decided to get the Airplay as I was also purchasing an XBox360 Play-n-charge kit from the same shop and it seemed to be the best option at the time. The Airplay's frequency can be manually changed in .2 increments between 88 and 109FM so you can quite easily override everyone who is listening to Radio1 on the way to work with some techno from the likes of the Plump DJs. I was even able to broadcast "Dare" by Gorillaz from downstairs in my home, over the top of my sons radio whilst he was listening to Classic FM (100.3FM) at bedtime. Having Shaun Ryder in your dreams is not good for a six year old's mind. My advice: get it! Oh.. hold on.. it's illegal in the UK. Sorry Officer... And yes, DriverChris, you can have that "POS" Belkin back next time I see you. Technorati Tags: ipod, airplay, fm, apple, nipple, star trek

Keyword Searching

Just stumbled upon this site after I was assisting a customer with their word document that had inherited "selective" spellchecking on some parts of the file - but not others. The site contains a series of "5 minute productivity tips". I expected it to be full of "teamworking, networking and corporate bitch making" skills but I found the Searching with Firefox Keywords tip and was plesantly suprised! I thought I used most of the nice Firefox stuff like Live Bookmarks and the "Open In Tabs" stuff - but this is cool. When searching at a site (such as Google) you can right-click the box you put the search text into and then click "Add a keyword for this search". You will then be prompted to put in a bookmark for the page and a keyword too. Put in the keyword "g" for Google for example. Once it has been saved, you can then type "g taoski" into the Firefox address bar and it will immediately search Google for Taoski. You can also add keywords to any bookmark you have stored so you could just type g and press Enter to take you direct to Google too! So now, I can quickly search through that HomeMadePornTorrents site I have access to. Technorati Tags: firefox, bookmark, google, taoski, word, spellcheck, tabs

Boot Camp

Now this is pretty serious stuff. Everyone knows (well - you should by now) that Apple recently made the switch to Intel chips in their hardware. There have been plenty of people out there that have searched for and managed to get Windows XP running on the "MacTel" boxes - although quite a bit of messing was needed to get it working. Today, Apple have released the beta of Boot Camp which allows you to install XP for it to co-exist with your OS-X installation!

Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.⁽¹⁾ Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don't have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them. Windows running on a Mac is like Windows running on a PC. That means it'll be subject to the same attacks that plague the Windows world. So be sure to keep it updated with the latest Microsoft Windows security fixes.

W00t! This is going to cause quite a few ripples in the computing world! I don't expect it would take too long for someone to get a mac just to run XP (or Vista) but then switch to OS-X because "it works!". Smart move Mr Jobs. I salute you! There's probably not much that I could do on XP that I could'nt do on OS-X too. Awww.. I wanna new PC.

WTF?

Why is it, that I work on an iT Helpline - but get jobs passed to me to fix that are raised by other members of the iT Helpline regarding silly issues with their PCs? I'm sure that if I qualified as a car mechanic I would take my car to the local repair shop each time it needed a bulb changing or petrol putting in. I dispair.....

Purves Welcome

The Grass armchair is self assembled, each pack contains 14 corrugated cardboard frames and 100g pack of grass seeds. You will need about 240 litres of soil, to fill in the frame. First find the right spot, because once the armchair has grown you won't be able to move it!! You can put up to 20cm of gravel with in the frame then the soil. Spread the seeds evenly using only 4/5 of the bag of seeds. Press them in and water slightly so that the soil is humid. Water the armchair everyday. If it rains cover the armchair until grass has grown, to avoid the chair becoming waterlogged. After 10 days the grass starts to grow. If the grass has not grown evenly use the rest of the seeds to even it out. Once the grass has reached 10cm, cut it to 3cm, and keep it to this height. Now you can sit back and relax!

Purves and Purves Just saw this mentioned over at Gizmodo and thought it was cool! And how much for some bits of oddly shaped cardboard and a packet of grass seeds? £65 - thats how much. I'm off to the skip at the back of the local supermarket to get mine started.

Busy busy busy!

Phew! Had a real busy day here at work today. I cycled to work again through the icy cold wind this morning and even managed to make it out at lunchtime for a quick ride too. Well... a ride up to Subway for a foot-long Veggie Max sub! W00t! I have noticed after just two days of cycling, that when I get to work, although I feel all sweaty and my lungs are insanely burning in a sea of my own mucus, I feel so much more awake and ready to do stuff! It's cool. The wife's out at her Salsa class tonight, so I get to spend a little more quality time with my Xbox, PC and 360 - before I sell them all!! HA ha ha ha.... (evil laugh). Swimpig promises to make an appearance too at some point. Maybe he wants his arab strap back?

Three Six oh?

I am quite close to making somewhat of a decision. Now that I have been paid and the overdraft is slightly smaller after maxing it in New York, it's time to think about subscribing for a years worth of XBOX Live and getting a new game for my 360. However - what game to get is one question... But - "do I want to" is the most important one! Now don't get me wrong. I love my 360 (like a bruvver! burp) but hardly ever play on it. At present my "gaming time" is spent either fitting in a quick game of Fifa 2006 on my old Xbox after the wife has gone to bed or snatching a few games of the same title on my Gameboy Advance SP (while I crap). The 360 sits redundant beneath my TV. The most I have used it for recently is to stream our New York photos to from my Media Centre PC.

• Maybe it was a rash decision to buy it?
• Maybe I should have got a PSP like I was thinking?
• Maybe I'm just having a "downer" on it at the moment?

Who knows. I certainly don't. But a PSP from eBay with a few games and a memory stick would not set me back too much. And I'm sure someone would have my 360 off me to counter act the spend. Technorati Tags: xbox, xbox 360, sony, sony psp, psp, fifa, fifa 2006, gba, gameboy, new york

TRON? TR-OFF!

I managed to get a copy of TRON from... er... somewhere and it's a great copy in widescreen too! I attempted to convert it to DVD using DVD Santa and got an "Unsupported video stream" error. Roxio 8 also decides to give me a cryptic "unspecified error" plus a load of hex to go with it! Fecking computers! So, it appears that the format of the file is one of those odd DivX ones that refuses to convert without a lot of hassle. I also downloaded DivXtoDVD too (after reading a few good things about it) and after converting and burning which took about 2 hours, the quality of the DVD is jumpy and the audio is about 3 seconds ahead of the video! Good job i've still got my old, modded XBox to watch it on over the network. On a side note, I have decided to post at least once per day this month in an attempt to kick start my blogging again. I failed yesterday though already! I was discussing a possible "april fools day" post with Swimpig over breakfast yesterday but nothing came of it. Technorati Tags: divx, dvdsanta, divxtodvd, tron, dvd, convert, blog, roxio, xbox,