How to watch TV, Adam style

Notice what's on telly....... money. He's got his eye on it already. Dear me.

Before Buyer's Remorse Kicks In

Let me quickly blog (happily) about what I just purchased. I have to explain/justify that, as usual, this whole chain started with me looking for a new headset for my PC.

1\ Sennheiser PC360 G4ME headsets: I currently use a PC161, and @anmarmansur loves and recommends his 350s, but I like open back cans (I prefer the soundstage) hence I didn't want the 350s. These new 360s are the 350s but open back.

2\ Razer Mako 2.1: YES, STEREO and not surround speakers! why you ask? Well ever since moving to our house the surround speakers (ie the side and rear ones) have been nothing more than dust collectors on the floor. The cables are in the way (particularly with Adam) and almost all surround gaming I do on the PC is via headphones (hence the new cans). The Razers are co-designed with THX and include a headphone amp and look gorgeous. The reviews all concur that they're the best 2.1 bookshelf speakers.

The creatives are also 5 years old and have gone through at least 3 house moves - they need to retire.

Perhaps when there's no babies crawling around I can reinvest in surround.

3\ Asus Xonar Essence STX - perhaps the stupidest thing of all. Said to be the pinnacle for stereo/headphone cards. With features galore, including the all-essential Dolby Headphone (for games) and even an EAX emulator (though I can't remember the last time I used EAX - ever since vista hardware legacy sound has dwindled). I am a little apprehensive about this, because I game as much as I listen to music on the PC (don't watch many movies on it) so proper headphone surround is crucial here.

We'll find out tomorrow.

Adam meets a tub of Sudocrem

Sudocrem = nappy rash stuff. He was literally alone with it for about 10 seconds :|

Night 7 - 09:25

And it's all done! Here's a picture of my 6 year-old air freshener :)

Night 6 - 05:25

Introducing the dreaded "150 bleep". Pronounced one-fifty. It's what I carry with me all shift long. I hate it :/

Night 5 - 05:50

I played some FIXPIX on the iPhone and this was one of them. I thought it was cool.

Night 4 - 04:30

This is what "greets" children coming out of their ward, poor bastards.

Now now kids!

I was messing about with Incredibooth this morning (recommended if you have an iPhone 4 and remember the days of the photobooth!) so decided to get Kelly and Adam together for one of those silly photobooth things that kids love!

Well, kids of the 70s and 80s used to love. Have a look at these 00s kids:

1) yaaaaaaaaawwwwwwwwnnnnnnn. OMG WTF are they up to?

2) eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. Is that mum's tongue? GROSS!

3) LAME! Now it's both of them sticking their tongues out. I'm looking away..

4) F*** this, looks like they're never gonna stop. Imma outta here.

Night 3 - 06:25

The rip off keyboard. Meant to be hygienic and "safe". Said to cost mucho dinaros :/

Night 2

02:05 - mmmmmmmmmm! Everything tastes better at night!

Night 1

00:15 - is this thing working? Is this bad?

Oh shit........

Two Box Solution

I recently realised something - almost all the wireless devices in this house are Apple. The only other wireless ones are the Wii and the 360, and the PSP/NDS. The PS3 is wired so I can stream 1080p files smoothly.

Which led me to realise something else - all the wireless router/adsl modem devices I've tried aren't very good with Apple products. I've always suffered connection drops or slow speeds or what have you.

Which made me realise something else - why don't I invest in an Apple router. This was something I had categorically refused in the past, because of the higher price of their products, especially seeing that you can get a wireless router/adsl modem solution in one box for half the price.

But I did some research, mainly on non-apple websites (to avoid Apple Fanboi Bias) and it turns out the Apple AirPort Base Extreme is one hell of a capable router, especially as it broadcasts a dual network signal, hence making it compatible with older and newer devices. The only problem was that it's a pure router, ie it has no modem function.

This would be a two-box solution, ie one device as a modem, and the AirPort as a router. I bit the bullet (well, my bank account did) and ordered one.

When it arrived, I briefly smiled at the Apple aesthetic of it (white box, one light, no power on switch, just simple!) and then set about connecting it to my current router/modem (Netgear MIMO). The idea was that the Netgear acts as a modem only, while the AirPort does the routing.

Except that just wouldn't happen (of course). The AirPort told me from the start that there was a router between it and the net, and it can act just a bridge, ie just as a WiFi access point with all the routing done by the Netgear. Try as I might, I just couldn't get the Netgear to NOT route, and just act as a modem. While functional, this bridged solution wasn't idea.

SO - this lead me to another thing: a search for an ADSL modem. I looked around and ended up finding a Draytek Vigor 120. This simple (and small!) device does nothing other than being a modem. It has no router or NAT functions, and has only one ethernet port to connect one device.

The best thing about the Vigor 120 though, is that it acts as a "converter" of PPPoA (ie my ADSL connection) to PPPoE. This latter protocol works magic with the AirPort. Draytek even go as far as to say that if you have standard UK ADSL (ie not O2 or Be LLU), you won't even need to configure the Vigor. Just plug it in to your phone cable, connect your router to the Ethernet port, and then set up the router and you're done.

It is this part that amused me most. For all this time I've had ADSL (10 years), the modem as always been the device that requires the ISP details (user/pass etc). What the Vigor was doing was passing on the ADSL connection (and IP address) unaltered to the router, albeit in a PPPoE standard.

SO - I ordered the Vigor 120. It arrived, and to test their claims I just did the following:

1\ Connect Vigor 120 to ADSL line, power cable, and Ethernet to the AirPort base.

2\ Turned on Vigor 120

3\ Ran the AirPort setup utility, and configured it to connect via PPPoE

4\ Entered my ISP username/password IN THE ROUTER, not the modem

Within 2 seconds the all-encompassing status light on the AirPort turned a steady green, meaning all was ok.

And all was ok! I had a rock solid internet connection, a strong wifi signal all over the house, and all the routing done by one device. I have tested around the house, in the garden etc and signal has been fantastic. One interesting thing I noted wit the iPad and iPhone is that sometimes in the weaker areas the signal drops and then magically becomes full. I have a feeling the devices are automatically switching to the stronger frequency network. It's something quite nice and useful, and has yet to disrupt anything.

As an added bonus, the Vigor is syncing at 1mbit more than the Netgear!

So, know I'm kind of converted to two-box solutions. I guess it's the age old mantra of having one device do something VERY good, rather than one that does two things OK. The combination of a dedicated modem and new router with dualband networks has really stabilised the network throughout the house.

It's a solution that I'd only recommend to geeks, or technophiles. For my family and friends I'd just tell them to use the router the ISP gives them, or get the DLINK or Netgear they can afford. For me and you however, I'd strongly recommend you ditch the crappy modem/router and get yourself some proper dedicated hardware instead ;)

How Nintendo will advertise the 3DS

In case you missed it (where you been?!) - Nintendo demoed their latest handheld, the Nintendo 3DS at e3 this year.

The dual-screen device is like a more powerful DS, but with the added bonus of "glasses-free" 3D on the top screen!

Don't ask me how this voodoo works, but people who have used it are amazed at what Ninty have achieved! Problem is, screenshots can't show the effect, nor can videos!

This has given rise to the question - how can Nintendo advertise the platform? Will showing 2D images be enough? People might just think it's another DS (bigger, lighter) rather than a whole new platform.

Here's what I think they'll do - I think they'll do the same thing they did with the Wii, well before we even knew what it looked like. They showed videos of people playing with the wiimote, and the sounds coming from the game, but not the game itself, nor the device itself!

That way, all you saw were some genuinely impressed people experiencing this new device, without actually seeing it! You would see a woman pretending to chop vegetables with her wiimot, and you'd hear the sounds, just not see the game. A man playing tennis or golf, a boy swinging a sword, and so on.

It sound stupid but it worked, and it worked very well - whisking up a frenzy of hype for the Wii.

And I bet that's what they'll do here - show some "normal" and "core" people's reactions to playing on the 3DS - couple that with demo units in stores, and you've got yourself the best hype machine there ever is - the general public.

Remember, you read this here first!

too much to talk about

I hate having not blogged for so long - and I'm sorry. It's just a combination of too little time, too much to do.

And I still blame twitter. It's much easier to tweet a 140 character update, than it is to blog :P

But there's so much I want to talk about - mainly the iPad and the iPhone 4, and the amazing Wii game BIT.TRIP: RUNNER.

Unfortunately, this isn't the time :p consider this a teaser ;)