I'm Tired

But not that tired to see the trailer for 28 Weeks later on Apple's trailer pages. Oooh in 720p HD as well. Worth a look at, some of the camera angles are interesting.

Anyway its a short one today as I need to go feed Georgia in a sec.
So spent the day at Vinopolis on the South Bank in London. There was an event going on with a free tour afterwards and I imagine a lot of booze after that too. I had to depart after the final speaker (speakers were talking about IBM, Managed Objects, AlarmPoint and a few other things), and peg it back to Waterloo.

London - You need so much money to really enjoy London. Its really unfortunate.


Signing off sleep well
r

Getting excited

Well here I am watching BSG Season 3 on Sky One when the adverts came on. Specifically an ad for "Bones" which had Stephen Fry guesting on it. What is going on?

So 3 days to I step on a BA plane to Seattle. Not good in one respect that unlike Kosso on his trips to the US I am travelling in Economy. The other depressing thing is that after flying Virgin to SF I am worried that BA's in-flight entertainment system might not be as good, specifically the 50 movies on-demand option. However after the investment in my first iPod on the last trip and the earphones as mentioned earlier the pain might be lessened. Perhaps I could transfer some movies onto the new laptop that should be appearing in the office tomorrow.

So Seattle on Sat. It still is mad to me that I fly on Sat afternoon and arrive on Sat afternoon, but on the otherside of the world. Which leaves Sat afternoon and evening and Sunday to lord it around Seattle. I am staying at what looks like a nice hotel www.hotel1000seattle.com but I will reserve judgement until I leave.

Tonight is my shift to stay up and feed Georgia at 11pm, which allows me to catch up on trash TV I have recorded on Sky+. BSG, Lost and 24. They are not really trash. I have probably named at least 2 of the best ground breaking dramas to hit our TV screens. On that note I am trying to get into the Dresden Files, but I am not sure of it.

I had a call from Carphone Warehouse customer service today, checking if everything was alright, which it was until I found out how much per minute it costs to call the States from my mobile. The call ended with me parting with another £3 to reduce the call rates by 95%. But it got me thinking about a new mobile phone, but I am apparently 5 months away from an upgrade. I did see some details of a new SE 5megapixel camera a few weeks back, hopefully some new tech will appear in 5 months. All I want is long battery life, fast OS, small form factor and reliable.

Off to Vinopolis on Thursday.

2 PS3 or NOT 2 PS3? That is the question

On my way back to the office from an off-site meeting I walked past HMV which had a small laser printed sign in the window stating it still had some PS3's in stock. I had several feelings at this point.

1. How come they still had some in stock? Was it not a successful launch?
2. Ooooh should I get one?
3. Should I wait?

So many mixed emotions. It has been turmoil for me over the past 1 year.

Firstly MS get their next gen box out first amongst lots of BS marketing and hype.

Secondly Nintendo look like they could have won the war with their ever so simplistic but lovable wii. Which seems to be hyped beyond belief but can you say it is a next gen console. Should people buy the wii and not the 360 or PS3 does that mean development of future consoles that can produce photo realistic games be in trouble, based on people wanting a console which they can be more sociable with (the number of times I have heard friends stating that their partners have got hooked video games on the wii. Something that those same partners have chastised and ridiculed in the past)

Thirdly Sony appear to be getting an absolute slating about everything on their console, from it costs too much to retro compatibility to release games. But if you look closely at what Sony are trying to achieve it is so much more than either a DVD player or a games console.

Its all a bit sad really.


At the end of the day I will probably plumb for PS3 unless in 1 year there are still very poor games and blu-ray has lost the battle. Don't forget the PS3 is the only console that will pump out 1080p HD pictures. So don't forget to get your HDTV with 2xHDMI sockets (or a HDMI switch) and 1080p.


Meanwhile I have God of War II on pre-order for my PS2 and I have Vice city Stories to get through on my PSP if I ever get the chance to play it.

New JMJ album

So I had it on pre-order on iTunes and his morning at 05:30 I logged onto iTunes to have it grab the new Jean Michel Jarre album Tea & Tao. It had some making of video's included with the rest of the audio tracks. But this is my second purchase from iTunes that is actual DRM'd music.

Now my question is how does the 128kbps AAC format purchased music compare in quality. I am normally ripping CD's at a minimum of 192kbps in an MP3 format.

All this stuff bothers me, because should I just buy the CD and rip that as the CD is the best quality format thus I in theory can make a better rip.

This of course is ignoring the fact that it is apparently illegal for us to rip our own purchased CD's and put them onto our iPod's. The only legal way is to buy the tracks from places such as iTunes as they have negotiated with the music companies a license that allows the transport of those tracks onto 5 machines and ipods.

You may ask why bother, but I seem to be one of those people that can hear the high frequencies (the mosquito devices bolted onto Spar convenience stores) even at the age of 34. Does this mean that ripping at a higher rate means that I can hear the higher frequencies potentially not included at lower bit rates due to the compression.



Errr anyway. back to the album. It sounds good, very Euro, very Jarre but with a new modern slant. Great to see him still pushing out the work. For fans its probably worth a peek.

M3 Motorway

So my commute to the M3 this morning was its usual mundane drive. I think that M3 stands for move over to the 3rd lane ASAP. Cruising at 65-70mph on the inside lane I approach a junction's exit slip (cars joining the motorway) and see a BMW 5 series picking up speed (on the slip road) and then has to break cos I cannot move over for him. Next thing bang you guessed it, he has done a digital lane change into the 3 lane in 2 split sec's.

I love the M3 I swear my life expectancy has dropped since traveling on the M3.

Oh I also saw a new Volvo C30. It looks a bit odd, the boot window in the middle drops lower than the sides. Very odd looking. Not my personal taste really.

Wonder Pets

The passifier for Olivia seems to be WonderPets http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_Pets . Don't get me wrong I am not sure I approve. Its a photo animated story about a duckling, a guinea pig, and a turtle who same other animals in distress. Hey at least I get some time on the intaweb.

New Earphones (Etymotic 6i)

So 2nd post. Thought I would say that my first week with the new Etymotic 6i earphones has been great. I have been using for years a pair of £25 Sony earbuds with the rubber flange which have been my die hard pair of earphones. They have survived through thick and thin, on my PSP, PC, laptop, and recently the ipod. But after doing a little research on www.ilounge.com and a few other websites I managed to pick up a pair of the 6i's for approx £40.

1 week in and I am blown away, I can suddenly hear the music. I was starting to think that the ipod was not cutting the mustard but these new earphones have suddenly added a new dimension to the music experience. As with everything read the friggin manual. You need to push these babies right into the ear canal and it appears to work that you moisten the flanges too. This creates the seal in your ear canal and gives you the base and also cancels out the noise from around you. And this is the thing you notice when you plug them in. Suddenly you cannot hear the outside world. No really. They are that good.

Anyway take a look at them at http://www.etymotic.com/ephp/er6i.aspx well worth it.

R

Setup

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