luckykaa

Responded to text.  Said I will work for next 5 weeks from Weds 24th.  No response confirming things yet. 

Had interview with Rockstar.  I have no idea how well it went.  I was confident and positive though.  The tiredness and apathy I'm suffering from was successfully buried under a positive exterior. 

Happy thought for today:
Up is still on at the cinema.  Even have a movie watching buddy:)

Also managed to break social wall on train home...  Take that shyness!!!

And those who aren't on fb, seeking mp3 player recommendations.  Sansa Fuze keeps resetting and (a) spending ages resyncing music, and (b) losing its place on an audiobook.  Also slightly annoying that it doesn't use a standard USB-B connector.  Any recommendations for a replacement?  Must work with audible.

I had another look at this sewing machine motor.  Seems that the slow for the screw inside is broken, as is part of the casing around the motor's shaft. 

Turns out that electric motors, although quite simple, are also quite high precision.  A motor is a set of magnets rotating in a magnetic field produced by another set of magnets.  If the two sets of magnets gets too close, you seem to lose a lot of torque. 

So, anyone know where I can get hold of a YDK YM-260-9 sewing motor?

I'm not feeling nearly dynamic enough to add the word "URGENT" yet.

1. Write a TODO list.  Nothing like starting with a feeling of accomplishment.
2. Get car's air conditioning fixed*
3. Get car undented*
4. Finish costumes for Eastercon**
5. Work out downtime actions for my LARP character ***
   
6. Make a cloak for LARP character.
7. Flesh out "New Year" resolutions ****
   
1. Cut down on snacking after lunch.
2. Potentially find another hobby.
3. Check the market for other jobs.
4. Find more local friends.
5. Travel more

* I really would like to have a pristine car again but repairs are such a hassle.  I will get round to it soon. At least I don't need it during the week.  Still undecided about buying a new car. 
** I want to get Greebo sorted out.  I just need to make a mask and an eyepatch.  Or maybe I can buy a suitable mask.  Also do a couple of adjustments to the cloak I made for the prince.  And work out what else he might wear. 
*** Still not 100% sure whether I want to keep this character or come up with a new one -perhaps with a little bit of combat ability. 
**** These really need to be fleshed out more.  I need to take stock of my life, work out what I want and work out how to get it.  Then actually make them into targets.  Need to think SMART to use a business buzzword.

My new TV related gadget arrived at the weekend.  Somehow nobody at Customs thought to apply VAT and duty.  Popcorn Hour seems to be working.  This means I can retire the media PC after just a month or so.  Perhaps my brother would like it.  I also have another spare network media player device that only handles up to 720x576 and doesn't play as many formats.  Not sure what to do with that one. 

Okay. Now I'm confused.

I ordered a DVD player from Tesco before giving up, getting a refund and buying from Amazon instead. 

Yesterday I get a call from my letting agents.  Apparently someone was in next door and took in a delivery of a DVD player.  So I rang them up and collected it from their office.  It was the DVD player that was apparently never delivered.  So I collected it.  Now I have two.  Seems that one of the many previous caretakers of this package have opened it (but not used it) for some reason. 

I have a long drawn out hypothesis abut how this happened which I won't bore you with (It hinges on the fact that I live at No. 89A, which is between No. 89 and No. 87, and that No. 89 has two flats). 

The question is, what do I do with this surplus DVD player.  Do I tell Tesco about it.  Do I treat it as unsolicited goods?  Do I try to return it? 

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've decided I'll buy an HD-DVD player.  People may be wondering whether I've decided there's a clear winner in the format war.  And I haven't.

So how do I know I'm not going to end up with a Betamax? 

I don't.  And I don't care.  You see, there's one very big difference between this format war and the last one.  Price.  In 1982, you could buy a Sanyo VTC5000 Betamax VCR for £299.95.  Or about £800 adjusted for inflation.  In 2008, from Amazon, you can buy a Toshiba HD30 HD-DVD player for £188.98, Or about £188.98 adjusted for inflation.  A Blu-ray player isn't that much more at £250 or so.  Buying both is a little pricey for now, but I can easily afford one or the other without breaking the bank.  It's extremely unlikely that these are going to break any time soon.

And if HD DVD fails?  The movies I buy on that format will continue to work on my existing player. 

So I'll make a decision.  I can always change my mind. 

My Cable box isn't working:(  It's not responing to the remote.  That's only a minor issue though.  The main problem is that it's not responding to the TiVo!

So I tried the other STB that the previous tennants left behind. 

All works okay.

Trouble is, the network connection doesn't. 

So I finally resorted to calling technical support. 

I navigated through the menu system.  I explained the problem to the first guy and then the line went dead.  I navigated through the menu system again,  I explained the problem.  Apparently I need a new remote control.  I explained that the remote works perfectly and the stb doesn't respond to my TiVo, so she insisted that the remote needed to be replaced.  I explained that the remote works consistently and this is a waste of time.  Then the line went dead.

So I navigated through the menu system again.  Explained the problem.  After constantly arguing that the remote was fine and the box was broken they decided to send me a new remote. 

$%&*ing script monkeys.

A couple of weeks ago, I bought myself a Freecom Network Media player.

I think it's time for a mini-review (review #1 of 2. the second will be after I get myself an HDTV).

Bought the diskless version.  Setup is perfectly easy.  Simply requires plugging in to the mains, TV and network (a wireless version is available but I went for this one because my router is right next to my TV). 

Setting up the PC for basic network operation simply involved sharing a folder.  The media player can access the network via Windows file sharing and go through the directories using the remote.  Menus are a bit sluggish and the remote isn't as good as I'd like but all perfectly usable.  Handles avi, mpg and VOB which suggests that it will play ripped DVDs but I've not tried this yet.  Xvid and DivX seem to work very well and have a nice picture quality. 

Disappointing that it doesn't handle AACs.  Nor does it handle mkvs.  That wouldn't be a problem since these can be converted to Avi.  Once there we get the problem that all the HD videos I have access to appear to be h264 with AAC neither of which are supported by this device. 

I attempted to play a 1280x720 XviD file but I had a blank screen.  Either it couldn't handle the file or refuses to downscale. 

Installation of a disk drive was easy enough and the device can read NTFS and FAT32.  The device can be plugged into a USB connector and used as a USB hard disk.  Copying over the network isn't quite so easy.  It doesn't show up on the network neighbourhood.  Custom NDAS software has to be installed to make it appear to be a hard disk

It's a nice piece of technology.  It's far from perfect in its current incarnation.  Lack of h264 support and the bizarre network interface are the main problems