It is amazing how sometimes you have technology in your possession and don’t realise it.
I recently spotted this youtube video, which is quite amusing.
Category: Gadgets
These are posts about gadgets and any kind of tech.
I mentioned that I had bid on a new Vigor router, to let me use all the facilities of my new TalkTalk YouView box.
It arrived today, and I immediately spotted something wrong. Checking the listing, I could see it was my mistake, and not the seller.
I have been with TalkTalk for some time, but on their business service, rather than their domestic one. This meant I missed the boat a year ago, when they handed out free YouView boxes – I bought mine instead.
But this year, they announced that they were merging accounts, and I became a TalkTalk Plus customer last week. I promptly applied for my free box, and after some conflicting information (which I won’t go into here), it arrived along with a new ADSL router.
Absolutely and positively pleased with myself, as I have fixed a piano that I thought might end up on the skip. At the same time, this is a story about procrastination.
Just had a fairly fraught trip from Peterborough to Glasgow and back, where – in addition to bad weather – my TomTom (Go Live 1005 World Edition) refused to see any satellites whatsoever.
I tried various things, numerous times, including a reboot and a complete factory reset, but it stayed perpetually searching. while my phone and tablet both were picking up satellites galore. In the end, the phone got me through the trip, using Google Navigation. This meant my (work) phone took a small hit on mobile data, but as it was a work trip anyway, that’s not an issue.
Some of you more experienced guitarists may have come across this already (the really experienced guitarists may not need it!); but I recently acquired a Flexi-Capo, and I am having a lot of fun with it.
It does the same kind of job as a cut capo, but is more flexible. When clamped to the fretboard, it has individual fingers that depress the strings you want.
A couple of weeks back, I posted about ordering some prescription RealD compatible glasses from Optics3D. RealD is the format used by many cinemas and most, if not all, makes of passive 3D TV.
They arrived today, and I am impressed. First of all, the obvious – they fit me, and they have got my prescription right. I wasn’t too worried about the prescription, to be honest; but unlike “normal” specs, these frames are one size fit all. But they are just fine.
Once expensive, prescription lens 3D Glasses are now fairly reasonable – I have just purchased a basic pair (RealD 3D only), for 50 quid, from Optics3D. RealD is what my local cinema uses, and is also compatible with my passive screen 3D TV.
This probably seems a lot of cash to those on a budget, but not compared to my spend on 3D so far. I am now fairly committed to the format, so I thought I may as well be comfortable. While my cheap RealD 3D clipons are more convenient than glasses worn over my specs, they are still slightly over-balanced.
Over the years, there have been various methods to help astronomers find their way around the skies.
The first is simple – learn the skies.
Another new toy – a Cuisinart Soup Maker.
I eat a lot of soup, working from home, as it makes a quick and (usually) healthy lunch. However, although I have plenty of practice in making soup, lately I seem to be eating more shop-bought soup than homemade. Which generally means more salt, more fat and more additives.
Further to buying my Nexus 10, I still haven’t shopped around for a suitable music mount. But I have been thinking about what I need to use it in the kitchen.
I already have a couple of cookery resources that can be usefully used on a tablet. The original recipe book for my pellet grill, for a start, and recently the 40 page recipe guide for my breadmaker got too sticky to be hygenic, and was replaced with a pdf kindle sent to me by Breville.
When I first got my Kindle 3 (now named the Kindle Keyboard by Amazon), I toyed with comics on the device, downloading some samples. However a combination of monochrome (albeit nice, crisp monochrome) and a small screen, made it unattractive, and I took it no further.
On my new Nexus 10, using the Kindle Android app, I have downloaded samples of a couple of comics – some of DC’s Earth 2 graphic novels, and the best-graphic-novel-in-the-world, Watchmen. In addition, I have actually bought the first of the Sandman series – something I have come across a few times, but never collected.