Posted February 22nd, 2009
by Josh
My eldest daughter has started developing an interest in using computers and the Internet. She quite often asks to play games on one of her favorite websites on my laptop.
This has started becoming a more regular occurence, so I decided that I would re-instate an old laptop that I had lying around and set it up for the kids.
The machine is quite old so wouldn’t be particularly speedy running Windows, so an idea struck me, I could install may favorite linux distro of choice, Ubuntu; not only would this run better on the old laptop but would also give my kids a different view of computers than most of their friends will get just using Windows.
I’m hoping that giving my kids this different view of computers will help them have a better understanding of computers in the future.
One of my problems with computing in schools is thatfor example, kids arn’t taught how to Word Process, they are taught how to use Microsoft Word, this goes for using the OS itself as well.
I’m a realist enough to know that this is the way things are due to Microsofts Dominance of the market, but I’d like my kids to be able to have a different perspective on how computers can be used
I’m no Microsoft hater, I’d just like my kids to make their own decisions on these things and by giving them a choice, I hope enable them to do that.
Tags: Kids, laptop, Linux, Microsoft, Ubuntu, Windows, Word Posted in Cool Stuff!, Personal, Rantings, Technology
Posted December 19th, 2008
by Josh
Just a quick note about my websites gallery. I’m using Alex Rabes’s NextGen Gallery, its one of the best gallery Plugins available for wordpress, and he’s just release his latest version which is fully WordPress 2.7 compatible.
In addition to that I’m also using an addon to NextGen Gallery Called NextGen Flashveiwer. This addon, created by Boris Glumpler allows NextGen Gal lery images to be displayed using some cool flash effects from Airtight Interactive.
Thanks to all the above for their brilliant work!
Tags: Airtight Interactive, Flash, Gallery, NextGen Flasviewer, NextGen Gallery, Wordpress Posted in Cool Stuff!, Personal, Site Stuff
Posted November 14th, 2008
by Josh
Just thought I’d add a link to a really useful site I use on a regular basis.
The guys over at Pogdesign have designed a really useful TV catalogue that displays all the best TV shows from America and the UK.
To vie the Catalogue click here.
Tags: catalogue, listing, pogdesign, show, tv Posted in Cool Stuff!, Me, Personal, Technology
Posted October 30th, 2008
by Josh
I’ve just installed a plugin that allows people to sign up and login to the site using and OpenID.
OpenID is an initiative being supported by a wide range of organisations which is hoping to reduce the need for uers to have multiple usernames and passwords for all their various web accounts.
For more info check out the OpenID site or for a good (and independent) OpenID provider, click here.
Tags: OpenID, plugin, Wordpress Posted in Cool Stuff!, Site Stuff, Technology
Posted October 15th, 2008
by Josh
One of my little known guilty pleasures is Jeff Waynes Musical version of HG Wells War of the Worlds. I really dont know why I love it so much, as I normally hate musicals, but this one hooked me somehow.
Anyway, they are doing another live tour next year and I’ve managed to get some tickets!
The reason im so excited about it is because its not just a stuffy orchestra playing the same songs as on the album. The live show features 2 orchestras, a classical orchestra (strings, wind, brass etc) and a modern band featuring drums, electric guitars keyboards and so on. The show also uses the latest technology in the form of huge holograms, massive screens showing projected CG images of the Martians etc; and at one point the lower a 50 foot martian fighting machine down onto the stage!
To get a better idea, head of to the Official Website and check out the pictures and videos from the previous tours.
Tags: band, hg wells, hologram, jeff wayne, live, martian, musical, orchestra, the war of the worlds, tour Posted in Cool Stuff!, Personal
Posted October 10th, 2008
by Josh
You can now get 50GB of space for your Dropbox. If you pay monthly its $9.99 per month, or you can pay an anual $99 fee. Unfortunately for me they only accept credit cards and I dont have one (Credit Cards are evil!). Theres a petition to get them to support Paypal, so lets hope it pays off as I neeeeeed this!
Tags: 'credit cards', 50GB, Dropbox, paypal, petition Posted in Cool Stuff!, Technology, Wishlist
Posted September 18th, 2008
by Josh
I recently discovered a new online storage solution thats just come out of beta and been fully released into the wild.
Dropbox is a highly user friendly storage solution designed with the ethos that little or no effort should be needed on the users behalf to keep their documents syncronised with the online storage system.
Dropbox achieves this very well. You download a small executable from their website, install it and signup. You then choose where you’d like to store your Dropbox folder on your local filesystem. Once setup this folder and anything inside it is automatically syncronised with Dropbox’s servers.
The brilliant thing about Dropbox is that you can install the client on any PC, login with your details and your Dropbox folder is automatically syncronised with this new computer.
Dropbox also has a web-interface if you dont want to install the client (if your using a public computer for example). From it you can upload and download files, aswell as manage existing files already in your Dropbox.
If you dont happen to have access to a computer at anytime, you can also access Dropbox via its iPhone portal (this is just a page styled to work better on mobile browsers, so will actually work with most smartphones and PDA’s).
Dropbox also allows you to share certain files publicly. A folder named ‘Public’ is created inside your Dropbox and any files placed in this folder can be made available. All you need to do is right click the file and select the ‘copy public link’ option, then paste this link in an email or IM chat.
You can also make groups with other Dropbox users in and share certain files to the group, making it a potentiall useful businessfile sharing tool.
There are Windows, Linux and Mac OSX clients available, allowing you to sync between these 3 platforms.
Currently, users can signup for free and get 2GB of online storage. Apparently these 2GB accounts will always be free, which is great for those of us who dont like paying for anything. They are currently working on implimenting larger storage space, but this will probably be a chargable extra. A price of $9.99 per month for 50GB is being bandied around at the moment, which sounds very reasonable to me.
Tags: browser, client, documents, Dropbox, filesystem, iphone, Linux, mac, online storage, OSX, syncronised, user friendly, web-interface, Windows Posted in Cool Stuff!, Technology
Posted August 29th, 2008
by Josh
I was recently pointed towards a new Microsoft project by a friend of mine, its called photosynth, and its just gone public on Microsoft Live Labs.
Essentially its a system for ‘stitching’ digital photographs together to make 3d representations from the 2d images. It uses a system of ‘point recognition’, wherby it analyses each picture and looks for similarities between them. These reference points are used to generate a 3d ‘points cloud’ to which the 2d images are overlaid.
Enough of the techie talk, photosynth is really cool! Its also very easy to use.
Once signed up (you need a Windows Live ID), you download a browser, plugin and a application for your PC. You then take some pictures, making sure theres an overlap of about a third with each one, then dump them into the software and press synth! A short while later, your synth has been created and is viewable online for the whole world to admire.
Depending on how well you’ve taken your photos, your creation will be given a ‘synthy percentage’. The higher the percentage the more of your images were used and the more ‘synthy’ it is.
Anyway, heres a link to a couple of my better ones, enjoy.
Robin Hill – Wishing Well
Robin Hill – King Henry VIII’s Hunting Lodge
Tags: live id, live labs, Microsoft, photosynth, points cloud, synthy, Windows Posted in Cool Stuff!, Technology
Posted May 20th, 2008
by Josh
I’ve finally decided to do something I’ve been planning o do for a long while now, move over to using Linux as my full time OS at work.
I’d class myself as a Linux ‘power user’ if there is such a thing. I’ve been using Linux in its various flavours since about 1998 (the days when one false move would obliterate your Windows partition), and I manage various Linux servers for clients at work.
Now firstly, If i could, I’d also be running Linux as my full time OS at home right now, but the machine is shared with my wife and kids who might find it a bit disconcerting and secondly Im sadly quite hooked on Vista Media Centre, but thats another story…
My work laptop is a fairly powerfull machine and has ben running Windows Vista. Now dont get me wrong, Im actually getting quite used to Vista and I’m no MS hater (Im actually MCP certified x 3), but I seem to find all the bugs and performance annoyances with it. Random application hangs, slow startup and shutdown speeds to name a few.
I installed Linux as a dual boot on the laptop last week and so far theres only a couple of minor issues. I chose Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) as Ubuntu has been my Distro of choice for the past couple of years. Its very straight forward to install. Stick in the CD and it boots live, from there you can play around with the system and see how it works etc. Theres an icon on the Desktop which you click to install Ubuntu to the harddisk, and after a couple of steps you can relax for 20 mins while it installs. (It will also detect any windows installations and add them to the boot loader).
Now, the only downside in the corporate environment is the lack of an email client that can talk MAPI to Exchange 2007. Evolution supports Exchange 2003, but we recently upgradded to 2007 in our office. At present im using IMAP to connect Evolution to Exchange 2007, but apparently there is an Exchange 2007 plugin on the way, I await it with baited breath…
Apart from that everything else is pretty sweet, I especially like the compiz composite desktop stuff. I have all the tools I need to manage remote machines, (ssh built in by default of course and Terminal Services client). I’ve also managed to join the laptop onto our windows domain using a new tool called likewise-open, this allows me to logon to the laptop using my domain credentials which then allows me to access server objects without having to enter my password a ton of times.
Looks like Linux is here to stay.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: 8.04, compiz, Evolution, Exchange, Exchange 2007, Hardy, Heron, IMAP, laptop, likewise-open, Linux, Live CD, MCP, Media Centre, Microsoft, MS, OS, ssh, terminal services, Ubuntu, Vista, Windows Posted in Cool Stuff!
Posted August 7th, 2007
by Josh
I was searching the net the other day like I do, and randomly stumbled upon a new storage device thats going down a strom in the states.
Its called {Drobo and is made by a company called Data Robotics.
At First glance it looks just like a normal NAS type device, but upon close inspection it boasts some brilliant features not seen in any other device.
Rather than take my word for its coolness, why not have a look at the video on their site to see what I mean. 
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: cool, Data Robotics, drobo, NAS Posted in Cool Stuff!
