Monday, 5 May 2008

At four with nature...

We've had a lovely family weekend so far - our first full one all together for a little while. With a bonus day, since it's a Bank Holiday, and some warm, if humid, weather, it made good sense for us to get out and about.

On Saturday, we took a picnic to our regular countryside haunt - Ashridge, and went for a gentle walk to see if we could find a geocache there. As happens all too often, though, we got close, but - probably due to its small size - its discovery eluded us. I still got some great photos of the children and the bluebells, though (see below and, as always, the photo gallery).

We went swimming on Sunday afternoon, so some more exercise for us, and today we took a drive up the M1 to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Beth had taken the children before, and they'd enjoyed themselves - when we arrived and had finally found somewhere to park (even the overflow carpark was nearly full, requiring some creative abandonment to avoid a long walk) I could certainly see why! The expanse of well-cared-for grass, the eye-catching sculptures and, of course, the sheep overlooked some sumptuous green scenery, which was shrouded in the morning's mist. We weren't there for too long, so I'm hoping for a return soon - maybe when we're back Up North for a week at the end of the month.

Here's a cute little video of our young'uns in the wild!

Back to some degree of normality, tomorrow, though.. I'm still very much enjoying playing with this i600 (it's what I'm using to type this blog entry as Beth does the driving home - definitely much quicker than the iPaq's 'soft' keyboard, but not quite as quick or accurate as touch-typing) but when I end up spending an evening writing a shell script to create a dynamic playlist so I can stream recently downloaded podcasts (and ultimately BBC radio 'Listen Again' programmes, transcoded to MP3 from RealAudio), I get the feeling I should be doing something a little more constructive! More on the mobile in due course, I'm sure, though...

Posted by james at 11:58 PM | Comments (0)

Quick note: Neuros OSD and the joys of stream_fuse

Just in case you didn't see the comment on my earlier entry about my experiences with the Neuros OSD, here's some useful (and up-to-date) information from Michael Gschwandtner, who developed stream_fuse:

Hi james,

great article. But you should note that the stream_fuse server you are
referring to no longer officially supports the TORFU (1.xx) Firmware of the
OSD. I already moved on to the Arizona (2.xx) Releases. The instructions on
installing and running can be found here
http://wiki.neurostechnology.com/index.php/StreamFuse

If someone is still desperately searching for the stream_fuse for TORFU
images use http://crypto.tznetz.com/dload/stream_fuse/stream_fuse instead.
But i really don't recommend it

In fact, the latest version of stream_fuse is more versatile than ever; the bitrate, frame rate and size are all configurable, so it's possible for me to reduce the stream to work really well over the internet, and have the best possible quality on the mac, simply by using a .pls file to link to the stream.

I'm deeply grateful to Michael for his efforts - with how many other products do the developers get in touch with feedback as helpful as this?

Oh, and Lenni and I watched Doctor Who on my mobile phone via the Neuros last night.. how cool is that?

Posted by james at 10:54 PM | Comments (0)

Saturday, 3 May 2008

Quick note: i600 MAC address and turning off inadvertent dialling..

i600 MAC address

If you've got a Samsung i600 and you want to find out what MAC address is, so you can register it with your wi-fi access point if it's set up for MAC address filtering, just dial

*#1546792*#

It will present a menu. Choose Version -> PDA Version and scroll down all the way to WLAN (so not Bluetooth, which I did last time!) .. that's where the MAC address will be displayed.

Turning off cellular data when there's no wi-fi

If my i600 can't find a wi-fi connection (or can't find it in time!), it'll dial up a GPRS connection, which - certainly since I'm on a pay-as-you-go arrangement - costs money, and is very very slow.

To avoid this happening, I change the settings for GPRS thus:

Start -> Connections -> More -> GPRS -> Orange Internet

Cange the Connects To menu item
from The Internet
to WAP Gateway

Obviously, this stops it from connecting to the GPRS system entirely anyway, so I need to put it back if I want to browse when I'm out and about...

Speaking of which, I'm not sure what's going on with 3G access. The phone claims to be 3G capable, and the little '3G' logo pops up every now and then (although not in the house, despite being in the Orange 3G coverage area) there doesn't seem to be any way to connect to it. Something to look into if I need it at any point!

Posted by james at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

Thursday, 1 May 2008

Windows Mobile Smartphone review: The Samsung i600

Beth's just bought herself a new mobile phone. My beloved iPaq hx4700 had decided to stop working (it does this about once a year!) so I had started to research replacements, in an attempt to combine a mobile phone, a PDA and an MP3 player, to save me carrying three separate bits of kit around with me! Beth was looking for workable alternatives to the Apple iPhone (she quite fairly believes it would seriously frustrate me because it's so 'closed' - I'm a born tinkerer!)

When she came across the Samsung SGH-i600 Smartphone (Orange branded, but unlocked - it appears - and SIM-free) on Amazon, she was very much taken with the specification; it has a little keyboard, wi-fi, and all kinds of other things.. all for £130 - a bargain, compared with other Smartphones. In fact, she ordered one that evening, and, since it arrived in just a day or so, has given it to me for a few days to evaluate it. Here, then, is my review.

The Samsung i600 : what it can do...
Here's my review of the Samsung i600. I based it very much on my expectations of what I would want from a replacement for my iPaq - a stiff challenge, really, since it's still one of the best performing Windows Mobile PDAs, offering a rare VGA (480x640) screen and a fast processor. The way I thought I'd organise this is by setting the criteria; what the iPaq does, and how (so far!) the i600's managed to achieve these tasks, and then give the benefits and the deficiencies. So..

• Surfing the internet:
  iPaq hx4700: Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer, and Minimo - for multi-tab browsing.
  i600: Microsoft Pocket Internet Explorer. Minimo installed, but wouldn't run. Because PIE is so appalling, I have had to download Opera Mobile, which isn't free, but looks really good.


• MSN Messenger:
  iPaq hx4700: MSN Messenger pre-installed.
  i600: Windows Live Messenger runs on the Pocket Internet Explorer browser, but frankly, it looks rubbish. Fortunately, there's a piece of software called Fring, which can do most instant messenger clients, including Windows Live Messenger and Skype (see below). This worked really well


• Skype:
  iPaq hx4700: Skype for Mobile installed - works well
  i600: PocketSkype wouldn't install; once again, Fring came to the rescue. It even does voice calling - really very good.


• Radio / Audio / Video
  iPaq hx4700: Windows Media Player 10 mobile pre-installed. RealPlayer and The Core Pocket Media Player both installed without issues; I'm able to listen to BBC Radio - including Listen Again (RealPlayer) commercial Radio (Windows Media Player) and Shoutcast streams (betaplayer) and watch videos, including from my Neuros OSD.
  i600: Windows Media Player 10 mobile pre-installed. RealPlayer installed using some instructions on the excellent modaco http://www.modaco.com website (you can find them here), but crashed whenever I tried to play anything.Some good news, though, came when I found a first-class resource for streaming radio on PDAs - pdatuner.com. I found links to BBC Radio that would play on Windows Media Player. The Core Pocket Media Player wouldn't install at first, until I found an excellent link to the Smartphone version. So - it's possible to watch TV on the phone! The pre-installed software (PacketVideo Videoplayer) is fairly limited to playing the videos recorded by the onboard camera


• Google Maps / TomTom Satnav:
  iPaq hx4700: Google Maps for mobile installed and works; TomTom 7 installed and works with a bluetooth GPS unit
  i600: Google Maps installed and works with a wi-fi connection. However, it can't get a clue of where it is from the cellular phone network; apparently the handset isn't supported. It can, however, attach to a bluetooth GPS system, with a small amount of fiddling with Bluetooth manager (creating an incoming Serial Port once it's partnered with the GPS). TomTom 7 could work, but it needs some clever trickery with virtual cursor software (like SP Helper, which puts a virtual mouse pointer on the screen that you can move with the direction keys).. I don't have a storage card yet, so it's too soon to tell if I can get it going.


• Network drives and system tweaks:
  iPaq hx4700: Windows Mobile 5 comes with capabilities to make connections to Windows shares, which is really handy for getting files on and off it, and playing MP3s from the mac. PocketPuTTY installs and runs, and the iPaq also comes with Windows Terminal Services; I can connect to a PC at home, and remote control it over a tunnelled SSH connection (cool, huh?). I can use PHM Registry editor to edit the registry, and FTPView for FTP connections.
  i600: I couldn't find a way to map network drives; PocketPuTTY would install, but crashed, and Windows Terminal Services isn't installed (and isn't really suitable anyway, because it relies on the ability to move a mouse about!) I downloaded and installed the free TotalCommander, which has registry editing abilities. There is an integral FTP client, which seems to be the only way to get files on and off the phone in real-time. It's also possible to set the phone to use the storage card as a USB storage device, so you're not reliant on ActiveSync to get data onto it.


• RSS and podcasts:
  iPaq hx4700: I've tried a few bits of software, including pRSSreader, but each seems to suffer from corruption far too easily - maybe because I do a lot with the SD card, including removing it regularly. There are some fresh candidates available here and here - I'll have a go at them, and report back. I've also been recommended to try Mobile Bloglines, but from my first cursory glance, it seems only to work online, so it's reliant either on a wi-fi or a cellular data connection. I tend to download podcasts to the SD cards using Juice on the Mac... seems to work OK (as long as I remember to take the SD card out of the reader before I dash off home!)
  i600: This comes with an RSS Reader and a Podcast downloader installed as standard. How cool is that? I'll give them a go as soon as I get hold of a microSD card - I've ordered a rather inexpensive 2GB card from valueshop.co.uk - only £8.59 including postage.

So, what do I think of the i600? On the whole, it's a good contender - especially for the price - although I would say it needs to do a little bit more to be a suitable replacement for the iPaq. It has an excellent camera (for a phone!) with reasonable video recording performance, too. It can do all the usual things the latest breed of mobile can do, including playing MP3s, multimedia messages, and - of course - surfing the GPRS and 3G cellular networks.

But that, I'm afraid, is where the downsides start..

The Samsung i600 : the minor irritations...

• Wi-fi turns itself off after a couple of minutes.
  This is annoying - potentially expensively so. If you're surfing using a wi-fi connection, and then stop, the screen dims, and after a little while, the backlight goes off. Then, the wi-fi network switches off. This also affects Fring, too, and I've not found a way to keep it on permanently. The media players, however, seem to keep the wi-fi connection alive, though - I shall do some further research.
  The risk is, then, if you're surfing the internet and the wi-fi connection goes to sleep, it can end up dialling the internet using the cellular network. I think I've used a bit of credit like that! I can see why wi-fi wouldn't be permanently on - it could certainly end up draining the battery - but this is definitely a potential inconvenience.


• Key slipping
  It might just be me, but I'll be running through the menus, using the navigation cursor and the 'soft keys' either side of it, and either my big fat finger will slip or it'll go back to a completely different menu or the home screen without any warning. Fortunately there's a little 'messages' button that'll return me to the text message was writing, otherwise the 'back' button generally does the trick.


• It's not a Pocket PC.. not a Windows Mobile device - it's a Windows Mobile Smartphone.
  This means it can't - and will never - run some of the software that would seem to be ideally suited to it, even with SP Helper. Webby is a fine example - a free mult-tab browser that simply crashes when you try to run it. Why? The answer's here.


• The clock stops!
  This is a minor annoyance, but one nonetheless. When I switch on the keylock, sometimes it stops updating the clock on the display. I really can't see any reason for this.


• Special character passwords don't work properly..
  This is a rather odd one. My instant messenger accounts have strange characters in their passwords; when I try to log in, and use the 'text input mode' button to enter the symbol I need, it either inserts the character into the username field (in the case of Fring) or just ignores my pressing of the 'text input mode' button! I've noticed this doesn't happen when, for example, I configure email accounts, so I might have to take this back to Fring as a bug report..


• No headphone socket
  You have to spend a fiver on an adaptor to convert the rather flimsy looking (but hopefully robust!) micro-D connector into a socket capable of using some headphone better than those supplied.

I've been looking into the newer version of this phone - the Samsung i780 - and it really doesn't seem to offer a huge amount more; it has a slightly larger, touch-enabled screen, and internal GPS, and Opera (a $24 piece of software) installed as standard, but it doesn't seem to address the issues in the comparisons above. However, I'm sold on it - and, since the price was reduced even further to £99, once it's arrived, Beth and I will have one each! I would recommend this phone to anyone who wants a versatile smartphone, with a bright display, plenty of accesssories available for it. Better than an iPhone? Less swish, definitely, but it's a fraction of the price, not locked to O2 and it can do 3G.. maybe Beth was right to dissuade me!

Posted by james at 10:06 PM | Comments (0)

Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Weekend away...

Beth and I have just arrived back from a wonderful weekend away in north Hampshire - just a brief trip to celebrate our tenth anniversary. We dropped the children off at school on Thursday, and the guinea pigs at their 'holiday home' before driving round the M25 a bit, to the Surrey/Hampshire border. Beth had cleverly booked the hotel last July(!) so we got a really good deal, which meant we had a little more to spend on going out and about.

After a relaxing afternoon unpacking, seeking out a supermarket for snacks and breakfast, then watching the first episode of volume two of Heroes in the evening, we made plans to visit Winchester in the morning. It's a lovely city with a very striking cathedral, wonderful floral displays in the parks, and plenty of green space. Certainly an area where we felt we could settle - maybe in the long, long distant future! The evening was spent in Southampton, at the well-appointed Jongleurs comedy club. The food was tasty and satisfying, and the comedians certainly didn't disappoint, either. It was compered by John Mann, with fine stand-up acts from Johnny Candon and Tom Stade. Our favourite was a musical comic called Rob Deering, though - we were retelling his jokes for the rest of the weekend, a sure sign that he had some great material!

On Saturday morning we took a drive to Guildford, and visited the Spectrum leisure centre. It certainly seemed to have plenty to offer, from ice skating to swimming; we opted for ten-pin bowling (slightly less dangerous and exertive!) and had a jolly good time . We drove to the town centre for a browse round the shops in the afternoon, and then took a look at Haslemere for an evening meal. There was a Wetherspoons there, on which we knew we could rely for a good, well-priced meal. It was a traditional pub, though, rather than a converted theatre or cinema, and the clientele were quiet and friendly (well, at half-past seven in the evening anyway!) We were blessed with some wonderful weather over the days we were there - I think I even caught the sun on Saturday afternoon.

That was all going to change, though. Beth had the rather adventurous idea of visiting Go Ape on Sunday morning. I've never really been a very big fan of high places, preferring to keep my feet on the ground if at all possible. But I knew that I'd really get a lot of fulfilment out of battling my fears. So we arrived in Wendover Woods (a beautiful place, offering some excellent outdoor opportunities, like nature walks and orienteering) ready for our experience. Half an hour before we were due to start, though, there was a thunderstorm. Trees and wires aren't the best place to be when there's lightning about, so the site had to be evacuated. Fortunately, it had all passed within the hour so it wasn't too bad - we were on the 'training' bit before midday. I can't, however describe my feelings during the activity itself, though - it was breathtakingly nervewracking, but entertaining nonetheless. I must have looked a sight clinging on to the tops of the trees (despite the two safety lines, and the teenagers behind and in front enjoying zipping back and forth across the wires!)

I think I got a lot from the experience, though; maybe more than most, since it was so much of a challenge - will I do it again? The jury's out; much like theme parks, I can rarely remember how harrowing an experience I've had, so it takes Beth to remind me whether I liked it or not!

So, all too soon, the weekend came to an end, though, and we came back to Luton on Sunday afternoon. It was lovely to see the children again, and we made sure they had some little trinkets to remember their sleepover. Back to work, now.. and I've spent much of the day catching up with the fallout from the big database upgrade. This will doubtless go on during the course of the week..

Here are a couple of the pics from our trip away - there's more - as always - in the gallery!