Me 2.0

All in one travel kit - part two

2006-08-18T12:29:00.000+01:00

This looks interesting.
Vodafone are currently offering the Nokia E61. I am also checking out the Nokia E70. Compare the two here. These seem to fulfil my requirements: Phone, PDA, office tools, Sync ability, email (as per Blackberry) but these also have a camera, MP3 player, bluetooth, WIFI (free calls in hotels!). Although there is not too much information on the VOIP feature, but I did hear that Vodafone had disabled it (any money saved is obviously less for them), so Ill have to keep on checking into it and wont jump into anything.

Infuze your life

2006-08-15T11:53:00.000+01:00

Within Ireland, when a flight (and sometimes also a hotel) booking is made, it is usually stored and hosted on a Central Reservation System (CRS) called Galileo. You can view you booking details on a website called ViewTrip.com and within that there is an 'Infuzer' link (free software).
When I click on that button, that it takes all trip details and stores it in Lotus Notes (also works with Outlook etc.) and then when I sync my Blackberry all of the details are automatically added into my phone calendar and reminders are set. This means that you no longer have to print out the reservation or email detail
Infuzer also has cool 5 day 'Weather Forecast' feature, which automatically adds the weather forecast for your selected city into your calendar. So if you are travelling to San Francisco at the weekend, you have the 5 day forecast before you leave your house, meaning that you can pack accordingly.

All in one travel kit

2006-06-20T19:15:00.000+01:00

Some people like the simplicity of standard cell/mobile phones. I on the other hand usually take a few items with me other than just my phone. If you are travelling on business then an all in one device seems, to me, to be the really smart choice. So rather than travelling with a mobile phone, PDA/laptop (to store files, documents, get emails), camera (for taking photos of far off places) and MP3 player (for the journey), why not take one single device. I have looked at many PDA phone hybrids, but (and it galls be to say this) I have so far seen nothing better for than the new XDA range from O2. The cool looking XDA Exec has the following features of note:

3G
Touchscreen
Integrated Bluetooth
Integrated Wireless LAN (802.11b)
SDIO SD card slot
IM,SMS, MMS, Internet
XVGA camera
MPEG4 camcorder
MP3 media player
Video calling
Pocket Office: Outlook, Word, Excel PowerPoint

While the XDA Mini S has EDGE support and complies with the latest Bluetooth standard
The link can be found here.
I imagine that that is what would upgrade me to me 2.0. But I'm not there yet!

Camera - Canon IS S3

2006-06-20T19:11:00.000+01:00

We bought a new camera. Its a 'compact' camera, which is just below the standard of an SLR and its very impressive. We bought a new 1GB card with it also on dabs.com for about 1/5 of what you buy it in Dublin. A review of the S3 can be found here

Home Theater Personal Computer (HTPC)

2006-06-20T18:57:00.000+01:00

I am the proud owner of a Home Theater Personal Computer - HTPC which I built myself from scratch. This is also known as a paperweight by some friends due to a problem with MCE which requires you to install the rollout 2 update prior to any of the additional drivers. Since I didn't do this, DVD playback is not working correctly (eg: when I insert a DVD only the menu loads and everything after that freezes). When I get time, I plan to reinstall the machine, but also add Ubuntu to the Boot options.
The reason for the HTPC is:

Combine TV, video, DVD player, radio, CD player into one.
Along with combining my DVD and CD collection into one place.
I also plan to use if for my Internet connection for email, browsing etc.
Future plans include automating areas of the house, integrating Skype and telephone.

The HTPC itself is top of the line, and I pumped as much money into it as I could afford. The setup is:
Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Media Center UK 2005 Software OEM
Case: Thermaltake Mozart w/medialab & VFD, Aluminium (Without PSU)
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ 2.2GHz Socket 939,1MB cache
Memory: Corsair TWINX1024-3200XL DDR-DIMM 1024MB Kit w/two matched CMX512-3200XL DIMMs
Motherboard: MSI K8N Diamond, nForce4 SLI,Socket-939 BT,54g,Dual-GbLAN,Creative Live,PCI-Ex16
Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 400GB SATA 16MB 7200RPM
DVD Drive: BenQ DVD±RW burner, DW1640, 16x, Dual,Black OEM
Graphics Card: Club3D GeForce 6600 Passive 256MB DDR,PCI Express, VGA, DVI, Tv-Out, Retail
TV Tuner: TerraTec Cinergy 1400 DVB-T,supports MCE Digital Terrestrial-TV card w/radio,Text

CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu CPU-Cooler Socket A/478/754/939/940
Power Supply: AKASA Powersupply ATX/EPS 12V 400W 120mm Fan, SATA, 24/20pin

These days, I am mostly using it to connect up my IPOD and power it as well as downloading Podcasts.
More about this later, I am sure.

TV 2.0

2006-06-15T13:50:00.000+01:00

We decided to upgrade our TV, which was a great Philips 32" CRT in its day, but the sound jumpes (stops) when it goes from a high pitch to low, or vice versa. After searching the Internet and several magazines, we decided to go for the following:

Samgun LCD TV LE32R74BD

I must say, it is excellent. We also invested in a 'Monster' SCART lead, which we hooked up to the Multi-region DVD player and then played 'The House of Broken Daggers' and were blown away by how visually impressive it is.
A good solid purchase indeed.

Upgrade me

2006-06-15T13:44:00.000+01:00

Somewhat due to laziness and somewhat due to timing, I decided to make this second post about me. I got married to Audrey on 3rd June. :)

The mission of the vision of the blog

2006-04-22T18:06:00.000+01:00

So what will upgrade me from 'me' to 'me 2.0'?
Well, I obviously reckon the answer lies in technology, but not technology for technologies sake. It must work for you, rather than you working for it. It must pay for itself, rather than you paying the price. It must streamline your lifestyle rather than cluttering it up. And it must enhance rather than hinder.
This blog will document my past, current and future endeavours to upgrade me.

In case you were wondering - the 2.0 title comes from the Ajax integration into the web which is pushing us towards a useful and better equipted Internet. A 'zero footprint' technology which doesnt clutter your client, yet adds value and enhances it.