Marsden is Here

Finally managed to get the Freeview installed this morning. Can now see what my TV is really capable of :D Unfortunately it take a little while to think about switching between AV and I can't make them PAP each other so it's not easy to make a direct comparison, but the standard channels do look a lot better & the HD preview channel does look nice :)

I've gone UHF so as to get the really good stuff - it's a pity some of the channels are satellite only. Also shelled out for a high end box - multiple hdma outputs, a currently unused ethernet port, usb... displays photos and plays mp3s as well, which I may experiment with tonight. Coming soon - plug in a portable hard-drive and presto, PVR.

A little expensive for something with 'Free' in the name, but hey :D

~~~
In other TV related news I'll be watching The Colour of Magic on Prime (so not ad -free unfortunately :( ) on Monday if anyone would like to join me :)

Via Public Address "a Christchurch inventor unveils his personal jetpack at the world's biggest air show in OshKosh,Wisconsin."

direct links
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/1952597
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/29/science/29jetpack.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAsommyN2gQ

Added: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10524334

$100k sounds a perfectly reasonable retail price, all things considered.

So last week I bought a camera, today I placed the order for my tablet. There is a sale on, the price was right :D I get it tomorrow.

The mortgage will cope :D

And there's a trip to Dunedin yet to come. That's budgeted for tho' :)

~~~
Finished my CV, now to stop procrastinating and start on an application letter (the hard part).

The camera I want is on special at just $600. I've been fighting a battle with myself over whether or not to give in to myself and buy it since I saw the ad in the paper this morning.

Then I get home and discover the rates bill has arrived. No, no money for camera :(

Got a call this afternoon saying my old DVD player had been written off and I could get a replacement or a refund. What that wound up being was a refund spent on a replacement as they didn't have any at the price I got it for or below. I probably could have argued for a complete replacement anyway, but it wasnt that much more.

On the plus side, this one is a Phillips which I expect to be much better quality than the DS model I had, and the 12 month guarantee has reset.

Now maybe I'll get to watch my DVD after all.

~~~
Went out for a drink with a girl (temp) from work this afternoon, by way of expanding my social circle. She insisted after I helped her out during the week.

Purely social, a pleasant experience.

~~~
Bah, Humbug!

Toshiba M4 tablet

http://www.laptop.co.nz/model.asp?modelID=316&seriesID=27&manufacID=2
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10336938 (last section)

Finally has the 14" screen and the inbuilt CD/DVD.

Battery life is a bit short though. Wouldn't make it through a gaming session without an external plug.

I can once again play Privateer on my main computer, now with shiney new graphics, new missions (for all factions!), wingmen, a fleet of my very own ... and I don't have to sell every pilot I pick up as a slave to get them off my ship!

Yay http://priv.solsector.net/

The players in my Gemini game are so going to benefit....

Went to the sales, picked up a VCR/DVD combo. Also bought a new toaster.

To cut a long story short, my TV signal now goes Cable -> VCR/DVD -> Old VCR -> TV and I don't yet have a full time VCR hooked up to the computer.

New TV on the shopping list. Sometime.

More concerning, while I was using the videocard to configure the VCR/DVD to a UHF frequency the Old VCR could tune to (no hope with the TV even though it has a UHF tuner [grumble]) I noted that a DVD played in it comes through to the computer no clearer than a video, or the best TV reception from my little aerial. That could be a cabling issue, or a software issue. It damn well better not be a TV-card issue!

Now that that extreme time-waste has happened, I need to take advantage of this sushine to do a little gardening.

I've come to the decision that buying a tablet is a sign of a quarter-life crisis. I've spent the vast bulk of my life looking forward to and planning for things which will happen in a relatively indefinite future. As those who know me well will attest, I almost never do anything in the "now". (When I do I rapidly run out of things to do, as evidenced by the fact that I have spent a chunk of the past week at work in the "now", completed several work tasks, prepped much more than usual for my game, and have very litte left to do.)

So I'm buying the tablet. "Now" dammit. (Or at least, over the next few days. Have to visit a few stores, make a few comparisons. Although the online reseach makes me pretty sure what and from where I'll be buying).

Probably won't use it much, but I'll have it.

~~~
Gaming last night was pretty good. I was on a roll (for me) at presentling NPCs, although I still didn't do a brilliant job. The PCs got off to a bit of a slow start trying to decide what to do, but got the hang of things. Despite the group being split three ways most of the session I think I managed to give everyone equal time.

The most frustrating thing was the players not managing to keep NPCs and sequences of events straight in their heads. Confusion and amalgamation abounded. I'm not sure what else I can do about that.

~~~
Looks like we are getting an Xmas bonus this year after all. That can go against the mortgage to offset the guilt I feel for buying the tablet with my savings instead.

~~~
A midget fortune-teller who escapes from prison is a small medium at large.

http://www.genkit.biz/gonooble/

[Edit 2023] Dead link. Couldn't even remember what it was, but googling turned up an old news article.

The system, nicknamed the Gonooble, harnesses wind and solar energy to produce electricity.

It can be configured to suit different-sized homes and businesses, with the biggest system capable of supplying electricity to up to 50 homes.