This afternoon I have been messing about with the desktop functions in Windows 7. I have been tinkering away using Rainmeter, ObjectDock and the Win 7 options themselves. Now I don’t claim to be an expert by any stretch of the imagination but I think it has turned out quite well.
I was particularly pleased you can hide the clock on the taskbar. You can probably spot I use quite a large desktop gadget for this so find it unnecessary in the bottom right of the screen as well.
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I’ve been using Windows 7 for a couple of days now and it seems pretty good. The gripes I had regarding windows explorer in Vista are gone. Banished like a bad memory.
Been using Sony PS3 as my new DVD/Blu-ray player. Works quite well. Haven’t had the chance to use a blu- ray on it yet but hopefully soon.
I have finally managed to locate a mobile Twitter client that seems to tick all the boxes. And the winner is Twittelator.
– Posted using BlogPress from my mobile interwebs
I spend all day in front of a computer. I’m a Sys Admin and help people with PC/software problems all the time. When I get home of an evening I trudge upstairs into the spare room and immediately boot up my laptop and start my personal virtual life. I shop online, play online, talk to my friends online and occasionally manage the odd blog or two. The good news is that this doesn’t effect my offline relationships too badly. Mrs Cheesecake has her own PC right next to mine so we do actually spend quite a lot of time in the same room as one another. From time to time we even speak 🙂
I have experienced an virtual incident today that is odd to say the least. Yesterday I bought Mrs Cheesecake Sims 3 (purchased online obviously) and decided to have a go myself. I thought it would be fun. I ended up being freaked out by the whole thing.
After the initial set up and completing the basic tutorial I found myself watching a digital facsimile (of myself) sitting playing computer games. This is just downright odd I thought. I have paid money to watch a computer version of me doing what I am already doing.
Is the universe trying to give me a none to subtle hint that I spend way to much time in front of a computer? Maybe I have become just a bit to dependent on technology? Or could it be that I need to not play the Sims?
Odd indeed. Anyway the latest patch for World of Warcraft has finished downloading now so I’m off. What do you mean “You’ve missed the point of your own blog!”
Cheerio
Mr P
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Image by Nelson Wu via Flickr
A number of years ago I bought the first generation iPod. I was excited by the hype and looked forward to having a decent MP3 player. For me, unfortunately, it just didn’t deliver. The control wheel was fiddly and if, like me, you have fingers like sausages it was near impossible to control. The whole experience left me apathetic toward Apple and their products.
I spent a number of years in the musical wilderness using a Sony MP3 player. It wasn’t bad but then again it wasn’t great either. Sony had their own proprietary file format at the time so it made maintaining my music collection a bit of a pain in the arse. I am essentially lazy and one thing I cannot abide is things being a faff.
About six months ago I decided to give iTunes another go. Things had moved on a lot in my absence and the software impressed me with it’s ease of use. Quickly it became a favourite and my catalogue of MP3s eventually found themselves a new home.
After much umming and ahhing about it I decided I would risk a new MP3 player. I was using iTunes so an iPod seemed the logical choice. this is were I hit my first snag. So many fuckin flavours. Classic, Touch, Nano, Shuffle. So many colours. Sizes a plenty. What is a boy to do?
I went back to the drawing board and tried to put together a list of criteria. What did I actually need my MP3 player for.
It quickly became evident that a second gen 8GB iPod Touch would do the business.
I’ve had it for just over a week and I have to say I am impressed. The MP3 functions work seamlessly with iTunes. The web browser and apps available from the app store are all good.
Now I’m not gonna get evangelical about Apple. Like I said I was burnt in the past but so far so good. I like the Touch because it just works. I delivers and does exactly what it says on the tin.
Knowing me in six months there will be something else that seems more appealing but for the moment I’ll enjoy my new toy. I will have to try and stop playing with it every five minutes cause there is a good chance I could end up going blind.
Cheerio from deep within gadget nirvana
Cheesecake Away!
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Haven’t blogged recently. Not sure why. I guess I just haven’t felt the urge. Everything has been pretty quiet of late. Not seen any new movies since Harry Potter (Which incidentally I can’t even be bothered to review).
Mrs Cheesecake and I did see Bill Bailey last week which was a good night out. I have to admit to being very jealous of his musical prowess and he is also very amusing. Turns out on the horizon we now have a large number of comedy gigs.
I would say that is a pretty eclectic bunch. Look forward to seeing them all over the coming months.
In gadge related news I caved a purchased a copy of Windows 7. I have been testing the pre-release for a while and found it vastly superior to Vista so will be happy to make the change. I also purchased a Samsung Jet S8000. I have to say I’m pretty pleased with it. It is better than my previous phone and has some nice little widgets and function that allow for social networking to continue easily when I am out and about.
I know what your thinking look at the picture. “Pablo that ain’t no iPhone!” You know what your right but after weighing up the pros and cons and suffering many a long dark night of the soul I had to be honest with myself and go for the phone the best fit my requirements. So there *blows raspberry at reader*
Mrs Cheesecake’s birthday approaches but I cannot and will not divulge anything via this blog. She will have to wait and see. For once I have been proactive and hopefully will not disappoint!
The great British summer time continues to be miserably shitty. One week of blistering hot weather and then crap ever since. It has been so wet I have not been able to cut the grass and now I’m sure it will take chuffing ages to do when the weather does finally improve.
On a more positive note there is Carbonara for dinner this evening so I really shouldn’t grumble should I?
Till next we meet
Ciao from the Cheesecake
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For Christmas I convinced the vast majority of my relatives to get my book tokens. I am an avid reader to everyone knew that they would be appreciated. Rather than buying a book however I decided to take a leap into the twenty first century and purchase one of the new eReader’s from Sony
I have to say, after using it for three months now, that I am impressed for the most part. Over the next few paragraphs I’ll give you my impressions of this interesting little bit of kit.
The Reader – Same size as your average paperback. Thinking about it probably weighs about the same as well. I’ve found that when reading though there are number of buttons to access the various menus and search functions I tend just to use forward and back.
The Software – The goods news is that Sony seem to have learned from previous mistakes on this one. I have had mp3 players from Sony in the past and the big let down for me has been the software package used to manage tracks. The eReader can handle multiple file formats as well as audio and pictures so the eLibrary needed to be simple yet robust enough to copy. Now I’m not saying that it’s attractive link the sort of stuff you get from Apple but the software does do the job. So far no gripes.
The Verdict – I suppose the I only have two minor complaints with the reader. One is that the tactile sensation when turning a page is missing. Now I know that might sound a bit wanky but I have also enjoyed that as part of reading. Secondly no wi-fi capability. Unfortunately I think this second point will direct a lot of potential users towards the Kindle when it is launched in the UK. Its a shame because overall the eReader is a nice little bit of tech.
What Next? – Well if i was Sony I would look into colour in a big way. If you are going to include the capacity for pics then there has to be a colour option. I think increasing the internal hard disk to 4-8GB rather than 200MB might be an idea as well. If they want people to use this to replace their mp3 player as well as traditional books then more storage is required as standard.
Until next time
Laters
Ok I know I have been extremley lazy AGAIN regarding the upkeep of my blog. I promised myself that I would try to post on a regular basis but almost immediatley that I made this particular resolution real life got in the way and I haven’t even thought of posting for months. This evening however I find myself at a bit of a loose end so I reckon it is the perfect time to let my fingers do the talking. At least for a bit anyway 🙂
So how is 2009 treating you? In my case so far so good.
The items that were stolen when we were robbed last year are almost all replaced. Not that you would know that but I thought you night be curious.
We have actually started working on decorating the living room which made me feel good to be finally doing some work on the house.
I managed to wangle a Sony eReader for Xmas. What a magnificent little bit of kit it is. There are loads of wesites out there you can buy ebooks from and the reader comes with 100 classics you can load up straight away. The way things are going I won’t be buying many traditonal paper books anymore. If I had one gripe I would say that the internal memory is only 200MB which ain’t great. In saying that however there are slots for expansion cards.
Work continues to go well. I was suprised recently when I realised that I have been at my new job for a year already. Time truly does fly. It is good to do something you actually like.
I’ve seen a few films already this year – The Wrestler , Underworld:Rise of the Lycans . Both were pretty good. I have loads of new movies to look forward to later on this year. A few that spring to mind are Watchmen, Wolverine: Origins, Star Trek, Terminator: Salvation, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and 9
There are some interesting new books to look forward to this year as well. Mark Chadbourn’s latest Destroyer of Worlds is due out…huzzah. Also we have the latest from Scott Lynch, Jim Butcher and Peter F Hamilton.
I’m tired now so I think I’ll call it a day.
Till the next time
Laters