xset

Funniest thing I’ve seen in an age

// October 31st, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

Courtesy of Armstrong and Miller come the RAF chappies with a modern twist – the pipes are just too funny:

Part 1

Part 2

(Thanks to Hicks for the heads up)

Back from Poland (and all’s well)

// October 31st, 2007 // No Comments » // Personal

It’s Wednesday already? How the fudge did that happen?

Anyway, the eagle eye amongst you may have noticed that I’ve been absent of late. This is partially due to my usual crushing sense of apathy when it comes to blogging but also due to my being on holiday! A long weekend in France followed by 2 weeks in Poland for my girlfriend’s sister’s wedding.

I won’t go into too much detail but will upload the photo’s as soon as I can. Suffice to say, I had a lovely time and would strongly recommend it as a holiday destination to anyone. The people are cracking, the food wholesome and plentiful and you have to love that exchange rate J

Reviews – Logitech Alto, Plantronics Voyager 510 & Casio G-Shock Mudman

// October 31st, 2007 // No Comments » // Tech

Hey hey kids. It’s been a while! But then I have just got back from a 2 week holiday and prior to that had possibly the most stressful 2 weeks at work in the history of high blood pressure so I suppose I can forgive myself for not being as verbose as normal in the bloggy sense.

Anyhoo, as the three remaining readers of this site will be aware, I have more than a slight weakness for gadgets and, having found myself with a little spare cash, have recently acquired some very cool new toys! In the absence of any decent content I figure a quick whip round review of each one is worth trying:

Logitech Alto – Keyboard and Laptop Stand

As my Mac is now safely ensconced at home (albeit without a desk to live on) and the new work PC is running well (albeit still with Vista installed) I needed a replacement for my Griffin iCurve. I also needed a new keyboard as using a laptop KB for day to day use is frankly annoying. Consequently, I went shopping and was amazed to find the perfect solution in one box – Logitech’s Alto

I’ve spoken before about my hatred of Logitech but recent purchases have turned me around somewhat in my opinion. The 2 laser mice I use are both Logitech and have performed wonderfully (despite one being dunked in coffee) and the Alto is a fantastic product.

Simply put, the Alto is a USB keyboard with a built in laptop stand and USB hub. The whole thing comes in black and folds up into a neat little package, slightly larger than the laptop itself. The keyboard is well built and uses Logitech’s preferred soft touch technology which makes typing very quiet (I’m not going to get into the debate of quiet vs clicky keyboards aside from stating the my preference is for an input device that doesn’t advertise my blogging to all an sundry). The keys are well spaced with sufficient play and a light retort making typing a pleasure. The function keys are neat and the only additional buttons are a small cluster of volume controls beneath the cursor keys, a sleep button (which I’ve disabled due to my complete inability to get Vista to wake again) and, my personal fave, a dedicated button that pulls up a calculator! This may sound silly but the number of times each day that I need a quick calc and the lack of quicksilver make this an awesome addition.

The stand works well … that is to say it holds my laptop up to a sensible height without wobbling or falling over. The base is a little large when fully folded out but does provide subtle feedback of the status of lock keys in the form of some orange lights to the right of the stand. Oh and there’s a little switch to lock the keyboard out which is meant to allow you to fold the board up over the laptop to save desk space but is more useful for messing with co workers J

The only complaint I have is that the USB hub is not powered (you can buy and external AC adapter if you need this but for £60 I’d expect the damn thing to be included).

And the final thing that makes this board fantastic? No crappy Logitech driver needed. Under Vista everything just works out of the box! All in all – a 4.5 out of 5.

Plantronics Voyager 510 Bluetooth Headset

I’ve managed to lose my other headset and thought I would move up in the market a little. So far, the Plantronics unit does everything it says on the tin. The battery life is good, it’s very comfy to wear and the call quality is pretty cool (despite an issue with Skype on the mac but I’m willing to blame that on the other party as I’ve experienced no such problems at work or in other uses at home)

The multipoint functions (you can pair with more than one device) works well and has so far allowed me to use it with the softphone at work, the apple at home and the blackberry wherever. Of course you still look like a complete gimpoid wearing it but at least it is a little more discrete than the old unit as the battery is located in the behind ear area.

So far 4 out of 5 with points being lost for no additional charger or USB charging option.

Casio G-Shock Mudman

“Is that a new watch?”

“Yes”

“Oh. Have you been on holiday?”

Well I have been on holiday but the driver behind needing a new watch are mostly to do with wanting something rugged and reliable that kept near perfect time. The G-Shock series are renowned for their durability so taking a server hit (I tend to drop computers on my watch with alarming regularity) shouldn’t phase it and the multi band time sync keeps the clock up to speed once a day. Plus, it’s solar powered so the battery should last for ages.

Style wise? Well it’s pretty chunky but not overly huge with easy access to buttons and a clear face reporting the time and date. The additional functions are much what I’d expect from a modern digital watch – stopwatch, countdown timer and multi alarms as well as world time for keeping track of the time in the world. The safety bracelet is very comfy (it’s difficult for me to say that about most watches as my wrists are ridiculously slim) and all in all it does what I need.

Score? 3.5 out of 5 – it’s not the last watch I’ll ever buy but it ticks the right boxes for now

A little house keeping

// October 6th, 2007 // No Comments » // Tech

I’ve finally managed to get some of the Todo list for this site checked off. Archives are back (mostly) and work ok although the restriction of a 4 column layout when you only have three columns is something I need to work on J.

Also the next and previous links should now work properly on all pages. Finally the entire site is now running under a self signed SSL cert. Add it to your trusted certs to remove the annoying prompt and you can enjoy private Xsetification.

The state of play

// October 4th, 2007 // No Comments » // Tech

Gaming platforms and were we’re at with them – for Markiss

Mr Kiss has requested assistance with choosing a new gaming platform for him to waste time have fun on. Rather than trying to cover such a massive topic in his comments box I figured it would make a decent post:

Currently there are 4 big players in the gaming world… what? Yes there are 4:

• Playstation 3
• Xbox 360
• Nintendo Wii
• Gaming PCs

Granted the latter isn’t really a platform per se but in terms of a review it does require covering. Let’s start with pros and cons shall we:

Playstation 3 – £399

So near – a great platform in terms of performance and quality of output. Bluray (or is it HD) DVD support out of the box and the soon to be launched Sony Home service for online gaming, etc. Plus Sony have a good history of developers getting the most out of the hardware in the consoles later years.

Yet So far – titles are still lacking and it’s getting on a bit (in console terms). The price … ouch!

Xbox 360 – £169 – £299

Halo Baby – The games are amazing, the online play is fantastic, the graphics and sound measure up to the PS3. Plus you have a pretty hefty catalog of stuff out there and the Xbox Live games for quick fun bits.

Not so hot – Well aside from the Microsoft problem, 360’s have been plagued with reliability issues, overheating is common place and a $3bn repair bill for the manufacturers suggests a lot of duff consoles out there.

Nintendo Wii – £229

Mario – Unique input device is actually quite cool. You get a good selection of fun games (remember kids, Nintendo do FUN!) and the vintage selections from the older consoles released. It’s pretty cheap and you can play Zelda. Plus Zelda… did I mention Zelda?

Wario – Graphics are at least 1 generation behind the others. Input method could be annoying if you’re unfit J

Gaming Rig – £600 – £????

Not really in the same league so I’m going to ignore it whilst saying that if you can afford one then you know how good an option it is.

A couple of things to bear in mind, I don’t actually own any of the above J I’m basing my judgements on my qualifications as a geek par excellence and experience with other’s consoles. Plus I am a self declared Nintendo Fan Boy (ZELDA!!!!) so my recommendations can be taken with a pinch of salt.

My recommendations?

If you want a next gen console with all the power and fun of the fair then the Xbox is the way to go. If you don’t fancy spending quite so much and want something the whole family can enjoy the go for a Wii … erm … yes.

Feel free to let me know your thoughts in the comments (although fanboy esque trollage will be removed or made fun of).