hilikusOnline

Sandboarding

2011-03-22T14:33:00.000-07:00

Found an old cd with some photos and a video clip of a Cornish adventure... One of my friends had built a prototype sandboard, which in theory 'should work'. We climbed the biggest sand-dune we could find and started practicing our new sport...

Boxee media center on an Acer Revo 3700

2011-03-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

It's amazing that you can get a full HD 1080p home media center for under £200. The Acer Revo 3700 is a prefect piece of hardware for running Boxee's free media center software. If you're thinking of gettin something like this for your home, it's definately worth checking out Boxee's own hardware - the Boxee box by Dlink, which is an acquired taste in design, but also comes with the Boxee remote with a full keyboard on the back. I decided to go with the Acer Revo instead, as it left more options for updating or switching to other software down the line. Note Boxee is built on xbmc and if you're not keen on the social sharing side of Boxee, it's well worth checking out! So here follows a brief guide to setting up your Acer Revo 3700 as a home media center.

1) Assemble your kit, hook up your Revo to your TV for audio or sound, i use the VGA and standard audio out, but there's HDMI there too, either way you'll get the full 1080p presuming your TV can handle the resolution.

2) Install Ubuntu. The cheaper Revo comes with Linux Linpus installed, I created a Live USB of Ubuntu 10.10 and booted to usb. To do this press f12 when you turn it on at the initial Acer screen and select the USB stick from the menu. Then once the desktop loads, use the icon on the desktop to install Ubuntu, let it use the entire disk and replace Linpus on your Revo.

3) Once instaled there's some tweeking to be done, first is to fix the wireless card. Open the terminal and type:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

then add the following line to the end of the file:

blacklist rt2800pci

press 'Ctrl + O' to write the file, then 'Ctrl + X' to close it. That's it! the first time you shutdown the machine it'll freeze, when this happens, hold the power button in for 6 seconds and it'll power down suddenly. Press it again to power it on and it shouldn't freeze again now the fix has been applied.

Then apply the updates. Go to System -> Administration -> Update Manager install all updates. It'll take a while. Then go System -> Administration -> Additional Drivers and enable the nvidia driver (recommended). This will require a restart to take effect.

4) next install Boxee. Go to www.boxee.tv and download the version for Ubuntu Linux. Once downloaded install the software.

That's essentially it. You're now ready to go, launch Boxee and add your videos to the library and enjoy watching some videos!

From Wordpress to Blogger

2011-03-12T09:36:00.001-08:00

As a PHP web developer, i often use my blog as my testing ground for new stuff. I've always used Wordpress for small sites and blogs and Drupal for my larger sites, but always wondered how well Google's Blogger works...

Seeing as they use it for their own Google blogs (webmaster, analytics, etc..) i thought it can't be bad, and obviously you don't have to worry about SEO, as i'm sure they pretty much have it covered, so I decided to move my blog and give it a try for a while.

Moving was pretty easy. First I created a new blog using my Gmail account and chose a theme. Second i exported my blog from Wordpress and used http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/ to convert the xml backup file onlline. Third I imported the new backup file into Blogger and tweeked some of the themes widget settings to get my 'Labels' displaying as links - done.

Hope this new platform will inspire me to blog more often. I'm still busy running the Xbox gaming blog: theLostnFound but I have lots of other stuff i want to blog about, which'll end up here.

Mac Tip: How to launch applications - Fast!

2009-09-21T10:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a little tip of how to launch Applications really quickly on your Mac. This makes use of the Spotlight feature to search for the application you want to launch, which saves you all the work of going through the finder and searching for the launch icon.

Tip: Hold the 'apple key' and press 'Space' this is really easy as they're next to each other and can easily be done with your left index finger and thumb. This opens the spotlight searchbox, now start typing the applications name. Within a couple of letters it should have selected the app you're after, so just hit Enter to open the app.

eg: 'Apple key' 'Space' 'i' 't' (searches and selects itunes and enter opens it straight away!

Seventh Day - Skate Video

2009-09-06T06:22:00.000-07:00

This video was made circa 2006 and reminds me of the time I spent living in Cornwall and riding long boards for the Christian Skate clothing label - BelieveClothing.

Particularly happy with capturing my 360 on film (at 17:21 mins)

A video about Skate-boarding in Cornwall. With a focus on long-boarding and downhill sliding.

The video documents a group of Christian Skaters as they reach out to young people of Falmouth Cornwall. I am both in this video as well as helping film for it. This video was edited and produced by David Renyard - davidjdesigns.me.uk

WD500 External Hard Drive Stopped Working

2009-09-03T14:23:00.000-07:00

Recently my Western Digital 500GB external drive stopped working. Fine one day, then no power the next.

Symptoms: No Power at all, no noise or spinning. The power unit itself will light green when not connected to the drive, but as soon as it's attached the green light goes out. If connected the power light will stay light for 1 second, then no power.

This seems to be a common fault with this drive and it would seem obvious that the power supply has failed. However following through the problems these guys had, it would seem it's not the power supply, but the external casing that's causing the drive to fail.

Solution: Rest assured your data is probably still safe, as the hard-drive itself is likely to be fine. You have a couple of options:

Buy a new external hard drive casing/enclosure, this costs around £20-30

Fit the drive in you Desktop PC as an internal drive.

Seeing as you can buy a new 500GB for under £50, I didn't want to spend £30 on a case. So went with the internal drive method. It's easy to do and if your PC's not too old it'll probably have everything you need inside the case!

First take your external drive to peices, just strip off the outer case until you've freed the drive. It's a standard 3.5" SATA HDD. It has two connectors on the back, the smallest is the SATA DATA connection that connects it to the motherboard, and the longer connector is for power.

In your desktop you'll probably have a spare power socket on a ribbon cable behind your existing drive, you can also use the small SATA cable to connect it to the motherboard.

Boot up your PC and your away! The drive will be recognised in the My Computer window. If your PC's a bit older it may only have IDE connectors, but all is not lost, you can pick up an IDE to SATA converter that'll allow you to connect it up.

I bought a SATA and Power connector from Maplin for just under £4.

Good Luck!

HTML Form input boxes clear when clicked

2009-08-21T03:53:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick tip on clearing the default text from text boxes in a form.

First of all you can add the default text to a input box by declaring a value:

Now we can add an 'onfocus' event that will delete this value when the box is clicked, essentially by replacing it with nothing.

note: where it states the second this.value they're two single quotes ' ' and the statement is wrapped in double quotes. The two single quotes with no space between is for the value zero.

So now the text box appears with the tag 'Enter Name' inside it but when the user clicks the box the text disappears. This also works really well for search boxes eg- 'Search my site'.

Div containing floating divs collapses

2009-08-07T04:30:00.000-07:00

After about an hour of trying to work out why the spacing between my posts was working in Internet Explorer but not in Firefox, I stumbled upon a common issue.

If a Div contains floating divs it will not resize the height to contain the floating divs. So adding padding to the containg div has no effect. This is how floating divs are supposed to behave. IE ignores this and contains them anyway, but most other modern browsers follow the rules and let the inner divs float 'uncontained'.

The simple solution to this problem is to include and empty div after the floating divs and within the container. This empty div must not have a floating property and must be set to clear the floating divs. This gives the container div something to wrap around. The code will look something like this:

<div class="container">

<div class="float-left"> </div>

<div class="float-right"> </div>

<div style="clear:both;"> </div>

</div>

So the magic bit is "<div style="clear:both;"> </div>" just insert it just before you close the container div.

apt-get install sendmail fails

2009-07-14T03:31:00.000-07:00

I was getting an error message when trying to install sendmail on a linux server.

Using the command sudo apt-get install sendmail i was getting the following error:

The following packages have unmet dependencies:
sendmail: Depends: sendmail-bin (= 8.13.8-3) but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages

Easy fix, just type:

sudo apt-get install sendmail-bin

press 'y' and let that install, then type:

sudo apt-get install sendmail

and it'll install fine this time! hope this helps someone else out too!

Create Strings from XML using PHP.

2009-07-01T05:15:00.000-07:00

This code uses the simplexml function included in PHP 5.

It's purpose is to create string variables from XML.

It only works properly as long as every xml tag is unique, if a tag is repeated it will overwrite and be useless to you.

here's an example of what it does,

Sample XML:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<newsignup>
<username>John Smith</username>
<password>p455w0rd</password>
</newsignup>

the code would create two variables $username and $password, each containing the values from the XML, so print $username would display "John Smith"

Here's the PHP -

$xml = simplexml_load_string($data);

foreach($xml->children() as $child)
{
$Name = $child->getName();
$$Name = $child;
}

this code is presuming you've stored the XML data in a variable called $data. If the XML is a file you can replace the first line with this:

$xml = simplexml_load_file("test.xml");

to load your external xml file.

Speck See-thru Satin case for Macbook Pro

2009-06-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

First thing i bought for my Macbook Pro was this Speck case!

They do it in two finishes and lots of colours, the normal case has a very shiny 'plasticy' finish to it, where as this model (Satin) has an almost rubbery-like texture, making it feel a lot more durable and resistant to scratches.

It's a couple of mm's thick and clips around the aluminum uni-body perfectly, the clips hold it in place and there's absolutely no gaps, they've perfectly shaped it the the macbook's dimensions. There's small rubber feet inside the case that hold it in place so it wouldn't scratch your aluminum finish but it fits 'like a glove'.

They've carefully allowed access to all the side ports, so even awkwardly fitting plugs will still attach without any issues, and the same goes for the cd slot. These were the important factors for me:

the Fit - it fits the macbook perfectly and yet can be easily removed.

the Feel - a soft grippy finish, almost like a hard rubber finish.

Access to ports - all ports are fully accessible, even the test battery button, although the press button built-in to the case looks a bit weak.

Heat Dissipation - the macbook pro expels air out the back slot, the case is in two parts for the screen and body, meaning this vent is completely clear, and the monitor has full flexibility. The downside is it makes the screen a little heavier and tilting the screen backwards too far will cause it to slowly fall open. There's been no noticable heat build up during normal use and watching video, and if you were goin to do some rendering and were concerned you could always unclip the case for a while. There's also small vent cut outs in the base, to let out any trapped hot air.

for more info check out the Speck Website and i bought mine from Play.com

Castle Crashers Review

2009-06-21T06:20:00.000-07:00

I filmed a review of Castle Crashers from the xbox arcade. Backed by the Behemoth, they gave me some DLC codes to give away and the usual Caps4Stix giveaway as well!

Update: The competitions been drawn now im afraid and the prizes sent out, more giveaway's with the next podcast so check back soon!

Switched to Mac!?

2009-06-20T17:17:00.000-07:00

After years of criticizing people who buy macs, i've made the switch.

I've never understood why anyone would pay so much more for a machine that essentially does the same job as a PC, and yet for some reason i caved in and last week went out and bought myself a Macbook Pro.

Why? well, now i'm working as a full-time php developer i spend all day building solutions to problems and so when i get home i just want to use my laptop quickly and easily without having to deal with any issues. My acer laptop had begun to overheat with normal usage and would frequently freeze up, so i decided to take the plunge.

So far i'm extremely impressed! the quality of the build and the functionality builtin to the hardware are exceptional, little things like the light senstive backlit keyboard are just stunning.

Of course i'll contine to use my Windows Desktop machine, mainly for editing podcasts as it's geared up to handle my HD video, but for day-to-day usage i'm goin to be using my macbook.

Expect more posts on switching from PC to Mac, and web development!

PHP setcookie overwriting problem.

2009-06-17T08:26:00.000-07:00

I've just found a tiny error in how I've been taught to create cookies in PHP. So thought i'd share it incase it was driving anyone else crazy too.

Symptoms: cookie data is overwritten or not passed properly.

Solution: Firstly lets make sure you're writing cookie's properly.. (time is set to 30days)

setcookie('name', 'value', time() + 3600*24*30);

It's likely this php may sit in a header file or a page template so to make sure this cookie isn't overwritten if it appears elsewhere in the site write it like this..

if(!isset($_COOKIE['name']))
{
setcookie('name', 'value', time() + 3600*24*30);

}

Now this is where i started having strange results, basically if the cookie is initially written on a second level page eg. hilikusOnline.co.uk/podcasts/theshow then it could be overwritten or unavailable on a root level such as hilikusOnline.co.uk/home

to make sure the cookie is set at root level, you must include "/" as a cookie variable. So the correct code now looks like this:

if(!isset($_COOKIE['name']))
{
setcookie('name', 'value', time() + 3600*24*30, "/");

}

That's it!

Wordpress.com, Wordpress.org or Drupal?

2009-06-14T03:20:00.000-07:00

Choosing a CMS can be difficult, here i'll take you through the basics and hopefully help you decide which is best for you.

I've always been a fan of wordpress. Starting with no experience of PHP and just some basic HTML and CSS skills, wordpress enabled me to create a dynamic site very quickly!

First off, there's two versions of wordpress. Wordpress.com and Wordpress.org

.com is a free online blogging tool, hosted by wordpress.com, you can quickly and easily sign up and have a basic site running in minutes. The downsides are the limitations they put on you. You can only load themes and plug-ins that are part of their approved directory, you have no ftp access, so can't create your own custom theme and the default url you will be given will be username.wordpress.com. The Url isn't a huge problem as you can easily just buy a domain name and point it at username.wordpress.com, but just looks a little less professional.

So the second option here is Wordpress.org. With .org you host the wordpress installation yourself, this gives you endless control. You can now load whatever themes you can find or fairly easily create your own (i'll post links at the end on how to do this) and the same goes with plugins! This is ideal for blogs, has a really nice looking user interface and is very easy to use. It also goes quite deep and with some PHP knowledge you can start dreaming up how you'd like your site to perform and build your own solutions.

Wordpress.org is primarily known as blogging software, but is beginning to be recognised as a serious CMS (content management system) with web developers using it for much bigger projects. For eg. theLostnFound use it to power their site, providing them with a blogging platform, video podcasts and users can sign in and post the their forum. So for small sites i'd happily recommend Wordpress.org providing you don't want users to have their own content on the site.

Right so where does Drupal fit in? Drupal is a beast of a CMS. Allowing you to do pretty much anything you can imagine. The only problem is your going to have to work out how. It has a steep learning curve, but if your willing to put in the hard work you can begin to harness the power Drupal has to offer. First major difference is the interface. Drupal will actually use your websites theme as an admin user interface and with tonnes of admin options it's easy to get lost in their menus at first.

After working with Drupal for 8 weeks now, i love it and when building a community website, would recommend it every-time. It worth learning how to use it, as it's goin to be around for a long time and once learnt can be a very useful tool. Some of the benefits of Drupal are users can have their own profile pages, upload sections for photos/files, and even their own blog page within your site. Drupal will scale up to meet whatever demands you throw at it, so if you see your project growing, it's probably goin to be best to put in the extra work at the beginning and learn Drupal.

The only downside with Drupal is it's complicated! If your not a web developer and don't understand PHP then stick with wordpress. With drupal even the most simple tasks aren't straight forward. For eg. you'll have to install three plugins to get a workin WYSIWYG editor that you can upload images into your posts, where as with wordpress this is provided straight away as standard.

Summary

So as a quick review...

Wordpress.com: startup time 30mins - quick easy online blog, up and running in minutes

Wordpress.org: startup time few days - an excellent blogging platform and suitable for small scale websites with limited membership options for users signing up

Drupal: startup time few weeks - a complex Content Management System capable of creating huge sites with endless functionality.

links

- Create your own Wordpress theme

LOVEFiLM to stream Movies to Xbox - UK! (maybe)

2009-02-26T04:00:00.000-08:00

America's streaming movie service provided by Netflix has been a huge success!

The Xbox LIVE service seems really unfair, if you read MajorNelson's blog (xbox developer), how often to you read his new announcement folowed by (US only).

and with the currency exhange at the minute, we are paying a lot more than our American friends, for what is a much more limited service.

They pay $38.99 (which is £27.35)
We pay £40.00

But there's not a lot we can do bout it... I've asked MajorNelson bout it, but he refuses to respond.

I asked him why they don't make a similar arrangement with LOVEFiLM to provide a streaming service in the UK as well, and whilst he didn't respond, interestingly LOVEFiLM would reply to the same question.

Their response:

"It's something we're investigating and definitely and area that we'd like to explore."

so there's hope for us yet eh? Lets hope they get round to sorting this, before Netflix entend their coverage to the UK, surely there's a huge un-tapped market for both to grab at?

Lets face it, until you can stream movies for a membership fee of £5/month like they do in the States, we're not paying to rent movies from XBOX LIVE.

Far Cry 2 Review

2009-02-23T06:30:00.000-08:00

Here's our latest podcast for theLostnFound, Me and Xane review *cough* preview Far Cry 2.It's in HD so hit that FULLSCREEN button, sit back and enjoy!

Stop Xbox Pirates! Report them!

2009-02-23T06:26:00.000-08:00

Important: this is just my opinion, and as far as I know, no such system is in place. However if there is such a system, tell me and I'l promote it!

Ok so everybody knows you can crack your xbox 360 so it'll play games from copied discs.

It's cheap, it's Scummy and it happens... alot.

With general hacking there's a 'COOL' element, where we stand in awe at what could be achieved by taking something to bits, flashing the firmware, or installing mods, that's kinda in our nature.

But when that comes to the XBOX 360, it's a big NO!

The Xbox 360 has something, all other gaming consoles lack, do you know what it is...? answer="community"

Whatever games your into, chances are at some point you've played online, and if you've played online more than once you'll probably already have people on your friends list ready to share your favourite games with.

It's open to all people from all over the world and so of course you get a few idiots, but in general you can build up a healthy list of new 'friends'.

Outa this shared gaming experience comes a level of respect for each other, you've all chosen to invest your hard-earned money into this company, and enjoy sharing the experience together. The problem is, we're not all paying are we...?

So yeah we all know the prices are jacked up skyhigh! Especially here in the UK, where games are released around the £50 mark (sometimes more!) so on minimum wage your goin' to have to work for more than 10hours to pay for a game! crazy but that's the climate we live in at the moment.

One of the reasons the prices are so high is that a large percentage of people aren't paying for their games, and so the rest of us have to foot a much heftier bill to pay the way for these idiots. Of course this is illegal, and generally frowned upon, but what is really being done about it? Sure police might catch a few of the major re-sellers who make a living outa burning copies of games and selling them on at £5 a disc, but what about all the people sat at home playing their cracked Xbox's.

I can only afford to have a couple of games at a time, so when i want a new game.... first i have to wait for it to come down from £50 to around £30 (takes bout 2 months) then sell my old games on ebay and use the cash to subsidies the cost of the new game. It really doesn't seem right that people with Cracked Xbox's have every new game, as soon as it's released, pay nothing, and sit their happy that they'll never get caught.

The Solution? .... well I've been thinkin about this issue for years, i guess there are privacy laws stopping Microsoft from spying in on everyone's machines without a reason to be suspicious, and then how do they detect the crack?

So far the best solution I can come up with is why not have an official Microsoft site, where gamers can submit the gamertags of people they know who have a cracked xbox?

I think they under-estimate how many people know someone who has a hacked box, and the general feelings towards the people who don't pay. It's not like we'd have to get personal about it, the submissions could beanonymous and they don't have to submit the persons name or details, just punch in their gamertag and hit submit. Surely Microsoft have all the info they need to take it from there, with every gamertag linked to a MSN passport, and if the account has been live in the past they'll have their address too!

Whatever happens, i really feel something should change, as the current attempts to pursue piracy are falling short, and people aren't scared enough of doing it, as no-one is getting caught.

till i have any new ideas, thats it for now...

any of you guys have suggestions?

Create Your Own G1 Android Wallpaper!

2009-02-20T03:45:00.000-08:00

Ok so if like me you have invested in the world's first Google phone, chances are sooner or later you'll be wanting to change your wallpaper.

Of course there's plenty of free wallpapers out there, but if you want to make them yourself here's some info you might find useful.

Resolution

the G1 display is 320x480 pixels (portrait mode), but then of course you have three desktop screens to slide between left and right.

These screen are not side by side though, they overlap.

The overall wallpaper size should be 640x480.

Here's a visual representation of how the desktops overlap

Click it to view this Jpeg in full resolution. You may find it usefull as a guide when making your own wallpapers to see where they'll overlap.

Alternatively you can download the Photoshop Template i built here Photoshop G1 wallpaper template.

When you've built your wallpaper, save it as a jpeg and email to yourself at your Gmail account.

Easily pick up the email on your phone and save the attachment, it'll save by default to your pictures folder.

that's it, Have Fun!

Extra stuff in the Box - G1 (UK Feb'09)

2009-02-13T09:28:00.000-08:00

I just got one of the latest released G1 phones exclusive to T-Mobile.

I say latest release because they've started including a couple of extra things in the box.

I chose the Black one (even though the White one came out after), and was pleased to find that they'd bothered to re-package the black phones too.

The three things i found in the box that i hadn't seen on previous unboxing videos, was:

- a cleaning cloth (like you get with glasses)

- a screen protector, a thin piece of plastic to peel off and stick over your screen, although it wasn't sticky at all, more like it was held in place by static, saying that i got in prefectly lined up (second attempt) and it hasn't slipped despite me draggin my fingers across the screen, it won't budge.

- Headphones/Handfree adapter, the phone used to come with a pair of headphones with their unique usb plug on (not the normal 3.5mm headphone jack) but i got an adapter with the usb connector on one end and ended with a mic pod with the standard headphone socket in (plus the pair of crappy headphones that come with it, like will most likely stay in the box), and a small button, i guess when using the headphones if your phone rings you can press the button to take the call using the handsfree.

I'll come back and add some more pics once i've had chance to take 'em. (pic taken on my G1)

6 ways to improve your Xbox Experience!

2009-02-06T07:16:00.000-08:00

Hi Guys, finally got the new Podcast Online!

I know some of this stuffs pretty basic, but hopefully there's something in there you didn't know about.

Although it's small on the page, it is in HD so feel free to hit that FullScreen Button!

Hope you enjoy it!

Dual boot Vista and XP? #Fail!

2009-01-27T05:24:00.000-08:00

K so I had two major problems with my Vista Desktop.

- Mainly my Wacom Bamboo, won't work properly, despite the advertising that it supports Vista. The guys at Wacom told me i had to disable all the features in order to get any functionality out of it, which kinda defeats the point right?

- Secondly (not vistas fault) but my video editing software conflicts with itunes, and obviously i need to be able to run both, not at the same time, but at some point i'll wana change the tunes on my ipod.

So i thought i'd found the perfect solution reading a tutorial on dual-booting Vista and XP on the same machine. I've got 1TB HDD so thought i'd set up the XP side for editing and Vista for normal day-to-day stuff. i was wrong!

I partitioned the drive and installed XP, well i tried.. the problem is that the Vista machine only wants to boot into Vista, and for XP to install it reboots itself halfway through then continues to set up windows.

I found and excellent piece of software called EasyBCD which handles the boot options for different Operating Systems. As XP installs it puts it's own bootloader in, then reboots and fails.

So i get stuck with 2 operating systems, none of which will boot. I have to boot with a partition disc, format the drives, re-write the bootloader and reinstall Vista from a recovery disk. Phew tried that bout 3 times now...

So i've been sat thinkin of an alternate method of getting the same results...ah VMWare.

VMware will let me have a virtual XP environment on my Vista machine, I can just run the Video converter that conflicts with iTunes on he virtual machine (all editing will be done on Vista, with VM closed to get the best render times possible.)

and the Wacom... would you believe it.... once I'd recovered Vista to the factory settings with the backup cd, I installed the tablet driver and it worked - PERFECTLY!

Skate 2 Review

2009-01-22T09:38:00.000-08:00

Windows 7 - Vista's Replacement

2009-01-16T05:17:00.000-08:00

So Windows 7 will be the new OS from Microsoft, and finally we get to replace that horrible Vista package.

I'm really hoping that they'll have listened to what people want from an OS and have addressed the issues we've all had with Vista. My main machine at home came with Vista pre-installed, but at times I've really considered just formating it and clean installing XP instead, there's just been problems installing stuff, drivers, programs etc just dont support Vista properly.

Anyway... Windows 7... what to expect? Well why not find out for yourself?

Microsoft are providing the Beta as a free download! but don't get to carried away, with dreams of free software. Some things to keep in mind are, it's only the first Beta, so still has alot of problems, the whole point of releasing the Beta is that we will all install it and tell them what problems we find.

In return we get a glimpse of what the new operating system will be like, i say 'a glimpse' in order to make something very clear, you are not gettin Windows 7 for FREE. In fact i've recently heard that the beta will end in August.

Whilst it's a nice idea that the testers would get it for free, can you imagine the effect this has on their initial sales. On the first day the Beta was available the servers crashed cause so many of us went there looking for our free copy.

Well with all that said, if you're still interested in testing the Beta for Microsoft you can head here to download it.

Warning: Don't install this on your main pc, chances are you'll blank your computer and end up with a buggy version of Windows that'll only last till August. If you've got a spare pc, burn a disc and give it a try.

Comic Idea

2009-01-16T04:55:00.000-08:00

NXE New Xbox Experience

2008-12-12T09:40:00.000-08:00

Watch Full Screen Here

The update is due out 19th November!

RobinHood Land

2008-10-02T11:24:00.000-07:00

K so i moved from Sunny Cornwall to the crime filled streets of Nottingham (dubbed the gun-capital of the UK) back in July, and spent three months applying for work in Website Development.

I'd spent 6 months in Cornwall looking for a suitable position, and hadn't found a single vacancy. So when i arrived in Nottingham i was over-whelmed with the amount of jobs goin.

That said it took 3 months of applying for 2/3 jobs a day before i was offered a position. Actually that's not completely true, I was successfully interviewed twice before my present job, but certain job specifics lead to me holding out for a more suitable role.

On my third interview i was successful and for the last 2 weeks have been working for an international engineering company as a Web/Graphics designer. The job came nicely bundled with some C.A.D. training which may prove useful in the future.

So that's where I'm at lately. In Nottingham now, working full-time in Web and Graphics and still running theLostnFound on the weekends and organising a few Halo nights! see theLostnFound for details.

Xbox media streaming and New Dashboard Update

2008-08-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

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I show you how to configure both your Xbox 360 and your PC to enable streaming of Music and Video - including DIVX.I'll also walk you through some of the new features expected in the Fall dashboard update later in 2008, including new avatars, 1vs100, and the new streaming movies deal with Netflix.

Assassin's Creed Review

2008-07-28T11:37:00.000-07:00

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Hilikus and Tamak talk gaming chairs, surround sound, big tv's and fast monitors for gaming, then get around to reviewing Assassins Creed for the Xbox 360.

Links

Boys Stuff

Samsung Monitor

Authors' Site: www.theLostnFound.co.uk

email us : info@theLostnFound.co.uk

Crackdown Review

2008-07-28T11:31:00.000-07:00

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Tamak and Hilikus talk 3d Wii interactivity, the New 3G iphone and review a classic cheap game - Crackdown.
Authors' site: www.theLostnFound.co.uk

Call of Duty 4 Review

2008-06-25T08:02:00.000-07:00

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Tamak and Hilikus talk Sprout Builder, new Wacom tablet and review Call of Duty 4.

Official Site: www.theLostnFound.co.uk

Guitar Hero 3 Review

2008-06-25T08:01:00.000-07:00

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Tamak and Hilikus talk Twitter, Portable Apps including an exclusive theLostnFound skin, and with Special Guest - Sam, girl gamer takes on Slash as she reviews Guitar Hero 3.

Official Site: www.theLostnFound.co.uk

Army of Two Review

2008-06-25T08:00:00.000-07:00

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Tamak and Hilikus talk about How to get cheap xbox gold live memberships, exchange rates, Remote control Tanks and Review Army of Two for the Xbox 360.

Official Site: www.theLostnFound.co.uk

Halo 3 Campaign Video Review

2008-06-25T07:59:00.000-07:00

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In this podcast Tamak and Hilikus talk, energy drink, Splinter Cell : Double Agent, and Review Halo 3.

Official Site: www.theLostnFound.co.uk

Moving Away....

2008-06-25T07:52:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, haven't posted in a while, as it's been a bit crazy at this end.

I'm moving to Nottingham at the end of the week, mainly to get more work in Web Development as there aint much in Cornwall.

Other than that i've been spending all my time developing www.theLostnFound.co.uk my gaming website and sitting in Cafe Nero Truro, planning new web projects including a hilikusOnline redesign if I get around to implementing it.

I'm really pleased with LnF, it's been quite a bit of work re-designing it all, but this time it really works well, and after a few months online is already proving successful. Our Video Podcasts are pulling in around 7,000 viewers and the forum is buzzing with activity, and podcast requests. Some people have started wanting to play online on xboxlive, so we've held a few special Halo Nights which have been awesome to catch up with people and play as a team.

theLostnFound - takes off!

2008-05-12T11:08:00.000-07:00

Two years on theLostnFound is still goin strong and with a recent relaunch things are lookin good.

Starting out in summer 2006, theLostnFound launched their site an online forum, featuring Podcasts, game reviews, event reviews, interviews, a weekly cartoon, online game competitions and a popular forum.

So two years on, what's changed?

Well the guys have re-designed their site, and focused in becoming a specialist comminty of geeks and gamers.

The new site has a more creative flair, still featuring the online forum and the popular podcasts, but now focusing on Xbox gaming and geeky tech projects, such as Modding your old Xbox turning it into a HD home cinema system.

check em out!

New Video Podcasts Online Now!

2008-04-04T09:57:00.000-07:00

Whole NEW section PODCASTS

Hey guys, i've been filmin podcasts for a while now with theLostnFound.

Unfortunately their site is currently being redesigned and i've decided to post some of the videos here too.

Also in the future i may be recording some of my own vids too specifically for this site.

Have a watch and feel free to post comments, you don't have to sign up just post away!

thanks,

Xbox Chatpad or Usb Keyboard?

2008-04-02T10:35:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it may have just been me but i didn't realise you could just plug a usb keyboard into you xbox 360 and start typing...

Pictured here is Microsoft's chatpad that makes up the Messenger Kit. I was thinkin why would i buy this when my keyboard works, but after researching the product I'm more convinced to just buy one of these.

Ok so it's for chatting online through Messenger on your xbox360, I think any online membership (silver or gold) but to send private messages to a user (that's offline) then you need a gold subscription.

Right onto the product in hand. Firstly you get the Chatpad which fits perfectly onto the controller, it plugs into the bottom of the controller and plastic plugs fit tightly into the controller screw holes ensuring it isn't gona fall apart as you game.

You also get a headset in the box. This is slightly different to the one bundled with your xbox, mainly because the chatpad is taking up that port. The new headset is the only headset that will plug into the chat pad and can be used with the chatpad engaged. They've also moved the volume and mic mute switch half way up the cable.

The headset appears to be the only disadvantage. The keypad itself is amazing! With back-lit buttons Shift/Caps and two colour function buttons (green and orange) allowing you access to all the symbols and characters you can normally find.

There's also a messenger shortcut button, allowing instant access to the messenger blade (nice)

During chat you also get the option of using the messenger button to jump between different conversations on screen.

The chatpad normally retails at £25, which including the headset isn't bad.

Luckily I've hunted around and found it slightly cheaper for you.

Buy from Gameplay cheapest £19.99 (free p+p)

Other than that i was please to find i could just plug my existing usb wireless keyboard into my xbox and start typing. This has made chatting and inputting codes, renaming tracks etc. so much easier.

These flexible keyboards may seem more attractive to you, especially if you have big thumbs and would struggle with the small chatpad keys, you can find these for under a tenner on ebay.

Turn your old Xbox into a HD media centre - Video Tutorial

2008-03-29T10:15:00.000-07:00

In this Podcast Tamak and I show you how to hack your old xbox to load XBoxMediaCentre turning it into a HD home theatre system with surround sound support, streaming any kind of media right off you home network.

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This video uses Adobe Flash 9, to update your version of flash click here

Warning: this is a fairly big project, which we've rushed through. It does work but as with all projects you may face issues, we dont take any responsibilty for the consequences.

Halo 3 - Over in a blink of the eye.

2008-03-13T12:35:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's over!

So we've been waiting years... Me and Tamak finished Halo2 literally 2 years ago and have been eagerly been awaiting the release of Halo3, which got pushed back and back.

So finally we get our hands on it and a bit of time to play. We instantly ramp it up to Legendary mode (the hardest mode) because we dont wana race through the story. But 6 weeks later (bout 4 gaming sessions - busy life you see) and we completed it! I couldn't believe it, the story was so weak we presumed we can't be anywhere near the climax of the game and that we'd just completed another level, we were ready to call it a night, when we found ourselves watching an extended cut-scene, horrifyingly this is it! The End! the storyline lost us completely and we felt cheated out of our money, let alone our committed waiting.

For one thing we hadn't even got to ride Banshees yet!

I know a big part of Halo was online play, but i just feel like they released an online game and a weak campaign.

What's more is we completed it on Legendary - easily too! I was successful and got achievements for all game modes Normal, Heroic and Legendary, but poor Tamak!

The achievement popped up 125 points after mine had been 450, as we looked into it we realised it had only granted him normal completion! We had been playing it together, on Co-op, on legendary and he got cheated.

Im still glad we played it, but am seriously disappointed, cmon Bungie what you playing at?

Bring on Gears of War 2.

Let your xbox have a blog.

2008-03-05T09:44:00.000-08:00

As you may have noticed on my homepage, my Xbox has a blog!

I just wanted to recommend heading over to 360voice

A website dedicated to tracking your gaming experience, quite funnily your Xbox 360 writes a blog about you as a gamer and comments about your progress and what games your playing.

Also though you can enter competitions, challenge your friends, and even tell it when your on holiday!

This is a bit of fun, which i think is worth signing up for, however if you dont have your xbox connected to xbox live it aint gona work and you have to have a gold membership to enter competitions and set challenges.

19" Samsung Wide Screen Monitor

2008-02-27T06:11:00.000-08:00

I just got an absolute deal!I've been thinking bout gettin a new desktop for a while now, but whilst i haven't got the internet at home (tiscali experience - dont ask) it doesn't seem worth buying. Knowing that by the time i get it hooked up in 4/5 months i could've bought a much better machine.

So i'm browsing Ebuyer dreaming of owning a faster machine when i convinced myself that i could just buy the monitor now, knowing that they're not goin to drop much in price and then in the summer when i buy a new desktop i'll already have the monitor.

That's when i came across this beauty. A Samsung 19" widescreen monitor for £150!

I know this is a bit shallow but for me it's the part of the computer that sits on top of the desk in full view and i have to stare at it all the time, so it's important that it's not only technically good, but that it looks awesome too.

This monitor has a gloss black finish (screen is more matt being non-reflective) with a small silver strip along the bottom. It supports resolution 1440x900 px and get this it has a response time of 2ms, yep 2. It also has a contrast ratio of 2000:1.

These two things combined mean that you can have a superbright, colourful image, without suffering blurring. It's such a great experience i wana watch dvd's on this as apose to my 32" HDTV with a 8ms response (suffers from ever so slight ghosting).

The way it works is there's 5 or so buttons along the bottom of the screen to navigate the OSD (on screen display), but thankfully one of these has been alocated to flicking through preset brightness settings. So if your reading stuff on the internet it dulls the screen to save the eye-strain and there's settings for Gaming, Movies, Sport, UltraBright.

You can also manually adjust all these settings and it stores it as a custom profile.

Connectivity: It has one analogue VGA socket and one digital DVI-D socket, for which i've ordered an adapter for a couple of quid that turns DVI into HDMI so i can plug my xbox in! just remember DVI-D doesn't carry audio so you'll have to work out how your going to listen to your xbox (the xbox elite comes with an analoge/digital out adapter.)

The best deal i found was Tesco Direct who have it for £150, and they sent me a £50 voucher for renewing my car insurance with them ideal!

Remote control tank?

2008-02-22T03:29:00.000-08:00

Haha, check this out, a remotre control tank!

Found this on Ebuyer today for £38.99,

it has all the standard remote control functions you'd expect forward, backward, turn left/right sound effects, but then spin turret, smoke effects and shoots bb bullets!

So i expected a spring loaded firing mechansim that you'd have to manually reload, but oh no, it's a motor air gun that can fire upto 25 meters.

Ebuyer clearly states 'this is not a toy' but trust me, if i had a kid he'd be gettin one of these.

Check it out here

DVD Wars - Blu-ray or HD-DVD?

2008-02-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

Dammit! Toshiba, the company behind the HD-DVD technology has backed down, meaning Sony's Blu-ray will be the new standard.

So we're talking about High Definition Dvds here, which in-case you weren't aware came in two formats HD-DVD and Blu-ray Disc. Two companies produced two different discs for this new technology.

This isn't unusual for Sony to bully it's way into the market, not really listening to what consumers want, instead telling them what the new standard will be. It wasn't that long ago that they tried pushing their Mini-Disk product using Atrac compression, this was an impressive looking product but came with so many complications and terrible Sony-dependent software that the majority of people have gone with Mp3 players, thank God!

So what's happening now, well Sony released Blu-ray discs as Toshiba released HD-DVDs, and whilst HD-DVD might have been seen as the better of the two formats by consumers, the industry has chosen to go with Blu-ray.

The biggest recent blow was that Warner announced they were pulling their backing on the format and would now be going with Blu-ray instead.

"To be very honest we have been reviewing the options since the Warner announcements, we are disappointed by their decision, but in that brief time, the industry has become unfavourable and our position was unsustainable." - Olivier VanWynendaele - deputy general manager, HD DVD

Over the last three years the two companies have fought for the majority as they feared only one format would stick long-term.

Of course one of the biggest boosts came from next-gen video games consoles, as the Playstation 3 was released with a Blu-ray player built in, so in a market where people were holding back, unsure of what to buy, Sony were filling homes with Blu-ray players sold as games consoles. The Xbox 360 was released in High-Def but only supported standard dvd playback (which it upscales to HD) later releasing an external HD-DVD drive you could attach to enable HD-DVD playback through your console.

The difference being that Blu-ray was created by Sony and HD-DVD wasn't created by Microsoft but by a separate company (Toshiba), so now Microsoft states it has nothing stopping it from developing Blu-ray support perhaps through another external drive.

Toshiba however are dropping the format HD-DVD and say that there future developments will be in other storage mediums not optical discs.

The new product is really High-Def video, and can be available in a variety of formats, with lots of websites providing HD downloads, so why focus on battling over disc formats, be prepared to see more in the way of Downloads, Internet Streaming and Portable storage devices.

Are Video Games to Blame?

2008-02-20T05:45:00.000-08:00

Of course not!

Im posting this after reading this news story from MSN.

In summary, another tradegy has happened, where a teenage kid has gone out and shot classmates and then himself. This story however is about how Jack Thompson always jumps infront of a camera blaming video games influence for the crimes commited.

This exposes some real facts about the struggles the young offenders were under, and Jacks exploitment.

head over and read it yourself.

"It’s easier to say, ‘Oh it was those video games that brainwashed him.’ That’s much easier than saying our society is messed up, people don’t take care of each other, teachers aren’t in control, there’s rampant bullying, and there are no parents at home because they have to work two jobs."

- Jason Della Rocha, executive director of the International Game Developers Association

DivX playback on Xbox 360

2008-02-19T04:10:00.000-08:00

There's now new support for video playback on the 360.Where as before you could only play DVD or WMV files, there's now a new optional update available for download (around 2mb) that allows various MP4 formats, in fact everything i've thrown at it, it's played back fine. So DivX, Xvid even M4V podcasts!

How to Install: the easiest way is to connect to xbox live (silver membership will work fine) and then go to your media player and try and launch a video file. The side tab will pop in saying that an update is required and you can select to update now. After the update is downloaded return to the media folder an try again to run the video, done!

Great features include fast forward/rewind, screen re-size, full screen, bump forward/backward (like dvd chapters) and resume playback when returning to watch a video you didn't finish.

It'll play files either from a usb flash drive, or off a disc (cd/dvd) and i presume over the network if you've got it setup to recognise your pc. If you cant see your videos, make sure you press (X) to change the video source.

Update: the only issue i've found is that if you leave your xbox disconnected from xbox live for a length of time, then it fails to recognise the update has happened, connecting it to xbox live will resume playback functionality without having to download again, weird eh? maybe the next dashboard update will fix this.

Podcasting is fun but...

2008-02-13T05:41:00.000-08:00

Podcasting - If you haven't tried it yet i'd encourage you to give it a go.

We've been working on a new podcast for theLostnFound for a couple of weeks now and i'm tired.

This podcast is goin to be about how to mod your old xbox to turn it into a High Def Home cinema system.

It was a bit of a big project to try and cover in 10mins, but i'm so glad we got it to work.

The other weekend we setup to film the intro/outro bout 4mins of footage and it took us 5 hours, from 7pm until midnight. Just because of setting up all the lights and camera and xbox capturing plus the actual time it took to do the mod.

Basically it's taken a lot of work and the editing is beginning to take its toll on me, but it's goin to be a kick ass podcast when it's finished.

The most annoying thing is... i know it's goin to be seen by thousands of people (current viewers rating of 5,000+, and so i want to put the work in and make it look really good, but after all that effort it's really hard to relax and be funny in front of the camera, i sit down to record and i'm knackered! ah well, sure the content will carry this one.

Check back soon to see it posted in the xbox cat. or on theLostnFound.

It's Mother Flippin' Wintereenmas!

2008-01-25T03:54:00.000-08:00

Awesome, it's finally here! Wintereenmas is upon us.

For those of you who dont know what it's all about, basically Wintereenmas is a week long holiday to celebrate Video Games and the joy they bring us. In a similar vein to what's left of the Christmas tradition, this holiday runs the last week in January each year.

The founder of Wintereenmas is Ethan, a cartoon character from the online comic book Ctrl-Alt-Del

For more info visit Wintereenmas

Last year i gathered some friends for a huge Perfect Dark Zero marathon, with Tamak being away in S.A.

This Year Tamaks back! So we're planning a weekend of long gaming sessions.

To celebrate? Im gona trade in my Premium today for an Elite! Im well excited, even though the xbox looks alot better in white, im gona love that extra hard drive space and the use of a hdmi cable.

What really swung it for me however is that my premium is outa warranty, so if it breaks now i've got nothing, or i can trade it in, pay £150, get a new Elite with shop warranty from Game. Plus they're throwing in Assassins Creed.

The other deal is apparently when you trade in a console, any games you trade in with it they give you an extra 20% trade in value! So im considering whether to pick up Halo 3 too.

Either way we have an awesome weekend in store.

Enjoy it however you decide to celebrate it.

Embed Xbox Live Gamercard - Myspace fix

2008-01-15T08:45:00.000-08:00

After racking up hours of gaming, unlocking achievements and boosting your gamer score you'll probably be proud of your gamer profile.

Here is a way to let you embed your gamercard into your blog, myspace, etc...

IMPORTANT: note myspace does not support iframes, so use the second code.

eg. see my gamercard featured in my sidebar.

the code to paste in is:

<iframe src="http://gamercard.xbox.com/GAMERTAG.card" scrolling="no" frameBorder="0" height="140" width="204">GAMERTAG</iframe>

There's two points in the code where you need to put in your Gamertag ID to replace the word 'GAMERTAG'. Also if you have any spaces in your gamertag then they need filling, use '%20' instead of a space, so mine is Hilikus%20LnF

From this people will be able to see the latest games you've been playing, your gamerscore and rating, and if they click the card it'll take them to the xbox website where they can log in and compare achievements with you.

It's also a good way of letting your friends know you play online and them adding you as a friend.

MySpace Update: Unfortunately MySpace have banned the use of iframes, and so the above embed code doesn't work.

But don't worry, if iframes are not supported on the site your using, simply use this new code.

<embed src=http://card.mygamercard.net/GAMERTAG.swf classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="198" height="135">
</embed>

Again replacing the word 'GAMERTAG' with your gamer id, this time if you have any spaces in your id use a + symbol so mine is 'hilikus+lnf.swf'

Checked out theLostnFound yet?

the home of Hardcore Xbox Gamers

Hooking up your ipod

2008-01-02T09:13:00.000-08:00

Using your ipod with your xbox360 is so easy, and works like a dream.

I thought it would just connect as a removable drive and you'd have to browse through looking for your songs, but no. It connects (the same as when it connects to itunes) and the xbox media center lets you browse through Artists, Albums, Genres, it even reads playlists straight from your ipod.

It's so good that they have gone to all the bother of making it compatible with Apple's Ipod, cause listening to your own music whilst playing games is a real advantage and improves the whole gaming experience.

You will need to make sure you xbox dashboard is up-to-date though, as i dont think the ipod support is available straight outa the box, but you dont need to subscribe to use your free silver membership so plug it into your hub and let it update.

Xbox Portable - just a dream...or is it?

2007-12-19T09:24:00.000-08:00

I saw this on a users profile over at Roosterteeth.com and thought i'd post it seeing as it just seemed like such an awesome concept.

Why settle for a PSP when you could have a screen mounted in an xbox controller. Of course this is never goin to be possible, and this is just a visualisation.

Then over at Hackaday i came across an actual portable Xbox360.

Created by Ben Heck, he stripped down an Xbox360 and built it inside a laptop style casing. So wherever you are, you can lift the lid and play. The version pictured was built using water cooling, but hackaday have a three post tutorial on how to build your own portable xbox360 with a fan based cooling system.

Whilst i have no doubt this is real, and it looks like it works a treat, I still wont be giving this a try though. Too much cost and hard work for something which it really just a fold up screen (which is already on sale)

New Videos - Check out the game reviews and Xbox podcasts here!

Its my Birthday!

2007-12-14T08:47:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday,

Just felt like i should post something to mark the event.

I got an ipod nano. I'm so happy with it, i've wanted an ipod for years and have never been able to justify buying myself one, but now finally i have one!

My girlfriend Han and my parents went in on it for me, and an 8gb model too, best of all it does video.

Maybe i'll have to do a post dedicated to talking just bout the ipod.

I got another cool present too, my friends Ben and Leigh watch Heroes with me whenever we can get together and they bought me the eclipse poster printed on canvas.

Cant wait to move into my new flat and get this up on the wall, will look awesome!

We're goin out for a few drinks tonight, then 2moro we've organised a bit of a poker night which has been titled 'the burger party' as Hans making homemade burgers for everyone, gona be fun fun fun

Xbox Surround sound

2007-12-10T08:50:00.000-08:00

I had my xbox360 hooked up to my surround system using the red and white phonos and relied on Dolby ProLogic II to provide me with surround sound in my games.

When i first got the Xbox360 i had tried using an optical connection but it hadn't worked, i read a few reviews saying you have to buy microsoft's cable and so i gave up.

So a year later i was at a friends house and realised that the optical lead clicks into place, as it has to be perfectly aligned in order to receive the light signals.

I got home and plugged it in through my home surround sound system and the difference is amazing!

The sound is a lot sharper, it comes across crystal clear.

The difference with in game sound effects is huge. The Dolby PrologicII carried a stereo signal with some encoding allowing the surround sound decoder to produce some ambient background noise.

But the optical (Toslink) connection carries all 6 separate channels of audio. I tested this playing Rainbow6 Vegas in Co-op mode, and suddenly you can hear water dripping and air con fans blowing and as you run around the environment really changes around you.

The best bit is gunfire! It carries a separate channel to the sub speaker too, so big guns like the desert eagle provide a huge sound with a booming after effect. Suddenly you can realise why when you use big guns, the terrorist hear you coming, and when you use a silencer you really hear a difference.

The other effect it's worth mentioning is when you're being shot at. It actually makes it easier to respond to which direction the fire is coming from. As you hear thew gunfire from the right direction and then a split second afterwards you hear the bullets hit the wall behind you.

If you've got a 360 and an amp with an optical in, it's definitely worth hooking it up!

Games i want...

2007-11-23T08:20:00.000-08:00

Im just building a list (mainly so i dont forget) of games i really wana get, on the xbox 360 of course.

But if you have any comments please feel free to share your opinions

Halo 3 - Gota be done as Halo1 and 2 were awesome!

Call of Duty 4 - Not played any COD games before but looks pretty good.

Need for Speed Prostreet - Last racing game i bought was Gran Turismo on the PS1, but the detail in this game looks amazing, and i always loved how in NFS games you can do jumps, take shortcuts and totally smash up each others cars.

Assasin's Creed - Looks like a medieval Hitman

My First Ebay Listing!

2007-11-14T09:35:00.000-08:00

I've been using ebay for years, but strangely only for buying.

I've got plenty of junk lying around so thought it was bout time i learnt how to list my stuff online.

Thankfully it's easy.Obviously doin website design im perfectly capable of using these sort of things and yet for some reason i was kinda worried about trying to list something.

Mainly because at the root of this venture is money, and i knew any mistake i made would end up costing me.

But i just placed my first listing and it is easy! I even used the advanced listing option and there's nothing on there that was confusing. It's all very clear what options are free and what extras you have to pay for, and if you're already a buying member i'd recommend you find something you dont want and list it.

It's even a little fun.

Take a photo on your digital camera and get it on your computer (one pic is free, think extra pics are 15p each)

Sign in to ebay and click Sell (at the top next to buy)

It'll take you through bout three pages where you can preview your listing as it asks for all the details.

One thing i thought was really cool was it gave you the option to search for your product and it'd copy in all the technical details, stuff i never knew about!

Then it cost me 15p to list and i think there are different charges depending on how much it finishes on, plus i chose to receive payment via paypal and think they take a small percentage. But i figured this stuff is goin in the bin anyways so i might as well get whatever i can for it, so im learning by doing...

I've restrained to only listing one item so far:

my Game Boy Advance which i've never used, so i'll see how it goes, whether i can get any cash for it and then i'l list the rest of my rubbish.

Online DVD rental

2007-11-07T09:48:00.000-08:00

The weathers changing, the Winters drawing in.

Suddenly the beach doesn't seem so appealing, i'd rather chill out with some movies.

It's becoming really popular these days to use online rental,

and as long as the high street stores continue to ask for £3.50 for one evening,

im sure their popularity will keep growing.

So Lovefilm.com seems to dominate the market, but with Amazon also running a similar offer. But whats intrigued me is an invite from my friends to join Tescos rental scheme.

They're using Lovefilms service, but as far as your customer interaction goes its all with Tesco. So they're re-selling a service using their own package, even a budget option using second-class delivery.

Basically you make a list of at 20 movies you wana see, then choose a package to determine how often you'll be sent the discs. Depending on the package you choose you can have one, two or three discs at home at any one time. Keep it as long as you want then simply post it back (free of charge) and they'll send you something else off your list.

The thing thats got me so hooked i cant resist but give it a go is my introduction offer.

2 Months FREE! - so i can sign up to have three discs at once (normally £17 am month - ouch!) for two months, thats gona be a lot of free movies.

the downside is you dont know what they'll send you, so you just have to watch what comes, it'll only be stuff from your list, but if your mates round you cant guarantee what they'll send you first.

I'll keep you posted...

Facebook shaken to its core.

2007-10-24T03:05:00.000-07:00

There's something terribly addictive about what is essentially quite a basic website. I guess that's the beauty of it, being able spend hours browsing through random peoples lives.

The problem begins when you start gettin those random friend invites from people who live in countries you've never heard of, and then you realise that most of your friend list is made up of people who you never speak to, dont wana see their photos or hear their news and the only interaction you have is when they invite you to become a flippin vampire everyday!

I decided it was time to cull my friend list.

The idea sounds a little harsh - Rejecting offers of friendship from people i used to be at school with. But the reality is that i'll never speak to these people. So the only reason they're still on my list is the fact it makes both me and them appear like we have more friends.

So the result? - Really good, i'm happy that i dont have 5 random invites everytime i sign in, i dont seem to have p**sed anyone off by deleting them, and the news feed has actually become of use. I used to ignore it or sift through tryin to spot someone i care about, but now all the entries are relevant and by reading through i can really catch up on my friends activity.

So What Do They See? - Apparently nothing, they're not notified that you've deleted them, it doesn't post on your mini-feed or anything, they just drop off your friend list and you disappear off theirs. The only way they'd notice is if they went to find you on their list and you weren't there.

Depending on your privacy settings you may or may not still be visible on a public search, but i've had no comebacks.

So run through your friends list and delete the people you just aren't friends with and start enjoying facebook again, and know that if you can still see me then i value our friendship and if i drop off your friends list anytime soon i'l try not to be offended.

The County Council! Grrrr

2007-10-15T12:10:00.000-07:00

Im getting really frustrated with these people!

First of all the council tax is through the roof expensive, and i cant understand why every month they need £110 when all they seem to do for that is take the bins away (and sometimes they can even get that wrong)

This is something ive learnt to put up with, but then on Hans bday we were late for the Meal in the evening and needed to park sharpish.

We found the nearest Pay and Display, and proceeded to find a space.

All the spaces were taken, but at the end of the carpark there was plenty of space and people had begun to park there, as it caused no obstruction we parked and bought a pay n display ticket.

When we returned to the car there was a £60 fine stuck to my window!

I cant believe it! I can see that i wasnt in an allocated space, but why they hadnt painted more spaces is beyond me!

It just seems like a real money spinner whne no offence had really taken place. Im gettin really mad about working so hard trying to earn enough for rent n bills, and companys like the council keep taking more n more money off me. grrrr.

Hans Birthday

2007-10-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday (the 11th) was Hans birthday

It was the first birthday we'd shared together and upto this point gifts had been pretty hit and miss. So i was kinda wondering whether i'd be able to find something that met her expectations.

We ended up having an awesome day. We'd spent quite a few days over the summer just enjoying leasurly walks, so i decided to get her some walking boots.

The Plan for the day was a nice breakfast, followed by a planned walk from Chapel Porth round St Agnes beacon and back. In the afternoon we saw her family and in the evening went out to a Thai resturant in Truro with friends.

A successful day!

Cross Country

2007-10-01T08:15:00.000-07:00

I went to a friends wedding this weekend.

At first i was a little daunted by the long drive, from Cornwall to Bury St Edmonds.

It turned out to be a beautiful weekend, and friends of the bride put us up for a couple of nights, they were so kind, i woke up to breakfast layed out both days!

Such a special time though seeing to of my good friends get married and they couldnt be better suited.

The driving has now taken its toll though and after covering 850miles im pretty tired.

Starting Business

2007-09-21T09:21:00.000-07:00

On April 1st 07 i officially started my website design business Pure Blue Media.

Starting a business is tough. Mainly as there's no-one to tell you how to do it. Sure big companies/banks say they'll send you 'all you need' to start a business, but those huge packs of info dont help at all.

Firstly we had to choose a name, because it was a website business our main problem was finding a catchy name to work under that wasnt already registered as a website. We finally settled on PureBlueMedia.co.uk and have been happy with the response so far.

Also using a name like 'media' means we can easily branch out and offer other services under the company name.

We spent a long time discussing what to register the business as, eg: Ltd, Co, LLP, Parnership.

In the end we decided we best fit a LLP - Limited Liability Partnership.

We've got our site online PureBlueMedia.co.uk

and are now dealing with our first few official customers.

Sssh, its a secret

2007-09-21T09:07:00.000-07:00

i have a big secret tucked away, can't write bout it yet, but when i can, i will.

Gears of War

2007-09-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

one of the best co-op rpg's in a long time, this will definatley push them to make Halo3 awesome.

In this podcast Me n Tamak talk bout Gears' n show you some gameplay.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/61KmaUFnax3JBc5xW" width="425" height="335" wmode="transparent" /]

Xbox Live / Tony Hawks Project 8 Review

2007-09-21T08:52:00.000-07:00

In this podcast, i talk you through upgrading from an old Xbox to and Xbox 360, i explain the features of the new dashboard and XboxLive services and then review Tony Hawks Project 8.

enjoy!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/6DsRcF3SJ9row6UcQ" width="425" height="335" wmode="transparent" /]

limitations

2007-09-21T05:39:00.000-07:00

Ah ok so im quickly realising all the limitations of having a free blog with wordpress, such as not being able to edit the Css myself, or load plug-ins. Ah well it'll do for now n i'll set myself up some proper space and load it there soon!

Rainbow Six - Vegas (xbox360)

2007-09-21T05:08:00.000-07:00

as a keen supporter of the Tom Clancy range, i can highly recommend this as his best game yet!

I really enjoyed GhostReconAdancedWarfighter, although the red triangles look great at first they do get annoying.

This game makes a great change from fighting in the desert, and takes the swat team to Vegas.

K so it sounds really cheesy but it's awesome. The lights and detailed backgrounds make for a stunning set.

Story is a group of terrorists have been caught robbing a Casino on the strip in Vegas and are now holding hostages.

There's not many story scenes but the levels do follow on nicely as you fight your way into vegas, and it take bout 5-6 levels before you get to the casino.

I've been playing co-op with Tamak (theLostnFound) and we always start a game on the toughest setting, knowing if we fly through it on normal, we'll never go back and have the patience to work through it on tough.

So we've been playing this game for months! We're currently entering the safe and trying to find a group of hostages that are about to be executed on live tv. We play 4-6hours a week and this level alone has already had us playing for the last 5 weeks. If your brave enough to take it on the hardest setting and are prepared to train to become good enough, you'll love this game.

There's alot of detail, and the game play is amazin, alot of action and the level plays out different each time, some of the terrorist's responses are also very funny, such as "Cover me, F**k that man, you cover me!" haha

All the usual weapons from sniper rifles to shotguns, flash bangs and breaching charges. So your free to tackle each level however you wish.

this one will definately be recieving a podcast on theLostnFound.

Best bit, it'll only cost you 17.99, get on to play.com

Dual Monitor

2007-09-19T09:59:00.000-07:00

Ever fancied that sweet dual-monitor setup? Its not half as hard as you'd thought.

Ok so the hardest part is goin to be getting your hands on a second monitor, but heres a few pointers.

Firstly: it's doesn't need to be huge. Because your goin for a dualscreen setup why not stick with 15" these are much easier and cheaper to get hold of. Think of someone you know who's just cashed out on upgrading to a bigger monitor, and they've probably got they're old 15" sitting at the bottom of a warddrobe somewhere, go ask em for it!

It would be a good idea to go with lcd flatscreens, not essential but you may wana think bout how u'd squeeze two crts onto your desk.

K so most people have shy'd away from the venture cause they dont wana shed out for an expensive dual-output graphics card. But do you need to?

This concept was suggested to me, and whilst lots of IT people said it wouldn't work, it does!

Buy a cheap PCI graphics card, they're like £5 on ebay!, make sure its pci tho, not AGP or pciExpress.

and i'd advise you only need 64mb this will be fine for normall use and video playback, the only thing it wouldn't cope with is newer Games.

Install the card simply by pushing it into a spare slot in the back of your pc, boot up and when prompted insert the driver cd (should come with the card, if not download and run the driver)

connect up your second monitor to the pci card and right click on the desktop to get to properties, tab along to the monitors tab and check the box saying 'extend my desktop to this monitor'

done. for five quid! - I've done this and it makes workin on photos/video/audio editing so much better.

Plus it looks awesome having two monitors so guests think you mus be amazing at what you do.

Hello world!

2007-09-19T07:42:00.000-07:00

Hello world!? what a crappy way to start your first blog? - written by the template not me ;)

As if the world is going to show up each day just to see if i've written anything new?

well for the first post... thats it.