Technology fetishism
Every 3-4 years I’ll buy a new computer. Here’s the latest, a reconditioned (with warranty) HP Pavilion a6760a, to be called “Haddock”. For the record (because often years later I come back and compare what I got for how much) the specs are: Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 (2.8 GHz), 2Gb RAM, 500 Gb hard ... [More]
An update on my ISP shopping post from a couple of weeks ago: Netspace rang me up to discuss my concerns (they found the post themselves), and to let me know there was some progress on resolving them: Advice of network outages — they said there is already a project underway to advise of outages ... [More]
I noticed the other day that the ABC Local web sites were down for maintenance. They got a revamp in mid-2008 that left it incredibly messy. Apart from the garish green and black colours, it was impossible to find things. It’s like they forgot that they’re most often promoted via the ABC Local Radio stations; ... [More]
Was chatting a while back to a colleague about his kids in high school. One of them ends up carrying an enormous amount of stuff to and from school, including books and sports equipment, but also a notebook (laptop) computer costing a couple of thousand dollars. Giving students laptops makes no sense to me. Compared ... [More]
Dunno about you, but I’ve got a spare useless mobile phone sitting at home doing nothing. It’s a Nokia 6100 that I got in 2004, then donated to Isaac when I got the 6230i, and he’s just recently upgraded to my less-old 6230i now I’ve got an N95. The 6100’s buttons are hopeless these days, ... [More]
My main requirements for my next move into digital TV, and doing away with the VCR: Watch and record digital TV, record two channels at once HD not essential (apart from ABC1 HD offering Sydney news, there’s no unique programming on HD at this stage) Transfer recordings off to the PC for keeping Quiet and ... [More]
Here’s what the new platform Passenger Information Display Screens (PIDS in transport lingo) at the inner-city stations look like: They show much the same information as the old screens, but now it’s widescreen, and clearer. (I haven’t checked to see if they still abbreviate Greensborough to “GREENSBORO” when it’s the destination.) If only I could ... [More]
Back in uni, we had a Unix server which (unlike the faculty machines) was available for use by any student. Its name was yoyo, and it was invaluable back when internet access was hard to come by, and official university access was only granted to students studying IT subjects. Why “yoyo”? There was a hope ... [More]
I’m a bit colourblind. It only affects certain ranges of colours. I first realised this when I got a Vic-20. No, really. The default screen colour was white, and the default border colour was cyan. I thought cyan looked like green. People tell me it’s really a light blue, indeed I remember reading an interview ... [More]
I’ve been looking at Topfield PVRs. Looks like one can get a dual-tuner standard definition (SD) model for about $300-350 (retail), whereas it’s about $750 for a high definition (HD) one. You can also get a single-tuner HD model for about $399, but sometimes I want to be able to record multiple programmes at once. ... [More]
I was playing around with the Wii Weather Channel. If you zoom out, then hold down the button as you flick the controller just so, you can send the Earth spinning around wildly. Anyway, if one looks around southern Australia, various prominent cities and towns are highlighted. One caught my eye: Keith. Keith? I’d never ... [More]
I had a dream last night that hundreds of new TV channels showed up on digital TV tuners. Weird. I haven’t yet upgraded to digital TV. I’m in the unfortunate position of: (a) having bought a 4:3 CRT TV at precisely the wrong time, about 7 years ago, just before the prices plummeted when widescreen ... [More]