Is 1080p worth it?

Last time I researched HDTV it seemed that I would have to wait for 1080p (or 'Full HDTV') TVs to come down in price if I was to get the most out of high definition telly. Now it seems that this is not necessarily the case.

There is no doubt that 1080p will provide better quality images than the current more widely available crop of 720p and 1080i resolution HDTVs, but what I was failing to take into account was visual acuity viewing distance.

I, like many people, view my TV from a distance of 8-10 feet. At this distance it seems that the difference between 720p and 1080p may not really be apparent.

Take a look at this interesting site for more information.

XP Startup Tweaks

Old news now that OS XI, sorry I mean Windows Vista, has gone gold, but here are some tips to speed up your old XP installation's startup time:

http://arstechnica.com/guides/tweaks/sgp-tweaks.ars

XXCOPY and FreeTextBox

Here are two useful things I've found.

For batch file nerds check out this excellent extension to the XCOPY command:

http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

And for ASP.NET code monkeys here is a free HTML editor control:

http://freetextbox.com/

Default button in ASP.NET page

This is a neat way to make a button on an ASP.NET page the default button:

Page.RegisterHiddenField("__EVENTTARGET", "MyDefaultButton")

You can find a full explanation here.

NORAD tracks Father Christmas

This is becoming a Christmas tradition in our house:

www.noradsanta.org

Wonderful :)

IE error when exporting from ASP.NET DataTable to Excel

I have written some code which takes the contents of an ASP.NET DataTable, turns it into tab delimited format, and writes it to the Response object so that the user is presented with an IE Open/Save dialog. Open creates a new Excel instance and displays the data within, and Save allows the user to save the file locally.

This all works perfectly over our local development LAN, but when we released it to acceptance on our remote production server the following error was displayed whenever the Open button was clicked, and a similar error on Save.

'Internet Explorer was not able to open this Internet Site. The requested site is either unavailable or cannot be found. Please try again later.'

After some poking around it seems that this has been a bug with IE (surprise, surprise) since v4.0, and occurs when no-cache is set on a page in a site with an SSL certificate.

To fix it use the following (VB) code:

Response.AddHeader("Cache-Control", "max-age=0")

A full explanation of the workaround can be found here.

Hugo Glossary

My son Hugo has come up with some interestingly mangled words since he's been speaking. Here are some of them:

Baksoo n. Breakfast.
Dabby Yabby n. Hugo's gro-bag comforter.
Dadoo n. Grandad.
Darsosaur n. Dinosaur, including flying and swimming reptiles.
Emohrgency n. Emergency.
Fahngee n. Fire engine.
Gagoo n. Hugo.
Gagoo Telly n. CBeebies.
Hostiple n. Hospital.
Numnum n. Auntie Catherine.
Roro n. Dog.
Up Woowoo n. Attic.
Vava a. Fast, for example 'Vava woowoo.'
Woowoo n. Train.
Wospits n. Wotsits.

Making a dual boot Windows partition bootable

As I mentioned in Part 1 of the HTPC saga I was recently faced with the problem of reducing a multi boot setup spread over two physical and three logical drives into two bootable disks in two distinct boxes.

The setup was as follows:

Physical disk #1:
GRUB boot loader
Win XP Pro

Physical disk #2:
Win XP Media Centre Edition
Linux Fedora Core 3

A small portion of the MCE drive was partitioned off with the Fedora distro, and in order to triple boot between XP, MCE and Fedora there was a GRUB boot loader in the MBR of the primary drive.

Removing GRUB was actually quite straightforward (this is detailed in a separate post,) and PartitionMagic dealt with the Linux partition nicely, absorbing it into the MCE partition. This left me with a standard dual booting Windows box: XP on primary and MCE on secondary.

To cut a long story short this is how I eventually configured the system to boot from the MCE drive.

1. Removed GRUB.
2. Used PartitionMagic to remove Linux partition.
3. Edited XP boot.ini file to remove the MCE install.
4. Booted from XP CD and repaired MBR on MCE drive.
5. Added boot files to the root of the MCE drive.
6. Edited MCE boot.ini file to point to primary drive (remember the partition array is 1-based!).
7. Unplugged ribbon cable from XP drive and plugged into MCE drive (changing the jumper to CS or Master).

Aside from replacing hal.dll (which was unecessary and meant MCE reinstalling a load of drivers), and not realising that the boot.ini partition array is 1-based, it all went pretty smoothly I thought :)

BT offer unlimited broadband

I've used BT Broadband for many years now, and overall I am very impressed by the speed, reliability and price.

I actually downgraded to Option 1 a year ago, reducing the bill from £29.99 to a much more respectable £17.99 a month. At that time my bandwidth usage was not too high (consisting mainly of online gaming,) but even though I probably exceeded Option 1's meagre 2GB limit regularly I never received an email from BT's so-called FUP (Fair Usage Policy) people.

Recently however I have developed something of a torrent habit, and I discovered that BT do send out FUP emails, but only when you exceed the limit by a considerable amount; in my case by 46Gb :)

'Time to look for an unlimited account,' I thought. 'Shame that BT don't offer one.' Their premier product, Option 4, is capped at 50Gb for £29.99 a month.

But when I read the FUP email a second time it suggested that I upgrade to Option 3, which offered unlimited usage.

After a bit of checking around it seems that BT are abolishing Option 4 and making Option 3 unlimited for £26.99 a month. This is not yet reflected on the BT website, which still states that Option 3 has a 40Gb cap, but rest assured it is the case.

You can read more about it on Digtal Spy.

How to remove GRUB

GRUB is a third party boot loader that I used for a while as a means of triple booting between Linux and two Windows installs.

When it came time to restore the system to single boot I was faced with the question of how to remove GRUB without damaging any of the Windows installation.

The process was surprisingly straight-forward, despite some worrying posts I read on the Intertron.

This thread contains some useful info, but this is all I had to do:

1. Alter your BIOS to boot first from CD
2. Boot from the XP CD
3. When prompted select Repair
4. At the C:\WINDOWS prompt enter the following commands:

CD ..
FIXBOOT C:
FIXMBR
BOOTCFG /rebuild

5. Reboot and change BIOS back to boot from HDD
6. If necessary edit the boot.ini file to remove any lingering OS entries that you no longer need.

Job done :)

Building an HTPC - Part 1

I've been wanting to build a Home Theatre PC (HTPC) around Windows Media Centre Edition for some time now, but I didn't want to shell out for new hardware until I had fully evaluated MCE and tested that it would fit into our living room without causing too much disruption.

The first stage of the process was to acquire a copy of MCE. As I have an MSDN subscription this was not a problem :)

Stage two was to install MCE on a second hard drive so that if the evaluation went well I could simply drop the drive into the HTPC when it was built.

This was complicated slightly by a (very) brief flirtation with Linux. More on this and the joys of GRUB removal later.

Once MCE was successfully installed and the system was set up to dual boot both the existing WinXP Pro install and the new MCE installation I checked out the Media Centre UI and found that I liked it enough to purchase a MCE compatible DVB-T TV card.

A trip up a ladder with some cable cutters and an hour in the attic with a drill saw the sneaky diversion of a coax aerial cable from my son's room (he's only four, he didn't even know he had an aerial point!) to the house IT hub (the attic), and I found myself immediately in love with watching and recording Freeview through MCE.

So far so good. The next step was to test the whole thing in the living room with our old 4:3 Hitachi telly. This called for some decisions regarding cabling. The HTPC was running a Radeon 9600SE with DVI, VGA and s-video outs. Ideal really, as I can eventually use DVI when we get an LCD TV, and in the meantime s-video to SCART would work well on the old Hitachi.

The next thing was audio. I managed to find a cable in Maplins with a male SCART on one end and an s-video and two (red & white) phono connectors on the other. So the final cabling had a 2 phono to 3.5mm stereo adaptor splitting the audio signal from the HTPC sound card into the red and white cables, and the s-video carrying the video signal, all going to the SCART socket in the back of the telly. A bit of experimentation found that only the AV2 SCART socket could be s-video enabled, and once this was confgured in the TV's settings the HTPC worked perfectly, giving a clear picture and good stereo when in the Media Centre. The Windows desktop didn't display so well unfortunately, but it was usable in 800x600 and this is to be expected on an old TV. Also this will cease to be a problem when an LCD telly is finally connected up. (I've decided to wait for 1080p to come down in price before splashing out: I just hope it's months rather than years away!)

One thing to note is that I also tried connecting using s-video to composite in (yellow socket) on the telly, but the quality was very poor. I had read that composite video was slightly worse quality than s-video, but was surprised at how bad it looked. S-video to SCART is really the only way I found of getting a good quality image in MCE on a non-HDMI TV.

So, I had one HTPC working very well in the living room, with two problems. Firstly it was still set up as a dual boot system and I needed my WinXP Pro drive back for my new gaming rig, and secondly the case and fans made the thing sound like a F-15 on rotation.

Now firmly convinced that both my and my family's very lives depended on getting the HTPC working silently in the living room I did a bit of research into silent PCs. I finally plumped for a Silverstone LC16B case and a 430W Coolermaster iGreen silent PSU.

The plan was to take the components out of the noisy case and install them in the silent enclosure, then build a high spec gaming rig in the old case using new components and the old WinXP hard drive (for now).

Before the two builds could begin I needed to make the drive containing MCE bootable, preferably without having to reinstall the OS. (This drive is the home of my BSG and Heroes torrents among others, and backing them up would be time consuming to say the least.)

There were a couple of problems. First off a small portion of the MCE drive was partitioned off with a Linux Fedora install, and in order to triple boot between XP, MCE and Fedora there was a GRUB boot loader in the MBR of the primary drive.

You can read how I dealt with the problems in this post.

Now the drive boots perfectly as if it had always had its very own MBR :)

I'm starting the build tonight, so we'll see how silent the HTPC really is...

Frickin' e-tard!

e-tard n. A person who is utterly clueless when faced with technology, particularly computers.

Momentous Phrases

As we blithely travel along life's highway we and our friends are accompanied from time to time by amusing phrases gleaned from the popular culture of the moment.

Although some of these phrases stay in common usgae for years on end other die out only to be rediscovered while watching one of those damn 100 Best list programmes on Channel Four.

After seeing the Eddie Izzard 'monkey on the branch' sketch again I am inspired to compile a list of past and present phrases.

1991? - The Mighty Sword of Dobber (where did this come from?)
1996? - "Nighty night, The Fury" (Game On)
1998? - "Le sange est sur le branch" (Eddie Izzard)
2004 - "Avit!" (I think this originally came from an advert)
2005 - "Very nice, very tasteful...I love all that." (Blessed)
2005 - "Shake me up, Judy!" (Bleak House)
2006 - "I'm 'aving 'oops!" (Life On Mars)

Clearly we need a few more phrases from the 90s and early 2000s. Can any of my friends recall other phrases or words that used to be in common usage?

Narrowscreen Telly

Recently acquiring my first widescreen television has confirmed something I've suspected for some time. The majority of people these days seem to watch distorted TV where people's faces are stretched in width to fill the screen.

Of the formats available I tend to watch in 4:3 mode, which means a black border around the picture, which is actually smaller than on my old 4:3 telly, but at least it's in proportion.

The other option for viewing of normal television programming is the 4:3 zoom, which at least fills the screen more, but at the expense of losing some of the picture. And losing picture is exactly what I wanted to avoid with a widescreen TV.

So, what to choose? A stretched and distorted picture, a small picture, or less of a picture?

It seems to me that about the only advantage of widescreen televisions is when watching widescreen films :(

Prams - Instruments Of Torture

My baby's pram seems to have been specifically designed to cause me the maximum amount of discomfort and pain. Its handle is positioned at exactly the wrong height, causing me to walk hunched forward at just the angle that will cause my back, upon straightening up, to spasm wildly and require me to lie on a board for a week before I can stand up straight again.

In addition my older son's buggy-board, attached to the back of the pram, has thoughtfully been fitted with a sharp edge at shin height, which extends out just far enough to ensure that I have only two choices; take tiny wee steps like a ballerina or bark one or both shins at every step.

And yet my wife pushes this instrument of torture every day with no apparent ill effects. Mums truly are a breed apart :)

DVLA Database

Having just watched the DVLA advert which explains that every UK car owner's details are now stored on database which will automatically send out a fine if car tax is not renewed, I am left wondering why we still need tax discs?

Wouldn't it save a substantial amount of tax payers' money to do away with them entirely?

Suicide is painful

This is an interesting one: if you were going to commit suicide what would be your preferred method of despatch?

I was thinking that I would favour a skydive sans parachute. However this would be a little unfair on those tasked with clearing up the mess. If I was going to be thoughtful about it this also rules out a shotgun under the neck and a host of other bloody methods.

Then it occurred to me that some potential must exist to have a bit of fun with suicide. If you're prepared to die in the process there must be countless merry japes or potential profit-making capers to be pulled off.

For instance, and this is a weak one, how about a spot of Russian Roulette in a Deer Hunter stylee? If you win you make a little bit of cash, and if you lose then, well, job done. And you never know; a few squid in your back pocket might even make you change your mind.

Excerpt

Here, dear reader, for your delectation and delight, is a little snippet of my novel The Van Akkeren Wheel to encourage you to read further...

Even in the brightness of the late spring afternoon smoke rose from the crude chimney of the tavern, and sounds of merriment could be heard from within. While tenant farmers and villeins still toiled in the fields a few happy souls drank the afternoon away in the low, thatched building, and the sound of their laughter disturbed the otherwise deserted hamlet. In front of the tavern a goat grazed contentedly, seemingly the only other occupant of the tiny settlement, as every other able-bodied person worked the land in preparation for the new season.

Two black crows were startled into flight as the door of the tavern clattered open. From within the dim building the corpulent figure of a Roman Catholic priest emerged, staggering as he did so. The fat priest was well dressed, though not too richly. A bag of coins hung from his belt, a gold crucifix was around his neck, and he used a long staff to steady himself.

The priest stood still for a moment, blinking in the fading sunlight, then erupted into a hacking fit of coughing. He recovered from the fit, wiped his mouth with a podgy hand, and began to wend his way unsteadily through the deserted hamlet, singing as he did so.

He passed by most of the hamlet’s scattered cottages, and was approaching the Nottingham road when a soft popping sound silenced his singing. The noise seemed to penetrate deep into his bones, and he shivered in the cool afternoon air as he looked around for its source. After a few seconds he spotted some movement in a copse of trees just beyond the hamlet and, intrigued but wary, cautiously began to move towards it.

A moment later the priest stopped dead, frozen with fear by the howling scream that erupted from the trees and echoed through the still air. Ahead of him something burst from the tangled copse and began hurtling towards him at a terrifying speed. The priest caught the briefest of glimpses of a fetid, pale body with grasping arms outstretched before it, and ran.

The priest’s corpulent frame had covered only a matter of yards before the ululating shriek sounded again, seemingly from right behind him, and he echoed the scream in fear. A sickening stench hit him an instant before the homiril did, the force of the impact flinging him to the ground.

Scalpel-sharp talons rent the flesh of his back as he gagged on his fear and the reek of the demon’s milky hide. Somehow the priest managed to roll over onto his raw back, and stared up into a visage straight from Hell.

He screamed again.

The creature stopped flencing the flesh from the priest’s fat body, and squatted on his chest, staring down into his face. The victim’s scream subsided to a blubbering, gasping sob, and the homiril cocked its head to one side, regarding him with interest.

For a moment the two looked at each other, the priest’s eyes widened with fear as they stared into the homiril’s expressionless orbs of red, split by a vertical slit of sheer blackness. The demon leaned forward.

Over the next few minutes the priest stopped longing for life, and started praying for death.

Above him the two slowly circling crows were joined by a third.

Broadsword calling Danny Boy...

Well, it's on again: Where Eagles Dare (BBC1 11:05pm August 17th).

A great film, as I'm sure everyone will agree, and one which can be seen on practically a weekly basis (and that's just on UK terrestrial telly).

Henceforth I shall keep a tally of its broadcast frequency.

Will everyone let me know when it's being shown, and which channel and country?. I have a feeling it will be shown more here than anywhere else! It's a quirky English war caper, despite the token Septic in the form of good old Clint.

I have a friend, Edward, for whom this is much more than a film. Whenever it's shown he is compelled to enact a sacred ritual that dates back to his childhood. He fetches a pint glass which he fills with Cocopops and milk, wraps himself in a duvet and proceeds to devour the contents of the glass with a spoon, all the while providing key dialogue just ahead of the actors, presumably to help them in case they forget their lines.

The Van Akkeren Wheel

I've started posting my novel, The Van Akkeren Wheel. I'll get it up as quick as I can.