I’m back!

So I’ve been away for the past 3 years or so, done alot but at the same time done nothing. So this is just something to say I’m back hoping to get this up and running again pretty soon. Things have changed in my life I’m a bit older a bit wiser and changed alot since my last posts on here 3 years ago. But you’ll pick up on that I’m sure. Well I’ll leave this message while I’m busy trying to find other stuff to write about.

Xbox 360 bricked!

So about a week ago I was playing my xbox and it crashed. It had never crashed like this before, the screen had vertical lines like static but on top of the picture so I turned it off left it a minute then switched it back on and it done the same about 5 minutes into it. After this I was quite annoyed so I turned it off and left it a few days and tried it again and the fucking thing crashed every time! Tonight I decided to phone Microsoft today.
While on the phone to them the guy asked me to start it up without the hard drive and go into the settings, while started up it crashed then after trying again it stopped sending a signal to my TV so he told me to unplug it from the mains power reconnect everything and try it again, I done so.
Turned it on and the three red lights indicates the xbox is now my new really expensive paperweight. Great! Just what I wanted 4 days before Christmas when my presents are Xbox games!
I really should thank Microsoft for this great present! A bricked xbox
Although, they are going to pick it up and repair/replace it with no charge! So I should get it back mid January.
I’ve asked for a loan of my dads in the meantime but he doesn’t seem up for it even though he’s not used his in weeks. Anyone else had a bricked box? If so how long was it before you got it back after sending it away?

Public trackers for the lose. Private for the win! Invite anyone, please?

Yeah, I’ve not been busy or anything just haven’t blogged for a few days. Don’t you just hate when you download something from BitTorrent and it’s a fake file? Yeah, I do, it’s free and all but what a waste of bandwidth, it’s one of the problems that comes with public trackers. So if anyone has a private tracker invite I would be very pleased if you could just send me one you would get a big mention and links to your site

On another note, my xbox 360 really has bit the dust, crashing everytime i play a game after about 5 minutes so I don’t know what I’m going to do about it, since I’m getting games for Xmas.

Bloc Party’s new album. A weekend in the city. LEAKED!

Yeah the album that’s set to be released in Febuary 2007 has been leaked on to the internet and has appeared on Bittorrent.

My Xbox360…it’s dying, and Freud on Leonardo is very interesting!

Oh yes! My xbox360 seems to be dying on me. Last night while playing it it crashed on me then when I turned it on it crashed on start up then done it again, so I turned it off and left it for a few mins, turned it on and two minutes later it crashes again! So I turned it off and never turned it back on, went to my bed and read 20 odd pages of Freud on Leonardo.

So very interesting, I suggest to anyone who likes Leonardo Da Vinci to get a copy, but I have only read the first 20 odd pages of it, so I’ll get a better view on it once I’m finished, and since it’s only 97 pages it shouldn’t take long.

300 the movie

From the graphic novels by Frank Miller (Sin City) comes “300″ the story of 300 Sparticans against thousands and thousands of Persians.
The 300 website can be found Here you can get a glimpse of the trailer on there and you really should watch it, the movie looks amazing. I’ve never read the novels by Miller but after watching the trailer I think I’ll get them for christmas.

What do I have to do to get a sleep in around here?!

This morning was terrible, I ordered Freud on Leonardo Da Vinci so this morning it came and I think the post man had fun chapping my door as he posted it through the letter box so I got up thinking someone was at my door got there and no one was there but my book was on the floor.
I went back to bed only to be awoken with another knock on the door, getting there I find a woman with a box and handing me it and saying something that I can’t quite remember since I was half shut, as I close the door my house phone starts ringing so as you do, I answered it…My dad wanting something I probably should phone him back because I replied to whatever he said with “Too tired going back to bed, phone you later” and promptly put the phone down and went back to bed.
I’m in bed dozing off and guess what? The fucking door has a dreadful awakening knock on it I sit up with a very “WTF?!?!” manor and go to the door, I should remind you I was wearing only my boxer shorts :-/. I answer the door, who’s standing there? That woman asking for her box back something about the wrong house and it should’ve been the crescent she delivered it too. I gave her box back thanked her for awakening me once again and went back to bed thinking ‘Oh that’s me I’ll get another few hours undisturbed sleep’.
Only to be disturbed half an hour later by a phone call from my mum!!!! Telling me I should get up and blah blah.
Moral of the story? Unplug your phones and erect signposts at the side of your front door asking not to be disturbed before mid day, now off to phone my dad.

How to get a bluetooth GPS reciever working with Mac OS X

I had an idea after getting my phone working as a gateway to the internet that I would get GPS working on my iBook, I use GPSConnect later in this article so you might want to grab it.

So first of you need to pair your computer and the bluetooth gps reciever, In your Application/Utilities you will find Bluetooth Setup Assistant for this task, Open this click Continue and select ‘Other Device’ and continue again select the device from this table of found devices and Continue on. You will have to enter a passphrase which is very likely to be ’0000′.

So after pairing the device you must use Bluetooth Serial Utility found in the same place as the Bluetooth Setup Assistant, so we open this and set up a new serial port by clicking the New… button you’ll be confronted with a new drop-down window you need to Name it, in my case, ‘BTGPS’ the Port Direction should be ‘Outgoing’. Next you’re going to select your device. Don’t tick any of the next boxes and your Port Type should be changed to ‘RS-232′ and after this we’re all configured…kinda.

Now did you get GPSConnect? ‘Cause this is where you’re going to need it to test if all is well.
After mounting the .dmg open GPSConnect and you need to change the Serial Port to what you named your port in the Bluetooth Serial Utilitie, it will be in the drop-down menu. The Protocol should be set to ‘NMEA’ after all this work the fruits of your labour will be shown, click Connect while obviously having your gps device on. Once connected you should be confronted with a window that looks like…

From this you can see the date and time, my latitude and longitude, the speed of the wind(doesn’t seem to work unless you have a garmin receiver I think), height above sea level and the amount of satellites my receiver is tracking, the rest is always zero for me so I ignore it . You can now use your GPS with Kismac for wardriving if you so wish, and I’m sure some other applications will have use for it.
Thanks

Leonardo Da Vinci, an rss feed of his notebooks

Leornado Da Vinci is an absolute legend he’s renowned for his paintings, science and mathmatics he kept notebooks of all his studies and findings and I found this link a week ago today Da Vinci’s notebooks I know it was a week ago today because it gives me a page a day and I’m on page 7 so have a look and read away at his notebooks, there is some very interesting stuff in them although there is none of the sketches that are in the originals in these ones but have a look anyway you might just learn something :-p

Speedtests

Today I’ve been speedtesting my adsl connection using various tests. I’m on an “Up to 8meg” connection so these speed tests, I think, aren’t too bad. apart from the latency which can be an issue when playing my xbox360 online. I only tested three of the many many speedtests out there and here are some results from them.

My first result is from a very nicely done website called Speedtest.net

This one from Dslreports.com

I done my own ISP’s speed test – I can’t give a URL for this since you have to have an account with plus.net

I tried to do the BT Speedtest but I can’t get it too work it keeps giving me an error and telling me to contact my ISP and I just can’t be bothered doing that.

I had this test a little while ago and was really chuffed with it, since I’m only paying for an “Up to 8meg” connection

If I was to recommend a speedtest I would recommend the Speedtest.net since this one allows to, from a really nice interface, to choose your closest server or any other servers and just because it’s really nice to use. And a nice note for the Plus.net speed test for false hopes of a super connection well that is if you test enough times.