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By the time you read
this, it will be February 2005. I’ll be another year older,
the hair on my head will be ever more greyer, my kids will be
draining my resources even more and I’ll be working longer
hours than usual; but I don’t care because I’m lucky…
I’m lucky and you’re lucky because we’re still here to
moan about it. So don’t forget to visit http://www.dec.org.uk
every month for the next year to donate even a small amount to
the Tsunami appeal. Testing Microsoft’s Windows XP Media Center Don’t know if any of you have noticed, but another member of Microsoft’s operation systems has recently been released - Microsoft Windows XP Media Center 2005. Please forgive the American style spelling of Center, it’s not my fault if they can’t spell properly! I’ve been testing this new version for the past 3 months and I’m confused. Now I agree I’m not your usual person in the street, I’m pretty clued up when it comes to anything PC oriented, but I don’t know what Microsoft are really trying to do here. This new version tries to do everything! It wants to play your movies, your music, your TV and display your photos, but it doesn’t really do anything quite right. The interface you’re supposed to use really irritates me and trying to get it all working with SKY is a complete nightmare. Instead of using their interface, I now immediately exit and use the usual Windows XP user interface. Instead of using Windows Media Player to watch movies, I use WinDVD instead. I also play my music on another |
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instead of the media centre as it has much better speakers and
finally, I print and view my photos from my music PC, well
because, because… So what use is the Windows XP Media Center besides watching movies? Well the kids love it for games. It has a very fast processor, loads of RAM, super fast graphics card and a screamingly fast motherboard bus speed. So my conclusion is to hold off from buying an XP Media Center PC until the technology is much better - even though the kids say it’s fantastic! Beat the EBay Snipe! I’ve a confession to make. I’ve been using a utility that is well…brilliant, but I’ve been keeping it quiet! If you’re an eBay buyer, how many times have you been sniped? Sniping is when you’re winning the bidding and at the very last second, someone bids over you by say 20p. It’s infuriating as there’s nothing you can do. I know it irritated me! EBay’s reply is that you should have bidded a lot higher in the first place. Not the best reply, but in these circumstances you have to work the system; so pay a visit to AuctionSniper which you can find HERE. How AuctionSniper works is that you create an account using the same logon details as your eBay account and you enter the |
eBay
item number that you’re interested in - plus your highest
bid amount. AuctionSniper, for a fee of 1% or less, will
bid on your behalf in the last dying seconds of the eBay
auction. Generally, this stops those bidding wars that
can occur in an auction, so everyone just enters their highest amount and waits to see who wins. Give it a try, it can save you money… History on the Telly Finally, I know I never write about TV, but I love history. Make sure you watch BBC2 on Friday night at 9pm - "The Lost World of Mitchell and Kenyon"? It’s an amazing discovery of 800 short films from the Edwardian Age that have been rescued after lying hidden in a cellar for over 80 years. Restored to their original clarity, these films - shot by pioneering filmmakers Sagar Mitchell and James Kenyon - are extremely good. The clarity of the movies is phenomenal, showing crystal clear movies of people, cities and factories in the north of England. It also includes the very first ever film of Manchester United. I suppose you can’t have everything! The rest is a must watch… Be lucky and see you next month. Vince Chin |
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