Blog

Google Desktop

Beta now launched and can be downloaded from the Google Desktop site. First impressions are good. Quick to index my files using less system resources than Windows in-built indexing and search results are fast. Also searches Outlook . Option to integrate with Google web searches which is nice. Finally its as quick to find my files as it is to find others peoples files on the web.

*Update* Couple of alternatives for searching. One is Filehand which also searches mp3’s and pdf’s and the other is Copernic Desktop Search. Both are standalone search engines – I’ll give them a whirl over the weekend.

Autumn Clearing

With Autumn now officially here and a break in the wet weather we’ve been having it was time for the final grass cut of the year. This then turned into a garden clearance (never did I thought so many plants would last for such a small time). Cue 10 bags filled and a trip to the dump. To round it off, a trip to Dobbies to restock the barren wasteland that was the garden. One point…since when did garden centres clear out half there shop to stock MASSIVE amounts of crimbo decorations. Blimey. I guess it is only 10 weeks on Saturday till Christmas.

The second clearout was the pc. Only 3 months old and running out of room (it only has 160Gb)? A swift clearout later and I’d freed 60Gb. Shocking the amount of guff you accumulate with broadband. Having the 1 Meg connection doesn’t help. Time to get the old pc set-up as a server and put all the movies and music on it instead.

Pro-Evo on the Xbox

More pro-evo news. I’ve got a ‘beta’ Pro-Evo for the Xbox and its mostly all good news. Graphically its good with all glitches and slowdown that was evident on the ps2 now removed. However on ‘Wide’ mode the graphics don’t look as sharp as the ps2 although when watching replays or a closer in view the graphics are sharper. The grass texture also looks more grainy. All the same options that are in the ps2 version are in the Xbox version with the addition of online support although it would look like this is 1 vs 1 only. The major dissapointment is with the controller. The ps2 has four shoulder buttons where as the Xbox pad has two and they are full size triggers at that. The only option has been to put L2 & R2 on the white and black buttons. Nooooooooo. I use R2 all the time and it is impossible to play (ok – not impossible but damned uncomfortable) with the Xbox pad. Also the longer throw of the trigger didn’t suit the game. A solution had to be found. Cue visit to Lik-Sang.

I ordered a convertor called the Dreambox. This allows you to use the PS2 pad on the Xbox and also plug in a headset so you can still talk online. Tested it tonight and it works a dream – just had to swap L1/L2 with R1/R2 to get the controls exactly the same as Pro Evo on the PS2. Also had to buy a cable extender as the Xbox is a fair distance from where I sit. Just need to wait till mid November now for the game to come out. Oh…and resist buying Fifa tomorrow.

Traitor?

Its Scotland vs Norway on Saturday and I really am confused as to the result I want. 40% of me wants to see Scotland do well. The other 60% wants them to get cuffed and hopefully move a step closer to getting rid of Berti Vogts. His comments this week on how this game is not win or bust (a draw will do) were disappointing and made only to try and protect his job. His press conference at the start of the week when announcing the team was also very unprofessional and it’s now time for the Scotland manager to move on. I don’t believe a new manager would make a dramatic difference but do believe a Scottish manager would install more passion and pride in the players.

Widgets

avedeskI’ve always been a sucker for desktop applications – one’s that tell you free disk space, weather updates etc. Well, they seem to be commonly called Widgets now and there’s a growing market in supplying them. Reading an article on the Widget applications available I trialled a few over the past month and selected a firm favourite – Avedesk. With this utility you are able to configure a number of desktop applications to display disk stats, network info, weather stats – really anything you like. At the same time it is resource friendly and easy on the eye. The piccie shows a weather app running on my desktop – how depressingly wet (and yes…all I need to do is look out the window to see that but there is a nice 6 day forecast :-)) Avedesk also allows you to run Objectdock Docklets which means there’s thousands of icons and apps that you can use. I’ll be spending some time later in the week configuring the desktop. Eye candy here we come.

 

Let Me Finish

The first election debate in the USA has generated a fair bit of debate. Not on policies. More one how the two candidates looked and acted on TV. First was the analysis of the podium heights. All well and good, but the height of a guy surely doesn’t translate into votes? Course it does, which makes the podium mistake all the more amusing.

Second is the ‘earpiece’ question – Bush was seemingly wearing an earpiece during the debate. Listen to this mp3 and you’ll hear him asking to ‘Let me finish’ when nobody in the debate was interrupting him. The smart money is that he was asking the guy speaking in his ear to let him finish – another article here points to the change in his speeches over the last year and how the technique is similar to those in the film industry that wear an earpiece. If true, its sad that the most powerful president in the world can’t string a sentence together but that’s nothing we didn’t know – the fools in the US will probably still vote him in. Or forget how to count.

X-Men

At last after 8 years the Ansari X Prize has been won by SpaceShipOne. The second flight took place today and was successful in meeting the criteria to claim the prize. For a time I thought that the British entry, Starchaser, was ahead of the pack but early last year it was clear to see that the American teams had a lead in the race to win the prize. The final flight looked superb and a lot more stable than the first one….just need to start saving for the trip on Virgin Galactic.