Archive for Uncategorized

Retro gaming mobile style!

// March 4th, 2009 // 17,138 Comments » // Uncategorized

This is just the coolest… Lemmings is a true classic! :-)

Details: http://www.modaco.com/content/forum/285236/play-lemmings-on-your-pocket-pc/

P

Mmmm, Tiny Toads…

// March 4th, 2009 // 1,366 Comments » // Uncategorized

Pulling some pictures off my camera today and I came across this one… i’m really hungry now! :-D

Cooked using this recipe at BBCGoodFood, it’s a brilliant, easy, snack!

P

Flashing your NSLU2 via a Mac – upslug2 binary

// February 24th, 2009 // 2,462 Comments » // Uncategorized

If you’re reading this, there’s a reasonable chance you came here via Google I guess… ;-)

I recently got hold of a NSLU2 (aka the ‘Slug’), which is a nifty little linksys box that serves as a NAS server. It’s particularly nifty because with some custom firmware, you can flash it to a full Linux ARM distribution, such as Debian 5.0 Lenny, as detailed on this page. Now, the process is pretty simple, and involves the use of a utility called ‘upslug2′. While upslug2 is available in binary form for Windows and PPC OSX, it’s not available in binary form for Intel OSX, which means you have to download XCode and compile it yourself. Not tricky, but it IS a 900MB download just to compile one app!

Fear not, the solution is here…

Simply click on this link to download a zipped upslug2 binary for Intel OSX.

Enjoy!

P

Graze – the healthy eating craze?

// February 24th, 2009 // 721 Comments » // Uncategorized

I’ve just had my first ‘graze box’ delivered – free courtesy of http://tinyurl.com/freegraze – and it’s pretty tasty! :D

Of course, healthy eating by post could quickly become rather expensive (and it’s not cost effective compared to just going to the supermarket) but there’s definitely something fun about having a box of random goodness to surprise you when it drops through the letter box!

Nom nom nom…

P

Graze Box

Fun with Wine on Ubuntu

// January 15th, 2009 // 737 Comments » // Uncategorized

CABwiz for CAB generation running using wineconsole in Ubuntu, very cool! The more I use linux, the more I like it! :-)

Worthy of note is that using the standard Ubuntu Intrepid repositories, wineconsole wouldn’t play nice… it’s only when I added the WineHQ repositories and installed Wine that way would it play nice (e.g. do TTY output properly, as required for SSH!)

P

This is officially my new favourite emoticon…

// December 22nd, 2008 // 529 Comments » // Uncategorized

\o/

’nuff said!

;-)

P

UPDATED: Boarding heaven = Snow chain hell!

// December 22nd, 2008 // 1,822 Comments » // Uncategorized

The Scenario

Skiing, Avoriaz, New Year 2008 / 2009

The Car

Mazda 6 MPS

The Problem

So this year we are going snowboarding, as we do, and this year we’re going to Avoriaz, a resort in France. Now, in the past we’ve either seemed to end up in hire cars (sometimes with snow chains) or in our own car (generally naughtily without snow chains) and got away with such foolhardiness because we’ve been a) going to a lower altitude resort and b) lucky. This year we figured that since we’re going to a higher resort, we’d do the right thing and get snow chains for the mazzy. Simple enough right?

Not so much.

The solution (in theory)

First step was to phone the Mazda dealer. Upon requesting information about purchasing snow chains for the car, I was greeted by the response “Mazda doesn’t make snow chains available for any of their vehicles (at least in the UK)”. WTF? Helpful!

The next step was to scour the interwebs for info. This showed that, sure enough, the 6 (and particularly the MPS / Mazdaspeed) isn’t very accomodating when it comes to snowchains – due to limited clearance with a bar behind the wheel (see image). I did however come across a company called SCC-Chains which makes chains for limited clearance vehicles, chains that have been used succesfully by a number of 6 owners, so problem solved!

The next step was to order said chains. Being US based, I took advantage of a Seattle trip in December to order the chains from Amazon for delivery to my hotel. Genius! At 50 quid including shipping for the SZ129s (quoted model for 215/45/18 tyres), they weren’t cheap, but they weren’t hideously expensive either. They took up a bit of suitcase room and added a bit of weight, but being a bloke i’d packed light, obviously (V – ssssssshhhhhh!)

Being the sensible (very occasionally) person I am, I figured it’d be a good idea to test fit the chains before having a go halfway up a freezing mountain in a blizzard. Sunday morning comes round, and just before cleaning the car, I set to work.

The problem (2)

After struggling for a (long) while, they don’t bl00dy fit! :-(

I should say first that the chains are a great design, very well made, compact etc. etc. and if (like in the video / guide) there had been appropriate slack in the inner cable, then fitting them would have been a piece of cake. And therein lies the problem, there was NO slack in the inner cable, not even enough to do up the last clip. ARGH! I even tried jacking up the car, driving it back slightly (as in the picture) to see if this helped, but all to no avail. I had to give up in the end which I REALLY do not like doing!

The current state of play

I’ve mailed SCC-Chains pleading for assistance, so i’ll post here with what response I get. In the meantime, I guess i’d just hope for clear roads on the way to Avoriaz…

Problem shared is a problem halved so they say? ;-)

P

EDIT: The Update

The european office of SCC-Chains have been in touch, and have let me know that they do indeed seem too small, and they would be happy to send me the next 2 sizes up. I could then see which fits, and return the 2 that don’t. What great service! :)

Uploading from iMovie ’08 to YouTube HD

// December 22nd, 2008 // 1,251 Comments » // Uncategorized

Since YouTube announced they are now hosting HD videos (YAY!), i’ve been playing on my Mac with getting the optimum settings for high quality uploads. As a heads up for those also setting out on the HD adventure, i’ve used these settings with great results from my Xacti HD 2 and Flip Mino HD.

Hope this helps someone! :-)

Export using QuickTime menu

Input a name and select Quicktime Movie, then edit settins

This is what it should look like

Match these settings!

Match these settings!

Match these settings

One word of caution – even on my quad core beast, these settings take a little while to encode! The end result is worth it though, and seems to be free of the sound sync problems i’ve experienced with other configs.

If you have any better settings, let me know! :-)

P


Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 134217728 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 18673699 bytes) in /home/www/www.paulobrien.net/wp-includes/wp-db.php on line 785