johnadams.org.uk

I have just set up a new blog, to discuss the many facets of web technology that I encounter in my professional and personal life.

All my technology ramblings will be confined to the new blog. This one will continue with general mumblings about the rest of life.

Lisa & Gav bought me a Belkin Tunecast II FM transmitter for Christmas, now that it is legal in the UK.

I can now play my MP3 player and my iTunes playlists directly from my computer through the stereo. I’m looking forward to using it in the car, and I won’t have to take along so many CDs. Magic!

What else to do on Boxing Day but sit down in front of the ‘puter and rearrange your personal website? I’ve spent a very pleasant couple of hours rearranging things on this site. So far I have:

1. Set up my main site and my grandfather’s letters so that they can be automatically upgraded using the Fantastico utility provided by my hosting service.
2. Added any external php pages into the WordPress page structure.
3. Used a new theme, Greenflower which freshens the site.

At least it keeps me away from the mince pies and choccies.

I have just discovered RoundCube, an open source webmail client that I’ve installed on my hosting service.

RoundCube is a modern webmail solution that runs on a standard PHP/MySQL configuration and uses web standards such as XHTML and CSS2. The application is easy to install and configure, and even easier to use. It has a clean, modern UI, which uses Ajax to give an application-like feel.

This now gives me a realistic opportunity to migrate away from my btinternet mail address to addresses based on my hosting service.

Today, we joined the digital revolution by buying a Freeview set top box. That should please my TV geek brothers!

Unfortunately, there are two teensy-weensy problems with our installation:

1. We’ve got a really old telly - in fact so old that our burglars five years ago left it behind. So it’s only got one SCART port. We therefore have to unplug the SCART from the set-top box and plug in the SCART from the DVD each time we want to watch a DVD. I have resorted to cabling diagrams to understand the spaghetti behind the telly.


[Web 2.0 diagramming with Gliffy.com]

2. We have quite an old aerial that is considerably shorter than it used to be due to a rusty aerial post, and it won’t pick up quite a few channels, such as ITV*, C4, E4, FilmFour. In compensation, at least QVC works. It looks like we will need a new aerial.

I understand computers, but home entertainment systems leave me all confused. But I’ll work at it and we might spend many a winters evening happily digi-surfing.