This is the weblog of Brian Curd. A lot of it is written on the spur of the moment and any benefit you gain from it is worth exactly what you paid!
For the past year I have had a contract with BT. That covered unlimited broadband, phone calls and a BTVision package with Sky Sports 1&2. Until a week or so ago I have been very happy with it as it meant predictable monthly cost and a half decent service. Unfortunately, as is the way with [...]
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Filed under: Hardware, Techie
OK so I’m a few days late… take it or leave it Not much to report really, I just thought I’d better get a new post in and bring things up to date a little. No matter how I try I can’t seem to get my office/workspace clear of a seemingly ever growing pile of [...]
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Filed under: Hardware, Home, Scams, Software, Techie
A week or so ago my trusty TomTom Go 500 finally gave up the ghost after almost 6 years of reliable service (see “A New Toy for 2006“). As the picture shows, it was a “sturdy” device and much deeper and heavier than the latest ones: Mine had got rather bashed about over the years [...]
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Filed under: Cars, Hardware, Home, Isle of Wight, Software, Techie
Although I have always been happy with FreeSat via my Humax box, the offer of a couple of Sky Sports channels for next to nothing on BT Vision was too good to refuse. A few months ago I added the BT system to my TV and have been happy with it since. The “Sky+ like” [...]
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Filed under: Hardware, Home, Isle of Wight, Techie
Using the setup described below in my last post, I have now started exploring the world of astrophotography and my first attempt is shown below. To say I am pleased with it is a bit of an understatement! The original images were captured as a .mov file on a Mac laptop and then processed by [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hardware, Hobbies, Isle of Wight, Photography, Software, Techie
I was given a Samsung SDN-520PH CCTV camera sometime ago – thanks Mark! . It was brand new and still in its box, it is just like the one below except that mine came with no lens. I thought it might come in handy at some point for a little astronomical experimentation. That hasn’t happened [...]
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Filed under: Astronomy, Hardware, Home, Isle of Wight, Photography, Software, Techie
Started playing with my webcam again – assuming it can cut through the pipe smoke, you may be lucky enough to spot me!
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Filed under: Hardware, Hobbies, Isle of Wight, Photography, Software, Techie, Trivia
A couple of years ago I bought a Humax Foxsat HD box for my father-in-law. Not a luxury, as he lives in Ventnor here on the Island and satellite is pretty much the only way to get additional channels there. It’s worked brilliantly until recently when he reported a problem – the display just showed [...]
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Filed under: Family, Hardware, Isle of Wight, Search Engines, Techie
It looked pretty neat when I got a MacBook, I’m talking about the MagSafe connector which supplies the power. Until today it really was just one of those neat ideas that became a normal part of the laptop, but then it happened; that moment when I really did trip over the mains lead to the [...]
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Filed under: Hardware, Techie
Who says the most expensive solution is the best? Not me that’s for sure! After trying to get backup software running properly on a small office server I finally discovered Cobian 9, an easy to use, easy to understand and no cost solution. Finally I can uninstall the proprietary system which really wasn’t up to [...]
