In an effort to get my blogging back on track, and show some activity on my website, this is a quick post to wish everyone a prosperous 2009 !!

I have a number of posts planned, including more details on the Outlook to Windows Mobile Gateway SMSing project, more details on my Homebrew Home Server (after a lot of traffic from Alex Kuretz over at www.mediasmartserver.net) and some bits on PowerShell, WCF and more...

Happy New Year...

Sarah wanted 'Ruby Ruby Ruby' by the Kaiser Chiefs as her ringtone. Her mobile doesn't have any easy way of connecting to a PC, so she joined one of the rip-off 'Ringtones R Us' services that force you into paying £4.50 / week for as many ringtone downloads as you want (aside: I must be getting old - why would anyone want to change their ringtone that often ??).

Anyway, after downloading the mp3 she found it start relatively quietly and she was missing some calls. What she had actually wanted was the chorus....

So cue Kens Do It Yourself Ringtone Creater and Transferer...

Step by step instructions :-

1. Rip the song to an MP3 (from the CD which we do own - no copyright issues) 
2. Download Audacity.
3. Cut the chorus out of the original track (loaded MP3 file)
4. Create a new stereo track and paste the chorus into the new track.
5. Mute the original tracks
6. Play / listen to the new track, make sure you are happy with it.
7. Download lame_enc.dll to allow Audacity to export as MP3 (see this Audacity FAQ)
8. Export the new track from Audacity as an MP3.
9. FTP the MP3 file to your website
10. Using 3G / GPRS etc on the mobile phone connect to the internet
11. Browse to the MP3 file and download it to the mobile
12. Set the MP3 as the ringtone.
13. Cancel the expensive MP3 ringtone service (if applicable).

Isn't Santa a nice guy.
For no other reason that I had been 'good' all year, he brought me a shiny new black Creative Zen Vision:M 30GB. Thank You !!

So far I have loaded it up with :

• 200 CD's of music
• Just shy of 3000 photos
• Star Wars 4, 5 and 6 (ripped from DVD)
• Two episodes of the DotNetRocks podcast
• One episode of DNR TV
• All my Outlook contacts (114)

and it still has over 14GB free.

It comes in a box about the thickness of 3 DVD titles. The package includes :

• The unit itself measuring 100mm x 60mm x 20mm (my rough measurements)
• The obligatory install CD with 1 gem (Creative's Zen Explorer) and a bunch of other freeloading applications (Audible Manager, Creative's own Media Player, blah..)
• A manual in about 18 languages
• A small dongle (Sync Adaptor)
• A crappy set of in-ear headphones
• A fabric pouch to fit the unit
• A USB cable (Sync Cable).

The dongle connects to the bottom of the unit and split out from the all-in-one connector to :

• USB (small type B) for data transfer and charging
• A mini DC jack (5V) for charging
• AV out (for connecting to a TV)

Odd that there is no DC Power adaptor for it - the only supplied option is the USB charging (another purchase I suppose)

The AV out connector is a 3.5mm headphone type plug, but you have to buy a cable to split this out to video and L/R audio (my Panasonic Camcorder uses a similar cable - I plan to try this out with the Zen)

My initial reactive is that it's a great device, lots of storage, the audio is as you'd expect from a MP3 player, the screen / photo display / video playing is very sharp and large enough (2.5 inches) to make it watchable. The user interface is clear, logical and easy to use and buttons and scroll pad are all well laid out.

The Creative Zen Explorer software basically consists of a driver and Shell Extension to allow you to browse the device from Windows Explorer, add media and play lists etc and also to sync Outlook data (Tasks, Calendar and Contacts). Audio transfers seemlessly but video is a bit more involved - if the video is not supported by the device (codec or size - the unit uses 320 by 240) then the transfer fails and you need to hit the 'convert' button when then converts it to the correct format / size and transfers it (this should all be hidden within the 'transfer' option instead of a seperate, manual, task).

There are no real instructions on any video transfer options other than "if it doesn't work then try converting it first". However, with a little googling I found a method of ripping and transferring DVDs etc (more on that in another post).

All in all - Very Impressed.

I recently persuaded Sarah to let me buy a High Definition (HD) TV, a 32" LCD job.

After much research, I decided on a Vistron model from eBuyer - there are over 50 customer reviews on their site and it seems most of them are pretty good.

It was delivered in a couple of days (eBuyer's delivery has always been top notch) and then sat around the house for about 3 days waiting for me to return from the States.

I have it all installed and working now and I can certainly see it is a great TV - I plugged in my Acer laptop and played some of the free HD WMV clips that Microsoft have available on their website. The screen runs at 1366 * 768 and is real sharp, the HD WMV's look great.
There are also plenty of inputs on the unit including :

• HDMI (720p with support for HDCP)
• 2 SCART connectors (1 is full IN/OUT, other is IN only)
• Component Video
• Composite Video & Audio (YRL)
• S-Video
• Antenna (for the Analogue and Digital, Freeview, DVB-T signal)

That said, in the UK there is no HD content over DVB-T (Freeview), except the trial stuff for 550 user going on around London. I don't have a Xbox 360 (yet) nor a Sky HD box nor a HD DVD player so basically I'm stuck with Standard Definition (SD) for the time being...

I knew this would be the case, but I didn't expect the visual experience of SD on a HD TV to be quite so bad. The artifacting is really noticeable, it's a real pain trying to get a decent (stretched) picture from 4:3 to fill the whole screen.
OK it's not too bad with widescreen stuff, DVD's etc, but it's just not the experience I was expecting.

The next options are basically to spend another £300 on a Sky HD box (and £10/month subscription) or maybe a Xbox360 for he DVD aspect - there are other less expensive HD DVD options but I like the thought of using the Xbox360 as a media extender and going with Windows MCE 2005 on my PC.

In summary, I'd recommend the HD LCD TV if you have Sky HD or do lots of XBox360 gaming, otherwise I'd skip it.

Alastair Mitchell Hughes (aka 'Wee Man')

Two weeks in and we are starting to remember how hard this stuff is...
- Feeding at all hours of the night
- Nigh on constant nappy changing
- Sterlizing and making up bottles

But neither of us would change it for the world. He is the spit of his big sister, very wriggly (more so than Ruby was) and that look on his face when he is well and truely zonked, head back, mouth open - Amazing !!

He's here !!

Born at 11:10am on Friday 1st September 2006. Weighing in at 8lbs 7oz and sporting a big pair of lungs, both he and mother are fine.

The bad news is that Sarah and I have both agreed that he doesn't look like a 'WILLIAM', so we'll have to be thinking of names over the next few days / weeks.

After months of debating, listing, reviewing, comparing and disagreeing and with only 3 weeks to BoB Day (Birth of Baby day) we almost have a name for the new baby...

WILLIAM

Nest is well and truly built - the whole upstairs of the house has been redecorated, carpeted, walls knocked out and rebuilt, plastered etc etc etc in the last 2 months, all the necessary items have been purchased, hospital bag is packed, baby's clothes are bought, washed, ironed, folded and stored in the relevant drawer / chest.

Now it's simply a case of 'hurry up and wait'

We found out on 27th Dec that Ruby has a little brother or sister on the way.

3rd September is the due date (by our initial calculations)...

This morning, as usual I got up with Ruby at around 7am, took her downstairs whilst I made some tea and had a bit of breakfast.

I then spent 5 minutes teaching her how to do 'Eskimo Kisses' (rubbing noses together). She thought this was hilarious (she is only 16 months old currently) and remembered the word 'Eskimo'. Now every time I say it she rubs her nose against yours and laughs.

This may not seem a big deal, but what a great start to my day - I know it's going to be good and I hadn't even left for work at that stage...

Blank entry, simply to list out the categories.