I figured that I should probably get this post out there before it’s more or less been a month since I last posted! I swung round here to see when I last posted and I was a bit surprised that I haven’t been posting for longer than I initially thought, or perhaps it was about three weeks since I last posted… I’m not too sure on dates, but I suppose that’s besides the point now. This posting frequency is kind of a bit my sleeping patterns: can be consistant for a while, then goes all over the place. But I’ve been thinking. Seeing as I obviously can’t post regularly for too long I may as well play upon the random randomness a bit more… the random rendomness initially pertained to the fact that I could write about anything, but I may just apply it to posting frequency too; I’ll aim for at least 2 posts a month, in keeping with some consistancy, although when they will be, I’m not totally sure. Helpful, I know but considering I flopped at doing consistant updates for more than a month and a half, I figure that the consistant date thing isn’t working for me. There;s also the fact as well that I’m terrible at making note of things, so if I get a burst of inspiration for writing, I have to put it down ASAP, else I forget the initial thread, which means I have nothing to write about and being totally honest, I’d rather have a semi-consistant amount of content with random updates, as opposed to having a less consistant amount of content and regular updates.  How do you guys deal with updating regularly?  I know you’re meant to, but do you even bother to update on a pre-defined day, or do you just write whenever the mood takes you?  I’m clearly the latter, rather than the former… and I finally understand the difference between latter and former, properly so yay!

Anyway, Even though this blog is more about what I’m thinking, I figured I should at least start doing a cursory glance at what I plan to do over the next month…

First of all, I decided in the interests of putting less strain on this PC, I’m using a spare one that I have for music production and programming/development.  Of course, what I’ll be doing webserver wise is using a USB server on a stick, to make sure stuff such as Apache and MySQL don’t take up system resources, unless I need them to.  Of course, that being said, I may end up using the PC for internet radio as well seeing as it requires MySQL to run.  I guess this then means that this PC will be my PC only for entertainment and downloading.  Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just realised that most likely anything involved with multimedia production and programming will be on the second PC now, with this essentially being mostly for games.  I shelled out 40 quid on a few bits for both PCs to help facilitate some of the above…

1 x Gold 3.5mm Stereo Jack Socket to 2 Phono RCA Plugs Adapter Cable (K006) = £0.69
1 x USB Joystick Converter 15 pin Game Port to USB (USB-Nest) = £8.37
1 x USB Mouse to PS/2 PS2 6 pin Plug Adapter Convertor GREEN (333962) = £1.27
1 x 2 Port Auto KVM Switch – Built in USB Hub for Sharing USB Devices (MPB068A-1) = £19.57
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Sub-Total: £29.90
3 Day Courier Delivery (Usually within 3 days Courier Service – Not Royal Mail): £4.49
VAT 15%: £5.16
Total: £39.55

Gotta love the fact that VAT adds a fairly sizable chunk to my bill.  But yeah, I only initially wanted to get the top one, but then I realised that I could get everything else I wanted too; the KVM for switching between the production and entertainment PCs (although I may have to use the classic VGA connection now); the adapter cable to go with the second one that I have that’ll convert the 4 RCA ports on the back of my Audiophile to 2 3.5mm stereo jacks (I know it’s not ideal, but I can’t have 2 huge sets of speakers up here! – I’m also using some cheapy ones from PoundLand for the time being till I can get some half-decent smallish ones); then the Joystick converter which is mainly for my gaming system, seeing as I discovered my production PC has its own MIDI port, which is gonna be useless gaming-wise (my MIDI controller is USB as well, so it’s gonna find little use) and lastly the USB to PS/2 mouse converter, so I can free up a USB port.  I’m not actually even sure if there’s any real benefits of using a mouse in USB over PS/2 although it’s nice just to have it lying around anyway.  That said though, the KVM switch is going to host the mouse, keyboard and monitor so I could always just hook the mouse back up to USB.  I’m also moving my router and network drive downstairs sometime soon in the interests of regaining space.  More than likely, I’ll have to switch my PC off and reorganise all the cables but it’s a good time to do so.  I’m going to also be using my spare HDMI TV as a secondary monitor, as it’s just lying there right now with nothing to do.  It also means that I don’t have to go downstairs in order to switch over to something “important”, which invariably happens on the IRC networks that I hang out on.  One thing I also planned to do was stick my 2 rear spakers to the wall, thus freeing up more desk space.  The centre and front speakers are fine where they are, but the back speakers make things a little crowded, I feel.

Once I move my router downstairs though, I can wire up the PS3, although the desktops will have to go wireless, as I don’t need cables to be trailed round the place as it makes things look messier, plus it’s a bit dangerous and I don’t think the cables reach that far anyway.  Either way, it’s going to be much nicer here when I get everything sorted out; the PS3 is already connected to a CAT6 for when the router goes downstairs and it’s mostly hidden as well, although I need to make sure it stays on the ground when it goes under the door.  I may also have to slightly shigt the PS3 in a bit to make sure that there’s enough slack for the cable.  Either way, there’s going to be a hell of a lot to do.  I did try to upgrade my PS3 40GB’s HDD yesterday, but it turns out I needed a 2.5GB SATA drive, go figure.  The RAM I got didn’t work either as I needed DDR and I bought DDR2, doh!

Anyway, I went back that evening to get replacements and ended up having to buy another 1GB for my music PC, though depending on certain factors, I might have to get another 1GB.  If that’s the case, the 512MB I have spare may not be of any use to me any more, unless it works in the spare base unit that I’ve got, then I can use that as practice for the CompTIA I eventually plan to take.  I’m not going to lie… this entry has been written over 2-3 days, so if anything seems a bit inconsistant, you now know why!  With this in mine, I may as well mention the hassle of upgrading my PS3 hard drive… it wasn’t getting the old drive out or the new drive in that was the problem… it was getting the frame holding the drive in!  The screws are really tight and all the screwdrives I had wouldn’t let me take it off!  In the end, I had to use my powered one although it’s just as well I had one to be honest or I’d not have been able to replace the hard drive easily!  I am hoping the old one is still okay as I touched the connectors a couple of times, whoops.  The next thing I need to sort out is my RAM for my desktops although I really don’t want to do that today… I need to go and reinstall/re-download everything on my PS3, and patch up my games.  For some bizarre reason though, I have problems staying connected to PSN since the 3.10 update although I have downloaded some thing s so far.  Wireless was being a pain, so I had to use the guest access on my router (really handy to have) to get the PS3 online.  It worked, but the problem now is that I can’t have access to my media drive!

That said though, this is a temporary solution while I work out how to reorganise my flat… I think it’s likely that a trip to Ikea’s in order, so I hope I have the money!  For starters, I am gonna have one of those really thin bookcases, so I can store a few extra things behind my large one.  Then I also want another bookcase for my living room, so I can keep some more stuff there, as it looks likely that I’ll need to expand my space for DVDs, though it may be more likely that I put my games on it instead, as I have quite a few of them.  I’ll think of something, albeit next year.  I’ll also need some shelving to sort a few things out with as well; I certainly see a few places where a shelf could fit.  Sometimes I wish I owned my own place instead of renting, then some of these concerns wouldn’t be as big, seeing as when I move out of here one day, I’ll have to fill up all the holes I’ve drilled and give the whole place a new lick of paint!

The RAM, for those who are curious, has not been sorted out as of yet, though it will be eventually.  Moving on swiftly to the DiggerCast (DC) and other podcasts and Stormhaven Radio (SHR), I’ve decided that for now that I’ll just work on the DC, and have those due to appear on either SHR or other podscasts I plan to do to appear on the DC instead till things are sorted.  The draw for this is that there will be different people each time it’s recording, although it’s the same group of people doing it.  Essentially, it all depends on who is around at the time, although I’m gonna cap the amount of people at no more than 4, and consider doing it once a week, for 30-40 minutes an episode, although there will be some pre-planning before then.  The format harks back to the initial podcast (and the only released one!) which was “popular” (we only had a few fans as only a few people heard it) because of the banter between myself and Sean.  I’m hoping that what made the original funny will make this one as funny, if not funnier.  The concept essentially revolves around the team digging up a website and talking about it for the podcast, although that said, the stuff talked about may not necessarily be about the site!

The websites aren’t generally the usual ones either, as they’re generally places like failblog.org, thisiswhyyourefat.com and overheardinlondon.co.uk, just to name a few, which gives rise to the catchphrase “We dig up the craziest parts of the web!”.  I actually have a list of sites that I’ve dug up specifically for it and in the interests of amusement, I’m going to use something that randomly picks out a website for us “on the air”.  While there’s a possibility that sme of the people have been on the sites before, some others might not have and the content is usually updated anyway, so there should be something for everyone.  Even better is that none of this is scripted, so what you here will be genuine reactions to what people see.  There are other considersations in this I’m sure, but I’ve not thought that far ahead; it can wait till I’ve recorded a few sample episodes.  This format is about the only way I thought that could capture the original feeling of the DiggerCast, given I had tried to find a place for it to go, and although the technology reporting approach might work, at the same time, I think it’s not what the DC is about.  I intend to upload the “drafts” of the DC that was recorded under the “techcast” format, seeing as I think it’s important to both indicate that some headway was being made (even if it flopped) and also to get feedback on what could have been.  Keep in mind though that they’re rough, so they’re not going to be perfect.

Because of a brand new format, I’m actually going to be shunting all the DC content to its own WPMU blog and having an archive for each “phase” of the DC, just to show the differences between them.  Officially, while this format is meant to be phase 4, phase 3 ever amounted to much so instead it’ll be phase 3.5.  I don’t think I even mentioned phase 3.0 other than here anyway, so it’s likely that it will have no other mention other than here, meaning that there’s only 3 complete phases.  Given that 3.0 never made it off the drawing board, asides from a few chats with people, it makes sense to call this one phase 3.5 as it’s a refinement of phase 3.  It also includes a few elements from the first one, although mostly it has its roots in phase 3.

The main points of this one are indicated below (with the phases that they were taken from):

• The banter between hosts (1)
• The randomness of choosing websites (1) – though this time it’s a single one chosen by a computer
• Bringing in guests (3)
• Users being able to interact more with the podcast, such as suggesting a website to go to (3)
• Having more than 2 hosts (2)

There may be more there, but those are the main ones I can think of at the moment.  As for why this isn’t going on the DC website… well, it’s not up yet properly, then there’s the fact that I’m gonna continue the old “everything on this blog” format until the new year.  I figure that by that point, I’ll have my project blogs up anyway, so can start talking about my projects more.  This, as I’ve said before is going to be more for my opinions, musings and rants on various things.  There is also the fact, which I sort of touched upon previously is that I’ve nowhere to put this sort of stuff yet, so I may as well mention what I have planned out.  Hell, maybe someone finds my randomness interesting.  On that thought though, going back to this blog… and more than likely closing off this entry, I figure that if I consistantly say that I’ll type up an entry at least 2 or 3 times a month, whenever I feel I want to blog should be enough warning.  Besides, I’m pretty random in terms of stuff anyway, so predictibility isn’t my strong suit.  I should also mention, while I’m talking about my blog is that I’ve made a few changes to my blogroll and have added and removed people.  One person I’ve added is Glen McNamee, who goes under the nickname C64Glen.  He’s mentioned me a few times in his blog now and I’ve not had a chance to mention him as of yet (although some of you may have found this blog through him), so I figured that now’s a good time as any!  I’m going to have to think a bit more about what I plan to do with my blog in the future, as I think that I should be able to expand the scope of it, although I do at least want to move my projects and experiments elsewhere so I can expand on them more without me feeling that the project is the whole point of the post, as usually it isn’t; as if I havent’ said it enough already, I want to use this blog more for my thoughts, musings, opinions and rants on things as opposed to what I do.  I’m still only starting out properly with blogging, so you’ll have to forgive my roughness at the start.

I am also trying to work out how these Trackback things work as well, although in the future I do hope to start referencing people’s blogs and read more of them.  I’ve referenced C64Glen’s latest post as I’m not sure if you can reference a blog itself, but then there is also the fact it’s a post mentioning a wolf (of the Courage sort), so it’s not a bad post to reference to be honest.  Also, now that I remembered it, I’m gonna be working on a “40 things” list, as I had talked about it.  I need to go and see a few more to be honest, and I want to start from February, as that’s always been my “New Year”.  Additionally, given that I do like to read but haven’t done it properly in a while… as penance for my lack of reading on the whole (though I have read 3 books within the past couple of weeks) I’ll tackle the top 200 list.  I’m still trying to work out if I can count the first “book” of “His Dark Materials” as read (same for The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe), given I haven’t read it in a while.  I may just start with a clean slate to be honest; at least then I can properly say I’ve done it.  I do have a handful of those books already, so at least I can get started somewhat straight away.  Given that I’m a pretty fast reader, though I intend to take breaks, or read them a little bit slower, I imagine I can finish the 200 in less than 3 years, even if I do end up straying.  I suppose though it all depends on what I’m trying to accomplish.

I may also sign up to 43 things for ideas on what I could do, as although I’m not completely aimless, I’d have a little difficulty coming up with 40-43 things to actually accomplish.  Some things though, I’m going to combine as one thing, either because they make sense to, or it’s a case of redoing something something I lost, such as a language.  Still, it’s food for thought as to what I want to accomplish.  In the meantime though, I’m gonna have a quick look at my blog to see what I can do to tidy it up some more… I will give the list some thought though as I already have an idea of a few things I want to do. I should also remember to change my email address too, now I’ve set up Google Mail for this domain!

Watch this space for developments…