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
——————————————————
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…

I also paid Maplins a visit as well and got some books on robotics, soldering and electronics, as well as a book on oscilloscopes, which sparked my interest since I studied at Greenwich.  I also got another set of LED Safety Glasses (which are gonna be modded, leaving the first ones I bought intact) and also an Audiophile 2496 audio card, which I was hoping to use for helping me with music composition at a later date, although it would be more nice just to have something professional to use with MIDI.  The problem is however that it needs audio cables, and while I do have them, I don’t have the space for them, so I’m either going to have to locate an external version of the card or make the space.  It’s occurred to me that I have also lost my reciept so I need to goo looking for it, damn.  That aside, I may have to just accept that this may be the best card for my price range (I don’t want to pay a lot more to be honest) and get a Game Port to USB adaptor, which to be honest may not be a bad idea, seeing as they’re cheap enough at 8 quid each!  I really only wanted that expensive card for the built-in MIDI port, and considering I can have a decent audio card with a cheaper separate bit, it may be best off just going down this route.  I have too many game controllers that require Game Ports to just drop the idea; I didn’t realise till much later that I had no MIDI port on my soundcard!  Another bonus as well is that it has some composing software with it, as well as some loops, so that’ll help me some more.

I think I could do with regorganising my PC both inside and outside, as there’s cables everywhere!  I have also been considering moving my router downstairs as well, so I can free up some space on my storage cabinet.  On that note as well, I should consider getting myself a printer server so I can use the printer with the network.  It might also be in my best interests to get an Ethernet-over-Power adaptor as well as although my desktop will have a wireless card in it, I will most likely want to wire it up too!  And if I don’t use it on the PC, it was going to be used on the PS3 as the wireless is notoriously unreliable on it, although that may be due to the fact that it doesn’t like AES encryption for some reason.  Perhaps this will be rectified in another update, but for now it’s damn annoying!  I phased out 802.11b and WEP in my network, due to both security and practicality issues… the majority of my devices are G compatible, and use WPA/WPA2 although my laptop is N, but I dunno if it’s been standardised yet, not that it’ll be beneficial to me, to be honest as most of my devices are G.  I was going to use a USB stick as an AP (access point) for my older DS games as it seems that the DS games only support B and WEP which I think is rather silly, but I can’t do a lot about it to be honest… oh well.  Moving my router downstairs would allow me to wire up my PS2 and PS3, thus bypassing the need for wireless.  Although I don’t know why I’d put my PS2 online as I’ve got no games that support the feature!  I prefer wireless (despite the insecurity of it), seeing as it means that I don’t have as many wires about and it keeps the place tidier.

Something tells me though that when I do decide to move the router, I’m going to have immense fun rearranging the place, seeing as I want to make the wires look as inconspicious as possible.  I already have a wire untangled from when I wired up my laptop (in my bedroom) to the router in the study although that just barely reached and I had to move the router as it was a foot short!  It was 3 foot short for if I wanted it on my lap in bed so I had to switch to the wireless again, after I worked out why it ouldn’t connect!  It is nice to know that I’ve learnt more about networking and computer hardware over the past few years so I know more or less what I’m doing now!  I’m best off doing all this when I return home though as the PC will be off, though I’m thinking it’ll be worth the extra hassle of moving stuff around.  The only problem is though that the router has a tendancy to reboot itself every now and again.  The other problem is that I’d have to remember to install the network card or use my laptop till I do install it in my desktop!  And while I think about it, I want another bookcase in my living room for additional storage of things although I’d only need a half-height one this time around.  That said though, the more I think about it, the more I think I might need to do some  interior redesign to be able to store stuff better.  Moving the router and my NAS drive certainly would be a few steps in the right direction, although I’m not 100% sure of where to keep them.  Either way, I think all my wires definitely need tidying up;  I could put 2 of my PC speakers on the wall behind my screen to make a tiny bit of space as well.  It does look like this will require quite a bit of thought.

The ultimate aim is to make a bit more space than I have now, or rather additional space.  It’s times like these make me wish I owned my own place as opposed to renting as it’ll be a pain having to restore everything in the future.  But enough about my living space (I do want to eventually show off some pics of the place later when I’ve organised it more), I’m going to talk more about my DC3 idea.  For those of you new to the DC concept, and also what happened to the first two, I need to talk about it some more…

The DiggerCast (DC) was a podcast that had kind of random beginnings.  Back in 2005 or 2006, my friend Sean and I were on Skype, where he was testing his audio equipment and we were testing the recording function.  I suggested we try out a podcast, and the DiggerCast was born.  I registered the domain diggercast.com and Sean hosted the site on his space.  He also produced the first podcast as well, though unfortunately we never did any more after that.  Also the original, undedited content is no longer existant. , which is a shame but it was too large to keep.  Phase II, as I referred to it as was to be revival with a new member of the team, Mark (from thelongmile.net) joining us.  We managed to record some semi-rough drafts for the series, but again it didn’t take off, despite all the hype I was giving about the releaunch.

It was between the first and second phases that I renamed the DiggerCast to the NotCast, as the domain was unable to be registered, as I let it lapse by accident.  Anyway, I subsequently re-aquired and renamed the NotCast back to the DiggerCast and I’ll be keeping the domain for the forseeable future.   Anyway, those Phase 2 attempts will be uploaded on the new site when I get that up after I return from Ireland and after the next blog entry meaning anytime between the 15th and the 28th.  The 3rd attempt is perhaps the most ambitious version of the project, and maybe the final one if it doesn’t work out.  This means I’m being both ambitious and cautious at the same time, and making sure the concept and premise are both rock solid.  This means that the official recording won’t be starting till sometime in the next year.  There’s also the fact that there’s going to be some content that needs to be put on the site first and this is where many people will be needed to help.  Essentially, the concept of this phase of the DiggerCast is thatthere will be a few blogs, he first one being the main site itself, which will have a forum plugin and also a social bookmarking plugin.

This will mean then that as opposed to getting stuff to talk about from the likes of Slashdot, Digg.com and similar sites (as was the case with the 2nd phase), we get stuff from the site proper and talk about the top 5 or 10 links posted by the users.  The format of the podcast will most likely be a 30 minute podcast about the top content for the past two weeks, though the podcast will always be two weeks behind the site content.  I’m still trying to work out the nitty grity of it all, but what will happen is the following:

Let’s say that each month has 28 days for simplicity…. not that I’m sure if this is going to be simple to explain or not!  Anyway, say we have to talk about content from the 1st-14th of the month in the podcast.  The podcast wouldn’t be released till the 28th of the month, though thinking about it maybe I can shift it to the 21st.  The idea essentially being that we get 1-2 weeks to read up on the content and associated comments, discuss it amongst ourselves a little, write it all down, then also do recording and production on the podcast.  This could possibly be done over a single week, although I’m still trying to sort out the finer points, especially in the interests of being consistant with having a podcast at a regular frequency.  Another alternative is that once a month, the podcast gets posted, at the end of the first week of each month, which summarises last month’s content and about 5 weeks of comments.  The only problem there is that we’d possibly have to do it for an hour, or just focus on the top 5 or 6 posts for the month so it can be fir into half an hour.  Bleh, so much to think about and decide!

Anyway, why I need people’s help is that I would ask you to sign up to this site when it’s released to the world officially, but only if the idea interests you.  I’m not forcing you to sign up if it doesn’t interest you, especially as the content of the podcast is based upon what users contribute to the site and it’s all well and good having lots of users, but if hardly any of them post it won’t work too well.  In this case it’s quality over quantity.  If you have any friends that may be interested as well, you can point them to the site to see what they think of it.  Perhaps the idea has been done before, but I’d like to try it out for myself.  Even if you don’t want to sign up to the site, I’d appriciate suggestions as to what I could do with the format or recommended software for using this with.  At the moment, I plan to use WPMU with a forum plugin, a social bookmarking plugin and also a podcasting plugin.  For the podcast itself, I’d be using Prettymay Call Recorder, Skype and Audacity.  The idea is still in flux atm, and I haven’t worked out some of the finer details, or how to summarise the concept, so I’m just doing a brain dump in here.  Again, I’d appriciate any suggestions or comments on the idea and if you have any questions, ask away as it might help me to focus better.

I’ll stop talking about this idea for now, as I think I’ve said enough about it for now.  I’ll reveal the name for the site in a follow-up entry, but seeing as I was supposed to post this yesterday, I’m gonna pick up the pace.  I want to mention as well that I got a good deal at Game for Lord Of The Rings Online Vols. 1 & 2, along with a 60 day game time card.  I got them both for 25 quid, which is cool.  I’ve been wanting to play LOTRO for quite a while, so this is a great time for me to try it.  I might actually report on it at a later stage as well when I get to grips with it.  I’m also reordering my blog a bit too, as there’s some blogs that I list that haven’t been updated in a while and also a few things that are redundant which I’ve not even fully looked into.  I’m also aware that this blog is a bit of a melting pot of my ideas and thoughts and everything else put into the one place, which isn;t necessarily a bad thing, but I feel I could do with some better segregation in the new future.  Something tells me that I won’t get it till at least the next year, when my games blog is up and running.  There will certainly be a reduction of categories and tags when I’ve finished with revamping the blog, as well as also checking out the links.  I’m also going to work out how to use the trackbacks properly as well and start linking people’s blog entries.  I’m relatively new to proper blogging, so I’m bound to have a few rough patches here and there.  One thing I do need to look at though is moving stuff from my Blogger blog to here, and stuff from my GameTrailers blog to my games blog.  I also intend to have a paranormal-type blog as well where I’ll muse about paranormal stuff and anything I’ve done in relation to rhat field.  Keep in mind that the frequency will be semi-regular, much like what I plan my Project and Experiment blog to be.  Still, it might be worth a look if you’re into things that go bump in the night.

It’s funny that with a lot of these things I’m doing, I’m seemingly spreading myself thin, when the actual fact of the matter, I’m essentially just streamlining and regulating my posts so there’s consistancy behind them.  I do admit I have a lot of free time at the moment, but I am gonna start occupying myself more over the next year.  I’m also, finally going to the gym, although I will miss out on about a week of it due to going to Ireland, but when I return it’ll be a bit easier to do, apart from at Christmas.  I’ll be glad when I streamline this blog a bit better though, as it means that I won’t have as many huge posts to worry about as my average post seems to run up to about 3-4000 words!  I seem to have a lot to say, that said.  If I could focus this tendancy to write 2000+ words into my academic work, I’d be doing well!  I may have to consider the 1 post a week method in the new year, so I can average out the words making sure there’s less to read, and slowing down my rambling.  It is just as well that I separate stuff with paragraphs as I write as reading this without paragraphs would be a nightmare!

I’m gonna finish off here, and continue the once every two weeks posting until February next year, where I’ll reevaluate things.  It’s going to take me some time to settle into the patterns of writing, to be honest.  I will also try to keep things a little less verbose in the future, as well as starting to include links and publishing on time!  I am thinking that once a week may become a more viable option though, especially given my short memory!  Well, thinks can only improve, especially when I’ve nailed this blog down.  In the grand scheme of things though, a blog is one of the easier sites to manage; I kept this blog simple as all I needed it for was writing mainly, although my Twitter and Flickr are linked into them for practical purposes.  Rome wasn’t built in a day though, so I can’t expect to see instant improvement.  In the future, I’ll try to make the blog more about my opinions on stuff, with some links to read, as opposed to what I’m working on.  I may actually make a blog for that on my secondary site, so I can talk about stuff there in a bit more detail, as it seems that I talk about what I’m working on more than anything else when that’s not what this blog is supposed to be about mainly… I think I’ll need to think about things a lot, to be honest.

Anyway, that’s it for now.  I’d appriciate your comments on the DiggerCast 3 project, as well as suggestions for it (how many times have I asked that now?) as I want to start seeing what I could do to make the site as good as it could be, although requirements do change given it’s a dynamic project.  Keep in mind that I may not be able to implement the suggestion right away, or even for the DC, though it may fit in elsewhere.  I’ll inform you of this though.