They’re stupidly named - nowt personal about a box that sits in the living room and which we fight over control of… but I finally gave in and bought a ‘Personal Video Recorder’.
Torn between the Topfield and the Humax, I plumped for the Humax - it was so much cheaper and I sense it’s easier to use - and as it’s less-hackable, less of a time-sink.
I think I made the right choice - on the downside, I can see why they it the ‘Hummy’ - it hums! I know two people who have them and I never noticed it before, but the fan is a bit louder than I’d hoped. On the plus side, it was a doddle to set up and use. Within no time I was watching back a programme that was still showing from the start, whilst recording another. And it felt good. I felt smug.
Of course, I couldn’t resist a fiddle. I’d heard Mac software for getting stuff off the Humax using its USB interface was about and this blog got me started. It seems to work - at least on a short clip - but it’s insanely slow, though - but that’s true of the Topfield as well. And even before I bought it, I’d decided that what gets recorded on the box, stays on the box…
I was going to write a small rant about Christmas tree lights (why wired in series, not parallel, etc) but they are almost all working now. A mere 7 bulbs replaced in one set, a mere hour and a half spent with a multimeter and some colourful language.
But, no, this is about toys. Long-time readers may remember my previous discussion about not liking Playmobil because of the amount of time it took me to build the pirate ship, compared with the small amount of time it took my children to demolish it.
This year Henry got the big Playmobil Subbuteo-style football game. Only took me about 15 minutes to put it together, using the usual nicely drawn graphic instructions. But the instructions on how to actually play the game - they’re in German.
Made me laugh almost as much as Mrs Blogmywiki insisting that Eau de Vie de Poire William was a light aperitif and turning the colour of Withnail drinking lighter fuel when she swigged back a capful.
Is it just me, or is the animated film Polar Express a nasty piece of work?
I watched it at the in-laws last year on DVD - I may have had too much goose and port but it made me feel sick. And it’s now showing in 3D at the IMAX cinema at Waterloo - that’s a great way to screw up your kids’ Christmas.
There’s just something sinister about it, and not sinister in a good way. Just bleak and scary with no shred of comfort. And not great to look at, either. Give me any old adaptation of A Christmas Carol, give me that cartoon of Oscar Wilde’s Happy Prince, but above all give me The Amazing Mr Blunden.
Someone was chucking this out - a G4 PowerMac with OS 8.6, a 10GB hard drive and 64MB RAM.
I spent £30 on 256MB more RAM, and stuck in it the 20GB hard drive I used to have in my BondiBlue iMac. Luckily this hard drive already had OS X on it, as this G4 doesn’t have a DVD-ROM drive. Made this drive the master, added the computer’s own drive back in as a slave, and now I have a pretty servicable computer in the back room for the kids and family - all for £30. The flooping huge Apple Studio Display gives a damn good picture too!
Still a few things to do - this is one of the very first G4 PowerMacs I think, and it only has a miserly 2 USB ports, so a USB hub is pretty essential. But it also has two Firewire ports and once I’ve flattened the 10GB drive I’m going to see if it’s up to some video editing. A DVD-ROM or CD-R drive would be cool too, if possible.
Recent Comments