Steve's Blog

PlayStation.com - PSP

I actually got a Japanese Import from Play Asia which was the value pack which included various extras and Ridge Racers (the game).

The PSP is lovely and the screen fantastic. To be honest I haven't played with it much, but the graphics are amazing and though obviously not real, the 3D graphics are pretty realistic.

Unfortunately though I've told the system that everything should be in English, some game bits still seem to be in Japanese, which means I cant read them.

It comes with WiFi support (again not tried yet) and can be used in AdHoc mode for PSP to PSP gaming or through an access point. There's a USB connector (though there doesn't seem to be a USB cable supplied) and a memory stick slot (supporting memory stick duo).

As soon as some UK games come out. I'll write an update, hopefully they'll work as the UK is region 2 as is Japan. I really think Sony have come out with a winner here, and though the Nintendo DS is out over here already, the PSP will knock it into insignificance as soon is it arrives on UK shores.

Sam's Archive

An interesting site on the destruction of the Earth (well what's the best method of doing so). Some are potentially based on scientific principles. Some of the ideas are really pure science fiction (and taken from science fiction books).

This leads directly on to a general annoyance when people say "we're destroying the earth". This is rubbish, whatever us feeble humans do the Earth will sit there and laugh at us. It's been through a lot more than we can throw at it in past times and will go through a lot more in future times.

Of course we might destroy many of the living species (including ourselves), but that's evolution for you. The dinosaurs were doing pretty well and along comes an asteroid and "makes their day", so by us messing up the environment we're just doing another species a favour and maybe speeding its evolutionary process. Maybe it'll be insects that evolve and become the next dominant life form, then they evolve and who knows what?

Just to sum up here's my theory of evolution on Planet Earth. It's all a big game as something always comes along to make a mess of life on earth whether a natural disaster or something made by the planet's inhabitants. So the evolution game, GET OFF Earth. Develop space travel or maybe some interdimensional transport system, it doesn't matter. Once your species has that ability it can leave before any natural or otherwise catastrophic disaster can destroy it.

Of course once you've left, you're probably going to want to come back again every once in a while and have a look at how things have turned out ...

Here's a nice Clown fish I took a picture of when on holiday diving. 

MINI.co.uk

Well I went and did it and purchased a car. I got a 2nd hand Mini Cooper S. Though not quite an Audi TT (which is the car I had when employed) it moves pretty well and insurance is a LOT cheaper.

It's got quite a few optional extras (some of which come as part of the Chill pack).

Why did I get a mini? They look pretty good, they run well and in terms of London parking, apart from a Smart Car, there's not much to beat them.

So all I need to do is give it a good run, which I guess I can do going to job interviews ...

Camden Council: Parking

Well I can honestly say I disklike Camden Council, they are unhelpful to the extreme.

Up until recently I had a job which came with a company car, I had a resident's parking permit. That was OK, my employer just provider a letter with a copy of the V5 (UK car registration document) that said I was the driver, and all was well. When my employment terminated, I gave back the car. I still have a valid permit, but no car.

Fortunately my sister (who is "burdened" with 8 month old twins, so doesn't get out much) leant me her car. All well and good. She even wrote a letter saying I had permanent use of it, and gave me a copy of the V5. Included in the letter was a statement saying my father is disabled and I'd be driving him around (he is genuinely registered as disabled).

I then went to the local Camden offices and presented the paperwork, hoping they'd transfer the permit to my sister's car, even just for a few weeks while I go for job interviews, and occasionally drive my father around.

Of course no such luck, they point blank refused. They will only issue permits for registered owners, hire cars and company cars (and of course all the other permits like businesses getting multiple permits etc). They wont issue permits for friends' or relatives' cars, that's the policy.

I wasn't amused, and complained to my ward councillor (who I must say was extremely helpful). Haven't heard a response yet, though I doubt they'll have much better luck unfortunately, especially since the councillors are having an ongoing battle with Camden about accountability of the Parking Solutions bit (i.e. there isn't any).

I've created a new blog, Euro Tech News. My personal blog will remain and I'll post anything that particularly interests me, but I'll use the new blog for more techy stuff.

Anyone syndicating this, please feel free to pick-up the new one, which will be much more industry focussed.

The URL for the new one is http://eurotechnews.blogspot.com

Steve

O2: The leading mobile phone site on the Web
O2 as they're now known as are a mobile operator in the UK. My ex employer recently moved their business to them and when I was made redundant I had to transfer my phone contract to a personal account.

I have two SIMs, one I use for everyday use in my phone, while the 2nd one is in my iPaq (6340 - I'll write something on that another time). When I was under a business contract the iPaq SIM was actually on a "Blackberry" rate, which is great, not much voice, but a fair ammount of data traffic per month. Unfortunately the Blackberry tarrif isn't available to "consumers" which I now fall into the category of.

This meant I had to chose two voice tarrifs and add a GPRS data bundle to one of them, a real pain as the ammount of data is severely limited, then they charge per MB (at an extorsionate rate).

They must understand more people are going to use phone for data use, even O2 sell a PDA (the XDA range), but as a consumer you cant get a data deal.

Another irritation is that they are billed seperately, I believe Orange are now offering a deal whereby you can have two SIMs using the same number (i.e. mobile number), which is perfect for a data user. Your main SIM goes in the phone and your data SIM goes into your PDA/Blackberry. Maybe I'm going to have to port ... of course this assumes that Orange's GPRS service works (I've heard bad rumours, but nothing specific).

We'll see how it goes and what my first bill is.