After 19 days of this blog being online, I am very pleased to be able to say that my blog has now reached the 1000 hit mark!
Thank you to everyone who made this possible- whether it be by signing up to my RSS Feed, being referred to this site and returning, or just passing by or Stumbling.
A HUGE thank you to all of you!
Seb
A British teenager who bought a Sony PlayStation 2 on eBay for £95 ($194) got more than he bargained for when he opened the package. Instead of a shiny PS2 gaming console, there was a whole heap of euros – €65,400 ($90,000, £44,000) to be precise – stacked neatly inside. A spokesman for eBay said that the parcel’s contents were “somewhat unusual”, and that they would help the police in any way they could. When the parcel arrived, on March 20, the boy’s parents contacted the Norfolk Constabulary, who are now holding the money under the Proceeds of Crime Act. If the owner does not come forward by September 22, then the family can apply to have the cash returned to them – unless the police apply to hold onto the money for a longer period.
[Source: Gizmodo]
Red Interactive is a fun interactive site in which you can chat, punch people and fly around amongst other things. Although at first the idea sounds quite boring and uninteresting, but it proves to be really quite fun. Now, we all want to be different, and the guys at Red Interactive have let you be just that. There are secret characters enabled by codes you type into the chat box. As soon as you push enter, your character will change. If your character disappears, it will return within a few seconds as the new character. Have fun.
Had an enormous response from this post- thanks everybody! Keep your comments coming!
nay nay give me some hay = Ed (Horse)
dead men tell no tales = Nub (Pirate)
jiminy cricket! = Hopper (Cricket)
the last straw = Camel Joe (Camel Man)
surley you jest = Jester (Jester)
rumpelstiltskin is my name = Uncle Sam (Uncle sam on stilts, he wont speak a word)
may i please have some blueberry pie? = Gordon (Overweight man)
i shot a man in reno = Jailbird (Bring back the convict, man with ball and chain)
i dreamt i was a butterfly = Sun (Woman character that was removed, carries two fans)
happy halloween = Skeleton
smell my feet = Skeleton in miltary uniform and with a gun
trick or treat = Ghost (very cool) [Edit: it now seems that this one no longer works 
]
nay nay I never got any hay = Horse skeleton
the funk of forty thousand years = Skeleton in a suit
baby got back = Man giving a fat man with a sword a piggy back
yee haw! = Old cowboy with dual- wielded pistols. You can shoot at range with these!
the cat’s pajamas = Smartly dressed woman- hit people with your necklace!
long live the king = King- poke people with your sceptre!
in my knickers = Elk in clothes!
when the cat is away mice will play = Lionheaded man with a tail!
just a spoonful of sugar = Creepy lady with no head (this just scrolls through the standard characters for me- does it work for you?)
when pigs fly = Man riding a fat pig- jump up in the air with “home”!
Remember you can punch people with CTRL + SHIFT, do a special move only the character you have can do by pushing “Home” (e.g. the “trick or treat” ghost disappears) or move closer or further away from the screen with “Page Up” and “Page Down”. Obviously you move around with the arrow keys.
Thanks to all these people for submitting new ones as they come out: Jay, Sammy, Zigy, Lulzer, Nikki, TheNH, John and CraZynaHaS.
I was just browsing around when I found this picture, which I found made no sense as well as being pretty funny. It seems to be a guy dressed in a Darth Vader costume refilling a bottle by filtering it. Ok, he’s there, refilling a container with seawater. But why? What can that guy possibly be doing to make him get his water from the sea? Why did he have that filter with him? Why is he wearing a Darth Vader costume? What is going on here?
My blog has now reached 700 hits!
I’m sorry I haven’t been able to post lately, I have been really busy. Anyway, this post was really a thanks to all my visitors who have made this possible.
Don’t hesitate to write comments- just say hello if you have nothing else to say!
Thanks again,
Seb
Official Softpedia description:
“Royale Theme is a new theme, potentially destined for Windows XP, that has leaked out of Microsoft and onto the web. The theme appears to have come out of a beta version of Media Center 2005 that was in testing.
The theme is not a substantially different incarnation of theexisting of Luna, the current default theme for Windows XP. You can see the main changes in the screenshots below; one could describe it as being a ‘glass mod’ of Luna. As Microsoft knows, it is very hard to please everyone when it comes to themes. However, I think they can be reasonably certain that most people will like this new version of Luna.”
I was told about this theme while at a LAN party a few weeks ago, and have used it ever since. It is very similar to the traditional XP theme, but with an added glassy effect which is nice to see. It is 100% free and easy to install, but if something happens to your computer I am in no way responsible. Enjoy it!
Click here to download it from Softpedia.
Faulty batteries have burned down houses, furniture, personal belongings and the likes in the past, but they have never been known to claim a life, until now. It has been reported that a Motorola battery exploded killing the owner, Xiao Jinpeng, a welder. Xiao kept his mobile phone in his chest pocket, and it suddenly exploded when he was working at the plant. His colleagues suggested that it exploded because of high temperatures. The explosion broke his ribs and its fragments of the phone pierced his heart.
(Image used for illustration purposes only, not phone that killed Xiao.)
Motorola’s Bejing representatives are saying the company is being questioned over whether the man was using a fake Motorola phone or battery. An investigation by Motorola and Chinese authorities is going on, as if the man was using an authentic Motorola phone then the company is under threat of law suits…
Source: Newlaunches.com
Now, all you P2P internet television fans out there know how hard it is to get hold of invites to Joost, the internet television client developed by the same people who made Skype and Kazaa. I reviewed it a few days ago and now I have invites on offer. So, if you want invites, here’s all you have to do.
- Subscibe to my feed
- Write comments on what you think of what I have reviewed or written about
- Tell your friends about my blog and try to get them to subscribe to my feed
- If you have a website put a link on there (I will link to you too so more traffic for you)
- Finally, write me a post (send it to seb [dot] gray [at] gmail [dot] com) on what interests you (preferably in the technology field) that would be suitable for me to put up on my blog, credited to you.
Samsung has partnered with Korea university and developed the machine-gun equipped robotic sentry. It is equipped with two cameras with zooming capabilities one for day time and one for infrared night vision. It has a sophisticated pattern recognition which can detect the difference between humans and trees, and a 5.5mm machine-gun. The robot also has a speaker to warn the intruder to surrender or get a perfect headshot. The robots will go on sale by 2007 for $ 200,000 and will be deployed on the border between North and South Korea.
Reminds me of Number 5 in Shortcircuit!
I’ve just been browsing on Digg, and found this pretty shocking article:
“A flight nurse who had his head and right arm sucked through the broken window of an air ambulance at 20,000 feet said the hard shell of his headset frame may have saved his life.
Chris Fogg, 41, suffered lacerations on his head that required 13 staples. A chunk of flesh was also ripped from his arm.”
“ Fogg said he struggled to finally break the seal his body had formed against the window frame and pull himself back into the cabin. By then, he was bleeding heavily from the head and arm wounds.”
For the full story click here.
Well, looks like the VOIP (Voice Over IP [internet protocol]- basically the ability to talk in real time over the internet) revolution really is taking over. And why not? Cheaper prices, easy to use, sometimes even free, and now you can use it on your normal handsets! I have a Nokia N80 (see my previous post on the Nokia N80) which is great because as I mention, it has WiFi. Which means in a hotspot, it costs me absolutely nothing to connect to the web. Using the Nokia Phone Software (aka Firmware updater) I recently updated my firmware, and for some odd reason, I was updated to the Nokia N80ie (internet edition) firmware for free! Normally, an N80ie is more expensive and harder to get hold of than the regular N80. Therefore, I found this update as quite a pleasant surprise. What this firmware adds is an “Internet” folder in the menu and a nicer browser, but more importantly, VOIP support. The Nokia N80 runs on Symbian OS 9.1, meaning that it is completely expandable and lots of nice apps can be installed. Now, I am not quite sure what this “VOIP support” really means, as before performing this update, I was able to install an excellent app called Fring. Fring allows you to connect to your Skype client and use your Skype contacts, Google talk, MSN and SIP- and it’s free! This means that combining WiFi connectivity and Fring gives me free calls to computers and much cheaper calls to other phones using SkypeOut credit. You can call mobiles, text, landlines and even set up voicemail! So, Fring is very much recommended for Nokia S60 users.
Now the only major disadvantage I found with Fring was that bandwidth wasn’t quite enough, and sometimes the connection became dodgy and voices got choppy. But, I really have nothing to complain about, it was free, and is still in early stages.
So, when I updated my N80 to N80ie, I was able to install Truphone, another VOIP client for phones. Truphone works in much the same way and does many of the things Fring does, but I didn’t find it quite as functional as Fring as it did not connect to Skype contacts, and in the end the installation was so painful I gave up. I tried it on a friend’s phone, but still, the connection was dodgy so it really wasn’t any better than Fring. So Fring wins out of the two. But, things will probably improve, both services are still in BETA.
Both apps are free and are for S60 phones mainly, but are beginning to support other phones aswell. Both now support 3G aswell, but unless you are on a contract, this would not be free. Both companies are in close competition, and as I said, they are beginning to support more phones, but Fring definately wins with the support for Windows Mobile phones and more from the Nokia range. VOIP- the future of mobile phones?
Fring website: click here.
Truphone website: click here.
*Edit* Truphone voice quality after having re-tried it was I have to say much more impressive, and I am told by a commenter on this post that this is thanks to Truphones use of the AMR-NB codec.
*Edit* After having many problems with Truphone installation, the help desk contacted me and I have to say, they have to be one of the most resourceful and helpful helpdesks I have ever come across. I believe the problems I was having were due to problems on my own handset and with the WiFi infrastructure in my house, and so therefore these problems should not affect other people. As a few commenters have pointed out, and I have to agree, Truphone integrates perfectly with the OS, rather than being a standalone program like Fring, which tends to be more of an AIM kind of program rather than a VOIP client. Truphone calls are free to landlines (I am not commenting on tariffs or offers that may be available in the States, or anywhere else, as I live in the UK) and some mobile phones (some? I have not found any specification of what this some might be) untill December and if you sign up now you are given £2 credit. Voice quality is excellent although I have found once or twice that the voice has become choppy for about 30 seconds, then sorts itself out.
Taking all these points into account, I have to name Truphone the outright winner of this review, what with complete integration with the handset’s OS, great call quality pretty much all the time and cheap/free calls.
I have now decided to move to WordPress to host my main blog, thanks to the more advanced stats I get from it. Although I love the simplicity of Blogger, WordPress just gives me so much more. The only disappointment is that I don’t seem to be able to get any Google Adsense on WordPress, which is a shame. Anyway, for more up to date posts (I will still be blogging on Blogger, but I will gradually move to WordPress only).
Please don’t hesitate to make any suggestions, and please comment on my posts!
This week I’ve been hearing rumours that Jason Acuna (aka Wee man) who stars in the popular films Jackass: The Movie and Jackass Number two as well as the MTV series “Jackass” is dead. He apparently died after having tried to eat his own weight in salt as part of a challenge. So, when I got home, I did my research (I found this rumour very saddening- Wee man is awesome!) and found many sites claiming different facts about how he died, none of them agreeing. His official website (click here) writes as though he is still alive and does not make any suggestions of the contrary. Therefore, my final verdict on the matter is that Wee man is ALIVE.
Case dismissed.
Here are a few videos of him and some of his Jackass team in action:
Yesterday I was lucky enough to find an error on the Joost homepage and reported it to the Joost support team, who as a thank you sent me an invite to Joost!!! I have been waiting for an invite for months after having used Zattoo. Joost is made by the same people who made Skype and Kazaa and I must say although Joost doesn’t seem to provide live TV as in BBC1 etc like Zattoo, but it provides full episodes of popular programs in perfect picture and perfect sound. Full screen is really quite impressive and perfectly watchable. I am writing this entry from inside Joost thanks to its great number of widgets and interactive extensions. The interface is very Web 2.0 with transparent backgrounds and shiny buttons. I really think the Joost team have hit a winner here. Joost uses more bandwidth than Zattoo but by contrast I have not had one bit of lag while watching Joost programs. Joost on average uses 85 kb/s of bandwidth, which is no problem for me and my connection but perhaps a little hungry for those with smaller bandwidth allowances.
More Information about the program I was watching while writing this.
Title : World Strongest Man 2005 – Heat1 Part2
Description : Follow the World Strongest Man Competition 2005 – Heat1 Part2
