Sean June 12th, 2007
The following was filmed yesterday at Apples WWDC conference.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvuTtrkVtns]
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvuTtrkVtns
At last! iD is producing a game engine than can handle outdoor areas and is actually LIT for a change! 
Sean May 31st, 2007
This is just a quick test post written using the new Windows Live Writer beta.
As I’m writing this, I’m looking at a WYSIWYG view of pretty much what my post will look like on the site - Complete with CSS styles etc applied.
Seems pretty funky and so far is much nicer to use than the Wordpress built-in editor.
Sean March 1st, 2007
This morning I realised my Outlook PST files had not been backed up since I upgraded to Outlook/Office 2007. It seems that the backup addin stops working after an upgrade.
A quick Google search led me to this information:
Here’s how to get the free Personal Folders Backup tool from Microsoft installed and working in Outlook 2007:
Once you have the add-in installed, you should be able to choose File | Backup on Outlook 2007’s main menu and set your backup options.
It’s worth adding that if you’ve already got the addin installed, at step 3 you should run pfbackup.msi to uninstall the addin first and then re-run the installer to install it again.
Sean January 30th, 2007
Just a few quick notes on how I got a CentOS v4.4 Xen dom0 to boot inside a VMWare Server VM…
yum install bridge-utils SDL
rpm -ivh xen-3.0.4.1-1.i386.rpm kernel-xen-2.6.16.33-3.0.4.1.i386.rpm
vi /etc/yum.conf
Add:
exclude=xen xen-kernel xen-devel kernel
mv /lib/tls /lib/tls.disabled
mkinitrd -f -v --preload=scsi_mod --preload=sd_mod --preload=mptbase --preload=mptscsih --preload=mptfc --preload=mptspi /boot/initrd-2.6.16.33-xen_3.0.4.1.img 2.6.16.33-xen_3.0.4.1
vi /boot/grub/grub.conf
Add:
 title Xen v3.0
 root (hd0,0)
 kernel /xen-3.0.gz noreboot dom0_mem=128000
 module /vmlinuz-2.6-xen root=/dev/VolGroup00/root
 module /initrd-2.6-xen.img
Reboot!
Sean January 23rd, 2007
I’ve just upgraded to Outlook 2007 and while I mostly like the new interface, I’ve come across something that bugs me…
In previous Outlook versions, I’ve always modified the toolbar to add a button for “Next Item in Conversation Topic”. This option allows you to easily follow threads on mailing lists or private email conversations.
This option still exists in Outlook 2007, but you can no longer customise the new “Ribbon” interface - You can only modify the “Quick Access Toolbar”.
On to my annoyance… If you add a command to the QAT that doesnt have a default icon associated with it you get a green disc icon instead - An icon that as far as I can see, you cant change! (If someone knows different - Let me know!)
If you happen to want to add more buttons to the toolbar, you’d better hope they’ve all got icons associated or you’ll just have a toolbar full of green blobs!
Sean November 14th, 2006
Looks like Happy Beggar might have a half-decent solution to the Xbox 360/WMV Transcoding problem: Encode360
I’ll probably give this a go at some point, but I doubt its going to replace Xbox Media Centre sat on my old Xbox…
Sean November 4th, 2006
The Clicker: Dear Microsoft, “help me help you.” - Engadget
Earlier this week Microsoft rolled out their highly-anticipated Xbox 360 update. The update was chock full of bug fixes and new features. However, to me, one of the most exciting new features was their long-overdue update to the 360’s UPnP client. That’s right; they finally added the ability to stream video from your computer to the 360. While it’s technically always been possible to stream (using the 360’s Media Center Extender technology), the new update gives the masses who aren’t yet using a Media Center box a quick and easy way to stream video to the television. Or does it?
On the surface it’s quite an exciting turn of events. However, as many now know all too well, there’s just one problem: it only supports WMV. There’s no DivX support. There’s no H.264 support. There’s just WMV. Now, I’m sure that there are many purists out there reading this right now who are flat-out appalled by this decision. The anti-Microsoft crowd (you know the type — they’re the ones who think it’s still clever to say Micro$oft) are quick to malign anything not open source and/or anything Microsoft. Frankly, I’m not one of those people. I respect Microsoft’s decision to not pay licensing fees to each of the different codec companies. In the end, the decision keeps the price of the unit down. However, there is one HUGE caveat:
Microsoft, you have got to make it easier to transcode into WMV.
Sean October 30th, 2006
James Senior has updated his Microsoft TechNet blog with captures of the Windows Vista sounds we can expect to here…
Sean October 21st, 2006
I’ve been having problems signing into my profile in MSN/Live Messenger on my home pc for the last week or so. Leelas profile worked fine, but for some reason when I tried i’d get the rotating pawn icon and there it would stay…
I subscribed to Ed Botts blog in Bloglines this morning and came across a post he made where he was having a similar problem.
Yesterday, I sent a note to support and got the suggested fix within a few hours. Open Regedit and delete the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\MSNMessenger\Policies
After doing that, I was able to sign in again. If you’re having this problem, maybe the same fix will work for you.
The fix worked for me!
Sean October 14th, 2006
This evening I’ve made the decision to stop using Googles blogger.com for my blog management and Fotopic for my photo hosting.
I dont update this page very often, but whenever I’ve felt like adding something blogger.com has been really sluggish. So, this evening I’ve decided to give WordPress a shot. Being able to manage posts directly on my own server is so much nicer and quicker than using a really slow 3rd party server which then uploads the changes via a really slow FTP connection…
I’ve been a Fotopic member since April 2003 and they’ve been great the whole time I’ve used them. However, I’ve now got oodles of spare disk space in my server so it makes sense to use some of it I’m now using Gallery2 to host my photos and so far I’m very pleased with the results.
I suppose the default templates for Wordpress & Gallery look ok, but at some point I’m going to have to break play around with them…
Sean November 23rd, 2004
