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OK – I know the site is looking *very* dark right now – that’s not the end look I’m going for… but it’s all a work in process right now. Part of that process is trying to get technorati to recognise the site so I need to publich this short code 26J2WPQZ34SK so that they can validate my site…. I hope! I know – two posts within a couple of days… unheard of. And that’s what has set my mind to pondering – primarily, what is the purpose of this site? I admit I only registered the domain ‘cos I thought it sounded quite cool and I needed a new name to use in certain places out on teh interwebs I originally saw myself becoming some wonderful down-to-earth, geek-next-door type blogger – the kind of guy who everyone knows and who always gets asked to fix the annoying niggles. Along with a dash of humour, and some tech reviews. Unfortunately I just don’t have the type of time, or money, required for that kind of pursuit and it also doesn’t really fit in with where my heart is. And so I pondered and then came across an idea for what I really could use this for. I admit that I’m taking some inspiration here from the awesome Carlos Whitaker over at http://www.ragamuffinsoul.com who has such a great community of people with some superb discussions going on. After a bit of thought, and even more prayer – GeekTrek is going to change. Not evolve, comletely and utterly change. Once I get all the template laid out, widgets finalised and content fully thought through – GeekTrek is going to become a blog about a Christian guy in a Digital world. I plan on thinking through topics such as “how do social networks fit in with my life” all the way to discussions about using technology, media, software etc in a church environment (be it with a main congregation or in youth and childrens ministries) I hope that I’ll be able to build a bit of a community up to help people discuss issues, ideas and who knows what else. So, from the Tech focussed gadget man it is Farewell From the Christian geek with a passion for using technology to enhance and enrich the Church, and my own personal walk, it is a huge HELLO! Keep watching this space….. I did warn you updates would be few and far between – but I must confess I didn’t expect it to be over 6 months between updates! So – Gadgets… new toys I picked up one of the first HTC Hero handsets to hit the UK a while ago now. The handset itself runs the Google Android OS which has proven to be a totally superb and easily customisable platform and I have been totally ruined by it – forget any other phone now, until a revolution occurs Android is king. I got an iPhone at work the other week and it was interesting comparing the two – and whilst I can see some great features on the iPhone, it is destroyed by the Android OS. Completely. Utterly. Totally. DESTROYED! Apart from that there’s been no real new gizmos in the Geek house One things that is happening is I’m dusting off my old VB skills to develop a suite of Video and Audio tools for use at my local church. There is an excellent piece of Audio software called JazlerShow! which we have used extensively for years, but unfortunately it’s getting dated and doesn’t work reliably on Windows Vista, or at all really on Windows 7. It also is fixed to 800×600 resolution and screens are much bigger now so have more desktop real-estate to play with. They do provide newer, bigger packages – but these cost money and we don’t really need all the features the bigger suites offer. So, I’m in the process of coming up with a new tool for providing Audio access and also working on a Video counterpart to play simple VJ loops and music videos. Again, this is something we have had in the past at church but the free software we used is no longer available and we can’t fully justify the expense of professional VJ software (normally in the region of $250 at least) so it’s time for me to don my developers cap and crack on with developing Keep your eyes peeled over the coming weeks/months ‘cos I may well make them available to download here! Found it! The weather plug-in I mentioned in my last post can be found here: So, as previously mentioned, we got a nice new TV last week – an LG 32LH5000 full HD (1080p) with 100Hz refresh rate as well… and it is lovely! The quality of the picture is superb and the sound quality, especially compared to our old set that whistled all the while, is brilliant (although not as good as a dedicated 5.1 or 7.1 system would be – that’s my next major upgrade but don’t tell the missus To really make the most of it though we needed to get access to all the files stored on the central server – yeah, the tele does have USB and DivX support but that’s clumsy and relies on copying files. So, I got hold of a PC along with a nice ATI Radeon HD4670 graphics card (with HDMI port supporting video and audio) and built a Media Centre PC using Windows Vista. After a couple of days tweaking it and getting it just right we now have a great, quiet, system sat next to the tv which we are all getting used to and using for watching nice videos etc – some of which are either 720p or even 1080p quality The one tip that I came across that has proven really great is that you can give your videos their own picture image in the Video Library, rather than the arbritary snapshot that MCE sets up for you (and slows the system down when generating) – there are two ways of doing this: 1) Put each video in a seperate folder and put an image in that folder called folder.jpg – this is a standard tip for use within Windows anyway but then creates the thumbnail based upon the folder image. Nice, but a pain in the rear having to put everything in folders etc. The best option, imho, is 2) Save a file with the exact same filename as the video (but obviously with a jpg extension) in the same folder as the video and then this gets used by MCE. No need for seperate folders and the Video library then looks really good. So, about 15 minutes in google to download DVD covers or images from programmes etc and our Media Center started to look really neat. I also added in a freebie Weather add-in for MCE but can’t remember what it’s called right now so I’ll add that in later. |
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