Ogg support for itunes/quicktime December 31, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Technology.add a comment
So I was downloading a file my mate recorded on his guitar, that he recorded as an Ogg. Great file format (nerd alert!), but it is not natively supported in itunes, for mac or windows. This website gives you a little install file (mac and windows) for itunes (and possibly quicktime – I would find out but that might require reading):
http://www.xiph.org/quicktime/download.html
For the mac install, once it mounts the drive, click on the mpkg file and it sorts out the rest for you. And just works 
Oh, and choose the links in the first box on the page. Requires quicktime 7.0 or later.
Vista December 28, 2006
Posted by metalsam in Technology.add a comment
So, M$ have finally got around to releasing Vista….well, sort of – home customers having to wait a few more months yet.
I got a chance to have a go on it at uni, my mate got it installed on his laptop thanks to a contact in the comp sci department. I have to say, it at least looks nice. Even if nothing works on it 
It has some very fancy graphics, reminisant of Xgl (Id be curious to know if Xgl development started before Aero and M$ stole the idea, or if they were seperately developed in parrallel.). After seeing the start bar, I felt like I was back using KDE !
However, in hte lecture theatre, we noticed that Vista had trouble to connect to a wireless network – something XP managed easilly. My powerbook had booted and connected before he had logged in A quick read on mstechtoday revealed that this was not an isolated problem. I seriously wonder how thouroughly M$ tested this OS before releasing it.
Good points abouth te OS ? Well, for those who have the hardware, Aero does seem very nice. Office 2007 looks pretty killer too. Also, the next version of DirectX is only going to be released on Vista, so if you want a new game, your going to need to buy Vista (and probably a new computer).
I guess my ‘review’ is slightly biased and based on 10 minutes of using Vista, and from what ive read in other blogs and articles. Im quite content with my mac though. No way in hell in going back to M$ after using this
Christmas time December 23, 2006
Posted by metalsam in General.1 comment so far
So Christmas is almost here (Its on MONDAY. You know who you are :p )
Just got back from town from buynig a few last presents. Been so busy lately!!
Ive been out most nights since I got back meeting up with friends and going to parties. Had hardly any time to work or play guitar 
I intend to spend most of next week and next next week revising during the day, play a bit of guitar in the afternoon. Give my liver a rest from university
Its strange being home…
Term 1 December 15, 2006
Posted by metalsam in General.1 comment so far
So term 1 is almost over, what a term!! One one hand I cant wait to go home, on the other my student accomodation now feels like home.
Went out last night with some housemates. Me and one other guy were wasted as fuck. However, I dont have a hangover this morning A mixture of drinking good whisky and drinking water before going to bed. We started out drinking at the house, then gota drink atthe Lowther before moving onto a club called gallery. They may have been bush jumping incidents on the way to the Lowther….
So today I got to finish off a question and assessment, then start packing. I think its quite unfair how much work I get (I wont have a real break until the summer holidays), compared to some of my housemates. Some of them finished last week
Christmas holidays hsould be good though. Get to see all my old mates again, write some material for hte band, and get some work done. I might even be able to fit in the odd day of casual labour to earn some beer money.
I need a shower now, will blog later 
blargh December 12, 2006
Posted by metalsam in General.add a comment
Not feeling too well today. I dont know if its the late nights or bad diet catching up with me.
Its the last week of term,s o Im trying to avoid buying any extra food – as a result Ive eaten a huge amount of rice, sausages and burgers recently. Might goto the cheap student cafeteria for dinner tonight (£3 / meal = ).
After finishing work last night ~ 9pm I gave garage band a good testing. The sound quality is very impressive. It imports midi files with drag and drop! Brilliant. Also means I can finally write some solos for my band’s songs now I can put backing tracks on
Downside of physics is lots of work. Most of my housemates have finished for hte term and effectively have the week off. However my workload has been doubled
Grr..two more lectures and a supervisor meeting left today. Cant wait to get home – parents coming to get me on saturday Also have two parties to goto saturday night
Spose I should get some lunch before my meeting…
mac attack ! December 12, 2006
Posted by metalsam in General.1 comment so far
I now running on a mac powerbook !
Big thanks to Ben for finding one for me and an ever bigger thanks to mr anonymous who donated it!
Now I can take my work with me, type up lecture notes etc. Theres also a whole range of mathematical tools I can use – Maple, Grapher, Mathmatica etc.
The transition was very smooth – I turned it on and started using it. wonderful
thank you
Another succesful boat mission December 3, 2006
Posted by metalsam in General.1 comment so far
Title says it all really.
Posting pics tomorrow.
