Dirty Boxers

Yes… it has been almost 2 months now - but now finally they are up!

To have a butchers: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35040&l=f3cf0&id=529027198
(Can be viewed, even if you are not a member of the site!)

Enjoy, x

For far too many months, us the general public, had to sit back and watch the mega companies fight like old women to get their new high-definition DVD brand and make to be the excepted version. On one side there was Sony with their Blu-Ray, and on the other was Toshiba with the HD-DVD.

As the months pasted, nasty tactics by Sony finally meant that their version won - even through the Blu-Ray is no way a superior product compared to the HD-DVD - almost exactly like the VHS vs Beta-Max wars in the late 1970s, where the better product looses out to the back room deals and secret handshakes.

It now seems that Toshiba had a secret back up plan all along - and this week the first glimpses are now filtering through. Toshiba showed a DVD player with advanced up-converting capabilities last week, following through on an idea mentioned by its CEO five months ago in the wake of HD DVD’s demise.

The XDE-E500 DVD player “is not a Blu-ray killer,” said the Toshiba executive who ran the demo. (Oh of course not!) The XDE stands for eXtended Definition Enhancement and consists of three circuits. Their names are familiar, because they resemble ordinary TV controls, but that is misleading, because they are more sophisticated than ordinary TV controls.

The “sharp” mode intelligently analyzes the scene and applies edge enhancement only where needed, so you might see more detail in a garment, but no additional noise in clouds. The press release describes it as “one step closer to high definition.”

“Contrast” takes a similar approach to improving detail in dark scenes. In the example I was shown it worked on foreground objects while leaving backgrounds untouched. The “colour” mode pumps blue and green and is intended for outdoor scenes — it was the one I found least convincing.

Do home movie buffs need this product? It’s certainly no substitute for the true high-def picture of Blu-ray (or HD DVD, for that matter). But if you’ve got a small high-def-capable bedroom set, say a 32-inch, and don’t want to shell out for a Blu-ray player in every room of the house (and then have the horrid task of repurchasing your favoutie films all over again!), this product might be a viable option. The price is $149.99—more than a cheap DVD player, but a lot less than entry-level Blu-ray models at $399—and the product will ship this week in the USA.

I know I have mentioned this to some folks, but haven’t got around to telling you all!

Life is a bitch at the moment - money doesn’t go as far as it should, and there seems to be no end in sight. A few months ago (mid May I think), I was told about a little program that allows you to earn money for doing nothing but search the web. (Sounds too easy to be true I know…)

Basically, all you need to do is sign up to Homepage Friends. They will then ask you to install a quick update to your web browser (works on both Internet Explorer and FireFox) - as seen below.

When installed use your search engine in the toolbar of your browser (normally top right of the browser window), and for each search money will be added to your account. Now, for some searches you might only get a few pence, for others a lot more. It all depends on how much Homepage Friends get from Google and other search engines for your search.

There are three ways for Homepage Friends to pay you: UK Bank Transfer, International Bank Transfer or Paypal. Now, I can understand that many people who have never heard of this company before would be concerned to give their banking details to them. And so, if you have not already got one, I would suggest quickly signing up to Paypal for peace of mind.

For the non-techie: Google, Yahoo and others pay money to people like me who run websites for almost everything. If we push people to search on one of them we get money. If we shows adverts on our sites, we get money. If you click on one of the ads on our sites, we get even more money! Using this system, Homepage Friends just allows anyone to earn dosh by using a system that has been around for webmasters for years!

So it would help you take over the world, but the money soon adds up - and before you know it, you will be getting a nice payment from them for doing nothing!

This morning during my daily check through my emails, I found one of those ‘click here’ links from a friend to a You Tube video. Without any explanation, and my friend not normally one of theses who forwards anything and everything she finds, I decided to take a look… Continue reading →

After far to many hours searching in boxes and cataloging their contents, I am proud to release the first issue of the Gadget Grotto - a first come first serve system for cheap computer goods. All the products are new, and have been checked by myself. If you have any questions, please email me!
Please right-click here and ’save-as’ to view the catalogue.