Thurs 12th Oct 2006 - Quattroporte / School Dinners /Gadgets

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Thurs 12th Oct 2006 - Quattroporte / School Dinners /Gadgets

Post by neil » Fri Oct 13, 2006 12:03 am

Well another few days have past since my last blog - It appears life is certainly a bit of a rush these days.

On a similar vain to the Flying spur - particularly in response to the fact it looks like the 300C:

Maserati Quattroporte + MG ZT / Rover 75
Is it me or does a ZT look remarkably like a quattroporte from the rear from a distance ? This one might just be me but I've had the same thought at least three times where I was unable to 100% identify whether it was one or the other.

School Dinners
I was invited (along with the other parents) up to my girls' school tonight to sample some of the school dinners. I duely went up to school and was suprised at how few other parents were there. The other thing that suprised me was that the proportion of children at the school who actually have dinners vs. pack lunches - the ratio was less than 1 in 3. My girls have school dinners and really enjoy them.

I guess I thought the ratio would be in favour of school dinners - not sure if this is typical ?

Invaluable Gadgets and Technology
As I sit typing on my laptop connected over wifi watching something I recorded on my Sky+ box - It got me thinking if I could live without these things - and worryingly I didn't need to do much thinking. I already find myself wanting to rewind the radio or TV when I'm staying in a hotel - I've already got used to doing it and can't imagine how far things have move in only a few years. Same with MP3 players, sat nav, the internet in general. It also makes me wonder what'll be next - and the mind really starts to boggle.....
Last edited by neil on Mon Oct 16, 2006 3:53 pm, edited 2 times in total.

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Re: Thursday 12th October 2006

Post by hythe » Sat Oct 14, 2006 3:11 pm

neil wrote: Maserati Quattroporte + MG ZT / Rover 75
Is it me or does a ZT look remarkably like a quattroporte from the rear from a distance ? This one might just be me but I've had the same thought at least three times where I was unable to 100% identify whether it was one or the other.
Er... no, Neil, that really is just you...
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Post by neil » Sat Oct 14, 2006 6:10 pm

:lol: I thought that might be the response - but believe me from a distance from the rear you'd be suprised !

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Post by KevinB10 » Sat Oct 14, 2006 7:44 pm

So was this week replace avatar week! - Neil, D4 & v12 no V8ego. :)
Kevin

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Post by neil » Sun Oct 15, 2006 8:18 am

I get it was - you know how it is you wait 3 months for a new avatar and 3 turn up all at once !

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Post by GrahamP » Sun Oct 15, 2006 1:09 pm

Watch this space :)

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Re: Thurs 12th Oct 2006 - Quattroporte / School Dinners /Gad

Post by Heuer » Mon Oct 16, 2006 6:30 pm

neil wrote:
Invaluable Gadgets and Technology
As I sit typing on my laptop connected over wifi watching something I recorded on my Sky+ box - It got me thinking if I could live without these things - and worryingly I didn't need to do much thinking. I already find myself wanting to rewind the radio or TV when I'm staying in a hotel - I've already got used to doing it and can't imagine how far things have move in only a few years. Same with MP3 players, sat nav, the internet in general. It also makes me wonder what'll be next - and the mind really starts to boggle.....
The Slim Devices Squeezebox 3 of course. Best gadget I have ever bought and my wife is smitten with it. http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html
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Post by neil » Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:24 pm

That looks very slick - definitely know whats on my xmas list

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Re: Thurs 12th Oct 2006 - Quattroporte / School Dinners /Gad

Post by hythe » Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:38 pm

Heuer wrote:
neil wrote:
Invaluable Gadgets and Technology
As I sit typing on my laptop connected over wifi watching something I recorded on my Sky+ box - It got me thinking if I could live without these things - and worryingly I didn't need to do much thinking. I already find myself wanting to rewind the radio or TV when I'm staying in a hotel - I've already got used to doing it and can't imagine how far things have move in only a few years. Same with MP3 players, sat nav, the internet in general. It also makes me wonder what'll be next - and the mind really starts to boggle.....
The Slim Devices Squeezebox 3 of course. Best gadget I have ever bought and my wife is smitten with it. http://www.slimdevices.com/pi_overview.html
Very cool... and it works / is available in the UK, you say?
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Post by Heuer » Wed Oct 18, 2006 4:33 pm

Most certainly is. You can buy from:

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/sho ... ts_id=1036
http://www.multitask-computing.co.uk/ca ... cts_id=385
http://www.cooltopia.com/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/sea ... -google-21

They come in black or white, wired or wireless. You can run up to 10 simultaneously. Very simple to set up (about 5 minutes), plug it into your hi-fi and it will access your music on your PC hard disk via the remote control. Random play mode is our favourite, like having a self selecting jukebox in the house with 8,000+ songs! It even streams internet radio (choice of 3,500 stations by genre)

Sound quality is superb - it is as good as my £3k Theta CD player which we now never use - and I feed it into a very high end audio system.
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Post by neil » Thu Oct 19, 2006 12:48 pm

Anybody got a Sling box ?

I've seen stuff about them and watched the demos on the website (http://uk.slingmedia.com/page/home)

It looks pretty clever....

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Post by Heuer » Thu Oct 19, 2006 4:50 pm

Very clever bit of kit struggling to find a reason to exist. Basically it captures your Sky or video signal and allows you to watch the programme remotely on a PC via broadband. So if you are in a hotel you can watch whatever is on the TV at home through your laptop. Given most hotels have a TV and charge for broadband it would probably be better to use the pay to view movie channels!

One reviewer described it as "scratching an itch you may not yet have"
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Post by neil » Thu Oct 19, 2006 6:02 pm

Can it not also play what you've recorded onto your Sky+ box ? That might be a little more interesting - but agree its not a massive need.

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Post by Heuer » Thu Oct 19, 2006 7:16 pm

Yes it can do that and also play a DVD and stream it I believe. Got to have a very serious interest in TV (or no other interests!) to need it though. Best use I have heard of is for people with kids, parents, grandparents separated across the world. They can make a home video and it can be watched remotely. I am clutching at straws here. Anyone else think of an application for it?
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Post by hythe » Fri Oct 20, 2006 9:51 pm

Heuer wrote:Most certainly is. You can buy from:

http://www.advancedmp3players.co.uk/sho ... ts_id=1036
http://www.multitask-computing.co.uk/ca ... cts_id=385
http://www.cooltopia.com/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/sea ... -google-21

They come in black or white, wired or wireless. You can run up to 10 simultaneously. Very simple to set up (about 5 minutes), plug it into your hi-fi and it will access your music on your PC hard disk via the remote control. Random play mode is our favourite, like having a self selecting jukebox in the house with 8,000+ songs! It even streams internet radio (choice of 3,500 stations by genre)

Sound quality is superb - it is as good as my £3k Theta CD player which we now never use - and I feed it into a very high end audio system.
Boy, you can tell you don't have small kids, mate!

By the way, another dark green B5 Touring has been seen floating around London - either someone's ordered a clone of my car, or there's a middle-aged guy going joyriding in mine!!!
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