JamesThorburn

(Yes the spelling is intentional)

Today marks one year of up-time for my venerable server. It sits in the spare room, four hard drives crammed into its mATX chassis, drawing about 80W and running the houses DHCP, MyMovies, uTorrent (for all the Linux ISO’s we download), and streaming music to my desktop, laptop and media centre.

When I originally built it I honestly didn’t think the nasty MSI 915GM board it runs on would last a week, so here’s to it and its surprising persistence.

The end may be nigh for it in the coming months however – a switch to a pair of 1TB hard drives (currently theres just a mish-mash of what I had spare at the time) and a Atom based ITX board (to save power) is very tempting.

Absolutely awesome, full of energy and sounding even better than on their studio albums.

I can’t sleep just now so figured I might as well make a quick post.

I’ve been using the iphone quite a bit now and there are a few things on it I absolutely adore. The instant messenger arrangement of text messages is absolutely superb and I’m making up for lost time on the portable music front.
On the downside you can’t always see the times texts were sent at, nor can you forward messages you receive. iTunes on the PC is nasty and is the only way of getting music on to it, the bundled headphones are horrible and I need an adaptor to use my Seinheisers.

Overall though I’m very happy with it and will almost certainly upgrade to a 3G in the future.

I managed to get hold of a first gen iphone to play with the other day to have a play with, so this is a quick test of Safari.Overall I’m quite impressed, the UI is extremely slick, but the lack of GPS is a downer for me. When my contract is up a 3G iPhone from O2 will definately be tempting.

No new posts in…. ages.

Fortunately I have something important, interesting an inciteful to say – Once Upon a Time in Mexico – Rubbish. Yet quite enjoyable.

Actually a week is a lie, its very nearly two weeks now, but the first few days it was sat in the garage waiting for the tax to be sorted.

I was really concerned before collecting it that I was going to miss the MX-5 and that the Elise would be a little too hardcore and impractical.

It seems silly to consider the MX-5 practical, but by comparison it really is. The Elise’s boot is literally half the size of the Mazda’s, and thats before I put the tool kit in there. It also has a weight limit of 50KG, and everything you put in it gets cooked thanks to being sat behind the engine and above the exhaust. That said it proved big enough to fit my camera, tripod, laptop, a change of clothes and the soft top in, which is all I really need. The interior is completely devoid of cubby holes, or even a glove box, so any CD’s have to live in the boot too.

But then I knew this before I got it, and I don’t care because it is absolutely gorgeous and makes every journey feels like an event.

The Mazda was an incredibly fun car to drive, but the Elise is so much more physical and communicative that it sucks you in to another level. Nothing is assisted, no power steering, no servos on the brakes (if you need to slow down quickly, you need to press them HARD!), no traction control and the engine is like a living being over your shoulder which communicates to you as you move through the rev range, changing its tone with every modulation of the throttle pedal. Put simply if you want a car that engages you completely there is nothing else like it.

My MX-5 has finally been sold, after almost 3 years I was sad to see it go as it has been absolutely brilliant fun.

 That said, I’m sure I’ll get over it….

Nine Inch Nails have released a new album, ‘Ghosts I – IV’, a set of 36 new instrumental tracks and it’s rather good.

The first nine tracks are available for free, while the rest are available in a range of options, from $5 for a download only option to $300 for a signed vinyl set with various extras. Personally I went for the $10 (+ $13 pnp) download + 2 CD option.

Even if you aren’t a big Nine Inch Nails fan the free tracks are worth a listen, and if you like them an extra $5 isn’t much to ask for the download. You can find it here. It’s a very different sound to With Teeth or Year Zero, and seems more closely related to The Fragile, to my ears at least.

Also worth checking out is the Saul Williams album, The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust, which was produced by Trent Reznor, and is available completely free (although I paid for the higher quality version) here. This one definately isn’t going to be to everyones taste, but if nothing else it’s worth supporting artists distributing music without the restrictions imposed by record companies.

Too much complaining, how about things I like for a change.

• No Country For Old Men – Stunning film, brutal and brilliant.
• Burnout Paradise – The absolute perfect Burnout game, it simply could not be better.
• Dexter – So much better than 99% of the series on TV these days. Also manages to present a likeable serial killer, which is a little odd.
• Skins – Second series coming soon.

I’m getting rather fed up of this being the only thing I post about, but in order to post I have to use the internet which diverts my attention back to this subject. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll log in over 3G on my phone and I’ll be able to write about something else instead.

Anyway I’ll keep it short.

Don’t fall for Virgin Medias slick advertising, they are a terrible ISP selling a  product that makes a mockery of the term broadband.

That is all.