nickhowell.co.uk

Well, it’s coming up to the end of 2008, and is just over 3 months since my last post so i figure it’s about time i made another to talk about all the shiney new expensive things i’ve acquired since then.

So, starting in September (ish), Uni started again…although that might be October…whatever, the point is i had to do the thinking kind of work again, instead of the putting-pasties-in-ovens-type of work. I also decided, after cursing my current laptop lots, that it was time to get a new one. This time i decided to do it properly and get a decent one – not a crummy £300 Acer. To that end i bought myself a Toshiba Portege M400 for a little under £800. It was quite an investment, but one which in the last 10 weeks has deemed itself to be worthwhile. This particular laptop is also a Tablet PC – That is the screen can swivel round and fold down so that the screen is on the outside of the laptop when the lid is down. Combined with an active touch screen and a pen, this laptop can effectively be used as a notepad. You can use the pen for the same functions you would a mouse, but with the added bonus that you can hand write things. I’ll put up a more detailed “review” later, but for the time being let it just be said that this has been the best purchase i’ve made in a long time.

Oh, going backwards in time now, i bought myself a new Digital Camera in the summer. Got myself a FujiFilm FinePix S5700. 7.1M pixels and 10x Optical zoom. It’s slightly chunky but takes some fantastic photographs :D More money well spent.

So anyway, back to October. Not a lot else interesting really happened. Start of term was manic as expected. I spent a lot of my time with YSTV getting new people involved in freshers fair, and then again providing various services with YSTV to YUSU events. Did a 21hour day on the day of freshers fair – getting new people involved in YSTV and then helping run a messaging system for Access All Areas (a huge event spanning all of Campus). Suffice is to say I was rather tired when I got home a 0430.

Rest of the term was pretty much just the same old stuff….lectures, practicals, YSTV, sleep, work….the usual. End of term I had a large hardware project to do. Which ended in me staying up till 0530 the night before the hand-in date for the write up. Again, was rather tired after that.

And then, at last, we come to the end of term. When lectures and practicals and YSTV and other things stop and revision begins. Oh joy of joys :/ So far my 3 week holiday comprises of the following: – revision for a week, Christmas in St Neots for a week, Back to York for New Years and revision for a 3^rd week. And then exams when term starts again. Fortunately for me, we’re not at the exams part yet. Hurrah.

So, Next logical progression is Christmas. This year it was fun. I got back in St Neots on Christmas Eve to a houseful of Aunts and Uncles, which was nice – if a little unexpected. Christmas day was somewhat calmer than I remember, I think that may be on account on all of us being a year older and requiring more sleep…..or that could just be me. Either way, it was nice. As always lots of shiny new things to play with, most notably for me was a Sony miniDV camera. Specifically the Handycam DCR-HC45E, which is very nice I must say. Not quite as configurable as the DV cameras I’m used to in YSTV, but it’s an awful lot smaller and does the job nicely. It also comes with a handy docking station, although Sony did neglect to include a firewire cable, which makes capturing video from it more of a pain than usual. Under vista I couldn’t find a single tool that captured video and audio from it. Best I could manage was to turn it into a rather expensive webcam. But, not to worry….firewire cables aren’t difficult to purchase. Anyways, long story short I have a shiny DV camera and have already produced my first video. At some point in the not too distant future it’ll be on here in a sensibly marked location. I’ll let you know when.

So….that brings me to now….just after midnight a few days before New Year. 2007 is almost over and I’m tired and hungry (god knows why, as I’ve just eaten a large proportion of a toblerone). I guess there’s not much else to do, other than to say I hope you had a good Christmas and wish you all a Happy new Year…..oh, and leave you with an example of how good my shiny new (but not that new) digital camera is….