Spy Journal 3.0 Filtering the web for you

Sort of like liquorice all-sorts – only not.

NowPublic can scan keywords, heres the Drupal scan page. This article should get linked on there.

I got nominated as a Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 expert. This might prompt me to write some articles here in the future about the difficulties in establishing Enterprise 2.0 ideas in small and large business. Watch this space! Thanks John for that!

Following the mishap of my Nokia N81 (broken screen) I needed to obtain a new phone. As I had another phone that was out of contract I was able to get the new HTC Touch Diamond. This is an awesome touch screen phone. The apple iPhone is basically a poor copy of the HTC touch phones only running substandard software including the Music crippling DRM iTunes software. In reality there is no comparison. The iPhone is an iPod with a phone application attached. It does the internet badly (no java or flash support) has no Bluetooth (OK it has bluetooth but you cannot use it to transfer files or data – isn’t that he point of bluetooth?), cannot MMS pictures, has a very bad battery life and you have to install and run iTunes before you can even use the phone application. The HTC Touch Diamond by contrast is first and foremost a Smartphone. That is, it is a PDA phone  running the Windows Mobile 6.1 software. Not only does it have the full phone functionality that every mobile phone should have, it combines this with the PDA capability of Mobile Office, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, integration with Outlook and Exchange, SMS and MMS, photos and video (using a 3.2Mega Pixel camera) has a touch screen interface including some cool scrolling applications just like the iPhone has. Data connectivity includes Bluetooth, Wifi, multi-band Phone (3G, GSM and HSDPA). GPS can be integrated easily (using an external device which is good because it doesn’t then rely on cell coverage). Possibly the only poor comparison to the iPhone is the internal storage is fixed at 4GB. The battery life is also poor, but it can be replaced unlike the iPhone!

Objective - build a Media Centre PC that out put HD sound and video utilising the HDMI digital format. Must be able to record 2 channels simultaneously (the Olympics is coming up!)

Budget - there wasn’t one – though there's only so much you can spend doing this.

Parts

• Zalman HD160XT Plus Home Theatre Case Black
• Zalman 500W Noiseless Power Supply with Heatpipe
• Zalman CNPS9500 LED CPU Heatsink
• Intel S775 Core 2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz CPU
• ASUS S775 P5Q Core 2 Motherboard
• Integrated HD Sound Card
• Integrated Gigabit Network Connection
• DDR2 4GB Geil 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 Kit
• 1TB Seagate 7200rpm 32M Serial ATA HDD
• 1TB Seagate 7200rpm 32M Serial ATA HDD
• Pioneer BDC-S02BK Blu-Ray Reader/DVD Writer Combo
• ASUS ATI 3850 256M PCIe HDMI Video Card
• Hauppauge HVR-2200 Dual HDTV + Analog Tuner PCIe
• Microsoft Media Centre Keyboard and Remote
• Logitech Cordless Mouse
• Powerware 5110/500VA Line Interactive UPS
• Vista Ultimate 32 bit

Construction

Here’s the specs of my next PC

• Intel S775 Core 2 Extreme QX9770 3.2GHz Quad-Core CPU
• Zalman CNPS9700 LED CPU Heatsink
• ASUS S775 P5N-T Deluxe Core 2 Motherboard
• Integrated Sound Card
• Integrated Gigabit Network Connection
• DDR2 8GB Geil 800MHz EVO ONE Quad DDR2 Kit
• 300GB Western Digital VelociRaptor 10000rpm Serial ATA HDD
• 1TB Seagate 7200rpm 32M Serial ATA HDD 24x7
• Seagate 750GB Freeagent Desktop External USB 2.0 HDD
• Internal All-in-1 Memory Card Reader Black
• Pioneer 4x BDR-202BK Blu-Ray DVD-RW Writer
• ASUS 9800GX2 1GB PCIe Overclocked Video Card
• ASUS 9800GX2 1GB PCIe Overclocked Video Card
• ASUS 9800GX2 1GB PCIe Overclocked Video Card
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• 22" (55cm) Samsung 2243BW Widescreen LCD Monitor
• Antec Twelve Hundred Black Case (No PS)
• Tagan 1300 Watt Power Supply
• Logitech G15 Gaming Keyboard
• Logitech MX Revolution Cordless Laser Mouse
• Logitech G25 Racing Wheel
• Powerware 5110/1000VA Line Interactive UPS

Total Price $11,065

Saturday I went climbing with a bunch of young folk. We headed up Mt Beerwah, one of the local volcanic plugs making up the Glasshouse mountains, so called because when Captain Cook anchored off the coast he could see the distinctive plugs sticking up in the distance like glass houses.

The full story and pictures can be found at www.krostech.biz.

Church on Sunday was a good time of reflection and teaching in Ephesians. Jude and Erin stayed home with the chunder bug that has hit this house in the last week - with all the kids succumbing to it in succession. Jude and I haven't chundered, but both had some queasiness last week. Hopefully it is all gone now.