Tag Archives: new year

My New Year Resolution…

Posted by on January 8, 2011 No comments

And no, i don’t mean 1920*1080… Smile

here are a list of some of the things i would like to get done this year…

  • Develop at least one mobile app and release it to a store of some sort or all 3 (iTunes, Windows Phone 7 and Android) this way i am attacking all 3 platforms…
  • Work on my own projects outside of work: I have a few ideas, just need to sit down and work on them… similar to above, but most of the ideas are “services”… the apps above would probably talk to said services…
  • Move the sites outside of the network: Leave my home broadband for my personal use and host my sites in a proper datacentre, or even the cloud… only host test sites in house.
  • Use a language other than c# for programming: So, i can use C# to develop for Windows Phone 7, and with the help of Mono i can write for iPhone/iPad and Android also. But i also want to write in another language other than what i have used before. So, thats Java, C#, C/C++ out of the picture… F#? Ruby? Assembly? something new and different… Objective C even…
  • Take more photos: My camera usually sits in it’s bag beside the desk and only comes out to play on occasion. I would like to get out more and take more photos. even if they are not top quality photos, just photos. the more i take, the more i learn.
  • Finally fix my room and desk once and for all! This place has become a nightmare to get around… There are machines I can see but physically can’t get to… Others have been on for years, but never upgraded…. I have a box in here still running win2k3! So, clear the room, rewire for proper network (cat6 and GigE) and try and get it as a nice place to work, sleep and watch movies…

So, they are my resolutions. I Did something kind of similar last year, and in the next few days i should probably go back and see how i got on… but they are my commitments for this year. We see how i get on… And more in the sprit of last years post, here are some random things i would like to do this year.

  • Get a new media centre box: need something that can record a lot of TV shows and move encoded video to the SAN… this should have a couple of satellite tuners (my current one has 2, ideally 4 would be better), BluRay drive (have one spare here), HDMI out with Audio (currently need to convert from DVI->HDMI and use optical or analogue sound out…) and enough horse power to re-code DVDs and BluRays quickly…
  • Build a SAN: Have the hardware, or at least most of it. Now to get it working… Thinking Open Solaris as the OS with ZFS as the file System. have a Dell Poweredge 2950 here with 8 hot swap hard drive bays and some other internal drives… i am planning on using this and an External SAS enclosure with a 8 port External SAS card to bring the drive count to 16. this *should* be enough for a while…
  • Rip ALL my DVDs and BluRays to MP4 and store them on the SAN so anything can stream them: XBox360, PS3 and AppleTV, as well as the Media Centre running Boxee… even if they get ripped as ISOs or folders, i have enough horse power in the house to convert these to pretty much anything… should be all good!

Any comments, suggestions of the language i should pick, questions? leave comments!

New Year, New Upgrades…

Posted by on January 13, 2010 5 comments

So, we are 2 weeks into the new year (give or take a few hours as of writing this) and i am already starting to think about upgrades… some are more likely than others… but here are my thoughts for the new year and upgrades…

  • Phones: So, i have had my G1 for a while now (Got it on in the first 2 weeks of July, meaning i have had it nearly 6 months!) and i think it is time to upgrade soon. There are a few phones on the market that are interesting me. here is my current short list in no particular order:
    • Apple iPhone 3GS (or newer). O2 Ireland loose the Exclusive contract on this soon, and Vodafone are to also get their hands on it. Since i am a Vodafone Customer, and have a contract with them, i only have to resign some paper and pick one up… Rumours are that the next Gen (which will be the 4 Gen iPhone, but not necessarily 4G network support) will be out in April, but my money is on next gen coming around June or July, around the WWDC…
    • Nokia N900. Very cool looking device. Vodafone Ireland are to get their hands on this soon (maybe this month). looks very cool, fast and well, that keyboard is handy.
    • HTC HD2. Windows Mobile 6.5, 1Gz Processor, 800×480 display. What more can i say? Very nice device. O2 Ireland might get their hands on this, and if not, Expansys have it…
    • Google Nexus one. Not sure if this should be on the list, since Android has kind of annoyed me on the G1, but it does look nice. I got to play with out of these over the Christmas, and it was very nice and responsive. 1Gz processor makes it nearly 2x the speed of the G1. Using a phone for a quick demo is all well and good, but the real test is using it as your main phone. Lower Priority than the rest…
    • Likeliness of happening: Highly. Last year i changed phones 4 or 5 times… This is practically inevitable…
  • Hardware: After the build of the V.Next Workstation, and the MacPro becoming a HyperV server, there are very few things needed… but improvement can still happen…
    • The Proliant: This still only has 5Gb of ram and a Dual Core Processor. Not sure if i should go an upgrade this to a Quad core and 8Gb ram, or just build a new box with that kind of spec. Either way, the machine will get upgraded to Windows Server 2008 R2. Likelihood: 60% chance.
    • Mac Pro: No changes needed for this. 12Gb ram, Dual Dual core processors, 10k RPM hdds… Very nice. might just tweek its network connections… Likelihood: 100% chance.
    • God Box (AKA the V.Next): Thinking of adding a second graphics card. Maybe some more internal storage. and depending on how things go, maybe more memory. 12Gb is quite a lot at the moment, but we see how things go. If the Graphics card gets upgraded, more monitors might be on the cards also… Likelihood: 70% chance.
    • Opteron and Power Edge: these machines are now pretty much maxed out and out of upgrade options (Think i have a 2Gb or 4Gb upgrade for the Power Edge which never got installed… Might do that if i can find the memory). This year, i think these machines will loose their server status and might be officially deprecated… Likelihood: 65% chance
    • Media Centre: Over the last few years, i have had a few machines that i have called Media Centres… Now i think it is time to build a new one. Probably be a Quad Core box, few gigs of RAM, PCI-Express DVB-S2 tuners and a nice graphics card… We see how things go over the year. Likelihood: 55% chance
    • SAN: I have been wanting to build a SAN for a while now, mainly to store photos, videos, Ripped DVDs, Recorded TV shows, Software and VMs. With the move to Hyper-V i think getting this build sooner rather than later would come in handy. this way i can use the Failover support in Hyper-V. I am also now running at about 110Gb of photos stored on my machine, and have a lot of Music, Video, etc. If the Media Centre gets built, It will consume 2Gb per hour of SD video recorded and more for HD stuff… You can never have enough storage! Likelihood: 75% chance in one for or another…
  • House: Big purchase in Life. the rest are nice to haves, this would be epic! As the lads in work have started to call it “The Gadget Platform