Author Archives: Steven

About Steven

Steven Jackson is a web developer based in the North East of England

Internet Explorer 7 Compatibility

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Over the weekend I followed a link to a post about IE7 coming this month. To make sure I had no issues with IE7 compatibility, I downloaded the RC1 build, and had a good look round my sites for any rendering problems.

Things were pretty good, but it did seem that the Easy Clearing technique I was using wasn’t working with IE7, resulting in the search box and tabbed navigation floating being detached from the navigation bar below.

A little searching produced this fix, which is also now reflected in the original Easy Clearing page. Basically I changed the old display:inline-table to display:inline-block, and IE7 came into line. This change has now been made to all my live sites.

Thanks to all the research done by various CSS experts, Carsurvey.org and related sites now display properly on IE7, as well as the other browsers I actively try to support – IE5 & IE6 on Windows, and the latest versions of Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Topfield TF5800PVR

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A few weeks ago I took the plunge and purchased a 250Gb Topfield PVR. I already have SKY+, but I wanted a Topfield for the following reasons:

  • At some point in the next six months, I’m going to switch to SKY HD, but I want to empty my 160Gb SKY+ box before I make the switch. An extra PVR with a large disk will make it easy to manage the switchover. I’m recording everything new on the Topfield, whilst I’m mostly watching the programmes I’ve already got on my SKY+ box
  • When I switch to SKY HD, it does appear that the HD recordings use a lot of disk space, so the standard SKY HD disk would be too small for both my HD and SD recordings, and I don’t want to void the warranty straight away by replacing the disk
  • The Topfield allows you to extract its recordings off its hard disk over USB. They can then be edited and burned to DVD on a computer. This should be easier and produce better picture quality than recording on a DVD recorder via a SCART cable
  • The Topfield is massively customisable using add on programmes called TAPs. For a geek like me, this is hugely appealing

Having lived with Topfield for a few weeks, here are my initial impressions. First the negative points:

  • It’s a bit loud. I’ve gotten used to it, and using the HDD Info TAP to turn the hard disk acoustic management on helped, but it could still be better
  • The remote is not the best – the buttons are a little too small, and the IR beam needs to have a good line of sight
  • The default software is pretty basic
  • It takes a while to start up from standby – 10 to 15 seconds or so
  • There are quite a few quirks to get used to. No showstoppers, but it’s not a product that I’d expect non technical users to get the most out of

Positive points:

  • TAPS such as HDD Info, eit2mei, and especially MyStuff transform the Topfield. If only SKY+ was as customisable…
  • There’s a fantastic support site at Toppy.org.uk
  • I’ve extracted programmes off the Topfield onto my Mac mini over a USB cable, and the quality when played through VLC is very impressive

Overall, I’m very happy with my Topfield. If you’re willing to spend some time customising it with downloaded TAPs, it’s probably the best Freeview PVR available (I’ve used a DigiFusion FVRT200 and Humax PVR-9200T in the past, by way of comparison).

Three new games that have been keeping me occupied

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I rarely get much time to play games (Sunday afternoons usually), but three recent releases have impressed me:

  • 42 All-Time Classics for the Nintendo DS. Almost every card game and board game you can think of, with instructions for each game built into the cartridge, and almost every game multiplayer enabled over Wifi. Microsoft would charge 400 points (£3.40) for almost any of these games over Xbox Live, yet I bought this cartridge with 42 games for £16.99 including delivery. I hope Sony are taking notes, as products like this and the DS Lite, make far more sense for portable gaming than the PSP and most of its games
  • Test Drive Unlimited on the Xbox 360. The graphics are good, but not amazing, and handling is OK, but nothing more. However, the scale and atmosphere of this game is stunning. A massive island with almost every road, populated with lots of challenges and other players online, who are available to race against. Birds and airliners fly overhead, and if it wasn’t for the lack of pedestrians, you could almost be there. In one way, it’s like the driving parts of Grand Theft Auto done properly, but it’s also the nearest thing I’ve ever come across to The Cannonball Run in a game. One challenge involves driving a 124.3 mile circuit of the island in 60 minutes. Doing that in a Ferrari Enzo, on single carriage roads populated with other traffic, is what I call entertainment
  • Defcon. It took 23 years, but at last, someone has produced a game that does justice to the film WarGames. Simple learn, beautiful to look at, and only £10. An absolute bargain. Do you want to play Chess (see 42 All-Time Classics), or would you rather play Global Thermonuclear War?

Energy Saving Bulbs

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In an effort to be kinder to the environment, I’ve recently gone through my house and replaced all the frequently used bulbs with energy saving CFL bulbs.

It wasn’t difficult, but I did run into a few issues:

  • Many of the light fittings in my house use 60W SES fitting candle bulbs. Most shops I went to only offered 7W energy savers in that shape and fitting, which are supposedly equivalent to 40W bulbs, but in reality are probably a little less powerful (apparently multiplying an energy saving bulb’s power by four gives a more accurate equivalence – 4 x 7W = 28W. That didn’t seem like a good option if I wanted a reasonable amount of light
  • I use a 150W uplighter in my office (spare bedroom), as it gets rather dark on winter afternoons, and I need more than just one 100W bulb to keep me alert and working. No shops I went to sold a suitably powerful energy saving bulb for my uplighter
  • Some of my light fittings don’t have much clearance for bulbs, and normal energy savers are too long to fit
  • CFL bulbs don’t work with normal dimmer switches, and there were a couple of dimmers in my house

Solutions:

  • I found YourWelcome.co.uk would sell me eight 11W spiral candle bulbs in an SES fitting for £16 + £1.99 delivery. I ordered a pack and I’m very impressed. The price was good, they’re almost as bright as the 60W incandescent bulbs they replaced, and they’re only a fraction larger (I haven’t had a problem fitting them anywhere)
  • BLT Direct have a massive selection of bulbs, and I found solutions to my uplighter and clearance problems here. Their 18W energy saving minispiral bulb is a great replacement for 100W bulbs in tight places. It is a little bigger than an incandescent bulb, but its much shorter than other energy savers I’ve seen. They also sell some seriously powerful energy savers – a 30W Energy Saving Spiral was the perfect solution to my uplighter problem. They even offer an 85W energy saver, should you need to light up a football stadium or similar area (they claim it’s equivalent to a normal 430W bulb)
  • I replaced one of the dimmer switches with a normal switch. Very easy to do (five minutes with a screwdriver). I wasn’t a huge fan of the dimmer switches anyway (they were already fitted when I bought my house)

I’m very pleased with results of the above changes. I’m being a little kinder to the planet, without having to change any of my light fittings, and with little sacrifice in terms of the amount of light in my house.

Perfectly Clear Red Apple Water

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Following on from my Coolwater Blackberry Boost post, I’ve got to mention another flavoured water that I can thoroughly recommend – Perfectly Clear Red Apple water from Silver Spring.

No caffeine in this one, but it tastes fantastic when chilled and served with lots of ice. Pretty healthy too as it’s sugar free.

Finally, it’s great value as a 2L bottle only costs 78p at my local ASDA. Way cheaper than a bottle of brandname cola.

Xbox 360 HD DVD addon for £130

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Cheaper than I expected, and it includes a remote and a copy of King Kong. I had no plans to buy an HD DVD player, but this is pretty tempting. Pity there’s no HDMI connection though.

Microsoft aren’t pulling any punches with Sony, who really better their act together. So many Xbox 360 games are turning out to really rather good. For example: Test Drive Unlimited is pretty much my favourite racing game since the original PS1 Gran Turismo and the original Need for Speed.

Compare this to Sony’s recent announcement of Gran Turismo HD, where Sony seem to want to charge hundreds of pounds if you want all the cars and tracks. If they go that route, I’ll stick with the Test Drive, Project Gotham, and Forza series on the Xbox 360 thank you very much.

Nokia N95

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I’m serious impressed with the new Nokia N95 that’s going to be announced later today.

It’s a little on the wide side for me (53mm), but I love almost everything else about it:

  • Series 60 smartphone
  • HSPDA 3.5G for high speed data and Wifi
  • Integrated GPS
  • 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and “near DVD quality” video
  • A slider with a d-pad instead of a tiny joystick (thank you Nokia)
  • 3.5 mm audio jack

I want this phone very badly indeed, but unfortunately I’m going to have to wait until Q1 2007 when it will be released.

Fifth Gear

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Watched the first episode of the new series of Fifth Gear last night.

What a load of rubbish…

No Jason Plato (Jason and Tom Ford were the only decent reviewers), new incredibly annoying presenter Tim Lovejoy, rubbish banter from the presenters, and lots of sub-Top Gear stunts – Wreck my ride, racing a plane and a radio control car.

Tom Ford’s review of the Ferrari 599 at the end of the last series was great. More of that please, and less of the nonsense we had last night. I’m a total petrolhead, yet I fast forwarded through about half of last night’s programme… 🙁

Spotted a BMW 335d this morning

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Did a bit of a double take this morning when I spotted a parked grey BMW 335d Coupe on my way to the post box. They’re not available yet as far as I’m aware, so I’m assuming this must have been a BMW demonstration or press car.

Rather impressed with new 3 Series Coupe in the flesh. It’s much better looking than the 3 Series Saloon.

I’m hanging onto my Golf GTI for at least another two years or so, but a 12 month old fully loaded BMW 335d is my most likely next car in 2-3 years time (I occasionally dream about buying a black BMW M6, but a 335d is far easier to afford and justify in the real world). Not sure if I’d go for the Coupe, or whether my practical side would push me towards a Touring 3 Series instead…