A Fox's Thoughts

What's a blog?

2010-10-31T23:14:00.003Z

So clearly i haven't posted on here in a while. I have been very busy and more than a bit lazy.

But lots has gone off; the Ipad has been launced, Windows Phone 7 has been launched, Playstation move, Xbox Kninect and a 3D Nintendo handheld. And a shed load of 3D tv's. I will get some reviews out on some if not all of these products in the near future, so dear readers (if any of you are left) i leave you with a sort of promise for more frequent updates. Until then Toodle-Pip

-GingerFox
-Blog

Windows 7 Phone Series

2010-02-18T17:39:00.004Z

Let me start off by saying there is a lot to write about this, so i'm not going to. Instead I'm going to direct you to my favourite tech site, Engadget.

However, a small breakdown: Microsoft my favourite software giant is in the process of releasing its new windows mobile OS; Windows Mobile 7.
Which seems to be trying to integrate a lot of what Microsoft does, like its zune services and xbox live, plus a new marketplace for apps. So good stuff happening there, I believe in the corporate world its called 'synergy'

Also Microsoft seems to be taking a slightly more locked down approach, specifying minimum hardware requirements and what not, which I think is definitely a good move, it should improve the quality of phones.

And this is where I leave you to do more reading on Engadget, as they have had hands on time with the news phones and are as such better informed.

-GingerFox
-Blog

Want to know the real people behind the blog?

2010-02-09T19:07:00.002Z

Its twitter time!

So i caved and joined twitter, it will be interesting at the very least.

Follow me:
http://twitter.com/Luke_UK

-Read
-Blog

-GingerFox

Apple has indeed launched a tablet, the iPad

2010-01-27T18:10:00.011Z

I will update as i get them!
Is running a form of the ipod/iphone OS

Full Capacitive multi-touch
16GB, 32GB or 64 GB
0.5 inches thick, 1.5 pounds
9.7inch IPS display
The 1GHz Apple A4 chip.
Bluetooth
Wifi 802.11n
Accelerometer
Compass
Speaker and Mic
10 hours batter life
Run iphone apps unmodified!
Has no trouble with youtube HD
Optional 3G!

All looks very slick so far, when using iphone/ipod apps they run in a small window nativly, but can be full screened. Which looks silly on some (facebook app springs to mind) but on others pretty good, like racing games.

Has a ibook app for downloading ebooks ( ePub format), buy them straight from the ipad, has a virtual bookshelf, nice touch.

Models with 3G, they will be unlocked, in the US AT&T giving 250mb a month for $14.99 unlimited for $29.99 with no contract.
Price starting at $499 at current exchange rate that's £308 but I would imagine it being a lot more than that in the UK.
Availability 60 days for the wifi only version, 90 days for the 3G version.

-GingerFox
-Blog

Antec 900 Review

2010-01-26T23:01:00.002Z

Antec 900 Review

The Antec 900 is a truly massive case.... hight wise, but length wise, its not a great deal bigger than your average PC chassis, and that's is its main flaw, instead of paying £80 odd to buy a big case, you've got a slightly taller, modified standard chassis that doesn't offer you much space in terms of neat, tidy upgrades.

For instance, I've installed my Radeon HD 5850 into it, and as a result of its relatively short length, I had to move one of the hard drives, down a notch on the cages, not a big thing, but it was hassle that anyone could do without, especially when all you'd want to do, when you've bought kit like that is just to play games and not faff around with case management. And it could of easily been a bigger issue if say all your HDD cages are full.

However, the 900's saving feature is its incredible airflow. Its 3 120mm fan and its 200mm top fan are able to shift over 160 CFM (cubic foot per minute), which if your bothered, about cool components, is fantastic, the only way to get a PC cooler than it, would be to water cool it. Saying that though, 40 degrees C under full load for a stock CPU cooler isn't anything to look down at.

Sadly though, even though this case is very well built, and it has brilliant airflow. The cable management is far from brilliant, there aren't enough holes, in the right places or any space behind the motherboard to build a tidy PC, which when one side panel is mostly window, you'll want to have it as tidy as possible.

However it does have some other nice features such as a front esata port and a sort of charging bay on top. Pluss the fans have blue LEDs in them, if you like that sort of thing.

However my final say would be that at £80 there are other cases that would be far better to buy, such as the HAF 922, which is much longer and superior cable management.

I'd recommend this case if you like the blue lights, its brilliant cooling, and its looks and don't intend on putting in a long graphics card. But if you don't mind the looks of the HAF, as there both priced in the same price range, then the HAF seems like a better case to buy.

-Sam Cooper
-GingerFox

-Blog

Sorry for the lack of posts, lots of reviews coming soon!

2010-01-11T23:04:00.002Z

So basically its A level exam time, so I've been quite busy, but hopefully over this weekend we should have some reviews written up for the: HD 5770, Haff 922, Antec 900 and a plethora of other tech items!

Sit tight.

-GingerFox
-Blog

XFX 5850 Review

2009-12-25T21:33:00.005Z

The new card arrived today in a weird X shaped box that will take even the best of us a good five minutes to figure out how the bloody thing opens without reading instructions, which lets face it no body does anymore.

After removing it from the box, and getting a slight workout while doing so, due to the cards horrendous size and weight, I realised that this probably wouldn't fit in my Antec 900. No worries, move half internals of the computer about and that's the size issue of it sorted. If you've got a small case I'd recommend you buy another, as this will overheat and fill up more space than a whale in a small hatchback.

So, whats the new card like? Well the current range of drivers aren't that bad, after all the new 9.12 drivers have sorted out some of the bugs of the card.

If you'd want one of these you'd have to pay £100 more than the RRP of the thing, and no one has them in, go, look on a site, I can virtually guarantee you that no one has one (at the time of writing).

So, whats the performance like of the card I hear you ask. Well on the winSAT- windows benchtest, it scores 7.7 / 7.9 on stock clocks. I'd assume you could get 7.8 7.9 overclocked but if you want to do that, then may i suggest you buy a 5970 instead, and jam a nicely sized spike into your head if all you do is play on farmville.

I've got no idea whether the card is noisy on low fan speeds because, in the 12 hours I've had the thing running the fans been running at 100%, and cooking at around 40-45 degrees C.

The card is fking quick though, running Crysis warhead comfortably at 1680x1050, with 2xAA and everything on enthusiast settings, which is good enough, because lets face it your eyesight probably isn't good enough to notice a difference when your tearing through the jungle at some ridiculous speed.

Should you buy one?

If your a gamer then yes. If not then no.

-Sam Cooper

-Blog

Ever think about using your pc to look for a job?

2009-12-11T21:29:00.001Z

As obvious as it may sound, i assume there are people out there who have never thought about the jobs that are often only avaliable to apply online for.

Go onto almost any business's website and usually at the bottem is a small link for 'jobs' 'careers' or something simple. Then its just a matter of filling in an application form! And who knows maybe you will get lucky.

Another top tip from me....

-Blog

-GingerFox

Hosting a pic, don't mind me.

2009-11-24T23:22:00.007Z

Google Chrome OS; first impressions.

2009-11-21T17:14:00.004Z

Google Chrome OS

A few of you may have heard that the search engine giant, Google, is having a stab at creating its own operating system – yours or mine is likely Windows (being XP, Vista or 7) or OSX (what Mac’s run on).

Now, before I start, Google’s OS wasn’t designed to work, or behave like any OS before it. As everything is based on the internet, referred to as cloud computing. This means that all your programs, apps and documents are stored not on your computer, but on the internet, which may be a little tricky to get adjusted to at first. However, this concept is something that you should look into if you’re buying a low power netbook that you’re using at home, or somewhere with a constant internet connection, or if you find yourself messing up or constantly adjusting your current computers settings allot. If this is the case, it may benefit you to install Google Chrome OS.

One of the great things about Chrome is that it’s just plain quick, you can login and be on the internet in less than 10 seconds, which by modern OS standards is nearly impossible, and would certainly require you to have a ridiculously expensive computer, so if all you do is go on Facebook, and YouTube and basic document creating then this is the system may be for you. Using Google’s vast library of apps you can create word documents, spreadsheets and presentations among other things.

There are some drawbacks though, in its current state you can’t do a lot with it. Sure you can get onto the internet, and create some documents but that’s about it. I can almost guarantee you that it won’t work on your current PC’s as there is no drivers out for it at the moment.

Well, I was going to give you a guided tour of it, but Chrome has crashed, what’s expected of pre-release stuff. Anyway, here are a few screenshots of it when it was working.

Chrome certainly won’t make an impact on Gamers and power users, apart from those that dual boot it with Windows, but it could make inroads into netbook OS’s and as a second dual booted OS. As is stands this OS has a lot of potential. I just hope Google gets it right.

-Sam Cooper

PS3 3.1 update, brings facebook with it, the joy.

2009-11-18T23:02:00.003Z

See that? That is the bastard child of facebook and PS3, all it lets you do is post trophies and other in game awards (like lap times perhaps) onto facebook, you carn't even update your status, how great...

-Blog
-Read

-GingerFox

Folding Folding Folding@Home

2009-11-18T22:09:00.002Z

So what the hell am i on about? Obviously i'm talking about the distributed computing network that helps solve the mysteries of how proteins in the human body fold, so therfore understanding how deseasies like cancer and what not affect us. Hopefully one day being able to treat/prevent them better! HUZZAH!

So how can you help? Simples, download the client that best fits your needs (theres a single core client, a client for multicore machines (SMP) and a graphics card client (thats where the most power is) Download pages:

Single core download for Windows, Mac and linux

Multicore and GPU clients for Windows only.

Then all you got to do is follow the instructions and leave it running, feels good don't it? Helping others?

-Blog
-Read-Folding@home Home page

-GingerFox

Orange Iphone prices revealed.

2009-11-02T19:23:00.003Z

Pay as you go plan that same 8GB 3G will cost you £343, while the 32GB 3GS is a rather more painful £539

-Blog

-GingerFox

Apple has released new imacs, mini, macbook, oh and a mouse

2009-10-30T21:15:00.005Z

So there has been a flurry of mac news as of late, but i have just been far too lazy too post, but anyway here they are. The magic mouse is a new single button multi touch mouse that as far as reviews are concerned 'ok' citing it not really being big enough for multi touch, but is ok.

The new mac minis have had a slight spec bump and a new machine added to their ranks, a mini server. Basically a mac mini running osx server, it sacrifices its optical drive for a second hdd, how wonderful.

The new macbook is unibody plastic, so no more splintering corners its also had a spec bump so its in line with the lowest macbook pro.

And finally the imac, apples flagship computer has been updated to include Intels newest CPU's the i5's and i7's and a beefier GPU.

I still don't recommend buying one, but theres the info, hit the read link and check the apple store for more info.

-Read
-Read (store)
-Blog

-GingerFox

Asus has created the first motherboard that has USB3 and SATA 6Gbps built in

2009-10-30T21:11:00.002Z

So there you have it, this motherboard has 2 loverly, shiny, speedy, blissful er well you get the picture USB 3 ports. Which should give you speedy external devices, and we just love speedy computers here so these are all good, they all support the new SATA standard which will be helpful if you have SSD's and what not.

-Blog

-GingerFox

Ubuntu 9.10 has been released

2009-10-30T21:07:00.003Z

For all you linux fans out there Ubuntu 9.10 has been released ready for your downloading pleasure. Out of all the distros out there this is the one i like, install it and have a play, who knows you might like it.

-Blog

-GingerFox

Orange Iphone date, the 10th of november

2009-10-30T20:28:00.003Z

Yeah the orange date has been confirmed as the 10th, however things initially will not be cheaper as orange intends to 'add value' so gutted in that respect. Also Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U should be carring the iphone for orange aswel, no real suprises here. Remember Vodafone gets it next year aswel, then FINALLY we might get some real competition.

-Blog

-GingerFox

Support page for pc's sold by: Luke Wilkinson, Wilkinson7030(ebay) or GeneriCo

2009-10-23T18:39:00.003+01:00

For help and support for pc's bought from: Luke wilkinson and Wilkinson7030
Please email Luke_wilkinson@live.co.uk

For help and support for pc's bought from GeneriCo
Please Email Generico@live.co.uk

Phone support may be avaliable, but is not guaranteed, unless you have bought from GeneriCo.

For Windows Home Server support, check out the link below:

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/support.mspx

For items currently for sale, please check this link:

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/wilkinson7030/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg=25

For custom builds/quotes please email: luke_wilkinson@live.co.uk

Thank you
-GingerFox

Ati have released their 5000 series of GPUs

2009-10-17T00:31:00.006+01:00

So yeah sorry im late with this but i don't get paid of this so 'gis a break'.

So ATI have released the :

ATI Radeon

HD 5870

HD 5850

HD 5770 and 5750

All of which are fully Directx 11 compatible and are pretty snappy. Although for the massive price increase of the top end cards there is not a great deal of improvement over say a 4890, so maybe your better off getting one of those on the cheap?

Anywho have some read links and drool worthy pics.
http://hothardware.com/Articles/AMD-ATI-Radeon-HD-5870-Unquestionably-Number-One/
http://hothardware.com/Articles/AMD-ATI-Radeon-HD-5850-Performance-Review/
http://hothardware.com/Articles/ATI-Radeon-HD-5770-and-5750-Mainstream-DX11-GPUs/?page=1

Blog

-GingerFox

Cheap Windows and other Microsoft software for students and staff!

2009-10-06T16:51:00.004+01:00

Here's the short version: Bash this link to get windows 7 Home Premium OR Professional for just £30. http://www.microsoft.com/uk/education/studentoffer/

OR if you go to any of these places:

School	Department	City	Country	Software Center
SSAT-Outwood Grange College	NULL	Wakefield	UNITED KINGDOM
WAKEFIELD COLLEGE	Information Technology	Wakefield	UNITED KINGDOM
Woodkirk Specialist Science High School	Information Technology	Wakefield	UNITED KINGDOM
Zenos - Wakefield Academy	NULL	Wakefield	UNITED KINGDOM

You can get most MS software for FREE through MSDNAA. Contact your IT guys for info and check this link: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-gb/academic/default.aspx

The msdnaa offer is normally for staff aswel so check it out!

And now for the people that like to read more stuff:

You can get windows 7 Home Premium OR Professional for just £30. This looks to be an ungrade version but the small print says you can do custom installs, so you can do a loverly fresh install!
But if your still rocking XP you will HAVE to do a custom install, vista users can upgrade if they want, but i would never advise it, you will have a must faster system with a clean install.

Also on that first link is Office Ultimate 2007 for £39.50 again a steal for what it normally goes at.

For this offer you will need to have a valid .AC.UK If your staff and you have one of these then i don't see why you cann't be sneaky and pretend your a student;)

So if your up for some cheap or in some cases free software, get clicking, and i would DEFINATLY advise getting windows 7, its fantastic, faster, easier and safer than XP or Vista.

Read -Win7 and Office link

Read -MSNDAA link

Blog

-GingerFox

Retail windows 7 boxes in stores!

2009-10-05T22:51:00.003+01:00

Can you feel it in the air? A windows launch is soon, these turned up in a store in America, obviously one employee was far too excited and snapped some pics.

Blog

Read

-GingerFox

Vodafone to Sell iPhone in U.K.

2009-09-29T14:12:00.003+01:00

Oooh now can you beleive this Vodafone is going to start selling the iphone, now i told you the floodgates would open did i not? Vodafone intend to bring it out in early 2010, a bit later than the Orange which is expected before Christmas.

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

Orange to sell iPhone in UK

2009-09-28T18:44:00.005+01:00

Yeah well this is interesting, after a good few years of O2 having zero competition with the Iphone sales in the UK, Orange are now getting ready to offer the Iphone. There is no news of prices or dates but looks to be sometime later this year. Hopefully this will mean lower prices for the customer and may even open to floodgates to other operators.

From the Orange website:

'Orange UK and Apple have reached an agreement to bring iPhone 3G and 3GS to Orange UK customers later this year. Orange globally now offers iPhone in 28 countries and territories.

Orange, which has the largest 3G network covering more people in the UK than any other operator, will sell iPhone in all Orange direct channels including Orange shops, the Orange webshop and Orange telesales channels, as well as selected high street partners. A pre-registration site for customers to log their interest has been launched at www.Orange.co.uk/iPhone

More information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released in due course.'

Blog

Read

-GingerFox

Zune HD released in the US and looks to be a major success?

2009-09-20T20:25:00.003+01:00

Yeah well the zune HD has been out a few days now and it looks to be sold out in nearly all best buy stores accross the US and amazon etc. Although Microsofts own online store is having no such problems, well it wouldn't be, would it.

Now if only they realeased it over here maybe we could make it a sell out too, but maybe MS don't like sterling?

As they haven't reasled it over here i don't have one to reveiw, so head over to this link to see what all the fuss is about

Blog

Whoring my blog out for advertising again...

2009-09-15T19:41:00.003+01:00

Hey,

Building pc's again, gone for a Windows home server as every other one on ebay seems to be over priced.

Heres mine, check it out, buy it;)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250499238631

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

Isn't it ironic....

2009-09-11T09:16:00.003+01:00

Isn't it ironic that first we had an iphone that could not do video and now we have an ipod nano that cannot do stills?

Food for thought.

Blog

-GingerFox

New Ipods, shiny.

2009-09-09T20:00:00.004+01:00

Well as rumored Apple has announced a whole slew of updates to its Ipod range. So i will start small and work my way up.

Ipod shuffle has get a colour refresh and is avaliable in a 'special addition' which is just a nice shiny black. Also more headphones that are compatable have been released for it, they also got a slight price cut.
The Ipod nano saw the most action, it has recieved:

A video camera, with mic and speaker
A pedometer that you can sync to Nike
Larger 2.2" display
Polished anodized aluminium
Voice over
Fm radio

Oh and its got a few more colours i think, either that or the new finish makes them look better.
So quite a lot of love for the nano, unforntunatly the same most certainly cannot be said for the classic, they have simply bumped the memory up to 160Gb after dropping it down to 120GB a while ago, but apple thought we all forgot that.

Next up is the Ipod touch that has got a bump in internal specs ie the cpu and it now supports OPEN GL, also the capacity has been bumped they now come in 8, 32 and 64GB flavours at a reduced price, the 8GB is £149.99 32GB is £229.99 and the 64Gb is £299.99

So thats that for the ipods, no Apple tablet, so im sure the romor mills will have to keep churning.

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

Its coming...

2009-09-05T21:01:00.003+01:00

-GingerFox

Nokia introduces its Booklet 3G

2009-08-24T18:33:00.004+01:00

Oooh well would you look at that, stylish aint it. This is Nokis first real push into the netbook market, even if they don't call it a netbook. It is though, its rocking a Atom proccesor, a HD display with HDMI out, 3G, hot swappable sim cards, assisted GPS, WIFI, Bluetooth, and an SD card. So a bit beefier than your average netbook. Not to mention the (in my opinion) brilliant styling.

But with no mention of price we shall have to wait and see as to how good this laptop is for the cash.

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

Snow leopard up for order, ships 28th August.

2009-08-24T18:25:00.002+01:00

Yeah so im not a very big Mac fan, but this is important their latest revision of their OS.

The main improvements being, getting 7GB of disk space back, as the install is smaller, and

64-bit support, the next big step for the Mac. All key system applications are now 64-bit so they can take advantage of all the memory in your Mac.
Grand Central Dispatch, a revolutionary new way for software to get the most from multicore processors.
OpenCL, a new technology that unleashes the power of graphics processors to accelerate application performance.

Although the major criticism it is drawing is that it requires a intel based mac, so any Power PC users are out of luck.

Although for everyone else the £25 price tag will make it quite appealing, unless you think its a service pack;)

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

Windows 7 verdict.

2009-08-23T14:43:00.002+01:00

Well as you all should know windows 7 is on the brink of being released, it RTM'd a while ago so naturally it has been cracked all ready. And me being me, i've tried it out.

Do i like it? yes.

Is it better than any other OS out there? Yes

Should you install it? Yes

Ok so its only an OS but its good, the first thing you will notice is how snappy and responsive it is, very fast.
It also looks good, has the right amount of eye candy, and friendlyness.
Also there are some very handy features that make working with it much well more pleasant. For example aero snap where you can drag a window to the side of the screen and it will resize it to half the screen, leaving you free to do that to another window on the other half of the screen. Plus things like shaking a window to minimize everthing apart from the one your shaking, just handy, not game changing, but handy.

Search is better too, leaps and bounds above XP, and an improvement on vista search.

There are plently of little things that are improved, but i will let you find them when you install it, and you are going to install it right?

It also seems to detect things well, it found my wireless card and seems to be working, so thumbs up there.

I may write some more on it after i have used it for longer, but so far, so good.

Blog

-GingerFox

PS3 Slim announced finally.

2009-08-18T20:44:00.003+01:00

Yes sony has just unveiled its new PS3 slim, which is now traditional of the company with all its game consoles.
It will retail for $300 or about £250 in the UK according to amazon.
It will come with a 120GB HDD (up from the current 80GB).
The original PS3 will also get a price cut to bring it in line with the new slim, although if you are going to buy one, get a slimmer one for the same price with a bigger drive.
Also of intrest is the new firmware update, a 34% power use-age drop and the inability to install linux onto the slim PS3.

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

Abusing my blog for advertising.

2009-08-15T18:19:00.001+01:00

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=250483472929

-GingerFox

ZuneHD to be released on the 15th of september

2009-08-12T10:29:00.004+01:00

That is according to a leaked display stand courtesy of a anonymous Best Buy employee. Pre orders require a $25 deposit and the price is still around the $220 / $280 estimate.

Shame the zune line up is still not available outside the US eh?

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

TDK to bring us all 2.5TB hard drives in early 2010?

2009-08-09T13:55:00.004+01:00

Whoa now, here that? 2.5TB.
And your sat there all smug with your 2TB drive, well it would seem not for long.
As a recently revealed road map indicating that the company currently has some 640GB drive that would be used in a 3.5inch drive, and are currently being tested. Nothing is official yet but it wants to start mass production in November of this year to release them in February next year. So you will now being able to store even more 'family movies' in one place, just don't forget to back up, its one hell of allot of data to lose.

Blog
Read

-GingerFox

Microsoft has released its Windows 7 upgrade chart

2009-08-07T15:05:00.003+01:00

Yeah check that out for upgrade options. I'll help break it down, if your still rocking XP you need to do a fresh install, no upgrades for you, sorry.
Vista you can upgrade to the same or similar version, but cannont go down a version, plus you may need to faf around with windows anytime upgrade, fun stuff. I would not like to be on the other end of tech support.

Blog

-GingerFox

So you thinking about becoming a mercenary? You need this phone.

2009-08-07T14:59:00.002+01:00

Yeah i made the pic nice and large to highlight its manlyness. This phone is Mil Spec 810F rated, so its water, dust proof, drop proof, bomb proof...well maybe not the latter. Its just been made available on Sprint in the USA for a cool $2000. So i assume if you get one of these you mean bussiness eh?

Read
Blog

-GingerFox

Just testing the new RSS links to peoples Facebook accounts:)

2009-08-05T01:51:00.001+01:00

Read the rest of the blog here

-GingerFox

Updates on Windows 7

2009-08-04T17:59:00.003+01:00

Well whilst I was on holiday possibly the second most important milestone surrounding Windows 7 was reached. Yes Windows 7 has been RTM (release to manufacturing) which basically means that Windows 7 is pretty much finished and has been given to all major computer manufacturers to install on their branded pc's etc. Which is a very big step and means that it is just around the corner from being released, well it’s not, not yet I’m 99% sure that’s its going to be released in 2010, but that’s just life.

More importantly for all you budding pirates out there, it’s out on the interwebs already and a crack has been released, obviously I cannot tell you where to find them but it’s been tested and works, hoorah!
For a bit of 'light reading' from MS check the read link.
And for those reading on Facebook be sure to click through to my blog either on the blog link or 'view original post' link on Facebook:)

Edit: Sam has told me this:

Plus its available to customers on the 22nd of october,
but you can pre order it now.

Read
Blog

-Gingerfox

Roaming internet.

2009-07-22T17:07:00.003+01:00

Well seens how i'm currently on holiday in turkey i thought it was appropriate to write about how i am accessing the internet.
Well the hotel has no pay to use computers and the internet cafes are quite a while away. Fortunatly the laptop i am using has a mobile internet card built in. Which is capable of GPRS, EDGE and what not, even 3G. But with Turkey being a little more slower in the tech space there is little 3G if any i know about, that being said i am currently pulling a stron edge signal at around 237kbs which is perfectly acceptable for browsing on the move.

So the killer question, would i buy it? Well yes, if i had the money. Currently the card is being paid for by the company my dad works for so i have no idea how much it costs. But were it a reasonable cost i would snatch one up in an instant, it it comforting to a tech head like me that the internet is availiable where i want it.

Plus on a related note, the dell latitude d430 is a great laptop, using a 9 cell battery and dual core ultra low voltage cpu it is fast and will last a good 6 hours plus.

-GingerFox

Testing my link to facebook

2009-07-16T01:06:00.000+01:00

Yup sorry just a useless post to check the linkage.

-GingerFox

Link This Blog To People...Please

2009-07-08T20:50:00.002+01:00

Right ok so heres the thing, i have a fair few readers, but not as many as i'd like.
Sooo that being said, i'm doing my best to keep the amount of posts helpful and frequent.
And i'd like you (the reader) to help me out, if you know anyone you think would be remotely interested in having a gander at this blog, send them the link:

http://thoughtfulfox.blogspot.com/

Cheers for your help!

-GingerFox

Google launching a OS

2009-07-08T20:46:00.003+01:00

Chrome OS is to be launched which as far as i can figure runs on top of a linux build and programs are launched from Chrome, i have my doubts as to wether it will make a dent on current OS's but im no time traveller so i may be wrong.

Theres not a great deal of info about it at the moment so if i get anything interesting i'll be sure to post it.

-GingerFox

Test your interwebs,internet, world wide web, that computer thing speed

2009-07-03T02:34:00.000+01:00

Yeah right people lets challenge our ISP (internet service providers) to give us all decent internet connection speeds, and if you think you are getting less than what you are paying for, ring them, email them, firebomb them. Well er maybe not the last one. But if more people complain our internet speed should improve. So test and find out!

-GingerFox

Possible foray into the netbook market.

2009-07-02T02:16:00.000+01:00

Yup you heard it folks i may be purchasing a asus eeepc 900 from my friend. Now unlike the majority of netbooks out at the moment that have a 1.6 or 1.66 GHZ atom pc this one has a 900MHZ celeron M CPU which is actually slightly slower as the atom has hyperthreading, although without this they would be much more closely matched, but there not that far off. This one has a 16GB SSD i beleive and 1GB ram and Xp running the show, if i do end up getting it tomorow i shall post a reveiw as to the pros and cons and if there worth it.

Until tomorow, maybe.

UPDATE:

Have not got it yet, maybe tomorow? Fryjak im looking at you!

-GingerFox

FireFox 3.5 has been released and can be downloaded.

2009-06-30T18:49:00.000+01:00

Yeah the headline sums it up, but FireFox 3.5 is out there in the big wide world ready to be used. So download it or update if you are already running FF. And if there are still people out there using IE for the love of your faverite god switch.

Download here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/upgrade.html

-GingerFox

Off topic but important.

2009-06-25T17:58:00.000+01:00

Hey guys this is completely off the tech topic but i think its important.

I've just registered to be a organ donor after i die, and i think everyone should really i mean your dead so who cares what happens to you?

Heres the website:
http://www.uktransplant.org.uk/ukt/how_to_become_a_donor/how_to_become_a_donor.jsp

Go on, you could save someones life:)

-GingerFox

New Generico Computer Sales Leaflet.

2009-06-16T01:04:00.000+01:00

Yeah designed a new leaflet, download and enjoy, pass it around to people you know etc. The phone number is blanked out at the moment as we are not sure which one to use, plus the website is being created so please bear with us, we are making progress, honest!

-GingerFox

Generico Lan put on hold.

2009-06-13T14:47:00.001+01:00

Yep unfountunatly you read that title right:(

For all the planning and prep work we did at our end there just does not seem to be the interest from people at the moment. Perhaps the Wakefield-ish area does not have any gamers? Well the venue is ready, we are ready, and the games are waiting to be played. So if you want to contact me to have your name put on a 'contact me when the numbers are up' list. I will gladly do so, but until the numbers are up its not viable or even fun.

Sorry.

-GingerFox

Sam now has an i7!!!!!

2009-06-12T16:31:00.000+01:00

Yes you heard that, one of my good friends that has been going onabout getting an i7 for the past year now actually has one! wooohoo for him, its rather fast;)

Block ads on windows live messenger

2009-06-03T18:48:00.000+01:00

Recently the ads on messenger are really pissing me off, especially those that enlarge when your mouse pointer goes over them so to block them add http://rad.msn.com to your restricted sites in internet explorer and no more annoying ads:)

-GingerFox

Bit of a moan on a few tech issues.

2009-06-01T19:18:00.000+01:00

I know for a fact that before i begin, that me saying this will make not one tiny bit of difference however these things have been really bugging me as of late.

The Zune media player, why the **** is it not in the UK? why? its actually insane, the new ones at the moment look really good and as im in the market for a media player, would probably buy one but no its America only. Guess i'll get another Ipod then eh?

My Windows Mobile phone is also really bugging me at the moment. The lack of physical keyboard is starting to irratate me and i miss being able to press keys and not make mistakes, and to top it off it's decided that it will no longer connect to WIFI so i am going to have to flash it again (yeah not the first time it has broke) So i also want to buy a new phone, thinking the new Iphone to be released later this year? or something with an actual keyboard, havent made up my mind yet.

Apple fanboys, im quite a fan of Engadget but the ammout of commenters on there who must actually make love to there apple products is insane and a little creepy.
And vista haters, that also bothers me, there is NOTHING wrong with vista on decent hardware!

So er yeah, just a little rant from me, sorry about that just things that need to be said.

I will at some point write a more constructive artical soon-I promise.

Oh and one last thing, i would quite like to know how many people read my blog so if you'd like to leave a comment, that would be nice.

-GingerFox

Updates Updates Updates

2009-05-25T00:22:00.001+01:00

Right so i said when i know infomation you will. So Today we went for a gander around the building that will be hosting GenericoLan and frankly it is much better than i expected. Having large powerful lighting, large sound system, full kitchen, internet, car park, projectors and ample tables and such. Here are some pics (note: it will look slightly different on the day, with all our kit, banners and such.)

Things being confirmed now.

2009-05-20T22:57:00.000+01:00

Hello

Right well our team has been very busy recently despite exams and such. However because of the exams i would like to apologise for a few things namely the site www.genericolan.co.uk being on and off and not fully designed and the location and pricing not confirmed.

Well i can tell you that the site is now progressing and online payments have been implemented so you can buy your seats online. Also the price plan is on there, however the site is down at the moment so please bear with us.

The other good news is the location has been finalized, it is in Hemworth, i will have a postcode of the building tomorow i promise. And the price plan is 99% definatly what it will be. (Please note if you do pay now (and its advised you do) and the prices go down you will be fully compensated for the difference)

Any other updates I get i will post on here as soon as i can, so check back at least once a day!

-GingerFox

LAN gaming/party

2009-05-16T17:05:00.000+01:00

Hello its me again, obviously.

Right well were to start. Its been a busy week, my company (Generico) and my friends company (Joker Gaming) have decidied to pretty much team up and host a LAN gaming event sometime on or as close as we can get to the 20th of June 2009.

We will be playing Battlefield 2 + special forces, Unreal tornement 2004, Command and conquer Generals Zero hour and Call of duty 4. The amount of time spent on each game and even the games themselves have yet to be finalized but i imagine BF2 and UT will be the most played.

Entry should start at around £5 which will get you: A large pizza of your choice, enought fizzy drinks to rot all your teeth, one free game and computer set up assistance.

Then the pricing goes up in tiers and includes more games and finally a t-shirt.

You will need to buy the Platinum package to partake in all the event if you do not already own the games. Please make sure you buy at least the silver package (which has the 2 main games) or you own them before hand.

Also energy drinks such as red bull and mainstream branded drinks will be on sale.
As will computer components to help boost your system or bring it in line with the minimum requirements.
2ghz Sinlge core. Any Dual/Quad core.
1GB ram very minimum, 2GB+ would be good.
A dvd drive.
About 10/15GB spare on your hard drive.
And a 256MB graphics card or better.

Generico staff will be on hand to offer upgrade advice and computer building services should you wish to enquire.

Joker Gaming staff will be on hand to sell games, other optical media and give advise on upcoming titles.

There will also be security as we understand the risk of bringing your computers together with people you might not know.

So if a room of 20+ people playing the same game lag free and having oodles of fun sounds good to you, please get in contact with any Staff of Generico or Joker Gaming.

-GingerFox
Generico@live.co.uk
joshuabray@jokergaming.co.uk

The aftermath...

2009-05-07T19:32:00.000+01:00

Well as you all should know building my WHS went without a hitch, but the software let me down big style so as a result the computer went on ebay. Not that it matters but i sold it to my best friend in the end, and the hard drives went to another friend.

Well now that thats all sorted i can get back to having a bit of cash and what not.

I feel i need to mention carboot sales are ace to make a quick bit of cash, not to sell there but to buy cheap electronics and sell on ebay. For example a DS Lite was on sale for £50, i haggled it down to £40, sold it on ebay for £60 plus p&P! Perfect.

Also i'm now on the hunt for a laptop, as i am starting college soon and figured one would help, plus it saves me lugging around my desktop when i want a LAN party (yes i know i'm a geek)
I was orriginally going to go and buy an acer aspire one off ebay brand new for £190, seems like a good deal right? Well yes if you want a pc for checking emails out and about. But i figured i could not deal with a 9 inch screen and insanely slow proccessing speeds (as im now used to my quad core) so i set my sights (and my budget) a little higher at £499 and pointed my web browser in the direction of www.laptopsdirect.co.uk and found that for that price i can get a 2GHZ dual core, 4GB ram decent mobile graphics, a blu-ray drive and a laptop with DVI, HDMI out and the usual card reader etc! That in my opinion is a good buy and unless prices come down or a new laptop is better, that will be my laptop of choice, this one right here > http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/asp/versions.asp?rewrite=Acer_Aspire_6530G_Laptop_LX.AUS0X.142&pagetype=version&page=

Well anyway thats enough from me.

-GingerFox

Building a Windows Home Server Continued

2009-04-20T22:43:00.000+01:00

Right well as you all know I set about the business of building a Windows Home Server from parts I ordered from the frankly great website Ebuyer (and no I’m not being paid to advertise them).
So to that end I’m sure you will all be thrilled to know the parts arrived on time which I was kind of thinking they wouldn’t but they did, and they all worked so no faffing about sending things back.
And surprisingly for someone who has never built a computer before it was all relatively straightforward the only real problem if you can call it a problem was attaching the heat sink to the motherboard and getting it to stay there, turns out it requires quite a bit of force which I was reluctant to use on delicate parts. Now I’m not going to detail the process of putting the computer together there are many websites out there doing that already, Google is your friend there. But what I will say is it all went smoothly.
Installing WHS
This again went without a hitch, I downloaded the trail of the Microsoft website burnt the .ISO file with ImgBurn, bashed it in the DVD drive and installation started. After that was done (and it does take longer than installing XP or Vista) I got myself familiar with the Home Server Console, pretty simple stuff. Installed UTorrent and HFS-a file hosting program and set about well you know, setting it up.
First of all I set a torrent going, pretty smooth there, my router is a bitch and I’ve only ever managed to forward one port so I had to turn off UTorrent on my other pc otherwise it wouldn’t work quite right-that was all fine and dandy,
HFS was another beast. Getting to grips with the actual program itself was pretty straight forward, what was not however was the forwarding of ports so that it can be accessed over the internet, like I said my router is a bitch and after literally hours of trying, I gave up. But what I can say is that a friend has a server set up with this on that works really quite well, here’s a link http://92.19.151.224/
But for me it wasn’t to be, no matter I told myself, the backup features will more than pay for themselves.
WHS backup features were as advertised a breeze to set up, scheduled backups and all that jazz, but what I wanted to do was test the backup function so I bashed the ‘Backup Now’ button and low and behold it started backing up BUT and this is a big but I have about 500GB of data to backup over a network and you know with two different OS’s and what not so I expected it to be quite slow but honestly it was painful and to do this every week or every day? Out of the question it really was the strain it put on my network slowed other things down to a crawl AND to top it off at about 79% it FAILED yes failed, saying that it could not read the source disk. So I was thoroughly pissed off. And decided at that moment that WHS was not for me. (Also the drivers for my MoBo were for XP/Vista and so did not work which meant I could not run UT2004 and run a game server as my graphics were not being recognised)
So long story short I ditched WHS and bashed Windows Vista Ultimate on it, which by the way runs very smoothly. I can now do a manual backup to up still takes ages and frankly is not for me, but now at least I have a useable pc as well.
Oh and even with Vista on it, I decided I did not need a second pc and its now on Ebay, hopefully going to sell, I put it on at the price I paid for the parts and hopefully someone else can make better use of it than me.

Hope I haven’t put you off...lol

-GingerFox

A wonderful comment by GingerFox to his friend Trilby

2009-04-13T02:00:00.001+01:00

(drawing a hand on paint)

Trilby: it makes it look more textured
GingerFox: if by textured you mean has shit on his hands yes.
Trilby *undo*

Building A Windows Home Server

2009-04-11T20:19:00.000+01:00

Yes you read the title correctly I am endeavouring to build a server that will be running the newish windows home server OS.
Now a few of you out there, even self professed tech heads may be wondering what WHS is; I for one a few months ago did not know what it was. Well to cut a long story short after a lot of googling and installing in virtual pc software, I now understand/know what WHS is.

Bassically it is server software that has been not watered down but simplified and streamlined for the home market. So to this end it backs up all the computers that are connected to it (up to a maximum of 10) allows streaming of media and is compatible with the xbox 360 with its media extender, it also alows for shared storage space and individual log-ons so that files can be shared on the server but only one or a select group of people can access the files. Lastly files can be down and uploaded from anywhere in the world via the wonders of the internet, provided its turned on of course. (I say lastly but of course it has many other features, just there the main ones)

The main draw of building one of these as i imagine it is for most people is the backup fuction, as not only is it a pain in the preverbial backside reinstalling an OS and doing all the things that come with that. But many files simply cannot be replaced. Also even if you don't want a complete image backup of your computer like the server does (more on that later) I for example have 500GB of media files on my computer that i would like a second copy of for safe keeping and for streaming, so this is a big plus.

So sounds like a good idea? I thought so, which is why im building me a server. There are for the less technically minded and richer people amongst us prebuilt options, the most mainstream at the moment being the HP mediasmart. However i ordered parts for my server so i could put them together myself, (this method will save you hundreds of pounds-just a heads up)

Here's what i bought from http://www.ebuyer.com

MSI G31M3-F iG31 Socket 775 onboard graphics 8 channel audio mATX Motherboard
Intel Celeron Dual Core E1400 2GHz (800MHz) Socket 775 512KB L2 Cache Retail Boxed Processor
Extra Value 2GB DDR2 667MHz Value Memory Non ECC Unbuffered
Coolermaster 460W eXtreme Power Plus PSU - 20+4pin 4+4 ATX12v 4x SATA 6pin PCI-E
Hitachi DeskStar 1TB Hard Drive SATAII 7200rpm 16MB Cache - OEM (I bought 2 of these)
LiteOn 20x DVD±RW Dual Layer & Ram SATA Black Bare Drive - OEM
Casecom KB-7760 Black ATX Midi Tower Case - No PSU, No Case Fans Included

Now all of this plus a few SATA cables i bought off ebay came to around £303 which is in my opinion very good value for money, try getting that in a shop- i double dare you.
This spec is above and beyond what is recomened to run WHS (1GHZ P3 or equivilant, 512mb Ram 80GB HDD) you might wonder as to why i bought such 'high' specced parts, well i wanted it to be future proofed-at least for a bit. I guesstimated that it would run Vista quite well so anything else should be a simple.

Right well these parts haven't actually arrived yet, but when they do and it's assembled, i shall finish this post and let you know the outcome.

-GingerFox

This is not really helpful but...

2009-04-03T20:50:00.000+01:00

I know i am attempting to center this blog around helpfulness in the tech world, and for not posting much i apolgise, but in the mean time go onto google image search and search 'lol cat' unless you are missing your humor or you have a heart of stone these will make you chuckle, go on, what are you waiting for?

-GingerFox

Basic computer protection

2009-03-28T00:13:00.000Z

Hello & Welcome to my first post of usefullness.

I assume that as you nice people reading this are on a computer probably 80% windows users you will realise or hopefully realise that you need some form of protection. 'Protection?' i hear you ask. Yes protection, let me give you a analogy; the internet is like a very alluring women (or man) that promises lots and can indeed deliver, but unfountunatly this women (or man) is chock full of STI's. Now you wouldn't just jump into bed with a stranger that you just met without say a condom, would you? No of course not, this is the same as the internet. You can still have lots of fun with this women or man if u used a comdom for example so what you need is an internet condom. Right so where do i get one of these? aha! good question you can go down the road of buying expensive powerful Antivirus from your local computer shop or download a free version of the internet. So which is it going to be? A paid version comes with lots of extra features which i will probably talk about in another post but to sumerise they often come with :Powerful antivirus, backup support, firewall, network monitoring and other features yet the free ones normally just come with a virus scanner. So it depends on your needs; for average surfing i'd pick the free one. However if your going to take a tour of the internets less trustworthy areas i'd go for a paid version.

Here's some recomnedations:
http://free.avg.com/
http://www.avast.com/
http://www.symantec.com/norton/index.jsp
http://home.mcafee.com/Default.aspx

Hope this helps some people
-GingerFox

Hello & Welcome

2009-03-27T23:47:00.000Z