REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2004

So it would appear that it’s December 31st, and I guess that means I should do some kind of “Review of the Year” type thing. I’ll go through some of the successes and failures of the year, tell you about the gadgets that I acquired (and subsequently got rid of) and generally remind you of how 2004 panned out.

JANUARY

So we started off this year with my declaration of my new year resolutions, but looking back I don’t know how well I stuck to them. They were:

Go to the gym regularly. Yeah, I did this one.
Get an "all in one" mortgage and pay off as much of it as possible. I did this one too, and it has proved to be an excellent decision. Highly recommended.
Learn to play the guitar properly. I’m not sure that I’ve learned to play it “properly” but I’m certainly a lot better than I was.
Buy expensive shoes. No, I didn’t really manage this one. The closest I got was buying two pairs of £60 Merrell trainers at the same time, rather than buying the pair of Loakes I’ve been coveting.
Weigh eleven stone. Again, no, didn’t manage this. I’ve put on three or four pounds, but I’m nowhere near eleven. This resolution will be carried over to 2005!
Eat better food. Not sure about this one. We’ve certainly eaten a lot of different food over the last year, and we’ve relied less on frozen packet food, so I guess we managed it.
Go scuba diving. No. Didn’t do it. Plain and simple. I rather fancy skiing instead now.
Buy a new mattress. No didn’t do this one either. But we did buy new pillows.
Keep in touch with friends more. Thanks to the sterling efforts of Mrs Lacey, we have managed to do this. Still not good enough, but certainly getting there.
Read books. I’ve read three whole books this year (Northern Lights, Angels and Demons, The DaVinci Code). Does that count?
Keep this website up to date. Well we’re still here aren’t we?

January was also the time of the “Great Attic/Cellar Swap Round”, when we changed over the study and the spare room. It was a great decision. The cellar makes a superb study, and the newly redecorated attic room is a great spare room for guests.

Gadgets this month:
I bought a Creative Labs Zen NX hard-disc MP3 player. It was a poor decision. I sold it later in the year because I didn’t like it.
I also got myself my lovely Takimine electo-acoustic guitar. My guitar playing has improved no end because of it.

FEBRUARY

February was the month when I first dipped my toe in the water of eBay. I sold my old iPaq and all the accessories and my old mobile phone. I remember thinking at the time that it was amazing that people would pay good money for my old unwanted junk. And it has just gone on from there. Who’d have thought that in less than a year I’d have a rating of 45 and have made nearly £1000 in eBay sales?

Gadgets this month:
I got my new Sony Ericcson T610 mobile phone this month.

MARCH:

Apart from a couple of new gadget purchases, not much occurred in the month of March.

Gadgets this month:
I finally got round to getting myself a new iPaq – the Hewlett Packard 2210. It had proved even more invaluable than my old one. Partnered with my T610 phone, it meant I could check email, surf the web and even post to this website remotely! It’s also quite a good MP3 player too. I think I’d be lost without it.

I also bought (from lovely eBay) a Belkin Tunecast FM transmitter for my Zen NX MP3 player. Whilst it was good in theory, the execution was poor. I never really used it. I sold it later in the year when I got rid of the Zen NX.

APRIL:

April was a month of rash impulse purchases that I later came to regret. More of those in a moment. It was also the month when Mrs Lacey and I went away to Bristol on holiday. What a fantastic place! We loved it. If we ever got the opportunity, I think we might go and live there.

April also was a time of CD collection upheaval. I sorted them all out, and redistributed them around the house. You’ll be pleased to know this was a futile exercise, because they’re all over the place again, and in no particular order.

Gadgets this month:
I bought myself a Line6 Guitar Port – a box of tricks that lets you plug your guitar into your PC. It was great to start with, but I quickly got bored of it. It went on eBay later in the year.

I also – and this was the most disappointing gadget of 2004 – bought a Netgear MP101 digital music player. This was supposed to stream my music files from my PC to the hi-fi in the lounge. I never got it working properly. It was flaky in the extreme, and it was a stressful experience from start to finish. I have a friend who bought one a couple of months ago and he experienced the same problems. It would seem they still haven’t got it sorted. If you’re thinking of getting one, don’t bother. This too went on eBay.

MAY:

I did something in May that I should have done months ago. I ran an Ethernet connection to my PC instead of relying on wireless. It made my whole computer-using experience immeasurably better.

May was also the month when I started my obsession with collecting Qees. I bought three from Firebox.com, and it just spiraled out of control! I, at the moment, have 18 of the little fellas sat here on my desk. I shall attempt to fight the Qee addiction in 2005.

I bought a Sega Dreamcast arcade stick from the bargain bin of WHSmith for £3 and sold it on eBay for £40. This is definitely my best eBay profit to date.

The final design for Sony’s PSP handheld was revealed in May. At the time I said I wanted one. Now, I really want one!

Gadgets this month:
I got Xbox Live in May, and it has proved very enjoyable. I’ve mostly played Rainbow Six 3 and Halo 2 this year. I’m hoping that a couple more of my friends will get online in 2005, and then things will get really fun.

JUNE:

I got myself a Gmail account in June, and made quite a bit of money by selling invites for it on eBay. If you’re thinking of doing the same thing, don’t bother – the market is now officially dead.

I sold the Line6 Guitar Port and the Netgear MP101 on eBay this month. They were bad purchases. At least I only lost about £15 on each one.

There were no new gadgets this month.

JULY:

Inspired by my eBay success, July saw me venture into the world of selling stuff on Amazon.co.uk’s secondhand marketplace. This has also proved very worthwhile – I’ve got rid of loads of unwanted CDs, DVDs and books on there over the last six months.

Gadgets this month:
July saw the arrival of my most extravagant gadget of the year – the Nikon D70 digital SLR camera. It’s beautiful. I love it. End of story.

AUGUST:

We went on holiday to Cornwall in August. The weather was fantastic. Two days after we returned home, the terrible floods hit North Cornwall – particularly Boscastle - which was where we were camping. I fear if we had still been there, we may have been a little damp.

On returning home from Cornwall, I realized that the Gameboy Advance SP and the Creative Labs Zen NX that I had taken with me on holiday had stayed in my bag unused for the whole two weeks. So they both went on eBay.

The new G5 iMac was revealed by Apple this month, and the world collectively went “Oooh!”. They then tried to decide if they were impressed or not. I too am still undecided.

Gadgets this month:
I finally got my hands on my new mountain bike – a Specialized Stumpjumper FSR Expert. Normally I’d never contemplate such an expensive bike, but I received it in payment for my work on the local bike shop’s website, so it cost me nothing apart from the trade-in on my old bike.

SEPTEMBER:

I nearly made an expensive mistake by ditching my hi-fi speakers in favour of a mini sub/sat 5.1 speaker system. Fortunately I decided against it. However, I did decide that maybe my ageing KEF Q35s were in need of an upgrade, and when I saw the lovely KEF Q4 speakers in a hi-fi shop in Leeds and decreed that they would be mine.

There were no new gadgets this month.

OCTOBER:

In October, I discovered the wonders of the Firefox web browser. If you’re sat there reading this blog with Internet Explorer, I implore you to switch. Firefox is so much better. Try it. You’ll like it.

Other than that, October was relatively quiet. Things were very busy at work.

Gadgets this month:
I got myself the KEF Q4 speakers and matching Q6C centre speaker to replace my ageing KEF 35s in the lounge. They’re lovely. They look almost as good as they sound!

NOVEMBER

My computer was suffering from the adverse effects of XP service pack 2 in November. The solution was to do a clean install from my ghost drive image. This solved the problems instantly. I refuse to install SP2 again. It is junk. As are most things that Microsoft churn out these days. I can tell that 2005 will be the year of the Apple Mac for me.

Halo 2 was released this month. If you have an Xbox, buy this game. In fact if you don’t have an Xbox, buy one just so you can play it. It’s that good.

Gadgets this month:
I went to the Mac Expo in London, and came home clutching a Roku Soundbridge. This gadget does almost exactly the same job as the Netgear MP101 that I bought back in April – streaming music files from my PC to the lounge hi-fi – but the difference is that this one actually works properly. I took it out of the box, plugged it in to the network and seconds later, music was playing through my hi-fi. This could be my gadget of the year.

DECEMBER:

You won’t have to cast your mind back too far to remember this month.

Perhaps most notably, I turned 30.

I bought Mrs Lacey an iPod Mini for Christmas (and now I want one too), and received multiple small, shiny, silver gizmos in return.

Gadgets this month:
I got myself a Sony RDR-HX900 Hard-disc/DVD recorder to replace my DVD player and VCR. They both went on eBay (along with all my VHS tapes) and now the RDR-HX900 has pride of place underneath the telly. This is another gadget that has really impressed me. It does everything I want it to, simply and effectively. I like it.

And that just about bring us to this point, right here. December 31st. What will 2005 bring? Who knows? But I’m sure it will involve gadgets.

Well, this appears to be an interesting turn up for the books - Sony have FINALLY given what everyone has been asking for and added MP3 support to its latest Network Walkman. Only two months after releasing the NW-HD1 player (and it getting universally slated by every magazine and website ever) they have release the NW-HD3.

Essentially, the problem with all their previous players is that they have forced the owner into using their woefully inadequate SonicStage software, and converting all your music to ATRAC3 files - which, quite honestly, no-one in their right mind was going to do whilst the Apple iPod was kicking around for the same kind of money. So now, finally, Sony have conceded and produced this new player which has native support for MP3 and WMA files. No AAC though, so it could still be better, but some magazines are already heralding this as an "iPod killer". I'll believe that when I see it.

It's either my age (I am in my thirties now after all) or I'm losing my edge, but I bought a magazine called "Custom PC" the other day which is all about building your own computer and overclocking it to make it faster. Now I consider myself to be pretty up on that kind of thing, and I've built my last four computers myself, so I reckoned that the magazine would be just the thing for me, bearing in mind that I'm considering a computer upgrade in the near future.

But here's the thing - and I'm quite appalled to admit this - but I don't understand half of the articles in the magazine, and even I find it unbelievably geeky. Actually, no, scrap that. It's not geeky, it's for dweebs. I consider myself to be a geek, and wholly embrace the term, but "Custom PC" magazine is aimed at a whole strata of uber-nerds that I (thankfully) will never be able to compete with. I get the impression that its core audience is sad, spotty teenage boys in Nu Metal band hoodies who spend their lives in their bedrooms, building ultra-fast PCs and going to LAN parties. There's even a section at the back of the magazine for people to send in photos of their own modded PCs. Guess what it's called? "Reader's Drives".

Oh, please....

So Friday was my 30th birthday, and last night we had a party to celebrate. And in the usual fashion, a great many digital photographs were taken of the proceedings. Fortunately for you, I've edited the original 200 pictures into just the highlights (althought there are still 117) and put them up here for your delight and delectation. Enjoy!

I decided to bite the bullet and get myself one of these Sony RDR-HX900 hard-disc DVD recorders to replace my ageing DVD player and VCR. So, as you can imagine, this took a great deal of thought about how to reconfigure my home cinema system to accomodate the new component. But eventually I sussed it all out - and I know you're itching to know the details, so here we go...

My NTL digital set-top box is sending an RGB signal via SCART to the RDR-HX900, which in turn is sending an RGB SCART signal to the widescreen TV. The analogue aerial is looped through the RDR-HX900 to the TV in order to provide a time signal to the clock and to let me watch analogue channels whilst I'm recording digital. A coaxial digital cable is providing Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS to my amplifier, which is hooked up to my nice new KEF speakers. The Xbox is connected directly to the second SCART input on the TV and connected via an optical digital cable into the amp in order to provide in-game 5.1 surround sound. The Gamecube is looped through the second SCART on the NTL set-top box. Finally, the shiny new Roku Soundbridge is sending an optical digital signal to the amplifier.

In addition to all that, my Wireless Netgear router is hidden away round the back of the telly and provides my NTL broadband connection via CAT5 to my computer, the Xbox (for Xbox Live), the Roku Soundbridge and via wireless to Mrs Lacey's computer and my laptop...

Blimey, it's like spaghetti junction round the back of the telly - good job no-one can see it round there!

The more times I experience the joys of GPS, the more I want my own - they're really good when travelling in the car (and for avoiding speed cameras). And now, as if by magic, several companies have released add-on units for the Pocket PC, which allows you to add GPS to your exisiting handheld, such as this one by Navman (which rather cleverly works via Bluetooth), or this one which slots into the CompactFlash slot on the back of the iPaq. Genius!

I'm writing this whilst sat on the train on my way home from an exceptionally dull work-related excursion, but my Pocket PC has more than proved its worth today. I've cumulatively spent nearly four hours on a variety of trains, but I've got six different albums stored on my Compactflash card, and with Media Player set to "shuffle" I've not heard the same track twice yet! Also, the Pocket PC has supplied me with reading material via AvantGo and I've been able to look up train times on the web. Not forgetting the fact that I can email and publish to my blog using it as well. This is a great gadget!

I've only managed to play about thirty minutes of Halo 2 so far, but I have to say that I'm impressed. I like it. The only thing I'm slightly curious about is Bungie's bizarre widescreen implementation. The game plays in widescreen quite nicely, but they haven't bothered to re-render the game's HUD graphics - so whilst all the in game action is formatted for 16:9 ratio, the radar, weapons info and targetting reticule are all bizarrely oval and squashed. Surely it wouldn't have been that big a job to redo it for those people playing in widescreen? Ah well, I'll forgive them. I can't wait to try it out on Xbox live!

Halo 2 day tomorrow! I'm very excited!

So I've had a couple of weeks of using my newly-configured computer with Firefox instead of IE, and I can happily report that all seems to be going well. Certainly a lot more smooth than it was previously anyway. Just goes to show that you shouldn't jump head-first into upgrading things straight away. There are always teething troubles. And the other lesson is that if it works okay, don't mess with it. I'm forever tinkering with things, and sometimes I just come unstuck. From now on - hopefully - I'm going to leave things alone. I've switched off automatic updates in Windows XP now, so maybe things will just tick along nicely for a while...

Now this is what I call a gadget!

I may have mentioned this already, but I'm really impressed with Firefox. It's a very, very good browser. It makes you realise how slow and clunky Internet Explorer is. And once you've tried tabbed browsing, you'll never go back to IE...

So in an attempt to rectify my slugglish internet problem, I have taken two steps. Firstly, I have rolled back my install of XP to a time prior to SP2 - good old Norton Ghost. Secondly, I have installed Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, and veyr nice it is too. Very reminiscent of Safari on the Mac, which isn't surprising seeing as they're both based on the same underlying engine. I like it. And, for what it's worth, it seems like these two things have improved my surfing no end. So I shall say my thanks to the nice people at Firefox with a banner advert....

I can't say for certain, but I think that Service Pack 2 for XP has made my internet connection dodgy. For a couple of weeks now I've been wrestling with intermittent connection and slowdown and the like. The two things that could possibly be responsible are a) XP SP2 or b) NTL's broadband speed increase that they implemented about a month ago. But to be honest, I can't see a speed increase making my internet connection slow down! I'll have to research this SP2 problem a bit more - if I can make the damn internet work obviously!!

After giving it due consideration, I went along to the hi-fi shop in Leeds and purchased the aforementioned KEF Q4's, along with their matching centre speaker. The KEF Q35's are, for the time being, residing in the spare room until I decide what to do with them. I shall sell the old centre speaker on eBay, but I don't know whether to keep the Q35's and hook them up to my old amp and CD player up there, or stick with the little standmounters I already have and flog the Q35's. We shall see. I need to tidy that spare room up before I do anything else, and that could take a while!

Well I like the look of this! A Sony Playstation2 that's 75% of its original size, and only costs £99. Bargain! Maybe Father Christmas will bring me one...

I discovered that the Apple Store in Leeds were getting their first shipment of new G5 iMacs in today, so I went along to the shop first thing this morning to see one in the flesh. And do you know what? I was distinctly unimpressed. Compared to the G4 iMac, it's just a bit ordinary. I realise that it's damned clever to get all the computer gubbins in that tiny little enclosure, but it just hasn't quite got the same "wow!" factor that the previous two incarnations have had.

However, whilst I was in Leeds, I popped in to one of the multitudinous hi-fi shops and spotted some real things of beauty - KEF Q4 speakers. I already have some KEF speakers which I bought about seven years ago when we lived in Cambridge, but these are just beautiful by comparison. They're quite a bit smaller and slimmer than the ones I've got, and are finished in lovely real wood veneers. My current ones are rosewood, which is nice enough, but it doesn't really match our pale colour scheme in the lounge. These new ones come in a very fetching maple finish. Just the ticket. And there's a very nice matching centre speaker to go with them too. And all for half the price of a G5 iMac.

Maybe I'll get new speakers and an eMac instead....

Well what a tumultuous weekend I've had! I nearly made a costly error - let me explain...

For a while now, I've been debating getting some smaller speakers for my home cinema system in the lounge. My existing ones - which, amongst other things, comprise some rather nice KEF Q35s - are quite sizeable, and do, admittedly, take up quite a bit of space. Mrs Lacey has been "mentioning" the possibility of getting some smaller speakers in order to free up a bit of space.

So over the weekend, I went round to the new hi-fi shop that has just opened up round the corner (what a terrible place for them to put it!). I auditioned three different speaker systems costing £299, £449 and £799 respectively. Each was good for its price, but I still couldn't decide on the best course of action. I managed to convince the manager to let me borrow the £450 set overnight so that I could test them with my amp and DVD player, and see how they sounded in my lounge (which is obviously different from the shop's audition room).

So I brought them home, set them all up (including the rather fetching but very large cherry-finish subwoofer) and proceeded to give them a good hammering with a range of music and films. I had just about convinced myself to get them, when Katey asked for me to put the exisiting speakers back, "just for comparision purposes".

And guess what? There was no comparison. My KEFs blew the new speakers away. Loads more detail, tighter bass, and more refined sound all round. So, I've avoided spending £450 on something I don't need, and managed to convince the wife that although they're big, my speakers really are better. You see, size does matter.

Okay, I'm having having a huge internal conflict here. Let me set the scene...

I really want a new iMac. But my PC is perfectly functional, and it does just about everything I want it to, but it doesn't do it very elegantly. I realise that this is just me being a computer snob, but there we go. The other thing to consider is that if I get a Mac, we will have four computers in our house. Is that really necessary? Mind you, since when have I been bothered about "necessary"?

Help me out. Please?! Leave me your advice using the comments section below!

I've just taken receipt of a couple of very nice miniDV camcorders at work. They're Panasonic NVGS11Bs, they were only £300 each, and they're really rather good. Five years ago I bought some similarly-specced Panasonic camcorders for work and they were £800 and twice the size! It makes me think that maybe I need a camcorder. Maybe if I get a nice new G5 iMac, I'll get a miniDV camera to go with it...

I realised earlier (when they sent me an email about it) that the BlogSnob adverts that were on the old version of Low Fidelity got lost by the wayside in the grand redesign the other week - my mistake. You'll be pleased to know that they've now been reinstated, and can be found over there in the right hand column, about half way down. Go on, click it. In fact, whenever you come here, click it. It'll be different every time - it's a bit like weblog Russian roulette!

It's here, and it's a pretty shiny thing. Apple's new iMac G5 was announced today at the Paris Apple Expo (as I predicted it would be last Thursday). And needless to say, I want one. Now. I wonder what else I can sell on eBay?

I'm still waiting for news of the new Apple iMac G5. It sounds very intriguing. Apparently, in addition to having a G5 processor in instead of a G4, the new iMac will also be a completely new design. I'm wondering where else they can go with the iMac really. Obviously the whole point of the iMac is that it's a single self-contained unit, so I'd be surprised if they didn't stick with that idea, but other than that I haven't got a clue what they're going to do with it. The general consensus on the web is that it'll all be announced at the Paris Apple Expo but we'll just have to wait and see I suppose. After so many desirable machines in the past couple of years, I'm hopeful about this one. If it's good enough, I may even buy one...

I've just installed a photo upload program that allows you to post pictures on your blog, so I thought I'd test it out using a picture of St Ives I took a couple of weeks ago. What d'ya reckon? Incidentally, you may also notice that you can leave comments on here now, so give it a try if you like. Go on, try it. You might like it...

Apparently Mrs Lacey is very worried about my state of mind. The reason for her concern is that I've just sold my Creative Labs Zen NX on Amazon Marketplace for £150. I put it on there a few days ago in the vain hope that it would sell, and it did! They've been selling on eBay for about £100 - 120, so this was a very good price for it. So there you have it. I have very few gadgets left now, but I have a very healthy bank balance in their place. I think I'm going to save my pennies for the new Apple iMac G5, which is due to be released at the beginning of September. Maybe I'll buy an iPod Mini to go with it... :o)

So another gadget bites the dust - I've just sold the Gameboy Advance SP on eBay for £75. I took it with me on holiday to Cornwall, and it just sat in my bag. I didn't have the urge to play on it once. So I figured that it was time to say goodbye to it - if I'm not going to use it on holiday, when am I going to use it? The games for it have gone on Amazon too, so we'll see how those do.

So we're in Polzeath now, and looking forward to a few days of surfing and power kiting. Finished "Angels & Demons" in record time, and about to start "The Da Vinci Code", which is apparently even better! I may try posting a phone photo of the view from our tent too...

We're in St Ives, and it's really rather warm. And I'm more than halfway through "Angels & Demons" by Dan Brown. I haven't been so absorbed by a book in ages!

Ooh! Shiny! That's definitely a better design than the prototype that Nintendo unveiled at this year's E3. And if that list of game titles keeps growing, this could become a very interesting rival to the Sony PSP. I think I may have to start rethinking my earlier criticisms of the big N.

After my recent spate of eBay sales, I have moved on in my quest to shift my mountain of unwanted games, books and videos by putting stuff up for sale on Amazon's marketplace. None of this long-winded auction stuff, just one price - take it or leave it. For "small" items such as these, this seems to be more effective than eBay. I've put three things on already and sold them almost straight away, so another twelve items are going on there this afternoon...

Just testing out my PocketPC's ability to upload posts to this blog via email, in preparation for our camping holiday in a couple of weeks. If you can read this, it must have worked!

Ooh, I've been and gone and done it. I bought a Nikon D70 digital SLR camera today. I shall be skint for the next six months, but it is a very lovely pretty thing...

So you probably already know about Google's new web-based email service called Gmail, but I read a very interesting article over at Wired News about how people are selling invitations to join Gmail on eBay. The idea is that because Gmail is currently in beta-testing, and you have to be invited by an existing user to get an account, you can sell those invites to anyone who's prepared to pay for them. And what better way to do that than good old eBay?

I signed up for my Gmail account a few weeks ago (I got an invite because I'm a Blogger user). Every so often each account holder gets some invites to send out to other people asking them to join Gmail too. I've sold seven invites over the last couple of weeks, and cumulatively made about £45 from them! Talk about money for old rope...

I apologise unreservedly. I have been remiss. I've utterly neglected this blog over the last few days, mainly because of my increasing fascination with eBay. All the time that I've been spending online has been devoted to my auctions.

Now don't get upset, but I have a confession to make. I've sold two of my gadgets on eBay - the GuitarPort, and the Netgear MP101. I bought them as rather impulse purchases, and after an initial few days of enthusiasm about them, they've ended up gathering dust. So I decided to sell them, and put the proceeds towards something else. Not sure what yet. Maybe a posh digital camera...

According to this Gamesradar article, it would appear that both the Sony PSP and the Nintendo DS are due to launch on the same day - 18th March 2005. If this turns out to be true then someone (I suspect Nintendo) is going to be disappointed, because who on earth is going to spend £400 on buying both handhelds at the same time? Certainly not me. I'll be getting the PSP, thank you very much.

Well, the auction for my Dreamcast Arcade Stick has now finished, but the winning bidder appears to live in Adelaide, Australia. What a muppet. Which bit of "Seller will post to UK only" did he not understand?! So now I have to go through the rigmarole of trying to contact him to find out if he really does want it shipped all the way to Oz. If he does, it'll end up costing him nearly £70. If he doesn't actually want it, then I'll have to file a non-paying bidder report on him to eBay and see if I can get my fees refunded. What an idiot.

After a couple of months' respite, the eBay bug has struck again. I was wandering around town during my lunch hour, when I happened upon a brand new, boxed, Sega Dreamcast arcade stick in the clearance section of WHSmith for only £3. So, needless to say, I bought it and stuck it on eBay straight away. And it's currently at £21 with one day left to run! Maybe I could resign from my job and make my living flogging old tat on eBay...

I've spent a lot of time over the past few days playing Rainbow Six 3 on my Xbox, both single player, and online on Xbox Live. It's quite a strange experience playing online - and nervewracking at first! It's a bit like your first day at school, or at a new job - you're not quite sure how everything works, who knows who, and whether you're allowed to use that mug that's next to the kettle. It seems like everyone else on there is a veteran and you're just a newbie.

I got round the problem by just confessing straight away - "Hello, I'm new here. Mind if I join in?" People seem more inclined to help out that way. Sure, I've already had the misfortune to jump into games with people who aren't feeling very altruistic (I've been kicked off two or three servers, and been blown up on purpose once) but generally it's been a good experience. And interesting to chat with people on the other side of the world too - apparently the weather was lovely in Florida yesterday.

And five people have seen fit to add me to their "Friends" list, so that I can go back and play with them again. Which is nice.

After seeing the unquestionable beauty of Sony's PSP, I really feel that Nintendo have dropped the ball with their new Nintendo DS. I'm really not at all sure about having dual screens, the touch sensitivity seems like a gimmick, and (let's face it) it's ugly.

I'm a big Nintendo fan, but when they're up against the mighty Sony, they'll have to come up with something better than this to maintain my loyalty. One look at the Sony PSP makes me want one right now, and the Nintendo DS just makes me want the PSP even more. That's just marketing suicide.

So finally Sony have revealed details about their PSP Handheld at this year's E3 conference. Mmmm.... pretty shiny thing. Put one on my Christmas list please.

I got round to installing Xbox Live last night, and it was a very simple process apart from choosing a Gamertag! As I suspected, all the obvious names had already been taken so it was a case of trying things out - putting spaces in (or taking them out), different combinations of capital and lower case letters, altering punctuation etc etc. Eventually it got so complicated that I decided to opt for a nice simple name that I was fairly certain no-one else would have. (Gamertag removed for privacy reasons).

I got Rainbow Six 3 in the post this morning, so I shall have a bit of practice on it this evening, and then launch in to the big scary world of online gaming. If you're already on Xbox Live, let me know your Gamertag, and we'll hook up for a game or two.

Incidentally, the Qees that I ordered yesterday haven't turned up yet.

Just ordered three of these little fellas from Firebox.com. Dunno why really, I just thought they were seriously cool. I wonder which ones I'll get? I'll post some photos of them when they arrive. Sometimes I'm such a big kid...

I wish I hadn't started thinking about it now. I'm having real problems deciding what my Xbox Live Gamertag should be. The thing is that all the obvious things are bound to have been taken already, and I can't just choose one thing in case it's unavailable. Which means that I'll have to make a prioritised list of potential names and try them out until I find one which isn't already in use. And the other problem is that once you've got it, you can't change it, so it has to be something that I'm not going to regret later. And it has to be cool, obviously.

So I got my Xbox Live starter kit in the post today, but (in a rare display of restraint) I haven't even taken the cellophane off the box yet. The twelve month subscription doesn't start until you install the disk on the Xbox, so I'm waiting until I've got Rainbow Six 3 (which I ordered today) and decided on what my Gamertag is going to be. I bet people have taken all the best names already.

Blogger have relaunched their service this morning, and it has loads of great new features - like the ability to post via email. So I'm writing this on my Pocket PC in order to test it out. So if you can read this, it must work!

I finally got round to ordering Xbox Live from Amazon.co.uk yesterday. Thirty quid for twelve months of online gaming is a very good deal in my opinion. I've got two or three games already that are Live-compatible, but I was reading this article at gamesradar.com this morning and it would appear that the coming months should prove to be a whole load of fun! Doom 3 looks deeply cool...

I can't really explain why it's so exciting, but since I've hooked up my computer via ethernet instead of wireless it's been like having a brand new machine. The USB and networking problems that I've been having have been completely resolved and I can use all my peripherals again without worrying about upsetting the network connection. I've plugging and unplugging things with wild abandon and the computer just copes with it. Previously (and I'm not really sure why) I would plug in something to the USB port - like a scanner or webcam - and the wireless connection would drop out completely and not come back again. Which was, as you can imagine, exceptionally annoying.

It was bothering me so much that I was considering buying a whole new computer in the hope that it would rectify the problem, but now I don't need to. That £6 bit of CAT5 has saved me hundreds!

Not that I'm saying I won't buy a new computer, it's just that it'll be for a better reason than dodgy USB ports.

So I went out and bought ten metres of CAT5 from the computer shop down the road (only cost me £6). Then, down in the cellar, I fed one end of it through a hole in the skirting board next to a radiator pipe (meaning I didn't have to drill anything) into the wall cavity, and then reached round inside the cupboard and pulled it through. Then I drilled a small hole in the lounge floorboard and passed the CAT5 up through it and plugged it in to the router. There you go. Seven cable clips and you wouldn't even know it was there. Don't know why I didn't do that months ago rather than fighting with unreliable wireless.

Okay, got the Netgear Digital Music Server today, and I've attempted to get it running, but it's certainly not as straightforward as the the instructions make out. But then it never is, is it? There seems to be some problem with getting my PC and the MP101 to communicate with each other.

When the MP101 is wired to the router and my PC is wireless, I get nothing at all. When both machines are wireless, it works for about five minutes and then the connection drops out. When the PC is wired and the music server is wireless it all seems to be fine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the most reliable method is to have both PC and MP101 wired to the router. This works perfectly. An immediate connection, and streaming music straight away.

I've been unhappy with the wireless link on my PC for some time now (I get a lot of network dropouts) so I think the way ahead is to wire my PC to the router permanently via good old ethernet. All I have to do now is work out how to get the cable from the router in the lounge to the PC in the cellar without it looking untidy. I'll keep you posted.

Just been reading on Wired News about a software application that makes your Pocket PC pretend to be an iPod.

There's a great picture of the software actually running here, and it looks really impressive.

I was almost tempted to part with $20, but when I went to the website of the developers, I got this. Unsurprising really I suppose. Ah well. Someone on the web's bound to have a copy...

New gadget time again. I've just ordered one of these. It's a digital music server, which (in theory at least) should allow me to stream all the thousands of music files on my PC to the hi-fi in the lounge. And only £90 too. Bargain. I should receive it on Friday, so I'll let you know how it goes once it's here.

I really must stop creating problems for myself. I was so fed up at the beginning of the week because I was unable to find any of the CDs that I wanted without trawling through my entire collection, due to the fact that it was in a complete mess. Some CDs were in the lounge, a few were in the bedroom, and the majority were in the cellar, but they had all got out of order and I didn't really know where anything was. It took me about fifteen minutes to find a Sheryl Crow album - and you know things have gone wrong when it gets that bad.

So, in a fit of pique, I collected up every CD in the house and put them in one great big pile on the cellar floor and started to go through them all, in an attempt to get them in some semblance of order. A few of them were reasonably easy to sort out - things like compilations and soundtracks for example - but the vast majority of albums are by a single artist. So how do you go about ordering all of those? Do I attempt to put them in to genres? If so, what's the difference between "rock" and "pop"? What about "jazz" and "jazz funk" - do they go together or separate?

Then comes the problem of location. I've got too many CDs to put them all in one single place, so they have to be spread over two or three different rooms. So which ones do I put in the lounge? Which ones should go in the cellar?

Can you start to see my problem?

I think what I've decided upon is to put 40 of my favourite albums in the lounge, as they will be the ones that get listened to the most. Then I'll put about fifteen of Katey's favourites in the bedroom (because that's where she listens to music the most), and then the rest can go in the cellar. In each of these locations, I'll put them into strict alphabetical order (by artist) and not worry about genre. Then the compilations, soundtracks and classical stuff can each have a section of their own.

There - problem sorted! At least until I think of a better solution.

Back from Bristol now! It's a great place, really busy and interesting. The photos are up in the gallery section if you fancy a look.

So I've spent most of this morning getting all my bits and pieces together ready to take away to Bristol with me - and there's so much stuff! I've tried to rationalise it down a bit, but I just can't do without most of it. I've got my iPaq, my phone, my digital camera and my Zen NX. And then there's the associated paraphenalia - battery chargers, tunecast, headphones, bluetooth headset etc etc. That's a lot of stuff. I'm tempted to take my Gameboy SP as well, but I think that might be unnecessary - I'll have plenty of things to do without needing to play Zelda!

So then, I suppose you want to know about any new gadgets that have shown up at my place in the last few days? Well, firstly, there's the Line6 Guitar Port which I've had my eye on for a while, but the price has just dropped to £99, which is definitely a bit of a bargain. The last few days have seen me sat at my computer, strumming away on both my acoustic and electric, and I'm just amazed by the quality of the amp modelling software - the thing sounds amazing! I'm astounded that my (fairly mediocre) guitar playing sounds so good!!

And you'll be very pleased to hear that I received my rechargeable batteries in the post this morning, meaning that I'll have plenty of power for my camera when I go on holiday to Bristol next week. You wouldn't want to miss out on all my lovely holiday snaps when I get back would you?

I have utterley neglected this blog for a few days, which I realise is very remiss of me, but hopefully now things have calmed down a bit I shall be able to get back to normal service. Last week was madness at work, but now I've got a couple of weeks off, which is nice - I really need a holiday!

Mrs Lacey and I were having an interesting conversation over the weekend: If you were only allowed to own three albums, what would they be? It's all very well coming up with a top ten (I think I could just about manage ten), but THREE?! It's just too difficult. Every time I came up with a possible solution, I immediately changed my mind, or remembered an album I hadn't previously considered. Three's not enough. Go on, you try it. Can you come up with just three definitive albums? If you can, let me know.

So I've finally got round to ordering some more rechargeable AA batteries, and I'm hoping I've got some decent ones. I've gone for 2200 mAh ones, with a charger that also works in the car. Thought that'd come in handy for when I'm on holiday! I can just envisage going camping with a bag full of car chargers - one for my phone, one for my ipaq, one for my batteries - it'll not quite be the "escape from technology" that it's supposed to be at this rate! Ah well.... needs must. Being without broadband is one thing. Being without gadgets is a different matter altogether!

It's occurred to me that now I've successfully set up GPRS on my phone, I can be ultimately geeky and take photos with the phone and then upload them to Low Fidelity via my iPaq. I'm not quite sure how yet, but I'm sure it's possible...

The Tunecast works quite well, all things considered. It's not as good as a direct connection, but it does the job. Bearing in mind my only other options are a whole new car stereo, or a CD changer conversion (both of which are expensive) it'll do for now. I think I'll have to get a windscreen mounted holder for the Zen so that the transmitter is close to the aerial, but other than that I think it's a fairly neat solution.

On a different note, I've just spent about 30 minutes on the phone to Orange trying to get a Bluetooth GPRS connection set up between my Sony Ericsson T610 and my new iPaq. It's a ridiculously convoluted process which no-one would ever be able to sort out on their own. It doesn't need to be so complicated. When I was with O2, they provided a little application to run on your PDA which automatically configured GPRS. If they can do it, why can't Orange?! Ah well, it's up and running now, so I'm able to email and web-browse on the move. Not that I'll ever use it of course, but it's a gadget isn't it?

Just received the Tunecast, but haven't had a chance to test it out yet because I'm obviously not in the car at the moment...

I've just ordered a very cunning gadget - a Belkin Tunecast FM transmitter. This little box of tricks enables you to transmit the output of your MP3 player (in my case the Zen NX) via FM, and then tune your car radio in to the same frequency so that you can listen to your music through your car stereo! Quite an elegant solution really, but with one small downside. They're illegal in the UK, because they're classed as an unauthorised FM broadcast. Ah well, never mind...

The gadget arrived at 11am, and I've managed to waste an entire day at work playing with it. And I have to say that, whilst it is essentially very similar to my old one, it is so much nicer to use. The ergonomics are better, the operating system is better, the additional software is great and the bluetooth features are very useful. I like it. And now I've been a bit lost without a PDA for the last few days - I haven't had a clue what I'm doing, or when, and I haven't been able to read Wired News on Avantgo in the toilet. I'm very pleased to be reconnected to the world once more!

I've finally stopped procrastinating and ordered the iPaq 2210. Finally! I think I've given it ample thought over the last few weeks (or is it months?)!

I've noticed that my gadget buying always displays a similar pattern. It is a very drawn-out and considered process, and comprises four distinct stages.
1) It has all the functionality that I want and need, without compromises or workarounds or bodges
2) the price is right i.e. a lot less than retail
3) the reviews of it all say that it's the best of its type, and
4) I have saved the requisite amount of money for the purchase
It is, therefore, the right time to buy. It should be here at this time tomorrow! Ooh, I'm getting that familiar "new gadget excitement" feeling. I have done well here.

The iPaq 2210 price just keeps going down. Do you think if I left it long enough it would eventually be free?

Bleugh. I feel ill.

Still on an Xbox theme, I've been reading a few articles about the Microsoft Music Mixer. This is a kind of karaoke game which allows you to sing along with songs that are stored on the Xbox's hard drive. It also has the ability to display digital photos that are stored on the Xbox too. You can either rip the music to the Xbox via its built in optical drive, or, more interestingly, Microsoft have released a small downloadable application which allows you to transfer your digital music and photos to the hard drive from your Windows XP PC across an ethernet network. Okay. This is definitely a step in the right direction, but it still falls short of what I want - streaming music.

I want Microsoft to release an Xbox version of Windows Media Player, which has the same functionality as the PC version and allows you to stream your music files from your desktop machine across a network to the Xbox. The Xbox could then play the music back through your hi-fi using its built in optical digital connection (or even bog standard stereo phono connections - I'm not really fussy).

There are already home-brew applications that do exactly this, but because they're not "official" products, they won't run on the Xbox without you first having it chipped, which involves opening up the case and resoldering some of the circuitry. Which is something I'm not prepared to do. Then you have to download the source code and compile it before installing it on your newly-modded Xbox. It's not exactly easy is it?

What I want is for Xbox Media Player to be a free download (like the PC version of Windows Media Player already is) either via your PC and install it across your network, or you could download it via Xbox Live, or you could even go to your local games shop and purchase it for about £20 if necessary. Once installed to the Xbox's hard drive it would just appear on the dashboard and be navigated using the Xbox controller. They've proved they can do this with Xbox Live, so surely this would be SUCH an easy thing for Microsoft to do? This would save me the hassle of buying a separate network media adapter, which means more expense and another box of tricks in my lounge. Everyone keeps harping on about convergence, so let's get on with it!

I notice that Microsoft have released a dedicated wi-fi adapter for the Xbox, in case you want to use the console online but can't run an ethernet cable to it from your router. It's a good idea, but I have a few problems with it. Firstly, it's designed to match the Xbox, but really this isn't particularly necessary as you'll probably tuck it away out of sight. Secondly, it runs at 802.11g speed (54 Mbps) which is completely unnecessary as it will only be used to access broadband which at the very most only runs at 2Mbps, meaning that the other 52 Mbps will be entirely redundant. Thirdly, it costs about £100, which is a lot more than very similar products from other manufacturers, just for the privilege of it saying "Xbox" on it.

All of this is entirely academic for my setup anyway, because the broadband router is about 30cm away from the xbox. A nice short bit of CAT5 should do the trick very nicely. But I'll also need an Xbox Live starter kit, and some compatible games! I think I'll hang fire for a week or two.

Well this is a pleasant surprise - the price on the iPaq 2210 has gone down again! It's now £223. I think I'd better order one before the price starts going back up again.

I've put some thought into revising my gadget wish list, and it now reads as follows:
1) HP iPaq 2210 - to keep my life in order
2) Tascam US122 computer music interface - to record guitar and sax into my PC
3) 256MB Hi-speed compactflash card - for my digital camera and PDA
4) 2000mAh rechargeable batteries and charger - for my digital camera
5) Sony in-ear headphones - for my nice new Zen NX

I think the cheapest that I can find the HP iPaq 2210 is at globalpositioningsystems.co.uk. They're flogging it for £235 including P&P. Which is good, as other places are asking £300 for it.

Well, the mobile phone had a sudden spurt of activity in the last three hours of the auction, and finally went for £60, which is a very pleasant surprise. I was beginning to think that it wouldn't sell.

I bought a bluetooth headset for my new phone today. I feel very "Mission Impossible" when wearing it. Either that or like a receptionist.

Whoa! That was quite intense. My iPaq bundle that I was selling on eBay didn't get many bids, but the price did keep going up steadily! It went from £50 to £90, then to £110, and finally ended up at £132. Which isn't bad at all. Now we'll just have to wait and see what the mobile phone goes for - but at the moment it still hasn't got any bids at all. But there's still time.

The idea of making money out of stuff that I don't want any more is quite appealing - so I thought I'd try and flog my old mobile phone. It'll only sit in a drawer gathering dust, so I might as well try and get some more cash for my new Pocket PC fund. Other Nokia 8310s are selling for about £50, which is respectable enough. The whole thing is still scary though. I don't know why it unnerves me so much, but it does. But not enough to stop me!

Well I've been and gone and done it. I've put my Pocket PC and all the accessories for it on eBay. If you want to, you can have a look at it here. The auction's open for five days, and I've put a reserve price on of £80. I'm hoping that it'll go for over £100, but I suppose we'll have to wait and see.

I'm thinking about trying my luck in the scary world of eBay. I really want a new Pocket PC, but I'm loathed to buy a new one until I've sold my existing one. I realise that I could just use the one I've got until it completely breaks down, but my love of all things new and shiny is compelling me to get a more up-to-date model, and so I need to sell the old one in order to raise some funds. eBay seems like it might work, but to be honest I'm a bit daunted by the whole thing. It seems like it might be a nerve-wracking experience...

I've bought myself a rather nice electro-acoustic guitar today. It's a Takamine (in case you were wondering), and it's a thing of beauty. It sounds just fantastic, but it's making my fingers hurt. My amplifier (which I use with my Telecaster) seems to be on the blink though, so I can't tell you what it sounds like played through that at the moment. I think the amp will have to go back to the shop for some TLC.

Seeing as I only filled about 15 gigs of space on my 30GB Zen, I've been borrowing lots of CDs from friends, relatives and the library. I think I've managed to get it up to 21.5 GB now. And I can't actually think of any more albums I really want...

Well so far I'm really impressed with my Zen NX. It's USB 2.0, so it transferred all fifteen gigabytes of music files in about 40 minutes - that's fairly impressive. I've already downloaded the new firmware for it, which changes the menu options from words to icons (which is much better) and also purchased the Notmad Explorer software to make synchronising it easier. All the reviews that I've read about the Zen NX mention that the bundled software isn't up to much and they're right - it's not. Notmad Explorer makes the whole experience a lot more intuitive - just like using Windows really. And at around £11, it's a bit of a bargain too.

I've taken the plunge and purchased a shiny new Creative Labs Jukebox Zen NX, and I have to say that so far, it's really good. I've got nearly all my albums on it (around 200) and it's only two thirds full! I think I'll have to start borrowing CDs from the library in order to fill up my hard disk quota... Anyone got any recommendations?

So after much deliberation and consternation, I have finally decided to take the plunge and buy a hard-disk MP3 player. I was having a bit of a problem (way back in October) deciding whether to go for the all-conquering and unspeakably trendy Apple iPod or the considerably cheaper, more versatile but distinctly more utilitarian Creative Labs Zen NX. I've spent quite a large amount of time ripping my CD collection (about 250 discs) as Windows Media files, which aren't supported by the iPod, meaning that I'd have to start again from scratch encoding things as MP3s. Bearing in mind that the 30 gigabyte Zen NX is £120 cheaper than the 20 gigabyte iPod, I've decided to go with the Zen, bearing in mind the extra work and cost the iPod would entail.

Somebody needs to tell the people at Apple to stop making lovely new shiny things!! I can't afford them all!

We're deep into the "grand cellar attic swap round", and we had to go to Ikea (again) to buy even MORE furniture. This has now totally blown our budget, but never mind eh? It's looking really good. If only I could find places to put the stuff that's still festering in cardboard boxes, that'd be even better. I also now have a shiny silver 17" flat screen monitor, some fairly cool speakers and a wireless keyboard and mouse for my computer. If you're going to do these things, you might as well do them properly. I shall take some photos when we're completely finished, and put them in the gallery for you to peruse.

So then, new year resolutions. Have you got any? I have loads. I probably won't do them, but here's a few in no particular order...
- Go to the gym regularly
- Get an "all in one" mortgage and pay off as much of it as possible
- Learn to play the guitar properly
- Buy expensive shoes
- Weigh eleven stone (in case you're wondering, I'm ten at the moment...)
- Eat better food - less stuff out of packets
- Go scuba diving
- Buy a new mattress
- Keep in touch with friends more
- Read books
- Keep this website up to date

Happy new year!! We saw the new year in with a huge snow storm that covered eveything in four inches of snow in about three hours - it was quite exciting actually. Then (being slightly inebriated) we thought it would be a great idea to go sledging at 1am, in the dark. So we did. It was quite a novel experience. Miraculously, no-one ended up in casualty.

And 2004 has ushered in Low Fidelity's new look, and a bit of a new direction. It's a pared-down, no-frills version of it's former self. It is (drumroll please...) the new and improved Low Fidelity! I'd noticed that for some time now, this blog was only really focussing on one thing, and that thing was my pursuit of shiny gadgets. So now I'm just going to come out of the closet and say it out loud - THIS IS A WEBSITE ABOUT MY LOVE OF GADGETS!! Occasionally I might add something off topic (hey, it's my site - I can do what the hell I like) but for the most part it'll concentrate on all things electronic and microchippy. So now you know. If you don't like it, feel free to leave. For the rest of you, buckle up, and let's go.