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!