June toys...

Well, it's been an.. interesting month. Here's the post I've promised a few people to show the toys I've bought this month. But 1st, a little bit of background.

Notebook : Well, it is the dream of most developers to obtain a notebook of decent strength so that you are mobile while running all 300 database engines that you might require as well as the 4 different web servers and still be able to play games ( normally a nice extra. Depending on your budget), and so with that in mind I had looked at a great range of notebooks available to people in the UK basically ever since we got here and had inet... I've only heard good things from numerous people about Asus and have always been a fan, they tend to make really good notebooks, a little more pricey sometimes, but quality that's more than worth the extra few pounds.

So we moved in, not having anything in the lines of a tv, I had looked at the finances and had ordered Sky TV (although installation ofcourse, would take a week or so to get here and done though, not a worry as we didn't have a tv yet). Being that we required a tv I was in a bit of a fix, had worked for the cash ( salary a month in hand thing again) but hadn't received it yet, and the Sky installation was due the weekend before payment.. so no chance.. so I started looking at tv's.

1st things 1st, it required a scart input due to Sky operating that way. There was a 28" crt LG on sale in the flat block for 180 pounds, but it was crt, so.. huge backside, and the current furniture wasn't going to support it.. to heavy. That also said, I was looking for something that would be a bit thinner. So after looking at sizes, and looking at the budget, and looking at a lot of other things... I got this....


Yip. Full model : Samsung LE26R74BDX, with built in Freeview digital tuner ( not that it was at all the defining reason for my selection ) Has all the new bells and whistles, and a great 8ms response time on the LCD panel, great for.. wait for it.. DVI output gaming from the notebook.. :) Yup, it should be illegal, and yes I have already done it with TOCA 3, looks great.

One thing that someone at work highlighted to me (and I have seen since the Sky installation). Everyone here is hyping HDTV tele's (as this one is as well), but what they forget to mention is that the service to customers aren't HD yet, except if you buy the 299 pound SKY HD box.. which..in all honesty.. I was not willing to do. (Not to mention not have the budget for either).

I was at a tad of a dilemma before buying the tele. The price of the notebook I could justify because it is already starting to pay back for itself ( I've done some freelance work already for previous colleague that is currently in Ireland, and got paid for it today as well :). But the tele is a complete splashout, something I am not use to doing for myself. I like spoiling other people, spoiling myself is not something I tend to do often, and when I do I have to admit it's normally with other people in mind.

So ya, I bought that beautiful baby, and had it delivered the next day to the flat ( brilliant service from http://circuitciti.co.uk/circuitciti/if anyone in London is keen on anything tele digital. On the same day I ordered this...... the spec list to be found here, and here, interesting to find that they don't do them anymore though.. oh well.. I had my eye on this one since the begining of the year. And so I ordered this as well. They both arrived the day after order and payment ( was very impressed with laptopsdirect.co.uk as well). [edit : Had a look again at the spec list, and it seems I got treated to a bit of a surprise, I don't have a 256 MB nVidia 7300 Go processor, I got a 512MB one :), nice to get something extra for the same price, and that's still dedicated memory, not shared with the RAM.. shweet..)

So yeah, that said.. spoilt myself rotten, put the Sky installation back by another week ( cause it was possible) and on the day of installation I got these as well :)

Yip, I went out to buy the games, but the gamepad ( Saitek P2900, wireless [radio], I ordered through the inet and got it on a Saturday no less ( after ordering it at 21:00 on Thursday night).

So that said, I have done the following : Hooked up the notebook to the tv, fired up the game, and configured the gamepad to work for Toca, and started to enjoy the toys by playing from across the living room.. can't express how kewl it was.

All things considered, very happy with the buys and the fact that the notebook is already starting to earn me some money on the investment as well. Hopefully soon there will be some more income from it, but all in time all in time.

For now I should get to bed and enjoy a day of learning new things tomorrow, new things I suppose people would say I should have known, but I'm changing my attitude towards that, no more the pessimistic coder which feels he knows a fair amount.. but keen on learning the ways... very keen actually.

Nite all..
Z