ATI cards are brilliant. ATI's software is terrible...

Still to date, ATI has refused to fix the problems that we all encounter each day with our ATI cards. When you first use the card the Catalyst Control Center (CCC) works fine. After updating the card drivers or the CCC, CCC refuses to work at all. Double-clicking the tray icon does nothing. Right clicking and clicking on ATI Catalyst Control Center does nothing. I cannot think how else you can possibly open this. The CCC is a real let down for ATI cards. Perhaps they should spend some more time focused on their software developing element of their cards. Still my 5670 is running beautifully compared with the HD Pro 2400.

Moving up in the world...

I finally tried HDMI and DisplayPort for the first time. No major difference with DVI and to be honest, I feel that they both have one major let down - no screws to hold the connector in. This quibble may be seen by many as an advantage, but I personally see this as a disadvantage as I move the monitor around a lot (from landscape to portrait). None the less, I will remain with DisplayPort for my LCD monitor and HDMI with my LCD TV. Clearly the contrast is shown here that HDMI is for the consumer electronics market whilst DisplayPort is designed for the computing industry. I personally back DisplayPort over HDMI, hence why I chose a monitor with DisplayPort instead of HDMI.

Campaigning on TV

Yesterday, Michael Crick of Newsnight, interviewed Stuart Ritchie, the Lib Dem candidate for MP in East Lothian. Now, as I feel strongly about change in East Lothian I also offered to come along to do some campaigning that day, and to my shock and surprise, I was on television! I don't know if they'll actually show any of me in the background, but they might, it just depends on whether they cut my part out or not. We shall see tonight.

Dell P2310h

This monitor, which I have now had for just about a month, cost me just £200 and wait until you hear how awesome it is. First of all, its resolution is 1920 * 1080 and it runs at a refresh rate of 60Hz. The monitor features VGA, DVI and DisplayPort, so it makes it ideal for those who need the ultimate in connectivity. The panel is 23 inches and its exceptionally wide. The aspect ratio of the panel is 16:9 but it also supports 4:3 if necessary. The monitor also features a built-in four port USB hub, two on the rear and two on the side for devices such as USB flash drives etc. Finally, the monitor also supports portrait mode, so web browsing and word processing become much easier as more fits on the screen at the one time going vertically. I would recommend this monitor and would rate it 9/10.

Well done Lib Dems!!!

Finally, a change in the politics of this country! The Lib Dems seem to have taken a large majority of Tory and Labour voters for themselves. Essentially, we could become one of the two largest parties again, if however we can keep this going to the election. Nick Clegg did exceptionally well at the First Leaders Debate. This has reinforced Vince Cable's excellence at the Chancellors Debate. We actually have a strong chance this time! Come on Liberal Democrats!

Apple releases new range of MacBook Pros!

Finally, the long awaited MacBook Pros have been released. The new range sports a Core i5 and i7 configuration in the larger 15 and 17 inch models. The standard configuration of the 13 inch however still features the old Core 2 Duo and now 4GB of RAM. Pricing starts at £999.99 for the 4GB Core 2 Duo and the battery life has gone up to 10 hours from 8 on the 13 inch model. I must say that I am getting more impressed by the MacBook Pro range every release now and I'm edging towards actually liking these notebooks. Anyway, the 250GB hard drive is now standard but 500GB comes at £120 more which is actually a rather good deal considering. Solid state options have also increased in capacity and decreased in price here. However, as with all Apple products, you pay such a high premium to get their devices that consider premium goods. They all still feature the same connections (FireWire 800, USB2.0 x2/3, SD card reader, miniDisplayPort, Ethernet and that terrible combi-port that combines a microphone and headphone jack. The resolutions are just the same; 1280 * 800, 1440 *900, 1920 * 1200. Now the really good feature is the graphics card. The nVidia 330M is now included but what makes it really cool is that Apple has developed a smart system which switches graphics cards (only in the i5 and i7 configurations) between the built in graphics included in the 15 or i7 and the 330M which will result in a significantly longer battery life (as the integrated Intel graphics use less power than the 330M). The 13 inch features the 320M with up to 256MB dedicated graphics. Nothing else appears to have changed drastically.

Hauppauge WinTV-Radio HVR 1300

This TV capture card is a very prepared DVB one. It also features composite video and stereo RCA audio connections to allow capture from a camera or other AV device in standard definition. The main reason I chose this one however was the fact that it supports Windows 7 x64 which seems rare in most TV cards these days. Also, this card is just PCI 32 bit, not PCI-e so I can leave them free for more expansion such as SATA 6Gbps and USB 3.0 when they come along. Still can't wait to test this on my television and LCD monitor simultaneously with my Media Center remote.

CiT FireWire, eSATA and USB external drive enclosure

This enclosure was one I purchased about 2 weeks ago to make the transition of data from my older computer to my new one a smooth ride. I originally only purchased it because it was the only option with FireWire and USB on it without a hard drive included and intended to use it only for this task then get rid of it. However, after discovering its true potential, I have actually discovered possibly the best priced enclosure out there. This enclosure comes free with short USB, FireWire and eSATA cables and the power adapter. More importantly, it comes with a free eSATA backplate for those who don't have eSATA. I discovered, and this to my amazement, that FireWire far outperforms eSATA on this drive gaining around 90MB/S (even though it claims to be capped at 400Mbps) on FireWire and around 55MB/S on eSATA. None the less, this was a significant improvement over my previous drive that had only USB2.0 which can only transfer at 35MB/S. Sorry USB, but I am afraid to say you lack the speed I need. For more information on this enclosure search for the CiT 35M17SEF.

LG GBC-H20L Blu Ray drive

Perhaps the reason I chose this drive was the fact that it was an LG, but it does not mean to say I'm going to bias. This drive is a very good drive for the price margin I found it in, £70 - £90. Other drives however boast the 8x speed but come at a higher price; generally about £80 - £90. 6x is fine for me. I intend to purchase a writer when more features are brought to them and use this only for watching stuff whilst burning etc. So the writer will put this out the window eventually anyway. Well the drive is great, perhaps one of the little problems I experienced was the installation. It took me 15 minutes, which is a great deal more time than any other drive I've installed in my computer. The main problem was that the screws would not sit into the screw holes and then the SATA power lead kept falling out. Other than that, the drive is a charm! Works superbly, and the software that comes with it seems decent as well.

FireWire and the future

Today I had a strange experience with FireWire 400. My external drive was not recognising on Windows 7. I had never experienced this on any OS before, including Vista. So how did I solve this? You must go to the Device Manager and run the driver as a legacy driver. Currently, the OHCI (Open Host Controller Interface) standard that is going around is replacing the legacy drivers (hence why they are referred to as legacy) but it is becoming a bad move in my opinion, lacking backward compatibility that actually works.