More Spore

I added the cute and creepy pack as my brother and wife bought it as a Christmas present. So far made use of the mouths and eyes. Can't say I like the arms and legs much - too boney for me.

Then I descover I can make my creatures pickup sticks and stones!

How did I miss that one? I can get my creatures to throw them... at others, even my own creatures. It usually wacks them and results in loads of stars... very amusing!

I just keep finding little tidbits in Spore. Now there are more packs to come, so my addiction will be satisfied... oh dear...

Upgrading my MacBook hard disk

I took out the old disk, removed the shield with the TORX screws (unusual screws, luckily I had a friend with some of these), abnd inserted the new bigger drive. On boot up, my MacBook displays a flashing folder icon with a question mark.

?

So, I inserted the Leopard DVD and it boots. I go through the wizard for installation and get to the point where I need to select where to install. According to the wizard, there's nowhere to install it.

?

So, I try the disk utility. No new disk appears... then there it is. I erase it, try the install again. This time the disk appears in the where to install it display. How bizarre! Why not offer the option of erasing at this point rather than dumping the unsuspecting user with a blank screen, making him think he may have a dud drive?

So, get MacOS installed. I get stuck in the network page where it keeps asking me the wireless lan details. There seems no way to get out of this page. Eventually it connects to my hidden network (I'm guessing I got the password wrong, shame # isn't on my UK keyboard). Finally, it boots, and asks if I want to restore from back, including Time Capsule. I select that option, plug in the drive with Time Capsule on it, and restore my backup.

After restoration, it's MacOS 10.5.4, not 10.5.6. Curious. So backup doesn't include system files. Also, Xcode is missing. So backup excludes certain items. None of this is mentioned on the minimal setup for Time Capsule.

It was a smooth operation, however, with flaws.

Why can't I...

• Remotely login to my video recorder and instruct it to record something in the future?
• Play videos from a streaming terabyte drive?
• Watch pay-to-view channels on a freeview telly or box?

iPod Touch

So...

Now that I've got an iPod Touch, what do I think of it?

Well... I didn't go for the iPhone - it's missing a few essential features, as far as I can tell, no bluetooth. Weak camera, no video. If it ever adds those, then I'll consider it.

What's great about the iPod Touch is the WiFi. I have an aging Palm LifeDrive - a bulky 5GByte slow PDA. The iPod Touch beats it hands down! The WiFi on the iPod supports WPA. The LifeDrive doesn't...

What doesn't work so well for me is the multitouch. I HATE IT! I don't like using Safari then trying to zoom in with finger and thumb - somehow it just doesn't work - so I end up using two hands to get zoom working. YUK!!!

My eBooks are on the iPod Touch! Woohoo! I can retire my LifeDrive - plus Ilium have a version of their wallet on iPod Touch. More reasons to dump my LifeDrive.

What does the iPod Touch NOT have:

• No way to expand memory - why???
  
• No way to replace battery easily (but then neither does my LifeDrive).
• Keyboard pretty fiddly to use - to easy to mistype.

More as I trip over them...