A simple site and blog by Andy Ranson 

It was only a couple of months ago I was extolling the virtues of my Creative Sound Blaster Music. And before you think it has blown up – no it hasn’t. But my router did stop connecting to the modem. Rather than try and replace it I replaced the router and modem with the Virgin Media SuperHub that I had tucked away for a rainy day. Unfortunately Creative thing just will not connect to it regardless of the IP range and wifi settings I tinker with. I can’t rejig the settings because the thing is so old it needs Win95/98/ME to set it. I did try XP in virtual mode but alas no the drivers didn’t work.

After some investigation, I was put on to Sonos products my Michele (hi Meesh). I’ve read around on the www and it seems like just the thing to replace it so today I ordered a Bridge and Connect unit. Control will be via my iPad and I can’t wait for it to arrive. Well I can wait but I wouldn’t pay the extra p&p to hurry it up. All in all, yay, I hope.

Ta-dah! After all the unappreciative grumbles about the Dell laptop I had, I have replaced it with one from MSI. A GT780DXR if that means anything.

Bigger screen and, well, more of everything. It has taken a while reloading programs and data but I am about there. Just to say that the keyboard is one of the accursed button types again but they are so much better laid out that I am making fewer mistakes. I still make my usual ones that the spellchecker can’t pick up (I type “fro” instead of “for” which also pops up as “from” and “form”) but that is down to me and not the PC. I can accept my shortcomings in that department. Anyway, it’s all rather good but at that price, I should hope so.

This is where my pension lump sum is going. Hooray!

What a difference a week makes. Fit as a knackered flea last week, then a trip to Bath and I have a cold. I can’t say whether I caught it from someone or it just grabbed me when I got somewhat cold. Last weekend in Bath it was raining, windy and decidedly chilly. I hadn’t packed a proper coat so was traipsing round in nothing windproof, waterproof or insulated. I don’t know what was occurring with the busses but there was a lot of standing about. Ah well, my fault. As a result, I have been suffering from all the classic symptoms. Not quite man-flu but I have not been inclined to go out anywhere, and besides, it has been raining a lot of the time. It has stopped now, so shortly I will trot out to vote. I hope the person I pinched the picture from doesn’t mind. I’ll change or remove it if he/she does. It is easy borrowing things on the www.

Bugger. I already have the bus pass. I’d better spend some money to cheer myself up.

I have not been ignoring this. Just watch the Twitter feed on the right to see that I’m jibbering away but mostly the same old rubbish. The last few weeks have been uneventful except that I bought a gaming keyboard for my desktop PC. The other one was just a little awkward when playing TF2, so that happened. I have also downloaded a few free apps to the iPad. The good ones are Twitter, Skype, Starmap lite and NASA. Others worth having are BBC iPlayer, offerings from ITV and Channels 4 and 5 and eBuddy. It is still entertaining me and hasn’t become a regret (yet).

Let’s see. April. Well I will be 60 in a few days so I bought an inexpensive bottle of bourbon and a Smarties little gift cake. And you thought I wouldn’t make an effort. I am looking forward to getting my occupational pension lump sum so I may pay off debts and then I will sit and plan how to spend the rest. I have some ideas already but they are mostly not fun. More on that in the future, I think.

Yes I know. I only went and bought an iPad 3rd Generation tablet. Why? Because the one I had wanted, the Asus TF201 Transformer Prime, had some technology issues, such as weak wifi. Having turned off that dream machine, I considered apps. If I bought an app for my iPhone then I could also use it on an iPad for no extra cost. It turned up late today and I have had a little while to play. So far, so good. Shame Apple charge over the odds for their kit, which would explain why the company is saturated with cash.

I know. An expensive business. Buying, maintaining, everything. Cars can be a horror. I’ve had my Audi A3 for short of three years but the vendors have gone and spoiled the status quo party by suggesting they are doing great deals on new cars. Audi are not lacking sales. All I can think, then, is that there is a lack of second hand recently registered cars which they wish to address. Today I went to the local franchise and had a chat. I don’t think I got the best offer and they were nudging me towards an identical A3 rather than an A1. I did test drive the latter and it was good. But not £ good. I also looked at Kia, VW and Seat on the way home. This is turning into a sport and enjoyable as well.

By the way, I mentioned Status Quo. I saw them play in Upminster and it was 2/6d (12.5p) to get in. Better value than a new car. Well, OK maybe many years ago

Not flog as in sell but flog as in whip to encourage better performance.

I have a Creative Soundblaster Wireless Music that I bought years ago. It was cutting edge then and performs well now. I love the way it connects to my home theatre and has a remote with a screen that I can use to select what I want to hear. I would replace it were there something similar available but alas, there is not. That I can find. The only reason I would replace it is because of it’s technology level. The wifi only works smoothly when the router is set to 54mbps maximum. If I up the speed to get better connectivity for my laptop and consoles then the playback stutters and pauses. Not very rock and roll. Still, you have to look after the oldies. Some things just keep going.

I have not been neglecting this blog, oh no, it is just that I have not had anything to say or rant about recently. But I have today decided to change the layout and will be using the WordPress theme iFeature (at the time of writing, well, this is it). The menu system is way more flexible than before and that is nearly resolved (just a few more tweaks) but there are some layout issues with some content. Please bear with me while I tidy it up. And of course the slideshow at the top is all new to me and will take some working out.

I recently had the opportunity to test and review a Seagate Momentus XT 750GB hard drive. I gave it 4/5.

The full review may be read here on Clockerz.co.uk