Back to blogging

Ok I have taken nearly a year out from blogging but I have decided to return and start posting more regularly, stay tuned!

Popcorn Hour C-200 my first impressions.

I have been in pursuit of a perfect media player for a few years now and have tried many different alternatives and none have delivered the experience that I was looking for, I don’t want much, just a nice interface that is family friendly but most importantly support for different video types and an easy way to organise them.

I have tried Windows Media Center and with an extender and an Acer Revo Ion Nettop all proving to be too complex and annoying to use, most recently I have just been using an Xbox 360 but messing around with video converters and getting rips to play properly has been an absolute nightmare.

Step forward the Popcorn Hour C-200

 

This box, I was going to say little box, but it’s quite large actually, roughly about the same size as a Sky HD box and is designed to sit under your TV.

The whole idea is that the box is a gateway to your stored media, either by fitting an internal SATA drive, attaching USB hard drives or connecting to network attached storage.

The codecs that this machine supports is amazing, nothing I have tried so far has caused it any problems, including MKV, AVI, DivX, MP4, Mpeg, DVD ISO, Blu Ray ISO the list goes on and on, it just works and reads everything, including all HD content and the playback is smooth and pin sharp.

I am not going to say this was easy to set up, its not an out of the box consumer device, in its raw form the popcorn hour looks like a basic file manager, lists of files and folders with no artwork make it very user unfriendly, sure it plays everything but the wife and kids wont use it like that it, just looks too complicated.

Big changes in my life

I have made a decision to quit blogging at Mobile Tech Addicts site. I built the site up from nothing to around 4000 visitors a day in about a year and it has been done through hard work and incessant reading of RSS feeds and news to the point that my life had become so involved that I had very little time for anything else.

Because of this I have made the decision to give it up completely and hand the reigns over to Gareth who has been with me for most of the sites existence and a lot of it’s success is down to him anyway.

As you are well aware there is no money to be made in this type of blogging, we do it for the love and enjoyment, and when that stops there really is no point in going on, that is where I am at now.

I have a new baby, 7 weeks old now and a step daughter who both need me more than Mobile Tech Addicts, I am putting them first now and maybe when they get older, well who knows.

I have met (virtually) so many great people in the blogging community and I will still keep in touch with everyone of you as Twitter will still remain a great part of my life, your not getting rid of me that easily.

Good luck to Gareth and to Edward @msmobiles, another great podcast that I am giving up, I did a year with Edward, Alli and Mickey and that was quite an experience, I will be following all of you and enjoying your blogs and podcasts, keep up the great work.

Chris

Baby Ella is here

So the moment has finally arrived, our daughter was born on the 21st June 2009 at 1.21am, Here are some pictures.

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Sharon’s devilled chicken

I have often talked on Twitter about recipes I cook and a few people have asked for a copy of my favourite dish. Well this one is my all time favourite and it is very simple to make so here we go.

This recipe is based on two people:-

Take two medium sized skinless chicken breast fillets and butterfly them. On the inside of one half of each breast spread with soft goats cheese, chopped chillies and add in some jalapeno peppers.

Close the breast back up and wrap with Pancetta rashers wrapped right round the breast to keep everything together.

Place the breasts in a roasting dish and cover with hot Peri Peri sauce.

Slice some mushrooms and spread evenly over the top and place in a medium temperature oven and cook for about 1 and a half hours.

Boil some fresh Pasta Shells and when cooked drain well then add back into the pan on a low heat and stir through with a jar of Green Pesto.

Serve immediately and add the chicken breast and sauce on top of the pasta. garnish with lots of freshly milled black pepper and grated parmesan cheese. The flavours are fantastic together.

If you like things extra hot, marinate the chicken breasts overnight in the Peri Peri sauce, warning this will make it very spicy.

Let me know what you think if you decide to give it a go.

Baby’s room, job done

Been off work for the last three days to get the future arrivals room ready, its always been a bit of a mystery to me why the room has to be ready even though the baby will not be using it for many months after it is born, but Sharon wants it done and who am I to argue.

So it all started reasonably well on the Wednesday, two coats of the new coloured paint and all the woodwork glossed and filled, perfect.

Day 2, I had to fit the border, I have never done any papering before and thought a border would be pretty easy to do, oh no how wrong could you be. By lunchtime I had hung about two metres, removed four metres and had to repaint two walls, total disaster. Then I ran out of the border and had to drive 25 miles each way to get some more. Finally finished at 4pm. Its ok but not perfectly level.

Day 3 Getting the carpets fitted, well a little bit of advice, get your carpets fitted before you move any furniture in. It wasn’t possible for us as we have been doing the house up for the past two years. Anyway we were getting the stairs, landing, three bedrooms and the bathroom done and we had to move the furniture around between rooms and it took over five hours and it was all physical work. Anyway it is all done now and very happy with the end results.

DIY = Don’t involve yourself

Lesson Learned

Mobile World Congress 2010

As an addict of all things Mobile I have been watching with huge interest the goings on over in Barcelona for Mobile World Congress and to be honest I am jealous as hell of everyone that got the opportunity to get over there. I am going to do everything I can to make sure I will be there in 2010 as it would be an amazing experience.

On another note, the more I see of the Palm Pre the more I want one, could this be the phone to finally challenge the iPhone and break it’s grip, I really think it will be. Unless of course Apple pulls something special out of the bag in June. This year is going to be exciting!

When people are not what they seem

Its a strange thing in life, when you are doing something for someone without any payment, only for the love of doing it you are their best friend, then when for whatever reason you find that you no longer have time to help them out you would at least expect them to thank you for helping them out when you could. Well I would anyway and I certainly wouldn’t expect them to be rude and ungrateful for what you have done and be told that you have let them down.

Some people are so self obsessed it is unbelievable, I have learned a few things over the last few months and it has really suprised me, I see history repeating itself again and all I can say is, get a life and grow up. The lame Twitter digs and podcast digs are so boring!!

The UK Economy

This year is looking like a hard year due to the current economic crisis which is really beginning to show it’s face in the construction industry. Projects are being delayed or shelved and cut price inferior products are being used instead of quality energy efficient products which is totally against the initiatives that our government are encouraging. Hopefully things will start to recover soon or we will all be out of work and the country will grind to a halt, over to you Gordon Brown, it is time to stand up and prove your worth to the UK, now why am I not confident for the future.

2009 what it will bring

Glad to see the back of 2008, not the best year personally or professionally so goodbye and good riddance and welcome 2009.

2009 will see, all being well the birth of my first baby, I have a step daughter who is very special to me but we are expecting our first (and last) baby in June this year. I have so far been pretty cool about it all but started reading a book last night called “Blokes guide to pregnancy” and it scared the hell out of me. In  a nut shell my life is over, I will never have any spare money or time from now on. Well I am going to look at this differently, its an amazing gift, one that we both wanted, it will enrich our lives and give us untold happiness, sure money will be tight but it has also has focused me on more important things like working harder and securing all our futures. 2009 is going to be an amazing year, I just know it.

Mobile Tech Addicts site is really taking off, its only been live since June last year and we are averaging over 5000 visitors a day, not bad at all, I really enjoy doing it and have managed to get some great people involved who are all inspired by mobile technology. My free time will take a bit of a hit when the baby’s born but I am happy that I have a great team of people to fill in the gaps.

I am also changing my role at work, previously I was looking after contractors but from now on I am going to be responsible for consultant sales and specifications, this entails giving presentations which to be honest I really hate and lack confidence, but I put myself forward for it as there is no better feeling than overcoming one of your fears and beating it, lets hope I can.

So my goals for this year are:-

Work hard and have a really successful year in business

Look after my family and give them what they need

Enjoy life