I haven’t updated this for a few weeks because I’ve been very busy with a number of different things. Firstly I have TV on my computer now, which I mentioned in last blog post. I’m using a Pinnacle Dazzle 71e USB stick with Windows Media Center on Windows 7. Windows Media Center is a great piece of software. Thankfully it now has a nearly complete channel guide. Channel 9 is the stick in the mud here, not properly categorising programs into genres and not always labeling programs properly on 9 Digital, 9 HD and Go!

I’ve found Go! to be the best Channel on Digital TV at the moment, because it keeps showing episodes of Get Smart,  Seinfeld, Hogan’s Heros, The Flintstones and Frasier. It works just like a TiVo except the recordings aren’t encypted, I can burn them to DVD, copy them to USB or do anything I like with them. I also have a great program installed which lets me automatically cut out the commercials out of recordings! There is series recording available which means I can automatically record any show I like for an entire season automatically, as long as the computer is on. Doesn’t matter what Channel or Time it’s on, it will be recorded. The only 2 issues I have is that I only bought 1 tuner, which means I can only watch the channel I’m recording and only record 1 channel at a time. I’ll eventually fix this problem by buying either another tuner or a more expensive dual tuner. The other issue is that networks in this country don’t have to stick to the times they put on the EPG, so shows will always run late which is really annoying. Other than that, a TV tuner and Windows Media Center is a cheap way to record digital TV!

So other than spending my time watching TV, the computer which I’ve set up to be my TV computer is also my data server, because I bought 2 x 500GB hard drives for it, giving me 1TB of storage now. My laptop now is just a computer which reads and write the data from the server computer, while also caching a copy so I can use the important files while I’m away from the server.

Lastly I also turned 17, and I’d like to just share 2 gifts that I received on my birthday from some very awesome friends Ashleigh, Ashlee and Caitlin (but then again, all my friends are awesome 😀 ) Just the pictures will explain all that’s needed to know.

Painting By Ashlee and Caitlin

Shirt By Ashleigh

Well that’s all for this blog post. Next week I’m back at school for my final year of school. I’ve achieved a lot of things I’d like to do during the holidays and so am ready to polish off my schooling life with a good OP hopefully to get me started in University in 2011.