A couple of family members got new MP3 players for Xmas. They don't need loads of GB of storage and the budget was tight so I picked out the Samsung U4. It offers 2GB of music plus an RDS radio in a very compact unit. A plus point was support for OGG Vorbis. The problems started when I plugged it into my PC to upload some music. It doesn't use the usual UMS storage protocol. I did get a 'USB Imaging Interface' in Konqueror, but it seemed to be read-only. A bit of research revealed that it uses Microsofts MTP instead.

Someone suggested Gnomad2 might support it. Indeed it did, but could not handle playlists for OGG in the version available from the Ubuntu repositories. I thought things were going to get complicated when something led me to find out that Amarok has a driver for MTP built in. It was merely a matter of adding a new media device and I could simply mark music for transfer then just synchronise. I'm sure I can teach the family how to use that and then they can manage their own music. Another victory for open formats and open source.

To supply them with some extra new music we made use of the Amazon MP3 Store offer of £3 of free music over Xmas. When they first opened I thought it would be unusable due to requiring software to download the music, but they support multiple Linux distributions. The software was easily installed and worked perfectly. I've held off from buying much downloadable music due to most having DRM, but there seem to be multiple stores offering MP3 files now. Prices vary a lot. Some albums are available for as little as £3, but others cost almost as much as a CD. Bit rates of 256 or 320kbit should give adequate quality. I can see myself buying more music like this. I like my CDs, but accept that they generally stay on the shelf once they have been ripped. Downloads can be considered greener too.

We still gained more bits on plastic in the form of several new DVDs and Wii games. Downloads do not fulfill all digital media requirements yet. I've seen some sites saying you can download Wii games on your PC to burn to DVD for a fixed fee. I doubt that these are at all legal.

There is plenty of music available to download, legally, for free. The problem is in finding the good stuff. Via subscribing to a band member's Youtube feed I was alerted to a free EP by Jo Webb & The Dirty Hands. Despite the song titles these are not covers, but are some great slices of pop that I have been enjoying. I may well buy their upcoming album. I also plan to buy some more music by Steve Lawson soon.

I'm not a huge mobile phone user. My PAYG account costs me a couple of pounds each month, so there is no point getting a contract that would cost a lot more, but it means I never get a cheap new phone. My current Samsung was second hand and is on its last legs. The aerial is broken and the battery does not last long. I'd like a nice smartphone that would give me some internet functionality, but can't justify the cost of £200+. Yesterday I read about the BenQ E72 on The Register. For around £100 it seems to offer most of the features I would want:

• Windows Mobile - not my ideal OS, but I'm used to it from my Acer PDA
• Audio playing - assuming I can install something that plays OGG Vorbis. It uses a USB connector for headphones and people seem to be finding it hard to get an adaptor to use any other than the basic ones supplied
• Mass storage - it uses Micro SD that is pretty cheap these days. The limit is 2GB, but I've seen mention of a patch to allow up to 8GB
• Camera - 2MP and probably not brilliant, but got to be better than the crap one on the Samsung that I can't even extract the pictures from
• Bluetooth - could be useful
• Wi-fi - this really caught my attention as I'd not seen any phones in this price range with it. That would give me decent internet access in various locations away from home, something I don't have at all now. So I could check email and play with things like RSS and identi.ca

It lacks some things like a big screen and 3G, but I'll accept some compromised for a good price. The reviews suggest it's not great for power users, but they can probably justify the cost of an iPhone or Nokia n99999. I just want to gain some functionality I don't have at all and can live with it being behind the bleeding edge.

The main issue I can see is with the headphones. I use my PDA for music, but want to be able to get by with carrying just one device. For the rare times I need GPS I can take the Acer. I also ought to look at syncing data to my PC. I think that the newer Windows Mobile the BenQ has is supported on Linux. So is there any reason not to get one?

I recently subscribed to the Audiophiliac blog on good old Cnet. I used to get my computer news from them many years ago. I was just interested to see what was going on in the AV world. Not that I can afford to splash out on new gadgets. I was reading this post that asks what people have hooked up to their AV receivers. In my case it would be:

• Pace Twin Freeview DVB-T recorder, via stereo phono. We watch some films and stuff in surround
• Sony DVD player, via digital phono cable to get proper 5.1. I'm using a crappy audio cable rather than a proper coax cable, but it sounds fine.
• Nintendo Wii, via stereo phono. I get adequate Dolby surround on this.

So my old Yamaha receiver is not being overwhelmed with connections. It can route video too, but only composite, so I never used that feature. I have enough connections on the Toshiba TV to use component video for the DVD, RGB SCART for the Pace and composite for the Wii. I also have the Pace feeding audio to the TV via optical digital. I've aspired to getting better quality cables, but have resisted apart from the component, but that was low end. Everything looks and sounds fine anyway. I'm constrained by having to keep things simple enough for the family to work it. They seem to manage. It's just a shame that my nice Logitech multi-remote died so that we have gone back to using multiple remotes.

I don't actually spend that much time in front of the TV. I spend more at the PC, but get to watch a DVD once in a while. The last couple of things I watched with the family were King Kong (recorded from TV), the new Peter Jackson version that was pretty good and looked excellent, and the new Merlin series on BBC1 that may be fun. There was a good documentary about Roxy Music last night, but I watched that on the PC via MythTV. I'm still on my old 19" CRT, but fancy a 24" LCD one of these days.

I'm not that bothered about getting HD. It requires too much investment and I don't think that most TV would benefit that much. I'm sure some nature programmes look stunning, but they look fairly good on our old TV. I don't feel the need to subscribe to cable or satellite and free HD is a few years away.

I was listening to the Digital Planet podcast where they were talking about Super HI Vision that delivers 16x the pixels of HD and 22.2 sound. Apparently they can squeeze the signal down a 1Gb link. So it's a few years away from the home. Maybe my kids will have it when they grow up.

5 points if you can name the comedy song the title is from, minus 10 is you have to Google it.

I have finally entered the wireless networking age. Although I ran CAT5 cable throughout my house when I built it four years ago I have yet to make use of it. All my computers have been in the study and within reach of my router. My old router was playing up a bit and I needed a way to get the Wii on-line. A good friend had a spare Linksys WRT54GS that he has passed on to me. These seem to be highly rated, partly because you can replace the firmware. I have looked at some of the alternatives, but I don't see any reason to change it just yet. My networking needs are fairly basic. It has the usual web-based set-up screens with loads of options. I made the essential changes to the passwords and it seems to be working, including the Wii which is in the next room. This configuration will also give me more options for where I use my work laptop when I have it here.

I know I could open up my network for others to use, but I'm not sure that there would be much demand. The neighbouring houses are not too close and those who need internet probably already have it. I would have to be very sure of not compromising my own network security before taking such steps.

Getting the Wii on-line was just a matter of finding the router and setting the password. This now gives me the following possibilities:

• Linking to friends. This is the main reason as we have friends with Wiis. We can send them messages and move our Mii characters across.
• Shopping channel. Nintendo allow you to buy various games from older platforms to download using Wii Points. You can buy these or you get some when you register products. I have a few, but they are not showing up after I logged in via the Wii. How do I get my points and what should I buy? I could get the Opera browser for 500, but some more games might be welcome.
• Forecasts and news. Fairly basic weather and news pages with some fancy graphics. We can get more information via the Freeview text service. The problem with these if that they seem to need the Wiiconnect24 service to be running in standby mode, but I can't see why they should. I don't really want it on all the time as it will use more power and there may be a small risk of overheating. I don't plan on leaving the router on all the time anyway.
• Network games. Thos ought to be something big, but there do not seem to be many games that allow for network games. A few can swap scores and levels, but that's not too exciting. There's a new chess game, but I find it hard to get worked up about that.

So what else can I do now?

The other recent networking change is that I now have 20Mb broadband instead of 4Mb, but am not noticing much difference. My rare big downloads may be quicker, but general internet seems much the same. A reason for changing was that I also get more free landline calls that may actually save me some money on the phone bill.

I just heard a newsreader refer to the 'Information Superhighway'. Does anyone say that apart from newsreaders and politicians?

Jeff Atwood on Coding Horror posted an update about what's on his keychain. He carries a flash drive, a multi-tool and a mini torch. All that's on my keyring, apart from keys, is a Tesco barcode tag for when I buy fuel. I do, however, have certain things in my pockets when I am out and about.

I carry a phone, an ancient Samsung V200, but don't use it very much. I have a wallet for cash and a few cards. In a pocket of the wallet I have a guitar plectrum and my old 128MB flash drive. It's a very flat one, so doesn't make much of a bump. I always wear a watch out of habit. It's currently a solar-powered Casio Wave Ceptor that should always have the correct time due to picking up a radio signal every night.

I like to have a PDA with me as my phone doesn't do much in that area. I used to use my Palm Zire 71, but have been trying to switch to the Acer n35. I got the Acer for it's GPS for Openstreetmap, but it's also a better audio player than the Palm. I just haven't got around to moving all my address data across yet. Synching a Pocket PC to Linux is not so easy. I keep thinking that I should get something newer, but can't justify anything expensive. Maybe there's a cheaper phone that would give me most of what I want so I could just carry one gadget. Mind you, one the train last night I was surrounded by several suits all twiddling their Crackberries. Two had audio players as well even though I would expect the 'berries to be able to handle audio. I know that combining gadgets involves compromise, but you just run out of pockets.

For listening to audio on the Acer I have some Sennheiser earbuds. I've been listening to lots of podcasts lately. I've not been travelling far enough to run out of battery lately, but I could use my Freeloader if I had a USB power lead. Whatever gadgets I buy in future should run from USB power. It means you don't need as many power supplies and I spend a lot of time near a PC.

I see some people blogging about all the gadgets they carry around, usually requiring a bag. In some cases it just seems excessive. If they get mugged that's a lot of stuff to lose. Mine probably all cost a few hundred when new, but is not worth much now. My financial situation helps my anti-consumerism to win over my GAS.

That's enough of my rambling. Anyone else want to list what they carry?

Well it's Xmas day, we've watched Doctor Who and eaten too much cake. The hit of the day is our new Nintendo Wii. We thought we might not have one by now due to the general shortage of units in the shops, but one came up in a charity auction at work and I won without paying much over RRP. So far all we have is the standard pack withe Wii Sports plus the Wii Play games that came with an extra remote.

I've not played much with consoles of the last few years and so am very impressed. The motion-sensing remotes are very intuitive and the graphics look fine on out old TV even though it's only using composite video. Sound is in Pro Logic through the surround system and sounds good. The games are fun for all the family. I look forward to getting something more involved, but fear that this will eat up all my free time. There are annoyances such as the safety warning screens that keep appearing warning you to use the wrist straps and take breaks. They get boring fast. I bet their lawyers insisted on them.

I've not been reading up too much on what is available and worth getting for the Wii, so I am open to suggestions. I know a few of my readers have them. Leave comments or email me if you prefer.

I'm still messing with the bass. I've found some good sites for instruction and inspiration. These include:

• TalkBass.com - a very active forum
• GuitarNoise - has a nice series of tutorials, including Pink Floyd's Money
• Beautiful Bass Podcast - Solo player Jeff Schmidt talks about his own playing and that of his friends. Amazing stuff that I don't even aspire to yet.

I've still not done any recording due to on-going problems with Ubuntu and my hardware, but today I discovered that I could record in Audacity as it was using OSS rather than ALSA for input. I might try doing something with that in my days off this week.

I did a few updates on this site recently. I removed some non-working external links and fixed my favicon that was being diverted by the static page plug-in. On the static page front I have added a few more about my music, computer and green activities. Only the first has much content for now. I shall write up the others as I find time. Those pages also allow for comments if you want to use them. I'm happy to take emails, but comments can make the site more useful if they contribute information on the topic.

I'll probably write again soon, but I'll say happy new year now anyway.

I'm sure Apple's new toy will be delightfully shiny and fun, but I won't be rushing to get one when they eventually reach the UK. I don't have an ipod either. I've not had a desperate need for a portable music player and have got by using my various PDAs. One of my issues with the Apple products is that they have too many restrictions on what you can do. I find it frustrating that technology is opening up so many possibilities, but certain parts of the industry insist on locking the user out. This is why I prefer to use more open platforms where anything is possible as long as someone writes the software for it.

So as far as mobile phones are concerned I am keeping an eye on the Openmoko project. With luck there should be something to buy this year, but they have been having some issues. This release appeared yesterday and clears up a few points.

We bought a Pace Twin Freeview box some years ago to replace the cable service we were using. It gave us all the channels we needed without a monthly cost and allowed us to record to disk. This has been so much better than using tapes. I know it's pretty standard now, but it was a revelation at the time. It wasn't as intelligent as the Tivo boxes I saw at the time, but it is generally good enough. One limitation was that you could only record 10 hours of TV on the 20GB hard drive. It uses a 2.5" drive and those were relatively expensive at the time. Now they have come right down, so I finally bought an 80GB unit to upgrade the Twin. This sat on the shelf for a few weeks until we managed to watch everything on the old one, but I did the swap today. It was very easy to do. The unit seems very well put together. It should last a few more years. There's not really anything to wear out apart from the drive.

My other method of recording TV is on the computer using my Haupauge DVB card. I'm still using ZapDVB despite it's limitations. I use this when we need to record multiple things simultaneously or if it's something I know we will want to keep, mainly for the kids. I had to install it again after my latest expisode so I'll just publish the steps I had to follow in case they are useful to someone.

• You can install from a deb file as I did, but I later found that it is in the Ubuntu reportitories, so an apt-get install zapdvb will do
• sudo /usr/local/share/zapdvb/setup conf - asks various question, but I'm not sure it actually set up what I need. See below.
• sudo apt-get install dvb-utils - required to scan for channels
• sudo apt-get install kjscmd - for a slightly better GUI
• sudo apt-get install wmctrl
• sudo apt-get install mpg123 - required to listen to radio
• sudo apt-get install sox - to convert to OGG
• cd /usr/local/share//zapdvb
• sudo ./setup --scan - gets the channel list. Will be written to a file in the config folder
• In config/zapdvb.conf set:
  • source0=config/dvb-t_uk-SandyHeath.conf ter 0 3 "Terrestrial"
  • pathvideo=/data/tv             # movie file
  • pathaudio=/data/radio             # music files
• Run zapmcc - can add to the menu as required

It lacks any sort of EPG, so you need to know when things are on. It also may have issues if one recording is to start immediately after another finishes. I need to test that some more. I still like it as it uses minimal CPU and does it's thing in the background. Maybe I should look at things like MythTV, but I can't justify dedicating a PC to TV.

My next job is to get video into the PC from our camcorder via Firewire. I've had this working in the past, but for now I can't even get the camera to mount as a device I can access. This needs further investigation.

My Logitech Harmony 655 multi-remote is a great gadget. It allows us to get away with using a single remote most of the time. To set it up you have to log into their web site and configure everything, then the site downloads a file which is transferred via USB to the device using an application installed on the PC. Unfortunately this application is not available for Linux so I have to make use of a Windows machine.

I was trying to set it up for my new DVD player yesterday when I found that I couldn't get into the screen that lets me re-program the buttons. I sent them a bug report. Later that afternoon I had a reply to say it was fixed. This was on a Sunday! They had fixed it, but something else had gone awry and I had lost some other settings somehow. I've reported that too. I also inquired about whether there will ever be a Linux version of the software.

The most serious problem I have had with this device is that the up/down buttons for changing volume and channel have become very intermittent. This would seem to be a hardware issue that I may be able to resolve by opening it up, but for now I have just added those functions to the programmable buttons alongside the screen.

My new Sony DVP-NS76H DVD player is looking good so far. I made a slight mistake in my last post. I am using a component video cable, not the inferior composite. The picture is rock solid. I tried some old Divx films I have on CD and those played perfectly, apart from me needing to manually adjust the TV aspect ratio to make them fill the screen. For audio I'm still using half of a free stereo cable to carry the digital signal to my Yamaha amp and it sounds fine.

Today I made it multi-region. Most of the mentions of this on places like AV Forums said to use a OneForAll remote, but I couldn't get mine to do it. It seems you cannot just use the standard Sony unit. So I tried an alternative of using the demo version of OmniRemote with a special configuration on my Palm. A few screen taps later I was playing my region 1 (Canadian) Harry Potter with no problems.

Things are less good on the Powerball front. Mine is suffering a problem where the screen locks up, so it's going back to John Lewis. For reference it's sold under the name 'Strength Ball'. I've now played with an original Powerball and there is a significant difference. The Powerball is much smoother in operation. It also has more functions on the display, so I think it's worth the extra few pounds. Both are made in China/Taiwan, possibly in the same factory, but maybe one gets more attention.