Trying to grow a Magic Fish

Arthur and I started out a new project today, trying to grow a Magic Fish. Well, it’s nothing out of a Harry Potter novel, more of a Christmas Gift that needs to be grown in time for Christmas.

The Magic Fish is really a type of Killifish which hatches right out a sachet of eggs. The pack also comes with some brine shrimp which you also get to grow yourself. So today we got everything set up and we’ll see if we manage to get a baby fish and some brine shrimp tomorrow. You have to let the water settle for 24 hours, just to get the chlorine out of the water. We also prepared some salted water with the brine shrimp eggs in it, which should hatch just in time to feed to the baby fish. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that they hatch as planned. I’ll keep you updated.

There’s a great range of things at Prezzy Box, which is where the Magic Fish came from. I’ve got a Secret Santa gift to get over the next few days and there’s a whole selection of things there. Check out their website. You’re bound to find something you like.

Check out my amazing iHelicopter

I came back home a couple of days and found this waiting for me:

It’s a remote-control helicopter with a twist. Instead of having a dedicated remote control, it has an infra-red emitter that plugs into your phone. And you control it using an application you can download from your phone’s marketplace. And it doesn’t just work on the iPhone, there are also a number of Android phones that it supports. It was nice to find out it supports the phone I have, the Samsung Galaxy S II, so all I had to do was download the app and give it a try.

The helicopter handles well. It has an in-built gyroscope which makes it quite easy to control. I haven’t played with it much so far, as I tried it out in the sitting room and kept worrying that I would crash it into the TV. I’ll try it outdoors one of these days. In fact, the application has a “Demo” button in it, but I wasn’t ready to just let it go berserk in the living room. The app even has a mode where can control the helicopter just by tilting the phone in the direction you want the helicopter to go. Here’s a short video where you can see the chopper in action:

Very much recommended, and you get get one for yourself down at Paramount Zone, where you can find it in their Christmas Gifts section. I think my kids are too young for it just yet. Which means I get to play it all by myself. Muhahaha!

Third Thursday – November 2011

photo credit: Frank_BB

It’s Third Thursday again this week and as usual, we’ll be meeting for a Social Media Club lunch at Paparazzi at 12:30. It’s a social event, open to anyone with an interest in Social Media. It doesn’t matter whether Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or YouTube is your thing; if you use these websites to generate and share content online, you’re bound to find someone at our gatherings you can share your experiences with.

So come and join us this Thursday. If you can’t make lunch, just pop in for a coffee. We’ll be there between 12:30 and 14:00. Come and see what your online friends look like, get some advice and share in the latest online gossip.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Geek Power – Great Christmas Gift

I’ve been keeping my eyes out for gifts for the family, as you do when Christmas is approaching. I’ve come across a few great things for different members of the family, and it’s always fun to see what new items are hitting the market.

Most of you will remember playing Top Trumps from when you were kids. Well, today I came across this Geek Trumps gave with really tickled me. The game follows the usual Top Trumps format, but this time the cards contain characters and personalities who most geeks will be familiar with. With attributes like “Special Skills” and “Geek Power” these geeks almost sound like superheros. Hours of fun with your mates (well, with some of them anyway). I can think of a few people I could get these for, but I’m not convinced I’d ever get a Christmas gift from them again …

If you’re looking for Christmas gift ideas, have a look at some of the other products on that website. From Meerkat Mugs to Solar Powered Fairy Lights Jars, you’re bound to find something for the whole family. And, if you order soon and use the coupon code TENNEROFF40 you can get £10 off orders over £40 and free UK shipping.

Getting to try LTE in the Isle of Man

Last week I was invited by Manx Telecom, one of the telecommunication operators in the Isle of Man to join them on a trial of the 4G technology they are planning to deploy in the next couple of years. It’s a mobile technology called LTE which, based on what I saw, is just awesome!

We met up at Manx Telecom’s Headquarters nice and early where they had a a van all kitted out to take us around. They have 2 base stations set up for the trial, one around their HQ and one at their shop in Douglas. The base station in Douglas has a range that extends over the whole of the promenade, so the main component of the trail consisted of driving up and and down the prom making full use of the technology. The had a USB stick that took a Sim card that let them connect to the 4G network which was plugged into an in-car computer. It was also wired up to a Wifi router to provide a hotspot around the car.

So, what do I mean by saying the results were awesome? Well, we saw download speeds of 52Mb/s, uploads of 10Mb/s and a latency that puts my home ADSL to shame. We first started with some uploads and downloads just to see what we could get, followed by streaming HD on multiple devices while video conferencing. All this, while driving up and down the prom. Here are some photos from the the trial:

Here’s my take on this new technology. When 3G came around, we we promised streaming video on the move, we were promised video conferencing right from our phones and bunch of other stuff too. The problem with 3G was that it just doesn’t provide the bandwidth, or low latency required to make those thing happen. The iPlayer app insists that you’re on a Wifi connection to work, Skype is flaky over 3G and you really can’t run any video conferencing apps (like Facetime) over 3G. LTE will make all these things possible and finally deliver on these promises.

Some fun facts about LTE:

• LTE uses part of the spectrum previously used by analogue TV. Switching to Digital has made these available for other purposes.
• LTE uses lower frequencies that HSDPA. This allows it to penetrate thick Manx stone more easily that current mobile signals.
• The technical name for the standard is 3GPP LTE. The term 4G is really a marketing phrase, but understandable given the fact that LTE is an order of magnitude faster than currently deployed technology.
• The technology for LTE is available for deployment today, but pretty much all handsets in use in the Isle of Man won’t be able to use this standard. Future handsets are expected to have LTE built-in.
• Peak download rates for LTE approach 300 Mbit/s for 4×4 antennas, but the actual speed will depend on base station configuration and licensing restrictions on the width of spectrum available.
• The first publicly available implementation of LTE was deployed in Scandinavia in 2009

Want to learn more? You can read more about their plans on their press release

The Isle of Man in space

I’ve been hearing a lot recently about the Space Industry being more prominent in the mix that makes up the local economy here in the Isle of Man. Here’s a video that was produced by one of the UK channels about what’s going on, in case you were curious:

It’s always great to see economies diversify. As time passes, trends change and it’s important to keep up to date and current. The Isle of Man has had a very stron financial sector over the last couple of decades, but external pressures and a changing market could jeopardise that. Having a presence in other sectors is the way to mitigate that risk, so it’s awesome to see this happen!

Yay! I have a Kindle!

Latest gadget in the house is: A Kindle! It wasn’t planned or anything like that. Our friends down at HotUkDeals ran an impromptu contest last week on Twitter and I was lucky enough to be picked as one of the winners of the contest. And the prize? One spanking new Kindle.

So, I’ll be playing with it over the next few days. Anyone have any tips?