shakeelnaim

Wow! It’s been almost 9 months since I last posted. I am ashamed.
Basically, last year was a really bad year overall. The deteriorating economy affected many people, including me. In order to avoid redundancies and struggling with financial issues, my employer had introduced pay cuts in April. Unfortunately, this did not help and by the end of November, the company went into insolvency and I became unemployed.
Thankfully I had already been for a job interview prior to this and had been informally accepted for a new job (many thanks to Ian for this).The only caveat was that the job was not for web developer which I preferred and it was based in Glasgow and would mean relocating back to Scotland …
After becoming unemployed, I searched for suitable jobs locally for the first few weeks, but it soon became apparent that with the fragile economic climate, there weren’t that many jobs within reasonable distance. With no income and no redundancy pay to support me, my hand was forced and I accepted the Glasgow job offer.
I moved in with family and started the new job in the new year. Other than my clothes and a few essential items, all my remaining belongings are boxed up and stored away which, at times, feels like I’m staying in a hotel. However I’m grateful to the family for putting up with me and for having a full paid job. As I said, it’s a departure from what I was doing before so time will tell how I get on.
In the meantime, I hope to get back in to blogging, creating and finishing the photo blog site which I’ve been intending to do for over a year now and finally to be more contributing to the DigitalOutbox tech podcasting website.
I can’t imagine anyone reading this blog anymore (can’t blame you to be honest) but hopefully with frequent content, I might attract some readers soon. Ciao for now.

It’s been a while since I last posted something, so felt that I needed to add an update.
Past few weeks have been very busy, with work, launch of DigitalOutbox and preparing and recording the podcasts. You might have also noticed that the website is sporting a fresh new look! After the launching DigitalOutbox, I felt the blog looked too plain and didn’t really represent my vision, so I spent some time finding a new theme and then customising it to suit my needs. It’s still not 100% the way I’d like it and I will be making tweaks here and there over the coming months.

On top of all this, I’ve been getting really frustrated by not having an elegant way for displaying my photographs. I feel I’m not good enough to have a professional looking online portfolio as I’m not a photographer by profession, but I would still like to present my photos in a professional manner, separate from this blog. I don’t have the time or the desire to build a website from scratch so the other option is to use a photoblogging tool.

I’ve been trying out Pixelpost for a few months, but not really gotten anywhere due to various reasons. It’s a nice enough tool with some really nice themes available, but I haven’t yet found a theme that impresses me overall. One option is to pick the themes that have features that I like and then create my own customised theme. This is not something I’m looking forward to doing due to lack of spare time.
Another option is to use Wordpress and use one of the numerous photoblog themes. I’m not too sure about this option as I don’t want the extra burden of adding posts, I just want to be able to upload photos and present them in a funky way with easy to use navigation.

So in the meantime I have added a Photos page and using a really cool AJAX enabled plugin, Slickr Gallery, which streams my photos from my Flickr page and displays the sets as albums. It looks pretty nice and is easy to use.
Recently I have discovered another possible option, SlideShowPro, which I’m testing out right now. At the moment it’s looking very promising and could end up being the weapon of choice. The only caveat is that it’s just a tool for displaying photos and doesn’t provide the complete solution of a website with themes and plugins, so I will have to use it in combination with Pixelpost or Wordpress.
Here’s an example of how it can be customised to suit your website design and colour scheme. This is using RSS to pull the latest photos from my Flickr page.

For the past few weeks, my friend Ian and I, have been working on a little project called DigitalOutbox. We’ve always had a huge interest in the latest technology, gadgets, games and computing, so we though it’s about time we made something of it and put ourselves to the test.

We will be producing weekly podcasts covering the latest tech news, gadgets, games and all things digital. The podcasts will be available to download and stream directly from our new website – DigitalOutbox. You can subscribe to the blog posts and the podcasts, directly from our website. Additionally, you can also subscribe to the podcasts, directly from within iTunes. The podcast will be available as a standard podcast and an enhanced podcast which will include chapters and album art. Each podcast will be published accompanied with shownotes detailing the topics covered and also include website links where relevant.

Of course there are plenty of podcasts out there covering the exact same subject matter, some with extremely high production standards. We both felt that what was lacking was a UK focus and the presentation more laid back and easier for the listener to digest. We want our style to be more approachable and easier for all listeners to understand, with less techno jargon and more relevancy to what would interest most folks rather than only focusing on the technically minded. All of this is presented with some friendly banter and a few laughs to entertain, delight and educate. Our intention is to eventually introduce vidcasts and possibly also video reviews of gadgets and games. We also hope to produce video tutorials and screencasts covering all manner of things, in the very near future.

It is a challenging project for both of us in terms of experience, obviously, and also time and commitment towards our careers and family life. We have never done anything like this before and this will definitely be noticeable in our first podcast – lots of “erm’s”, nervous laughs and occasional pauses. We will endeavor to make your listening experience as pleasant as we can and promise to do better as we get more practice and become more confident. We welcome and encourage all feedback, comments and suggestions. If you think there are things we are doing wrong, tell us! If there are things that we do or say that you like, brilliant! Let us know!

Ok, being a Hi-Fi and home cinema fan, I admit to having spent ridiculous amounts of cash on my A/V gear in the past. Over the last couple of years though, I’ve been quite sensible and have reduced my equipment count to just a plasma screen, 5.1 speaker system, A/V receiver, Sky HD box and a PS3 for all video playback.
A few weeks ago however, my sensibilities went out of the window and I decided to splash out and replace my Denon AH-D1001 headphones with a set of Denon AH-D5000.
I was actually very happy with the D1001’s and had no real need for new headphones. However, after selling a few items on eBay I suddenly got that gadget itch and decided to treat myself to something new … always an expensive move.
I spent the next few days researching online and reading numerous user opinions and views and on Head-Fi. In the end I decided to get the Denon AH-D5000.

Build

When they first arrived, my reaction was – “Oh my god, they’re gorgeous!”. This was immediately followed by – “sh*t, they be big!”. The D1001’s are a decent size headphone but compared to them, the D5000 just looks massive.
The build quality and design really is excellent. The headband is generously padded and is mounted on a ball-bearing system which glides really smoothly when adjusting for size. The frame is constructed from magnesium which not only makes it very robust, but also surprisingly light-weight.
The enclosures are crafted from real mahogany wood and have the characteristic, deep red, rich mahogany colour, and printed gold lettering. Apparently, the mahogany provides superior acoustic characteristics with a broader, natural sound and I certainly can’t argue with that. The extremely well-padded enclosures are generous size and completely envelope the ears instead of sitting on top of them. The padding is nice and very comfortable, which when combined with the enclosure size, makes these headphones extremely comfortable to wear. After a certain period of wearing the D1001’s, my ears used to get a bit hot and sweaty. However I can easily wear the D5000’s for much longer periods without feeling any discomfort. In fact these are the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever worn. They are deceptively light due to the magnesium construction and don’t grip the head too tightly.

The cable is very high quality 7N-OFC (oxygen free copper) construction, covered with a mesh cloth jacket and has an aluminium cover connected to a gold plated headphone jack. The L/R channel cables connect to a generous 3 meter cable which is about 3 times thicker than the individual channel cables. If I have one gripe, it’s that the cable is just too long. If you plan to use these while on the move or at an office desk then the cable length can be a bit of a nuisance. Others may appreciate the generous length and I can imagine it’s perfect for home use, hooked up to a high quality amplifier.

Performance

When I put these on the first time, it was with feelings of much excitement mixed with doubt. I had this feeling that I would not hear much or any difference compared to the D1001 or that I’d just be plain disappointed. So I hooked the headphones to my iPhone and nervously searched for the album I always use to test any audio equipment – Radiohead’s OK Computer.
I immediately went for my all-time favourite song, Paranoid Android and hit play. Within 3 seconds, any doubts that I had about the capabilities of these headphones, totally and completely vanished. Straight out of the box, they sound amazing and noticeably superior to the D1001. There is just a huge amount of separation and ’space’ to the sound and I could really easily pick up more individual instruments than before. Not only that, each of those instruments were now exhibiting more depth and significant clarity. I was hearing and feeling the instruments spaced out at different distances and depths, with each instrument’s sound delivered with the utmost clarity and accuracy. When Thom Yorke’s haunting vocals kicked in, they sounded crystal clear and did not get muddled up with the music. The vocals just seemed to float above the music. I then briefly tried the remaining tracks in the album and they all sounded as breathtaking as the first.
I spent the next hour or so playing more of my favourite tracks from various artists such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Muse and genres ranging from dance, chillout to classical and movie soundtracks. They all sounded excellent and left a big grin on my face. I knew I was going to have a great time testing these over the next few weeks.

If you are going to use these with a portable digital music player, then make sure your music is encoded at as high a quality level as possible. At least 256kbps but preferably at 320kbps or lossless cos that’s when they sound at their best. I’ve found that with lower quality encodes, they still sound good but you just don’t get that high quality of separation and clarity as you do with higher quality encodes. And they do expose poorly encoded music for all it’s ugliness, which some people may mistake as the fault of the headphones. It’s not the headphones, they just reveal the quality of the music as it is. They are not designed to make badly encoded music sound better.
One stand out feature is the bass – it goes really deep and does stand out, adding extra depth to the music than before.
They are quite sensitive, rated at 25ohms, so most portable digital players shouldn’t have too much trouble driving them. But being a high-end, full range headphones, they will obviously sound better the more power you supply to them. I have contemplated getting a portable headphone amp in the future, to supply more power without resorting to cranking up the volume to full, but I’d like to try one out first so I can decide if it’s worth the extra cost.
My only grumble is that I’m a little bit disappointed that Denon have been too stingy to provide a holder or a pouch. The D1001’s came with a cloth pouch which proved quite useful and at this premium price point, they should have provided something similar for the D5000’s too.

Conclusion

I’ve been using the D5000’s for almost a month now and I can honestly that these are really something special. They produce such levels of clarity and depth from sound which, I did not think was possible with headphones. They are beautifuly designed and sound incredible.
They are very expensive but the sound quality is of a level you would expect at this price. You WILL definitely hear a clear difference between these and cheaper headphones.
Should you buy them? If you are a hi-fi enthusiast, willing and able to pay the asking price (though shop around for significant savings, especially online) then you should most definitely audition them. I’m sure once you’ve heard them you will be suitably impressed. If you are a budget conscience consumer however, I wouldn’t really expect you to pay this sort of price, even though I’m certain they are worth the money. My cheaper recommendation would be the D1001.

Here’s the latest in-game video footage from the awesome looking Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. The game is a PS3 exclusive and is due for release late November 2009.

Warner Home Video have revealed an image of the blu-ray box-set of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The seven-disc box set is officially titled “The Lord of the Rings: The Motion Picture Trilogy” and will contain the theatrical versions of all three films.
Unsurprisingly, no details have been given for the extended versions of the films. It’s obvious Warner are hoping to milk this release for all it’s worth before unleashing the much desired extended edition box-set for the hardcore fans. No doubts some will buy this and then upgrade to the extended edition as soon as it comes out (including me I guess …).
The retail price has been set at $99.99 but it’s now available for pre-order on the Amazon US website for $69.99, although a release date is not yet available.
No sign of it yet, on Amazon UK, other than an entry with the option to sign up for a release notification, but I can’t imagine it being too far away from the US release, whenever that maybe.

Now this looks extremely promising – Duncan Jone’s indie sci fi flick Moon starring Sam Rockwell.

I just love it when a movie appears from nowhere, with no huge media hype, and looks as promising as this does (remember when The Matrix came out?). This is director, Duncan Jones, first major film, having only directed a scifi short, Whistle, back in 2000. From the looks of the trailer, it certainly seems that he has done an excellent job. The movie poster also looks fantastic.

The film first premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and was quickly snapped up by Sony Pictures Classics. It will be released in US, at limited theaters on 12th June. Haven’t been able to find out a UK release date, but I’ll probably wait till it’s out on blu-ray anyway.

I have really high hopes for this film and hope it turns out to be as good as the trailer.

Wow! This blog was hacked recently. You always read about these kind of things but never expect it to happen to you. Especially not when you’re just starting out and haven’t had much exposure in the blogosphere.
I hadn’t added anything new to the blog, so wasn’t aware of it until a friend emailed me this morning saying “Your blog’s been hacked.” (thanks Tam!).
What the hacker, or hackers, had done was replace my current theme’s index.php with their own. When a user arrived at my blog, they were greeted by a page saying “HACKED BY Red Virus” “just for fun”. If you Google “C3O@W.CN”, you can see examples of this page. They had also modified my admin password so I couldn’t log in to the admin page. I tried reseting the password but received no email.
Being at work, I couldn’t do much at the time, until I got home. Once I got home, I downloaded the entire public_html folder from the host, to try and find out exactly what had changed. Not being familiar with hacking methods and solutions this was quite a challenging task as I wasn’t sure what or where to look. I found this article which gave a few pointers. I have yet to follow all the instructions but this is what I’ve done so far to get the site back up and running.
Since I’d already identified that the theme’s index.php file had changed, I made a note of the date modified, which was 3 days ago. I then did a quick scan of the downloaded folder for any files modified in the last 7 days (as I hadn’t made any changes since February). I couldn’t see anything else but will search more thoroughly tomorrow.
I then searched online for ways of resetting Wordpress admin password and found this article. I started following the steps for resetting the password using phpMyAdmin but as soon as I looked at the wp_users table, I realised that the admin email address had been modified. I thought, before following the remaining steps in the article, I’ll update my admin email and try resetting the password again from the admin page. This worked and I got an email with link for updating my password.
After logging in to my site’s admin page, I first of all gave myself a brand new password. I then updated all plugins that had an update available and then upgraded Wordpress from 2.7 to 2.7.1.
Hopefully this will plug any security holes as a starter. Tomorrow I will follow the remaining steps outlined in Holy Shmoly!’s article. My host also has a FAQ with tips on making your Wordpress site more secure.
I’m still a bit concerned incase the hackers have left any malicious scripts hidden away in some pages somewhere deep in the site structure. If there is any malicious code, I hope the steps outlined in the article above will help me identify it.
I’m pleased to get the blog back up and running as earlier on I was concerned that I may have to delete the whole lot and start again. If anything, it’s been an experience and has focused my attention back to the blog. Hopefully I can make it more secure and then concentrate on adding new and exciting content.

At long last, EA and Harmonix have broken their silence and announced the release date for Rock Band 2 in the UK – March 27th for PS3 and PS2, with the Wii version on April 24th.

Rock Band 2 has been available for the the XBox 360 and PS3 in America since November ‘08. The game was released worldwide for the XBox 360 soon after, but EA and Harmonix had remained tight-lipped about it’s release for PS3/PS2 and Wii for all other territories.

Many rumours surrounding a payment from Microsoft for a period of exclusivity on the XBox 360 have circulated the internet since it’s American PS3 release. Numerous threads on the official Rock Band forums, requesting an announcement for the worldwide PS3 and Wii release remained unanswered. This upset many fans who posted further threads accusing Harmonix and EA of disrespecting the fans and being in the pockets of Microsoft. These allegations remained unchallenged and unanswered, which seemed to anger the fans even more.

If there was a paid period of exclusivity, it seems it has now come to an end. I think with such a late release, Harmonix/EA might have left it a bit late to achieve the same level of success they have in America. Many users have been left bitter and will simply not touch Rock Band 2 now. Others got tired of waiting for an anouncement, bought GHWT and will not buy another brand.
This is a real shame as Rock Band 2 is a great game and many people, like myself, who have been waiting patiently, will be delighted to hear about it’s release. I bought Guitar Hero: World Tour because I prefer the guitar and the drum kit is of a better build quality and quieter. I also bought Rock Band only to find out that the GHWT drums are not compatible with it. Rock Band 2 however, IS compatible with the GHWT drums, and with the ability to import all Rock Band songs to the Rock Band 2 library, I’ll finally be able to use my drums.
Personally, I can not wait for it’s release. LET’s RAWWWK!

Spotify is a new subscription based music service, legally offering access to a vast music library.
There are 3 levels of subscription:

• Free – totally free but with occasional ad
• Day Pass- £0.99 for 24 hours, ad-free
• Premium – £9.99 per month, unlimited ad-free

Once subscribed with Spotify, a desktop client can be downloaded, which is extremely easy to use and looks very nice. It is very similar in functionality to iTunes, relying heavily on playlists to keep your music organised. Music can be searched by artist, title, album, genre or year. Once a list of search results are returned, simply drag the desired song(s) to one of your playlists.
Music is generally of an acceptable quality with an average bit rate of 160kbps, and the range of music is quite extensive, bar a few notable exceptions, such as the Beatles, Led Zeppelin.
I think one of my favourite feature is the ability to right-click on a playlist, copy the URL and then send it to a friend. When your friend clicks on the link, your playlist is automatically added to your friend’s Spotify client. What’s even more cool is that when you make any changes to your playlist, the changes are automatically reflected in your friend’s client – brilliant!
If that wasn’t enough, you can even make your shared playlist collaborative. This allows your friend to make changes to your playlist too. If you share this playlist with a bunch of friends, they can all make changes to it. How cool is that?
The radio feature is also very nice and easy to use. Simply select the decade(s) and genre and Spotify will offer you a selection of music based on your criteria.

There are some improvements I’d like to see in future updates. Perhaps some smart playlists – I think as I add more and more music, my current playlists might get difficult to manage. I’d also like to see a similar feature to the iTunes genius which would be great for discovering music you might have missed otherwise. And it goes without saying that an iPhone client would be a must-have application for any owner.
In it’s current state, I think Spotify is an excellent service and it has exposed the potential of a subscription based music service to me, whereas before I was always a bit skeptical and preferred to own all my music.
I’m not sure if I feel comfortable paying £9.99 per month for the premium service as I don’t think it offers any real advantage over the free service. The ads on the free service aren’t really that intrusive and aren’t presented that frequently, which is nice. If the premium service offered higher bit rate music and was say £7.99, then yes, I think I’d be quite happy to pay for that.
To use the free service, you must register your interest on the website and hope that you receive an invite soon. The other way is to get an invite code from an existing user. I have a handful of Spotify invitation codes available if anyone would like one. Just leave a comment (with your email) or drop me a line using the contact form.