Continue reading »]]> Well, GEEK! is just over three years old now; and during that time I’ve written over 400 posts. So, while I don’t really want to add anything too new to GEEK! while I get my backup system finalised, I thought now would be a good time to run over some of the posts have brought the most traffic to GEEK!.

By far and away, the most popular post on GEEK! is the “Get the old Windows Live Essentials back“. So many of you were fed up with the poor functionality of Essentials 2011 (including me), so I linked you up with a download and instructions to get the old 2009 version back.

Next up, it’s the tool I found that allowed you to find the biggest files on your hard drive. The tiny tool quickly locates the files that are occupying the most space on your drive, allowing you to delete anything you see as unnecessary.

My review of the Samsung N145P netbook brought the next largest amount of attention to GEEK!. A fully comprehensive review that details everything you needed to know.

Not too far behind, my finding of TVCatchup back in mid 2009 provided Freeview TV access over the internet (in the UK). I still use the site regularly when I’m on the go, as it provides live TV without a bombardment of adverts.

Last in the top five, it’s my iPod touch 4G review. Simple and sweet – it explains all the new features that were (and still are) great additions to the iPod range.

And that’s it – a round-up of the top five biggest posts on GEEK!. Normal service on GEEK! will resume soon, but I’m just optimising the backup process on my new VPS!

Continue reading »]]> Right – I literally just upgraded the motherboard on my computer and then reinstalled Windows. Rather stupidly, I didn’t think to check I had all the driver disks for my USB devices – and nonetheless I since haven’t been able to get a driver for my USB TV Tuner.

It’s a PEAK USB Dual Tuner DVB-T, and I had it running perfectly on my original 32-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. However, I’ve now moved over to 64-bit Windows – which is great, but I can’t for the life of me find the stupid mini-CD that came with the device to install the driver.

Even more annoyingly – the company’s website (PEAK) is no longer working (www.peakhardware.com), and there aren’t any drivers on any public driver site – so I was absolutely stuck there.

Thankfully, I had a eureka moment and realised that I’d, in the past, also installed the tuner on my netbook. Whilst I couldn’t use the driver on that (because it is 32-bit), I was able to identify the name of the driver used and get a copy online (much more readily available).

Anyway – if you’re having the same problem as me – it uses a driver called the AF9015 BDA Device - and luckily enough, I have a driver for you!

DOWNLOAD NOW (direct from GEEK!) – please read instructions below! (file size: 600KB approx)
Please note: GEEK! accepts NO liability for any damage this driver may do to you or your computer. Every effort is made to make sure the drivers are safe and fully functional – but no guarantees can be made whatsoever. Please use this at your own risk. 

INSTRUCTIONS TO INSTALL:

1. Right, take a good look at the files in the ZIP folder. Fully extract it with whatever program you want to use. Navigate to the relevant folder for your Windows installation (either 32-bit or 64-bit). Don’t try and run the EXE files in either folders. They are included for reference, but probably will not work. This is because the applications won’t be able to detect the device and therefore will fail.
2. Plug in your device. Windows will tell you it’s detected it and try to install it (or prompt you to find the driver if you’re using Windows XP).
3. If you’re using Windows Vista or 7, the device should be identified as “DVB T-2″ or “DVB-T2″ but will not install because Windows won’t be able to find a driver. Cancel any installations dialogs if you’re using Windows XP, and if you’re on Vista/7 ignore any failure messages.
4. Copy the driver folders that you’ve downloaded to a place you’ll find them later – I’d suggest a folder on the root of your hard drive. Name the folder something you’ll remember and dump all the files from the download in it.
5. Now go to Device Manager on your computer. In Vista/7, you’ll find it from Control Panel. In XP, you’ll need to go to System in Control Panel and then click the Hardware tab, followed by Device Manager.
6. The device should be flagged up immediately with a yellow exclamation mark next to it. Double click the listing. Click the Driver tab and click Update Driver…
7. You now need to select the options which indicate manually finding a driver (in Windows Vista/7, click the Browse my computer for driver software button). Select the option to manually locate a driver from a disk (Windows Vista/7 – Let me pick from a list of device drivers), click Have Disk…and browse to the folder you dumped the driver files for your type of operating system. Select the only file that Windows flags up – which should be an INF file. Then select the driver that comes up in the list (AF9015 BDA Device).
8. Windows will warn you that this driver may not be suitable for the device. Ignore this warning, and proceed with installation.
9. Windows will now attempt installation, and it should then successfully install within a couple of minutes. With any luck, that’s it – you can now use the device.

You now need to find a piece of software for watching TV with. If you have Windows Vista Home Premium (or above) or Windows 7 Home Premium (or above), you can simply use Windows Media Center (which I prefer using anyway). You should also be able to use Windows Media Center if you have XP Media Center Edition 2005. Otherwise, you’ll need to find some third party – can’t help there myself, sorry.

Hopefully, that should solve the problem!

Continue reading »]]> It doesn’t bite – why is everyone panicking?

Last night I watched a programme on BBC Two called “The Virtual Revolution”, which was based on the “cost” of free facilities on the internet. It can be watched here (in the UK) on BBC iPlayer until next Saturday.

Basically it was talking about how we pay for free facilities on the internet (such as Google, YouTube, Facebook etc) with our identity rather than our hard earned cash. The programme was explaining to us how companies make vast amounts of money by providing services on the internet for free.

I believe that the main point that the programme was trying to put through was that the internet follows us and that it makes money from whatever information we feed into it. However, in some respects, I fail to see their argument.

With advertising, for example – they were talking about web sites using “cookies” to track what our interests are and to use them to follow all the details of our lives and stalk our personalities. However, that just isn’t true. None of the information collected by these sites is personally identifiable – websites aren’t allowed to collect data that might be identifiable to us without our permission. All the “cookies” do is make sure that what gets advertised to us is more of what we like. Besides, if you don’t like the idea of websites storing data about our interests – well then just turn “cookies” off. You can do that in all browsers and it will stop any data being collected.

I do, on the other hand, understand what they mean about this data problem in terms of social networking. People don’t understand what information they are putting on the internet – their photos, their interests, their friends. By posting this data on the internet, it is being archived for life – and possibly any longer. Social networking sites, such as Facebook, can keep personal data on their servers for as long as they want (I’m pretty sure, anyway) – unless people such as the Police or any other respectable authority deems otherwise. However, I totally agree with what Stephen Fry said – that we try to control the risks and use the free facilities to our advantages.

Nevertheless, I do think that people are overreacting to the internet. Internet advertising is something that has to be done for people to make money and using “cookies” to make advertising that little more pleasant is not a crime.

And the argument about “personal recommendations” just makes me laugh! I often walk into a shop and think, “wow, I wish this shop was a bit more suited to my taste”. With the internet, that can be done for me. I can log onto Amazon and have the website how I want it to be – with my stuff that I buy. Not the bestsellers or the hits – I just want the shop my way. I don’t care what everyone else buys.

So in summary, I think people should calm down a bit and realise how useful the internet is. Yes – there are a few risks with it – but as long as we understand the risks then there isn’t any problem. It’s like saying “I won’t drive my car because there’s a risk I might crash” – but you still drive it.

Continue reading »]]> A new feature in Windows 7 Media Center that enhances it’s power saving!

One thing I used to find really annoying about Windows Media Center in Vista was that if you wanted to record a programme, the system always had to be in either awake mode or S1/S3 standby mode.

This has changed with Windows 7 Media Center and Microsoft has finally solved the issue.

With Windows 7 Media Center (providing your motherboard supports it), you should be able to hibernate your comptuer – and Windows will wake your computer approximately 10 minutes before a scheduled recording. It should then return to hibernate shortly after a recording has finished.

This is a really big advantage. No more wasting vast amounts of electricity by leaving your computer in standby. I can finally leave my computer over a weekend and come back knowing that the system has done all of my recordings and hasn’t cost the Earth in electricity!

So incase you weren’t already aware of this – next time you need to leave your computer to record TV while you are away, put the system into hibernate.

Hibernate works differently to standby. When you hibernate a system, the entire contents of the RAM is saved to a big file on the hard drive. The system can then fully shut down. When you wake the system, it will transfer all of the RAM contents on the hard drive back to the RAM, and your system should be able to just return to its previous state.

Continue reading »]]> Great news iPhone and iPod Touch owners! TVCatchup – the UK’s brilliant online TV streamer – has just launched a huge bundle of new channels for their site.

Many more of the Freeview channels are now available to stream free, anytime.

Just some of the new channels include Channel 4+1, BBC Four, ITV3, ITV4 and Fiver.

The service is still totally free and works over 3G or Wi-Fi so don’t miss out!

Head straight over to iphone.tvcatchup.com to get started.

Continue reading »]]> Big news iPhone and iPod Touch users – you can now get live TV in the UK on your Apple devices.

Before I explain and you explode in excitement, you need to head straight over to http://iphone.tvcatchup.com to get the service.

The service is in beta so you only get some of the Freeview channels, but all the big ones are up on there.

I’ve just tried it now and it’s absolutely brilliant. The service is apparently optimised for 3G and Wi-Fi, but I’ve just ran it through on Wi-Fi and it streams in harmony. I’m on a 2MB connection here and it loads up really quickly, and hasn’t buffered once in the last 15 minutes. Perfect!

This is another brilliant addition to the TVCatchup service. Perfect if you’re in need of some TV and you aren’t at home.

Great work TVC, I’m really looking forward to the final version, but for now the beta is way more than I need!

A little legal note: Remember you need a UK TV license to watch TV while it is being broadcast. For your own legal safety, make sure your license is up to date before using the service. Thanks!

Continue reading »]]> I just randomly found a fantastic free service. It’s called TVCatchup – bit of an odd name for a service that isn’t a catchup service. EDIT: One of the moderators has let me know that they are planning to add in recording capabilites in the future – looking forward to that.

It allows you to stream all of the freeview channels available in the UK for free. You can watch every free-to-air channel online, using the helpful online service. It even has a simple but useful EPG that runs in your web browser.

The service, predictably, is only for use in the UK. However, it works anywhere in the UK that can get a broadband connection, so if you’re in an area where Freeview/digital signal is poor, this service is a godsend! If you don’t have a TV license, it’s probably a bad idea to use the site, too. TVCatchup has said it will not actually police this.

You simply sign up for a free account and you’re off. Watch whatever channel you want whenever you want. The only thing you have to be careful of is your bandwidth limit – this will quickly chew up your bandwidth – so if you’re on a tight limit, I wouldn’t recommend prolonged viewing.

There is a short advertisement when you start a channel, but as far as I know that is all (with exception to adverts shown on TV channels).

I think it only works on some ISPs. Me, being on Tiscali (don’t ask why), miraculously it works. The service will tell you on signup if your ISP is not supported. TVC has told me that it is peered with all ISPs – I’m not totally sure what this means, but presumably there are few (if any) ISPs that actively block usage of TVCatchup.

This really is a fantastic service. I can now get all the channels I don’t get on Freeview, online. If you want to see for yourself, get a free account at www.tvcatchup.com.

Continue reading »]]> Sony are now demoing the new kid on the block in the TV department – OLED. OLED stands for Organic Light Emitting Diode, and is a new technology that might open up a brand new era in television.

This new technology means that the TV picture is naturally much brighter, so you don’t need a backlight on the TV. This not only saves a large amount of electricity, but means that TV’s can be so much thinner!

They aren’t cheap though – and the majority of people won’t be able to afford them for a little while yet (especially in the financial crisis at the moment), but maybe in a year or so they’ll be a bit cheaper and affordable.

For me though, I’m looking forward to OLED TV’s in laptops – I mean imagine how much it would improve battery life! We’ve got a lot to look forward to!

Continue reading »]]> Well, after the BBC announced a couple of weeks back that they are to stream BBC1 and BBC2 starting in the next few days, it made me think – could I live with internet TV over conventional TV?

Of course, you still need a TV license to watch live TV; no matter whether its over a transmitter or an internet connection. So its no way of a couple of hundred pounds (don’t get excited). You can watch iPlayer and other on demand services without a license since they are not live, and as long as you don’t have a TV in your house, you are OK. 

But I mean internet does seem to be becoming a little more practical now. We can get a huge proportion of the channels on Freeview over the internet now, and if you are one person in a house and you can cope with watching TV on a monitor, then it might save the cost of a TV and the channels to go with it.

As far as I know, you can get BBC1 and BBC 2 (in the next few days), BBC3, BBC4, ITV 1, 2, and 3, and a few other channels online. And I suspect a huge range of other broadcasters will start online soon. 

As long as you have enough bandwidth in your broadband, you might find it very useful to have TV online, and I think it should be something to look forward to.

What do you think about it?

Continue reading »]]> Well, according to Gizmodo, Windows Media Center for Windows 7 looks like something to seriously look forward to. Take a look at http://gizmodo.com/5095414/10-really-cool-windows-7-media-center-features/.

Listed there are a number of features that really appeal to me being an avid Windows Media Center user in Windows Vista. Take a look for yourself.

If you are someone who uses on-demand TV and music services as well as streaming live TV from TV tuners, this is going to be fantastic.

Let’s hope the public beta of Windows 7 coming in about a months time will be worth the wait!