General

A catch all category for posts that are neither specific to a Microsoft technology which has its own dedicated category or posts that aren’t based on a Microsoft technology, as rare as those are.

New Blog Version

Richard Green on 8th April 2008

So I decided this evening that I should update the blog to a new version being that I am missing out on the ability to Tag entries and have a tag cloud. I figure that a tag cloud would be quite cool for the site being that I blog about so many different things to highlight the main topics.

So the Baby-Green Blog is now running on WordPress 2.5, the latest and greatest, and at the same time I’ve added two new things to the blog:

Tag Cloud for keyword tracking of the topics being addressed y the blog.
StatPress: This excellent little plug-in which I found on the WordPress site gives me statistics for the blog.

Byron Report Review – Children and the Internet

Richard Green on 4th April 2008

I was introduced to this report today by someone on a forum I have started to read, however I had heard of it previously. I decided I would read this report although somewhat loosely to see what the report had to say, and I’ve decided it’s worthy of a blog to discuss its points. For anyone who wants to read the report I’m talking about, it can be found at http://www.dfes.gov.uk/byronreview/pdfs/Final%20Report%20Bookmarked.pdf

Let’s start by reminding myself that I have two children and in all honesty, only being aged 21 at the time of writing, I am only just outside of the scope of the report, so this report does actually affect my interested in technology and it’s affects on children of today.Read more…

Is Industry a Late Adopter?

Richard Green on 24th March 2008

The title says it all: Is industry a late adopter? As far as the eye can see there are new technologies evolving and reaching out to us, but are the manufacturers of the equipment we use holding us back?

The PlayStation 3 a example of how it should be in my opinion – I’m talking about Bluetooth. Since the day a remote controlled television was built, they’ve been using Infrared for the control. Infrared has it’s inherent issues – Mainly line of sight. Bluetooth is the perfect candidate for remote control operations – 10m range for Class I devices an no line of sight issues as with IR.

Many Moons Ago

Richard Green on 23rd March 2008

Many moons ago, I posted a blog entry here – This is a myth, so I’m not sure if it is true, however I have decided that it is time that I should write again.

So what’s new? Lets just say that if there as anything more that was new, I would be Prime Minister – And I’d probably do a better job* 🙂

Well obviously we have Jessica, who is nearly four months old now. She’s making noise, rolling over, smiling and still the usual eat, sleep and pooh routine. Maddy is neatly two now, and is so funny you just can’t imagine. She makes us all laugh very much, but soemtimes cry as she is the most destructive litle monster that you could imagine and she does love to climb and jump on things – Does she! I’m sure she’s going to become either a mountain climber or some kind of gymnast jumping around.

ISP’s and Peer-to-Peer

Richard Green on 12th February 2008

The Baby-Green Blog has been something has has passed me by since Jessica’s birth, and I really need to get around to catching up with some things I’ve missed to date, but something in the news today really got my attention.

I heard about a month ago about plans in France for French ISP’s to monitor Peer-to-Peer traffic and to block the service to offending illegal downloaders. This didn’t bother me because it was them and not us, and I almost did actually feel sorry for a minute when I heard a planned black list would be introduced to prevent offenders from getting service from other ISP’s within a time period.

Today though, it did actually bother me when I heard the British government has similar plans for this country and that if the ISP’s do not do this at the governments request, then they will introduce it as law. For the normal user this poses no problem, and to me as far as Peer-to-Peer goes it poses to issues either. Any Peer-to-Peer usage that I see coming or going is so low in it’s volume that I wouldn’t been set a single alarm bell ringing as they will only be interested in the big fish for frying at this stage.

En Route

Richard Green on 30th November 2007

A late one is today’s blog, but it’s worth being up for.

Nicky has finally made it to the point of what can be described as no return, although being 9 months pregnant is fairly non-return in itself.

We had our midwife out earlier today and she did a stretch and sweep (I’m not going into details, but if you want to know Google it!) which kicked off Nicky’s contractions. She’s been putting up with them all afternoon and evening, and whilst they haven’t been long or regular they have been changing the expression on her face 🙂Read more…

Weekend Goodbye

Richard Green on 18th November 2007

So it’s Sunday night, Top Gear has just finished and that can only mean one thing – The weekend is almost over.

This weekend, I have been working pretty hard on doing Maddy’s new bedroom, which after this weekend, doesn’t need very much at all doing – Hoping to get the majority of it finished on Tuesday when I’m off work. Maddy went to swimming on Saturday, and she was so good this week, and was kicking and almost looked like she was actually swimming – Were so proud.

Almost Over the Hill

Richard Green on 22nd October 2007

No, this isn’t a blog about me admitting I’m a 49 year old man in the body of an over-weight 21 year old, but actually annoucning that the Baby-Green website is so close to being launched with the new theme I can taste it.

I’ve just finished coding the last of the pages, after converting all of the videos to their new format which will hopefully mean that anyone can see them without issues of getting sound, but no video or such. I would have the site moved to the live location so that you can all see it properly now, however I’m uploading the videos to the website, and according to WinSCP the software I use for connecting to the website, that’ll be 2 hours time, and being that the time is already 9:56 PM, I’m amazed Nicky is still awake now to be honest, so the website may have to be published tomorrow or Wednesday night instead.

iPhone: Poor O2 or Poor Punter?

Richard Green on 26th September 2007

Another blog from me (Richard), but this time it’s different. This is the first in my line of technology blogs. I’ve been meaning to write technology blogs for some time, but never really got round to it. I figured the phenomenon known as the iPhone would make a good place to start, and I figured writing technology blogs would be cool for me to write being that I’m a technology geeky person.

So there it is – The much hyped iPhone. I don’t have one, and I personally don’t want toÃ‚Â have one, so this blog is based on what I’ve read and seen and not personal experience, and I’ll try to be unbiased.

This article is inspired by an article I read today at El Reg (The Register). The link the to the article is http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/09/19/uk_iphone_at_last/. So with the world seeming to be at Apple’s beck and call these days, you can’t walk down the street without seeing at least one or two people with an iPod of some flavour or not know anyone that uses iTunes, so why shouldn’t they bridge into the mobile market, but are they making too much of it all?

Apple have been very sneaky with their marketing strategy with the iPhone meaning that there is only one vendor per nation to keep it exclusive. AT&T for the USA, O2 for the UK and T-Mobile for Germany. As of yet, nothing official has been announced for France, although many expect it to be Orange.

Continuation

Richard Green on 25th September 2007

So I thought I’d blog a little more to finish off what I was writing last night before I was rudely interuptted by Nicky wanting sleep: I suppose I can let her off, but only because she’s pregnant.

Quite convienient that I choose to blog some more today, becuase dearest Mr Zuchini uploaded all the images of his from the weekend to his PhotoBucket account, and decided to tag me in some of the pictures on Facebook, so anyone who’s in my friends list on Facebook can see all the images in the gallery if they like.

For those of you without access to my Facebook account, I’ve added one of the images from the lot to this blog, assuming you can see, you’ll see a nice picture of me and Fruity walking down the road like some kind of couple…not that we are…honest.