Having spent the day muxing video, converting it from one format to another and compressing it, I don’t intend to do it again any time soon. There’s just so much you have to take into consideration and even a simple task can become extremely difficult. Because some of the common tasks I had to do were so difficult, I’ll be writing several tutorials to aid anyone else who finds them coerced into the world of video.

After a seemingly never-ending torrent of (GCE level) maths homework, I’ve had to turn to Microsoft Math for help. I can’t recommend it enough as it does everything I need it to do. And for $20 (about £10), it’s hardly going to break the bank. Unfortunatley, it’s not received an update for about 18 months and it doesn’t appear to be updated any time soon but it’s still a solid piece of software and definitely worth the price. You could even argue that it doesn’t need updating.

Go to http://contract.1and1.co.uk/ and follow the on-screen instructions. Having just spent the morning in the depths of the 1&1 FAQs, I’ve noticed a lot of tutorials and information that is no longer relevant or no longer works so it’s best to check other blogs to see how they did it. The differences between the American and British sites are very subtle and usually just boil down to .com and .co.uk. And as I’ve spent a good hour trying to login into the American cancellation site, I can assure you that the customer IDs (actually Account IDs or a domain name registered with the account) do not work with the wrong site - which, in hindsight, should have been expected.

With the impending release of WordPress 2.7, I thought I’d share some of the new features and styling from the betas.

First thing’s first, the admin pages have seen a big redesign which nicely brings WordPress up to date with trendy drag-and-drop functionality. The new design has a very clean and simple look yet it packs in lots of information, stylishly. It’s not as colourful as 2.6 which worries me in a way as the colours they have used look garish and out of place.

What strikes me most is how integrated WordPress now feels. Once you’ve installed it, you may never need to use FTP again. Plug-in installs and updates can be done within the admin interface - very easily.

Of course, as with many big version overhauls, most plug-ins don’t work and there are quite a few things that I don’t think have been wisely placed. For example, whilst the new navigation strip is a welcome change to the old navigation bar, it is too long and there are quite a few things that I’ll never use. Of course, you can “minimise” it if you wish.

There’s been a big push towards making the interface more customisable and so you are able to remove panes that you don’t like and you can even transform it into a single column display just by dragging the panes into one single column. So in a sense, it feels a lot more like a desktop application.

QuickPress allows you to quickly bash out a post - Twitter-style - and whilst I probably won’t be using it, I can see many who will. Although, with the lack of category selection, its potential is seriously limited.

Added to all these new features, 2.7 also sees a huge number of security fixes and general bug fixes - essentially making this a must-upgrade situation.

Among all the seemingly Web 2.0 traits, 2.7 transforms WordPress into more than just a simple blogging platform. And I dare say that this new version will be one of the major evolutions of WordPress so far.

I’ve recently found myself enticed with all the Windows 7 articles demonstrating things to come from the operating system that’s now being dubbed “what Vista could have been”. And already it certainly looks like Microsoft’s attempt at rectifying all the things that Vista fell down on.

All the legacy programs like WordPad and Paint have been updated and are now in fitting with the new look of Windows. Notably, the calculator has received a large upgrade and it boasts features like conversions, a mortgage calculator and a gas mileage calculator. What previously took a few Google searches and a long-winded Excel spreadsheet can now be done with a few clicks.

Everything just seems to integrate better with Windows 7 as well: changing wireless networks just takes two clicks, the sidebar is no more but the gadgets can roam the desktop and things like Aero Shake suggest (nice but potentially annoying) Compiz Fusion-like effects.

Performance seems to be a lot better than Vista too: everything from shorter boot times to longer laptop battery life seems to be the way that Windows 7 is going. As Vista seemed sluggish compared to its predecessors, I’m excited that Microsoft have turned it back around. It can even run with a mere 1GB of RAM although considering memory is dirt-cheap nowadays, there needn’t be a tiff if it were to require more.

The taskbar has also been hugely redesigned and while I’m not too hot on it at the moment, I’m sure it’ll all fall into place in time. Essentially, the new taskbar makes better use of the space and takes the preview window to the next level.

There’s also promise that Windows 7, from day one, will be more stable than Vista SP1. Whilst I’m not so sure myself, as every new operating system faces numerous bugs, I’m fairly confident that Windows 7 will be a strong OS that should see us through for a good few years.

Oh! How could I forget that they’ve redesigned UAC to be insanely less intrusive? You may be able keep it enabled without losing your insanity. Individual applications can be allowed forever and you can also change the ferocity of UAC, presumably inside the depths of the Control Panel.

All in all, Windows 7 has shaped up to be what could be the best operating system the world has seen. I’m interested in what developments other operating systems will see as Windows 7 nears its launch in mid 2009.

I’ve been experimenting with virtualisation for the last few days. Being on Windows Vista 64-bit, I can’t use VMWare (because of driver signing) so I had to use to VirtualBox which, I’ve found, is actually better and lighter than VMWare. Despite a few (very minor) bugs, I love VirtualBox’s seamless mode - it essentially allows you to work with two operating systems as if they were one.

It’s also given me a chance to play about with Ubuntu 8.10. Since the release of Ubuntu 8.04, I’ve been set on 8.10 being the definitive version and whilst it does feel a bit stronger and more capable than 8.04, I’m not so sure that it is what I had hoped. The UI is still ugly and OpenOffice is still lack-luster compared to the likes of Microsoft Office. In a nutshell, it needs to take a big step towards Windows in order for it to be a viable option for regular consumers. It is, however, definitively ready as a home server and I’ll definitively be incorporating it into a project. Details to follow…

My Dell Dimension 9200, I felt, was getting a little too warm. It wasn’t anything particularly dangerous, it’s just I felt it could do with a little more cooling. I occasionally clean it out every few months but the heatsink and its fan are hidden away under heavily screwed down plastic so I can’t get to them and dust was clogging them up. Until a few hours ago, I had never even seen them.

I ordered a new heatsink (Akasa AK-965) and today I attempted to install it. Of course, uninstalling the old one was difficult and there’s always that little niggle that makes you think you’re doing it wrong. I continued, though, and managed to vacuum the incredible amount of dust that had amounted over the 2 years.

I was in the final throes of completion, I only had to place the new heatsink into its place, pop the screws and plug the fan in. Of course, in the final stages, something has to go wrong and for this little endeavour, everything did. First, I found that the heatsink didn’t line up the motherboard’s holes. Secondly, I found that the motherboard didn’t have a connection for the heatsink’s fan (rather, a different connection to what the new heatsink needed). Thirdly, I’d already taken all the old thermal paste off the processor at this point and it looked like I’d need to buy some more. And finally, no matter how hard I tried to be careful, I managed to get thermal paste all over my fingers. Sending back the heatsink will cost £5 - for a £10 product. To finish off, as I’ve had to dismantle half my computer, I’ve now got two screws and I don’t know where they went.

It’s not all bad though: I’ve managed to scrape some of the new thermal paste onto the old heatsink (and temperatures have fallen dramatically), I’ve been able to clean the fan and heatsink and I have a spare heatsink for a computer I hope to be building this autumn.

I’ve always wanted to see the Google Street View car ever since it was spotted first in England but thought it would be a while before it photographed Leeds. Having just got out the shower and drying my hair, the black Vauxhall Astra with it’s cameras cruised passed the house. And because my hair was wet, I didn’t have a shirt on - from the car’s point of view, I look naked. Nice.

At least the Jag was in the drive, though.

I’ve always been cautious of moving my music away from MP3, purely because of incompatibilty. The thing is, though, I use iTunes and an iPod - both of which perfectly handle AAC. And AAC is possibly the best attempt at improving MP3. It’s supported by a number of things - the PS3 and the Nintendo Wii for two.

In short, AAC sounds indistinguishable from MP3 at a lower bitrate. I’ve found it to be the same at about 60% of the MP3’s bitrate (256kbps MP3 would then be 128kbps AAC). Encoding with variable bitrates yields better sounding results.

I recommend anyone who listens to their music collection on devices that do support AAC, to convert their collection to AAC.