Author: Mosh

iomega iConnect review

I just posted the following to Amazon after a few hours tinkering with the new toy. The iomega iConnect is a “wireless data station” that’s designed to allow you to share up to four USB drives (maybe more with hubs attached – not tried) or printers. The main reason for us buying it was to stream media to the Xbox in the front room and to two laptops (gran and daughter) elsewhere in the house.

The ideal situation would be to keep “mature audience” films separate from the “whole family” ones. This is do-able if the films are accessed by users over laptops, but not via the Xbox. Details in the bumph below.

It’s not a bad device, but it’s a shame it builds itself up with a load of features that don’t live up to the hype.

OK, this is a nice idea but as other reviews have stated the device fails on the little extras that make it so appealing in the first place – and due to some hidden charges.
First up, the interface is slow and clunky in the way that too many web-based front ends are. It can be a pain finding sections you’re after.
The claim that you can secure certain “folders” is incorrect in as much as the system calls any volume (i.e. hard drive partition) attached a folder. You can only restrict user access to each of these, not to the *actual* folders underneath. If you need to do this, look elsewhere (like a file server).
To stream media to an XBox or PS3, you tell the system to make all media available for streaming on a per-folder/partition basis. This means that if you have kids in the house, you’ll have to store your “mature audiences” films on a separate drive and log into the interface to enable/disable media streaming as and when you require it via the console. This is also the only way to block them from the content using the “security”.
Torrent download is a complete waste of time. Only one torrent at a time, and the speed is ridiculously slow. I attempted a couple of downloads. On a PC attached to the same network I was getting 250+Kb/s. On the iConnect, I peaked at 3Kb/s. THREE. Estimated time to completion was over a week. Just forget this feature – it’s pointless.
The ability to access the device from outside the home seems fine, though when you enable it you find that after 12 months, you have to cough up each year to keep it working. The system employs a 3rd party web service which checks your external IP address and logs it on a web site with a personalised URL. You go there and it redirects to your iConnect. This helps get around the issue of dynamic IPs as usually issued by home ISPs.
There *may* be  way round this by using a service such as no-ip.org. Keep a machine on at home running their service (free) and check the IP address when you need it by pinging your no-ip address. Then use the URL https://YOUR-IP/index.html?t=1
This may not work if the iConnect itself decides to disable the system after 12 months. I have no idea if it will or not and won’t for 364 more days!
I’ve also set the system to email me with any faults that occur. This seems to work fine, but it worries me that it’s mailing so often – usually claiming it can’t access the remote server that stores the external IP address.
Oh, the available volumes frequently vanish from the supplied management client software meaning that you can’t manage them using it. Having said that, you can get round this by going to the iConnect’s static IP address (make sure you give it such an address on your router!) directly. This issue doesn’t seem to affect the volumes being displayed and accessed through your Explorer – you just can’t administer anything.
Overall, nice idea but let down by rubbish unreliable software. Having said that, it (sort of) accomplishes the main task we had for it which was to stream media to the XBox and kids’ laptops. A shame the security wasn’t better on it so that we could restrict things more easily although I recognise that due to the fact that the Xbox can’t “log in” as such, the media either streams or doesn’t. Just a good job we have a little girl who’s trustworthy!

OK, this is a nice idea but as other reviews have stated the device fails on the little extras that make it so appealing in the first place – and due to some hidden charges.
First up, the interface is slow and clunky in the way that too many web-based front ends are. It can be a pain finding sections you’re after.
The claim that you can secure certain “folders” is incorrect in as much as the system calls any volume (i.e. hard drive partition) attached a folder. You can only restrict user access to each of these, not to the *actual* folders underneath. If you need to do this, look elsewhere (like a file server).
To stream media to an XBox or PS3, you tell the system to make all media available for streaming on a per-folder/partition basis. This means that if you have kids in the house, you’ll have to store your “mature audiences” films on a separate drive and log into the interface to enable/disable media streaming as and when you require it via the console. This is also the only way to block them from the content using the “security”.
Torrent download is a complete waste of time. Only one torrent at a time, and the speed is ridiculously slow. I attempted a couple of downloads. On a PC attached to the same network I was getting 250+Kb/s. On the iConnect, I peaked at 3Kb/s. THREE. Estimated time to completion was over a week. Just forget this feature – it’s pointless.
The ability to access the device from outside the home seems fine, though when you enable it you find that after 12 months, you have to cough up each year to keep it working. The system employs a 3rd party web service which checks your external IP address and logs it on a web site with a personalised URL. You go there and it redirects to your iConnect. This helps get around the issue of dynamic IPs as usually issued by home ISPs.
There *may* be  way round this by using a service such as no-ip.org. Keep a machine on at home running their service (free) and check the IP address when you need it by pinging your no-ip address. Then use the URL https://YOUR-IP/index.html?t=1
This may not work if the iConnect itself decides to disable the system after 12 months. I have no idea if it will or not and won’t for 364 more days!
I’ve also set the system to email me with any faults that occur. This seems to work fine, but it worries me that it’s mailing so often – usually claiming it can’t access the remote server that stores the external IP address.
Oh, the available volumes frequently vanish from the supplied management client software meaning that you can’t manage them using it. Having said that, you can get round this by going to the iConnect’s static IP address (make sure you give it such an address on your router!) directly. This issue doesn’t seem to affect the volumes being displayed and accessed through your Explorer – you just can’t administer anything.
Overall, nice idea but let down by rubbish, unreliable software. Having said that, it (sort of) accomplishes the main task we had for it which was to stream media to the Xbox and kids’ laptops. A shame the security wasn’t better on it so that we could restrict things more easily although I recognise that due to the fact that the Xbox can’t “log in” as such, the media either streams or doesn’t. Just a good job we have a little girl who’s trustworthy!

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For those who think I only complain

2000 AD logo.
2000AD

Well, I’m going to complain about the fact that you think I only complain. I’m going to do so by also spreading a little credit where it’s due.

Sad fact first: I’m 37 (that’s not the sad fact, though it’s pretty depressing) and I still read comics (that’s the sad one). Specifically the British anthology 2000 AD. It pops through my door every week (as does the Judge Dredd Megazine each month) and I own every single issue bar about a dozen of them. Not bad for a comic that will celebrate its 34th birthday next month. The current issue is number 1717.

Anyway, here’s the email I just wrote to the letters page. I just wanted to make sure that, even if it doesn’t get published, the creative team behind this issue’s Judge Dredd story get the credit they deserve.

I’ve not written in for several years, but prog 1717’s one-shot Dredd story “In Control” deserves an email. I’ not going to analyse it in-depth or waffle on. Suffice to say that I frequently enjoy the single episode stories more than the lengthier arcs, but “In Control” was one of the finest I’ve seen in a long time.

The Carroll droid (as well as having a most excellent surname – any relation to Newcastle United‘s number 9?) has produced something fast-paced, humorous and from a viewpoint which I don’t believe has dominated a Dredd story before. Fraser/Caldwell’s artwork fitted perfectly – I always like the wobbly miniature characters in Fraser’s crowd scenes – and Parkhouse is a superb crafts-droid when it comes to lettering.

It always makes this Earthling feel warm and fuzzy inside when the Galaxy’s Greatest manages to pull off something like this. After over 1700 issues, a story that still makes me go “wow”.

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It’s Kind of a Funny Story (film review)

Due to Gill’s eldest starting back at her Friday club, we couldn’t get to the cinema before 9pm. As such, just the one film this week (boo!)

It’s Kind of a Funny Story

Plot-in-a-nutshell: depressed teenager gets himself committed to a mental ward and meets some loons.

If I’d known this film featured Zach Galifianakis, I would likely have avoided it. He’s not bad, just typecast. He’s always the fat, useless, bearded outcast that everyone tolerates and then gets to like at the end of the film. *yawn*

In IKoaFS, he’s a fat, useless, bearded outcast who’s genuinely quirky (without being outrageous and just plain stupid) who has reasons for being where he is, reasons for getting better and who you can actually start to feel empathy for by the time the movie ends. This is what good scriptwriting does for an actor who was never actually all that bad.

Zach plays Bobby, an “inmate” of an adult mental ward who befriends teenager Craig (Keir Gilchrist) when he checks himself in due to feeling suicidal. As the film goes on, Craig’s problems are dealt with as Bobby’s are made more clear – and understandable.

The film focusses on the stresses that we often put our children through in this day and age, as well as the predominantly American solution of shoving them towards a psychiatrist and a bottle of tablets. I suppose it would class as a black comedy given the subject matter. Imagine One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest for the teen generation. Except better. In fairness, I thought what some may argue as Jack Nicholson‘s finest hour was over-rated – but all the same.

There are great performances across the board and very few if any “seen it all before” moments. Simply, it’s well scripted and entertaining. Sure, you kind of know how it’s going to end but the way it’s presented is excellent – plenty of little animated segues and the like.

Given we only saw one film this week, I think we picked a good one.

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Season of the Witch / The King’s Speech

The King's Speech
The King's Speech

Two films on a Friday – back to a semi-regular way to round off the week with Gillian. We opted for a nicely opposing pairing this weekend. One silly action film and another deemed somewhat of a classic from the previews.

Season of the Witch

Plot-in-a-nutshell: Absconding knights offer to take an alleged witch across country for trial so they don’t get executed. Like a road movie with armour.

Behmen and Felson (Nicolas Cage and Ron Perlman) get a little sick of being told to kill innocents in the name of God, so decide to turn their backs on the Crusades. Popping through a small town, they are discovered as deserters and sentenced to death. As luck would have it, the town is suffering a plague brought on by a witch and in exchange for offering to transport her to a monastery to undergo trial, they’re given their freedom.

That pretty much covers the plot. Other than that it’s moderately average action / medieval fare. Cage and Perlman get all the good lines and there is some decent banter. The effects are passable (until the end when there’s some CGI that makes Doctor Who look big-budget) and the acting’s tolerable.

It’s not a classic, but even by Cage’s standards is just not up to par. Certainly, it’s not a complete heap of arse like Ghost Rider (seriously – they’re making a sequel?), but there’s just not a lot to it. By the end, there’s a feel that you’ve watched an over-long TV drama rather than a decent motion picture.

The King’s Speech

“I have a voice!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: true story of a king-to-be who has a speech impediment, and the work done by a therapist to get him through it.

Short review: See this film. See it now.

Longer review: This is a heartwarming tale of royalty meets common-folk set in the 1930s as Britain gears up for war and the royal family goes through some upsets. King George V doesn’t have long to live and his son (the soon-to-be King Edward) is filandering with a twice-divorced American. Marrying her would mean he can’t be king, and his younger brother Bertie would take the reins.

Bertie (better known historically as King George VI, and played magnificently by Colin Firth) has a problem. His job is to be head of state, he need to give speeches… and he has a very pronounced stammer. At the insistence of his wife, Elizabeth (Helena Bonham Carter) he does the rounds of speech therapists, eventually ending up with the rather unusual Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush).

Thus begins a story that takes us from Bertie’s small speeches as Duke of York through to his first – and famous – speech as King just as Britain announced that it was to go to war with Germany for a second time.

The film very much focusses on the relationship between  Lionel and Bertie. The Australian voice doctor much preferring to be informal with his patients initially sits very badly with the occasionally bad-tempered King-in-waiting, but the two do gel as time goes on.

The dialogue between the two fizzes, even when Firth is stammering away. One of the therapy sessions includes the funniest swearing sequence I think I’ve seen since Steve Martin’s car hire rant in Planes, Trains and Automobiles – a segment which initially earned the film a 15 rating due to the number of “****”s. It was downgraded to a 12A with the warning that it was “language in the setting of speech therapy”. So remember, kids – it’s acceptable to swear at your doctor.

There isn’t a single bad member of cast in the entire movie. A small surprise for me was seeing Timothy Spall as Winston Churchill. A far cry from the labourer he played all those years ago in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet. Derek Jacobi is superb as the pompous Archbishop of Canterbury, a man obviously used to getting his own way.

Firth plays the Prince/King very well and the script portrays him as a troubled man who underwent a harsh childhood being by far the second most important behind his elder brother. Despite this, he’s a good father to his two daughters and by all accounts was a popular king before being succeeded by our current monarch.

I’m no royalist, but this is an incredible story and certainly one that deserves two hours of anyone’s time. With some excellent dialogue, funny moments and a story that doesn’t stop with a ton of history and trivia thrown in it’s great value for money.

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And Another Thing…

Cover of "And Another Thing... (Hitchhike...
And Another Thing...

I managed to finish a book. This is amazing these days. I used to plough through maybe 4-6 novels a week when I was at school. These days I’m nearer one a month, which is hugely disappointing to me.

Anyway, courtesy of the lovely people from ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha (the official Douglas Adams fan club), I won a copy of the sixth book in the trilogy. For those who don’t know, it’s actually written by Eoin Colfer, better known for his children’s books. This is predominantly to do with the fact that Adams died in 2001, making it even more difficult for his publishers to get a sequel out of him than was normally the case.

I would have bought a copy (I own a stupid number of copies of the original Hitchhiker books), but kept putting it off as I didn’t have the time. I started And Another Thing… just before the holidays on purpose – so that I’d stand a chance of finishing it.

And with four days to spare, I did. It took a lot of plodding, though it’s not a difficult read. It is very much a HHG novel. Credit to Colfer for that. He writes very well and has raised his level, for want of a better way of putting it, into the adult field perfectly.

I do have gripes, though. The story is good. In fact, I prefer it to Mostly Harmless, which I thought was actually a really poor novel. In fact, I think it’s the only Hitchhiker’s book I’ve never re-read. There’s a great use of language in AAT…, without (much) resorting to poor puns. This is a good thing.

My main issue is the number of times the novel sidetracks into Guide entries which simply aren’t up to the standards of Adams’. Where a simple metaphor would do, Colfer has – in almost every single case – used a fictional construct which then requires explanation. This removes so much from the pace of the story-telling that it becomes wearisome.

To me, good humour is quick humour. Jokes that have moved onto the next one before you realise that you’ve missed a chuckle and have to backtrack and enjoy the moment over again. This is why I love the likes of M*A*S*H, The West Wing, Jeeves & Wooster and so forth. Oh, and the original HHG books.

If Colfer had done this a little less (actually a lot less) then I’d have enjoyed the book a lot more. On the other hand, it would have been 30-40 pages shorter. This may not have pleased the Vogons in the publishing house.

There is some great writing in here and some paragraphs that really made me stifle a giggle. It’s good. Following on from such a respected author took a truckload of guts and a moment of idiocy. I’m glad Colfer took on the job as I doubt there are many other authors in this age who could have carried it off as well.

Still – could do better.

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