sorry it's took so long to post this, work has been a bit hectic.  We went to the premier in Glasgow's iMax theatre and last weekend went again to the iMax (this time we got there earlier and got better seats...yeah!).

The experience in the iMax cinema is very immersive, with the quality of the visuals and sound being by far worth the slightly higher fee.

Nothing really disappointed me about the movie, sure it was pushed to a wider less “trekkie” audience, but there were still the little in-jokes that us trekkies would get, as well as very good work on the actors part.

Our fav characters are Spock, Bones and Scotty.  The bones character was so true to the original great work of DeForest Kelly in the role, that  we could almost see him if we closed our eyes.  Again, there were the usual references to the original series character, with the same mannerisms and inflections in the voice, played very well indeed.

We also enjoyed the fact that Simon Pegg placed Scottys’ accent in the west coast and a couple of times the auditorium had a titter at his “get tae f...” and “you bet yer arse” comments, loved it.  Also of course, who could forget the appearance of an old friend, the never to be forgotten Leonard Nimoy, it made a nice story arc.

Overall the film is a proud rendition of a classic sci-fi franchise and as long as they can manage to follow it up quickly with another, it may even re-ignite the franchise.  I miss Trek on the TV and I’ve seen all the TOS/STNG/DS9/VOY episodes umpteen times, it would be nice to have a new generation come along that enjoys the franchise.

As always in Trek movies, the action gets started pretty darn quick, with stuff being smashed to bits and explosions rocking all over the place (I half expected to see Worf turn up in the Defiant at some point LOL).

I missed the bigger orchestral pieces associated with the franchise and the fly by of the ship was a bit short for me, but she looked great in her CGI’d guise.

So if you haven’t seen it yet, WHY NOT...GO NOW!!!  I would however seriously suggest you watch it in an iMax theatre at least once and you’ll appreciate the film a lot more, as the iMax experience, especially for an action movie such as this, is second to none.

I could drone on and on about both the movie and Trek in general, but I’ll have to stop myself as I’m already getting funny looks LOL  Roll on more Trek...live long and prosper!

Well it's been a while now since we got our grubby little paws on an iPhone and although it isn't the best cam phone on the market, doesn't have tons of storage, blah blah...it invites you in to play, we're enjoying the tactile nature of the phone and it never disappoints (until you want to use a poxy peecee to "jailbreak" the handset, more on that later).

It's such a versatile little fellow, with so many little apps out there to do everything from customising the phone to your tastes, to playing the odd game using the phones accelerometers to control your flight/drive/skid and inevitably, the big crash LOL

There hasn't been a day gone by that we haven't used the iPhones for emails, checking out the latest news, catching up with BBC iPlayer, listening to music, watching vids...there's always something to play with.

For more information on jailbreaking and soft unlocking your precious piece of tech, check out these guys:

http://blog.iphone-dev.org/

ALL the information you need is available here, so why not have a nosey and I'd seriously consider "opening up" the phone...the best thing we ever did :o)

I won't go on about what the phone can do, suffice to say, consider it an OSX computer, in a tiny box and you'll be on your way there ;o)

PS
Ignore some of the numpties on the forum, some of them either don't listen, are impatient or are just downright diddies.

If you want to, you can jailbreak the phone very quickly and with minimal fuss. If you keep the modem baseband at 2.28 (the latest update 2.2.1 also upgrades the baseband to 2.30, which won't allow you to use the soft unlock option, so you'll have to use a Pwnage tool to strip that part of the update out), you can use the soft unlock app to allow you to use just about any SIM in the iPhone, instead of being locked to O2). I've tried all the UK SIMS I could find and it works a treat...and it's still in beta!!

If you're not concerned about unlocking your iPhone and all you want is to jailbreak it, just use Quickpwn (Windoze and Mac) or the Pwnage tool (Mac).

If the rumours are good, we can't wait for our next O2 handset upgrade! The G1 is a good phone (though it has some major niggles, as does the Blackberry Storm), but things on the iPhone front look on the up and up...

Always a follower, never to stray to the dark side.

as far as Linux goes, there's no definitive "fix" for Ubuntu not using the PS3 wi-fi as yet. It does however work fine if you're beloved PS3 is hooked up via the ethernet port to your hub/modem.

one other thing to consider, at the moment UPDATING UBUNTU WILL BREAK YOUR INSTALL!!! so don't use the package manager or system updater at the moment (package manager may be alright, if i get the chance to test it, i'll let ya know).

work is underway to either release a v8.04 PS3 install or allow the PS3 installed Ubuntu to update via the standard updating system.

if you have went and updated everything, it breaks the kernel and when you get to the kboot prompt and press return, you'll be greeted with a black screen of death. reboot the PS3 and when you see the "kboot" prompt, type "old" (without the quotes) and press return. PS3 Ubuntu will load as normal using the PS3 version of the kernel and all will be well with the world. if you have updated the system files and subsequently the kernel and don't want to always type the word "old", do the following command in the terminal:

sudo gedit /etc/kboot.conf

where the line that has the "default" setting, at the moment "linux", change that to "old" and now when you boot into Linux and you get the kboot prompt, just press the return key and it'll automatically load the old kernel files from there :)

*NOTE*

some guides use the "nano" text editor that's in Linux to muck around with system files. it's pish and is very reminiscent of the DOS version of WordStar (all the old foggies might remember that one, as well as Ashton Tates dBase I/II/III & IV LOL). replace any reference of "nano" with "gedit" and you'll have a nicer experience.

also, if you do not use the "sudo" command before any other, you wil NOT have administrator privileges. so if you type just:

gedit /etc/kboot.conf

you WON'T be able to save the updated file, you'll get your face moaned at :)

now i'm wondering what to do? stick with a very clean, polished but dreadfully slow install of openSUSE or revert back to the fast but kinda ugly ass Ubuntu and put up with the "issues" for the time being. btw, the look of Ubuntu can be changed, so if you can be arsed with changing it, you can, personally, i want to try and get as lean a copy of PS3 linux running as i can, so faffyness i'm not fussed about (if i want to look at a pretty OS, all i have to do is open my Macbook). with the limitations of the PS3 memory, slimming it down as much as you can and removing dross (open office, etc.) will improve your user experience immensely.

any further developments, i'll let ya know ;)

well, if i'm honest guys, it's a bit sluggish, similar to Leighs foray into Fedora 9.

it's a shame i couldn't get Ubuntu up and running because it has been the fastest and most responsive so far.

Leigh has went for the KDE option with openSUSE, so hopefully he can let us know how that went and if it's any better.

don't get me wrong, the front end of SUSE is really nice to work in, but sadly i think it's a wee struggle for it with the limitations of the PS3's memory and even more so when you do more than two things at once (it seems to access the hard disk heavily, making me think that it's really tight for memory and relying on virtual memory...shame).

i'm gonna rummage around the forums to see what, if anything at all, i can do with Ubuntu.

i don't mind experimenting one little bit, if it helps my fellow forumites, but i'll maybe have to hook the PS3 up to my old LCD telly, as Kaz is a bit miffed that she can't watch anything on the big fella.

Well after finally getting the darn thing, i thought i should install some form of Linux on the PS3.

Firstly i opted for my usual choice of Linux, Ubuntu. Unfortunately, this was not going to be the best option for the PS3 (unlike a standard install on a desktop machine).

As others pointed out, installing on a TV or at 1080i/p proved annoying to say the least (to move around you have to hold the ALT key down and drag with the mouse, as the screen size is teeny). Once I got it installed, I found myself having to test various display modes using the "ps3-video-mode" command.

This in itself proved a pain in the chuddies. Once i found my resolution (1080i not p), i had to edit some configuration files in the Terminal to make the change perminent...so far so good...not!

Upon reboot, i was indeed greeted with a much improved desktop and everything seemed hunky dory until i wanted to get on the net and do some updates.

First time around, i had to hook the PS3's ethernet port to my spare wireless access point to connect Ubuntu to my home network (native PS3 wi-fi doesn't work right away and as i was later to discover, it doesn't work period...read on).

I discovered that i'd have to replace the current kernel version with a modified one giving Ubuntu the drivers and stuff needed to use the PS3's native wi-fi. So i downloaded all the necessary files, faithfully (3 times in all!!) went through the instructions from the PSUbuntu.com forum and found myself waist deep in the terminal...again! (the memories of DOS came flooding back...oh dear).

Alas, nothing worked and the installation was crippled by the lack of native wi-fi support and dodgy screen resolution.

So i thought, maybe i fucked up, i'll zap the partition and try again...not a fuckin sausage and that was after installing 7.10, updating it to 8.04 (which took ages) and installing the KDE desktop environment (nicer looking front end for Ubuntu, but not as popular as Gnome).

Having chatted a bit with Leigh about installing Linux, it became painfully clear that the supposed PS3 version of Ubuntu is wank. Leigh talked about toying with openSUSE, another variant, as is Yellow Dog Linux (written with the PS3 in mind). However, Leigh said he'd tried YD and found it sluggish, so he was gonna give SUSE a go.

Well, not wanting to leave my poor PS3 without an extra feather in it's cap, i proceeded to download openSUSE...what a great move that was!

so i got the works server to download the disc image (though i have to admit that it's a bit bloaty, Ubuntu's Linux takes well under a gig of space as the live CD is a standard CD-ROM containing Ubuntu). The image is DVD sized (so less space on the partition after install with this one, but worth it) and burned just fine.

The disc image is * ONLY* for PS3, i tried installing it into a virtual machine on my Mac so i could have a play around before committing PS3 installation time (currently have XP, Vista, Ubuntu and OSX86 on my drive as virtual machines) and it wasn't going to wear it.

on the flip side of that, the PS3 took the disc without a hitch and presented me with a nice loader screen, from where i installed the openSUSE release.

wow! right away i noticed that native drivers for the PS3's video and networking where loaded, giving me hope that all would be well and after about 35 mins (i think) the installation was complete, all that remained was to setup the wi-fi and after putting in my network WEP key (using the WEP Open option), she was online and live without the need for the extra connection to an access point...native wi-fi...woohoo!.

The installer itself was very clean and the automated nature of it was a blessing, very intuitive. After some initial setup, i was offered the choice for "under the hood". I opted for GNOME over KDE for the reasons mentioned earlier.

tada!

it looks really polished and graphically draws you in, but by christ there's some amount of tools in the prefs (that'll take a few jazz woodbines and some hefty mugs of tea). After doing an update to the system, which went without a hitch, the PS3 rebooted into it's new secondary OS and worked beautifully...now all i've got to do is tweak and pinch, great, can't wait!

Linux on PS3

: Pros :
1] Makes you feel that your investment has been more worthwhile, bringing your PS3 up from just a console into a fully fledged, multi function computer/media centre
2] Allows you to sample the flood of third party apps out there for Linux and in HD too!
3] Linux works really well with the limitations of the PS3's video and RAM memory (Unix/Linux is designed to work on even old crusty desktop machines, as it takes very little resources and can breath new life into an old desktop)

: Cons :
1] Choose the wrong Linux and the user experience can be disappointing
2] Most popular implementation of Linux, Ubuntu doesn't work well on the console, even with the tweaks specifically designed for the PS3 hardware
3] Installation/Update time isn't as bad as some installations, but still, if you try and work with anything other than openSUSE, it can lead to a lot of faffing around

so there you have it folks, our beloved PS3 with a much needed "update"

thanks go to Leigh for pointing me in the direction of openSUSE, i'll keep tweaking as i go and i'll let you know of anything important that may help those of us looking to experiment with Linux.

: Links :
openSUSE - [click here]
PS Ubuntu Forums - [click here]

Well it's only took like an age to get one of these bad boys, but finally, i've managed to save enough to get one.

A secondhand 60gb UK PS3 (the last model with the emotion chip for more backwards compatibility with PS1/PS2 games, relegating the PS2 to the bedroom.)

Eventually i'll replace the drive with something far more chunkier (more so for the upcoming PlayTV/DVB-T add-on and to store "stuff" LOL.) For the moment the 60gb drive will be fine, all that's needed now is once it arrives, a clean install of Linux alongside the PS3 operating system...can't wait!

I've missed our "race nights" between me and some of my long time buddies, but now i've upgraded to a PS3 as they have, Friday nights may never be the same again...yay!

The past month or so has been a technological whirlwind, what with the purchase of a Time Capsule and more recently, an iPhone 3G...what the hell's next, I dread to think! As long as my favourite "fruity" company don't bring out something spectacular in the foreseeable, i'll be safe for a while at least :D

Visit the J4F forum - (click here)

Well, one of us finally broke down and bought an iPhone. The contract is a bit nippy at £45pm, but that's 1200 mins and 700 texts and unlimited data use, so not that bad. After 9 months, i'll be able to change the tariff and hopefully in a month or so Kaz will be able to get her free upgrade to an iPhone from O2.

First impressions are great, the phone was setup and activated within 5 mins after getting it home and connecting to iTunes. The interface is Apple's usual mix of "touchy feely" with practicality.

But, that's not enough, so it's been Jailbroken (but sadly, not unlockable...yet!). This means I can now run all sorts of little apps on the phone and customise it to my every need (themes, organising apps into folders, etc.) The biggest boost that jailbreaking the phone has brought me is that I can use it as a wireless modem (so that lovely dataplan that comes with the phone, I can also now use with my laptop).

So far I haven't had any issues with the handset and i'm looking forward to more apps coming to the phone (there's quite a lot of them out there, covering all sorts from general apps, through to things like gaming and utils).

Still thinking of a name for the phone so it's part of my extended Mac family LOL