The Tenuous Link

Mainly just because I keep hearing about it, I decided to try out using the internet to make telephone calls. Everyone else I know uses Skype software, which only works if you have a computer switched on, but I've decided to use a gadget plugged in to my internet connection with a normal telephone. Read my VoIP Q&A if you want to know more. Once it's all set up you can call a normal telephone (if you pay), or call another internet telephone for free.

Here is my Quickstart Guide: Go to www.draytel.org, and sign up for an account; get £2 of free calling credit by typing in my account ID as a referrer: 836351. Then download X-Lite, and fill in your account details.

My even quicker Quickstart Guide: Go to www.sipgate.co.uk and sign up for an account, and then download their preconfigured version of X-Lite. No free calling credit that way, but at least part of the attraction of VoIP is that you can make free phone calls to other VoIP users. Well, I'm one, are you? Here are (some of) my contact details:

	DrayTel	Sipgate	VoIPFone
VoIP Telephone Number	02380 988 736 (main office number)	02380 988 313	05600 651 211 Some phone companies don't let you dial 0560 numbers!
Fax to eMail Number			08704798735
Call me for free: use a SIP URL in your VoIP software to call me for free!	836351@draytel.org	1988313@sipgate.co.uk	30117697@voipfone.co.uk
Where the calls go	My office at home/voicemail	My office at home/voicemail/my laptop where-ever I am	My office at home

My phone, not ringing:

I've now got more phone numbers than friends.

// posted by Steven @ 10:20 PM 1 comments

I've just bought Lucy her first piece of computer software: a fishtank screen saver. I used to think that sort of thing was pointless - just turn your monitor off and save some electricity? But Lucy loves looking at fish, and she's quite impressed with this. Also it runs in the full-screen interactive mode where you can feed the fish, or harass them with a pointy finger, so it's not strictly just a screen saver.

Another reason to buy it was that I don't have any other games on my new computer, so I had no application that would show off the 3D graphics. Finally, Em had £15 of WH Smiths vouchers, and I was bored while we were out shopping :-)

That's me in the fishtank :-)

As well as keeping Lucy amused while she eats her lunch, Em and I have both been staring at the fish. Our conclusion is that it's "quite good". Including the Bonus Pack (on the same CD as the main install) and the extra fish that you can download after you register, there are 36 tropical fish to choose from. You can have between 15 and 45 fish in the tank at the same time (the smaller fish come in threes and only count as one fish).

The fish swim in all directions, and details like shine and translucancy are quite impressive. It is a little odd that they don't cast any shadow though, despite the otherwise convincing rippling lighting effects.

There alre also 7 different sets of fish tank decorations (static coral) to choose from, although the fish only seem to be able to swim behind objects in 4 of them. You can also chose illumination lighting colour, and set a background photo -- so I spent a happy hour finding suitable pictures. Combined with the splashing noise (I switched the frog option off), it's quite hypnotic.

Requirements:

• Pentium 450 MHz or higher
• 8 MB 3D grapics card
• DirectX 8.1 or newer

Even an empty fish tank sends my brand new 2GHz machine to 100% CPU load though, so I suppose it just uses all the resources it can get! That's another reason not to use this as a screen saver -- my computer gets HOT when it's working hard.

While I was playing with this, I discovered that I already had something similar installed on my PC: The Windows MCE "Aquarium" screen saver (also part of the Windows XP Plus pack). Aquarium might even be better than the PC Aquarium that I paid extra for: the fish are fancier (they are goldfish with big swishy tails), and are slightly more convincing swimmers, the pond weed drifts about in the water, and the edges of objects aren't so obvious. However, there are fewer options to customise the tank, and it is strictly a screen saver (it goes away when you move the mouse). I think it is from the same people that sell the Marine Aquarium program (see below).

So, does PC Aquarium show off my new PC well? Sort of; I use the on-board graphics (Intel 915G chipset/Graphics Media Accelarator 900) of my motherboard. Although this is DirectX 9 compatible, it doesn't implement some optional features. The most obvious "defect" of the virtual fish is that the fine detail is a bit pixilated, and can shimmer when the fish move about. That shouldn't happen if the anti-aliasing features of DirectX are being used, but it turns out that my computer doesn't have full-screen anti-aliasing. It's been good enough to fool Lucy though.

From Amazon in the UK: I bought my copy from WH Smiths (£20), but it's cheaper at Amazon.co.uk.
From Amazon in the US: Amazon.com doesn't list PC Aquarium 3 Delux. The closest to it is Marine Aquarium 2, which seems to be from the same company as the MCE Aquarium screen saver. It also lets you have a clock, or a calendar in your fish tank, but you can only have 7 fish, and there is only one tank layout.

// posted by Steven @ 9:05 AM 1 comments

My ADSL connection went mad last night. It seemed to be disconnecting itself every 2 minutes, then reconnecting again at the same speed. That's not meant to happen.

It probably isn't a coincidence that there was a lot of lightning shown on this lightning map. The map shows the lightning discharges (they don't necessarily hit the ground, so they aren't lightning "strikes") for one hour ago across Europe. You can also see what was happening up to a day ago by choosing a time in the box on the right of the map.

The odd thing is it didn't rain in Southampton last night, and I didn't hear any thunder. The ADSL certainly sensed it. Apparently in the old days you could hear lightning approaching on the radio (LW or MW), but it's good that we can use the internet for that now too isn't it?

Maybe I should have unplugged my expensive computer, but I put my faith in the £10 mains and telephone surge protector that I bought from ASDA. Everything seems to be OK now ...

Update: Another ADSLGuide discussion about lightning:
bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=btsupplier&Number=2451574

// posted by Steven @ 8:46 AM 0 comments