I'm not sure if I'd recommend spending the whole day there, though. I left after the afternoon Super Theatre show (which was great, btw - more about that later) as I'd pretty much seen and done everything there by then.
There was some interesting exhibits - such as the Computing History one with various pieces of tech from past decades - we had a quick of Pong on one of the original Pong home consoles (pics later), there was a BBC Micro (which brought back memories - it was the first ever computer I used!), a C64 and ZX Spectrum (which rightly won a place the hall of fame on Gadget Show last week).
There was also some great junk sculptures of Optimus Prime, the Predator, Alien and Terminator.
Oh - Panasonic launched their Blu-Ray recorder at the show - it's the first one to be generally available in the UK. About time too - I didn't ask how much it was though as, having read the spec, I knew it wasn't something I can afford to buy just yet!
The Super Theatre, as mentioned earlier, was probably the best bit. it confirmed my suspicion that the Gadget Show presenters are crazy! :-) There was a fight between Ortis and a Panasonic Toughbook (no, really!) as well as some competitions. People from the audience particiapted in some contests - winning laptops. The best was the second contest in which they had to send the first verse of 'Humpty Dumpty' in text message form but putting up with being molested by a fat guy (!), Ortis flying around playing a trumpet and various other distractions! There was also some entertainment from some jugglers (who juggled with lights which was very cool) and some guys doing some bike stunts.
Oh - and there was fire too! :-)
My camera suffered a few issues in the Super Theatre - it didn't like the changing light levels, flashes from other people's cameras and the fact that I had to zoom quite a way in to catch the action on stage. I'll post the pics up later - they vary from not bad to absolutely terrible. Pics from in the hall are much better.
Overall I enjoyed it - if I have a few criticisms, it's that I got the impression the organisers weren't prepared for the numbers of people they had to deal with and that there wasn't actually that much on sale there (it was more a case of demonstrations and look-but-can't-touch deals) but I consider these relatively minor and you have to take into consideration the fact that this is the first ever Gadget Show event.
I'm definitely planning to go again next year, although I will likely avoid turning up so early next time.
In true Gadget Show tradition, I give this 4.5 out 0f 5 Gs - good with a couple of minor negative points. Looking forward to Gadget Show Live 2010!
Again - I'll post my pics up later with some more info on what you can see.
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( 2.6 / 192 )A quick note to say that I'll be at the Gadget Show Live event this weekend. I'll post pics and as much as I can remember when I return!
If you want to see hourly video from it - check here starting from tomorrow. :-)
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( 2.4 / 54 )No, the title's not a demand (although if anybody does wish to make a donation then I obviously wouldn't have a problem with that!) - I've made some changes to the blog. Some of the entries were... a little bit silly... ahem... anyway, I've decided I'm going to try and stay on a Tech based theme on this blog from now on so have removed the more off topic stuff.
At the moment I'm busy sorting my home network. I've now cleared a cupboard in a bedroom here and that has now become my Comms Room... well, a Comms Cupboard and - to be honest - even that may be delusions of grandeur!
OK - so right now I have a firewall system, a Linux machine (which has a DNS service running on it) and a very old 500 MHz PIII which I'm considering turning into some sort of NAS.
More on these another time! :-)
My file server hasn't been put in there yet because a) I'm concerned the wooden shelf in there may not take it's weight and b) I'm also concerned about airflow.
Still, that hasn't stopped me tinkering with it - I've removed 3 old 80GB drives (these will most likely go into my planned NAS - see above) and replaced them with a nice 1TB drive to house all my media files.
Oh - and transferring hundreds of gigs of data over a 100MB LAN connection is a bad idea. 6 hours later and not even 25% done! And yes - I accept that I should have known better. :-P
After a bit of swearing a bit the bullet, cancelled the transfer (which had been running most of the night) and hooked the drive straight to the machine that housed the original files. Got the whole lot transferred in about 2 hours. Lesson learned.
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( 2.6 / 25 )My copy of Streetfighter IV arrived on day of release! :-) I used to love playing Streetfighter II on my SNES back in the 90s and I'm enjoying this new incarnation just as much.
One weird thing - why does Blanka now sound like a pirate?! Did he join the Navy in the years between SFII and SFIV?
Favourite charcter: Bison. At first played with Ryu (good all-rounder from SFII) but after Ryu was flattened by one of the more advanced characters I decided to try Bison. I never owned any of the later editions of SFII so I've never gotten to play as him. I absolutely devastated every character I played - even Seth! Of course, I was playing on the Easy mode so perhaps it wasn't quite so impressive but I'm not a hardcore gamer so cut me some slack!
Hadoken!
- Gord
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( 2.9 / 18 )Wow - haven't posted for while! Unfortunately there is a lot of stuff going on in my life (and career) right now. I can't really give any details but its meant I haven't had much time for anything!
Well... what have I been up to since I last posted? Well, I went to AutoAssembly 2008 and had an... 'interesting' time. I'll post more about it later but let's just say that Google Maps and the dodgy signs in Birmingham are a pretty fatal combination (question to Google: have you ever actually tried following the directions your map system generates - outside of the US, I mean?). So anyway, I'll tell you the whole bitter story later.
Been playing Mass Effect on the XBox 360 - brilliant game and well worth checking out! Also had a bash at GTA IV and must admit I found the experience a little bit underwhelming... perhaps there was just too much hype and I was expecting something more? It's not bad, of course but I dunno... I just expected to be as excited to play it the first time as I was when I first played San Andreas and it didn't feel like that to me. I enjoyed playing Mass Effect a lot more...
Unfortunately I can't say too much about some things I've been involved with for various reasons. I'll be able to tell you about one or two things at a later date but right now I shall have to keep them a secret.
Anyway, I'll post some more later...
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