At the House of Nerds, we love our Topfield PVR. It allows us to simultaneously record two TV programs (to hard disc drive) while watching another previously-recorded program.

Frankly, the Toppy has revolutionised our (actually quite limited) TV viewing. It’s now unusual for us to watch anything in real time. We tend to set things to [...]

Here’s something new for the Flying Nerd – car reviews.

Those who know me will also know that I’m partial to a nice car. Past inhabitants of the FN garage have included a Nissan Pulsar SSS, Ford Falcon XR6, Subaru Liberty RX and VW Golf GTI (no, I’m not known for my brand loyalty). The current [...]

I’ve been reading Motorsport News since the first edition was published, back in 1993. I don’t think I’ve missed an issue in that time!
Reacting to changes in the publishing game, the MNews team has decided to
abandon the fortnightly magazine format
produce a weekly on-line edition (free of charge)
publish a monthly magazine with in-depth news and analysis.
The [...]

Window Clippings looks like a nice utility for capturing windows in either XP or Vista environments.

UPDATE 14 FEB 07: Version 2 is out and it’s not free any more. Still a great little app…

Like many computer nerds, I find myself often wanting to take a screenshot of an application window or just a small region of the screen. Like everybody who has ever tried this, I have found Windows (XP)’s [...]

Top Gear is back on SBS - Monday nights at 7.30pm. Recommended.

Well, new to me at least.

As promised, herewith some observations on the FreeNAS Storage Area Network application.

After my bad experience with the Netgear SC-101 (here), I was (again) the owner of two unused 200GB IDE hard drives, and I still wanted to have a free-standing backup location for the family’s computers.

A quick search led me to FreeNAS, an open source [...]

If you read my post some time ago about rainwater tanks, you’d know that our home has a new deck out the back. Here it is:

Our rainforest-like back yard is really delightful—cool, green and lush. Lots of birds visit us (I saw a glorious red and blue rosella this morning).

For years, we have also been [...]

I implemented the Akismet anti-spam technology on this site nearly a year ago.

In that time, Akismet has detected and blocked 311 spam comments. One (yes, one) spam comment got through.

I reckon that’s pretty good performance for a free tool.

Yes, it’s a big call.

But those who have installed some form of ‘desktop search’ application will usually swear by them.

For a couple of years now, I’ve been using Yahoo Desktop Search – a free program that can be downloaded from Yahoo. YDS works in the background to index all your files and emails, and allows [...]

Jindabyne:

raw
stark
tense
dark
beautiful
emotional
wrenching.

Wonderful ensemble cast.

Heart-felt attention to detail.

No CGI special effects.

Thoroughly recommended, but not for the children (moderate coarse language).

Just watched this week’s ep of Top Gear (shown on SBS on Monday evening). Haven’t laughed so much in a long time. Highlights included:

Jeremy Clarkson’s face being deformed driving an old Maserati F1 car (without a helmet!)
the STG1,500 sportscar-but-not-a-Porsche challenge (won, despite expectations, by the mighty XJS Jag)
dropping a skip full of junk onto a [...]

Latest CD in my player – and one I am enjoying – is a collaboration between Elvis Costello and American songwriter/producer Allen Toussaint called The River in Reverse.

The title refers to the flooding in New Orleans after Cyclone Katrina. The album was recorded in New Orleans, apparently in an attempt to demonstrate that the local [...]

I’m happy to admit to being a huge Star Trek fan. My wife doesn’t get it. She thinks the Horta looks like an animated chenille bedspread.

Anyway, until now, I would have argued strongly that Star Trek represented the pinnacle of William Shatner’s acting career. Captain Kirk was strong, honest, sophisticated, chivalrous, respectful and very human. [...]