SAM Broadcaster – Review

Info : SAM Broadcaster is a fully featured internet broadcasting solution with everything you need built right into the software. This includes the automation system, playlist management, encoders, statistics and web intergration. SAM Broadcaster is basically your complete radio station in a box.

Review : I started using SAM as I wanted to DJ within SecondLife for AICR, I heard a lot of different reviews for loads of applications for Linux and Windows….but a lot of good things about SAM. I downloaded the trail and started playing with it, and even experimented with it within SecondLife.

I had several issues, starting with my voice sounded like i was in a metal container. The stream constantly kept buffering which wasnt good for the listener, and the quality was just ok. After some time working with it, I have fixed my voice and the quality is set to be just ok…though the stream still buffers a lot after one hour of streaming. I have reduced the encoding quality but still no luck…this is my only issue at present so hopefully I will sort this to.

My Rating : 8 out of 10

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iTunes – Review

Ok am not a big MAC OS fan…don’t really know why, but recently I purchased and iPod Touch 8gb so I needed to download and install iTunes on my Vista laptop. I had never really played with iTunes before, only heard about it.

First Look – At first look its very easy to understand what and where things are, and its easy at setting up my iPod. I pointed it to my music folder, and it did the rest including getting album artwork which was nice.  I have been using iTunes now for a few months, and its a very nice little application but there are so many things that could be added that would make this a VERY nice application.

I use Amarok on my Ubuntu laptop, and just love some of its features..and these are the features that i wish Itunes had…as i miss them when playing iTunes on my Vista laptop.

My iTunes Wish List :

1. LastFM Support – When playing my music collection I would like iTunes, to send what am listening to up to my lastfm profile so its updated.
2. ReScan my music – I would like iTunes to be able to notice that I have added new files in to my music directory, and it then adds it to its database….plus remove any tracks it cant find rather than keeping them on display. I need to use iTunes Library Updater to do this for me.
3. Skins, addons, plugins – This isn’t a big one but it would be nice it if was more customisable.
4. iTunes Store Improvments – For me this is a little cluttered, you cant instantly find HD podcasts, you cant instantly find todays/this weeks free music to download. The store needs to have a better layout, I don’t know if its just me that finds it a bit cluttered.

Overall its very good to use, though its given me a little work making sure my mp3’s are correctly tag’d so i have the album artwork but hey…wont take long.

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Mamma Mia (2008) – Review

Plot – The story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father told using hit songs by the popular ’70s group ABBA.

Review – I have never been an ABBA fun, there music is good but its just not a band I have gotten in to in a big way. I went to see this expecting something more cheesy than Moulin Rouge, and non stop ABBA songs…I was very wrong.

I came out actually enjoying the film, yes there was MEGA cheesy parts (not a lot) but over all it was mostly serious and very well acted. The best performance in the film was by Meryl Streep singing “The Winner Takes It All”, this was a very powerful scene and a hard song to sing and she pulled it off VERY well you could feel the emotion in her voice.

I have to give the guys prop’s for doing this film, and for wearing spandex costumes at the end credits. The location of this film was very nice, and it was filmed very well with good humor throughout.

Overall a feel good movie, though mostly for Musical fans or girls…and you might actually come out liking some ABBA songs.

My Rating : 8 out of 10

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Silence Season 1 – Out Now

I updated my website 2 days ago, this was a big update as I released Silence Season 1 (my own production) available to stream.

There are 6 episodes total, ranging from 10 to 5mins. Each episode is 100MB in size, so please give it time to load if you have a slow connection.

Enjoy

http://www.krismunro.co.uk/silenceseasonone.html

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War Games (1983) – Review

Plot – A young man finds a back door into a military central computer in which reality is confused with game-playing, possibly starting World War III.

Review – I had heard of this film, but never heard what it was about…who was in it etc. This was another film I taped off Film4 and decided to give it a go.

When I started to watch this i started to think…hmm its dated looking and I dont know if I will enjoy this. About 30mins in and I was really enjoying the film, and enjoyed it as a whole. I think i enjoyed it more due to the fact that I wasnt expecting anything from this film.

It also took me about 30mins to figure out that David was Matthew Broderick lol

My Rating: 7 out of 10

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Around The World In 80 Days (2004) – Review

Plot – A bet pits a British inventor, a Chinese thief, and a French artist on a worldwide adventure that they can circle the globe in 80 days.

I deliberately skipped this one when it was at the cinema, as it looked mega cheesy and to be honest looked crap to. I saw this was on Film4 recently and taped it as there wasnt much else on, what a waste of storage.

This film is mega crap, the only good thing in the film is famous Chinese actors. I never laughed once and was bored from start to finish.

My Rating : 2 out of 10

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Coming To My Website

Coming to my website within the next week or two, I will be adding the full Silence Season 1. This series is hosted on a video site, it doesnt have the same size as my hosted videos and you cant download it….but this means i can have all my videos up on my site for your viewing pleasure

woohooooo

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Dan Brown : Deception Point – Review

Plot : When a new NASA satellite detects evidence of an astonishingly rare object buried deep in the Arctic ice, the floundering space agency proclaims a much-needed victory, a victory that has profound implications for U.S. space policy and the impending presidential election. With the Oval Office in the balance, the President dispatches White House Intelligence analyst Rachel Sexton to the Arctic to verify the authenticity of the find. Accompanied by a team of experts, including the charismatic academic Michael Tolland, Rachel uncovers the unthinkable – evidence of scientific trickery – a bold deception that threatens to plunge the world into controversy.

But before Rachel can make her findings known, she realises, perhaps too late, that such knowledge puts her and Tolland in deadly jeopardy. Fleeing for their lives in an environment as desolate as it is lethal, they possess only one hope for survival: to find out who is behind this masterful ploy. The truth, they will learn, is the most shocking deception of all?

Review : I enjoyed this book to start with, as it had a lot of nice ideas and the storyline sounded very good. When I got to the half way point it kinda got a little dull and boring, and it was going all over the place and the ideas were very over the top and mega repetitive at times.

After 2 really good enjoyable books, this lacked something they had….for me in order of enjoyment I would do the following :

1. Angels and Demons
2. The Da Vinci Code
3. Deception Point

I have still to read Digital Fortress, that’s why its not included on the above list.

My Rating : 5 out of 10

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Website Updated – Small

Just released a very small update to my website, with a little news on the main page and also “My Second Life” page has been updated along with my “About Me / Online CV” page.

More updates soon

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Orb (MyCast Streamer) – Review

http://www.orb.com/

Orb is free software that lets you stream your photos, videos and audio to another computer or games console. I recently got a Wii and wanted to stream some of my web video podcasts to my TV, rather than watching them on the laptop. I came across Orb and decided to give it a go, the download is only around 23mb and installation and setup only takes a few minutes.

I pointed Orb at the itunes download folder, my video folder and my photos folder. I then downloaded Opera on the Wii and visited the streaming website and BINGO, i could stream all my media.

The downpart to this is that Orb reincodes all your videos into Flash on the fly, so the quality isnt great…dont get me wrong its very watchable but just not as good as the original file.

I used this link to get me started : lifehacker.com/357869/use-your-wii-as-a-media-center 

If they improve the quality this will get a 10 out of 10 from me, but till then its a 9.

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