As you may have gathered, I'm a little behind with the updates.

I have now returned home, but there are still a few updates to come. I will then go back through the previous entries and correct the spelling and grammatical errors that will most likely be littering every update. I haven't actually reviewed anything that I've written as I've barely had the time to do the writing itself!

I'll also be organising the gallery into smaller sections for each leg of the trip. Rather then the single block of photos as it is now.

Forty days until boarding that plane to Gatwick. After booking everything so long ago it is now so close that I can now see the date on the same screen of the calendar. Yet it still feels such a long way away. Each day that passes feels so much longer then the last, time stretching in a way it has not done since childhood and those last few days before Christmas.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the sensation of time passing will be much more hurried once on the trip.

One oasis in the desert of waiting arrives next Friday. I’ll be heading to London, Wembley Stadium to be precise. Tottenham Hotspur are playing Barcelona in the inaugural Wembley Cup, and I have a ticket.

I’m very much looking forward to the match, even if it is a pre-season friendly. I haven’t seen Spurs play for a couple of years now, and seeing Barca play is on my ‘Bucket List’ and its always brilliant to cross something off of that particular list. I don’t know what the attendance is likely to be, but Spurs always pull a large crowd, Barca are a massive draw and Celtic are also playing on the same day and they have huge following. It is likely that there will be more people in the stadium to watch a friendly then the entire population of Guernsey. It doesn’t matter how many of these events you go to, that thought always blows my mind.

I have a free day to kill before returning. I’ve not yet decided what I’ll do for the day. I’ll probably pop to the Regents Street Apple store to have a play. But I’m sure that I’ll find something to do in one of the worlds busiest cities.

I’m going to treat the trip as a dry run for the States and will journal the experience here. It will be a good test to make sure that the site is functioning correctly. Shockingly for me, I’m going to leave the laptop at home, a decision akin to leaving home without my left arm. All updates will be done using the iPhone, and I’m hoping that a few free Wi-Fi hotspots can be found.

Speaking of the website. I’m still not keen on the layout. It feels very sterile. As you can tell I’m certainly not a web developer, so am just trying to put everything together with limited ability. Hopefully I’ll put together something that I like, and then I’ll leave it well alone.

Warning. This update is all to do with things that normal people will find exceptionally boring. As you may have guessed by now, I’m not that normal :). I do however promise this won't be a regular occurrence.

This is quick rundown of the gear I’ll be taking with me across the States, and the web services I’ll be using to keep this site updated.

Laptop – Macbook Air
The thing about the Macbook Air is that you either get its purpose, or you don’t. There does not appear to be any middle ground, it really is the Marmite of computers. Myself, I fall into the ‘love it’ camp. It’s light enough that I can carry it in my backpack without growing to despise it by the end of the day. Its far more powerful then a netbook, and with a large screen, trackpad and keyboard far more suited to photography on the road. My MBA is going to be the main way of keeping this site up to date. Writing and adding photos at night or when traveling, and then uploading when I next hit a Wi-Fi hotspot.

Video Camera – Sony TG3-E
A beautiful, small brushed titanium HD video camera. Again compact enough to be carried without complaint, and more then capable of great images. This records to memory stick, which I can dump onto a hard-drive at the end of the day. My only real criticism is the battery life, which I why I will be taking a spare battery with me.

Stills Camera – Canon G10
I debated long and hard before deciding to purchase the G10. Given that photography is one of the primary reasons for the trip, it may seem surprising that I am not taking an SLR. Believe me, I’ve asked the same question. What swung the decision for me in the end was the memory of visiting Turkey last year. I took the full assortment with me, and spent far more time playing with the camera then actually experiencing the country I went to visit. The G10, whilst not small is far more manageable then a D80 and a host of lenses. The camera will still allow manual controls and generates sufficiently high quality images that the trade off between the highest quality and practicality is not too large.

iPhone
I don’t think that this needs much introduction. My iPhone is network unlocked and hopefully I can pick up a pre-paid simcard in the States that will allow me data access. If I can one, then that will allow me to update the site whilst on the move. Otherwise, updates from the phone will be limited to when I can hop on a Wi-Fi hotspot as our wonderful phone company charges #6 per mb for international data. A charge I sure we can all agree is reasonable.

GPS Tracker – Holux M-241
This little gizmo resembling a 35mm roll of film is a GPS tracker. Every few seconds it records my location, creating a track that can be viewed in Google Earth. I use this to Geocode my photographs. This means that my photos can be viewed on a map showing within a few feet the location they were taken.

Book – Sony E-Reader-505
Nothing to do with updating the website, but everything to do with keeping me sane during those overnight train journeys and on the plane. Like the Macbook Air, you either get e-books or you don’t . All I will say is that this allows me to carry a hell of a lot of books at a fraction of the weight of a single paperback.

Bits and Bobs
Apart from chargers for each of the about, I’ll also be taking a Joby Gorillapod in place of a photographic tripod. I’ve heard things about them and I just hope its all accurate. Also for the camera I’ll be taking a Canon remote release for those night shots and a selection of SD cards. For the laptop I’ll be taking a very compact 4-port USB hub by Griffin, and a 320GB pocketable hard drive to dump the days photos and videos on, as well a few TV programs for those overnight train journeys.

Web Services and applications
This site has been built using Rapidweaver on the Mac, together with a number of plug-ins. However, the content is all updated using web services that I can update from any computer, or even my iPhone.

Blog
The main blog is fed from Googles Blogger service. Anything that gets sent to Blogger will automatically update the blog page here. I can write updates both online at the website, or offline on my Macbook. I also have an iPhone app named iBlogger that allows me to update when on the move.

Photos
The photo page on this site is dynamically created via a Flickr set. Anything that I add to that set will automatically synchronize with this site. Generally I will upload photos to Flickr via Lightroom on the Mac, but I can also upload via the iPhone using an app called Mobile Fotos.

Twitter
The current media darling is of course Twitter. Any Twitter updates I make will show on the main page of the site. I can use Tweetie on the iPhone to send updates or to upload photos taken with the iPhone. Twitter is also very useful because of the amount of services that will send a tweet when updated.

Front Page Map
Something I really like it the updating map on the main page. Using an iPhone app called Track My Tour, I can upload co-ordinates to the Track My Tour website, along with photos, current weather conditions and a brief text update. I can then embed this as a Google Map which updates when I send new co-ordinates creating a trail of the entire journey.

Youtube
I’ll be trying to add some short video clips to the blog, which I will upload to Youtube. I don’t know how frequent this will be- probably every few days.

Audio Updates
Audioboo is a great little iPhone app being used to great effect by Stephen Fry and Leo Laporte. I don’t know how often I’ll be using this, but I will certainly be creating a few boos. Even if I don’t use it too much, I really recommend checking out the service as this will be the next big thing

Embedded Video

I've added two little widgets to the site. One for Twitter, which I can update from almost anywhere - thanks to a combination of internet access and mobile phone. Think of it like the status updates on Facebook.

The 2nd is a widget that will show my last few updates to Flickr. Simply click on a thumbnail to be taken to the larger image in Flickr itself. I've only just really started using Flickr, and I do like it. The kind of photo I tend to upload there is different to those found in my galleries here. The photos here tend to be of friends, holidays and parties. My Flickr stuff tends to be more 'serious' if you like - with the occasional bit of silliness thrown in. Flickr seems to have a great community and is giving me some real inspiration,

The last one is for Youtube. I use Youtube for those quick n' dirty things. If I've a little video that I want to put in a blog post, or something that doesn't really require high quality video, then it goes on Youtube. I can then just embed it here and save on some bandwidth. I can also upload to Youtube straight from my mobile phone. I haven't done this much yet, just a couple of test clips. I think the uploads should be covered by my free internet access on my mobile, but I'm waiting until the next bill arrives so I can check! Movies in my galleries are of a much higher quality and are downloadable, so don't forget to check those out. The Youtube widget will display my last three uploads.

It's a little strange as I'd been avoiding these sites for ages. I've always liked to host my own videos and photos and not have to worry about the restrictions of other sites. Now I'm using them to push content to my own site when I'm away from my computer. This blog is actually hosted by Blogger, but is integrated with nezza.net. Anything that gets published to the Blogger account will automatically synch with what you see here. This is very cool as my mobile phone has the ability to publish photos directly to a Blogger account. This means that I can be anywhere, take a photo and have it displayed on my website without any interaction from me. It's the same with Youtube. I could for instance be at the football, video a penalty and have it on my website before I got home which is pretty cool.

Just think in a couple of years how tightly integrated everything will be. Imagine in a couple of years time, there is a version of iMovie for the iPhone. Then not only do you have that penalty captured, but you can edit the video down, add a nice transition and titles and upload it. It's something I'm looking forward too!

I notice that I've been getting a few hits regarding the Oregon Scientific helmet cam.

The search queries tend to be regarding its compatibility with Mac's.

The short answer is that yes. These are compatible with Mac's. If you hook it up to your mac using the supplied USB cable, the camera will mount as an external drive and you can just import videos as normal.

The problem is that you can't do much with the videos, and so I'm just going to give you a little step-by-step guide to how I process the files.

Getting the files

First up, do yourself a huge favour and pick up an SD-Card reader. This is far quicker then transferring using the camera directly, and has a 2nd advantage of not draining the cameras batteries.

Imply drag and drop into your desired folder.

Viewing / Editing Files

I can't be 100% certain of this as things my have changed with newer releases. However, when I first got my camera Quicktime would not recognise the .avi file at all. It wasn't until i'd installed the VLC player that it would play the files. I guess that VLC must install a couple of its own codecs.

However, lets take a look at that file size - 370.9MB is a tad on the large side. I tend to recompress my files using VisualHub - one of the best pieces of software available on the Mac today in my opinion. The makers of VisualHub also make iSquint, which is VH's baby brother but had the advantage of being freeware.

I convert to H.264 as I know that iMovie can handle this nicely. It will also look noticeably better if you upload to youtube then the original file.

As you can see, this now comes down to a much more manageable 126.2MB and since its in H.264, you know its going to work with whatever video editor you choose.

And heres the finished example on Youtube.

Conclusions

Its a little hard to be totally enthusiastic about this camera. Its fun, but the lack of Mac support makes it less convenient then it should be to get the files into your media editor.

Picture quality is on a par with the kind of clips your digital camera produces, and can struggle with darkness and high contrast. See the sky being whited out as I go down the hill in the video. Occasionally vibrations can cause this strange 'waving' effect. Kind of like a flag in the wind. Its also worth remembering that there is no image stablisation on the camera. With a helmet camera your likely to be filming some quite active scenes. The body will absorb some movement, but if you are attaching it to something solid like handlebars or forks, then I'd recommend placing some foam or rubber underneath the mount. Sound quality is pretty awful as you can tell on the video. The range of the mic is only a couple of feet, and the gain is low - hence the tearing noises on the video. I originally put this down to the exhaust being too loud on the bike. But I've had the same problem with the camera attached to my Electric powered RC car.

So far I've sounded pretty negative about the camera, but it does have its good points. First off, it is a rugged unit. It been attached to my RC car, and survived crashes unscathed. Its also waterproof, so no worries about rain and mud. Also as its a self contained unit, there are no wires to worry about, just stick on whatever you want to film and off you go. The price is a little steep (especially in the UK) and the video is a little disappointing. However, the ability to film situations you'd never take your expensive DV camera into more then makes up for it.

To be honest, I keep trying to think of things I can use the camera for so I can get more cool footage.

If you can live with the quirks, and image quality is not massively important then this is a cool little camera.

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Well my moods been as bad as the weather recently. Just not a happy bunny at the moment. I've managed to screw up my shoulder, and it hurts incessantly. I don't recall being comfortable in the last couple of weeks, no matter how I sit, or lie I can feel it throbbing away. It also means that I haven't had a decent nights sleep in ages. I hope it heals itself soon, as I'm starting to go mad. Hmm, it seems that I gave myself a little surprise on waking Sunday afternoon. At some point after arriving home after 4.30am, I registered the domain www.somewheretorant.com. No idea what I'm going to do with it, so I guess I'd better get thinking. I've also got to get the redesign of zenlan.net finished as well. Its just pointing here for the moment, but again - its something I'll get around to.

So what do you get when you annoy your customers? Well your customers leave you, thats what - so goodbye www.dataflame.co.uk and hello godaddy.com.

Along with the new host, theres also another name - www.nezza.net! Since it was only around 50p to register it I thought I may as well.

Nezza.org is in the process of being transferred to it's new host, and Zenlan.net will be following as well.

I've a couple of things planned thanks to the extra space, videos.nezza.net will be up soon, and will be password protected - can you guess whats going to get uploaded? If you want the password, then drop me a line.

In reply to the questions posted here http://www.haloscan.com/comments/nezza/rw_unique_entry_id_11_page0/#42785

"Glen said you'd become twice your size ? Is it true?"
The trick with Glenn is to remember that what he says usually varies greatly from the truth. In this case though he's right, I have in fact doubled in size and now stand proudly at 12ft.
Or perhaps you could just look at http://www.nezza.org/page19/files/page19-1008-full.html and http://www.nezza.org/page29/files/page29-1122-full.html and decide for yourself!

"http://www.nezza.org/page12/file...-1007- full.html - and i like that guy! Is he married????????????????"
Thats Justin - not married, but I think his girlfriend might have some influence on the subject.

"Still don't know why you disliked contacting me... "
Not exactly true, more that I sent a few e-mails and never received one e-mail in reply that didn't talk about Glenn. If I wanted to know what he's up to I'd give him a call, or he's do the same. Admittedly, Glenn can be a funny guy to talk about, but he's not my only topic of conversation.

"Open for other chubby guys too (sound trasy, isn't it!)but I've got to make myself happy!"
If it wasn't for the being happy requirement, I'd suggest that you give Glenn another call. Unless he's started to transport a football up his jumper it would not be an exaggeration to say that he's 'swelled'!

Nezza.org originally launched in July 2003, and in the remainder of that year had a total of 3,212 hits. As far as search engines were concerned the site managed a grand total of 3 visitors that arrived at the site searching for 'nezza', Honda' and 'MTX 125' respectively.

Things have changed a little since then! 2005 drew nearly 600,000 visitors to nezza.org, which considering the content of the site and it's limited appeal outside of a circle of friends is quite frankly amazing. Even more amazing is that people seem to stick around and actually look at the site once they are here, as the logs show an average of 3.12 page view per visitor. And even more surprising then that is that the site was pretty much gutted from the end of August until the start of December as I redesigned the site - and it's still nowhere near complete.

2005

Visitors - 594,595
Average page view per visitor - 3.12
Month with most page views - August
Most popular day of the week to visit - Tuesday
Time most likely to visit - 13.00-14.00

Top five countries by visitors
1. United States
2. Great Britain
3. European Union
4. Australia
5. Canada

The 'who the hell is looking at this site from these countries' award goes to
Trinidad & Tobago
Cambodia
Libya (Actually in the top 15 countries by visitor, so hi to the Libyans)
Bahrain
Dominican Republic

Total number of countries that have visited nezza.org - 78

Most Served Page - /PC.htm (No longer exists)

Hits By Operating System

Pretty much as expected with Windows ruling the roost, but with a couple of twists. Linux has a much poorer showing then I would have imagined which will become much clearer a little later. But I think the real questions are who is using Longhorn? I'm also surprised that people are using Windows 95 to go on the net!

Hits by Browser

Again only to be expected with IE dominating, but it would appear that the message is starting to sink in as there is a 10% difference between visitors who use Windows and those who use XP. It's certainly not the Mac users who are crating the difference as they are mostly using Safari. Personally, I'm responsible for that tiny smear on the chart known as Opera.

Visitors who visit this site do not tend to correlate with the official browser market share. (market share source www.netapplications.com @ 02/01/06)

So exactly what are people looking for when they find this site. For a while in 2004 most of the hits were coming from the search query "big gay bear" which led to a photo of a t-shirt from Sark Camp. When I had a look for that myself on Google, I realised that we had a niche audience that I never expected!

2005's top search queries were

Could it be that that those who are searching for the term nerds are nerds themselves, and seeing as a nerd wouldn't be seen dead using IE this is accounting for the swing in users of Firefox/Safari?
So it would appear that most people coming to the site are looking for drunk people. No I'd hate to suggest that they are hoping to see various woman slightly inebriated and perhaps showing off more then they usually would, but when you take a look at the 'other phrases' this does appear to be the case. Just in case your wondering, searches for Gay Bears dropped to 0.3% this year.

Some of the choice hits of last year include -
Kicked in the Nuts (5 Hits)
Inept Computers (3 Hits) - What were they looking for?
Knee High Socks (3 Hits) - Hope you enjoyed the football photos.
Ginny Weasly Nude (2 Hits) - Who is Ginny Weasly and was this the same person twice?
Closest Nudist (2 Hits) - Only in the bath :)
Guernsey Girls (2 Hits) - Have you been on the internet again Stu?
People Who Drink Piss (2 Hits) - Well I'm sure Budwiser featured in a couple of photos, so they got what they were looking for!
Kiddy Photos (2 Hits) - Just plain fucking wrong.
To get out of sock (1 Hit) - Seriously, I'm intrigued
S&S Parties (1Hit) - I'm a man of the world, I've heard of S&M parties, but S&S? What do they do, just wait around looking for someone to hit?
Nerd Explosion (1 Hit) - Check back after bonfire night, I'll see what I can do.
Hot Nerd (1 Hit) - Well it was fucking boiling in Ibiza..... Oh right, I see now.

Perhaps scariest of all - 1.8% of you added this site as favourite!