In this month’s general tech post, I’m covering an external drive, games, headphones, photography and a portable radio.
This is my monthly general tech post, covering items that I’ve only just started using, else provide an update or write about something that I don’t intent to write about in a standalone blog post.
After travelling twice in August due to family heath issues I stayed local in September. I had a staycation beginning in the last week of the month and this is reflected in this month’s general post.
I’ve published this blog post quite late in October! Sorry about that and shortly I hope to get back on track with regularly publishing on my tech blog.
Computer Games
During September I played RTS computer games and also Meltdown in co-op mode. Most of the games I played with my fiancée.
We hadn’t played Age of Empires II HD Edition in a long time and we enjoyed a couple of lengthy battles against AI opponents. I was quite rusty playing this medieval game, but the knowledge soon came flooding back.
I’m not sure when we will play AoE II again, but I’ve definitely got my money’s worth from the AoE franchise over the years.
Another game franchise that I’ve played a lot of is Red Alert. This time we were playing RA3 and my again my fiancée and I played co-op against computer opponents and this games tend to take less time than AoE, but still enjoyable. Unlike AoE, Red Alert is near future technology and another great RTS game.
I also played a few Company of Heroes Blitzreig Mod games on my own using skirmish mode against AI opponents. Even though I’ve been playing CoH for many years, I’ve recently been trying to develop and improve my skills, though I will usually play against two normal opponents, so a long way to go!
A great casual local co-op steam game is Meltdown, which my fiancée and I played sat on our sofa using gamepads. It’s a simple to play game and the levels are quite repetitive, but it’s good for ten to thirty minutes of gaming. I really like the soundtrack and I think it looks great.
The screenshot above isn’t co-op mode, but shows one player against four enemies.
Headphones
My father gave my fiancée and I two sets of Silvercrest headphones he had purchased from the Lidl supermarket. This was after my father had asked if I wanted to try his pair and I couldn’t believe the quality for the cheap price!
I have a large head and these headphones fit me! I think the bass from the device is excellent and I’ve also been using them when playing games, which has made the gaming experience more enjoyable.
Photography
I often see people trying to impress others about their photography. Whilst I’m proud of some of the photos I’ve taken, I’m always looking to improve my photography skills and I discuss with others, areas where I can improve.
Photograph taken with a Canon EOS M
For example, recently I had limited space in my backpack so had to choose one lens each time I went out with my Canon EOS M camera. My eagerness to use some of my bigger lenses, meant I wasn’t properly equipped for some photo opportunities, that suited different lenses. In a few cases, I just used my smartphone’s camera instead!
Photograph taken with a Samsung S5 mobile phone
I’ve recently purchased some books and will be dedicating some time to photography over the coming months. Whether I’m taking a photo with a Canon EOS M or a mobile phone, I’m going to try and improve my skills.
Portable radio
I have an old Omega Multi band portable radio which I’ve started using again. I might write a blog post about it shortly. This isn’t a good radio and it’s frustrating to use.
Why do I own it? I purchased it years ago for an airshow and it did what I required. Times move on and whilst I can still listen to ‘some’ airplane to airport frequencies, but it’s tough to use. Once I’ve spent a bit more time with the device, I plan on writing a blog post about it.
Seagate Expansion External Drive 9sean1-500 1TB
I didn’t want to dedicate a blog post just about this device, so I’m writing about it in my monthly post. I purchased this external drive for £3 GBP at a car boot sale. It didn’t come with a power adapter, but I wasn’t bothered about that, as I just wanted to remove the drive from the enclosure!
The drive that was inside my unit was a SATA Seagate S/N W1V163GT ST1000DL002 P/N 9TT153-570 Barracuda Green 1000GB, which apparently this a 3Gb/s 5900RPM drive. The drive was manufactured in 2012, which at the time of writing, is seven years old.
I’ve got an old NAS box and whilst I don’t recommend this drive for a NAS box, I’ve placed it in the box for the time being. I’m not going to trust this hard drive with critical data.
What’s coming up?
I’m running behind with my tech blogging, but I’ve got lots of blog posts in draft and I’ve been quite busy during October. I’m definitely going to blog shortly about a small RC helicopter, a portable bluetooth speaker and other items.