willdashwood

Some top music

Perhaps I’ve just not been paying attention to new music in recent times but it seems there’s been a sudden influx of fantastic albums lately. Starting with The Delays “You See Colours” a couple of months ago, which came out of nowhere for me as I’d never even heard of the band. Pure catchy electro pop with a dusting of guitars. Sweet. Very interesting, unusual sound/production.

Snow Patrol‘s fourth album “Eyes Open” hit bang on target, just as good as “Final Straw” if not an improvement. I wonder if Gary has had vocal coaching or maybe it’s just all that touring. In any case, his voice seems to have found new range and strength.

I only noticed The Feeling when I saw there album was number 2 in the charts so it’s fair to say I’ve probably missed everyone raving about them. Looking them up on Wikipedia I notice Chris Moyles has been championing them and since I now only get his podcast perhaps I’m actually missing out on some good music! Never-the-less, anyone who’s not heard “Twelve Stops And Home” go and get it now.

Gomez never dissapoint and it’s hard to believe that “How We Operate” is their sixth studio album. Seems like only a short while ago “Bring It On” was doing the rounds.

Keane have certainly worked on their sound for “Under the Iron Sea”. A lot more work has gone in to the production and it’s a great follow up album, even if the songs themselves perhaps aren’t quite as strong.

Finally, The Automatic – “Not Accepted Anywhere”. Worth checking out even though the backing singer doubling up the main vocal in a shouty stylee is a bit irritating for a whole album!

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Soulwax, where did the suits and humour go?

I did Music Tech at Uni and a lot all my class mates were really in to the very latest new music, raving about the latest bands I’d never even heard of. I kind of got that feeling of being an outsider if I didn’t have a band that no one else had heard of to champion over coffee and a dunked mars bar. Indeed, there’s probably just one band who I can lay claim to picking up on before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon and that band be Soulwax.

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Intel Mobile Pentium 4 M Exploration

Mobile P4M logoThis is pretty much the only thing I feel bad about just getting rid of from my old site so thought the least I could do is just copy it across. It’s a bit outdated but I hope it’s of use to some people. Cheers.

I came across the possibility of using Mobile Intel Pentium 4 Processors – M (to give them the official title) in desktops while sourcing components for the company I worked for. My boss wanted these tiny cube systems to sit looking pretty on the desks of our office. However, he also wanted top of the range performance and didn’t even think about the noise. As a quiet PC enthusiast I said he would need some impressive cooling system if he didn’t want the CPU fan to sound like a jet engine right next to his ear!

So I set about researching and stumbled across a few threads in various forums (huge thanks to the people at Silent PC Review and AnandTech) which explained how I could use these CPU’s in desktops. Although the CPU’s didn’t turn up on eBay often, I got hold of 2, tested them out, got very excited and tried to source more! When the chance came around to buy a large quantity of them I decided to grab them all, put some effort in and resell them. This page is here for the people who want to know more about these great CPU’s, although I no longer have any left for sale I’m afraid.

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Turion 64 X2 dual-core mobile processors

As many of you know, I have a reputation for doing things with laptop processors which really shouldn’t be done; modding them to run in desktops I mean! I’m still running my Mobile P4M 2.0GHz on 1.15v with a fanless Arctic Cooling AC-FRZ-4 Freezer 4 (yes, only the PSU fan quietly shuffling air around) and haven’t felt the need to jump to the next generation of processor, not that I could justify the outlay anyway.

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About Me

Having been rushed in to taking down the embarrassment of a website that was here before (thanks Cat) there is now that inevitable moment where you have to dig deep and find something to better it. Hmm, well let’s get the boring stuff out of the way first.

I’m Will Dashwood, self employed web developer, operating under the name w3Factory. Currently living in North Anston, on the outskirts of Sheffield, in a lovely detached house with a big garden, but moving soon to Thurcroft once the house has been done up.

There are just a few simple things in life I enjoy on a regular basis. I’m listening to music about 90% of my waking hours. I have a nice vinyl selection (just about every Faith No More record released in the UK) and an even bigger digital collection. I’d probably get more work done if I wasn’t manic air drumming to a bit of System of a Down or getting down with my bad self to some Soulwax but where’s the fun in that?

I love retro gaming on the old MegaDrive along with party orientated titles (Sing Star, Dance games and Buzz). Whenever we have a big meet up round these parts you know there’s gonna be no shortage of games to keep the crowds entertained. 10 pin bowling anyone?

Business is going well, plenty of projects on the go. I do have a tendency to take on bigger, slightly unusual projects which require far more research than normal and as such are hard to make profitable. I’m also balancing this with property development which would probably be more lucrative. Before w3Factory I was technical director of Website World and before that, a programmer for D6 which was essentially the same company in a different role.

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