Author: Trefor Davies

Liver of life, father of four, CTO of trefor.net, writer, poet, philosopherontap.com

Allow location use #GoogleNow

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 9 April, 2014
No Comments on Allow location use #GoogleNow

I’ve just allowed Google to use my location. Up until now I’ve always rejected the request. Having mulled it over for a few years (I don’t like to rush these things) I’ve decided I’m ok with it. It will enhance online services for me. I don’t care about whether others know where I am or not. My location is pretty obvious if you read this blog.

Location data is useful to me when I use Google Now. I’m happy that it is able to give me hints about things in my locality. Currently it shows photos of nearby places. V handy I’d say.

Years ago when we were working on the commercialisation of SIP one of the things it was going to bring to the party was presence. Presence wasn’t really just about whether you were online and available or not. It was also about where you were online.

Getting off a plane in a new place was going to be made easy by automatically telling the hotel you had landed and pointing out good bars and restaurants you might want to hit. Only possible with location information.

I think I also like the idea that all my photos will have location information in them. Why not? It’s hard enough finding photos. Why not make it easier by telling you where the photo was taen?

Embrace the future. The future has the presence. The future is here and Google Now.

PS I’ve written about GoogleNow before. Had forgotten when writing this article. I don’t think I’ve had location switched on as standard before though.

PPS Off for a stroll now. There are places to see within 14 minutes walk! 🙂

End User travel

Holiday videos, wink wink ;) Peel Castle IoM

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 9 April, 2014
No Comments on Holiday videos, wink wink ;) Peel Castle IoM

We present for your entertainment and delight three short holiday videos. The first is an artistic work filmed on the rocks surrounding Peel Castle. Whilst the video requires no commentary the small element of speech inserted towards the end serves to draw the viewer’s attention to some of the key environmental content.

The second video was taken during a weekend break a few weeks ago. The weather here is very different. The filming was done at Fenella Beach on the other side of Peel Castle during a violent storm.

This final video shows a working fishing boat unloading a sack of crabs at the quayside at Peel breakwater on a bright sunny day. The skipper had called ahead and the lorry arrived at the quay just before the arrival of the boat.

Look out for more evidence of good times being had on trefor.net.

We currently don’t support that webmail service – LinkedIn

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 8 April, 2014
1 Comment on We currently don’t support that webmail service – LinkedIn

I’ve started to use LinkedIn a bit more than I used to. It is looking more and more useful for me in finding handy contacts for my startup business and less and less like just a recruiting ground for head hunters.

I’ve never used it’s “find other people you might know” type function though but this morning I’m up early doing stuff and casually entered my email address and clicked “continue”. Imagine my surprise when it told me LinkedIn didn’t support my webmail service. trefor.net is Google based so Linked in is missing out big time. I didn’t bother continuing.

Punters rush to sign up to funky new LinkedIn group
LinkedIn should know better
Your password here? Oh Dear. LinkedIn

broadband End User

ADSL upload speeds – ugh

ADSL upload speeds at parents house make me appreciate how good my own superfast broadband is.

At home I get about 7Mbps upload and on a reasonable day 35Mbps down. In the office on the ja.net we can on occasion get 100Mbps symmetrical. Yeeeeooooowwwwnnnggggg. That is good.

At my parents in the Isle of Man the much slower ADSL upload speed is really noticeable. Improved upload speeds are the one game changer that FTTC or superfast broadband has brought. In our media dominated world where ad hoc videos and pictures of interesting sights that we think “oo I’ll take a photo of that” and never look at it again though it is taking up storage space at more than one location, having good upload bandwidth is v important.

I feel somewhat awkward complaining about an ADSL connection where many people don’t even have that. In a world where broadband has become another utility ADSL seems almost like having a gas or electricity supply that only comes on at certain times of the day. Or it’s like having to always cook using a slow cooker. It’s something you have to plan around.

Added 06/07/2014: Now that I have kids living away from home the upload speeds they have for their own broadband connections are very noticeable. Kid3 at Uni in Durham always shows up quite pixelated whereas I’m sure that my own upload stream will result in a good clear image of me

Images of Peel

I like a good sign. This one is a particularly fine example at the end of the promenade in Peel, Isle of Man. It is a very helpful sign especially if you are looking for a tourist attraction.

We have visited each attraction many times. I particularly like the chandlery which has lots of useful supplies for the seagoing type: ropes, pulleys, blocks, sou westers etc. Although the sign mentions “Town Centre” Peel is actually a City because despite only being a small town it has a cathedral.

The panorama is the view towards the beach from the breakwater in Peel. The view has changed very little since Victorian times. The @harbour_lights cafe and the Davidsons ice cream parlour are just right of centre. Clicking on the image brings up the full size 6ish Megs original and you might be able to zoom in.

Look out for other holiday snaps from the Isle of Man during this week’s vacation:)

BBC website down – Error 500 – Internal Error

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 7 April, 2014
1 Comment on BBC website down – Error 500 – Internal Error

BBC website down

It ain’t often you can’t reach the BBC. They have 700Gbps of connectivity¹ to their servers. As one of the world’s foremost media organisations their website will rank as the most robust going.

It comes as a mild surprise therefore to see the error message on the screen in front of me -“Error 500 – Internal Error”. Is the BBC website down? The little clown icon is quite cool and totally in keeping with the creative nature of the BBC. You can almost hear the clown laugh as if this is some macabre late night feature. The audience is spellbound, silently gripping their seats.

The hiccup was over in a moment. It’s one of those glimpses of an event in life that you think back on and wonder if it really happened except that here I have the screenshot.

It isn’t as big deal but my curiosity is aroused and I think to myself it would be quite nice nice to understand what actually happened. What architecture does the BBC use for its website and what caused the error message? It’s one of those things that in real life is not worth wasting time drilling down to a root cause. Still if anyone can chip in it would be nice:)

Note added 20th July. I’m guessing this happened again yesterday as there was a huge spike of visitors to this site with people reading this post around 11am.

A roaming, a roaming it’s always been my ru i in

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 7 April, 2014
No Comments on A roaming, a roaming it’s always been my ru i in

Off roaming again. Mobile roaming that is. The Isle of Man. A place which will be all about relaxation, healthy walks, tea and scones in the @harbour_lights cafe, fishing boats, fishing from the breakwater, a stroll along the prom, ruined castles, seals, guillemots, rock pippits, basking sharks, meals out, meals in, great food and drink, sleep.

I might call in on Manx Telecom for a chat. Check out the latest developments in offshore telecom. I made a call over the Manx 3G network before it was introduced in the UK. Few years ago now. Was quite a cool thing to do. The Isle of Man was a test bed for O2 at the time.

The beauty of our modern world is that we can work from wherever we are. Although this is a holiday I like my job and can spend a couple of profitable hours each day doing stuff. Travel time is also time that can now be usefully spent rather than just staring out of the window wondering how much longer it will be before we sight land – something to break the monotony of the journey.

The hotel had WiFi. There was 4G in Liverpool whilst we queued to get on the ferry, the ferry has free WiFi, at least where I am sat. My mam and dad’s place has WiFi, the Harbour Lights Cafe has WiFi. The Whitehouse pub doesn’t have WiFi but who on earth would want to waste good pub banter time by staring into a screen.

I switch off mobile data roaming because the cost would be ruinous and there is in any case plenty of connectivity. I’ll settle for ruining my waistline.

It is now 11.49 and we would appear to be out of sight of land. The windows in the lounge have steamed up so we wouldn’t be able to see anything anyway:) All is quiet.

End User travel

Level crossings and the quirks of the taxi fare system

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 7 April, 2014
No Comments on Level crossings and the quirks of the taxi fare system

When walking to work I have to cross a railway line. There is of course a set of barriers that come down every now and again when a train comes by. I find myself picking up my walking pace as I get nearer to the crossing so that if the warning the barriers are about to come down starts to sound I can get across before my way is barred. I have sometimes had to wait 4 minutes before a train comes. Not good.

Whilst I normally walk I have had occasion to take a taxi home. If I get the cab to pick me up from the side of the level crossing nearest my house the fare is £4.20. A pick up from the side nearest the office, that’s the side with the Tower Bar in the pic, costs £5.40!!!

I have for your information and education taken photos of the queues caused when the barriers come down. Enjoy:)

The view from the office

Business travel

The view from the office – Lincoln Cathedral seen from Sparkhouse

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 7 April, 2014
No Comments on The view from the office – Lincoln Cathedral seen from Sparkhouse

Gotta tell you Sparkhouse is a great place for an office. It’s attached to the University of Lincoln and is slap bang in the middle of town. A pleasure to walk there every day. This is the view from the front door. The river to the right is the Witham.

agricultural End User Weekend

The yellow flower

It’s a yellow flower at the weekend. The green leaves around it look quite manky but the flower shines through. I’m ashamed to admit that I have no idea what make of flower it is. What brand. Wouldn’t surprise me if companies try to register flower names as brands.

If I saw a rose I could name that. Tulips and daffodils I can also identify. Otherwise I begin to struggle. I’m ok with grass. I quite like grass although our lawn needs some seeing to. It’s not worth the effort as it gets hammered all year round by kids.

I quite like mowing the lawn in the summer followed by lighting the barbecue and cracking open a tin or two. It’s not often the weather is good enough for us to sit out to eat but the conservatory is fine. We have a nice conservatory opening out onto the back garden and the table will seat ten or twelve people if we open out the leaves so it’s a good place for a relaxing Sunday barbecue that lasts all afternoon.

We also have a couple of gazebos that can come in handy both when there is a threat of rain and conversely it is too sunny. Anyway hope you enjoyed the picture of the flower. It’s the weekend. Make it a lazy one 🙂

PS if anyone has a favourite flower do let us know:)

broken gear End User gadgets H/W phones

SD card unexpectedly removed SGS4

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 5 April, 2014
7 Comments on SD card unexpectedly removed SGS4

It’s not looking good. Just had notification on Samsung Galaxy S4 that “SD card unexpectedly removed”. This is the same message I was getting before the last SD card was wiped.

If we recall, the SGS4 was launched on 26th April 2013. This means that my SGS4 is less than 1 year old¹ and it looks a if it is about to destroy a second SD card. Notwithstanding the fact that the phone is less than a year old and it is already my second SGS4. My first had a faulty USB socket.

Frankly this is totally unacceptable. These are very expensive devices. The reliability is atrocious. I am going to take this up with Samsung as a point of principle. Stay tuned…

¹ in fact I got it on 13th May 2013.

broken gear End User

This is a broken badminton racket

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 5 April, 2014
3 Comments on This is a broken badminton racket

Born in a factory somewhere in the manufacturing world of a design by Carlton this badminton racket survived only two outings before it met an untimely end. We shall shed no tears. Mourn not. We have to move on. There is nothing to be gained by dwelling on what may have been. It is what it is. It is no more.

RIP Carlton KINESIS. Length 670mm, frame weight 86g, balance even, flex medium. Delivered on a Monday, smashed on the following Saturday.

End User fun stuff Weekend

The kecks are ready

Just had Waitrose on the dog and bone saying the kecks are ready. They didn’t actually use those words. I translated for you. The woman on the other end of the phone actually said “Mr Davies it’s Waitrose dry cleaners here. Your trousers are ready to collect.”

I’ve started to use a lot more natural language on this blog. Eased into it. I don’t think you could be reading through back issues of posts and say to yourselves “hey he’s started to change his style”. There wasn’t one of those transformational moments.

Makes you think about the use of language though. In one sense it surely doesn’t matter what words are used. As long as people understand what you are trying to say. Wft, fyi, btw, atb, brb, lol,swalk. Most people will know what I’m on about there. At least most people whose native tongue is English. Oh and below a certain age, except for the last acronym in which case it may well only be people above a certain age that get it.

The extent to which the language used almost depends on how far you can push it before people begin to not understand what you are trying to say. knowworramean? Grammatical conventions should also evolve. why does it matter that we have to use upper case for the first letter after a full stop (that’s a period for those over the pond – I realise that I overstepped the limits if comprehension there for some). the full stop informs that the end of the sentence has been reach thus allowing the reader to draw mental breath.

I may still chose to start someone’s name with upper case but it isn’t absolutely necessary. tref or Tref. You still understand what I’m trying to say.

In the interest of research I herewith request that you leave a comment with an alternative word for trousers. One go per comment. There are two prizes on offer. A pint of beer goes to the person with the most variants and another pint goes to whoever leaves the last comment with a word for trousers. All entries must be in English and in the event of a dispute you must be able to somehow prove common usage of your word. If beer is not your thing I’ll stretch to a small sherry. Prizes must collected in person.

More good reeds:
rong spelins

End User fun stuff

The darling buds of April – latest in a fun series of posts on nothing in particular

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 5 April, 2014
2 Comments on The darling buds of April – latest in a fun series of posts on nothing in particular

All you tech heads out there think your stuff is cool don’t you? Your tablet computers, new phones, operating systems and other stuff my grandmother would not have heard of. No new product introduction can compare with what you see in this picture.

It’s new life coming into the apple tree we planted in our back garden a couple of years ago. It will grow and produce apples. More apples than the two we got last year. They were two good ones. Two of the best.

The only good Apple is one that grew on a tree. Read into that what you like:) It’s the weekend and what does the weekend mean? Jobs list. Jobs that don’t get done during the week. Things like clean out the car¹ because we are off on holiday. Mow the lawn for the first time this year. Take Kid4 to a badminton tournament.

When all that is done I should be able to relax a little. Maybe stroll into the Bailgate. Bump in to a few people I know and talk about nothing. Look in a shop window.

I do ~~need~~ want to buy a Leatherman. I had two but they both got nicked. With a leather man if you have a bit of string that needs cutting there is no problem. Need to tighten a screw? Hey that’s easy. Simply chose the correct screwdriver bit and you’re away. Stone in your horse’s hoof. The Leatherman will have something for it. Chop down that enormous tree that gradually grew in the middle of your back garden and before you realised was taller than the house…

My memory was jogged re my Leatherman shortage when strolling round the new GO Outdoors shop that’s opened just down the road from us. Doing a bit of bag procurement I was. There is a half decent range of ~~Leathermans~~ Leathermen on display. I noted the top of the range model had £30 knocked off if I had a discount card, which I do. However a quick search noted that I could get it with a further £30 knocked off from Amazon. I didn’t make that impulse buy.

This week I revisited the Amazon store with a view to making a one click purchase. I didn’t make that purchase because I found out that the model I had my eye on wasn’t the top of the range after all. There was a titanium version. Gordon Bennet! That made sense to me. However the titanium version was about £130.

So this was my dilemma. Feed the kids/buy them shoes/go on a family holiday/pay off the mortgage/fund a cure for stupidity or buy the Leatherman. Well I am going to buy the Leatherman but I will wait until I have a piece of string that needs cutting. Then I’ll feel I bought it because I needed it and it won’t have been such an extravagance.

Anyway gotta go. I have to prepare to take a kid somewhere and then build up the mental strength to clean the car…

¹Whether it needs it or not – actually even I think it needs doing!

End User fun stuff Weekend

Offer to end all offers – free Wilkinson Sword 5 blade razor – something for the weekend

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Saturday, 5 April, 2014
No Comments on Offer to end all offers – free Wilkinson Sword 5 blade razor – something for the weekend

Wilkinson Sword Hydro – the ultimate razor?

In the run up to Christmas Kid4 scours the online free give away offers for presents for the family. Very resourceful.

One of these offers has just come through: a Wilkinson Sword Hydro 5 blade razor job. It looks very good quality albeit over 3 months late. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth especially if it is going to give me a shave or two but you do have to wonder about the marketing of this offer.

Either it proved to be more popular than their wildest dreams and they ran out of stock very quickly or their planning was v poor and the execution terrible. If the first was the case it’s interesting to note that their manufacturing lead times would appear to be around 3 months. Seems a lot for a bit of plastic even if it did come personalised.

Whichever is the case I am going to end up using it because I have it, it has 5 blades and it was free. I will of course report back so that you, the unshaven masses, can benefit from the experience. It will be quite annoying if I end up thinking it is good becasuse I will have to go out and buy more blades and you can bet your bottom peseta that they are even more expensive than my usual quad blades.

Maybe I’ll let Anne decide which is best for smooth cheeks. I was going to finish this post with the sign off “something for the weekend?” but I don’t bother shaving at the weekend. A hangover from my old rugby playing days when I needed to look as rugged as possible on a Saturday afternoon.

So on Monday morning you shall know. If I remember.

Ciao bebe (strokes his non existent beard and rides off into the sunset)…

Ooo my what a big SD card you’ve got sir – is that 128GB bulging out of your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

Just been to PC World to buy a new 32Gig SD card. As you know my old one was jiggered by my camera/phone/SGS4/intergalactic-slow-software-communicator (if not catch up with the story here and here)

Permit me to be flabbergasted but these things now come with up to 128GB of storage! FGHJOweroijhlkjhlklnnnggg¹. Now I don’t think I need 128GB. I’ve only got about 50GB on my Drive athough that doesn’t include music and photos.

This is the point when someone usually chips in and says “that’s more storage than ever existed on the whole planet before 1983” or “that’s more storage than they had on board all the space shuttles and all the Apollo missions ever including Apollo 13!”

I think at this stage that storage tech would appear to be outpacing the media tech destined for storage and also the battery technology destined to power the mobile media players (ie c/p/S/i above). Mind you it is a fair bet, knowing the people I know that someone will come back and tell me that he has to carry several 128GB SD cards around in case some of his main storage runs out (Tom Bird? 🙂 ).

I bought a 32GB job for about £19. It’ll do me for now.

PS when will they be quoting how many UHD videos a card will store. I spoke to a guy in PC World who told me they weren’t selling many 4K TVs.

PPS I know some smart person will also tell me I could have bought the 32GB card for 25 pence online but I didn’t want to wait ok? 🙂

¹ Sound of me being flabbergasted
² Applicants for membership of the extreme abbreviators club should leave a comment. We meet evry mnth in gd pb cld rhdtfpt in htbrftp.

broken gear End User mobile apps storage backup & dr

Credit where credit is due – Windows 7 networking

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 4 April, 2014
No Comments on Credit where credit is due – Windows 7 networking

Yesterday my SD card blew up on the Samsung Galaxy S4. Not literally of course otherwise the nature of this post would be different. It would probably be ringed with a thick black border mourning the passing of one of the brightest prospects ever to have graced the Morning Star. Either that or it would be quite short as I might well have been typing one handed having been removed from the operating theatre via intensive care to a big ward where I would have felt quite out of place being young and full of life.

Last night I spent some time on the Netgear ReadyNAS retrieving files. Except

Business surveillance & privacy

Telegraph totty – politics and page impressions

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Friday, 4 April, 2014
2 Comments on Telegraph totty – politics and page impressions

Websites that carry adverts are typically paid based in terms of £/$/E¹ per 1k page impressions. The more visitors the more page impressions and the longer you can keep them on site browsing through different articles the better. It’s all about dosh.

If you look at any particular post you see many inducements to stay in the site. “Related articles” or “More from the Telegraph”. You will see that recently we have started to add such links on trefor.net and are in the process of getting to grips with whether this can be automated when the new site goes live.

It’s quite amusing therefore when reading a serious article on calls for DCMS Minster Maria Miller to resign to see that the Telegraph’s presumably automated system of determining which links to include come up with what appear to be “female” related posts. They don’t appear particularly relevant unless the Telegraph knows something we don’t².

I make no comment here on whether Mrs Miller should be sacked or not.

¹Pounds $hillings and pEnce
²The screenshots are from the mobile version of the site which seems to have different links to the desktop site but hey…

broken gear End User phones

Content of SD card appears to have been wiped on Samsung Galaxy S4

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 3 April, 2014
3 Comments on Content of SD card appears to have been wiped on Samsung Galaxy S4

As an additional note to my previous post it would appear that all the content on my SD card has been wiped. I’ll have to check it when I get home in case it is just the phone not seeing it. It’s not just the music but around 1,200 photos and videos.

Is this a problem? Nooo. It is an irritation because I’ll have to reload the music from my NAS box backup. The photos will also be safe on the NAS box and also in Google+ (I’ve checked). Doesn’t engender confidence though.

At the same time I said yes to a Samsung software update and now some of the cookies have disappeared. I’m having to re-enter credentials on Twitter though not on Facebook or LinkedIn. Odd. Must be having a bad hair day. I need a haircut anyway. Perhaps I’ll nip out this pm and get it done:).

Bad Stuff broken gear End User

SD card unexpectedly removed from Samsung Galaxy S4

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 3 April, 2014
6 Comments on SD card unexpectedly removed from Samsung Galaxy S4

I’m getting a message from my Samsung Galaxy S4 saying SD card unexpectedly removed.

My thought go something like this. “Omg not more hardware problems with a Samsung Galaxy.” In the past I’ve had a plethora of USB connector problems, “water damage” problems (not!), screen problems. I’ve even had an SD card problem where I hard to replace the SD card becasue it was corrupting some of my photos including some imporatant ones with the kids at a Test match at Trent Bridge.

Now it looks like another but different SD card problem looming. I’m not naturally a pessimist but nowadays Samsung phones seem to do that to me. I’ve gone from a big fan, principally because they were the main alternative to me becoming an Apple zombie, to looking forward to when I have to change to a Nexus.

Reality is that all these gadgets are probably made in the same factories, looking down on a rice field somewhere where the a green eyed yellow idol casts its shadow¹. I doubt there is much difference in reliability between brands.

The point is that whilst they tend to only last a year or two these devices are not cheap throwaway gadgets. They typically cost four or five hundred pounds each (doing a quick conversion that’s four or five hundred dollars to American readers).

They must think we are mugs. Or zombies. We probably are. There is no point in fighting it. Yes master.

It has to evolve to the way the Chromebook is going. Devices have to be cheap enough for it not to matter if they break, drown, are lost or stolen. You might think that mobile phones are already a commodity but at he high end and at those prices I’m not sure that is accurate despite the fact that the devices are manufactured in very high volumes.

I guess the problem there is that one you move to just competing on price you have to find other markets to grow your business but it will inevitably happen in the mobile word and perhaps the sooner it does the better. They are already finding it hard to introduce new ideas whenever a new model is launched so innovation must be slowing down. Bring on the disposable mobile phone and beam me up Scotty².

I see Vodafone are opening some shops

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Thursday, 3 April, 2014
2 Comments on I see Vodafone are opening some shops

The “big” news this morning is that Vodafone are planning on opening 150 shops in the UK creating 1,400 jobs in 2014.

This is an interesting PR headline. The reason Vodafone will be opening the shops is because people want to touch and feel a phone in a shop and check out the different tariff options with a real person. Trying to decide on a mobile package can be a nightmare (how much bandwidth etc).

The big high street retailers such as Carphone Warehouse offer this facility but they are not fixed to a specific network. Because of this the networks have to dangle big marketing subsidies to them to make them want to sell their services. For someone like Carphone Warehouse I imagine it will probably be in the tens of millions of pounds a year. You might think the shop is giving you a good deal but it is the cash being injected by the network that is making it possible.

So the Voda thinking will be to have more control over the offers and direct contact with Joe public which in theory should also give them more control over their spend. That they want to do this is understandable even though there is an obvious additional fixed overhead of running retail premises.

What nobody has bothered to report is that in creating 1,400 new jobs the chances are that they are just moving the jobs from the independent retailers to Vodafone themselves. The market won’t be any bigger. The money is just moving around and the jobs are following.

I don’t really have an axe to grind here. Just observing…

PS the header photo is an old one – it was easier to link to that than find a new one:)

Apps bitcoin End User

How to buy a Bitcoin – part 2 setting up an anonymous wallet

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 2 April, 2014
2 Comments on How to buy a Bitcoin – part 2 setting up an anonymous wallet

Following my first attempt at setting up a Bitcoin wallet I decided that having provided my email address this didn’t make me anonymous enough so I started again.

I had considered using the Tor network to make it “totally” anonymous but figured this was totally over the top so I just opened an incognito window and signed on without providing an email address. The downside of this level of anonymity is that it becomes much harder to recover a lost password so there is an element of risk.

Everything has to be written down on paper and not kept on your PC. I don’t have a printer hooked up to my PC so I couldn’t even print any password details. I can email the home printer but that would send the info via Gmail and then via HPs own email server which is not trusted. Neither is Gmail really even though it is encrypted.

It wasn’t just a complex password that had to be written down. Bitcoin addresses, wallet IDs and the mnemonic that have to be recorded are all extremely long and with my handwriting prone to mistakes. I had to differentiate between upper and lower case text by underscoring the lower case to make sure that a “b” for example wouldn’t be mistaken for a six in future. I backed up the wallet recovery file somewhere secure.

Once set up I bought a Bitcoin from Dan Howitt in the office next door. Dan’s business is Bitcoin – check out his post on the recent HMRC VAT announcement here. Dan transferred one Bitcoin, priced at £292 (E352) to my Bitcoin wallet and sent me an invoice. I then sent Dan’s business the cash via internet bank xfer. We were both happy.

The acquisition process was not as simple as one might imagine but when you think of it if you buy foreign currency you usually hand over cash one way or another in exchange for travellers cheques or notes. It isn’t usually a purely electronic transaction. Also I think that not having a direct link with a bank account is a good thing here considering the nature of the beast.

There is a Blockchain Android App that allows you to carry your wallet on your phone. I looked at this but couldn’t really see how this was different to providing my email address – it asks you for all sorts of access permissions and Android in my mind is not that secure. See the screenshot.

So now I have a Bitcoin. Bought at £292 it is apparently worth £296 as I write. Well on the way to that holiday in Barbados. This is an experiment. I’m along for the ride and we shall see where it goes (probably not Barbados). When there is enough data I’ll stick regularly updated tracker on the site so that you can see whether it is Barbados, Skegness or stay at home:)

The Android tracker is from the Bitstamp Widget from the Google Play Store. You can see there has been a swing of $20 over the last 24 hours. No different to playing the stock market really. It’s all a roll of the dice.

So I have a Bitcoin. It is accompanied by paranoia about security but we are talking cash here and we have already seen examples of Bitcoins have gone missing (MtGox) so I don’t think the paranoia is unwarranted.

If anyone has personal Bitcoin stories feel free to share.

Ciao amigos…

End User food and drink internet

Ace internet access at Alexanders

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Wednesday, 2 April, 2014
1 Comment on Ace internet access at Alexanders

Sat in Alexanders coffeeshop/bar/restaurant whilst kid2 has a hairdo. Alexanders has wifi, fair play. The wifi is giving me 34Megs down and nearly 9Megs up, very fair play.

This shouldn’t be news in this day and age but getting those kinds of speeds is still a delight. It’s made even better by the fact that everyone else in the gaff are of the ladies with idle moments out shopping variety. They are chatting using the old analogue mouth and ears method rather than the in vogue “talk to the person sat next to you via IM”. The upshot is that I have all the bandwidth to myself. Salright innit:)

The last time I sat in a caff with wifi¹ was at the Harbour Lights in Peel in the Isle of Man. We follow each other on twitter (@harbour_lights). I tweeted how good it was and to my surprise the waitress came over and told me the tea and crumpets were on the house. Read that blog here.

Alexanders also has a twitter account @Alexanderscafe but they haven’t used it for yonks so I doubt the same ploy would work again. It wasn’t deliberately planned the first time anyway 🙂 Doesn’t matter. I’m happy to pay for my cuppa. The atmosphere is nice and it’s a good place to hang out whilst a hairdo is being done.

7 a day in a box

7 a day in a home made soup.

7 a day is the new 5 a day. If you’re not on 7 you’re gonna die. Sooner. Bet a lot of you aren’t even on 5. That makes it a lot worse. C’mon. Chips don’t count you know. Especially if they are with a KFC variety meal or a Big Mac. Kebabs might have salad and chilli sauce but the fat content of the “meat” sends the cholesterol meter into a frenzy.

Pull yourself together. You just need to believe you can do it. Your body is your temple:)

‘Course it does help to have a wife who is a wonderful cook and who has despatched me to the office with a container of her home made vegetable soup. I think I detected a few bits of bacon in there too. Yum. Just what you need for lunch after a session in the pool followed by a walk to work.

The return of the notification – Android 4.4.2 upgrade

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 1 April, 2014
No Comments on The return of the notification – Android 4.4.2 upgrade

Darn it. A short while ago I upgraded the dog and bone to Android 4.4.2. Previously I had removed irritating notifications that kept me looking at the device to see if new messages had arrived.

Invariably they had so I was looking at stuff on the phone every hour of the day, including when I was asleep¹. I removed notifications from my life and began to get a better night’s sleep.

Now the doggone notifications have returned. How crap is that? I’ve had to back in to settings and untick the tick box again. For each application now notifying me where once there was none. Urgh. Uh?! Fnaagnn.

Btw you can see from the first screenshot that the name of my Phone is jacques (lower case j). I know you won’t tell anyone. Each new phone gets a different name for car mobile kit purposes. Hey…

You can see the screenshot with the checked notification box here.

C’mon Samsung. Not good enough. I’m assuming it’s your fault. Get your act together.

Meet Kory Kessel – an American in Paris & editor of trefor.net

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 1 April, 2014
1 Comment on Meet Kory Kessel – an American in Paris & editor of trefor.net

Happy to introduce Kory Kessel as the first editor (not counting me) of trefor.net . Here is his bio wot he wrote.

Kory Kessel’s 25+ years in high-tech span a remarkable roster of companies both large and small, and include such universally recognized brands as Grey Advertising, Dell, IBM, and Apple. His past successes, though, are not limited to ubiquitous commercial giants, as he has also completed government contracts for the Texas Education Agency, co-founded a London-based Internet gaming start-up (Quingo), and led the documentation effort for a first-generation mobile Internet services platform.

More recently, Kory has found himself deeply interred in Internet-based communications, serving a long stint as Jeff Pulver’s communication specialist for his various companies and ventures (e.g., Free World Dialup, Pulver.com, pulvermedia). He has also written (and ghost-written) a bevy of industry-specific white papers and articles on a freelance basis.

First among Kory’s achievements in information architecture is helping to develop and then subsequently documenting Apple Computer’s first PowerBook support and service program in 1993. Soon after he joined Dell, helping to lead the company’s nascent intranet initiative. His chief accomplishment at Dell, though, was serving as a key member of the IT team that conceptualized and then built the company’ first data warehouse, a project that comprised not only the construction of global financial and human resources databases, but also included the development and deployment of a proprietary suite of reporting software applications.

A proud Chicagoan by birth, a Texan by transplant, and a New Yorker by choice, Kory has made his home in Paris since 1999¹. He has a foodie’s soul, goes in heavily for sport, is an aficionado of jazz (pre-electric) and blues, and is constantly focused on his photography with a considered aspiration for eventual relevance in that field.

With his wide and varied background in technology Kory is going to be a great asset to the site. If trefor.net was a place where suits were worn and the CEO put out encouraging messages to the troops I’d be saying to you all “join me in welcoming Kory to the business and please say hello to him if you see him in the corridor.” Well I’m not that kind of guy and this is not that kind of business.

We don’t have corridors but we do have comments sections so feel free to say something in response to his posts. Nothing too soppy now. Just a firm handshake and a look in the eye:)

¹ I think I first met him in a bar in London though I’m a bit hazy on that one.

bitcoin broken gear End User

Broken Cashpoint/ATM #Bitcoin & the cashless society

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Tuesday, 1 April, 2014
1 Comment on Broken Cashpoint/ATM #Bitcoin & the cashless society

This morning on my way in to work I bumped into Tom, kid3’s piano teacher. He reassured me that kid3 was doing very well which is good. We chatted for a bit as we walked along and went our separate ways.

Had I had to drive to work I would not have bumped into Tom. Nor would I have seen this notice over the ~~ATM~~ cashpoint outside Lloyds Bank. Now the vandalised cashpoint was not any particular inconvenience. The dusty old fiver in my wallet will do me for some time yet.

This does make you think about how much life is left in the “real” money game. The only place I absolutely need cash now is London, where not many taxis take cards or the Morning Star pub where Ness the landlady has a shiver running down her spine every time someone mentions “plastic”.

The trefor.net offices are in Sparkhouse at the University of Lincoln, right next to the Tower Bar and the Engine Shed. Being a student gaff the beer is very cheap but you always have to queue because all the students use cards and pay for drinks individually – a real bummer if there are ten of them in the “round”. A quick and comprehensive poll of the family student¹ reveals that the breed typically only carries a fiver² around in their pocket/wallet/purse/wad.

I still haven’t got round to setting up that Bitcoin wallet. That’ll be my next job. Hopefully my fiver will last until then.

BBC drop-in

In at Radio1 the other day, as you do. It’s where all the kids hang out. Not a sign of a suit or tie. It’s on the top floor of Broadcasting House. There’s a helluva view down the middle of the building.

That’s the newsroom at the bottom there. You see those desks through the glass windows behind newsreaders. The newsroom has to be at the bottom because the news is always so heavy. They should have a separate edition where only good news was read out. Life is short…

At Radio1 they have a bit of a display highlighting their good bits. I went round it the wrong way so it didn’t quite flow as perhaps it should have. Ah well.

Whilst I was there I had lunch at the BBC canteen. Gammon, chips and veg with gravy. The mustard dispenser had nearly run out so I had to shake it upside down quite a bit to get the last bit. I didn’t bother letting them know although I should have. Someone else will have done it after me. You can’t have gammon without mustard can you? Also had a bottle of sparkling water. Fwiw.

The reception area wasn’t how I imagined it to be. In my mind it was a small space with a settee and an uniformed porter looking me up and down asking who I was there to see.

Instead it was a large reception area with many settees and lots of people milling round. Lots of programming hours to fill need lots of people. Innit? Can’t keep using the same ones in different shows can you even if they do use wigs and lots of make up? It’s a problem of their own creation. Had they kept the test card they would have had fewer hours to fill and there are enough repeats is it is. As far as I know.

The people in reception looked normal enough. Nobody in fancy dress. Maybe they didn’t get changed into their outfits until they got to their dressing rooms. Obvious really.

I don’t listen to Radio1 meself btw. It’s gone downhill since my day. They’ve moved all the good stuff onto Radio2 for some reason:).

Didn’t spot any celebs. Expect they were all in the green room guzzling back the gin and champagne. It’s also a problem that I probably wouldn’t recognise many celebs anyway. Not my problem. Love.

Had I seen a celeb I wouldn’t have a picture to show you. That wouldn’t have been cool. I leave that sort of thing to the Japanese and American tourists who not being from round ‘ere may not have recognised them either but wouldn’t have let that get between them and a good photo opportunity. “Dear Hank/Yoshi¹ Here’s me with an A-Z² lister. Love Mildred/Sushi³”

That’s it. Got a few more pics especially a long one like the one on the right but of the outside showing the famous BBC sign. However I don’t think I can sustain enough of a dialogue to run the length of a second long photo so I’ll hold that back for another idle moment when I’ve woken up early and popped downstairs to do stuff.

Ciao amigos. Pinch and a punch…

PS Why was I there? Keep watching:)
PPS That’s my new Osprey bag on my shoulder

^1,^2,³As usual delete as you see fit.

End User travel Weekend

Now you see it now you don’t – Lincoln Cathedral

Post author By Trefor Davies
Post date Monday, 31 March, 2014
No Comments on Now you see it now you don’t – Lincoln Cathedral

View of Lincoln Cathedral from the same spot on the same day. With and without mist. I pass the building every day one the way to and from work. The clear view was taken this evening and the misty one this morning. The photo doesn’t quite give you the right feel for how warm the evening is but I was wearing shorts which was somewhat of a gamble on my way in first thing.

Other travel features:

Pedestrian crossing signs
Poignant moment on train