Category: End User

End User

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Bad Stuff End User fun stuff media obsolescence travel

Two Hours and 55 Minutes

I have 39 versions of the song “April in Paris” in my digital music library. The earliest recording is an Artie Shaw track from 1940 and the most recent is by Wynton Marsalis from his 1987 “Standards, Volume One” release, with many seminal versions threading in-between, delivered by a staggering array of artists that range from Frank Sinatra to Ella Fitzgerald to Nirvana (OK, that isn’t true…just checking wakefulness out there)…er, Blossom Dearie. Of course, considering “April in Paris”‘s status as a 20th Century classic and the size of my jazz collection, I shouldn’t be surprised that I have 39 versions of the song, and yet seeing them all before me on my monitor (the result of an iTunes search) is really just a couple of steps shy of astonishing.

April in Paris x 39

If 14+ years ago someone had asked me when I first moved to Paris in 1999 (August — not April) “How many versions of “April in Paris” do you have in your music collection?”, I could not have answered the question with any kind of accuracy or authority. Not without taking hours to thumb through my 2000+ CDs with a notepad and pen at hand, anyway.

I never knew the charm of spring
I never met it face to face
I never new my heart could sing
I never missed a warm embrace
Continue reading “Two Hours and 55 Minutes”
Categories
broken gear End User phones

Day 5 without the SGS4 – big screen/little screen/responsive screen

sgs4Almost sounds as if I’m someone talking about being in rehab when I say it’s day 5 without the phone. I still find myself picking up the temporary replacement, the Galaxy Mini, as if I’m about to use it to access twitter and my other regular internet haunts. I don’t use it for anything other than voice and sms.

Kid4, whose phone the Mini is, has now adopted Kid3’s old but cracked GalaxyS3. Kid3 in turn is using my Nokia Lumia 920 which he seems happy with (must get it from his mum – I never got on with Windows Phone). Kid4 walks around clutching the S3 in a way that he never did with the Galaxy Mini.

I asked him what was better about the S3 compared with the Mini and the answer was “bigger screen and more responsive”. I think that, in a nutshell, is also my perception. Although for me the S3 is old tech it is still better than a small fistful of a phone because it is more usable. Handset manufacturers have been pushing the boundaries of screen size because clearly the punters prefer bigger.

The limitation is the size of people’s hands and their thumbspan, if such a term exists (if it doesn’t it does now). The responsiveness of the phone is a combination of the design, processor and software, and its speed of access to the outside world, ie the internet. Using the SGS4 over 4G as opposed to 3G is generally a much better experience.

I am informed, via email channels, that my S4 is now in the hands of the repairers and expect it to be dispatched within three working days. That must mean I get it next Wednesday which will be good timing because I’m off to London on Thursday and won’t want to carry any baggage aka Chromebook – lightweight baggage though that may be.

S4_thumbI have generally tended to have three sorts of problems with my phones: something wrong with the USBport/charging mechanism, broken screen and recently a software issue that destroys the micro SD card. One assumes that the latter will get fixed with revisions of software. The USB issue would go away if I used contactless charging. I don’t know where that tech is at. Does anyone use it?

The broken screen could be solved by using cheap disposable screens that don’t necessarily have to be part of the actual phone itself. I assume Bluetooth has the bandwidth to manage the interaction between screen and processor. I’ve discussed this before and the more I think about it the more obvious it is.

Why do we need to bother taking the phone out of our pocket or bag? It would be much safer there. Less likely to get left on the table at the cafe and less likely to get smashed or dropped into a bucket of water.

The one scenario where this probably doesn’t work is when I’m using the phone as a camera. In this case I’ll need a bit screen on the handset. There has to be a way to make it work. I use the camera a lot.

Come next Wednesday I doubt Kid4 will want his Galaxy Mini back. It looks destined for a drawer. I will hopefully have a perfectly serviceable S4 back from the menders and move forward with a nagging doubt that what I really want is a native Android phone without Samsung software clutter but with a detachable disposable screen and a great camera with at least 10x optical zoom, though 20x would be better.

There ya go…

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End User phones

The global nature of business today – Samsung Galaxy K launch in Singapore

Just Googled “Samsung Galaxy K launch”. The first two results were websites in India – NDTV and Times of India. This surely highlights the global nature of the world in which we live in. Admittedly the launch was in Singapore but what difference should that make?

The accompanying adverts were for UK based products and services. What is amazing is that we can run a business as a global business talking about macro level subjects of interest that transcend boundaries.

The Guardian majors on this. Most Guardian Technology posts cover subjects that are a good read irrespective of where your computer is. The problem now begins when you want to try an compete in this global market. The Times of India will have far lower overheads than the London based Guardian for example. OK it can’t have lower overheads than trefor.net but then again they probably have more people writing for them.

Taking a peek at the Guardian I note that they don’t even appear to be carrying the story, certainly not at the time of writing this post. Is this a sign of maturity? The need to maintain exclusivity by keeping out of saturated blanket news items which after all the launch of the new Galaxy K is.

Most online publications will have no chance of getting to the top of Google rankings for a subject such as a Samsung phone launch. Most moneys, certainly in the affiliate marketing game, are to be made by the top ranking site in any given space. This in itself does pose a problem for the likes of Samsung. If it isn’t worth covering a story because every man and his wordpress account will be saying the same thing how do they get their message out?

For the likes of Samsung this is simple – they just chuck cash1 at it. For Fred in his albeit hi tech shed it’s a lot harder. It makes getting noticed really difficult but I guess this makes success stories even more deserving. Your product/service/idea must be good to have hit the headlines.

The answer has to be to focus on a niche. The trouble is that there are so many niches, so much going on it is difficult to keep that focus. In the meantime I am half looking out for a new phone, at least whilst my battered and broken Samsung Galaxy S4 is at the menders. If Samsung want a review of the new K they know where to find me:)

Other great related posts:

Day 3 without a phone
First night without a phone
Mobile phone insurance claims
This iPhone is dead

samsung galaxy k launch on google

ndtv gadgets

times of india on galaxy k

1 Email me for bank details if you work for Samsung

Categories
broken gear End User phones

Day 3 without a phone #broken #SGS4

sgs4This is my third day without a phone. It isn’t completely true to say that as in Kid4’s Samsung Galaxy Mini I do have a means of making phone calls. It just isn’t much use for anything else and even as a mobile telephone it has limits – the battery life is totally pants. I’m sure I could buy a phone that was just used as a phone without needing to even think of charging it more than once a week.

Although I normally use social media channels for communications more than voice, funnily enough I did use the Galaxy Mini a fair bit yesterday. Kids needing to talk, me needing to phone accountants & Mrs Davies for who social media is something she just uses by proxy. ie asks me to do it.

The email from the menders with instructions on where to send the broken SGS4 arrived whilst I was in the office yesterday. It has some sort of voucher for me to include when sending the phone away for repair. Not having a printer in the office I emailed it to the one at home and the voucher was waiting for me when I got home together with the form for the school trip that had needed handing in that morning but had taken quite some time to get from Anne’s iPad onto the paper.

So this morning on my way in I am swinging by the Post Office to send the phone off by registered post. It should take another week or so, if they hold to the SLA. That’s one phone charge for a phone or seven for a Samsung Galaxy Mini. It’s no wonder Kid4 wants an iPhone! My brain tells me to hold back on that one though I don’t know how long I’ll be able to do it.

Today is supposed to be the launch date of the Samsung Galaxy K – the version of the S5 with an optical zoom camera. I may yet be tempted but will wait and see. Votch zis space.

Related posts:

First night without a phone
Mobile phone insurance claims
This iPhone is dead

Categories
End User social networking

Death of a friend

I had a series of messages a couple of weeks ago from different social media contacts informing me of the death of a mutual friend. He became ill a month or so ago and whilst at one time they thought he might be recovering he went into a sudden decline and sadly passed away. This came as a shock but I guess these things happen and life moves on.

Yesterday I was trawling through my contacts database looking for people to invite to write guest posts for the trefor.net VoIP week next week and I came across his name. This gave me a genuine problem. Not whether to invite him to write a post but whether to delete his contact details. It didn’t seem right that he should be wiped from my virtual hard drive like that but what was the point of keeping his email address?

Obviously everybody dies and we all hope to reach a decent old age before it happens to us. He was 58. At 75 or 80 we consider someone to have had a good innings and don’t grieve so much but when it happens to a younger person it hits us more.

A school classmate of mine went in her twenties. I last saw her in a pub in the Isle of Man where she tried to persuade me to come to a reunion. It was timed for the day after our ferry home was booked so I couldn’t go. I found out a few month later that she had died of leukaemia and the reunion was planned as her last farewell. That made me pause for reflection.

An old university friend died four years ago in tragic circumstances. She was my age, around 47/48 at the time. It was a great shock and I wrote her a poem1 which I posted on her Facebook timeline and which was read by her family and friends. The timeline began to fill with spammy trivia and invitations to play games automatically broadcast by people to all their friends. I stopped looking because I didn’t want her memory tainted by such rubbish. I’m sure social media platforms have processes for dealing with such circumstances though the notion of there being a process doesn’t quite feel appropriate here.

In the long run none of us matter.  We are all mere blips in an incomprehensibly long universal timeline.  But as people and communities in the here and now we have to recognise that we are all that matters and the fact that someone is no longer with us is deserving of some consideration.

My friend who just died was Simon Gwatkin. I first met him when I was developing VoIP chips at Mitel Semiconductor. He ran marketing at Mitel Telecom. We kept bumping into each other in exotic bars around the world. Singapore and Geneva spring to mind. When Terry Matthews2 bought back Mitel Telecom. I crossed over to work with Simon developing SIP handsets and then systems.

Our ways eventually parted. Simon ended up working for Sir Terry at his VC arm Wesley Clover but we still contrived to “bump into each other” on different occasions and he came to one of the trefor.net UC Executive Dinners in London last year.  Simon also invited me to watch the Wales Open Golf at the Celtic Manor Resort – he is the guy in the cream linen jacket sat in front of me on my right in the fourth photo in this post. As I recall in the pic we are drinking Gwatkin cider at the Clytha Arms cider festival.

This is a difficult time for his family but they should take some comfort from the fact that everyone who came into contact with Simon loved him and thought him a great bloke. He will be missed by many. I’m going to leave him in my contacts list. What’s the hurry?

RIP Simon Gwatkin. A lovely bloke…

1 You can read the poem on my creative writing site philospherontap.com here.
2 Terry together with Mike Copeland was one of the original founders of Mitel – the Terry in MIke and TErry’s Lawnmowers.

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chromebook End User google phones

First night without a phone

Yesterday I smashed the screen on my S4. Correction. I accidentally dropped it and the screen smashed. This wasn’t a wanton act of vandalism by a man frustrated with the inadequacies of his communicator.

Although I’ve stuck my SIM in Kid4’s Galaxy Mini i’ve decided that to use that device is too much of a hassle. It wouldn’t let me delete his Google account as to do so would render some of the apps unusable. I did add my personal and business accounts to the device but deleted them before they had managed to synch. I decided I didn’t want my credentials on someone else’s device if deleting them after the fact was going to be problematic.

Now I lie in bed typing on my Acer C720 Chromebook having used it to check Facebook, Twitter, respond to a comment on this blog, read the papers (the news is the same wherever you look), check mails, look at the weather forecast and no doubt do a few other things subconsciously that I’ve already forgotten about. Ordinarily I’d have done all that on the phone. The Chromebook form factor isn’t as convenient for a Sunday morning.

Two other things I’ve not done with my phone spring to mind. One is I haven’t taken a photo of the beech hedge in our back garden. It is just coming into leaf and I quite liked the way that one part of it is budding before the rest showing a little splash of green colour in an otherwise brown hedge. I use the phone a lot in this way, taking ad hoc pictures of things that catch my eye. Check out the photo of petals lying in the road at the end of the post.

The other thing left undone is that I didn’t wake up in the night and didn’t check the phone. Maybe I wasn’t destined to wake up last night or maybe it was because the phone wasn’t there. Why on earth do I need to use the phone at 3am anyway? I don’t.

There is a third “not done” thing. I went out to early doors at the Morning Star without a phone. I also left my wallet at home and just took cash. Normally before leaving the house I check that I have phone wallet and house keys. Yesterday I just checked the house keys. Very liberating. Conversation flowed in the pub and I was 20 minutes later than normal leaving. This was done with a modicum of guilt knowing that Anne couldn’t call me to remind me that tea would very shortly be on the table.

It mattered not. The initial experiment was a success and my first 24 hours without a phone has almost been completed. I’m feeling remarkably relaxed…

petals in the roadOther posts with with photos:

Mobile phone photo competition
Photographic evidence of a great night out
Poignant phonebox photo

Categories
End User fun stuff

Weekend financial advice – how to get a mortgage

When Anne and I shacked up together we moved up from London to Lincoln. Dahn sarf we had grown accustomed to the notion of having to stretch to a 4 x joint salary mortgage to be able to afford a small flat. In Lincoln it wasn’t going to need anything like that. In fact we could have easily bought a house on 3 x one salary.

We found a suitable gaff/love nest and off I trotted to the Halifax Building Society to sort the mortgage out. The manager gave me a grilling: did I know that buying a house was an expensive game, solicitors fees, furniture, deposit etc. We would need  a fair bit of cash to get going.

I told him I didn’t have any savings but didn’t they do 100% mortgages? After all that’s what I did on my previous house. Ah thought the manager, what happened to the profit on that first house. It went on wine, women and male voice choirs I replied.

Realising that the interview wasn’t going too well I said that the only reason I was giving Halifax first refusal was because my fiancee had a savings account with them. Ahah said the manager. How much money does she have? Well every month she puts £20 in and every other month she takes £40 out I said:)

We left the meeting with him wanting to arrange to see both of us before making a decision. Sod you I thought. Who’d want to do business with someone stupid enough to not just give me the money straight away.

I went next door to the Alliance & Leicester Building Society. Told the manger I had all the cash for the deposit/solicitors fees/furniture etc saved up and that either of us could afford the mortgage payments on one salary. He offered me a mortgage on the spot and gave me the paperwork to take home and complete.

When I got home I rang Lloyds Bank to ask for a £5k loan to cover the house deposit. Where was I getting the mortgage from said the manager? A&L. Why don’t you get it from us said he? Do you do 100% mortgages then? No he said but I’ll lend you the other 5% as well!!!

That was over 25 years ago and we’ve been with Lloyds Bank ever since.

That’s how you go about getting a mortgage:)

Look out for further helpful financial hints from trefor.net at the weekend – coming soon how to with the lottery and other pie in the sky hopeless aspirations.

Other bank related posts:

New business accounts for startups
My first Banksy
Lloyds Bank – 2 out of 7 servers down

Photo: crocii near the Embankment tube station

croci

Categories
End User phones

Mobile phone insurance claims

sgs4Just had to claim on my Lloyds Bank current account insurance for a repair to my mobile phone. Dropped it whilst getting into the car this morning. Doh!

Took me 3 minutes to get through the ivr tree only to end up with a person who could not answer my question and forwarded me to another ivr tree whereupon I eventually ended up in a queue to a third party insurance company partner who was  “currently experiencing extremely high levels of calls” and said would I mind awfully waiting. I made that last but up.

Sorted it quickly enough mind you, once I’d got through to a person. Sounded Scottish though the memory may be playing tricks with me. At least it wasn’t overseas somewhere.

Makes me thing if the Scots do go for independence, and as far as I am concerned it is entirely up to them, will we start complaining about outsourcing call centre jobs over the border?

“Aargh I’m not using that firm again. They use a non-domestic call centre. You speak to someone who has no idea where Lincoln is and think it is somewhere near London. Couldn’t understand a word they were saying!”

I was on the phone for 15 minutes 45 seconds. Anne and I dread it whenever we have to call an insurance company. The worst is motor insurance. You can write off a measurable portion of your life in call queuing and then answering all the security question and after all that they ask you questions you don’t know the answer to such as the fuel consumption of your 1956 Ford Popular1 or what were the three points from 1986 all about?

The S4 still functions as a phone but the screen is totally pooped. I was able to call it, hear incoming email alerts, “find” it online and then do a factory reset.  So now I’m going to be without a phone for around 10 days whilst I wait for the email with the appropriate approval to return voucher and then the 3 days to assess the damage once the phone has been received followed by the 3 days to fix/return.

I have temporarily moved my SIM to Kid4’s Galaxy Mini. The question will be whether it is worth doing this or should I experiment with not having a phone for the ten days? The hardest bit will be at night where the S4 is very handy for tweeting between the sheets, reading the papers first thing etc. Also the lack of a decent camera is going to be a nuisance.

I did consider just getting a new phone but it’s £50 insurance excess versus a few hundred quid and I want to wait for the new Nexus anyway. Be assured I will keep you updated on this most important of modern sociological issues. To have a phone or to have not.

Other insurance related posts:
This iPhone is dead
23 mins on phone to insurance company
PPI Insurance – are you eligible for £7,500 compensation?

1 No smart arse comments please – I have no idea when the Ford Popular was manufactured and I’m not interested enough to look it up.

Categories
End User food and drink

The perfect bacon sandwich

bacon sandwichThis weekend we are featuring the humble bacon sandwich.  I say humble but really the bacon sandwich is royalty in the culinary world, on a par with the finest dishes served by the best chefs in their Michelin starred mansions.

There are many ways of serving the bacon sandwich. Individuals will have their own views as to the best way and who is to say they aren’t all right. This is a highly subjective matter. In the analysis that follows the various variables for each aspect of the making of a bacon sandwich are discussed and my own preferred recipe is offered as a benchmark. Rank others in comparison, better or worse, as you see fit.

The bacon

The choice of bacon is of fundamental importance. In the first instance any bacon that comes in a package labelled BOGOF should be avoided at all cost. This will be cheap water filled rubbish. The slices will be so thin you will be able to see through them and when cooking  the bacon will emit a yukky white substance that apparently is part of the preservative injected into the meat during processing. The water will steam the bacon and you will find it very difficult to get the right “finish”.

Reality is it is difficult to find any bacon that doesn’t have the white stuff in it. Experimentation will allow you to identify the brand that suits you best.  Look for the words “dry cure” and “thick cut”. Your are most likely to find the best bacon at a real butchers and not in a supermarket. You have been warned.

There is a valid debate on whether to use back bacon or streaky. Streaky is undoubtedly more flavoursome due to its having more fat but back does tend to provide a meatier filling. The American habit of over-frying streaky is usually to be avoided and American bacon tends to be too salty.

The bread

The best bread to use for a bacon sandwich is undoubtedly crusty white unsliced. You can use pre-sliced crusty white but the uniformity of the slice doesn’t quite feel right. Self-slicing produces a variation in cut that suits the rustic nature of this sandwich and makes for a different culinary experience at each meal1.

The mass produced sliced white bread that comes with brand names advertised on television is not appropriate for a bacon sandwich unless you are a guest at someone’s house and your host is providing the breakfast. One assumes in this instance that a considerable amount of beer was downed the night before and you are pretty grateful for anything that staves off the after-effects of the evening.

Under no circumstances should brown bread be used and if rolls are the only option the posher they are the better.

The debate over toasting has raged long and hard. Toasting the bread for your bacon sandwich is perfectly acceptable though it is a shame to do this if the bread is really fresh. Toasting crusty white bread more than two days old is the preferred method for this age of bread.

The bread/toast should be buttered. Margarine doesn’t cut it. Some people are known to prefer no butter. Whilst this is acceptable it should be understood that a bacon sandwich made without butter is never going to attain perfection.

Grilling versus frying

A no brainer really. Frying always produces the best flavour in a bacon sandwich. Grilling shrinks the meat. Lard is the best option for oil although it is recognised that the use of lard is controversial to the point of unacceptability in our modern health conscious society. Cooking oil is an acceptable alternative and need not be applied in large quantities. The fats from the meat will soon seep into the pan and provide the ideal base for frying. If cheapo bacon is being used then grilling will at least allow the water and white rubbish to drip off but you should take care to at least double the number of slices planned per person.

A minimum of two slices of bacon should normally be used but three or more are acceptable. Ideally the bacon once fried will have some crispy fat bits and some darker brown areas on the meat itself.

Unlike sausages which benefit from slow cooking, for best effect bacon should be cooked on a highish heat. We are looking for the right combination of softness and crispness and a slow cook will tend to err towards the soft side.

Seasoning

By seasoning I mean red sauce/brown sauce/no sauce. This is entirely a personal choice. The purist will almost certainly opt for “naked” but I am a brown sauce man. HP only. You can tell the difference. Tomato ketchup should be reserved for burgers and hot dogs.

Variety

It is perfectly respectable to experiment with different varieties to accompany the basic bacon filling. Mushrooms (fried) tomatoes (fried or uncooked – as you like) or even lettuce and tomato for the classic BLT are fine with added mayo. Bacon and lettuce without the tomato is a bit weird and should probably be avoided. Other filling combinations may be possible but are straying well away from the pure form. For example bacon and egg sandwiches should better be described as a “breakfast sandwich”.

Vegetarian bacon sandwiches

Nah!

Other bacon sandwich stories

In my experience the bacon sandwich is the one meat dish that is likely to convert vegetarians back to being carnivores (or omnivores/woteva) and I often use this as an icebreaker with people I have never met before but who are introduced to me as vegetarians – maybe at dinner. I tried this last year with a woman and she totally blanked me saying that it was never a problem. Set the tone for the whole evening. I found out weeks later that she was Jewish! Ah well!!  A vegetarian friend told me that this conversation piece was as old as the hills and very boring. Ah well!!! Won’t stop me using it though…

Conclusion

So there you have it. The perfect bacon sandwich uses decent dry cured thick cut back bacon, probably sourced from a local butcher and fried. The bread needs to be fresh self sliced crusty white. The bread may be toasted if a couple of days old. The bread should be buttered and contain sensible amounts of HP sauce.

Serve with a fresh pot of tea and a glass of milk.

Other posts mentioning bacon:

Best pancake toppings
Important announcement on a Sunday morning

1 I am careful to use the word meal here as opposed to breakfast. Whilst the bacon sandwich is classically served at breakfast there is no convention that suggests its eating at other mealtimes to be inappropriate.

Categories
Business chromebook End User phones

Mildly interesting Microsoft news on the wireless #Nokia

I know it’s the weekend but there was some mildly interesting technology news on the wireless (Home Programme) with the ratification of the sale of the Nokia mobile phone division to Microsoft.

Microsoft have an uphill battle to catch up with iOS and Android. Although commons sense suggests there has to be room for a third mobile market player my experience with the Nokia Lumia 920 suggests that Microsoft has a huge hill to climb. They lost me.

They also lost my daughter who bought a Chromebook when her windows laptop broke. It fits beautifully with her droid. My wife’s laptop has some adware on it. I suspect they are about to lose her too. It’s far cheaper and easier to buy a new Chromebook. All she needs it for is the occasional document, emails and iPlayer.

These big companies all too easily lose touch with the end user. A couple of years ago I tried to get in touch with someone at Microsoft. Left multiple voicemails and sent multiple emails inviting to person to speak at an industry bash. Not a peep. No acknowledgement. Nothing. These people spend all their time attending corporate meetings to discuss plans, strategies stock option price and bonuses. Useful and important things I guess.

Just spent a couple of nights at the DeVere Wokefield Park for UKNOF28. It was full of corporate types (no idea who they all worked for) wearing near identical suits and some of them, employees of the month no doubt, clutching bottles of cheap champagne. I suppose they could have been Microsoft staff.

Anyway Microsoft have a lot of cash, at the moment. They will spend a large fortune trying to catch up. This cash can easily disappear though especially if their Average Selling Prices have to plummet in an increasingly competitive commodity market.

I think I should stop here. I was only trying to tell you the mildly interesting news about the sale of the Nokia handset business sale to Microsoft. I heard it on the wireless set in the kitchen, on the Home Programme. In case you missed it…

Categories
chromebook End User google H/W

Contagious Chromebook Ardor

Yesterday morning found me doing the usual, staring at my monitor and rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, catching up on all of the whats and wheres and whos that took place while I lay me down to sleep. I slid on over to this website to put one last tweak on my piece scheduled to post a couple of hours hence and noticed that Tref has put up not one but two posts featuring Chromebooks, Second Hand HP Chromebook for sale £199.99! and New HP Chromebook for £170 with voucher code save30est. Now being well aware of Tref’s enthusiasm for Chromebook technology, philosophy, and hardware, seeing these two postings didn’t surprise me, but they were enough to give my own somewhat-dormant Chromebook interest a nudge. A nudge that as the day wore on started to feel more and more like a good hard shove.

I bought a Samsung Chromebook when they were first released in the U.S. in November 2012, driven by the same curiosity that pulled me back to Apple in 2008, the sharp design, and the remarkable pricepoint. From the get-go I was delighted with it, too, so much so that I deemed it “KoryChrome” (fellow Paul Simon fans will smile at that), had a protective sleeve made, and declared it good.

KoryChrome 1And KoryChrome was good. It opened me up to the possibilities of the Chrome operating system, turned my attention to Chrome apps and the Chrome Web Store, provided plenty of configuration itches for me to scratch, and on more than one occasion it helped me out of a business communication bind (with AppleKory, Google Docs + Google Hangout = Beachball). What KoryChrome didn’t do, though, was transform my cyber-life or work practices, and once I figured out how everything worked and had login environments set up for me, My Missus, and The Boy…well, there just wasn’t much use or fun to be had, as all three members of La Famille Kessel have MacBooks that are already quite light and which go mobile with no discernible difficulty. Despite this, though, KoryChrome held its spot in our household for well over a year, until I finally steeled myself up and put it up for sale on eBay this past February. Purchased for $249, sold for $150 just 15 months later, and I got to keep the 100GB of Google Drive storage that came with KoryChrome through to November next. All in all, I dropped $99 to improve my knowledge, increase my marketability, and satisfy my curiosity.

All of which leads me to ask…what is it about the recently-announced Samsung Chromebook 2 that has my eyes lighting up, my fingers tingling, and my thoughts racing to justify making a pre-order in time for one my May visitors from the U.S. to make delivery (got my crosshairs on you, Marcos Campos)? It must be the stitched faux leather finish…yeah, that must be it.Faux Leather Stitching!

Related posts:

Categories
Bad Stuff End User H/W

Apple, Do Us a Solid

Late one Saturday afternoon in the spring of 2009 I lived out a fantasy, one that I know is shared in one form or another by just about anyone who has ever sat down in front of a computer keyboard. On that unforgettable day I placed a Dell laptop computer that had caused me no small amount of angst, frustration and tsuris (Yiddish word…look it up) under the back left wheel of the car I was driving and repeatedly ran over it until it could be repurposed as a post-modern art installation piece entitled “Android Roadkill”.

True story*. Ultimate catharsis achieved.

On that glorious sunny day I recall for a scant second trying to imagine putting AppleKory under-wheel in the same manner, and I think I actually shuddered at the thought. I simply could not fathom laying any harm to my beloved MacBook, the first computer with which I had ever felt a sense of affection. To borrow scandalously from “Jerry Macguire”, AppleKory completed me. I had her set up in a way that reflected who I am, the way I work and play, the things I like, my interests, my hobbies, my compulsions, my obsessions, and she made my fingers tingle when I ran them over her chassis. Everything on my AppleKory had to be smart, sharp, efficient, clean, and…perfect.

For my math-challenged readers, 2009 was five years ago. A lot can change in five years.

Rotting AppleTwo complete system replacements later (as well as a component upgrade on my current AppleKory that for all intents and purposes should be considered a full system replacement), I still get my MacBook with great tenderness whenever I go to to backpack her. Today, however, that is more due to care and concern for my cyber-life than any lingering finger tingle. Not that I would describe her as delicate or fragile. No, from a hardware perspective this AppleKory — my third, a 2011-issue MacBook Pro 13″ — is as sturdy a piece of computer hardware as any I can imagine. I find it fortunate, though, that she spends the vast majority of her time in her now time-worn position at the left of my keyboard and not on the move, because these days from a functionality perspective that ol’ Apple “solid” feel is a growing-more-distant memory.

That Apple “solid” feel. I think more than anything else it is what drew me to make the move back to Apple in 2008, and also what kept me there. And I am not just referring to the build quality (though, that too, yes, yes), but a computer you could actually close the lid on and put into a bag, and then take out of a bag and lift the lid on (lather, rinse, repeat) repeatedly without worrying for a moment about…well, about anything. She’d go to sleep, she would jump straight back out of sleep rarin’ to go, and do it all over and over again (lather, rinse, repeat). WiFi up, connections restored, software still in RAM and ready to resume function. Every time. Every. Time.

At one point not all that long ago I thought that Apple was amiss in not using the following dead-effective — and truthful — advertising slogan to sell their computers: “Apple. It just works.” And though this quality does become assumed over time, I would be willing to wager substantial clams that for anyone who has moved from the wonderful world of Windows into Apple OSX it really is something you never quite take for granted. That said, whereas with Windows I was always pleasantly surprised when things worked as expected, with Apple — fair or not — I am always bitterly disappointed when they do not.

Remember the good ol’ Aughts, when things were so uncomplicated. I wish I could go back there again…and everything would be the same…

I cannot say the love affair is over, but to borrow a favorite idiom: Today the AppleKory that I once thought could do anything and everything often has trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time. Want to whistle while you work, with a little help from your onboard speakers? Not a problem as long as you don’t mind your tracks skipping with each change in your CPU usage. Like to channel your music through your Hi-fi, system-connected via Apple Express connected to your Wi-Fi? Might work today..might not. Keep more than three tabs open in your browser at any given moment? Beachball. Edit photos in iPhoto with iTunes open at the same time? Beachball. Work in Google Docs while occasionally hopping over to TweetDeck to see what you are (not) missing? Beachball. Copying a file from one system to another with anything else open whatsoever? Beachball. Beachball. Beachball.

A feeble argument can be made — and has been made — for laying AppleKory’s problems at her own feet (whereas Dell Technical Support’s favorite solution has long been “Reinstall Windows.”, Apple’s “Upgrade to a new system.” is far more cheeky and charming, capitalistically speaking). As a Technical Writer, however, with over 20+ years experience in hardware and software (read: born system troubleshooter) I am able to spot a trend, and the abundant evidence shows (and is echoed in copious Googling and Binging search results) that the loss of that Apple “solid” feel is at least as much the fault of Apple’s more recent OSX iterations and their traditionally half-baked software.

With the release of Snow Leopard, the seventh iteration of OSX, instead of the usual New-Feature-This-New-Feature-That Apple impressively went against trend by targeting improved performance, greater resource efficiency, and the reduction of OSX’s memory footprint (and they lowered the price to an unheard-of-at-the-time US$29, too, to increase adoption). I remember being deeply impressed by this tack, and perhaps even more impressed by the Snow Leopard OSX experience. Subsequent iterations, though — Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks — have seen Apple returning to the featuring of features (while trumpeting the stability stuff), and today the company is very much in need of a “Snow Mavericks” release designed to bring back the “solid”. Lest I start daydreaming about taking AppleKory for a ride in my car.

Taking a Ride

*In the interest of full transparency I need to mention that the slain Dell computer was at the bottom of a short stack of client-provided laptops that I have used and set aside over the years as each new one came down the pike, one that had lost every shred of possible value save for doorstop (and I have plenty of those). For the ever-curious, the systems that comprise said stack are all EOL (End of Life, and thus not deemed worth the cost of return), not legally mine (which explains why I didn’t eBay ’em and pocket wads of cash), and creaky lame (I am the Jerry Lee Lewis of computer keyboards).

Related posts:

Categories
chromebook End User google

New HP Chromebook for £170 with voucher code save30est

chrome_logo_headerHot on the heels of my last post about CashConverters trying to sell a second hand HP Chromebook for £200 Gavin Lewandowski dropped me a line on Twitter saying he’d just bought a brand new one for £170 using a voucher code save30est. Link is here though it is likely to be a time limited offer so may not work for very long.

I paid £180 for my Acer 720 from PC World Business. These laptops will keep coming down. They can hardly have any components. Even at the existing prices they are almost disposable. At least if you lose one it isn’t going to break the bank.

I’d buy another one if I didn’t already have two Chromebooks:

Using different Chromebooks for personal and business
Comparison of Samsung and Acer Chromebooks

Categories
End User phones

How to avoid twitter spam from O2

o2 tweet

O2 are encouraging you to sign up for spam tweets. The above promoted tweet might seem innocuous enough. Chance to win a super new HTC One M8. Good stuff.

However buyer beware. Once signed up I can't see how there can be an unsubscribe mechanism. O2 are hardly going to waste some of their 140 characters with a message on how to unsubscribe. Unless it's basically a simple unfollow. It's not clear. I'm not going to follow the link on the off chance of finding out.

There is also a basic problem with this whole concept. People don't regularly look for mobile deals and offers. They sign up for a contract and then forget it until the 18 or 24 months is up and then they look again. Am I wrong?

The way to avoid all this is to ignore the tweet.

PS Does win "an HTC" sound right? Win "a HTC" surely.

Categories
Bad Stuff End User H/W

Sandy, Baby, Our Two Worlds Will Be One

Anyone who has ever spent more than 5 consecutive minutes using a Windows PC knows well the hourglass, that ubiquitous symbol that the cursor morphs into when the system is processing and cannot take further input. Users of PCs loaded with various other operating systems know the hourglass, too (a buncha different flavors of UNIX, for example), though they encounter it far less often. Annoying when it lingers on-screen for more than just a second or two, the hourglass does offer a sensical message, that being that some time will need to pass before you cursor changes back to an arrow and your system is usable once again.

Spinning Hourglass

The Apple Mac operating system — though UNIX-based — does not display an hourglass in place of the cursor when it needs time to catch up with the user. No, what OSX offers is a spinning beachball (or, as perceived by some, a pinwheel), which is a lot more fun than a staid old hourglass! Beachballs are found…at the beach! Thus, a delay in system reponsiveness is to be regarded not as a period of necessary waiting but as an opportunity for colorful fun! Beach = fun! And therein lies a clear view into the mindset of Apple versus all of the other schmoes out there looking to drive your personal computing experience.

Windows, UNIX flavors: “Yeah, we know this is taking up some of your valuable time.”
Apple OSX “It isn’t our fault if you cannot see the fun in this delay.”

Goofy grins and ability to have fun aside, when I inched my way back to an Apple computer in March of 2008 I did not see many beachballs. Sure, they would pop into view from time to time, but they were colorful (hourglasses, at that time at least, came only in black and white) and just when you found yourself noticing them they were gone. “How pleasant.”, I found myself thinking. “Not at all what I am used to!”

Continue reading “Sandy, Baby, Our Two Worlds Will Be One”
Categories
End User fun stuff internet

Reality is a concrete slab off eBay

concrete slabs bought off eBayI ordered some concrete slabs off the internet. Bought them on eBay actually. 21 off 600 x 600mm for £57. Had I bought them from a shed they would have been something like £120. They are going to form the base for the playhouse that I’m converting into a shed. We are using the patio where the playhouse currently stands as the new basketball court. As it happens the slabs came from under a deck so it would seem that they are eminently suitable for their new purpose.

I collected them from somewhere in Lincoln. Before setting off I looked up the address on Google Maps and even saw the house on Streetview. V useful. When I got there I had to reverse down a very narrow drive and in the end was only able to shift half of them. They are so heavy I didn’t want to risk knackering the Jeep’s suspension. Going to have to go back and get the others another time.

It seems strange in a world where we live a “virtual” life on the internet that there are actually solid items such as these concrete slabs that intrude on our everyday existence. It’s called reality. I looked it up on Wikipedia: “the state of things as they actually exist rather than as they appear or are imagined”.

Concrete slabs apart we shouldn’t forget that reality is generally much better than the virtual world. It’s a perfect spring day out there – get out and enjoy it:)

Categories
End User travel

Creative pics with panorama function on Galaxy S4

Only just realised you can take some spectacular pics with the panorama function on the phone. The first is a bog std panorama of the departures board at Victoria station. Uses landscape format panned sideways. No particular surprises apart from the occasional train leaving on time.

victoria departuresThe next photos were taken in the vicinity of Victoria but using a landscape format in a vertical panorama. Allows you to take much bigger canvases.

cranes

This is what a std panorama looks like of that scene (ish).skyline near victoria

church near victoria

mall near victoria

 

building near victoria

Other panorama images:
Peel
IoM ferry

Categories
End User spam

616 spam comments in 24 hrs

Just done a bit of an experiment. I deleted a load of spam comments from the blog yesterday at 6am and this morning gone back in and counted the little critters again. In just over 24 hours I’ve picked up another 606 spam comments. There may be some legit ones in there but they ain’t gonna be seen amongst the dross (sorry yawl).

It’s basically around 25 spam comments an hour. We never see spam emails any more, at least not when using gmail. This isn’t entirely true as I do get crap from “seo experts” who address me as “Hi” and quote the “can spam act” in the footer. They always get labelled as spam (may have mentioned this before but it’s an ongoing situation).

I’m sure the 25 spam comments an hour far exceeds the rate of spam emails when we used to get them. Although this spam is mostly captured (Akismet) you do have to occasionally remember to permanently delete it or it would start filling up the server.

In the way you used to get quotes about the size of the global email spam problem it would be interesting to look at the equivalent stats for comments.

The pics below show zero comments initially then 616 a day later. There is something very satisfying about pressing the “empty spam” button. It’s a bit like driving down a clear motorway when there is a 10 mile tailback going the other way.

I wonder what the clickthrough rate for a spam comment is. Must be infinitesimally small. You would have to be paticularly stupid to click on one of the links.

screenshot showing zero spam commentsspam606-642

Other spam related posts:
Louis Vuitton spam
London Book Fair 2014 – unsubscribe spam
Spam blocking strategies

Categories
End User fun stuff Weekend

As sure as chocolate eggs is chocolate eggs

image

Thing is it’s Easter innit. Spring break if you’re from across the pond. And what is traditional on Easter Sunday? We go to church eat chocolate Easter eggs.

This year only kids 2, 3 and 4 are around which will make it a tad cheaper.  On the flip side a cheapo egg with chocolate buttons inside doesn’t seem to do the job anymore. The order was for Lindor, Thorntons and “a nice one”.

Waitrose didn’t do Thorntons and whilst I considered chocolate buttons to be within the definition of a nice one I figured it was best to play it safe and buy them all the same one.

Now there are some rules when it comes to Easter eggs the main one being that you have to give your dad a piece. That way it’s possible to indulge without any comments regarding how fattening chocolate eggs are so no you can’t have one. Wouldn’t want a whole one anyway. I’d be constantly brushing my teeth.

The other thing to know about Easter eggs is that every adult member of the extended family has always considered it their duty to buy nephews, nieces and grand children Easter eggs. This results in each kid having a ridiculous surfeit of chocolate all of which is consumed within a one or two day window.

This makes Easter very similar to Christmas which is the other time of year people go to church consume lots of chocolate. They also usually take advantage of the dual public holiday by taking the rest of the week off thus getting 8 days off for “the price of four”.  The main difference between Easter and Christmas is that the latter also includes compulsory consumption of vast quantities of alcohol for a month in the run up to the big day. It doesn’t therefore take a month or two for the body to recover from Easter in the way that the aftermath of Christmas is typically characterised.

This Easter the barbecue has been rolled out of its winter quarters and will be exercised today, Easter Sunday and tomorrow, the bank holiday Monday when we have guests coming for an all afternoon session of eating and drinking. At least that is my expectation. Hopefully the guests will think that way too or I’ll have a lot of wine to get through. Suppose I don’t have to open all the bottles!…

So that’s it. enjoy your chocolate eggs, your barbecue or whatever else you do to celebrate the double holiday long weekend Easter spring break. Next week is UKNOF in Reading. Look out for network engineering posts.

Categories
End User google

Cop this – one billion downloads

You have to be impressed. Over one billion downloads for the Android Google Play app. It is worth noting though that with over one and a half million ratings which is a pretty good sample size the app only gets three and a half stars. You would think that Google would have had enough feedback to improve the app and up the rating to five stars for something with that many downloads.

google play downloadsApps to blow your mind (ish):

Cycle gear
collaboration using Google Docs simplifies takeaway order

Categories
bitcoin End User travel Weekend

Forty shillings fine

image

There is still no Bitcoin Exchange UK

Came across this in the Parcel Yard pub in Kings Cross Station. I liked it so took a photo.
When you look at it you can almost imagine the steam trains chuffing by, whistle blowing, engine driver leaning out of his window with blue overalls,  cap and red neckerchief.

Keep away from the line. Kids! It’s bloody dangerous.

The fine for being caught is forty shillings. Takes me back. Strange to admit I was around pre-decimalisation. My pocket money was 3d which as I recall bought me a Beano and a sweet or two. It went farthing, ha’penny, penny, 3d, groat, sixpenny, shilling, two bob and two and six. As far as I can remember. Correct me if I’m wrong or have missed one out.

It’s ok to take a nostalgic trip but reality is we are massively better off where we are now. It was a nightmare trying to learn adding up in old money.
Winding the clock forward to now my Bitcoin is worth £277. I paid £292 for it a few weeks back. It’s been up and down over the weeks. V volatile but it’s an experiment. Image below shows fluctuations over the past 12 months. No Bitcoin exchange UK mind.

image

I’m not sure we are going to be better off with Bitcoin. They don’t take it as payment in the Parcel Yard yet and it won’t get me a Beano. Afaik. Cheers…

Categories
Bad Stuff End User H/W

A peck? Nay, a bushel!

Yesterday in Apocalypse Then, I wrote that having shifted from Mac to Windows upon starting a technical writing gig with TEA (Texas Education Agency) in 1993 that for the next fifteen years I paid “…nary a thought…to Apple and their Mac OS whatever-number.” Well, memory is a cagey, amorphous, and deceitful beast — one that tends to spit out incongruent detail at just the moment when you think you have recollection locked down — because the truth is that I did have one more go-round with Cupertino-designed computers before the big shun took hold.

I decided not long before leaving the U.S. to spend 1994 in Europe that I would use my Apple connections to get a good deal on a PowerBook 165 that I could take along. How novel it would be, I thought, to hostel-hop Europe with a laptop computer in my backpack! I could use it to keep a journal! I’d send emails (CompuServe — I was and forever will remain 72124,3441  — supposedly had modem access phone numbers everywhere)!

PowerBook 165 The longstoryshort? During the period I spent in the U.K. working for London Underground Limited at the start of my adventure I came to realize the ridiculous reality of moving about with a 6.8 lbs. computer in my pack. Sixteen countries, no less than 3 electrical outlet interfaces to consider, probably a like number of modular connector interfaces, and for what? So I could self-satsifying type instead of write, all while cavalierly pinning a “Stupid Guy with Expensive Toys for the Taking” target on my good self?

Before leaving the U.K. to begin the backpacking half of my year in Europe I offloaded the PowerBook 165 on a London University student for an amount that translated to nearly twice what I originally paid (and the kid still made out like a bandit, as the same system was selling new in the U.K. for a good deal more). Generous guy in other ways, too, as he clued me into Iain M. Banks’s Consider Phlebus. Some things just work out.

Continue reading “A peck? Nay, a bushel!”
Categories
Bad Stuff End User fun stuff Mobile ofcom Regs scams

An Open Letter to Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE

Hi Olaf.

I hope you don’t mind the informal start to my letter as, after all, your company’s recent one to me regarding an increase in the price for my package from EE was as equally informal (I’ve popped a copy of it in the gallery below, though I’m sure you already know all about it).

Before I start, I will admit that you have a contractual basis from which to make the change detailed in the letter, and can mount a robust (albeit one open to challenge) argument about regulatory compliance. That isn’t quite the point, though.

First, I’d like to draw your particular attention to the line that says “RPI (Retail Price Index) is a measure of inflation, which directly affects the cost to run our service.”

Interesting. And I’d like to point out a few things to you which would suggest that you are mistaken.

  • RPI, as a measure of inflation, is now largely discredited. Anyone in the know, including your sector’s regulator, the Office of Communications (Ofcom), is migrating to the use of the Consumer Price Index (CPI). Have a look at Ofcom’s discussion in paragraph 3.155 onwards of the Wholesale Local Access Review.
  • Some debate exists on whether wages over the last 12 months have tracked CPI (which is lower than RPI, by the way); it somewhat depends on which decile you find yourself in. Considering this data from the BBC, I suspect you and your executive are OK but a substantial number of EE staff may not be. Unless, of course, you gave them all a CPI-busting wage increase of the RPI figure. Did you?
  • A substantial part of your business is your mobile phone customers calling landlines: 01 and 02 numbers. As a result of a European Union Recommendation some time ago, Ofcom lowered the termination rates on 1st January 2014 for these calls by around RPI (this review was started before the Office of National Statistics drove the final nail into the RPI coffin) minus 87% — a net 84% reduction in that cost to your business. Funny, but I don’t recall getting a reduction in my line rental or other charges, so I assume you’ve kept this windfall, yes? See Table 1.1 of the Final Statement in the 2013 Wholesale Narrowband Market Review for information.
  • The Treasury estimated that the 4G spectrum auction would raise around £3.5bn. In reality, it raised £2.34bn, so there’s a £1.1bn saving there for the mobile industry against a reasonable market expectation; thus, rationally-speaking, EE must have forward-priced its 4G services expecting to outlay a market value for spectrum, resulting in further savings on your part. Is this true?

I am sure you can see at this point why I have a problem believing you when you say that RPI (or CPI) has had a direct affect on your entire business; unless in spite of what I have cited above there is a cost that has risen so disproportionately high that it means the average cost increase is the same as the RPI? What could that cost be…perhaps Kevin Bacon’s fees?

Continue reading “An Open Letter to Olaf Swantee, CEO of EE”
Categories
eleanor cross End User

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – the carving starts

lincoln eleanor cross face

The carving of the new Eleanor Cross for Lincoln starts.

Amazing that something of beauty can emerge from within a solid piece of rock – the mantra of the in awe armchair philosopher down the ages when describing a sculpture.

This series of photos shows the start of the carving process. The videos are a short interview with Alan Ward describing the task in hand and one of him doing some carving. On this occasion I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

Eleanor cross stone

lincoln eleanor cross taking shape

alanward carves eleanor cross

Other Lincoln Eleanor Cross posts

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone

Categories
End User media travel

Parking Mad

Proper winters on trefor.netIn a moment of bonding with Kid4 we decided to watch some TV together. Unfortunately there was absolutely nowt on the box. We settled on a programme called Parking Mad.

This has to be extreme desperation in TV programming. We wouldn’t have had the problem when there was only BBC1, BBC2 and ITV. In those days we settled for just having to watch repeats rather than total non-programmes. In fact I still like watching the same repeats these days – Dad’s Army for example.

There is an element of local interest in Parking Mad – some of it is filmed in Lincoln. There’s a bit where the mayor is seen cutting a ribbon around a ticket machine in a new car park. Rent a mayor. A mayor will turn up anywhere there is a bit of ribbon, scissors and a camera. It forms part of their balanced scorecard.  KPIs. How many ribbons have been cut in any given month.

The role of mayor is very competitive. Each mayor is measured against his predecessors. How many schools visited, care homes etc. They put a premium on car parks – it’s not often you get a new one opening. Some years you don’t have a single new car park and I can tell you the mayor that year feels really hard done by.

I wouldn’t want you to get the wrong message about Lincoln. It is quite a good place to live really. There’s more to it than car parks though we do of course have our fair share. When we bought our first house it was on Greetwell Gate next to a free car park. As soon as we moved in it changed to a Pay and Display!  Swines.

We used to park on the road in front of the house anyway. These was usually never a problem with this because after we had driven off to work other cars belonging to people working in town would arrive and take our spots. The same thing happened in reverse every evening so we always got the same spot right outside the house.

The one time of year we had a problem was during the Lincoln Christmas Market. All weekend visitors would cruise around looking for a free spot trying to avoid paying. Tight gits. We got to the point of arriving home from work on a Friday and just leaving the cars parked for the whole weekend. Christmas Market weekend is quite boozy anyway so a car is of no use.

We began to have guests coming to stay for the weekend to see the market. On these occasions on the Friday night we would park our own cars really inefficiently so that there wasn’t quite enough space between them to park another. It was fun watching motorists pull up along side the gap and curse the fact that we had parked badly thus depriving them of their spot. When our guests turned up I’d nip out and reverse my car just enough to make room for them to slot in. Saw ted.

Come to Lincoln. We have some nice parks and some good pubs and a mayor who likes to cut ribbons. There’s a lovely cathedral too. You should visit.

Other Lincoln posts

Eleanor Cross for Lincoln – a project of national significance
Eleanor Cross – choosing the stone

Header photo – a bit of Lincoln cathedral.

Categories
End User fun stuff

Not Pink, Not Strong, Not Delicious

It’s been 3 days. I haven’t fallen in love yet. I don’t think it’s going to happen. No, I am not falling in love with this new phone. I thought this would be the one.

A female college roommate once told me, “Men learn to like the women they love, whereas women learn to love the men they like.” The point being that men tend to fall in love first…and fast. They know within moments. I’m a man, so I know this to be true. I will never develop feelings for the technology in my hand.

I am in no danger of turning into the Joaquin Phoenix character in “Her”. I already know that unlike Theodore Twombly I will at no point get sexual gratification from my new device, not even if I suddenly discover a Scarlett Johansson voiceover app.

At noon the text came: “Happy Hour?”

My friend Amanda. She just started a job at a hip little engineering firm in Austin that is doing some kind of data analysis on franchise business data. She held her previous job — the one she took straight out of college — for 16 years prior, and for that she used to take a considerable amount of ribbing.

I decide to drop in at Amanda’s new office, which is in an old house downtown where 60-year-old dilapidated houses rent for $300 per square foot. It’s in a part of hip-Austin that is only slightly indistinguishable from dilapidated Austin.

The first thing I see on walking into the living room (the lobby) is a huge monitor that serves as a metrics dashboard of some sort, displaying scrum and defect statistics. The display changes to show another app, one that offers a graph of beer consumption in the office over the last month, complete with a projection of when the beer will run out. The beer of reference is housed in an antique refrigerator on the other side of the living room…. er, welcome area that has been retro-fitted with a spigot that serves to turn the entire thing into a huge keg. First thought? This is a LOT more comfortable than my “office” in the corporate cube farm.

Amanda appears, and soon we are driving the 12 blocks to Arro, a trendy little French restaurant I’ve wanted to try. We sit at the bar, and I begin the conversation, saying “Thanks, I wanted your advice – actually your reassurance about something.” I then proceed to tell Amanda about my having given notice at work, and how I’m unsure about whether to take a leave of absence or just quit. We also talk about her new job, and how refreshing she is finding it to work with smart people who don’t get hung up on egos, and who just focus on the solution.

Continue reading “Not Pink, Not Strong, Not Delicious”
Categories
agricultural End User

Easter bunny – one for the ladies – have a nice holiday y’awl

Yanow I’m a big softie really. This is a simple photo of a display of flowers in my local Tesco complete with Easter bunny. Aww. One for the ladies – I doubt any of my former rugby playing chums would be interested in such a pic.

What do I care? Have a nice Easter weekend. I hope you aren’t stuck in a traffic jam somewhere.

easter bunnyOther flowery posts:

Yellow flower

Roses shot using GalaxyS3

 

Categories
Bad Stuff End User H/W

Apocalypse Then

I will start with a question, and feel free to answer simply by raising your hand. Have any of you out there who have read this far ever felt a near-overwhelming bloodlust with regard to a PC, wanting to hoist it over your head and smash it at your feet (or, even better, on the pavement or sidewalk or other surface of sufficient unforgivingness many stories below an open window)? Or harbored visions of a cataclysmic reckoning descending upon the good folks at Microsoft who develop, market, and directly financially benefit from the Windows operating systems? Ever fantasize about the painful and public (oh-so-public) limb-from-limb rending of someone somewhere who in some way had nth degree of responsibilty for your facing the Blue Screen of Death?

OK. Hands down. Really, I was just asking rhetorical questions. Enthusiasm is always nice, though. And appreciated.

PCs running some flavor or other of Windows. Man. I distinctly recall entering that world back in 1993, and begrudgingly doing so…for money.

As a first-year technical writer just starting to dry off the space behind my ears, at the time I was working my first post-entry-level contract for Apple Sales and Support in Austin, working solo to document the company’s PowerBook Problem Resolution Process (really, it was called that)…for $10 an hour. I had visions — Heck, I had plans! — to save up enough dosh to take the following year off to live/work/travel in Europe, and yet in June of that year I was working a gig that was just managing to cover rent and gas. But it was Apple! PowerBook-era Apple! At-the-precipice-of-cratering Apple, but still Apple! And I felt comfortable and warm and safe in the Mac OS and that clanky Claris software (MacWrite! MacDraw!). For $10 an hour.

Around that time a programmer type with whom I had some acquaintance (and who really liked my cooking) told me that he could help me latch on at the Texas Education Agency for a great deal more than I was making at Apple. He didn’t quote numbers, but he was sure the rate would be at least double the amount of pennies I was yanking down at Apple. And the TEA offices were just down the street from my my digs at the time (small unshared detail up to this point: Apple’s Austin campus was out in the sticks), too. Government contract! Double the money! Wicked-short commute! One caveat, though…I would have to work in…Windows.

Windows-XP-Exception-1024x574

And so I instigated a personal sea change in my day-to-day. For a 150% income bump my cyber soul was bought and paid for. From The Beatles to the ‘Stones. And that is the way it was for the next 15 years, through the year I did end up spending in Europe (London Underground Limited, Safety Directorate, in 1994…a Windows shop), through career stints at Dell and IBM, the first Internet bubble, and the first 7 years of my freelance career. Windows this, Windows that, nothing but Windows (OK, a little Unix on the side, but that was just for fun and profit), and nary a thought paid to Apple and their Mac OS whatever-number. Was I “happy” in the Windows world? Did it matter? Being adept at Windows was essential for my work…necessary to ensure my income. Lucrative, baby!

Continue reading “Apocalypse Then”
Categories
End User gadgets H/W wearable

Google Can Kiss My Glass

The netwaves have been humming for about a week with the news that Google would finally open up their Glass Explorer Program to the general public, albiet for one day only — today, 15-April — and only for the suckers…er, buying public who can claim to be a “US resident” (though not in a legal sense as a US-bound means of payment — credit card, PayPal account, or a friend with such willing to front the dough — and a US mailing address that can receive a package likely has what it takes to get in). Now “open up” may be something of a misnomer, as just a cursory glance at the fine print of it all reveals that Google is “opening up some spots” and that “spots are limited”, even if the email I received this past Saturday from the company served up as its Subject: Heads Up — You Can Purchase Glass on Tuesday.

The Glass Explorer bundle’s WTF! $1500 + tax* pricetag will no doubt go somewhat far in keeping out the mere curiosity seeker, but those with a little bit of pocket who still feel as though they are on the outside of Google Glass looking in no doubt felt the tingle (not to mention the heart-flutter) when the How To Get One link went live at 9:00AM EST today. I know I…didn’t.

The hype machine began cranking over Google Glass about a year ago — Believe it! — and I remember well how quickly it swept its way into every corner of the Internet…

Google ShatteredWhat is it?…this is what it is…this is what it does…I caught that Glass demo video and I won’t feel whole again until I have direct-walk-around-literally-in-my-face access to the Internet…I know someone who has it…a friend of mine let me wear theirs…that article on Google Glass knocking down the last vestiges of privacy rattled me but good…can you imagine being in a public restroom and having someone wearing Google Glass walk in?…the world will never be the same!

…Google Glass got the antennae of the common plugged-into-Internet human vibrating like few tech-y devices before (portable CD players back in the late 80s come to mind, and — of course — the first iPhone), and not surprisingly when it did start to make its way into the wild the posturing began. Social media profile pictures changed, to best illustrate the new Stars-upon-Thars status of those lucky few with an ‘in’ at Google good enough to…well, get them in, and conversations with the blessed that didn’t contain numerous and constant references to the new on-face ticky-tack became as common as a truly great television program airing in prime time on a Saturday night. Google Glass. It was all the talk, it was all the rage, it was on the “Want” list of anyone and everyone able to spell ‘WWW’…

…and then it wasn’t.

Continue reading “Google Can Kiss My Glass”
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End User gadgets H/W internet media Mobile mobile apps phones

Gaining Focus

As readers of last week’s Conscious Uncoupling already know, I am making moves to unhitch myself from my iPhone 4 of the past 3 years and start anew at some point in the near future with an Android KitKat device. And as I am always looking to put the latest tech into my hands when the time comes to upgrade (or as my Apple-inebriated friends would likely put it in this case, “mistakenly change”), I have been looking quite fervently at both the HTC One and the Samsung Galaxy S5, both of which have just recenlty seen release and both of which are racking up impressively high numbers with regard to NRP (Number of Reviews Published…my statistic, my acronym, and no amount of search engine pounding will turn it up).

Two weeks ago (week of 31-March) HTC brought their blitz of HTC One M8 promotion to a crescendo that rolled over and straight through the technologically inclined and/or curious, and which resulted in a quantity of review inches more than adequate enough to ensure informed options would set in time to counter the Samsung Galaxy S5 wave that followed last week (week of 7-April). Now, of course, I cannot and will not make such an important relationship decision without first establishing a level playing field upon which I can hinge it, so I have resolved to wait a few weeks…a couple of weeks…at least a week to let all of the new information foster (fester?) within.*

So all of those reviews. Essentially, they boil down pretty straight across party lines (yes, that is a telephony joke…a groaner of a telephony joke but a telephony joke nonetheless).

HTC One M8
Pros: Gorgeous build and design (actually it is more accurate to go All-Caps on GORGEOUS, as this is the overwhelming first-notice feature cited in every one of the product reviews I have read or skimmed or found myself subjected to). The expected high level of display, speed, and functionality. GREAT speakers! “Motion Launch”, which allows the user to perform specific commands with the display off via tap, swipe, or gesture. Better than expected battery life (and a power-saving mode that can be configured to set energy amount parameters).
Cons: Lousy camera. Just awful. Won’t anyone say something nice about the camera? Or, at least, not be so enthusiastic in dinging it?

Samsung Galaxy S5
Pros: Waterproof! Yup, the Galaxy S5 is waterproof, up to 30 minutes at a depth of 1 meter. Terrific screen, camera kudos all around, noticeably great battery life (and the battery can be swapped out as needed, too), storage expandability up to 128GB, health features (a heart rate monitor as part of the on-board hardware won’t keep me from drinking a single Cola-Cola or eating a single chip) significant reduction in the amount of Samsung TouchWiz bloatware from its S4 predecessor, speed and functionality to beat the band, and light.
Cons: Perhaps TOO light, as every reviewer critisizes the S5’s “cheap” feel (at least in comparison to the heavy and shiny smartphones in the arena, all of which suffer phone reception for their metal-enwrapped goodness), the fingerprint scanner is not as smooth as Apple’s Rolls-Royce-aspiring iPhone 5S, and though the TouchWiz bloatware is less than it was on the S4 it is still a proverbial fish-in-a-barrel target for criticism.

So pushing cost/plan out of the equation, I find I am leaning hard towards the Samsung Galaxy S5. I cannot say that I have spent much time wishing I could use my phone in the sea, pool, or shower (and I haven’t found my phone doing a toilet tumble since the days of the Nokia 3310), but what I can say is that I cannot imagine spending ANY time with a smartphone that is camera-lacking. The (at the time) industry-leading camera is what put me in my iPhone 4 back in 2011 to begin with, and as criteria go that function is even more of a decision-maker for me in 2014.

Get the picture?


*Yes, there are tens of other KitKat-able phones that warrant consideration along with thes two new goliaths now stomping around, however I did lead with my propensity for grabbing up the latest tech and it doesn’t come any “latest” than the new flagship products from HTC and Samsung. Of course, the fact is that “With Great Popularity Comes Not Only Great Punditry But Great Amounts of Shared Opinion and Technical Insight.” (humblest apologies to Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, both of whom are thankfully still with us as of this writing), so there is that, too.