Geoff's Random Thoughts

iPhone 5 screen thoughts.

2011-09-26T19:23:00.001+01:00

The rumour is that the iPhone 5 will have a 4" Retina Display, why would Apple make the display larger?

Assuming that the number of pixels on the larger display stays the same as the iPhone 4 (good for developers), this means that pixels per inch would reduce and that the display would be 'poorer' and should be cheaper to make.

Is this either a way for Apple to get more profit, or for them to bring the price down a little while possibly easing the pressure on their supply chain as a lower pixel count per inch should be easier to produce.

The Quality question would be whether the pixels be visible to the naked eye, if so, that's a backwards step for a company which prides itself on raising the bar.

Cloud Computing, what about the dark lining

2011-02-25T22:46:00.001Z

Anything which isn't a simple webpage is being branded with the buzzphrase of being 'in the cloud'. 5 years ago it was called Software as a service and 10 years ago it was a webpage.

I'm seeing a heck of a lot of advertisements, articles and sales pitches for pushing applications into the cloud. The idea is that you use an application like Salesforce.com instead of an application installed on your computer. All of the articles are positive and sell cloud / Web based applications as the perfect solution, and they really can be. CRM, HR and Finance Systems can cost a heck of a lot of money for Small and Medium sized businesses.

A lot of the articles I'm reading do not portray the flip side of the argument. Yes, there's a huge upside to Cloud based computing, but there are also some downsides which should be taken into account.

The first thing you should always consider, is that you're trusting someone else with your data, be that your own company's files, staff information or details of your customers. Are you confident that the company can be trusted with your data?

The second thing to consider is what will happen if you wake up tomorrow and your provider is not available? Can you get hold of them on the phone to find out what is happening? Can you continue your business while you don't have access to your data until your provider can get things running again

Hard on the heels of the website being unavailable is what happens if your Internet connection is unavailable? Yet again, do you have a business continuity plan to enable you to serve your customers

The final downside for today, is what happens if you wake up tomorrow and your service provider doesn't exist, they've gone bankrupt, into administration, failed to pay their bills, all of their staff won the lottery at the weekend.

The biggest thing to do BEFORE taking any decision, whether it includes cloud computing or not, is to do due diligence on any new contract and put full business continuity in place. Risk Analysis is a huge part of any new contract.

Blogging on the iPad

2011-01-13T22:00:00.000Z

After Blogging about the iPad a few days ago Here, I need to bring up one of my biggest bugbears with the iPad.

While the iPad is a good platform for basic research, it's not the tool to research and write from that research at the same time.

Switching between safari tabs, safari and Email and anything else, evernote, dropbox, ibooks any few apps quickly becomes annoying as does the cutting and pasting. cut and paste works ok on the ipad for the odd operation, but as a regular thing, it's a pain.

Blogger's 'create post' page does not work very well, failing to even scroll the main window and there are very few clients you can test.

Yes, yes, I know it's for consumption, the iPad's not for creating, but why shouldn't it be. We don't all do what Steve Jobs tells us.

The iPad 6 months on

2011-01-11T23:56:00.000Z

Back in August, I posted about my experience with the ipad after a Month.

http://geoffsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/08/ipad-week-in.html

But I realised that I'd never followed up, so here's a longer term view.

Do I use it much?
I still take the iPad to lots of places, it's light, the battery life is great and with some of the apps, it's really, really useful

What's the software keyboard like?
Now I'm up to speed, I notice it more than I did previously, I frequently press C or V instead of space and click on shift instead of A.It's usable, but I go far to fast on it.

How's safari for browsing?
The experience is still very immersive, but I wish that other browsers were available, this would push Apple to improve Safari.

Don't you miss Adobe Flash when browsing?
No, I really don't.

What's Ibooks like?
My only reservation has been removed, but I don't use ibooks a lot.

Is it heavy, how is it to handle?
Occasionally after hours of use, it does get heavy, but then books can be the same.

Is it as thin as it looks?
Yeah, and I still marvel when I remove the case, I can't see how they can make it slimmer, but I'm sure they will.

Is there anything that's missing?
I;ve got past Back to my Mac with Logmein ignition

IOS 4 brought many improvements including Multitasking, but it's not true multitasking, but IOS 4 makes the iPad so much more capable.

So 6 months into ownership, how do I feel?

I still use the iPad a heck of a lot, both for home and work. I couldn't imagine being without a Tablet and at this time the only tablet worth having IMHO is the iPad.

How to handle making a mistake in customer service

2011-01-08T20:40:00.000Z

The Mac app store has made a splash this week for lots of good reasons, unfortunately one developer has dropped the ball in the transition and caused a huge problem both for herself and for her customers.

Sophie of Sophiestication took the reasonable view that if she was going to move Coversutra over to the Mac App Store (MAS) she did not have the time and resources to maintain two separate code branches and would go exclusively to the MAS, She posted to her company blog at the start of this week that this was going to be the case and this is when the backlash started.

In the MAS, Cover Sutra costs $5 for version 2.5 therefore if anyone with an earlier version wants an upgrade, they have to buy the version from the MAS.

Unfortunately, what sophie forgot (and I genuinely believe that she forgot) was that in the coversutra license agreement between Sophiestication and any customer who bought version 2, it promises free upgrades up until version 3.0 is released. So by releasing 2.5 as a paid for upgrade, Sophie had broken her own agreement.

On the comments of Sophie's blog post, customers made their feelings known that they felt disappointed that they'd have to pay again, but most felt let down that the promise made had been broken. Some customers resorted to name calling or worse in a gross overexageration

this is where Sophie went wrong though, she attacked her customers for pointing out her error and tried to justify her decision. at no point did she say sorry.

the lesson to learn here is not how to handle a move to a new platform, it's how to handle making a mistake

what Sophie should have done was

1) Admitted that a mistake had been made
2) apologised
3) Explained how she would move forward on this, hopefully in a way that her customers like.

instead Sophiestication have lost a lot of current and future customers and Sophie has personally and professionally suffered a massive amount of damage to her and her company's reputation

If you want to see what I'm talking about you can read the exchanges here.

http://www.sophiestication.com/blog/coversutra-2-5/

Click here to download evernote

2011-01-08T16:22:00.001Z

I have various google alerts set up to keep me up to date with some of my favourite topics. Some of my current searches include Evernote, Dropbox and omnifocus, I use all three on a regular basis and am always looking for little hints of how others use them to see if I can get more out of them.

Run a web search yourself though and as you get down the list, you start to see websites which offer you the chance to download Evernote for free, but not from the Evernote website, it's a generic webpage littered with adverts for click throughs.

A couple of thoughts always occur to me
1) why would I download Evernote from anywhere but the Evernote website www.evernote.com?
2) what would I actually be downloading?

My concern is that less savvy people than myself may encounter these sham sites and click the link unleashing goodness knows what onto their desktop computer.

My advice, always download from source.

Android, which version, which handset, which app store?

2011-01-04T21:40:00.003Z

Android was bought by Google back in 2005 and verbally sold to handset makers as a flexible, upgradable mobile operating system.

Google's (don't be evil) take on this was that they were bringing a mobile operating system based on a Linux kernel with their search technology to the masses, it would compete with Windows Mobile and Apple's iPhone operating system (now IOS) in the handset market.

Since Android was unveiled to the general public it has found homes on many handsets from HTC, Samsung and the ill fated Dell Streak.

With Google handing over operating system control to the handset makers though, Android has become increasingly fragmented with delays of months between a new version of Android being released and the hardware company adapting and offering that version for their handset.

The news this week is that Android 3 (AKA Honeycomb) will be released soon which will provide better support for tablets. The rumour mill is buzzing with the news that Honeycomb comes with hardware requirements which means that very few if any of the existing tablets and handsets will be able to run the new version.

This move is reminiscent of Microsoft's recent Windows Mobile strategy where WM6.5 handsets cannot be upgraded to WM7.

The larger problem for Android app developers is that there are several different application stores. Which means a headache for submission of new apps to the various platforms, and deciding which versions of Android to support..

Android may be gaining Market share on everyone else, but so did Windows Mobile when it first came to prominence after it supplanted Windows CE on handsets and mobile computers, but Microsoft dropped the ball through lack of a clear strategy.

Google needs to strike a balance between where it is now and Apple's total command of IOS to provide a common interface and experience to all users.

The world isn't round, it's become google shaped

2010-12-26T23:21:00.001Z

All of my life I've loved maps, I remember drawing a map of Carr Clough (where I used to live) at Junior school, A - Zs which my Dad had, OS maps in Cubs and Scouts, route planners, road maps, all brilliant, all with different views of the world.

It suddenly occurred to me the other day, kids born after 2000 are pretty much going to see the world the way that Google wants them to, yes there's Bing, but with Google Earth and maps being so accessible, they've started to become the defaults.

A - Zs and Route planners are being rendered obsolete by Sat Navs and Mobile phones and for most other things people look on computers, not in books.

The world belongs to geeks, but only how google want you to see it.

The Bag Gap

2010-11-20T12:16:00.000Z

It's true, I've fallen into the bag gap.

Yes, I've come over all Jeff from Coupling rather than Geoff from Manchester.

It's one of my eternal quandaries, what size of work bag do I need? If I go large, I end up carry six metric tons of paper and cables about from place to place; if I go for a small bag, sooner or later I end of having to carry extra bags for bits and pieces, or have pockets full of 'stuff'

It's probably more to do with me and my laziness to empty my bags rather than anything else, with my adoption of GTD of a working methodology, I can set a weekly task to empty my bag, but I'm in need of a new work bag and I don't know what to do.

Is that a Computer in your pocket...

2010-09-22T21:29:00.002+01:00

As many people know, IOS 4.2 comes to iPad in a couple of months, maybe less. The second it is released, there will be a stampede to download and install it onto people's ipads.

Of course, people in the App Development program have advanced beta versions to help them test and if necessary, recode their apps so they work on day one.

But Fanboi's all over the world wait with baited breath to take their iPads and upgrade them to allow multitasking and various other features. It is however at this point that the moaning will start.

"App A crashes with 4.2, and I can't live without it"

and this is where people fail to do proper risk analysis and treat their phones and personal devices as the computers they are.

It amazes me that so many people rush so quickly to update the phones they base their lives around without the slightest thought that something might actually go wrong, or that 3rd party developers may not have had time to test their mobile apps against the new version.

My point is that a smartphone is a computer and an upgrade changes the coding of that device so before you upgrade your device consider the following points. Would you upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 without taking precautions?

1) Before you do anything, consider what would happen if your device does not work after the upgrade, can you manage without it until you can get it fixed? (e.g. don't do it the day before you go away for a week.)
2) If you absolutely cannot do without it, wait and see what issues come out when other people do the upgrade.
3) If you have any apps you absolutely cannot live without, check that they have been tested against the new version by the developer.
4) Make a backup before you start the upgrade process.
5) Cross your fingers and hope that all goes well.

How easy is it to choose an App from the App store.

2010-08-24T22:41:00.004+01:00

It's easy to buy an app from the Apple App store isn't it, go into the app store, find the app you want, click on the price and enter your password. Voila. Couldn't be easier. Could it?

Well, as you can probably guess, I'm going to disagree.

Yes, if you know exactly the app you want, it's really easy, You follow the instructions below. What if you only know your own requirements. e.g. I want an application to read RSS feeds.

Well, you can go on the best selling lists, you can search the hot apps, if you've already bought a few apps you can use the Genius feature, but these avoid the actual problem of buying apps for a platform like IOS.

For many years we've used Mice and Keyboard to activate things on a screen in front of us, but IOS invites us to get literally hands on. Some of the functionality is baked into the Operating System, but some of it is based around the way that the Application has been designed. You immerse yourself into these apps and the way you use them makes it a personal choice or feeling as to whether they work for you or not.

To use my own example, I bought an iPad and after using Newsfire for many years on OS X, I wanted a little more portability and the ability to Sync my RSS feeds.

At this point, I'd already purchased the highly recommended Pulse, which was undoubtably a fantastic looking RSS feed reader, it wasn't going to be usable for me though. After purchasing the app, I quickly found it got in the way and didn't allow me to easily browse through feeds of 50 posts. It was essentially unusable for my needs. £1.79 down the drain. Yes, it's ONLY £1.79, but I will never use Pulse again.

After doing some research on the web, I headed into the app store to see what was available. My biggest problem was that I don't pick up 10 feeds, but more than 100 feeds every day, with some publishing over 50 articles a day.

My Actual requirements were

* Can Sync with Google Reader
* Can Handle hundreds of Feeds
* Can cope with many posts
* Need to be able to quickly mark entire feeds as read after I'd browsed through them

A quick flick through the App store brought me a plethora of options, but with Prices ranging from Free to £2.99, I didn't want to be wasting more money and here's the point I wished to make.

The Apple App store does not seem to make it easy for Developers to provide try before you buy version of their apps as many traditional Desktop apps do, or maybe developers don't want to go to the extra effort.

The reality was that after looking through the selection, I downloaded all of the free options and after playing for a few days, I picked Feeddler as my app of choice, and bought the paid for version. My Slight bugbear with this was that it involved setting the app up again, fortunately with Google Reader in the Background, there wasn't too much to configure in this app.

The bottom line is that purchasing an App from the App store is easy, far too easy sometimes, but it's also really, really difficult to know whether you're going to like an app without trying it. Screenshots work for many desktop apps, but certainly not for IOS apps.

The iPad a week in

2010-08-10T19:23:00.003+01:00

Well, I've had the iPad now for over a month and I thought it was time to post my thoughts after getting used to the device.

Do I use it much?
My iPad goes pretty much everywhere that's sensible with me. unlike the woman I observed flipping out her iPad while she waited for Inception to start at the IMAX, I don't carry it in plain sight, I don't take it to the pub and it doesn't go absolutely everywhere, but I take it to a lot of places. My MacBook pro is almost a desktop now, with iTunes syncing, mobile me and Evernote putting most things I need on the iPad, there's little need to move the MBP most of the time. From a point where I never envisaged buying anything but a laptop, My next Mac purchase will probably now be an iMac.

What's the software keyboard like?
I'm not a touch typist, but I can type at a fair lick. I've hardly noticed the keyboard, it hasn't got in my way although I do find the layout a little strange sometimes with the numbers being on a secondary keyboard with the numbers spread across the screen. I also think that a dedicated number keypad similar to the windows mobile one would be a huge benefit.

How's safari for browsing?
It's really good. Easy to use, fun to interact with and very fast. I do wish that Safari would show you how many tabs you have open, maybe even with tabs.

Don't you miss Adobe Flash when browsing?
Rarely. I find it to be a benefit rather than a curse. On a few occasions I've gone to websites to find that I couldn't watch content, but it's been very few and far between, the lack of flash has meant that my battery isn't drained and my processor is not being tied up displaying adverts instead of doing what I want.

What's Ibooks like?
It's a really good reader, especially now Apple have added native PDF support. The only thing I think that it's missing is the ability to either group your books by your own choosing, or to archive them off the 'bookshelf' and into a storage box as it's a pain searching through everything.

Is it heavy, how is it to handle?
I've found myself using it in landscape mode most of the time, I like the layout of a lot of the apps with options on the left and content on the right, occasionally I'll flip it to portrait, but mostly landscape, especially as the keyboard is cramped in portrait. I've not noticed the weight, so I obviously don't think it's heavy. The hardware orientation lock is really useful too.

Is it as thin as it looks?
The short answer is no, but only because I bought the Apple case. The apple case seems well made on the whole and is really useful, I just wish it worked to stand up in portrait mode. When I remove the iPad from it's case for cleaning, I'm struck all over again by how sveldt it is.

Is there anything that's missing?
The first thing that bugs me (Which has on the iPhone also) is that I would like to be able to pin apps in a certain place. They move as apps are added and removed and it annoys me, I think you should be able to pin them in place.
I was expecting to be able to access my iTunes library on my Macs from the ipad and stream media, but this doesn't seem to be possible, seems like a wasted opportunity.
I also think that the ability to get 'back to my mac' would be a killer app and it seems a glaring omission.

One thing to note is that since I installed 3.2.1 on the iPad, the wifi has been very slow to gain dhcp. It's very annoying.

So a month into ownership, how do I feel?
I'm sold. I could envisage a future with three or four ipads in the Airey household along with a Mac or two. The iPad has become central to my online life and the apps that are gradually coming onto the iPad are using the screen to it's potential. The iPad is a still expensive, I think that the 32GB wifi should be about £350, but while they're flying off the shelves, Apple aren't about the reduce the price.

terrific twitteriffic support.

2010-07-20T21:06:00.000+01:00

After my switch to twitterific a couple of weeks ago, I had a problem with an in app purchase. Which was detailed on this blog as a problem with the app store process here http://geoffsrandomthoughts.blogspot.com/2010/07/itunes-store-bug-and-in-app-purchase.html

I fired off emails to Twitterific and Apple support and Twitterific came back with a far more timely and useful response that if I redid the purchase with the same iTunes account, I wouldn't be charged again. The action of re-purchasing the in app upgrade informed me that I'd already purchased it, so wouldn't be charged again.

Unfortunately Apple came back with a very generic answer which didn't help me one bit. I can't fault apple for this for the simple reason that there are 200,000 apps in the store and they can't know each one intimately, but there should be a requirement on their part to have enough information about each an every app.

One of the things that Apple Store support pointed out was that I could download any app again, so long as it was still available in the app store. Therefore if a developer decides to withdraw an app, the user is left high and dry, this is different to the traditional app purchasing model.

The other thing that occurs is that at some point, Apple will stop supporting IOS 2.0, Does this mean that at some point, Apple will remove all IOS 2.0 apps from the app store?

Anyway, app store thoughts aside, if you want a fantastic Twitter App, get Twitteriffic, if you want top notch support, get Twitteriffic, and if you want fantastic apps to be available, buy them where you can see the value.

Evernote Trunk

2010-07-16T20:07:00.000+01:00

Well, the big announcement came and went, Evernote flipped it's lid.

Unfortunately what Evernote unveiled was a formalization and expansion of the publication of the products which link into Evernote. There were already links to a lot of these products on the Evernote website and the only expansion was the publishing of notebooks to be downloaded into your own Evernote database.

This sounds very negative, but please put this against the expectation built up by Evernote as a company to announcing what is almost an AppStore. This was like the expectation that builds up to Apple's WWDC or the difficult second album for a band which kicked off it's career with a million selling debut.

I was expecting a shift in direction, or a mass expansion in functionality or the acquisition of a company like DropBox.

Don't get me wrong, Evernote is an excellent product and the API allows developers to hook into the model easily which allows them to profit from Evernote's 3 Million users and maybe it's because of the underplayed nature of previous announcements that Trunk offered us peanuts.

Why I bought an iPad

2010-07-10T22:30:00.002+01:00

Over the last 6 months, applications like Evernote and Egretlist have become a larger and larger part of my life as I search for my ultimate GTD (Getting Things Done) setup.

One of the issues I've had was that while I use a notebook at work, another at home and a phone the rest of the time, the iPhone doesn't have a large enough screen to use for looking at content regularly.

When the iPad came out I was sceptical, I still don't like the app store lock in, but getting hands on with a colleague's for 5 minutes allowed me to 'Get' the iPad.

Beyond GTD, I wanted to be able to read on the go, I have some dead time which could be used to catch up on articles.

1 week in.

The iPad has barely left my side, I take it everywhere I can reasonably be expected to get value out of it. At Work, it's been especially useful for notes and reading.

My Macbook Pro has been a little neglected although it still has tasks I can't do on the iPad and is the centre of my technology setup.

Reading on the iPad is an absolute pleasure, the screen is easy to make out, even with tiny text, and i've not strained at all.

The battery life on the iPad seems to exceed Apples claims. I get a full day's use on and off throughout the day with a solid couple of hours in the evening, and it rarely goes below 50%

The keyboard is easy to use (I'm typing this on it now) with the only thing I would want to add being a set of arrow keys to move the cursor a character or two backwards or forwards more quickly than using a finger.

The video and iPod capabilities are as brilliant as you'd expect, the only downside being that I have to clean the screen before watching video as the screen attracts grease like a window in a nursery.

I could easily see our household having a few ipads in a few years with an iMac or two providing the heft as required.

iTunes store bug and In app purchase fail.

2010-07-10T13:32:00.001+01:00

I recently bought an iPad, which led to me downloading lots of iPad apps to find the best. The flip side of this was that due to the nature of iTunes, I ended up with those compatible for iPhone also being synced across onto my phone.

This was an inconvenience, so I unticked the box on the apps tab of both my iPhone and ipad so that new apps weren't synced. Job done I thought.

This week, I downloaded feedle and it didn't take long to set it up, but the following day feedler wasn't there when I went looking for it. I put it down to a glitch and re-synced it again, luckily setup was easy.

It was only this morning that it twigged with me what was happening.

Tweetdeck crashed on me once too often this morning, so I downloaded Twitterific which I love version 2 of on the iPhone and after confirming I liked it, I purchased the upgrade to premium which was an in app purchase.

A little later, I synced with my Macbook Pro and after picking the iPad up again, I soon realized that twitterific was missing. No problem I thought after realizing what had happened and ticking the box, I'll just sync it back and set it up, but I soon realised that my in app purchase was missing in action. I've contacted Twitterific to see if they can restore my upgrade, but feel it's a wider Apple app store problem.

1) if I purchase an app on the iPad it shouldn't be removed when I sync as while it's a new app to iTunes, it's not to the iPad.
2) why is my upgrade not stored somehow in iTunes
3) there's no easy way to get my upgrade back to my knowledge
4) until I receive my receipt, how do I prove I bought it.
5) how do I transfer upgrades onto other devices, or if I want to restore a device

Apple needs to look at all of these issues as it affects their customers and business model quite severely

iOS 4

2010-06-27T23:13:00.000+01:00

iOS was release last week and as soon as it was available, I upgraded my Trusty 3G.

This is my Business phone, With being a 3G, I wasn't getting a lot of the 'Tentpole' features, but my phone is crucial for me to do my job and I have some key productivity apps on there, so why did I do it so soon after release?

My iPhone had been a little problematic for a week or two. This began when its battery was draining in a couple of hours. A quick reinstall of Mail had curbed this a little, but I was feeling that a restore was in order.

The GPS on the 3G wasn't working well and I was hoping the the upgrade might fix the issue.

Multiple Email Accounts. I have a few different work email accounts for various tasks, some shared with others and up until now Webmail was the only real option to pick them up on the move.

The upgrade took just over an hour, I had to upgrade to iTunes 9.2 initially, but it went smoothly, and a lot of time time was the initial backup before the upgrade and the Restore after the upgrade. It all went smoothly

So, What so I think?

Things I like.

3G is faster:
As soon as I upgraded, the 3G seems faster. I'm not sure though whether this is due to an improved OS, or a clean install. It has been noticably better.

Battery Life is better:
Again since the upgrade, the battery in the 2 year old 3G is last much, much better. I'm getting a couple more hours between charges.

Folders:
I can now get to all of my apps reliably in one or two taps with Folders. Any new apps go on the second screen until I decide whether I want to keep them or not. People have moaned about only being able to get 12 apps in a folder, but I don't see the big deal. You can get access to up to 192 apps in two taps, less if you want some apps instead of folders. Even 8 folders and 12 apps (including the dock) shows you 108 apps within 2 taps. How many people regularly use more than 100 apps?

Mail:
I don't use the universal Inbox, but the ability to move between inboxes in single taps is much better.

Google Maps:
Much faster, much slicker

iBooks:
What an application. I'm still getting to grips with it, but loving the interface and it's made me even more determined to afford an iPad

Complex passwords:
I can now use a much more secure password on my phone rather than just 4 digits.

Problems:
Calendars:
I sync both work and person calendars onto the iPhone via both Exchange and Mobile Me, they used to have different colours (Red for Exchange and Blue for Mobile Me's first calendar) but now it seems that the first calendar from each service is set at Blue, this makes it hard to differentiate between them easily.

Safari:
Safari is still glacial on the 3G, I like iPhone Safari, but the reality is that Opera is much, much quicker on 3G and therefore I usually end up using Opera which is not as nice to use.

Overall, iOS 4 has been stable, fast and a worthy upgrade, the two niggles I mentioned are just niggles, but if they weren't there I wouldn't go Grrrrrrrr when I try to use those features.

Spreading it too thin

2008-01-06T01:15:00.003Z

More and more over the last couple of years I've wondered if I'm spreading myself thin, to borrow a phrase 'Jack of all trades, master of none' i.e. I do so many things I can't devote enough time to any of them.

I have friends who have one or two interests and they're pretty damn good at them, but it seems to take over their whole life and I feel that though I'd enjoy that, I'd become bored at some point with doing the same things again and again.

I was thinking about my own hobbies and rather than a few, I have loads of things I try to follow and keep my hand into.Here are a few of the things I have an interest in and invest some time in every single week.

Apart from Family, Friends and my job

1) Computing (Tied into my Job too)
2) Cars
3) Mobile Phones
4) Apple
5) Sport (In General)
6) Football (In General)
7) Manchester United
8) The Internet
9) Sci Fi (In General)
10) TV
11) DVDs / Cinema
12) Music
13) Photography
14) Wii (Lego Star Wars at the moment)
15) Local Issues
16) Star Wars
17) Books
18) Gadgets (In General)
19) Whisky

Am I abnormal, am I a hobby Commitmentaphobe? And while I know only I can answer this, would you cut this list right down?

England Failure may hurt economy

2007-11-22T01:18:00.003Z

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7106952.stm

What this actually means is that the English Economy will gain little benefit from Euro 2008. Anyone who issued a warning that this will affect their business is basing their business model on England 100% making it to the European Championships.

Now how Stupid is that! It should be set aside as a potential uplift in business.

The flip side of this whole story is the productivity that would have been lost by UK Businesses if England had made it. The usual story is that once England get to the Knock Out Stages as staff leave work early, come in late, are off sick or drunk, and the whole country is paralysed for a day and a half.

All in all, we should be about right then.

Life on Mars - Second Series

2007-08-19T18:25:00.001+01:00

While I was away last week, I watched the second series of Life on Mars.

All I can say is, absolutely amazing.

I love watching things on DVD rather than on TV as it means that I can watch it continually without breaks, without missing things because of time.

John Simm is excellent in this, so much better than in Doctor Who, I can't wait to go back through his back catalogue and pick up some more of his work.

Philip Glenister was excellent and I can't wait to see him in 'Ashes to Ashes' although the person that they cast opposite him is going to have to have a character as strong as Sam Tyler, the Actress is going to have to be excellent and believable and above all, it makes you wonder how they'll bring this second person out of their coma.

I can't wait to see it next year, lets hope that they can repeat the magic.

Cohabiting couples get more rights

2007-07-31T01:22:00.003+01:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6923373.stm

"Couples who are living together should have more legal rights, according to a report by the Law Commission."

Another example of our Nanny state.

If people want this level of protection they need to either get married or enter into a legal agreement, I think that the idea that two people who've lived together for two years should automatically receive legal protection will actually cause some couples to break up before the 2 years.

Also when do you classify two people as living together, if you stay over a couple of nights a week, do you live there? What if you do that for Eighteen months and then move in full time for a year, have you lived there for two and a half years? The answer to this question seems obvious but who decides or clasifies the terms.

Some people live together for years and do not want or need this level of protection. Why can't Government spend both the time and money wasted on this proposal on something that would be much more laudible?

Manchester Congestion Charge

2007-06-09T20:24:00.000+01:00

I keep meaning to write about this, but just never get around to it.

The Manchester Congestion charging will barely affect me, I also Travel during Rush Hour and see Congestion on the motorway every single morning. I'll put that up front.

Manchester is in the process of putting in place a congestion charge for those entering both Greater Manchester (i.e. crossing the M60) and going into central Manchester.

Through Tax on Car Allowances and Diesel and My Car Road Tax, I pay approximately £4.5k a year, I drive quite a few miles and pay very much for the priviledge of doing so. The Government has previously made it clear that it wants to reduce the number of journeys people make, reduce pollution and congestion, and it's frequently stated that it should increase tax on those with large cars and those that travel a lot.

THOSE WHO TRAVEL A LOT PAY LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS OF MONEY TO THE GOVERNMENT IN DUTY ON DIESEL.

A Congestion charge is going to lead to an increase in traffic just outside the charging zone, it's going to lead to a new Rush hour just before the charging period begins. Unless Cameras are sited carefully, it could lead to rat running to avoid costs. it could penalise parents who drop off their kids for school and then go to work (i.e. those who need their cars) and are working to get somewhere.

I agree that something needs to be done about Congestion, but if motorists are going to have to pay to travel during rush hour, those who don't should have theirs reduced.

i.e. Long Haul drivers and companies should have a reduction in their Road Haulage road tax reduced if they travel outside rush hours (the people who are getting hammered by both Diesel charges and taxes on Diesel)

Motorists pay a lot of money into the Government's coffers already, Some of that money should be allocated towards Public Transport NOW instead of being used to prop up a very poorly run NHS and pay MPs huge wages and Pensions.

Congestion charging is coming and should be implemented, but not without some concessions to those who are willing to avoid congested areas

Macbook Review

2007-05-13T18:08:00.005+01:00

I ordered a Macbook which arrived at work on Friday. I had it delivered because the last three time I've ordered things from Apple Online, the Delivery has been a Collosal Pain in the arse. I've had to schlepp across Manchester to pick things up from the depot.

I'd ordered the Black Macbook with a 160GB HDD and 2GB of Memory, Plus Applecare.

I currently own a Powerbook 1.25Ghz 1.25Gb Memory and a Mac Mini Core Duo 1.66Ghz

The Brown box it was shipped in was TINY, I was expecting much bigger, and when I opened the shipping box and saw the actual 'display' box I was even more gobsmacked.

As you'd expect from Apple, the packaging was a design in itself, someone had put time into it, it wasn't as good as the iPod Mini or Nano 1.0, or even the Mac Mini, but still well thought out.

In the box was the Macbook, Install disks, the Power block, Power lead, the Apple Remote and a UK adaptor to slot straight onto the Powerblock.

The first thing that struck me was how tiny the Macbook is. I have a 17" Toshiba work Laptop and a 15" Powerbook, this is significantly smaller than both.

There is no clasp or catch that keeps the Macbook closed, I assume there's a magnet in the lid and beneath the palmrest that keeps it closed, it is difficult to open with one hand, which I did tend to do a lot on the Powerbook, so I'll have to learn to use both hands.

The Black finish is nice to the touch, but it doesn't half show up fingerprints, I think I'll need to invest in a hard case for it, I'm clumsy to say the least and while the PB could take the odd knock without a mark, this MB won't.

When I got home, I put the Powerbook into Target mode and booted up the Macbook (Which already had a lot of charge in the battery) after a few minutes it was transferring 20GB of files and settings from the Powerbook and when that had completed, a reboot and I was up and running.

Most of my settings had been brought across, I had to type in the password for my Wireless and a few other bits and pieces. For some reason Menumeters had reset to default, but I assume that was due to it running under system preferences rather than being a traditional app, but a quick trip to the System Preferences and that was showing me processor and HDD usage again.

I've never transferred from one mac to another via the Migration Assistant and I have to say that I was hugely impressed with the way it worked so seamlessly.

The Screen is an absolute joy to work with, I don't even notice the Glossy finish, but it's really bright and easy to see from any angle.

My next task were to move my iTunes Library and iPhoto Libraries from the Mini to the Macbook, because they're both on the external drive I could move them quickly and easily.

I was debating whether to go for the 160GB instead of the 120GB HDD, but I'm really glad I did in the end (and if the 200GB drive had been 5,400 RPM I'd have gone for that instead) The Drive is reported at 148.73GB and I only have 46.81GB free, so I'm going to have to look at all of my stuff pretty much immediately and make sure I need it all.

The MB does not run as hot as my PB used to, not by a long way. I think that is partly because it's not meant to, but also because the processor is not working as hard as in the PB.

It's all positive at this point, things that would make the processor on the PB hit 100% for a minute barely register 25% on the MB.

There are a couple of negatives which I'll put in here because I noticed them, but I knew about them when I bought the MB and if anyone else is transferring from a PB to a MB they may make a difference.

The Screen Resolution on the MB is smaller than the PB, It's only a little bit, but enough to be noticeable in some apps, I especially notice it in iTunes and Firefox. I think I'll end up picking up a Widescreen Monitor for those times when I'll be needing more screen real estate, but for the day to day basic stuff the screen is great.

I used the backlit Keyboard on the PB a lot, and I have missed it already, but I couldn't justify the cost of a MBP.

All in all an excellent move. I'd recommend anyone on a G3/4 Notebook to move, I'm getting so much more done.

NTHell

2007-04-12T19:00:00.001+01:00

We've had an on and off problem with our broadband connection for a few weeks, I thought it was the router and replaced it.

Well this afternoon I got back from work and it Sucked royally, so I disconnected everything and connected my work laptop to the Cable modem. Last time I did that it all seemed fine and speedy, but this time it was dropping packets left and right, over 20%

at 13:17 I phone Customer Sevice and very quickly got through to a person. That's important because I don't have an NTL phone so it costs me money to phone them.

I explained the problem and the young lady took me through a few things which I expect, 1st line is there to weed out the stupid stuff.

She then stated that it was a problem with my firewall because she couldn't ping my laptop, I reluctantly turned the XP firewall off and she tried again.

YL "I can't get a ping on your laptop, you must have another firewall switched on."

Me "Nope"

YL "Yes you must have, is your router a firewall"

Me "Er, nope. Every single piece of software on this laptop was installed or approved by myself, and Yes my router is a firewall also, however it's not currently connected, the Laptop is connected directly to the cable modem with an Ethernet cable as I've previously stated"

YL "It must be your wireless"

Me (While banging my head on a brick wall) "I am not currently using wireless, my Laptop is connected directly to the cable modem with an Ethernet cable"

YL "well there's nothing wrong with the connection here."

and she wouldn't budge. I asked several times for the next level of Tech Support.

YL "They'll tell you the same as me"

Fine then put me through to them, but she still wouldn't.

I've now been on the phone for half an hour.

In the end I reluctantly played the 'I do this for a living' trump card. I hate doing this because it makes you sound both arrogant and a prick, but I apologised before I played it and then demanded to be put through to the next level of tech support.

The Guy there made me turn off the laptop and confirmed that there was a problem. They booked an engineer for Next Friday and that's where I am.

40 minutes on the phone and the service was abysmal. I can phone head office to try and speed up the appointment, but they don't think it will.

Urgh

Celebrate good times C'Mon

2007-02-12T18:13:00.001Z

Yesterday I made a major step forward in the Airey - Wrigley Household.

The Last Windows Computer (Except for my work laptop which HAS to be Windows) has been deactivated and we're an all Apple home now. I can't tell you how good this feels.

The Windows Computer the Girls and Adele share has been a complete and utter PITA as it can't decide whether or not it's connected to the Wireless, and when it is connected, the signal was garbage. I put my aging Powerbook right next to the PC, full signal, no problems.

With me losing my office, I've chosen to move the Mac Mini into the Living Room and set up account for everyone, and as usual, it all just works. Fantastic. :-)

No more headaches for me about Computers at home.

Powerbook a go go

2006-12-26T18:14:00.000Z

I spent 2 hours last night pulling my Powerbook to pieces very, very carefully.

I had a problem with White Spots on the screen and took it into Apple for them to fix it. I use my Powerbook all of the time and usually leave it open on my desk, or shut it down and take it with me. It was only recently that I noticed that it wouldn't go to sleep anymore.

After some research (And some help from the Mac community here on LJ) I found out that it was a magnet in the Lid that activated the sleep and I reasoned that it had probably been left disconnected when they replaced the screen.

After much struggling to remove the back of the screen, I found the tiniest magnet you've ever seen which wasn't powered, had a play with the position and it was about 1/4 of an inch out of position, you'd have thought that the Genii would be able to test and get it right.

Put it all back together and felt very, VERY accomplished.

24 screws on the casing of a Powerbook + 3 that hold the hinge in place...

That's it, it's all over

2006-09-20T21:06:00.001+01:00

I watched the last episode of The West Wing last night, Seven Seasons, over 140 Episodes, many wonderful characters and situations.

Don't want to spoil anyone else's experience, LOTS of spoilers

I've got to admit that I had a tear in my eye as the last ever episode finished and a lot of things were tied off.

CJ and Danny got together,
Sam Returned
Donna and Josh got together
Toby was Pardoned
Mallory left something for President Bartlett.
President Santos took the Oath and became President.

I know a lot of people feel that it jumped the shark when Aaron Sorkin left, and the Fifth Season was disappointing, but after the Sixth Season I went back to watch the Fifth again and while it's not up to the standard of other Seasons, there are some fantastic episodes in there.

I'm going to miss that fact that I will never ever see a New episode of The West Wing.

I remember seeing an early episode and becoming hooked, I've spent a lot of money buying the Box Sets and I've got to say that they're worth every penny, I've watched every single one at least 3 times (Season 7 will be watched again and again) and I still love watching the interaction between the characters.

I hope Studio 60 on Sunset Strip is as good as TWW.

5 things I love about working in IT

2006-09-01T17:52:00.000+01:00

1) Working with fellow Geeks
2) Playing with new Technology
3) Always learning, never standing still
4) New challenges every day
5) It means that you're not isolated from other people in the company, you have to work with everyone.

5 things I love about my life

2006-08-28T17:57:00.001+01:00

1) I have a wonderful Family who support me through thick and thin, who allow me to be me
2) My 2 daughters make me enjoy every single day
3) I work in a job I enjoy, in a company I like working for
4) My friends are there for me when I need them, I'm always happy to help them when they need help
5) I live in Manchester, which I consider to be a wonderful City.

Genius Bar Customer Support Experience Part 2

2006-07-22T18:31:00.004+01:00

On the 5th of July I posted This regarding the experience of booking my Powerbook in for it's screen to be replaced.

Since then, I'd checked the Website regularly, unfortunately the information was not helpful, just that my Powerbook was awaiting repair. A little more info on this page would have been useful, e.g. 'awaiting parts', 'On the bench', 'Final Testing' this would show progress to the customer.

I was told that the repair would take between 7 - 10 days, and I put my expectation firmly at the 10 day end of the scale, with this being a Free repair, I would expect paying customers to get the better service, however Wednesday came and went. I did think about phoning the store, but knew that it would be completed as soon as possible, on top of this I've been manic at work and I've not had much time to use the Powerbook anyway.

Last night I got a phone call at around 16:40 to say that the Machine was in final testing, was expected to pass and just to drop into the store to pick it up, also there was an apology for the length of time that the repair had taken. I was told when I booked the machine in that there would be an email sent out when it was ready, but this did not arrive.

I turned up at the store this afternoon unannounced with my two daughters and walked straight up to the Genius Bar (While noticing that there were 11 names on the board as booked in for appointments.) The store was noticably busier than when I booked the PB in and there were more staff in evidence in general. After seating my daughters on a stool each, Someone attended to me within a couple of minutes. I handed over the receipt I was given for the machine and the Lady disappeared into the back for 5 minutes before returning with the PB, showing me the new screen and booting it up. I was now in a fight to keep my two girls from disappearing in different directions and checking that the PB was OK, but the girl behind the counter was excellent and within a couple of minutes I'd accepted the repair.

On the whole, the service was excellent, responsive and warm. I had niggles, but in the end, that's all they were, niggles. They did not hinder my experience or the repair of my machine.

A+ for Apple on this occasion.

Genius Bar Customer Support Experience Part 1

2006-07-05T18:16:00.003+01:00

Lets do the whole thing start to finish, I wanted to document this

1) For my own memory
2) For others who had never used the Genius Bar before.

I went on the Apple.com/uk site this morning and booked a spot at the Trafford Centre Genius Bar, this was really easy, fill in a few minor details (Your name, email address and Mobile phone number) and select a slot from those available. These are in 20 Minute segments. I was aiming to leave work at 15:00, the store is about 40 minutes from work and knowing my record for leaving when I want, I booked for 16:40, this would allow me a leeway of an hour for holdups and getting caught on the way out of work. The webpage then confirmed the appointment date and time and had basic instructions. If I had any criticism of this process, it was that there was no email confirmation to both remind and reassure that the booking has been made, this would be nitpicking though.

I got to the Apple Store in the Trafford centre and Looked at the kit, but there's only so much looking and playing you can do, especially when you know the Operating system and equipment fairly well. I was early, the confirmation web page said that you should wait for your name to be shouted, and I didn't want to miss my slot. The time came and it quickly became clear that I could then go to the Bar and I would be dealt with as soon as there was someone free. From the look of the screen behind the desk, 8 people had booked into the 20 minute slot, I was there for the full 20 minutes and only three showed, maybe it's a common occurence for people not to show.

One of the Gents behind the counter (There were two of them working when I arrived) came to look at my Powerbook G4, I explained that there were white spots on the screen. He booted it to get a look and hummed and hawed before looking at his own powerbook behind the counter which I can only guess has technical documents on there. He asked me how long I'd had the powerbook, and then explained to me that the replacement program had finished last weekend, and that I should have brought it in earlier. I explained that I had looked at the documentation on the website on Monday and that it was still there then.

The Tech explained he'd have to go and speak to someone and disappeared into the back. I was left twiddling my thumbs for five minutes before he returned. He explained that the replacement program had finished, however for good customer service and because my PB's screen did seem to be spectacularly bad, that they'd replace the screen free of charge.

Now to be honest, if they'd refused to replace it, I would have kicked up a stink. That fact is that the screen was damaged due to a known manufacturing defect, and goods must be fit for the purpose for up to Six years in European law, but luckily I didn't have to stamp my foot.

it took the Tech about 10 minutes to book the laptop in, now I have no way of knowing if this was him or the system, but I strongly suspect that it's the system, he had to fill out online forms, look for parts online and fill out paperwork. To me it seems a waste of time to have someone who should be helping customers with problems filling out 'paperwork' But again this was completed and I signed for the work.

We had to fill out a sheet to mark any scratches on the PB, but I wasn't given a copy, which seems a little strange and I signed a bill for the work, the bill said that I would pay £0.00 for the work to be completed.

Everyone was extremely nice, nothing was rushed (Although it wasn't particularly busy) and I felt like I was a valued customer, which after dealing with Microsoft on a regular basis was a little bit of a surprise.

When I have my Powerbook back, I'll finish the story off, but so far I'm very impressed.

Dark Lord - The rise of Darth Vader

2006-02-12T18:47:00.000Z

This is a good book, it links well between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, the writing is good and the story moves well.

My only downer on it is that it's not as good as a Zahn Novel, it's not got as many plot threads as any of the Thrawn Books.

Definitely worth a read, especially if you're a Star Wars nut, the last short chapter alone is worth the purchase price alone.

iPhoto 6 - first thoughts

2006-02-02T18:20:00.004Z

After recently upgrading from iPhoto 2 I've been playing with iPhoto 6 a little, and I've seen a lot of good points, but also some bad points. Now I appreciate that this is probably a far larger leap than a lot of you may have made, so some of these features may have been in iPhoto 5

Full Screen editing it's excellent, with the gallery along the top and the features at the bottom, I now find it easier to focus on the photo with the black background now

Keywords

I use Keywords a lot they make my life a lot easier.

They are now part of the main window, I did prefer them to be on a movable 'pallet' type arrangement, I could move it around at will, I don't like it fixed on the right hand side, and I certainly don't like it sharing space with the Source window, for me they both need more space.

I don't like the fact that you have to go into preferences to alter, add or delete keywords, too clunk by far, why not a button on the bottom toolbar, there's plenty of space.

I don't like having to drag a photo onto a keyword to assign it to that keyword, Ticking the box was less difficult, yes I know there's not a lot in it, but I use them enough for it to impact on my usage.

Battery Force Limited

2006-01-04T21:02:00.000Z

For Christmas, I got four things, and Lauren got one that took AG13 Batteries.

Now I hadn't seen these before, but they're like big watch batteries.

I had a scoot about on the internet and Battery Force looked like the cheapest.

I ordered the batteries on Boxing day, they were shipped on the 28th (The first non Bank Holiday Day) and arrived on the 29th.

Oh, and 'Free' shipping also.

Now THAT'S what I call service, and for that I RECOMMEND Battery Force.

Sony Boycott

2005-11-20T20:44:00.002Z

OK, I love Sony Equipment.

My Stereo I bought back in 1994 that I've only just loaned to my Mum and Dad because theirs is in for repair, and I hardly use it.

I've always chosen Sony in car stereo's because of the pure quality and simplicity.

Sony to me says Quality, like Panasonic or Pioneer or any other established brand you care to mention.

But from this point on I am boycotting Sony's equipment. I've mentioned it before but the rootkit debacle has shown how little respect Sony have for their customers.

If you normally buy Sony equipment, I urge you to boycott them too and urge others also to do so. We have to get a message to manufacturers, Music distributors and anyone else who thinks that they should:

1) Treat their customers as criminals

2) Install software onto your PC without your express permission to do so. And by that I mean telling you that is what they want to do, rather than Burying it in a EULA (End User Licensing Agreement) among the legalese that only those who are bothered enough or paid enough will read.

Oops

2005-11-13T21:05:00.001Z

Sony have Class action filed against them for Rootkit.

http://www.aunty-spam.com/lawsuit-filed-against-sony-bmg-over-sony-rootkit/

I've got to say that much as I love Sony's Electrical Equipment, the idea of someone installing software on your PC without your permission or even your knowledge, especially one that allows other people to exploit the 'Characteristics' of your software and the way it works and create backdoors into your PC, dumbfounds me.

The worst book I've ever read.

2005-11-13T18:51:00.000Z

When Adele and I were packing to go away for the weekend, I knew that I'd have time to read, and casting about for something to read, I noticed 'There and Back Again: An Actor's Tale - A Behind-the-Scenes Look at Lord of the Rings' by Sean Astin.

I bought it on an earlier holiday in Wales and ploughed through the first half, but I noticed it sat there with a bookmark showing my last point of reference halfway through the pages, so I threw it in the bag to push on and complete it.

Last night I got a chance to read while Adele was watching X Factor, so I opened the book and within two pages, I remember why I'd put it down.

I hated the writing, I hated the way that the actor Sean Astin portrayed himself, made assumptions about what other people were thinking and generally portrayed himself as the holder of a wealth of experience.

Now I've always enjoyed Sean Astin's acting, he's excellent in LOTR and I've seen him in a couple of other things, but this book is going to the next charity shop I can find. I will not be finishing it, and this fact alone, despite how much I would love to know more about the production of LOTR show how much I cannot stomach reading any more of this book.

Urgh

We're streaming baybee

2005-08-30T18:22:00.002+01:00

NT tried to deliver the Airport Extreme today, but Adele was out, so I had to go and pick it up from the Depot which is about 10 miles away.

Of course it was packaged exquisitely, Apple had taken the usual amount of time and care to design the packaging, quality all over.

So I whacked it together and plugged it in, I could tell from the LED that it wasn't happy, it should be solid Green and it was flashing Amber.

I threw the CD into the Powerbook, and proceeded to install the software, at least I would have installed the software if the installer had worked, it didn't, it said that both iTunes and the Airport software were disabled.

Right, I said, I'll just do it in Windows. I put the CD in, installed the software, fired up the Airport Setup Assistant, and set about installing the Airport, except that even though the PC was connected to a wireless router, it wanted the PC to be wireless.

My next step was to search the Apple website for help, support showed that there was a newer version of airport software, so I downloaded it and installed it.

Bingo, I could finally run the software and connect it with my wireless network. This was problem number three, the software is quite specific about only allowing you to connect to an existing Airport network, or starting a new Airport network. I have a perfectly good Linksys Router, which cost £90 less that the Apple Airport base station. At this point I was a little miffed as nowhere did it say that this would only work with Airport.

I set up the Airport anyway, and then set off for the web in search of other people who had connected Airport Extreme to a standard 802.11g network.

Luckily, quite high up the list within google was This Link which showed me how it could be done quite easily.

I dived into the Airport Admin application and after hooking the Airport Express up to the router, it appeared. a Quick change in the settings to add it to the Linksys' wireless network and we were all hooked up.

I then moved the Airport Express from the office down to the Conservatory, plugged it in and connected a pair of speakers.

I then proceeded to stream from both my XP machine and the Powerbook upstairs, the quality was excellent. I could also stream from the PC downstairs, and because of iTunes built in ability to share libraries, I could use the downstairs machine to stream the library on the upstairs Windows XP PC to the Airtunes speakers.

For me though, the interesting thing in this is whether the Upstairs PC streams the library to the PC which then streams what it's playing to the Airport Express or if it's clever enough to minimise the use of the Wireless network by streaming straight from the PC library upstairs to Airtunes, doubt I'll ever find out.

I've got to say that It seems you can only stream to one Airtunes set of speakers at once, and I'd have thought one of the benefits would be the ability to stream to a few different sets.

All in all I'm very, very impressed, yes it's overpriced, I'd say that somewhere around £50 would be more realistic, I'd certainly buy another if the price point was there.

With Teeth (A Couple of weeks on)

2005-05-12T23:22:00.001+01:00

Now I've gotta admit that I was really besotted with "The Hand that Feeds" which was the first single released from this album.

I'm now a couple of weeks into some pretty solid listening (and I don't think I've listened to a enw album this much since the times when i could only afford to buy and album at a time.)

I rate this as highly as any of the other albums NIN have released before. I think that it compares with Pretty Hate Machine.

Of course, that's just my opinion

I'm currently really enjoying:

All the love in the world
the hand that feeds (Which iTunes says I've listened to 20 times, and I know I've listened to in the car both the single when that came out, and now the album.
Love is not enough

NIN Central

2005-05-03T23:26:00.000+01:00

I got With Teeth last week and I think it's good

When I got into work today, sat there and waiting (and they have been for the best part of a week) were:

The Fragile
The Downward Spiral
Fixed

I'm in NIN heaven, can't wait to really get into these.

I have a little bit of trepidation about The Downward Spiral because I know and Love Further down the spiral and I'm expecting The Downward Spiral to be a little plain compared to Further, but we'll see.

HHGTTG Film Review

2005-04-30T23:35:00.000+01:00

OK

Things I loved about the Film:

The whole Trillian rescue thing
The Heart of Gold (although I don't think that the name was mentioned)
The graphics for the guide
The radio theme tune being used
Stephen Fry as the book
Simon Jones...

Things I liked about the Film:

Arthur
Zooey Deschanel (Beautiful, excellent character)
Zaphod
Marvin
The Vogons
Eddie
Deep Thought
TV Series Marvin Cameo

Things I disliked about the Film:

Alan Rickman's mockney accent for marvin
The whole Musical opening sequence (although I have to say that the song is catchy, the visuals irritated the hell out of me)
Bill Nighy as Slartibartfast (I was looking forward to him, but he was just Bill nighy, he was meant to be forgetful not dippy)
Ford was meant to lead Arthur, but he virtually ignored him after they got on the heart of gold
Deep thought watching TV
In the end credits the wording is changed from "I seem to be having tremendous difficulties with my lifestyle." bugged me a little

Things I hated about the film

The horrifically Twee ending
The whole Humma Kavula which made no sense whatsoever, and served no purpose other than to let Trillian get captured, and set up the POV gun.

Thoughts:

There were a couple of jokes set up (no beware the leopard) and unfinished.
I HATED the ending
I can't see how they can do a sequel without Douglas to write the majority and I'd be very careful if I was the producers.

On the whole a cautious thumbs up, and I may go and see it again this week. I urge you to make your own mind up.

I LOVE my iPod

2005-04-23T23:43:00.000+01:00

I am now an iPod convert,

I've only been playing with this mini for 15 minutes, and I now know what the fuss is about, I do still think that it's expensive, but I can see where the extra money has gone.

The clickwheel is amazing, I spent 5 minutes trying to turn the volume down, until I read the instructions and found the clickwheel touchy thingy.

The quality is just Apple all over.

So now I have it, I want to buy some extras for it.

Starting with a power lead as the USB cable is restrictive for being away

I fancy a dock

What other items would people recommend?