Google Reader Review

I have spent much of the last 5 years designing news reading and data mining applications. I haven’t really mentioned work in this blog before but our NewsRaider application is a really smart bit of kit. But… its an installed application and so its days are really numbered. Its all going web.

What’s making its days even more numbered in my eyes is a newish service from Google. It isn’t google news – even though that would be the obvious choice. Google news is The Google's attempt to provide news that interests you. Its OK. Its not great. It searches over a trillion news sources (NewsRaider does about fifty) and doesn’t really come up with anything that particular to you.

The real innovation is Google Reader. Perhaps the most underrated of Googles stock. There are just about half as many RSS readers and websites as there are new feeds in google reader. So why anyone would bring out another is anyone’s google.

But google did, and its so much more.You access it from your normal gmail or google account page. And you fiddle with it… explore a bit over a few days. I started adding my fave sites. News. Podcasts. Mags etc. And they are all just there, in this one page, in this really well designed way. Its so easy to add new feeds and change stuff.

You can get feed pages and super-feed pages like netvibes, but if you like that interface purity and simplicity that gmail has or amazon shopping and you like news and info sites, google reader is groundbreaking

You know, it might be thought that I am a bit of a googlephile. I’m not in any significant sense - I’d like another company to come and really challenge google. But the extent to which google will effect online life really is astounding. Its getting like they own the roads and the power and the media…. And the literature of the online world. Right or wrong, I think it’s a fascinating topic.

With Google, we don’t know if we are in Germany in 1933 or Italy in 1500, in a tech sense.

The First Cut is not necessarily the deepest.

This blog is not art, nor science, nor literature, nor tech. It is growing ever more into a platform for me to show what a duplicitous turncoat I am. Examples:

• My vacillatious affair with Writley (whom, as Google Docs, I have now taken as my bride).
• My bullcharge into the heart of 91 1 Truth…and hasty retreat to the pleasant pastures of conspiracyless normality.
  
• My proclamation that to be phished you must be stupid and then subsequently being Phished, was perhaps the apex of my deep inner hypocrisy.

In February 2006 I posted this review of the Gillette Mach 3 Power Nitro.

And in it I derided the potential for further development in the shaving domain. Then, as I posted I found out about a new Gillette, the Mach 5 Mega Laser Razor. I can’t actually remember the proper name, but that’s not important. So, the new razor was out before I had posted the blog post about the last new razor.

I was miffed, and a little part of me (My Dignity) made a pact with another little part of me (My Rationality) never to suckle upon the corporate salami of Gillette’s relentless drive into absurd marketing ploys.

That’s the thought provoking intro over with…

Roll back three weeks. I needed some new blades for my 8 month old Gillette. I went to Ebay. I brought some. They were the wrong kind, these were for the new Gillette that I assured myself I would never get. But now I was trapped. I had inadvertently signed a pact with the close-shave devil, and thus was forced to buy the actual razo.

Yes, I was hoodwinked into this turncoatery but, my dear reader, I am sure you agree it would be wrong for me not to review the aforementioned hateful implement. I may have done my self in the razor ‘rongun, but you guys deserve this self-sodomised review.

If I die today the revelations of this post will be my Magum Opus. This new blade hasn’t only taken me closer, its taken me deeper…. into a very important aspect of my life.

Before we continue…

Ladies, I love you all, but this post is strictly for men. Do not read this if you are easily offended by distilled masculine conversation or references to male grooming. I just found this website, http://www.damegames.com/, so go play some girly games there until the shoe-shops open and leave the rest of this post for the dudes.

The Review (Men Only)

Gillette have skipped the 4 blades and made that evolutionary step into The Fifth Blade. Five blades, aligned so close together - and so sharp - that you can almost feel the cells gracefully part between the metal. It vibrates, as did the previous Model. The vibration feels good but I am still an outsider on if the vibe is actually good for the shave’s effectiveness. It’s a moot notion that will no doubt perplex razologists for aeons.

On the back of the razor head is a sixth blade. The sixth blade, much like the sense equivalent, is very handy if you have it but you wouldn’t expect to need it. It is angled perfectly to get that bit where your nose joins your top lip (Phew! Good job there are no women reading this bit, they would be sooooo lost) and it just does the job.

The blade feels good, looks that weird Alienware spooky but is ultimately a nice objet d’consumption.

I have been using it for three weeks – the shave has stayed nano close and though it irks me to admit it, its great. It really is a bigger jump between this and the last one than the last one and the penultimate

Post review Deconstruction of the previous review’s core premise.

I don’t feel as turncoat in this sense because I like the new blade(s), or because I showed blogbased exasperation at my first encounter with it. The reason for the anisotropy of my opinion is that I am forced now to embrace the endeavor to perfect the razor.

Millions… billions is spent on the evolution of the razor. I have been one of the no doubt millions of people who have seen 3 blades, or 4 or 5 and winced at the ridiculousness of it. And yet, the fact remains that new stages in razor development are self-experimentally better than the last.

And you would expect this, all this investment would not work if the results were not a discernible improvement. I remember when I first had a shave in a mach III and I know many friends and family members - including my wife ;) - who swear by the thing.

This fact is incontrovertible. I wont be there in 40 years with my grandson saying “Son, in my day shaves were closer…”

Millions may be dying of famine and disease. We are rubbing Carbon salt into the planet’s wounds. Even more people, every day, experience their WiFi drop out. These issues are not exclusive. They don’t mean we cant waste at least a few billion squid and scientists brain cells on the perfection of the razor.

The Future Of Humanity

As a baseline for technological evolution I propose the razor, being a device or method for the removal of body hair. The litmus test for the relentless march of the tech. To measure progress by numbers is to overlook progress’s intimate effects on culture.

Shaving is so very human. It is functionally pointless but important. It effects how others see us, how we see ourselves and importantly how we feel ourselves. To shave is to live.

Keep an eye on the shelf and a finger on your cheek

Perfection of the Razor

A task so meaningless it is significant.

The smoothness of a strangers face.

The muddy roots of the lotus.

The glide. The cut.

The lines that grow until we die.

Shatter shell and Cutthroat angles.

One blade, two blade, three blade,

Five.

The First Ever Review of Google Docs

I have justed logged into my writley docs and yabba yabba, its all changed:) Gosh it looks functional!

My text docs and spreadsheets are all in one list. It has that pallid/utility/washed out Google appearance but other than that, me oh my, it is dandy.

I think this is the first ever review of Google Docs on the Internet!!!

Which is why its minimal.

Review: SPV M3100

The SPV M3100 is the Orange badged version of the latest HTC Smartphone, and its is a beauty.

I had the XDA Mini S a few weeks ago and took it back because of call quality. But this phone is awesome.

• It hasnt crashed.
• Its fast.
  
• The Wireless is great.
  
• The secret slide out Qwerty keyboard a godsend.
  
• The 2Meg camera is surprisingly high quality.
• It has a jog wheel.
• Voice dial is instant.

I have it in a Proporta case which works really well as a combo.

Sometimes in one's tech life you reach a plateau where there isn't really anywhere higher to go, at least not there and then. I think I'm there now with this phone.

Two weeks in and I want for nothing except free data, eternal batteries and more of everything.

Review: XDA Mini S Smartphone

I have had more handhelds than the most dedicated Onanist.

The first I ever owned was a little Casio clock/calculator that I brought in Ocean Terminal in Hong Kong. It was 1980 and as well as getting a device that could tell you what day any date fell on I learn t a valuable lesson about shopping around from my dad.

After that I was hooked on the handhelds... Psions… Psions… Palms… Pocket PCs, Smart Phones and then last week I got an XDA Mini S.

The specs of the device were pretty fricking funky. The Slide out keyboard, neat WiFi, Tocuh Scren, Windows Mobile 5 operating system, in theory all you need for your mobile life.

But tomorrow I'm taking it back to the shop because, much as it is feature packed and well designed and nice on batteries and OK on the eye the quality of the phone calls are DIRE.

DIE with an R in the middle.

I have ordered a SPV with the same formfactor and sliding keyboard and that comes Monday. I hope the call quality is not in the two-tin-cans-on-a-bit-of-string quality.

Do not ever get an XDA Mini S, unless you are deaf and mute, then its great.

GP2X Review

The last time a game made my heart really race, my wife was a Teutonic dominatrix and I had the blueprints to "die speziellen lesbischen headquaters". That was until today, when I started re-playing Quake.

Quake is one of the best computer games ever made; it might not be quite as exciting as licking your way out of the Saphist Coliditz, but in terms of game-play and challenge and excitement, Quake is hard to beat. What is especially exciting about my recent foray into Quake is that it all took place on the little-portable-open-source GP2X, powered by two AA batteries.

It doesn’t stop there. Not only does the GP2X (Powered by 2 AA batteries) play Quake, it does much more, and that, my dear reader, is what this post is about.

What is it?

Its a handheld gaming device weighing 161 grams and made in a place called Korea. Korea has two versions:

1. North: Which makes secret nuclear weapons and spies.
2. South: Which makes the GP2X.

The GP2X is made in Korea Version 2, and it is made well. Robust, well considered and with a high quality components, especially the screen.

It runs a version of Linux and has two 200MHZ processors and its own Video processor so it can do things that no other device on the planet, powered by two AA batteries, can do.

Where you get it?

You can get it from these people, http://gp2x.co.uk/, who are the global distributors and are based in England, which is a part of Europe. I have had a fair few emails with them and they are very helpful and very much behind the GP2X - and that is a good thing.

What does it do?

In order of importance:


1) Fractals!!!

OMG have you seen these things! They are patterns that are made mathematically out of component parts of the same patterns, and it gets better.... they go on for ever. Ot at least that’s what the manufacturers claim. I don’t know if that’s true but without doubt they go on for 6 sets of AA batteries. You can just zoom in and in and in and in. It never stops.

Unfortunately the Korean version 2's didn’t put this in the GP2X so you need to download it and install it on the GP2X.

Download it here: http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,8,1088


2) Drum Machine


Most people who buy this in the early days will be pretty geeky. Using Shoemaker's G-F translation it is pretty clear to see that geekyness is inversely proportionate to funkiness. However, to compensate for this you can install a drum machine on the GP2X and, through practice, actually increase your funk without decreasing your geek. This is the best of both worlds and IS NOT available on the Sony PSP or Nintendo DS Lite.

Download it here: http://archive.gp2x.de/cgi-bin/cfiles.cgi?0,0,0,0,8,1088



3 The Graphical User Interface

The GP2X comes with its own "graphical user interface". This consists of small pictures ( or "icons") that represent the various aspects of the device. For example, the part of the graphical user interface that runs games has a "joystick" picture to guide you. If you get lost the pictures also have descriptive names associated such as "Games", "Music" and "Settings".


I found this graphical user interface very easy to use and navigate but some people may find it easier to actually go to a DVD store or an amusement arcade.

Because everything is open source there are other graphical user interfaces that can be put onto the GP2X to replace the one put on it by the Korea Version 2.0 team. I haven’t tried these others because the default one is just fine, thank you.




One other point of note is that the graphical user interface complies to the NORTFM. This means that though there is a manual you don’t need to read it, instead press a few buttons and you will pick it up, pronto.

4 Video Player

Once you have blown your stash of AA's cruising deep into the Mandelbrot set you might need a break from that math’s rollercoaster.

I suggest a good sojourn from such an excursion is to watch a movie. There are many movies available from an online video store called Bittorent, which has a great rental policy and the GP2X will play most of these (allegedly etc etc) and it will play them really well.


I like things that make you go "wow". Like when you go camping out of the city and look up to see the milky way. Or you walk in on your mother in the kitchen and she is juggling three apples and you have never seen her juggle before. Not even two.

The video quality of the GP2X has this wow. Maybe not as much as the Milky Way but at least 3 times more than Andromeda (the Galaxy not the TV Show and with the naked eye, not Hubble). Its clear and bright and with good contrast. The playback is smooth... so smooth (because of the hardware video) and all powered by two AAs.

You can push the output to the TV and its just as good as a desktop with TV out or Freecome Media Player display. I can imagine being around at a friends house and the chat has got a bit dull. They are talking about "friends of friends" and the beer is warm and its still so early. So what do you do? Get out the crack pipe or say this:

You: "Hi, I have my media player on me, how about we watch Zoolander 2?”

Them: “How?”

You: “I can plug it right in to your telly."

Them:"Really?"

You:"Yes….. but have you got two AA batteries?"

As a final parting a very neat feature that could be in any video player but isnt, is that it remembers your position in a movie. So, I was watching a film in bed last night and when I was sleepy turned the device off. Tonight I'll continue watching it some more right from where I left off (assuming I don’t play Quake or "Frauline was is das in der leiderhossen!!!").

If you just want a portable movie player with TV out then that’s enough reason to get the GP2X.


5 Music and Podcasts

Some people find it enjoyable to listen to sounds aranged with a certain order or sequence and the GP2X has more than enough OOOOPH to satisfy these people.

It does MP3 and WMA and OGG, but lets be honest, we can forget the last two. The MP3 player is simple and effective. It doesn’t support play lists, in-song bookmarking or lyrics but it has all you really need for most cases. I wish it would have bookmarks like the movie player does but it doesn’t. It does have real smooooooooth in track navigation, so you can zip anywhere in a 50 meg podcast in seconds.

I’d like to make a special mention of the sound quality. I have had a zillion MP3 players over the years- stand alone, in Palm , PPC, phones etc and this, to my ears, is the best I have heard. It is clear and loud and a nice range and just ...good. It doesn’t have Dobly.

6 Games


This part of the review is only here so I don’t get accused of being nonquakeaphobic. I’ve seen the youtube.com vidos of people playing many games at full speed. Ultima 7, Sonic, Duke Nukem’ etc etc etc.

• There are tens of thousands of games available for the GP2X and the emulators seem to be getting better and better and better. Sure, there are homebrew games out there for the GP2x but ask yourself this question: Would you rather play a game written by one guy in 2006 and a budget of pizza and coke or 100 people in 1996 and a budget of 3 million?
• I have been playing on the PSP of late, it may look better but the game play isn’t up to the games you get on the GP2X. End of discusssion.
• Check out Craig’s review of the emulators and games available, really impressive.

Other Applciations


This baby runs Linux at the back end and has two meaty processors doing the work. In theory it could run Open Office, or Gimp (Like Photoshop) or contacts/calendar applications... really anything that can be done without internet on a desktop.

What I think will make or brake the trajectory of this side of the GP2X is peripheral support. It has a USB port so can it take a keyboard? Or a mouse? Can it cable via this to a mobile phone’s port to go online?

Because of the open source nature of this system and the fact it has port access the sky really could be the limit if a significant surge of developers get behind it. (We are going to try this at work, I think)


Any Downers?


There is a moment as a child when you realise that adults are not perfect. Maybe its when you ask one a question and they don’t answer right away. Maybe it’s when Uncle Derek looses the key to the tool shed and you both have to spend the night inside it and its cold. So cold.

For the GP2X this moment, the reaslisation that gadgets, like adults, are not perfect, comes when you try to change the batteries. The GP2X build is good, apart from the flimsy little metal tongue that pushes the negative into the positive. Its a spring that doesnt seep to ahve much spring about it. I am guessing that most of the send-backs for the GP2X will be because of this. It will break. I can that little thing now and it is saying... "I am the weakness."

There are other gripes......


Power Outage

In the middle of a game of Quake and suddenly the effects became awesome... better than an Xbox game. It was as if a white light nuke went off and I was starring at ground zero, my world imploding and melting at the same time.

In fact what had happened was the batteries died on me and that was the LCD's Swan Song. Being a life long battery fetishist I know that rechargeables live fast and die young; often without any warning. But this white out seemed really dramatic. I don’t ask for much... but 30 seconds of warning that the GP2X needs a change would be a start.


The Worst Accessory Ever

I got the official GP2x carry case and it is pants. It really is the worst designed case I have seen for any device, and I have seen many many.

• The GP2x fits in the wrong way round so you can’t actually use it in the case.
• It has a pocket but its is just a loose net that seems to flap and so useless for anything you might want to carry with the device, like batteries or SD cards.
• The strap connector for it is cheap die-cast that I would not trust to hold a few feathers, let alone the GP2X.
• It is disproportionately large relative to the size of the thing its protecting.

This is the worst case ever made for anything. If you can imagine taking the spongy excrement of a camel and smearing the GP2X in that excrement you will not be into the land of metaphor, but reality.

Conclusion: The Future

The review is coming to and end. I have been working on it for two days and I feel we need a dramatic conclusion to keep you happy. The GP2X review equivalent of blowing up the Death Star or (come out) Kevin Spacey loosing his limp. Where should I go? Try to be funny and zany? Or serious and resolute?

I think all good reviews of portable gaming and media devices should end with a quote that encapsulates what has gone before. And so I will end with a quote that achieves just that. And yet achieves even more.... spreading not just the scope and flexibility of the GP2X but also its community and potential.

I will end with a quote from a Korean (Version 1.0) Shin-Jok play that translates as follows:

"In the cusp of your fingers you may hold the many worlds and many things until power fails and all is dark".

out of 5

GP2X Haiku Review

The device is here;

It is good and just and fast

Goobye world and life.

Activecollab.com

Activecollab.com is a free open source online project management script written in PHP. It is blindingly good, written by a Serbian web developer called Ilija Studen.

This guy is going places, and so is AC. Its not a website, its a PHP engine that can be installed on any server running PHP5.

It just does it all and already there seems to be a great little community sprouting up on the forum.

I have already setup some projects and have been messing, Its very intuitive and very powerful, that's the ideal combination. I have set it up for some small projects in work with a few of our developers and designers. There is no manual yet, so that shows how easy it is.

Not the most exciting of posts i have ever made, but AC really could be the Ubuntu of project management.

Peace, freedom and bandwidth.

Why I love Ubuntu.

Its been 3 weeks since I installed Ubuntu on my laptop at home, and I use it whenever I can. I love it. I want to move away from windows now. Pack up my bags and head out hitchin' on the Ubuntu Uberbahn. This is why:

Its fast.

Everyday things the interface does are done quicker on my laptop. As an example, try this if your on Xp. Load up some apps and switch between them using Alt+TAB. You notice that delay when the application is “coming to the front”? that's not there in Ubuntu. Before my finger has reached the ascent from the Tab key the app is there.

Its not just fast but it stays fast. Windows on the same laptop after a few ours of use and app switching just slows down. It always has. It just become a sluggard.

It's cool.

I don't mean cool in the emotive sense but in the temperature sense. As I said in this post, it just doesn't get as hot on your lap. This is because, anyone who has studied information/entropy equivalence knows full well that information is power. In a very literal sense heat is the mean something or other of power and therefore the more work a system does the more heat it generates. Linux doesn't need to do as much work as XP because its better design and less bloated.

Its on a power diet.

For the same reasons as above, it seems to use less power than XP so the batteries last longer. I haven't done any tests and I probably wont but the difference between XP and Ubuntu on my laptop is discernible.

Its reliable

“Reliability” is a catch-all really for the fact that now, 3 weeks in, I appreciate it is safer, more secure, more robust and doesn't crash. Sure, there are no viruses or Trojans etc on Ubuntu and that's great but I mean something simpler and, to computer users, more fundamental. A notion best described by a “live example”:

I'm writing this post on the Open Office word processor, and I'll be doing it for an hour or two on a sunny Saturday morning. In the garden, in the lounge. I haven't saved it to disk. I haven't set the backup save in Open Office (I guess it has one). I just have no reason to think the system or Open Office will crash or anything bad will happen. If this was XP I would have made sure that this document was saved and Automatic backup turned on.

Wine

Wine is the Windows Emulator that comes with Ubuntu. Its pretty amazing, it installs and runs Windows Apps. I have had Google Earth, for example, running. (Embarrassingly not all of our companies software works in it, but we are looking to rectify that.)

What Wine does is, I think, a coup de grace against XP. It takes away that excuse that “but my companies bespoke accounts package wont work” excuse not to turn to Ubuntu.

The Ubuntu Community

I guess many people would think because Ubuntu is open source there is nobody to turn to if you need help. This couldn't be further than the truth. Built into the system is a chat room, you go into this, ask any question, and people who are so helpful they should work for the Buddhist Mc Donald's in Disneyland are there with the answers and help. It really is something to behold.

There are forums and mail lists too, but i haven't needed to ask them anything yet. Not with the super guys and girls in the Ubuntu support chatroom. (The forums and websites have loads of great info and answers to questions asked by others)

Its not all good, dawg.

There is one area where I'm really not happy with Ubuntu and I gather from the Ubuntu websites this is a common issue. Graphics. I can only run Ubuntu in 1024 by 768 rather than 1200 by 800. It still looks great (I have it looking like a Mac right now) but I haven't found out, after a fair bit of trying, how to get the extra pixels.

Given the choice of this resolution and all the perks of the bigger resolution and XP I am still going for Ubuntu but it is a gripe I have. I gather that in the next update (It is updated every 6 months) full support for my slightly obscure graphics chip will be included

Conclusion

There are many reasons to use Ubuntu over XP. Some technical others economical and perhaps a few ethical. This little post, written unbaked-up on Word, in Ubunto, on my laptop, on my lap, lists some of mine.

Don't forget you can try Ubuntu just by downloading one file from here and burning it to CD. It wont install over XP unless you want it to. If you like it it will install and keep your XP intact, you simply choose which you want when the computer starts, XP or Ubuntu. It does it all.

Writely, baby, I just blogged to say I love you, and, I'm sorry.

Last year I fell in love with Writely. She was my kind of free and fast web-service. Ahhhh my jilted lover!!! She had the features and attractiveness that makes a guy like me melt. And boy, did she know how to function. I even shared her with my friends (With the approriot firewall).

But then, as the reader to this blog will know, we fell out. Writely became slow and sluggish, and seemed, somehow disinterested in responding.


I bumped into her again last week. We had a bit of a session together and you know what, she got back her mojo. So now we are going to see if we can make it work out. If she can stay active and stay loyal, I might even move in with her permanently.

First Days With Ubuntu

At least 5 years ago I tried to install the Linux operating system on a PC. After a morning of fiddling and reading, I gave up. It was just too much hassle.

Reading about the great advances in Linix simplicity I tried again last year with "the best for the common man" version, Ubuntu. I saw login screens and menus but, ultimately it failed.

Last week I watched a video from Digg in which Nelson Mandella explained the meaning of "Ubuntu". I don't know if he was referring to the Linux for "everyman" but he certainly seemed to know his Zulu.

I downloaded the very latest version of Ubuntu. Burnt it onto a CD. Put the CD into my drive. It loaded, right there. Straight into the "live cd". This means you can see Ubuntu working and play with it without it actually installing anything on your hard drive. Clever. It seemed just like Windows ... but different.... faster and distinct. Its hard to explain what I liked about it, but there was this button on the desktop "Install". I clicked it... and it started installing.

It did everything , it was so simple. It even made a partition on the hard drive... seamlessly and added a boot chooser.

It rebooted, I got to choose between Windows or Ubuntu. So simple. So simple.

Second Impressions

I fiddled with it for a bit after install (And I didn't go OS Blind) and then I fiddled with it some more. It comes with Firefox installed, and its the same as the Windows version. Uses the same extensions and all. I added the brand new Google Firefox Syncroniser (which absolutely rocks) and now its just automatically syncs between my laptops, home and work PCs. So, I am writing this in Writely in in Firefox Ubuntu but I could be on an XP machine.

Apart from high end games, anything you can do in Windows or Office you can do in Ubuntu. It comes installed with Open Office, email, Outlook equivalent etc etc and if it isn't installed with Ubuntu there are zillions of free programs available to be installed from within the OS (see below).


I wont try and explain what its like as an experience, if your curious download it it from Ubuntu.com and slap it on a CD to see for yourself. But these are some key points:


Downers

1. XP File System - I cant seem to access my windows hard disks. I don't know if me or if this is possible but it sucks right now. I have had to migrate all of my files using a pen drive. Maybe I'm a klutz but this needs to be solved.
   
2. Fonts - I don't like the fonts but apparently you can have clear type like in Windows.
3. Graphics - The resolution for the display isn't as high as on Windows, but again, I think that's a driver issue I should be able to fix.

Uppers

1. Its free and open source - this has to be the future. Given the choice between A and B where A=B and A is Free I think you would chose just like me. Ubuntu is to Windows what Fair Trade Organic Vagetables grown just down the road are to genetically engineered mass-produced-grown-in-a-vat on the other side of the planet vegetables
   
2. Application Installs - So many applications that are easy to install. The application installer user fullis like I tunes.... you don't need to visit any websites, its all done for you. You want a game: You see all the available games and install the ones you want. Same with any application. I was really impressed by this.
3. WINE - I have some programs in windows that are written for windows and I use them daily, Password managers and other "portable apps". In a matter of seconds you can install WINE (Windows Emulator) and run these apps. Its a life saver for small but useful things you need.
4. Easy - Its easy to use. I think easier than Windows. It seems to be more.... guiding.

Why would you move to Ubuntu from Windows?

You are sitting reading this on your desktop that came installed with Windows XP. You have all of your documents and applications and media and... all that Jazz. You know it works with your digital camera and your printer. Its what everyone else you know uses. Why should you change to Ubuntu?

I think you shouldn't.

There is no point moving from a system that is working well for you.

There is a high chance however, that you will move to Ubuntu at some point in the near to middle future.

When will you move to Ubuntu?

• When your in the store and there is the Dell with Windows Vista on it that costs $200 more than the one with Ubuntu on it.
• When workplaces realise that they can a) be more secure and b) save thousands upon thousands with little or no loos of functuionality pr productivity.
• When your friends start using it and selling you its virtues.
  
• When rather than upgrade you insert the Ubuntu CD and go that way. When you friends start using it.
  
• When Google adopts it as its operating system of choice. The idea, often mooted, that Google will develop it's own Operating System is preposterous when there is Linux, especially Ubuntu. Web Services need an operating system. Web services are the future.
• When you try it out using the Live CD. Safely install it and use it occasionally but increasingly because you know, and everyone is telling you, that Windows is a dying operating system.
  

Ubuntu vs Windows

Given the choice between A and B,
Where A is better than B,
and A is Free
I think you would chose just like me.

Review: Freecom 3.5 Network Media Player

Total Media Freedom is the state whereby one can access any media from any where at any time and in any place. We aren't there yet, but for a fair few years I have been trying to get there - mainly through PDAs and lots of PCs in ugly places with cables that are more ugly.

The PC in the lounge exploded a few months ago and has not been replaced. This was actually a good thing because it was very very noisy due to a fan that was once part of the Enola Gaye's propeller manifold.

So, this week I received a Freecom Media Player kit. Its about the size of a car stereo and has a big hard drive in it. It has a simple, slowish interface. You plug it into your TV. You can hook it to your network, but I don't see the point. Its great. It was sooo cheap for what it is, about $110 or 80 nicker.

It plays movies, xvids, DVD over the network, mp3s and oggs and shows jpegs. It aint fancy and it aint top fly.

But its just so fit for its simple purpose, well made and doesn’t look to bad either – thought it wont win any design awards.

If you want a basic semi-portable system for your media then this baby is worth checking out. If you do get one, get one without the hard drive and put an old or cheaper 3.5 inch drive in, which is really easy to do.

See it here:

http://www.freecom.com/productsubs.asp?CatID=8060&sCatID=80604

Kimya Dawson

This song is I just heard. It brings tears to my eyes. Its by somone called Kimya Dawson who Is in a band I have heard of, Moldy Peaches.

Not as Cheery as The Jackson 5, but im guessing less paedophiles were used in the making of this track:p

MSN Messenger 8. Why?

Today I tried the brand new Messenger 8 beta

I expect things to get better as they evolve. Animals do it. Plants do it. Computers do it. We are all spending loads on this hardware to make things faster. Its easy to be flippant about the odd megahertz but, Time is the most valuable thing in existence. It is much more valuable than space and slightly more valuable than reason. It is significantly more valuable than money.

Software should always get better.

So you you are managing an evolving system say for example MSN Messenger 8 and you are thinking "how can we make this better?" one surefire way is to make it faster. Not slower. You might not make it faster, that's not essential, but it is essential you don't make it slower.

Messenger 8 is discernibly more sluggish.It just is. Blame it on the beta or whatever, it shouldn't be like this.

So, Messenger 8, it's better. Why then is it slower? It is discern ably slower. Sluggish.

Ebay Hidden Feature. Awesome.

I just wanted to get a job of thermometers on ebay. I did a search for "thermometer" and got 1336 hits. I thought that that was way too many to browse... my search must be refined.

Ebay has many advanced search commands that can be used to redefine your search:

• Adding a minus sign, eg. "-egg", means "dont show any items that contain "egg".
• Adding qutotaion "marks around a phrase" means find exactly that phrse.
  
• You want to find words that start with a certain sequence of letters use an asterix, eg chin* bud*

That is all fine, but it didn't help me. I wanted not one thermomenter but many. I wasnt prepared to go through 1336 entries looking for lots with more than one thermometer. There had to be a way.

I did some reaseacrh and I found the answer. I am not going to say how but It involved no industrial espoinage or system hacking. This is a feature not documented or mentioned anywhere. Not on Ebay nor in the rest of the world wide web. A feature not mentioned on usenet, newgroups, the blogosphere, irc, msn, aol, compuserve, icq, icq, secondlife, cnn,bbc, msnbc, email or the radio.

This is its first documentation.

The ebay command to signify that you wish to search for more than one item of any given item is to append the term with the "s" character. For examples.

It is that simple.

Using the "s" command I reduced the "thermometer" search from 1336 to just 18. Awesome.

Non User review: Siteadvisor

I just read this from Chris Pirillo, heavily recommending Siteadvisor.com.

Non-User Review; www.siteadvisor.com

A non-user review is not about using the thing but about the thing itself.

What is Siteadvisor?

In essence Siteadvisor is an addition to your web browser that puts either a green, a yellow or a red icon besides sites as they appear in search engine results (or grey if it knows nothing). It looks a bit like this in google:




The icons can then be used to link to more information about the site, either as an instant popup or by visiting the Siteadvisor website.



It works in Google and Yahoo searches and probably others as well.

What's the idea?

The idea is that Siteadvisor will make your use of the Internet much safer and hassle free because you get warned of sites that pose a perceived risk before you click on that site's link.

After quite a few goes, it does show potential and the actual "interface" to the Siteadvisor database is simple and good.


How does it do it?

The people who make it have spidered and analysed large chunks of the web (1 million plus sites so far). They also claim that they have "evaluated websites covering 90% of the world's web traffic" and "downloaded and tested more than 100,000 pieces of software" as well as other measures. These are all big claims and lead to some criticisms (below).

So they have a pretty huge database of sites, and the perceived threats associated with those sites. When you do a search, the results list is augmented by the relevant icons for each website in the list.

It's a great idea.

Does it work?

I'm not convinced it is offering any significant level of security right now...... Its all about the data. Read on...


Drawbacks

Don't get me wrong, I think the system is great and shows some huge, netuse changing, potential. But there are drawbacks, there always are. Time will tell whether these drawbacks prevent the ultimate success of the system.

Drawback 1: Low web area of coverage.

They have 90% of the most common websites and that's great. But they have only a TINY fraction of the total number of websites that actually exists. There are many billions of websites (5, the last time I looked) and they have just 1 million of them. Assuming they want to gain a more significant area of coverage then they will need an exponential increase in their "web cartography".


Drawback 2 : Inherently low data freshness.

Data freshness is a measure of how up to date an entry in a database is. In the case of search engines, if you change a detail on your website it won't be reflected in Google et al until the engines have reanalysed your site. The longer the period between actual change and the database reflection of that change, the less fresh the data.

Siteadvisor has a necessarily low data freshness because:

Not only does it need to analyse websites, it needs to analyse many additional things: software and hashes and web scripts and test email adresses and so on. And what's more, every time it wants to make a site's data fresh, it has to do this all over again.. and that's a huge task.

It takes the might of Google's advanced distributed computing power to make it function reasonably, and Google doesn't have to download and analyse all the extra bits.



Drawback 3: The flacidness of its protection?


There are some big bad threats out there on the wild web internet. Actually, there probably aren't really that many big bad threats out there. But let's assume that there are. It's more exciting that way.

For these big bad threats we use virus checkers and anti-spyware and adware removers. That's what we do. At least that's what anyone who is worried enough to install Siteaider will do. So that takes care of the bad stuff. I'm guessing a virus company is going to be updating its virus database way quicker than Siteadvisor is going to updating its web database.

What exactly is left for Siteadvisor to warn me about? It seems phishing and fraud and identity theft is what they have left to warn me about. But all of these threats are threats overcome not by comparing checksums but by not being stupid. If you really do think your long lost uncle Borris wants your paypal details so he can pay for some "lovely vases, very pricey" then I am not sure you should be online.

I don't really worry about the websites I visit, I don't think. If I were to download pirate software I would be worried, so worried I would make absolutely sure I had my virus checker up to date.




Drawback 4 : The Problem Of Faith

One might argue that, if Siteadvisor took off in a big way, it would instil a misplaced faith in its results that would be more dangerous than the lack of the system. People will be much more susceptible to phishing and other "confidence tricks" if they are told by Siteadvisor that the site is good to go.

It would be easy to do as well. You set up a safe website a month and tell Siteadvisor about it: it then gets the green flag. Subsequently you turn it into a website of the utmost evil trickery to scam anyone who visits it (Rrrrrarrrrr). On the same day as switching sites you spam the 40 million mail addresses you bought on Ebay, even though they didn't take papal. In this scenario, the greater the success and ubiquity of Siteadvisor usage the greater the risk to the individual web user.

The more you think about it the correlation between success and risk becomes apparent and serious.

Drawback Conclusions

I think Siteadvisor has a number of issues that may hamper its success, perhaps critically. The first three drawbacks I list can be largely solved by technology, but I can't see a solution to the 4th Drawback, the Problem of Faith.

Even assuming all 4 drawbacks are not solved, the central question is, will people be safer if they use this system? Actually I think that the majority will be. I think that there will be cases where people are less secure (whatever that really means) if they use the system, but they will be rare.


The Business Model

The business model used is the now fairly standard "normal for nothing, premium for a premium" affair. I have totally no issue with that, but I am curious to see what the premium features would be.

Maybe they will sell us the ability to view when the domain expires, or who owns it or the support email etc. Maybe it will be linked in with geographical or web traffic data.

Whatever there premium features are, Siteadvisor will need to cut the right line between:

1. Making it worthwhile for enough people to upgrade.
2. Not allowing the premium version to be so far superior to the free version that it devalues it completely.

They are going to need money because this is really going to cost. They need an exponential upscaling of their system's processing, bandwidth and storage to tech it through the first three drawbacks I list.


The Conclusion


Even given my criticisms (and I am sure there are others) what Siteadvisor is trying to do is great.

This is not a system that can survive in a backwater or with a low userbase. It needs people and it needs lots of computing power at a high cost.

It's never going to be infallible. At the start I imagine it will be pretty fallible. But as use and progress increase, if it can afford to pay for the increasing technology, it could become so useful as to be essentially a part of the web.

Suck My Gillette Mach 3 Nitro Power Mega Razor

6 Years ago in a super market in Guatemala I brought a Gillette Mach 3 razor. And since then have been a convert. Converted in a way that is unusual - the adverts really do live up to he product.

Ask any man who has moved to the GM3 (As its called in high-tech barbershops the world over) and if they tell you:

"Using the Mach 3 was not a paradigm shifting experience that redefined my own understanding of the term "close shave" and I will never use one again"

Then, they are a liar.


It is that good. Men the world over know that. Its so good that the blade are the most stolen items in supermarkets and RFID tags are being used on these first. Sales pitch over, the GM3 is the big dogs kahunas.


In our Bigger Faster Better consumer culture it wasn't going to be long before the GM3 was usurped, either by Gillette or Wilkinson Sword or maybe Superdrug own brand (hmmmm..). And so... in a fanfare of TV ads, the Gillette Mach 3 Power Nitro was released. I waited over a year before I got one.

Notwithstanding my conviction in the GM3, the 'Nitro just seemed, a con.

"Just 'coz it vibrates, it don't make it better" Is an adage my old scoutmaster used to say. I thought he was right about 'Nitro.

Today I got one in the post. It looked like an alien sex machine. Even with my scepticism about its performance, looks-wise, this baby cruised in the outer lane of the facial hair highway. I had a shave. I wont go into to much detailed or prose, even with the gentle buzzing, it was after all, just a shave.


ANd you know, It was the closest shave I have had. It was so close that I look 3 weeks younger and feel more confident around women.

As I write this coda to a blog post somewhere in cyberspace, I should feel happy. Glad that I was not conned. Content that I have one of the smoothest faces in the room (for at least the next 2 hours until the hair grows or the Avon lady calls). Satisfied that product and placement can become well acquainted. But I don't really. I feel as if I am on a plateau.

That even when they bring out the "'Nitro Nano Mach 3 Plus" in 5 years all achievements made will be facile. Yes, its closer. "Whateva".

Now its closer than it was. And before was close enough. Stop telling me I need a smoother face. I don't need closer. I need cheaper. I want blades that don't have an 800% markup. I want blades that don't cost more than an MP3 player on Ebay.

Ohhh it is nice though.....

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Postscript:

I have just pasted this into the blogger window to send.... and I think.... I need a picture of the Nitro. So I do an image search and **** me in the *** with a **** if there isnt now the Mach 3 Fusion Power with 5 Blades!! FIVE ******* Blades.

You utter *****.

Portableapps.com

If you use more than one PC then you should try Portableapps.com

The idea is that these version of common applications like Firefox have been changed so that they will run of a USB Keyring, preserving settings, cookies, logins, everything.

This in itself is nifty, but where it becomes really cool is that the Apps can also be just kept in a folder on your PC . This folder can then be synced directed to another PC using Microsoft’s SyncToy or any other network synchronizer.

Not only are you duplicating seamlessly where you go you are also backing up your data as you do it.

It works really well. Once you get used to running applications on the disk, setting up short cuts etc, it is just like normal. There is also the Pstart application which does all this for you really well.

Security?

Having your data so liberally splashed around various systems might raise a security concern for you. There are a number of portable encryption apps, I use the free open-source, and great, KeepAss for my passwords. In my PPC and wallet and laptop and phone and desktop I can have everything stored, and If I lose it the important stuff is protected by strong encryption (Rindjel).

If you wanted to be really anal about your information security there must be a program out there that can encrypt and decrypt into halves of the same Card, Folder. If not we should make one:p

Which Portable Apps?

I haven’t tried them all, but the ones I have ill say what I think in a one liner:

• Portable Firefox - So good. So good.
• Portable Filezilla - If you need a FTP client I think this is .
• KeePass - This isn’t from portableapps.com but its the best password manager I have found, its open source and it is Portable.
• Portable Sunbird – I don’t use this much I’m thinking of using it, its calendar program from the people who make firefox.

I would like To see Portable Gimp and portable Picassia (The free and awesome photo catalogues from google) for when we get the terabyte cards:)

The future is portable

Surely this has to be the way forward. Card based operating systems that can be inserted and run on any/many systems. When my Browser settings from my PC are carried over to my phone portably that has to be the near future.

Some people may think that we don’t need cards if we have a ubiquitous network where all devices are connected. I am not sure. Perhaps cards and portability will have a role even when not technically necessary. There is something very intuitively comfortable about “to have and to hold”.

Invest in Sandisk.

Picasa

This is to picture cataloging what Google Maps is to cartography.

Download Picasa free from here

If you have a digital camera you wont find a better way to catalog, browse, display, share and even "tweak" than this free software from Google labs. (Man, I seem like such a Google fetishist in this blog. I'm really not, but they do operate at the outer edge really well and very often.)

I think really I cannot be bothered to write ba really long review of it. Maybe a Zen review.

Yes. A Zen review of Picasa.


It does not take the pictures. It does not make the pictures. It is just the path. The looking glass through which pictures may be seen. And it has red eye reduction.

The Nifty Pocket Mod

As I will probably say many times in this blog, I have had loads of handhelds over the years... as well as... and this and that.

Today I made something that is very nifty. Its called a Pocket Mod. And the best way to describe it is as a disposable, modular filofax, made from one sheet of A4. Check it out here www.pocketmod.com.

The first attempt failed. But that's because I am on origami suppressants. The second one however was a success. I don't know if I will use it but its a great analogue idea.