Posts by Greencat

Stand pricing

While the stand pricing is stupid money, it possibly reflects the fact that they don't expect to sell very many given the target audience for a monitor like this (many of whom will bring their own stand setups).

The new phones are simply too expensive for what they offer

After a few early experiments with Android, I've stuck with Apple's flavour of mobile. But I'm on a secondhand SE that's had its battery replaced via Apple's programme. I reckon it'll be good for at least another couple of years. I like the smaller form factor and don't think any of the current mobile phone technology is worth upwards of grand. I suspect I'm not alone in making that judgement.

Just wait until you try to leave...

I left in August and their automated system picked it up and said that's all fine. I spoke to a customer service rep and he promised I would be refunded the 20 odd days I wouldn't be using their connection. Come the end of the following month I get notification of them taking a payment for the next month. I explain I've left and they agree, and promise the refund (thankfully on the missus' advice I'd cancelled the DD). Same happens the following month, and I speak to a rep who still promises the refund and finally manages to stop them trying to bill me.

They still haven't refunded me the 20 odd days and now my account has been disabled.

23andMe's analysis/algos change over time

The first time I looked at my 23andMe ancestry test results, it showed I had a tiny percentage of native American ancestry. About a year later, their techniques had clearly changed as any evidence of said ancestry had disappeared from their report. I now currently have small amounts of Scandinavian ancestry being reported which were there last time I looked at my report.

Dixons rather than Carphone Warehouse, innit?

Given some of the appalling customer service I experienced from Dixons in the 90s, there's no way I'd go back to any store with that moniker above the door. I suspect they are reaching the point that they have screwed over enough people that it's now hitting them in the pocket.

I suspect...

His claims of a history of killing small animals and psychopathy are as much part of his fantasy as his elite hacker attempts ie lame fiction. The guy's watched too many episodes of Dexter and CSI.

He's a silly kid with likely poor social skills living in a fantasy who took it too far basically. Hopefully, a short bout of porridge will break him out of it. The sad thing is that even if it does, it's probably screwed his chances of a normal life afterwards.

Interesting to speculate...

...what Jobs' third act of life would have been like. Gates, perhaps only by dint of living longer and finding philanthropy, will probably be judged more kindly.

The laptop of my future

I guess I'll be picking up one of those in about ten years time when my small collection of x61s finally give up the ghost.

No problem with ads...

....as I never see any of them. Very occasionally, I'll have reason to load a browser to view a page without an adblocker - and then I'll realise why I've got one installed. There are some utterly obnoxious ads out there.

The thing is I was quite happy with the early internet banner ads. They felt equivalent to a newspaper ad. Fairly unobtrusive, usually irrelevant and ignorable.

Between boringly obvious but breathlessly written opinion pieces, lists, clickbait, autoplaying videos etc - most web based digital content is not worth the electricity consumption or your attention - never mind turning off the adblocker/paying a subscription/micropayment for. At best, it's mildly diverting.

I know a few journalists and it seems something like a Brave New World race to bottom content and payment wise. That's a shame, but I don't see an obvious solution.

Started with the Macbook

I have the 2015 Macbook and already had the keyboard swapped out once. As AC suggests, once you get used to it - it is an excellent keyboard for touch typists in particular. Sure, it's no Thinkpad (the gold standard in laptop keyboards), but I couldn't go back to Windows or Linux.

But the Macbook keyboard is extremely vulnerable to the normal day to day detritus that keyboards tend to accumulate. A toast crumb (or two) trapped under a key can render it inoperable. Wiping a cloth over the keyboard from time to time often aggravates the problem by driving dirt etc deeper. Tipping it upside down won't clear anything either due to small tolerances. Apparently you can remove individual keys for cleaning, but the tutorials look rather fiddly.

Overall, I suspect Apple simply forgot to test this in the real world of someone eating over the top of it, or it otherwise picking up crap from its surroundings. I'm sure I've seen an Apple patent design which looks like some kind of protective seal around the edge of each key. I wouldn't be surprised if that's a response to this problem.

I see a couple of options for Apple. A one off top case replacement (doesn't solve the problem), creating a tool which makes key removal/cleaning easier and/or replacing with a new style of keyboard.

Perhaps not completely bonkers

Measuring river flow could perhaps be useful given the number of hydro-schemes potentially in the offing in North Wales as well as provide early warning of flooding.

I can just imagine a group of walkers chasing after a bunch of sheep to improve their mobile wireless connection through a PAYG mesh network or something. Even so, I wonder if there are that many sheep out there to make one viable. But agreed the margins on sheep are so horrifically poor, the farmers would basically have to be paid to put the devices on the fluffy critters.

Landline based broadband is improving quite a lot in North Wales. My village not too far from Conwy now gets a reliable 36Mb/s. Mobile, however, is still an absolute shocker even immediately outside of medium sized towns.

Cough...Mac client

Never has MS' confusing naming approach (Oh, so there are two OneDrives?) been so galling. If I want OneDrive for personal use on the Mac I can get it, but for business via 365? Forget it - and seemingly no ETA either.

Between this, and the non-appearance of Office 2014 for the Mac - you'd be forgiven for believing you were a second class customer as a Mac user. Even the iPad gets better treatment.

Still, at least we have the bloated new version of Outlook for the Mac to play with (how can a piece of software grow by 10x in size between versions?) What exactly does it do to deserve around 3/4 Gig of HD space?

Been going on for months

...and affecting all kinds of listings not just iWotsits. In short if anything desirable seems a bit cheap, there's a reasonable chance you'll encounter one of these redirects (maybe one in a few hundred listings in my experience).

I have submitted a few to eBay myself - but they seem uninterested on the whole.

One fix is to disable javascript on listings.

Next step...

Turn the kitties into a free wireless mesh network. Goodness knows there are enough around here.

And at their science museum exhibit...

...I think I remember seeing a ton of Mac Minis running it all. Certainly some Apple flavoured machine.

Typo in the app?

Surely, it should say YOS not YO'S.

Retirement...

...do they mean like Bladerunner?

Not sure what's new here

My last job operated under similar circumstances. As a young developer, it was frustrating to be working on what would be cutting edge award winning stuff - if only it had ever seen the light of day.

It would have probably moved things in the wider world a tad - and yes, we'd have probably benefited from external input as well - but that was the job.

Some people will be OK with that. Some of my former colleagues are still there more than 15 years later. Others want the glory.

But my ex-company probably still exists today because of that ability to maintain secrecy.

NT 4.0 - a wonderful OS

Coming to NT 4.0 after Mac OS 7.5 crashes was a breath of fresh air. I can still remember the bliss of having Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Director - plus a couple of different browsers for testing - in my start up folder. Switch on the computer, go and have a cup of tea, come back and everything is loaded up and ready to go. Speedy and reliable all day - and in 'just' 80MB of RAM. Microsoft really had cracked it - and then came 98 and....shudder....Me.

Interesting job but don't stay there for long

This would be a good job to do straight out of university in lieu of a gap year. Not a bad salary either for new graduate. You would get a great addition for CV, plenty of travel and meet lots of interesting people. Longer than a year and I suspect you would begin to feel like a drudge. You'll discover that no-one is really interested in what you have to say or even in speaking to you personally - and there's absolutely no career progression. The anonymous power behind the throne if you like.

Because all of your predecessors have been the same eventually demotivating situation - there will be next to zero documentation on the hotch-potch of electronics you'll be supporting.

I suspect what will happen is that they'll employ someone massively overqualified who will feel like a drudge much earlier than that.

Link (since the article didn't include one)

http://itunes.apple.com/app/imame/id485639079?ls=1&mt=8

Macbook air comparison continued...

The Macbook Air's fan (which rarely comes on) is pretty quiet too. Slower cpu though (i5). Plus almost anything is better than an Acer (I have had two die on me just outside of warranty).

Bit early...?

Still have about 10% of the year to go in my neck of the woods. Still if Christmas comes earlier each year, why not year's best lists.

Otherwise I quite like the unashamedly geeky nature of this list.

Still find mine useful

I admit I was suckered in by the whole Star trek thing when it first came out - and I've had a on/off relationship with it ever since. It has spent days forgotten about only for me to pick it up and intensively use it (yep still has plenty of battery and springs to life near instantly) for a few hours and then put it down again.

At first I used it for web browsing while the missus was watching TV. It's especially good for following twitter while the xfactor is on. I was often shushed for laughing at the comments being made. Reading comics and most pdfs is far more fun than on Kindle or my laptop too. I doubt there is a better tool for browsing and deleting email.

It is terrible for inputting text (the bluetooth keyboard is a serious drain and the on screen keyboard frustrating for touch typists) but with a Poundland stylus and Noteshelf is a fantastic notetaker. I put all of my handwritten notes into it now (and it's far friendly to take to a meeting than propping open an netbook and furiously typing away). iThoughtsHD is a great mind mapping tool too. Garageband is fun to tinker with as well. I also use it to give the odd presentation to small groups of people.

In Borneo last year I had a magical time with my 5 year old nephew (neither of us speak a word of each other's language) playing with one of the virtual pond apps. My 2 year old nephew in this country also loves the baby games on it.

Is it the best gadget I've ever bought? I doubt it. It's not quite the transparent yet facilitative creative tool I hoped it would be (MS's courier might have been a better bet if it had existed) - but as long as I keep finding new uses for it I'll be happy and it is a very nice toy.

Like looking for the Grail...

All I want is a set of earphones that: stay in ears when running, don't tangle (too much), can survive rain, cost less than 20 quid and last longer than a few months. Any recommendations?

I am never going to spend more than the price of my phone on a set of ear phones that'll probably won't last as long as it does. I'd only consider something that expensive if it came with a lifetime guarantee.

Excellent two part series

Great article - and to my mind, balanced. But perhaps that's because I've loved some of Apple's products and hated others. Thought some of Jobs' ideas were astonishingly good and others just meh. I leave the ideological hated (or love) for others. Life is too short.

Dianamania?

Astonishingly I agree with a lot of what Andrew's said. But Dianamania? I don't think so, from my corner of the internets it seems to have mostly died down already. I remember only to well the Diana stuff - seemed to go on for weeks and I turned on the radio to escape it on the TV (only to find every channel on the radio was broadcasting 'live' coverage of her funeral).

Any of these use e-ink...

or are they all LCD displays?

(untitled)

Perhaps I bear a grudge for too long but I won't buy Sony due to being seriously burnt on their supposed support for Windows 2000 on a laptop I bought a couple of months before the OS came out. Took a year for the drivers to appear. Some, like firewire support, never did.

Coupled with a screen that died within six months of purchase (and took a month to get replaced) - Sony are neither well supported, good value or good quality.