Occasional Observations

F is for Facebook but T is not for Twitter

2010-06-21T12:50:00.002+02:00

In the world of Google auto-complete, F is for Facebook but T is not for Twitter.

The top-ranked sites, alphabetically, in Google.com’s auto-complete options deliver a few surprises. Hit S and Google suggests South West Airlines, while J is for the airline Jet Blue and W is for Wal-Mart. Despite the 2010 soccer World Cup finals being played in South Africa, “world cup” doesn’t even feature in the top 10 for typing w.

The leading social networking and online sites are largely dominating their categories: As you’d expect, F points to Facebook.com, G suggests Gmail, M is for MySpace, Y is YouTube and E is for eBay – but typing T points to Target, the US retailer, above Twitter. The much-maligned social networking site Bebo comes in a lowly eighth place behind Bank of America, BestBuy and the BBC iPlayer.

Overall, it is the online and brick-and-mortar retailers that dominate the A-Z, including Amazon, Craigslist, Kohls, Lowes, Netflix, Orbitz, the US Postal Service and Verizon Wireless.

Take a look at top matches for the numbers 0-9 and the results are a little more surprising … for users entering the digit 3, Google suggests that the top hit is the comedy TV show 30 Rock, while in Google-land, anyone typing the number 4 is most-likely to be hunting for 4chan, “the largest English imageboard on the web”. The top 10 has a few more surprises too: 8 = US retailer 84 lumber, “the nation's leading privately held building materials supplier”, while 7 is for 7zip, the computer file archiving utility.

The lists change all the time, which will explain why your mileage may vary when trying this for yourself. For the record, here are today’s alphabetical class leaders on google.com:

A – Amazon
B – Bank of America
C – Craigslist
D – dictionary
E – eBay
F – Facebook
G – Gmail
H – Hotmail
I – iTunes
J – Jet Blue
K – Kohls
L – Lowes
M – MySpace
N – Netflix
O – Orbitz
P – Pandora
Q – Quotes, as in stuff people said
R – realtor.com
S – SouthWest Airlines
T – Target
U – USPS
V – Verizon Wireless
W –Walmart
X – XMradio
Y – YouTube
Z – Zillow – real estate information

1 – 1800Flowers
2 – 2010 calendar
3 – 30 rock – comedy TV show
4 – 4chan – “the largest English imageboard on the web”
5 – 500 days of summer – a 2009 movie
6 – 60 minutes – CBS news show
7 – 7zip – a file archiver
8 – 84lumber – “the (US) nation's leading privately held building materials supplier”
9 – 90210 – the Hollywood zip code
0 – 0 balance transfer

Microsoft's VM licensing is broken

2010-05-18T09:46:00.001+02:00

Microsoft's VM licensing is broken. It doesn't work.

It must have been the lawyers. Who else would come up with such a cuckoo-crazy and totally unworkable model? Here's an insight into how it's broken and why this must be bad for Microsoft's business.

Two weeks ago I installed a brand new Windows VM on Snow Leopard, using Parallels. Despite having more than enough genuine and valid license keys for Vista and XP, I wanted Windows 7 - and I was prepared to pay for the license. A bit extravagant perhaps for a VM, but also a pretty nice OS (I'd even venture that it's even more stable than XP with all the patches - which is saying something).

My mistake was being too generous with the virtual hard drive allocations when configuring the machine - it has two partitions on the same virtual HDD, totalling 250GB (well, this was supposed to take care of Windows bloat up to around the spring of 2014).

Of course this is way too much virtual real estate (by way of comparison, my out-of-the-box Ubuntu installation is currently using around 6.5GB of disk space).

And I thought that the easiest and most pain-free way to perform the shrinkage would be simply to cut a new Windows VM - using only the C drive HDD partition. This would immediately halve the disk requirements, I could delete the old VM and live happily ever after.

Everything worked fine - it's incredibly simple to set up a new VM with Parallels and an existing .hdd file - and the "lean" VM was running in five minutes or less. It's the same installation - the same wallpaper, the same files, the same profiles, the same everything ... except that it's NOT.

Oh no. Not according to Microsoft. I need to enter a valid Windows 7 license key.

This is just wrong - and not only that, it's also misguided and frustrating. You may say otherwise; I say the licensing model is broken. With the current rules in place, there's no way that MS software can be used with server-based computing - because each time a profile is loaded on to a host machine, it's going to ask for a new key. And that's cuckoo-crazy.

Am I too square for FourSquare?

2010-04-07T09:09:00.006+02:00

One month in and I'm seriously wondering if I'm too square for FourSquare. This is despite making fantastic progress. I'm the Mayor of 20 places (of that, more later), folks including "Lutz S" (a total stranger but looks like a nice boy) wanna be my friend, and I'm collecting badges like it's 1983.

But ... I'm bored. Short of checking into (more) places I pass during my daily routine, and adding places that are off the beaten tech track, there's precious little to keep me loyal. I've finished in the top 10 charts for my region for several weeks on the trot - but have no desire to top 'em, now THAT is nerd-dom at its finest.

Perhaps I feel more comfortable sharing my daily movements with total strangers than with casual or close acquaintances, Facebook "friends" and people in meatspace with whom I actually interact. Because adding real friends, acquaintances, Facebook friends (ok you get the message) is probably going to keep me on the straight and narrow. I'm less likely to check into places for the sheer hell of it, and of course in the hope of accumulating those precious points, if people I really know are watching my every move. That's exactly why I declined Google Latitude a couple of years back.

So here's the plan. I'm going to random-up my FourSquare profile. I'll be switching my profile picture for something a bit edgy. I'll be checking into odd locations at strange hours ... and collecting Mayor badges like there's no tomorrow. Maybe I'll use rival service Gowalla for my real-life stuff.

The anonymization of my FourSquare profile will also dig me out of the embarrassing stuff. This week, I checked in for the third time at a client's offices - and became Mayor. This stuff can be misinterpreted, so I actually "resigned my Mayorship". At least I haven't spammed my Twitter and Facebook accounts with FourSquare checkins.

I'm using FourSquare for Blackberry, and it plays quite nicely with the GPS - but sometimes it's also wildly wrong. Near the central station in Munich, someone on FourSquare created a new version (or an homage?) to the fabulous Heathrow T5. Maybe their phone took a long time to find a signal after a quick hop across Europe? I would have checked in, but Icelandic volcanoes have put paid to all air traffic round these parts for the last week, and this is the most wildly-inaccurate location I've seen so far. That said, I've encountered plenty of misses by a kilometer or three. FourSquare seems to be pushing software updates (can anyone confirm?) or at least improving the accuracy of their positioning, but if you find me checking in again at "some cell tower in the middle of nowhere" (not the Mayor of that one, yet) then you'll know that it's off the mark again.

Meanwhile, if I check in anywhere in mid-state Michigan, I'm probably lying. My 2nd-gen iPod Touch evidently took a liking to the delights of Lansing since it insists that I'm still there on the iPod version of FourSquare - which I installed several months after leaving Lansing. I'm actually not sure if the iPod contains GPS - but on this device, Google Maps also thinks I'm there still ... I tried checking in at the legendary Frank's Press Box in Okemos - and was simultaneously congratulated and disqualified by FourSquare for moving at light-speed for that check-in. The iPhone version wins, except for the very-important local leaderboard, which is Better on Blackberry (TM).

This blog has moved

2010-03-24T21:28:00.001+01:00

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Top 10 tech tips for '10

2009-12-31T11:44:00.007+01:00

Although I don't tend to live at the bleeding edge of top new tech, there's an upside to not being the world's earliest adopter. By the time I'm finally ready to get on board with something new-fangled, it's probably time to buy stock in the companies providing it ... because it's going mainstream.

After that caveat, here's my top 10 tech tips for '10.

1. Making friends with Mac. We've been living with a 13" MacBook Pro for the last couple of weeks. Getting it set-up was a snap, even installing Parallels to provide access to an already-licensed copy of Microsoft Office. Having used an iPhone and iPod Touch, the Mac OS is already familiar - a master move by AAPL. Little niggles remain, for example the hard edge of the aluminum casing can dig into my palms, and the lack of a right click button on the mouse (holding down the Control key is the answer), but overall, it's very useable and nicely packaged. Installing software is really simple, although I've yet to master Garage Band. Of course there is a high retail price to pay for the packaging.

2. The mobile internet. Over the last 12 months I've moved increasing towards surfing the web on a mobile device - to start with, my BlackBerry Bold - although the screen really is not surfing-friendly, and since the fall, my iPod Touch. Given a choice I'll always reach for the Touch for any web browsing. And let's face it, BlackBerry Apps really don't cut it ... yet.

3. The iPhone. On the subject of the mobile web, the iPhone delivers the most complete package today - although I expect fierce competition through '10 from Android. At first, I hated the response-free touch-screen (but the BlackBerry Storm's very responsive screen is very horrible indeed) and decided in favor of the Bold, mainly for the keyboard. However, in '10 I'm hoping to spend less time pumping out info and more time absorbing it - which means I need a better mobile device for browsing, and I'm not carrying two devices on the road.

4. A return to Internet Explorer. I'd been a Firefox fan since it was in a zero point something beta as Firebird, and it's still a really great browser, but I've made a concerted effort to use IE8 and it's not at all bad. I'd never managed to fully escape the MS browser lock-in, as some web apps demand IE - and even with the excellent IETab in Firefox, it has still been faster to have only one browser running. As for Chrome and Opera - well, I've tried them but didn't feel the "wow" factor.

5. Widespread Windows 7. It's here to stay, and although I was sceptical a year ago, it's so great to be in a Vista-free zone. I can't really see any performancer improvements over XP although there's greater functionality.

6. The emergence of the eBook. I didn't like the Kindle 2 at first, which is a good sign actually. It's quite convenient for carrying a big pile of reading material, and a bigger screen than the iPod Touch helps, but I'm not lugging it everywhere ... yet. I've got a niggle with the battery life, which seems to show almost full charge for ages, then suddenly plummets into the red - maybe the next software update will fix that.

7. The death of CDs. I've got hundreds in the basement and haven't touched a single one all year. Most of my listening is done via Spotify or Last.fm anyway. Not sure what my feelings here are; my sensible side suggests selling them before CDs go the way of LPs and you can pick up a box-full for pennies.

8. The analog satellite switch-off. I say so with certainty since the service is due to go end-of-life at the end of 2010 ... it's just a race to see if the rust-worms can conquer our old dish before then. DVB-T TV here we come - in 2011.

9. Office online. Why use an installed word processor when an online version is lighter, and takes care of saving and backups, too? I'm trying MS Office 2010 and it seems to offer new functionality, but what's the price premium I'll pay versus Google docs? And don't give me the old argument that "all your data belongs to GOOG" because I've also got Google Desktop installed.

10. No more local storage. A 1TB external hard drive for €90 is tempting - except that I've already got that much storage. It's been years since I've been in danger of running out of capacity, thanks to drives with hundreds of GB, and why should I bother backing up manually to an external USB drive, when I can do it all online? So far I've only got around 65GB of data online, the great bulk of that is JPG images from our cameras. I've stopped worrying about backup because my online service is working optimally, period.

So what's planned for 2010? Further adoption of these 1o points, and keeping an open mind to new stuff, such as the new Firefox mobile browser (maybe it will make Bold browsing a less-frustrating experience?), and perhaps getting around to even thinking about how I might sell some CDs.

7 days with Windows 7

2009-10-29T21:18:00.004+01:00

Here we are on Day 7 with Windows 7 - time for a GBU* update.

The good: Stability and functionality. The "keep the lights on" cost has fallen to well below 1GB of RAM. The gains are boosted by disabling most of the unnecessary services (take a bow, Windows Time sync), deleted others (farewell, Apple Mobile Device Sync, I don't have an iPhone so I don't need you) and switched a bunch more to manual. I've also switched back to the Windows Basic look - who needs Aero? No visible performance gain but a slightly blockier appearance, in fact I'm reminded of the Windows 2000 Pro look. As a result of lower system resource usage, the fan isn't blowing so hard any more ... going back to a near-silent notebook is a bonus. Another real boon has been that BlackBerry software finally works with Bluetooth sync ...

The bad: My anti-virus solution of choice didn't install across the network despite it claiming to be Windows 7-ready. I'm investigating. Meanwhile using A.N.Other anti-virus solution and the trusty ol' Windows Firewall. And Outlook 2007 SP2 is playing games - I'm getting occasional system freezes for up to a couple of minutes, but this could also be something to do with a plug-in that I'm watching with Eagle eyes.

The ugly: TrueType on my notebook panel. Just fuzzy. On my desktop monitor it looks OK ... and there's no way I'm tuning it every time I make the switch. I'll probably turn it off. Also - my favorite button on the entire desktop has moved house: I'm talking about the Minimize Desktop button that used to sit bottom left in my tray. Bottom right isn't intuitive just yet.

Despite lower internal fan use, battery life still seems to be down, although I'm using the vanilla settings right now instead of the more tuned drivers for my notebook ... this has just been a case of getting A Round Tuit. I've got a second battery in the notebook DVD drive in any case. It could also be that the excellent Battery Bar is still fine-tuning its power lifetime calculations.

So what's on my machine now I've had the luxury of a clean install? Here's my list:

* Anti-virus (like, doh)
* CCleaner
* Roboform
* GoodSync
* Office 2007 SP2
* Google Desktop
* Adobe Acrobat Reader
* Adobe AIR
* Revo Uninstaller
* Skype
* ICQ
* Firefox and various plug-ins, numero uno being Delicious.com as ever
* Freemind
* Mozy
* BlackBerry Desktop Manager
* Picasa
* Spotify
* iTunes - but NOT Bonjour. I said "au revior" to that as soon as iTunes had installed
* Various admin tools

And that's it except to say that I'm also testing O&O's Clever Cache, as a replacement for an SD card that I used to use with Vista for ReadyBoost. Although it worked with Vista, Windows 7 said "nein danke" and after I actually resourted to RTFM (definition here if you don't know what this means) I dumped the hardware and am testing a software solution.

It claims to be saving around 130MB of memory that would otherwise be used by File Cache. However, I'd tried Clever Cache with Vista and couldn't tell the difference. I think it's one of those subtle pieces of software that you never really know you need until it's gone ... but I won't know that for another 21 days.

* The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly - abbreviation as used by CAR magazine since time immemorial

Reasons to love Windows 7

2009-10-23T22:23:00.003+02:00

The mass-market beta test worked ... I handed over cash this morning for a full version of Windows 7. Although I'd planned to get the 32-bit Pro edition, the store was out except for Ultimate - which is quite nice as it's got the language pack built-in.

We are officially in the honeymoon period - the install was painless, everything works, and a few things that never worked now do... for example Bluetooth sync on BlackBerry. This should never have been an issue, but it was one of the many things wrong with Vista.

Maybe in 30 years someone will work out the true cost to MS of Vista. For now, I'll be generous and say I am very relieved to be in a Vista-free zone personally, that I pledge to get my friends and family out of that space asap, and I hope the honeymoon lasts for years.

Seventh heaven

2009-10-21T20:17:00.002+02:00

My notebook is jittering with excitement - it's getting a Windows 7 makeover this weekend.
It's a production machine but I'm not going in blind: it passes the minimum spec (ie it can run Vista) and I'm counting the cycles til I can rid my life of V***a.

Since we don't quite live in an Orwellian world I've not gone back and rewritten my original posts on how exciting it was to get Vista in the first place ... but this time around I am wiser and ready.

Watch this space for updates, but no promises on how fast - and no update does not necessarily mean it was a disastrous fail and I'm off da grid. Just busy.

Amazon's crazy Windows 7 pricing

2009-09-25T11:51:00.005+02:00

Thinking of upgrading to Windows 7? Then take a look at Amazon.de's crazy Windows 7 pricing.

The idea of upgrading from XP or the wretched Vista certainly has my stamp of approval - but if you're thinking about going to Amazon's website to choose your upgrade package, choose carefully, or you'll end up spending a lot more than necessary.

According to amazon.de this morning, they're offering all 16 of the standard packages.

First come the lowly Home Premium editions - choose from a 32/64-bit combi, a 32/64 upgrade, or individual 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Next come the more useful Pro editions - and the same choice of versions.

After that, the Ultimate editions ...

And finally, the version upgrades, from Starter to Home Premium, from HP to Pro, and from Pro to Ultimate.

Now look at Amazon.de's pricing and you'll see that they will probably have a hard time shifting those version upgrades. Who in their right mind would pay EUR167.99 to upgrade from HP to Pro when they could buy a stand-alone Pro license for EUR50 less?

The combined 32- and 64-bit versions are also much more expensive. Who the heck would lay out EUR298.95 for the Windows 7 Pro 32 and 64-bit version when they could buy individual licenses for both a 32-bit version AND a 64-bit version and still save EUR66? It just doesn't add up!

The most ludicrous deal of all has to be the upgrade paths. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to buy a new Windows 7-enabled PC or notebook that comes with the Starter edition, and wants to upgrade, is probably better off either choosing a different model in the first place, or wiping the pre-installed software and doing a clean install. Why? Because anyone who pays EUR72.99 for the Starter to HP upgrade, then lays out a further EUR167.99 for the HP to Pro uplift, just has to be cuckoo crazy.

If you do choose Amazon.de as your provider of the shiny new Windows7 software, select your version carefully.

The Year of the Cloud

2009-09-16T11:43:00.003+02:00

2009 is truly shaping up as the Year of the Cloud. For me it's been the year when I've reached the inflection point where putting and accessing my data on someone else's infrastructure has become my primary, rather than a secondary usage scenario.

Although I'd dabbled, like millions of others, with Cloud-based services even before they were called cloud (hello, del.icio.us bookmarks, before the Yahoo! acquisition and more boring renaming as delicious.com; hi Skype, hey Flickr), it's only in 2009 that I've really started depending on these.

Two examples. Firstly, Mozy. After a couple of months of on-off 24x7 operation I've almost finished transferring around 55GB of JPEGs to Mozy Home. Why so long? The slow uplink from our domestic DSL. I've looked for upgrades but there's nothing affordable ... At this upload speed, it's not practical to try uploading the hundreds of GBs of lovingly-ripped and tagged music files, but it's a start in protecting my valuable documents and photos. I'm not planning to access my uploaded data on a regular basis, but knowing it's still there is reassuring.

Secondly, replacing Exchange with hosted email - by Google. This has given me first-hand exposure to how Google is moving into the enterprise as a serious software company. Although the migration has not been totally trouble-free, it's pretty impressive and most of all, the service is fast. My work mail is now powered by Gmail ... although the interface to Google Apps Premier Edition lacks many of the cool experimental Gmail features, I've got all the tools I need.

What next? Well, Roboform offers to sync all my website logins ... not sure this is a good thing. My mobile phone address book was synced via ZYB until Vodafone bought it and took the service offline (boo hiss). I've just checked and it seems to be back ... hey, wouldn't it have been a great idea to actually NOTIFY existing users? However, looking around, they don't support BlackBerry. Oh, forget it. ZYB was a bad example. There are probably a few wannabe copycat services by now, and I'm off to investigate.

An open letter to Amazon

2009-07-20T21:14:00.006+02:00

Dear Amazon,

I'm trying to be a really good customer. It's perplexing that you are making it so hard for me.

I've been buying books online from you since the late 90s. As you've grown, I've ordered a wider selection of items, too - most famously, my first DVD player. (I'd ordered a book and hadn't quite spent enough to qualify for free shipping, so on a whim, I decided to buy the DVD player from you. Some way to qualify for free shipping!) Although I'm still to order the George Foreman Grill, I've even resold my near-pristine paperbacks via your site.

But why do you make it so hard for me to be a customer at all? Don't you want the few hundred dollars that I spend with you each year? If you'd rather that we parted company, just say the word and I'll try and live without you.

What's pushed me over the edge this time? Well, let's talk about two things. The first is an itty-bitty little service where, for a "small charge" you allow me to resell the pulp fiction that I bought and devoured. Then you advise me that a "market" price would be around $2 for a book, and then you charge me MORE than that in commission. So I make a loss on the sale.

Shurely shome mishtake.

Actually I made a measly $0.10 or so on the postage, and my bookshelf looks a lot better having been denuded (I bought two hardback Feng Shui books last year from you last year, remember? (Want to buy 'em back for a good price? See "Simon's Shop" on your Amazon.com site if you can ever find it. Go on, I challenge you. Believe me, it's well-hidden.))

The second, and more heinous crime, is how you've treated me with regard to the Kindle. Yes, your own, in-house, greener-than-paper, must-have yuppie tech-nerd device. That's me... so I'm delighted to have one. But after a solid 72 hours' ownership I'm wondering if I can hack the darned thing and install a lite version of Linux - because you're making it hard for me to love the Kindle for what it is.

Mine arrived last Friday, July 17th 2009, which will probably be a day of mourning in fture for Amazon. For this was the day that you chose to remotely delete readers' copies of a couple of George Orwell titles. That was rather unfortunate ... of course my Kindle was easy to name, and was Christened as Winston.

Winston came to me as a gift. I'd never have dared be as doubleplus ungood as to even think about trying to order one on your website. As you know, I don't live in the US. So how dare I even dream about owning one...

Once Winston arrived, then as you know from the built-in GPS and wireless, I wasn't in the continental US when I fired him up. He's probably already on a watch list of some kind for not "appearing" on Whispernet within a few days of shipping. From here, there's no chance of registering ... and the "experimental" web browser (yes, the "experimental" monochrome text-only web browser? Are we in 1984 or something?) won't work on any of the four wireless phone networks available in my home country.

Ah well, at least USB is Universal. That's what it stands for, Universal Serial Bus, geddit? Kudos to you for at least enabling Winston to talk to my home PC (he runs Windows 7, in English language, probably a good thing it's not set to Norwegian or something). I plugged him in and Winnie showed up immediately as a network drive. Great. Next step, order some up-to-date content and drop or download content straight on to the Kindle ...

Like yeah, right. You guys thought of that one, eh? Aren't you so clever!

It ain't working. I'm not in the US and you know it. So I cannot buy content. And without access to the latest ebooks, I'm stuck in a timewarp that makes 1984 look futuristic. There are some great novels out there available for free download, but I doubt that many were written this century, let alone the 20th. If I want to read vintage Arthur Conan Doyle or James Joyce, then 100 local bookshops (and probably your website too) can offer me numerous editions for less than the commission Amazon takes on my second-hand book sales. The Karma Sutra is available for free e-book downloading ... but with a greyscale screen and no backlight???

No, the point is that I want to read contemporary fiction. Stuff that's firmly within copyright and probably published within the last 5 years. Unfortunately, due to "geographical restrictions" I'm unable to download even free books from Amazon.com. It doesn't matter if I enter a US shipping address, and apply a US $ credit to my Amazon.com account, it's not enough to convince you, Amazon, that I should be giving you my hard-earned greenbacks.

In my previous post I linked to a blog with some work-arounds. There's actually an easier way to get content on your Kindle if you live outside the US. All you need is a partner in crime who has a US-issued credit card.

Step 1: Ask that person to register your Kindle to their account.
Step 2: Ask them to buy Kindle content.
Step 3: They download the newly-purchased content.
Step 4: They send said content to you via email or FTP server or CD or pigeon post or whatever.
Step 5: You send the person with a US credit card an Amazon voucher to cover their costs and a little bit more for their efforts. This is Step 1 if you are a shyster.
Step 6: You download the .azw files directly into your (their) Kindle.
Step 7: You read the files as Kindle books ... just as you would if you were within the borders of the US.

What a bunch of buggering around.

Next time I actually fly to the US - if I bother to take Winston along for the ride - then he's in for a delight. If you've ever seen the movie The Matrix, think of the scene where Neo is getting a download of stuff like kick-boxing. No doubt Winston will writhe in my hands.

The thing is, I know you're right according the letter of the law. I know you'd love to sell me content directly, if only the licensing laws allowed.

However, it's the way you've implemented your super-strict sales restrictions that gets me. Even with a US billing address, IP address and a pre-paid gift card, you still refused my money. Whatever next? Maybe American companies will stop selling arms to Middle Eastern juntas because their credit cards ain't issued by a US bank?

Kindling the privacy debate

2009-07-19T15:55:00.004+02:00

The arrival of my Kindle 2 (an unexpected but welcome gift) coincided with Amazon's action to act as Big Bother and remotely delete copies of George Orwell’s books on users' devices. Oh dear me. It really couldn't have been a worse choice of books to zap remotely via its Whispernet mobile network.

Although technically-speaking, Amazon did the right thing, their execution was terrible. At least, that's how the story started gathering momentum: with outraged Kindle users complaining that the Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm had simply been zapped from their devices.

This is a great example of how to alienate your customers, and a less than auspicious start for my Kindle ownership. Wireless was enabled, out of the box, so by the time I'd worked out how to turn it off, no doubt it had found and been rejected by one of the local GSM networks and Amazon was therefore already aware that I'm not currently located in the US. Thanks to our wet summer, the device hasn't been switched on while outside yet – so maybe the built-in GPS device hasn't managed to get a lock on any satellites, although I don't expect it will be too long before it manages to get a sniff of a signal.

Being outside the US means that I'm effectively handcuffed when it comes to adding up-to-date content to the Kindle, whom I shall call Winston. There are tens of thousands of out-of-copyright classics available as a DRM-free, Winston-format download, but until I get myself within the borders of the lower 48 states, there ain't no way that Amazon is going to let Winston have any current content, even if I want to pay for it.

Believe me, I tried. I followed blogger Nerdgirl's excellent advice and registered a new Amazon.com account, using a .com email address, entering a bona-fide US billing address and then adding a $50 gift voucher to my account. My mistake was using a valid but non-US issue credit card – even though I did not authorize Amazon to debit anything. By the time I came to the final step in the transaction process, hoping to be able to download the DRM-laden file straight to Winston, who'd shown up as a 1.4gb capacity network drive, Amazon's Thought Police had detected that I'm not in the US … and kyboshed the deal.

I tried again via a Terminal Server machine that thinks it's in Oregon. No deal. So I shot a quick email to a friend in Chicago. He logged in with my user:pass and was doing great until the final screen, where he learned that we were busted – and that an irregularity had occurred. Yes, I'd logged out of my Amazon.com account so it wasn't the multiple logins but the trusty credit card. Aargh. I've got $50 on my new Amazon.com – which was happy to take my money for the voucher – and I can't use it.

This has given me valuable think time on the question of whether I want to invest US $9.99 in Kindle downloads of current paperbacks. Once I've read 'em, then what? The DRM means I cannot resell them. In my home office there's currently a pile of read and for sale paperbacks – most from Amazon – that I'm now reselling … via Amazon.

Maybe I'll spend the $50 on gifts for friends – within the US of course. I'll keep looking for sources of free ebooks and perhaps catch up on some classics while waiting for Amazon to launch in Europe. ~~The company has gained a foothold by opening for business in the UK, so who knows what Winston will do when I take him on a business trip to London later this week. Watch this space.~~*

And keep away from the Thought Police!

*Footnote: I've since learned that Amazon has NOT launched Kindle in the UK yet, but that an announcement with an MVNO is imminent.

Removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7

2009-07-08T09:42:00.004+02:00

It might sound dramatic, "removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7", but I'm not ready to sacrifice access to a bunch of network drives just to get away from Vista.

Therefore, getting my "toaster" (the Netgear / Zetera SC101 network drives) running is an important step in migrating away from Vista. Although the set-up program is able to install, - after a fashion, anyway - it won't actually run under W7, even via any compatibility mode.

Thinking back, Netgear was pretty slow to put up drivers even for Vista, so there's no hope that the company is going to be proactive with a niche product like the toaster ... as confirmed by the forums, where in Jan 2009 the official moderator wrote: "Please wait until Windows 7 is fully out".

Since then, nothing - not even any hints that Netgear might be developing drivers etc and looking to benefit from those tens of thousands of beta testers. What a huge missed opportunity: Netgear doesn't strike me as a very progressive or customer-friendly company any more. Shame... While I'm on the subject of customer care, Netgear still hasn't even bothered to certify its Vista / XP drivers for the SC101.

The same thread, however, does offer plenty of information from enthusiastic users. Better still, there are step-by-step instructions that actually work. They involve exporting registry keys from XP or Vista, and importing into Windows 7.

This worked, to a point. After I'd started the z-san service, the network drives just popped up in Explorer. I got asked if I'd like to format one (of course not) as it was mounting. But the anti-virus software didn't like this and I got my first 7 bluescreen. A reboot, reinstallation of the a-v software and things stablized.

Note to Netgear: I'd love to test an official beta of any SC101 software for W7. I'd even sign an NDA... But I am not holding my breath waiting for you to actually do anything for at least nine months.

W7 update - after the thrill has gone?

2009-06-26T21:12:00.005+02:00

The arrival of something like a new smartphone, laptop or even car often means a splurge on extras, too - making sure the new baby is properly pampered in the thrill of the first weeks of ownership.

That's what I'm going through with Windows 7 - because to make the Release Candidate really useable I've installed my favorite software (a good subject for another blog post, perhaps). Under the skin it doesn't appear to be much different from its bastard sibling Vista, except that it runs faster, lighter, smoother...

Now it's up and running, and it's got enough software installed to be useful, I'm wondering: now what? How long before I hit problems? In fact, the first ones have already come up: something minor, which is that an old webcam doesn't work (big deal, rarely used that one), and something more major, which is that the Toaster (Netgear storage central) won't install properly.

Remembering all the aggro I read about in getting Netgear to update the software at all, I'm not exactly optimistic that they'll be rushing to update the toaster for 7. There must be plenty of other work-arounds, such as installing new NAS software on the drive itself. Further investigation needed.

To come back to the question, though: will W7 fall victim to the classic Windows slowdown problem after a few months? Will my drives get filled up with useless log files that record the time and date I opened, closed or resized windows? This is the sort of stuff that needs to be disabled by default - nice to have it, but you don't need it running.

One more thing: My XP virtual machine - which ran like molasses on Vista - is fairly hopping along with W7. No other changes, just the host OS.

Windows 7 update

2009-06-22T09:38:00.006+02:00

Installation complete: When it comes to Windows 7 I can see what the fuss is all about. It's a modern version of Windows that looks like Vista, but works like XP.

Having followed the debate about whether or not 7 should be "just a Vista service pack", I've had to wait until now to chime in. Logically, it's Windows 98 to Win95, but emotionally, it should be issued as a free service pack by way of apology to long-suffering Vista users.

Let's delve into the process of getting W7. As my system has dual hard drives, I didn't bother wasting plastic by burning a DVD, instead I used WinRAR to unpack the ISO to a spare drive, and then instigated the upgrade.

It didn't work. The upgrade process got stuck twice in the process of importing / converting all my files ... the rollback to Vista (couldn't it have been nice, and rolled me back to XP?) worked.

Next step was to create a DVD and boot from this, installing W7 on a different partition of my primary hard drive. This worked ... but be warned, you need a LOT of space - the initial 15GB was enough to get W7 installed but not enough for transferring my profiles. After adjusting the partitions (let Vista or W7 do this for you, it's the easiest way) I was ready to roll again with a 60GB "C" drive.

Installation takes about an hour, it's largely unattended until you pump in the licence key (this step can be skipped for the first 30 days too). Once the system is up and running, the differences are immediately clear. It uses less memory than Vista. It starts applications faster. It's cleaner, smoother, and perhaps more intuitive too.

The key tool is the transfer settings wizard, which has again been updated for the new operating system. It's now called Windows Easy Transfer and is almost idiot-proof, but thankfully there's a manual mode ... allowing me to select only the files from the soon-to-disappear Vista C drive for transfer. This tool works pretty well, transferring all account settings ... but not installed programs, which is a disappointment. I guess licensing issues put paid to that.

Our system is now dual-boot ... as both partitions are on the same physical hard drive. Windows gets confused if you have two bootable partitions on separate drives.

The next steps: giving everyone a chance to get used to W7 and enjoy the greater speed and functionality ... usability is improved because it does respond way faster than Vista could ever manage. I've also got to ponder the Office 2007 licensing issues ... is it worth installing and registering the suite on my RC version of W7 only to have to then re-install and re-register when (if) I buy a license for the full version?

Questions, questions.

W7 redux

2009-06-19T21:14:00.003+02:00

A while back I wrote about abandoning the Windows 7 beta, because of the obvious flaws of running it in a virtual machine on Vista.

Since then, our home PC has been getting cranky running Vista. The main problems are that the cooling fan is running more and more - and disk usage is up ... classic signs of an aged Windows installation that needs attention. The fan blades are clean, the heat-sync connection is good, and the disks are well defragmented. I've also cleaned out all unnecessary files and still my 18-month-old Vista installation has slowed down.

The inevitable solution is usually a clean install ... but really I can't face it this time. The machine has five user accounts on it, all five are used, and it's a heck of a lot of work to rebuild five profiles. All are backed up of course, but even so ...

Therefore - and probably against my better judgment - I'm going for the Vista-to-Seven upgrade program this time. It's a mighty slow process: one hour in, it's still only 63% of the way through gathering files, settings and programs: I'm informed that there are 585,000 of these! However, at least I don't need to do anything apart from sit and watch (and write this post).

I was going to have to reinstall Vista (or perhaps XP) anyway. That's how I'm justifying this little experiment.

What do people find so difficult about airports?

2009-05-11T01:20:00.002+02:00

Dear Mr and Mrs Traveler,

No matter where I go, you’re always there at the airport – and you’re always behaving like it’s your first time. Just what is it that you find so perplexing about negotiating airports? Is it something to do with the electro-magnetic interference from the security systems that causes your brains to freeze?

Here’a a handy set of tips for you to remember next time you fly. Try to pay attention now.

Passport control? YES, that’s right. This is you are required to show your Passport. Arriving at the window is not the time to start searching your pockets for it.

Security control? Yes, this means you will need to empty your pockets of all metal, take off overcoats, get laptops out of bags, surrender liquids, etc. I know you’ve been watching the people in front of you in the line with abject fascination for the last 10 minutes (ok, make that 20). Hadn’t it yet penetrated your consciousness that you too will be required to go through the same procedure? And yes, those keys hanging on your belt WILL set off the scanners.

Wandering around the airport: Do you HAVE to stand side-by-side without moving on the walkways and escalators? Don’t you understand those little icons showing that you should stand to one side, in order to allow others to pass you? And don’t you realize that your enormous suitcase is blocking the gangway?

Talking of which, baggage size: I know you don’t trust those baggage handlers, but believe me, your whacking great suitcase is NOT going to fit into the overhead locker.

Ready to board? Yes yes, I know you are. But why do you stand in an impatient herd by the gate for at least 10 minutes before boarding starts? Getting on first doesn’t mean you’re going to snag my seat, not does it mean that the ‘plane is going to get there any faster. On long-haul flights, they board from the rear seats first in order to get people on board faster. That usually means rows in the high 20s, 30s and 40s. Believe me, it’s easier to get to seat 22H once the passengers behind have pushed and bumped their way past. A special award goes to EasyJet (NB this is not really a recommendation, you social media watchers at EasyJet) for fueling this fire by charging extra for “speedy boarding”. Most of the EasyJet flights I’ve taken have involved a bus to the terminal … so you get speedy boarding on board the bus. Nice! You’d pay extra for that??

Switching off your mobile: Yes, yours as well.

The multimedia home

2009-04-16T11:05:00.003+02:00

For years I've pondered the benefits of setting up a multimedia PC in our living room - but never found a compelling-enough package to provide the impetus to actually go out and buy it. For a while I thought a hacked X-Box running Linux would be the answer, but the idea of coming home with an X-Box and trying to explain the repurposing (and the prospects of anyone actually believing that) was a step too far!

Almost two years ago I documented a poor living room PC substitute - the Netgear EVA, which went back after a few days. And its support for only a restricted number of formats, plus its super-hot operating temperature, has ruled out Apple TV.

Finally, I found a working alternative, the KISS 1600 media player. It's not exactly new to market but after a couple of months, I'm pretty happy - especially after upgrading my wifi. A sleek new N-standard Linksys has replaced the old D-Link, which had started playing up by randomly refusing to work until the power was cycled ... N is also fast enough for video streaming.

The source for this streaming: my trusty NAS drive, as the (minimalistic to say the least) KISS media sharing application just worked. I love it when that happens.

The economics of flying business class

2009-04-02T09:49:00.004+02:00

Of late, I've been flying around quite a bit - and been pondering the economics of flying business class. In short, although the airlines are trying hard, I still don't think the maths make sense for anyone to pay out of their own pocket for a business class ticket.

Over the last couple of years, the airlines have really raised their game in trying to differentiate in lots of little ways between business and cattle class. Some examples of those little touches:

* Priority boarding - over a red mat (hardly a carpet) at the gate. Great. EasyJet charges a premium for that (so you can be first on the bus, as cheapo airlines avoid jetway fees wherever possible). Value? Maybe $10 if you can find people who would pay for it.
* Priority tags on hold baggage. Theoretically a good idea but in reality the bags all arrive together, or maybe within a couple of minutes. Value? About the same as the tip you'd give the baggage porter instead. $3.
* A little piece of chocolate on your seat. Great! I'm convinced: sell me a business class ticket. But seriously, I don't always want to eat a piece of chocolate when I get on board a plane - I'm not 7 years old any more - and if I don't see it, sit on the chocolate and it melts, I've got a dry cleaning bill (and an embarrassing situation to explain). Value: $0.75.
* A bottle of water to go with your chocolate. Not bad at airport prices per liter of water. Value: $3.
* That business class meal with real cutlery and crockery. I recently asked an attendant which of the standard "chicken or beef?" meals she recommended. Her answer: "Eat at the airport!" The stuff served in economy class isn't great - but then I don't expect any business class meals to qualify for Michelin stars any time soon (even though they do use puffed-up prose). Value: $10 and I am being generous.
* The free copy of a magazine on board. OK, not bad, but often eco passengers can snaffle these too. Value: $0.
* Another free chocolate before you land. $0.75.
* Lounge access. Ah yes, the lounge. In general, these are pretty nice - with the exception of Lufthansa's horrible little overcrowded, overheated, under-seated corner of T2 at London Heathrow. All kinds of goodies in here: free snacks and drinks ($15 if you try hard), free wi-fi ($10). On the other hand, as I don't generally get lounge access, I arrive at the airport as late as possible - getting an extra 30 minutes in bed (or in a traffic jam). I know there are showers etc in some lounges - which is great value if you fly in overnight and have to go straight to a business meeting. Thankfully, I always avoid having to do that!

Time to do a sub-total: I make that $52.50. Each way.

Compare and contrast with the "special offer" that BA recently offered me for a London-Munich flight - a one-way upgrade for $150. For a total of two hours on board, I declined the $50-an-inch extra legroom. For a long haul at the same price, I'd have jumped. However, the price delta runs to four figures - at least an extra $1000.

The airlines have also gotten wise to people booking economy and using miles to upgrade to business. Actually, spending 35,000 miles with Star Alliance airlines for a one-way trans-Atlantic upgrade seems to be pretty good value - so there must be a catch.

There is. My last two "economy" class trans-Atlantic tickets were super-cheap: between $500 and $700. After deducting airport taxes etc, the revenue to the airline was only around $100 each way. And because of this, there was No Way In Hell that they were going to let me upgrade my class W (I think) ticket to business class. In fact, I've even heard that US airlines are now trying to charge a premium for bulkhead-row economy class tickets.

To conclude this ramble, yes there are clearly benefits to flying business class - I didn't even mention the potential value of the flexible ticket. But I think the best solution is the one I first heard of through an old friend - who flies economy class, but then spends a little bit extra on a hotel, and enjoys the luxury over the duration of his business trips. Works for me!

Returning to Facebook after a year out

2009-03-11T08:46:00.005+01:00

It was probably inevitable. After just over a year without Facebook, I'm back. Why? Actually, for the same reason that I left.

That reason is that Facebook is too good to miss - and that's why I'm back. I'd "closed" my account for a number of reasons. The main ones were that I was tired of "vampires Vs zombies" and other nonsense, and that Facebook had originally been a friends-and-family thing only ... but that quickly changed as business connections started adding me. The line between business contact and friend is a a very blurry line in many cases.

This time I'm back with a dumbed-down, locked-down profile. It took about 20 minutes to go through the various settings and tighten my security preferences away from the very liberal defaults ... 12 hours later I have 35 friends - a mixture of business and social contacts.

It's good to be back. Yes, really. It had become clear that I was missing out ... "oh, I posted those photos on Facebook" was a comment I heard many times - followed by the "oh I guess I could send you a couple of them". Not being on Facebook was requiring people in my network to make the extra effort.

Together with Twitter, it should be a powerful combo. As I've previously commented, Twitter gives me the feeling that I really know the people I'm ~~stalking~~ following a lot better. Add in Facebook and we're going to get really intimate - as long as you let me share.

As for what's on my Facebook profile? Well, my friends are welcome to take a look. I've turned off the infamous "Wall" (this is Facebook sans frontieres) and won't bothering with any third-party add-ins, quizzes etc. Just the plain vanilla version. I've already added a couple of pictures from a weekend skiing trip and I'll probably add more stuff that gives the impression that I'm a wholesome, sporting, family man. Which of course I am.

A near miss

2009-03-02T21:24:00.002+01:00

On the day that experts predict a slump in PC sales, I just missed a motherboard burn-out ... a rogue USB port was to blame. It had stopped working and rather than ~~throw it away~~ take it to an electronics waste recycling point, I fiddled...trying a replacement power supply with the same(ish) power output.

The result: A catastrophic FAIL. The PC reacted badly - it blew all its cooling fans at max speed for four short bursts and then switched off. No shutdown, just off.

And of course it had everything attached to other USB sockets - the expensive fast CF flash card for the D-SLR, an iPod, a printer ... you name it. Fearing the worst I opened up the case and had a good sniff around (like a parent short-cut checking on a baby to see if the nappy needs changing!) but couldn't smell that fearsome smell of burning electronics ... so gingerly reconnected - and ... it all works.

Except that rogue USB device. That's in the (sin) bin.

White weekend

2009-02-15T18:44:00.002+01:00

We had a white weekend, enjoying the 20-plus cm of snow that's fallen here, and the 50cm-plus that's in the mountains.

Saturday - cross-country skiing, carving out our own tracks in places and then following the freshly-laid grooves from the x-country track-making skidoo. I'm still not very good at going downhill on cross-country skis!

Sunday - sledging and then cross-country again. Apart from the travel costs, we spent nothing on winter sports this weekend - so in comparison to downhill skiing, we're around €200 in the black. Judging from the webcam on our local hill, the pistes were pretty packed, especially today, in the sunshine.

Here's 12 seconds of our weekend.

Confessions of a Twit(terer)

2009-02-04T20:16:00.008+01:00

My tweeting started less than two months ago. I took the plunge because, like George Bernhard Shaw said, one should try everything in life once, except buggery and country dancing (look it up).

At the start, enthusiastic friends already using Twitter were evangelizing the service to the point where I wondered: is this addictive? After some 130-ish "tweets" since late December, and reading at least 100x as many from my contacts, I know the answer. Yes, but maybe not forever.

Despite the hype, Twitter is still flying below the radar for 99 percent of people who use the 'net. And that's what makes it so special at the moment. I wonder how long it will stay that way. I'm seeing various tweets about spammers being kicked off the service, plus various ham-fisted trumpet-blowing by some companies that have not really understood what Twitter is all about.

Despite all this background noise, there are today a few undisputed Stars of Twitter. Take a bow Stephen Fry, whose followers have increased from 80,000 to 110,000 in the space of a week. He's still got a long way to go to eclipse Barack Obama, perhaps the most-famous Twitter user of our times (so far), but he will - and fast. At the current growth rate alone, Fry will be the world's top Twitterer by the end of March.

Who? I hear non-Brits asking… well, tune in to his Twitter feed and you'll get the idea. Here's why: Stephen Fry is the rising star on Twitter for being himself.

That's part of the charm. I honestly feel that I've gotten to know the people I'm following a little better since early December. And that's also odd since I don't actually know at least half of them in real life aka meatspace. I've tuned in because they're on the "friend" list for other people I'm following, and so on.

If you checked out Twitter but then looked away around a year to 18 months or so ago, when it was competing with Dodgeball and based on SMS-ing, it is time to look again. I remember doing the same thing - and doubting that it was worth the cost of sending multiple SMSes to update folks on the minutae of my life.

Things have changed. Today I'm Tweeting via TweekDeck on PC and TwitterBerry on mobile. Both are super-easy to use and keep me up-to-date with my friend-cloud. Best of all is that I'm pulling info - dipping into the "tweam" of information - as and when I feel like it. It IS addictive though!

Looking for some stats to convince yourself that Twitter is the 2009 internet phenomenon? Plenty of places to look. Try Twitscoop, Retweetradar, and Cursebird for a start. These are among the mushroom cloud of Web 2.0 /mashup sites feeding off raw info from the Twitter API to produce information that ranges from the totally fascinating to the completely useless: maybe both at the same time. I found all three via recommendations from my Twitterfriends.

Doubting the real-world effect of Twitter? Today a tweet by Stephen Fry is said to have brought down a website, thanks to the sheer volume of followers who then tried to click through on his recommendation. I know that just one silly old website isn't a Government, but even so, Twitter has virtualized the flash mob.

Wondering how to tweet? Well, in your own style. Drop the "is …" and try and add some useful or meaningful information. A weblink helps. My reaction to your tweet should not be "so what?". And I am not going to DM (direct message) you on Twitter for more info – if you have something to say, say it, and say it in under 140 characters. Actually, in under 70 if you can ... this is a couple of lines on TweetDeck.

My personal Twitter style has already changed since my first tweet on 6th December. It wasn't "hello world" but "C&C on a wintry day / bulk buying frenzy / impulse shopping by the kilo", when I was thinking that twittering in Haikus would be fun. Maybe it would, but to do a real Haiku was too darn hard. My last Haiku-tweet was six days later. Those weather references were getting boring: It was a cold, but still wintry day today, almost two months later. Yawn.

I have also tried to stop posting meaningless stuff like my Jan 13th "Hmmm, an unexpected traffic jam" because unless you know where I was at the time (and there were no clues), it doesn't help. Since then I've added 12seconds.tv – 12 seconds of tv – anytime, anywhere – and today also Latitude from Google, although not sure if I'll be using it. Maybe you should tweet @MrNesjo in 90 days or so for an update. Or look me up on Latitide. Might see you there.

Abandoning Windows 7 Beta

2009-01-27T20:53:00.002+01:00

I'm abandoning the Windows 7 Beta. It's an inevitable decision and has probably been obvious all along as there is simply no point in using a host machine running Vista for *any* feature-rich VM if it has only 2GB of memory.

It's certainly possible to use Vista and VMware Player for a lite Linux distro, or an XP installation that is content to work with 512MB. But expecting a new MS operating system to run fast and mean on a Vista host ... well, that's a leap of faith.

And since Vista is my host OS, it pretty much kyboshes the idea of running W7 at all in Beta. I'm most certainly not going to install a time-bomb OS on either of my production machines, and my sandbox machine is currently awaiting a new hard drive. Actually, scratch that, it has only 1GB of RAM.

It's not a difficult or heart-wrenching decision to abandon the W7 Beta. I liked the wallpapers, if that's any consolation. Had it been an OS that looked like it would make up for all the many, many things that are evidently wrong with Vista, like being able to run with 1GB of memory as I originally assigned to the VM, then I'd have been ready to invest time and effort in installing software, playing with the OS and getting a feel for how it could change my life.

Instead I'm just frustrated. And I still don't think a Mac is the answer either.

Topping up my iodine levels

2009-01-25T19:22:00.004+01:00

My week-long trip to the Pacific North-West of the US concludes with a trip out to Sequim (pron. "Squim") on Washington State's north coast - facing out over the Juan de Fuca over towards Victoria in Canada's British Columbia, and the San Juan islands. The windswept beach provided a great opportunity to test Microsoft's Photosynth - with a 360-degree panorama compiled from 200 individual images.

Although Photosynth did not manage a 100 percent "synthy" this time around, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

W7 VM on a NAS drive

2009-01-13T23:10:00.002+01:00

Success! I have the VM of Windows7 running on one of my home NAS network drives. Sweet. This means I can use a single VM image of 7 with all the machines connected to my network. The result is less maintenance, more time to play. I like that idea.

W7 with networking

2009-01-13T14:09:00.004+01:00

Okay, it was my fault: no way could W7 detect disabled VMware drivers. So I enabled the drivers and booted from the ISO. Under an hour later, Windows 7 was up and running, complete with network connectivity!

Here's a glimpse of the desktop. No doubt we'll eventually get as sick of the sight of that fish as most people are of the tree and hillside in the XP default wallpaper.

Seven update

2009-01-12T12:42:00.002+01:00

After Friday's fiasco, with supply unable to meet demand, Microsoft managed to get the public beta of Windows 7 under way, making the software available for download quietly on Sunday. After an overnight download (the ISO is 2.43GB, which takes a couple of hours on a 2meg DSL connection) and burning the DVD, I was able to successfully install the 32-bit version into a virtual machine without problems.

However ... where's the beef? At first glance, 7 is little more than SP2 for Vista. It's got some extra wizards, which may or may not be a good thing, moving forwards. At least the dreaded User Account Control seems to be less intrusive. I haven't come across it yet.

One nice touch that's already impressed is the opportunity to change desktop / display / screensaver / theme settings all in one.

Regarding the greatest bugbears, bloat and performance, it's quite hard to tell straight away in a VM if 7 is going to be any better. On the positive side, the fact that it ran and was usable at all with 1GB of RAM is an achievement, this was never possible with Vista. Of course the downside was that by sharing half my RAM, the host Vista machine became unusable ... but then during my test sessions it will be only that: a host.

More soon.

W7 - the beta farce

2009-01-10T15:27:00.003+01:00

Windows 7 isn't in Beta phase, it's in Beta farce! Blaming unexpectedly high traffic to their website, Microsoft pulled the plug on the 2.5 million public Beta downloads of W7 yesterday. Hardly a great start.

It clearly shows there's pent-up demand for a better version of Windows. XP was OK, but Vista was supposed to be better. In some ways it is, but it's also bloated and over-complicated. So Microsoft has wisely decided to cut bait, even before Vista SP2 is upon us, by pushing through the next-generation OS, Windows 7.

At least I hope it's the next-generation and not a poorly-disguised Vista SP2.

Disappointing to have to wait a little longer for the public Beta of 7. Let's hope it is worth it.

Waiting for Windows 7

2009-01-09T17:41:00.003+01:00

I'm taking the bait and will be trying to download the first public beta of Windows 7 once it's available later today. My first installation will be within a VM enviroment, since it's taken me ages to work towards a very functional, stable version of Vista.

I'll post some updates in the coming days.

Freeeezing cold!

2009-01-07T14:46:00.003+01:00

Here's one of my favorite fountains in Munich, adorned with icicles. It's actually one of the few fountains in the city that isn't switched off and boarded up for the winter.

Photosynth: A compelling reason to switch from Mac

2008-12-15T16:24:00.004+01:00

Photosynth is simply the best thing to have come out of Redmond for years. It's fabulous. Simply put, it stitches together snapshots into a montage. It's not a new idea - but the first time this has been done properly with software.

Here's one I made earlier. I have a hard drive full of patchwork snaps that have just been waiting for the right software to come along. I'm already worried about using up my 2GB storage space...

What I love most of all is the pan and tilt opportunity. Anyone who even dabbles in digital photography should download and install Photosynth - it's an early Christmas present for me.

26 YEARS later

2008-12-14T20:36:00.005+01:00

My disbelief is slightly in suspense listening to the new album by ABC. Yes, that's right, the early 80s icons ABC, the band that sang Poison Arrow and The Look Of Love. Some 26 years after The Lexicon of Love, they're back with the sonic follow-up, Traffic.

Forget the diversion of Beauty Stab. Ignore the transgression of How To Be A Zillionaire. Just don't buy Up (although I did) and completely erase your memory banks of Alphabet City, Abcadabra and Skyscraping. Just buy The Lexicon and then forward to their fresh 2008 album, Traffic.

Listening to Traffic, it's like time stood still.

It's not just the sounds that got caught up in the timewarp, the website is pretty retro, too.

Martin Fry is 50 years old.

Send in the clowns

2008-12-09T17:46:00.003+01:00

Noticed during my lunchtime browse around the shops that suddenly there are three new albums out from major recording artists with a circus theme:

Take That's new album, called The Circus
Britney Spears' new album, Circus
Pink's new one, Funhouse

All that's missing is one from Erasure entitled Ringmaster.

BadBerry

2008-11-30T18:19:00.004+01:00

It had to happen - my first problems with the BlackBerry Bold. I've run into the well-documented 999 songs issue, despite only copying 827 so far. The native media player, which is otherwise pretty excellent, has problems with large playlists and some albums resolutely fail to show up despite appearing on the SD card itself...

Strangely, though, although the album contents appeared to be blank when browsing by artist, they're there when browsing by album. Seems that the music player software could do with some more development.

It's much better though, than the freeware x-player. I had high hopes at first but it is sadly lacking in basic useability, for example in sorting tracks by number instead of in alphebetical order, and its playlist navigation is, frankly, poor.

I'm sticking with the bundled BB music player for now. It's clear that the Bold is first and foremost a communications machine and secondly an entertainment device but yeah, I did want the best of both worlds.

Phone phailures

2008-11-27T15:42:00.003+01:00

According to a report today, RIM BlackBerry devices have a higher failure rate than Apple iPhones. The other way around for me. In fact it's been a double failure since T-Mo still have not quite grasped the point - and are trying to bill me for the few days in which my faulty iPhone airtime contract was live.

I need to go back and explain. The. Phone. Did. Not. Work. I. Could. Not. Use. The. SIM. I. Am. Not. Paying.

Return of the Oktoberfest bombing memorial

2008-11-26T16:59:00.001+01:00

In March I noted that the memorial to the 1980 bombing at the Oktoberfest was being torn out - to close the loop here, I should note that it was refurbished and restored, and re-dedicated before the beer festival started this year.

I finally remembered to take a picture of the new-look memorial. The old pillar is back, but surrounded now by a half-moon wall of steel, with random-shaped pieces missing. I can only conclude that this is supposed to represent shrapnel from the bin bomb blast. As a reminder of the horror, it's very effective indeed.

I think, therefore iPhone

2008-11-23T21:59:00.005+01:00

Hopefully concluding the sorry tale of the DoA iPhone ... the episode cost T-Mobile a customer who regularly spends more than EUR 100 a month on mobile telephony and data: although many people spend much more, it's still a decent enough revenue.

I'd really wanted to keep my old mobile number - but it wasn't to be, as to do so after T-Mo's bungling would have meant being without my mobile for a week - so I was going to have to send out that round-robin email about my new / temporary mobile number in any case.

So I quit T-Mo and stomped along to the nearest of many Vodafone stores in Munich - and 10 minutes later walked out with a new airtime contract with a better calling plan than the iPhone, along with a BlackBerry Bold. And no, I did not want to wait for the Storm. The touch-screen was a sacrifice I was going to try and make with the iPhone only.

After a week with the Bold I'm pretty happy. Just about to board the plane on my first roaming trip - and interested to see how the mobile charges will rack up in comparison to what I've been used to with Debitel / T-Mobile ... my final bill from Debitel was EUR 250, a good reminder why I have cut out the middle man.

Die-phone

2008-11-06T15:22:00.003+01:00

My iPhone arrived today - and the honeymoon lasted all of around 5 minutes. It's already on the way back, as T-Mobile and Apple sent me a faulty unit.

How very disappointing. I've only been waiting since July for the order ... because my airtime contract expires in mid-November and I wanted to transfer my cellphone number, I had to wait.

What was wrong? Well, something pretty fundamental since the touch-screen interface simply stops working around 5 seconds after it has been switched on. Turn on, swipe to unlock, and then the screen just doesn't respond. Cycling the power allows a few more taps each time before it freezes again.

The staff in my local T-Mo shop were perplexed - after at first finding it hard to believe. I just handed it over and wondered if their fingers would work better than mine. They didn't. But maybe that's it: My fingers need a software upgrade.

Anyway, the bloody thing doesn't work and has been sent back.

Out of the ether

2008-10-11T10:48:00.002+02:00

Our sun room project is taking shape and it's time to lay down the electrical cables before the final layer of concrete goes down for the floor - topped by tiles. It's now or never for running Cat 6 Ethernet to far-flung corners of the room to terminate in flush-mounted floor sockets. I'm wiring up two of the four corners - and will have a third connection inside the living room. The cable for that will go in once we've knocked out the window ... which means three Ethernet cables into a junction box ... or a switch. Time to hit the local hardware store to investigate.

Tearing down the Oktoberfest

2008-10-06T09:39:00.002+02:00

The Oktoberfest is over - and no time has been wasted in tearing it down. Street sweepers are out, booths and tents are being dismantled already, and in just two weeks the whole event will be gone without a trace.

I couldn't help but smile as I passed yet another steamed-up car parked nearby - with Turin registration plates. In the back were two sleeping bags filled by no doubt badly hung-over Italian tourists. Somehow the Italians do it differently - they prefer to sleep in camper vans and even cars. Six beered-up guys in one camper wagon doesn't sound like fun to me!

The Large Hadron Collider

2008-09-21T19:23:00.002+02:00

Before the Large Hadron Collider was switched on, many people voiced fears that it would create a black hole that would suck in the entire world - and possible Universe.

Well, not quite. Or at least, not yet. So far it's only swallowed up a few billion dollars from the equity of some large investment banks.

Outlook 2007 diagnostics

2008-08-22T10:00:00.004+02:00

Honestly, Outlook 2007 is a piece of crap. As soon as I come across a copy of 2003 I'll be downgrading - because 2007 is just too badly broken to be fixed. I keep hoping for a Service Pack but so far, almost 2 years since it was released, that is still to materialize.

It's not just crap, it's obtuse as well. I had major problems this morning so did all the usual things to try and help Outlook 2007 to actually stagger to life: as well as 110-150MB of memory it needs just to run, I tried the Microsoft Office Diagnostics.

What a joke.

Diagnostics ran and reported one problem was identified and fixed. I click the "more info" and find that "Office fixed all the problems that it could find". Details? You Must Be Joking Mate. It fixes this one problem EVERY TIME. Actually, I don't even believe that the tool does anything any more than report a "placebo" problem.

If only - if only there was an alternative that works with Exchange. And don't even WHISPER Lotus Notes, as everyone I know who has to use Notes complains just as much as "we" complain about Exchange.

Real-time info - but whose version of real time is real?

2008-08-13T15:25:00.003+02:00

Checking real-time flight arrival times at Heathrow today - and noticed a disparity between the info offered by BAA, the airport operator, and BA, the carrier. For a flight landing planned for 2pm, BA was showing a 2.15pm expected arrival time and BAA a 2.11pm arrival until at least 2.25pm, when BA reported that the flight had arrived at 2.16pm.

It's only a matter of minutes but with real-time flight monitoring, I want to know whose real time this is.

Spotify: A musical shooting star

2008-08-11T22:29:00.003+02:00

It is a dark and stormy night - which means I'm going to miss the annual Perseid meteor shower - which I blogged about last year. Frustrating as I was even planning to get up around 2am for some bleary-eyed stargazing.

Instead of watching celestial bodies burn up due to the friction as they enter the Earth's atmosphere, I've enjoyed the privilege for few months now of a login to the beta of Spotify's rather fabulous streaming online music service.

To say that Spotify is good would be like saying The Beatles were "quite successful". Spotify is awesome. Fabulous. Comprehensive and delightful. Detailed, content-rich and immensely satisfying. I just can't believe it took me so long to really discover it.

Here's the elevator pitch: think unlimited access to the entire iTunes library - streaming direct to your PC. Where do you start?

At first, I thought Spotify was just a web radio station. Oh no. That's the front end. I can't share any screenshots thanks to the license agreement - and NO WAY am I going to risk losing access. I can just say that it offers a series of musical genres and dates - you just choose as many, or as few as you want, and press play.

After indulging - actually, over-indulging my desire to hear wall-to-wall 70s funk, I've started exploring further: driven by a need to find out whether Plastic Bertrand's 1978 opus, Ca Plane Pour Moi, would be there? Check. A great start. I challenged Spotify to find The Dead Kennedys' "Too Drunk ..." - check. Colonel Abrams and Trapped? Which version? And how about the whole album while you're at it? Carl Orff's Carmina Burana? Check.

I dug around and finally managed to find a song that Spotify's doesn' have (yet): It's Gonna Happen by the Undertones - of course this IS on YouTube, and so you might argue that this is no better than YouTube's collection of music videos, but I disagree on two counts. First, audio quality. Second, streaming - I've never had even a millisecond's interruption with Spotify, even on a public wi-fi network. And third, I'm listening to It's Gonna Happen right now - but not watching. I noticed that Feargal looked frighteningly young and returned to this post.

The tipping point for Spotify was reading Rolling Stone's story on Kid Rock's worldwide success with the monster hit of the summer, All Summer Long. Despite the irony that Kid Rock is not releasing his tunes to iTunes (All Summer Long is also absent from Spotify), I immediately fired up Spotify on learning that the Kid had mashed TWO previous hits. I thought he'd just augmented Lynryd Skynryd's Sweet Home Alabama - having never consciously heard anything from Warren Zevon. Thanks to Rolling Stone, I learned that Kid Rock mixed it up with Warren's Werewolves Of London - and where to check this out? Yes, Spotify.

Up the Amazon without a paddle?

2008-07-29T11:24:00.002+02:00

Trying to take advantage of the favorable Euro Vs US $ exchange rate, Amazon.de started offering US import CDs at a lower retail than the local market product. An interesting idea - which unfortunately failed to come to reality for the two CDs I ordered. After several weeks' delay I got an apologetic email explaining that the items were "harder to obtain than expected".

Ah well. Nice try.

The Erlkönig

2008-07-14T11:26:00.005+02:00

They're known locally as "Erlkönig" cars - after the Goethe poem Der Erlkönig - "Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?" (Who rides so late through night and wind?): pre-production prototype models that the auto makers use to test everything from handling through to fuel consumption. And here in Munich, home to BMW, advance first sighting of new models is pretty commonplace - in the past year I've spotted the new 1 Series cabrio, the X6, and now, the new 7-Series.

We spied the new 7er yesterday near Miesbach - without any disguise, but with the badges taped-over. The new design is less chunky than the controversial current model - and it's goodbye to the much-debated "Bangle Butt" that is featured on both the 6-Series and 7-Series right now.

"It's a Mitsubishi!" proclaimed Andrea. "Oh not it's not," said the boys. "OK, it could be a Mercedes," she countered. "Oh no it couldn't," we responded - "the exhaust pipes would be oval.". And so the discussion continued...

At least we agreed on one thing. The car was black.

Thumbs down for Skype beta version 4

2008-06-27T10:09:00.004+02:00

I think Skype's blown it with the new version, 4.0, which is currently in beta. I managed about a week with the beta version 4 before heading back to skype.com to download the old, familiar version, which is currently 3.8.

As I did so, up pops a questionnaire window asking why I was downgrading ... listing pretty much all my reasons ... which suggests that I'm not the only one who has been perplexed and irritated by the all-new "shiny" interface.

First of all, I have never wanted a full-screen Skype application. I use it more than anything else for IM - which doesn't need all my monitor's real estate. Even Skype isn't ready for full-screen: user images are tiny and pixelated. And moving between contacts in 4.0 was not intuitive.

Back to the drawing board, folks. The Skype Garage page for 4.0 says "it’s easier to start conversations and keep track of them" - which I dispute. And by the looks of it, 4.0 is not ready for prime time yet.

Un-networked

2008-06-18T14:05:00.006+02:00

One of my favorite business networking sites is LinkedIn, which has grown from a contacts database with bells on into a valuable resource that I'm consulting to find out background information on potential clients.

Building contacts is one thing that all diligent networkers are focused on - as is evident from the daily network updates I get via RSS about who's added whom as a connection on LinkedIn.

On LinkedIn's homepage I also get shown names of people I might know and therefore wish to add as connections - this leads to a quick quiz asking for some salient details of where/when you have come across the contact in question.

One of the radio buttons is labeled: "I don't know this person" which I've always found amusing, but never clicked - until now. I couldn't resist.

The next step was the equivalent of a Jack-in-the-box exploding out of my laptop screen ... the whole browser window (Firefox 3, naturally) went grey and I got a severe telling off, as shown in this screenshot. "Your invitation was not sent. Invitations should only be sent to people you know personally."

Sorry LinkedIn. I won't do that again. Promise.

Building work begins

2008-06-10T11:28:00.004+02:00

Major upheaval at home as work starts on our conservatory / sunroom / wintergarten (what you call it depends on where you come from). This will add an extra room to the house - and add more light. We're also looking forward to the solar gains in the spring and fall.

The diggers arrived yesterday to start excavating the foundations. This has of course ruined the lawn, but we've got plenty of spare topsoil to fill in the ruts once the heavy machinery work is finished.

Classic Gerlish

2008-06-09T15:23:00.003+02:00

A picture would say 1000 words here but since I've got one of the only mobile phones on the market that doesn't have a camera, read on and picture the scene: The window of a downtown Munich department store - showing a pretty model dressed up to the nines ready for a ball. The caption: "You look like a million." That was it - no qualifier.

A million what? A million others? I know what they were trying to say - You look like a million dollars ... (at today's exchange rates, around EUR 135.60) but missing out the dollars takes away the sense.

Analyzing my mailbox

2008-06-05T09:36:00.003+02:00

What's really in my mailbox, and who's sending it? How many mails do I get per day and how good am I at managing email? Since I have had the feeling for a year or more that email has taken over my life, I downloaded Xobni, a nifty plug-in for Outlook, to find out more.

It's now more than a month since I installed Xobni, which offers "email organization, search and navigation", and that's been long enough for the Xobni Analytics to produce some interesting statistics.

To share some of the more interesting ones:

I'm getting more than 120 mails a day, weekdays
Overnight I've usually received 40 to 60 mails
From 9am through to around 10pm I get a steady flow of between 8-10 mails an hour
The peak day for receiving mails is Wednesday
I'm most likely to respond fastest to an email received between midday and 1pm
Send me a mail at 4am and it could take me up to five days to respond
I'm sending about a third the number of mails I receive

You might ask: How has Xobni helped manage email so far? In short, it is starting to help: I've identified the people who email me the most (you know who you are!) and although this might sound like stating the bleeding obvious, this is a useful first step. One person in my top 10 has already taken action - he took a week off work, and of course his position in the table has dropped.

Although the analytics are useful to a point, they're far from perfect - Xobni doesn't seem to index mails that I delete immediately after receiving. I'd like to see greater accuracy in the analytics, but for now, for a free tool that's still Beta, it's a good start.

The lord of the flies

2008-06-02T15:34:00.015+02:00

It's a typical scene for a day working at home - my desk contains a laptop, mobile phone, paper notebook, empty coffee cup, and a flyswatter.

On this warm late spring day, the flies are out in their thousands, which I suppose is one of the disadvantages of living on the edge of a farming village.

A few years back, the crop of the pesky little blighters proved even to be too rich for our Venus flytrap, or Dionaea muscipula, which withered and died.

It could be worse: compared to a city, the air is pollution-free, and I can hear the birds singing. It's a peaceful backdrop and I've shifted loads of work, in anticipation of a quick swim later in what we call "the lake", which is five minutes away. And people ask why I live in Germany ...

To Twitter or Not to Twitter

2008-05-07T11:13:00.003+02:00

To Twitter, or not to Twitter: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by Twittering end them?

With apologies to Francis Bacon.

Spring has sprung: bless you!

2008-05-04T18:57:00.002+02:00

Spring has truly sprung in sub-Alpine Bavaria - and everything's already covered in a layer of yellow film - hay fever season, here we come!

Here's a picture I took earlier - showing the green, green grass of home!

Travails with Linux

2008-04-28T14:32:00.006+02:00

Another weekend of trying to install Linux, this time Ubuntu, and I've finally given up on trying to set up and maintain a dual-boot system. It just ain't happening.

Something random going on with Ubuntu version 8.04, which is only recently released. I even bought a self-help book to make sure I wasn't missing something in the set up, or the partitioning. Swop file set? Check. Format spare partition on primary SCSI hard drive with EXT3 fs? Check.

I took the easy route - booted the Ubuntu live CD and ran the install from there - and I took the harder route and installed from the CD. Why did I do it twice? In fact I did it four times. Each time, after the system was up around three to five minutes, the screen would blank and the system would freeze me out. Not a CTRL-ALT-DEL freeze-out but what the techies in the late 80s used to call a problem that needed the BRS solution - toggling the the Big Red Switch on the front of IBM PS2s to get them out of a lock-up type of freeze-out.

Much as I hate cycling the power on a running system, I did it - and eventually after the fourth try, I gave up and installed VMware on Vista. The VM version of Ubuntu works perfectly - and I really have not got the time, inclination or deep technical skills to try and work out what went wrong.

So, I'm stuck with using Windows as the underlying OS. At least everything works, including my webcam (a few years old, and flaky with Linux) and the toaster - the Netgear SG101 NAS device - where I actually made a bit of progress. Yep, discovered that it is possible to run my Linux VMs from the NAS drive, even though the disks are rather slow and offer a maximum R/W speed of around 5MB per second. This discovery helped sweeten the bitter pill and widens my choice of Linux flavors. The rather excellent ThoughtPolice website even provided me with super-fast downloads (via BitTorrent, faster than HTTP) for some ready-baked VMware images such as Fedora.

Squeak

2008-04-25T12:07:00.004+02:00

Ole. I'm not alone with my Vista keyboard and mouse woes, they are also documented here. The problem is that - it ain't fixed and could happen again with the 32-bit version.

More adventures with Linux - and virtual machines

2008-04-25T11:50:00.005+02:00

Last weekend's aborted attempt to set up a dual-boot system made me think again about which flavor of Linux I'd like. After seeing a demo at a trade show of an OS booting off a secure USB drive and then starting a VMware player version of XP, I realized the answer was pretty obvious - Ubuntu. Version 8.04 is just out and this is a long-term release, too.

My previous reservations with Ubuntu have been that it's too simple, if that's possible - I was feeling restricted by the limited number of packages available for install. This week, RTFM time, and I discovered a straightforward way of unlocking further functionality, simply through enabling the installation of proprietary drivers etc ... which should solve the biggest problem I seem to have - 3D acceleration for my ATI graphics card.

This week I also came across a very, very smooth quasi virtual machine: MojoPac. It's XP only at the moment in terms of both platform and host OS, but apart from that, it uses underlying Windows services but provides a secure environment, running on a portable hard drive or USB stick. Interesting - except that I tend to carry my laptop on trips, for use during the journey. As a just in case - since the installation I saw took a mere 70MB, I'm going to set one up anyway as a just-in-case.

In defense of Heathrow T5

2008-04-24T21:54:00.004+02:00

After all the bad press, I wasn't looking forward to Terminal 5 at Heathrow on my return flight to Munich today - so not only was I pleasantly surprised (especially after the slooooow arrival process) but also I was actually quite impressed.

My passage through departures was as smooth as a Teddy Boy's flicknife action. Having checked in online, but not printed a boarding card, I was out of the Tube, up the elevator, and logged on to a machine within a minute - and then straight through Passport control (#1) and security without any hitches. In comparison to LHR T1 ... twice as good, at least.

There's a good selection of shops and it wasn't too far to the A-series gates - and when I got to the gate there was a good wifi connection ... so good work all round.

Overwhelmed by security

2008-04-23T15:31:00.002+02:00

I'm in the UK for a few days at InfoSec, the UK's main security show for the IT industry. And I'm overwhelmed by the number of so-called solutions out there to the same problems - spam, phishing, pharming, malware, spyware and even good old viruses.

What's more interesting still is the social engineering that many exhibitors are using to generate leads. IT guys who spend most of their time protecting their email address and other details are happy to let a blonde bimbo scan their badge (great! an unqualified lead) in exchange for a peek at their cleavage.

There's a couple of girls walking around - one is a devilish hell, the other a saintly heaven. So far the consensus among people I've talked to is clear: Hell!

Updated isn't always better

2008-04-21T09:55:00.004+02:00

After problems with four separate pieces of software over the last week I've concluded that updated / patched is not always best.

As well as the already-documented Vista woes - solved by a downgrade to the 32-bit version, I've also experienced unprecedented problems with the latest version of Nokia's usually-excellent PC Suite - which didn't want to sync any more, a bit of a deal-breaker, and with the newest version of GoodSync from Siber Systems - telling me it's in Null Mode. In both cases, a rollback to the earlier version solved the problem.

The fourth problem has been with Linux. Maybe I should just stick to Windows, since I know its flaws. At 10pm last night I had to bite the bullet and delete all the work I'd done in updating my home PC to a dual-boot system - because Open SuSE crashed during the kernel update and there was No Way Back. Rather than having a half-cocked, non-functional Linux OS on my system I went into Vista Computer Management and simply deleted the Volumes under Disk Management.

Not quite ready for a return to Windows 2000 though.

Installation Saturday

2008-04-19T19:59:00.002+02:00

All's gone well on Installation Saturday except the usual hitches (Windows glitches) and the fact that Debian isn't really the one for me - so although I've got the 32-bit Shi*sta installation up and running, SUSE Linux will follow in a few days.

Again I noticed how much faster a fresh install of Windows runs before those logfiles, those patches, those useless installations take their toll. If only there was a really good program out there to return Winders to Vanilla every week or two (without wiping out Files That Matter) then I'd buy it.

Prepping for Debian

2008-04-17T10:50:00.003+02:00

Progress report: I've downloaded and burned the 3x AMD x64 installation DVDs and have also decided to completely drop the 64-bit version of Vista in favor of the more widely-found 32-bit version.

My PC actually shipped with the 32-bit version pre-installed - and now I know why. The 64-bit version isn't ready for prime time. Not only does Microsoft have some really serious problems ìn understanding the basics of USB peripheral support (with a functional keyboard and mouse being pretty essential, I'd say) but also my Netgear toaster ain't never going to work with 64-bit. So I'll sacrifice the performance gains in favor of the simpler backup path.

Therefore, the next steps are:

Backup everything from Vista (provided that I have the luxury of being able to use my keyboard and mouse) ready for the 64-bit version to bite the dust
Clear some space on the primary drive ready for the Linux partition
Install the 32-bit version of Vista
Install Debian

First steps back to Linux

2008-04-15T22:30:00.003+02:00

Preparation for the big move to Linux on the main home PC has begun - but not without protest from other family members .... "oh no, NOT linux!" and "but I LIKE Windows!". As a compromise, we're going to move first to a dual-boot system. Anyone who wants to keep Vista can do so - and they can click through the "new device found" messages every time until Ballmer manages to persuade his programmers to find and fix the problem. If I need 'doze then I'll fire up my already-working and installed VMware image of XP Pro - it's a pretty minimal installation and so it should hop along quite nicely.

Step one - I'm going for Debian. Currently downloading the 3x DVD images of the AMD64-tuned version.

Vista: Beyond the perverse

2008-04-14T21:16:00.006+02:00

Having used Windoze since version 2, and gasped when 3.0 was able to switch to color on my humble 12" color monitor, I've become accustomed, over the last 18 years or so, to the "Bill Gates Appreciation Moments" - those minutes / hours / weeks when you stare at an hourglass or a revolving ball or whatever.

The latest round of updates with Windoze Vista has really taken the biscuit. Redmond, congratulations, you knocked out my mouse! Yay! That takes some doing. MORONS. One of the core computing components that's actually been around longer than 'doze. And some bunch of idiots with an "update" managed to completely knock out my USB mouse - plus my spare (plus a wireless model that has the Mark of Redmond stamped upon it, which means it must be Approved By Steve, right?).

I grew up with keyboard shortcuts so it wasn't a problem, just a monumental pain in the butt to actually navigate around the "most advanced Windows ever" using keyboard shortcuts because all three of my mice were disabled. After so many rounds of moronic "if you have the CD, insert it now" cycles, and even contacting the MS chat helpdesk for a laugh (forget it people, Balls-up-mer was off duty and I got some n00b working from scripts ... managed to trip it into an "ok #insert customer name# goof after a couple of minutes because I asked a mildly-taxing, Turing test-style question which got "it" - the call center robot - kinda flustered) I started hacking. Safe mode, device manager, delete those problematic devices and reboot. 'xcept Billg thought of that and the bastard had second guessed it. Fuuuuuuuuck.

The problem started with last week's "security updates". Maybe some M$ moron worked out that a mouse or a keyboard could be a security risk - that's where these naughty hackers type their stuff, right? Right!!!!! So let's disable both, just in case. Right on! Have another sip of the Kool Aid.

And then there's the memory hole problem with Vista. My household PC has a respectable 2GB of RAM. It cost enough, a year ago. WTF am I supposed to do, sell my car for extra RAM so I can run bloatware? Recent "updates" have led to messages saying that I should close some programs because memory is running low. Nope, we're not talking about the 50 bloat services running in Vista, we're talking about my freaking applications. AAAAAARGH. Vista is like public transportation services: it would run perfectly without anyone using it, getting in the way.

Our home PC is a powerful beast - less than a year old, with an AMD 64 quad-core chip - and it struggles to run Outlook and Winamp at the same time thanks to recent 'doze updates.

As a solution, I'm going virtual. I'm looking for a good 64-bit distro and then I'll put VMware on top (Microsoft VM? Get out of here! Windows on top of Windows, that's a joke!). As I've invested in various software over the years, I'll still have a Windows version running as a VM, in fact I've already got a tame XP installation, an OS that was actually quite good in the end. But Vista? As a friend recently said, it is a TRAIN WRECK.

Dear reader. You might think I'm rather annoyed at Microsoft. You might be right.

Digital home - the slowest IT revolution

2008-04-06T16:13:00.003+02:00

I've been thinking about buying a living room PC for more than four years - every time I get close, something gets in the way. Originally I wanted a model with a small display panel built into the front, and I saw a few interesting prototypes at CeBIT 2006, but never followed up.

Since then, living room PCs have all but died out - in favor of home storage servers. My first attempt at this was a bit of a disaster, and my Netgear SC101 "toaster" is a nice NAS backup device but doesn't work with x64 architecture, which is disappointing. So far I'm still missing the media center extender that will bridge the gap from IT to TV ... and because we're remodelling at home I'm holding back, as we also soon need to upgrade our analog satellite TV system in favor of something a bit more up-to-date.

This weekend I did take a small step, though - moving my 500-or-so CDs out of the living room and into the basement. This means that if I want to listen to a CD in the living room, I need to go downstairs and dig one out - but since I'm more likely to reach for my iPod, this is a minor inconvenience.

Five quid a pint

2008-04-03T22:28:00.004+02:00

Just paid five pounds Sterling for a pint of beer, in an Indian restaurant in Elephant and Castle of all places. I know London is expensive but this takes the award - drinking's cheaper at the airport! The E&C district is one of the more run-down inner city areas. The shopping center to which the Indian restaurant is attached is an icon of 1960s urban architecture ... flanked by high-rise apartment blocks with those outside "skywalks" that look like muggers' paradise.

I'm back in the real world...

Vista SP1

2008-03-19T13:53:00.002+01:00

After all the recent probs with Vista, maybe SP1 is the answer? The installation was super-smooth and trouble-free. Let's hope it's the start of a great relationship.

Finally in-sync

2008-03-19T10:52:00.005+01:00

Sometimes, the bundled solution isn't the best. This definitely applies to some of the tools within Windows Vista. This time I'm talking about syncing offline files, but first, some context.

Yes, another Vista rant. But I'm entitled to this one, having been through the pain of having to completely reinstall Vista on my notebook. I had actually weighed everything up and had decided to revert to XP, except that Vista seems to have done something proprietary to the MBR on my hard drive and the XP installer couldn't see it. There was NO WAY that I was going to make fresh backup copies of the 30 or 40GB-worth of data on my D and E drives and then format the whole drive. Just forget it.

Anyway, having reinstalled Vista I made the mistake of reactivating it on the first day - and of course the install was corrupted, because after a shaky six days I needed to reinstall again. This time I couldn't afford any offline time at all so went out and bought a spare notebook, which has now been deployed as an upgrade for a colleague. She's delighted...

Fingers crossed this time around and no I could not wait for SP1 to come out. For the first ever time, I chose the "upgrade" option - upgrading a non-functional version of Vista to a functional version is an upgrade, right? And yes, I'm back in the honeymoon period where the system is actually really quite fast despite having only 1.5GB of memory. I picked up a 4GB USB stick at CeBIT which works nicely with readyboost and my apps open a bit faster, too.

Of course there is an upside to a clean install - you lose some of the drekk that's built up on the system. Programs that I'd installed, messed around with and then dumped. From here I have resolved to restrict such installations first to my XP VM that's running in VMware Player (Google around to find out how, it's pretty simple with QEMU) as it's pretty simple to roll back a VM, also I have a couple of backup copies on various drives.

Getting to the point, I sometimes for convenience carry around a local copy of important ongoing work files - because I can't be online when travelling. I decided to once again try the sync option built into Windows, but it still sucks really badly and leaves multiple temp files at both ends when trying to sync - I haven't had the time, energy or inclination to solve this. Instead I spent a whole $30 (about the price of a Chinese take-away for two now in Euros) on a super little program called GoodSync from a company called Siber Systems.

It's my second $30 purchase from Siber - the first being the wonderful RoboForm, which stores all my login passwords and other credentials, including my credit card details, and helps me fill-in online forms. I keep the RoboForm data on a fully-encrypted USB drive so the data is safe and sound.

GoodSync is exactly that - and it's lightning fast, too. This is perhaps the most visible difference between it and the built-in offline file sync capability of Vista, apart from those temp files which can quickly fill a few GB if you're not careful. Once again, proof for me that something that's free has no value.

Removal of the Oktoberfest Bombing Memorial

2008-03-17T10:48:00.001+01:00

Not sure what’s planned, but the memorial to the Oktoberfest bombing from 1980 is being removed / re-sited. It was a pretty unobtrusive, low-key memorial situated close to the main entrance to the Oktoberfest, but workmen have been busy since week with their jackhammers, removing it.

I couldn’t immediately find any news references to what’s planned … maybe someone can enlighten me.

The memorial was put up after the 1980 bombing which killed 13 people, including the bomber. Conspiracy theories have of course kept the topic alive.

Normally there’s a remembrance ceremony every year to mark the occasion. I can’t imagine the memorial would just be ripped out. But I am curious as to what’s happening.

How times change at CeBIT

2008-03-05T17:13:00.004+01:00

The early signs of spring always mean an annual trip up to Han(n)over, where the "Laatzner Volksfest" otherwise known as CeBIT takes place.

How times change ... this year's show is more SMB-focused but the biggest difference is that the place is half empty in comparison to recent years. The organizers, Deutsche Messe AG, have taken the brave step of closing Hall One, which is the size of several football fields and was home to all the big names in IT.

Why? The official word is that H1 is going to be refurbished or redeveloped into a congress center. The rumors are that it was to fill some big holes on the show floor. IBM's stand alone now takes up half of Hall 2, while SAP, Software AG and Microsoft are all in Hall 4, one of the biggest halls. You could spend a day exploring that hall alone...

What's utterly frustrating is that not only is H1 closed, but also its wonderful car parks. I don't see the logic in that one.

I don't miss H1, which was always claustrophobic thanks to its low ceilings and high booths, and it used to get damned hot, too. But I do miss the buzz. Where's it gone? Partly to Barcelona, for Mobile World Congress, and partly to Berlin, for IFA, the consumer electronics show.

What's most scary is that CeBIT today is starting to feel like the last few Comdex shows in Las Vegas. After years of decline, Comdex finally took a "holiday" and hasn't been seen since.

On a road sign near my accommodation in Hanover there's another reminder that things change - a faded and almost illegible sticker that proclaims that Commodore is the market leader in consumer PCs. It must be from the early 1980s - the inks used in the sticker have lasted way longer than the company's market share in consumer desktops. Food for thought.

Goodbye Facebook

2008-02-23T21:11:00.005+01:00

Obviously billg is more hip than me, as he beat me by several days in deleting his Facebook profile, but we're in the same club as mine's gone. I just got so sick of banality - like being notified that I've been bitten by a vampire or that someone's bought me a virtual Pan-Galactic Gargleblaster.

A couple of weeks away from the site made me realize that I wasn't missing it any more.

What a fickle lot we are. When I first signed up for Facebook, way back in the annals of history (it was almost a full year ago, I'm sure), it was just The Best Website in the World. I visited every day and carefully added only friends - not business friends / associates / clients / colleagues. It was my social networking site for letting my hair down. That is, until my business contacts piled in. Feeling that I could not easily refuse them (sorry! you got the wrong me!) I also changed my profile to make it a bit more corporate ... and a bit less fun.

That was the start of the slippery slope. But it was the endless banal applications that tipped me over - skiiers vs snowboarders, vampires vs werewolves, etc. And having found most of my Facebook-using contacts the thrill of discovery has gone. I really still like the status updates but Twitter does it better. But that's about the only thing I still valued on Facebook. And having reached that point, it was time to go.

Of course I had a few last-second qualms about deleting my profile - what would I be missing out on? Well, nothing I can't get elsewhere on Flickr, Twitter, from email, IM and actually meeting and talking to people.

So I've gone. My account is deactivated. I'm an ex-Facebooker. I've disappeared. The account deactivation process offers cowards an easy way back - just log-in again as usual and receive an email on how to reactivate. Let's see if I'm missing anything...

PS I take back that comment about Twitter - I've deleted my account there, too.

Google Desktop's 3GB

2008-02-08T09:40:00.000+01:00

A few months back, I mentioned the 3GB that Google Desktop was swallowing. I thought the index was residing on my D drive but it turns out that this was just an old version of the index taking up a mere 818MB. As the 3GB was still growing, and was impacting the performance of my 20GB C drive partition, it was time to act.

So out with the whole thing - and start over. A drastic move I know. Although I love the index especially for its ability to magically make deleted and purged emails reappear, I'm probably able to live without emails I deleted a year or more ago.

Google Desktop was therefore purged, including all traces (eg the registry) and then I started again. This time around I'm also being more selective in ripping through the network drives. I don't really need 2004 PPT decks. In fact, they should not really even be on the server any more but that's another story.

There's probably a GDS plug-in for indexing shared Exchange folders ... THAT I would find useful. Off to search now.

Martha hasn't blogged DLD

2008-02-06T23:08:00.001+01:00

Here's my open letter to my fallen hero, Martha Stewart:

Hey Martha,

Wot no DLD blog entry? But you promised. A promise is a promise, remember. There were about 1000 people there at the conference when you made that promise and I didn't see you crossing your fingers behind your back. I looked... just making sure.

I know that after the hard lessons you learned in prison - where you were sent for lying to Government officials investigating stock option irregularities - that you don't tell lies any more. So I'm sure the lack of a post explaining just how badly you crashed and burned at DLD is just an oversight.

Second, after we chatted at DLD I added you as a friend on Facebook. I also poked you (in a Web 2.0 kinda way, anything else would be simply unthinkable) but you still haven't added me. I know you're really busy, going to the Super Bowl and that, but come on, you said ...

BMW X6 in the wild

2008-02-06T22:25:00.000+01:00

Living close to Munich means we tend to spot most new BMW models on the road before they've officially launched. A few years back, my first glimpse of a 6 Series was seeing one being driven at actually rather ridiculous speeds on the twisty bits between Lenggries and Silvenstein. I'm a fan of cutting corners to straighten out minor bends, but at an estimated 140kmh when there's oncoming traffic (namely, me)?

Last weekend we were overhauled by an X6 SUV coupe as we joined the A95 autobahn heading south. "Quick daddy, catch it up!" urged the boys. Ah, no chance - it was being driven at around 200kmh, and our Peugeot 807 doesn't do 200 in such a short distance like the 25km or so to the end of the autobahn - it needs a bit more acceleration room. When I first saw it in the mirror, I thought the grille was a bit strange. It's not exactly the kidneys (although, honestly, BMW has changed the shape of these so often it's becoming boring) and I wondered why a Dodge Ram had a BMW roundel (albeit a black one) before I realized.

Tonight, headed out of Munich, I saw it / another one. Again, the BMW badge is blacked out. This is one big car - from my lowly seat I couldn't see the instrument binnacles, just caught a glimpse of the beardy driver. A test driver, I presume ... and once we reached the end of the 80kmh section, I got to see how the twin-turbo V8 gasoline engine pulls. The answer: quite impressive.

This is a pre-prod model that BMW's shipped over from Spartanburg - as they're all made there. What was somewhat interesting (for us petrolheads) was that the turn signals on the Munich-registered X6 were US spec, ie they blinked red not orange. Surely this is a pretty minor mod for the German highway?

Those meanies at Birmingham Airport

2008-02-06T17:11:00.000+01:00

Just back from 24 hours in Britain - which appears to be more and more of a nanny state, with speed cameras all over the roads (at least one per mile on the main drag into Plymouth) and warning signs everywhere else.

At Birmingham International Airport, I came across the ultimate in mean-ness: they'd locked the electricity power points. So nobody's going to sponge a few KW of free electricity from them, oh no. At around 15p per kilowatt hour, my laptop would have used at most 1p's worth of electricity while I gave the airport GBP5 for the privilege of using their wi-fi network. OK, so you'd say they don't have to give me free electricity, but since a fiver is a lot for an hour online, it would have been a nice touch.

Flight departures - from a screen near me

2008-02-05T11:31:00.000+01:00

On a short layover at Zurich Airport and I'm just too lazy to keep hunting down the departures board for my connecting flight - because the info is also available on a screen near me - my desktop. Sometimes, WLAN and portable computers / devices really make life a bit easier. This is one of them.

My flight has just been called, I think - the departures board is showing "Go to the exit"...

The squeak is the real reason MS wants to buy Yahoo!

2008-02-01T13:43:00.000+01:00

It's the breaking news of the day - Microsoft has announced a near-$45 billion bid to buy Yahoo! This has been a rumor for a few weeks - one of the panellists at DLD even mentioned it. The synergies will mean that there's a true competitor for Google.

But wait. I know the real reason that Microsoft wants to buy Yahoo! They want that exclamation mark, aka the squeak.

Tell me I'm wrong.

Getting social (online)

2008-01-27T20:29:00.000+01:00

I'm increasingly fascinated by online networking groups - like LinkedIn, Facebook (although I'm far too old for MySpace) - and will be focusing more on this subject in future.

To kick off, I've just found a new social networking site called InterNations that looks quite interesting, this time focused on expats. In my home town, Munich, there are a heck of a lot of members who are born-and-bred German, but it's good to have a mix.

Get it right, like LinkedIn appears to have done so (it's making money), and a social networking site is a money-spinner.

But how many sites do people really need? And is it really too late for a new site to launch? Right now I'm using LinkedIn for international marketing and general networking contacts, XING for German stuff and Facebook for goofing off.

Most are open to all, some are by invitation only - and the level of difficulty in getting an invitation varies. For Orkut, for example, just being Brazilian is probably enough to know someone who is a member and can invite you.

The hardest club to join right now is aSmallWorld. After spending a lot of time and effort in getting an invitation, I have hardly been enthralled - and to be honest I was equally disappointed when I met aSW's CEO Erik Wachmeister at DLD last week. He didn't seem to be that impressed that I was one of his members, and certainly didn't want to make conversation with me.

Running report on the BMW 320

2008-01-24T15:25:00.000+01:00

Having had the BMW 320d almost a month now, in which I've racked up the first 1500km, it's time for a running report.

In general, so far, so good, although there are a few niggles. I've been paying attention to the running-in instructions - no more than 3500rpm for the first 2000km, and don't go over 150km/h. No problems. 150km/h in sixth gear is only about 2400rpm anyway and I've been taking it steady.

My commute mixes largely-unrestricted autobahn with congested urban and lots of traffic lights (German lights take longer to phase shift than in the UK or the US, so the red seemingly stays on forever) - and this combi is hardly ideal for maximizing fuel economy. So far the average is 7 litres per 100km, or 40mpg, which isn't THAT BAD, but it's not great either for a standard saloon car.

Behind the wheel, I'm loving the heated seats and all the switchgear is where I expect, except the buttons to raise/lower the front windows are a couple of cm too far forward - so I keep opening the driver's side rear window by mistake. At first, after my old 5 Series, I felt that the driving position was too close to the windscreen but I've dropped the seat and tilted the wheel and it's fine. My more basic spec model doesn't have the iDrive so there's a convenient drop tray for my mobile.

There's an AV input neatly stowed inside the centre armrest, next to one of the four 9v electrical sockets inside the car. Unfortunately, the armrest lid won't shut when this socket is in use, which is a small design flaw. The stereo system is absolutely fine, and plays MP3 CDs as well as anything plugged into the AUX input, while radio reception is better than the old car: the Munich stations fade out about 10km further down the autobahn.

The engine's a bit lumpy at start-up when temperatures are below zero. At first I wondered if this was because the factory hadn't used diesel with a freezing inhibitor but after two tankfuls it must be something else. Although there's hardly been any snow, when we did have some, the lack of plastic trims on the steel winter wheels led to ice build-up in the rims and consequently an enormous amount of judder through the steering until I stopped and chipped out the ice. It's a bit cheap of BMW not to throw in the covers.

The steering is very direct - you just think and twitch your way around corners, and as for the much complained-of tramlining - yes there's a bit and I'm not a fan of the run-flat tyres as they add to the NVH (noise, vibration, harshness) on top of the M&S profile rubber. The handling is super-sharp and this car enjoys being pushed around corners. It's also testament to BMW's focus on handling that the car really doesn't crash into potholes: the structure is super-solid.

Wind noise from the sunroof is a bit obtrusive at autobahn speeds but almost obliterated when the sunscreen is closed. Wind noise from open windows is louder.

As my old car was a low-spec '99 model, I'm adjusting to some fairly standard features for the first time - such as cruise control. I'd always said I'd prefer not to use this on the autobahn but it's been in daily use. One gripe is that there's no instrument cluster illumination to show when cruise control is engaged. The 320 also has automatic lights, which work a treat in the Munich middle ring-road tunnels and automatic wipers with variable speed, which work well unless the screen is excessively dirty, when the wipers stay on full speed. The automatic climate control returns to the option to vary temperatures between driver and front-seat passenger, and works well, but the fan is too noisy.

All-in-all, I'm impressed. No doubt the fuel economy will start to drop as I open up on the autobahns, conditions permitting. I'm also almost even looking forward to that long drive up to Hanover for CeBIT this year.

Martha Stewart at DLD - hot or not? You decide

2008-01-23T17:06:00.001+01:00

Earlier this week I ranted about Martha Stewart's presentation at the otherwise-fabulous DLD08 conference. Now you can decide if she was relevant to a conference of tech-savvy folks, or if she'd stopped off in Amsterdam for a smoke on the way to Munich, as there's a clip on YouTube.

I "poked" Martha (on Facebook , nothing else) and added her as a contact - she hasn't poked back or accepted yet, BUT I'm sure she is busy and will add me soon, since she mentioned that she'd also be writing about DLD on her blog and she hasn't done that yet either. We know she's very important.

For Facebookers, it's quite fun to search on "Martha Stewart" for the Fake Michael Jackson profile alone. Make sure you get the right Martha, mind.

DLD - a new impression of Martha Stewart

2008-01-20T21:14:00.001+01:00

The now-unmissable DLD Conference has opened in Munich, with author Paulo Coehlo wowing the audience and explaining how his quasi-innocent promotion of pirate digital copies of his best-selling novels have helped increase sales - perhaps because people get a taste of his writing and want more ... the same as has happened to many bands thanks to MP3 sharing.

Unfortunately it wasn't the modest Portuguese author of The Alchemist and other stories who was the most hotly-debated speaker of the day but US style icon Martha Stewart. Sadly for Martha, it was because of the way she crashed and burned during her rambling presentation. Worse still is that she probably won't realize - because she has, how can I put this politely? An exaggerated sense of her own self-importance.

In only four years, DLD has grown into a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design: a chance to rub shoulders with an amazing array of inspirational people who have helped change the world in one way or another. The rest of the audience is made up of advertising agency people and venture capitalists. If you are looking for a place to get inspired, DLD is it. If you're looking to talk to VCs, just being at DLD is probably enough to score a follow-up meeting.

However, it looks as if Martha Stewart either was either badly advised, or too important to actually listen to her advisors. Because she began her 45-minute monologue (it was supposed to be an interview, but more of that later) by revealing the contents of her travelling "tech" suitcase.

So far I have yet to work out the reason why, in a room full of laptop- and iPhone-toting attendees, an all American style queen should choose to share such info. I, for one, would have been 100 times more interested to know the contents of her handbag, or to see the names of the last 10 incoming calls on her mobile: an iPhone, of course - but a non-functioning one because her secretary had forgotten to unlock roaming in Germany. Did we all hear that? Martha's no-doubt well-compensated secretary getting a public bollocking.

So out comes a less-than-stylish suitcase which Martha describes as being "overhead locker size" (which I actually doubt, but, Hey! Being! Martha! Stewart! (did you get that? MARTHA bloody STEWART I said!!!!)) probably travels first class everywhere (good for her) and the prospect of her vitriol on a short-flight, let alone a trans-Atlantic, would probably make most flight attendants cower and acquiesce.

And inside the suitcase are ... everyday business items that most people at the conference probably carry. A laptop. (Gasp from the audience). Except that it's tucked into an under-sized Ziploc bag. Very stylish. A honking great top-of-the-range CANON (or maybe Nikon) digital camera ... yeah, you guessed it - in its $0.25c carrying case, another plastic bag. Her iPhone in a shocking pink leather holster, and a BlackBerry, as one phone is never enough. Two phone chargers. A massive camera battery charger the size of a sub-notebook, and ... an Amazon Kindle - but one of the FIRST models (did you note? Early adopter alert!!!) before they even signed licensing deals with the NY Times and various other newspapers. In its exclusive Martha Stewart plastic bag, of course.

After the tiresome dig into her suitcase, Martha then tells the audience (which includes luminaries such as Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales) that she personally uses the internet for many different things, she chats with all of her friends on Facebook (but is really, sincerely SORRY that she has not got time to reply to everyone), she checks her spelling on dictionary.com, and she even buys stuff online.

I really didn't want to knock Martha. But oh boy did she get up my nose with her facile pitch. She probably also annoyed "moderator" Tyler Brule, the editor of Monocle magazine, who was reduced to the role of bystander during the Martha monologue. Finally, after we'd all learned that Martha was very important, he got to ask a few questions - and managed to make those open jaws sag even further by asking Martha, a convicted felon and therefore ineligible for office, which position in the new administration she'd like in the US Presidential elections. This was either completely misjudged, or a deliberate poke at Ms Stewart. I can't even remember her answer but it was a fob-off.

Maybe DLD should be described as "a must-attend gathering of the good and the great in the world of digital, life and design ... and Martha Stewart". Whatever she was smoking, I want a drag. Even Paulo Coehlo's Alchemist would have had trouble in changing Stewart into a credible speaker at DLD today.

Blast from the past

2008-01-18T15:20:00.000+01:00

This lunchtime, I spied a young lady sitting in a corner of the local post office with a pile of letters and a meter-long run of stamps. That itself is quite unusual. What floored me was that the envelopes all bore the logo of a PR agency. Yes, PRs are still sending out press releases per post. This actually comes as a surprise to me...

If this isn't global warming, what IS going on?

2008-01-17T09:24:00.000+01:00

Nine years ago I moved to Munich to start a new job, arriving in a Saturday night snowstorm in the middle of winter. Temperatures were down to -20C at night (and some days, didn't climb about -10C) for the first two weeks I was here. I was blinded by the brightness of the snowscape and quickly had to invest in a new wardrobe of clothes and boots warm enough for the extremes of winter.

When I was briefly back in London after two weeks in deepest midwinter, the daffodils were in flower, but it was April before the thaw, that year, in Upper Bavaria.

Admittedly, the 98/99 winter was a biggie, as was the winter of 05/06, when the snow also stayed around until April. But since then, the winters have been too warm and too wet. Take this morning, for example. It was +6C this morning. I don't even have to scrape the ice off my car windscreen in the mornings whereas most winters I've needed to shovel the snow off the driveway before brushing it off the car before scraping the ice. So if this is not global warming, what is it?

The supermodel factor at conferences

2008-01-10T17:03:00.000+01:00

Claudia Schiffer set a precedent when she graced the stage at the WEF last year. It's now the Next Big Thing to have a supermodel at your upscale conference. That's got to be why Naomi Campbell is coming to DLD later this month in Munich.

What next, Kate Moss at CeBIT?

One step forward ...

2008-01-08T16:30:00.000+01:00

... and one back. Isn't life always like that?

This is not really a gripe. The world won't stop turning and I'm lucky enough to have this thing to complain about. So, now that's clear, let me explain.

My BMW has a super-cool audio AUX input socket which means it's possible to connect an iPod or other audio device for playback through the car's stereo. That's progress. In the BM, the AUX input is neatly tucked inside the center console armrest, and conveniently located next to the 12v charger socket.

That means power and audio device in the same place, nicely out of sight and out of the way. Great.

I've moaned before about the rubbish battery life in my 4G HP-branded iPod, and since I got an 8GB Nano last year, the 4G has been collecting dust, waiting for its next deployment. Because its Achilles Heel is the battery, especially at sub-zero overnight temperatures, I invested in a €14 car charger - cheaper and more convenient than an iPod battery replacement kit.

Nearly there, I thought. Until I plugged in the charger - and found that the armrest lid no longer closes with the charger in position.

Bad design all round, chaps.

Back on skis

2007-12-29T17:52:00.000+01:00

Today was my first time on skis this season and damn! why did I leave it so long? Everything aches, of course, and it will no doubt be worse tomorrow morning when we get up to go again, but it's worth it. Even my tumble on the Garland (always super-steep, today also super-icy) didn't put a downer on things (at least, for very long - only until I'd gotten all the snow out from under my shirt).

Although I can't really work out if we're on it or not, we were on top of the Brauneck at midday when the webcam took this pic.

Car-azy bureaucra-zy

2007-12-21T20:54:00.000+01:00

As we start the Christmas holidays, I'm sorely in need of a break, with my energies sapped by good old German bureaucracy, or should I say bureaucrazy?

It should have been a pretty simple thing for my firm to lease a company car - we're a GmbH and therefore have EUR25k deposited against potential bankruptcy. But oh no, that was not enough for the leasing company - they wanted a bank guarantee for around the value of a year's leasing. And that's taken the bureaucrats and form-fillers four weeks already.

Everything else is done - and nothing else will do of course. It's going to be interesting to see if
the leasing company tries to backdate the start of the leasing as I'm not going to pay until I get the car: I'm not causing the delays. No doubt this one will run and run.

In the end I went for a new BMW 320 diesel - the right-priced solution that should not lead to too much damage in terms of tax. It was tempting to pick up something two years old and more exotic, but tax on the original list price and running costs were the two factors that decided it.

Off the map

2007-12-14T17:53:00.000+01:00

This week a little advertising supplement called Guide To Ukraine was inserted into European editions of the Wall Street Journal.

On page two was a handy little map of the Ukraine, and a little insert showing its position in Europe.

Do they know something we don’t?

Straight in at Number One - my favorite album of 2007

2007-12-10T09:38:00.000+01:00

It's finally time to reveal that the laurels for my favorite album of 2007 go to an artist who goes straight in at Number One with his first release - at least with under the recording name of Yusuf.

Congratulations to Yusuf aka Cat Stevens, whose An Other Cup has been my favorite album of 2007 by a long mile. I bought it a year back, in November 2006, when it was first out. A year ago, I knew Cat Stevens' music, but not that well. So I decided to buy the new Yusuf album and see if the old man could work his magic.

The verdict: Indisputably yes. This is another album I've given as a gift to others, because it's so gentle, so charming, so relaxed, so simply knowledgeable and worldly-wise. I'm not planning to discuss religion at all, suffice it to say that Yusuf sounds enlightened. I'd love to have An Other Cup of coffee and a chat with him.

Listening to this album has helped me slow down / relax more than once. Then there was the time I let it lull me to sleep when feeling unwell. It's a nice touch that Yusuf has re-recorded I Think I See The Light, one of the tracks from Mona Bone Jakon. It's not just Bowie who can re-arrange old standards. The real achievement is that I like both versions.

Rousing final paragraphs has never been my strong point but in the case of An Other Cup, it's not a cop-out to finish off with a recommendation to purchase at least two copies of this album - one for yourself and one for a friend. There’s even a possibility that it might replace Donald Fagen’s epic The Nighfly as my "standard gift album" for any deserving male music fan.

Talking of Fagen, what's missing from my 2007 Top 10? Some artists / albums that nearly made it, but ultimately missed the cut:

Lily Allen
Arctic Monkeys
The Eagles - although it was a close call
Fergie
Happy Mondays - reformed in 2007 and sounding just the same as ever. Uncle Dysfunktional is officially at Number 11 in my top 10 for 2007. The beats are great, and you know that these days, they care even less than ever, if that were possible - the lyrics provide an insight into what's possibly going on in Shaun Rider's drug-addled mind…
I still listen regularly to The Nightfly, I know all the tunes and all the words, but for the sake of change it's not in the top 10 this year. It probably should have been, but it isn't. That's that. And the judge's decision is final :)

If you disagree with my top 10, all musical tips are welcome and I'll letcha know by the end of 2008.

The countdown

2007-12-09T13:12:00.000+01:00

Top 10s for me will never be as exciting as Tuesday lunchtimes at school, listening to the radio for the new Top 40 countdown. Even the fact that Radio One had the irritating Janice Long as their lunchtime jock couldn't dampen my enthusiasm for the newly-minted charts around 1982/3. At that time, not only did I know all the bands in the singles and albums charts, but also I thought most of them were at least "quite good". Albums released in 1981-1984 make up a sizable chunk of my CD collection today although in general the 70s has now overtaken the 80s in the decade-to-decade shoot-out.

Back to the excitement. The most memorable lunchtime chart show ever was in 1983, when David Bowie was hanging in there at Number One with Let's Dance. Dave had been riding high for two or three weeks with his first number one since 1980 (in fact his first decent single in more than two years, and the one that suddenly made it cool to be a Bowie fan, as until then any hardcore schoolboy fans were branded as queers, weirdos, or both). I was of course worried about the threat from Spandau Ballet's True, which was getting more airplay and tipped to displace Dave. We'd find out at lunchtime on that Tuesday - so as the fifth, fourth, third and second-placed records were played, I was holding my breath each time hoping to hear Tony Hadley's "So true, funny how it seems..." and hoping not to hear the "daaah, daaah, daaah, daaaah" build up to Let's Dance. This time around, I heard neither, which caused total confusion. Surely Spandau hadn't misfired and dropped DOWN the charts? But Dave would still be at number two, wouldn't he?

Then the countdown from 40 to number one - and Let's Dance has slipped to SIXTH place - AND Spandau are number one. Oh the pain. I could not concentrate all afternoon, mulling it over … how could Dave have slipped so far, were Bowie fans doomed to another two years of being treated as oddities like the man himself? Thankfully the infamous China Girl video (look on YouTube if you don't know it) changed all that.

So although I digress, perhaps you get an idea of the excitement around a top 5 countdown?

At number two in my top 10 of 2007

2007-12-08T01:26:00.000+01:00

Putting this top 10 together took more effort than I expected initially. A quick scroll through the ever-present albums on my iPod was enough to yield six or seven albums, but as I gave it more thought, I realized there was more to this gig than just making a list.

The Top 10 doesn't reflect my 10 most-played albums of the year, but my faves of the year. The list has changed several times, too, since the first post on this subject a week or so ago.

It's been said that the tolling of the lonely church bell at the start of the first track on this album signals the advent of Heavy Metal. Almost 40 years after the release of their first album to reach commercial success, the eponymous Black Sabbath album still sounds good - from start to finish. The first track, Black Sabbath, is (as far as I know) the only track on my iPod where the track, album and band all have the same name.

Black Sabbath the album demands to be played loud. Rediscovering it earlier this year has brought back early teenage memories, when this album was part of the soundtrack to my newspaper round. These days I don't get such a thrill from its edgy sound but it brings back memories. In particular The Warning is one of those superb tune-in, rock-out tracks - with a driving bass keeping the song on track.

I've awarded second place to a pair of albums from the Sabs - the second being Master Of Reality. I've played this less during 2007 but every time I do, there are moments when it just grabs my attention - such as Ozzy’s faux choking on Sweet Leaf and the unexpectedly gentle melody of the segue song Orchid, luring me into the start of the heavy set Lords Of This World.

Horrifying to think that these albums are almost 40 years old. As a teenager, anything older than six months sounded old fashioned. Anything from the 40s (40 years ago at the time) sounded like it came from another planet.

At number three - more bubblegum pop

2007-12-05T12:38:00.000+01:00

Gwen Stefani - a younger version of Madonna? Well, probably. She's got a more girly voice and her beats are more hip, more outré than Madonna. She looks good, the sounds make the most of her limited vocal abilities (in comparison to, say, Amy Winehouse) and The Great Escape – aka Love. Angel. Music. Baby. Again. has been a stalwart on my iPod for most of the year. It's a feel-good album: beats that get my foot tapping.

It's also good for long motorway journeys since it helps the miles disappear under the wheels. There's no need to think when listening to a Gwen Stefani album. But what it does accomplish is that it makes me smile – either at the sly lyrics or the sub-beats that take the songs off in various different directions before rejoining.

Looking through my top 10, I'd only probably jump at the chance to see three of them live in concert – Cat Stevens, Bryan Ferry and Amy Winehouse. Almost 10 years ago I saw Kylie live and felt too old then – goodness knows how old I'd feel now at a Gwen Stefani concert.

Counting down - and here's Madonna

2007-12-03T22:07:00.000+01:00

She might be an old dame in the eternally young world of pop music, she might attract vicious comments from the critics, but I’m going to stand up and be counted: I still like (most) Madonna albums. OK, she hit the usual mid-life crisis rut but she's back, and Confessions on A Dancefloor is right up there at number four in my top 10.

Come ON, ABBA purists. Get over it. You can still listen to the original song that spawned yet another Madonna number one. The boys and girls at ABBA got some nice airplay and song-writing royalties, too.

And come on, you naysayers. So what if she's pushing 50? If she wasn’t mutton dressed as lamb, you'd rip into her for being an old dame. What's Madge supposed to do, dress like Shirley Bassey from her 49^th birthday?

And, let’s be honest - until the close-ups of her face, I couldn't believe how fit Madonna was looking. I fancied her in 1982, when I bought Borderline, then The First Album when it was still called Madonna - and Like A Virgin was, at the time, a landmark album for a teenager like me.

Ultimately with regard to Madonna albums, I don't really care who writes the songs, who composes or arranges them, as long as the end product sounds good. It's bubble-gum pop music and I like it that way. Talking of which …

The countdown continues

2007-12-03T12:48:00.000+01:00

I put the Top 10 countdown on hold for a few days to spend a long weekend in Athens, catching some winter sunshine. My last visit was as an 11-year-old and I don't remember much except being blinded by reflection off the marble steps of the Acropolis, and the roaring traffic. This time I had sunglasses and pedestrianization has largely removed traffic woes from around Athens' principal sights.

So back to the countdown, and at Number Five is Amy Winehouse - with her two studio albums so far, Back To Black and Frank.

Amy is, for me, proof that it's actually possible to ignore the latest happenings on the "famous for 15 MB" front. Just move to a foreign country, stop really listening to pop music radio and ignore the Red Top tabloids (except when in England, when I devour them – reading them online just isn'’t the same). Occasionally, the stray piece of news filters through, usually when one of the Tier A megastars does something truly stupid (Britney's flash, Paris' spell in the slammer) but it's otherwise quite possible to exist in an area of isolation and not keep up with the latest about "troubled singers" like Amy Winehouse.

But by the fall of 2007, enough had filtered through about Winehouse that I decided to actually find out what the fuss was all about. And, like, DOH, duuuude! What had I missed! A veritable feast: a first-class performer, in every sense of the word. Not too late to play catch up as Amy's only produced a couple of studio albums so far - and she’s still alive and Living Large. NB: I’ve also heard OF the "tragic" Pete Doherty although I've never consciously heard a note of his music (which from most accounts is a wise move).

Discovering Amy's albums Frank and Back To Black was a revelation. I'd heard the single Rehab, of course, but never listened closely enough to find out the performer's name. Once discovered, the Winehouse albums were on alternate back-to-back play. Listening to these albums also brought about a revelation: I’d totally misunderstood the phrase "fuck me pumps". Bowie references them in We Are The Dead, a track on Diamond Dogs, which I discovered at the tender age of 12 - about the same time I learned the American English word for trainers was "pumps". From that info alone, I'd somehow worked out that FMPs were something like a Converse All-Star shoe. But I digress.

Back to Amy Winehouse. Nice tunes, great voice, that's pretty much it. I'm not yet emotionally attached. Perhaps when I rediscover the albums in 20 years' time they'll bring back memories of 2007, golden days when Winehouse and Doherty were still alive.

Number Six - a real rock dinosaur

2007-11-27T10:56:00.000+01:00

Earlier this year I blogged about buying my first Dylan albums, predicting the start of a slippery slope towards a buying frenzy for Bob albums. Well, that was an exaggeration. So far I've failed to really get hooked by the downright deadpan delivery and the downright miserable tone, although Dylan's prowess as a songwriter does shine through.

Fitting then, that although Bob doesn't feature in my top 10 (or top 30, come to that - and that's about as many different albums I've listened to in 2007) but an album full of cover version of Dylan songs is up there at number six. Take a bow Bryan Ferry, and I'm sorry for calling you a rock dinosaur.

Ferry is one of those few artists whose new albums I'll just buy on spec - along with REM and David Bowie (hurry up, both of you). Another aside, Radiohead used to fall into that category until they did strange things with a 128kbps-only download of In Rainbows, for which I offered the grand sum of nothing, so I could preview it ahead of the CD coming out next year that I can buy and rip at a proper bitrate. Anyway…

Despite having bought Bryan’s Dylanesque album with gusto, it was actually with trepidation that I offered up the silver disc for a first hearing. It's fair to say that Bryan’s mid-life crisis stretched from the late 80s through to his late 90s album (correct me if I'm wrong) Frantic. The album Taxi in particular showed that Bry's writers block was truly hindering the career of a once-great singer-songwriter. Gratifying, therefore, that Ferry decided to bite the bullet and cover some Dylan standards. Not for the first time, mind – Dylan songs have been popping up on Ferry albums since the early 70s.

It's the first time I'm listening to the start of the first track, Tom Thumb's Blues. I'm seriously worried. Ferry's voice sounds frail, unsure, uncommitted, as if his heart isn't in it. But then the song drops into gear, the Ferry croon kicks in, the sun comes out from behind the clouds, the traffic lights all go green, and all is well. We're flying high.

I'm sure many, many Dylan fans hate the MoR Ferry interpretation. I'd like to see ol' Bob reciprocate with an album of Ferry covers. Just imagine the nasal whine mix of Slave To Love. Maybe I'm gonna start a petition.

Top 10: Number 7

2007-11-26T10:15:00.001+01:00

I've got a bit of a backlog of posts here (there's a first time for everything, right) so moving swiftly ahead to Number Seven in my 2007, and heralding the first appearance of The Cat.

Take a bow Cat Stevens, when you were still using that name. At the start of the 1970s you recorded a string of albums that still sound fabulous today ' Catch Bull At Four, Mona Bone Jakon, Teaser And The Firecat, and my favorite of all, Tea For The Tillerman.

Many songs are a simple voice/guitar combination, with Cat's super-versatile voice taking me through a gamut of emotion every time I hear the album. It's almost a Greatest Hits by itself, featuring several songs penned by Cat that would later be covered by bands over and over again.

Tracks that pretty much everyone knows are there, such as Hard Headed Woman, Longer Boats and Wild World ' but it's the hair-raising Father And Son that really seals the deal for me. I was tempted simply to award 7th place to 'all early 70s Cat Stevens albums' as that would have allowed the inclusion of the best-ever treatment of Morning Has Broken - everything, lean back and CHILL song if there ever was one - originally on Mona, although we'll come back to that track further up the top 10.

Play Tillerman and you'll be reaching for the volume control, to turn it up! I'm usually enraptured by the start of Sad Lisa, a song that just drips melancholy. It's the voice, gentle / strong at exactly the right moments.

My early 1970s musical odyssey continues, further up the charts - although the other artist is an unlikely bedfellow for such a good chap as Cat Stevens.

Back in the train gang

2007-11-26T09:44:00.001+01:00

The BMW’s health has taken a turn for the worse, and the timing isn’t good: winter has arrived, and the train strikes in Germany are threatening to cause further chaos. But the train is the sensible option, as the Beemer seems to have had some kind of computer brain aneurism, and I know that whatever the cure, it’s going to be expensive.

We’re not quite sure what’s wrong yet but we know what the symptoms are – the ABS/ASR light comes on and the ABS and traction control systems shut down. That’s normal if there’s a dodgy ABS sensor but this time we’ve been through that, and the car ECU seems to be blaming a different sensor every time. No sign of any cables having been chewed by our pine marten, either. What’s really worrying though is that the automatic gearbox is playing up now as well – sticking in third gear and refusing to provide its usual silky-smooth shift.

We’ve been through the calculations and it’s just about break-even for me to get a company car (for the company, it’s a far more positive story because of the costs that can be offset and the sales tax reclaim). So the choice is now either to rejig my package so that a car is included, or to allocate a decent amount of money to buy a two- or three-year-old replacement for the Beemer.

In the six years since I bought it, car prices have crept up. I’d need about 50 percent more cash now to buy a newer 5 series of the same age/mileage that mine was in when we first met. It’s clear that the EUR10k to 20k bracket is the mid-market battle ground where prices are most keen. Cars tend to hang around for ages above 10k before plummeting to ground like a rock. My Beemer is getting into the “pocket change” territory now – even in perfect working order it has a trade value of under EUR5k.

To update the car shopping list:

Company car – probably a Ford Mondeo diesel. Yeah, I know it’s a boring family hatchback but that’s what we need.

Private car – sensible option is to look for a tidy used BMW 320d – late old shape with lots of kit or a Spartan new shape. Alfa resale prices aren’t to be trusted – they hold up ok for three years or so, then plummet, and even the run-out 164s are on the precipice now. I’ve dropped the idea of a Disco, a 740d or an SLK – and the Astra was the bogey car.

Line Rider - surely the most addictive online game ever

2007-11-22T12:14:00.000+01:00

Line Rider is most definitely NSFW (not suitable for work) because it's addictive. So addictive that there are a number of competing sites out there offering the same Flash plug-in. My favorite is this Line Rider site, simply because it's the first I found.

Bluegrass: a whole new world

2007-11-22T11:18:00.000+01:00

This is not the first mention of my April trip to the 606 Club in London, where I was treated to an exceptional rendition of some bluegrass classics - by a band whose name I'm still trying to find out. I should give them a ring, really, and just ask - who the heck were those Irish brothers who rocked the joint? Headliner of the night was former Robbie Williams collaborator Guy Chambers, who was pretty good, but nowhere near as good as the bluegrass boys.

I'll elaborate: Until then I didn't even know I liked bluegrass. That night led to a flirtation that hasn’t become an obsessive love affair, but is fun for a quickie here and there … then I was in the UK one Saturday in July, trying to drive down the M5 to Cornwall (with half of the rest of the population of the UK). The only thing that kept me sane, and off the A38 (which was probably even slower) was BBC Radio Two's coverage of the Cambridge Folk Festival, where the bluegrass was a treat.

That was it, I was hooked, and after a bit of research, I ordered a double CD called Flatt & Scruggs/Stanley Brothers - Selected Sides 1947-53: The Very Best of Bluegrass. Not a single track younger than 50 years old! To be honest it doesn't really matter which of the many Essential Bluegrass Collections you pick up: there seem to be a fair few out there. I couldn't listen to bluegrass every day but there are moments when a bit of rapid banjo strumming sounds just right.

That#s why the album is at number eight in my 2007 top 10.