Zen and the art of not getting an iPhone
January 31st, 2009
Geeks and tech users tend to be junkies. Literally. I’ve noticed that in myself recently in connection with the issue of whether or not to get an iPhone. There is no good reason for me to get one, but my inner geek has developed what is quite literally a physical craving for one. Dealing with this has become my ongoing Zen koan over the last few weeks and it’s a very interesting experience.
Operating systems are irrelevant
January 31st, 2009
The operating system debate is so dated that it’s getting to the point where it’s embarrassing when people get heated up about them. Nowadays being passionate about a particular OS makes you look about as cool as those people who used to build their own bomb shelters during the Cold War. Get over it, it’s over and everybody won.
Fring resets Skype privacy settings
January 27th, 2009
If you use Fring, the Skype client for the iPhone, iPod Touch and numerous other mobile phones, have a look at your Skype privacy settings on your computer after running Fring. You will probably find that all your incoming settings have been reset to “Anyone” can contact you for both chats and calls, no matter what you set before. This gets reset every time you run Fring to use your Skype account — you don’t actually have to do anything, just Fring starting up and logging into your account to display your active buddies is enough.
I’ve been getting a lot of Skype spam chats (“Hello Dear…”) and I finally discovered that Fring is the culprit that’s opening Skype up. There are quite a few annoyed messages about it on the Fring forum but the Fring programmers don’t seem to have responded yet.
Makeup bags for adapters
January 26th, 2009
Brilliant little idea suggested by SeanFX, use makeup bags transparent on one side for adapters, small cables etc:
Windows 7: Microsoft gets it right
January 25th, 2009
I’ve been playing around with Windows 7 for ever a week now and I have to say that this time Microsoft really got it right. It’s everything that Vista should have been and it’s probably the best operating system that Microsoft has ever produced. The only downside is Internet Explorer 8, which is worse than ever. Hopefully the errors are bugs, if not life is going to get a lot harder for web designers, yet again.
With Apple working so hard to piss off their users (matte screen on 17″ only and costs more, no more firewire on the Macbook, only one firewire port on the 15″, non-removable battery on the 17″) Windows 7 is a welcome breath of fresh air. If Apple don’t clean up their act I may be switching back to Windows machines again real soon.
First few days with Office 2008
February 16th, 2008
I’ve now been using Office 2008 for about five days and I’m already ready to remove it from my Mac. It is painfully, embarrassingly, frustratingly bad. Either the Microsoft Mac team screwed up completely and lost all track of what they were trying to do or Microsoft is consciously trying to force users away from the Mac and back onto Windows. Possibly a little bit of both. This isn’t just my opinion — c’t, Germany’s most reputable professional computer publication, comes out very strongly and warns all users against installing Office 2008 in their new issue due to be published on Monday.
The iPod Touch as a Bluetooth Phone
December 27th, 2007
I just got a nifty little gadget from Gear4 called the BluEye that adds Bluetooth, an FM radio and a wired remote to my iPod Touch and effectively transforms it into a phone with voice dialing. When calls come in anything playing on the Touch is automatically paused and you accept the call by pressing Play on the remote. If your phone supports voice dialing you can use that too, you just press the Bluetooth button on the remote once and speak the name to dial. This means that you can leave the phone in your pocket pretty much all the time and you don’t miss calls because you’re listening to your iPod. You also have the added advantage of the wired remote, so you can pause, skip tracks and adjust the volume without having to futz around with the touchscreen.
hlp plz!!! How not to write to support…
November 18th, 2007
You often hear about how tough it is to get good information from software support desks. What you don’t so often hear is how tough it is for software support staff to understand the mails that they get from some users. Many users write clear and comprehensible mails to support, but there are others.
In addition to my other work I often have to answer questions in technical support mails from users of a professional authoring system for technical writers. Before I started doing this I thought that it would be relatively easy — after all, I thought, they’re writers, I’ll only be getting well-written, comprehensible questions. Don’t you believe it — the Dilbert cartoons on software documentation are not only close to the truth, they are actually the opposite of an exaggeration. When I read some of the questions these “help authors” and “technical writers” send in I often wonder how they manage to tie their shoelaces in the morning, let alone produce comprehensible documentation.
So let me give you a few little tips that may help you to be a little more successful when you write an email to a support desk:
WordPress automatic updater
November 13th, 2007
One of the few really annoying things about WordPress has always been its stone age updating mechanism. Actually, it doesn’t really have an updating mechanism at all – you have to do everything by hand and so many WordPress bloggers never update.
No longer! If you don’t have it already go out and get the WordPress Automatic Updater. It’s brilliant, it works and it just takes a couple of minutes on any WordPress installation from 1.5 and higher. Highly recommended!
New multilayer HD video format
September 16th, 2007
Adding to the HD format wars confusion comes a new contestant, HD Versatile Multilayer Disc (HD VMD), from the upstart British tech company New Medium Enterprises. What sounds like a new layer of insanity in the video formats farce may actually turn the industry on its head.
HD VMD uses regular red laser technology and large numbers of multiple layers — with up to 30 layers on a single disc it can match or exceed the capacities of BluRay and HD DVD. It has several huge advantages:
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