Technically Speaking

What a load of rubbish!

It's been too long since I've updated here and I'm sorry. Although there has been a lot of technical computer 'stuff' around, nothing really jumped out and needed to be discussed. Instead, what I have for your delight and amazement, is a selection of rather odd and strange websites. Firstly is something absolutely awful; it's the terrific Kenny Everett and his 'Worst Wireless Show' all the way from 1977. This is a set of shows that will annoy and upset anyone else in the house listening. It's always easy (to an extent) to decide on what is the 'best' of anything, but very hard to choose what is worst. Good old cuddly Ken does - what a genius he was. Here is another rather odd site that I found while just browsing - you may be one of those people who see shapes in the clouds and patterns in maps and so on - if so, this one's for you. This involves the art of Cartozoology - what a great word! Last up (for now) is this delightful site that has been featured on TV in the past. Simon's Cat is just so cool and he has captured a cats foibles and mannerisms so closely that he must be part feline himself - enjoy.

Let the Whining Start

I thought that this post (sorry that it's been a while) would fall under the 'just for laughs' heading as I anticipate a lot of silly nonsense about this news. Live View has finally come to Canada on Google Maps! It's quite a lot of fun to do a virtual walk about the city of Toronto and a few (very few) other selected towns and cities. Unfortunatly, Courtice isn't there yet - which is odd because I saw the Google car come down my road earlier this year - I was looking forward to seeing my mansion (ha!). Why the 'nonsense'? It seems that every time Live View has been rolled out, there has been a blizzard of the disgruntled, upset and just plain paranoid comments in all media outlets. There are the questions in parliament, local municipalities and in the press. There are those who feel that this is the thin end of the wedge of government scrutiny, terrorist attacks and petty crime outbreaks. I can hear the complaining now;
"O dear! They can see my house, my car, my pets, my children and how many garbage bins I have"
Well, in a way we can see all this and my response is 'so what'. Anyone with a camera can take the same pictures and not bother about covering up faces, signs and license plates. In addition, I can take pictures that are up-to-date and not 6 months old. I find Live View quite entertaining and a way to travel down memory lane. By using it to retrace routes I took when I went to school or went shopping, I can believe that I am in some sort of time machine and go back to my younger days. Just as an aid to travel, it can be a very valuable tool. I feel that we should accept that our various ideas of 'privacy' must be tempered with the new technologies out there. How many bad people are out there looking at every frame on every street looking for YOU? I'll make a guess - none..

How could I be so wrong?

If you read a recent post, you will see that I thought that the new MacBook Pro hype was over and done with. Boy, was I ever wrong! A couple of days later, my young lad motored off to the Apple store and returned hours later with a shiny new 13" MacBook Pro. Being a canny shopper; he bought it as an educational purchase and saved $100 and got a 'free' iPod (horrible mail in rebate). He has since spent all his waking hours playing with his new toy and installing sundry applications and Windows 7 via 'Boot Camp'. I must admit, it is a really nice looking item and is one of the best looking laptops I have seen. The screen is very good and the 'chiclet' keyboard is real easy to work with - reminds me a bit of the old Sinclair I used to have. He's not too happy with OS X, but I'm sure he will soon get used to it. The only issue so far, is the trick needed to integrate it into our wireless network - Windows Vista is a real pain in the nether regions when it comes to networking.

The REALLY good thing about his moving into the Mac world is what happened for Father's Day. I got a nice 8GB iPod Touch to play with. What a good kid! I'm only just getting used to it and still finding out the cool things it can do, so I'll have to get back to you on how it goes.

New boss, same as the old boss

Now this idea takes me back to the bad old days of DOS and its native inability to multitask. These were the days of Leisure Suit Larry and playing the hottest new games (Wolfenstein or F19 anyone) and hoping that the boss wasn't looking your way. If you were unlucky enough to see 'the man' coming your way, you would just press the 'boss' key and an innocuous Lotus spreadsheet appeared like lightning (well fairly quickly) and your secret was safe. Of course, if you were asked to explain your pretty new spreadsheet you were sunk - happy times. It seems that the idea of the 'boss key' has not gone away and now you can get this wonderful and inconspicuous item for you protection. Really discreet, isn't it? I suppose you could hide it under your desk and hit it with your knee when needed. Of course, it's only a toy - with multitasking you can move or hide anything with a click of the mouse or a quick keyboard command. Certainly, in a business environment, the ability to hide non-work related activities becomes a major part of some workers daily life and, in the home, keeps their significant other unaware of their browsing activities. In my opinion, anyone who gets caught at work doing the wrong thing on their PC deserves to be at least admonished if not punished for being a twit.

Ready for light speed?

I don't know about you, but I am really ready to go and spend my money to see the New Star Trek movie. Even though this is not one of the traditional stories that we have come to expect, I am sure this this be a movie for the history books and the Trekkies out there (you know who you are) will have a field day. I found this item while wandering around the 'net and initially thought 'wow! Gotta get one of these!'. Then reality burst in and my sanity returned - such as it is. These items always look so neat and 'cool', but when they actually get on your desk you realize what a lot of rubbish they are. Be honest, you know that the quality will be shoddy and the damn thing will work for about a day before dying horribly. Then it ends up in a drawer somewhere till the wife tells you to throw it away. Over the years, I have tried many webcam combinations from a variety of unknown companies and have always been disappointed. Either they just refuse to work or you decide to upgrade and realize that there are no drivers and indeed no company anymore to support the product. In my experience, I have always found that staying with the 'big boys' always pays dividends. Go to Microsoft or Logitech and you really can't go wrong. You'll find just what you need and no danger of the Borg taking over your desk.

Gimmie, gimmie, gimmie

Now this is something that I want. I don't need it and certainly won't use it, but, I WANT it. The company 'Dream Cheeky' is planning on releasing a Spype compatible 'phone in the next few months that is a dead ringer (ha!) for the venerable Star Trek communicator. It has the look and sounds of the well known 1960's prop and, so I understand, the same flick of the wrist opening mechanism. I'm not sure what the attraction is, but I have no doubt that there will be a huge market for this. Maybe it's just that we like to look as though we live in the future and know something others don't. Now all we need is a real phaser and a real and affordable tricorder. I just hope that the new Star Trek movie is going to be worth my money. Beam me up!

Day of the Triffids

I'm not sure if I would find this piece of kit entertaining or just creepy (pun intended) The rather strange folks at The Play Coalition have designed a mobile plant pot that will seek out the best position for it's leafy passenger. It seems that these guys who describe themselves as, 'a group of people who love to design things that are often functional but usually just fun', just like the odd and clever ideas. I must admit, a hoodie that converts to a bag is clever but ultimately useless. What do you do when the bag is full and you need to put your clothes on again? Didn't think of that one, did they? The PlantBot however scares the whatis out of me. If you have ever read 'The Day of the Triffids' by John Wyndham, you will know what I mean. It could be entertaining though to see how a visitor to your house would deal with a plant that started to move by itself - good for Halloween I suppose. Hmmm! That gives me an idea.

Funny guys?

Now that Bill Gates is unemployed (sort of) and Jerry Seinfeld has nothing happening - I've never found him funny - it seems that they are trying to advertize something. What are they pitching? I really have no idea other than PC's and Microsoft sort of go together? Presumably, these are the opposite of those annoying and (often) misleading Mac adverts. Maybe it's all that negativity about Windows Mohave and why people aren't buying it and using it as much as Microsoft thought. Mohave? Yes, it's Vista - fooled you - or maybe not. The first non-ad showed the two new buddies trying on shoes and trying to act like 'normal' people. Yeah right! They both have and make more money than I'll ever see. However, the ad is fun in a strange voyeuristic way I suppose. The second ad is a even more fun and even more strange and detached from any particular product placement. I suppose the idea is that we get drawn into the strange world of the Bill and Jerry Show and we are then treated to a huge payoff episode down the line. Maybe. Like a train wreck, they are hard to take your eyes away from. Damn, I hate being so easily manipulated.

Humble pie

OK, I'll admit it, I was wrong. There - that's better. What was I so wrong about? Well, I have never really seen what all the hoo-ha was about the iPhone and was convinced that it was just a lot of Apple propaganda and to be swallowed whole by the Apple fanboy community. Was I mistaken! My son just received his new iPhone via his Fido account and wow! What a nicely designed, clever and neat item it is. The control via the touch panel is amazingly precise and easy - even my clumsy fat fingers had no trouble navigating it. The amount of 'stuff' that this little magic box can do is quite staggering. Even the amount of on-line books to read blew me away. The only drawback is, and so far the only one, is that the surfaces of the iPhone mark very easily and you need a case and screen protector to keep it in pristine condition. I had also heard that the battery life is poor - however (so far) this hasn't seemed to be an issue. So, there you have it, I can 'bite the bullet' and admit defeat.

Hello! McFly, hello!

Now, I loved the Back to the Future series as much as anyone, but do I really want to spend this much money to bring back fond memories? Marty McFly's hoverboard from films II and III is up for grabs for - wait for it - $30,000. Yes, you read that right - $30,000. I'll have two. Is this piece of wood and plastic really worth that amount of money, after all, what would you do with it? Show it to your friends? "Here's my 'Back to the Future' hoverboard. Cost me $30,000 - what do you think?" The answer, "very nice, now where's my beer."