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With great power....
Comes great responsibility. Having praised the command prompt yesterday, I then found this warning from the Ubuntu forums about people posting malicious commands hoping to fool people into entering them at the command prompt.
It's fair to say that the Linux command prompt has far, far more power than the one in Windows but the warning is just as relevant. The command prompt tends to assume that you know what you are doing, so there are fewer 'are you sure?' warnings.
It also underlines the crucial attitude of thinking things through. Before making any changes at the suggestion of what is (on a forum) a complete stranger, make sure you understand what it means. Remember, when faced with the easy way and the hard way, the easy way normally ends up as more work in the long run.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Guitars and music
As a guitarist and computer enthusiast I've been really enthusiastic about using the two together. When I first starting using an Atari ST for computer music this was not an option. It could only cope with MIDI rather than audio and crashed on a very regular basis.
More recently I've been playing around (in both senses of the word) with the M-Audio Mobile Pre and Magix Samplitude Music Studio.
One of the beauties of modern computer music is that many effects and instruments can be used with different programs. For example I reviewed Cakewalk Guitar Tracks several years ago. Recording wise Samplitube is more advanced but GuitarTracks comes with the Amplitube amp simulation. As the Amplitube is a VST plugin, Samplitude can use it as well.
The other part of this that it is much easier to connect the guitar to the computer. I've been using the Mobile Pre but there are even guitars coming out with USB built in. Prices are actually more reasonable than you might expect, the Beringer iAxe is £100. Although if you want you can pay slightly more eye wateringly more for the iGuitar. Prices start from $1,200 and go up to $2,500 depending on options.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Launchball
The Science Museum has relaunched its much-loved Launchpad as a 'hands-on, brains-on' gallery with over 50 interactive exhibits. To celebrate, it's also put on its website a clever, well-designed Flash game called Launchball.
The aim of the game is to get a ball from one part of the screen to a hole in another part. It's one of those games where you have to place certain blocks in the right positions to make things happen. For instance, placing a heat block next to an ice block causes the ice to melt, which allows the ball to pass.
Most of the levels aren't too taxing for adults, but it's a great way for kids to learn a bit of physics in a fun way. Best of all, you can create your own levels and even submit levels to the database for others to play.
If you get stuck, there are hints and a walkthrough at Jay Is Games.
via The Great Beyond
Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on November 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Command line or Graphical User Interface (GUI)?
Back in the days before I had Windows myself, I was very sceptical of graphical interfaces. I used GEM (see OpenGEM for an opensource version) on an Amstrad 1640 but it never really seemed that useful. That had a lot to do with only having a single floppy drive but I was able to do everything I wanted at the DOS command prompt.
I've never really stopped using the command prompt because some tasks are easier this way. I started thinking about this because of a blog post with 10 reasons why the command line is more user friendly. It's focussed on Linux (which has always had a strong tradition of using the command line) but some of the points are certainly relevant to Windows.
For example when trying to fix problems with networking, the command prompt is a good first place to look. If I want to find out whether or not the computer has been given a network address I press Windows key and R to open the Run dialogue, type cmd and press enter. The command 'ipconfig /all' will give me all the information I need to make a first diagnosis.
Let's compare that with doing it with Windows. Assuming the network icon is in the Notifaction Area, a right-click to open the menu is needed followed by selecting Status. Click on the Support Tab and then Details to show the information about the network connection. It the icon isn't in the Notification Area, a trip to Control Panel is required. Vista is even more long winded and often requires reassuring User Account Control that I know what I'm doing. The command prompt method also gives information about all the network devices, not just one.
Fair enough most of the command line jobs are fairly techie by nature, but still useful to have on hand. ping is useful command for checking if a website or network connection is working, and I used to check email from the command line to see if the problem lay with the email client.
I'm not about to move away from graphical interfaces; I need to have several windows open at a time, but I'm certainly not going to give up on it. In some ways the command line concept is having a bit of renaissance.
Take Launchy for example. It's not just for starting software but can be used for much more if you are willing to learn commands. And that'll happen quickly if you're always using them.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Solving a problem that doesn't exist
How do you tell when your mobile phone is running low on power? You check the screen, where there's usually a battery gauge or some kind of power meter. But researchers at Glasgow University have come up with a much cleverer way of doing it.
Instead of looking at the screen, a combination of the speaker and the vibration buzzer can let users 'feel' how much power there is left - apparently it'll feel like it's sloshing about like drink in a carton.
It's a clever idea, and a good proof of concept, but there can't be that much call for this technology, surely? How hard is it to take the phone out and look at the screen?
via New Scientist (link includes video clips)
Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on November 28, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Map of the internet
Obviously this is not a list of every single website, rather a graphical representation of how internet addresses have been allocated. Fun if you like that sort of thing.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 28, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Serwindipity (n)
There should be a word for the half second of pleasant but utter shock produced by attempting a complicated task in Windows, certain in the knowledge that it would fail horribly, only to see it work first time.
A case in point: resigned to total data loss and a few hours of re-synchronising, I connected my truly ancient MP3 player (dented, held together with sticky tape and the laughing stock of our iPod-toting art staff) to Windows Media Player 11 and tried to copy across a few new albums. The result: albums copied, nothing destroyed, jaw on desk.
I vote for Serwindipity. Anyone else?
Posted by Tom Royal on November 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Just when I was warming to Vista.....
I try and do something complicated like connect to a wireless network.
Because I know that wireless is fraught with problems such as interference and people or trees getting in the way of the signal, let me make this clear that when the notebook is running Windows XP the connection is fine and works within about 5 minutes of turning the notebook on. And I didn't move it either.
I thought that one reason might be that the network I wanted to connect to has a hidden name. That might be true but the other available network with a public name didn't work either.
After several attempts I tried clicking on the Diagnose the problem button. The answer was 'Wireless association failed due to an unknown reason'. Well that was a lot of help.
Next stop the Microsoft KnowledgeBase and the article Connecting to non-broadcast wireless networks in Windows Vista. It seems that these connections should be set up manually. I'm not even going to consider using the Command Prompt. I think I've tried a manual connection, but the sheer number of different dialogue windows means I'm starting to lose track.
A quick look on the Buffalo website reveals this article saying that the Vista drivers should be used instead and that seemed to work better until I tried to use the connection to browse the internet. I was only trying the Buffalo card because it is high gain and therefore might solve the problem of dodgy reception. The Buffalo wireless manager wouldn't work either.
What gets me is that although it took a while the wireless support in Windows XP works. I might even go further and describe it as fairly robust. It's not really progress, especially with the problems I've had when trying a wired connection.
And I've genuinely forgotten why I was trying to connect to the web in the first place....
Posted by Tim Smith on November 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Ebooks - not merely a novel idea
Amazon's Kindle electronic book reader may not have even been launched here in the UK yet, but it's produced a huge volume of press - much of it negative. A very readable case in point comes from the Guardian's Steven Poole - who, as a regular contributor to Edge magazine is certainly no Luddite - who has produced a list of "minimal list of features that any successful ebook device must eventually have".
Personally - and, I should point out, before having actually seen a Kindle in the flesh - I've got mixed feelings. It certainly has many disadvantages - including a slab-like design that seems not so much crafted as sliced from the wall of some underground electronics mine - but, be it the Kindle or the Sony Reader, I can't wait for a proper, usable ebook reader to take off.
The thing is, I really like books - and, sadly, not just reading them. For some unknown reason, books - like only Compact Discs - have some kind of unholy hold over my mind in that I find it impossible to dispose of them. Video games can be traded-in and unwanted items of consumer electronics can be ebay-ed, but books and CDs are doomed forever to lurk in huge, dusty piles on top of, to the sides of, underneath and around my poor, beleaguered, bending set of bookshelves. And on the table. And next to the microwave. And under the bed. It's ridiculous, but I just can't bring myself to get rid of books, and not just the good ones - even those novels that rather disappointed, and those that were so bizarrely fixated on tennis that I struggled to get past the first 100 pages are doomed to lurk around my flat for evermore.
And let's not forget that paper books, for all their many advantages, have many significant problems that can be overcome by electronics. For one, they're bulky - a deliberately pretentions copy of L'Etranger might slip nicely in a pocket, but others are completely impossible to read on, say, a train, a sofa, or anywhere else for more than the ten minutes it takes for your arms to go dead from supporting 400-odd sheets of dead tree. Books get wet and turn into a giant papier-mache paperweight. Books get damaged or abused by the people who inexplicably think that it's acceptable to turn the pages down as some form of iron-age substitute for the humble bookmark. Books fall apart over time as the spine glue disintegrates, leaving you with a pile of muddled, yellowing sheets. Books don't work terribly well in the dark, except perhaps as some sort of improvised weapon.
And then there's convenience. A few days ago I was facing the eternal dilemma of all air travellers - what to fit into an unfeasibly tiny hand luggage allowance. After half of the space was used up by items that I can't afford to entrust to the lunacies of international air baggage handling (laptop, camera, notebooks) I found myself stuck with a choice: do I pack one single novel, or an MP3 player containing 200 albums and a Nintendo DS? Faced with 11 hours to kill, the novel went in the hold. An ebook reader stacked with a couple of novels might have fared better.
So, here's my own, rather shorter list of demands. For me to buy an ebook reader, it'll need:
- To not be tied to any one bookshop or format.
- To be utterly clumsy-fool-proof. I'll drop it. Regularly. It needs to survive.
- 20-hour battery life with the screen illuminated.
- Display books in an OTF font of my choosing, not one that's fixed (in case the chosen font is vile)
- To hold 20 200-page novels, with an expansion card slot
- To cost less than £200
Wishful thinking this may be, but I have high hopes for 2008.
Posted by Tom Royal on November 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Update to GIMP image editor
There's an update to the Gimp 2.4, 2.4.2 to be exact.
There are no great changes but a selection of bug fixes. More details can be found on the News page.
If you've never tried the Gimp, I can strongly recommend it. It's opensource (so free) and very powerful.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 26, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Better ways to remove software
Interesting round up over on the downloadsquad of replacements for Windows Add/Remove. I can't say I've had that many problems with Add/Remove programs, but incomplete cleanups may well have been the cause of the general slowing down that afflicts Windows after a reasonable length of time.
Hopefully I'll be taking a look at a few in more detail soon.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Vista begins to Wow
As some of my previous posts may have hinted, I've not been overly enthusiastic about Vista on my notebook. Mostly due to poor performance.
Recognising that this might have something to do with the amount of memory in the notebook, I started researching upgrading. Now, I would have thought 512MB plenty, after all it was many years before I had a hard disk this big, let alone system memory but that's progress I suppose.
The sweet spot seemed to be upgrading to 2GB. I had a look on the Crucial website to use their various tools for checking what I needed. It makes it much easier as I'm not up to speed (no pun intended) on the different memory types around at the moment.
As the notebook is dual channel, it made sense to replace both SODIMM boards with a kit made up of two 1GB boards. The price is just £30 at the moment for the 2GB kit that they were kind enough to send in for testing.
I've still got to collate the test results but the effect of Vista has been both immediate and positive. The time needed to startup has been dramatically reduced. Previously I could be waiting anything up to 10 minutes before I could actually start using the computer. Now Vista is responsive from when the desktop loads.
In fact I'm tempted to revise my position from the post I made earlier in the month asking if Windows XP was worth the extra £25 Dell were asking. If the choice was between XP and Vista with more memory, I think I would go for Vista now.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Have 3D monitors arrived?
I spent an hour or so this morning with some guys from Zalman who were showing off their latest 3D monitor. It uses polarisation rather than adding red and green, although special glasses are required.
With a couple of caveats, I was quite impressed. It took a little while to adjust (both ways, I had to be more cautious than usual coming down the stairs afterwards). The adjustment is not just mental but physical.
The vertical viewing range is a bare 12 degrees because of the nature of polarization. It blocks light so move too far off centre and things start to look weird. There are some diagrams on the Trimon product page that help to explain how it works. The horizontal viewing angle is a respectable 180 degrees so it's not all bad.
Stereoscopic videos looked amazing. I resisted the temptation to try and touch the dragon fish in the coral reef or scream as the steam train thundered towards me. But only just.
My feeling about games were a little more mixed. The drivers on the first demo computer were good but the game didn't really shine. The effect was more subtle than I was expecting and I tending not to notice when paying attention to aiming. Playing Painkiller Overdose looked better but the computer had older drivers so the 2D element of the current weapon looked a little odd. Apart from that it was very impressive. I don't know if it would give me an edge in multiplayer but it improves the experience.
They've left us with a monitor so I'm going to give World of Warcraft and GuildWars a go at some point. They told me how good WoW looks so it should be a treat, especially as the slightly slower pace (most of the time) means I should enjoy the 3D effect more.
As much as I like this technology, I've got some reservations about its long term prospects. At the moment, only Nvidia drivers have the required code. Thankfully games don't need to be rewritten, otherwise I probably wouldn't expect any future at all. But as drivers become available I can see this becoming more popular. At £430 for the 22 inch widescreen and £380 for the standard aspect 19 inch, it's not overly expensive either. Two special glasses will be included in the box and there are plans to sell extras as accessories.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 22, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Keep data safe
As this week has shown, physical security of information is just as important as passwords, as our Government has learnt to its cost. While part of me is appalled that the child benefit information was sent out without having been encrypted first, I can understand this is not always that easy to do.
So I'm having small worry about my data and whether or not I should encrypt it. The answer is probably yes but how?
If you have Windows XP Pro or Vista Ultimate there is encryption built in. One alternative is to use separate software such as the recently released Steganos Safe One. It can encrypt two 1GB areas, don't expect to include digital photo or music collections but that should keep you going for Word and Excel documents for some time to come.
As much as I want to promote safe data, I do feel that I should make some warnings. I once enabled Encrypting File System on my computer here in the office. All was fine and it was hardly noticeable. Right up until I had to change my login password. For some reason the various keys were not updated and I couldn't access any of my files.
Luckily I had a recent backup but I never got the files back. So as much as the extra security is valuable, it does make life a little more complicated. Time well spent though.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Improvements for Vista arriving via Windows Update
Some information on the some updates for Windows is avialable on the Windows Vista Team Blog. Hopefully the updates should be downloading now, if they have not already been installed.
Reassuringly these aren't security fixes but fix some stability problems and improve performance. I'm looking forward to the promise of better battery life.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 21, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The iPhone and Oasis
We've been examining the iPhone for a week or so now - as we said in the review, it's a great phone. To be honest, I was looking forward to not liking it at all. There's no satisfaction in riding with the herd, after all, and it's more fun to write a critical review than a fawning one. There's another problem - what if the positive reviews of the phone are another case of Be Here Now syndrome [Wikipedia link, some adult language]?
That was what happened in 1997, when almost the entire British music press gave stellar reviews to
Oasis's third album, Be Here Now, despite the fact that it wasn't very good. That was itself a reaction to having given the group's 1995 second album fair-to-middling reviews - everyone was caught up in the hype, and nobody wanted to break ranks and admit the painful truth.
Is that the case with the iPhone, then? I honestly don't think so. We've had a chance to give the phone a thorough going-over, and while it has its flaws, it's much better than Be Here Now. In fact, I'm prepared to say that it's the easiest-to-use phone I've ever seen.
I'm happy with my HTC S710 (or the Orange SPV e650, as it's known), which runs Windows Mobile, and it's very easy to use. It knocks spots off the Nokia interface, that's for sure. But the iPhone is far ahead even of Windows Mobile. It's intuitive, the touch-control works, and it does plenty.
So far, for instance, we've used it to find a pub in the middle of nowhere, find a pub in the middle of London, and, er, do you see a pattern here?
One alarming thing is the speed with which the screen attracts fingerprints and smudges. It's annoying having to clean the thing every few hours. Luckily, accessory maker iSkin has sent us a nifty little microfibre cleaner, which does the job well - there doesn't seem to be a British product webpage for it, but it's hidden away on the US site. We'll let you know as soon as we figure out where to buy one in the UK.
Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on November 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Foiled by the Office box not setup software
I don't want to go on too much about the new Microsoft boxes but there are a little irratating. So without wanting to sound too much like a luddite here's why.
I'm embarrased because it took me a couple of attempts to get the thing open. I thought the instructions meant that I had to pull the tab out of the top before removing the side sticker. Cue much pulling and frustration.
Thankfully that was the hardest part of the process. Once the side sticker was off the box opened quite easily.
The actual setup process was much easier without many complicated options to confuse matters. Unless you want to specify exactly which parts of Office are to be installed.
The final part of installation is activation, no surprise these days. As ever, the internet is the easiest way to do this. The license is for three computers so hopefully there won't be any problems when it appears on my other computers.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Time for maturity in the Windows vs Linux debate
One thing that often frustrates me when discussing the relative merits of different operating systems is how quickly it can descend into Microsoft bashing.
It's almost used like an ace in cards by people as they smugly say 'Oh well, it's Microsoft and you can't trust them to get data secure/not try to act unfairly'.
If Windows really was as bad as these people make out, we wouldn't be using it. Every day millions of people do their daily jobs and fun stuff with Windows and don't have crashes or loss data. Computer manufacturers and companies would not be prepared to spend the money in support.
I bring this up because I've just been reading a very good article by Bruce Byfield called It's time to get over Microsoft. Much of the time open source software stands up as a good alternative without the polemic. OpenOffice is a good example. I've been using this for years and had no problems replacing Office when my 2007 beta ran out.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Some attractive wallpapers
This might be a little naughty but there are some good wallpapers to be found over on the KDE4 website.
They are attractive enough that I'm willing to overlook the fact (as one comment points out) that five of the images were submitted by the jurors. I suspect that has more to do with the difficulty of getting people involved rather than any dodgy dealings.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 20, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Caught out by Automatic Restart again
I signed up for a trial account on World of Warcraft yesterday (for work purposes - honest!) and was a little surprised and gratified to find that it is the full version without any limitations.
The downside of this is that the required download is a whopping 3.16GB. Generous but a mamoth exercise even today. Still, it's a computer down in the labs so I started it downloading and carried on with some work. And then went home.
When I got back to the computer at lunchtime I discovered that the computer had crashed. A quick restart and Windows proadly announced that an automatic download had taken place to keep me secure.
Needless to say, the download was interupted and I'm back to square one. Only slightly less happy than I was before.
I know updates are important but there must be a better way than this. Even if I had been at the computer I would have had to click on Restart later every 15 minutes.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 15, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Android (Gphone) interface
Anthony is still testing Apple's much-hyped iPhone, and although it's drawn a few admiring glances from around the office I'm not entirely convinced - although the swishy interface is undeniably impressive, I'm not willing to sacrifice 3G networking and the ability to install custom applications (as I can on my poor, much abused E61). Let alone for almost £270 plus an 18-month contract.
On the other hand, the latest news from Google has me very much interested. This video shows the prototype interface for, and applications running on, Google's Android software stack for mobile phones. If not quite up to the level of the iPhone it's certainly more appealing than Symbian Series 60 interface, and with a freely available SDK it should attract plenty of third-party software developers. Whether it emerges as a serious challenger to S60 and Apple is, of course, anyone's guess for the moment - but if any technology company can take on the black turtle-neck wearing upstarts from Cupertino, it's probably the huge, rich devotees of "don't be evil" from Mountain View.
Posted by Tom Royal on November 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
more efficient power supplies
One thing that sometimes gets forgotten when discussing power saving is efficiency. This is the idea behind power saving light bulbs. They convert more energy into light and less into heat than old style bulbs.
Ecogeek has covered this recently on the subject of computer power supplies. I was quite amazed to read that as much as 50% of the power consumed by the power supply goes into heat and not into the computer.
That may change as Energy Star, the organisation behind the stickers often seen on monitors are now requiring 80% efficient power supplies.
The catch, well apparantly they cost $20 more. Given the power savings, that would be made back quickly in reduced power bills.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New life for old computers, and their OS
So along come two green computing stories one after another, just like buses.
Microsoft has decided to add some new licences for companies wanting to sell off old computers with the introduction of the Microsoft Authorized Refurbisher program.
Anything Most things that make computers more accessible and cheaper is a good thing, and it's easiest by providing Windows.
Disposing of the computers while staying on the right side of the WEEE directive might add some complication to the situation though.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Solar powered Bluetooth headset
I haven't covered much on green issues for a while, so this caught my interest this morning, a solar powered Bluetooth headset.
It's a clever idea, although the spec list is silent as to how long it takes to charge, given the small panel size and the power requirements of Bluetooth.
Perhaps I'm missing the point. This looks like a good way to increase the battery life of the headset, and it sounds like it's been done without a dramatic increase in weight.
Then again, maybe it's a plot to force people to wear their headsets outdoors. The closest to that I've ever come is in the car, and even then I've wished for blacked out windows.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What people want from Windows
Interesting picture here, if it proves to be true of course, the feature request list for Windows 7 highlighted on NeoWin.
These things always depend on the kind of people filling them in. What I want in my software is often very different to what ordinary users may want.
Having said that there are some very interesting suggestions including:
Reopen closed tabs in Internet Explorer. This is a really useful feature in both Opera and Firefox. I tend to use tabs as a basic todo list. Anything I want to write about is left in an open tab, so carrying them over from session to session is essential.
Manual duplex printing option. I think this may be slightly redundant now as most printers I've looked at recently can do this, but still very useful. And green to as it saves paper.
Make all Windws Updates descriptive. Nice idea, but I'm not sure if I'd understand all of them!
Posted by Tim Smith on November 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Reasons to buy Windows Vista: number, er, one
I'm a fairly happy Windows XP user. I use Windows XP Pro on both my work and home computers, and I have a Windows XP Media Center Edition box that hums away under my television storinng hundreds of episodes of The Daily Show and The Simpsons that I might, eventually, get around to watching. Once XP has been stripped of its silly blue and green skin and turned into XP Classic (instructions here) it does pretty much everything I want to do - that is, run Firefox, Outlook, Word and Photoshop. I tried installing Vista alongside XP on my home computer, but after an entertaining half hour watching it fail to recognise my sound card and wireless network adapter I deleted the partition and went back to XP (take that, wide-framed loom).
The other day, though, in an astounding moment of non-Luddism, I traded in my rather wonderful but entirely film-based Nikon F80 for a newer, smaller, and 100% more digital D40. This means that, rather than wrangling with insanely slow and annoying film scanners and storing a stupid amount of Fuji Provia film in the fridge where I could be storing fine cheeses, I can shoot digitally in RAW mode. And, for RAW photography, XP is some way behind Vista.
There are many ways to edit and organise RAW files in XP, but they require third-party software. I like Adobe's Lightroom and Photoshop, but both are expensive (leaving less money for, amongst other things, cheese in the fridge). In Windows Vista, though, you can add plugins (here's Nikon's) that allow the operating system to thumbnail RAW images just like any other image format. This doesn't mean that you can edit them - you'll still need a decent image editor to adjust the white balance, exposure etc - but it does allow you to find images without starting up cataloguing software or simply flick through the contents of a memory card to see which shots came out right. An excellent idea.
So - finally, there's one new feature in Windows Vista that makes me actually want to buy a copy. One feature does not a £105 upgrade make, but it's a start.
Posted by Tom Royal on November 13, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Gphone, or not
We've been having a look at the iPhone - keep an eye on the site for a full review soon. But what's more interesting for the majority might be the Gphone, which is Google's take on the idea.
Although it's been the talk of geeks the world over for months, the company issued a release last week saying it wasn't interested in making an actual Gphone. Instead, it's done something much more interesting.
Google has signed a deal with a bunch of mobile phone companies to create what it calls the Open Handset Alliance. The idea is to create an operating system for phones to run, which will work with devices from several manufacturers, so that even if you change phones from a Motorola to an HTC, it will still work the same way.
A similar principle applies to the two current big operating systems, Windows Mobile and Symbian, both of which offer the same ability to use the same software and work in the same way on phones from several manufacturers. The Google announcement (the proposed operating system is called Android) should make things interesting, stirring up the market, but also because so many companies have signed up to it.
The interesting name on the list is HTC, which makes some excellent phones (notably for Orange in the SPV range) using Microsoft's Windows Mobile. Does this mean the company's ditching WM? We'll find out in the second half of 2008, which is when Google reckons the first Android phones will be available.
Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on November 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Software development, backwards
Typically, new versions of software come with all kinds of new features, some of which prove wildly popular and others which don't find favour. Either way, they all tend to stay in, which is what led to the term Bloatware, referring to software with a size out of proportion to its usefulness.
Adobe says it's going to do something about the bloat of its big-name image editing program Photoshop. For the first time, the next version might actually come with fewer features, as the developer slims down the software to try to better fit users' needs.
It's an interesting sign that at least one company is listening to its users, and will give them a program that loads quicker and is easier to use, because it doesn't contain so many outmoded bits that nobody wants. Of course, it remains to be seen whether this philosophy will apply to Adobe's other products, or whether other software developers will take note. We can hope, eh?
Posted by Anthony Dhanendran on November 12, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Office has arrived!
I've finally got a copy of Office 2007. Yes, I know it's been a little while since it was released, that's why I'm so excited.
Sadly I've got far too much on this afternoon to start using it, so a proper exploration will have to wait until Monday morning.
When Office 2003 came out many years ago, it was a clear winner. As much as I liked Lotus WordPro, it just couldn't compete any more and WordPerfect offered less for roughly the same cost.
Now Office faces some stiff opposition from OpenOffice. It may lack some corporate features but my criteria is getting copy written as quickly as possible. I'll also be looking at it from the Home and Student point of view as that's the version I've got.
I liked the beta of Office when I used it last year and found the ribbon much more effective than I expected.
I'm also very excited about OneNote as I've only ever seen briefings about this software
But first, I have to get inside the box. From the red tags on the side and top of the box (and the fact it took me a long time to get CD jewel cases open without excessive force), that might be worth a post of its own...
Posted by Tim Smith on November 9, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Recharge gadgets by breathing: Friday fun
If you don't mind a few wires peeking from under your jumper, this might be a cheap way to charge gadgets.
Made from old CDROM drives, it uses the motion of breathing to drive some gearing linked to a small generator.
The downside is that it doesn't actually generate that much electricity. According to Ecogeek, it will take around 24 hours to charge a mobile phone
Posted by Tim Smith on November 9, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Free software for illustrations
With all the focus on digital cameras when it comes to talking about image editing, it can be easy to forget that it is possible to create images from scratch. It's not something I've ever been very good at, beyond planning some websites.
More creative types, and I've been lucky to work with and watch some, can achieve a lot more and it will come as no surprise that many of the programs are available for free. A good summary can be found on linux.com. Don't worry there are several suggestions for Windows, including Paint.NET and Inkscape.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 9, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
New hardware standard for performance enthusiasts
The lengths some people will go to for the best possible performance never ceases to amaze me. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it's a bad thing, even if most of use don't have access to liquid nitrogen or want to use cooking oil as a cooling medium.
Pitching somewhere closer to the mainstream, Nvidia has just announced a new standard to let cooling systems talk with each other called Enthusiast System Architecture or ESA. The official release claims that Dell, CoolerMaster and Thermaltake are among the companies joining in.
A quick read of the technical paper (more accessible than most I have to say) reveals that ESA is based around USB. This sounds like a good idea to me, why reinvent the wheel if there is already a good technology in place.
It's not the first time I've heard of Nvidia doing this. A little while ago I went to a briefing about a new programming language they had developed called Cg (c for graphics). It faced the usual problem that different graphics cards manufacturers all had their own tricks but according to it's page on Wikipedia has been used by games such as Far Cry.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Parental controls appear on XBox 360
I'm sure that arguments over the amount of time children spend on the computer or console are here to stay, but thankfully Microsoft has made life a little easier for parents (or maybe even older siblings) by adding parental controls to the Xbox 360.
Just in case hopeful offspring have 'forgotten' to mention this feature in all the excitment over Halo 3 and Call of Duty SpongeBob Square Pants, you can find more information on the official Xbox 360 site.
Similar effects, though probably involving just as much shouting, can be achieved by not putting consoles in bedrooms.
As with all security measures make sure that there is a good password protecting any parental controls and make sure that if they have been sent in an email that access to that email account is also protected.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Update on Quicktime update
It appears there's another update for Quicktime. Given my previous comments about security it's probably a good idea to upgrade if the Apple Update software hasn't already reminded you.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 7, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Magix Music Maker sample keys
That's keys for music rather than product keys, before FACT descend on my desk. I've come in the computer music thing a little late, having played around with some MIDI stuff at school. Not being very good at the piano held me back and I stuck with other instruments instead.
However, recently I've been doing more with modern software, or DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) as they're better known as, such as Magix Music Maker and Steinberg Sequel. The possibilities are amazing compared to the temperamental Atari ST I had previously used.
One conflict between the old and new was planning the structure of song with chords. I think in musical terms so C, A minor, F7, etc. My frustration was that Magix Music Maker lists different samples in a numerical order so sample1, sample2, etc. I could hear that they were different chords but I don't have perfect pitch.
Tom at Magix has come to my rescue with a quick list of the sample numbers and their respective keys so I thought I would share it.
Sample1 = C
Sample2 = d
Sample3 = e
Sample4 = F
Sample5 = G
Sample6 = a
Sample7 = B
Explanation: Capital letters = major chords / small letters = minor chords.
The exeption of the rule: Movie Score, Dance Electro, Techno Trance
Posted by Tim Smith on November 7, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A good tool for learning Dvorak
Learning a new keyboard layout might sound a little daunting but there are plenty of good reasons for taking a closer look at the Dvorak keyboard layout with the Dvorak Assistant.
The Dvorak layout is designed to be more comfortable to use by placing commonly used keys under the stronger fingers and by making sure that most letter combinations use alternate hands.
If I'm honest, I've not reached the same speed in Dvorak as Qwerty, but then that's normally because I have work to do and need to type as fast as possible. Each time I try it gets easier and this little app is a big help.
This is because it is a much better way of switching between keyboard layouts. The Windows Language bar just ends up annoying me.
It seems to remember the keyboard layout for individual programs. I'm sure some people must find this helpful but I'm not one of them. It just means that I'm never in the right layout, and it's embarrasing when people are looking over my shoulder, given that a lot of job revolves around typing.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
How language changes!
Avoiding the entangling red tape of the stationery form just to get new pens through the official channels, we took a trip down to a shop. A real shop. In a street. Nothing virtual and nothing fancy. Just pens, paper and all those other bits of office supplies that seem so exciting in the catalogue. Whatever the other advantages of internet shopping, it can't beat the convenience of nipping around the corner.
I hadn't asked for very much, just some new ink cartridges for my fountain pen. It's not snobbery (if you can describe using a 99p pen as snobbish) but it helps keep my writing as legible as possible.
Unwittingly I caused no end of trouble for Dinah in the shop because she asked for an ink cartridge. Today this has a very different meaning, as the shop assistant seemed very insistent that a printer cartridge was what she really wanted, despite the fact that they were all too big for my pen.
Sadly, even once the penny of understanding had finally dropped, I was still out of luck. So if anyone knows of where I can get hold of some red fountain pen cartridges (the small cheap ones rather than Parker or Waterman) do let me know.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Is Windows XP worth £25?
Would you pay an extra premium for Windows XP? You might if you select a particular Dell PC as we saw this morning.
Selecting the Customise my PC for the Inspiron 1501 notebook computer reveals that downgrading to XP adds an extra £23.50 to the cost of the desktop. This might be partly because it is XP Professional rather than Home given that the Vista offered is Vista Home Premium but that then begs the question of why XP Home isn't on offer.
Personally I would probably pay the money as that would be cheaper than upgrading the memory to 2Gb is more expensive, memory being the key to good Vista performance, something I hope to be testing myself in the next week or so.
The big caveat though is support. Depending on how long you expect to use the notebook, Vista may become necessary when XP support ends.
Here is the full page screenshot. The link I used was http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?b=&c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&kc=N4XCOM02&l=en&oc=N1150107&rbc=N1150107&s=dhs&~ck=expbuy3
Posted by Tim Smith on November 6, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Why is UAC so annoying compared to Ubuntu's equivalent?
I started Ubuntu today after a couple of weeks of using Windows (bear with me) and needed to install some updates. I started the utility and was prompted for my password. I've been doing this in Linux for ages, so why is User Account Control such a pain in Windows Vista? After all that isn't even a password, just click the Allow button.
Perhaps it's a question of expectations. The Ubuntu method is a vast improvement over previous Linux ideas, sometimes there was no alternative but to log out and then back in again as the administrator. Windows has never really questioned the user in this way, especially not if they are running as an admin.
Performance is another element, certainly on my memory limited notebook. UAC seems to take ages to appear, often I've got on with something else. As the window only appears for a limited period of time, it's not unknown for me to miss it altogether.
Maybe people don't like being questioned by their computer. UAC also has shades of Sergeant Wilson from Dad's Army asking 'Do you really think that's wise, sir?'. In my experiences, the times I've most got frustrated by being asked for confirmation are when I've most needed them.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Customising your keyboard
It's funny really how we all get used to fitting around the little quirks in computers rather than finding ways of making them work for us instead. The keyboard, and keyboard shortcuts in particular, seem a good place to start.
As a writer, word counts are very important to me, if for no other reason than deciding on when to go and get another cup of coffee. As such I tend to remap the keyboard shortcut for close document in Word to recount (Ctrl/Alt+W).
Lifehacker have taken this idea one step further with AutoHotkey by usin the Caps Lock key as a minimise button. I doubt whether many of use use the Caps Lock so this seems like a good idea.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A worrying list of vulnerable applications
Bit9, makers of business software for controlling the software users can run has released a list of what it claims are the 'Top popular applications with critical security vulnerabilities'
The top five are:
- Yahoo Messenger 8.1.0.239 and earlier
- Apple QuickTime 7.2
- Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6
- Microsoft Windows Live (MSN) Messenger 7.0, 8.0
- EMC VMware Player (and other products) 2.0, 1.0.4
Number five might be less of a mainstream product but the others are rather more common. Three of them are installed on my computer (though updated now)
I've said before that I tend not to be so worried about the fact that problems are found, but more how quickly they are fixed. Of course, the severity of the threat also makes a difference but I like to see that companies take security seriously.
It also reaffirms the importance for checking to see if updates are available for programs. I know that Microsoft has got into hot water recently over Windows Update but as we all end up with an ever increasing number of installed programs, autumatic checking seems to be the very least we should expect from software. I can't help but wonder how many security breaches have been avoided thanks to Windows Update. We'll probably never know but I'd guess they would have caused more inconvenience and cost.
Posted by Tim Smith on November 2, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack
