beta testing the future

I've been reading some of the commentary about the Apple iPad over the last few days. First speculation about it, then quasi leaked pictures, then product announcements and then people giving it a kicking. I'll admit the branding was perhaps a little suspect, but that's an amusing blip.

I usually refrain from blogging more than minor discussion on information technology, but I don't really count iPad in the IT domain. Its a game changer, like the OS/X based Mac, iPod and iTunes were.

Before I used a mac at all, I was fully reared on Windows. I could proudly install device drivers, edit the registry and knew the secret commands to bypass the complex updates when the old Windows image had mysteriously failed during an 'upgrade'.

Then, somewhere in the pre-Vista era I bought my first Mac.

It just worked. I didn't even need any extra software for ages, apart from the brilliant Yellow Mug utilities. I realised I could spend time editing video, writing, attempting bad music, categorising photographs and similar without also having to spend almost equivalent time mending things.

Consequently, as other PCs around rashbre central collapsed, they transitioned to Mac. When I've subsequently updated them with new versions of OS/X, the machines get faster, or use less resources. Even my oldest pre-Intel Mac laptop machine was fully capable of editing video 'out of the box'. It still works.

Apple seems to understand how to build infrastructure. Maybe its partly locked down, but it stops people tinkering around the edges, unbolting important structural elements, which is a malaise of some parts of the Windows world.

I don't need 100 variations of a word processor. I just need one that works and doesn't get in the way.

As an example, I guess I'm like many people using Windows Excel in a commercial environment.

How we all loved the changes to the interface with the last cosmetic update. Let's hide the print functionality, let's move all of the formatting around. Let's make it more difficult to insert blocks of copied columns or rows. Let's make saving become a multiple choice test, where every option seems to remove or reformat something.

I don't think I'm being reactionary here, I'm all for progress. I embrace progress, but progress should move things forward.

My current queries include: Why does my brand new work Windows laptop freak out at least twice a day when I use it with a mouse? Why does Excel forget that its just loaded a new spreadsheet unless I minimise and maximise it? Why does it still refuse to link to the latest high speed wi-fi when I use it at home?

If this was an old hacked image I might understand it, but this is a two month old machine running a standard image. I know it's not just me though, because colleagues complain of similar phenomena.

The problem is that we all got used to it. Either learning to fix it or knowing someone who could do all the clever stuff. A sort of technician.

Possibly these same technicians make the first pronouncements about the new technology. The new iPad doesn't multi task. It only has 64GB of storage, the OS won't support Flash. It doesn't have camera.

C'mon.

They miss the point about what I call 'quiet technology'. Like the Apple slogan, 'it just works'. I don't want to have to fiddle about with printer drivers, IEEE 802.11n 54Mb wi-fi configurations and remembering the context switching key combination for when a background program fails.

Nah.

Quiet technology should be a gateway to what you really want to do. To read articles, to write to someone, to watch a television show, to listen to music. I suspect the portability of a compact personal black slate that just works will provide another game changing moment.

We'd better get used to it.

Thursday Thirteen (V47) on Saturday

I've been on the road this week, and blogging has been somewhat rushed.

Giving away trade secrets, I sometimes have a post or two pre-written for emergencies and if I know I'll be busy I might preschedule one or two to appear.

That also means that anything more elaborate like this Thursday Thirteen gets bounced to when I have more time to complete the links. But here goes..

1) It feels strange that its already Saturday again. This week has sped past. Usually if I'm away on a Sunday evening it makes the week seem longer.
2) My breakfast meeting at the Royal Exchange during the week caused me to speculate on the alleged changes to the economy.

With the Exchange literally across the road from the Bank of England and the old site of the London Stock Exchange, you'd expect to see early signs of returning busy power breakfasts. If I'm honest, it was still relatively quiet.

3) I've also been flying around during the week, so another working breakfast in the surroundings of Terminal Five. A few of us have an uncrowded meeting spot in the BA lounge, which we refer to as 'the usual spot'. I secretly wonder if this is a good thing?

4) When I had to change flights at one point in the week, the lady at the ticketing desk inadvertently put me back onto the same flight. Luckily, I checked the ticket whilst chatting over a drink. When I rushed to find a desk to get it changed the second time, they said they'd been 'waiting for me and would have put out a call'. A good line, in any case.

5) There's also been staccato responses from me to other bloggers' posts this week, as I browse from iPhone. I'm particularly intrigued by maximum bob's plan to write music. If writing a daily blogpost is difficult enough, writing 14+ songs in February is off the scale. Dial 11.

6) I can think of at least one other poetry-inspired person who should try that FAWM challenge.

7) Although it's interesting that the idea of 'album' now seems to imply circa 14 tracks. Someone sent me an old CD album called 'Anthem of the Sun' during the week. A full vinyl running length but just 5 tracks.

Then in late breaking news, two more surprise CDs arrived this morning. @AVG(10 + 17) = 13.5 tracks. OK I give in. (They are revision ahead of an upcoming Tindersticks concert)

8) No alarm this morning, and I was surprised that it was full sunny daylight when I awoke. Makes a change from owl spotting although it has left a dent in the day.

9) To my surprise, a hardback version of 'The Triangle' is up on Amazon, although I've never seen a copy.

10) Of course, eBooks are probably going to become a major trend over the next couple of years, particulalry if the *ahem* small, lightweight and slim iPad has its way. Steve Job's reaction to that scene has also been uploaded.


11) Above joking aside, I suspect rashbre central will acquire one of these iPad devices; it's at least an intriguing blogging, emailing, viewing and reading platform.

Having used the eReader, the wireless connectivity of an iPad should be a major plus point.

12) Meantime, I'll continue to read thin paperbacks when travelling. I sometimes wonder how much impact the "packability" has on my literary knowledge.

13) And now for coffee. Hand ground. It sort of completes the loop from last Sunday morning.

Gotta run.

nul points and then a curry

Another hectic day of meetings, both face to face and virtual, including one where a few of us quipped that it was a little like the Eurovision Song Contest as we linked the various sites together by video.

Instead of traditional videoconferencing suite we were using a coin sized camera clipped to the end of a pencil, which worked surprisingly well.

Admittedly the audio was on a separate phone circuit, but somehow everything seemed to work and we were all relatively composed up to the point where the people in the Dutch office started reading out scores.

Luckily our line was on mute at the time.

Tonight its pub and curry.

interstitial landing zone

Not much blogsense from me at the moment as I'm rather busy with work.

Yesterday it was 06:00 alarm and then into the office by 07:30. I didn't really finish working until around 22:50.

Then today its 05:00 wakeup, followed by Heathrow for breakfast in Terminal 5 before jumping onto a plane.

It's one of those visits where I meet a couple of others in the lounge before the flight.

By the time this gets posted, I should be in the air.

iTold u So

Well, it looks as if they announced it today.

Without the teacups.

One has to admire the amount of free media coverage.

in which we plan a visit to the asylum

Randomly spotted that violin totin' Emilie Autumn is passing through the UK but its Bristol, Wolverhampton and Nottingham - tour dates literally this week.

Fortunately after the tour heads off to about 20 other European venues it then swings back through the Islington Academy in March. We've just jumped on some tickets.

Her industrial strength show is about the strange things that the Victorians and others got up to in the name of art and subjugation.

Ms Autumn and Co. create an evening containing performance art and crunchy gothic music. Theres's barbed social commentary laced with irony as they depict the pre-Raphelite penchant for paintings of women drowning and Ophelia Tours of Asylums.



For the Absinthe flows like wine where I'm going
They say there's a demon
There probably is
But I'll be the end of them
Go on and send for them
So burn me and break me
You know I'll pretend for them
When I close my eyes

the outer edge of sadness

Regular readers of rashbre central will know that this site normally spins positive and has 'there is fun going forward' as something of a catch phrase. As others observe, it's tough to stick with it at this time of year because of that Arnall formula, first introduced here a couple of years ago:

( [W + (D-d)] x TQ ) / (M x NA)

The equation is broken down into seven variables: (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed 'quit' attempt (smoking/drinking/popcorn/whatever), (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action.

Yup, its the depression formula, used to calculate the most depressing day of the year, which is somewhere between 23 January and yesterday. Some might say its in the period immediately preceding the next pay day.

Most people have broken their healthy resolutions six to seven days into the new year and many of us have eaten our way through the remaining Christmas chocolates and the content of the fridge.

Not to mention the suction sound from the emptying of the bank account, the prompt arrival of the credit card bill and the long delay since that early pay cheque in December.

But there's no place for Seasonal Affective Disorder around at rashbre central. We want formulas for positivity.

We are all singing, dancing and prancing as we realise the rest of the year will be getting better and better.

Out with the bad and in with the good.

....and breathe.

zassenhaus

A more indulgent start to Sunday. Time to grind fresh coffee beans before easing into the day.

Separated from industrious weekdays jostled with metal tubes of transport breathless minute needy.

Sunday can flex more.

An easier beginning, the reliable Zassenhaus, retrieved from my time living in a German apartment. There's a moment for contemplation whilst hand milling the roast for the morning's kick.

Examine the day and speculate the ensuing week. Home much? Yeah. Er, except Sunday (away on business). Thursday (flying around), Friday (team pow-wow).

I'll read the papers today; catch up on some news.

And pack for tonight.

different names for the same thing

I watched that old Nick Hornby film recently. High Fidelity. The one about the record store. And lists.

Then today, I spent about half an hour uploading a few CDs from Christmas into iTunes. At the same time I noticed a build-up of duplicate tracks in the main iTunes listing.

Time to delete a few.

I started by doing it manually. Then I remembered I was using a computer. Download Tidysongs and set it loose.

It found about 1400 duplicates in 10 minutes. All gone now. It wasn't put off by the Bjork "Army of Me" remix collection.

The genre classification wasn't quite so good, putting a number of UK artists into a category called 'Europe' and a few more artists into one called 'Canada'. It also struggled with the album covers, even when it was on a run it would skip random tracks.

Anyway. Back to mainly non-duplicated tunes. With a few random cover-arts.

velcro suit moment

Other folk have been doing the travelling this week whereas I found myself static with an unexpected WAH day today.

The only thing was, that in addition to my meeting in Scotland (this morning) and my meeting in London (lunch time) I had a Big Meeting with New York (late this afternoon). Of course, these meetings were electronic rather that F2F.

I say the Big Meeting was New York, but it was also Sweden, Holland and a few other places. This is where the WAH factor crept in. I should remind that WAH = Working At Home.

That's been me, all day. Online, on the phone, doing stuff. Non client facing. Relaxed dress code.

It was all going well up to the point where I clicked the link for the Big Meeting.

Up booted a nice screen on my PC. And a little video square, which then toggled through Los Angeles, New York, Stockholm, Brussels, Amsterdam and so forth. Everyone was wearing suits. Proper business attire. Looking very business-like.

I was WAH-casual.

I could hear a sort of stabbing dance chord playing in my head. Psycho meets electro trance.

I checked that the little green light hadn't come on above my PC screen. No, the camera was off. I flipped to the edge of the screen.

Clicked the menu.

There were about 20 people on the call and the number was still rising. Only 30 percent had the little video symbol.

I thought to myself, maybe these other voice only people are also WAH today.

I may need one of those standby velcro suits.

And some gaffer tape.

chocolate buttons (or dancing with the moonlit knight)

I was going to write this post about chocolate.

Continuing my occasional obsession with Cadburys.

I wanted to write about the strange economics of leveraged buy-outs. I even started to draw a diagram on a sheet of paper. One with banks gambling with savings.

I wanted to illustrate that if they gained money, then they got a commission. But also that if they lost money they still got a commission.

If they lost lots of money, then the government asked the tax payers to top up the bank again.

I'd even found a roulette wheel graphic.

And then I wanted to show that the same bank could start gambling again. In a no limits way it could lend whatever and wherever it liked.

And get some more commission.

So it could lend to another country. Maybe to an organisation that wanted to buy part of the bank's own country.

Maybe to cheese company to buy, say, a chocolate firm. So the cheese company buying the chocolate company doesn't need to use so much of its own money.

The bank doesn't mind; it gets its commission on its overseas loan and if the deal is risky then the government is a safety net.

My diagram might have got a bit complicated by now. Because if the chocolate company gets bought and rationalised, then there's a few less taxpayers to top things up.

Luckily this won't happen. The politicians have said so.

Mr Brown said yesterday that "We will do everything we can to make sure that jobs and investment are maintained in Britain."

So I've decided to eat some chocolate instead of drawing my diagram.

Nothing to worry about.

door

I'd walked past a number of times and never even noticed the door.

This time we entered and took the steps that led down.

Our little gang took a corner table and the maître d' settled us returning later to explain the menu. He recognised the others and was suitably pleasant as if he also knew me. They'd been working in this area for a while and already determined this as a favourite venue, whereas this would be my first experience.

We selected from the small menu and a choice of wine, suitably decanted then bursting with a richness and fruit.

We'd been working in a hotel room across town prior to this excursion and had prepared the usual charts and diagrams of commerce. Now was a chance to chatter before tomorrow's Big Meeting.

The food was perfectly cooked. The wine sublime. Our small group enjoyed a special magic in this tiny location, which for an off-peak day was still busy at each of its small number of tables.

Much later we climbed the stairs back to what was now a rainy street, with a few taxis waiting across the road to ferry us back to our waiting files and presentations.