A Consuming Experience

Google Reader keyboard shortcuts

2009-11-12T23:21:00.004Z

I notice the list of keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) for Google Reader on Google's Help/FAQ pages isn't comprehensive (e.g. it's missing: e for email, v for view original webpage, / to move the cursor to the search box). To get the most recent full list of keyboard shortcuts, while you're in Google Reader just type a ? and you'll get a translucent popup with the list. Or you can access that list of Google Reader keyboard shortcuts here. I use 'em all the time. (Just wish there was a Shift v for...

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Google Barometer: UK consumer confidence recovers

2009-10-31T11:39:00.003Z

It seems from Google Barometer that, as far as the UK is concerned at least, consumers seem to think that the recession is bottoming out, based on searches people make and the like (fewer searches on "repossessions", for instance). Of course that's not to say that they're right…! Thoughts from Google's interviews with people on the economic climate, online shopping etc are in the video below: Tags: economy, UK, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

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Climate change: map of 4°temperature rise

2009-10-30T20:18:00.003Z

Here's a superb Flash map produced by the UK Met Office (see more info and the full size interactive view) which shows the likely results for different regions if the world's average temperature rises by just 4° C. The map was presented to OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurría by Dominic Martin, British Ambassador to the OECD, ahead of UN climate change talks in Copenhagen in December. Source: OECD press release 22 October 2009, which has some frightening figures: "OECD analysis suggests...

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Students: save money - tips

2009-10-28T10:07:00.001Z

This post isn't on technology, but has some tips which I think may help people going (back) to "school", so I'm posting them here. These tips apply to all students, but are particularly aimed at people going back to study full time as a mature student, who may not know about all these tips - you want a career change, you've lost your job and decide to retrain, whatever the reason, as a fulltime student there are some key things you can do to save money given that you'll be on a tight budget...

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Google search results redirection - rightclick won't copy direct URL? Solution

2009-10-26T09:01:00.002Z

When you rightclick a link in Google search results (especially in the Firefox browser), do you find that instead of the "real" direct link to the webpage concerned, you get a very long link with "google.../url?" in it - something like http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&ct=res&cd=1&ved=0CAwQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fhelp%2Fbasics.html&ei=tu7aSoGkBciL4gbljcD2CA&usg=AFQjCNFz4A-LTbUBTeRMfDXQIVaV8JsJhA&sig2=L_1ekrgaLu5e4QQDDBGEVw ? Hovering...

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Mobile phones: Universal Charging Solution (UCS) - universal chargers at last!

2009-10-25T20:16:00.000Z

The ITU standards body have just approved: "an energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phone solution… enables the same charger to be used for all future handsets, regardless of make and model. In addition to dramatically cutting the number of chargers produced, shipped and subsequently discarded as new models become available, the new standard will mean users worldwide will be able to charge their mobiles anywhere from any available charger, while also reducing the energy consumed...

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Free Skype on 3 (Three) - review & thoughts

2009-10-22T09:06:00.000+01:00

A few months back I took part in a free trial of 3 UK's internet telephony via Skype, thanks to 3MobileBuzz, but didn't have a chance to write it up till now. Most mobile network operators see Skype as a threat to their revenues, and so they won't let you make Skype calls on your mobile handset at all - or else they'll charge you for the privilege of using Skype (maybe even more than for a "normal" phone call). 3's selling point is that they actively encourage you to use Skype on 3 phones,...

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Carnival of the Mobilists #196: handsets, learning and lucre

2009-10-19T09:15:00.002+01:00

ACE is again hosting the Carnival of the Mobilists this week, for the second time. Regular Steve Litchfield from AllAboutSymbian has a post on The Top 5 Phones that aren't actually IN the Top 5, aka "Why choosing a phone in 2009 means choosing the one that sucks the least"! This is a comprehensive review of a big batch of current mobile phones - Nokia N97, Apple iPhone 3GS, HTC Touch Pro 2, Palm Pre, Nokia N86 8MP, HTC Hero, Nokia E75, Samsung i8910 HD, Nokia E71, Nokia N96, Nokia N95 8GB,...

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Yahoo! Taiwan "Hack Girls" - bad form!

2009-10-18T17:27:00.005+01:00

Both Cristiano and Ian and no doubt many others have posted about this, and I am joining in the chorus. Sexism sadly is still alive and kicking. Offering "entertainment" at a Yahoo! Taiwan Open Hack Day in the form of female lapdancer "Hack Girls" really isn't on. (And simply password protecting the videos after the event doesn't make up for it!) My attitudes towards sex and sexuality are as liberal as the next person's, if not more so, but some things just aren't appropriate - and this is...

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Check if your Hotmail etc account is safe; secure your passwords

2009-10-13T09:50:00.001+01:00

You've probably seen the tons of publicity recently about lots of webmail account details (e-mail addresses and passwords) being stolen or phished and published online - initially for 10,000 HotMail emails but then it transpired also some 20,000 other email accounts on Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL, Gmail and also service providers Comcast and EarthLink. Heise have provided a link to a page where you can enter your email address (just the part before the @ sign) to check if your own email address is on...

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More Acrobat security issues - try Foxit

2009-10-10T13:08:00.010+01:00

After yet another report on Adobe Acrobat Reader and Acrobat security flaws for all of Windows, Mac and Linux, I think I'm going to switch back to the free Foxit Reader for PDF files - pictured above. I'd lazily left it at Adobe when I had to switch my main computer last Christmas, but Foxit seems a lot safer. It's certainly faster at opening Portable Document Format (PDF) files. And did I say it was free? The Foxit PDF reader has plugins for Internet Explorer and Firefox and, though I've...

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Oh the irony

2009-10-09T17:59:00.004+01:00

A general email was sent out to a certain distribution list, containing a subject line starting with the words: Englich courses My lips are sealed as to the identity of the sender, or the person who forwarded the email to me! Tags: humor, humour, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

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LG Chocolate: get US$10,000 for your phone?

2009-09-28T08:43:00.002+01:00

If you have an "old" LG Chocolate KG800 phone, check your serial number ASAP. LG HQ have launched a new campaign, looking for 5 LG Chocolate phones globally. The campaign ends 30 September 2009 i.e. in a couple of days, so check it fast! If you own a LG Chocolate phone with one of the serial numbers below, you will receive US $10,000 (approximately £6000 subject to exchange rate)! The Serial numbers are: 802KPAE821224 803KPBF578597 803KPXV578330 803KPVH578503 803KPJP923836 Good luck! ...

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Saving money online - shopping deals etc

2009-08-19T10:25:00.000+01:00

I notice that ClickCashBack.co.uk, which offers members cashback for online shopping have got rid of their annual admin fee and will be trying to make money just from ads. They offer deals from retailers and manufacturers you've heard of (like 2.5% cashback from the Apple Store when I looked, and discounts for Dabs, Dell, HP etc products), which is good! I haven't tried buying anything via them yet, but I plan to. Separately but in a similar vein, I hear that Yahoo have recently launched...

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Opera by Twitter

2009-08-17T13:50:00.003+01:00

For anyone who hasn't heard of it yet, you can contribute to the Royal Opera House's experiment to engage Twitter users to help write a new opera. The BBC's covered it. "We’re investigating how short, 140-character contributions can build upon each other to create a non-linear narrative – like a Choose Your Own Adventure story or a game of Consequences" If you've not contributed yet, there's still time - just tweet your line with the hashtag #youropera or else tweet it to @youropera (someone...

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Not yer average privacy policy (& what about third party cookies / web beacons?)

2009-08-17T07:59:00.000+01:00

Hot on the heels of starting a couple of new blogs (A Health Experience, A Human Experience) on topics not related to consumer technology in order to keep this blog more targeted, I decided I ought to revamp my privacy policy and extend it to all 3 blogs, and make the link much more prominent (see the right sidebar). Here's my new privacy policy. It's a bit tongue in cheek but hopefully more readable for non-techies and non-lawyers than most, and hopefully it's also accurately compliant with...

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How Blogger changed my life (& my new blogs)

2009-08-15T22:34:00.005+01:00

Here's my contribution to Blogger's 10th anniversary search for stories "about what Blogger has meant to you over the past decade." It's not as exciting as blogging while rowing across the Atlantic, but Blogger's still helped to change my life. Or at least, change career. The "A Consuming Experience" story I haven't been using Blogger quite as long as a decade. It's been since the end of 2004, nearly 5 years now. Originally I wanted to write a consumer issues blog - hence this blog's title...

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Sweetter: see Twitter tweets on any website

2009-08-11T09:48:00.000+01:00

To see what people are tweeting about the website you're currently viewing, you can use a bookmarklet / favelet for your web browser, built using Kynetx Apps. Get the Sweetter bookmarklet free from Phil Windley's blog post (on Kynetx site too). (For anyone not familiar with bookmarklets, just dragging it doesn't work with Internet Explorer: for instructions see what's a bookmarklet or favelet and how to install or add it, and how to edit a bookmarklet.) Then, when you're on a web site and...

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Open Word documents as read only

2009-08-09T08:57:00.001+01:00

This post is on how to get particular Microsoft Word documents to open as Read Only, as standard. If like me you've accidentally overwritten important stuff in certain Microsoft Word files that you use mainly for reference, you'll want to set those documents as read only! These instructions are for Word 2003 but it should be similar for other versions. How to set a Word .doc document as read only by default Open the document you want to make read only. Go to menu Tools > Options: Click...

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Bobby McFerrin shows pentatonic scale is universal

2009-08-07T11:00:00.002+01:00

This video is brilliant, & fun too. UPDATE: the pentatonic bit is 3 minutes in. World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo. Via LuckyVoice blog. Tags: scales, pentatonic, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

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Consumer products: footprint matters, packaging matters

2009-08-06T10:47:00.001+01:00

It's astonishing how many manufacturers just haven't cottoned on to basic consumer needs for usability and practicality, which mean that minor changes to their product or its packaging could make all the difference between selling it - or not. Fact: most people don't live in mansions with unlimited space. Even when you're not in Japan, footprint matters. Hard drives, printers I have some external hard drives for backup and I only buy ones which are made to stand up vertically. I simply don't...

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Firefox: rightclick menu too slow? how to fix

2009-08-05T09:39:00.000+01:00

If the Firefox right click menu (the menu that you get when you right click with the mouse on a web page in a Firefox window or tab) is very slow, taking a long time to appear, the most likely reason for the delay is an add-on or extension. Try starting Firefox in safe mode. If the problem goes away in safe mode, it was probably an extension causing the issue. Here's some tips on how to fix that problem, or at least troubleshoot if not solve it. How to troubleshoot slow rightclick menu in...

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DIY home surveillance

2009-08-04T17:54:00.001+01:00

I've no time for my own reviews at the moment, but I'd like to point you to Terence Eden's reviews (with pics) of some interesting British gadgets: Y- Cam - wifi / Ethernet camera you can monitor via your mobile phone e.g. Blackberry, emails you photo on detecting motion, about £150. Peepr - free, lets you broadcast to the web or mobile via your computer's webcam and mike, tries to send you SMS text on detecting movement. Not CCTV exactly, but they sound ideal for personal home...

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More critical Adobe security updates

2009-08-01T16:16:00.003+01:00

If you use Adobe Flash (you do if you watch YouTube videos), Adobe Acrobat Reader (for viewing PDF files) or Adobe AIR (for TweetDeck etc), best update all of them ASAP for critical security vulnerabilities. See the Adobe page for what to download for your own setup. Via Heise Security. Tags: Adobe, Adobe Reader, Adobe AIR, Adobe Flash, Improbulus, A Consuming Experience

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Hardware hacking: VCR cat feeder, boot fetish Pong console

2009-07-31T10:48:00.006+01:00

What fun. See the BBC video (story here) of Dorkbot enthusiast James Larsson where he shows off his VCR cat feeder (dispenses food at the time the VCR’s been set to). The cat's shown at the start and, err, the demo is at 03.08 if anyone wants to know, of a kinky boot fetish Pong game where the onscreen players are made to go up and down by groping and fondling leather boots (seriously) – and if you miss a point you get punished by a motorised whip (severity level adjustable)! James Larsson...

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