SHKSPR.mobi

This Machine Stops Fascists*

2009-05-22T13:21:00.006+01:00

How many of your twitter friends are racists? There are two ways to tell:

Directly. You see them saying something racist. In which case, I'd hope you either call them on it or you block them.
Indirectly. By looking at who they follow.

To facilitate (2) I've created a quick tool to tell if your twitter pals are racist.

The site simply tells you how many of your friends and your followers also follow a racist political party. At the moment, it only looks at the British National Party. I'll also be including other racist, homophobic and fascist parties as I find them.

Of course, on the flip side, you may wish to use this technology to find which of your friends are feminists, Marxists, PNACists, or which every group you dislike. Technology is morally neutral - it's what you decide to do with it that counts.

Many thanks to twitter for lifting their API limits for this project.

*Which is a deliberate misquote of Woody Guthrie. Because killing is never good.

The Usability of Toilet Paper Dispensers

2009-05-07T11:03:00.003+01:00

Don Norman wrote a fascinating article on the Toilet Paper Algorithms

I've long been intrigued by the central premise of the "Design of Everyday Things" that the basic interactions with normal objects - from teapots to motor vehicles - leaves a lot to be desired. It's something which is also picked up on in Edward de Bono's book "Simplicity".

So, I was in a toilet when I happened upon this stunning piece of [un]usability. (Please ignore the fact that I take my phone everywhere and see nothing wrong with taking photos in toilets...)

Here's what the intent of this object is:

Let's create a toilet roll holder where it is easy to remove the used up roll.
Let's create a toilet roll holder which can carry two rolls; so one is never caught short.

In both these aims, the object fails spectacularly. To quote from Don Norman, there are three ways of working with two rolls of paper...

Algorithm Large: Always take paper from the largest roll.
Algorithm Small: Always take paper from the smallest roll.
Algorithm Random: Don't think -- select the roll randomly

Of course, if one always takes from the large you run in to problem; the large one becomes the small one.

This is no good - it means both rolls run out at roughly the same time. This could lead to an unfortunate situation where there simple isn't enough paper to complete one's workings.

Most people realise this and, being keen to keep some paper in reserve, will take from the smaller roll.

Now we have a completely different problem.

The left hand roll is depleted first. The roll is replaced. The right hand roll never gets used.
The right hand roll is depleted first. When it comes to removal, the left hand roll has to be removed before the empty roll can be removed and replaced.

Unacceptable and inefficient. The best case scenario is that the left hand roll is used up, the right removed, a fresh one put on then the original right hand one is replaced as the new left hand roll and the cycle continues again.

Much simpler to use something like this.

Or, of course, you can rip off the empty roll.

Worth Retweeting

2009-05-05T10:50:00.003+01:00

Recently, I've seen a lot of people retweeting content that I've already seen.
"How very annoying," I thought to myself, "I wish someone would do something about that."

So, like any self-respecting geek, I rolled up my sleeves and got on with it :-)

My PHP is a little rusty, but luckily the twitter API is fairly easy.

My first pass was an abject lesson of inefficiency and illiteracy. Here was my thought process...

Get the ID of the person I want to retweet
Get all of My Followers
Get the people that my followers follow
See how many of them follow the person I want to retweet.

This did work but it was horribly slow. Also, the twitter API is limited to 100 requests per hour. If you have over 100 followers, you won't get anywhere.

However, on closer reading of the API - and a little tiramisu - I had the answer.

Get my followers
Get the retweetee's followers
See how many from (1) occur in (2)

This can be accomplished in a few lines of PHP.

To get the first 5,000 followers for any user - use this URL

$myfollowers_url = "http://twitter.com/followers/ids.json?screen_name=" . $my_name . "&page=1";

Then use curl to grab the data -

$curl_handle=curl_init();curl_setopt($curl_handle,CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER,1);
curl_setopt($curl_handle,CURLOPT_URL,$myfollowers_url);
$myfollowers_json = curl_exec($curl_handle);
curl_close($curl_handle);

You can turn the resulting JSON into an array thus:

$myfollowers_array = explode("," , $myfollowers_string);

You do the same for the person you wish to retweet.
PHP provides the method array_intersect() to see how many elements from array1 occur in array2.

$samefollowers_count = count(array_intersect($myfollowers_array,$theirfollowers_array));

From there, the maths is trivial.

$myfollowers_count = count($myfollowers_array);
$theirfollowers_count = count($theirfollowers_array);
$ratio = $samefollowers_count / $myfollowers_count;

Hey presto! Done. You can view the beta at http://shkspr.mobi/twitter/retweet.php

Nitdroid: Installing Android on the Nokia N810

2009-05-03T08:41:00.003+01:00

I'm continually frustrated with Nokia. They make truly excellent hardware but akways seem to produce the most disappointing software. The N95 & the N810 are perfect examples of this. Powerful and innovative computers let down by shoddy software.

So, when I heard that some clever hackers had ported Google's Android OS to the N810, I leapt at the chance to reinvigorate my sadly neglected Internet Tablet..

There are various tutorials on the web, but here's my quick & pain free howto for people running Ubuntu. This is based on the instructions from the Nitdroid Homepage and the InternetTabletTalk forums.

You will need...

A Nokia N810 (this should also work with the N800 and the N770)
USB and Charging cables.
A computer running Ubuntu (or most other flavours of Linux)
A working Internet connection.
NERVES OF STEEL! (Not really, it's very simple to reflash the N810 if you do mess up.)

So here's the HOWTO:

Back up any files you want to keep from your N810. We're going to be wiping it clean.
Remove any SD cards you've got from the N810.
Make sure the battery is fully charged.
Create a folder on your computer called "Nitdroid".
Download the following files (or newer if available)
The flasher - this allows you to flash the hardware (you may need a different version if you're running 64bit or PPC).
The Android filesystem
The Andoid OS
Connect your N810 to your computer via USB, switch the N810 on.
If you haven't got it already, install and run gparted.
You need to create 3 partitions, the first must be FAT32, the third must be ext3 with a minimum size of 128MB. See the picture for an example.
Take a note of the device name - in this example, it's /dev/sdb
We need to mount the ext3 filesystem we've created - go to the command line and type
sudo mount -t ext3 /dev/sdb3 /android
Remember to change /dev/sdb3 to whatever your device is actually called.
We now need to go to the "/android" directory and extract the filesystem to it. At the command line, type
cd /android

Then
sudo tar -xjpvf /home/$USER/Desktop/nitdroid/rootfs-nitdroid.tar.bz
Remember to change $USER to your username - or change the whole path to where you downloaded the nitdroid files.
Once complete, you unmount the filesystem by typing
sudo umount /android
We're ready to flash! Hurrah!
Turn off the N810, unplug it from the power and USB cables.
We need to make the flashing software executable so type
chmod a+x flasher-3.0-static
Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
sudo ./flasher-3.0-static -f -k zImage-nitdroid-n8x0 --enable-rd-mode -R
You will see the following message
flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
Suitable USB device not found, waiting
This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.
On the N810, hold down the "Switch" button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
You'll see some messages on your PC's screen indicating that the device is being flashed. Let go of the buttons.
Wait.
Wait a little while longer.
Have a biscuit to calm your nerves.
It should be over and done with in less than a minute.
Once it's complete, unplug the N810. Power it off, then on again. You should see this screen.
It takes about 5 minutes for the first boot to complete. If it takes substantially longer than that, read the troubleshooting section.
TADA! You now have Android on your N810.WiFi works - as do the keyboard and touchscreen. At the moment, sound, BlueTooth & GPS don't. There are a few random crashes, and the performance leaves a little to be desired. Much like the original Maemo software!

Troubleshooting.
If it all goes wrong, here's how to get your N810 back to the latest official firmware.

Download the latest official firmware from http://tablets-dev.nokia.com/nokia_N810.php
Plug the N810 into the USB cable but leave it switched off.
Run the flashing software (yes, with the N810 turned off) by typing
sudo ./flasher-3.0 -F RX-44_DIABLO_5.2008.43-7_PR_COMBINED_MR0_ARM.bin -f -R
Remember to replace "RX-44...." with the name of the latest software.
You will see the following message
flasher v0.9.0 (Jan 19 2007)
Suitable USB device not found, waiting
This means that the flashing software is looking for the N810.
On the N810, hold down the "Switch" button (The one which looks like two overlapping squares, just under the camera). With the button held down, push the power button.
Wait. You will have a factory fresh N810 in a matter of minutes.

Enjoy!

Mafia Wars - Two UI Flaws

2009-04-19T08:18:00.003+01:00

I am greatly enjoying playing Zynga's Mafia Wars on the Cadbury's iPhone. There are two fairly interesting UI flaws which I'd like to point out...

The first is the screen which allows you to alter your stats - this is what it looks like.

However, this is what most people will see.

Can you spot the subtle but important distinction?

Proximity implies relation. The word "Energy" is nearer to the number "102" than health. Therefore, one would assume that they are related. In this case they are not.

This error is compounded by the boxing. The horizontal lines are, I'm guessing, intended to imply underlining. They have the effect of creating boxes - our mental model of UI generally assumes that everything inside the box should be related.

The second UI flaw is much harder to show on a blog :-)
When the game starts up, it plays an animation with the sound of some reving cars and a barking dog.

When I'm playing the game late at night (or at work!) I don't want to disturb people. You can set the sound options in the preferences but this has no effect on the startup sound!

(Incidentally, notice the boxing on this screen. The inconsistency between these screens will also confuse users.)

Fair enough, I'll use the handy switch at the side of the iPhone to switch all sounds off.

Except, it would appear, that applications can override this system setting. This is a poor choice by Cadbury's. They should know that silence is golden and that user-space applications should not be able to override system wide settings.

However, aside from these two flaws, it's an addictive little game.

The Perfect Ingredients for a Miracle Berry Party

2009-04-18T10:17:00.003+01:00

Miracle Berry Tablets purchased from Miracle Fruit International.

Thoughts on #AmazonFail

2009-04-14T13:21:00.002+01:00

I want to ignore the debate about whether it's right or wrong to "censor" books based on the sexuality of their subject matter.

It doesn't matter, at this stage, whether Amzon's deranking of LGBTQI works was a glitch, policy or the work of trolls. What matters is the action taken by the "online community" and Amazon's reaction to it.

Firstly, why would anyone take the word of an Amazon CSR as customer policy?
I've worked in call centres - I guess a lot of people have - CSRs are almost universally treated as the bottom rung of the company. They have no insight into policy or how and why it's made. They have no power to suggest changes. They will repeat any wild rumour they've heard from their colleagues or superiors if they think it will get an angry customer off the phone.

In consideration of our entire customer base, we exclude "adult" material from appearing in some searches and best seller lists. Since these lists are generated using sales ranks, adult materials must also be excluded from that feature.

The CSR's comments can be safely ignored.

Of course, this raises the question of whether big companies should treat their CSRs like mini-PR agents and give them a commensurate salary boost. I believe that front line staff have more of an impact on "brand perception" and "customer loyalty" than even the glitziest of advertising campaigns.

Secondly, the "online community" seems to have a shoot first, ask questions later philosophy.
I'm pro-open-source and I think that crowd-sourcing research is a highly efficient and effective way to investigate stories. But one needs to substantiate first. Imagine if there really was a completely innocuous explanation (say someone hit the wrong button on the wrong box or Amazon were hit by hackers) all of a sudden the tide is out and we can see *exactly* who is swimming naked.

Thirdly, the immediacy of cyberspace does not map well to meatspace.
A scant few hours after the storm erupted, a blogger was asking

Is there any reason why The [Liberal Democrat] Party is still supporting and promoting them via the affiliate scheme? All the ethical people are disabling theirs.

Well... Possibly because they are part of the evil conspiracy, possibly because they wanted to see if it was true, and possibly because the person who makes those decisions was enjoying a weekend away from work. Her superiors were also probably eking what pleasure they could from the British springtime.

We don't all spend every waking moment plugged into the hyperzeitgeist that is twitter. Right now, ring your mum or ask your boss's boss what they think of #AmazonFail. I bet it won't even have crossed their radar.

The same is also true of Amazon. They've put out a press release on Tuesday - the first working day after the break.

The lesson here for big companies is that your customers are never on holiday. They expect your stores & call centres to be open at the customers' convenience, not the company's.

When I was Production Manager on Vodafone live! we would always ensure that someone responsible was on call to fix the site or answer questions on why a policy decision had been made. If we didn't know the answers, we were allowed to phone someone who did - even if it meant waking them up in the middle of the night.

Of course, this means paying overtime, TOIL or a decent wage. Something Amazon doesn't see the value in.

Finally
I honestly don't think any side in this mini-culture skirmish emerges with much glory.

Amazon need to keeps their CSRs better informed and need to make sure that someone with authority is allowed to engage with their customer base even during the holidays.

Bloggers, twitterers, facebookers should keep fighting the good fight. They also need to keep in mind Hanlon's Razor and, remember, it's ok to take a deep breath & wait more than 24 hours for an answer before breaking out the placards.

Postscript
Of course, if it turns out that Amazon have as a matter of policy deranking these books, I utterly condemn them. However, I'm sure the lost sales from bestselling authors will do more to change their minds than a boycott.

Carpool

2009-04-13T12:14:00.002+01:00

Bob-The-Taxi is a warmer, friendlier take on Marrion & Geoff.

Bob, a down on his luck ageing reprobate is reduced to ferrying around his rich & famous former friends in his decrepit old car.

Watch as his simple minded questioning makes his guests unintentionally reveal more about themselves than they ever expected.

Staring Ricky Gervais as Robert Llewellyn.

You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want to buy the DVD box set.

At least, that's how I'd imagine this series would have to be pitched to get on to contemporary television.

In reality this is a self produced - and self financed - project from Robert Llewellyn wherein he drives his showbiz mates around for ten minutes and has a good natter with them. Like a taxi driving Michael Parkinson - but without the casual racism*.

It's a wonderfully innovative show which heralds a new way of thinking about television.

Computer technology has reached a stage where anyone with a microphone can record a radio show. Anyone can produce great works of art. Anyone with a camera and some editing software can produce a TV show or film.

The only thing that the computer can't provide is talent. I don't mean the talent to use the software, I mean the talent of creativity.

@Bobbyllew is an effortless talented presenter who's natural energy makes him captivating on screen. He has what many others lack. And it is this talent which lift this show above the fairly awful level of most self-produced shows today.

There are so many bad podcasts out there - some from supposed professionals - which should serve as a warning to anyone trying to create. Your mates might find you hilarious in the pub, but that doesn't mean the rest of the world cares for your thoughts on where missing socks end up.

Mr Llewellyn not only has a nice little show - he also has the social media chops to seed it to the world via YouTube, iTunes, twitter and a host of other media.

Kudos to him for getting this off the ground - I can't wait to see how it progresses.

*From the taxi driver. Parky loves all creeds and colours. Even those kooky looking ginger people.

The Worst Thing About Being Vegetarian - Part 1

2009-04-13T11:06:00.004+01:00

I'm very happy being a vegetarian. There are, however, some highly annoying problems that all vegetarians encounter.

The first is, when going to a Michelin Starred restaurant, only having a single menu choice.

Usually it's cheese salad. Or mushroom risotto. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful to have a single item suitable for my dietary preferences, but would it kill restaurants to give us veggies a choice? Half the fun of going out to a meal is discussing what one is going to eat. When you're stuck with a single line - usually at the back of the menu - it can be quite dispiriting.

The second is food products which look like they ought to be vegetarian but are not.

Did you know that Twix isn't suitable for veggies? No? Neither did BMI - who helpfully include the Twix in their vegetarian business class meal.

Master Food have a FAQ about Vegetarian labelling which doesn't really answer any questions.

They also have a vegetarian food list which doesn't seem to have been updated and - most importantly - doesn't list which foods aren't vegetarian.

The same is also true for soft drinks like Fanta - that fizzy orange goodness is made - in part - from fish.

I think that the Food Standards Agency should mandate a label for non-vegetarian foods which may appear vegetarian.

I'm not suggesting that beef stew needs a label - that should be obvious - but certain chewing gums, crisps, and soft drinks are all things that one would assume to be free of meat & fish but aren't.

Here endeth (part 1 of) the rant

BlackBerry AppWorld - Pictures and thoughts

2009-04-02T13:15:00.003+01:00

So, RIM have finally released their Application Store (hereafter called AppWorld) Let's take it for a spin on a BlackBerry Bold (9000 running 4.6.0.237 for those who care about such things). All screenshots taken with the magnificent CaptureIt from The Tech Mogul.

You can grab it by pointing your 'Berry at http://blackberry.mobi/appworld.

First off, it's very good looking. A good layout showing featured apps. Underneath are links to Categories, Top Downloads, Search, and My World (where you can see what you've downloaded)

There's a fairly large selection of applications already available - not as many as iPhone, but this is a lot newer. The applications have a more professional feel. There are a few "fart" apps - but not the hundred which clog up Apple and Android.

The Top Downloads section is well arranged

Interestingly, RIM have chosen PayPal to handle the billing. This means they don't need to do deals with carriers or set up their own payment gateway. I can't help but wonder how much they will have to give away on each transaction and how many people will be turned off after suffering PayPal's lousy customer service.

A note to Apple - you don't need to sign up to PayPal in order to download free apps. Take the hint!

Again, a well arranged My World section allows a user to send in reviews for the apps.

The recommend functionality is well integrated.

If you have AppWorld installed, your 'Berry will recognise the link and attempt to open it in the AppWorld, rather than the browser.

This is where it starts to go wrong. If you try to open the link in the web browser, you don't get taken to a mobile friendly page. This is simply inexcusable.

Overall, this is a really solid offering from RIM. They've taken their time and come up with a quality product. Very interesting to note that while there are some free and sub-$9.99 applications, there are some apps ranging from $49.99 to $200. Wow. These apps are obviously targeting business users who haven't quite get their head around the credit crunch yet.

Only two things spoil the party.
1) Pricing is in USD - there doesn't seem to be an option for GBP or CAD (the AppWorld is currently only available in US, Canada and UK).

2) I made it crash

While a loading screen is running, hit the BB button, then select "Read Reviews".
The crash is nothing too serious, but it does point to a little lack of testing.

Very impressive RIM, let's see how it evolves.

Some thoughts on .tel

2009-03-30T14:19:00.004+01:00

Just a few quick thoughts.

.tel is yet another top level domain to go with all those other highly ~~profitable~~popular ones. You know, like .biz, .museum, .info, etc.

This domain is different - this domain is single purpose. .tel's raison d'être is to abolish the business card. No more handing over little cardboard oblongs, in the glorious future, we'll just say

"Visit aitch-tee-tee-pee colon slash-slash edent dot tell... No... Tell. It's spelled TEA-EE-EL. Yes. Just one EL. No, I don't know why. Here, let me write it down for you on a little cardboard oblong..."

So, as you've guessed, I'm not the world's biggest fan. But I was "lucky" enough to win a free domain courtesy of TelReg. As I'm a freebie customer, I don't think it's fair of me to critique them in any way - but I'm sure going to critique the whole .tel idea.

First of all, why not take a look at the site. edent.tel. Go ahead, I'll wait.

Yeuch! What a dull looking site. There is, at the moment, no way to customise the look and feel, I can't even add my picture (not that it would make the site look much better...). I can, however, add some very limited information.

Now, I'm not a professional usability expert - but even I can point out the dull text, the huge dead space, the reliance on scrolling. Yeuch.

To make matters worse, there is a mobile version of this page. Seeing as most of the people to whom I'd give a business card will have a mobile phone, this makes sense. Let's take a look at it in two popular phones.

iPhone 3G.

BlackBerry Bold (9000).

Yeuch! Again, no panache, no style. Just dull dull dull text. You'd think that the .VCARD link would be the top link, wouldn't you? That would be a basic usability feature. But no.

As an aside, the iPhone can't even download the .VCARD. This is the fault of Apple.

But the .tel people shouldn't even offer a link to a phone they know can't support it.

Anyway. As I've said, I've got this free for a year. A few hours in and I can't see myself renewing it. If .tel can improve some of their basic flaws and improve their customer perception, I might reconsider.

I sort of like the idea. But I prefer SyncML sites. Take ZYB - (owned by Vodafone, who own me. Yes, I am biased) - if I give you my ZYB address, and we connect, whenever I change my address or telephone number it is automatically updated on your phone. Smart. And also pretty. Two things that .tel is not.

Ada Lovelace Day

2009-03-24T22:34:00.003Z

This post is for the amazing Suw for starting Finding Ada's Ada Lovelace day.

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised.

I pledged to blog about one woman - I'm going to be slightly greedy and name two people.

The first, representing the past, is Delia Derbyshire. So much has been written about her, that I shan't bother retreading old ground. Sufficed to say, she is still giving music geeks a run for their money. She is still being talked about as people master DVDs of ancient TV shows. She is still making kids - and adults - shudder with anticipation as they get drawn in to Sci Fi. And what is Sci Fi but playing with toys we haven't yet invented.

The second, representing the future, is Helen Keegan - AKA technokitten.
I've only met Helen a few times, and I hope she won't take umbridge at my gratuitous sucking up.
Helen tries to make women more visible in the mobile industry.
It must be really hard knowing that whenever you open your mouth, you run the risk of making yourself unpopular. But that's what Helen does as she fights to get more women in to conferences, on the stage, asking questions, speaking up, chairing discussions and addressing audiences. She's fighting the good fight and I have no doubt she will succeed.
It won't happen over night - and it will need the help of men and women in the industry - but in 10 or 20 years' time we'll look back in horrified wonder at the levels of inequality in the mobile industry. We may not remember her by name - but those coming after us will always owe her a debt.

MobileCampBrighton Mon, 2 Mar 2009

2009-03-02T10:26:00.006Z

[Disclaimer: This event was generously sponsored by Vodafone. I am a Vodafone employee but this post does not reflect the opinions of Vodafone. I helped arrange this sponsorship and am, therefore, highly biased.]

A quick review of MobileCampBrighton.

Brighton is such a delightful city that it's hard to begrudge it stealing one's Saturday morning lie-in. As I wandered the laines looking for The Skiff, I was worried about how successful this BarCamp event would be. It was the same weekend as the popular Convention on Modern Liberty and it was being held outside London. Added to my worries was the fact that I had convinced Vodafone to sponsor the event - if it didn't go well, it would be a personal and professional disappointment.

I needn't have been so worried.

This was the site that greeted me at the door.

The Skiff began to fill up rapidly. One usually expect about a 30% drop off in participants - especially at a free event - but I think there were more attendees than were anticipated!

Usually BarCamps have several sessions running at once. The advantages being that more people can present and group sizes are manageable. However, this often leads to a bit of confusion as sessions finish at different times and a bit of heartache as one has to decide between two equally compelling talks.

Due to the relatively small number of participants, we managed to do all the presentations sequentially in the one room. This would not have been possible - or desirable - at a larger unconference, but here it worked beautifully.

The Sessions

(Photo courtesy of Pixelm Image is BY-NC-SA.)

So, a brief run down of the talks I found memorable.

Ribot gave a talk on the "Emotion, Behaviour and Human Context" focusing on the power of sketches. As designers & developers, we often go for the big bang approach. Often it's more productive to paper prototype - it's faster and you'll be less emotionally attached to a "bad" idea.

Some sketches.

Marten van Wezel gave us his experience of building successful communities. I'd never quite realised the strategies one needs to employ to keep a service pleasant for its users.

A good looking fellow called Terence Eden, basically rehashed his blog post about mobile contextual advertising and its inasivness. A good points to come out of the discussion was the need for VRM (Vendor Relationship Management). Something I'll be looking into closely.

Priya Prakash spoke about her research in to emerging market. This was an absolutley fascinating discussion about how different people use new technology. A choice quote was "if you want to see how people use technology, go to nail salons and cafes".

That most melifulous of speaker, Terence Eden snaked his way onto the board again to say "Fuck the iPhone (and not in a good way)". Regular readers will know of my distaste for Jobs' Toy, but this was a discussion about how the focus on cool new phones and gadgets basically ignored a large swathe of the population. While it's personally very exciting to develop for the cutting edge, we must not forget that the majority of people are on 18 month contracts and won't be able to get to our products for some time.

Tom Morris gave us his thoughts on making mobile applications and services more relavent by making them easier to develop. It's a good idea, but I still think the barrier to entry for programming (IDE, text commands, language paradigms) make it too hard for regular users to even think about programming.

Raul - a linguist - shared his experiences with how languages change to fit the digital landscape.

There were several other talks and I'll link to the Qik streams / videos when I find them.

The final event of the day was a "fastest text" competition. Marten van Wezel won Army of Two and Nik won Spore. Both prizes were generously donated by Jessica Gwyther, the Games Content Development Manager at Vodafone Group.

I really got a lot out of this camp - it's great to meet new people who aren't afraid to challenge your ideas.

You can view the back channel chatter on twitter (or Google's search for mobileCampBrighton if twitter is down...)

From a professional point of view, I felt that sponsorship was worthwhile. I got to demo our new products in front of a very intense audience and they gave great feedback. Hopefully I've left a good impression in participants minds about Vodafone and Betavine - if nothing else, they'll remember that Vodafone provides a decent lunch!

So, no post from me can end without criticism. This is no different, although it's aimed at organisers for all the BarCamps I've been to.

Time keeping is paramount. After the first session we were already running 45 minutes behind schedule. With some quick thinking from DanW and a bit of discipline from the participants we were able to finish on time without curtailing the programme of events. Every BarCamp should have a big clock on the wall or each presenting space to let presenters know how long they've got.
Organisers shouldn't feel afraid to call for order. It's really tempting to let intra-audience discussions flow freely. Indeed, I'm as guilty as anyone of talking vociferously when I should be listening. But organisers have two main jobs - keep everything running on time and stop presenters from being intimidated. I noticed that a few times the audience took over from a presenter and - except that's where it's the presenter's intention - it's a little ugly.

Overall - a highly successful MobileCamp. I can't wait for the next one!

iTunes - Why The Sad Face?

2009-02-17T14:30:00.002Z

After much faffing about - with a lot of help from Jon Price - I've finally got the damned iPhone working with iTunes. But what a pain in the arse. How this is the SAVIOUR OF THE MOBILE PHONE INDUSTRY is quite beyond me.

First up, yet another EULA.

I think that's the third one that I've had to agree with. For one piece of software. If I were to actually read each of them, it would take a full seventeen years. Probably.

So, on to registration. Here's the form.

Is there anything on here that I couldn't do on my phone? I appreciate that on a crappy T9 keypad it would be a pain to type out all the information - but on the iPhone, it should be a joy. Right?

Then payment. I want to make it very clear that I don't want to buy anything from Apple. There's plenty of free apps, music and podcasts. But, no, Apple knows best and will safely store all my credit card details just in case I ever get drunk and have an insatiable urge to download Mungo Gerry's Greatest Hits.

This gets me to the crux of my frustrations with Apple - it's their way or the highway. You must follow Apple's proscribed path. Any deviation results in instant death.

All of which wouldn't be so bad, if its path was any good. Can anyone give me an explanation why I need to tether my mobile device to my computer? All the registration could be done by phone. It's not even as if I can break my bank balance by downloading GB OTA - Apple cripples the device so that large downloads have to go through WiFi. Utterly absurd when I have an unlimited HSDPA connection.

Are there any Apple defends out there who can say why the need for a computer?

(Of course, the real answer is that Apple makes more money on iMacs and iBooks than it does on iPhones - so it hopes to trap you in its purchase cycle.)

iTunes Sucks. A Rational Discussion

2009-02-16T19:49:00.007Z

I've largely stayed out of the Apple sphere of influence. I'm stuck on Windows XP at work and use Ubuntu at home.

The first - and last - Apple product I owned was a blueberry iMac.

I think it may have had an early version of OS X on it. It was fun enough, but I eventually replaced the OS with YellowDog.

Now I find myself in possession of a 16GB iPhone 3G. Nice! Or so I thought.

For various dull reasons, the iPhone is an unlocked Portuguese model. It was simplicity itself to set it to UK English and add my APN details etc. That's where the fun & simplicity stopped.

I thought I'd try the fabled AppStore. Download a few free apps and the like - and thus the nightmare of "The-One-True-Apple-Way" descended on me.

First of all, all the apps were priced in €. I would have thought me manually setting the phone to UK & having a UK SIM in there & being on a UK network would have convinced Apple to price things in £. Not so.

When I tried to download a *free* app I was told to enter my iTunes account information. This was problematic for two reasons
1) It was a free app. On every other device I've ever owned I can click on a free app and install it without giving away so much as an email address.
2) I don't have an iTunes account. As far as I can determine, there's no way to obtain one from the phone.

This is meant to be a super-duper converged smartphone but apparently it can't even handle a simple sign up process.

It turns out that the only way to get an iTunes account is to install the iTunes software. Again, this is problematic.
1) Not everyone has - or wants - a computer. Apple has drastically cut its user base for no reason as far as I can see.
2) Not everyone who has a computer has sole use of it. You might not be able to install iTunes on your work computer. If you & your family share a computer, how does iTunes handle multiple accounts?
3) How do you get the software? There's no CD in the box, the iPhone doesn't show up as a USB hard disk, so the software can't stored on there like the Huawei/Vodafone 810.

So, off to the website to download iTunes.
It's nearly 70MB! How the 40% of people without broadband are meant to grab this I have no idea.

The installation process was another of Apple's famed usability triumphs...

I can't choose my native language - "English (British)". I can't even trust it not to break Outlook.

It spent ~20 minutes installing the software, agreeing to two separate EULAs, only to be greeted by this screen.

So much for my language preferences.

Oh well, let's ignore that. Let's sign up for an account.

Oh.

All the settings on my computer are set to UK, iTunes is set to English. My physical location is in the UK but I go through a proxy in Germany.

Would it be beyond the wit of Apple's usability guru's to add a "Choose Your Country" option? Apparently so.

It also turns out that Apple insist that their products look like OS X apps even when they run on Windows XP. Great, yet another interface language to learn. I'm sure that Apple's products are the most amazing in the world - but this looks out of place on my system. Why should I have to mould myself to Apple? Shouldn't they work for my needs? No, silly grasshopper, The-One-True-Apple-Way has one path that all must adhere to or face certain death.

At this point, I got bored. If was a paying customer, I'd be on the verge of returning the device.

I'm obviously missing the gene that makes me fall in love with Apple products. Or is the rabid Apple fanboism just an elaborate hoax? Come on guys, let me in on the joke...

May be I'll try again tomorrow.

Twestival - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2009-02-15T08:43:00.006Z

Woooo! Twestival! YAYAYAYAY! Errr... Well, no. Not really. After the success of last year's London Twestival, I thought this one would be even better. Looks like I was wrong. Let's start with...

The Good
Once again, it's impossible to feel anything other that gratitude and humbleness in the face of the sheer amount of effort, determination and self-sacrifice that goes in to making a "happening" on this scale. Kudos to Amanda, Ben and everyone else who worked so hard.

Getting people all over the world to raise (hopefully) a million bucks for Charity : Water certainly goes on my #Awesome09 list.

As always - it's the people you meet which make the evening. It's bizarre trying to recognise someone from a 48*48 pixel avatar - this often means spending a large portion of the time staring at random strangers' chests trying to read a name-badge.

There's a myth that in some languages the word "stranger" translates into "Friend I've Not Yet Met" - so it is with twitter. I was surrounded with people who I felt I knew intimately, yet I'd never so much as shaken their hand before tonight.

The net result of all this was that everyone was so friendly. Any other venue in London, if you accidentally spilled someone's drink you'd get stabbed. Here, you were more likely to get a hug.

Which was nice.

The Bad
I'm obviously a grumpy old man - but here's my run down of what people could do to improve the next London Twestival.

I appreciate that there's a paucity of cheap / free venues in London on a Thursday night. But if you're going to pick one a mile away from the tube, in some grim back street, it might be an idea to put up a few signs directing people - or even a few volunteers.
The queuing system sucked. I don't know what the hold up was at the front, but it took us around 45 minutes to get in. That certainly put a dampener on my evening.
You can't control the weather - but you can plan for it. If you can see that there's a long queue of people standing about in the snow - go out and explain to them what's going on. People are happier when they know why there's a delay and what's being done about it.
If there's a long queue of bored and hungry people, bring out some food or (non-alcoholic) drink. I saw lots of organisers wandering past the queue with crates of food. They didn't even throw so much as a bag of Doritos our way.
Twitter is a meritocracy. If you're the organiser and you spot one of your mates - or a BBC journalist - in the queue, don't let them jump the queue! It's the sort of thing which builds resentment.
Actually check the tickets. By the time I arrived at the front, the notion of a ticketing system had all but been abandoned. There were funky 2D Barcodes on there which should have speeded up the check-in process.
Either pre-print name-badges in big letters, or make sure you have enough thick black markers on the front desk. Loads of people had been reduced to writing their badges in biro. This made it really hard to read who someone was.
Have more than 2 people on the coat check. I'm here to part and meet people, not join another queue just to hand over a coat (see point 12)
Keep food, drink and raffles in a fixed location. I saw lots of people chasing after the last reported sighting of the raffle tickets and the burgers. If people can't find you, they can't give you their money.
The food. What a farce. Despite being given a ticket for food, I couldn't find anywhere to spend it - nor could anyone else. There was a chap wandering around giving burgers away - but he didn't know where the rest of the food was, or if there was anything vegetarian available. I subsided on a few dropped Liquorish Allsorts. Rubbish.
The raffle. Grrr. Possibly the most annoying thing about the night.

Hard to find raffle tickets
No validation on the tickets (I saw people dropping both halves of their ticket in and only keeping one stub from the several they purchased.)
Filling in the tickets took an age. Not sure how this could be improved - certainly give the raffle sellers more pens so that multiple people can fill in tickets at the same time.
Timing was bad. The website said you had to stick around to claim your prize. A bit unfair given that our names and phone numbers were on there.
Lousy rules - the website said you had to stick around until "halfway" through the evening" for the draw. I'm obviously an old man because I don't consider after 2300 to be halfway through the evening. We don't all work in PR - taking Friday as a hangover day isn't always an option.
To make matters worst, the first few prizes were announced - then the raffle was seemingly abandoned! I got bored at this point and left.
I should point out that I'm probably just bitter that I didn't win the Lego Death Star...

Coat check. When you have "tired and emotional" party goers who just want to catch the last train back home - put more than two people on the coat check. Make sure that the coats are in some sort of order so your coat can be found.
The final testament as to why I'm an old man. The music. Don't get me wrong, I loved the music, but the point of twitter is that it's a conversation. It's rather hard to have a conversation when the music drowns out everything.

The Ugly
It would appear that I am genetically unable to be photographed in a flattering light.

Photo by Webwandering.

Photo by Annie Mole.

Photo by Annie Mole.

Although it was very nice of LJRich to interview me for the BBC!

Amazing to see nearly everyone in that video using the fantastic Dabr for tweeting from their phones..

So...
I hope I haven't upset anyone with this post. I am genuinely in awe of the organisers for getting a global event of the ground and raising a whole heap for charity. I just wish that a bit more logistical effort had gone in to the London Twestival.

TTFN.

2009-02-11T15:30:00.003Z

This is my reply to an excellent BitchBuzz article on high profile brands on twitter. I reproduced it here because their comments form ate my HTML...

~~~
Thanks for the plug. Just to make it clear, my twitter presence is my own and not an official Vodafone channel. That said, I'm always happy to answer questions about mobile, portals & widgets - Vodafone or not.

I do run an official twitter presence @HomepageBeta which is for Vodafone's new portal.

I think it's hard for (European) companies to move quickly to these new media. The question I'm often asked is "Will twitter become as irrelevant to the mainstream as, say, Second Life?" There are so many new services springing up, it's hard to know where to focus attention.

European companies also have the language barrier that the US doesn't. If I do a twitter search for Vodafone I get lots of Italian, Spanish, Greek & English - that makes it hard for anyone to determine what people are saying about you.

Some excellent points in your article. I hope we see more businesses getting involved in these conversations.

T
[This is, also, a personal comment. It may contain nuts.]

2009-02-07T18:26:00.002Z

During the recent furore over MPs attempting to hide their expenses, I wrote to my MP using the wonderful services of http://www.writetothem.com/

Dear Humfrey Malins,

I understand that MPs plan to grant themselves the privilege of
exempting themselves from Freedom of Information requests concerning
their expenses.

Whenever I have a business expense, my employer asks for every receipt,
no matter how small. How else is it to correctly pay its tax and
protect itself against fraud?

I would like you to remember that it is MY money that you are spending.
I happily pay tax for the betterment of this country. I do not object
to paying your wages or any other reasonable expenses you may have as
you go about your business. What I object to is you hiding your
spending from me. How else am I to gauge whether you are defrauding me
or if you represent value for money?

As one of many people who is looking for a change of government at the
next election, you action on this matter will influence my vote.

Yours sincerely,

Terence Eden

A scant 2 hours later, I had a reply!

Dear Mr Eden, The House of commons authorities check our expenses to the
last penny, and I have no problem publishing mine. I wonder if you agree
that since Civil servants and the police are public servants whether
they too should publish all their expenses best wishes Humfrey Malins
CBE MP

So, I replied,

Dear Mr Malins,

Many thanks for your swift reply. It's great to see an MP engaging
with their constituents. Do you have a blog or website where you will
be publishing these figures?

I do believe that all Civil Servants should publish these expenses to
the people who employ them.
If, for example, a Police Authority sees that a PC is claiming
extortionate or unusual expenses, they should be able to challenge
them. Ultimately, voters chose whether or not to employ an MP.
Therefore, I think their expenses should be visible to the public.
That said, the same should go for anyone who is employed by the state.
I come from the Open Source Software world - one of our mantras is
"Many eyes make all bugs shallow". The more people you have looking
for a problem, the easier it is to spot and fix. It also means that
people are less likely to behave maliciously if they know there is a
good chance their misdeeds will be spotted.

Would you have any objection to me publishing this correspondence on
my blog - http://shkspr.mobi/blog - ?

Many thanks - and please encourage all those in your party to vote to
keep their expenses viewable by all.

Terence Eden

Bizarrely, I received a written response a few days later

So, full marks to Mr Malins for being on the ball with this one. It really is great to see what a bit of effort will get you.

How Safe is Your Social Network?

2009-01-10T15:17:00.003Z

One of the great things about the Internet and Peer-to-Peer technologies is that they are decentralised. If one part of the net goes down - the rest pulls together and manages. If a box somewhere dies, other boxes should take over until it can be fixed.

Grimly, we can apply this as an analogy to our real life social networks. If your good friend Fred were to suddenly die - you could still contact all your other friends. You could even contact - with a bit of effort - those people who you only ever saw in Fred's company.

With online social networks, the result is a little different. Twitter and Facebook hold all your information about your network. Who you know, how you know them, how often you chat and what you've said. All fine and dandy - but there's no way for you to own that information.

If you want to leave Twitter or Facebook, it's rather difficult to extract all the information - and metadata - from there. You are beholden to them.

If, one day, your social network goes bust, or closes down or wants you to leave - you are screwed. Hope you made a back up. Oh. Wait. You can't.

You are at the mercy of benevolent dictators. If Twitter runs out of cash - tough. If Facebook kicks you out - tough.

What is needed is a decentralised social network. You should own your network and its data. You should be free to move it around or do whatever you like with it. You should not have to rely on a 3rd party.

I envisage a situation where people have their own website (be it co-located or sat under their stairs) onto which they install Facebook, twitter et al.

Let's take the example of EdeNet - my imaginary social network.

On your server, you have a database of your friends and family with associated FOAF data.

You install EdeNet on your server. It looks at your friends data and queries their servers. If it finds Alice also has EdeNet installed - it will prompt you to hook up with her. You can then do whatever EdeNet lets you do (chat, send pictures etc). Perhaps EdeNet even lets Alice store some of her data (encrypted) on your server. This way, if something happens, she can reconstruct her entire social network from the cloud.

Of course - there are two major problems with this.
1) Back Up. The major social networks invest a lot in infrastructure - you do not. Backing up in the cloud is a partial solution.
2) Cost of hosting. Hosting is expensive. Especially when you want a high bandwidth, always on, backed up solution.

This would lead people to host their social networks on... you guessed it! Unreliable 3rd parties.

What I'm really getting at, is that people need to make sure that they can extract and reconstruct their social network should their network provider turn malicious, go bust, or if they simply fancy a change of scenery.

Products like Zyb* or Funambol are a good start. Your social network is, essentially, your address book. You can store it on their servers, sync it to your phone, shift to another provider, or simply save it on your local disk. If you want to take it back from a 3rd party, you can.

So, ask yourself these. How safe is my data? If my favourite social network service closed without warning, how would I cope?

Finally, what's to stop my social network from banning me and locking me out of my data?

Happy 2009.

TE

*I work for Vodafone. Vodafone owns Zyb. This isn't an official Vodafone blog.

Don't blame Andy Burnham for wanting to censor the web.

2008-12-28T22:10:00.002Z

The UK Culture Secretary, Mr Andy Burnham, has recently suggested that we censor rate websites. With the predictable backlash.

But don't blame Andy! It's not his fault. Allow me to explain...

Here's some pornography for you...

Phwoar! Look at the tits on that!

Here's some child porn.

Sickening. How could Leonardo Da Vinci bear to paint such monstrosities?

My local school is putting on a play full of under-age, pre-marital sex. With foul language, wanton violence, drug abuse and teenage suicide.

My public library has books on how to make bombs!

Won't someone think of the children and "rate" this sick filth!?

When we look at libraries, art galleries and the theatre, there is very little appetite for censorship. Why?

It's because such things are old and familiar to us. We understand them intimately. We grew up with them. They're part of our everyday experiences.

The Internet - for people of Mr Burnham's generation - is not part of the fabric of his world. It's new, scary and dangerous.

I first got online in 1994. Compuserve was my gateway to the world at a blistering 14.4Kbps. I've known the net for the majority of my life - for longer than I've known most friends. The net is entwined in the very fibre of my being.

But I am nothing compared to the kids born in the late 1990s. I can remember the magic of my first homepage - whereas their parents blogged their pre-natal sonograms.
I was astounded the first time I illicitly downloaded a movie. For today's kids, it's as natural as flicking through the TV channels is for Mr Burnham.

Andy Burnham has really only ever worked in the political realm. He has never, I suspect, been exposed to the wonders of the Internet. Now that he has a staff of researchers and secretaries - I doubt he ever will. Unless the good voters of Leigh oust him in favour of someone who lives in the real world. Or at least someone who appears to know what they are talking about.

All of which is a long-winded way of saying - it's not Andy's fault that he doesn't understand what he's talking about. He was born too early to fully grasp what's going on in the world. I suspect that if he was around when mobile phones first came available, he'd ask us to rate ourselves lest children accidentally rang us.

For those interested in the history of censorship and rating in this country, I suggest the book "The Lord Chamberlain Regrets..."

The book examines the curious fact that every play performed in the UK had to be looked over and rated or rejected by the government before it was allowed to be performed.

This lasted from 1737 to 1968. That's 231 years. Imagine how competitive the UK's digital economy will be after 231 years in the wilderness.

I'm looking through you - but you're not there...

2008-11-20T16:18:00.003Z

[Disclaimer - all personal opinions. I work for a mobile operator (Vodafone) but these are not their thoughts, opinions, plans or ideas.]

I've been reading a few articles about how social networks and mobile operators feel like they own their customers.

I think personalisation is a great thing. If Facebook or my phone company can give me a personalised service - or discounts that I'm going to use - then I'm all for it. However, how much of your personal privacy would you be prepared to sacrifice in order to receive what level of benefits?

I think Phorm are evil for not informing their customers of their illegal trials - I also think Facebook's Beacon needed much stronger privacy rules. But I don't think there's anything fundamentally wrong with an informed, opt in, system to hold a mirror up to your preferences.

Let's take an example. Google Mail scans your emails and presents you with targeted advertising based on the contents. I think that's quite useful - if I'm emailing someone about a holiday in Italy, I'd rather see adverts for Venice than for baby powder. I understand what Google are doing and I've agreed to it.

Let's apply that thinking to mobile. Imagine that I've knowingly opted-in to allow adverts based on my behaviour. Consider the following scenarios.

I'm always dialling Domino's Pizza from my mobile. My mobile operator sees that behaviour and, the next time I'm on their site, they offer me a discount at Papa John's pizza.

I quite like that idea. See what I'm doing and target me with something that will probably be useful.

Let's go a step further.

I send a text to several friends which reads

Fancy going for a pint tonight? First round is on me :-)

My mobile operator then sends me a text back saying

Get £1 off Magners New Peach Cider tonight - show this text at your local Weatherspoons for your discount. Click here to find your local.

Even better! I'm getting relevant stuff just for doing what I usually do. Offers for me - ad revenue for my mobile operator - eyeballs for the advertisers.

If this was all opt-in - and I could stop at any time - is there anything wrong with this? Is there a "Dark Side" to behavioural advertising?

Consider the following scenarios.

I'm always dialling Alcoholics Anonymous from my mobile. My mobile operator sees that behaviour and, the next time I'm on their site, they offer me a discount on Smirnoff Vodka.

Let's go a step further.

I send a text to several friends which reads

Fancy going for a pint tonight? I've left my wife and am taking the kids with me :-(

My mobile operator then sends me a text back saying

Looking for a cheap divorce lawyer? Click here to find your local. Or dial +44800......

Hmmmm.... Not so nice now. Is it?

Personalisation, Privacy and Social Norms can sometime clash in the most creative of ways.

Building the ultimate Xbox Server

2008-11-19T19:00:00.000Z

I've been playing around with Linux on the Xbox for a while. I finally decided to stop piddling about with the stock drive and create a fully featured network server. I shall call this beast.... The xNAS!

While doing this, I found a lot of badly presented and conflicting information. This is my attempt to right that wrong. I've attempted to add some of these steps to the Wiki, but it's not accepting changes at the moment.

This tutorial assumes you are using Xebian and an original Xbox.

The Aim:
Build a headless Linux server with 1.5TB storage space, Bit Torrent, Samba Sharing and other stuff.

Kit you will need.
1) A chipped Xbox. This is a bit of a cop out. There are many excellent tutorials around on how to chip an Xbox. If you're not comfortable soldering around your Xbox - you can buy pre-chipped ones on eBay or the AVForums.

2) Some large IDE hard drives. The Xbox will take a maximum of 2 IDE devices. The largest drive I could find were 750GB each. You may be able to go larger using a SATA/PATA converter.

3) An ATA power Y-splitter. The Xbox's DVD drive has a proprietary power connector. You'll need a splitter if you want to power more than 1 HDD.

4) A set of torx screw drivers

6) Nerves of steel!

So... Let's begin.

I chose Xebian Linux because it's based on Debian. This means that all the packages are very well maintained. You should get a large range of programs with frequent security updates. The Xebian Basic distribution (which we'll be using) doesn't give you a GUI. You get command line access only. It might be a bit scary - but it keeps everything running quickly on the Xbox's modest hardware.

There is an excellent tutorial on the Xbox Linux Wiki. However, some of the information is out of date.

Here's what you need to do.
Download the latest version of Xebian Basic.
Burn the ISO on to a CD or DVD that you are sure your Xbox will read.
Remove the Xbox's original HDD - replace with your massive HDD.
Boot using the Cromwell BIOS (or other method to boot unsigned content).
Select the DVD drive.
Linux will now boot! Hurrah!
This is the point of no return. Once these next few steps are complete, your Xbox will be a Linux machine. You will not be able to play Xbox games on it.
Type

XBOXLinuxInstall

Linux will start installing.
You will want to choose Option 3. This will take over the whole disk for Linux.
Answer the questions as they arise (set the IP address etc).

You can now remove the DVD drive (with the power off!) and replace it with another HDD.

You are now, technically, done. Xebian is installed. You (almost) have an xNAS. However, it is not (currently) very useful.

There are two things we need to do to get this Xbox in a usable state.
1) Set up the DNS.
By default, Xebian points to an outdated DNS entry. You will want to modify this to point to your DNS server.
Type

nano /etc/resolv.conf

This opens the file in the nano editor. This is a very simple editor - much easier to use than emacs or vi.
Edit it to say

nameserver 208.67.222.222
nameserver 208.67.220.220

The IP addresses there point to the OpenDNS Servers - perfect if your ISP is a bit poor at providing a DNS service or you're going to be changing your network configuration frequently.

2) Edit the update sources.

Because Xebian is based on Debian, we can update it in the same way as we would a normal Debian system.
Unfortunately, Xebian uses a rather outdated sources.list (the file which tells Xebian where to look for updates).
Luckily, it is very easy for us to update this!

First, go to http://www.debian.org/mirror/list and find your nearest mirror. So, if you're in the UK, choose ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/

For this example, we'll be using nano - feel free to use your favourite text editor.

To open the sources file, type

nano /etc/apt/sources.list

You should see a file which looks like this

deb http://ftp.at.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb-src http://non-us.debian.org/debian-non-US stable/non-US main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

Replace it with a file that looks like this (substitute your nearest mirror)

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free

deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian stable main contrib non-free
deb http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free
deb-src http://security.debian.org stable/updates main contrib non-free

Save the file and exit.

Updating is a three step process.

To get a list of updates, type

apt-get update

To upgrade to the latest version, type

apt-get upgrade

(You may need to answer some questions from the upgrader - if you don't know what you're doing, accept the default option.)

Finally, to upgrade to the latest distribution, type

apt-get dist-upgrade

That's it - you have upgraded successfully!
Whenever you want to check for updates, type

apt-get update

Then

apt-get upgrade

Tada! All done!

Here she is in all her glory

Up next - setting it up for Samba, Bit Torrent and other fun stuff.

Edent says: Find Me

2008-10-12T12:50:00.001+01:00

Where am I?

Most high-end Nokia phones come with a QR reader. If your phone doesn't, I have a list of QR code readers - compatible with most camera phones.

Mobile Twitter on the Blackberry

2008-10-06T10:45:00.011+01:00

Twitter == Addictive. CrackBerry == Addictive. Twitter + BlackBerry == toxic levels of addictivenessicity.

This is a quick review of some of the mobile Twitter interfaces and how well they work on the BlackBerry. I'm just looking at mobile web interfaces (for now).

Mobile Twitter

First off - the official mobile Twitter interface - http://m.twitter.com

It's fairly plain and uninteresting. At the bottom of the screen, we see a few options.

You can even perform basic follow / unfollow activity.

At first glance, it seems ok. Most of the basic functionality is there. If all you want to do is read your stream and post - it's fine.

But! Thanks to the Twitter API, there are a plethora of different interfaces.

Slandr

Let's look at Slandr.

Wow! Straight away we can see the difference. Avatars are displayed - as are adverts - and there's a whole heap of extra functionality. Those icons beside a person's name are "reply", "Direct Message", "Favourite" and "Retweet". It really saves the wear and tear on the thumbs to have quick access to those functions.
There's even more at the bottom.

Conspicuous by its absence on the official interface is "Replies". Slandr quickly gives you access to any messages you've been sent - either directly or in your friend stream.

There's also a wicked search page.

The only problem with it, is that you cannot bookmark your searches. So, if you're following a particular subject of hashtag, you're out of luck. You'll also notice that hashtags aren't clickable.

Twitstat Mobile

Twitstat is a great site for gathering stats about your twittering. Their mobile interface is also pretty good.

It's clean and well spaced. Although you may see fewer tweets at once, it's much easier to read than other interfaces.

The little icons allow you to favourite, reply and - oddly - "LOL" someone. Disappointingly, they rely on JavaScript. I keep JS switched off on my BlackBerry for performance reasons.

On to the features that make Twitstat stand out.
Reply highlighting. When scrolling through a load of tweets, it's easy to miss ones directed at you. Twitstat helpfully colours the tweets to make them stand out.

The "ego" link will return all the tweets that feature your name.

Hashtags are clickable and can be bookmarked.

Anyone who follows twitstat, will have generated for them some details about their tweeting.

I post a lot about beer...

Not only will Twitstat expand some links run through URL shortening services, it will also place flickr pictures in-line.

This is probably the most useful aspect. It's so annoying to have to click through to find out what someone thinks is cool. Much better to see the full URL so that I can determine if it's a link I want to visit, if I've seen it before or if it's BlackBerry friendly.

Dabr

Finally, on to dabr.

Lots of options - but the screen is quite cluttered. Again, it has the ability to reply, DM, favourite and retweet.

The basic search functionality is good. It allows bookmarking.

Hashtags are also clickable.

Profile pages allow you to see followers, which is a nice touch.

It does have a couple of bugs. The input field isn't limited to 140 characters. This means you don't get notified if your tweet is too long. It also claims to do reply colouring - but I can't see any colouring in the BlackBerry browser.

Conclusion

All of the alternatives are better than the standard m.twitter.com interface. I find myself using Twitstat for reading and searching - but as it doesn't allow me to follow new users, I flick back to Slandr quite a bit. Twitstat has cooler features, but Slandr is more useable. Dabr is fine - but it doesn't have anything to make it stand out from the others.

Geek Stuff

These device used was a BlackBerry 8800, running firmware 4.5.0.37. The screenshots were taken using JL_Cmder.

Social Media Camp London 2008 - #smclondon08

2008-10-05T10:57:00.007+01:00

((Work In Progress - still need to add pics, videos and links))
Yesterday, myself and a few hundred other bloggers, geeks, marketing droids and other social media maverns descended on Wallacepace St Pancras for the inaugural Social Media Camp London 2008.

This is just a quick post to say what I did, what I liked and what I thought could go better,

First off, enormous thanks to Vero for single handedly organising the whole shebang. Her Whuffie must be through the roof by now. The venue was fantastic and - perhaps a first for a BarCamp - the food was freshly cooked and delicious.

There were around 150 participants - many of whom I'll name check - all of them interesting in their own special way. It was great to meet technology writer (and fellow log-haired scruff) Bill Thompson.

Our rampant twittering pumped us to the top of the twitter trends for the day. You can find all sorts of digital footprints from searching for our tag #smclondon

So, on to the sessions I attended.

1) "I Have Nothing To Say".
Someone -I have no idea who - put up a session called "I Have Nothing To Say". I think they meant it as a joke - because no one turned up to say anything. So, being the extrovert that I am, I moderated a session on why people abandon their blogs (via an unsuccessful attempt at why women don't speak out more in technology - see Suw's posting on the subject).

We looked at what reasons people have for starting to blog and what prevents them from blogging. It's often a time constraint but - more often - it's the fear that nothing one says will be of interest.

We looked at a few semi-abandoned blogs that participants had started. Zoe from Girl With A one Track Mind, talked about her anonymity being blown and the effect that had on her blogging. Annie Mole talked about the pressure to write on Going Underground and how she sometimes feels constrained by her subject matter from venturing into other areas that interest her. ((I'll try and put up the other blogs as I remember them!))

For me, there's a clear divide between writing in order to attract an audience and writing to satisfy a creative itch. I think my blog falls into the latter camp. I'm hugely gratified when people read and comment - but it exists primarily as a way to get my thoughts out of my head. That some of those thoughts might has a positive affect on others and perhaps change the world is, to me, a fringe benefit.

It has inspired me to keep this blog going. I'll try an put more of my thoughts down in long form rather than just 140 Character brain dumps on Twitter.

I'd like to thank whoever placed the topic up there. It really helped me warm up for my presentation and I think all the participants found it a useful discussion. I want to reiterate it wasn't my idea or session!

2) "Social Media Activism"
This session focused on Miro and its role in activism. An interesting session which showed off some of the reasons behind the software and how it is being used. While interesting, I would have appreciated a bit more focus on how and why.

It will be interesting to see if "counter culture" ever breaks in to the mainstream. We're now seeing User Generated Content popping up in the news - but it's only in terms of footage from an event. I hope it's not too long before commentary can become part of the discussion.

3) "How To Present To Big Scary Companies* *And Look Like You Know What You're Doing"
My presentation! I was lovely to see so many people turn up. Some kind soul has done a write up of my presentation. I'll write a full blog post in the next few days expanding on some of the themes.

Critically, I over-ran and didn't cover some of the points that I wanted to make. I'm also worried that I didn't create enough discussion in the room. Some of the best sessions I attended were discussions lead rather than presenter focused.

I'll let the other attendants have their say about me - and I'll link to them from here if I find any!

However, it was great to teach a new group of people my favourite tongue-twister "Peggy Babcock"

4) "Alternate Reality Games"
Hosted by Miss Geeky - AKA Melinda Seckington this was a fascinating look in to the ARG phenomenon. I'd seen things like the Heroes ARG but I'd never really been bothered to play. I thought they'd take up too much time and would be to US focused. This presentation really opened my eyes to how much fun they can be.

I'm a little worried that most of them are - at heart - marketing campaigns. I get a fun game to play in return for being marketed to and becoming a marketeer for the product. It's a reasonable trade-off, I suppose. Not much different from getting a free TV show in return for watching adverts.

5) "Managing Your Online Reputation"
Vero's presentation was well attended. It started with the rather brazen assertation that "Your CV Sucks!" It's true. Your CV only shows a fraction of your life. If future employers (or friends) want to know you better - they're heading off to Google, Linkedin, twitter and facebook.

As with all good sessions, this rapidly became a heated discussion. Should we teach children digital literacy - or will they teach us? Does seeing a picture on facebook of a potential employee drunk, taking drugs, misbehaving at university colour your judgement? If you post about your sexuality - or any other subject - can it land you in hot water?

Again, I have so many things to say about this, it might become another blog entry!

6) "Social Media - How Not To Get Fucked"
Zoe from Girl With A One Track Mind gave a brief presentation about what it was like to lose her anonymity. While I generally like presentations that turn in to discussions - I really would have liked to have heard more from Zoe about how she coped with - as she put it - getting fucked.

That said, it was fascinating to see how people perceive their digital identities as - contrasted with Vero's talk - how they compartmentalise them. The ramifications when those compartments break down was also a subject of interest. As some bright spark put it, the reasons weddings are so traumatic is that you have your friends, your family and you colleagues all in one place. Those compartments totally break down and - in extreme cases - can become toxic.

7) "6 Degrees of Separation - Now 3"
Ben gave a high level overview of FOAF, it's implications in the semantic web and social media. It was great to see a "techie" talk. Well put together and with an excellent interpretation of Dunbar's Number.

8) "Social Media Bingo"
A little bit of fun for the end of the day. Slightly chaotic and disorganised - but that may have been part of the charm. The highlight was the projector screen showing the tweets of participants.

Overall, the day was fantastic. The only criticisms I'd make is that the venue wasn't wonderfully accessible for those with mobility issue (or, in my case, the plain lazy). It might have been nice to stick a copy of the day plan in each room, just so people didn't over-run their slots and participants knew where to go without crowding round the main board.

Also, I should have won the year's free Sky HD. ;-p

Too knackered to write anything else. The day was a roaring success. It's great to meet new friends.