Tales from the Cantina

R.I.P Steve Jobs: A Tribute

2011-10-07T12:31:00.001Z

A couple of days ago I posted the following on Facebook.

“iPhone 4S hardly looks worth wait though Apple fanboys will still queue to get one. Some people would buy a dog turd if it had Apple logo on”

Given the news that Steve Jobs had passed away came less than 48 hours later, that comment might appear at first glance a little harsh. Look a little deeper and you’ll see a compliment about a man who was one of the greatest technological visionaries and business leaders of the last 30 years.

Is there another company out there that can claim a customer base as loyal as Apple’s? A customer base that will continue to buy in to any product produced, a customer base that has grown and grown in recent years to make Apple so big, they are now one of the world largest companies and have larger cash reserves than the US government.

Let me put my dog turd comment in to perspective with a real world example.
When the original iPhone launched I worked for another mobile phone manufacturer. At the time all people were bothered about were features (primarily number of megapixels in the camera) and what price plan a phone would be free on. Essentially if your phone had bigger numbers than the competition and a lower price point you were on to a winner. And then came the iPhone.

If the company I worked for at the time (or any other mobile manufacturer for that matter) had gone to the mobile networks and said, “here’s our new phone, 2 megapixel camera, no MMS, no video record, only partial Bluetooth support and no 3g, oh and by the way you need to sell it for nearly £300 but the your customers also need to take an 18 month contract paying at least £40 a month of which we want a cut so you’ll have to give your customers fewer minutes/text/data than they would get on any other phone for the same price”, we’d have been laughed out of the room and probably never got to do business with them again. Yet that is pretty much what Apple, a company with no history in the mobile market did and had major networks fighting it out with each other to get exclusivity on the iPhone.

And that’s the genius of Steve Jobs. He was able to make people want his products so much that as a complete newcomer to the mobile market he was able to dictate the terms of the deal in a way far more established companies such as Nokia, Motorola and Samsung had never been able to.

It’s not that something such as the App Store was an original idea, just that they were the first company the networks allowed to introduce such a service. I remember see loads of cool stuff on prototype phones that never made it to the final model because the networks wanted total control of the user experience and services phones could deliver. Apple and Steve Jobs changed that.

The iPhone itself wasn’t revolutionary, metaphorically speaking other than its UI it was the dog turd of mobile devices for its time, but it did revolutionise the mobile phone industry, just as the Macintosh and iPod before it and the iPad since have helped redefine sections of technology.

People who know me, know I am not Apples biggest fan (not that I particular have any hatred of them either), I don’t own a Mac, iPhone or iPad and don’t see that changing anytime soon. But without the vision and genius of Steve Jobs, I wonder how many of the gadgets I do have and love would be the same as they are today. So for that I say, thank you Steve, and may you rest in peace.

Reminiscing, Facebook Style

2011-09-23T19:37:00.001Z

Yesterday during Facebook’s F8 Developer keynote, Mark Zuckerberg unveiled a raft of new features to the Facebook platform. As expected, there was an announcement about a music service, though not as many predicted some form of music player built in to Facebook. Instead, users will be able to see what music their friends are listening and with one click launch services such as Spotify to listen to the same thing. Similar services will be allow people to do the same with films/tv being watched or news and websites being read all rather unobtrusive in the new ticker rather than clogging up the main news feed. Sounds pretty good as a way to discover new content, but all this paled in insignificance compared to possible the biggest chance to how Facebook will look since it launched, Timeline.

To me, Timeline is a total game changer in how people will be able to use Facebook. At the moment, I find Facebook allow me to give an update about what I am doing at a particular moment in time and probably to a greater extent find out what friends are up to. With the introduction of Timeline, I can see my use of Facebook changing dramatically.

At the moment, I keep a blog and upload photo’s to one of the many photo sharing websites and this provides some sort of memory bank of things I have being doing, but its all a bit disjointed and cumbersome. What Timeline aims to do is bring all this in to one place and give me this overview of my life all in one place by recording my interactions through Facebook, whether that is the music I’ve been listening to, holiday photos, life changing events, social activities and other interactions with friends. It then puts this altogether in, well a Timeline so If I want an overview of say my life in 2010, it just puts it there for me.

Like almost 1 billion other people I use Facebook at the moment, but I’d hardly say it was a key component of my life, just useful in keeping in touch with friends. With Timeline I can see it becoming a central feature of my online life, just because it will allow me to keep a record of my life with almost no effort. Then if I want to look back with fond memories remembering how things were so much better back in the day, I’m just one click away, whether its what I was up to , what friends were doing, what we were watching, listening to or games we were playing.

Since Google+ launched I’ve been itching to try it out, but having an Apps account means I still can’t get access. After yesterday’s F8 keynote however, I’m not sure I’m really that bothered anymore. I’ll still probably give it a go when Google finally get around to letting Apps users have access, but yesterdays announcements Facebook has effectively given a great big "HA HA” Nelson Muntz style to Google and the anyone else hoping to take on the social giant. Facebook has just raised the bar, and not by a Sergei Bubka 1cm at a time, not even a Usain Bolt record smashing measure. No Facebook has risen the bar by a couple of orders of magnitude.

On a final note, if you haven’t already seen it, I suggest you watch this video of the first few minutes of the keynote. Some interest new features for Facebook and very funny.

Mobile payments to come of age?

2011-05-27T10:04:00.001Z

It’s been a while since I last blogged, partly due to a very hectic work schedule but mainly as I have seen very little to blog about. Had time permitted I may have rustled up a few words about Google’s Chromebooks which look very promising, but other than that I’ve seen or read about very little worthy of a blog entry for the last few months. Even Gadget Show Live proved a little underwhelming in the way of anything new with a real wow factor.

I’ve had my HTC Desire for over a year now and in this time have seen nothing new or heard of any upcoming devices that would tempt me away. Everything phone coming to the market seems to offer little if any advantages over my Desire. My only gripe is it could do with a little more memory for storing apps as far too many don’t offer the option to install to SDCard. The one thing that shows promise and would be likely to make me change my phone is NFC, Near Field Communication.

The idea of being able to use a mobile phone as a means to pay for goods is not new, I saw working prototypes of such technology from one phone manufacturer many years ago, while in the Far East they have been carrying out transactions in this way for a number of years. In the western world however, the concept is still relatively new though this looks set to change over the next year or so.

Orange were the first to get in on the act with their announcement of Quick Tap, a partnership with Barclaycard that uses a Samsung Tocco Lite with an NFC chip. On the surface the idea seems rather flawed. First you need a Barclaycard and rather than the card being charged when you use Quick Tap, you have to top up your Quick Tap account first with you card, hardly seamless technology.

Yesterday, Google announced Google Wallet which on the face of it looks a far more promising effort to use NFC as a means for payments. Initially it too is limited to certain credit cards, but Google has promoted the openness of its system and how it hopes to bring on board more partners over time. In an ideal world, users should be able to add any of their card details to their Google Wallet, regardless of card provider with the App then using the phones NFC chip for contactless payments directly from the card. Hopefully both VISA and Mastercard will get on board and allow any of their cards, with any provider to work with Google Wallet or any similar system. Roll out the technology to enough retailers to be able to accept such payments and then NFC will become a viable alternative payment option.

NFC isn’t going to become an overnight hit, its going to (initially at least) be a slow burner but provided networks, manufacturers and card providers don’t try to lock us in to their own unique solution it has the potential to explode and revolutionise the way to pay for certain goods.

Closest ever title race see’s Steelers come out on top

2011-03-21T10:33:00.001Z

It took until the last day of the season, but last night the Sheffield Steelers became the Elite League Champions for the 3rd time (and their 7th league title). Going in to the final game, Steelers were level on points with the Cardiff Devils and just one point ahead of the Belfast Giants. With Cardiff’s last game being against league whipping boys the Edinburgh Capitals, realistically Belfast were out of the race and the title came down one game, than between Sheffield and Braehead. A Sheffield win and the championship would be theirs, a loss and the title would be going to Wales.

Sheffield came out and did the job required in a dominant and clinical performance. The game was as good as over early in the second when the Steelers scored two quick goals leaving Braehead looking lost. After Steve Munn scored on a breakaway to make it 5-0, Braehead called a time out to recompose themselves, and while it steadied things, the Steelers never looked back taking the win 7-2 and with it the Elite League title.

In a post last month, I made my predictions on where I saw the league going and I’m happy to say this time I was wrong. I correctly predicted that Belfast would only drop a couple of points to Sheffield, I just expected Cardiff and the Steelers to each drop a couple more points that they did. But no sooner is the business of the regular season over, than we move on to the playoffs, in fact Sheffield and Dundee get things underway this Tuesday in Sheffield.

The match-ups for the quarter finals look like this: -

Sheffield V Dundee
Cardiff V Hull
Belfast V Coventry
Nottingham V Braehead

It’s hard to look beyond the top four to make the finals weekend, perhaps with the exception of Nottingham where a Braehead upset is definitely on the cards. Certainly a win for Hull or Dundee would be a major shock and while if they can all click Coventry certainly have all the tools to beat Belfast, giving their form this season a Coventry win is unlikely. But over two games we all know anything can happen, a lucky bounce or a hot goalie is all that’s needed to bring about a surprise or two.

Assuming the final four is made up of the top four things then get a little more tricky to predict, I wouldn’t write off any of them when it comes to a one off game, you only have to look at some of the results between the teams this season to see that. As for my predictions, I’m going to sit firmly on the fence. One of Nottingham, Sheffield, Cardiff or Belfast will win the play-offs, but which one, I guess we’ll know in a couple of weeks.

Could Amazon Challenge iPad Dominance?

2011-03-11T13:56:00.001Z

I’ve just read quite an interesting article on techradar.com. It talks about how market research company Forrester says that the current generation of tablets can’t compete with Apple’s iPad, primarily as the manufacturers don’t have the back end infrastructure such as high street shops and dedicated App store that Apple does. It goes on to suggest that online retailer Amazon may be best placed to challenge Apple’s dominance.

It makes sense. The biggest problem for most manufacturers is they are reliant on making profit from the actual sale of the device. Apple on the other hand generates significant revenue from sales through iTunes and it’s App store, and this gives Apple an advantage. Apple can if its wants use its devices as loss leaders. Its closed ecosystem means anyone buying an i-device is then locked in, so Apple can recover an losses on its hardware from the revenue it generate through its App store. The likes of Motorola and Samsung making Android based devices don’t have that luxury.

Amazon on the other hand already has its own ecosystem in place with which it can lure users if it were to launch its own device, something it is no stranger to. Amazon’s Kindle has been a huge success. Although it doesn’t give any actual numbers, Amazon claims it is the company’s best selling product. The actual sales of Kindle’s on their own is of no significant value, what it does mean is that users are then tied in to Amazon’s own ecosystem for buying eBooks, and this is where Amazon makes the real money.

As well as eBooks Amazon can also provide users access to various other forms of digital content. They already have music downloads, an Android App store and following the acquisition of Lovefilm a video streaming service. Sounds kind of familar to what Apple offer to their customers, so the next step seems relatively obvious, build a device to drive more people to use these services. Given an Android app store is already part of the proposition, a tablet based on Google’s OS seems the logical direction to take, and perhaps then iPad will have the competitor it needs to bring about true innovation to the market.

Apple gets all the hype, but Kindle is where it’s at

2011-03-08T14:45:00.000Z

Last week, Apple finally revealed the successor to the iPad, iPad 2. As usual with Apple there has been a lot of speculation and hype around the iPad 2, and in my opinion as with most things Apple the final product fails to live up to the hype. That’s not to say anything bad about the iPad 2, just that Apple’s PR machine tend to overhype their products making them out to be more than they really are.

The original iPad brought about a new type of device, the tablet which in the last 12 months has also received hype beyond all proportion. Why do I say this? Well the only place I have seen an actual iPad (or any other tablet for that matter) is in a shop, on the shelf. I am still to see anyone actually using one in the real world and know of only one person who actually owns one.

Now compare this to ebook readers. I first saw someone using one last summer while on holiday, in fact I saw a few people lounging round the pool with them. Fast forward to the new year and I now see people using them everyday on their commute to and from work. Most people (including myself) seem to favour Amazon’s Kindle.

The other day three of the four people sat in the same section as me were all reading their Kindle. Maybe I just mix in the wrong circles but I know more people with ebook readers than tablets and see far more people using them. Maybe that will change during this year, but I no one I know has said they want or will be getting a tablet, so for me the jury is still out. So forget tablets, this year already seems to be the year of the ebook reader, at least it is in the real world if not in that of PR and hype.

Arrogance of Apple never fails to amaze

2011-02-23T11:11:00.001Z

Last week Apple announced its plans to allow content providers to offer subscriptions to their apps, with a number of catches. The biggest was the 30% cut Apple will take from all subscriptions, which when added to the fact that publishers must allow subscribers to sign-up through the app and are not allowed to redirect people to a website to sign-up along with not being able to charge more for purchases through an iOS device than they do elsewhere isn’t looking very publisher friendly.

Now first let me make a few things clear, Apple has every right to charge for this service and set down terms for publishers wishing to use their ecosystem. What annoys me is the way they seem to think they can dictate how publishers do business outside that ecosystem.

For example, many high street retailers have different (usually cheaper) pricing on their websites, its their business and if they want to charge different prices for their products/services through different channels then why not, the overheads for websites are very different to a bricks and mortar shop. So why should Apple be allowed to tell content providers how much they can charge for a product or service available outside the Apple ecosystem. If a provider wants to charge 10% or 20% or 30% more for subscriptions through iOS then why shouldn’t they.

Still not convinced, then let me put it another way. Take a subscription based service such as Spotify. £9.99 a month for its premium service which lets me sync playlists to my phone. Now if Apple take 30% of that price, Spotify’s share is down to £6.99, so in order to maintain their existing margins (ignoring tax) they need to increase the price £14.27. Remember under Apples rules Spotify can’t charge less on their website than through the Apple App store, and this is where the Apple terms start to effect not just the publishers, but the consumers too. Take me as an example, I don’t have an iPhone, I have an Android phone. Should Spotify wish to still provide its services to iOS users, it is people such as me who are penalised with a 43% price hike despite. So the question is, Apple be able to force me to pay more for a service I use, despite me having my usage of the service having no link to Apple?

Around the same time Google launched One Pass, a similar service with lower (10%) fees and non of the trappings that come with Apple’s subscription service. Hopefully publishers will take a stand and refuse to provide there services on iOS devices while Apple maintains its current stance. I understand why Apple want to do things this way, they want total control of their ecosystem and users to become so reliant on it they don’t move to alternative platforms. If publishers take a stand, users may choose to make the switch to Android, WP7, WebOS or Blackberry when they suddenly find the apps they want are no longer available on iOS. Remember last year Apple wanted its next iPhone to have an integrated SIM, but a carrier revolt soon put an end to that idea. Publishers should follow that lead and stand against Apple.

Elite League Title Race Hots Up

2011-02-13T12:51:00.001Z

It was only a few weeks ago it was looking like the Cardiff Devils could run away with the Elite League title. What a difference a few games make. Cardiff’s record breaking winning streak came to and end, and since the Devils have faltered including being on the wrong end of a 7-1 score line to Braehead last week. Quietly, the Sheffield Steelers went on their own winning run leapfrogging the Devils and currently sit at the top of the table, 6 points clear of Cardiff. But this years title is far from being a two horse race.

Most peoples pre-season favourites, the Belfast Giants have also been quietly picking up the points and following back to back wins against the Coventry Blaze now sit second in the table, 5 points behind the Steelers. Belfast's form since the start of the new year has been impressive. In 11 games, they have dropped points just twice (losses to Sheffield and Nottingham), which given 7 of those games have been against either Sheffield, Cardiff, Nottingham or Coventry plus a couple against Braehead is quite an impressive record. In fact in their 6 games since losing 5-4 to Sheffield towards the end of January, the Giants have only given up 7 goals. The Giants certainly seem to be finding their form at the right time.

Here is how the run in for the rest of the season looks for all three teams.

Belfast	Cardiff	Sheffield
Newcastle A Dundee A Edinburgh A Hull A Sheffield H Sheffield A Edinburgh H Newcastle H Hull H Nottingham A Coventry A	Edinburgh A Sheffield H Sheffield A Coventry A Braehead A Nottingham H Hull H Newcastle A Braehead H Hull A Nottingham H Coventry H Edinburgh A	Braehead A Cardiff A Cardiff H Dundee H Hull H Belfast A Nottingham A Belfast H Newcastle A Braehead A Braehead H

Of the three Sheffield seem to have the toughest run in. The key games will be the four against their title rivals. Two wins against Belfast would give the Steelers a 9 point cushion, while wins for Belfast would put them within a point of the Steelers. Assuming Cardiff Win their games in hand, the games between the Devils could give the Steelers a 6 point cushion or at the other extreme put the Devils 2 points clear at the top of the table. Of rest of the Steelers games most represent potential stumbling blocks. Newcastle should be the easiest on paper given their ever shrinking roster, but a win in Whitely Bay is unlikely to come easy and despite early season results Dundee are much improved and Hull are kept Sheffield on their toes all season. An away trip to Nottingham is always a tough task, particularly the night after playing the Giants in Belfast while Braehead have proven they can take points off the big boys, so the three games with them are likely to provide a challenge.

Belfast look to have the easiest finish to the season playing both Newcastle and Edinburgh twice. In fact other than the two games with Sheffield have just two games against teams in the top half, Coventry and Nottingham both away on the last weekend of the season. If things come down to the final weekend it could be a tough ask for the Giants. Giants also have the disadvantage of having just 4 or their remaining 11 games at home.

Cardiff have a mixed set of games. While two trips to Edinburgh and one to Newcastle should see points in the bag, they also play Nottingham, Coventry and Sheffield twice. What could be of advantage to the Devils, is unlike the Giants, most of these big games are at home, a place where Cardiff are notoriously difficult to beat. And if things come down to the last weekend of the season, a final game against Edinburgh means almost certain 2 points for the Devils, while the Steelers and Giants have the much tougher games against Braehead and Coventry.

So who do I think will win? I’m going to stick with my pre-season prediction of Belfast. I think they may drop a couple of points against the Steelers, and while they have a tough last weekend, I don’t see them dropping any more points (particularly against the Panthers if the Steelers are still in with a chance of winning the that last weekend, Green to start in goal for Nottingham anyone?). Sheffield and Cardiff have a tougher set of games and I think both will drop a few points, just enough for Belfast to win the league, but there could end up being no more than a couple of points separating all three at the end of the season. The big games are where the top three play each other, and a point for an overtime loss could be crucial in deciding where the title goes.

YouView Launch Delayed Until 2012

2011-02-11T20:14:00.001Z

A few weeks ago I wrote about how it looked as though YouView would be delayed until 2012. Well this week YouView confirmed that is indeed the case. The statement on its website doesn’t reveal much, other than to same that the complexity of the “significant technological innovation” of the project have affected timescales.

Indeed so complex is the challenge that many rivals now have the opportunity to steal a march on the service. Google TV and Boxee have already launched, Virgin Media have offered catch-up TV on demand services for quite some time and are due to launch a new TIVO box in the next few months while Sky have also recently launched its enhanced on-demand service to its TV and internet subscribers. With this further delay, it wouldn’t be much of a surprise if YouView fails to materialise at all, particular as their competitors seem to be much better at bringing the technology to market.

The biggest problem to the uptake of any IPTV service in the UK remains the poor broadband speeds available to the majority of potential users. Its ok wanting to change the way we view TV, but for the majority if the experience isn’t a smooth and seamless one they are likely to stick with what they no best. The reason Sky+ has been so successful is its simplicity and the way it seamlessly integrates with the traditional TV. It is suggested that a 2Mbps internet connection will be the minimum requirement for the YouView service. My own ADSL service seems to peak at around 8Mbps and even at peak times doesn’t seem to drop below 3-4Mbps. However, try streaming things such as BBC iPlayer and even at these speeds we suffer from buffering problems to the point it becomes annoying and seriously effects the ability to enjoy programs.

From Ofcom surveys I have read, my understanding is my internet speeds are pretty average for the UK, and this is where the real problem lies. Until internet speeds in the UK increase, IPTV services are never likely to become mainstream as the user experience is significantly poorer than the traditional alternative.

Nokia/Microsoft form mobile partnership

2011-02-11T12:52:00.001Z

As I wrote yesterday, Nokia has today announce that it has partnered with Microsoft to make Windows Mobile 7 its platform of choice for smartphones. But rather than it just being about Nokia using Windows Mobile as its smartphone OS, todays announcement highlights how the two tech giants will be working hand in hand on the platforms future development.

For its part Nokia has struggled in the last few years to keep pace with the rapid developments in the smartphone arena from new comers Google and Apple. Despite still producing some very good mobile handsets, its aging Symbian OS has failed to provide a user experience now seen on other smartphones. Depending on which survey you read, some even suggest that it has now been overtaken by Android as the user OS of choice in the global smartphone market.

From a Microsoft perspective, it has always struggled to make any real inroads in the mobile marketplace. Windows Phone 7 sees a huge improvement on previous efforts, but as of yet there hasn’t been any real hero device that has managed to capture the imagination of consumers in the same way that say the iPhone or HTC Desire have. With Nokia’s hardware and Microsoft's new software, can the two tech giants regain lost ground to relative new comers Apple, RIM and Google who are now starting to dominate the smartphone market.

Taken from Nokia’s press release, under the proposed partnership:-
- Nokia would adopt Windows Phone as its principal smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader.
- Nokia would help drive the future of Windows Phone. Nokia would contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies.
- Nokia and Microsoft would closely collaborate on joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products.
- Bing would power Nokia's search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing's next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter would provide search advertising services on Nokia's line of devices and services.
- Nokia Maps would be a core part of Microsoft's mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft's Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience
- Nokia's extensive operator billing agreements would make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low.
- Microsoft development tools would be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem's global reach.
- Nokia's content and application store would be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience.

Symbian still remains part of Nokia’s future, as does its OVI platform, though both are likely to take something of a back seat to Windows Phone. Its fledgling MeeGo platform is also still in the works with (there should be at least one Meego device during 2011), with suggestions it could be used as some form of computer OS, Nokia’s attempt to get it to the tablet market maybe?

What the reaction of the likes of Samsung and HTC who were early adopters of Microsoft’s latest foray in to the mobile OS market remains to be seen. Both still have plenty of other options having been key to the surge in popularity of Google’s Android platform, while Samsung also has its own Bada OS.
Hopefully the move with further stimulate competition and innovation in the market. For as long as I can remember Nokia has been a major player in the mobile market, primarily because it makes very good phones. It would be a shame to see the giant decline purely on its fairly to create a decent touchscreen OS for smartphones, for despite its short comings, its phones are still very good. Perhaps the marriage of Microsoft’s software expertise and Nokia’s mobile experience is just what both companies need if they are to compete against the onslaught of Google and Apple.

Could Tablets be the Death of Windows?

2011-02-10T20:25:00.001Z

2011 is likely to be 'the year of the tablet'. We've already had glimpses of Google's Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb courtesy of the Motorola Xoom, no doubt there will be plenty more Android tablets following in its footsteps and RIM is set to launch its Playbook. As if that weren't enough we now have HP bringing the WebOS platform it inherited after purchasing Palm to the tablet market and don't forget iPad 2. The only notable absentee from the tablet party is Microsoft.

Given Microsoft have the most to lose from the onslaught of tablets as a replacement to PCs you'd expect they will need to up their game and fast, if the cash cow that is Windows isn't to start to lose ground to the likes of iOS, Android and WebOS. That said, the advent of the tablet isn't likely to be the death of the PC, at least not any time soon. As I heard recently (I forget where), tablets are for consumption, PCs production. And until the tablet becomes a genuine replacement for the productivity brought about through PCs, predicting the demise of Windows seems a little premature.

Ironically, the downward spiral of another tech giant could yet be Microsoft's saviour. Nokia has seen its market share fall substantially over the last year, particularly in the smartphone market where it has been unable to come up with an answer to the iPhone or Android. Meego was supposed to be its next big thing, but rumour suggests that development on its first Meego handset has already ceased. Rumours have been around all week that Nokia could partner with someone such as Microsoft to try and get back into the smartphone game. Certainly it would be big boost for Microsoft who have long been also rans in the mobile world, while Nokia would gain from having a market ready smartphone OS. Then again, given Microsoft's history in the mobile market and Nokia's current decline, it could also be a recipe for disaster.

Dennis Vial V Doug Doull - 2000/1 ISL

2011-02-06T12:34:00.000Z

Last month I posted some videos featuring a some fights from a memorable hockey game between the Sheffield Steelers and Manchester Storm from the 2000/1 ISL season. That year both teams featured a couple of players who also played the role of enforcer in the NHL. Earlier that year the two traded blows in an early season match up between the two teams.

The previous season the Steelers had brought in former Ottawa Senators hard man Dennis Vial after a poor start. Vial instantly became a fan favourite in the steel city, featuring in many a memorable brawl and captaining the team to a memorable grand slam in the 2000/1 season. Doug Doull joined the Storm at the start of the 2000/1 season and only played 15 games, before returning state side to join the AHL St John Flames.

By the time the New Years Eve line brawl took place, Doull had left the Storm for the AHL. Earlier in the the season, the veteran Vial had shown Doull he still had a thing or two to learn if he wanted to drop them with the big guns. Clearly Doull did learn a thing or two as he later became one of only a handful of players to have played in the UK, to have later gone on to play in the NHL, playing 37 games predominantly with the Boston Bruins.

EIHL Transfer Deadline Passes

2011-02-06T10:55:00.001Z

So that’s it. January 31st has come and gone, so the roster EIHL teams have now is the one they have for the rest of the season with the IIHF not allowing transfers after this date. So who has been doing what in this last month to give themselves that final piece of the jigsaw for a push for the playoffs or league championship?

Belfast Giants Belfast suffered the loss of Mike Bayrack mid-month with a move to Slovenia, but deadline day replacement, Latvian defenseman Kaspars Astasenko. At 35 his best days look behind him, but with 23 NHL games, stints in the old IHL, AHL, SM-Liga and top flight Russian hockey, plus scoring over a point per game two seasons ago in Italy, he is still likely to be one of the better players in the Elite League. At the start of the season Belfast were pretty much everyone’s favourites for the league, but injuries have played a part in taking the Giants title aspirations a little off track. Unlike some of their rivals, Giants have been able to stay in the title race by signing some quality replacements, but there is no doubt the injuries have taken their toll. Doug Christiansen will be hoping his side can stay healthy for the run in and make a late push for a league title which is certainly still within their grasp, while you certainly can’t right them off for the playoffs.

Braehead Clan
No a bad first season so far for the Clan who remain in contention for a top five finish. Not surprise then that there are no last minute changes in Braehead, who have shown in a one off game they can compete with the top teams. Could be a dark horse come playoff time.

Cardiff Devils No changes in Wales, and its hardly a surprise. A 21 game winning streak was finally ended by Dundee in overtime, but with a healthy roster the Devils are right in the thick of things, and on recent form one of the favourites for the title. If it aint broke, don’t fix it.

Coventry Blaze Coventry have suffered more than most with injuries and unlike some sides have not been able to splash the cash on replacements. The league title may now be realistically out of reach, but as players start to return to the line up, Paul Thompsons men will look to find a run of form ready for the playoffs.

Dundee Stars The Stars have re-signed former fan favourite Patric Lochi. For the remainder of the season, should certainly add some offence and help Dundee cement their play-off spot. Finishing any higher than 8th looks unlikely, but the Stars shouldn’t have any problems staying above Edinburgh and Newcastle.

Edinburgh Capitals Its difficult to know what to say about Edinburgh. In my mid-season review, I wrote about Edinburgh’s financial issues and loss of key players. What no one expected was the exodus that followed in January leaving the Caps with just three imports. There first game after was an embarrassing 18-0 loss to Sheffield, followed by further similarly large score lines while often giving up around sixty shots per game. I think its fair to say the Caps are merely cannon fodder for the rest of the league now and have no hope of making the playoffs. Its a tragedy thinks have come to this. I feel sorry for the players still there giving their all every game and more so for their loyal fans, non of who deserve this. Last minute signings look to do little more than bolster numbers rather than make an impact, though since picking up new goalie Jens Van Pouke the scores are starting to look a little more respectable. Big changes are needed for next season if the Caps are to stay in the EIHL.

Hull Stingrays The big change for Hull was the signing of former NHL defenseman Drew Bannister earlier in the season. Since his arrival the Stingrays have looked a much more solid unit and have gone from battling for a playoff place to potentially pushing for a top 5/6 finish. No one would have expected that given the club almost didn’t start the season, and with such over achievement its no surprise that Sylvain Cloutier has decided to stick with the players that have got the team to this position.

Newcastle Vipers Newcastle have faced similar issues to Edinburgh, though not to the same extent and while a post season appearance is looking very unlikely, the Vipers are (at least before last weekend) keeping the games relatively competitive despite a shortened bench. Lack of funds has made replacing players impossible and like Edinburgh, whether the Vipers have a future in the Elite League beyond this season remains in question.

Nottingham Panthers Nottingham Panthers lost Penner who is alleged to have cited having no-one left to fight in the Elite League as the main reason for him leaving. Panthers moved fast to replace him with former NHL 1st round pick Daniel Tkaczuk. Tkaczuk should certainly strengthen the Panthers. Then just a few days ago Panthers released Jonathan Zion. There is no doubt that Zion is a very good offensive defensemen, but eyebrows were raised in the summer when he signed in Nottingham. For most team he would be a good signing, but with Neilson already providing offense from the blueline, Zion seemed a strange fit, particularly given his less impressive abilities in his own end. His replacement, the more defensive minded Jeremy Van Hoof should provide more balance. Its probably too little too late to help the Panthers to that elusive league title. When it comes to the one off games of the playoffs though, don’t write them off.

Sheffield Steelers No changes for the Steelers, but the return of injured captain Jonathan Phillips and Steve Munn makes the Steelers a better team. Sheffield can now role almost four lines, with no obvious weak links. Still in with a shout for the title, Steelers need to start winning the big games against fellow title rivals if they are to bring a championship back to South Yorkshire.

So as we come to the final stretch, the title seems to be now a three horse race between Cardiff, Sheffield and Belfast, Newcastle and Edinburgh look to be battling it out for the wooden spoon while the rest seem certain of a play-off place, with Hull and Braehead looking to push in to the top half of the league. Hopefully the top three can all keep pace to make the finally run for the title one of the most exciting for years.

Blogger for Android finally arrives

2011-02-06T09:48:00.001Z

Google has finally launched an official app for its Blogger service that is available for Android devices via the Android marketplace. While fairly basic, it does allow users to switch between multiple blogs and accounts, upload photos to your blog either from your gallery or camera and even include your location. On the downside it doesn't seem possible to add links to webpages, format text or insert page breaks for longer posts, but its not bad as a starting point.

Fully featured its not, but great if you feel the need to Blog while out and about. The true test will be if this post works or not, as I'm doing it using the new app from my HTC Desire.

Goodbye Roboform, Hello LastPass

2011-01-31T12:33:00.001Z

Going back to the early part of this century, I have like to use a password manager to help me keep track of the various passwords and logins I use. Remembering such information has never been a strong point of mine. I’m sure I would have done better at school and University if I had not had to remember all the various mathematical formulae, and instead just been able to find the right one in a book and apply it.

One of my favourite quotes is by Homer Simpson’s, “every time I learn something new it pushes something old out of my brain” as it pretty much sums up my ability to memorise things such as formulae and passwords. So when Symantec introduced Norton Password Manager to its range, it became my saviour, allowing me to use a variety of more complex passwords for websites. As I have previously documented, needing a new PC often means new version of Windows and old software no longer working, sadly the Norton Password Manager was a victim of this but I found a great replacement in Roboform.

Roboform served me well for years, but in the last year I have become a convert to Google’s Chrome browser, and sadly this hasn’t been as well supported by Roboform as it perhaps should be. About a year ago I tried LastPass, but found that it wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but with recent changes to Roboform that now require me to pay for what were once promised as free updates along with little progress with Roboform's cumbersome Chrome extension, I have again found myself looking for alternative.

So once again I have been giving LastPass a try, and so far it seems the issues I had previously have been sorted such as not filling usernames that were email address’s and not filling any login details for Google. Compared to Roboform the process for filling forms is far simpler and more automated. Gone is the having to tell the Roboform extension to fill forms through a variety of clicks on the mouse, LastPass just fills them automatically.

The main downside for me is that the data with LastPass is only stored remotely. Although the Roboform application didn’t work directly with Chrome, the online version that the Chrome extension used similar synced with the application on my PC giving me a local copy of my data along with an online backup. At least this way should the Roboform service stop I have all my passwords store, while if my PC dies I can get all the data back by re-syncing a new PC with my account. It is partly this reason that I don’t use Chrome’s built in password feature. If Google were to add the option to sync password data in Chrome with your Google account, it would likely be the ideal solution. I get to keep a copy of all my data locally, but if the worst happens with my PC, I can get everything back with a simple re-sync. Until then, it looks like I’ll be sticking with LastPass.

YouView Risks Being Obsolete Before it Launches

2011-01-20T16:31:00.001Z

An article in today’s Telegraph suggests that YouView has been further delayed and a launch of the service is unlikely before 2012. For anyone who doesn’t know, YouView (formerly known as Project Canvas), is a group owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Five, BT, TalkTalk and Arqiva that aims to bring an internet connected set-top TV box to peoples homes, without subscription. Seems straight forward enough, but judging from the Telegraph article it would appear to be anything but.

Virgin Media and Sky have already complained to regulators about the service on anti-competitive grounds last year, though there efforts were unsuccessful. This latest hiccup for YouView is likely to please both companies, particularly with Sky having recently launched its own on demand service for customers who have both its TV and internet services, while Virgin Media plans to launch its internet connected TIVO box in the next few months. Add to the mix services such as Google TV and Boxee and this delay to YouView could see it die before it starts.

Apple already seem to have missed the opportunity to steal a march on rivals in this field. Their Apple TV device locks users in to their own eco-system and provides no tuner for viewing traditional TV, while its latest iteration provides no user storage for programs while HD is limited to 720p. Devices such as the Nintendo Wii and Sony’s PS3 already allow users some of what YouView aims to do. If the likes of Google can get content agreements in place and get their technology on to digital PVRs, YouView will likely be left dead in the water.

Still, the whole idea of such services will be pointless to many given current internet speeds. My own internet connection has achieved download speeds of around 8Mbps at best, and at peak times this drops considerably to a point where streaming on iPlayer is subject to repeated buffering. Until ISPs can consistently provide speeds for to their subscribers suitable for streaming online content, IPTV is never likely to become the mainstream service its capable of.

Protecting your PC for FREE

2011-01-20T11:07:00.002Z

I remember years ago when I first ventured on to the internet with my PC, there seemed to be two choices of software to keep you safe while online, Norton or McAfee. For me, and nearly everyone I knew Norton was the tool of choice, easy to use and did the job. Then it seemed the big guns got lazy, their software became less user friendly, had some annoying failings and worst of all became resource hungry bloatware. Personally I stuck with Norton for a long time, I liked the tools it had along with the Antivirus and Firewall protection, in particular I found its password manager and anti-spam software very useful.

But as I say, McAfee and Norton became lazy. Email providers got better at filtering spam at source, while as the world (including myself) became more internet savvy we started to discover cheaper and better alternatives. I don’t remember exactly when I switched, but I’d heard good things about AVG and ZoneAlarm as free alternatives to the likes of McAfee and Norton, so as my subscription came to an end, decided to give them a go.

I have to say I never looked back, I mean why pay for something when there is an equally good if not better free alternative. ZoneAlarm and AVG provided with a free unbloated alternative, and along with a few different malware/spyware programs have formed the backbone of my PC security for what must be seven or so years.

In the last couple of years I have felt that some of these great free alternative have started to make the same mistakes that the likes of McAfee and Norton did years ago. It seems they settled in to a comfort zone assuming people would just stick with what they know. The first piece of software I ditched was AdAware which got slower and more cumbersome with each update. It may have improved in the last couple of years, but I haven’t gone back as I found other more lightweight alternatives such as MalwareBytes.

From what I have read (and experienced when providing IT support for my technophobe mother), the most recent version of Norton is much improved using far less resources than before, I even contemplated switching back from AVG/ZoneAlarm to Norton I was that impressed. Things certainly seem to have gone full circle, with ZoneAlarm and AVG having more effect on system performance to the paid alternative. But in the last couple of months I have also been hearing very good things about Microsoft’s latest foray in to PC security, Microsoft Security Essentials or MSE.

So this week I’ve taken the plunge, and uninstalled AVG and ZoneAlarm and switched to Microsoft's free alternative. (N.B. If you try doing the same you may need to download the AVG removal tool from their website to fully remove it from your system before installing another AV program.) Its still very early days, but so far so good. The first thing I noticed was my PC now boots and shuts down much faster. With AVG/ZoneAlarm I may have had to wait a minute after logging in to Windows before starting to run programs, with MSE its a few seconds. This is perhaps the biggest difference for me. Although improvements over the last few months seem to have improved AVG/ZoneAlarm (and I think it was the latter that slowed things the most) in this area, such a noticeable difference with MSE shows they still have plenty of room for improvement.

The MSE interface is unfussy and straightforward for even the most computer illiterate people to understand. The ‘Home’ tab shows you if everything is up to date and working, while also giving you the option start a scan; ‘Update’ does what its says on the tin while ‘History’ shows you a, well history of anything MSE has detected. More detailed options are available under ‘Settings’, though perhaps the one that will interest most is the ability to set up a scheduled scan.

In terms of scanning, it seems on par with AVG regarding times from the scans I have done so far and reports I have read suggest MSE does a better job of detecting malware. So far I certainly have no regrets in making the switch.

In an ideal world Microsoft would be allowed to bundle this software with Windows as standard, but the powers that be seem to think giving consumers the choice is more important than having a safe and secure operating system. How about this, if choice is that much of a deal, let MS bundle MSE with Windows, BUT during setup, give users the choice to accept the default option or choose an alternative. After all, OEMs can always do deals with the likes of Symantec or McAfee and set their software as the default security option instead of MSE. In some respect, an Apple boom and ChromeOS could be the best thing to happen to Microsoft, they may actually have the reigns loosened and be allow to innovate without restriction. Then again the EU think telling us how straight a banana must be is a productive use of their time and our money, so I doubt we’ll see a change to their anti-Microsoft attitude any time soon.

I Have a Dream………

2011-01-19T15:26:00.001Z

Ok, so maybe that’s a bit of a stretch, its certainly not a dream of Martin Luther King proportions, an idea might be a better way of describing it. Anyway, I’ve had this idea for a while, but don’t really have the skills to put it in to place so its always been just that, an idea. Well this year I’ve decided I’m not going to let things like that stop me and I want to make my idea a reality, so I’ve decided to learn how to program in Java.

While I’m not totally new to programming, I would still say I’m a relative novice. As a child I did some basic programming in BBC BASIC while at University I did learned some HTML, VBA and Fortran. Object Orientated Programming however is totally new to me. I’ve started out with Java All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies as I’ve always found the Dummies series of books a good way to get a basic grounding in a subject in the past. Any recommendations for other books worth trying are greatly received.

I’ve only spent a couple of hours so far so its still early days, and my idea is still a long way from reaching reality, but at least I’ve started to take steps in the right direction. I’ll post updates on my progress as find time. As for my idea, well you’ll just have to wait and see, don’t want to give anyone who already has the skills a jump start, but when I get around to launching it, you can be sure I’ll be shouting about it on this blog, though it might be some time, (years rather than months) before I get to that stage. Just hope the idea is still relevant by the time I can make it happen, then perhaps I can also achieve a dream, one of independence and not being stuck in the daily grind of working for someone else.

New Years Eve–Steelers V Storm–Round 3: The Main Event

2011-01-16T12:02:00.000Z

If you’ve not already, I’d recommend reading my previous posts (round 1 and round 2) as they give a bit of background to this video. This is probably one of my favourite hockey fights, the game itself was one of the better ones too. I don’t want to spoil things too much for those not familiar with this incident, but watch for the cheap hit from Corey Spring that kicks things off, not the most sensible thing when you’re already a marked man by the opposition. Referee Simon Kirkham manages to keep the benches from clearing but other than that its pretty much chaos on ice, in the penalty box and on the benches. You may need to watch it a few times to pick up on everything. As a final teaser I’ll say this, Dennis Vial, Scott Allison, Scott Metcalfe, Rob Trumbley……. Enjoy!

New Years Eve–Steelers V Storm–Round 2

2011-01-14T18:20:00.000Z

As promised in yesterdays post, some more action from New Years Eve 2000 when the Sheffield Steelers played host to the Manchester Storm. As I mentioned yesterday there was some bad blood following an incident earlier in the season between Sheffield’s Paul Beraldo and Manchester’s Corey Spring. Having seen Scott Allison look for some retribution with Spring yesterday, today we see Paul Beraldo needed little invitation to drop the gloves from Greg Bullock.

So those two video’s some what set the scene. I’ll post the main event at some point over the weekend. If you’ve not seen it, it’s one not to be missed.

Google Apps–Where Next?

2011-01-14T10:12:00.001Z

Towards the end of last year I blogged about transitioning my Google Apps account to allow full use of Google’s services. For a while I was using three different Google accounts. First, my Google Apps account as my primary account for email, docs, calendar etc. I then created a secondary account using my Apps email to give me access to other services such as Checkout, Reader, Blogger and AdSense. I then needed a third account as some services wouldn’t work with a Google Account that didn’t have a Gmail address. The transition of the Google Apps account should have simplified things so I need just one account. After a few teething problems I finally got things sorted, though full Google functionality still eludes me and I still need my other accounts.

Some services such as Blogger were easy to transfer to my Google Apps account. In the case of this blog, I simply added my Apps account as a user with admin privileges then from my Apps account removed my Gmail account as a user. Simples! Some services however don’t offer this functionality. AdSense for example allows individuals to have only one account and doesn’t let you add additional users. This means I can’t do as I did with Blogger and transfer AdSense to my Apps account and neither can I set up a new AdSense account with my Apps account.

Google also lists the following products as unavailable to Apps users; Buzz, Google Storage, Health, Powermeter and Profiles. Given the number of different products Google offers that’s not bad, but along with the issues above, this still causes a few headaches.

Firstly, lets forget about Powermeter, its very very niche and for most of the planet serves no benefit or purpose. Health looks promising as a way of tracking exercise and eating. As with most Google products I like the idea of being able to login to one account and have access to my information rather than having lots of different providers here there and everywhere. Integration is key. That said, while I use some of what Google Health call “integrated devices” already, I find they do a pretty good job on there own. Being able to share the info with my Google account would be nice, but it can wait. As for being able to keep notes on my health, medicines, prescriptions etc, isn’t that why doctors keep notes, so they have all that information. So why would I need to keep the same information to give to a doctor, when they already have everything to hand.

I’m a little undecided about Buzz and Profiles, both seemed to be served much better by other services (Twitter and Facebook immediately spring to mind). If Google are to launch its much rumoured social product this year, I would expect to see these features updated and integrated in to the fold. Then, I would like them to be available in my Google Apps account.

The last product unavailable is Google Storage and out of all of them is the one I would like access to the most, and the one that makes most sense for Google to get working with Google Apps fast. At present the storage Google offer is pretty poor, just 1GB for Picasa and 1Gb for uploads to Docs. You don’t have to look hard for other places that provided much larger levels of storage for free, 5GB is pretty common and Microsoft even offer 25GB for free with SkyDrive. Its obvious why as I user I would like more storage than is currently offered, but Google would also gain as they like most providers charge for additional storage. It’s current rates seem reasonable enough for much larger levels of storage, certainly something I’d be willing to pay. Add in an application that allows folders on your PC to be sync’d with your cloud storage and it has potential as an offsite backup solution. Certainly if Google wants people to look seriously at moving to its cloud solutions, it needs to look at larger storage limits sooner rather than later. With ChromeOS looking set for a proper launch later this year and the current onslaught Android in the mobile market, cloud storage will become more important if Google really want to challenge the dominance of Windows and change the way we use our computers.

So while the transition of Google Apps to this new infrastructure is definitely a huge step in the right direction, there are still a few little creases that need ironing out but I’m now down to needing just two Google accounts instead of three. As with almost everything Google, whether or not solutions to any of the problems above are being worked on or what the timescales are for such fixes to any of these issues is unclear. So fingers crossed Google is looking in to some if not all of these, and maybe this time next year I’ll finally be able to have everything in just one Google Apps account.

New Years Eve–Steelers V Storm–Round 1

2011-01-13T22:02:00.001Z

Following on from my previous post, here is another scrap from the 2000/1 ISL season. In itself there isn’t much here, its more about setting the scene for what comes next. First though, a bit of background is probably required for those that are a little less familiar with ISL and British ice hockey of ten years ago.

Earlier in the season, Sheffield Steelers forward Paul Beraldo had been injured by Corey Spring of the Manchester Storm. If I remember correctly Spring went unpunished, and if not any punishment he did receive certainly didn’t fit the crime as far as the Steelers were concerned. There had been much talk of revenge prior to the game. In this incident, Steelers Scott Allison looks to exact some revenge on a less than willing Spring. This was just the start of what was to come. I’ll post some more from the game over the next few days.

Chrome Extensions: One Year Later

2011-01-04T13:56:00.002Z

About a year ago I wrote a few articles about my experiences with Google Chrome, and more specifically extensions and whether they made it worth making the switch from Internet Explorer. I’ve always been open to trying different web browsers, but have always ended up going back to IE as I’ve just found it works. I’ve never got the whole Firefox thing, I have always felt it to be something for people that are anti-Microsoft for the sake of it. The closest I came to giving up IE was many moons ago when I tried Opera with tabbed browsing (before Firefox made it popular), but at the time too many websites were built for IE and didn’t work properly in other browsers, so I ended up back with IE. Google Chrome is different. Ever since giving it a go I haven’t looked back and now do the majority of my browsing using Chrome. The only exception is with some online banking where Chrome isn’t supported. So after a year of playing around with various extensions, which ones have I come to rely on in Chrome.

I’ll start off with the staple Google Apps of Gmail, Calendar and Docs. For these I am using something relatively new to Chrome, the Chrome Webstore. Here I added the Apps for Gmail, Calendar and Docs to Chrome. The term apps is used loosely in this case as they are little more than bookmarks, except that from the Chrome homepage you can
set them to open as “pinned tabs”. These tabs are, as the name suggests pinned in Chrome and automatically open when you launch Chrome. They also leave a smaller footprint by showing just an icon at in the tab, while any other tabs you open can still hold the full description. To complement these I use Gmail Notifier to let me know when I have anything new in my inbox. Not only does it show me how many unread items I have in my inbox, it also now supports desktop notifications, so when I get any mail I can see who its from and an overview of what its about, which can save time going to my inbox when an email isn’t that important. For Calendar I find Google Calendar Checker does the job. Its simple, showing how long until your next appointment or event, while hovering the mouse over the extension icon tells you what the event is. Basic yes, but with the Calendar tab always open its all I really need.

For social networking Facebook for Google Chrome happily deals with most of my Facebook needs. Quick and easy to see status updates while if unobtrusively lets you know if you have any notifications. For Twitter I use Chrowety. Here you have the choice of either the icon showing you any new tweets or messages or getting desktop alerts if you prefer. Personally I have the desktop alerts off, as if you are trying to do other things they can start to get a bit in the way if you are getting a lot of new tweets from people you follow. I have started to notice an annoying bug recently when, that if I get any mentions or direct messages it incorrectly reports these. Disabling then re-enabling fixes it, but if it continues I may look elsewhere for my Twitter fix.

Adblock is one of those great extensions you forget all about, at least until you use a computer that doesn’t have it. Its great at, well blocking ads from webpages but you rarely realise its doing anything, as it has no effect on your browsing experience. In fact its only when you use a computer without it being installed you realise how good it is at getting rid of all those annoying ads. It can be personalised so if you want to allow ads on some sites, you can.

Clip to Evernote is a simple yet powerful tool that made planning Christmas and Christmas shopping so much easier for me. The extension is a web clipper that lets you store webpages as notes in your Evernote account. Ok, so I could just bookmark the page, but by syncing to Evernote it gives me access the the details from any PC with an internet connection as well as my phone. While the extension itself is useful, its really just a small part of Evernote, which in the last year has helped in keep my life so much more organised.

I covered password management in quite a bit of detail last year when I first started looking at Chrome extensions focussing on LastPass and Roboform. Since then I have stuck with Roboform, and while not perfect it has done the job. A new version has been released which is supposed to support Chrome, unfortunately they seem to have changed their licensing agreement conditions from free updates for ever to , if you want version 7 you have to pay. This and reports I have read that suggest V7’s support for Chrome is not as good as it should be have made me re-think whether Roboform is the right tool for me. I plan to re-evaluate LastPass to see if the issues I had last year have been fixed. If so, it could well be replacing Roboform as my password manager of choice.

Other useful utilities I have found are; Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer which automatically previews documents such as PDFs in Google’s Document Viewer; Chrome Reader which lets me quickly add RSS feeds to Google Reader; Google Dictionary which shows definitions of words on the web pages; IE Tab Classic which allows pages designed for Internet Explorer that don’t work in other browsers to be view in Chrome, though there are still some websites that even this doesn’t work with forcing me to load up IE; Basic Calculator which is as it sounds, but is quicker start than the Windows calculator and last but by no means least Invisible Hand, a great little app which lets you know if the item you are looking at is available cheaper elsewhere on the internet.

So that’s what I’m using for now, and no doubt some of these will change of the coming months. Going forward, the Chrome Webstore looks promising and should open up more possibilities. Perhaps what I would most like to see is a proper Spotify extension or Chrome App, one where you don’t need to launch the separate Spotify application to listen to music, but can actually do so from your browser. Time will tell as to if that will happen. Hopefully there will be a few other surprises along the way too.

EIHL Mid-Season Review

2011-01-03T15:36:00.001Z

Before the start of the season I put forward my predictions as to how I thought the league would finish. Here are is the current standings with my predictions in brackets.

1 Belfast Giants (1)
2 Cardiff Devils (5)
3 Sheffield Steelers (3)
4 Nottingham Panthers (4)
5 Coventry Blaze (2)
6 Braehead Clan (6)
7 Hull Stingrays (7)
8 Dundee Stars (10)
9 Edinburgh Capitals (9)
10 Newcastle Vipers (8)

So far then not too bad, in fact if Cardiff and Coventry swapped spots, and the same with Dundee and Newcastle I’d be spot on season to date. Looking at things in a little more detail, here is what I thought about teams before the season and how reality has actually compared.

Belfast Giants
My pre-season favourites and no surprise they are currently top of the table. The Giants have suffered from injury problems to key players such a Rich Seeley, Brandon Benedict and Colin Hemmingway, but have been able to bring in equally good replacements such as Simon Lambert and Michael Jacobsen. Added to what was already a roster deep in talent, this has allowed the Giants to maintain their position as front runners. Still one of the favourites for the title but both the Steelers and Devils have games in hand and are hot on their heels. Belfast will be wanting to improve on some recent hit and miss form that has seen them lose some games they would have been expected to win.

Braehead Clan The Clan had a great start to the season, but have slowed off the pace as the season progressed and settled in to a mid-table position as expected. Barring a late season collapse they should comfortably make the play-offs but face battle for 6th place with a much improved Hull Stingrays. Could have the potential to spring a surprise or two come playoff time.

Cardiff Devils The question with Cardiff was always did they have the scoring depth of the other top teams and could they take their impressive home form on the road. I said they could be a dark horse if everything clicked and they avoided injuries they could be an outside bet for the title. Well guess what? They have been relatively injury free andcertainly have clicked, to the point that if they win their games in hand they will go top of the league. Jon Pelle has been a revelation scoring almost a goal a game, while Scott Matzka has lived up to his pre-season billing. Add to that better than expected production from the supporting cast such as Tylor Michel, Scott McRae and young Brit Sam Smith and the Devils are certainly in the running for their first Elite League title. While the above contributions shouldn’t be overlooked, perhaps the turning point for the Devils was the loss of Justin Sawyer, as it saw the Devils add former NHLer Craig Weller who is establishing himself as one of the leagues premier defencemen.

Coventry Blaze I said in my predictions that the Blaze had the advantage of being able to call on their ENL players should injuries arise. Well they certainly had to do that, but such is the extent of their injury problems even that hasn’t been able to help the Blaze keep up the title challenge. Indeed things got so bad that the Blaze had lost almost their entire defensive corps to injury including the influential Jonathan Weaver. Unlike Belfast, Coventry don’t seem to have the resources to bring in big name replacements and as such a started to lose touch with the leading pack and another league title is looking very unlikely. However, if they can get bodies back for the end of the season, the playoffs are certainly a possibility.

Dundee Stars After an awful start to the season including not scoring a goal until their 3rd game, the Stars now have a realistic chance at making the playoffs. Injury to goalie Jerad Kaufmann was perhaps the turning point, with Ladislav Kudrna coming in as a temporary replacement. Kudrna’s performances made the role his own, and further improvements to the roster such as releasing Sean McMorrow and signing Jay Latulippe have made the Stars competitive at last.

Edinburgh Capitals When doing my pre-season predictions Edinburgh still had much of their roster to sign. Some of the signings they then made didn’t stick around. Coach Brad Gratton left after a couple of months, defenceman Daniel Madsen lasted just 5 games, while leading scorers Alex Kim and Chris St Jaques both left in December. Edinburgh’s financial woes are no secret and replacements for any of these players look unlikely, so I expect my pre-season prediction of the Caps not making the play-offs is looking pretty safe.

Hull Stingrays After an 11th hour reprieve in the summer, much of Hulls roster was still to be signed when I did my predictions. After a slow start, Sylvain Cloutier seems to have got the team heading in the right direction, while the addition of ex-NHLer Drew Bannister on the blue line has had a steadying influence. Hull are now looking good for a playoff spot and could even push Braehead for 6th place, not bad for a team that didn’t even look like it was going to start the season a few months ago.

Newcastle Vipers Another team that had a few signing still to make when I made my predictions. I said at the time that if their remaining signings were top drawer they could challenge for mid table, otherwise it could be wooden spoon territory. Sadly for Vipers fans last place looks very likely. Similar to Edinburgh, the Vipers face financial difficulties and I would expect that along with the Caps they are unlikely to feature in the post season.

Nottingham Panthers As always on paper the Panthers have one of the best teams, and while some teams are struggling to put together a full roster, Nottingham have extra imports sat in the stands. Initially Nottingham were up with the pace setters, but injury to goalie Craig Kowalski saw them drop slightly off the pace despite bringing back Kevin St.Pierre as his replacement. Panthers are still in the mix if they can string together a good run of results, but will need stars like David-Alexandre Beauregard to improve if they are to do so. Just last week they brought in former GB coach Rick Strachan as an assistant coach to Corey Neilson, how this will change things will remain to be seen, but it could make the Panthers more defensively sound, something they need if they are to win their first league title in over 50 years.

Sheffield Steelers Following another summer of upheaval, the Steelers are back fighting it out for a league title. Coach Ben Simon has brought a breath of fresh air to the club and been rewarded with winning results. An ownership change just before Christmas should help provide stability, while on the ice players are living up to expectations and more. Steelers lost a rejuvenated Jonathan Phillips for the season early on, but with ex-NHLer Rob Globke added to the roster Steelers are able to role three effective lines. Ervins Mustukovs has proven a valuable asset and currently leads the league in save percentage, goals against average and shutouts. If Mustukovs can continue to keep the pucks out while the likes of Legue, Talbot, Simon, Clark, Tait and Globke can light the lamp at the other end, Sheffield are in with a very real chance of adding to their already impressive collection of silverware.

Old Time Hockey

2011-01-03T13:00:00.003Z

Being a bit bored earlier I had a look back at some of my old hockey fight videos and it made me realise just how good we had things here in the UK about 10 years ago. Not only was the standard of hockey way above anything we had seen before or since (probably ever will again) in the UK, but the quality of the enforcers was as good as its every been. Ok so since the days of the ISL we have had the likes of Wade Belak and Eric Cairns, but take the 2000/1 season for example (probably the best season in terms of overall quality). That year teams included such players as Doug Doull, Louis Bedard, Brad Wingfield, Mike Ware, Dave Morisette, Bill Huard, Claude Jutras, Trevor Doyle, Paxton Schulte, Paul Ferone, Barry Nieckar and my personal favourite Dennis Vial. Bear in mind that this is just a selection of the tough guys that played in the ISL that year, dig a little deeper and you’ll come up with plenty more.

This year, the EIHL does seem to have a bit more toughness than the last few years, but very few (if any) could be compared to the players listed above. So anyway looking through some of my old fight videos, I thought I’d share a few from the 2000/1 season over the next few weeks on the blog.

First off, two of the all time great heavyweights of British ice hockey, Dennis Vial and Mike Ware. This was their second fight of the season, the first in Sheffield had seen the two just stand and throw trading bombs. Unfortunately for hometown favourite Vial, Ware caught him flush with about his third punch scoring a big TKO win. This fight was the one everyone had been waiting for, this time in Ware’s backyard, Cardiff. Enjoy.

Mike Ware (Cardiff) V Dennis Vial (Sheffeld)–2000/1