As a keen scuba instructor-trainer, I am a big believer in advocating self defence in our oceanic adventures. But mostly in defending ourselves from the silly antics of people. Marine life is seldom a problem, but is headline making whenever an “attack” occurs….

]]> http://www.desparoz.com/2012/02/21/shark-perils-2/feed/ 0 http://www.desparoz.com/2012/02/02/dyac-for-the-math-geeks/ http://www.desparoz.com/2012/02/02/dyac-for-the-math-geeks/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:29:54 +0000 admin http://www.desparoz.com/?p=230

From the wonderful Damn You Autocorrect - For The Math Geeks:

 

-(Via Damn You Auto Correct!)

Over the past few years, I will have to admit to becoming quite the Apple fan! I enjoy the technology, but I really think the thing that keeps me coming back is the way that every experience, in product and when in contact with Apple staff, is so positive.

One of my favourite Apple gadgets is my iPad2, which I pre-ordered, and have had since the day it was released! Along with this iPad2, I ordered and have been using a leather SmartCover – red just like the one in the image.

The SmartCover is fun – it adds an interesting versatility to using the iPad2, as well as protecting the screen when not in use, and providing a convenient stand on-the-go.

Lately, its been fraying around the edges, noticeably. So I was in the Bondi area today, and thought I’d pop into the Apple Store and see what they’d say. The staff I spoke to all thought that the fraying was more than what they would call acceptable, and with a 12 month warranty, thought something should be done. They just weren’t sure what, and how (given that I’d ordered it online, not through the store).

Clearly this was a bit outside the normal situation the staff faced, so I was pleased that Apple’s customer service story reigned supreme when a team leader simply went to the shelf, grabbed a new cover (identical), took it out of the box, and gave it to me. He said to leave it with them – they would work out the rest. They didn’t even ask for a purchase receipt, Apple ID, etc. Of course, it is less than 12 months old, but I left a happy customer.

The moral here is that clearly the staff were empowered, in the event of a novel problem, to simply fix the issue from the customer’s perspective, and not bring them into background paperwork and procedural “stuff”.

Well done Apple. I think its far more than the products that make Apple successful in this day and age – its a customer service philosophy that empowers staff to fix problems, and work out the details with dragging the customer into that process.

When Steve Jobs announced iCloud in June, the thing that struck me more than anything else is that at last Apple was providing a methodology to allow easy “intra-personal collaboration” – that is an easy method of syncing documents you are working on between your various devices – desktop, notebook, iPad and iPhone. All the other features (calendar, address book, iTunes in the Cloud, etc) are great, but for me the real promise lays in the integration of iWork, and third party apps into iCloud.

When iCloud was launched in October, I was pleased with how simple it was to setup iCloud on all my devices, and how well it works for iWork documents on iOS devices (iPhone, iPad). I guess I wasn’t alone however in my disappointment that the MacOS versions of iWork don’t support iCloud, meaning a clunky download/upload process would need to be put in place everytime I wanted to work on a document on my Macs.

Lets face it, for many professionals productive work generally involves most stuff being done on a desktop or notebook computer, with refinements, edits and updates being done on-the-go. So syncing between two iOS devices is nice, even necessary, but it is certainly not efficient.

I guess its only been a bit over a month, but the iCloud Documents in the Cloud concept is more gimmicky than anything else if there is no real ability to seamlessly work on documents, regardless of which device you’re working on. The magic will start to happen when I can pick up where I left in a document from one device to another.

So I was really pleased when the folks at Information Architects Inc announced yesterday that the iPad and Mac versions of their iA Writer app now support iCloud.

iA Writer has long supported DropBox syncing, and thats a good way of moving documents back and forth. I use DropBox for many things now, but I’ve always had the feeling that iCloud may one day be something even more special.

This post represents my first use of iCloud and iA Writer. I have so far worked on this post across several devices. I started on my iMac, moved to my iPad, and then to my MacBook. I am back on my iMac now. Whilst this sounds geeky, it does represent how I might very well work on posts and articles.

Unlike DropBox where I have to save documents in a special Finder folder than then syncs, in iCloud I can save anywhere on my system, and just tell iA Writer to add the document to iCloud. Shortly thereafter it appears on my other devices. Edits can be done, and things move back and forth quite nicely.

iA Writer is a lovely app. It is a simple text editor with mark-down capabilities. The screen is simple – black text on a plain white background. Using MacOS Lion’s fullscreen mode, there are no distractions – a really useful feature when writing. It has a similar mode on the iPad, taking away the top bar with its many distrations – not the least of which is the time!

Its too early for me to say whether I like iCloud or DropBox better, but I am certainly intrigued by the possibility of iCloud. Once its really working, it will easier for non-technical people to use, as there are no special setup steps. Just save a file and tell the app to put it in iCloud. When you no longer need the document in the cloud, simply tell the app to remove it from iCloud, then you’re done. Simple as that. But I can say that iA Writer is a winner for me, and for now I’ll keep using that with iCloud, and leave DropBox in other apps and for general data.

I am now clearly an Apple fan, having shelled out money to pre-order an iPhone 4S as soon as the orders opened up on the Apple Online Store.

In the past, I pre-ordered both the iPad and iPad 2 prior to their respective releases, and received my orders on the shipment date. I had the same expectation this year, and was disappointed on Friday 14 October when the phone failed to materialise. The shipment tracking system (from TNT) showed it as transiting through Hong Kong.

Like a lot of Australians, I felt somewhat let down, particularly when rumours suggested that the Australian iPhone 4S deliveries could be “delayed by one to two weeks” compared to other countries.

I reckon there must’ve been some serious behind the scenes conversations within Apple or probably between Apple and TNT, because I was delighted yesterday (Sunday 16 October) turned up. I was told that the driver was “getting ahead on Monday shipments”, but this doesn’t seem to have been unique with Darren Rowse of ProBlogger also tweeting he’d received his.

Anyway, my initial disappointment is gone, and I am happy to have my brand new iPhone 4S.

Initial setup was easy – I had turned on the iCloud Backup service on my previous iPhone 4, and simply restored from that. Settings came in beautifully, and then apps re-downloaded. After a sync to my Mac, all was good. It was a seamless transition, perhaps eased by having already had my iPhone 4 on iOS5 and iCloud.

Next I started playing with Siri. This “virtual assistant”, labelled as in beta, is already remarkable and will get better as further enhancements are made.

Being outside of the US, Siri can “only use for businesses, maps, and traffic in the United States, and when you’re using U.S. English”. Its ability to recognise my (Australian) accent is wonderful, and I am amazed by the ease with it handles contractions and the like.

Creating, moving, and cancelling meetings and reminders is a snap, and its actually far easier than typing these into iOS, particularly on an iPhone. It reads messages and voicemails to you, and allows you to compose new ones.

There are also some wonderful easter eggs built in. Try saying “Beam Me Up Scotty” and you will get responses like:

• OK. Stand still
• Please remove your belt, shoes and jacket, and empty your pockets
• Sorry Captain, your Tricorder is in Airplane mode
• Energizing….
• WiFi or 3G?
• Please install the latest version of iCloud and try again.

There are a number of other great easter eggs. Trying asking Siri “what is the meaning of life, the universe and everything” and seeing what you get. Do it a few times.

Siri does a great job also of giving you quick information. If you ask for the current temperature in a city, it’ll come back with the current temperature and an hourly forecast for the rest of the day. You can ask it for the time in any (major) city, and you’ll get it.

It also plugs into Wolfram Alpha, and as such becomes a knowledge engine. You can find out wonderful information about people, places, etc.

Siri also allows you to build relationships. Once you tell it who is your spouse, mother, father, child, etc, you can use that relationship instead of a name.

To me, this could really be the start of something amazing. Having a virtual assistant that can manage a lot of the tasks for you, and also retrieve information will be an increasingly incredible opportunity.

Despite the relatively lacklustre media immediately following the iPhone 4S / iOS5 / Siri announcement, I think we are on the tipping point of another great flex point in technology.

Thanks Steve Jobs for bringing us this far. I guess we’re on our own from here…

Its strange that in 2011 there are still businesses operating with the belief that Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+ and more) are fads, and that social media doesn’t have a direct business role to play.

Over the past few years, I’ve enjoyed Erik Qualman’s Social Media Revolution slideshow that he has put together with stats from (and presumably to promote) his book SocialNomics. He has recently released version 3 of this presentation and its well worth watching, and taking note of.

I guess that the businesses that don’t get social media are destined to be part of (or follow) the 40% of Fortune 500 companies that won’t be here in 5 years.

Across the Bridge, originally uploaded by BlueBeyond.

Bare Island, La Perouse is a beautiful spot for photographs, particularly for a 6.58am sunrise with the beautiful greens and greys of the islands contrasting with the colourful sky.

I chose this perspective to try to make the island inviting. You’re drawn across the bridge to the inviting island that was once a fort protecting Sydney’s Botany Bay. If you’ve flown into Sydney you’ve probably flown right over Bare Island.

I do like this image, but want to go back soon and re-shoot it so that the edges of the island aren’t cropped.

The spinecheek anemone fish is one of several anemone fish found in tropical Indo-Pacific waters.

This one is so named due to the spiney growth protruding from the side of the fish’s face that you can see quite clearly in the photo, just under the eye and extending over the flourescent white band.

These are quite a pretty anemone fish, founding living in a symbiotic relationship with its host anemone.

This image was made on a dive In Milne Bay, PNG, where we were diving from the Tawali Resort. I used a 60mm macro lens and two strobes to provide even lighting.

Cuddling Nudis, originally uploaded by BlueBeyond.

Its been waaayyyy too long since I posted a Photo of the Day, but will intend to get that going regularly again.

These two Chromodoris kuniei were spotted on a dive in 2006 in PNG’s Milne Bay area.

The nudibranch on the right is facing us, while the one on the left is facing away. This “69″ position is how nudibranchs typically mate.

C. kuniei is one of the more vividly coloured nudibranchs, with the beautiful purples of the mantle edge and spots contrasting the golden brown.

A couple of weeks ago I bit the bullet and decided to order a new iPad 2.

Advertised as shipping in 1-2 weeks on the Apple website, it arrived in 10 days, shipped from China.

I got the 64GB 3G model in whiten with the red leather smart cover.

I can see what Leo Laporte and others have been saying- the white unit does look smaller than the black. When you place it next to a black unit, the screen is identical in size.

The iPad 2 is certainly noticeably lighter and appreciably smaller than the older unit. It’s also faster.

Haven’t really played around with the other new features (cameras, gyro, etc) yet, but looking forward to playing.

So far really impressed with the new iPad 2.