Great Southern Lad

jQuery - do I really have an AJAX cache problem?

2010-12-24T10:10:00.002+11:00

I don't often write about code - I am no coder - but I struggled with something for the best part of a day and I thought I would post this just in case someone at some point might find it useful.

I stumbled across jQuery after finding YUI just a little to big for me to get my mind around and I am glad I did because it seems simple enough for me to grasp. Anyway, I was using .load to call a SUB PAGE into a MAIN PAGE using AJAX. My set of routines that something like this

MAIN PAGE calls SUB PAGE via .load. SUB PAGE has table for data entry and hyperlinks for kicking off SQL PAGE to execute relevant sql
Following data entry into SUB PAGE (via MAIN PAGE), click on hyperlink updates database using SQL PAGE and then refreshes MAIN PAGE div that contains SUB PAGE

Well ... for hours I kept inputting data, then clicking the relevant links only to find that the MAIN PAGE div sometimes refreshed, sometimes didn't. F5 always worked though. So I was pretty sure I had a cache problem. So I stopped using .load and started using .ajax, using the 'cache: false'. I could see that .ajax was now suitably randomising the get url, yet still my MAIN PAGE div was not refreshing. I was certain I had a caching problem ...

But I did not.

Using Google Chrome's development tools - I could see that sometime my jQuery routine was doing exactly what it was supposed to do, i.e.

a) Click SUB PAGE; execute SQL PAGE; refresh MAIN PAGE div

And sometimes things happened in this order ...

b) Click SUB PAGE; refresh MAIN PAGE div; execute SQL PAGE

My code was written to do a), but because SQL PAGE took a while to execute, b) was actually what was happening. And b) was bad - my MAIN PAGE div was actually refreshing, but the SQL to update my data tables was not executing prior to the refresh.

Once I realised this, the fix was easy. Using .ajax, I implemented the following logic:

i) Click SUB PAGE
ii) Execute SQL PAGE
iii) Conditional on the successful execution of the SQL PAGE (using the 'success:' option in .ajax), then refresh MAIN PAGE div containing SUB PAGE
iv) I left the 'cache: false' in place, just in case

This fix works 100% of the time for my code

So if you are pulling your hair out trying to work out why caching won't turn off, just make sure that you actually have a caching problem and not the problem I have described above.

Good luck

5 ways to tell that a mens toilet has been designed by a woman

2010-11-02T12:08:00.001+11:00

The urinals are too close together  

There is nothing more disconcerting than rubbing shoulders when you are in the middle of both a private and delicate act
There are an even number of urinals

As an extension of point 1, there is such a thing as Urinal Chess. It goes something like this ...  

Move 1: take either the farthest or nearest available urinal, never the centre urinals 

Move 2: if both the nearest and farthest urinal is not available, take any urinal that leaves at least one between you and the next bloke (i.e. leave a space in between you and the next guy) 

Move 3: if neither the nearest nor farthest urinal is available and if no available urinal meets the constraints set by Move 2, use a stall (unless drunk - at which point Moves 1 and 2 hold but Move 3 goes by the wayside)  

If we accept these as tenets, then the following also holds true about urinal arrangements and their 'true' capacity for use  

As you can see, any even numbered urinal serves no increase in capacity and is a waste.
There are more stalls than their are urinals  

Most of us men would spend more time standing up than sitting down. Please let that be reflected in the fittings and fixtures.
The entry door is located so that it bangs the person at the nearest urinal

If someone should walk through that door at the wrong moment, this can make things veeeeeeeeery interesting ...
You can see heads over the stalls

Men are taller than women, so stalls need to go higher than women's stalls. Otherwise ... well it can all just be a little disconcerting, really.

The Worst 5 Gadgets: #3 Sony Playstation 3 (slim)

2010-10-17T14:00:00.010+11:00

Good times

The web browser is quite good, allowing streaming from the web

Bad times

Cannot stream video files across wireless without unacceptable stuttering
Constant download and installation of system updates
USB ports are only on the front, making connection to multiple devices a messy business

What I should have bought

Maybe an Xbox. But probably either an Apple Mini or a Dell Inspiron Zino HD

This is going to be controversial.

As a gaming machine, I am sure that the PS3 is nigh on impossible to fault. But Sony sell it as a games machine plus a fair bit extra. Not being a gamer, I am interested in the 'fair bit extra' and it is here that the PS3 falls down.

The PS3 is sold as a media device. In relation to video media, one of its tricks is to pick up media servers effortlessly, as long as they are DNLA compliant. I found no fault in this claim. And while streaming music over a wifi network is a rewarding experience on the PS3, it cannot cope with video. Not even standard definition video files play without prohibitive levels of stuttering. I am uncertain as to whether this is because of a generally slow wifi connection or the absence of a suitably sized buffer, but I can say that a media PC I have on the same network will stream the same file off the same server over the same wireless network without a single glitch. A trawl through the web tells me that this might be cured by connecting the PS3 to the network with a wire but, really, should I have to?

The constant updates to the operating system and the front-only facing USB ports are annoying but would be a small price to pay for a media device that, heaven forbid, streamed video wirelessly.

It is a real shame because the PS3 has some real strong points. The browser is not perfect but handles enough formats to make it very useful to stream files over the web. The add-on PlayTV is a serviceable PVR and the Sony Playstation online store works ok, too. But it does not stream video over wireless so I use the thing once a fortnight. Maybe.

As a non-gamer, I may have been better off with a living room-friendly PC, like the Apple Mini or the Dell Zino HD.

At $600-odd (AUD) I find the price commensurate with the hardware on offer. But the PS3 does not do what it says on the tin and for this reason it gets the thumbs down.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Worst 5 Gadgets: #5 Aliph Jawbone

2010-10-17T14:00:00.009+11:00

Good times

Meh ... none yet, but that might be my fault

Bad times

The snazzy noise suppression tech relies on fitting the device in a certain way ... and I can't make it fit my head that way

What I should have bought

There is an argument that says no self respecting person buys a bluetooth headset anyway, so maybe the answer here is that I should have gone with the wired mike that comes with most phones

I can't even remember why I was in the market for a bluetooth headset. I was living in London at the time and not really driving. So after reading a bucket load of rave reviews about it, I bought the Jawbone.

The Jawbone uses a very snazzy noise cancellation technique that uses the vibration of your face to sense what it should be picking up and lets it through and rejects the surrounding noise. That's great. But for the life of me I cannot make it fit my head in a away that the thing fits in my ear and contacts my skin in the way that is needed. The Jawbone comes with a selection of ear support doodads and inner-ear rubber thingos, but I just can't make it work.

I am sure that this is down either to my stupidity, laziness, or the odd shape of by head. Nevertheless, I bought this thing and it now sits in a storage box somewhere around my home. And for that reason, it is - to my reckoning - a bad gadget.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Worst 5 Gadgets: #1 One For All URC-9900 Remote Control

2010-10-17T13:59:00.008+11:00

Good times

It was cheap, at around £30

Bad times

Atrocious battery life ...
... compounded by using AAA batteries and no recharge cradle
So big that you could not hold it in one hand
Did I mention it came in a lovely gold colour?

What I should have bought

Nothing at all, really - is there any good universal remote control?

Some things are just not worth spending your money on no matter how cheap they are. And so it was with the One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic), to give it its full name. I picked it up from Richer Sounds in the UK on special at about £30. I am pretty sure it sold for well in excess of £100 when it was first introduced. The poor bastards who sprang that money ...

At such a bargain basement price, I did not expect it to do much. But one thing I did expect it to do was to last at least a month on a charge. No hope of that, then. As best I recall I was charging batteries every week on this puppy. If it had a recharging cradle this would not be such a problem. I might not even notice it at all, so long as I were diligent in replacing the unit in its non-existent cradle. But requiring AAA batteries to be charged up and ready to go made the situation untenable, really.

The URC-9900 is also huge: fat, heavy and just plain old large. My girlfriend of the time really struggled with this size. For me, it was just awkward. Aesthetically, my greatest concern is that it came in a garish gold.

You will notice that I have not mentioned functionality once. The URC-9900 was ok as far as universal remote controls go. But having played around with a few universal remotes now, I can't help but think that they are almost always less convenient than running separate remotes. Which is a shame because running separate remotes is not convenient at all.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Worst 5 Gadgets: #2 Nokia N800

2010-10-17T13:59:00.007+11:00

Good times

It looked pretty good

Bad times

This was not a cheap purchase. Not cheap at all.
A decidedly average web browser
Skype was promised early and delivered late. It did not support the N800's internal camera. It was pretty average.
The soft-keyboard did really require the stylus at all times, even when in non-stylus mode
I am still not sure excatly what this things does well ...

What I should have bought

Easy ... the iPod Touch

Just because something is sexy does not mean it is good. This applies to models and actresses ... and it certainly applies to the Nokia N800.

Make no mistake the N800 was a sexy device. It was not much larger than a large-ish mobile phone. It had an 800 pixel wide screen, which promised serving up web pages as they were intended to look. It had a built in microphone and the niftiest built in camera that sat flush on the side of the device and was accessed in a push-and-release fashion that oozed class.

Nokia flogged the N800 as an internet appliance. This was fine by me as I travelled a lot and liked to be connected, even if this connectivity was limited to wifi. But as an internet appliance, the N800 certainly was limited. It was slow. The browser was too small to represent most web pages and was not smart enough to re-render them in a way that fit its screen. It was buggy, too; it crashed a lot. Email, as an app, was passable but required a stylus to use effectively. This was 2007 - just at the start of Apple's introduction to the world of what a finger based interface should be - so it is hard to hold this against the N800. Nevertheless, it rendered a truly mobile device more of a move-stop-use-put-away-then-start-again device.

Skype was promised on this machine from day one and the fit seemed perfect, given the N800's built in camera. But it took quite some time for Skype to arrive - about six months as best I recall - and when it did it was a voice only affair. It did not use the internal camera. To this day, I cannot recall that I have used the built in camera one. Not once.

And have you ever tried to update the operating system on a Nokia device? It requires an install of client software on a PC (too bad if you have a Mac) and a download and then plugging the device in said PC to first back it up and then update it. Then restore your software and data. It is not for the faint hearted.

At the £250 odd I spent on this thing I expected more. On paper it dazzled. In real life it became a book end. The iPod Touch came out around the time I bought the N800. If memory serves, Apple were quite humble about the Touch's all round capabilities at the same time that Nokia were unduly boastful of the capabilities of the N800.

In 2010 the public face of the internet appliance is the Apple iPad. Three years is a long time in technology and it is unfair to compare the two in all but one way. When I bought the iPad it felt great from day one and that good feeling has not gone away. When I bought the N800 I went from excited to disenchanted fast enough to ... well ... fast enough to want to write this post.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Best 5 Gadgets: #5 Lacie iamaKey

2010-10-17T13:58:00.008+11:00

Good times

No one has ever picked out that I am carrying a memory stick on my keyring .. success!
Reasonably priced
Seems to be hard wearing

Bad times

The stupid cap that comes with it to protect the insertion point was always going to get lost ...

I also considered

There are loads of USB memory stick you can attach to your keyring, but none of them look like a key

Something need not be complex in order for it to bring gadget joy. Witness, the Lacie iamaKey. It is a memory stick. Yawn. It is a memory stick that you are likely to keep with you at all times - I mean you never know when you need one - and nobody will realise that you are that kind of geek until you need to use it. Well that is a little more interesting.

I do not treat the iamaKey with any kind of care, yet it seems to withstand the pressure of living alongside my real keys quite well. It comes with a protective cap to protect the pins, which I lost on day one. Stupid piece of design. Make the pins retract a la the SanDisk Cruiser range and Lacie would really have something.

Functionally, it is a USB key. It works.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Best 5 Gadgets: #4 Logitech X-230 speakers

2010-10-17T13:58:00.007+11:00

Good times

Very cheap
Crank out a sound much larger than their price suggests

Bad times

There is no getting around this ... they are ugly
They produce a lot of quite woolly bass ... I say from experience they are not apartment friendly
The satellites get quite 'scream-ey' at the higher end of their volume range

I also considered

Some kind of PC speakers from Bose ... at around 10x the price of the X-230s

I am sure I bought the X-230s when I thought I needed a pair of speakers and did not. I was probably sucked in by Computer Shopper magazine in the UK who not only rate them a best buy, but have done for around two years now.

Anyway, I am glad I got sucked in because these babies offer tremendous bank for the buck. I bought them at around £25 - delivered - and they have filled more than one of my homes with full-bodied sound. A little too full-bodied, it turns out - the bass from these units will permeate walls so if you are living in an apartment be sure not to annoy your neighbours as even at the lowest setting on the woofer they crank out a lot of low end.

Which is not to say the X-230s are particularly loud, in terms of pure volume. In fact, push it and the satellites get very screechy. No ... better just to wind it back a little and enjoy a full sound that is quite well integrated.

While beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, to mine they look pig ugly. The dual drivers and the cloth frontage on the satellites are the opposite of style. It is un-style ... and not in a kitchy way.

I have bought two sets of X-230s. After hearing mine, three other people I know have picked up a pair and none have been disappointed.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Best 5 Gadgets: #3 Logitech diNovo Mini

2010-10-17T13:57:00.008+11:00

Good times

Quite intuitive to use
Really classy finish
The only way to keep a qwerty keyboard in your lounge without looking like you play Dungeons and Dragons

Bad times

Not cheap
No recharge cradle
I do not think it is Mac compatible ...

I also considered

Full size bluetooth qwerty keyboards with built in track pads ... there is that Dungeons and Dragons thing again ...

The diNovo Mini is quite possibly the sexiest bit of kit I have ever purchased. That includes the iPhone 4, the iPad and a swathe of also rans. The diNovo Mini looks good and feels better. And it works. Install some software on your Windows 7 media PC and away you go. Or flick a switch under the battery lid and use it with your PS3 (though not with PlayTV, which is frustrating). Hell, it even worked for me with the linux release of XBMC without any tweaking. This all results in a massive feel good factor.

It is not all upside. The diNovo Mini is not cheap. And at the price it sells at you think it would come with a recharge cradle. Instead, you need to plug it into a cable that comes out of a wart-in-the-wall which is neither elegant nor convenient and totally in contrast with the otherwise classy experience. The specs do not specify that it works with a Mac so I would assume it does not, which is a shame as the paring of diNovo and Apple Mac Minis would be a match made in heaven.

I find it difficult to run a media cenre PC in my lounge without a qwerty keyboard and the inordinate level of panache the diNovo Mini brings to this task is above and beyond what I expected.

Yum.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Best 5 Gadgets: #2 Sagem PVR6240T

2010-10-17T13:57:00.007+11:00

Good times

Introduced me to the world of timeshifting ... and that world was good
Quite cheap
Fairly simple to use

Bad times

Not exactly what I would call reliable ... but in a buggy way, not in a hardware failure way (still ... buyer beware)
Does not account for daylight savings changes
Small-ish hard disk

I also considered

Nothing I can remember ... the price lured me in at a time when I was not really looking for a PVR

Sometime, even a fairly average gadget can force its way into the centre of your life. For me, this is exactly what the PVR6240T did.

Let's be clear - I cannot recommend purchasing this device. The software is way buggier than any commercial product should be allowed to get away with. It rebooted randomly, it crashed and sometimes it did not record what it was supposed to record. It did not account for changes in daylight savings time, resulting in the missing of beloved TV shows and the small HDD did not go a long way. I loved it anyway.

How can this be? It introduced me to the world of TV timeshifting. I'd go to work overseas for the week and return home to hours of my favourite shows to knock off over the weekend. If the phone rang, I would simply pause the 'live' telecast (up to 30 minutes worth). If I missed something during a show, I would simply rewind up to half an hour back and catch what I had missed. What revelation.

The PVR6240T was fairly simple to use, but I put that down to its reasonably elementary feature set. For instance, there was no series record function and there was no search-TV-show-by-name feature. But it did have a seven day program guide and combined with recurring record schedules (daily / weekly) this was more than enough for me.

I brought the PVR6240T back home to Oz from the UK where I bought it and I bought a PS3 with PlayTV anyway. I do not know why - even with SD-only recording I should have given the PVR6240T a chance to work its way back into my life. Instead, I lived to regret buying the Sony ...

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Best 5 Gadgets: #1 iPhone 4

2010-10-17T13:56:00.004+11:00

Good times

It really is a computer in your hand
That screen really pops
Apps really are useful
You just want to use it all the time

Bad times

It seems fragile without a case
I am not a massive fan of the manner in which multi-tasking is implemented
It is a cliché to like the iPhone this much

I also considered

Palm Pre. And, at a stretch, the HTC Desire running Android

When my hairdresser described her purchase of an iPhone as her joining the iBorg, I thought it was hilarious and insightful all at the same time. Clearly, I am that kind of geek.

I'd held off from buying an iPhone. I am not sure why. It may have been the battery life. It may have been the contract lock-ins. It may have been the price. Anyhoo, when I moved back to Australia from the UK I took advantage of the contract-less iPhones here and bought my first iPhone when it had reached its fourth incarnation.

And what an incarnation it is. It is the first time I have felt like I have have held a full blown computer in my hand. It just does so many things. Lost - use maps. Need to send an email - use mail. And the apps allow me to check tram and train departure times, book cabs, have - literally - a photographic memory (hello, Evernote) and even locate the nearest public toilet (and rank them ... how very George Costanza).

It looks great. The screen sometimes looks like it is an acetate cutout that is stuck on the phone - it looks fantastic in all but the brightest light and is eminently readable. iBooks on the iPhone 4 is more useable than I thought it wold be.

It is not perfect. All that glass feels fragile, so my iPhone wears a bumper. It feels much more robust but compromises the aesthetics of the phone. And the multitasking implementation means that I will often have 20 apps open at one time. I don't know what the solution to that is, but I do know that it must affect phone performance.

Oddly, the first touchy-screeny smartphone I had my eye on was the Palm Pre. I have a history with Palm and have liked most of their products. And their Web OS seems to me like a greater leap forward than iOS is. iOS reminds me very much of the old Palm OS with its static icons and return-to-home-page to launch new apps approach. Web OS just seemed - and continues to seem - both more advanced and elegant. Alas, now that I know what know about apps and their importance, I could not settle on the anaemic collection that the Pre has access to. I considered an Android phone as well, but to me they have not quite moved from the geeky gadget to the accessible device that the iPhone 4 represents.

As an aside, I have not experienced any of the reception issues that were reported in the States prior to its launch here in Oz. Neither has anybody I have spoken to that owns the iPhone 4. Perhaps network coverage is a very different deal here in the wide, brown land.

I totally dig the iPhone 4.

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Worst 5 Gadgets: #4 Asus EeeBox PC EB1501

2010-10-17T11:39:00.013+11:00

[UPDATE: Sure enough, I have made the EB1501 play HD and send surround sound. I did this by: 1) updating drivers; 2) update to the latest version of XBMC released in Dec 10 which supports the ION GPU; 2) using optical surround - HDMI is still problematic for me. Win 7 is also just fine, but I have not re-tested streaming video (only via USB). The EB1501 is now officially off my 'worst' list, though I still feel I should have bought a Dell Zino HD]

Good times

It looks pretty good and that slot drive is a bonus
It may not be totally silent, but it is certainly quiet enough

Bad times

It will not play HD video ... at least not without taking one serious shortcut
Streaming even SD over the web is a bit jittery
Won't run Win 7 in Aero mode without serious performance issues

What I should have bought

Probably a Dell Zino HD. Maybe an Apple Mini

The perfect media PC is difficult to find. It needs to be quiet and look good. It also needs to be powerful enough to run HD video. The Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 - with its slot DVD drive, Ion based chipset with on board graphics acceleration and low power consumption, front and rear USB ports, and both HDMI and optical outputs - certainly seemed to fit the bill. I'd also read reviews on Lifehacker of a similar but (on spec) lesser product, the Acer AspireRevo, fulfilling the role of the HD media hub admirably.

Well, it has not quite worked out that way. It won't play HD downloads from iTunes, which I understand might be the result of Apple using the processor-intensive H.264 format but, hey, we live in a H.264 world. I have tried other formats - MKV and AVI - without success. I have tried HD using both the installed Windows 7 that came on it and Ubuntu, both to no avail. Ok ... there is a one way to play HD and that is to use analogue audio out rather than digital. Then it will do MKV and AVI HD (though I am uncertain of how it will handle Apple's HD files). But is this workaround an acceptable one?

Oh, while we are on the subject of Windows, the EB1501 won't run Aero features without becoming untenably slow.

It may sound like I am knit picking, but Asus sell this box on the strength of its ability to play HD. It does not play HD. Not really. It is the reason I bough the thing. It is the only reason.

This is a real shame because I could almost love this box. It is quiet and is low power, so I leave it on all day. It does computer-type things like surf the web and share files but looks like it belongs underneath my TV. And while it comes with perfectly acceptable remote control, it comes alive when coupled with the magnificent diNovo Mini miniature keyboard.

Perhaps I was naive that an Atom based chipset, even one that was dual core and has on board graphics acceleration, would play HD. On that basis I should have bought a Dell Inspiron Zino HD. At around the same time as I bought the EB1501 there were some crazy deals going in the UK that included a blueray drive. Or I should have splurged and picked up an Apple Mini - performance would not have been a problem with the Mini, that is for sure.

This mis-purchase led to me to look at another option - the Sony PS3. That turned out to be another mis-purchase. What do they say about good money chasing bad?

- The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets series -

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

The Best (and Worst) 5 Gadgets

2010-10-16T17:17:00.020+11:00

I have bought quite a few gadgets in my time. I am not necessarily an early adopter - I did not get onto the iPhone bandwagon until this year (2010) - but I am partial to purchasing the odd gadget or ten. It is the smell of the freshly opened box and the promise of the better life they will bring that they will give me.

But gadgets are far from created equal and I have bought - and I am sure will continue to buy - some stinkers. These gadget are bought with the best of intentions and often more than a little research goes into their selection. Yet, in the nether regions of my cupboard they do sit ...

So what makes a gadget great (or not do great) for me, then? Without over-thinking it, I would say my three criteria are -

Would I buy it again if it got lost / broken / stolen (or did I regret buying it)?
Do / did I use it often (or did I almost never use it)?
Did it (or didn't it) do what it said it would do on the tin?

Not everyone will have the same criteria. Further, not everybody would apply these criteria in the same way. What this means is that my list of best and worst gadgets is very personal. My bests include a buggy PVR while my worst include, according to consensus, some best in class gadgets.

My list is quite random, covering the most recent of smart phones with the most ancient of PVRs. This reflects a broad range of gadget buying over an extended period of time. While this it means it may not be great as a buying guide, it may provide a useful insight into the decision making process.

Right - here we go then.

The best five gadgets

iPhone 4 smartphone
Sagem PVR6240T PVR (as buggy as it is ...)
Logitech diNovo Mini miniature QWERTY keyboard
Logitech X-230 speakers
Lacie iamaKey USB memory key

The worst five gadgets

One For All URC-9900 Director (Mosaic) universal remote control
Nokia N800 internet tablet
Sony Playstation 3 (slim) games console
Asus EeeBox PC EB1501 nettop
Aliph Jawbone bluetooth headset

When you listen, they will buy

2008-06-16T06:07:00.005+10:00

I love it when the penny finally drops.

PC manufacturers have known for some time that there was a demand for a light weight laptop. And by light weight I mean under-powered - by modern standards - as well as the literal sense.

Building a machine that is less sophisticated than a modern laptop brings with it many benefits - size and battery life being two of the three you might expect. Unfortunately for PC manufacturers, they never did crack the third - price - until now, in the form of the Asus EEE PC.

And it is not like they didn't take a while to learn the lesson. Psion was the first to take a crack at a such a device with the Series 5 and then - perhaps for fear of causing carpal tunnel on a mass scale - the larger Series 7. The Series 7 in particular most closely resembled the EEE PC with one glaring exception - a price that rivaled fully fledged laptops of the day. I don't have the stats to hand, but as best I recall the Series 7 reviewed fairly well in the press but did not set the sales world on fire.

Compaq , HP, IBM, NEC and Sharp must have thought that Psion were onto something as all jumped on this particular bandwagon at the back end of the nineties with their somewhat euphemistically named Windows CE Handheld PC Professional ranges. Based around the Windows CE operating systems but sporting full sized keyboards, again their functionality reviewed fairly well but a prohibitive pricing strategy again strangled sales numbers (Though I must confess to having picked up a used HP Jornada 820 via eBay for a rather more reasonable $400 AUD and fell victim to the charms of its diminutive dimensions and almost instant startup).

But concept of the sub-notebook-lite almost died a permanent death with the Palm Foleo. Designed as a companion to other Palm products, it was too big and too heavy and justify its moderate abilities. Palm pulled the pin on the Foleo before it was released.

This might have been enough to scare off most prospective builders of the light weight, light ability almost-laptop but hindsight tells us it did not. Not quite.

Enter, Asus.

With a super small form factor and brandishing a good sized (actually, slight on the just-too-small side of good) keyboard, the Asus EEE PC has sold in droves. It is not perfect - the 7-odd inch screen and never-updated Linux operating system had some people squinting and cursing - but it still sold and sold and sold and sold due to a staggeringly good price which was somewhere between half the price of a low end laptop and one-fifth the price of a sub-notebook.

And the fun in the light weight, light function laptop market is not due to stop there. With the nine inch screen EEE PC just released and a flurry of copycats due for release soon competition in this space should rise and prices, with any luck, will fall from their already reasonable levels. Which should boost sales in this sector again.

The penny has dropped; price, above all, matters.asus, eee pc, linux, notebook, psion, jornada

OS X Leopard - don't believe the hype

2008-04-20T19:18:00.005+10:00

How does it go: The devil's biggest trick was convincing the world that he did not exist?

Perhaps Apple's biggest trick is convincing the world that their products 'just work'. Slick ads, clever product placement and their own website explicitly tell us that 'It just works'. If my experience as a recent switcher from Windows and Ubuntu is anything to go by, this simply is not true.

I previously wrote about my experience with OS X Tiger on my girlfriend's Mac Mini. To summarise, it was far easier for me to play proprietary (yes, Windows based) media on Ubuntu Feisty than OS X. I vigorously questioned how an operating system that cost quite a pretty penny could be out performed on an ease-of-use basis by an operating system that cost nada. Judging by the number of you who read and left comments on that post, many of you vigorously agreed.

Despite my scorn, I still bought a MacBook. Seduced by the beautiful form factor, the growing body of positive industry reviews and the value of the dollar against the pound (I took advantage of a trip to the states to snaffle what I thought to be a minor bargain) I took the plunge. And to be fair, I still find the hardware to be, in isolation, exquisite.

I also looked at the current state of Windows and Ubuntu (and wider Linux) and found them to be wanting. And I was not going to purchase a lovely new piece of hardware only to have it host the tried and true but old-aged and less than venerable XP.

Soon after my purchase, however, the OS X bugs set in. Let's have a look at them, in no particular order:

When Leopard first came out, the keyboard would randomly stop working and would only start working again after I hit the tab key. Whispers on the Internet thought this was a hardware problem but Apple fixed it on the release of the 10.5.2 update. So if they fixed it why am I complaining, I hear you ask. Because for months I thought I had a dud and Apple did nothing to address my concerns or the concerns of the myriad people expressed across the Internet
The 10.5.2 update fixed my keyboard, which was great. But now my wifi does not work, Specifically, my wifi works in just one room in my house (the kitchen, for the record, which is by no means the room that is closest to my wifi router). Now, you might be inclined to blame the router (a Billion product, FYI), but not only did I update the router firmware but if I put a laptop running Windows, a Mac Mini running Tiger, a Nokia N800 running ... whatever Linux it runs, and my my problematic MacBook into the same room as my router all of the other machines work just fine but my MacBook loses the wifi signal. If I turn off all electrics in the room bar the MacBook and the router things are no different. Turning off my cordless phone makes no difference. Nor does trying every wifi channel available to me. This did not happen prior to the 10.5.2 update.
Both Firefox and Safari crash far more often than I have experienced on both Windows and Ubuntu
Software updates occasionally cause OS X to crash. I don't recall this happening in Windows ever and rather less regularly in Ubuntu

Much is made about the tight integration of Apple software and hardware. Given my experience I have to question the implied synergies.

Further, I have to question why not more is made of this. Type in any of the abovementioned issues into Google and you will find my problems are not isolated ones. Not by some margin.

Yes, Apple have pulled off a handy trick indeed.apple, macbook, os x, ubuntu, windows, leopard

The price of an ad

2007-11-23T15:45:00.000+11:00

I am not sure this is fair.

Check out the bottom right hand corner of this page from the respected Melbourne newspaper, The Age. It is an advertisement, but can you really tell? Or does it look like a story?

If the pre-election polls are anything to go by, the majority of Australians think it is time for a change in Government and Lil Johnny will be ousted. And it is not that I am unhappy about that. Leading up to that day, though, why don't we make sure that fact is well and truly separated from paid political advertising.

The kind of 'feminism' I am sick of

2007-11-18T01:35:00.000+11:00

There are some parts in the world where women are enslaved, downtrodden, murdered and abused just because they are women. This is clearly abominable and we must all fight for the rights of these women around the world.

Australia is not one of these parts. If you define 'fairness' between the sexes as different but equal advantages and disadvantages in our society then Australia is, in the main, fair. I imagine that the vast majority of women agree with me and are embarrassed by the brown sock wearing brigade that dominate the feminist agenda and keep fighting the fight that need not be fought - that men earn more, women earn less and that men treat women as sexual objects.

I am not proposing that there is no truth in this - almost every statistic kept on the subject says that there is. My problem is that these issues ignore those aspects in which women benefit because they are women - a natural reverse discrimination, if you will. This got me thinking: what would women - as a group - be prepared to give up to get paid more and minimise objectification? What if we lived in a world where we could trade inequalities? What might the gender divide look like then? Here are a couple of ideas:

The average full time working woman would receive about $8,000 per annum more than she currently does. The average man is not happy about his pay cut of $8,000 but takes some consolation in working significantly fewer hours than he used to. He has more time for BBQs, watching football and hanging out with his kids. As a bonus his health has improved as well (reference)
It is just as well that women are cashed up because the new woman is not only judged by how attractive she is and how often she goes to the gym. Not that these things aren't important any more, it is just that now her income is added as a variable by which she is judged as being sexually attractive. Men, on the other hand are having to fend off women left right and centre despite having less money to spend and adding a couple of inches to their waste line. Damn. No wonder men are often heard to mutter that they will not date any woman who earns less than six figures - they can pick and choose now.
Our new woman's body is not coping so well with these changes. She now suffers greatly increased instances of most kinds of cancer, heart disease and suicide resulting in losing six years from her life. Not only are men living longer now, but special events and publicity drives are now held to draw awareness to the remaining health issues that men have. This is considered by many men as a tremendous improvement on having to watch Deryn Hinch on TV with a finger up his ass (as well meaning as this was - cheers Deryn). Not surprisingly, women almost universally agree with men on this last point.
The odds of your daughter completing secondary education through to year 12 drop by 10%. Your son, on the other hand, is now able to successfully juggle the conflicting pressures of athletic and scholastic endeavour and now can not only read a book but chooses to do so. You still argue with him, but are so pleased that he can now form a cogent argument and effectively communicate it - rather than grunting - that you have to forgive him his indiscretions. (reference)
Around 190,000 Australian women would be incarcerated instantly, reflecting their increased propensity to commit crime. Of course women are committing more crimes - they can't read because they are dropping out of secondary school, the government doesn't give a damn that more than half a decade has been sliced off their life and they can't get a root (an Australian euphemism for sex, for those outside of Australia). While releasing nigh on 200,000 male prisoners into the general public is the stuff that horror movies are made of, oddly they just don't want to hit, stab or shoot people any more. It is just not in their make up any more. And now, men are relieved that the combined likelihood of someone trying to likely to hit, stab or shoot - and, yes, sexually assault - them has halved (references one, two and three)
Genital mutilation of girls comes into fashion, with 12,000 going under the knife every year. There is an understated backlash in the community, which men aren't so happy about because they kind of like mutilated female genitalia - they just look a lot neater and cleaner. (references one, two).

Anyone up for a trade?

australia, australians, feminism, equality, facts

Top 11 business buzz words

2007-08-18T19:29:00.000+10:00

It occurs to me that many people in business are impressed by buzz words. I call this guy Buzzword Bob. When I am doing business with Buzzword Bob, I find it easier to make it sound like I know what I am talking about if I pack as many buzz words into my sentences as I can. Something like this might do the trick,

"What we are looking to do is implement a robust process, which will bring synergies to the workplace and develop a paradigm shift that will align the tactial requirements of the business with the strategic values of the organisation"

But then there are the other kind of people who, refreshingly, aren't into buzzwords. I call this guy Layman Larry. Layman Larry is wary of those who they consider might be trying to pull the wool over their eyes. For Larry, a better thing to say might be,

"Let's build something that works and let's make sure that we can see that our every day actions support the objectives we want to achieve as a company"

While I am no expert at picking the Buzzword Bobs of this world from Layman Larrys, I have picked up a trend in which words are currently business buzzwords.

Why is it important to know what these buzzwords are? I can think of three reasons:

Buzzword Bob takes comfort in talking to someone who shares his vocabulary. He may not think I know what I am on about if I don't liberally apply buzzwords to our conversation
Layman Larry will switch off as soon as he hears a buzzword. Form that point on, no talk about football, beer or his kids are going to bring me back from the cliff I have just walked over
Whenever consultants or sales guys are making their pitch to me and I have no interest in what they are pitching, a quick game of consultant / salesman bingo helps to pass the time - I write down a list of five words and if the person making the pitch says all of them, I win!

So what are the top business buzzwords I have picked up on? In summary, these words are:

Align
Robust
Synergy
Liaise
Liaison
Quantify / Qualify
Paradigm
Landscape
Organic
Tangible
Nebulous

I have put a more detailed view of these words below, along with dictionary definitions, buzzword usage and non-buzzword alternatives.

If I have missed any of your favourites (or pet hates, as the case may be you Layman Larry, you) please let me know.

Align

Dictionary.com definition

"to bring into cooperation or agreement with a particular group, party, cause, etc; to fall or come into line"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"You need to align your short term, tactical actions with your longer term, strategic vision"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"Do the things today that will get you to where you want to be tomorrow"

Robust

Dictionary.com definition

"strong and healthy; hardy; vigorous; strongly or stoutly built"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"Let's build a robust solution"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"Let's build something that works well, even if things change in the future"

Synergy

Dictionary.com definition

"combined action or functioning"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"If you do not take both recommended actions, you will not be able to take advantage of the synergies inherent of a combined, two pronged approach"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"You will get better bang for your buck if you do both things as one supports and enhances the other"

Liaise

Dictionary.com definition

"To effect or establish a liaison"

So to get a proper understanding, we need to know what a liaison is

Liaison

Dictionary.com definition

"the contact or connection maintained by communications between units of the armed forces or of any other organization in order to ensure concerted action, cooperation, etc; a person who initiates and maintains such a contact or connection"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"I have engaged in liaising activities with the client"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"I have been talking to the client"

Quantify / Qualify

Quantify

Dictionary.com definition

"to determine, indicate, or express the quantity of; to give quantity to (something regarded as having only quality)"

Qualify

Dictionary.com definition

"to attribute some quality or qualities to; characterize, call, or name"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"This endeavour will reap both qualitiative and qualitative benefits"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"If we do this, there will be some benefits which we can easily measure and represent with numbers, but there are some important, additional benefits that will also be produced that will be much more difficult to measure"

Paradigm

American Heritage Dictionary definition

"A set of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitutes a way of viewing reality for the community that shares them, especially in an intellectual discipline"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"The result will be a paradigm shift amongst the employees of the firm which will align them with the overall strategy of the company"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"If we can change the way that the employees point of view regarding their work, we have a better chance of getting them to do what we need them to do"

Landscape

Dictionary.com definition

"a section or expanse of rural scenery, usually extensive, that can be seen from a single viewpoint"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"We need to develop an understanding of the technical landscape that exists at the company"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"We need to understand company's use of technology"

Organic

Dictionary.com definition

"viewing or explaining something as having a growth and development analogous to that of living organisms: an organic theory of history"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"The company has grown through a combination of organic growth and acquisition of competitors"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"Some of the company's growth is due to the purchase of competitors and some is from natural expansion"

Tangible

Dictionary.com definition

"real or actual, rather than imaginary or visionary: the tangible benefits of sunshine; definite; not vague or elusive: no tangible grounds for suspicion"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"We must take tactical actions that reap tangible results"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"If the actions we propose don't make changes we can see and feel, why are we talking about them?"

Nebulous

Dictionary.com definition

"hazy, vague, indistinct, or confused: a nebulous recollection of the meeting; a nebulous distinction between pride and conceit"

Sound like an 'expert' sound bite

"At the moment our operating environment is rather nebulous, so we need to put some structure around the problem"

Sound like an 'every day guy' sound bite

"We don't really know what steps the solution involves, so lets make a plan"

Ubuntu vs OSX: Where Ubuntu wins

2007-07-14T20:56:00.000+10:00

Funny thing happened today.

As an expat Australian living in the UK I thought it would be great to listen to a little Australian Rules Football - AFL, if you will. So I jump over to the AFL website, www.afl.com.au on my windows machine, but it runs out of battery. So I jump on my other half's Mac mini because it is conveniently plugged in to a good set of speakers. Turns out that the AFL broadcast the radio audio for each game in WMV format. Great. In Firefox on the Mac mini I get an error message about missing plugins saying somethig about installing the program Flip4Mac. But if you download Flip4Mac, you only get a demo version, which to me means that at some point I am going to have to and over my credit card details to listen to the AFL (which I would get in XP for free). So I try Safari.

Again, I get an error message, this time I get the added option of installing Windows Media Player (WMP) 9. Now, I know WMP is up to version 11, but if I can get it for free and if I can listen to my footy then I don't care so much. So I begin to download WMP 9. It turns out that WMP 9 comes in StuffIt (sitx) format. So to expand this file format I need to install StuffIt Expander (not a big drama and it is free). StuffIt installed, I expand the file and install WMP 9 and fire up the AFL audio again ...only to get other error message, this time in WMP 9, 'One or more arguments aren't valid'. Great.

About half way through my Mini mac dramas, I wonder whether my Ubuntu (Feisty) installation on my laptop would fair any better. So in between my Apple downloads and installs, I start accessing the AFL website and all important audio broadcast on my Ubuntu setup. I fire up Firefox and I enter the web address. After a few clicks I select the audio streaming option. A box opens up but nothing much happens. No error messages, but no audio. So I right click on the newly opened up box and select the option to play the stream in Totem Movie Player. I get prompted to install some codecs. When that finishes, I get asked to install some more. This could not have taken more than 5 minutes. I am listening to the AFL at the right now.

I have always considered myself a prospective PC to Apple switcher. I like the way that the Apple interface and hardware looks. But the 'just works' slogan that Apple promote just isn't true. I have had issues with my wi-fi router as well that I have never had with either Windows or Ubuntu machines. There are work-arounds, to be sure, but then don't say it 'just works'. And a free operating system should never beat a paid for operating system when it comes to this 'just works' philosophy. Never. I am not quite so sure whether I want to make the leap to Apple.

As an aside, while I do not think I am quite ready to make a full time move to Ubuntu but I can say that it is catching up to XP fast (yes, I am aware that Windows is now up to the Vista release but for many Vista does not represent the leap forward required to vindicate the update). I don't like the way Ubuntu handles network drives (even Puppy Linux does a better job, in my view) and I can't play my Windows Media songs that I have purchased over the web. There is no real replacement for my copy of Photoshop Elements 4.0 in the linux world (the GIMP might be powerful, but I struggle to use it) and Ubuntu still looks very average - aesthetically - compared to XP, let alone OSX.

But the way that Ubuntu is advancing ... you never know, I might be an Ubuntu switcher sooner than later.

eBay - Buyer Beware

2006-08-16T15:50:00.000+10:00

<- What I thought I had bought ...

What I receieved->

I wanted to become an eBay fan, but this experience has put me off.

I purchased an Zire 22 for my girlfriend from eBay. This item was advertised as being 'NEW STOCK', 'BRAND NEW FACTORY SEALED'. As such, I expected to receive something along the lines of the picture on the left. Instead, I got the item on the right. Sure, there was a Zire 22 inside, but the packaging did not seem original, nor was it sealed. When I took the Zire out, it seemed as if the screen had been wiped clean. Come to think of it, the screen was missing the screen protector I have seen of previous Palm's I had purchased.

Heaven forbid I might raise these concerns with the seller. Below is a transcript of what transpired (with monetary amounts involved removed).

= Beginning of transcript=

ME: Hello

I just received this item. Thanks for your prompt delivery.

Your description of this item stated that it was new stock, brand new, factory sealed. However, I am not certain this is the case.

My understanding is that the packaging for the Z22 looks like this (http://euro.palm.com/uk/en/img/products/z22/packaging.gif). Why is the item I was sent packaged differently?

Also, there is evidence that the screen has been wiped clean. Again, I feel this is not in accordance with the item description.

Can you please send me an email to address these points?

Thank you

Paul

SELLER: Come on I checked this item not be funny but what do you want for the mooney you can return if you want

Not being funny, but if an item is advertised as 'NEW STOCK', and 'BRAND NEW FACTORY SEALED' and when the eBay Condition flag is set to 'New' - as you advertised it - then I expect it to be new stock, brand new and factory sealed. That it sold for £?? is irrelevant. You falsely advertised that this item was new and unsealed.

For my part, I did the right thing and paid very promptly. I am disappointed that the item was not as described.

I note your sales policy states 'BUYER PAYS P&P ON ALL OCCASIONS'. That would put me out of pocket by about £??. That is unfair given I bought an item in good faith that you held out as being brand spanking new that was not. As it was your advertisement that was in error I would ask that you pay for all postage and packing for the return of this item, as well as the initial postage and packing and the purchase price of the item itself.

I look forward to your feedback.

Paul

send back the item was brand new the end

Is it new, or as new? I asked this at the very beginning, to which you responded 'Come on ... not be funny but what do you want for the mooney ...', suggesting that you acknowledged that the item that was delivered did not match the advertised state.

I did not ask in a rude tone - I asked, as it turns out, a fair question in a fair manner. Yet, each of your responses has been, to be kind, curt.

Unfortunately, on this occasion your most recent curt response has left me short on information: If I return the item, will you be refunding the purchase price plus the P&P (£??.??) plus my P&P (amount TBC) incurred in returning the item to you?

Regards

Paul

The last short time return the item The item was brand new we wikk not put up with people like you return item back

I have attempted to avoid rudeness and be reasonable but it seems that you will not do the same.

You did not answer my questions nor address my concerns.

Unfortunately, it seems I have to escalate this matter in order to get a satisfctory outcome. I will now begin that process.

yOU WILL GET THE SAME ANS SO WHY BOTHER FOR A NEW USER WITH LOW FEEDBACK YOU SEEM TO NO ALOT IS THIS BEEN DONE ON PURPOSE I BELIVE SO

= End of transcript=

Charming.

For the record, I had no alterior motives for this purchase. I thought I saw a bargain, so I put in a bid. I expected to receive a brand new, factory sealed item as advertised - does that make me a demanding consumer?

As you will have read, I have taken the next steps and lodged a dispute with PayPal.

Fingers crossed.

UPDATE 16 Aug 2006, about 11pm:

PayPal sent me an (seemingly) automated response suggesting I return the item - not taking into account the significant amount of money (relative to the purchase) I would stand to lose. I am disappointed.

I just contacted eBay under the banner of Seller Non-Performance under point 2 of that subsection of the policy, '... the seller may not: ... Significantly misrepresent an item by not meeting the terms and item description outlined in the listing.'. My submission was the transcript above, plus the following further explanation.

Fingers and toes crossed.

ME: Hello - I implore to you read this.

On 10-Aug-06 I won the aforementioned Zire 22 and paid for it within 24 hours. I bought the item because it was decribed as being 'Condition: New', 'NEW STOCK' and 'BRAND NEW FACTORY SEALED'.

Unfortunately, the item I received was not new stock and certainly was not new factory sealed stock. It was unsealed and in a non-standard package. The screen protector was missing and close inspection suggested the screen had been wiped clean. In short, the delivered good did not match the description.

I contacted the seller on the day of the delivery. I was polite. I just wanted an account of why the packaging differed to what I expected. The response I received was 'Come on I checked this item not be funny but what do you want for the mooney you can return if you want'. The full account of the email to and fro is attached in the email body section above.

The problem with the sellers offer is that I will be out of pocket £?? for an item that cost £??. I did nothing wrong while it is quite possible that the seller has been [in error].

Furthermore, it is not the first time this seller has done this. On 19-Mar-06, buyer [name removed] left this neutral feedback - 'Advertised wrong model, Was Not New (cattalogue Return). Follow-up: DO NOT BUY, HE LEAVES BAD FEEDBACK..! I PAID INSTANTLY AND GOT CRAP GOODS'. Sound familiar? If only I had read feedback page 28 before bidding. If only I new what the 4 items of mutually retracted feedback read.

And speaking of feedback, my reputation will be dented even though I did nothing wrong - I paid promptly. Am I that demanding a consumer to expect the item that was described?

I applied for dispute resolution via PayPal, as per the instructions on your web site. Despite laying out my case I received an automated response suggesting I attempt a refund - which would, again leave me out of pocket by £20.

Again, I please ask that you give this matter due consideration. I hope that you agree that this is not the sort of behaviour that should go unchecked.

I look forward to your feedback. eBay, false advertising

Is this the end of carry on luggage?

2006-08-10T17:53:00.000+10:00

In response to a 'Plot to blow up planes' , British Airways (BA) have announced that they have revised their policy for hand baggage which includes a complete ban on all non-essential items - I take this to mean anything other than your wallet, your keys, your passport and perhaps a book.

Does this mean that taking a plane trip without checking in any luggage will be a thing of the past?BA, travel, British Airways, bomb, plot

On-line travel booking ... what a crock!

2006-08-06T09:03:00.000+10:00

I am just about over the whole on-line travel booking bit.

Around August of last year I tried to book a return flight on Opodo to Australia. I get to the very final step - paying for the ticket - when it turns out that I can't pay using Visa Electron, the only card available to me at the time. It would have been nice if they had made that clear on the front page ... or the second, or the third. By the time I transferred some money over to an account they would accept, logged back in, entered my details again ... my fare had gone up my 250 pound (about $500 US). Tough lesson to learn, that one. Still, now I have a Visa Debit card ...

Then, about two months ago, I try to arrange a city break from London. After much faffing about for hours it seemed that Stockholm via Expedia is viable option. I am just about to book when I see that the first leg of the trip - via Amsterdam - requires a wait of about 12 hours for a connecting flight. Why would I want to wait that long for a connecting flight for what Expedia themselves were promoting as a weekend city break? Still, lesson learnt and now I look very carefully for the '+1' on a booking which looks really, really insignificant but means that you have lost a day in your life to an airport lay-over. (As an aside, twice I had technical glitches with my MSN passport adding further to the time and hassle and frustration of booking a holiday).

About one hour ago I booked a holiday to Greece. This time, I am using Easyjet's very orange website. I find a reasonably priced flight - 440 pound for two people - and book it in. I enter my Visa debit card details to be told by the website that it is not a valid card number. I go back a screen, verify that my details are correct, call my other-half over so that she can verify that I have typed in the correct number ... at which point the website informs me that the price has gone up by 30 pounds - to 470 pound. I feel my teeth grinding, but I proceed nonetheless ... to be informed again that my card details are incorrect, which I can say with much certainty were, in fact, correct. So my other half decides that she will give it a go ... only by now the fare has risen to 501 pound. We collectively hold onto our ankles and purchase the ticket ...

So why did I not just pull out of the transaction? Well ... we were about two hours into the booking-a-flight exercise and had put in a lot of effort and experienced much frustration - we were desperate. And to be fair, Easyjet was still the cheapest on offer. Why didn't I ring Easyjet, you ask. Couldn't call the sales line because our tickets were not within the two weeks required by the 65p per minute sales hotline. Why not call the web help phone number? Not at 1 pound per minute, thanks. What about email them your concerns? To be frank, I cannot find an email contact on their site. (FYI- subsequent to this farce I checked to make certain I had sufficient funds available on my card: check that box too.)

I can only put my poor experience down to a technical glitch on the Easyjet site. I understand that this happens sometimes. Nevertheless, I resent that I have paid a 60 pound premium for this apparent glitch and that if I want to tell Easyjet about it I have to pay them extra for that privilege. I realise that Easyjet are a cheap-and-(hmmmm) cheerful operation - that I should not expect them to maintain a complaints hotline. I do hope, however, that they get wind of this complaint.

On the more broad subject of on-line travel booking that I mention and the rise of prices that occur from one moment to the next, I understand that these movement are the process of the interactions of supply and demand. But my position in the supply-demand equation should not have been unduly hampered by the customer interface- the website - not when online booking is what the aforementioned business do as a core business.

And the feedback I have from my friends and colleagues is that this is not an unusual experience. And please, reader, know that I am a proficient and experienced web user.

Lesson learnt: on-line travel still has a way to go.
travel, complaint, greece, easyjet, expedia, opodo

The first rule of customer service

2006-07-30T18:09:00.000+10:00

"The customer should never be more friendly, more polite, or more courteous than the person serving the customer"

I live in London. I originally hail from Melbourne, Australia. The reason I mention this will become apparent.

When I walk into a store to purchase an item- no particular item ... bread, milk, clothing ... - I foresee that the interaction will go something like:

I take the item(s) to the counter;
I say 'Hello' and smile (even if just a little smile ... I might have had a rough day) at the cashier / attendant (hereafter referred to as the 'cashier');
The cashier looks at me, smiles (even if just a little smile ... they might have had a rough day) and says 'Hello' in return;
The cashier promptly processes my transaction;
The cashier places my item(s) in a bag;
The cashier tells me, how much I owe;
I hand the cashier my money. More often than not, I will thank the cashier for taking my money;
The cashier, more often than not, will thank me for handing over my money;
The cashier gives me my change, says 'Thank you' and bids me farewell. I say 'Thank you' to the cashier in appreciation for their time and assistance.

Much to my frustration, this is not what happens in London (as a rule). Instead, the following is a more accurate representation of the customer service standards I have come to expect while in London:

I take the item(s) to the counter;
I say 'Hello' and smile (even if just a little smile ... I might have had a rough day) at the cashier;
The cashier does not acknowledge my existence. Instead, they maintain the most vehement disposition of disinterest and, in no uncertain manner, portray that they are not happy with their job and do not want to be there. Why this should be my concern is beyond my understanding.
The cashier will take their sweet time processing my transaction
Placing my items into a bag is optional, as far as the cashier is concerned and in supermarkets the omission of this part of the service is store policy- you pack your own. When the cashier has chosen to pack you a bag, they will not place the bag at a convenient location for me to pick up. No, I must reach over to where they have found it convenient to leave the bag;
The cashier may choose to tell me how much I owe, or I might have to read it from the register. It depends on whether the cashier has better things to do with their time, like speak to their colleague who is standing beside them, offering the same lack luster service to another poor sod of a customer;
I hand the cashier my money. More often than not - if for no other reason than to attempt to extract some elements of humanity from the person serving me - I will thank the cashier for taking my money;
Why would the cashier thank me for handing over my money? They SO don't want to be there ...
The cashier hands me my change without even looking at me. Quite a skill, really.

I recently returned to Melbourne for a short visit and the difference in customer service was astonishing. It reminded me that I wasn't just being romantic about the city in which I was born and bred.

And, sure, there are exceptions to this story in both locations: I have had great service in London and atrocious service in Melbourne. But nine times out of ten, my experience above is repeated.

When I mention my frustration to my colleagues in the office, the most common response is that cashiers are not paid to be courteous. Or more specifically, not paid enough to be courteous.

Really, is there a price tag on civility?uk, london, melbourne, australia, customer, service

Pregnant pause: to sit or to stand

2006-07-19T05:35:00.000+10:00

I was confronted with a dilemma today. And it is not the first time I have come across this particular dilemma.

I was sitting on a bus on the way home from the City. In front of me stood a woman of about 30 years of age. With a slight bulge for a stomach.

Now, the problem is this: do I assume that she is pregnant and offer her my seat? Or do I assume she is not pregnant and remained seated. If I go with option A and I am wrong, I have just called her fat. If I go with option B and I am wrong I am the low-life kind of guy that does not offer a pregnant woman a seat (I do not see many London women offering their seat to pregnant women relative to men, oddly enough - you would think the empathy factor would kick).

So what did I do? When in doubt do nothing, I always say.pregnant, london, bus, etiquette

What life looks like when you are typing with one hand

2006-07-05T08:02:00.000+10:00

The last article I wrote got a bit of attention. Some people disagreed with what I said. Other people identified with the article. Some even had a laugh. This is the way of things - I think it is great.

Then again, there was one web site with a link to my article on it where, almost to a person, those leaving their comments on this particular web site were less enamoured with me than I have come to expect (tongue firmly in cheek).

'He didn't reach very far into the bag for those, eh?' one said of me.

'The first two, maybe the third also, is inspired by Hitchhiker's Guide. As a continent, the place should be large. Twelve whole Nobel Prize winners? My college had that many, I think. jamesboston's (sic) certainly has more at any one time.'. Hmmm ...

'Reads like a partial synopsis of Bill Bryson's In a Sunburned Country.'. I must admit, I own this book (it is called Down Under in the UK). But I have not read it yet ... though I plan to soon. What can I say, I like Bill's books.

'The only thing there I didn't know was that tid-bits has a hyphen.' and 'Boring' round off a less than positive view on yours truly.

Nevertheless, I would like to thank the Adult DVD Talk forum for their interest in my humble blog. May you find much happiness doing ... what ever it is you do when you are on the Adult DVD Talk forum site.

I would verify these comments by linking to the Adult DVD Talk forum ... but that is not my thing. You will just have to trust me.comment, revenge, adult, australia, australian