Occasional Observations

7 days with Windows 7

2009-10-29T21:18:00.004+01:00

Here we are on Day 7 with Windows 7 - time for a GBU* update.

The good: Stability and functionality. The "keep the lights on" cost has fallen to well below 1GB of RAM. The gains are boosted by disabling most of the unnecessary services (take a bow, Windows Time sync), deleted others (farewell, Apple Mobile Device Sync, I don't have an iPhone so I don't need you) and switched a bunch more to manual. I've also switched back to the Windows Basic look - who needs Aero? No visible performance gain but a slightly blockier appearance, in fact I'm reminded of the Windows 2000 Pro look. As a result of lower system resource usage, the fan isn't blowing so hard any more ... going back to a near-silent notebook is a bonus. Another real boon has been that BlackBerry software finally works with Bluetooth sync ...

The bad: My anti-virus solution of choice didn't install across the network despite it claiming to be Windows 7-ready. I'm investigating. Meanwhile using A.N.Other anti-virus solution and the trusty ol' Windows Firewall. And Outlook 2007 SP2 is playing games - I'm getting occasional system freezes for up to a couple of minutes, but this could also be something to do with a plug-in that I'm watching with Eagle eyes.

The ugly: TrueType on my notebook panel. Just fuzzy. On my desktop monitor it looks OK ... and there's no way I'm tuning it every time I make the switch. I'll probably turn it off. Also - my favorite button on the entire desktop has moved house: I'm talking about the Minimize Desktop button that used to sit bottom left in my tray. Bottom right isn't intuitive just yet.

Despite lower internal fan use, battery life still seems to be down, although I'm using the vanilla settings right now instead of the more tuned drivers for my notebook ... this has just been a case of getting A Round Tuit. I've got a second battery in the notebook DVD drive in any case. It could also be that the excellent Battery Bar is still fine-tuning its power lifetime calculations.

So what's on my machine now I've had the luxury of a clean install? Here's my list:

* Anti-virus (like, doh)
* CCleaner
* Roboform
* GoodSync
* Office 2007 SP2
* Google Desktop
* Adobe Acrobat Reader
* Adobe AIR
* Revo Uninstaller
* Skype
* ICQ
* Firefox and various plug-ins, numero uno being Delicious.com as ever
* Freemind
* Mozy
* BlackBerry Desktop Manager
* Picasa
* Spotify
* iTunes - but NOT Bonjour. I said "au revior" to that as soon as iTunes had installed
* Various admin tools

And that's it except to say that I'm also testing O&O's Clever Cache, as a replacement for an SD card that I used to use with Vista for ReadyBoost. Although it worked with Vista, Windows 7 said "nein danke" and after I actually resourted to RTFM (definition here if you don't know what this means) I dumped the hardware and am testing a software solution.

It claims to be saving around 130MB of memory that would otherwise be used by File Cache. However, I'd tried Clever Cache with Vista and couldn't tell the difference. I think it's one of those subtle pieces of software that you never really know you need until it's gone ... but I won't know that for another 21 days.

* The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly - abbreviation as used by CAR magazine since time immemorial

Reasons to love Windows 7

2009-10-23T22:23:00.003+02:00

The mass-market beta test worked ... I handed over cash this morning for a full version of Windows 7. Although I'd planned to get the 32-bit Pro edition, the store was out except for Ultimate - which is quite nice as it's got the language pack built-in.

We are officially in the honeymoon period - the install was painless, everything works, and a few things that never worked now do... for example Bluetooth sync on BlackBerry. This should never have been an issue, but it was one of the many things wrong with Vista.

Maybe in 30 years someone will work out the true cost to MS of Vista. For now, I'll be generous and say I am very relieved to be in a Vista-free zone personally, that I pledge to get my friends and family out of that space asap, and I hope the honeymoon lasts for years.

Seventh heaven

2009-10-21T20:17:00.002+02:00

My notebook is jittering with excitement - it's getting a Windows 7 makeover this weekend.
It's a production machine but I'm not going in blind: it passes the minimum spec (ie it can run Vista) and I'm counting the cycles til I can rid my life of V***a.

Since we don't quite live in an Orwellian world I've not gone back and rewritten my original posts on how exciting it was to get Vista in the first place ... but this time around I am wiser and ready.

Watch this space for updates, but no promises on how fast - and no update does not necessarily mean it was a disastrous fail and I'm off da grid. Just busy.

How to lose customers, the Amazon way - my farewell letter to Jeff Bezos

2009-09-30T20:39:00.007+02:00

Bye bye, Jeff@Amazon. After more than a decade as a loyal customer, I'm outta here. Ciao. Goodbye. Close the door after me, Jeff, because I'm not coming back.

So my quitting as a long-time customer over a petty dispute might not be much more than a teardrop in the ocean for you, Jeff old chap ... but is it?

Let's drill down ...

* You're losing a solid Amazon customer of more than a decade. Go look up my customer file and look at some of the stuff you've sold me... although your useless recommendation engine still doesn't have a clue
* This customer has spent more with Amazon than *any* other e-com site. Period.
* That customer withdrew more than 30-plus Amazon reseller book offers - this has cost you at least $150 in commission

I know you light your Cuban stogies with $100 notes Jeff, so this probably doesn't bother you ... but ... if just 1,000 people follow my lead (tsk! a mere 1000!) then you're $150k down ... would that make a difference?

The actual reason why I am leaving Amazon and shall not return is simple: breach of trust. We're getting divorced, Jeff. We will not be walking down the aisle again, geddit?

In the end it came down to a petty matter of a postage stamp. I'll spend more on printing and mailing you a hard copy of this piece, Jeff B (and the B does not stand for Baby, baby) ... but it's about principles now. If you want to run a long-term business, you LOOK AFTER your long-term customers.

To spell it out, that means: When long-time buyers agree to sell on their near-pristine books at half what they gave you in the first place, AND give you a commission payment, you nurture those customers.

So when one of them ships a book in good faith to an address provided by Amazon (no doubt also in good faith, dear lawyers), then the book comes back as undeliberable, because the owner of the PO box didn't pick up in time, then you'd be sensible to ask the BUYER, not the seller, to cover the postage charge.

Yup, it's something as fundamentally simple as that has brought down a great, decade-long relationship. From now, I'll be actively seeking opportunities to use alternative services. And I'll be telling all my friends why I switched.

Oh, and I'll be in Seattle sometime next year. Maybe I can bring "my" Kindle round (I say "my" because I live outside the US of A and so it's probably Against Amazon's Rules for me to "own" it ... I certainly cannot even try to buy and transfer any content to it) and hand it over to your custody. I'll be asking you to bend over first, so that when you receive the Kindle, you gain a valuable C-level first-hand experience of how I feel about the irrevocable breakdown of relations with my former old friend Amazon.

CEOs are always trying to get closer to the customer, right? I'm offering you the chance. Let's see if you really care about the customer, Jeff.

No Regards, Simon

Amazon's crazy Windows 7 pricing

2009-09-25T11:51:00.005+02:00

Thinking of upgrading to Windows 7? Then take a look at Amazon.de's crazy Windows 7 pricing.

The idea of upgrading from XP or the wretched Vista certainly has my stamp of approval - but if you're thinking about going to Amazon's website to choose your upgrade package, choose carefully, or you'll end up spending a lot more than necessary.

According to amazon.de this morning, they're offering all 16 of the standard packages.

First come the lowly Home Premium editions - choose from a 32/64-bit combi, a 32/64 upgrade, or individual 32-bit and 64-bit versions.

Next come the more useful Pro editions - and the same choice of versions.

After that, the Ultimate editions ...

And finally, the version upgrades, from Starter to Home Premium, from HP to Pro, and from Pro to Ultimate.

Now look at Amazon.de's pricing and you'll see that they will probably have a hard time shifting those version upgrades. Who in their right mind would pay EUR167.99 to upgrade from HP to Pro when they could buy a stand-alone Pro license for EUR50 less?

The combined 32- and 64-bit versions are also much more expensive. Who the heck would lay out EUR298.95 for the Windows 7 Pro 32 and 64-bit version when they could buy individual licenses for both a 32-bit version AND a 64-bit version and still save EUR66? It just doesn't add up!

The most ludicrous deal of all has to be the upgrade paths. Anyone who is unfortunate enough to buy a new Windows 7-enabled PC or notebook that comes with the Starter edition, and wants to upgrade, is probably better off either choosing a different model in the first place, or wiping the pre-installed software and doing a clean install. Why? Because anyone who pays EUR72.99 for the Starter to HP upgrade, then lays out a further EUR167.99 for the HP to Pro uplift, just has to be cuckoo crazy.

If you do choose Amazon.de as your provider of the shiny new Windows7 software, select your version carefully.

The Year of the Cloud

2009-09-16T11:43:00.003+02:00

2009 is truly shaping up as the Year of the Cloud. For me it's been the year when I've reached the inflection point where putting and accessing my data on someone else's infrastructure has become my primary, rather than a secondary usage scenario.

Although I'd dabbled, like millions of others, with Cloud-based services even before they were called cloud (hello, del.icio.us bookmarks, before the Yahoo! acquisition and more boring renaming as delicious.com; hi Skype, hey Flickr), it's only in 2009 that I've really started depending on these.

Two examples. Firstly, Mozy. After a couple of months of on-off 24x7 operation I've almost finished transferring around 55GB of JPEGs to Mozy Home. Why so long? The slow uplink from our domestic DSL. I've looked for upgrades but there's nothing affordable ... At this upload speed, it's not practical to try uploading the hundreds of GBs of lovingly-ripped and tagged music files, but it's a start in protecting my valuable documents and photos. I'm not planning to access my uploaded data on a regular basis, but knowing it's still there is reassuring.

Secondly, replacing Exchange with hosted email - by Google. This has given me first-hand exposure to how Google is moving into the enterprise as a serious software company. Although the migration has not been totally trouble-free, it's pretty impressive and most of all, the service is fast. My work mail is now powered by Gmail ... although the interface to Google Apps Premier Edition lacks many of the cool experimental Gmail features, I've got all the tools I need.

What next? Well, Roboform offers to sync all my website logins ... not sure this is a good thing. My mobile phone address book was synced via ZYB until Vodafone bought it and took the service offline (boo hiss). I've just checked and it seems to be back ... hey, wouldn't it have been a great idea to actually NOTIFY existing users? However, looking around, they don't support BlackBerry. Oh, forget it. ZYB was a bad example. There are probably a few wannabe copycat services by now, and I'm off to investigate.

An open letter to Amazon

2009-07-20T21:14:00.006+02:00

Dear Amazon,

I'm trying to be a really good customer. It's perplexing that you are making it so hard for me.

I've been buying books online from you since the late 90s. As you've grown, I've ordered a wider selection of items, too - most famously, my first DVD player. (I'd ordered a book and hadn't quite spent enough to qualify for free shipping, so on a whim, I decided to buy the DVD player from you. Some way to qualify for free shipping!) Although I'm still to order the George Foreman Grill, I've even resold my near-pristine paperbacks via your site.

But why do you make it so hard for me to be a customer at all? Don't you want the few hundred dollars that I spend with you each year? If you'd rather that we parted company, just say the word and I'll try and live without you.

What's pushed me over the edge this time? Well, let's talk about two things. The first is an itty-bitty little service where, for a "small charge" you allow me to resell the pulp fiction that I bought and devoured. Then you advise me that a "market" price would be around $2 for a book, and then you charge me MORE than that in commission. So I make a loss on the sale.

Shurely shome mishtake.

Actually I made a measly $0.10 or so on the postage, and my bookshelf looks a lot better having been denuded (I bought two hardback Feng Shui books last year from you last year, remember? (Want to buy 'em back for a good price? See "Simon's Shop" on your Amazon.com site if you can ever find it. Go on, I challenge you. Believe me, it's well-hidden.))

The second, and more heinous crime, is how you've treated me with regard to the Kindle. Yes, your own, in-house, greener-than-paper, must-have yuppie tech-nerd device. That's me... so I'm delighted to have one. But after a solid 72 hours' ownership I'm wondering if I can hack the darned thing and install a lite version of Linux - because you're making it hard for me to love the Kindle for what it is.

Mine arrived last Friday, July 17th 2009, which will probably be a day of mourning in fture for Amazon. For this was the day that you chose to remotely delete readers' copies of a couple of George Orwell titles. That was rather unfortunate ... of course my Kindle was easy to name, and was Christened as Winston.

Winston came to me as a gift. I'd never have dared be as doubleplus ungood as to even think about trying to order one on your website. As you know, I don't live in the US. So how dare I even dream about owning one...

Once Winston arrived, then as you know from the built-in GPS and wireless, I wasn't in the continental US when I fired him up. He's probably already on a watch list of some kind for not "appearing" on Whispernet within a few days of shipping. From here, there's no chance of registering ... and the "experimental" web browser (yes, the "experimental" monochrome text-only web browser? Are we in 1984 or something?) won't work on any of the four wireless phone networks available in my home country.

Ah well, at least USB is Universal. That's what it stands for, Universal Serial Bus, geddit? Kudos to you for at least enabling Winston to talk to my home PC (he runs Windows 7, in English language, probably a good thing it's not set to Norwegian or something). I plugged him in and Winnie showed up immediately as a network drive. Great. Next step, order some up-to-date content and drop or download content straight on to the Kindle ...

Like yeah, right. You guys thought of that one, eh? Aren't you so clever!

It ain't working. I'm not in the US and you know it. So I cannot buy content. And without access to the latest ebooks, I'm stuck in a timewarp that makes 1984 look futuristic. There are some great novels out there available for free download, but I doubt that many were written this century, let alone the 20th. If I want to read vintage Arthur Conan Doyle or James Joyce, then 100 local bookshops (and probably your website too) can offer me numerous editions for less than the commission Amazon takes on my second-hand book sales. The Karma Sutra is available for free e-book downloading ... but with a greyscale screen and no backlight???

No, the point is that I want to read contemporary fiction. Stuff that's firmly within copyright and probably published within the last 5 years. Unfortunately, due to "geographical restrictions" I'm unable to download even free books from Amazon.com. It doesn't matter if I enter a US shipping address, and apply a US $ credit to my Amazon.com account, it's not enough to convince you, Amazon, that I should be giving you my hard-earned greenbacks.

In my previous post I linked to a blog with some work-arounds. There's actually an easier way to get content on your Kindle if you live outside the US. All you need is a partner in crime who has a US-issued credit card.

Step 1: Ask that person to register your Kindle to their account.
Step 2: Ask them to buy Kindle content.
Step 3: They download the newly-purchased content.
Step 4: They send said content to you via email or FTP server or CD or pigeon post or whatever.
Step 5: You send the person with a US credit card an Amazon voucher to cover their costs and a little bit more for their efforts. This is Step 1 if you are a shyster.
Step 6: You download the .azw files directly into your (their) Kindle.
Step 7: You read the files as Kindle books ... just as you would if you were within the borders of the US.

What a bunch of buggering around.

Next time I actually fly to the US - if I bother to take Winston along for the ride - then he's in for a delight. If you've ever seen the movie The Matrix, think of the scene where Neo is getting a download of stuff like kick-boxing. No doubt Winston will writhe in my hands.

The thing is, I know you're right according the letter of the law. I know you'd love to sell me content directly, if only the licensing laws allowed.

However, it's the way you've implemented your super-strict sales restrictions that gets me. Even with a US billing address, IP address and a pre-paid gift card, you still refused my money. Whatever next? Maybe American companies will stop selling arms to Middle Eastern juntas because their credit cards ain't issued by a US bank?

Kindling the privacy debate

2009-07-19T15:55:00.004+02:00

The arrival of my Kindle 2 (an unexpected but welcome gift) coincided with Amazon's action to act as Big Bother and remotely delete copies of George Orwell?s books on users' devices. Oh dear me. It really couldn't have been a worse choice of books to zap remotely via its Whispernet mobile network.

Although technically-speaking, Amazon did the right thing, their execution was terrible. At least, that's how the story started gathering momentum: with outraged Kindle users complaining that the Orwell classics 1984 and Animal Farm had simply been zapped from their devices.

This is a great example of how to alienate your customers, and a less than auspicious start for my Kindle ownership. Wireless was enabled, out of the box, so by the time I'd worked out how to turn it off, no doubt it had found and been rejected by one of the local GSM networks and Amazon was therefore already aware that I'm not currently located in the US. Thanks to our wet summer, the device hasn't been switched on while outside yet ? so maybe the built-in GPS device hasn't managed to get a lock on any satellites, although I don't expect it will be too long before it manages to get a sniff of a signal.

Being outside the US means that I'm effectively handcuffed when it comes to adding up-to-date content to the Kindle, whom I shall call Winston. There are tens of thousands of out-of-copyright classics available as a DRM-free, Winston-format download, but until I get myself within the borders of the lower 48 states, there ain't no way that Amazon is going to let Winston have any current content, even if I want to pay for it.

Believe me, I tried. I followed blogger Nerdgirl's excellent advice and registered a new Amazon.com account, using a .com email address, entering a bona-fide US billing address and then adding a $50 gift voucher to my account. My mistake was using a valid but non-US issue credit card ? even though I did not authorize Amazon to debit anything. By the time I came to the final step in the transaction process, hoping to be able to download the DRM-laden file straight to Winston, who'd shown up as a 1.4gb capacity network drive, Amazon's Thought Police had detected that I'm not in the US ? and kyboshed the deal.

I tried again via a Terminal Server machine that thinks it's in Oregon. No deal. So I shot a quick email to a friend in Chicago. He logged in with my user:pass and was doing great until the final screen, where he learned that we were busted ? and that an irregularity had occurred. Yes, I'd logged out of my Amazon.com account so it wasn't the multiple logins but the trusty credit card. Aargh. I've got $50 on my new Amazon.com ? which was happy to take my money for the voucher ? and I can't use it.

This has given me valuable think time on the question of whether I want to invest US $9.99 in Kindle downloads of current paperbacks. Once I've read 'em, then what? The DRM means I cannot resell them. In my home office there's currently a pile of read and for sale paperbacks ? most from Amazon ? that I'm now reselling ? via Amazon.

Maybe I'll spend the $50 on gifts for friends ? within the US of course. I'll keep looking for sources of free ebooks and perhaps catch up on some classics while waiting for Amazon to launch in Europe. ~~The company has gained a foothold by opening for business in the UK, so who knows what Winston will do when I take him on a business trip to London later this week. Watch this space.~~*

And keep away from the Thought Police!

*Footnote: I've since learned that Amazon has NOT launched Kindle in the UK yet, but that an announcement with an MVNO is imminent.

Removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7

2009-07-08T09:42:00.004+02:00

It might sound dramatic, "removing the roadblocks to living with Windows 7", but I'm not ready to sacrifice access to a bunch of network drives just to get away from Vista.

Therefore, getting my "toaster" (the Netgear / Zetera SC101 network drives) running is an important step in migrating away from Vista. Although the set-up program is able to install, - after a fashion, anyway - it won't actually run under W7, even via any compatibility mode.

Thinking back, Netgear was pretty slow to put up drivers even for Vista, so there's no hope that the company is going to be proactive with a niche product like the toaster ... as confirmed by the forums, where in Jan 2009 the official moderator wrote: "Please wait until Windows 7 is fully out".

Since then, nothing - not even any hints that Netgear might be developing drivers etc and looking to benefit from those tens of thousands of beta testers. What a huge missed opportunity: Netgear doesn't strike me as a very progressive or customer-friendly company any more. Shame... While I'm on the subject of customer care, Netgear still hasn't even bothered to certify its Vista / XP drivers for the SC101.

The same thread, however, does offer plenty of information from enthusiastic users. Better still, there are step-by-step instructions that actually work. They involve exporting registry keys from XP or Vista, and importing into Windows 7.

This worked, to a point. After I'd started the z-san service, the network drives just popped up in Explorer. I got asked if I'd like to format one (of course not) as it was mounting. But the anti-virus software didn't like this and I got my first 7 bluescreen. A reboot, reinstallation of the a-v software and things stablized.

Note to Netgear: I'd love to test an official beta of any SC101 software for W7. I'd even sign an NDA... But I am not holding my breath waiting for you to actually do anything for at least nine months.

W7 update - after the thrill has gone?

2009-06-26T21:12:00.005+02:00

The arrival of something like a new smartphone, laptop or even car often means a splurge on extras, too - making sure the new baby is properly pampered in the thrill of the first weeks of ownership.

That's what I'm going through with Windows 7 - because to make the Release Candidate really useable I've installed my favorite software (a good subject for another blog post, perhaps). Under the skin it doesn't appear to be much different from its bastard sibling Vista, except that it runs faster, lighter, smoother...

Now it's up and running, and it's got enough software installed to be useful, I'm wondering: now what? How long before I hit problems? In fact, the first ones have already come up: something minor, which is that an old webcam doesn't work (big deal, rarely used that one), and something more major, which is that the Toaster (Netgear storage central) won't install properly.

Remembering all the aggro I read about in getting Netgear to update the software at all, I'm not exactly optimistic that they'll be rushing to update the toaster for 7. There must be plenty of other work-arounds, such as installing new NAS software on the drive itself. Further investigation needed.

To come back to the question, though: will W7 fall victim to the classic Windows slowdown problem after a few months? Will my drives get filled up with useless log files that record the time and date I opened, closed or resized windows? This is the sort of stuff that needs to be disabled by default - nice to have it, but you don't need it running.

One more thing: My XP virtual machine - which ran like molasses on Vista - is fairly hopping along with W7. No other changes, just the host OS.

Windows 7 update

2009-06-22T09:38:00.006+02:00

Installation complete: When it comes to Windows 7 I can see what the fuss is all about. It's a modern version of Windows that looks like Vista, but works like XP.

Having followed the debate about whether or not 7 should be "just a Vista service pack", I've had to wait until now to chime in. Logically, it's Windows 98 to Win95, but emotionally, it should be issued as a free service pack by way of apology to long-suffering Vista users.

Let's delve into the process of getting W7. As my system has dual hard drives, I didn't bother wasting plastic by burning a DVD, instead I used WinRAR to unpack the ISO to a spare drive, and then instigated the upgrade.

It didn't work. The upgrade process got stuck twice in the process of importing / converting all my files ... the rollback to Vista (couldn't it have been nice, and rolled me back to XP?) worked.

Next step was to create a DVD and boot from this, installing W7 on a different partition of my primary hard drive. This worked ... but be warned, you need a LOT of space - the initial 15GB was enough to get W7 installed but not enough for transferring my profiles. After adjusting the partitions (let Vista or W7 do this for you, it's the easiest way) I was ready to roll again with a 60GB "C" drive.

Installation takes about an hour, it's largely unattended until you pump in the licence key (this step can be skipped for the first 30 days too). Once the system is up and running, the differences are immediately clear. It uses less memory than Vista. It starts applications faster. It's cleaner, smoother, and perhaps more intuitive too.

The key tool is the transfer settings wizard, which has again been updated for the new operating system. It's now called Windows Easy Transfer and is almost idiot-proof, but thankfully there's a manual mode ... allowing me to select only the files from the soon-to-disappear Vista C drive for transfer. This tool works pretty well, transferring all account settings ... but not installed programs, which is a disappointment. I guess licensing issues put paid to that.

Our system is now dual-boot ... as both partitions are on the same physical hard drive. Windows gets confused if you have two bootable partitions on separate drives.

The next steps: giving everyone a chance to get used to W7 and enjoy the greater speed and functionality ... usability is improved because it does respond way faster than Vista could ever manage. I've also got to ponder the Office 2007 licensing issues ... is it worth installing and registering the suite on my RC version of W7 only to have to then re-install and re-register when (if) I buy a license for the full version?

Questions, questions.

W7 redux

2009-06-19T21:14:00.003+02:00

A while back I wrote about abandoning the Windows 7 beta, because of the obvious flaws of running it in a virtual machine on Vista.

Since then, our home PC has been getting cranky running Vista. The main problems are that the cooling fan is running more and more - and disk usage is up ... classic signs of an aged Windows installation that needs attention. The fan blades are clean, the heat-sync connection is good, and the disks are well defragmented. I've also cleaned out all unnecessary files and still my 18-month-old Vista installation has slowed down.

The inevitable solution is usually a clean install ... but really I can't face it this time. The machine has five user accounts on it, all five are used, and it's a heck of a lot of work to rebuild five profiles. All are backed up of course, but even so ...

Therefore - and probably against my better judgment - I'm going for the Vista-to-Seven upgrade program this time. It's a mighty slow process: one hour in, it's still only 63% of the way through gathering files, settings and programs: I'm informed that there are 585,000 of these! However, at least I don't need to do anything apart from sit and watch (and write this post).

I was going to have to reinstall Vista (or perhaps XP) anyway. That's how I'm justifying this little experiment.

What do people find so difficult about airports?

2009-05-11T01:20:00.002+02:00

Dear Mr and Mrs Traveler,

No matter where I go, you?re always there at the airport ? and you?re always behaving like it?s your first time. Just what is it that you find so perplexing about negotiating airports? Is it something to do with the electro-magnetic interference from the security systems that causes your brains to freeze?

Here?a a handy set of tips for you to remember next time you fly. Try to pay attention now.

Passport control? YES, that?s right. This is you are required to show your Passport. Arriving at the window is not the time to start searching your pockets for it.

Security control? Yes, this means you will need to empty your pockets of all metal, take off overcoats, get laptops out of bags, surrender liquids, etc. I know you?ve been watching the people in front of you in the line with abject fascination for the last 10 minutes (ok, make that 20). Hadn?t it yet penetrated your consciousness that you too will be required to go through the same procedure? And yes, those keys hanging on your belt WILL set off the scanners.

Wandering around the airport: Do you HAVE to stand side-by-side without moving on the walkways and escalators? Don?t you understand those little icons showing that you should stand to one side, in order to allow others to pass you? And don?t you realize that your enormous suitcase is blocking the gangway?

Talking of which, baggage size: I know you don?t trust those baggage handlers, but believe me, your whacking great suitcase is NOT going to fit into the overhead locker.

Ready to board? Yes yes, I know you are. But why do you stand in an impatient herd by the gate for at least 10 minutes before boarding starts? Getting on first doesn?t mean you?re going to snag my seat, not does it mean that the ?plane is going to get there any faster. On long-haul flights, they board from the rear seats first in order to get people on board faster. That usually means rows in the high 20s, 30s and 40s. Believe me, it?s easier to get to seat 22H once the passengers behind have pushed and bumped their way past. A special award goes to EasyJet (NB this is not really a recommendation, you social media watchers at EasyJet) for fueling this fire by charging extra for ?speedy boarding?. Most of the EasyJet flights I?ve taken have involved a bus to the terminal ? so you get speedy boarding on board the bus. Nice! You?d pay extra for that??

Switching off your mobile: Yes, yours as well.

The multimedia home

2009-04-16T11:05:00.003+02:00

For years I've pondered the benefits of setting up a multimedia PC in our living room - but never found a compelling-enough package to provide the impetus to actually go out and buy it. For a while I thought a hacked X-Box running Linux would be the answer, but the idea of coming home with an X-Box and trying to explain the repurposing (and the prospects of anyone actually believing that) was a step too far!

Almost two years ago I documented a poor living room PC substitute - the Netgear EVA, which went back after a few days. And its support for only a restricted number of formats, plus its super-hot operating temperature, has ruled out Apple TV.

Finally, I found a working alternative, the KISS 1600 media player. It's not exactly new to market but after a couple of months, I'm pretty happy - especially after upgrading my wifi. A sleek new N-standard Linksys has replaced the old D-Link, which had started playing up by randomly refusing to work until the power was cycled ... N is also fast enough for video streaming.

The source for this streaming: my trusty NAS drive, as the (minimalistic to say the least) KISS media sharing application just worked. I love it when that happens.

The economics of flying business class

2009-04-02T09:49:00.004+02:00

Of late, I've been flying around quite a bit - and been pondering the economics of flying business class. In short, although the airlines are trying hard, I still don't think the maths make sense for anyone to pay out of their own pocket for a business class ticket.

Over the last couple of years, the airlines have really raised their game in trying to differentiate in lots of little ways between business and cattle class. Some examples of those little touches:

* Priority boarding - over a red mat (hardly a carpet) at the gate. Great. EasyJet charges a premium for that (so you can be first on the bus, as cheapo airlines avoid jetway fees wherever possible). Value? Maybe $10 if you can find people who would pay for it.
* Priority tags on hold baggage. Theoretically a good idea but in reality the bags all arrive together, or maybe within a couple of minutes. Value? About the same as the tip you'd give the baggage porter instead. $3.
* A little piece of chocolate on your seat. Great! I'm convinced: sell me a business class ticket. But seriously, I don't always want to eat a piece of chocolate when I get on board a plane - I'm not 7 years old any more - and if I don't see it, sit on the chocolate and it melts, I've got a dry cleaning bill (and an embarrassing situation to explain). Value: $0.75.
* A bottle of water to go with your chocolate. Not bad at airport prices per liter of water. Value: $3.
* That business class meal with real cutlery and crockery. I recently asked an attendant which of the standard "chicken or beef?" meals she recommended. Her answer: "Eat at the airport!" The stuff served in economy class isn't great - but then I don't expect any business class meals to qualify for Michelin stars any time soon (even though they do use puffed-up prose). Value: $10 and I am being generous.
* The free copy of a magazine on board. OK, not bad, but often eco passengers can snaffle these too. Value: $0.
* Another free chocolate before you land. $0.75.
* Lounge access. Ah yes, the lounge. In general, these are pretty nice - with the exception of Lufthansa's horrible little overcrowded, overheated, under-seated corner of T2 at London Heathrow. All kinds of goodies in here: free snacks and drinks ($15 if you try hard), free wi-fi ($10). On the other hand, as I don't generally get lounge access, I arrive at the airport as late as possible - getting an extra 30 minutes in bed (or in a traffic jam). I know there are showers etc in some lounges - which is great value if you fly in overnight and have to go straight to a business meeting. Thankfully, I always avoid having to do that!

Time to do a sub-total: I make that $52.50. Each way.

Compare and contrast with the "special offer" that BA recently offered me for a London-Munich flight - a one-way upgrade for $150. For a total of two hours on board, I declined the $50-an-inch extra legroom. For a long haul at the same price, I'd have jumped. However, the price delta runs to four figures - at least an extra $1000.

The airlines have also gotten wise to people booking economy and using miles to upgrade to business. Actually, spending 35,000 miles with Star Alliance airlines for a one-way trans-Atlantic upgrade seems to be pretty good value - so there must be a catch.

There is. My last two "economy" class trans-Atlantic tickets were super-cheap: between $500 and $700. After deducting airport taxes etc, the revenue to the airline was only around $100 each way. And because of this, there was No Way In Hell that they were going to let me upgrade my class W (I think) ticket to business class. In fact, I've even heard that US airlines are now trying to charge a premium for bulkhead-row economy class tickets.

To conclude this ramble, yes there are clearly benefits to flying business class - I didn't even mention the potential value of the flexible ticket. But I think the best solution is the one I first heard of through an old friend - who flies economy class, but then spends a little bit extra on a hotel, and enjoys the luxury over the duration of his business trips. Works for me!

Returning to Facebook after a year out

2009-03-11T08:46:00.005+01:00

It was probably inevitable. After just over a year without Facebook, I'm back. Why? Actually, for the same reason that I left.

That reason is that Facebook is too good to miss - and that's why I'm back. I'd "closed" my account for a number of reasons. The main ones were that I was tired of "vampires Vs zombies" and other nonsense, and that Facebook had originally been a friends-and-family thing only ... but that quickly changed as business connections started adding me. The line between business contact and friend is a a very blurry line in many cases.

This time I'm back with a dumbed-down, locked-down profile. It took about 20 minutes to go through the various settings and tighten my security preferences away from the very liberal defaults ... 12 hours later I have 35 friends - a mixture of business and social contacts.

It's good to be back. Yes, really. It had become clear that I was missing out ... "oh, I posted those photos on Facebook" was a comment I heard many times - followed by the "oh I guess I could send you a couple of them". Not being on Facebook was requiring people in my network to make the extra effort.

Together with Twitter, it should be a powerful combo. As I've previously commented, Twitter gives me the feeling that I really know the people I'm ~~stalking~~ following a lot better. Add in Facebook and we're going to get really intimate - as long as you let me share.

As for what's on my Facebook profile? Well, my friends are welcome to take a look. I've turned off the infamous "Wall" (this is Facebook sans frontieres) and won't bothering with any third-party add-ins, quizzes etc. Just the plain vanilla version. I've already added a couple of pictures from a weekend skiing trip and I'll probably add more stuff that gives the impression that I'm a wholesome, sporting, family man. Which of course I am.

A near miss

2009-03-02T21:24:00.002+01:00

On the day that experts predict a slump in PC sales, I just missed a motherboard burn-out ... a rogue USB port was to blame. It had stopped working and rather than ~~throw it away~~ take it to an electronics waste recycling point, I fiddled...trying a replacement power supply with the same(ish) power output.

The result: A catastrophic FAIL. The PC reacted badly - it blew all its cooling fans at max speed for four short bursts and then switched off. No shutdown, just off.

And of course it had everything attached to other USB sockets - the expensive fast CF flash card for the D-SLR, an iPod, a printer ... you name it. Fearing the worst I opened up the case and had a good sniff around (like a parent short-cut checking on a baby to see if the nappy needs changing!) but couldn't smell that fearsome smell of burning electronics ... so gingerly reconnected - and ... it all works.

Except that rogue USB device. That's in the (sin) bin.

White weekend

2009-02-15T18:44:00.002+01:00

We had a white weekend, enjoying the 20-plus cm of snow that's fallen here, and the 50cm-plus that's in the mountains.

Saturday - cross-country skiing, carving out our own tracks in places and then following the freshly-laid grooves from the x-country track-making skidoo. I'm still not very good at going downhill on cross-country skis!

Sunday - sledging and then cross-country again. Apart from the travel costs, we spent nothing on winter sports this weekend - so in comparison to downhill skiing, we're around ?200 in the black. Judging from the webcam on our local hill, the pistes were pretty packed, especially today, in the sunshine.

Here's 12 seconds of our weekend.

Confessions of a Twit(terer)

2009-02-04T20:16:00.008+01:00

My tweeting started less than two months ago. I took the plunge because, like George Bernhard Shaw said, one should try everything in life once, except buggery and country dancing (look it up).

At the start, enthusiastic friends already using Twitter were evangelizing the service to the point where I wondered: is this addictive? After some 130-ish "tweets" since late December, and reading at least 100x as many from my contacts, I know the answer. Yes, but maybe not forever.

Despite the hype, Twitter is still flying below the radar for 99 percent of people who use the 'net. And that's what makes it so special at the moment. I wonder how long it will stay that way. I'm seeing various tweets about spammers being kicked off the service, plus various ham-fisted trumpet-blowing by some companies that have not really understood what Twitter is all about.

Despite all this background noise, there are today a few undisputed Stars of Twitter. Take a bow Stephen Fry, whose followers have increased from 80,000 to 110,000 in the space of a week. He's still got a long way to go to eclipse Barack Obama, perhaps the most-famous Twitter user of our times (so far), but he will - and fast. At the current growth rate alone, Fry will be the world's top Twitterer by the end of March.

Who? I hear non-Brits asking? well, tune in to his Twitter feed and you'll get the idea. Here's why: Stephen Fry is the rising star on Twitter for being himself.

That's part of the charm. I honestly feel that I've gotten to know the people I'm following a little better since early December. And that's also odd since I don't actually know at least half of them in real life aka meatspace. I've tuned in because they're on the "friend" list for other people I'm following, and so on.

If you checked out Twitter but then looked away around a year to 18 months or so ago, when it was competing with Dodgeball and based on SMS-ing, it is time to look again. I remember doing the same thing - and doubting that it was worth the cost of sending multiple SMSes to update folks on the minutae of my life.

Things have changed. Today I'm Tweeting via TweekDeck on PC and TwitterBerry on mobile. Both are super-easy to use and keep me up-to-date with my friend-cloud. Best of all is that I'm pulling info - dipping into the "tweam" of information - as and when I feel like it. It IS addictive though!

Looking for some stats to convince yourself that Twitter is the 2009 internet phenomenon? Plenty of places to look. Try Twitscoop, Retweetradar, and Cursebird for a start. These are among the mushroom cloud of Web 2.0 /mashup sites feeding off raw info from the Twitter API to produce information that ranges from the totally fascinating to the completely useless: maybe both at the same time. I found all three via recommendations from my Twitterfriends.

Doubting the real-world effect of Twitter? Today a tweet by Stephen Fry is said to have brought down a website, thanks to the sheer volume of followers who then tried to click through on his recommendation. I know that just one silly old website isn't a Government, but even so, Twitter has virtualized the flash mob.

Wondering how to tweet? Well, in your own style. Drop the "is ?" and try and add some useful or meaningful information. A weblink helps. My reaction to your tweet should not be "so what?". And I am not going to DM (direct message) you on Twitter for more info ? if you have something to say, say it, and say it in under 140 characters. Actually, in under 70 if you can ... this is a couple of lines on TweetDeck.

My personal Twitter style has already changed since my first tweet on 6th December. It wasn't "hello world" but "C&C on a wintry day / bulk buying frenzy / impulse shopping by the kilo", when I was thinking that twittering in Haikus would be fun. Maybe it would, but to do a real Haiku was too darn hard. My last Haiku-tweet was six days later. Those weather references were getting boring: It was a cold, but still wintry day today, almost two months later. Yawn.

I have also tried to stop posting meaningless stuff like my Jan 13th "Hmmm, an unexpected traffic jam" because unless you know where I was at the time (and there were no clues), it doesn't help. Since then I've added 12seconds.tv ? 12 seconds of tv ? anytime, anywhere ? and today also Latitude from Google, although not sure if I'll be using it. Maybe you should tweet @MrNesjo in 90 days or so for an update. Or look me up on Latitide. Might see you there.

Abandoning Windows 7 Beta

2009-01-27T20:53:00.002+01:00

I'm abandoning the Windows 7 Beta. It's an inevitable decision and has probably been obvious all along as there is simply no point in using a host machine running Vista for *any* feature-rich VM if it has only 2GB of memory.

It's certainly possible to use Vista and VMware Player for a lite Linux distro, or an XP installation that is content to work with 512MB. But expecting a new MS operating system to run fast and mean on a Vista host ... well, that's a leap of faith.

And since Vista is my host OS, it pretty much kyboshes the idea of running W7 at all in Beta. I'm most certainly not going to install a time-bomb OS on either of my production machines, and my sandbox machine is currently awaiting a new hard drive. Actually, scratch that, it has only 1GB of RAM.

It's not a difficult or heart-wrenching decision to abandon the W7 Beta. I liked the wallpapers, if that's any consolation. Had it been an OS that looked like it would make up for all the many, many things that are evidently wrong with Vista, like being able to run with 1GB of memory as I originally assigned to the VM, then I'd have been ready to invest time and effort in installing software, playing with the OS and getting a feel for how it could change my life.

Instead I'm just frustrated. And I still don't think a Mac is the answer either.

Topping up my iodine levels

2009-01-25T19:22:00.004+01:00

My week-long trip to the Pacific North-West of the US concludes with a trip out to Sequim (pron. "Squim") on Washington State's north coast - facing out over the Juan de Fuca over towards Victoria in Canada's British Columbia, and the San Juan islands. The windswept beach provided a great opportunity to test Microsoft's Photosynth - with a 360-degree panorama compiled from 200 individual images.

Although Photosynth did not manage a 100 percent "synthy" this time around, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

W7 VM on a NAS drive

2009-01-13T23:10:00.002+01:00

Success! I have the VM of Windows7 running on one of my home NAS network drives. Sweet. This means I can use a single VM image of 7 with all the machines connected to my network. The result is less maintenance, more time to play. I like that idea.

W7 with networking

2009-01-13T14:09:00.004+01:00

Okay, it was my fault: no way could W7 detect disabled VMware drivers. So I enabled the drivers and booted from the ISO. Under an hour later, Windows 7 was up and running, complete with network connectivity!

Here's a glimpse of the desktop. No doubt we'll eventually get as sick of the sight of that fish as most people are of the tree and hillside in the XP default wallpaper.

Seven update

2009-01-12T12:42:00.002+01:00

After Friday's fiasco, with supply unable to meet demand, Microsoft managed to get the public beta of Windows 7 under way, making the software available for download quietly on Sunday. After an overnight download (the ISO is 2.43GB, which takes a couple of hours on a 2meg DSL connection) and burning the DVD, I was able to successfully install the 32-bit version into a virtual machine without problems.

However ... where's the beef? At first glance, 7 is little more than SP2 for Vista. It's got some extra wizards, which may or may not be a good thing, moving forwards. At least the dreaded User Account Control seems to be less intrusive. I haven't come across it yet.

One nice touch that's already impressed is the opportunity to change desktop / display / screensaver / theme settings all in one.

Regarding the greatest bugbears, bloat and performance, it's quite hard to tell straight away in a VM if 7 is going to be any better. On the positive side, the fact that it ran and was usable at all with 1GB of RAM is an achievement, this was never possible with Vista. Of course the downside was that by sharing half my RAM, the host Vista machine became unusable ... but then during my test sessions it will be only that: a host.

More soon.

W7 - the beta farce

2009-01-10T15:27:00.003+01:00

Windows 7 isn't in Beta phase, it's in Beta farce! Blaming unexpectedly high traffic to their website, Microsoft pulled the plug on the 2.5 million public Beta downloads of W7 yesterday. Hardly a great start.

It clearly shows there's pent-up demand for a better version of Windows. XP was OK, but Vista was supposed to be better. In some ways it is, but it's also bloated and over-complicated. So Microsoft has wisely decided to cut bait, even before Vista SP2 is upon us, by pushing through the next-generation OS, Windows 7.

At least I hope it's the next-generation and not a poorly-disguised Vista SP2.

Disappointing to have to wait a little longer for the public Beta of 7. Let's hope it is worth it.