Great Gretsch Drum Duet

I came across this recently on the web.  Fantastic piece of drumming and a great sound too!

Sure Signal

I live in an apartment with really poor mobile reception.  The mobile reception in the area is generally pretty good, but I live in the shadow of a church and this seems to cause a major problem to the mobile telephone reception.  Both for 02 and Vodafone.

I spotted on of these devices a while ago - it plugs into a broadband connection and effectively sets up a mini 3G cell - the box connects to a  Vodafone  server and your 3G telephone connects to the box.  It gives me a 5 bar signal at home and works for both voice and data calls.

It takes a few minutes to set up and about ten minutes to come up as service ready, but then you are done.  It works a treat and costs around £50 as a one off payment.  Calls and connections are as per your contract, so once you have purchased the box, there are no additional costs.  In fact, I had to swap from O2 (my current phone provider) to Vodafone and purchased the box as part of the transfer.  It cost £20 as a one off payment. 

Unfortunately, O2 did not offer a similar service, so after more than 15 years on O2 (I started out on CellNet), I had to change mobile providers to get a decent signal at home.

Poor information here: http://www.vodafone.co.uk/suresignal

LG BD660

I just purchased an LG BD660 Blu-ray player as a gift for a friend and I have been really impressed. So like many other Blu-ray players, it also plays DVDs and CDs and comes with the capability to connect it to the Internet.  No big deal so far.  It is also capable of playing 3D discs.  No big deal so far.

But the Internet connectivity provides access to something that LG call "NetCast".  This is a simple webpage that allows users to get access to other web services, including the BBC iPlayer.  The user interface is simple and pretty slick.  But the killer app here is getting access to the BBC iPlayer.  This is a great service, but unless you can watch the material on a normal TV, then it is of limited value.  The BD660 allows you to do just that and all for under £150!

The outside of the box listed the Internet connectivity, but it didn't list the iPlayer amongst the things that you could get access to.  So it was a real pleasant surprise.

50 ways to leave your lover

Steve Gadd has to be one of the best drummers around. Forget massive drum kits and the egos that go with them. This is a classic clip of Steve Gadd in action.



Here's the link to Paul Simon and Steve playing the track live in 2000. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTiyLuZOs1A&feature=related

This beats clunk click

Sometimes you see an advert and you think wow. This is one of those. An advert that communicates its message 100% at an emotional level. It just connects.

UCD Deja Vu

I sat in a presentation last week on User Centred Design. It’s not a new subject. But it is where I started my career more than 20 years ago.

It was a bit of a “home coming” and I was amazed at how passionate I was even though I haven’t worked in the area for the last 5-6 years.

A number of thoughts struck me listening to the presentation: 

•  The UCD proposition hasn’t really changed much in the last couple of decades. We are still talking about usability, reduction of errors, more fit for purpose etc. The companies and the faces have changed, but the fundamental issues are still the same;
•  I am now a senior manager in a Global SI/Outsourcer. The one thing that was going through my mind during the presentation was “Who designs the user interfaces for our systems?” We deliver £100M’s of software each year and I have no idea where the user interfaces come from. I must make an effort to find out!
• As we move to Software as a Service, UCD is likely to get a new lease of life. In the future, organisations will purchase their software as a Service. If it doesn’t live up to expectations, then the customer will move to another Service that does provide want they want. Since the customer doesn’t have technology installed on-site, there is none of the inertia involved in moving to a new system. Don’t like what you see? Is it too difficult to use? Move to another Service that fits your needs better.

Any one for a Swedish TV license? No, well watch this instead.

When someone sent me this video it made be "jump" when it got to the reveal.  Yep, it is designed to pay your TV license in Sweden.  And yes, it is definitely viral. 

Here's my version.....
http://en.tackfilm.se/?id=1272225365762RA11

Don't "Contact us" pages

Why is it so difficult to contact a website owner?  The bigger the website, the more difficult it is to contact them. 

Ever tried emailing Amazon?  It is nearly impossible! You get directed to endless lists of FAQs and useless information pages.  It is often said that if you can't get to the page that you are looking for after 7 seconds, most users will give up.  These websites seem to be using this to their advantage - make it really hard to find the "Contact us" page and then users will give up.  Result - it reduces the number of emails that they need to reply to and this saves money. 

You have to wonder about these companies.

So today I got some spam that looked like the regular "spam" that I get from Amazon as a loyal customer (thanks Amazon by the way).  It got passed my Norton software and appeared in my inbox.  It looked like a regular page, but there was something not quite right.  Well, all the images were from Amazon.com, but the links were to mefall.com.  A quick lookup shows that the website is registered where? Yep, you guessed it, China.

Thought I would be helpful and alert Amazon to this, but after a few minutes I gave up.  Thought it would be more useful to expend my energy (and frustration) on a blog entry instead.

Innovation takes perseverance

Innovation comes from perserverance and if you aren't convinced here's an interesting article from Information age.  Just like Edison's light bulb, these modern innovations took time to catch on (even once they start to work!).

http://www.information-age.com/blog/1249253/brits-that-pursued-bad-ideas-tipped-for-techs-top-accolade.thtml

Drive - Dan Pink

The best business book I have read so far in 2010. Well written and researched - it has a clear message that runs through it from start to finish. Anyone who works and lives in the corporate world will find this book a compelling read.

The basic premise of the book is based on scientific research that is currently poorly understood by the business community. Much of this research flies in the face of current business practices and highlights that the traditional carrot and stick mentality to management, not only does not work, but is likely to damage the very behaviour that we are trying to encourage.

The book highlights the difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and that the new world of work is based on intrinsic motivation – a motivation based on personal drive to master new skills and knowledge rather than an extrinsic motivation that essentially boils down to money.

This book brings a new level of understanding to the modern corporate world that we live in and provides a useful and new perspective. Having worked for Microsoft for a period of time, one of the questions that often went through my mind was why would people take a drop in salary to work for the company and why were we all so dedicated? To my mind, this book answers these questions and many others. Highly recommended.

Using the body as an input device

Came across this and it looks really interesting.  It is a way of using the body as a input surface.  More information here.

Geocaching profile

There are a number of utilities around aimed at helping the Geocaching community.  Here's one that I came across recently that automatically produces a prodfile signature.  If you click on the image below, you will be able to create one of your own.

Windows Home Server Power Pack 3

Power Pack 3 for Windows Home Server is available to download today.  Login to your Windows Home Server and click on Windows Update. More information on Power Pack 3 here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/windowshomeserver/pp.mspx

 If you have installed any of the beta versions, you will need to follow the instructions here: http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windowshomeserver/archive/2009/11/24/power-pack-3-instructions-for-users-running-pre-release-versions.aspx

Belkin N+ wireless router and Xbox Live

If, like me, you have been having problems getting Xbox Live to work over your Belkin N+ Wireless route, here's a great article that takes you through the solution (or workaround!).  Judging my the number of comments on this article, I was not the only one suffering with problems.  This fixed mine.  :^)

http://www.zath.co.uk/how-to-get-xbox-live-working-with-belkin-n-wireless-router/

I just loved this video (and the concept!)

Breeze reflection by Djeff @ "Mal au pixel" France from djeff on Vimeo.

Geocaching in the FT

Here's a nice article from the FT on Geocaching.  It seems like a well balanced introduction to the topic.  It is from September this year, but I have only just come across it. :0(

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/f16b1dce-a18f-11de-a88d-00144feabdc0.html

Here's another article from a little further afield...http://www.rapidgrowthmedia.com/features/110509geocaching.aspx

Ordance Survey maps to be free to download from 2010

I have been a great fan of online maps and GPS based devices, but the current price charged for digital online maps far outweighs their advantages for my usage.  This isn't anything to do with the maps themselves, but relates more to the current generation of GPS devices that have relatively small screens that ultimately limits the usefulness of the map.  It doesn't mean that an online map is totally useless, but it is difficult to justify the price of the OS maps which can run into hundreds of pounds.  Enter the OpenStreet Map projects that provides digital maps of the UK for free.  You can download them here.  The maps are pretty good and I find them usable for geocaching and have them loaded onto my Garmin 550 (see the review here).

But ideally, I would like to use the OS maps.  I am used to using them, having used the paper based ones for years, and it would be neat to have the same map on paper and in digital format. This article in the Guardian outlines changes to the access of digital OS maps potentially to come into force next year.  It looks promising for end users and businesses alike, but I wonder what effect it will have on their Ordance Survey's business model.  While it is good news for councils and businesses everywhere that use OS data, this sort of revenue cannot disappear without it having an impact somewhere.

I also hope this potential change in the access to OS maps will also help publishers.  One of my pet hates is the use of hand drawn maps in walking and cycling guide books.  While Wainwright added much value in his hand-drawn guides, I think the use of such "unique" maps in books just makes them more difficult to use in practice.

How Windows Mobile lost the lead to the Apple iPhone

Here's an interesting article about how Microsoft stumbled in the smartphone race.  While Microsoft decided the route to success was via the enterprise (by chasing RIM's success with the Blackberry), Apple decided that success lay in the arms in the consumer.  And success here is determined by mobile applications.  Apple's AppStore has become hugely popularly with tens of thousands of applications for consumers to choose from.  This, somewhat surprisingly, is also helping driving penetration in the Enterprise market as many corporate useres admit downloading games and travel applications onto their iPhone.

If mobile applications are the route to your success, then developers being the critical audience.  Pander to them by providing them with the right tools, support and eco-system and they will do the rest.  Since the iPhone is a single hardware platform (as opposed to Windows Mobile that is available from LG, Samsung and HTC), this also helps developers since they only have to build and test one version of the application.

Winston Churchill (auto tuned!)

There has been a lot of discussion about the use of "auto tune" technology on many pop records. It started off as a method for correcting the odd vocal slip up, but then started to appear as a vocal effect in it's own right (on Cher's 1998 recording of "Believe"). There has been much discussion lately about it's overuse by less talented artists, however, I really like the effect that schmoyoho has produced by re-mixing famous speeches and even news items. Check out the videos on YouTube.

Mental Floss

This is an American website full of all sorts of facts and trivia, including:

• Bizarre Brand Extensions
• A history of toilet paper
• The nautical roots of common phrases
• 15 companies that originally sold something else
• And lots of other stuff!