No, no, no ... I haven't forgotten you. I wasn't able to write this piece of a daily post yesterday before midnight, that's all. But Christine & Mr.C knew all about it.
So. Something new in the F1 world? Ehmmm ... oh, Sebastian Vettel extended his contract with Red Bull till the end of 2014. 50 other contracts at Red Bull were extended too. They seem to like each other, ay ...
Lewis Hamilton announced his new manager Simon Fuller. This humble looking guy (with a terrible haircut) become famous as a manager of Spice Girls, Geri Halliwell and Anny Lennox to name a few. And he got rich with "Idol".
Jacque Villeneuve is looking for a car ... oh boy. Does he never give up? Couldn't he just carve himself somewhere (I'd prefer the desert) and leave the world in peace? We already have to deal with this M. Schumacher bloke ... Mercy!!
That's all form the F1, as far as I can see, Vettel is all over the media all over the world anyway. *yawn*
Let's move to ski jumping then. Yaaay! In case you missed the second last competition before the season ends in Planica next week: it's been a weekend of farewells. Big names in this sport announced their retirement; Janne Ahonen, the Master and Commander, The Special One of this sport, a great bloke, genius sportsmen and an idol (yes, mine too) is finished with jumping from hills. I grew up with this guy, he has always been there, and he has always been in the top then, he has always been among the best, and for several years he has been The One. Have a look at the numbers yourself ... It's his second retirement from the sport, as he allready decided to finish his career in 2008, however he made a comeback in 2009. Even though it was great to see him back (it felt so empty without him), it wasn't a lucky comeback. There were injuries, new material he couldn't really cope with (it didn't fit to his jumping style) and then there is this army of this cracking good Austrian youngsters: Thomas Morgenstern, Andreas Kofler, Martin Koch, Gregor Schlirenzauer ... They've been invincible so far, and if you ask me: Lovin' it! Normally, the people tend to hate the best, the dominating and the inevitable ones, but in this case it's impossible. Those lare not only fab athletes, but also nice, funny, congenial guys, and good mates too, which makes them so likable.
However Janne Ahonen's retirement (this time for good) does make me feel sad (it really does), Thommy and his mates are going to fill this gap next season.
Thank you for being there Janne, for the excitement, for all this unforgettable moments, for the inspiration, for the memories. You are truly a Legend, Kiitos, Janne. All the best of luck. Ehm, I'm getting sentimental in here, so let's just ... you know ... a moment of silence for the great man ...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Ehm ... well then. I said "weekend of retirements", because not only Janne said "Au revoir" to the skis and hills, Adam Malysz and Primoz Peterka also did (Michael Uhrmann did too, but he's not important). Adam is one of the greatest sportsmen (if not the greatest) Poland has ever had. Furthermore he's just a genuinely nice and down-to-earth chap. In Poland he's a saint. For my mother, who is Polish, he SO is. He also has been in this sport for many years; had a great start in the 90', followed by a down, but he came back and become one of the greatest ski jumpers ever. Thank you for the memories, Adam. You'll be missed too.
Primoz Peterka wasn't there for that long, but when he was there, he was genuinely a, like we say it in Germany: "ein Überflieger". There was no way to stop him! He was one of my idols and I'm also a lucky owner of an autograph. :D
Thank you for this two World Cup wins, Primoz! Man, those were days ...
All right, this is the end of the excursion into winter sports. Hope you like it at least a bit. ;-)
Upcoming sports event this week? Yep, quite a few: Champions League, Europa League, Cricket World Cup, Paribas Open in Indian Wells, Six Nations rugby, and the last ski jumping competition of the season in Planica on Saturday in Sunday.
Have a great day and don't forget to leave a comment or two. :-) I am off to work.
P.S. Next week my daily is going to be published I bit later again, like today. Hope it's fine. If not, let me know. :-)
Good Morning!
Morning, everyone.
Using IE9 at the moment. Not bad...
First issue: went to JTV, and the site keeps redirecting it to this weird blank page. Hmmm.
OMG, my phone company is pathetic.
We got a letter last month saying that we could double our internet speed for £5 a month extra. Naturally we went for it and I got the modem yesterday. The modem installed perfectly fine, we have wicked fast internet.
The problem is that my phone plugs into my modem and that doesn't work - we called them and asked what had happened and they said that the switchboard machine thingy that needs to reboot the phone line was down for maintenance and that we could be without a phone for days!
Luckily the only person that calls the landline is Mrs. Goat's mum, and we just taught her to use skype - so hopefully she can call us that way!
morning
And they are on twitter. Is it worth hassling them?
morning
Hi Mav
morning late risers ;)
You know how yesterday was Pi Day? Well "The Lego a Day" blog duly celebrated: http://legomyphoto.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/day-3-1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993/
Missed that one, was just thinking that it's the Ides of March today
BRILLIANT. :D
Love the comment about interpreting the message behind an earthquake hitting a place called Christchurch
A morning ping-a-ling -->
:)
http://theformulaoneandmotorsportsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/james-jakes-testing-an-indycar/
http://theformulaoneandmotorsportsarchive.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/formula-1-closing-in-on-dehli/
I can't even read that article. Saying his name is like showing a red rag to a bull ;)
yes. I've had excellent results from the two times I've demanded customer service via it :)
Ooh. Might just give it a go then. Done.
Oh I do enjoy Twitter warfare
;)
For reference here is my tweet, and it's probably grammatically awful because my Danish writing isn't brilliant yet: http://twitter.com/#!/RubberGoat/status/47593480595312640
All the more amusing considering I'm going to apply for a job in Danish later!
Sock it to 'em Gav
:)
your Danish is better than mine, put it that way :) I like words like modem and switchboard :)
Ha! Apparently it's ok to pepper your sentences with English words, if they make more sense than a Danish one :)
Just like our language then. :D
Held og lykke!
At least that's what Google Translate tells me is good luck in Danish. :)
Tak skal du have ;)
Cool, an early London screening of the Senna movie! http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/03/senna-movie-exclusive-ja-on-f1-screening-date-announced/
Ooooohhh....
I'm really keen to go, depending on ticket prices. I could fly in Tuesday, see the movie and then leave the next day...
I am all for donating for a good cause but definitely do not feel comfortable when I am about to donate to PeaceWingsJapan but the paypal leads me to PeaceWingsAmerica with no hint whatsoever that the donation would go where it is intended to go ...
I'm flying back in from Ireland the previous night, so would love to score tickets
That would make me suspicious. The Red Cross is also a good bet
If tomorrow on my way to work I can't find my glasses, can someone remind me they're in my mailbox? :D
Red Cross is a good bet, only if they made the donating more user friendly ... no online payment options :-(
A lot of circuits are damaged too apparently.
They are roads, after all. Any news on Suzuka?
Irony that Motegi was rumoured to be on the chopping block, because on financial issues. If the circuit is too heavily damaged, will Honda just knock it down?
Naturally, there are other more pressing problems than Motegi.
you can donate online via itunes. it's the easiest option i've found anywhere.
Apparently little damage. It was quite far from the quake
In that case, probably.
Not here?
http://www.icrc.org/eng/donations/index.jsp
there I do not see any link to Japan. I tried Japanese Red Cross site but that requires me to go and line up in the bank ... anyway, I will work out something
anyone downloaded IE9? full version out now.
http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/
I am afraid that would wreak havoc on my mac :-)
:)
yep. my trouble is I'm too used to Chrome now, I don't want to have to work out where everything is.
that's cool. it's mostly for people who still use ie8. have secretly given up on any other version of ie, but don't tell anyone.
#confidential
:)
by just comparing Sidepodcast in ie9 and Chrome, Microsoft still have quite a bit of catching up to do.
P.S. Next week my daily is going to be published I bit later again, like today. Hope it's fine. If not, let me know
i likes delayed dailies :)
it does, but if you compared sidepodcast in ie8 to ie9, you'll see they've done quite a lot too.
'operations most in need' would probably cover it but I dunno if you can actually do it online later
I think I saw somewhere it needed a modern OS, is that right? (i.e. not XP)
very true. I suppose I should lay off Microsoft for a while :)
the only thing I've noticed so far is the way its displaying and playing the videos
ahh, it does too. boo.
"P.S. Next week my daily is going to be published I bit later again, like today. Hope it's fine. If not, let me know
i likes delayed dailies :)"
That's good. :-) Ta!
Wonder if Win7 would work on my machine..
rankings charts work in ie9: http://sidepodcast.com/rankings
as does the heartbeat in the 'more' menu,
i have. works great, except for one small problem.
it seems i can't download Flash Player 10.2, which is the lowest version that can work with IE9. :|
a LOT.
makes me very happy!
Yep. I suppose I'm just not used to being nice about Internet Explorer ;)
well there is the single thing that is wrong with it then
I reckon I'll use FF more often until the Flash Player sorts itself out. Once it does, I'll switch to IE as primary until the FF 4 RTM is released.
when firefox makes full release in a week or two's time, safari will be the weakest browser on any machine i own.
That Brian Cox chap is not happy that his music is getting turned down: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12733793
you probably don't want an XP machine plugged into the public web any more. it's a bit of a security hole.
I dunno. His reputation dipped for me a little when I heard he was "The Sun Professor"
:/
but my netbook is awesome!
FTA:
Pun of the day!
I'm eating mini Toblerones. Bliss.
then reward it with Win 7
or jolicloud!
I just know it would be too old and slow to handle it. I rely on it as a Skype Machine so I won't touch it. The other netbook uses Ubuntu Remix and it runs much faster than XP.
That Mint was good on it. I will try Jolicloud at some point but I don't want to risk it now...
makes sense, I only installed it on mine because I hated hated hated the OS it came with.
Speaking of my netbook, I don't know whether to take mine to Malaysia or not.
Afternoon
hi bassano
'ello :)
Do it. Will be so handy
Cheers for that link Gavin
No probs man. Depending on the price of the event ticket I am seriously thinking of going. I'm not sure it will be on at the cinema here...
I would've thought the whole of Northern Europe is a must. Are there no international release details? Maybe ask the producers on Twitter
Done.
Has anyone seen Boston Red Scott lately? Haven't seen him around for a few weeks. If he appears can someone ask him to gmail me at bassanoclapper please
SidepodBoston all booked now :D
[Must update wiki tonight]
Jolicloud has a exe version. You can just install and more importantly deinstall like every other Windows program. Fool proof way to set-up dual boot with windows so you can test Jolicloud.
I'll give it a go then - cheers :)
Is this Linux?
I love the way it encourages those who want to to tinker with their machines. Open source is brilliant
Oh!
So can I predict Bahrain will get cancelled and be all Autosmug?
It's not looking good but Bernie's deadlines don't mean much if he wants something to go ahead. May 1st to be stretched to...
The moment they called in Saudi forces yesterday that was always going to happen. With Japan big in the news, there's much less focus on them now, so they can essentially do what they want.
That said, they're getting noticed again - just as much as Libya, I reckon.
Even Libya has been shoved somewhat aside in recent days though.
Its not quite the same as Egypt, Libya et al.
The big fear is Iran as Iran has always claimed all islands in the gulf,
The aftermath of any revoloution could well be far more bloody than the revolution itself. Many of the poor suni areas are already living in fear
Yikes
But its no place for F1 at the moment. maybe moving the race to motegi or Fuji with all profits going to the relief fund would be a nice idea?
I suppose I should add that we should be keeping away from the politics side of this and looking at what it means for the Grand Prix?
Motegi is out. Qatar?
True. I still don't think the Saudis will shoot the protestors down. That might trigger protests in their own country...
I'm have to head off to work. See ya later folks
Its a posibility, but i think moving the race out the region is probably the best bet for the moment. It offers a great chance to do something for Japan, F1 should take it
Japan doesn't want a second F1 race. Fuji was a flop and the country is pulling back from Motorsport.
Plus the whole Earthquake thing means they probably can't even justify that right now?
To be honest, I think it's still far too early to call. It may be some time before we truly know the damage to the circuits - they are of little priority right now.
Joe thinks it's off: http://joesaward.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/goodbye-bahrain/
Japan's withdrawl from most forms of motorsport in recent years has been quite telling.
Kevin Eason agrees.
I think I have worked out my Olympics dates! It gives me two days with no events that I want to see so I have to decide between two days off or going to see something random on those two days :)
No 'As predicted' from Autosmug, but they also doubt there will be a GP : http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/89944
James Allen couldn't help me with the release date for the Senna Movie.
Hehehehee
Wow
I went running again ping http://amysrunning.posterous.com/week-4-day-3
And now I must go to sleep because I have an 8am Skype date to Liverpool to sort out this Olympics stuff.
yay for a 19 race season.
Could well be 16-17, depending on the radiation and earthquake damage!
yay for our crazy planet and its inhabitants?
The Darkness are reforming. Why??
did they split up?
Looks like it ;)
Aye - in 2006
Lead singer had alcohol/drugs problems / believed his own publicity.
I hate that I know that
like this open letter to bon jovi: http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/backstage/comments/an-open-letter-to-jon-bon-jovi-on-whats-really-killing-the-music-business/
Steve Jobs isn’t the problem here. The music industry is the problem—too many bad songs are the problem. It’s the reason the audience doesn’t roar when you talk about playing a new track or two that were added for a re-release of your greatest hits.
They were awesome for 5 minutes and then really boring.
...and then formed another dire band called Hot Leg. {shudder}
What's the back story behind this?
In other news, somebody has tried telling me there's no recession, apparently because he hasn't left his kitchen in 18 months. Weird...
I might ask the same question...
says in the post, jon blames steve for everything.
He's an idiot. He's rabbiting on about "kids today not "feeling" music because they can't "hold an mp3"
Pleb
He thinks mp3's are killing music. He needs to find his box so he can climb back inside
OK I'll actually read it then ;)
Agreed. There's a lot wrong with the structure and attitude in the music industry, which hasn't grasped that small is becoming beautiful and that people want what they like, not what they're spoon-fed. Gaming is suffering from the same problem. It's refreshing that for once the consumer isn't being blamed though...
its 1.15am. WHY IS SOMEONE VACUUMING.
Sad thing is, I'm in the industry, but am surrounded by fools that will blame everyone else except their business methods.
a very filthy floor?
must be.
Maybe they have insomnia? And they want to give it to everyone else?
Cleaning up the mess before the parents come home?
Gotta be insomnia. :D
it was coming from directly beneath me, I don't think my flatmates parents are in the country :D
That is a great blog post. I'm sick and tired of being fed rubbish from so-called pop stars who make 2 awfully autotuned songs and then get recycled into something else. Modern music is boring and totally lacking in passion and quality that older music does.
Maybe they forgot to tell your flatmate that?
it's very odd, he's always the first one in the house to go to sleep, he's normally been asleep for hours at this point.
He has stopped now though so I shall go back to bed too :)
You are starting to sound like an old man now. When I were a lad........
Sweet dreams!
Apparently the interview went somewhat further than that. I think the only old man here is Jon Bon
Also, ageing rock stars like Bon Jovi (who has been dead to me for 20 years since he went all soppy) can't handle that they have to actually make an effort these days and stop re-releasing greatest hits albums we already heard 100 times over. I haven't listened to a CD in over 5 years and I laugh when I see them in a shop. Why bother buying 15 songs when you may only like 5? I do wish the music industry would wake up and smell the internet!
Maybe, but I'm only talking about songs from 15 years ago - I have a hard time liking most modern music unless it's something fun.
Downloading may be prevalent, but not at the point where the CD is dead yet. For example I still buy vinyl - but even that's only worthwhile when it's mixed for the format.
Mind you, try asking today's artists to put together a greatest hits album - see how that goes. The old songs were always so much better.
I just hope that things aren't getting worse because the music industry isn't as rich as it used to be. It seems they're too concerned to make up the money they lost to iTunes, and they've become more autotune-y as a result.
Buying music on CD and doing one's own burning is still generally cheaper for a lot of genres, especially if one insists on buying by the single (to avoid filler or any other reason).
As for JBJ, if he feels that strongly about it, then he should publicly demand that his label pulls all Bon Jovi tracks off of iTunes.
What they do is put out everything that's ever been a single, even if it was a disaster.
It's because the industry doesn't understand why it's not as rich as it used to be, not because it's poorer than it used to be.
Autotune - like every studio trick in history - is a fashion. It is not a new technology at all and will be replaced by something else in popularity eventually.
Doesn't matter why, honestly. They won't care. All they'll care about is getting #1 on iTunes. And you do that by catering to iTunes' target audience - the kids. And what do the kids like? All this autotune-y stuff we get today.
It's been around the past 10 years, I reckon. It hasn't gone away because it's an easy way to mask someone's lack of talent. If nothing can replace autotune in that regard, it'll be around for some time yet.
Kind of, yes - but there are innovative labels out there that are making money because they have altered their business practices.
We must not forget that at the moment, without labels, touring suffers very badly too.
Even though the iTunes lot spend less than the adults do (because the adults pay to watch tours, which cost much more money these days than buying music on any format)?
Valid point, that.
Autotune has been around since the '80's, but when used properly, it's not noticeable
And in those innovative labels the hopes of the industry lies...
Not like Rebecca Black's Friday, then? :D
Yeah. I mean, I like listening to Lady Gaga for a laugh but when a new song comes out I stop listening to the old one. So her greatest hits will probably sound awful.
Autotune is killing music. It sounds awful and it hurts to listen to.
I do hope so.
I have seen it being used properly and it's impressive - and totally acceptable. It's when it goes too far I hate it.
You know what, perhaps we are bored of listening to the same old stuff all of the time?
When I was in Trinidad I got to hear the local music and it's so different to 'Western' music. For example they love a form of music called Soca, which is a really fast calypso with african drumming beats in it. Once you tune into it, it's really easy and fun to listen to. It's impossible to find it outside the Caribbean though.
It make me wonder how many other forms of music we are missing out on?
Please no. I posted that on Easy Music... the other day. I won't link here, because of the sheer amount of swearing I put in the post
Or, like on Cher's "Believe", it can be an instrument in its own right. Making everyone sound like everyone else is not the way to produce classic songs that last the test of time and produce enduring income, though.
That song is a Black Friday of the Music industry for sure.
Or Rihanna, who apparently can sing but her producer doesn't want to let her.
i don't agree.
Loads. I used to get New Internationalist magazine and they'd have two pages of reviews of media from people who'd normally never get reviewed in the mainstream press. As a result, many different genres would feature. And even that was, they freely admitted, scratching the surface.
No doubt because we know Friday comes after Thursday and before Saturday. :D
It's very, very dependent on how your ears are wired. Some people tolerate it, some detest it and some adore it. Personally, I've had all three reactions depending on how it's been used in a given song.
When it's used properly, it's very clever. When it's over the top for the whole song and makes the singer sound robotic, it's jarring and it rings in my ears.
Fashion. Rremember 1980's syn-drums and tom-toms with endless reverb. Sounded cool the, but is dire now
Indeed. It's a shame though, because a few of her songs are really good.
...and Sunday comes afterwarrrrrrd...
When it's used properly, you shouldn't even hear it. That's the point.
Out of curiosity, has anyone not heard this yet?
Exactly. I went to see a recording studio last year and it was mind-blowing stuff. When we watched the concert on TV a week afterwards which had an overdubbed orchestra you couldn't tell at all!
Oh go on, you know you want to
;D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0&feature=related
oh my god that's terrible.
I clicked it in IE9, then I realized Flash wasn't configured here yet.
Hooray! :D
The lyrics.... just listen to the poetic lyrics
They make me want to cut my ears off.
I've heard lots of similar reactions
Had to go out for midweek drinks , 8 minutes left to get back home before the curfew imposed on me by the junior, I may just about make it :-)
I may have to cleanse.
With some Rage Agains the Machine.
Ahhh... yes. The monsters of capitalist contradictions
;)
So my friend has a macbook pro and has a damaged trackpad due to an incident with some coffee. It tracks, but does not click. It's only a couple of years old. Should he get it fixed or can he just live with it?
The only thing that sucks is I'm at the office and can't really crank it.
Afternoon everyone :)
There are some good uses of digital manipulation creatively. And many, many bad ones.
You know what you need? This..!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgi2bmANGmQ&feature=related
Me.
STOP.
It's RickRolling Mk.II !!!
see the link a few posts up - the lyrics are just magic
Can't. And won't.
:D
I KNOW!!! But at least the Rickroll had a pretty darn good song. :D
What's wrong with "Ace of Spades"?
It's just not Rickroll-worthy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ
wait, is someone saying that Rick Astley song is better than Ace of Spades?
THAT PERSON SHOULD BE SHOT.
Run for your life Gavin
;)
huh?
Wait, not you. Hmm... where's that Journeyer chap got to?
No, I thought Leigh was still linking to Black Friday.
#nomusicalpolitics ;)
Guess which year Ace Of Spades came out on an Album...
And which Radio Show I could be plugging right now that's broadcast over the internet from 4pm to 6pm this very Sunday?
1992
Is this something to do with Chris Moyles?
;)
This isn't politics, this is a matter of crimes against humanity! :)
*hides*
:D
Afternoon all. Not really a shock but I noticed Microsoft have given up on the Zune shock and horror.
Makes sense though to focus on Windows Mobile 7.
given they refused to sell it here... how can we possibly tell?
:)
I am shocked! SHOCKED!
it was a big competitor to the ipod.
In the same way a wheel made of chocolate is a big competitor of travel to the car.
Sam Michael looks like an angry Christian Horner
I've heard it was actually pretty good.
'course, I never actually saw one other than at Best Buy for sale or something.
luxury. i dreamed of seeing one.
The brown one looked like poop.
Apologies if that is an inappropriate word but it really did :)
Dream? DREAM we were lucky if we had one dream a year when we slept.
Mr C. Interesting article by Marco and I agree with much of what he says. I would say that this is where my view of the iPhone and iPad is different to a lot of other people's. I remember what using the original Mac was like and using Bill Atkinson's paint and knowing it was fascinating but flawed there was no way it was better than existing pen + paper and print. But it pointed to something and that something was photoshop.
The tough thing is that we have photoshop now, we already have GarageBand on the mac, and so people instinctively compare them to what is happening on the iPad. But I think it misses the point. I think this is a new interaction model. Yes you can't strum a guitar on the iPad as well as you can strum an actual guitar. But in Paint on the mac you couldn't do colour. And you can't strum your Mac.
So yes I agree Apple is experimenting on us, they are pushing the industry - once again - to not retread the old model. Not to bring out slightly faster and slightly better versions of the same thing. The computer isn't old enough for us to start thinking we're done.
Thought it'd be worth sharing this, brilliant video from pegg and frost where they do Star Wars :D much better than the films.Only one bit of swearing but it's bleeped anyways at the end.
http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1949406
The most badly-marketed portable platform ever... ...possibly.
I'd say the Nokia N-Gage was for me. That was a shocker!
Seems like Christian Horner is laying the groundwork to sign Lewis Hamilton. Play up McLaren tech problems and no doubt compare that to Newey's record
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15032011/58/red-bull-won-t-poach-hamilton.html
:)
Good evening pals. It's Rankings Day today so get your submissions in if you've spotted anything that I need to consider.
Hello all. There have to be points for Lewis' new manager but it probably depends on your view of the Spice Girls as to whether they are positive or negative ;)
I'm OK with the Spice Girls but Lewis' new manager was also responsible for the paint job on the 2007 Honda x(
I think that settles where those points are then.
Ron's red light event has got to feature....
But I don't know how....
the important thing that i took from the article is that actually apple probably don't have a grand plan, they don't know. i think they probably have the imovie and garageband thing wrong too, but time will tell.
when the ipad was first demo'd i wanted it to be my main machine, after using it i didn't want it as any machine. now i think i want it for purposes yet unknown, but i cannot see it replacing what my laptop does.
i think me and steve disagree on that at this time :)
it's not a post-pc device, it's a complimentary-pc device. so for email, blogging, tweeting, commenting and coding i'll stick with my macbook, but for things yet invented, the ipad will rock. "smart-instruments" is a great example of something created that works solely on the ipad, i think.
that make any sense at all?
Yes. It's probably the most sensible view on the iPad I've seen so far.
I agree
I just want my laptop to be the dimensions and weight of an iPad...
Is that too much to ask?...
And my iPhone died last night.... they are couriering me a new one but why did it die?...
I moved my sim back to my aged older phone that hasn't given me one days problem....
it's taken a year to draw those conclusions :)
I think that's the thing you should remember the next time Steve Jobs is on stage and you're getting out the credit card :)
Perfect sense.
I thought I'd use mine for commenting/tweeting while watching the TV or lazily lying bed but it hasn't happened (yet).
This is amazing.
http://tumblr.hossgifford.com/post/3876739409/room-racers-create-your-own-race-game-tracks-by
i have it sussed now. i buy new stuff for christine. i get to open boxes of shiny things and she uses them :)
Oohh and brownie points which hopefully get converted to real brownies or flapjack.
But do you steal them if you end up coveting them?..
nope. i'll get the ipad 1 back, once i buy her the ipad 2. i'm still trying to figure what i'll do with it.
Nick Frost and Simon Pegg remake Star Wars: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1949406
hehe!
i think it depends on the person and the environment at any given time. blogging or commenting on the ipad is possible, but i find it less efficient. if it's a daily post with links and an image, then dramatically so.
however, it's only less efficient when there's a laptop sitting in the next room, and getting up and turning it on would get the job done faster.
if i were on a train or bus for an hour a day, inefficient blogging might be a better use of my time than sitting doing nothing at all. my current lifestyle dictates that i'm never more than 3ft for at least two computers so i've never really had to make do with a pad for any length of time.
You could open a shop....
Whereas I use mine all the flippin' time.
stock take would be swift :)
you do, but you can multitask. i can't watch tv and code :)
What about code and eat brownies?....
sticky keys! so no. i can only listen to music and code.
Exactly, same here.
You are certainly NOT "kangaroo man" then....
I am struggling to think of anything rankings related.
Rosberg letting Schumacher wear his helmet / Schumacher doing the filming drive to save Rosberg having to do it. Not exactly high points scorers.
This week is never going to be as bumper as last week :)
#rankings
Lewis and Heikki playing golf. Heikkie even posted that he lost.
http://twitter.com/H_Kovalainen/status/47291174364512256
he lost to lewis?! lewis is a hopeless golfer.
I think that is a safe bet unless something major happens in the next half hour
anything can happen in the next half hour.
Heikki must be more hopeless. Of course golf has the handicap thing where one player can beat the other by 20 shots and lose
I seem to remember saying that in a podcast
A mini Franck ping: http://heartfranck.wordpress.com/2011/03/15/franck-on-top-in-sebring-practice/
:)
ahh. lewis may have practiced. he was rubbish in '08, he's had a whole off-season or two.
I think Heikki just hit the mother lode
http://twitter.com/H_Kovalainen/status/44130813389967361
!!!
c'mon, there's no way that's a coincidence!!
That was more restrained than I expected
:D Heikki clearly has good taste in music (but then I got that impression when he said he liked Nightwish ;) )
christine just said: "i need to clean my teeth", got up and walked out.
...
...
she was carrying her ipad with her and wearing headphones.
And?
Dude, can't a girl clean her teeth in peace?
yes. take the headphones off and you'll find the whole world is a more peaceful place ;)
Because of Heikki's tweet?
Since Christine's just retweeted Heikki's tweet, maybe she just wanted her less-restrained response to be somewhere that wouldn't accidentally embarrass you.
Jenson and Jessica have a series of tweets about a just giving page she has set up to raise charity money for Japan. That has to be worth points
:)
What can you have eaten to need to be there long enough to need an ipad? Corn on the cob? :)
Hehe. I wasn't long. Just that I am in the middle of watching something and it's just as easy to carry it in there as it is to pause it.
Hiiiii :)
Why are Olympics tickets so expensive :(
Cause it's the Olympics
Well I think it's ridiculous to charge £50 for a "cheap" seat and that doesn't even cover a whole day.... It's double that if there's a final on that day.
sounds on par with f1.
They only have a few days to get back as much of the money they have blown on the whole thing
It's just a total waste of money though if people that live here can't even afford to go and watch the stuff.... Might as well be elsewhere....
It's not for us though.
The whole point of having it here is to bring in tourists to pump money into the economy
I see yes. All seems a bit ridiculous. I don't understand why anyone bids for big sporting events.
Some satellite photos of the carnage in Japan
http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n1103/14japan/
To sell their country to new tourists. Whether it actually works or not is a different matter
you can watch many events for free. cycling and long distance running are but two.
Ping: http://sidepodcast.com/post/christines-rankings-faces-the-calm-before-the-storm
Road cycling? I want to go to the velodrome! I love that sort of thing. Or the swimming. But it's way too expensive :(
yeah, road cycling. stand beside the road and they zoom past. all free.
Session 4 of Sebring practise has just begun :)
I want to go to the velodrome too, I'll be weighing up whether 50 quid is worth it.
The swimming marathons are £20 a day in standing.
Because the Games cost at least 3 times what was promised by the government to lay on.
Can we share a seat? I don't take up much room!
Also, the tickets I care about are for the Paralympics and they're a) not available for another 6 months and b) probably much cheaper (due to there being less demand).
Hehe, imagine a stadium full of people sharing.
I love how these Olympics are already so very British though, with the countdown clock lasting 24 hours before failing.
Ping: http://sidepodcast.com/post/a-quick-correction-on-the-team-rankings-this-week
Fisi's car is leading its class in the 4th practise session at Sebring.
I am a very happy fan :)
I don't usually read James Allen but I saw this linked and I don't know that I've seen it mentioned by anyone else. Todt and Whiting wrote to FIA pass-holders, which is a new thing.
They confirm the rules of the DRS / ARW (have we sorted the TLA yet?). To be honest there's not much we didn't already know, but what is now confirmed is that the TV people will be sent a signal so viewers will know who's activated their wing.
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/03/fia-race-director-charlie-whiting-spells-out-rear-wing-rulings/
Mind you, a GTE-Am has the fastest time, not just in the GTs but overall... ...the #50 Chevrolet driven by Canal apparently managed Sebring in 5.113 seconds (to put this into perspective, the next-fastest vehicle, the #1 LMP1 Audi, needed 1:49.271 to lap the circuit).
Fisi still had the fastest GTE-Pro time at the end of the session :D . The #50 got demoted to 37th (but it was still fastest in its GTE-Am class) and the #1 Audi was fastest overall.
Right, just about to start the daily as Manish Pandey asked me to contact the local Universal Pictures distributor to ask about the Senna movie.
Tweet from Alex Wurz:
About #F1 drivers getting united via GPDA on japan: GPDA office is flat out on it, things must b done in proper way, hence takes a bit time
I'm just writing this week's TMRG post.
That's good, he's taken to this GT stuff well
OK. will link to it then.
Sounds good. I will await the results with due anticipation :)
what??
Ahh I was just saying in general 'I'm writing something too' terms, you don't have to link if you don't want :)
*nods* It's great to see Fisi thriving in his new environment and I can't help feeling his first win in the series is around the corner :)
I asked James Allen, Asif Kapadia and Manish Pandey if they knew if it was coming out here, and they said no, and asked to contact UIP direct. The bosses email is on the website, so I just emailed him.
awesome work! make sure you daily that.
Thanks, I will. It's worth a try. I mentioned how the film got great reviews, who Senna was and why we want to see the movie.
I'm considering going to the JAF1 screening in London if it's not too expensive.
there's an allen screening?
Well it's for the GP Mechanics trust, who he is a patron of, and apparently "...some of Senna’s mechanics, engineers and closest paddock friends will be there as will some well known faces from F1 past and present."
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2011/03/senna-movie-exclusive-ja-on-f1-screening-date-announced/
ahh cool. if it was anyone but allen... (or windsor)
...i need to stop finding things wrong with f1 people :)
I think I'll waive that point for this. I'm so desperate to see the movie. Mrs. Goat spent half the morning planning an Itinerary for me!
twitter has finally added a feature i don't instantly despise:
we are adding a user setting that lets you always use HTTPS when accessing Twitter.com
i highly recommend everyone does this!
http://blog.twitter.com/2011/03/making-twitter-more-secure-https.html
I'd love it if said feature worked on my computer. But it defaults to the non-secure version even when the https:// is forcibly typed in!
have you done what the post says though?
If you type in https:// on any other site (including Twitter before this evening), it goes to the https:// version. If it no longer works directly, then how can an indirect method of access possibly work?
but have done what the post says?
*have you.
just try it.
I just clicked the link in the post. How long it stays in the https version I have no idea.
Are you even listening? Whatever they did this evening broke https for Twitter. Unless there's a third page option, clicking "Always use HTTPS" will merely make the computer at their end try to do what the one at my end is doing, i.e. try to load HTTPS and be redirected to plain HTTP.
I might also add that trying to get into "Edit Settings" locked up Twitter altogether. So it looks like doing it their way isn't even an option for me...
right.
alia, can you please do what the post says and tell me if it works? i am listening, i want to know if you follow the instructions, what happens.
I can't do what the post says because going into "Edit Settings" locked up Twitter when I tried it (just Twitter, not the rest of the browser).
How is it possible that you have so many IT fails?
I have no idea...
fair enough. i tried.
Hehehe.
What makes it worse is that they tend to stay failed even when other people try to fix the problems.
I'd love to know what you're running on your system, something is clearly messing it up somewhere
You did, and thank you :)
I just... I don't understand. It's like you are Agent Smith in the Second Matrix - the sum of all the other IT foulups in order to keep the system balanced for the rest of us!
At this exact moment? Windows XP, Opera 11.01, Winamp, Last.fm's scrobbler, Spybot and Norton Internet Security 2011.
so the cheapest available ticket to the Opening Ceremony is 20 pound, but the cheapest available to Australians is $336.
This event is totally going to bankrupt me.
:D
in my line of there are quite a few people with computers so broken you can't help them. they get a refund and a nod in the direction of a competitor.
And your system specs? Old, new, amount of RAM etc?
That. Makes. No. Sense.
What a bunch of greedy ticket-sellers...
*line of work
You want to check that doesn't include the flight.
My computer was built out of a bunch of components at home, which may be part of the problem.
Ironically enough my parents are having a lot of trouble with a broken iMac, an extended warranty and a shop that wants to help them but the repair agent won't.
doesn't matter why, you'd still get a refund :)
need: http://www.bornrich.com/entry/playseat-f1-red-bull-seat-lets-you-experience-ultimate-speed-thrills/
Playseats, the maker of the limited edition Takuma Sato Playseat, has now taken wraps off the new F1 Red Bull seat, the new Playseat F1 race game simulator for home that’s been designed to enrich motorsport fans with a real race experience.
I would also suggest you ditch Norton. I was advised against building my own computer because of hardware conflicts - and my mate who has has spent more time fixing his than using it!
My accounting test is making me cryyyyy!!! I don't ever want to do accounts ever again!!
Did they improve on the previous version as it simulated too many crashes?
I have a G25 wheel but I don't have the space or the cash to make or buy a playseat. I'd love to tjhough!
Ah yeah that could be it. Mine seems alright now but I've had trouble with it. I've vowed my next system will be bought as a unit.
#sidepodspace
Tomorrow 3 of the permanent crew of the ISS get in their Soyuz and return to Earth. Command of the ISS switches from an American to a Russian for the next few months.
Had the last shuttle not developed technical problems the and the shuttle flights gone according to plan the commander of the next shuttle and the commander of the ISS would have been brothers (maybe even twins). Unfortunately the delays in the shuttle schedule stopped that happening.
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/living/index.html
cooool
I buy mine built to spec. It's the best compromise I reckon.
in this day and age, no-one needs to be building their own pc's.
That looks way too realistic. Who wants their pedals that high?
Binks!
My TV wife is now on Twitter: Follow Diana Binks @BinksyDB. And no, she's not my real wife. But she does have inside line from Sebring...
- @MartinHaven
true. i guess that's the f1 way?
Don't do it then
Yeah Norton's on-access scanner slows things right down.
Ah yeah that happens.
http://www.insidemotorsports.com/
Is it the sandbox type?
I use Avast! - it's free and doesn't clog up my PC-
Bad influence! I have a test to submit by midnight. I'm glad I didn't complain sooner....
That's how they are in an F1 car. To get the airflow under the nose the floor is ludicrously high. When I visited the BMW Pitlane Park one thing they had was a moulded shape on a wall where you could experience the seating position in an F1 car. It was incredibly unpleasant.
I use WIndows Security Essentials. It seems to slow the PC down a lot less than things like Norton
I don't know what that means. But every file Windows accesses, Norton scans. Some others do too. I always turn that off.
I mean as Windows is accessing it. Crazy.
The actual scan seemed normal enough. But all of the commercial ones got bloated anyway.
That's exactly what Sandbox means in this sense. It takes each file and messes with it. Bad if you like a fast PC---
I sent it off and I seem to have got 88% Not bad for a 2 hour rush job... :D
That is quick marking
damn. have to buy the sato seat after all :)
It's all computerised. I can have my score now but I can't see what I got right or wrong until after the deadline. I'm really happy though.
There are loads if different seats out there
What was it about?
It's great to get the result so quickly. Takes away a lot of the worry
Assorted ages, ranging from a 1997 keyboard to a 2010 monitor (custom-made; the builder likes me because ironically I have fewer totally show-stopping problems than any of his other customers, possibly because those get snagged on the less-serious-but-highly-annoying problems).
More seriously, I have (from a combination of memory, visual checking, System, Device Manager and dxdiag - you can't give too much detail on a computer repair job):
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ 1.67 GHz
1.5 GB RAM
1 3.5" floppy drive which hasn't been used since 2006
A 160 GB Hitachi HDD with speed of 7200 rpm (when you play Sims 2 with custom content, the latter stat matters)
A 3GB Quantum HDD for backup
An AOPEN 8x DVD player/CD-RW writer
A brandless 32x CD-ROM player
NVIDIA GeForce 6200
A C-Media AC97 sound device (integrated with the motherboard)
An AOC 2043 18.5" LED monitor
A Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Ethernet NIC network adapter
SiS 900-based PCI Fast Ethernet network adapter (I know a network should only require one, but my computer seems to need both in and activated to talk to any networks whatsoever, including ones that theoretically use other means of networking)
A wired connection to the router downstairs for internet access
(Sometimes, but not at the moment) a Bluetooth dongle for communication with the PDA - a HP iPaq hw6915)
1 almost-permanently-plugged-in docking cradle for the PDA
A ball mouse with cable (don't like optical or cordless mice because they're less reliable)
XP Service Pack 2 (SP3 wouldn't install on my computer)
BB Capture driver (for recording software - helpful, ironically enough, for demonstrating problems with using software)
Page file has 4 GB total and typically 3.2 GB available
DirectX 9.0c (the one that comes with Sims 2 Mansions and Gardens) is installed as found on the disc and shows no errors
The computer passes all DirectX-related tests
Is any other information needed for a diagnosis?
The builder of the computer refuses to give a refund on the account that he built it as a present ;)
It's needed for two reasons:
a) none of the alternatives tried by my family have been even half as good at keeping the computers clear of viruses (Norton may be a tad slow but it at least does manage to spot and remove everything - the half-a-dozen alternatives we've tried over the years haven't)
b) The Sims 2 refuses to load if Norton isn't on and in Silent Mode (if it's off it complains it can't find the disk and if it's on in standard mode it detects a conflict)
I'm doing an OU accounting module, it's a summary basically of work on the whole module.
You know the sort of thing....
John is doing his accounts and realises that he's posted the phone expense as depreciation on his car, he also forgot to record a payment received by Julie and mistyped 1421 in his drawings as 1241.
Richard conducts a bonus issue at 1 in 3 then later holds a rights issue at 1 in 12
It all makes my brain melt.
*sidepodhugs*
Ah, journals... much melting occurred here too. 88% ain't bad at all.
That would be considered heresy at home, especially since it would cost me five week's income for the computer and extra money to get an operating system downgrade (the XP discs are broken, I found Vista inaccessible and Windows 7 would use way too many resources for its presence to be justifiable on a computer).
Except of course people on budgets (it's still cheaper to buy bits at computer fairs and build one's own computer than to buy one off the shelf).
apparently the cheap ones are reserved for UK residents. But UK residents already get 75% of the tickets, I have to fight out with the entire rest of the world for the remaining 25%
On-access scanner's fine for me - it's Pulse updating that has to be turned off for the system to work at a good speed.
:) I don't mind it when I'm in the mood. I find it very satisfying when it all adds up. Sadly I've not been in the mood for about a week and this was due in basically now so... Could have been a lot worse :D
Sorry, I just can't sympathise with you. If you are on a budget buy a second hand one. It's just so much easier!
Windows 7 uses a lot less resources that Vista. When I switched my laptop from Vista to 7 the difference was incredible
Avast! is not one I've tried properly, I'll admit (it was on my PC for about 12 hours between versions of Norton, but given minimal work to do - for example, the internet was strictly avoided while it was installed to ensure the Norton installation was clean).
Does it use more than XP? Because Vista was so unusable I didn't even bother checking the specs for it.
So much for attracting tourists
All seems okay apart from the ethernet issue which is a bit bizarre. The HDD might be a bottleneck if it is filling up.
If XP has been on a long time it might need a registry clean.
That comes with Windows 7, right?
Only 60 GB is in use at the moment.
XP has been on ages, but it gets an annual registry clean.
When I say ages, I mean since the Great Computer Meltdown of late 2005 (long story, but basically melted most of the motherboard due to excess dust - a better case, plus replacement of broken/damaged components, solved the problem).
I have never tried XP and 7 on the same computer so I can't say.
I'm on a budget. What you say I would've agreed with even as little as 18 months ago but they are so cheap now, the bottom-end things are more than enough.
No. It's a free download from the Microsoft site.
Well yeah, computers are sadly expensive. But you should save on repair bills if you go with a Dell or an HP or something. I used to be dead-set against that option but things have changed.
Better than the situation with 3 different non-commercial ones (AVG, Avira and something else my brother tried a few years back, the name of which escapes me and probably no longer exists), where one or more computers got a virus within a month of installation...
it would be nice if my UK friend could apply for more tickets for me but once they draw the ballot they debit your account for the full amount on the same day, and she doesn't really want 600 pounds disappearing overnight, which is fair enough :)
#sidepodspace
There is a lot of space news around. Garrett Reisman is leaving NASA to join private space company Spacex. I think this is the first time and active astronaut has chosen to do this. I guess there is not much point being an astronaut with an organisation that has no vehicle to send a man to space.
http://www.space.com/11123-astronaut-reisman-quits-nasa-spacex.html
If you look west just after sunset you should be able to see Mercury. This is an unusual occurrence. By co-incidence on Thursday NASA's Messenger craft will be inserted into orbit round Mercury.
http://www.space.com/11122-mercury-visible-skywatching-nasa-messenger.html
The Olympics is supposed to be a global event. Such blatant nationalism in areas like ticketing has no place :(
In what sense?
But I've already seen so many UK residents complaining that they won't get to go because it's so unaffordable and there'll be so many foreigners there taking all the tickets. I guess whichever way you go you'll be upsetting someone, but I don't see how a 20 pound ticket is unaffordable.
Ah, OK.
Most of the tickets seemed to start at £50+ when I looked earlier.
The bottom-end things are still more expensive than getting the relevant components at the computer fair. eBay has helped reduce the price of new individual components a lot!
That's good. I'll consider it when Norton expires (though I have to take into account that I'll still have to have Norton on to get The Sims 2 to work).
That isn't even a full day which is what really bugs me, just one session.
Repairs are free at my house (Dad used to fix computers for a living and can fix a show-stopping problem much quicker than an outside organisation would be able to do it).
they're dearer if you want to go to a medal ceremony day but the heats and early rounds of things are cheap
The prices are so high because of the thousands of VIPs who get free tickets and 5 star treatment.
Possibly because the £20 tickets are for standing area for bits of the Olympics few people want to see (there's even an all-day standing ticket for the Olympic swimming marathon for £20 but I doubt many people will be interested).
I think coming from a country where everything is marked up makes me see things differently. Some of the prices people complain about overseas see me converting them into Australian dollars and then going '....you think thats expensive? really?'
Yeah but why would you go to them? :) #medalsalltheway
Yeah £70 is the cheapest you can get for a day of early round stuff at the pool or velodrome for example in a seat on the back row.
I can see 3 price categories cheaper than that?
£150.00 - A
£95.00 - B
£65.00 - C
£40.00 - D
£20.00 - E
That makes no sense. Why is the early-round pool stuff £70 per day when the pool marathon (with medals) is £20?
Yes so you take the £20 session but that's only about 90 minutes you see for that.
What's available depends on the event. The premium events don't have E (or sometimes even D) options.
That's per session and there were two sessions per day on the site I looked at earlier.
Then you need to add a £50 session to make up the rest of the day.
I like the half day sessions, means you can cram more sports in. I wouldn't want to watch swimming for 8 hours but I wouldn't mind watching it for a little while.
But um, nobody apply for the 20 pound Wimbledon ground passes. They um....aren't worth it. It'd be better for us all if no one entered that ballot *ahem*
Also worth mentioning that some events (such as the Race Walk at The Mall) have free options for spectating.
:D
Could be worse. The boxing finals have a minimum seat price of £95 per session.
Could be worse, could be buying them from Australia where every single ticket has an extra 'handling fee' up to a maximum of £40. Bah.
That is very bah-worthy!
The tennis tickets I want are 65 pound which is $105 but they're selling them for $150. That little mark up will add up over the 8 days I want to be there :)
Although I guess I could apply for the ballot and win no tickets at all since I bet Australia hasn't been allocated much when the 25% has to be shared between about 130 countries.
Having no tickets to no events would make the Olympics super cheap!
I'll mainly be cross if things end up empty....
I was considering getting Dad some sailing tickets but some of the sailing got delayed for days due to the weather and the tickets don't appear to transfer between sessions, so it would be pot luck whether any given ticket would have some racing in it. At £30-£55 a session per person, is that a risk worth taking?
You could still come over and watch stuff like the race walk, marathon and road cycling without paying anything (and by the look of it, without a ticket).
You'll have to enter lots of competitions to get into the sponsor seats.
I'm soooo not spending $2500 on flights + god knows what on accommodation to watch free events!
The sailing is near me and I think that will be free, mostly. I just need to learn to like sailing in a year. :)
I don't think we'll have many competitions like that down here.
They're all ticketed for that according to the PDF :(
Are there any forecasts of how likely it is that there will be postponements?
Fair enough!
We should all have gone to China, it would probably have been cheaper. They were rounding people off the streets into buses and making them fill the seats to make them look full.
That wouldn't be much use to us if it were 17 hours in advance, let alone 17 months (the main reason for postponement would be the wind being either too high or too low and that can change significantly in a matter of hours in all parts of the UK).
I would divert that money into my possible 2013 Austin/Montreal F1 trip.
I'm so never going to own property.
#sportstravelrules
I can't go to China. Maybe 2016 will be more sensible (but personally I reckon the Paralympics, which is what I really want to see, will be much cheaper than the Olympics anyway).
Have they taken away some of the cycling events :( I swear there used to be more than that.
They changed some of the events within cycling effective this Olympics. Can't remember if one was taken away without replacement or not.
yes they have, they took away the specialist event of my neighbour who won gold at the Commonwealth Games. That made me sad, I'd have loved to have seen her at the Olympics.
Aw that sucks
That's sad.
she'll be competing in something else instead but she won't be as good at it.
I had decided to just buy myself an evening of velodrome if my dad wanted to go with me but I can't work out what day I like now. I don't like the sprints, it doesn't seem very fair to me, they just all knock each other over by accident and then all the other events seem to be gone.
What event is your neighbour trying for? Or is that a sprinty one?
Oops, I've cross-threaded. Sorry...
Individual pursuit perhaps?
Also, what are Omnium and Keirin? They seem to be cycling events but I've never heard of them before...
Have you guys seen this BBC HD promo for the F1? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vS0fOeLAg6g&feature=youtu.be
Never heard of omnium but keirin involves following a motorbike round the velodrome
Sounds like a Safety Car race...
I really dislike the ones where they go stupidly slowly to psyche each other out. I like all the pursuity ones mainly.
:D
indeed, she used to do individual pursuit but now she'll be doing the team one instead. The NZ team isn't as good as she is individually :(
The motorbike travels at a fixed pace which gradually increases then pulls off
:(
It only pulls off with like a lap to go though? And we're back at mad scramble to knock each other over?
Good thoughts on the ipad all.
I use my ipad all of the time. But I am a heavy computer user who also didn't take a laptop with me wherever I went. I think that is the same for Christine. And that was part of my point earlier... I agree that Apple too doesn't quite know what it has on it's hands. And also the power users were frustrated by the first macs because it took much longer to do something with them than to do it using traditional print methods.
Right now the machine is a weird hybrid of consumer device and future interface thingamy. You wouldn't want to use what you have in front of you right now to do the stuff you do on your laptop. And you might not ever want to give up your laptop for coding... But I can certainty imagine a situation where touch interfaces are used for audio and video editing in the future. I'm not talking about with the clunky paint type interfaces they have now but the ability to do something maybe even to have both interfaces working together somehow? I feel like it's possible. And I'm really suited to it. I'm writing and reading these comments on my iPhone on my way home on the train. If I had my laptop with me I wouldn't use it it would be slower.
There's a painting app, I've forgotten it's name... But most of the painting apps have a brush size tool that you select and choose the brush size. This one doesn't it makes you zoom in and out and the size of your finger is always the same. It's removing a layer of abstraction. That's not all of what this is about but five years from now we'll see very different apps and the key change, I think, is that they won't try and just bolt the old way onto the new way... They'll get rid of something that gets in the way in the old way that you didn't even notice until it was gone.
Yeah
Ping - http://toomuchracing.com/2011/03/15/tmr-game-2011-week-8/
Game entry post for Sebring, Bristol and Qatar.
I also updated my Google Calendar for MotoGP at Motegi which has been deferred to Oct 2nd for understandable reasons.
Slight improvement for the Twitter thing - it now lets me load Edit Settings, but refuses to do anything about any changes I make there.
Oooh it's not cancelled then? I heard the track was damaged?
That was speculation I think, I never saw anything confirmed for damage there only at Sugo.
http://www.motogp.com/en/news/2011/Japan+GP+postponed
i have been studying you sir... like you do. and one thing i notice is a small but possibly significant difference between us, is that generally my comments kick off with a link about something i've read, whereas you tend to write significantly more original words.
so i might copy a link, copy a quote and a paragraph into the comments and only add a smiley, but the comment you've just written is quite verbose and notably doesn't contain any linkage.
would it be fair to say linking to pages is significantly more tricky on the ipad over a laptop? or would you see that as simply a failing on my part?
i ask, only because christine is the fastest typist i've met and she gave up writing a blog on the ipad the other night because her laptop was on the next desk (although switched off) and although she could have finished the job via touch, moving to a physical keyboard was just faster.
if it's faster for her, it must be faster for everyone. i assume.
Faster but not necessarily more convenient.
true, but given a straight choice... and having had a few drinks, the laptop won. which to me was a significant moment (as an observer).
Mm, may be significant to you, not to me. I wouldnt say one is better than the other. It depends on the situation.
Evening
I mentioned is the other day, Pastebot is a really useful app for not just links but string a clipboard of potentials to paste.
But sure, a laptop is still quicker, right now anyway
BTW, Christine/Mr C
[not to change the subject but] Did you get my email?
it is, because i cannot figure why so many people keep telling me the ipad is going to replace my laptop, while i struggle to make it work.
i don't remember the last time i was so out-of-step with a perceived technological direction. it feels to me like the world has it wrong, so i'm looking for anything that might relate to what i feel.
why am i not in love with iTouch technology?
Because you have fat fingers like me and can never hit the right letters?
Because you're closer to the Power User model?
Maybe you need a stylus for the iPad to make it work for you (and Apple needs to make a place for said stylus to live)?
I don't know about it being a replacement. I dont see it like that, so I dont really care if thats what people are saying.
You're not much of a consumption person, so why would you love it? Plus you never really gave it a chance. You use touch devices for five seconds at a time before throwing them at walls. If it is such a technological change, it takes a while to get used to it.
I'm still getting used to my Mac so many years later.
typing isn't the only problem, i don't think.
when you use a computer, your hand doesn't block out the screen. hands at waist height, screen at head height. with any touch device, it feels like you're blocking the very think you're trying to work with.
on the ipad the keyboard sites beneath the edit pane, but then you only have a 3" screen to work with. which is too small.
it's like i need two screens. one to type on and the other to look at. like a massive nintento DS :)
Frozen sausages
Really can't seeing it happen.ing Blows the clean functional design out of the equation
i've had an ipod touch for about three years and it still drives me batty.
Yeah it's weird having to do that playing games and stuff...
How often do you use it?
i use it to read email, say every 30 minutes during the day. but when there's an email to reply to, i open gmail on a computer. it's an insane workflow, but i can't reply on the touch. only read.
same with comments.
That was my question when this came up last time. Alex and I use both the iPhone and iPad quite heavily and I think you just adapt
Why not just check gmail on a computer every 30 mins?
cause i'm using public machines and have to keep logging out. the touch is the only device i have that's always logged in.
I don't reply to email on an iPod either. Why is that insane? You know what you have waitin for you when you get to it. Why can't that be the workflow?
What about an experiment where you force yourself to use it to reply, say for one week, without resorting to e MacBook?
If Mr C can't use it, it's not functional for him...
i get VERY angy. hulk angry. at typing on it.
also, i wouldn't get anything done.
The trick is to keep the hand moving. Then stuff only stays blocked for a short time.
For email and comments only? I thought you hated email?
I wouldn't say it's significantly more tricky no... I use different operating systems all over the place and so perhaps I'm less used to any one way in any one system, and I'm less specialised. Which leads me to, I don't think it's a failing on your part but that because you're perhaps more into one way of doing it then perhaps you expect it to work more the same way or something?
But yes the key point is that we are different and I think I might be generalising but I think that part of what computers have been designed for in the past are people who build computers, and part of what computers might need to be designed for now is everyone else.
And I would say that currently the iPad is too far the other way, it's almost deliberately crippled in the same way that Macs originally didn't have arrow keys on the keyboard so that people wouldn't design for the old way. The current iPad forces people to build it in a kind of crippled really out there kind of way but that then these will converge and we'll have maybe moved on. Does this make any sense?
I should include a link :) (and a smiley :) ) These are the slides from a South By Southwest talk from yesterday about the problems with iPad design and maybe some suggestions for solutions and maybe about where we are going. Make sure you check out the slide notes or you won't know what's going on. The interface for reading this is insane but it seems like a really interesting talk and take: http://www.slideshare.net/joshclark/sxsw-ipad-design-headaches-take-two-tablets-and-call-me-in-the-morning (you need to click Speaker Notes on Slide 1 first and then advance the slides and yes they are messed up from a formatting point of view - sorry)
I think it's a hurdle that is overcome by familiarity
I agree. It's context. I think I think better on the iPad.
but i use windows and macs interchangeably. daily. no problem.
True. Maybe it's not the device for him.
ooh, and linux.
That's quite the skill. It's hard to know both I reckon.
it does. but i LOOOOVE arrow keys :)
Interesting that you say how much you dislike touch but faced with a Kanagroo TV, you were disappointed that it didn't have a touch interface.
yeah, but that's just a mini tv. i can watch iplayer on ipad no problems. i can watch movies, tv and f1 races all day.
i can't type a comment like this. or quote autosport like this:
The already slim chances of the Bahrain GP returning this season were dented after a state of emergency was declared
especially adding italics. impossible on the pad :)
I do to. Not to a terribly deep PC level but it's fine
So just use it for what you want. I must have missed the part where Steve Jobs gave out a rulebook.
i program in visual studio on windows and xcode on the mac. not a problem to switch.
Adding italics is impossible?
Eh?
I think Mr Jobs prefers breaking rulebooks, Christine ;)
You can't.
[Sent from my iPad] :)
like i said. i've never been soooo against the grain as this.
for me :)
What grain? The only person I know talking about a grain is you as you busily fight against it.
Select text and hit the i button you created.
I'm not saying use it if it frustrates you but it's not as easy because it's a relatively new input method [that works, on the whole]
I wonder what would happen if we somehow just said to Mr C that he had to only use his iPad for a week. (I'm not saying that we would actually do this, but just imagining).
What would happen? I mean he'd obviously go though the hulk stage, but then would the need to interact and use the Internet win? And after a while would he work out a way of using the device? Or would he end up not using it at all?
(By the way I am writing this comment on my iPad with my computer and "real" keyboard in front of me)
i just like apple+a or ctrl+a.
#oldskool
you wouldn't hear for me for a week. no comments, no tweets, no email.
I agree with Alex, it would be an interesting exercise. And I think you'd get on with it after the strop broke.
You may not change your mind but you'd be better at it
but it's still your text. could you maybe write a couple of daily posts via only the ipad? with links, quotes, images and stuff? see if it's doable.
I will try if someone happily buys me an iPad first ;)
It's doable but not as easy, agreed
But commenting and emails, c'mon...
Ask your wife to buy mine for you?
Call it your half-birthday present :D
Well it's my turn to write the daily for Thursday so I can give it a go. But this I think is the crux of what I'm trying to get at. When Apple started with the Mac they said here is this new thing and we've taken away a whole load of stuff to lead evyone in a new direction (you couldn't develop on the original macs you had to buy a Lisa). But the benefit of doing that was that we had a graphical user interface and you can imagine what all the programmers thought, "this thing is hopeless it doesn't even have arrow keys, you can't do anything serious on it, it's a toy".
I don't think the iPad is ready for power users like you yet Mr C. That's what i'm thinking.
Just had a lovely and unexpected chocolate cheesecake slice. Yum :)
Pat, may I ask what you do use it for so far. Videos, games, ebooks, mild browsing?
From earlier, wonder if you guys can help:
For the first while I played with it to see what I'd use it for and now I barely touch it. My desktop computer is in the living room. I used netbook for twitter/comments during racing events so far this year (so I can have video fullscreen on desktop).
I'd say fix but you'd probably get beeter advice and first hand experience from http://forums.macrumors.com/
Or just buy a mouse. I'm not a fan of trackpads
#affinity
i guess so. i don't want to be left behind, but i don't know what i can do either.
i know that no matter how small or fast they make them, it's unlikely to change anything. my issue is with the interface being the screen, i guess.
Are we talking about Red Bull sponsors now?
This is why my phone is a Nokia E71 with a little keyboard on it, for me a phone has to be tactile.
Thanks. Just wanted to see if you guys had tried it before first.
hehe
I mean so far the only thing people seem to use it for is to play silly games and watch a bit of TV, but I have a TV, and things I miss on TV I watch on iPlayer (or whatever) on the internet-capable device with the biggest screen, which is the desktop. I just don't see the point of watching a film or good quality TV on something as small as an ipad.
I get that, for me it's invaluable when I travel. I can load up some books, tv shows, films and Instapaper and I'm good for a really long flight, train ride, etc
Mostly, I browse or read through a variety of apps. But I don't have a laptop/netbook as I knew this was coming
Time to update SidepodBoston's Wiki
as a person who's never travelling anywhere (except when driving), i think this is the thing that doesn't relate.
Absolutely, I was just about to write that. #MoreAffinity. :)
You don't seem to need a portable device at all to be honest
Well, not too portable anyway
PING: http://sidepodcast.com/post/daily-16th-march-2011
good discussion all. very much appreciated. a lot of food for thought.
Mr C, did you get the chance to look for Boston Scott's email?
will do chap.
Much appreciated