Needing Photographs

In the effort of building my own product site (click to see the post about that), I realized that I needed very specific photographs for my site, far more so than I had anticipated.

I had originally thought that I would be able to get by using photos purchased from Istockphoto.com but I didn’t realize that the photos were merely depictions of generic items.

For many of my upcoming review and profile pages, I needed specific products that had been photographed: eg, Columbian Coffee Beans or Instant Coffee Powder or whatever.

It’s okay to use some of the generic pictures available, but if you want to be specific, you just can’t use generic photographs of products: there’s no way you can be sure what is being photographed.

I’m not sure of the legality of using pictures taken from places like Amazon either. Even though I’d be using the pictures to promote Amazon products, I wouldn’t be using them in EXACTLY the way they intended.

While I could use product manufacturer’s pictures without too much of a problem, I guess that part of the problem is that I can’t photograph or portray exactly what I wanted.

So enter the Light Tent

I know it’s not exactly impressive, but I thought I needed to take a first step rather than just sit twisting in the wind! So I did.

The exact instructions are here. I followed them as best I could. But I had to make up the part about the lamps I need. I ended up using 2 x 15W white light CF bulbs in each of the smaller lamps, and a 23W white CF bulb in the top light. There’s also a lot of ambient light from the room lights.

The other part where I had to improvise was the camera: I just used what I had, my Lumix LMC-DX30 which could do small and reasonably close up shots of products. I’m not exactly sure how I will be able to take photos of beans yet. That may require some artistry on my part, esp. if I can’t get a decent close-up.

First sample photographs

When you start taking photographs, it is merely testing the waters: take a look. Any feedback would be appreciated!

This picture isn’t well cropped, but that’s because I cropped it too closely. I know that. What do you think about the sharpness? The color? The background?

I’m making it up as I go along. I do believe the next few shots will be better but the background seems troublingly gray. I’m not sure why yet. The background is why, so perhaps there’s an overcast of shadow on the back.

Having fun!

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Today’s post looks at whether your site is mobile ready, and how to do it. The mobile web is beginning the growth phase and could be even bigger a phenomenon than the current web, as the number of mobile units out in the market, many of which are mobile internet ready, is huge!

The results are pretty good, too, if you take a look.

Of course, this is fortuitous because it means I can figure out if people are actually seeing the sign in our target area and visiting our site from the URL or not. But the risk is if you are on the street, and you want to check the details before you call, and your site isn’t mobile you’ll likely discourage the visitors because of what they might see.

What do they see when they get there? Well, before they would have seen a busy site in mini-view with lots of places to click, and not suited to the mobile experience at all. But I installed one plugin called WordPress Mobile which …

WordPress Mobile Edition

A mobile/phone/PDA friendly interface for your blog with progressive enhancement for advanced mobile browsers.

This is a combination theme and browser checker that delivers a mobile view if one of the user agents matches the list of mobile browsers. With so many mobiles out there, the list of browsers is quite diverse, but the user experience is great.

Once you install the WordPress Mobile Edition, and activate it, it’s pretty smooth. You can test your site at Ready.Mobi to see if it is compatible.

The stats are meaningless without taking a screenshot of the site in mobile view, but that’s a little tricky! Any suggestions how to get a pc to view a mobi.site? Are you a mobi developer? Do you have a mobile site? Do you have a regular site and are you getting it ready for the mobile world?

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Would you like to own this ‘thing of beauty’? Isn’t it amazing? Wonder what the gasoline bill is?

After all, how you get about town is as important as getting about town! Right?

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Nowadays, I use…

Google Docs – for straightforward document creation and sharing. I especially like the spreadsheets options, and the fact I can share stuff easily. I use the standard version AND the hosted version with a domain or two of mine.

USB Key or Flash Drives – I use a lot of apps for the USB key, courtesy of PortableApps. There is stuff for most needs there, including Productivity, Internet, Media, and more. Most of the stuff is open source, and even after so many years, there is no sign that Microsoft has created any portable applications at all. Why would they?

EverNote – I’ve experimented a great deal with EverNote, and I really like the features for note creation, and sharing. I also managed to install the software (from inside the main App) on a keyring and use it without any problems. I think the transfer portions even for the paid version are awfully scrooge like, esp. in these days of 10mb of images (and that’s small).

WordPress – I created a couple of private blogs to host the development of my new sites (the Coffee One and another one to come soon). I find it combined with LiveWriter a great way to write notes, posts, stubs, notes, store research, upload photos I want to use, etc.. If anything, I am finding it much more useful overall than EverNote as it makes everything easily accessible.

To create a private blog, simply install one of the Member plugins that restricts access, turn off the publicity, close the registrations, and voila! One secure, private area.

Flickr – Although I don’t post ALL my photos on Flickr, I find it really easy to share the stuff I want, and to post it to my blog or wherever. It’s not free for unlimited usage. But at $24.95pa, it’s a real steal.

Skydrive – I have 25GB of space from MS courtesy of the LiveSpaces Program. I’ve tried to use it but I find the whole idea of uploading a bunch of stuff from a browser pretty clunky, esp. since I’d like to use it for serious cloud storage (not backup!). But the system isn’t fully mature as copying and pasting files or folders doesn’t really work.

So, I am now using DropBox to help with this. It pretty much works as SkyDrive should. The free space is smaller, but you can upgrade to 100GB of space.

Having your own hosting is also part and parcel of this Cloud computing era, and I run a number of sites that reflect my differing interests. No need to brag here about them all, but it definitely helps with the FTP applications, hosting on your personal domains, and much more.;

Lastly, I spend a lot of time listening to Internet Radio in different formats, esp. I like the Radio?Sure software and XMplayer, both of which work as USB apps or can be installed regularly! (In fact, if you use these a lot, simply copy them to your desktop, run them – all faves saved – and delete them when done.

And, I’ll let you into a secret: I’m beginning to like NOT having to install apps and reboot XP (yes, it still happens) each time I want to use them. I can just copy the folder, and it works! It’s a little slower than running an installed app, but it’s a huge timesaver if you’re testing software.

Now, if I could only figure out how to make money in the cloud… then I could travel the world! Anyone?

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Could this be the one I buy?

Image via Wikipedia

I was pondering this question today when I was reading the announcements of the Amazon Kindle for International Sales. Which of these would make a better reader?

Pricing: Kindle 1 vs. T91 0

The Kindle is at least $240 cheaper than the Asus Eee PC T91 series, so on price alone, the Asus T91 would lose, except…

Power: Kindle 1 vs. T91 1

The Asus Eee PC T91 is, in fact, a TABLET PC! Yes, it’s a fully fledged PC that can run software, browse, send email, read books, and a whole bunch of things that an ordinary PC could do. Even more, you are not tied to one reader or one e-book store, esp. if you buy PC software for reading ebooks, or install the Kindle for PC. So, in short, you avoid serious customer lock-in.

Features: Kindle 1 vs. T91 2

The Kindle is totally grayscale, while the T91 offers a touchscreen interface with tablet functionality, and even note taking features.

Size: Kindle 2 vs. T91 2

The T91 offers much in a small space, but the Kindle can easily slip into your bag or purse, without additional cables, power points, etc., unless you are going on a longer journey. The batteries will keep you reading for quite a while, certainly more than the T91 can ever do.

Dedicated: Kindle 3 vs. T91 2

The Amazon Kindle is in fact a dedicated machine, with simpler and more robust features. So it is designed to fulfill one function well. Unlike the Asus Eee PC T91 which is a flexible, and therefore, perhaps less reliable machine. So it boots faster, closes down quicker, and gets to the main function faster than any PC ever could.

Of course, in a perfect world, one would have both. At a combined price of less than $800, this is actually feasible. And avoids one of the pitfalls of an all-in-one type machine. You don’t have to rely one machine for EVERYTHING. Always a plus, in my book.

What would you buy? The Asus Eee PC T91 or the Amazon 6" Kindle or both or neither?

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Image via Wikipedia

I don’t know why people waste their breath on the traditional PC vs. Mac wars. It seems rather ‘fruitless’ to me. A computer is a computer, after all.

What do you use it for?

A PC of any kind is only as good as what it’s used for. Most people will only surf the blogs, download music, and browse the occasional jobs ads or facebook. A mac is sufficient for that kind of internet. For sure. A PC, too. Even a netbook.

A broken Mac is useless

If I were smart, I’d have both. Trouble: a broken Mac is a huge pain, and rotten piece of fruit. A broken PC is easily repaired, again and again and again, if needs be. I will challenge anyone to say that a Mac is as easy to repair outside North America as a PC.

We have a regular PC store across the road. When things go wrong, they can replace a motherboard, a hard-drive, a CD-drive, a video-card within 48 hours (at most). They can reinstall Windows in about 24 hours. I challenge any Mac lover to get me service as good as that, anywhere. Granted, I have to pay for the changes to the system; but I can have it fixed near my home for basic costs.  Oh, and that’s despite the hardware on Mac being the same (essentially) a a PC!

Overpriced but flashy

Nice graphics, too, on the Mac. But when it comes down to it, do the graphics really help you get things done? Do they? I challenge anyone to say SnowLeopard helps them be more efficient than Windows 7 any day.

Software, Software, Software

The fact remains: Software on the PC is really the widest, most affordable range of commercial software on any OS. There are a few things on a Mac that you can’t find on a PC, but who uses them? I don’t. I can, however, run any number of commercial, free, and opensource software programs on my PC, and I don’t have to wait for Steve Jobs’ imprimatur or the latest update from the Apple crew.

And, yes, even Mac’s can run Windows. Congratulations, welcome to the world of interoperability! Now, when we can install SnowLeopard on our PCs as a virtual machine? Oh, we can’t.

In fact,

Windows runs on the widest range of hardware, has the largest range of software, in the most languages allowing users to do the whatever task they need to. And, the hardware or software is usually the best value available. What more can you say? Apple tried to do the same thing, and failed miserably. Yet, the Apple cult goes on. At least it gives me fodder to post…

So what do you use? Are you a Windows User or a Mac Fan? Or do you use both, like any reasonable user?

Related articles for you to chew on!

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RadioSure: A Great New Alternative

It’s easy to install, easy to use, and it plays the stream just as Windows Media Player would, but it seems to use a lot less resources on my PC. Always good.

I’ve been trying it out for a couple of days, it includes multi-format playback, buffering and a record feature that records in MP3 format at different (and high quality) bit-rates. I’m not sure where it pulls the station data from, so it’s not immediately obvious how up-to-date it is. It would be nice to see some station list update feature. Otherwise, it’s on my hit list of great music software, now.

There are a couple of other neat design features: click on the graphing window, and it goes silent; right clicking on station produces a table that you can update yourself with feed type, details, etc.; and a copy URL feature on right clicking to make those long URLs much easier to enter.

Do try it out. There’s even a simpler no-install Portable version which is the one I’m using. Perfect for your Eee PC, your USB Stick, or even no hassle install on your regular PC. Sorry, not available for Mac or Linux.

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Amazon recently announced: the International Kindle with integrated Wireless! I can’t do it any better than Jeff Bezos… so, here goes. Click to check out the device itself, if you’re an international reader, then you need to read this page, otherwise US readers can go here.

So, if you have been waiting or wanting a Kindle reader but couldn’t because it didn’t serve the non-US market, now you’re in luck. Good luck on getting one before Christmas though! I wonder what demand will be like! I’m so glad that Amazon recognizes the importance of its non-US readers by agreeing to serve them in this fashion. Up until now, I had been largely dismayed by the increasing IP restrictions on internet music listeners by the big four music companies. I’m so glad that there are business people who understand that there lots of non-cash strapped customers in the rest of the world (yes, 6 Billion of us!) who would love to purchase music and books from the US. I wonder if the Big 4 music companies will take note. Jeff Bezos, I applaud you and your company. Well done.

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It’s true! My how things have changed in a year!

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1. Your situation: where and when?

Where exactly will you be using your Asus Eee PC after you buy it? Will it be within easy reach of a power outlet? Or will you be unpacking it in a variety of different locations, and power sockets may be unavailable? What kind of time period will you be using it for? A couple of hours a day or in excess of five hours? If you suspect that you will be using it a lot more for a lot a lot longer, you can choose to either buy an additional battery if you are buying an older model Asus Eee PC, you’ll be getting a more traditional Li-ion battery which gives out power for approx. 2.5 to 5 hours, or choose a newer model with a 6-Cell 48Wh Li-ion Battery or Li-polymer battery which should help you get more time.

2. Your price: how much and why?

If you’re on a limited budget (say: you’re a student, buying a 2nd/3rd PC, a present for a kid,…) then you may want to steer away from the latest models and choose an earlier model. But the oldest models really do have the shortest life span. Buying an extra battery may add an unexpected expense and cut the difference between the model you bought and a more expensive model with longer battery life. In other words, do your homework carefully, and treat any manufacturer battery life times as generally approximate. You may do better (but not likely!)… most likely you will get about 60-75% of the amount because you will not always run your machine on the most optimal settings. So figure carefully.

3. Its size and weight: how much do you want to carry?

This sounds like an odd point, but if you look carefully, you will notice that the Asus Eee PCs with the longer battery life do really weigh more. That’s partly because the machines themselves are getting bigger – 10.1" vs 7.0". But the difference may be important to you if you are buying this to put in your kid’s backpack or planning to slip it into a small briefcase or valise. The Eee PC 1000HA sports 7 hours but weights 1.45Kg and that is approximately 50% heavier than the Eee PC 701SD which weighed only 0.92Kg. This also goes for the physical dimension: the newest bigger machines are quite a lot bigger than the original ones.

Weighing up these factors will help you decide whether you value battery life over price or weight or portability. One aspect that seems to matter less though is the preference of OS. Most people these days do prefer XP over Linux for simple choice of applications. So which Asus Eee PC will you be buying? If you’re not sure… you can visit Buy Asus Eee PC to help you figure and select the right models, find the latest models, and get good deals on whatever model you want to buy.

James Dickson has been following the Eee PC since it first came out, and is an eager enthusiast. Do drop buy and let us know what you think of your purchase or whatever is on your mind at http://eeeblogger.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Dickson

(James Dickson is my nom de plume! Fancy, eh?)

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If you’re a road warrior, you need a bigger keyboard and screen, excellent connectivity, and a large hard disk in a small space. The Asus Eee PC 1000HE has got it all, in buckets; and attractively so.

The 1000HE sports Intel’s new and faster Atom N280 chip. The 10? display shows 1,024×600 pixels, but doesn’t have that annoying ‘glossy’ effect, making working outdoors comfortable. And the 160GB hard disk means plenty of space for your presentations, photos, music, and work documents, while the 1000HE’s keyboard makes touch-typing pleasant.

But most importantly, the bigger battery and efficiency software provides an amazing battery life that will get you through the day. Connectivity includes Bluetooth, 802.11n wireless, and all the standard options. So you’ll can enjoy all those great features and put in a productive day’s work without needing to recharge.

The is the first choice netbook for people who travel often. Its excellent battery life outshines the competition, you can touch type on its keyboard, and it is visually attractive, too.

Available now. With fast shipping and 1-year manufacturer warranty. Current price range: $380-395.00.

Click here to find out more about the Asus Eee PC 1000HE, pricing and ordering.

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So whenever I need something from Google in English, I always set the cookie to the default using the link: http://www.google.com/ncr and then everything usually comes up in English instead of Chinese.

If you travel, and your PC gets geotargetted as non-US (very annoying sometimes … when, for example, you want to read the Google News)… this trick will save you a lot of frustration.

Kenneth

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Recently I started using an Acer AspireOne NetBook (as they are now called) to do this because, despite having a small screen, they turn on FAST, are small enough to balance on my knee, and bright enough to read clearly.

But, and the big but is this, they are still a traditional NOTEbook despite their small form factor, require a keyboard and mouse to operate, and are a pain in the butt if you want to get away from a notebook/desktop type setup even if only for breakfast.

Enter CrunchTablet (or dare I say, Crunchpad?)… a simple Tablet type device that would allow me to do pretty much all the things I now want to do over coffee, including surf, read email, and see the latest blog posts. Seems Michael Harrington is about to start selling them for a reasonable $300 per unit. Perhaps they’ll even be taking on the Kindles and Sony Readers of the world, too, as a platform for e-books and e-documents.

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If you are one of the lucky ones, you will probably say: It doesn’t matter a jot. Lucky you.

For the rest of us, we need to devise some way to handle the loss of data. Why? Because in most instances, the loss of data is sudden, unexpected, and (often) permanent. So let’s consider some of the issues now.

Different Media

While we may curse the need to make backups of our data, the reality is that there are many options now available that task much easier than ever.

CD-/DVD-Rom: you can burn your data to CD-Rom and you can pack upto 700MB of stuff onto one disc. With DVD-Roms the upper limits are 4.7GB or even double that. Most new notebooks and pc systems come with at least a DVD burner installed. The CD-rom discs are inexpensive, while DVD discs are not the cheapest. Once your archive is set, you can burn as many copies as you need in a few minutes.

• Pro’s: cheap, portable and fast.
• Con’s: discs can get lost or scratched. Sometimes they can be unreadable.

Online Storage: There are quite a few options for storing files online, from your current website host to specific back up companies. Typically, you will pay monthly or annual dues and you can access the files on your desktop (across the network), through a fileshare, or via a webtype interface. You may get additional tools to simplify and speed-up the process.

• Pros: larger space than any single disc, it’s offsite. Secure, too.
• Cons: Depends on net access, companies lose stuff, and go bankrupt. Expensive.

Network Attached Storage Devices offer online and immediate access to ALL of the data on the server, they are relatively simple to set up and can back up your entire system as you need. Storage is additional space and NAS is available to all the PCs on the network. NAS systems can be easy to setup, and run like mini-PC systems on their own. You can expand simply by adding extra devices on the network. It’s even possible to build your own system.

• Pros: typically lots of space, accessible.
• Cons: It’s onsite, additional electricity needed, they break down.

What else is there? Memory sticks can be used, but the memory can be volatile, easily erased. The sticks can be lost easily, too. External hard drives offer solutions like simplified NAS devices but you have to do quite a lot of your own copying meaning your PC may be backing up when you should be using it.

There are many options now for data protection: none of them by themselves offers a complete, permanent solution to your backup issues. But if you balance effectiveness vs. cost, onsite vs. offsite, and you build in redundancy (ie. having several layers of protection) you should be able to confront most disasters.

Typical scenarios: #1 someone breaks in and steals your PC (AND ALL your discs).

This did happen to a friend of mine. Someone broke in and removed ALL the computer equipment in the room. Everything. He had no backups of stuff outside the room, and lost months of work for several textbooks he was working on. Some form of offsite back up would have helped for sure even if he’d just made copies of his crucial stuff and put them on a server elsewhere or given CD copies to a friend.

Typical scenario: #2 your PC needs servicing or breaks down.

This happened to me on several occasions. Having extra hard disks installed made it easy to whip out the data and start working on another system by putting the hard disk into an external drive bay. I’ve had to do this more than once, it helped to save time by making my data available while my PC was being fixed. Of course, remembering to split the system on Disk C: and the data on Disk D: is necessary.

What data emergencies have you experienced? Were you ready for them? What did you do? How are you backing up your data now? Of course, you ARE backing up, aren’t you? Tell me you have some disaster plan in waiting!

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See what I mean? Who cares a toss about someone twitting about their great day! Next up. Mashable talks about an article with a link – since it’s about Twitter, like I’ll bother. JohnChow logs in to boast about how much money he made today. WTF? JimKukral is the only person who knows what he’s talking about… Edlau talks about something that I haven’t the faintest idea about. JimKukral then tweets about some weather issue or other then makes a completely odd remark. Mashable repeats his link with another … and Edlau talks about someone I don’t know about. Really why do I bother?

The conversations are totally discontiguous, totally self-important, and a complete waste of time. Which is why I removed Twitter from my phone, and I doubt I care much about my old Twitter account. Worse, though, with the hidden TinyURLs, there is series risk of visiting links that will endanger your PC, your security and your identity! I just don’t know why everyone’s in love with Twitter. I can only assume it’s the same virus that affects people who see Ipods as God’s gift to mankind.

Two final thoughts: 1. in the UK, when you call someone a ‘twit‘ you call them an idiot, or stupid or annoying person. Of course, Answers.com also says that to twit is to tease someone or make fun of them. Pause for thought.

Oh, and now the video.

Enough said. Don’t bother trying to find me on Twitter. You can find me on FaceBook instead.

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What a wonderful little NetBook! Take a look at the shots in Flickr.

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1. Functionality: it’s crippled in many functions.

Everyone raves about the iPhone and how it looks. In reality, there are basic functions that any standard 3G phone can do that iPhone cannot. The iPhone in version 2 is still crippled by Apple in significant ways. There is no cut or paste function, no multi-media email function, no video function, it’s unable to multi-task with 3rd party apps in the background, SMS can’t be forwarded, no tethering either so you can surf from your notebook, no FM radio, no in-built flash… to mention the most obvious ones. That the iPhone is crippled is obvious (when many competitors can provide these services and functions), the real question is why.

2. Repairs: Can’t replace your battery yourself.

For most repairs, you have to return your phone to the manufacturer for repair. With Apple, you have to return your phone to them when you want to change the battery. This adds to the expense, you’re without a mobile phone for the time it’s away, and probably your data, too. Doubtless, replacing the battery will be more expensive, too, as Apple are the ONLY authorised reseller of batteries. Can you imagine Nokia, Sony, or Motorola requiring their phones to be returned to change the battery? The repairs alone for replacing the battery will be US$85, and they WILL erase all your data for you for free. Thanks, Apple. (oh, by the way, my Nokia battery is replaced by me WITHOUT any data loss)…

3. Tied one provider: And one only.

With my nokia phone, I’m able to go to any provider and purchase a mobile service. The typical deal with Apple is that there is one service provider who is authorised to sell telephone service in a particular market. But that company may not be the best service provider in your area, or even the most competitive. It’s likely that the competitor will provide less than stellar support as well.

4. Expansion slots: What are they for?

There are no expansion slots for additional memory: in other words, you can’t add a memory card with an extra 8GB or 16GB of memory. At a time, when even the humblest made in China phones come with memory slots for SD cards or minicards, Apple can’t even add one to the machine. But then Apple claim that they are doing it for the convenience of consumers. It’s really convenient NOT to be able to slip in an extra RAM card. Oh, yes. That’s right… you have to send it away to do any repairs. Good luck with that one!

5. Intransparent pricing: It sucks to be a customer.

When I went to the Apple Iphone website in Taiwan, I was greeted by a hugely confusing pricing table that included no less than three different pricing structures each with variations in the pricing. In fact, the iPhone 3G was quoted at over fifteen different price points on the same page. Amazing? Confusing? The irony: only two of those price points were cheaper than my Nokia phone. Oh, and each pricing plan required a different deposit.

It will cost you more, MUCH more than other phones… By my own calculations, it will cost a minimum of 32% to over 70% more on the first plan than my own service + phone package. The basic plans are more affordable, but the initial outlay is quite considerable. You are expected to outlay more than 2/3rd of the cost at purchase point.

6. Apps: Tight control by Apple?

Now Apple supporters will croon: but you can easily add apps from other missing functionality. And it’s true. But why should I have to suffer all of these software limitations when other devices can do all this and more, just as easily, more cheaply, and with less inconvenience for the customer, OUT OF THE BOX! Tell me. But worse, Apple will only permit certain programs on their system and will pull licenses or restrict software in the iPhone App Store that they deem unsuitable for their phone. If this were only for issue of safety and reliability, perhaps it would be less of a concern. But it’s not.

So, in reality, the Apple Iphone will cost you a lot more money than almost any other similarly powered device available today. It is behind the times in technical capability in a number of ways, too. And your tied in so many ways, it’s unbelievable that anybody would consider such a beast. So, save your money, save your hassle, buy a better phone than iPhone3G and tell Apple to do better ‘next time’.

So can anybody explain to me why people are queueing up to buy a black brick with a nice screen and a price that leads to serious sticker shock?

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Firefox 3

My first browser of choice is the venerable Firefox 3. It’s stable, fast and has an endless array of plugins that can be added to your installation. The current version has, I’ve found, been a little unstable on my platforms when it has invoked the Gmail site, causing my PC to slow unduly and sometimes even crash. But perhaps that is the fault of my nearly six year-old PC system! The add-ons are great but can also add extra burden to your PC or even crash Firefox. This installed fine on my older PC.

To download Firefox, visit http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/ or click on the image.

Flock 1.2

A seriously interesting variant of FireFox is Flock. In essence, this is Firefox in social mode and provides a lot of interaction with Web 2.0 sites, like Flickr, YouTube, blogger, Facebook, Digg, etc.. One of the reasons I like this version is that there are a number of ways to interact with the Web 2.0 and it facilitates each of these methods. For example, you can post directly to your blog, upload images, or interact with people on Facebook without closing your browser window or what you are looking at. Plus, many of the plugins for Firefox also work for Flock. It also installed well on my PC. It is a bit of a resource hog, but so far hasn’t crashed my system.

To download Flock, visit http://www.flock.com/download or click on the image.

Chrome

I use Google’s Chrome at work and on my small portable, but originally I couldn’t install on this PC because of some technical reason or other about it not being XPSP2. Anyway, I liked Chrome because of its ease of use, relative speed, and its independent windows. I hate losing my work when one tab or window becomes unstable because of slowloading scripts or worse. Google designed a good looking browser that helped to mitigate that. For a while, I used it regularly at work, but I had hoped that it would install on this computer. And it did. But each time I use it, it crashed. Right now, it refuses to load any pages. So I haven’t any screenshots of it. It just refused to work. I can’t recommend this for older computers at all. It will install but it refuses to run.

No download link is provided since this failed to run properly on my system. You can google it yourself!

Opera

I’ve been using Opera for sites that were causing problems for Firefox and I’ve been impressed at its power, speed and ease of use. It was far more innovative in its GUI than any of the other browsers and is offered on a far bigger array of platforms than any other browser. While I do not use it everyday, it is my backup browser of choice because it is so rugged. Not all sites, however, play nicely with Opera. Its strengths lie in its speed, size and its ability to provide browsing, rss feeds and mail/chat services in a small and powerful format. It was the first browser with tabbing, to my recollection, and has the ability to add widgets. It also runs quickly on my system taking up a little ram only.

To download Opera, visit http://www.opera.com/browser/ or click on the image.

Apple’s Safari

I’ve reviewed Safari before, but I was frustrated for a number of reasons with Safari. I didn’t like the page rendering, it didn’t install on older machines like mine, and I didn’t take to it immediately because many of Firefox’s conveniences weren’t provided. I was able to install it on my work machine but it didn’t seem to like SP1. Now however, Safari 4 beta installed smoothly, runs fairly quickly on my system. It seems to borrow heavily from Google Chrome’s stylised offering, with buttons in the top right, and the private browsing feature. It’s too early to tell if I will switch at home to Safari. I didn’t at school and eventually removed Safari 3. Who knows? I might even keep it this time.

To download Safari, visit http://www.apple.com/safari/welcome/ or click on the image.

And now the proof of the pudding, which browser uses the most resources when showing my website’s first page which comes in at less than 600Kb.

It’s Safari which is using over 250MB of Memory Usage. Flock and Firefox are second and third. And Opera comes in at the bottom. So, Opera really is an efficient, lower resource, more flexible browser! Why do I not use it more?

Which browsers do you have installed on your computer? What do you prefer? Which are less reliable? Share your views…

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I was browsing for an MP3 player last Sunday, but I couldn’t choose between the low quality offerings in the store, and the DRM enabled higher priced offerings of Sony and Apple. Of course, the bigger question with these ‘tied devices’ is the availability of songs to international markets.

Here in Taiwan, iPods are very popular, but is there an iTunes store? No. Can you buy on any other iTunes store? No. When is iTunes going to open? Who knows: Apple has made no announcement. In other words, we can’t legally buy music downloads here from any number of retailers for the same reasons… While this is a bearable situation, as long as there are CDs available… one day CDs sales will vanish… what then?

With iTunes not being available in a significant number of countries, and Kindle just starting out… the availability of books on Kindle will obviously be restricted. Throw in DRM, regional restrictions… and there you have Regionalization of the book market devices, meaning that if for any reason you don’t fit the profile, you won’t be able to buy a device, and even if you do, you can’t use the Kindle shop. With Kindle, it’s going to be much the same. Books will become region-coded. That is going to be really scary.

Let’s hope that Amazon don’t take such a ‘restricted’ world view of the Kindle, otherwise… the DRM and copyright notices will make books regional, too. I’m not hopeful given the use of Sprint’s Whisper network for distributing material.

While I don’t pirate music or books, I am a frustrated user who finds it difficult to get music or reading matter that I like legally. But will the American-centric publishers ever wake up to the market they are NOT serving?

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With Chinese New Year just a few weeks ago, I’ve been pretty tardy in posting on this blog. I’m not sure why. Perhaps my motivation levels aren’t as high as they have been. But to spice things up, I bought myself a new N79 Nokia mobile phone.

My first reaction is that I was surprised how MUCH mobile phones had changed in the last four years. This new N79 can do a whole bunch of things that I only heard about: it’s got an MP3 player with FM broadcast, tethering to your notebook, additional applications can be added (still no Skype), a fairly decent camera, and a huge learning curve for me.

I still get flustered when the thing rings, and I don’t know which button to hit or I hit the wrong one inadvertently. Big surprises have been the quality of the sound, the ease of use, and the simplicity of connecting. Big negatives have been the complexity of the phone, the habits of my previous phone, and the slight instability of the PC software.

Why FETNET (??) really sucks?…

I must admit that I was looking for a new phone for a while, and had intended to approach my existing mobile carrier (FETNET) for a new phone, a broadband wireless device, an ETC (highway toll card) and an additional phone line for my wife. But they were so rude. I carefully picked out a Nokia phone with their help, but they wanted me to pay an additional deposit for a new line AND buy the broadband wireless unit. To which, I guffawed loudly and said no chance. I was a customer for their company for 10 years! And they treated me as if I had just walked in off the street. I thought that was hugely unfair and discriminating. Hugely.

Wow! So I canceled my existing contract with them, went to Taiwan Mobile, and bought a better phone, an additional line for my wife, scrapped the mobile broadband since tethering worked, forwent the ETC card, and signed up for broadband. Given the costs of acquiring customers in Taiwan’s very competitive mobile phone industry (with huge saturation for the market), I was absolutely shocked that they would just let me walk out the door. They really lost out on that! I would have been quite happy to pay for mobile broadband, an additional phone line, and a new phone there and then. Instead, I went to Taiwan mobile. That cost FETNET at least. NT$55,000 over 2 years, plus a huge loss of goodwill, and some bad publicity.

Loss of business:

• 1. mobile phone: NT$10000
• 2. 24 months x est. calling NT$600
• 3. 24 months x catch NT$399
• 4. international calls on one phone (minimum: NT$3000 pa)
• 5. 24 months x base phone plan (NT$188)
• 6. FETNET ADSL access x 24 (est. NT$360) for our business.

But I wonder if they really care that much. They will probably never even read this story. One thing is sure: in business, be careful who you make things difficult for. Those customers might just turn around and open their wallet to your competitor!

So now I’m on Taiwan Mobile: and I can honestly say – they’ve been really helpful with my learning curve. Far more so than FETNET ever were. But the irony is: in the Taiwan Mobile store, I talked to the staff member there helping me with my application (former FETNET customer)… her friend came in (also former FETNET customer)… my best friend in Taiwan (former FETNET customer)… They treat their old customers so poorly… perhaps that’s why churn rate of customers at FarEasTone is so low.

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Remember to add the width=’x’ and height=’x’ and frameborder= ‘x’ where x is a number of pixels. I usually use a standard 500px width for this blog. The code is shown in the jpeg below.

You can also obtain the code for sharing a document within your blog. In fact, you can look at some stats for Taiwan in September 2008 that I made available because it was stuck in an Excel worksheet.

Here’s the sample document inserted for you. Enjoy!

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