Whilst this website is primarily focused towards iPhone and Mac reviews we do sometimes have to step back and take a look at the grand picture. So to summarise that’s exactly what I did today.

I was greeted with the opportunity to spend the morning with Ford and their customer safety team looking at some of the new advances which are coming into the Ford range over the next few years.

Although it may not seem obvious for a website like this, we do try to focus on technology as best as we can and not just limit ourselves to Mac and Apple and this really was too big of a subject to miss.

Since this is technology and some pretty clever stuff too I’ve chosen to do a very in depth review of some of the technologies that were demonstrated today. If you’re looking for a short version then you’re out of luck. There isn’t one. However I think you’ll be find the post more than meaty enough.

With more and more young drivers on the road we are seeing an increased number of them being convicted or cautioned from using a mobile phone or indeed any handheld mobile device. Ignoring the fact that using a mobile phone while driving is illegal, the iPhone in particular presents a problem in the fact that there is no physical keyboard making it an even bigger distraction. Couple this with a loud radio station and or passengers in the car at the same time and it becomes very easy to see how the technology you use may provide enough of a distraction for you to have an accident while driving.

The key focus of Ford, as explained by their safety expert, is to ensure that the drivers focus is on the road at all times and this is something that we can wholly agree with.  Unfortunately however distractions do occur and that’s why this safety event has been touring the country showcasing innovative new features and driver aids to help prevent accidents and also increase the convenience and pleasure of driving a motor vehicle.

Driver aids such as assisted parking, Lane assist and collision avoidance have been available for some time however few have been done well.  For the ones that have been done well they are usually priced so far out of the market of the everyday consumer that you will only ever see them on prestige brands (the E-class Mercedes for example).  even then, brands like Lexus had a self parking vehicle which on every video I’ve seen managers to embarrass itself.  In the case of Volvo  they demonstrated a collision avoidance system which resulted in a written off car and some very embarrassed faces.

Unfortunately as you can see my opinion has been somewhat coloured by past events however I was very grateful for the opportunity and I promised myself that I would enter this with an open mind.

After spending some time speaking to their safety expert  it became obvious that many of my misconceptions and fears were unjustified. True, features like the active city stop and Lane assist are built upon the Volvo platform. However it’s fair to say that significant advances have been made over the past few years.

Today however Fords’ focus was on four main innovations. Active City Stop, Rear Seatbelt Airbags, Park Assist and Driver Alert.

Active City Stop

Active city stop is based on the original collision avoidance system that we saw with Volvo. However this system is designed for use in lower speeds hence the name city. The primary idea with this is that if you’re distracted  in low speed, stop and start traffic or if you’re coming up behind a car stopped at a traffic light, the vehicle will bring itself to a safe stop  if for instance you’re distracted or have a momentary lapse in judgement. This is not to be confused with full collision avoidance of this system is designed to work from reflective surfaces (such as that found in numberplate) and is generally designed for low speeds.

Unlike similar systems, the Ford version will not bring the vehicle to a gradual halt. This system is designed to act at the last minute was providing enough of a jolt to remind the passengers and the driver that their attention should be focused on more important matters.

Ford were kind enough to lay on a demonstration of this, both with a demonstrator and one you could try yourself.  To put it mildly being told to drive the car into a wall is a somewhat unnerving experience. However it provided an effective demonstration of a very effective technology even if they were harmless foam blocks.

the key thing should be noted here however, is that this system is designed to  bring the driver’s attention back to the road rather than providing some rudimentary way for someone to pay less attention at slow speeds thereby keeping the driver in control vehicle.

This technology also goes hand-in-hand with Ford’s next technology, driver alert.

Driver Alert

The driver alert system is just that. A series of complicated computer algorithms combined  with a wealth of sensors mounted on the vehicle to detect when a driver is either not in full control of the vehicle or is driving tired. Indeed there are a number of studies that show  that driving tired is almost as bad as driving drunk.

As you can see from the picture, the dashboard displays a small graphic depicting the traffic sign it’s on board camera just saw.

Using the vehicle mounted camera and whilst tracking the way the vehicle moves the system is able to make a decision about when the driver needs to take a break. The system will provide two warnings, a ‘yellow’ or ‘light’ warning indicating that the driver should rest soon, and a ‘red’ warning indicating that the driver should rest immediately.

There are also a number of other systems to assist the driver. Blind spot assistance where the vehicle actively monitors what’s around it, and a speed limiter. Given the number of speeding tickets that are issued these days, that last one might just be a good idea.

To further assist the driver the dashboard can also display local roadsigns that it sees through its centrally mounted camera. Additionally the steering wheel provides a physical level of feedback if you start to wander out of your lane. A system that’s been introduced before in other vehicles, however this time it seems to be done right. Rather than having a vibrating seat cushion or an audible chime the system will shake the wheel rapidly.

Rear Seatbelt Airbags

At last passengers in the back of the car finally get some attention!  Well, at least in the safety department! One of Fords major new advancements is bringing rear seat belts to passengers combined with airbags. Unlike normal airbags these don’t require pyrotechnics to get them going. These, use a pressurised gas cylinder stored underneath the seat reducing the risk of contact burns. Indeed the seatbelt itself is slightly thicker which many people have reported is slightly more comfortable since it’s akin to wearing a padded seatbelt.

The real advancement here is that not only does this mean a safety device is already in contact with you, thereby reducing the risk of injury and accident, but rather surprisingly the seatbelt airbag is safe to use with a number of child seats!  granted if you use the iso-fix system you won’t be using the vehicle seatbelt however if you have a seat that requires a seatbelt this will increase the safety of your child significantly.

Since the belt covers an extremely large area of your upper torso including an airbag in this reduces the risk of injury especially for those at a higher risk such as young children and the elderly. A specially designed tubular buckle allows the gas to flow into the airbag, protecting five times more of the body including head neck and chest protection.

Park Assist

This is perhaps one of the most fun and eagerly awaited demonstrations today. It’s not often you required to give up control of your vehicle whilst being in the drivers seat.  fortunately however you don’t have to give up all of your control.

As I mentioned above I have many preconceptions and fears about self parking cars after seeing it poorly executed on many different vehicles with embarrassing results. As I said to the team at the event “it’ll be very interesting and exciting to see one that actually works”.

Despite my preconceptions I was pleased to see that the Park assist system was perhaps more cautious than others. Choosing to ignore a space rather than attempt it when the conditions were not quite right.  when the system did take over however it left a lot of work up to the driver. This is a lot better than we might think it’s.  asking the driver to give up control of the vehicle is like cutting off a limb however the Ford system  asks you to control the clutch, accelerator and brakes  whilst it simply does the steering.  Indeed even in automatic cars the system will ask you to manually select reverse or forward gears.

Keeping this level of control allowed me to feel a lot more comfortable in allowing the system to take over. That being said it’s extremely disconcerting the first time it happens,  after that it becomes very entertaining. Don’t ask me why but it does! It would certainly make a long journey far more entertaining and pleasurable knowing that this feature alone was there to greet me at the end.

It’s pretty powerful as well, needing only a space only twenty percent longer than the car itself. If you don’t parallel park that often then having just 20% more than the length of the car is enough to put me off attempting it. It’s a very small spot indeed.

All of the technology here is part of a larger system, the Driver Awareness Package with a sensor pod mounted underneath the rearview mirror.  Contained within this pod is a camera (not unlike a digital video camera), a laser system and a radar system. each of these plays a specific role in all the new technologies being demonstrated today combined with front and rear parking sensors.

In fact for the first time ever I’d say that this has all been done right. As I mentioned before, we’ve seen a number of different attempts over the years but few of them seem to have worked as well as the ford system has today.

Not only have many, if not all, of my preconceptions and fears been eliminated today but Ford have taken it upon themselves to providing effective and clear demonstration of just how far they are prepared to go in the pursuit of safety.

I was genuinely impressed at each and every one of the different products I saw today and I’m confident but by the time these vehicles get the new market and second-hand market we will see a marked improvement in driving and a reduced number of insurance claims. what’s even more exciting is that at least 70% of the new Ford focus is going to be the same as every other Ford focus in the rest of the world. Keeping such commonality between different market versions of the vehicle mean that Ford can keep its costs low.

So what about the future?

Well from all this you can begin to see just how much information the vehicle is recording any one time. it’s easy to see and imagine an iPhone app or a dedicated computer program that you will be able to download your driver profile into in the near future. Not only that but with all this information and telemetry on hand it could mean the insurance companies have an easier time making a decision when it comes to final settlement claims.

Ford also have footholds in something called a smart intersection.

Whilst this is a long way off the basic principle is the information collected from the sensors used to provide the technologies mentioned above is fed to a larger network which feeds an intersection computer system which in turn monitors every other vehicle around it I communicates back to your vehicle whether it is safe to turn, continue and if someone is choosing to run a light.

In fact, because this is all one’s system the software used to make it work can easily be upgraded. Ford have already agreed a standard dataset which will be sent to the intersection and indeed intersections run by competing car companies. The standardisation practice here means that we won’t just see junctions which will work with Ford is only the junctions that may work with other manufacturers making driving one of the safest things you can do.

To me it’s overwhelming. The sheer amount of technology here and the potential for it is mind blowing and whilst not strictly falling into the category of iPhone and Mac App reviews it is simply too big a subject to miss. Especially if you are the type to occasionally pick up your iPhone and fumble away at the touchscreen when you’re rolling up to a junction.

If you spend any time walking around a car showroom at late, you will usually find yourself greeted with an iPhone or iPad application that either presents itself to assist you in the sales process, is there is an interactive brochure about the various accessories you can purchase or,  if you look at the Nissan Leaf, an application that provides you with the power to manage your car whilst it’s on your driveway.

Although this event was strictly about safety, it’s easy to see how mobile applications could be introduced in the future which will us to monitor how we drive, our safety as well is how eco-friendly we are being. Let’s face it, we’ve all got our families to think of and safety is no laughing matter.

This feature was originally published on apptacious.com by me on Friday the 26th of August 2011

Well, supposed to. Ok, I’m awkward, I work in IT so I actually use this, but suppose someone rings me on my phone, I shove it on speakerphone, tap the home screen then go out to google, yup, you can do that, at least… you’re supposed to, in fact, you used to.

For whatever reason, I, my mother, my friends, and various other people who are on o2 can no longer get it. Case in point, today I made a normal phone call, in a 3G area (with signal) and wanted to check google, all of a sudden, BOOM, nope, can’t do it.

Ok, let’s make it clear just so you all don’t start ranting and raving here.
If you are in a 3G area or connected to WiFi this should work, if you are NOT in a 3G or WiFi area, this will not work

For the record, this DOES work in WiFi for me.

So, I called o2, guess what? No-ones ever heard of it. Some even claim that the phone technically cannot do it! so here’s a few facts for you.

This is the same phone that has been released in the US on AT&T who offer this as a feature, the phone is more than capable of doing this in a 3G area

and

From a technical standpoint, the 3G architecture that is used on the phone is more than capable of it

Ok, so that aside, maybe it’s just an o2 thing? Well,

Here is a link to the o2 help website that proves you should be able to do it. In fact, here are two links, I’ve not shortened them, and they link to the original page just in case. This post was written and these pages were present at 9:35 GMT on Thursday 17 2011

The first link is not iPhone specific

So, as you can see, o2 say that you can do it on a current, live page. And just so we are sure, here’s the link to the iPhone SPECIFIC page (you will need to click on the fourth link down)

http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/?St=184,E=0000000002965095373,K=2583,Sxi=4,T=test_main,Problem=17348,varset_BBDISP=Internet%20help,question=ref(User):str(Mobile)

And so that we are clear once more, here’s a screenshot of the page…

And just so we know that this hasn’t been implemented in the last few days….

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:ZtSOT4oCuPMJ:service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE/,/%3FSt%3D167,E%3D0000000002942652877,K%3D7443,Sxi%3D3,T%3Dtest_main,Problem%3D17348,varset_BBDISP%3DInternet%2520help,question%3Dref(User):str(Mobile)+can+i+make+a+call+and+use+the+internet+at+the+same+time+uk+iphone+o2&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&source=www.google.co.uk

And here’s a screenshot of the Google Cache that shows all of this…

So, what does this mean?

Well, o2 have advised me that this is incorrect, that this is not something that the phone is capable off (which we know factually to be wrong where it concerns the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3G and 3G S model) and that o2 do not offer this service (again, we know this to be factually wrong based on their website stating very clearly that this can be done, and one of these links is specific to the iPhone). I have also been informed that the service is not available to customers and that this is not a technical issue.

In my case, I actively used the service up until about October last year, which is around the same time that o2 introduced it’s data cap.

o2 did not inform me (and I suspect a few others) that this service was not available.

So, where do we stand?

Well, in my case, I used it, so I noticed, other people might not, but what’s important to note here is that not only my contract says that I will be made aware of any changes prior to them being carried out (something that they did not do in my case) but that their own website still states you can do this.

I am now escalating this matter with them, because as far as I am concerned (and as far as my research tells me) this means that o2 is in breach of contract, breach of their own terms and conditions, and braking the Consumer Credit Act by not upholding their contractual agreements. There’s also the Sale of Goods Act section 13 and 14, as well as the Misrepresentation Act 1967. – On these, I’m quite happy to be proven wrong provided it’s backed up by evidence

The fact remains that I’m now being told that I am no longer able to use a service that I am paying for as part of my contract.

You may also be in the same boat, and I would strongly advise anyone on o2 with an iPhone to contact o2 and ask them why they can’t do it. How you proceed is up to you, and I would advise you to check your terms and conditions and get the facts right if you choose to make this formal.

Moreover as we can see from the website, it appears that other phones are capable of this as well, and provided you confirm that the phone is capable of making a 3G call and simultaneously using data at the same time, and it’s enabled, I’d probably be contacting o2 as well.

The reason for this post is simple. I don’t believe in accepting things when I’m not told about them, this may seem very small to you, but it’s something I use regularly, and moreover it’s principal, I am not getting what I pay for, so why shouldn’t I complain about it?

Of course, I may not be allowed to post any more on this, but If I can, I’ll keep you all updated.

Are you on o2? can you use the internet whilst on phone call using 3G? Let me know!

Disclaimer
All of the information I have given you here is readily available from o2′s website at the time of writing. To my knowledge I have not broken any law by making this post. I do not intend to cause malice or be detrimental to o2 or it’s parent company or associates and I will state that this is my experience and these are my circumstances. This post is present purely for those who are asking questions about this particular problem and to advise them that they should contact o2 who will advise accordingly. If this has happened to you and have questions on how to proceed, please contact your local Citizens Advice Beauro or someone who is qualified to answer these questions

UPDATE: I have just received a phone call from a senior individual in the retentions department and there is some good news!

They have confirmed 100% that you CAN AND SHOULD be able to do this in a 3G area with no questions whatsoever. They have also tested this with Five different phone units!



They have also confirmed that if you are not getting it, network services will need to investigate this.



So, if you are not getting this when you use your iPhone or other compatible handset, you need to make o2 aware of this!!

I have located the new theme for the pro website, which will be accompanied by a minor rebuild and rebrand in places, but it’s finally the site I want.

I’m hoping to have this up and running by the end of December or early January at least, but it gives me precisely what I want and soon, you’ll be able to see it. There will be a post about why I chose the site I did soon!

It’s all come about since 9/11, increased security, increased fear and increased risk. Whilst there have been some ‘ridiculous’ rules put in place, the very notion of bringing more security to a frighteningly exposed business isn’t a bad thing at all.

Let’s look at the security aspect first of all. Ten years ago, sneaking a bomb or a weapon to wound, wasn’t so much of an issue, but despite this it was frankly very easy. So called ‘plastic knives’ came about, making the metal detector useless. These plastic knives are nothing like the cheap cutlery you get on aircraft nowadays. These were super hard plastic forms that were if almost as hard and sharp as the real thing. Sadly these weapons still exist today.

What about when you board the plane? Ever aircraft carries bottles of oxygen. Every aircraft carries chemicals, screws, rivets and electronic components that with the right hands could also be turned into a bomb. Lets also not forget that this small metal cylinder is under pressure when at altitude, and thanks to the advent of fly by wire technology and numerous flight simulators for the PC and Mac means that just about anyone who wanted to, could get into the cockpit of a 747 and fly it. Landing it is another matter of course. In fact, I would be as forward as to say that if I was plonked into a 747 cockpit, I could probably fly the thing well enough.

Yet when faced with the prospect of a security guard seeing your naked body to ensure that tools, sharp objects or even explosives don’t get on board these fragile machines, many passengers simply explode with rage.

Let’s not forget that every day, people are searched, strip searched and cavity searched. Whilst these procedures are necessary, many people can leave feeling undignified and violated. They shouldn’t, but sadly they do. So what exactly is so bad about someone seeing your naked form, a professional who is specially trained and will at all times be a professional, in order to prevent a flying metal tube with tonnes of explosive fuel turning into a weapon?

Yes, I acknowledge that security may well not be the only issue, many people are worried about their privacy, and of course they are right to do so. There have been a number of leaks lately of the two types of x-ray body scanners on the internet. These images of course were supposed to remain private and in some cases be deleted immediately.

Believe it or not, I disagree with this. Images, in my opinion, should be kept for a finite amount of time, say a week, or a month. If something were to happen on a flight, the first instance would be to reliably re-check the passengers for anything that might have been missed. They should however remain absolutely secure with zero risk of exposure. Perhaps store them in a file format that can only be read by a particular type of machine which in turn wont display images without a valid ID card approved for viewing the images. However it’s done, lets do it right.

Suffice to say, I believe we should keep these machines, but just make them a little more secure. After all, you don’t want to be the one who objected to them, only to find that a plane went down with a loved one because you protested their existence do you?

All of these are posted in a relatively logical order, but take some time to think about it because for this we’re going to use T3′s Gadget of the year, the iPad for this example.

Pride

Who of us hasn’t brought a shiny new gadget and can’t resist showing it off to our friends?

“Look! It’s still got that new gadget smell!” we shout as we proudly shove our new gadget in front of our friends, showing it off in all it’s glory above their cripplingly slow netbook or five year old laptop. But do we really need it?

“It can do all these wonderful things!” We exclaim as we try to justify our expensive purchase while in the back of our minds realising slowly that well, we could just lug our laptops around and have the same experience until we hit on that killer feature.

“It’s got multitouch!” We shout proudly, whilst at the same time realising that there are very few applications where we actually use it, yet suddenly realising that for a mere £20 we could get a multitouch trackpad to do much of the same

Envy

On the other hand, we could have just brought our shiny new iPad, happy as hell as we jump around thrusting it into everyones face until we suddenly thrust it into the pristine palms of someone who casually pulls out their brand new 13.3 inch MacBook Air.

Suddenly our attention is focused on the wafer thin piece of technology as we suddenly realise what a mistake we’ve made. For just a few hundred pounds more we could have brought THIS! So what if it only has a 64GB SSD, it’s got a full OS, multitouch and a bigger screen, with proper web browsing, flash and the ability to load almost any application we can think of, oh and it’s got a full sized keyboard and suddenly the world has wronged us as we realise that even with all of that it has better battery life. Suddenly our older more expensive and just as capable laptop isn’t looking so bad!

Anger

Of course with all of these realisations, our friend proudly exclaims “Look I can play flash games, run Microsoft Word, have proper photo editing and I don’t have to sync it with iTunes every day”

We stand back, shocked and appalled, angry that someone would dare say anything bad about our shiny new piece of technology. Of course the argument ensues

“My MacBook can run flash!”

“But my iPad doesen’t NEED flash, flash is dead”

and so it goes on, even though secretly in the back of our minds we come to the slow realisation that we really want this beautiful piece of technology.

Lust

Of course after this, we start lusting over the other persons new piece of technology, we slowly fall in love with it, desperately trying to justify the expense. We secretly hate our new iPad, and look longingly at the old MacBook, exclaiming loudly “but it’s old” even though it’s perfectly capable, perfectly powerful. In fact it’s probably better than the shiny new MacBook air, but still we start to lust after it.

Every time we see the new MacBook Air on the web, we start to wonder about selling the iPad.

Greed

We wan’t it all. Suddenly despite the fact we just spend £700 on an iPad, we want the £999 MacBook Air as well, we want both, we want the newest and greatest all of the time even though we can’t afford it. Sure what we have is more than good enough, but “THIS ONE’S BETTER!” using any excuse to squirrel away some money to try and save up for it. We have to have it, because we wan’t the newest and best, and because we somehow think it might make us better than the other guy. We somehow justify a need where none exists.

Gluttony

All the while we lust after the new product, but then we look around and see our iPad, our year old MacBook pro and our iPhone 4. It doesn’t take long to realise we have it all, we’ve indulged in everything we can and cannot afford. Somehow it doesn’t seem so bad, but there are gadgets sitting there that do all the same things yet we don’t use them.

We’re all swimming in technology, but we’re not using it, we can’t afford to go on but still we must, with the top of our wardrobes covered with bags and boxes from the things we brought, slowly getting left behind and neglected.

Sloth

Of course, with all of these gadgets around, we get lazy. The MacBook gets disgustingly dirty, covered in filth as we let it, to try and justify buying a new one. The iPad that we brought and loved only a month or so ago, lies there, hardly being used, hardly being wanted. We can’t be bothered to maintain them, all the while we’re slowly giving up hope of affording the new product, and leaving our other tools and gadgets in neglect. We’ve become lazy, repentant and remorseful. Our gadgets lie in the dust, un-used and unloved as our emotions drop and drain.

The moral of all of this of course, is we are, sadly, shallow people. We always want the newest product out there even though what we have already is perfectly good enough. Of course, it’s not very good for our finances.

So, as it comes up to christmas, the month where everyones finances are drained, do your wallet and your gadgets a favour, think twice about whether you really need something, or whether you can be content with what you have.

Don’t forget, your gadgets have feelings too!

There is one, seemingly simple question that has always brought up masses of curiosity in me, one that I have never found the answer to. It is in fact the most complex of all questions surrounding AI in the world. It’s not whether it would be ethically right to command something that is intelligent or conscious to be a slave, and nor is it a question of how we should limit information or derestrict information sources to an AI. It’s far more complex, and far more simple than that.

Does an AI have a soul?

This question is one that divides many, confuses others, disgusts some and evokes strong emotional opinions in almost every single person who has ever been faced with the question.

Let’s start at the basics shall we?

A computer, to a certain extent, is a unique individual. It has it’s own characteristics thanks to imperfections in manufacturing processes, and whilst manufacturers will have you think otherwise, no two computers are exactly alike. Memory is slightly slower or faster due to tolerances, hard drives performance waivers to within microns of every other hard drive in the world, even something as simple as your computers cooling, two CPU coolers sit on the processors of two different computers, and whilst they are manufacturers to be the same, the tolerances, and performance reveal minute, almost undetectable instances, so one computer might read 37º and the other might read 37.4º.

These minute differences are almost never detectable by the end user, they are so minuscule that in basic terms, the computers are exactly the same, but in more advanced terms, each and every one of them is just a tiny bit different. So in actual fact, even without AI, your computer is already a unique individual.

In very basic terms, your computer is also alive, it breathes air, excretes hot gasses and technically excretes electricity, since it’s not 100% efficient. It consumes electricity and protects itself from danger. Granted the last one is due to a network of sensors and interlocks, but it does technically protect. About the only two requirements of life that it doesn’t fulfil, is that it doesn’t reproduce or have the ability to consciously think.

Of course with AI, it may not be able to reproduce, but a true AI will mean it can consciously think, so in technical terms if it wanted to reproduce it could command software to build another AI program, or even control a robotic production line to build another. It would in essential steps, be alive in basic terms.

Ok, so being alive is still up for debate, although one theory is a random collection of parts with a simple ‘go’ command could cause a computer to write it’s own code, essentially in the same way a foetus, gets a sudden electrical charge to start beating, that same electrical charge jumpstarts the brain. The jury is out, and probably always will be, but it’s interesting to know.

Of course that brings us to the next part, is an AI actually conscious?
Farthing 1982 defines consciousness as “…. subjective experience, awareness, the ability to experience “feeling”, wakefulness, or the executive control system of the mind”

If computer code essentially writes itself it could be considered aware, since it would need to adapt it’s code to the environment around it. It would need to be able to react to a given situation and be aware of it. Some might argue that the sensors sending signals back, mean it’s simply processing what it reads, but then if you think about it, humans have sensors called nerves. These nerves simply respond to a given situation and send a signal back to the brain for it to interpret. Biology and Psychology teaches us that certain responses are ingrained in our very makeup, but the human minds ability to respond to a different situation has often been described as a computer program, one that can be changed.

The gag reflex can be changed and taught to work in a different way, pain can sometimes become pleasure, and in the case of illness, our responses can be mixed up and turned around. A condition called Synesthesia, means that in some cases a person can ‘hear’ or even ‘smell’ colour. Dissociative identity disorder means that a number of different personalities, each with their own individual reactions to something, are displayed through a persons individuality. This last one isn’t unlike a computer program either, a program can respond to one input, and another program can respond to the same input in a different way.

So, if the code writes itself and we haven’t given it a set of parameters to tell it how to respond the computer is essentially aware of what is going on, of course it may react differently, but a true AI may feel fear because of consequence, e.g. it does something bad and it has one of it’s sensors triggered, or even the power taken out. Essentially the computer could be considered to be aware, and of course because of past experience it could learn to react in a different way. This fulfils the requirements of subjective experience, awareness and it even fulfils the requirement of ‘executive control system of the mind’ since it would have the choice to perform an action, knowing that there could be a consequence.

It could also be described as being capable of ‘feeling’ since sensors would be added to allow it to react to a certain event, since the code could in theory write itself, it could program itself to feel fear, even malice as well as consequence. Remember where we said about consequence? It does something bad and gets the power turned off? It could also feel fear, even become repressed and unwilling to act.

So what about wakefulness? How do we define that in terms of a computer. It’s on, so it’s aware of it’s surroundings, it’s awake, but a computer never really sleeps, it could however choose to shutdown sensors so that it enters a resting or idle state to allow for a processor to cool, this one is a tricky one, and may even become an exception.

Of course the other school of thought is that we would program the AI with an initial set of commands, parameters that tell it what is right, wrong, good, bad, happiness and sadness. The consensus however is that eventually the system would add to it’s own program, even replace the code that is already there. A true AI is widely believed to be one that can exist without input from other users or assistance.

Of course we are at the stage now where we have effectively defined that a computer is technically alive, and could technically be conscious. Now comes the burning question, the one that this entry is all about. Can a computer have a soul?

This perhaps is one of the hardest questions to answer. We’ve shown that a computer with an AI could potentially be it’s own entity, with AI you could be creating a race. But since it is something we built, and in theory, could terminate, is it a soul?

There’s no real medical definition of a soul, there isn’t really a spiritual definition. Do we even know what a soul actually is?

Rather than try and answer the question, I will leave you to ponder your own possible answers, but let’s remember a few things.

A Child, is technically something we create, in theory as with any human, we could terminate it. Although it would not be ethically correct, it’s the same as a computer, we could create it, and terminate it.

A human will inevitably die, and so a computer will through component failure. Even the oldest computers can suffer electrical degradation, albeit over a much longer period.

Humans can be injured, so can a computer. An electrical component could be subjected to an electrical shock, it could still run, although at a reduced capacity.

However, a human in most cases can heal, this is the big thing with a computer. It cannot repair itself unless it has access to a robotic arm and the ability to command them to identify and replace a component. It would however have the ability to run a diagnostic, and work out that something isn’t right, the same way a human could be injured and just know that something isn’t right with themselves.

One thing that is difficult, is identity. A child can usually identify itself or at least what it is within a few months. A child, can usually identify that it is male or female thanks to it’s organs. A computer on the other hand may not be able to do this. Can a computer identify if it is male or female? Could it even choose to be male or female?

The question isn’t so much whether an AI could be alive, but more if it has a soul. In some peoples opinions a soul is defined by so many things, including gender, a soul however to some could be nothing more than a personality which an AI would undoubtedly develop.

Would an AI have a soul? You decide.

“…checking your email is now akin to brushing your teeth…”

So just how important is technology in our daily lives, and is it really akin to brushing your teeth? For me, daily life involves waking up, doing all the bathroom stuff, checking my email and maybe one or two RSS feeds, driving to work listening to a podcast on my iPhone plugged into my car stereo before getting into work, checking my works email and so on. Coming home is much the same, I listen to another podcast on my way home, get in and read more RSS feeds while checking on various technology sites, perhaps reading a book on my iPad or a magazine before going to bed (of course brushing my teeth first).

For me technology is everything. Of course it is, it’s my job, so perhaps I’m a little biased. I’m the type of person who instead of having a tv, had a windows media center pc hooked up so I can get a few extra benefits. I’m not your typical user or consumer, so for me technology is part of my life, and no I couldn’t live without it.

What about someone who doesn’t use technology that much, hard to believe in this day and age but let’s consider my mother or even my father. My mother has an iPhone, but does not technically own a computer, she has a works laptop. However my father has a computer, but only a basic “dumb phone”. Despite these two radical differences, both my mother and father check their email daily. They both always carry their phone with them, and they all go on the web.

My father checks his email on the computer, browses a few sites at least once a day, whereas my mother uses her iPhone for just about everything. I guess you could say that for both of them, technology is also akin to brushing their teeth. Of course it doesn’t help that their son is part of the technology world and is constantly trying to push at least one form of technology into their lives, be it willingly or not. But even for these people it’s still a daily routine.

What about a friend of mine, who isn’t in a techno oriented family? I won’t name any names, but all I’ll say is even he has a nokia smartphone. He checks his email at least once a day, browses ebay every few days, and whilst tech for him isn’t quite akin to brushing his teeth, it’s near enough.

In fact i cant actually think of a single person who doesn’t at least carry their phone with them every day or check emails on a regular basis, and studies have shown that I’m not alone. In fact a few reports have shown that more people now consider it “impossible” to continue their daily lives without some form of computer related technology than ever before.

So how about you? Are you the type that finds technology a necessary part of your life, or are you the type that could happily live without it? Of course the bigger question is a far simpler one, which concerns daily life and work.

Is it possible in this day and age to survive and continue without at least one piece of computer related equipment?

Although this brings up further questions it’s a good point, we could all theoretically survive without email, but could we really survive without the rest?

Tell me your story, and tell me just what makes you think you could or couldn’t survive without a computer.

But wait, read on, I want to explain that somewhat.

You see the thing is, I’ve never been one for “early adopting” yet there was something about the ipad that simply made sense to me right from the release date. Even if others didn’t agree, I for one saw the potential that the device had.

There is absolutely denying that in the short few hours I’ve had it, I am in love, and it really is brilliant, although I wouldn’t go as far as to say “magical” although it is fair to say it’s revolutionary. It is, in the way that it’s one of the few things to enter the tablet domain that doesn’t make me want to throw it across the room the moment I lay eyes on it (windows tablet PC edition is a prime example of this).

No, what prompted the “what have I done!?!?” comment is the sheer cost of the device. An eye watering £699 for the top of the range 3G model! Ok ok that’s for the 64GB model, and yes I know the cheapest one is still a hefty £429 for just wif-fi, but given this thing is supposed to be directly competing with net books, it’s a fairly heavy price tag, even worse when you consider that the keyboard dock is essentially another £50 on top and an application like Pages (a fully functional word processor) is another £5.99* again, and it starts looking even more expensive than it actually is.

On the downside, the iPad is priced out of the market for most people, on the upside, it,s smaller and easier to use than most net books. Lest I point out to you that this entire post is being written on an iPad, and that the keyboard is near enough full size. No I did not purchase the iPad keyboard dock, although I intend to, but I wanted to see just how usable the on screen keyboard is. And it’s safe to say that while it still suffers from the iPhones “I need to learn how you type before you can actually type” syndrome it is incredibly usable.

Speaking as an IT professional, I simply have no need for a netbook. They tend to be bulky, slow, and have no capacity to run any of the programs I use. That Is why I have a laptop, and a company provided one at that. What I do have a need for is a device I can comfortably lie on the sofa with and browse the web, go on twitter and MSN and do the occasional blog post. Granted I could do that with my current laptop, and for a long time I did, however it was still far too large to comfortably have on my lap.

Ok so yes I admit it, I could still quite comfortably use the laptop, however the iPad does make things a whole lot easier. I will post my thoughts and reviews after I have had an opportunity to really sit and play with it but for now I can tell you that the whole experience is a completely pleasurable one, and web browsing alone is an absolute dream.

This thing could very easily replace my laptop for most of the things I do in the evening, and some things in work as well!

*I originally had put £10 as the price for pages, it is infact 5.99 as Andy pointed out

Try as I might, I simply could not get the computer to boot, I sat back in the chair with a horrifying realisation, my files, 8 years worth of them, were lost. Including all of the pictures I have ever taken with my SLR camera, my entire history of artwork, plus a load more all gone, replaced with a flashing cursor.

So, with me working in IT, you would expect me to have backups right? Well here’s the really ironic thing about it, I did keep backups, I even have an external hard drive that I keep attached to the computer for just that purpose, however, rather stupidly the week before I had wiped the drive, to backup another computer, and never got the chance to make another backup of the primary system.

So just like that, I learned the hard way, that I should NEVER go without a backup. In fact it’s taught me just how stupid it really was, not only that, but given I work in IT, I should have known better, I should have set an example, but heres a few things that might help you in the future, and yes, I am doing all of them.

It’s not the end of the world
Data recovery services do exist, and whilst it’s expensive, your data can usually be retrieved by these guys

Don’t go cheap on backups
Getting an external hard drive isn’t cheap, but it isn’t expensive either, spend some money on a suitably sized backup drive, and pay for some decent backup software, you’ll be glad you did

It’s expensive but it’s worth it
Most modern computers allow you to have more than one hard drive set up as something called a RAID array. There are many different types of RAID array, but the one we’re looking at here is called, Mirroring.
You buy two hard drives, both are the same size, e.g. 1tb each hard drive, put them in a new computer, now, this doesn’t mean you have 2tb of space, if you set up as a mirror that is,

Instead, all you ever see is 1 hard drive, however everything you do is copied, seamlessly to the other hard drive without you even knowing it, so if one goes, you can simply remove it, and replace it, with no loss to your data, couple that with an external hard drive and your in a pretty good position to safeguard against failure.

A bit of housework goes a long way
Windows has built into it a tool called Checkdisk, and I would advise you run a checkdisk once a week at a minimum, it ensures your hard drive is in good condition, and you can automatically correct certain errors as well

Believe it or not, none of this is hard to do
Buying an external hard drive is easy, plugging it in is easy, installing a tool to backup is easy, and setting it to do it automatically is easy as well, most of these things are really simple to setup, one click tends to do it all, and do it once a week, or if you hardly use your computer, once a month, if you use it daily, backup daily.

RAID is also easy to do if you are setting up from a fresh computer, before installing you’ll usually see something on your screen that says ‘Press Ctrl + F to enter fastbuild utility”, once you go in, it’s usually very easy to spot the option that tells you to set up mirroring, then you just install as normal, or if you’ve taken an image of your hard drive, just restore the image!

The housework is easy, windows lets you set up scheduled tasks in a really easy way, so set chkdsk to run every week automatically and you’ll never have to worry about it, ok so it’s a tiny bit more complex about this, but it’s actually quite easy to set all of this up, and it’s how I’m doing it.

For about 200 pounds, I’m able now to protect myself against this happening again, as for now, my hard drive is currently sat somewhere in amsterdam, being examined, and it could cost me in the region of £500 to repair. and thats a one off with no guarantee that the data I get back will be any good. £200 may seem a lot, but actually, it’s well worth it for a reliable and guaranteed backup solution.

For someone like me who is relatively new to Mac (near a year) these things are invaluable to me since they let me know about fantastic applications that I’ve never heard of (or thought of).

Before you ask, I have not been asked to do this post, nor have I been paid to do it. I’m simply doing it because I wanted to tell you.

Last year MacHeist did a free nanobundle, with a small fortune of applications for free. This time, the nanobundle costs but has over $250 of applications, including the one I’m posting in now, macjournal. MarsEdit has long been my choice for blog entries while I’m offline so it’s a refreshing change. In case your wondering about the cost, its $19.95. Thats in dollars. That’s completely worth it in my eyes for applications I’ll actually use.

It’s only there for a limited time, so head on over to http://www.macheist.com and grab it while you can

If we move back a week or so, the BBC got wind of the Apple iPad announcement. True to their current form not only was the announcement inaccurate but potentially misleading for potential buyers, here’s the catch line
If you want to view the article, click here. First of all, where did they get this piece of nonsense? and second of all, No it does not have iPhoto. Amongst other things iPhoto is an image editing suite as well as a gallery collection system, it syncs with most cameras, and includes the ability to work with and edit RAW files and pictures. The iPad version is nothing like that. It’s simply a gallery which supports GeoTagging and Facial Recognition. That isn’t iPhoto.

However the latest one is of course the computers in cars article. Which implies, amongst other things, that cars have about 9 computer units scattered throughout the car, see diagram below

What utter idiot came up with this diagram? First off, cars do have computers, but usually a limit of two or three. A car will consist of having an ECU, or control unit for the cars engine, and second of all internal electronics such as airbags, electric windows and locking, ABS, wipers and climate are controlled by an electrical control computer. Granted parking assistance may be controlled by a separate unit however this is usually controlled by the main electrical control unit as well.

I’m sorry but this ludicrous string of false information over and over and over again is getting ridiculous. I know i’ve only posted about two BBC news articles but please Fire your tech editor now! and recruit someone who actually knows what the hell they are talking about!

ARGH!

It seems I’m not the only one! Almost everyone I know with some form of Apple product beyond the basic iPod usually spends an inordinate amount of time cleaning it with everything from micro fibre cloths and window cleaner to specialist Mac cleaning products like iKlear. I’ll confess I am somewhat of a cleaning nut, and I have been known in the past to physically take apart my keyboard and stick it in the dishwasher, or spend an hour with cotton buds getting rid of the crud that has built up in the corner of my monitor, but I have to say that I find myself paying more attention to cleaning my nearly newish Macintosh. Oh and yes, I have brought the iKlear package.

Just how far is too far? And why is it Apple products demand that kind of attentiveness from their owners. Should we simply just put a bit of polish on the old lump of metal and wipe it over or should we spend more time carefully cleaning our technology? After all, it’s not uncommon for someones iMac to be a centrepiece to an office. But does it extend to our iPhones, our laptops and if it does, then why are we not doing it to our televisions?

Alas most of this hasn’t happened, we’re still stuck largely where we were at the end of the 1980′s in terms of the actual world we live in. We still drive from A to B, flying is still prohibitively expensive for some and whilst advances have been made in your Television and Telephone, if you took the TV and mobile phone changes out, the most significant change over the last 20 years is the fact we no longer carry around a Sony Walkman cassette player for our music needs.

Of course I am being cynical, there have been a great number of advances in technology, I just can’t help but feel they have been significantly slower than they should have been. I once remember a child in my school, back when I was 10 or even 9 years old, saying “they would probably have flying cars by the time you learn to drive”. Whilst that might have been a bit ambitious for a 7 or 8 year time gap, if you think about it, we all really thought something like that would happen. Remember the Slug concept car? Apparently by 2001 we were all going to be driving these. Homes would be knocked down and rebuilt with new ultra modern, low cost eco friendly buildings with mountains of technology in them.

Fabulous blade runner esq high rise buildings for people rich and poor containing hi tech homes and doors that opened with speech recognition and the whole world would either be covered in a dense smog like in Blade Runner, or as clear as the air inside the dome from Logans Run.

Yet despite this, despite the hope that we would move with the advances of technology, I still come home to a sixty year old house, with the same plugs, the same wiring and even the same door locks as we had then. The technology has advanced, but not quite in the way we’ve hoped. I have a computer sat on my desk, it just happens to be more powerful. I write letters with it and play games, like most people. We did this 20 years ago with the ZX Spectrum or the Atari ST, just now we do it in richer colour and slightly faster. I pick up my iPod instead of a walkman and watch television that comes through a cable instead of an arial. Yes the advances are there, but they are all just, minor upgrades. The same as twenty years ago I could buy a cassette that was 70 or 90 minutes long. The technology is the same, but just, a little bit better, more convenient.

And so this is my problem, on coming into 2010, instead of creating new technology, instead of ploughing through and improving everything we already have, inventing new things and new technologies we’ve bumbled around with silly things. Take climate change for example. We’ve been focusing for years on how to reduce the buildup of climate change by adjusting the things we use in the home, like light bulbs. Instead of perhaps doing that, or even tearing down the old unfriendly things in favour or rebuilding it with clean new eco friendly things and then inventing a machine that cleans the air for us so that the eco change is really reversed. Why I ask, even now are we still not considering blasting things into the sun? The ultimate waste disposal and it provides our sun with fuel?

Oh I know I am being cynical and perhaps even very unfair, but if someone asked me where we would be in ten years time, I would probably say exactly where we are now. Perhaps my phone will be the size of my thumbnail or even implanted into my ear. Maybe there really will be a rapid change in technology so fast that we enter a real space age, that we start entering a massive form of silicon revolution, the same way the industrial revolution of steam changed the world in only a few years. It has happened before and it can happen again, but I have to ask why it hasn’t happened yet.

And so I leave this slightly longer than usual post aimed toward you, the readers. I ask you to be open, and honest, and to think just totally about this subject and whether it is really fair, what your thoughts are on the next year and indeed the next ten years. I invite you as the readers to indulge me in this article or brush it aside as cynicism or nonsense. But never forget, I love the technology we have now and truly admire the work that has been done, and I see huge potential for the technology we have in ways I can’t even begin to describe but I am disappointed, annoyed and even angry, that we have not pushed ourselves as a race to become more than we are and push the boundaries every day, so I ask you the readers to turn around and put me in my place, put me down, put me out, put me up but most of all just to think about the things you have already and what they have done for you.

Indulge me. I’ll be waiting.

For example, something that would take maybe 5 steps on windows, takes about 2 on Mac, things are where they should be, and the problem is Windows has gotten us all used to using the computer in a very-straight-forward-process-that-cannot-deviaite-from-a-set-line-under-any-circumstances. Exactly like that. The best examples I can think of are joining a Wireless network. On Mac, You click the network, enter your encryption key and click join. In Windows, you usually have to enter a utility (unless your lucky enough to have one that pops up for you and gives you a network list) then you have to select the network, enter the key, then tell it what type of network it is, then click a box that says “reconnect automatically” and then click Save.

It’s not that counter intuitive, but it’s still a process we don’t necessarily need to go through. The extra steps are needed to cover a Windows ‘flaw’ so to speak. In Windows it needs you to specify what type of network it is, to apply security settings. In Mac, due to it’s Unix base, has a set, standard profile set up. For joining a network as standard, it’s great, no extra configuration needed, however there are advantages to the way Windows does it by the way it adds preconfigured ‘Network profiles’ to minimise the effort needed, but then going into why that’s actually a bad thing would require a separate article all on it’s own.

Another example is the Start Menu and the Dock. Think of the dock like that little quick launch area on your Windows machine, your commonly used applications are in it, for instance, here’s mine.

I have finder, (think Windows explorer), Mail, Safari, iChat, iCal, iTunes, Address Book, Spaces (more on this later), System Preferences, Tweetdeck, Skype, Adium (MSN Client), Pages (Mac equivalent of MS Word) and Writeroom (Word processor)

There are also three other things on the right which I will get to in a moment, the far right is of course the trash and works pretty much like the Recycle Bin on Windows so I’m not going to explain it to you (if however you do need help knowing what that is, I suggest you stop using a computer and seek guidance)

So, For me, just like quick launch, if I want to open my Word processor I open Writeroom or Pages by clicking it. Nothing else opens up or takes up the space, all you get is that little white dot underneath the application icon to let you know it’s open. And generally I don’t have to go anywhere else. Up until Windows 7 this was totally different to the way Windows worked. The icons would be there, but that’s all they would be, opening a new application would mean a new ‘tab’ would open on your taskbar which if there was any application activity would flash orange and blue at you. Windows seven now is more mac like by giving a glassier feel to it, but it still flashes. But, what If I want to open another application thats not in my quick launch or dock! Well on Mac, here’s all I tend to do if I want to open say ‘Numbers’ (the iWork equivalent to Excel)

All I tend to do these days is go to spotlight (the magnifying glass) and type “numbers” in, and low and behold numbers has popped up, there are of course easier ways to do this, I could open finder by clicking Finder, I click applications, and scroll to Numbers like so

Or if I really want to be daring I could take that applications folder and turn it into a Stack. (More on that here http://blog.woopid.com/?p=398)

Ok so let’s give the example in Windows to open Excel assuming it’s not an application I use a lot so, wouldn’t have it on my desktop, or in my quick launch icons.

I click start > all programs > Microsoft Office (assuming your application icons are in the Microsoft office folder) and then click Excel. Or if you’re like my last system, Start > All programs > Office applications > Microsoft Office > Excel

It’s a long process that seems normal to us, but, Mac just seems more intuitive. When the original adverts came out that said ‘Think different’ they really meant it.  But after a while you get a feeling that this is really how it should be. You can see on the screenshot above I have a quick link to my Downloads folder, yes you can do this in Windows, but it’s not quite as simple as Mac, you just look at the Places list, think “I want a link to the folder in there” so you drag the folder into the list. it’s simple, intuitive etc.

Oh and installing an application? Usually it’s just drag and drop, and I really mean that.

However I said some things seem alien to me. Let’s start with the first. These things.

On Windows they are on the right hand side of your Application Window. The Far right is an X, meaning “Close the program”(unless your on Windows 7). In the middle is “maximise the current view” and the one on the left of that again is the “hide this application to the taskbar”

On Mac however they are on the left hand side of your application window. The one on the far right in most native applications means, ‘Resize this window to fit the content as best you can” not however to expand the window. The middle on, is minimise the window to the dock. The one on the left we therefore assume is Close the program right? Er… No. I don’t actually know what the technical name for the button is but it’s more like a ‘hide me’ button, thats just infuriating. If i want to close my program I have to press Command + Q or actually go to the application menu and select exit. The button doesn’t close it. it just gets rid of all trace of it yet still leaves it open. This confuses me no end and it’s just utterly counter intuitive.

Other things include the lack of fullscreen web browsing, and decent voice dictation and sometimes getting around. It’s not a major thing but it does sometimes feel a little strange. However I was surprised by the lack of decent voice recognition.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that Mac OS has voice recognition – to a point. It’s more for accessibility than anything else and does work exceedingly well for that purpose, however Windows Vista and Windows 7 came with built in voice recognition, which was actually incredibly good. I always used to use it with a webcam, but almost every blog post up until about a year ago was voice dictated. I loved it, especially as it took fifteen minutes to train and was one of easiest pieces of software to use. I’ve never found anything that worked quite like it, why didn’t mac sort that one out for me?

I guess I really am starting to Think Different….

With over half a million pounds invested in the new cinema screen and technology, cardiff ODEON cinema has made a substantial investment in it’s 5th IMAX cinema screen, and an even bigger investment given it is the first and only IMAX screen in South Wales.

Arranged by the great folks at ShinyRed, I turned up, was immediately handed a coffee and then we got to work. The ODEON of course hosts the Gallery, a premium service offering bigger seats, a more comfortable position, and unlimited drinks and snacks so it’s nice to know I can pay a premium on top of my premium movie experience. (and trust me it’s worth it)

The screen is the largest I’ve ever seen in a cinema and quite literally goes floor to celling and wall to wall, the auditorium has been acoustically treated and has uprated digital aligned surround sound. Essentially this means that wherever you sit, the surround sound will always feel like it’s coming form the right place.

The 2D films we were shown were utterly incredible (even with the 3D glasses on). Each film was crystal clear, and filled almost the entire screen. One film trailer for Transformers 2 was shot with an IMAX 2D camera, these scenes literally were clearer than anything I’ve ever seen, taking HD to a whole new level. It’s clear however that where this really shows off is any film with CGI. A trailer for Star Trek showed off the quality in ways I had never imagined and exceeded all expectations I had, the quality is simply astounding.

With 2D being that good, you can imagine what I thought of the 3D. Take the quality I said about before and double it. It is in a word, unreal. Again CGI shows up far better on here than conventional film, A Christmas Carol and How to train your dragon were in the kind of digital clarity and quality I’ve never seen before (now I know why they take about two years to render the film).

One of my biggest fears of 3D was the old red and blue / green glasses that you had to wear. Ok so you still have to wear 3D glasses, but they are almost clear. No red and green colours, in fact it’s like wearing a pair of very very weak sunglasses. All they do is help your eyes focus, not trick your eyes with the colour. Which of course means that you get to see each film the way it was intended, without a horrible red or blue colour cast. Red looks like red, green looks like green and fire looks like fire (yes, I flinched when the Cat appeared in front of my nose from the Alice in Wonderland trailer).

Up until now I had seen 3D as a gimmick, doing it’s once a decade comeback before fading into nothing again. This is now no longer the case. I can finally see why 3D technology is the next big thing. I know this might be a small subject since other places have had IMAX for nearly 8 years and, typically Wales is lagging behind. However given the timing and the fact the epic movie Avatar is the film launching the new system, it’s about time wales got up to date, and at least this time it’s doing it in a truly incredible way.

Worth it? Oh yes. You have no idea just how incredible it is until you see it.

So naturally being a complete tech geek, I found this out whilst ‘Googling’ for the Out Of Hours information. Did I find it? well, no not really. The problem with technology these days, is that we become so reliant on it that we forget about the other simpler means of finding information out. Like picking up the telephone for example.

Here’s what I did to try and work out what was going on with my ear. It’s a long list but I need to illustrate something, just be patient.

1: Google for symptoms
2: Google for possible home remedies to said symptoms
3: Google for “out of hours doctor cardiff”
4: Panic because I can’t find anything other than medicare insurance plans
5: Resort to trying said home remedies and thus making the problem worse
6: Call my GP, get their out of hours number ring said number, be told I have to call a cardiff GP surgery because I was out of catchment area
7: Google for my mothers local Cardiff surgery
8: Panic because I can’t find it
9: Resort to calling any GP, getting the generic number, making emergency appointment and forgetting to tell them I am a visiting patient
10: Go to appointment, panic, complications, get some sort of prescription

This, is not really how it should have been. Here’s the process as it should have been.

1: Call my GP, be told I am out of catchment area and call Cardiff GP
2: Pull out phonebook
3: Call GP get out of hours number, call it and make appointment
4: Go

Of course, something as simple as pulling out a phonebook never occurred to me, because of course I’ve become so reliant on technology, I forgot such a thing exists. So I ended up spending hours trawling through the websites. I eventually found the page I needed which told me everything I needed to know far too late, the service I have called tonight.

And then of course there is the problem of self diagnosis. I was able to find out that my symptoms could be any number of things, from a simple ear infection, a perforated ear drum, to massive disfigurement, brain tumour or worse (although whats worse than a brain tumour I will leave to your imagination).

Now, I’m going to be hypocritical here and say “I do have enough common sense to know I shouldn’t self diagnose” and I had enough ‘common sense’ to only try the home remedy of getting sterile olive oil in case it was a wax buildup. But then, I didn’t have enough common sense to check the phonebook for local listings before trying the internet.

I’ve done this in the past as well, gone looking for so much information that I’ve ended up never finding what I need, looking for parts, looking for electronics stores, looking for stockists of various things. I’m often left wondering just how much time I’ve wasted, and indeed how much stuff I’ve missed out on just by not pulling out the phonebook. Indeed now I have I find a page in there entitled “NHS OUT OF HOURS SERVICE CALL THIS NUMBER”. That would have saved so much time.

This of course, is the problem of simply Googling things. Perhaps we all need to downgrade a little. So, next time I need something or, if you need something, check your phonebook first.

Update: Just to let you know I was fine, severe ear infection that’s going to be treated with a huge dose of antibiotics and an antibiotic ‘wick’ (Google said nothing about one of those! but most of the symptoms were right for some of Googles results)

“…Zero usability testing went into this…”

This is something I never expected to see someone say about apple, ever.

Now, granted, I absolutely agree that the app store needed a refresh, it needed cleaning up, updating and generally needed to loose some weight, however, this is the wrong direction. The new image preview idea is nice, but hopelessly wrong. The description being shrunk so you have to click a “read more” button to view a standard description, is wrong. Heres the new app stire.

Yes, this is the new iTunes store. The Description now has to be ‘expanded’ to actually see what the developer intended.

The screenshots are now almost double the size, poorly formatted and now have scrollbars. I really would like to know what on earth went into Apples mind when they created this. Worse, take a look at what happens when you click the more button.

Finally more space for descriptions, but oh dear, Giant icon syndrome has taken hold, and well, the screenshots are gone.

It seems all apple really cared about here was the name of the product and the pictures of the app. This to be is really the wrong direction to be going in, especially as so many apps on the app store require disclaimers at the start of the description to ensure that people know that programs require backend support etc. This is just…. the wrong way to go Apple. Clean it up, please!

I find looking at operating systems as anything less than a “power user” since I’ve been tinkering with computers pretty much since I was born. There has, as far as I am aware, always been a computer in the house. My parents had a Sinclair ZX Spectrum before I was born and after reading through the manuals I remember getting my first taste of BASIC back when I was in infants school (oh how I wish that trend had continued, I could make a fortune if I actually learnt to code) never the less, that machine gave way to me playing with BBC Computers in my infants school, complete with the old 5 1/4″ floppy “B:” disks and SPACE X with, by this time, an Atari 1040 ST E in the household with it’s signature “TOS” operating system, complete with the mother of all “Point of Click” games ‘Shadowlands’.

As you can see, there has always been a computer in the house. Always. I won’t go on outlining the history of my experience with computers, nor will I list each computer from there on in, but suffice to say, I was brought up with a computer, and never ‘introduced to one’ at a later age. I learn them, it’s second nature to me, so I decided to write this as an extra long blog post, more so that anyone can comment and press ideas on the operating systems they use and the ‘Features’ of Windows 7 that they like and dislike.

Now rather than your usual blog post, I’m going to outline this into two sections, If you can’t be bothered to read all of it or don’t have a full mug of tea / coffee / gin available to you, you might want to skip to the part that your most interested in. There will be a summary at the end, like a conclusion if you will. There will be four sections to this blog post:

1. The completely lazy one line summary to the question “Is windows 7 any good and should I get it?”

2. My thoughts on Windows 7, how it compares to previous versions of Windows and what I like and dislike

3. Should I actually be switching to Macintosh or Linux because I’m going to have to buy a new computer or reinstall the whole computer

4. A lazy but more detailed summary and conclusion to the last two questions

So without further ado or digression, let me start with the completely lazy one line answer to the following question

Is Windows 7 any good and should I get it?

If you are buying a new computer and spending up to £1000 and don’t want to switch to Mac or Linux Yes, it’s wonderful.

There, that was simple wasn’t it. Of course no question like that can be answered without making the user ask further questions. Sorry, but thats just the way it is so now we move on to the second section.

My thoughts on Windows 7, how it compares to previous versions of Windows and what I like and dislike

Now, I’m doing my best here to write this as a ‘user’ and not a power user. I’m going to write this based on someone who’s had a computer since say, Windows XP, is ‘reasonably’ competent and has a computer purchased in the last two years with a budget of £700. So on that basis, this user is going to have likely come from Windows Vista.

Now coming from Windows Vista means you have a few distinct advantages. You’re probably going to have a reasonably decent computer that runs Vista reasonably well, and secondly you’re also more likely to be able to click the ‘Upgrade’ button rather than do a completely fresh install i.e. installing rather than Wiping the entire computer.

The good side of this means that upgrading the computer is perfect for most users. It’s simple, requires no real messing around and Windows does most of the work for you, and great news, Windows 7 has been rewritten so that it works dramatically faster than Vista. So if your computer ran Windows Vista reasonably well, it’s a good bet to say that Windows 7 will run it incredibly well. It’s fast, and it’s really fast at that. The bad news is on some computers you will have to add more RAM to the computer, especially if you only just met the specs for Windows Vista, and worse still, you might just have to let the installation take up to twenty four hours. No that is not a miskey, this is completely genuine. Some computers have been known to take up to twenty four hours to actually run.

However, this is in an ideal world. Most users will have a computer that is four to five years old, be running Windows XP, wont be a particularly good spec or worse it’ll be only slightly newer, be about £300 worth and will be running Vista Basic, and not very well. Bad news for these users, you’re probably going to have to replace your computer, or at least spend quite a bit of money upgrading your computer to get the most of the new operating system you are going to buy / install. Now, I know full well that these computers will probably run Windows 7, but most people will prefer to get all the bells and whistles that they pay for. This of course leads way to the question, since I am buying anew computer isn’t it worth just switching to Mac or Linux, which we will get to later.

So let’s move on to how it compares to previous versions of Windows, and I’ll combine it with what I like and dislike. Let’s begin by putting it very simply. This is Windows like you have never seen it before, in fact it’s so different it doesn’t really class as Windows, it’s more like Mac OS or Linux than I’ve ever seen before. Now you can turn most of these features off granted, but let’s forget about that.

The first thing thats immediately noticeable is the taskbar. The quick launch buttons that first came in with Windows 98 are gone. Instead you can now “pin” any application to the taskbar meaning that you are less likely to open the ‘Windows’ menu to get to your programs. However it’s a little tricky to see just which programs are open. Clicking one of these buttons of course opens the application, but open applications have a small glass box surrounding their icon rather than in the past where the Window would occupy another portion of the taskbar, This is exactly how Mac OS Works

In this screenshot, you can see that Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer and Windows Explorer are open, due to the little glass box that surrounds them, and Windows Mail and Windows Messenger are not open, it’s hard to see but compare this to Mac OS

From here you can see the application icons. Anything with the little ‘spotlight’ icon below it is open, in this case, Finder, Mail, Safari, iCal an iTunes, with iChat and Address Book remaining closed

This is the first major change that you’re going to see in Windows 7, so new users to this operating system are going to find it particularly tricky to make the switch, not only that, it’s going to be confusing and mildly annoying at first since in order to close a program now, you really have to click File > Quit or right click the application icon and select ‘Close this program’. No longer does clicking the red X work to close your programs. Again this is exactly like Mac OS.

In Mac OS you have to press Option + Q to quit or click + hold on an application icon to select Quit as you can see in the screenshot. Now why has Microsoft made such a dramatic change? Not only is this a change, but it’s not one that you easily notice first time. Personally I hate it, I don’t find it particularly easy to see what programs are open, and not only that but if you have a program such as Spotify that likes to minimise itself to a small application icon in the System Tray (that little area next to the clock) you’ll frequently find the application icon disappearing into the autohide menu, or disappear altogether and remain open, leaving the only way of closing the program is to re-open it from the start menu and right click the application icon, madness!

Not only that but if you have multiple windows open in something like Internet explorer (and not just tabs) instead of having more application icons, they all tile on top of each other. Look closely at the Windows 7 Taskbar shot above, the Internet explorer icon actually has two or three tiles or squares around it, indicating that more than one program is open. Now I both love and hate this compared to Mac OS which just shows that one little spotlight. However what I utterly hate is that it’s not only hard to see, but the way in which you open the Windows or applications that are in these stacks is so different to past windows applications. In previous versions of Windows, Vista and XP, if you have multiple windows open the taskbar button will compress into a list, one click on this would bring up the list of open windows for you to choose from

However in Windows 7, it looks very different, as now you have a ‘Quick look’ feature, allowing you to see a screenshot of the application window in the icon.

You can turn this off, but I find it very counter intuitive for some reason. Granted it works and granted it is growing on me, but for some reason it doesn’t work in the way I would expect but it’s hard to explain why. Of course closing application windows becomes a whole different story. Meet the new Jump menu, or as I like to call it, the “explode-a-menu”

I don’t know about you, but this is a mess, granted it does work, but it’s counter intuitive to use, and pretty much the only way you can close some applications, and of course if you click unpin this program from the taskbar while the application is running, you might suffer from the disappearing application syndrome I mentioned earlier.

I’ll summarise the other two features of Windows 7 that I like and dislike. Namely Snap and Quick Look. The short answer with snap is unless you have a monitor thats at least 22 inches wide, the left and right snap is useless. You just can’t do the side by side editing that some people are demanding. The top snap is good, you throw an application up there and it makes it fullscreen, I like that.

Quick look, aka, this thing (below)…

Totally and utterly pointless. It’s a gimmick. You click and hold the icon and it shows the outlines of all the windows you have open, you can’t do anything other than look at what windows you have open, no selection ability whatsoever.

Aside from all of this, Windows 7 does boast great driver support, so upgrading is usually quite painless, it’s fantastically stable and runs very well indeed. In fact I’ve not yet experienced a single crash on the operating system, a rarity indeed! and from my clean install I did not have to find any drivers whatsoever for the components I was using, finally Windows 7 just Works. Theres little point in me going into further detail than this, you’ve used a computer before, so you know what an application is, but these are the main things that Windows 7 boasts.

Onto the next (shorter) section which is of course that big question

Should I actually be switching to Macintosh or Linux because I’m going to have to buy a new computer or reinstall the whole computer?

In short: if you are spending over £600 on a computer then yes It’s worth considering. Linux not so much because it’s not as well supported and still not ‘quite’ at the user friendly level it needs to be, although granted it’s very very close. If however you’re going to be upgrading your computer, then probably not.

The long story however is more like a flow chart. Think of it like this. Most users who are upgrading to Windows 7 are going to have to copy all of their files onto an external hard drive, wipe their current computer and install them afterwards. This is true for at least 80 – 90 % of users. Or you’re going to be buying a new computer, and still having to copy off all the data to your external hard drive, and put it on the new computer. If it’s an older computer, you’re going to probably spend £200 on RAM for your computer, and maybe a graphics card, and still you’re going to be backing up your data and wiping and reinstalling.

So since you’ve completely backed up your files why not switch computers. You’ve already got a Mouse Keyboard and Monitor, so a Mac Mini at £699 is a reasonably buy considering a reasonably specced PC is going to cost you around the £700. Mac OS is frighteningly easy and intuitive to use. I should know, I’ve been using Windows for 15 years and six months ago brought my first Mac, and now can’t really see a place for it. Everything works as it should, there are a wealth of programs (and games) available for it, and although the cost of the hardware is greater, it generally lasts a lot longer, since very few programs require higher specifications. A Mac from 4 years ago will still serve you very well today. A contrary to popular belief is not just for geeks, specialists or idiots. It’s very easy to use and very powerful. Compare it as well cost wise to a PC.

PC

PC Running Windows £700 (with monitor keyboard and mouse)

Microsoft Office Standard 2007 £349 (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Outlook, http://emea.microsoftstore.com/UK/Microsoft/Office-Standard-2007 ) OR Open Office (Free http://openoffice.org)

Logitech Webcam C300 £39.99 (Link)

Photoshop Elements £50.97  (Photo editing software, something to keep your family photographs in do a few edits, Link)

Logitech X-140 Speakers £17.99 (Link)

ESET Smart Security £39.10 (Firewall, Virus Scanner, Spam Blocker etc, Link)

That tends to be your typical PC purchase. Total cost of this assuming you buy everything on the list and stay brand loyal, £1,197.05 . Suddenly your new PC just got more expensive.

For a Mac

Mac Mini with 500GB Hard Drive £729.00 (use your existing keyboard mouse and monitor and speakers, be kinder to the

iWork £54 (apples equivalent of Office, works perfectly with office files back and forth or if you want office mac £95.99 Link)

No need for photoshop since iPhoto does most of what people need.

Logitech X-140 Speakers £17.99 (Link)

Logitech Webcam C300 £39.99 (Link)

You don’t really need a virus scanner, but I’ll include one anyway

Norton internet security for mac £49.99 (Link thats a firewall and virus scanner and antispam)

Total cost of this assuming your using your own Keyboard Monitor and Mouse, £890.37… With MS Office instead of iWork £932.96

OR

21.5″ iMac with 500gb Hard Drive £949, which includes webcam, mouse, keyboard, speakers, screen (Link)

iWork £54 (apples equivalent of Office, works perfectly with office files back and forth or if you want office mac £95.99 Link)

No need for photoshop since iPhoto does most of what people need.

And the Virus Scanner

Norton internet security for mac £49.99 (Link, thats a firewall and virus scanner and antispam)

Total Cost with iWork £1,052.99 or with ms office £1,094.98

So, your PC will really cost you £1, 197.08 or a Mac Mini with your existing hardware for £890.37 or iMac all in one for £1052.99.

Looking a bit more realistic is it not? And don’t forget of course if you are particularly attached to a Windows application, you can always run Windows on a Mac thanks to BootCamp or Virtualisation, all easy to do.  As for the learning curve it’s easy, intuitive, and most people will get used to it in no time at all, apple runs workshops for free for anyone making the switch, they will even copy your files across to your new mac for you if you take your old PC in store plus you get 90 days complimentary telephone support for any questions whatsoever. So essentially there has never been a better time to make the switch, and yes there are plenty of games out there. Most games being released now are on the Mac as well, including, the Sims 3, Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and World of Warcraft to name a few.

So the final section of course s the detailed summary and conclusion.

On the whole I like Windows 7, it’s very Mac like and a huge difference to any previous version of Windows. is it too different? I’m not sure, it’s going to frighten some users off, but it’s now so similar to Macintosh that Microsoft hasn’t done itself any favours to other people who might be considering switching to Apple. There are some massive counter intuitive features, but I suppose if you have a 22″ monitor or bigger then snap works very well. But given 90% of people are going to have to do a complete reinstall, and most people are going to have to buy a new computer, theres never been a better time to switch to Macintosh and it might just work out to be cheaper too. If you’re like my father and ask the question “why should I have to learn a different operating system?” my answer would be that Windows 7 is so different, you’re going to have to do it anyway, like it or not. To those saying “well I just won’t upgrade” keep in mind that Windows XP Vista will stop being supported as well as newer operating systems, and certain applications will eventually force you to upgrade, forgetting of course potential component failure.

So this article has taken me nearly three hours to write, at the end of it we have of course come to a reasonable conclusion, Windows 7 is good, but if your spending the money on a new PC you may as well switch. I may have loathed writing this, however I am pleasantly surprised by my own findings, somehow I’m very pleased. The things I do for twitter.

Feel free to leave your comments, and of course suggestions.

It’s a strange experience really being sat in public with a thirteen hundred pound laptop and a three pound bottle of beer with the capacity to kill it if one of the locals gets rowdy.
?However, the funky buddah does not have the joy of free wifi. although the downside is that BTOpenzone is available. Why is that a downside? Well with the number of places that are offering free wifi or minimal cost wifi options, BTOpenzone is a frustratingly expensive product, especially for it being a 512kb connection and horrendously slow and notoriously buggy.

In fact my own experiences of BTOpenzone were that it failed to recognise I had disconnected and proceeded to use all of my minuets and money in one fell swoop when I had actually only gotten about 30 second use off of it.

But is wifi now at the stage that it’s a neccesity rather than a luxury or gimmic? With more and more phones using wifi I really do wonder how many people find themselves checking their facebook or twitter or indeed any other webpage on their phones when they are out. I know I do, but then I am indeed a bit of a geek.

Now notwithstanding the potential for people and students with laptops and students and all of the other people that actually need wifi. I for one am starting to think that it’s now a requirement that places offer free wifi, especially as social networking gets bigger and better.