Apple v Google

Santa was very generous at Smurf towers this year. Especially considering how some people hadn’t really delivered on their blog updates and conference organising commitments.

I got a Nexus 7 tablet and a ipod touch. In that order.

The Nexus 7 was the worst unboxing set up experience of my young geek life. That thing is infested with Google spyware and intrustive ads. horrible. and technically impossible to use due to retarded set up requirements. (you need to go on line to set it up, but it wouldn’t let me set up a functioning internet connection with the hotel wifi. totally shit. You can’t move files on and off it via USB (in Linux). Maybe you can now several months on with some faff, but really that stuff should work out of the box. and it just did not. at all.

Google forced me to set up a new user ID whose credentials I promptly forgot. They now want me to pay them to retrieve them. Seriously. I have to pay for a password reset? Foook off.

So when Google are bragging about how Google+ has passed 1% of facebooks popularity and swiftly heading for 1.1%, bear in mind 90% of those accounts are probably zombie accounts that no one can access. Raahbish.

I used it for a few hours then I put it away and now it just weighs my bag down. It must be close to 2 months since I turned the thing on. total waste of money, not to mention the scamful cover farce with the PCWorld sharks (Yes I was so desperate to own this revolutionary piece of tech I bought from PCW!). 10 quid discount on the cover, oh, but its by internet rebate. no sorry forgot to mention there is a 3 page form to fill in. Serves me right, but lesson learned.

Compare and contrast with my iplop touche…

Great set up, limited spam, same games my kids play (their high scores tend to be min 10x mine!) and Facetime. Pur-lease – this is truly the killer app here, and all tucked away in Apples walled garden.

Our whole family is facetiming all our family and friends. Also since a few high profile kid/credit card haemorrhages its now quite simples to set up an Apple account without registering a credit card.

In retrospect I think there is a lot of sense in buying hardware from a hardware company that know what they are. If you buy from an ad pimp they are always going to be scouring through your most personal activities looking for the opportunity  to sell you Excel consultancy services!

I notice Google won’t even search properly any more unless you are logged in so they can record your every move. They are now a truly creepy company. I know they bypassed Msft’s market cap in 2012 (as predicted) but they are getting a little too crap and too heavy handed for my liking, as well as creepy and intrusive.

I know lots of people are waiting for Apple to founder, and iPhone 5 seemed to be pretty close, but whilst they have a huge stock of mini fanbois on ipod touches desperate for iPhones I think they are fairly safe.

Unlike Blackerry. My BB Bold has been the most unreliable phone I have ever owned (and I had one of those truly shitty motorola droids), everytime I unlock the screen its hit or miss if the thing is alive. I have even been contemplating replacing it with an iPhone! imagine that!!

I could probably sell or palm off my nexus, iplop and BB and scrape together enough to buy an old secondhand not too battered iPhone. Or not.

So in summary:

Google: creepy crap, Blackberry: unreliable crap, Apple: actually quite expensively good at the mo.

Have you enjoyed or endured any tech updates recently?

cheers

simon

the only spreadsheet angle here would be the fact that if any of this tech has a spreadsheet app, I haven’t tried it, or felt the need to. Anyone thinking of implementing newly draconian office app licensing might want to think about that…

Drinks venue Tue 5th Feb 6:30pm

Here ya go:

Henrys bar

Unit C, West India Quay, London E14 4AX

Lets meet up here around 6:30-/7:00 on this Tuesday the 5th Feb, for a few drinks.

If you have been before you know the score, if you are thinking of coming for the first time please do, we don’t bite. We are easy to spot

Topics of conversation:

1. why that lazy arse Simon hasn’t sorted our conference out yet.
2. whats the point of Office 365
3. Why didnt we arrange to meet up on Ann Summers night?
4. current state of the Excel/VBA/.net/SQL market
5. Any other biz

See you there

Cheers

Simon

Rate cut rumours

Just as we thought we might be surfacing from our double dip depression, news hits that we are entering a triple (great for vodka or pastis (or both ;-))), not so great for the economy.

That might explain the rumour of that one large financial crimes institute (whose name rhymes with car keys) has just lopped 10% off contractor rates. I assume the management has identified a significant benefit to pissing off all the productive workers.

It seems I was mistaken in seeing the green shoots of recovery on Jobserve. In fairness there has been a few sub 200 per day jobs that required the earth, or perhaps its the same one with all the agencies taking it in turns to try and fill.

Its coming up the contract expiry time for me so I’m watching this sort of stuff closely, and also a little preoccupied, in case you are wondering why the conf etc has not progressed. I need to see where I am likely to be in March before finalising details.

Pub details for Tue to follow

cheers

simon

Olympics

Well done Yorkshire in London 2012.

Close to top 10 in the country table I think.

That’s what you earn by getting up before you go to bed and eating cold coal (MP ref).

I hope you have all been enjoying it as much as we have here. We have had to re-enact many sports, like…

Badminton: the kids actually play badminton and I stand by with the ladders to get the shuttlecock off the roof

We have also done swimming, diving, sprinting  (could barely walk next day), long jump (struggled to drive home) and loads of others. I tried for sprint spreadsheeting but no one was interested.

funniest so far, one of the kids tried to Anna Mears me on the BMX track. turns out a 20 kilo kids tends to bounce right off an 80 kg adult. Lucky they bounce well at that age, and he beat me the next race (again).

Worst bit: British media coverage, I think the bbc has spent more time in ‘pundit analysis’ (largely vacuous bullshit) than showing actual sporting achievement. Post race interviews were/are generally sickeningly intrusive. BMX was comical, every time they called a time trial fast it was slow and vice versa, literally 100%. Loved Cav and Chris Boardman though

Fave bits so far… anything with Bolt and/or Blake in, Jess Ennis (no pressure!), any GB velodrome action (except the commissars of course), especially Trotty, and Sir Chris (stunning last ride!). Also delighted for Handy Andy to win at Wimbledon. And the C2 slalom boyz. I thought Greg Rutherford was excellent on the field, but truly magnificent with the media.

Hoping for Irish (and GBR)  gold in the boxing, and a BMX medal for Shanaze.

What are your worst and best bits?

cheers

simon

New name for Metro?

It seems Microsoft has had to sack off their chosen name for their latest UI catastrophe (Metro).

What would be your suggestion?

Mine is:

Specialised Human Interface Tablet Experience.

or SHITE for short.

cheers

simon

Banks

I was chatting with a mate recently…

He owns a garage, one of my other mates works for him.

They both went to the bank to get a mortgage:

Garage Owner – I’m self employed. Bank: ohh…

Garage worker – I’m employed. Bank: hi, come in, sign here.

sums them up really.

[Bank rage week is nearly over here at sos!]

[although I think its just starting at the beeb and the FSA] [and has been on-going for a long time with most customers]

cheers

simon

Job situation

(I’m not calling it a job hunt any more as that suggests a level of proactiveness that is lacking)

An agent sent me details for a role yesterday with details of the banking client (2 syllables, first part a place where you go for a wine (or whine ;-)), second part sounds like crap).

I replied saying last time I looked at them their notice period was silly and unacceptable. His reply:

“I think our notice will be around 0-5 days. We tend to ask for no notice contracts from our contractors.
Is this better for you?”

He phoned today – I asked how it could be worse for me?? they can walk me off anytime, I have to breach the contract to get out. wtf?

The agent said they are now asking all their contractors to sign such contracts. Its their USP !!!

Their USP is that they only recruit contractors prepared to sign up to abusive contracts.Well its not unique because I think that banking client requests it from all agencies. And having contractors go for the same roles through alternative agencies with fairer contracts is not a great commercial selling point.

Hopefully enough of us old lags will tell them to shove it that they will reconsider.

Funny really, it was a spreadsheet control project taking over some big scary financial Excel VBA monsters – exactly what I do, just not for that client or through that agency.

Starting here, now – “campaign for reciprocal notice periods”

Are you with me brothers???

cheers

brother smurf

Gaming – Sony PS Vita

I am not big into computer games, at all.

But my kids are, big time. I have a PSP that I never use, but the kids used it for a while, and they used Nintendo DSs.

But all that is pretty much over now they are moving to iPod Touch’s. (Touches??)

I had thought of the Touch as just an oversize, short battery life, walled garden, dumb, mediocre MP3 player. With a few pointless apps. But I was wrong. They are the must have item for the latest cool kids, and when they have them they use them endlessly.

When DS games cost between a tenner and 30 quid, the choice of tens of thousands of free or 1 quid games (and apps) is utterly compelling.

The irony kills me. Microsoft used to know that getting the developers (games and apps)  onto your platform was fundamental to success. But Apple have done a truly stunning job with their iOS. Talk about mindshare,  I am trying to encourage the kids towards Android, but ALL their mates have Touch’s, why would anyone persecute their child by making them use a notTouch?

Microsoft on the other hand now seem to be doing everything they can to encourage developers off Windows and Office.

None of the kids have asked for a Windows equivalent, if such a thing exists. I think its a whole generation lost to Microsoft, I doubt they will ever make it back. (Actually I’m not even sure my kids have ever used Windows as its Macs at school and Linux at home.)

Incidentally there are 365 Million iOS devices in circulation v 600 million Windows (7) devices  + a few hundred million XP and 3 Vista devices. So iOS, whilst not in the majority, is a pretty big development target market.

I am sure there is still a market for things like the PS Vita, but I doubt very much we will be getting any in our family. The 20-30 quid games market might still be a gooer for a few well off adults, but I think its a target market in rapid decline.

Any of you got a Vita? what do you think? iPod touch? (or iPhone?)

Cheers

simon

Uganda is not Spain

I’m not averse to a bit of dabbling in forex, mainly EURUSD (and GBPCHF). But I am currently keeping out of the market as it is a touch volatile for me. But I still like to keep abreast of developments.

Over last weekend Spain asked to borrow a few quid because its banks debts were too high (slight irony there). We can leave aside the fact that Italy is borrowing at 6% to lend to Spain at 3%, and the fact that Spain is lending to itself through the same fund.

The thing that’s making everyone smirk is the Spanish PM pointing out that Spain is not Uganda. As if that were a good thing.

The obvious retort that Uganda is not Spain is really enlightening. The one with the better credit rating and lower unemployment amongst many other things is the one not in the Euro zone.

In other fx news the Greek bank run is now approaching eur I billion per day prior to this weekends election.

Are you following this euro soap opera?

cheers

simon

Thank you Halfords

or alfreds as we used to call it oop north.

Leave a comment if you ever stuck a card to your bike to make it sounds like a motorbike…

cheers

simon

(ps if you dont watch uk telly (who could blame you)…

)