In-flight boredom

Monday, May 9th, 2011

Travelling by plane is far from the glamorous visions of elegance and exoticism that may have danced in the heads of our parents and grandparents. From awful food to cramped seats, surly service and intrusive security screenings, airplane travel is a hassle most of us just can’t do without unfortunately.

Technologically, one of the most annoying things about air travel is in-flight entertainment. Despite the sophistication of entertainment options we have on the ground, the best British Airways can rustle up for those of us doomed to a sardine-like Economy class seat is a seven-inch screen embedded into the back of an airline seat.

The choice of on-demand movies, TV shows and music is actually pretty extensive, but the quality of the screen is so awful you don’t actually want to enjoy any of them. It’s blurry, grainy and out-of-focus. Perhaps the eye strain is supposed to lull us to sleep, making the flight pass more quickly. Plus, it has a 4:3 aspect ratio, so Hollywood movies have to be chopped down pan-and-scan style to fit the screen.

Apart from cropping the image, this image hasn’t been edited. The screen really looks this awful.

The one concession to technological modernism is that the screen is touch-sensitive so you can use your fingers to choose menu commands and control playback. Unfortunately the resistive touchscreen not only requires a firm press, it often inaccurately recognises finger presses. Combined with the tightly packed onscreen buttons, this results in a truly aggravating experience – trying to fast forward to the good bits in Black Swan is as exhausting as actually performing Swan Lake.

I think I’ll stick to season 2 of The Wire on my iPhone thanks very much. Its battery lasts around eight hours playing videos, whilst my patience with BA’s in-flight entertainment systems runs out in about one minute and 23 seconds.

The death of the desktop?

Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

Most computer manufacturers now sell more laptops than desktops and it’s not hard to see why. Laptops are compact and portable which makes them more flexible in so many ways for both business and personal use. It’s therefore no surprise to see more and more laptops used in the place of desktops, so it’s easy to wonder if there’s any place left for the humble desktop computer. Why buy a big, power-hungry desktop when you can have a slender, electricity frugal laptop?

Even though Apple CEO Steve Jobs thinks we’re now in a ‘post-PC world’, his company is still making a pretty penny off desktops. Apple seems to have given some thought to the design of a desktop in this laptop/smartphone/tablet-drive world with its updated range of sleek all-in-one iMac desktops.

As well as the expected upgrade to Intel’s new Sandy Bridge processors, the 27in models now have two Thunderbolt ports (the cheaper 21.5in model has just one). We were greatly impressed by the potential of this new port technology when we first saw it in the new MacBook Pro laptops and its presence in Apple’s mainstream desktop computers says much about Apple’s hopes and aggressive rollout plans for the technology.

The fact that the 27in iMac has two Thunderbolt ports means that if the massive 2,560×1,440 pixel screen isn’t enough, you can connect another two displays using the appropriate adapters. Most laptops not only have substantially smaller, lower-resolution displays, but can only connect one more additional monitor. Although it’s possible to connect a third display using a USB adapter, you usually lose 3D and video playback acceleration.

I think Apple is sending a clear message with the 27in iMac and its Thunderbolt ports and high-res screen – a slender all-in-one desktop can do things a laptop can’t, but in less space than a traditional tower desktop. Not everyone needs a compact desktop with multiple monitor capability and an incredibly high-speed external bus, but for workplaces that do, there is clearly life left in the old desktop computer.

Tweet, Tweet: It’s the sound of the Police

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011

Back in my early days of journalism, I worked on numerous local papers. Admittedly it was mostly killer breaking stories like ‘pet of the week’ or ‘man loses dog,’ but occasionally I got to get involved in crime reporting and traipse down to see who had done what at the local court.

It was a great experience, although often harrowing, but the key takeaway was the journalist’s job of seeing justice being done on behalf of the public unable to attend.

However, the West Midlands Police claim there has been a fall in young pup journos – and indeed seasoned professionals – going down to Birmingham Magistrates’ Court to see what’s what. So, it has come up with a new technological ploy to keep us in the loop.

Essentially, the force will be sending its own staff down to the court to announce the results of various cases over the time-sucking microblogging service that is Twitter.

The journalist side of me thinks, hang on a minute, this is not the same as somebody sitting through the entire case, frantically scrawling down notes in shorthand and writing up in-depth coverage back in the news room for the next edition of the paper.

It also brings into question whether tax payers money should be spent for someone to play on a social network all day.

However, the citizen part of me – trust me, us journalists are rarely referred to as human beings, let alone good citizens – praises the initiative.

It is such a major feature of British society that “justice is seen to be done,” with members of the public able to watch any court case unfold – except in particularly sensitive cases – and have the system prove to us it is doing its job properly.

We can’t all take the day off and spend it touring the courts of the UK, and with less and less local papers, leading to less and less local court reporters, coming up with a new plan to take advantage of modern technology whilst keeping the tradition of making cases public is brilliant.

The Police has its own agenda of course, with the force wanting to show how many crooks it is catching and dealing with. However, regardless of this extra intention, I overall celebrate the proposition and hope many forces follow the example.

Budget 2011: The Blog Before The Budget

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

Today is Budget Day when the Coalition Government sets out its spending plans for the coming financial year. Although this year’s Budget may seem a little anti-climatic following the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) back in the autumn, Chancellor George Osborne could still have a few surprises up his sleeve that the technology industry, and other businesses in the wider economy, should keep an eye out for.

Plan for growth

Osborne has already promised there won’t be any new spending cuts or tax increases which would limit the scope of what he can do. One of Labour’s biggest overarching criticisms of the laissez-faire Coalition following the CSR was that it had no plan for economic growth besides cutting government spending, hoping the private sector would step in to replace the lost jobs and investment. This was supposed to help nurse the economy back to health, but the Government may need to do more.

The Government has already announced new ‘enterprise zones’, an old Thatcher-era policy where companies choosing to set up in select areas would be subject to fewer regulations including, controversially, a reduction in paternity and maternity rights for workers.

A rumoured plan to boost the construction industry by offering first-time buyers advantageous loans on newly-built homes may be just the start of even bigger plans.

Merging income tax and national insurance

Bolstered by a report from the Office of Tax Simplification, Osborne could propose merging income tax and national insurance. As well as simplifying the tax system, it could save both the employers and HM Revenue and Customs the significant hassle and expense of administering the two separate taxes. It’s not without political risk though – the merged tax would make it startlingly clear how much money the government is really taking from our pay packets.

Personal tax allowances

The Chancellor could attempt to sweeten the pill of income tax reform by increasing our personal tax allowances – the amount of income we can earn tax-free before taxes kick in. Given the spending cuts and the budget deficit, any increases would likely be modest at best though, especially for higher income earners.

Petrol duty

A 5p per litre increase in petrol duty, planned to start in April, may be cancelled or postponed. Oil prices have now reached $105 a barrel compared to $68 last May. The Chancellor may also heed calls from pressure groups to introduce a ’stabiliser’ to protect businesses and motorists from the most dramatic changes in oil prices.

Apprenticeships and unemployment

There might be some money in that little red box to pay for apprenticeships to help the unemployed young back into work. Whether this would be a one-off gesture or a precursor to serious reform and improvement of the vocational training opportunities available to school leavers remains to be seen.

Eco investment bank

Anything hailed as ‘green’ or ‘eco’ now seems achingly trendy and a little gauche these days. Nonetheless a government sponsored loans system for businesses looking to develop and invest in alternative energy sources and more energy efficient versions of existing products and technologies could be a good idea given the banks’ stricter lending requirements following the recession.

Foreign aid

Foreign aid and development was one of the very few areas of government spending protected from the worst of the cuts. We don’t expect this to change, but we don’t expect to see any increases here either. We’d like to see the Government take a similar approach to China which is increasing its influence, and potentially opening new markets for Chinese companies, by offering sub-Saharan Africa countries specially negotiated loans instead of aid. We’re not holding our breath though, especially following the debt reduction campaigns of the past decade.

What are your predictions for the Budget? Let us know in the Comments.

Buy Antelope to sound like a Dalek

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

We’ve just moved offices. Now instead of the wall 50 feet away, opposite my window, I have a view of a car’s windscreen, parked 4 feet from my desk. At least I can see more of the sky but perhaps too much as the floor-to-ceiling window turns the office into a greenhouse. Which is the complete opposite of our old office, suspended above the car park and with virtually no insulation top or bottom the central heating ran all year. But we had a pretty good ISDN-based telephone system and reasonable broadband at about 7 or 8Mbits down and 1Mbits up. (more…)

Presenting the iPad2… for me…?

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2011

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Help

Sunday, February 20th, 2011

There were three of them, we were young and they looked oh-so sexy in their silvery grey jackets. We became intimate immediately, slept together every night and I devoted all my attention to them equally. It was exhausting and especially when my wife joined in and made it a ménage à trios.

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This week I have been mostly underwhelmed by mobile announcements

Thursday, February 17th, 2011

The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona usually manages to completely underwhelm me with some pointless announcement or other, and this year has been no exception. Apparently, and I trust you are sitting down for this, dealing with the smartphone-driven network demands for data services is proving something of a challenge. With global mobile broadband subscribers expected to continue rising at a stonking pace, hitting 5 billion or so within five years, the challenge is only likely to get worse.

Am I worried by this announcement? Not at all, and for good reason: I rather suspect that the mobile network operators will somehow damage to keep up with demand through beefed up network provision and implementation of more efficient technologies. Heck, it’s not as if they are going to be short of money to invest in that upgraded network provision as, after all, most people do not get their mobile access for free now do they?

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Why I don’t love Valentine’s Day

Sunday, February 13th, 2011

In the unlikely event that you’ve emailed me a Valentine’s Day card, I’m afraid you’ve wasted your time for a number of reasons:

1. I’m a happily married man, and my wife tells me I am not allowed secret admirers so all such cards get routed to the trashcan without me opening them.

2. I’m not exactly sex on a stick material being a big, bald, heavily tattooed biker type. If you did secretly fancy me, then there is obviously something wrong with you so your card will be routed to the trashcan without me opening it.

3. While I am aware of the whole ‘attracted to the bad boy types’ thing (and thank goodness for that, he says referring to point 2) when it comes to Valentine’s Day the roles often get reversed and it’s the bad boys (and girls) who get attracted to your mailbox. To avoid the spam, phishing attempts and malware all the ecards and messages get, you guessed it, dumped in the trash without opening them.

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One billion reboots?

Sunday, February 6th, 2011

It has been estimated that the imminent Patch Tuesday event which will consist of 12 patches dealing with 22 vulnerabilities, including that long awaited Internet Explorer fix, will kick start something in the region of 900 million system reboots during the coming week. Call me sad (mmmmmphhhhhh. Ed) but ever since this figure was suggested to me, I have been singing a revised version of the John Shuttleworth ‘nerd pop’ classic, 500 Bus Stops: “One billion reboots”.

Surely it is not going to be long until the one billion reboot update is a reality, and IT departments around the world feel the strain with services wobbling and applications falling over for those businesses who are not best prepared. Don’t think that I’m pulling the threat out of my hat like a magician’s rabbit either, we’ve been here before. Who recalls a large Microsoft patch (albeit nowhere near the 900 million reboots mark that is expected this week) back in 2007 which knocked over plenty of applications? I seem to recall Skype was a high profile casualty back then.

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