Michele Neylon :: Pensieri

While I love playing with technology, that doesn't necessarily mean that I get it right all of the time (or even a lot of the time!)

In my efforts to keep my phonebook backed up I managed to duplicate most of the contacts on my phone (some people appeared 5 times!!)

Oddly enough my phone didn't know what to do with multiple instances of the same contact, so I never had a clue who was ringing me or sending me texts.

This evening, while watching TV, I decided to nuke all the duplicates.

In so doing I came across a lot of contact names that meant absolutely nothing to me, which I promptly removed, but I also came across one that did - my grandfather's mobile phone number.

I have to say my feelings were really mixed.

On the one hand I was sort of amused, as I know he managed to lose the phone months before he passed away, while on the other it was a sad moment to think that he's gone.

My grandfather was a wonderful character and most people he came into contact with were very taken with him.

I know he'd have loved to see me married off to a "good woman", though paradoxically he never took any interest in any of my girlfriends until "after the fact" (He once famously asked me how a "lovely girl" was about 18 months after I'd broken up with her!)

When it came to technology he was always willing to "give it a go" and managed to email some of us from time to time, while also working on his memoirs on his PC (I think he wrote most of them longhand, however). I've no idea which of his friends or relatives gave him a mobile phone, as I strongly suspect it was rarely charged (or even with him).

He's gone now, but as I unbox books and other stuff that I had left stored in various relatives' houses (long boring story!) I keep "bumping into him". I find little letters he wrote me over the years in his very particular handwriting.

Of course part of his legacy lives on in me. Though I'm not sure if the hoarding of newspapers is the main bit I want to remember him for!

Remember 365 selling to UK company Names.co.uk?
Well seemingly Names.co.uk like to overcharge their clients ...

I already mentioned their pricing policy on co.uk transfers out, but they've since gone on to expand that to include com/net/org/info/biz domains. Don't believe me?

Check out this screenshot from the Register365 / Namesco control panel (click to enlarge):


Or how about this invoice a client paid recently for the "right" to move his domain elsewhere (click to enlarge):


So in simple terms if you are NOT happy with their service and want to change provider you will get billed for changing YOUR domains to a new provider.

Aren't they great?

Companies behaving in this manner give a bad name to the entire industry and really make me sick. While I may have had my differences with the previous owners of register365 I somehow doubt that they'd have stooped this low!

And to make matters all the more interesting ..

I'm getting reports from some clients that the charges are being imposed, while others are being told that they can leave without having to pay - what about the people who don't question charges?

NB: Yes I have a vested interest in the hosting and domain industry and I don't hide it. On the other hand I would never be interested in running a company that abused registrants in this manner - there are plenty of ways to make money, messing your clients about isn't one of them

First there was Jaiku, then there was twitter (and again)...

Now I've setup a Blacknight thing on Facebook...

If you're on Facebook then why not join us - I'll probably push out a few "special" promotions to our facebook fans in the coming weeks, but I want to get at least 100 fans on there before I consider it (setting goals makes it easier in some ways ....)

And if anyone who knows anything about managing Facebook pages has any tips please do share !!

Although the company blog has been shortlisted for a Golden Spider this year I will not be attending the event.

Why?

Put simply the event's organisers appear to have serious communication issues.

To start with we had to be told by a third party that we'd actually made the shortlist.

Seemingly they contacted some of those shortlisted, but not all of them.

Why?

God only knows.

Then I got an email from one of their staff to my personal email address asking me if I would be attending or not. (We're shortlisted for the company blog - not one of my personal ones)

At the same time a different member of their staff was in contact with our offices to offer us a ticket for the night. They then followed up shortly afterwards to say that they had two tickets for us.

Cool!
 
So I then proceeded to organise a "date" for the evening, letting them know that yes we'd go but that we'd confirm the second person's name after the weekend. (Fortunately I hadn't booked hotel rooms etc., at this stage - being a bit disorganised can pay dividends at times!)

So I'm beginning to feel vaguely warm fuzzy feelings towards Golden Spiders at this stage (I've criticised them quite a bit in the past)

With me so far?
It's not particularly complicated.

So when we contacted them to confirm everything today they did an "about turn" and now say that there's only one ticket and there had been a mistake.

I'm sorry, but that's not good enough.

You don't invite people to an event and then uninvite them a couple of days later.

Maybe they screwed up, but they should standover the screw up.

There is no way I am going to bother wasting my time attending an event that is that badly organised.

No way.

I love parties and other social gatherings. They're great.

What I don't love is the next day.

The dreaded hangover.

There's no point in complaining about hangovers, as they're entirely self-inflicted and I should know better (of course I don't!)

Thankfully I have plenty of strong coffee to hand, so the effects will wear off .... eventually...

It's 2008. Ireland is supposedly a democracy, yet the Gardai (Irish police force) are now demanding that ISPs provide them with live access to  browser data.

Say goodbye to your privacy!

The story was covered in The Irish Times today

Basically the Gardai are asking ISPs to give them a live link into their networks to capture realtime data!

Retaining personally identifiable data falls outside the scope of the data retention directive, as it clearly conflicts with privacy legislation.

The EU data retention directive will come into force in Ireland in the near future, but what it covers is quite slim in many respects and even that is viewed by many as an invasion of privacy.

Having said that it is possible for the gardai, or other law enforcement agencies, to request web logs and other data from ISPs in specific circumstances ie. on a case by case basis where the access request is controlled etc.,.

But providing constant, live, realtime access? That's a new one.

According to the press coverage today, which is the first I'd heard of the entire thing, the Gardai are trying the "good citizen" ploy as their excuse for what is clearly a request to ignore our civil rights.

Do I want some police officer watching my every move online?

Would I be comfortable with that?

Would you?

I somehow doubt it.

In a country like Ireland where there have been so many cases of government bodies "mislaying" sensitive data this kind of request is insane.

(Disclosure: We are members of the Irish ISP Association (ISPAI) and I'm personally involved with the data retention working group within ISPAI)

I've been a fan of Seth Godin's writings for quite some time, so I was delighted when my copy of The Big Red Fez arrived a couple of days ago.

In common with some of Godin's other books, The Big Red Fez is not a hefty volume with tiny print. It's just over 100 pages long, but every second page is a screenshot of a website or email, so it's actually a mere 50 pages in total. But a book shouldn't be valued based on its length, especially not in the case of Godin.

While some authors suffer from something akin to verbal diarrhoea, Godin excels in getting his point across clearly and succintly (the screenshots help illustrate what he's talking about).

So what is it all about?

It's about taking your website to the next level. Making it more useful and thus more profitable. No matter how good you may think your website is you can probably tweak it and improve it (I know this to be very true of any I operate!)
Most of what Godin talks about is simple and easy to put into operation - making the call to action more obvious for example, or rejigging error messages etc.,

Word of advice - if you run a website get a copy of this book!

As I mentioned the other day, my slim digital camera was kidnapped by my sister some time ago and the likelihood of getting it back is slim to none. She might as well hold onto it!

While my Nokia N95 does have a camera it's a real pig to operate. The delay between when you fireup the camera and are actually able to take a shot is really frustrating (admittedly I'm not a very patient person at the best of times either!) and the quality of the shots in low light environments isn't that great.

So I decided to take the plunge and get a reasonable spec compact camera.

I'm fairly clueless when it comes to digital cameras, but I knew more or less what I wanted:
The Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W170 may not be as slim as the T7, but it's a nice little camera all the same.

It comes with a variety of usage "modes" and would appear to be almost completely "idiot proof".

The one thing to be careful of, however, is that, in common with a lot of cameras, it doesn't come with any memory sticks, so you'll need to buy at least one. I opted for a 4 gigabyte memory card, as that should be more than enough for "normal" usage.

I've already taken a few shots with it and was impressed with the general responsiveness and speed, so I think it will suit my needs. The real test, however, will be in bad lighting in a pub or restaurant, so I may have to wait until the weekend to see how well that works out.

Full spec below:

CCD      1/2.3" Super HAD CCD sensor
10.3 megapixels of which 10.1 effective
RGB filter
Interlaced scan
Carl Zeiss Vario-Tessar lens
Resolution (in pixels)     3648 x 2736
Optical     Viewfinder     Optical
LCD display     2.7" LCD screen (6.7cm)
230,000 pixels
Macro Distance     10 cm
Normal Distance     From 50 cm upwards
Optical Zoom     5x
f (equivalent to 35mm): 28-140mm
Digital Zoom     10x
ISO range     ISO Auto, 80, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200
Aperture and Shutter Speed     Diaphragm aperture: F3.3-5.2
Shutter speed: 1/4-1/1600 in Automatic mode
Shutter speed: 1"-1/1600 in Programme mode
Delay: 2 or 10s
Focal length (in mm)     5-25
35 mm equivalent focal length (in mm)     28-140
Stabiliser     Optical
Flash (built-in)     Flash: automatic, manual, slow synch, red-eye reduction

Flash range from 0.5 to 2.7m in telephoto and ISO Auto
Flash range from 0.2 to 4.2m in wide angle and ISO Auto
Flash range up to 8.4m in wide angle and ISO 3200
Flash range up to 5.3m in telephoto and ISO 3200
Storage     Image formats     JPEG
Memory Card Type     Memory Stick Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo, Memory Stick Pro Duo High Speed, Memory Stick Pro HG Duo
Included Memory Card     No
Internal Memory     15MB
Video     Video mode     Yes, with sound
Video Sequence     VX Fine MPEG video: 1640x480 pixels at 30 fps15MB
TV Output     HD output with optional VMC-MHC1 component cable
AV output
Webcam     No
Computer InterFace     Port     USB 2.0 and Pictbridge
Wireless function     No
Compatibility     PC and Mac
Included software     Picture Motion Browser 3.0
Picture Package Music Transfer
Extras     Power sources     Lithium batteries
Other features     Focal distance: 5 - 25 mm
Super SteadyShot optical stabiliser
BIONZ image processor
14-bit analogue/digital conversion
Noise reduction system and colour optimisation (Clear RAW NR)
D-Range Optimizer Standard / Plus

Focusing: 9 points, semi-manual, centred, spot

White balance: Automatic, Cloudy, Daylight, Fluorescent 1, Fluorescent 2, Fluorescent 3, Incandescent, Flash
Exposure metering: centred, spot, matrix

Scene modes: Beach, High Sensitivity, Landscape, Snow, Soft Snap, Twilight, Twilight Portrait, Fireworks, Smile Shutter, and Underwater

Automatic face detection (child/adult)
Automatic smile detection (child/adult)
Automatic scene recognition

Musical slideshow mode with 8 transition effects and 8 customisable music modes

In-camera editing: Trimming, Red Eye Correction, Soft Focus, Partial Color, Fisheye Lens, Cross Filter, Retro, Radial Blur, Unsharp Masking, and Happy Face.

Colour mode: vivid, sepia, black and white
Size     9.4x5.8x2.4cm
Weight (in grams)     142
Included accessories     NP-BG1 lithium battery, battery charger, multifunction AV and USB cable, strap

Like a lot of people on this side of the Atlantic, I stayed up until the early hours of this morning to find out who would be president of the USA.

Congratulations to Obama and his team!

I have to admit that I fell asleep before his acceptance speech or possibly during it (no reflection on the quality of the speech, more a reflection of it being after 4am!), but I did get to hear McCain's very gracious speech.

Today's XKCD comic sums it up nicely (click to enlarge):