Casio PB-100

The iPad…. Well I have to start this story a little while ago. Let’s say about 27 years. In my hand is my first (self bought) computer. Model PB-100 from CASIO. It’s a calculator with Basic dialect and all of 588 bytes of RAM. For me it was sheer amazing. I had 12 bytes output. I could conquer the world!!!

Not quite. In a certain way though yes I could. This little machine was about 12mm high, 16.5cm wide and 7.1cm high. It ran on two flat lithium batteries. If I’m not mistaken CR3202′s and they lasted for ever. I COULD take it everywhere and I pretty much did.

Of course 588 bytes quickly set an end to the unlimited potential. Causing me to go down the route of bigger and more desk bound computers. The flexibility was gone but a lot of power was gained. Nonetheless I missed the days of moving around with my computer. As a little side note the PB-100 is still in use today by my father. It’s still working well after 27 years!

Apple Newton MP2000

Years and years later, when laptops already roamed the trains, planes and office lobbies, I still missed the easy portability of that calculator. It was just always there. This was the time when the PDA revolution started. In succession I had a Apple Newton MP2000, a Psion Mx5, and several Palm devices. As a PDA the Psions were top. The Symbian/EPOC OS making all the difference. The one I did regret most selling though was the Newton. It was just leagues ahead of the competition.

Anyway for all the goodness of those platforms the input methodology was their biggest flaw it was always a compromise. Battery times were good though. What killed them all in the end were two things though:

1) the Internet. The graphical and display requirements were just too much for the processing power of these small devices and the displays were too small.

2) Connectivity to the outside world. All needed some syncing software via serial cable/USB and if you had multiple PCs you were in deep trouble.

I also have to admit here that I actually don’t like notebooks and laptops. I can’t really put my finger on why though. I had quite a few in my time also including MacBooks but they jut don’t give me the portability I want. They are to big to be truly portable and too small to replace my desktop (mainly screen size that is).

Finally Apple gave us the iPhone. I have a 3GS and that immediately changed the way I communicated and what I did on the go. I must contend I am a iPhone power user of sorts. Few games but a heaps of SSH, VNC, RDP, networking Apps stuff. I also like the absolutely brilliant way it converges calendars and email. This was the first time I was really all round happy with a mobile device…..if it weren’t for the screen size.

Psion MX5 PRO

And this is where the iPad now comes in. It is the right size, weight, power class and also very important; it doesn’t do too much. There is still a space for my iMac in all this. But it allows me to be productive on the go (like now), do my email and my surfing. It also streams video quite nicely so I can use it as a sort of TV.

The iPad certainly doesn’t do away with the iPhone. It is much more complementary. I wish Apple hadn’t locked the communication between the two devices down that much. I went for the 32gb option with 3G. The middle path between space and mobility. So far that looks a good decision.

So, my experiences…. Well my first experience was short lived. After about three hours the screen suddenly gave up mid flight. Very annoying that. So I rushed into town the next day and got it exchanged *phew*. So now I am on iPad v2.0 all going well so far. Let’s start with the down sides.

1. Aluminum can get REALLY cold! But that’s rather due to our bad insulation in our house.
2. Where’s the camera?
3. Keynote doesn’t allow the use of a clicker (yet)
4. No iOS4 (yet)
5. WordPress WYSIWYG editor don’t work
6. The USB power issues it has
7. Where is the calculator?
8. Where is SMS?

But all in all these niggles are minor. The good is that it’s absolutely awesome! After searching for decades this is the mobile device I always wanted. It gives me the flexibility without the bulk. The virtual keyboard is great. Little excursion on that… I can type nearly as fast on this thing as on a keyboard. The reason is probably that I never learned to 10-finger type. I still need to look at the keyboard. My hand movements to keys is random at best but it’s not slow. From the iPhone I’m used to not needing a tactile response and I actually find the glass that Apple uses nice to touch. Another cool side effect is that you can type easily in the pitch black.

Anyway… Oh yes, perfect device. The iPad like the iPhone follows the same principle of being more of a window on your data. So your emails and calender are just aggregates of your real services like Gmail or Exchange. So the iPad actually doesn’t save your stuff locally. This, in the age of Cloud Computing, is a good thing. Our data is ever more on-line. The need to have it locally is evaporating quickly.

I’ve now shown the iPad to a few people and the response is phenomenal. It’s like a no-brainer selling this thing. Switch it on, 50% sold and use it for 30 seconds…sold. This is the kind of device most people didn’t know they have been waiting for. The use is next to instinctive, no explanation necessary. Even ardent Apple nay-sayers are sold on it. Oh and I just wrote the last two paragraphs easily on the bumpy bus. Even a netbook would have been awkward in this situation. My only problem is that I am now getting motion sickness.

So in all, I definitely see this device as a milestone in computer and interface development. I am convinced we will look back on it like we do now on the first Macintoshes. It is also a much more revolutionary device than the iPhone. Where that was evolution of a concept this is revolution. The whole expectation of how personal computing is understood will change. Maybe it won’t be Apple selling the most devices in the end but neither did the Macintosh but it still was a revolutionary product (btw has someone already hacked an iPad into a Macintosh shell?).

Have a look at the iPad if you have some unused €£¥$ lying around! Don’t if you don’t. The temptation is just too big.

2010 and WeekendTesting is gaining traction. In the process of getting involved I was confronted multiple times on how I could NOT have a twitter account. So in order to see what the fuss was about I re-activated twitter a couple of weeks back. Mainly for the whole testing scene thing.

This was during the same time the ugly FaceBook-privacy monster reared it’s head. So the motivation to look for an alternative communication channel was high.

After a few weeks of being tested-twitter-tester here’s my verdict: AWESOME!!!!

I have learned more about testing, test-tools, methodologies in about 3 weeks than in the last year (OK, I do exclude that dice-game-thing with James B. from that)! Twitter is like a huge meeting/melting of minds machine. I love it.

Unlike FaceBook it is focused. The 140 chars is annoying but extremely helpful in concentrating thought and communication. FaceBook is personal and tends to be mostly bla-bla. Cool for catching up with mom but not for debating testing or communicating information quickly. FaceBook is a wasteland when it comes to progressing your subject at hand. Twitter is the opposite.

I am encouraging the uptake of twitter as a tester. It helps the trade, it helps your know-how. FTW

Oh and my twitter account: @Oliver_NZ

Now that Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) came out Rebecca and I decided to invest in the whole Apple product range we use. Meaning that we needed new versions for the OS, iWorks and iLife. We have 3 Macs so the family package (5 licenses) is the way to go.

This package costs NZ $479 in the Apple store. In the US it costs US $229. Google tells me that that equates to about NZD $330. Ok….so what’s the $109 difference ($41 is sales tax)??? That is definitely a bit much for postage. So this is pure additional profit! For what? Living in NZ??? Is this the living-happily-in-NZ-tax??? I honestly feel conned by Apple. And I certainly wasn’t going to stand for it. So here’s the trick on how to save lots of dough….

Go to Amazon US and get search for Mac OS X there. You will find the family pack advertised for $199 (!!) or even less. Get it shipped to someone you know in the US and then get them to ship it out to NZ. Voila, you just saved $100+.

Apple is a cool company and I love their products and will keep on buying them but if they think they can fund cheap US sales by conning the rest of the world then their outa luck. I think this should even get investigated by the commerce commission. Wonder who I write to there…

You’ll have either 5,10 or 20GB cap. So that only means that you’ll reach your download limit on the second of each month and not the fourth! What is it with peoples craze for speed? It’s the same stupidity as with the fiber-optic cable to the curb. We don’t need any of that if we’re going to d*ck around with these outdated data caps. What needs to go is the Telecom bottleneck-monopoly of the Tasman cable (Kudos to Kordia for wanting to install that 2nd cable).

If we had free market conditions on the international data highway we’d have no caps, it would make sense to up the bandwidth and private companies would invest in infrastructure.

But we have a Telecom controlled monopoly so nothing happens and now taxpayers have to cough up $1.5bn so that we can get some cables in the ground only to find out that they won’t solve any of our issues.

So go Telstra! 100Mbit will not really bring us any advantage. Give us a flatrate and keep it at 10Mbit!!!

As a result they lost my business as I have now ordered directly from Apple (which I would have done anyway if I had anticipated that they’d sell it too). It’s even $30 cheaper from them.

So Apple has come through again and Vodafone proved it can’t really come to the party. The sad thing is Telecom isn’t an option either they’re just as pathetic. Wonder when we will really get a choice in this country.

Usually this feeling is not really strong and doesn’t really affect us or what we do. It does explain though that there’s more of a leniency to cut corners or to ignore the obvious. If the product is virtual maybe nobody will notice (and nobody really does). If you do that as a builder it is blatantly obvious that the house  has no doors.

Have a read http://tinyurl.com/o2t9ox (thanks Yee for the link! And Matthew for the insight). This article pretty much hits the nail on the head of what I’ve always felt and seen.

I don’t really know what to do about it. Not for me and not for the industry. How do we mak the virtual workplace, the cubicle monster give us what we need? Or are we doomed to a happy existence as motor cycle repairist? Is this growing up or becoming wise or when does knowing set in? Is this where the common midlife crisis sets in? Maybe you’ll know…

Director J.J. Abrams has certainly created his masterpiece. Maybe not technically as a film but for him to take the Star Trek universe and dare to go near the topic and then make such a stunner is definitely a great achievement. The film has a near perfect cast (the only slight let-down is Uhura), a good story and great special effects. Where the special effects never seem to take center stage but enhance the story. I loved the film and sincerely hope Abrams immerses himself in the Star Trek universe and lets us have at least another three masterpieces like this one. The stage is definitely set for more great stuff.

And because Abrams has his fingers deeply in the land of TV series (Lost, Alias) we might stand to hope….. oh that would that not be a dream come true…

With this film I will do something I haven’t done for over 15 years. I am going to watch it again in the cinema. I am so elated to see Star Trek alive and kicking (butt; if I might add!). I was getting somehow jealous of the Star Wars fans (although it depends which fan you ask .

Both Spocks are great and Kirk is the son of a b*tch he’s supposed to be (although I still don’t dislike him quite as much as the Shatner-Kirk which I loved to hate). Karl Urban as Bones and Simon Pegg as Scotty are excellent choices that match the originals easily. Especially Karl is a chip off the old block.

So if you’re a Trekker or Trekkie “May you watch long and be happy”. I’m not going to say “go watch this film” because I know you will but drop me a comment here what you thought.

I did some calculations and it turns out I pay about $6000 a year for driving a car (car depreciation, petrol, repairs, WOF, registration, insurance, fines,…). Depending on the car value either depreciation or repairs are higher. So the $6000 are pretty independent on the type of car for cars up to $20,000.

We don’t drive more than 5000kms a year anyway and use the bus and sometimes taxi for most of our work-week commuting. In an average week we use the car 1-2 times only. So we are really don’t need a car at all. What I’d really like though is an electric car but no-one will sell me one and I don’t have the time to build my own. I really don’t want another gas guzzler. For the time being I decided with Rebecca that we’d try and go no-car.

What does no-car mean for us? We’ll take $5000 as the calculation basis. That is the money we can spend on any means of transportation. Not included in those are 1 taxi ride a week and bus fares to and from work as we do that if we have a car or not. After some research we have found that we can do the following:

1. Walk and use the bicycle (free)
2. Ride buses ($2.25 per ride)
3. Use taxis for all trips where buses don’t drive ($15-30 per ride)
4. Use www.cityhop.co.nz. ($75 yearly, $13.50 – $15/hour for a car)
5. Use rented cars for longer trips/holidays. (about $60 a day)
6. Get a scooter (electric/petrol) for everything that doesn’t fit the above ($2000-$3000 for a scooter + $40 petrol & insurance/month)

So… then $5000 gives you 2,222 bus rides, 166-333 taxi rides, 333-370hrs of cityhop cars, 83 days of rental cars (petrol excluded). The scooter (point 6) is excluded here for now. Maybe it also motivates us to walk a little more as this directly saves money on our bottom line (there are no fixed costs to speak of). That’s a LOT of transport and it sounds quite good from a financial perspective. And(!) we can switch back to a car at any point in time without having lost any money to speak of. From an environmental perspective this is probably the lowest CO2 rating you could have in our situation (not including working from home as that is not a viable option for us at the moment).

So we’re going to give it a shot. The budget will be $100/week for all commuting expenses excluding bus rides to and from work but including all taxi rides (i.e. the one taxi ride per week is included here). Let’s see how that turns out for us. I’ll definitely post some updates on how we are going.

Where we had single core systems in the past we now have quad/eight-core systems. They are more efficient in Watt per MIPS but we now use ever more MIPS. So we are not really conserving energy. We would only be doing that if we kept the system usage the same. We have noticed in our test datacenter that the power usage has gone up dramatically and the cooling needs too. I think it is out of proportion to what’s being done. Nonetheless we need to put more power in and more cooling and….

The new power is going into more ram and HW to run newer and bigger OS’s, Java runtimes, .Net APIs,…  Do they bring more power to the user? Do software developers need to start thinking about power usage? I definitely think so. We need to start thinking of how and when to use multi cores and business needs to think about how time critical batch processing is. Developers need to know what API call consumes how much power per call and the such. Power saving features of hardware need to be used and optimised.

As for your desktop PC and/or your notebook… Most of us are using it to surf or do email. Maybe a little photo library stuff too. So why do we need quad-core 500-1200W consuming monster machines (I am not addressing the gamers out there)? Those machines would have replaced a whole scientific supercomputer 10 years ago. Luckily the notebooks are getting more prevalent. They usually use up to 80W. Even more interesting are the new Netbooks. They use even less power. Looking at Demand people are getting that too although power usage is not their motivation.

I still think IT is using far too much power for what is really needed. I’ve seen numbers like 15% of the worlds power is consumed by IT, one Google search consumes the equivalent power of running an energy saving lamp for 1 hour. I don’t know if these are just myths but they shure point to some smoke. We need to check in our own back yards (i.e. PCs and datacenters) if there’s a fire too.

Other Links:

http://www.geekzone.co.nz/freitasm/5845

http://coffee.geek.nz/tags/92a

http://creativefreedom.org.nz (sign the petition)

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/257775653538F293CC257540000F222E

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/news/5A10F75C5E84D8F4CC25754400080FBE

1. Will the financial crisis be over in 2009?
2. How will Obama fare in is first year?
3. Will NZ change due to the National government?
4. Will Apple release a Netbook/Tablet computer?
5. Will Windows 7 continue the XP legacy?
6. Will Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) blow everything away?
7. Will Ubuntu 9.04 bring a renewal of Linux desktop?
8. Will the Ocean levels rise?
9. Will we see the breakthrough for electric cars?
10. Will Israel ignite the middle east again?

So looking forward to it…:-D

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/12/29/53FE-microsoft-future_1.html

InfoWorld has run a cheeky little article series of where Microsoft will go in the next 10 years. Interesting is that such an article would be unheard of only 5 years ago. Where could Microsoft go? Stupid question. The answer was always “UP”.

Today Microsoft is like a boxing heavyweight that has gone down twice and we’re in round 9. Doesn’t look good. They need to get their game up if they want to stay at the helm. But then again is it all about winning? IBM was in that position decades ago and they’ve fallen. But look at them now. Still a good and solid company. Just shrunk to the size a “normal” big company should be. Just imagine IBM would have survived in the state of yesteryear! PC would probably still cost about $12,000 each and MP3 players would be called Jukeboxes.

So I’m looking forward to the decline but not disappearance of Microsoft. It will be good for the industry. New blood will be able to bring us new ingenious stuff. Google is the man…oh sorry…company of the moment but there will be more. At the moment most are probably still ideas only between the ears of a 16 year old in India or China (although China is probably out of the running as long as they don’t become fully westernised).

What the InfoWorld article has done for me is remind me that I should dream. Dream of the time after what’s happening now. We’re so engroced with the fear of a changing IT landscape that we sometimes forget the fruits of change. And this can probably also be said for the current financial crisis. Look at where the US was 1929-1933 and look at the prosperity it amassed thereafter. Every death of something is the beginning of life for something else. So let’s see what the future holds -kids, get the popcorn, the main feature is starting now!

[Update] for some laughs… http://www.break.com/index/bill-gates-last-day-of-work.html

http://tinyurl.com/5laabm

Make a long story short this is another case of scientists saying Global Warming is a myth.

What I hate about the whole f*****g Global Warming discussion is that nobody seems to have gotten the point. I couldn’t care less about the official “Global Warming” discussion. This whole Global Warming discussion is about humanity looking out for nature so that humanity can survive. This is NOT about driving down temperatures or how much ice there is. Nature will always survive. If our planet turns into a smouldering Mars then that’s nature too but that won’t include humanity though.

So don’t kid yourself. What’s on the line here is us. Or to be more precise you the reader. Well to be exact its your kids and their kids. If we continue pillaging the planet we stand to lose it all for future generations. We have actually already done that. Now is the question how much we can get back.

And then there’s scientists that argue endlessly about computer models, theories and experiments. We have gazillion dollar research projects to find out if humanity is responsible for global warming. All for what? Proving something I already know?

Go out and look at what is happening. Try and find some untouched wild forests/mangroves/wildlife out there! Try and find a non polluted waterway/ocean/lake. Try and find a spot with CLEAN air. If you can -which I doubt- be happy. If you can’t, then I think you’ve just found “Global Warming”.

“Global Warming” should actually and more accurately be called “The quest for human survival”. Or maybe “Making our World worth living in again”.  Honestly?! Who wants to argue with me that humanity is not destroying nature? Open your eyes and weep at what you see. Then ask yourself if that is the world you really want to live in or if you’d like to have it with a little more nature and beauty. I’m no saint but I think I at least I’m starting to care and to react. Maybe you’ll open your eyes and take a look. Tell the scientists to shut-up and then go and start doing something about it.

And as a side-note…. Now that the new government is in place in NZ they have already started turning back the clocks. I honestly resent them for literally taking the axe to nature again. How can such stupid and shortsighted people run a country?! This probably applies to Labour just as much. They should all be ashamed for what they are doing but hey, if they were decent caring people they probably wouldn’t be in politics.

When I was living in South Africa (1982-1992) I remember how hard it was to get the things we were used to from Germany and Europe in general. With immigrating to NZ a few years back I was fully expecting similar problems. Alas it was not so. And one area in particular has made life a bit easier when trying to find good food – Petone (Wellington, New Zealand).

Petone has become something like a little delicatessen mile for most Europeans. The shops worth mentioning are The Dutch Shop, Ontrays, The Spice Rack, John’s Fish Market, Bella Italia, House of Knives, Brezelmania the food bookstore (which I forgot the name of) and lots of cafes. I will blog about most of these and I will start with my absolute favourite which is Ontrays.

Ontrays in 38 Fritzherbert street (just off Jackson street, Petone) is owned by Steven and Valda Scheckter. They came to NZ more than 10 years ago from South Africa. Over the years they have built up the excellently stocked Ontrays Food Emporium. Ontrays is also called the South African shop because it started out by selling lots of South African food specialities. Nowadays it also sells delicatessen from all over the world.

Europeans looking for the hard-to-get food things and professional cooks looking for good produce can find everything they need. For me it’s the biltong, the dry sausages, the soft cheeses, the wines, the kalamata olives,… Not to mention the coffee that is offered when you walk in the door. It just completes a Saturday’s food hunting.

Anything can be tried before buying especially at the cheese counter. That has it’s down side as you do walk out the door with a little more than you first thought (but usually that is only regretted until you get home and eat ). Not only can you try but you’d be amazed how much Steven knows about what he sells.

So if you are looking for good food, something for the soul and a nice experience go visit the Scheckters in Petone. Ontrays is open Mo-Fr 9-5, Sat 10-4.

[UPDATE] Link to website is www.ontrays.co.nz

I’m sure the DVD will be a success. I think it just hits the sweet spot with people starting to think about immigrating to NZ. It’s not as pricey as an immigration consultant and not as tedious as hunting for the answers yourselves. A good side effect is that the DVD is English only. People should take that as a guide to judge if their English is good enough. If they have big problems following the DVD they should probably invest more time in their English studies.

The DVD has also had amazing buy-in from Immigration New Zealand and the IRD. That makes the DVD as official as you can get.

All in all I’m sure the DVD will make life lots easier for loads of immigrants. Stands to hope we won’t get overrun in the near future

Oh and… a BIG congrats to Melanie & Brian for making their dream come true!!

I have a half ripped tendon in my right hand. It can’t be fixed and so I have to live with it as is. The problem for me is that keyboards and mice are critical.

If the mouse is too big the tendon starts to ache. I use an old IBM notebook mouse in the office and a Logitech VX Nano notebook mouse at home. As keyboards go I have now tried quite a few. First was a standard Siemens-Nixdorf which I liked for low height, good feel (after using it for 3 years+). But when I spilled some coffee over it I never got all the keys to unstick properly.

Then came a Belkin Ergoboard Pro keyboard. Great feel, 2 USB ports and great ergonomic shape. A little wide though (i.e. hand has to move quite a bit between keyboard and mouse). The problem for me was that the height and position of the hads was exactly what my tendon didn’t need.

Because I had a MacBook at the time I already was sold on the chicklet-keyboards from Apple. So I bought one of the Aluminium keyboards for my company PC. And so far so good. It’s done wonders for my tendon. The low elevation and reduced travel & impact has done wonders form my pain. It’s actually gone now (about 8 months since I have the KBD). I’ve also upgraded to an iMac at home with the same keyboard. In the office I use Ubuntu as an OS and not all keys work but I can definitely live with that. I’ve also started a little trend in the office so now there are about half a dozen of them.

All I can say is that the Apple keyboard is a godsend and I won’t be having any other anytime soon. So if you’re looking for a keyboard give Apple a good look (and while you’re at it contemplate getting the whole Mac!).

There is the BEST KEYBOARD category though. You’ll have to bring about US$1800 for the honour but it really is a monster of a keyboard. I am talking about the Optimus Maximus. Every key has a screen underneath so that you can program the keyboard as you’d like it. I’ve never seen one and I do doubt that the ergonomics are better than my trusty Apple so I think I will forgo for now. But do have a look at this wonder.

• Weaken or remove our screening of overseas investment
• a free-for-all in purchases of land
• to purchase strategic assets on sensitive land, reversing the recent regulation that allows the government to scrutinise such acquisitions
• a free-for-all in purchases of fishing quota in our economic zone
• to purchase any assets, major or minor, regardless of their character or financial soundness, and without publicity
• Stop the labeling of GE products
• Weaken our laws against GE crops (even more)
• Probably do away with Pharmac and cheap medical drugs
• Weaken our screening of imported foods (BSE cow anyone?)
• Copyright will be even more entrenched as it already is
• Further commercialisation of public companies
• Tie the NZ economy tighter to the global market
• Probably introduce even more private data sharing with the US

I mean -come on- it can’t really be that bad can it? Well I got thinking. Why would the mighty US look for a FTA with NZ?! I thought they dealt in a bigger league. Oh probably because the US economy and politics are benevolent and want to end world hunger.

Not?

I can’t see any reason this FTA should be good for NZ. Individuals might get advantages but not the country. Even those that profit I think will only do so short term. For political parties certainly. If not directly financially then indirectly (*wink* to the big-time farmers) and certainly a political laurel too. It made me very suspicious that both Labour and National completely agree on the topic. It sort of sounds Winstonesque doesn’t it?

OK. I think I definitely made up my mind. I will actively oppose the FTA with the US. The one with China was already a mistake. I think if we need FTAs we need them with equals. Such we are in the current P4 already and that’s OK. I will definitely use my vote to get some sense into politics in NZ and if I get a chance will make my thoughts public (this being a starting point).  Read the links below for more food for thought.

http://nznotforsale.wordpress.com/danger-ahead/

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO0809/S00328.htm

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4701962a13.html

http://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/us+free+trade+agreement+negotiations+welcomed

P.S. Dear Americans you’re really trying to make it hard on us to like you. I hope know what your government is doing in your name.