Well, I think they're excitements anyway. I am finding it hard to find many others who are as excited as me, but that's fine.
What am I talking about? I bought two items from my wish list...
I got an iPod!! Woot! A black Nano. It's very pretty. The colour looks like gunmetal grey. It's also really awesome, aside from the list of apple annoyances of course. The best bits are...
- Having all my music with me so that when I think of a song I can play it in seconds.
- Looking at the cover art while the music is playing, because artists are not always medium specific. Musical artists always have some visual art to accompany their music, whether or not they made it. They at least commissioned or chose it. It adds to the experience.
- Podcasts and audio books are a lot easier to find and use, the iTunes store has all this stuff built in and presented in a really nice way. Of course podcasts are usually free, so I can use the store to collect things, without spending money.
- The feel of using the iPod adds to the aural and visual, the circular wheel that you touch, the weight of the buttons, the size and shape, and when no cover is on, the cool matte of the metal (or the soft sqeeziness of the silicone cover).
The worst bits I feel obliged to note, so as not to pretend I've been blinded by the marketing:
- iTunes Store REQUIRES a credit card number even if you haven't tried to buy anything yet. iTunes provides much more than selling things, and I don't intend to buy anything from the store (the hundreds I spent on the player and accessories is quite enough, thank you!). So it made me uncomfortable to enter my credit card number at this stage. I use a debit card for online purchases, so at least I can easily check my balance and I will notice if anything odd is happening. I doubt iTunes would take my money without me telling it to, but I am paranoid about these things.
- How can you ignore the non-standard cabling? No, I can't use the many USB cables I have lying around to charge it. No, I can't use a standard A/V cable to connect the device to my TV. Thankfully, the audio port is standard so yes, I can use my chosen headphones or speakers. I mean come-on! Is it really THAT important to sell all those adaptors and official accessories?
- Slight annoyance that I have to use one computer to manage my music, unless I continually update multiple libraries on different computers. It's OK, but I'd rather be sharing and caring between my various computers, family computer and boyfriend's computer.
The other excitement is that I got a hair straightener a few weeks ago. Didn't go for the GHD because my hair style is not $300 important to me. Instead I went for a lovely red Kodo Oasis for less than half the price, which has a strange fault of smudging the logo when it gets hot.... not something I would have expected from a high temperature product! It only happens when using the iron to curl, when the hot hair is being pulled along the outside of the tongs, over the printed logo. I took one back and they happily exchanged it, but the second one is doing it now and I CBF to be honest. The thing does its job very well, so I'm not that particular about the logo looking right. I am still quite baffled that they could make it this way though. I'm told it's the new brand and product from the people who used to make Muster straigteners, if anyone remembers those...
So there, I have shared the excitement of my new toys which I proudly bought myself. I hope that if you weren't interested you didn't read the post! That's the beauty of blogs. :-)
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tech. Show all posts
Wish List
I really should be working right now, but I'm struggling to concentrate. It's nearly lunch time after all. Maybe if I write down some of the things I'm thinking about I will be able to get back to it.
On the weekend I wrote down a wish-list of expensive items I really want to spend my money on. I had to write it down though because I keep thinking of them, and I have real difficulty parting with decent sums of money. Anything above $10 counts as decent in my book! In no particular order:
[Image courtesy of Polyvore]
2. In-ear headphones - It's about the quality. I like the convenience of earbud headphones, but you lose so much of the sound with the standard ones. Some tracks have the most beautiful sound to them, and on the train all i can hear is the words, not the total sound.
3. Trainers - as in those cool colourful ones - the vintage looking nikes, or the puma or asics ones. You know the sort. Functional yet cool. With a little more cushioning than converse or volleys. Mostly important because I can't stand the look (seriously, it hurts my eyes) of white sports trainers when you are not playing sport or in the gym, and most of my shoes are very impractical for walking any distance. I seriously wouldn't do well in the states, they love that look.
4. Bicycle - Like the beautiful ones they ride in Europe. Comfortable, relaxed, well made, and beautiful. These can get pricey, so I have to do a lot of shopping around.
[Image courtesy of Club Monaco]
5. Hair straightener - To replace the three duds I have collected over the years, all hand-me-downs or bargains, all pretty crap. To the dudes who think I already have straight hair - yes, I do, but straigteners don't just straighten, they style. I can go into detail if you wish to fully understand the ins and outs of girlies and our hair styles.
On the weekend I wrote down a wish-list of expensive items I really want to spend my money on. I had to write it down though because I keep thinking of them, and I have real difficulty parting with decent sums of money. Anything above $10 counts as decent in my book! In no particular order:
1. I-Pod nano - I have wanted one of these since forever, but always disliked the monopoly they seem to have of the music player market, and have always gone for a different brand. I also disliked the way they insist you use i-tunes and convert your music into an i-pod/i-tunes specific format (still haven't tried using i-tunes so can't be sure this is still the case). What I didn't realise was that the music player I last bought did the same bloody thing. The shop guy assured me that I could simply drag-and-drop my mp3s onto the player when i plugged it into my computer, but turns out he was wrong. I had to install specific software (one of the worst I have ever used!!) and import my music into this program, where it wants to convert them into its specific format. I didn't get on it quick enough to take the thing back and complain to the dude who sold it to me, so I have had this one for about 3 years. I even tried some cracked software to drag-and-drop, but that kinda failed a lot. Anyway, I still am having inner struggles about the move to apple, but I think it is in fact a superior product. Plus, I have to admit to myself that the look and feel of a thing is VERY important to me. And I don't think these beauties can be beaten in that department. I think I am going to surrender to the i-pod. Whether this will lead to a whole appleisation, I don't know. I hope not. Haven't decided on the colour yet though - thinking red or black. Your thoughts?
[Image courtesy of Polyvore]2. In-ear headphones - It's about the quality. I like the convenience of earbud headphones, but you lose so much of the sound with the standard ones. Some tracks have the most beautiful sound to them, and on the train all i can hear is the words, not the total sound.
3. Trainers - as in those cool colourful ones - the vintage looking nikes, or the puma or asics ones. You know the sort. Functional yet cool. With a little more cushioning than converse or volleys. Mostly important because I can't stand the look (seriously, it hurts my eyes) of white sports trainers when you are not playing sport or in the gym, and most of my shoes are very impractical for walking any distance. I seriously wouldn't do well in the states, they love that look.
4. Bicycle - Like the beautiful ones they ride in Europe. Comfortable, relaxed, well made, and beautiful. These can get pricey, so I have to do a lot of shopping around.
[Image courtesy of Club Monaco]5. Hair straightener - To replace the three duds I have collected over the years, all hand-me-downs or bargains, all pretty crap. To the dudes who think I already have straight hair - yes, I do, but straigteners don't just straighten, they style. I can go into detail if you wish to fully understand the ins and outs of girlies and our hair styles.
Adblock Plus
I installed Adblock Plus to Firefox and I'm amazed at the results. I imagined it would leave me with a box and some text instaed of the colourful ads, something like "This image has been blocked by Adblock Plus" but to my amazement it just takes them away. The text in a news article fills up the space that the ad took up!
Below are images from the same news article in IE and firefox with ABP turned on.
Notice how in the second image the text fills the space where the flashing advert was invading my article. And for those who wonder if its a descrepency in the browser rather than the add on, here is FF with ABP turned off:
I'm very pleased. Just wanted to share.
Below are images from the same news article in IE and firefox with ABP turned on.
Notice how in the second image the text fills the space where the flashing advert was invading my article. And for those who wonder if its a descrepency in the browser rather than the add on, here is FF with ABP turned off:
I'm very pleased. Just wanted to share.
Stupid headset design
Monday afternoon at the moment, and I have done one job. I installed the second attempt at a bluetooth headset for a PAs desk phone. The first one broke after one day of use. I think the problem is not necesarrily the user, but the research that when into buying the product. Clearly there are great pieces of hardware to make one's life easier, and this is not one of them. It is fragile and difficult to set up, let alone a stupid design. Let me paint you a picture...
The wireless bluetooth headset has a range of attachments for your preference, from the ear-clip style to the headband with one ear, to the adjustable headband style. Cool, user choice, pretty good ideas, fine. The headset sits on a dock to charge, which wires into a power pack (a big mo-fo to step down the power because it doesn't need much), as well as wiring into the desk phone. There are about 4 cables required on top of the single cable the phone uses. OK, so we have a bluetooth headset to reduce cabling... and have quadrupled the number of cables required?
But that isn't even the stupid part of the design... one of the cables leads to this mechanical device that you attach to your desk phone with double sided sticky pads (semi-permanently). What is this mechanical device for? Well, you may well ask... For a phone that is entirely capable of being used with a range of headsets and speaker phone, no need to raise the handset at all, this is laughable. This mechanical attachment raises the phones handset in order to answer the phone or even make a call. Once raised, the call goes through the handsfree base and via bluetooth to the headset. When the call is ended by pressing the button on the headset (or one on the base) the phone's handset is lowered and the call is ended.
Have you ever heard of something so ridiculous in this day and age? It's as though the headset is trying to accomodate for phone models pre 1995 or something! You know those old telstra phones with the big square buttons? The ones that you had to wire an answering machine to, or if you were special you could use some of telstras functions by pressing various number buttons.
Not only is this handset a very silly design, it was very difficult to figure out - apparently it took 4 guys in IT looking at it to figure it out in the first place.... although I do wonder if this was not due to its complicated nature, rather the tendancy for IT guys to refuse to use the instruction manual.... either way, not only that, but the headset was physically broken within one day of operation! It was the tiny connection between the dock and the headset that charges it - it had bent and snapped right off! We sent it right back and I installed the replacement today.
I told the PA to be very careful with it because it is fragile. I hope this is the last we hear of it.
The wireless bluetooth headset has a range of attachments for your preference, from the ear-clip style to the headband with one ear, to the adjustable headband style. Cool, user choice, pretty good ideas, fine. The headset sits on a dock to charge, which wires into a power pack (a big mo-fo to step down the power because it doesn't need much), as well as wiring into the desk phone. There are about 4 cables required on top of the single cable the phone uses. OK, so we have a bluetooth headset to reduce cabling... and have quadrupled the number of cables required?
But that isn't even the stupid part of the design... one of the cables leads to this mechanical device that you attach to your desk phone with double sided sticky pads (semi-permanently). What is this mechanical device for? Well, you may well ask... For a phone that is entirely capable of being used with a range of headsets and speaker phone, no need to raise the handset at all, this is laughable. This mechanical attachment raises the phones handset in order to answer the phone or even make a call. Once raised, the call goes through the handsfree base and via bluetooth to the headset. When the call is ended by pressing the button on the headset (or one on the base) the phone's handset is lowered and the call is ended.
Have you ever heard of something so ridiculous in this day and age? It's as though the headset is trying to accomodate for phone models pre 1995 or something! You know those old telstra phones with the big square buttons? The ones that you had to wire an answering machine to, or if you were special you could use some of telstras functions by pressing various number buttons.
Not only is this handset a very silly design, it was very difficult to figure out - apparently it took 4 guys in IT looking at it to figure it out in the first place.... although I do wonder if this was not due to its complicated nature, rather the tendancy for IT guys to refuse to use the instruction manual.... either way, not only that, but the headset was physically broken within one day of operation! It was the tiny connection between the dock and the headset that charges it - it had bent and snapped right off! We sent it right back and I installed the replacement today.
I told the PA to be very careful with it because it is fragile. I hope this is the last we hear of it.
Tech support
This week I am filling in for a tech support person from my old workplace. The job is for two weeks, and involves installing computers, headsets, phones etc and solving peoples printer and general tech problems. There is also a service desk who take all the calls and deal with all things that can be done remotely, I am essentially the legs of the operation and do whatever needs doing in person.
I'm surprised at how easily I have slotted into the job, not having strictly done it before. I haven't found anything that I couldn't do past asking a simple question here or there and quite frankly it's a very boring job! I'm very glad this is two weeks, and that I have since learned about other jobs I can do so that I don't fall into a tech support career. It's fun hanging out with the nerds though :-)
The other thing I've found so far is how many people want to know where i've been, what I'm doing here now, and what my plans are now that uni is finished. It's the same questions every time: "Alex! I haven't seen you in a while, what have you been up to?" "Are you happy uni is finished?" "How long are you around for?" "What are your plans next?". I'm just thankful that I can tell them definitively that I have a job starting in January as a Business Analyst. A nice easy answer, instead of telling them i'm looking for work and feeling awkward about it.
I also realised that there are a number of people here that I don't like running into because they're nosey with no good intentions, and talking to them feels forced and awkward. On the other hand there are many who I am genuinely happy to see and catch up with. I'm glad to be here for a short time, and to know what's happening later. It's a nice clean progression.
I'm surprised at how easily I have slotted into the job, not having strictly done it before. I haven't found anything that I couldn't do past asking a simple question here or there and quite frankly it's a very boring job! I'm very glad this is two weeks, and that I have since learned about other jobs I can do so that I don't fall into a tech support career. It's fun hanging out with the nerds though :-)
The other thing I've found so far is how many people want to know where i've been, what I'm doing here now, and what my plans are now that uni is finished. It's the same questions every time: "Alex! I haven't seen you in a while, what have you been up to?" "Are you happy uni is finished?" "How long are you around for?" "What are your plans next?". I'm just thankful that I can tell them definitively that I have a job starting in January as a Business Analyst. A nice easy answer, instead of telling them i'm looking for work and feeling awkward about it.
I also realised that there are a number of people here that I don't like running into because they're nosey with no good intentions, and talking to them feels forced and awkward. On the other hand there are many who I am genuinely happy to see and catch up with. I'm glad to be here for a short time, and to know what's happening later. It's a nice clean progression.
Domino's Pizza Post Eating
So the Pizza wasn't that good, but the ordering system was fun. Probably won't use it again. Might try Pizza Hut's one next time.