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Document Threadless T-shirts


25 May, 2008

Threadless: Nude no moreAn interesting background article at Inc.com about Threadless, the t-shirt company, whose business model revolves around a social network; users submit and rate t-shirt designs, the well regarded get printed and the users lap them up. I have a few and the quality is pretty good too.

CategoryUser Experience

Document Facebook Platform


30 Oct, 2007

I think the facebook platform is turning into a double edged sword for Facebook. It doesn't seem to have hurt their valuation, but I detect a weakening of the trust factor which facebook were fostering with their closed profiles.

In particular apps which seemingly randomly send out messages on your behalf and apps that don't even work half the time aren't good news.

They need to tighten up the controls, make it easier to understand what an app can or can't do on your behalf and they need to provide app hosting, or have some way to guarantee an app maker can handle the traffic.

CategorySocial Networking

Document Nokia N95


28 Oct, 2007

I've had the Nokia N95 for just over a month now and I thought I'd share my main observations.


  2. VoIP. Solid built in VoIP functionality. I've got it set up to automatically connect to my two SIP accounts when I'm in range of my home wi-fi and for incoming it seems to work flawlessly. Outgoing my only gripe is that i'd like to be able to select which SIP account to dial-out on at the time of calling but haven't figured out yet how to do that.
  3. Wi-fi. Handy for very quick queries, e.g. checking how to translate a word using google translate or just for checking what wifi access is available. Not as good a range as my laptop, but a very handy tool to have.
  4. GPS. Lots of people seem to be complaining that they can't get the GPS to work. Mine does, but can be very slow to initially "get a lock" on the satellites or whatever it is they do. I haven't yet paid for the navigation voice functionality, but probably will at some point.
  5. Camera. It's 5mp and boasts a Carl Zeiss 2.8/5.6 autofocusing lens. There is a bit of a lag between hitting the shutter button and the shutter opening which renders it a little crap for capturing spontaneous moments, but the picture quality is good and for general purpose non inspired photo taking it is ideal. Lots of functionality to control ISO, white balance etc. I haven't used the video functionality yet, but it is supposed to be 30fps at 640x480 which should be good enough.
  6. Music. I've only got a couple of songs on it, primarily because I don't want to be using the phone when not necessary to preserve battery life. Stereo speakers are good though, and louder than you'd think. Interface seems intuitive enough.
  7. Battery. Hmmm. I guess it works hard and so deserves to get fed every night. More than 20 hours is unachievable for me, and if I've been using it heavily the life is perhaps half that. Charges quickly though, and I usually only have to charge it once daily at night.
  8. S60 OS. Good range of programs I can add, e.g. Putty combined with some bash scripts generally lets me rescue any server situations as soon as they happen. Only real complaint is that the OS seems a little sluggish sometimes, and probably once every two days it just hangs completely.

In summary, I like this phone a lot. I like to travel light and to be prepared. With this many gadgets in one small package I feel that most bases are covered adequately. No qwerty keyboard is a slight drawback, but then those baby qwerty keyboards are a bit of a bastard anyway.

CategoryGadgets

Document A blog without posts or comments isn't much of a blog.


9 Aug, 2007
  • It was January when I last posted here. And now it is August. Useless.
  • I switched off comments 2 years ago, re-enabled them a year and a half ago but didn't build a back-end to administer the spam out of them until tonight. Useless.
It has been so long since I posted I think I grew to think I had to make the return post a good one. But none of them are especially good so... This is it. The ice-breaker.
  • I am missing the Edinburgh Festivals for the first time in probably 4 or 5 years. That sucks.
  • Does anyone have any pointers for me on self-discipline. That would be useful.
  • I'm going to Edinburgh, Elgin and Fort William for a few weeks in September. I'm very much looking forward to it.
  • Liam just told me this post was melo-dramatic. FWIW, I think that is melo-dramatic.
CategoryBlogging