tonygoodson

I'm Back! Productivity discussion with Daryl Cook

"Well hello there, It's been a long long time. How ya doing, I guess I'm doing fine. It's been so long and it seems that, It was only yesterday. Ain't it funny how time slips away?"

So let's get back to this blogging and podcasting thing, starting with some Productivity, Technology,and Life, with my mate Daryl Cook.  Just the raw sound to listen to, no intro, no music, let's just get it done.  And no show notes!

Have a listen and tell us what you think, what you'd like to hear about.  Should we go back to The Productivity Show?  Expand to other subjects?  What do people want to listen to?  Do they want to listen!!

Click here to download the interview mp3

Mouse v Elephant

Note to self.  Always buy a medium size mouse. I’ve just replaced my Logitech LX8 which has suddenly stopped working, with a larger Microsoft Mouse 5000.  Things I like about the Logitech is it’s not too small, not too big, on//off and reset buttons, but I kept nearly losing the USB transceiver, because it doesn’t have a snap-in bay on the mouse. The LX8 is one of the few mouses that’s comfortable for me without a mouse pad.

The Microsoft 5000 mouse does have a snap-in bay for the transceiver, and a great smooth wheel.  It felt really good to use in the shop, but it’s wider and slightly higher than the LX8 that I’m used to, so not quite as comfortable for me, but I’ll bet it’s great for others to use. I hope my wrist doesn’t keep hurting whilst using this new mouse, otherwise I’ll have to buy another LX8!!

Things I like

I thought I’d do a recap on things I like right now, instead of the slight blogging bias towards whinging, complaining and ranting! It’s easy to write about the things I like, I just look out across my table/desk and see what’s lying around and closest to me;

Podcasts – I’m loving listening to Adam Carolla, Fighting Talk, Danny Baker, Sportsweek, 606 Football Phone-in, TWiT, Jonathan Ross, Desert Island Discs, and where has Christian O’Connell gone?

Audio Books – WoW!  Audible audio books, the two I’ve listened to recently are fantastic, The Outliers read by Malcolm Gladwell, and A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson, which I’m certainly getting my money’s worth on that audio book!

iPhone – Yes, easy to use, this is my first phone which gives me web and email access, some of the apps, audio books, maps,  access to everything

Keyboard – 15 bucks for a Microsoft keyboard.  Excellent.

Sansa Clip – My portable, cycling, walking, on the train, mp3 podcast player.  Excellent.

My Job – Loving the job.  Not easy on some days, but it’s something I can really get my teeth into.

Piano – My 6 year old son has cleaned me out of every simple piano duet I know, in less than 2 months.  Playing piano duets with your kids, a dream come true!

Using old stuff – I’ve resurrected my old Samsung LCD screen, it’s nearly 9 years old but going strong, as a second screen for my netbook.

Cheapo Copy Aftershave – The alcohol works a treat inside my shoes!!

And finally, Ergonomic Cycling HandleBar Grips!!  I can’t explain how much better my riding position is, being able to rest the palms of my hands on these grips.

“When the dog bites, when the bee stings, when I’m feeling sad, I simply remember my favourite things, and then I don’t feel so bad!!”

I Hate iTunes Part 2

I’m can’t decide if it’s iTunes or Apple I hate!

I updated my iPhone to the latest software release yesterday.  The first issue is iTunes updates, which seem to load the whole software of 100MB+ every bloody time, except it doesn’t always complete the download or complete the update, so I burn several hundred MB attempting to update iTunes several times.  If only iTunes updated through a browser just like every other bit of software that actually does work.  But, NO, Steve knows best.

And then we have the actual iPhone update software which is 200MB+.  I didn’t have time to download all of the update, so I paused it.  Dream on. Why bother pausing a software download when it won’t let me complete the download, but keeps starting from the beginning.

Next complaint.  You’re never quite sure what iTunes is doing, or if it’s doing anything.  There’s complete confusion and inconsistency with feedback on what’s happening.  Sometimes it in the grey window at the top, sometime it’s a pop-up, and sometimes not at all.  And iTunes is so damn slow.  I’m never quite sure if clicking on the menu options  on the left column is actually achieving anything.

And then to cap it all, whilst updating my iPhone, the phone froze.  That pathetic screen with iTunes and a USB cable.  No matter what I tried, nothing would work.  iTunes wouldn’t recognise the iPhone, my laptops wouldn’t recognise the iPhone, and the iPhone was completely locked and wouldn’t restore.

Called Vodafone. They just got me to try what I’d already tried.  They told me to go to a Vodafone store.  Went there, and bizarrely my laptop suddenly decided to recognise the iPhone, but couldn’t revive it.  So I was sent to the Apple Store.  Daunting.  100+ sheep all fingering various white objects in some kind of hypnotised marketing trance!  If you’re going to buy a PC, laptop, Mac, or bike, I think you probably need to take the thing home for a week.  Fingering the keyboard, clicking a mouse, or staring at a screen doesn’t quite cut it for my road test.  It’s a bit like buyers who squeeze the brakes in a bike shop, to get the measure of the bike they’re buying!!

In spite of the 100+ people I was guided to my Apple queue, and after a short while my iPhone was plugged in and reset.  The great thing about queuing is meeting someone there with exactly the same problem i.e iTunes took several times to update, iTunes froze the iPhone so it wouldn’t work, the only solution is to queue at the Apple store. I wasn’t alone.

The good bits are, Chris at the Apple store got my iPhone working again, and though I lost all my data, iTunes did manage to upload everything back to normal.

Jeez Steve Jobs, if iTunes is a measure of what Apple and Macs are like, then I’m not going there.  Software can be messy, so I don’t need an application to pretend it isn’t messy by telling me what to do all time, or not telling me anything that’s happening.  Most of the iPhone users are PC and not Mac aren’t they?  So I for one am losing confidence with Apple, even though I love my iPhone.  I really dread the next software upgrade on my iPhone.

Now, having said all that, the iPhone freeze might have been my fault.  I started the iPhone upload and popped out for 20mins.  My laptop might have gone into standby, which stuffed the Synch.  So I wonder if Bill could get his software to recognise something more than a keyboard or mouse movement, before going to sleep.  You’d think a software upload or a sync would count as keeping the laptop awake. No.

I Hate iTunes Part 1

iPhone great.  iTunes shit.  Or at least that’s how iTunes seems to have been designed, to make the great iPhone experience miserable. I’ve started using a new laptop.  It’s not unreasonable is it Mr Jobs to at some point to replace my old laptop with new laptop, Steve?

So why is it such a miserable experience filled with fear, trying to then connect my iPhone to iTunes on a new laptop?  Why did I live in fear for weeks, with connecting my iPhone to a new laptop and risk losing all my data?  Why does iTunes run so pathetically slow on XP?

Why do the messages on iTunes tell me you’re going to lose everything.  So here was my biggest fear.  My iPhone is synched with Google Contacts.  If a new iTunes which has no contacts, then wipes my contacts on my iPhone, won’t that then synch with Google and wipe all my contacts in Gmail?  No one could tell me the answer and I couldn’t seem to find out much by googleing it.  The best I could do was back up my contacts from Gmail, and hope for the best.  I can’t remember which bits I clicked in iTunes, but everything seemed ok with my contacts and they were safe and sound on both my iPhone and Gmail.

However!!  Half my apps stopped working.  The icons remained on the iPhone but just as each app was loading, it stopped working.  This gave me hope, because it seemed that the software was all there on the iPhone, and it just need something to tell it to work again….iTunes!

I think what I should have done before anything else on a new laptop with iTunes, is to click on “Store” and then “Authorize Computer”.  But nobody tells you that when you connect your iPhone to your new laptop with iTunes.  I must have synched before I authorized the laptop, and hence lost some of my apps, let alone all the music and audiobooks, which I was expecting anyway.

So why Mr Steve Jobs, does iTunes not take a lead from the iPhone?  Surely, I want to keep what’s on my iPhone, and not have it destroyed by iTunes.  You’ll learn your lesson soon Steve, because unless you change your ways, Google and others will kick your ass with mobiles that don’t need an intermediary such as iTunes, and will update direct from the Internet or mobile network.  I knew what I was taking on with an iPhone and iTunes, but I think the timing is good, to sit and wait for 2 years to see what Apple comes up with and what Google will compete with.  If Android/Nexus improves over the next 2 years, I’ll switch.

Why do Apple fan boys put up with this, and it hardly encourages me to “Get a Mac”.  The iPhone in isolation and when kept away from iTunes is fantastic, but I’m sick of Steve telling me how I want my music and podcasts to be stored, and what’s the obsession with album covers?  If I wanted album covers I’d go buy the vinyl!!

Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 to replace Dell Netbook!!

My latest and greatest purchase....a sub $15 Keyboard, Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600, because the keyboard on my Dell Mini Netbook is completely unusable. I know Dell that you want to make the Netbook small, but making the keys smaller, the shift key half size, and moving the apostrophe key, makes it impossible to type.

What a pleasure to have this quiet, fully functional keyboard, with media buttons, El Cheapo.  I'll be typing for hours.

Sansa Clip+ podcast problem

I love the Sansa Clip+ mp3 player. 

Just one problem, that is proving a bit painful.  The Clip is automatically putting podcasts that are tagged “podcast” into the Clip’s “podcasts” folder.  Nice idea.  It means that each podcast in the folder can be paused independently and I can return to several podcast that I’ve part played. 

However, that’s not how I play podcasts.  I create an order of podcast listening on Windows Media Player 11 and then upload.  The order is very important to me, because the first few podcasts are those that are relevant to this week, such as sport, I.T, news, so they lose their relevance if listened to next week, but are great in their context.  Others such as Napoleon, Henry V, people interviews, don’t have an immediate time context, so I can listen to at a later time.

So playing order is very important, especially when I’m cycling and don’t want to stop and fiddle around and it’s very sunny and I can’t see the screen.  It also helps me know which podcasts I’ve played.  The only work around I’ve found so far, is to edit the “Genre” tag away from “Podcast” to anything else, using a tag editor or WMP11, but this takes up additional time, and for some reason not all tags can be edited in Window Media Player.

It’s not at all clear from the documentation, or maybe not possible to switch off the auto podcast folder on the Clip+.  So c’mon Sansa, nice idea, but you can do better on this.  Give me the choice and document it.

Audio and Podcasts and Audible

I’m loving audio!  I’m listening to more and more podcasts, and I’ve just signed up to an Audible Gold Account, which gives me 1 audio book per month.  I’ve been with Audible since 2006, originally to listen to the Ricky Gervais podcasts when they moved from Series 1 on The Guardian, to a Series 2 pay version on Audible.

All those Audible ads on the podcasts I listen to must be having an effect on me, because I thought I’d try some audio books.  The first book was a bit difficult.  I was finding Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas unreadable in the printed form.  Heavy Going.  So I thought I’d give the audio version a go. Slightly better, and even better on double speed!!  I got through it.

Initially I’d tried loading the audio book on to a Sansa Clip mp3 player, which I love to use when I’m moving around, the iPhone is a bit heavy to carry, and of course doesn’t “Clip” on.  However, the Sansa player kept jamming with the audio book loaded, so I gave the iPhone a go.  Much better usability, easy to bookmark, with chapters, and double speed reading. which works really well.

So having signed for a Gold Audible account, my first book to listen to is Malcolm Gladwell’s The Outliers which I’ve been meaning to read for a while.  Really loving listening to Malcolm Gladwell reading his own book.

And whilst I’m at it, I’ve just updated my list of podcasts I listen to.  There are some unbelievably good podcasts.  My favourites right now that I’ve recently added;

The Christian O’Connell Solution – Very funny solutions to life

The Adam Carolla Podcast – The meaning of life

Desert Island Discs – At last

The Danny Baker Show – Quirky Football

Murray Lovejoy’s Sports Express – More Quirky Football

Liquid Courage Podcast – Drunk men talking shit!

More or Less – Understanding the Stats behind the headline

This Week in Google

This Week in Startups

Which MP3 Player?

What gets me blogging again after a few months?  Dropping my current MP3 player in the toilet!!  Looks like the player isn’t working, wonder why!!  Bizarrely, I received an email on Friday, promoting a product which dries out wet electronic devices that have been dropped in water, Bheestie Bag.  Leave the wet electronic device in the Bheestie Bag, and the bag dries out the device, hopefully making the device work again.

Meanwhile, I’m wondering what new mp3 player to buy to replace my Sansa e260 4GB player.  I’ve enjoyed having this player, with just one main issue, it doesn’t play Audible books with the V1 firmware.  I don’t use the player for video or to show off photos, just for podcasts and music, so I’ve “borrowed” my wife’s Sansa 2GB Clip which I think is just what I need for my travelling and cycling, something which is very light and clips on, and perhaps the 4GB version.  Here in Australia, there’s a pricing gap for mp3 players.  There are the cheapo sub $80 players,but they don’t always play all mp3s, and then there’s the range of Apple iPods, but they’re priced near $200.  I would have thought the $100 to $130 range is perfect, but there’s very few players in that range, Sansa, iRiver, Samsung?  Maybe the Australian market consists of, Cheapo, iPod and mobile phones, but that’s not what I want.

I do have an iPhone, but it’s too heavy for running, cycling, travel, and I’d rather not carry a mobile phone too near my body, and it’s an extra task to keep switching the iPhone on and off to flight mode.  So it’s a Sansa 4GB Clip unless anyone recommends better. 

Oh and I’m tempted to try out an audio book from Audible, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Bloody Vodafone

My latest in a series of whinges about telcos, and this time it's Vodafone Australia.  I have been in Perth for 12 days, in the city centre.  And for 8 days I've had no data connection.  No internet access for 8 days!  Let me correct that.  My Vodafone data access on my Vodafone Dell netbook has had no access for over a week, but my Vodafone iPhone has allowed me tethered access, burning up the 1GB data on my iPhone, by plugging into my Netbook for internet access, but no access to my 5GB of data using the SIM card data modem built into the Dell.

Both SIM cards work on my iPhone, the 3G network works perfectly on my iPhone, but no access from my Netbook.  It recognises the SIM card but can't find the network.  Why?  The iPhone and Netbook SIM are accessing the same 3G network aren't they?

Call Vodafone several times.  It's a network problem in Perth!  For 8 days!!!!  Blimey.  I'm now fobbed of with "We're still waiting for a technician report"  It must be a bloody amazing report taking 8 days to write!!  And in the process, Vodafone seem to having taken their mobile network down twice for 2 mornings, no mobile access for anyone for a few hours on 2 mornings, just to investigate my lack of data access on my netbook.  And still nothing!

Compensation? 10 Bucks!  A quarter of a month on the data plan.  Eh?  What about 8 days x internet access from my hotel room!!!  I don't want your bloody 10 or 20 dollars, I want my internet.

And when I suggest to Vodafone the ideal solution, they don't won't can't seem to comprehend or do what I'm asking for.  Give me more than the 1GB on my tethered iPhone, whilst you're trying to repair your bloody network in Perth.  It costs you nothing Vodafone to let me have a few GB of access via my tethered iPhone, into your stinking network.  Get it sorted now please.

And....I'm not convinced that lack of access from my Vodafone Netbook is from the network, I think it might be with my Netbook, but the technical staff seem to have given up and left it as a network problem.  Hey Vodafone, you try having no internet access for 8 days, and are you working on this problem 24/7 since last Saturday?

And corporates love you having all your services with them, until you try and use one service to compensate for another service.  My mobile and netbook are on one bill, but there is no way I can use my mobile to help my netbook through this trying time.  Hello Telstra, I love you right now.