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This post is about how technology failed me on my recent trip to Europe/UK/Ireland. I’m hoping that readers might find it useful, for those planning such a trip. I’m also hoping it’ll find its way to the various vendors, giving them some (what I imagine to be) valuable feedback.
Bing Translator App for Windows Phone It’s simply not useable. I tried to use this on a daily basis for the two-and-a-half weeks I was in Germany, after downloading the German language pack. I used both the keyboard input to type words, and the camera input for capturing and converting German text on-the-fly. Typing is slow, and inconvenient on any smartphone – it’s the last thing you want to do if you’re being waited on – it just takes too long to type in lots of words (i.e. sentences). It’s ok if you just need a single word. Regardless, I found that the German dictionary simply didn’t know many of the words I entered. Make no mistake, I downloaded the entire German dictionary into the software – it wasn’t just a case of not having the language pack installed properly. It was laughable as to how many words it didn’t recognise. At one point I was completing a form for accommodation, and was being asked how I’d arrived at my destination. I held the camera over the text on the page. The software interpreted my four response options as ‘car’, ‘plane’, bus, and ‘seagull’. Seagull?! The ‘camera’ input method, which is used by holding the phone up to German text at which time it is converted to English, live, just doesn’t work. Again, if you have a single word, it’s fine, sometimes. Sentences, it doesn’t understand, ever. As with any language, you can grab a random selection of words which all have their own meanings individually, but when assembled into a sentence may have a very different meaning. It is this that the software failed at also; it just can’t make sense of the sentences it sees – it can’t convert them to the English equivalent. You can’t resize the camera-captured text. When you point the camera at a block of text, the software converts that text to your language of choice and overlays it on the image you’re viewing; hold the camera up to a street sign and the converted language is superimposed in white font over the street sign image. Theoretically brilliant. If you’re trying to capture a whole block of text, it can appear very small on the screen. It would be nice to be able to pinch-zoom this text to size - white text, when very small, can appear as a blur. Nokia HERE ‘Drive+ BETA’ and HERE ‘Maps’ Can someone please explain to me why ‘Drive+’ and ‘Maps’ are two separate applications? I was forever swapping between the two – it was a total pain in the arse. My findings: Maps Now, this might be fine for you if you have an unlocked phone, and buy a SIM for the country you’re in, and are in a location where you have data access. In my case though, my phone was new and locked to my provider (in Australia), and I didn’t want to pay the insane data roaming charges. Furthermore, Germany’s wireless broadband / 3G system is awful - you really don’t want to be reliant on wireless data when travelling the German countryside. Maps loses it’s connection with the GPS sometimes, if you close the app. I found that once this happened it would rarely rediscover the GPS signal again. I resolved this by opening Drive (which was able to locate the GPS signal with relative ease), and then switch back to Maps. Huh? Drive+ BETA The turn-by-turn voice guidance is confusing. ‘She’ (I chose a female voice, and found myself talking to her) doesn’t know the difference between ‘turning’ and ‘veering’. She thinks that a road that merges into the one you’re on can be turned into. So, as you approach it (with the idea that it doesn’t affect you, so you can ignore it), she might say “Now, stay right”, when in reality you shouldn’t be receiving any instructions, because it’s only the merging traffic that needs to be aware of what to do – not you. At apparent random times she’d say “Now stay left” or “Now stay right” when there was actually nowhere else to go anyhow. If you were on a major road and happened to pass a driveway through a farmer’s field (for example), she’d confuse this as some sort of intersection, and prompt you to “Stay left (or right)”. It was very confusing at first. I found myself having to look at the map on the screen every time she spoke, to double-check what she was asking me to do. She navigated me into dead-end streets. She navigated me onto a rough dirt road, through what looked like someone’s sheep paddock, before I decided not to go any further and turned back. She did this despite there being a surfaced road nearby that took me to my destination anyhow. She’d try to have me turn down streets that technically could be turned into, but in reality were restricted to buses only, for example. How could the software not know these things? How old are these maps it’s using? 3G and WIFI Access Germany’s 3G access, outside of any large community, it pretty-much non-existent. If you’re planning a day trip to drive Schwarzwald for example, plot all your points of interest into your GPS software first, ’cause you’ve got little chance of researching sites to visit once you’re there. In Ireland and the UK on the other hand, there’s excellent 3G coverage, and there were only a few brief moments where I lost connectivity during my three weeks there. There are plenty of free WIFI hotspots in Europe/Britain/Ireland. However, everywhere I tried to connect to a free WIFI spot in a German McDonalds or café for example, I could only connect if I had a valid German (European) mobile number they’d TXT me a passcode to. In other words, if you don’t have a German mobile number, you can’t make use of the free WIFI. This goes for Switzerland too. In the UK/Ireland only an email address was asked for, if anything. Many (most) hotels, B&Bs, Guest Houses advertise free WIFI access in the bedrooms. Whilst this might technically be true, it was only on a few occasions where the signal strength was actually useable. More often than not I had problems with either connecting at all, maintaining a connection, or speed. With no disrespect to the various owners/hosts where I stayed, who I believe provided their WIFI service in good faith, you’ve not been properly provided for by your IT people. It’s not sufficient for the local computer store owner to only sell you a router and/or repeater that theoretically provides for your needs – they need to come out and conduct a practical test of your network’s connectability and useability. As a traveller, if you’re planning on staying at places that offer free WIFI, be aware that’s it’s most likely not going to be very useful from within your bedroom. Ask for a room close to the router, or sit in a common room where the signal might be stronger, and also take a 3G-connected phone with you that you can tether your laptop to. Microsoft Surface Pro and Wedge Touch Mouse The Wedge Mouse looks great, and it’s small, slim design is great for dropping it into your laptop bag or tablet sleeve. It’s relatively comfortable to use, but it’s finicky. The touch surface feels good, but using it is awful; horizontal scrolling is fine, but the slightest movement in a ‘vertical scroll’ manner throws your browser’s/app’s scrollbar into auto, and it won’t stop scrolling after you’ve released your finger. Microsoft states their BlueTrack Technology “Works on virtually any surface in your home, office, or anywhere in between”. Total bollocks. The Wedge mouse only works on perfectly flat, dense surfaces. It doesn’t work on beds, sofas, pieces of paper, jeans, or any other makeshift surface you might have available to you when travelling. I wish the mouse had two physical buttons for left/right click instead of one button which supposedly detects which side of it is pressed. Too often I’ve made a distinct right click, which has been determined as a left-click. It’s really annoying. The Surface Pro (with ‘Touch’ keyboard) was generally great to use on my travels. The Touch keyboard is excellent, but I’ve noticed after about 6-7 weeks of heavy use that the surface on the keys is starting to get ‘shiny’; the lettering hasn’t worn at all, but the nice ‘brushed’ texture on the surface is dissipating. In about six months it’s going to look crap. One other small issue I’ve noticed with the keyboard is that unless you have it resting fairly flat, you can get random key presses occurring. For example, if you’re using the Surface on your lap and the keyboard is slightly askew, random key triggers can occur. It’s a minor thing, but it does require you sit up straight while you’re using it. The Surface Pro itself is also excellent, with only two concerns, both pretty major. The first concern is it’s awful integrated WIFI – it’s too weak. Now, I know I’ve just had a whine about the poor WIFI provided by (most) hotels etc., but even close to a router, the Pro’s WIFI receiver detects less than maximum signal strength. My Nokia Lumina 920 and iPhone 4 display a stronger signal strength than the Surface, and furthermore they don’t lose the signal when I move around, whereas the Surface does all the time. It’s infuriating. Just do a Google search for “Microsoft Surface WIFI problems” to find hundreds of other unhappy customers. At the time of this writing I believe Microsoft was aware of an issue with the WIFI in the Surface RT and released an update for it, so here’s hoping there’s one in the works for the Pro too. The second concern of mine relates to the ability to shut down the Surface by closing the keyboard (if you have it clipped on). Sometimes it doesn’t shut down. I first discovered this when I pulled the Surface from my tablet bag to find it as hot as hades – it had not shut down and had overheated in the closed bag. I couldn’t turn it on again until it had cooled down. Now I only shut down the Surface using the Windows shut-down routine. On that note, that’s reminded me of another issue I’ve experienced from time-to-time; it won’t start up. I don’t know why it does this, because it seems to shut down ok, but sometimes when you press the ‘on’ switch, nothing happens. To resolve this, you hold down the ‘on’ switch for 5-10 seconds, release it, and then click it again and the Surface powers up ok. I don’t like it.
That’s all for now. |
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Two years ago I decided to write a book.
Um… two years ago I thought I’d try my hand at writing a book. …no, that’s not right either. Two years ago I had this fantasy about writing a book. Actually, I’ve had that fantasy for some years before that. Decades, even. However, it wasn’t until two years ago that I felt like I could actually do something about it. Once I’d decided it was worth investigating, I wondered then about the viability of writing a book. I didn’t want to write a novel, by definition, although there would certainly be aspects to the story that would be considered fantastical. What I had in mind was something a little more left-field, and more personal. But I’m a no-body; nobody famous or noteworthy, at least – who would want to read it? And I wondered about how long it would have to be. How long is a book? Twice as Long as it is from one end to the middle? Twenty thousand words? Forty? Eighty? As it happens, a book can be as short as long as you want it to be before it either becomes a short story or an epic. But I believe eighty thousand words constitute your average novel. I wondered if I even had eighty thousand words to say. So, instead of leaping in there and writing a whole book, I thought I’d just write a few snippets, and throw them out there. That’s how this blog started; as a way to test the waters. And as it happens, it’s been received well. Apparently people like reading blogs. Apparently women like reading blogs. I have a few male readers, but women dominate my audience by far. In fact, I think posing as a single father who writes anecdotes about raising his children would be a sure-fire way to expand my readership ten-fold. Anyhow, if and when I get this book out of me, those of you who read it will notice how I’ve borrowed from this blog. Not to say that I’ve taken all of it – this blog as a life of its own. I guess I’m just asking for your forgiveness in advance. I’ve written twenty thousand words, and I think I’m half-way. So, it’s a short-story, perhaps. The book is also a reason why my blog posting has become less frequent – I’ve decided to spend more time writing it. I’ve also been distracted by planning a trip to Europe next year. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time – something to tick off my Bucket List. I’ll be blogging that trip too, incidentally. I blogged my trip to Ireland in 2009 and it was a great way for family and friends to keep up with me, and a great record of the trip for myself. Anyhow, thanks for your patience. Sorry I haven’t had more posted lately. Ciao for now. |
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In 2009 there were three special anniversaries; the 250th anniversary of Guinness (I went to Ireland for that one), the 40th anniversary of the moon-landing hoax  , and the 40thanniversary of me. It wasn’t a big deal, and I don’t mean because I didn’t throw a party (as it was, I didn’t). I mean it didn’t faze me at all – I couldn’t care less about my age.
I’ve heard all the clichés about life beginning at forty, and for me there’s always been an undertone to that, that says something like “Well, you’ve reached the top of the hill – the journey forward is downhill. So, try as hard as you can to put on a brave face, ’cause you’re an old person now, and if your life isn’t great yet, well… it ain’t getting any better. Go out and act like an idiot, ’cause hell, people are going to reject you anyhow, so what have you got to lose?” I don’t feel like I’m in my forties, and most of the forty-plus-year-olds I know don’t feel it either. I don’t know what it is to grow-up. “What do you want to be when you grow up?” I’m still hoping to be an astronaut. When I was in high-school, and being an arse in class, a girl accused me of being immature. She was gorgeous, incidentally. I’d had a crush on her, and her comment had bruised my ego, so I snapped at her saying, “If being mature means I have to be bored, or boring, I’ll stay a child forever!” A friend next to me laughed in agreement, and I sat back feeling pretty chuffed. Forgive me, Nerida. The words stuck with me, and as I absorbed them afterwards, I realised that I absolutely believed in them too. I’ve lived by that motto ever since, sometimes to the detriment of my lifestyle, career, health, and relationships (although admittedly, I could never entirely relate to people, as it was). I’m in my forties, but my closest friends are at least ten years younger than me. And we talk about the same things, and we like (much of) the same music, and we share the same joys and griefs. And yeah, there is that mentor/protégé relationship sometimes. After all, what sort of friend would I be if I didn’t share my experiences, and offer my advice? I wish I’d had someone like that – I’ve had to work it all out on my own – I’ve fallen over so many times, I’ve felt on occasion that I should just lie down permanently, and save myself the actual falling part. My friends don’t think I’m in my forties. Most people don’t, actually. I’m often confused for being in my early-to-mid thirties. I’ve even been mistaken for being in my late-twenties, but I think she was just flirting with me. I’m told I look younger than my age, but I really think this perception has more to do with my attitude than my features. I have a house full of tech-toys and geek-gadgets. I’m creative (‘arty’ people get to mingle between generations easily). I live in jeans, runners and t-shirts (bearing tech or pop-culture references). I spend a lot of my leisure time playing video games, and listening to and composing electronic music. I’m up with all the latest tech gadgets. I imagine that there are a lot of women who read this and think “Oh, shit… another loser with ‘Peter Pan Syndrome’.” I know that comes-off sounding sexist – I’m sure there are lots of men out there who are thinking the same of me. To the female readers: what if we’d just been introduced and I said I’m a successful, grounded guy. I have a respected role in a leading software development company. I have a nice house and car. I’ve fathered a daughter who is now off on her own, and who in-turn is successful (she had great parents). I have creative pursuits to keep my mind healthy. I eat well and work-out regularly to keep my body healthy. I don’t smoke. I balance my healthy lifestyle with a passion for all things chocolate. Sometimes the chocolate wins. I like who I am. Sure, there are things I’d like to change, and I work on them. I’m generally happy with my life, but I’m not content by any standards – there are many things in this world, and on this Earth, I’d like to experience, before the mother-ship comes to rescue me. What would you think? Mature enough for you? Am I a catch? …oh, and I play video games, have every Star Trek episode on DVD, collect toy robots, wear t-shirts and trainers, and live on the set of The Big Bang Theory. How about now? Still interested? *watches them run for the hills* lol This is something I’ve never understood about the female humans – they proclaim to want grounded, successful men who are also creative, passionate, and emotionally generous; the female definition of mature. Yeah, right!… I’ve yet to meet a woman who really wanted this. It starts that way, but it never lasts. The women I’ve dated have seen those things in me and were attracted to them – my intelligence, wit, boyish manner, creative flare, the depth of passion I have for the things that are important to me, and that I wear my heart on my sleeve – my vulnerability. And then, later, they realise what it is to be with someone like that. They realise that as a musician, I can spend hours locked away in my studio with headphones on. As an avid gamer, I can spend days on the couch exploring the latest Black Mesa Facility, submerged Rapture, or 8-bit maze. As a sci-fan my house is becoming overrun with boxed sets of DVDs, and models of iconic character toys. As a philosopher, I like to have conversations – sharing of information, beliefs and theories – without fear of prejudice. …and being a good conversationalist doesn’t mean I’m only a good listener. Women say they want these things in a man. So why do so many of them date Neanderthals? …and I’m the first to admit that it’s probably me – my taste in women and choice of partners that has ultimately left me disillusioned with relationships. And that’s said tentatively, for fear of offending some wonderful, charming, beautiful women I’ve had relationships with. I have valued all the relationships I’ve had. Even my wife (and partner of 16 years) couldn’t relate to me on that level. She tried so hard though, she was so patient with me. And it’s not like there wasn’t love and respect between us – we loved each other very much. But believe it or not, love in itself is simply not enough – that’s just a romantic notion. I’d come to the conclusion years ago, that although I was probably not alone, it was also probable that I would never find another like me, compatible with me. So, on my mental check-list defining the perfect mate, I’d crossed out half the list, believing that if I’d adhered to it, it would ultimately doom me to a life of loneliness – I’d decided that I’d rather fake-it with the humans than live alone. I’d love to find a beautiful geek-girl. Someone in a scientific or technical or creative career. Someone who can recite Star Trek, sing or play an instrument, and whip my arse at Donkey Kong. That wouldn’t be hard – I suck at Donkey Kong. Someone who can make me laugh until I cry, who’s loving and affectionate, and a rascal in bed. …and if you’re listening, Universe, I’m partial to redheads. Basically, I want to date a beautiful, female version of me; a female nerd. lol. Seriously though, I really do want someone who I can relate to, and who relates to me, on that level. But, they’d also need to be different-enough to keep it interesting, to introduce me to new things, and eager to share in my life too. I’m pretty sure everyone wants this. It’s certainly every nerd’s dream. But it’s so hard to find that combination in someone, particularly if you’re a geek who can’t grow up. If I was a regular guy, and was into sport, into action flicks, into rock music, I’d have a much larger group of women to scan for potential partners – most women are also into these things, or at least more willing to give them a try. But I must be in one of the narrowest of niches, because I’ve never met a woman who was into the same set of fundamentals that define me. Never. What kind-of makes it worse, is that I’ve had a woman say, “Oh, that’s not true, Sterling. You’re a catch; you’re really nice, and interesting, and cool”. And that’s really nice to hear, but ‘nice and interesting and cool’ means I’m like the Science Museum – a funky, quirky place to visit, but you wouldn’t want to live there. I don’t blame them of course – most women want to live in a house from the pages of Architectural Digest. My house has a Pacman mural running down the hall.
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Men Without Hats is one of my favourite bands. Their debut album Rhythm of Youth (from 1982) is my favourite album ever. It’s the only album to-date that I loved instantly, every track, and have never tired of it. Everyone has one of those albums that they couldn’t imagine having lived without – one that has contributed to the soundtrack of their lives. The new MWH album ‘Love in the Age of War’ is due to be released towards the end of May. I’m counting the seconds. It’ll be their first release in 9 years, and the second in 21 – a long time between albums. The first single ‘Head Above Water’ is available on iTunes (currently for the US, rest of the world to come). Here’s the world premier broadcast. I just have to give these guys a plug – their music has brought me so much happiness – I wish them every success. Ivan, you’re a master of intelligent synth-pop. I tip my hat off to you, sir.
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