The Obligatory "I'm Still Alive" Post #
It's been a fair while since my last post. Various reasons come to mind but for me the biggest focus of the last six weeks has been my company, which has taken a far greater chunk of my attention in recent times.
While plenty of things have happened recently, I'm going to try focusing on my business as the basis for a series of new articles on this blog. I'm hoping to talk more about my experiences, ups and downs with the hope that this kind of writing will be useful to others.
The usual common-sense disclaimer applies: anything I write is personal, (usually) unqualified and should not be viewed as definitive. Simply take them as they are: anecdotal.
I'll be writing the first article real soon now, and you are actively encouraged to reply and give your own thoughts.
Going Solo - Review #
Last Friday I spent the day in Old Broadcasting House, Leeds with a group of like-minded people interested in starting, or already on their freelance journey.
The event, organised by Stephanie Booth was originally intended to be a larger conference but due to disappointing numbers it was cancelled. The attendees were instead invited to a smaller, less formal gathering called SoloCamp.
The twenty-or-so of us who attended spent the day talking about a variety of issues: Finance, Confidence, Growth and Clients. The full overview of the day can be found on the SoloCamp wiki.
This was my first "BarCamp" style event, and I took the opportunity to get some presentational confidence by moderating the Growth session. I had a bit of a stumble with the session as my ad-hoc material quickly ran out, but thankfully the session turned into a rather interesting discussion about Hype Cycles towards the end (thanks to Dennis!).
All in all, a very interesting and educational experience. It gave me renewed enthusiasm about getting my company up and properly running. It also had me thinking about charging policies, marketing and finance, all of which are very important to a vulnerable technology start-up. More generally, it has been a great pleasure meeting a variety of individuals, from various backgrounds who I hope to keep in touch with.
Google Gears + iamnear.net Demo #
Finally, I'm back into doing something that I love - fiddling with new ideas.
Today, Google released Google Gears 0.4 with geolocation. For those of you not yet aware of Google Gears, it's an attempt by the big G to enhance the client-side with a variety of rich add-ons, such as local databases, offline services and smoother integration with the host OS.
Gears is also available for Windows Mobile devices and, with the addition of geolocation, adds some exciting spice to the mobile platform.
Previously I've made aborted attempts to use a combination of Navizon (a mobile tracking service), Fire Eagle (Yahoo!'s location "platform") and iamnear.net (Tom Taylor's very handy directory of POIs). It works to a point, but is a hopelessly elongated way of serving geo-aware content from a web browser.
With Gears 0.4 it's now possible for the browser to interrogate directly the user's location, through a combination of cell IDs and GPS (where available). The natural conclusion is to slap this tool onto the front of something like iamnear.net, et voila, you have a location-aware website puling information directly from the client.
Without further ado, check out my painfully basic demo - you'll need Windows Mobile 5/6 and Google Gears (if it is not detected, it'll prompt you to install).
As a bonus, the site will also work on your desktop, but I'm presuming that'd only be available with a GPS dongle of some kind?
I'd love to spice it up a bit - actually without presuming too much I'm fairly sure this is a natural upgrade to iamnear.net and other sites... if you have any thoughts feel free to post below ;-)
Blast from the Past #
A bit of a spooky advert from Facebook. Does it really know me that well that it serves up ads featuring names of websites I used to run?
Going Solo, Leeds, UK #
Good news. Going Solo - the "one-day educational conference for freelancers and small business owners" is open for registration. First 25 registrations get the special early-bird discount and pay just £150 (which by all accounts is going fast...).
I've been freelancing for about a year now, and running a small business for over six months. It's moving fast, and I'm enjoying learning a great deal from first-hand experience and others' stories. Going Solo looks like a great opportunity to get first-hand feedback from like-minded people. I'm hoping to get a lot from this event.
Yet Another Random Tip #
Here's another random tip from the dark recesses of my warped explorations:
You know how pretty much every DVD out there has some annoying "copying is bad mkay" video where the teenage girl is downloading some film stupidly fast? Criminals always have the best Internet connections... anyway, a lot of them have a list of countries at the start. Looking for United Kingdom? Well, it's on page four of four, at the end.
The point of my rant is that if you choose some weird random country (Belgium seems to work), quite often it'll skip the copying warning, thus saving you those precious thirty seconds of your life you'd otherwise not be able to fast-forward through.
Clearly Belgians don't copy stuff then.
BTW, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is a very funny movie :-)
Language #
Apart from anything else, this is the first time I've seen the BBC News site quote an expletive directly. In previous circumstances (usually articles about swearing on live broadcasts) they've always seemed to dodge the exact wording of expletives.
More Tips #
In a recent reader survey* the most popular articles on this blog are the ones which help with day-to-day technical problems. Here's a rundown of a few more handy tips while they sit on the ol' noggin:
- Many programs in Windows (Microsoft very much included) share consistent keyboard shortcut. A recent personal disovery is that Ctrl+Backspace can often be used to delete an entire word.
- Google Translate is ace. It's really come far and I now rate it above Babelfish. With more languages than ever before, and with dictionary, text and website translations it really is a must-have for people who have reason to search foreign sites. For instance, it is with Google Translate that I found that the Dutch for cattle grid is wildrooster. And the world is a better place now I know that.
- Renaming a file? Click it and press F2.
- Deleting a file and want to bypass the Recycle Bin? Hold down Shift and press Delete.
- Browsing a website? To open a link in a new window hold down Shift when you click it. To open in a new tab, hold down Ctrl.
- To rapidly lock a computer, press Windows key +L.
- Onions release a chemical that reacts and turns to a mild sulphuric acid in the eyes (hence the stinging). To counter this, peel the onion underwater or keep your onions in the fridge.
- While Alt+TAB lets you go forwards through your list of open programs, Alt+SHIFT+Tab lets you go backwards. It's all a bit cack-handed, but if like me you have loads of programs open it can be very useful at times.
- Alt+D in most web browsers selects the address bar so you can start typing a new web address.
- Lots of programs let you drag and drop things. For instance, in most web browsers you can select text then drag it to another window; to a textbox or to something like the address bar. You can also drag images (e.g. to the desktop or a local folder) and website links (to your Favourites folder; the address bar or the Home icon to set a new home page). Try it and see.
- In a web browser, the backspace button can normally be used to go Back a page (unless you're in a textbox at the time). If that fails, try Alt + Left Arrow.
Okay, that'll do for now.
* ie. Somebody left a comment.
Imploding Wikipedia #
The Isle of Wight article on Wikipedia is currently citing the BBC quiz show QI as the source for its ongoing "Is the IoW larger than Rutland at low tide?" debate, leading one contributor to note the following:
I also believe that QI has on occasions relied on facts taken from Wikipedia, which would mean that if we were to accept these as authoritative, then it would lead to a cyclical series of refences which would eventually cause the city of New York to explode in a ball of flame. [citation needed] --Neil (talk) 11:17, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
If nothing else, I love the citation needed comment at the end... lovely touch :)
Image: XKCD
For what it's worth, I've also been told Bristol is technically a county in its own right, and is smaller than both Rutland and the Isle of Wight. Who do we believe nowadays?
Going Solo Leeds #
After a successful Going Solo conference in Lausanne, Switzerland this month, organiser Stephanie Booth is preparing to hold a second event in Leeds, UK later this year.
Going Solo is a one-day event for "the little people" - freelancers and small business owners, and features a series of talks from experienced speakers on a whole variety of topics: finance, organisation, tax, etc. - all very relevant stuff for those of us who've decided to run a business.
Unfortunately I couldn't justify the costs of travelling to Switzerland for a one-day conference, so wasn't able to go despite there being a great line-up. However, with the announcement of a follow-up in Leeds on September 12, 2008 I'm already making arrangements. It should be an interesting and inspiring day.
With the Leeds event having the same speakers and agendas, I'm guessing that Stephanie is responding to people like myself who've found the cost too high, or the dates inconvenient. Maybe there should be a tour bus? ;)
HTTP Good Practise #
Here's one for the web perfectionists out there. The usual line with HTTP and web browsing is that requests are achieved through the GET verb, and data modifications are through POST.
All well and good, but how do you handle text links that trigger a data modification? For instance, a page might have a list of items in a table, with "Edit - Delete" as associated actions. Edit is simple, it might go to edit?id=..., but Delete is more tricky. Assuming that no interstital "Are you sure" page is necessary, how can you trigger a POST from that Delete link?
My current way of tackling this is to include a form at the base of the page, and use some Javascript to submit that form. For instance
<a href="javascript:deleteItem(123)">Delete</a>
<form action="" method="post" name="jsPost">
<input type="hidden" name="action" value="">
<input type="hidden" name="item" value="">
</form>
<script type="text/javascript">
function deleteItem(id) {
document.forms['jsPost'].action.value="delete";
document.forms['jsPost'].item.value=id;
document.forms['jsPost'].submit();
}
</script>
This works fine and while the HTTP behaviour is roughly correct (okay, so in a perfect world I'd use the DELETE verb....) the code does not work for people not using Javascript.
Any ideas for a better, but clean solution?
Vodafone's Mobile Internet #
Just got a text from Big Red:
"Good news! Your monthly data allowance is now unlimited so u can use mobile internet & email every day. Fair use applies. More at vodafone.co.uk/mobileinternet"
...and at vodafone.co.uk/mobileinternet you'll see that's Vodafone's idea of unlimited is "subject to a fair use limit of 500mb per month"
500Mb is not the same as unlimited.
Reminds me of the reputed Henry Ford quote: "You can have any color as long as it's black".
I'm also amused by "internet & email". Email is via the internet, so it's a bit of a pointless confirmation. Unfortunately a lot of people equate internet to web browsing. I do hope Vodafone don't restrict this 500Mb package to web browsing + email only. Can anybody confirm?
The Price of a Postcode #
Called Wightlink today to investigate books of tickets. I'd heard that for Island residents, 5 return car ferry tickets could be had for around £200.
WIghtlink are one of two ferry companies who operate car ferries from the Isle of Wight to the rest of civilization, so if you want a car on or off The Island, it's these guys or Red Funnel.
Me: How much is a book of 5 return tickets? I live on the Island.
Operator: That's £213.50.
Me: Cool. How do I get them?
Operator: You'll need to go to a terminal and show them your driving license with an Island address on it.
My driving license has a mainland address (we rent on short-term leases, so I've always left the address as my parents' house since they're not going far).
Me: I have lots of utility bills.
Operator: That's no good. They only accept driving licenses.
Now at this point, imagine me with a bit of disappointment. I can vaguely understand why they insist on an Island registered license, since the company has a long-standing habit of charging Islanders less to go to the mainland than vice versa - debate amongst yourselves the pros and cons of this - so I ask the inevitable:
Me: Okay, how much will it be to get the same set of tickets if I have a mainland driving license?
Operator: £390
Me: *Stunned*
The price of the tickets, fuel surcharges, the oddly strict driving license address rule, everything else pales into insignificance when you realise just how vastly different Wightlink treat Islanders and mainlanders.
Taskbar disappears? #
If you ever have a crash that takes out the taskbar on Windows (normally, any time explorer crashes or you have to kill the process), in theory it should reload automatically.
If this doesn't happen get the Task Manager up (in XP it's normally Ctrl+Alt+Del and click Task Manager). Click the File menu, then New Task (Run). Type explorer and hit OK.
In a few seconds your taskbar will be restored.
Omnipotence #
It seems I am everywhere, not only can you subscribe to my blog here, you can also see my messages on Twitter, my photos on Flickr, my shared items on Google Reader, my movements on Dopplr and my profile on LinkedIn. I exist elsewhere, but these are the most active, and you can also get to them on FriendFeed.
Fuel Surcharges #
This month Wightlink -one of the main ferry companies operating between the Isle of Wight and mainland UK - introduced a fuel surcharge which "is linked to the price of oil (Brent Crude)". Wightlink's surcharge is based on the previos month average, which looks from here to be within the $105-115/barrel bracket for April 08. Wightlink have published a chart which shows their surcharge against month-start oil prices, which shows that the surcharge this month (if my figures are about right) is therefore £0.20 on foot passengers, £1.50 on cars, and so on.
While the local newspaper carries a set of letters from upset locals despairing at the increase in prices, I don't think anybody has really noticed that it is a linked price, which means that come the first of every month it will be revised again. Based on current figures, my thumb-in-air guess is that we should sit in the $115-$125 bracket, which puts the surcharge at £0.25 and £2.00 for foot passengers and cars respectively.
Today; Brent Crude briefly hit a $135/barrel high and if prices continue to hover around or above the £135 mark we can expect another surcharge increase in July (in fact, Wightlink would have to republish their charts, since they don't cover £135+!)
The simple evident fact is that we appear to be witnessing a potential £0.50 increase every month (for foot passengers alone) as long as the oil prices continue to grow at this pace. Naturally the oil prices may stagnate, or even decline - I'm certainly no expert on oil economics, but I think it's really beginning to hit home how directly our lives are influenced by what appears to be a very unstable commodity.
Google Reader Strangeness #
Google Reader always was a little odd with its unread posts count - sometimes not updating its post count until I "did" something in Reader (e.g. refresh), but more recently over the last couple of days it's been quite a way out. Is anybody else experiencing this?
All the refreshing in the world won't clear those 3 "new" items, but a couple of minutes later (since starting this post) it's all back to zero again.
My Shoes Are Wet #
Warning: This post contains spoilers and sarcastic undertones.
Time for another infrequent and unreliable movie review. This time, it's the TV waterfest that is Flood, starring Robert Carlyle (Full Monty, Transpotting), David Suchet (Poirot) and Jessalyn Gilsig (Claire's "mom" in Heroes).
The movie often reaches out at factual events and incidents to back up its fictitous story of a hurricane trimming the Scottish coast before pulling back into London and flooding everything out. New Orleans is a regular reference, and I believe some of the images were from the Boscastle flood in 2004. The filmmakers are also at pains to point out that the Thames Barrier has been raised much more frequently in recent times compared to when it was first built, so they have evidence on their side. Wikipedia even chips in with a description of how storm surges can be funnelled towards the Thames Estuary in certain circumstances.
Still, what follows is a story of how woefully ill-prepared Londoners are to a wave of destruction. Cue watery effects, dramatic escapes from incoming surges and thinly veiled tension between former partners.
What really makes this movie though is how laughably implausible certain parts of it are. As t'other half pointed out, in Flood and for that matter The Day After Tomorrow the characters, when faced with a rapidly approaching wall of water, turn and run. Can they outrun this mountainous surge of death, despite being injured and/or unfit? Of course they can.
I always enjoy picking apart the technology scenes, of course, and Flood has a good few at the ready. Deputy Prime Minister, do you want to see live progress of the flood? Good news. Somebody had the foresight to create a pretty animation of the progressing surge in real time. Want to know if the professor succeeded in pulling that switch? How about a real-time on-screen rendering of that switch as it gets turned (So, they have the technical means to detect when a switch is flipped, but can't do it remotely....)
Then there's the surge water itself. As the water rushes in you can clearly see on their amazing Flash-animated graphic that the water quickly passes through the eastern part of London. Canary Wharf, Woolwich and Greenwich are all wiped out in the advancing surge. Curiously though, it's six or more film hours before we next see that screen and it's only got to Fulham in West London, yet the speed of the surge hasn't particularly diminished.
The movie also takes advantage of a few gratuitious coincidences. The Thames Barrier manual override can only be activated by going into a room which is prone to flooding. Once in there, for "security" reasons the room becomes locked and you can't escape, leading to certain death. All I can say is thank goodness the professor went. Any more of his melodramatic, miserable attitude and I'm sure somebody would've just pushed him into the water anyway.
The characters aren't particularly engaging, except maybe the MET Office bloke who seemed to take an extraordinary amount of blame and got a beatdown from practically every other person there. No wonder he went for a long walk off a short rooftop, really. Robert Carlyle was meh and the professor, as previously stated, was the most depressing character I think I've ever witnessed.
Flood was shown last week on ITV1. Somehow they managed to stretch a reasonable-length movie over two nights of (I think) two hours each. The real comedy came at the credits, where ITV clearly felt necessary to show the Environment Agency hotline and tell the viewer "If you have been affected by any of the events depicted in tonight's film please call....." Come to mention it, I'm not normally surrounded by several feet of floodwater. I'll just give them a ring.
So, all in all, the movie was pretty pants - but there also lies its success. It's funny and takes itself far too seriously. I've seen the film for a few quid in the DVD bin at Tesco. If you want a laugh, I'd suggest picking it up.
Path Intelligence #
I'm surprised the tin foil hat wearers haven't been all over this one, but here's an interesting company out of Gosport, recently moved to Port Solent, Portsmouth:
Path Intelligence, a company based in Portsmouth (UK) install networks of radio detectors in shopping centres and follow the path of customers through units using the unique signatures of their individual mobile phones. Given that most people nowadays carry a phone it seems to be a pretty good way of accurately obtaining live footfall information.
http://www.pathintelligence.com/website-demo/ui-demo.html
The system was first used in Gunwharf Quays, Portsmouth where it measured interaction between stores, store types and the movements between the centre and Spinnaker Tower.
Update: Looks like the tin foil hats are out, with articles from The Times and The Register (and undoubtedly many others) covering the chilling effects of data aggregation. Fellow blogger Chris has also written about it, and plans to switch his phone on and off.
Me? This just seems like a much more sophisticated version of the footfall counters you get at shop entrances, and the company assures us that only aggregated information is stored which cannot be linked back to CCTV images. It's up to you whether you believe them or not, of course.
The Post #
For the last four months or so we've been living in rented accommodation. One of the things I've rapidly learnt about rented places is that they're magnets for unwanted letters.
Here's why: before us, there were three (groups of) people living here at different times over the last few years. For various reasons we have no forwarding addresses or contact details for them, and for various other reasons most of them don't seem to have ever updated their contact details with various companies.
The long and the short is, we get all their mail. Normally we'll get a handful of letters every week. Some are clearly junk; some are white envelopes which look pretty personal and the rest are from companies like BT and organisations like SAGA.
Since we're not the recipients we can't play the Data Protection Act game and ask to have "our" details removed. Besides - I don't fancy writing or calling to every single one of these companies asking them to stop. The same is true for simply writing and explaining.
The postie won't stop delivering them because he's obliged to post any addressed letters by law, and it's probably not worth his time filtering them anyway.
So, after a bit of a look-up on the Internet I noticed a few people recommending writing "Return to Sender. Recipient no longer lives here" on the front. Dutifully I ran off a load of labels (already on my third sheet...) and started posting them back.
The other day I went to the Post Office for something unrelated, and asked if I could put "this handful of letters" in the post. The Post Office lady took them, saw the sticker and commented that "this probably won't work. Royal Mail just usually put them straight in the incinerator". Bleeding marvellous.
So the letters continue - another two today and undoubtedly more to come.