Guy's Blog Blog from November, 2008

Spotted an advert for this thing over on lifehacker - when I looked closer at the photo (I noticed a blue plastic thing and a white background...) I realised why the model was smiling...

Read the text first then look at the pic and tell me what you really think that blue thing is for.

The red arrows show what it's for. I'll get my coat...

I recently found out what the Bonjour IM service was all about - it lets you instantly chat to anyone on the same network that's also using Bonjour IM...

Popular IM clients such as Adium and Pidgin, amongst others, include a service called Bonjour. I'd never heard of it and always ignored it. However, Dan Hardiker enlightened me as to what it's about and why it's so useful.

Activating the Bonjour account is painless - you simply specify your desired user name and... that's it! There's no online site to sign-up to, you're merely configuring your IM client to use Bonjour.

With the Bonjour service enabled, whenever you connect to a network (including wi-fi networks) your IM client broadcasts the fact that it has Bonjour installed. Any other IM clients on the network that also have Bonjour will respond and you'll see new entries in your contact list and be able to immediately start chatting to them.

Something like Bonjour will be ideal for conferences and meetings because attendees won't need to be on each others contact lists prior to the event. Simply turn up with a Bonjour enabled IM client and start chatting to people on the same network. Pretty neat, huh?

I've taken the plunge and invested in a decent microphone - the Røde Podcaster - and some accessories such as a stand and shockmount...

The mic itself is far larger than I was expecting and it weighs about 2Kg. It's not the sort of thing you'd want to take on your travels. However, it results in great audio quality which is essential if you're doing screencasts, podcasts or webinars.

Another key component is the shockmount (that wireframe thing you can see in the photo) - it removes unwanted noise that travels up the stand from your desk. The mic stand is also a vital component IMHO - it's so much easier just being able to quickly position the mic where you want it and have it stay there rather than fiddling around trying to prop it up on something or have it on a fiddly tripod.

This has to be one of the strangest reviews of a laptop bag I've ever seen...

Its good
Written by JP from Lerwick, 04-Aug-2008

I had to get a new laptop bag due to the zip breaking.
I didn't know what to expect.

Ok, seems fairly normal so far, but then he goes on to say...

But then my wife left me.

The antidepressants didn't really help me. After a week, here i am sitting in my mothers garden shed with a portable tv and bean bag.
I've been wondering what meaning does my life have?

The bag is pretty good though.... it looks like a parachute too. Got it today and i did actually feel like someone important.

(38 of 54 people found this review useful)

So, there you go - a bag that makes a recently divorced, depressed man feel special. And it looks like a parachute too!

Taken from Apple Store customer review.

I needed a small but feature packed mouse to accompany my mac on it's travels, so naturally I turned to evil Redmond...

Now, as anyone who knows me will be aware, I'm not a huge fan of Microsoft, primarily because they are deeply anti-competitive (as proven in many court cases) and because they make Internet Exploder which is every web developers' worst nightmare. They also actively do everything they can to derail open standards (see MSIE6 and 7, MS Word, etc, as great examples).

However, credit is due in some respects: They make by far the best office suite (MS Office), great games consoles (Xbox 360) and... pretty awesome hardware.

The Short List

There were three contenders in my quest for the perfect mouse:

• Apple's Mighty Mouse
• Logitech's VX Nano Cordless Laser Mouse
• Microsoft's Wireless Notebook Presenter Mouse 8000

Apple's mouse is close to perfect, but failed because:

• It's not contoured/ergonomic - FFS, Apple, sometimes style has to give way to ergonomics
• I want clicky butons and couldn't determine whether you'd get that from this mouse
• Not quite enough buttons - I was worried that, as with many things made by Apple, it would be over-simplified to the point where it would impact productivity (eg. why no back button?)

Logitech's mouse is probably perfect, but failed because:

• Their website tells me almost nothing about the mouse - I need verbose information about something before I'll buy it!
• I couldn't work out how small it was - as the mouse will be a travel companion, I needed to be sure about small size
• It needs an, albeit tiny, USB adapter - Mac laptops only have 3 USB ports and I regularly use all three for other things

Microsoft's mouse isn't perfect, but won because:

• Their website told me every single thing I needed to know, and lots more
• The mouse doubles up as a remote control for presentations - move between slides, volume control, etc
• It definitely has enough buttons to make it productive
• It has a built-in laser (and I'm a bit of a laser freak, I've got about 12 lasers now)
• It comes with a carry case to keep it clean
• It comes with a bluetooth USB adapter in case you don't have bluetooth enabled laptop (although my Mac has bluetooth built-in so I don't need it)
• It has very good battery life - in excess of 6 months
• It's nice and small, but not too small

While I'm happy with my choice, I still think the Logitech mouse is just as good or better but with so little information I just couldn't take the chance (I'm at a conference in early December and couldn't risk a duff mouse). Note to Logitech: Sort your damn website out! (And yes, I know the Adaptavist website isn't great, but at least we provide herds of information about our products and services).

Short Review

Ok, let's start with the packaging. Microsoft really don't want you to get the mouse out of it! It took me about 10 minutes, a pair of scissors and several small cuts on my hands from ripped plastic just to get through the packaging. At one point as I was trying to rip it open the whole lot went flying on to the floor, luckily no damage was done.

Once in to the packaging, I was confused to see one of those little straps that you usually get with MP3 players and cameras - you know, the wrist strap things. You can thread it though the carry case although I've no idea why you'd ever want to do that.

The mouse itself is small (but not too small) and light (but not too light). It's extremely well built, although the battery compartment feels a little flimsy when you open it. The buttons are all well placed and it fits snugly in the hand.

Like most modern mice, the scroll wheel is also a button and can be titled sideways for horizontal scrolling. It's a real shame the sideways tilts can't be treated as configurable buttons. While the scroll wheel works as advertised, you don't get that clicking sensation when scrolling - it feels too smooth and there isn't much tactile feedback. The Logitech mouse is probably way better in this respect.

When you turn the mouse over, you find even more buttons, and you can clearly see the ergonomic design in their placement and size:

You can use these, when in presenter mode, to move back and forward through slides, pause and play, and change the volume. They all work as expected.

Then there's the laser button! Towards the front of the mouse there's a small opening for the red laser, which I assume will be somewhere in the region of 1mw and 650nm - as lasers go, it's basic, but it gets many bonus points for residing in a mouse!

There's also an on/off switch and a small button to register the bluetooth with the laptop. Being bluetooth, I imagine there are other devices that could probably be used with the mouse? The bluetooth can be a little tricky to register at times, but once you've got it registered with the laptop it works like a charm.

The CD that comes with the mouse contains drivers for most versions of Windows and also Mac OS X. On the Mac, a new pref pane gets added to System Preferences that allows you to customise what the mouse buttons do.

Unfortunately you can only configure a few of the buttons - the left/right click buttons, the mouse wheel button (not the sideways tilt though) and the back/forward buttons. Not good. With so many buttons on this mouse, they really had a chance to make it uber-configurable but for some reason they stopped at 5 configurable buttons instead of a possible 14 (if you count the buttons underneath the mouse). I'm pretty sure the Logitech mouse will be better in this respect. EDIT: I've been reliably informed that the Logitech mouse only has 5 programmable buttons.

The next thing I noticed is that the mouse really doesn't work well on shiny/polished surfaces - this is probably due to the low power laser that tracks the motion of the mouse across the surface. If I use the space either side of the track pad on my laptop it works fine though. Again, the Logitech mouse is probably far better in this respect, but at the expense of shorter battery life.

All in all, I'm happy with the mouse but I keep wondering whether the Logitech VX Nano is better... There are at least 2 features where I'm petty sure it'll beat the Microsoft mouse. I'll probably last until March next year and then curiosity will get the best of me and I'll buy one to find out!