Ch-ch-ch-anges

This has been a year with a number of changes, both personal and technical, so I thought it may be interesting to write a bit about some of them here.

1) Shift Changes
In September my team at work, which had been running on shifts of four days on/four days off/four nights on/four days off switched to a trial of two days on/two nights on/four days off. I had really become accustomed to that pattern, I felt it really suited me, and I especially loved the night before my first nightshift. That was a time that I could catch up on my Sky+ recordings, play some games and generally have a little me time.

Now I don't have that. I tried staying up late after my second dayshift, but it didn't work. Lots of experimenting saw that the only way I can really work with this is to go to bed at a normal time after my second dayshift, and then get a sleep in the afternoon before my first nightshift. It's had a bit of a negative impact upon my personal life, but I've been able to get through work without feeling too tired.

2) No More Google Reader
For a number of years I had become somewhat of a Google Reader addict. For me it was the easiest way to keep in touch with my RSS feeds, especially the Lifehacker feed which frequently published over 20 items a day.

I held out until the end, hoping that Google would change their mind and continue to support Reader. However they proceeded with the shutdown as planned on July 1st, and I had to switch. I tried Digg Reader, but for some reason I didn't like it as much.

Additionally just after Google Reader died a digital death Lifehacker carried out what felt like their umpteenth instance of needless tinkering with their RSS feed, again changing their RSS feed so that only part of an article was shown. Their intention was clearly to drive more traffic to the site itself, but by doing this again at a time when I was considering the usefulness of RSS readers they managed to change my behaviour entirely. I unsubscribed from the RSS feed and began to follow them on Twitter instead.

So I'm no longer an RSS junkie. I was a Twitter junkie already, so that behaviour is unchanged, but Lifehacker are seeing much less traffic from me (N.B. I retweet them frequently, as I think their writers are usually fantastic). I keep a few low volume feeds in Digg Reader, but to be honest I can't remember the last time I even logged into it.

3) Farewell ESPN America
Although I had already unsubscribed, I was still disappointed when ESPN America went off the air on August 1st as part of the reshuffle of sports channels that saw the start of the BT Sport service. The disappearance of the only sports channel specifically for North American sport was disappointing, and forced me into a position where I could only keep up with my favourite shows by podcast (Pardon the Interruption, Highly Questionable) or in some cases not at all (yep, I've really missed College Gameday this season).

While I'm not party to the ESPN decision making process I wonder if part of the reason for the channel's ultimate demise was the restrictive nature of the highlights they were able to show, and the ultimate effect it had upon many of their programmes, including the flagship SportsCenter franchise.

In addition to being reduced to being a podcast listener, I've also come to find meagre highlights and features on various YouTube channels. To find other highlights and clips I've had to become somewhat of a YouTube ninja, and while this has been bearable (along with my reduced quantity of TV watching), I do still miss it somewhat.

Ultimately I look forward (hopefully) to a time where media rights can be eliminated, and programmes like Pardon the Interruption can be shown globally in their intended format. Until then I'll just have to get by in the way I do at the moment. It may sound naïve, but with torrenting and streaming still prevalent I think major channels like ESPN and Sky will look to find a way to monetise their broadcasts globally rather than losing out on additional income.

My New(ish) Toy: A Review

Like it? After three and a half years with my Sony Ericsson K750i (an easy to remember figure of time, given that I got it specifically so only Lorraine could contact me before Chloe was born) I finally decided to upgrade my phone about two months ago, allowing me to have all kinds of fun with a new device.

Not that it was easy to move on, mind you. I was on a superb tariff with my K750i, it was a phone I loved and knew like the back of my hand. And I usually only had to charge it about once a week.

So it wasn't altogether easy to move onto a G1, but I did, and for the most part I don't regret it. Let's take a look at some of the benefits of it:

• The tariff. Not quite as good as I was on, but I managed to get eight months free line rental from T-Mobile. Furthermore surfing the web doesn't cost a thing.
• Instant access to my Gmail, which I run just about everything through.
• Lots of apps. Still finding my way around these if I'm honest. Love Twitroid though, makes it super easy to post to my Twitter account, as well as keeping up with friends throughout the day. Beats coming home to 106 tweets.
• Want to flash up your address book? I can do so with pictures. Small thing, but I like it.
• Masses of memory. 2Gb (i.e. lots of music), so no hassle in considering whether or not to get a Sony memory card any more.
• The trackball, which I wasn't looking forward to using, is pretty good for navigating around.
• Phone call quality? Pretty good I'd say. Nice and clear on most calls I've made.

And in the interests of fairness, some of the poorer sides of it:

• First and foremost, the battery life is horrible. I need to charge this just about every day. Yes, every day. Really not good.
• Not all webpages are equal. For instance I really don't like what it does to Google Reader.
• Let's be honest as well, the 3G speeds in the UK aren't great yet. Not bad, but could be better.
• No templates in text messages. Sounds like a small gripe, but when sending a message to Lorraine about when I would be home from various places this used to take me two seconds. Now it is more like two minutes.
• Grouping text messages together. Every to and from you send to one person gets grouped together, until you delete it, when you delete the whole conversation. No more saving the Jack Bannister-themed texts my friend Nick sent me two years ago that still reside on my K750i.
• Twitroid might be too easy to post from, as some of my posts my wife has made on my behalf might attest to.

A few thoughts on Google Desktop Search

Just wanted to post a few thoughts on this. Just quick observations really.

1) I've never really had difficulty not finding anything I wanted to find via the standard Windows Search, regardless of the operating system (I've used Windows 95, Windows 98 and now Windows XP at home, NT and 2000 at work). This isn't offering me anything better in that respect.

2) When I'm playing Games (not often these days, admittedly) I use a different log-in and close all other applications down. Most of the applications which start automatically (things like anti-virus software, firewall, soundcard settings) can be shut down from the status bar. If you right-click on the Google Desktop Search icon it opens a web page and doesn't offer any option to quit the program. To actually close Google Desktop Search it seems that you have to CTRL-ALT-DEL into Task Manager, then close the program from there.

3) My biggest issue with Google Desktop Search? Just out of habit I tend to password-protect all my Word documents. Google Desktop Search makes that just about pointless, as password-protected files are hidden from the search, and a preview of the file can be seen in the results page!

Normally I'm a fan of what Google do, especially the growing Docs & Spreadsheets web interface. However Google Desktop Search doesn't really do anything for me. Just the opposite in fact. What I really need to do with it is to uninstall it.