2012/04/19 23:53
We've had a dandelion (mælkebøtte in Danish) problem for years. Phyllis has spent countless hours pulling them up by hand, which is a backbreaking and thankless task.A couple of days ago I then ordered a weed puller from Amazon, and it arrived today.I was a wee bit doubtful that it would really be worth the money, but it's great! It...
2011/07/05 23:55
Phyllis has nagged me for some time to get new mobile phones for Complexli, so yesterday I finally called T-Mobile and got the price of our contract reduced by 50% and got two new phones: an HTC Wildfire S for Phyllis and an HTC ChaCha for me.So far I really like it. The keyboard is very good, much better than...
2013/05/02 17:40
I’m really excited by the upcoming release of
Google Glass. Until now, there’s been an inherent conflict in smartphone design between creating a huge screen and making the device small enough that you can be bothered carrying it around at all times. (It’s interesting how mobile phones were getting smaller and smaller until the advent of smartphones meant a larger screen was required, at which point they started growing again.)
Although Google Glass is looking great, I’m sure it’ll evolve rapidly over the next few years. Apart from increasing the resolution, I expect it to expand from one eye to two, to allow for three-dimensional display. I also wonder whether it’s really the best idea to put the display above the line of vision rather than below it — if you’re using it for reading a book, surely it must feel like holding the book above your head.
However, the main area for improvement is how you interact with it. Google Glass apparently requires you to touch the frame to control it, which is essential one-dimensional and tiring. However, traditional devices such as keyboards, mice and touch-screens are not going to be very effective, either. I’m not sure what they’ll come up with, but I won’t be surprised if Google Glass 3D in 2016 will be accompanied by a Google Glove (or perhaps just by small sensors on your finger nails).
2012/03/03 23:06
Marcel bought himself an iPhone 4S last week, and it quickly became apparent that Siri wasn't very good at understanding him, and a quick video search reveals it's a common problem for people with Scottish accents, including me (watch this one, too, if you haven't seen it yet). Apple claim Siri will get better at understanding its owner over time, but I'm somewhat doubtful whether it can be true.I'm sure it can relatively easily catalogue a speaker as west-coast American...
2011/08/16 23:18
When I was learning to drive a few years ago, I bemoaned the complexity of manual transmission and suggested a better way: "As far as I can see, all of this could be done with the vertical part of a joystick or similar, holding it still to maintain the speed, moving it forwards to go faster, and pulling it backwards...
2011/06/11 20:32
When we lived in Rose Street, we had just the normal terrestrial TV channels. However, when we moved to Newton Mearns three and a half years ago, we decided to get Sky to please the kids. We didn't get Sky...
2011/02/14 21:45
Last month, we finally decided to get rid of the enormous 50" telly that Phyllis had got in her divorce (and which had replaced my old 14" one), on the grounds that it was far too big for our TV...
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