Andy's Blog

Quite why my friends are still surprised when I turn up with a new gadget is a bit of a mystery to me, you’d think after all these years (and all these gadgets) they would have learnt by now.

After thinking it a bit of a gimmick, plus already being in a contract with Vodafone, I have finally gotten myself an iPhone after O2 rather kindly offered to buy me out of my current contract. So I am now the proud owner of a 16Gb Apple iPhone 3G!

…and I have to say I am MORE than delighted and impressed with it.  Up till now I have been using a combination of other products to be the uber-chic man about town;  My Nokia 6500 Classic mobile phone (with Vodafone data tariff), Nokia n810 Internet Tablet for accessing the Internet, and an Apple iPod Nano 4Gb for music.  The iPhone now replaces all of these.

Now there is a bit of a wrench in dropping the Nokia n810 as this runs my Operating System of choice (Linux) and allows me to run a large number of Open Source products which I also use on my desktop PC at home (see my previous post here for more info).  However all these apps never really ‘fitted’ together in a seamless way, which the iPhone does.  Also, the need not to waste batteries (on both the mobile and n810) when bluetoothing between the two devices so I can 3G connect to the Internet is a bit of a bonus.

It’s not entirely a perfect device, but the advantages far outweigh the imperfections;

• Where’s cut-n-paste?  I would love to be able to snip bits of information out of websites or emails and post them in the notebook.
• When you minimise an app, it closes it (apart from the music)!  So when you are in the facebook app, and then decide to check your email, it disconnects you from any chats you were in
• iTunes!  *sigh* I have to run Windows to update my iPhone with music or install apps.

That all said, I am online now stalking friends on facebook whilst listening to some very early Genesis tracks – bliss!

I find myself, almost unconsciously, wandering back to facebook to check out what my listed friends are upto, moving my cars around in Parking Wars, building up my castles in the Knighthood game, updating my profile and uploading more pics.  She-who-must-be-obeyed is starting to feel like a facebook widow.

As some of you may know, I am an iterate IM’er (Instant Messaging), and facebook also allows you to IM friends when they come online – hallelujah!  …or as I am beginning to wonder “uh-oh”.

IM’ing for me is a simple, and cheap, way to chat to friends and gets over some of the inate shyness that is, unfortunately, built into my DNA (which is one reason why I don’t use the phone on a constant basis).  However I am beginning to wonder at what point does IM’ing friends start to become, for them, something coming close to stalking?  The unfortunate element of IM’ing is that you don’t know what the person is doing or feeling at the time you send a cheery little “hello” down the line to them, and people (despite beliefs to the contrary) will always try to remain polite, especially to friends, whatever their mood.

So I think, from now on, I shall try and keep my IM’ing to a minimum and only on a as-needed basis – unless of course I am IM’d first.  Maybe I am overly worrying about a non-issue, but that is a side effect of having too much time on one’s hands during the wee hours (I go to bed WAAAAAY too late).

So if you do find yourself being pestered one too many times, a “feck off” is always taken in the mood it’s given . What’s more worrying, is the following reply given by a friend when I brought it up with them;

coooooool, i have my own stalker….wicked !!

I hate not being part of the “in crowd”, and in that vein of vanity I have re-created my facebook account.  I did have one previously but, deleted it after getting swamped with emails and games, quizzes, pokes and a multitude of other things I didn’t understand.

So…. I am trying it again with a more “open” mind, but with a warning given to me by a very wise man;

“I used to have an open mind, but my brains kept falling out!”
Mr F.

 

Knowledge is free.
We are Anonymous.
We are Legion.
We do not forgive.
We do not forget.
United as one.
Divided by zero.
Expect us.

When’s the time you would usually use a service like the BBC’s iPlayer? A service that lets you view TV shows shown over the past 7 days? Answer: When you are away and not able to view your usual favourite progs.

…and what has the BBC gone and done? They’ve gone and stopped me ‘cos I am in a country with some ‘Johnny Foreigners’! Don’t get me wrong, Spanish TV is not that bad, but the adverts between can be longer than the program in total.

Time to have words methinks and remind them who pays their wages! I already have had to do this once when they launched the iPlayer and insisted I use Micro$oft Windows instead of my beloved Linux.

Just before I flew out to Madrid for Christmas with the in-laws I got myself a little early Christmas present. As some of you will know I am an avid gadget freak and my latest toy is the Nokia N810, which is the latest version of Nokia’s Internet Tablets (which I now have a full suite of).

Well colour me impressed! I haven’t put the damn thing down all Christmas, much to the annoyance of the wife, and am now fully mobile after installing some of my must have apps;

• Pidgin
• Skype
• XChat
• GPE Calendar with Google Calendar Sync
• Canola

Throw into the mix the pre-installed RSS Reader, which is currently downloading all my BBC podcasts, plus the Internet Radio streaming – you find yourself with one happy Troozers

In fact this article was written using the N810! Which brings me to the new habit… actually updating this ste on a more regular basis. Now I have the ability to do this from anywhere, let’s see if I can keep this particular New Years resolution (and try and update it at least as often as Mr Fitchett!)

Happy New Year Y’awl!

Just as a nice little visual clue to my ever changing moods, I have uploaded some rather nice self-generated avatars. So don’t get too surprised when these little piccies start popping up all over the place, to give you a little flavour of todays ‘mood a la troozers’.

I am still trying to get used to this blogging software, as well as try and develop some discipline to actually sit down in front of a PC and write something down. Of course the actual problem may be that I don’t have enough of a life to actually write down, which is somewhat of a sobering thought.

I have taken the plunge, even though I still don’t understand what it is I have plunged into, and created myself a ‘facebook’ profile. It is a somewhat strange feeling when the message “Andrew Stewart has made friends with whomever“.

It’s not the easiest system to get to grips with, and couple that with the fact that I am away on holiday and only able to dial-up over my mobile phone (I am trying NOT to think of what my phone bill will look like!) – I am not entirely sure I am making the most of the system.

I have a small number of friends defined on there, although looking at the number of females some of those friends have on their profiles – I am beginning to feel a little old and questioning my sexuality!!

Well, true to form I managed to muck up the configuration on my shiny new domain name and didn’t hit the right buttons in the GoDaddy domain management interface. The result? The blog was here but no-one could see it!

I am still working on my paranoia; that in fact it was a conspiracy by ICANN to silence me and not let my voice out into the series of tubes that is the Internet.

It is here now for your general amusement, bewilderment and apathy. This does of course mean that I also need to update it too :-/

…now how does these ‘category’ things work?

Well, after a looooong absence the Andy Stewart blog is finally back. Let’s face it the original one was hardly updated on a frequent basis, due to no small part to my laziness. This lackluster also seems to have permeated to my management of the domain ‘andy-stewart.com’, which while I was looking the other way was half-inched from underneath my nose (it is a very big nose, so this task isn’t as hard as it sounds).

Despite some wailing, beating of chests and snivelling on my part – the powers that be, who control the whole series of tubes that is the Internet, decided I really didn’t deserve it and passed my old domain onto some global conglomerate with evil desires on the world (..or possibly some other bloke called ‘andy stewart’). I secretly think that what actually happened is that ICANN actually *READ* my old blog and thought; “ooooh crumbs! we can’t let that kinda rubbish out”

But as they say, you can’t keep a bad blog down; and here it is re-launched on the world, with a new domain name, new engine underneath it and a sparkly new look. Some things may change as I get more used to wordpress and I find new ‘themes’ that I think may suit better – but one thing will remain constant… my inability to update this on anything that looks like a regular basis or the standard of written english when I finally do put pen to paper!

Word up to Mr Fitchett who for some bizarre reason still keeps occasionally referring to me in his blog (yep mate, I actually *do* still read your blog on a worryingly regular basis), so in an effort to actually deserve his faith that anything changes in my life I will attempt to bore you all to tears with the details.

So, till the next post….. (don’t hold your breath!)