Category: news

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How many adverts?

Broken Television

I’ve realised recently how little television I watch, but not only that how very little live television. If it wasn’t for the children watching Scooby Doo live then I would probably get rid of the TV licence!

In terms of pre-recorded stuff, the main avenues that I watch are BBC iPlayer, Netflix, iTunes and recorded television using my Elgato EyeTV tuner on the Mac. Reflecting I did note that I rarely watch ITVPlayer, 5 on Demand and 4OD.

4OD Logo

Watching 4OD on my iPad the other day I was slightly shocked, astounded and annoyed by the number of adverts. In one advert “break” there were seven adverts to “watch” before the programme continued.

Adverts on 4OD

As you might expect there was no way to “avoid” the adverts and as it was on my iPad I couldn’t switch to something else while they were playing.

I know really I shouldn’t be astounded, as 4OD is not funded by the licence fee, and when broadcast live there are also adverts. If I had recorded the programme then I could have fast forwarded through the adverts, or if I had bought the programme on iTunes then there would also have been no adverts.

I think my astonishment was more down to how rarely I watch advertisement supported television than the actual number of adverts.

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I don’t trust you….

Safari Not Connected

No not you, but my blogging platform… actually I do trust my blogging platform, what I don’t trust is my internet connection to remain stable and consistent as I write a blog post, so that when I click publish, my blog post is actually published and out there on the web and hasn’t just disappeared into the ether!

What happens is you write a blog post into your text field, click the publish button and you get a “you are not connected” error and all your hard work has vanished. Clicking the back button doesn’t resolve the issue. There is no draft saved and you are then faced with a choice, try to recall what you wrote, or saying stuff it and going out for a coffee.

As a result these days wherever possible I will avoid typing direct a blog post onto the web and will use my word processor of choice and then cut and paste into the blog post when finished.

It does remind in the past how word processors would often crash losing all your work and you were left with the same conundrum as above.

So remember save your work as you write.

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…still not working!

I mentioned a week or so back the problems I was having with connecting a Sanyo Xacti VPC-HD2000 HD video camera to a TV via HDMI so I could playback the videos I had taken with it on the big screen. I said I was going to try and use a different TV and see if that would make a difference.

Did it?

No it did not!

I even tried a different connection method, using component video, but that did not work either.

I still can’t work out why it would not work…

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No more space…

Nexus One

One of the key issues I have my (slightly ageing, but still useful) Google Nexus One is one of storage. Yes it has an SD card slot, but the problem I am having is with the onboard phone storage.

There is only 200MB of onboard storage and though many Android apps can be run off the SD Card, some of the key apps I use can’t.

I recently downloaded an update to the Google+ App that comes in at 10MB which immediately resulted in the Nexus One throwing a hissy fit. I was able to get that app moved to the SD card, so the phone calmed down.

What this actually means is that I can’t use the Google Nexus One in the way I would like, in trying different kinds of apps. This was never a problem on the iPhone where the onboard storage of 8GB or 16GB made it much easier to manage apps.

There is no way to upgrade the onboard storage from the 200MB, so for the moment there is very little I can do.

Does anyone know if this is still an issue with the newer Android phones?

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Flickering

Well Flickr has undergone a makeover and their website is now very modern and stylish.

Flickr

It reminds me very much of the iPhone app, so where is the iPad app then?

Yahoo have also changed what you get in the “free” account, before you had a limit of 200 photographs and no full size images. Now for free you get one terabyte of storage and full resolution images.

Flickr

I have a Pro account on Flickr and there are still some advantages to having that, but it’s impressive that Yahoo have taken the plunge to move Flickr forward to compete with the likes of Facebook and Google+.

Certainly with the way that the Flickr API works, it makes sense to grab a free account and use Flickr as a backup to your other photo sharing services. Having an account doesn’t mean you need to partake in groups or have contacts.

Flickr for me is quite old school Web 2.0 and I think that’s the reason I have stayed there, rather than move to shiny new services. I do do the Instagram, but will usually copy images from there to Flickr.

It’s interesting to see how old school Yahoo is now evolving, as it’s not only do we get a new Flickr, but they’ve just gone out and bought Tumblr. Interesting times.

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Charging Annoyance

MagSafe 2 Power Adapter

I am currently having an intermittent charging problem with my MacBook Retina. I “plug” in the charger and it fails to charge the battery, there is no green or orange light. If I tweak the charger then the green light comes on and then the orange. What I mean by tweak is that after plugging in the charger, I slightly move it up without breaking the magnetic connection and then down agina. At which point the light comes on.

I don’t think it is a hardware issue, but could be a software one. However I might be entirely wrong and it’s a problem with the cable! As it’s one of the new cables I don’t have a spare I could try.

At this time, now I know what tweak I need to do, it’s more of an annoyance than a huge problem.

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Missing #366photos

Last year I took a photograph everyday and posted it to Instagram and Flickr.

#366photos

On the 1st January I kind of breathed a sigh of relief that it was all over, job done. I wasn’t going to not take photographs any more, but I wasn’t going to feel the pressure of taking a photograph everyday.

Don’t get me wrong I did enjoy taking a picture everyday, it was quite a challenge to ensure that I didn’t repeat a picture, alas there were a few which are similiar…

I also liked the challenge of doing different kinds of pictures and that really did make me think about what pictures I was taking and which filters or how much to crop.

I liked using Instagram, and it was nice getting positive feedback from my Instagram followers.

Though I did feel glad when the year was over, now we are in February, though I intended to take just as many photographs as I did last year that certainly isn’t the case. In January 2012 I uploaded 115 photographs to Flickr, whereas in January 2013 it was just 34.

I think I might get back into a “photo a day” habit, but I won’t be tagging them in the same way.

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Frustrating…

Those who know me, know that I work across three major sites in Gloucestershire. I was very annoyed with myself as yesterday I was at Gloucester and then went to the Forest of Dean. I accidentally left my MacBook power adapter at Gloucester.

MagSafe 2 Power Adapter

Wouldn’t have been so bad, but today I was based in Cheltenham. As a result I knew I needed a spare adapter, the problem (well a first world problem) was that I have the new MacBook Retina, and it uses a different kind of power adapter to the older MacBooks. As a result I couldn’t use anyone else’s adapter. One of the problems in been an early adopter is that sometimes you are the only person in the organisation that has a specific device, so no one has an adapter you can borrow.

Now what is doubly frustrating, I do in fact have one of those small metal adapters that allow you to use an older power cable with the newer MacBook Retina. The problem is that it is quite small, only about half an inch long. As a result I put it somewhere safe.

Can I remember where that safe place is?

No I can not.

As you might expect, I am frustrated. As a result I will now have to wait until Tuesday before I can charge my laptop…