sinéad's lifestream

I had a lazy moment on Sunday where I ended up watching the first two episodes of the new series of America’s Next Top Model. If it weren’t for my reality-tv-obsessed younger sister my comfortable-shoe-wearing self wouldn’t be seen dead watching anything Tyra Banks related. But, I cannot possibly deny the marvel of watching pretty young girls bullying each other into submission until they’re all crying (does crying shed pounds?), fumbling, wrecks.

Last night, as I tried to relax after a rather unpleasant dentist visit, I had the choice between a new episode of the above, or watching Life in Cold Blood (which I had caught last week and thoroughly enjoyed). I chose the later because, well, I love David Attenbourgh far more than any skinny girl who-has-had-the-worst-life competition. I’m sincerely glad that I did and was “rewarded” with an extremely vivid dream involving the ownership of two pet frogs that I was determined to keep wet (although there was no water available) or they would die.

What made a big impression on me last night was the news that amphibians the world over are being threatened by a highly contagious fungus. Also, according to many biologists we are entering the sixth mass extinction, but amphibians in particular are declining at a far greater pace than any other species. Personally I think that amphibians are one of the most fascinating species on the planet – their reproductive cycles are remarkable in complexity (which at this point is probably their greatest downfall) and they are so incredibly adaptable and diverse in nature. It is a pity that in such a short period of time there may no longer be any amphibians left in the wild.

There is a somewhat depressing and yet fascinating article about this issue on the Open University website.

Some time before Christmas I picked up a Bonsai Tree from Aldi for €7.99 – part of me thought “This could just be a trial run” as I had always wanted a Bonsai Tree, but had this preconcieved notion that they were too expensive (and that if I was unsuccessful in looking after it I would be rather annoyed with myself for wasting hard earned Euros).

Although I opted for the cheap route, I’m very happy with it because the plant I got in Aldi is absolutely flourishing. I’m so delighted! Take a look at the before and after picture, to see how much it’s grown in a month. At the moment it’s pruned in an informal style as I’m only just reading up on all the different methods to go about this. Lidl are selling them at the moment, pick one up if you can (pity the pot is so garish though).

Picking the perfect spot for it, and figuring out the perfect amount/frequency to of watering is certainly hit and miss (the first week I over-watered and it developed some mould on top of the soil) but once you figure it out it’s plain sailing from there. Mine is on our kitchen table (because the kitchen gets lots of sun, but you can’t put it in direct sunlight) and I water it once a week by submerging it up to the first branch.

This is my sweet little Bonsai, I love it because it simply is… a teeny tiny baby tree!

New Bonsai – 23/12/07

I love my Bonsai! – 04/02/07

Another Science Week submission…

The Filofax

I’ve given up searching for the perfect electronic organiser or PDA and rather than continue to struggle with my data being scattered across wall calendars, notebooks, post-it notes, smart-phones, my laptop, my desktop in work etc., What with going back to college and working full time I’ve had to make sure that I am very organised, so I’ve recently started using a Filofax. It is a godsend.

I don’t have to worry about charging or syncing my Filofax. I don’t have to worry about the screen cracking if I drop it. I didn’t have to spend hundreds of euro on a device that would only partially suit me and would be replaced in 6 months or so by a slicker and better value for money piece of kit. Really the only worry I have is that my writing might not be legible after jotting down notes on a speeding bus. Although, now that I think of it, I wouldn’t mind if I could put some kind of password or lock onto it, to stop a certain someone trying to figure out what she was getting for Christmas.

My favourite feature of my Filofax is that there are no constraints to what kind of data that I can enter. As I am writing this I realise that it’s strange to apply these types of observations to something that is, on the most basic level, really just paper and pen. No matter how advanced technology has become nothing can change how satisfying it is to quickly jot down notes and drawings or doodle stars and Santa Claus around your daily calendar entry for December 25th. Simply being able to do anything I want (if I can draw it, or stick it, it’ll end up in there) is very productive for me.

It is the built-in software constraints that are there to stop users making mistakes that have stopped me from really embracing any kind of electronic organiser. Nothing exists that can imitate the physical aspects, the tactile sensations and visual guides that I employ. For instance, multicoloured page markers (flags) – the different colours represent different important events. They are physically placed to open the appropriate page, and they also indicate when similar events are taking place over a certain time frame (importantly though, this information can be discerned without flicking through the pages). Even something so simple like being able to put an already written post-it note straight into the Filofax saves me time during my day (be it in college or work). Sometimes I like to jot down quick notes about a project I’m doing, these are usually really messy (but yet very organised at the same time) mind-maps and diagrams. I am a very visual person and I like my data to be visually appealing – I can’t use pink, green and blue highlighter pens in a PDA now can I?

A really great addition to my Filofax has been a template I created in Microsoft Word to print out pages of information (timetables etc.,) that will fit, and also a Filofax hole puncher so I can place the pages perfectly. So no, I haven’t turned my back on technology all together (as if!).

You can read the other submissions to this competition here.

This week is Science Week – which is hard not to notice if you’re a reader of any of the popular Irish Blogs. They’ve been running a blogging competition and my favourite entry so far has been by Roosta answering the “What invention do you want to see most in the future?” topic from today with his Giant Fighting Robots, it totally cracked me up. I’ve had visions of B-Movie type escapades on the moon ever since. Yesterday’s topic was “What was the favourite invention from your childhood?” and although the competition is closed for this topic I still feel an urge to write about it briefly.

HoTMaiL

Over 10 years ago my brother Dave brought home a dial-up modem for our home computer, opening up a mass of information and entertainment to us. Prior to this the only access that we had to any kind of Internet was from free CDs that came with computer magazines (they would sometimes put entire websites on these CDs!). Being teenagers and having little concern we proceeded to run up extraordinarily large home phone bills. Much to our dismay the Internet got banned from the house, but not before we both got completely hooked.

Luckily for us an Internet Café opened up nearby where we could get our fix. But the thing about the Internet way back then (which is actually exactly the same, now) is that you needed an e-mail address to sign-up to practically everything online. Not having your own internet service provider (ISP) at home meant no e-mail address and this closed off a large section of online content.

Independence Day 1996 – Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith launched the first webmail service on the Internet, they chose this day to symbolise freedom from ISP based e-mail and being able to access your e-mail from anywhere in the world. This service was called HoTMaiL and in December 1997, having reached over 8 million subscribers, it was bought by Microsoft and is now known as Windows Live Hotmail, though users still generally refer to it as simply Hotmail.

Thanks to Hotmail in the late 90’s a whole world of geeky goodness became privy to my curious mind. Having access to a web-based e-mail service meant that I could sign-up to all those wonderful geeky science fiction and technology newsletters and websites that I dreamed about being able to access and get involved with. It meant being able to make friends online in far off places like America that would happily spoil the latest season of Star Trek Voyager for you.

Most importantly though, it meant being able to share interesting websites, files and photos. It was a lot harder to find information (and any interesting content) online in the days before Google search and blogging. Also, not having access to an e-mail account meant being the last person online to find out about everything. Web based e-mail also meant you could access your e-mail from any computer, any time. Not knowing if your parents were ever going to let you get back online at home meant that you often had to use your initiative to access your e-mail, so being able to access your e-mail from any computer was very important.

Through my youth online I learned how to write, to think critically, and I was encrouaged by my peers to be opinionated and expressive. I was encouraged to learn new skills like web design, graphic design and typing skills. If it hadn’t been for my first e-mail address I probably wouldn’t have immersed myself so completely into the online world and to this day it is of benefit to me that I did.

It’s been quite some time since I’ve posted anything, been very busy and nothing new in the world of gadgets/technology has taken my interest, expect perhaps Blackle. Been busy changing jobs – I’m now working in Admin/ICT for the Health Service Executive in their mental health section. It’s Monday to Friday, 9 to 5, or flexi-time if I need to come in late, or go home early – which suits me perfectly, especially so for college in October.

I’ve my interview for the M.Sc. in Cyberpsychology at the beginning of September, I’m feeling confident about it, I can’t see how they’d refuse me. I’m putting all my eggs in one basket – I know this – but I honestly couldn’t find a Masters program that suited me the way this one does, so even if I don’t get in, I’d rather that than do a course I wasn’t excited about.

Update: Induction is on the 22nd. I start formal lectures on the 29th. Goodbye Saturdays. Hello education.

The new job is going well, a change of scenery is definitely something I needed. I feel a lot less stressed out. Working for 3 as a sales associate means I am completely focused on selling products and hitting my targets, rather than stressing out about the store paperwork and deadlines. You would think that I’d be happier now… but I’m actually bored. Selling 3 handsets is easy, they practically sell themselves. I’ve come to the conclusion that I was stressed out in 3G because I wasn’t being paid to BE responsible, but it was part of my job to be, but no-one else on the same wage had any of the management duties that I did. I’m craving a little responsibility now that I find my brain switching off and my automatic “robot selling phrases” kicking in. The only aspect of working for 3 that is keeping me interested is talking to customers about the X-Series.

X-Series is a sexy name for access to the “Internet” on your phone, or rather 3s version of the Internet. They have partnered with Skype, Yahoo!, Orb, Sling, Google, Ebay and Windows Live Messenger to bring features of these online services to X-Series compatible handsets. You also have FULL, free web access. There will no longer be a “walled garden” – if you connect to the “Internet” from any 3 handset at the moment, you’re only able to access a selection of mobile sites that are compatible with your phone, but the handsets due to launch on X-Series are highly sophisticated devices.

There is a massive interest in the Nokia N73, due to launch on the network sometime in January, I’ve got my eye on one of these bad boys. This will be the first X-Series handset launched, with the Sony Ericsson W950i following later. While most consumers I’ve spoke to are dying to get their hands on a Nokia handset with a 3.2 mega-pixel camera and Carl Zeiss lens, don’t be under any illusion that this is a “camera phone”, this is a truly portable multimedia and communication device.

With an X-Series handset you can check your e-mail, logon to Windows Live Messenger, make voice calls over Skype (currently limited to other Skype users), bid for items on Ebay and even use Google to search. You also can browse online, check your Myspace profile or your Bebo page. Your profile that you labored over for hours will still look a lot better when viewed on a pc screen though, as the Internet browser from 3 modifies webpages to look “better” on the handsets small screen, in order to improve legibility.

For all these features, you’d expect there to be a massive monthly fee, it makes sense right? Granted you’ll need to take out a 12 month mobile phone contract, as the service isn’t available on 3Pay, but the X-Series subscription is cheap and for a flat-rate monthly fee you have “unlimited bandwidth” (although there IS a fair usage policy, stating that 1gb is sufficient for each user).

In the UK the monthly fee for full services is €15 a month, or you can access services for €8 a month which excludes Orb and Sling only. Orb allows you to connect to your home computer, and Sling allows you to connect to your home television subscription (such as Sky Digital) both via your home broadband connection. These two features are probably the most impressive and yet the least accessible to non-geeks as they require a complicated technical setup (they’ll also drain the battery life out of your handset).

Overall X-Series sounds rather impressive, as the service hasn’t launched in Ireland yet I haven’t had the opportunity to test the above features out. As soon as I get my hands on my very own N73, I’ll post a full usability review. For now, there is a fantastic review of the UK version over on Digital-Lifestlyes.info.

Since my last post I have officially graduated from college, you can see all the embarrassing photos of myself and my classmates in our graduation gowns and caps over on my bebo page. I spent some time in cork working/training in the 3Store on Patrick’s Street, and other than that I’ve just been playing around with my new toy. I finally got my dream camera – the Fuji Finepix S5600 – it was a graduation gift from my parents, and by gift I mean they handed me money and said “We were afraid of getting you the wrong one.”

So far, I’ve yet to master the finer “complicated” functions of the camera, which is frustrating but also makes me realise that for once in my life I should probably read the manual. The camera takes fantastic photos and it’s really quick, making multiple shots very easy to take. The 10x zoom is incredible, it makes you feel like a spy. It’s a lot of fun. Getting clear close-up shots of small objects isn’t easy though, having tried to take shots of a bearded dragon at the weekend I’ve come to the conclusion that I must (yes, must!) purchase a fisheye lens and macro, for panoramic and close-up shots. I don’t have any other negative comments, I’m very happy with my purchase, I did have one small problem with it though.

After less than a week of it being in my possession there was one very annoying problem – the additional memory card I purchased with it was faulty. I lost all of the photos I took at the weekend. However, I was pleasantly surprised to come up against no hassle whatsoever in Pixels, where I purchased the camera. When I explained the situation, they simply gave me a new memory card, none of the usual arguments or “I’ll have to talk to the manager” bull that I’m used to from sales people.

So, to make sure it was working perfectly with the replacement card, I took some shots of my dog Ben, who is definitely no stranger to the camera, in fact he is quite the little poser as you can see below.

If there’s one thing about “chiq” fem-phones that I’ve hated in the past, it’s that they are often feature-filled yet lack the ability to expand the memory. Take the Nokia 6111, great looking phone, fantastic features like bluetooth and a megapixel camera – yet, what’s the point of a megapixel camera phone if you can only take about 20 photographs at its highest resolution? The new Benq-Siemens E51 is a big change to this annoying trend. From the outside it appears to be the successor of the popular Siemens CL75 (the “poppy” phone) but there are some major differences, for instance the 1.3 megapixel camera instead of vga, it’s bluetooth enabled and also has a micro-sd slot so you can expand the memory. Siemens haven’t launched a new phone in a long time, the reason being that it was bought out by the Taiwan based Benq group. Rebranded as Benq-Siemens, and with the launch of the E51 into the Irish market also comes the E61, a “music phone” which boasts a 512mb miniSD card and dedicated music buttons. Both of these models are due to launch on the O2 Speakeasy range and will retail at approximately €150.

I had the opportunity to play around with both phones during the week, both phones have the same user interface which seems straightforward enough, easy to navigate, but with it’s bright colours it’s probably more suited to the teen market. Personally, I really like the style of the E61, its slick black with red/orange stripe reminded me of the A-team van. The dedicated music buttons are easy to use, and although it only has a vga camera I can definitely see this being a popular alternative to the more expensive Sony Ericsson “music phones”. With regards to the E51, it’s nice to see a phone that’s being marketed towards women that has excellent features such as bluetooth and a micro-sd slot. It borrows from the CL75 quite successfully, with its integrated compact mirror but also comes pre-loaded with a “5 minutes to fabulous” java application that shows you how to do your make-up in five easy steps. It’s this feature that made me take 5 steps away from this phone. I’m sure it’s not for everyone (me included) but it’s a nice gimmick and along with its low price, and with Christmas fast approaching it’s sure to be a big seller.

In personal news, I’ve had no feedback yet from Google about the Adsense position. So don’t ask. I’ve been told it will be sometime this week, possibly tomorrow, before I hear anything. At least in the meantime I can distract myself by trying out the “5 minutes to fabulous” java application to see if it can turn a butch like me into a pretty chiq girl… the odds are pretty slim though.

The interview with Google on Monday went really well, both team leaders who I met with were really nice, educated and nerdy. Despite feeling extremely over-dressed, it seems that everyday is “Casual Friday” at Google, I was comfortable and confident throughout the entire hour of interviews and simply being able to walk through the offices themselves was an interesting experience. I don’t want to overanalyse for now, but I’ll tell you one thing – the Google offices themselves are really funky and cool. I think I would fit in perfectly there. In a weird coincidence though (or maybe just the work of a certain search engine) there’s a comment on my previous post from someone who is competing for the same position as myself. Weird.

While I’ve been off contemplating moving jobs I’ve also been in the process of doing Apple Sales Training (I’ve gotten Silver Status, half way to Gold! Hurrah!), even I don’t use the knowledge to sell the products it’s a great way of finding out about Apple technology. Although, I still haven’t found the answer to why Jen’s new iPod Nano keeps freezing randomly and needs to be reset. I’ve been assured by one of my colleagues that all Nanos go through a “phase” where they need to be reset occasionally, Jen seems to think it’s going through puberty and it’s acting out against her.

Speaking of Ipods… the best time of the year to buy one would be right now. What with Apple launching the new iPod Nano and 80gb iPod, all the iPod range has gone down in price (so the old stock gets shifted quick) – you can actually pick up a 30gb/60gb Video iPod for €290/€340 here in 3G on Henry Street. Which I think, is a bargain. Although, I’ve heard a rumour that you can get the 30gb for only €270 in Spectra Photo on Grafton Street. Even nicer!

Seeing as there has been a price drop in the iPod range, it’s only natural that the Creative Zen Vision M will have to drop in price to compete and there is even rumour online that Creative will be upgrading the capacity of the Vision M to 80gb, they’ve also launched their new widescreen mp3/video player the Vision W. Since my Micro Photo got stolen I’ve been using a 1gb Creative player, which is fine by me, at least in the short term. If those Vision M players go down, I think I’ll invest in one of those rathar than an iPod.

For years I’ve had an interest in digital photography but have never had the money to purchase my own digital camera, I’ve always borrowed everyone elses or used my god-awful vga camera on my mobile phone. I’ve been thinking that it’s about time that I purchased a digital camera of my own. Of course, when it comes to me and technology, I want the best there is to offer. I had my hopes set on getting a digital single-lens reflex (DSLR) camera – the difference between a DSLR camera and a standard digital camera is the ability to view the picture you are taking via the lens rather than the viewfinder, giving you a truly accurate image. Unfortunately, even a 6 mega pixel DSLR camera is about €600. Which is definitely outside of my budget, for now.

The traditional digital camera market is completely saturated, and I’ve found it rather difficult to choose one (hence why I still don’t own one!) as my own terrible greed for “features” makes it impossible to stay within a reasonable budget. However, upon investigation I found an alternative to a DSLR camera that’s within budget. The Fuji FinePix S5600 Zoom: it’s only 5.1 megapixel, however it boasts 10x opitcal zoom. That’s impressive for €300, and it looks quite cool too. It has some wonderful features, for instance, movie recording in .avi format and the ability to change the lenses (I already have my eye on a fisheye! – ha ha).

The only drawback to buying a Fuji digital camera is the fact that they only take xD-Picture Cards, which is annoying considering I have plenty of MMC cards just lying around from old digital cameras and phones. If I’m to buy this camera I’ll have to purchase at least 1gb, which will set me back another €60, double the price of a standard MMC card. For now I’m not going to make any decisions, until I actually have the money. What fun it is to procrastinate.