sinéad's lifestream

I’ve had the new Amazon Kindle in my possession for over a month now and have still managed not to spend a cent on ebooks or any other content, yet I use it every day. Initially I had signed up to the Irish Times subscription free trial, but quickly realised that paying €16 per month for content that was free online was a little silly.

Thanks to the online application Instapaper (works in your browser via a bookmarklet – even works with Safari for iPhone and the Twitter for iPhone app) instead I am able to queue up articles I wish to read later in a Kindle friendly format. This applies to all the online content I come across and many of the industry specific blogs I am subscribed to publish very long articles that I usually don’t have time to read during the work day (or go cross eyed trying to read them on my computer screen).

The Kindle friendly file you end up with is split into sections (one for each article) and can even handle images, and hyperlinks – so if you’re reading an article that mentions a secondary associated article you can click that link and the Kindle browser will open, you can even switch to “Article Mode” in this browser, and the Kindle will autofocus on the text content for you. Though I’m certainly not blown away by the “experimental” browser, it’s obvious that surfing the web is not something the Kindle was designed for.

With Instapaper I queue up blog posts, newspaper articles and more and then at the end of the day (or sometimes at lunchtime) I download the Kindle friendly file, transfer it to the Kindle using the USB cable and then have a great read, with no distractions, almost like having a highly personalised magazine in front of me. Admittedly it’s very relaxing, and I have no desire to tweet or check my email, so I’m not skimming anymore, instead I absorb the information I’m reading and feel like I’m really getting worth out of the content and not wasting my time.

Kindle vs iPad?

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If you’re like me, passionate about everything web related but can’t justify spending €100′s on conferences like FOWA or Build then you probably love barcamps as much as I do.

You’ll also love the free web technology conference – the dot conf - being hosted by the National College of Ireland on July 22nd. It’s a fantastic opportunity to go and listen to some industry experts and a great way for NCI to promote their new MSc in Web Technologies course.

There is a diverse list of speakers, from journalists, educators, web professionals and technology advocates – all experts in their fields. As well as some “deep dive” sessions (hands-on workshops).

Personally I’m really looking forward to checking out the National E-learning Laboratory, who recently published some pretty interesting data on what Irish people pay attention to when using Facebook.

Conferences like these are a great networking opportunity (especially if you are self employed or “between projects” at the moment). Bring you business cards and wear your hottest geek tshirt, you just never know who you might bump into.

NCI is based in the IFSC – possibly one of the easiest places to get to in Dublin, so there’s no excuse not to attend.

Thanks to the Internet I came across a new product called Sugru a mouldable silicone that helps you hack and repair your stuff to make it work better and last longer. Its stops you from having to buy new things when they break and glue just won’t do it justice (when does it ever?).

It’s self-adhesive (sticking to practically everything), dishwasher-proof, waterproof, resistant from -60C to 180C and yet it cures (hardens into silicon) at room temperature. It was created by an Irish woman called Jane Ni Dhulchaointigh and there’s a great set of videos on Fora.tv where she discusses the product in tons of detail, from its development to its applications. The Sugru blog was also a finalist in the Irish Blog Awards 2010, where you can find ideas on what to do with your Sugru.

We’ve been used to living in a world where we throw things out when they get broken, but with less money in our pockets we should now be turning to versatile and practical solutions such as Sugru. It’s also so much better for the environment. It doesn’t just fix things though, it can improve the usability of your crappy mass produced consumer products. People have already done some clever things with theirs and that’s what I’m planning on doing with mine.

Sugru iPhone Stand

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Rather than breaking with tradition, having attended and very much enjoyed 3Dcamp in both 2008 and 2009, I will be attending again this year. Luckily the venue is a bit closer to home. The Institute of Technology, Tallaght to be exact. So I’ll be jumping on a relatively quick Luas (instead of the usual two hour train to Limerick) on Saturday (29th of May 2010) and attending some of the great talks on offer.

Though my direction may have changed recently I still have a personal interest in 3D, augmented reality and Location based Services. Also, it’s good business sense to keep up to date with these emerging technology trends.

Talks of Interest to me?

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I had set myself a challenge to swap my iPhone for a HTC Legend for a whole week and I completely failed. After day 4 struggling with what had evolved into over-complexity I just gave up and happily retreated back to the “evil” non-open source iPhone and heavily policed iTunes.

During this experiment I also had to discontinue using the Meteor network due the 2G to 3G handover problem (there’s a neat little video demonstrating this here) which left with me with no signal far too many times, but the phone worked perfect on O2. Hoping Meteor can fix that issue promptly, as many other HTC users are reporting this issue in the customer forums.

Day 4 With my Android

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I went along to a Meteor blogger event yesterday where we chatted about their new pay as you go data charges (250mb free if you top up by €20 per month, as well as free  Meteor texts – not bad at all) and us bloggers got to try out all the iPhone alternatives you could shake a stick at. They also sent me home with a HTC Legend.

Only last week I had tweeted about how I really wanted to try out an Android handset to do a compare and contrast against the iPhone. I usually change my phone on a yearly basis, and my iPhone 3G is nearing its first birthday, so trying out an alternative is a great way for me to discover if I should stick with Apple or not.

Before I got my iPhone a year ago I had always been a huge Nokia fan, what changed my mind was trying out Jen’s iPhone (she’s an avid Apple fan, so of course she had one months before me) as I was simply blown away by the web browsing experience, something that previous Nokia smartphones (running the Symbian operating system) I had owned simply didn’t compare to.

First Impressions of Android

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Back when I was studying for my degree and my masters I always got really excited about any project or essay that allowed me to read and reference the work of Dr. Jennifer Preece. If you have studied interaction design you will no doubt have come across her book “Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction” but the work of Dr. Preece that always completely absorbed me was her perspectives on the relationship between usability and sociability, particularly the impact of usability on the design and management of online communities.

If I could choose any person to be my research mentor it would be Dr. Preece. This woman has a 35 page CV online describing her incredible academic career. As early as 1975 she was working on e-learning initiatives in the UK and after completing her PhD studies in 1985 she pursued research focused on ground-breaking topics such as information systems, computer mediated communication, human?computer interaction, and online communities. She eventually moved to the USA in 1996 to lecture in the University of Maryland Baltimore County, in the Information Systems Department. Today she is the Dean of this department, supporting a long list of PhD students. Her work has taken her all around the globe, she has published hundreds of papers and authored numerous HCI books. She has achieved so much, in what had been a traditionally male dominated field. Her career is certainly something to aspire to.

The Only Real Social Media Expert

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There was a story online today that pointed out a rise in simultaneous television viewing and internet usage in the US. I must admit this didn’t surprise me as I often witness both of my younger siblings stretched out on the couches at home with their netbooks and the remote control. They’re passively consuming two forms of media at once – clearly neither is interesting enough to encompass their full interest, but TV has always been considered a passive form of media and multitasking on a computer isn’t a new phenomena. However, I do wonder if this increasing trend has anything to do with the lowering quality of TV shows, reality TV doesn’t really require concentration to follow a plot line, if there is one.

My own relationship with TV has dramatically changed these last few years. Thanks to technology I now have the ability to set aside one evening a week to sit down and watch a few hours of selected TV shows (mostly American imports). I would very rarely sit down in front of the TV and just flick through the channels searching for something to watch, invariably there isn’t anything on that interests me. Instead I choose to sit at my computer, engaging fully with online media, creating content and absorbing information.

The downside of this setup is that I miss out on those opportunistic TV nuggets – those wonderful documentaries on completely random topics that are incredibly interesting but contain sets of knowledge that I would never have actively sought out by myself.

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Whilst Microsoft are busy tweaking Office 2010, the beta versions of which can be downloaded from here, the rest of us are still coming to grips with the changes they made back in 2007 to that staple of home and office computers.

The bold interface changes made to Office 2007, once you get used to it, is actually much better than its predecessors especially because of its incredible attention to mouseless navigation. However, after a conversation I had with a friend during the week I realised that the changes are still frustrating for someone that only uses the software occasionally and has the old Office navigation drilled into their subconscious.

Luckily there’s a free and easy plugin for that.

UBitMenu is a free plugin that literally brings back the classic menu and toolbars to Word, Powerpoint and Excel. Once installed you’ll notice an addition to the Office ribbon, called “Menu”, which you will find nestled between “Home” and “Insert”. Clicking “Menu” will bring you most of the old 2003 menu options arranged just the way you remember them. It’s free for home use and only €10 for commercial use. The plugin will even work in Office 2010, which hasn’t deviated much from the Office 2007 interface design.

If you want to add even more options to Microsoft Office, why not try the OfficeTab plugin – which enables you to navigate multiple open documents the same way you would webpages in Firefox or IE7. Very nifty.

The Irish Blog Awards finalists list was published last night and I’m delighted to see so many familiar and deserving blogs and bloggers having made it to the final judging round. Next weekend in Galway is going to a lot of fun. I’m pleased to report that my own blog made it to the finals, in the “Best Technology Blog/Blogger” category. The full list of finalists in this category are below, as you’ll see the competition is incredibly tough and I’m proud to be put along side these amazing blogs/bloggers. Thanks to Bitbuzz who are sponsoring the category and thanks to Damien Mulley for organising another piss up awards.

Best Technology Blog/Blogger

– Sponsored by Bitbuzz

• The Gaming Liberty
• Pat Phelan
• Matt Johnston
• Sinead Cochrane
• Web2Ireland

Thanks to Steph for the graphic/badge.