Now then, now then, now then…..

There has been some talk of “Augmented Reality” from the upsurge of iPhone and Android apps that basically overlay a view of what your phone camera can see with information on what you’re looking at by taking in data from the in-built GPS, compass or (in a few cases) outlines of what the camera can see.

For once, I’m not being cynical, and I think this is a fantastic idea, though it has a lot of problems. I’ve seen clips of people moving around places with their iPhone camera showing what it sees but with little boxes constantly popping up next to things, most of which end up being simply Wikipedia entries which is great if you’re somewhere new, on holiday or so on, but is generally kinda useless.

I’m going to be moving to a new city in a month’s time, and I just returned from a week in Malta. So THERE would be the times that this would be useful, if you’re sightseeing purposely or if you’re somewhere new or unusual and you want to adapt and learn about where you are as quickly as possible. But I would find it utterly useless walking around Horsham, because nearly 13 years of living in this one town has taught me everything about it’s history I could possibly want to know (for example, Romantic poet Percy Shelley was born in Horsham, hence we have the Rising Universe fountain better known, at least to locals, as Shelley Fountain). Another issue is, who controls the information, and how will it know what information I would find useful. If I wave an iPhone at a restaurant, I’d like to see some brief reviews, maybe a menu or prices, but I don’t need to know when the building was built. There could be a market for an app where you can choose what type of information is shown, like one that shows the historical relevance of buildings in literature, like walk past a building and see that Oscar Wilde lived there.

It strikes me, also, that there’s a lot of people who already see the world digitally instead of physically. When I saw Lady Gaga a few weeks ago I looked around and saw that practically everyone was watching avidly through a little screen on the back of their cameras and worrying about filming it for posterity, all the while missing the experience itself. Generally, I don’t carry a proper digital camera on me and seldom whip my phone out to record or photograph anything as I prefer taking it in properly and absorbing the memory. While I see that augmented reality is different, it doesn’t escape the masses seeing the world through (annotated) glass, for which they might as well stay at home and see a city on TV rather than stumbling around staring at screens and bumping into everyone.

The obvious next step for this is implementing it in contact lenses, make it ultra sci-fi. There are already glasses that do this sort of thing, but we all know how I feel about wearing stupid glasses and contact lenses would be the ultimate way of getting all this information straight into your brain-face without looking like a total moron. But, still, this information popping up automatically and (to a degree) uncontrollably, obscuring vision and being useless info 80% of the time means this whole thing has a long way to go.

What I think would be the best method of doing it as it stands on the smartphones, is to have an app where information only pops up for a building that perhaps you tap on the screen, as well as the filter settings I mentioned earlier, or better yet just take a picture of the building would help. Another drawback of this is that at the moment it’s limited to skylines and buildings, you can’t take the selfsame app into a museum and get information on the exhibits (you know, the information primitively written on little bits of card underneath the object itself, savages!). While a lot of museums have their own method of getting information digitally while you walk around the place, there’s no unified universe app, which I would LOVE to see.

When something like this comes out that would be great in three years, I wish I had a time machine to go forward and see it, but then I’d have to wait for them to develop and perfect time travel, but then I would be thirty years (at least) later on and the event would’ve been 27 years ago, unless I build a time machine, travel back to present day and give myself the time machine, then travel forwards to the event I want to see………..but then I wouldn’t build the time machine because I’ve already got one……………..fuck I’m confused.

Oh and I remembered something else, I was thinking about augmented reality while being my usual trendy man-about-town sort of self………while walking, ironically, about town. I tried to remember the author to a book I wanted but couldn’t, thinking if I had my own iPhone I could easily check and saunter over to the bookshop. But then I remembered that O2 have, and hopefully always will, have demo iPhones available for use, so I just went into there, grabbed an iPhone and went straight to Wikipedia. It’s much cheaper than actually buying an iPhone + contract.

In the second social experiment, I put out a message on Facebook asking what they want to see me talking about on my next blog post and I did so. Here’s the results.

Sat Navs (Chris) – Not really a great deal I can say about Sat Navs in recent tech, except of course the TomTom iPhone app, which just shows how close the iPhone is becoming to a single device doing everything in our lives. (”One phone to rule them all…”)

Inspector Gadget (Ceri) – Ceri missed the point a bit but I can actually say more about this than I could about Sat Navs. There was recently a discussion about who would be accountable in the event that a robot kills a human. The debate lies mainly in that a humanoid robot like this would essentially be an appliance, and if someone dies when they get an electric shock from a toaster, you don’t put the toaster itself on trial. However, it’d be hard to argue that the manufacturer was to blame, as you would with the toaster, given that the robot would be imbued with artificial intelligence and it’s actions would technically be of it’s own accord, but artificial intelligence programmed by a human, and susceptible to malfunctions and even viruses. The thing about this discussion I find really interesting, dear reader, is that it even exists. We are nowhere near close to perfecting the tech for artificially intelligent robots that will do our bidding so it’s nowhere near an issue, any robot capable of thinking for itself, to the extent that it decides to kill someone, murder would (at the moment) have to be entirely the intention. Why are we already putting a load of red-tape and moral dilemmas on it when it’s not even an issue yet, let’s cut the crap and enjoy the sci-fi side of robots.

Macbooks (Lizzie) – Nothing is particularly new in the world of Macbooks, except a competition in the UCAS magazine that I got about surviving university where if you buy a Mac from certain websites, you’ll get entered into a competition where they’ll pay your student fees. They fail to mention that if you buy a Mac you won’t be able to afford university. But my real reason for not wanting to buy a Mac is that they’re pretty expensive and almost never a high enough spec to justify the cost. Entry level, low spec Macs cost £500 and my sister just bought a mid-range laptop for the same price. If you’ve read my last post comment arguing my point if you wish.

Facebook Apps (Duggers) – Specifically the ‘Stalker’ app, which is another faith-in-humanity-damaging application in whiich people actually believe the facebook will distribute or even collects data on which profiles people view the most and suggesting that those figures qualify in legal terms as ’stalking’. In a weird way it’s almost as though people want to have such issues or to be as desired so much as to have someone obsessed with them. In the same way there are adverts popping up on Facebook saying “Who has a crush on you” or even with pictures of girls randomly picked from your friends list, because Facebook collects those stats *thumbs up*. What’s even scarier is that people actually believe it! Desperate people have actually acted based on what randomly selected facebook results tell them. On the flipside, there are newly appearing games such as Farmville/town/pals, all of which are exactly the same though people will angrily defend their own and proclaim that the other ones are shit. Personally I haven’t tried any of them, frankly I’m too busy writing this blog arrogantly putting my opinion across on a medium that nobody’s friggin reading to rear cows……..I wonder if this game ends as it should with the cows being sent to the slaughterhouse……”Mat has watched Clover be horrifically cut up and turned into burgers”/”Paul Dugdale likes this”. It is undoubtedly an issue that people may become obsessed with the game but I had the same thing with Habbo Hotel back in the day and nobody who will ever do anything important will get so obsessed and detached to not prioritize their daily activities and, y’know, wash or do anything else, work, cure cancer or reproduce. Let the casual gamers play and let the worthless people obsess…….it’s like natural selection for the social network generation.

Spotify (Fraser) – Right now, this a nice little program, and it is a fantastic example of how almost all record companies can be united in a project such as this, which will be incredibly useful for future developments. Also, the platform of free music, previously unheard of, and successfully being supported financially by adverts (which we can generally endure). All in all, it’s a fantastic thing but it lacks some major features, such as automated playlist features baked in. Right now, unless you invest a great deal of time in building a playlist of all your tunes or go to a seperate website to find playlists to then add to the program. What it really needs is a playlist store baked into the program, like the iTunes store, that’s based on spotifyplaylists.co.uk as well as a few other features before it’ll be taken seriously.

I think that went quite well, I’ll do this format more often.

Some of my readers, mostly the ones with asthma, have been waiting with bated breath to hear the results of my a-levels. An odd tension that I will now end by revealing that I AM going to Reading University to study Computer Science with my A-Level Grades of AA in Double Applied ICT, B in English Literature and B in Geography.

Incidentely, celebrating at the Lynd/Green Dragon last night revealed to me several people I know who read (or, more likely, occasionally read) this blog. To them I bid a fond good day.

Well, now that that’s sorted back to the tech and suchlike toys as these. It is rare on this blog that I talk about a piece of tech that I specifically want to buy, but given that there’s not much going on today in the tech world, I shall.

The, codenamed, Nokia N900 was unveiled by Nokia (as you’d expect) quite recently, and it has just started appearing on phone review sites and frankly appears to be the sex. They’ve remained oddly quiet about the full spec but given that it’s official name is an ‘internet tablet’ (odd how the use of the word tablet implies use like old stone tablets that were carved on) it stands to reason that it will come with 3G, if not some other kind of anywhere broadband, and hopefully WiFi. There are many screenshots at Mobile Review but too many to put in here so I recommend going to look at it there.

When I first saw this phone, I instantly wanted to buy it, regardless of spec, which is very unusual for me. It must be, then, due to it’s looks, which strikes me as inordinately iPhone-esque. Given that I’ve wanted but can’t afford an iPhone it stands to good reason that Nokia are trying to tap into that iPhone market who want a full-touchscreen but have added their own improvements, such as the full slide-out qwerty keyboard which will please loads of people who want to avoid having to type with the side of their fingers on the iPhone’s tiny keys.

Of course, this phone probably won’t have multi-touch features available on the iPhone (and other devices more recently), will be quite thick and just because there’s a physical keyboard it doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be easier to type on, as we can see it’s quite a small keyboard. Plus, Nokia’s lacklustre app market ‘Ovi’ has much to be desired at the moment which will turn a lot of users off this phone in favour of Apple’s far more populated and easier to use App Store. Unfortunately, Apple have dominated the touchscreen market by their intuitive menu and screens which no phone company has yet managed to match.

The Nokia N900 is expected to be released in late 2009, by which time I will have worked out how much money I’ve got left each month and, of course, cost dependent will hopefully be buying one. I’ve got high hopes for this phone but I’m likely to be disappointed as the specs are revealed and early reviews. The things that will turn me away is if the phone lacks an accelerometer and it has to be held horizontally, as in the picture, at all times, which I don’t like, less than intuitive touch screen and a lack of development in the Ovi Store. It stands to reason, also, that if Nokia can get themselves together to make a real iPhone contender, it will probably have a price-tag to match.

Time will tell, it always does…

My social experiment, wherein I started a new post, titled it and then let Jo and Kym type whatever they wanted. They’re not internet commenters so my hypothesis that it would be something totally pointless, funny but pointless, was incorrect. I should’ve anticipated what they wrote given that they both recently broke up with their boyfriends and I was suprised how nice they were to me.

Anyway, enough of this teenage banter….

I finished ‘Anything Goes’ (John Barrowman’s autobiography) and the ending in particular is a very philisophical and sweet how-de-doo, describing that point of his life as ‘the intermission’ and that there was more to come. Given how glitzy his shows are now it was nice to see that this man has such a good family life with his parents, partner, nieces/nephews and friends.

In contrast, as you may have ascertained from my last (that’s MY last) post, still having trouble powering through ‘Mud, Blood and Poppycock’ but mainly because it’s so laden with historical references that are mostly lost on me, given that I haven’t done history since GCSE’s. It’s a contrast I suppose that I enjoyed JB so much because it’s about musicals, which I know some stuff about as opposed to history. So now I’m trying to decide whether or not to stop reading MB+P in favour of continuing on my fiction-fest, or to try and finish it for the sake of following through on my books list.

Sorry while I talk about something personal, but it may affect readers of this post if you’re the right age-group, my A-Level results come out tomorrow. To get into Reading University to do Applied Computer Science I have to get 3 B-Grades from the 4 a-levels I’m doing, but that means I can’t get 2 Bs and 2 Cs and balance it out, I have to have 3 solid b-grades. If I don’t get that then my most likely destination will be Portsmouth University to do pretty much the same course, wherein I need 240 UCAS points (which is the equivalent of certain grades but I’m not sure what yet, I best investigate). I’ll be happy wherever I end up, I really liked Portsmouth when I looked at it hence I applied, but because I’ve been given this target, challenge if you will, I want to achieve it. Plus, given that Reading is my firm choice on UCAS (the online method of applying to universities and tracking progress) I’ve done all the paperwork that I need to study/live there and will have to do it all again if I end up at Portsmouth. If I don’t get into either universities, my plan is to cancel my resignation from work (which I’ve only done now because I have to do it a period of time before I leave) and stick it out there while investigating courses, apprenticeships, tutorials or anything to get the qualifications or skills I need to find a job in something I enjoy, like tech.

When I wake up tomorrow morning, I don’t know yet precisely when UCAS will post their results (essentially just yes or no for uni firm/insurance choices) or when Collyers will post the grades and marks to their own progress tracker page (password protected so I can only view my own). But I fully intend to obtain the information online BEFORE I leave to go and pick up the results slip and paperwork, because I don’t want to have the angst of “crapfuck now what do I do” in the middle of college. One way or another, tomorrow night will be spent at the Lynd for either celebratory OR sorrow drowning drinks. It seems to me that pretty much the entire second-year populus will be going to the Lynd, and/or other pubs, that evening so should be a good night even if the day isn’t so much.

Anyone reading this who is soon to face similar news, don’t fret. Talking both to you and partially to myself, it’ll all work out in the end whatever the result so don’t dwell on it before or after, just make sure you know what action to take one way or another.

Like a general the night before a battle, I await the dawn…..

UPDATE: Which sucks really because I really liked how I ended that post, anyway, I found out that 240 UCAS points is the equivalent of 4 D-Grades or, in comparison with 3Bs for Reading, 3 C-Grades.

Mat is a kind sir!!
Jo that was seriously crap! Get some good insults woman! Soon to be old bean(19!)
lets have a rant about men then!
Ok here are my opinions: Disney is completely wrong in their portrayal of love and romance which has led to us having romantic ideals such as love and marriage, and that guys will always fight for you and not make hurtful comments. But the truth is the majority of guys with the exception of a few (Mat being one) are selfish, arrogant bastards who are only looking out for number 1. I’m not saying they are incapable of love, just saying they are incapable of thinking of another person at the same time as themselves. And the reality is girls, and I learnt it recently-they don’t fight for you, they give up at the first hurdle. And that they all belong in Jess’ trophy cabinet.

Guys a huge tip to remember- listen! And for Christ’s sake think before you speak-think at least 20 times before you say anything and think more deeply than you would usually. Girls tend to connect things up and they will remember all your misdemeanors.

I second that!

I have a rule, in blogging, that I don’t mention personal problems or issues on here (anymore, lol). Thusly, this post may be feel a bit distorted while I dig through my thoughts at the moment to find the relevant ones. Oh yeah, I will (as it happens) mention my impending a-level results but that’s because it relates very strongly to the future of technology, literature AND Doctor Who (I don’t know how but allow me a brief fantasy).

In an odd Romeo and Juliet story within the battle between Google and Copyright Holders, their (adopted) children YouTube and Sony Pictures have united to provide the full length 1984 film Ghostbusters! Unfortunately for me, it’s only available in the United States so an English Gentleman such as myself could NEVER possibly access it. IF I had watched it I would say that the tech is definetely their to handle it, YouTube used Sony’s ‘Crackle’ player to provide the video so well that the stream came through at a good quality (not on par with the newly-released Blu-Ray High Definition version but good enough) and was streamed with absolutely no lag or problems. As you’d expect, Google have laden the video with adverts every 10-20 minutes but these only last for at most 30 seconds and are no more annoying than watching it on television for free on ad-supported channels. What I hope happens in the US now is that people work out what they need to do and buy 5 copies of the DVD, when sales skyrocket Sony will (hopefully) put more films on YouTube. This is a nice change from film studios acting as though YouTube has empoverished them to the extent that Brad Pitt had to take a supermarket job. As much as I love Ghostbusters, some more contemporary films provided would’ve been nice. I suppose it makes sense that Sony Pictures would be the first to go into this, they’ve got a much better idea of new tech and ways of serving media given all the other stuff they do rather than just being a filmmaker. But it was nice that I could watch a film that i’ve seen a million times in the background without having to waste a rental or buy a download….

…….of course I couldn’t actually watch it (¬_¬).

I’m thinking about installing Jolicloud on my netbook over Xandros. It looks like a good OS but it depends on how easy the install it/if I can be bothered. I’ve already lost my warranty from when I poured chopped tomatoes over it and had to repair it (luckily it was simply a matter of replacing the keyboard) and the new part doesn’t have the “asus genuine component” identification so they won’t warranty me anyhow. I came to a decision on buying an iPhone or not, and I’m going to wait until I’ve been at university (assuming I get in, results thursday!) for a month or so and see if I can spare the cash on a monthly/initial basis to get one and the 3G signal where I’m living, if not then I won’t bother.

Nothing really to say on books today, my progress has been stunted by work. Having finished 1984, casually reading John Barrowman’s autobiography and needing to finish my online PhD before I can understand the T.S. Eliot collection at all, I’ve been reading ‘Mud, Blood and Poppycock’ by Gordon Corrigan. It addresses some of the perceptions and generalisations of the First World War and presents the evidence, which either vindicates or contradicts the public view of the war. It’s not a confrontational book that tries to disprove anything specifically, nor downplay the scale or the tragedy of the war, but it’s a refreshingly unbiased look at the war. I am, apparentely, more of a fiction man (and I haven’t done any history since 2007) so it’s a bit hard for me to get into it.

And yes, it did take me an unnecessarily long time to think of a Ghostbusters/YouTube reference for the title that isn’t already copyrighted by the ministry for the bleeding obvious (rejected ones were ‘Who you gonna call’ ‘Who youtube gonna call’ and ‘Cross the streams’) but I imagine this one is close.

So, after my mum’s boyfriend came over last night and was using his laptop, choking my connection while I was trying to stream video which looked more like Stephen Hawking running Windows Vista, I decided that I need to exert more power over my home wireless. I began the setup of MAC address filtering, listing all my home wifi devices and getting the addresses for them all so I can shut out any devices that I don’t want on wifi and can kick them off when I want to. I don’t mind Robb using our wifi but I just like to remain in the drivers seat. So my day was basically filled with flitting around devices trying to find/add them to the list of allowed devices. This was slowed slightly by how fucking confusing video game consoles are to find network details/settings and the fact that my sister’s laptop sucks buttmuscles. Scared the shit out of myself when I started doing it because I mistook the device listed as allowed to be my current laptop when it is, in fact, my old laptop that I set up the wifi on in the very beginning, which I called the same. So when I activated it, my laptop lost connection because it wasn’t allowed. Luckily, I’d also put my netbook on the allow list already so it really became a matter of simply reversing it and working out why, but there was about thirty seconds of shitting myself.

I realised that I mentioned Bing in my last post when I haven’t in any particular detail tested Microsoft’s new search engine out. I’ve switched my magic Firefox search bar to Bing and so it shall remain for a week and shall conduct all my searches so that I can give it a proper test run.

Have read more of John Barrowman’s autobiography, I suppose it makes sense but he seems to be outshining absolutely everyone he meets thus far. I’m up to playing Lead Tenor in the film of The Producers in 2004 and his description of the old school rival that took the piss out of him and he did better than, with people like that he deserves to, but it’s just funny that there’s nothing about him losing a part and being crushed by it but I suppose he’s too lovely and happy all the time to dwell on that, it’s a good philosophy that I will try and follow.

Hello

Yes

I finished 1984 (having started it nearly a month ago, I know, but to be fair I only had time to read like one page of it in Malta), and the ending totally suprised me. As per usual, *spoiler warning*.

I kinda guessed that Room 101 wasn’t simply a bullet through the brain and, if only because of the Paul Merton show on BBC Two, also had a good idea what it was though I wasn’t exactly right. I didn’t expect them to have Winston wandering around free and at liberty, sort of, nor that he would run into Julia again, but there’s no doubt that the Thought Police’s conditioning was total. I felt sure that the last page would be O’Brien’s hand on Winston’s should to take him to be shot, though it’s ambigious as to whether or not that happens. I think that he was shot, though I’m using the applied logic that having Winston and Julia wandering around Airstrip One would cause too many questions, albeit ones that nobody would dare ask. Given that the other people who have been “vapourised” have literally been erased from history and never existed, I must’ve missed a key point if Winston is allowed to walk the same streets he was before, though I suppose that (as we saw when they visited O’Brien the first time) interaction between Party members outside of the workplace, of which we learn Winston has a new one, was rare and even suspect, no-one who knew him before would notice him, not at least because of the severe physical changes he’s gone through.

I can’t help thinking however, that this book has shared events and elements with Orwell’s other classic ‘Animal Farm’, I mean I know that they’re both by degrees reflective of Communist rule and draw upon real events but it sometimes seems that they’re too similar/not subtle enough/repetitive. But I’m an amateur so I can’t really criticize.

As I have mentioned, I don’t talk about personal things on this blog (anymore) but suffice to say I need to read/comprehend my T.S. Eliot collection and finish John Barrowman’s autobiography before Friday, but given I can’t get any overtime at work right now and my attempts to set up a different blog aren’t going well I’ve got nothing but time.

As for tech, I think that Google has actually become frightened by Bing. I’m not sure how successful, if the word can be applied, Microsoft’s latest incarnation of it’s search engine has become but Google have overhauled it’s search engine, it’s first and core development (remember when google was JUST a search engine?), apparentely in order to give a better experience for the user, increasing relevance, records and speed. So by adding more functionality to the search engine they want to also make it faster, you’ve heard the expression less (time) is more (results). Does that make sense? No. Well, tough it’s my blog. Though it strikes me that users won’t notice the speed, won’t see the larger database, and search results are hardly irrelevant as it is so nobody will notice an improvement there. Maybe Google is better off throwing up new features that are tangible for the user who will notice a more featurey (my blog, my word!) search engine rather than going on the logic that says people notice a difference when they get a faster processor. For example, the new iPhone 3G….S…..did people notice the increased speed of processing or data transfer, no. They noticed the voice control and the compass, people don’t give a flying iPhone about speed or performance, as long as it works and has lots of shiny things to gawp at/sometimes put to use. Having said that, Bing hardly has any feature that I can put to good use or would consider switching my magical browser-corner search bar for so perhaps not. Google have still played a fantastic game though in that twenty-first century people find out information by “googling it”, which has entered common vocab.

On a quick sidenote, I was thinking that when David Tennant leaves, he’s probably going to be least affected by the dreaded Doctor Who syndrome, when actors who have played The Doctor on TV become typecast as such. Take Christopher Eccleston for example, he’s been acting since 1991, done innumerable movies, tv shows and all sorts of things and was a very well known and respected actor before (and after) doing Doctor Who. Despite doing only one series, being The Doctor for a total of 13 weeks and amassing less episodes than some merely recurring characters in the past (The Bridgadier had 24 episodes in the original series alone and was, arguably, never really a companion) and it was only one series of some TV show. BUT there is an entire section of his Wikipedia article dedicated to his time on Doctor Who, he’s been parodied and impersonated as Doctor Who a load of times and he will almost always be referred to as “former Doctor Who actor Christopher Eccleston”. Now here’s where David has been clever…..

Doctor Who actors are known for their mannerisms, voices and quirks, some of which may be something they do in another part or in real life. Particularly their voices, Tom Baker and Christopher Eccleston being just two of the several Doctors who will be known for their voice as being The Doctor’s voice. David, however, affects a more Londoner accent when he plays The Doctor over his own Scottish accent, which he uses in the majority of his work (albeit not all of it), so only a degree of what he plays after Doctor Who will be set upon by fans as being ‘The Doctor’. Matt Smith, from what I’ve seen of him, has quite a generic voice so this probably won’t a problem for him unless The Eleventh Doctor has some odd voice trait.

Well, that turned out to be a longer post than I had anticipated, and I’m not just needlessly adding words now to get 1000.