Unless they have plans for world domination then we’re probably all screwed.

Anyway I do have a point here, kinda. I was just thinking how much information they have access to, either because I’ve given them it or if they decide to be naughty (network scanning and buzz privacy issues aside).

As I use Chrome as my browser and search using google, there’s pretty much all my internet activity available to them (chrome shouldn’t transmit this but if it did then they’d have it and I’m sure its something you can turn on), also with an igoogle home page they have more hist to my interests, through my internet use. On top of that I use gmail as my primary client even if I don’t use my google address, so they have access to all my emails and contacts.

As I’ve just recently got an android phone, oh look they now have access to all my communication apart from in person, by snail mail, or landline. And thanks to latitude they know where I am too.

And with Google+ starting off, possibly replacing facebook who knows this  early, they have all the other people not in my other address books and access to all the photos they post of me.

Oh and before I forget all my photo’s get uploaded to picasa too, so chances are they’ll be geotagged and commented.

Erm yeah, so basically they have access to just about everything and anything you could possibly want to know about me, maybe its not such a good thing to all be in the hands of one company but its’s probably all available to other companies too, via my ISP (they could just read almost everything to or from your router) or phone company or all the other companies that nave it all too.

Good job I’m not paranoid then

Do we really need them?

Ok I think I closed my myspace as no one uses that anymore, but now I have a facebook account 2 twitter counts, one for friends feeds and one to get all the twitter news that I’m interested in, I kinda have google buzz but don’t use it, a Linked in account I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with as it linked to work and I don’t really want to update that with the rubbish I post on twitter of facebook, and now I have Google+ too.

Problem is I don’t actually have anything worth saying, and neither do most people really, the problem with social networks is that people will update with anything, and the feed will show you everything they say, even if its not something that interests you. Take for example me commenting on the giant spider at work (that I’ve not seen and I believe is a lie) but really no one’s that interested, and if I hadn’t asked for weapon advice I wouldn’t have even got the facebook responses to it. Occasionally someone might post something of interest but there’s no way of filtering the junk around it that’s of no interest.

The problem with facebook is also I think the main draw, the games, which then spam your wall and fill other peoples news feeds with requests for help or just to say they’re being played, then you now have a page and news feed from every interest you listed if it matched something, so tv shows have pages and update you with news and stuff, its information overload.

Twitter suffers the same problem, you follow people that are of interest or your friends and you then need to filter it all into lists so you can at least see your friends posts, in the mix of all the celeb gossip and website news or whatever is on your feeds. This is why I have 2 accounts one I keep in touch with friends on and one for all the news and things I’m intersted in but would probably flood my readers so I’d never see my friends tweets.

Ignoring the privacy issues google buzz seemed to have when it came out they did one thing I liked, it was basically a facebook status feed with none of the games or apps or anything else, it was just back to the social talking side, then it never got going here so lets forget that.

So no Google+ wants to move in on facebook’s territory, its still in beta so maybe not fully working, but what I see is a clean google branded facebook, you can group your friends etc together and post just to certain groups feeds, and is a nice threaded feed like facebook have had for a while and buzz used too. Thing is the Sparks feature just doesn’t appeal as its a search on a topic and I can’t see a way to limit it to specific sources. I guess if I want that it’s clutter your feed again facebook style by “friending” pages for things I’m interested in.

So far Google+ doesn’t offer anything that facebook doesn’t apart from a less busy stream/feed, but then I only know 3 people  on it at the minute and there’s no games. As it is I don’t think many people will be leaving facebook because that’s where everyone is, some people will use multiple services, others will stick with just one, but as that just one tends to be facebook, that’s where I think most will stay.

Me I’ll use the lot and find someway of combining them so I can still follow the people that refuse to use facebook, the people that refuse to use twitter and those that move to google+, those that refuse to use any? Well there’s always email or the phone.

Well thanks for reading this far, I’ve just relised I didn’t have a  point to make or I made it right at the start and the rest is just waffle.

TL;DR – Doesn’t matter really :p

Si is challenged to eat a donut in 15s

The donut’s were good, shame about my video quality but the phone is 2yr old none of this snazzy HD recording on it

So much for loyalty

As I mentioned in my last post I have a nice loyalty discount n my contract, a “reward” for not cancelling my account when I didn’t need it.

Turns out they don’t really value loyalty and if I choose to upgrade to the phone I want not only do I need a bigger contract or an upfront payment, I’d lose the so called loyalty discount.

The best upgrades can do is a £35 a month contract on the Desire S (as the Neo isn’t available till july) or a £25 a month with £90 up front, considering the contract’s only costing me £5 that’s really not going to happen I may have been happy with 25-discount + £90 but more than I’m paying for 2 contracts just for one? not a chance.

What’s stupid is I’m sat on a price comparison site looking at a £20 a month contract on that phone with the same provider, no cashback, just a simple contract and free phone, umm its a bit of a no brainer really.

I did kind of expect to lose the discount, but its not a good way of rewarding people for choosing to stay with you, if I’d renewed on line I could save £6 on my bill… my bill that costs £5? no obviously they’d take the £10 discount off me and replace it with £6, so not only would I not get a new phone out of that I’d end up paying more and getting nothing in return.

Looks like that contract is going and I’ll wait and see what’s on offer when my main contract is upgradeable, maybe the neo will be out and run at a decent pace at a decent cost too!

I’m still curious how much it’ll cost just to use my free contract and pay for my use, instead of this rubbish where I’m paying an upfront fee every month for minutes and texts I just don’t use.

Too many phones, too many contracts, and so many free gifts too

Starting with some history, When I took out my current main contract, I phoned to cancel my T-mobile contract and as they do to keep their numbers I waws offered a cheap contract with a PSP, it worked out as an 18 month contract to pay for the PSP, it’s actually a £20 contract with £15 discount. Figured what the hell its not a lot of money a month and I get a PSP for no upfront cost.

Leading upto when my contract was ready for upgrade, I was thinking about getting the HTC Wildfire, then just before the upgradable date HTC announced the Wildfire S, which I’ve been waiting for them to announce its available, but its not looking like its happening.

While I’ve been waiting, I looked a little deaper and the Wildfire S isn’t much smaller than the Desire, I was after a smaller phone but as its only about 1cm, maybe I should get a Desire, but the Desire S is coming out so why get the old model when I could get the new.

So again waiting for a phone to be available, I see good reviews of the Sony Ericsson Arc, it sounds pretty good, has Andiod 2.3, the reviews show a good quality camera and they like the interface that’s been added to it. This is a bit too big for my taste, so I’m looking and see that the Neo has just been announced and should be available, so looking at it it has the same quality screen but smaller than the arc and the same camera.

I’ve not had a problem with my Sony Ericsson, if I ever used its camera its actually pretty good, so as everyone seems to have HTC Desires I think I’m going to be different and go with the Sony Ericcson Neo, just as soon as there’s some stock!

So new phone this or next month, if there’s stock available and I can get it on my T-mobile, or wait till its in stock then cancel my contracts and take out a new one on t-mobile transfering my number from Orange.

I wonder what phone I’ll want by the time that one’s available!

On a side note I have a third contract, that costs me absolutely nothing unless I use it, so I always have access to Orange Wednesdays, wonder how much data would cost, maybe I should just buy a phone and cancel my other contracts and just pay for what I use.

seems I don’t have much to say

but its my birthday soon, ick, I’m getting old

I’ve decided its time for some new snowboarding gear to go with my new board, so:

A Salomon Ranger Custom Air helmet (medium) it fit quite well in the store and is actually a better fit than my current helmet. I would actually prefer the version shown on the right but thats an extra ~£150 for speakers and a built in bluetooth phone, and I’m not sure I really need a phone in my helmet.

Some new goggles, I”m looking at these Dragon Alliance Red ones, they come with a bright conditions mirrored lens and a bonus spare that I’m told will be a low light lens.
These will be replacing the ageing pair I’ve been using for a while now.

An iPod nano, I’m thinking the Graphite or Silver rather than the blue that I have showing there, preferably the bigger 16GB model, or something similar, really what I want is a good small mp3 player with controls I can clip onto my jacket so I can reach them and stop the music while I have gloves on, but I can’t find anything like that, so something that looks good and will work with my car for when I’m not snowboarding will be nice.

I also need some new gloves but having just read a bad review of the Flexmeter ones I thinking of getting to replace my wrist guard and glove combination as its an all in one, I’m not quite sure what I want here, maybe just some that fit and fit over my wrist guards too.

I’m thinking next season for new boots and clothes, the ones I have will be fine this year after a bit of reproofing.

I’m looking into a decent home cinema system and new monitor for my computer, but at the minute I’m not really decided what I want, I am thinking around 24″ full HD or higher, with HDMI input on the screen and I’m after 5.1 surround with an optical input and I think HDMI pass-through so it can sit between maybe a playtation that I don’t have yet and my tv.

Other than that, there’s always DVDs n music, I think for books maybe just give me a voucher or something so  can get them electronically , and maybe a few computer games too.

Anyway its all on My Amazon Wishlist and I’ll just keep adding to it as I find things.

So the board itself is an Endeavour Live, bought for a good discount, thank the sales and a small defect for a good reduction, the defect in the board is pretty minor really, when they printed the art work it went through the laminator before the printing, how they managed this I’m not sure but there’s a batch of boards with teh art work printed on the surface instead of under it. Basically all that’s wrong with the board is the design will scratch off over time and with use, leaving me with a more or less plain black board, no complaints there and for the price I’ve got a new board for what my old one should have cost if it wasn’t half price

So riding the board last week on its factory wax only, it slid over the snow very easily, and I’m sure I could turn it on a 5p, it also felt lighter if not slightly more flexible than my old, I’m assured by the sales guy that it will flex more as I use it and it loosens up a little. Its really just a shame that I’m such an unfit wuss and my little weedy legs couldn’t cope with the slope time, I must go more often to get used to it again and maybe actually make a proper effort on this getting fit thing.

On the subject of getting fit, the plan is to join the gym and go swimming 3 times a week using the fact we’ve paid for it as motivation to go, and I think I’ll try to Wii Fit a little more to gently build up my legs and all the stretches that should only be helpful to my wrists too. There its on the internet so it has to be true.

Last thing to mention I have now finished Dracula and I’m sure I’d seen the film based on the book, I honestly can’t remember it that well but I seem to remember some warrior losing his wife and making some unholy deal to become the first vampire, then at the end is destroyed as you’d expect but Mina his victim turns vampire at the end, but I might be mixing up my movies a bit and it might be and I might have completely made up that ending, I have seen a lot of them. What to read next?

or more likely I’ll write loads for a little while then give up and just write something once a blue moon

The cover’s a cover, its leather and fits the kindle, not really much to say about it really, I got mine because it’ll protect the screen if I take it anywhere. You can also get different colours and a version with a light for those that want to read in the dark.

Back to the Kindle, I’ve already said its just the right size for me, the screen as you can see in the picture takes up most of the device with a keyboard at the bottom, which is used for taking notes, shopping and any other use for text entry.
The screen displays 16 colours or more accurately 16 shades of grey, the text is clear and the images it shows are surprisingly good quality. The screen has quite a slow refresh so I wont be watching any movies on it, apparently page turns are 60% quieter than the previous generations, but it seems silent to me apart from maybe the click of the next page button, its not exactly loud but that’s all that makes a noise.

Reading books on the Kindle is much like reading a real paper book, if the book was in a frame and you pressed a button to change the page, but other than that its the same. You select your book from your library on the home page then sit and read, there being no back light isn’t a problem, if you could read a paper book you can read a kindle book, obviously if it gets to dark to read you can always turn a light on, like you would have had to do with a normal book.

The battery life, I can’t really comment on as its not ran out yet, and I’m on my 4th book, but I’d say its lasting roughly what its advertised as. –EDIT– The battery ran out last night, so its lasted just over 2 weeks, but that’s half way through my 4th book, with some web browsing as well.

The Kindle comes with a few extras its not just a book reader, it also comes with a web browser that’s pretty good, good enough for facebook, twitter or a tv guide. It works pretty well so its a nice extra, useful if you need a quick search but a browser on a PC/laptop would be more use if they’re available. I did say when I fist looked at it that I wouldn’t use the web browser much, but I have used it quite a bit instead of using my phone or powering up my laptop.
There’s also an MP3 player built in that I’ve not tried, and it is able to read your books to you again I’ve not tried this as I’m not really interested in the feature.

Improvements that would be nice to see. A faster screen refresh so animations on the web browser work better,  a full colour screen would be nice and maybe making the screen full size making it a touch screen and removing the keyboard. Obviously I wont get them even if it was in the next release, maybe if it was a couple of generations down, but by then I might be switching to one of the many tablets that are being released, or just sticking with this one as it does all I need and does it perfectly fine.

If you like to read replacing the paper books with a book reader, Kindle or some other reader, seems to me like a good idea, the device takes up less space than a book collection and can hold loads of books, and with a library manager you can store even more on your computer and just transfer them when you want to read them.

I like my Kindle and I probably wouldn’t read some of the classics that are available for free if it wasn’t for getting one as it either involves borrowing from a library or buying a printed copy to read comfortably, rather than on my pc or laptop. There’s loads of free books available and many of the none free are available for less than the printed version.