Observational, Technology

Windows 7–ready for touch screen interface?

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In a word, no. I tried HP’s all-in-one touchscreen HD machine briefly today and whilst it is a stunningly put together piece of hardware – almost of Apple-esque proportions – the Windows7 UI is absolutely hopelessly adapted to touch. There’s little Touch specific UI, no friendly icon driven interface like the iPhone has, and doing anything with touch alone (with the exception of zooming into and out of stuff) is hopelessly fiddly.

HP & others – Apple has been slower on this stuff, but when they come in (and now that they have the AppStore on OSX it’s only a matter of time), they will be good. Don’t believe Microsoft’s bullshit marketing (‘To the cloud’ my ass, you’d be lucky to hit the browser bar with a finger), Windows 7 can’t do this by itself. Do what HTC did, skin the OS to a point of usefulness, and THEN you might find you have a sleeper success story on the cards.

But I doubt it. There’s a lot to do…

More of my thoughts on the future of human/machine interaction soon.

Technology

iPad 2–I’ll give it a miss

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I’m really hoping I stick to that. Even though it sounds like they’ve made some design (thinner, lighter!) and performance (dual core!) improvements, and it has cameras and HDMI, there’s not enough there to make me want to switch. Besides, I am unlikely to get more than £400 for my existing iPad on eBay (I did check…) which makes the upgrade officially unaffordable!

I’d rather have a (sigh) Macbook Pro/Macbook Air. Using my (otherwise very good) Dell Studio XPS’s mediocre touchpad has me missing the multitouch gestures of the Macbook I experienced on Tom and Chris’ machines.

Software, Technology

App request for Google

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Can Google please upgrade the Google Translate iPhone app to include OCR so it can do this, but just for plain text on images? I don’t need a video feature or AR capability, or the clever editing that provides the illusion the translated text is on the billboard, sign or whatever, but it’d be awesome if it OCR’ed the text, translated it, and spat out a plain text English (or whatever-language) version of the sign, bit of paper, etc.

I’ve mentioned the coolness of the OCR video translation app (at least as far as the demos go) before, but if you haven’t seen it, check it out. A step towards Star Trek’s universal translators!

Training

Running statfest

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YTD mileage total  as of the start of March – 62.9 miles

Minimum target for the year, at approx 6.3 miles per week  69 miles.

So 6 miles down. But now arrived in Malaysia, on sabbatical, and have a working treadmill upstairs so plan to get running later today – although jetlag has slapped me about, as anticipated, and am running on about 3.5 hours sleep so may collapse later today and start tomorrow…

Wish me luck – think this will be what Sensei Paul calls a series of ‘sweat’ runs as  the temperature outside will climb to 34 degrees C today. Crikey.

Personal

Pride in Emily’s achievements

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As a new Dad you’re inevitably painstakingly, tediously proud of your kid’s achievements. I’m no exception to this and every smile, laugh, kick, foot in mouth, increased bit of motor control, chat and near-roll has been a point of pride, joy and tedious anecdotes.

However, Emily’s coping with the 20 hour journey from our home in Hampshire to my parents’ home in Malaysia was absolutely remarkable. Whilst slightly anxious on the flight, she more or less maintained her regular routine, was only briefly upset by the air pressure changes, and persistently charmed every stewardess, immigration officer and fellow passenger she chanced across. It was the single best flying experience I’ve had (and thanks a bit to KLM for that, they were absolutely super), in spite of having a new baby, although it was a bit hair-raising at the start when we didn’t know how she’d react. Amanda kept her ‘drugged’ with a feed on the first ascent/descent from London to Amsterdam.

Safely arrived in KL, she’s gradually getting used to being somewhere… else, the climate, and soon-to-be-arriving torrent of family. Her Dad is coping less well, having been up from 1-7am. Argh.

Training

Sabbatical running off to a good start

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20k in after the first weekend. Tomorrow is a 16 hour flight so might be a while before I get going again but hoping for a 2 days on / 1 day off routine, alternating distance and speed, and with stretches and some strength work daily. Although not bench pressing Emily, I understand that’s cruel and unusual!

Runs in Malaysia won’t be Runkeeper tracked as they’ll all be treadmill-centric. Here we go….!

Travel, Update

Sabbaticaltastic

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I’ve got a couple of months off after today! No detailed itinerary for you, webbiverse, because I want to dissuade stalkers and robbers, but the essence of the plan is to:

  • Take Emily to meet her family in Malaysia and Denmark
  • Train to do a half marathon as quickly as possible
  • Finish creating a universe and write some short stories in it
  • Help Amanda paint the living room and other assorted DIY stuff
  • Spend a load of time with my girls, visiting friends, chillaxing

      It’s very, very exciting. V. grateful to my employers, for giving me the opportunity (a benefit following 4 years service which I’m calling in after 7 years here!) and am looking forward to the break!

      General update

      No more excuses

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      Tomorrow’s my last day in the office for a couple of months as my sabbatical kicks in and prep starts for the half marathon. The diet will resume, the training programme will start, and I’ll be doing running PLUS for the next 8-9 weeks. I imagine I’ll try to use jetlag as an excuse – off to Malaysia next week – but it mustn’t happen!

      Wish me luck. I’ve been out of it for most of Feb so my resolve has been pretty weak. But winter is leaving, and its time to hit the tarmac once again…

      Technology, Television

      Micro Men

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      I do love the BBC. It gets to make programmes that couldn’t possibly pass the muster, unless of course they were being pitched to Nick Cage (thanks to Kate for that).

      Flicking through the channels whilst blogging this evening I came across the amusing Alexander Armstrong and the wonderful Martin Freeman as Clive Sinclair (of Sinclair Computers, the ZX Spectrum people) and Chris Curry (of Acorn Computers) respectively, in a dramatic retelling of the computer boom of the early 80s. Some wikipedia couchsurfing ensued so I could cross reference the history as it was going.

      Fantastically British. Wonderfully sweet in its own way. Interesting for the tech geeks amongst us – I learned a bit of basic at primary school in Malaysia, and my brother had, back in the day, a ZX Spectrum complete with cassette tape games.

      The epilogue, told in 8 bit green computer text tells the tragic end of the British computing boom, such as it was, with the sale of Sinclair to Olivetti and of Acorn to Amstrad, both for fractions of their peak value. Wonder what the likes of Tranquil PC have to say about that?

      Clip below.

      Armand David's personal weblog: dadhood, technology, running, media, food, stuff and nonsense.