Occasional Observations

W7 update - after the thrill has gone?

2009-06-26T21:12:00.005+02:00

The arrival of something like a new smartphone, laptop or even car often means a splurge on extras, too - making sure the new baby is properly pampered in the thrill of the first weeks of ownership.

That's what I'm going through with Windows 7 - because to make the Release Candidate really useable I've installed my favorite software (a good subject for another blog post, perhaps). Under the skin it doesn't appear to be much different from its bastard sibling Vista, except that it runs faster, lighter, smoother...

Now it's up and running, and it's got enough software installed to be useful, I'm wondering: now what? How long before I hit problems? In fact, the first ones have already come up: something minor, which is that an old webcam doesn't work (big deal, rarely used that one), and something more major, which is that the Toaster (Netgear storage central) won't install properly.

Remembering all the aggro I read about in getting Netgear to update the software at all, I'm not exactly optimistic that they'll be rushing to update the toaster for 7. There must be plenty of other work-arounds, such as installing new NAS software on the drive itself. Further investigation needed.

To come back to the question, though: will W7 fall victim to the classic Windows slowdown problem after a few months? Will my drives get filled up with useless log files that record the time and date I opened, closed or resized windows? This is the sort of stuff that needs to be disabled by default - nice to have it, but you don't need it running.

One more thing: My XP virtual machine - which ran like molasses on Vista - is fairly hopping along with W7. No other changes, just the host OS.

Windows 7 update

2009-06-22T09:38:00.006+02:00

Installation complete: When it comes to Windows 7 I can see what the fuss is all about. It's a modern version of Windows that looks like Vista, but works like XP.

Having followed the debate about whether or not 7 should be "just a Vista service pack", I've had to wait until now to chime in. Logically, it's Windows 98 to Win95, but emotionally, it should be issued as a free service pack by way of apology to long-suffering Vista users.

Let's delve into the process of getting W7. As my system has dual hard drives, I didn't bother wasting plastic by burning a DVD, instead I used WinRAR to unpack the ISO to a spare drive, and then instigated the upgrade.

It didn't work. The upgrade process got stuck twice in the process of importing / converting all my files ... the rollback to Vista (couldn't it have been nice, and rolled me back to XP?) worked.

Next step was to create a DVD and boot from this, installing W7 on a different partition of my primary hard drive. This worked ... but be warned, you need a LOT of space - the initial 15GB was enough to get W7 installed but not enough for transferring my profiles. After adjusting the partitions (let Vista or W7 do this for you, it's the easiest way) I was ready to roll again with a 60GB "C" drive.

Installation takes about an hour, it's largely unattended until you pump in the licence key (this step can be skipped for the first 30 days too). Once the system is up and running, the differences are immediately clear. It uses less memory than Vista. It starts applications faster. It's cleaner, smoother, and perhaps more intuitive too.

The key tool is the transfer settings wizard, which has again been updated for the new operating system. It's now called Windows Easy Transfer and is almost idiot-proof, but thankfully there's a manual mode ... allowing me to select only the files from the soon-to-disappear Vista C drive for transfer. This tool works pretty well, transferring all account settings ... but not installed programs, which is a disappointment. I guess licensing issues put paid to that.

Our system is now dual-boot ... as both partitions are on the same physical hard drive. Windows gets confused if you have two bootable partitions on separate drives.

The next steps: giving everyone a chance to get used to W7 and enjoy the greater speed and functionality ... usability is improved because it does respond way faster than Vista could ever manage. I've also got to ponder the Office 2007 licensing issues ... is it worth installing and registering the suite on my RC version of W7 only to have to then re-install and re-register when (if) I buy a license for the full version?

Questions, questions.

W7 redux

2009-06-19T21:14:00.003+02:00

A while back I wrote about abandoning the Windows 7 beta, because of the obvious flaws of running it in a virtual machine on Vista.

Since then, our home PC has been getting cranky running Vista. The main problems are that the cooling fan is running more and more - and disk usage is up ... classic signs of an aged Windows installation that needs attention. The fan blades are clean, the heat-sync connection is good, and the disks are well defragmented. I've also cleaned out all unnecessary files and still my 18-month-old Vista installation has slowed down.

The inevitable solution is usually a clean install ... but really I can't face it this time. The machine has five user accounts on it, all five are used, and it's a heck of a lot of work to rebuild five profiles. All are backed up of course, but even so ...

Therefore - and probably against my better judgment - I'm going for the Vista-to-Seven upgrade program this time. It's a mighty slow process: one hour in, it's still only 63% of the way through gathering files, settings and programs: I'm informed that there are 585,000 of these! However, at least I don't need to do anything apart from sit and watch (and write this post).

I was going to have to reinstall Vista (or perhaps XP) anyway. That's how I'm justifying this little experiment.

What do people find so difficult about airports?

2009-05-11T01:20:00.002+02:00

Dear Mr and Mrs Traveler,

No matter where I go, you’re always there at the airport – and you’re always behaving like it’s your first time. Just what is it that you find so perplexing about negotiating airports? Is it something to do with the electro-magnetic interference from the security systems that causes your brains to freeze?

Here’a a handy set of tips for you to remember next time you fly. Try to pay attention now.

Passport control? YES, that’s right. This is you are required to show your Passport. Arriving at the window is not the time to start searching your pockets for it.

Security control? Yes, this means you will need to empty your pockets of all metal, take off overcoats, get laptops out of bags, surrender liquids, etc. I know you’ve been watching the people in front of you in the line with abject fascination for the last 10 minutes (ok, make that 20). Hadn’t it yet penetrated your consciousness that you too will be required to go through the same procedure? And yes, those keys hanging on your belt WILL set off the scanners.

Wandering around the airport: Do you HAVE to stand side-by-side without moving on the walkways and escalators? Don’t you understand those little icons showing that you should stand to one side, in order to allow others to pass you? And don’t you realize that your enormous suitcase is blocking the gangway?

Talking of which, baggage size: I know you don’t trust those baggage handlers, but believe me, your whacking great suitcase is NOT going to fit into the overhead locker.

Ready to board? Yes yes, I know you are. But why do you stand in an impatient herd by the gate for at least 10 minutes before boarding starts? Getting on first doesn’t mean you’re going to snag my seat, not does it mean that the ‘plane is going to get there any faster. On long-haul flights, they board from the rear seats first in order to get people on board faster. That usually means rows in the high 20s, 30s and 40s. Believe me, it’s easier to get to seat 22H once the passengers behind have pushed and bumped their way past. A special award goes to EasyJet (NB this is not really a recommendation, you social media watchers at EasyJet) for fueling this fire by charging extra for “speedy boarding”. Most of the EasyJet flights I’ve taken have involved a bus to the terminal … so you get speedy boarding on board the bus. Nice! You’d pay extra for that??

Switching off your mobile: Yes, yours as well.

The multimedia home

2009-04-16T11:05:00.003+02:00

For years I've pondered the benefits of setting up a multimedia PC in our living room - but never found a compelling-enough package to provide the impetus to actually go out and buy it. For a while I thought a hacked X-Box running Linux would be the answer, but the idea of coming home with an X-Box and trying to explain the repurposing (and the prospects of anyone actually believing that) was a step too far!

Almost two years ago I documented a poor living room PC substitute - the Netgear EVA, which went back after a few days. And its support for only a restricted number of formats, plus its super-hot operating temperature, has ruled out Apple TV.

Finally, I found a working alternative, the KISS 1600 media player. It's not exactly new to market but after a couple of months, I'm pretty happy - especially after upgrading my wifi. A sleek new N-standard Linksys has replaced the old D-Link, which had started playing up by randomly refusing to work until the power was cycled ... N is also fast enough for video streaming.

The source for this streaming: my trusty NAS drive, as the (minimalistic to say the least) KISS media sharing application just worked. I love it when that happens.

The economics of flying business class

2009-04-02T09:49:00.004+02:00

Of late, I've been flying around quite a bit - and been pondering the economics of flying business class. In short, although the airlines are trying hard, I still don't think the maths make sense for anyone to pay out of their own pocket for a business class ticket.

Over the last couple of years, the airlines have really raised their game in trying to differentiate in lots of little ways between business and cattle class. Some examples of those little touches:

* Priority boarding - over a red mat (hardly a carpet) at the gate. Great. EasyJet charges a premium for that (so you can be first on the bus, as cheapo airlines avoid jetway fees wherever possible). Value? Maybe $10 if you can find people who would pay for it.
* Priority tags on hold baggage. Theoretically a good idea but in reality the bags all arrive together, or maybe within a couple of minutes. Value? About the same as the tip you'd give the baggage porter instead. $3.
* A little piece of chocolate on your seat. Great! I'm convinced: sell me a business class ticket. But seriously, I don't always want to eat a piece of chocolate when I get on board a plane - I'm not 7 years old any more - and if I don't see it, sit on the chocolate and it melts, I've got a dry cleaning bill (and an embarrassing situation to explain). Value: $0.75.
* A bottle of water to go with your chocolate. Not bad at airport prices per liter of water. Value: $3.
* That business class meal with real cutlery and crockery. I recently asked an attendant which of the standard "chicken or beef?" meals she recommended. Her answer: "Eat at the airport!" The stuff served in economy class isn't great - but then I don't expect any business class meals to qualify for Michelin stars any time soon (even though they do use puffed-up prose). Value: $10 and I am being generous.
* The free copy of a magazine on board. OK, not bad, but often eco passengers can snaffle these too. Value: $0.
* Another free chocolate before you land. $0.75.
* Lounge access. Ah yes, the lounge. In general, these are pretty nice - with the exception of Lufthansa's horrible little overcrowded, overheated, under-seated corner of T2 at London Heathrow. All kinds of goodies in here: free snacks and drinks ($15 if you try hard), free wi-fi ($10). On the other hand, as I don't generally get lounge access, I arrive at the airport as late as possible - getting an extra 30 minutes in bed (or in a traffic jam). I know there are showers etc in some lounges - which is great value if you fly in overnight and have to go straight to a business meeting. Thankfully, I always avoid having to do that!

Time to do a sub-total: I make that $52.50. Each way.

Compare and contrast with the "special offer" that BA recently offered me for a London-Munich flight - a one-way upgrade for $150. For a total of two hours on board, I declined the $50-an-inch extra legroom. For a long haul at the same price, I'd have jumped. However, the price delta runs to four figures - at least an extra $1000.

The airlines have also gotten wise to people booking economy and using miles to upgrade to business. Actually, spending 35,000 miles with Star Alliance airlines for a one-way trans-Atlantic upgrade seems to be pretty good value - so there must be a catch.

There is. My last two "economy" class trans-Atlantic tickets were super-cheap: between $500 and $700. After deducting airport taxes etc, the revenue to the airline was only around $100 each way. And because of this, there was No Way In Hell that they were going to let me upgrade my class W (I think) ticket to business class. In fact, I've even heard that US airlines are now trying to charge a premium for bulkhead-row economy class tickets.

To conclude this ramble, yes there are clearly benefits to flying business class - I didn't even mention the potential value of the flexible ticket. But I think the best solution is the one I first heard of through an old friend - who flies economy class, but then spends a little bit extra on a hotel, and enjoys the luxury over the duration of his business trips. Works for me!

Returning to Facebook after a year out

2009-03-11T08:46:00.005+01:00

It was probably inevitable. After just over a year without Facebook, I'm back. Why? Actually, for the same reason that I left.

That reason is that Facebook is too good to miss - and that's why I'm back. I'd "closed" my account for a number of reasons. The main ones were that I was tired of "vampires Vs zombies" and other nonsense, and that Facebook had originally been a friends-and-family thing only ... but that quickly changed as business connections started adding me. The line between business contact and friend is a a very blurry line in many cases.

This time I'm back with a dumbed-down, locked-down profile. It took about 20 minutes to go through the various settings and tighten my security preferences away from the very liberal defaults ... 12 hours later I have 35 friends - a mixture of business and social contacts.

It's good to be back. Yes, really. It had become clear that I was missing out ... "oh, I posted those photos on Facebook" was a comment I heard many times - followed by the "oh I guess I could send you a couple of them". Not being on Facebook was requiring people in my network to make the extra effort.

Together with Twitter, it should be a powerful combo. As I've previously commented, Twitter gives me the feeling that I really know the people I'm ~~stalking~~ following a lot better. Add in Facebook and we're going to get really intimate - as long as you let me share.

As for what's on my Facebook profile? Well, my friends are welcome to take a look. I've turned off the infamous "Wall" (this is Facebook sans frontieres) and won't bothering with any third-party add-ins, quizzes etc. Just the plain vanilla version. I've already added a couple of pictures from a weekend skiing trip and I'll probably add more stuff that gives the impression that I'm a wholesome, sporting, family man. Which of course I am.

A near miss

2009-03-02T21:24:00.002+01:00

On the day that experts predict a slump in PC sales, I just missed a motherboard burn-out ... a rogue USB port was to blame. It had stopped working and rather than ~~throw it away~~ take it to an electronics waste recycling point, I fiddled...trying a replacement power supply with the same(ish) power output.

The result: A catastrophic FAIL. The PC reacted badly - it blew all its cooling fans at max speed for four short bursts and then switched off. No shutdown, just off.

And of course it had everything attached to other USB sockets - the expensive fast CF flash card for the D-SLR, an iPod, a printer ... you name it. Fearing the worst I opened up the case and had a good sniff around (like a parent short-cut checking on a baby to see if the nappy needs changing!) but couldn't smell that fearsome smell of burning electronics ... so gingerly reconnected - and ... it all works.

Except that rogue USB device. That's in the (sin) bin.

White weekend

2009-02-15T18:44:00.002+01:00

We had a white weekend, enjoying the 20-plus cm of snow that's fallen here, and the 50cm-plus that's in the mountains.

Saturday - cross-country skiing, carving out our own tracks in places and then following the freshly-laid grooves from the x-country track-making skidoo. I'm still not very good at going downhill on cross-country skis!

Sunday - sledging and then cross-country again. Apart from the travel costs, we spent nothing on winter sports this weekend - so in comparison to downhill skiing, we're around €200 in the black. Judging from the webcam on our local hill, the pistes were pretty packed, especially today, in the sunshine.

Here's 12 seconds of our weekend.

Confessions of a Twit(terer)

2009-02-04T20:16:00.008+01:00

My tweeting started less than two months ago. I took the plunge because, like George Bernhard Shaw said, one should try everything in life once, except buggery and country dancing (look it up).

At the start, enthusiastic friends already using Twitter were evangelizing the service to the point where I wondered: is this addictive? After some 130-ish "tweets" since late December, and reading at least 100x as many from my contacts, I know the answer. Yes, but maybe not forever.

Despite the hype, Twitter is still flying below the radar for 99 percent of people who use the 'net. And that's what makes it so special at the moment. I wonder how long it will stay that way. I'm seeing various tweets about spammers being kicked off the service, plus various ham-fisted trumpet-blowing by some companies that have not really understood what Twitter is all about.

Despite all this background noise, there are today a few undisputed Stars of Twitter. Take a bow Stephen Fry, whose followers have increased from 80,000 to 110,000 in the space of a week. He's still got a long way to go to eclipse Barack Obama, perhaps the most-famous Twitter user of our times (so far), but he will - and fast. At the current growth rate alone, Fry will be the world's top Twitterer by the end of March.

Who? I hear non-Brits asking… well, tune in to his Twitter feed and you'll get the idea. Here's why: Stephen Fry is the rising star on Twitter for being himself.

That's part of the charm. I honestly feel that I've gotten to know the people I'm following a little better since early December. And that's also odd since I don't actually know at least half of them in real life aka meatspace. I've tuned in because they're on the "friend" list for other people I'm following, and so on.

If you checked out Twitter but then looked away around a year to 18 months or so ago, when it was competing with Dodgeball and based on SMS-ing, it is time to look again. I remember doing the same thing - and doubting that it was worth the cost of sending multiple SMSes to update folks on the minutae of my life.

Things have changed. Today I'm Tweeting via TweekDeck on PC and TwitterBerry on mobile. Both are super-easy to use and keep me up-to-date with my friend-cloud. Best of all is that I'm pulling info - dipping into the "tweam" of information - as and when I feel like it. It IS addictive though!

Looking for some stats to convince yourself that Twitter is the 2009 internet phenomenon? Plenty of places to look. Try Twitscoop, Retweetradar, and Cursebird for a start. These are among the mushroom cloud of Web 2.0 /mashup sites feeding off raw info from the Twitter API to produce information that ranges from the totally fascinating to the completely useless: maybe both at the same time. I found all three via recommendations from my Twitterfriends.

Doubting the real-world effect of Twitter? Today a tweet by Stephen Fry is said to have brought down a website, thanks to the sheer volume of followers who then tried to click through on his recommendation. I know that just one silly old website isn't a Government, but even so, Twitter has virtualized the flash mob.

Wondering how to tweet? Well, in your own style. Drop the "is …" and try and add some useful or meaningful information. A weblink helps. My reaction to your tweet should not be "so what?". And I am not going to DM (direct message) you on Twitter for more info – if you have something to say, say it, and say it in under 140 characters. Actually, in under 70 if you can ... this is a couple of lines on TweetDeck.

My personal Twitter style has already changed since my first tweet on 6th December. It wasn't "hello world" but "C&C on a wintry day / bulk buying frenzy / impulse shopping by the kilo", when I was thinking that twittering in Haikus would be fun. Maybe it would, but to do a real Haiku was too darn hard. My last Haiku-tweet was six days later. Those weather references were getting boring: It was a cold, but still wintry day today, almost two months later. Yawn.

I have also tried to stop posting meaningless stuff like my Jan 13th "Hmmm, an unexpected traffic jam" because unless you know where I was at the time (and there were no clues), it doesn't help. Since then I've added 12seconds.tv – 12 seconds of tv – anytime, anywhere – and today also Latitude from Google, although not sure if I'll be using it. Maybe you should tweet @MrNesjo in 90 days or so for an update. Or look me up on Latitide. Might see you there.

Abandoning Windows 7 Beta

2009-01-27T20:53:00.002+01:00

I'm abandoning the Windows 7 Beta. It's an inevitable decision and has probably been obvious all along as there is simply no point in using a host machine running Vista for *any* feature-rich VM if it has only 2GB of memory.

It's certainly possible to use Vista and VMware Player for a lite Linux distro, or an XP installation that is content to work with 512MB. But expecting a new MS operating system to run fast and mean on a Vista host ... well, that's a leap of faith.

And since Vista is my host OS, it pretty much kyboshes the idea of running W7 at all in Beta. I'm most certainly not going to install a time-bomb OS on either of my production machines, and my sandbox machine is currently awaiting a new hard drive. Actually, scratch that, it has only 1GB of RAM.

It's not a difficult or heart-wrenching decision to abandon the W7 Beta. I liked the wallpapers, if that's any consolation. Had it been an OS that looked like it would make up for all the many, many things that are evidently wrong with Vista, like being able to run with 1GB of memory as I originally assigned to the VM, then I'd have been ready to invest time and effort in installing software, playing with the OS and getting a feel for how it could change my life.

Instead I'm just frustrated. And I still don't think a Mac is the answer either.

Topping up my iodine levels

2009-01-25T19:22:00.004+01:00

My week-long trip to the Pacific North-West of the US concludes with a trip out to Sequim (pron. "Squim") on Washington State's north coast - facing out over the Juan de Fuca over towards Victoria in Canada's British Columbia, and the San Juan islands. The windswept beach provided a great opportunity to test Microsoft's Photosynth - with a 360-degree panorama compiled from 200 individual images.

Although Photosynth did not manage a 100 percent "synthy" this time around, I'm pretty pleased with the result.

W7 VM on a NAS drive

2009-01-13T23:10:00.002+01:00

Success! I have the VM of Windows7 running on one of my home NAS network drives. Sweet. This means I can use a single VM image of 7 with all the machines connected to my network. The result is less maintenance, more time to play. I like that idea.

W7 with networking

2009-01-13T14:09:00.004+01:00

Okay, it was my fault: no way could W7 detect disabled VMware drivers. So I enabled the drivers and booted from the ISO. Under an hour later, Windows 7 was up and running, complete with network connectivity!

Here's a glimpse of the desktop. No doubt we'll eventually get as sick of the sight of that fish as most people are of the tree and hillside in the XP default wallpaper.

Seven update

2009-01-12T12:42:00.002+01:00

After Friday's fiasco, with supply unable to meet demand, Microsoft managed to get the public beta of Windows 7 under way, making the software available for download quietly on Sunday. After an overnight download (the ISO is 2.43GB, which takes a couple of hours on a 2meg DSL connection) and burning the DVD, I was able to successfully install the 32-bit version into a virtual machine without problems.

However ... where's the beef? At first glance, 7 is little more than SP2 for Vista. It's got some extra wizards, which may or may not be a good thing, moving forwards. At least the dreaded User Account Control seems to be less intrusive. I haven't come across it yet.

One nice touch that's already impressed is the opportunity to change desktop / display / screensaver / theme settings all in one.

Regarding the greatest bugbears, bloat and performance, it's quite hard to tell straight away in a VM if 7 is going to be any better. On the positive side, the fact that it ran and was usable at all with 1GB of RAM is an achievement, this was never possible with Vista. Of course the downside was that by sharing half my RAM, the host Vista machine became unusable ... but then during my test sessions it will be only that: a host.

More soon.

W7 - the beta farce

2009-01-10T15:27:00.003+01:00

Windows 7 isn't in Beta phase, it's in Beta farce! Blaming unexpectedly high traffic to their website, Microsoft pulled the plug on the 2.5 million public Beta downloads of W7 yesterday. Hardly a great start.

It clearly shows there's pent-up demand for a better version of Windows. XP was OK, but Vista was supposed to be better. In some ways it is, but it's also bloated and over-complicated. So Microsoft has wisely decided to cut bait, even before Vista SP2 is upon us, by pushing through the next-generation OS, Windows 7.

At least I hope it's the next-generation and not a poorly-disguised Vista SP2.

Disappointing to have to wait a little longer for the public Beta of 7. Let's hope it is worth it.

Waiting for Windows 7

2009-01-09T17:41:00.003+01:00

I'm taking the bait and will be trying to download the first public beta of Windows 7 once it's available later today. My first installation will be within a VM enviroment, since it's taken me ages to work towards a very functional, stable version of Vista.

I'll post some updates in the coming days.

Freeeezing cold!

2009-01-07T14:46:00.003+01:00

Here's one of my favorite fountains in Munich, adorned with icicles. It's actually one of the few fountains in the city that isn't switched off and boarded up for the winter.

Photosynth: A compelling reason to switch from Mac

2008-12-15T16:24:00.004+01:00

Photosynth is simply the best thing to have come out of Redmond for years. It's fabulous. Simply put, it stitches together snapshots into a montage. It's not a new idea - but the first time this has been done properly with software.

Here's one I made earlier. I have a hard drive full of patchwork snaps that have just been waiting for the right software to come along. I'm already worried about using up my 2GB storage space...

What I love most of all is the pan and tilt opportunity. Anyone who even dabbles in digital photography should download and install Photosynth - it's an early Christmas present for me.

26 YEARS later

2008-12-14T20:36:00.005+01:00

My disbelief is slightly in suspense listening to the new album by ABC. Yes, that's right, the early 80s icons ABC, the band that sang Poison Arrow and The Look Of Love. Some 26 years after The Lexicon of Love, they're back with the sonic follow-up, Traffic.

Forget the diversion of Beauty Stab. Ignore the transgression of How To Be A Zillionaire. Just don't buy Up (although I did) and completely erase your memory banks of Alphabet City, Abcadabra and Skyscraping. Just buy The Lexicon and then forward to their fresh 2008 album, Traffic.

Listening to Traffic, it's like time stood still.

It's not just the sounds that got caught up in the timewarp, the website is pretty retro, too.

Martin Fry is 50 years old.

Send in the clowns

2008-12-09T17:46:00.003+01:00

Noticed during my lunchtime browse around the shops that suddenly there are three new albums out from major recording artists with a circus theme:

Take That's new album, called The Circus
Britney Spears' new album, Circus
Pink's new one, Funhouse

All that's missing is one from Erasure entitled Ringmaster.

BadBerry

2008-11-30T18:19:00.004+01:00

It had to happen - my first problems with the BlackBerry Bold. I've run into the well-documented 999 songs issue, despite only copying 827 so far. The native media player, which is otherwise pretty excellent, has problems with large playlists and some albums resolutely fail to show up despite appearing on the SD card itself...

Strangely, though, although the album contents appeared to be blank when browsing by artist, they're there when browsing by album. Seems that the music player software could do with some more development.

It's much better though, than the freeware x-player. I had high hopes at first but it is sadly lacking in basic useability, for example in sorting tracks by number instead of in alphebetical order, and its playlist navigation is, frankly, poor.

I'm sticking with the bundled BB music player for now. It's clear that the Bold is first and foremost a communications machine and secondly an entertainment device but yeah, I did want the best of both worlds.

Phone phailures

2008-11-27T15:42:00.003+01:00

According to a report today, RIM BlackBerry devices have a higher failure rate than Apple iPhones. The other way around for me. In fact it's been a double failure since T-Mo still have not quite grasped the point - and are trying to bill me for the few days in which my faulty iPhone airtime contract was live.

I need to go back and explain. The. Phone. Did. Not. Work. I. Could. Not. Use. The. SIM. I. Am. Not. Paying.

Return of the Oktoberfest bombing memorial

2008-11-26T16:59:00.001+01:00

In March I noted that the memorial to the 1980 bombing at the Oktoberfest was being torn out - to close the loop here, I should note that it was refurbished and restored, and re-dedicated before the beer festival started this year.

I finally remembered to take a picture of the new-look memorial. The old pillar is back, but surrounded now by a half-moon wall of steel, with random-shaped pieces missing. I can only conclude that this is supposed to represent shrapnel from the bin bomb blast. As a reminder of the horror, it's very effective indeed.

I think, therefore iPhone

2008-11-23T21:59:00.005+01:00

Hopefully concluding the sorry tale of the DoA iPhone ... the episode cost T-Mobile a customer who regularly spends more than EUR 100 a month on mobile telephony and data: although many people spend much more, it's still a decent enough revenue.

I'd really wanted to keep my old mobile number - but it wasn't to be, as to do so after T-Mo's bungling would have meant being without my mobile for a week - so I was going to have to send out that round-robin email about my new / temporary mobile number in any case.

So I quit T-Mo and stomped along to the nearest of many Vodafone stores in Munich - and 10 minutes later walked out with a new airtime contract with a better calling plan than the iPhone, along with a BlackBerry Bold. And no, I did not want to wait for the Storm. The touch-screen was a sacrifice I was going to try and make with the iPhone only.

After a week with the Bold I'm pretty happy. Just about to board the plane on my first roaming trip - and interested to see how the mobile charges will rack up in comparison to what I've been used to with Debitel / T-Mobile ... my final bill from Debitel was EUR 250, a good reminder why I have cut out the middle man.