Monthly Archive for June, 2005

Qwerty is Ridiculous

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Techy
. 1 Comment

I’ve always known the QWERTY keyboard layout (the one most computers use) is outdated, but I hadn’t realised how outdated. It was patented in 1868, 137 years ago! It was designed to slow typists down so as not to jam typewriters. It was designed to slow down 2 finger typists, never mind touch typists!

In 1936 August Dvorak (new window) patented the DVORAK keyboard layout. Recent research showed that the dvorak layout reduces finger movement by 42%. That means 42% less RSI, 42% less effort, and presumably, much faster typing. Apparently it takes about 100 hours to learn the DVORAK layout, which if you spend 8 hours a day on a computer, is only 3 weeks.

I’ve known about dvorak for a while, but I’ve always been hesitant to switch on the basis that it’s learning, and every keyboard you come across which is not your own will almost certainly be QWERTY. However, having spotted the Das Keyboard on Johan Terpstra’s blog (new window) it might be the way forward. You can flick back and forth in Windows, and use the same keyboard for both.

I feel a bit of purchasing coming on…

Call 1899 is Genius

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Personal
. 0 Comments

If you haven’t discovered Call 1899 yet, you need to check this out. It’s simply fantastic.

I’ve been on the phone to the states today calling a few different companies, it costs me half a pence per minute. That’s right, 0.5p per minute. There’s a 3p connection charge on all calls, but come on, 3p plus 0.5p per minute, you can’t argue with that! My brother is going to Singapore for a year next year, calls to land lines AND mobiles in Singapore are 1p per minute!

On top of all that, because I have a digital cordless phone, it’s programmed to automatically dial 1899 before all outgoing numbers, so I don’t even have to dial it myself!

Check out www.call1899.co.uk (new window)

The Ultimate Keyboard

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Techy
. 0 Comments

Do you think you have a nice keyboard? Do you think you can type quickly? Do you want to confirm your status as an Uber Geek?? Then you need Das Keyboard (new window)!

What more can I say?

I’m emailing them now to see if they offer a cordless version. If not, I may have to take some nail varnish remover to my keyboard… :)

My first eBay bid!

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Personal
. 0 Comments

I have just placed what I believe to be my first ever bid on eBay!

I’ve sold various things in the past, but to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never actually bought anything, I’ve always asked my brother to do it. He’s an eBay master you see, check out his eBay shop here (new window).

It’s very exciting, you can even see the item I’m bidding on here (new window), don’t go bidding against me though, £7.99’s my best offer and that’s the end of it!

For some weird reason it’s actually quite exciting! I’ll almost certainly get it for £7.99 because they’ve got one on auction every day. But there’s still a feeling of risk… I hope I don’t get hooked, I’ll end up broke!

Adobe Photoshop Elements

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Personal and Techy
. 0 Comments

The battle in my pc rages on between Picasa and Photoshop Elements. Elements clearly has the lead at the moment, but there are various features which may hold it back yet…

Picasa’s export is great and dead easy. Pick the photos, set your size, export. The changes are really easy, you just click and go. It’s a dead easy program to use. No learning curve whatsoever for the even slightly technically minded.

Elements on the other hand… Well, it’s a lot more sophisticated. I have tagged all my photos with a variety of tags based on the location the photo was taken, the genre or style, the people in it, and so on. Which is great, it means with three clicks I can find night shots of landscapes and sky, easy peasy. On the other hand, stuff like applying changes seems a bit more convoluted. To be perfectly honest, I haven’t actually tried yet, but that’s because it’s contained in a separate program. Elements is split into two, one half deals with organising photos, the other with manipulating them.

The other major downside of Elements is the speed. Picasa’s pretty smart, it pre-caches (looks up ahead) the next photo, so you can flick through your photos reasonably quickly without waiting for it to improve the quality. Both programs load the photo in poor quality instantly, then generate a better quality version for the size of your screen. However, Elements does it every single time you look at a photo. Very slow, very annoying. Elements also seems to be much more resource hungry. It eats up the CPU like there was no tomorrow.

Now, the factor that may swing it back for Elements is stacking. You shoot ten photos of the same scene, as you do, with slightly different shutter and apeture settings, but essentially they’re all the same. Select aforementioned ten photos, CTRL-ALT-S (or a coupe of clicks of the mouse for the faint heared) and bingo, they all disappear into a “stack” with only one showing in your thumbnail view. Magic. A wee whip of the old CTRL-ALT-R and you can see them all within the stack. Genius.

The battle rages on, more to follow…

Digital Photo Prints

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Personal and Techy
. 0 Comments

It’s amazing, technology these days is a wonderful thing! You can take photos on a digital camera (say a very sexy D70s for example! :)) and then upload them to a web site, have them printed on proper photo paper, just like when you get old fashioned film developed, and they’ll arrive at your door the next morning. As if by magic!

I’ve spent a few minutes rooting through the various companies on offer, and my recommendations are:

snapfish (new window)
They’re cheap for standard sizes and lower volumes, their postage and packaging cost is only 99p. More prices here (new window).

PhotoBox
PhotoBox print all sorts of different sizes, from standard 6×4 or 6×4.5 to 12×5 panoramics right up to 30×20 poster sizes, and a whole heap in between. PhotoBox are a bit pricer in lower volumes, they start at 15p versus snapfish’s 10p, but you can prepay and get the price as low as 8p if you order thousands of prints. More prices here (new window).

All the services I’ve seen offer free introductory prints, so you could play them like credit cards and keep signing up for new accounts! You might have to pay the delivery, but that’s buttons. Paying to get photos printed online actually works out cheaper than buying a photo printer, photo paper and proper inks. Bring on the digital age!

Amazon Links Sorted

Published
by
Callum
3 years, 5 months ago
in Techy
. 0 Comments

Amazon came back to me pretty quickly with a solution to my linking problem. The answer is to use links in the following format:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/
ASINIDHERE/ref=nosim/your_Associates_ID

All in all, I’m pretty impressed with Amazon’s Associates customer service. They’ve been quick to respond and answered my question first time both times I’ve been in touch recently. Good Amazon (new window)!