The one thing my blog needs is an editor to write the titles. Other than that, I’m sorted.
I’m going to university in less than 3 weeks ((Jesus FUCK.)) and I need a computer. What should I get?
I’ve known for ages what I want ((Except for unlimited money and unlimited everything else that I want.)), but I keep thinking whether or not it’s right for me. Do I even need my own computer at university? Yes, I would use the fuck out of it and it would make many things in my life easier. Should I buy a desktop computer or a laptop? Whilst a desktop gets you more power for your money ((And they’re more power, full stop.)) and is less stealable, I want the portability. I want to be able to easily take my laptop with me when I go back home or stay with family members, and I might even take it into lectures on the odd occasion I attend ((LOLOL, just kidding, I’ll never miss a thing.)). I also love computing in bed and outside – whilst my iPod touch is great for stuff like that, it can’t do everything that a ‘proper’ computer can.
And it needs to be a Mac.
I like Apple and I like Macs and I don’t care what you call me ((FANBOI!)). They just words, bruva. I find that Macs allow me to focus on what I’m doing better. – there’s less ‘battling’ with the OS. I think they run more smoothly and reliably too. That’s just my opinion, but that’s all that counts at the moment. I understand the comfort that comes with familiarity of Windows, but I’ve had enough of it. Of course, I’ll still install Windows on my Mac – probably as its own partition, or in a virtual machine if it runs alright – and I’ll have the best of both worlds ((I’m quite looking forward to digging my teeth into Apple’s developer tools. I’d love to make a million pounds selling diarrhoea apps on the App Store.)).
Well then: MacBook or MacBook Pro?
This is my most difficult decision. For two similar products of almost anything else, I would choose the cheaper one over the better quality one ((Particularly food and clothes.)). However, I think that’s the wrong approach and I’m trying to change it. More expensive doesn’t always represent worse value. I used to think this was something rich people said to justify spending ridiculous amounts of money; now I realise that I’m starting to agree.
Actually, I don’t think this discussion really applies here – I think the MacBook and MacBook Pro are probably of equal build quality and performance, yet even with the nearly equal specifications, the aluminium one costs more. I’ll be honest: I just want aluminium because it looks nicer and is, at least in my mind, more rugged and sturdy. I think I’ll feel better when I use it. I’ll be using the damn thing for at least a couple of hours a day, every day, and when I look at it that way, I’ll be glad to have spent an extra ~£50 on something that I feel happier using. My sisters both bought the white MacBooks in 2007 and after seeing how they are after 3 years of wear-and-tear… I’d rather have a metal one.
I’m buying it from Apple themselves, with an educational discount.I didn’t realise how good the educational discount when buying as a university student was. Seeing as I’m not yet at university and buying in that way requires being on the university’s network, I had to phone Apple. Now, I hate speaking on the phone, so I’d been putting it off for a while; I was even considering buying one from Amazon for £886.80. But when one morning the Amazon laptop had a dispatch estimate of 1 to 3 months ((This particular stock issue has now been fixed.)), I got off my ass and called Apple.
I fairly quickly got through ((It was a toll free number, by the way. Nice.)) to a guy called Nigel – I think the call centre and all of Apple’s UK activites are based in Ireland. Once I had told him what I wanted (just information for now) he was very helpful, quoting me prices and telling me about special offers. I was wondering whether there was a difference between the normal educational store prices and those on the specific university stores. There is! I can get a 13″ MacBook Pro for £858, compared to a normal educational price of £938, or £999 at full price! The plastic MacBook costs £729.
I also asked if I needed to prove that I was a student? I do, and they normally ask for a photocopy of your student ID card. As I’m not at university yet I don’t have one, I said. He said a letter from St Andrews university confirming my acceptance of my place would be fine. Of course this will turn out to be a problem – St Andrews don’t even send mail, just email, and I’ve no idea if a printout of an email will be acceptable. I also don’t know how that proof (or lack of it) would affect my order. Let’s see.
This is where my difficulty is though: there’s a back to school iPod offer, and there’s a printer offer too. Both are rebates, meaning you buy the product at full price, send off some shit and you get a bit of money returned. Surely there’s going to be some trouble with that. The printer is simple – I’ll buy a £70 one which will be free after the £70 rebate. But the iPod is more difficult – the Back to School offer finishes on 7th September, but Apple is possibly releasing new iPods today, on 1st September.
As I write this I am watching Apple’s keynote on 1st September to see what happens with the new iPods. I highly doubt that new ones will be available within the back to school offer ((It would be unfair on people who have already taken Apple up on the offer by buying an ‘old’ iPod, and the whole point of the Back to School offer is to get rid of old iPod stock)) but why would risk it? Tomorrow, providing everything else is ready, with my MacBook Pro and printer, I’ll buy either a 32GB 4th gen iPod touch if that is possible, else I’ll buy the cheapest iPod touch ((Which after a rebate will cost just £19.)).
Nigel gave me his extension so that I could buy from him ((So he gets his commission.)) when I’m ready to buy.
Tomorrow, I will be ready.
After being linked to them hundreds of times by the likes of Merlin and Gruber, I listened to some of Dan Benjamin’s podcasts. And then I listened to some more, because he cranks out some pretty good shows.
Dan set up 5by5 as the home for his podcasts, and now he runs it as his full time job. Jealous? No, but I’m pleased that such a thing is possible on the internet ((Especially in the current economic climate. LOL.)). I’m a TWiT boy fo’ life, but there’s nothing stopping me from being a 5by5 guy too, is there?
He’s got about a dozen shows, of which I’ve tried three so far ((And by tried, I mean I’ve caught up on every episode and now listen to them as they are released every week.)).
Dan’s main, general/a bit geeky, show is The Conversation, a talk show where he’s the host of various different guests every week.
Then there’s The Pipeline, where each week Dan interviews one person (always from the tech world, it seems) about their life and how they do stuff. One of my favourite episodes of The Pipeline is Episode 22 with Adam Lisagor. I love Adam and if you don’t, you will soon. If you fancy trying out some of these new podcasts that I’m recommending, start with this episode.
And then there’s The Talk Show, where he talks about tech with John Gruber for over an hour every week.
The thing that makes all these shows good is that they’re – for the most part – intelligent, and that’s all I ask for in a podcast ((Except You Look Nice Today, which just has to be funny.)).
That’s all for now; go and check them out.
We had a brief powercut in today. It only lasted a second and I wouldn’t have noticed it if I hadn’t been sitting near the phone – when it’s turned on it goes through a startup sequence where a voice speaks some of the settings.
“Calls will go through to the answerphone after 6 rings.”
Huh? Why’s the phone making that noise? The phone didn’t ring so it can’t be voicemail activating… Ah ha! That’s what the phone does when it’s just been turned on! But that means the phone must have been off, and it was on a minute ago and no one has been near it for a while, so… it must have lost power only to have power restored! Was the phone on the fritz or was something else to blame? I looked over to the cable box above the TV and it too was in its startup sequence. Now I knew what’d happened.
Alan! Did your computer just turn off?
How did you know?
Alan didn’t need to know my methods, only my conclusion.
POWERCUT, I replied.
</scene>
I know it must have been momentary because I had been using my iPod and its Wi-Fi connection right up till that point. Several second later, my modem and router must have rebooted because my iPod regained its internet connection.
My first reaction was to go onto Facebook to see if anyone else had reported a powercut, and someone had. But this was strange – the friend who posted the message ((“Anyone else just get a cheeky wee power cut there?”)) lives in Scone, which is a couple of miles away from the other side of Perth. Several other people from all over the area commented to say the same thing too. That means it’s quite likely that the powercut affected the whole city and surrounding area, though just for a second. That strikes me as very unusual, and I wonder why it happened.
Actually, I don’t wonder why it happened. I’d be interested to know, but I’m not going to waste any time thinking about it, because without any more facts I’m going to get nowhere. Unless anyone has some insider knowledge, I’m going to move on to something which I find much more interesting: what we do when there’s a powercut.
I usually know straight away if a powercut has happened. The computer cuts out, the lights go out, the TV turns off – that sort of thing. Sometimes it’s more of a surprise, like what happened today, or something like opening the fridge and wondering why the inside light didn’t turn on. The first thing I’ll do is make sure that the power is definitely off – I’ll check the lights, turn on the radio – and then check that ours isn’t the only house that is affected. If it is, I might need to sort out some circuit breakers or call an electrician.
Once I’ve confirmed that this is indeed a bog-standard powercut, I’ve got to decide what to do whilst the power is off. It makes me laugh to think just how much I rely on electricity, and how I don’t realise how much I rely on it. Yes, if I try to think of all the things I do that depend on electricity I will probably get everything, but the truth is, I don’t think about it.
My first reflex to boredom is to take out my iPod, so that’s what I’ll almost always do in a powercut. Yet my subconscious isn’t thinking properly – although my iPod does indeed have its own power source, my router doesn’t, so I’m not going to be able to connect to the internet. ((That’s alright though if I’ve got some cool stuff loaded up onto it.))
I can’t watch TV and I can’t watch that film I’ve wanted to watch for ages. I can’t put the Playstation or Xbox on to play a game, and of course I can’t go on the computer (duh). If it’s dark I can’t read, because I don’t have any lights to read by. I can’t have a shower. I can’t use the microwave, toaster, and unless I can find a lighter, I can’t use the cooker. Often that doesn’t leave much to do, so I’ll maybe go to sleep, try to read something, or go for a walk.
Or I could go shopping, which during one powercut I thought would be a great use of my time. Sadly it wasn’t – Tesco was shut due to the powercut as all of their systems were offline. That’s something you don’t think about – you rely on electricity to shop. I trodded back, past the man that was neither red nor green, to the misery of a powerless home.
But I’ve had one great idea of what to do during a power cut. I think it’s one of the best ideas that I’ve ever had. One night last summer, I was watching a James Bond film ((Actually I don’t remember what we were doing, but it doesn’t matter. James Bond watching is quite likely.)) when all of a sudden… powercut. After checking that the power was indeed off, I went upstairs to look out of the window. Do you know what happens when there’s a powercut at night? The streetlamps turn off. All of them. It was the first time that I’d seen a neighbourhood at night that was completely dark. It was so cool.
Then I had my great idea. If the streetlamps are off… why not go out to stargaze? I hate streetlamps because they produce so much light pollution, greatly reducing the scope for stargazing in a city. But if the streetlamps are off, why, won’t that mean that there’ll be no light pollution? Perhaps I’ll be able to see some amazing things!
I was so excited… and then so disappointed. Not only was the sky mostly cloudy, it still had that distinctive orange glow of streetlamps. Fuckers. Evidently the powercut didn’t extend very far beyond our neighbourhood, and the rest of the city was spoiling my golden opportunity.
At least next time, I’ll be ready. Roll on powercuts!
This post started as a draft over a year ago, with the title “Powercut” and a main body that said “my experiences”. I don’t know if these thousand words have improved on it, but I’m glad I’ve written them.
I don’t think I can top my previous extremely exciting post, so I’m not even going to try. Instead, have a treat: a new look for my blog.
Clearly I’ve not done much. I’ve adjusted the alignments of various sections and I’ve changed a few colours around, and that’s about it. I hated the old dark grey background – I don’t know why I ever chose it – so I’ve gone back to something closer to the original design of the template.
Without the dark background, the light header was just too much. White and light greys everywhere? That’s just cruel. To add some colour to the page, I’ve put a picture in the header again. I’ve never had a header image in this template, but in the blog’s previous incarnations it was something I liked to have. However, it’s very hard to choose the right image so I never got round to it. I’ve quickly chosen a picture of Milly that I took on boxing day last year (UPDATE: this picture is no longer available), because I like it and I the colours go well with my blog’s colour scheme – particularly the blues which match the colour of my links. I’ll be on the lookout for a better image, or I could do what Murray does and rotate randomly through a large selection. We’ll see.
One last thing – I actually added the picture of my new glasses to the header! Jesus fuck! I wrote a line of code so that my new glasses show one third of the time, and my old glasses show the other two thirds of the time. That’s because I have one pair of my new glasses but two of my old ones, and I wear them equally.
And that’s about it. I like it.
I last bought glasses at the beginning of 2009, when I was still at school. I reckoned that 18 months on, and about to go to university, I should go and get my eyes tested again ((How it actually happened: my Mum told me to go.)).
This time, I had my eyes tested at Boots, and it was much more modern and fun than my previous opticians.
To begin with I was subjected to some weird tests: the first one did something weird that I don’t remember ((I had to look at a house which would go in and out of focus.)), the second one tested my peripheral vision ((I had to stare at the centre of a grid and say how many dots were lit in the surrounding grid. It was ridiculously hard, but it was meant to be, and I passed the ones that it was important to pass.)) and the third was a photograph of my retina ((With my pupil fully dilated, a flash went off so that a photo could be taken. It was ridiculously bright, and I was dazed for a while, but it was supercool to see my retina: optic nerve, macular, blood vessels and all that stuff.)). My eyes are fine, it turns out.
After a short wait ((Whilst the after-image of the flash faded away.)), I had the proper eye exam. It was weird, but cool. At these exams, I’m used to wearing a peculiar glasses frame into which can be inserted various lenses, and through trial and error the correct lens is determined. But at Boots, the glasses frame is replaced by a huge plastic machine which sits in front of your eyes. You look through it during the tests, but instead of a human changing lenses, it’s all done by a machine. It’s fast.
I did great, or so the optician said. (She also said I was the first person she’d examined who could read the bottom line of the wall chart, but I think that was just flattery.)
It turned out that my eyes had not changed since my last exam, so I had no need to buy new glasses. Still, I was going to get some, as I’ve been wearing my current set of glasses for 18 months now, and they’re showing a bit of wear and tear. I was distraught to find out that I could no longer buy my beloved black plastic-framed cheap glasses. There were similar coloured glasses that had smaller lenses and a much higher price tag, or there were similarly priced, slightly larger glasses that were in a different colour. I opted for a pair of the cheap ones; after all, I don’t need new glasses – I’ll be able to wear my old black glasses again if I ever miss them – so there’s not much point in spending a lot.
I picked them up yesterday and I’m wearing them right now. They’re not bad, but I prefer my black ones. Apparently they pattern is called ‘tortoise shell’, but I call them leopard print. They’re a bit bigger but I doubt anyone will even notice that they’re new.
Will I replace the picture at the top of my blog? I doubt I’ll ever bother.
