I use a RIM Blackberry (6720 I think) to get my emails and browse the web on the move. I think its interface is deeply lacking and the hardware is flakey to say the least. But it has an amazing keyboard. I couldn't imagine typing anything this long using predictive text - or even handwriting recognition. I still love my Treo 180 - but its consigned to a drawer until there's a Blackberry client…
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So, this is a just a blog to record some trivia. It's also to show y'all some of the interesting (but non-confidential) stuff stuff I do at Vodafone. And if anyone that I used to know but lost contact with during my wilderness years should find this... well so much the better! How have you been? (Imported from my old blog) …
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This is a Necropost. Resurrected from a long forgotten PDA review website. Summary TealPoint's TealMovie 3.50 claims to do the impossible - and it delivers. Palm Pilots are great for displaying text, there's no doubt about that, but I've never seen one handle full motion graphics with any kind of clarity before... until now. TealMovie 3.50 allows you to convert AVI and Quicktime movies into a …
Continue reading →hci necropost ui usenet · 400 words
This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. Some web-browsers use "Stop Loading" icons that were represented with USA stop signs. To anyone else in the world, that's just a red octagon. Similarly the spell-check button in MS products is a tick over an "ABC". I don't know what the spell check button is like in countries with a different lexicography. Also, in…
Continue reading →freeview necropost review · 2 comments · 100 words
This long-forgotten review has been resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts! It uses a D-Sub9 to Scart socket rather than a standard SCART. You can't flick to radio channels without pushing the "radio" button first. You then have to press TV to get back to TV. It doesn't come with an RF splitter or remodulator - which means you'll lose all your analogue channels. It is nice and small! …
Continue reading →Computer Science hci IoT necropost uea usability · 1 comment · 10,350 words · Viewed ~250 times
In 2002, I wrote this dissertation as part of my B.Sc. at UEA. I've kept this edition as close to the original as possible. I've added in links (where they still survive) and inserted a few comments where I was ludicrously wrong or unexpectedly right. This paper is not especially well-written and, if memory serves, received only a adequate mark. Terence Eden - 2016 Executive Summary This…
Continue reading →hardware mp3 necropost review · 850 words · Viewed ~482 times
This review was orginally written for a now-defunct website. Terence Eden - 2016 The Spec Mello Branded Cyprus CompactFlash MP3 player (v11) + 128MB Compact Flash card (a 128MB CF card gives you 124MB (130658304bytes) which is just about enough for 2 hours of 128Kb music. If you go down to FM quality (64kb) you'll get 4 hours worth of music.). Manufactured by…
Continue reading →computer necropost · 250 words
This is a Necropost. Reanimated from an ancient site. Programming (great having the API in one monitor, the IDE on another and the output on the third!) Web browsing + email + Trillian + winamp all in easy reach. Writing documents on the centre monitor and having the references on the two side monitors! Sorry for the crappy picture - someone buy me a digital camera... please! Config 3342 …
Continue reading →hci necropost usability usenet · 1 comment · 550 words
This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. One of the problems I've encountered is that most people (users and, to an extend, designers) are socially conditioned to believe that tasks should be difficult. They expect a learning curve that isn't always logical. It stems from childhood when we don't understand something and are told "that's just the way it is". Users …
Continue reading →Book Review discworld necropost review · 300 words
This review was written for a now-defunct university website. Terence Eden - 2016 Another year - another Pratchett book. I am usually the first in the queue to read his latest offering, I was a little reticent about purchasing this tome; it's quite short (160 pages), it's illustrated and his last offering, "The Thief Of Time", hadn't left me with much confidence in my favourite author. It's…
Continue reading →harry potter necropost usenet · 250 words · Viewed ~347 times
This is a necropost - resurrected from one of my ancient USENET posts. I can only apologise... On the other hand, Tim Curry as Lockhart... (pictures Harry dashing into Lockhart's office, and seeing him wearing a Merry Widow bustier and high heels. Begins giggling hysterically.) (To the tune of "Sweet Transvestite" by Richard O'Brian) (Gilderoy Lockhart) Don't get strung out by the way that I …
Continue reading →discworld necropost review · 2 comments · 800 words · Viewed ~233 times
This account of Terry Pratchet talking at the University of East Anglia was written for a now-defunct university website. For other contemporaneous accounts, read Concrete Issue 119. Terence Eden - 2017 Everything I learned - I learned at my local library. School taught me how to spit! Terry Pratchett is Britain's best selling living author. With total sales of 18 million books (21 million…
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