Terence Eden. He has a beard and is smiling.

Terence Eden’s Blog

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Review: Teal Movie

· 750 words


Treo 180 Smartphone.

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 …

Icons are usually not culture-neutral

· 400 words


A row of colourful icons.

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…

Review - Hauppauge DEC 1000-t

· 2 comments · 100 words


A small box of electronics.

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! …

Disappearing Computer (2002)

· 1 comment · 10,350 words · Viewed ~250 times


The old logo of the University of East Anglia.

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…

Review Mello MP3 Player

· 850 words · Viewed ~487 times


A grey plastic box with blue buttons and a small LCD screen.

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…

Uses for multiple monitors

· 250 words


Three big CRT monitors.

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 …

Users are socially conditioned to believe that tasks should be difficult

· 1 comment · 550 words


An old photo of me, wearing a silly hat.

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 …

Review: Pratchett "The Last Hero" Illustrated by Paul Kidby

· 300 words


Book cover featuring a very old barbarian standing on a mountain.

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…

Fantasy Casting for Harry Potter - Tim Curry as Gilderoy Lockhard

· 250 words · Viewed ~348 times


Tim Curry dressed as a vampire and looking rather alluring.

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 …

Review: Terry Pratchett at UEA

· 2 comments · 800 words · Viewed ~233 times


Book cover for Pratchett's "The Truth".

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…

A (Nuclear) Blast From The Past

· 400 words


Students protesting by a fence.

As I was digging around some ancient back-up CDs, I happened across some of my early web pages. Way back in the mists of time, I was a member of the UEA Peace Society. As well as organising talk on campus, we occasionally went on protests. This page records the protest we took to Lakenheath - a local US military encampment.As far as I can tell, this was part of the Citizens' Weapons Inspection …

Sock And Buskin - Improv Superbowl

· 200 words


A handwritten poster on crumpled paper.

This is a necropost - resurrected from an ancient cassette tape. While I was studying at Carleton University in Canadaland, I joined the prestigious(?) Sock n Buskin theatre troupe. Together with "Where's the Soup", we put on an "Improv Superbowl". Basically a team version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" The director - Jenny - and I went on LIVE RADIO to promote our show to all of Ottawa.…