I have a fairly new Macbook at home. Using a fully 100% Flash site usually gets it to warm up, start sweating and the fan starts after a while. Not in a small way mind, but full on “OH CHRIST, THE PROCESSOR IS BLOWING UP”.

On a phone, this will be much worse with the lesser processor, less RAM, less cache, less battery life. It isn’t just the Flash platform that gets me worried though. It’s the actionscripter. I have used a fair amount of Android apps now, some are written with memory in mind. But some hog so much system resource I am forced to close it and uninstall to get my phone to work again. This doesn’t even depend on the complexity of the app. A Flash developer tends not to worry too much about battery life etc. as they predominantly develop for a notebook or desktop, as long as it works there, we’re all good. Not to mention the download needed for assets like the HD background to make it all look nice that the designer wants in there. How will the processor cope with that? The designer cares not for battery life or bandwidth.

So those of you with an iphone, thank your lucky stars that you may never have this issue. You may still have the resource hog applications every now and then, but we all have that.

This time it isn’t just for UK residents, it’s for residents in the European mainland too. The best part about this quaint story is that it wasn’t that the computer was hacked, that someone broke into the office Mission Impossible style. No, some employee had the key codes on a USB disc and lost it in a pub car park!

I’m still sure there are government offices which send private data by email. Fault of computers? No. Fault of some ignorant government worker? Yes. I still see people hesitant to buy something or sign up to anything online because they are afraid their credit card details or some such may get stolen. Speaking to an Amazon employee at a conference a couple of months ago, she said “we do take security very seriously because we all know that if there is one leak in our system, we’re probably finished”. And I believe her. For Google and Amazon, getting security right is paramount. I doubt they even allow anyone to carry something which would jeopardise the security of the company (of course, i do assume). It’s encrypted to the hilt. Their jobs depend on it.

So, my online data, which really doesn’t have that much about me remains pretty secure on a server, encrypted in a vault somewhere, yet access to the astounding amount of detail the government keeps is dropped in a pub car park. Hell, agents from MI5 have lost laptops with security data on tubes in the past! No, I’m not afraid of my online data, but I am scared crapless by what hapless officials do with the other personal data.

Let it be said now. I hate the news. I’ve reverted back to childhood where watching the news was considered not cartoons and hence boring. Actually, it isn’t boring, it’s just annoying. They report what is going on, how the world is ending etc. etc. then, just because we might not be scared enough, they ham it up.

Let’s go back to the 7th July 2005. A horrible day! Yet the news were happy, so happy because they had a story, hell yes! Something they could legitimately report on the same old crap for the next week at least (hell, they had 11th September 2001 going for at least a month). No more news was really coming out about the event, just the same old crap. Then, a reporter decided to add a little bit. He stood proudly outside Kings Cross Station and said “King’s Cross has become synonymous with disaster, 20 years ago there was a massive fire here”. Erm… 20 years ago? That’s not synonymous, every time I hear Kings Cross I, and most people don’t immediately think “fire” some might, but most don’t. It is unfortunate though.

Forward to last night, 16th January 2009. The plane landing in the Hudson river (well done the pilots by the way, I think that is the first time a commercial airplane has landed on water without breaking up, I need to check my facts though). The reporter gleefully stood and said “New York is known for its plane crashes” and launched into the other 1 story almost 8 years previous. That isn’t known! That’s coincidence!

Bad news! Bad! We’re all scared already. I don’t seem to be alone as The Register got an ex-bomb disposal expert to report on the last potential disaster in London. It was hugely different to what the news had been reporting. It’s still scary, no doubt, but not hammed up.

I’d like to know what you think though (apart from you spam comment man selling vi@gra, I keep buying from you and you send paracetamol, damn you!).

Anyway, today’s topic is about using the wrong term for something. E.g. saying Java instead of JavaScript. These are different terms. Saying this to someone who understands, it is similar to saying “it’s sunny outside” when in fact it’s just cloudy and day time.

My pet gripe is currently “Podcast”. Everyone wants one, few seem to know what it is and tend to just use it is they have some audio mixes on their site. And really they aren’t completely wrong, although it’s more like “audio downloads” at this point. The podcast thing becomes a podcast when you add an XML feed to those audio/video tracks. You can then hook up an audio player to download any new mixes, broadcasts, whatever you want automatically when they are available. This is why there is “cast” at the end of the word, meaning it is sent out to any checking player “listening” for a new item. There really is no shame in saying “audio downloads”. Right, and calm.

Take for example the Gizmondo, the handheld gaming device. It had no chance. It was competing against Nintendo’s stronghold in the handheld gaming market, also the PSP and the mobile gaming market. But still, they thought “I know, we’ll set up another handheld devied, with GPS, and a mobile built in”. Lovely idea, but it cost a small fortune. Knock in the fact that they had no deals with the big games developers (or any good ones for that matter). Add to that, the hugely expensive shops on Regent Street etc, and , BAM! 1 year later, it’s nowhere.

Anyway, my point is, how the hell could I be reading this today? The article talks about a new “mobile operator” called UK01 running on localised GSM frequencies, only operating where there is a Wifi base set up by Spectrum Interactive. So in other words, you can now use your mobile, only in certain, localised areas. Does anyone remember Rabbit? The mobile service where you had to stand outside a shop, station, or bus stop and talk? It collapsed ‘cos of the mobile taking off. Fair enough, it was difficult to think it might work at the time because people would still use a payphone rather than fork out £200, but it still crashed overnight (you still see Rabbit logos on old shop fronts sometimes).

Now I’m not always right. I made a gamble that HD-DVD would take off over Blu-Ray, and look how that turned out. I didn’t see the tremendous bribe factor in that though. But I really can’t see this mobile venture taking off. I’d put a tenner on it, anyone?

Anyway, I am no relationship councillor, but the day gets my goat. My dad calls it by its Roman name “Lupercalia“, which i find brilliant. The Roman festival, which was held on the 13th-15th February was a different affair entirely. It’s all about signifying health and fertility. Typically, the Romans decided to make an orgy out of it, so after smearing blood of a dog and 2 goats on the foreheads of Luperci (it was human sacrifice before this). After a feast, the Luperci would wonder the streets whipping girls and young women.

Certainly different and beats the inevitable restaurant conversation our 40 year old couples of today might hold: “Edward, do you really have to eat your chicken like that?”, “of course I bloody do you silly woman” etc.

So Happy Lupercalia everyone, right, I’m off to find a dog and 2 goats.

Anyway, not intending to bash companies. My thing is Gmail. I think it is fantastic. The spam filter is second to none, the features are brilliant, and, for the first time, I am considering ditching Outlook for Gmail as my default mail client. “So why don’t you?” you ask. Well I don’t want to use a gmail address. I have my own domain name which I use. “But you could use that with Gmail”. Yes, yes I could, and this is where Gmail’s secret comes out. If I send an email from my domain email, it makes my from field: “xxx@gmail.com on behalf of xxx@xxx.com”. Not great. I don’t want people to know my Gmail address.

Google’s immediate response? “It doesn’t do that in most email clients, only Outlook”. Right, so blame someone else. In fact, even better, most people who check emails in an office environment use Outlook. In fact, half the damn world use Outlook.

It’s a measure to get past spam filters. No other webmail client does this. If it is a bug, then Gmail have to swallow it as most people use Outlook. I would think Outlook is doing the right thing anyway, what Google is doing is setting the from field and another field (I think something like x-sender) to different email addresses. Outlook shows it for security, which I’d say is a good thing. So Outlook won’t change, and Google are being obstinate.

I could use the Google Apps which will do everything for me, but it isn’t really as integrated as Gmail and Google Calendar, and the URL for my Gmail account is pretty long.

So come on Google, blaming other people is not on, especially when competition get it right and Microsoft seem to be doing nothing wrong, add to that the email client where you claim “only some email clients do this” is Outlook, one of the most widely used email clients on the face of this planet, it all points to you, fix it and stop being stupid.

Another example, I flew to Cornwall the other day for a weekend, lovely it was. I stepped on a plane, 1 hour, I was there for dinner (door to door was about 3 hours). Usually I drive, my girlfriend will take the train other times. The plane cost us £50, which was train to airport, plane ticket and tax. The train is £60, takes 4 hours (6 hours door to door), car is £70 minus fuel (5 hours). But with this is isn’t just cost. 1 hour to 4 hours is quite a lot different, then the train is more expensive anyway! Hell, I’d take a cheaper train! No one wants me to, in fact, the train tends to be packed, you can’t even get a seat, so you get to sit on the floor in between carriages for saving the world. So now, to stop this, environmental groups are telling us “put more taxes on planes then”, surely that’s missing the point?

There are places I go to with recycling bins instead of normal bins, “EXCELLENT” I think, but as the food is in one container for several days, fruit flies start buzzing around. I almost expect a rat to pop out at me munching away at any point.

Now, I may get told “but it’s your planet, do you want to die etc?”, I know, I know. But while we’re human, the way to get people interested is to help us, not to say “bathe in mud”, “take extra time to get somewhere”, the human race is sufficiently advanced to try and come up with new ways to do things, we’ve been hearing about global warming since I was 10, 18 years ago. So why the panic now? When some people already say going green will just mean global warming will slow, but not stop.

It’s very hard to make judgement when I can’t go to the polar ice caps and see it all for myself, same for everyone else.

Rant over.

Example: There is a pizza place off Brick Lane, it’s an “organic pizza place” the pizzas look lovely, probably taste that way. But I refuse to go, why? because pizzas are £9.50-£10.00! Pizzas are not expensive food, or shouldn’t be. I won’t pay this because if I ordered I’d feel like the waitress, chef and owners are laughing at me as well as all the way to the bank, “I can’t believe these suckers pay this much”.

I recently returned from Ibiza and a similar thing happened, pretty much every day. A sandwich at about £5, not so bad compared to the £8 for a bottle of beer. Again, some might be able to afford it, but it doesn’t mean it should be bought, I’d order a beer and watch the bar maid’s face to see if there was even a hint of a grin.

Pathetic, there really is a ceiling, you can charge more, but too much and people feel like suckers for succumbing. Simple economics. Problem is, I still see people in droves at that pizza place cos its trendy, dear me!