10 WinApps

eiriksoLeave a comment

As promised. The next post in my series of lists. Inspired by Om Malik’s 10macapps. My list of 10 very useful Windows Apps.

IrfanView
Fantastic tool for view, scale, convert and browse pictures. Includes a very fast and nice batch convert function.

VirtualDUB
The swiss army knife of video processing.

SuperEdi
Fast and powerful replacement for notepad

UltraVNC
IMHO the best remote desktop software out there.

ORB
Stream your media everywhere for free!

DVD Decrypter
Fast, simple and powerful DVD-ripping

AutoGK
The best and easy DVD recompression tool

AC3Filter
Free AC3 Filter for that 5.1 sound from your DVDs

ZoomPlayer
Extremely powerful and configurable media player

Total Commander
File explorer replacement. Ugly and very powerful. Handles archives and does batch copying in the background.

10 WinApps

Whatever happens in the future it will fit into this space

eirikso5 Comments
Computer News

Today I want to share a couple of very nice vintage computer ads that I found in an old issue of Personal Computer News. Unfortunately the magazine has no year of issue printed on it, but the magazine is from the early 80’s. I have used this in several of my presentations and especially the technology focused crowds find it amusing.

Whatever

This ad is for an Aquarius computer. The specs alone can yield laughter among techies:

Spec

These are the specs of an average packet of biscuits today.

However, the most optimistic part of the ad clearly shows the problem of marketing computers:

Whatever happens...

My god, I want one of those. According to the marketing I would be able to connect my iPod, my mobile and my PDA into this one! That’s what I call future proof.

The slogan “With Aquarius you won’t get left behind” down to the left in the ad puts it all into place. The people that are lucky enough to own an Aquarius today won’t need this: “Help for the left behind”.

Continue reading “Whatever happens in the future it will fit into this space” →

Whatever happens in the future it will fit into this space

Bad usability – Nokia Memory card

eirikso5 Comments

I was presenting at the stage in the picture last week (no, it’s not me in the picture). During my presentation I have a part about usability, and I could not help mentioning the picture of a horrible example of bad usability hanging behind me. A picture of a Nokia 6630 with a hand that is about to insert a memory card. Marked in red in the picture.

Nokia6630

Looking at the closeup, someone could think that the photographer snapped the picture at the wrong moment. The memory card has its back facing towards the user. It should be like the next picture in this post.

The same situation. Looks OK, the front of a phone, the front of a memory card, and a slot on the side of the phone where you are supposed to insert the card. But, no. This is the wrong way to do it. The photographer is not stupid, you are supposed to insert the card with the back facing towards yourself. Why on earth would they put the card reader into the phone that way?

The correct way to insert a memory card in a Nokia 6630 is how it is illustrated in this picture. Because I am interested in technology on a level that is above average people tend to ask me when they have questions. Lately I have had quite a bit of questions regarding the Nokia 6630 and Nokia 6680. Questions regarding music, pictures, podcasts and navigation software on the memory card. I have tried to observe closely, and not one of the persons have tried to insert the card in the correct way on the first try.

Simply because the correct way to insert the card is what most sane people would think of as the wrong way.

And, as a finishing note:
If you insert the card the wrong way, it will lock itself into the slot and you would have to use some kind of tool to get it out. When you get it out you have to insert it the wrong way once more to release the slot and then insert it the right way.

Nokia – why?

Related post: An example of good and bad usability design

Bad usability – Nokia Memory card

Pandora – Music recommendation radio that works

eirikso5 Comments

I just started playing around with Pandora, a recommendation radio built on the Music Genome Project. Just wanted to share that this is the first time I have tried a recommendation radio that actually works and that actually recommends stuff that I like! After my first half hour of use it seems a bit US-focused, but I’ll have to try it out some more before I can jump to any conclusions.

This is a service that meets some of the most basic requirements for something that could be a hit:
1. It is easy to understand the concept
2. It is easy to use
3. The price seems right

Unfortunately, the sound quality is not perfect, but I guess that will be better as time goes by and the general quality goes up regarding network speed, cost of storage etc… Now, could you give me Pandora for my Media Center please?

Pandora – Music recommendation radio that works

Make war, not love!

eirikso6 Comments

It’s old news, but a mod for “Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas” expands the game with some extra functionallity that actually lets the character you are playing make love. The game in it’s original state lets your character kill people, deal drugs, steal cars, shoot, knock people out etc.. For the americans, the original functionallity is OK. The game had a rating of “M” (Mature), that means suitable for people of 17 or older.

The odd thing is that the so called “hotcoffee” mod that added the functionallity for making love made the americans go completely mad. They are taking the game off the shelves and have changed the rating to “AO” (Adults Only), that is 18 years and over. The highest level possible.

As the brilliant Maddox states it:

I want to shoot people in the face, bang prostitutes, traffic drugs, steal cars, and terrorize police officers without this filthy smut in my game.

Now, I am reading that the FBI seems to find the war on porn more important than the war on terror.

Mostly I actually like Americans and some important parts of their culture, but this is just completely insane…

Make war, not love!

Chris Anderson on Media Centers

eiriksoLeave a comment

Usually I don’t post links on this blog unless I have something to add to what the link is all about. This time I will make an exception. Chris Anderson has a very interesting article about Media Center PCs on his Long Tail blog. And, I can’t add much more than “I totally agree” and “I’ll recommend you to read it“. Chris is the editor-in-chief of Wired Magazine and a very interesting thinker and writer.

From the article:

For us, Media Centers have five big advantages over traditional DVRs, including TiVo.

* No monthly fees.
* Centralized storage means that all TVs around the house have instant access to the same content.
* Unlimited storage capacity.
* Can stream all the other media on your PC to any TV, including music and home videos.
* By DVR standards, it’s a relatively open platform (certainly compared to the DVRs offered by your cable company), and there are an increasing number of plug-ins that expand its features.

Finally, there’s a strong Long Tail angle to the Media Center. It is, at its core, a platform for unlimited-choice TV. It connects the Internet to the TV screens around your house via a simple, TiVo-like interface. Right now, most of the video content comes over the broadcast network, is cached on your PC, and then streamed over your home network. But that content can just as easily come from anywhere on the net, and independent video marketplaces such as Brightcove and Akimbo are planning to release their services as Media Center plug-ins to deliver just that.

Via Ian Dixon

Chris Anderson on Media Centers

A blog in a printed paper – what’s next?

eirikso1 Comment

In my post about how abused the term “media center” is I mentioned that the biggest newspaper in Norway has a blog in their printed paper. And, they clearly states that the journalist writing the coloumn is a blogger.

It is amazing how technical terms is misproperly used by the same journalists that hypes stuff up into the skies. There is close to nothing in the definition of a blog that suggests that it is possible to have one in a printed paper. Who on earth are VG adressing when they call their coloumn a blog? The people that knows what a blog is shake their head and call VG stupid. And, how much sense does it make to call it a blog if you adress the people that doesn’t know what a blog is?

Beats me. And confuses the people that tries to learn what this new phenomenon is.

VG – How about adding a podcast to your printed paper as well?

…and then there is all the commercial companies that totally don’t get it as well.

A blog in a printed paper – what’s next?

Tivo just made a very stupid move!

eiriksoLeave a comment

I just updated my HTPC Frontend Roundup because it is a quite good guide to alternatives if you don’t want a PVR where the content producers can delete whatever they want. From the update:

Tivo has recently made headlines as people have discovered a horrible functionallity that lets content providers delete shows on your box. My god, what a stupid move!

Kind of like:
You can buy this VHS tape, but you’ll hand over the keys to your apartment so that the content producers can come and take it when they decide that you shouldn’t be able to watch your recording anymore.

Original post: HTPC Frontend Roundup

Tivo just made a very stupid move!

The Telecrapper 2000

eirikso1 Comment

I remember back when I had an ISDN line. I used our computer as an answering machine and had the possibility to make personalized messages depending on the number of the caller.

For the people calling from an “empty” number, i.e. telemarketers, I routed them directly to the answering machine and simply said “Based on the number you are calling from it seems like you are a telemarketer. Please leave a message and I will call you back“. The only messages I got was some mumbling about “what is this?” etc..

Now, welcome the Telecrapper 2000. Record a series of short audio files and activate the Telecrapper. It will answer your phone with one of the files. Each time it senses silence for a given time from the caller it plays another file. This can lead to some fantastic virtual conversations with telemarketers.

You find a conversation done by Telecrapper 2000 with a real telemarketer, illustrated with a nice flash animation here. There are more audio examles at the bottom of the Telecrapper 2000 page.

We closed our fixed line a long time ago, and the telemarketers seem to stay away from my mobile. But, I guess that won’t last forver. I see a market for a Telecrapper 2000 software for Symbian already…

Via (Hack a day)

The Telecrapper 2000