Burning Lemons

Note: This post will probably be out of date by the time I post it. I had to revise it twice in the 5 minutes I spent writing it.

• Death toll so far – 86 (All in Mexico)
• 1,300 Mexicans suspected of having illness given “all-clear”. Unclear if this means they have recovered or if they never had the disease at all.
• Most public facilities in Mexico city closed until May 6 - includes churches, schools and other major gathering points
• US cases confirmed in Texas, Ohio, New York and California
• Texas to close 14 schools in the Schertz-Cibolo-Universal City district
  
• 6 cases confirmed in three separate parts of Canada
• 6 cases suspected in Spain
• Possible that cases have developed in Airdrie, Scotland and Northampton
• Further suspected cases in New Zealand, France and Israel
• Governement spokesman says it is: “Highly likely” that New Zealand cases are swine flu but “there is no guarantee”
• Health emergency declared in US (government playing down seriousness of declaration. Claims that the decision is for mainly bureaucratic reasons).
• WHO Emergency meeting on Tuesday to co-ordinate international response
• 100 students ill with “flu-like” symptoms at New York prep school – 5 students at same school confirmed to have disease. However symptoms described as “mild”
• Several countries have begun medical screening of passengers arriving from Mexico

Quick end of day roundup

So far despite the wide spread of suspected cases across 3 continents there have only been confirmed cases in North America. The only deaths so far have been in Mexico and all patients in other countries are displaying “mild” symptoms and many are said to be progressing well.

The UK governement has not issued any advice against travelling to Mexico and the country’s borders and airports remain open as normal although many countries are now carrying out very basic checks on travllers arriving from Mexico these mainly consists of a few simple questions.

The raising of the threat level to emergency by the US governement is so far only for administrative reason and does not represent any major change in the governements view of events.

Above all in all locations but certain areas of Mexico the public are being urged to go about their lives as normal unless they develop flu-like symptoms in which case they are urged to stay at home. People displaying such symptoms should not go to a hospital unless they are displaying symptoms that would cause them to seek treatment under normal circumstances to avoid over-burdening hospitals. General precautions such as hand-washing are advised. The US governement have also pointed out that so far it does not appear that one can catch the disease by eating infected pork

That’s all for tonight - I will have another post tomorrow in the mean time stay with the excellent @BreakingNews account on Twitter @klustout presenter of CNN International’s CNN Today morning programme from Hong Kong will also be posting updates.

All the information in the post above is (to the best of my knowledge) correct and current as of 21:55 GMT on April 26 2009.

Update 1: Added information on new outbreak in Canada
Update 2: Added information about health screening
Update 3: Added New Zealand and Israel to list of countries with suspected cases and revised total number of cases in Canada down to 6 (my mistake)
Update 4: Added information about case statistics in Mexico
Update 5: Added information about closure of facilities in Mexico city and schools in Texas
Update 6: Removed word “possible” from information about patients in Scotland following Nicola Sturgeon interview and added details of Northampton case
Update 7: Added additional information about case in France
Update 8: Added wrapup

Data collected from @BreakingNews, @felix85, @mpoppel, @rosemaryCNN, France 24, BBC World Service, BBC News Channel and Reuters

In case you haven’t heard (and seriously that would be unlikely) tonight at 20:30 local time we’re meant to switch all our lights off for an hour in an attempt to save the planet or something.
Now while I believe that global warming is a pressing issue I personally will not be taking part tonight for the following reasons

1) All the lightbulbs in our house are low energy and use a pitiful amount of energy compared to the TV, this laptop, the microwave and all the other things I’m still allowed to run
2) It’s dark outside during Earth Hour and I need to work tonight
3) Scotland are playing The Netherlands and I’ll be depressed enough

Instead of taking part I’m going down the much more worthwhile route of avoiding waste - turning computers off properly, not leaving things on standby etc - rather than not using energy I really need to.

Comments/long posts telling me why I’m wrong welcome as always

My new Windows Vista sporting Philips 7511 arrived from PC World earlier this morning. Compared to the MacBook it replaces the specs are fairly impressive especially considering the fairly low price. For example the MacBook came with 1GB of memory, the new laptop came with 4. The hard drive is 90GB larger etc, etc.

However how does the experience of Vista compare to OS X Leopard. I’d never previously used Vista although I had loads of experience with XP and had given Windows 7 a go on the old MacBook. So here’s a look at a few particular issues

1. The boot time

Compared to my old Macbook which could be ready to use in 40 seconds flat the new laptop take up to 2 minutes from a cold start - then it can be up to 30 seconds until the computer is actually usable. This is a major step backwards for me and I now only shut down the computer when I really, really have too - therefore wasting power - however since I only have to reboot about once a fortnight this isn’t a huge issue

2. The Interface

Vista is prettier (in my opinion at least) than Mac OS X - so long as your computer can run it the you should be fine - flip 3D is a lovely feature although I don’t really use it. Apps launch reasonably quickly and the new start menu works quite well - although an option to go back to the old flip out XP style structure without going back to a Windows 95 style menu would be lovely.

3. Searching

Windows desktop search is not nearly as good as spotlight. It is slower, doesn’t index properly and often leaves deleted files in search results for days - however a switch to Google desktop search sorted this issue for me.

I’ll come up with more comments for you over the next few days but so far going back to Windows has been far better than I expected and it’s nice to be able to use a lot of applications (OneNote I’m looking at you) without Mac versions again.

As anyone following my Twitter over the last few days will probably know (hey if you want all the lastest news on me you need to follow. What you don’t? Oh…) my 13 month old MacBook (just out of warranty natch…) has finally died a fairly spectacular death. A conversation with the nice people at the Glasgow Apple Store has confirmed that the logic board is to blame and fixing this will cost an amount of money not disimilar to the cost of the laptop. After spending the next few hours cursing the fact that I didn’t buy Applecare I got on to the subject of what to do next. The simple fact is that I cannot afford a new MacBook and aren’t particularly keen on buying an old one off ebay. Beacause of this I have little choice but to rejoin the Windows world I left in 2006 with the purchase of a Mac Mini (which cost £500 less than the macbook and is still going strong).

So having trawled through the world of computer websites I settled on an Acer machine running Windows Vista Home Premium with 4GB of RAM. As much as I have hated on Vista I have chosen to run with it for 4 reasons

1) Its been out for two years. Therefore they must be someway towards fixing it
2) I don’t really have any choice
3) I’ve had a look at Windows 7 and it doesn’t look that bad so the option to upgrade soonish is there
4) This laptop is really only a stopgap for the next 18 or so months

So over the next few weeks I’ll be doing a comparison of my Mac OS X experience to what I find with Vista. I hope you’ll stay posted

Continuing in our series of uncalled for software reviews I’ve decided to have a stab at the latest version of Nokia’s mapping software. Nokia Maps is probably the most used phone-navigation solution in the world (Google Maps doesn’t count as it doesn’t do turn by turn) so any new development is hugely important as it will eventually show up on millions of handsets.
The first Beta of NM3 was a bit of a disaster partly because it came out before it was really ready (even with Betas if you’re going to make them public you should probably ensure their not going to brick hardware) in order to fit with Nokia’s Nokia World event in Barcelona (now do you see why Apple dumped Macworld?).

The big new feature here is Maps on Ovi yet another arm to Nokia’s nice but underused onlne offering. Unfortunately because it relies on a propriotary plugin the software currently only works in Firefox and IE on Windows XP and Vista although a version for Mac OS X is being developed. The software allows users to plan routes at home and then sycronise them to their phone which saves a lot of keypad bashing on n-series handsets all of which currently come with T9 numeric keypads. The software is like a prettier version of Google maps doing lots of lovely 3D things as well as all the usual stuff. However if you don’t use Nokia Maps don’t bother as their doesn’t seem to be any way to print out or otherwise use the routes that you plan.

Moving on to the software itself. Scrolling around maps looking for locations is now a lot smoother than in previous editions of the software. The maps now come with fairly crappy looking visualisations of well known landmarks (Tower Bridge, The Eiffel Tower and of course The Nokia HQ building) which while cheap looking would probably be a bit of a godsend in a big, unfamiliar city.

The navigation has also been enhanced and certainly from my testing seems to demand fewer u-turns and sudden crossings of 8-way intersections. The maps also seem to have been upgraded as well and now (in my area at least) reflect the world as it was in about September 2008.

Nokia Maps 3 is available from http://betalabs.nokia.com for free although navigation and traffic info is extra. Remember the software is a beta and if you’re not prepared to run in to a few problems stick with version 2 for the moment.

Maps on Ovi can be downloaded by pointing a Windows installation of Internet Explorer 6 or 7 or Firefox 2 or 3 to http://maps.ovi.com

Final Rating: 8/10

The good: Faster startup, smoother movements and more sensible routing

The bad: Prone to the odd crash - but it is a Beta

The ugly: Maps on Ovi requires propriotary plugin and only works in Windows

We know you’ve been holding off finding out about Windows 7. Ignoring the reviews from CNET, The New York Times and others and waiting for the only one that matters. OK, uhmm probably not but given that the Beta download closes in two weeks this seemed line a good time to chuck in the obligatory 2¢/1.45p

Windows 7 is the next release of Microsoft’s inescapable Windows Operating System. It follows on from Windows Vista which (rightly or wrongly) received a lukewarm reception from both the tech and mainstream media which has put many users off upgrading. Indeed many people continue to specify Windows XP (an operating system released 8 years ago. It would be the same as turning down Windows XP in 2003 and demanding Windows 95 instead)

So now we come to version 7. Windows 7 at first glance appears to be a far less radical change as far as The UI goes from Vista as Vista was from XP. However one of the changes made has a huge impact on day to day use of the system. The taskbar now takes an approach to application management not a million miles away from The Mac OS X dock (we’ll leave the fanboys and possibly Bertrand Serlet of Apple to argue over who stole off who.

As a Mac convert I find the change intuitive and easy. It also stops the previous madness whereby applications names in the taskbar would become unreadable if you had more than 5 open. All the change is doing is basically enforcing The Windows XP option where all your windows in one programme were grouped into catagories.

One of the main complaints about Windows Vista was that it was slow even on mid-range hardware and that the glass effects and general UI - while pretty - were overkill for the average user. 7 keeps the effects but somehow tones down the amount of system power used to execute the effects. In my test (a Parallels virtual machine allocated 512MB of RAM on a MacBook with crappy integrated graphics) the virtual machine performed well, only showing strain while running multiple windows including a Windows Media Player visualiser.

So far (other than the usual unnecessary and inexplicable name changes) those are the main changes in Windows 7 however these along with a host of behind the scenes upgrades add up to probably the most stable version of Windows Microsoft has ever produced. While it may not win over Mac users it is certainly Microsoft’s best hope to stem the tide of Mac switching. But we’ll see what Snow Leopard brings…

The smartphone world has once again become a hive of activity and public interest following the release and success of the iPhone and T-Mobile’s Android based G1 platform. This post is a mini-predictions segment looking at where i expect the smartphone market to go over the next 12-18 months. For the sake of simplicity I have ignored the lower end market for simple mobile phones as while they are huge part of the businesses of companies like Nokia and Motorola the technology in them is less likely to change very quickly and the developments occuring in the smarthphone field now will likely trickle down over the next few years in much the same way that cameras did.

The Operating Systems

Smartphones will begin to centre around three major operating systems (for the sake of simplicity I have ignored the Blackberry os, a more business oriented system)
Apple’s iPhone OS

The Open Handset Alliance’s Androad Platform

The Symbian Foundation’s Symbian OS

iPhone

Apple will be the only company that successfully controls its own platform from end to end. No other major player in the phone market has the clout or sheer hard nose to operate the type of model that Apple does and still find partners to market, sell and use its products. Apple’s previous successes and its loyal and growing fanbase will allow it to hold the upper hand in negotiations in a way other manufacturers could only dream of. It’s model of refining existing ideas, already done to huge success with multi-touch and The App and Mobile iTunes stores will continue to pay dividends. The iPhone will continue to lack features that small groups of users consider essential including MMS, stereo bluetooth and Java and will contiune to be one of the most locked-down phones available but its ease-of-use and the sheer hype Apple have managed to build around the device will ensure a successful and profitable future barring any major flaws such as a rampant iPhone virus which given Apple’s current required pre-approval for all Apps installed on non-jailbroken phones looks unlikely. Sales will continue to grow as the iPhone is introduced to more territories and Apple’s one carrier per country/territory policy is withdrawn either voluterally or forceably (as occured in France where a court decided that Apple’s decision to only allow Orange to sell the iPhone was illegal even though unlocked models are available)

Android

The Google-backed Android platform has secured plenty of hype despite technical problems which resulted in the first phone running the operating system (The well, if not amazingly recieved T-Mobile G1) being released about 6 months behind schedule. Android’s decision to choose an open platform makes the chance of a virus striking the platform more likely than with the iPhone and a bug found in the platform meaning that all input to the phone was interpreted as system commands (since rectified) was hardly the greatest start for the platform. However the availability of the operating system on multiple phones will increase the number of consumers who could end up using an Android powered phone (someone who insists on a physical Qwerty keyboard for example could quite easilly select and Android powered phone that meets there needs but would be unable to use an iPhone). The medium-term success of the Android platform depends on a wide range of products being brought to market relatively quickly so that development of applications for the phone can continue. A little homepage advertisment from Google probably wouldn’t hurt either (Homepage advertising helped push Google’s browser Chrome onto the desktops of many non-geeks).

Symbian Foundation

Little information is currently available about Nokia’s if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em effort. The Symbian foundation only really got going at the beginning of December when Nokia completed its acquisition of the parts of Symbian it didn’t already own. The integration of the Symbian teams into Nokia is not expected to be completed until March at the earliest. This means that we would be unlikely to see any phones before about June 2010 as although the code is already there (unlike for Apple and Android who started from scratch) it needs to be checked for closed-source components. On top of that the current Symbian OS and the interfaces such as S60 which run on top of it are beginning to look long in the tooth and in need of a rewrite. That said Nokia has just finished work on its Nokia N97 its first touchscreen smartphone (pictured for lack of anything else) which looks promising although knowing Nokia it will all be in the execution (The N95 took two major software updates to become the phone it was meant to be)
So having had a look at the state of the operators what looks likely. Well my wrtings above do not take into account the economic crisis which will porbably reduce the demand for smartphones particularly phones such as the iPhone and N95 which do not offer the features required by businesses and are aimed at tech-savvy consumers. However presuming Android does what it is meant too, the operators play along and Nokia finally pushes a Symbian Foundation product out we can look forward to a future with greater choice and openess for consumers

Welcome back to the blog. A botched upgrde followed by multiple computer problems left this blog down for several months something for which I would like to apologise. Anyway we’re back now and planning a whole new raft of stuff for 2009 so in the meantime happy new year and I hope to see you with some new posts very soon.

Since the election of The SNP Government in May 2007 the issue of Scotland succeding from The United Kingdom has again become an issue. Some people are beginning to argue that even though we are yet to get anywhere close to a referendum on actual independence the SNP is gradually moving the country in that direction by diversifying Scotland from the rest of The UK.

For example just the other day it was announced that all trains in Scotland will be repainted into a livery defined by Transport Scotland (the government regulator of Transport) and not one decided on by the operating company (in this case FirstScotRail). While this may seem insignificant it is another example of The SNP choosing to do things differently to The rest of The UK. Other examples exist across Health, Education and almost every area touched by the government.

So is this independence by stealth. I find it hard to think so, while the SNP are clearly pro-independence I believe this is only a case of deciding what is best for Scotland as opossed to remaiing in-line with the rest of The UK.

Reports on the death of radio keep coming out thick and fast. The media has finally started to pick up on services such as Last.fm and Pandora and have begun to use them as their latest excue to declare traditional radio dead and buried.

At least here in The UK I’m not at all willing to describe the situation in that way. At the moment I’m listening to BBC 6Music, I could listen to music from my iTunes library or from Last.fm but have instead chosen to listen to a linear radio station that is not exactly tailored to my taste, why?

Firstly even though I have spent months and months training Last.fm it has still failed to get my musical taste exactly right, this is partly because I listen to a lot of podcasts through iTunes and it is apparently impossible to get it to discount them. Therefore it thinks my top 3 Artists are “Molly Wood, Tom Merritt and Jason Howell” (of Buzz Out Loud from CNET), “BBC Radio 5 Live” and “guardian.co.uk”, while this is true I want Last.fm to find music for me, not podcasts.

iTunes on the other hand is great but it totally fails to find new music for me. While the store does have a recommendation system built in it basically sucks coming up with the most obvious suggestions (You bought a Coldplay song a year ago, how about Violet Hill) or totally misses the mark (You Bought Flathead - The Fratellis, How about Toxic - Britney Spears, I’m not making this one up)

So radio still seems (to me) to be the way forward as well as music there is a huge variaty of high quality speech on BBC Radio 4 and the underlistened BBC World Service and the totally underated BBC Radio 5 Live.