Functional keyboards

The modern keyboard design trend, at least on the laptops I've seen and on my wireless keyboard, is to omit the Function keys and instead provide them as a secondary function on the number row with a special coloured "Fn" button. I don't like this much, because I'm a big keyboard user. I type. I code. I use keyboard shortcuts to make my life faster and easier, but when those shortcuts use Function keys, and the Function keys don't exist, that becomes a big problem for me. Instead of being able to close a window with Alt+F4, now I have to use Alt+Fn+4. Three-finger shortcuts are terrible and always slow me down. There are lots of Function key shortcuts I use every day - several times an hour - in Visual Studio: F5 to run a program, F10 to step through code in debug mode, F11 to step *into* code in debug mode, F12 to go to a variable, function or class definition, and of course the F4 functions to close tabs or windows. Oh, and F3 for searches. Add an extra key to them and you definitely slow down my development.

The very worst part is that this type of keyboard usually also omits the Page Up, Page Down, Home and End keys, too, in favour of the Fn versions. The Lenovo Yoga Pro 3 I'm currently trying out has Page Up and Down, but Home and End are Fn key combinations, which is more annoying than you think.

And, yes, this is all a big first-world problem, because I'm whining about how my amazing, powerful, portable computing and communications device is sometimes a little bit slow to use, but here's something else I like to say: we made these machines, so what good are they if they don't serve their human masters? Humans are undisputed masters of the built environment, but it's pretty pointless to go and build it wrong.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I am otherwise very impressed with the Yoga.
PPS - I did have to adjust the console window font size.

Modem not included

I am currently in the market for some new networking hardware, and I like the simplicity of a single device to cover the modem and router parts of that equation. Unfortunately for me, it's rather difficult to be specific about this when searching for reviews and suggestions online. It feels like I'm having this kind of conversation with Google:

"Hey, Google, what are some good routers I could buy?"
"Here's a list of popular and well-regarded routers (modems not included)."
"Okay, I guess. How about modem-routers? You know, all-in-one devices?"
"Here's a list of popular and well-regarded routers (modems not included)."
"Ugh. Say, Google, what are the best modems on the market?"
"Here's a list of popular and well-regarded routers (modems not included)."
*deep sigh* "Google, what are the best modems on the market, excluding routers?"
"Welcome to Momento Demento, a festival of uncertain purpose! (website not available)"

The comments at the bottom of these router articles are along the lines of "Where are all the modems?" or "I bought one of these based on this article but now I need a separate modem too, what the hell?" which are usually followed by extreme networking nerds saying things like "Of course you need a separate modem, because the all-in-one things suck. Just get a cheapo modem and hook it to one of these awesome routers. Works for me!"

So my question is this: why can't anyone (apparently) build an all-in-one modem-router if all you need to do is add the cheapest, nastiest little modem to your kick-ass, blazing-fast router to get it online? That seems like the entire industry suffering from some kind of spot-blindness to me. All the network nerds nod to each other knowingly, saying that of course this is the way things are. How else could they be?

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm a bit frustrated.
PPS - Especially with our ongoing Netflix performance.

Cargo cult consumer design

Samsung's new phones have no removable batteries or storage card expansion slot, probably because that's what Apple does. Hey, Samsung, you know what I'll buy if I want something like an iPhone? An actual iPhone. I buy Android phones because they aren't like Apple's lock-in crap. You're giving up your differentiating features in a cargo-cult mentality, believing that if you copy Apple, you will copy Apple's success. That's a flawed concept, as far as I'm concerned.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - When you're a little Apple, you might have a little bit of Apple-like success.
PPS - But not a lot.

Network disk space

How much does it actually cost, per gigabyte, to supply network storage on-site to a company? I wonder because, no matter what company I work for, no matter what size, there always seems to be a 300GB network drive that is almost full. Considering that you can buy multi-terabyte desktop drives for $100, it seems absurd that large companies would limit themselves to such a small amount of shared space unless there are massive costs involved in keeping that storage alive and backed up.

Because I assume IT departments are not staffed by muppets, I don't expect anyone's mind will be blown by the suggestion that more storage could be provided at very little cost. Therefore, there must be a simple explanation for the typical 300GB limit. Anyone care to chime in?

Mokalus of Borg

PS - My best guess is that they use expensive server hard drives, so it's more expensive.
PPS - And that it's harder to convince people to archive files if they've got a lot of storage.

SCiO

The SCiO pocket spectrometer is a pretty neat invention, working with your phone to determine the rough composition of everyday objects by light spectrum. The question is how soon such a device will be standard to embed into a phone. There's already a light sensor in your smartphone: the camera. If the camera can be tuned or upgraded to sense spectrometric data, you might already have everything you need to do the work of SCiO, with the right software.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I'm not sure how viable that idea is.
PPS - SCiO probably has a relatively sophisticated sensor, more specialised than a camera.

The ways my phone is broken

I don't find apps or the network connection especially reliable on my phone. I also don't know if this is just the normal state of affairs these days, or if I have a particularly crappy phone. I don't want to complain. It's an excellent rectangle, but when it doesn't do the thing it's designed for, doesn't that make it broken? Some things that I'm fairly sure are due directly to the phone itself are network dropouts. Sometimes, out of nowhere, completely silently, my phone will lose its connection to the phone network, switch into "emergency calls only" mode, and be unable to receive calls or texts. It's like someone cut my brakes - I won't notice until later when I manually check, at random. This can be a bit troublesome. It has caused a few fights in our house where I didn't realise I was out of contact at a critical time. It also often drops the connection to wifi for reasons yet to be explained.

Navigation often stops mid-route, too. It goes silent, the screen goes black. This is troubling, because I use navigation to get to unfamiliar places. I can't pull over to fuss with my phone two or three times per trip.

If I switch applications too often in a short time, the phone will poop its pants then, too. Sometimes it can't install an update to an existing application, and that's the only explanation it gives: "the update could not be installed to the default location". Not "...because there's not enough space" or "...because the download was corrupted", just "nope".

Mokalus of Borg

PS - When the amazing things we own are broken, should we still be amazed by them and be grateful for them?
PPS - The update situation has gotten better since I uninstalled Facebook.

My destroyed hard drives

I wrote a while ago that I had started using BTSync, a personal file sync program based on the BitTorrent protocol. While it seemed to work well, within a couple of months, all three of my hard drives in three different machines had failed, one after another. I can't be sure it was the fault of BTSync, so it might be unfair to say this, but I suspect BTSync was behind the unfortunate disk failures. For those three hard drives all to fail so completely and so close to each other seemed more than a coincidence. There had to be a common cause. When all the drives were replaced, I didn't reinstall BTSync.

Perhaps my collection of files was bigger than BTSync was designed for, and I overstressed the drives as a result. I'd hope that wouldn't matter, but for reference it was about 65GB of pictures, music and videos. I haven't found anyone else accusing BTSync of eating hard drives like this, so it might not be the cause. In any case, the hattrick hard drive failure scared me off.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I would try to figure out the real cause, but the drives are toast now.
PPS - I'm not sure what I could do with them to find out the truth.

SixthSense vs Google Glass

In 2009, Pranav Mistry demonstrated some technology he called SixthSense, a wearable, gesture-controlled computer system whose visual output was a surface-mapped projector, allowing you to turn any surface into a computer or interact with the world as naturally as before, but now with seamless access to networked info everywhere. It was incredible. It was also a little bit awkward, worn around the neck on a lanyard. Though the software was released, the project has stalled. People can't build it.

In 2012, Google demonstrated Google Glass, their wearable computer. It is limited to a tiny display in one eye, though, and has to be controlled through voice and swipe gestures. However, with its front-facing camera, it could easily pick up on SixthSense gestures. Swapping the inward-facing eye display for an outward-facing projector, you could have a platform to run SixthSense, assuming the software issues could be overcome.

So we're still a few steps away from that world, but I think we're going to get there. In a way, it makes me mad that we don't have this yet, since Mistry was so close. He had devices, he had the software, now the software is released, but the devices aren't available, the software doesn't build any more and Mistry doesn't have time to work on it because he's busy with other projects.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - It doesn't have to be SixthSense. A similar project would do.
PPS - It's just that a lot of the work is already done for SixthSense itself. It would be a shame to waste it.

Windows Experience Index should consider RAM amount

I think it's a shame that the Windows Experience Index only takes RAM speed into account, not the RAM amount. You could be running Windows 7 on 2GB of very fast memory, and the Experience Index will tell you that is very good when, in fact, it's not good enough.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - My computers all say they'd do better with a beefier graphics card.
PPS - I don't know if I've ever run a high-end graphics card in my machines.

Non-standard office phone headsets

Why has nobody made a phone for office desks that includes Bluetooth, so you can use any wireless headset you want, or even one with a standard plug for mobile headsets? Even my home phone has a non-standard plug. I don't get it.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Maybe some office phones do allow the use of standard headsets.
PPS - Just none I've ever seen.

Where the phone connection belongs

If people are abandoning traditional home phones in favour of mobiles, then the wired phone connection is going to be exclusively (or at least primarily) for internet access. Therefore, the phone points that are normally placed in the kitchen would be better positioned in the lounge room (for media servers, game consoles and other set-top boxes). Has anyone done that yet?

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I know it would make much more sense for me, personally.
PPS - When we move house next, we won't be connecting a landline.

Reviewing free items

The practice of sending free stuff to reviewers doesn't result in the same kind of review as you would get from someone who had to pay for the item. A person who got a gadget or accessory or whatever for free will naturally place a different value on it from someone who paid. The reviewer who gets, say, a free Microsoft Surface Pro 2 just because a lot of people follow him, will feel like it's a pretty sweet deal. And why wouldn't he? He's probably also got so many other tablet computers that he's already got his whole family covered for Christmas. It doesn't even have to last for him, because he'll probably get the next generation for free when that comes out in a year.

Someone who paid for the tablet will need it to last. They'll need it to be worth what they paid, not just do cool stuff. He probably already resents the cash outlay he had to make and so starts with a negative impression that needs to be overcome. A reviewer who gets the same gadget for free is already grateful for that, so the minor quibbles are forgiven and forgotten where they might be a dealbreaker for everyone else.

I'm not saying free stuff for reviewers should stop, or else a lot of reviews will also stop. I'm just saying I'd like to know up front whether a review unit was free so I can calibrate my reading accordingly.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - If anyone wants to send me a free tablet computer to review, I'd be happy to do so.
PPS - Any make or model will do. :)

Old computers

I always struggle with restraint when my employers auction off old computer equipment. On the one hand, the equipment is being discarded because it is old and underspecified for modern uses. It's ugly, slow, cramped, worn out, and comes with no software or warranty. On the other hand, murmurs a deep, materialistic part of my brain, it's cheap hardware, and you could really use it ... for ... things. Reasons. Just buy it, okay?

Mokalus of Borg

PS - My brain wants to live in a house made of computers.
PPS - Or a little fort. That would be cheaper.

Samsung Galaxy SII Review

At the beginning of 2013, I upgraded my phone to a Samsung Galaxy S2, which is a fair bit more powerful and capable than my previous Google Nexus S. From that point of view, I'm very happy with it. It's got more storage and more memory, so it can handle video without choking, where my previous phone basically drew the line at audio. The screen is a bit larger, too, which is good, and the battery usually lasts me the whole day as long as I save battery-intensive tasks (such as aforementioned video) to the end of the day.

Almost everything else is a disappointment. Samsung, of course, loaded it up with their own inadequate launcher program and their decrepit bizarro-world Samsung Apps store, plus several crapware apps that can't ever be uninstalled and are difficult to distinguish from real apps.

The hardware leaves a bit to be desired, too. The phone will frequently turn itself off for no apparent reason (eg, sitting flat on my desk can trigger it) and the mic and speaker work just barely well enough for phone calls. It can't hold onto a WiFi connection to save its life, and just the other day it ignored my selected alarm tone and volume settings, electing instead to play the default alarm tone at full volume.

In short, my Android phone is less reliable than my desktop computer was in the 90s, with less control and more broken software. And you can't take it away from me, because now I feel as if I need it.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I have been informed that some of these issues are due to a Samsung software update.
PPS - And the whole review is moot anyway since the phone is outdated now.

Windows 8 is for touch screens

I think my first piece of advice about Windows 8 to everyone would be this: if you're going to buy a Windows 8 machine, get a touch screen. Microsoft has really bet the farm on touch screens this time, and without that mode of interaction, you'll be frustrated or, at best, missing out. The mouse and keyboard might still be necessary for ordinary desktop mode, but when the Start menu thinks all computers are tablets, you'd better get on board.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - I've had trouble deciding how to replace my netbook when it dies.
PPS - It's not an issue yet, but if it were, I might pick a Microsoft Surface RT.

All-in-one touch screen desktop computers

I've noticed that traditional desktop computers are going away, being replaced by laptops or, more recently, all-in-one touch screens, because Apple did it. I was kind of annoyed that the traditional tower would go away, because that's the type of computer I've bought and built in the past, but I just realised that those all-in-one touch screen desktops are close to what I've wanted for a long time. I've wanted to see how a huge touch-screen desktop would work, and these smaller options are the beginning of that change.

You do give up a lot when you make an all-in-one desktop, though. A lot of the time, it's power and upgrades, but it's been years since I did any upgrades of my own PC, and power always increases. The one thing I'm worried about is having the screen break before the rest of the all-in-one device. By the time that happens, you'll have to replace the whole thing, because replacement screens will be outdated parts.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - On the whole, though, I think it might be a good thing.
PPS - As long as you can attach external speakers. Built-in ones tend to suck.

Foxtel IQ could run on the Xbox

Since the Xbox is basically a computer, including a hard drive, and it already has the ability to receive Foxtel over the internet, you could run a Foxtel IQ app (that is, a DVR) to record and rewind shows just like the dedicated Foxtel IQ appliance. The real difficulty, I expect, would be hard drive space, which is quite limited on the Xbox.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - You'd also have to convince Foxtel to go for the scheme.
PPS - Which I doubt they would.

A six-pack of computers

All my sci-fi and futurism books that I had when I was young suggested that one day we might go to the shops and pick up "a six-pack of computers" along with the milk. That never made any sense to me - computers are big, bulky things, and they are all unique in some way - so I was a bit sceptical about the claim. How can you replace a computer when the loss of one in our house would have meant a lot of data going missing and a lot of pain and hassle reinstalling and reconfiguring the programs you use? I figured I could use at most one computer at a time in my life.

Many (many) years later, I noticed something about our computers. They're small, portable, all-in-one units now, like the iPad and the Google Nexus 7 and 10. Our files are often stored on remote servers and our software comes from online app stores, linked to an account we can use anywhere. You can replace your computer now with a login and a refresh from backup. The shopping list of a carton of milk and six computers is looking much more feasible these days. Is that what those futurists of my childhood had in mind? Maybe not exactly, but I'm sure it's pretty close.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - Of course, right now, a six-pack of computers would set you back at least $1500.
PPS - And that's for the little Nexus 7 tablets from Google.

Laptops suck

People have been buying laptops much more than desktop computers, for home use, because they're easier to set up, they have only one external cable (for power), and you can move them easily. They really do have a lot of advantages that way, but there are some down sides that people don't often account for.

They cost more. That's the first red flag that should get raised when you're thinking of buying a laptop. You will be paying several hundred dollars extra for the convenience.

They are less powerful. In almost everything that goes into a computer, they suck more than a desktop. Slower processors, less disk space, less RAM, more heat, smaller screen, fewer USB ports. That's just what you get on every model. And remember, you're paying extra for this.

They are much less ergonomic. The screen and keyboard positions cannot and will not ever meet proper ergonomic guidelines if the screen is attached directly above the keyboard. Long-term, you may injure yourself.

They have all-in-one failure modes. If the keyboard stops working or the screen goes dead, your options for replacements and repairs are more limited and expensive.

Lastly, the battery will wear out, but by then you will probably not be able to replace just that part, because next year's model will use a slightly different battery and nobody will be selling the old model any more. From then on, your portable machine becomes a low-powered, cramped, uncomfortable, unstable, expensive, stationary computer.

My only conclusion is that people in general must be resolved to spending $1500 every two years on a new laptop, because "that's just what you do". I spent $1200 on a desktop about four years ago and it's still going strong. I expect it to last at least another two years.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - If you "need" your computer to be mobile, buy a tablet for $250.
PPS - If that actually doesn't do everything mobile that you need, then you might need a laptop.