Scotland

Do you use a PC?

/ Business, Technology / , , , , , , ,

I read an interesting article on the BBC news site last night – referring to Dr Mark Dean, who was part of the IBM team who worked on the first PC.

Read it here

I have been away on holiday now for over a week and have been able to keep up with my work from my iPhone:

* it is a phone – holding all my contacts database and client info (securely – you cannot take the SD card out of an iPhone)
* I keep up with my email on it

To the basic out of the box software I have added:

* Documents To Go (to deal with MS documents – opening and creating them)
* GoodReader for PDFs
* the files are kept online in my DropBox

Battery life can be an issue when camping. I have a cradle in the car which keeps the battery topped up when driving – and it plays the iPod in the phone through the car stereo. I have two extra batteries – a pocket sized, booster/recharge battery and an extended jacket battery.

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I also have a power inverter for use in the car so I can use the Apple plug to charge both of these batteries when camping – and at the house in Aviemore.

A complete office in my pocket – a small pocket today. In 1996 when we came away on holiday I needed a bigger pocket!

* Psion Series 5 PDA, with a box of spare batteries and a mains psu
* 56k dial up modem for use at the timeshare
* Ericsson SH888 mobile phone with a built in data modem – car charger and charger for the mains
* data stored on memory cards – I think I had a couple of 1 MB and 2 MB CF cards
* no media player but I did read books on the Psion

Other things I have used the iPhone 4 for this holiday

* Stanza book reader app – I have about three hundred books on the phone so I have plenty of choice
* It is the only camera I have with me – I use the built in camera app and I have purchased Camera+, I really like the split focus and exposure points in this app
* I have watched videos and listened to podcasts and audiobooks on it
* I have used Google maps, MemoryMap and Navfree for navigation – we found Jimmy Chungs in Edinburgh with it
* browsed the web in full colour and with video and sound – although I did not keep up with the news as it was Thursday when I caught up with the fact that Britain had suffered days of rioting!
* and I post to the blog using the WordPress app

So do I use a PC – yes – but do I always need it, no. The screen is small on the iPhone but iOS is more than capable of supporting my business – the bigger screen on the iPad would be good for some jobs but it is not pocket sized.

Replace my PC with an iPad. No I cannot do that, there is just so much software available for Windows OS and that’s what I need – the Windows PC strength is it’s flexibility. I know a number of people who have Mac books – who will tell me how great they are, impressive hardware, no viruses, etc etc etc, and in the next breath they ask, can I help them to set the Mac up to run Windows as the need to run some Windows software on it!

One final comment – my company supports PCs, so selfishly I hope they don’t disappear, but as it says in the article they are no longer the single driving force for technological change. At Octagon we support a variety of tablets and smart phones, as clients now have these devices and find them very convenient and with the latest OS releases very easy to use – also they are fun!

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More Photos of Dunbar

/ Camping, Photography, Travel / , , , ,

The Camping and Caravan Club site just outside Dunbar is in an excellent location over looking the Forth of Firth, Dunbar and Bass Rock. It is near the A1 so occasionally you can here the traffic but more likely you can hear the surf on the beach, a few hundred meters away. It can be very windy here in bad weather but on an afternoon like this with the sun and a slight breeze it is great. Tea just outside our tent with the view below.

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Musselburgh and ADSL

/ Technology, Travel / , ,

You are not going to get the ADSL tech support story yet as my client has decided the best place for him to sort this issue is to take them to court. (See last Saturday’s post.)

So you will have to wait for the story about how she thought changing my Ethernet cable between the laptop and the router/modem would restore my Internet connection, I had an ASDL signal but no Internet!. There is more, a whole afternoon’s worth of pearls of tech support wisdom.

Now to better things – tea and teacakes (well Jeremy had a glass of girders) in the Burgh Cafe, Musselburgh. A real old fashioned cafe, well worth a visit.

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Bridge over the Esk at Musselburgh

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Lunch Overlooking the Firth Of Forth

/ Outdoor Gear, Travel, Walking / , , ,

It finally stopped raining! For all the waking hours since we pitched the tent on Saturday it has rained, soft rain, hard rain, drizzle you name it, we had it! But at about 8am this morning it stopped.

We have spent the morning exploring the coast and stopped for lunch down by the Forth, at Ferry Ness, sitting in front of some World War II beach tank defences.

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We also tried some Polish pate for lunch, chicken and tomato, it was very good and so I have added it to my hiking food list. A can of this and two packs of Italian crackers would make a good sized snack for lunch or with noodles an evening meal.

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Trip to Scotland

/ General, Travel / , , ,

I am away on holiday, I drove to Scotland this morning with my son Jeremy. We did a Geocache on the way up near St Abbs and had a short walk along the the coast path before heading up to the Dunbar Camping and Caravan Club site near Dunbar.

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The above is a view south towards St Abbs.

However getting away was a bit of a rush – thanks to the “tech support” at U***** (more of that story later when I have time to write it up). In the rush I have left my sleeping mat behind – thanks U*****.

(You are not going to get the ADSL tech support story yet as my client has decided the best place for him to sort this issue is to take them to court.)

Better luck was on our side when it came to pitching the tent. We had just got the fly sheet up when the first spots of rain came along. It is a pitch the outer first tent, so we hurried and managed to get the inner up and all the equipment in before the heavier rain came along. I am now sitting in the tent, listening to the rain, drinking tea! Excellent.

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