Nickster’s View

I too am all World Cup fevered and can’t wait for the start on Friday. I’m not much of a football shirt wearer (apart from a Spurs shirt at WHL) but I couldn’t help myself….

COME ON ENGLAND!!

N

The idea that 9/11 was some sort of conspiracy hadn’t even entered my mind until a couple of weeks ago when I was around at a friend’s house. He had bittorrented some conspiracy documentaries that had him convinced, or at least seriously questionning that 9/11 was an act of terrorism by Al-Qaeda - and more like an act of terrorism by “the illuminati” to control the population more easily through fear, by passing all kinds of human rights and civil liberties in the process. It all sounded way too paranoid to me and I chalked it down to a million monkeys all typing War and Peace.

However, yesterday the US government released 0.5 frame/second footage of Pentagon being allegedly hit by an airplane. I’ve read the conspiracy theory on it being a missile attack and was somewhat intrigued, but again, didn’t think that much more of it….

…until I actually saw this newly released footage, and now I’m much closer to the conspiracists than I was before. Why:

- That just does not look like the front of a medium to large airplane.

- Given the size and scale of the explosions at the WTC, this didn’t even compare

- The US military only has surveillance cameras that capture in 0.5 frames/second? Riiiiiight.

- The Pentagon only has one camera that caught any footage of the incident? That place must have EVERY angle covered, including its own dedicated satellite, and then some.

- If you’re going to release footage to quell a conspiracy theory, why do it quite so obviously badly? Are the american public really that stupid, or that scared, that they’ll accept that as a reasonable explanation?

Whatever your beliefs. even the most open minded individual has to be suspicious when the facts are being so obviously obscured.

N

Are you sick and tired of having to endure deep fried burritos?

Is Chiquitos the height of mexican or tex-mex cuisine that you can find?

Would you rather find a decent place where you didn’t have to endure a stag night pounding cheap tequilas from the bottle?

Are you gagging for a decent burrito? some fresh soft chicken tacos?

If you can answer yes to any one of these, you need to goto MexiLondon - a small website that I’ve setup for the small but growing community of people in London who are sick and tired of the mass market crap, and just want some decent mexican food.

Website at www.nickster.com/mexilondon

N

Just for the record, David Blaine is not a magician any more. He is not an illusionist either. He’s some form of weird endurance-cum-performance artist (cum performance? yikes!). His stunts are definitely entertaining and I admire the fact that someone is apparently pushing human endurance barriers. Heck, sitting in a box for 44 days would drive me nuts - in fact, make that 10 minutes.

But please, he’s not a magician or anything even close. Even performance artists usually have an important message in their work - Blaine’s is just self promotion. And if he is an illusionist, then how much of these stunts are to be believed? Derren Brown destroyed his credibility walking the same fine line between illusion and deceit in that stupid russian roulette stunt. So I personally question the value of it at all - other than the modern equivalent of self flagellation in public to make a dime.

Oh, and if he’s so enamoured with the classic magicians and escape artists, like Houdini, then why can’t he re-enact the legendary catching a bullet in the teeth trick. I’ll be the one firing the gun.

N

According to the BBC website, Microsoft plans on having shipped 10 million units of Xbox 360s by the time Sony’s PS3 is launched in November.

This announcement literally the day after Sony announces the price and specification for their 3rd generation console, and with an unexpected visit from Bill himself to deliver the news. Uncanny timing for sure - absolutely motivated by the fact that Microsoft heavily subsidised 360 and rushed it to market.

Here’s the problem. Xbox 360 is a serious let down for gamers. Being first to market gave MS a massive opportunity to grab some of Sony’s dominance, but instead they’ve spent millions subsidising a substandard console. Why?

1) Games Support

The launch games for 360 were a massive let down. There was no ‘killer app’ or got to have game, like in the case of Halo on the 360. It’s a games console, and if the games available are crap, that makes it a crap games console. Furthermore, after months and months there are STILL no decent games out for it. Personally when I was playing it I was playing Live Arcade games more than the £40 titles - and that isn’t worth a £300 console. Now I play Eve Online on the PC

2) Media Integration

You’d have to be a certified moron or living on the dark side of the moon to not see that the living room is the new centre of the mass market computing world. Media centres and media integration is all the rage (and with good cause). So why is it that MS in their infinite wisdom decided to cripple Xbox 360 so that you cannot stream video from your PC UNLESS YOU HAVE WINDOWS MEDIA CENTRE INSTALLED ON IT??! I’m not going to wipe my machine and install Windows Media Centre just because I want to stream videos to the living room. Why couldn’t they just let me stream it without? My chipped Xbox1 has BETTER functionality that XBOX 360 and at a fraction of the price.

3) Overheating and Ugliness Issues

Who on earth wants to put a brick like the 360 PSU on display in their living rooms? And if you hide it away somewhere, the system overheats because that brick needs airflow around it. This is such a problem that there are a number of 3rd party water cooling solutions for the 360. So, you spend £300 on a console that overheats….and STILL overheats in later revisions.

4) Internet

I couldn’t believe that Microsoft didn’t put a browser on the XBOX. When 360 came out without a browser I was dumbfounded. WHY? It has an internet connection, it links to the television, it now has regular USB ports for a keyboard and mouse. Why can’t we use it to browse the web? And MS wonder why people subvert their technology by hacking it.

5) Microsoft Live Voice Communication

One of the best moves that MS has made, imho - to make all games on the XBOX use voice comms. The Xbox Live service itself I have a hard time finding fault with. The execution is fantastic, and games like PGR2 (note, not PGR3) provided (imo) one of the best games interfaces to date. Live was seamless, the game was brilliant - all was good.

So WTF happened? If you try to play any game that ISN’T a mature title (e.g. Madden 200x, Tiger Woods 200x) like the Tony Hawks skateboarding series, the gaming experience is ruined by screaming american kids. It’s intolerable having someone screaming ‘WTFOMGN00B’ every 3 seconds WITHOUT THE SKILLS TO BACK IT UP. Smacktalking is one thing, but talking shit is another. Xbox live is generally filled with people talking shit. This isn’t Microsoft’s problem or fault, but it’s a sad fact of 360 gaming these days. There are solutions, but they haven’t come to light yet and at this point I’d guess there are legions of users leaving the service altogether. Maybe I’m just too old to game on a console anymore - which is shit in itself. Shouldn’t have to be this way.

6) Games

The games are shit. Oh, I think I mentioned that already.

So, MS were first to market with their 3rd generation console. They produced a crippled and substandard product with bad games support. I suspect the vast majority of PS2 games will not have switched over, and are waiting for the PS3. MS have totally lost their advantaged position, and more importantly put themselves at a disadvantage - (a) by killing the brand amongst gamers with any clue and (b) by subsidising that garbage to make bad technology affordable.

So Mr Gates announcement yesterday comes as no surprise. They’re running scared because they’re about to get utterly destroyed by PS3 sales at a cost of millions.

Microsoft: When you start listening to your market and stop trying to control it, you’ll start winning. Until that point, you’ll continue to alienate - and make financial losses.

N

My friend Neil and I both own full sets of Star Wars stormtrooper armour. It has taken literally months to get together all the parts and accessories needed to pull off the look of an authentic stormtrooper, so after having bought the armour in December last year it has taken us until today to wear the armour outside. There are still a few fitting issues and each set of armour needs to be customised a little so that they can be worn for extended periods of time without bits falling off or coming loose. So, today was a quick beta test to see if we were ready for the outside world…and boy, what a beta test it was. It culminated in an armed response unit (SO19) coming to my home - but before I go into the detail you need to see a photo of what we look like in armour, and what the gun looks like:

With this image in mind, the two of us, both wearing armour, set off for short local stroll at about 2.30pm today. We walked out of my cul-de-sac, turned right and walked for about half a mile down to the traffic lights, turned around and came back. The whole way cars were honking at us, people were taking photos on their mobile phones, kids waving at us - we were having an absolute ball underneath our helmets - and no-one could see the massive grins. EVERYONE was enjoying it.

We got in, took off the armour and watched the football. Just after half time there’s a ring on my doorbell. It’s the police - they want a word. I open the door to be met by four armed officers from the armed response unit of the police. They tell me that they have had reports of a firearm being waved around in public. Completely dumbfounded I invite them in to show them our prop guns and stormtrooper armour. At this point there are about 10 officers in my living room, half armed to the teeth, and the other half regular police officers - and RIGHT in the middle of the 2nd half of the Spurs game (critical game, much tension).

Someone had reported our guns as being real, despite being dressed literally head to toe in stormtrooper armour. I had never considered the fact that anyone would have taken our very real looking props as real live guns in the context of obviously science fiction costumes. The police and armed reponse guys were all very amicable and the whole incident was actually very good natured - but the fact remains that there were a serious amount of police resources wasted on a pair of geeks living out star wars fantasies.

I still cannot believe that our guns were threatening or dangerous. Every single car or person that stopped to take photos didn’t shout ‘LOOK OUT HE’S GOT A GUN’ and run away - they came up to us and loved every minute of it.

The sad fact of life these days is that any gun, real, prop or toy in ANY context is considered dangerous. People are living it that much fear of terrorism that common sense has gone. Either that or I have a malicious neighbour who has nothing better to do than to mess up our fun.

What a day. No more prop guns in future, and I hate the fact that this is the world we now live in. I won’t live in fear. I certainly won’t live in fear of stormtroopers carrying guns. Morons, I tell you…morons….

N

EDIT:

My learned friend, Evz, has just highlighted an issue - when the police turned up they had no idea that we were wearing stormtrooper armour. All they apparently had been told is that someone had been waving a gun around. When we told them that we had been wearing the armour and helmets from the moment we left the house until the moment we returned, Neil said that one of the police had said ‘i’d love to know who called this one in’. At the time we thought nothing of it - but now in retrospect it makes complete sense. The armed response unit had been sent with limited information…i.e. the caller had only reported the fact we had guns, and had omitted the fact that we were wearing outlandish costumes. They clearly didn’t give an accurate description to the police and as a result lead the police on a wild goose chase because they were surprised to find that we had been wearing shiny white plastic armour from head to toe.

The bottom line is that either I have a paranoid schizophrenic or absolute killjoy living in my road. I just hope the police were pissed off enough to take it up with the caller who wasted everyone’s time.

A while back I started videoing my rides to prove to my girlfriend just how crazy London’s roads had become. What started out as a fact finding mission turned into a hobby, moving from a Nokia 6630 wedged in my lid to a proper high res helmet camera setup. I’ve caught the good, the bad and the ugly on film so far - some of it my own riding, other times other road users. This is shooting from the hip stuff (or my head if you want to be pedantic about it) - I don’t claim to be a saint, but I’m just showing that others aren’t either. London’s roads are a jungle…

This was my first Nokia video - more videos at www.youtube.com under my alter-ego, Quasimojo…

One final caveat: Not for the faint hearted in parts…

N
- just discovered that I can embed YouTube here.

I’ve been a bad bad boy. I’ve neglected my blog, and whilst I know that there’s the square root of zero people reading it, I enjoy writing it. Sometimes it’s a rant, othertimes quiet introspection. Today, it’s just the realisation that I’ve not blogged anything for a while and it’s about time to get back to it.

Not a whole hell of a lot to report. Am back from a great weekend in Brighton, where I actually managed to get some work done. It must have been something to do with removing me from my usual writing environment, or the associated stresses, but when Deb went to bed I found myself downstairs reading Marshall McLuhan and some other really arty farty design books until 2am…which I wouldn’t ordinarily do. Now I’ve just got to turn that reading into compelling argument for my Chapter 2, which is still unfinished.

I’m definitely going to have a Chapter 2 finished party…

N

I have been posting on David Gilmour’s blog for a few months now, being a total devotee to both David Gilmour’s music and that of Pink Floyd. David is playing a pre-release gig in Blackfriars to 600 people on Tuesday…a preview of the new album, “On An Island”. They have given 75 pairs of tickets away, meaning that 150 of the 600 people at that gig will be the hardcore faithful…and guess what….I GOT A TICKET!!! It’s like Willy Wonka’s golden tickets - I will be seeing David and the band play next Tuesday, in a small theatre in Blackfriars. LIFE DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!!

N

www.davidgilmour.com

When I was on my batchelors degree course I had to come up with a final year project idea. All my ideas were considered too big for a batchelors and I had to trim one down a lot to be able to do it. When I was on my masters degree course I had to come up with a project from which I wrote my thesis. All my ideas were considered too big for a masters and I used an idea the Prof gave me. Now I’m on a PhD and it’s ALL research and my ideas are still considered too big for a PhD. Both the batchelors and masters people told me I’d have to do a PhD to do that kind of work, so what gives? I think the argument is that you have to do something extremely well, not necessarily the scale of it - and if I was doing my bit perfectly then I could probably expand the scope.

The more things change, the more they don’t. Bah humbug.

N

I have been trying to write a coherent draft of chapter 2 of my thesis for a couple of months at least. I’ve made some progress and have a first draft completed, but it’s still very much a first draft. The major criticisms of it by my supervisors have been a lack of clarity in the narrative, in that I’m not leading the reader explicitly enough.

So, I have been asked to write an argument plan for the chapter, to state my arguments and positions throughout the chapter. It has been an excellent, if not brain aching, exercise because it has forced me to look at the very nature of my research.

The epiphany I’m talking about happened about 5 minutes ago as I was working on that argument plan. For a start, that plan IS my thesis, and I hadn’t seen it like that before. Secondly, that writing a PhD thesis is about some very deep thought. I realise that this might sound a bit flippant or obvious, so I’ll try to clarify.

For me, most academic tasks are about thinking - and everything in my academic life, from school to Masters degree was relatively easy provided I was interested enough in it to think about it. PhD level work requires a level of thinking that is imho significantly higher than a Masters - exponentially so. So whereas my lazy brain previously could think its way out of any hard work, it just isn’t sufficient for a PhD. Yep, epiphany = wake up call…

For me this now means that I have to increase my daily time revisiting the same issues and arguments, repeatedly until there is greater clarity in my mind than there is now. This is the deeper level of thinking that I’m talking about - almost like a long deep contemplation of the issues….a PhD meditation even. What I do know is that I have been wrong in thinking that I had spent sufficient time considering these arguments at any level deeper than a few references.

The real PITA is that I want/need to get back to the experiment and get some data in, but it seems like I’m being dragged back to the drawing board by Mr Miyagi…

N

If you’re reading this because you googled me from my comments on the BBC news pages regarding Cannabis and mental health, please be aware that the BBC cut my comment short. The full, unabridged version (!) submitted to the BBC was :

“I’m sick and tired of all this cannabis fearmongering. I’m in my 30s, a PhD student and I smoke cannabis daily. I agree that teens should not be smoking it because the research is frightening, but for the rest of us mature adults, please treat this stuff without this ‘Reefer Madness’. It’s unrealistic and unfair to those of us who don’t drink, and for whom cannabis is a positive recreational drug. We’re not lunatics, losers or druggies. We’re mature, intelligent, responsible adults who use marijuana like others use wine and who will not be persecuted for it. ”

and the bit that made it to the BBC site was :

“I’m sick and tired of all this cannabis fear-mongering. I’m in my 30s, a PhD student and I smoke cannabis daily. I agree that teens should not be smoking it because the research is frightening, but for the rest of us mature adults, please treat this stuff without this ‘Reefer Madness’. ”

A simple edit, but lessened my argument by removing the context it was originally intended for.

N

1) Goto CES AND the Adult Entertainment Expo. Die a happy man.

N

…you keep getting interrupted nightly at 5am when Norton AV kicks off…

N

This whole marijuana/cannabis debate in the UK has really got under my skin. There’s so much hypocrisy and half truths/myths about it, especially in light of raging alcohol issues here.

What has set me off today is the fact that GW Pharmaceuticals, a UK Home Office licensed researcher into non-smoked medications derived from cannabis, has in their research pipeline treatments for psychotic disorders.

Wait a minute! Isn’t the press full of fearmongering stories that cannabis can cause cannabis psychosis and schizophrenia? So how can it be that the cutting edge R&D of GW Pharma has determined that cannabis derived medication may help reduce psychotic symptoms…? Someone please explain…

N

p.s. Jesus used it

I’m outraged. Today we have the BBC and the Government making all kinds of noise about the ill effects of using cannabis, but on the same day, nay same site, there are headline stories of Charles Kennedy admitting to alcohol problems and of increased incidents of liver cirrhosis due to alcoholic consumption.

This is just pure insanity…so here’s my parody of the BBC cannabis Q&A site - substituting alcohol for cannabis:

http://www.moonshine.org/bbc_cannabis.htm

N

I know - blew my tiny little mind too. MS Messenger has a number of tabs down the left hand side, and today the xbox 360 tab has been replaced by a PSP tab. First MS invests in Apple, now they’re promoting Sony products. Something is _wrong_ in the universe or a marketing droid is going to be reprogrammed with an axe tomorrow morning.

N

I’ve just read a story on the BBC website about Farris Hassan, a 16 year old american of Iraqi descent. Hrrrm, for some reason my editing controls aren’t showing under OSX, so here’s the URL : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4569712.stm

This is clearly a bright, passionate kid who is motivated and driven to explore. Personally I think what he did is amazing - it took planning, cunning, courage and conviction to do - and he did it. I think he should be a role model for kids today….this is someone who got off his ass to do something, or to see it with his own eyes, to make up his own mind - to not take the perverted media verbatim.

Yes, of course what he did was really dangerous and I’m not suggesting that all parents let their kids fly off into warzones. But the principle of what he did is absolutely admirable.

It also may highlight a few teeny security issues, like exactly how does an unescorted minor manage to fly into a warzone??!

N

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (10 years, Liverpool), I was a student at Portsmouth Uni. We mudded frequently and found ways to spod from ever increasingly blatant places (library terminals in particular), much to the angst of the sysadmin. Some time in ‘95 we the Fratton posse from Portsmouth drove up to Liverpool, along with other random pockets of spods from around the UK for a mud meet (the mud in question being The Razors Edge).

What follows below is an account of Cozzy’s evening that I found on Mono BBS. Most of the names in there are game characters, and I was a god by the name of MrPink at the time (after Floyd, not the Reservoir Dog). Read on for an amusing tale of drunken student shenanigans…

N

—————————————————[Sun Jun 18 21:11:08 1995]–
From: I came, I saw, I gotoff with some OAP… (cozzy)

Subject: The bootleg version of “Cozzy does Liverpool”.

Lets start with a little bit of scene-setting.

After a night’s heavy drinking with Mallory, Seeker, Stove Sytoru and Small - combined with a tiring drive up from Portsmouth with the Fratton posse, I was well and truly shafted. Desperately needing to crash, I wearily left Time Tunnel in search of a cab. Luckily for me, Mallory had written his address on a scrap of paper which I duly handed over to the driver.

Leaving me on Garrick St. I promptly went off in search of the infamous number 46. After what seemed like an age wandering back and forth the vicinity (drunkenly asking for directions) I decided to knock on a friendly local’s door… Oh the surprise I got (silly me). Out came this charming lady, with THE most strongest liverpudlian accent ever! She then proceeded to hurl offensive
remarks in my general direction at the top of her voice…

“Yer f***in’ tw@rt, wha’ d’ya thank yer f***in’ dooin’ at 4 in the marning…wakin’ my f***in’ kids …” etc etc.

Needless to say, I apologised and parted with her company.

*** Several hours later… ***

Still wondering around the area (by which time I was soaking wet, tired, hungry and still completely w@nkered) I was stopped by a member of the porcine variety. He asked what I was doing loitering at this time of the morning. I explained to him that I had been out with my ‘friends’ (k’yeah reet!) and that I was supposed to be staying with them at number 46. I also said that noone was home and that I had no placed to go…. *cue violins*

My facade obviously worked and he took pity on me, suggesting that I could crash out at the police station — at least it would be dry. He drove me to the nearest station and left me there on the bench in the foyer. After crashing out for 30 mins, I awoke and thought to myself “Sod this, I’ve got to get back to Chris’”. Still inebriated, I jumped over the counter of the police station
(having not heard of the police burtality that had occured in this area) in search of a helpful policeman to “show me the way to go home…I’m tired and I wanna go to bed…” etc etc.

He duely bollocked me for being a cheeky bastad, clipped me ear and sent me packing. I wasn’t impressed to say the least…

By some god-like miracle, I ended up once again at Garrick St (after passing several winos and grim hookers — both demanding money from me, although for different reasons.)

By now, it was chucking down with rain and I was bleary-eyed and pretty legless. I was desperate to find a warm bed.

*several hours later*

My first night in Liverpool, pissed out of my face, in a strange town. Things did not look good for me. Then! What luck! I managed to find number 46 Garrick St. Hurrah! (or so I thought…) and what more, the door was open too! Ohhhh, how relieved I was. I stumbled into the house and leaving the door ajar, I had a quick look around. Noone was in, the lucky goit must have pulled! (k’yeah reeeeeet!) Finding an empty bed up the stairs, I took off my shoes and crashed — sweetly entering slumberland.

* 5.5 hours later *

Out of the corner of my eye (still half a asleep) I noticed two people wearing extremely bright clothing. Partly shocked and partly happy, I thought it was Chris and sat up in the bed.

“Errrr, could you get up out of bed please, sir?” said the Policeman 1.

“Oragghhhh” I mumbled, “Where am I??”

“Could you stand over there please?” replied Policeman 2, pointing to the side of the bed. He then proceeded to frisk (!) me checking obvious for dope and weapons.

“Where are you from?”
“Portsmouth, I came up with some friends.”
“So did you go out drinking yesterday then??”
“Yeah, I think I had a bit much…”

They laughed among themselves.

“Do you where you are???” said Policewoman.
“Errr. This is my mate’s Chris’ house. He lives at 46 Garrick Street. I was supposed to be sleeping there this weekend.”

They laugh uproariously, in total disbelief.

“Well, son, you have an extremely frightened old lady downstairs, who phoned us up this morning saying there was a strange man in her bedroom. When we came and saw you here, we couldn’t believe it!”

Searching through my wallet they come across my student card and crack up even more.

“Ahhh, he obviously hasn’t gotta a clue. He’s probably done no harm.” says Policeman1 to Policeman2.

By now, I was cacking my pants, thinking a hefty prison sentence was coming my way.

“I don’t normally do this sort of thing — I’m a student, finished my finals 2 weeks ago…”

“Still celebrating now?”

“Yeah — I don’t normally do this sorta thing you know…”

Once more, they laughed. This time harder than the last.

The duly escorted my outside and asked me where I was supposed to go. They then gave me directions. At this stage, I was reduced to a frightene little boy and was begging them to drive me to Chris’. Taking pity on me, they ACTUALLY drove
me to the right street and the right numbered house. They even waited for me outside whilst a flabbergasted Chris, in his boxer shorts with only a pillow to cover his pride, staggered down the stairs and saw me get out of a police car, having been missing for well over 8 hours…

Needless to say, I was WELL happy to be alive. That is not however the end of the story…

After crashing out in Chris’ lounge for a further 2 hours, we all got up and was ready to meet everyone at AJ’s.

So off we strolled down the street, Chris, Nick (Mr Pink), Ambient (Tom) and myself (sporting some shades and a cap in a feeble attempt to hide my hangover) when from behind us …

“Hey you, yes you you f#cking bastad, you tw@t. Wat dyer think yer doin’ wakin’ up me kids at 4 in the mornin’ ?? Wait till me fella gets back, he’s gonna f#ckin’ kill you.!”

Yes, you guessed it. Trust my amazing luck to have banged on the same bitch from hell’s house, only a few hours previously, not knowing she lived a few doors down from Chris’. Woaaahh! I thought, sh!t man, I shafted. First time in Liverpool and I’m gonna have ten barrels kicked out of me. The other guys were obviously pleasantly surprised by the apparent irony of the whole affair.

They then proceeded to scare the crap out of me (well Chris did anyway…) about how the whole gang thing had blown up in Liverpool. All the rest of the weekend, I was looking out at every corner for a sqwaking mad bitch-lady and her maniacal husband. We even had to carry out a covert operation to get me safely back into the house at 8.30am this morning, with Nick quickly unlocking the door whilst I hid behind him, with Tom and Paul guarding the flanks.

Boy! What a weekend! Here’s definitely a story worth treasuring.

Do I get my god-hood now?

We have to do it again real soon!

My university laptop has died and by a remarkable turn of luck my mother gave me her old Mac Mini, so here I am working on My First Mac ™ and my first intro to OSX.

I have seen a marked shift in platform use from my social network over the past 5 years, with many hardcore users moving from Windows or Linux platforms to OSX as their main OS. Some of these are HCI professors, others are hardcore linux spods, and both groups are most certainly clueful and highly experienced individuals.

So, having spent 24 hours with this Mac Mini I have to admit I’m blown away and totally underwhelmed. I REALLY can’t see what the big deal is:

- the two button mouse is painful to use - clicking is so much more effort than needs to be and feels like a really heavy clutch in a car. Considering clicking is integral to a WIMP interface I’m surprised that this is considered the optimal solution. Am definitely going to replace it with an MS mouse.

- the keyboard feels like an RSI-inducing nightmare already. It’s all too cramped and typing a few words causes my forearms to tense up - and I’ve never had this issue with PC keyboards before.

- it’s all too simple….too Fisher Price for my liking. Yes, it might be fabulous if one has no clue on how to use a computer, but I do. It just feels all shiny and moron - it might not be, but that’s how it feels. Almost like I have one hand tied behind my back and font size set to BIG.

It’s still early days, but my forearms are burning as I type this. I can’t see how this is so much better…especially considering this stuff costs so much more…

N

p.s. Someone please explain to me why Microsoft’s versions of Word differ so much between Windows and Mac? There are fundamentally different interaction paradigms in some of the features, and I can only assume that these are Mac influenced. I thought the Mac was meant to be the don for usability, but to be honest I can’t see myself converting at this rate…