Just My 2t

Greener Pastures

2008-08-03T03:28:00.001-07:00

I have decided to move this blog to the more mature WordPress platform. The new URL is curremtly my2t.wordpress.com. Hope I will see you there.

Posted with LifeCast

Take Away

2008-08-02T05:17:00.001-07:00

I ordered chips for take-away from Little Chef in Little Hereford (Shropshire) and as they say, a picture is worth a hundred words.

Hey, what can I say, life in the country can be, well, country.

Posted with LifeCast

iPhone 3G

2008-07-31T04:32:00.001-07:00

I am in Birmingham and have just been to the Apple store to check out the new iPhone. As usual the store was jam packed with people fiddling with the gadgets on display. I was actually hoping to pick up an external battery pack for my iPhone but they didn't have one.
As for the new iPhone, it feels lighter and smaller and sits very well in the palm. The plastic back actually removed the slippery feel of the original iPhone.
What did surprise me the most is that (in my most humble opinion), the white version definitely looks better than the black one.
While in the store, I tried out surfing a few pages on O2's 3G and it felt as fast as expected. The GPS however failed to pick ip my location (could be due to being inside the Bull Ring mall).
Nothing surprising on the software side as I am already rocking OS 2 on my current iPhone. I did however get to try out the game Enigmo and will definitely be buying it.

Posted with LifeCast

App Store Apps on my iPhone

2008-07-30T06:44:00.001-07:00

When I upgraded my iPhone to OS 2, the one feature I was looking forward to the most was the ability to install custom apps. I have read of people having more than 50 different apps on their devices and at first that sounded crazy. However, after a couple of weeks, I now have 13 15 apps installed. In no particular order, the apps that I have found most useful are:

LifeCast: This is a blogging tool that works with Blogger and Tumblr services. At the moment, the blogger integration does not support post with images but as far as I can tell its the only one that supports Blogger (this post is being written using LifeCast) .

NetNewsWire: An RSS reader that syncs with the NewsGator services so that all my subscriptions and read status are synced across multiple devices.

Evernote: A notes application that syncs with multiple devices. You can take text, picture and voice notes and Evernote has the ability to search through them all.

*UPDATE*: I have just discovered that this app does not allow the editing of existing notes on the iPhone which is a huge disappointment and makes it virtually useless.

Mocha VNC Lite: a fairly basic VNC client. Can be used to remote control Macs and PCs. Supports horizontal orientation as well as pinching for zooming in and out.

Palringo: a multi-protocol IM client that supports MSN, Yahoo and GoogleTalk among others.

Facebook: this app brings Facebook right into your pocket. You can send messages as well chat with your online friends.

Google Mobile App: this application searches the iPhone contacts as well the various Google services. It can also the location services on the iPhone to locate matches nearest to your location.

Remote: an app that let's you remote control your iTunes library or AppleTV.

ShowTimes: Uses triangulation or GPS to tell you about the movie times at a cinema nearest to your current location.

The rest of my apps are games and these include Platinum Solitaire, Bejeweled 2, Sudoku Classic, Jirbo Match, Enigmo and Brain Challenge.

p/s In case you are wondering how I took the iPhone screen grabs, just hold the Home button and then click the Lock/Stand By button to take a screen grab.

Posted with LifeCast

Guide to copying a DVD to a digital file

2008-06-16T06:39:00.001-07:00

Its fairly straight forward to copy a DVD to a blank DVD, but what if you want to copy just the movie to a file? Here is a guide on how to copy a DVD to your hard disk for playback on devices such as an AppleTV, Xbox 360, PS3 or a video capable iPod.
In this guide, I am going to use my Mac mini running OS X Leopard to copy a DVD for playback on an AppleTV.

Step 1: Encode the DVD to a file

Download Handbrake and install from www.handbrake.fr (Mac OS and Windows compatible - free). Insert the DVD into your DVD drive and then launch Handbrake. You will be prompted to locate the video source so browse to the DVD and select the VIDEO_TS folder.

Step 2: Configure the settings

To start off with, I would advise that you use the many available presets that come with Handbrake (see picture below). I have my settings configured as below which include "AAC + AAC3" audio for 5.1 surround sound pass-through and also uses 2 pass encoding which doubles the processing time but improves the picture quality.

Step 3: Begin the copying process

You can either click the "Start" button or "Add to Queue" if you have multiple DVD (folders) to process. This is the longest part of the process and can take up to movie length x 1.5 on a modest computer.

Step 4: Tag the file

I use a program called MetaX which tags the movie file with the DVD cover art as well as other information such as Genre, Storyline, Rating etc. It does this by searching web sites such as Amazon and IMDB. Check the information you require and then click the "Write and Share" button. You can download MetaX from http://www.kerstetter.net/page53/page54/page54.html (Mac OS - free).

That's it! Your file is now ready to be copied into iTunes (or whatever you choose to use to manage your movies and sent to the AppleTV (or whatever device you have connected to your TV).

For more information on encoding movies with Handbrake, please visit:

http://handbrake.fr/?article=documentation

WWDC '08: My 2t

2008-06-10T06:11:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Apple's CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at the Moscone Centre in San Francisco for the World Wide Developer Conference and made a number of announcement. Some old and some new; here is my take:

iPhone SDK: Not much new here and just more demos of how easy it is to code for the iPhone. This, in my opinion, was the most boring part of the keynote.

The only new item was how the iPhone would handle applications that need to keep running in the background such as Instant Messaging clients. Apple will use a push notification service that developers can tap into to push text alerts, icon badges and sounds to the iPhone. This is a brilliant idea as it allows such programs to continue getting notifications without draining memory and battery resources on the phone (loved the picture of the Windows Mobile task manager to illustrate this point).

The iPhone SDK (now at beta 7) will go live on July 11th.

iPhone OS 2.0: Again, nothing much we didn't already know about in here. A lot of focus has gone into Enterprise features such as Exchange support (push email, contacts and calendars), Cisco VPN support, enforced security policies, remote wipe, WPA2/802.1X, certificates and identities etc.

Apple has also tweaked the existing applications by adding instant search to AddressBook, multi-email deletion/move, support for iWork documents and all MS Office documents.

I suspect more will be revealed when the iPhone OS 2.0 is released on July 11th. Here's hoping for Copy/Paste and a better Bluetooth stack (A2DP)!

iPhone 3G: with the new version of the iPhone OS, Apple has also announced a new version of the iPhone. Dubbed the iPhone 3G, it adds two hardware upgrades, namely, 3G (HSDPA) connectivity and a-GPS receiver. Everything else, spec wise, remains the same. The back of the phone is now a glossy plastic white or black. As with the original iPhone, I will reserve judgement until I actually hold one of these in my greasy palm.

Apple has halved the price of the iPhone to $199 (£99) for the 8GB model (available in black only) and $299 (£159) for the 16GB model (available in black and white).

MobileMe: MobileMe is Apple's take on Cloud computing. As a subscriber of Apple's .Mac service, this update has been long overdue. MobileMe will offer push email, contacts and calendars just like a hosted Exchange account but will also offer a photo gallery and snazzy web 2.0 apps for access to these services. The services will cost $99 (£60) per year and includes 20GB of storage.

Anyone else notice the resemblance between the MobileMe logo and the Windows Me logo? Creepy!

Mac OS X - Snow Leopard: For the second year running, OS X has taken a backseat to the iPhone at WWDC. In fact, Steve Jobs only mentioned this upcoming version in passing during the keynote. Not much is know about this cat except that Apple has put a hold on new features and will instead focus on performance, stability and frameworks to move the OS into the future (I have a feeling this is how they came to the name "Snow Leopard"). Snow Leopard will bring native Exchange support to OS X applications, read/write support for ZFS file system, extends the 64-bit technology to address up to 16TB (terabytes) of memory, improve support for multi-core processors and OpenCL (allows developers to tap into the processing power of the GPU for general purpose computing)

I actually like this plan. In this day of "bringing the wow" at the cost of everything, it is very refreshing to see a company focus on tuning its OS to save hard disk space and gain performance. I do however hope that they don't charge full price for this update.

OS X Snow Leopard is not due out until June 2009.

Summary:

As with just about any Apple event, there were a lot of rumours, hype and speculation as to what was going to get announced. Unfortunately this leads to many people feeling disappointed with reality (really, expecting Apple to announce a new iPod at a developer conference was simply not going to happen). I for one am pretty happy with the direction Apple is going.

Many people see the iPhone as a hardware device akin to a Sony Ericsson this or HTC that and they point out its missing features. They are missing the bigger picture. The iPhone IS the start of the third great platform (Desktop belongs to Microsoft, Internet belongs to Google, Smart-phone - no clear winner). Unlike other Smart-phones, the iPhone is built on the best desktop OS on the market and has a great, well thought out ecosystem. On top of that, one cannot underestimate the fact that it is being steered by the company that invented the personal computer. While this may sound like the rantings of a rabid fanboy, one cannot argue with history. Apple lost its market lead in the desktop OS market due to its own mistakes such not listening to customers, alienating developers, inability to form partnerships and over-pricing its hardware. Looking at where the iPhone is today, you can see that Apple clearly learnt its lessons. They have added most of the features people requested, the SDK is free and has had over 250,000 downloads (WWDC was sold out to over 5000 attendees), it has partnered with key players such as Microsoft (for Exchange/ActiveStink....sync), Google (for Google Maps and mail) and Yahoo (Yahoo push mail and contacts) and finally slashed the price of the phone by half!

With the above information, I have no doubt that the iPhone will surpass and turn Windows Mobile into another PlayForSure effort for Microsoft (who will then release the ZuneFone). It will however face a tough fight unseating the Blackberry platform from the Enterprise.

iPhone Bookmarklets

2008-06-03T08:53:00.001-07:00

The Safari browser on the iPhone is probably the best mobile web browser out there. It does however some shortcoming and some of these can be addressed by using bookmarklets. Bookmarklets are snippets of JavaScript code that you can run in a browser to perform certain functions. To add a bookmarklet to your iPhone, create a bookmark/favourite in Safari/IE (on your Mac/PC)pointing to any web site (I use www.google.com) and then edit its address to the bookmarklet's JavaScript code. Here are the bookmarklets that I am currently using on my iPhone:

1. Bare Bones: This little gem I wrote myself and basically prompts the user for a web site address. Once that's gathered, it passes the address through Google and returns a lighter version of the web site. This is especially great when using GPRS/Edge as the data connection is slower. Hopefully this will be retired when the 3G iPhone comes out :-)

javascript:var%20url%20=%20prompt%20(%22Please%20enter%20the%20url%22,%22%22);var%20google%20=%20%22http://google.com/gwt/n?u=%22;var%20result%20=%20google%20+%20url;window.location%20=%20result;

2. Bare Bonsify: In the same vein as the Bare Bones bookmarklet, this one will convert all links on any web site to return a light version of the linked web site

javascript:var%20as;var%20google;var%20i;google='http://google.com/gwt/n?u=';as=document.getElementsByTagName('a');for%20(i=0;i%3Cas.length;i++)%7Bvar%20org;var%20result;org%20=%20as%5Bi%5D.href;result%20=%20google%20+%20org;as%5Bi%5D.href%20=%20result;%7Dalert('all%20links%20have%20been%20bare-boned');

3. iTransgromify: The clever bookmarklet will analyse a web page and convert any links to YouTube flash video to return the .H264 encoded equivalent which can then be played straight on the iPhone!

javascript:if%20(typeof%20iTransmogrify%20==%20%27undefined%27)%20%7Bd%20=%20document;s%20=%20d.createElement(%27script%27);s.setAttribute(%27src%27,%20%27http://itransmogrify.googlecode.com/files/iTransmogrify.js?q=%27%20+%20(new%20Date).getTime());d.getElementsByTagName(%27head%27)%5B0%5D.appendChild(s);%7Dvoid%200;

4. Find on this page: will prompt for text to find on the current page. The matches are then highlighted in yellow.

javascript:void%28s%3Dprompt%28%27Find%20text%3A%27%2C%27%27%29%29%3Bs%3D%27%28%27+s+%27%29%27%3Bx%3Dnew%20RegExp%28s%2C%27gi%27%29%3Brn%3DMath.floor%28Math.random%28%29*100%29%3Brid%3D%27z%27%20+%20rn%3Bb%20%3D%20document.body.innerHTML%3Bb%3Db.replace%28x%2C%27%3Cspan%20name%3D%27%20+%20rid%20+%20%27%20id%3D%27%20+%20rid%20+%20%27%20style%3D%5C%27color%3A%23000%3Bbackground-color%3Ayellow%3B%20font-weight%3Abold%3B%5C%27%3E%241%3C/span%3E%27%29%3Bvoid%28document.body.innerHTML%3Db%29%3Balert%28%27Found%20%27%20+%20document.getElementsByName%28rid%29.length%20+%20%27%20matches.%27%29%3Bwindow.scrollTo%280%2Cdocument.getElementsByName%28rid%29%5B0%5D.offsetTop%29%3B

5. Open links in new window: converts all links on a web page to open in a new window.

javascript:(function()%7Bvar%20a=doc.comument.getElementsByTagName('a');for(var%20i=0,j=a.length;i%3Cj;i++)%7Ba%5Bi%5D.setAttribute('target','_blank');var%20img=document.createElement('img');img.setAttribute('class',%20'new-window');img.setAttribute('src','data:image/gif;base64,'+'R0lGODlhEAAMALMLAL66tBISEjExMdTQyBoaGjs7OyUlJWZmZgAAAMzMzP///////wAAAAAAAAAAAAAA'+'ACH5BAEAAAsALAAAAAAQAAwAAAQ/cMlZqr2Tps13yVJBjOT4gYairqohCTDMsu4iHHgwr7UA/LqdopZS'+'DBBIpGG5lBQH0GgtU9xNJ9XZ1cnsNicRADs=');img.setAttribute('style','width:16px!important;height:12px!important;border:none!important;');a%5Bi%5D.appendChild(img);%7D%7D)();

Windows Mobile is dead! Long live Windows Mobile!

2008-03-14T05:16:00.001-07:00

Ok, maybe not quite as dramatic. Let's get the obvious out of the way, Windows mobile has been around for about ten years now and in that time has had little substantial improvements at all. On the other hand, the new kid on the block, the iPhone, is already eating into WinMob's market share . If Windows Mobile is to survive this onslaught and avoid becoming the next Palm OS, they have to rethink a few things.

Direct updates: when there is a new release of WinMob (even just bug fixes), Microsoft releases it to the mobile operators who then decide whether to give it to existing customers or force them to buy new handsets. For the iPhone, all updates come directly from Apple to the user and are therefore not only frequent but also lets Apple, the software expert just like Microsoft in this case, decide what to have on the handset instead of the mobile network operator.

Memory Management: it is stated in the iPhone SDK documentation that only one third party app can run at a time and no background applications are allowed. When a user switches to a different app, the previous one must save its state and exit; thus ensuring that the phone always runs at optimal speed as the forefront app has all the resources it needs. This decision by Apple has angered a few developers who believe that a resource limited device should be treated in the same way as a desktop computer that has an abundance of resources (plus hard-disk for virtual memory). WinMob on the other hand takes the opposite approach. All open apps stay in memory unless the user specifically quits them (usually from the task manager). This then leads to a device that gets slower and slower until the user soft-resets it - so much so that it can then take up to 10 seconds to answer an incoming call.

Better and stricter hardware specs: Apple is lucky in that it only has to optimise its OS for two devices (the iPhone and the iPod touch). Microsoft on the other hand has virtually no control on what device the OS will be run on. The net result is sub-par performance of the OS due to sub-par hardware and the user ends up blaming Microsoft. MS needs to stop selling its WinMob licenses to every Tom, Dick and Harry (read Ubiqiou) unless their device meets the hardware specification.

Better browsing experience: there are two things that mobile users like to do most; checking emails and surfing the web. Pocket IE is a pathetic excuse of a web browser. MS should either port IE 7 to Windows Mobile or license the excellent Opera Mobile browser. Pocket Outlook isn't too bad although I am not sure what is so hard about rendering HTML emails from all sources (not just Exchange 2007)

Re-architect: the iPhone OS is based on the same core as Mac OS X (a modern Unix based desktop/server OS - talk about being built on the shoulders of a giant). WinMob is built on the very
aging Windows CE 5 platform. MS would be wise to use the Windows 7 mini kernel for future Windows Mobile releases.

Save screen real-estate: The screen on a Windows Mobile device is abused by the OS and applications end up left with very little screen space to be useful. Compare the iPhone UI with Windows Mobile and you will quickly see what I mean. The iPhone OS has a bar at the top that's 3mm thick. There is no bar at the bottom. Windows Mobile on the other hand has two bars, one at the top and another at the bottom, both of which measure 5 mm each.

Stop the me too dance (aka stop promising and start delivering): All we have heard so far from Microsoft ever since the launch of the of the iPhone are empty promises. First, we heard about how the next version of WinMob (due out in 2009) will bring a touch based UI that will be better than that on the iPhone. Shortly after that, we saw some pictures of WinMob 6.1 which has some very pathetic attempts of some of the iPhone features such as dynamic zooming in the browser and chat-like SMS interface. Most WinMob devices today are still shipping with v6. Then recently, they announced how the Zune Store will
soon (also in 2009) be coming to Windows Mobile devices so that users can buy and download music/movies/games directly on the device (this was announced a week after Apple announced the iPhone appstore). As noted in my "the problem with being a copycat" article, this leaves MS a step behind its competition as they continually shout "me too!"

Next up: Things the iPhone needs to learn from Windows Mobile.

On a completely unrelated note, this is my first article to be written completely on the iPhone. The keyboard does take getting used to and you need to trust the auto-correction feature but after that, I would argue that I type faster on the iPhone than I did using the hardware keyboard on my previous phone (Ubiquio).

Return of the Jedi (where Jedi = Choice!!!)

2008-01-22T07:38:00.001-08:00

Imagine a world where all cars, while looking different from the outside, were interfaced with identically. A world where regardless of whether you spent £15,000 on a Ford Focus or £50,000 on a BMW 6 series, you had all the same features, faced all the same inherent problems and all that differentiated the two were its shape and outward appearance.

Sounds bizarre doesn't it? And yet this is how the PC industry has been ever since the OEM manufacturers got into bed with Microsoft and led Windows to having a 95% share of the PC market. Don't get me wrong, its good to have standards in that all cars are operated using a circular steering wheel, a gear stick, accelerator and brake pads in the same way that all personal computers are operated using a mouse and keyboard. The problem comes in when one party largely rules a market as they end up deciding what's good and not for everyone at large. Also, when such a party has guaranteed revenue streams, there is very little motivation to innovate or even produce a quality product (Windows ME anyone?).

Fortunately, the situation in the personal computing industry is changing in that one is no longer limited to buying a computer running Windows.

There are a number factors that have led to Windows' slipping hold on the personal computing market but before we look into these, lets see how it got there in the first place. Here is a quick recap:

In the late 70's, Apple Computer came up with and launched the first personal computer (the Apple I and later the Apple II). Later on, IBM saw the success of this machine and licensed Microsoft DOS to run on what where called IBM personal computers. Other hardware manufactured soon abandoned their efforts of running custom operating systems (in order to compete with IBM) and created "IBM-compatible" PCs also running MS DOS. The winner in all this was Microsoft as they found themselves providing the software for soon to be the majority of the industry!

So what has changed? Why is this model no longer working? Lets look at the factors working against Windows' domination of the PC industry.

Security: Windows' large market share has led to it being the target of a lot of malware. This was not helped by Microsoft's poor initial focus on security in its OS that left it with more holes than Swiss cheese. Users have simply gotten tired of having to purchase and run anti-malware software on their PCs.

Internet: In the 80's and most of the 90's, a computing platform was largely defined by what file types could be used on it. Now that the Internet has proven to be bigger and more powerful than any one platform (despite Microsoft's efforts to deter this by having Internet Explorer only technologies such as Active-X or non-compliant CSS and Java), open formats are now prevalent. For example, file types such as MP3, JPEG, MPEG, AVI can be accessed by any computer regardless of OS.

Viable Alternatives: Its all well and good bashing Microsoft for its questionable deeds and shortcomings, but in all honesty, for the average user, there simply were no viable alternatives to Windows in the 90s and early 2000's. Linux was too complicated, Mac OS (Pre OS X) was too old and unstable and Mac OS X was restricted to the incompatible, and over-priced PowerPC hardware architecture.

Now, the story is different. Mac OS runs on the same hardware base as normal PCs making migration very easy. It's lower market share and Unix foundation also makes it inherently more secure than Windows. Finally, the fact that Apple makes both the hardware AND the software makes Mac OS less susceptible to performance issues or driver problems.

Linux has also made some progress towards the desktop with easier setups and Live CDs (free CDs that you can use to test Linux on your PC without installing it on the hard disk) especially from the free Ubuntu distribution. You can now order some Dell PCs with Linux pre-installed as well as purchase the excellent Eee PC from Asus for around £200. Other OEM manufacturers are watching these developments carefully and we should see more and more offerings from the Linux camp.

Consumerisation**: I have said it before and I will say it again - the computing industry is now all about the consumer. In the past, computers were for the geek and the nerd to tinker around with. Nowadays, the iPod generation couldn't care less about opening up the case to swap out drives or tweak the registry to improve stability. They need their PC to just work in the same way as their DVD player or washing machine. And this where Windows fails. To run Windows efficiently, you need to know how to keep your anti-virus up to date, defragment the hard disk, clean up the registry, uninstall applications, empty the temp folder etc etc. If you don't, then you will soon start wondering why your fast PC is all of a sudden running like an old pensioner (that's if you don't get infected by a virus first). Again, users are starting to see that there must be a better way. And now there are!

So, in summary, next time you decide to get yourself a new computer, remember that you have now a choice from Windows. If Windows meets all your needs, then by all means buy a machine running it. Just don't blindly purchase without considering all the CHOICES available to you.

**this is a word that I have made up.

Are you ready for the HD?

2008-01-21T09:22:00.001-08:00

It is now looking more and more that the time to move to HD (high definition) is upon us. In fact, I know (and envy) quite a few people that recently acquired new HD Ready television sets. The next step after getting an HD set is to pump some HD content on it - otherwise its like owning a colour TV and only watching black & white content on it. It is a common misconception that hooking up an HD TV will automatically improve everything to high definition. This is simply not true and in fact, some SD (standard definition) content will actually look worse on an HD set due to the image being resized to fit the higher resolution.

So here is my list of where to obtain HD content:

SKY HD: With Sky HD, you can get movies, sports, nature shows and even Eastenders in HD (mostly in 1080i). You however need to fork out for the Sky HD box plus HD subscription on top of your normal Sky subscription (in the US, some companies such as Time Warner Cable offer free upgrades to HD including a free HD cable box...)

High Definition DVD: Now that it looks like Blu-Ray has won the next-gen DVD format wars, it is fairly safe to jump on the high def DVD wagon and never look back. Blu-Ray DVD offers movies in glorious 1080p resolution and also includes loss-less surround sound. It really is the best way to enjoy movies at home! My only issue with this format is that its specification is not complete (currently at 1.2). This means that the player you buy today (with the exception of the PS3) will not be capable of taking advantage of the v2 BD profile (extras that include internet content aka BD-Live) when it comes in October 2008 (?).

Online: There are many sources of HD content online. From movie trailers, free video podcasts to full blown movies. You can use devices such as the Xbox 360, Sony PS3, AppleTV or even your laptop to download and watch HD content on your HD TV. The amount you pay will depend on the service you use and also bare in mind that online HD content is usually of less quality than physical media due to higher compression. It will still look better than ordinary DVDs.

Upscaled DVD Playback: If you are not ready to jump to the next gen DVD format, then why not invest in an upscaling DVD player. Whilst not true HD, this kind of DVD player can improve normal DVD pictures by using a special chipset to upscale the image to look good on HD sets. I recently picked up an upscaling Phillips DVD player for £39!

You: Yes that's right, YOU! Next time you are getting a camcorder, get one that records in HD and enjoy the playback on your TV. Also, most digital still cameras already take pictures in HD resolution so hook it up to your tele and enjoy.

Have I missed any other ways of getting HD content? Be sure to let me know in the comments

Humble Pie

2008-01-08T04:39:00.001-08:00

Well ladies and gents, it looks like it is time for me to eat some humble pie. About a year ago, I posted an article where I declared my support for HD-DVD in the HD format war. But now with Times Warner declaring that they will going Blu-Ray DVD exclusive, its looking rather bleak for the HD-DVD camp (there are rumours that Paramount will be following soon).

Whilst I still believe that HD-DVD is the better format, I for one am glad that the HD war might finally be coming to an end and we can all go out and buying players without the fear of ending up with the next "beta-max".

There may be a number of reasons for HD-DVD's failure but it came down to Blu-Ray's better DRM (harder to pirate ) support that lured in the movie studios. Add to that the Sony PS3 improving popularity since the price drop, and the lowering of Blu-Ray DVD players, the deal was all but sealed.

The HD-DVD camp did not do much to help themselves either. They touted how HD-DVD were based on current DVDs and thus cheaper and yet the cost of an HD-DVD disc was virtually identical to a Blu-Ray disc. The cheap Chinese HD-DVD players never materialised in any quantity and also their talks on having a triple layer disc only fuelled speculation that current HD-DVDs were inferior to Blu-Ray discs.

Well, ladies and gents, I believe its time to get your HD on!

Top 5 Gadgets of 2007

2007-12-21T08:29:00.001-08:00

Its that time of year again when everyone and their cousin is making top N lists, so who am I to resist. As you may or may not be aware, I like and appreciate the odd gadget now and again so didn't take much to let you know the best 5 gadgets that I have had the pleasure of owning this year.

The year 2007 has been a great year for technology and gadgets. It will be remembered as the year that saw the launch of the iPhone, Sony PS3, Nintendo Wii, Apple TV, Windows Vista, Mac OS X Leopard among others. I, of course did not buy every single gadget out there so without further adjure, here is my list of top 5 gadgets (that I have owned) of 2007:

Number 5, Ubiqiou 503G: The Ubiqiou is a Windows Mobile Smartphone with a Blackberry form factor. It is a very well built phone that's slim and light. It packs WiFi, 3G (HSDPA, UMTS), camera and a very bright and sharp screen.

The phone was however let down by early problems with the keyboard (fixed by ROM update) and generally sluggish feel to the OS. I also feel that if there is one thing a phone should always do - it is to be able to make and receive calls; and this is where the Ubiquio failed. It would often take several seconds to answer a call or it would altogether crash when attempting to make calls. Still, not a bad attempt by Ubiquio especially on the hardware side.

Number 4, Sony VGN-SZ650N: This is the laptop that I am writing this article on at the moment. The machine is very well built with an amazingly slim and bright LCD screen which makes it nice and light. Its also no slouch when it comes to performance and battery life. This is partly thanks to the hybrid HDD and Core 2 Duo processor. It also has some nice touches like a built in webcam, fingerprint reader and dual graphics sub-system.

Unfortunately, the laptop was one of the worst out-of-the-box experiences I have ever had. The laptop was loaded with so much ~~crapware~~ trialware that it impaired the system performance and I spent days removing it before I even started installing my own applications.

Number 3, Denon AVR-2807: The Denon is an excellent AV receiver with a multitude of connections including HDMI switching capabilities, iPod integration, multi-zone support and up to 9.1 speaker setup.

The Denon has an auto-calibration feature that will set up the speaker levels according to their placement and room characteristics. I have the Denon paired with Q Acoustics 1100 in a 5.1 speaker configuration and the sound is exceptional. Not only is it able to deliver punching surround, it also delivers music in a very "Hi-Fi" fashion.

The downfall for the Denon is in its complexity. Outside of the auto-configuration, everything else about the receiver requires referring to the very thick user manual. Also, the volume control increases faster as you hold the button longer. This makes it very hard to move from say high to medium levels.

Number 2, Apple iPhone: what can I say about the iPhone that hasn't already been said. Its simply the best smartphone I have ever owned. Despite the fact that it is missing some functionality available in other phones, I would not swap it for anything else even if I was paid to (well, ok - perhaps I would for some hard cash). A lot of the nay-sayers (e.g Steve Ballmer) are already eating humble pie after the iPhone outsold all Windows CE based phones in Q3 2007 as well as accounted for 0.9% of all Internet browsing in the same quarter. Not bad for a device that's only been out for 6 months.

The only reason the iPhone is not at numero uno in this list is because, at the end of the day, its just a phone - right? Well, that and Apple's strategy of locking the phones to certain carriers.

And the winner is, Apple TV:

Steve Jobs described the Apple TV as Apple's hobby that will one day hopefully become the "fourth leg in Apple's chair". Sure, the Apple TV hasn't been the runaway success like the iPod, but ever since getting mine, it has revolutionized my entire family's "lounge life". My 2 year old has all his favorite films available at a touch of a button and my wife can access all our photos and her music just as easily. As for me, I do everything else. You see, like most people, I have a lot of media on my computer but would rather use the big TV and big speakers in the lounge. The Apple TV is the first device that has not only made this possible, but done so in an easy to setup, easy to use and easy to manage way. Besides photos, music and videos, it is also my personal TV-on-demand service. I can now download entire TV series (~~bittorrent~~ legally of course ) and watch them from the Apple TV and also access YouTube as an entirely always changing on-demand TV channel.

Despite the poor sales (which is more down to lack of official content thanks to the movie and TV studios), I believe that the Apple TV is a great success at what it aims to achieve.

So there you have it. What are your favorite gadgets of 2007? Be sure to let me know in the comments.

Wish list for iPhone II

2007-12-05T05:58:00.000-08:00

1 - 3G Internet access: This is a must for the next iPhone as it is the current gen iPhone most obvious weakness
2 - Native IM client
3 - Java: Although Java is a dying technology, it is still used widely on the interweb
4 - Better Bluetooth stack: Supporting A2DP (Stereo audio over bluetooth), file transfer, Personal Areal Network (PAN) and internet sharing

5 - GPS:The Google Maps application on the iPhone is so much better than the one on WinMob that its a shame there is a no GPS built into the phone.

6 - WiMax: The iPhone II would kick some serious if it had WiMax built in. Although this will depend on the rollout and availability of WiMax.

I will continue to update this list as I continue to use the iPhone.

Path to the JebusPhone

2007-11-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, I decided that I NEEDED a new mobile phone. This was different because I usually just "WANT" a new phone. My phone then was an HTC TyTn running Windows Windows Mobile 5. On paper, this phone was a techie's dream and it ticked all the right boxes. Unfortunately, the actual phone was ridden with problems such a touchscreen that would get misaligned on a daily basis, poor battery life and crashes that needed a reset very phone.
The only redemption for this phone was that it led me to realize what key features I needed in my next phone - and they were as follows (in no particular order):
- flawless screen
- 100% accessible keyboard so that I could type with just one hand (not while driving of course)
- interface that I can navigate without needing to pull out the stylus
- good battery life
- WiFi
- 3G internet
- Stable and responsive OS that did not crash and hang
- Acceptable internet experience (I read a lot of blogs)
- Instant Messaging for MSN and Yahoo
After searching high and low, I settled on the Ubiquio 503G running Windows Mobile 6. Its Blackberry form factor meant I can use the keyboard at all times and also navigate the OS without needing a stylus. After a couple of ROM upgrades that fixed keyboard issues on the phone, things were looking good on the 503G. The only issue I had with the phone was that it almost always let me down at key moments. You know, just when you need to make that quick call - this phone would either drop the call,require a restart (which meant getting the stylus out and removing the battery cover to press the reset button) or refuse to turn on altogether.
I also downloaded Opera 8.6 which is pretty good although it felt sluggish and would occasionally crash on the 503G.<
iPhone & Ubiquio

So after a lot deliberation, I ended up getting the iPhone and here is how it stacks up as per the list above:
Flawless Screen: The iPhone screen MAKES the iPhone. Its bright, vibrant and very responsive to touch and multi-touch gestures. Its perfect for watching music videos, podcasts or even movies on the go (certainly kept my 2 year old entertained on our flight to San Diego)
Accessible Keyboard: The software keyboard on the iPhone took me about a week to get used to and now I can type up to 35 words a minute. The trick was to learn to trust the auto-correction feature as typos will slow you down.
Stylus-Free Navigation: As Steve Jobs put it, "Your finger is the best pointing device in the world". The iPhone is completely finger driven and therefore does not need a stylus to pick out emails, songs or contacts.
Good Battery Life: Battery life on the iPhone depends on what you do with it. I have found that it will last a couple days on standby (phone and WiFi on). Video drains the battery in about 6 hours and music playback lasts about 22 hours.
WiFi: WiFi on the iPhone works as flawlessly as it does on the Mac. You don't get the connection failures that you get on WinMob and there is no need to set up "Work" and "Internet" networks.
3G/UMTS: The iPhone is a 2.5G (EDGE) device and this was a compromise I decided to make. Web surfing on GPRS is painfully slow especially as you can't set Safari to load pages without loading images. I have found however that downloading emails and instant messaging works well enough on GPRS.
Stable OS: The OS on the iPhone is not some OS that resembles OS X, IT IS OS X. Here you have a device running on OS X meaning you get the responsiveness, stability and expandability (I currently have SSH (Secure Shell), AFP Server, Bonjour (config-free networking protocol for printing and file-sharing) and Apache "because I can" web server running on my iPhone). Applications open as soon as you touch their icon and when an application crashes, it simply exits without hanging the OS and requiring a reboot. My iPhone is jail-broken (hacked) and some of the apps available from the unofficial SDK are already brilliant. What really excites me is that come February, this device will be opened to third party developers with an official SDK and we should see some amazing mobile applications.
Internet Experience: The web browser on the iPhone is beyond acceptable - its simply the web as you and I know it. No WAP or some rejigged version meant to fit on a small screen. The iPhone loads the entire website on its screen and you simply double-tap or pinch and expand to zoom in on the section you are interested in. I honestly don't miss Flash (YouTube is built in, plus you have vTap.com) at all as its a resource and battery hog on a mobile device.I will admit to missing Java especially for websites such as www.gotomypc.com or www.logmein.com.
Instant Messaging: As there is no built in instant messaging app on the iPhone, I downloaded a third party application called Apollo IM. This is still in beta so it had a few kinks that needed ironing out. I also tried www.meebo.com and have now settled on www.beejive.com (some Ajax (Web 2.0) applications are very good).

Before I got the iPhone, I was concerned about the lack of features that many websites and blogs seem to go on about such as no MMS (I use email, thanks), no GPS (got it in my car - but would be nice), a 2MP Camera with no flash (anyone wanting quality photos should get a proper camera and not rely on their mobile phone), Copy and Paste (Yes, Apple, we need Copy and Paste! and be quick about it!), no Instant Messaging (see above), etc.
The iPhone is certainly not perfect and not for everyone. I don't believe that it makes the best business-oriented device as it lacks features such pure Exchange support and modem ability. However, after owning 4 WinMob devices that promised the world with features and delivered very few, I would rather have a device that delivers on everything that is on the box and a few more surprises. Its about quality, not quantity. Like I stated in my previous article, most of the iPhone's short-coming are software-based and Apple has already shown that it will continue to quickly update the OS with new features (something MS has so far failed to do with WinMob).

The trouble with being a copycat...

2007-09-06T12:45:00.001-07:00

Its not true that Microsoft does not innovate, they take other people's ideas and add little innovative ideas to them. This formula has worked very well for MS for many years, especially in the Corporate world. The thing about corporations is that they make decisions based on, shall we say, facts and logic. For example, a company will consider cost, existing employee skill set, security etc before making a purchase. Companies also only upgrade their infrastructure when it fits in their budgets (am sure this is very obvious).

In the consumer world, things are very different. Users care more about ease of use, security, design and the elusive the wow-factor. This is the market that Microsoft is now determined to dominate. The problem here is that Microsoft's strategy of copying to innovate is not serving them well at all. Add to that the fact that they cannot bully consumers into buying MS products and things do not look all that rosy in Redmond.

Let me look at a few sections where MS is struggling to innovate in the consumer space:

Windows Live Hotmail: Microsoft bought Hotmail just when web mail was taking off. Fortunately for MS, Hotmail already had millions of users. Microsoft simply sat on hotmail for years until Gmail came along and introduced vast free storage and an Ajax (Web 2.0) interface. Soon to follow Gmail was Yahoo with their excellent Ajax offering. MS had to do something and they decided to also add more user storage (less than Gmail's) and move to an ajax based UI. It may not be obvious to some but Hotmail is not as popular as it used to be. Ask yourself this, how many people with first email addresses (or even second) do you know have a hotmail account?

Windows (Vista): In the 80s and the 90s, computers were mainly work horses for word processing, spreadsheets and in order to succeed, a company had to sell to the big companies. Come the 2000s, companies matter but consumers are king. And consumers care more about lifestyle applications such as photos, videos, sharing and social networking more than they care about spreadsheets. Apple saw (started) this trend when it launched OS X with its iLife suite (iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iTunes)in around 2002. Microsoft tried to copy this a little with Windows XP but more obviously with Vista. The problem for them once again is that they are copying previous work - OS X Leopard is due out in October with iLife '08 and already looks to be years ahead of anything offered by Vista.
The result, more and more poeple are now buying Macs for their homes.

Search: This is one market that nobody, especially Microsoft, saw coming. Google has made millions, if not billions, from the simple concept of advertising through search. Microsoft entered this market first with the failed MSN search and now with Windows Live Search. Haven't heard of it? Thats how well its doing!
Also worth noting that MS currently has websites to compete against YouTube, MySpace and Facebook.

Xbox/360: Needless to say that the Xbox failed miserably against the Playstation even though it was a more powerful games console. Microsoft decided to launch the 360 before Sony could release the PS3 so that they could get some sort of a lead into the next-gen console market. Now the 360 is probably Microsoft's best effort in the consumer space and Sony has shot itself in the foot so many times that really, the 360 should be quite a way ahead. They however didn't count on one thing - the Nintendo Wii! Cheaper, more innovative and yet less powerful than both the 360 and the PS3, the Wii has sold more units than both of them put together!

Zune: Microsoft has been trying to challenge the iPod for years through its PlayForSure partnerships with the likes of Creative and Toshiba. This got them nowhere so they decided to create their own mp3 player called the Zune. The Zune took the form factor of an iPod and added nothing to the experience except for buggy software, brown as a user-selectable color and, oh yeah, crippled wireless music sharing; welcome to the social indeed. Now am not saying for sure but, looking at the new iPod lineup, MS has definately got its work cut out. Look at the Zune, and then look at the iPod touch below. Need I say more? No wonder MS is throwing money at Universal to pull its content from iTunes (you read it here first).

So as you can see, the above does not paint a pretty picture of Microsoft in the consumer space. Take into consideration that the Xbox360 and Zune are both loss-leaders (every unit is sold at a loss) and that the WIndows Live department is yet to produce a profit for the software giant, one has to wonder just how deep Microsoft's pockets can run.

Don't get me wrong, my point is not that MS is about to go out of business, it still rules the corporate world with Windows, Office etc installed on ridiculous amounts of PCs, but in the consumer space - Microsoft needs some true innovations to keep up otherwise it will always be a step (or more) behind. They may have some deep pockets over at Redmond but they can't afford to put out any more loss-leaders, can they?

I know which one I would choose....Just my 2t.

10 Things I Hate About Windows Vista

2007-07-04T14:38:00.001-07:00

10. System Nags: From the moment I boot up my Vista system, it starts nagging me about things I don't particularly want to know about! From "Could not connect to network drive" (I wasn't trying) to "Could not install USB device blah blah blah". Why not tell me these messages when I actually perform an action that relates to them!

9. Windows Side Bar: Great idea, poor implementation! The Windows side bar sits in the background of all my open windows (kinda like its on the desktop). Why is it then that when I select "Show Desktop", it also hides the side bar - making it harder to access.

8. Start Menu: I have never been a fan of the start menu. It tries to do way too many things. In XP, the list of applications opened up in a sub-menu. Over time, the menu got too long and took ages to load. Vista's solution is to take all the items that over-crowded the submenu in XP, and put them in an even smaller space thats virtually impossible to navigate - GREAT!

7. Windows Search: When longhorn (internal code name for Vista) was announced, one of the killer features was going to be a whole new file system based on SQL Server called WinFS. It was going to make searching for files super easy and super fast! SUPER! Only it never happened. It was removed from Vista and we got stuck with the current system. My main gripe with Vista's search is that, well, if I start searching for a file, and then at the same time start trying to remember where I placed the said file, I shouldn't beat the system. And yet this happens a lot!

6. Sleep? We don't need no stinking sleep: Trying to get my Vista laptop to sleep is harder than getting my 2 year old son to sleep. Seriously, once I select "Sleep", the screen goes black, and the fans go into overdrive. Once in a while the thing eventually goes into sleep mode but the problem is that it then never wakes up. I have to kill it (losing my work) and then cold boot...DOH!

5. Shutdown...Sleep...Hibernate...Restart....: In XP, shutting down was a simple affair. In fact, I used to do the following key combination: Windows Key -> U -> Enter. Job done. In Vista, I have to click the Windows button, then click the button with a little arrow on it, and then I am presented with....wait for it....7 options.

4. UI Design: They say the best UI is where you can finish a task with the least amount of mouse travel and clicks. Why then in Vista do I need 3 clicks to get to the "Display Properties" screen when in XP I only needed one. Same goes for accessing network connections. The developers seemed to have made some changes just for the sake of change.

3. Flip 3D: This is one of the main WOWs of Vista. I am just wowed as to how they took a potentially useful feature and made it completely useless. Flip 3D shows all the open Windows in 3D stack.
The first problem with this is that when you have more than a couple of different sized windows open, selecting the one you need quickly becomes impossible. Secondly, a feature like this needed to be activatable by mouse gestures as well as the keyboard. Again, a great idea poorly implemented.

2. UAC: This is Vista's way of stopping malicious code from executing on your pc without your consent. My problem with this "feature" is not because its so annoying or that it shows up at the oddest of times. The trouble with UAC is again in the way it has been implemented. Lets look at this scenario; a hacker somehow manages to take remote control of my system and decides to execute a program that messes up my system settings: UAC kicks in at the right time to get verification and all the hacker has to do is click "OK"! In other systems such as Mac OS or Linux, the OS asks for the administrator's password for verification instead of just a button click. I wonder how long before someone works out how to programatically click the "OK" button on UAC prompts. Vista SP1 anyone?

1. Windows Explorer: I don't dislike all of Windows Explorer. I in fact believe that it is a more powerful file manager than OS X's Finder. What really ticks me off however is waiting for it to list files, drives or folders that are located on the local drive - the key word there being LOCAL! Why on earth do I get a progress bar and non-responsive windows just trying to list contents of "Computer"?

10 Things I Hate About OS X

2007-07-04T13:03:00.001-07:00

10. The Finder: The finder has been part of Mac OS since, well, forever. In OS X, the Finder is fairly limited in functionality and sometimes cannot seem to keep up with the user. For example, when you try to connect to a network that is no longer available, the Finder completely hangs until it times out. Another annoying gem is how you can right-click and copy a file and yet you cannot use "cut" to move a file.

9. No easy access to the current date: I can't count the number of times I have looked at the menu bar hoping to find out the current date, but instead all I get in the current day and time. My only options are clicking on Dashboard in the dock or clicking on the time to display the time.

8. No system uninstaller: One of the things I love about the Mac is that most apps come as packages and installation is just a case of dragging the icon from the disk image to a place of the hard disk. Uninstallation of these packages is done by simply dragging the icon into the Trash. There are however some applications that need to put their files in other areas of the hard disk and therefore come with an installer like that found in Windows. The problem here is that in order to uninstall these kinds of apps, you have to re-download the original application and hope that the publisher bothered to create an uninstaller. Apple needs to implement a system uninstaller.

7. Font dialogue:
The font dialogue in OS X is so unfriendly with its tiny labels...Anyway, a picture is worth a thousand words as the say.

6. Zoom button: Even though I started my computing life in Mac OS 7, I spend a considerable time in Windows for my work and one of the things I miss is the ability to maximize the window to full screen. Apple could implement this and keep the current behavior (the window only resizes to the maximum required size to fit the window's current contents) by having an "Option-Zoom" that maximizes the window.

5. No virtualization: I know and understand the reasons but it still sucks that I can't run OS X in a virtual machine.

4. No resize from all edges: Windows in OS X can only be resized from the bottom-right corner and no-where else. Not sure what the design reason is for this little gem but it irritates the hell out of me.

3. Round Corners: The corners of the screen (and in fact most windows) in OS X are rounded. I believe this originates to the original Mac whose physical display had rounded corners. In this day and age of LCD screens, there is no longer any reason for the rounded edges. Get rid of it already!

2. The Trash: In pre OS X versions of OS X, the trash icon was located on the desktop (Windows copied the idea). In OS X, its located in the dock and there is no proper way to relocate it (not even an alais).

1.Development Tools: This may just be a personal preference but developing applications on OS X is a lot harder to get into than the equivalent in Windows.

Coming next, 10 things I hate about Windows Vista....

The iPhone Buzz

2007-06-27T14:36:00.001-07:00

I don't think there has ever been so much buzz for a product as there have been for the iPhone. I hear there are even people already queuing up to buy it when it goes on sale this Friday.
A lot of people are however predicting that the iPhone will be a huge failure, especially when people realize that it doesn't quite live up to the hype.
I, being a self-confessed Applefanboy, am here to dispel these nay-sayers. I would say Apple follows 2 paths when it comes to designing its products. Let me elaborate:

1. Use software to sell hardware: I cant think of any other tech company that seamlessly combines good software design with great hardware. Think Macs and OS X or iPods and iTunes. The iPhone will be no different. Apple has the advantage of controlling both the hardware and the software (the whole widget) which is unlike any other smart-phone manufacturer on the market and can therefore tweak the user experience to just the way it wants. Try telling that to HTC.
A lot of the complaints about the iPhone seem to be leveled at the missing software features such as an IM client or having no SDK. The truth here is that Apple knows that once the hardware is done and out of the door, its engineers can concentrate on improving the iPhone OS - just like it did with OS X and also with the iPods.

2. Less is More: This is Apple's design philosophy and it serves them very well. If you compare Apple's products to its competitors', you will notice that the competitor usually offers a lot more features. Take the iPod and compare it to other MP3 players. The iPod has less features but is a market leader because its well designed and very easy to use. This is the same for the iPhone - sure it only has no 3G and no GPS, but I bet you the overall user experience is miles better than any smart-phone currently on the market. Just today I tried to connect my wife's Sony Ericsson mobile phone to the internet and failed miserably!

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe that the iPhone is perfect by any means - I just know that most of its short-falls are software based and can therefore be remedied with updates.

What I also know is that the iPhone is unlike any other smartphone on the market today; not only is its multi-touch UI revolutionary, it is going to completely change the smartphone market as we know it. From now onwards, all mobile phone manufacturers are going to try and out-do this phone. And thats a good thing.

So, will I get the iPhone when it comes out in Europe? No, I never buy a v1 product. But I definitely will eventually.

2007-04-20T05:10:00.000-07:00

Ever since I got my Mac mini, I dread going back to using Windows for my work. I however find it quite difficult to relay to someone that only uses Windows how Mac OS X is still head and shoulders above Windows (Vista included). Maybe these two pictures of when I was trying copy a folder of icons from my build server (Vista) to my Laptop (Vista) and Mac mini can put across what words can't seem to!

Vista's progress

Mac OS X's Progress

2006-10-18T07:51:00.000-07:00

Of Madonna and Adoption

I am on the road this week and there is one thing that has been consistent throughout my travels, every time I have turned on the news or read a newspaper, there has been something about Madonna’s adoption of 13 month old David Banda from Malawi.

First, I must admit that I am quite happy the media are mentioning Malawi (a lot) and it’s not directly related to hunger or HIV/AIDS. I am sure Patricia Kaliati must be salivating wherever she is at the prospect of the boost to the tourism industry.

There seem to be two main schools of thought with regards to the adoption here in the UK. One is that Madonna didn’t follow the laws of the land and was only granted the adoption rights because of her celebrity status. The other is that Madonna is simply following a fad set by other celebrities that have also adopted children from poorer countries. I watched “This Morning” on ITV (I know, I know) and according to their vote, 59% of their viewers disagree with the adoption. A lot of organisations have also voiced their disapproval citing human rights and the cloak and dagger manner in which the adoption case has been handled.

I believe that they are missing the point. The only time I have heard anyone comment on baby David’s welfare was when he was covered with a hoodie and driven to central London amidst flashing cameras. It seems everyone is only focusing on the now. I propose that we look say, 15 years from today when David is 16.

Let’s examine the two scenarios:

1. David’s adoption is squashed and he grows up in Malawi: I am Malawian and very proud of being so, however, I do not have rose tinted glasses about life back home. It is sad to admit but there is stigma attached to being an orphan in Malawi. If David would live to see his 16th birthday, chances are that he would have suffered both mental and physical abuse, be involved in criminal activities or living (dying) with HIV/AIDS. Would he know how to read and write? Probably, but not to high standard. I don’t think I need to go on here; I am actually getting depressed thinking about it.

2. David lives and grows up in the Madonna household: I don’t know Madonna personally (really?) but even if she is not the ideal mother, David will be exposed to better education, better health care and opportunities he wouldn’t have even dreamt of back at the orphanage. Don’t get me wrong, there are no guarantees in life and David could end up a criminal with HIV/AIDS whilst living in the UK, but he would have been offered ample opportunities – more so than the average British kid.

Now, can any of those people against the adoption (regardless of how the papers were shuffled) tell me that the best option for David is to remain at the orphanage in Malawi? They mention human rights – what about the human rights to a full education, the human rights to health care, simply, the human rights to a better life. As for the flashing lights scaring baby David, this was no doubt a daunting experience for him but it pales in comparison to some of the experiences that awaited him as he grew up in the orphanage.

I really wish the media were wise enough to have interviewed a Malawian about the whole situation instead of UK based adoption lawyers.

I have a son who is David’s age and as any parent will agree, will do anything for our offspring’s betterment including handing them over to someone else if we were sure it was for their benefit (easily said than done!)

Well, that’s my rant done...Be sure to leave your comments. Just my 2T.