As Google now supports microformats, I’ve added hReview support to all the CSDO Media sites, including Carsurvey.org and the airline review pages. Whilst visitors with normal web browsers won’t notice any changes, the reviews are now much easier for computers and search engines to understand and manipulate.
In case anyone else is looking to do something similar, I found the Optimus microformats transformer to be very useful for checking that my hReview markup was valid.
Questions, complaints about Carsurvey.org? Ask away in the comments.
Following a recent experiment with FeedbackArmy, I’ve removed the tabs on Carsurvey.org. They seemed like a good idea when I introduced them, but ultimately they were just confusing and a waste of space.
As a consequence, the links to the other CSDO Media sites have been moved into the page footer, and the search box has moved from the top left of the page to the top right.
I’ve also added the IE8 meta tag, to make sure Carsurvey.org behaves nicely when Microsoft release their latest browser in a few months time.
After quite a few years of relative inactivity, I went a bit mad this year and bought lots of new hardware. I thought I’d jot down a few notes on my purchases in case anyone is interested.
8 core Apple Mac Pro 08 with 10Gb of RAM
My new main desktop machine, purchased in February 08 to take over from my Mac mini. Massive overkill for most things, but it’s great to be able to run Mac OS X, Windows and Linux on one box without running out of resources.
Went with the optional 8800GT graphics card and WiFi, but did the RAM upgrade and disk upgrades myself to save money.
I never seem to max out the processors, but run a few different VMware sessions, added to Safari’s usual memory leaks, and 10Gb of RAM actually seems quite tight. Will be upgrading to 16Gb when I spot a good deal on some 2Gb DIMMS.
Rather than doing a RAID setup, I went with a single 750Gb SATA disk, a Seagate ST3750330AS, which had a 5 year warranty compared to the usual 3 year warranty on most hard drives. Hopefully that means the disk is pretty high quality. The 750Gb main drive is backed up to a 1Tb Western Digital disk configured for Time Machine. Note the different drive manufacturer (in case one manufacturer has problems), and I went for one of their 5 year warrantied server class drives, the WD1000FYPS.
Then to make things safe against natural disaster, I have a pair of 750Gb Iomega Ultramax external disks backed up by Carbon Copy Cloner. This pair of drives are alternately rotated out of my house to another location, so I have a safe backup offsite.
Dell Vostro 1500 with 3Gb of RAM
This is my workhorse laptop. Came with Windows XP (don’t want Vista on a basic laptop), now dual boots XP and Ubuntu. 1.4Ghz Core2Duo and Intel graphics, so nothing too powerful, but no compatibility issues.
Had a Vostro 1400 for a while with Nvidia graphics, but ebayed it when the recent Nvidia overheating problems were announced.
The 1500 is pretty heavy, and the 15″ screen doesn’t have the best viewing angles, but it’s very solid, and was very cheap for the build quality. 3Gb of RAM gives me enough space to run a VMware session fairly comfortably, should I need to develop on the move.
Samsung NC10 netbook
Dumped my Nokia N800 this year, having bought an iPhone 3G. Picked up an MSI Wind, which I really loved, but the battery life was pretty appalling.
Ebayed the Wind and picked up a Samsung NC10 (upgraded to 160Gb). Amazing battery life (6-7 hours), and great build quality for the money.
Only downsides are the screen and touchpad aren’t quite as nice as those on the Wind.
This little machine can do 90% of the things a Macbook Air can do, for less than a quarter of the cost. Runs Firefox and Google Chrome very well indeed. Prefer Firefox as the fullscreen F11 mode is a godsend on netbooks.
NEC 1970NXp with Neo-Flex stand
Picked this old NEC monitor up of eBay very cheaply. It’s an MVA panel, not like the usual TN panels found on cheap monitors. Attached an Egrotron Neo-Flex stand, rotated it through 90 degrees, and it makes a great portrait monitor for reading RSS feeds and documents.
Dell 2709w monitor
After a brief romance with a 30″ monitor, I decided to replace my old Dell 2405FPW with a 26″ or 27″ display, as it would easier to read with tired eyes (yes, I should spend less time on the computer). Initially bought a Hazro 26″, but ran into lots of quality issues with that, so went for a Dell 2709w instead.
No entirely convinced with the touch sensitive buttons, but the display itself is great. A 27″ display at 1920×1200 turns out to be perfect for my eyes.
Carsurvey.org now autosaves draft comments and reviews every 30 seconds, as long as JavaScript and cookies are enabled in a visitor’s browser. This is similar to the autosave features in WordPress or Gmail.
For most visitors, this means:
Getting this feature working across browsers was made much easier by the wonderful jQuery JavaScript library; I can’t recommend it highly enough.
In no particular order:
Cocktails – The typography and design of this drinks app are gorgeous. I especially like the way the page colour reflects the recipe age
iSSH – For anyone who manages remote servers, this SSH client is an essential download
PuzzleManiak – 15 great puzzles in one affordable package. Loopy is my personal favourite
Shufflepuck – Great presentation, and the skill level is set just right. Better than any of the bowling games I’ve played
Wings – While nowhere near as sophisticated as X-Plane, I just love the chilled atmosphere of Wings. Reminds me of Pilotwings 64
Zone Warrior – Elite, meets X-Wing, meets the iPhone
Darkness – Best of the sunrise and sunset apps that I’ve tried
Locly – Good local information, but I especially like the local Twitters
GeoPedia – For some reason, this has much more comprehensive coverage than the other geographic Wikipedia apps (at least where I live)
iLaugh – I know it’s only a front end to a website, but this is very well executed, and sometimes it’s just nice to have funny stories or jokes available at one click
You’ve probably heard of these, but they’ve taken up longterm residence on my iPhone 3G. In no particular order:
Google Earth – No explanation should be needed. It’s as near to the desktop version as you could reasonably expect
Twitterific – It’s free and it does Twitter beautifully
Camerabag – Turn the poor quality iPhone camera into an arty camera. I especially like the 1962 filter
Gazette – The best Google Reader app I have tried. Currently prefer it over Byline, as Gazette allows for browsing of individual feeds
MotionX Poker – This simple poker dice game is executed absolutely perfectly. A great app to demo the iPhone, and it has an addictive one more go quality
Galcon – Super fast real time strategy game. The videos out there don’t do it justice, it must be played to be appreciated
Topple – Boom Blox in reverse. Needs no further recommendation
eBay – eBay has a horrid website design. This app is cleaner and more focused than the parent website
Wikipanion – Just edges Kiwi as my favourite Wikipedia reader
FizzWeather – Beautiful and detailed weather app with good UK coverage
I’ve had an iPhone 3G 16Gb for about 3 months now, and have been meaning to post about it for ages. Rather than writing a detailed review, which has been done to death, I’m going to focus on my general impressions, and some less obvious points.
Stability: Firmware 2.0 was absolutely terrible, especially if you installed many 3rd party apps. Firmware 2.1 has been rock solid for me. Fingers crossed that 2.2 preserves the stability.
3G: Reception isn’t that great (not as good as my N95), and the handover between 3G and GPRS is slow, so I turn 3G off unless I’m somewhere that I know has a strong 3G signal. Not ideal, but more acceptable than I would have expected
3rd Party Apps: The range, quality and low price of 3rd party iPhone apps has blown me away. Yes, I wish there were less restrictions on the apps, but overall purchase and upgrade experience through the iTunes store, makes every other software purchasing experience look like something from a previous century.
Battery life: Very variable. Can be pretty good when mostly in standby, but heavy app use can kill it. Running the battery flat once a month (before charging) seems to increase the battery life.
Basic phone usage: Unusually (in my experience) for a smartphone, the call quality (at least for the caller) is very good.
Camera: Macro focus would be very helpful. More important than extra megapixels.
Gaming: The iPhone is an absolutely killer games machine. It’s a genuine competitor to the Nintendo DS, but for me, having multiple games on one device, all very cheap or free, and built into my phone, is just amazing. I defy anyone to be bored with an iPhone.
Media Player: It’s great, especially the YouTube integration, but for just playing music, I actually prefer the simpicity and solidity of my old 1G iPod nano.
App management: Not good enough. Both iTunes and the iPhone don’t cope well if you add lots of 3rd party apps. Managing and navigating through tens or hundreds of apps needs to be improved.
Overall: The iPhone 3G is definitely the best phone or PDA I’ve ever owned. I loved my old N95, but the apps on the iPhone take the smartphone experience to a whole new level.
I can’t seem to manage short blog postings (at least about personal stuff), so they’ve become pretty rare beasts.
And neither am I the joining type. If I can live without an account, so much the better. That’s partly why Carsurvey.org is so open. I’m happy to say that I don’t have accounts on MySpace, Facebook, or the New York Times.
But Twitter has tempted me. Doubtless the posts will slow once the initial enthusiasm wears off, but nonetheless, let’s give it ago.
You can follow me as distantparts on twitter, and I’ve also added a widget of my most recent twitters to this blog.
Following a suggestion from a regular user of the Members Area, I’ve added two optional features, which can be activated using the “Update your details” page in the Members Area: