Posts by Art Kavanagh

Lenovo to swallow German PC giant

Aldi

Two of my relatives have bought Medion computers in Aldi. In my limited experience, they tend to have fairly impressive specifications combined with disappointing build quality and components (e.g. keyboards, screens). Will Lenovo take them upmarket, in terms of quality if not price?

Knife-waving knob nabs fat stack of jazz mags

Jazz mags

I buy jazz mags sometimes. One of them is actually called "Jazz Magazine" and it merged with the rival Jazzman some time ago. I sometimes read the articles but I mostly buy them for the cd/album reviews and the programmes of the summer jazz festivals. Jazz festivals are as much fun as they sound.

Lenovo ThinkPad X100e

Curb your enthusiasm (or we'll do it for you)

Andrew: "The keyboard is undoubtedly the machine's strongest point"

Sub: "The keyboard is arguably this ThinkPad's best feature"

Irish civil rights group takes aim at iPad launch

Translation

Presumably the pronouncement from the Apple spokesperson is meant to translate as "please leave a message after the tone", but I think something's gone wrong with it. Admittedly, my Irish is so rusty that it completely disintegrated a long time ago.

Ion add-on to equip iPhone with full Qwerty keyboard

Missed opportunities

If this had been available 18 months ago, I'd certainly have bought it. However, I've belatedly been forced to recognize that "mobile computing" is never going to be frictionless enough to be worthwhile. Most things can wait till I get back to my desk.

As for the fold-up keyboards mentioned by Ian Ferguson, they just don't appeal to me. I've used them with various Palms and the Nokia N800. They're not solid enough to allow you to forget about the keyboard and just type, so what's the point?

Software fraudster 'fooled CIA' into terror alert

Very dark comedy

I'd probably find this funnier if I hadn't been reading a piece in Salon yesterday in which Glenn Greenwald touched on the case of an Al Jazeera journalist who was locked up in Guantanamo, held for 7 years without charge and tortured. Clearly, episodes like this fraud contributed to an atmosphere in Washington in which "Al Jazeera journalist" was understood to mean "enemy combatant". Hilarious, no?

Video surfaces of alleged Apple tablet

Shelf?

Whether this video is a magnificent but total set-up, or an authentic first sighting of the famous tablet, I WANT THIS TABLET. Roughly speaking.

Apple lists iPhone UK hits of 2009

lovely birds and shiny fish

Not to mention Damian Lewis.

Webmasters fume as Google profiles signed-out searchers

Unhappy SEO types?

My heart bleeds.

My instinctive first reaction was "Oh, no, this is bad" but, having read the article, I'm inclined to leave personalization turned on for the time being, and see if my results improve.

Guardian in hot water over activist face flash

Guardian has a point

I can't agree that the Guardian mishandled this. The story would have lost a lot of impact if they hadn't published the spotter card, or had published it with faces blanked out. The story made it clear that some of the people whose pictures appear are not current activists. It can be presumed in any case that mere suspicion on the part of the police would be enough to account for the inclusion of any individual's picture. This being so, it's hard to see how any employer would be justified in taking action on the basis of being brought "into disrepute".

And Kev B, the Guardian must have contacted Mark Thomas, since the story includes a comment from him!

BT bundles MS Office with Linux laptop

Silly of me

It took me a while but I think I understand why this BT offer is attracting such ridicule.

1. Most people who might buy an Eee PC will already have at least one other computer but very few of these will be Windows boxes.

2. Nobody who's tried OpenOffice on an Eee could possibly think that that other Office had anything useful to offer, could they?