A little over two weeks ago, I bought an iPad. I wasn’t really excited about the device and I did wonder if it really was a necessary purchase.

So, after two weeks am I still using it?

Well, yes!

I still maintain that it is a luxury item – it’s not something you necessarily need, and it isn’t really a device that would supercede any other electronic device I already own but what it does do is offer an alternative to them.

As a content consuming device it is incredible. eBooks are clear and easy to read, browsing the internet is so much easier than on the iPhone (which is still an improvement over previous incarnations of mobile internet browsers) and viewing films is superb thanks to the super sharp display. Apps such as the Metro newspaper app have meant that I’ve not had to pick up the physical copy of the newspaper at the station, which has consequently meant that I’ve not left it on the train when I’ve finished reading it.

To some extents it has replaced my laptop, but even more surprisingly it has actually replaced a pen and paper. It has been a pleasure to take to meetings and take notes using the inbuilt notes application, make diagrams using the Adobe Ideas sketch pad application, and add to-dos using the Things task manager. When multitasking arrives with iOS4.0, switching between these will hopefully become even more effective.

Opening up the internet full screen is great, and the fact that the device is always on means that you can just jump on the web to check something, pay a bill or do whatever it is you want to do on the web.

Battery life is impressive, although the charge time is really long. Apple store staff suggested it would charge from empty to full in 2 hours – I’ve found it to be closer to 6.

So the downsides:

It is not really a device for creating content. While the touch screen keyboard is easy to type on, endless tapping on the screen does not have the cushioning effect of a normal keyboard, and isn’t tactile, so mistyping is easy to do.

No Flash. This has been a big criticism of the iPad/iPhone/iWhatever, due to the impasse between Apple and Adobe we are unlikely to ever see Flash on these devices. Apple have pinned their colours to the HTML5 flagpole, which while impressive, will not really take off until there is a simple IDE to build content-rich HTML5 sites – and who produces the most prolific HTML4 IDE? yup – Adobe, who won’t have any enthusiasm to concentrate on an HTML5 heavy Dreamweaver over Flash.

While the absence of Flash is a good thing in that you’re not treated to inane animated intros, some sites do use Flash in a useful way – all of the embedded videos on the BBC news site use Flash. Flash is not going to happen on the iPad, which is a shame as because of the public spat between two behemoths in their field, it is we, the user that lose.

Battery life is impressive, but drains very quickly with constant use. You cannot turn the device “Off” either, which means the battery is always being used, even if it’s minimal.

Apps are generally more expensive on the iPad – with commercial apps being priced around the £5-£10 mark. The iWork suite for the iPad will set you back £18 if you were to buy it in it’s entirety. When you consider that the desktop version of the suite retails at £71, the substantially limited iPad versions are very overpriced.

eBooks in the iBookstore are also rather expensive – priced at the same level as their physical counterparts. Given the cheaper distribution and production costs of eBooks, surely they can be made cheaper. The digital music market benefitted greatly from a fairly standardised pricing structure, slightly cheaper than their CD counterparts.

The Application scaling from iPhone to iPad apps is a bit hit and miss. Some of the higher quality iPhone applications that use custom graphics scale pretty well, but the ones that use the native iPhone controls do not scale at all well. I’m not sure how the applications are compiled, but I would have thought Apple would ensure that their native graphics looked good on both devices.

To summarise, the iPad is probably not the ‘game changer’ that Apple are marketing it as (then again, every Apple marketed product is a ‘game changer’) but it is a useful little tool. It won’t replace any device already on the market, but it is a more portable option for the lightweight tasks that you might normally do on your laptop.

Like the iPhone, it is the Applications that will make this a useful device, and there are already some nice applications out there. The integrated capability to run iPhone apps has already meant that there are many great applications available, with the added advantage that any purchased applications don’t need to be repurchased (unless you want an iPad specific version, but some developers have been happy to release the iPad version at no additional cost if you have the iPhone version).

There is certainly some mileage in the iPad, and because it’s Apple it will shake up the tablet market but only time will tell the long term future for the product. It is quite telling that Apple haven’t announced an upgrade to the Macbook Air since it was released. It is quite possible that the second, or probably third iteration of the iPad will replace Apple’s “It’s not a netbook” netbook.

iPad image from Koninyetska on Flickr used with CC.

Information about how this happened is quite cagey – various people on the internet have commented that it is across a lot of sites, and not necessarily just WordPress sites.

Apologies if you’ve visited this blog over the past week and had a warning about Malware. I think it’s all cleaned up now, and I’ve adjusted the security permissions on the site to hopefully tighten it up a bit.

In other news, I have decided to use this opportunity to redesign the site layout soon.

Unfortunately, I’ve not been able to write anything positive, so I’ll carry on whingeing.

Some time last year, I became aware that the performance-based compensation system the UK train network was changing from a system whereby all season ticket renewals were automatically applied a discount if the line fell below the target level of punctuality to a scheme known as ‘Delay Repay’.

Delay Repay works on the premise that you can only claim compensation against a rail company if your train is delayed by 30 minutes or more. This is proudly advertised as a fairer system, and on the surface, yes it is a fairer system. Whereas previously, I could get a discount on my ticket even if my trains ran on time and the mid-day trains were consistently late, now I am only entitled to compensation if I have been affected by the late running.

Late. What constitutes ‘Late’? In the rail performance figures, a train is considered ‘on time’ even if it is up to 10 minutes off the schedule. With Delay Repay, the train is only considered ‘Late’ if it is 30 minutes off schedule. Here we have the crux of the problem. Under the old scheme, if my train was 15 minutes late, I would get compensated for it. Now, if my train is 28 minutes late, I don’t.

I am pleased to note that Passenger Focus has highlighted this issue, but I’ve yet to see if this will do any good, as the train companies that have signed up to this scheme have no incentive to make the regular trains run to schedule.

On a related note, My usually reliable Chiltern Railways train was cancelled this morning, so as I sat enjoying a coffee while waiting for the next service, I visited their website to look at downloading their compensation claim form.

Nothing.

Searching for anything related to ‘compensation’, ‘delays’ or ‘delay repay’ simply returns no relevant results. I eventually had to visit the ticket office of a Chiltern-owned station to pick up a form titled ‘Passenger Comments’ which doubles as their compensation claim form. While Chiltern have obviously embraced an environmentally sound and cost-effective system, it is not obvious to the customer that a leaflet entitled  ‘Passenger Comments’ would be used to claim compensation.

Delay Repay is a fairer system, but if it is to be accepted by passengers, operators should be more accessible than before when helping passengers claim their compensation. It is too easy to simply forget that your train was delayed when you are sitting on the next service, and even easier to be too lazy to apply for compensation.

It is easy to imagine many people sitting at home in front of a cosy fire because they cannot get to work, or because their children have been sent home from school, going online to shop because they have nothing better to do.

I was one of those who contributed to the spike, but not because I was bored, or couldn’t get in to work – I was able to get in to the office just fine. However, I was forced to purchase my new camera lens online, as the local specialist retailer was, to be frank, hopeless.

The local camera shop window looks like a treasure trove of photography. Second hand and new cameras, lenses and even some old ‘box brownie’ style cameras. Inside, it is one of those shops that you can hardly move because of the tripods, accessories and even more cameras and lenses.

The shopkeeper looked up from his computer and simply said: ‘Yes?’

To which I responded with a ‘Good afternoon’ and enquired whether he had the lens I was looking for in stock. His response was a flat ‘No’. Just ‘No’.

Disappointed as I was, I hopped back on the internet and was able to purchase the lens from an online retailer. Not only that, I experienced better customer service from a faceless website than I did from a specialist retailer who should be enthusiastic about his niche.

I actually visited two different websites, the first of which did not have the lens I was looking for in stock but offered me some alternatives – I could place an order and have it posted when they had some or I could see if a local branch of their retail arm had any in stock. Additionally, it offered what it thought were suitable alternatives to the product I had looked for.

The second website had the lens in stock, but also offered to show me some alternatives that I might want to consider.

Compare this to the shopkeeper’s ‘No’.

I was prepared to pay a slight premium for buying from the retailer, especially if I could have the lens today, but by being completely unhelpful he has missed out on a sale. Instead of offering to search for the lens and see if he can order it (He does sell brand-new Canon products) he chose to simply turn away my business.

The lens I have bought has quite a specific use: it specialises in producing a very shallow depth of field, and is particularly suited to portrait and still-life photography. Instead of recognising that requirement and offering alternative lenses that he did have in stock, and potentially sharing some of his experience and knowledge he simply decided to push me away, as if a customer was inconveniencing his web surfing.

The High-street appears to have already given up the battle with online, and eventually all that will remain are these specialist retailers. The reason why you would visit a specialist, particularly one involved in leisure or hobby items is to talk to an expert and share information. High street retailers have never been under more pressure to deliver a level of customer service that is simply not possible on the web, but they need to go that extra mile.

The 2.5% cut in UK Sales Tax (Value Added Tax) is one such example.

In a desperate attempt to revitalise the UK economy, the Chancellor of the Exchequer has decided that people will start spending money again when they hear that they will pay less tax on them.

UK consumers are usually unaware of the fact that the price they pay in the shops for the majority of goods in includes a 17.5% tax, so if you’re paying 50p for a Mars bar, just under 9p of that is tax, so you’re really paying 41p to the shop for the Mars bar, and the shop is collecting 9p that it pays to the Government.

In addition, certain goods carry a duty tax, including cigarettes, alcohol and petrol.

By announcing that the VAT rate will be cut to 15%, Alistair Darling has effectively brought attention to the fact that we pay VAT on goods.

What is not so widely reported (yet) is the fact that duty on goods is being increased to offset the effects of the VAT rise.

So, the price we pay at the petrol pump should remain the same.

However, there are other, deeper implications to this.

Businesses can claim the VAT they pay on fuel back from the government. By effectively moving the 2.5% from VAT to duty, that increases the costs of transport. The cost of putting £100 of fuel in a lorry changes from £82.50 to £85. While £2.50 is not a significant amount, consider the fact that most haulage companies will be spending thousands of pounds on fuel per week. When you consider £4000 worth of fuel, the difference becomes £100 – this cost adds up. Coupled with the fact that this reduction is only temporary for 13 months, whereas the rise in duty is permanent, the VAT cuts are nothing but a con.

And what does this mean to the humble Mars Bar? well, it comes down to 47p, but will the 3p extra in your pocket be worth it, and will the shop actually pass the cut on in the long term, as the cost of transporting the Mars Bar, and therefore the cost to the shop of stocking the snack that helps you Work, Rest and Play also goes up.

One of the other side effects that has probably not been considered by Mr. Darling is the fact that a lot of pricing and invoicing systems are computerised. I know from my own experience that the VAT rate has been hard-coded into many systems. Thankfully, I’ve not written a system that does VAT calculations but I wonder how many systems will be requiring a rapid re-write?

The added problem is that invoices produced prior to December 1st, will still be applicable for 17.5% VAT, so if the system calculates the VAT ‘on the fly’ from the NET value, the system is in trouble, as it could end up displaying legacy invoices with the wrong rate of VAT applied.

This is the first change in VAT since the big computer boom, how many systems are really ready?

***Update***

Before Christmas, I noticed that NEXT had placed notices all around the till area stating that they were passing the cut on to their customers and that the discount would be deducted at the till.

After Christmas, the same retailer had new notices saying that they had corrected all their prices so that the price on the ticket was correct. I purchased a coat before Christmas, but had to return it. When it was scanned in again, it still came up at the pre-VAT cut price (i.e. with a VAT rate of 17.5%). When I found the same coat on the rails (it was not in the sale stock) the ticket was still the 17.5% VAT rate price.

NEXT have only really provided the UK consumer with a small pre-christmas cut, and they are now pocketing the difference in VAT, as many smaller retailers were accused of doing. I am certain they are not alone.

This VAT Cut is nothing but smoke and mirrors tactics from a chancellor who is panicing.

It never ceases to amaze me that in these ‘Hard’ times of ‘Credit Crunch’ that the rich find ever more ludicrous ways to squander their money, and other people get richer.

The very fact that con artist Damien Hirst has made over £110,000,000 from the sale of pickled sharks is mindboggling.

Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate art – even some of the more obscure pieces, but do people not have better or more worthy things to spend money on than buying overhyped tat?

My wife would go mad if I came home having spent £150 on a Nintendo Wii, What would the wife of the person who bought the pickled shark say? At least with the Wii you can wave your remote control around like a lightsaber.

The only saving grace to this story is the disappointment felt that the zebra in formaldehyde above only sold for half it’s expected price, but at over £1M, that wasn’t exactly a snip.

I think this line from Del Amitri’s ‘Nothing Ever Happens’ sums up the hypocrisy of the situation:

While American businessmen snap up Van Goghs
For the price of a hospital wing

I was going to post last week, about the farce that is Formula One, but after re-reading my bile-filled rant, I thought it was best to put that aside and let the rest of the world say it. I really have little more to add on the subject.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have joined Flickr since having my new camera and I am having a lot of fun with it, much to the exasperation of my wife. However, looking at my statistics page, only one of the photos taken with my new camera make it into my top 10 views of all time.

The most popular image is this:

taken at Goodwood in 2005, it shows Damon Hill driving one of the cars his father’s team built before his tragic death in 1975 in the air crash that not only killed him, but the man who was to drive this car in the 1976 Formula One World Championship.

In many ways, the photo is very poignant, which is possibly why it has so many hits. It is also a rare picture, as to my knowledge Damon Hill has never driven the car before, or since.

The second most popular photo is this:

Personally, I find this to be a more intriguing shot – ephasising the poverty in which this community live. But what is slightly concerning is the search term that was entered into Google Images that led someone to this image: ‘Latino Prostitutes’. I know we live in a sick world, and there are some very sick people out there, but nowhere in my image, description or tags have I mentioned those two search terms.

I’ll grant that Google has been ‘intelligent’ to work out that the Dominican Republic could be classed as Latin America (although I would class it as Carribean), however – where did ‘prostitute’ come from?

Perhaps I should consider changing the title of the image, but again ‘Little Girl’ does not evoke anything sexual to me – am I a little naiive?

Of course, given the fact that I have now mentioned this in a blog post, it is now going to be indexed by Google and the chances are that the image will be even more associated with the search terms.

Can we trust machines to truly understand the subtle semantics of text? I wouldn’t expect them to understand sarcasm or irony, but could Google one day ‘understand’ the semantics of this post and reduce the association of the image with the search terms if a blog post or article is describing what an image is not?

Then there is the added complications of a post like this, where I am reinforcing the association of one image – Damon Hill, Graham Hill, the GH2 and to a lesser extent Tony Brise, but I am also reducing the association between the ‘world’s oldest profession’ and the image of the girl.

Flickr and other such sites allow you to ‘tag’ your images to reinforce themes, but as far as I am aware, they do not yet provide this facility.

Flickr does provide the following advice if you are concerned about the sites/search terms that you see in your stats:

Search engines
If your photos turn up in a search for terms you’d rather not be associated with, you need to remove those terms from the content in your account, like photo titles and descriptions, tags, your screen name, or your Flickr profile page. If you decide that you’d prefer not to be part of search results on other services, you can set a preference on Flickr to prevent external searches from adding your Flickr account to their index. Search engines do not update their (huge) indexes in real-time, so if you decide to change that setting on your Flickr account, search engine indexes can take a few weeks (or sometimes more) to reflect your preference. 

This is all well and good – but the title is ‘Little Girl’, the description is ‘Dominican girl outside of school’ and the tags are ‘Dominican’ and ‘Republic’.

I do not wish to remove my images from the search engines, but should we really have to simply accept that occasionally our content might tagged inappropriately by a machine simply because it has made assumptions about other words?

Hard Rock Memorabilia

(Requires Silverlight Beta 2 installation)

When my Canon Powershot A75 bit the dust after five years of happy service, I decided to take the plunge into the arcane, and expensive world of SLR photography and purchased a Canon EOS 450D.

In many ways, digital photography has made SLR cameras much better value for money. No longer do you have to spend money on individual films and processing is instant, so there is no wait to see if the picture will come out as intended. I certainly would have been put off if I’d spent the money and waited the time for a film to be processed only for all the photographs to turn out blurred.

A DSLR allows you to be free to experiment. Whereas once I would have been tempted to play it safe and stick with an autofocus every time – I can now spend the time to compose a shot and experiment with different settings.

I’m still only at the very beginnings, and I’ve not ventured as far as completely manual operation of the aperture and shutter speeds – despite the camera being very intuitive, some of the advanced settings will take a read of the manual.

However, for the first time, I was able to construct a shot and control the depth of field to get the effect I was after. So I present to you, my (almost) first ever SLR photograph:

A very simple photograph of my dog in the back garden. It’s not the most complicated photograph to take, but I’m pleased with how I’ve been able to get Oscar’s head in sharp focus, drawing attention to the subject, while placing the weeds in the garden out of focus.

I say almost first ever SLR photograph, as the first photo I took I used the autofocus, which placed the entire photograph in sharp focus, losing Oscar in the busy background.

Last night, I took the opportunity to take some more photographs and attempt to control depth of field further:

The 18-55mm lens that comes with the EOS 450D does not seem to allow me to create extreme depth of field, but I’m quite pleased with the mixing deck, in that the focal point (yep – learning the jargon!) is somewhere around the third slider up from the bottom, placing the foreground and the background out of focus.

I’ve set myself a few challenges – partly to justify the purchase of a SLR camera over a compact, but also as mini projects. Next weekend I’m off to Snowdon so I hope to practice taking landscapes and getting creative outdoors, but my big challenge to myself is to take a good photograph of my dog’s mum. She is a jet black dog, and previous attempts to photograph her have been very difficult as a compact camera overcompensates for the darkness of her fur – placing her completely in shadow.

I’ve been reading a few articles about white balance, and how the camera is automatically trying to balance the colour to a mid-grey, so hopefully in a couple of weeks I’ll attempt to take some shots of Skye.

private SQLCommand _cmd = new SQLCommand();

public void ExecuteStoredProcedure(string procedureName SQLParameter[] parms)
{
  _cmd.Connection = _dbConn;
  _cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
  _cmd.CommandText = procedureName;
  _cmd.Parameters.AddRange(parms);
  _cmd.ExecuteScalar();
}

Looks OK on the surface – we have our command object, give it a connection to play with, set it as a stored procedure and then supply the stored procedure name.

However, when this code is run, a “Syntax error near [Stored Procedure Name]” is thrown.

You double check your procedure name is correct, that your parameter array is OK, but still you get the error.

Why?

The problem is that I am setting the .CommandText property after setting the .CommandType property. Setting the CommandText property overwrites the value of .CommandType to ‘text’.

This is a demonstration that even the professionals can get it wrong. The inside of the SQLCommand object probably looks something like:

public string CommandText
{
  set
    {
     this.commandText = value;
     this.commandType = text;
    }
   …
}

or something similar – the point is that the one property is resetting another. This is bad practice – the person using your code does not have any indication of what they are doing. At worst, a compilation warning should be shown or a note in the intellisense summary of the property.

In the MSDN reference for the CommandText property, there are no notes to suggest that the CommandType is overwritten. Although in fairness, the examples do show the properties being set in a particular order.

The correct order to set up a Stored Procedure is:

public void ExecuteStoredProcedure(string procedureName SQLParameter[] parms)
{
  _cmd.Connection = _dbConn;
  _cmd.CommandText = procedureName;
  _cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
  _cmd.Parameters.AddRange(parms);
  _cmd.ExecuteScalar();
}

It could quite easily be argued that my approach to creating the object was wrong, in that I should be setting the text of my command before setting the type, but my mind does not work in that order – I think “I want to create a Stored Procedure Command and this is the Procedure I want to call”. The fluidity of Object Oriented programming should allow the coder to code in a logical way to them.