Category Archives: Web/Tech

Back to real photos: trying the Canon EOS 400D digital SLR camera

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For years, I enjoyed taking photos with my trusty Minolta SLR (single lens reflex) camera. I may not have been the world’s best photographer, but the quality of the camera combined with my reasonable eye for a good photo produced the goods.

Then the digital revolution arrived. I bought a digital compact camera and marvelled at the way images appeared instantly, without waiting for Boots or Bonus Print to produce prints. My Minolta gathered dust in the cupboard. I doubted whether I needed a big camera when a tiny one produced such wonderful photos.

And yet… Digital cameras seem to lose concentration at a crucial time. What you see isn’t always what you get, especially when using flash. I dismissed this as a minor irritation for a while, then acknowledged this was a huge disadvantage. It was time to rediscover the SLR, 22 years after I bought my first, a Praktika, with money my parents gave me for passing my university final exams in 1985.

I chose a Canon, the EOS 400D, and expected to buy it during 2008. But my wife Karen had picked up a few hints I hadn’t realised I’d dropped and presented a new camera to me on Christmas morning. What a wonderful surprise.

The results so far have delighted me. Instant results. No time lag. Great portraits. Here are a few examples: berries in a field on Boxing Day and our youngest niece Verity:

Berries_boxing_day Verity_28_december_2007

That said, the software that Canon provides with the 400D is dreadful. First, it’s not designed for Windows Vista – despite the fact Microsoft’s latest operating system is almost a year old. As a result, it didn’t work on my new computer. I then took 100 minutes downloading the latest Canon EOS utilty software on a fast broadband connection. I needn’t have bothered – the standard Vista software is far more user-friendly than Canon’s program. It’s a shame as the EOS and my Canon Pixma printer are excellent.

Microsoft Outlook 2007: email killer?

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I got a new laptop a few months ago. Soon afterwards, I bought Microsoft Outlook 2007 as I wanted something a little more sophisticated than Microsoft Mail, the new version of Outlook Express.

Everything worked fine, until last week. Then I found my emails took longer to send and receive. Then they dried up completely.

I googled ’email problems Outlook 2007′ – and was alarmed to find a vast number of results.

I’m still no nearer finding a solution, despite running Outlook on a new computer with Vista. Yet Microsoft Mail continues to send and receive, so there’s no problem with my email account.

Why do IT companies continue to churn out products that aren’t stable? It reminds me of the spat between the IT and car industries 10 years ago. The IT people mocked the lack of real innovation in modern cars. The car people retorted that if cars were as unreliable as modern software you’d have to reinstall your car engine after putting a new music tape in the stereo.

A student memory: looking for a phone box

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Leicester_phone_box_1985Very few school leavers heading for university this autumn will experience the grim ritual that faced students before the days of mobile phones: looking for a phone box that was working and not being used.

When I went to the University of Leicester 25 years ago, I quickly got used to the frustration of hanging around waiting for someone to finish their call. Finding the person you were calling was out – or engaged. Feeling awkward as you finally enjoyed a conversation but a sinister looking stranger gave you an evil look for not finishing your call. (This usually ended with the sinister stranger tapping the window menacingly.)

Back in the 1980s, it was all too common to find phone boxes vandalised or even – if my memory isn’t playing tricks – out of action because the coin box was full. So making just one call could mean half an hour or more in the cold – and the winters of 1983/84 and 1984/85 were freezing in the East Midlands.

When anyone asks why we need mobile phones, I’ll send them in search of the phone boxes of Walnut Street (above), Narborough Road and Fosse Road South in Leicester… 

Testing Windows Live Writer

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Mobile pics to 050607 139 Mobile pics to 050607 153

Scenes at the first FA Cup Final to be held at the new Wembley stadium, May 2007

Delivering the new PR

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LondonbuttonI spent a useful day today at the latest Delivering the new PR conference in London.

The event was headlined How blogs, podcasts and RSS can work for you. It featured a number of well known PR bloggers and commentators, including Stuart Bruce, Neville Hobson, Tom Murphy, Philip Young and Chris Rushton.

Speakers2_1 It was run by the excellent event management company, Don’t Panic, who organised the CIPR Northern Conference I spoke at last July. (Thanks to Andy and Nicky Wake for this photo of the speakers.)

There’s no doubt that blogging and social media are having a major impact on the media and corporate reputation. There are now around 60 million blogs worldwide, while consumption of mainstream media amongst teenagers and twentysomethings is plummeting. Any PR person whose sole focus is what the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and the Today programme say is in danger of missing a serious trick. That’s not to say the mainstream media is irrelevant: it isn’t. But it’s just part of the picture. Tom Murphy gave an example of how an American software company got huge publicity coast to coast – online and in traditional media – by just contacting seven bloggers. The Mexican wave nature of blogging did the rest.

One of the key messages of the event was that social media will end any idea that PR people can control the message. It’s always been a myth, fuelled by the short-lived success of people like Alastair Campbell, but it’s now on its last legs. The irony is that this is happening just as senior management is demanding miracles of PR teams. Issues management is a full time job, especially in sectors under the media, consumer and regulatory spotlight, but it cannot banish nasty headlines. We must not pretend that we can. Above all, we must maintain absolute integrity in the face of the pressures. I sense that people new to PR, thrust into the limelight, may be tempted to cut corners and wing it with claims that are economical with the truth. It’s a temptation that could – rightly – be career threatening.

Neville Hobson talked about how his new venture, Crayon, launched in Second Life, and explained how he and his far-flung associates get together in the diner in this virtual world. I wasn’t the only person in the audience who was sceptical about this. Yes, big name companies, including sober-minded Reuters, have bought a presence in Second Life. And yes, I was sceptical about blogging a year or so ago. So I may become an evangelist for companies getting involved in 2007. But I’m not convinced. It strikes me that Crayon is using the Second Life connection to create a buzz. That’s not in itself a reason for the rest of us to jump on the bandwagon. But we should certainly keep a close eye on how Second Life develops.

Testing Windows Live Writer

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I’ve read Stuart Bruce extolling the virtues of Windows Live Writer so here I am giving it a go. I wanted to include this early morning photo of Leeds but can’t see how to wrap text around the image. Looks as if I’ll have to continue posting directly from Typepad… 

Tech and stuff: will we ever get to grips with it all?

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I was listening to the latest Feedburner podcast today and found that a comment by one of the Feedburner vice presidents struck a chord. He was saying how he was continually having to explain things such as feeds and even what a subscriber is. He went on to say that if fairly tech-savvy people found things difficult to grasp, how much harder must it be for the rest of the population, who may never heard of podcasts, let alone RSS feeds.

It got me thinking about the challenge of getting to grips with the complexity of the the things we handle in our everyday lives. I’m currently surrounded by idiot’s guides to blogging, video editing, Photoshop and a stack of other things. I’ve just about figured out my new Sony Ericsson K800i phone. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy learning new things – blogging, producing a video – but I can see why people find it all intimidating, when a mobile phone instruction manual runs to a hundred pages. And that is just one device. No wonder we barely touch the potential of all our gadgets and applications.

The other challenge is working out how to put things right when it all goes pear shaped. Cutting edge technology is wonderful when it works, but leaves us frustrated and stressed when it throws a wobbly. As Microsoft Windows is prone to. It leaves me asking the big question is: should I consider a Mac for my next computer, or will Vista prove at last that Windows can be reliable?

Sony Ericsson: style not always guaranteed

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K800i
I love my new Sony Ericsson K800i phone. As you might have spotted from recent posts, I’ve finally worked out how to post to Typepad from it, rather than the default Blogger option.

I learned a lesson with my last handset: modern phones scratch easily. So I sent off for a cover for the K800i. It was an official Sony Ericsson one, so I assumed it would be as stylish as the phone. No such luck…

Sony_ericsson_case_1

 

   

Will Webcameron make the Tories winners again?

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The Conservatives unveiled Webcameron at the start of their party conference.

The video blog is designed to project David Cameron to a younger audience that has grown up with the rise of blogging and social media sites such as YouTube. You could call it Cameron Direct: by-passing journalists and their pesky questions.

The launch hit the headlines, enjoying a positive reaction even in papers traditionally hostile to the Tories, such as The Guardian.   

There’s been a lot of talk about how the Tories are stealing a march on Labour: many of the best known political blogs are on the right, such as Iain Dale and Guido Fawkes. But it’s hardly surprising: opposition lends itself to polemic, unlike government, and blogging thrives on controversy and forthright comment. Similarly, the big advances in party political communications have often been by parties in opposition: Gordon Reece’s makeover of Margaret Thatcher in the late 1970s; Peter Mandelson’s and later Alastair Campbell’s work for Labour from the late Eighties onwards.

I applaud the idea behind Webcameron: using the latest communications tools is a sensible move, especially when they’re all about a two-way conversation. Cameron, like Blair 12 years ago, has a (perhaps short-lived) advantage of appearing fresh and different, prompting many cynical voters to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But I can’t see Webcameron having huge appeal beyond the politically aware and active. The latest video of the boy David talking about how the conference went was an insomniac’s dream. Worthy but dull. Content is king, and by the evidence so far Webcameron will have to raise its game.

PR bloggers such as Simon Collister and Stuart Bruce have contrasting views of Webcameron and its likely impact. Simon shares my view that politicians have to engage in a more honest debate on key issues and policies. Stuart appears to believe that politicians are as much spun against as spinning and often engage in more genuine conversations than the mainstream press would have us believe. 

By coincidence, I found two examples this weekend on the web that support both these points of view.  The Guardian website carries a video by Dan Chung showing the media pack pursuing the hapless Boris Johnston after his comments about Jamie Oliver and school dinners.  It made me feel sorry for Johnston, whose comment "Can I ask you in all sincerity if you think you’ve over-egged this?"  struck me as a very fair question. The media pack in full cry is not a pretty sight.

The other example was Iain Dale’s post admitting that he may have been too quick to dismiss Isabel Oakeshott’s story in the Sunday Times suggesting the Tories were gung-ho about privatising the NHS. The article quoted Tory policy chief Oliver Letwin as saying there were no limits to privatisation plans. Dale initially followed Tory head office’s party line but after talking to Oakeshott concluded that this may be a case where both sides genuinely believed they were right. Dale’s candour is commendable: voters like politicians who are prepared to listen to other views and admit they don’t have all the answers. It amazes me that so few grasp this simple fact.

Dale is the man behind 18 Doughty Street, the web-based ‘television’ channel that launches this week. Iain’s approach on his blog suggests that the new venture may be more than a predictable rightwing outlet for the hang-em and flog-em brigade that many fear. If it not, it will sink without trace.

TalkTalk ‘free broadband’: don’t choke on your free lunch

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It was billed as ‘free broadband forever’. But UK telecoms provider TalkTalk‘s offer has led to a flood of complaints.

In today’s Guardian Money, Miles Brignall reports on the consequences. The sub-head summarises the situation perfectly: ‘It sounded too good to be true, and for many, it was’. Thousand have been left waiting to be connected, and can’t get through to TalkTalk’s customer service centre.

It’s easy to get carried away with marketing hype. We all love a bargain, and ‘free’ is the biggest of the lot. But the sayings ‘you don’t get something for nothing’ and ‘there’s no such thing as a free lunch’ are based on hard experience.

In the case of TalkTalk, the broadband offer was based on switching your landline to the company – prompting calls to ban TalkTalk from calling it free broadband in its ads as you had to buy something else as a condition. Despite that, it’s not a bad offer but bargain basement products usually come with awful customer service. (What do you expect?)

Sky is a worse offender, as I reported in an earlier post. Its talk of free broadband is a classic case of dangling a great offer in front of consumers and then saying you can’t get it for a year but we can offer a more expensive product in the meantime. I’ll be sticking to Virgin Net, who offer a good service at a reasonable price and every now and again upgrade me without charge. I’m happy to buy my own lunch!