For this Christmas, my lovely GF got me the Amazon Kindle – a gadget that I’ve been eyeing up for a few months, ever since they released the 3^rd generation version.

I opted for the non 3G version, as the coverage for the 3G one seems to only cover the places you’d not go to on holiday and the function to up date all your magazines ‘instantly’ was of little use to me.
Obviously I’ve got access to quite a few WiFi networks dotted around, so I can get the thing loaded with enough material to carry me through the longest period of WiFi withdrawal…

I must say though, it’s a sexy (as far as technology goes! ) little device, feeling kinda like a large thin calculator in the hand.
This is a good thing :) It feels quite sturdy and comfortable - a MUST for those extended reading hours – the buttons are positive in their actions, so you know you are pressing something.

The screen – the much vaunted ‘Digital or E Ink‘ does seem to give a nice ‘paper feel’ to the reading experience, and the matted screen is great for reading in the sunlight.
There is however, something to note – there is no lighting on the Kindle itself; Making reading it much the same as a book, poor light = poor reading.

Battery life seems to be excellent – no lights and ‘funky extras’ means with things like the WiFi turned off, you’ll get a loooooong time to enjoy your books before heading for the charger (I’ve just got mine so I have no idea how long it’s going to last!)

The range of material is fantastic, most of the new titles that I’m wanting to read, are available in Kindle format. If you are a connoisseurs of the classics, you can download many of them for FREE!
Yup – I’m currently enjoying Homers Odyssey, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and other ‘essential’ reads for NOWT!
You need not get stuff purely from Amazon either – there are a few sites offering extremely cheap, if not free, books in Kindle or compatible format.

Just a couple of negative things:
Firstly, turning pages makes the whole screen flash black, then display the new page. This is a little ‘uncomfortable’ at first and does impact on your first few hours reading. Once you get into the mental ‘zone’ though, you’ll not even notice it!
Secondly, it’s a little USA centric in it’s content – there is a free dictionary installed for you ~ The Oxford AMERICAN Dictionary ~ pointless IMHO!
Finally, the operating system (the bit that controls the Kindle) seems a little uncomfortable to use and in my opinion, needs some polishing as it’s just not quite there yet…

Just one point to note:
Mine was delivered and unwrapped with keen anticipation, only to notice that there was a hair in the top right hand corner of the Kindle within the screen unit itself.
This was highly annoying when reading (imagine those little blobs of ink you sometimes get in books, in the same place on every page – annoying!).
After a quick phone call to Amazon, following sending an email to them noting this, they immediately sent a replacement unit under the Express Delivery, sent an email with a returns label and information to get DHL to collect the hirsute unit, and told me that if I didn’t send the faulty Kindle back within 30 Days, then I’d be charged for a second one – a process to those in the retail sector known as an ‘Advanced replacement’
Great service indeed.

To summarise – I’d give the Kindle 8/10 – it’s a nice little device that’s just not quite there in terms of the interface, and has a couple of little niggly bits, but I’d heartily recommend you buy on if it’s on your gadget horizon
Reading has always been a pleasure for me, and now it’s become so much more comfortable and convenient with my library of escapes now in my hand.
I’m loving it!

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Now I’m not one for having the ‘latest greatest’ phone, in fact, phone technology turns me right off.
Surprising for a techie gadget freak you may say, but the truth is that I have daily access to all the technology any über geek could want.

But the time had come to retire my old Nokia 6210 – a simple phone, that I kinda liked. It made phone calls, pure and simple, and the battery lasted for ever (having it consistently connected to the in-car-kit meant I never actually used the power adapter!).

Enter the HTC Desire, one of the new ‘Android’ based phones.
Android being the operating system, developed by the good chaps at Google.

So eagerly I await the delivery of the phone – one of our good friends at one of the other offices signed for it – scaring the pant off me! I thought that someone had nicked my new phone…

Getting my grubby mitts on the parcel; quite a nice little parcel it was too; the anticipation was building…
SIM installed – this was not a nice experience, you have to ‘pop’ the back off, and it feels VERY uncomfortable.
Battery in – simple enough, click the back back in to place.

Power on – connection to the mains for the initial charge – it’s playtime

I cannot express how much I am impressed by this phone!
It’s quick, simple navigation, and the way the interface is created in an intuitive manner makes the phone surprisingly easy to use.
Call quality and clarity is fantastic, as are the messaging functions (I connected it to our internal Exchange email server too – instant email on the move, as live and up-to-date as our Exchange server is).

Even the little ‘widgets’ and ‘apps’ are great – I have been playing with little post-it style notes (something I use all the time at my desk) and a great ‘app’ called ‘Shop Savvy’ which uses the camera (a 5M Pixel jobbie) to scan a product barcode, searches for it online, and gives you the best price!
Adding functions related to my job (network tools, WiFi scanners etc) makes this little marvel even more useful.
There are some great ‘show off’ type apps – I loved the wallpaper connected to the mapping functions (the phone has an integrated GPS receiver). drive about and the background shown a map of where you are, or the wallpaper which has little neon lights running about, press the screen to cause an explosion of light and colour – cute but essentially pointless.

There is one HUGE drawback though – all this technical magic takes power, and the battery life suffers immensely :(
For someone who was not used to having to actually charge the phone this proved a little hard to swallow – but turning off some of the wizardry brought some element of relief – now I only have to charge it around every 2 days…

I guess the final thought must be that I am hugely impressed by the HTC Desire – coupling the quality of the telephony and the connectivity makes this one useful gem, adding the widgets and apps to help me in the daily toil makes it indispensable…

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For the past few day’s we’ve been having some fun with pricing a few new services we’ve been asked for.
Please take the word ‘fun’ in there are a largely sarcastic comment – put simply I HATE MONEY!

This of course doesn’t help the requirement for accurate pricing

So, as we’ve decided that the MD doesn’t like money (and especially the lack of it) we look to other means of pricing our services.
Mostly this comes down to a couple of simple rules:
1. What are our costs for any given services
2. What (if at all) are our competitors charging for a similar service (though obviously not as good as ours )

With these in mind, my analytical mind kicks in and I’ve got something to work with, in my case this is a basic necessity!

Costing in our company is fairly straight forward:
How much did/do we buy in at?
How much does it cost us to do it?

Now those both seem to be simple questions on the face of it, but you must remember to cost everything – your office costs money to run after all!
So I’ve been trawling through reams of numbers in search of info to assist in the quest, and factoring in things like “Return on Investment” and “Break even points” etc…
The second is a much harder question to answer, as most competitors know who you are and wont tell you their prices. The web is your greatest friend here, as well as your mates and their acting skills (I’ll not add any more info here, I’m sure you know why! )

Suffice to say we got there in the end, knowing we a going to make a profit and are still competitive on the products offered

Now we just have to sell them!

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Tor popped in today – After giving birth on Friday!
I have been heard to say that this was the EXPECTED approach to childbirth – I WAS only joking though!! I really don’t need mothers and/or feminists to be up in arms..!

She popped over mid morning, mainly to check on her other two boys – namely Chris and I – to see if we were still ok without her controlling presence.

Needless to say we were fine… (kinda – we had run out of milk again )

This little news article caught my eye though: Off to school at Calne aged seven hours
Even I’m not that draconian, but it shows that some people have a realists view of the world.

I think she has been heard to say that the reason she did it was to show that you CAN have a career AND be a mother in the same lifetime. Though I think this is not the current thinking where parenting is concerned.

Personally I think that the mother concerned should make the decision FOR HERSELF – not being swayed by the ‘experts’ or outside forces. There are too many ‘do gooders’ saying one thing and ‘evil corporates’ expecting another.

Just let the people decide for themselves, we are adults after all!

I fully expect Tor to be back when she feels it’s the right time AND NOT BEFORE!

I’ll expect that moaning to start soon then… 

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We supported an event held at the Bradford Grid – the Bradford Grid Enterprise Expo, as an exhibitor recently and all was good

The event was a well attended affair, with a curry lunch thrown in – Chris says this wasn’t why he wanted to attend, but I’ll reserve judgement on that one…

There were several free seminars also available ~ offered by various experts on a wide range of topics, aimed at offering some sound business advice.
It’s seldom that businesses get FREE impartial advice from the experts, but this seems to have been one of those rare occasions.

From our own perspective, it’s the first time we’ve exhibited at an event like this ~ but it definitely won’t be our last, having gained many new leads and contacts, all looking for a trust worthy IT supplier.

I personally didn’t attend, me being the prime product of our company, but Chris said he’d enjoyed it immensely. Though it was ‘hard’ (especially eating the curry I’ll bet It was created using proper ingredients ~ none of your pre-made rubbish in a Bradford curry )

I could have done without the panic to get some leaflets printed too – Tor ended up delivering them about 10 minutes before the event started
The ink was still wet!

There are some images of the event here, if you would like to browse…
Bradford GRID Enterprise Expo images (kindly provided by John Steel Photography)

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