stressedtechy

Having a go at using WordPress at http://stressedtechnician.com for my blogs, videos and other updates.
See you there.

When the original iPad first came out I was not too impressed with it. No flash support, no USB, a screen with a ratio 4:3 rather than 16:9... and so on. Then after a while I thought about it and wondered if I wasn't expecting too much from the device (it's only a tablet after all) and swung around in favour of it.

This was to change again after I spent time playing with them in my local Apple Store. I found the square edges made holding it for any length of time uncomfortable, missed having a 'real' keyboard, it was over priced. My iPhone did most things I wanted a portable device to do, and I have a small net book if I want portable computing.

Then the iPad 2 came out and that gave me second thoughts. It was lighter and the relatively sharp square edges has been rounded off. An improved graphics processor and dual core main processor were there and they had not bumped up the price for the new model. They had also added rear and front facing cameras. (I am a great believer in that if you want to take a decent picture then use a proper camera, however a basic camera is still better than no camera, and using the iPad version of iMovie you can do okay video editing on the device.)

Now, I tend to be someone who will be happy enough to spend time thinking about things, nothing like a good bit of procrastination when you're not quite sure of something. Maybe this or maybe that, but on the other hand....why not pour yourself another cup of tea. However once the decision has actually been made then I like to carry out that decision immediately. No hesitation, no delay, but *right now*.

So there I was in a local coffee shop with a friend and it was going to be a busy day so I had not brought my lap top with me. However he got out his (original model) iPad and was immediately being 'computer productive'. That was it, that was the final action that made me go from 'I'd like one but...' to 'It's genuinely useful, I want one.'. Five minutes later we were heading up towards the local Apple Store, and ten minutes later I was the proud owner of a base model iPad 2.

I like it. Where before I thought it too big compared to a phone, too small compared to a ‘proper’ computer, now I see it as nicely filling that gap. A screen big enough to be genuinely useful size, (great BBC iPlayer device) but not so large as to dent its portability. It can be carried around in almost any sort of case or ruck sack and has a decent battery life (so no need to be constantly carrying its charger). It can do about 80% of what I’d want from a full computer, but then on that odd occasion when I *really need* that bit of extra use I can always take my lap top with me. In numeric terms its screen resolution may now be bettered by other devices, but it is still a very nice screen to use. Its virtual keyboard I found unexpectedly pleasant (either one or two handed) and have made less errors using this virtual one than I usually do when using a physical one.

I do miss not having a USB port for for file and data back-up, and I wish a USB port was there for battery charging. The other thing I find a bit irritating is that the screen is too reflective, so I must look out for a screen protector for it to cut this down a bit.

So overall I’ll give it a definite Thumbs Up. A device I see not in competition with, but as a compliment to one’s other computing devices.

For those of you who watch my Tumblr, some of this will be familiar stuff.

An unexpected thing happened recently. Without warning or giving reason my credit card company lowered my credit limit by about 80%. I've not been near my limit in ages, so in that respect it was not a problem. Where it was a problem was that suddenly, and without warning, I'd lost an important source of instantly available emergency money. That 'comfort blanket' where you know that if something happened and you needed money *right now*, not in a few days, not tomorrow, but instantly (and if it is that sort of situation, then it probably is instantly), that supply had gone. Oh crap.

I suppose the proverbial silver lining to it was that got me looking at my whole money position, and especially to my pension situation. I'm sure most people are aware of all the fuss there has been in the press over the last few years over pension deficits and how a large proportion of the population are going to have very limited income when they retire. At the moment the basic state pension is just under £100 a week, or a bit below £5,500 a year. Not a lot to live off!

I do have a bit of money put to one side for my old age, but this did highlight that I do need to increase this, however I don't have a great deal of free income coming in to add to this fund, so I must make it grow by itself.

So off to see a pension / financial advisor and see what he had to say. To cut a long story short, the final outcome was that we would put the money into a SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) and within that SIPP he would look after half and I would control the other half.
So I have put my half into a range of Investment Trust. Investment trusts are companies who invest their money in other companies! This is not as silly as it sounds. Let's say you think that the countries of S. E. Asia or perhaps of Eastern Europe show growth potential. You could go off to their individual stock markets and buy into specific companies based in S. E. Asia or Eastern Europe (not always very easy to do), or you could find a U.K. based company listed on the London stock exchange which does just that, invest in these places, and then buy the shares of that U.K. based company (quite easy). So that's what I've done; a selection of investment trust funds that look to S. E. Asia, to Europe, and to mining companies.

My advisor has gone in to European based Unit Trusts. Unit trusts perform a similar function to investment trusts, are often run by the same people, are far more popular, but are set up in quite a different manner. (Do an internet search yourself on something like 'difference between investment and unit trusts' if you want to know more about them.)

I'm quite happy with the idea that at times the stock market will go up, but it will also have it's down periods. We had a down period with the recent banking crisis though the stock market has done a considerable recovery since then. There have been other fall periods in the past, there will be other fall periods in the future (tough, that's the way things go). However what I'm looking for is say, if I average out the ups and downs over a period of 10 years, to grow by an equivalent of at least 10% a year. That is my minimum personal target. In good years this will not be too difficult to do, however the bad years will pull this figure down. So in reality I must look to at least 20% 'good year' growth to balance the bad years out.

What I'm also expecting is that my advisor should out-perform me. Professional advice does not come cheap, they have the financial training, knowledge of the market and access to far more financial information than me. So if I do out-perform him I may feel clever at having out done the professional, but also disappointed in that I will not have got value for money for the fees that I have paid.

Only time will tell.

It must have been late autumn 2007 that I became curious about the 'YouTube' thing, signed up with an account in early 2008, then started uploading videos in the middle of that year. This led on to things like attending YouTube Gatherings and generally getting to know people within that community.
It was then through a comment made by a YouTuber on their channel that got me aware of DeviantArt, and so signed up and uploaded a few pictures I had taken that I rather liked. DeviantArt was very much a 'minority interest' thing to me; video, YouTube, and the social community based around that was where my main interest lay.

However December 2009 found me down in London for an evening YouTube session - Tom Milsom's Painfully Mainstream gig, but I had heard that there was going to be a DevMeet that day too, so thought I'd go and have a look. Something to keep me occupied till Tom's gig in the early evening.
(There are videos of both the DevMeet (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NACMzrqv-U) and Tom's gig (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQOSnXxpsCw) on my YouTube channel.)

Finding out about the DevMeet really was a chance thing, and I couldn't stay long, but did enjoy myself there.
However this meeting did encourage me to look more to DeviantArt, so when I heard of various DevMeets happening in the summer of 2010 (DeviantArt's 10th birthday), I thought I'd get to one. So on the 21st of August I found myself heading towards Marble Arch and *UncleWoodstock's picnic meet. (http://www.youtube.com/user/StressedTechnician#p/u/0/g-q43SNZ_Ac)

In many ways the DevMeet crowd was a similar crowd to that of a YouTube Gathering; young dominated, above average intelligence, expressive group of people. However there was one interesting difference; this crowd uses DeviantArt to show and express themselves through their work, whether it be drawings, photographs or whatever. The YouTube crowd so often use their videos to show and express themselves, this is 'me' showing myself off for everyone else to see.
This difference in outlook, this is me through my work (but I shall remain hidden), and this is me, most definitely not hidden, coming from a similar 'expressive' group of people I found quite interesting.

As for anyone reading this who has not yet been to a DevMeet - get to one. They are great days out, a wonderful way of making friends and meeting some really great people.

I have discovered and learnt all sorts of things since coming across the YouTube community. (Within this ‘YouTube community’, I include Twitter, BlogTV and all those other inter-related communication networks.) I’ve met amazing people through them and been to places that I’d never have gone to. I’ve made friends of all ages and now communicate with people from all over the world. In other blogs I’ve talked about this friendship side before.

Nevertheless there is an alternative side to it.

For the first time ever, I’ve learnt to really dislike people. Up till now I’ve had my few good friends, a larger circle of general friend, those others I’d class as acquaintances, and finally those who just had no meaning to me. Within this last group would be those who I did not like. There would be no real feeling of ‘dislike’ just a more negative indifference feeling. Of ignoring, or kind of accepting their presence but not letting them get to me. A case of accepting that there will be good and bad in life, so best you just get on with life.

However since seeing and experiencing the hostility and bickering that has gone on over the last couple of years (some - but thankfully only a small amount - directed at myself); the antagonism, jealousies, bitterness; some so petty, but so much quite aggressive and destructive, I find myself now actually learning to truly dislike others. Not just indifference, but proper dislike, of feeling ofl distaste at their presence should they be near to me. This is something that has never happened before, and is starting to reflect through to my every day life. Where before I was happy enough to work with those who I previously had little time for, now, well, as this involves work (who pay my wages and as such allow me to live life) I shall refrain from putting my thoughts in writing.

It’s a shame that this has happened, and it’s certainly making me think as to how or what I want to do with YouTube. One thing I can’t do and that’s undo the past, so I guess I’ll have to live with it, the positives of YouTube still outweigh the negatives. A matter of reminding myself that there are still some amazingly good people out there.

In the last couple of weeks I’ve done three Windows 7, 32 bit, and one Windows 7, 64 bit, installs. Two of the machines with the 32 bit installs were about 4 or 5 years old – not the newest kids on the block, but all went pleasantly well.

I can’t get round the fact that over the years I have found Windows a decently stable operating system. Windows NT had its roots in IBM’s OS/2, a rock stable system, with each version of Windows since then being that bit more stable than the one before. People complain about Vista (and so do I), but that was (for me) more towards its overall speed and interaction with the user, not stability factors. My Vista-powered lap-top never once crashed or locked up on me. As well as knowing others with Mac lap-tops, I also have one and have found them no better (or worse) than my Windows machines. (Once upon a time I was a very keen advocate of Linux, but that has become such a fractured community it has lost any appeal to me.)

However I do make an effort to look after my machines. A bit of basic maintenance is carried out when I’m in the mood for it. A cull of all those crap programs that get installed happens, and a general emptying of TEMP directories and tidying up of files. Occasional back-ups and running of defrag. Updates are applied, both to the operating system and to programs.
So if I wanted something that is relatively simple to use and is just going to work in the format that you get it and you don’t want to use it for much more than that, then I’d probably be happy with a Mac. But what I’m after is a versatile, flexible system that can be used in a variety of different situations, and work almost any bit of hardware I can throw at it.

As much as I do like Macs, they just don’t do that for me. I’m quite happy to put in a little effort to my systems, they are complex bits of machinery, and like anything of this type, benefit from a bit of routine care. Maybe it’s a case of so many people in our throw-away society aren’t willing to make the effort. I guess it’s partly a matter of attitude.

Not just computers, but we all work better with a bit of love and attention. So why not give a bit of love and attention to someone yourself. A simple message through Skype or MSN, perhaps a comment to a video or picture. Do that bit of occasional 'social maintenance'. To the receiver it could make all the difference between stumbling along not working very well, or fin

windows 7, os/2, windows 7, mac, apple, computers, stability, crash, kindness, maintenance,ding their way in life.

A little bit of kindness can go a long way.

Ages since I updated this.

Right now we are near an election and politicians are starting to be even greater arseholes than usual! So I thought I'd throw in my two penny worth of thoughts.

There are two areas which would be my proverbial 'sacred cows' where, even in times of recession I would not cut back on.

The first is education. So much comes from an educated population. There is the obvious such as better employment opportunities, but there are also the less talked about consequences such as better health and being able to look after yourself. A better attitude to live and of well-being. A greater awareness of the social situation (local and national) around you, reduced crime. Schools would be co-educational, however classes would be single gender. There would also be streaming by subject. The core curriculum thing would be a lot simpler and go back to basics and be based around the old 3 r's of reading, writing and arithmetic with time for fitness (not necessarily sport, but general exercise) and - perhaps a little bit odd - music. If there is one thing children love, that's music. Whether it's singing, playing specific musical instruments, or just making a noise by just bashing a drum! No specialist skills required, a fun social activity that can be done by anyone or everyone, regardless of abilities. An informal, natural creative form of expression that can help to build self-confidence.
As a side line, school lunch would be free.

The other area would be defence. Regardless of attitudes to the rights or wrongs of fighting and war, if we are going to send people into these situations and have them die for us, we can do nothing less than give them the best chances with the best equipment, training and support. This also includes support to them after they leave the services, and to their families in the event of their death or injury during service. I would see an expansion in the number of servicemen, and use this as a back-door way to improve levels of skills and health. Especially targeting those, probably very early 20s, who arseholed around at school and thus messed up things there. Many now realise they fu*ked up then, so this would now give them a chance to get some skills and education. Also now doing this with an 'adult' attitude to life rather than trying to do it while going through all the problems involved with adolescence.

As for things like health, what do we expect from a (free) health service. A universal free service for treatment for every single thing we want - oh look, a skin blemish, I want it 'treated' so I can look prettier - or something that actually concentrates on illness and discomfort. Should it be restricted to our own citizens (who pay the taxes to fund it), or open to anyone who happens to be in the country at the time and who wants or needs treatment (what defines a 'health tourist'?). Have we developed into a society that expects everything to be fixed, and no longer can accept that some thing are just what they are, so live with them.

Would love to see an expansion of the rail network especially across more country / rural areas (if this means cutting back on roads, so be it). Even if the trains that run on the track are run by private companies, the track, signalling and stations should be run as part of the country's essential infrastructure rather than something just to make a profit. Once a town has reached a certain level of population, then there should be a legal requirement for it to be attached to the rail network. There should also be big incentives to get freight, especially that going long distance, off the roads and onto rail.

Just a few thoughts.

Tired.

We recently had a YouTube Gathering up here in Glasgow. About a dozen people attended so an okay sized crowd. However there was a bit of a personality clash between two of the people there which added a bit of unwanted tension to the day. Well, you can't go through life liking every single person you ever meet, and you can't expect every person you meet to like you too. What goes to make up your own character is how you handle these sorts of situations. If there's someone there you don't like do you let it get to you (and your negativity influence those around you) or do you have the strength to accept such situations and enjoy the fact that there are more people there that you do like than you don't.

This was very quickly followed by a run down to Manchester and a Gathering there. I like Manchester. It does have the advantage of being centrally located and relatively easily accessible to the majority of the country's population. A bit over a couple of hours on the train up from London. Close enough to Glasgow (and Edinburgh) to make day trips from these places practicable.

That was then followed the next week-end by a hop across to Dublin. Was quite surprised how expensive the 'little things' were across there. More expensive items were not really that hugely different, it was things like paying twice the price for a cup of coffee in Dublin than in Glasgow or Manchester that caught me out.

The week-end after that was Tom Milsom's Painfully Mainstream album release event. Not a typical YouTube Gathering, but an evening music session in the upstairs room of a central London pub. However just about everybody there was YouTube connected, and had 'gathered together' in one place; you can make up your own mind if you want to call it a Gathering or not.

Before Tom's evening session there was for me an interesting diversion in the shape of meeting a group of Deviant Art types who were holding a DevMeet, starting at lunchtime in Tate Modern. A really nice crowd.

Then this last week-end and the London Festive Gathering. At one stage a quick head-count counted 35 people. Assume a few were missed, so say a bit over 40, but the count was done after some had left, so we're talking around 50 to 60 people there at one time or another. Note to Gathering organisers; If you are going to do a middle of winter Gathering, make sure you have the option of meeting in a location that has at least some level of cover and shelter. Standing for an hour or so exposed out in the freezing cold on grass that was rapidly turning into mud is foolish.
Then on the way back from that a very pleasant diversion via Manchester and meet a (YouTube) friend. Yet another example how internet contacts can become Real Life friends.

All great week-ends, one after another, but there comes a time when enough is enough and some alone-time is needed. Things can get tiring, often more mentally than physically. However it is coming up to Christmas which is not really an alone-time period.

A period that also does show how lonely it can be even when you are in large crowds of others.

The Earth rotated around its own axis and in turn rotates around the Sun, live with it!

So, three Gatherings over three consecutive week-ends. First a run down to Birmingham and the 'Boomingham' birthday gathering. The last one a run down to Bristol and Jacob Dyer's gathering. With in the middle the Summer in the City gathering in central London.
Every Gathering has its own style and character, but this SitC was something different. An event spread over three days with people coming from all over the world to attend. On the Saturday I counted just over 200 people that had formed one large circle. Add to that those not in the circle, those who turned up later, those who just attended on the Friday or Sunday; I will guess overall something around 300 there at one time or another. I only met a very few of those I had hoped to meet, but with so many there with different groups forming doing different things, that was only to be expected.

However it did get me thinking as to what actually is a 'friend', and where do you differentiate between acquaintance, friend, and good friend. Now, I know how I see others, with various people I know falling into any one of these three groups (a bit arbitrary perhaps just having three groups, but you have to start somewhere), but how do others see me? Or more importantly from my perspective, how do *I perceive* their relationship is to me. If everything is on an equal level, then no problem. Even if it is on a lopsided relationship - I've watched their many YouTube videos (both entertainment and personal vlog stuff), seen them on BlogTV or Stickam, maybe even met them briefly at a Gathering - I may see them as a 'friend', however I do realise that their only contact with me is probably by a couple of chat comments on BlogTV and the brief Gathering meeting, so to them I will be no more than 'an acquaintance'. That gives me no problems what so ever. So long as I know where I stand and can act accordingly and know what level of action I expect from them.

However what happens when you believe they see you on one level, but 'things happen'. Say a group activity of some sort where you know everyone in the group and believe that they see you as a friend, but when you ask to join in, they turn their backs on you (and for no apparent reason). Or you help someone or do them a favour as friends do, but at the end they just walk off as if you meant nothing to them. How do you handle that sort of thing, and what in the first place led you to think that they saw you as a friend? No answers for you I'm afraid. It's no good saying that they probably are not the people you want as friends anyway, it's too late, the (emotional) damage has been done. The only thing you can do is to lick your proverbial wounds and just get on with things as best as you can.

Ah, getting on with things as best as you can brings me back to SitC. People have said that it has been the best time of their life / most wonderful week-end ever / etcetera, but I'm going to buck the trend and say that though it was a good gathering, I have been to better. I definitely have no regrets in going and though next year's is 11 months away I've already been looking at flights down for it. However if I change as much in the next year as (because of YouTube!!!) I have changed over the last year, I will be a very different person at the next SitC (and I kind of hope one or two others may have changed too).

Something else I must say - Sometimes life is not always what it seems.