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Wolfram Alpha seems like a funky thing – not a “search engine,” but a “computational knowledge engine” [Wolfram's words]. Apparently it’s implemented in 5 million lines of Mathematica code.
Here’s a Slashdot mention with more links. And, here’s a video of a public demo. Pretty poor quality, but it does at least show it in action.
Lastly, here’s a link to a time-lapse video of the hosting datacentre being built.
So, I’m a bit of a gadget freak, but not the type that would buy any gadget – simply because it seems, um, cool [Mmmm].
I saw Livescribe’s Pulse SmartPen on a ‘must have’ list I stumbled upon; and, as my partner and I are both academics – and as such, both ‘send’ and ‘receive’ lectures/talks, we thought it worth investigating, and, to cut a boring story short, we decided [well she did – she’s got the money!], to buy one – the BIG 2Gb model.
Unfortunately, Livescribe – who offer the best price on their own products [duh!] – don’t ship outside of the USA. Something you only discover once you’ve got into the ordering process; once it’s in your ‘cart’. So, suggestion to Livescribe – perhaps make this ‘crystal’ on the initial Buy page?
After shopping around, we found that a lot of places in the UK were ‘out of stock’, yet ‘expecting delivery soon’ – which means, IMHO, avoid like the plague! If a website doesn’t say something’s in stock, one should move along.
We eventually went and found the 2Gb model on bitesizedeals.co.uk and, ordered the 2GB Bundle for £199 – saving £50 apparently. Which, if really true, is a great deal!
A couple of days later, our Livescribe arrived in a very big box.
The box contained:
Note there’s no software provided – other than what’s resident in the pen of course. For the PC/Mac side of things you go and get the Livescribe Desktop software as a download.
The install of that was smooth, and the application looks and feels very professional.
I like software to be VERY intuitive [as I’m pretty sure you do], and so I never read a manual, unless I just can’t progress through simply figuring it out. I’ll have more on this aspect of the desktop software later.
When the pen was first attached, I went and found ‘Check for Updates’, and there were lots:
Sorry that’s a little small, but to get an idea of how many there are, notice the size of the scrollbar on the right of the list.
However, this is good news! I.e., it’s nice to know [or at least suspect] that Livescribe are keen to improve their product; and, as they do that, issue lots of updates. Of course, one could also take another view: that Livescribe ship buggy software – that is problematic, been reported n times, and, as a result, have been forced to make a very large number of changes to its product! I never tried the pen with whatever versions of things it came packed with [so can’t comment on whether it seemed buggy at all], but I take the former of the two views expressed above. And hey, why would you want to use a product’s software ‘as is’ when there are updates available; which will surely only improve things?
Anyway, the update was smooth.
So, now to try it!
The pen comes with a tutorial/quick-start thingmy which was well worth working through – and I won’t describe it here, and instead show you a picture of me working through it!
The tutorial was easy to follow, smooth, and, I think, pretty much walked you through everything you need to know to get ‘fully functional’.
Be sure to watch the videos of how the pen and the software works here – use the thumbnails at the bottom of the page to walk-through more-or-less everything to do with this gadget.
Ok, so in summary, the pen is awesome! A truly remarkable and wonderful tool that I would recommend purchasing to anyone that takes notes.
But …
Criticisms: I have but 3 [so far].
1. The desktop software is, IMHO, not *that* intuitive – and I still find my self clicking on non-functional items – and/or ‘right clicking’ on things to bring up a context-menu that simply don’t exist. For example, to remove an item from the desktop software, or the pen, you have to highlight the item and then use the top-level menu to select the deletion option. This really should be on a menu accessed via right-clicking on an item.
The desktop software seems well written, i.e., it’s ultimately functional, but, for me, well, it just doesn’t really satisfy.
2. It seems to me that there is an obvious missing feature. You can tansfer your files to your Livescribe Desktop, and from there transfer them to your shared space on Livescribe’s own website via Livescribe Online [a really cool feature]. However, you cannot transfer files *back* to the pen once they’ve been moved off of it! And that’s just dumb!
Ok, so with a 2Gb pen it might be a rare event – to move things off to make space – but, if you do, you’ll be stuck with never being able to use your hand-written notes with the pen ever again. A few other people have noted their own surprise at this missing feature on Livescribe’s forum pages, and it seems that it might yet appear at some future date. And that would be great!
3. Livescribe Technical Support seem to take around 24 hours to respond to queries. Ok, so I only had two ‘trips’ to the support email address, but that was what I found – it’s sloooow!
–
Link: a YouTube search featuring the Livescribe Smartpen.
Link: google search for ‘Livescribe review’.
I’m in the market for a few new toys: a solid-state digital recorder; a Netbook computer; and a Bluetooth car-stereo.
It’s so much easier said than done though!
Digital Recorder:
This will mainly be used to record lectures and tutorials [as in the Oxford Tutorial System]. Previously I’ve used my Sony minidisc recorder for this kind of thing, but I’ve recently decided that I *need* a machine-to-machine transfer, via USB. Plus I’m fed up with discs!
So which one to buy?
A quick web search got me wanting a Edirol R09 HR [which might be overkill]; or a Zoom H4, or H2. So, where to find sample recordings and reviews of these: websites that purport to carry reviews are often just ‘fronts’ for ad-farms, and even when you find a review, it’s often some non-professional’s ‘first reaction’ etc. I gave up quite quickly.
So, can I find a local store that has any of these – any of them? The answer’s either ‘nope’, or ‘nope’. So, it’s basically ‘take a punt’ time [the American meaning, and not the Oxford one!]; or wait until I go to London [which I hate doing!] or Birmingham [which I hate doing even more!]
Temporary Failure on this then.
Netbook:
For making notes and doing research; without lugging a heavy notebook about the place.
PC World has the normal ASUS machines, but they’ve also just started stocking a re-badged MSI Wind machine – and it’s nice! So nice in fact that I quickly said ‘I’ll take one of these’ to a passing, typical tech-store, spotty ‘numpty’.
Numpty: ‘No you won’t’, ‘we don’t have them in stock’. peetm: ‘Ok I’ll order one’ Numpty: ‘No you won’t’, ‘you’ll have to check the website and reserve one when they come in’ peetm: ‘You’re joking?’ Numpty: ‘No I’m not’ [and stop calling me ‘Numpty’]
So, now I have to routinely remind myself to check PC World’s website: which means putting one of these in a virtual shopping-basket, proceeding to the checkout, selecting ‘Collect in Store’, entering the postcode of the store, and then hoping that after all of that, a green checkmark will appear against its address! Which it isn’t doing! bah!
Temporary Failure on this too then.
Bluetooth Stereo:
I’m fed up with my TomTom 920’s so very weak FM-transmitter’s strength [or lack of it!] We have the TomTom setup so that we can listen to books-on-tape [sic] and directions using the car stereo [the TomTom's internal speaker’s pretty crap of course].
The trouble with this is that, as you drive about, sooner or later [most often ‘sooner’] you’ll enter an area in which there’s a commercial station transmitting on the same frequency as the TomTom. And, as the TomTom’s RMS power output is diddly squat, the commercial station first bleeds through, and then, after a few minutes, totally breaks through – which means stopping to retune things. Hopeless.
We’ve tried other tricks to rectify this – like removing the car’s aerial, but the TomTom’s so low on power output that that doesn’t work too well – and, of course, you can say goodbye to any traffic reports!
We’re off to France in about a month for a holiday, so we really *need* to be able to listen to our books without getting wound-up – we’re meant to be resting!
Anyway, the TomTom can also use Bluetooth, so I thought we’d treat ourselves to a new car stereo.
‘Once again into the breech dear friends’, and off I go to the local Halfords‘ store.
And they have Bluetooth stereos!
They have three, but I’m offered a choice of two; as they don’t have the price for the third one!
Can I play with them? They have them rack-mounted, and powered up – so you think the answer’s ‘yes’ don’t you?
Well, the answer’s actually ‘no’; they’re behind plexiglass!
However, the ‘numpty’ in this store *did* seem to know a thing or two, and as they also offer a fitting service for £10 it looks ‘ok’ – I could just go for one of these. Yes, I’d like more choice, but …
So, I write down the model numbers and head off home to see if I can find manuals for either of them on-line. Which I can. However, I also discover that Halford’s isn’t at all competitive [fair even] when it comes to price.
Hmmm. Choices: pay around £60 more than I could mail-order one for, plus the £10 fitting charge, and get one fitted from Halford’s, or take that punt again and get one from elsewhere – which will mean my wrecking the car trying to get the old one out, and fitting the new one of course! Plus I’ll have skinned knuckles, and not have the right adapter cable so that Megan’s steering column controls will work with the damn thing!
Temporary Failure here as well!
So, here I am, checking PC World’s website every few hours [Numpty: ‘they could come in any time’]; umming and arring over digital recorders that I can’t test; and considering going to a specialist car-stereo place in the hope that the numpties there will have more choice, and be reasonable/fair on price! Fat chance!
Less fun today for a Sunday: according to The Times, Clarkson is on holiday.
What with that, and the bloody clocks, my Sunday has only been slighted elevated by the rather nice weather [I hope it holds on into the evening so we can watch the ISS and its 5 ton robotic-shadow pass overhead from Cleeve Hill around 22.30. Hey, maybe a ‘roll’ down hill could be on the cards too!]
I love this time of year, especially this, the first day of Spring, when you just can’t but remark, out-loud, “how pleasantly light it is for seven o’clock!” But of course, only to be observed and then remarked upon if you’ve altered your clocks.
And that’s the bit I hate about today.
I’m especially displeased with my new Nokia 6500 Classic [bought very recently as a ‘Blue Tooth Buddy’ for my TomTom]. Why oh why is it that such a modern device can’t update its own fugging clock automatically!?
Ah, it can!
… it has an ‘Auto Update Time’ feature – that was switched off by default [why!]
… a while later…
Ah, it can’t!
03, Tele-O or T-For-Two, or whatever the name of the network is that I’m on, doesn’t appear to broadcast the time of day [or even the day]!
Now I just cannot bring myself to believe this; I mean you would surely think that knowing the time would be something a mobile-phone would, um, enjoy knowing – but T42 obviously think differently. Although, that said, mine would just continue to remind me to ‘Water the Plants’, one second past the stroke of midnight on a Friday evening – and always, always, when I’m having a rather erotic dream :- that I know I ‘had’, but then can’t quite recapture: thirty seconds past midnight! Bloody, sodding phone!
Thinking about how my mobile phone has failed me today – with a simple clock – I’m reminded of a rant I once had, all to myself, a while back when driving from Stow-on-the-Wold, back to Cheltenham. Now, a gorgeous road it might be – beautiful countryside, sweeping bends, decent cambers; even the odd straight! But, and this is normal for the Cotswolds, it’s a road that’s also prone to the odd ‘up and down’ – the “woldness”-‘downs’ of which killed my phone every sodding time!
However, losing the signal and ‘dropping out’ didn’t stress me: nope, it was the fact that I knew, just knew that T42 didn’t have a damn clue that, A) it had happened, and worse, B) *where* it DID happen, and I found myself once again going ‘hello, hello – are you still there …, HELLO?, … BOLLOCKS’. Actually, I don’t know this for a fact [not the BOLLOCKS bit - that happened], but given the technical-ineptitude that our mobile-phone network and operators display daily, I’d give anyone odds of 20:1 that I’m right!
How much better that they knew I hadn’t hung up [and could refund me for the call perhaps] – and, even better still – knew just *where* I happened to find that I was talking to myself [again]! Perhaps they’d see quite a few of their customers ‘drop-off’ the airwaves in the self-same location? And maybe, just perhaps, they’d consider improving reception in the many black-holes that are scattered about this green and pleasant land wold? Here’s an idea for all the phone operators – monitor this shit, and do the ‘right thing’!
Anyway, for now, back to the ‘time’ to finish.
Years ago I wrote to the Prime Minister [his Tony-ness I think it was] detailing how ridiculous all this jiggling about with clocks twice a year was. I mean, what’s it all for anyway – just so as some kilted, beardy-farmer in ‘Scawwtlund’ can find his sheep without a torch! I think they should all stay in bed myself – I do; and I bet the sheep don’t give a shit either way!
