Dom Davis (The Blog)

If you remember, the blogging software I use while on the go had a major update that caused it to be very flakey when it had limited access to the Internet. To get round this I started writing blog posts in another app, cutting and pasting them to the blogging app when i was ready to post (and had a good, strong 3G signal) and posting them on the walk into work. Is method has served me well and, despite numerous updates to the blogging software it’s a pattern I’ve stuck with.

This week I’ve returned to using the blogging app for everything. I’ve also changed the platform I use to write the blog posts. This is because I am now the owner of a shiny new iPad. It has the advantage of being sightly easier to type on the the phone (although this not as easy as a real, full sized keyboard) but the disadvantage of no mobile connection. On the plus side it means the blogging app shouldn’t keep falling over when it gets a slow connection for 3 seconds that then drops out as there will simply be no connection at all on the train. On the downside this means I will have to wait until I have wifi to post (which to be fair won’t be long as I’ll be in the office soon enough). Still, on balance I now have an iPad

Incidentally, the past few weeks have seen me using my laptop to put together a presentation for a jolly I had last week with work hence the lack of daily posts. Normal service should now resume.

Yesterday I had what can only be described as a brain fart. I was putting my half full (and thankfully plastic) glass back on it’s coaster when my hand just let go of the glass several inches above the desk. Don’t ask me why, just happened.

There were two immediate consequences from this course of action. Firstly the coaster, which was a printed tile, broke. Annoying, but not the end of the world. Secondly my drink went everywhere.

Now the human brain is a remarkable thing. Within fractions of a second I had assessed the spill, identified which bits of technology now had liquid on them and ranked the items in terms of damage limitation versus cost.

First step, keyboard off. It’s an expensive wireless model and would need to be replaced by a much less expensive wired keyboard. Turning it off should stop anything shorting.

Next up dry laptop. It only got a few drops but it’s a high cost item and I’d be lost without it. Better to be safe than sorry.

Now return to keyboard. I have a roll of bounty in my drawer (don’t ask) so grab a few sheets, moo up excess liquid, place keyboard upside down on another table.

Now move headphones which are dry, but may not stay that way if the spill spreads. Dry and move sunglasses. Should be fine, but their carbon fibre and may delaminate if left in liquid for too long. Move mouse and check for liquid.

Mop up spill. Much bounty used but we need to make sure the desk is dry and not sticky.

Finally return to keyboard and clean out between each key before tentatively trying…

…and watching loads of spurious characters get typed when keys are pressed. Arse!

Work provides us with Cherry keyboards. I find them hideously uncomfortable and, after years of using keyboards with minimal key travel, I can’t type with them. Now the hope was that, once it had dried out, my nice wireless keyboard would be fine, but in the interim I decided to pop to Temple and get a nice Apple keyboard. I find them comfy and I’m used to the key layout. Worst case I have to use that from now on. Best case I have a spare keyboard.

My new headphones arrived yesterday. This was very exciting as, over the past three years, I have become accustomed to the sound quality of my SE530s and my backup headphones were not cutting the mustard, or indeed any condiment.

Shure no longer make the SE530s so I’ve had to upgrade to the SE535s. These feature detachable cables which means if the cables break (which they do) you just get new ones without having to replace the phenomenally expensive ear buds.

In order to provide some versatility to the cable arrangement the old SE530s had a very short cable from the buds and you could attach various lengths of cable to this or, as in my case, the iPhone mic adapter. Since you can swap out the entire cable on the SE535s Shure have dispensed with the old adapters. Sadly this means that the default cable doesn’t control my iPhone, can’t be used for calls and is a bit long for my tastes. That said there are dedicated iPhone cables with an online mic and control buttons. I have these on order.

My iPhone is many things to me, the hub of my mobile digital world. What with all the G’s (3G, EDGE, GPRS, GPS, 802.11g and gyroscope) and the multitude of apps it can do just about anything. Watch films and TV programs? Check. Listen to music? Check. Radio? Check. Read books? Check. Communicate with people via email, facebook, twitter, text and IM? Check. Surf the web? Check. Read books? Check. Play games? Check. Eat money through hardware costs, monthly subscription and the endless handing over of money to Apple (and now Amazon) for new music, films, apps and books? Check, check and check. I dread to think how much money I’ve handed over to Steve, either directly or via o2.

Today that changed. IG Index, who to my mind do the bast spread betting platform bar none¹ released their iPhone app. IG have had a mobile site for their spread betting platform for ages now, even one that’s formatted for the iPhone, but I’ve always found it a bit clunky and the charts (which are a must for the type of trading I do) were buggy and unreliable. The new iPhone app, on the other hand, is very slick, execution appears to be reasonably fast that the orders appear to be executed at the price you hit the button, not the price it’s at when the server finally gets the instruction. The last thing you want is a slow GPRS connection turning your big fat profit into a loss.

A quick check of the forex markets (24 hour, move fast, good for a quick test of anything with small stakes and tights stops and limits) and I spotted EUR/USD was on the up, rallying from a small retracement. 50p a point, stop at 20 points (maximum loss would be £20), limit at 2 points (maximum gain £1) and every intention of bailing the instant I struck a profit or the instant it looked like the trade was going south. A punt, yes, but as punts go not a massively risky one, not over these time scales with the entry and exit points. Worst case I loose connection, the app crashes, or some other disaster, the trade goes wrong and I lose a tenner. Best case the same as before but I get a quid. Actual result: I netted 35p.

The reason why I said the app ‘appears’ to execute at the price you hit the button is because at 40p I hit ‘sell’. Nothing happened. A quick look at the UI and I spotted the close trade button. I hit that instead (35p), a dialogue comes up telling me it’s closing the trade (20p) and the little spinney ‘loading’ icon (15p) followed by a confirmation (10p). Total time to close the trade was about 5 seconds (which is a VERY long time in forex) but a quick check of my account showed I was 35p up.

So there you have it, the iPhone is no longer a drain on the resources. Armed with my new app, a bit of luck and a following wind I might even cover the cost of 3 iPhones (original, 3G and iPhone 4), the GPS dock, the headphones, the mic attactchment, the docks, the stipend to o2 to use their mobile network paid every month since November 2007, the 99p or whatever it is I’ve paid for each and every song I’ve downloaded from the ITMS (and there’s been a lot) and the frightening number of apps I’ve bought (and lets not forget the $15 or so spent on books thus far). Well, maybe not cover, but put a large dent in… well a dent… OK, well 24p more and I can get myself a cheap game for free

¹ Yes, I know the ProSpreads platform can do lots of fun advanced thingies but I defy anyone who doesn’t have a couple of years knowledge to even understand how it’s used. The only thing all the extra bells, knobs and whistles did for me was allow me to blow my £50,000 trial account in half the time it would have otherwise.

I should probably point out that Spread Betting is a leveraged product and the value of your investment can far exceed your original stake. It’s a wonderful way of throwing away money, even if you do know what you’re doing and probably not recommended for those who don’t know what they’re doing. That said, if you really, really want to give it a go let me know because if you sign up for an IG Index account recommended by me I get a bottle of champagne or something. You might also get some money in your account, I can’t remember, all I know for sure is I get goodies if you then go and make a few trades.

So given my recent dillema I spent enough time with iMovie to realise that it wasn’t going to cut the mustard and that cash was going to have to be spanked. One of the nice things about where I work is that we get employee discounts at various places, including Apple. This is about 8% for hardware so I figured I’d toddle to Temple and find out what savings could be had. Turns out the goof folk at the Apple Store were going to give me a 17% discount which, on an upgrade that costs £254, comes to over £40. Bonus. Hopefully I shall finish installing tonight (it comes on several DVDs and a full install is over 50Gigabibbles so it takes a while). I can then work on my video projects… which I won’t be sharing with you lot

So recently I’ve been spanking large sums of money with these lovely people (actually, who am I kidding, I’ve been spanking large sums of cash with them for some time now given half my camera kit was bought from their website) since they are one of the better camera shops about and I need lots of things for my course and photography business. On Saturday I needed to get a background so, on my way home from my course, I swung by the showroom. It was heaving. Turned out there was a 1 year anniversary for the new, bigger showroom so there were loads of special offer on, lots of reps from different companies, various events and a prize draw. I vaguely recalled hearing something about it but had not realised it was then. Anyway, I waited my turn to speak to a sales bod while they dealt with the masses and looked at the shiny things on display. 30 minutes later and I walked out with my stuff, they put my name in the prize draw box (free entry if you bought something) and I headed home.

Today I received a call from them. At first I thought maybe I’d left something there, or maybe I’d been charged for the wrong item, but no, turns out they want to give me a rather nice A3 printer as a prize (the most expensive prize in the draw no less) which I think is rather sporting of them. I don’t think I’ve won anything like that before

Steve¹ will, in the next hour, get up on stage and finally release whatever it is that Apple are releasing today. Being a rabid Mac fanboi I’m interested to know what’s being released and no doubt I will absolutely have to have one as soon as I know whatever it is (it happened with the iPhone, the cube, the 30″ monitors to name but a few). The problem is I can’t afford one. This is new to me² and no doubt the fact that I can’t have one will mean I want it even more.

Tempted as I am to delve into my savings to get one I need that money for other things (food for one thing :S) so instead there is a plan, not a great plan mind, but a plan none the less. A small (depressingly small) sum of money will put placed on what can only be described as a punt on the markets tomorrow. Should that punt pay off then all the winnings will be placed on another punt and so on and so forth until either one of the punts fail (highly likely) and I’m left with nothing or I have the money to get the new shiny toy. In theory I could turn £10 into over £700 in 4 trades. In practice £10 will probably turn into £0 in one or two, but hey well, nothing ventured nothing gained, and perhaps the gods of technology will smile on me and grant me the money for the iMustHave before it’s released.

¹Because those of us indoctrinated into the cult of Jobs are on first name terms with him

²OK, I had to wait for my big current computer but that’s because it was stupidly expensive and just going out and buying it when I first decided I wanted one would have left me paying off my credit cards for 5 years at a stupid rate of interest. That’s not to say I was doing without as I had less silly macs to play with in the interim.