Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts

Monday, June 22, 2015

Science Fiction Friction

I've had occasion to watch some tv and the odd film and have some thoughts about what I've been watching. and no particular order I'm just going to put it out there.

Dark Matter, Ex_Machina, Humans/Äkta människor, Stitchers, SuperGirl, Mr.Robot and Utopia.

Dark Matter.



Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 6.44.12 pmThe spaceship makes this manoeuvre to 'fall' rapidly 'downwards' to avoid a missile. In doing so the ships 'gravitational processor' would not be able to compensate adequately. So in this scene all the characters from the 100lb to the 300lb 'floated' 'weightless' as the ship 'fell'

Moments later the spaceship makes an FTL leap, that's Faster Than Light wherein none of the characters suffered compression injuries due to rapid acceleration from going zero to extremely quickly instantly.

Secondly. Why is it that in every space ship show and film ever all the spaceships fly along the same place in the same orientation. All of them. With few exceptions like in this episode of Dark Matter and one episode of classic Star Trek do you ever see spaceships on different planes of travel.

They never approach from 90 degrees, of directly from above, or below or some oblique angle. Always head to head, face to face. Always the same orientation.

Thirdly. Guns, why so many guns?

Ex_Machina.



Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 6.43.41 pmA female robot is programmed with self will and though.

There were some interesting themes in this, like the accumulation and endowment of knowledge based on the capture of internet searches and phone communications.

But it's not a startlingly good movie, given that the robot has figured out how to overload the power system by feedback I wondered why it was content to wait to escape by conning a guilliable male into helping it.

Anyway the robot escapes, without a worry about how it'll recharge itself, money, identification, destination or means.

Humans the English Version and Real Humans (Äkta människor) the swedish version.



Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 6.57.41 pmRobots have been given AI. “Science has created a robot that looks like a human being and is considered a perfect substitute.”

Perfectly articulated robots are programmed for specialist roles in the domestic and workplace, from domestic help, aged care workers, to warehouse stores pick and pack and labourers.

Except some of them have been given freedom of thought, just a few.

Set 'now' this is an interesting study in human and machine interaction. One of the good things is that the robots don't have cellular communication or are internet connected, and they require charging regularly.

One of the strange things is just how well articulated and mobile they are, and just how good they are at things like cooking, which is sometimes a judgement call, they don't posses super sight, super strength, or any other extra powers. Some of them can drive cars, but not many.

'Real Humans' is a movement to avoid or discriminate against 'hubots' in society, and there are plenty of stickers and warnings about where they are welcome or not.

It's a very good theme and it's well acted and scripted, the tribulations of teenage angst and infatuation with the overly pretty house bots, the 'hubots' becoming sexual partners for some, and the anger that some humans have towards being inferior to 'hubots' in some situations.

Then there are the different group, who are free-thinkers and have different personalities, from a psychopath, a religious one, one who wants to be loved and have children, and one that got away with being a police officer, only I have no idea how they passed the medical for that since there are special 'hubot' readers that can pick up identification and ownership ID quite easily. Still it makes for a great plot angle.

Then….. one of the different 'Hubots' uses it's standard USB port to hack into a security network. You knew it was coming, along with the leaping of the car.

Stitchers.



Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 6.56.34 pmJump into the memories of a recently dead person and discover why or how they died. Female lead has emotional detachment and the nerds are pretty second rate.

Throw in that the lead has to wear a skin tight suit that covers some of her body and protects her when shes in the swim pool, it's particularly odd. I might not be getting it but when you assume someone memory I'd have thought that you also gain their perspective and not be an observer in their dream, you'd see things in the first person as you are now, not be standing behind you looking at you.

It's not overly different to any number of soft detective shows that are or have been on from Sherlock, Person of Interest, and others. It's not particularly good on story, script or procedural accuracy.

SuperGirl.



Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 6.58.41 pmThis is particulay vexing.

In this new paradigm Super Girl is facing other aliens who happen to be in the same town, and want to cause distruction and mayhem.

Not acts of bravery. So essentially it's a monsters of the week show. Hugely disappointing and rather average thinking.

Mr. Robot.



Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 6.59.17 pmIntrovert hacker with extraordinary skills 'hacks' people to being them to a justice.

Was doing ok, and is quite interesting, realistic perhaps and at one point he used the acronym AFK (away from keyboard) to explain why he was meeting someone in real life and not just via email. Of course gets caught up with some major league conspiracist and mysterious hacking group that disappear, the hunt is on.

Of course gets in a corporate jet to fly to a data centre where he is the only one ....

Has a lot of potential if it stays true to itself and not one of those stupid tap the keyboard hack pastiches, which it will be eventually.

Utopia.



Screen Shot 2015-06-21 at 6.57.04 pmOne of the best and quirkiest programs in the last while is the TV series Utopia. Just 12 episodes.

Jessica Hyde on the run and hiding a secret contained in a manuscript that foreshadows or is as a result of and experiment to end or change mankind for good and forever.

It is strange and it is compelling if you can get into it.

Too odd for the network TV people they stopped it sort of stopped it mid story with might of course be a blessing since look what's happened in "Orphan Black' that's turned into a bit of a shambles.

Friday, March 21, 2014

4:04 am and the clock goes tick-tick-tick Musings

I was watching some youtube things, and you know how that ends up, normally pictures of cats right. Well not in my case.

Hollow Earth Theory : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollow_Earth

Hollow Earth. Hidden entrances at the North and South poles. Hitler sent expeditions! The claim was that the earth’s crust is only between 8 miles and 200 miles thick

Gravity? Well there is a micro start in the center providing gravity for those on the outside. Not sure how those on the inside get on, perhaps they’re squished to the ground flat, living in 24-7 sunlight

Oh this is where UFO’s come from too.

Which lead me to Expanding Earth Theory http://hollowearththeory.com/articles/expandingEarthAnimation.asp

But before that how NASA made up UFO’s so they could launch loads of satellites and space weapons, and how they use chemtrails to fly holographic aircraft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemtrail_conspiracy_theory

http://www.disclose.tv/forum/chemtrails-and-holographic-planes-t37043.html

Which lead me to a video about how the human race is an Alien Experiment….

I’m not judging but the most plausible was the NASA one., well not the holographic chemtrail thing but.

I could expand on that by saying there are many possible scenarios of life on other planets


  1. There is life on other planets.

  2. Life on other planets is at a similar stage of development to that on Earth

  3. Life on other planets is more primitive than that on earth



Now because we don’t perceive or have an explanation for things that can travel Faster-than-light, or an understanding of worm-holes that may or may not get us from one place in the universe to another doesn’t mean they don’t exist or are not feasible.

But the question is that begs is how would you detect life on the 3rd rock from the sun  at the edge of a spiral arm we call  the Orion Arm, which is about two-thirds of the way from the center of our galaxy to the edge of the starlight?

It was a slow night

Monday, February 17, 2014

Honda Accord NT - a quick drive around the block

Those nice people at Honda New Zealand can't help themselves, they keep calling and asking if I want to drive their new cars.

This time it was for the Honda Accord. I could take a pick of the V6 or the 4 cylinder.



to be more exact the 2.4 litre, 4 cylinder, 16 valve, EarthDreams i-VTEC, chain drive DOHC, which I really did choose over the 3.5 litre, 6 cylinder, 24 valve, EarthDreams i-VTEC, belt drive SOHC.

Because, well in the event that I was going to have a new car it would be the more normal 4 cylinder one.  The actual cost difference between the two is only $5,000 though, $55 as opposed to $60,000.

So what were the 'bells and whistles'? The ‘NT’ name for the top-specification Accord stands for Navigation and Technology.

Included in the technology package is Honda’s Advanced Driver Assist System (ADAS).

This is a bundle of things including adaptive cruise control (which works between 30-180km/h),  You set a cruise speed, and then a distance to the vehicle in front, the car then brakes or accelerates to match the object in front. It's like magic.

There's also something called Collision Mitigating Braking System (CMBS) with audible/visual alerts and initial braking activation. I activated this once on an on-ramp manoeuvre, got a few beeps and some yellow flashing lights.

Best though is the Lane Keep Assist System (LKAS). The car recognises the lane markings, on the motorway, for instance, and then keeps the car in-between those lines. Steering itself. Like magic. Seriously you could take both your feet off the pedals and hands off the wheels, the car would continue as usual.

You'd be daft to do that, but in the interest of a test I did. Weird experience a car steering itself, and then accelerating to keep a gap, or breaking, it would do both things.

However, the lane keep thing only works where there are clear lanes to keep to.

There is also a unique blind spot monitoring system that shows the view from the left-hand door mirror in the centre-console colour screen that is displaying the sat-nav map.

The centre-conole display also changes to the reversing camera view too, but it's worst feature is on start up and a warning that you're supposed to be responsible and makes you click a button before it changes into something more useful.

I believe the steering is a fly-by-wire affair, which would make the LKAS more probable.

[gallery type="rectangular" ids="6468,6469,6470,6471,6472,6473,6474,6475,6476"]

Anyway, I had the car for an hour. It was magnificent. It's comfortable, quiet, and it accelerates a dream. the technology works, I'm sure the technology I didn't use works like the BlueTooth connection.  The user manual would be an interesting read.

Funniest thing? The mag with curb damage.

Annoying things? The connection for  your media device is in a cubby hole, very design, but not the best.

Interesting thing? Keyless start, you can keep the key in your pocket, the car detects it. No idea how it works if someone else jumps in the car and drives off, does the car detect that the key isn't in or near the car and stops? I'm sure the Honda boffins have thought that through. However if the keys aren't in your pocket they're a bit awkward a shape nd size to put in the centre console. Nit-picking.

Completely enjoyed this car, the multi-adjustable seats through the flappy-paddle gear-box with both sports and normal settings. You can have sports and eco at the same time it seems.

It also has Driver and Passenger specific air con settings, which is handy, and the quite ride might be due to  the Active Noise Cancellation technology

Fuel consumption says 8.1 car said 10.1 and it wasn't being driven gently, or as gently as you would if you owned it.

Would I like to own it, I really would. Would I spend $55,000 on a car? That's the doubtful thing, and I have no real idea of what comparable cars in this price bracket there are. But then I'm not looking for a new car at the moment.

Would I encourage you to drive this car. Absolutely. It really is a stunner. So many technology things in one car, so much car, so much fun.







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Thursday, August 8, 2013

The less of me, the one with the heart

Nike+ GPS SportsWatchI'm not actually sure what I was thinking, but I have a Nike Sportswatch, and this allows me to track my exercise.

One of it's capabilities is to link to a suitable heart rate sensor. And being as how I had nothing better to spend more money on I invested in one.

Bit of a mistake really. Maybe.

It works ok, and gave me some readings, but having done no research the numbers it came up with were meaningless.  So I had to go investigate using the trusty Google and Wikipedias

heartCaptureWhat I found was a couple of interesting things, but I'm not sure if I'm nearer understanding or now just frightened.
















































































Resting Heart Rate for MEN


Age18-2526-3536-4546-5556-6565+
Athlete49-5549-5450-5650-5751-5650-55
Excellent56-6155-6157-6258-6357-6156-61
Good62-6562-6563-6664-6762-6762-65
Above Average66-6966-7067-7068-7168-7166-69
Average70-7371-7471-7572-7672-7570-73
Below               Average74-8175-8176-8277-8376-8174-79
Poor82+82+83+84+82+80+


As can be seen on this chart, your resting heart rate can vary with your fitness level and with age. I'm wavering around Good to Excellent, according to this.

But then the point of a heart rate monitor is to show your heart under the stress of exercise. So I had to find that out. And I came up with this


  • The most commonly used formula is to take       your age (in years) away from 220. For example, if you are 34, your predicted max heart rate is 186 bpm (220 - 34). The formula was derived from a range of maximum heart rate studies in 1970 by William Haskell and Samuel Fox.

  • A study in 2001 with healthy adults found a more accurate formula of 208 - 0.7 x age (from Tanaka, H., Monahan, K.D., & Seals, D.R. (2001). Age-predicted maximal heart rate revisited. J Am Coll Cardiol. Jan;37(1):153-6.)



So I can derive then that my maximum heart rate should be around 171 (I'm old).

And then I found a handy chart that shows me what that looks like in terms of exercise effort heart rate to Maximum heart rate

Table of heart rate at training intensities from 50-90%


































































age



50%



60%



65%



70%



75%



80%



90%



50



120



130



135



140



145



150



160



51



120



129



134



139



144



149



159



52



119



129



134



139



144



148



158



53



119



128



133



138



143



148



157



54



118



128



132



137



142



147



156





Going back to the data then,  I've had the heart rate monitor on for 3 exercise things and have rates between 146 and 152, somewhere between 75% and 90% (on average), and a range between 70 and 90% overall. Average being a good thing as looking at the data, it says 163 at one point on one of the three days (last night it topped at 158).

So why am I worried. Well 75%, or 80% or 90%  - how do you know that ?  They 'feel' the same to me. I'm pushing as hard as I feel I can on most days, some days I hear the music, others I don't.  I don't want to 'back-off' yet now, I'm conscious that there is a limit to how much I should push, and this is going to change the way I do things, even if I pretend to myself it isn't and that I'll just ignore it. I won't.

Wheck out here http://www.topendsports.com/testing/heart-rate.htm for where I took my data and advice from.

Saturday, November 10, 2012

The less of me - revisited

I started with the good intention, in June, the walking, for the weight loss, the general fitness, the sense of wellbeing and accomplishment , and all the good things that that brings.

Well I started, then I broke a toe, then life happened and that. So... some excuses later, and fast forward from June 14 to November 10, and I know you're thinking what-the-hey, thats like 5 months, and you'd be right there.  But life indeed was happening and sometimes that intrudes on your good intentions.

Summer is here and we're off again.

This time though I upgraded from the Nike+ Sportband to the Nike+ GPS watch. Which altogether appeals more to my sense of big brother wathching me.

And full of the enthusiasm I was faster today than the previous efforts, to be fair it is warmer, I'm wearing less clothes and I have new motivation.

Can I keep it up though. Only I can know and only I can let me down.

Thursday, July 19, 2012

..and then I dreamt of a perpetual motion machine...

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300"]Robert Boyle's self-flowing flask fills itself... Robert Boyle's self-flowing flask fills itself in this diagram, but perpetual motion machines cannot exist. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

A Perpetual motion machine, which is different from a free energy device.If you google you'll find all manner of weird and wonderous devices either real or imagined that are examples of attempts to construct a perpetual motion machine.

I'm not sure if there are rules to such things, other than once started should not stop. Most all of the devices on the net are extremely complex and involve many parts, centrifugal devices with swinging arms, strange chain driven things, things that reply on some weird notion of gravity and water.

The dream I had was of a very simple gadget, involving a couple of magnets a cog and a counter.


  • So. The basic of my dream was that magnets when positioned pole to pole so North facing North should repel each other.

  • You have one fixed and one attached to a pendulum or fixed point so that swings freely.

  • When repelled the free swinging magnet swings away in an arc. Left to itself this would then eventually come to state of rest and in a neutral position, balanced between attraction by gravity and repulsion by magnetic force.

  • In my dream however when the free swinging magnet is repulsed it comes to rest on a cog device, stopping it's motion, momentarily. Therefore each swing towards the fixed magnet is a discrete event.

  • The cog turns by weight of gravity, and the magnet is released to perform another swing towards the fixed magnet at the bottom of the arc.

  • It swings. It stops. It swings. It stops.

  • In my dream there was no loss of momentum as each momentum was it's own event.



The counter was attached to the cog for entertainment and to show how many times the device has swung back and forth. In my dream there is no free energy created, and although there is friction between the pivot point and at the cog, there is an expectation of object at rest. There is no more energy being created than being used. In my dream this device seemed so obvious that it must have been tried before.

It was just a toy. An it'd get pretty boring after a while. I also undestand that wear and tear would make the construction doomed to failure eventually, but it's not a free energy device, it offers nothing in return.



Wednesday, April 25, 2012

My Weird Belief System- the Moon Landings

I've always held doubts about the Moon Landings, in particular the ones we saw on TV, the ArmstrongAldrin ones, beamed live into your lounge.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on Mare Tranquillitatis during Apollo 11 in 1969. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)"]Buzz Aldrin salutes the U.S. flag on Mare Tran...[/caption]

Call it what you like but it seemed odd that the most complex thing that man had assembled worked first time like a dream, without a hitch. Ok so you could say that the path to success littered with failure guaranteed a success.

I've also doubted that with 1960's technology that it would be possible, and the fact that we've only managed low earth orbit with mixed success since stands out to me as something that should make you go mmmm.

Are there particular things that raise my radar. Well first up I think man did get to the moon, not the ones we think did, or when they say they did. I also think it's not about any secret alien agenda, moon bases, visitations, strategic missile bases or other warmongering, masonry, new world order, illuminati or other such.

I read somewhere that a conspiracy needs to have a monumental amount of "proof" to prove a conspiracy and that conspiracies were therefore very convoluted and confused, with many strands that if you followed them all you would naturally end up laughing.

Conspiracy does not have to be complicated or involves hundreds or thousands of people.

Tdhe two links below contain a miss-mash of things that make me frown and things that make me laugh as they appear a bit off beam. And before anyone comments that "Mythbusters have proved it" lets just say that Mythbusters is about as reliable or credible as the War on Terror is.

I've read the books that make claims about radiation, and not being a scientist I find them compelling and yet I don't know. I'm sure I read somewhere that the moon suits were left on the moon, having been thrown out of the module somehow, I wish I could remember where I read that.

There is enough dubious content from NASA and other "official" sources that show difficult and contrary things, not in and of itself confirmation of a conspiracy, but carelessness and ill-though out rush to release.

The big question though is what would it take for me be believe?



So check out these links that I referred to.
http://apolloscam.bravehost.com/

http://mrbasheer.tripod.com/moonwalk.html



Wednesday, August 31, 2011

In an instant...

Way back when, before the internet and mobile phones we'd agree to meet somewhere and we did. The newspapers arrived with the news from far-flung places, with the best bits held for the Sunday papers. Junk mail didn't exist. There were weekly local newspapers. We all watched either the news at 5:45, 9pm or 10pm or all three. There was no 24 hour TV.

Fast forward a bit. Now we have everything in an instant."Social Media". For instance  we have Twitter, which is about as real-time as it gets without being there, sometimes it's accurate, sometimes not. If you've ever witnessed the rise and decline of a twitter meme you'll understand how fickle it is.

And we have deal-a-day websites, by the hundreds, imploring us to buy now, immediately, things we don't need at prices we can't ignore. We have deal a day advertising on twitter of course, and Facebook.

We can't just agree to meet somewhere, we have to text and call numerous times 'just in case' It's scary how frail we've become, how unsure it all is, how needy.

Facebook has given everyone access to our lives, out thoughts and deeds. And we accept it. FourSquare has given you the ability to let people know what cafe, shop, street, bar you are in all the time. It's "me" central!

But it can't carry on. This explosion of socializing on the internet is doomed at some point, where it becomes intrusive. And I mean intrusive to me - I don't really care that you're the mayor of the donut shop, I don't really want to see your party pictures on Facebook. There are bits of your life that I am interested in, just not some bits.

Twitter, Text, Facebook, et al, is where the wild west is. "Everyone" is trying to get a piece of the action, to make a buck, and to get you to spend a buck. At some point you just have to switch off and tune out.

Now I can't actually think of a service that I've used that has fallen into obscurity, other than the web hosting Geocities, other than that Bebo, and MySpace perhaps. So I can't see a tailspin for any of the services we use right now, or are familiar with, which are, to repeat them, Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, and Youtube. Even an aggregation of all these things into one super app isn't what is going to happen, because why? It'll be too cumbersome, too awkward, too heavy.

The thing that we overlook  with Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, Youtube. Google+, Flikr, Wordpress, LinkedIn et al is that they are all "free" That's right we don't need to part with any cash of any kind to use them. Sure we have to have a device that can access them interactively, but they are free to use. And we accept that without question that we're giving up something for something. We just don't seem to care about what it is we're giving up, which in two words is privacy and ownership. Of our identity and our intellectual property.

Anything that rises will have to have some basics, speed, reach, ease and appeal. Anything that falls will have become bloated, tedious or have some cataclysm around it like bankruptcy, where users fall away like hair falling out never to return.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Fabulous at 50 - why I'm the same but different

http://blog.broadcastengineering.com/briefingroom/2005/09/01/frances-visual-technology-opts-for-rts%C2%AE-telex%C2%AE/I’ve always worked with technology, well from way back when.  Data entry learnt me to type, and I learnt to type on a T15 telex machine and could at one point read mylar tape with alarming accuracy, well it was a numbers thing and you had to be accurate when you’re dealing in millions of dollars.

Then I worked with a progressive group that had a bunch of IBM PC’s, and the bright kids built a network in the office for kicks. This was the very very early 80’s. The excitement of getting the IBM 5160 PC/XT and then eventually the PC/AT!

Then with Commodore Computers, the PC10, PC20 and PC30 and the Amiga computers, I remember seeing one of those in a Farmers shop showing a rotating window with a leopard walking within it, smoke and mirrors.

I’ve always had personal computers around me. Very early on efforts at Email, and file transfer by modem for business, and BBS systems in the evening.

Things moved quickly after that of course, and we’ve seen all manner of magic that we now call Plasma or LCD, apple iEverything, BluRay, etc etc, lots of tech.

Being around technology leads you down buying technology, and using technology, and I have for a long time. It should not be a surprise that my cupboard at home contains amongst other things a MiniDisc player, a 1Megapixel digital camera, a Sony Walkman stick thing, a video camea, and we have in the house a media player that will play .avi and other format video, various ieverythings, couple of plasmatrons, and that.

The family has also always had access to the best internet we could afford, so they have always had Hotmail accounts for instance, and been through bebo, myspace and Facepage. They’ve played online games and had software games, not to mention the Playstations – which reminds me I won one of those the first week they were out! Score

Which reminds me that I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much on technology, aside from the splash purchase of the 42” Plasma, which was a house moving reward upgrade.

 At 50 then I would suggest that I’m fairly tech savvy, and able to offer up some advice about technology.  I’ll admit to being clueless about CPU technology in PC’s and Notebooks but I know where to go to find out about what’s what, the internet is a tool for that.

What of my peers, which is where I wanted to go with this, and I alluded to in another post.

Just because I have “all the toys” does not make me rich, it makes me curious. But what is does mean is that to my peers that I’m somewhat of an oddity. Just because I have, and use an iPad makes me a bit different and geeky. I just use it because it is. My peers don’t work in I.T., they may use a computer at work, but they moan about it and “it’s a big one” if you press them as to which type they have.

Twitter, Facepage, Google+, LinkedIN, might as well be talking babble. And we talk sometimes as it seems they try to address their getting up to speed with their children’s acceptance of this stuff.

I don’t think I’m weird, odd or otherwise different from my peers, and I envy them their jobs, as I’m sure they envy mine.

Can I imagine not having a computer, sure yes I can, no internet? Sure I grew up without one, or a cellphone? when I was a boy we said we’d meet at 5pm and we met, we didn’t text, fret or otherwise track each other through the day to ensure we would do what we said we’d do.

Would I give up any of it? No.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Chasing the technology tail

Well so an I-Pad is just frippery then, unless I find one for say $600, and you know that's not going to happen any side of soon.

So the next thing that catches my eye, of course, as if I have money burning a hole in my pocket is perhaps and aPad, which is a 7" Android based tablet. Problem with that is that it's 7", and not an I-Pad. IT is cheap though, but at, say, $300, it's kind of nearly like half the price of an I-Pad,

So the next thing that catches my eye, of course, is perhaps and Android phone. Voda have one for $199 or DSE for $175. The problem with that of course is I have a work based BlackBerry that I use. It's not like I have friends or anything. So one of those would be sort of interesting and the a handbag filler for the wife.

I am then in a quandary as to what to spend money on, it's not like I need to or want to, but it's technology and I appear to be addicted to it.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Chasing the technology tail

Well so an I-Pad is just frippery then, unless I find one for say $600, and you know that's not going to happen any side of soon.

So the next thing that catches my eye, of course, as if I have money burning a hole in my pocket is perhaps and aPad, which is a 7" Android based tablet. Problem with that is that it's 7", and not an I-Pad. IT is cheap though, but at, say, $300, it's kind of nearly like half the price of an I-Pad,

So the next thing that catches my eye, of course, is perhaps and Android phone. Voda have one for $199 or DSE for $175. The problem with that of course is I have a work based BlackBerry that I use. It's not like I have friends or anything. So one of those would be sort of interesting and the a handbag filler for the wife.

I am then in a quandary as to what to spend money on, it's not like I need to or want to, but it's technology and I appear to be addicted to it.