A few weeks with a Surface Pro

So I needed an upgrade for my work PC and Laptop, I wanted something that would give me power, flexibility and be lightweight to take with me when out of the office.

There were a few options open to me and our IT Department took me through the usual suspects they had in the system - basically a laptop with dock all of which where heavier than I was really after - also I already had a laptop and desktop I just wanted one device! On device to rule them all!!!!

OK let me get this straight up front, yes I could have just gone with the normal procedure and got a laptop - a Dell Inspiron or similar and yes it would have been fairly light and as powerful as the Surface Pro - but really why settle for just the usual when there are so many new options available, and on top of all that work was looking for a guinea pig to try the tablet hybrid world!

Firstly as a tablet/laptop hybrid

As you can see from this first image the screen gets a little messy with finger prints and such however as you will see it really doesn't matter as when on as you really can't see the finger marks when it is working - and yes I am working with it so it's going to get finger marks - it's a touch screen!

Finger marked

Once turned on they seen to disappear

One note - this is a work machine so it is covered in work ID stickers - I have blurred them out - not that they mean anything outside the IT inventory but hey I guess I should be good and not show them off to the world!

We got the Type Cover, which is the more keyboard like cover with mouse touch pad and the usual keys that you would find in a laptop - this cover basically turns the Surface Pro into a 10 inch laptop and I don't have too much trouble typing in it - even with my big hands. The keyboard are sold separately to the device and they are essential to the unit - without the keyboard this is an expensive tablet (MicroSoft please just bundle them together!!!)

I needed one hand to take the picture (where are my Google Glasses?) but you get the idea I have easily type two handed on this thing!

Alternatively you can use the on screen keyboard or the script to text using the pen/stylus (more on that later)

Both work OK for times you are without the Type Cover (or in full tablet mode) - not something I'm likely to do for long stretches but useful at times.

I found this very similar to the iPad keyboard - only downfall is screen area is greatly reduced

I was VERY impressed with the script to text function and the pen is easy to use - even has an eraser!

The Look and Specs

Microsoft call it a Dark Titanium colour... and who am I to argue? It certainly looks the part of a futurist piece of computer hardware - it feels solid and has enough weight to it so you are reminded that this is an expensive and solid device.

From the spec sheet on MS.com it's packed with a 3rd Gen i5, Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4 GB Ram, 128 GB SSD HDD, 10.6" ClearType Full HD Display 10-point multi-touch, two 720p HD LifeCams (front and rear), Microphone, Stereo speakers, USB 3.0, mirco SDXC car slot, Heasset Jack, Mini Display Port, Cover Port.... and more - see it all here 

Basically it is a powerful little machine for something under a kilogram

Dark Titanium Colour (or black as I called it!) the rear camera is angled so that when sitting open with the kick stand it still points straight ahead - neat addition...

Here you can see the USB 3.0, volume and headphone jack

The microSDXC card slot, power and Mini Display Port - the power uses magnet to hold the lead in which also serves as a place to put the pen... which means I had better get some extra pens for when it falls off...

Pen in place....

And all set up ready to go...

 I have yet to use the mini Display Port - work are getting me a lead to use the in house projectors etc... in the mean time I had to borrow a laptop at the last presentation - kinda defeats the purpose of the all in one machine but we are working out the bugs...

Work Use

So I got this thing for work - but what do I do and what do I need it to do...?

Well the Microsoft Office suite for starters! We use the usual suspects, Word, Excel, PowerPoint,Outlook, Project etc and they all work really well. What I have found to be the MOST useful is OneNote.

Here is a program that I had not used previously which I find myself using all the time. Print PDFs to OneNote and suddenly I really can be paperless at meetings - using the pen or Type Cover I can make notes straight to the PDF. Create historical documents for all my various meetings and programs in one place and with my handwriting!!!

The stylus/pen makes all this possible and the power of the software that seems to be learning my handwriting and adjusting - script to text in OneNote and the native Surface (Windows 8??) is brilliant - so much better than I expected!

 Desk Setup

This is the real power of this device. When I am at my desk there is NOTHING different from using a normal desktop machine - I sit down to two 19" monitors, a normal sized keyboard, mouse and just get to work. Currently I have set up with only the two monitors, once more programs become available through Windows Store I might change to use the Surface Pro as a third monitor for things like Social Media or news but for now this is the perfect setup.

We have gone with the Toshiba Dynadock USB 3.0, this provides me with MORE than enough features and is powered by one USB from the Surface.

The DynaDock is a versatile little unit - perfect for most office or home uses where you want to take your device with you and use it as a desktop machine... Yes I need to tidy up the cables... I'm still not certain this is the 'right' position for it..

I can use the Surface as a third monitor at the moment I don't but I might when there are more Windows 8 touch capable apps that meet my work needs

As a desktop unit nothing has changed and it looks just like any other desk at work... 

Downside

Because with everything there is a downside.

My one big thing screen resolution.

At under 11" the Surface is small - I already have glasses and I don't want to be bent over in front of a tiny screen when working away from my desk. In that case when using the Surface and a Tablet/Laptop I upscale 150% size (it's simple to do and has three levels of preset 100%, 125% and 150%).

However to change resolution you need to log-out, maybe this is due to the security that we have at work, (log-in is something that we just do all the time to our machines and phones) but if I want to jump out to a quick meeting I have to adjust screen and log-out - losing all my open work, files and webpages only to do that in reverse when I come back to my desk...

Maybe I have this wrong but I would say that is my one big gripe at this early stage...

Conclusion

I would have to say that for me and many in my position this is a perfect device for work - for the moment it does everything I need it to and as Windows 8 develops with more "metro" apps the true potential will shine. For the average desk jockey this has no advantage over a desktop machine but for someone in my position who if often in and out at meetings being able to simply unplug and go bringing everything with me it is perfect.

4/5

Eclectic Readers Challenge 2013

As I enjoyed the challenge of the Eclectic Readers Challenge for 2012 I thought I should give the 2013 Challenge a go as well. Book'd Out has a great variety for this year so that should keep me on my toes... It is very different and has a lot of different styles of books to those that I would normally read - but hey lets give it a good ole try!

So check back here and see how I am going!

Categories

1. Translated Fiction - Umberto Eco - The Name of the Rose or Koushun Takami - Battle Royale TBR

2. Historical Mystery - Ellis Peters - one of the Brother Cadfael Mysteries TBR

3. Romantic Suspence - Nora Roberts - Sea Swept TBR

4. Made Into A Movie - Anthony Burgess - A Clockwork Orange TBR

5. New Adult - ?

6. Urban Fantasy - Patricia Briggs - Moon Called or Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell TBR

7. Dystopian - Aldous Huxley - Brave New World TBR

8. Memoir - ?

9. LGBT - Poppy Brite - Liquor TBR

10. Action Adventure - 

11. Humour - Terry Pratchett - a new one!!!

12. Published in 2013 - ?

Ready Player One, Ernest Cline - Review

Ready Player One

This is the final in my Eclectic Readers Challenge for 2012, and as a last hurrah it is your favourite genre time...

I went for Science Fiction (this could also be classed as Young Adult and I think it easily could be both) as this is a genre I go back to an awful lot when choosing books to read. I had also heard alot about Ready Player One and I wanted to see for myself what all the fuss was about.

Ready Player One is set in 2044 and the real world is not a nice place to be. High level of unemployment, slums and desperate people trying to live out an existence. However, there is a good side to this world the Virtual World that almost everyone is part of and lives in OASIS. Designed by James Halliday (who I'm not sure is based on but it could be a Bill Gates or Steve Jobs cast from a different mold) OASIS is everything and nothing. Children go to school via OASIS only virtually meeting their classmates but school here is free and obtainable by anyone - all you need to do is jack in to the school world (for free) and you have the same chances and abilities and everyone else.

Most of the rest of OASIS is monatised to some degree i.e. to transport to different worlds you need virtual money (fully exchangeable with real world money).

The protagonist Wade Watts is from the poor end of town, with no parents being cared for by a disinterested Aunt his escape and only chance at a real life is through OASIS and his one passion is to win the prize setup by Halliday before his death. The prize is all his fortune and control of OASIS and all the questions, clues and challenges are deeply routed in Halliday's obsession with the 1980's. 

This sets the tone of the book, it is an adventure set in the virtual world of OASIS against the real world bad guys out to seek control of OASIS. Can Wade and his friends win through and who will find the final clue to open the last gate and win the prize.

Not only is this book a great adventure story set in a fantastic future it is a great ride down memory lane into the pop culture of the 1980's. John Hughes films, arcade games and many many other references bring this world and story to life.

The writing is fairly basic (hence why I think it sits defiantly in the Young Adult genre) it still is a great read especially as a child of the 80's (born in the 70's, grew up in the 80's started drinking in the 90's...)

I would recommended this book.

4/5

Suede - Dog Man Star, 1994

1994 was a significant year for me. I had finished high school the previous year, moved out of home, enrolled in the University of Canberra in an Environmental Science degree (never finished), met a bunch of new friends - forged some better relationships with old friends and generally started on the journey of adulthood. But that year also saw me form some of the foundations of the things that interest me and made me... well me.

Science Fiction: through watching marathon sessions of Star Trek the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and meeting some other fans and devotees (I wasn't the only one and I wasn't strange or weird)

Education: Sure I never finished my first degree but I learnt that this was a world I wanted to return to at some point... and I did and still do now and then...

Music: Collecting (buying) new CD's, Mix Tapes from a very good mate, hanging out with bands as a very cheap roadie and mostly listening to it for "hours and hours"

One album that really defines 1994 to me is Suede's Dog Man Star

I had heard some of the tracks from there initial self titled album Suede and enjoyed them. However, for me Dog Man Star will be my first Suede album and the songs are embedded in my mind as quintessential Suede. Which is quite strange as this album is probably not as raw as Suede and saw the departure of Bernard Bulter - who I still associate with that Suede sound (even though they have produced a hell of a lot more songs since Bernard left then before it still IS the sound of the first two albums) that captures (to me) the original spark that mark them as one of my top bands.

I suppose I haven't really thought too much about Suede and the music and sound and feeling of 1994 for a long time. Then a friend posted a link to an article by Brett Anderson (singer/songwriter and main man of Suede) all about Dog Man Star and his thoughts on each of the tracks. 

Reading Brett's thoughts on the album and each track both brought back the memories of that time and place for me and the realisation of what a completely brilliant album this was and is. 

I remember the rough concrete ceiling of my room in ressies, the cell like den where I could put on Dog Man Star plug in my head phones and drift off into Brett's world of speeding cars, the streets of London and observations of life mixed in with the piano and guitar riffs that add gentle touches of beauty. I remember walking through the Uni grounds as one of the New Generation searching for my place in the world.

I would lay on my bed starring up at the beer bottle lids I had pressed into the roof in the shape of my favourite things Star Trek, The Cure, The Wall and Suede. Drifting off to a world where all my wishes and dreams came true. The room where I discovered more about sex then anywhere else, where I drank, ate and experimented with drugs. The place where I became a young man and left my boyhood behind.

Some of my best memories around this time are through music and friendship (both near and far) girl friends and mates, lovers and drinkers and getting letters and parcels from Zles...

Zles - a friend from early high school days, a musical partner (both playing and sharing), joined (in a state of what can only be described as insanity) the Navy and moved to Melbourne for training. We started letter writing to help each other stay sane in our journey into the world, swapping stories, dreams and music (through mixtapes) and many practical jokes and tom foolery.

I remember walking to class, via the mail room, with a very Christian classmate. I collected a fat envelope from Zles, imagining the usual 20-30 page letter and eager to see what would await me later in the day when I could grab a cold beer, quiet space and plug myself in for the read I opened the letter. Peering in I noticed something strange between the pages, not quiet knowing what it was I pulled it out. A soiled condom! 

My classmate gasped and I shoved the offending item back into the envelope and muttered something about a crazy mate and shoved the letter into my backpack hurrying to class saying no more on the matter.

When I did finally get to read the letter (and on the last page I might add) Zles told me the condom was filled with shaving cream and put in as a joke... well at least that's what I will believe to this day!

Music was important to me before 1994 and it remains long after, but this was the year I went to bars with  bands, I hung out at rehearsals and real band members asked me what I thought of this or that song. This was the year I had to go on stage - mid song - and hold the lead singer/guitarists mic stand together (after he broke it) so he could play the lead break and pound out the last few notes of the final song. The year I watched the Far Gone Beauties with Bronwyn Bishop (yes that one) at the Uni Bar. The year I wrote most of my lyrics in a dark room with a multitude of new and old music pounding in my ears, a sweet drop of liquor on my lips and dodgy ball point in my hand.

1994 was a good year, thanks for the memories Brett and co...

Dog Man Star has played constantly in my ears while I wrote this dredging up the memories and visions from some many years ago - 18 to 36, twice a life-time and so much more and I wouldn't have it any other way. I am what I am because of years like 1994.

This still life is all I ever do
There by the window quietly killed for you
In the glass house my insect life
Crawling the walls under electric lights
I'll go into the night into the night
She and I into the night

Is this still life all I'm good for too?
There by the window quietly killed for you
And they drive by like insects do
They think they don't know me
They hired a car for you

To go into the night, into the night
She and I into the night

And this still life is all I ever do
There by the window quietly killed for you
And this still life is all I ever do
But it's still, still life
But it's still, still life
But it's still, still life

Scared Little People

I'm not really "in" the You Tube world... sure I have posted a few videos of my daughter and my life (including a silly film clip of one of my bands songs!)

However, I do dabble and I like to follow a few creative Vloggers as you have seen from the last post one of them is Charlieissocoollike. Charlie's "I'm Scared" video has sparked something across You Tube. Many other Vloggers are coming out in support of Charlie and posting about how scared they are and how they worry about what people will think or write about their video.

Charlie's good friend Michael Aranda posted this reply to him a couple of days ago and I think it is really good advice. We, as humans, always feel worried about what people think about them. We all do, we just deal with them in different ways.

It feels me with great pride as a human to see so many people respond to Charlie in support and to tell the world, they too are scared.

Responses
I'm really Scared
Everybody is scared
Re: I'm Scared
For Charlie
For Charlie - the beard'ed one Alwayswheezy
Oh just look at the WHOLE DAMN PAGE of responses... Now that kind of response is scary...

From one person, in a big City (London) reached out with one short video and got so much support and love from all over the world... I think that really answers his fears and speaks of a whole new possibility... maybe we should fear the scared little people?

I'll leave you with a great "b-side" from The Cure... Scared As You

Open Letter to Charlie McDonnell

Charlie McDonnell from Charlieissocoollike posted this earlier today... go on watch it, I'll wait...

This is my letter to Charlie

Charlie

You don't know me, for starters I live in Australia on THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD from you and for follow-up I'm twice your age and for these reasons, and probably more, we are not acquainted in any way. However, I watch you on You Tube (not in the stalker way although I don't post comments). I watch you because you make wonder little videos that often get inside my head for days.

There is also another reason I watch you. You are doing what I know I would have wanted to do if things like You Tube existed when I was your age (and younger). I understand your need for acceptance and people to "like" you. I have done many things in my life to "be that guy" to have people like me and want me to be around them.

I have played in bands, been on stage, worked on film and videos to be someone and to be something, yet I have now realized that I need to do these for me first and everyone else second. I've gotten older, yes, but I have also become more comfortable with me and doing things for me.

For years I would be the fall guy for anything that needed to be done. "Oh you need someone to act/play/direct/stand in/hold that/do that...? Sure I will do it!" I was always ready to be there and do what needed to be done, no matter what that did to me and those around me. I found I was often burning candles at both ends, working 60 hours a week, doing university and acting in a play because I felt I needed to be needed... That has changed.

I'm not saying that those things don't matter to me, I still love and want to be on stage, in the limelight and play music, act, direct and be involved in things. I want to do it because I want to do it. Not because I'm doing what someone else expects me to do and certainly not to make people like me. I love getting the praise and adulation (hey I'm an extrovert and I love the attention) it's just that now I will do it because I want to.

There comes a point in life when you can spend the time to sit and think things through for a bit, it's then that you realise that it's not what you do that makes people like you it's who you are. Holding yourself up for criticism from the masses is not helping to create you, it's breaking you apart.

Charlie, some of your best video's are when you are you and you are being you... that's what brings people back that's what makes you a better person. Sure you can always do better, and that is a great place to be at, mediocrity is breed from complacency, innovation comes from striving forward. However, there is nothing wrong with doing the best you can TODAY even if tomorrow could be better.

When we recorded our EP it captured our music for that day, that instant, that moment. Sure about six months later, after playing a few gigs and not being in the stressful setting of a studio costing us money, our songs got better. We were tighter as a band, the songs become part of us as a unit and not individuals we kicked arse! Do I still listen to the CD? HELL YEAH and I love it! It is and will forever be THAT moment in time, that was the best we could have been, THEN. I accept that.

What it all comes down to is you being happy and confident with yourself. The You Tube masses are not the important people here, I'm not (remember I don't know you), your friends, family, girl-friend... are the ones that really count and the most important person in your life is... YOU. Love yourself, believe in yourself and BE yourself.

Ask yourself why did you really start on You Tube? Was it really to get people to like you? Or was it to get you to like you?

Cheers

The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkien - Review

So for the penultimate in my Eclecetic Reader Challenge 2012 and for my Classic Book I and reviewing The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien

I have chosen to use the image of the copy I read, the 1978 Guild Publishing edition bound in faux (or real??) leather. I think this is also the first and only book I have read for this challenge using a physical book... although I must admit to reading the last few chapters on the Kindle as I really wanted to finish it in a lunch break.

Before I start my review I will also admit that I did start to read Jane Austin's Northanger Abbey as my Classic... and I really did try, I used the annotations and studied up about her and her writing style. It just bored me to death... I will finish it someday but today is not that day... sorry.

So instead I went for a book that technically I have read before, years ago as a teen - I think I am OK to use this as a re-read as that was more than half my life ago and many thousands of books ago. I will also admit that I really had no idea what was going to happen next while reading it - aside from Bilbo did get back to the Shire, I was very much along for the ride.

The Hobbit is one of those classic books that people talk about alot. But how many have read it recently and has it really held up all these years later?

First up, it really is a great piece of fantasy writing. It has all the right bits, a young inexperienced adventurer going out to see the wild world, a wizard, dwarves and elves, bear-men, spiders, wolfs, goblins and Gollum. A magic ring is found as we travel over high mountains, into caves and tunnels and through dark deep forests, to find the fabled treasure and (the very necessary) dragon.

There are many books that tell a similar story, and I have read quite a few of them, but none tell it so innocently as Tolkien. I am reminded that this was written in 1937, there were no games of Dungeons & Dragons being played by high schoolers on Mum's kitchen tables, no movies featuring swords and sorcery and certainly no Geroge R.R. Martin. It is written with nothing to prove and everything to give.

The Hobbit is not driven by the typical fight scenes of modern fantasy, in fact (although necessary) the fights are really not that important, at least in the blow by blow sense of other books. It truly is about the adventure of one small Hobbit and the very real difference he made.

If I had to recommend a first fantasy book to someone I often say The Magician by Raymond E Feist (very much a Classic in it's own right) but I think that may change, depending on the audience, as The Hobbit with it's easy style and no nonsense "real" hero is probably a better choice.

Simple, brilliant and a real classic. 4.5/5