The blog has got a little side-tracked over the past couple of days after I visited a new local bookstore and walked away with 40 Euros worth of books! But while I'm reading Ken Follett's new 1,100 page masterpiece, I finally decided to stop procrastinating over something that I have been considering for months. I finally installed Mozilla Thunderbird.
I have always never been able to decide about whether my email should be online or offline. For years I used Microsoft Outlook until I realised I liked email to be online and portable. But then Gmail went through its beta "oops, your email isn't available right now, try again later!" phase so I thought it would be best to download email to the desktop so I'd have access to it at all times. Plus everyone I bump into seems to love Thunderbird. So last night, I thought "screw it, just do it" and I downloaded the email client to see what it is like.
But I gave myself a rescue hatch. I told Gmail to keep a copy of everything in its archive. So if I decide that Thunderbird is not for me, I can switch back to web-based mail in an instant.
On first impressions, Thunderbird IS impressive. It is easily customisable and setting up your email accounts is a snap. Everything seems to work as advertised. Writing and sending emails is pleasant and I can attach different signatures for different email accounts (a feature I wish the web-based Gmail would have). The add-ons for Thunderbird are numerous and interesting and you can customise the noise a "new mail" notification makes (although I disabled this). You can also make filters to send email to different folders and you can even set up a "conversation view" of emails, just like Gmail.
However, I do have 2 negative comments :
1. Thunderbird couldn't import my Gmail address book. It all came through garbled. The thought of having to manually type hundreds of contacts into my Thunderbird address book is depressing.
2. The RSS feeds ability is not easy to handle. I tried to unsubscribe from a feed for example and nothing happened. I tried to manually delete RSS folders and nothing happened. Plus instead of showing you the text in a new feed, it loads the source webpage which really slows things down. Another problem was that instead of downloading all RSS feeds, it downloaded everything from my Google Reader archive - thousands of old posts which I had to manually delete from Thunderbird. Tedious and time consuming.
I'll keep experimenting with Thunderbird and see if it grows on me. I normally give new apps a minimum of a week to prove themselves. However, since I check my email from various computers, I may end up deciding to continue using the portability and convenience of web-based email. But we'll see. Thunderbird has many good things going for it that I am starting to get attached to it.
How about you? When it comes to email, online or offline? Do you use Thunderbird?
Steve Rubel of Micro Persuasion has done it again with another brilliant post on how to get more out of Gmail (or any other email service for that matter). The only downside for me is that I am not really much of a social networking person so I am unlikely to use much of what he suggested.
I don't like Twitter and I only use Facebook occasionally to play Scrabulous and to network with some business prospects. I am not completely into the whole "Facebook lifestyle" like a lot of other people. I don't need contacts' status details emailed to me as they happen and I don't feel the need to constantly change my status profile to let the whole world know what I am doing.
So Steve has some great advice but on this occasion, it doesn't apply much to me. But I really like the way Steve thinks and how he always finds new uses for everyday web apps. His best post by far is turning Gmail into a personal nerve center. Definately a classic and one I highly recommend you check out.
Windows secret updates affecting "repair" function
I blogged some time back about Microsoft installing stealth updates on people's computers, even if the computer user has disabled Windows' automatic updates feature.
Well now, Windows Secrets is reporting that these stealth updates are seemingly now stopping the "repair" function on Windows from working properly. However, all is not lost as Windows Secrets offers a workaround by making a batch file to register the missing DLL's yourself. The article offers a step-by-step easy guide.
What other damage have these stealth updates wreaked on people's PC's? I shudder to think.
Microsoft releases Service Pack 3 for Microsoft Office 2003
Today I was prompted by Windows Automatic Updates to download "Service Pack 3" for Microsoft Office 2003.
Clocking in at 114MB, this service pack seemingly contains "security enhancements and stability improvements" for the Office suite, so in other words, it fixes security vulnerabilities and bugs. So you won't see any differences in the appearance of your office programs but behind the scenes, some holes and bugs have been zapped.
Just go to Microsoft Update and start the scan. The service pack appears under "important updates" and once downloaded and installed, you'll be asked to re-boot your computer. So make sure you're not in the middle of anything important when you do this.
The net is buzzing over Garett Rogers' post on ZDNet about the possibility of a new Gmail interface being developed. This is quite interesting because it opens up the possibility that some of the things that Gmail is missing, or is currently doing badly, may soon be fixed.
In what was the shortest honeymoon on record (15 minutes), Yahoo Mail and I divorced and I went back to Gmail double-quick and we had some great make-up email-making.
So here's what I think should be changed in Gmail for my relationship with the email service to blossom :
1. Faster loading times. Currently, Gmail loads way too slow. It needs to speed up a bit, like a German cyclist on the Tour de France team on steroids.
2. The ability to open your contacts book without leaving your inbox. The ideal scenario would be a pop-up window.
3. When the contacts window is open, I want to be able to click a box next to the contact(s) I want to send an email to and for those email addresses to be inserted into the email window automatically. At the moment, I am having to remember email addresses from memory and my memory is as good as Alberto Gonzales in front of Congress.
4. Links next to "spam" and "trash" to empty those folders without entering them first.
5. The only thing I miss about Outlook and Yahoo Mail is having a preview pane to read the email without opening it first. Maybe Google could offer this option? I like the idea of using the arrow keys to go up and down my inbox with the email opening in a preview pane.
6. The ability to delete attachments but still keep the email that came with it. At the moment, you either have to keep everything or delete everything. You can't pick and choose.
7. Some kind of integration with Google Reader and Google Calendar. You can already do this with Firefox extensions and Greasemonkey scripts but I would prefer Google officially integrating these options into Gmail.
8. Coming back to the contacts book (as it is one of my most important areas of Gmail), the ability to enter instant messaging ID's which can be clicked on to open that program. Plus the ability to enter contacts websites and to be able to click on them and for them to then open in a browser.
9. More free space. Yahoo is offering unlimited email space. Why can't Google? At the very least, 5GB isn't too much to ask!
10. This is only a small thing but if Google wants to integrate Google Talk into Gmail then why not integrate it better? At the moment, you get this tiny little chat box in the bottom right hand corner of the screen and I absolutely hate typing in this tiny box. Why not make the box bigger, give us emoticons and rich text features? Make the chat box a pleasure to use!
Time Magazine 1994 - The Strange New World of the Internet
A few months back, I bought a very cool Time magazine from 1994 and then promptly forgot about it. Today, while cleaning up, I found it again, buried underneath a huge pile of floppy disks.
What's so special about this particular edition of the magazine? The cover. The magazine did a feature article explaining what the internet is (very funny to read now in 2007, the article called "what is an email exactly?"). But I really dig the cover and so today I scanned the cover, found an old picture frame and it is now hanging on the wall next to the PC.
If you want it yourself, here's the scanned PDF image. Or click on the image to your left to view it in my Flickr account.
Check document hyperlinks with a free MS Word addon
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Ever received a Word document with lots of hyperlinks? Ever clicked on those hyperlinks and then discovered that half of them were invalid so that caused you to trash your office in frustration? Looks like you need Document Hyperlink Checker (catchy eh?)
This free Microsoft Word add-on will scan all the hyperlinks in a document and then tell you the destination URL and if that URL is valid or not. Extremely useful if you have been preparing a hyperlink-rich report for months and you want to double-check all the links before finally sending it out to people.
At the moment, I am engaged in mortal combat with the deadliest of enemies - the German government. Like any other great monolithic bureaucracy, the German government thrives on paperwork and I am convinced that German civil servants get a sexual thrill out of saying "we'll get that paperwork in the post to you and you send it right back to us!". But now that Skype has faxing capabilities with PamFax, I am speeding the process up by faxing stuff to them instead.
The only downside to PamFax is that you can't have stuff faxed back to you. So I am currently on the hunt for a good online fax service that allows me to receive faxes. Doe anyone have any suggestions?
PamFax has a very simple plain interface where you select a file from your computer to fax and then when you enter the recipient phone number and send it, the cost of the fax is deducted from your Skype credit. Easy to use and perfect for small businesses if you need to fax over a signed contract to someone for example. It integrates nicely into Skype and is very easy to set up.
There are often times when I want to fire off a quick email to someone but I can't be bothered opening up Gmail with its sometimes cumbersome and lengthy loading times. So I have been trying out a couple of methods to get the Gmail compose window to open by itself. It all involves making a bookmarklet.
There are two methods as far as I can see. You can either use a pre-prepared bookmarklet such as GmailThis! which is pre-populated with the URL of the page you are currently on (with the subject title of the email also filled in for you) or you can make your own compose window bookmarklet.
The GmailThis! option is good if you want to just email a page link to someone. Clicking on the bookmarklet, the link to the page is already inserted and all you have to do is enter the email address of the recipient and off you go. But if you'd rather not have all that junk pre-populated in the email then you will have to roll your own compose window.
To do this, go to Gmail and click "compose" to open a new email window.
Click the small logo in the top right hand corner. This will disconnect the new mail window from the rest of Gmail.
Right-click on the compose window (in any blue area) and choose to bookmark it (the option will appear in the right-click menu).
Save the page to your bookmarks in a prominent place where it is easy to get to.
The only problem with making your own compose window is that I can't get it to open in a new Firefox tab. I tried the "target_blank" possibility but it didn't work. Anybody got any ideas how I can get the compose window to open in a new tab? Am I using the wrong command?
Oh and another thing - you probably know this already but when you are on the main Gmail page (the inbox page), holding down the SHIFT key and clicking "compose" opens the compose window in a separate pop-up window. Useful if you want to write an email and also keep an eye on incoming emails into your inbox (or check your contacts section).
I've been trying to find some way of making selected tabs in my Firefox browser auto-reload, especiallyGoogle Reader. I am getting tired of constantly having to manually refresh the page to see what new RSS posts has come in, so in the interests of being more efficient and productive (the time saved in not having to refresh manually), I went a-hunting on Google.
I thought I had found my answer in Tab Mix Plus - TMP allows you to set auto-refresh times for each tab but for some inexplicable reason, it refuses to work in Google Reader!
Anyone have any solutions to this conundrum? Or does anyone else know of a script that can reload certain Firefox tabs and leave the others alone?
In this blog, I want to try to concentrate also on productivity and how to have a more relaxing / stress-free life. As someone with manic depression, I have to watch my stress levels very carefully so I am always on the lookout for ways to stay calm, ways to have a really great day and so on. I am also reading some productivity blogs such as Zen Habits which I am already totally addicted to. Thanks Aibek for recommending that one to me.
One of the ways that I am trying to be productive and organised is in my online life. Last week, I deleted 75% of my website, and I also deleted 3000 emails from my Gmail account which was actually very liberating (Gmail is so fast now, it feels as if it is on steroids!). I unsubscribed from about 15 different email newsletters, set up filters to send the crap straight to the email trash bin, and today I decided to uninstall Google Talk and only check my email no more than once a hour.
Being honest with myself, Google Talk was a serious impediment to my productivity. With its new mail notification feature, it was disturbing me constantly with its pop-up window and it was chaining me to my email all day. Now with it gone, and my determination to check email only sporadically throughout the day, I feel I can now concentrate on more important tasks - such as things that bring in money - REAL WORK! ;-)
Now I just have to tackle my huge RSS reading list! At 200+ feeds, that will take some serious pruning......
Attention Scrabulous addicts. As you may have noticed while knocking out your opponent with your 8 letter word, there is a post on Facebook notifying us that new servers will be launched on Thursday. This is welcome news as the amount of "error loading pages" is beyond belief. But according to the Facebook Scrabulous Group, some other changes are also on the way -
Temporary score - No need to do the math before placing a word.
Tiles left - Tile tracking will be a lot easier for all players.
Improved interface - You will love it (apparently - we'll see)
Dictionaries - We shall be offering more language options (hopefully German?)
Type tiles option - Will be much faster to place the tiles on to the board.
Messaging system - New message notification icon.
I also didn't realise some other existing features such as the envelope icon being the ability to send your opponent a message, the notepad icon being a complete listing of all moves made, and if you right-click on the board and choose "numbered board", the value of each square will be shown.
While browsing for new sound-effect files for my instant messaging programs, I came across a pretty great sound-effects site called the Free Sound Project. Basically you can upload your own sounds to the site for others to vote on and download. Registration is required but the sounds are varied and of excellent quality. You can preview the file before downloading so you can see if it is what you are looking for.
Check out the nightingale file. It's absolutely beautiful.
This is a website I'll definately be keeping a watch on in the future.
I was reading with interest an article on Coding Horror about how people freely pass around usernames and passwords on the internet. The author, Jeff, used the example of Facebook which offers to search your email address book to see if any of your contacts are also on Facebook. The only snag is that you have to give Facebook your email address password.
I have to admit that I have done this once in the past when I was setting up my Facebook account - but I immediately changed the email password afterwards. I'm afraid I don't trust other websites with my passwords, no matter how trustworthy they claim to be. Maybe I'm just paranoid but I always have this "Big Brother" mentality (from 1984, not the stupid TV programme!) that my usernames and passwords are being collected in some huge central database for nefarious purposes.
So although I have used Facebook's service and others like it, I have always changed the passwords afterwards. You should too. It pays to be suspicious.
I'm not sure though about the merits of a centralised log-in system to do away with all the various log-ins that we currently have. Microsoft tried it with their now-defunct Passport system (now resurrected as Windows Live ID) but probably flunked because no-one wanted to trust Microsoft with that much sensitive information. The whole concept would collapse due to an issue of trust - who would run such a centralised system and can we trust them not to abuse it? I for one would be extremely hesitant to participate. I'd rather keep my encrypted password folder.
Being a guy who values his personal privacy, I don't like to answer phone calls from numbers I don't recognise (thank the Lord for caller-ID!). I normally let the caller talk on the answering machine and if I decide to talk to them, I will pick up. But often, I get calls from people who don't leave messages (mostly sales people) and in these cases, I double-check who the caller was by entering the phone number into Google which will then tell you who it was.
This only works though if the phone number is listed on a website somewhere. For example, I entered a Frankfurt phone number this morning and discovered it was my insurance company because the number was listed on their website. If the person that is calling you has made sure their number doesn't appear on any websites, then Google probably won't find any trace of it (unless the caller is in the phone book, in which case you may strike lucky as Google also indexes all the phone book listings).
Just enter the phone number with a "-" after the dialling code so 123-456-7890. If your caller's number appears anywhere on the web, Google will find it and you can see who is calling. With a bit of luck, you may get the person's address and other phone numbers, but at the very least you should get their name and the name of their company (if any).
If you've ever had a touch of the voyeur in you, Blogger has released a small web app which shows you photos being uploaded to Blogger in real time.
Entitled Blogger Play, you can pause at a particular photo or go back to a previous one. You can also click on the photo to be taken to the blog where the picture appears.
Caution though : you may find yourself looking at the photos for ages as Blogger Play is strangely addictive.
Great, as if there weren't enough distractions or productivity killers on the internet!
The more programs you install on your computer, the more likely it is that your file associations are eventually going to get hijacked by a piece of software.
For those of you who don't know what a file association is, it is when you double-click on a file in your computer and the operating system opens the file with a certain program, depending on what type of file it is. So if you click on a jpg file, that may automatically start Picasa or clicking on a mp3 file may start Winamp. But if you install another photo editing software or another music player, they may kick Picasa and Winamp out of the way and make themselves your default applications without even asking you first. Now instead of Picasa, your photos are being opened by Cracker Jack Pics and your music opened by Rocking Tunes Player.
But the really bad part is that when you uninstall Cracker Jack Pics and Rocking Tunes Player, Windows may still list them as your default applications in your Windows Registry, even though they are long gone. This is where Doug Knox's Windows XP File Association Fixes proves to be invaluable.
Doug's site has a list of registry files, which when downloaded and double-clicked, will restore your file associations back to their default settings. You can then right-click on the file you want to open, choose "open as" and reset your file associations the way you want them. Sweet. That's a keeper.
I used to be a lifelong addict of Yahoo Mail until Gmail lured me away with lots of space (2.9GB at the time of writing this) and lots of other cool features. But in the past few weeks I have procrastinated over whether to return to Yahoo Mail. Gmail is starting to annoy me partly because it is so damn slow and partly because I am deeply shocked that Gmail's response to Yahoo's unlimited email space was to.....charge users for more email space! Yahoo offers unlimited FREE email space and a very reasonable $25 a year for unlimited Flickr space, whereas Google is demanding$500 for 250GB of space for email and photos. $500! The very thought makes me sick.
If you can get free unlimited space at Yahoo, what makes Google think that people will shell out up to $500 for 250GB? The brand name? The Google "coolness" factor? I don't think so. I sure as hell won't spend that kind of money. Gmail already makes money off me by shoving adverts in my email space. In fact it downright pisses me off that Google has the nerve to charge like this when their direct rival is giving it away for nothing. At the very least, Google could put their prices down significantly. But $500? That's just really greedy. Especially for a product that is STILL not out of beta after 3 years (or is it 4 years?). I am not advocating for one moment that everything on the internet should be free but where is the marketing sense in charging users for something that your fiercest rival is giving away for nothing? I'd like someone at Google to explain the logic behind that one. Let's be honest - if two shopkeepers, side by side, offered the same product and one was free and the other was $500, which one would you take? It's only human nature to be drawn to the free one.
So partly to get this all straight in my head, here are the pros and cons of each service. I'd appreciate your thoughts and opinions.
Pros : conversation views labelling good search functions excellent filters (especially the spam filters) ability to add photos in contact book tight integration with calendar and Google Talk lots of add-ons and user scripts that integrate Gmail with calendar, RSS reader, and Google IG. built in Google chat and chat logs archived & searchable. the best one though is the ability to collect email from other email services and send email from those addresses INSIDE Gmail. Plus the keyboard shortcuts are excellent.
Cons : at times, Gmail is unavailable or really slow. Gmail also claims their spam folders and trash folders auto-delete after 30 days but I checked those folders the other day and there are emails in there going back to June (which for all you mathematically challenged people out at the Googleplex is 90 days, not 30). My biggest concern though is that it takes ages to open an email or to show emails under a certain label (if you click on that label). The more emails you have, the longer it takes (so giving you more space kind of defeats the purpose if you have to delete some emails to make it go faster). Speed is definately the biggest problem for Gmail. Before you ask, I have no Greasemonkey scripts for Gmail to slow things down - only a Better Gmail Firefox extension from Lifehacker (and I don't even use half of the features that Better Gmail offers). Hardly anybody uses Google Talk, making the whole in-built chat thing redundant. Oh and one last thing, Gmail shows up as a complete mess on the Opera internet browser. The Gmail interface is like a dog's dinner and totally unreadable and unusable.
Pros : An excellent Instant Messaging client (which millions of people use) which is integrated into Yahoo Mail. Completely free unlimited email space which means I can back up my files and MP3's. A drag and drop interface. Since my website and business email is with Yahoo (currently being forwarded to Gmail), I can have all my email together in the one place. One click links to empty spam and trash - without having to go into those folders first (which I wish Gmail would hurry up and do). More reliable than Gmail and virtually 100% uptime. I have rarely seen Yahoo Mail crash. A search capability to find emails again. The contact book has spaces to record Skype ID's and other instant messaging ID's.
Cons : The interface is a little on the clunky side. Too much on the main page such as news headlines and weather. As far as I can see, I can't export my Gmail filters and labels. I also can't export my Google RSS reader subscriptions. So I would have to start them from scratch (a major pain in the ass). If I use up a lot of space, will Yahoo Mail slow down significantly, just like Gmail? No ability to add photos to my contact book, so the contact book lacks personalisation.
The biggest inconvenience though is one of my own making in that I have completely married myself to the Google concept - so I use Google Docs, Google Talk and this blog is hosted on Blogger. All of these things are connected through my Google Account. So if I were to break away and use Yahoo Mail, I would have to either stop using Google Docs, Talk and Blogger, or maintain both the Yahoo account AND the Google account.
I guess some more procrastination will be needed! Any opinions and thoughts would be appreciated in the comments.
This is not really a Windows tweak, more of a useful feature to remember. Go to your start menu, choose run (or we saw in the last post, you can do Win & R) and enter shutdown -s -t 7200 . The 7200 is the number of seconds so 7200 would be 2 hours. So you can change that number depending on when you want the computer to shut down.
This is especially useful if you are downloading something and you want to go to bed. You can estimate how long the download will take to complete and then have the computer shut itself down. Or perhaps you need to run a virus check? Whatever the reason for a delayed shutdown, this is the command to use.
I found an interesting little article in an old magazine which tells some of the shortcut commands you can do with the Windows key on your keyboard. There were also a few shortcut commands with the CTRL key and the SHIFT key as well which I thought worth mentioning. We'll start with the CTRL & SHIFT commands :
In Windows Explorer, highlight a folder then do SHIFT and the asterisk on the number pad. This will open the folder and all its sub-folders.
In the Windows Explorer details pane, do CTRL and the plus sign on the number pad to size each column as wide as its largest item.
Now the Windows key commands :
Windows key (by itself) - opens the Start Menu
Windows Key + E - opens a new Explorer window
Windows Key + D - Minimises all windows and shows the desktop
Windows Key + F - opens the Windows search box
Windows Key + L - locks your XP computer until you enter a password.
Windows Key + R - displays the Run command.
Windows Key + - runs through the buttons on the task bar so you can choose one.
I've been spending some time today, as I always do, doing upgrading and patching of my PC and the installed programs therein. It's really important to keep on top of upgrading and patching and so I have been upgrading Adobe Flash Player, Sun Java and there is a small patch for Skype (just click the "check for updates" button on your Skype app) and AVG Anti-Virus users note that AVG today released three urgent updates, one of which was so big that AVG had to be shut down and re-started for the changes to take effect. But please also note that AVG only downloads one update at a time so you will have to press the "check for updates" button three times to get them all.
A lot of my upgrading and patching is set to be done automatically (such as Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Windows) but it seems that even if you have switched off automatic updates from Windows, the Redmond Goliath will act as a hacker and still covertly download them on your computer regardless of your wishes. Most people are not aware of this as Windows does not ask your permission by displaying any kind of dialogue box but I was alerted to the situation by a blogger friend who checked his system logs. I subsequently found out that a computer newsletter also reported on the situation as well.
Why is this bad? Well because some people, such as myself, like to check on each patch to make sure that it is not causing anyone any problems BEFORE we download it. Some patches are just rushed out half-cocked and it's only when the thing is installed that problems start happening. So I have begun to investigate each patch by its reference number and I have started to search online on the Microsoft website and also other people's blogs to see if anyone has been reporting any strange occurrences with that particular patch. So for Microsoft to take that freedom out of our hands and covertly install the patch against our wishes is a blatant invasion of our computers and a demonstration of supreme arrogance on the part of Microsoft.
The patch version number is "Windows Update Software 7.0.6000.381" and the only place where this patch is explained is on a Microsoft Communities forum. According to that forum, the patch is "an update to Windows Update itself. Unless the update is installed, Windows Update won't work". Which is all well and good but why did Microsoft not build in a dialogue box into the Windows OS to tell people this update was being downloaded? Or announce it publicly on their website? Why the sneaky underhanded method by pushing it at us unannounced and under the radar?
Apparently in Vista, the following files are updated :
To check to see if you have the stealth patch (and there's no reason why you shouldn't have it if you're running Windows), just open the Windows Event Log by going to the start menu and then "run". Enter eventvwr.msc and press Enter. Choose "System" in the left window and go to the Windows Update Agent entries for August 24th 2007. If you have entries like these, you have the covert patches.
But do NOT uninstall them. They are perfectly fine functioning patches. The issue here is the lack of transparency on the part of Microsoft in not announcing what they were downloading onto our machines. I would call that kind of behaviour unethical and I'm sure you would too.
Del.icio.us just launched a limited private beta on an entirely re-written code base. Screen shots and feature overview are described in this article. The service now has 3 million registered users and 100 million unique bookmarked URLs.
I was rather amused to see a German TV report about the recent games convention in Leipzig where they were trying to get people interested again in the old Commodore 64 computers. These days, with Playstations and Nintendos, does the Commodore 64 really stand a chance of a comeback?
My brother and I had a Commodore 64 in the late 1980's. My dad bought it from my uncle along with lots of games that took 20-25 minutes to load (on a cassette!). My favourite one, and one which I have a lot of sentimental longing for to this day was a naval game, which I can't remember the name of (despite trying Google). Basically it involved you sinking pirate ships, keeping the crew happy, deciding whether to go into battle or retreat.....then every so often, you could sit a promotion test and have the chance to get to the next rank (the test involved memorising long rows of letters and numbers). My uncle was the only one to ever get to admiral (the highest rank). I think I got as far as commander before my men mutinied and threw me overboard! My brother and I played the game relentlessly until the game cassette was totally worn out!
If anyone knows the name of the game, I'd appreciate it if you told me. This is totally killing me.
Oh and I'd spend many an afternoon making BASIC programs, getting the computer to say hello and do other stupid commands! My introduction to computers!
using my camera phone as an aid to my Swiss cheese memory
So there I was in the bookshop on Saturday, spending money that I couldn't really afford. It's always like that when I walk into a bookshop - I vow to only buy one book and I walk out with three, after agonising for over a hour on which ones to buy. In the past, I tried to remember the other titles so I could add them to my ever-growing Amazon wishlist but my atrocious memory instantly for
Attention 
