Dell XPS13

Oct 5, 2012 | , , ,

I gave the Mac book air a fair shot. I lasted two months but when with every update, problems weren’t fixed and bugs seemed to get worse, I decided enough was enough. So, two weeks ago I started looking around for alternatives. I’ve decided, I’m sticking with Windows for the foreseeable future but the size of the Mac book air was still really appealing because of its keyboard and its size. Comparable systems on the Windows platform are called Ultra books. There are a few good names in this area. Acer, Toshiba, Sony, Samson and Dell. In fairness to these companies, they are pretty much neck and neck with their offering. They are governed by the limitations of the hardware in the form factor of ultra-books so there aren’t major differences in the specifications. Weight, size, processor, RAM and storage is all very equal among these systems. It wasn’t easy to make a choice based on website specs.

Fortunately, I was very lucky to know several people who could let me spend some time trying out some of the ultra-books from the main providers. HP, Toshiba and Dell were definitely the winners of the bunch for what I wanted. Unfortunately, almost all of the ultra-books I tested felt very flimsy and cheap. Maybe it seems silly, but I want a laptop that’s going to feel and look great. It doesn’t matter that I can’t see it, when I walk into a meeting with this, I want people to know that I take computing seriously and I take care in what I choose. The feel of it is hugely important. A laptop with a spongy keyboard is uncomfortable and sloppy. If it has a big boxy body then it’s just not sexy. Let’s face it; I spend more time on a computer than most. It’s important that I’m happy with everything when I finally settle on buying a laptop.

I finally decided on the Dell XPS. The keyboard is incredibly comfortable, it is very light, the front has a lovely shape, my wrists don’t hit off the touch pad when I’m typing, it has just enough USB ports, the battery life is just about adequate, it’s very quiet and it performs well. Of course, it goes without saying that it has a solid state disk and four GB of RAM.

I put Dell through hell while buying this laptop. The machine I tried out was six months old and it had a number of annoying problems. The wireless adapter frequently dropped the connection and the fan would spin up for absolutely no reason and remain on at full throttle for ages. These were recognised defects in the first model of the XPS13 however from only a day of using this one; it would appear that they have been rectified. I certainly ensured that I got confirmation in writing that the issues had been resolved in the unit I was about to purchase before I made any decision. I was torn between the XPS13 and the XPS14. The extra inch allows Dell to cram a lot more power into the laptop but in the end I decided that portability was a little more important than power at the moment. Plus, although the XPS13 isn’t as powerful as the XPS14, it’s by no means weak. It easily handles Windows 7 and Windows 8, Office 2010, Visual studio, the VSphere client and a plethora of other applications. Also, for the past few years, I find that I spend most of my time on system administration so I don’t need a huge amount of power to get my job done.

So, there you have it, I’ve given up on the Mac. I don’t mind telling you, I’m relieved. If you like, I can go into all the reasons at another stage but for now, all I’ll say is, it’s nice to be more efficient while out and about again.

Hitting the road.

Sep 24, 2012 |

Emma and I have been making a real effort to get more fit lately. To be honest, it’s partially for the wedding but it’s more because we enjoy being out and about. I started back at Judo in May and for the most part I’ve been doing that twice a week with the Wild geese club in Dublin. Emma is also back at dancing and in October, she will be taking part in a simply come dancing imitation show in Drogheda to raise needed funds for the White cross primary school. So, we’re exercising separately quite a bit. It’s nicer to do things together though so whenever the time allows we can be spotted speeding around Drogheda on the tandem. Most routes we take are around 20K which isn’t all that much when taken out of context however Drogheda is built on a valley. That means no matter where you go, the hills loom on every direction. However, when you get over the constant climing Drogheda has some lovely areas to cycle around. Certain roads such as either side of the Boyne toward Termon Feckin and Bettys town are actually quite flat as well so there’s a nice combination of speed and endurance in most of our cycle routes.

I’ve been putting off writing about cycling on the tandem for quite a while because I’m quite aware that the blog can become quite boring when it’s full of text. A lot of my visitors really prefer images along with posts.

This weekend we took the opportunity to have a few pictures taken. They’re not what we want yet but in fairness to the photographer, he complained that we were moving too quickly for him to properly focus on us. On the flats we can get up to 37KPH. Down hill we get closer to 50KPH. Although our tandem is old, it has been taken care of very well. The wheels are decent and we’ve extensively upgraded and modified the breaks and gears.

One modification I particularly like is I have control of the gears and the drag break. The drag break is a disk break on the back wheel. When going too quickly on a descent the drag break slows the speed of the bike without heating up the rim of the wheel. I love having control of the gears though. I’m sure Emma will add her voice to the comments about why she hates me having control over the gears but, for me, I like being able to control our speed to a large extent. Especially when flying down hills or racing around flat roads. I just love the rush of speed.

I would love to aim for a distance of 100KPH in a day. Unfortunately we’re both quite busy so getting the time for this is a challenge. I’m sure we’ll do it at some stage though.

In my opinion cycling is one of the nicest past times ever. There’s really nothing like cycling alongside a river or on a quiet country road. Focused on the rhythm and motion of the peddles as you propel yourself forward is just so relaxing!

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Blond, affectionate, energetic and spirited. Just as I like them.

Sep 11, 2012 | ,

OH I know what I want. What I want was introduced to me today.

Mr. Banks is the guide dog in training that i met as part of the official matching visit. This is where a guide dog applicant meets a perspective dog. Or, possibly even several perspective dogs.

Mr. Banks is a cross between a golden retriever and a golden labrador. At first he seems less sensitive than other dogs I’ve trained with but I must point out that I only had a short time to get to know him today. The real fun will start when I attend the national centre for Irish guide dogs for the Blind of Ireland in Cork in October.

Todays matching visit was very interesting. I met with two dogs. Dog 1 is Mr. Banks and Dog 2 is ….. lets just call it dog 2. The first walk with Mr. Banks was not comfortable. I wasn’t happy with it at all. I found that he pulled a lot, he was very distracted and he seemed stressed during the entire walk. The walk with dog 2 was much more comfortable. I instantly read the dogs body language easily. I could step out properly, changes in speed and direction were felt equally well from both my perspective and the dogs perspective and I really liked that it was focused on my commands. However, I was warned about the dogs high sensitivity and based on my past experience I decided that a dog with such high sensitivity wasn’t suitable for my needs at the moment. I would like to say something very clearly at this point. Dog 2 was simply amazing. If I wasn’t so aware of the demands my life style places on a guide dog I would have snapped this dog up in an instant. It is very important to be aware that different dogs are suitable for different handlers. The fact that I didn’t think dog 2 was suitable has absolutely no baring on it’s suitability for someone else. In fact, I almost envy the person who is lucky enough to train with this dog. They are going to have one fantastic guide. Mr. Banks is equally good though. Let me continue to explain.

During the walk with dog 2, I had some time to reflect over a lot of the skills that I haven’t been using for the past year. Body location, handle tension, verbal commands and hand signals are all vitally important when using a guide dog. Although I still remember a lot of the techniques used when working a guide dog, a few of the more subtle requirements didn’t return to memory as easily. For this reason, I asked for the opportunity to walk with Mr. Banks again. The next walk was much more enjoyable. He was still a little distracted and the speed of his starts from a straight stand kept taking me by surprise but I was much more prepared. We walked to a local coffee shop through some busy areas and narrow paths. I began to find some of his little movements entertaining. He almost dives off ramps for example. Because I was more aware of the methods I could use to keep him focused he was a lot easier to work. I came to the conclusion that I will probably need to work a little harder on my working relationship with Mr. Banks but I can tell that it’s possible that he will work very well for me. I could be wrong here, but it seems that if I want a dog that can put up with my life style, I need a dog that will be a little less sensitive. This might mean that his work needs a bit more attention but overall the package should be more suitable.

I am being very cautious during this process. I am going to blog during the training process but to be straight with you, it’s more for my benefit. I find the previous posts on this topic to be a very interesting source of information. They remind me what I’m getting in to and they remind me of the challenges I’m facing as well. I am aware that certain opinions would suggest that publicly tracking the training process could give an unbalanced view of the struggles of training with a guide dog. It is a difficult time for both dog and handler and if this is not openly acknowledged it is very possible that the tone of the text could be lean toward the negative unintentionally. I am very conscious of this. I fully respect this opinion as I understand that if a perspective guide dog handler was to read such negative experiences it could potentially put them off applying for a dog in the future. I will be as fair and as balanced as possible while documenting my progress however, of course, my account will be truthful therefore with all the good posts I am sure to write, there will be a fair amount of negative posts. Training with a dog is hard but rewarding. Some days things will go well and some days they will be terrible. The important thing I would ask you the reader to keep in mind is that when a partnership between a guide dog and a handler works, it is unbeatable. As time goes on, the good days become more frequent than the bad.

Bring on October! I can hardly wait!

Hijacked!

Aug 27, 2012 |

I was inspired by Grannymar’s comment and so today I have hijacked Darragh’s blog. It’s about time that you all got to hear things from my side.

Well firstly, I think I need to defend myself! Darragh keeps posting about things I say prior to 7am in the morning! 7am – what level of English does he want? By that stage I’ve gotten up and ready for work and am at the bus station. That in itself is impressive! My poor brain is usually still fighting for more sleep!

So payback time! Hmmmmmm where to start.

I think I will start with Saturday. Well we were out on the road early to bring the tandem to the bike shop before doing wedding stuff in Dundalk. Well seemingly I was not breaking enough! Me? I think it was the early hour. Just because the back wheel of the bike (that Mr. Digital is nearest to) was skidding back and forth across the road! Its not like it was the front one!

Well skip forward a few hours and we are on the bike (with new skid free tyres and lovely clothes that in fairness he did purchase for me) on a long cycle (long for me anyway, this whole biking thing is pretty new to me) Cycle went great. We had a great time. Lovely views out by Baltray. (Note to self bring a camera) Well right until the last hill to the house (downside of Drogheda being built around a river valley). We hadn’t even gotten the bike into the garage and he wanted to cycle to Tescos. Over 18km we were just after completing! Let’s just say that was one I won (there are benefits to being the steerer!)

Sunday we decided to go on another cycle. Now I wanted to go a different way and Mr. Digital told me he wanted this one to be over 20km (don’t listen to him if he denies it I don’t think he even listens to himself sometimes!) so out comes the trusty iPad and the Google maps and I punch in the first faraway but still nearish place I can think of into it and decide on a route. I keep telling him that it’s not like the gym – wherever we cycle to my legs still have to be able to cycle back from!

Off we set out the coast road to Bettystown. We stopped for an oblatory ice-cream in Bettystown (more for me than him) and were on our way back a different route (much easier to cycle a circular route on a tandem than turn the thing!)

So I couldn’t remember if we had another turn coming up and we had to stop. Now people please agree with me that this is wrong. He used his shoe to break. His SHOE! And the noise nearly gave me a heart attack. Two passersby thought it was hilarious but then when we were passing them next he shouted to them about the abuse I give him! Well I never, just cause I was concerned about his shoe!

So we pedal along pretty fast (we are getting better at the togetherness of the pedalling) and a bug hits me…hard in the arm… a major downfall of being the one in front let me tell you! Mr. Digital thinks it’s so funny if I get a bug in my mouth (shudders) So a minute or two later we are flying passed 2 people out for a stroll and he roars at them to watch out for the kamikaze bugs! Really like where am I supposed to hide on the front of a bike!

I won’t even go into the fact he thinks its ok to pretend (well I hope its pretend anyway) to have a little nap on my back during a cycle!

Today he thinks we might be doing a 90km cycle in a months time. In 3-4 hours. I’m not sure what planet he’s on but I think I will need new legs with some Li-ion battery backs! Anyone any good spares out there? Preferably in a thin, toned and nicely tanned model… we do have a wedding coming up you know!

On a non-cycling note am I the only one that gets this when I ask a simple a or b question? Yes. Would you like a Bulmers or a glass of wine… Yes. Yes! grrrrrrrr. To be fair Mr. Digital sometimes says no, but it’s not exactly any more helpful in getting a good answer!

I better not say any more. I still want there to be a wedding!

Oh no. I better go. I can hear him coming! Here’s hoping he doesn’t see this for a while!

Double negatives.

Aug 27, 2012 |

Emma thinks it’s mean that I write this but I think it would be mean to deprive the rest of the world of knowing about some of the things that she says. I call her language Emmish. It has to be a language because it’s rarely English!

Take this morning for example. I wasn’t entirely sure what she was trying to say and for that matter, I’m not sure if she knew what she was trying to say either.

You can’t not get the bus from here.

After a few moments of deliberation, she translated this to partial English for my benefit. She’s very nice like that. 🙂
What she actually meant to say was:

You actually have to get the bus from here.

No. She didn’t say it like that either. However I’ve become quite good at translating from Emmish to English. She said:

Ah You know what I meant It was a double negative. Ya Have ta get the bus from here.

I’m only teasing her of course. In fairness to her, we have cycled over 40KM this weekend. We also got more suits fitted for the wedding, we booked the bridal car and we had a lot of other normal life things to do that usually get left until the weekend because we never have time to do them during the week. So, I won’t blame her for being a little tired today.

RIP Freddie.

Aug 15, 2012 | ,

I can’t explain how utterly upsetting it is to write this. Today, while I rubbed Freddie’s ear, we put him to sleep. I don’t think it’s really hit me yet. I wanted to write sooner rather than later because it’s very important to me that I say thank you. Thank you to everyone who commented on this post. Thank you to Freddie’s puppy walker. Thanks to Irish guide dogs for giving me a guide dog that is simply one of a kind. Thank you most of all to the family who took him during his retirement. I know it only lasted two years but wow he had an amazing two years. I seriously can’t express enough how grateful I am for the way they treated Freddie. It was actually my father who really confirmed it last week when he got to see Freddie for the first time in his new home. He said that the best decision I could have made was sending him to that particular family. It is simply amazing how much they cared for him. I could never have asked for anything more. The more I visited Freddie the more I noticed their attachment grow.

For me, and I know for everyone with a guide dog, one of the hardest things is that day when you hand over the dog. It’s not like turning off a light switch. You have taken care of the dog and equally, the dog has taken care of you. That bond isn’t one that’s easily broken. That was actually very evident tonight. Even though Freddie could hardly move, he still found the energy to look up at me for assurance when the vet was shaving his paw. When Mark told me, in a funny way I knew that I was meant to be there. Not being there for the end would have been simply wrong.

That’s really the only reason I wanted to write. I just wanted to thank everyone. I am finding it a great comfort to recognise that Freddie has been incredibly lucky. Just think about it. He had a brilliant puppy walker, Ok, he had to put up with me but still, he travelled a lot and experienced a lot more than any other dog I have encountered. Then to top it all off, he lived with a fantastic family in a lovely area. I couldn’t ask for any more. When it was his turn to move on, he did it just like he did everything else in life. With speed. Within a very short space of time he rapidly declined. I think that’s much better than a prolonged illness. It meant that up to two weeks ago, he still had his normal character.

The post I wrote on the day of Freddie’s retirement to say thanks is here.

Window Eyes verses Jaws?

Aug 14, 2012 | , ,

It’s that time again.
Do I spend €445 on a Jaws upgrade and another SMA or do I move to a rival screen reader. Really, Window Eyes is the only application that comes close to competing with Jaws in my experience so it is the only one I am considering. Hal by Dolphin is just so far behind that I haven’t given it a second thought. This is just my opinion though. If your going through a similar decision then I encourage you to keep all of your options open.

I’ve downloaded a demo of Window eyes and I’m currently running it through it’s paces. I’ll have to blog about this in more detail but right away, I miss some of the more advanced features of Jaws that don’t just make applications accessible, they make applications more intuitive and more efficient. When I talk about access, I don’t just need the basic screen reading functionality, I need an application to assist me in accessing data as quickly as possible.

I like some features of Window eyes though. For example, the open scripting framework allows for standard development languages to be used. This is a major selling point.

I’ll write about this in a little more detail over the next few days I hope.

20 weeks and counting.

Aug 13, 2012 |

Hopefully this is all just completely natural. Maybe it’s because I’m still not sure that it’s happening to me? I have to keep reminding myself that in a very short time I can no longer check the box that says unmarried. Yep. In twenty weeks time on this day I’ll be waking up in my parents house with the big day looming directly ahead.

Yes. I’m thrilled, nervous, delighted, terrified and thrilled all at the same time.

Now that all the preparation is almost done and everything is starting to fit into place for the day it’s starting to sink in. I know I asked! I know that I had no doubt that she’d say yes and I knew this part was inevitable but I didn’t expect it at the same time? Does that make sense? I don’t mean any of this in a bad way. Of course, I can’t wait. I couldn’t be happier and it’s definitely the right thing to do but it wouldn’t be like me to just leave it like that. 🙂

So. 20 weeks and counting. Doesn’t seem that far away does it?

Next stop: The stag! You coming?

Bose OE2i headphones.

Aug 12, 2012 |

I bought Emma a pair of Bose OE2i headphones last Christmas and I was immediately jealous.

Their very comfortable. They have memory foam pads and they fold up nice and small for throwing in a bag.

I finally got around to buying a pair on friday and I’m loving them. I was in need of a new pair of head phones. I have another lovely pair that a friend generously bought me for Christmas but I likE using them at work because the cable is nice and long and I can comfortably stretch them across different computers.

The bose are nice and bays but they don’t try to overdrive the base ranges like the beats headphones. I had thought of buying a beats pair but the comfort of the bose wine out in the end.

With the bose I can enjoy all the richness of Willy clancy’s piping or I can turn up the volume when listening to snow patrol.

I know some reviews of headphones go into a lot of detail. I’m not going to do that because I’m lazy. What I will say is that I’m very picky. I know what I like and these check all the boxes. Their easy to throw in a bag, they sound fantastic and their the most comfortable on-ear headphones I’ve tried in years.

I’m marrying a temporal expert.

Aug 9, 2012 |

Who’d have thunk it!

Emma is actually an expert in temporal definitions. The rest of the world measure time in micro seconds, nano seconds, seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years etc. However, Emma has decided to add another method to measure time units. It is known as a Smeh. This is an undetermined period of time that falls between a few seconds and one minute.

Yes. She was half a sleep at the time, yes she’s a sleep beside me on the bus at the moment and yes. She’s possibly going to kill me when she reads this. With any luck she’ll be in work at the time so I’ll have a head start when running away.

If this is the last blog post I ever write I expect you, my loyal readers to avenge my death.
Thanks.