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Spring is already more than a week old, an excellent time to start wearing T-shirts. I like T-shirts. In fact, I have quite a few. Nonetheless, the offer I received in an email offering a free T-shirt if I provided some kind of feedback on an online store’s performance was too good to resist. Now, let’s put that into perspective: the email arrived somewhere at the beginning of June. Of this year, granted.

I placed an order, then waited: June, July, August. Within those three months, I ordered a variety of other stuff online. Not just locally, mind you. No, even international orders were fulfilled in a time way shorter than the three months I was kept waiting. No pilfering at the post office. As an even more astounding measure of the overall time it took springleap to manufacturer and ship their product, an erroneous order that arrived from the UK (ordered at the end of July) was resent and arrived less than two weeks later.

In the end, the shirt I’d ordered arrived during the first week of September, with another one included as a means of apology. Apology accepted, I guess. The shirts are decently made, with good quality prints. Artwork submitted is selected based on popularity, then offered for purchase as a design on a shirt. It’s a model that serves several other T-shirt vendors overseas quite nicely (I like Teetonic). My shirts feature the bees…

and the iPod

The thing is, it’s unlikely I’ll order from springleap again. In exactly the same way I won’t order from Apple‘s local online store ever again, for example. The reason is simple: non delivery of the promise made by the vendor and an overall disappointing experience. It may not have been springleap‘s fault. Various communications with them indicated huge issues with local suppliers and non-delivery of services by those vendors. Unfortunately, those vendors are hidden from the customer and cannot be used as an excuse.

I wish the springleap team better luck with their future endeavours. We need some local, South African retailers online. Except, they need to focus on what’s important: delivery.

Wired is my favourite source of information on the Internet. A good mix of technology together with a sense of what the future may hold is always vividly portrayed. The arrival of the magazine is also eagerly anticipated. Being in the far south, our copies are one month late. The fact that Wired always maintains a futuristic view means that reading the content is not spoilt by the transit time and inept magazine importers we have here. But that’s a different story.

Gary Wolf is a writer for Wired and spent a fair amount of time with the company, founded by Louis Rossetto. The book takes the reader through the fight Rossetto had to get his magazine published, his online ventures started and finally trying to find investors and funding at the brink of the burst of the .com bubble. Rossetto himself is an interesting character. Struggling against adversity since childhood, Rossetto pursued his dream of starting a magazine. A very slick and convincing person, he was able to gain access to funds in both the US and Holland to start a publication after having authored a book. With operating costs providing a huge barrier, he eventually returned to the US and set about designing a magazine that would capture the attention of the media and technology industry. Wired Magazine was the first magazine to feature bold colours, liberal use of different typefaces and articles that captured the essence of technology and it’s influence on the world. The high price tag was no barrier to eager buyers consuming it on a monthly basis, even though Rossetto struggled constantly to prevent his company from folding due to lack of funds.

There are numerous references to influential people in the industry. The inclusion of HotBot, Wired’s foray into the search engine business based on Inktomi, Suck.com, the first real weblog started by an employee at Wired without official consent and the eventual deal with Lycos for funding are fascinating to read. For me, this is of particular interest, as I can remember starting out on the web and accessing these sites and following stories in the magazine relating to the companies Rossetto was trying to garner support from. Considering this is recent history, it’s amazing to see some of the happenings from an insider’s point of view, especially the anticipation of an IPO and the promise of huge gains from an asset base that was tremendously overvalued during the boom of the .com era. With the eventual collapse of the .com companies, Wired had to divest and Rossetto lost control of his life’s work, though he made a fair bit of cash!

Wolf’s book is a quick read. At times, there is little coherence, especially when people are introduced and mentioned by name without being given a proper place in the sequence of the story. There could have been additional background on the actual creation of the magazine and the generation of its content. But, theres a good overview of Rossetto, his character and drive, without which he would never have managed to launch and maintain Wired. That’s mostly what this book is about – a romance that includes more tragedy than anything else, but has a reasonably happy ending.

There is some background on how the .com boom started and how it ended. In conclusion, Wolf has provided an interesting book on an interesting company. It has its flaws, but is a worthwhile read.

According to Alexander, the cars have eyes. I reckon the walls have ears. Overall, we’re probably just a paranoid family, but we all (mom included) enjoyed Cars.

From the Pixar stable, this is another excellent computer animated movie. Featuring the voice talents of numerous well-known actors, it tells the story of Lightning McQueen’s trip to a tie-break race. Through an unfortunate set of circumstances, McQueen gets trapped in Radiator Springs and is forced to perform some community service. He meets Sally, Mater, Ramone, Flo, Sarge, Fillmore and Doc amongst others and finally makes it to the race against Chick Hicks and The King. During his stay in Radiator Springs, McQueen makes new friends, learns to be less self-centred and falls in love. All the things one needs in a movie for young and old.

The story is fun, the animation excellent and the cast of characters very entertaining. Maybe a bit loud for those of us with smaller ears… Cars is a must-see!

It’s coincidental that I managed to finish James R. Hansen’s biography about the first man on the moon today, but more on that later. First man – The life of Neil Armstrong is the first authorized book about Neil Armstrong’s life, from birth to present. Hansen has certainly researched every facet of Armstrong’s life and character rather well and offers an incredible amount of detail. At times, there is a lot of technical information, but it’s not extraneous and provides additional detail for those interested in the actual mechanics of flight.

Throughout, Armstrong is portrayed as earnest, hard-working, dedicated and focused. Having started building and launching model aircraft, Armstrong has probably piloted every flying machine known to man, including small aircraft, navy fighter planes, bombers, helicopters and the lunar module (Eagle). With a mind geared toward problem solving and aircraft design, Armstrong was born to be the first man on the moon.

Hansen covers Armstrong’s tragedies, like the loss of his daughter and separation from his wife, and triumphs, like the moon landing and experimental flights. A lot of attention is naturally given to the preparation and completion of the lunar landing. Some fascinating aspects that are of general interest are also covered: references to the iconic statement That’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind, Mr. Gorsky and how the selection process of the first man to step onto the moon actually took place. It is particularly fascinating how the Apollo 11 crew managed to complete their mission without having any form of argument or disagreement, given how different the personalitites of the astronauts were. With the description of Armstrong’s personality, it’s no wonder that he decided to distance himself from society eventually. Never having been someone to attempt to gain much from his fame other than help advance spaceflight and aviation, he served on company boards, NASA investigations and tutoring at university until his retirement.

This is an excellent book about a fascinating personality and an event that changed the world. An interest in spaceflight and Neil Armstrong are probably the only prerequisites! I highly recommend it.

In the meantime, get more information on Neil Armstrong here.

And by the way: the historic moon landing took place on this day in the year 1969.

Have a lot of Lego bricks and don’t know what to do with them? Then this book is for you! Since I consider myself a rather savvy brickologist, the 300 or so pages took me an hour to get through. There’s little in the way of Lego history provided, though Bedford goes into some detail regarding brick sorting and how to bind bricks together correctly. Nothing new there…

The sections on scale, macro and micro models and mosaics are interesting. Bedford mentions a Lego CAD program for the PC (LeoCAD), yet ignores the excellent Lego Designer available from Lego itself. Also, the section detailing actual lego bricks and building components is extraneous. There are so many different building components in the Lego product palette, that such a section simply consumes paper. Bedford provides a few decent models that may be fun to build. It would have been great to introduce readers to some history and possibly provide information on the Lego company itself. Bedford focuses mainly on standard Lego building blocks, but provides a very basic introduction to Technic. There is no mention of Mindstorms.

The author has a website dedicated to the book, so you may want to have a look there too.

If you’re into Lego, this may be of interest. Great for anyone starting out and trying to get a feel for what’s possible, but of little value to those having scratched around a box for that elusive piece to complete the next best model since childhood.

Directed by “Bryan Singer, this is the eagerly anticipated movie to bring the almost forgotten franchise back into the limelight. Having seen success with the excellent Batman Begins, Warner and DC are hoping to reinvent Superman and blaze a trail for a string of follow-ups.

The good: visually, this is the best Superman movie so far. Obviously, the necessary technology is available. The costume is the classic one we’re all used to and the story continues where it left off without stranding newcomers. So there’s a short introduction to what Superman can do and what problems he faces in daily life. He lifts and carries a lot of stuff: a space shuttle, Boeing 777, sunken ship, entire island and a car. He uses all his superpowers, the best scene showing him facing off against a Gatling gun and taking a 9mm slug straight to the eyeball. There are a number of inclusions that will please fans, the most notable being the inclusion of Marlon Brando as Jor-El and a scene from the cover of Action Comics, showing Superman holding a car above his head.

The bad: I’ve always been convinced that the biggest problem plaguing a character like Superman is his superness, for lack of a better term. There are two ways to approach any story involving a character like this. Either make the adversary so powerful that there’s some competition or bring Superman down to a human level. Sadly, the latter takes place in this movie. Routh is too much like Reeve, Spacey too much like Hackman. Luthor has a dimwitted female assistant. Kent/Superman is still running after Lois Lane. Superman has to be saved and placed in ICU. Don’t get me started on the extraneous references to Superman being a God and the Spear of Destiny. Overall, it’s too soppy. Then, there’s the kid…

On many levels, this movie simply doesn’t work for me. Yes, it looks good. It’s fun. But it wants to be too much. In my opinion, Singer, has missed the mark. Obviously, there’ll be a follow-up. Obviously, many of you will enjoy it. I didn’t. All I can say is that the best Superman scene ever comes from a non-Superman movie: Neo fighting Agent Smith in the final Matrix movie. That’s what Superman should be. I can’t rate this higher than 2 out of 5.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the phrase of the now. Every software and technology company worth its salt is busy prototyping and developing building blocks and systems to cater for a software environment that is flexible enough to be changed at whim using services and specialized building blocks. SAP is no exception, having launched its own version of SOA, namely ESA (Enterprise Service Architecture), to leverage its existing and future Netweaver technology and application stack. The book Enterprise SOA – Designing IT for Business Innovation by O’Reilly provides an overview of Enterprise SOA with a very strong SAP flavour.

I have mixed impressions about this book. It’s an excellent reference, providing a wealth of fairly detailed information regarding technical and organizational aspects relating to SOA. Many case studies are provided, indicating the path various companies in various industry sectors followed to increase profitability and productivity by implementing some form of service-oriented architecture. There are sections on service creation, identity management, life cycles and governance. These sections are not necessarily exhaustive, but their inclusion is valuable. All of these aspects must be taken into account and provide a unique set of challenges.

I’m disappointed that, for an O’Reilly book, there is such an obvious bias towards SAP. That would have been in order if the book’s title or branding indicated its strong SAP affiliation. The cover could make anyone believe this to be a generic SOA tome. Not so. All product, customer and technology references are based on SAP. One of the authors is an SAP employee and the book is often a freebie, handed out at SAP conferences to attendees. The structure of the book is in the form of a lengthy 400 page FAQ. Question and answer, question and answer. That’s tedious to read. Instead, it’s better as a reference document. References to Project Mendocino are outdated.

Not bad as a primer. Great as an introduction, if you can cope with the format. Ok if you can deal with the product bias. My rating is based purely on the value of some of the generic content, which is fairly decent.

Mel and I attended a premiere of Memoirs of a Geisha last night. Japan is an awesome country, and any further exposure we can get is welcome. The movie is based on a book by the same name and is the story of a fisherman’s daughter sold to a house grooming geisha. All in all a bit of a let-down. Though the camera work is quite inspiring, presenting various scenes of everyday life in Japan during the period prior to World War II, the story lacks some substance.

Chiyo is the girl sold by her father to become a geisha. Her story begins around 1930 and follows her cruel treatment at the hand of her “mother” Hatsumomo. In-fighting and betrayal are the order of the day. Her ambition to become a geisha is not realized immediately. Only the intervention of a mysterious benefactor enables her to become one of Japan’s leading and most desired geisha under her new name Sayuri. Without giving too much away, Sayuri’s only hope is to finally be united with her beloved Chairman. Instead, she is constantly having to seek out suitors to repay her debts to her “mother”.

There was some outcry regarding the selection of actresses for Memoirs of a Geisha. Though most of the male actors are Japanese, all lead females are portrayed by Chinese actresses. That didn’t sit too well with the Japanese public!

This is certainly not a feel-good movie! Not only is Chiyo traumatized by the separation from here sister and the death of her parents, but she is also constantly tormented by her rivals and mentors. The invasion by the Americans during World War II sees Japanese culture and the geisha tradition being lost to a large extent. Sayuri needs to don her geisha gear one last time to come to the aid of her rescuers prior to the war. In this respect, the movie resembles a badly planned mystery theatre and is too long-winded to hold one’s attention. Other than the insight into some Japanese traditions provided, this movie has little else that can be recommendeded.

GPS and auto-routing navigation systems are very common. Nonetheless, certain products manage to stand out from the crowd by offering some snazzy features. The Garmin nüvi is one such device, designed for travelling and for use within a vehicle or on foot.

My Garmin nüvi 300 is about 4 months old and I’ve had the opportunity to try it out fairly extensively. First off, the form factor is sure to impress. Just slightly bigger than a deck of cards and about 2cm thick, the nüvi packs an SD card slot, colour touch screen and built-in speaker. The nüvi is designed as a navigation aid, and doesn’t provide the standard GPS feature of displaying or permitting input of actual coordinates. If this is a requirement, you’d be better off getting a different unit. Except of heavy offroad use, this shouldn’t be a major omission.

So, what’s in the box? Garmin pack the nüvi itself, two different vehicle mounts, a USB cable, cigarette-lighter charger cable, leather pouch, SD card and CD-ROM containing country-specific maps. In South Africa, the included mapping product is Garmap South African Streetmaps version 3. As a user of the version 1 and 2 products I have to state that the improvement in the new version is quite dramatic. Finally, the PC interface offers a find function!

Startup times for the GPS are incredibly quick, as are satellite acquisition times. In most cases, the unit is fully functional within 20 seconds or so. The nüvi is best mounted to the car’s windshield or dashboard using one of the supplied mounting brackets. The dash mount involves screws or double-sided tape, so it’s not the best option for me! The windshield bracket has a powerful suction cup that securely holds the nüvi and allows the display to be placed in a comfortable viewing position. The nüvi simply clips into the bracket and is held securely. It’s easy to remove. The GPS antenna is recessed in the back of the nüvi and is simply flipped up. To use the nüvi’s other features without having to keep the GPS active, the antenna is simply closed.

The nüvi is a USB device and attaches to a PC using the supplied cable. It is a pity that a charger is not supplied. The nüvi’s internal battery is charged by attaching it to a powered-on PC’s USB port or to the 12V lighter socket in the car. Charging times vary, but in practice the battery is fully charged in about 2 hours. When connected to the PC, the nüvi is represented by two drives in the Windows Explorer – one is the nüvi’s internal memory and the other the SD card. The entire South African map fits into the internal storage of the nüvi. That leaves the SD card for music, photos or points of interest. Files may be dragged and dropped to the nüvi’s drives.

The only physical switch is the power button on the top right edge of the unit. The user interacts with the device by utilizing the touch screen interface. The user interface is colourful and buttons are chunky. Screen brightness can be set. The unit automatically switches over to a night display after sundown. The primary use of the nüvi is navigation, so it’s important to set certain options and be aware of their result. The setting with the most impact on the calculated route is the option of using Fastest Route as opposed to Shortest Distance. It is often useful to set this option during a trip to ensure the most optimal route is selected. Especially when travelling to smaller towns using major highways. There’s a substantial difference when using a major arterial as opposed to country roads, for example! The unit is quick to recalculate the current route if the driver does not heed calls to turn left or right – repeated attempts by the navigation unit to urge you to “turn around now” can be ignored!

Various language options are available – English-speaking users may select from a prissy English or factual American accent. I prefer the Yankee lady to guide my way!

The database permits searching for physical addresses (down to street number level), intersections, points of interest, hospitals, restaurants, etc. Data input is performed by using an on-screen keyboard. This operation is best not performed whilst moving! It’s easy to be drawn into the data entry and forget about what’s going on on the road ahead.

The nüvi provides an MP3 player which is a nice addition for listening to music in a hire car, for example. There’s an Audible books player, photo viewer, language guide, currency converter and travel guide. The content for the travel and language guides needs to be purchased as required. Audible books are available here at fairly low cost.

Overall the unit shines – search times, accuracy and startup times are incredibly quick. The display is bright and easy to read. The unit is mounted very securely using the supplied mount. The South African database and maps supplied are of a high quality. The database is the main reason certain locations cannot be found or why certain roads simply don’t exist. That’s not a fault of the nüvi. On the negative side is the price and the fact that no wall socket charger is included in the box. A potential pitfall is the inability of the nüvi to provide input and output of GPS co-ordinates directly. However, the Garmin Point of Interest Loader is available as a free download and permits GPS co-ordinates to be input and transferred from the PC-based mapping software.

As a day-to-day navigation aid and as a portable travel companion that provides music playing capabilities, this is another excellent Garmin product – highly recommended!

By the way, at the time of this post Garmin has already released the nüvi 310 and 360 with Bluetooth connectivity!

I promise I’ll stop with the Apple stuff soon

Apple Confidential 2.0 by Owen W. Linzmayer is a hefty tome, containing a thorough investigation of Apple’s past, from the founding of the company by Jobs and Wozniak, through the dark days to the phenomenal success of the iPod. Linzmayer provides a lot of detail. In many cases, he has gained access to company internal documents and interviews with employees and executives. The detail he provides about the company that “thinks differently” is fascinating. In particular the picture painted of Steve Jobs is hardly flattering, though presented in a factual manner: in one anecdote, Steve Jobs is shown to crook is partner Woz out of cash for the development the first iteration of Apple’s software.

Linzmayer includes numerous timelines showing the development of Apple’s product lines. The history of the Newton, first portable and Macintosh feature prominently. It is interesting to see how a company such as Apple succeeded in spite of the numerous mistakes it made and the various leaders it had guiding it. There are too many exits and entries of Steve Jobs to count. In the end, he seems to be the guy with little technical acument who is the only one to keep the company doing what it does best: innovate.

One slight negative regarding Linzmayer’s book is that newer developments and Apple’s future direction are not provided the same scope as the company’s past. Maybe we’ll see that in Apple Confidential 3.0? In some places the references to products and people make keeping up with all the information provided somewhat tiring.

Overall, an excellent historical work for those interested in companies and Apple’s rise, fall and rise. I recommend it!