So you probably know that Gmail now has IMAP support. What you may not know is that IMAP support is only currently available in the “English US” language. I tried Indonesian, German, French and Japanese. Being the language snob that I am, I prefer to use UK English wherever available. But no IMAP. Google have done this before, for example, when Chat and Web Clips were first added to Gmail, they were not available in other languages. While I am content for now to switch back to US English for the IMAP, it’s pretty bad form and basically equivalent to an incomplete feature release. I don’t even care if you can switch languages, enable IMAP, then switch straight back. Pick up your game, Google.
Archive for October, 2007
Tonight, I decided to give my Topfield 5000PVRt a new lease on life. The first upgrade was to swap out the standard 120 GB Seagate hard drive with a 200 GB Western Digital. Now it can store approx 61 hours instead of ~38 GB. The swap was very straightforward but I read this FAQ just to get some pointers. Then I remembered that the WD in my desktop PC runs pretty hot. And the Toppy ran pretty hot even with the Seagate HDD.
So I thought, why not install a fan as well? I found another FAQ that shows just how to do it. I used cable ties instead of those rubber things though. I’m happy to report that the fan is hardly noticeable, especially while watching a show. On mute, or with the TV off, you can hear a faint whirring, but the disk is actually louder than the fan. The WD may be louder than the Seagate but it’s probably worth it. Anyway the fan of my aircon is way louder and I totally ignore that. Those with a closed cabinet for all their Hi-Fi stuff wouldn’t hear anything at all.
Next on the agenda is to get the serial interface and web interfaces for the Toppy working. Should be fun!
I’ve been a bit obsessed with selling stuff on eBay recently. I tell myself it’s to get a decent feedback score before I sell my old Laptop, but I’ll probably end up selling that privately anyway. So the exercise has really become a challenge to figure out the quirks of listing optimally on eBay. Now I don’t claim to be any kind of expert, but just because I’ve found the experience interesting, here is a list of things I’ve learnt so far.
- Choose the right ending time (thanks Josh). Monday night at 7pm seems optimal, but choose any time when your bidders will be at their computer.
- Choose the longest possible auction time. This increases the chance of potential buyers finding the item and also means you’ll get more bidders fighting it out and this equals higher sale price. I kinda learnt this the hard way when I set a 5-day auction and fairly low starting price. The item sold for my crappy starting price!
- The corollary of 1 and 2 is to list your item on Friday night around 7pm for 10 days. This spans the auction over 2 weekends, when eBay usage is likely to increase. Download Turbo Lister, so you can prepare all your listings in advance and list them quickly at the optimal time.
- Set a low starting price. This is likely to attract more bidders, which means they will probably fight it out. But be careful starting at $0.99 as eBay recommends. On the eBay.com.au site you can only set a reserve price on motor vehicles. I’m still baffled at this pointless restriction, but I suspect it may have something to do with Australian law.
- Paypal rocks, other payment methods not so much. This may be personal opinion, but I find waiting for other forms of payment really annoying. PayPal is instant and convenient. Most of my listings are PayPal only now. For expensive items you might want to offer other payment options.
- Avoid feedback stalemate. Some buyers don’t leave feedback until they’ve received positive feedback from the seller. So if you observe this, just leave some nice feedback and then you’ll get yours.
- Take good photos. And get a gallery picture. I know just from searching for stuff that I’m way more likely to click an item if it has a pic next to it.
- Finally, keep it simple. Have a concise but detailed description of the item. Look at similar listings to get an idea of what info to include.
If there are any eBay veterans out there, feel free to elaborate.
Sorry to disappoint, but it’s not evil bunnies making Andrew Hansen burst into controversial song. Instead, I hypothesise a more plausible explanation for the recent Chaser shenanigans.
The Chaser have again made the headlines, this time for Taylor’s Eulogy Song, which criticises how we forgive celebrities’ indiscretions after their deaths. Calling Princess Diana a slut seemed to cross the line. My knee-jerk reaction was similar to the reactions of the tabloid media. For the past few days I’ve been frustrated trying to understand what could possibly motivate such distaste. It seems like it’s just been done for shock value. Or possibly to just see how much they can push the boundaries without getting kicked off the ABC.
But last night, another theory came to me. Recently, The Chaser team have seen an increase in popularity, mostly due to their recent APEC stunt which received widespread media coverage. They pride themselves on satirising mainstream media. But what would happen if The Chaser themselves became mainstream? We certainly couldn’t have that. So every now and then, they come out with a tasteless sketch as a correctional measure. This alienates a portion of their audience, thus restoring the equilibrium.
Despite this revelation, I was still pretty angsty about the whole affair, until I read the News Ltd articles linked above, immediately followed by an article from a real newspaper which begins:
“When the ABC’s most popular television program, The Chaser, declared war on some of Australia’s most revered dead people on Wednesday, the national broadcaster received only six calls, three for, three against.
I felt immediately enlightened. Certain media outlets have a powerful ability to blow events out of all proportion, feeding off the self-perpetuated sensationalism. Then there are others, that report the facts in an unbiased way. It has renewed my boycott of News Ltd and restored my faith in quality journalism - it’s still out there.
It came with OS X Tiger so I guess I’m ordering Leopard. There was hearsay today about Leopard not supporting Dual-boot with Windows, but seriously, it’s all bollocks people (feeling slightly guilty for picking that as the link keyword, but oh well). Hey I just realised the pic loosely qualifies for LOLcat status (sans caption). It’s running “Tiger”, get it? Must. Stop. Laughing.
First Download: Firefox (well, duh!)
First Customisation: Turn on touchpad tapping, dragging and two-finger right click (OMG mega w00t!)
First Drool: keyboard backlighting (yummy!)
First Design Observation: At first glance, disconnecting the MagSafe power adaptor without yanking on the cord requires Herculean strength. But I found if you kind of lever it off from the side, you can remove it without joining the local gym, or wrecking the cord.
First Annoyance: Software Update has no “I’ll restart later” button. Grrr. One of my pet hates.
First Challenge: somehow I have to get middle click working for Firefox.
First Road Test: time to get some XviD out and try out this FrontRow thing. But if I had half a brain, I would have ordered an S Video adaptor with the MBP.
Stay tuned for more Maccage.
Well, the apocalypse must be nearing because Channel 7 is showing the second season of Heroes. Not 6 or 12 months after it airs in the US, but 10 days! Excuse me while I look out the windows for mushroom clouds, Jericho style…
Apple have announced, as suspected that Leopard will be available from October 26th. The good news is that through the Leopard Up-to-Date Program, if you buy a qualifying new Mac on or after 1 October 2007 that doesn’t have Leopard, you can buy it “for just A$ 12.95 plus tax.”
I love the quote on Slashdot from Steve Jobs: “And everyone gets the ‘Ultimate’ version, packed with all the new innovative features, for just $129.” Gold.
Time to order a Macbook Pro then…
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