Just Passing Through

I’m trying out Xjournal, a rather nifty LJ client for Mac OS X. It’s all very pretty. Club 977 is an 80s Internet radio station, by the way. Pure cheese, all day long. Fantastic.

I had a brief stay in Edinburgh, for a wedding, last weekend. I took a few photographs of the place. Edinburgh is full of impressive architecture. Describing it as “pretty” doesn’t really do it justice, as that seems a little twee, which it isn’t.

That was the first of a run of weddings this year. It was a good start, with a ceidlidh afterwards (at which my theory that Karl Sandeman plays all ceidlidhs, ever, was disproved). S asked them to play a slow waltz. We ended up having the floor to ourselves and getting compliments on our dancing. I don’t imagine that’ll happen at the big ballroom dancing wedding in a couple of weeks.

Leonard of Crummy.com, boyfriend to sumanah, has the answer to why prayers sometimes go unanswered. Now you know where you’ve been going wrong.

I recently finished Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver, a historical novel set in the late 1600s. It’s a bit of a departure for Stephenson, who usually does cyberpunk, but it’s still got his usual style and frenetic set-piece scenes. The Waterhouse and Shaftoe families, familiar from Cryptonomicon, turn up as a friend to Isaac Newton and as a Vagabond, respectively. I found it hard to keep track of just who was related to whom in the noble families mentioned, before deciding that it was better to just give up and enjoy the ride. The name dropping and anachronisms jar occasionally, but all in all, it’s well worth a read. Stephenson has avoided his usual problem of weak endings by making this the first book of a trilogy, so the ending is not the ending at all.

I’m thinking of getting a new phone, which will of course incorporate Bluetooth technology. Currently it’s a toss-up between the Nokia 6600 and the Sony Ericsson T610. Anyone got any experience of either of those? I’d like one with a decent organiser that I can sync with iCal, as I want something which will go beep at me when I’m about to miss important appointments.

13 Comments on "Just Passing Through"


  1. I have the Sony Ericson T610 – and I’d say its ‘ok’ as a phone.

    I don’t use any of the ‘advanced’ functionality on it (like the calendar etc) or the camera, I just use it as a phone. I’d only rate it as ok because the interface isnt as polished as it could be, some common tasks (on Orange) like changing from Line 1 to Line 2 are annoying.

    The talk time and standby time are IMHO fine.

    The form factor is nice, but I personally would prefer a clamshell design.

    The ‘mini joystick’ it has is a bit of a disaster – although it was a good idea they’ve implemented it quite badly. Often I select the wrong thing with it or accidentally click.

    Overall I would say it was ok, but I wouldn’t rush out to buy another one.

    I was talking to my friend Rahim in the office about all this (as he knows loads about phones) and he didn’t understand why you are comparing these two phones.

    Also he commented that he didn’t know why you arent looking at the T630 (an incremental upgrade on the T610) or the K700. He is waiting for the Z1010 to be released on Orange (which I’m now considering getting).

    You can look at the range of Sony Ericsson phonees here

    Reply

    1. he didn’t understand why you are comparing these two phones.

      Mainly because they’re the ones available for upgrades from Orange which have Bluetooth and a decent organiser function, which are my main requirements. Compatibility with Apple’s iSync is a must, too, although I see the T630 is compatible with iSync (but not available from Orange yet).

      I think I might have a look around some mobile shops on Sunday.

      Reply

        1. For me, the time is GMT. I don’t know whether LJ converts time to local timezones for logged in users: what do you see?

          The Z1010 is horribly expensive. I’m not really after a video phone, anyhow.

          Reply

          1. I’ve got the Sony Ericsson one you mentioned, and it’s quite good. I find that the mini joystick is ok, actually, but maybe that’s my tiny fingers. (?)
            The battery lasts a long time and it’s easy to take pictures.

            However, my main gripes are:
            1. It isn’t nearly as instinctively easy to find my way round the menus as it was on my old Nokia phones.
            2. It’s very slow sometimes.
            3. (I haven’t had this problem) My sister says hers crashes from time to time and she has to take the battery out to turn it off.

            Reply

            1. The joystick is ok but I think getting rid of it and replacing it with something else would be a good idea.

              1. Agreed – the UI on Nokia phones is in general well ahead of everyone else I find.

              2. I have not experienced this – when have you found this?

              3. Mine does not crash despite having spent some time turned on while underwater (while it still worked!)

              Reply

            2. Hello stranger! Hope you’re well. Going to Dave and Abbie’s wedding?

              I’m leaning towards the Nokia one at the moment as it’s got the better user interface by the sounds of it. I had a play with the T630 today, and it was quite snazzy but not as nice as the Nokia interface on by current phone (and I assume the 6600 will be similar).

              All consumer electronic stuff has such a rush to market that there’ll probably be some bugs in it when it’s released, so I guess most modern phones will crash occasionally. Welcome to the future.

              Reply

            1. Oh ok – now it looks ok. Checked the faq – apparently its something to do with the style it is being displayed in. As for some reason it wasnt using your style it was displaying the American time.

              Reply

  2. Don’t get a T610! I have one and it’s terrible compared to the Nokia “equivalent”! Slow menu, crashes, buttons stop working for no reason. Lots of my friends have the same phone because it “looks nice”, but they all hate theirs too.

    Reply

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