As a multiple private computer user, I flick between desktop, laptop and tablet at home and my works pc, I never know which one I’ll be at when the need to know how much money is in my bank but with internet banking that shouldn’t matter.. right?.

With the introduction of the large card reader from Barclays I was no longer able to log into my internet banking at any pc other than my desktop, as I’m not really going to carry that thing about wherever I go. HSBC have introduced a similar device however have improved with a much smaller design, although even with the addition of a loop to attach it to your keys, it’s not small enough for me to consider attaching it to mine and carrying it everywhere. Oddly enough HSB have issued it’s business customers, you know the sort of customer who would tend to do internet banking from one PC, Vasco authentication tokens which I would be happy to attach to my keys and take everywhere. So it’s now more convenient in many cases to go to a cash machine to check my balance.

On a side note, something that really bugs me about these  calculator like devices can’t also have simple calculator functions?

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: rants, technology

When planning to go on holiday earlier this year I didn’t want to go without some sort of computer and unhappy with the resistive touch screen of my two year old 7″ apad, it was the right excuse for an upgrade. Without £350 or any desire for an iPad I opted to get an Archos 101 Internet Tablet. As it was pay day,I bought the tablet from Asda the night before going on holiday, unfortunatley I had small set back with the unit already being registered with Archos so I returned it and got a replacement.  I can only guess that it was returned to the store and put back on the shelf for resale. Eventually, I set about getting to grips with my new tablet.

Size and Weight; the size of this tablet is great, it’s very thin, but you don’t feel like it’ll snap in two. Although widescreen is not my favourite aspect ratio for screens, it’s certainly not offensive, and it’s marketed as an entertainment device so it’s to be expected. The weight of the 101 is very light, however the weight is not evenly distributed with most of the weight being over the ports, I think I would prefer a little extra weight over the other side to balance it out even it it added to the total weight.

Screen; the obvious focus point of the unit the screen on the 101 does not disappoint, it’s clear and crisp. Although the viewing angle is not brilliant it’s good enough to be usable without problems and it’s bright enough to see in bright daylight.

Touch screen; the multi-touch screen is accurate and responsive, however as you get closer to the edge it seems to loose a little bit of responsiveness. I think you notice the edge problems more as it’s where the main  home, menu, search and back buttons are so you have to press them a lot during every day use, this doesn’t bother me massively, but there is room for improvement. As the main reason I have the pad is to blog on the move the touch screen is the make or break for me and this does very well.

Connectivity; for me the power to extend this device is one of the obvious benefits over the iPad is the ability to extend the Archos through the memory card slot and USB port. The Archos has a micro SD slot which can be massively useful if your camera takes SD cards as you can use a micro SD card in an adapter in your camera, then take it straight to the tablet to view or upload, you can also plug your camera or a hard disk into the standard size USB slot. The HDMI output is great for watching movies from hard disk on your TV.

Other Hardware; the camera is not really something I would see myself using, so I can forgive the fact the quality is a bit crappy. The screen orientation switches between horizontal and vertical smoothly on movement and the threshold for each seems fine, it’s never flipped when I’ve not wanted to making me hold it at a different angle. The kick stand is a nice touch and allows the tablet to be held at a very wide range of degrees. The battery life has never been an issue so far, even with heavy wireless usage in a poor signal area, or video playback the battery life is great.

A few seconds in I had set up the wireless and un-installed a bunch of the bundled applications, streaming music and videochatting was not something I could see myself using the tablet for, and it was on to installing apps I could see myself using. I was a bit disappointed to see Appslib instead of the Android market and even more so the lack of the WordPress application in it. Fortunately a quick Google brought up a helpful post detailing the easy steps to install the marketplace on the Archos and within a few minutes I was browsing the marketplace and downloading apps like WordPress, Xconstruct, Slice It and Angry Birds, I was ready for my holiday so I popped the Archos on charge overnight.

The first time I got a chance to use the 101 was on the plane, the tablet combined with slice it made the 3 hour trip fly by for both me and Vicky so as a time passing tool, I would have to give it a big tick. Over the holiday the combination of the 101 and stolen wifi also lead to a lot of the anxieties of leaving my online businesses with no-one to look after them, they don’t need constant supervision but the second your unable to keep check something goes wrong.

The main thing I used the 101 for when on holiday however was for blogging, as you can probably see, it was good to be able to write about the holiday each day when I got back to the hotel instead of doing a single “Spent a week in Tunisia, from what I remember it was good.” post, unfortunatley I hadn’t thought about the microSD in an adapter and didn’t think to take the cable for my camera so all the posts had to be saved offline till I got back to put them together with pictures.

Another great thing about the 101, particularly over the iPad, is the ability to get apps that would never get into the apple store, such as a torrent client which allowed me to enjoy an episode of the Big Bang Theory on the plane home.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: android, gadgets, tablet pc, technology

While trying to find a way to emphasise a important topic on a forum I own, I came to the conclusion that the best way to achieve high exposure, but not annoy folk, was to put a little ribbon at the bottom right of the browser window.

While in itself this is not a complicated thing to do, it is a little fiddly to get the coordinates right for the link or if you’re not familiar with fixed positioning and negative margins.

PLEASE NOTE: Although you can only see and click the ribbon the transparent portion of the image is still over your content, this will stop any interaction with elements such as links underneath it.

So on to the code.

HTML (if you want to be able to click the ribbon):

<div id="RibbonSmallRight">
	<img src="whiteband_translinkimg.gif"
	     width="100" height="100"
	     border="0" usemap="#RibbonLinkMapSmallRight">
</div>
<map name="RibbonLinkMapSmallRight">
	<area shape="poly" coords="100,42,43,100,3,99,100,1"
	      href="http://yourlinkhere">
</map>

HTML (if you don’t want to be able to click the ribbon):

<div id="RibbonSmallRight"></div>

CSS:

div#RibbonSmallRight			{
	position:fixed;      /*fixed position is in relation to the viewport*/
	left:100%;           /*start at the very right of the viewport*/
	margin:0 0 0 -100px; /*negative margin brings this back into the viewport*/
	bottom:0px;          /*the bottom the the div is at the bottom of the viewport*/
	z-index:1000000000;  /*attempt to make sure this is over the top of everything else*/

	height:100px;
	width:100px;
	background-image:url(whiteband_small_right.gif);
	background-repeat:no-repeat;
}

Graphics:

The Banner

Transparent Image

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: css, development, html, ribbon, web, web development

The day started overcast but it looked like the rain would hold off, at about 11am the sun came out so we headed to the port again to buy gifts for the folk back home, as it was the last day we put the 20dt we would need for drinks later that night and counted what we had left to spend. We went to a mini zoo and botanical gardens in which the animals were mainly birds, unfortunatley I’m not convinced they were happy, many with bald patches and the young camel and one of the emus were pacing about. After the zoo we avoided a conman, “You recognise me? I work at your hotel… bla bla… I show you the shop, special sale”, with the great phrase “maybe later” and headed off in the other direction.

We found a number of shops that we hadn’t seen before and spent a long time trying on sunglasses, even though i had bought another set a few days before, so long that it had time to mini-storm and dry up. While fighting over getting a set of Oakley or Police glasses I managed to decide I didn’t need another set, quite an achievement for me, not however replicated when I spotted a number of wallets in designs I liked. Bartering started at 45dt and ended with me getting a Diesel wallet for 15dt (£7.50). We then found a real supermarket with real stuff in rather than all touristy stuff and got a few things to take home.

On the way back to the hotel we were greeted by the tradesman who the day before we bought the trainers from, I’ll give him credit, he asked how the trainers were and remembered i was looking at the Diesel bags the day before. I picked out a bag I liked and the guy took me to the back of the shop where he likes to do his haggling, he showed me the bag and all its pockets and made the offer of 75dt, I  told him I was looking to pay more 20dt he went to 60 and I offered 25, he said he made no money at that and I said all I had left was 25 so he showed me the bags he could sell for 25 and asked which I liked, “the one in your hand” I replied and made my final offer, of all the money in my wallet, and showed him the section I was keeping the 20dt for dinner drinks and the change which was full of what amounted to copper, as he didn’t see the 40dt in the other section of my wallet he agreed, which worked out at 31dt (£15.50).

At dinner Lotfi, our waiter, had saved our table as he has every night with our drinks ready for our arrival, the queue was massive but the steak pie made up for it and as always the dessert selection was huge. Later on we packed ready for our departure the next morning.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: golf residence, holiday, holidays & going out, thomas cook, tunisia

The day started wet, so we lazed about for most of the morning, as the rain let up we took the opportunity to go shopping, before we reached the first shop the rain started again, but it was still warm and you can only get so wet so we ignored it and continued our shopping.

As we wandered about and Vicky kept falling off her shoes as they were wet, she decided new shoes were in order. With an aim in mind Vicky seemed less bothered by the pushy traders, unfortunatley, not wanting converse and being quite picky about the style of sports trainers it took us quite a few shops to find a pair she wanted.

Having priced up the trainers in a few of the fixed price shops I knew I was looking at about 45dt (£22) for a pair of (fake) Addidas trainers so when the guy suggested I  pay 75dt I countered at 15dt, about fifteen minutes later, I had bought two pairs of trainers for the pricey sum of 60dt (£30). We looked at a number of other shops but finding nothing of real interest we headed back to the hotel.  After drying out and a spot of dinner we spent the evening watching Halloween films on Fox Movies.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: golf residence, holiday, holidays & going out, shopping, thomas cook, tunisia

We awoke to the sound of thunder, opening the curtains confirmed we were in the middle of a tropical storm, so we set the alarm for half 8 and went back to bed. We got up we went down for breakfast to find it closed, confused we went back to our room to realise we were the victim of technology, my pad and phone had put the clocks back as per the per the UK so we had gone down an hour late.

The rain let up so we went to some of the local shops to haggle some more and stopped at a local cafe for dinner, during which the heavens opened again, it was warm so we decided to walk back to the hotel. The walk in many places turned into a paddle, with water flowing down the roads at about half a foot deep. It was more amusing than anything else as we tried to find the shallowest path to cross the road.

The weather cleared up and we took 20 minutes to clear the water from our balcony, then chilled out, over the course of the evening the weather was up and down and we had another thunderstorm, which isn’t a bad thing.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: golf residence, holiday, holidays & going out, thomas cook, tunisia

The day started early with a quick breakfast and on the coach for 7:50, we were on our way, via lots of other hotels, to El Djem a Roman Amphitheatre. The coach was nicer than the day before  with more legroom, which was good since after we travelled via every other hotel and it was two hours before we finally arrived at El Djem.

El Djem stood tall at the top of a bank, the streets paved with the usual traders pushing scarves and trinkets at every passer by, the entrance to the amphitheatre was painless as the cost was included in the price of the trip, we did however have to pay 1dt (50p) in order to use a camera. When we went into the amphitheatre we could see it was very well preserved and after a short introduction in the centre we were left to explore. Most people headed up, but Vicky spotted a staircase heading down so we went to see where it lead.

In the depths of the amphitheatre there was a maze of small rooms where they kept the animals all joined by a long corridor, the corridor was lit by a few lights placed in the roof recesses which made it look spectacular, I  got a few photos before more of the tour party came down and ruined the atmosphere, I guess I’m still not a people person. We headed up the many steps to the top, there was plenty of arches, columns and other features to keep my camera busy for the whole hour we were there. On the way back to the coach we stopped for an obligatory photo with a camel and it was back on the coach for a short drive to our next destination a mosaic museum.

The mosaic museum was nice, but again hindered by the presence of other people who had no issues with walking in front of a guy taking pictures. To combat the presence of people we hung back and took a slow walk through, as we knew nothing about the place we were visiting it was a nice surprise to find the museum was built in front of the building they were taken from so we had a look round a number of the mosaics in situ then back on the coach for an hour back to the hotel.

The hotel once again stepped up its game with food, although it creeps me out that I much preferred the vegetable balls and poached egg on toast over meatballs. We then chilled out for the rest of the evening.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: camels, camera, el djem, golf residence, history, holiday, holidays & going out, roman amphitheatre, thomas cook, tunisia

Our first excursion, the Medina ramble started at 9am with a bus trip via a number of other hotels to the Sousse Medina, we first visited a fixed price 3 tier store to see what things cost and then went round a traditional fish, fruit and vegetable market where the smells and colours were amazing, unfortunately the ramble seemed to go down hill from there as we were quickly walked past smaller random shops which seemed interesting and given half hour to shop in large selected stores which sold touristy stuff, I’m pretty sure I’ll never need a wooden camel, leading to lots of waiting about. I did however manage to try my hand at haggling and get some more sunglasses for the sum of 10dt rather than the 45dt the salesman wanted.

Vicky then went to sunbath while I took the time to chill out and blog. We then went for a drink and chilled out on the balcony till dinner which was very tasty thanks to beef stew.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: bus trip, golf residence, holiday, holidays & going out, market, medina, sousse medina, thomas cook, tunisia

Started the day with breakfast, which was less problematic due to knowing where the plates were, then off to see Tina our holiday rep who offered us a bunch of excursions for purchase, although I  would have probably loved it the 2 day sahara desert trip was not only out of our price bracket, it also involved a leg of camel, donkey or horse riding and Vicky has allergies to most things with hair. We opted for a “Medina Ramble” which is a guided shopping trip and “El Djem” a half day trip to the third largest amphitheatre in the Roman Empire.

It was then time to hunt for cash again, we went back to the cash point which gave us nothing the day before for the same result, at least its consistent, and then followed the instructions from Tina to walk to the beach, we could have got the free horse and carriage, but lets face it, I could do with the exercise.

The beach was nice enough with fine soft sand at the top and harder sand and seaweed closer to the water, so i could walk along the beach without hating every second of the sand getting in my shoes and up my nose, if you go near that stuff it gets everywhere, we spotted the marina and headed in that direction.

The marina was our first taste of store and bar workers dragging customers into their shops with phrases such as “please look” and the amusing, “cheaper than Primark” this made Vicky a bit uncomfortable as every one of the shops hassled us, most hassling us to tell us that they would not hassle us if we would look in their shops. Other than the hassle the marina was nice, lots of nice boats, some traditional and plenty of fish and crabs swimming around to keep us entertained. Half way round the marina we found a working cash point so the hunt for cash, and our main worry, was over.

We wandered back to the hotel where Vicky had a nap and I took advantage of stolen WIFI, which I can get in one corner of our balcony. Dinner was again a much better experience as we knew how it all worked. We opted out of the £40 drag show and chilled out for the rest of the evening.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: golf residence, holiday, holidays & going out, money, thomas cook, tunisia

We arrived at Enfida airport at about mid day, where we had to find a guy with pieces of paper for us to fill in before we could go through security. Security was manned by people who didn’t seem to care, one bag scanner on the phone, the other had brought her young children to work. As the guy before me  went through the metal detector with a belt on and it beeped, no one batted an eyelid so I saved myself the bother of taking off my watch and belt and wandered through the metal detector, beep, and down to baggage collection. In the airport entrance we were greeted by a porter who took our bags to the coach waiting outside. Unfortunately we stood still in the coach for the next hour while our airport greeter Anne faffed about, little did I know I much prefer her faffing than going on and on about what she would do if she was on holiday. On arrival to the golf resort we had a bit more paperwork and given the keys to the room. Our room was nice and clean, with a balcony over viewing the pool.

Money was our first challenge, as you can’t change your money before you get to Tunisia I had decided just to take my visa card and Vicky only had £60 cash so we asked the receptionist where the nearest cash point was and went for a walk. The cash point was a dodgy looking brick building with a rusty shelter, I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when it threw my card back at me with some sort of error in every language but English. We walked back to the hotel changed most of our cash, drank a few beers and went for food.

Food, as we were half board was buffet style, but it took a good five minutes to figure out where they were hiding the plates. Most of the food we tried was quite bland, with the exception of some meaty skewers which tasted like i has bit straight into a lemon, and of course the bright blue bubblegum ice-cream. Overall however there was plenty of nice food to eat so no major complaints.

After dinner we went to bed as with needing to get to the airport at 6 am and being up late the night before loading essentials onto my Archos tablet it had been a very long day.

Originally published at SilverCyborg. Please leave any comments there.

Tags: golf residence, holiday, holidays & going out, money, thomas cook, tunisia