Software Updates and Progress Bars

A couple of IT annoyances.

Software Updates

It seems that whenever I turn my computer on at the moment, about half of the software needs to auto-update. Pidgin (IM client), Firefox (and extensions), Anti-Virus, Adobe Reader and Flash, Windows, iTunes...it's incessant! And it means that it's about half an hour from pushing the on button to being able to do anything useful.

Of course, I could disable all the auto-updates. What I'd really like is to be able to click a button that says "update all my software now" and run all the updates at once at a time that is convenient to me.

The auto-update problem is only made worse by my second annoyance.

Progress Bars

We did a module in my computer science degree about Human-Computer Interaction. In it we were told that a progress bar should tell you three things:

1. How much work has been done.
2. How much work is left.
3. How quickly the work is progressing.

Some status bars used to achieve this. Actually, the best ones were usually multi-progress bars that showed how far a job involving lots of smaller jobs had got. One bar showed overall progress and the other showed progress of the smaller sub-tasks. Linux installs were always pretty good for this sort of thing.

But I've not seen a progress bar that does any of the above three things for years now. I see progress bars that do all of the following:

• start again from zero once they reach 100%
• advance at unsteady rates
  
• stop for a long time at a certain percentage and then suddenly leap
• advance at a steady rate but then the work is not complete when they reach 100%

And what's really bad is that we now take this for granted. I mean, what if your car's petrol gague suddenly dropped from 3/4 full to 1/8 full? Or if your washing machine showed it was on the last rinse when really it was still doing the pre-wash? Would we accept that?

We should be telling our software installer vendors that this is unacceptable. I've wasted many hours staring at progress bars that are telling me a job is nearly done when it's really far from completion. I've been late home and I've been late to bed because of such things. I bet you could do analysis that shows that businesses are losing millions of man-hours while people wait for things to complete in this way.

We need progress on progress bars! Who will stand and join with me to reclaim our %-complete's and make them what they once were?

A Busy Time

It's been a busy time for the Wintles!

We've had numerous busy weekends, in Devon with my in-laws, on a Tour of the North (Leeds, Durham, and then back home via Cambridge and London), and we'll be in London this coming weekend too. So we've not been at home much. Weekday evenings have been busy as well.

Here's what's been going on:

Getting rid of the rats

We finally think we've tackled the rat problem. A while ago the man from the council came out again with his boss - the head of Pest Control - for a second opinion. He worked out that the rats were probably getting in from the old "Stink Pipe". The vent connected to the sewer. This isn't used as a vent any more, as a new pipe had been put on the side of the house, but the it hasn't been blocked up. This gives the rats a free run from the sewer up the wall cavity to our loft.

So, we hacked a hole in the side of the old back wall (which has been knocked through into the extension) and shoved a load of chicken wire into the cavity. I'm sure that we have heard the odd scratching since, but there's very little sign of rat activity anywhere and this has been the case for a while now.

Problem is that rats have now started to take refuge in our compost bin.

AARRGRGHHH!!!!

In the mean time the last one to die has stopped smelling and we now have a plague of flies again. Hopefully out last!

Ikea

We've also been having furniture fun. Try to follow this.

We're borrowing some furniture from my sister, who is waiting to sell a house so that she can buy a house. When she moves in to the new, bigger house we can give her "loaned" furniture back. At that point we'll need basically a whole bedroom suite, including a bed and wardrobes. We'd also promised a sofa to a friend of ours in Bristol. So whenever we were going to go to Ikea (in Bristol) to buy the bedroom furniture, we were going to hire a van and take the sofa on the same trip.

However, we found the ideal piece of furniture to replace the sofa in a sale. So we bought that and had to expedite the sofa-taking trip. As we had the van we figured we may as well pop to Ikea as well.

Now, our last experience of Ikea was not good. I mean NOT good. It was horrible and we got only about half of what we went for. So we were psyching ourselves up for this trip.

It turned out not so bad and we got about a 90% hit rate. Unfortunately this meant that the two main bits of furniture (bed and wardrobe) were incomplete. We had a head- and foot-board for the bed but no sides, and the wardrobe lacks some drawer fronts.

So on our trip round the country we stopped off at Ikea Leeds to pick up some bed sides (which were crammed into the car next to a gracious Sally for several hundred miles), but the drawer fronts aren't due in the country at all for about 6 weeks.

What we have learned along the way is that Ikea's phone service is pretty good. You can do automated stock checks and, if something's out of stock, you can get the store to text you when it comes back in stock! Rather clever really.

Getting Wii Fit

A Confession

Having finally, after many months, confessed to having a Wii and telling the world what I think about it. It's time for the next step of my "coming out".

We, after a long period of searching, also bought a Wii Fit!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about then take a look at the Nintendo Site about it. In short, it's a balance board. A small and sturdy (and quite heavy) plinth that you stand on and it works out how much you weight and tracks you as you shift your centre of balance.

They were, at the time, pretty hard to get hold of. Yet lots of my colleagues at work were raving about them, and the thought of an interactive way to keep fit in your front room sounded pretty good. And we figured that if the quality of the Wii itself was anything to go by, this should be another more-than-half-decent Nintendo product.

Balance Boards and Body Tests

The reality turned out to be pretty good too. The Balance Board is robust and accurate and easy to set up and get going. The Wii Fit game is good too, after telling it who you are, how old you and, and a few other things (you only do this setup once), you get to do a "Body Test", which weighs you and gives you some balance tests to do. At the end of the test you are presented (in quite humourous fashion, with your Wii Fit Age. This is a number between 20 and 99 that represents your 'fitness'. Sort of.

You're supposed to repeat the body test daily and the Wii Fit tracks your weight and Wii Fit Age, and you can set targets. The little animated version of the balance board that talks you through it all, also gives you fitness tips. These get quite dull after a while and I wish now that there was an option to turn them off.

The Wii Fit also tracks how long you spend on it and rewards you with unlocking extra features as you use it more.

Playing!

The game then allows you to start exercising. There are four different types of exercise:

• Yoga - an onscreen "instructor" shows you a pose and you follow. The Balance Board tracks how well you're balancing and the instructor gives you tips or encouragement in response. At the end you are scored on how well you balanced.
  
• Strength Exercises - again, the onscreen instructor shows and you follow, with appropriate feedback and scores at the end.
• Balance Games - skiing, snowboarding, riding a bubble, tightrope walking and a 'sitting still' game. All good ways to fine tune control of your centre of gravity. Thought some are much more fun than others. Again you are scored on how you perform.
  
• Aerobics - well, hardly. But you can do jogging on the spot, step classes and a kind of 'boxercise' type thing. Some of this is fun, some is pretty pointless in my opinion. As always, you are given scores for how well you do.
  

It's very easy to get into and the competetive element with scores and tables showing who's the best, is a great motivator. There are exercises in all categories that I don't like (the bubble game and the jogging on the spot being two in particular), but I'll happily do a bit of each.

So much potential

Now, I think this is a good product. BUT, what I really really wish is that it was a GREAT product. I'm really happy with the Wii Fit, but I have a load of criticisms that could be easily fixed that would make it SO much better.

1. It's annoying after a while. The talking instructor and animated balance board really need to go away after about 2 weeks. They're good for helping you in but once you know what you're doing there really needs to be an option to turn them off.
2. The competetive element is hampered by the fact that only one person can play at a time. Things like skiing and snowboarding would be much better if you could quickly change between players. As it is you have to navigate back out to the profile selection screen, and then back in (past the annoying talking balance board) as the next person. A simple "Play this as a different user" option would go far!
3. The Wii Fit Age is a bit pointless. There's one particular balance exercise that I'm no good at and which gives me an age of about 40. All the others give me an age between 25 and 35. But it varies so wildly that it's meaningless, and the program's critical comments each time I go up are...yes...annoying. This may be related to the fact that...
4. It doesn't cater well for people who are already fit. I expect if you're overweight and unfit then this is a great way to ease yourself into some exercise. But I'm about the right weight and I'm pretty healthy and fit. Yet it demands that I set a target (lose 2lbs this week to aim for your ideal BMI (Body Mass Index), which probably isn't really what I need. Plus it complains if I have a big dinner and put on a couple of lbs. Big deal. Now shut up!!!
5. It doesn't do programs of exercises. I'd like it to say Monday - Yoga and Strength work. Tuesday - some aerobics. Wednesday - Balance Games. Thursday Aerobics and Strength. And so on, and to have it guide me through a program of exercies. As it is you have to select an exercise - say, a yoga pose - do it, get scored on it, then go back to the menu and select the next thing. Occasionally it suggests that you do a yoga pose and a strength exercise together because they complement each other, but you still have to navigate back through the menus to get to the other exercise.

So, much as I like it, I'm looking forward to the rumoured other games that are coming out for the balance board.

I don't think it's made me much fitter, but the balance games are a lot of fun and the Yoga and strength work is great for my posture and core strength, which I need for cycling.

Sally doesn't really like the gym, has free time after work and a lower level of fitness and it's been a really good way for her to burn some calories and build some strength.

Those last two paragraphs are testimony to the universal appeal of the Wii Fit. We both get something from it. It's not a replacement for a gym, or for getting outdoors and doing some real exercise, but it's a fun way to do some mild exercise.

Let's hope there's a Wii Fit 2 that addresses some of my gripes and really brings the balance board into it's own.

Now where's my trainers and the TV remote?

Eek - I'm an evangelist!

I don't really like the word "Evangelist".  It conjurs up visions of shouty men in the middle of town telling people that they're all going to hell at the tops of their voices.  Either that or suit-wearing professional speakers who hold big Christian rallys in stadiums.  Not me at all, and, despite my strong Christian faith, I don't consider myself much of an evangelist.

However, the word originates in Greek and its original meaning is that of a "bringer of good news", and the word is also used to denote someone who is enthusiastic about a cause.  And that's what I was for a few weeks earlier this year!

A man called Tom launched a thing called the "Swindon Cycle Challenge".  This was a friendly competition, with lots of prizes, that got companies across Swindon trying to get their staff riding bicycles.  As a slight aside, I thought that this was a GREAT way to promote cycling.  The organisation provided lots of promotional material and incentives for people, as well as having a good webstie, updated often, with associated email updates too.  They did everything but provide the bikes!

Anyway, as a member of the little sports and social committee at work I took it upon myself to promote this within my office.  I truly became a cycling evangelist!

It was pretty hard work.  I had to do a lot of haggling and persuading.  Some people thought I was a bit weird and there were lots of excuses that people gave for not getting out and riding a mile or for 10 minutes on a bike, despite the offer of free cinema tickets, cycle accessories, and entry into prize draws for those that did!

I was even referred to as "Swindon's answer to Lance Armstrong".  Hah! I wish.

But I think that it's important to promote cycling, make people realise that you don't have to fire up your car to do that short journey.  I'm aware that not everyone can commute by bike like I can, and that if you have children or luggage then it's not really an available option.  But there are LOTS of journeys that could be done by bike, and there are lots of good reasons to do them by bike!

This process has been a real challenge to my faith.  Cycling isn't the only good news I believe I have to share.  I'm willing to become renowned in my workplace for being a cyclist?  Am I willing to become renowned for being a follower of Jesus?  That's a whole world more scary.

Somehow, talking about faith is awkward and embarassing.  Our culture isn't one where we talk much about beliefs, especially if they are controversial.  Talking about cycling, or what music you like, or what football team you support is OK.  But I wonder what would happen if I decided that I needed to be, not a Lance Armstrong, but a Billy Graham; telling people not about two-wheels, but about hope and joy and goodness.  What would the reaction be?  Would it even be acceptable?  Could I use my sports and social club to help promote a prayer group or to advertise church services and events?

I just don't know, and, at the moment, I don't really know how to start finding out.  But I should take courage (ah...that's where encouragement comes from); I've now been an evangelist, it wasn't that scary, it got mixed reactions, but the whole cycle challenge experience has given me a new confidence to talk, not just about cycling, but about my faith too.

Slug Catching

It's been a while since I wrote about the garden, and in particular about the slugs.

Slug activity seemed to heighten around June/July time, probably compounded by the fact that we had another wet and not overly hot summer.

We'd initially tried beer traps but these were time consuming and messy and, over time, seemed to lose their effectiveness (though this may have been due to our change from half-decent lager to cheap bitter).  We we looked at other methods of catching them.

• Slug Hunting: Trips to the garden at night to hunt and kill slugs proved even more time consuming and messy than beer traps.  But great fun!
• Growing Success Slug Stop: Growing Success is a company that make organic garden products.  We were desperately trying to be organic!  And especially with poison, as we don't want other animals consuming it and dying.  We saw that we could buy their slug defence products in two sizes, and that the bigger size was far cheaper.  So we bought that.  What we didn't realise was that we'd bought "Slug Stop" instead of "Slug Killer"!  You put this white substance around the plants in quite large quantities, the slugs don't like it and so they don't crawl over it to the plants.  Only it doesn't work at all.
• Growing Success Slug Killer: Having realised our mistake we bought some of the more expensive organic blue slug pellets, which are also safe for kids and pets.  These seemed to work better, though we weren't sure how effective they were because we put them down at the same time as...
• NemaSlug: This is a bit freaky but these people breed nematode worms, which are natural predators against slugs.  They swim around in the soil, find slugs, bury inside them, and kill them from the inside out, reproducing as they do so.  They are all-natural, do not interfere with other wildlife, and once they've run out of food (slugs) they die back down to natural levels.  The nemaslug product temporarily increases the level of nematodes in the soil helping kill off the slug population.
  
  We gave one treatment of this late on in the season and it did really seem to help.  It's expensive but seems to be highly effective.  Perhaps we'll try it again next year!

We've also heard that there are plenty of other natural predators for slugs.  Songbirds, frogs, hedgehogs.  We will be looking at ways to encourage these slug eaters into our garden to help us out a bit next year.

Proverbs for our Times

Here are some wise sayings that seem quite relevant given the current credit crunch:

• "Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle."
• "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."
• "Don't guarantee to pay someone else's debt.If you don't have the money,you might lose your bed."

And here is some ancient wisdom that would seem to apply to our current binge-drinking culture:

"Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?

Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.

Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging.

'They hit me,' you will say, 'but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?"

This advice, all highly relevant in our world today, is straight from the Bible, from the book of Proverbs.

It's amazing, both that wisdom from thousands of years ago is still relevant today, and that human nature has moved on so little in that time.

The Wii

I'm sure a million people have reviewed the Nintendo Wii, so my comments on the latest addition to our household will be late and fairly insignificant. Still, having had the Wii for a while, I want to note what I think.

Gaming History and Philosophy in the Wintle Household

Sally and I aren't big gamers. We have PCs and we play silly online games like Stick Cricket (a personal favourite) and The Helicopter Game but in terms of gaming devices, until early June, the most advanced thing we owned was a cheap, 2nd-hand, Nintendo 64, and three games (only two of which were worth playing (GoldenEye and MarioKart).

The reason we own the N64 is for Multiplayer games. We use video games as a fun way to spend time with others.

So when I'd heard much good stuff said about the Wii from my colleagues and had had a go on one round at a friend's house, I...well...I know I shouldn't covet, but, let's say, I put buying one of the consoles on my to do list.

All I had to do was convince Sally. Which is a long story of it's own.

So, shortly before our birthdays in June, we treated ourselves and, after some hunting, found a Wii to buy and bought it.

Initial Thoughts

First reaction? It's a heavy little thing. A small, elegant white box, but solid-feeling and with quite some weight to it! But it seems well built, well packaged and it was simple enough to set up.

The basic package included a single wireless remote, and the "Wii Sports" game. It doesn't have co-axial output so you need a telly with SCART or RGB inputs (we still have a big CRT TV rather than a modern LCD or Plasma screen, but we had enough SCART sockets for this not to be a problem). The only thing that felt a bit flimsy was the remote sensor bar, which you sit on top of or below your telly.

The remote seems pretty robust and after the initial throwing-across-the-room accidents now comes with both a handy wrist strap (that the Wii constantly tells you to use!) and a silicon "jacket" which gives fairly thick padding to further prevent danger.

In fact, the whole health-and-safety thing is a bit overdone with pages and pages of the manual given over to RSI, the dangers of waving remotes around, and how to use your Wii without damaging anyone or anything. All done, presumably, so that Nintendo can say "we told you so" when common-sense-less people try to sue them for damages. What a sad world we live in. Still, I appreciate the wrist strap, which is a highly sensible addition.

Channels

On startup the Wii does a few uninteresting things, like asking you to give it a name, and then presents you with a selection of "channels". These are the different things that the Wii can do, and all the channels are stored in the small amount of flash memory that the Wii has (I think this is 512MB).

Channels are like little applications, and include a photo viewer (the Wii has an SD memory card slot for your camera or phone's memory card to go in), settings pages, news, weather and "Mii" channel where you design your own little character with which to appear onscreen.

You can add channels from some games and they are also downloadable if you set up a wireless internet connection.

The only channel not stored in the Wii's memory is the disc channel, which is where you access the games that come on DVD-like discs.

The only fiddly thing is that the Wii needs to be left on standby to keep the weather and news up to date, which, of course, doesn't appeal to our green sensibilities - yet they are very useful channels.

Design

The Wii is pretty family-centric, and the look and feel could be said to be childish. Yet it manages to accomplish this with some element of style. Yes, the Mii's are little cartoon characters, and everything has round edges and things float and bounce around. But things are smooth and clean, things scroll and zoom nicely, and there are certain whizzy little things that probably shouldn't be there but are - clever touches that grown ups appreciate.

Your first Game: Wii Sports

Wii Sports comes with the Wii and is one of the big lures.  It's simple but makes astoundingly good use of the Wii's remote.  Tennis is a perennial favourite.  Easy to pick up, but as you learn that you can use the remote with twist and flick to achieve subtly different shots, the pace picks up.

Bowling is a great game if you've got people round but only have a limited number of remotes.  Golf is great, but tricky and could do with more depth (only 9 holes which quickly go from being simple to outrageous).  Baseball divides the Wintle household, I love it, but Sally's not a fan.  The little nuances like waggling the bat while you're waiting at the plate are great.  Shame you don't have control over the outfielders though - the game is probably too much left to chance.

And then there's boxing.  I put of doing boxing for as long as I could because I thought I'd look really stupid doing it, but it's hugely energetic, and highly addictive.  Definitely a good way to get rid of some stress at the end of a difficult day.

Summary

We love our Wii and it's a big part of entertainment in our home now.  We've added Lego Star Wars, Mario Kart and a Wii Fit (and the barely-worth-mentioning Wii Play) to the collection and, at the moment, that's all that we need.  The download of a web-browser channel has made it useful as well as playful.  I'll maybe write about some of these (especially Wii Fit) in the near future.

I love the way that video games have moved on to be more interactive, and especially they way Nintendo are playing with how we interact with the small-screen.

Overall a clever, simple, addicitve, and highly entertaining toy that hasn't failed to disappoint.