[johnfowles]

Over the years I have often found something of a technological or computer related content that I then had the desire to share with corfiddlers even though it was not related to Gordon Lightfoot
I am also developing a series of tutorials for computer and program use that I need to publicise. I am well aware of the modern phenomenon of blogging whereby anybody can set up a sort of daily chronicle of his or her web surfing known as web logging hence weblog or plain blog to pass on anything that struck them as interesting, with the facility that readers could then respond.However at this time of writing I do not profess to know how or where to set up my own blog, but I have had this brilliant idea:-
This thread will be my own blog and I invite you to reply as you see fit, I promise not to get too long winded and verbose but if I fail to discipline myself for heaven's sake somebody tell me to belt up. OK ?
To start the ball rolling two items to get you thinking:-

1. I enjoy anything to do with automobiles and each week receive from the UK Daily Telegraph their emailed Motoring Bulletin.

1. I was interested today to read this article
   As Tata Motors takes control of Land Rover, Kevin Hackett drives the oldest survivor in Anglesey, where the marque was born
   as found on:-
   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...C-mot_02042008
   
   The very first Land Rover made on March 11 1948
   Another article in the very same email referred to the vexed debate on what is the right side of the road to drive on this reminded me of my humourous essay on the English pound sign at:-
   http://www.poundsign.notlong.com,
   In which I digressed into the fact of why the UK drives on the left and made up the following story:-
   "friends in the recently rebel tea-drinking colonies somewhere to the
   West who, while in some United State of disarray, decided to cock a snoot
   (nose) to their old mad King and, in sympathy with France, started to tell
   their horses to drive on the right also (note that even today the majority
   of right-thinking drivers throughout the rest of the world sit in the right
   seat of their cars and drive down the natural, left, side of the road).
   Later on the Irish thought they'd follow suit, but made the mistake of
   getting all buses and lorries (trucks) to change to the right one weekend,
   with cars and push-bikes the next."
   Today I learned that this was not so far from the truth because I read with some astonishment the following
   report at:-
   http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/...C-mot_02042008
   "You might not be entirely surprised to learn that Italians used to drive on the right in town and on the left in the country, a potentially comic situation that was only regularised in 1927."
   
2. Convergence
   I have for some time enjoyed using a very cheap albeit obsolete mini desktop the splendid Jornada 820
   and have on a free website a tribute page to it at:-
   http://h1.ripway.com/johnsjornadasite/
   that I know badly needs revising and simplifying.
   but on there I wrote a page on which I tried to explain my reasons for liking that computer so much:-
   http://h1.ripway.com/johnsjornadasit...he_jornada.htm
   I also started a replacement Jornada section/folder on my own website at:-
   http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/jornada/ where I said I would
   "review the current increasingly complex assortment of devices that are now available for net surfing and general
   entertainment to put the 820 into perspective"
   I described video and still cameras and the Apple iphone and concluded
   "and mobile cellphones that increasingly can do all of the above"
   I also displayed this typical Jornada 820 picture
   
   and an early Nokia device I had used in the UK in the 1990s
   
   A Nokia Comunicator
   And a nice looking baby computer
   
   the Pepper Pad
   As always in the field of computers things move on at an accelerating pace and before long I discovered the
   ASUS EEE
   
   whose name derives from "the three Es": "Easy to learn, Easy to play and Easy to work"
   It has no hard drive and comes with Linux but Windoze XP can be installed
   ever since my stoopidly and criminally underengineered Sony Vaio laptop broke its hinges and Sony in their penny pinching wisdom declined to repair such a basic failure free of charge I had missed having a small computer to carry around and had found the Jornada was a tad on the large side and its mainshortcoming simply irksome (due to an obscure security issue although it connects to the internet using its built in 56K modem its outdated (Internet Exploder 3 vintage) pocketIE browser is unable to open up my main email account at http://www.hotmail.com
   I naturally lusted after an EEE. I tried Ebay but the ones I went after ended up too expensive. I had also noted the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet which has regular price of about $299.99.This was a bit beyond my budget of $200.00 so I persued these on sale on ebay and third time lucky I won one for $207 plus $6.45 shipping it had extras too as described on the auction details at:-
   http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=220200934619
   it is a remarkable machine. the main problem I can see is that it only has wifi internet connectivity unless you "piggy back" on a bluetooth equipped mobile/cell phone.
   It is truly a marvel in miniature as you can see from this picture on the appropriately named "ubergizmo" website:-
   
   And it does have a built in media player for various video formats and mp3s
   Plus a built in FM radio facility using the earphone lead as an aerial/antenna
   Not to mention a built in webcam for those future videophone calls
   and uses camera style SD media memory cards for extra programs etc
   At this moment I cannot use it to surf at high speed whilst at home but I am encouraged by for example the banner I noted upon arrival at West Palm Beach airport in Florida last month which proclaimed "complimentary wifi internet access"
   and also the free service offerred by all branches including the UK apparently of
   McDonalds
   However I suspect that as with all of these allegedly "free" access sites you still need to have a wifi account with your own ISP to actually connect though as well as putting up with their dubious fare!!
   Alternatively many hotels etc now have free wifi access
   I sense that as time goes on there will be a spread of free wifi even entire cities so provided for
   for example the UK city where my sister lives has already got a service:-
   Manchester
   As apparently does the regional airport of the namesake city in New Hampshire which is only vaguely in or near to the Boston MA "region"!!
   Manchester • Boston Regional Airport
   Meanwhile I was able to test my N800 at my sister-in-law's house recently and was able to watch on youtube the German tv Sundown
   (same video as the Midnight Special in the same year of 1974)
   

Ok more than enough for my initial "blogging" attempt