Firefox Redirection Problem

Ever since installing the latest version of Firefox I've been plagued by a curious problem.

Nearly every time I click on a link from a GMail message I am presented with the following warning message:

Prevention Better Than Cure?

"Firefox prevented this page from automatically redirecting to another page"

Pressing on the Allow button sometimes worked, sometimes it didn't.

Anyway, it's mighty annoying, especially if you're always going to be pressing the Allow button!

So, how do you fix it? Sorry, how do you switch this clearly useful facility off?

Preferential Treatment!

Well, it turns out it's quite simple. If you're using a Mac, go to the Firefox | Preferences option in the main menu. If you're using Windows go to the Tools | Options menu item.

Now navigate to the Advanced -> General tab.

Uncheck the item "Warn me when web sites try to redirect or reload the page".

Job done - your redirection allowing days are now behind you!

Oh well...

Operation Cancelled

Well, what do you know, my long awaited knee operation has been cancelled.

Why?

Apparently it's an administrative thing.

The operation was scheduled for this morning.

After arriving at hospital at 7:15 this morning, I spent the next hour or so answering questions from several different people, all of whom filled in different forms - but all of who asked roughly the same questions.

No Confusion

At 9:00 I was asked to disrobe and prepare for the operating theatre.

At 9:30 I was wheeled into the pre-op room where an anaesthetist went at me with various sized syringes full of some sort of numbing juice. Each time after numbing a place on my arm or hand he tried to insert some sort of long thin needle into my vein. Each time he failed.

On the sixth attempt there was a smile, and some relieved stress - success! I was now attached to a drip.

During a previous visit I'd been told I'd be having a general anaesthetic, but once I'd arrived I'd been told that they weren't happy to administer a general anaesthetic because there was only one anaesthetist on duty.

"Why?", I asked.

"It's a Saturday. On a Saturday, the hospital doesn't have the normal staffing levels as it would have mid-week", I was told.

"So why schedule my operation for a Saturday?"

"It shouldn't have been scheduled for a Saturday. Someone fouled up. We can still try something called an epidural. You won't be unconscious if you have an epidural", the anaesthetist said, "But you won't feel anything either."

Now, I don't know much about medicine, but what I do know is that an epidural involves being injected into the spine with a rather large needle.

It was not a thought I wanted in my head after being used as a pin-cushion for the last 30 minutes. It was too late to back out now though. "OK", I said, "Go for it!"

So at 10:00 more prodding commenced, for a whole half hour. But it didn't work. For some reason he couldn't get the needle into a vein.

After several attempts, as he made his way up my spine, he apologised and I was wheeled back to my ward.

So what now? Well, I need to go back on a week day, when there's a full compliment of staff at the hospital.

How long this will take, nobody knows. That's another administrative thing.

At least I got a cup of tea and some custard creams for my traumatic morning.

I'm very fed up though.

Oh well...

*sigh*

NHS Time Travel

You may remember that I blogged earlier this week about a mix up in dates for my knee operation. Well, I've managed to find out what went wrong.

Yesterday I went for my pre-operation assessment. After answering a whole raft of daft questions ranging from whether or not I smoked, to what drugs I was allergic to (how do I know?) and having checks for blood pressure and MRSA, I was told that my operation was on Friday.

The nurse then looked puzzled and said, "Yes, Friday. No. Wait. Saturday. Oh. Hang on. Friday the 28th. No. That doesn't make sense!"

"I know", I said, "Can you confirm one or the other or should I turn up on both days?"

Off she went clutching my appointment papers.

She returned a couple of minutes later with an even more puzzled look on her face. "It's on Saturday. Definitely on Saturday. What's happened is that the computer has got mixed up and given you the date in 2008, where the 28th was a Friday."

Now it was my turn to look puzzled!

"2008?"

"Yes", she replied, "But don't worry. You'll definitely be having your operation in 2009!"

"Good", I said whilst having visions of myself spending the evening scouring eBay for a TARDIS.

How do these things happen? Are there no checks and balances in these places? How can it be the computers fault? Computers don't get mixed up, people do! It's just so careless.

Oh well...

*sigh*

**UPDATE 28/11/2009: What was I saying about administrators? Operation Cancelled!

Date With The Doc

Well, it's eventually happened! I've got the date for my knee operation!

I blogged last week about how the surgeon had told me it would be before Christmas, and he seems to have been right!

So, when is the big day? Well, the jury seems to be out on that!

Let me explain.

I had a telephone call from a nice lady in the orthopaedic admissions department of the hospital. She informed me that I would be having my operation on Saturday. I asked if I'd be getting confirmation by letter and was told yes.

I received my confirmation letter, only, it didn't so much confirm as confuse. It stated that the operation would be on the Friday, not the Saturday.

Oh, but hang on, it actually says that the operation will be on Friday the 28th November.

Hmmm. This is tricky. There's no such date! Friday is the 27th, and Saturday is the 28th. So which one is right?

Obviously this is yet more chasing I'll have to do due to administrative errors.

When I eventually sort out the date, I only hope they know I'm going in for a knee operation!

Oh well...

*sigh*

**UPDATE 25/11/2009: The date mix up problem solved here.

Before Christmas

It's been a couple of weeks since I last saw the orthopaedic consultant about my knee problem.

After previously having the problem described in terms of a broken gearbox, I was treated to another layman's explanation!

This time I was to imagine that I was sliding along a pavement that had a covering of ice. Where the pavement had a thick covering, I was able to slide nicely along without interruption, but where the ice had thawed, I'd slow down. Every so often, the ice would become so thin that sliding on it would cause it to chip, revealing the pavement underneath. Sliding on the chipped section of pavement would be impossible, and I'd come to a juddering halt. As time passed by, more of the ice would melt, and more would be chipped, until eventually, I'd be trying to slide on pavement alone.

Sliding on pavement alone is very painful!

Anyway, the surgeon assured me that I'd be having my operation before Christmas.

Am I holding my breath? Definitely!

Oh well...

*sigh*

**UPDATE 23/11/2009: Well, I didn't have to hold my breath for long! I've got my date for the op!

Review: Amazon Kindle 2

Finally, Amazon have decided to ship the Kindle internationally - and I've finally got my sweaty mitt's on one! Of course, frustratingly, Sod's Law dictated that I'd already bought a Sony Reader Touch (reviewed here).

Read on to find out whether the Sony or the Amazon device will become my reader of choice...

Build Quality

Having been spoiled by the superb build quality of the Sony Reader Touch, I was a little disappointed when I first picked up the Kindle. Although it is nicely weighted, at 289 grams, I thought it felt a little too plastic like. The Kindle is an odd shape too. It appears too tall for its width. The overall dimensions of 20cm tall by 13.5cm wide and less that 1cm thick make it look as though it's been put on a medieval rack and stretched. A friend of mine unkindly likened it to an old Speak 'n' Spell toy from the 70's. I find it strange to hold, not unpleasant, just unusual.

The edges of the device contain the usual suspects, including a sliding on/off switch, headphone socket, volume control and USB connector. The front of the device contains buttons for Home, Next, Previous, Menu, and Back. There's also a five-way joystick and a full QWERTY keyboard. All of the controls are quite solidly built from hard plastic, and they look like they'll stand up to the test of time.

The Kindle has no external memory card ports, however, it does have an internal storage capacity of 1.4Gb available for storing content. The device also contains a 3G wireless SIM that can be used to deliver content remotely.

The device is supplied with a power lead that sports a two pronged American plug, so an adapter is required to charge the Kindle directly from the mains socket in the UK. A country specific adaptor is not supplied. However, the plug can be cleverly removed to reveal a standard USB connector. This connector can then be plugged into any powered USB port to charge the device.

Disappointingly, the Kindle is supplied without even a basic case or sleeve, meaning that the screen will be at risk of being scratched until one is purchased.

Taking notes on the keyboard is a bit laborious with my big fingers, but it is so much faster than wrangling with the on-screen keyboard of the Sony. The more I think about the touch interface of the Sony, the more I think how much better the device would have been without it!

Display

Whilst the device is larger than the Sony Reader Touch, the display is a little smaller, but, it is of better quality. Text appears crisp and pin sharp against the realistic looking paper background. The electronic ink display seems to update more quickly than the Sony device, but only fractionally.

The device has a display resolution of 600 x 800 and supports only 16 levels of grey scale, however, although this doesn't sound like much, pictures and text appear sharp and well defined.

Not having to touch the screen keeps it nice and clean for reading, whilst also reducing glare. In fact, I never found glare to be a problem, even when reading in bright overhead light, the text remained perfectly legible. However, when light is fading, the Kindle text becomes unreadable, just like a conventional book. A simple built in light would remedy this, as it would also improve the Sony.

Operation

Switching the device on and off is achieved by sliding a switch on the top edge. It takes a few seconds for the Kindle to be ready for action, but this isn't really a problem.

Once powered up, the Home screen displays the list of device content. Content is presented on the page as a list of items, one item is underlined, indicating that it is currently selected. The joystick is used to move the current selection up and down the list. When the desired document is reached, the joystick can be pushed to open it.

Having recently purchased the Sony Reader Touch, and used it for a few of weeks, I found myself occasionally prodding at the screen to open a document, but, actually, the five-way joystick and underlining of links works extremely effectively, and I found that I prefer this way of doing things.

Page turning is achieved by using the next and previous buttons on the front of the device. Pages seem to update much faster than on the Sony Reader Touch. Whilst reading, the joystick can be used to navigate around the current page. When the cursor is located over a word, a dictionary definition of the word is displayed at the base of the page.

The text size on the device can be changed between six different sizes, from the really tiny (for me) to the really large. There's even an option to have the device read the text to you. This can be quite an abstract experience, and is only really recommended to see how it works, or doesn't, as the case may be!

I've found that the device can last about 10 days between charges, with a moderate amount of reading, and the wireless turned off!

Software

The Kindle is a completely independent device, and as such, does not require a computer or additional software.

So how does one get books onto the Kindle? Well, that would be the Kindle Store.

The integration between the store, the web and the device is superb. Generously sized samples of books can be downloaded directly to the device, and purchased if required. The whole Kindle Store is searchable directly from the device, or from any computer with an internet connection.

Books, newspapers or magazines bought on-line are transferred to the device wirelessly using the build-in 3G connectivity. Books are retained in the Kindle Store and can be downloaded time and time again. It all works fantastically well. Quite simply, once you've used the Kindle Store to make a purchase, making a purchase in any other way seems quite monotonous. Of course, if you want monotony, you can have it by tethering the Kindle to a computer via the USB cable and transfer documents more conventionally.

This all sounds wonderful, but there's a problem. The technology is brilliant, but, those pesky publishers have decided to get in on the act and spoil things. During my few weeks using the device I've been unable to source quite a few titles from Amazon. It's not that the titles don't exist. It's not that they don't exist in a format compatible with the Kindle. It's not even that the titles don't exist in the Kindle store. It's the fact that some titles that are available for purchase in the USA are not available in the UK due to licensing restrictions.

I queried Amazon about this and received the following statement:

"I apologize this content is currently not available for United Kingdom. Since publishers give us eBook rights on a country by country basis, availability and pricing of titles from the Kindle Store can vary by your home country or region. We are actively working with publishers to get the rights to all titles for every country and adding selection every day."

Hopefully, this will be sorted in the coming months. In the meantime I'll have to content myself with the hundreds of thousands of titles available...

Customer Service

I know I'm reviewing the device here, but I have to mention the superb customer service received from Amazon. I pre-ordered my Kindle the week before its release date. It was dispatched from Kentucky, US, as promised on the 19th October. It arrived on my desk in the UK on 21st October. That's fantastic!

When I switched on my Kindle for the first time, there was a welcome message waiting that was personalised to me! I thought this was a nice touch.

What's more, Amazon subsequently e-mailed me to say that due to strong customer demand for the Kindle 2, it was lowering its price from $279 to $259, and would be refunding $20 to my account. If that's not excellent customer service then I don't know what is!

OK, enough gushing!

Conclusion

I'm sad to say that I'm not convinced by the Kindle hardware.

I definitely prefer the Sony's form factor. The Sony build quality is also much better. However, I really dislike the touch screen and its associated glare.

I don't like the positioning of the Kindle keyboard. It's in a very prominent position for something that is very rarely used (by me). Maybe a pull out keyboard would be better. I do prefer the Kindle's way of navigating through the system.

A big plus for the Amazon device is the Kindle Store. It has the ability to become the jewel in Amazon's crown, especially if the licensing issues are sorted out. Even with the licensing restrictions, there are literally hundreds of thousands of books available.

The ability to subscribe to newspapers and magazines, which are scheduled for delivery on the date of publication, as well as buy books is brilliant. Unfortunately articles in newspapers and magazines don't include pictures.

I must say that I've found the whole Kindle experience quite excellent, especially the little touches the Kindle employs like the famous authors that pop-up when the device is switched off, or the integrated dictionary, or the personalised welcome note!

To put it simply though, I don't think the Kindle 2 will become the de-facto eBook reader of choice, nor will it be the last eBook reader I ever buy. Like the Sony, it's still too expensive to appeal to the mass market. The device is also essentially too big. I want my eBook reader to be the size of a more conventional book - more specifically a paperback book. And what's the point of a device if I can't buy the books that I want, even though they exist in the correct format? I find that incredibly strange.

There's lots for Amazon to be proud about with the Kindle experience - I just can't wait for the next version!

Oh well...

--

See also my Sony Reader Touch review.

Review: Sony Reader Touch

After what seems like an eternity, I've finally managed to spend some quality time evaluating my shiny new Sony Reader Touch.

Read on to view my thoughts on the device...

Build Quality

For those who remember Ladybird books, the Sony Reader Touch PRS-600 is reminiscent of a luxurious thick silver one! For those who don't, its measurements are 12.1cm wide by 17.4cm high and 1 cm thick. The device is nicely weighted at 286 grams, and has lovely rounded edges making it pleasant to hold.

The device sports controls and ports around its edges. These include a Sony memory card slot, an SD memory card slot, a headphone socket, a USB connector, an external charger socket, a volume control and an on / off slider. The front of the device has buttons for turning pages, returning to the home screen, resizing text, and a button for options that are context sensitive to the current page.

It's supplied with a USB lead and a handy padded cover to protect it when not in use. The device is charged directly from the USB connection, so there's no reason to have a separate power adapter, although one is available at extra cost.

The device is capable of rendering images in 256 grey scale. It can also play audio files. The device also has the ability to take notes by scribbling directly onto the touch screen using your finger or the supplied stylus.

Whilst the build quality of the device is superb, I'm sure it's not as robust as a paperback book. I certainly wouldn't go throwing it into my rucksack without its protective casing for fear of damaging the screen.

Actually, it's too lovely to be thrown anywhere!

Display

Despite attempting to purchase the black version of the Sony Reader Touch model, I ended up with the silver version. I'd read that the silver version was prone to reflecting bright sunlight back into the eyes of the reader, but I've not encountered this problem yet. Maybe that's because I live in England, where bright sunshine is a rare commodity!

The frame of the device may not have a problem with reflected light, however, the shiny touch screen does. When the light source is directly behind or above the reader, the text on the screen can be completely obscured. This isn't a huge problem, as the unit can be easily angled to avoid such a reflection from occurring, but it is annoying, and can interrupt the flow of reading. It would have been nice if the screen was a lot less reflective.

Reflections aside, when you can actually see the text, the display is very good. The lettering appears crisp and sharp on the page, and the actual appearance of a page on the display resembles a conventional book. It really is uncanny. You can definitely lose yourself as you can when reading a conventional book. However, my main gripe is that it copies a conventional book too closely! When it gets dark, I can't read it without an external light source. Some sort of built in "amber glow" reading lamp would have made a great addition...

I also have to wonder, how long the screen will remain pristine after repeated swiping and prodding with greasy fingers...

Operation

Switching the device on and off is achieved by sliding a switch on the top edge.

The home screen contains seven main options: Continue Reading, Books, All Notes, Collections, Settings, Text Memo and More.

I'll not dwell on what each of these options does, but the main two deserve a little more explanation. Continue Reading allows you to start reading from the last page of the last book that was viewed. It's a bit like using a conventional bookmark. The Books option takes you to your bookshelf. All titles loaded onto the eBook reader are listed here in alphabetical order. Selecting a title from the list will return to the last page viewed for the title.

The display can be touched using either a finger, or by using the supplied stylus. When reading, I tended to use my finger the most, although when taking notes, the stylus comes in handy. The right hand edge of the display is magnetic, as is the stylus, so you can leave the stylus attached to the device if you don't want to re-sheath it every time after use.

Swiping the display changes pages, although the default action is for a left swipe to go back, and a right swipe to go forward! Although this seems quite a good idea, it's actually counter intuitive. Thankfully, the swipe direction can be changed in the Settings option. Pages can also be turned using a couple of buttons at the bottom of the unit. After the initial excitement of being able to swipe pages wore off, I tended to use the buttons rather than swipe the screen.

Page turning, as with all electronic ink devices, is also a slow affair, with the screen flashing in-between page turns. A page turn can take as long as a second, although I didn't find that this interrupted my reading experience. However, if you're expecting iPhone like responsiveness you'll be very disappointed.

Annotations or drawings can be added to pages of any book stored on the device. These can then be accessed from a list of notes. I can see this being extremely useful for people wanting to annotate reference material for quick access. I see it as a modern day equivalent of sticking a Post It note onto a page.

One problem I found with this though is that whenever I navigated to a note on a page, using the All Notes option, the device lost my current reading position. I then discovered how infuriating it was to locate the current reading position using the page number search - especially if you couldn't remember the exact page number you were reading. This is where the page turning really slows you down!

Another problem with using the on-screen keyboard and drawing interfaces to store notes is the speed of operation. The display technology simply isn't responsive enough at the moment to support these features in my opinion.

One thing I loved, however, was being able to adjust the text size. This is fantastic for someone with failing eyesight like myself! There are a range of sizes available. Small is the size that most resembles the printed text in a conventional book, but there's also Medium, Large, Extra Large and Extra Extra Large.

Software

The Sony eBook Library software is used to synchronise books purchased from on-line stores with the device. The software is installed directly from the device when plugged in to your computer's USB port for the first time. I had no problems installing the software on Windows XP, Windows Vista or OS-X Snow Leopard.

The software is pretty basic, but it does all that a piece of synchronisation software needs to do. The software can also be used to read the books if required.

Conclusion

I was very disappointed at the speed of the touch aspect of the devices capabilities. To be honest, I don't think I'd miss the Touch element of the Sony Reader Touch if it was completely removed - although taking notes would then become problematic! I'd also rather have had a display that wasn't so reflective, especially if this could be remedied by foregoing the touch screen interface.

However, the Sony Reader Touch really is a lovely little device. It's certainly well designed and well thought out, it's nicely weighted, and has a very good display, despite the reflective glare issues discussed above. It's capable of storing all of the books I'll ever want to read. It has access to thousands of titles from well known high street shops such as Waterstones and W.H. Smiths and supports most of the major eBook publishing formats.

However, I see an eBook reader as something that has the capability not only to mimic a book, but to surpass it, and provide a more comfortable reading experience. I'm not talking about the picture or music capabilities, I don't really care about this functionality! I want it to enhance my reading experience. For instance, options to adjust the contrast between the text and background paper, a built-in reading light, automatic bookmarking to the furthest page read, would all be simple enhancements which would make me fall in love with this device.

As it stands, even if you love its features, and can live with its faults, there's one more thing that may stop this device becoming your eBook reader of choice, and that's the price. At £239 including VAT, it's simply far too expensive.

Now, if Sony can maybe either improve or lose the Touch screen, add a few simple reading features and lower the price to below £150, I think they'd be onto a real winner!

Oh well...

Look out for my Kindle 2 review coming soon...

**UPDATE 11/11/2009: Amazon Kindle 2 Review