All good things come to an end

As part of a blogger relations programme from TalkToshiba, I was recently given a Tecra A8 Toshiba laptop to handle for a week or so, test out and finally put down my thoughts on.

And after a week I can say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, whilst not the lightest or most compact lappy in the world, it’s a good size and of quality build, the sort of build that’ll make sure the only reason you need to get a new laptop is because three years down the road, the spec needs updating, but you’ll always have your backup there.

I took it around to various places, the local coffee shop, even to a cider festival in Wales, to make sure I wasn’t left out of the loop. After pairing it with my N95 it still rocked and I managed to grab my emails. Whilst the spec on the one I had wouldn’t exactly tare up some of the latest graphically heavy games, it did the job for what I needed it to do, and because of the mid-end innards, it kept the weight down to bearable.

Probably the three most important aspects of a laptop, as far as I’m concerned, are the keyboard, battery and the screen, all three of which I’m pleased to say do the job well. In fact, after getting used to the slightly ‘positioned-right’ nature of the keyboard it was a pleasure to type away at, the monitor had a nice contrast and handled even high-definition divx playback to a reasonable degree and the battery lasted for hours, on highest brightness setting.

Anyway, I have to run but, they’re good lappys, if you’re after something that’s mid-end, good build and reliable, I’d recommend them. The only bad thing was the amount of heat it pumped out, making it slightly uncomfortable on the lap after an hour or so, but you tend to get that with most laptops.

I enjoyed the experience, technology allowed me to have a good time and put a smile on my face, which is after-all, the point of reporting on this blog, and I loved the fact that because I am a blogger companies like Toshiba value my opinion and ability to affect people, perhaps more than a magazine or TV advert could. Interesting times, I might talk more on this later on.

More later.

Big brother’s watching, but who cares?

I certainly don’t care a fuck if he is; everything I do these days is completely out in the open and public. Okay I might have a few vices that I’ll make a half-hearted attempt to keep to myself, but they’re nothing that I wouldn’t talk about if asked, or if the conversation turned in their particular direction.

Anyway, it’s a major point these days, especially here in the UK, just how much we’re being watched by Big Brother, the dystopian figurine of George Orwell's classic, 1984. Fucking cameras everywhere, infringing on our privacy, well I’ll tell you something now, I go out of my way to try and tell people what I’m doing all the time, and still would be if ‘he’ wasn’t watching. I’m not doing anything wrong, at least most of the time, and if it helps keep fuckheads and other sociopathic monsters out of my life, then all-the-better.

The point was raised today from an article I saw on Engadget, now alongside the countless static CCTV cameras that litter the streets, apparently here in the UK we’re getting flying drones to record us from the skies, WOOOoooOOOOOO0000OOOO! But what the fuck? Only dirty shitbags out of the loop would say that’s a bad thing.

Take myself for instance, I have two blogs, this one and a portfolio website containing pretty much all the writing I’ve ever done that I’m half proud of. I have a Flickr page where virtually all the images I take go, I have a Jaiku account that microblogs everything I do all the time. I have a facebook that contains my workplace, telephone number, the books I like, the music I listen to, the friends I keep, even right down to what quotes I enjoy and publicly displays conversations I have with my friends. I have a Myspace that plays host to my deviant alter-ego character Jack Rawstone, and I have Digg and Del.icio.us accounts on which you can see all the news I enjoy reading and other interests I have.

I don’t have a private life, it’s all online, and I couldn’t be fucking happier, because I’m immersed in a revolution and finally have a title I can give myself when my grand kids ask, ‘What were you all those years ago granddad?’ |And of course my answer will be;

‘I was one of those bloggers kids, one of those in the loop, living life right on the brim of technology with a great grasp of what was going on in the world, and not through editorialised, weighted bullshit, from the people around me and across the globe.'

And they’ll answer;

‘Wow.’

So let big brother watch, he’s certainly not on the prowl for me, and if he is, here’s a call to arms, come on down, let us have a little play and see what happens. I’ll get my hamster powered paper shredder on the go to get rid of all those vital documents, and set up my ElectroPlasmaLaser that’ll zap you into a vapour. HA. Fucker, you wouldn't get me that easily.

And the hedonism bit, oh yes, well you know, if you’re a narcissistic bastard like myself, you enjoy the openness because you like the fact that everyone is looking at you. So as I sit back with my plasma beer glass, laughing like Deniro at the end of Cape Fear with a Romeo and Juliet cigar in the right-hand side of my mouth, knowing the WORLD has access to ME, I smile and think, 'now that’s an ego-trip'.

Just a short one tonight, more tomorrow.