Avvenu heard of it?

I have been trying out a new service recently called Avvenu. It's quite cool, you install a small program which sits in your system tray, that then enables you to access (and share) all the files on your computer via the web. It bypasses problems like firewalls and handles image and music files quite nicely. You can also download entire folders at a time as a ZIP file. Security is one concern, and I don't personally leave it running on any of my PCs (you can include up to 4 computers) if I don't need it. I have even accessed my computer via my WAP enabled phone, although I can't think of a single reason why I would actually want to do that. The basic service is free, they make their money by offering a premium service which allows you to save files on their web space, enabling access while your computer is offline. I've been quite impressed by the service (as you may be able to tell). It's ideal for people who want to share files between several machines without the fuss of firewalls and creating shared folders etc. etc... My only concern is that it encourages people to leave their computers on all the time - just think about the carbon emissions!

Scrapheap Challenge

Saturday was bad car day, as Josh had some major car issues after someone drove into his car at 3:30am and then drove off. So we went down to Leamington Police Station to make a report. After that we went to a car wreckers to look for a windscreen wiper. Would you believe that some yobbs snapped the wiper off Clare's car one night last week? What has Kenilworth become? Do these people not know they are building a Waitrose here? Anyway, having never been to a car wreckers before, it was quite an interesting experience. A note for next time, bring a pair of wellies and tool kit, because you have to wade through large amounts of mud before you can take apart the car parts you need. Anyway, the mission was successful, and Clare's car wipes again.

The Future of UI?

Just watched this video on some research into a 'hands on' way of interacting with computers. It's very 'Minority Report', and a welcome break from the boring keyboard and mouse.

I'm sure it'll be years and years before anything like this makes it to the market place - but one day, perhaps computers will be easy to use.