Logitech MX Performance Mouse

Posted on 30 October 2009 by admin

About two weeks ago I purchased a new Logitech MX Performance Mouse. To be absolutely honest I’m not entirely sure why. I put it down to the cumulative effects of marketing to which I and most other people on the planet are subject:

  • We will be happier if we buy stuff.
  • The stuff we have is not as good as the new stuff.

I had a major problem with the Logitech MX Performance Mouse but even aside from that I decided it wasn’t as good as the mouse I am already using.

logitech-mx-perf-mouse-1
Logitech MX Performance Mouse

The MX Performance Mouse is at the top of the Logitech range and scores highly in many areas. It is very solidly built and looks like a lot of care and attention has gone into its design.

Design features:

  1. Scroll wheel can be set to spin freely
  2. Four thumb buttons
  3. Accurate, precise cursor control on virtually any surface
  4. Sculpted shape for the (right) hand
  5. Wireless operation
  6. Can be used while recharging the battery

Before I address items in that list I want to just describe the major problem I had with it.

On my Mac with OS 10.6.1 the mouse would freeze the screen while in “Open…” or “Save As…” dialogues. This freeze would last for about five or six seconds. Obviously it was quite a nuisance. I did a lot to check if it really was the mouse. I also checked out the Logitech forums where there was much discussion about problems with the Logitech Control Centre 3.1 software. So, after two weeks I had to stop using the Logitech mouse.

I’ve never used a wireless mouse before at home though I have used them in other places. I’ve often wondered why people do use them. I don’t see any problem with the wire and it means that the mouse doesn’t need a battery. The Logitech is, of course wireless and a big appeal was that it can used while the battery is being charged. The cable for charging attaches at the very bottom of the front of the mouse, so it does make the mouse feel slightly strange while it is charging. However it is better than having to use a different mouse while it charges.

I just left the mouse switched on all the time and the battery seemed to run dry once every 24 hour period. I’m not sure if that is how it is supposed to be. Maybe I should have switched it off when I wasn’t using it, but it is the kind of thing I would forget all the time anyway.

Behind the scroll wheel is a button that will remove all resistance to the wheel spinning. It does this by mechanically freeing the wheel from resistance. This is a great idea, for long documents, or long webpages, like blog pages you can just scroll through them very fast, you can even take your hand off the mouse, they keep scrolling. You have to be aware of it because you can forget that the wheel is scrolling. If you are at one window which is at the end of its scrolling then you move the mouse to another which can scroll, then that window will start to scroll if the wheel is spinning. It can take you by surprise. This can be a problem when using FileMaker Pro. If the wheel is spinning unnoticed and you put the cursor over the status area then you can accidentally scroll through loads of records. However I think the advantages of the free spinning scroll wheel outweigh the disadvantages. If you push the scroll wheel to the left or to the right it will scroll in that direction. It takes a while to get the hang of this left/right movement but when you do get the hang of it, it is easy.

There are four thumb buttons. The least good thing about the Logitech MX Performance Mouse imho is that the Zoom button is in the way of where I would normally put my thumb.

logitech-mx-perf-mouse-2
Four thumb buttons

Default thumb button assignments:

Top front with forward facing arrow Go forward in browser window
Top back with backward facing arrow Go backward in browser windw
Below top two Zoom
On bottom where mouse curves out under the thumb Exposé

I found the position of that Zoom button to get irritating after a while. I hardly ever wanted to actually use the Zoom button during my two weeks with the mouse. Cheaper models in the Logitech range don’t have that Zoom button and I think they are worth looking at. I do think that it would be ideal to try these Logitech mice, or indeed any mice, before purchase. The other buttons were fine in their position. During my time of using it I never tried re-programming the buttons but this was possible with the software. In fact it looks like the software offered great flexibility in configuring the mouse. However I never checked any of that out because my time was spent trying to sort out the problem created by the software.

The thumb button I found I used most was the one for “going back” in a browser window. However I didn’t get into the habit of using it a lot. This “go back” button didn’t seem to work in Apple’s Finder windows. I never used the “go forward” button but that is because I hardly ever use that in browser windows anyway.

I use my mouse on a black mat with a gel rest for the wrist. This meant that I didn’t get any idea of the ability of the mouse to work on optically difficult surfaces. If I took the mat away and put it on the wooden desk surface then it was absolutely fine.

That it has a sculpted shape for the right hand didn’t really impress me. I don’t think it was any more comfortable than a normally shaped ambidextrous mouse.

So, even if it had worked properly on the Mac I don’t think I would have ever liked it very much. Even if there hadn’t been a problem with the Zoom button I don’t think I would have found the four thumb buttons to be any advantage. There isn’t any advantage that I can see to a mouse being wireless.

Now I’ve returned to using my Contour UniMouse I’m not missing the Logitech one at all. I think the Contour UniMouse is far more comfortable and more controllable. It doesn’t have any software so that can’t go wrong. The only worthwhile advantage I think the Logitech has over the Contour is the free spinning scroll wheel, but I find the scroll wheel on the Contour to be such a pleasure to use, with resistance just right, that I think I prefer it anyway.

Back to the excellent Contour UniMouse
Posted in Computer | Leave a comment

Della’s Trailer

Posted on 28 October 2009 by admin

A while back I got an email from Della who told me she’d bought a trailer:

I’ve just acquired one second hand was a steal at 30 pounds. The man I got it from used it once it was for his dog he put dog in dog jumped out and that was the end of that. Its been sitting for sometime so had surface rust in places. But nothing that some solvo autosolve has not sorted. Will need a bit of a respray soon. I took it out yesterday to the bottle bank and then back to the clothes bank. And I love it.

In the pic she sent it does indeed look very like mine:

Della 's Trailer

I’m delighted that Della was inspired to go and see the trailer by reading the stuff I’ve written here about my own trailer. My website has done some good!

Della says:

The thing I was surprised about was that when towing the trailer cars actually give you a lot of room and actually over take you rather than cutting you up. Amazing. I was also surprised how easy it was to tow even when it was full of clothes for the clothes bank.

I think she’s right, cars do give you more room if you’ve got a trailer. I think they are frightened of it personally.

The trailer is really easy to tow even with quite heavy loads. In Brighton & Hove we do have a lot of hills but I find that if there is a heavy load then the best thing to do is to get off the bike and walk up the hill.

The pic of Della’s trailer is actually from the ad where she saw it, so the gnome is not her responsibilty!

Posted in Bicycle | Leave a comment

Torchwood: “Children of the Earth” – was that the intended audience?

Posted on 14 July 2009 by admin

On an Internet discussion forum I’d read about the television series Torchwood and the gay relationship within it. The most recent story being broadcast in five episodes with the name Children of the Earth.

I’m going to try not to give too much away of the “story” of Children of the Earth because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, however if you really want to watch it then don’t read on just in case. You’ll also spare yourself a dose of me sneering at it.

I did not like Children of the Earth, however there were a few very good things in it and I will mention them first.

  • I liked very much the nucleus of the story.
  • The children stopping and speaking in unison was extremely good, this was such a clever thing visually and achieved without a lot of special effects and suchlike.
  • The aliens are visually very concealed throughout the series, that was good, as soon as you see the monster or whatever in television then usually it is diffused.
  • The aliens’ basic use of English in their translation system was well used to increase their menace.
  • I liked the Whitehall politics.
  • The depiction of the Cardiff housing estate was warm, human and enjoyable to watch.
  • There was one good character, Mr Dekker played by Ian Gelder. He was the government expert on aliens. He was such a scumbag.

It was difficult to know if it was intended for children or adults. The vast majority of the content was too juvenile for an adult audience, but it included some scenes and ideas which would have been really inappropriate for children.

If it had been intended for children then it was the worst kind of children’s drama. The worst kind of children’s drama being one that thinks that children will just sit through any plot absurdity as long as there is some silly gadget or special effect coming soon. What a load of cobblers!

Captain Jack Harkness, played by John Barrowman, lives forever regenerating instead of dying after being shot or in a car accident or whatever. He recovers and heals up at an astonishing rate. What rubbish! How, for example, does his hair “know” to be the length it is? If he goes to the barber and gets his hair cut, surely it would immediately grow back? He should have hair down to his knees and a long beard.

In fact for me, everything to do with that Torchwood bunch was pretty dreadful really. The only thing I liked about them was that there was a gay relationship within it, but completely disassociated from the main story. They would not have bothered with a pointless straight relationship like that because it would not have had any story value. I watched the programme with an interest in this gay affair but I was bored by it. How great it would have been if it played a meaningful part in the story.

It was difficult to see, though, how anything could have played a part in that story. After all the solution to the problem presented by the aliens is in fact just some technical mumbo jumbo which was completely unconvincing. The “plot” was full of ridiculous holes and this just suggests to me that the programme’s writer has the lowest opinion of the viewers.

I know I could be accused of lacking the ability to suspend disbelief, but while characters with superman characteristics or silly gadgets are boring and signalling to me that this is not my kind of drama, what I really can’t stand at all is problems with the story itself.

The Permanent Secretary to the Foreign Office, John Frobisher is requested by the Prime Minister to perform a special event for the press with the objective of reassuring the general public. However this would not have been appropriate for a civil servant like John Frobisher, an elected politician would be necessary for this. Even if it had been possible with a civil servant it could not be successful because by and large the general public do not know the civil servants who work with the government, so if John Frobisher had appeared on their screens they wouldn’t have been reassured.

I was offended by the use of really extreme emotional situations which were so obviously contrived just to maintain the viewer’s interest in some way, maybe to shock them or perhaps try to cause them some anxiety. One parent shoots their partner and children, then commits suicide. All this to escape their fate, but if that parent had simply taken spouse and children on holiday for a couple of days then they would have evaded their fate just as easily. At one point a character sacrifices their own grand-child to save (some of) the human race. But this situation had been created out of nothing. Writing a drama in which parents kill their own children requires a great deal of consideration. You don’t just shove something like that in the story. What obnoxious drivel.

Children of the Earth was very ghoulish, too much so, I think, for the real children of the earth. If their parents/guardians prevented them from watching it they will have missed nothing.

Posted in Drama | 1 Comment

Roberts Revival RD60 DAB/FM Radio

Posted on 28 June 2009 by admin

On 5 March (2009) my new Roberts Revival RD 60 DAB/FM Radio arrived. Before I bought it I spent quite a bit of time checking it out on the Internet as I tend to do with everything I buy these days.

In fact I’d been wanting to buy a Roberts Revival radio for ages. I really like the 50s styling and the 50s construction holds promise for rather a good radio.

My Roberts RD60

The Revival has similar styling to the 1956 Roberts R66. It is a simple design unlike the other well known retro, the Bush TR82 which is a very heavily styled radio.

However for me the Roberts has a great deal of class. I remember Roberts radios from the eighties. They were still put together in a small factory in England and sold for a lot more money than the competition from Japan. I remember thinking there was something rather nice about putting some money into a radio like the Roberts, placing a lot of value on an object which will be with you for many years. However, at the time I bought a much cheaper Japanese alternative and it was very good.

Roberts R66 – 1956
Pic from The History of Roberts Radio, published by Roberts Radio Co. Ltd., 1987

Today Roberts are, I think, much more like the any other modern manufacturer. You don’t know where they are built, no doubt parts come from all over the world, probably assembled in different countries. The modern day Roberts radio range spans all price bands competing head on with the other manufacturers, in fact my kitchen radio is a Roberts radio, it is a plastic moulded one like those eighties Japanese imports. Its rather nice but not what Roberts represents for me.

Roberts RCS80 – late 80′s
Pic from The History of Roberts Radio, published by Roberts Radio Co. Ltd., 1987

The Roberts radios of the 50s and 60s upon which the Revival is based were rather good designs which leant themselves to future updating I think. The controls were inset on the top so to create a contemporary version it is easy to include a digital display and any configuration of buttons you like in that inset area on the top without changing the overall look of the radio.

I spent ages choosing the colour.

  • Red
  • Green
  • Blue
  • Burgundy
  • Pastel Blue
  • Pastel Cream
  • Pastel Pink
  • Washed Rose – Cath Kidston
  • Piano Black

I got the green one. I know I made the right decision, I liked the idea of piano black, but I just thought that on a portable it would be a smeared mess pretty soon. It is actually green leatherette, (leatherette = leather like plastic). Roberts do a visually very similar radio called the Revival R250 and that is available with real leather, but that is an FM only radio whereas the RD60, my one, is DAB as well as FM. I might have rather liked real leather, but I haven’t seen one in the, er, flesh and I knew that I wanted a DAB radio so leatherette it had to be. The aerial and other metal parts are all gold which look very well with the green.

I wanted a DAB radio because oddly enough, very occasionally BBC Radio Three goes wonky on me in FM. I live very close to the nearest transmitter, three miles, and BBC Radio Four is never affected. However I listen to Radio Three most of the time so I wanted consistency.

The sound quality of the Revival RD60 is very respectable given the size of the radio. Peering in through the grill on the front reveals that the speaker is very small and yet the sound is very full bodied with apparently a lot of bass. The reason for so much bass from such a small speaker is that the radio body, the speaker enclosure, is a port reflex design. The port is forward firing and in the centre of the grill on the front. The speaker is surprisingly far left. I think the speaker is in its location to make room for the batteries.

The casework of the RD 60 is pleasingly straightforward. the back panel is totally flat without decoration. How I wish more designers would embrace this kind of unadorned simplicity.

The door on the back is held shut by a catch which I’m pretty sure is from the furniture world. I rather like this as the radio’s case is I guess a very small piece of furniture, like a music box perhaps. I think one of the reasons why the radio has appeal for me is that it does fit in with with furnishings and interior decor. At some point audio equipment very clearly defined a look and feel quite distinct from the other items we have in the living room. More so with the electronic component boxes than the speakers. For some reason we want the latter to be nicely finished wood but the former is to be high tech boxes.

There is a catch

Opening the door on the back reveals the interior of course. Roughly in the middle is the reflex port. I think the speaker looks bigger in the pic than it actually is. At the bottom is the container for batteries. It takes four D batteries and these do seem to last for a long time, which is rather good. I find I like to lug this radio around the house with me and so I don’t want to have to keep it plugged in to the mains all the time.

Inside

If someone from 1956 were looking into this radio they would be wondering what had happend to the electronics? I’m pretty sure they are all at the top inside that black plastic casing.

That the box is mostly empty doesn’t mean it is a waste of space. The comparatively large box is good for sound quality. Especially given that it is made of MDF, thought by many speaker designers to be the best material for enclosures. When the rear door is shut there is quite a good seal with the casing, but it is not the kind of arrangement you would find in a hi-fi speaker where the casing would be absolutely sealed up except for the reflex port. The seal is good enough though as opening the door while the radio is on leads to a drastic loss in bass.

The sound quality is very contemporary radio I think. There is ample bass for a radio of this size and absolutely no bloom whatsoever. This is a very well behaved radio. Voices are clear and distinct. I can’t detect any real difference between DAB and FM, but I wouldn’t have expected a difference on a portable radio like this.

I’ve used the auxiliary out socket with Pro-Ject Head Box II headphone amplifier and my Sennheiser HD 540 Ref. Gold headphones. It sounds very listenable with a surprising amount of detail, so the small tuner is doing a good job I guess. I don’t know how it would sound with other quality headphones because my beloved Sennheiser HD 540 Ref. Golds are very good at making things sound better than they are. More analytically honest headphones might not sound very good on the radio, but that would be true of any radio.

Using cheap headphones into the actual headphone socket, which would be more usual, is quite fine. It’s much the same as any personal radio. I’ve found that in this pleasant weather we are having (June) I like to take my Roberts RD60 into the garden with me. I use headphones because I don’t want to disturb the neighbours with radio. I prefer the RD60 for this to a personal pocket sized radio because I am in a pocketless mode and the RD60 will sit very squarely on the grass and is so easy to change volume or station.

You know you want one
Posted in Radio | 2 Comments

Michael Jackson and Baron Frankenstein: victims of the same mob?

Posted on 26 June 2009 by admin

On hearing of Michael Jackson’s death I found myself downloading some of his music and viewing his performances on YouTube.

When Jackson was at his absolute height of fame, releasing Thriller I was spending a great deal of my time in nightclubs, doing all the youth type things. If you’d asked me if I liked Michael Jackson I would have said no. I would have believed my answer to be honest, but in fact when Michael Jackson was played I loved it on the dancefloor, the strange thing is I didn’t really notice this anomaly. At the time I was only into groups that were “cool” and had a sense of authenticity about them. Michael Jackson was more from the showbiz world and someone I would have turned my nose up at.

I don’t listen to pop music at home now at all unless it comes on the radio. However listening to Michael Jackson’s music I can see now that it was no coincidence that he worked so well on the dancefloor.

In the later years his life was overshadowed by various allegations and his own eccentric behaviour. However if we put that aside then we see that as an entertainer he really was unparalleled.

Personally I believe he was a harmless individual who was very immature. In time we will come to see the pillaring he received as being indicative of a terrible failing of ours not to simply allow people to be different.

He was the victim of an angry small minded mob. If we think of his attempts to change his appearance as being like that of Frankenstein’s to create the monster, then we have played the role of the torch carrying mob in the Shelley’s tale.

Posted in Showbiz | Leave a comment

Sussex Mac Users’ Group

Posted on 26 February 2009 by admin

Living as I do in Hove I became interested in the Sussex Mac Users’ Group email discussion list and susbscribed on 17 February thinking that it might be enjoyable to chat to other Mac users in the sussex area. The info at the  Sussex Mac Users’ Group website certainly suggests that this is what it is for.

Unfortunately what is not explained at the group’s website is that  the email discussion list receives and distributes promotional emails from retailers such as Cancom UK.

Two days after I joined an email was sent to the list from a Cancom UK representative with the subject title: On the subject of Quark….

Hello all. 

If anyone would like to try Quark Xpress 8.0 for 60 days, free of charge, let me know. I can arrange for a 5 user, 60 day, fully functional trial version to be sent to you. 

Have a good day.

But if you go to the Quark 8 page at the Quark website you will see that in fact a 60 day test drive is available from there. So, there really is no need to go to Cancom UK to get a 60 day test drive.

On the same day, 19 February, an email is sent to Sussex Mac Users’ Group asking:

On the apple site i see iwork09 is £70 quid does anybody here sell it cheaper?

Six minutes later Cancom UK responds:

Only a little bit, £68.99. However if you want to order a copy, I can do it for £60.00 inc VAT. No shipping charge if you collect from one of our stores, £7.00 carriage cost if you want it delivered.

What is not mentioned is that you can buy it from Amazon UK for £59.80 at this time. You will not have to pay any delivery charge with Amazon’s Super Saver Delivery option.

On 25 February an email is sent to the discussion list with the subject title: “expanding hard drive”:

Hi – the hard drive on my iMac (PowerPc G5) now has only 4 GB free space. I would like to add a larger internal drive. Is this fairly straightforward or should I just take it into a shop and have them do it?

Also, do people have any recommendations for particular internal drives?

All the following emails I quote take place in the thread “expanding hard drive” on 25 February.            

Within thirty three minutes of the “expanding hard drive” enquiry an email arrives from Cancom UK:

If you’re anywhere near Brighton, go and see (or call) [name removed] in our Brighton store, he’ll be able to give you a quote on a larger internal drive, including fitting and if you wish, transferring all your data.               

His number is [number removed].

By now I’ve had enough of this, so I send an email myself:

Hi

I’m afraid I find a posting like this a bit disappointing.

There are a number of places that [name removed] could go to have her hard drive upgraded.

She asked if she would need to take it to a shop, not if there is a shop.

My response to [name removed] is that, yes, she will need to take it to a shop but it would be a good idea for her to shop around.

I have found it to be very beneficial price-wise to get things done in London.

The replacement of the hard drive is not difficult.

I recommend that [name removed] backs up all her data onto an external hard drive before she does anything. If [name removed] uses a utility like SuperDuper! she will be able to make a first class clone of her hard drive.

This is followed by a contribution from another list subscriber addressing the Cancom UK representative:

Apologies for going OT.

No offence meant [name removed], but you do seem to mostly reply when there’s an opportunity for a sale. I’d have thought as an Apple-related professional you’d also have some more insightful stuff to share.

Like I said, no offence. Not looking to start a flame war, just an observation.

The Cancom UK representative responds to my email:

My apologies. You’re right there are numerous places she can go. I was just letting her know about one of those. 

No harm intended.

And the Cancom UK representative responds to the other subscriber’s email:

None taken. 

Hands up, I’ve been found out. 

I’m afraid I don’t always have time to read every email that comes in. As a sales person, I’m trained to look for sales opportunities. 

Being in charge of sales for 4 APR stores and our head office, I don’t always have time to read every mail that comes through from SMUG, there’s not enough time in the day. 

However, I will make more of an effort to join in and help out as best I can with some of the other subjects. 

I will continue to send any special offers we or Apple have, like the Quark offer I sent last week, which, if you remember was a ‘free of charge’ 60 day trial of Quark 8, not making me a penny. 

I will also continue to let you all know about the ‘free’ events Cancom hold from time to time with Apple and other vendors, Adobe for example.

He refers to the special offers he is going to continue to send, such as the Quark one. That’s the 60 days free of charge trial which you can get from Quark by simply going to their website. 

A different retailer, someone with a very large graphic “signature” in their email advertising services for Macs and PCs sends an email to the list:

At the risk of starting a debate on the commercial presences in the SMUG, I’d just like to say that [name removed] and Cancom have in the past offered some pretty decent discounts to members of the list, most recently the iWork suite.

I’m sure [name removed, this refers to the original enquirer concerning changing a hard drive in an iMac] realises there are other alternatives available (I emailed her a quote myself). There were no mention of exact prices in [name removed] post so personally I don’t feel a line has been crossed but I do understand the concerns raised.

My two pence

One retailer defends another. The retailer refers to the iWork suite “offer” but of course iWork is available at Amazon for less than that offer as I’ve pointed out. It is revealed that the person enquiring about whether it is simple or not to upgrade the hard-drive in her Mac got an email giving a quote for her to do this job off-list as well as the quote to do the job on-list.

To this email I respond:

Hi

Speaking for myself I don’t want to be offered “pretty decent discounts”.

I don’t know how others feel about this but I’d like just a good Mac user group without promotion from retailers thank you very much.

There then follows a series of emails which are in favour of being offered these “discounts”:

First:

Sorry, but have to say I appreciate the occasional discounts offered to the group.

My tupence!

Second:

I am happy to be offered discounts as part of the collective as with the recent Quark thing, or the iWork saga.

Individual “negotiations” are another matter and should be off list once it has been agreed that is the way forward for those individuals.

Third:

Personally, I don’t have a problem. [name removed, referring to Cancom reprsentative] can hardly be accused of ‘hard-hitting, Sun-type’ adverts. On behalf of my school, I’ve spent a lot of money with Cancom and they’ve served us well enough. If it helps keep money flowing, so much the better. Other options are always available…

Fourth:

I’ve always appreciated [name removed, referring to Cancom representative] comments, and never found it a hard sell. I guess it’s because I’ve always used Cancom and liked the contact with him.

Fifth:

Me too. We’re all grown up here and can chose to pass on [name removed, referring to Cancom UK representative]  tempting offers if we so wish. It’s also useful to have a Mac  retailer’s take on things in the group.

I now send the following email:

Hi

Well personally I’ve seen enough and I’m off.

I don’t like spam and I’m not subscribing to a list that carries it.

I’ll just have to do without the possibility of 60 days free trial of Quark 8.0.

Of course I could just email Quark myself to get that, it’s no problem. Oops – sorry I mentioned that :)

And shaving a couple of quid of iWork? I don’t think I’d have too much difficulty with that one either.

Bye bye.

Having unsubscribed I don’t have any knowledge about the discussion which followed however I felt that my expectations of the Sussex Mac Users’ Group were very different from those of the other participants.

I do feel that the description of the group at their website should be changed. That retailers use it for promotion should be explicit. It is not possible to view the messages in the list before subscribing because the archive can only be read by members.

Posted in Computer | 2 Comments

Romanian <-> English Dictionaries

Posted on 23 February 2009 by admin

Getting a Romanian <-> English dictionary is surprisingly difficult. At present there is only one available new, Dictionary English-Romanian Romanian-English by Mircea Manolache, from here on in I am going to call it the Manolache dictionary. Some months ago I bought the Manolache dictionary from Amazon but I’ve found that for me the dictionary has problems.

romanian-english_dictionaries_1
Bantaş dictionary on left, Manolache dictionary on right.

When I look up words in the Manolache dictionary the accents are different from those of my Teach Yourself Romanian book. All Romanian I see in print agrees with my Teach Yourself Romanian book and my Romanian Grammar book, but not the Manolache dictionary. Maybe there is a different system for accents historically and this was changed at some stage. Anyway the Manolache dictionary seems to put accute accents over ‘e’ and ‘i’ frequently. The one over the ‘i’ is particularly confusing because the Romanian I am learning does put an accent over the i, the circumflex but not at the same times as the accute accent in the Manolache dictionary.

romanian-english_dictionaries_2
Manolache dictionary

For me this disparity meant that I wanted to get another dictionary, but it really seems that the Manolache is the only Romanian <-> English dictionary currently available new.

At Amazon I noticed N.T.C.’s Romanian and English Dictionary by Andrei Bantaş. This is available only second-hand, and so must no longer be in print. From Amazon, of course, I could not tell if the accents were going to be as I wanted them, so it was a gamble. Things were not made easier by the review by Morven Fyfe-Stoica who wrote:

I feel sorry for those who have bought this dictionary, because they will always be at a loss. A dictionary has a certain purpose, and this one does not fulfil that purpose. It does not give the gender of nouns, and many words are translated inaccurately either way….

The dictionary was actually coming from a shop in the USA, so it took a week or so to get to me. When I opened it I was delighted to see the accents as I wanted them, no acutes over the ‘e’s or ‘i’s.

romanian-english_dictionaries_3
Bantaş dictionary

The next question in my mind concerned that of Morven Fyfe-Stoica’s review, that the Bantaş dictionary does not give the genders for the nouns. However I could see that the genders for the nouns are included, beside peşte for fish, is sm., abbreviation for substantive masculine, beside peşteră for cave is sf., abbreviation for substantive feminine and beside petic for patch is sn., abbreviation for substantive neuter.

romanian-english_dictionaries_41
Bantaş dictionary

I think that if you are looking for a Romanian <-> English dictionary the one to get is N.T.C.’s Romanian and English Dictionary by Andrei Bantaş. You can’t get it new but it is worth picking up second-hand.

Posted in Language, Romania | 6 Comments

New Website for Moulton Bicycle Company

Posted on 19 February 2009 by admin

The Moulton Bicycle Company has a new website and it looks lovely.

new_mbc_website_1

Moulton bicycles have been manufactured for 50 years by several companies but recently Alex Moulton Bicycles in Bradford on Avon and the “Moulton part” of Pashley in Stratford upon Avon came together to form this new company, the Moulton Bicycle Company. Now the full range of space frame Moultons appear on this single website.

new_mbc_website_2

I think the Price Icon idea is rather good. According to the website:

“Moulton bicycles range in price from £900 to £10,000 depending on the model and specification. The price icon gives a relative scale for the price of each model in the range.”

I guess the prices vary from country to country, maybe even dealer to dealer, but it is good to know at a glance that the TSR 9 is cheaper than the New Series Double Pylon.

I really like the Heritage page. This gives a historical overview and key dates in the development of the Moulton Bicycle. This heritage illustrates that the Moulton bicycle has been designed as a full alternative to the classic diamond framed bicycle. Because the Moulton bicycle has small wheels often people mistake it for being a compromised folding bicycle design or something like that.

So, all in all, I feel the new website is a great success!

Posted in Bicycle | 4 Comments

Clothing for Cycling Part 2 – Carradice Jacket

Posted on 13 February 2009 by admin

For some years I’d been using one of the high tech contemporary jackets with synthetic materials and for the first couple of years it faired pretty well but as it got older it started to leak quite badly in the seams.

I was very attracted to the idea of waxed cotton as the seams are just as well protected as the rest of the garment so in October 2007 I bought a Carradice Duxback rain jacket.

carradice_jacket.jpg

It gets used a lot, for the the jacket is by far the most used cycling clothing item because I use it while commuting. Only in the summer do I go without it. It seems to be wearing well. It is not yet old enough for me to assess durability of its weatherproofing but indications are good.

There are pros and cons and things to be aware of with this jacket.

The hood is great in that it allows you to look over your shoulder while you are wearing it. It seems to be cut in a particular way to facilitate this. A problem with the hood is that if it is not worn on the head and hanging down while it is raining then the hood rubs against the back of the jacket and will create a damp patch. In light rain I find this is a nuisance because there is a tendency for me to put the hood on for a while, then take it off. The hood can be unzipped completely.

When I bought this jacket I got the largest one they make. My waistline varies a fair bit over the year and when it is larger then the jacket starts to become quite close fitting. This jacket is not very big and I think that the smaller sizes must be really quite small.

The jacket only has one pocket on the back. This is a normally shaped pocket on the right side of the back, it’s not one of those wide ones going across the whole of the back. For me this is okay but some people might like more pockets.

There is no lining, just a bit up at the top near the collar and in the hood. I like this because in mild weather I can wear a light shirt and the jacket, it is an ideal combination. If I want another layer when it is colder I can put one on.

Overall I feel good about the Carradice jacket.

Posted in Bicycle | 2 Comments

Recycling Telephone Directories

Posted on 12 February 2009 by admin

Owing to an improvement in the recycling facilities in Hove we can now recycle telephone directories. I never knew why it was that we couldn’t but at least now we can.

I wonder why we get them in the first place. I haven’t used one in years. It just looks to me like an incredible waste of paper to keep distributing them to everyone willy nilly.

recycling_directories

Reinforcing my point rather, I got two identical yellow pages recently. I put them straight into the recycling box as you can see in the pic.

Isn’t it crazy?

Posted in Madness | Leave a comment