So.

I'm writing this on a Nokia N95 with an iGo Stowaway Bluetooth keyboard. It's useful, but it's not exactly the most svelte of devices in the world and, to tell the brutal truth, it makes its user look several different kinds of idiot, sitting here with it perched on his knee.

There again, though, it does allow you the freedom to use your N95 as a communications device just about anywhere: in a (parked) car, in a cafe... anywhere that you may feel the need to construct something more than a short text message or email without the benefit of having a full-sized laptop around you. Plus, of course, it gives you the GPRS access, which is always handy.

In the end, though, the twat factor does weigh heavily on you when you're using it, and you find yourself trying to hide it under the table, at which point you become some saddo staring at his phone's screen and, apparently, fiddling with himself surreptitiously.

There's also the minor issue of my working out the best way of getting things off the phone and into a blog entry. Typing this in the Gmail client is okay, but the number of characters you can use is decidedly limited, which pretty much sucks any joy out of doing it at all.

Of course, how often I'll be typing n-thousand word emails on a phone is probably a pretty small number.

Want (via BoingBoing) 

I thought that I should share this with you after returning from London on the off-chance that someone might want it explaining to them, as I did before a little judicious googling set me straight. "What is a "Frog Tour" and why are there spaces set aside for them behind County Hall in London?" I hear you ask. Well, according to Google Frog Tours are the old name for "Duck Tours," a London tour operator with the fairly unique selling point of offering tours in an amphibious vehicle, namely a converted World War II DUKW. So now you know. In other news I find it highly amusing (pun intended) that there was a Pope (later Saint) Hilarius (461 - 468) and, if you like to play on pronunciations, one or more Pope Bonifaces. Perhaps I can work Pope Hilari[o]us into a story somewhere... On that note I've managed to write some more of Muse this afternoon, the first work I've actually done on it in the last couple of weeks. I was feeling that the story was getting away from me somewhat, and as a result the stuff that I banged out in about half an hour this afternoon was darker than the earlier work, which had a light and fluffy texture. Hopefully I'll be able to get the two tones to gel together at some point but in writing this afternoon's pages I've taken quite a leap from point to point in the story. Some tidying up will be required later on, I feel. Not much else to report at the moment really. I'm back at work tomorrow, which is of course a royal pain, but at least it means that I have something to do to while away the days to payday, which can't come soon enough this month. London is a money sink; it has a special way of siphoning off your funds as you traipse around it so that your return home is replete with the sound of wallets flapping like floundering fish as they gasp for relief from the spending. Perhaps that means that I'll have to hold off on buying some new toys for a couple of months. Yes, that seems quite likely.

David Heinemeier Hansson over at Loud Thinking says the following about the Nokia 6630 Smartphone, which I'm intending to buy:

I'd still like to declare the Nokia 6630 as: Best. Phone. Ever. It's that good. No really. It's that good!

You can read the full review here.

I am now the proud owner of a Palm (or rather PalmOne) m515 handheld, thanks to a generous benefactor.

It was a gift from Katie, a workmate of Sarah's who is going to be departing old Blighty for shores Australian at the end of April with the intention of staying there for a year or so and interspersing bursts of travel with the necessary evil of working as a locum Vet. As a result she needs to get rid of a few things.

Katie shares my approach to filing and organisation, so at the moment the handheld is short a charger and data transfer cable / cradle, but that's easily remedied by either a further hunt through her computer gubbins (of which there is a large pile) or a swift trip to eBay or the Amazon Marketplace. Alas, unless Katie finds one soon I won't be able to use it on my trip to London next week, but no matter; it'll wait.

Next on the list of things to buy then: A data transfer cable for work (since I don't want to lug the dock about with me), some screen protectors (because otherwise I will scratch it, guaranteed), a case for it to go in (see last reason) and finally a fold-away keyboard to go with it. Oh, and an MP3 player. Nothing to do with the handheld, true, but it would be useful to actually have somewhere to put all those CDs that I borrowed from Katie last night...