Phil Bradley's weblog

Adobe encourage software piracy

Yes, it's not quite the title that you'd expect is it? However, read on, and let me know what you think. I take photographs, and I like playing around with them, and Adobe Photoshop is about the best product that's on the market. It's also hideously, insanely expensive. Even on Amazon it's over £600. You can buy computers for less and still have change to buy a good printer. However, they do various offers - if you're a student or teacher you can get it for a much more acceptable price, and there's also an upgrade version if you have an older version.

So, this was my cunning plan. A couple of years ago I bought a copy of PhotoShop CS3 - one version down from the current version at the time. I went to Amazon and got it through one of their resellers. It cos £354. Still not cheap, but just about managable. I thought that, give it a couple of years when a new version comes out, I'll have the pennies to afford to upgrade.

That day arrived a couple of weeks ago, and I paid £200 for the upgrade, which was duely sent to me. Typed in the upgrade serial number, and it came back and said that I didn't have a version of PhotoShop on my system, despite the fact that I'd been using it for two years AND it had been happily going to the Adobe site and updating software patches and the like. Puzzled, I went onto their chat help system. The chap that I talked to said that the serial number wasn't acceptable. He didn't come right out and say it, but clearly he thought that I'd hacked it. I needed to provide them with proof of purchase, and they could then issue me with another number.

Finding a 'proof of purchase' from 2 years ago is not always easy - especially when they don't define what proof of purchase actually is. However, I managed to find the invoice note, with order ID, the whole thing. Ran off a copy and sent it to Adobe. They came back and told me that as I had bought the product from an Amazon reseller they wouldn't help. They only provided support if I'd bought it directly from Amazon. Then they closed the case.

So I emailed the reseller direct. No response. They're still a reseller, but no email from them. Amazon are not interested because I bought the product over 2 years ago. Now, admittedly the version CS3 worked fine. Updated fine. But - if I can't upgrade it, there's a problem with it isn't there? I'm not going to go so far as to state that the Amazon reseller WAS selling a hacked version, but when I ran the serial number through a search engine there was one result - in Russian, with the words Photoshop and cracked in English. Draw your own conclusions.

Now, I want to be honest - I don't approve of piracy. But, like most people, if I can get something a bit cheaper, I'm happy to do so. So I've got software which may well be illegal, an upgrade that is of no use to me and I've got to send back. Adobe has just lost out on £200 which they'll refund to me, and I can't use a product. I also don't trust Amazon as much as I did, and certainly not the reseller. How does this situation help anyone? I lose, Amazon lose, and Adobe certainly lose! I get that Adobe want to protect their product, but how was I doing anything wrong?

Now, we all know that it's pretty damn easy to crack Photoshop. A search for Photoshop CSx serial numbers results in links to keygen sites and serial numbers. Since the software is not only an upgrade, but also a full version, it would be easy for me to get an illegal copy running on my system. So, other than morals and ethics, why shouldn't I? In fact - it's quite clear that Adobe think I *have* got an illegal copy, and they don't care. So if they don't care, why should I? I saw a statistic recently that said that 60% of the copies of Photoshop that are being used are illegal. Given Adobe's attitude - I'm not surprised!

PostPost: Twitter search engine

The bar has just been raised again on Twitter search. PostPost is a search engine that searches through your tweets and 200 of your followers. It's currently searching through a collection of 250,000+ tweets of mine and followers. I can't unfortunately see a list of which followers or how they were chosen though, which is a nuisance, and I can't tell it which to index, so that's a bit of a pain. However, to balance that out, there's a bunch of good stuff.

Here's their video to get you started.

Our second screencast! from PostPost on Vimeo.

I can run a search on any term or terms as you'd expect. I can then limit that search to specific individuals, which is really helpful in tracking down a particular post. I can also get a display of tweets with links in them, or with photographs. I can then limit that to specific individuals. I can't actually go to the next step though, of limiting search to a specific person's tweets with photographs in them AND a keyword, so that's a slight frustration. However, that's a fairly minor point.

PostPost also saves your searches, and provides access to existing searches, and also allows one click access to mentions of you and key people you follow. They also do one click results for reviews and commentaries on films, apps and games, although you can't choose your own defaults for this, which is a slightly irritation again.

However, in total, it's a really nice engine, and I like the personal aspects, because that's what I'm most interested in - I follow people because I respect and value their opinions, and this provides me with a really easy way to retrieve them. I'm certainly adding this to my collection of engines.

Google drops define: function?

I really liked the Google define: function. Just type in define:dog and you'd get some useful information about it, quickly and easily. Simple for people to remember as well. However, as pointed out by @_joleen_ this morning it's not available. What you get instead is:

Who thought that was a good idea? Seriously? When is removing functionality a good thing? So now what you have to do is type in your term, get the results, and THEN click on More search tools, then click on Dictionary and get your result. How is that considered a better approach? Let's hope that Big G has just screwed up a little bit, and that define: will return. It'll probably just before, or after we get reports about pigs flying.

Tweet Topic Explorer

This is an interesting tool. Just load the Tweet Topic Explorer with your Twitter account name (no log in, no registration, no nothing) and it'll display something like this:

You can then click on a word and see the set of tweets that contains it. When you get fed up of looking for your own, you can try anyone elses' as well.

Waatp.com

Who are all these people?!. Regular readers will know that I am keen to find a really good people search engine. Every time I find a new one, I approach with enthusiasm, only to have my hopes dashed. So.. this is the latest. WAATP is short for 'Who are all these people?' From their site:

It aggregates data from open sources such as social networks, web search engines and even offline sources.

Waatp.com people search engine provides access to aggregated information about requested person from the number of sources so the user can get all public information instantly and at one place.

The data provided may include biography, photos, physical address, blog entries, news, related web links and other kind of information about requested person.

Sounds great doesn't it. Except it isn't. Tried my usual search for Phil Bradley and it came up with nothing. Not a single thing. I don't feel personally slighted because it didn't find me, because it's limited to the US, but I know for a fact that there are a whole bunch of namesakes out there. And this junk couldn't find one of them.

Next!

SearchTeam

Real-time collaborative search engine. OK, simple concept. Use their search engine, search for and find the stuff you want. Arrange URLs into folders. Get friends and colleagues to do the same thing and collaborate together. That's great - but to be honest, I can't see much advantage in this with reference to shared bookmarks, wiki and so on.

No Furniture So Charming

London Word Festival. For those readers who were puzzled by my tweets last night about #wordfest, this is a brief report on an evening that was so peculiar and bizarre I wonder if I actually dreamed it. The concept was very interesting:

A night devoted to the architecture of knowledge and the future of book-borrowing. Much more than just bricks and mortar, the public lending library has long been considered the cornerstone of an educated and literate population, but what lies ahead for the future?

Borrowing its title from Sidney Smith’s description of books, No Furniture So Charming gathers artists, writers, creatives, technologists and architects to present their vision for the library of the future. Be it a personal utopia, a visionary work of science fiction, a digital or practical re-imagining of user centred design or a call to action.

A crack panel of hardback, paperback and e-book judges will discuss and debate the merits of each idea as they pay homage to a revered space in times of change.

All well and good so far. The presentation was a little odd - 3 groups of 3 speakers discussing their visions of future libraries, and each group of three was then discussed by a panel of librarians and publishers. I was slightly concerned that none of the presenters came from a library background, but were games designers, artists and architects. However, fair enough - I'm keen to learn from other people and very interested to see what different professions think of libraries and their future.

I don't think it started terribly well, as the host started the evening by 'shhhhing' us. Each presenter had 5 minutes, brought to a close by the sound of a book being stamped. If the presenter continued, the audience were supposed to 'shhh' them. Honestly, I'm not making this up. Reinforcing stereotypes or what? However, I was good. I bit my tongue and just shut up. I'm good like that you see. I'm not going to go through each presentation because this will do none of us any good and I've only just got my blood pressure down. Some snippets however that have floated to the top of my brain, like... (no. I won't go there. Work out your own analogy). Mobile libraries should have wizards and cocktail bars. Libraries should be like monasteries. Libraries are about books. Librarians should be curators. Libraries are about books, and did I mention that libraries are about books?

The more this went on, the more annoyed I became. Where was the vision? Where was the future? What we got were people remembering what libraries were like in the past - one speaker even admitting that he hadn't had a library ticket prior to being asked to speak at this event so had to go and get one! I thought that the panel was very restrained, although this could be put down to be totally bemused by what was being presented to them. The audience was then asked for questions and comments. I mildly remonstrated. The last 3 presentations were slightly better, but all told, this was a sorry evening that completely failed to live up to its billing. The best part of the night was the chance to spend time with the delightful @sphericalfruit, @usernametaken10 and @ijclark.

Related articles

• The library of the future - a space beyond books | FutureBook (futurebook.net)

More thoughts on Kindle in the library

Now that the dust is beginning to settle on the announcement that Kindle is going to be working with Overdrive and libraries to allow access to titles, what is it actually going to mean for libraries? Since we're only in day 2, and we have no idea when this is going to take effect (Overdrive has simply said sometime in 2011), and it's not clear if or when (mostly likely when) it'll come to the UK, it's all just speculation at this stage. So the following is my uninformed speculation and thoughts.

There are lots of positives for the user. The announcement says:

"Customers will be able to check out a Kindle book from their local library and start reading on any Kindle device or free Kindle app for Android, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, PC, Mac, BlackBerry, or Windows Phone. If a Kindle book is checked out again or that book is purchased from Amazon, all of a customer’s annotations and bookmarks will be preserved."

This is going to be really excellent news for students who are working with titles, or people who like reading a particular author, and for bookclubs and reading groups. However, exactly how and where is this data going to be stored? Will it be linked to an individual, a specific device, an Amazon account, or via a library card? If the latter, does that mean that my other Amazon purchases are going to be linked to the library members details?

I presume that there will also be another format that libraries/librarians are going to have to deal with, as I can't image that Amazon is going to change their format - and they'd probably argue that it would break the notation aspect. This is going to be a slight pain, but equally, it's going to mean that librarians are not going to have to explain that although someone has a Kindle they can't borrow library titles to read on it. So that balances out a bit in my opinion.

Overdrive has said that "The Kindle Library Lending program will support publishers’ existing lending models." This is a shame, but isn't unexpected, so the HarperCollins 26 loans and you're out model will still work. However, it might be a final tipping point for certain other publishers to decide to allow libraries to loan their titles. However, it also looks as though it's not going to cost a library any more to have access to the Kindle format as Overdrive also said "Your library will not need to purchase any additional units to have Kindle compatibility." As The Librarian in Black has said 'The initial reports seem, frankly, too good to be true.'

If that is the case, how will Amazon make money on this deal? I suspect that they're hoping this will deal a knock out blow to other eReaders. Other readers can't do the annotate and keep function, and so it's going to be a huge reason for students to just go down the Kindle route. They might also be able to get readers to purchase titles more easily, as in 'you're 75% through but the book will expire tomorrow - do you want to buy a copy now at a slightly cheaper rate?' or 'This book is available to you at 10% cheaper as you've already borrowed it previously from your library' or 'Why wait for 4 months to borrow this, when you can buy it now?'

However, there may be greater pressure on library budgets to buy more books in an electronic format as Kindle users request them. In turn this is going to affect buying the physical item (unless Amazon is thinking along those lines as well), so libraries are going to have some even harder choices in front of them when it comes to the ever dwindled pot of money. However, since Kindle readers are obviously enthusiastic readers, this may well encourage more of them to use the library services than would have done otherwise.

I wonder how long it's going to be before we see libraries selling Amazon gift vouchers, or even Kindles? If and when the deal arrives in the UK, fairly swiftly I suspect. Who knows, Amazon may also offer special library discounts? All in all, I think this looks as though it's going to be good news for libraries, though dealing with two monopolies in Overdrive and Amazon isn't wonderful news, so sup with a long spoon!

Amazon launching library lending

Amazon News Release. OK, well this is going to be a game changer. Amazon is going to launc a feature to allow Kindle customers to borrow Kindle books from over 11,000 libraries in the US. (No word yet on UK/RotW). Customers will be able to check out books via their libraries Overdrive subscription. The really big selling point is that the notes, annotations and bookmarks will be preserved in the customers WhisperSync account. If they then check out the same book again, or choose to buy it, the notes will still be there.

It's not clear from the announcement exactly how this will work, and there's no word from Overdrive yet. Don't know anything about prices, loan periods, simultaneous or concurrent useage etc. However, if and when this comes to the UK, this could be tremendously important, stating the obvious. More choice, a much greater niche market for the Kindle itself, and a huge boost for libraries. Exciting.

News curation apps for the iPad

Flipboard, Pulse, Zite, Flud; all free apps that you can download onto your iPad to keep you up to date with your own news interests. They will generally get their data directly from your own resources - your Twitter or Facebook account, or they'll provide you with the option of choosing subject areas, and then you can indicate if you like a subject, which will then affect the information returned in the future. You'll also find that rather than simply give a list of URLs the app will collect the original story for you and return it, so that it can simply be read on the screen. Consequently, you're creating your own magazine, split into various sections, to be read at your leisure. Let's take a look at each of these in turn.

Flipboard. If you've heard of any of these, this is the one that you'll probably be aware of. It's made up of small subject cubes, so when you open the app it'll look something like this:

Very attractive and colourful. Tapping on a segment takes you into more detail, with stories displayed in a similar cube or magazine format:

What you don't get from the static image is that when you swipe across the screen, you do get a quite pleasing flip effect as the page 'turns'. Clicking on a story opens up the original tweet or status, displays the story on the screen, and links to the full story on the website. An upward swipe loads it directly for you to read. New sections can be added easily, and they're just a tap or two away:

Flipboard is generally very well regarded. It was the first of the news curation services that I used and I very impressed. However, as I've looked at other resources it's slipped down my personal list, but it's still something that I do check every evening. Since it does a good job and it's free, there is no doubt in my mind that it's worth having.

Pulse.news is another free app, and the blurb from the site says "It incorporates colorful panning story bars and fills them with content from your favorite sources. Pulse redefines news, giving you the opportunity to experience the news you desire from traditional sources, your favorite blogs and social networks – all in one beautiful interface." You can choose up to 5 pages of content, with 12 resources in each. This is one of the things that does annoy me about this one - a limit of 60 news feeds really is a limit, and not in a good way. It does look very neat however:

Clicking on a story opens it in the right hand side of the screen, and you can simply scroll across. It's very elegant and smooth. It's easy to edit resources and add more as these two shots show:

Clicking the '+' button leads into the screen to add more resources:

Pulse displays information very easily, links to full stories via the Safari browser and movement from story to story is graceful. I am slightly concerned that it does often take some time to update the newsfeeds and I sit tapping my fingers (which is unadvisable on a touchscreen, let me tell you!) waiting for the new stories to come through.

FLUD is a new resource that's only recently become available. It styles itself thus: "a modern, beautiful and personalized mobile news ecosystem with a vision to empower it's users to interact with each other to access, engage and broadcast content that is relevant to them. You probably visit hundreds of sites a week to look at content you love, but, until now it’s been a pain to do and far from classy." Well, perhaps. It looks like this:

Clicking on a story opens it in the right hand side of the screen, and you can view stories in web view (ala the page) or as straightforward text. You can also email it to other people, Facebook or tweet a story. It's easy enough to add new resources, based on RSS feeds:

You can also pull resources in from Google Reader as well, which is useful, but not uncommon, as most of the other resources also offer the same functionality. Absolutely nothing wrong with FLUD, but I think it suffers because it's the latest in an increasingly long line. It's very Pulse.news like in my opinion, and while the shifting panes of data works perfectly well, I don't find it a particularly neat or attractive way to set out data. Which brings me to my last, and preferred option.

Zite is a great app, with a very high 'wow' factor. It calls itself 'a personalised magazine that gets smarter as you use it.' I find it the most attractive of all the apps:

Your stories appear in the main body of the screen, and it always opens with the top stories culled from all your different sections, which appear on the right hand side of the screen. You can click on a link to open up the entire story to read:

Personalisation is easy, by telling the app if you like something, and it will also create on the fly subjects based on the content of the story that you're looking at. Tapping as appropriate teaches it, and I can confirm that you do get tailored results over time. It's also very easy to send the stories to colleagues, tweet, Facebook or add to your delicious account.

Adding new content is very easy:

Either choose from their readymade sections, or add your own in. You can also link a Twitter or Facebook account, though this doesn't seem to make much difference at all, so there's a question mark over that in my mind. However, I generally find the material that it returns to be useful and ontopic. There's often repetition, as it will return the same story from a variety of different resources, but that can also be useful in that it highlights what's really important, and from various viewpoints. It's my personal favourite - attractive, intuitive, easy to update, and it does learn what I'm interested in. If I could only have one app on my iPad in this category, it would be this one, without any doubt. However, since they're all free, I have all of them, and why not!

There are other, similar resources, but these tend to simply take your existing RSS feeds and display them for you. I've played around with two of them:

TheFeed is "a Google Reader client for your iPad that lets you decide how to consume all the juicy content of your feeds.The Feed’s flexible and uncluttered interface gives you a better overview of everything on the menu while a versatile filtering system and two different zoom levels make content more appetizing and digestible. And don’t worry about finishing everything on your plate: The Feed uses proportionately sized stacks to illustrate your read and unread items, rather than badges that cause unnecessary stress." It's certainly very attractive:

More so than the Google Reader resource, and I'm perfectly happy with it.

NewsRack is the final app that I'm looking at here. It's very similar to the look and feel of Google Reader:

and it's probably why I like it the least. They have a great opportunity to totally change the look and feel, yet, it's almost a clone. It does the job perfectly well though, and if that's what you're after, it's a reasonable choice. I have a free version, but when I looked on the site it seemed to imply you could only purchase it now. In which case - go with one of the others in my opinion.

In summary, a good news curation app will utilise the power of the iPad, provide a graceful method of reading stories, will link to and display the original information, and allow you to quickly and easily bookmark, email or otherwise share with friends and colleagues. They are however becoming a major headache from the sources of this data, since I don't actually ever have to visit those sites directly any more, so I'm not seeing the advertising that is supposed to help grease the wheels. There are already rumblings of discontent, and I fully expect these to increase in the coming months. However, the more the noise, the more valuable and useful they are. I'd happy buy these apps, with Zite being the one that I'd most easily part with money to continue to use.