Alex Kidman

“Morning noon and night it’s drink and dancing, some quick romancing, and then a shower..”

If only the life of a tech journo was quite that simple. Also, I’d look dreadful in fishnets. You know it, I know it — let’s not go there.

Instead, we could go over to Hydrapinion, where this week’s column looks at a certain Telstra mystery:

Why doesn’t Telstra have a portable WiFi router?: “The thought struck me that for all Telstra’s posturing about taking a technology lead, it’s an area where the big telco is sadly lacking.”

Or over to MacTheReviews, where I’ve been delving into the dungeons of Torchlight:

Torchlight: “Guess what happens when you establish a mining colony on top of a huge pile of magical crystals? If you guessed “nothing, everybody just mines the crystals and grows rich on the profits with no side-effects at all”, then you’re clearly not built for games design.”

And that’s not counting this week’s guest editor spot at Gizmodo, which has seen me write the following diverse mix of articles:

Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Tuesday Night
The Apple Geniuses With Time On Their Hands
A Brief Crowdsourced History Of Time Travel
Microsoft Gets Moving On Aussie Kinect Launch Date
Foxtel Shows Off Pay TV, Xbox 360 Style
AFL, NRL Get The 3D Go-Ahead
I Can’t Have A Bat-Utility Belt
New iPods? We’re Going To Need New Cases
Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Wednesday Night
Aussie Apple TV Owners Get Short Shrift
ABC’s Mobile Division Cracks New Records
Hitachi Gets A New Life(Studio) Down Under
Buy An Avatar Or Headset, Make A Wish Come True
3D Glasses – Perhaps I Need A Smaller Head
Microsoft’s Home Of The Future Is Suspiciously Clean And Shiny

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m tired…

“I’m tired, tired of playing the game,
ain’t it a crying shame,
I’m so tired!”

Is the subject of an opinion piece of mine today at PC Authority:

Windows Phone 7: Is everything old new again? “Opinion: Microsoft’s cranking up the hype machine for its “new” mobile OS, but leaving plenty of questions open.”

Some sleep would be nice right about now. But my time is heavily constrained; not only do I have work, but also the “fun” (if it can be called that) of a two year old with a broken wrist. Sleep… yeah, that’ll be the day.

Work, though, continues apace. Firstly, there’s my regular Mac Blog at PC Authority:

Mac Authority: Microsoft’s Ads are clever, but why are they bothering? “Alex Kidman thinks Microsoft’s latest anti-Apple ad campaign is clever, but isn’t quite sure what the point is…”

Those who follow my Twitter feed would also have seen my very quick take on today’s NBN announcement. I figured (correctly, as it turned out) that my regular news outlets would already have somebody on that beat for longer stories, so I just added to the NBN discussion online, for a change.

In the print world, I’m all over the May issue of Australian PC User Magazine. Start at page 28 — four pages of flash drive testing in all its glory. Jump forth to page 46 for a couple of pages on flash memory cards, continuing a memory theme, really. But I’m only just getting warmed up, with standalone reviews of the HTC Dream, Logitech Harmony 1100i, Altec Lansing Expressionist Classic Speakers and D-Link DSM-210. I’m still not done yet, though! On the games front, there’s what I suspect is the only review anyone’s ever done of the Rock Mee (there’s a reason for that, but I won’t spoil the mag by saying why), and the rather more frequently reviewed 50 Cent: Blood On The Sand and Street Fighter IV to boot.

In-between the incredibly frustrating adventures in finally trying to put in a front path (*subliminal message: Don’t use Amber Tiles*) this week, I’ve also flung forth a few frothy and ferociously fonted fabulous words of wisdom. As well as, it seems, developing a taste for the sixth letter of the alphabet. Sesame Street would be so proud. I wonder what the number of the day is?

Firstly, at CNET, there’s this router review (hey — it’s not alliteration day, is it?)

NetComm N3G005W 3G Wi-Fi Router: “Renters or those who want to mix and match broadband styles with a dab of 3G will do well with NetComm’s N3G005W router, as long as you don’t need lots of wired ports.”

Then, at PC Authority, a couple of Apple-centric articles. First, my regular blog-based musing, this time on, of all things for an Apple column, Windows 7:

Mac Authority: Is Windows 7 eating Apple’s lunch? “Alex Kidman gets down and dirty with the latest version of Windows 7, and surprisingly – doesn’t immediately hate it with all the vigour of a Mac disciple.”

Followed today by one of the world’s most over-reported Apple stories:

Apple undergoes Jobs cuts: “Charismatic CEO steps down for six months as health fears worsen.”

Well, more like a word jam, really. So much to write, so little time to write it in. I did rather like this Unclutterer post about doubling the amount of time you give to tasks to reduce stress, but to be honest, if I took twice as long to get things done, I’d go broke…

Meanwhile, the words continue to flow forth; today’s online contribution at PC Authority:

Internet Explorer gets emergency patch: “No reason to switch browsers, says Microsoft. But then they would say that.”

While I wasn’t sleeping (and for the record, the Monster Truck stuff happened on Saturday, before the whole not sleeping stuff started), I was also working. There’s this, at CNET.com.au:

Netgear WNHDEB111 HD/Gaming 5GHz Wireless-N Networking Kit: “They’re big and quite ugly, but there’s no doubting that Netgear’s WNHDEB111 delivers in the 802.11n speed stakes — finally!”

And this, at PC Authority:

Gates and Seinfeld: An Ad about nothing? “Will Microsoft’s Seinfeld-led marketing strategy actually work? Alex Kidman has his doubts.”

Somehow, I just get the feeling that Elton John is lying to me.

A news niblet, live at PC Authority for your enjoyment:

XP Pirates, Microsoft is watching you: “Have you ever sat back and thought to yourself “Self — why doesn’t Microsoft accuse me of being a thief more often?”"

At least, I think that’s what the expression on this cat means. I have no lack of cat photos at the moment, something I have to attribute to my father-in-law (but that’s another story in itself).

Speaking of another story, I have another news story live today, this time at APCMag.com:

Microsoft goes into Speed Launch mode: “No, we’re not talking about the launch of Windows 7, unfortunately. Speed Launch is a cool, free app launcher from Microsoft.”

And again, if you know the answer to that one, you’re as old as I am. I certainly feel old today.

Which is a clumsy segue into a story about another old man, this time at APCMag.com:

Read Bill Gates’ scathing email about “unusable” Windows: “The Ex-MS supremo found Windows “unusable”. But which version?”