Alex Kidman

You know that whole idea of a work/life balance? Right at the moment, mine’s so tilted it’s essentially a work/work balance with the life hanging onto an edge somewhere by the very tips of its fingers. In fact, I think I just heard it scream as it inevitably let go.

Inbetween running a household and running after three kids and supporting an overworked prac student (who happens to be the woman I love), I’m also writing. A lot.

From what could be called my regular assignments, there’s a MacTheMag blog entry:

MacTheBlog: A support issue: “It was at this point that I remembered the only other person I know of that readily identifies himself as a Genius. That would be Wile. E. Coyote, and I’m well aware of the success rate of his plans.”

At Geekspeak, musings on the use of a 1TB broadband plan:

Geekspeak: What can you do with 1TB of data? “What 1TB does buy you is a fair amount of security…”

At CNET.com.au, even more iPhone 4 cases have been tested:

30 best and worst iPhone 4 cases: “It’s raining iPhone cases around here, so we’ve added more to our original story, bumping up the case count from 25 to 30. More choice is good, right?”

And that’s not getting on to the other big writing task for the week as I take up a guest editor role at Gizmodo Australia. In just two days, I’ve written the following stories:

Breakfast Wrap: Best Of The Weekend
Vodafone/Three Pump Up Contract Data Caps
Telstra Unveils Ultimate Wireless USB
Get Your Kicks (On Your Wave) On Route 66
The Best Free WiFi Is Fast Free WiFi
Breakfast Wrap: Best Of Monday Night
Internode Fetches IPTV For Early Adopters
Even Apple’s Making The iPod Refresh Obvious Now
Confirmed: Xbox Live Price Increase Isn’t Coming Nov 1
Is This The Ugliest iPad Stand Ever?
Nice Power Brick. But Will It Fly?

And it’s still only Tuesday. The week is still young, even if I’m not.

No, it’s just my lungs trying to escape my body, same as usual for this week.

Being sick sucks. Especially when you no longer get sick leave, so you just have to keep working…

Speaking of working, here’s some reviews at CNET.com.au. Enjoy. I’m going back to the hacking and wheezing, if you’ll excuse me…

Samsung PL50: “We were struck by how this was, to put it gently, a big fat lie…”

Engin oneHub ST790: “Engin’s oneHub benefits from simplicity, but also suffers from it in comparison to other all-in-one router/VoIP solutions…”

Belkin N+ Wireless Storage Router: “Belkin’s approach to routers has, in the recent past, been less focused on things that look like routers, and more on objects that wouldn’t look all that out of place on the set of Star Trek — or at least on the set of a cheap fan-produced Star Trek homage, anyway…”

And I think we’ve all felt that way, haven’t we?

(The parties responsible for me listening to such enlightened stuff know who they are. Appropriate punishments will be handed out at the allotted time.)

An unusual week, this one, as I’ve been balancing my work flow against my wife’s residential schools and assignment duties and house cleaning and keeping the kids amused and dealing with a two year old with a broken arm and speech pathology and unruly chickens and… and… and..* It’s enough to leave anyone feeling more than a bit búinn, really.

It’s a miracle I’ve written anything at all. But write I have; witness this review live at CNET.com.au as proof.

Samsung HKT600: “You could argue that the HKT600′s design has “industrial chic” if you wished. Or you could look at it and suspect that it served some time as a classic Dr Who prop.”

* Sleep. Oh Sleep. Wherefore art thou, sleep?

How would you measure that handful of nothing? Presumably not by weight. Why is it a handful, anyway? I could deliver nothing by the truckload, in my special fleet of invisible trucks, for a low, low price!*

In the land of not-nothing, yesterday’s Windkintosh story has been slashdotted, and predictably, the Slashdotiverse thinks I suck, or something. Or maybe I don’t. It’s somewhat difficult to tell.

Meanwhile, a review snuck past me at CNET.com.au, and has been up for a few days:

Samsung CLP-310: “You don’t get blazingly fast laser speeds with the CLP-310, but it does live up to the hype of offering affordable colour laser in a small form factor.”

* Yes, the heat is getting to me…

What a daft lyric. I mean, it’s all very inspiring and all, and I’m sure given the Proclaimers’ generally energetic walking style that it’s highly aerobic to boot… but then the 1,000 mile trek just to fall over? She’s going to take one look at the sweaty, unconscious mess in front of her, and then go off with the smarmy looking guy in the leather jacket instead, guys…

All of this has no bearing on my writing work, however. That was what you were here for, right?

Well, in a predicably Apple-y way, there’s this at PC Authority:

First Look: The New Apple Macbook: “Is Apple good at design? Usabilty? Both or neither? Also, where has all the Firewire gone? Alex Kidman has been testing Apple’s new Macbook and gives his first impressions.”

And then this news piece, with nothing to do with Apple, at APCMag.com:

Samsung announces the 7.9mm TV: “Time to throw away that existing LCD or Plasma — it’s a chunky beast. Or at least, that seems to be what Samsung, Sony and Philips are thinking.”

In the middle of a cold Winter’s day this week.

This should, perhaps, have come as something of a surprise, if I wasn’t in fact running around writing stuff faster than should be technically possible, and thus not always paying as much attention to my immediate surroundings as I perhaps should be.

Thankfully, I’ve got a short holiday break coming up to recharge the very depleted batteries. But the busy nature of my week has led me to miss a few stories recently published.

First up, a duo of reviews for CNET.com.au:

Billion BiPAC 7300N Draft 802.11n ADSL2+/Broadband Router: “No matter what you do, you’re still going to end up with equipment that resembles a high-tech hedgehog.”

Samsung SBH700 Stereo Bluetooth Headset: “Samsung’s Bluetooth stereo headset has a sporty look, but fails to cross the finish line properly.”

Then, at APCMag.com:

Australian TiVo — now with less: “Ad skipping, home networking and download stores bite the dust, but is the cheap price enough?”

And then, at PC Authority:

Telstra climbs on the iPhone bandwagon: “Telstra will have units on July 11th — and they’re even talking pricing.”

Speaking of both Apple and PC Authority, I’m also in print for this month’s issue of PCA, covering the Apple pages with a rich, fruity mixture of opinion, reviews and news of all things Jobsian. As well as a stunning headshot of yours truly, just in case you didn’t know what I looked like. Or at least what I looked like in a cheap Hawaiian Shirt, back when I still had the goatee working. Hmm… should I re-grow the Goatee? Now, there’s a thought….

Many, many things to write about — from Robotic Grannies to infants with lung infections to the bizarre sight of the rain on the plain falling mainly… in Hay. We didn’t see any residents in Hay, possibly because they were hiding in terror from the strange water falling freely from the sky…

In the meantime (and as I have a grumpy infant pestering me as I type this), CNET.com.au has published another of my reviews:

Samsung U300: “The U300 may only be a GSM phone with some rather severe limitations – but it’s dead sexy. Is that enough?”

* Alex would like to point out that he, for one welcomes our new insect overlords. He’d like to remind them that as a trusted journalist, he can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their underground sugar caves…”

As evidenced by this review, live today at CNET.com.au

Samsung A711: “If you’re a secret agent, pressed for time and need to flee this Web page before something unspeakable happens to you, that’s pretty much the A711 in a nutshell. Hey, it could happen…”