Felt Q820 2009 Mountain Bike Review

Again I'm posting a review of a product that i've bought but where I struggled to find any 'real-people' reviews. If you're like me, you'll value the irrational views of others when deciding what to buy, so here goes.

Firstly, the bike is ace. I test rode a few other bikes (including a Genesis and a nice Pinnacle) before buying the Felt Q820, and the big things for me were weight and suspension. The Felt has Tora shocks, and is light enough for me to carry up three flights of stairs every time I need to take it out, so two big thumbs up there. Other good points are a general high standard of build quality, with lots of nice gears and brakes to play with, and big fat tires that look great.

If I was to pick up on any bad points, I'd say that it's not the most exciting looking bike; lots of black and grey, but I guess for some this will be a plus as it is less blatently steal-able - sadly an issue when you live in a city. Also, the bog-standard pedals suck but they're easy to updrage.

But to sum up, this bike makes me smile. I constantly want to take it out, and it seems to make the best of my no-doubt mal-coordinated instructions. I could post a million photos, but I'd recommend arranging a test ride and going from there.

Removing content control from your Vodafone USB dongle

I recently got a USB dongle from Vodafone, a super quick pro model, which I instantly fell in love with as it happily allowed me to check email, skype, play music through the office airport, and visit YouTube simultaneously. This love quickly turned to frustration when i went to visit Flickr, and a quickly familiar "Vodafone Content Control" window appeared. I was amazed, were Vodafone really telling me what I could look at? Maybe if was looking at dodgy sites i'd understand, but Flickr!!!!

Soon this censorship began to really bug me as any site outside of the mainstream was blocked, and so I searched for a solution. Vodafone forums weren't much help, and for all of the other users with the same problem, nobody seemed able to offer a solution.

So here goes - email webrelations@gb.vodafone.co.uk and they will do it for you. They simply need the long number from the SIM card, and the name of the person who owns the Vodafone account (will be you unless it's a work dongle like mine). And that's it. Mine is now allowing me the freedom i'd expect, and all is good.

Hope this helps.

Technology is cool - play with this video

Courtesy of Yellow Bird - they must have brains like medicine balls!

Hello!

If you are reading this, you are possibly trying to find out more about the nerd behind the Dino-robot wallpaper.

I'm Ross, bit of a goon, but happily so. I love the interwebs, what it can facilitate, and the people behind it. Away from my mouse, my illustration background still drives a major part of my brain, and so I enjoy creativity of any kind. Particularly Lego.

This blog is a platform for my interests, random thoughts, or perhaps the occasional big-up. Over the last couple of years some of the coolest people I've met have been as a result of some web-based goodness, so feel free to comment, challenge and engage.

Worth noting that in the day time I work with NixonMcInnes, a social media agency in Brighton, but this blog, my Twitter, and any of the opinions here are not representative of theirs.

Altec Lansing Orbit portable MP3/iPod speaker review

Haven't posted a proper review on this blog before, but having just returned from a week's holiday with a particularly awesome gadget, feel compelled to do so.
Just to be clear, this is a review for the older Altec Lansing Orbit portable speaker, not the iMT237 - the newer, chunkier model has recently been featured on the Gadget Show and Something for the Weekend, gaining extremely positive reviews both times. I looked into that, but the higher cost, and Tonka-truck looks put me off, especially when I saw this older, sexier model:
I picked it up for £17 through an Amazon marketplace seller, and was thrilled to receive a product that felt as durable and simple as a travel/portable speaker should. I've owned and used other speakers, but this is the first to completely forgo overly clever (i.e. unnecessary) functionality for pure speaker-goodness. It's a speaker, that's it. It won't charge your phone, dock your iPod or walk your dog, it amplifies sound without the need for mains electric and does it bloody well.

Like all the best gadgets, it came complete with batteries (3 x AAA) so I could immediately plug it in and try it out, and it rocks. Hip hop, folk, episodes of Family Guy, they all sound awesome - like no other similar portable speaker I've tried. It can go loud if you want it to, but the quality is such that you don't need to whack up the volume just to hear all parts of the sound - for the past seven days I've been running this in a large outdoor space and never had it above 75% volume on the iPhone.

Apart from the sound, the simplicity of the design and reassuring weight of the speaker means that you won't worry about it being a permanent fixture in your laptop bag, meaning it could double up a presentation aid as much as a music/film speaker. Super.

The only niggle is the on/off switch; basically the whole face turns about 5mm, which should be a nice extension of the simple build, but actually feels a bit gritty and tough to do without using two hands and some brute force.

So, there we go, hopefully someone will read this and find it useful.

ps. I am not in any way connected with Altec, this gushing review is all of my own doing - if however one of you clever Altec peeps reads this, let me know what you think.

Weird twitter inspired illustration

Really needed to create something, but had no real direction.

Me in Edge magazine

Me, looking bored, in a recent ad for Amiqus.