Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Thursday 8th October 2015

Well hello hello! How are we all?

Yes, I know this is rather late and the man driving the 20:52 to Uxbridge said exactly the same thing to me. I've been do a work event to celebrate black history month and heard some inspiring speeches! 

This is me with my army buddy, Ashok.

The tube is 73% full which is rather impressive for this time of night I thought and yes it's mostly touristy types.

Right let's have a look around to see what characters we have at this 'mad' hour.

Hello lady. You must be out of town as everyone knows you shouldn't eat your macdonalds 3 course dinner on the tube. I'm really only jealous as I only had some yam canapés earlier...

The adverts are quite boring in the carriage today so let's skip on to the main event...

App of the week: Bla Bla Car. Picture the scene. You are heading to Leicester for the weekend to stock up on some masala chips and toilet rolls (they are sooo much cheaper up north) and you think to yourself....hmmm, I'm not using the full capacity of all my 5 seats, and I'm quite up for having some company along the way. What to do? Did you do that last it in an Indian accent? Err racist...

Well this is where this lovely app comes in! You can either be a driver and offer seats for sale, or you can look whose going up the M1. (Other motorway and destinations are available). 

To make sure the driver isn't a total nut head, everyone gives them a rating from 1 to 5, so you can make sure you can get your masala chips and rolls rather than ending up in someone's cellar for the rest of your days...

As I only had 1 canapé, I did think of taking Gaz (28 y/o) up on his kind offer to head north at 10pm tonight, but he's said no food and I'm starving as it is...

It will be interesting if this becomes the new uber for more long distance travelling. And the reason it's called Bla Bla Car is so the driver can signpost on his profile if they are a chatty gezzer (Bla Bla) or more of a 'don't talk to me yaar (Bla). I'm thinking of giving it a go so will keep you updated on a future blog. Min marks out of 10. 8.573. 

Congratulations of the week go to Tu Youyou on winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine and for being the most confusing person to sing Happy Birthday to...

Err right...best leave it there. Gonna try and steal a French fry from the tourist lady... Have a lovely Friday and a great sleep.

A small man called Min

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Thursday 24th September 2015

Well hello hello! Isn't this a lovely surprise. Yes, I know I normally do my blogs on a monthly basis these days but just felt like doing a blog special today.

So this evening, I left work to go to an external event all about visualisation in Shoreditch. It was billed as an exclusive event and I was given a special black card invite which I needed to show to get in. I thought to myself, woah, I wonder if Elon Musk or Kevin Spacey are coming as I'm sure they only go to things where you have to show a black card to get in...

Anywhoo, so I told Mrs Min that don't wait up, and make 3 less chapatis as I'll probably be fed and watered with the finest that Shoreditch chefs can offer. (Yes, I was hoping it wasn't going to be bloody mushroom risotto or pumpin butternut squash as it tends to be for us wierdo veggies)

I did the apple maps navigation and synced it with the watch so I could get the secret taps to show me the way to the gig. I analysed all the permutations and decided to take the 1min longer route along the main A10 route out of Liverpool Street rather than being mugged down some back alley, as my watch told me that sunset wasn't that far away...

Flashback: Just remembered many years ago we came to a wedding in London  and the groom had hired a coach from Leocester to get us there. This was before mobiles phones and google maps was invented. So we get to London to pick some more random relatives up from Harrow and my uncle who lives in Lanndan town tells the driver that he knows the way to the wedding (school) hall so sat next to the driver. 2 hours later we finally get there and everyone is huffing and puffing as to why it had taken so long and the bride and groom had already started to do that bit where they go round and round a bit connected together so they don't run away. ( Can you tell I'm a Brahmin and know my religious stuff...)

So everyone is shouting at my uncle to say why the hell did it take so long for what was supposed to be a 30 minute journey. To which he says those immortal words..."I only know the way the bus goes"... 

That was my Ronnie Corbett way of saying that I thought I'd stick to the main road. Ahem...

How was the event I hear you cry? Well it was in a warehouse and I thought, ok this looks cool, maybe I should have worn my purple trousers and grown a beard for tonight. I was already antisipating who were going to be the guest speakers, would Kevin be giving anything away about the plot to House of Cards Season 4...would Elon be rocking up in a Model X, that kind of thing. Perhaps they had discovered some amazeballs way of visualising data. 

The host asked to see my black invite only card, and at that stage I was rather worried as I hadn't actually registered and was given the card by a colleague. Would it be a case of 'so close but not quite'. She looked at the card, I did my sad cute face and she let me in. Whohoo!!

So how was this super cool event I hear you asked. Well 3 minutes later I was done. They had stuck some 'information is beautiful' style things on the wall and err that was it!!!  No Kevin, no speakers and a bloody 0.3mile walk to Liverpool. Oh well, at least they had a go at spreading the word on analytics...

Walking back and I did realise that London is rather beautiful though. Check out this pic of the Gerkin...

I've made it all the way to Finchley road now and got the wifi signal back so told Mrs Min to get the rotlis back on..

I've got an amazing app to tell you about but will save that for another day as I've gone on a bit today.

Hope you have a great sleep!

A small man called Min

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Tuesday 15th September 2015

Well hello hello! How are we all?

I thought it was about time that I do another blog as it's been ages since the last one, that and the fact that I've got a 3hr train journey to Newcastle for a gig!

Believe it or not, I've never been to Newcastle, so it's all rather exciting. I've done the research (YouTube) and have packed all the right things for the journey. I've packed T-shirts and shorts, downloaded the 'google translate' app so I can converse with the locals and finally and most importantly, I've packed my pet, as I heard Cheryl Cole mention this word every time she talks...

The host has just come round to ask what I wanted for Breakfast, and as its complementary, I thought it would be rude not too. Even though I just had fruit and fibre at home and masala tea an hour ago... Indian init...

I'll have a bit of toast whilst they prepare the vegetarian breakfast. Yep it includes those mushroom things, but I will just hide those in the tissue after...

Right, on with the show, and firstly I wanted to give a big shout out to the 200  new joiners who have added me on LinkedIn. I'm nearly on 10,000 connections and my mum is ever so proud of how many friends I have...

So, who watched the lovely Apple event last week. There was a lot of whooping and cheering going on wasn't there. Lots of updates, like the new iPad Pro, the new Apple TV and obviously the next incarnation of the iPhone. It will be interesting to see if the corporate market adopts the Ipad 'Big Mama', and perhaps cancels that order it had for the Microsoft Surface. It certainly looks good but it is a lot of dosh, and it's $100, so £100 for the apple pencil! Must have taken ages to come up with that name. I might just use my 2HB one as you can get 50 for a £1 on eBay...

The gadget I liked the most was actually the Apple TV. It is quite a step up from the old one. Now you can use Siri to talk to the TV and ask it lots of questions like, 'whose the actor in this movie', 'what did she say', 'what action movies are popular'. That kind of thing. The remote is quite whizzy, and has a touch pad thing and a giroscope so you can even play games on it like you did on the wii (remember those?). They have created an App Store for it, which is marvellous and it even has a lightning connector for charging, so you can use those £1 poundland batteries for something else now...

Though I already have the old version, and chromecast, I reckon I will get this one to amaze my 10,000 'friends', when they pop round...

App of the week: Numerous. Now this app is rather cool! It's basically a way that lets you monitor all the numbers that are important in your life. It connects to loads of apps. So for example, if the Tesla share price changes by a $1 it tells me, if my heart stops beating...it tells me, but the coolest thing I've done is connected my car to my Phillips Hue lights through the app (via IFFT). It's proper Internet of Things!! I've set up a rule to say that if the battery gets to 10% charge then flash the hue lights green so I know it's time to take it to Rayners Lane tube station for a feed. It's £1.50 parking on Sunday, so even cheaper than charging at home. It also means that I don't have to move the inflatable sofas in the cinema room/garage...happy days. Check out the app as I'm giving the app a Min Mark of 9.7452...

Right, veggie breakfast has arrived and my pet is rather hungry so let's leave it there!

Wishing you a lovely week and a great sleep.

A small man called Min

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Monday 27th July 2015

Well hello hello! Yes, I know it's been ages, but here I am and thought it was about time I  should do a little blog.

It's rather quiet on the Met line this evening, so guess summer holidays are in full tilt. Still didn't manage to get a seat, so will do the analytics as to where best to position myself. This usually is a combination of looking at the commuters faces and working out if they are regulars, have a posh newspaper and hence likely to go all the way to Chesham, have big luggage, more likely to get off at Kings Cross or Euston or their Indian and I'm guaranteed a seat at Wembley Park.

Perhaps that's the new app to develop where I show you the face and you tell me where on the met line they got off! What could possibly go wrong apart from perhaps their human rights. Maybe I'll start by just showing their shoes... If they have chumpuls (flip flops) on, then 97.6% chance of Wembley Park...

There is a nice mix of books and phones today.

The Indian chap with the book closest to me is reading one of those 'how to make friends and influence people' books. He's on page 111, and on the topic of 'how to make people like you instantly' bit.  I wonder if I should ask him if I can have his seat, rather than waiting till Wembley, then give him a big smile...

Hold on what's this...

Nice bit of multitasking going on their my friend. He's making notes as he's going along and just typed in 'Smile more' into his Samsung.  Nice... 

Advert of the week:

Everyone remembers their first time. Thanks first direct. I sure do, I was 38 years old...

App of the week: So, picture the scene. You are busy at work in the City, working on something super urgent so can't leave your desk like you normally do to have a wonder around the Argos store in Chancery Lane (substitute this with Holland and Barrett if you live past Eastcote). 

Back to the plot, so in this million miles an hour lifestyle we lead, time is money and everything has to come to us quicker and quicker. Step in Prime Now. It's like Amazon Prime...but now. So rather than waiting next day, Now means within an hour! Holey Moley!!

I decided to test this out and stared to puruse (browse) what was on offer. It's broken into different categories like gadgets, food and drink, everyday essentials. That kind of thing.

Being the cheap guy I am, I didn't want to order something too expensive like a gold plated apple watch so decided to go for something more reasonable as the costs had to come out of the royalties from my blog. I checked the current balance and decided to go for this:

Is that a bargain or what! Never going to order it from a restaurant again, just book it an hour before you next go to Bella Italia and save enough money to pay that tip!

The drink arrived in 40mins to the office and for that reason (can you tell I watched dragons den this morning), I'm going to give this app 9.25 marks out of 10. Can't wait for Prime Air!!

Joke of the week: Spent most of this weekend watching the chess world finals. Those slow motion moves took ages...

Right, off to order another bottle of water, so let's leave it there!  Wishing you a lovely sleep,

A small man called Min

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Tuesday 19th May 2015

Well hello hello! How are we all! Sorry it's been a while since my last blogfession, but I've been busy with evaluating the apple watch! More about that later!

So had a bit of a late one at work today and currently waiting for the Uxbridge train to arrive at platform 2 at Farringdon station.

How did my meeting go? Glad you asked! Well actually, I'm not too sure. I had a client who was in the hairdressing business, and for some reason, we just didn't gel...boom and we are off!  Missed me huh...

On the tube now and yep, got a seat. Let's have a look around...

We have one iPhone 5s, one Samsung big one and a bloke whose traded in his phone for some peanuts. Nice...

Advert of the week: "the results have been GREAT!!!  Being sceptical at first, it was a pleasure to see the results". What are we talking about...hair loss. It shows what Anthony's head looked like in month 1 and then in 7.  I always think, maybe it was the other way round, a bit like those slimming pics where they go from 20stone to 7.5 stones in 2 weeks...

A man has just got on with his fluids in a big cup. It really does look like his fluids...oh hold up, he's just taken a swig, maybe it's apple juice. Though at this late stage of the day, who knows what crazy folks get on the tube...

Main event: So for the last couple of weeks, I've been living with the Apple Watch, and you know what my dear blog reader, it's kinda grown on me! Though I was quite cynical about it at launch, a bit like my arranged marriage, I'm slowly starting to fall in love.

Mrs Min no longer is telling me off at the dinner table as I keep getting my iPhone out to see some random update on Facebook. Now I can do cheeky glances at it when it gives me a little tap on the wrist to tell me there is an update for me.

The battery is far better than initially thought and I usually have around 57% spare at night and have got used to charging it as part of the daily charge cycle which consists of 1) charge iPhone, 2) charge iPad 3) charge watch 4) charge  the portable emergency battery for the gadgets 5) charge the tesla

Most nights I'm done with this routine and in bed by 1:30am...only kidding, I meant 1:25am

Last week, I used an app that I hadn't used in about 2 years to test one of the new super cool functions of the watch. That app was 'apple maps'. Remember that one? The reason being that we had a work event at Roti Chai (yep it's an Indian restaurant though thinking about it I neither had any chapattis or tea...I digress..

So wanting to look super cool in front of my colleagues and show I was now a landan boy, rather than 'lived most of my life in leicester' boy, I said to the team, when they all looked at each other as we came out of Marble Arch tube station, that I would be the saviour and lead the group to the roti.

So, using the apple maps app, I had already set up to navigate me to the restaurant and this app talks to the watch. It gives you a little arrow on the watch to show you the direction, but the really cool thing was that it gives you little taps to tell you when to turn left (2 taps), and right (4 taps).

It was amazing and after the first taps, I could see it was taking me in the right direction, i just kept my hand in my pocket, like a kool kid and just told them that 'I had been practicing the knowledge in my spare time so knew all the back streets of London". I got pats on the back and everything, and they even insisted that they pay for the dinner as a thank you. Well thank you apple watch, paying back the £299 already....

Overall, its rather good,and I like the way it reminds me to stand every so often,  I'd say that as there aren't any killer apps and the applepay thing has yet to be launched over here, so perhaps wait for version 2. Overall min marks out of 10. 8.3624

Finally, Mrs Min left me the other day and ran off with our Ethiopian neighbour. She was regretting it 3 mins later though...

Ahem, let's call it a day there! Wishing you a lovely sleep,

A small man called Min

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Friday 10th April 2015

Well hello hello! How are we all on this bright summer's evening! How big are those smiles now we have a temperature of 19.78c!

Just got on the semi fast Met line to Watford and there are loads of seats to pick from. Looks like my fellow commuters used their weather apps to see it was going to be 19.78c and decided to 'work' from home today! There are lots of smiles and high fives on the tube so that's nice...

The man opposite me is reading a most exciting book about "basic problem solving strategies' He looks quite techie so might strike up a conversation and see if he wants to come our next geek night event...

Advert of the week: "Toothache? Book a same day dentist appointment online in less than 60 seconds.  Nice, I thought it was an advert for lemons initially as the website is zesty.uk.  Interesting that they don't have .co.uk. maybe the dentist pulled that bit out by mistake...

App of the week: Periscope. You may have heard that Twitter recently launched a new app which allows you to broadcast live to the nation with a video cast, and folks can chime in with their questions or general abuse whilst you decide to show the world how exciting a life you lead. It's rather fun and this week I've been getting notifications everytime the guardian has been showing off some gadget or other. This week they included a fancy coffee machine and the new Moto360 smartwatch. It's a great way of interacting, so much so, might give it a go now...

Right, that was rather successful, got 0 views. People must still be working at home... Have a look for my video on there. It's rather exciting.

Min marks out of 10. 8.654.  It's quite random but breaks up the day, or something to do when your doing a no. 2, though best not to broadcast while you are (or at least turn your microphone off)...

Joke of the day: That bloke who invented those blocks that go into urinals has died. May he rest in peace...

Right that's your lot as I'm going to chat to the complex problems book man now.

Have a lovely weekend and a great sleep!

A small man called Min.

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Friday 20th March 2015

Well hello hello! How are we all on this lovely Friday evening?

What an exciting morning with the old solar eclipse! I did my research the night before regarding how to watch the event safely etc, and decided to bring in a colander to work today. The bad news is that I've strained my eye...boom! and we are off!

The Met line is nice and quiet today so got a seat straight away. Hurrah! There isn't much activity today, with most folks reading about the 'Solar Smile' in the Evening Standard or fast asleep.

So what else is new that I need to report back on? Well, there is exciting news on the Tesla front. It's arriving on the 31st of this month. I've download a lovely app called Countdown, and it's telling me that there is a mere 917,707 secs before I can pick it up. The garage required to house the car is nearly complete and the charging point was installed last week.

Yesterday, Iron Man, sorry Elon Musk announced that the next versions of the software updates to the car will mean that you can use the mobile app to summon the car and it will automatically come out the garage and meet you where you are! How amazing is that! Hide and seek will never be the same again!

What else...

Some sad news. I've just finished the last episode of House Of Cards - Season 3. It is really super interesting and a shame Kevin Spacey dies at the end. (Oh sorry spoiler alert)...not really. Watch it friends, even if you have to just get the Netflix trial and watch all 3 seasons in a mammoth sitting.  In fact, it just so happens that the man next to me looks to be reading my blog in real time and has started to watch it right away!

Talking about free trials, another app which comes with 50 days free (can you tell I'm Indian), is MTV trax. Since YouTube no longer allows caching of their videos, I've been using this to keep up with the kids on what's current in the hip hop and R&B scene! Rajvi is quite impressed with me knowing the words to Drake's songs though she does tell me that I don't need to 'dad dance' to them at the same time. Ok...that was the commuters telling me that...

Today was a busy day in the lab, and we decided that I should make a life size model of my head using our lovely 3D printer. I had to stay very still like I was having my waxwork done at Madame Tussards, whilst we used an iPad connected laser scanner. It's going to take 7 hours to print, though I do confess, that mostly printing my big head rather than the hair...

I'll report back on how the printed version comes out!

There is a man opposite who has an interesting pair of socks on.

Which has now for some reason got me thinking that I should eat at an Indian restaurant tonight...

And finally...Mrs Min has just said that she's leaving me because she reckons I've become totally addicted to playing battleships. No idea where she got that from and why she didn't mention it B4...

Right, that's your lot!  Wishing you a great weekend and a lovely sleep!

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Tuesday 18th February 2015

Well hello hello! How are we all!

Thought it was time to do one of my old fashioned blogs today.

So I'm back in London again following my world tour last week which including Loughborough, Belfast and Brussels! Oh yes, rock and roll baby! People are loving the analytics stories.

Managed to get a seat on the met line to Uxbridge thanks to that bit of chalk I had marked the optimum place to stand when the doors open. Also helps being 5ft 2 as just go under the legs of the folks  trying to exit the train. I'm sure that has a posher name like egress or something....

So let's have a look around to see what's happening 

There is a lady with a super cool 'Winnie the pooh scarf on'. That's nice. They must be rather posh I'm sensing so probably will be going all the way to Northwood or Pinner..

We also have someone reading one of those old fashioned book things. It's the Great Gatsby. I was going to have a conversation with her to say I've seen the Bollywood version, so wanted to know if it's similar and whether they had songs in the book... Too late she got off at Euston station.

App of the week. So, imagine this, you've got that dreaded task of ringing a call centre as (your boiler is not working / need to renew your contract / ask the bank manager for some more cash)..you get this gist. You've not thought this through and the Mrs has been nagging you to get it sorted all weekend. So you dial the number and get the lovely messages 'your call is important to us (did you do that posh lady voice when you read that last bit), and we have really high volumes of calls at the moment but we do hope to be with you as soon as possible. Yeah, so that normally means that's you sorted for the next 30mins or so. I don't know about you, my dear blog reader, but I sometimes even forget that I'm in the queue, and then if you leave it for 0.0001368 of a second to say hello when they answer, they hang up! Great you think, and it was a freephone call that wasn't free as I used my mobile as I like to walk about from time to time. What to do? (Did you do that last bit in an Indian accent? Err racist...Well this is where this app comes in my friends. It's not got the catchiest app name in the world, WeQ4U, but it's simple super duper! You just type the number in the app you want to dial and once your done with the press 1 if your important, 2 if you've got a pingpong ball stuck up your nose etc bit done, and your actually in the queue, the app automatically knows that and cuts your call whilst it waits in line for your. A bit like when you get a student to if you can't be bothered to line up for the IPhone 12 or whatever model we are on now.

Then..once it's your turn, it connects you back up again. Bloody marvellous! You need to keep the app open, but what did you expect, it doesn't work by voodoo!

I've used it a number of times and with the savings I've made just this month, I've managed to afford an electric car!

Min marks out of 10. 9.8275. And yes Indians, it's free!

Update: the man sitting opposite must have had a rather long day, perhaps waiting for his call to be returned and his head is now close to his knees and he is snoring like a lion. Nice...

Ad of the week: Targets the real source of most headaches faster. Nice. Thanks for that Neurofen Express. I wonder if they are targeting your head by any chance?

Joke of the week. Mrs Min says she is leaving me because she said I need to grow up. I was speechless!  In hindsight, perhaps I shouldn't have tried to eat 23 gummy bears at once...

Right, that's you lot! Thanks for reading the blog and have a lovely sleep!

A small man called Min

The Future - 2nd February 2015

Well hello hello! How we are all? Yes, I know I haven't done a blog for months but here I am, sitting on the Met line and trying to keep warm.

What made me all of a sudden do a blog I here you ask? Well my dear blog reader, I have seen the future and wanted to share with you what it looks like.

So, a couple of weeks ago, a colleague at work came to see me and said he urgently needed 10 minutes of my time to discuss something very important.

What could it be I wondered? Had he come up with a new analytics algorithmic that was more powerful than Benford's Law, had he won the lottery (as unlikely to be the Spot the Ball competition, as no one has won that for about 10 years), or had he decided that it was time for pastures new.

Well it was none of those things, and it was in fact to share that he had test driven a car that was from the future.

As an avid car enthusiast (whenever I'm in WH Smiths), and also mindful that my current pet Jaguar is going back to the vets in April, I was all ears to hear more... 

The car was the Tesla Model S (nope I hadn't heard of it either), and he preceded to tell me why it was like no car he had even driven before!

Intrigued, he took me to the website and showed me why....

1. It's purely an electric car, but faster than most sports cars

2. It's got a range of 300 miles between fill ups

3. It's got loads of gadgets!! The centre piece of the  car is a 17" touch screen that controls everything from the map, media, camera, web surfing to car controls. 

4. It's got an iPhone app that lets you control lots of the settings including telling you when it's charged!

5. It's got no road tax, congestion charge, 5% company car tax and costs about £6 to fill up the 'tank'

The car is basically like the world's most advanced smartphone that you drive. Having said that, it has a feature called autopilot, which will do most of that for you if you don't fancy tapping the pedals!

Like a phone, you get updates to the functionality, so it never gets out of date. Brilliant!

It's a really big car too and you can fit 7 people (or 10 Indian people) if you opt for the optional 2 seats in the boot. You can use the front trunk or "frunk" to store your luggage instead. Happily, the seats go up quite high so us 5ft 2" folks can see where we are going rather than driving from memory and touch...

So I've spent the last few weeks reading and watching youtube videos all about this futuristic car, and last week finally had a test drive of it to see if it was as amazing as all the reviews of it say...

All I can say is...Roll on April when mines gets delivered. :-)