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. :-)

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Thursday 30th October 2014

Well hello hello! Long time...long time!

Happy Diwali and a happy New Year to you all! According to our Indian calendar, we have just entered the year 2071! Just to reassure you my dear blog reader, the met line ain't running any faster than it was in 2014...

Being half term week I have managed to get a seat. Hurrah!

It's been a while since my last blog I know and I was getting people holding up banners outside my house asking what's going on, so here it is!

So what have I been up to you ask? Well, been catching up with the TV programmes. My regular ones are Apprentice (glueless...bloody clueless) as well as Gogglebox, '24hrs in custody' and of course x-factor and strictly. The latter on x30 normal speed (and that's just when they are singing and dancing!)

Advert of the week: We bet we can make you think of Chicken...told you. Err thanks for that Nando...unless it's veggie chicken, that's not really going to work for me...

App of the week: Presence. Ever wondered what to do with with your old igadgets now you have your shiny iPhone 6 and iPad 2 Air? Stop...don't throw the old ones in the bin, I have the perfect solution for you! What's that? Your concerned what you nanny or butler are doing when your not at home? Or just wondering whose broken into your house? Well this is the app that can help. It replaces expensive in door camera security systems by using your old igadgets instead. As long as they are connected to wifi and have a power source plugged in, the app will monitor for movement. What's super cool is that it will alert you via a notification or email if your old skool if something's moved. It will send you a little video so you

can check it out. It's brilliant, it's free and even tells you if someone has unplugged it. Min marks out of 10...9.7583

Joke of the week: I've just been given two weeks to live....Mrs Min's gone away to stay with her mum...

Ahem...right, time to swap over to the Uxbridge line so let's call it a day there!

Have a lovely evening and a great sleep

A small man called Min

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Saturday 20th September 2014

Well hello hello! How exciting is this! A blog on a Saturday. Decided to go to see the British Library today to see if I can see my book on the shelf, so thought I'd better do a blog as only the Pic line is working today, and it's only a mere 22 stops from Rayners so have a bit of time to kill.

Advert of the week:

Woah! Initially I thought this was another dating style website, which I guess it kind of is..without the dating! Its a bank with a difference I guess, as not only can you specify if you want your child to have blue eyes and likely to be a giant (6ft), but also what occupation they will do when they grow up!!! Wowza! Not sure many people will be ticking that accountant box...

So what else has been going on in the world? Oh yes. Scotland...I have been doing quite a bit of analytics on this topic over the last week and I had predicted that it was always going to be No. How did I do this you asked Min? Are you a magician? Can you see into the future? Please tell us... Well, it's quite simple. If you looked at the odds at the bookies, you could see that the bookies had started paying out on the 'no vote' from earlier this week! Money always concentrates the mind huh. 

I know that Cobra, the emergency govt committee had lots of contingencies in place just in case the Scots had actually got their wish. The plan was to take this on the chin, and let them call their new country something that would be a blend of both countries so they don't forget their history. The plan was for them to go for the first 3 letters of the country where Westminster was and the last 4 letters of their current country...

It was a bit sad to see Alex Salmond retiring from politics though. Just remember Alex, there's always a welcoming place for you south of the border....France.

It did make me chuckle that Scotland can leave the UK simply by checking a box that says "Yes." and I have to agree to 18 pages of terms and conditions to download iOS 8.

I was up late into the night checking those and downloaded it last night. It's not that different but I do like the new predictive keyboard and the fact you can add your voice to text messages. Woah, what next? The ability to actually call them?

Tip of the week:  Fed up with waiting ages for your iPhone to charge? Well, did you know that if you put it in Airplane mode whilst you do, it will charge loads quicker! Also means that Mrs Min can't contact me for a bit...

App of the week: Like your music tunes but also want to discover new songs for that genre? Do you spend lots of time on the tube with no signal or don't want to use your precious data allowance. Well Blinkbox is for you! It's really neat! Just select an artist or genre of music and it creates a personal radio station for you but the best thing is that you can ask it to download the songs to your phone for free! Hurrah! It's helped me with my street cred with the kids at work when I start humming 'Somebody to you' by the Vamps

It's a super app and I give the app 9.2353 out of 10. This blog was brought to you by my sponsors Tesco...

Latest news: Idi Amin still remains the last king of Scotland..

Right managed to get all the way to Green Park! Enjoy the weekend and have a lovely sleep!

A small man called Min.

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Wednesday 10th September 2014

Well hello hello! How are we folks?

It's been a while but I thought it was time for a blog special after yesterday's lovely Apple event, so I could share my views on what we saw.

Let's take them in order...

iPhone 6

Yes. Most of the leaks turned out to be true, so happy to see the slighter bigger screen, better res, the bigger battery so I won't need to recharge again in the morning till at least 9:14. But I guess the Apple Pay was the biggest talking point. Hurrah, I no longer need a real wallet as long as all my worldly demands include paying for stuff in McDonald's and Subway. Seriously I think this is going to be revolutionary for the way we pay for everything as all the major card companies are on board. As Apple has 500 million iTunes users already (so already has your card payment details), I reckon adoption will spread quickly. Also will make a bob or two for them with their commission to all the retailers and merchants! What else...nope that it.

iPhone 6 plus.  No people this isn't just for 'big boned' people but Apple's response to the phablet market and making sure folks don't defect to Samsung notes.  For a small man like me, it's massive and I'm thinking of selling my plasma and just watching TV on that! Little bit funny how Apple said a couple of years back how no one would want something you couldn't operate with one hand! It is super big, but I reckon could be quite good for emails and watching 'catch up TV on the player in the morning on the met line'.

It will be interesting to see if this takes sales from their iPad mini though.

Will be interesting to see the prices for buying the phone off contract. The bloke next to me said it could be £900. £900!!

For that sort of cash, I hope when you put it on airplay mode, it takes you on a holiday!!

Iwatch

My bad...apple watch. Apparently this was because they wanted to the watch to appeal to fashion folks like me, rather than just the traditional user base who had all the other i products. First impressions. Thank god they have finally announced it as I've been wearing a real apple on my wrist the last couple of months and it's starting to smell a bit!

I kinda hope it was round like the moto360, but I'm sure it will grow on me. The different straps and magnet click into place thing is neat and I don't think I've talked about crowns on a watch so much in my life! The haptic feedback system is neat so I won't have to take out my phone or even my watch when I enter a dodgy area. Hurrah!

 The big question is how long will the battery last? I'm already getting ready for the 'Sorry I'm late for work Sir, I forgot to charge my watch' excuse... I would rather it wasn't accurate to 50ms, but rather the battery worked longer than a day.

Everyone I've spoken to as said 'no way, why would you want that'...but that's what they said about the iPad...

Having brought all the iPhones so far since the first one in 2007, obviously I will be getting one in 'early 2015', but to be on the safe side to ensure I get to work on time, I will be transferring my regular watch to my right hand...

Let me know what your views were folks.

Standing outside Covent Garden apple store...only 9 days before I can collect my latest igadget...have a lovely sleep!

A small man called Min.

P.S. I was gonna take Mrs Min a special gift of a world wide holiday tour but have just spent the money on the igadgets instead. We can see everything on the watch right, just twiddle the crown...

Got anything new to report? - Min's MinIT Update. Wednesday 6th August 2014

Well hello hello! It's still rather hot huh, and ready for some regular summer weather now!

The tube looks nice and busy and we have a healthy selection of folks reading the paper, books, or just sleeping! Maybe their phones have no charge left...

Just looked at the adverts on this tube and they are all rather dull so gonna skip this bit today.

Adventure of the week: So last night, I went to this restaurant called Circus near Holborn station. It's a bit different to your regular place as between each course, some folks come onto the dinner table and do some entertainment. Everything from doing acrobatics to fire eating. The Asian food was lovely, especially the pudding which come in this deal or no deal style black box. I decided to deal...

Well done Circus, definitely worth a visit if your looking for something different (and someone else is paying. Indian innit)...

App of the week: ok gang, imagine this. You secretly want to find fame and fortune and you do rather fancy yourself as the next Adele / Robbie but just need to get a true understanding of if your good enough. Also, you can't be bothered to queue for the x-factor. What to do?? Well, consider downloading "Singer takes it all", an app which goes with the Ch5 new series hosted by Alan Carr. 

You basically can either record in karaoke  fashion a song,  or just have loads of fun pretending you are Simon Cowell with their fate in your hands. You get a 30sec clip, and you press a "Hit" or Miss" button after the first 5 seconds.  It's really addictive and gives you an insight into the great british public. A lot of the singers were rather big boned which I though was true dedication of not going out and just practising with just some KFC/Pizza for company. Min marks out of 10...9.452

Thought of the week: Was Luke always warm?

Right, time to check out some more singers, so let's leave it there! Have a lovely sleep!

A small man called Min