Nick Jordan

I’ve been playing with the preview of Google Wave for a few days now and overall I’m quite impressed. It’s still a little rough around the edges but I think that by the time it’s launched in 2010 it’ll be much better. And as developers start to build extensions it’ll become even more useful. I’m already pretty happy to use it for collaborating with friends on small projects and as a replacement for email and IM as Google intend. The only downsides are that it clearly uses a lot of Javascript and users with older machines may not be entirely happy with its speed and that it’s a bit more complicated than regular email and instant messaging.

Incidentally, I have a number of invites to give away, so if I know you and you’d like one, drop me a line.

I have a Nokia 5800 mobile phone, which I really love. It’s easily the best mobile I’ve ever had. I’ve recently been playing with the podcast client, which is pretty good, and also the Last.fm client, Mobbler, which is great. But until Spotify release their client for my phone, something I’ve been awaiting eagerly, I wanted something that would allow me greater control over what I listen to. At this point, step forward MeCanto. Sign up, install the software on your computer and also the phone client and you’re away. Instantly, you can listen to all your music on the move, regardless of how large your collection is. The software uploads your collection (limited to a speed you can control) to the MeCanto servers, from where you can stream it to any computer with a browser or to your phone. And if it hasn’t been uploaded yet that’s OK as long as your computer at home is on, as it’ll grab whatever you want to listen to from there.

The service even preserves the file structure on your computer and allows you to connect multiple machines, so a whole family could share a collection with each other. I really am very impressed. It doesn’t quite do away with the need for an MP3 player, since the 3G/WiFi coverage required isn’t yet universal, but it comes very close indeed. Top marks.

Update: The Spotify client for Symbian phones is now available! Point your mobile’s browser at m.spotify.com to get it.

I’ve been showing this to friends for ages and thought it was about time I shared it with the rest of the world. Enjoy!

Last Sunday I went out for a pub lunch and made a great discovery – Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer. It has just the right level of gingeriness to make it a real treat, and a nice kick thanks to the alcohol. A perfect drink for both Summer and Winter, I reckon. Not too far in flavour from Blandford Fly, another very gingery drink, but this time a real ale. If you like one you’ll almost certainly like the other. And the good news is that you can get it in supermarkets, so no hunting around for it.

This morning I had my first psychotherapy appointment, with a very nice lady called Barbara. I arrived at Thorpe Coombe hospital just a handful of minutes early and plonked myself in a chair in the waiting room. I didn’t have to wait very long. We basically had a chat, I told her some stuff about myself and she asked the occasional very open-ended question. She explained that I have to go at the same time every week for the next year, with breaks at Christmas, Easter and in August, and that some of the sessions may be fairly traumatic. Hopefully those particular occasions will be relatively rare as I don’t want to have to take more time off work than is absolutely necessary. Anyway, I left feeling pretty positive about the whole experience, and looking forward to sorting myself out a bit. If anything happens that’s worth mentioning I shall, of course, record it here.

Last Friday Vally and I met up after work and went to the Natural History Museum for a mooch around and a glass of wine, after which we found a restaurant and had a bite to eat.

On Saturday I bought a webcam (well, it was about time, really), did a bit of shopping and spent some time at Vally’s house. The evening was spent relaxing and being generally lazy.

On Sunday my old friend Ellison, who I hadn’t seen for seven or eight years, came down with her partner Patrick, who I liked very much, and we went out for a meal. We had intended to go to the Turkish restaurant on the High Street but it turned out, much to my embarrassment, to be closed. Fortunately Vally knew a good South Indian restaurant so we went there instead. As it turned out, it was more than good; the food really was superb. It takes a lot for me to have a starter, main course and dessert, but I just couldn’t resist. Especially since they had pistachio kulfi, one of my all-time favourites. And as for the pancakes we had to start, all I can say is, “wow!”