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So my recent readings on my Kindle, and my plans for future readings on my Kindle have all currently been strangely in the topic of business-like/entrepreneurial books. Many of them autobiographical in the sense of the business being talked/written about. I find these fascinating, mainly for the inspiration and enthusiasm that they ignite in me. I figured I should probably compile a list at some point of the ones that I’ve read, and how great they are, and the ones that I’m yet to read and so on, just to keep a record of sorts. If you think of any obvious titles that might be missing, then let me know. I’m always eager to discover new reads.

• The Four Hour Work Week, Tim Ferriss – I discovered this through his profile in the New Yorker (which, by the way, is fascinating and can be found here). It’s great to read, as is his 2nd book, The Four Hour Body, and I’m totally looking forward to his new one, which will be the flagship of Amazon’s publishing venture.
• Losing My Virginity, Richard Branson – This was mentioned in the New Yorker profile on Ferriss, and is in my to read list, currently waiting on my Kindle for some attention.
• Let My People Go Surfing, Yvon Chouinard – Again, from the same New Yorker article, but I’ve pretty much finished this one. It’s a great read, exciting and insightful.
• Rework, Jason Fried – I’ve been recommending this book to friends after using some 37signals products and reading how great a company they are (and how great this book is), despite never reading it. Suffice to say it’s on my list and it’s a matter of time.
• The Lean Startup, Eric Ries – I read the intro to this in Inc. (which I would wholeheartedly suggest keeping up with), and then picked it up once again in the Harvard Coop book store, began reading it, and then wondered where I’d read it before. It’s a pretty great book, I’m about halfway, check it out.
• Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh – It’s all about Zappos, and the tales behind its founding and culture. Really fun stuff and particularly enjoyable.
• In The Plex, Steven Levy – Google. Enough said. I enjoyed his book on Hackers, and his pieces in Wired. This is on my to read.
• Pour Your Heart Into It and Onward, Howard Schultz – being a former Starbucks employee I should really have read these, I’ve read the first 1/3 or so of Pour… and I like it so far.
• The Rare Find, George Anders – It’s a pretty new book, I only really heard about it today, but as with others, it’s on the list.
• The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman – It’s really fun and appeals to my engineering mind. Not the newest book, but it’s still very relevant.
• The Big Short, Michael Lewis – He’s pretty much my favourite author (along with Gladwell), and this book is part of the reason (though not anywhere near as much as Moneyball or The Blind Side). His articles in Vanity Fair on the European Economic messes are spot on, and his new book will be on my Kindle soon.
• A Book Apart books, Various authors – These cover a range of topics, primarily web design and strategy, but they’re concise, useful and there’s always new ones appearing. Have a look.

Beyond this, which is only a limited selection so far (prepare for it to expand in the near future), then I read Inc. magazine, Wired and (if I have time) Harvard Business Review. There’s a lot of good ideas hidden in there.

I don’t know what it is really, but I’m feeling unnaturally Chrismassy and I know it’s far too early for it. Far far too early! It’s literally just turned November, but something is telling me that it’s Christmas soon or something is giving me that Xmas feeling.

I’ve tried narrowing it down to a few things, and so far my list is pretty short, but it has a few items:

• Dark afternoons – The clocks went back, making the mornings lighter (so I have to get up earlier for rowing) and the evenings darker, though the whole change is clearly putting off the inevitable. It WILL just get darker, this is the Northern hemisphere after all. Depressing? Yes it is, but festive it is also, in a fun way.
• Red cups – Utterly superficial and consumerist, but Starbucks do have red cups back again. Red cups (in the Starbucks sense) do only mean one thing, Xmas, and their Christmas blend, which is pretty exciting. Gingerbread lattes here I come.
• Plaid – Pretty American as far as Christmas things go, but plaid can be totally festive, especially red, with some green. Like Christmas tartan, but worse. Offensively festive. After being in Boston last week it turns out a lot of stores are disturbingly set up for the holiday season, with music, jumpers and that festive plaid all on show. It was a matter of time.
• Sufjan – (Stevens). This last one is probably just me, but for some reason, listening to Sufjan Stevens makes me all wintery and think festive thoughts. Especially the quieter more mellow albums, like Seven Swans, and now recently once I finally bought it, Michigan. Excellent, so hauntingly beautiful. I’ll need to find something else to listen to soon. I don’t want to overdo it.

There’s still a long way to go, but these little things are great to take comfort in.

Cupholder win indeed. It turns out that Grande Starbucks cups fit perfectly in my bike water bottle holder. Quelle surprise? Now I can enjoy my Grande Sumatra with sugar-free hazelnut on ice while pedalling…

In other news I’ve just returned from Boston, I have a whole host of awesome new food places to write about. Stay tuned.

Mackeeper, everyone’s favourite sketchy and trojan-esque piece of Mac software malware, has had a little branding update. And a little branding fail at the same time. As I’m sure I’ve pointed out before, their advertising is sketch to say the least, even at the level of rebranding what they do at every possible juncture, just so you get fooled again (ladies and gentlemen, take advice from The Who here please) into trying it. Furthermore, little dialog boxes popping up is not cool, see below.
I wish there were some sort of advertising standards agency online, it would remove this sort of crap and limit the exposure and proliferation of such useless entities like Mackeeper. Then again I think the best kind of advertising standard is the one that you set yourself. If you read/see/take in an ad and it causes you to question the company, maybe through some misspelled words, or some rogue CSS positioning, then act with your feet, and don’t go.

You’ve got to love ‘hight’ (sic) level security in a program, and faux-aqua buttons that aren’t quite horizontally aligned… Isn’t even aqua slightly dated now… p.s. Mackeeper isn’t even in the Mac app store, go figure. If you try searching for it, a fishy alternative is suggested…

And so after my previous article on food, I feel like I should write another on a similar topic. A different country however. I love Japanese food. So much so that I even get terrible Sushi here just for comfort. I don’t go out of my way to eat terrible such, it’s just that most places here aren’t exactly amazing (though I did find a reasonable one in London recently, Yoshino). What I actually miss loads is Ramen. Warm huge bowls of noodle based awesomeness. Before I went to Japan, I read this fantastic article in the Times about the Ramen culture and the people who endeavour to visit mad amounts of Ramen joints. It’s fantastic. So much so that when I was walking through Harajuku at lunchtime one day I decided just to go for it, and visit an interesting looking ramen place. Upon arriving, I was faced with this.

Ramen Ticket Machine

Pretty indecipherable huh? I did manage however, and ordered fairly spicy ramen with minced pork. It was excellent. I wish they did half decent noodles here. I like Wagamama, but it has got boring recently. Too boring.

Yakumo Saryo

Another restaurant that I had a chance the amazing opportunity to visit when I was in Tokyo was one called Yakumo Saryo. This is one hell of a cool place. Seemed like a secret dining place, judging by the company and the restaurant’s personal service, but the Kaiseki cuisine served there was unbelievable. There’s a fantastic writeup of the restaurant here. I had exactly the same dishes, and I was in awe the entire meal. Do check it out!

Maguro no kama no supearibu

The final place that I think is worth mentioning, was so good that I went twice. Kaikaya. It’s hidden up a street near Shibuya, and it does wonderful sashimi and grilled fish with european influences. Some of the amazing dishes there include a fish carpaccio (sengyo no carpaccio) and grilled tuna sparerib (maguro no kama no supearibu). Both are unbelievable, but I’d suggest ordering omakase (Y3500), and getting a selection of everything on offer. Really really worth going to. I will definitely be back there when I grace Tokyo again!

It seems weird that a year ago I was on the West Coast of Canada having a great time exploring, eating, photographing and just taking in the culture. I miss it. My summer this year has been the same pretty much as last year. I’ve stayed in Cambridge, worked with Pembroke’s fantastic International Programmes, though this year as a General Coördinator as opposed to last year as a Programme Assistant (PA), but then this year I will finish much later and not really have the chance to explore and get away as I did last year. It’s a shame slightly. While I did get away to France for a week at the start of the Summer, it’s not quite the same. I miss the opportunity to explore a new place on so many different levels. Especially the food. Maybe it’s because I’ve been in the UK for too long, but the food here is boring. Nothing is that good, nothing is especially special, and it feels like 80% of all restaurants here are Italian.

What I really relished from last year was each new meal. Not knowing where we’d be going, and the exploration and adventure that I would have to invest in each new dining experience to make sure that it was different, cheap and up to my fellow travellers’ (family…) standard (not that it was particularly hard to find something that they would like). I turned to Yelp for a lot of it. And it worked. I could discover these fantastic little (or large) places that I don’t imagine we would find if we stuck to the main roads or the beaten track. I think this is maybe what I miss most. I know Cambridge too well, and I know that however hard I look, I’m not going to get the same dining experience here as I did last Summer. Yes, there are some great places here, Alimentum for example, but in general Cambridge, and maybe the UK as a whole, is lacking some variety, some difference, something fresh and new. That’s what I want. To illustrate these little things, here are a few examples of the great places that I came across on my adventures.

Red Fish Blue Fish

Red Fish Blue Fish in Victoria was one of my ultimate favourites. It’s a supremely fresh fish joint housed in a shipping container and situated on the shore in Victoria. The food they serve is beyond excellent. Especially the tacones (I think I tried every kind) and the awesome slaw that comes with them. What makes it fantastic however, is that it’s like nothing else that I’ve been to. Where else would anyone have the idea to start a fresh fish and seafood place by the sea in a freakin’ shipping container. So ghetto, yet so awesome at the same time. Can’t someone start such a business in the UK?

The Naam

Secondly, The Naam. This place is a freakin’ institution in Vancouver. Open 24/7, and it’s been there for years and years. Vegetarian fare only, but it doesn’t stop it being scrumptious. I had a Golden Dragon Bowl (described on the menu as a delicious mix of cheese, Naam fries, miso gravy, steamed veggies, sprouts, carrots & deep fried tofu). Incredible. The best thing about it is that the people were were staying with in Vancouver had the saying: “A Naan drive-by” where you would drive by the place scoping out the queue (because there always is one…) before eventually deciding to go anyway regardless of its length. If there were such reasonably priced down to earth vegetarian restaurants like this in more places in the UK, then more people actually might become vegetarians. Meanwhile, at least in Edinburgh, you have Henderson’s, which just isn’t quite the same no matter how fancy they make it look.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, people don’t even know how to make sandwiches here. They have not a freakin’ clue at all. How can sandwiches ever be so thin, so measly, so wanting… North American sandwiches (I believe a far distant relation of their European cousin) have a lot going for them. From the outset they generally look better, they are larger, and the most important factor is that there is more filling than bread (purely in volume terms). This is a must. None of these small baguettes with a few slices of cheese, I want a bagel with a tennis ball size lump of Montreal smoked meat inside it (ahem). Even diners in the US can do better sandwiches than most so called ‘sandwich’ places here in the UK. Some places here are trying though, I’m a fan of Pret a Manger, they make great fresh sandwiches, especially their ‘Classic Super Club’, most likely the best sandwich from a big brand name this side of the Atlantic, but until there are a number of places serving the most amazing breakfast sandwich ever, I will not be happy.

These are just a few illustrated small points, and I understand my train of thought has changed from missing great eateries to bitching about the state of the UK sandwich, but I feel vaguely passionate about this, and I think it should change, even if I start up a café or a food joint myself.

Summer comes around. I neglect things that I enjoy doing. I have all this time, yet I take so freaking few photographs. Just over a month to go until I start my final (masters) year at Pembroke. Scary. Totally.

For the moment though, this is all I can muster…

Well my few posts on MacKeeper, its issues and its overall invasiveness have sparked some traffic, and as a result of this I received an interesting email from the Zeobit (the developers of MacKeeper) PR manager. Aside from PR at such a place being a difficult job (the amount of (perhaps rightfully) negative criticism that MacKeeper is getting is HIGH!), the letter is ever so terribly written. See for yourself…

Hi guys,

I’m Zeobit LLC PR Manager and would like to give you a clearer understanding of what MacKeeper is.

First of all I would like to assure you it’s a legit app – you can visit our official website – go to the mediaroom tab and take a look at the numerous reviews from the trustful resources.

Besides, MacKeeper is in the list of utilities to download on Apple site, while its shorten version 911 bundle is in the Mac App Store. Do you really think Apple would ever work with unlegal company?

As for the ads you’ve posted, we don’t have them any more as we are on the way of making our advertising campaighn maximum ethical. While it’s always been legal – both these ads contain the part of our trademark -the icon of the app, the name of the developing company. I would also like to add that the banners should be approved by the administration of the site before they will be posted to the site – and all the resoures follow the rules of legal advertising too so the banners are double-checked indeed.

And the last poin – you’ve told that all the MacKeeper does can be done with free apss like Onyx. Do you now what MacKeeper offers indeed? It’s a bundle of 16 tools, not only cleaning ones like Onyx. It also offers Antitheft, Antivirus, Undelete and more. As for the price, it’s extremely hard if not impossible to find he Undelete tool for example that would cost less than 50$ while the whole bundle of MacKeeper costs less.

Best regards,
Sana Paul, Zeobit LLC PR Manager.

So first off, I Googled this Sana Paul person, and it turns out that they’re employed primarily to write good things about MacKeeper on forums. Basically counteract its trojan horse-esque advertising strategy with nice messages. However MacKeeper’s rep still seems to get ripped apart anyway. I wonder why.

So anyway, getting to this letter, the first paragraph mentions all these numerous reviews from trustful resources. Whatever. Some of them may be trustful and legit, but take a peak at the awards section. 8 awards from 8 sites that you’ve never really quite heard of before. How many of these sites are impartial aswell? Could they be getting advertising cuts from MacKeeper? Perhaps. Also, one of the sites is called wareseeker. Its legitimacy is in the name (if you google it, the first result is a Norton safe search report of the site). That always means well.

Secondly the letter further mentions that the application is listed in the Apple utility directory. Well not any more. The search result shows that its still there, but the actual page redirects to, guess what, the App Store, and there’s no MacKeeper to be seen there. As for this 911 (MacKeeper light) app, it’s only in the app store because MacKeeper with its ‘special’ features was too risky to be put there. Look at the reviews for 911, 1 star is always a good start… Also, looking at the screenshots, the blatant promotion to get known on Facebook and Twitter on the main screen of the app is pretty low.

Thirdly, the advertising shouldn’t be wrong in the first place and should obviously be checked before being posted anywhere. Clearly not the case. And what about the invasive advertising, legal? Furthermore, why does MacKeeper include an Uninstaller and Undeleter app when no-one can actually uninstall MacKeeper itself. Seems a touch hypocritical.

So anyway, I’ll let you make up your own mind about MacKeeper, but just have a little search around first, maybe even see if people have been able to uninstall it if they wanted to. You might (or might not) be surprised!

p.s. Cleaning the ‘t’ button on your keyboard and using spellcheck is always a good start before writing letters.

Olympus 35LC

I got round to using the ever-so-old Olympus 35LC (1966?) from my grandad quite recently and have so far taken a roll of Ilford HP5+, developed it myself, and am currently in the process of making enlargements! They look unbelievably awesome and just so timeless at the moment! I’ll attempt to scan some of then and see how they turn out. Might even invest in a negative scanner (as there do seem to be some cheap ones on the ‘bay). Wooop! For now though I have a new roll of Kodak Tri-X 400 to use! Yay!

Following on from my previous post in which I highlighted the interesting and fairly invasive methods that MacKeeper uses to advertise, I figure I’d touch upon it some more. The main reason that I thought I should come back to this was the fact that the ads MacKeeper is using are changing. Before, and especially with the invasive style ads, the main focus of the advertising was that “this is a recommended download to clean and ‘fix’ your Mac”. Really preying on the MacDefender malware going around these days, and at the end of the day making end users all the more cautious.

New style MacKeeper image ad. Note, no mention of their app's name.

New style MacKeeper text ad. Again, no mention of their app's name.

But now they seem to have gone for a more “look at all this stuff that you get” approach with their advertising (see above), and most importantly, a lot of these new print and image ads that they’re running do not even mention their name. Maybe they believe that their product transcends brand names and that it seems superfluous to mention it, or perhaps they’ve cottoned on to the fact that they’re selling a huge scam and the less they mention their name in their ads, the more likely people are to click on them. Seems fishy. Bear in mind though that they still have the other ads running, especially the great one with the javascript popup, but they less frequently appear. Also, did I mention earlier that some of the ‘awards’ that they received are rather made up.

Now that as a company they’ve realised that people don’t like the sound of their app, maybe it’s for a good reason, and maybe you should stay away too. My advice: avoid, it has all the great makings of a scam, and exactly the same can be done for free – Onyx, TinkerTool etc.