E-Monk's Live Blog

In a recent study, it was reported that a policy of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) has already been adopted in around 40% of the American corporation, and this trend will grow in the following years. The idea behind BYOD is that people work better with technology they already chose themselves and know how to use. BYOD should save the organization purchasing, training and some of the maintenance costs, while increasing productivity and worker satisfaction. However, it increases security concerns, introduces compatibility issues and requires a wider range of skills from the IT and HD departments. I did not realize this, but for the past 5 years, I've been using BYOD on an almost daily basis. It started with a PDA, went on to smartphones and now I find myself using my own 2 smartphones, my laptop and my GMail account for work. I was offered alternatives, but I am very particular about the technology I buy and I often refuse to use the equipment I am getting from work: usually I fin

I will begin by apologizing. In a blog post that I wrote some time ago, I claimed that the phones are getting to large to handle, literally. I claimed that a phone shouldn't be wider than 65mm, thicker than 10mm and heavier than 130g. I still hold that these are the perfect dimensions for a phone, so if I were a man of my word, I shouldn't have bought the HTC One X. Therefore I apologize for betraying you, but at the end, I did get a phone that's considerably wider, at 69mm. But seriously, there's a good reason for this choice. I could have bought the HTC One S, which is lighter, slimmer and smaller. However, when it came to specifications, it looked a little like yesterday's news. The CPU is a very modern dual-core, and the metal finish is said to be very luxurious, but the screen is pentile, no NFC and no 5GHz WiFi. I was actually willing to compromise on these, but it also has just 10GB of accessible storage space with no possibility to upgrade, and to a music

Back in 2009, Google and HTC introduced the Nexus One, the first Google-branded smartphone. The phone was described in a new term, "superphone", in order to emphasis the fact it had features that exceed any other smartphone on the market. When I heard the term "superphone" for the first time, it instantly reminded me of supercars. Supercars are usually described by their manufacturers in terms such as "high performance", "beautiful" and "exclusive". Those terms are usually true, but Jeremy Clarkson's description is just as accurate, saying most supercars are "big", "impractical", "unreliable" and "trying to kill you". Superphones are therefore surprisingly similar to supercars: they are usually beautifully designed, have high-quality screens and powerful features. But also, they're usually too big, suffer from unstable software, fragile and have battery life that will hardly suffice f

Well, not really. I am going to write reviews (or rather extended opinions), but they won't be detailed. Also, I am not connected to any gadgets producer or distributor, so those reviews will be written only on products that I actually own or use. I promise to write the reviews only after using the products for at least a week. Most of the reviews are being written by professional writers, who usually have a high level of understanding in the products they write about. However, despite their credentials, they simply cannot predict production flaws and design quirks that appear only after a longer period of usage. Another kind of review which I don't like are those who simply quote numbers, analyse components and perform synthetic benchmark tests. I'm sorry, but very often these benchmarks are irrelevant. Also, those super-technical reviews tend to exaggerate minor differences in performance, which have no influence in the everyday life. I rather have a product that wor

After a few years of using solely Sennehiser IEMs (In Ear Monitors, a fancy name for in-ear headphone or earbuds), I was convinced to buy the Shure SE215. These earphones are the lowest in Shure's range of IEMs that includes the SE315, SE425 and SE535. I always perceived Shure as a firm that makes very good high-end models, but neglects the middle range. Apparently, the SE215 is a break from this tradition, which they made in order to cash in the ever growing number of portable media players and smartphone. The SE215 received excellent reviews, like "the best under $100 you can buy" and another review "$100 earphones should not sound that good". My own opinion is not different: the build quality is great: the design is utilitarian and sturdy but pleasant, with detachable cables and memory-foam or silicone tips. The SE215 feel like a quality product and they make me believe that they won't start disintegrating like the Sennheiser IE6 did. They are also

It's a well known wisdom that things should be given a second look before determining an opinion about them. Some of the best albums have to be listened to twice to get the nuances in them. Some books have to be read twice in order to get the full extend of the ideas behind them. Some people may seem uninteresting or rude, but given a second chance they become entertaining and pleasant. The same goes for gadgets: at first I disliked in-ear headphones, but now I love them, and the same goes for laptops. Even my current smartphone: I was certain that I won't buy the HTC Desire because of his many flaws, but now I consider it the best device I've ever owned. But the problem is, that this second look may go the other way around too, and this is what's happening to me and my current work phone: the Samsung Galaxy Gio S5660. I had to take this phone, I did not choose it, but at first it seemed good: light, small, sturdy, not too thick. It has a low-res but decent screen, t

When it comes to smartphones, I'm happy to see that the standards are rising. They're getting easier to use, more functional, faster and with the exception of battery life, more usable. There is one problem though: screen sizes have really went out of hand. Literally. My first two touch screen phones, the HTC P3600 and the HTC Touch Cruise both had a 2.8 inch screens, which were too small. Then I bought the HTC Diamond 2 and received the HTC Magic, both with 3.2 inch screens, and things got better. Later I bought the HTC Desire with its 3.7 inch, and I thought I found the perfect form factor: wide, 3.5 to 4 inch (8.9 to 10.1cm) screen, 10 to 12mm thick and a weight of 130 to 140g. Everyone seemed to agree on this size: HTC, Samsung, Motorola and even Apple. But then things started to go wrong. The problem began when HTC released its HD2, back in October 2009. It was their last Windows Mobile phone, and was supposed to serve a niche market of businessmen with freakishly big h

What is infinity? We can understand it as a concept, at least if we don't dwell too deep into it. Infinity is widely used in math and it has a symbol for it, ∞. Math knows how to handle infinity and statistics uses infinity in many of its assumptions. In computer science the term infinity is both a blessing and a curse, but it's certainly in use, both in theory and in practice. The question is, does infinity exist in real life? It does exist in math, but math is not "real"; It exists in statistics, but you cannot find a group or a population the size of infinity to test on; You can program an infinite recursive functions or loops, but you will eventually stop the recursion when you run out of resources, and stop the loop when you get bored. The physical world is not infinite. There is a limited amount of energy and matter, which is always kept. Yes, matter can be converted to energy and vice versa, but the sum of them won't change. The universe did not always