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Quick review of the Logitech ClearChat Stereo headset

My new Logitech ClearChat Stereo headset just arrived. Here’s a quick review of it:

Plus

  • Low price, less than 30 CHF/USD (= budget class headset, don’t expect too much)
  • Fits well and is very light-weight (unlike those heavy headsets for gamers etc.). Can thus be carried in hand luggage etc.
  • The cable is attached to one side of the overhead band only (which is more convenient and facilitates the overall handling)
  • Good cable length (2 m, just about the right length so you can use the headset both for laptops and desktop computers)
  • The adjustable overhead band is very handy (There are still many budget headsets with fixed overhead bands). It’s also comfortable when wearing glasses (in contrary to most neck band headsets).
  • The size of the (open) earbuds is comfortable and they don’t warm your ears too much (like those cushioned closed earphones)
  • Sound quality of the earphones is okayish (= sufficient) for Skype, Internet telephony
  • Sound quality of the mic is also sufficient for Skype etc. (but not for singing Karaoke and the like)
  • The in-line controls for the volume and mic mute are very handy (else you’d need to adjust these things in Windows/Mac OS X/Linux)
  • Uses simple plugs, not USB (lighter, cheaper design, compatible to almost any computer or audio device)

Minus

  • Sound-quality-wise, you get what you pay for. Don’t expect high fidelity sound. It’s clearly a headset for Internet telephony only.
  • Not recommended for gamers (too low-fi and the open earbuds don’t protect enough from environment noise)
  • Not recommended for listening to music (lacking “crispness” of the sound, lacking frequency linearity, lbass frequencies are rather dull, dito for the heights) or for watching a film (dito).
  • Microphone can be rotated vertically only (which is sufficient for most people, but some would probably like it to be horizontally adjustable, too)
  • Microphone is on the right, not on the left (which is not necessarily a disadvantage, but is somewhat unusual as most headsets have the mic mounted on the left)
  • It’s not a very solid headset. Better don’t smash it to a wall. And yes, it will definitely blend (though nobody has tried that yet ;)

All-in-all: Recommended for Internet telephony, not recommended for gamers, audiophiles and cineasts. Which is pretty obvious, considering the low price.

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Multiple Skype accounts on one computer

It’s a bit of a hack as with this solution, Skype’s memory usage will grow linearly with every additional instance of the Skype client you run (about 40 MB are required per instance), but at least it seems to work fine on Windows XP:

http://www.tradebit.com/channels/software/110543/multiple-skype-accounts-on-one-computer/

Note that the double quotes should be simple double quotes, not typographical ones. So for 2.) the link’s destination should be sth like

%windir%\system32\RUNAS.exe /profile "/user:skype2" /savecred "C:\Program Files\Skype\Phone\Skype.exe"

(Of course you need to adjust the paths and user to your environment and settings)

Alternatively, particularly if you use Windows Vista, you could try this free Skype launcher (I haven’t tested it):

http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=88055

Since this launcher doesn’t seem to use dedicated Windows user accounts on your box, you’ll have to disable Skype’s auto-login feature in order to use different Skype profiles.

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Twitter / mettlerd

I’ve finally joined the flock of birds: Twitter / mettlerd. Let’s see whether it will be just a waste of time or an unexpected blessing. In general, most reviews of other (much earlier) birds are cautiously positive..

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Aug 29, 2008: BlogCamp Switzerland 3.0 in Zurich

Note that this year’s Swiss BlogCamp, the BlogCamp Switzerland 3.0, will take place on the same date (August 29, 2008) as the Tag der Informatik (informatica08) and the tweakGrill, and at the same location (Technopark in Zurich), too! Of course, this is no coincidence :) No matter whether you’re a blogger or not (or plan to be, have been, are interested in the Swiss blogging scene, the web 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, whatever etc. ;): Be there, I’m sure it will be an interesting event, again! (And attending the “Tag der Informatik” is a point of honor anyway :)

(Bloggy Friday will start at 8 PM, guess where ;)

BlogCamp Switzerland 3.0

[UPDATE 20080802: I probably can’t be there due to military service :( At rather short notice as they managed to send the march order to an address that doesn’t exist. No comment.]

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August 29, 2008: tweakGrill @ informatica08

The innovative guys from tweakfest.ch will present what they call The first digital BBQ in Switzerland, aka the tweakGrill. It will take place on August 29, 2008, starting at 6 PM on the Turbinenplatz (that’s Zurich’s biggest place (*cough*) right in front of the Technopark building (which some call the “Swiss Silicon Valley” ;) in Zurich-West/entertainment).

According to the newsletter they’ll have several multimedia performances, serve sausages from USB-Grills (I wonder how that will scale ;) and open source beer brought to you by [project 21].

tweakfest group on Facebook

Flyer (PDF)

More information in German in this post on the tweakfest home page..

[UPDATE 20080802: I probably can’t be there due to military service :( At rather short notice as they managed to send the march order to an address that doesn’t exist. No comment.]

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TechCrunch Meetup Zurich

Well, there are quite a few blog posts with reviews of the recent TechCrunch Europe Tour Meetup in Zurich already. Instead of writing an extensive review about it, I’ll thus try to keep it short.

Personally, I highly enjoyed the TechCrunch Meetup in the Bluewin Tower in Zurich West and the gathering in the “Besame Mucho” lounge afterwards and met many interesting people. I wasn’t quite ready for releasing news about my company Printscreen GmbH (iG) yet, but it was nonetheless a great opportunity to network and chat with other entrepreneurs, organizer Mike Butcher, some of the co-organizers and media people. All in all I had the impression that a lot is going on again in the Swiss IT/web startup community (not limited to the roughly 40 startups officially presenting).

So, many thanks to the organizers (TechCrunchUK, Wuala, Doodle, NewsCred, Sandbox) and sponsors who made this all possible! Of course I hope there will be a second edition of the TechCrunch Meetup Zurich soon (it was so well organized and such a nice event, I’d like it to become a recurring, regular event in the Swiss IT and startup scene).

Links to some other posts about the meetup (incomplete and in no particular order):

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Citizen Space Zurich – home page up and more details

[UPDATE 20080720: See also the comment from Chris Messina (the co-founder of Citizen Agency, LLC (blog) and one of the two master minds behind the original Citizen Space in San Francisco)].

By now, the home page of the new coworking location “citizen space Zürich” (see my previous post) is up and gives some more details about the (currently) planned offers and pricing [1]:

An excerpt (in German):

[…] citizen space vermietet Arbeitsplätze an unabhängig arbeitende Menschen in den vier Meter hohen Räumen der ehemaligen Steinfelsfabrik in Zürich West. Tageweise, wochenweise oder unbefristet. Allein oder in Gruppen arbeiten? An fixen oder mobilen Tischen? In der Lounge? Alles ist möglich. citizen space ist von Montag bis Freitag von 9 bis 19 Uhr offen, ab 19 Uhr Barbetrieb oder Events, Infos auf www.citizen-space.ch
Tarife: Tagesticket für 30 Franken, Wochenticket für 170 Franken, flexible Monatsmiete für 450 Franken, fixe Monatsmiete mit Schlüssel für 680 Franken, Friendshipticket für 15 Franken pro Tag und Person.
Verpflegung: Kaffee, Getränke und Snacks im Haus. Take-outs, Restaurants und Bars in unmittelbarer Nähe. Zur Josefwiese oder zum Unteren Letten sind es drei Minuten zu Fuss. Öffentlicher Verkehr: Bahnhof Hardbrücke und Escher-Wyss-Platz befinden sich in drei Minuten Gehdistanz. […]

So basically, this boils down to:

  • Opening hours: Monday to Friday daily from 9 AM to 7 PM for work, after 7 PM, the bar opens or events are taking place
  • Offers and pricing:
    Day pass: 30 CHF (in about 30 USD, 19 EUR)
    Week pass: 170 CHF (167 USD, 105 EUR)
    Flexible monthly ticket: 450 CHF (441 USD, 279 EUR)
    Fix monthly ticket with an office key: 680 CHF (667 USD, 421 EUR)
    Friendship ticket: 15 CHF (15 USD, 9 EUR) per day and person
  • Coffee, drinks and snacks in-house (but there’s no hint whether these are included in the price of a pass)

At first sight, this looks quite pricey (more than double the price) compared to its namesake in San Francisco (citizenspace.us). Further, there doesn’t seem to be any “24h access”[2] option (not even for keyholders?) and whether coffee, drinks and snacks are included remains to be seen. Conceptually, there’s also a difference in that there are no free drop-ins (it costs 30 CHF for random drop-ins and 15 CHF for friends), but in addition to monthly tickets there are also weekly tickets. I wonder particularly what influence the “no free drop-ins” policy will have on the idea of mingling people (well, the mingling will probably be less spontaneous and less heterogeneous and coworkers likely more commercially oriented and less willing to contribute to the idea of coworking or do things for free. Which might well cost more in the end [3]).

BTW, office space in Zurich West isn’t as cheap as in less central and less trendy districts, but this also applies to many areas in SF. The thing that’s generally somewhat more expensive in Zurich is food and beverages.

Let’s see how this develops.. my guess is that these offers and prices aren’t carved in stone and will probably also depend on the feedback they get (i.e. on supply and demand). Will ask them ASAP..

Thumbs up for starting it, in the first place :)

[1] Please note that these figures have not been officially announced or confirmed yet. They’re just published on the public web site (which has not been announced yet either).

[2] Some coworking space providers even guarantee 24/7 access and are open for public access on Saturdays, too

[3] I’m currently reading a great book that, among others, deals with the very thin line between social norms and market norms. And it also discusses the (predictably irrational) appeal of anything that’s for “free” (knowledge that can be leveraged for marketing purposes and profit, of course). (Book: “Predictably irrational” by Dan Ariely; 2008; HarperCollins. I’ll probably post about it in more detail later..)

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Real Thought for Food for Long Workouts – NYT

BTW, I’ve just stumbled upon this NYT article, which basically states that “normal” food is just as suitable for recovering from workout as “protein drinks”, “power bars” and all that stuff. IMHO, that’s no surprise. The interesting thing however are the numbers they give[1]:

“10-15 grams of protein is probably adequate for any adult” (one egg has 6 g of protein, 2 oz [about 57 g] of chicken has >12 g)

Personal Best – Real Thought for Food for Long Workouts – NYTimes.com

[1] [EDIT 20080720: For comparison: The Isostar nutritionists recommend 0.8-1.5 g protein per kg of body mass per day, i.e. 64-120 g for an adult of 80 kg]

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Citizen Space Zürich for Digital Nomads soon to arrive?

Finally, Zurich starts catching up with its partner city San Francisco (and other Californian cities like Berkeley, Stanford/Palo Alto etc.) in regard to shared workspace for so called “Digital Nomads” and the like: According to these great news, a “citizen space” will soon be opened at Heinrichstr. 267 in Zurich:

11.07.2008 13:19: Ich bin daran ein solches zu eröffnen:
NEW: citizen space zurich. start: 18. Juli 2008
Auf 150m2 und einer Raumhöhe von 4 Metern völlig flexibel arbeiten.
Mietpreise ab CHF 30.-. Freie oder fixe Plätze. Komplette Infrastruktur.
Reingehen – arbeiten, besprechen, relaxen.
Im Steinfelsareal, Heinrichstrasse 267, 8005 Zürich

and

16.07.2008 11:36: Hallo
Das citizen space Zürich eröffnet am 24.7.08, wer Interesse an weiteren Informationen hat, kann ein E-Mail an [see below] senden, die Informationen sind natürlich kostenlos. Gruss in die Stadt. JR

The e-Mail is info at type and more remove spaces dot ch. The homepage of type’n more: typeandmore.ch

I really like this new groove here in “my” neighborhood.

Looking forward to it! :)

P.S. The domain citizenspace.ch is registered already, I don’t know though whether this is related to the citizen space to be opened in Zurich. Let’s see..

(Source: Ronorp.net)

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Why did the line spacing change in Word 2007?

Did you ever wonder why Microsoft changed the line spacing in Word 2007? Well, here’s the answer:

Why did the line spacing change in Word?

And the “fix” is here:

Make my document look like a Word 2003 document

Some general information about how to adjust the line spacing and paragraph settings in Word 2007:

Adjust the spaces between lines or paragraphs

Personally, I like the new GUI approach in Office 2007 and its improved usability, but the new styles (with this very unusual line spacing) kind of overshoot the mark.