Simon Barker's Articles On Zath

Simon Barker is the founder and editor of Zath and has over 25 years’ worth of experience of using computers and technology in general. He can normally be found researching or testing the latest in technology products.

He has provided IT consultancy services to both home and small business users for over 15 years, building PCs, fixing hardware/software problems and providing comprehensive training.

Simon always likes to get the best out of the technology products he is using, by both making informed purchasing decisions and also optimising how they are used to get the most benefits possible.

If you'd like to follow and/or contact him on Twitter, please feel free to do so - @SimonBarker.

Low Power PCs – The Top 5 Contenders

12th April 2010 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 22nd September 2018

Most of us take our PCs for granted, since they’re an essential bit of kit these days. How many of you consider power consumption when it comes to your computer (or any of your gadgets)? Compared to 5 years ago when being eco-friendly wasn’t quite so newsworthy, I’m willing to bet that these days, most of you do switch off gadgets when you’re not using them.

Well you might not have heard about a small revolution in low energy computers. These low power PCs are essentially standard computers that have a considerably low energy consumption compared to a standard desktop computer. A standard desktop computer consumes anywhere between 100W to 400W (maybe even more for really heavy duty gaming and processing). A low power PC consumes around 4W to 30W! Surprisingly, the latest energy efficient computers have comparable performance to regular desktop PCs too.
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Think Visibility 3 Review (Leeds Digital Marketing/SEO Conference 2010)

17th March 2010 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 28th July 2019

think-visibility-conference-logo UPDATE: I’ve now reviewed the latest Think Visibility 9 conference, so be sure to take a look at that page if you’re interested in finding out how #ThinkVis did on its 5th anniversary!

This past weekend I packed my bags and headed down to Leeds for the Think Visibility 3 conference, as the name indicates, this is the third such event and the first of two in 2010. The whole idea behind these one-day conferences (organised by Dom Hodgson and his team) is that they cover “the things that usually get left behind in the web design process” and therefore typically covers topics such as SEO, PPC, social media, affiliate and digital marketing/branding.

The venue itself remained the same as that used for the Think Visibility 2 conference in Sept 2009; the Alea Casino (near the Royal Armouries museum) in a very smart and clean Clarence Dock area of Leeds. Upon arrival to the event we received our ID badges and just from that you know that you’re in for an event with a bit of character – the organisers had only gone and created our very own “Twitter Top Trumps” from the statistics of our Twitter accounts! These made for a great talking point during the whole event as you met up with different people that you already knew and even more importantly with people you didn’t – this was a great way to break the ice I thought, so well done to the Think Visibility team for coming up with that idea!
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Dabs.com Live IT & Gadget Show 2010 Preview

15th January 2010 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 28th June 2022

Here at Zath, we’re big fans of hi-tech gadgets, computing, gaming and technology in general, so when the chance to go along to a live show and take a look at some great bits of technology kit comes along, then we want to be there – as seen by our attendance at the Gadget Show Live 2009 event last April and the Eurogamer Expo 2009 in October.

Well, we’ve just been informed by our friends over at Dabs.com that they’re running two free Technology and Gadgets Show events in March 2010 that the public can attend free of charge! At the Dabs.com Live show events which you’ll be able to see some of the hottest new technology of 2010 being showcased here in the UK…oh yeah, the show will also be being hosted by the Gadget Show’s very own Suzi Perry!
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a4u Expo London 2009 Review (London Affiliate Marketing Conference)

20th October 2009 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 28th September 2020

You may have recently read my a4u Expo London 2009 preview which I wrote after I managed to secure a ticket (rather luckily) in a competition over at Kieron Donoghue’s blog called here.org.uk — well I’m now back home after attending the event at ExCel conference centre in London’s Docklands and I can now report back on what was my first multi-day web-related / affiliate marketing conference.

The only other conferences that I’ve attended for the online marketing industry have been the Think Visibility conferences that have been run in the relatively local location of Leeds, so I was expecting a4u Expo London 2009 to be somewhat different not only given its size but also the fact that it’s more focussed around online affiliate marketing. However, as I was to find, these days that also involves a lot of work in terms of analytics, social media, generating useful and unique content for visitors and ensuring that your website is optimally set up for search engine optimisation – all interesting stuff!
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Think Visibility 2 Review (Leeds Digital Marketing/SEO Conference 2009)

14th September 2009 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 14th August 2020

This weekend I took the chance to attend the second Think Visibility conference, held in Leeds that is described as covering “the things that usually get left behind in the web design process” – with speakers covering various areas of blogging, SEO, PPC, affiliate and digital marketing.

First of all, I think it’s always good to see these types of events happening outside of London for a change and giving us northern bloggers and online, web-type people to experience an event such as this without having to necessarily travel all the way down south – not there’s anything wrong with that, but the chance to meet other people is always good!
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Spotify iPhone App Review – Is It Worth The Cost?

7th September 2009 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 13th August 2020

Well, the Spotify iPhone app has been released, it’s finally here after Apple actually approved it (a surprise in itself to some people), but has it been worth the wait?

I’m a big fan of the Spotify music-streaming service and usually have its music playing in the background as I work (or play) on my main desktop computer and have been perfectly happy just sitting back and using this free service listening to the occasional advert between songs. With the release of the iPhone app, it’s given me cause to think a bit more about this service, here are my thoughts…
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A Dead Computer, Backups And Living On A Cloud

17th July 2009 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 2nd April 2019

blown-up-computer Have you ever considered using an online backup service before? What would you do if your computer died on you? Have you thought about how you’d cope in terms of potentially losing your important files forever?

Well I’ve recently got to find out that for myself as one night last week my computer’s power supply died with a loud bang, plunging us into darkness as it knocked off the whole house’s electricity and left me with the definitive smell of dead power supply — definitely not something that I like the smell of in the morning, evening or any other time of day!
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Belkin N+ ADSL Wireless Router Review

14th July 2009 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 17th December 2019

I’ll be honest from the start with the review of the Belkin N+ ADSL modem wireless router — it has a flaw and it’s a pretty fundamental flaw if you want to use it for one particular purpose like I did, but more on that later…

I bought the Belkin N+ ADSL wireless router as a replacement for the ageing Belkin N1 ADSL modem wireless router which needed replacing as the “quirks” it had been finally proving too much to live with, but rather than talk about that here, I’ll update the original review after I’ve finished this one.

Suffice to say despite my reservations of buying Belkin again, I looked around some of the big well-known review sites and they seemed to like the Belkin N+ with some of them having it as their wireless router of choice. Therefore I thought I’d give them another chance.
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Are Pay As You Go SIM Cards For Your Mobile Phone The Best Option?

22nd March 2009 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 1st June 2019

sim-cards A few people have recently asked me about free SIM cards on Pay As You Go (PAYG) for mobile phones, so I thought I should perhaps provide an explanation of why I think this is a good thing to look at doing and the different mobile network options on offer.

Given the current economic climate, everyone is trying to save money wherever they can and I know from experience as when I was coming towards the end of my current mobile phone contract, I didn’t really want to commit to yet another 18 or 24 month contract, especially when I don’t use all the included minutes and text messages that I’m paying for now.
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Pleo ‘Robot Dinosaur’ Review

19th February 2009 by Simon Barker - Last Updated: 17th December 2019

You may remember that we’ve previously featured Pleo in which we explained that he’s an autonomous, newly hatched herbivore dinosaur called a Camarasaurus – essentially a robot dinosaur that will wander around exploring and reacting to its environment – it’s fair to say I was initially a little sceptical about Pleo the Robot Dinosaur.

In the past I’ve had a play with some of the previous robotic dinosaurs that have been on the market, such as the RoboRaptor which to be honest has never really impressed me as anything other than a short-lived novelty which I certainly soon got bored with…the question is whether the same can be said about Pleo, I’m pleased to say that there’s certainly a lot more to Pleo as a robot dinosaur than previous attempts at bringing back these long-dead creatures in a robotic form.
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