As it is an overcast day out in the World, and I’m rebuilding the PC and staring at the washing machine (positive healing vibes, positive healing vibes), I dug out the newly arrived Hoya R72 infra-red filter, and set up some wargames figures on the coffee-table. A halogen table-lamp is close-by the right-hand side of the scene, the camera is set to a 15 second exposure at f/5.6 and ISO 200. After some fuzzy shots, I remember to switch off the automatic focus. Not great, but a start.
Best to get these basic mistakes out of the way early…whilst no-one’s around, and in the warmth while supping a cup of coffee.
Surprisingly, there have been 22,126 “unique” visitors since I started using Google Analytics in February 2007. Thank you for dropping by. Sorry that there hasn’t been much of interest in the last year. With two bouts of illness to work and lack of funds keeping me from major trips out. But these things happen, and life goes on.
Searching for More Phone Apps
22 Sep 2008 @ 05:52 am
As I get fed up finding that the Symbian s60 (3rd ed) operating system has programs that do not run unless you have a specific Nokia phone, I went looking elsewhere.
If the mobile phone OS can't cut the mustard, why not use the layers above it?
I must be missing something. Lots of people have mobile phone. Many have Nokia mobile phones. Many of the Nokia phones have the Symbian OS.
The software is all over the place and poorly advertised (i.e. not at all). If Nokia wanted to push a store similar to Apple's App Store, they'd have a large market in their grasp.
With the current economic crisis, I'm surprised that they are so blasé about this. Heck, when I got the Nokia 6220 Classic, it wasn't even listed within their software pages. It is one thing for a company like Adobe not to mention it (yes, it does come with Flash Lite pre-installed), but silly for Nokia not to.
Perhaps this shows something about the company itself? A market where only the hardware matters. I certainly see how poor the texting interface is on the 6220 in comparison with that of the K800i. The same is true of the camera interface.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the market over the next 17 months. Will battery technology have moved on? Will 3g be available outside the urban sprawl so that mobiles can access the 'cloud' when needed? Will there be anything useful developed from geo-apps? Will we be merely throwing sheep?
A couple of years back, when I started pulling together some of my family history, the local historical societies on Lewis mentioned that they were pooling resources for posting to the Internet.
It seems that what was talked about has now happened.
Looking for MacLeod's in Pairc returns 2117 results. Or I could go and try and fix the washing machine. Hmm, you can also search by location, and it cross-references the data back. Nice database. Oooh, even by fishing boat (there's the island culture showing through), and so the cycle is complete and the source of my middle name revealed in a few dabbling clicks.
Thanks for being out there, Jenn, and casting a mirror over my blog. I'd forgotten some of what I'd written - even though the contents come back to me as my brain regurgitates the same feelings.
Didn't achieve much on Friday. It is a long weekend here in Aberdeen, and plan A was to be out in the Cairngorms, head round to the Geldie, and up to the southernly plateau, and camp out tonight at Loch nan Cnapan. Maybe stay there on Saturday, just relaxing and enjoying the atmosphere. Or moving pitches to another loch that I've seen, but never been to.
But no.
I'm still not over the cold. And the walk to the post office, to (finally) post Roger his prize, knocked me sideways when I coughed and sweated my way home. It took me around 15 minutes to settle. I amn't going to risk it. maybe I'm allergic to exercise?
In the post office (2 staff on, and a queue forming), I found myself shifting my weight and fighting the temptation to circle the light leg out. Really enjoying the lessons, and wonder if it will help my balance when I get to clamber over rocks in October.
My Thursday night was spent working on restoring my crashed computer. Until I get another blue screen of death. With a hard drive error code, I've lost faith in it, and ordered a new unit. One terabyte. To be honest, I'm more interested in "cloud computing" - I'll embed the TEDtalk here, as I found they get me thinking about things.
When I got the pc back up and running, the first thing I did was get hooked back up to the Net. At the moment, my pc has antivirus software running, FireFox3, a few important upgrades for the operating system, and Windows Live Writer. Any empty shell. Much of my data is still only on the (disconnected) backup drive. Life is too short to waste on hardware crashes. Syncback handled the automatic backup. Manual backups are rubbish, and automatic backups should be checked regularly to restore user faith in them. I could throw more money at the problem, but I don't have it, and computers are a money-pit.
If systems are so unreliable that home users need to consider some form of RAID technologies to back-up their data, then the world has gone wrong. I have one spare tyre in my car. I don't have a spare car driving around after me in case the first car fails me. Get a grip! Let's see what "cloud computing" can offer us me.
A few minutes into the launch of BBC Alba, I'm already heuched out as the bands play one after the other in the tardis room in SMO.
Across on the BBC ALBA website, there are now clips to play, with a tantalising link to the BBC iplayer. But there is no sign of the channel on the iplayer,
I wonder if I can access the programmes that my taxes are helping pay for. Or will this be the equivalent of the dead slot? I hope not, but I fear that only 4 people and a dog will be watching if it stays hidden away on a competitor's station and satellite-only. With the credit crunch hitting, especially hard hit are the remote heartlands of the Gael, where fuel and food are dearer than in the central belt, entertainment spending will fall as belts are tightened. Will people buy a new satellite dish to receive the station? Not aye.
Cunning thing midges. As reported in BG!'s blog, with a report from The Scotsman, scientists were going to be testing a midge spray that would cloak the wearer from the wee pests. A big test was run at the weekend's Loch Ness charity run. According to the Press & Journal, "midges were strangely rare" during the event.
Maybe it is like that elephant deterrent I bought for my flat.
Should I be congratulating a supposedly innovative tv channel for making a good series? I'll settle for congratulating the presenter, Waldemar Januszczak, for the 3 episodes in the series. It ended tonight with an unexpected hour about land art. An American-centred feel, but I was left feeling that I wanted more.
Sadly, there isn't more on the Channel 4 website. They merely link to the British Museum...and an exhibition that starts in October. There's always Waldemar's website...where you can buy a copy of the tv program. I can read some of his articles though. Maybe I'll learn something there.
"There are a million stories in the world of sculpture ... this has been a few of them".
Will there be more tales appearing on Channel 4? I fear not.
