Slog

New Microstock Selling Photos Site

2010-07-19T17:32:00.001+01:00

I have starting writing up the lessons learned from selling photos online at a new website:

http://microstocker.co.uk/

Check it out and please comment on the articles.

Stock Options

2009-09-21T18:57:00.022+01:00

The Oxo Tower, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I have a number of my photos on Flickr for sale on a number of microstock sites. Each site offers different payment options and price points. Take your pick...

Buy My Stock Images:

Sell Your Stock Images:

Camera Equipment UK Price Drop Alerts

2009-02-24T17:31:00.006Z

Criss Cross, originally uploaded by Me (?).

In my last post I said I would really like to be able to create a price drop alert email to tell me when a specific product reaches a specific price or has been discounted heavily.

I am sure there is a proper service somewhere that does this but I thought it would be a good excuse to create a really basic mashup using Yahoo Pipes.

What this 'thing' allows you to do is create an RSS feed filtered by brand/product and also by the amount that the price has dropped by.

You can then use Yahoo RSS Alerts to email you the feed when it changes.

Great! Well it is a bit "String and Sellotape" but I like fiddling!

Step 1: Create a Filtered Feed

Go to my Price Buster Yahoo Pipe at pipes.yahoo.com/xrrr/camerapricebuster

Click "Run Pipe" to see the raw camerapricebuster.co.uk price drop feed so you can see what sort of information is in the feed.

Enter a product or brand into the "Fliter Text" box - for example enter "Canon" for all Canon products or "300" for all 300mm lenses. This will filter the original feed so that only the words you enter end up in the result. You can test it by clicking "Run Pipe".

If you want to limit results by the size of the price drop then enter a number into the "Price Drop" box - for example enter "9" to remove all feed items where the price drop was less than (and including) £9.00. Again you can test by clicking "Run Pipe".

If you want to limit results below a maximum price then enter a number into the "Price Lower Than" box. Any item with a price higher than the price you enter will be filtered out.

So if for example you wanted to get an email when a Canon 24-105mm f/4L lens is priced lower than, say, £700 (I wish) you would enter:
Price Lower Than = 700
Filter Text = "24-105"

If you are entering a product that is not already in the list then you need to be careful you use the same item name as the camerapricebuster.co.uk or else it will not work.

Step 2: Create an Alert

When you are happy with your new feed click on the "Get as RSS" button and copy and paste the RSS URL:

e.g.

http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=4kKo4O0B3hGmiar4PhJ3AQ&_render=rss&filter=24-105&price=400

Press the back button on your browser and press "More Options" and then "Results by Email or Phone". Note: you may need to be logged on to Yahoo in order to do this.

Fill in the form and start receiving your personalised price drop email notifications.

Job done.

Camera Equipment Buying Tips

2009-02-23T20:04:00.004Z

X Marks the Spot, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I am in the market for a new camera lens because I am getting rather annoyed with my Canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM. At the wide end it gets huuuuuuge barrel distortion and quite bad chromatic aberration. So I have decided it is time to change. After much consideration and dilemma I have decided on investing in a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM instead. I have one other "L" series lens and I swear that it is hard to take a bad picture with that lens so it is time to upgrade. I have done all the donkey work so I thought I would summarise my usual Internet haunts for camera based research.

For the newby photographer out there; these are the five key sites you need to know about when looking for new equipment:

1) Flickr
There are 3 aspects to Flickr that make it a great resource:

(i) The discussion forum search. A great place to get real world opinions on equipment.
(ii) Lens tagging. Perfect for finding examples of shots taken with your particular lens. See the Canon DSLR User Group and Nikkor Flickr groups for details.
(iii) Camera finder. Not sure which camera body to go for? Check out the rankings and example shots.

2) Digital Photography Review
Without a doubt *the* best place to go for in depth reviews of camera bodies. They have been a bit slow at doing lens reviews (2 or 3 lenses a month across all brands) but there are an awful lot of lenses out there and they have limited time!

3) Fred Miranda
This is the best place to go for a 'crowdsourced' view of the best lenses out there. It is all based on the scoring from real users and therefore opinions can be quite polar. My advice is to look at the aggregate score and take the individual comments with a pinch of salt.

4) SLR Gear
This is a new find for me as I only found out about it this week. In a similar way to dpreview.com these guys are doing lab tests of all SLR lenses out there. In addition they also have a user forum for end users to score (similar to Fred Miranda). The lab reviews are not as in depth as dpreview.com but they do currently have better coverage. If you want to compare lab results graphs between lenses this is currently the best place to go.

5) Camera Price Buster
This is also a new find for me this week and it now my new favourite. The site aggregates prices from a number of online dealers and displays the best prices for each piece of equipment. Price aggregators are not new but I like this site's specific UK camera buyer's focus. Another great feature is the price tracker graphs. They act like stock price trackers to show the price history and trending. If you are not in a rush to buy then keeping an eye on the graphs is a great way to keep on top of the best prices. I would really like to see some sort of price alert capability where you can get an email alert if a particular product drops below a price threshold. The site *does* offer a 'price drop' RSS feed which you can subscribe to which does go some way towards this. Note it is a UK only site.

So there you go, five places to go in order to make sure you always make the best camera purchases.

One final note of caution. Due to the financial meltdown and the crappy £ verses the Yen, lens prices have all gone up recently and show little sign of dropping in the near term...

TrackTour

2008-09-28T21:00:00.004+01:00

International Harvester 454, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I have been pretty busy for the past month or so with "stuff". I have managed to make my Flickr breadcrumb trail web test a little better. It is now called "TrackTour" and can be found at the link below. Let me know what you think...

xrrr.co.uk/tracktour

TrackTour, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Photo Breadcrumbs

2008-08-13T20:17:00.004+01:00

Lake Welch HDR, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I have started geotagging my Flickr photos when appropriate. It got me wondering if I could use the geotags to act as a breadcrumb trail to see where I had been.

So last night I knocked up a quick mashup between Flickr and Google maps to put markers on the map for each photo and then draw a line between each photo in order of date taken. You can then browse the trail to see where I have been. Great for virtual stalkers.

My [non-existent] javascript skills have failed me to do anything more advanced but maybe when I get some time I will be able to add 'next' and 'previous' buttons so you can 'walk' the path of photos.

See the breadcrumb trail.

Has anyone does this properly anywhere?

Create a Flickr Tag Cloud in PHP

2008-06-28T01:13:00.006+01:00

Sunset over Pewley Down, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Here is a very basic way of creating a Flickr tag cloud in PHP. To make the Flickr API calls simple I have used phpFlickr.

The what and the why are listed below but there is a worked example available also.

I am going to use these variables in the code:

$reqtags  = 150;    // Number of tags to display
$user     = "xrrr"; // Flickr user to search for tags
$min_font = "10";   // Font size to start drawing tags
$max_font = "30";   // The maximum font size tags can get

First of all we need to convert the username string into a Flickr User ID. To do this use the flickr.people.findByUsername API function:

$ns = $f->people_findByUsername($user);
$nsid = $ns[nsid];

Then we obtain the tags from Flickr using the flickr.tags.getListUserPopular API function which returns an array of tags. The phpFlickr object will return an array of arrays. Each array contains the tag value and the count of the number of times the tag is used. We store the number of tags by counting the size of the array and sort the array by the tag count value:

$tags = $f->tags_getListUserPopular ($nsid, $reqtags);
$numtags = count ($tags);
sort ($tags);

We now calculate the number of tags that should be displayed at each font size. To do this we just divide the number of tags by the number of font sizes available (maximum font minus the minimum font) and round it down to the nearest whole number. Note if there are more font sizes than tags (in this example the user has less than 20 tags) then the interval will be zero. This is ok.

$increment = intval($numtags/($max_font-$min_font));

In order to calculate the font sizes we loop though the tag list (which is in tag count order) and create an associative array of "tag_name => font_size". This code is basic so does not attempt to calculate the font size from the tag count. It just loops through the array and every time the interval value is reached it increments the font size. If the interval value is zero then it just increments the font size for every tag.

$size = $min_font ;
for ($i=0; $i < $numtags; $i++) {
$output[$tags[$i][_content]] = $size ;
if ($increment == 0 || $i % $increment == 0 ) 
$size++;
}
}

We now have an associative array of tag and font size ordered by tag frequency. Tag clouds tend to be in alphabetical order so we sort by the associative array keys using the PHP function ksort:

ksort($output);

Finally we print out the HTML to build the tag cloud and link back to Flickr:

$url = "http://www.flickr.com/photos/$user/tags/" ;
echo "<div id='TagCloud'>";
foreach ($output as $tg => $sz) {
 echo "&nbsp;<a href='".$url.$tg."' style='font-size: ".$sz."px;'>".$tg."</a> &nbsp; \n" ;
}
echo "</div>";

The resultant HTML can be styled with the following style sheet to make it look like Flickr:

<style>
body {
    font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;
}

#TagCloud {
    background:#F5F5F5 none repeat scroll 0%;
    border:1px solid #EEEEEE;
    padding:15px;
}

#TagCloud a {
    text-decoration:none;
}

#TagCloud a:link {
    color:#0063DC;
}

#TagCloud a:visited {
    color:#0063DC;
}

#TagCloud a:hover {
    background:#0063DC none repeat scroll 0% 0%;
    color:#FFFFFF;
    text-decoration:none;
}
</style>

I have created a working example to demonstrate the code and make it easier to reuse.

Groopy Search by Group Update

2008-06-03T22:08:00.002+01:00

Groopy v3, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Today I have created a new 'advanced' search page that allows you to search for your photos in a particular group.

Click the 'advanced search' link on the front page or bookmark this link.

Groopy Performance Update

2008-06-02T23:45:00.004+01:00

Streaky Bus, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I released version 0.2 of Flickr Groopy today. Aside from some code tidy ups the main updates are:

I found out that you can obtain the number of views of a photo from the search meaning that I can bypass one of the slow API calls. It now takes half the time to render a screen of images. Simply add 'extras=>views' into the request for flickr.photos.search and it means that the flickr.photos.getInfo call can be missed out entirely
I have changed the sort order to sort by 'relevance' rather than 'interestingness-desc' - I will be making the sort order a user option at some point

Link to Groopy: xrrr.co.uk/groopy

Flickr Groopy

2008-05-28T19:04:00.001+01:00

The Groupie Look, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I have released the first cut of my pet mini-project that I have called Flickr Groopy.

Flickr Groopy exists because of a set of Flickr Groups called Views 25 through to Views 25000. The idea is that once one of your photos reaches 25 views you can add it into the Views 25 group. As soon as your photo reaches 50 views you remove it from the Views 25 group and add it into the Views 50 group and so on.

The group rules state that a single photo should only ever be in one Views nn group at a time. The Flickr GUI is a bit clunky for swapping pictures between groups quickly so I decided to learn PHP, CSS and the Flickr API to create a tool for viewing your photos, highlighting the photos that are eligible for promotion into the next group and providing a one click update of the groups that the photo is in.

The result was Flickr Groopy:

Flickr Groopy, originally uploaded by Me (?).

How it works:
Based on a search string the code uses the flickr.photos.search API call to get a list of the user's photos that match the search criteria.

For each photo in the response:

Call flickr.photos.getInfo to get the number of views
Call flickr.photos.getAllContexts to get the groups the photo is in
Find out if the photo is already in a Views nn group
Using the number of views and group list work out if the photo is in the correct group
If the photo could be added to a Views nn group then highlight the photo

If the user clicks on a highlighted photo that kicks off an Ajax call to a PHP script to switch the photo into the correct group.

It is all implemented with HTML DIV elements and some CSS fun powered by PHP and phpFlickr behind the scenes.

Current features:

Text search for a user's photos
Grid display (restricted to 16 pics for performance) of the output
Colour coded highlighting of pictures eligible for moving groups
One click group update for eligible pictures

Planned features:

Search for user's photos already in a Views group
Tag cloud to inspire searches
Search by Flickr set
Notification of photos existing in more than one group with one click fix
Support for the sister Faves set of groups

Known problems with the current version:

Internet Explorer does not render CSS the same as Firefox and Safari so I need to work out how to get the CSS to look the same on all three browsers
The drawing is quite slow - I have added some timing trace to the code and it shows that almost 0.6 seconds per picture is taken up with two Flickr API calls. There is not much I can do about this I am afraid. I am investigating whether I can make the calls in parallel to speed things up a bit but that involves Ajax threading and is a bit scary!
The page should draw before it attempts to do the lengthy photo processing - working on a prototype Ajax version of the grid rendering
There is a 1 second pause between clicking on an image and anything happening - also clicking on multiple pictures breaks the UI slightly as update responses get lost - need a wait icon and a way to disable additional clicks whilst a response is pending

Flickr Groopy is here: xrrr.co.uk/groopy

Driving in the US

2008-04-29T03:15:00.002+01:00

Cat's Eye, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I suppose spending 99.99999% of my driving life driving in Europe I have been spoilt. Here are some reasons why driving in the US sucks for me:

No cat's eyes - I have just driven 30 mins from Chappaqua, NY to White Plains, NY in the dark in the pouring rain and had absolutely no idea where the road was going 50% of the time. No wonder the speed limit is 55mph you would be mad to do more than that in this weather!
Bumpy road surfaces - you think Surrey's roads are bad, just travel up Highway 22 near Armonk, NY it is like it is peppered with mole hills. With nearly 4,000,000 miles of road in the US it is no wonder it is hard to keep them up to scratch but I now know why US cars have got such soft suspension!
Valet parking - I just tipped a guy $2 to fetch my car for me when it was parked outside the restaurant about 10 steps away from where I was standing - I had left my laptop and camera in the boot of the car and spent most of the night worrying about them because I had given the keys to some random chappie!
American cars - the middle to lower range cars are basically shit compared to EU cars. Poor spec, poor styling and all with automatic gear boxes.

Maybe I am in a bad mood because of the rain!

Translation

2008-04-28T02:29:00.002+01:00

Adapted, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Is it me or is auto-translation of Russian far far better than French, Italian, etc? We got teflon and WD-40 from the space race; is usable Russian computer translation a product of the Cold War?

This is what got me thinking:
Google translated iPhone blog
Original

The Beast 2.0

2008-04-20T18:14:00.007+01:00

2008 BMW 330i M Sport Coupe, originally uploaded by Me (?).

For the past 18 months I have been 'almost' buying a new car. My E46 BMW 330i (a.k.a. "The Beast") was fantastic but I always intended it to be an interim car whilst I waited for the new shape Coupe M Sport model to come out. The sport model came out and I ummed and ahhed about changing for about 12 months and then eventually in March I ordered one.

After lots of phone calls and messing about with LeasePlan I eventually got a call 2 weeks ago from the dealer telling me the car would be delivered on the afternoon of Friday 18 April. w00t!
That was almost a month quicker than I had been led to believe what the lead time was. w00t!
That also presented a problem...

I live in a street with permit parking and we are limited to two permits per house. If I did not sell The Beast before I got my new car that would mean having three cars. And three cars would be a pain. Here starts the problem...

It turns out that 3 litre sports cars are not exactly hot sellers at the moment. I have come up with the following factors that made selling a problem:

Global Credit Crunch - who wants to buy an expensive second hand car when the news is all doom and gloom about the economy
Petrol Prices - with petrol at 111p a litre large engined cars are not popular
Old shape - The Beast was the old E46 shape BMW and the new shape has been around for about 18 months meaning there are some new shape second handers for not much more than I was asking
No Sat Nav - I rang around a number of garages to see if they wanted to buy it and all but 2 said they were not interested because the car did not have sat nav

So regardless of those factors I needed to sell in a hurry.

First step Autotrader. I spent £50 on an advert for the magazine and internet for three weeks of advertising. I put it on at £500 more than the Glass.co.uk guide price I had bought (£3.50). After a week I had had one phone call from a chap from Scotland who never called me back. A week later I dropped the price by £1000. Not a sniff of interest.

Next step eBay. I spent £15 on an advert for eBay. Took lots of new pictures and gave a very detailed summary of the car. I put a reserve on of £1000 less than the new lower Autotrader price. I had some minor interest but the car did not sell, it got within £400 of the reserve but none of the bidders I emailed got in touch.

Getting a bit worried now. Contingency plans involved leaving the old car at work so as to avoid parking permit problems but that was going to be a faff.

Next step second hand car dealers. I rang around and had a few low offers over the phone. Hampshire Sports and Prestige Cars offered me the same amount as the eBay reserve but wanted to see the car to discuss formal price. When I went over there the chap spotted I had two very worn tyres and was concerned about the proximity of a service. We agreed on a price and I sold. It was a bit lower than I was hoping but the hassle of selling was over and I was finally car-less two days before the new one.

Friday. Afternoon. Working from home. Waiting for the phone to ring to be told about delivery time. 13:00 get call from Darren the delivery driver. Darren says he does not think he will get up my street in his 65 foot long car transporter so can I meet him somewhere in an hour. Oh yes!

2008 BMW 330i M Sport Coupe, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I meet up with Darren and he hands over the car to me. Worryingly I did not have to show any ID but then I guess who else would be hanging around outside Vines Mini in Guildford waiting for a 65 foot car transporter.

2008 BMW 330i M Sport Coupe, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Got the car and drove home. Now I had been planning this day for a long time, the idea was to take the afternoon off work and go somewhere picturesque and take some photos of the new car. Problem was the weather was rubbish. I went for a drive but it ended up being school chucking out traffic and so I got hacked off being stuck in traffic so I went home.

BMW Remote Control, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Eventually the weather was dry this morning so Alison and I popped over to Farnborough to go somewhere I had scoped out already. We went to Farnborough Air Sciences Museum where they have a load of historic aircraft that fortunately you can park right next to. I parked up next to a Harrier jet and set up my tripod etc. Within a few minutes a chap comes out and politely asks me what I am doing. I apologised and assured him I was doing non-commercial photography and I am just an amateur with a new car that I want to take some interesting pictures of. I made a donation of £5 to cover the fact that we were not going into the museum but were still making use of the outdoor parts. The guy was very friendly and introduced himself as Brian.

2008 BMW 330i M Sport Coupe, originally uploaded by Me (?).

After a load of 'photofaffing' around the Harrier, Brian pops out and asks me if I want to take some pictures through the barriers and with a load of additional planes - i.e. special access. Of course I said yes and spent another 30 mins photofaffing around an ex-Red Arrows plane whilst Brian's colleague Malcolm supervised. Excellent stuff :-)

2008 BMW 330i M Sport Coupe, originally uploaded by Me (?).

So I have the car, it is filthy already from the rubbish weather but the car is FANTASTIC! Well worth the wait (and money!). I am looking forward to a driving holiday to Reims in May and then another driving holiday to the Pembrokeshire coast in Wales in July. This is all practice for another European Grand Tour in 2009 or 2010. Can't wait!

I have created a PictoBrowser gallery below. Click on the image to move to the next picture and move the mouse over the bar at the bottom where it says PictoBrowser to select other images.

Photobloc

2008-04-19T11:10:00.002+01:00

Poppy, originally uploaded by Me (?).

We wanted to brighten up our hall and stairs and so decided to get a canvas print of one of my recent photos. Anyone who has seen my Flickr stream will know that there are quite a few to choose from!

We narrowed it down to the poppy picture above and ended up choosing a company called Photobloc for the printing. Photobloc's website looked the most professional and their prices seemed to be quite reasonable. I liked the way they offer a free photo tidy up and proofing service so that (if required) their in-house photoshoppers can sort out problems with pictures like removal of timestamps and the like.

We ordered Sunday, had the proof on Monday and the canvas on Thursday. That is pretty good service I think.

I put the picture on the wall this morning and I think it looks rather good :-)

Canvas Print, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Social Networn

2008-04-13T17:57:00.000+01:00

Networn, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I invented a new word last week (technically 2 words but run with it):

so·cial net·worn
- adjective
1. Diminished in enthusiasm for participating in online social networking websites;

Derivatives:
1. social netweary (adj.); Fatigued by social network site participation.
2. social netwear (verb); The apathy about keeping your multiple social networking site profiles up to date.

Is it just me that is feeling like this? Not a month goes by without an invite from another newly discovered networking site from one of my friends. It also seems to go in phases. A few years ago it was Friends Reunited, then MySpace, then Flickr, then Facebook and now LinkedIn. Don't get me wrong, I love my friends but I actually like to see them in real life and talk to them in person rather than via a proxy website.

Wikipedia lists 116 social networking websites and I am a member of about 5 of them and a lapsed member of another 3 or so. This does not count the 3 different social networking sites we have on our company intranet.

Of all those sites, the only one I actually participate in any more is Flickr. This is mostly because I consider Flickr to be best place to backup, share and discover photos and not a social networking site. Flickr's social networking is secondary to having somewhere to put my photos and share them with the world and long may it stay that way!

Am I the only social netweary person out there?

Gateway to the Summer

2008-04-06T14:17:00.004+01:00

Pewley Down, originally uploaded by Me (?).

It was my birthday last week and in the past few years I have been calling my birthday "The Gateway to the Summer". This is because the clocks change to British Summer Time usually a few days before my birthday and spring normally starts springing around this time of year.

Spring is in the air!?, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Imagine my surprise to wake up this morning to find a blizzard going on outside the house! We had a good 6cm or so of snow this morning and it was a great morning for a walk out onto Pewley Down. Lots of other people had the same idea and were out walking in the 'winter' wonderland, having snowball fights, sledging and building snowmen.

Pewley Down in the Spring, originally uploaded by Me (?).

It is now gone 2 in the afternoon and most of the snow has melted in the sunshine but it was fun whilst it lasted :-)

The Thaw, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Impulses

2008-03-20T13:07:00.003Z

A New Toy, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I went to the camera shop today to buy a new camera bag. I had been considering the Lowepro Slingshot 200AW or 300AW but wanted to know if it would fit the camera and a 70-200 f/4 lens that I don't own yet. I posted a question on a Flickr forum and decided to just do what one poster suggested and go and look at a real bag. Imagine that! So rather than doing what I normally do and ordering off the internet I ventured into my local camera shop, Photo Optix in Guildford.

In the camera shop, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I was impressed by the staff as they were very helpful and let me mount a lens from the shop to make sure the bag was big enough. The Slingshot 200 was too small so I opted for the Slingshot 300.

As we were testing the kit fitted into the bag I asked when the new Canon 450D is going to be launched as I had been planning to upgrade my 400D if the reviews were any good.

The girl in the shop asked why I did not not want a 40D. I said that I almost bought one a few months ago but could not justify it because of the price. She then told me that the 40D had just been reduced by £100 and that there was a further £100 cash back from Canon, making a total of £200 less than the price of the body if I had bought one 2 weeks ago.

Doing the sums showed that the 40D was only £50 more than the 450D and available now. Well, the rest is history...

I now have to relearn how to photograph again so don't expect any good pictures for a while whilst I work out how to get the camera to do what I want it to!

Ski Extreme Team!

2008-03-08T13:26:00.006Z

La Thuile Ski Extreme Black 3, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I have just come back from an excellent skiing holiday in La Thuile, Italy. A great range of slopes and for the most part of the holiday great snow.

One of the highlights of La Thuile is two black runs that come down the right hand side of the mountain. The imaginatively named "Black 2" and "Black 3". We spent most of the week going down Black 2 a few times a day as it was challenging enough but not too hard. One highlight of Black 2 was the last stretch that we dubbed "the ski jump" as it was very steep and if you got there early enough in the day you can schuss all the way down from the top.

I actually invented a new style of skiing on Black 2 ski jump, I call it "back surfing". It was not technically skiing as such as it involved going down the slope head first on my back with my skis in the air! I had decided to put in one last turn before schussing and lost my balance. I ended up on my back going down the steep slope, in order that I did not have to face a walk back up to retrieve any skis that came off I put my feet in the air to stop the skis catching and coming off. This had the interesting effect of stopping all braking and I ended up coming all the way down on my back. When I stopped laughing I stood up and carried on!

Whilst we did Black 2 quite a few times we were put off by Black 3 by the sign at the top that indicated the steepest part was 73% and that the run featured in world cup skiing events. Eventually we plucked up courage on our last day and Chris, Pat and I headed down Black 3. It was steep but not as steep as we had imagined it would be.

When we got back, Pat pointed out that a 100% gradient was only 45 degrees and so therefore a 73% gradient was only 36 degree slope. So there started the mystery: Just how steep is a 73% slope...?

Theory 1 – Height change by vertical distance

A 73% slope implies a drop of 73 meters every 100 meters. Going back to basic trigonometry the angle of the slope is the arctan of the opposite over the adjacent. So this makes the angle of the slope a mere 36 degrees. Hardly “ski extreme” is it?!

Theory 2 – Vertical distance by height change

In desperation I decided they must have measured it wrong and so decided to swap the lengths over. This makes the angle of the slope 56 degrees. This is certainly more "ski extreme" but I cannot find any evidence of anyone ever measuring a slope this way round.

Theory 3 – Height change by distance travelled

Looking for additional help I remembered about the UK La Thuile fan site LaThuile.co.uk. On the site it says:

"If you have any questions about La Thuile then email and we'll see if we can help."

So I thought it is worth a go and sent an email off. A few days later I got an excellent email from Woody the site owner with some text from a site about road gradients for cyclists. The site took a bit of time to get my head round it, but it says that road gradients are sometimes measured by the distance travelled by the height change. How you tell the difference I don't know!

Using the sohcahtoa mnemonic from school the angle of the slope is the arcsine of the opposite over the hypotenuse. So this makes our angle 47 degrees.

Looking at the scale diagram that looks more realistic but it does not look that steep either.

So, I am still none the wiser - I suspect that theory 3 is correct though it still does not look as steep as I remember it. I have emailed off to the La Thuile visitor information people but am still waiting for a reply.

I know this, next time I go skiing I am taking some sort of GPS with me!

Here is the Black 3 subset of the extreme ski team: Chris, me & Pat.

Black 3, originally uploaded by Me (?).

PicLens: Cool Internet Picture Browser

2008-03-03T19:34:00.003Z

PicLens, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I was genuinely wowed this morning when I stumbled across PicLens. It is a full screen picture reader that works with Flickr, Google Images, Yahoo! Image Search, etc, etc.

In one line it is: Cover Flow for Internet images.

It is also bloody cool!

Once installed (into Firefox, IE or Safari) you get a little arrow icon in the bottom left of your pictures when you mouse over them. Click on the arrow and you are presented with the interactive 3D wall of photos:

PicLens, originally uploaded by Me (?).

You can scroll in and out with the mouse wheel and use the mouse to scroll to the left or right. Everything is smooth and intuitive. If you point it at a Flickr photo stream then it will go on forever without having to page through multiple pages to get the picture you want.

Click on an image and it is centered and make slightly larger:

PicLens, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Double click and the image is brought up full screen in something similar to the Flickr slideshow:

PicLens, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Unfortunately the full screen slide show does not have a cover flow style transition but you could always zoom into the 3D wall and view it that way.

Click on the little arrow at the top left and you are taken to the original page. I have found the PicLens is great for browsing Google Images in a much more fluid way than using the browser:

PicLens, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Clicking on the images will take you to Flickr where you can see them full size.

Excellent stuff!

www.piclens.com

Licenced to Shoot

2008-02-19T19:35:00.003Z

Triple Barrelled, originally uploaded by Me (?).

That is not a shotgun, that is my tripod. It looks worryingly like a shotgun at first glance I am slightly worried that I might get 'taken out' whilst wondering the streets. Lets face it, the time I am most likely to be using the tripod is when the light is poor, and the most likely time for the weapon based mistake to occur.

The reason for this post is not to moan about my triple barrelled shooting stick but rather to show off a few pictures I took the other night whilst wandering Pewley Down at sunset.

I have been reading Scott Kelby's The Digital Photography Book and that gave me a few tips and a few ideas:

1) Become married to your tripod because you never know when you need it. I am seriously tempted to take my tripod with me whenever I go out in the car and have my camera with me.

Moon, originally uploaded by Me (?).

2) If you have image stabilisation on the lens, when using with a tripod, turn it off to get a sharper image.

Moonlighting, originally uploaded by Me (?).

3) If you are taking sunset shots, make them more interesting by adding silhouettes.

Alison and I, originally uploaded by Me (?).

4) Use the flash to bring out any foreground objects.

Pewley Down, originally uploaded by Me (?).

5) And an extra tip from me. Don't do what I *always* forget to do and give the lens a good clean before taking greater than f/11 shots. I spend ages cleaning off all the dust spots!

Potty about Orange, originally uploaded by Me (?).

This was my first proper attempt at sunset, tripod based shooting and I think the results are rather good.

Taking the iPod Touch Upgrade Plunge

2008-01-29T23:12:00.000Z

iPod Touch Upgrade, originally uploaded by Me (?).

I took the plunge last week and opted to pay the £12.99 ($20) that Apple are asking to upgrade the iPod Touch to the new software.

I was initially frustrated by the charge but in the end figured that £13 these days is not a huge amount of money so went for it anyway.

So what do I think....?

Feature	Comment	Any good?
Movable icons	Holding your finger down on one of the icons on the home page allows you to move icons around and also move them onto additional pages that are accessed by swiping the home page.	Handy but not a killer app
Web bookmark icons	In safari you can now save links to web pages as new home page icons. If the site is iPod/iPhone aware then they will have created a nice icon for you otherwise you get a mini screen shot of the web page.	Handy but not a killer app
Weather Widget	Needs Wifi. You can set up the weather widget to show the 5 day weather report for a number of different cities. you can have multiple cities that are accessed via a swipe to the left or right.	Handy but not a killer app
Stock Widget	Needs Wifi. You can set up the stock widget to show the latest stock price and history graph for any number of stocks.	Handy but not a killer app
Notes	A small application that lets you type some notes which you can read or email (see below). for some reason it only works in portrait orientation so I find it hard to type on.	Handy but not a killer app
Mail Client	Needs Wifi. A full on mail client. It works with all major internet mail providers (I have mine hooked up to gmail) and works really well. You can set it up to auto sync periodically so even when the iPod is in sleep mode it still seems to replicate my mail. Also you can sent emails offline and it seems to auto send the email the next time the iPod happens to be in range of a Wifi hotspot it is registered for. Apple have also upgraded the Safari and YouTube apps to allow the emailing of links to webpages and YouTube videos. Also notes written in the Notes application can also send emails. Like the Notes application it only works in portrait mode and therefore long email messages for me are too much of a faff.	The #1 reason that this is worth the £13 for me
Google Maps	Needs Wifi. A full Google Maps client just like the iPhone version. I have been having a play and the interface is really useful. I can see it being more use on the iPhone because (a) you tend to always have your phone and (b) the iPhone gets free Wifi or EDGE access - neither that the iPod Touch can take advantage of. I really like the feature where you can type a business type (e.g. "cafe") and it detects that you are not searching for an address and puts pins on the map view that you are currently looking at. There is also the "Location Finder" feature. The app partners with Skyhook Wireless to try and work out your location based on the Skyhook database. Coverage is not in my area yet but they seem to be expanding very quickly.	The #2 reason that this is worth the £13 for me

Now I have all this Wifi capability I am tempted to sign up for TheCloud's £4 a month unlimited Wifi offer. I'll wait and see on that one.

So all in, is it worth £13? It is silly that you have to pay but then you could argue that it is a software upgrade. Mail is the killer app for me, Google maps would be useful if I had a Wifi subscription so I could use it outside the house.

However £13 is nowt these days when two drinks in a Guildford pub comes to £9 :-)

Of course the other reason to upgrade is that the iPhone/iPod SDK is released next month and I assumed you needed the SW Update to make use of the 3rd party apps. I am looking forward to an official version of the iPod Guitar Simulator!

Infinite Monkeys 2008

2008-01-26T12:57:00.000Z

The other day I used the "Infinite Monkeys with Typewriter" analogy and it got me thinking...

If we *had* to implement the experiment today and assuming we could clone a limitlessness supply of primates what would we do. Typewriters are obsolete these days and the complete works of Shakespeare is actually a bit of a low aim in the modern world of data that grows in volume as quickly as it does today.

Fortunately I managed to find someone who could supply me with a limitless supply of primates and I have housed them in a secret location. My monkeys have been given Apple Macbooks each (they are trendy monkeys) and I am patiently waiting for one of them to write every book ever printed. Then I will never have to buy a book again. Mwahahahahahaha!

Here is a photo of them in action that I took this morning:

Infinite Monkeys 2008, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Slight problem, with inifinite monkeys who can't read English I am going to struggle to spot the one Monkey who manages to write the book I want to read. Plus I am now worrying how I am going to feed my abundant apes and am trying to find somewhere that can sell me an infinite amount of bananas....

Oi Cheetah#4623432! Stop swinging on that fan and get back to the laptop or you won't get a peanut!

This is harder than I thought. Maybe I should have stuck with Amazon...

Greasemonkey!

2008-01-23T21:14:00.002Z

Greasemonkey, originally uploaded by Me (?).

Today I finally got round to rewriting my one and only Greasemonkey script for Flickr. The script generates the HTML that the "Blog This" button on Flickr will do. I prefer to write my blog directly in blogger rather than use the Flickr page as I can edit and see previews with blogger.

I originally wrote a script last year but that only worked on your own photos. This new version works for any photo that allows you access to the "All Sizes" page.

The script is useful if you want to blog more than one photo or choose different size pictures. It includes the photo credit caption and links back to the original page.

e.g.

Greasemonkey, originally uploaded by Me (?).

And I can now blog other people's photos. Here is one from my favourites:

big laugh, originally uploaded by blissintothedarkofme (?).

The script requires Firefox with the Greasemonkey addon. My script can be found at UserScripts.org.

*Edit* Here is a screen shot of what the script does. It adds the final block of text that starts 'To link to this photo from your blog...' and the edit box containing the code to copy. See screenshot to the right.

2007 Photo Summary

2008-01-11T08:47:00.001Z

2007 Summary, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Here are some of my favourite photos of 2007. Not necessarily the best pictures but the photos that I like or remind me of something I did in 2007. Roll on 2008 :-)

1. Drip Dry, 2. Bournemouth Pier, 3. Cube-a-rific!, 4. Happy Halloween!, 5. Cow, 6. Going Deeper Underground, 7. Postman has been, 8. Golden Bonanza!, 9. Copenhagen by Night, 10. Copenhagen, 11. 2007 Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG, 12. Roller, 13. Joseph Cyril Bamford, 14. Apple Store, 15. Climate Criminal gets New Charges, 16. The grass is always greener, 17. Pattern of 'P's, 18. Champagne Region, 19. Rosengarten - looking down, 20. The Dolomites, 21. Lake Garda, 22. Church near Bellagio, 23. 2007 Porsche Cayenne S, 24. 2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, 25. 2007 Subaru Impreza WRC, 26. The Matrix, 27. The Oxo Tower, 28. Thirty Three Points?, 29. 1952, 30. Now Wash Your Hands, 31. The Mothership, 32. Great with chips, 33. Brooklyn Bridge, 34. IBM Yorktown Heights, 35. Untitled, 36. He can do anything a spider can

Making Excel Charts Look Cool

2008-01-05T18:58:00.000Z

Ray of Light, originally uploaded by xrrr (?).

After being annoyed with Excel XP making rubbish charts for a report I did a bit of Googling for a better option. Juice Analytics has an excellent site that gives you the low down on making those default charts look better. I tried it out and it gets great results. However...

As well as a PC I also own a Macbook. On the Macbook I tried the free trial of Apple's iWork08 software, a cheaper version of Microsoft Office that is good enough for 90% of your Word, Excel and Powerpoint needs. Amongst other things iWork08 has great looking charts. Though I could have imported my Excel workbook into iWork08 I decided it would be much better to get Excel to replicate the Apple generated graphs. Based on the info from Juice Analytics and a bit of RTFM it turned out to be quite easy. These tips apply to Office XP version of Excel but I am sure the Vista charts will need some help too.

This how to will show you how to turn the default Excel charts:

Into something a whole lot more Apple Cool:

Step 1: Change the Colours
The most basic change is to use some more modern colours than the default Excel ones. I chose to use the default colours that Apple uses as they are bright and have good contrast. I used to think that Excel had a limited colour palette and those were the only colours you can use. Turns out I was wrong.

Go to "Tools", "Options" on the menu and chose the "Color" tab. This opens the colour palette for the worksheet. Charts are drawn using the colours in the "Chart Fills" and "Chart Lines" starting from the left. You can modify these colours to a new set by clicking the "Modify..." button and then the "Custom" tab. I used the Apple colours that have the following RGB values:

1: 59,107,157
2: 110,163,90
3: 237,175,76
4: 202,65,61
5: 131,81,139
6: 142, 145, 144

If you need more than 6 colours then repeat from the top but lighten each up a bit by moving the slider on the colour chooser a little bit upwards. I also set one of the colours in the "Standard Colors" block to RGB 184,184,184 to use for grid lines.

Step 2: Remove the Junk
For some bizarre reason, the default chart settings include a whole bunch of stuff that most of us don't want. So lets turn it all off.

Chart Area
Right click in any white space within the chart but outside of where the chart is drawn. Choose "Format Chart Area".

Patterns Tab
Set "Border" to "None"
If you are pasting into Powerpoint and want a transparent background set "Area" to "None"

Plot Area
This step does not apply to all chart types (e.g. Pie). Right click in the grey area behind the chart. Choose "Format Plot Area".

Patterns Tab
Set "Border" to "None"
Set "Area" to "None"

Grid Lines
This step does not apply to all chart types (e.g. Pie). Right click on the grid lines. Choose "Format Gridlines".

Patterns Tab
Set "Color" to the grey you set above to 184,184,184
Set "Weight" to the third weight down

Axis
This step does not apply to all chart types (e.g. Pie). Right click on one of the axes. Choose "Format Axis".

Patterns Tab
Set "Lines" to "None" - This should only be done on one of the 2 axes. Leave the line alone for the axis that bars are columns originate from.
Set "Major tick mark type" to "None"

Data Series
For each series in the chart (bar, column, pie segment, etc) right click. Choose "Format Data Series".

Patterns Tab
Set "Border" to "None"

Options Tab
For bar and column charts change the "Gap Width" to "50" to make the bars thicker.

Legend
Right click on the legend. Choose "Format Legend".

Patterns Tab
Set "Border" to "None"

Placement Tab
Set "Placement" to "Top"

That's it! Sit back and admire your much cooler, easier to read, more professional looking chart!

Step 3: Save it
Now you have gone to all that effort you can save your new format to apply to future graphs.

Right click on your new chart and select "Chart Type".
Select the "Custom Types" tab.
Near the bottom click "User-Defined".
Click the "Add" button that has just appeared.
Give it a name and description.

The next time you create a chart click to "Custom Types" and "User-defined" and you will see your cool format chart in the list. Unfortunately it does not store the "Chart Area" settings but those are easy to fix.

Colours are stored with the worksheet so creating a new Excel file will reset the colours. You can import colours from other open Excel files by selecting the file with your new colour theme in the "Copy colors from" drop down.

Have fun!

Out with the old...

2007-12-28T14:57:00.000Z

2001 Ford Ka 1.3, originally uploaded by xrrr(?).

After owning it for almost five years, today we traded in Alison's Ford Ka for a VW Polo. The Ka was already 2 years old when we bought it in March 2003 and it is almost exactly 7 years old this week.

The Ka was totally past it. It had been used as a skip work horse during the renovation period on our house and bore the brunt of the heavy stuff. My excuse for not using my car is that the boot aperture is too small as it is not a hatchback :-)

Day 50 - Will it all go in?, originally uploaded by xrrr(?).

Day 353: ...Going..., originally uploaded by xrrr(?).

The last MOT cost £400 which was 10% of the value of the car when we bought it and more than half the trade-in price! So with the following list of worries and an impending MOT due in two weeks we decided it was time to trade it in:

Squeaky clutch - used to be just on hill starts but recently been on most gear changes
Shagged suspension - a million and one clanks and knocks as the car drives around
Odd engine noise when turning left - no idea what this is
Bobbling of paint and rust around the base of the B-pillar
66,000 miles on the clock
Lost Ford badge on the back - not a worry but it is surprising how much it changes the look of the car

I had always found the Ka uncomfortable as a passenger as the window winder always bashed into my knee and the cabin was too small. To its credit though it never broke down. It has needed a new window mechanism (due to the drivers window getting stuck open), some suspension work and both headlight bulbs replacing (both went within a month of each other) but it has never broken down.

When we decided to buy a new car Alison wanted another Ford Ka. It took me a while to persuade her to look at other cars within the guidelines:

Nothing Japanese (Alison doesn't like the look)
Nothing French (I didn't trust the reliability)
Must have air con
Must look nice
Must have at least a 1.3 engine
Nice to have: iPod connectivity

Well the Polo ticked all the boxes even though it was a little more expensive than I had planned. The new shape Polo actually looks really nice too.

2008 Volkswagen Polo 1.4 S, originally uploaded by xrrr(?).

We eventually opted for brand new a 3 door 1.4 Polo S which, including the options (iPod adapter, metallic paint, seat upgrade [the car was ordered from stock and had that already on]) and the finance and servicing deals, was only a few pounds more a month (literally) than buying a decent second hand Polo.

2008 Volkswagen Polo 1.4 S, originally uploaded by xrrr(?).

Buying the car was 'fun' to say the least. The sales guy very quickly passed over negotiations to the dealership manager after I took with me a Glass Guide evaluation (£3.50 from the website) and a print out of the new car price offer from Broadspeed.com. This allowed me to enter negotiations with the lowest price offer in the UK for the new car (or as near as damn it) and for an idea of the best price I could get for the trade in. Therefore with a 'cost to change' already in my mind before we went in I was ready for battle :-)

The conversation went something like this:

Me: I want to pay £8800 cost to change
Dealer: The best I can offer for the trade-in is £700 and matching the Broadspeed price that makes the monthly payment a mere £[I forget the amount]
Me (grabbing the calculator): That means a cost to change of £9050. That is more than I had in mind.
Dealer: That is the lowest we can go. It is a good offer.
Me: Your valuation of the Ka is £350 less than the "average condition" trade on Glass.
Dealer: Yes, that is because we think that is a fair offer.
Me: Ok, £9050 is more than I wanted to spend.
Dealer: We can't go any lower
Me: Offer me £250 more for the trade-in and we have a deal
Dealer: No deal
(lots more benefit statements from the dealer)
Me: Ok. Lets cut this short. Lets go all Dragon's Den and split the difference. I will go up £125 if you meet me in the middle.
Dealer: No deal
Me: Well I am not paying more that £8925
Dealer: Perhaps we can talk more if you look at these extras: Autoglym Life Shine (£350), Gap Insurance (350) and a service and maintenance plan (£17 pcm for 3 years).
Me: Lets not get distracted by those, agree to the car and we can talk about the extras.
Dealer: Gap insurance.....
Me: Agree to £8925 and I will shake your hand and pay the deposit now.
Dealer: That is too low
(Lots of pushing of the "extras")
Me: Look we are arguing over £125 here!
Dealer (thinks about it): Ok, you have a deal. Now about the Gap Insurance.
Me: Ok good, you have a deal. Now lets look at these extras.
(Dealer draws a graph on paper of insurance costs verses car costs)
Dealer: If your car is an insurance write off in the first 3 years this insurance will cover the difference to allow you get a new car again. £350 is a good deal.
Me: No thanks.
Dealer: If your car is an insurance write off...
Me: Look I spent nearly four times as much on a car for me last year [huge exaggeration] and I did not take the gap insurance for that so I ain't going to take it now.
Dealer: Ok, Autoglym Life Shine. Modern cars have a water based paint that needs protection. I am sure when you bought your last sofa you had it Scotch guarded, this is the same thing for the interior and exterior of your car.
Me: No thanks. [not quite believing that car manufacturers would actually put lower quality paint on new cars than they used to - even if they do I am sure they would not let the dealers tell anyone!]
Dealer: Are you telling me that this is not a good thing?
Me: No, I agree it is a good thing but it is not worth £350. Again, I was offered something similar when I bought my car and I looked it up on the internet and it got very mixed reviews on whether it is worth it.
Dealer: I can do it for £300
Me: To be honest I would still be sceptical if it was £50 so no thanks.
Dealer: Ok, so the gap insurance I can do that for you at cost price, £200.
Me: Look. I don't want all this. I agree the Autoglym looks good but no way am I paying more than £50 for it. The gap insurance is a risk mitigation. I am a gambling man [I am not but I was getting carried away] and I am happy to take the risk. So thanks but no thanks.
Dealer: Ok fine.

Phew, that all took about 2 hours. After all that we got a 9% discount on the list price of the car which ain't bad. I probably could have spent another 2 hours and got a bit more off but I really could not be arsed!

Anyway, they texted me a few times during the week to make sure I did not want the extras but I did not crumble! I did accept the VW offer of 3 services for £200 upfront as three years of servicing the Polo is about £400 according to the dealer's service price chart. Looks like quite a sound deal :-)

So we picked the car up today with no problems other than me being held hostage for 30 minutes...

It turned out that there was a slight misunderstanding in our household regarding a car's "Log book". Before we left to go and swap the cars over I asked if Alison had the "service book, log book and driving licence". We got to the dealer and he asked for the V5 Log Book for the Ka. Turned out the V5 Log Book had been left at home!

I guess it is an easy mistake to make. The service book is a book and it has the words "Service Log Book" on the front. Whereas the V5 Log Book is a piece of paper from the DVLA and looks nothing like a book.

They asked me to stay behind whilst Alison popped home to get the V5 otherwise I would have had to pay a £500 retainer (a.k.a ransom!) until we produced the V5 for the Ka.

So, all sorted eventually. Probably about an entire day of my life taken up with the various processes but Alison is happy and that is the important thing :-)

2008 Volkswagen Polo 1.4 S, originally uploaded by xrrr(?).

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-24T19:31:00.001Z

Let it snow!, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Merry Christmas everybody. I hope Father Christmas brings you everything on your list :-)

I am sure a few households will be waking to the following scene with a Nintendo Wii replacing the N64!

Flickr Stats

2007-12-16T16:47:00.001Z

Flickr Stats, originally uploaded by xrrr.

At last! Flickr has finally enabled photo stats!

A long awaited feature that provides statistics on what photos are popular and where they were referred from. It just stops short of the much requested 'WHO has been looking at my photos' but is still very cool.

Looking at my stats I can see that on 15 December 2007 I had 332 views and 2 comments. my top viewed picture was 'Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow' at Madame Tussauds with a grand total 51 views yesterday / 232 views this week / 1,484 views all time.

Johnny Depp as Cap'n Jack Sparrow, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Another interesting feature is the ability to see the details of the referrer or in other words the place that linked to my Flickr page. The vast majority of views came from Flickr itself either from postings in discussion groups, photos in pools or searches. The second highest referrer is Yahoo Image Search. Therefore I can see what people were searching for when they ended up looking at my photo. The current all time top 5 views from searches is:

Jack Sparrow
Noob
Mercedes McLaren
2008 BMW M3
Mercedes Benz

Bizarrely 50% of the Jack Sparrow searches have appeared in the last week. Not sure if my picture managed to get to the front page or whether people have just been searching for Johnny Depp more?!

When I get time, I am sure to be doing a lot more "stat mining" as it is fascinating to see how people are using my photos :-)

Canon Speedlite 430EX Comparison Test

2007-11-29T17:24:00.000Z

Something new to play with, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Canon Speedlite 430EX Comparison Test

First of all let me mention that I am no test or photography expert and I wish I had the knowledge, background and TIME to write a review similar to a dpreview.com level of detail. But I don't!

I bought the flash unit and was curious what the benefits were. So to test the settings I took some sample pictures and have included the pictures and my notes here for the benefit of all.

If you do not agree with my amateur observations then that is fine, you can make your own mind up as all of the full size pictures are on Flickr. Just click on the photos and click the "All sizes" button to get to the large versions. If you an amateur like me and are thinking of buying an external flash unit then hopefully this will help.

Also, before you do anything with your Canon flash you absolutely need to read NK Guy's Flash Photography with Canon EOS Cameras first!

In this post I have two tests:

Comparison of the camera's built in flash with the Speedlite
Comparison of a few basic flash options to improve a scene

Both tests use the following equipment:

Test 1 - Comparison of the camera's built in flash with the Speedlite
This test was performed indoors at night under a standard 100w light bulb. I chose the items in the scene to give reflections, darks, lights and a bit of colour. There is also a grey card used to help with the white balance corrections.

Shot #1.1

Flash Test 1.1 - No flash, originally uploaded by xrrr.

This was my control shot with no flash. True to the various reviews of the 400D the auto white balance selection is way off. Manual correction is required but the end result is a fairly well lit scene. Perhaps a bit dark and the shadows are a bit harsh but I would be reasonably happy with that shot. We are here to test the flash though, so lets press on.

Shot #1.2

Flash Test 1.2 - Stock 400D Flash, originally uploaded by xrrr.

This is the built in pop up flash on the 400D. As with most flash photography at short range, it is very harsh. The shadows from the overhead light are softened out but the glare and reflection from the shiny objects is too much. The white of the pen and paper also loses a bit of detail. Interestingly the only blown highlights are in the reflections of the flash (which you would expect). The flash has been reflected off the shiny container onto the Mont Blanc pen case leaving a nasty light mark. At least the white balance was more accurate. Note that the camera automatically adjusted the shutter speed to adapt for the flash being switched on.

Shot #1.3

Flash Test 1.3 - Speedlite 430EX Direct Flash, originally uploaded by xrrr.

This was taken with the Speedlite 430EX pointing directly forward with all of the default settings. I was initially quite surprised by this shot as it is virtually no different to the built in flash. The shadows are slightly differently placed due to the height of the Speedlite but the glare is still there. So much for the "perfect exposure every time" claim from Canon!

To be honest I should not have been surprised as a flash is a flash and directly head on is the worst kind of flash. I think I had assumed that the 'evaluative through the lens' (E-TTL) light metering would recognise not to blast out such a strong light pulse as it is not required.

I note that my EF 35mm f/2 lens does not support E-TTL distance measurement which means the flash will use a default setting. When I get a chance I will run a test with my EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM that *does* support distance measurement. If you have no idea what I am on about then you have not read NK Guy's flash guide yet!

However, the point of an external flash is that you gain control over what it does...

Shot #1.4

Flash Test 1.4 - Speedlite 430EX Bounced Flash, originally uploaded by xrrr.

This shot used the flash as it is supposed (?) to be used as I directed the flash at my white ceiling and let the light bounce onto the scene. This has created a much more even light. The hard shadows of shot #1 have been softened slightly and there is no harsh glare from from the reflective objects. The flash is a lot less noticeable, in fact the glare from the light bulb on the neck of the bottle is what catches my eye.

Saying all that, for this scene I still prefer the side light from shot #1.1 as it provides more depth than shot #1.4. More practice required I think :-)

Test 2 - Comparison of a few basic flash options to improve a scene
This test was run in the same location as Test 1 but it was an overcast daylight coming through the window on the right of the scene casting long, dark shadows. There was also a window on the far side of the room on the left of the scene. The sun was coming from the right but you can still pick up the left hand window reflections in the Seven Seas container.

Shot #2.1

Flash Test 2.1 - No flash, originally uploaded by xrrr.

As with test 1 the camera's auto white balance is terrible, but shooting in RAW allows me to fix that in the Lightroom software. The light cast on the scene makes it look a bit dull. Handy I have a flash then!

Shot #2.2

Flash Test 2.2 - Black Focus, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I have used the Speedlight with the flash pointing directly at the scene. In this test I wanted to test the difference between what focus point the camera registers because the Speedlite will use the active focus point at the time the photo is taken. This means if you use the camera like I do and keep the centre point as the main focus point, focus and then recompose before taking the shot then the flash will get confused.

In this shot, the focus point is central and focussed on the black Mont Blanc pen case. The result is that the background objects are better lit at the expense of the white paper in the foreground losing some definition. The shiny object has picked up the flash glare but because of the changed angle (looking down more) it is not as noticeable.

I am not sure why, but the camera did not change the shutter speed to adjust for the flash. I think the evaluative metering must have got hung up on the black. Lets see what happens if we change the focus point...

Shot #2.3

Flash Test 2.3 - White Focus, originally uploaded by xrrr.

This shot used the lowest focus point that was covering the white paper in the foreground. Notice how the contrast of the paper is far better and the light looks more natural. A word of caution before you think the flash made a big difference: The camera was in aperture priority mode so me changing the focus point also changes the shutter speed as I was in evaluative metering mode. So a fairly inconclusive test that I need to redo when I get chance.

There is still a lot of glare so lets try and improve it a bit more...

Shot #2.4

Flash Test 2.4 - White Focus (Bounced), originally uploaded by xrrr.

In this shot I aimed the flash away from the scene and bounced it off the back of my grey card (which is white). This has removed almost all of the glare from the scene and kept the lighting reasonably even. The shadows are softer and everything looks more evenly lit. Also in this final picture I only had to tweak the white balance the tiniest amount. I am not sure what happened to make the auto white balance work better but it is all good.

Conclusions
The external flash was not the immediate 'fix it all' solution I was hoping for but my first 50 shots on my 400D (my first SLR) were absolute rubbish as I had not learned how to use it. All of these quick tests were run with the Speedlite on the default "auto" settings so I was not making full use of the flash.

The flash unit gives a massive amount of tweaking potential that, once mastered, should prove to be a useful addition to my (ever increasing) camera kit. I never use the pop up flash just as I never use the camera's "auto" mode.

I am now considering a cheap softbox attachment for the Speedlite to see if I can get that utopian soft light for indoor portraits without having to invest in a remote flash or studio lights!

Am I glad I invested? Absolutely! I like the being in control of the flash in order to obtain better photographs. I now just need to learn how to use the thing!

I hope this was useful :-)

Tube-less

2007-11-27T01:04:00.001Z

Tube-less, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I read in the Rocketboom blog recently about the NY subway map reduced to a simple picture with no text or grid lines.

This is my attempt at doing the London Underground map using the same idea.

It also looks more abstract in B&W:

Tube-less B&W, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The Fat Duck

2007-11-23T12:25:00.000Z

The Fat Duck, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Last week Alison and I were lucky enough to visit Heston Blumenthal's restaurant, The Fat Duck. We opted for the 'tasting menu' which turned into over four hours of food theatre. I had the full menu and Alison had a special vegetarian variation of the dishes. We got a copy of the menu in a wax sealed envelope (pictured above).

What follows is a brief summary of what I ate! Note all the savoury dishes were served with the most amazing tasting bread and butter.

Nitro-Green Team and Lime Mousse
The waiter turns up with a bucket of liquid nitrogen and a container full of mousse. He puts a dollop of mousse on the end of a spoon and 'cooks' it in the liquid nitrogen. What happens is that the outside of the mouse freezes and the inside stays soft. As he serves it, he sprinkles green tea powder over the top and sprays a vaporizer of green tea at you as you eat it! Bizarre but very nice.

Oyster, Passion Fruit Jelly, Lavender
You get two postage stamp sized squares of jelly on a plate to enjoy. One orange and one red.

Pommery Grain Mustard Ice Cream, Red Cabbage Gazpacho
Yes it was cold cabbage soup with a dollop of mustard ice cream on top! This was a particularly good dish. Very tasty.

Jelly of Quail, Langoustine Cream, Parfait of Foie Gras
Oak Moss and Truffle Toast
This was an unusual dish to say the least.
It started with a tray of moss put in the middle of the table, a plate of truffle toast and a bowl of 'soup'.
We had to eat in three stages.
1) We ate a 'film' of moss - it was just like those breath mint films you but on your tongue but tasted of moss.
2) We ate the jelly, cream and Foie Gras layered soup whilst the waiter poured liquid nitrogen into the moss to create a 'dry ice' effect on the table that smelled of a forest. The layered soup was amazing, a bit strange as it was jelly on the bottom, cold soup in the middle and a dollop of Foie Gras on top.
3) We then tucked into the Truffle Toast.

Snail Porridge
Joselito ham, shaved fennel
This was my favourite dish. The porridge was mixed with parsley with the ham, snails and fennel on top. Absolutely gorgeous I could have eaten 3 times as much!

Roast Foie Gras
Almond fluid gel, cherry and chamomile
A dollop of roasted Foie Gras with the sauces arranged around.

"Sound of the Sea"
This was another unusual one. First a large shell arrived with an iPod Shuffle hidden inside. The waitress told us to put on the headphones and we listened to the 'sound of the sea' (sea breaking on a shore and sea gulls) for a few minutes until the food arrived. The food was served on a tray of sand with a glass top. On the glass was the food made to look like the beach just as a wave has broken: lots of seaweed, seafood, foam and 'sand'. We ate it whilst continuing to listen to the iPod. I am not sure what it was but there was seafood in there and something very clever to keep the foam foamy for the entire length of the meal.

Salmon Poached in Liquorice
Artichokes, vanilla mayonnaise and "Manni" olive oil
The was a block salmon encased in liquorice jelly. Unusual, I could not really taste the liquorice but the salmon was fab.

Ballotine of Anjou Pigeon
Black pudding "made to order", pickling brine and spiced juices
I may have had too much wine at this point but I don't really remember much about this dish other than the pigeon was served on the bone.

Hot and Iced Tea
Yet another unusual one. We got a glass of Earl Grey tea. It was not until you sip it you realise that one half is hot and the other half is cold! Not sure how they did it, may have been some jelling agent or something to keep them separate. Very unusual.

Mrs Marshall's Margaret Cornet
After reading a two page leaflet about how Mrs Beaton stole Mrs Marshall's thunder we were presented with a mini ice cream cone with a kind of apple ice cream.

Pine Sherbet Fountain
Another strange one. A sherbet fountain with a tube of vanilla rather than liquorice and a small amount of 'pallet cleansing' pine sherbet.

Mango and Douglas Fir Puree
Bavourois of lychee and mango, blackcurrant sorbet
Yes Christmas tree puree!

Parsnip Cereal
I was presented with a cereal box, a bowl and a jug of milk. In the box were some parsnip flakes that looked like corn flakes. They were good, but that was only the breakfast starter for...

Nitro-Scrambled Egg and Bacon Ice Cream
Pain perdue and tea jelly
The waiter turns up with a gas burner, a copper pan and an egg box. He tells me that these are special "Fat Duck Eggs" and there is no gas so he will have to use liquid nitrogen (natch). He breaks the egg into the pan and flash freezes it with the liquid nitrogen. The 'scrambled egg' ice cream is then served on a sweet 'pain perdue' that is supposed to be a hash brown and a cup of tea jelly.

Now this is the strange bit. The ice cream tasted like bacon! I am not sure if it was the chemicals that make bacon taste like bacon or actual bacon. All I can say is that it was bloody lovely!

Whisk(e)y Wine Gums
This was six cola bottles stuck to a picture frame showing a map of Scotland (and Tennessee). Each wine gum tasted like the scotch whiskey from the region followed up with a Jack Daniels (hence Tennessee).

Petits Fours
Carrot and orange lolly, mandarin aerated chocolate, violet tartlet, apple pie caramel "edible wrapper"
Some final deserts to eat with the coffee we decided not to order as it was an additional £15 each!

All in all, an amazing experience that I am glad I did. I don't think I would go back again unless the menu has totally changed as it was very expensive and more about the experience rather than just the food.

Cube-a-rific!

2007-11-06T08:49:00.001Z

Cube-a-rific!, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I saw on the FlickrBlog that HP have created a template that lets you build a photo cube. A simple idea, but a great one. It only took 15 mins to select, print, cut out and assemble.

Pictured is the fruits of my labour.

Nem Beszélek Magyarul

2007-10-25T23:46:00.000+01:00

New York Cafe, originally uploaded by xrrr.

According to my guide book 'Nem beszélek magyarul' means 'I don't speak Hungarian'. Which is a shame because I am sure I would have got on a lot better this past week if I could.

Alison and I traveled to Budapest in 2002 and I was lucky to be able to pay a brief return visit this week.

+-+- Day 1 Saturday -+-+
I got off the plane and straight into a taxi. The first sign that Hungary is now part of the European Union was that the first three logos I saw from the taxi were (in order): Tesco, C&A and Shell. Very Hungarian so far. The last time we visited Budapest there were lots of unattractive, concrete apartment blocks on the outskirts of the city and a million and one Trabants. I don't know if I took a different route or it was dark but it seemed all very 'normal' for a continental European city. I doubt that they would have replaced the bulk of the housing in the past 5 years so I assume it was the route or the darkness.

New York Palace Hotel, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I was staying in the New York Palace Hotel. The hotel was chosen for me by the conference organisers because the conference hotel was fully booked due to my late booking (our company's foreign travel approval process is long winded at best). Now I would not normally stay at such an opulent hotel, especially on the company's coin, but this was only costing me around £120 a night. As you can see from the photos it is absolutely stunning. The room is probably about 3/5 the size as the flat Alison and I used to have in Farnborough. That was a small flat, but as hotel rooms go it was bloody big.

New York Palace Hotel, originally uploaded by xrrr.

New York Palace Hotel Room 430, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The New York Palace Hotel has only recently reopened after apparently being almost derelict for the past 20 years. The hotel was commissioned by the the New York Insurance Company and opened in 1894. The hotel fell on hard times after World War 2 and was nationalised during the soviet rule. The hotel and associated New York Cafe was eventually bought by Italian Boscolo hotel chain in 2001 and eventually reopened in 2006 after an extensive refit.

New York Palace Hotel, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After spending a while photographing the hotel I went for a night time walk down to the river and spent the time having a stroll taking photographs.

Chain Bridge, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Royal Palace, originally uploaded by xrrr.

On the way back I wanted to go to the famous Gerbeaud Ház cafe for a coffee and a cake but I missed it closing by a few minutes. I took a route down the main shopping street and tourist drag Váci utca and whilst I had paused for a few moments to work out where I was I was approached by two "bottle blonde babes" in their mid 20s. They jabbered something to me in Hungarian (see it would have come in handy) and then we all determined that I was English and that they could speak English too. They said they were looking for a street and I said I had a map. After one of them poured over the map I made small talk with the other one whilst the other girl chipped in with Hungarian comments and translations. Eventually they found the bit they were after and were happy. As they wondered off they both looked back and asked me what I was doing and if I would like to join them!

Let me quote something from my guidebook:

"Budapest is generally a very safe city, but it is not without its dangers, especially late at night. Attractive peroxide-blondes promenading Váci utca and introducing themselves to single men may appear friendly and genuine at first sight, but, alas, they are not. If they insist you join them for a drink a bar of their choice, you should refrain from doing so. They are not prostitutes, but "consumption girls", employed by bars to bring in foreign men to buy them drinks - which, as will become apparent only after the bill arrives, costs thousands of Hungarian forints"

Checklist:
Váci utca. check!
Peroxide. check!
Lone man. check!
Late at night. Sort of (9pm) but: check!
Asked to join for drink. check!

"Thanks but no thanks!"

I *do* think the guidebook needs updating though, a glass of beer in my hotel costs thousands of Hungarian forints because there are about 350 forints to the pound!

Funilly enough I was talking to another conference delegate later in the week and he said he had overheard a conversation between a British guy and the hotel staff where the British guy was angry that he had been charged €2000 for 5 beers. The bouncer in the 'gentleman's club' he had been in had escorted him to a cash point to make him pay for his drinks! My guide book had cost me £13 and I bet he wished he had bought that instead :-)

Any way after than run in with the dodgy side of life I strolled back to the hotel and had some dinner in the New York Cafe with its baroque decoration and (because it was Saturday night) Jazz band. Great food and atmosphere, I highly recommend.

New York Cafe, originally uploaded by xrrr.

+-+- Day 2 Sunday -+-+
As my hotel room rate did not include breakfast and I was against paying £10 for a cup of coffee and a croissant I stopped at a kiosk in the local metro station and got a sandwich there instead.

Going Deeper Underground, originally uploaded by xrrr.

My plan for the day was to Metro train it over to the Buda old town and then walk down to the old market (which would be unfortunately closed as it was Sunday) and then over the bridge to the Gellert baths complex.

Moscow Square, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I started my walk in Moszkva tér which translates to Moscow Square but to me it was very reminiscent of City 17. Lots of grey buildings, tram lines and overhead tram cables. There were a few homeless people in the square and people hawking lace tablecloths and flowers.

Street Seller in Moscow Square, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I noticed a lot of homeless people in the city this time round. They were fairly obvious because they mostly carried a Tesco bag for life and could be seen rummaging in litter bins.

Moscow Square, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I walked up the hill to the old town of Buda. It could not be any more different to Moscow Square, old buildings, picturesque and *very* quiet. As it was Sunday, the north end of the town was very quiet.

Old Town Buda, originally uploaded by xrrr.

As I walked over to Fisherman's Bastion it got much busier and more touristy.

Fisherman's Bastion, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After admiring the views at Fisherman's Bastion and the front of the Royal Palace I strolled down the hill back to the Chain Bridge and walked into the Four Seasons Hotel Lobby at the far end of the bridge. No interior photos because the staff were all looking at me funny, but check the pictures on their web site.

Peregrine Falcon (I think), originally uploaded by xrrr.

I walked back to the Gerbeaud Ház cafe for a coffee and a cake (it was open this time) and after drinking (yet) another small cup of coffee I was really hankering after a drink that took more than 3 sips to drink.

Fatal Restaurant, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I happened across a restaurant that Alison and I enjoyed on our last visit called Fatál. The sign noted that it had air conditioning. It bloody needed it as it is a cellar restaurant and when we went last time in the Hungarian summer I found it was almost fatal. A fatál by the way is the large wooden dish that they serve up the food on.

I got to the market place that was closed, I knew it would be closed but I went on the off chance. Last time we went to Budapest it was full of amazing stalls selling whole heads of pig and cows feet etc. Alas it was closed so I could not gawp.

Outside the market the road was all closed because it turns out they are building a forth Metro tunnel. I took a look at the website for the project and it is actually really interesting! Honestly! I took the opportunity to photo-document a pair of Ladas parked up by the hoardings.

Lada 2105, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Lada 1600, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I popped over the bridge to the Gellert Hotel. We had been for a swim here last time and I hoped to get a few photos of the interior. Unfortunately you had to pay to swim to get in (even if you did not intend to swim) so I caught the Metro back to hotel and chilled out.

+-+- Day 3 Monday -+-+
Went to work, nothing interesting to report.

At the conference, originally uploaded by xrrr.

+-+- Day 4 Tuesday -+-+
Went to work, nothing interesting to report. Part of the conference was a meal out at the Gundel Étterem. One of the best restaurants in Hungary. We were in the function room (as there were about 200 of us) and had a 'gypsy band' that did not look very gypsy like. I was expecting 'Dexy's Midnight Runners' but they were 4 old blokes in black ties playing the violin, harpsichord and clarinet. They were very good and the food and Tokaji was tip top also. The restaurant owns it own vineyards so I bought a bottle of Gundel Tokaji Aszú from the airport for Alison. I also bought Alison a small bottle of Unicum as a joke. Unicum is a Hungarian digestive liqueur and best described as an 'acquired taste' i.e. horrible.

On the way back to the hotel we had a short bus tour round the city, whilst the tour guide was trying to get us to concentrate on the city sights all of us on the bus were more interested in the 20 vehicle strong police convoy consisting of water cannons, armoured cars and buses full of police. October 23 is the anniversary of the 1956 uprising against the Soviet occupation but this year also coincided with a demonstration against the current government. Riots had occurred the night before on the other side of town!

Cash, originally uploaded by xrrr.

+-+- Day 5 Wednesday -+-+
Went to work. Had a mad taxi ride through the soviet style concrete block apartment suburbs - the ones that I had thought were missing on day 1. They were still there, it was just dark on Saturday!

Budapest is definitely a city where the gap between rich and poor is very evident. Five star hotels are separated by rows of tatty looking shops, often with homeless men sleeping in the shop fronts.

Budapest has the feel of a city that once saw really great times (e.g. all of the amazing buildings and infrastructure built in the 1890s). A lot of the central Pest part of the city was built especially for the 1896 World Fair and 1000 year birthday of the country. Since World War II (when a lot of the city was destroyed and then rebuilt after the war) and the Soviet 'Oppression' the city went through a period of decline. Hungary lost a lot of its territory and almost all of its natural resources after WW2 and therefore lost a lot of its heavy industry. Nowadays the country survives on agriculture and tourism and to me seems to be starting to make a recovery - at least in central Budapest - maybe it was the fall of the Iron Curtain or entry to the European Union has helped, maybe both.

Parliament Building, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Chain Bridge, originally uploaded by xrrr.

If you have not been, I urge you to visit Budapest as it is a wonderful place to visit.

Every iPod Dies...

2007-10-22T19:59:00.001+01:00

The Mothership, originally uploaded by xrrr.

No I am not lamenting the fact that my new iPod touch has broken already - though I did manage to corrupt it 2 weeks ago and had to do a full refresh.

No, I have just read about the iPod Death Clock. A tool that works out the remaining life left in your iPod. I am away from home at the moment and only have my 'more robust' 5G iPod with me so I can cannot find out how long my shiney new one will last just yet.

So plugging in the serial number, some usage stats and whether I have dropped it or got it wet the iPod Death Clock declares that my iPod has LESS THAN ONE YEAR TO LIVE! 295 days, 20 hours, 17 minutes and 20 seconds to be precise. I have had the 5G iPod for about 2 years now so it has had a good innings. It has been relegated to be my in car iPod and travel iPod until I get a proper case for my iPod Touch.

Now the cynic in me tells me that this is a very dubious marketing scam to get me to buy a new battery from the site that hosts the death clock. I might be right.

A cool feature of the Death Clock is the ability to add the death date to my Google Calendar. So it has added 12 August 2008 to my calendar. If I still have my 5g iPod on that date I will be sure to check (and blog) if I remember.

On a happier (?) note, I have checked my personal death date on the Human Death Clock and apparently I have around 1.2 billion seconds left to live. My check out date is Friday January 11 2047. Curiously there is no "Add to Google Calendar" link for that one...

I need to get in contact with the wonderfully eccentric looking Aubrey de Grey and get him to pull his finger out....

Corporate Demographics 2007

2007-10-19T13:34:00.000+01:00

Corporate Demographics, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Then
This picture came about a few years ago after my friend Chris Green and I were moaning about something over our work's instant messaging tool. The conversation went something like:

CG: I can't believe what <name> has done now!
Me: Tell me about it.
CG: <gory details about the cock up>
Me: Well, 60% of people are muppets
CG: LOL
Me: And the rest are project managers!

So after the conversation was complete and seeing as it was a Friday I decided to create a pie chart using Excel. I found a picture of the muppets and a picture of a guy sitting with his feet on the desk having a rest and decided that would be perfect for the project manager slice.

I sent it out a few years ago and we all had a good chuckle at our project manager's expense.

Now
I was talking with someone recently who I only started working with in the past 2 years. I mentioned that 60% of the working world are muppets and my colleague asked me if he had seen this pie chart. "Seen it, I made it!".

I took a look at it the other day and realised that it looked a bit "amateur". Excel 2002 is good but the graphs and charts look very basic these days. Seeing as I *still* have Excel 2002 I decided to use Photoshop to create a much more modern interpretation. The results you can see above. I could not find the same images so had a trawl about on the net and found these. The replacement PM slide picture I think is great, the clown is a nice touch.

So I sent it out again this morning and we have all had a good laugh at the expense of our respective project managers. This time round I made the off hand comment that it should have been a Venn Diagram rather than a pie chart.

I got this excellent response from an old friend Dave Lewis:

"How could it be a venn diagram?

Apart from the obvious (project mgrs are a subset of muppets), and the impossible (muppets who know what they are doing), the only possible intersection would be project managers who know what they are doing. Inconceivable!"

Well done Mr Lewis!

Vine Voice

2007-10-18T17:47:00.000+01:00

Postman has been, originally uploaded by xrrr.

My Amazon Vine orders came through this morning after I ordered them on Tuesday evening. Amazon Vine appears to be a way for 'selected' Amazon customers to get early release items in order to review them and perhaps create some buzz around products.

After a some teething troubles on the Monday (launch day) the service got underway on Tuesday evening. I eventually managed to place my orders late on Tues evening.

If anyone is interested I ordered the following:

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Amazon reviewing system had put me off reviewing in the past but it seems a lot better now. My review of Tales of Grime and Grit was posted instantly and I now get the option of editing the review. Perhaps this is a Vine only feature.

Free Stuff!, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I am also a bit confused over what the policy is, after I ordered the 3 items I read that there was a maximum of 2 items. All 3 turned up this morning. I don't think I am able to order any more until I have written reviews for the items I have. The CDs are easy as they can be listened through a few times in a matter of hours and a snap opinion made. The book is going to take some time!

Anyway, can't complain. I got about £20 of free stuff this month and the Ruarri Joseph album is bloody good!

bibi

2007-10-17T21:51:00.001+01:00

bibi, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Here is a photo from a magazine article featuring the painting the artist Fabrice Spies, a.k.a "bibi", made of one of my photos. My signed print is currently in the picture framers getting framed so I will post a few pics when it is done.

[Full Las Vegas Home and Design Article]

Special Delivery

2007-10-08T20:10:00.000+01:00

Mailed, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Parcel, originally uploaded by xrrr.

As previously reported one of my photos has been turned into a painting.

Fabrice the artist sent me a print of the painting last week to thank me for letting him use my photo. Fabrice also sent me a photocopy of an article featuring him and the painting in Las Vegas Home & Design magazine. Very swish.

I will get the print framed next week (I was supposed to on Saturday but forgot to take the picture into town!) and take some photos. In the meantime be satisfied with some pictures of the parcel the picture came in :-)

Amazon Vine

2007-10-07T10:12:00.001+01:00

Twisty, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Completely out of the blue yesterday I got an invite to join the Amazon Vine programme. With Vine, Amazon will ship me three pre-order items a month to review. As long as I keep reviewing I keep getting free stuff to review. I assume it will be books, CDs and DVDs as those were the questions I had to fill in on my invitation form.

Amazon's web site says:

Amazon Vine™ is a program that enables a select group of Amazon customers to post opinions about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make educated purchase decisions. Customers are invited to become Amazon Vine™ Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews. Amazon provides Amazon Vine™ members with free copies of products that have been submitted to the program by vendors. Amazon does not influence the opinions of Amazon Vine™ members, nor do we modify or edit their reviews.

I assume that I got an invite because I preorder stuff and am a Top 500 reviewer on the UK site.

I must admit that I have not reviewed anything for over 2 years because it ended up being too hard. I would spend 20 minutes writing a review and then if you were lucky they posted it. If you were unlucky then they would not. You can chase them but they just send back a form email saying that the review did not meet the guidelines, of which there are many! Because the review was filled in on a web form then you did not get a copy of what you wrote. I therefore started writing the reviews in Word and then pasted them into the form. At least then I got spell checking!

Hopefully they have improved the process now, or maybe there will be a Vine forum that I can post my issues to. Maybe because of the last part of the Amazon statement ("nor do we modify or edit their reviews") they just allow reviews through without approval (unlikely!).

I'll keep you posted.

My search is over...

2007-10-03T21:02:00.001+01:00

My search is over..., originally uploaded by xrrr.

Nine days after being let down by Amazon.co.uk I managed to pick up the last but one iPod Touch today from the Regent Street Apple Store in London.

I called at about 14.30 (after being on hold for 20 mins) and they said they had "a few" left and could not reserve one for me. I had to play a game of "Play Your Cards Right" with the guy on the phone because he would not give me an exact number.

Anyway, my last meeting over ran so at about 17:00 I rushed over to Regent Street in a taxi and managed to get the penultimate 16GB model.

It is still synching with iTunes but will post some images when it has finished...

*Edit*
Here are some pics

iPod Touch, originally uploaded by xrrr.

ipod Touch, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Pictobrowser

2007-09-09T10:58:00.000+01:00

I just found this great picture viewer linked to on FlickrBits.com. I have set it up to look at my "20 most interesting" Flickr Set.

To get it yourself click the "info" button in the bottom right and follow the instructions.

The SAS Experience

2007-09-06T21:21:00.000+01:00

Copenhagen, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Just come back from a short work trip to Copenhagen. Nice place, would like to go again for a weekend as I only managed a few hours walk around town with everything closed.

I flew with SAS, very pleasant experience - took literally 90 seconds to check in and drop my bag off at Heathrow (compared to 60 minute queue on my last trip to the US). Even security was fast. So I was sat in the departure lounge 15 minutes after stepping out of the taxi and that included queuing at the currency exchange place.

I had chosen a seat the night before via the SAS website so had managed to snaffle an exit row. I got chatting to the woman next to me who turned out to be a pro golfer who flies around Europe every Tuesday and plays golf Weds-Sat pretty much every week. Sounds a bit like hard work to me!

SAS have a great feature that showed the view from the cockpit on the LCD panels throughout the plane so you can see the runway. It then switches to a looking down shot once you take off. Very good.

To keep up the SAS Experience I stayed at the Radisson SAS Scandanavia hotel. Free broadband! What a fresh of breath air!

God Bless Free Internet, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I had time to have a few hours walking round town. I did not see much as it was about 20 mins to the city centre and everything was closed or closing. The Danish like to cycle. Apparently the Danish will cycle on average 3km every day of their life. That is a lot of peddling.

Copenhagen Parking, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I could not find a restaurant that appealed (McDonalds, Hard Rock Cafe, 'English Pub' were my options). I think that is because my American colleague had suggested where I look for food rather than Copenhagen is a chain store nightmare. So I ate back at the hotel. With nothing else to do I explored some of the features of my camera, took a few long exposures with the camera rather delicately balanced out of my 23rd floor window (it opened wide enough to get the camera out) it slipped off the window ledge a few times so it was a good job I had the strap securely wrapped round my neck!

I ended up with a few I liked:

Copenhagen by Night, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I had an early start and a 90 minute customer presentation to do the next morning so I was gutted that I did not have time to visit the Copenhagen Casino that was in the basement of my hotel. Maybe next time :-)

If you visit Copenhagen, make sure you buy a pipe. I would have but would not have had much use for it :-)

Copenhagen, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Rocketship Journey

2007-09-02T21:27:00.000+01:00

Reach for the Stars, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Whilst trying to get the Google Earth flight sim working (which I didn't) I got distracted (as I often do) and ended up making this short, art house cinema worthy short film of my rocket trip from my back garden into the stars...

Potholing in Guildford

2007-08-26T13:26:00.000+01:00

Closed, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The state of the streets of Guildford have often caused me to moan. Giant pot holes and rubbish road surfacing. You could blame the council but they are in the process of suing the last contractor who was responsible for road maintenance. The contractor was charging the council but not actually doing the work (I *know* I read this was the case somewhere but I will be blowed if I can find anything on tinternet mentioning this fact).

They must have some new people now as our street has been in the process of being resurfaced for the past week. Well overdue. They have packed up for the bank holiday and left their machinery right outside my house. Gave me an excuse to practice taking photographs. Some highlights.

Joseph Cyril Bamford, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Roller, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Locked, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Google implements a Reverse Total Perspective Vortex

2007-08-23T10:26:00.001+01:00

Stars, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I have just downloaded the new 4.2 version of Google Earth. It now allows you to investigate the sky at night above your current location.

Whist zooming into the infinity of space and rediscovering my fascination with 'space stuff' I realised that Google have actually implemented a Reverse Total Perspective Vortex. I can point Google Earth at my house and then flip to sky mode and see the 'pure unimaginable infinity of space'. It is a good job it is a Reverse Total Perspective Vortex or else Google might have inadvertently created 'the most horrible torture device to which a sentient being can be subjected'!

Use with caution folks!

Bioshock PC Demo leaked onto BT

2007-08-20T20:38:00.001+01:00

The Matrix, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I am sure no one reads my blog but posting this anyway! Bioshock is one of the most eagerly awaited PC games of the past few years. It is not out in the UK until Friday 24 August but the PC demo is out now on bit torrent. Only 12 hours 43 minutes to go. Woot!

I always like to put at least one of my photos on each blog page so I had a bit of a dilemma as I don't actually have any photos of anything to do with the game. I chose this picture because of the game's watery theme and the green colour is very "bio" I thought :-)

read more | digg story

Photo Assignment

2007-08-19T12:11:00.000+01:00

In a random twist of fate the wife of the chap who made a painting of one of my photos has offered me a job!

She works for Look-Look in LA which looks to be some sort of market research company. The job was to take some photo-journalistic photos of 'macro-trends' for a presentation to a client. I have been offered $100 for 30+ photos by mid-September.

That sounds fine until you read the brief:

Please find pictorial examples of how these macro-trends trends have manifested into daily life, specifically related to parent/mom/child lifestyles. Be sure to include location and a quick description of what the picture is.

- Neo-Green: The green/eco movement is no longer isolated to granola/hippy-types. Green has gone mainstream. Green/eco products are now widely distributed, easy to find, well designed and sustainable. Consumers are quick to differentiate true green initiatives from "greenwashing." And they are researching and looking for products and services that are sustainable, carbon-neutral and renewable.

- Experiential Retail: Consumers enjoy retail environments that produce a sense of joy and discovery. Experience/entertainment at retail has become a significant replacement for traditional advertising. As consumers move away from intrusive advertising that interrupts and annoys, retailers are winning over their customers by delighting all of their senses at the store level.

- Collective Wisdom: Because of the Internet, consumers are harnessing the power of access to honest and authentic information and connection to the global community. In particular, the young mom demographic is one of the most active groups with this behavior. They are self-educating themselves and others on product information, recommendations and influencing potential future sales of products and services.

- Video Gaming: As video games become more and more ubiquitous across multiple demographic groups, there is a shift in the development in game genres and content development. There are emerging subcultures within gaming that is turning the industry on its ear. Girl gamers and casual female gamers are both strong in numbers and influence. They are forcing the games industry to create games that are more relevant and different from traditional "shooter"-type genres. They must pay attention to lifestage, lifestyle and psychology of the gamer. This is creating games that are more educational, cerebral, and emotional in nature.

Oh oh. That sounds a bit hard. I'll let you know how I get on.

Here is the first photo!

Eco Warrior, originally uploaded by xrrr.

One down, 29+ to go!

Bibi Picture Complete!

2007-08-12T20:33:00.001+01:00

Mandalay Bay, originally uploaded by xrrr.

A few months ago I mentioned that I was having one of my photos was being turned into a painting.

Well it is complete. The artist and the painting will be shown at the ArtExp Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Hotel on 28-30 September 2007.

Time to see if I can get a decent price on the flight...

Pattern of 'P's

2007-08-02T20:10:00.001+01:00

Pattern of 'P's, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I took this photo whilst on holiday. It was a rack of champagne bottles that I tried to take a photo of without a tripod. Very low light. I had perched the camera on a table but had to hold it. I obviously moved a bit but I love the result. Very abstract...

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 11

2007-07-31T23:26:00.001+01:00

Day 11

2000 Miles Later, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I think this picture sums it all up.
Best holiday we have had in years.
Amazing places.
Want to do it all over again...

Summary
Day 1 - Travel south through France
Day 2 - Through Switzerland to Lake Como
Day 3 - Bellagio
Day 4 - Varenna
Day 5 - Como
Day 6 - Lake Como to Lake Garda
Day 7 - Lake Garda to the Dolomites
Day 8 - A day in the Dolomites
Day 9 - Five countries in a day!
Day 10 - Champagne region

[All Photos]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 10

2007-07-31T20:21:00.000+01:00

Day 10

Another long driving day on this day, up through France to Troyes.

Troyes, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After we got to the hotel we were told we could not check in yet so we went for a walk around the town. Troyes was an unusual place. 'Capital' of the Champagne Region. Gigantic cathedral. Lots of old buildings. But very run down in places, to the point of dereliction.

Troyes, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We decided that it would be criminal to go to the Champagne Region and not go to a Champagne house. We went to the Troyes tourist information office (next to Claire's Accessories of all things)

Troyes, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We found a leaflet for a local Champagne House called Chassenay d'Arce.
We had a great drive over there through the French countryside. Very flat and lots and lots of fields.

Big Sky, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We found the Champagne place and parked up.

Chassenay d'Arce, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The leaflet we had was all in French but we had assumed that there would be some sort of tour or something. We went inside and stood about in the foyer whilst the lady at the desk was seeing to someone. Eventually someone else turned up and asked if we were ok. Being multilingual to a point I went straight in with "parlez vous Anglais?". With that sorted we found out that the place offered a video, tour of the wine cellar and some tasting.

So we sat in a room with another couple (who I think were Dutch) and watched an English DVD about how champagne is made. Blimey, no wonder it is so expensive given the effort that goes into making it!

After the video we went for a quick spin round the cellar museum thing. Not much to see but worth a quick look.

From Huitieme to Primat, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After the museum Alison and I and the Dutch couple were sat at a nice table with some champagne flutes. The hostess gave us a menu and asked us what we would like to drink. Well Champagne obviously. I only had a glass or so as I was driving but I was sure we could have spent a lot longer there. Given that we had not paid for anything yet as the tour and tasting was free we felt we ought to buy some bubbly from them. I am sure the softly softly approach works very well as we bought six bottles!

Back to Troyes and to check in at the hotel. The Hotel Champ des Oiseaux was amazing. We had been recommended it by our friends Katie and Robin. The rooms were named after people rather than numbered. For some reason they also had valet parking. Not sure if it was for aesthetics, lack of parking or security.

Outside the Hotel, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After checking in we went for a quick spin round some other parts of the town. We followed a route in our tourist map from the hotel and it took us on a bizarre trip round some derelict buildings and closed down shops!

Boarded-up Boulangerie, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We also came across a few shops that only sold model cars. Not quite what we were expecting.

Minature Citroens, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Minature Ferraris, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The cathedral was very large, very gothic and very much in need of a clean. It looks like they had started cleaning but they had a loooong way to go.

Troyes Cathedral, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The town centre was a bit overly touristy and I got a bit grumpy because I had a rubbish meal in a tourist restaurant. When I came to pay I realised that I had lost my credit card. I rang Egg and determined that I must had left it at the Champagne place. Doh. Good job we were on the way home in the morning and had internet access at the hotel so that I could transfer some money into my current account!

We decided to go back to the hotel courtyard and have a drink. I did not check the price before ordering managed to spend €26 on 2 coffees and a cognac! Oh well it was a nice place to sit.

Champ des Oiseaux Courtyard, originally uploaded by xrrr.

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 9

2007-07-29T16:37:00.000+01:00

Day 9

We had a long drive ahead of us on this day so we got up early in order to head off and make good time. I opened the curtains to a view so amazing I had to get my camera:

A Sciliar Morning, originally uploaded by xrrr.

There was not much to report on the journey other than the new SG record of visiting FIVE foreign countries in a single day! I was very excited!

Italy: A quick blast up the autostrada to the Austrian border

Austria: We got a bit confused at the border and missed the place where we had to buy our toll vignette from but managed to buy one from a very grumpy petrol station man just over the border. As well as the vignette we were also stung for two €8 tolls for tunnels.

Switzerland: lots and lots of tunnels

Germany: We saw a sign saying "Germany 300 metres" so I had to take to opportunity as I had never been to Germany before. We drove over the border, got out of the car for 20 seconds and then headed back to Switzerland. It still counts!

France: We stayed at the Hotel Cour du Roy in Saint Louis about 1km from the Swiss border.

Well I was impressed :-)

For dinner we decided to go into Basel. The hotel receptionist was very helpful and told us what bus to get and where to get the tram home.

Going over the French-Swiss border was strange. The checkpoint is basically a hut with (open) gates crossing the road. The road is dead straight and goes on for miles on either side of the border. The oddest thing was seeing French road names and billboard advertisements and then after going through this gate everything switched to German. Literally in the space of 20 feet. The part of Switzerland we went through to get to Italy was Italian speaking so the transition was not particularly noticeable that time. Whilst on the French side I saw this shop that I liked the look of:

Valentin SIMON, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Basel was quite nice, I don't think our one hour stroll around the centre did it justice. We got off the bus at the historic Marktplatz where there were a number of old buildings.

Basel Marketplace, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After strolling around aimlessly we stopped for a beer (I know that I mention beer in most of these blog posts but it was a long drive!) by the cathedral.

Mmmm beer, originally uploaded by xrrr.

As we were in Switzerland they have a different currency. Fortunately we had been told that everywhere takes the Euro but gives change in Swiss Francs. We consulted the Basel guide book we had picked up from the hotel and it suggested a visit to the 'Pfaltz' vantage point behind the cathedral. As we were right by the cathedral we took a look.
It offered a great view of the lake, the guide book had tipped us off about the popularity of swimming in the river on hot days so were not surprised to see people having a dip:

Swiming in the Rhine at Basel, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We were high above the river level and could see people below waiting for the ferry:

Waiting for the Ferry, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The ferry was unpowered and was kept in place by a rope looped around a bigger rope spanning the river. The driver(?) of the boat basically pointed the ferry in the right direction diagonally to the flow of the river and the current takes the ferry across the river.
As we were quite high up, I felt like Yann Arthus-Bertrand taking this shot:

Ferry Boat on the Rhine, originally uploaded by xrrr.

By now we were getting hungry so we headed into one of the squares for some food. After a long dinner and some nice wine we needed to get a tram back to the French border.

All Aboard, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The nice lady in the hotel had told us that there were Euro vending machines for the tram. Unfortunately we could not find them. We only had enough Francs for one ticket and did not fancy getting out more cash from a cash machine as it would have been a waste. As we were contemplating going for another drink to act as currency exchange I thought I would try something:
Me (to chap stood next to ticket machine): 'Entschuldigung sie bitte, sprechen sie English?'
Chap: 'Just a bit mate' (in a London accent)

We asked about the Euro situation and he started waffling on about 'never trust the French' because he was not aware of any Euro vending machines. Despite my protestations he bought us two tram tickets (CHF 3.00 each) and would not take any money for them at all.

Basel Centre, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Tickets in hand we backed away as he called after us 'Never trust the French'. I think he was a little drunk but he was good humoured and very kind to buy those tickets for us.
The tram stops at the Swiss-France border so we had to walk over the border (another first for me, walking over an international border - airports don't count). Once in France, we stopped off for a drink to break up the 15 minute journey back to the hotel. As we were enjoying our drink the sky started flashing up with lightening so we decided to head back to the hotel as we were umbrella-less. It started raining about 2 minutes from the hotel and started totally emptying it down about 30 seconds after we reached the hotel so we were very lucky not to get very wet!

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 8

2007-07-29T00:38:00.000+01:00

Day 8

This was the day I was most looking forward to. An entire day driving through the mountains. After being waved off by the hotel staff we set the satnav for the car park at the top of the chair lift we had been on the day before.

Rosengarten 1743 Metres, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We got on the chairlift "Laurin 2" up to the top. The top was 2339 metres but it was still very warm even at that height. The view was phenomenal.

Rosengarten - looking down, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Laurin 2 Chairlift (2339 metres), originally uploaded by xrrr.

A number of people had got the chair lift up and were setting off walking back down the mountain. We were pressed for time and had not brought the right equipment (i.e. shoes, supplies) so decided to chair lift back down again.
The chair lift was great, it had great views and was surrounded by the sounds of cow bells from local cow herds:

Rosengarten Cows, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Back to the car and off on a drive of a lifetime on the most amazing roads through the most incredible scenery.

Heading up the mountain on the SS242 from Canazei, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The absolute highlight was going over the Sella Pass on the SS242 between Canazei and Ortisei.

On the SS242 "Sella Pass", originally uploaded by xrrr.

The SS242 is by far the best road I have ever driven. The road was zigzagging up the mountain and the car performed brilliantly. There were a million and one bikers and cyclists (mad) to avoid.
We stopped at a picnic site for some lunch:

On the SS242, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Whilst eating we spotted some crazy people parachuting from the top of the nearby mountain.

Some crazies jumping off the mountain top, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Once at Ortisei we turned off the main road and headed across an amazing alpine meadow. No photos unfortunately because I thought that our hotel was in the meadow when it was not.

Hotel Waldsee, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We got to the Hotel Waldsee in good time, despite a slightly hairy overtaking of a hay tractor that I swear the driver must have been drunk as he was all over the place and kept almost crashing into the cars coming the other way!
The hotel was right on the edge of a country park and totally in the middle of nowhere. The room was nice but the bathroom looked a bit dated and in need of some minor repair. Everything worked that we needed to work so no big issues. We had the most stunning view from our bedroom window and balcony.

Sciliar Mountain, originally uploaded by xrrr.

As we had some spare time we went for an evening walk round the Parco Naturale dello Sciliar

Parco Naturale dello Scilliar, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The park was closing so it was very quiet and peaceful. And very beautiful too.

Parco Naturale dello Scilliar, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Dinner was a challenge. I had not pre-warned them that Alison is a veggie because I thought we were staying in the village and not in the wilds. I fact we were not entirely sure that we could eat at all because all the room literature was in German and Italian.
So after listening to Michel Thomas's basic Italian in the car on the way down through Switzerland I felt confident to string together: Posso mangiare qui sta sera?. 'Si' came the response along with some other stuff I did not follow but it was a good start. I was then really going to struggle to explain vegetarianism. Fortunately the one staff member who spoke English (thank you!) popped up and helped us out. She took Alison to meet the chef (and his dog - that was keeping him company in the kitchen) and they agreed on a bowl of pesto and pasta. I had some and it was very very good.
So we had a great meal, I managed to order some coffee and cake (which the nice lady gave us 2 pieces for the price of 1) and then rushed upstairs to take the following sunset photo of the Sciliar mountain.

Sciliar Mountain at Sunset, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Everyone seems to go to bed really early in South Tyrol so we had a relatively early night as we had a rather long journey back to France the next day.

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 7

2007-07-24T21:58:00.000+01:00

Day 7

After a nice breakfast outside in the hotel courtyard we were off. On my hike up the hill the night before I had seen road signs for Via Panoramica so I thought we would have a drive up there to have a look. There were some hairy roads and great views so it was worth the trip. I managed to scrape the bottom of the car at one point but there does not seem to be any visible damage :-)

Via Panoramica, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Lake Garda is very pretty in the north, the water is very blue compared to the dark inky colour of Lake Como. Presumably Garda is much shallower than Como?

After the panoramic drive we checked the rubbish guide book and took a risk to go to one of the recommended stop offs, Varone Falls.

Varone Falls, originally uploaded by xrrr.

They turned out to be well worth the visit. The falls are 90 metres high and the visitor bit was split into two caves, one at the top and one at the bottom. Lots of water, lots of noise and lots of spray so no photos I am afraid.

After the falls we headed for nearby Arco where there is a castle on the hill. Hill. Repeat hill. By now it was getting on for around 30 degrees celsius and it was a big hill. Alison got a bit grumpy but we strove on to the top. I thought it was worth it for the views but I think I was in the minority :-)

Arco Castle, originally uploaded by xrrr.

View from Arco Castle, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After we got back to the cool of the car's air-conditioning we decided to press on. I stopped to take this photo by a lake:

Lago di Toblino, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The hotel we were staying in was a few hours drive up the motorway. On the motorway the temperature got to 37 degrees C. Fortunately the hotel was at a ski resort and so was a pleasant 25 degrees or so. The drive from the motorway was through the most amazing scenery and the Hotel Rosengarten was pretty much in the middle of nowhere at very far end of a road into the wilderness (well about 5 minutes from the village centre).

Hotel Rosengarten, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The hotel was right next to a chair lift so we bought a ticket and headed on to the top to see what was there.

Chairlift, originally uploaded by xrrr.

At the top there was a car park, a pub, another chair lift to higher up and some great views of the Rosengarten mountain range.

Up in the Dolomites, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We resolved to come back the next day, drive up to the car park and take the next chair lift up to the higher place. We had time for a beer before the chair lift closed and then headed back to the hotel.

Up in the Dolomites, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I went out and took a few more photos from the meadow/ski run by the hotel before dinner.

The Dolomites, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Up in the Dolomites, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The hotel staff were great, they all spoke perfect German which totally confused us and I ended up trying to communicate in a new pidgin language that I called Germitalglish. Fortunately I had emailed ahead that Alison is a veggie so that was not a problem - until she got a fish for her main course! Obviously something got lost in translation. But they were happy to exchange it for a plate of vegetables. My beef was nice :-)

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 6

2007-07-23T20:38:00.000+01:00

Day 6

Back in the car again today. We headed off quite early and drove down the side of the lake to Tremezzo. We stopped and had our breakfast on a bench right on the lake front. There was a fabulous view over the lake towards Bellagio:

Bellagio from Tremezzo, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We went to Tremezzo specifically to go to Villa Carlotta. The world famous (aparently) villa and gardens.

Villa Carlotta, originally uploaded by xrrr.

This turned out to be a great move. We had the entire gardens to ourselves (aside from the gardeners) and as it was early it was still relatively cool so it was a great time to stroll round the magnificent gardens. Every now and again you would walk round a corner and glimpse a picture postcard view of the lake and mountains.

Villa Carlotta, originally uploaded by xrrr.

There was this strange huddle of turtles in a fountain that I thought was a statue until their heads moved every now and again:

Turtle Pile, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Right next door to the Villa Carlotta is the Tremezzo Grand Hotel. It looked like a great place to stay. We walked past the garage and it had a Ferrari and Porsche 911 (both British) parked up with a bunch of German Mercedes. Valet parking. Private lake front. Fantastic views. Needless to say, not cheap. Maybe one day.

Back in the car we decided to break up the journey to our next hotel on the west coast of Lake Garda by visiting Sirmione at the southern tip of the lake. Satnav set so away we go. For some reason that I can't remember we (I) decided to take the scenic route avoiding the motorway. Not a good move. We took the SP342 between Como and Bergamo. Not at all picturesque and full of lorries avoiding the motorway tolls. We got stuck in a few jams and I was getting a bit grumpy. We stopped for petrol, the man behind the till could not speak English (not a problem with my "numero tre per favore" of course :-) and asked me in Italian if I was German. When I said I was English he started jabbering something about Liverpool. I told him London as I assumed he would not know Guildford - despite the 65 Italian restaurants in Guildford.

Petrol and Pringles purchased it was off to find the autostrada to try and speed up the journey a bit. Eventually we got to the motorway, and we were off to Sirmione.

Sirmione, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The (rubbish) guide book described Sirmione as a beautiful medieval fortress village on a vehicle free peninsular of Lake Garda. "Like the dot above an 'i'". We parked up in the car park and walked the 5 minutes or so to the drawbridge.

Sirmione was horrible. It was really busy, full of tourists and full of annoying tourist shops that sell lace bibs with names embroidered on and snow globes and the like. Not sure they actually had any snow globes but there was lots of souvenir places. We stopped for lunch and I got a bit grumpy (again) because I had a grim ham and cheese foccacia (that was not actually foccacia) and Alison had a burnt pizza.

After lunch we started on the panoramic walk round the town walls but after about 5 minutes decided that we were not having fun so left!

Lake Garda, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Back at the car park I got the photo that I had promised my physiotherapist (who fixed my dodgy knee) of me, my car and an Italian lake. Well Dianne, here it is:

Me, my car and Lake Garda, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Alison was slightly worried that the accommodation I had booked for that night was going to be like Sirmione. I must admit that I was getting a bit concerned as we drove down the road by the lake. Fortunately things got better as we went further north. We were staying in a place called Gardone Riviera that turned out to be very nice indeed. We found our hotel, the Hotel Villa Sofia and parked up for the day.

Hotel Villa Sofia, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The hotel was pretty good, it had a slightly unhelpful desk person and the bathroom window was strangely not frosted so the road junction up the hill could see into our bathroom. The best thing about the hotel was that it was only 5 minutes walk from the historic part of the town. Quiet streets and no tourists (apart from us).

Gardone Riviera, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Before dinner I decided to leave Alison sitting by the pool and hike up the hill to take some photos of the view. Whilst I was stood by a gate to a house the only car to come along was a clapped out old Ford Fiesta with two old ladies in it. It turned out to be their house I was loitering outside. They started talking to me and I said "sono inglese". They saw the camera and muttered something about "uno photo" and started smiling. I responded with "bella vista, bella vista" waving my camera and they seemed happy that I was not paparazzi or a burglar. I wish I had asked if I could have taken their photo but I am always a bit embarrassed to ask total strangers if they would not mind me taking their photo - i.e. I have never asked anyone I don't know for their photo. Never mind. This is the best photo I took that involved me climbing up a 5 foot wall to stand on to get a good view when the coast was clear:

Lake Garda, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Shame I could not get another 5 feet higher so I could chop out that roof.

Back to the hotel and a quick shower flashing my bits to passing cars - no accidents caused - then dinner. We found a fantastic restaurant in the old town that served up the best meal we had all holiday. Off to bed as the next day it was the bit I was looking forward to all holiday. The mountains.

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 5

2007-07-22T20:39:00.000+01:00

Day 5

Today we decided to buy breakfast from the little shop underneath the apartment. All went well except the shop keeper told me off for handling his bananas. Apparently I should have just pointed at them even though they were in the middle of the shop. Oh well, he was a nice chap but had probably gone a bit loopy having had to have listen to the clock tower chiming every 15 minutes of his working day.

Today's boat trip was the Servizo Rapido down to Como. About a 60 minute trip to the bottom end of the lake on a catamaran or hydrofoil.

Servizo Rapido, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Ticket lady was warming to me by now but she was not to know that this would be the last time she would have to decipher my Italian. Off to Como.

When we got there we decided to go straight up the funicular railway up to Brunate.

Como-Brunate Funicular, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We did not manage to find Brunate itself, once we had looked at the view we decided it was time to eat :-)

Como from Brunate, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We stopped at a cafe right by the train station and had a great meal served by a jolly chap. One highlight was the beer. It was a local brew called Wismar Como and was so nice I had to have two. I have been trying to find out where to buy it but have not had any luck on Google so far.

Wismar Como - very nice, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After 5 days I felt more and more confident about my Italian. I noticed that you needed a borrow a key to get to the toilet. So I strode into the cafe confidently asking: "Dove e la chiesa per la toiletta?". It was not until a few days later that I remembered that key is chiava and I had asked for the church for the toilet. Oh well, my international language of gesture backup obviously overrode my speaking as I got the key ok. This reminds me of the undercover Englishman Officer Crabtree from Allo Allo: "I was pissing by the door, when I heard two shats. You are holding in your hand a smoking goon; you are clearly the guilty potty.". Doh!

After lunch we decided to follow a guided walk round Como in our (as previously mentioned the other day) rubbish guidebook.

Original Gatehouse to Como, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After we got lost trying to find the start of the walk we were off to a good start. After Menaggio, Bellagio and Varenna, Como was a bit of a disappointment. It was a bit scummy if you lost sight of the lake. We walked for about an hour and a half in approx 32 degree full sun and very quickly got lost again (I blame the book). Alison got a bit grumpy from the heat and the fact that we were walking down a road with a picturesque sewage treatment works and a closed down hotel that could have come straight out of "Texas Chainsaw Massacre". Eventually we found the lake again and the scenery took an upward turn.

Como, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Aero Club Como, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We got back to the pier got the next fast boat back to Mennagio. Time for an ice cream and a sit by the lake to have a read in the evening sunshine.

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 4

2007-07-21T15:05:00.000+01:00

Day 4

Somehow, despite the bells, we managed to oversleep a little on this day. So we skipped breakfast and headed straight for Varenna.

Varenna is pretty much directly opposite Menaggio and a short boat ride away. After impressing my friend the ticket lady ("due billietti a Varenna retorno per favore") we were on our way.

Varenna, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Varenna is quite small and mostly split into 2 main parts: The lake front and the town square by the church. We normally travel with the DK Eye Witness Travel books as we find them great at pointing out the best things to do in an honest style. On this trip we did not have one so had been relying on some substandard guide books and the tourist information booths. After hunting around for a while we eventually found the Varenna tourist info place. It was closed.

Varenna, originally uploaded by xrrr.

By this time we were starving so decided to go for breakfast somewhere. Whilst eating breakfast by the lake we came across a mention in our (not very good) guide book of the Villa Monastero botanical gardens so we thought we would head over there.

Villa Monastero Gardens, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Good choice! The villa itself is a conference centre (god I wish that our annual work conference was there rather than the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham with its, what I call, Camp Colditz style accommodation!) so the villa was out of bounds but the gardens and the views from the gardens were awesome:

View from the Villa Monastero Gardens, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Villa Monastero Gardens, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The scenery was a picture and one that a number of people were taking advantage of:

Capturing the scene the classical way, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After the villa we had a pizza and a beer in a great location right by the waterfront. A great place to spend a couple of hours and bask in the sunshine drinking beer.

Lunch by the lake, originally uploaded by xrrr.

After sitting for a while it was time to head back to Menaggio, where we had an[other] ice cream and a stroll along the lake front. It was so nice we just sat by the lake and read a book for a few hours in the sunshine with this view from our bench:

An evening sitting by the lake, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Very relaxing.

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 3

2007-07-20T14:35:00.000+01:00

Day 3

We woke up in the morning (at 07:30 thanks to the bell man at the clock tower) and we had the most glorious blue sky morning. But first, I had to check my car was ok! As you are well aware I am slightly precious about my cars. The apartment was advertised as having parking which made me think that there was a dedicated space. Oh no. There are parking spaces on the street outside the apartment but nothing dedicated. Fortunately Freddy had managed to create a space by moving a couple of scooters. After some careful manoeuvring we got the car as close to the wall as possible. Now here is the thing. I could not work out how to fold in the wing mirrors on the car. My old E46 saloon they used to fold in. On this one there did not seem to be any movement at all. I have seen other E46 coupes out there with the mirrors folded up but they did not seem to want to move in any direction. So I left them. Given I had a space in a quiet side street ten seconds from the door of the apartment we (I) decided that we were not going to be doing any more driving whilst we were in Menaggio :-)

Safely tucked away in a side street, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Anyway the car was fine (and was all holiday).

We had prima colazione (breakfast) outside on the main square. Coffee, croissant and a ham and cheese toasted sandwich (I had two toasted sarnies as we did not realised that "tosta mista" was not veggie for Alison). A fantastic view out over Lake Como that allayed all fears about the weather from the day before.

Lake Como at Breakfast, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We had decided that once in Menaggio we would use the frequent boat service to explore the local area partially because of the parking but mainly because it is much quicker and easier to get on a boat rather than drive. I purchased the ticket from the rather scary ticket booth lady - not sure why I found her scary, I think it was because she was rather severe and did not take to my request for "due billietti per uno giorno centro" (2 day tickets for the central lake) in stumbling Italian with a heavy English accent. Personally I think she was secretly impressed with my insistence to speak Italian to everyone. Anyway, today's destination was Bellagio.

Belaggio from the Lake, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Bellagio was great. More touristy than Menaggio but not in a particularly bad way. Menaggio had more Italian tourists (plus Alison was on constant "George Watch" after she read the Mr Clooney was a frequent visitor to the Menaggio gold club) whereas Bellagio had more British and American people. As soon as we got off the boat we picked up a walking guide from the tourist office at the boat pier. That walked turned out to be excellent. It took us on a 2 hour walk around the villages around Bellagio.
Rather than going into the details, here are some photo highlights:

The view at the end of the Salita Cappuccini in Pescallo, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Villa Giulia, originally uploaded by xrrr.

19th Century Mausoleum, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Church near Bellagio, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Bellagio, originally uploaded by xrrr.

A lot of the street names in Bellagio start with the word "Salita". This means climb so you can get an idea of the terrain :-)

After a recovery beer, a visit to Villa Melzi gardens and a walk round the shops we took the car ferry back to Menaggio via Varenna.

Menaggio is great to sit by the lake eating an ice cream watching the boats and the people wander past. Very relaxing.

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 2

2007-07-19T17:22:00.000+01:00

Day 2

Day 2 started well. Lovely breakfast in the courtyard of the hotel and then off. We had a 236 mile journey ahead of us mostly through Switzerland. We got fleeced by the Swiss as we got to Switzerland as we had to buy a one year "vignette" toll sticker for €30 and then it started raining. And boy did it rain.

It did not really have any impact other than slow us down a bit and cover up the Alpine scenery. We took the A2 pretty much all the way through Switzerland had a good run until we got to the St Gotthard Tunnel where we had to queue for around 90 minutes. We were totally stationary for over 30 minutes and were getting worried on how long we were stuck there.

Waiting, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The St Gotthard tunnel is pretty impressive. It is the 3rd longest in the world and is 10.5 miles long. It is all single carriageway and fairly straight! Going into the tunnel all the signs are in German but on the other side everything is in Italian even though you are still in Switzerland. Fortunately after queuing for almost 90 minutes there was a service station just after the tunnel. Seeing as it had stopped raining for a bit, Alison and I had a nice picnic of bread and cheese outside in the mountain scenery.

A break in the clouds, originally uploaded by xrrr.

From there it was a straight forward run to Lake Lugano. It looked like it might have been very picturesque but unfortunately the rain had come back again and pretty much everything was grey.
Half way round the lake on the SS340 we pass over the Swizz/Italian border. A new record for me. Three countries in one day: France, Switzerland & Italy all in one day.
The SS340 is a bit hairy, lots of narrow roads, blind bends and flipping buses coming the other way! We only had to reverse out of the way once but it was a bit of a palarva as about 5 cars behind me also had to back up and shift for the bus. Eventually we made it to Menaggio, time to call Alfredo (Freddy) the man with the keys for the apartment. After us getting lost (blame the sat nav getting lost) and Freddy not knowing where we were parked we eventually managed to meet up with Freddy on his Vespa. Nice chap. Nice apartment.

The Apartment, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Given that it started raining and thundering as soon as we got to the apartment and it was about 5pm by the time we got settled there was not much to see and do.

Bloody Rain, originally uploaded by xrrr.

A break in the rain did let me get this shot of the town clock tower bathed in light:

Time for a Storm, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Talking of that clock tower. It chimed every 15 minutes between 7am and 10pm doing the full hour bell "dong" every 30 minutes. As the clock tower has to be heard over the entire town and we were right next to it it was very loud! Some helpful individual also rang the bell at 7.30 every morning for about 10 minutes presumably to get the village up and at em. Very helpful.

[All Photos][Next Day]

European Grand Tour 2007 Day 1

2007-07-18T21:59:00.000+01:00

Day 1

Pretty good start to the holiday. Alison drove down to Folkstone leaving me free to take a few snaps on the way down. Good job as we were looking at an approx distance of 546 miles.

Heading down the M20, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Moon Cloud, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The EuroTunnel is by far the best way to travel to France. You get to France within 25 mins and drive straight off the train onto the motorway.

To France, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The French motorway is amazing. Very smooth, very quiet and very easy. I went past about 4 speed camera warning signs before I worked out what they were for but fingers crossed I was not going too fast!

I chose our destination by looking at Google Maps and picking somewhere half way between our end destination and home. I picked on the town of Bergheim which turned out to be a very nice old (and very small) village just off the motorway south of Strasbourg.

Bergheim, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We stayed in a great aparthotel called La Cour du Baille which was a converted house. It was one of the old houses where there is a central courtyard open to the air. For some reason I failed to take a photo! We went for a walk round the village though and the most interesting picture I took was this one:

Bergheim Washing Line, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Don't get me wrong it was a great village, but the weather was a bit iffy so photos did not really come out to well.

The town was very small and there was only one other restaurant (which did not do any veggie food) so we decided to eat in the hotel restaurant. Good choice!

Seeing as we were in the Alsace region I went straight for the "Alsace Specialities" part of the menu. I ended up choosing "Saurkraut with Seven Meats". Hmmm. I could name three of the meats, was reasonably ok with two more but the last two had me worried. One was really chewy and as soon as I told myself it must be horse I put myself off! The last piece of meat was really strange. It was red wrapped by a fatty outside bit. On closer inspection the "fatty bit" turned out to have taste buds. Alison reminded me of the time she was faced with a cow's tongue on French Exchange at school so at which point I finished the Saurkraut and put my knife and fork down. Suddenly feeling rather full.

Early to bed, long drive in the morning.

[All Photos][Next Day]

070707

2007-07-07T11:27:00.001+01:00

070707, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Today is 07/07/07 so I thought I would spend 20 minutes finding things around my house that I could use to mark the date.

I found:
Cooker clock
Phone
Alison's hair band
My office clock
Some masking tape
Stanley knife and some odd bits

Helvetica

2007-07-07T00:03:00.001+01:00

Helvetica, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The Helvetica font is 50 years old this year.

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2007

2007-06-24T20:18:00.000+01:00

Alison and I spent a great day out yesterday at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Here are some of the highlights....

Colin McRae Rally 2007
Colin McRae was on form showing off to the crowds. We had him doing doughnuts up the hill climb course and bombing around the Goodwood Forest Rally Course. As you can see below, Colin certainly likes to show off for the cameras :-)

2007 Subaru Impreza WRC, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Porsche Driving Experience
We queued for about an hour to have a passenger ride in a Porsche Cayenne S being blasted around a muddy field. It was one of the brand new ones with 4.8 litre V8 engines. We were only out for about 10 minutes being driven around by a Porsche driver but it was well worth the wait. Before we started on the track I said to the driver that I can't imagine spending £70,000 on a car then risking the paintwork blasting around a field. Within 10 seconds of going sideways all 4 wheels spinning in a semi controlled power slide I changed my mind. Everyone who owns an SUV absolutely must do this at least once!

2007 Porsche Cayenne S, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Car Exhibitions
In between sitting and watching the cars going up the hill climb we went for a stroll around the car manufacturers stands. Lamborghini had the fantastic Lamborghini Murcielago LP640. It looks bloody amazing when parked up in the show room and I know I would feel a right cock driving it around Guildford. However, if I could afford to buy one I would be parking it somewhere where I would not feel like a show off. Monte Carlo maybe?

2007 Lamborghini Murcielago LP640, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Audi had the amazing new A8. Lots of carbon fibre, a bit like a TT on the inside but still bloody amazing looking.

2007 Audi R8, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Mercedes were showing off the new soft top version of the SLR called the Mercedes Benz McLaren SLR Roadster. Price is currently TBC but the normal SLR is around £300,000 so I can only imagine this is going to be more. I think I would rather have the Lambo to be honest.

2007 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster, originally uploaded by xrrr.

And Then It Rained
Just as the Red Arrows were about to start their display the heavens opened. Fortunately Alison and I were in the grandstand a few rows back. I had left the umbrella at home so it was a good job we were under cover! 25 minutes earlier we were picnicking by the car so it was a flipping good job it did not start then as otherwise we would have been trapped in the car :-)

Goodwood but not Goodweather, originally uploaded by xrrr.

At the end of the day we were walking back past the Porsche driving experience after a thunderous deluge and an afternoon of showers and came across the Cayennes we were in at the start of the day when it was dry. Now that is a dirty car!

2007 Porsche Cayenne S, originally uploaded by xrrr.

All in all a fantastic day out despite the weather!

[All Photos]

The White Elephant

2007-06-24T20:01:00.000+01:00

Day 330 - Before the apocalypse, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Our crappy summerhouse is jinxed! I put it on eBay last week and it sold for £45! Great I thought, someone is going to come and collect it and pay for the pleasure of taking it away. Or so I thought.

The winning bidder was supposed to come on Saturday but went AWOL. She stopped answering her emails and the number registered on eBay was disconnected so I was stuck.

Mindful of the fact that the builder is starting work on our garden and patio on Monday I need to make sure that the summer house is gone.

The buyer finally replied to my email on Monday afternoon with some excuse about not being able to borrow their boss's van after all. Rubbish.

So I hit the internet. Emailed all the other bidders and put an advert on Freecycle. I had an email within 3 minutes offering to come and collect the following evening. Fantastic. Or so I thought.

15 minutes later I received a phone call from one of the other bidders offering to drive from Wells to Guildford to come and collect and pay me the same price as the other winning bidder! I had to turn them down because I had already accepted the other (for free) offer.

The next morning I contacted the Freecycler to double check arrangements and she told me that after thinking about it that it was going to be too much of a rush and was not going to bother. I was not impressed. I mentioned the turned down offer and laid on the guilt. She agreed to send her husband round that very evening.

The chap turned up and I thought I was going to be lucky. He told me he used to be a set builder for the BBC so I thought we would have things down in a jiffy. Or so I thought.

Turns out the "crappy" summerhouse was not so crappy after all. It was very well built. It took us 2 hours just to rip out the internal panels and take off the doors. Leaving us with this progress:

Day 349: Going..., originally uploaded by xrrr.

Depressed at our lack of progress I told the guy that I would not mind if he did not come back the next day. That chap remained optimistic and said he was going to come back the next day with his teenage son to carry on with the demolition. A quick remaining job then. Or so I thought.

The next morning I got an email from the Freecycler saying that she had discussed it with her husband and they decided not to continue and would not be coming back. In other words she talked him out of it! I am not surprised to be honest.

When I got home I had a go at removing all the plastic and the glass from the windows. After 2 hours of (quite fun) demolition work I ended up with:

Day 350: ...Going..., originally uploaded by xrrr.

At this point I had to stop because there was too much junk in the way. I called a rubbish collector guy and told him the situation and he offered to take the junk and dismantle the rest for me. Great no more work for me. Or so I thought.

The man with the van quoted £350 to demolish the rest and take it away. That sounded a bit steep so I asked him to just take the stuff for the skip and I will do the rest.

I phoned my mate Rob and we agreed to have a go today at taking down the rest. I am not surprised the guy quoted £350 as it took us almost 5 hours to cut down and break up the roof and frame.

Because we did not have a skip or a van we (Rob mainly) had to chop up the wooden blocks to make them fit into the car.

I made 3 trips to the skip with Alison's car literally crammed with stuff each time. The boot was full floor to ceiling and the passenger seat was pushed forward to get even more space. It is amazing how much stuff you can fit into a Ford Ka!

Day 353: ...Going..., originally uploaded by xrrr.

Unfortunately I ran out of time before the skip closed and still have about 2-3 car loads of stuff to take. Hopefully the builder who starts the garden work tomorrow will let me put the stuff in his skip rather than me going to the skip another 2 or 3 times.

The site is now cleared, and the White Elephant is no more! Hurrah!

Day 353: ...Gone!, originally uploaded by xrrr.

At least now we can see out of our dining room window:

Day 345, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Day 353: A proper view of the of the window!, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Fine Art

2007-06-24T00:40:00.000+01:00

Las Vegas Strip, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Last week I got contacted by artist Fabrice Spies who creates photo realistic paintings of photographs. He wants to use this photo for his next piece! How cool is that?! I had to sign away any claims of royalties for his picture but I do get a signed print out of it. The stuff he has done to date looks really good so I look forward to seeing it when it is done!

Smart Design

2007-06-09T16:30:00.000+01:00

Smart!, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Alison bought be some Smarties today as a reward for doing some gardening. I have not had Smarties for ages and the last time I had them they still had the plastic lids with a letter on the back.

Initially I was disappointed that something from my youth was out of date and then I examined the new lid. It is an incredible design!

Why? The overall cleverness of it that is why. The entire tube is made up from a single piece of cut card, nothing unusual there, but the lid design is the bit I love.

The secret is that "lip" that sticks out of the top of the tube. On the bottom side of the main tube in my photo above.

The lip does 2 things:
1) Inside the lid there is a bit of glued cardboard. That provides the structure for the lid and keeps it rigid. The lip is just the right size and shape that when you press the lid down the lip 'clicks' into the glued cardboard with a satisfying click. The lid is now held reasonably secure by the lip.

2) When you want to open the Smarties the lip acts as a spring. So as you push with your thumb there is a bit of resistance, then sudenly the lip pops up propelled by the little lip.

It might not sound like much but I think it is amazing industrial design and a great example of "keep it simple" engineering.

Well it is worth a try!

2007-06-09T11:24:00.001+01:00

Well it is worth a try!, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We have an old uPVC Summer House in our garden that we were planning to put in a skip. Our builder suggested that someone might want it so I have put it on eBay for £1.

I very much doubt that anyone will want it but you never know....

[Link]

Visit to Concorde & Mercedes-Benz World at Brooklands

2007-06-07T08:24:00.000+01:00

Last night Jon and I went to an IET lecture at Brooklands. I have not been to Brooklands for years but was impressed by the changes.

The two biggest changes were Concorde and the Mercedes-Benz super-dealership.

Concorde, originally uploaded by xrrr.

The Concorde is fantastic. It is the first ever production spec Concorde to be flown in britain and only the third ever built. This particular Concorde never actually made it into commercial service and was used by BA for spare parts. When Concorde services stopped, BA gave the Concorde to Brooklands. The entire nose section of all Concordes (English or French) were built in Brooklands along with the tail section.

From the outside the plane still looks futuristic and I cannot believe how it must have looked in the 1970s. It is a shame that it no longer flies.

The IET lecture was from Christopher Orlebar, an ex BA Concorde pilot and author of "The Concorde Story". He was funny and had a really interesting talk about the history of Concorde and how it works.

The second part of the lecture was from David MacKay a pilot at Virgin Atlantic and soon to be a pilot at Virgin Galactic. Lucky man! The talk was perhaps a little less technical than I hoped. There was little content of the science and it was mostly an advert for the spaceline service. How long will it be before "Spaceline" and "Spaceport" are as common (or even replace) "Airline" and "Airport"?

However...

Virgin Galactic looks fan-bloody-tastic! You get to fly into space, experience weightlessness for around 5 minutes and get the most amazing view of the planet all for a mere $200,000. The experience is so intense that you have 3 days of training before you get to go on the spaceship.

It is incredible to believe that in around 3 years time we will be able to experience commercial space flight. I am hoping that the cost comes down quickly because I want in!

They are already talking about point to point travel via space between 2 points on Earth in two hours. London to Vegas in 2 hours! Cool.

Lastly a word about the venue, Mercedes-Benz world. Wow.

Mercedes-Benz World, originally uploaded by xrrr.

It is a three story mega-dealership with 3 floors of EVERY production Mercedes-Benz car you can buy today including the SLR and Maybach plus a fair sprinkling of classics too. There must have been around £10,000,000 worth of vehicles in that building. You can sit in the cars and do anything other than drive them. If you want a drive, then there is also a test track that you can pay to test the cars on. Wow. I wish BMW would open one up nearby too!

2007 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren x7, originally uploaded by xrrr.

New wish list item

2007-06-03T16:25:00.001+01:00

Rhinefield House Hotel, originally uploaded by xrrr.

We were driving in the New Forest today as we were in the area dropping off something I sold off ebay and saw this place from the road. We stopped off for a quick look. Very nice looking hotel. Unfortunataly based on its website I don't think we will be staying there any time soon. A bit pricey!

flickrInspector

2007-06-03T08:47:00.000+01:00

I came across this pretty good info site called flickrInspector. It summarises your flickr account (public pages only) and presents it in a swish interface. The search section is quite interesting. It allows you to find where your photos have been used elsewhere.

For instance this picture:

10 Year Pen, originally uploaded by xrrr.

Turned up in this collage:

Good stuff. That is what creative commons is all about.

Funny light

2007-06-02T10:30:00.001+01:00

Warren Hill, originally uploaded by xrrr.

I am still trying to suss out the best way to take good photos in light that is not full sun. This one was taken with my tripod and then tweaked in Adobe Lightroom to attempt to bring out the colours a bit more. It still looks a bit flat though.

I bought Understanding Exposure a couple of weeks ago and am trying to make sense of all of the variour techniques. Good book by the way.

Multi-touch UI

2007-03-29T10:12:00.000+01:00

I have to say, I am very excited about the multi-touch technology that Jeff Hann is producing. Ok so the Apple iPhone and (hopefully) 6g iPods have something similar but the potential for large screen applications is fantastic. Even the thought of having a 6 foot wide screen is is enought to get me excited, never mind that you can actually touch it!

I came across Jeff when viewing his demo at TED.com. Since then I have been hooked. I have just found this new video taken by someone at the 2007 TED a few weeks ago.

I want one of those!