Tue - September 20, 2005
Tips for better digital photography, no. I - turn off review
mode
Yes, I know it sound odd but think of it this way
- taking pictures is all about composition; it's all about making sure that you
get the best possible framing of a
scene.
...When I got my DSLR (a Pentax *ist D, if you're interested to know) the first thing I did was turn off the review mode because my experience had taught me that I took better pictures when I concentrated on composition, on focusing (in both senses of the word) on the scene in front of me rather than checking the histogram after every shot. The most frustrating experiences I had as a photographer was, shortly after switching to digital, carefully checking the review only to find that the great picture I thought I'd taken wasn't there. In fact it was, a lot of the time, but the general poor quality of the screen, combined with poor visibility (trying to view a camera back LCD in bright daylight is no fun) meant that I thought I'd missed the shot I was after. What actually happened was that I had the shot in the bag (which I would later find out) and all of my messing around with the review meant that I'd missed "the" shot that inevitably appears seconds later.
...When I got my DSLR (a Pentax *ist D, if you're interested to know) the first thing I did was turn off the review mode because my experience had taught me that I took better pictures when I concentrated on composition, on focusing (in both senses of the word) on the scene in front of me rather than checking the histogram after every shot. The most frustrating experiences I had as a photographer was, shortly after switching to digital, carefully checking the review only to find that the great picture I thought I'd taken wasn't there. In fact it was, a lot of the time, but the general poor quality of the screen, combined with poor visibility (trying to view a camera back LCD in bright daylight is no fun) meant that I thought I'd missed the shot I was after. What actually happened was that I had the shot in the bag (which I would later find out) and all of my messing around with the review meant that I'd missed "the" shot that inevitably appears seconds later.
Posted at 11:56 PM Read More
Tue - October 19, 2004
Choice? What choice?
Sony manufacture the only Connect/ATRAC devices
and are the only company (thus far) to offer downloads in this format from their
online music store.
...Okay, so with that out of the way what choice do we really have, it's simple: Microsoft Windows Media, Real Networks Rhapsody, Sony Connect/ATRAC, Apple iPod/iTunes and the odd other device and proprietary format.
...In the case of Real Networks the number of compatible devices is small, but still larger than the number of devices offered by either Apple or Sony (this may not truly be the case as Sony offers a large number of devices, but they make all of them - you get no choice of device manufacturer).
...You see the choice here is that you, the consumer, can choose to buy pretty much any device you want, but when you make that choice you are also choosing (sometime unknowingly) to adopt a specific encoding and DRM technology and all the baggage that goes with this.... If you buy an Apple iPod you are choosing iTunes, the iTunes Music Store and AAC/FairPlay (AAC is the encoding format, which is actually a bona fide standard, being part of the MPEG-4 standard, as opposed to an industry standard like Windows Media.
...Okay, so with that out of the way what choice do we really have, it's simple: Microsoft Windows Media, Real Networks Rhapsody, Sony Connect/ATRAC, Apple iPod/iTunes and the odd other device and proprietary format.
...In the case of Real Networks the number of compatible devices is small, but still larger than the number of devices offered by either Apple or Sony (this may not truly be the case as Sony offers a large number of devices, but they make all of them - you get no choice of device manufacturer).
...You see the choice here is that you, the consumer, can choose to buy pretty much any device you want, but when you make that choice you are also choosing (sometime unknowingly) to adopt a specific encoding and DRM technology and all the baggage that goes with this.... If you buy an Apple iPod you are choosing iTunes, the iTunes Music Store and AAC/FairPlay (AAC is the encoding format, which is actually a bona fide standard, being part of the MPEG-4 standard, as opposed to an industry standard like Windows Media.
Posted at 01:57 PM Read More
Wed - September 8, 2004
Tools
If there's one topic most likely to get
developers all frothy at the mouth it's a discussion about tools (no, not the
DIY kind - I mean software development tools; IDEs and the
like).
...I know that a lot of coders dislike the Microsoft development tools, but I've come to feel at home using them (after turning off all the annoying, intrusive gimmicks) and now anything else feels poorly thought-out and, in many cases, a poor imitation of the Microsoft IDE.
...Actually, that last comment is a bit inflammatory - the tools aren't poor quality (certainly that's not the case with both Eclipse and NetBeans, both of which I've evaluated recently) it's just that they don't cater to my exacting requirements, which, after all, have been refined over the years using Microsoft tools.
Quick sideline: I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, I just feel that they've put a lot of thought into their development tools (which are easily the best products they put out there).
...Anyway, the long and short of it is that I've been seriously unimpressed with the Java IDEs, partially because the way they work is a bit alien to me (I cannot for the life of me get my head around projects in NetBeans and I've all but given up trying to get the refactoring plug-ins for Eclipse to stay plugged in). My other big gripe is that most of the IDEs are written in Java and, frankly, they're not the good advertisements for desktop Java applications that they should be (a notable exception here is Eclipse, which really shows off the SWT to good effect). I had a play with using Visual Studio to do my coding in but, although it supports Java syntax highlighting it doesn't build and I couldn't get Ant working with it (it's probably very easy but I just haven't had time).... The reasons for this are quite simple: I've reasonably familiar with Xcode having used it for Objective-C/Cocoa projects, it supports Java editing and building and, best of all, it isn't a Java application so it's nice and responsive...
...I know that a lot of coders dislike the Microsoft development tools, but I've come to feel at home using them (after turning off all the annoying, intrusive gimmicks) and now anything else feels poorly thought-out and, in many cases, a poor imitation of the Microsoft IDE.
...Actually, that last comment is a bit inflammatory - the tools aren't poor quality (certainly that's not the case with both Eclipse and NetBeans, both of which I've evaluated recently) it's just that they don't cater to my exacting requirements, which, after all, have been refined over the years using Microsoft tools.
Quick sideline: I'm not a Microsoft fanboy, I just feel that they've put a lot of thought into their development tools (which are easily the best products they put out there).
...Anyway, the long and short of it is that I've been seriously unimpressed with the Java IDEs, partially because the way they work is a bit alien to me (I cannot for the life of me get my head around projects in NetBeans and I've all but given up trying to get the refactoring plug-ins for Eclipse to stay plugged in). My other big gripe is that most of the IDEs are written in Java and, frankly, they're not the good advertisements for desktop Java applications that they should be (a notable exception here is Eclipse, which really shows off the SWT to good effect). I had a play with using Visual Studio to do my coding in but, although it supports Java syntax highlighting it doesn't build and I couldn't get Ant working with it (it's probably very easy but I just haven't had time).... The reasons for this are quite simple: I've reasonably familiar with Xcode having used it for Objective-C/Cocoa projects, it supports Java editing and building and, best of all, it isn't a Java application so it's nice and responsive...
Posted at 12:38 PM Read More
Mon - September 6, 2004
Where does the time go?
I can't believe that it's been almost two months
since my last post.... There's nothing quite like stepping into a nice warm
home (especially given that we tend to keep the log burner going all winter long
- saves the central heating bill somewhat) when the weather outside is chilly.
The days in autumn and winter seem to last longer and I typically feel more
awake and alert (instead of sleepy and lethargic from the
heat).
...For the last several months I've been working on a control system (an industrial-type application) using C# (the client-side is all Windows & .NET with the back-end being Linux & Mono). Due to some problems with the micro-controller we had been using we've now switched to Java (the turn for the worse), but the good news is that we now have a cross-platform application (yes, yes, Mono is cross-platform but the GUI handling still needs to mature - for its faults Swing is fairly mature and supported on pretty much all the platforms that Java runs on) and a scaleable roadmap for the on-going development of the system.
Now I don't really have anything against Java, except that it feels immature compared to C#, which is ironic given that C# is the young upstart of the two. Things like auto-boxing are now being added to Java, but only as a result of them first appearing in C# and becoming killer features. Although important, things like auto-boxing aren't my primary reason for disliking Java. I find some of the missing language features (like enums and stack-hosted structs) to be no-brainers and iteration without foreach is just painful (why so much code to achieve so little). I also really, really miss attributes, especially when coding JavaBeans (I confess to being lazy and not bothering with BeanInfo simply because it is, at the end of the day, redundant code).... Compared to the simplicity of event delegates in C# the Java version is cumbersome, requiring a lot of code to achieve very little. When I first looked at Java, many moons ago, I thought the whole inner classes thing was neat - it was certainly better than the C/C++ alternatives (event handlers, bah!
...You never know I might even get around to posting the pictures from my holiday that I promised way back in June!
...For the last several months I've been working on a control system (an industrial-type application) using C# (the client-side is all Windows & .NET with the back-end being Linux & Mono). Due to some problems with the micro-controller we had been using we've now switched to Java (the turn for the worse), but the good news is that we now have a cross-platform application (yes, yes, Mono is cross-platform but the GUI handling still needs to mature - for its faults Swing is fairly mature and supported on pretty much all the platforms that Java runs on) and a scaleable roadmap for the on-going development of the system.
Now I don't really have anything against Java, except that it feels immature compared to C#, which is ironic given that C# is the young upstart of the two. Things like auto-boxing are now being added to Java, but only as a result of them first appearing in C# and becoming killer features. Although important, things like auto-boxing aren't my primary reason for disliking Java. I find some of the missing language features (like enums and stack-hosted structs) to be no-brainers and iteration without foreach is just painful (why so much code to achieve so little). I also really, really miss attributes, especially when coding JavaBeans (I confess to being lazy and not bothering with BeanInfo simply because it is, at the end of the day, redundant code).... Compared to the simplicity of event delegates in C# the Java version is cumbersome, requiring a lot of code to achieve very little. When I first looked at Java, many moons ago, I thought the whole inner classes thing was neat - it was certainly better than the C/C++ alternatives (event handlers, bah!
...You never know I might even get around to posting the pictures from my holiday that I promised way back in June!
Posted at 04:35 PM Read More
Fri - July 9, 2004
Fri - July 2, 2004
The key to a brighter future?
Back when space exploration was a big deal (late
'70s and early '80s) the world was recovering from a seemingly endless
progression of wars and violence that had been part of the twentieth century
since it had begun: the Boer War, World War I, World War II, Korea, Vietnam and
the Falklands - not to forget the ongoing African, Asian, Middle East and South
American conflicts.
As a child growing up during this time I saw the world as largely peaceful, as our former aggression turned to competition in leading the race in science and exploration - especially space exploration.
...Now I'm a father I've started looking around the world and despairing at the general state of things (more wars on more continents than I'd even heard of as a child; terrible crimes, greed and violence).
...Perhaps then events such as the recent SpaceShipOne flight, the continuing Ansari X challenge and China's emergence as a space exploring nation will rekindle the competition that we seem to need in order to evolve as a species.
As a child growing up during this time I saw the world as largely peaceful, as our former aggression turned to competition in leading the race in science and exploration - especially space exploration.
...Now I'm a father I've started looking around the world and despairing at the general state of things (more wars on more continents than I'd even heard of as a child; terrible crimes, greed and violence).
...Perhaps then events such as the recent SpaceShipOne flight, the continuing Ansari X challenge and China's emergence as a space exploring nation will rekindle the competition that we seem to need in order to evolve as a species.
Posted at 03:54 PM Read More
Thu - July 1, 2004
Croquet
I'm not going to go into too much detail about it
here, mainly because the web site covers off everything you could possibly want
to know and then some...
What I will say is that you really ought to check this out as Alan Kay, one of the principal figures behind the project, is well-known as both a visionary and a prophet in the computer industry; think Smalltalk, (object-oriented programming), the Dynabook (laptops), GUIs (Xerox Star & Alto), the list goes on and on...
What I will say is that you really ought to check this out as Alan Kay, one of the principal figures behind the project, is well-known as both a visionary and a prophet in the computer industry; think Smalltalk, (object-oriented programming), the Dynabook (laptops), GUIs (Xerox Star & Alto), the list goes on and on...
Posted at 05:21 PM Read More
The Great Dashboard Conspiracy of 2004
Here is an excellent posting by John Gruber on
the whole Dashboard/Konfabulator kerfuffle (if you don't know what any of this
means, don't worry, it's really nothing very
important).
"Now think about this situation from the point of view of a big software company like Microsoft. They could come up with the same idea as a small ISV but take a year longer to get it to market (because of internal resource issues, testing, marketing, etc.) When they do finally bring the product to market it's likely to be better polished than the ISV offering, purely because the ISV has very limited resources and a need to get their product to market so it can make them some money - Microsoft doesn't have these same pressures (sure it has some of them, but not all of them and not of the same intensity that a small ISV will experience).... The simple fact is, however, that two companies had the same idea and both decided to develop it."
"Now think about this situation from the point of view of a big software company like Microsoft. They could come up with the same idea as a small ISV but take a year longer to get it to market (because of internal resource issues, testing, marketing, etc.) When they do finally bring the product to market it's likely to be better polished than the ISV offering, purely because the ISV has very limited resources and a need to get their product to market so it can make them some money - Microsoft doesn't have these same pressures (sure it has some of them, but not all of them and not of the same intensity that a small ISV will experience).... The simple fact is, however, that two companies had the same idea and both decided to develop it."
Posted at 03:36 PM Read More
Wed - June 30, 2004
Mono 1.0!
Now I just have to wait for the OS X installer
packager to appear...
Posted at 04:42 PM Read More
Apple Rendezvous
Okay, this is impressive: Apple has released its
implementation of IETF ZeroConf networking for not just Window, but
Linux/Solaris/FreeBSD and Java too.
Posted at 04:39 PM Read More
Every developer's worst nightmare? Redux
So I started work this morning the same as I
pretty much always do: make some coffee, log in, check my email, etc., etc. My
inbox, as usual, contained an assortment of junk (some always seems to bypass
the Mail.app scanner), the odd newsletter (from those heathens who haven't heard
of RSS) and the various detritus that comes from running a business (and
personal life) predominantly
online.
After sorting through the stuff I could deal with immediately (I'm a follower of David Allen's GTD, thanks to a post by Scoble) I started looking through the other mail. It was then that I noticed a message from someone at Near-Time - the company whose product, Flow, was the reason behind the original "worst nightmare" post. At first, being totally honest here, I was slightly annoyed at yet another email from these guys. You see I'd downloaded a copy of Flow on Monday, as Near-Time had just released it, but run into some problems with the registration. Someone at Near-Time had picked up on this (without me contacting them - impressive!)
...I wanted to send this email earlier but waited until we released the product."
..."First let me apologize for the issue you encountered during registration, we overlooked a test on zip code registration but I believe we have resolved it."
...How many people about to threaten legal action (or the legal Horseman of the Apocalypse: a Cease and Desist demand) comment on a technical issue?
..."Second I wanted to send a complimentary full use registration code for Flow to you. I hope you will find Flow to be a powerful application for your use.
Please contact me when you have a moment to discuss your experience and thoughts on the application. You can send a Flow message to me with the ID provided or use email or iChat."
...Hell, even people who I've known for years trip up when they're IM'ing or emailing me (and let's not even get into texting, you'd just be amazed how many variants of my name there can be). Thirdly I was being given a $99.95 registration code purely because I'd 'blogged about this company and its product.
...The guy was taking the time to chat with me while at the WWDC - if I'd been at the WWDC I'd have blown off Kirsten Dunst trying to ask me out on a date (maybe not, but as it's unlikely to ever happen it makes for a good comparison) - and he was polite (something I ought to 'blog about someday, we Brits are meant to be the polite ones in the world but that just isn't true in my experience, just witness my comment above about being at the WWDC...) Anyway, the conversation went on with me thanking Scott and Near-Time for their generosity (and not trying to sue me or anything) and Scott thanking me for 'blogging about them and Flow.
...There are some damn nice people in the world and some of them work for damn nice companies.... I'll let someone else go into details about all that, I'm still all excited that someone actually reads my 'blog...
After sorting through the stuff I could deal with immediately (I'm a follower of David Allen's GTD, thanks to a post by Scoble) I started looking through the other mail. It was then that I noticed a message from someone at Near-Time - the company whose product, Flow, was the reason behind the original "worst nightmare" post. At first, being totally honest here, I was slightly annoyed at yet another email from these guys. You see I'd downloaded a copy of Flow on Monday, as Near-Time had just released it, but run into some problems with the registration. Someone at Near-Time had picked up on this (without me contacting them - impressive!)
...I wanted to send this email earlier but waited until we released the product."
..."First let me apologize for the issue you encountered during registration, we overlooked a test on zip code registration but I believe we have resolved it."
...How many people about to threaten legal action (or the legal Horseman of the Apocalypse: a Cease and Desist demand) comment on a technical issue?
..."Second I wanted to send a complimentary full use registration code for Flow to you. I hope you will find Flow to be a powerful application for your use.
Please contact me when you have a moment to discuss your experience and thoughts on the application. You can send a Flow message to me with the ID provided or use email or iChat."
...Hell, even people who I've known for years trip up when they're IM'ing or emailing me (and let's not even get into texting, you'd just be amazed how many variants of my name there can be). Thirdly I was being given a $99.95 registration code purely because I'd 'blogged about this company and its product.
...The guy was taking the time to chat with me while at the WWDC - if I'd been at the WWDC I'd have blown off Kirsten Dunst trying to ask me out on a date (maybe not, but as it's unlikely to ever happen it makes for a good comparison) - and he was polite (something I ought to 'blog about someday, we Brits are meant to be the polite ones in the world but that just isn't true in my experience, just witness my comment above about being at the WWDC...) Anyway, the conversation went on with me thanking Scott and Near-Time for their generosity (and not trying to sue me or anything) and Scott thanking me for 'blogging about them and Flow.
...There are some damn nice people in the world and some of them work for damn nice companies.... I'll let someone else go into details about all that, I'm still all excited that someone actually reads my 'blog...
Posted at 03:53 PM Read More
Wed - June 16, 2004
Frank Muller
I've just this evening finished reading the
latest Stephen Kind Dark Tower book (Volume V - Wolves of the Calla) and got to
the afterword where Stephen King mentioned that this guy called Frank Muller had
been injured in a motorbike accident and that he and some other top-row authors
had set up a fund to help.
...In the afterword of Wolves of Calla Stephen King mentioned that Frank Muller had done a lot of audio recordings of his books, it was then that it struck me - I was listening to a Frank Muller recital of The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub.... I then noticed a recording called The Wavedancer Benefit, which was an evening of recitals by famous authors (King and Grisham, amongst others) in aid of the Wavedancer fund - I've now bought this recording (the first full price recording I've bought from Audible) in order to make a contribution, albeit a small one, to the recovery of a talented artist who I hope, in the future, will be able to delight again with his excellent recitals.
...In the afterword of Wolves of Calla Stephen King mentioned that Frank Muller had done a lot of audio recordings of his books, it was then that it struck me - I was listening to a Frank Muller recital of The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub.... I then noticed a recording called The Wavedancer Benefit, which was an evening of recitals by famous authors (King and Grisham, amongst others) in aid of the Wavedancer fund - I've now bought this recording (the first full price recording I've bought from Audible) in order to make a contribution, albeit a small one, to the recovery of a talented artist who I hope, in the future, will be able to delight again with his excellent recitals.
Posted at 12:41 AM Read More
Tue - June 15, 2004
Oh dear
Okay so it's been a long time coming and there
are some issues with the independent labels having not signed on (who's willing
to bet that the "example of a monopolistic American company trying to dictate
terms" is more like Apple trying not to get taken to the cleaners by cut-throat
wannabe record labels with a puffed-up sense of self-importance) but I'd be very
surprised if these factors have the affect everyone keeps saying they will (keep
in mind that the US iTMS had similar issues when it started but they've pretty
much all been overcome now).
Since everyone else seems so found of making predictions about the imminent death of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store I've decided to add my own totally unfounded prediction (I've deliberately steered clear of including any facts so as to not taint this prediction with any element of reality, thus keeping it inline with the majority of other iPod/Music Store opinion currently touted in the popular press). Anywhere, here's my prediction: the European iTunes operations will out-sell all existing European download services (the entire OD2 cadre, Napster, etc.) within a month of being online.
Since everyone else seems so found of making predictions about the imminent death of the iPod and the iTunes Music Store I've decided to add my own totally unfounded prediction (I've deliberately steered clear of including any facts so as to not taint this prediction with any element of reality, thus keeping it inline with the majority of other iPod/Music Store opinion currently touted in the popular press). Anywhere, here's my prediction: the European iTunes operations will out-sell all existing European download services (the entire OD2 cadre, Napster, etc.) within a month of being online.
Posted at 01:10 PM Read More
Mon - June 14, 2004
There's nothing like a holiday
Even though we were camping (although we weren't
exactly slumming it as we borrowed Caroline's parent's trailer tent, which
includes a fridge and microwave) and the facilities were much more basic than at
home it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience that, in hindsight, I didn't
really want to end.... I think that the reason we all enjoy our holidays so
much, regardless of what we do and where we go, is because of how much simpler
our lives become all of a sudden.
Look at it this way: at home you worry about getting to work on time and the work you've got to do. At work you worry about getting home on time and the housework you've got to do.
...No work worries; no housework worries (okay, maybe there is some housework but you tend not to worry about it and just get on and do it).
...The upshot of all of this is that I've promised myself I'm going to adopt a more holiday-like approach at home and work. Rather than worry about everything I'm just going to carry on, content in the knowledge that whenever I go away I end up doing all the things I need to do I just don't worry about them anywhere near as much...
Look at it this way: at home you worry about getting to work on time and the work you've got to do. At work you worry about getting home on time and the housework you've got to do.
...No work worries; no housework worries (okay, maybe there is some housework but you tend not to worry about it and just get on and do it).
...The upshot of all of this is that I've promised myself I'm going to adopt a more holiday-like approach at home and work. Rather than worry about everything I'm just going to carry on, content in the knowledge that whenever I go away I end up doing all the things I need to do I just don't worry about them anywhere near as much...
Posted at 09:12 PM Read More
Fri - June 11, 2004
Jet-powered PDA
This makes me think of V.I.N.C.E.N.T. from
Disney's The Black Hole...
Posted at 01:22 PM Read More
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Published On: Oct 26, 2005 10:13 AM
Published On: Oct 26, 2005 10:13 AM