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Monthly Archives: January 2010
Digital Convergence – Still Waiting
17 January 2010 - Please share: 
Or… Why I Learned to Hate the HTC Touch HD
A few years ago I toyed with replacing my trusty PDA, phone and digital camera with a combined unit. That was not a success, and I ended up with a second hand SmartPhone, an iPaq 4700 PDA, and the T-Mobile MDA as my car satnav (a job it does acceptably). You can read an analysis of my trials and tribulations, entitled “Annoyance-Based Technology Selection”.
Last year, with my old mobile phone wearing out, I tried again, with depressingly similar results. Someone once said “Those who do not learn from History are condemned to repeat it.” Why didn’t I follow this excellent advice?
Posted in Humour, Reviews, Thoughts on the World
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Windows Virtual PC – Breaking Compatibility
17 January 2010 - Please share:
Having for years been an exemplar of how to maintain compatibility between software versions, Microsoft have recently suffered some horrible aberrations in this area. Setting aside the user interface horrors of Office 2007, my worst recent challenge has been Microsoft’s Virtual PC technology. This short article recounts the challenges I’ve had with the new version in Windows 7, and how I’ve ended up resolving the problems with a combination of the old version, and a competitor’s product!
Posted in Thoughts on the World
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A Parable
17 January 2010 - Please share:
In 2008, Bibble 4, supported by its community of plug-ins, was probably the best RAW convertor available – it was certainly my favourite. Then in late 2008 Bibble abandoned support for it, although Bibble 5 was not yet available (for another year, as it turned out). I wrote a short parable to express my frustration at this inexplicable decision.
Although mainly about photography, I think there are lessons for anyone contemplating a disruptive, rewrite from scratch change to a software product – beware!
My “Tenset”
11 January 2010 - Please share:
A recent post by Mike Johnston on The Online Photographer decried the frequent difficulty of quickly reviewing an online photo collection to understand the photographer’s interests and style, in order to decide whether to invest more time in studying the content in greater detail.
Mike’s solution to this is to suggest that each photographer’s website should start with “A photographer’s ten best, or ten favourite, or ten most characteristic pictures, up front.” He gives this concept the excellent name of the tenset.
Suitably chastened and inspired, I’ve taken this suggestion to heart, and my website now contains my very own “Tenset”, as the first grouping on my gallery page. If you’re not sure what makes me tick as a photographer, the subjects which interest me or the style I am trying to develop, look here. If you like what you see, continue browsing. If you don’t, then go no further.
I’ve also written a short article providing a bit more background on the tenset concept, and how I managed to choose my own selecton.