Initially I thought of this book as "’The Name of the Rose’ meets ‘Elizabeth’", as it combines religious themes into a murder mystery set in Elizabethan England, but on reflection that’s not quite correct. This is "’Elizabeth’ meets ‘Inspector Morse’".
Not only are the victims a series of Oxford University academics, who meet progressively stickier ends, but the central character is a lonely polymath with an ambivalent attitude to authority, and his own intellectual obsessions. That and the Oxford locations are both reminiscent of Dexter’s stories, but this is very much its own historic tale, focused on the turmoil caused by the multiple violent shifts in English religion between the reigns of Henry and Elizabeth.
This book should really be titled "Photographic Multishot Techniques with Photoshop CS3". Although it does touch on some other software (in particular a quite detailed look at PhotoAcute) you get the distinct impression that the authors are out of their comfort zone unless they can "do it in Photoshop".
This is a great shame, because multishot techniques such as panoramic stitching and HDR are areas in which smaller software vendors have frequently produced powerful, innovative, inexpensive software solutions. Also, it makes the book less relevant to anyone who cannot afford (or does not want to invest in) full-blown Photoshop CS3.
This may amuse you. I went to type “Here are my comments” (something I do fairly frequently), but mis-typed it as “Here are me comments”. Word correctly identifies this as incorrect grammar, with a green line under “are”. Right click, accept the suggestion, and “Here am me comments” is deemed perfectly acceptable… 🙂
Even better, “I and I own comments here man” is also deemed fine!
I may explore this further – be afraid, be very afraid…
I’ve added a brief addendum to my piece on Virtual PC technologies. It turns out that VMware Player seems to be able to “fix” unreliable VMs. Microsoft’s lack of attention to compatibility has led me to a better product, and could easily make me a complete convert to VMware!
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?
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!
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!
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 selection.
| Alienware Aurora | |
| Camera: Canon EOS 40D | Date: 29-11-2009 17:03 | Resolution: 1731 x 1206 | ISO: 400 | Exp. bias: 0 EV | Exp. Time: 1/60s | Aperture: 4.0 | Focal Length: 17.0mm (~27.6mm) | |
For any of you labouring under the myth that new computer hardware is smaller than old, please meet my new “mini” desktop! 🙂 If you’re struggling with scale, the monitor is 24″.
And what’s really scary is that this is the smaller model in the range. They make a big one, too!
I’ve just published some of my photos from my trip to the Venice Carnevale 2009. There are some more scenery and miscellaneous shots to follow, but if you like pictures of pretty ladies in striking costumes, look here.
This is an unusual book, being almost as much about the psychology of photography as its craft. There are better books about technique, but none I know better lead the reader to analyse his or her successes, failures and way forwards in photography. If you feel stuck or frustrated, unable to improve, or have ever thought "I can’t photograph anything here" then this may be just the book for you.
By a weird co-incidence, I watched "Ocean’s 13" the night before this book found its way to the top of my reading pile. Levien also wrote the screenplay for that film, which I enjoyed enormously, and I was looking forwards to a similar mix of complex plot and light touch dialogue in the book, but sadly I was to be disappointed.
Basically this is a book about a grim and serious subject – the kidnapping of children by organised peadophiles – and as a result it demands a rather grim and serious treatment. At the end there is hope for the boy’s parents and the detective, but therwise this is an unleavened slog which does not make you feel good about the world.
That said, the book is quite well written, and held my attention with its steady pace and well-drawn characters. I expect that readers who prefer their crime novels straight, rather than with Hiaasen-like comic twists, will enjoy it more than I did.
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