Category Archives: Thoughts on the World
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Twin Tales of Sporting Daring-Do
The 1988 Winter Olympics brought us not only one, but two heart-warming stories of sporting heroism by unconventional outsiders. The story of the Jamaican Bobsleigh Team was told promptly in the wonderful 1993 Disney picture Cool Runnings, but we’ve had Continue reading
Backing Up
Coming up with a reliable backup policy is a challenge as data volumes grow. My approach is as follows. On a weekly basis I do a full backup of the system disk of the more "volatile" PCs in our collection, Continue reading
Snap!
As you know, I enjoy looking for patterns and coincidences. One potential source is the various ways I display my photo portfolios, and I occasionally spot the screensavers on two devices, for example, showing related images. This is interesting, but Continue reading
Weinberg’s New Law, and the Upgrade Cascade
When I started the experiment of running Windows on a MacBook (continued here and here), I really expected it to just be a "travel" laptop, continuing with something like my Alienware R17X as primary machine. That changed rapidly when I Continue reading
Platform Flexibility – It’s Alive!
The last post, written largely back in November and published just before Christmas suggested that camera manufacturers should focus on opening up their products as development platforms, much as has happened with mobile phones. While I can’t yet report on Continue reading
Do We Want Product Development, or Platform Flexibility?
There’s been a bit of noise recently in the photography blogosphere relating to how easy it is to make changes to camera software, and why, as a result, it feels like camera manufacturers are flat out not interested in the Continue reading
From Nobgang to Bumthang…
Via Nobding (with more phalluses) – I couldn’t make this up if I tried! Today was essentially a very long and somewhat boring drive, to the “alpine” bit of Bhutan. Although start and end are probably only 50km apart as Continue reading
SharePoint: Simply C%@p, or Really Complicated C%@p?
There’s a common requirement for professional users of online document management systems. Sometimes you want to have access to a subset of files offline, with the ability to upload changes when you have finished work and are connected again. Genuine Continue reading
The Software Utility Cycle
There’s a well-known model called the “Hype Cycle”, which plots how technology evolves to the point of general adoption and usefulness. While there are a lot of detail variants, they all boil down to something like the following (courtesy Wikipedia Continue reading
Lies, Damn’ Lies…
The trouble Volkswagen have got themselves into may be symptomatic of a wider malaise, and we may find that their main failing is breaking the 11th Commandment. Most people, quite naturally, tend to believe the information provided by their gadgets. Continue reading
A Laser-Like Focus?
I suspect we all have something which can attract our attention, like a missile locking onto a homing beacon, even against significant background noise. With Frances, it’s shoes. With me, it’s bread! There was a scene in the excellent, but Continue reading
It’s Not Just What You Do With It, Size IS Important
On paper, the Panasonic GM5 should be an ideal "carry around" camera for me. The same sensor and processor as the excellent GX7 and GH4 in a neat pocket-sized packaged. A proper electronic viewfinder. Access to all the Micro Four Continue reading
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