When I was a lad, there was a joke. It went:
"It must have been tough in the old days."
"Why?"
"They had to watch TV by candlelight."
Last night we were just sitting down to dinner and our evening’s viewing, and the power went off, for almost two hours. In lieu of candles we lit the gas fire and an oil lamp. Not happy to abandon our entertainment, we powered up the older MacBook, popped in our X Files DVD, and got on with our watching.
That’s right – we watched TV by candlelight.
But there’s a twist. It worked, because of late-noughties technology. DVDs and a laptop with a large screen and disk player slot. If we were reliant on 2017 technology, we would have been scrod: no disc player in the newer laptops, no access to streaming services (mains powered internet router and so on), no access to the mains-powered server which holds our recorded TV.
Normal service will therefore be resumed imminently.
The blog has been looking a bit light on pictures recently. Meanwhile I’m beavering away trying to finish tidying up the Bhutan pics before I’m off to Burma in February. This morning I discovered a series of four similar close-ups Continue reading →
I’ve always wondered about the phrase "a catholic taste", meaning "broad". Surely the way in which the Catholic religion (like most others) prescribes and proscribes certain behaviours and materials acts to limit rather than broaden an individual’s tastes? Apparently the Continue reading →
Tuesday, January 3, 2017 in
Reviews,
Thoughts on the World
I’m not sure I know why, but our leading hardware providers are definitely suffering a distinct deficiency in the Mojo department. Take Apple. I’m really very happy with my 2015 MacBook Pro, even though it was bloody expensive for what Continue reading →
No deep philosophical observations today, but with the weather swinging between cold and misty, and mild and murky, I thought it would be nice to brighten things up a bit. I’m working through the remaining shots from Bhutan, before another Continue reading →
Wednesday, December 7, 2016 in
Bhutan Travel Blog,
Travel
Last night was crisp, clear, cold and very still – theoretically ideal conditions for photographing the lights at Albert Dock with reflections in the water. I couldn’t get out any earlier, but did manage to take my Sony RX100 with Continue reading →
Wednesday, November 30, 2016 in
Photography
Apologies if it’s been a bit quiet here recently, but I’ve been submerged under a tidal wave of new (to me) technologies, and it hasn’t left much space in this bear’s brain for blogging. In the last month or so Continue reading →
Thursday, November 24, 2016 in
Photography,
Thoughts on the World
I’m aware that I’m a slightly lazy photographer. I’m not a great one for pre-dawn starts or rushing out the minute the weather changes, and I do tend to walk around with a single zoom lens on my camera making Continue reading →
Wednesday, October 12, 2016 in
Photography,
Thoughts on the World
Regular readers may remember that I classify films and plays according to whether they are about talking about getting on a train (i.e. deep and meaningful journeys into the soul), or actually getting on the train (/boat, /plane, /nuclear power Continue reading →
Just in case you think some of my recent posts have been a bit anti-Microsoft, here’s one in which (spoiler alert!) they win! Call me old-fashioned, but I very much prefer using a mouse to a trackpad or its relatives, Continue reading →
Friday, September 30, 2016 in
Agile & Architecture,
PCs/Laptops
Overall this is a cracking WWII thriller, set around the concept of an Allies break in into Auschwitz to rescue a specific prisoner who holds information vital to the Manhattan Project. Andrew Gross has done a great job of capturing Continue reading →
Once upon a time, not so long ago, there was a movement obsessed with removing colour, especially those whose skin colour or religious preference was different to their own. This went to great extremes, caused the greatest of all wars, Continue reading →
List
Abstract
One+Abstract
Email me
Others
Thoughts on the World (Main Feed)
Main feed (direct XML)