Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 09:40PM 
If you’ve ever started a blog and then wondered why nobody reads it...
(a tumble weed rolls across the back of the browser and the sound of crickets chirping is heard)
.. then you must, must, must read these two articles.
Link Tuesday, June 29, 2010 at 07:23PM 
I’ve been carrying my iPad around now for a while and I really like it. The screen is nice, the programs are OK and the battery life is amazing. It is in the category of one of those things that you don’t have to consciously remember to charge, you know that it will have enough left in the battery most of the time, and when it gets below 15% or so you plug it in. Great stuff.
However, it is not without its drawbacks. This morning I was putting together a report in the iPad using its Pages word processor. All I wanted to do was take text out of a couple of emails and paste them into a document. The kind of thing I can do in a couple of seconds on my desktop. On the iPad this turned out to be a lot more tricky. I could use cut and paste to move the text but I had to keep switching applications, and finger powered cut and paste is no fun.
As I was laboriously stopping one application, starting another and prodding at the document to find the right place to paste it struck me that what I really want is an iPad running Windows 7. That would allow me to have multiple applications open at the same time in windows on the screen and move things between them, just as I would on my desktop. I really hope this comes about.
Just like the original Apple Mac sold people on personal computers the iPad has sold me on pure tablets. I just want one that is as useful as a PC now.
Life Monday, June 28, 2010 at 07:39PM 
..how it should have turned out.
I found out today that Iain had a nasty accident when he was skydiving over the weekend. His main ‘chute failed to deploy properly and he was forced to resort to his reserve. This is a bit smaller than the usual one, and resulted in a heavy landing which broke his ankle (but fortunately nothing else). He is presently stuck in a hospital bed while being nailed back together.
I owe Iain a huge debt of gratitude. He was the one who persuaded me to do a jump some time back, thus conquering my long held fear of one piece boiler suits and being strapped to other people. I’m still a bit nervous about jumping out of planes though.
Anyway, get well soon Iain, we miss your witty and erudite comments in the tea room (actually, we used to miss them when you were there too, but that’s another story).
Life Sunday, June 27, 2010 at 07:19PM 
What do you do when your USB hub fails? The answer would seem to be “not a lot”. It broke when I was in a hurry to get a few things done before we went out. I got very cross with Apple, Microsoft, finally, myself, when I realised that the reason that my keyboard and mouse were dead wasn’t laptop or Windows 7 failure, but actually the “bargain” USB hub that I bought a couple of years ago.
There is probably a lesson in here for me, but I’m too daft to see what it is.
Life Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 09:34PM 
I think this is my favourite picture of the day.
Took the camera, and a bunch of lenses, down to the Little Weighton Steam Rally today. I went last year and really enjoyed myself taking pictures. So this year I did it again. By way of an experiment I put the telephone lens on the camera just to see what difference it makes to the results you get. Great fun. I could do close ups from a great distance and get some lovely out of focus effects like the one above.
The event is on tomorrow too, so if you like the smell of hot oil, burning coal and the sound of steam, you should go along there.
Gloves
Tractors in Line
Foden.
