Donald Noble’s Site

I’ve been tempted to try one of these ‘Multiple-self self-portraits’ where you appear multiple times in your own photo. Last week’s challenge theme was “Dramatic” so as I had no other great inspiration, I thought I’d give it a go.

It’s not quite perfect, but I am quite happy with the overall result. I used an additional source of light on the two figure photos, as it was a bit dark with me wearing black. Unfortunately, this cast unnatural shadows on the background, so I took a third photo of the background lit just by the overhead light. With hindsight, this wasn’t the best idea, as it meant more work in editing the photos due to the disparity in exposure. Nevermind, it was an experiment. Without being able to look through the viewfinder at myselves, it was difficult to compose the shot exactly as I would have liked, so i ended up having to crop a bit tight on my “evil twin’s” back.

I’ve been watching the fascinating series presented by Jim Al-Khalili, where he traces the story of how the elements, the building blocks that make up our entire world, were discovered and mapped.

Like much of the content on BBC Four, it’s not as dumbed down as much some popular science programmes on BBC Two/Channel 4, and is actually thought provoking and informative for people with an interest in the subject. All three hour long episodes are currently available on BBC iPlayer in a ‘series catch-up’. And I’m sure they will be repeated again soon enough. I do wonder if it was originally proposed to have six half hour slots, as the programmes seem to cover two main topic each; but the advantage of that is there is less repetition.

I have updated my bookmarklet that dynamically links to the what’s on page on the Eden Court website for the current day.

Drag the following link to your toolbar (you may get a warning regarding scripts) then just click to load. Eden Court - What's on Today

A few of the apps I have found to be most useful for my iPhone.

Byline

If you use Google’s Reader to keep up with RSS feeds from websites such as this one, then Byline is a great companion on your iPhone. It syncs perfectly, and allows for off-line reading of starred items by caching locally when you have an internet connection. This feature is also handy when travelling with an intermittent/slow connection. You can read the headlines, starring those you would like to read as you go, and these are downloaded in the background to read later.

Phantom Fish Website & iTunes Link to Byline

National Rail Enquiries

Quickly look up train times with this, but the best feature is live progress/arrivals/departures for trains — although it only seems to update when the train leaves a larger station. I have noticed recently that, surprisingly, it seems to be more accurate than the notices displayed on the platforms at stations.

iTunes link for National Rail Enquiries

Empire Movie Guide

All of the reviews from Empire magazine in your pocket, in an easily searchable database. Very handy if you’re swithering whether to see a film/what film to see. Plus, it doesn’t need an internet connection to view. One drawback is that it is a bit slow on my 3G iPhone, but not excessively so.

Empire website & iTunes link for Empire app

RadioTimes

Listings on your iPhone. Simple idea, but useful. Although not brilliantly designed, or perhaps it just doesn’t match my mental model, but I sometimes struggle to get the view I want first time.

iTunes link to RadioTimes

Some links I have previously posted on twitter, with a bit more comment. These relating to the recent announcement of Apple’s forthcoming iPad tablet.

The iPad isn’t a third device, but a third revolution

The iPad won’t kill the computer any more than the graphical user interface did away with the command line (it’s still there, remember?), but it is Apple saying once again that there’s a better way. Regardless of how many people buy an iPad, it’s not hard to look forward a few years and imagine a world where more and more people are interacting with technology in this new way. Remember: even if it often seems to do just the opposite, the ultimate goal of technology has always been to make life easier.

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An in-depth and insightful discussion of the future of computing (in light of the iPad) by StevenF

In the Old World, computers are general purpose, do-it-all machines. They can do hundreds of thousands of different things, sometimes all at the same time. … but carry the burden of 30 years of rapid, unplanned change. Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X based computers all fall into this category.

In the New World, computers are task-centric. We are reading email, browsing the web, playing a game, but not all at once. Applications are sandboxed, then moats dug around the sandboxes, and then barbed wire placed around the moats. As a direct result, New World computers do not need virus scanners, their batteries last longer, and they rarely crash, but their users have lost a degree of freedom.

For now, I still need an “old world” computer to process photos, but perhaps we will get Lightroom, Photoshop, and Hugin apps for the iPad or similar someday.

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Not strictly iPad, but related. Phil Gyford compares writing with pen and paper, a full-sized keyboard, Apple Newton, Palm Graffiti, Treo & iPhone. I found it interesting to see how the pen and paper does.