Christmas party

We had our work Christmas party last Friday. Was a whole lot better then last years...


This year we were in a club, looking out over the beach. Good food, free bar.
Thought I’d leave off posting an entry until I see what sort of fallout resulted.
Not a lot it turns out. Looks like all the wayward kids decided to ‘get a bit’ of discretion.

The thing I’ve noticed about a lot of Christmas parties is a desperate rush by a load of people to ‘get with’ someone from work. As though the rules are changed for one night.
Ordinarily it takes a couple of days for someone to end up with a 'post party rep' but a new record has been set by one girl who had started as a receptionist just a week earlier. The party started at one in the afternoon and she had a reputation by eight o’clock that night.
I think history is caught in a feedback loop that’s slowly tightening.

There was a fancy dress theme.
Some of the boys did it, as did quite a few of the girls, and everyone else dressed nice.
As usual, there was a guy who dressed up like a woman, and he won a prize for best costume.
Why is it almost always the guy that dresses up like a woman that scores the prize for best effort? The decision was made by a group of girls. Are women not bored of seeing men dressed up as parodies of women?

There were mechanical surfboards pitching young guns off into the scenery, video games, and a fortune teller booth. I lined up a fellow sceptic to accompany me into 'flaky land.'
Fortune teller reckons I’m going to have a close relationship with in six months. I pressed him for more details and it will be a proper relationship, not just copping off in an ally behind the pub. I said that if I found true love within the next six months, I'd track him down and write him a cheque for a thousand dollars.
Let’s call the end of June the cut off.

So how was your Christmas party?

Christmas party

We had our work Christmas party last Friday. Was a whole lot better then last years...

Link to last year’s party

This year we were in a club, looking out over the beach. Good food, free bar.
Thought I’d leave off posting an entry until I see what sort of fallout resulted.
Not a lot it turns out. Looks like all the wayward kids decided to ‘get a bit’ of discretion.

The thing I’ve noticed about a lot of Christmas parties is a desperate rush by a load of people to ‘get with’ someone from work. As though the rules are changed for one night.
Ordinarily it takes a couple of days for someone to end up with a 'post party rep' but a new record has been set by one girl who had started as a receptionist just a week earlier. The party started at one in the afternoon and she had a reputation by eight o’clock that night.
I think history is caught in a feedback loop that’s slowly tightening.

There was a fancy dress theme.
Some of the boys did it, as did quite a few of the girls, and everyone else dressed nice.
As usual, there was a guy who dressed up like a woman, and he won a prize for best costume.
Why is it almost always the guy that dresses up like a woman that scores the prize for best effort? The decision was made by a group of girls. Are women not bored of seeing men dressed up as parodies of women?

There were mechanical surfboards pitching young guns off into the scenery, video games, and a fortune teller booth. I lined up a fellow sceptic to accompany me into 'flaky land.'
Fortune teller reckons I’m going to have a close relationship with in six months. I pressed him for more details and it will be a proper relationship, not just copping off in an ally behind the pub. I said that if I found true love within the next six months, I'd track him down and write him a cheque for a thousand dollars.
Let’s call the end of June the cut off.

So how was your Christmas party?

Bondi to Bronte swimming event 07 (part two.)

This is a follow up to the photos I posted last week….

library/post/bondi-to-bronte-swimming-race-07

It’s taken me a week to get the videos cut up (filling in the spaces in-between bursts of gainful employment.)

This event was held on Sunday off Sydney’s Eastern beaches.
The course is drawn between the first two Surf Life Saving clubs in the world.
Starting in front of Bondi Surf Club, it runs out from Bondi, around McKenzies point and down the coast into Bronte Beach. A distance of 2.2 - 2.5km (depending on the positioning of the buoy off McKenzies point).

I was pretty impressed watching this mass of people swim out of the bay, down the coast, and then back in to shore.
There were young ones, oldies, chunky and thin.
They were carefully watched the whole time by the ‘water safety’ folks.

The embedded map has the coarse drawn on it, and clicking on the pins opens a video up.

Use the controls to zoom in and out, and drag to reposition the map.

View Larger Map

Weekend wondering

This weeks question…
Which are more irritating, moths or flies?


Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
Who would win a drinking contest between lil Red Riding Hood and lil Bo Peep? (The drink is Tequila Slammers.)


Let me hear it for the Peepster!

• No contest. Little Bo Peep, everyone knows its the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
• I go with Little Bo Peep...definitely the quiet shy ones you do have to watch out for...lol
• I'm going with my Peep. 'Bo', you may not realize, is short for 'Booze'.

Make a noise for Red from the hood!

• Little Red Riding Hood of course.
• I think red riding hood with her "oh my what big.... you have" isn't so innocent and would probably throw her shots over her shoulder when bo beep wasn't looking.
• What a silly question! everyone knows red riding hood can drink bo peep under the table. jeesh!
• Bo Peep loses her sheep on a good day, I doubt she can hold her liqueur:) ::smiles::
• She isn't red riding hood for nothing you know!...lol
• Red Riding Hood, no question. (Bo-Peep drinks wine coolers and gets sleepy or weepy)
• Lil Red Riding Hood hands down. She probably carried Grannie's hooch in the basket too and enjoyed many samples on the way through the forest.
• I'll go for Red Riding Hood to win (no matter what the drink) - I see her and the Big Bad Wolf having some serious drinking sessions and that'll get my girl over the line.
• R.Riding Hood. Takes courage to stand up to the big bad wolf. Besides, have you ever known anyone in a fru-fru petticoated dress who can drink anyone under a table?
• Red riding hood

Weekend wondering

This weeks question…
Which are more irritating, moths or flies?

Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
Who would win a drinking contest between lil Red Riding Hood and lil Bo Peep? (The drink is Tequila Slammers.)

Let me hear it for the Peepster!

• No contest. Little Bo Peep, everyone knows its the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
• I go with Little Bo Peep...definitely the quiet shy ones you do have to watch out for...lol
• I'm going with my Peep. 'Bo', you may not realize, is short for 'Booze'.

Make a noise for Red from the hood!

• Little Red Riding Hood of course.
• I think red riding hood with her "oh my what big.... you have" isn't so innocent and would probably throw her shots over her shoulder when bo beep wasn't looking.
• What a silly question! everyone knows red riding hood can drink bo peep under the table. jeesh!
• Bo Peep loses her sheep on a good day, I doubt she can hold her liqueur:) ::smiles::
• She isn't red riding hood for nothing you know!...lol
• Red Riding Hood, no question. (Bo-Peep drinks wine coolers and gets sleepy or weepy)
• Lil Red Riding Hood hands down. She probably carried Grannie's hooch in the basket too and enjoyed many samples on the way through the forest.
• I'll go for Red Riding Hood to win (no matter what the drink) - I see her and the Big Bad Wolf having some serious drinking sessions and that'll get my girl over the line.
• R.Riding Hood. Takes courage to stand up to the big bad wolf. Besides, have you ever known anyone in a fru-fru petticoated dress who can drink anyone under a table?
• Red riding hood

Re-Dub

Earlier I posted a image...

post/here-are-some-more-postings-of-shots-taken-with-my-newish-caplio-gx100

...and there was a comment made about re-dubbing it as B&W, so here it is...

Peeled B&W

Weekend wondering

This weeks question…
Who would win a drinking contest between lil Red Riding Hood and lil Bo Peep? (The drink is Tequila Slammers.)

Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
Is purple the new black?

Yes

• hell yeh get with it,,lol x
• I don't know - but I love it!

No

• No way...
• Hmmm, i think not. I have far more black than purple in my closet. Purple does not slim, in fact a chubby person in purple may look like a grape. Purple does not match everything like black does. Even the word purple is icky sounding. Nope, not the new black...can't be done. :)
• No Dave. With all stereotypes put aside, Hispanic and Arabic are the new black. ^_^ But purple's good too...
• Definitely not. Black is the the black.

Ummm

• I get tired of hearing that such and such a colour is the new black. Black is classic and cannot be replaced. So stop trying! (I adore black;)
• who cares. what does it mean anyway?
• I'll Play. A Tomato sandwich beats an apple any day, although apples have more divirsity, spread with peanut butter, bake, numerous recipes that far outweigh the tomato.
• Is this a fashion question?
• With my fashion sense, I'm the last one to offer any kind meaningful answer.

Weekend wondering

This weeks question…
Who would win a drinking contest between lil Red Riding Hood and lil Bo Peep? (The drink is Tequila Slammers.)

Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
Is purple the new black?

Yes

• hell yeh get with it,,lol x
• I don't know - but I love it!

No

• No way...
• Hmmm, i think not. I have far more black than purple in my closet. Purple does not slim, in fact a chubby person in purple may look like a grape. Purple does not match everything like black does. Even the word purple is icky sounding. Nope, not the new black...can't be done. :)
• No Dave. With all stereotypes put aside, Hispanic and Arabic are the new black. ^_^ But purple's good too...
• Definitely not. Black is the the black.

Ummm

• I get tired of hearing that such and such a colour is the new black. Black is classic and cannot be replaced. So stop trying! (I adore black;)
• who cares. what does it mean anyway?
• I'll Play.
• A Tomato sandwich beats an apple any day, although apples have more divirsity, spread with peanut butter, bake, numerous recipes that far outweigh the tomato.
• Is this a fashion question?
• With my fashion sense, I'm the last one to offer any kind meaningful answer.

A request to widen the focus of the N95 group.

Our knowledgeable colleague Snoyt, has suggested that the N95 group change to include other N series devices.

I would rather that an alternate group be established (I think that this has already be acted on?) for the following reason.

Nokia have a bad habit of releasing a 'landmark' design, and then splintering their product range with devices
that are slightly similar but don't actually drive the market in new
directions.

The N95 is a 'landmark' design, and it is my feeling that the N95 will continue
to lead the market (much like the 6600 did) until Nokia get tired of
screwing around with customers, and make another proper leap in tech.

This should take at least an other couple of years.

The N95 is only now starting to properly penetrate markets and will be around for a while yet.

Watch out for the 'cash in' devices to propagate such as the Navigator and the N82 ;-)
Discussion of these devices will be a waste of time as they are just be 're-packaging' designs.

P.S. Besides, you think I'm a bit churlish. You should listen to the N91 guys complain.

Feel free to comment, or leave the group if Nokia's latest piece of jewelery is more you cup of tea.

What the hells is Nokia playing at...

The new Maps app doesn't allow the user to track their position on a route.
A route can be calculated, but there is no option to track the position on that route, and the 'jump to location' button removes the route from the display.

Oh yeah, I get it. Not enough people were signing up to pay for downloaded voice directions.

Well, removing a feature is going to make me reach for the credit card, right?
Wrong.
Just one more reason to be Uber pissed at Nokia.

Bring on Google, and bring on Android.

P.S. Or buy a cheap handset, and a Tom Tom cause that's going to be a lot cheaper then shelling out for an N95.

P.S.S. Or someone writes an app that gives us back the tracking functionality.

Big fat thunderstorm this evening

IMG_1584 copy

Bondi to Bronte swimming race 07

Here are some photos and I’ll post a more detailed entry with videos later.

This event was held on Sunday off Sydney’s Eastern beaches.

Rain came again...

Rain came back

Weekend Wondering

This weeks question…
Is purple the new black?

Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
Which is better, Tomatoes or apples?

Simple

• Juices from both can be used in alcoholic beverages but tomatoes look real pretty.
• Apples, no contest!
• Apples! Cuz they crunch! I like how tart they are. Tomatoes are too squishy...
• I'm not to hot on them by themselves. They need to be an ingredient. Preferably in desserts.
• it all depends on the purpose. Apples are a lot harder so you're more likely to knock a person out when you throw one at them.

Complicated

• The Victorians called the tomato, a "love apple". So I guess it depends on how you feel about love. (They also thought it was poisonous, and grew it as a decorative plant)
• Apples or tomatoes? Since I'm particular about each, I've no pat answer. Also, my answer would depend on whether the fruit's cooked or eaten raw. What kind of tomatoes? What kind of apples? Is it a star of a dish or a supporting cast member? Are you sorry you asked?
• Apples for eating, tomatoes for throwing:) After all, I'd rather leave a person rather messy than knocked out. And while I love eating both, apples always win out as my favourite, so throwing those would be rather hard... ever so tasty are they.
• first there is the question of what they are better for...You could make a sandwich out of apples, but, they probably wouldn't be as good as tomato sandwiches. Both are good in salads. So, I still need to know what they are better for...?

The sun came back

IMG_1494

Bondi to Bronte swim

Wow 12 to 20 is a big leap! (more rant)

Nokia could do themselves a favour and continue to use the N95 base as a testing ground for the iPhone killer.
They don’t need to do anything to the hardware. The iPhone (and most of the market) is going to take a couple of years to catch up to the N95’s spec sheet, but the operating system needs a lot of work.
What the heck have the Symbion guys been doing all this time?
Why do we still have a confusing layering of menu/submenu?

I don’t necessarily need to change the aspect of the screen by rotating the handset (apart from shutting up the iPhone fan boys,) but moving through menus, or around the calendar by tilting the phone and not needing to unlock the keyboard would be good.
I’m pretty tired of the keypad unlocking itself when those two spongy buttons on the front of the slide are accidentally pressed (actually bugger that why can’t I use the camera shutter and gallery buttons to unlock the keyboard?) so unlocking the keypad with a gesture would be nice too.
Allowing people to create their own unlocking gesture would be an interesting security feature. Can’t repeat the right gesture, phone doesn’t unlock.
What about a spin on the desk to answer the phone (automatically jumps into speaker phone mode,) and spin in the opposite direction to close off the call?
The dpad is really crap so how bout using gestures to play games?
Move around web pages?

I don’t need a touch screen and I agree with Nokia’s argument in the past, that touch screens won’t replace keyboards. The mouse didn’t replace the keyboard but it’s pretty indispensable these days.
I reckon there is a lot Nokia could do with the functionality that is in the current range (hiring and interface designer that isn’t stuck in the eighties would be a good start.)

Wow 12 to 20 is a big leap!

The new clock is good. I’ve been hankering for multiple alarms since the days of my 6600.
Finally there are thumbnails in the Video Centre though they could be much larger. I was wondering why most of my video icons were so dark when I released that the thumbnails were being generated from the first frame. What tit decided that the first frame would make a good preview icon? Most produced films fade up from black. There is a reason why YouTube uses the middle frame.
Visual radio has been improved and I was able to download references to all the stations in my area (this couldn’t have been in the first update six months ago???.)
There is a nice grid overlay function in the cam now (was this there before???)

There is the story I read of the N800 that had had the latest N810 software installed and suddenly the processor is running quicker. There was also a hidden FM radio tuner.
Then we find out about the N95 accelerometer.
This all smells like deliberate ‘hobbling’ of the product so that a new and improved N95 (i) can be released and Nokia can sell a new device to the great unwashed geekdom.
There is a much older story of how TV remote controls all have the same innards, but the manufactures add buttons to the casing to access the extra built in functuality, as the price of the TV the remote is attached to rises.

A lot of companies seem to be ‘taking the customer for granted’ in this way.
Vista had all sorts of new functionality promised for it, and most of the useful stuff such as a new file system was cut out. All we saw from the final release was some extra graphics and a confusing splitting up of a single product into lots of colourful boxes.
Apple users have started de-installing Leopard and returning to the previous version of the operating system as expectations haven’t been met.
Adobe recently made a comment that if they had realised the extent that Apple was going to de-feature the new version of their ‘low end’ video editing system, they would have released a Mac version of the updated Premier Elements.

So what is the moral of the story?
Don’t buy another Nokia device until it has had at least a couple of firmware revisions (probably about twelve months after the device is released onto the market.)

So here are my predictions for the New Year.
Someone will realise that Nokia isn’t putting a lot of effort into taking advantage of the hardware of the N95 and will find even more speed and extra battery longevity.
Some and maybe a lot of the dpad functionality will be replaced with accelerometer function calls.

Weekend Wondering

This weeks question…
Is purple the new black?

Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
Which is better, Tomatoes or apples?

Simple

• Juices from both can be used in alcoholic beverages but tomatoes look real pretty.
• Apples, no contest!
• Apples! Cuz they crunch! I like how tart they are. Tomatoes are too squishy...
• I'm not to hot on them by themselves. They need to be an ingredient. Preferably in desserts.
• it all depends on the purpose. Apples are a lot harder so you're more likely to knock a person out when you throw one at them.
  

Complicated

• The Victorians called the tomato, a "love apple". So I guess it depends on how you feel about love. (They also thought it was poisonous, and grew it as a decorative plant)
• Apples or tomatoes? Since I'm particular about each, I've no pat answer. Also, my answer would depend on whether the fruit's cooked or eaten raw. What kind of tomatoes? What kind of apples? Is it a star of a dish or a supporting cast member? Are you sorry you asked?
• Apples for eating, tomatoes for throwing:) After all, I'd rather leave a person rather messy than knocked out. And while I love eating both, apples always win out as my favourite, so throwing those would be rather hard... ever so tasty are they.
• first there is the question of what they are better for...You could make a sandwich out of apples, but, they probably wouldn't be as good as tomato sandwiches. Both are good in salads. So, I still need to know what they are better for...?

Thank god there is Gin in the house again

This is a picture I took this afternoon and is the first of
series as I attempt to take a picture a day and post it here.

It’s not much of a picture, and it wasn’t much of a day (but
we can’t complain if it rains.)

Sydney grey

St George is no more.

I cancelled my account with the big old green dragon today.
Enough is enough.
I’m bloody sick and tired of being screwed by banks.

I switched to St George more then twenty years ago when I was tired of being screwed around by Westpac.
The dragon used to be great, it was a building society back in those days. Good home loans, branches that opened on Saturdays, friendly staff, good internet banking, lots of auto tellers, and they didn’t charge us for using other peoples ATMs. All gone now, and charges that are levied on pretty much any transaction that one has processed. They’ll even charge us for not having enough money in a saving account.

It was a bit weird commiserating with the teller. I think she remembered the old days too. I didn’t get a bank cheque to transport the funds that I was removing. That carried a ten dollar charge, which the bank also levies on its employees the teller informed me.
Pretty ironic that St George’s previous CEO has left to work at Big Red (lol.)
Thankfully there are still plenty of options for banking these days.

This is the first day of our summer, and I’ve started a group to celebrate.

ozsummer07.groups.vox.com

Sculpture by the sea 07 (the video.)

Continuing on from the previous post…

Time-lapse video set to music, of the Sculpture by the Sea event in Sydney Australia.
Last
years video had a bit of Time-lapse at the end, and being strapped for
inspiration this year, I decided to use the technique all the way
through.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

These images are pulled from the pile of images and Photoshop’d to hell and back.

I've added this to the GX100 group cause all the images where shot with this cam, and collected as a video.

Oz summer 07/08 opening for submission on the weekend...

I'm thinking that it could be cool if everyone took a photo
on the first of Dec and posted it.

You may want to take a photo every day during the summer?

Weekend Wondering...

This weeks question…
Which is better, Tomatoes or apples?


Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
How large can one, allow the holes to grow in ones underwear, before one must replace?

Boys

• When you no longer have, err, support....
• When there are multiple holes.
• When said undergarments are no longer classifiable as boxers, briefs, or boxer-briefs, and become what is commonly known as either the "banana-hammock," or the "inverse banana-hammock." Neither of which are desirable. So I guess, considering that, it's best to replace at the first sign of holes.
• I am just about to remove any underwear from my collection that has holes.  I try to do it at least once every few months.
• Personally, I feel as long as they are still in one piece, with distinct leg holes, and the majority of the material is still attached to the elastic waistband...
• Of course, it's always good to have a few "unholy" pairs to wear in case there's a chance for action.
• The rules are quite simple. (1) A gentleman may continue to wear socks with holes until such time as his girlfriend throws them out or they become non-functional. (2) There is no such dispensation with underwear; it is incumbent on one to immediately dispose of said garment upon cognisance of structural damage.

grrrls

• quite a long time.
• Ok.. throw them away.. and step away from the bin.
• Dave, I think it's time to buy new underwear.
• Looks at watch and exclaims... "It's time!"
• You don't want to be caught in a pair of underpants that looks like you stole them from a homeless person...just in case.
• As long as they still hold all is OK - when said dodgy underwear is ripped off, then it must be replaced.
• Are 'things' falling out of the holes? Then it's time to move on...or go freeballn!
• I think one must never buy anymore new underwear, ever. It can be your new thang. You'll be the talk of girl town...

Weekend Wondering

This weeks question…
Which is better, Tomatoes or apples?

Answers to last weeks question from a variety of sources…
How large can one, allow the holes to grow in ones underwear, before one must replace?

Boys

• When you no longer have, err, support....
• When there are multiple holes.
• When said undergarments are no longer classifiable as boxers, briefs, or boxer-briefs, and become what is commonly known as either the "banana-hammock," or the "inverse banana-hammock." Neither of which are desirable. So I guess, considering that, it's best to replace at the first sign of holes.
• I am just about to remove any underwear from my collection that has holes.  I try to do it at least once every few months.
• Funny question! ))) And what about you?
• Personally, I feel as long as they are still in one piece, with distinct leg holes, and the majority of the material is still attached to the elastic waistband...
• Of course, it's always good to have a few "unholy" pairs to wear in case there's a chance for action.
• The rules are quite simple. (1) A gentleman may continue to wear socks with holes until such time as his girlfriend throws them out or they become non-functional. (2) There is no such dispensation with underwear; it is incumbent on one to immediately dispose of said garment upon cognisance of structural damage.
  

grrrls

• quite a long time.
• TMI    (I have no idea what this means?)
• Ok.. throw them away.. and step away from the bin.
• Dave, I think it's time to buy new underwear.
• Looks at watch and exclaims... "It's time!"
• You don't want to be caught in a pair of underpants that looks like you stole them from a homeless person...just in case.
• As long as they still hold all is OK - when said dodgy underwear is ripped off, then it must be replaced.
• Are 'things' falling out of the holes? Then it's time to move on...or go freeballn!
• I think one must never buy anymore new underwear, ever. It can be your new thang. You'll be the talk of girl town...

Oz summer 07/08

Hiya fellow Ozzystralians
I’ve started a new group for the Summer of 07/08.
This group opens for three months beginning at the end of November, and is intended to be a ‘snapshot’ of our summer.

Photos, prose, art, music, video, anything that Vox members have created.

No copy/pasting please.

Join anytime you like but hold off the posting till the first of December ;-)

http://ozsummer07.groups.vox.com/

Slowly getting there...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071123/tc_nm/benefon_geosentric_nokia_dc_1

Walk Against Warming 07

Our country elects a new government in a week’s time, so the local enviro groups organised a ‘Walk Against Warming’ march through the city streets.
We had a march last year, and the blog entry is here....

walk-against-warming-06

…and this is the video of this year’s event.

The band is Watusi who played to entertain the folks who walked. The music is South American inspired and there is another video of these guys here…

2006_Newtown_street_festival

About twenty thousand people turned up, which is pretty poor considering the number of bodies living in Sydney.
I hear that Melbourne had fifty thou.
The usual politicking types got up to make a short speech. The crowd booed the Left wing party representative, cause like other liberal parties all over the planet, it’s hard to tell the difference between the left and the right these days.
The Right wing didn’t even bother to turn up. At least those guys never change.

Weekend wondering...

How large can one, allow the holes to grow in ones
underwear, before one must replace?

More image stitching with CS3

these photos were all 'touched' by photoshop...

pink ally blur

This had a merge which failed cause the images were too different so I did it by hand and used masks to slice up the image.

graph compilation

Two images posted earlier, and now stitched together to display the original piece.

pink ally

I had a series of photos but wanted a single large image of the whole ally. Stitched by CS3.
This program is a lot of fun to use.

Here are some more postings of shots taken with my newish Caplio GX100

I really like this little cam, apart from the problems with noise.
I would be much more willing to recommend this cam to my friends if there was less grain in the images.

radio tower over house

radio tower

peeled two

Montage type photo cut ups...

...of the Danks street festival that was held a few weeks back.

yellow

guard

yellow 2

elvis

Festival season (part two.)

Twas a very hot day and I scored a sunburn despite the posh Nivea sunscreen lol
While looking for a coffee, I discovered a stall selling ‘non colonialist’ coffee and chocolate.

www.mayancoffee.com.au

Great coffee (I went back for a second later in the afternoon)
All the staff looked like they were volunteers, and I bought a bag of chocolate coated coffee beans with a hint of cinnamon and chilli.
They were canvassing for volunteers to travel to Guatemala to teach English and suchlike.
Boy the French must be pissed that English and Spanish became the international languages.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

I like these community festivals cause all sorts of folks can be found
wandering between the stalls. Lots of dogs and kids about too. This video is of a dog show, which seems to be traditional at these events.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

There’s the party animals too, and they tend to gravitate towards the
dance party style sound systems. such as at the end of this ‘stream of
consciousness’ type video.


Lots of music, people, and a brutal slaying of a stuffed toy.

Dead Persons storage facility.

Dead Persons storage facility.

Graffiti

Graffiti

Happy Daylight Savings!

It will be nice to enjoy the light at a more useful time of the day.
No more leaving work as the sun sets and arriving home in the dark. I can go for a walk down to the beach, or a jog in the park.

I reckon that this is the best season of the year. It’s much better then ‘Tax Return submitting Season’ (which you either love or hate,) or ‘holiday Season’ (where all transport and accommodation is a lot more expensive.) I’m not going to bore people with how much ‘Flu Season’ sucks.

Other lesser known yearly divisions are the ‘red wine season’ which tends to be the cooler months of the year and is counter-pointed by ‘G&T season’ which marks the warming of the air.

So I’d like to wish everyone a very merry Daylight Savings and a happy G&T on the rocks.

I’ve inserted some pic’s I took in Chippendale of some graffiti.
There was an exhibition of Stencil art being held, and after I checked out the art I lurked around the back streets to see if I could find some uncaged examples.

The first two are part of a collaborative project that was in the process of being created. I think the result was going to me auctioned off.

Next thing I want from Nokia.

Let's get that useless little cam on the front doing something.
Is anyone actually using it for video calls?
(Probably Snoyt knowing my luck.)

How bout using that pixel tracking tech to allow us to scroll around the screen by tilting the phone? Move the phone and the direction and speed of the pixels can be read by the cam. Currently I’ve only seen this tech ‘wasted’ on games.

The little cam probably has enough rez to read the texture on the pad of ones thumb so our thumb moving in front of the cam could be used as a trackball input.
Possibly throw in a bit of gesture recognition so that ‘circling the thumb,’ or ‘rapid back and forth’ movements could be assigned functions?

I'm now wondering about using both cameras. The Main cam on the back, for left right up down, and the forward facing cam used as a thumb trackball?

How bout using facial recognition so that when the user is looking at the screen, a nod is read as the green key, and a shake is the red key?

• A wink could trigger the SMS function?
• The user opens their mouth to send the SMS.
• Tilt the head to move through your mail.
• Passing you hand over your face shuts the app down.

What about using the voice command system?
Problems with noisy environments?
The phone could recognise the thumb over the forward facing cam, as the trigger for incoming voice commands so that the phone only listens when the user wants it to.

The interesting thing with facial recognition, is that we could get a cheap iPhone type experience by triggering the screen to change aspect as the phone is rotated from portrait to landscape.
When you rotate the phone, the front cam would see that the angle of your face (I'm assuming you’re looking at the screen when you rotate the phone) would change relative to the cam, and this would trigger the phone to change the aspect of the screen.

Entry for October 04, 2007: Crap it was warm today.

And we’re having a bit of a moth plague at the mo.
Happens every couple of years or so.

Lots of grey, furry little bodies, erratically buzzing around the city.

I don’t mind them personally. There are also a lot of flies buzzing around in the warm air right now and those piss me off more.
People at work seem to have been a bit distracted by a few of these little invaders that were able to get inside to office yesterday.
One woman seemed to have a major psychosis going on, cause she spent most of the day gyrating between the cubicles, gazing up at the roof, as she desperately tried to avoid contact with one of the many moths that were knocking themselves senseless against the fluro’s.

At the end of the day, I told her that she should check that the interior of her car was clear, in case one flew out from under a seat when she was driving and caused her to have an accident.
I was kind of joking but she looked at me weirdly and nodded.
She took a leaf of A4 copy paper with her in case a fuzzy body was on the door handle

Bush fire season has started too. A road was closed off to peak hour traffic as a fire blackened the country side. The papers reckon the fires are deliberately lit.
Whole lot of stuff going to go up in flames this year.

Crap it was warm today.

And we’re having a bit of a moth plague at the mo.
Happens every couple of years or so.

Lots of grey, furry little bodies, erratically buzzing around the city.

I don’t mind them personally. There are also a lot of flies buzzing around in the warm air right now and those piss me off more.
People at work seem to have been a bit distracted by a few of these little invaders that were able to get inside to office yesterday.
One woman seemed to have a major psychosis going on, cause she spent most of the day gyrating between the cubicles, gazing up at the roof, as she desperately tried to avoid contact with one of the many moths that were knocking themselves senseless against the fluro’s.

At the end of the day, I told her that she should check that the interior of her car was clear, in case one flew out from under a seat when she was driving and caused her to have an accident.
I was kind of joking but she looked at me weirdly and nodded.
She took a leaf of A4 copy paper with her in case a fuzzy body was on the door handle

Bush fire season has started too. A road was closed off to peak hour traffic as a fire blackened the country side. The papers reckon the fires are deliberately lit.
Whole lot of stuff going to go up in flames this year.

An opinion piece on the New N95 8gig

This is a link to an article about the improvements made to the N96

Higher capacity battery.
What a surprise. Gee I didn't see that one coming! ;-)

Better build quality
Gee, that one was a surprise too.
I'm taking the piss. Click here to see an earlier article I wrote.
It's a shame that Nokia did away with the plum colour of the case. I quite liked that.

The increase in memory is an interesting point.
This article seems to think that it's a good idea to expand the internal memory at the expense of the SD card slot. Why the hell did Nokia remove the card slot?
Was it the room the carriage took inside the phone?
Was the card slot using memory address space that Nokia needed to release for the extra memory?
Is it an operating system failing?

The thing I like about the SD card is that it's removable. Not it's capacity.
I have two cards that hang from a key ring, and I swap them around my various devices.
I don't keep pictures or video, or word docs in the device cause the data is the important thing. Not the device.
Strangely enough, the device is much more likely to be stolen, or lost, or left somewhere.
I'd much rather have two four gig removable SD cards, then one big slab of memory in the device.

Bigger screen
Nice! But I'm sure as heck not plonking down another grand in cash for a phone that still has a way to go before it's where it should have been at the first release.

And for the stuff that still concerns me…
I wonder if the redesigned dpad has a better ‘feel?’

Does anyone know if the new version can be charged from a USB connection? Not the tiny little easily damaged micro plug!

While I’m thinking about interesting things to do with my phone…

News acquisition device.
The N95 could be a handy little News gathering device.
Basic video editing included.
Is it possible to record the direction that the phone is pointing? If so, I want that recorded into the Geotags too.
I want to be able to record an interview with someone with the second cam capturing me asking the questions (is it possible to run both the cams at the same time?)
The screen would show both images being captured and an audio levels display.

Here is a Google map with embedded video and images.

I had to build it by hand. That includes the purple path I where I sketched out the route that I took.
Why is this so, when I have an N95 and an internet link????

View Larger Map

I want a new camera app for the N95 that hooks into the GPS.

• Pictures and video are all Geotagged,
• Records audio and Geotags that too.
• Easily uploads to Google maps (or Flickr or whatever) and 'pins' all the media to the map.
  
• Talks to the Map program so I can dial up an image in the photo browser, and ask the mapping program to plot a route to the Geotag of the photo.

A bonus would be if the program saved images in Raw format too.

A pic with my new cam...

A Ricoh Gx 100

flower

Entry for September 22, 2007: And finally...

This is the last of my posts on the APEC nonsense that we suffered a few weeks back.
I’ve built one of these new fangle Google maps so that you can ‘wander’ around and see where the videos and photos were taken.
The pins can be clicked on and contain videos and photos.
The purple line is my route.

Click here to visit the Google map site.

There were cops on foot, cops on cycles, cops with a water cannon, cops riding motocross, and if not for the equine flu outbreak there would have been cops on horse back.
The only thing missing was cops on roller blades!

Where the heck did all these cops come from?
The tourists were in seventh heaven as there was a cop from who they could ‘ask for directions,’ every couple of meters or so.
That is unless an unfortunate tourist took a photo of THE FENCE and then the cops would swoop in and make the visitor delete the last couple of shots in the memory.

I travelled into the city on a bus, and over heard a family talking about attending the protest. I heard the mum describing what the protest was about and one child said ‘mom I don’t want them to use the water canon on me.’

This is the last of my posts on the APEC nonsense that we suffered a few weeks back.

I’ve built another of these new fangle Google maps so that you can ‘wander’ around and see where the videos and photos were taken.
As with the previous one, feel free to zoom in and scroll around within the window. The pins can be clicked on and contain videos and photos.
The purple line is the route that I took.

If the pins don't appear, click here to visit the Google map site and view the map there.

View Larger Map

There were cops on foot, cops on cycles, cops with a water cannon, cops riding motocross, and if not for the equine flu outbreak there would have been cops on horse back.
The only thing missing was cops on roller blades!

Where the heck did all these cops come from?
The tourists were in seventh heaven as there was a cop from who they could ‘ask for directions,’ every couple of meters or so.
That is unless an unfortunate tourist took a photo of THE FENCE and then the cops would swoop in and make the visitor delete the last couple of shots in the memory.

I travelled into the city on a bus, and over heard a family talking about attending the protest. I heard the mum describing what the protest was about and one child said ‘mom I don’t want them to use the water canon on me.’

Entry for September 20, 2007: Continuing the APEC protest march entry.

The €˜demonstration€™ convened out the front of the Town Hall, where one elected representative had remarked earlier in the week ‘cage Bush, not Sydney.’
There were ‘a thousand and one’ cameras on and around the street. Nothing happened without a lens examining and recording the event.
Cops went €low tech€™ with periscopes, the TV guys were STILL lugging around shoulder bending monsters, and everyone else had a phone or a €˜point and shoot.
It was a bit weird seeing all the cameras arcing out over people’s heads, to peer down at what ever was the ‘interest’ of the moment.

This is a video featuring some of the people that made an effort to communicate their support for a variety of issues in entertaining ways.
The bizarre thing is, that Sydneysiders are so self absorbed, that there was never a chance that events were going to get out of control.
Sure, if the issue was with sport, or a patch of beach there would be trouble. But global warming, or fair trade.
Come on, that\u2019s someone else\u2019s problem!

The city seemed to be deserted for the whole three days. What a master stroke. Give everyone in Sydney a holiday, and they\u2019re all off to clog all the arteries exiting the city.
For such a nice city to live in, a lot of people are desperate to get out when there is a holiday in the offing.

Continuing the APEC protest march entry...

The ‘demonstration’ convened out the front of the Town Hall, where one elected representative had remarked earlier in the week ‘cage Bush, not Sydney.’
There were ‘a thousand and one’ cameras on and around the street. Nothing happened without a lens examining and recording the event.
Cops went ‘high tech’ with periscopes, the TV guys were STILL lugging around shoulder bending monsters, and everyone else had a phone or a ‘point and shoot.’
It was a bit weird seeing all the cameras arcing out over people’s heads, to peer down at what ever was the ‘interest’ of the moment.

This is a video featuring some of the people that made an effort to communicate their support for a variety of issues in entertaining ways.
The bizarre thing is, that Sydneysiders are so self absorbed, that there was never a chance that events were going to get out of control.
Sure, if the issue was with sport, or a patch of beach there would be trouble. But global warming, or fair trade.
Come on, that’s someone else’s problem!

The city seemed to be deserted for the whole three days. What a master stroke. Give everyone in Sydney a holiday, and they’re all off to clog all the arteries exiting the city.
For such a nice city to live in, a lot of people are desperate to get out when there is a holiday in the offing.

Entry for September 18, 2007: APEC march

Welcome to Sydney. Famous for its policing which is either over zealous or non existent.

Initially I wasn’t particularly fussed about this group of politicians holding a meeting in Sydney.
But then it became apparent that that our government officials were taking this little gathering wayyyyy too seriously. To the point were they were actively discouraging people from making their opinions felt with a public demonstration.
For months our officials have been talking up potential violence, blowing our taxes on fencing us out of a chunk of our own city, buying water cannons, and digging up an astounding number of police to line the footpaths.
A hundred and fifty million dollars spent on security, that is able to be breached by a comedy sketch show posing as a Canadian delegation.
I can't believe that NSW tax payers are prepared to accept such incompetence and oppression.

Police State of mind

Welcome to Sydney. Famous for its policing which is either over zealous or non existent.

Initially I wasn’t particularly fussed about this group of politicians holding a meeting in Sydney.
But then it became apparent that that our government officials were taking this little gathering wayyyyy too seriously. To the point were they were actively discouraging people from making their opinions felt with a public demonstration.
For months our officials have been talking up potential violence, blowing our taxes on fencing us out of a chunk of our own city, buying water cannons, and digging up an astounding number of police to line the footpaths.
A hundred and fifty million dollars spent on security, that is able to be breached by a comedy sketch show posing as a Canadian delegation.
I can't believe that NSW tax payers are prepared to accept such incompetence and oppression.

The way I see it, I helped pay for the APEC party. I should at least go down and see what sort of fun I was missing out on.I’m finding it hard to believe that for all those years we were bagging out Queensland for being a ‘police state’ when Joh B was around.
Check this shit out...

It's bizarre what Sydney will spend money on. APEC instead of fixing the country tracks we call roads. Desalination plants rather then recycling.

APEC march

I’m taking a short break from the whales.
I was a part of the APEC march which was held on Saturday, by a variety of groups, for a verity of reasons.
These are some quick grabs and I’ll post something better cut, with a write up later.

APEC protest march 08: Rain

APEC protest march 08

APEC protest march 08: Marching

APEC protest march 08: Billionaires

We had a witch’s moon tonight.

Great big ‘teabag coloured’ luna arcing across the sky.

Last time I saw that I was in York,
where I climbed a mound erected by William the Conqueror with a gay girl and a
tall blond wanderlust infected Kiwi guy.

The bloody churches where also ringing the crap out of their
bells then.

This means I’ve seen a blood moon in both hemispheres.

All my current stock of videos featuring birds...

Back from Hols and busy as buggery...

First up some photos, more detail later.

boat side_Panorama1

boat sunset_Panorama1

cloud boat_Panorama1

cloud_Panorama1

Hervey bay in Queensland.

Bout bloody time…

First there was the implementation of a standard headphone jack and now...

http://www.everythingusb.com/nokia_8600_luna_13128.html
 
It’s as though Nokia has been reading my blogs.

Took my 6600 away with me on holiday last week and found it interesting to be back on the old unit for a while.
I’m even more convinced that Nokia has gone backwards with the design of the Dpad on the N95.
The joystick on the 6600 is a lot more positive in its action. Reminds me of the old days when micro switches appeared in C64 joysticks.
I’ve been trying to work out why Nokia would have used such a mushy input point in the N95, and beside trying to cut corners with the cost of manufacture, the only other excuse I can think of is the slimness of the sliding screen section. Maybe there just isn’t the room to mount a 6600 style joystick?

Photo blog

I'm off for a week, so here are some photos dedicated to the people who have made some very nice comments ;-)

IMG_0510 copy

IMG_0471 copy

Untitled_Panorama1

Killer apps queue here please…

Last week my mate, who has a N93 made the comment that Nokia doesn’t really have a decent ‘killer app’ for their smart phones (One might think of the iPhones interface as a potential ‘killer app.’)

Nokia doesn’t seem to be able to get everything together in a nice, sexy, utterly compelling package.
Ngage was a good attempt, but it didn’t really come close to providing a ‘must have’ gaming experience.
The GPS is great but it’s not very well integrated with the camera or the other software on the phone. Specking of which, I’ve just upgrade to AGPS and the improvement is really noticeable. Nokia must have been planning all along to supplement the crummy TI GPS chip with the data connection of the phone. I’m wondering what manufactures like Tom Tom are going to do to compete with this?
I noticed that Tom Tom has a patent for overlaying location and path data onto a video feed. Shame Nokia didn’t use the camera and the GPS in the N95 to do the same thing.

Unfortunately Nokia seem to have the same problem that Microsoft admitted to recently.
All sorts of great disparate tech, but not much creative ‘glue’ to bind it all together.

I signed up to get onto the Nokia Mosh social networking site, and I guess I get to see what they’ve been up to when it goes Beta. But what Nokia needs is that ‘must have’ thang.
For a long time, the phone bit was the ‘killer app’ and SMS came out of left field, as did ring tones. The radio is great, but visual radio is almost pointless it so underutilised.

What next?