June 2007 Archives

Sam and Gareth's wedding.

It was top! Very stylish, and we were very happy to be there.

Flickr

Gadgets

It's an important week this week. The iPhone is released in the US on Friday.

"Nyah. So what?" most of you say, and you might be right.

I have a very strange memory. I don't mean that I just remembered something strange, but that I cannot predict what I will and will not remember. I'm not sure if I use gadgets to store information because my memory is strange, or if my memory has become strange because of my dependance on these things.

Examples. I cannot remember much of my schooling. I'm not saying that I cannot recall anything in particular right now, but instead that when Kim prompts me with her memories of that period (which are excellent) I cannot recall the majority of those occasions. It's gone. Johnny Mnemonic style. This is also true of more recent events too, but obviously I can't give you examples because I can't remember them.

So one of my favourite gadgets then is my mobile camera, and even more so than my big-arsed digital SLR. With mobile cameras, which might be on my phone, my PDA or my laptop, I can record my memories (I must have around 30,000 photos kicking around by now). I just found a huge folder of images on my hard drive that I'd forgotten about (doh!) that were from mobile phones from a few years ago. I dragged and dropped the whole folder into iPhoto and sat transfixed like Zarkov in Flash Gordon as images of my past flashed by and Jack became smaller and smaller, younger and younger, eventually disappearing from images and being replaced by a very pregnant Kim. Awesome brainwashing. I think I'll upload a huge number of these tiny images to Flickr, but just for family and close friends to see.

Gadgets are great. Gadgets are helpful. You shouldn't have to rely on your gadgets, but you should be able to rely on your backups. Hopefully before I even get my hands on an iPhone in early 2008 I'll already be remotely trawling through my own Flickr repository to remind myself of people, places and events, and I'll be adding to that repository and to this website, helping build my online memory.

UK Gov boots intelligent design back into 'religious' margins

From The Register:

"The government has announced that it will publish guidance for schools on how creationism and intelligent design relate to science teaching, and has reiterated that it sees no place for either on the science curriculum.

"It has also defined "Intelligent Design", the idea that life is too complex to have arisen without the guiding hand of a greater intelligence, as a religion, along with "creationism".

"It added that it would expect teachers to be able to answer pupil's questions about "creationism, intelligent design, and other religious beliefs" within a scientific framework."

Very sensible.

Full article.

iPhone Tour

The iPhone will be released state-side on Friday, and it's clearly the most sought after gadget in decades. If you're still not sure what it is or what it can do (let alone, why the hell so many people want it) you might want to take a look at the new guided tour video.

iPhone. A guided tour.

I wonder if it will let me page through my lecture presentations remotely like my current phone...

Taking Grandad to the park

Dad has been visiting us for a few days, and we've played at my golf club for 3 days in a row. (His scores got worse, mine got better - I'm not sure what that means.) Who is dragging who to the park in this photo?

Cafe Glas

The new Starbucks supplied cafe opened on campus. Shhhh! Don't tell the students!

Father's Day

It's father's day today! A day for a lie in, coffee and toast, a bit of golf or maybe some fishing in the morning followed by a big gravy-laden Sunday lunch and a nap on the sofa, and maybe a beer or two in the evening.

Pffft - not a chance!

Dry blogger

OK, so I'm in the middle of another blogger's drought. After Ele's wedding stuff has returned to normal. Normal = not interesting enough to write it down.

I'm still trying to get rid of this fade with my driver. That's about it.

Wedding snaps

Ele and Lee's wedding was superb. All had a great time and I think the bride and groom did too. They booked an excellent photographer who took photos all day long and will publish them on the web within the next couple of weeks, so I didn't feel the need to hide behind a lense. The only photos I took were snaps with my phone.

My brother and I were ushers (and bagmen it seems). Ushering people into the church in Latton.

Kim gave a reading. She was nervous and delivered it with great pacing and emotion.

Nick took this photo of Ele and Lee leaving the church. Jack loved the page boy job. Great suit, eh? Ele looked fantastic.

Nick took this too. The boy and his bubble gun.

Another one from Nick, of Jack and my dad.

The only times Jack sat quietly were during (some of) the service and when he watched the band setting up. He was enthralled, and spent the rest of the evening dancing.

Ele & Dad.

Eventually Jack fell asleep in a corner, right next to the music.

Shoulders

Playing while everyone else was rehearsing for Saturday's wedding service and flowering the church.

Page Boy

Jack's going to be a page boy at my sister Ele's wedding tomorrow. He checked that his suit fit yesterday. Poser.

Add a red cravat to that and he's ready!

Wilbur and Jack build lego

Wilbur likes to help Jack build with Lego. Wilbur thinks there are things he can fetch here.

Gates hints at plans for new videogame control system

Bill Gates has had a moment of genius - he's going to develop a gaming system that will allow us to play sports with realistic movements in our living rooms!

"Bill Gates has revealed that his vision for the future of gaming involves a new control system where players swing a bat or racket as they would in real life".

Wow! Oh, hang on, didn't Nintendo already do that, and didn't Mr Gates tell us how flawed Nintendo's strategy was with the Wii? Apparently the Wii is outselling the Playstation 3 in Japan 5:1 at the moment, so maybe that has changed his opinion. Or maybe he tried it out for himself.

When it was suggested that Nintendo already allowed gamers to do this he replied "That’s a 3D positional device," Gates continued. "This is video recognition. This is a camera seeing what’s going on."

That sounds rather like an updated version of the Playstation 2's EyeToy camera addition to me.

With this and the Vista fiasco Microsoft is looking like a beached whale struggling to get back to sea.

Article link.

iPhone US release date

The Apple iPhone is going to become available in the USA from 29th June.

iPhone adverts

Can I wait until Christmas or later for mine?

Half-term Email

Half-term is great. I've had about 1/10th my normal amount of work email this week.