OK, so we have had 2 months of rain 98% of the days and this was supposed to be summer in Ireland? Hellooo????... SomeONE forgot to change the switch to summer OR decided that as we had a great April and May and 2 good summers for the past 2 years we should not be spoiled and given yet another REAL summer. I can handle greay and miserable for 6 months of the year, but 10 months? That's a bit much, isn't it? Mind you, don't be fooled by some of the photographs on my Flickr pages. Read the comments I posted below some of the lovely cloudscapes. They are there because rain is on the way.... So that is my excuse for not having been more regular over the last few weeks - I've succumbed to grey weather depression.
Well, not really I suppose. Mostly I've been playing with my new Pentax and then tried to learn how to do layer work on photographs to get them to look bootiful. That has been keeping me busy and out of mischief. I have now NEARLY cracked it. Much better understanding of it using my recently purchased Adobe Photo Elements 5.0. You see, what triggered it was that I bought this Digital Camera magazine and they had there fabulous images and they showed you how to do it with layers. So I tried it after a quick glance through and, by accident, created the Pastel Rose image on my Flickr page. This has driven me demented for the last 3 weeks. I am too stubborn to go back to the tutorial on the disk, and just have not been able to get it right again. I NEARLY got it right once more, then nada, zilch and nix. Nothing! However, I THINK, I nearly have it now after spending several hours at my computer over the last week-end.
Anyhow, that is why I have been so scarce. I have been frantically trying to replicate my mistake. If I hadn't done it once by accident, none of this would have happened!
Got an email from someone in Colorado last week saying he had saved hundreds of dollars using a website called Yayah.com. be careful if you type in the URL and do not follow the link. There is a similar named site at Yahyah.com with an extra H in it. Had a quick look and it is quite interesting. You register and give them your details, then enter 2 phone numbers - your mobile and that of the person you want to dial and it connects the two for a few pennies. Not quite VoIP rates, but a heck of a lot cheaper than hotel phones or even calling cards and quite simple to use. It does assume you have broadband access and if you do and you have a VoIP account you could make cheaper calls, but it is an excellent option for people who travel and have their laptops and Internet access.
I am now fully switched over to Windows Vista AND Office Vista. I can't say that it is more stable than Windows XP, although it has some nice features and is a bit simpler when it comes to installing new devices and services, but when it fails, it gets a lot more complex. All the different versions can drive you nuts as well. My laptop came with Vista Home installed but I use it in the office as well. Only thing is, it won't let you log onto a Domain as out office network uses, without upgrading to Vista Ultimate for the Ultimate price. So I ended up having to fork out the extra dollars. And of course then Acrobat kept crashing Outlook until I upgraded to Acrobat 8.0 from 7.0, so more money (AND even MORE infuriating is the price discrimination - US$99 but in the EU we have to pay €132! Nearly 50% more! What a ripoff!) and now I find that my Password tool I use, AnyPassword, won't let me access my passwords unless I upgrade to AnyPassword Pro. So I downloaded the trial version, and it won't let me save my changes because I have more than 10 passwords in it.
*Sigh* this Windows Vista thing is going to be QUITE pricey.....
Since my daughter had been on vacation in Ireland with us and went back home I do find that I send her texts more often of small little things that I am doing, just to keep up the contact. Now what does that remind me of? Hmmm... now let me think?... Oh, yeah that's right - Twitter and Jaiku. Remember when I reviewed them aeons ago I said it is interesting but I couldn't really understand it yet Leo Laporte of TWIT and various others were avid subscribers? Well, I am starting to understand how, when you are away from people who are close to you, this can be a way of just keeping up that little bit of personal touch.
Anyhow, enough rambling for one day. Next week I am in Kiev, and no doubt I will have some interesting news to report from there!
Monday 13 August 2007
Friday 27 July 2007
A dull grey slow month....
Seems as if the dull 'summer' weather we have been having on the islands has been insiduously seeping into my very psyche and being. I have been awful at updating my blog. I guess, given the floods in the UK, we here in Ireland should be thankful. But, looking at all those chocholate brown people returning from summer holidays in Portugal it is just VERY difficult not to grumble (not that we are unthankful Lord, it would just have been nice to get just a tiny LITTLE bit of sunshine given that it is supposed to summer after all...). OK, that is my weather grumble out of the way.
We cannot control the miserable weather, but, we can control what we do and how we feel. My Stumbling buddy (StumbleUpon as some of you may know is one of my favourite Web 2.0 functions in my webbrowser), Knowth, who is a great fan of the ancient Celtic lands, recently posted a beautiful picture of the winter solstice lighting up one of the passage graves at Newgrange in Ireland. However, he also sent me a link to a new feel-good website of his - The Favourbank (Favorbank to our American colleagues..). It is just a simple webpage, with links to stories about deposits/withdrawals from the Favour Bank. It is delightful and a concept that I have long known and used in everyday life ( ah sure there goes another deposit into the favour bank!). It is quite probable, given the links on his page, that I picked it up in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. The concept is simple, and, like Web 2.0 and life in Ireland, community oriented - make regular deposits into the Favour Bank by doing small and simple good deeds. When you need a withdrawal one day, your balance should be good enough. I know so many people who only make deposits because they expect regular withdrawals. That should never be the principle. If we all returned to the old way of living - being willing to help others without expecting anything in return, would that not improve our society so may fold over?
I think it would.
Whilst stumbling, came across another new favourite, 33 ways to oveclock your brain. Yep, that is what it is about. We have been talking about convergence for years in telecommunications, and now, finally, it is here! But, it is the convergence of our computer concepts and self improvement concepts that have converged! Don't believe me? Oi ye doubting Thomas ye! Go on get yourself over to this link then and see for yeself!
For those of you interested in renewable energy, I visited a windfarm in Texas last week owned by Airtricity, an associate company and took some lovely and interesting images of some Mitsubishi manufactured wind turbines. I will update my Flickr pages with them later on (first have to find them...). Uhm, so meanwhile posting some pictures of the wild orchids blooming on Bull Island, Clontarf, Ireland in July. They look huge in pictures but are mere centimetres in height. I had to lay down flat on my stomach to get some of the better ones.
Have to run. Will try not to let the weather get to me, will reprogram my brain more positively based on the Ririan Project 33 principles and be FAR more productive!
We cannot control the miserable weather, but, we can control what we do and how we feel. My Stumbling buddy (StumbleUpon as some of you may know is one of my favourite Web 2.0 functions in my webbrowser), Knowth, who is a great fan of the ancient Celtic lands, recently posted a beautiful picture of the winter solstice lighting up one of the passage graves at Newgrange in Ireland. However, he also sent me a link to a new feel-good website of his - The Favourbank (Favorbank to our American colleagues..). It is just a simple webpage, with links to stories about deposits/withdrawals from the Favour Bank. It is delightful and a concept that I have long known and used in everyday life ( ah sure there goes another deposit into the favour bank!). It is quite probable, given the links on his page, that I picked it up in Tom Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities. The concept is simple, and, like Web 2.0 and life in Ireland, community oriented - make regular deposits into the Favour Bank by doing small and simple good deeds. When you need a withdrawal one day, your balance should be good enough. I know so many people who only make deposits because they expect regular withdrawals. That should never be the principle. If we all returned to the old way of living - being willing to help others without expecting anything in return, would that not improve our society so may fold over?
I think it would.
Whilst stumbling, came across another new favourite, 33 ways to oveclock your brain. Yep, that is what it is about. We have been talking about convergence for years in telecommunications, and now, finally, it is here! But, it is the convergence of our computer concepts and self improvement concepts that have converged! Don't believe me? Oi ye doubting Thomas ye! Go on get yourself over to this link then and see for yeself!
For those of you interested in renewable energy, I visited a windfarm in Texas last week owned by Airtricity, an associate company and took some lovely and interesting images of some Mitsubishi manufactured wind turbines. I will update my Flickr pages with them later on (first have to find them...). Uhm, so meanwhile posting some pictures of the wild orchids blooming on Bull Island, Clontarf, Ireland in July. They look huge in pictures but are mere centimetres in height. I had to lay down flat on my stomach to get some of the better ones.
Have to run. Will try not to let the weather get to me, will reprogram my brain more positively based on the Ririan Project 33 principles and be FAR more productive!
Thursday 12 July 2007
Just a quickie....
Rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated as the famous saying goes. Yes, I have been notably absent not just from my blog, but even the web. Only emails received some brief daily attention over the last 2 weeks. The reason? My 13 year old daughter arrived for a visit from South Africa, and I can assure you, keeping her entertained was a full time job, but an exquisite pleasure.
Anyhow, I am in recovery this week, have only just got back to listening to my podcasts and reading my daily websites. Next week I have to head over to the US for a brief one week visit to Memphis, Tennessee, Austin Texas and Chicago before coming back, probably more wrecked than what I feel right now. Have to visit some ethanol plants (and that hot on the heals of the Nestle Chairman stating in the Financial Times last Friday that food prices world wide are set to rise and remain high due to the competition for food crops from biofuel! All the more reason to switch to chocolate I guess?
One of the few things I found is an 'old' thing - Boing Boing. Dated 1988. Yup, before the official internet and broadband. How come? Well it was a real mag at that stage called bOING bOING. Then switched to the 'new' world after their published went belly up (clever huh? That I know all these things? Uhm, I listened to Leo and Amber on net@nite talking to the founder of Boing Boing...)
The other thing that I enjoyed was another 'old' thing on National Geographic - the list of the 'new' 7 wonders of the World. Interestingly enough, the Great Wall of China made the list, as did the Taj Mahal, and the Peruvian and Mexican Mayan and Inca temples. Brazil is also represented, as is Jordan! Go on.... you know you want to peak. Just click here.... no one will ever know you peeked....
And a last one, a bit creepy for the squeamish ones. National Geographic again - this week's Giant Squid that washed up on the beaches in Australia, and a bit older, seeing that we are on the topic, a Colossal Squid caught earlier this year. If you suffer from nightmares, DON'T go there!!! You have been warned!!!!
OK, have to head off. Will try to update shortly!
Anyhow, I am in recovery this week, have only just got back to listening to my podcasts and reading my daily websites. Next week I have to head over to the US for a brief one week visit to Memphis, Tennessee, Austin Texas and Chicago before coming back, probably more wrecked than what I feel right now. Have to visit some ethanol plants (and that hot on the heals of the Nestle Chairman stating in the Financial Times last Friday that food prices world wide are set to rise and remain high due to the competition for food crops from biofuel! All the more reason to switch to chocolate I guess?
One of the few things I found is an 'old' thing - Boing Boing. Dated 1988. Yup, before the official internet and broadband. How come? Well it was a real mag at that stage called bOING bOING. Then switched to the 'new' world after their published went belly up (clever huh? That I know all these things? Uhm, I listened to Leo and Amber on net@nite talking to the founder of Boing Boing...)
The other thing that I enjoyed was another 'old' thing on National Geographic - the list of the 'new' 7 wonders of the World. Interestingly enough, the Great Wall of China made the list, as did the Taj Mahal, and the Peruvian and Mexican Mayan and Inca temples. Brazil is also represented, as is Jordan! Go on.... you know you want to peak. Just click here.... no one will ever know you peeked....
And a last one, a bit creepy for the squeamish ones. National Geographic again - this week's Giant Squid that washed up on the beaches in Australia, and a bit older, seeing that we are on the topic, a Colossal Squid caught earlier this year. If you suffer from nightmares, DON'T go there!!! You have been warned!!!!
OK, have to head off. Will try to update shortly!
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