It’s My Small Internet World

May 14, 2010 |

I read last week that we'll run out of IPv4 addresses sometime next year. That means there are approaching 4 billion devices connected to the Internet which, of course, means that there are rather a lot of web sites in the world. Against that backdrop, it occurred to...

Daft Maul

May 12, 2010 |

I don't often make self-portrait appearances herein but this photo made me laugh so I thought I should post it here ( and it might look better on black). I took it for my daily image on BlipFoto. Thanks to the boy for helping me get it set up. For the technically...

Stop! Holga Time…

May 4, 2010 |

Got my Holga 120N today from the hairy chap at the parcel depot . I showed it to my daughter and she said "That's from McDonalds!". I can see what she means. A hi-tech piece of kit it is not. But it has a charm about it. If you've never heard of a Holga or Lomography...

PhotoBlog : Silhouettes

May 2, 2010 |

When you are dealing with life shooting in the grey bleakness of Scotland, it's perhaps not surprising that I've stumbled into shooting quite a few images ideal for silhouettes. It's really very easy. Get to low ground with people walking above you, shoot, bump up the...

The Genius Of Phonetic Emphasis

Apr 29, 2010 |

Driving to work today I was behind a van belonging to a kitchen fitting specialist. This, in itself, is nothing remarkable. Then I noticed the tag line across the top of the back of the van: "Thee kitchen fitting and flooring specialist" Interesting. Is it a typo?...

PhotoBlog : Sunday @EdinburghZoo

Apr 26, 2010 |

Had a very pleasant couple of hours in the Zoo yesterday. The sun was out but because of the earlier rain, the zoo was quite quiet. Been a while since I did a photo blog post so here is a selection of shots from yesterday. Click on the images to download a free hi-res...

TuckerWorld

Apr 22, 2010 |

To whom this may concern: I'd like someone to build a very simple theme park. It's merely the set of the BBC series The Thick Of It. It is populated by various characters from the show (played by the theme park staff) and you get to pay £20 to be Malcolm Tucker for 30...

You know, for kids!

Mar 22, 2010 |

I was helping my daughter with her homework tonight. We did some reading and some very simple sums. In both cases, I noted that if she didn't know something, there was a method of working it out. In the case of reading, she can use phonics and letter/sound recognition...

Blu-Ray Review : A Serious Man

Mar 14, 2010 |

I pre-ordered the A Serious Man Blu-Ray as soon as it was available. Having seen it in the cinema I was very keen to watch it again and, amazingly, it arrived two days before the announced release date. Being a big Coens fan, I'm never really going to have a bad word...

PhotoBlog : Sunny Saturday Morning

Mar 14, 2010 |

Spent a pleasant couple of hours in the Botanic Gardens yesterday on a very ( too ) sunny morning. I was there to take photos of people but snapped a few other things as I wandered around. Here are a few of the images I grabbed, nothing spectacular, bit too bright....

Blu-Ray Review : Tell No One ( Ne le dis à personne )

Feb 13, 2010 |

I saw this film a few years ago on DVD and, after seeing it listed on BBC Four this week, I went in search of a Blu-Ray version. Currently a snip at £8. The film itself is not the usual French style-fest, with a complex plot and a lot of action it more resembles a...

Farewell Blogger

Feb 2, 2010 |

Blogger announced tonight via email the end of their support of FTP. I started this blog way back in August 2006 and have been happily FTP'ing to this domain a fairly constant stream of drivel ever since. From 26th March I won't be able to do this any more.Now,...

iPad : Function From Design Desire

Jan 31, 2010 |

I've been watching all the iPad chat with only a passing interest. I've only recently got an iMac (which I love) but I don't have an iPod/iPhone or any other Apple kit. I can, however, see why people like them so much.I'm not going to add much to the glut of ongoing...

PhotoBlog : A Morning in the Museum

Jan 24, 2010 |

We went in search of buried treasure. My daughter asked last night if you still got buried treasure. She looked a little surprised when I said I would take her to see some the next day. The Iron Age gold that was recently discovered is on display at the National...

Why do we like Social Networking?

Jan 23, 2010 |

I watched Kevin McCloud's excellent two-part documentary of his stay in the Mumbai slum of Dharavi last week. I'm a huge fan of Mumbai but this opened my eyes even further to parts fo the city I hadn't seen. Kevin was at his honest and frank best and reflected the...

PhotoBlog : Edinburgh Winter

Jan 9, 2010 |

When you've nowhere to go and nothing to do the snow is a wonderful thing. Had a great couple of days out and about in the snow with the camera(s). Here is a quick selection of the photos. I've thrown in a (short) video as a wee test. It's Full HD taken with a wee...

Death of the Butterfly

Jan 1, 2010 |

Many moons ago, I wrote herein about my tendency to flap about like a butterfly. The truth is, I never really conquered that, until now. The butterfly is dead. Finally.Sorry pal... (click to download hi-res free from MorgueFile)This isn't a New Year resolution. Don't...

Hogmanay Wordle Quiz

Dec 31, 2009 |

A final wee quiz for 2009. I generated this word cloud from the entire text of a novel**. If you can guess the novel you can win a copy of the book.Second prize is 2 copies :-)If you like this kind of Word Cloud type quiz there are another EIGHTY over at...

24 Hour Movie Challenge – My Entry

Dec 31, 2009 |

I'm sure my reader would easily have guessed about 75% of these or more. I stayed honest and went for my favourites films to watch, rather than those I pretend to like for the purposes of appearing cool. It was a struggle, I think I need to know about 48 hours before...

Blu-Ray Review : Red Cliff

Dec 30, 2009 |

They don't make them like this any more. Except, they do. Well, Woo does. Epic is perhaps slightly overused when it comes to films. You can't argue if it is applied here. Everything is on a huge scale, not least the 293 minute running time across the two halves. Red...

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