just to let you know

Jacques Henri Lartique

We watched a BBC Four program on this extraordinary photographer tonight. I am amazed I never came across his work.

The most incredible thing I found was a shot of a person whilst jumping down some stairs - being in mid-air. According to some photography specialists, it was literally impossible to make such a shot with the equipment at the time. JHL also kept a complete and concise diary for over 75 years of all his shots. He was able to remember photos he had taken and scribble them into his diary before these had even been developed.

autumn was in the air today

I definitely smelled it today. Can someone please explain this phenomenon? Because to me this is some sort of Hen-and-Egg thing - what was there first? On one hand I could say that I had the actual knowledge that today in fact was the first weekend of autumn 2004 and therefore I smelled autumn in the air. On the other, can't it be that I actually smelled autumn first and then realised that it was the first autumn weekend?

Anyway, Milly and I had a brilliant long walk outside in the early autumn air today. Our walk took us into the Edinburgh Royal Botanics, Inverleith Park and Stockbridge. A beautiful little tour and my now 1-year-and-1-week old daughter and I thorougly enjoyed it.

linkable

• Microsoft due to kick off "Plays for Sure" campaign to highlight MS Music Store compatibility of MP3 players.
• Bikes against Bush activist Josh Kinberg has been arrested by NY police before he could even get onto his bike and do some street chalking. The chalk is water soluble and the officers involved had been given this information, but still kept him under arrest until Sunday morning. His bike and equipment have also been confiscated.

Paula Radcliffe

I can't help but feel very sad for Paula Radcliffe and what happened to her during the Marathon and the 10K races at the Athens Games.

However what's even poorer are some of the comments coming from both press and people on the street and classifying her as a loser. Watching someone such as her having to pull out of two races for which she must have prepared a very long time is agonising. However she doesn't deserve some of the critiscism or even being classified as an underachiever. It was obvious that she gave her best and she worked very hard in both races - I hope she'll come around quick.

I think the way how we deal with these sort of personal tragedies says a lot about the world we live in.

linkable

• Experts list for Best Sci-Fi movies of all times. (link from Kottke)
• Artificial Life Inc. developed the Virtual Girlfriend game - guess what the easiest way is to keep her happy ? Spend your virtual money, of course !
• And I thought it might never happen - further planned smoking restrictions in German train stations.

Video game heroine goes topless

How much more bonkers can this get? A video game character drops her clothes in Octobers Playboy? Oh give us a break. Link to BoingBoing.

Woolworths or "The Big V(iscious circle)"

Last Sunday, my wife, our daughter Milly and I went to the local "Big W" - a hypermarket branch of Woolworths plc. We needed to return an item we had bought days before and then choose something else.

We had to walk all the way to the back of the shop to get what we wanted - and therefore got quite a good idea of what this shop stocks. What caught my attention was this large selection of sweets and softdrinks. There were huge chocolate bars and masses of crisps to choose from. Softdrinks were all nicely arranged and assorted in the obvious buzzing freezers.

Despite the shop being fairly empty, we saw quite a lot of obese and overweight men and women pushing their way through these "aisles of sweetness". All of the se sweet treats were arranged perfectly for both kids and parents: easy to reach and near the exit.

I know that these consumers have brains and they should know what they're feeding themselves with. But with regard to all the negative news about british issues with overweightness and obesity - I wonder what Woolworths top-managers think what their contribution to our society's health is ? I think that consumers should call for far more responsible decision makers in these sort of companies. I also think that there is more than shareholder value.

And it doesn't even stop here: there are now various TV programmes dealing with people's weight problems. Do these TV channels care about the health of frustrated and unmotivated persons? Or does it merely make good telly and sells even more of the sweets their audiences stuff themselves with? A vicious circle.

linkable

• "Spaghetti" or "Schpagetti" ? 3 major newspapers and magazines join the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung by opting out of the german Writing Reform.
• Late sentence for a 73 and 74 year-old for their involvement in Berlin wall killings.

linkable Olympic Games special

• a glance behind the scenes - Olympics Games from an IT perspective
• Three american athletes share their olympic thoughts and feelings on this blog.
• The Scotsman with a view behind the scenes in the olympic village. Sounds as "Eat til you Pop" is the name of the Games.
• David Akin reports that blogging from the olympic village is restricted due to IOC regulations.
• meet DJ Tiesto, the DJ of the opening ceremony
• Also check out the BBC's comprehensive schedule of the Games.

Olympic Games

Finally the Olympic games have opened and we have already seen an incredible opening ceremony. In comparison to other opening ceremnies I recall, I must say that tonight's show in Athens is one of the most tasteful I can remember.

So what's left of the olympic spirit, no-doping oaths, fairness and good sportsmanship? Well, the next 16 days will show.

One thing is for sure though - with all that's been going on in the world in the last 3 years, it's quite nice to see all these nations united in one stadium under the olympic flag and flame. The last time the cauldron was lit no one would have linked anything to the phrase "9/11". The world has changed dramatically since the last Games.

linkable

• Chris Duncan, a Scottish Family Historian has recently cast doubt over claims made by a Scottish author that Elvis Presley had ancestry in Aberdeenshire.

P900 and AvantGo UIQ Beta

I can now confirm that the connection of P900 of AvantGo's UIQ version works well. I managed to install the AvantGo app on the device without any trouble and then synced via Blarg software's Blueshare with one of my Macs. Whenever there was a problem, then it was Blueshare playing up and not establishing a connection. I will have time next week to see how easy it is to sync using the USB cradle linked to a PC. However I do expect this to be even less troublesome.

Syncing speed for AvantGo via Bluetooth could be a bit faster, but this obvioulsy depends on the number and kind of sites you selected in your profile. I also expect this to be faster via the USB cradle when hooked up to a networked internet connection.

I must say that I prefer AvantGo over any UIQ-based RSS Newsfeed reader. Simply because of the way how pages are represented and some sites even allow for pictures. The RSS feeder are not far off, but haven't got the edge just yet, me thinks.

me and my P900 - review after week 1

It has been exactly one week since the long-awaited parcel from O2 finally arrived. Contents: one P900 plus Southwing Bluetooth headset.

I was very excited when I first received it and still am - although after a week the gimmick and gadget feeling usually slowly dissapears and you start using a Phone/PDA in a much smarter way.

The UI is brilliant and very intuitive. Both Sal and me didn't have any problems to use applications right "out-off-the-box" without browsing through the fairly large manual (printed thankfully).

So what have I done so far with it and what am I using it for? Well, since I have been terrible with remembering dates etc. the P900 now finally has taken the place of my old (and recently almost unused) Palm m100. It's just great not having to carry 2 devices around with you (phone and organiser), but to have both in one device. Making calls with the P900 is a quite different affair when you are used to a Nokia phone. As far as phone functionality is concerned, I think Nokia has it down to a T - they're the best. However, if you're using a phone/PDA, your talking a completely different ball game. I'm not saying that the P900 is complicated to make phone calls with - it's just different. I'm failry used to the "applications" button now to access most functionality when the flip is closed. So far, I have not made up my mind whether to remove the flip or not (Sony supplies a tool and cover should you want to remove it). I think over time it might actually go, as I very rarely key in numbers into the phone, accessing numbers through the address book instead.

One thing I started enjoying already is to be able to synchronise my contacts and calendar entries over Bluetooth onto my Macs. It's great to know that you constantly have all addresses etc at hand when you need them. The only problem I now have outstanding is to migrate all "unregistered" email addresses into my Addressbook on my Macs and then sync them across all devices. Reason for this are those email addresses that I never added to my contacts and simply enter the first letters of their names when writing a mail using Apple's Mail app.

Bluetooth in itself is not as seamless as it seems though. I might have to do some more investigation and research some support forums, but whenever I switch the d-link bluetooth dongle to the other Mac for syncing, iSync is not having it. I have to un-pair and re-pair both devices - eh voila, the whole thing works again. I also had the P900 Bluetooth app crashing on me a few times. Before I had a Task manager, this usually meant powering the P900 on and off, but now I can simply end the hanging task. One great thing about Bluetooth is Blueshare from Blarg Software though. It enables you to share a internet connection via Bluetooth with a Mac using Opera. Shame is though that there doesn't seem to be a way of downloading you email via this connection. I'm still looking for a Newsfeed app such as AvantGo - which I used on the palm and loved - but have not been successful so far. I tried a Newsfeedreader called FeedBurner, but didn't like it. Mainly because it only opened links to the actual feeds in the standard browser (which always connect over GPRS) and not in Opera, where I could use the Bluetooth connection to the ADSL line. Also, I was not sure if reading newsfeeds in such a way will really be somthing I want to do. I'm still keen to get AvantGo working (currently in Beta version for Symbian UIQ) - I therefore emailed AvantGo and was told that AvantGo *should* sync over a shared bluetooth connection. However, I haven't had the time to test this yet Watch this space.

All in all, I'm more than satisfied with my new little pal and would always buy it again.

we are now XHTML 1.0 transitional compliant

I finally found time to make this site fully XHTML 1.0 transitional compliant.

I know, I know. "Mea maxima culpa" and all that.

linkable

• Interesting movie trailer for Team America. Putting the "F" back into "Freedom".
• for most of you web designers out there this is probably an old hat, but I only just discovered the Firefox Web Developer plugin. Grrrreat ! (via Chris Pederick)