It is not that I don’t uses images in design it is just I try to avoid them. Images can be extremely useful, for example their use to create textures that repeat in the background is well suited to them. There are other consideration to take into account, websites that use lots of images tend to be slow to load and don’t resize well not to meant ion they tend to look ugly after the fad they were designed in passes.

Something The Avengers film did really well was mix CGI with live action. They often switched seamlessly between the two. This makes the film much more believable for me by planting part of the CGI in a physical set or actors movements. Too often do directors just choose to create a whole sequence in CGI.

They recently removed the basic dictionary function they had in Google Doc’s and improved it. Now they don’t only use a dictionary to guess the words you mean, but also look at context and what is popular right now to give you suggestions. This is the kind of thing I would love to see in the next version of iWork and Office.

They show some pretty cool examples of it in action here

If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.

Henry Ford (apparently)

Those famous words are the exact reason companies can rightfully ignore the consumers wants, because consumers are short sighted and ignorant. Another more recent example would be to look at Google’s Android, bending to demand and becoming fragmented to such an extend that every handset seems to be running a different version that looks different.

The next step may not be easy but that does not that mean we should look to avoid it. This is something Apple is good at. They often place hardships upon the consumer withdrawing outdated technology quickly. It may not be appreciated at first but there is forethought in most of their decisions and understanding of the technology that the consumer lacks. Microsoft favours a backwards compatibility view on things, this often leads to convoluted solutions and legacy technology sticking around far longer than they should. Consumer are stubborn and some times you need to prod them and prod them hard to get them to move on.

Over the last few months I have been trying to get better at PHP. I thought the best way to do this was to come up with a project to create. Oh Interesting is it, essentially it acts like a virtual pinboard for you to store text, links, pictures and videos.

There is still a lot of work I want to do on it and it may not be 100% stable in all browsers. For these reasons I thought I would launch it into a private beta. All you have to do if you want to try it out is head over to Oh Interesting and signup for the beta.

Fibre

Fibre optic broadband is sorely needed in the UK; the problem with what is currently being done is BT is rolling it out to all the big cities and to the houses at already get +4Mb/sec, what they see as the profitable market. Where if you take my dad’s home connection for example we are lucky if we get 1Mb/sec.The house in question is in a small village of 250 homes with 550+ people. This is the kind of place where FTTC is needed, this is where the investment is needed; communities that lie out side the 2 miles range recommended for optimum performance.

The Sorry state of the UK’s broadband and BT’s monopoly is summed up by this heroic project, B4RN. The fact that a project like this is being so successful shows that there is demand and it is economically viable to supply broadband to these areas. This project is an amazing example of what can be done and I would love to see more of this in 2012. I like the government I just feel they need to be putting more into building an infrastructure if they want to reach their goal of having the best broadband network in Europe by 2015.

4G

With the US and many other countries readying for 4G, where are we? We are stuck behind waiting for the auction of the spectrum to take place. Ofcom recently postponed the auction, but even then the spectrum used still isn’t free till 2013. This disappoints me because it provides such a convenient solution to extending broadband in rural areas. The speeds it offers rival that of FTTC and for rural areas where there are many dwellings isolated from the main road it offers an ideal solution that doesn’t suffer so badly from the last mile syndrome we see in copper. I would love to see a company that uses the 4G spectrum to provide solely internet. In all this doom and gloom however O2 and EverythingEverywhere are doing trials of 4G in London and Cornwall respectively.

Links

I am quite passionate about broadband and connectivity and if you are here are some links that you might find interesting.

SamKnows – Best way to check what is currently available in your area and any changes. Also tells you the distance from the exchange as the crow flies.

Gigaom – They have a lovely little section on broadband that covers anything to do with connecting to the internet

thinkbroadband – Great for news on developments and current coverage.

BT Infinity checker - Check to see when BT’s Infinity service will be available in your area or not as the case maybe.

Speedtest.net – Great way to check your performance

We were all sat on a couple of benches around a tree in the school grounds and two of the girls were holding hands after having met for a just a few minutes. In the truest sense of the phrase it really was a “hand of friendship”. The whole environment felt so natural and hopefully that comes through in the photo.

It is a simple B&W conversion in Aperture, I played around with a couple combination so I could keep the detail in the white hands yet bring the darker hand out from the black background. I actually found that B&W conversions were by far the most effective way to evoke the most emotion out of some of my shots. Having said that I also found the vintage filter in Aperture a great starting point to accentuate the richness of Uganda and its people.

One thing I have found on trips with groups of people is it offers the most spectacular opportunities to take portraits of people and your often able to catch them unawares as their attention is else where.

I have so many photos I would love to share, but here are just some of my favourites and a video that I made for the project to sum up the trip in a few minutes.

I have done this for the past few years and it has always proved to be very popular, I think mostly due to the insufferable pain anyone buying for a geek goes through. In end having to submit a list in advance so people can choose what to get me as it makes life simpler. Here are some ideas that people might enjoy this year.

Harry Potter or any other triple play BluRays – This is a great option for a geek that wants their content anywhere. Not only do you get a movie but with the triple play you get it in BluRay, DVD and download format.

The Magic Charger – A neat solution using inductive charging. Inductive charging isn’t really widely available yet, but its implementation here would save every having to think about batteries.

The Magic Bar – Another inductive charging solution for those wire free geeks, this time for your keyboard.

The Magic Wand – This one is an idea for those who have a computer in the kitchen or attached to the TV. It joins your Keyboard and magic trackpad together. It is perfect if your the kind of person that finds yourself not sat at your desk using a computer.

PlugBug – We have seen those wall plugs with USB ports in for charging but most of us aren’t going to go around and change the plugs in our house just to have a USB port. This adapter from Twelve South fits onto your MacBook /Air/Pro charger and allows you to charge any usb device as well. The rest of their products are well worth a look.

Lowkey Stand – These guys offer some great desk solutions for laptop and desktops that are worth a look.

I ? Math – What nerd would be complete without a nerdy T-Shirt? This one really is nerdy, but just search the internet and you will find thousand with witty remarks.

Canvas Print – Hello Canvas offer a great quality product and they are super cheap. Speaking from experience I have 4 of their prints and love the quality of every one.

aJays Four – Another favourite product of mine, you have no idea how hard it is to find reasonably price good quality headphones with inline controls that work with your iPhone. These work seamlessly with my iPhone and look great. They don’t offer the same comfort as full in ears, but they also sell a more expensive in ear version.

Holga iPhone Case – A little geeky camera case for your iPhone great for anyone who uses Instagram or similar apps.

Past suggestions:

2009

2008

Yet another shot taken during the summer, this time from my trip to Vietnam and Ha Long Bay. I almost didn’t make it to Vietnam due to visa issues. Trusting as I am, I left the organising to my step mum. Unbeknown to me and her we needed visas to fly Vietnam and we missed our flight, however we where able to get a flight a day later with visa’s in toe. This lateness in turn meant we were meant to miss our two day boat trip to Ha Long Bay. Thankfully the company that run the boat trips were kind enough to move us onto a boat a day later.

Ha Long Bay is not an ordinary bay, It is full of steeply sided island and spotted with floating fishing villages. Our first stop on the boat trip was to one of these fishing villages. After arriving at the village we were offered to take a ride around on some of the local propulsion and so this photo came about

On the walls of the boat we were staying on were sepia prints of old photographs of Ha Long Bay. I couldn’t decided if I really like the look of the scenery in sepia, but what I did like was the shades of brown the water went; giving it a viscous consistency. I noted this for when I came home hoping to have a go at replicating some of the styles I saw in the prints. This is my attempt, it is a basic sepia filter and some playing around with highlights, shadows and contrast too get a good balance.