My Mifi & I · 2 days ago by Michael Dales
Today and tomorrow I have been and will be attending WhereCampEU, a geo hacking unconference. We were warned in advance that the wifi might be iffy, so I used this as an excuse to finally get a Mifi, which I’d been pondering getting for a while:
The Mifi is essentially a 3G data only device that you connect to over wifi. So you can turn it on, put it back in your bag, connect your laptop to it over wifi, and it talks to the wider Internet over 3G. It’s like the USB dongles that people use for mobile Internet access, but as it uses wifi you can share that connection if you like, and it’s less fiddly than having something sticking out the side of your laptop all the time.
I’ve used it in anger today in London during the first day of WhereCampEU, and it’s been great. The LED based user interface is confusing until you realise that it’s just little tardy – if after pressing any of the buttons you imagine there’s an hourglass for two to five seconds, then it makes sense. After connection though it’s anything but tardy. Both the brief use in Cambridge, and today just of Euston Road in London, and I got nice fast broadband rates. An there’s not much in the way of configuration – just use the supplied cryptic wifi password and you’re online.
The Mifi comes on the Three network in the UK (not seen it on any other provider here yet). Three’s coverage isn’t as good as other networks, but when it does work it’s meant to be fast (up to 7 Mbps in some areas), and my limited experience seems to back that up. It’s fifty quid on pay as you go, so not as cheap as a USB dongle, but given the convenience, and that you can’t use a USB dongle with iPhones or iPads, I think it’s a better option.
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Uses for a superbike #213: simple magic tricks · 3 days ago by Michael Dales
It’s a silly advert for the BMW 1000RR, but I must confess it made me go wow the first time I saw it:
See, motorbikes have lots of applications…
The great dried fruit conspiracy · 12 days ago by Michael Dales
I’ve had a conspiracy revealed to me, and I’ll never see the world in the same way again. I’m really quite angry about it all, and I definitely think something should be done about it. What has caused this infuriation? This:
I’ve been eating these for years, a nice snack that hopefully is more healthy for me than a mars bar, and I’m quite keen on blueberries. And clearly, as you can read, this is a blueberry oat bar, and you can even see the blueberries in it.
But the blueberries are a lie.
Whilst listening to episode 15 of Shift-Run-Stop, I was alerted to the fact that some companies get cheaper fruits and flavour them as other fruits to save money. The scoundrels! Apples flavoured as pineapple apparently. Cranberries flavoured as strawberries. The very thought. At least my noble healthy Jordan’s Frusli would not stoop to such lows. But no…
This Frusli is 24% dried fruit, most of which (13% of the bar) is in fact “Blueberry Infused Diced Cranberries” – those cranberries are at it again! Next comes raisins (7%) and then finally at the end there is just a scant amount of actual blueberries (2%). The cheek! It clearly states “BLUEBERRY” on the front, not “BLUEBERRY FLAVOURED OTHER STUFF”. Why isn’t Parliament doing anything about this?
Well, many thanks to the crew at Shift-Run-Stop, who have ruined snack bars for me forever now – yes they may help take the edge off my hunger in the middle of the day still, but they’ll also bring a sad feeling of mistrust in the world in doing so.
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Slippery spam · 18 days ago by Michael Dales
This came through my door the other day. Looks like a handwritten note from a friend, but on closer inspection it’s spam, disguised to look personal:
It’s quite bad really – it’s an attempt to trick me into reading by a product by pretending to come from someone I know – I assume statistics show that most people know someone who’s name starts with a J. The font they used to print it was quite good too – it was only on close inspection that it was clear it was printed rather than handwritten. It’s bad enough to get spam, but it’s slightly creepy when it starts to pretend it came from someone you know in order to fool you into reading it.
Either that, or I need new friends ;)
EmberExporter · 18 days ago by Michael Dales
I’ve been a big fan Realmac Software’s Ember for a while – it’s a great scrapbook for random screen shots and pictures that don’t fit with my arty pictures on Flickr, and don’t belong in my albums on SmugMug.
Whilst I use LittleSnapper for managing screenshots and uploading them to Ember, there was no easy way to get my photos from Aperture onto Ember, so when I bumped into the Realmac guys at NSConference earlier this month, I decided to fix that state of affairs :)
Thus I’ve just put out EmberExporter for Aperture, a simple little plugin that lets you export your photos straight to Ember:
It’s a simple plugin, which just lets you select a bunch of images, set things like the titles and tags, and put them straight into Ember. Originally this was written just for me, but I got such a positive reaction from people, including the very nice people at Realmac, so I’ve decided to put it out for all.
The only niggle at the moment is that whilst it works with Aperture 3, it only does so in 32 bit mode. I need to wait until Aperture 3 arrives for my immanent birthday so I can work on 64 bit support :)
Cup cakes · 21 days ago by Michael Dales
Cup cakes at the very nice The Walk Cafe in Nottingham. They have excellent teas and cake, but are quite hidden away. But well worth seeking out.
Savoury sweets · 30 days ago by Michael Dales
On exhibition from Saturday at IVC · 34 days ago by Michael Dales
February 13th till the 17th sees the 2010 Art Exhibition at Impington Village College, and nestled amongst the usual array of paintings will be some of my photography! Laura and I have been along in previous years to have a look at the local art output, and there’s usually something for most tastes, and we’ve even bought a nice abstract oil painting the last time we went.
This year I decided it’d be fun to submit a few pictures of my own. They’ll probably stand out slightly, as almost all the other work last time we went was painted rather than printed, but it’s fun to mix things up a little. All art work is for sale, so if you ever fancied owning a nicely framed Michael original, now’s your chance :)
The exhibition starts on Saturday evening at 7pm with a special event (£3 on the door) with wine and nibbles and a chance to meet the artists. :)
Why do you do this every single day? · 36 days ago by Michael Dales
Spotted on a block of offices in Norwich. I wonder what their staff retention levels are like…
Scotty · 36 days ago by Michael Dales
Scotty, who organised the excellent NSConference 2010 which I went to last week. There’s lots more pics I took over here.