Resistance is futile!

Over the past month we have gone over to the other side! Yes, finally after lots of talking we are now the proud owners of not 1 but 2 Macs. It all started with me buying a MacBook Pro. It went well and i moved 18k photos onto it and about 10K music tracks. I then went out and bought time capsule to back it all up. It was so easy to setup and use, that we binned the 6yr old Windows desktop that was on it's last legs. It was replaced by a 21.5" iMac, which is just very cool. We have both Mac's backing up wirelessly to the time capsule and are sharing all our music library between macs, ipods etc. Why did i move? was it because i admired Steve Jobs back turtlenecks? Did i want to join the cool kids? No, simply i save time setting up and running kit. As the house amateur sysadmin i used to spend lots of time managing the windows PC. I spent less time managing 2 macs and i now have a much better and robust backup strategy. So there you have it. Give Steve Jobs your credit card now and he will save you time!

Apple....get it sorted

Upgrade itunes to v9. Worked well. But working late on 2 computers i looked up and hit upgrade ipod firmware. Duh! I did this back in Feb trying to go to version 3. It didn't work and i had to revert back to version 2.1. The apple support was rubbish then as it was last night.

In the end i found some hints that work. If you get error 1602 on Windoes XP/ipod combo don't follow the help on apple.com

0. take backup if it hasn't happened already

1. Look in recycle bin for old firmware. Open properties, hit restore to place file back in right place....c:/documents and setting/{your name}/application date/Apple computer/Itunes/ipod software updates

2. version that was working for me was ipod2,1_2.2.1_5H11a_restore

3. Force itunes to tell you ipod is sick and needs restore. Shutdown itunes, unplug ipod, restart itunes, insert usb into ipod

4. itunes will figure it's sick and ask you if you want to restore....now heres the trick

5. hit SHIFT and the restore button on the itunes app. It will open a dialog box and you can select the file from steps #1 and #2 above

6. it will reset the firmware

7. you can restore you backup

this is more a reminder for me for the next time i hear myself say "duh, why did i do that?", which will be in about 6-7 months time!

Lotus back in F1 in 2010

How cool is this? Lotus and Mike Gascoyne return to F1. Wouldn't it be great to watch Brawn and Lotus slug it out at the front of the pack next year???

www.nicolalitson.co.uk

Well the websites now live and looking great.

Take time to have a look through and if your thinking about family photo's in the UK - London or the Home counties - we know a girl who does a great job and is now taking bookings.

Please contact Nicky through www.nicolalitson.co.uk

The march of technology

So my last post was about Nicky leaving college and entering the big bad world. Well along with her website we have made some investments into some camera technology. We had a look at Nikon and Canon - but the deciding thing was talking to the guys at York Cameras. Nikon have some full frame cameras - very nice, but the range of lens to take advantage is slim. So we plumped for canon (which i have used for a number of years) and have a much wider range of lens. I have 4 of the L series high end glass so that makes a difference. So which camera body do we splash the cash on? We ended up with Canon 5D mark II. Full frame. 3.9 fps and a 21M CMOS. Also you can shoot HD 30fps movies. Go figure! Put some L series lens in front of it and you've got a nice setup.

Class of 2009

I "re-blog" with great news. My niece - Nicola - is featured in Professional Photographer this month in the "class of 2009" feature. She was 1 of 5 students covered and led the article. She also managed to get the most coverage as two of her photo's were splashed over 1.5 pages. One photo is full page. Comments include "taking on this kind of beauty work when you're just starting out is a tough call.......remarkably mature and elegant images. Commercially aware and just what the market is looking for."

Nicky's building a site at the moment see www.nicolalitson.co.uk

All we can say is we are all very proud and extremely happy for her. What great coverage for someone who is just about to finish her degree and start out in the world of work.

Now, lets hope her brother becomes the rock star he so has the talent to be! Wouldn't that be cool?

London Bound

It's Monday tomorrow - so must be London!

Found a report that says that there are 109 journeys on the tube that would be quicker to walk it, so if the weather is good tomorrow I might just burn some shoe leather.

I disagree!

Spotted on the side of a restaurant in London.

The sign should say "Eat and drink yourself happy"

Read the signs!

Jeez, it's been nearly a month since i last posted. Where did April go to? Work is just manic at moment. I shouldn't complain as allot of people can't say that at the moment.

Anyhow, came across this sign, and blatant disregard for it in London a while back. Made me grin as there are too many people telling you what to do these days!

I know I broke my promise...

My last blog was on 12th March and i promised to post some more funny images captured as I walked around London. where did all the days vanish? I have so many pictures to catch-up on, but unfortunately they will have to wait a wee while as tomorrow I'm off to the airport. Seattle here we come. Back Easter Saturday.

So to tide you over for a wee while a picture from a 777. Have sympathy for me as the picture is the view i will have for 9.5hrs Monday! Not bad, but it does get a little boring after a while!

Great sign

whilst walking around London last week i came across this sign. Boy did i laugh. 

There are some great things to see around London if you take a walk.....some more images soon

"Temporary Retirement"

....."I" has left the building!

Am on a 3 week break between jobs. Great :) Bit of shooting, exercise, motorbiking and general catch-up on life.

Some of my friends call it "temporary retirement" which i quite like.

Change is in the air

I'm in my last week of work at my current employer! I have been here 2yrs and 8 months. Sacked? Made redundant? Bankruptcy?

No. I am one of the lucky ones. A new job found me. Started talking to some folks back in October. Interest started to pick up then i started doing some of the chasing and hey presto i start on march 23rd. I will be working in the UK as employee #1 though i do know some of the folks in the USA. All seem very nice. Looks like a good opportunity. Good company, right attitude. What more can you do to check? Nothing. You just have to start and see what happens.

Don't be afraid of change!

Funniest book reference

I'm changing jobs and decided to read up on distributed systems. The image to the left is of a book i purchased. The book is very well written and really hits the spot in covering a complex topic. It's hard to find a good book that covers a wide range of sub-topics really well. I recommend it.

However, the thing i wanted to bring your attention to is one of the references inside this book. Here it is verbatim:

"Alonso, et al., Web Services: Concepts, Architectures and Applications.
The popularity of intricacy of Web services has led to an endless stream of documents, many of which can be characterized only as garbage. In contrast, this is one of the very few books that gives a crystal-clear description of what Web services are all about. Highly recommended as an introduction to the novice, an overview for those who had read too much of the garbage, and an example for those producing the garbage"

What a beautiful reference. It is also a great piece of marketing as i went and bought a copy off amazon.co.uk! In a couple of weeks i will let you know if Alonso, et al live up to the reference. IN the meantime back to tanenbaum and van steen.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.....

The UK does not do snow! We had alot of it this week. Everyone's been on about the travel situation, councils are running out of grit....all fairly negative.

But on the positive side. It was beautifully sight to see. I also couldn't believe the sheer quiet around. People were walking and what traffic there was did not make much road noise. There have also been nice stories of neighbours helping out elderly relatives. One example: a roofing contractor in the next village couldn't work so he sent his blokes around to clear paths of all the elderly folks in the village and then they took on the local kids at snowballs. isn't that great?

Town planners!

I was in Seattle recently and i came across this motorcycle parking. Yes - that is parking for THIRTY motorcycles. They obviously make small motorcycles in America! Unfortunately i could not find a way to demonstrate the scale but it's it's safe to say that you might be able to get 2 bikes parked within the yellow triangle. I would love to see how the fit 30 in!?!

Sorry for the slightly blurred photo. I was laughing so much when i took the picture!

is there a right way to do things?

People get hung up on the right or wrong way to do something and can waste alot of time arguing about it.

As #2 son illustrates, just get on and do it and figure it out as you go along.....it's sometime alot more fun that way!

2009 is GO!

Can't believe that it's been nearly 6 weeks since i put something up on the blog. Usual excuses - busy at work with year end, birthdays, Christmas, back to work.....

Anyway, 2009 is here and we are ready to "GO, GO, GO" as Murray Walker used to say! OK, not my best link to the image but i thought i would start off 2009 with an image of a Christmas present. Pedal go-karts are in things. Both boys got 'em. Here's #1 son with his kart. Blow-up tyres, bit of weight and the right gearing and this thing fly's along. Steering is direct, seat is adjustable (its on rails for god's sake!) and it's well built (by the germans - who else?)