Catching up...

I've got that many social media accounts, applications to access them and methods of cross posting from one to another that quite frankly I've tied myself in knots.

So, starting today, I'm trying to unravel them all and come up with something far simpler. The question is, which social networks to use? Well it appears that the heavyweights of twitter and Facebook are too strong to be ignored so they need to be in the mix. Add to that I've never really properly got going with the blog (but want to) that I think I'm now close to deciding the best way forward.

So, from today, any posts to my blog will now get auto posted to both Facebook and twitter. And I'll endeavour to update the blog far more regularly than I've done over recent months. Short (and more frequent updates) will get posted to twitter but not Facebook. Updates that involve photos and videos that I don't want the world to see but am happy to share with friends will go to Facebook. Not sure where google+ fits into all this at the moment. I'm sensing it hasn't quite 'taken off' as much as was anticipated. For now it'll probably just take the feed from the blog.

So, all clear? No, I guessed not.

M.

Initial thoughts on the ipad2

It's now a week or so since I've had the iPad2, so thought it appropriate to report on my latest thoughts on it.

On the whole, very impressed. It's quick, responsive, and extremely useful. I've managed to connect all my mail accounts, and installed a number of the most used apps.

On the downside, there are some niggles, but I'm assuming that could be down to it still being new to me. One, the keyboard isn't fast enough for my typing. It often misses letters and characters that I'm sure I've typed. Secondly, getting files on and off the thing to work on is a pain. I've SugarSync and Dropbox, but even they don't play ball sometimes.

I'll maybe have to resort to the manual. Never been my strong point!

M.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Wonderful to play Royal Birkdale again yesterday. Fantastic course, this is the view walking up the 18th.

Taken with picplz.

A view of Gemini - Astrophotography

At this early stage, I'm still just feeling my way around. Given the degree of light pollution both generically from the town, and locally neighbours, the best view can only really be deduced once outside. I had planned some further investigation of stars in Leo last night, but too much residual light from the town made efforts futile. Instead, my view out towards the NW (out over the sea) was quite dark, and given the neighbours outside light was off, gave the best options. So instead, I tried some constellation mapping (wide field) of Gemini.

 

I soon noticed, that even though this direction offered the best view, the lowest magnitude visible was still fairly high (to the naked eye). It's only when you take an image (this one is 10 seconds), that some of the fainter stars become visible. I've labelled all the major stars in the constellation, but was surprised to notice, that even on this wide view, it's *just* possible to make out M35. To be fair, I couldn't really see much in the spotting 'scope either, but it must be remembered that it was fairly close to the horizon. 

 

I'm genuinely surprised what can be caught on a fairy standard point and shoot camera, granted the G11 wasn't cheap, but with an ISO3200 setting and 10 second exposures, I seem to picking up a lot more detail than I expected. The maximum exposure I can have is 15 seconds, but I find that light pollution often is too great for that length of exposure, and in addition, the stars "trail" a lot more. Still, I do recall reading somewhere it's possible to get software to remove trails, so may take a look for that at some point.

 

My views are very restricted, anything looking from N through E and up to S is useless unless it's *very* high in the sky. All due to the street lamps on my road. Anything S through to W is a no go up to about 30 degrees high (light pollution from the town). Anything W to N is best, that is of course unless next door neighbours outside light isn't on. Must have a word about that one day, but they have only just moved in and I don't want to rock any boats yet :-)

 

And so ladies and gentlemen, I present, Gemini....

 

 

Latest offerings (Astrophotography)

So, it's clear I'm still learning, and more to the point I've a long way to go. I've continued to read up, and pleased to report I'm *just* starting to understand what equipment I think I may need to get me on the next rung on the ladder. I'm still in no rush to get there, since there's still such a lot I can do with what I have now, specifically my wife's Canon G11 camera, my Dad's old binoculars and a cheap "spotting" 'scope I bought several years back.

 

Over the last couple of evenings, when I finally could get outside when a) it wasn't cloudy, b) the moon wasn't in the sky and most importantly c) when one of my next door neighbours hadn't left their outside light on, I managed to take achieve my "task". I was wondering if it was possibly to use a standard camera (on a tripod) to get an image of one of the more popular open globular clusters M44 in the constellation Cancer. The answer it appears, is yes. To the unaided eye, it's very hard to spot Cancer since most of its stars are brighter that magnitude 3.5 and under light polluted skies, that's hard to see. Sure with binoculars it's pretty straight forward, so to start things off I took a large field image (which I've labelled). Castor and Pollux of Gemini are on the right, The entire constellation of Cancer is in the centre and the head of Hydra can be seen below. I've highlighted M44 in the square, all this with a 13 second exposure. M44 can clearly seen. By the way, it looks far more impressive through a decent set of binoculars or spotting scope :-)

 

As a further experiment, zoomed up as far as I could go (optically) on camera and took another image, this time to see if it was possible to see M67. It's a far harder target, and to be fair, it's only *just* about possible to make it out with the spotting scope so I didn't hold out much hope. Some may say I'm seeing things, but I'm fairly sure that in the second image (also highlighted), it's possible to make out something (also highlighted). Long shot I know, but further encouragement to press on!

See the full gallery on Posterous

ISS pass through Leo

Starting to get a little more confident on astro photography now, but it's still *very* early days. I've bought several magazines, read lots of Internet articles, and slowly but surely it's all starting to make a little sense. There are several avenues to pursue, but I'm in absolutely no rush. And while I'm still reading and forming plans, I can still use the Canon G11 on a tripod to experiment.

 

Finally got some decent conditions tonight, a clear moon free sky, and the benefit of the next door neighbour not putting on their outside light :-) Add to that a wonderful ISS pass and I just had to have a go at capturing it. And I'm pretty happy with the result :-) A 15 second exposure (maximum the camera can do) of the ISS transiting Leo. For good measure I've also included Ursa Major with my amateur radio antenna in view.

 

M.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Oops

Taken with picplz in West Berkshire.

As an amateur golfer....

I feel for Kevin Na, while I have also racked up some horrendous scores over the years, it does make me feel a little better that even professionals can have such bad days. Granted I don't recall anything as high as a 16, but I've certainly had quite a few in double figures for one hole :-) For those that haven't already seen it, check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWTXoNzuk8c

Gadget Show Live 2011

Finally got round to going to a Gadget Show Live with Mikey. I must confess I'm only a recent "convert" to the programme, I seem to get so little time to watch TV these days so I'm very choosy about what I watch. No show is going to please all of the people all of the time, but for me this one just about hits the spot. Along with the BBC's "Click" it covers most bases. Most of all, it presents the information in a fun and engaging way.

 

Anyway, the show at the NEC, what did it do for me? Well, two things came out of it, one, that I now think I "get" what tablets are and what they're for. I can certainly see them replacing laptops / netbooks as the computer of convenience while out and about in time. Let's face it, for what *most* people use computers for (e.g. browsing, email, social networking etc), they'll do the job just fine. There were some cheap Elonex ones on show, the price was very attractive, but I couldn't help but feel their speed and responsiveness let them down. The screen didn't have the same vibrancy as the more expensive counterparts either, but for a third of the price I can see lots being sold. I'm not going to be getting one just yet, but would be hard pushed to decide between the Samsung Galaxy and the iPad2 at the moment. Both have the pros and cons, and that's before the Apple / Android antagonists get going.

 

The second "biggy", is it looks like 3D TV could be mainstream before too long. Had a "look" (with the silly glasses) at a fair few, and the quality was astonishing. Still believe a lot of content is targeted to accentuate the 3D, for example, snakes reaching out to you, but I was quite astonished at the quality of the game content that's out there now. It's *extremely* convincing, and although I'm no gamer, I could well understand those who are wanting to make the next step up.

 

The live show itself was very good too, although when we came out, the whole show had become much busier, and it was quite difficult to get around. We'll certainly be back next year...

 

M. 

Several tricky holes a golf this morning, but managed the 19th without a hitch...

First pass at astro photography

Ok, it's hardly the hubble, but it's a start. Have been wanting to start this for years. Canon G11 on a tripod pointing at the Orion Nebula. Multiple settings tried, this one appears to show the best result. Now I just need to learn and improve :-) All in all very pleased for my first thirty minutes activity! I fear however this could get expensive....

After the Ashes...

Am I the only one who is getting weary of England's winter schedule? It's nearly five months they've been away now. Much as I loved the Ashes series, the subsequent ODI's were completely unnecessary. I'd much rather have had a three match ODI series before the Ashes, then come home. After all, what can top an Ashes series?

Then to go straight off to the World Cup where the format is ludicrous. I'm all in favour of having the smaller teams in it, but make it straight knock out. A round robin will by its very nature only succeed in eliminating all the smaller teams.

England look completely knackered, as I'd be if I'd been away from home that long.

It's all down to money, but in my view, less is very more in this case.

What a farce....

I'm talking about switching your phone / internet provider. Unlike gas and electric which you can switch at will, what I've found out is that if you move your phone away from BT, you're on a very sticky wicket if you ever want to move your broadband away from the LLU you've got your phone with. In summary, it appears the only route for your phone line, initially at least is back to BT. Then your chosen ISP will not be able to take your order until the phone is both BT, then there'll be a two week delay while they get you on line. In other words, you're without broadband for quite a period.

So, have ordered a new line and broadband with my chosen provider, then will cancel the existing setup with Sky. I get to have internet without interruption, but will have a new number (no bad thing given the amount of junk calls I get despite being registered with TPS)

So, think long and hard before moving your line away from BT, if you do, expect a period of darkness if you want away from your none BT provider).

M.

Perplexed...

Getting really rather irritated with the amount of news personnel currently deployed in Japan. Most of Sky and half the BBC appear to be there. And that's while the Government are advising against all but essential travel.

Sure, there needs to be a presence, but not this much? Leave the emergency organisations to get on with dealing with the situation. And on that note, it's really good to see Amateur Radio playing an important role while much of the standard comms are down.

Thoughts are with everyone over there, and really hope that can get this nuclear power station under control...

M.

A full circle...

Well, here I am doing sound for the Mikado. A few years ago a good friend asked me if I could step in since he was unavailable. The show back then was also the Mikado. Done most of the G&S ones now and while not being a great fan initially, I do love the humour and trust me, you can't get the bloody songs out of your head for weeks.

Good fun all round :-)

M.

Well it's always interesting at LFC....

It's certainly been an entertaining season at Liverpool. More lows than highs for sure, but at least since the new owners and the return of Kenny, things have been looking far more positive. Add to that the latest high cost signing, and what could go wrong?

Reports now state our current number nine wants out. Given all the positive news recently, the timing of his request is most interesting. To me it shows he's wanted away for some time now. Understandable upto a few weeks ago, but you'd have thought given the current situation he'd have wanted to at least see how it went until the end of the season. Apparently not.

So, in my view he can go, I'd far rather have committed players. But I hope LFC can (quickly) find a European buyer rather than him go to another Premiership side. Selling to Chelsea sends out the wrong message.

M.

The return of Top Gear

Well praise the Lord. Finally, Sunday night offers a little something to whet the televisual appetite other than waiting for a so called celebrity to fall flat on their arse, on ice.

Some say Top Gear is a leviathon that's lost it's way, well to quote the latest, fastest "star in a reasonably priced car" John Bishop, "my arse". His fellow Liverpool comedian Ricky Tomlinson may want a word on copyright over that, but I'd pay my license fee alone for Top Gear.

Make no mistake, it is an entertainment programme based around cars, but so what? It often says things that other folk can't or daren't due to political correctness gone mad. But it is at the cutting edge of keeping an eye on the motoring future. Tonight for example, a statement was made that will probably send the electric car brigade into meltdown. But the statement is true. Sure, if you're only pottering about, electric vehicles *are* a very viable and much cheaper alternative to "normal" cars. I'd have one myself based on the above. But take tomorrow where I'll be clocking up around 300 miles in a day, there's not a hope. One day, and hopefully sooner rather than later, it will be possible and I'll be first in the queue!

In the meantime, congratulations to the BBC on staying with the proven format of Top Gear, it certainly works for me, as it does by all accounts for millions of others.

Open Golf 2011

Got a very pleasant surprise the other day when I found out the good lady has bought tickets for me and Mikey to go and watch the Open for three days in July. This will mean I will have been to spectate at all four English courses, better still, I've played three of them :-) I believe the Open is back to Lytham is 2012 with Scotland the year after that.

Hoping too to play a lot of golf this year, once that is the clocks go forward and the weather improves, as you can see, I'm not a winter golfer. Both Mikey and I hoping to reduce the old handicaps this year!

Hoping for a win today.

A lot has happened at Liverpool football club over recent months, and I've deliberately kept quiet about it. I'm really not a fan of the current trend of "hire and fire" when it comes to managers, stability is what's required.
I obviously don't know what went on behind the scenes with Rafa, but it does appear that for whatever reason, his relationship with some of the players had soured, probably not helped by the then owners. When Hodgson was appointed, at the time, I couldn't really name a manager I wanted, until I heard that Kenny's had thrown his hat in. However, the word was that LFC didn't want to go back, and possibly allow Kenny to tarnish his reputation. Hodgson is clearly a good man, but some of his comments did start to set alarm bells ringing with me. What made it worse, was some of his tactics and decisions during games. It clearly wasn't working, and showed no signs of improving.
A change was needed. With the appointment of Kenny, the new owners have made the right move. Since his start, every comment to the press has been spot on, his tactics on the pitch and the style of football have been in line with how supporters expect LFC to present themselves. What's needed now is that first win. I hope it arrives today at lunchtime.