Portrait of a horse
Thu Feb 17th - 5:00pm
Today I tried doing a horse portrait. This consisted of about half an hour of Katie and I running around a field, Katie aiming the flash and me taking the pictures. Finally we got a shot that captured a bit of personality. This is Briagh, a 3-year-old Highland Pony who lives at the Newtonmore Riding Centre.
Nokia and Microsoft join forces for combined FAIL
Sun Feb 13th - 8:53am
On behalf of everyone who is developing software for Android smartphones or iPhone/iPad, I would like to thank Microsoft and Nokia for their support.
I first heard about Microsoft and Nokia joining forces when someone told me the vaguest details, and I assumed Microsoft would be adopting Nokia’s Symbian operating system for their phones. That would have made sense. You see, despite the appalling sales figures for Windows phones, the truth of the matter is that the devices themselves have been superb, and the current version of Windows Mobile is actually very good — it’s just that nobody buys Windows phones anymore because Microsoft isn’t cool. People want cool. It doesn’t matter that Windows Mobile is good if it isn’t cool. No cool = no sale.
Of course my assumption was wrong. It’s Symbian that is being ditched, and now Nokia phones will use a Microsoft operating system. Which isn’t going to make much difference to Microsoft, but it’s going to neuter Nokia’s attempts to become any kind of relevant player in the smartphone market.
So it’s just Android and iOS now. Hurrah! Well done Nokia — you just achieved one of the most epic fails in computing history. You had a cool brand, and you’ve thrown it away.
Amateur ’snappers’ are not the enemy
Tue Feb 8th - 4:25am
The BBC is running an upbeat feature about amateur photographers selling their pictures. Actually most of the feature is about a new point-and-shoot camera that supposedly gives you the "big camera" results without the technical know-how. But there’s also a bit at the end about how amateurs are making it harder for professionals to sell their work. The feature is introduced with this gem:
Many amateur snappers are now making money by selling their shots online. In fact it’s getting so popular the professionals are starting to complain.
Really? I don’t think that’s true at all. I think professionals complain about people giving their photos away for free. I think we complain about microstock agencies paying a pittance for quality work. But do we really complain about amateurs selling their photos? Certainly not in my experience.
If someone is good at taking photos and they can find someone to buy their work then more power to them, I say. Just don’t get ripped off. You want more than £50 for that photo that’s going in an advert, and never believe the "we don’t have any budget for photos" nonsense — it is always a lie.
Good luck! I hope you make a fortune.
HTC Sense — the root of Android storage problems?
Fri Feb 4th - 11:16pm
The elephant in the room of the Android world is that ‘droid phones suffer from a terrible storage space problem. While iPhone/iPad users can happily install dozens or even hundreds of apps, Android users are faced with constant low storage space warnings, even with just a few apps installed.
With only 42Mb of apps installed on my HTC Desire, this has become a permanent resident in my notification panel:
I’ve been trying for a while to get to the bottom of this, mainly because I’m developing an app for Android and this problem has become a real drag.
Naturally I first tried to get help from Google. My intention was to write about the issue and report on possible solutions, so I contacted the Google press office and requested an e-mail interview with an engineer. You might be surprised by Google’s response:
Hi Andrew,
Thanks for reaching out.
We don’t have the bandwidth to offer an interview, but you can find more info here: developer.android.com
Thanks,
Clara Armand-Delille
Corporate Communications and Public Affairs
(Don’t be too shocked by this — Google are frightfully media-shy until they want publicity for something. The "don’t have the bandwidth" excuse is lame though. Oh and why didn’t I just contact an engineer directly? Google folk don’t have public e-mail addresses. You see, despite the image they try to portray, Google isn’t a very "internet" company — they don’t like talking to people.)
So with Google not interested in helping I spent a good while trawling web forums, and what jumped out at me was that this doesn’t appear to be an Android problem as such, because it only affects HTC phones which have that company’s Sense interface and a suite of social networking apps.
By all accounts there’s no point contacting HTC. They’re aware of the problem, but they don’t know (or won’t admit) how to resolve it. I suggest you read Howard Greenstein’s blog post and Christopher Dawson’s article on ZDNet and then set about removing as much of the Sense interface as you can, especially the social networking apps that chew up large amounts of storage space with bloated caches, but report a much lower figure.
Or you could root your phone and remove Sense entirely — here’s a page about rooting the Desire for example. But that may well invalidate your warranty and, personally, I’m going to take this up with my carrier (Vodafone) as without rooting I now consider the phone unfit for purpose.
Chauvinism controversy highlights the truth of sexism in football — and it isn’t as gloomy as we’re being told
Mon Jan 24th - 2:55pm
There’s a lot of fuss and bluster in the British media today about comments made by Sky Sports football commentators Richard Keys and Andy Gray.
In the build-up to Saturday’s game between Wolverhampton and Liverpool, at one point they thought their microphones were switched off, and so began making chauvinistic comments about assistant referee Sian Massey. The comments were the typical baseless gibberish about women not knowing the off-side rule. The pair also took a shot at businesswoman Karren Brady, who had written about sexism in her Sun newspaper column.
What we’ve been hearing all day from everyone with access to a keyboard or a microphone is that sexism is alive and well in football — and, by inference, the world at large — and oh my god what on earth can be done about it?!?
The truth is very different. The truth is perhaps best highlighted by a comment made by Karren Brady during an interview on Five Live. She mentions that she has never encountered sexism in the business side of football.
What we have to remember is that the two people who made the comments about Sian Massey are more-or-less nobodies. Andy Gray no doubt places a high value on his own opinions as he was at one time a professional footballer, but the sports world has clearly moved on and left him in the past. Richard Keys? He doesn’t even have the dead career to back up his outdated nonsense.
Sian Massey has proved herself as a referee, which is why she’s got the job, and silly comments from people on the distant periphery of her sport surely aren’t going to bother her. Karren Brady says herself that she hasn’t experienced sexism while working with the business people of the sports world, so it doesn’t seem to be a problem in the top tier.
What we can conclude from the furore surrounding Richard Keys’ and Andy Gray’s comments is that sexism does indeed continue in football, but only amongst the irrelevant, outdated hangers-on. The people who are in the business of actually getting things done know that women are just as capable as men. The Football Association know that Sian Massey is just as capable as her male colleagues.
We can also conclude that for all their juvenile bravado and misplaced snootiness, Richard Keys and Andy Gray are the sort of people who will only reveal their true opinions when they think their microphones are switched off.
Shock! A reader opinion taken seriously!
Sun Jan 23rd - 4:25pm
I’ve recently started reading the web site i-programmer.info. It’s a good site, but I felt it was really let down by a huge block of adverts at the top of each page. The adverts were so big that on my 1440×900 screen I had to scroll down to read more than the headline of each article. But as I said it’s a good site — so good in fact that yesterday I sent an email to ask if they could possibly re-think the layout:
I hope you will take this email in the spirit I intend it. I think you post a lot of interesting articles, but the huge adverts at the top of each page make the site seem cheap. My screen res is 1440×900 and only the headline of each article is visible without scrolling down! Could the adverts perhaps go down the side of the screen?
Many thanks for producing such a good site.
When I visited the site today, the layout had changed. The adverts had been re-arranged and articles now start at the top of the page, which looks a lot better. I assumed the timing was just coincidence, but then I received an email from the site’s editor:
You email was perfectly timed.
There has been an on going (and heated) argument about exactly this point.
We do maintenance at the weekend and your email swung the argument to the point where we deployed the "no ads across top" layout.
It’s still not tweaked and some of the articles look wrong with the new layout but I think it will be kept until at least next weekend!
Thank you so much and if you have any other comments, ideas etc. don’t hesitate to email me.
Pretty cool, I thought.
Fatal collision on B9006 Cantraywood to Croy road
Fri Dec 24th - 11:28am
Another horrible loss of life on the Highland’s roads. This was off my patch but I was up in Inverness doing some Christmas shopping when I heard what had happened, so I went along on spec.
23 December 2010: Scene of a fatal road collision on the B9006 Cantraywood to Croy road, approximately 8 miles east of Inverness. Police have confirmed that the 70-year-old male driver and 63-year-old female passenger of the silver car died at the scene. The driver of the black Range Rover suffered minor injuries and was treated in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness.
Google no speak English
Wed Dec 15th - 9:55am
Following on from what I wrote yesterday about Google Chrome, today I uninstalled it. Of course it wouldn’t go quietly, and sent me to the Google Help page. When I saw the window pop up I thought it was going to ask me for some feedback, to find out why I was uninstalling this wonderful, polished, lovingly-crafted piece of market-leading software. But no…
That’s right, apparently Google’s Help Centre isn’t available in English. (Nice of them to at least spell "centre" correctly, being an American company.) And you’ll notice that the browser window that popped up was Internet Explorer, despite the fact that Firefox is my default browser and I’ve never used Internet Explorer on this computer.
The reason, I should explain, why I’m so interested in Google’s behaviour at the moment is that for the last six months or so I’ve been creating a game for mobile phones, starting with Android, which is Google’s mobile operating system. So if Google screws the pooch and starts heading downhill Apple-style then it’s going to have a direct effect on me.
What I’m noticing is that Google’s approach to software development seems to be the same with each product: Develop it very rapidly to 90% completion, get it out to the public, and then slo-o-o-o-w-ly finish it over a period of years. That’s certainly what they’ve done with Chrome and Android, and it’s looking like the same will be true of the Chrome operating system. For a company that is becoming central to every aspect of our technological lives, this is worrying behaviour…
Newspaper photos from the last few months
Tue Dec 14th - 2:51pm
28 June 2010: Father and son Brian and Jordan Shaw at Kingussie Golf Club. In a recent competition at the golf club, Brian and Jordan were tied after the 18th hole, so they played the 1st hole again. Brian was unlucky not to get a hole-in-one when his ball bounced off the flag pole, but went on to score 1-under-par on the par-3 hole. Jordan could only sink his ball in 3 shots, and dad Brian took the trophy.
3 July 2010: Main day of the Tain Gala, which has united the Ross-shire town with a week of events and activities. Pictured are Dannii Wyld (21) and Kirsty Burzynski (22) who travellled from Edinburgh to take part in the Gala, joining the Railway Hotel fancy dress float team which put on a 1st-place-winning boxing match on the back of an open-top lorry as it travelled through the town.
3 July 2010: Main day of the Tain Gala. Pictured is equestrian stunt rider Kirsty McWilliam, a member of the Blazing Saddles display team, on her horse Seamus.
11 July 2010: Rosie the Jack Russell, said to be the fastest dog in Scotland, demonstrates her football skills during an open day at the Newtonmore Riding Centre in Newtonmore, Inverness-shire. Rosie belongs to the owner of the Centre, Ruaridh Ormiston.
24 July 2010: Action from the Cairngorm Soapbox Extreme 2010 event, held at Cairngorm Mountain on Saturday evening.
26 July 2010: Scene of an incident involving a coach and a lorry on the A939 between Grantown-on-Spey and Dava, in which the coach, heading towards Dava, partially left the road and crashed through a wall on the side of a small bridge over a stream. At the time of the photograph, the lorry had already been removed from the scene. A police officer at the scene reported that there had been no injuries, and only minor damage to the lorry, including a punctured tyre.
30 July 2010: March through Newtonmore by parents and children, and local business representatives, to protest against the proposed closure of the town’s Highland Folk Museum by the Highland Council. The march was lead by Ruaridh Ormiston, owner of the Newtonmore Riding Centre, with his horse Blue and dog Rosie.
7 August 2010: Strathpeffer Highland Gathering. This year’s Gathering concluded with the march of the Clan Mackenzie, with representatives from around the world.
14 August 2010: Seaboard Carnival at Balintore Harbour. Pictured are the Carnival Prince, 8-year-old Ryan McFarlane from Ross Crescent, Balintore, and the Carnival Princess, 7-year-old Jasmine McDonald from Lochslin Place, Balintore.
12 Augut 2010: Tain Highland Gathering. Pictured is Norwegian TV personality Henrik Evestad, who co-presents comedy sports show Golden Goal. Henrik is travelling around the world, filming for Golden Goal as he takes part in sports that are unique to each country he visits. In Scotland, he participated in the heavyweight events at the Tain Games, and he is pictured here with local heavyweight stars Jason Young and Malcolm Cleghorn.
28 August 2010: Invergordon Games. Stars of the day’s piping competitions were 16-year-old Norman Gillies from Ullapool and dad Alasdair Gillies, a professional piper who now lives in Pittsburgh, Pensilvania, in the USA. Norman won 1st place in both the local and open junior Marches competitions, 2nd place in the junior Strathspey & Reel, and 1st place in the junior Piobaireachd. Alasdair won 1st place in the professional open Marches, 1st place in the professional Strathspey & Reel, and 2nd place in the professional Piobaireachd. Alasdair had had a distinguished piping career: He was the last Pipe Major in the Queen’s Own Highlanders, and continued his role as Pipe Major when the Queen’s Own merged with other pipe bands to form the Highlanders. Now, as well as working full-time as a professional piper in the US, he is a member of Spirit of Scotland, an all-star band of professional pipers from around the world. Norman, a student at Ullapool High School, is a member of the Ullapool & District Pipe Band.
28 August 2010: Fortrose Car Rally and Fun Day. Pictured is a group of 7-17-year-old dancers from around the Black Isle, brought together by Karen Sutherland of Active Cheer & Dance. The girls, in suitably ghoulish make-up and outfits, put on a performance of the famous zombie dance from Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" video.
28 August 2010: Fortrose Car Rally and Fun Day. Pictured is Ronald Menzies with one of the highlights of the Car Rally, his 1960s 300cc BMW Isetta "bubble car". This style of car gained comic infamy as owners would notoriously get stuck inside the car when they drove too far into their garage or parked too close to a wall, as the car has no reverse geer and the only way out is through the large door on the front. The factuality of this motoring lore is questionable, but nevertheless still provides classic car enthusiasts with a nostalgic chuckle.
28 August 2010: Munlochy Animal Aid open day. The open day gave proud pooch owners a chance to show off their prized canine friends in a series of good-spirited competitions. One of the stars of the Best Puppy and Best Eyes competitions was 12-week-old Milly, a Cocker Spaniel owned by Georgia Davidson (10) and her brother Ethan (6) from Inverness.
15 September 2010: Will Matheson (front) of Midferryton Farm, Balblair, is pictured with his good friend and fellow farmer Alex Beaton. Will has donated his 1940 Ford-Ferguson 9N tractor, seen here, for a charity auction at the Vintage Working Rally at Daviot on Saturday 18 September. It is expected that the sale of the tractor will raise as much as £6,000 for the Highland Hospite.
30 September 2010: Brian Fraser, organiser os the Dornoch Model Fair, is pictured with the Tekno model of a Scania R-Series Topline truck that will be raffled during the event on Saturday 2 October. The model is #1 in a limited edition of 150 replicas of the truck driven by Alan Campbell of Norscot International. Alan died of a heart attack in July 2010, and proceeds from the raffle will go to the charity Chest, Heart and Stroke Scotland.
12 November 2010: 23-month-old male polar bear Walker (right) who arrived at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig last week after being raised in Rhenen Zoo in the Netherlands, was introduced to resident female Mercedes who has lived at the Wildlife Park since October 2009. After walking around the enclosure for around 15 minutes, and swimming in the pond, Walker made several attempts to approach Mercedes. The older female bear was not receptive to his advances and saw him off each time.
15 November 2010: Scene of a fatal collision on the A9, approx 1.5 miles south of Dalwhinnie in Inverness-shire, between a northbound Mitsubishi 4×4 and a small car travelling south. The two people who died in the collision were in the small car, and police at the scene asked for the make and model of car to be withheld at this time as not all relatives have been informed. Picture taken looking south. The small car, which was travelling south at the time of the collision, is in the northbound carriageway, facing north.
26 November 2010: Pictured is 23-month-old male polar bear Walker who moved in to the Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig, Invermess-shire, earlier this month, after being raised in Rhenen Zoo in the Netherlands. He shares an enclosure with the resident female Mercedes who has lived at the Wildlife Park since October 2009.
26 November 2010: Snow monkey at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig, Invermess-shire.
29 November 2010: Pictured is a lorry that apparently slid on ice on the A9 and crashed through a barrier at the side of the road, falling off the bidge over the A86, approx 100 yards north of Kingussie in Inverness-shire.
1 December 2010: While snow brings misery for some, this snowboarder on Cairngorm Mountain was clearly loving it.
4 December 2010: An estimated 1,500 people braved the freezing temperatures on Cairngorm Mountain for a day of skiing and snowboarding. Pictured is skier Fran Pool from Reading with very frosty hair!
4 December 2010: An estimated 1,500 people braved the freezing temperatures on Cairngorm Mountain for a day of skiing and snowboarding.
4 December 2010: An estimated 1,500 people braved the freezing temperatures on Cairngorm Mountain for a day of skiing and snowboarding.
7 December 2010: Polar bear Walker’s 2nd birthday, Staff at the Highland Wildlife Park in Kincraig, Inverness-shire, made new arrival Walker a birthday cake of fresh trout, apples, day-old chicks, and carrots as candles. Walker quickly demolished the cake — and destroyed the bucket it was delivered in — watched by a group of robins that had gathered to pick up any left-overs. Walker was then allowed back in to the main enclosure with 30-year-old female Mercedes who, as usual, chased him off whenever he tried to approach.
Thoughts on Google Chrome
Tue Dec 14th - 2:03pm
I’ve used Firefox as my web browser for a couple of years now. I’ve occasionally tried Google Chrome but it has always struck me as an ‘unfriendly’ browser, too cut-down for its own good, and just not as warm and cuddly as Firefox.
I tried Chrome again last week and was impressed. It still has the strangely unfriendly feel — its interface is cold and clinical — but I decided to stick with it and I used it exclusively until today.
But there are simply too many quirks:
- You type search queries in to the address bar, instead of a dedicated search box. Your search query is then replaced with the address of the search page, and subsequently the address of any other page you go to. Suppose you search for "silence of the lambs imdb" to get a quick Google link to the IMDB page about that movie. You then want to see the Wiki page instead. In Firefox, you would just go back to your search box and change "imdb" to "wiki". In Chrome you need to go and type "silence of the lambs wiki".
- Text cursor moves like in no other program. In every text box I’ve ever used, in any program, when you press ctrl + left arrow the cursor jumps to the beginning of the current word. In Chrome it jumps to the end of the previous word. Similarly, ctrl + right arrow usually jumps to the beginning of the next word. In Chrome it jumps to the end of the current word. Would be excusable if it was an improvement, but it’s unintuitive and only serves to slow you down.
- There’s a bug when using copy+paste. Suppose you’re writing a forum post and you want to copy+paste some text from someone else’s post to comment on. Sometimes, apparently randomly, when you copy the text, Chrome disables the paste feature. Paste is still active in the edit menu, and in the context menu, but it doesn’t actually work. Once this happens, paste won’t work again until you close the browser and re-open it.
There are other things, but they come down to personal taste.
Irritating little bugs like these should have been fixed long ago. Perhaps they haven’t because Google only seems concerned about security bugs. Shame. You had me for a while there, Google, but I’m back to Firefox now.
Makes me wonder about Chrome OS. That things needs to come out with all guns blazing to compete with Microsoft and Apple. Fingers crossed…
