Madeira January 2012

Madeira January 2012, a set on Flickr.

These are my favourite shots from our recent holiday to Madeira.

This was our 'Baby Moon' in that it was the last time that Alice can safely travel with Bump without needing medical approval.

We had a brilliant time, loving the off season quietness! I even had a chance to try out some HDR (the rock and pool photos).

Let me know your thoughts.

Frosty Macro

Frosty Macro, a set on Flickr.

Yes it's been a long time faithful readers (exactly a year in fact!) and much has changed but more on that another time.

For now, I wish to share two things with you fine people:

1) I was bought a DSLR camera for Christmas
2) I'm going to spam the social networks with my amateur offerings!

I woke up yesterday and decided to set myself a project for the morning, I would get some good close up shots of nice, frosty things. I was looking for the minute details, rather than grand landscapes. Let me know what you think. Click the link above to view the set on Flickr.

Never has the title 'Deluded' seemed quite so apt...

Steff. x

Snow and Society

Snow! Loads of it! Like, seriously- tons of the stuff! The whole landscape has changed, trees grow frosty beards, whole fields seem to be yielding only fluffy cotton for crops and grannies slide their way through high streets. You can't deny it's magical- anything that makes Reading town centre look pretty must be the work of a higher power! Why am I talking about the snow as it's making its departure though? Because I'm less concerned with how it looks than in the effect it had on people. Namely, bringing out the best and worse in us.

I'll start with the good. One morning, a few weeks ago when the first snow fell, our car wouldn't start. Suspecting a flat battery, I decided we'd need to get a jump start. Problem was, our drive is a steep bastard and the Vectra weighs a ton. I couldn't push it alone so I called upon the one neighbour we have that I know the name of to help. He kindly obliged but it still wasn't enough. Miraculously, others saw our plight and came to help. We ended up with about half a dozen strangers coming to our aid. A few weeks later, another man that I didn't know from Adam voluntarily helped us off an icy patch when the car was skidding nowhere fast.

These weren't ice-olated incidents (geddit?). Stories abound of similar people clubbing together to help each other out. Food being dished out car window to car window on gridlocked motorways was one, John Lewis letting stranded people sleep in their bedding department was another.

Hearing and experiencing this really warmed my heart and affirmed my faith in humanity. This isn't a perfect world but as long as we help each other out in times of need, we'll be OK. Right? Well, life isn't really like that, is it? Unfortunately, for every tale of chivalry and camaraderie during the heavy snow, there was an opposing one of opportunism and treachery.

An example: The overflow car park serving the building in which I work is known as a crime hot spot after hours. You are advised not to leave your car there overnight. But that's exactly what I did do, on that white Monday when it took the country a thousand hours to drive home. I left it, totally covered in snow and with dozens of like minded colleague's cars. I thought it would be OK, and it was, but others were not so lucky. Four cars were broken into and one actually stolen. That means despite the conditions, despite the collective anguish of hundreds of people that night and despite the bloody fact that they would have had to dig the cars out from a foot of snow before breaking in, the toe rags still went on a crime spree, eyeing up others' property as I do pies at a buffet.

Also, the news story of two truck loads of grit being stolen, to be sold on the black market, is another example of opportunistic gits exploiting society whilst it's in crisis mode. It makes me feel a little sick to be honest.

It's interesting that times like these really polarise society, many band together for the benefit of the few, whilst others ruthlessly exploit for their own gain. I've no real point to make here, just observations. Let me know your thoughts.

Steff.

Modern Warfare 2 Reviews now live

Evening, just a quick note to say that you can now see my reviews for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on the following pages:

1)
http://www.readingchronicle.co.uk/theguide/stayingin/articles/2009/12/08/388362-call-of-duty-modern-warfare-2/
This is the Reading Chronicle review, which is shorter but more concise.

2)
http://www.geekplanetonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=797:callofdutymodernwarfare2&catid=40:ps3&Itemid=13
This is the Geek Planet Online review, which is the fuller account.

Please let me know your thoughts (particularly which version you prefer).

Steff.

Borderlands review now up

Greetings all, just a quick note to say that my latest review, of PS3 game Borderlands, is now live on the Geekplanetonline website. See the link under 'Links to other articles' on the right of this page or click above.

As previously described, this is the 'full fat' review. A slightly rewritten, shorter version of the review will be going up on the Clyde and Forth group of websites (including The Reading Chronicle) very soon.

Please let me know your thoughts on the article, by commenting on it specifically on the Geekplanetonline website, or here if you have more general points to make.

Edit: The review is now live on the Reading Chronicle website. See link to the right of this page.

Steff.

"I don't know where you get your delusions, laser brain!"

I'm finding myself more and more frustrated with optical media and I can't wait for digital downloads and flash/solid state memory to replace it completely.

The Humble CD has been with us since 1982- long overdue for retirement. The problem is that we have put ourselves in a corner with the need for backwards compatibility. Nobody wants to replace their whole collections, which is why DVD players had to be able to play CDs and why Blu Ray players had to be able to play DVDs. Being chained to the 12cm optical disc has meant that innovations had to take place elsewhere- dual layered discs or thinner lasers for example. The problem is that with each progression comes a caveat: DVDs are more fragile than CDs and Blu Rays are like freakin' egg shells.

This is a real bone of contention for me, having to eject and clean a disc three times because the person who rented it before me put their grubby, chow mein finger prints all over it. For goodness' sake people- please treat these discs with a little more care! Inconsideration aside, this is an inherent problem with optical media but luckily, change is coming.

The failure of HD DVD and UMD have prompted Microsoft and Sony to switch tactics. Xbox 360 owners now have access to HD movie downloads and Sky channels, whilst the latest PSP does away with its optical drive completely, prompting the user to buy all their games online from the Playstation Store and save them to internal or flash memory. Also, some films now come with 'digital copies' on the disc: protected video files, for use on specified devices. The latest Star Trek film for example is available for purchase on a 4GB pen drive (it's excellent by the way). Soon the digital copies will be the only ones distributed, either on external memory or downloaded/streamed.

It's not just pre recorded content that will feel the benefit of this revolution though, storage will too. Solid State Drives (SSD) are already available, some high end laptops come with them installed as standard. These boast ultra fast access times and no failure due to wear, as they have no moving parts. More than you can say for their ageing brethren.

This clearly shows a move away from optical and magnetic media, with it's slow seek speeds and susceptibility to jammy fingers. But it isn't perfect. Downloading several gigs of data a month can incur the wrath of unforgiving ISPs and you'll need some beefy bandwidth to stream 1080p footage. Moreover, the copy protection embedded into digital copies means that you will not be able to swap or sell your own intangible property. The rise of downloaded films and games will kill off the second hand market and of course, this is exactly what music, game and film companies want. Cost is also an issue, Solid State Drives work out at around £2.50 per gigabyte, magnetic drives at less than 5p.

Of course, these problems are only temporary, internet speeds will go up and prices will go down, whilst Digital Rights Management will find a happy medium between allowing more freedom and stopping piracy. Conversely, the problems with optical media will take it to its grave. An important factor in all this is that the nuts and bolts for the change are already in place: all computers have USB connections now and most homes have broadband. You may even find that your DVD player can show movies from a pen drive already.

Solid State and flash memory have some significant advantages over optical and magnetic media and are naturally the way that technology will progress. There are teething troubles at the moment but one thing you can definitely say for the new kids: at least you won't be ejecting and wiping anything three times during play- cursing the God of lasers as you do.

Bring it on!

Macho, Metro Man!

First things first. For those of you who have not met me, I'm big. Pushing 6' 3” and 20 odd stone, I was a massive rugby player and martial artist in my younger days. Not exactly a typical candidate for a health spa then, you might imagine.

But to a health spa I did go and an interesting experience it was. Sorry, went a bit Yoda on you then.

Anyway, at first I thought I'd taken a wrong turn and ended up at the Mental Asylum wing from Prisoner: Cell Block H. As I drove up the long country road to the old secluded building and parked the car, there were dispersed groups of plump, middle aged women roaming around outside, wearing only dressing gowns and glazed expressions. The inside continued this trend: dozens more clucking, be-slippered zombies, shuffling their way around after white jacketed professionals down long, carpeted hallways, entering 'treatment' rooms. Scary stuff...

But no, I had to shake these thoughts from my head. I was here to keep my girlfriend company, this was her birthday treat after all. Whilst she was being pampered, I would just be chilling by the pool, maybe taking a bike ride. Or so I thought. Unbeknownst to me, my better half had booked me in for 'the works'. I was to be rubbed, prodded, plucked and even, it turns out, caked in mud and steamed for twenty minutes, like some kind of child's bakery attempt!

I'd had a few comments from colleagues in the run up to this day: Am I a Metrosexual, one asked. Another offered to lend me her boyfriend's Speedos. To be honest, I probably shared the same preconceptions. But I went in there with an open mind and I have to say, at the expense of my macho reputation (yeah right): I really enjoyed it all.

Speaking to my treatment lady on the day, whilst she was working me over, produced a few interesting facts: Sometimes there are entire days when you won't see a bloke in there. But when you do, presumably it's all dapper, effeminate types, I asked. Nope, just husbands and boyfriends with their female counterparts.

I was starting to feel in tune with the place. There is no 'type' of male that goes to health spas, it was all sorts. It's OK for a man to have manicures and pedicures, isn't it? This was great, I felt like a modern man. We are not 'Metrosexuals' we just acknowledge the need to look after our bodies- there's nothing 'gay' about that. Awesome. I wanted to know if there were more of us out there, maybe we could start some sort of movement. So I asked my therapist if men she knew came to the spa: “Oh no!” she shrieked in dismissal. “My dad and boyfriend would never come here in a million years!”

Hey ho- viva la revolucion!

Steff.