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New car

By on March 26, 2011 in General

Got my new car on St Patrick’s day. To replace the Honda Civic Hybrid I had since January 2008. Given I don’t do many miles, the Honda went back after the end of a 3 year lease with only 14,600 miles on it, I decided to get something cheaper. The company I lease from suggested a Mini. And that’s what I ended up getting. A Mini One D in red. I like it. Fun to drive, plus it’s £100 per month less to lease than I was paying for the last 3 years. Including free servicing for the 3 years. Result! Click on the picture to get larger view.


Discharged

By on February 12, 2011 in General

This post is a capstone. I’ve blogged a bit over the last 8 years on my treatment for Testicular Cancer. I was discharged last week after my annual checkup. So assuming nothing else happens this will be my last post on the subject 🙂

Album of the year contenders for 2010

By on December 5, 2010 in General

Been a while since I updated this post. Luckily there has been a spate of new albums in the last while to make up for a dearth earlier in the year.

I kept a list of album of the year contenders last year and picked my favourite in December. I will be doing the same this year. As I buy new albums this year I’ll update this list and pick my favourite after Christmas. Last year was a bumper year for brilliant new music in my opinion. Arguably the best year for new albums that I liked since 1975, which is when I started buying albums with my own (pocket) money. The albums listed here will not be in any order of preference during the year.

First addition to the list is The Family Jewels from Marina & the Diamonds [Listen on Spotify. Buy on Amazon or iTunes. Follow Marina on Twitter]. I first discovered Marina via a tweet on Twitter early in 2009. The songs available then were brilliant. Tracks like I Am Not A Robot, Obsessions and Mowgli’s Road for example. I got to see Marina live at the iTunes Live Festival in July at the Roundhouse in Camden [Buy on iTunes]. She was excellent live. A brilliant voice delivering her very good songs. The new album that has just come out doesn’t disappoint. The new tracks added to the existing tracks are very good. I like Shampain and Girls especially.

Lost Where I Belong from Andreya Triana [Listen on Spotify. Buy on Amazon or iTunes. Follow Andreya on Twitter]. I first heard a track from this album when it was the free single of the week on UK iTunes Store in August. Got the album on the back of that. It’s brilliant. I like all the tracks. Andreya has a wonderful voice.


First Light…

By on July 10, 2010 in General

So the fabled Guyton guitar arrived this week. I will do a post soon with detailed pictures and comments on the build quality (it’s stunning!). Here is a short noodle entitled First Light so you can hear the tone. This is just a noodle of some scales and chords (including a missed D Chord near the end!). It was captured in Guitar Rig 4 using the preset 015 (Comp Plex Driven – MC). I’m going to enjoy playing with this. Very rusty after being 15 months without an electric. But plenty of time now to practice and create 🙂

UPDATE: Sold the guitar. I didn’t need a guitar that cost that much in my life!


Mac alternatives to the Adobe CS Apps

By on April 11, 2010 in General

I recently installed Adobe Creative Suite 4 on my Macintosh. I wanted to use Photoshop for some graphical work, and InDesign for technical document creation. I unselected all the other components that I didn’t want to install. After the installer was finished I had a several, 8 or 9 if I recall correctly, new folders in my Application folder with various Adobe apps in them. I was only installing 2 apps. Why all the other folders? This should have been a sign that Adobe are now pedlars of bloatware. The running apps themselves were slow on my MacBook Pro (2.8Ghz C2D, 4GB Ram and 7200rpm disk machine).

I uninstalled the whole lot. Well I tried. The uninstall option left several bits of Adobe detritus in my Applications folder and in my Preferences Folder. I deleted that manually.

Bye-bye and good riddance Adobe CS. Maybe CS 5 will be different but I doubt it. Given their poor record with the Mac version of Flash I don’t have much hope for their other Adobe produced Macintosh software in the near future. BTW if you haven’t installed ClickToFlash on your Mac, to control Flash loading when browsing, I’d recommend you do so as soon as possible.

Below are some links for alternatives to the Creative Suite Apps. These might fit your needs better than the full Adobe CS offerings. These may not have all the same features of Creative Suite applications, but they are lightweight, easier to use and probably better for most non-professionals. However, some of those listed below are probably better for professionals. Final Cut and Soundtrack, for example.

Alternatives to Photoshop

  1. Pixelmator – http://www.pixelmator.com/
  2. Acorn – http://www.flyingmeat.com/acorn/
  3. GraphicConverter – http://www.lemkesoft.com/content/188/graphicconverter.html
  4. GNU Image Manipulation Program – http://gimp.lisanet.de/Website/News/News.html

Alternatives to inDesign

  1. Pages – http://www.apple.com/uk/iwork/pages/what-is-pages.html
  2. Swift Publisher – http://www.belightsoft.com/products/swiftpublisher/overview.php

Alternatives to Adobe Acrobat

  1. Skim – http://skim-app.sourceforge.net/

Alternatives to Dreamweaver

  1. RapidWeaver – http://www.realmacsoftware.com/rapidweaver/

Alternatives to Illustrator

  1. EasyDraw – http://eazydraw.com/
  2. OmniGraffle – http://www.omnigroup.com/products/omnigraffle/

Alternatives to Premier Pro

  1. iMovie – http://www.apple.com/uk/ilife/imovie/
  2. Final Cut Pro – http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutstudio/
  3. Final Cut Express – http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutexpress/

Alternatives to Soundbooth

  1. Soundtrack Pro – http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutstudio/soundtrackpro/
  2. Fission – http://rogueamoeba.com/fission/

Alternatives to After Effects

  1. Motion – http://www.apple.com/uk/finalcutstudio/motion/

I’ll add to this list if any others come to my attention. I might add some options for Microsoft Windows based users as well. Feel free to give me your suggestions for either Macintosh or Windows apps that do any of the functions shown in the lists.


Political change

By on March 14, 2010 in General

I’ve been a supporter, and occasional member, of the Conservative Party since 1979. I started supporting them when I was about 15 during the Winter of Discontent. Labour were then, and are now, a political and actual disaster for the UK. The election of Margaret Thatcher’s conservative administration was the best thing that happened to this country for a long while.

Times change and people change. I’ve certainly changed in the years since 1978. The idealistic 15 year old boy is now a 45 year old man (who still has an idealistic 15 year old lurking within!). Of the 3 main political parties in the UK I think that my current world view and outlook is best matched by the Liberal Democrats.

In Northern Ireland the Liberal Democrats are allied with The Alliance Party. You can’t vote for the Liberal Democrats directly. This is a pity. Hopefully it will change at some point.

In the forthcoming election I will be voting Alliance and will be donating to the Liberal Democrats. My vote will not change the MP that is elected in the East Belfast constituency. It will however make it easier for me to look in the shaving mirror.

I hope that the Liberal Democrats get the chance to lead this country in to the 21st century to a fair, and liberal environment for all.


What are my #goodiphoneapps

By on January 5, 2010 in General

Here are the iPhone apps that I use the most. This list doesn’t include any of the built in apps like iPod, Safari, Mail, Voice Recorder, Clock etc. that get used all the time. Everyone has those. The #goodiphoneapps comes from Twitter. It is a hastag that is used to flag tweets about iPhone apps people like. Here are my favourites then. In no particular order. This is just the start of the list. More to add.

Fizz Weather – My favourite weather app on the iPhone. Has lots of options including 2, 5 and 15 day views. Weather warnings. Satellite views.

PCalc – A brilliant replacement calculator. It has all the functions you would expect from a physical scientific calculator. Adheres well to the metaphor that iPhone apps should look, feel and act like the real world devices they replace.

Stanza – a book reader and ebook library management application. Turns your iPhone or iPod touch into an eBook reader. The iPhone is a very nice eBook device indeed when using this app.

Groceries – The Grocery Shopping List – Neat little app that allows you to build a shopping list as you remember things you need. Then when you get to the supermarket you can check them off as you shop.


My album of the year for 2009

By on December 27, 2009 in General

I listed my shortlist of 11 albums for my choice of album of the year in a previous Soapbox post. All of these albums are brilliant and are worth multiple listens. But I said I would pick 1 of them as the best of the year. My pick of the year is Blue Roses from Laura Groves.

It was close as they are all great albums.