It was top! Very stylish, and we were very happy to be there.
Flickr
Gadgets
It’s an important week this week. The iPhone is released in the US on Friday.
“Nyah. So what?” most of you say, and you might be right.
I have a very strange memory. I don’t mean that I just remembered something strange, but that I cannot predict what I will and will not remember. I’m not sure if I use gadgets to store information because my memory is strange, or if my memory has become strange because of my dependance on these things.
Examples. I cannot remember much of my schooling. I’m not saying that I cannot recall anything in particular right now, but instead that when Kim prompts me with her memories of that period (which are excellent) I cannot recall the majority of those occasions. It’s gone. Johnny Mnemonic style. This is also true of more recent events too, but obviously I can’t give you examples because I can’t remember them.
So one of my favourite gadgets then is my mobile camera, and even more so than my big-arsed digital SLR. With mobile cameras, which might be on my phone, my PDA or my laptop, I can record my memories (I must have around 30,000 photos kicking around by now). I just found a huge folder of images on my hard drive that I’d forgotten about (doh!) that were from mobile phones from a few years ago. I dragged and dropped the whole folder into iPhoto and sat transfixed like Zarkov in Flash Gordon as images of my past flashed by and Jack became smaller and smaller, younger and younger, eventually disappearing from images and being replaced by a very pregnant Kim. Awesome brainwashing. I think I’ll upload a huge number of these tiny images to Flickr, but just for family and close friends to see.
Gadgets are great. Gadgets are helpful. You shouldn’t have to rely on your gadgets, but you should be able to rely on your backups. Hopefully before I even get my hands on an iPhone in early 2008 I’ll already be remotely trawling through my own Flickr repository to remind myself of people, places and events, and I’ll be adding to that repository and to this website, helping build my online memory.
UK Gov boots intelligent design back into ‘religious’ margins
From The Register:
“The government has announced that it will publish guidance for schools on how creationism and intelligent design relate to science teaching, and has reiterated that it sees no place for either on the science curriculum.
“It has also defined “Intelligent Design”, the idea that life is too complex to have arisen without the guiding hand of a greater intelligence, as a religion, along with “creationism”.
“It added that it would expect teachers to be able to answer pupil’s questions about “creationism, intelligent design, and other religious beliefs” within a scientific framework.”
Very sensible.
Full article.
iPhone Tour
The iPhone will be released state-side on Friday, and it’s clearly the most sought after gadget in decades. If you’re still not sure what it is or what it can do (let alone, why the hell so many people want it) you might want to take a look at the new guided tour video.
iPhone. A guided tour.
I wonder if it will let me page through my lecture presentations remotely like my current phone…
Taking Grandad to the park
Dad has been visiting us for a few days, and we’ve played at my golf club for 3 days in a row. (His scores got worse, mine got better – I’m not sure what that means.) Who is dragging who to the park in this photo?
Cafe Glas
The new Starbucks supplied cafe opened on campus. Shhhh! Don’t tell the students!
Father’s Day
It’s father’s day today! A day for a lie in, coffee and toast, a bit of golf or maybe some fishing in the morning followed by a big gravy-laden Sunday lunch and a nap on the sofa, and maybe a beer or two in the evening.
Pffft – not a chance!
Dry blogger
OK, so I’m in the middle of another blogger’s drought. After Ele’s wedding stuff has returned to normal. Normal = not interesting enough to write it down.
I’m still trying to get rid of this fade with my driver. That’s about it.
Wedding snaps
Ele and Lee’s wedding was superb. All had a great time and I think the bride and groom did too. They booked an excellent photographer who took photos all day long and will publish them on the web within the next couple of weeks, so I didn’t feel the need to hide behind a lense. The only photos I took were snaps with my phone.
My brother and I were ushers (and bagmen it seems). Ushering people into the church in Latton.
Kim gave a reading. She was nervous and delivered it with great pacing and emotion.
Nick took this photo of Ele and Lee leaving the church. Jack loved the page boy job. Great suit, eh? Ele looked fantastic.
Nick took this too. The boy and his bubble gun.
Another one from Nick, of Jack and my dad.
The only times Jack sat quietly were during (some of) the service and when he watched the band setting up. He was enthralled, and spent the rest of the evening dancing.
Ele & Dad.
Eventually Jack fell asleep in a corner, right next to the music.
Shoulders
Playing while everyone else was rehearsing for Saturday’s wedding service and flowering the church.