Monthly Archives: March, 2007

The Canon’s Mouth

A new toy. Photographed using an old toy. It’s been great having the little Ixus 750 on my belt all the time, but I love having a ‘real’ camera again.

Canon 30D

Mind you, don’t you think 30D sounds a bit like the size of a lady’s undergarment?

A timely reminder

Most of North America switches to Daylight Savings Time today. They’re extending the period this year, so it starts earlier than usual. (You can search Status-Q for ‘EDST’ for more info.)

British Summer Time doesn’t begin for another two weeks, so for the next fortnight London & San Francisco are 7 hours apart instead of 8, for example.

Burrowing through Status-Q

Back in June I mentioned that I’d installed my variation on the ‘Related Entries‘ plugin for WordPress. Newer readers may have missed this, so I thought I’d mention it again – it’s really quite good.

As well as being on the front page, each Status-Q post has a page of its own in the archive. You can get to it by clicking on the post’s title. After the text, you’ll see a list of possibly-related previous posts. It’s remarkably good at finding relevant ones, so you can browse through the archives by following a chain of topics, should you be so inclined…

Have a look at the bottom of this recent post if you’d like an example.

Travelwear

If you find yourself in an airport departure lounge and want to confirm that you’re in the right place for your intended destination, sometimes you can just check out the other passengers.

Hippy

Good. Yup. San Francisco.

Anyone tried those shoes, by the way? I see more and more people wearing them, at least on the other side of the Atlantic. But even I, notoriously oblivious to my appearance, would have to be convinced they were very comfortable before turning myself into a kind of high-tech hobbit…

Segway-lite?

Ben Smither has created what must be the minimal Segway-type vehicle:

More info here.

Trevor Blackwell has also made some cool devices – I’ve ridden his home-made Segway variant and it’s very good, in some ways rather better than a standard Segway. The steering is more intuitive, for example.

He did admit that a fair amount of the cost and complexity of a commercial Segway comes from the numerous safety features they build in, which he didn’t have to the same degree. He told me this after I’d tried it, of course…

Oh, and you should see what he’s been up to at Anybots. Have a look at this and this.

Getting Things Done on the Mac

Those who have joined the cult of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) methodology, of which I am but a humble and inexpert practitioner, might be interested in ThinkingRock. This is perhaps the best implementation of the concepts that I’ve come across so far. It’s Java, so will work on Mac, Windows or Linux, and is free, though they welcome donations.

If you don’t know GTD, it will be somewhat mysterious, until you’ve read the book or listened to the audiobook.

Sausalito sunset

The last batch of images from the weekend. Views of Sausalito and San Francisco.

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Bottles

Sausalito shoreline

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Marin Headlands contd

A couple more photos from Saturday.

Point Bonita lighthouse

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Point Bonita

Point Bonita Lighthouse

Point Bonita

Point Bonita

Spring in San Francisco

It’s been a glorious day here – the kind of weather where it’s just warm enough to drive around with the windows wide open. California at its best.

Rose's Cafe, Union St, San Francisco

I took lots of photos in the city, the Marin Headlands, and Sausalito. I’ll post some of them over the next few days.

Marin Headlands

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Consider the consequences…

A good way to reform criminals, they say, is to bring them face-to-face with the consequences of their actions. If you can’t do that directly, you can at least employ the same psychology… I liked this sign, seen today in San Francisco.

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The times, they are a-changin’

Moshe Yudkowsky, in his eTel talk, used a wonderful quote from Agatha Christie, who apparently once said:

I never expected to be so poor that I couldn’t afford a servant, or so rich that I could afford a motor car.

© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser