Pentanimo Pic

Splitting a picture up into pentaminos pieces, using the great, and free Paint.Net.

Finally bought a car, it's a 1996 Holden Barina, and is a great run around for the city.

 

Pentanimo Pic

Splitting a picture up into pentaminos pieces, using the great, and free Paint.Net.

Finally bought a car, it's a 1996 Holden Barina, and is a great run around for the city.

 

More of the same

Flickr users like myself should be happy to find that there is a new feature called Collections, which allows you to categorize and organize Flickr photo sets.

Actually, it looks like you can go pretty deep with the whole Collections idea - creating not only collections of sets, but also collections of collections (up to 5 collections deep) - meaning that if you've got a lot of sets, you can set up a very organized folder structure-type collection of your photos, something i've been trying to do with Vista picture tagging. Also, sets can be placed into as many collections as you want, so the sky's the limit. 

A bunch of people have emailed, written and called to congratulate me on my engagement to Ingunn, which is very nice. Weddding planning (such as it is) is going pretty slowly, starting with a sleepy conversation on the beach about who we might invite, and how big a wedding might result. Baby steps.

I was mailed a link to this blog posting which i was told might be helpful, i liked number 1.

More of the same

Flickr users like myself should be happy to find that there is a new feature called Collections, which allows you to categorize and organize Flickr photo sets.

Actually, it looks like you can go pretty deep with the whole Collections idea - creating not only collections of sets, but also collections of collections (up to 5 collections deep) - meaning that if you've got a lot of sets, you can set up a very organized folder structure-type collection of your photos, something i've been trying to do with Vista picture tagging. Also, sets can be placed into as many collections as you want, so the sky's the limit. 

A bunch of people have emailed, written and called to congratulate me on my engagement to Ingunn, which is very nice. Weddding planning (such as it is) is going pretty slowly, starting with a sleepy conversation on the beach about who we might invite, and how big a wedding might result. Baby steps.

I was mailed a link to this blog posting which i was told might be helpful, i liked number 1.

Lightning (taken from our balcony)

The night it rained lightning bolts..

Lightning (taken from our balcony)

The night it rained lightning bolts..

Smart

Smart

Hierarchical keywords with Vista

One of the nice features in the Windows Photo Gallery in Vista is the ability to add hierarchical keywords. I have a few hundred keywords right now. A subset of these keywords are People, Events, Places etc. I would like to collapse the flat list of keywords so I can more easily browse.

Well in the Windows Photo Gallery you can create a keyword like Foo\Bar and it will nest Bar under Foo. Smart, but....

Adobe's newly launched Lightroom has it's own incompatible hierarchal keyword system. When you export a RAW photo, the hierarchy is collapsed and the parent/child relationship is not included.

This whole metadata, xmp, exif stuff is still not interoperable.  Annoying.  Anyway, here are some pics from our balcony tonight.

 

Flickr tags: City Lights

Hierarchical keywords with Vista

One of the nice features in the Windows Photo Gallery in Vista is the ability to add hierarchical keywords. I have a few hundred keywords right now. A subset of these keywords are People, Events, Places etc. I would like to collapse the flat list of keywords so I can more easily browse.

Well in the Windows Photo Gallery you can create a keyword like Foo\Bar and it will nest Bar under Foo. Smart, but....

Adobe's newly launched Lightroom has it's own incompatible hierarchal keyword system. When you export a RAW photo, the hierarchy is collapsed and the parent/child relationship is not included.

This whole metadata, xmp, exif stuff is still not interoperable.  Annoying.  Anyway, here are some pics from our balcony tonight.

 

Flickr tags: City Lights

Handy

Having recently upgraded to a flicker pro account, these 2 tools are curently indispensible for me:

• Vista Flickr uploader -- some one has rewitten the Flickr batch uploader as a WPF application as the old version is no longer compatible.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any tagging support yet though. 
• Flickr4Writer :  Windows Live Writer Flickr add-in which saves loads of time linking to those Flickr images from blog post

Handy

Having recently upgraded to a flicker pro account, these 2 tools are curently indispensible for me:

• Vista Flickr uploader -- some one has rewitten the Flickr batch uploader as a WPF application as the old version is no longer compatible.  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any tagging support yet though. 
• Flickr4Writer :  Windows Live Writer Flickr add-in which saves loads of time linking to those Flickr images from blog post

Melbourne, revisited

 

 

Haven't been to Melbourne in awhile, so this weekend myself and ingunn headed down to Australia’s 2^nd best city. Great food, wine and ofcourse... shopping . However, I am writing this sitting in the domestic terminal of Melbourne airport as our flight has been delayed by 1 ½ hours which is unbelievebly annoying to put it mildly. Fortunately I’ve got a laptop handy, so bored with solitaire have decided to write about the last 48 hours.

The thing about Melbourne is that it is effortlessly cosmopolitan; bohemian coffee houses and debonair underground bars hidden down cobbled alleyways, with trams slicing through the inner city traffic. Compared to the brashness and daily turmoil of Sydney it feels refreshingly laid back. The main self-promoting feature seems to be its various shopping districts though, so on Saturday we decided take a trek out of the main city precinct and see what the fuss is all about.

Once you’ve passed Federation Square, wandered over the snotty-coloured South Yarra river, strolled through the memorial filled Royal Botanical gardens, you eventually come to Turoq street, which was recommended in the brochure I’d picked up at the tourist office as a good a place as any to “experience the quintessential Melbourne shopping adventure”. Turoq Street has a 1km strip of fashion shops, and I was led by Ingunn excitedly sniffing out deals on shoes and clothes and more shoes. The next few hours are a bit of blur, but basically consisted of Ingunn venturing into a shop and me waiting outside for the next 15 minutes wandering what it was about shopping that women enjoy so much. Retail therapy I guess, or the thrill of getting a perceived bargain. Or maybe some Freudian ego thing, who knows

Bissecting Turoq Street, is the more widely known Chapel Street, which was pretty much identical but about 3 times as many shops and a few more coffee shops to refuel tiring shoppers. By 5pm I was knackered and bored to death of standing around outside shops, so we headed back on a tram. That was it for the quintessential shopping experience, I ended up with some red jumper, and ingunn about 6 tops, pair of shoes and someother items.

 The dining in Melbourne is arguably as famous as the shopping, on both Friday & Saturday we ate at on the pavement at some excellent restaurants down a cobbled hidden away alley, somewhere in between Little Collins St and Bourke Street. Dinner was then washed down with some drinks at Pugg Mahones then later La la land, and even later at L2 in the massive GPO building.

I do love Melbourne, and were it not for the lack of beaches i think i'd seriously consider moving there.  Will post some pics once i've found a Vista replacement for the handy image resizer powertoy.

Just finished reading this book: Cock and bull by Will Self.  Extremely weird, but very gripping and i enjoyed it immensely.

 

 

At peace in Botanical Gardens

.. and a Ciabatta that didn't last long at all

Melbourne, revisited

 

 

Haven't been to Melbourne in awhile, so this weekend myself and ingunn headed down to Australia’s 2^nd best city. Great food, wine and ofcourse... shopping . However, I am writing this sitting in the domestic terminal of Melbourne airport as our flight has been delayed by 1 ½ hours which is unbelievebly annoying to put it mildly. Fortunately I’ve got a laptop handy, so bored with solitaire have decided to write about the last 48 hours.

The thing about Melbourne is that it is effortlessly cosmopolitan; bohemian coffee houses and debonair underground bars hidden down cobbled alleyways, with trams slicing through the inner city traffic. Compared to the brashness and daily turmoil of Sydney it feels refreshingly laid back. The main self-promoting feature seems to be its various shopping districts though, so on Saturday we decided take a trek out of the main city precinct and see what the fuss is all about.

Once you’ve passed Federation Square, wandered over the snotty-coloured South Yarra river, strolled through the memorial filled Royal Botanical gardens, you eventually come to Turoq street, which was recommended in the brochure I’d picked up at the tourist office as a good a place as any to “experience the quintessential Melbourne shopping adventure”. Turoq Street has a 1km strip of fashion shops, and I was led by Ingunn excitedly sniffing out deals on shoes and clothes and more shoes. The next few hours are a bit of blur, but basically consisted of Ingunn venturing into a shop and me waiting outside for the next 15 minutes wandering what it was about shopping that women enjoy so much. Retail therapy I guess, or the thrill of getting a perceived bargain. Or maybe some Freudian ego thing, who knows

Bissecting Turoq Street, is the more widely known Chapel Street, which was pretty much identical but about 3 times as many shops and a few more coffee shops to refuel tiring shoppers. By 5pm I was knackered and bored to death of standing around outside shops, so we headed back on a tram. That was it for the quintessential shopping experience, I ended up with some red jumper, and ingunn about 6 tops, pair of shoes and someother items.

 The dining in Melbourne is arguably as famous as the shopping, on both Friday & Saturday we ate at on the pavement at some excellent restaurants down a cobbled hidden away alley, somewhere in between Little Collins St and Bourke Street. Dinner was then washed down with some drinks at Pugg Mahones then later La la land, and even later at L2 in the massive GPO building.

I do love Melbourne, and were it not for the lack of beaches i think i'd seriously consider moving there.  Will post some pics once i've found a Vista replacement for the handy image resizer powertoy.

Just finished reading this book: Cock and bull by Will Self.  Extremely weird, but very gripping and i enjoyed it immensely.

 

 

At peace in Botanical Gardens

.. and a Ciabatta that didn't last long at all

vista

is worth installing for anyone who hasn't yet.  The new speech recognition engine is particularly good. Infact, iam dictating this. 

vista

is worth installing for anyone who hasn't yet.  The new speech recognition engine is particularly good. Infact, iam dictating this. 

Another year, another decade

Last Friday i turned 30.

I remember when that number seemed enormous, an eternity away.  Back then i was certain that i'd have life tied up by now, running my own company and driving a ferrari.  Jay-Z rekons 30 is the new 20 in his song 30 something, let's hope so and it isn't just another year closer to death. One thing is for sure though, life down here in Australia definitely makes the years fly-by.

So, here;s a summary of the last few days (only a summary as i'm learning to touch type so this is taking me absolutely ages to bang out).

 

Ingunn and I went to see Roger Waters play on the 25th.  Wasn't the same without Dave Gilmour doing crazy rifts on his fender, but still one hell of a show, with floating pigs and an entire renditon of Darkside of the moon.

 

As a birthday present on Friday (26th), we went on a sea plane over the northern beaches for a picnic at cottage point beach.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That evening we met up with some friends and overdosed on bbq ribs hurricanes grill in Bondi.

 

And.. not one of mine, but i like it:

 

Another year, another decade

Last Friday i turned 30.

I remember when that number seemed enormous, an eternity away.  Back then i was certain that i'd have life tied up by now, running my own company and driving a ferrari.  Jay-Z rekons 30 is the new 20 in his song 30 something, let's hope so and it isn't just another year closer to death. One thing is for sure though, life down here in Australia definitely makes the years fly-by.

So, here;s a summary of the last few days (only a summary as i'm learning to touch type so this is taking me absolutely ages to bang out).

 

Ingunn and I went to see Roger Waters play on the 25th.  Wasn't the same without Dave Gilmour doing crazy rifts on his fender, but still one hell of a show, with floating pigs and an entire renditon of Darkside of the moon.

 

As a birthday present on Friday (26th), we went on a sea plane over the northern beaches for a picnic at cottage point beach.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That evening we met up with some friends and overdosed on bbq ribs hurricanes grill in Bondi.

 

And.. not one of mine, but i like it:

 

Efate

Spent Christmas in Vanuatu's largest island, Efate.   Most of my time was spent snorkelling/diving in amongst the island's coral reefs.  

   

  

.. not sure what the last one is..

Efate had great roads for driving around on.. 

Children swimming in the water everywhere, and the local poison..

 

Ingunn has more pictures..

Have bought a new bike this weekend, the rest of it was spent wandering fruitlessly about the city enjoying the summer.  Recently read : Resplendent by Stephen Baxter, a bunch of short stories around the Destiny's Children series;  Next by Michael Crichton, a topical book about gene ownership; Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris,  this tells the story of Hannibal Lecter's childhood.. garbage, especially compared to previous titles like Red Dragon.  Am currently reading The Life of Pi, which is so far one of the best books i've read in awhile.

Efate

Spent Christmas in Vanuatu's largest island, Efate.   Most of my time was spent snorkelling/diving in amongst the island's coral reefs.  

   

  

.. not sure what the last one is..

Efate had great roads for driving around on.. 

Children swimming in the water everywhere, and the local poison..

 

Ingunn has more pictures..

Have bought a new bike this weekend, the rest of it was spent wandering fruitlessly about the city enjoying the summer.  Recently read : Resplendent by Stephen Baxter, a bunch of short stories around the Destiny's Children series;  Next by Michael Crichton, a topical book about gene ownership; Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris,  this tells the story of Hannibal Lecter's childhood.. garbage, especially compared to previous titles like Red Dragon.  Am currently reading The Life of Pi, which is so far one of the best books i've read in awhile.