Wednesday, 19 October 2011

I have a phone.

My phone is small, cheap, and works well -- as a phone. For instance; I can use it to make and receive phone calls.

It has a camera in it.

This was unavoidable at the time -- it's not a very good camera as these things go. It does not, for example, have hardware zoom, or the ability to adjust exposure time, take time-lapse images, or any of those things. To me, that's kinda like pointing out that it doesn't do the ironing. It is a camera in my phone. It takes OK photographs.

I also have a camera.

Occasionally I like to take photos that are not just OK. Not often but it happens. My camera has these hardware things that my phone lacks due to being, you know, not a camera. This, in no way, reflects negatively on my phone.

I do not feel the need to take really good photos, so my camera is about middling as these things go. Someone may point out that my camera cannot send the photo to another phone or to my email account. That's all right - it has a USB port and I can use that to send the picture to my mini tablet - which is what I use for mobile computery things like image processing and networking. I can do this with any computer. If I am not carrying my USB cable, the camera has large storage which is removable and almost everyone has a card reader. Besides, if I have to wait a bit before sharing my latest cute-kitten pic I find I annoy fewer people.

If I really really need this functionality, I can actually buy a camera that has a phone (or some other network device) in it. The phone in these things is not at all useful for making phone calls: that's OK, nobody cares, because the camera is awesome and you can send your photos where you like right away.

Between them my camera and phone cost less than, say, picking a device completely at random, an iPhone.

I occasionally see people discussing (to push a definition of the word "discuss" somewhat) the various comparative merits of different cameras that are in those phones that come with cameras. These multiuse appliances all seem to their owners, or the owners of a competing brand appliance, (or wannabes - it's hard to keep track) to these people to be somehow deficient in one or some or all of their functions. If by some miracle the sweet perfect appliance has been manufactured, it mysteriously failed to sell and has been discontinued.

This message is for you.

Here lies the path to happiness:

You want to take a photo, use a camera.
You want to make a phone-call, use a phone.

Monday, 10 October 2011

G+ Work and WOF

In reverse order:

WOF woes continue - my car has a fluid leak - power steering. I have to keep topping it up but this means I don't have a WOF. I need a new cooling tube. Maybe we can build one but right now looking for an authorized part.

I've bitten the bullet and presented myself to the local service station - pump-hand here I come. The thing is, though I have a lot of applications out for teaching positions, nothing is going to show up before March. I want something on the Island that will be enjoyable and the service station is just down the road and it's relaxed. I'm hugely overqualified and the boss there looks enthusiastic.

Still active with google plus. If you want to see what sort of thing I get up to over there, have a look at this formatted summary.

Wednesday, 5 October 2011

Relaax

It's all about the sunshine today - and a bit of maintain the car.

WoF: Failed - but only on one tyre. It seems that directional mags are going out of fashion or something so I have to order-in the replacement. Ho hum - pass wof tomorrow.

But since I'm out and about and it's such a gloriously sunny day, I took the top off and went for a cruise. It's an expensive passtime these days, and I'll count the cost tomorrow. Today I went the length of the Island, visited Man of War bay, which was at high tide so it was nice. Enjoyed the breeze and the scenery and read a bit of my SF novel (Greg Bear - Legacy: it's OK). Headed back.

Snapper and chips at Onetangi Beach - a bit windy - wash the car - and back home. Sun still on the deck so drag a chair from the lounge-suite outside for coffee and tim-tams and more reading. Decadence. Smeagol joined me - he's changed color: his head and shoulders are still black but the rest of him has gone rusty. He'll probably go black again towards midsummer.

He's been off his food last few days, and he's lost a lot of weight. I gave him some beef mince - which he nommed up (but only if it has a bit of dirt on it). He does not normally get red meat - after he finished, he whipped his tail, leaped vertical off all four feet, spun around and tore off into the bush.

I've changed the music (see sidebar). Also sampled Gin Wigmore's single "Black Rose", online.

There's a stack of mail wating for me ... tomorrow. By carefully ignoring things that actually need to be done I get to call today a win. Bananas and ice-cream time, then a bath.

Cheers.

Tuesday, 4 October 2011

The Solar System in Perspective

If the diameter of the sun is our unit for length, the orbits come out something like this (someone check my math):
distancediameterplanet
01.000Sun
390.004Mercury
720.009Venus
1000.009Earth
1530.005Mars
5200.102Jupiter
9560.086 (0.179)Saturn (rings)
19190.037Neptune
30080.036Uranus

This means, if you wanted to build a scale model of the Solar System with Sun as a 1m diameter beach ball in the middle of your lounge, Mercury would be a 4mm speck 39m away! Jupiter would look good as a 10cm striped ball half a click away while the Oort cloud, at the outer reaches, is at 5000km... which would put the final touches of your model about an eighth (45deg) of the way around the Earth from your lounge.

I'm bringing this up because of a movie circulating the internets that appears to show a planet-sized comet impacting the Sun and spraying the solar system with gobs of Sun-stuff. Hopefully these figures will give a wee bit of perspective. Space is big, really big!

Wikipedia on CMEs