By Tor's Additional Words Of Wisdom http://bytor.posterous.com Most recent posts at By Tor's Additional Words Of Wisdom posterous.com Sat, 22 Sep 2012 10:51:21 -0700 Nice bike ride in the country on a sunny Saturday morning http://bytor.posterous.com/nice-bike-ride-in-the-country-on-a-sunny-satu http://bytor.posterous.com/nice-bike-ride-in-the-country-on-a-sunny-satu


Find more Bike Ride in Basildon, United Kingdom

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Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:00:00 -0800 Scott's Last Expedition - Natural History Museum, London http://bytor.posterous.com/scotts-last-expedition-natural-history-museum http://bytor.posterous.com/scotts-last-expedition-natural-history-museum

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A couple of weekends ago I visited the Natural History Museum in London. I was with my brother, and we had hoped to catch the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition. Unfortunately this was so popular that it was sold out, but it gave us a chance to see another temporary exhibition, Scott's Last Expedition. 

It tells the fairly well known story of his ill-fated 2nd expedition to try and be the first to the South Pole. As you probably know that ended in failure as not only was Scott and his team beaten to the pole by Roald Amundsen, but tragically Scott and his 4 companions died on the return trip.

However there was a lot more to the whole story than just this. This exhibition goes into all the details of the preparation, how the whole idea of "conquering" the Antarctic had caught the imagination of England at the time, and how the scientific part of the expedition was planned and executed. 

Obviously everyone recalls that Scott and his companions perished, but in other respects the expedition was very productive from a scientific point of view. The exhibition shows in much detail pictures, artefacts, and even cine film of the trip. Did you know that they took ponys to pull the sledges? Or that in 1913 they had early prototype (and unfortunately unreliable) motorized sledges?

The expedition cameraman, as well as taking many still photos, also took moving pictures with a large wooden hand-cranked cine camera.

If you get a chance to visit this exhibition before it closes in September I would definitely recommend it. 

(amazingly, as I was typing this, I saw on TV that Blue Peter presenter Helen Skelton is journeying to the South Pole as a Sport Relief challenge. How different things are 100 years on!)

http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/scott-last-expedition/

 

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Tue, 21 Feb 2012 10:33:00 -0800 UCI Track Cycling World Cup 2012 - London Prepares event 18th Feb 2012 http://bytor.posterous.com/uci-track-cycling-world-cup-2012-london-prepa http://bytor.posterous.com/uci-track-cycling-world-cup-2012-london-prepa

 

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Sun, 05 Feb 2012 06:57:00 -0800 Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! http://bytor.posterous.com/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow http://bytor.posterous.com/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow

Here is what one night of moderately heavy snow can do for you in England. Just glad it was a weekend and I didn't have to face this on a Monday morning.

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Sun, 15 Jan 2012 12:26:00 -0800 Smart TV http://bytor.posterous.com/smart-tv http://bytor.posterous.com/smart-tv

There have been many innovations and developments in the world of TV over the years. Some have had big effects on the viewing experience, others have been more incremental.

  • change from 4:3 to widescreen aspect ratios
  • change from CRT to LCD flatsceens
  • screens get progressively larger and thinner (incremental)
  • TVs get internet connected

The latest buzz is about so called Smart TV. Really this is just trying to connect our TV sets to the internet, and most set manufacturers have these features to some degree on their current and future lineup.

But will it really be the next big thing? What can you actually get on a Smart TV? Web access. (Generally very poor on a TV. The web, with the exception of a few sites is designed to be consumed from about 2 to 3 feet away with a keyboard and pointing device between you and the screen).

Catch up and on demand video Services like BBC iPlayer and 4OD are very popular and having these integrated into television with a fast internet connection and an appropriately easy to use interface would be a definite good thing. So far however the best iPlayer implementation I have seen is in the Sony PS3. Until this level of ease of use can be managed by all set manufacturers this type of service will struggle to gain widespread use.

Social TV. I think this concept is and will continue to catch on. The question is whether the TV set is the way to do it. People love to "live tweet" and post Facebook status updates about programmes they are watching but I don't think there is a better way to do it than either a lap top or a smart phone. On screen keyboards and splitscreens just do not work and even if TV manufactureres provided a wifi or bluetooth keyboard the screen is too small and far away to make it easy to use.

So, catch-up/VOD services aside, the so called smart services actually seem more like gimmicks. Just like 3D has so far turned out to be. So, what might the next true paradigm shift in TV really be? Well I suspect it will be in the way we interact and control it. I think voice and gesture control will gradually improve and will before too long get to the stage where we are controlling our sets like something out of Star Trek. Do you remember that scene in one of the Star Trek movies when Scotty when visiting current day earth picked up a computer mouse and started talking to it?

As usual it will probably be Apple that will lead the way. In his biography Steve Jobs said to Walter Isaacson that he thought he had finally "cracked" it. Reports about recent Apple patent filings and rumours about an imminent launch into the TV market point to the fact that we probably won't have to wait very long to find out the future.

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Sun, 25 Dec 2011 01:31:00 -0800 Kindle Christmas Bargains http://bytor.posterous.com/kindle-christmas-bargains http://bytor.posterous.com/kindle-christmas-bargains

So, you might have received a Kindle for Christmas. There is a 12 Days Of Kindle promotion starting and I thought I'd pick out a few highlights as we go along.

The Epigenetics Revolution by Nessa Carey (£0.99)

Bad Science by Ben Goldacre (£1.99)

A Game of Thrones by Geoerge RR Martin (£1.99)

God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything by Christopher Hitchens (£0.99)

True History of the Kelly Gang by Peter Carey (£0.99)

The Etymologicon by Mark Forsyth (£0.99)

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Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:49:00 -0700 Robert Llewellyn's Fully Charged http://bytor.posterous.com/robert-llewellyns-fully-charged http://bytor.posterous.com/robert-llewellyns-fully-charged

Robert Llewellyn (Kryten of Red Dwarf fame, and presenter of Scrapheap Challenge and How Do They Do That amongst others) has a rather good video podcast dealing with electric vehicles.

The main website is http://www.fullycharged.tv/

However, if you do not use iTunes, and don't want to just watch on your computer on YouTube, finding the standard RSS/XML feed for other podcast software has been difficult.

Fortunately Robert was kind enough to dig it out and for your search engine goodness I have reproduced it here:

feed://blip.tv/fullycharged/rss/

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Sun, 22 May 2011 01:28:00 -0700 Android questions http://bytor.posterous.com/android-questions http://bytor.posterous.com/android-questions

I'm making this mini-blog post because the question is slightly too long for a tweet.

My old iPhone 3G is showing it's age. It's quite sluggish in a lot of ways and I may be looking to replace it in the not too distant future. I might get another iPhone, but I'm seriously considering getting an Android instead. So, all you android owners, I'd appreciate the benefit of your wisdom and experience (answer in comments please):

  • What phone do you have, and of the current (and near future, like Galaxy S2/HTC Sensation) would you recommend?
  • Do the OS "overlays" like the "sense" from HTC make a big difference? Can you turn them on and off. Is the "basic" Android iterface any good?
  • Is android good for managing media? How easy is it to get media files on and off the phone? Is it easy to organise them? Can you manage podcast subscriptions easily (both audio and video ones)? I know everyone hate iTunes, but is there an equivalent desktop program to manage the syncing etc?
  • Can Android handle Audible audiobook files easily?
  • What is the Android Kindle app like? Are there other eBook readers? Is Stanza available for Android
  • Does android sync easily with your Gmail account? (I should hope the answer to this is yes!)
  • Can it sync with Outlook and or exchange servers (not very important for me though)
  • Do most of the Android phones have quite a small memory but you have to expand them with micro SD card (compared to eg iPhone with 16 or 32GB internal, but no expansion)
  • Any good for games (not my main priority)?

(I'll update with more questions as I think of them)

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Thu, 27 Jan 2011 14:00:00 -0800 Imperial Palace, Edinburgh. Top quality dim sum http://bytor.posterous.com/imperial-palace-edinburgh-top-quality-dim-sum http://bytor.posterous.com/imperial-palace-edinburgh-top-quality-dim-sum

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This menu is actually a little out of date so the prices were about 10% higher when we went. Still very good though.

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Mon, 17 Jan 2011 08:00:00 -0800 Airforce (another) One http://bytor.posterous.com/airforce-another-one http://bytor.posterous.com/airforce-another-one

Airforce World Dryer Corporation (white model) spotted at Edinburgh Airport departures.

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Sat, 15 Jan 2011 08:14:00 -0800 Tasty meal at National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh http://bytor.posterous.com/tasy-meal-at-national-gallery-of-scotland-edi http://bytor.posterous.com/tasy-meal-at-national-gallery-of-scotland-edi

Yesterday I went to see the Turner exhibition at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. Afterwards we went to the restaurant (The Scottish Cafe & Restaurant) and had a nice meal:

Starter: Bruschetta con funghi

Main: Ossobuco (shin of veal with creamed potatoes)

Part of the Turner In January set menu (2 courses for £15.95)

 

Also eaten by my party: Deep fried whitebait, Cullen Skink, Scottish pheasant breast, Shetland salmon with honey-glazed vegetables.

 

Verdict: very nice.

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