Lion kills mouse!!

I've not used me trusty mouse for about a week now, that's because I've got another GIZMO.
The Apple Magic Trackpad - a device well known to Mac laptop users but now it's iMac time.
The new Lion O.S. has been designed to fully utilise the Trackpad so I had no choice :-)
Wireless (Bluetooth) and super smooth (a glass surface), it virtually replaces a mouse through gestures.

There are two front feet underneath that allow a press down to click on both right and left sides, bu these can be changed to gentle finger taps as shown below.

It's taken a few days to get used to the main gestures required but now I'm used too it the mouse feels old hat and clumsy.
I've yet to do any serious photographic work but for general daily stuff it's BRILLIANT!

A general review on YouTube :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB7ZIgVTEN0

8.5 Hours to get the Lion!!

Being of a cutting edge disposition, the launch of the brand new Apple operating system, Lion, yesterday, was too much to ignore.  If you listen to the experts they all agree to hold off for a few days or weeks to let the Loonies iron-out the many glitches and critical problems such as "No Printer Recognition" or "Completely Wiped Out My  260 Contacts".
Apple has not provide CD's to buy this time, it's just a download only from the Apple Store - 3.8 Gb!!!!
Now, of course I'm not the only impetuous fool in this World and as a result, as I was commencing my attempt at 1500 hrs, half the American continent was just waking up along with U.K. early work leavers, excited at the prospect ,decided to try and beat me to it.
Watching paint dry became an attractive alternative - I was still observing the progress bar at 2315hrs.
I managed to just stay awake until 2330 and it FINISHED and I was invited to install.
Another progress bar appeared and declared there was 33 minutes to completion, OK that's Midnight but OK!.

Midnight and it still says 33 minutes - the progress bar had no sign of movement.  That's it, It's crashed on installation, the worst possible scenario, I wish I'd never started, the existing Snow Leopard was killed and I really loved it deep down.  I went to bed with thought of telephone calls in the morning and/or lugging the iMac to Meadowhall Apple shop and joining a half-mile queue of frustrated cutting edge dispositions.

Morning - plodded downstairs and found a black screen, confirming my worst fears.  I prodded the space bar, more out of nostalgia than hope.  I was confronted with a WONDERFUL log-in screen!!!
It even knew my name, and password - it had completely installed OS X  10.7 LION
I took back those words about Steve Job's unknown parents and muttered inside "Never in DOUBT"

Now, are me printers working??

iTunes in the Lounge!

Having all my music CD's installed in iTunes on the iMac I've always wanted to connect to my Hi-Fi in the lounge.  The prospect of running (more) cables under the floorboards was not enticing.
NEW GADGET TIME! - enter the Airport Express gizmo.  This little beauty operates wirelessly on the home wi-fi and speaks directly to iTunes, all that's needed is a connection to the amplifier and to install the gizmo as another wireless access point on the system.
The amplifier connection is a 3.5mm mini jack socket which also has an optical output built in.  I've tried both the analogue connection and the optical and the latter wins easily on sound quality.
. . and there's more, a very useful free app for the iPod and iPad called Remote, this gives complete remote control of iTunes whatever room you may occupy - SO - I can sit in the lounge enjoying all my music on the hi-fi from iTunes on the iMac in the study, controlling tracks and volume remotely.
Now that is a MEGA GIZMO!!

Canon 24-105 f4 L IS USM

Whilst holidaying in Scotland, visiting the wonderful Orkney & Shetland islands, and during a brief visit to Edinburgh, I decided it was definitely time I got me a lens I've drooled over for months.
After the Japan disasters camera equipment manufactured there has been badly affected and reports of shortages worldwide were beginning to appear.  That was enough excuse for me!
A visit to Jessops produced a predictable response - "Sorry and I think you'll find it's hard to find anywhere".  50 metres further down Princes Street I found Jacobs.  A quick look around and there in a display cabinet was their last remaining 24-105.
The rest is history and I've completed my lens collection (for now).

Quiet Reflection

I'm having trouble retaining the colour profiles of images obtained from Photobucket.
i.e. the sRGB profile appears to be stripped out when pasting to another website or saving back to the desktop.
This is one such image - has it retained the profile?? - YES

Family Update

As promised here's a piccy of Frank Vincent, having a larfff.

WeatherSnoop!

My weather station has been running about a year now and (touch head) without problems.
I decided to use an unused Windows laptop so as to run it 24/7 enabling data upload to
Weather Underground - and others. I do my daily computing on an iMac and have been wanting some method of displaying the weather data on the iMac second screen. Enter WeatherSnoop, it not only reads and transmits from weather stations but also pulls the transmitted data back for display from Weather Underground - Sorted!

WeatherSnoop