• Bad Science » The Huff
  Why so many headlines are not as they seem.
  (tags: lies damnlies statistics blog badscience science news)
• Fear of Landing » Crash-landing at Heathrow : Just the Facts, Please
  An interesting dissection of the initial report written in plain (plane? boom boom tish) english and without the sensationalism currently found in mainstream press.
  (tags: heathrow crash plane 777 boeing)

I reviewed the following podcast over on Fotonomy Blog back in December, but I know that not all my readers follow that blog as well, so no harm in a repeat.

This podcast is suitable for anyone who is interested in photography – whether they have the latest DSLR or are just trying to learn how to use their point and shoot more effectively.

The hosts are Scott Sherman and Michael Stein, who are keen to stress that they’re not pros, just enthusiastic amateurs, but that said they really know their stuff. Most importantly, they have “real lives” and families – so they have similar limits on disposable income for their hobby as I do – a huge change from some photography podcasts I’ve listened to where it appears the host owns half a camera shop of equipment!

The format of the show is often a general chat and discussion at the start, such as answering questions from listeners, discussing situations the hosts have found themselves in or talking about current photography news. Then there is usually an interview of some kind, and periodically there is a photo contest combining a theme and a technique.

Recent topics that they’ve covered are: getting the most out of portrait photography, organising your photo directories, taking low-light pictures, Scott Kelby’s 7 point system for Photoshop, and Law for Photographers.

There is always something fresh and interesting in this podcast, and I have learned so much in just the short time I’ve been listening. Highly recommended.

No no no no NO!

THAT wasn’t how it was supposed to go. What happened to all the rumours of the SUB-notebook.

Here’s a clue. Something that is only as functional as a Macbook but costs almost as much as a Macbook Pro is NOT what I was after at all. Sure, it looks pretty (okay… it looks GORGEOUS, but you knew that, right?) but where’s the point apart from proving you can make something that thin?

Now, what you need is something between a PDA and a notebook:

• Let’s say around 9″ or 11″ screen – big enough to still have a PROPER useable keyboard, small enough to be ultra-portable.
• I want it to be my secondary computer – for going away, or feeling lazy and going up to bed to surf… so it doesn’t have to be superpowered – just be able to run Safari/Firefox, Mail, iCal, Address Book, iLife… oh and iWork would be handy too if I ever get the writing muse.
• E-book software/integration would be handy too … think Kindle only stylish and with Mac functionality.
• Decent battery life.
• Be able to sync seamlessly with my iMac so all my bookmarks, RSS feeds, iTunes etc are all ported over for my weekend away without having to think too hard about it.
• It would be my SECONDARY computer, remember, so really … I don’t want it to cost as much as a Macbook … otherwise… I’d just get a Macbook, right? I’m thinking about £300-£400 as a price point here. Would probably be a handy price point for students on a tight budget who only want to be able to do research on the net and write up a few essays. Or families who want something cheap but elegant to help with their kids’ homework

I mean, how hard can it be? Oh… and Steve… I’m going away in March so I really need it by then… could you get them made by March?

Much love and all that,
Pewari.

• The Mr. T Virtual Playset
  This link is especially for TigerFeet but fun for any A-Team fan
  (tags: funny humour flash mrt fun)

Sorry, the rest of the internet is getting hysterical… and it’s catching. I am ridiculously excited considering I’ve only been an Apple fangirl since October.

Live blogging from MacWorld on Engadget

43 minutes to go… c’mon Steve… cheap mini ultraportable laptop, cheap mini ultraportable laptop, cheap mini ultraportable laptop…

UPDATE:

mini – check
ultraportable – check
laptop – check
…
cheap…. DAMN!

I finally finished them!

The only problem is (and I hope my more wise knitty readers might help me out here), the heels don’t fit very well – they’re sort of loose and lumpy.

Is there a way of shrinking them to fit? I have visions of maybe soaking them in hot water, then putting them on and plunging my feet into a bucket of cold… (hey, maybe my feet would shrink instead… that’d be weird).

Solutions (preferably tried and tested ones) gratefully received.

No tooth!

Oh, and …

… new glasses!

• Portal: The Flash Version
  Online puzzle game that is harder than it looks.
  (tags: games flash portal game free fun online puzzle)

• phong » tutorials [ photoshop, flash, pov-ray & polar graphing tutorials ]
  Some very interesting and advanced Photoshop tutorials. Definitely want to try these in the near future.
  (tags: photoshop tutorials graphics design howto art camera photography photo resources)
• Funny Graffiti – Anything goes – Lifelounge
  Inventive graffiti (WARNING: some pictures may not be work or child safe).
  (tags: funny graffiti images fun photos photography pictures humour)
• suicide-teddy.jpg (JPEG Image, 800×600 pixels)
  Best not to view when any children are in viewing distance of your screen.
  (tags: funny bear photo photography humour)

If you’re anything like me, you’re constantly being sent, or finding accidentally, interesting links that are just too lengthy to sit down and read right this very minute (or you’ve tried, and then wondered why you got nothing done today).

What do you do with the links you don’t have time for?

Do you stick them in a Later Reading bookmarks folder that you end up never visiting again, except bi-annually when you have a look and think “why on earth did I keep all these?” and delete the lot?

Do you stick them in del.icio.us only to forget what you tagged them with or that you’ve even got something in there you haven’t actually read yet?

Or do you faithfully attempt to read each and every one there and then, regardless of how late you are or how little you’ve done today?

Well a new firefox plugin called Readeroo just might be your salvation. It’s certainly revolutionised the way I organise my online time and stopped it becoming overwhelming.

The idea is that it combines with your del.icio.us account (you can always set one up if you don’t have one) to become a very effective “To Read” list.

You populate the list with the articles found when you are busy with a one button click, and it stores them in your del.icio.us account with the tag toread (you can also set it to be “not shared” – handy for those of us who publish our del.icio.us links on our blog, but aren’t comfortable publishing something you haven’t actually read yet and might not even like).

When you’ve got some free time and fancy catching up with your browsing, you click the Readeroo “Read” button and it brings up one of the pages you stored. You can set it to retrieve pages at random, first in last out, or last in first out. The choice is yours. Once you’ve read it, it either deletes the page from del.icio.us or changes the tag to donereading according to preference.

I rather like it being set to random – a sort of personally tailored StumbleUpon for pages you already know you want to read at some point.