The Adjustment Bureau

Jill and I just managed to watch the DVD of The Adjustment Bureau, which is an adaptation of a Philip K Dick short story, The Adjustment Squad. Actually getting the time to watch it was no mean feat in itself, as we have a ninety minute window between the boys all falling asleep and Aidan waking up wanting a milk top-up. We ended up watching in two sittings over consecutive nights, but it didn't ruin the effect.

It's a romantic SF thriller which revolves around free will. The two protagonists, a politician (Matt Damon) and a Dancer (Emily Blunt) seem to be made for each other, but a shadowy organisation called The Adjustment Bureau is trying to make sure they are kept apart because it will upset their plan. Although that should probably be Plan with a capital P.

It's a quiet, thoughtful movie with doses of the sinister and action and good chemistry between the leads. We enjoyed it and I will watch it again. Four out of Five.

Great Yorkshire Show

We had a lovely day out today at the Great Yorkshire Show on the outskirts of Harrogate. Nominally an agricultural show, it has long expanded to include a celebration of the best of everything from Yorkshire and beyond, and in doing so it has become the biggest such show in the UK. Along the way it avoided the fate of the Royal Show, which failed to adapt to the changing world and has since disappeared.

Of course, with a tractor-mad four year old, this was always going to be a good day provided we could manage his excitement and tiredness. Nathan had a brilliant day, visiting every stand that sold tractors and pretty much every tractor toy in the show. He went on the big show ground wheel ride which gave a view of the whole place, something he used to plan his visit to the tractors, identifying which ones he wanted to see first.

We visited some of the food stands, the Black Sheep Ale Tent and the ever entertaining Sheep Show (in reality Sheep Show III). It was a lovely family day.

Aidan seemed to be happy too, but he appears to have his first cold, the poor mite.

The journey home (usually takes ten minutes) took an hour, thanks to the traffic, but we didn't notice it in part because Jill was entertaining me with comments on a Facebook comment war that had broken out on one of her friend's walls. It was a classic case of someone arrogantly and stupidly making a sweeping statement on something that would affect maybe 90% of their audience, and then not knowing when to let it go and kill the thread.

All in all, a lovely day!

--
I realise I haven’t posted for a while, but holiday and exams intervened. I’ll post some more as time permits to fill in the gaps.

Brothers in Arms

I love this picture of Nathan and Aidan. Sure, the resolution is poor (the iPhone 3GS camera struggles in lower light) but, as the saying goes, the best camera is the one that you have to hand. The expressions are delightful: it almost looks like Aidan is bigger than Nathan!

They're both very different characters: if anything, Aidan is more relaxed and chilled out than Nathan. He does amuse me no end when he sees Nathan messing around and gives him a look as if to say, "You're so full of it", amd shakes his head. Aidan also sings when he's had milk and is happy and doesn't want to go to sleep! The nicest thing is the way that Nathan is really protective of his 'little brother' and also comes up to him and says things like, "Who's a cheeky little fella?!”

Of course, it's dreadful when they both decide that they can't sleep and tag team us, but let's not mention that!

That's Going to Hurt in the Morning [updated]

Rainbow over the Millennium Field in Wetherby while I walked down to the Leisure Centre.

I just went swimming seriously for the first time in a couple of years. By seriously, I mean that I was there to do lengths of the pool for exercise rather than being a launching platform and co-conspirator for a four year old boy.

To add to the fun, I walked there and back as well gaining an extra 2,000 steps for my Global Corporate Challenge(*) Pedometer. Hurrah! I did 20 lengths in two 10 length blocks, plus another couple winding down. Not as far as I used to, but I worked hard and decided not to overdo it. Anyway, half a kilometre isn't bad for a first go(**).

I've got that good achey feeling around my joints now, with muscles that haven't been used in a while reminding me that they're there. I'm sure it's going to hurt tomorrow, but for now the buzz is enough.

All of us went swimming today: Jill & Aidan also did Water Babies and Nathan went to Knaresborough for his lessons.

(*) This is my third year participating in the GCC, which is a health promotion set up that work gets involved in. It's driven about walking 10,000 steps a day (you also get credits for swimming and cycling) and raising your health awareness. Last year, I managed an average over 11,000 steps a day – not bad for a desk jockey – which was about a thousand up on the year before that. I'll be happy if I get above 11,000 this year. Nearly two weeks in and not quite where I want to be yet. But there's time to pull it up yet!

(**) 15,937 steps today if you wanted to know!

Update: It did hurt. Ouch.

Think I'm happy about this

Poll comparing Guardian reader and Daily Mail reader responses (via Ben Goldacre on Twitter). 

[Link removed as dead May 2021]

The Dream Could be Alive Again...

Seeing things like this makes me feel less bad about the retirement of the Space Shuttle. But I do believe the programme should be extended until the new stuff is ready and proven.

You can see the full presentation [DEAD LINK May 2021] (article via @OpenAerospace on Twitter)

While I mention the Shuttle, you may like the link about to Endeavour’s last launch on YouTube.
(The title to this entry is twisted from an excellent IMAX film on the Space Shuttle).

ActionNotes & Ommwriter Mini-Reviews

ActionNotes

ActionNotes is probably one of the best applications that I have bought for the iPad. It rapidly became a tool that I use regularly at work, providing a simple, yet effective, method to improve my workflow in an area of weakness. Weakness, you say? Do tell...

It's quite simple; I'm bad at keeping a record of meeting and the actions associated with them. I'm even worse at sending the outcome out and sharing it. ActionNotes solves this in one fell swoop by providing a simple note and action tracking tool for meetings. The default page looks like an extract from a book, and bears a strong visual resemblance to Behance's Action Method stationary (albeit not incorporating all elements of their process). You simply type notes into the page, and tap a box beside them to highlight them, and a second box to duplicate the note as a check-boxed action.

Once you have completed the meeting, you can send the notes as a beautifully formatted html email or a PDF via email. Job done. Except for tracking the actions.

Email Example

What's Good?

The simple, direct and quick method to capture points and actions.
The extensive search and action tracking features.

Tracking

Search

What's Bad?
Some stability issues related to longer sets of notes when you add points into the middle of a text (but getting better with each release).

What else is needed?
Bullets, Bold formatting.

Recommended?
Hell, yes! At less than ~£2, a superb package.


Ommwriter for iPad.

I'm sure that I've raved on before about Ommwriter for MacOS X, but now it has a more portable counterpart: Ommwriter for iPad (£2.99 UK App Store). Naturally, I found it very hard to resist purchasing, so here are some first impressions.

What's Good?
The iPad version lifts the look and feel of the Mac application perfectly, with many of the same sound and musical effects that combine to make a focussed writing environment. It's very easy to lose yourself in the words of your text and just write with this app. Coupled with the Apple Bluetooth keyboard it's nearly perfect. However, it is still plain text only, so don't consider this if you want to have italics, bold, underlining, bullets or tables. (There's definitely a gap in the iPad market for an app other than Pages that does this and syncs to Dropbox).

The software keyboard is adjustable both in size and position, which is something that I've never seen before in an iOS app. It looks quite nice and gave me little in the way of problems at the larger size.

What's Bad?
There are a few bugs and quirks that need to be sorted out, the most important of which is that the beautifully designed unique soft keyboard doesn't work properly with the iOS spellchecker or autocorrect. An external bluetooth keyboard does work with them, which is all the more surprising.

The software keyboard doesn't remember its width if you drop into the in-app settings options, which is annoying. It also doesn't give any visual indication if a character will be typed as a capital (the iOS keyboard will let you know if you have deleted an existing capitalised character and are about to type a replacement). You also have to use the software keyboard to type filenames in the settings menus.

Two of the font selection icons are also reversed, but the function is all there.

What Else is Needed?
It'd be nice to be able to resize the text width for the column of writing that you are doing in a similar manner to the OS X application.

The only practical way to share is via email

However, Dropbox integration is the key missing thing in Ommwriter. Even with the small flaws outlined above, it's a superior application. If I could link to a Dropbox folder, and the bugs were fixed, it'd be near-perfect.

Recommended?
I'd give this 4 stars and recommend it for iPad users who like to use their tablet for some creative rising. It doesn't have the features of Pages, but it doesn't need to. However, the lack of Dropbox integration does limit the ease into which it can fit into my workflow.

Gratuitous Pictures

Gratuitous Cute Baby photo to lure you in. Hello from Aidan.

I’ve uploaded a whole load of new pictures to Flickr this weekend ranging from family pictures, to baby pictures, to the last flying Vulcan. Hope you like them. Click the links to get to the Flickr pages.

70th Party Preparation

Nathan Poses for his picture by XH558

XH558 in all her glory in the sunshine

RIP Flip

Photo by van.brussel - http://flic.kr/p/946LfG -(cc)2011 - Hosted on Flickr

I was sad to hear that Cisco had decided to kill the Flip brand and range of camcorders, which still account for over 25% of the US sales for dedicated video recorders. I feel their rational is flawed; they argue the rise of smartphones that shoot HD will kill the product, but I think they miss the point. The Flip is a superb exercise in single purpose design, focussed and honed to give you 2 hours plus of HD recording in a tiny package. Yes, you & I can, and do, use our iPhones (and other smartphones of choice) to shoot video, but I always grab the Flip if I know I’m planning to shoot video. As a device, it changed the way I used video, as it gave me a camcorder I could carry around and use easily and quickly. Ideal for a growing family to catch the kids up to ‘stuff’.

It’s small, good quality and it doesn’t use up the battery on my cellphone. It’s a shame it’s been murdered. I say murdered, as Cisco have refused to entertain the idea of selling the business to anyone else, despite the fact that they are effectively writing off $500m of investment from only a few years ago.

Anyway, you can benefit from this end of an era. Comet and other retailers are reducing and selling of the Flip range. The svelte and superb Mino HD can be had for £72, but the Ultra HD is also worth a look as it will take external batteries as well as the dedicated ones made for it.

Update: Ultimately, I think Cisco were right in the decision, but they could have used the brand as a cash cow for a few more years.