Today is a good day, i’ve just been to pick up my motorbike from the workshop. She has been fitted with turndown exhausts, and boy oh boy are they loud. The bike is no longer called named The Monster, but is now “Thor’s Hammer“.
A little bit of fabrication work had to be done to get this to fit. Some brackets had to be made up, the RHS foot peg and rear brake lever had to be repositioned slightly, and the control regulator had to be moved.
The end effect is perfect though Still a few more little bits to do, biggest of which are the forward controls, but we are nearly there!
A friend of mine has a very nice little cottage on the Isle of Skye that his family rents out to holiday makers. I try to go there at least once a year to recharge and get away from London.
So what? Why the Isle of Skye? Whats so special?
Well this is the view from the bottom of the driveway…
Click on it for the full version, be warned, its 19263 x 2426. I’ve made the full res version available on flickr, but please do let me know if you use it anywhere. I might get a 6ft wide print made up to hang in my room.
I really do love the Isle of Skye The panoramic above was shot on the 2009 trip up there, didn’t shoot much else. The 2008 set are on flickr though.
This evening, as I was heading out the front door, vernier caliper in hand, to take bike measurements for replacement parts, when I noticed the light condition – ran back inside, and emerged with my shooter.
This post is a little on the ranty side, but there is a solution at the bottom
I really really really hate voicemail, I can’t even begin to find the words to describe how much I hate voicemail. To me, voicemail is one of those technological advancements that should have remained in the last century, let alone the last decade. Its an old solution to a common problem that still exists today.
This little extract from the Dilbert cartoons should explain part of how the whole “voicemail experience” makes me feel;
This really does happen to me, people call me up and either;
1. Leave long messages – which are better off conveyed in email.
2. Leave short messages telling me that they’ve sent me an email or to check my email and call them back.
3. Normal people leave short messages with their details and ask me to call them back.
Ok, so now you’re thinking leaving a short message can’t be a bad thing, and thats surely the point of voicemail… well its not. Perhaps it used to be, but thats no longer the case. There are much better ways to convey the information that I have missed your call and need to give you a call back – yep, a text message. One would also be able to read the sms message and process the information in a much shorter time frame than dialing into voicemail and listening to the message. Inefficient and stupid, simple as.
So i’ve tried a number of different things over the years;
1. Turn off voicemail completely – only to get people whine that “oh, I tried to leave you a message but there was no voicemail”… thanks for informing me of what I already knew… yes, I turned my voicemail off, yes it was on purpose, and yes, if it was important enough, you’d have found SOME OTHER WAY to get the message to me.
2. Explicit asking people to leave a “SHORT MESSAGE” – this worked initially, but people soon reverted back to leaving long messages.
I had pretty much given up trying to find a solution. Then one day, salvation came, unexpectedly. I was calling a customer and they were busy, but instead of getting asked to leave a voicemail message (which I don’t tend to do either!) a little recording started to play “this person cannot take your call, please try again later or send a text message”, on repeat.
Finally, there was a solution out there! The bad news is that its a setting/option provided by their network operator. A facility which my provider, Orange, does not.
No matter, I found another way. This works on Orange, it may be different for your service provider. Using AT&T’s text to speech demo I created this wav file recording “The person you are calling cannot take your call, please try again later or send a text message”.
Then within the Orange voicemail, there is the option for an “extended absence” greeting, now the major difference between this and a normal greeting is that you can opt to not accept voicemail messages while your extended absence greeting is active. So using a pair of headphones right infront of the mic pickup on my mobile and some careful timing; now whenever someone calls and I am otherwise occupied they hear the synthised voice of Crystal, asking them to try again later or send a text.
PS: Yes I know Google Voice would be the other solution to this problem, but its not available outside of the US, and I doubt they will bring the service to the UK, not for a while anyway.
I’m waiting to invest in a 2000mm telescope that has a Nikon camera mount, then i’ll be able to take some more detailed shots and of other astronomical objects.
Above was taken just before the “blue moon” eclipse on the 31st Dec. Annoyingly and upsettingly a cloud covered the moon after this and blocked my view of the moon for the rest of the night
This was taken on the night of the 1st Jan I believe, the moon was really low in the sky making it look bloodshot.
I’ll return to my usual petrol head techie posts soon – honest
I’ve been unhappy with the standard flash on my camera for a while now, and from time to time find myself in dire need of a flash gun which can be pointed at the ceiling (think indoor shots, no natural light, etc). Instances of need however are not frequent enough for me to invest in a Nikon SB-600 (yet), but they are frequent enough to be a cause of great irritation and sleepless nights. Ok, perhaps not sleepless nights, but you know what I mean.
So, while looking around the shed for a hammer (all 3 of my hammers seem to have grown legs – don’t ask!), I came across an old flash gun that I picked up many many years ago from eBay for a few quid.
(Yes I know its a rubbish photo, taken using my phone)
After excitedly fitting it to my camera, I decided that its “intelligence” was very limited, and I mean VERY limited! There was also no way to point it upwards – so out came the cardboard, scissors and sticky tape.
Ta da I’ve set it to full power manual mode, the camera can only tell it when to trigger, but at least its brighter than the standard flash, and its firing light upwards.
Here is an early test shot, taken indoors, my desk lamp was the only source of light in the room.
(Isn’t this just a lovely little espresso cup – recent present from the better half)
Ok the shot is blurry, but the result I’m looking for is the gauge and quality of the light, which is spot on (for a cheap little flash gun and some cardboard).
(Odd box of cables and bits I need to put in the shed)
Again the only source of light in the room other than the flash gun is my desk lamp. I’m somewhat pleased with the result
Naturally, give it a few months and I’ll be blogging about how this setup was rubbish and I invested in an SB-600 Then again, this “natural” hardware progression is the better way to go in my opinion. Fudge/Bodge it until you know how to use the tools, then get good tools.
Recently, I’ve been playing with my camera more, making an effort to get back into the swing of “shooting” things and events. I was out the other night, “shooting the moon”, and out once again tonight.
It took me a little while to realize that the best way to keep the camera stable was to lay down on the driveway! My tripod won’t support the weight of the 80-200mm lens.
Still a few more little bits to do, biggest of which are the forward controls, but we are nearly there!
