One that got away

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Guthlac

I thought I posted this but perhaps I didn’t. The was taken at kedleston hall – an amazing example of over the top conspicuous consumption.

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Sent from my iPad

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Weightlifting

Posted on August 1, 2012 by Guthlac

One of the joys of watching a lot of the Olympics is that you get to see sports that don’t normally get too much coverage. My favourite at the moment is weightlifting and one of the joys of having sky is that you get to see all the coverage as the BBC has 24 Olympic channels. Long may this continue.

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Sent from my iPad

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Learning to live with my ‘big’ iMac

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Guthlac
Well it is almost a week now since I took the plunge and moved to the iMac.  Overall it has not been as problematic as it could have been.  I am still coming to terms with the problem of scale with the large screen.  I have spent some time working out how to make the apps that I use zoom – usually up to 200% for the text to be become easily read.  It has been a bit of a pain at times but it has meant that I have learnt a thing or two about how the mac works – which is no bad thing.

This morning I took the plunge and installed FileMaker Pro.  After the best part of 20 years working and developing in access/VB this was something of a shock to the system.  Fortunately I no longer need to worry about SQL and making the dBase do things with VB so after a bit of head scratching I was able to get my head around the system and have started to convert my historical database to work in FileMaker.

So what are my initial impressions?  Well first of all just dont believe the hype about Apple OS being better.  It isn’t.  What it is more stylish and attractive to look at.  One the best features I have found so far is the method used to install software.  This is simple but very effective.  I love the beautiful screen infront of me and there is no doubt about it the whole experience is pleasing to the eye.  However, I have just been using my old laptop, windows vista, and really it worked almost identically to OS X, if it looks a lot uglier.

So am I glad to have moved over to Apple?   On the whole yes as the main reason was for life style reasons than anything else.   It has cost quite a bit of money, but this was because I took the view that I needed to run everything in OS X rather than split with Windows which have been cheaper in the short term but not in the long.   Lets hope these long term goals are met and the iMac continues to be as rewarding to use as it is at the moment. 

Simon Marchini 

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Another image from the Archieve

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Guthlac
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This one is just from last year – Dunstanburgh Castle.  I really miss using Photoshop which should be arriving next week.  I originally thought that Lightroom would be enough but having used Lightroom for photograph development it really is limited which is not surprising as it isnt meant for anything other than main stream correction. 

Simon Marchini 

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Soundtrack

Posted on July 29, 2012 by Guthlac

Day two of the olympics and so much for vegging in front of the TV. This morning I am reliving the wonders of the opening ceremony by listening to the sound track again. And then I’m off for a walk in the country which combines exercise (Olympics) and historical research. And to recover from all this what better than vegging in front of the TV? Sent from my iPad

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Oh I love Google Chrome

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Guthlac
I know this is something that should never be uttered by anyone using an iMac but Google Chrome is just a better browse than Safari.  I thought this when I was using a Windows environment and having had a couple of days of using Safari I realise I was right all along.  Imagine my delight when I discovered that Chrome is available for the Mac and within a few minutes it was up and running.  The best thing of all was that it remembered all my old settings, book marks etc and now I am up and running – back in my comfort zone.

Long live Chrome – I love it – even though I know that the only reason that Chrome knew all my settings was that they had been recorded by Google in the first hand and so they are recording almost all of my keystrokes.   Such is life in the modern wired world.

Simon Marchini 

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Digital Guitar

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Guthlac
Im really not sure what to say about this one – but I was just getting into digital photography at the time and the effects avaialble and I guess I went a little overboard.

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On second thoughts I quite like this.

Simon Marchini

www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Messing about with geo tagging

Posted on July 27, 2012 by Guthlac
One of the joys of moving to a new OS is that I can buy the latest software for the new machine.  One of the new pieces is Adobe Lightroom 4 and its very addictive, well at least to me, Geo Tagging ability.   Again this is an image from the past which I have added the geo tag – thanks to Lightroom.   Lets see if it works.

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Oh and I have now sorted out how to add a signature to the email!   Another small step for an even smaller steep for mankind I think!

Simon Marchini

www.simonmarchini.co.uk

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Gloucester Catherdral

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Guthlac
Another blast from the past – this one I think is around 10 years old – a captured it with one of my all time favourite cameras the Sony DSC F717.  A really ground braking camera.

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Another one from the archives

Posted on July 26, 2012 by Guthlac

Im really not sure whether I have published this before – it comes from when I was trying make ‘stock’ photographs.  

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