Notes from the nature file – Lepus europaeus

Posted on March 26, 2012 by Guthlac

Over the past few weeks I have been walking the hills and fields of my local countryside and again and again I came across Brown Hares. This has inspired me to produce a series of sketches of the creature. Whether this becomes more than a very occasional series of sketches only time will tell.

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Sent from my iPad

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Denis Gonchar: Artist Of The Day

Posted on March 25, 2012 by Guthlac
Fascinating art work.

Denis Gonchar: Artist Of The Day
http://designrfix.com/inspiration/denis-gonchar

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Available for free in the App Store.
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Sent from my iPad

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Doodling

Posted on March 23, 2012 by Guthlac

Whilst waiting for a visitor to arrive this morning I knocked this up. It started up as a simple doodle and then just grew and grew.

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I got my iPod before Steve Wozniak

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Guthlac
BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews)
3/16/12 5:32 PM
#Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak queues for new #iPad in Los Angeles, #California
bbc.in/FO9Rhh

Wonders never cease…

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Let the good times roll

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Guthlac
Well it has arrived and I have started to get to know my new iPad.  On the whole the change over has gone smoothly with one or two anomalies.

First iCloud.   The calendar updated no problem but when I went to use the email I was told that I had to enter the password?  Not sue why one part of iCloud worked whilst another didn’t – it might be that the calendar is backed up onto iTunes I don’t know.  Any after a bit of scrambling around to find the password all was well.

Twitter.   The Twitter app doesn’t seem to want to remember me and I have yet to work out why this might be.  Interestingly, the Twitter feed on Flipboard works fine so perhaps it is one of those things which I will get around to sorting out eventually.

SkyGo.  This doesn’t want to work because I have exceeded the number of machines I have logged on in one month – or something like this.  Again not a problem and I will sort this out at the start of next month when hopefully things will be back to normal.

At the moment I have not found any other problems/glitches.  So now for the good stuff.  Well the first thing is that the chip is noticeably quicker than   my old iPad.  Apps load a whole lot quicker, especially brushes as does the internet.  The screen is indeed a lot brighter – whether this is such a wonderful thing only time will tell.  The weight of the machine feels about the same as the iPad 2 which, given the extra battery that has been squeezed into the machine is nothing less than miraculous.

So it has taken my just over an hour to set the iPad up, discounting the faults/problems listed above, and it seems to be running ok.  Lets see what a few days of use does to knock this early enthusiasm out of me. 

Sent from my iPad

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Hyperrealism in art

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Guthlac
I came across this article this morning of an incredible artist who produces incredible pencil drawings from a photograph.  You really have to marvel at his level of craft and determination to produce such works.

Paul Cadden: The hyperrealist artist recreating photographs with pencil
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2115297/Paul-Cadden-The-hyperrealist-artist-recreating-photographs-pencil.html

However, I have a serious problem with his work and having thought about this for sometime I suspect this may well have something to do with my photographic background.    I just cannot see the point of buying such work when you could buy a copy of the photograph and have the same quality image.   Again this is not to down play the skill of the artist but it does down play the skill of the photographer to capture the image in the first place.   Just what makes a pencil copy of a photograph more valuable, whatever value might mean, than a high quality print?   I just cannot understand the difference.

I wish Paul Cadden well it is just that his art doesn’t work for me.

—
Sent from Zite personalized magazine iPad app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com

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Killing time in John Lewis

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Guthlac

So my car has gone for a service which has meant I have a couple of hours to kill. Having done some shopping I ended up at John Lewis, a cup of earl grey and my sketch book. The restaurant seems to be a meeting place for young mothers and their respective off spring. I have no problem with this apart from the abandoned buggies all over the place. It seems that push chairs now a days are more status symbol than a means of transporting youngsters. But hay oh it would be a boring world if everything was the same!

Adobephotoshopexpress_20120312

I’m on line at:

www.flickr.com/photos/guthlac
http://simonmarchini.posterous.com

www.simonmarchini.co.uk

I hope you enjoy

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The future of the iPad is following the iPod strategy ~ another fascinating article

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Guthlac

Sent from my iPad

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Why are companies defecting from Google Maps ~ an interesting article

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Guthlac

Why are companies defecting from Google Maps?
http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/why-are-companies-defecting-from-google-maps/

—
Sent from Zite personalized magazine iPad app.
Available for free in the App Store.
www.zite.com

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The ‘New’ iPad

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Guthlac
So we have to learn a new, post Steve Jobs, language.   No longer are we in the world of the next great thing but rather an incremental iPad.  No longer 3rd generation but rather New.  To read many of the reviews of the new iPad it would seem that this means that the iPad is a bad product because there was no great ‘…and one final thing…‘ from the late master of presentation.   

What have we learnt from the all the guff out there on the internet?  Well that few people knew what they were taking about and that Apple could teach spy masters a thing or two about keeping a secret.  But mainly the thing we learnt is that the iPad is now a mature product with few great surprises – view the promo video and you see that they spend an awful lot of time talking technical stuff about the new display – and this is not a bad thing.   We now have a product that has set the standards and building on these standards for the ‘..post PC..’ world in which the iPad, more than any other machine, has brought into existence.   To see how much the world has changed just watch an old episode of Star Trek Voyager, the most advanced of the modern Star Trek franchise.   Here we see a time, just 10 years ago, when the production staff having no idea how tablets will work, instead they have different reports on individual tablets.  Nowadays, in a Post PC world we know that all of these things, and so much more, can be contained on one tablet and at the moment that is called the iPad.

For me the killer features of the new iPad is the new chip-set.  I am sure the display is very nice but I have no problem with the display on the iPad circa 2010 nor 2011.  As for the inclusion of 4G mobile telephony I am sure that will be great but as it doesn’t really arrive in the UK until 2013 not really much use – I suspect not that much use in the US either. 

This leaves us with a solid product that has been updated like most pieces of technology with the latest bits.  It is no longer earth shattering but mature.  It will deliver huge profits to Apple and become a little dull, much as Apple will become without the genius of Jobs.  Life goes on.   

Simon Marchini 

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