Toby Curl

I'm sure everyone has heard about these augmented reality glasses that Google are developing. Google have shared a concept video today that makes it look better than I imagined (we will have to see if this is actually the case).

I have to agree with Jason Kottke though:

The glasses look a little strange, like Geordi La Forge's visor...they might go over a little better if they looked more Warby Parkerish.

As futuristic as they look, a pair of classic glasses seem to me like a better idea. Especially if you already wear glasses, then you could just get a prescription pair.

Now all we need is for them to be as immersive as the glasses in Dennō Coil.

I like taking photos. I think I have always liked taking photos.

Original Film

When I was little my parents mostly used one of two cameras: an Olympus Trip 35 and a Canon T50. Both of which they still have but aren't used any more. I don't think anyone has tried the T50 for a long time but my brother apparently used the Trip a while back but the low light warning doesn't work any more (someone dropped it!).

I remember the Trip being used a lot by Dad when we were on holidays, probably because it was smaller and he was probably having to deal with us. I can't remember how much my Mum took photos, I only really seem to remember Dad with the cameras. At somepoint I was allowed to use the Trip, but I don't remeber using it a lot. The T50 had my attention.

I always thought the T50 was the best. It wound the film on itself, you could change the lens and you could manually focus it. I even got to take photos with it! I don't remember if they were good, probably not, but I learnt to change the lens between the two we had; a prime and a zoom, the zoom was the best. I also learnt to focus them, which really helped. The one very clear memory I have is playing with the camera with no film "taking" photos of this one toy car I had. You pulled the car back and let go. It went slowly but then after a little way it's bright yellow outer shell burst off to reveal a sports car and it went racing away; I loved that car. I think I was trying to get action shots.

After this I think more school happened and I didn't really have a real camera. I got one of those Advanced Photo System point and shoot cameras. It wasn't great, but this did let me see what happens when you open the back of the camera with a film in: the developer sticks an infuriating sticker on the picture telling you not to do that.

On to Digital

At some point I got a digital video camera. One of the earlier, small cheap ones. It had a tiny terrible screen and it was likely very low resolution but I really enjoyed that. I remember getting a huge 256mb compact flash card for a cheap £30 or so (not sure how close that price is to reality). It also did stills and could record just sound. I remember using it a lot but can't remember what for and I can't find anything that was shot on it. I do remember making a video of the house one Christmas for Mum to remember where things were the next year.

I used my phone camera for a year or so before I got a dedicated digital camera; a Nokia N70. I think it did a pretty good job overall:

It's Getting Serious Now

The next camera I can remember getting was a while later (2008): a Canon IXUS 950 IS. After much Internet research I settled on the Canon. It's a really great point and shoot and did everything I wanted at the time. It could also have the custom firmware CHDK which let you do a lot of cool things that the camera shouldn't have been able to do, such as long exposures and movement triggering (for lightning! (that I didn't really get working)). I really liked the results I got out of that camera:

I loved I could get some bokeh in the shots.

DSLR

In 2009 I decided I wanted to step things up an get a DSLR. After much research again, I went with the suggestion from Ken Rockwell of the Nikon D40, it was good advice. This was at the time such a great choice. It was soon to be replaced by the D3000 so it was actually fairly cheap. It's fast and works really well. I was very happy with the results with the included lens:

But I also wanted to get the 35mm prime lens. I love the photos I get with this lens; it's the only one I end up using. I find it fantastic in most situations:

Did I mention how much I love my photos from the D40.

I would of course like a super fancy newer camera but it won't make my photos overall any better, probably just bigger (and videos), I'm so happy with my results right now.

iPhone

I also like taking photos with my iPhone, the camera is good. The ridiculous amount of good editing software available for it is so great and so much fun.

Film

I love the look of shots taken on a film camera, just something about them. There is this shot of my group of friends at university that is grainy and kind of looks like it could have been taken anytime in the past 20-30 years (at least I think so).

One of my friends went around Europe in 2009 and took some great photos on film.

Looking at all these photos made me want to try a film camera again so I got an Olypmus Trip from eBay. My first roll didn't go so well as I had apparently forgotton how to load a film. The second roll has been in the camera for about a year now, only a few shots left so I get to develop it soon!

Conclusion

Take more photos.

Such a great article.

Go and read it right this second.

I have just finally got to watching John Gruber's talk from Çingleton 2011. It's a great talk, worth watching. The talk wasn't about iCloud but one of his answers to a question at the end (around 46 minutes) he talked about not being able to use iCloud unless your app was in the App Store. This has been recently brought up with regards to the new Gatekeeper funcitonality Mountatin Lion and so reminded me of a point I haven't seen¹: the cost of iCloud to Apple.

A lot of the arguments about Apple keeping iCloud App Store only seem to focus on security, keeping developers from storing massive amounts of arbitrary data in iCloud and other such things. These are all very valid reasons and on their own good enough reasons for Apple to do this. However what about the cost of running iCloud, because it must cost Apple something. Some of the cost is likely factored into the initial purchase of the devices and Apple must take some of the money from their 30% of app sales to fund iCloud. If Apple allowed any developers to use iCloud then those not in the App Store would be costing them money.

However it is also likely that the cost of iCloud is negligible compared to other things and that all of Apples vast profits easily cover all running costs of the service.

There must be a cost somewhere.

Great photos spotted on Flickr; collected by Christopher Jobson. (via Coudal)

I also love it when sites load images as you scroll.

A few friends have been talking about webcomics recently and I said I would get a list of some of the many I read. So here they are, not really for everyone, but someone might find it useful at some point. These aren't in an order and I will write something for a few if I can think of anything useful or interesting to add and I might update the list later.

• Overcompensating
• Wigu Just read them all.
• MS Paint Adventures I am really enjoying the current story, it's been going for over two years now and I'm sure there are over a thousand pages so it's not the easiest to get into right now. There are some summaries on the site somewhere.
• Bad Machinery
• chainsawsuit
• Not Invented Here This is seems often very relevant to me as a software developer.
• Girls with Slingshots
• Gun Show
• PvP
• Scenes From A Multiverse
• Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
• ShortPacked
• StarSlip
• XKCD
• Dumbing Of Age
• Corporate Skull
• The Adventures of Superhero Girl
• Invisible Bread
• Midnite Surprise
• The Trenches

An interesting story from Wired about a radiation emitting cargo container. I particularly liked how relaxed the inspector seemed to be when he found it.

It's been 6 yrs since the last Boards Of Canada LP. Just heard from a friend that they've spent most of that time "digging a tunnel." What?

John Allison

'It's not Pokémon' the PR people shout. Of course it isn't; that would be silly. Combining World of Warcraft and Pokémon is an insane idea that could only end in tears.

Mike Fahey at Kotaku