London Science Museum Lates

For a night out last week with colleagues we spent the evening in the Science Museum. It may seem an odd choice but I work with technical people and it's something we were all interested in - they also sold beer! One the last Wednesday of every month the museum holds 'Lates'. These are adult only events and the theme changes every month, this month's was mental health. All of the existing exhibits are accessible, there are some standard items that are also there every month - like the silent disco - and there are theme specific speakers and stands.

With this being our first time we saw very few on the specific presentations and spent most of the time wandering through the museum enjoying a beer or too.

The evening started around 6:30 and finished at 10pm and the time went in no time, we only just had time to check out every floor and we were too late to ride the Red Arrows Experience.

Some thoughts for next time:

Do
- Take cash, it's far easier than cards for the bars
- Get there for the start, there's lots to see and the time flies
- Go with friends, it's a great shared experience and some of the hands on parts are easier with others
- Check the schedule when you get there and plan for the things you really want to see
- Take a camera so II have more to post

Don't
- Wear too much - it's warm in there and the queue for the cloaks was huge
- Carry anything - there's lots of hands on and with a beer in one hand you don't want a bag in the other
- Drive - there are a couple of tables selling beer on each floor!

All in all a great evening and I'll definitely be going again.

Travelling with Tech

Having recently become the proud owner of a caravan I've decided to keep weekends away separate from work and not take my laptop - I know, scary. However I still want to be able to have sufficient tech with me to be able to blog, update Facebook, take - view - edit photos and surf the web for useful local information.

I intend to do more details on each of the elements in later posts but the summary for now is:

iPad

I always have my iPhone 4s with me but with my eyesight these days the iPad screen is so much easier to use. Also my fingers were definitely not designed to blog on an iPhone. The iPad has the photo app which will allow me to do the basics - copy the pictures from the camera and upload them. However I want to do more and I know there are other apps available to help, so they will definitely be the target for future posts.

Camera

I have a DSLR but whenever I take that to places I tend to be the one taking photos and not taking part. So I wanted something which had the ability to do close ups, yet had a also able zoom for landscape shots. It needed to fit into my pocket and also become simply point and shoot when required. I've opted for the Nikon 9100, the big decider being the 18x optical zoom.

Network

I have the option of using my iPhone via O2 as a hotspot but I've had the mifi from 3 for a while and the coverage seems better. It's also a separate device that I can simply leave plugged in the van on charge and forget about it.

So this is the start of what will hopefully be an interesting experiment for more than just me.

Too long !

Wow, almost a year to the day since I posted here, it's been too long.

Over the past year I've mostly been using other services - twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and internal work systems. However they still leave a gap, as they either have restrictions in terms of the size of content (twitter) or in terms of access and therefore visibility. So I plan to start blogging again and structure my use of systems along the following lines:

Facebook - Things to be shared just with friends

LinkedIn and company systems - Work related stuff

This blog - More general things that may be useful to others or others may have helpful comments on.

Twittter - quick short general references and thoughts, replicated here for those who don't follow me.

The only real whole that leaves me is with photos, so I think some investigation is required there. A lot I share with friends on Facebook but there are other groups of people I'd like to share pictures of events with but don't necessarily want to share all of my life with. So I think an additional service is required. I have a Mac and Mobile Me, so that's an option, I've also got a Flickr account, although I don't use it very often. Maybe the new Apple iCloud will be an option. Who know's, I'll blog what I find.

So more posts to come, hopefully before June 2012!

Three Cups of Tea

I was lent this book by a friend who thought it may prove interesting as I like to read about climbers and their exploits - he wasn't wrong. Initially I thought I'd give it a go just for something to read but I couldn't put it down.
Greg Mortenson went out to climb K2, failed, and has since dedicated his life to building schools for the people who cared for him coming off the mountain. A truly inspirational story. Everything he done is dedicated to this effort, even the proceeds from the book go towards it.

Definitely recommended.

Three Cups of Tea - Amazon

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPad]

Chomp - iPhone app

Having listened the other day to a Mobile Orchard podcast the other day about Chomp I thought I'd give it a try.

Chomp is a review/recomendation app for iPhone apps. You review apps and can either like or dislike them. You also have the option to follow particular reviewers in a Twitter like way. Based on the apps you and those you follow like you get a list of recommendations.

The apps displayed have a link to buy and Chomp get 5% commission from Apple for each sale.

The app is nicely designed and easy to use and I hope in the future will help me spot useful apps among the thousands that are out there.

[Posted with iBlogger from my iPhone]