April, 2012 — David Hughes

28 April 2012

Arthur C. Clarke Invented The iPad

I’m reading 2001: A Space Odyssey at the moment and was struck by this passage in which Arthur C. Clarke essentially describes the iPad, some 40 years before its invention by Apple.

He would plug his foolscap-sized newspad into the ship’s information circuit and scan the latest reports from Earth.

He then continues to describe the ‘newspad’ and its impact on the printed newspaper.

One by one he would conjure up the world’s major electronic papers; he knew the codes of the more important ones by heart, and had no need to consult the list on the back of his pad. Switching to the display unit’s short-term memory, he would hold the front page while he quickly searched the headlines and noted the items that interested him. Each had its own two-digit reference; when he punched that, the postage-stamp-sized rectangle would expand until it neatly filled the screen, and he could read it with comfort.

Here he was, far out in space, speeding away from Earth at thousands of miles an hour, yet in a few milliseconds he could see the headlines of any newspaper he pleased. (That very word ‘newspaper’, of course, was an anachronistic hang-over into the age of electronics.) The text was updated automatically on every hour; even if one read only the English versions one could spend an entire lifetime doing nothing but absorb the ever-changing flow of information from the news satellites.

An incredible visionary.

23 April 2012

Dear Retailers

Contrary to what you seem to think, changing the layout of your store does not result in me buying more.

It results in me not finding what I was looking for, and leaving your store without the items I wanted to buy.

A lose, lose situation I’m sure you will agree.

15 April 2012

Fabulous Service From Rickshaw Bags

Those of you you who follow me on Twitter or know me in reality will know I have a mild obsession with finding the perfect laptop bag. Well last year I found that bag in the Rickshaw Bags Commuter 2.0.

I’ve used and owned many, many laptop bags over the years, and so I feel I can say with authority that the Rickshaw Bags Commuter 2.0 is the perfect laptop bag. Yes you read that right – the perfect laptop bag.

From its magnetic closures, to its removable laptop sleeve, to its array of pockets and pen hoops, to its quick adjust strap there isn’t anything I’d change on the Commuter 2.0.

At least I thought there wasn’t, and then, one day recently, I found myself on the Rickshaw website, and saw their new Performance Tweed materials.

When I ordered my Commuter 2.0 I went for a rather conservative all black appearance, but having seen the new tweeds I really rather fancy a bag finished in tweed; it appeals to my sense of Englishness.

But which colour? I couldn’t decide between the Graphite and the Tuxedo, and having been recently stung by online colour matching issues I didn’t want to risk ordering a custom bag from the USA only for it to arrive and not be what I hoped for. I dropped Rickshaw Bags an short email explaining my problem, and asking if they were able to send me samples of the fabrics, at my cost of course.

A few days later an Air Mail envelope arrived sealed with a Rickshaw Bags sticker, and containing both samples and some lovely, rather old school, cardboard tags identifying each sample. What fantastic service.

I can’t recommend Rickshaw Bags products highly enough, and now I can say the same for their customer service also.

Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to order my new bag in Tuxedo tweed.

11 April 2012

Photo 366 – The First 100 Days

After 100 days of my Photo 366 project I thought I’d pause and review how it’s going.

When I started the project I said:

I think my Photo 366 project will be a challenge to keep fresh with interesting photographs. I commute to London at least four days a week, well I say London but my employers recently moved to Angel; a Northern suburb of London, and possibly the most uninteresting, and un-photogenic area of London I’ve visited. So finding subjects worthy of photographing and not resorting to repeated pictures of the London skyline will be a challenge.

So has Photo 366 seen me out and about looking for interesting photographic subjects? If I’m honest not really.

The area I work in is still as uninteresting, and un-photogenic as it was when I started, and I haven’t felt inspired to explore it any further. But my project has made me look around me more, and notice things I might not have noticed before.

Many of the photos are of railway stations or from trains; two places in which I spend too much of my working days.

Beer, coffee and food all feature prominently, but given my well known love for them it’s perhaps not a huge surprise.

The surface of my desk at home also makes several appearances, as the days I work from home have been some of the more challenging ones; hence a number of shots of ‘something on my desk’.

I’ll admit there have been a few days where I’ve almost forgotten to take a photograph, which accounts for a some of the less imaginative shots.

So after 100 days am I still enjoying Photo 366? Yes I am.

Whilst I want to make more effort to get out and look for more interesting shots, I’m also enjoying recording my day to day. I particularly like recording events from specific days in a photograph such as, for example, my 100th photograph Orbital live at Cambridge Corn Exchange:

Coincidentally I deleted my Instagram account on day 100, the day that Facebook acquired them, which I hope from a photographic standpoint will see me taking photographs that rely less on 70s effects and more on subject and composition.

I’m looking forward to the next 100 days.