Why I’m buying an iPad

I’ve decided that I’m going to buy an iPad at the first opportunity I get, so here are my reasons:

Read the rest of this entry »

Do yourself (and a friend of mine) a favour

You’ve probably seen those crazy Mac app bundles – pay a little over the price of one (usually shareware/trialware) application and get loads of other completely unrelated apps as well.

They’re excellent value even if you want just one of the included apps – you’re bound to find at least one other application that will save you time and/or money, and some big ticket items such as Parallels Desktop for Mac have been included in these deals.

It’s surprising it has taken this long for someone to put together a bundle where ALL the applications in it are centred on one area. Anyway, here it is: MacGraPhoto, a bundle of seven image related apps for Mac, all Apple Design Award winners or Apple Staff Picks. All for under $40.

I’ve only used two – Funtastic Photos (by my good friend Sam Rowlands) which works great with iPhoto to put an huge array of effects and output formats at your fingertips, and Graphic Converter, which does most of the things the average user thinks they need Photoshop for. The others all look pretty neat though.

Read the rest of this entry »

20 Years of Freedom

Today’s post is in honour of my adopted home and the 20th anniversary of the fall of Communism.

On the 17th of November 1989 life began to change dramatically for the citizens of Czechoslovakia. By the 29th of December, Alexander Dubček, instigator of the Prague Spring reforms in 1968 was speaker of the federal Czechoslovak parliament and Vaclav Havel, the dissident playwright and poet was elected President of Czechoslovakia.

Every 17th of November the Czech and Slovak Republics celebrate the ‘Struggle for Freedom and Democracy’. In some ways to think that a whole 20 years has passed, in other ways it’s an incredibly short time – recent enough for me to remember what it was like watching events unfold on TV as first East Germany then other Communist regimes crumbled under the will of the people.

There’s been an immense amount of change here since the Velvet Revolution . First the Velvet Divorce in 1993, and shortly thereafter Havel was (re-)elected as President of the Czech Republic (and as a new country his two term limit started anew).

Read the rest of this entry »

What’s the last Purple Cow you bought?

Seth Godin (and others) are always talking about being ‘remarkable’.

Given that we’re all susceptible to remarkable things and feel a need to share them so I thought I’d share my most recent purple cow with you.

That’s the exterior of the building our apartment is in. We moved home about a month ago and when we were looking at places to rent this one stuck out – literally. The bay window in the turret gives a 180 degree view and has great light for reading.

Read the rest of this entry »

Coming down with a cold? Try this Atomic Soup

I started to feel a bit unwell yesterday evening so I resolved to make up a batch of the nuclear weapon I unleash upon the threat of a cold. It’s based on recommendations of a couple of my friends. I’d like to call it Dragon’s Breath Soup, but that name’s already taken so I’ll call it Atomic Soup. You can make a chicken or vegetarian version.

Here’s what you’ll need:

• A big saucepan, preferably a casserole – we’re making a load of this soup ok?
• Water – about half-fill your pot with it
• Chicken (or vegetable) stock or stock cubes
• Root vegetables – I’ll leave this to your taste, but any of: celery, celeriac, carrots, chop into small pieces
• Ginger, shavings if you can (I use a vegetable peeler for this)
• Garlic, chopped
• Fresh chillies, finely shopped
• Juice of one lemon
• Optional: one whole cooked chicken (I cheat and get a cooked chicken from the local supermarket), in pieces (separate the breast meat, you’ll want to eat that)
• For extra credit (for the flavour): fresh coriander (cilantro) and thai basil, chopped

Making it’s easy, start with the water, then the stock or stock cubes, then other ingredients, in the order they’re listed. Let it simmer for an hour or so, stir occasionally.

Read the rest of this entry »