The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jan
4
So, we’re just a matter of days away from MacWorld, and when I’d traditionally be writing my “What’s Steve got up his Sleeve” post, I’m instead wondering just what it means that Phil schiller will be giving the keynote presentation instead of Steve, and that next year, there won’t even BE an Apple Keynote at MacWorld! There’s a few ways to interpret it, one is that Steve must be at death’s door. IMO not likely, to lie about his health if it really was that bad would literally be criminal, people would go jail for that! Another possibility is that Apple have nothing interesting to say so they’re sending a lackey since Jobs couldn’t be bothered giving a boring keynote. I don’t think I buy this either, Phil Schiller may not be Steve Jobs, but he’s a very big guy in Apple, I mean he’s Senior VP for World Wide Product Marketing!
What I think is much more likely is that this is the continuation of something we saw at the recent notebook event. Apple are working to dismantle the idea that Jobs IS Apple. At the notebook event Steve was more of an MC than a speaker, bringing out lots of Apple big-wigs to deliver different parts of the presentation. Having another big-wig actually run a big presentation is the next logical step. Whether or not Jobs is going anywhere any time soon, it is not in Apple’s interest for the impression that Jobs IS Apple to continue. I mean we’re almost getting to the stage where every time Jobs sneezes Apple’s stock tanks! Regardless of how well or not Steve is, that has to end because he can’t stay with Apple forever. Apple need to show that they are lead by a team who have a vision, rather than one guru without whom Apple is nothing.
So, with that out of the way, what do I think Phil will deliver for us at the keynote?
Dec
29
Photo of the Week 45 – ‘de Vesten’ in Winter
Filed Under Photography | 1 Comment
When I think of Winter one of my shots stands out above all others, this one in fact. It was also taken at the very end of December, all-be-it back in 2001, so it seemed appropriate for this week’s photo of the week. Unfortunately the photo quality is very poor, which is the main reason I haven’t used it as a photo of the week before. It was shot on a second hand and fairly early digital camera, and the memory card I had for it was far too small, so I used it at a very low quality setting. Because of this the image is small, and has a lot of JPEG artifacting, but I absolutely love it all-the-same.
This shot was taken in the town of Lier, in the province of Antwerp in Belgium. Lier is a very unusual place, it’s absolutely brimming with canals and waterways, a lot like Brugge in fact, but much less well know. Historically it was also an enclosed town, and the remains of that enclosure are what are referred to as ‘de Vesten van Lier’ in Flemish, and it’s on the south eastern region of this enclosure that this photo was taken. The ‘Vesten’ were once the city walls, but they were knocked a few centuries ago and became a long thin park completely surrounding the town.
Lier sits at the point where two important Flemish rivers, the Kleine Nete and the Grote Nete, merge into a single even more important river, the Nete. The two rivers meet at the north of the town, and the joint river snakes around the eastern side of the town. In order to protect the town from flooding, a canal was dug around the western side of the town connecting the Kleine Nete to the Nete, this means the town is completely enclosed by water. On top of this the entire interior of the town is criss-crossed by canals so there is water just about everywhere you look in Lier.
Unfortunately the EXIF data has gotten lost from this file so all I can say is that I shot it with a FujiFilm MX-2700 point-and-shoot.
Dec
21
I’m not even sure this is a good photo technically, I think the depth of field is actually too shallow, but I’ve always liked the composition and the green of the bokeh, so I’m counting it as one of my best regardless.
The flower is a somewhat strange one that grows on both land and water, hence it’s name, Amphibious Bistort (Persicaria amphibia). I really like it’s spikes of pinky-white flowers, and it’s very common in Cavan where we have no shortage of either wet soil or water for it to thrive in!
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/500 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F8
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Auto
Dec
17
Photo of the Week 43 – The Royal Canal
Filed Under Photography | Leave a Comment
Apologies for the later than normal Photo of the Week, but I got distracted over the weekend preparing the talk I gave yesterday. Anyhow, with all this nasty damp and cold weather we’ve been having of-late here in Ireland I thought it might be nice to choose a brighter, sunnier, and warmer Photo of the Week.
This shot of the Royal Canal was taken from Jackson’s Bridge looking east towards Maynooth and Dublin. Jackson’s Bridge is the only crossing point over the canal between Maynooth and Kilcock and the bridge gives a great view to the east in the afternoons with the sun behind your back for good lighting. This shot was taken at about 4pm on the 30th of May this year.
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/250 sec
- Focal Length: 18mm
- Focal Ratio: F13
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: 0.0
Dec
17
The Christmas Star & Apollo
Filed Under Science & Astronomy | 2 Comments
It’s become sort of a tradition that each year I give the Christmas lecture for Astro2 (The Astronomy & Physics Society of NUI Maynooth). Each year I give a talk on the Christmas Star and each year I change it up a bit and focus more on different aspects. I really changed the talk up quite a bit this year and got quite a bit deeper in the biblical end of things than I had before. I enjoyed giving the talk this evening, and the audience seemed to enjoy it too which is always nice!
Dec
7
Last Monday (1 December 2008), the Moon, Jupiter & Venus were in a very close conjunction in the sky. For the non-astronomers amongst you that just means they were very closely placed in the sky. In fact, they were so close that Venus actually passed behind the Moon! This week’s photo of the week if my favourite shot of the event, you can see the rest of my shots in this Flickr Set.
This week’s photo of the week was taken not long after Venus re-appeared from behind the Moon. You can see it just off to the right of the think crescent Moon. Jupiter is the bright point of light above and to the right of the Moon.
For those of you interested in such things, here are the technical details of this shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 55-200mm
- Exposure: 1.5 sec
- Focal Length: 70mm
- Focal Ratio: F4.5
- ISO: 400
- Camera Mode: Aperture Priority
- Exposure Compensation: -1.0
Nov
30
Photo of the Week 41 – Homeward Bound
Filed Under Photography | 2 Comments
This is one of those photos that I just love but I have no idea why. I’m not even sure it’s actually a good photo, but it’s one of my favourites all the same. What makes my love of it even stranger is that it’s of what I consider to be the ugliest class of train the NMBS (Belgian national rail company) ever brought into service! A real low-point in Belgian train design! Maybe there’s some kind of sub-concious bond because these trains are the same age as me, we both date from 1980.
For those of you interested in such things, here are the technical details of this shot:
- Camera: Nikon D40
- Lens: Nikon DX AFS 18-55mm (D40 kit lens)
- Exposure: 1/160 sec
- Focal Length: 55mm
- Focal Ratio: F6.3
- ISO: 200
- Camera Mode: Auto
Nov
30
Since the weather was good and I really needed some fresh air I took my proper camera down to NUI Maynooth to take some descent pictures of the devastation caused by last Friday’s Fire. It’s probably no surprise but there were a lot of people doing the same! I also met one of the dinner ladies who was on duty when the fire started, she’d come to have a look with her partner. She explained how it had started at the back of the building, apparently where workmen were felting the roof, and spread rapidly though the whole building.
I’ve added the best of my images from today to the Flickr gallery I started on Friday.
Nov
29
Photomatix Pro – First Impressions
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Photography | 4 Comments
Anyone who’s been following this blog for a while will know that I’ve been experimenting with HDR for most of this year. I started off with the cheapest solution I could find so that I could be sure I really wanted to go down this road before spending a lot of money on more professional software. It can’t be denied that I got some good results with the process I’ve been using until now, but I was never completely happy with the results. In particular the level of haloing was really starting to annoy me. Today I bit the bullet and spent $99 (about €80) on the stand-alone version of Photomatix Pro from HDR Soft. The reason I went for the standalone version is that I don’t have photoshop and am not planning to buy it any time soon (probably never as long as it costs extortionate amounts of money). I haven’t had much time to play with it yet but I though I’d share some of my initial thoughts and results.
Nov
28
Today’s Fire in NUI Maynooth
Filed Under Photography, 42 (Life the Universe & Everything) | 2 Comments
One of the things I like about NUI Maynooth is that it’s the kind of place where very little excitement ever happens. You get the odd evacuation because some muppet with a JCB has hit a gas main but nothing ever blows up. Life as a member of staff or a student in NUIM is generally a pleasant, peaceful, and uneventful affair. Today however was a little more dramatic, though you wouldn’t think it by reading the official press release from the university:
A small fire occurred this morning in the student restaurant at the edge of the North campus of NUI Maynooth and has since been brought under control …
My definition of a small fire is dramatically different. Surely when you can see the plume of smoke from your office half a mile away and when a building is levelled it counts as more than a small fire?