Leonid Meteor Shower

So I generally enjoy the yearly firework display which is the Leonid Meteor shower, but this year will prove the exception. A week of poor weather has taken the shine right off my usual ebullient mood for sitting in a deck chair in the garden, raising my eyes skyward, looking like the Michelin Man has been to the fake tan salon in my orange snowboarding jacket. The weather is conspiring against me this year, cloud interspersed with heavy rain showers do not make for an enjoyable evening. So it may be that I keep my fingers crossed for tomorrow that the forecasted low pressure weather system blows through the South East of England and is followed by much calmer, high pressure with excellent seeing properties. Failing that, I think I’ll just read the reports from the International Meteor Organisation and become rather envious of those who submit fantastic records of sightings from all over Northern Europe.

Scotland Lands Dark Sky Award

So West Scotland has some of the Darkest Skies in Europe. Fantastic. I can’t wait for it to be lit up by all the dumb tourists who read about it in the paper and want to come and see what all the fuss is about. Of course, they will come at night in their 4x4s with their extra spotlights to navigate the difficult roads that they have up there in the North, pointing their 6000 candle maglites in the general direction of the astronomers so they can see what they are doing. Hmm, sometimes, not winning an award can be the best thing.

To Dig or Not to Dig

I’m really not getting the best use out of my SkyWatcher 150mm Newtonian. It’s currently in the conservatory waiting for a clear night, where I have enough time to get it out to cool down before 10pm. Lately I’ve not had a decent opportunity so I’ve been using my binoculars instead. The downside is that I’ve missed out on some of the best viewing opportunities of Jupiter and the moon. So, in my mind’s eye I’ve been planning a permanent structure in the middle of the garden to site the scope. I’m thinking of digging out a foundation and laying concrete to site a pedestal for the scope so it can be permanently sited in the Garden. I just have to find the right pedestal and a set of plans for the footings and mountings for the damn thing. Any ideas?

Technorati Tags: Leonids,Meteor,Telescope,Dark Sky Award,Scotland

Google Technology – Don’t You Just Love It?

So here I am sitting in the office waiting for a backup on my machine to complete. To cut a long story short, somewhere between shutting down the PC and restarting it at a customer site this morning it bricked. So having travelled back from my customer I’m sat at my desk. Backing up my 30 gigs of data, so I can re-image the damn thing with the latest Beta image (Win7) from our IT support group. Anyway, while I’m doing this I’m checking out Google – the Google car passed me this morning; I should have mooned it or something – when I think, how can I think about using its technology for my advantage?

iGoogle

First of all I use iGoogle all the time. I love the way I can position different gadgets on the page. Currently I have the following:

1. Google Latitude: Basically Google maps which tracks your ‘friends’ via their Latitude enabled mobile devices. You install Latitude on your smart phone and give it permission to report your location based upon cell resection. Excellent for seeing if your mates are near. The real power is if you do this for your kids. You can make sure they are not straying too far from where they should be.
2. Google Mail: Well what’s not to like about Google Mail? Searchable mail, folders, sharing, favourites, all the time saving functionality within an easy to use format.
3. Weather: I have my favourite locations set up which first thing in the morning allows me to get dressed according to the weather in my destinations location. Handy if you’re a long distance commuter like me. 50 miles can make a huge difference in weather conditions especially when you factor in London’s microclimate.
4. News feeds: I currently have the following news feeds set up;
   1. BBC UK News
   2. Daily Telegraph UK News
   3. The Times UK News
   4. New Scientist Headlines

Google Wave

So with this set up, how do I make the most of the technology? Well, having gadgets on the desktop allows me to see everything I need to know in the morning. Once at work, I collaborate with friends on social media technology using Google Wave.

Google Wave is ingenious and I love the way that you can organise stuff, like social gatherings, holidays, project management all sorts of stuff. It seems to be limited by your imagination only.

Google Docs

Google Docs allows me to write documents and keep them in the cloud. That means that I can access them from any machine in any location as long as I have an internet connection. I use Starbucks a lot for coffee and relaxation, I always have my Samsung NC310 with me and being a Starbucks Loyalty Card holder means I have free Wi-Fi access via BT OpenZone.

So writing documentation on the go is no trouble. Saving it to a location which I can share with others is also no trouble. Easy to use and easy to share, this makes Google Docs a must have application if you are a light traveller like me.

Google Docs provide all the usual business applications such as a word processor, presentation app, Spreadsheet app and a forms generator. All handy little apps to help you run your business on a zero application footprint.

Picasa Photo Management

My final application which I use a lot of is Picasa. As I mentioned earlier I love to travel and I don’t travel without my beloved Sony Alpha 100 camera.

This is a great way to store and share your photographs. You can even embed your photos into your blogger page from here like so:

That’s a nice picture of the modern architecture at Valencia, Spain. Oh and this gives me another opportunity to show off Google maps. Here’s a map of where this photograph was taken:

View Larger Map

The green arrow is where I took the photo from. Well it looks like my backup has completed. So I’ll sign off from writing this update.

Cheers,

Kevin.

Technorati Tags: Google,Technology,Google Wave,Picasa,Google Docs,Documents