6 posts tagged “qotd”

What's the best photo you took this year?  Show and tell!

Well, there's a small chance I've taken a really good photo and not bothered to upload it to Flickr, but let's assume not. Given that, it's fairly easy to search for the most interesting photos I've taken this year and have a look through them. Two of them are among my most popular photos ever, and both are from within a mile of each other on London's South Bank; St Paul's and Southwark Bridge from Nando's, and  Maman at sunset, outside the Tate Modern. However, both are also, frankly, London clichés, so I'd resist chosing them even if they are good eye candy.

Two other photos got a bit of attention. My shot of Brick Lane, at the Truman Brewery, was used by my employers for an internal brochure, which is nice, but again it's just a question of good light and good support. I'm more happy about the timing of Smile, which was very lucky indeed. It's also the only of the photos I mention to be taken with a compact, which just goes to show. Anyway, it's not as crisp as the others, but I'm still fond of it, and I hope to be able to take more photos like it as time goes on.

However, although not towards the top of the popularity chart, I think the photograph I'm happiest with this year is this portrait of Matt Biddulph, taken during a dinner at Etech at San Diego. I never did get around to processing many of the shots from the conference, but this one turned out really nicely and I'm glad I did at least get it onto Flickr before the conference was done.

Matt Biddulph

Over a million iPhones have been sold.  Have you: bought one, considered it, or decided it's not for you?

I'm still undecided on whether I'm interested in an iPhone or not. At the moment, my music player is still the second generation iPod, with 10GB of disk space, that I bought over five years ago, and while it's no longer exactly huge, I'm quite fond of its physical buttons, heft and shape. (Is it just me that finds new iPods to seem rather too thin?)

On the other hand, I've never really been taken with any of the phones I've owned since the T610, way back when. If I'd timed the upgrade to hit the K750 or N73 when they were new, it might have been a different story, but I didn't. I'm currently wavering between upgrading to a K850 - I hate cameras without rotation sensors, so that is a nice feature - or just going down to PAYG on the Nokia 6230 I'm still borrowing from candace.

Of course, the iPhone is a third option, but to be honest, I'm waiting for 3G (just like half of Europe, perhaps), and I'd love to see how useful the promised API is before I get one with the idea that I'd hack on it. I'm also not yet sure if there's room for a device like the iPhone, or iPod touch or N810, in my life. I'm on my laptop at home or desktop at work so much of the time, do I really need mobile data? I'm sure once I have it I'll find it impossible to do without, just as it's now inconceivable to be without a mobile phone at all, so maybe putting off that day is a good idea.

So, to answer the QotD: I'm considering the iPhone, but I'm good at procrastinating, so I haven't really decided either way yet.

If you came with a warning label, what would it say?
Submitted by chris.

Batteries Not Included.

Feeling a bit uninspired today, so even with an implicit poke from candace, no good content. I've not managed to get my post-upload Flickr reordering done. Hence the "I could do with more energy" comment, and a hope to return to daily posting tomorrow. Maybe I can dredge out one of those drafts. (Hey! Team Vox! Make the background of drafts grey or something, so it's easier to spot! Or maybe I could do a user css file for that. Hmm.)

What's on your Top 5 video games list?
Submitted by mileena.

In chronological order:

Quazatron

This is a 1985 Hewson game for the Spectrum, which I'm going to have to explain since only about three people will remember it. You play a troublesome robot, KLP-2 (ha ha) who is dropped onto the titular hostile robot planet. Roving around isometric levels, you have to kill everything to progress. You can do it with your laser, but the real key is to "grapple" progressively more powerful robots in a logic game, firing pulses of colour at a wall of logic banks, some obscured by blocks or connected by logic gates. Losing can be fatal, but winning lets you take your pick of your opponent's hardware, and eventually you end up with the much-loved Disruptor- able to wipe out a screen of robots at a time. It's a great little game that I keep coming back to, and about the only flaw is that the scrolling is horribly jerky. Well worth a download and a play though.

Micro Machines 2

In for nostalgic reasons; I used to play the Megadrive version of this (with the two extra controller ports in the cart) when I was at university, before going out on Friday and Saturday nights, against various friends. It was great fun. I should check out the latest DS version in the franchise, but I suspect Mario Kart will be more fun.

Wipeout 3 Special Edition

The last of the Playstation versions of the great hover-car-thing racing games, and the best, because it included courses from the previous editions and had a great soundtrack. I spent far too long in '97 and '99 playing various incarnations of Wipeout and it's one of the main reasons I'm tempted by a PSP. What is there to be said about this that hasn't already?

Mr Driller

I first came across this on the Dreamcast, and have since got the GBA and DS versions. What a great little puzzle game it is. It's harder to explain than learn, and if you've got a portable console that runs this and you don't have it, why not?

Super Mario 64 DS

I borrowed this from Tom when I got my DS Lite, then lost the cart, bought it again, and eventually completed about 75% of the stars and defeated Bowser the final time to get the end scene. Sure, so it's a reheat of a ten year old platformer, but I didn't have a N64 so it was all new to me. It was lovely being able to play this on the move, and it just all felt right. Lovely. More DS games like this, please!

The ones that nearly made it include Sonic the Hedgehog, Rez (although I was never much good at it, I enjoyed watching Gareth play) and Vib Ribbon (loving that J-Pop soundtrack), and Advance Wars 2 (almost perfectly tuned progression). The main current temptation that I don't actually own is Loco Roco (so cute!).

What's your method for calculating a tip?

If the restaurant doesn't add a service charge themselves (which is getting common) then I'll pay a round number near 10-15%, depending on what shrapnel I have. For cafes I'll drop in a bit of change, but it's usually nearer 5%.

Cultural notes:

• I didn't used to tip, but as an American candace believes in it.
• I also suspect that tipping is becoming more common here over time.
  
• Since UK money places the value of the coin/note demarcation higher, it's typical for tips to be paid with coins.
• In case Chris doesn't decide to answer this, don't tip in Finland.

Tell us a little something about your first car.  Do you have any photos you can share? 
Submitted by tamara.

Car? What car? Now, if you'd like to know about my first train journey...