everything » Gadgets

la pavoni

ames — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 21:10:19 +0000

After many years of coveting a La Pavoni direct lever espresso machine I finally got one. It is fully manual in its operation, ensuring that any espresso that does not taste good is entirely the my fault. My addiction to coffee has made me swing in this decision to get one, but a bargain was to be had so it happened. Do I get one and somewhat remove the desire to float my way around cafes? Well a few months into owning this beauty my cafe dwelling habits haven’t changed much but the quality of my morning coffee certainly has.

For Christmas Kirsty got me a one on one lesson so I am finally perfecting the milk and really discovering how much fresh beans changes the quality of the shot, and creme and even how hard I tamp it. It’s a continual research experiment which of course it thoroughly enjoyable.

The staple diet for sanity

ames — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 08:23:51 +0000

Chaos: the word that describes my last 3-months. Almost everything that could change, has changed. I love change, and variety but boy oh boy have I learn’t a few things about that lately.

Space: time to digest change is essential. Even if it is all splendid change and variety it is best for the soul to marinate on it.
Routine: my morning routine of meditation and writing went out the window about 6-weeks ago. I yearned to have it back so I started it again yesterday. Routine amongst the chaos keeps me resilient. No meditation, and no routine resulted in my resilience steadily decreasing over the weeks to the point where I didn’t even want to go have a drink with a friend: “No more, I can’t handle anymore planning, or doing!”

Arh so now I sit and get back into my staple diet for sanity, reflecting on that crucial moment when it was lost. This is my next mission: to prevent it happening again.

Rollei Retro 100

ames — Fri, 07 May 2010 17:35:57 +0000

St Ives from appearance was the perfect location to break out the Rollei Retro 100 – a black and white film with a distinctive old school touch. While I have been experimenting with film for about 2-years this is only my second monochrome investigation. The first one, on my now defunct Canon Canonet rangefinder (1961) was a mess promptly sending me back to colour, but my trusty old 1974 Pentax Spotmatic didn’t let me down.

Freitag

ames — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 12:40:42 +0000

I’m a big fan of Freitag. They are a swiss company who make bags, wallets and many other things out of recycled truck canvas, seat belts and bicycle inner tubes. Not only are their products extremely durable but they are helping the planet to. After trying to apply minimalism to my day bag I’ve finally got it down to 11 items. My next goal is sub-10. What don’t I need?

Unsubscribe and other time savers

ames — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:21:37 +0000

The best button in the world is unsubscribe. Every time we walk out our doors, watch TV, listen to the radio, or surf the internet we are bomb-barded with advertising. Over the last year I’ve engaged in a mission of unsubscribing. This means every time I get a newsletter or facebook notification I click the unsubscribe button in an attempt to eliminate the bombarding of my inbox. Some websites make this awfully tricky but it is worth it to save your inbox, and allow time to do things you really want to do, instead of constantly clicking delete to stuff you will never read. This also meant sending emails to friends or family who send me jokes I never read.

A common thought that comes to mind when considering to receive them or not is not wanting to miss out. So this is where you can be selective. As an example you can select what notifications you receive from facebook, and not have to put up them all. Websites that send out news up-dates on newsletters always have the same information on their web pages so using google reader you can get the information you need, all in one place. Google reader is a fantastic time saver. It is a website content “collector” where you can add any website, and it will tell you when the page has been up-dated. That means you can log into google reader, have a quick glance at the menu of websites you have listed and see which web

sites have been up-dated, instead of having to click, and load each of your favourite blogs or websites one at a time (pictured).

My unsubscribe mission was a success. If I do not check my emails for a few days I might have 10 emails at the most, instead of 40 or 50 that was common. It serves my less than 20 rul

e as well. Leo Babuata talks about processing your inbox to empty to limit wasted time, because our inbox’s commonly serve as our things to do list, and it is easy to consistently troll through them every time we check out emails, and re-read emails we don’t actually need to. It’s a brilliant rule. I keep emails I need to, filing them in appropriate folders, and always keep my inbox to less than 20 emails both at work and at home.

One of my favourite time savers on my mac is spotlight (pictured). Instead of having to open an application, or troll through folders to find a document, I just search for the title in spotlight and click on it, and that feature is available right from my desktop.

I keep my desktop completely clean, as again, just like a full inbox it is easy to keep opening these documents to see what they are, forget, and repeat the exercise a few weeks later. These are just a few things I do to simplify my daily interactions with my computer to limit the time spent on it, and keep more time free for other hobbies.

BB

ames — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 09:36:21 +0000

I’ve had a few phone cameras in my time and have generally found that Sony Ecrisson’s make the best as they also have cybershot technology in making their digital cameras. In December I finally got a smart phone, a blackberry which has a 2MP camera. It’s not too bad in light conditions, but predictably poor in anything remotely cloudy or dark. 90% of the time a camera of some sorts is in my bag, along with the rest of the kitchen sink, nonetheless it is a good back up.

I’ve been learning a lot about minimalism. I’ve always liked it, but am slowing, and gradually taking it to another level. Leo Babuata recently started a great new blog called mnmilst which has some great ideas. The thing I like about minimalism is the lack of clutter, how environmentally friendly it is reducing consumption, and waste, and it simplifies life to enjoy the things you really like. Back to my original point – it’s time to apply minimalism to by day bag!

Reasons to love film photography

ames — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:52:08 +0000

This is one of the many reasons I love film: that blue, and the texture of it.

How on earth did I end up with a BB?

ames — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 19:49:20 +0000

I love gadgets. These typically include computers, mobile phones, cameras and such like things that are functional and generally make my day more effective or fun. I’m not interested in flash TV’s or games. When the iPhone was released in NZ it came out with silly plans that did not suit my budget or my intention to move countries. As soon as I landed in the UK I was off to the O2 store to get hooked up an iPhone, but they wouldn’t let me as I did not have a UK credit rating, being a fresh foreigner and all. I had to wait 6-months they said as I tried to smile through disappointed teeth. This delay allowed for other companies such as Orange to stock the iPhone and soon Vodafone UK. This waiting period allowed me to research other options, so I asked myself, why do I actually want an iPhone? The feature list included:

Usual phone functions
WordPress application
Email
Internet
Twitter
Facebook
Googlemaps, GPS
Skype
A good price plan with at least 500mins and 500 text messages

As I researched it appeared Orange was out, at 80p for an international text, with O2 still my only option, and 2-months left to wait on my stand down I started looking at other smart phones, and other companies. The Blackberry Bold took my eye as functional, and durable (something I was worried about with the iPhone as I constantly drop my mobile phones). The Bold can do everything on my list so I thought hmmmm maybe I should go for one of these instead. Upon researching the plans I found out I could get 600-any time minutes, 1200 texts, unlimited email and internet for just £20 a month with O2. £15 cheaper per month than the cheapest iPhone plan to suit my needs. It was an interesting experiment researching each company. Orange, Vodafone, 3, T-mobile, all offered the Bold with great phone, text, and internet plans, but ultimately the decider was the international texting rate. It ranged from 25-80p on these networks, but only 11p with O2. Pays to research well.

I really like having a QWERTY button keyboard, it suits my larger than average hands, unlike touch screens where by fingers touch two letters at once. And after a friend of mine keeps sending me texts by accident from her touch phone I’m quite glad I went for buttons.

There are many benefits to having a smart phone. Some people don’t like them as they are ‘on tap’ 24-7. Nonetheless I think you are only ‘on-tap’ if you answer… I’ve found I use my computer a lot less, and some days don’t even turn it on. It’s come in handy, such as on the bus I attend to emails, or find the number for pizza, to ring and order to have one freshly out of the oven on the way home. Love technology! Another benefit is that I can use email as texting internationally and it is included in my data allowance instead of paying the international text rate. My sister and I text via email as she has an iPhone. Now I just need my other international recipients to get smart phones!

So, I’m well impressed with the Blackberry Bold. It’s functional, smooth, quick and fun.