Elliott Rodgers

Anyone who knows me, knows I love my photography and experimenting. Recently I discovered a really good open source Panorama creation software called Hugin. Simply to use and my test of a eight photos taken of the view from the top of Lowndes Park worked first time and I was pleased with the results, it automatically detected the lens I was using and so on.

Hugin gives you an option to manually adjust the photos if you need to, my test didn’t need any adjustment.

The resulting phto is to wide to show properly on my blog but you can view it by clicking on the link below.

Panorama photo showing Chesham, photographed from top of Lowndes Park.

You can download and find more information about Hugin via Source Forge – http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

I spend a chunk of my week in the park and often I’ll get an idea for one of my customer’s websites, one of my web projects or an interesting idea – I never seem to have a notepad and pen handy – if it isn’t dark, raining or similar…

I also gather links of articles I like, code snippets and the like. Sometimes it can be a few dozen a week, of course it’s hard to describe what it was I liked inside a one like Browser Bookmark…

It had been in the back of my mind to come up with a solution to both of these things. By chance I found Evernote. A way of gathering notes, links, photos and documents in one place. The best bit is you can access these documents from my desktop, “the cloud” via the Evernote website – http://www.evernote.com/. What makes Evernote even better still is it comes with mobile apps for iPhone, Android and Blackberry so those lightbulb moments can be safely recorded. Evernote synchronises notes between phones and other sources. There is also a Firefox add on to capture links. If you are part of a team and want to share Evernote between you there is options to cover that.

I love the idea of accessing my thoughts, ideas etc whether I’m in the park, at my desk, sitting watching TV or sat at another computer anywhere as long as it connected to the internet.

It’s not just the written word either you can upload audio (great for lightbulb moments in the dark or the rain ), photos and videos.

Evernote has a free option (which I am currently using) and an excellent value premium option (which I’m planning on using).

Anyone who knows me well, will know I have a really bad buscuit habit and love sweets and chocolate…

My dentist is going to be pleased as I have found a new source of sweets, some of which I haven’t seen for years. Whoever came up with their website ordering system is a genius you can choose Gluten Free Sweets, Dairy Free Sweets, Wheat Free Sweets, Soya Free Sweets, Vegeterian Sweets, Vegan Sweets.. About the only option they don’t seem to have is Diabetic friendly sweets (I have friends who are diabetics so am aware the trouble they have).

Chewbz Retro Sweets.

They have loads and loads of my favourite sweets – fried eggs, shrimps, white and pink mice… and they do them in jars… An easy to navigate website and ordering sweets is just so easy. I’m going to be in so much trouble, I need to get my broken leg sorted, I’m going to need to be doing a whole lot of exercise to make up for a whole lot of sweets! :-/

Before I begin and anyone starts to offer condolences on my loss, my camera hasn’t been stolen!

Now we got that out of the way – On one of my random wandering round the internet to see what’s about sessions I found a really, really clever idea. One of those “Damn! Why didn’t I think of that?!” sites… Stolen Camera Finder. It’s a free website and much Kudos to Matt Burns for offering it for free, many people wouldn’t.

Most cameras, even cheap compacts store loads of information about a photo within the file called exinfo mainly technical stuff like the ISO, Shutter Speed, Focal Length of the Lens, light source etc (Sample Exinfo in IrfanView). Stolen Camera Finder tries to find the serial number of your camera with this exinfo and then searches the internet for images that have the same file number. The site does have some discreet ads which don’t get in the way of the important part of the site, a drag and drop area for you to put your photo on. Your can also enter the serial number mainly.

I’ve awarded Stolen Camera Finder five out of five stars.

Some blog love in support of a Sponsored Dog Walk happening in Bridgnorth, Shropshire on Sunday 31st July 2011 11am organised by Bridgnorth
Veterinary Centre (Google Map). The walk is to raise funds for the incredibly vital and wonderful work done by the charity Worldwide Veterinary Services (you may have seen Luke Gamble and some of the WVS team on the brilliant Sky TV programme Vet Adventures).

You can ring and book places on 01746 711561.

If they were a bit nearer I’d be so willing to go for a sponsored limp with Sheppie.