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By stephen, July 12, 2010 4:15 pm

It’s actually a new toy that I’ve been after for rather a long time now… And I’m not sure about everyone else, but when I get my hands on a shiny new toy camera, pretty much the first thing I do is check out the camera’s zoom powers (it doesn’t take much to impress!!!). I know this isn’t the most glamorous  picture you’ll ever see, but it’s a damn sight more interesting than the chimney-pot picture I took first

I’m still learning how to properly use my new toy, but so far initial impressions are very good.

I’ve had an SLR camera for as long as I can remember, but reluctantly abandoned it about 10 years ago when the compact digitals hit the market. There was suddenly no need to lug a massive bag with camera, lenses, flash, filters & film about with me; the new fancy digital cameras simply fit in my pocket and came loaded with fancy pre-set functions.   I’ve had a few little digitals since buying that first rather plasticy one all those years ago, while my bulky SLR gathered dust in the loft.  Only recently all of my SLR stuff disappeared via Ebay… But if truth be told, I’ve always kind of missed it. I’ve certainly not missed the bulk or size, it’s mainly been the flexibility that using an SLR camera gives you. Yes it’s nice to know that your picture will almost certainly be in focus when you push the button, but there have been times when I’ve wanted a little more than simply a point & shoot camera. I’ve wanted my manual settings back…

Fortunately the Lumix TZ8 offers this and much more. So you can expect my Facebook, Twitter & Flickr pages to be littered with inane & random photographs for the next few weeks!!!

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By stephen, December 14, 2009 6:40 pm

1. Everyone and their dog has got an iPhone and that just makes me want to get something different, regardless of how good they may be.

2. The price. I would’ve had to up my current contract by almost £15 a month for 2 years, which if my maths is anywhere near, equals about £360

3. Motorola (who I’m a little addicted to) have finally released a phone that is actually rather good. They’ve always delivered nice looking sexy phones (which is why they’ve always sucked me in!!!), but even I would admit they’ve often been a wee bit shite when it comes to actually using them. But apparently the boffins at Motorola have had a change of tact, which makes this…

a very, very nice phone indeed. Not quite as sexy as previous phones, but nice none the less. I’m not going to say that I think the Motorola Dext is better than the iPhone (Motorolas’ next creation will probably do this), but it is better in some areas. It’s got a proper keyboard, which is very easy to use, (unlike most on the market) and the camera is 5mp as opposed to the 3mp iPhone. And then there’re the ‘apps’ which everyone keeps going on about. At present iPhone users have literally 1000′s of lovely apps to choose from. The Dext runs on Android (which is Googles’ ‘app’ equivalent) and their ‘app market‘ must be one of the fastest growing things out there at the moment. It’s the next big thing, apparently. Which is all good news for the Android phone user

The big selling point of the Dext, apart from the ones I’ve mentioned above is the phones’ Motoblur software. Facebook, Twiiter, MySpace & other social networking sites are all synced direct to your phone and you can be constantly updated of any changes in status updates or tweets etc. It was one of the things that did slightly sway my choice of phone (I’d been undecided for AGES!!!), but it’s not really that amazing a feature if I’m honest. Although to be fair I’ve not fully worked out how to properly use the bloody thing yet

I do however have a Lightsaber app, so I’m a very happy little boy

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By stephen, October 23, 2009 11:12 am

I’m afraid I’m dipping my very uneducated toe into the dark murky waters of science again

Have you ever wondered what would’ve happened if you’d ran into the road a split second later all those years ago? Or what if you’d not woken up at 2:00 AM to find your house on fire? These are obviously personal events to me, but every-one’s life is littered with dramatic events & life changing decisions and I’ve always wondered… What if?

Well a few days ago, whilst killing a bit of time in the magazine kiosk at  Lime St Station, Liverpool, I read a rather interesting article in one of those rather high-brow sciencey magazines that nobody ever buys (well I don’t. I only picked it up because it had a picture of the Tardis on the cover!!!).  It was a fascinating read and I’ve been thinking about it ever since. As usual, I’ll use my very basic schoolboy speak to explain things (I did actually get O’ Level physics & chemistry at school, but it kinda stops there!!!)

The main gist of the article was to try and explain how we are all immortal. A rather bold claim I know, but let me explain…

As usual with these kinds of things, you have to try and imagine or get to grips with huge numbers; numbers so big there’s probably not even a word for them. Sawyer has a book he’s currently rather fond of, about a bee who has to count every grain of sand on a beach and even that messes with my poor little head at times!!! So anyway… Let’s imagine that instead of just the one Stephen Coley, sat here writing this blog post while he should be working ( ), there are zillions. Each one living on another world; a parallel identical world to this one.  And all those zillions of Stephen Coley’s are currently all writing the same blog post, at the same computer, with the same dog sat at his feet. And let’s assume that tonight my house catches fire and that at 2:00 AM I don’t wake up. I would then die… But maybe not. What if half of the zilllion other Stephen Coley’s didn’t wake up and the other half did? Half would survive and live on. And here’s where my schoolboy speak may struggle… What if Stephen Coley isn’t just the Stephen Coley who’s writing this post, but is every Stephen Coley? That would mean that when half die, Stephen Coley would seamlessly continue to live in the other half (is this remotely making sense???). The zillions of Stephen’s would continue to die. Zillions would halve to trillions (not sure of the maths here!!!), to millions, to thousands, to hundreds etc… Half would always die, but this means that half would always survive, thus achieving immortality… Simples

The article I  read obviously went into a little more detail than that, but hopefully you’ve got the idea? Some crazy boffins have even devised an experiment (if you’re brave/insane enough) to prove this theory… Quantum suicide & immortality

I am open to most ideas & theories, but I do have a few questions about this one…

If people never died, but instead continued to live on parallel words, then why are we not surrounded by people who are 100′s of years old? Henry VIII, my great grandad, Noah… Where are these people now?

Also, I’m assuming that when we die/jump to another parrallel word, that world would have to be identical in every way to the one we’ve left, to make the shift seamless. If this is the case (and this kinda answers my 1st question) then all the people that had died in your 1st world would remain dead. This would also mean that eventually you would lose all the people you know. They would die/jump ship, but you could never see them again as this would shatter the illusion… All a bit sad really

And on that happy note… Work is now long overdue!!!

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By stephen, October 12, 2009 10:51 am

As comments were all getting a little heavy & complicated on my previous post, I thought I’d settle things the mature way… With Calvin & Hobbes I’ve yet to find a disagreement that can’t be solved with Calvin & Hobbes!!!

So there you have it… Clear proof that Al-Qaeda could at some point use the Large Hadron Collider to get their homework done in time

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By stephen, October 9, 2009 11:10 pm

French police today arrested a scientist working at Cern’s Large Hadron Collider, who had suspected links with Al-Qaeda. Full story here…

The Collider, for those who may have forgotten, is the world ending doomsday machine (well that’s what some may say ) that hopes to recreate the ‘Big Bang’. Whereas Al-Qaeda, for those who may have spent the last 10 years in a cupboard, is the organisation responsible for probably the most devastating acts of terrorism in the modern era. In my book Al-Qaeda & the Hadron Collider is not the most reassuring double-act

I am of course just getting overly worried, as staff at Cern have said there’s nothing really to worry about… Oh that’s alright then