London

Back from my trip to the UK, a few pictures below from my half day in London.   Unfortunately the London Eye was closed for winter maintenance, which was one of the prime things that I wanted to do :-(   but really enjoyed Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus at night.  

The experiment with the Nexus 7 went well.   For 1 week I was computerless yet was able to do almost everything, except photo editing.   I watched Netflix, shows on the plane, surfed the web, wrote e-mails, chatted with Jen etc etc...  everything worked!    I wouldn't want to be away from my laptop for more than a week tho.  For short trips that don't require big computing horsepower I do recommend the Nexus 7.

A few of the photos;

No Computer For Travelling

Have we finally gotten to the point like you see in Star Trek where we all have tablets and no computers?  Computers are fixed devices and tablets are what we walk around with?   The vision was that we'd see those in the 23rd century :-)   Well next week I'm gonna find out.

Leaving for the UK tomorrow and (cough cough) leaving my laptop at home.    Jen bought me a Nexus 7 for Christmas and I've been playing with it for almost 2 weeks now and you know what?   I can do 90% of what I do on my laptop on my Nexus.   Wow.   What am I missing?  A game that I play called World of Tanks  (if you join look for BartBandy) and my photo editing software.   The photo editing is something that I can probably do on the nexus but need more time to look into it.   The Nexus doesn't have a CF slot or an easy visual way to get photos into it, and it only has 32gb of on-board memory.  The idea is that you use cloud based storage, which is definitely the future.   There are OTG cables and CF readers that I should be able to use for accessing the images when I travel and some editing software but I really need to investigate more.   This trip I'm only gone for a week so I bought an additional 8gb CF card, so I have 12gb for this trip and that should be enough.   Will post process after I get home.   If I were going for more then a week, then this would be an issue.

So what can I do on my nexus?   Well, pretty much everything!    There is the standard surfing stuff that many tablet users have (Gmail, Chrome, News apps, Ebay, IMDB, etc etc..), Aldiko for my e-books, Netflix, Plex Media player, VLC, YouTube, my VPN (Private Tunnel), GPS and travel apps, my sky/google drives and just about anything else you can think of.   I'm really not missing anything.   Heck I even have access to my TV shows, movies and music.    This week will be my big experiment, can I live without a computer?   Just my Nexus 7 and my camera.   This is going to be a whole new world for me :-)

Don't have a ton of time while I'm in the UK this trip but I should be able to have an afternoon and evening in London at the end.    My "to visit" list this trip is the London Eye (I want to ride it) and to see/photograph Piccadilly Circus at night.    Everything else will be the country side as I travel through.   No time or money to add a few days to the trip as vacation this go around.    Fingers crossed, I'm getting indications that I should be able to go to Australia later this year!  That one I need to save my penny's for.

Anyone wanting to know more about the Nexus 7 or the apps I use, drop me a line.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year Everyone!!

A new year, a new freedom a new look.

Sorry that I haven't really written since September.   Even on FaceBook and G+ I've been fairly quiet.   The drama hit a whole new high but I can happily say that yesterday, the 31st, yup the last day of the year, a separation agreement as finally been signed.   After 2.5 years, 4 lawyers on her side, 1 court appearance, 2 mediators and a pile of shit we finally got it done.    Just some last paperwork in April to reconcile 2012 and I can finally say it's over.   And what better day to put it behind me but on the first day of a new year!   May 2013 be the start of something fresh without all the drama and foolishness.  

Someday I'll sit down and put all my thoughts on paper but long story short, the Canadian family law is completely screwed!   It really needs to be revamped in a big way.   In the end she got exactly what she would have gotten from a mediator but instead she ensured that we wasted thousands upon thousands with lawyers because she continued to take bad advice from people who don't know what they are talking about.   She also became exactly what she swore that she would never become.   I hope that someday she looks at herself in the mirror and sees what she has become and has a heart to heart with herself cause she's gonna need it.

But enough on the negative, the positive is that it's behind me now and it's time to look forward.    The new look is the blog and me.   For those who have seen me in the past month will know that I'm sporting a goatee now, trying to look a bit cleaner then the scruffy old beard. :-)

Not much new on the photography side.   Have some images on the hard drive that I haven't even looked at yet so maybe will do that this afternoon.

Things I want to share, I installed Windows 8 (pretty neat) and Jen got me a Nexus 7 (really cool!) for xmas.   will review both of them in time.

Off to the UK this coming weekend on business for a week.   No time to hit London on the inbound trip but I think I have a half day/evening on the way back.   Hoping to hit Piccadilly Circus (at night) and the London Eye, neither have I photographed before.

Hope everyone is well and again, Happy New Year!