- A blog I stumbled across on Church Audio & Sound. If you're ever caught driving the desk, you should definitely subscribe.
- I wanted to post the video Vincent Laforet shot with the new Canon EOS 5D Mk II still camera, but I can't. Keep an eye on that page in case it comes back. The video wasn't the most artistically astounding ever shot, but it showed just what the camera is capable of. (By the by, how can Canon not be able to afford the bandwidth?)
- Film is not dead! Kodak announces a new colour neg film. Looks like they're shooting for C-41 Velvia. I doubt I'll find a use for the new Ektar, but I'll shoot a couple of rolls for fun — and it gladdens the heart to hear it's coming.
- Russell Howard mocks the papers. Very nice.
- Visible light networking. Sounds weird. If it runs without visible flicker it might be pretty cool. Ubiquity, here we come!
- The financial crisis explained using a child's card game. Makes sense, actually. (Via Kottke.)
- John Gruber publishes his thoughts on the iPhone 3G. While the 3G is an excellent phone, it seems I'm not alone in preferring the design of the first one.
Right. I’ll go now and finish eating my lunch.
Spotted in various shops around Belfast, laminated sheets of A4 with a phrase printed in a lengthy list of different languages.
The phrase? “Thieves will be prosecuted.”
Welcome to Belfast.
As I was catching up on my reading yesterday morning, Brodie’s post remembering the vice-principal of our Bible college popped up in my feed reader. It stopped me in my tracks.
Think of someone you know who has an overwhelming enthusiasm and knowledge of something they’re really into. That was Ted Herbert. He was a lecturer in Old Testament at ICC, and his classes — and the man himself — were easily the best thing about the college during my time there.
Ted took what could easily, and often does, become a very dry, uninteresting subject, and he made it dance and sing. He knew his stuff and he communicated it with the kind of joy that every teacher should have, however few actually do. He left me with a new love for the Old Testament that has only grown since.
More than that, though, Ted was a friend to many more students than to me. Often as not he’d be spending his lunchtime in the common room plating table tennis with the students, usually winning but always gracious.
At a retreat earlier this year, I was asked who has inspired me. It was my Old Testament lecturer. I hadn’t heard that he was sick until I read Brodie’s post — I have learned since that he was diagnosed with cancer only a month and a half before he died this week.
If you have a listen to his message to the students at ICC (on YouTube), you’ll learn a great deal about the man: grace, peace, but most of all, joy.
One of God’s best.
One of the advantages of queueing on Saturday morning was getting a peek at the work of the gents at Infurious and Blue Pilot Software on comics for the iPhone and iPod Touch.
There was some press last month when the first title, Murderdrome was rejected by Apple for “not meeting [their] community standards”. (My take: it’s definitely a grown-up comic, but not extreme by any comics standard.) Alongside, the writer and artist (Al Ewing & PJ Holden) have been working on a comic aimed at kids — EyeCandy (that’s an iTunes store link, by the way), which since then has gone live at the App Store.
While the content isn’t really my thing, it’s an amazing application that demonstrates how perfect the iPhone and iPod Touch are for this sort of application. The screen shows the artwork off beautifully, and the touch/accelerometer interface allows for brilliant and original interactions. If you have one of the devices, definitely go and spend 59p (or 99c if you’re so inclined) to have a play. Plus you’ll be supporting genuine innovation right here in Northern Ireland.
As an aside to the weekend’s celebrations and craziness, this is the Apple store in Cambridge.
No glass staircase!