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Some products I have recently enjoyed

Adobe Lightroom totally rocks. I used this for some recent flickr posts that involved more than average cleanup and it really is a complete pleasure to use. I did, just for the sake of comparison, throw some of the same work at a trial copy of Aperture 1.5 and this was not a particular happy experience (possibly because I am not in posession of a video card based on Quantum Computing or whatever it is that is needed to make this app perform well.) Well done, Adobe. My investigation here was prompted by Ars' review which seems to be spot on, based on my experience so far.

I'm currently using Camino as my main Mac browser. I've (probably unfairly) ignored Camino due to it's somewhat homely default appearance (I am that shallow,) but then I found CaminIcon, which let me fix that (Jon Hicks' theme + the Omni tabs.) Pluses, Firefox's AJAX/js performance without the XUL-related UI strangeness. Minuses, no bookmark sync, no plugins, Firefox's (slow) memory leaks.

My search for the perfect pointing device continues with the Kensington Expert Mouse. This isn't exactly an attractive device but it works really well. Unlike thumb-driven trackballs which seem to require you to relearn eye-hand coordination, the action to drive it is very like driving a tiny but very smooth & precise regular mouse. The scroll ring is also very intuitive (imagine an iPod scroll wheel on a mouse) but also sounds and feels quite rough - the biggest negative with this device - everything the Amazon reviews say here is true. On the plus side, having a button dedicated to click+drag means you can use the ball like an analog control for sliders (for example, in Lightroom) - very, very useful.

Wheeltappers and Shunters

Link: The Wheeltappers and Shunters. A single reference can reference so much. Despite the existence of the Mark 3 Cortina, Britain in the early 70s was clearly a Dark Age.

(YouTube has some W&S clips, of course - is there anything they don't have?)

Flint: Why People Buy Cars - The Car Connection

Link: Flint: Why People Buy Cars - The Car Connection. A good insight into what an "alternative vehicle" needs to do to succeed (or fail) which at first glance seems to fit with historical experience.

Networking on the 'Bangalore Express'

Link: MercuryNews.com | 02/07/2007 | Networking on the 'Bangalore Express'.

This one resonated with me since I have just done the West Coast -> Frankfurt -> India thing (to Mumbai, not Bangalore) and back on, you guessed it... Lufthansa. Gotta admit, Frankfurt is a lot more civilized place to change flights compared to my Heathrow experiences, no buses, additional security, just a short walk from one gate to the other leaving plenty of time to spend drinking Weissbiers in the bar.

Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006)

Link: Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006).

I caught this movie on the flight back from Mumbai - I hadn't intended to watch but I was following it with the subtitles and it sucked me in. This has to be one of the strangest movie premises I've come across for a while - a slapstick romantic comedy that brings to life the teachings of Gandhi - and it works brilliantly. I laughed, I cried. If you get the chance to see it you should definitely check it out.

R.I.P. Paul "Tubbs" Williams

Link: Incognito.org.uk :: View topic - R.I.P. Paul "Tubbs" Williams.

Awww... Tubbs had been pretty much invisible for a long while, but his playing with Light Of The World, the first version of Incognito and The Warriors was a huge influence on me as an impressionable teenager. Am going to have to go digging in the vinyl and play "Time", "Destination" and "Summers Ended" a few times when I get home.

India '07 - a photoset on Flickr

Link: India '07 - a photoset on Flickr. Where I've been for the last week.