The Sandpit from Sam O’Hare on Vimeo.

I tried my hand at creating a tilt-shift photo a few years back.

I could spend a good few hours browsing through the tilt-shift group on Flickr. But I have things to be getting on with.

I thought maybe there was something better I could give up, like exercise or vegetables, but after much deliberation, and a call from a listener to my radio show to tell me that drinking Coca Cola will increase your risk of cancer, I was decided… coke it was.

A couple of days in and I am already struggling. I’ve not given in yet, but as a colleague drank a nice, cool, refreshing can of coke today, I was sorely tempted.

I’ve given up coke before. One new year. I lasted 3 days. This time round I have Emma for support. She incidentally is giving up chocolate.

So that is it. No coke till Easter Sunday. I’m officially a coke addict who has gone cold turkey.

I will report back.

David

There’s no denying. Apple IPhones are very popular. Every 2nd person seems to have one. So quite rightly when a company, an organisation, an individual, whoever, decide that they want a mobile application (or app as they have now been abbreviated to) they quite rightly decide to make their app for the IPhone.

While it’s unlikely that one make or model of phone is going to overtake Apple’s domination of the market any time soon, I can see it being highly likely that in a year or so from now Google’s Android operating system will have taken the lead on the number of devices it’s installed on.

Google announced this week that Android is now available on 27 models of phone, and this number is only going to grow.

Anyone who has used the Android OS can tell you that it’s as good as the IPhone, and with it’s ability to multi task and less restrictive over what can be installed, it has many advantages over Apples system. What’s stopping it at the moment is the lack of apps compared to the IPhone.

So if you are a developer of mobile apps at the moment, while you may be tempted to develop solely for the IPhone, I’d also seriously consider making an app for Android as well. Because in a years time I personally believe that Apple are going to have a serious competitor on their hands.

I’ve started learning Java with the aim of trying to get my head around making Android appications. Maybe within a year, when I believe my Android prediction to come true, I will be ready to release an app.

Of course I say all this being an Android fanboy. I’m biased. I want to see it do well. If you’re developing a mobile application and you want it to get the highest possible user base then really you should still be developing for Symbian (found on most Nokia phones) who accounted for 50% of the OS’s installed on mobile phones sold in Q2 of 2009, compared to only 12% for the IPhone OS and only 2.8% for Android.

[Update: 17/02/10] Some interesting statistics on this article here.  Apparently 60,000 phones  a day ship with the Android OS. That’s 21.9 million a year.  Apple shipped 8.7 million IPhones in the last quarter, or 34.8 million a year.  The gap is closing.

People often say to me “David, how do you achieve so much with only 24 hours in a day?” or “David, you’re so great, how do you find time to do everything”… ok, no one ever says that to me, but if they did I’d say “because there are actually 3 of me, rotating around on a regular basis”.

And here’s a photo to prove it. Hard at work.

Either that or I remembered yesterday how to do something that someone once showed me in Photoshop. Involving layers and the eraser tool. Yes, that’s probably it.

I’ve always been a fan of Google. You probably know that by now. I use their search engine. I use their browser. I use their phone. I use their email. I even have my work in Google thanks to some clever Microsoft Exchange filters. Anyone who sends me a text message appears in my Google Mail. I use their maps. I’ve blogged about it all in the past. So it would only be right to blog about their latest invention.

Out of the blue, out of nowhere, last night came Google Buzz. It’s billed as some sort of cross between Facebook, Twitter and Google Mail. Think email meets social networking. You’re confused aren’t you? I am. I like it’s idea… I think. I’m just not entirely sure what it’s for. And I think a lot of people are thinking the same.

Buzz is a new tab in my Google inbox. And I have my Google inbox open all day every day. Whenever I’m at a computer, my Google inbox is there. And so is Buzz now. All of my contacts in Google are now also there. That includes friends, colleagues and acquaintances. My Google Buzz is closely linked to my Twitter, Flickr and this blog. I make a post on one, and appears in my Buzz. I can also make individual buzzes separate from any other service. And then any of my Google contacts can then make a comment on that buzz, whatever it may be.

What Buzz seems to good at is geo-tagged buzzes (is buzzes the collective term we’re going with by the way?) Google actively encourage you to include your location on your buzzes, so people around you know what’s going on near you. Location aware social network is going to take off massively this year. Twitter is already allowing you to geo tag tweets. Mobile phones with internet access and GPS devices are pretty common, it makes sense to combine the two to give a better localised experience for all.

Will I use it more than I use Twitter? Probably not. But then my Twitter account lay almost dormant, updated once a month at best for its first 12 months. Same with my Facebook. There’s a chance the same could happen with Google Buzz.

What I’d like is a service that all my social network posts, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Last.FM, Buzz, Picasa, YouTube, Wordpress are all linked in as one. Some websites already offer services like that, but I’d quite like it to be handily in my Google inbox, and while Buzz gets very close to that, it just doesn’t quite seem to do it… yet.

But it’s still early days. I will be watching and participating with interest.

Tweet was the social media buzz word of 2009, will Buzz be the same for 2010?

As someone who was born in Shetland, and lived the first 19 years of my life in the place, I probably don’t see its amazing and unspoilt scenery in quite the same way as Simon King does. I just see it as home. In the same way someone from Glasgow sees Glasgow as home. Or someone from Essex doesn’t particularly get over excited about the south east corner of England.

The first time I properly took Emma on a tour of home, she spent the whole car journey “oohing” and “aaahing” as we turned every corner. At the time I didn’t quite understand, after all I’d seen those views every day for most of my life.

It was only last night that I had a sudden realisation of how lucky I am, and how ultimately spoilt I probably was growing up when Simon King (he’s like a modern David Attenbourgh) announced in the opening sequence of his new series, Simon King’s Shetland Diaries, that out of all the places he’s visited in the world, which included filming lions in Africa and Great White Sharks in the Pacific Ocean, Shetland is by far his favorite destination.

As someone who has also just come back from a weeks holiday in Shetland, and my first visit for over a year, watching the programme on BBC Two last night didn’t do anything for trying to cure the bout of homesickness I’m currently suffering from.

The three part series sees Simon, his wife (who films wildlife as a profession) and their 2 year old daughter Savannah move to Shetland for a year (although their year is split up as it would seem Simon has lots of other committments around the globe).

It was a marvelous hour in which Visit Shetland were most likely rubbing their hands with glee as they realise the potential number of tourists that are now planning their visits this summer.

But as a Shetlander, I must point out a few things.

Simon went house hunting. We saw a selection of houses, some that didn’t have road access, some that only had a fishing net for a bed and some that didn’t even have an indoor toilet.  Shetland does have, although we didn’t see it on the telly, normal houses as well. Our house back home has a front door, windows, a driveway (tarmaced), running water, electricity and even broadband.

Every shot of his land rover driving around Shetland seemed to be on single track roads.  And while we do have a lot of those, we also have normal roads, where cars can pass each other without having to move into the side.  Hey, we even have roundabouts and pellican crossings. And potholes.

And finally, Simon went to Up Helly Aa, the largest fire festival in Europe he announced. Except he went to one of the smaller country Up Helly Aa’s, not the main Lerwick one (which is the largest fire festival in Europe I believe).  So the main Lerwick Up Helly Aa which happens in January is much more spectacular than what was on BBC Two last night.

It was nice to see Shetland on the telly in a mostly non patronising form. A rather rare occurrence. Martin Clunes, take note. And the Sam Wollaston of the Guardian, also take note:

“Anyway, this Shetland place is flipping brilliant. And the most brilliant thing about it is that it’s part of this country. Who even knew that? We’ve got our very own David Attenborough kind of place, right on our doorstep. Well, not quite on the doorstep, it’s right up next to the north pole, but you don’t need a passport to go. People even live there, compatriots of you and me. The only downside is that they don’t have indoor lavs, it’s dark for eight months of the year and the rain comes at you horizontally. Mostly, it’s so windy it’s not safe to get out of the car. “

Simon King’s Shetland Diaries is on BBC Two for the next two Thursdays, 20:00. You can catch this weeks episode on the BBC iPlayer (http://bbc.co.uk/i/qnw1f/).

If you thought our days couldn’t have got any less busy, on Friday, completely out of the blue, came the snow meaning that any plans we did have were quashed.

Normally I’m not too fond of the snow. Working in radio means I provide a vital resource to many during periods of snow, and while it can make great radio it can also be a right pain. And being the closest member of the team to the studios, I have no excuse not to make it in on a snowy day.  So I quite enjoyed being 200 miles away from my radio show, with absolutely no way of being called in to work.

And  it did give us a good opportunity to build a snow man.

And for some (not me), an opportunity to make snow angels.

Let’s just all pray the snow disappears on our return to the mainland next week.

Well we survived it. Emma’s first Up Helly Aa.

It’s difficult to explain to people exactly what Up Helly Aa is. It’s probably best I paraphrase what Wikipedia says on the matter.

Up Helly Aa refers to a fire festival held in Shetland, in Scotland, annually in the middle of winter to mark the end of the yule season. The festival involves a procession of up to a thousand guizers in Lerwick, formed into squads who march through the town in a variety of themed costumes.

There is a main guizer who is dubbed the “Jarl“. There is a committee which you must be part of for fifteen years before you can be a jarl, and only one person is elected to this committee each year.

The procession culminates in the torches being thrown into a replica Viking longship or galley. The event happens all over Shetland, but it is only the Lerwick galley which is not sent seaward. Everywhere else, the galley is sent seabound, in an echo of actual Viking sea burials.

After the procession, the squads visit local halls (including schools, sports facilities and hotels), where private parties are held. At each hall, each squad performs its act, which may be a send-up of a popular TV show or film, a skit on local events, or singing or dancing, usually in flamboyant costume.

Due to the often-flamboyant costumes and the large quantity of males dressing up as females, it has earned the joke name ‘Transvestite Tuesday’.

You tend to find people in Shetland are either very in to Up Helly Aa or they can’t be doing with it. I tend to fall in the category of “can’t be doing with it”.  But I needed to visit home at some point and Emma was keen to see what the fuss was about so we decided to pick Up Helly Aa week to pay a visit.

I say we survived it. To truly experience Up Helly Aa you need to party all through the night to 8am the following morning. My sister does, but Emma and I are far too boring to do that. Instead we were tucked up warm in bed by midnight having spent a day witnessing bearded men brandishing axes and throwing lit torches into wooden boats… this could only happen in Shetland.

Emma took this short video of the procession and burning.

More photos:

Whenever I tell anyone about Shetland, I usually tell them the Sumburgh airport story.

The bit of land that the airport occupies at the southern most tip of Shetland is so narrow that the main runway at one end stretches out into the sea, and at the other end stretches over the main road. I tell people that whenever a plane lands or takes off they have to close the road as the plane starts its take off procedure on the road.

I’m not sure people entirely believe me when I tell them. Well here’s the proof. A photo I took today on a mid afternoon stroll to Sumburgh.

Until a few years ago this bit where the road meets the runway was controlled by flashing lights. If the lights flashed you didn’t go through. The problem was the Shetland residents started to get a little confident. They thought they could get through the lights before the 9.20 British Airways flight from Dyce landed.  On many occasions they were wrong. The number of go arounds increased and something had to be done.  So barriers and patrol men were brought in.

For a spell my friend Ryan had the job. Every time a plane would land or take off he’d drive from the control tower, down to the gates, close them and then open them again 5 minutes later.  At a busy airport this would keep someone occupied all day but at Sumburgh where planes only land every 3 hours it must have been a monotonous  job to say the least.

So monotonous that Ryan had to have something else to occupy his time. He would quite often sing along to songs on the radio to pass the time of day.  There is a fantastic story he tells in which he was listening to Steve Wrights Golden Oldies and singing along to Tom Jones’s Delila. Unbeknown to him, his jacket was pushing down on the button on his walkie talkie back to the control tower.  The afternoon flight from Edinburgh had to abort landing because they couldn’t get in contact with the tower because Ryan was blocking the channel with his singing.

I’m not sure how exaggerated the story was, but it was a good story to tell after a few drinks.

It’s been an odd festive season for me as it has been the first one I have ever spent away from home. But I have been kept busy with work and visiting Emma’s family that I have not really had time to miss Shetland too much.

I’m looking forward to doing something quite spectacular with this blog later in the year, details to follow in due course.

Here’s to 2010!

P.s. can anyone confirm what I should call this decade? The tens? I still haven’t got used to calling the last decade the noughties.