Via Justin Spooner
Podcast Choice #08 – In Beta
I have been asked a fair few times about the different podcasts I listen to. I not only have a lengthy commute to work, but also travel a fair bit for work, so it’s vital to me to have something to listen to. This series will discuss and review the different podcasts I listen to or have listened to. In a previous blog post I spoke about the why and how I listen to podcasts, now we look at the actual podcasts I listen to.
This week’s podcast is In Beta.
In Beta is a talk show about the ever-changing state of web-based and open source software. We examine how “ship first, fix later” affects our tools and culture, with an emphasis on mobile, social, and web apps. Hosted by Gina Trapani & Kevin Purdy.
In another podcast choice I recommended This Week in Google, one of the regular hosts of that show, Gina Trapani along with Kevin Purdy have started their own podcast, In Beta.
If you enjoy This Week in Google then I think you will also enjoy In Beta, which though is different in terms of style and content, is familiar and comfortable.
The structure is quite simple, Gina and Kevin chat and discuss a variety of issues, some topical, some not. Their conversation is somewhat technical and developer focussed, rather than looking at the social implications of the beta culture. Not that they don’t venture into that area, but this is very much a geeky podcast and they wear the geek label on their sleeves. However this is not a heavy technical geeky podcast talking about code. No much more talking about software development and how changes by companies such as Apple and Google have an impact. Kevin and Gina in addition do discuss social tools such as Instagram and Twitter, but the focus is very much on the developer perspective and how changes to the APIs impact on third party developers.
I am not a developer and really know very little about coding and programming, however I have found this an interesting insight into the minds of programmers and developing software. This is a relatively new podcast, at the time of writing they are at episode ten, but the content so far has been good and I think it has settled into a enjoyable conversation about software, development and open source. If you are interested in coding from a developer’s perspective and how they approach software development in a conversational format, then do have a look at In Beta.
Snapseeding
Out of all the many photo editing apps on my iPad, the one I like the most at the moment (and the one I use the most too) is Snapseed. I do use Apple’s iPhoto a fair bit, but when it comes to creating a particular kind of image, I prefer Snapseed.
I was particularly pleased with the way this image of the Matthew at the Bristol Harbour Festival turned our, almost like an oil painting with the shadows and textures.
What I do like about Snapseed is how it well it makes use of the touch interface on the iPad. It’s even usable on the iPhone, but to be honest I much prefer the screen estate of the iPad for image editing.
If you like editing images and haven’t already then I would seriously have a look at Snapseed.
Not quite one of those days, but nearly…
Got slightly annoyed with my iMac the other day. Came home from a day out, switched the iMac on and it just stuck there on the grey startup screen with the grey apple and the grey swirly thingymajig!
I was reminded of my iMac problem in May when attempting to upgrade to Lion, my hard drive failed…
I tried to start in safe mode… and that didn’t work.
I did manage to get into recover mode and verify and repair disk permissions.
I did try a few other things and none of them worked… it wasn’t helping that I couldn’t access apple.com through my broadband connection. No idea why that wasn’t working.
The only real option left, according to what I was reading was to reinstall Lion. In theory I could do that with Internet Recovery, however with the ADSL connection I am now on, downloading 4GB of Lion install file reliably wasn’t really an option. I do have the Lion install on a DVD, but even that didn’t work…
In the end I decided that, as I am still covered by Applecare, that I would take it the Genius Bar at my local Apple store; so I made an appointment for the following morning. I then put the iMac into Firewire Target Disk Mode and backed up my important files. Not too bad in some respects as I had done a full backup back in May, and incremental since then, so not too many files to sort out. This time though I did do a backup of the Home Library folder. I forgot to do that last time and lost a few important files as a result as the data was stored there rather than the Documents folder!
The following morning, I needed to drop my car off for a MOT, so after checking the files had backed up, I (for some reason) decided to restart the Mac and leaving the grey swirly thingymajig to swirl I drove off to the garage. Having dropped the car off, grabbed some breakfast and got a lift home, I decided I had better pack the iMac before heading off to the Apple store. I was therefore quite surprised to see that it had booted properly and I could see my desktop. I decided to check that it was working as it should and restarted the system…. it started correctly!
Hmmm, not sure exactly what the initial problem was then. I suspect that there was something that wasn’t working correctly from a software perspective and leaving the Mac to reboot for an hour or so was what it needed to sort itself out. Still a little concerned though.
I cancelled the Genius Bar appointment and have since then put the iMac through its paces without any problems.
The car passed the MOT too…