This week I have had my Canon S90 compact camera for six months and every time I pick it up I am never disappointed. Unfortunately in six months I have also dropped it twice so it now has some dents and scratches.
So in six months I have taken 3692 photos and that equates to roughly 20 pictures a day which doesn’t sound a lot until you take into account my other camera that has clocked up another 4135 photos in that period so about 43 pictures a day.
The size of the camera is perfect to carry around with me on nearly every occassion and this has meant that can keep some variety in the photos I have taken as part of my Photo2010 project www.scouller.biz
I am impressed with the quality of the pictures, they are always clear and sharp except where I get it wrong 
I have just finished reading Garr Reynolds PresentationZen Design which was an excellent follow-up to PresentationZen.
Image from Garr Reynolds site PresentationZen
The book is very easy to read and provides useful insight from Garr as well as other experts in this area. So what is the book all about? Firstly it provides a great grounding why design matters for you presentations and secondly it goes into how you can improve your presentation design following some simple rules or guidelines. The book really makes you think about your presentation and how can they be improved. I think this is particularly important given the amount of presentations I have written, used and attended where text takes over the screen with the focus on this rather than the presenters. The good thing is over the last 2-3 years I have seen a change happen in technical presentations where less content in terms of text, bullet points and information overload.
Hopefully the presentations I give today are an improvement and will continue that way
The book can be found on Amazon here
Today was annual review day and needless to say it was a very mixed experience. My review actually went very well and I was very pleased initially. As usual with this time of year, new financial year, lots of senior people moving around and the decision to rejig the general organisation based on some ideas that may or may not be great we will have to wait and see. So why the mixed day you may ask?
OK lets look at the general circumstances and then lets look my interpretation which I can say that I am yet to be convinced, but I will wait to see how things pan out. So what has happened to the changes that have a direct impact on me.
Firstly is the question of will there be pay rises this year, so your first thoughts might be its difficult economy/times are hard etc etc. This argument has some merit, but pay rises are based on past performance and just may be pay rises should be budgeted on past performances and not potential performance of the future. Does that make sense?
Secondly playing with compensation packages causes stress and hassle to people, why don’t some people understand that humans hate change and find it difficult to change. After being in my current role for 15months and having 3 different compensation packages, the first never actually being used due to timings. I do find it fustrating with the one size fit all, but I am sure this is the same in all large organisations. So the big question I have is will I earn at least if not more than I did in 2008. Unfortunately I do not own a crystal ball neither do my managers so I will have to wait to see. But if I was a betting man (or at least any good at it) I was say no way for equal or more in 2009. I suppose the questions I have is how much is the potential and how realistic is t for us to acheived?
I am hoping for some round tables in the early part of the year to understand more and be allow to discuss further with the community.
I am hopeful that I will have another good year in 2009 one way or another. Having seen a number of economic downturns in my 20 plus years in IT there are always opportunities to have a prosperous time.
Rock on 2009
So have had my current 530d M Sport Touring for nearly 3months so thought that it would be good to write a review. First lets talk about some details on the car which is 3years old with approx 54K miles on the clock. This is the original 3l diesel engine with an auto gearbox. The car was fitted with the following options when original spec’d:
- Media Pack
- Visibility Pack
- Heated front seats
- Leather
- Auto Gearbox
- Folding mirrors
- Panoramic Sunroof
So top spec and very comfortable on long journeys. I must admit it has been a steep learning curve of owning my first auto, but now that I am use to it when I jump in the other half’s Civic I sometimes forget to depress the clutch, oops.
So I have cover around 4,000 miles and the engine is a peach and the lick down is amazing on the motorway. I must admit that recently most the miles have been in around town, but on Thursday a quick blast to Taunton for a meeting should be fun as long as the weather is not to icy or snowy.
I will take some pics and write an updated review soon.
