Anyway, i’m impressed by it. I’m still discovering little features it has which are just cool… for example, it has a high speed burst mode which captures approx 2.3 images per second at 10 megapixels. It can take more at lower resolutions however… That means nothing of course without examples, so here is an example of what that means in real life…

This is just a video i found on youtube of a formula 1 car on a qualifying lap. I just put it full screen and then took pictures of my monitor with my camera Unknown to me, the photos actually included the lap time in 10ths of a second which is great because i could work out very accurately how many photos the tz7 can take per second in burst mode

It took pictures at

• 25.6
• 25.7
• 25.8
• 26.0
• 26.1
• 26.2
• 26.4
• 26.5
• 26.6
• 26.8
• 26.9

So you can see a pattern emerge there – it can take approx 3 pics every 4/10’s of a second. That’s at a 3mb resolution, it takes less as you raise the resolution… but 3mb is more than adequate, unless you’re printing them off…

This will be a very handy feature for me combined with the 12 x optical zoom when at football matches for example… let’s say there is a penalty awarded – i’ll be able to capture the before, after and everything in between the ball sitting still and hitting the back of the net. With a traditional camera, you had to have precision timing to capture the ball hitting the net as you only had one shot at it…

Anyway, here’s some shots which demonstrate the tz7’s zoom and focus quality. There’s no way i’d intentionally get this close up to a wasp in real life, but with the tz7, i could get close up whilst moving away from the window at the same time

And sticking with the bugs theme, here’s a daddy long legs (it’s probably not, but it looks like one) against a cloudy sky. These guys are so thin that i didn’t think the tz7 would be able to focus on it against the background, but it was… no problem.

I’ve yet to really capture any HD video that’s worthy of going up online but hopefully i’ll get some up shortly. So as reviews go, this isn’t the best but hopefully it shows you a glimpse of what the TZ7 can do and why i bought it.

Related posts:

1. Another dash cam video on the way..
2. October 2009 Review
3. Dash cam on the way..

photo credit: douglemoine

Anyway, 4 months on, and the site is averaging exactly 500 unique visits & over 1000 pageviews per month. 89% of that traffic comes from search engines and the average user spends over 3 minutes on the site.

Is that ‘good’? Well it’s more than i’d have expected. That traffic is consistent too, which makes it all the more interesting. The fact that 89% of it is coming from google shows you that i’m giving people something they want. The fact they spend 3 minutes + on the site shows that they’re pretty happy with what they find.

Content wise, i’d say that the site is about 5% ‘finished’. If i were to sit down and double or triple content, i’ve no doubt traffic would increase too. The problem of course is finding the time and energy to sit down and add content regularly. It’s something i’ll have to try and do though at some stage…

This is a good example of a ‘hit and run’ website where you just build it and just forget about it… some work out, some don’t, but until you actually build it and get it out there, you’ll never know.  The hit and run approach isn’t good long term, but it is useful to test the waters.

Related posts:

1. BeerChief now in development
2. too easy, challenge me!
3. another new site in development

photo credit: Captain Nandu Chitnis

In my first few weeks in college (1st year), i noticed straight away that although i had to travel an hour to get in to college, i had better attendance than people who actually lived close by. Why does that matter? Well i’ve done no research and have no proof to back it up, but i’m guessing that there’s a link between being in classes and passing subjects.

As simple as it sounds and as much as i take it for granted, simply getting out of bed and driving to and from college everyday is *probably* the most important / difficult thing i have to do every day – not because it’s mentally challenging, but because it would be so easy to just skip a day here and there or go in late etc… Over time, that would have a cumulative effect and could be the difference between passing and failing exams.

After all, nobody checks attendance, nobody cares what marks you get etc… so being self-motivated is a really crucial part of college life. It is very much like my one post a day policy on this blog. Nobody but myself cares or checks that, but i know deep down that it’s a good habit to get in to. Blogging forces me to think and to write – both of which can only improve my own knowledge and understanding of things, ability to get points across etc…

Miss one day of blogging, and the chain is broken. The wheels stop. It takes much more energy to move a wheel from a standing point than it does to move it when it’s already in motion so that’s why i always try to keep the content flowing around here.

Applying that same attitude to everything is very difficult though – probably impossible. If you can stick at every single project and task thrown at you without flinching, then you’re probably a computer So all we can do is prioritise things and try to stick at the important stuff… right now that’s college for me.

Related posts:

1. right, let’s get things moving
2. keeping myself busy
3. breaking my 4 day silence

Because twitter is such hot property right now, hardcore users and social media experts are scrambling to come up with useful /innovative ways of using this new feature. It’s the same with any new product or feature… whether it’s for an iphone, google wave, facebook api’s…. being first to master them gives you greater opportunities.

Anyway, the main ‘problem’ with twitter lists is that you’re limited to 500 people per list and 20 lists per account. I’m still trying to come up with a useful list and think outside the box with this new feature… in the mean time i’ve started a few lists on other twitter accounts i own.

For example on twitter.com/theleavingcert, i’ve created a list called ‘colleges‘ and in it i intend to list every college in Ireland that’s on twitter. The same with ‘schools‘ and so on… you get the idea.

Why is this useful? Well it saves people time and energy… leaving cert students want to check out colleges, they might want to check out useful sites etc… so if i can organise lists, my own twitter account becomes useful not necessarily for the stuff i tweet, but for the lists i’ve created.

Rather than follow dozens of colleges individually, they can just follow my list of colleges and unfollow that list whenever they want with one click – easy. It’s a bit like having the ability to create 20 folders on a desktop with up to 500 files in each folder. Up until now, all we could do was create 2000 files in the one folder.

So although this seems like a pretty small and meaningless feature, it’s actually a really useful one for the hardcore twitter users. Up until now, we’ve relied on third party apps (the likes of tweetdeck) to help organize the endless flow of information.

Related posts:

1. i’m on twitter!
2. twitter taking over the world
3. twitter better than any lecturer

Here’s an example of some of the stuff i have coming up in November….

photo credit: gagilas

November 4th (Tomorrow): Broadband Test.

The subject i shouldn’t have. It’s basically ‘networking’ which is a subject i don’t specialise in. If i wanted to specialise in networking, i’d have chosen the dedicated ‘networking’ course, rather than my chosen area of ‘applications’.

In first year, both ‘networking’, ‘applications’ and ’software’ are combined in to a common first year which is grand. Smart move as it helps people decide what they want to branch off in to. Why, in third year, i’ve got a subject which is 100% networking is beyond me. Of course i need to know about networks, but the stuff we’re doing is overkill as it’s geared towards people who actually like / want a career in networking.

November 5th:Training & Support – Helpdesk Report

Have to download & install helpdesk software and compare the two. Sounds easy but we have to configure them to carry out certain functions which none are capable of carrying out Also have to give a short presentation on this on November 12th.

November 6th: Systems Admin Test.

It’s all about installing servers and hooking up clients, getting them to talk to each and that sort of stuff. Useful subject, but usually comes with plenty of little frustrating problems.

November 9th: Database test.

It’s a multiple choice exam – the ‘black ice’ of exams – on the face of it, it seems easy – you either know the answer or can find it by knowing what ISN’T the answer. On the flip side, i find that i know most of the answers but get fooled by answers which are very similar… these type of exams are not good for ’skimmers’ like myself who skim the entire course without actually knowing anything in great detail.

November 17th: Database Group Project

As part of our databases module, we must complete a group report on a chosen topic. We also have to present it. Shouldn’t be too bad… group work isn’t a problem when the group is strong and motivated.

November 23rd: asp.net web application

As part of my web applications module, i have to build a fully functional website with a shopping cart and submit it by November 23rd. The fact i’m forced in to using microsoft access and visual studio to create it shows that we’re not exactly embracing open source technologies and when you look at it, we’re completely reliant on windows based software & servers which takes the fun out of this project and subject.

So it’ll be a tough month, but i will have a nice 3 day break in Paris in the middle of it all

Related posts:

1. christmas exams
2. November 2008 recap
3. 3rd year hear i come!