Vince's Mutterings

There is no industry standard definition of “smart phone”, per se, but the term is used to describe a device that allows you to make voice telephone calls, but also includes advanced features, such as email, or word processing, more often associated with a PDA (”Personal Digital Assistant”) or an ultra portable laptop. Smart phones rely on mobile, or handheld, operating systems for their operation, and there are many different variants – BlackBerry, Palm OS, Nokia Symbian, Windows Mobile, etc. – although applications are typically not interchangeable between the various platforms. Smart phone are becoming increasingly important for business, and personal, use and some analysts predict that sales could increase by anything up to 30% during 2009.

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Having purchased a Canon EOS 1000d late last year it came with a voucher worth £50 off a course at Experience Seminars who have been providing Canon dedicated training for the past 10 years. Although they do a course specifically for those new to the 1000d, they advised me to skip this as I have been using a camera for a number of years and had already worked out the full auto and pic modes available to make life easy on the 1000d. The course they advised was the Understanding your Digital EOS part 1 – Basic Overrides, which run from their Huntingdon base came in at a very respectable £49 after discount. They also run the same course from a number of other locations around the UK (e.g. Cheltenham, Euston, Manchester, Edinburgh amongst others) but at approx £50 more.

The Huntingdon centre is a converted farm with ample parking for the courses and (if the the weather is helpful) some picturesque scenery around for some landscape practice sessions. The tutor on the day (Ian) was very friendly and although teaching around 25 delegates, made time to ensure we all understood the concepts. His joking style also helped me through some of the more complicated topics like depth of field and how to calculate which settings to use for which environment. At the start of the course he also took the time to enquire what we all planned to use our cameras for, and then to tailor some of the examples to these uses.

This initial course covered using the creative modes (P, Av, Tv, M and A-DEP) to get the most out of the camera. Also covered was why lens choice also played a large part in ensuring we got good pictures. The nice part was he did not try and thrust the need for us all to go out and buy the latest greatest L-series Canon lenses (hint – these can cost many £1000). He explained that whilst the kit lens is not the best in the world, it is still an excellent lens for the money (and probably will be for many of us for the foreseeable future). The basic explanation was that Canon – like most manufacturers – produce 3 types of lens – a budget lens (silver stripe) and top end lens (L-Series) and the middle of the range lens (gold stripe). As someone who has dealt with electronics (well computers) for a number of years, this theory holds and makes sense as it allows the manufacturer to produce a product for everyone from the entry level student through to the hot shot professional. I will probably be in the silver stripe range for quite some time until I am confident of my own skills and need a better lens on the camera.

As the course went on we covered many of the possible overrides and what changes to these makes to the camera (like changing the ISO speed to something much higher can introduce so much ‘noise’ as to make a photograph unusable. This helped refresh my memory from days gone by when I used a film SLR camera. After lunch the course (a light buffet is provided as part of the course) seemed to get easier – perhaps as I began to remember some of the terminology used and how different changes cause different effects. Ian also showed us some neat tricks to taking pictures from behind fences and also a very neat trick which actually produced a picture which appeared to show a ghost on the image.

Overall I was very impressed with the course, and have since booked to go on the second part of the course where some of the more advance overrides are covered. There are 2 further parts (3 – using the flash and 4 is software) which at present I do not really feel the need to take as I am not planning on using these features too heavily.

For those who are not lucky enough to have a discount voucher, it is possible to buy both part 1 and part 2 of this course for a discounted price, with an even larger discount available for those who want to book parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 together. I would highly recommend those new to digital SLR Canon photography to take at least part 1 of the course to help them get the most out of the camera. Personally I learnt more in 1 day here than I did in reading months of magazines and dedicated camera books (I have a couple of books dedicated to the 1000d/Rebel XS/Kiss F).

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Its been a long time since my last update and this one is going to be a little bit of a review post for a new SatNav I am now using on my HTC Touch HD – a Windows Mobile phone that is not easy to get a working SatNav solution as it uses an unusual WVGA (480X800) resolution. The program in question is called McGuider 2009 from TeleAtlas which uses Sygic Drive as its core application and comes with maps from Summer 2008. Unusually it not only runs on Windows Mobile devices but also has programs to run on Symbian devices. Costs for McGuider start from £39 for a DVD and £59.99 for a 4GB micro SDHC card with full European maps. I have also created a user support site for the product here since I experienced virtually none existent support from TeleAtlas and sporadic support from Sygic themselves.

The first thing most people will notice about the application is how similar some of the functions are to TomTom Navigator, which has been largely abandoned for the aftermarket. This helps people migrate from the aging TTN6 with its very out of date maps without a steep learning curve. Since TomTom also own TeleAtlas it can also be assumed that TomTom are probably going to be using McGuider as the replacement. Navigating using McGuider is simple and routes can be chosen from postal addresses, post codes (in supported countries) , points of interest (custom ones are supported as well as the built in ones), points on a map and full co-ordinates. Route calculation speed is not the fastest and long distances can take 2-4 minutes to calculate, but once calculated there is no noticeable lag between current position and listed map position. McGuider gives a highest priority to major roads meaning many minor road shortcuts are missed.  This is good for local residents but does mean you sometimes drive further following McGuider routes than you would with other satnavs. The eta timings are also very ambitious as they appear to use the speed limit of the road instead of more realistic speeds. From experience I now add about 15% to the listed times to get a more accurate eta. More »

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I’ve added some pictures from my recent holiday in Poole. There are some landscape pictures but the vast most are from a day trip to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu. As a motor car fan, this was the highlight of the holiday for me – getting up close to a vast range of vehicles, dating from the turn of the century to the modern day. The full gallery can be seen in my Picture Gallery.

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Sometimes I am left wondering just what sport is coming to, with an ever increasing political nature – both in politicians trying to get into the ‘feel good’ factor created by sport (and as witnessed recently at the Olympics after TeamGB’s record medal haul) and also with the increasingly political nature of the sport itself.

This was shown in its truest form after the Belgium Grand Prix last weekend. True fans witnessed some superb driving from the likes of Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis Hamilton (as well as both drivers making a couple of rookie errors). The way Kimi controlled the bulk of the race from the front showed why he has deserved his crown of World Champion for many years (just a shame he only managed to achieve this accolade last year when at Ferrari). This was then followed by a masterclass in wet weather driving from Lewis, as the rain fell in the final few laps of the race. Unfortunately for race fans, the faceless bureaucrats that call themselves stewards robbed Lewis of a well deserved win. He was by far the best driver over the whole race and was substantially quicker than everyone else on slick tyres for the last 2 laps. These stewards decided that Lewis had transgressed the rules and deserved a 25 second penalty as he was forced across the bus-stop chicane whilst dicing with Kimi for the lead. This despite him giving the place he gained in the process back to Kimi and also McLaren seeking assurance from FIA delegate Charlie Whiting that Lewis had done enough when he gave the place back.

This decision also makes me wonder what the reason for Charlie Whiting is if the local track stewards can overrule the FIA delegate, who should know the F1 rules better than anyone else. It is not the first time that McLaren have been penalised like this during the course of this year either.

Also questions need to be asked about the level of penalty given to different drivers for different offences. From recent verdicts it appears it is now fine to nearly cause a pile up at the exit of the pit lane (where there are many different team personnel, media, officials and an assortment of official vehicles (Ferrari’s Massa only got a slapped wrist for this in Spain) but racing in some difficult conditions and some displays of top quality driving & overtaking are now deemed beyond the rules. I find it hard to believe that the treatment being dished out does not have a political motive as well. It is well known the FIA favour Ferrari over everyone else and this now appears to be passed through into racing penalties. The end result can only harm Formula 1 in the longer term as viewers start walking away from the sport to less politically motivated racing (BTCC, WSB, MotoGP etc) and with them also go the sponsors, required to provide the multi million £ budgets a modern F1 team needs.

I personally call on all the major factory teams to walk away from F1 as long as it is controlled by its Ferrari loving leaders and set up a breakaway championship. Maybe then we might see some closer races and also get back to the more friendly racing of old.

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Well after a manic week after the decision was taken to prepare a new Saxo for racing this year, everything seemed to cold slowly and we got no further than stripping out the donor car. As yet no clear route for racing next year has been decided which is a shame as it would be nice to have time to prep the car rather than the usual mad rush a few weeks before the first race.

In the intervening time though I have been helping Matt with his karting. This year he has been comepeting in a few championships and race weekends at Little Rissington and Shenington. Although karting is fun, for me it is a bit of a let down compared to car racing I have been involved in for the past couple of years. The team have ambitions next year to race in Gineta G50’s, as long as a budget can be found to run them. These are really good cars which would test both Matt and the team to the limit. I really do hope more money can be found for next year to allow Matt to go racing, but in this time of economic uncertainty I do have doubts whether any large enough sponsors can be found.

As always, anyone who is interested in Matt or the team, please contact me for more info.

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After two hard years helping a local racing team (MVRacing) running a race prepared Citroen Saxo VTR in the Saxmax junior racing championship, the team took the decision to not race this year as there was no budget available. This wasn’t helped by a very difficult year last year when we were unable to race in all events due to lack of funds and a car that was in need to work which again there was insufficient budget to perform. Since this decision though (and the selling of last years car), Matt (15)- the driver -  has been racing in RotaxMax karts, but longs for a return to the circuit racing Saxmax offered.

On Wednesday a decision was taken to build a new car with the aim of completing as many races this year as possible. Unfortunately we are unlikely to make the next round since it is only 4 weeks away and we are only just starting to strip the car in preparation for the roll cage to be fitted. The budget will again be tight as we currently have no sponsors but the are now actively searching for companies looking for a cheap way into motorsport promotion. We can offer promotion on the car and team website, use of the team and car for other marketing (please bear in mind that Matt is still at school so this kind of work will need to fit in around his education) & chances to enjoy a day at the races – meeting the team and watching many different racing formulas. Typically we race at many of the UKs finest circuits including Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and Donington Park.

If you are interested in supporting the team and wish to discuss any proposals further please contact me – initially by email to vince[at]marsters.co.uk.

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I’ve nearly finished creating a new website for a friend and local motor sport enthusiast Joy Rainey. This time it is to promote her latest ‘mad’ adventure of driving from San Francisco to New York in a 1904 Oldsmobile. The website is built around the excellent Wordpress blogging software with a number of plugins to provide enganced functionality, in much the same way this one is. I’m interested to know what you think of it so please let me know.

The trip itself should take around 5 weeks in total, covering approximately 4000 miles at an average speed of only 20-25mph. Whilst modern cars are all enclosed, the 1904 Oldsmobile is completely open with limited feature comforts so the trip should be interesting as the planned route covers both high and low areas of the States.

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