Rising Dawn

Read me first: Taking your laptop into the US? Be sure to hide all your data first | Technology | The Guardian
Last month a US court ruled that border agents can search your laptop, or any other electronic device, when youre entering the country. They can take your computer and download its entire contents, or keep it for several days.

Another initiative to restrict our freedoms in an effort to protect them. How far do they have to go before we are so protected and safe that life becomes not only dull but run by an elite few? If they have my data, they could notionally run my life. 

I’m a fan of the Jack Reacher novels written by Lee Child. Reacher lives on the road. No address, no phone, no ID, no bank account. He’s virtually untraceable - apart from being 6′5″ and having a knack of being at the centre of big trouble!! He has something to teach us who live on social networking sites, blogs and email lists with login details and profiles that stretch deep into cyberspace. Having your data downloaded is only of concern to those who have data. We all know that most of the people these measures are aimed at don’t carry data. 

Are the “authorities” tightening this net simply because they can and they have to be seem to be doing something. It’s all pointless if the fish they are trying to catch are swimming in different ocean off another coast.

Only geeks will understand - but this is what tipped out of the Crumpler Bag I usually carry around with me.  For a detailed breakdown of all you see here go to Flickr

I have just upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress. This one is 2.5. I followed the instructions and everything seemed to work fine.

Three Step Upgrade

These are the short instructions, if you want more check out the extended upgrade instructions. If you experience problems with the Three Step Upgrade, you may want to review the more detailed upgrade instructions.

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I have six Mac Mini’s that I use in my digital storytelling workshops. Before each workshop when I update the software to the latest version one thing always impresses me. They are fast. I’m not talking about Intel Core 2 versions. They are three year old Power PC models with 1.42MHz processors.

Of course, they would be relatively slow on a benchmarking test, but they start quickly, open the iLife apps fast and generally get on with the job at a respectable pace. (more…)

It looks really good too.

BBC Internet Blog - BBC iPlayer On iPhone: Behind The Scenes
Today was a big day for BBC iPlayer: its the day that it first became available on a portable device. BBCiPlayer is now available on iPhone and iPod touch.

If you’re a bit techie like me, it’s worth reading the whole article.

I love Thursday because it’s Guardian Technology day. Today, regular writer, Jack Schofield, tries to dispel the myth of mega pixels and cameras. (more…)

I’m a radio junkie - not surprising for a broadcast journalist and former BBC Local Radio editor, but my interest in radio began with what many call Ham Radio although the UK hobbyists prefer to call it Amateur Radio. I still have my call sign, G4VRU, which was secured through a series of exams which included tests in morse code and the fine detail of the GPO licensing laws as well as technical tests.

Last week I received an invitation to renew my membership of the Radio Society of Great Britain. My membership probably lapsed in the early 1980s so my knowledge of the hobby is at least 25 years out of date.

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The appearance of the links entry is witness to the success of my tinkering with the delicious function daily blog post. I have to thank another blogger Natalie Downe for posting her guide. Thanks Natalie

Mmmmm … this is proving more tricky than the delicious site implied. So far each attempt has fiiled the report page with error messages. Having trawled the advice of a number of Wordpress/delicious users I think I may have stumbled on the solution. I’ll have to wait until after 7pm to find out if I have it right. There is no way to force delicious to post the links, I have to wait for the next hour as post times can only be incremented an hour at a time. 

It’s time to revive the Rising Dawn blog. A new address and a new piece of software - Wordpress. If all goes well my delicious bookmarks should upload here each day - so that you can see what has interested me. My tag cloud will betray what a geek I can be. I have a category called techead which is basically anything technical that catches my eye.