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I’ve been using Google Maps for a while and they really are good! Many a bored moment I would spend visiting Google Sightseeing, fascinated by the weird and wonderful images of the world, and all from the comfort of my computer.

Integrating a map into a site is fairly straight forward so I decided to have a look at my Yorkshire Dales Photos site and map out the locations of each photo. I’ve not finished them all but here is a sneaky peak - photo locations. The JS is a bit untidy and what I should really do is create a kml file which can then be plugged into Google Earth. Unfortunately my lowly laptop struggles to run it so I’ll have to wait for a nice shiny new one to play with that, whenever that will be!

Another sheep picture.

I’ve had my digital SLR camera for a while now and it still serves me well. It’s been around the world with me and I’ve taken over 15,000 photos with it. However there have been times when it’s just been a bit too bulky to take out and it’s in these situation where you want to capture those drunken moments on camera rather than having to rely on your memory which may be hazy at best the morning after. It’s then when I think a compact would have been ideal and I’ve been contemplating getting one for ages.

Being a bit of a gadget geek, I’ve been following their progress for the past few years and manufacturers seem to be cramming more megapixels into smaller devices which is quite simply incredible. I read somewhere a while ago that the digital camera is one of the most complex and technological devices there is and I can believe it.

I already own a decent camera so have been convincing myself that I don’t need another one. However, cameras started appearing on mobile phones and whilst impressive, I was never overly satisfied with the quality. But as always technology progresses and better phones are now coming with 3.2 and 5+ megapixel cameras as standard . I remember when the then new Canon Ixus camera was 3.2 megapixels which I thought was amazing.

So I succombed and bought a new phone (with, count them, 3.2 megapixels) and have been testing the camera out to see how it performs and (unfairly) compares with my trusty 300D. See if you can guess which pictures below were taken with which camera.

It’s been a while so I thought I would ease you in gently with a nice cow picture. Expect more stuff soon.

This time last year…

When it hasn’t been raining (and it hasn’t been that bad over the last few weeks, honest!) the sky at night has been pretty clear. It was great for meteor spotting last week when the annual Leonids meteor shower took place. The peak of activity was meant to take place early morning of the 19th but we found a dark place to view the sky on the evening of the 17th and we were not disappointed. With short stints out in the cold, we managed to see 2 shooting stars and about a dozen flashes in the sky which looked like sheet lightening.

Whilst viewing I was also amazed to see how many other objects were in the sky, namely planes, at any one time. Well I presume they were planes although we are quite close to Menwith Hill so they could have been anything…

Well, not very good cricket by the England team at the moment. Let’s hope that Steve Harmison’s first bowl doesn’t set the tone for the England team performance for the rest of the matches.