christopher-hill.com

CHOO CHOO!

OK, you can stop your whining now, I've taken some more pictures. They are taken around Matlock in Derbyshire - some are taken at Arkwright Mill, and there are some of the Peak Rail preservation line thing.

Monday, February 28, 2005 9:25 PM 0 comments

Last Photos

I hope the last photos that I ever take aren't anything like these.

Sunday, February 27, 2005 9:39 PM 0 comments

Yahoo in bed with Flickr?

Take a look at Yahoo.
Horrible isn't it?
So the thought that they may have bought Flickr fills me with dread.

Friday, February 25, 2005 11:45 AM 0 comments

SNOW DAY

It was like the dawn of the dead this morning. I pervasive quiet hung in the air, cars were carelessly abandoned in the middle. I trudged towards work wondering how many had been affected, infected. I turned a corner onto Northumberland Avenue and saw what must have been at least a hundred zombiefied students staggering down the middle of the road. I reached for my camera to capture the scene but then thought no, best to try and blend in. The truth is that if they'd known I had fresh brains, I would stand no chance, I had no weapon, nothing but a battered umbrella protecting me from the tainted frozen rain that continued to fall from the sky, like the ashes of humanity.
My initial instinct was to head to Meadowhall, surely there would be other survivors there, and we could barricade ourselves in, an oasis of salvation. But it was too far, too risky, so I decided to head to work as normal, all the while repeating the mantra that had been broadcast over the air waves non stop for the last 10 hours - "Remove the head or destroy the brain".

Update - 10AM. We seem to have a full house at work. The only person that hasn't made it is Tim. I suspect his zombified carcas is feasting on fresh brains somewhere in Crookes.

Update - 11AM. A number of us missed breakfast. It is the most important meal of the day so rather than risk going outside for food and being infected, we decided to eat Tony Ruscoe. He tastes like chicken. Thanks Tony - Thony.

Thursday, February 24, 2005 9:38 AM 1 comments

Time

There has been a noticeable lack of pictures from me lately. This is because my creative energies have gone into attempting to build a time machine. My research has led me to read a book in which the author posits the idea that time doesn't actually exist, and in fact every state that the universe can exist in exists simultaneously and that there are paths to and from these states, and that the only reason we experience the illusion of time passing is because "memory" of other states are encoded into each state. Despite the frightening consequences for our current understanding of Free Will that this would bring, and the Minority Report like world it could engender if exploited, it would certainly make my life easier if true, but so far it appears to be bollocks, as the author has offered little in the way of evidence. I suspect he came up with his idea and then wrote a load of crap to try and support it. Still, I have some way to go with the book yet, maybe there is some killer proof towards the end.

Tuesday, February 22, 2005 11:00 AM 1 comments

Wearable Warnings

OK, this is a Photo Blog, but seeing how today is the third anniversary of christopher-hill.com, I'll make a traditional post about some weird shit I've found on the internet.
As you all know, Nick's cat Jimmy is living with me until Nick & Rach find a cat friendly home in Edinburgh. And as you all also know, Nick's cat Jimmy is a gaysexual. Since I am his current parent or guardian and am responsible for his welfare, I have been training him to fight and hunt like a proper cat instead of poofing about and hiding at the first hint of trouble. He has been putting these skills to the test by catching mice and letting them loose in my lounge and by fighting with the stupid black cat that lives next door but one.
When he wanders in after a fight, one thing that always fascinates me is his tail. It grows to 3 times its normal girth. I grab him and inspect the tail and say "How do you do that? How do you manipulate the hairs that grow on your tail at will so as to make your appearance more formidable?" He just looks at me, he can't answer because he is a cat and they don't have the verbiage, but if he could answer he would explain that it is an automatic function of the feline sympathetic nervous system which he has no automatic control over, and that it is a similar kind of thing to how when us humans are threatened, the central nervous system pumps blood away from the skin to the muscles, aiding fight or flight. It is a simple product of natural selection in the animal kingdom, he would say.
Of course, humans are more intelligent than cats. We've invented things like cars and computers and automatic cork screws far beyond the capabilities of something a mere cat could dream up. We don't need to wait for natural selection to catch up with our needs we can just go out and create it ourselves. Which is exactly what these folks have done here.,

Tuesday, February 15, 2005 11:01 PM 0 comments

What is Adobe RGB and why should I care?

A primer on the Adobe RGB colour space from the new London-centric Photo Blog, the imaginatively named London Photobloggers. Read it, and then this quick tip about publishing to the web will make a lot more sense.

9:08 PM 0 comments

Tracing the Circle Line

The Tube holds an endless fascination with me, and even though I make no more than ten visits to London a year, I geekily swallow up any Underground related material the blog world throws up. This week, one of my favourite photo blogs - NYCLondon has begun a project to trace the Circle Line above ground, capturing it all on a pinhole camera.

Monday, February 14, 2005 9:09 PM 0 comments

Flickr Social Network Visualisation

Another cool Flickr toy. Someone has put together a nice little app for exploring contacts in Flickr. It's a bit sluggish, but a nice idea.

Thursday, February 10, 2005 11:34 PM 0 comments

Ditch the UV filter

It is generally accepted wisdom that if you have an SLR, you should place a UV filter on the lens to protect it, after all if you drop the camera on the lens, it would be cheaper to replace the UV filter than it would to replace the lens. However, this article convincingly argues that this wisdom may be out-dated.

Monday, February 07, 2005 10:50 PM 0 comments