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This is the third time the MPH Live Motor Show has been to Johannesburg. I attended the very first performance and wasn’t all that impressed. That was a reason to skip the second show in 2008. Even Clarkson deserves another chance though, so we got some tickets to view their latest spectacle.

All things considered, this was an entertaining event. The primary reason, in my opinion, was the inclusion of the audience. In fact, this seemed to be a carbon copy of the TV show, including the Cool Wall and a video game lap of the Top Gear circuit.

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I was eagerly watching the lab tab in my GMail settings, hoping to see the new offline feature appear. This morning, I saw that the new feature had been added and I immediately activated it.

Offline GMail utilizes Google Gears, a small framework that needs to be installed to the local machine. Wordpress and Google Docs are two online applications that make good use of providing synchronization features for both online and offline content. Google Gears works remarkably well in my experience. So far, I’ve been very impressed with the offline support it provides for GMail, too.

Once the offline GMail feature has been enabled in your settings a new link becomes available at the top of the screen.

To start using offline mail, click the link. This starts the installation of the local framework component necessary to synchronize mail messages. It also installs an icon to your desktop if that is required.

Once that’s been done, the synchronization process gets underway. In my case, I left it running. And, it’s still running There are many, many messages to download during the first run. The process can be stopped and started as required.

The Google team understands South African Internet access difficulties: Flaky Connection Mode must have been added just for us…

Offline access to the synchronized mail content is very speedy and the online experience is preserved. It’s a great feature to have and obviates the need to pull down mail messages into a dedicated mail client on different machines just in case one needs to refer to a specific mail message. The offline GMail feature has made the already indispensable GMail even more appealing!

There is no better thing than to combine one hobby with another. For me, that means hooking something up to a computer or utilizing a computer to expand on a hobby or pastime. The iPod Touch has really come into its own as a constant companion. Browsing through the application store, I found two rather interesting  applications in the photography section. Since I couldn’t really decide which of the two would be better than the other, I purchased both. In fact, they are complementary in many ways, even though certain features are provided by both.

PhotoBuddy provides a quick and easy way of calculating the most basic camera settings. These include exposure, depth of field and flashlight range. The interface is clean and uncluttered with an attractive interface for the depth of field determination. A database of SLR cameras is included to populate possible settings – my new EOS 5D Mark II is included.

Using the application is a pleasure – very few options and easy entry fields make getting the required information hassle-free. The exposure calculation is particularly pleasant to use: lock the field that is to be calculated by pressing the corresponding button, then twirl through the other two. The field to be calculated is adjusted based on the law of reciprocity.

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Apple has made the iTunes Store viewable in a standard browser, which is quite useful when one is interested in browsing through a few applications without having to launch iTunes. The look and feel of the page layout is very similar to that found in iTunes and it is possible to purchase content directly from this interface.

To download and integrate the purchased content or applications, the a target device or computer still has to be connected by way of iTunes. Launching iTunes directly is facilitated by means of a link on the page.

Access the web-based iTunes Store here.

What else would you do with a USD 3000 scanner than use it to build a really cool Lego model? Keith used a NextEngine Desktop 3D scanner to scan a toy Mario and create a 3D wireframe representation. Next, he approximated the shape using a standard Lego brick and then proceeded to build this fantastic 75cm rendition of the famous Nintendo mascot:

What a great addition to any room! The NextEngine scanner looks like a really cool toy, too. Pity about the price – I can think of a number of uses for this peripheral. Read more about the Mario design and build process here.

Sorting and organizing a digital music collection is a never ending saga. Since collecting digital media by fair means or foul is rather easy, collections tend to grow, even if more than 98% of the content of the library is never actually accessed…

iTunes is a great solution for maintaining a music library. The Drobo will provide a central storage area and all devices will gain access to a shared media repository. But it’s really nice to have a music library that’s organized and neat – track names, album art. You know what I’m talking about. Unfortunately, only a very tiny part of our music collection is properly tagged. I started looking around for a solution to assist me with the dreary task of getting album art down and even better, to assist in naming individual tracks to reflect their actual content. I found TuneUp, and am very impressed.

First off, TuneUp works in conjunction with iTunes on either Windows or the Mac. Other solutions are available if you are not using iTunes. I installed the trial on the MacBook – the plan is to handle small quantities on that platform, then merge them into the consolidated library over time. The TuneUp trial provides roughly 50 album art downloads and around about 500 track name corrections. When iTunes starts, TuneUp docks onto the main program window – on a small screen, some resizing of the windows is necessary, else TuneUp dissappears off the right-hand side of the screen.

Using TuneUp is very simple. Starting with album art, the application runs through the track information it finds in iTunes and attempts to match the corresponding album cover art to the tracks. In my trial run I found the matches accurate on almost every occasion. Obviously, the application requires sufficient information from the tracks. If these are named Track01, for example, there is little chance of matching any artwork.

The identification of track names is the feature that sold the product to me. I immediately bought the life-long license for USD 28. It’s well worth it, though it’s a pity that the license is tied to the machine on which the application has been installed. I had a compilation CD I had ripped during the holiday. Not knowing all the track names, I had iTunes utilize the Trackxx naming convention. To analyze and name tracks, the relevant tracks need to be marked in iTunes and dragged onto the TuneUp window. Since this is an intensive operation, the application recommends that fewer than 500 tracks be selected at a time. I selected and dragged the 18 tracks, then watched in anticipation.

I was pleasantly surprised to discover that only three tracks could not be identified – all others were augmented with decent metadata and album art. The process involves the detection of each tracks’ signature. Each signature is uploaded and matched against those in an online database. If a match is found, the application retrieves the necessary data and adds it into the media file. The remaining tracks require manual intervention, but the amount of work is substantially reduced.

The end-result is a much better looking iTunes library!

If you require a solution to assist you with the maintenance of metadata for a music collection in iTunes, TuneUp may well be the right solution for you. Best of all, the metadata is written directly into the media files, making the migration to a different player or library management possible at any time.

There are some books whose end cannot be reached soon enough, not because of their fascinating content, but because of their inability to get to the point. Then, there are books like Outliers, where the end is reached too quickly. These are the books one wishes could continue in the same vein, providing fascinating facts and tidbits that make for interesting conversation and provide food for thought.

In scientific terms, an outlier is something that lies outside of normal experiences, or is extraordinary. In his book, Gladwell proposes a number of theories that are intended to make us reconsider how we view and evaluate success in individuals. Examining a variety of professionals, Gladwell initial indicates the 10000 hour rule, supported by a number of studies. The theory is that any individual has the ability to be successful at anything, provided at least 10000 hours of practice in the specific area of expertise has taken place. So, anyone has the ability to play an instrument in a prestigious orchestra, for example. The amount of practice is what matters. Coupled to the 10000 hours of practice, it is furthermore individual circumstance that dictates success. The Beatles had the opportunity (or initial misfortune) of having to play the same songs over and over again in a variety of seedy Hamburg pubs. This, together with their arrival in Hamburg, due to fortunate circumstances led them to eventually become successful.

Bill Gates and a number of other silicon valley enterpeneurs were able to make a success out of their business simply by being born during the 1950’s. Of course, the birth during a particular time is not enough to guarantee success. Gates specifically had access to computers during a time when those very expensive machines were scarce and access to them very expensive.

Outliers provides numerous other examples of how the environment, time and place play an important role in how successful individuals or groups of people are. It’s a fascinating book that places success in a totally different light.

I promise that this will be last post in a little while regarding some form of milestone – the past week has seen the 25th anniversary of the Mac and the 50th anniversary of the Canon SLR. Today marks the beginning of the countdown from 500 days downwards to the beginning of the 2010 World Cup tournament.

Officials are adamant that the construction projects for the various venues are on track and will be completed on time. The middle of this year will put some of that to the test when the Confederations Cup gets going as a dress-rehearsal.

Overall, there is not as much excitement in the air as I would have expected. Given the general nature of mankind, waking up to the fact of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa a day or two before the event will be the norm, I expect. So: less than 500 days to go…

As a convert to the Apple world, it would be remiss of me not to mention a special anniversary: 25 years ago on 24 January, the first Macintosh was revealed.

The Apple Macintosh was the company’s flagship product and was the first commercially succesful computer to include a mouse and a graphical user interface.

Though not all products Apple manufactured turned into runaway successes, their track record speaks for itself.

Here’s hoping for another 25 years of innovation!

2009 marks the year that Canon celebrates its 50th year producing SLR cameras. The sale of the very first Canon SLR took place in 1959.

To date, in excess of 53 million SLR cameras have been produced, ranging from the first film SLR’s all the way to today’s digital models. The very first truly digital SLR was produced in the year 2000 – that was the D30, which marked the beginning of the Digital EOS range of cameras.

More on Canon SLR’s 50th anniversary here.