Birthday boy

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Presents to the left of him, presents to the right of him...

Liam's head is spinning on Christmas morning .

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evening walk

in hiding

New video of Liam

In which Liam enthusiastically explores Segment 3 of Dominica's new Waitukubuli National Trail.

Waiting for the party to begin

Waterlogged

Gardens

Cricket in The Gardens

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Liam and the stones

Or see http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0Whe2LjM_AAQMpnFSyGo3Q?feat=directlink

Sent from a Motorola phone

Having fixed the derailment, Liam is well chuffed with himself

Hello Android, goodbye Blackberry!

Like leaving Facebook, many say that ditching one's BB is unthinkable, undo-able. At least changing phones isn't a Hotel California-type experience.

My move wasn't done consciously - I was interested in several BB models, but having been offered a deal on a Motorola Milestone (Android), and liking the reviews, I made the move. And I'm glad I did. While it's not the latest of it's kind (the Droid 2, and Android 2.2, have been out a while) it's a brilliant phone, for many reasons.

The Motorola Milestone runs the Linux-based Android operating system.

Pros
As you'd expect from a system owned by Google, it's tightly integrated with all Google products. (Hint: clear up your Google Contacts before using your phone for the first time!). Gmail and Google Calendar, obviously, but also Picasa photo albums, Google Maps, GTalk, YouTube, etc.

It also has it's Apps Market - around 70,000 applications to enhance your phone. And this is one of the exciting things about the phone, thousands for free apps. I was never enamoured of the Blackberry AppsWorlds. What's more, I can write my own now!

I love the 'massive' screen - at 3.7 inches and 854x480 pixel resolution, using the phone is a real pleasure.

While I do like having a slide-out keyboard, I've no complaints about the on-screen keyboard and rarely use the physical keyboard.

This is the first phone I've had with wi-fi, and combining this with apps that can tell when you're close and connect to a preferred wi-fi spot is a awesome ability. Not unique to the Android for sure, but powerful all the same.

Cons
I was surprised by a battery life considerably less than my old Blackberry. On the other hand, this is less a phone and more of a micro-netbook. So you could look at is as 2 days battery life for a netbook is pretty good. This is for sure the first phone that I would use to replace the laptop on non-business trips!

The 2.1 version of Android has a few issues with it's camera - a long delay between pressing the shutter and actually taking the photo is annoying, as is a 7-pixel wide streak down the edge of landscape photos. Otherwise, the camera (and camcorder) is fine, and the Vignette App (see later) is wonderful.

Tips
A good document for new users is PC World's Android guide. A simple overview article has a link to a value-for-money (US$12.00) 'Power Guide'.

There are several good apps listings/review sites; I'd recommend http://www.appbrain.com (why use it? http://lifehacker.com/5686385/why-you-should-use-appbrain-to-install-and-manage-your-android-apps).

Must-have (and free) apps

There really is 'an app for that', from eye-candy to utilities that leverage the power of the phone. And so many are free. While the official App Market won't let you buy paid apps in all countries,some apps let you buy their app via PayPal outside of the AppMarket.

Above: my alternate home screen with apps 'LauncherPro', old-fashioned digital clock, and custom wallpaper.

Recommended Apps:

LauncherPro - home screen replacement
Barcode scanner - great for traditional line barcodes but also awesome for the newer QR Codes
Astro file manager
Lookout - anti-virus, find-lost-phone app
Vignette - great photo effects app. Free version's only limitation is images are saved at a low-resolution.

Vignette app photo

And one must-have paid app: Tasker
While there's often an application especially for system tasks, you can end up with a dozen apps to tweak your system.  Tasker is a easy-to-use scripting app. that will replace many task-focused apps. For example I use Tasker to turn the ringer down between 7pm and 7am, or to mute the ringer when I flip the phone face down.


The Motorola Milestone is available from Digicel.

Cultural group

At the Cultural Gala

Liam cleans up after Hurricane Tomas

Liam on Creole in the Park

Liam says there wasn't enough mud.

Liam in his new outfit

Liam with his Granddad

Liam 'in' the pool

Rudyard Lake

Liam at play

Announcing the ISC: International Spamming Commission

Recognising the danger of uncontrolled spam, we are pleased to announce the formation of the International Spamming Commission. Key regulatory measures will definitely include:

• complete protection of certain species of spam; 
• designate specified areas as spam sanctuaries; 
• set limits on the numbers and size of spam;
• prescribe open and closed seasons and areas for spamming;

Being nice guys, we do recognise the need for, and will allow, Aboriginal Subsistence Spamming. They will of course also be spamming for research purposes. (Or should that be... wait for it... porpoises!).

Stay tuned for more developments!

And the inheritances just keep flowing in...

Am I a lucky man or what? This from none other than the Prime Minister of the UK:

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
TREASURY AND MINISTER FOR
THE CIVIL SERVICE,LONDON,
UNITED KINGDOM.

Our ref: BRT/1370/IDR
Your ref:...17/07/2010

I Rt Hon David Cameron MP,Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service British Government wish to inform you of your Inheritance Payment from British Government.Through my investigations and verification process on our Intelligent Monitoring Unit(I.M.U),i discovered that the Funds value(£2,000,000.00)Two Million Great British Pounds is tagged to your name with File #:BRT/1370/033, so this prompted the British Government, order the release of this Funds to you with immediate effect.

Great British Pounds indeed! This one I shall definitely follow up on. And please don't tell anyone else, since I have been warned:

TAKE NOTICE: That you are warned to stop further communications with any other person(s) or office(s) different from the staff of the State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to avoid hitches in receiving your payment.

Oh Nigeria!

Knocked out of the World Cup, and still churning out the spam-scam e-mails. Here's one I just got:

Hello  ,

I work with Oaks Court Chambers - United Kingdom. I got your contacts through the Office of Public Sector Information and Information Commissioner's Office.

There Is a possibility that you may be related to My late client, whom this Chambers owes a legal obligation. You may or may not be related to my client and If so, I will still workout the modalities of transferring heredity of his fund still under my custody at the finance house in Europe to you as Beneficiary

Could I indeed be in for a windfall? By viewing the headers 'inside' the e-mail, we gain an insight to the apparent route the e-mail has taken from sender to lucky recipient. Headers show details such as:

Received: from oaklawfirm@lawyer.com
    by imo-da03.mx.aol.com  (mail_out_v42.9.) id 3.c2d.7dc33f6f (55731);
    Wed, 7 Jul 2010 11:46:11 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from smtprly-de03.mx.aol.com (smtprly-de03.mx.aol.com

By tracing back the 'received from' IP addresses we can find the origin. However, there's a good online tool that simplifies the process. http://whatismyipaddress.com/trace-email will let you paste headers, and returns the geographic origin of the e-mail, thus:


Source:

The source IP address is 83.229.101.69.

Geo-Location Information
Country Nigeria

Permutations from the so called 'Group of Life'

So this is what it comes down to:

England win, USA win: Both qualify, and biggest winning margin finishes top.

England win, USA draw: England 1st, Slovenia 2nd.

England win, USA lose: England 1st, Slovenia or Algeria 2nd.

England draw, USA win: Slovenia and USA qualify.

England draw, USA draw: USA likely to qualify with Slovenia, having scored more goals than England, unless...

England draw 2-2, USA draw 0-0: means drawing lots.

England draw, USA lose: Slovenia 1st, Algeria 2nd.

England lose, USA win: Slovenia 1st, USA 2nd.

England lose, USA draw: Slovenia 1st, USA 2nd.

England lose, USA lose: Slovenia 1st, Algeria 2nd.

When volcanic ash settles

Feb 11 dome collapse,
photo Montserrat Volcano Observatory

Western Europe's current problem with volcanic ash echoes a recent Caribbean experience - the February dome collapse of the Montserrat volcano, which spewed ash over the eastern Caribbean islands of Dominica, Guadeloupe and even over to Barbados, cancelling flights, and dusting everything with ash.

'it really me'

I recently received what was obviously a 'Nigerian scam' type email; sadly it was a version of the scam which comes from a legitimate but hacked email address ('I was robbed in London, please wire me lots of funds to get home'), and because I've seen it before, I called the person to alert them that the scam was using their email address. So imagine my surprise when the person started an IM chat session with me...

xyz: hi xyz: i send you an email did you get it delphis_ltd: yes! xyz: it really me xyz: will you help me and send the money now xyz: or you dont have up to that amount delphis_ltd: of course delphis_ltd: please, can you send it again right now? xyz: what the email or the name and address to send the money to delphis_ltd: the email xyz: let me tell you hear xyz: am in United Kingdom now xyz: but i need some amount to pay for my hotel bill and ticket fees back home delphis_ltd: i know. i need the email again xyz: when i get to uk i get rob there so i loss my credit card and all my money delphis_ltd: to confirm your IP address delphis_ltd: so i can send the police to you delphis_ltd: but dont worry delphis_ltd: i got your IP from the first e-mail. and the others you've sent delphis_ltd: so i can trace you nicely xyz: for what delphis_ltd: fraud delphis_ltd: how's Denmark? (note: the IP of the email traced back to Denmark) xyz: wat did you mean by fraud delphis_ltd: ;) delphis_ltd: i spoke to mr xyz on the phone yesterday delphis_ltd: but keep talking, please delphis_ltd: because i'm tracing you delphis_ltd: hello?

I must confess the 'it really me' nearly had me convinced. Just another good reason to change your email account password on a regular basis, and make sure the password recovery options are as strong as your password.