Well, today, apart from being Tuesday, marks the day that Windows Vista is officially released to the world. It's been years in the making, delayed more times than I can remember, been slated left right and centre for having features cut and yet I'm sure it'll be a huge success.

I've been using it since the beta versions last year and while it's being released to the public today it has in fact been available for business and developers (like me) since November (if I remember correctly). Naturally I installed it on my work and home machines to try and live with it full time and see what it's like (I'm curious that way). So having been a constant Vista user for a few months I thought it was about time I wrote down my thoughts.

Firstly, I'm not going to use the words "revolutionary", "incredible" or "amazing" other than to say that it isn't any of those. It's just better.

The fancy graphics are indeed impressive, who wouldn't be impressed by a 3-D windows switcher like this?

The glass-like effect of the windows is very slick as are the animations. But after a while you don't even notice eye candy like that. I use my computer as a tool and so I'm not really that bothered how "nice" it looks, as long as it's easy on my eye. Which brings me to my first point. It really is easier on the eye. I get eye strain when I stare at a computer for too long and have to wear glasses. Since switching to Vista, I haven't needed to wear them once. I don't know what they've done, but the text on the screen doesn't strain my eyes any more!

Vista is like that. Compared to XP there are little improvements here and there that, on their own, don't really amount to much. Like touch-up tools on the picture viewer, or the address bar in explorer acting like buttons so you can go up the hierarchy much more easily than before, or the Start menu being more logically laid out. But together these things add up to a better experience - it just gets in your way less like all good software should.

It's undoubtedly more secure - I wrote before about how annoying User Account Control was, but I'm happier with it now. It doesn't get in the way once your machine is set up and it's reassuring that you're running as a restricted user so if some rogue software does take over your machine, it can't do any damage. Having said that, I haven't had a virus or Trojan on any computer for many many years.

It's also faster than Windows XP on the machines I use. My home desktop is an ageing dual P3 800MHz (which isn't exactly fast by today's standards) but Vista is noticeably snappier than XP was before it. My work machine is still as fast as always as is my laptop. It's not often that new operating system is quicker in this day and age.

I know that an enormous amount of work has gone into Vista and underneath some huge advances have been made. But to the average user none of that is likely to make a whole lot of difference. And that's the problem. If I had to go back to XP I could and while I might miss a thing or two about Vista, it wouldn't matter that much to me. Make me go from XP to Windows 98 or 2000 and I'd complain a lot more!

If I had to fork out the upgrade cost out of my own pocket, I'd find it really hard to do so. At the end of the day Vista is a better operating system than XP, but it's not really that much better on the surface and in day to day use. Trouble is though, Microsoft created a pretty good O/S in XP and to create a new one that seems as large a step forward as XP was is practically impossible.

That being said, I'm not about to go back to XP and it's very easy to sit and say I "could", but quite another to actually go through with it! It's definitely a big step forward although it's really a case of a huge number of tiny steps adding up to one big step. It's been oft said that people hate change, yet people seem to have been expecting some revolutionary changes with Vista (most likely the Microsoft PR machine causing that perception) that it's not living up to. However I think in reality people really want lots of small incremental changes that mean they know where they are, don't feel lost, but make their lives easier. And I think Vista has managed to do that well, as well as looking very pleasing to the eye.

Contrast that with the revolutionary Office 2007 that's also released today. It really is revolutionary since there are no toolbars or menus - everything has moved! When you start using it you really struggle to work out how to do anything at all. Your previous knowledge is rendered useless and you have to relearn everything from scratch. Sure, once you get there it's better than it was before, but the learning curve is a frustrating nightmare and a lot of people have moaned about it. I think Microsoft are damned if they do and damned if they don't at times!

Still, in many ways it's the dawn of a new era. Only time will tell if it's one for the better or the worse for Microsoft. If I were a betting man I'd say the former.

Quite often when I'm going out to take some photographs with my friend Ade I'm almost willing him to phone me and tell me he's not going to bother. I'll look outside and it'll be cold, wet, windy and rainy. Or even hailing. I'll picture in my head sitting in the car in the middle of nowhere praying for a break in the weather that never comes.

Except Ade doesn't cancel - he never does - we head out and more often than not we get lucky with some amazing spells of great light and I realise that if we'd cancelled we'd have missed some great shots. Ade really has a gift for getting lucky with photography conditions.

So last Sunday I was in a similar mood, it had been raining and sleeting on and off all morning and as soon as we left my house in his car the weather took a turn for the worse. When we arrived at our destination we had to sit in the car for 20 minutes while it lashed it down! When it stopped we headed to Goredale Scar and were treated to some fantastic light, as you can see below:

We then carried on to Malham Tarn and the weather was looking even more grim than before. If I was on my own I'd have just driven home but luckily Ade never gives up, and the sun briefly broke out letting me take the following picture, which in my opinion is the best photo I've taken so far (although not a patch on Ade's work):

I'm going to print this one out 20" x 30" and put it on my wall at home. Like most photos it looks much better printed out than it does on a computer screen and I reckon it'll look great poster sized. The detail on the full-sized picture is really quite impressive and shows what you can do with a not-exactly-high-end digital camera like mine.

It just goes to show that persistence pays off and a day spent in the cold and wet countryside is well worth it when you get something you can put on your wall like this. And having a friend who's not only the source of all my knowledge of photography but has the persistence and determination of a fanatic is pretty useful too! 

I haven't written about my hair for a while, and since it's the most popular category on this site (incredible but true, see below) I thought it was about time I let you into a little secret. You see I'm 32 years of age now, and while I still can't grow a full beard (and realise that I guess I never will), I'm very very slowly going grey.

The grey hairs first showed up years ago. There were just a few of them and I was so surprised that I pulled one out and had a close look at it - the thought of me having grey hairs in my 20's was unspeakable. It couldn't be! As there were only a few I pulled them out and forgot about them. I then had a period of 5 years with very short hair, a crew cut in fact. This was a very practical haircut as it required no maintenance at all, no trips to the hair dresser, and didn't show up any grey hairs.

As has been well documented, I then grew my hair to shoulder length so I looked like a folk singer, and then cut it back into the much more fashionable look you see on my About Page, which is what it looks like now. However sometimes when my hair gets blown around by the wind or it dries in a certain way, close observers can just make out a small collection of grey hairs mixing in with the brown ones. While on holiday in Australia they showed up in the sunshine and I pulled one out, marvelling at how white it was. Then I removed another and another but it was clear that to get rid of them all I'd be removing a noticeable chunk of hair. So I gave up.

I'm just getting older I suppose and the ravages of time are catching up to me like they do everyone (except Tom Cruise). In a few years it'll probably get to the stage where I think to myself "do I leave it with grey patches or do I start dyeing it?". I'm really not looking forward to that day!

I spent last weekend staying in a swanky hotel in Edinburgh (the Apex City Hotel to be precise) with friends. I’ve spent many a night out in Edinburgh over the years and until recently my brother lived there, but I’d never really been there as a tourist before.

When most English people tell me they’ve been to Scotland, invariably they’ve been to Edinburgh and nowhere else. I then use my stock lecture about Scotland having so much more to offer than the big city but I have to admit, it is a great city. I’m not much of a fan of cities (give me rolling hills any day) but Edinburgh has always been one of the cities that I actually like. It’s got beautiful architecture, history, shops, restaurants, a friendly atmosphere and a real buzz about the place. All without really being that big a place.

Armed with the Scotland Lonely Planet Guide we took in sights like the Royal Museum (right, pictured by my dodgy camera phone as I didn’t bring a proper camera), the Museum of Scotland (there’s an interesting exhibit in the basement of some giant robots - I’m sure they weren’t the first settlers in Scotland!), the Royal Mile and of course Princes Street (with plenty shopping).

We were going to go on one of the ghost walks but unfortunately the weather changed for the worse so we passed and I didn’t get to get scared out of my wits. What a shame! It was a fun weekend although over all too quickly. But it was strange being there and not seeing my brother - I’ll always think of him when I think of Edinburgh. Not that he’ll be complaining enjoying the sunshine in California while we battle the elements here!

I've never been into cricket. It always seemed like a tedious waste of a day. Nothing ever happened as far as I could tell, bowlers spent all the time polishing the ball and throwing it every now and then. Even the highlights were dull.

Then, while on holiday in Australia I sat down and actually watched one of the Ashes tests (the third one as it happened) and couldn't believe what I was seeing. I never appreciated the tension, the skill, the concentration required, the grit and determination you need to win. I hadn't even watched a single match before and it was clear I was completely wrong about cricket.

Unlike football, where you can make a mistake and rectify it with a lunging tackle or by scoring a goal, there's no margin for error in cricket. You can be batting for hours, receiving ball after ball, and if you lose concentration for a second you're out - and there are no second chances. My good lady and I were on the edge of our seats watching Australia demolish England and it was awesome. And like that I was hooked.

Of course, if you want to watch cricket in the UK, you need to subscribe to Sky TV and as regular readers will know, I cancelled that the other month. So it was with no regret at all actually that I phoned up to renew my subscription and within an hour I was able to watch the Simpsons and football any time I like again. Life without Sky was a brave experiment but in the end a fruitless one, especially as my love affair with cricket has just begun. And I always try to follow my heart!

Right, here's a slideshow of the best of the photos I took in Australia and Hong Kong. Keep watching, there's some quality shots in there!

If you can't see the slideshow (maybe you're using a feed reader), then go here or here. Right, that's enough about my Australia holiday - back to normal service!

Okay, I know that Hong Kong isn't in Australia, but since we stopped there for a couple of nights on the way home I thought I'd include it in this selection of posts.

We arrived in the evening well after sunset and the first thing I noticed was the number of sky scrapers. They were everywhere and as far as the eye could see. It just made me wonder how many people live there since we were passing so many residential buildings rising so high. The view over the harbour at night is quite something:

Even the scene out of the hotel window in the morning was pretty impressive:

The harbour was amazingly busy all day with dozens of boats coming and going. I hadn't appreciated how many people live and work in Hong Kong and what a trading hub it is. Battling through the streets was quite a feat as there were so many people streaming in all directions. Apparently the young folk like to celebrate Christmas (and therefore shop) even though their parents generation still stick to the Chinese New Year.

I also found it rather strange that we could only find high-end stores like Gucci, Prada, Versace and so forth. It seems that people there spend all their money on top-of-the-line bags, clothes and accessories and take themselves and their appearances very seriously. I'm sure I looked a disgrace walking round in my jeans and t-shirt!

We were going to do a tour but since my good lady had done all that before and we'd done so much in Australia, we didn't bother. We'll pass through there again and make up for it then. So before we knew it we were waiting in the lounge for our flight back to London as though it had all been a dream:

Ah well, all good things must come to an end, even kick-ass holidays! 

After Port Stephens we spent the next 3 nights staying in Katoomba which is in the heart of the Blue Mountains national park. The blue mountains are called the blue mountains because the eucalyptus oil given off by the trees gives the air a bluish tinge you can see below:

The place is absolutely beautiful and a photographers dream. I took a lot of photos and am really glad I'd dragged my tripod along. To be sitting in a cafe in Katoomba and within 5 minutes be in the heart of the scene above was amazing. You'd look around and see yellow-crested cockatoos (which I'd only ever seen in zoos) flying around alongside parrots of various colours and sizes. Australians are so lucky to live in such a rich countryside - and I was only seeing a tiny spec of it.

Katoomba itself was a nice little town full off cafes and book shops, not at all spoilt by tourism. I noticed rather a lot of people with dreadlocks, pink furry boots and a curious obsession with wearing black, which seemed a little out of place but who am I to judge?!

One of the main things to see are the Three Sisters (pictured above) that are towers of rock that are apparently older than the grand canyon in the states. All I know is they make a pretty impressive leading line into the jungle below! Talking of which, you can take a near-vertical train ride or a more leisurely cable car down to the forest floor and walk through the trees from the safety of a walkway:

Of course, you'd do well to read the warnings first - I hate leeches!

Australia is just an amazing place. Since the island was separated from the rest of the world's landmasses millions of years ago all plant and animal life has evolved differently to the rest of the world. Unique animals like kangaroos and platypuses developed there along with most of the deadly snakes and spiders of the world. Even the trees are different, shedding bark instead of leaves:

The blue mountains, from what I could see, is absolutely beautiful. Rather than prattle on about it, here's a photo just around sunset that illustrates my point rather nicely:

Oh alright, here's one more about half an hour after sunset:

It was lucky we dragged ourselves down to the viewpoint that evening as the clouds came in and it was foggy for the last day and a half of our stay in Katoomba. Apparently it had been raining before we arrived and the weather just  decided to improve for the duration of our stay. As with the rest of the holiday everything just flowed perfectly!