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18 
Unhappy Windies
Going up to Lords on Sunday for day 4 versus the West Indies at Lord's (after the small matter of a wedding tomorrow). I'm hoping I won't see anything like this famous moment in cricket history, though it probably reflects quite accurately the current mood in the West Indian dressing room.
It's from the Dunedin match during the 1979-80 tour of New Zealand by West Indies depicting Michael Holding's discontent at an umpiring decision. Photo taken by Owen Jones.
1
Make money from taking photos
Rate yourself as a bit of a photographer and want some extra pocket money? You don't have to be a pro and work for a newspaper anymore. A couple of sites accept photos from Joe Public and will sell them for you for a fee. Check out iStockPhoto and CitizenImage.
iStockPhoto is the bigger of the two. My application is still being processed. This involves a little test to check that you've learnt their guidelines and a sample of three original 1600x1200 pixel resolution photos proving a modicum of ability.
CitizenImage is a much smaller outfit and it's pretty easy to get accepted. I have my doubts about whether there's much chance of getting any cash from them though. Their website gets less traffic than Nimisis.com (Alexa IS useful!)- but I hope I'm wrong. One thing that's confusing is that they say they'll PayPal me any earnings, but there's no PayPal email address to enter in the account settings. I use one address for PayPal and different ones to sign up to websites... not sure they've thought about that.
If this sounds like a good idea to you but you're stuck for good photo ideas, you might like to spend a few minutes at FlickrWatch. Or, if you like manipulating photos there's Warp.
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How to take great photos
I've made a little slideshow that watches the latest uploaded photos on Flickr. Hopefully might be useful for picking up some tips!
If you already rate yourself as a bit of a photographer, why not try and earn some extra pocket money with those pics?
12 
Island in the Sun
This is what could happen if you refuse compensation to move. Guess it could be difficult to sell this house... despite its scenic views, potential moat and central location...
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22 
Take long exposure photos with a webcam
Version 2 of Webcam Exposure is out! Improvements include support for high definition cameras and some minor bug fixes from version 1.
6
Picasa
Recently tried out Google's photo organisation app, Picasa and I've got to say that I'm impressed. Some old school photos in the depths of my hard drive were found which I'm sure I would've lost otherwise. If this grabs you, take the tour via the banner below.
19 
Surfing in Devon
"Everybody's goin' surfin', surfin' USA in Devon..."Went surfing at Woolacombe beach over the weekend and found it to be every bit as good as in Hawaii. In fact, the waves were better - colder, but with a wetsuit on you couldn't feel it. I highly recommend it!
Free idea of the day - it struck me that the hardest part of surfing is the paddling out into the sea against the waves to where they break. It's tiring. If someone dug an underwater tunnel in some good surfing beach where you could then just pop out to catch a wave I think you'd be onto a winner. Surfers (at least the lazy ones) would flock to your beach. It may be a bit of a feat of engineering though. Perhaps if the eye-sore factor wasn't too much of an issue then something similar to a drag lift would do?
Photos are here.
17 
Visual search engines
Came across Riya recently which puts an interesting spin on the still fairly new wave of photo management websites. Riya can analyse the photos you give it using face detection and can guess very accurately who the people are in your photos (after some initial training of course). It can also do character recognition to spot signs and logos. Very clever!
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When I'm 64 65
Upload a picture of yourself here and it'll transform it to show you what you'll look like 40 years from now! Scary.
Another related site is faceanalyzer.com. These guys worked out that I was an arab girl with below average intelligence... Actually I get that a lot. One of my uncles said once he thought I looked quite middle eastern...
12
Aloha!
Despite a slightly stressful transit in Houston, where a sprint to literally the furthest gate in the airport was required to make the connection, Hawaii was great! What with all the surfing, beach volleyball and snorkelling you can't go wrong. Photos are here.
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6 
Happy New Year!
Seeing as Princess Diana is making a come back I guess I should too. Here are some photos from our James Bond themed company Christmas party! In case you were wondering, those things at the end of my arms are my metal hands, because OBVIOUSLY I'm Dr No... well, I alternated between him and Michael Jackson (Bo' Selecta variety) from time to time...
9
Security checks
I had to take some Taiwanese clients on the (British Airways) London Eye yesterday. We all loved it, it's fantastic. I took some photos too. It's great the way they make out you're actually going on a real aeroplane, checking in etc. Mind you they did do a security check and everything, and each capsule was scanned by people with metal detectors before people can get on. The check on my bag wasn't very thorough. Maybe they're just looking for people who look a bit like this guy (inset).
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Here are some nice photos of Kenting on the south coast of Taiwan. Go if you ever get the chance!
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13 
Shooting My Colleagues
Went paintballing with the firm yesterday, supposedly as a bonding exercise but who am I kidding - we were shooting each other. The Mayhem paintball complex was like an Al-Quaeda training camp. There were about 200 people including our party of 20, all in camouflage with masks. The mask is needed to prevent paintballs (travelling at a little over 200mph) from blinding you but I found that it also helped preserve some anonymity when I shot my own teammates. Come on, I bet you couldn't overcome the temptation if no enemies were around and you had a clear shot in front! You know, when there's no one else about you get a bit bored... The whole day was madness, people were coming out with, "I just want my gun", "Agincourt!", "Shoot 'em in the head!" Anyway, me? 8 confirmed, 5 probable. I'm happy with that. I may not get promoted for a while though... The photos are here.
19
St. Matthew's Day
St. Matthew's day is on the 21st and the reason I mention this is because it is a tradition of my old school to march through the City of London every year on St. Matthew's day (or on the Fri around when it is). Lead by the school band we all group according to our boarding houses, and march past bewildered pedestrians (because of our strange uniforms), avoid the evidence of the presence of mounted police and go to see the Lord Mayor. It's all good fun :)
8
Rob and Sarah's Wedding
Rob and Sarah got married at StAG in Cambridge yesterday. It was fantastic. Rob looked like the most chuffed bloke on the planet and Sarah looked very pretty indeed. The wedding, reception, speeches, ceilidh and food were all brilliant... but maybe not some people's dancing... Anyway, many congratulations! The photos are here.
7
SpaceWeather.com
The other thing I'm looking forward to in Taiwan (besides the constant pampering and great food) is the weather. I'm currently sitting through my third afternoon in a row of heavy rainfall. Here's something related; SpaceWeather.com - Get the weather forecast for Venus tomorrow. Not practical but some impressive photos.
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