a tribute to standing alone...
This one's for Andrew. This next one is probably appropriate, since he recently put up a few images that captured the hail storm that hit Brisbane last week. We had a nice storm a few days prior where we received some hail and very heavy rain, so this is what heavy rain looks like when captured at a few thousandths of a second (no speedlight, just straight into the afternoon sun):
There have also been some spectacular cloud formations:
As I've done in previous years, last Wednesday I went with a few other crazy people (Dad and Tristan) to the midnight screening of Star Wars Episode III. It definitely lived up to expectations and also brings new meaning to the later (original) movies :)
Yesterday I ordered a GPRS Compact Flash card for my PDA. GPRS is a data transport protocol that's part of GSM, so basically it will give me access to the internet anywhere that has mobile phone GSM reception. This will come in really handy when I'm away from home or out of town (or for that matter, in another state or country) and need to access online information, something which is becoming an increasingly common occurrence with the work I'm doing now. Having internet access directly on my PDA irrespective of where I am opens up a huge range of additional practical applications, like being able to send and receive e-mail on site, get info off my network at home, perform banking tasks while going between clients and a bunch of other real-time data and messaging uses (like updating client notes and tasks as they're performed - e.g. when print runs are approved). It should arrive in a couple of weeks.
<rant>
On the topic of phone networks, isn't it a convenient coincidence that every time you change your phone provider Telstra calls the next day saying that they've recently reduced their rates and would like you to join them again. I've received four calls from Telstra since I changed phone providers a couple of days ago. Today they said that because they valued me as a customer they were going to give me two months free line rental and cheaper rates. If they valued me so much, why didn't they offer to give me these "recently reduced" rates (which it seems I wasn't eligible for prior to me changing providers?) and two months of free line rental before I moved? What rubbish.
I'm happy to say that I'm now 100% Telstra free. No Telstra, I don't want your 100 free SMSs, your 2 months free line rental, your apparently-cheaper call rates (which aren't) or your free mobile handset if I sign up to your 48 month contract, I want you to stop annoying me with unsolicited phone calls!
</rant>