Category: Blogging

Fixing your Flickr photostream

Watching the Watchmen with @pakysse #g20voice

If, like me, you’re a Flickr photo nazi, then you’re probably one of those people who goes nuts when images or videos aren’t tagged correctly or you get minor headaches when certain uploads aren’t placed in the right sets etc. Right?

One bugbear of mine (that I’ve recently solved the problem of), is that of my photos being out of order within my Flickr photostream.

Simply put; Flickr keeps users’ streams in order of DATE UPLOADED not DATE TAKEN. This can be annoying at best and at worse, quite possibly the most frustrating thing in THE ENTIRE WORLD.

To put this into context, a couple of weeks ago my girlfriend and I went to the rather awesome Big Chill festival. We took a multitude of imaging equipment (admittedly, mainly phones), and between us we must’ve shot about 2-300 photos.

If, when we got back home, we uploaded these to the same account one after the other, then that is exactly how they would appear. One set, after the other. But what if I don’t want them like that? What if I want them ALL in chronological order?!

Question – “How do you change the chronology of your Flickr photostream?”

Answer – You use h4ppier photos

With this handy app you can go back and change ALL of your photos date by using one handy little button.

To get to this point, first select ‘Very h4ppy’ at the top of the page, then put in your upload dates and then hit the search button. Once h4ppier photos has found the images it’s looking for, this button (amongst many others) will present itself.

Yes you need to let the app to access your Flickr account. Yes it can be dangerous. But I’m telling you; this is by far and away my favourite 3rd party Flickr app, ever.

Use it. Today.

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At this point I kind of feel obliged to point out that Flickr isn’t all bad. In fact, most of the time, I absolutely LOVE Flickr. When they introduced some new UI changes recently it was quite possibly the coolest… oh wait, hang on – just watch this –

Irkafirka

I’m in Canada, writing from my second hotel of about four I think for this trip. The first night, in the Wyndhams, my body clock was still adjusting. At 4am my eyes opened like it was 9am and kicked me up into the day. Damn. “Best start work then…”

First, coffee….  and this is what I’m faced with –

Another poor quality photo from the Nexus One. Sigh.

There isn’t much tech in the world that I don’t get on with, however coffee machines (along with most fax machines) would be on the very short list if I ever made one. In fact, I just did and look – they’re at the top.

170720101356

Were there any instructions for the machine anywhere in the room? No.
Any tips or pointers on the actual machine itself? No.
Brilliant.

Tweet tweet –

About 90mins later, this appeared –

What’s the twitpic behind the link?

Well… THIS:

How freaking amazing is that? My tweet, illustrated.

To give you some background, I stumbled across Irkafirka sometime ago now, back when they randomly sketched one of Benny’s tweets. I thought it was amazing and started following them. Both on Twitter and on RSS. Irkafirka illustrate tweets. Randomly. And they’re awesome.

Yesterday they did one of mine and I’m grinning form ear to ear.

Thanks to both of you, Chris and Nick. I’m made up.

Cheers.

Coming full circle

And so it ends…

There. I made it. 30 days of November and 30 days of video.

Well, 28 actually… But we’ll come to that another time. Similarly to others I have much to reflect on, but for now…

NaVloPoMo is at an end.

And I am happy 🙂

The music on the above video is by a band called The Momeraths.
I’ve used their stuff before and they’re kind of awesome.

Check them out.

Notes from Namibia

Moleskine entry: July 9th, 2009

I’ve never flown this far South before. Cape Town is 10hrs straight down. Damaraland, Namibia 2hrs back up again.

The stars are very different here.

Last night we slept out under the skies, in the middle of a half-million hectare concession, where people, wildlife and animals all co-exist together. Rhino, Springbok, Zebra, Giraffe, Leopard, Cheetah, Elephant and Ostrich. We’re told there’s no real danger, but we’re quiet all the same.

On the way out, Eric – our guide – remarks that the stripes of a Zebra are as unique as that of a human fingerprint.

“Zebras have human fingerprints?”…asks a not-really-listening Suhel.
“Yes Suhel, Zebras have human fingerprints.”

We laugh, uncontrollably.

Lions walked past through our camp, right past them. There are paw prints outside my door. I heard them late, out there in the dark, purring their deep, low grumble. Not quite a growl, not quite a roar but still… that sound.

A glimpse through the window revealed nothing. I could see the light from a distant toilet-tent knocking gently in the trees, but that is all. The moonlight, so bright out here in the middle of nowhere, shines down clearly, basking all in pale illumination.  But I see nothing.

Still, I hear them mumble.

Friday, oh Friday!

‘Out of service’ the machine stares silently… ‘The other side!’ he thinks, knowing there is only minutes to spare.

It’s 07:26:54.

Can he make it to platform 2, use the (seemingly empty) machine over there and then get back in time for departure at 07:29:00?

Too late, his legs are already moving; two, five, eight steps up. Rucksack strapped tight he bounds over the footbridge… ‘Must be quick, must be quick!’.

These ticket machines are not new to him, in fact he knows exactly what parts of their screens to touch and when: Mid-bottom left, Zones 1-6 travel card. Confirm selection, bottom right. Card in, PIN number, payment and Print! The whole process should take no more than fifteen seconds. He notes (as he dashes past fellow commuters, oblivious to his challenge), the merits of majoring in something so seemingly minor could be a point of amusement later today, but this is lost on him now, all he can hear is the train, there,  already arrived on the now opposite platform.

‘Must be quick, must be quick’, he repeats his speedy refrain, ‘I must be quick, I must be fast. I mustn’t miss my train!’

Button, confirm, card. It’s so simple, he simply can’t complain.

‘I must be quick, I must be fast. I mustn’t miss my train!’

Alas, he can. ‘Coins and notes only’ the wretched contraption says ‘No payment cards today’. He has the cash, there’s a twenty in his wallet, he saw it there this morning. ‘£14.80’ the machine says, ‘Coins only, no payment cards today’. Time creeps forward, slowly ticking by. The purple note, it shines and glistens in this early morning Sun. Cash in, ticket out – ching ching sounds his change, now go – GO GO! You’re going to miss your train!

Three, six, nine steps up – swiftly swerving the elderly woman, as he reaches the top – race fast, quick now –

….

He laughs, loudly when at the start of his descent he hears the high pitch beep of the doors. Still grinning when he reaches the bottom, the train pulls away.

07:28:47

Damn thing left early.

______________________

Today is Friday August 21st, it’s now 12:59 and I’m sat at The Tuttle Club typing this all up. This morning I was a brief guest at Likemind, good chat and new people too. Then I was a guest of my new best friend, Dan Light at London’s IMAX for the ‘experiment in social marketing’ known as ‘Avatar Day’, (more on this later).

The footage was saw was simply stunning and, thanks to the really nice guys at Vue Cinemas, I’m going to see it again later on this evening.

I can’t wait.

As I said – More, later… I promise 🙂