February, 2009

....when you remember to put a memory card in them!

As I sat at my desk this afternoon I looked out at a beautiful clear blue sky.  This week has been pretty dull and overcast and, in contrast to last week, there has been no snow.

I decided to grab my camera and head to Yamakoshi to take some photos in the late afternoon light.

First stop was by Shintaro's fry ponds.  The valley was bathed in a warm glow of light.  I checked the settings on the camera and pressed the shutter.  Looking at the screen on the camera it looked nice however,  across the top of the image it stated 'No CF Card'.

In my haste I'd forgotten to check there was a card in it and, as I hadn't brought my camera bag I had none with me.

Alas the beautiful afternoon light was wasted as I had no way of capturing it.

On my way back though I did arrange a couple of things to photograph tomorrow, I've put a card in the camera already in preparation!

I realise that many reading this what I'm about to say won't exactly be a revelation or earth shattering news but, it's something I only discovered today, Skype, and it's superb!

My colleagues at the INPC have been using Skype for a long while and over the last year or so have frequently asked, 'do I have Skype yet?'

This morning Hiroshi asked me again, to which the answer was still no, but I decided I should have a look at Skype more closely, especially as myself and Aika were due to have a telephone meeting this afternoon.

A quick download and install and it then prompted me to register.  Amazingly everything worked perfectly straight out of the box, so to speak.

I had thought that Skype just enabled you to speak to one another over the Internet, I didn't realise that it has an instant text messaging facility, live video facility, etc, etc.  I was impressed, so impressed I decided a quick trip to the electrical store was required for a headset and mic, duly purchased for just 980yen.

At 12.43 my first incoming call came from Aika, all I could here was buzzing and humming whilst Aika confirmed, via the instant message system, that should could hear me fine.  Had my enthusiasm for Skype been too much too soon?

It transpired that it was actually Aika's microphone which was faulty. 

At 12.52 we started a 1hr 30min meeting over the phone with the added ability of being instantly able to swap bits of text between us, and ever better, all for FREE!!

For anyone coming to Japan for a visit and wanting to keep in touch with home then Skype is surely a must have application.  I don't know how I've lived without it for so long!!

On the IM facility there are 72 little 'smiley' icons included.  Amongst them are a dozen or so other icons, one is a pizza, another a mug of beer, what more could one ask for?