Image uploading again.

I can now upload images in firefox again. (see this post for when it failed).
I ran firefox in safe mode using firefox -safe-mode and I was able to upload an image to flickr ok. This meant that the problem was a conflicting/corrupt/flakey extension. I went through my list of extensions and deleted some that were duplicate in other extensions and tidied up the ones I no longer needed. I removed informeter, livelines,tab clicking options, undoclosetab, sitebar and evernote extensions and the problem went away. I reinstalled sitebar and evernote (as I use these) and the browser doesn’t crash.

Skypeout

Rather than paying the 10cents a minute on our current US phone provider to ring my sister in the uk I signed up for the skypeout service this afternoon. The annoying thing is that you have to pay 10euros up front but that gets you a rate of 1.1p/minute to us,uk,australia etc. So the 37 minute phone call cost about 40p. compare that to the 3 minute phone call on BT that she made to me at 27p. The quality was excellent – no different to a normal phone. The only downside is I don’t have a cordless headset whereas I do have a cordless phone so I had to sit at the computer, but that means you can look at web pages at the same time.
Now if only she would sign up for skype herself – then it would be totally free (apart from the 10euro’s I’ve just spent in prepaid time that unfortunately expires. That will however will probably come in handy for calling my parents and other non-broadband enabled uk technophobes)

More Huey.

I’ve uploaded some more photos to the gallery of Huey Lewis performing at the Dublin last night. As mentioned at Family Guy’s blog it was a bit weird having a concert the way they do at Dublin. First off, the playing field of the stadium is converted into a seating area, and about 200 tables are sold for 10 seats at each table – this creates an “exclusive” zone where only the ticket holders can get to. The great thing about this is that the crush at the front of the stage was non existant and I was able to get some good close up photos from the front, standing in what would normally be the mosh pit, and yet I didn’t get jostled once. The rest of the fans are kept behind barriers on the bleachers, so the audience is basically split into two. This really cuts the atmosphere in half and it must have felt really weird playing to that sort of audience.
After the concert the fireworks were set off and they were pretty good. Not as extravagent as the Columbus Red White and Boom fireworks but still pretty good. I didn’t think they were as loud as fireworks in the uk and it was weird only seeing one set of fireworks going off – normally in the uk I’d see several sets of fireworks going off at various times during the evening. Everything was going great until some bozo decided to switch the floodlights on during the middle. Remember that everyone is sitting on the field or in the bleachers which meant that most people were blinded by the light and it was difficult to see the fireworks. The lights must have been on, at full power, for about 5 minutes until the left set went off – to a cheer from the crowd, and followed by the right hand set 30 seconds later.
I’ve also uploaded some of the firework photos to the Huey concert page (starting here). I don’t have a full size tripod so unfortunately the shots are a bit blurry. I tried long exposures and fast shutter speeds for different effects and I am still pretty pleased with how they turned out.

I’ve also uploaded some of the photos to flickr. I need to work out if I can get the geotagging and other facilities within Coppermine as that would be really handy.

Happy Independence Day

unclesamindepenceday.jpg

Happy Independence Day*

This is just one of the hundred photo’s that I took at Dublin’s Independence Day parade. We got to our spot about 45 minutes before the parade started and I amused myself by taking various candid pictures of the crowd. Most people were dressed in red white and blue and the kids were very cute. Photo’s have been uploaded to my photo gallery and some will also be uploaded to flickr at a later date. I will be also adding some more photos in the next couple of days as I will be taking some more photos tonight at the dublin fireworks and concert (where Huey Lewis and the News is headlining)
I’ve deliberately left the photo narrow and long to emphasis just how “tall” this guy was.
*For the non-americans reading this, Happy 4th July. It was a bit weird going to this parade, wearing my American Flag trousers and USA shirt being a Brit, but I really enjoyed it and there was a strong sense of American Pride which was nice to see. The respect that everyone gave to the veterans as they paraded past was also good to see.