It snowed quite a bit here in Ireland over the last two weeks – not much compared to the levels of snow in the UK and the rest of Europe, but a lot compared to recent years in Ireland. We took the opportunity to have some fun – involving sliding (slowly at first, then faster) down a hill on a piece of softboard. Just wish the slide was longer, but it was fun nonetheless and the kids had a great time (the kids, including me that is!) Check out the videos below.

Apple are renowned for their product innovation and design prowess with their Mac computers and iPods, but when it comes to marketing they are also a very innovative company. Their brand is one of the strongest in the consumer electronics world, their print advertising is young, fresh and consistent with their products, and their website is one of the best I can think of in the consumer world. I recently came across one of their banner advertisements on the wired.com website promoting their iPod Touch line of portable music players. It’s probably the most eye catching and innovative banner ad I’ve ever seen – so good that it was worth me taking a minute to capture it and share it. See below. I think you’ll agree that Apple simply have it nailed when it comes to their marketing both online and offline. Top notch stuff.

One thing that really started to annoy me in the new Mac OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard was how quickly my computer would lock after the screensaver kicked in. There appeared to be no delay as there had been in Mac OSX 10.5 Leopard. The experience was consistent across my two work computers – a Macbook Pro and a Mac Pro, and my Mac Pro at home. In my previous world running 10.5 I had been able to move my mouse really quickly once I noticed the screensaver kicking in and the process of the OS locking would stop. Under the new OS 10.6 this didn’t seem to be the case – the very second the screensaver was enabled, the OS would lock and I would have to enter my password to unlock it.

Thankfully it turns out that this is configurable. Under System Preferences -> Security, there is a setting which allows you to cause a delay before the password lock happens. Watch this very short video below to see how you can configure this delay and hopefully improve your Snow Leopard experience even more. This video was recorded using the new Quicktime Player screen recording function, and cut, cropped and uploaded to YouTube using iMove ’09.

I had the great pleasure of seeing Massive Attack live in Dublin’s Olympia Theatre last night – October 6th 2009. Below is a video of the song ‘Angel’ that I shot on my Flip camera. It was a superb gig – top quality performance, amazing set and light show. Being in the pit and only feet away from the stage was the icing on the cake! Massive Attack are a band I’ve been listening to for years. The diversity of their music is incredible and they manage somehow to reproduce it all live. Their music is timeless. I can’t wait to hear the new album and see them again soon!

** UPDATE *** I’ve also now added the video below of the intro track Massive Attack played at the gig in Dublin. Not sure what it’s called. But I like it!

Well as you can see, ragorder.com has been redesigned and relaunched. I’ve moved the blog infrastructure to the fantabulous WordPress after a lot of nagging by some fanboi’s I know. I’ve also simplified the design and layout. This is the first step in what will prove to be a more active ragorder.com. I intend to start blogging more on topics such as photography and Irish current affairs (ie: I’m going to rant!). I hope you like the new design. Please check out my photography, get in touch and come back soon for more.

lifetime ago
Originally uploaded by Mark Stanley

Here’s a picture of the kids I took last year. I was trawling through photos yesterday looking for something to get my Lightroom teeth around since I haven’t taken anything lately. Came across this one which struck me for two reasons: 1) the relative serenity of two otherwise pretty active kids and 2) the shorts which seem so alien now in this cold wintery snowy weather. Anyway, here it is – my latest little photo upload. From now on I’m making a conscious decision to move away from the ‘vignette look’, which has become part of my comfort zone, and to push my bounderies again. It’s a new year – it’ll be interesting to see what I’ve achieved with my photography by the time it’s out.

Normally you would find my photography on flickr, or thanks to the magic web-monkeys I have beavering away 24/7, under the photography section of my website. However today I launched my first online photography exhibition on NewChemicalHistory.com – the dedicated exhibition space for photographers and artists. Check out my exhibition, but also spend some time looking at some of other amazing work on NewChemicalHistory.com. Enjoy!

Robin
Originally uploaded by Mark Stanley

I chased this little fella around for about 15mins with the cumbersome Canon 70-200mm f/2.8. Finally got this shot which I’m pretty happy with. Taken in Belvedere House & Gardens in Mullingar, Co Westmeath, Ireland using the aforementioned lens on a Canon 400d (Digital Rebel Xti). Basic contrast and saturation processing in Adobe Lightroom 2.0 for Mac.

Wishing all family, friends, colleagues and all humankind a very Merry Christmas and all the very best for 2009

State Magazine recently published their list of The 50 Top Albums of 2008. It’s a genuinely nice magazine – both in it’s content and it’s design and layout. But for some odd reason, their website only lists the top 25 of this list. Maybe they were too lazy to type the full 50, but I’m not. Here they are below. Some amazing stuff on this list – some of which I was already aware of, some of which I wasn’t but I intend to be …

In alphabetical order:

Adebisi Shank – This is The Album of a Band Called …
Beck – Modern Guilt
Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever Go
Butch Walker – Sycamore Meadows
Cadence Weapon – Afterparty Babies
Calexico = Carried to Dust
Cancer Bats – Hail Destroyer
Coldplay – Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends
Cut Copy – In Ghost Colours
Daedelus – Love To Make Music To
David Holmes – The Holy Pictures
Deerhunter – Microcastle
Department of Eagles – In Ear Park
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Erykah Badu – New Amerykah Part One
Fight Like Apes – Mystery of the Golden Medallion
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Flying Lotus – Los Angeles
Foals – Antidotes
Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires
Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing
Glasvegas – Glasvegas
Guillemots – Red
Ham Sandwich – Carry The Meek
Heathers – Here Not There
Islands – Arm’s Way
Jape – Ritual
Jay Reatard – Metador Singles
Kanye West – 808s & Heartbreak
Kitty, Daisy And Lewis – Kitty, Daisy And Lewis
la Rocca – The Truth
Laura Marling – Alas I Cannot Swim
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew
Lykke Li – Youth Novels
Messiah J & The Expert – From The Word Go
Metronomy – Nights Out
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
Neon Neon – Stainless Style
Nick Cave – Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!
One Day International – Blackbird
Parenthetical Girls – Entanglements
Portishead – Third
Santogold – Santogold
Sigur Rós – Meo Suo I Eyrum Vio Spilum Endalaust
The Gaslight Anthem – The ’59 Sound
Times New Viking – Rip it Off
TV On the Radio – Dear Science
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
Why? – Alopecia
Wild Beasts – Limbo, Panto