article Archives - Stationary Journey

Update October 15, 2023

Terry Finney — Sun, 15 Oct 2023 08:23:35 +0100

Well, it’s just over 5 years since the last update. A lot has gone on in the intervening period, but Stationaryjourney.com isn’t dead, just continuing to rest for a while. It will be back, but I can’t give a timescale a the moment.

Best wishes to you all.

The post Update October 15, 2023 appeared first on Stationary Journey.

Recent Links March 03, 2018

Terry Finney — Sat, 03 Mar 2018 17:06:51 +0100

A post of recent links. I aim for weekly but rarely achieve that.
* Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @ViewsBench on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @ViewsBench on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @ViewsBench on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @ViewsBench on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @ViewsBench on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @marcoarment on Twitter
* Tweeted Tweet by @terryfinney on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @tranquilcityapp on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @_youhadonejob1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @helenhousandi on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @OfficialBagpuss on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @Hisnibs1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @Malboury on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @Malboury on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @VejrnerH on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @folpe17 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @_youhadonejob1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @AMAZlNGNATURE on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @_youhadonejob1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @JamesBlunt on Twitter
* Scribus – Open Source Desktop Publishing bookmarked to Pinboard
* I Bring Stones To Life By Painting The Living Spirit Of The Being I Feel Inside The Stone (New Pics) | Bored Panda bookmarked to Pinboard

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Recent Links January 28, 2018

Terry Finney — Sun, 28 Jan 2018 17:30:15 +0100

First post of 2018 and it’s a links post. Must do better.
* Avengers: Infinity War – Official Trailer (2018) Marvel Movie HD liked on YouTube
* Favourited Tweet by @dodo on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @RealBobMortimer on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @robertoglezcano on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @_youhadonejob1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @_youhadonejob1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @GeorgeTakei on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @morse1960 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @_youhadonejob1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @ShimermanArmin on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @BBCArchive on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @AMAZlNGNATURE on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @AMAZlNGNATURE on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @_youhadonejob1 on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @AMAZlNGNATURE on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter
* Tweeted Tweet by @terryfinney on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @nilerodgers on Twitter
* Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter

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Recent Links February 21, 2017

Terry Finney — Tue, 21 Feb 2017 13:02:55 +0100

Yes I am still alive, and I’ve clearly been spending too much time on Twitter and YouTube. I also seem to be favouriting tweets by accident when I’m just scrolling through them on my phone – need to watch that in future. Looking back I’ve been doing it for a long time but I haven’t spotted it until now. I think I’ve successfully caught the most recent ones.

Favourited Tweet by @Pinboard on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @Donalds_Diary on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
Here’s everything Google Assistant can do on the Pixel | Android Central bookmarked to Pinboard
Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @tvaziri on Twitter
San Junipero (Black Mirror) – Heaven Is A Place On Earth ᴴᴰ liked on YouTube
Favourited Tweet by @JarettSays on Twitter
Hayley Atwell the Queen of Dubsmash – Part I liked on YouTube
Hayley Atwell the Queen of Dubsmash – Part II liked on YouTube
Hayley Atwell the Queen of Dubsmash – Part III liked on YouTube
Agents of SHIELD/Agent Carter Dubsmash COMPLETE COMPILATION liked on YouTube
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @CoolPastPics on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @CoolPastPics on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @CoolPastPics on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @PulpLibrarian on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @its_love_tym on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @Donalds_Diary on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @porksmith on Twitter
Tweeted Tweet by @terryfinney on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @MarvelStudios on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @pencilcaseblog on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @OnePerfectShot on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter
Favourited Tweet by @oldpicsarchive on Twitter

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Why we can’t have nice things

Terry Finney — Tue, 22 Nov 2016 11:55:46 +0100

My wireless SD card, an Eye-Fi Pro X2, bought in 2013, was a nice little card that went in my camera. When I took photos the card synced them to my phone, geotagging them in the process. The photos would then sync to Flickr when the phone was next connected to Wi-Fi. If I wanted to use mobile data I could share them from my phone almost immediately. Most of the photos on this site used that process. There was also a desktop app which didn’t reinstall when I upgraded my desktop PC to Windows 10 last year as I rarely needed to use it – the phone app was still working fine and I was very happy with it.

When I bought the Olympus Pen E-P7L in 2015 and found the wireless features to be effectively unusable I quickly bought another Eye-Fi card which was available at that timne, the Eye-Fi Mobi. I didn’t put much research into it, so I can only blame myself for not realising that its features were more limited. I do remember reading about Eye-Fi Cloud, but had no intention of using it because I was happy with the Flickr syncing with the other phone app. In practice I didn’t use two cameras at once, didn’t find the Mobi reliable and wasn’t impressed with the features so I kept using the Pro X2.

I haven’t been posting anything recently or taking many photos. I also managed to miss and email that I received in June saying that the Pro X2 would stop working in September. So I when I took some photos yesterday for the next review and wondered why they wouldn’t sync to Flickr a few minutes searching on Google reminded me why we can’t have nice things (or we can have them until someone realises they aren’t making enough money out of them).

If I believe the official line the Pro X2 had security vulnerabilities which could not be addressed through software. So for my own good the card won’t work any more, other than as a standard SD card. A desktop application has been provided which is supposed to allow wireless transfers, but I can’t get it to work and in the process it had eroded any remaining confidence I had in Eye-Fi to provide reliable software.

The Mobi card will still work (lucky I could still find the activation code), but with a different app now confusingly called “Keenai”. Oddly this wanted access to my contacts – should I be worried? It wouldn’t even show a thumbnail of a transferred photo until I rebooted the phone. It doesn’t sync to Flickr, although Google Photos will see the transferred photos and sync them, at least at the moment. It doesn’t seem to GPS tag either – I’ve read somewhere that the card is supposed to, but can see no option to do it in Keenai. It looks like to get full use of the Mobi I need to pay for the Cloud service which at $49 per year is nearly as much as I paid for the Pro X2 in 2013. Alternatively I could get the latest Mobi Pro version which has a year’s free Eye-Fi Cloud however based on my recent experience that’s not going to happen, so I’ll blunder on the the Mobi and its limited features until something better comes along.

To conclude, my suspicion regarding the Pro X2 is not that it had a security flaw but that it was just too good. It had all the features I needed so there was no need to upgrade or buy into the Cloud service which provided essentially the same features at a higher price. I have no illusions that this is about me individually – but I think that enough people didn’t use Eye-Fi Cloud that the company realised it had a problem. It was being denied the income stream that its investors expected, so it appears they decided to go the route of enforced obsolescence. This post dating back to 2012 seems quite prescient SmartBear, especially as 2012 is the same year that phasing out of the Pro X2 began. Of course other companies try this on a regular basis – I’ve already been on the receiving end of it repeatedly. However my direct experience of that so far has been to stop receiving software updates – not a piece of hardware that abruptly stopped working as it has previously. I am aware of the Revolv and the publicity over that has has been enough to put me off ever buying anything from Nest. This latest experience will put me off buying anything from Eye-Fi ever again.

Better get back to work on the overdue reviews.

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Galen Leather Traveler’s Notebook Cover Review

Terry Finney — Fri, 17 Jun 2016 11:07:23 +0100

This is a review of the Galen Leather Traveler’s Notebook Cover, in Navy Blue leather.

Galen Leather provided the notebook provided free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not paid to write the review. The review itself is my honest assessment of the notebook cover and it was not influenced by the fact that the cover was free of charge.

A few weeks ago Zeynep from Galen Leather, based in Istanbul Turkey, contacted me offering a sample of their products to review. I gratefully accepted and after spending quite a while admiring their website I opted for a Field Notes sized notebook cover in Navy Blue. As well as stocking a range of notebook covers in various sizes, they also make iPad covers, Macbook sleeves, passport wallets and even pipe rolls.

Why did I chose this particular notebook cover? I already have a Midori Passport sized notebook cover that I don’t use any more. I bought it before my notebook preference was well developed. In time I found that I preferred Field Notes Pitch Black notebooks along with Word and Calepeno notebooks for variety. None of these fit the Midori. I tried my hand at making my own larger version (i.e. a “Fauxdori”), intended to hold three notebooks. I still didn’t use it regularly either as in practice I tend to only use one notebook at a time and a cover seems over the top just for that. So I though it would be interesting to try out a professionally-made cover for 3.5″ x 5.5″ notebooks as a comparison with my previous covers. Perhaps it would even coax me back into carrying more notebooks regularly again.

The cover arrived a couple of weeks later, and inside the UPS pouch was the box below, protected by bubble wrap.

Regular readers of my reviews will know that I’m not a fan of ostentatious packaging. The box satisfies my sensibilities perfectly. It’s stout cardboard, and so protected the contents adequately, not that there was anything especially fragile inside. I like the traditional lettering on the box. While it could go in the recycling, I’ll be keeping it for organising small items.

Inside the box was the notebook cover with a card band around, matching the style of the box.

The band concealed the elastic mid-band and charm. Underneath was another card with name of the person who made the cover along with care and cleaning instructions. These are all nice touches which show that these are not mass produced items. Inside the cover itself was – an Evil Eye! At first this seemed an odd thing to include but after reading the accompanying card I found it charming. I suppose it could be used as a bookmark, although I’m not sure that’s the intention.

So we get to the cover itself, with its elastic mid-band and brass charm, which is in the shape of a moustache. In practice I found the charm a little cumbersome and will be taking it off. I also worry that the metal could scratch other items kept with the notebook cover. Other options are available, so take more care than I did when selecting the charm.

A feature of the Galen Leather cover is that it has three holes at the top and bottom of the spine (compared to one on the Midori and my Fauxdori) which allows three separate elastic bands to pass through and in turn it’s easy to pass three notebooks through. While this is still possible with single holes, as on the Midori, it’s a bit more fiddly.

The notebook cover holds three notebooks comfortably.

The leather itself is smooth and shiny, and the Navy Blue colour is actually a little lighter than in the photos. The leather smell is strong but no unpleasant (at least to me). It will be interesting to see how it wears and how long the smell persists.

Another minor difference is that the hole through which mid band passes is on “spine” of the Galen leather cover, while of the Midori it’s in the middle of the back of the cover – which caused a “bump” under the writing surface. I think the placement is better on the Galen Leather cover.

The holes are cleanly and precisely cut.

The edges and corners are nicely finished.

Galen Leather Traveler’s Notebook Cover – Conclusion

My photographs really do the notebook cover justice. Take a look at the Galen Leather website, where you’ll be treated to lots of leather eye candy (that sounded a lot better in my head that it looks on the screen).

In conclusion, the notebook cover is a good quality item which I can thoroughly recommend. The base cost for the item, according to the website, would have been 22.20 Euro, which I consider to be good value. The shipping charges to the UK are reasonable. I’m not sure if the package would attract customs charges or VAT though – that’s unpredictable regardless of the supplier.

Finally, thanks to Galen Leather for the opportunity to review their product, and I wish Zeynep and Yusuf success for the future.