Wallace and Grommit Go to the Moon

Well then, that last post worked. This is not rocket science...it should really be almost as easy to work from the road as it is from home, but maybe the iPad isn't quite the right tool. (I'm posting this from my cousin's lapdog.) But having never done it before I feel like it's like Wallace and Grommit's attempt to build a rocket ship. (Although theirs worked, if you've seen that particular film.) I'm not a dolt; I just do a good impersonation of one every now and then.

So anyway, the photographic item I forgot to pack is the little doohickey that permits me to download an SD card to the iPad. (Told you it was something.) Not that it matters anyway since I can't seem to post from the iPad. I'm not going to download my pictures to my cousin's MacBook Pro, so you'll just have to imagine that this post is illustrated with a photograph of the glassy surface of a bacalmed Lake Michigan taken from high above the prow of a speeding catamaran, and a characterful shot of a row of 1890s cottages high atop the bluff over Sylvan Beach. (This is my cousins' house—theirs is #9, and the picture is about 80 years old.)

Looks like a proper lapdog is in TOP's future. I really do want to travel and work at the same time; there's no reason why not. I want to go to Paris, and England, and Colorado, and....

We'll be back to normal soon; and as you can see I'm still posting comments.

—Mike, on the Coast of Lake Michigan not far from Muskegon

Comments

[Mark Roberts]

When I was shopping for a tablet one of my non-negotiable requirements was a built-in SD card slot (full size, not micro). For just the reason you discovered.

[Oskar Ojala]

For getting a laptop tha leaves the house regularly there's a simple piece of advice: get the lightest one you can manage to do your stuff with!

FWIW, nowadays i usually read your site on my iPad.

[John Ironside]

Enjoy the cheese, Mike. I know one can get passable, even rather good Cheddar, in N America, but I wonder if Wensleydale may be easier to find on the Moon?
Thanks for the wonderful ramblings, and safe journey back to TOP HQ.

[Rob L]

Agreed that a laptop is far preferable for posting, but have you checked out the TypePad app?(https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/typepad/id281944480?mt=8) Not sure if it's just iphone or ipad as well, but might be easier. A macbook air for travel is a delight, however - and enough oomph to edit photos on the road, if you can handle the screen size.

[André]

Hi Mike,

Hope you're having a great time visiting with your cousin by the lake.

I see an 11.6" MacBook Air in your future :)

[Hugh Smith]

Mike:
When we are out of the states Italy, France, Ireland, et al) we always take our little (upgraded) Toshiba netbook which fits very well in my Domke bag along with two Fuji X-100's and miscellaneous items. It works VERY well, is light and convenient. Since we shoot travel stuff, we need to travel light. No. Beers don't fit.
Just a thought.

[Bob]

Mike,

I have a few sites on my iPad2 that I cannot access or get to work properly with the included Safari browser but work OK with the Opera browser.

You might want to give that a try.

[Randall Teasley]

Mike, we can live without photos for awhile because you make excellent word pictures.

[Stephen Scharf]

Just to add to the confusion, there's an iPad stand called a LapDog.

[ArchiVue]

Well, if you go to Paris (with or without the lap thing ), ring the bell at TOP ! i believe we'll be quite a number to treat you with red wine, nice galleries and nice people... :-)

[Roger Bradbury]

I noticed that every house in the photos has a veranda. It's very rare to see one in England. It must be nice to have a semi private space like that where you can watch the world go by.

I've been in my home town of Winslow, Bucks today. My aim was to take some photos of the town that were different from the usual views that everyone seems to take. Sometimes the same or similar views can be found that were taken both last year and a hundred years earlier.
I had some success, I think.

It would be nice to see you in England, Mike. I don't know how much foreign travel you have done but I'm sure that England will not be quite what you expect. I found Australia to be rather different from my expectations a few years ago. Commonplace things there were new and strange to me.

[Al Patterson.]

Get a MacBook Air. I' d love one, but will continue to use my XP Toshiba Lapdog until it bites the dust. Hope to have an Apple budget next time a laptop purchase is required.

[MarkB]

"...glassy surface of a bacalmed Lake Michigan taken from high above the prow of a speeding catamaran..."

Oh... that combination means there's a motor on the catamaran. Sorry, but as an avid sailor, I'm kinda glad there's no photographic evidence of that!

But just for fun, here's what I imagined:

[Walt]

Man, type A personality Mike. You're supposed to be on vacation. Enjoy, kick back. We're not all going to wander away in a week or two time. :) Stay cool, drink plenty of water and potent potables. Chill!

Heck my riding lawn mower just died. I've got to push mow in this heat. LOL

[Mark E. Johnson]

If you're blogging from an iPad, take a look at Blogsy. Been using it for more than a year, very happy with it.

If you're going to do a lot, the Apple Bluetooth keyboard and a set of Wingstands make a great, light, mobile setup.

[toto]

I'm more of a lapcat person.

[David Wilson]

Dear Mike,

The camera you have with you is a Sony NEX 6, which has wifi built in. Download Sony's Play Memories app and you can transfer photos to your tablet. I find it a surprisingly useful feature and no need to remember the SD card reader!

[lith]

You're right that the cursed iPad is not the right tool. Its autocorrect seems to be turning "laptop" into "lapdog". The former is a small, portable compatible of a clamshell design with the monitor folding over the keyboard for the protection of both when not in use.

The other is an accurate description of people who buy iDevices.

[Ben Wilkes]

Besides the TypePad app, there is also Blogsy:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/blogsy/id428485324?mt=8

I haven't tried it, but plan to if I get stuck managing my department's site.. It's highly rated.

[Bear.]

iPad for output, Mac Air for input...

[Andreas Friedl]

I know, most people love their iPads but I much prefer a 11 inch MacBook Air. The little fellow doesn't weigh much more than an iPad and isn't much thicker but it's a full-fledged computer that can handle image processing and storage. I just wished it had a built-in SD card slot like its 13 inch brother...

[Carsten W]

I will second the motion for a MacBook Air. Get the 13" version, the 11" version has such tiny type. Get the slowest, cheapest of the new ones. 10 hours of battery life!

[Nigel]

Mike,

travelling is like anything else, the more you do it, the easier it gets.

If you ever get to Europe and I'm still here, you'd have a place to stay in Prague (a spare flat) with wifi and a loaner PC.

N

[Michael Perini]

Mike,
Everyone needs time away, and an occasional change of venue ---if just to "Sharpen the Saw". Relax and breathe deep, places where Land and Sea and Sky meet are good for the soul.
Who knows, there may be a T.O.P. Winnebago in your future....
"On the Road with...TOP....

PS there is also Mac Remote Desktop that allows you to access and control your Mac from anywhere.

PPS A MacBook Pro Retina could run the site easily and use the iMac's screen,--- you will Love the retina display.

[Michael Perini]

Check out the App Store -'-Logmein'
It must be pre configured on the Mac at home, but they claim full access and control
I have not used it personally, nor do I believe it is the only app of its kind
Just FYI it might save you from having to buy one of those NoPlugyInny machines.

[Bruce]

Come to Australia. Spend six months North to South . Your readers will entertain you. ( Or at least I , in Victoria, will) Come in your winter. Our Summer. Very comfortable. Use technology, (when you've mastered it) Have Fun. We only live once. You'll love it!!!!

[Robert Schellhammer]

Enjoy your vacation and let photo "processing" wait til you get home.

[Mark Hubbard]

Blogsy is an ipad app designed to work with Typepad, amongst others..

[Jim Hughes]

You might give Blogsy a try on the iPad. You can insert photos, etc, and it works pretty well, though differently than using a browser on a laptop.

[Bill Pearce]

Mike,

But you will be again behind the times if you get a laptop. Again and again we read stories in the business pages that tell us that desktop computers are already dead, laptops soon too, to be replaced with tablets with little memory and 1992 computing power.

[Steve Rosenblum]

Best lapdog for travel=Macbook Air 'Nuf said!

[will wright]

replying from Pentwater, about 30 miles N of you...was in Whitehall for the theatre last week. enjoy our heat! Will Wright

[Dominic]

Well if you make it over to England you can try some Wensleydale. I'm sure we can offer you a warm welcome and many interesting sights. Paris is just a train ride away too.

[Jacques Gilbert]

You can post complete items, including pictures, post from a mobile device by sending an email to your blog special address. You will find the address at Settings > Post by email.
More details at http://help.typepad.com/iphone-ipad-publishing.html
Cheers.
(no need to publish, this is for your consumption)

[Dale]

Mike, I just bought an eye-fi card for my d800 ad slot it is way cool! I click and it sends the pics to my eye pad. Lotsa fun to see a large pic while you are shooting.

[David Teo]

What the hell is a "lapdog"?? :P

[Homer Office]

[OT / FYI] "Adrian Johnson's new prints celebrate classic cameras"

At http://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/adrian-johnson-basilicas?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+itsnicethat%2FSlXC+%28It%27s+Nice+That%29

Or http://adrianjohnson.co.uk/

[John Driggers]

Mike,

I don't mean to chide, but it seems like a lot of your issues are a bit of your own making (ain't that true for all of us?).

Perhaps foremost, is the lack of a rehearsal before you left home. If you had tried everything once, you would have discovered your missing cable and the shortcomings of your software choices on the iPad for your intended tasks.

There have been a lot of good suggestions posted-like using the wireless transfer features of your NEX-6 (bet that was a bit of a head slapper), and Blogsy.

I'd suggest that when you get home, you set aside some time to test and practice with the iPad before making a snap decision to buy a laptop. That may end up being what you decide to do-but you really haven't given the iPad a fair shake. You may surprise yourself-especially if you can get someone who is Blogsy-savvy to spend a couple of hours with you. There are lots of iPad haters/lover around who can offer extreme points of view pro and con.

It's certainly true that what you wanted to do with your iPad was achievable--you just weren't able to do it out of the gate. Once you learn HOW to do it, then it's time to make the do you WANT to do it that way decision.

As for the Macbook Air-one big caution (applies to all current mac laptops). The SD card reader is built into the logic board (motherboard for PC oriented readers). Each little spring connector is soldered into place and as a result-it's not repairable, or replaceable as a module.
You have to replace the entire logic board ($$$$). I had a Sony SD card break inside my Macbook Pro (faulty card, and pulling the card out bent the contacts). Apple (surprisingly) replaced the motherboard for free as the laptop was still under warranty.

So I now use an external card reader and only use the built in one in an emergency and oh-so-gently.

Anyway good luck,

John Driggers
Adelaide, South Australia

[Jim F.]

I got my wife an iPad because, well it's from Apple and must be perfect vs. her Toshiba netbook. Well I think it's a dog. Nothing about it is intuitive unless I guess you were an Apple baby. No USB, no card slot, no file system, and no shared files. Don't tell me there's an app for that. I shouldn't need an app to have a file system. Before you comment I have a MS is Computer and Software Engineering and I've got 30 years experience in the design and programming of real-time embedded industrial controls. I feel your pain.

[Ben Rosengart]

@Jim F., you don't want apps, and you do want lots of I/O ports, and a filesystem -- so you bought an iPad? And this is somehow the iPad's fault? I think you are a victim of your own assumptions here. An iPad is simply not a laptop, and if you try to pretend that it is one, you are hammering nails with a screwdriver.