This weeks PhotoFriday was a tricky one for a couple of reasons. Firstly I don’t have very many pictures of “Children” or even anything child-like. Secondly, most of the pictures that I do have I wouldn’t want to use. Thirdly, most of those that didn’t fall into the previous two categories I’ve already used for previous challenges!

In the end I settled on this image I took in southern Vietnam. I got the impression that they don’t get a huge number of tourists around there. They were very curious of us but also very nervous and wouldn’t come much closer than what you see in the picture.

When I think of “Nightlife,” this weeks PhotoFriday theme, I think of music and dancing. I have quite a few images of live music but perhaps the best I have that emphasises the “life” in “nightlife” is the above shot from our holiday in Canillas de Albaida, Spain.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Cleanliness.” I’m entry number 158.

I should probably apologise in advance for the puns.

This weeks PhotoFriday is “Cleanliness.” I came up with a number of ideas, a few of which I tried, most of which didn’t work. Then I decided that the various liquids kept under the kitchen sink might be suitable since they tend to be used to keep things clean. While fairly colourful it wasn’t quite enough. It needed something else.

One of the phrases I’d been thinking of was “Cleanliness is next to godliness.” Ours is not the kind of household to have a copy of the Bible or Qur’an to hand so I had to improvise. This may require changing the phrase to “Cleanliness is next to godlessness” but it works. Kind of.

• On Apple suing HTC – Like many people, I just don’t see Apple’s actions here being very constructive. Seems like a waste of money and good will.
• Curiosity – “Curiosity is one of the most underrated phenomena in the world. It’s ironic that people aren’t more curious about curiosity. It’s a powerful thing.”

People are impressed by the Academy Awards ceremony, all the glitz and glamour, the celebrities and the recognition for their work. However there are much easier ways to pick up your own Oscar statue.

• Tits and Apps – About most of the ‘sexy’ iPhone apps being pulled last weekend: “What developers see is that the App Store is a shaky foundation upon which to build a business. One day you’re prospering, the next day your app is gone. There are awesome iPhone OS apps that aren’t being built because developers don’t trust Apple not to yank the carpet out from underneath them.”
• Infer.NET – Seen at the BCS/IET Turing Lecture by Chris Bishop. Looks interesting.
• Sources offer peek at Adobe Creative Suite 5 for Mac – PhotoShop CS5: what do you do to the app that has everything? Not a lot, visually at least…

I’ve missed the New Year celebrations on the 31st December for about fifteen years now so it’s getting beyond the point where you could consider it an accident. Indeed, the cold and the crowds both in Trafalgar Square and afterwards on the Tube don’t exactly encourage me to make an effort. Luckily Chinese New Year is at a more civilised time, is less busy and slightly warmer.

Still, it’s the first time I’ve ever made it!

This weeks PhotoFriday, “Nature,” is a much broader theme than we’ve had in the last few weeks. So lots of choices this time — too many — and in the end I figured that showing the vastness of a natural area, barely touched by man was the way to go. This image is originally from my tribute to Ansel Adams.

Please also vote for my entry in last weeks challenge, “Lightness.” I’m entry number 220.

I see every now and again that Apple needs to make it easier to allow developers to save the state of their application so that they open up exactly as they were when they were shut down.

Obviously I’m all for Apple making my life easy, but that’s not going to happen for a while yet so I thought I’d share how I implemented it in Yummy.

The key is this simple protocol:

I had a really hard time finding a suitable image for this weeks PhotoFriday theme, “Lightness.” I note that a few people have submitted sunsets or sunrises. Nice, but that’s light not lightness.

I visited Iceland over Christmas and remember the constant flickering of candles and open fires and the cheer of the locals despite the long hours of darkness. This image, therefore, represents lightness both in terms of the candles and the spirit of all in the parade. (That sort of sounds cheesy when you write it down but I’m being genuine when I say it!)