This is ZX81.org.uk

• Why Creativity Needs Shorter Copyright Terms – The subject line says it all. The “creative” industries have done a good job of convincing politicians that longer copyrights are better, but they’re only better for those middle-men…
• Giant ring detected around Saturn – “The scale of the new ring feature is astonishing. Nothing like it has been seen elsewhere in the Solar System.”
• I don’t go to restaurants to tell the truth – “Tips are embarrassing and stupid – they’re vestigial haggling in a society that has otherwise moved on. If you’re going to a restaurant to be served and eat a meal, why is the price of the delivery open to negotiation but not that of the food itself, the ambience, music, heating or use of the furniture? All of these things can disappoint or delight. It’s illogical to fix the price of one element but not the others.”

I spent a week walking around the Sierra Tejeda Natural Park, staying in Canillas de Albaida which is about an hours drive from Malaga in the south of Spain.

Over the following few posts I’ll be talking about and showing pictures of the tiny, white-washed villages, the diverse and beautiful mountains and, as a contrast, the buildings and culture in Granada.

• Canillas de Albaida — the town that I stayed in
• Walking in Andalucía — what I went to Spain to do
• Granada — what I did on my “rest” day

Stay tuned for any future travels of mine by subscribing to the RSS feed or by email.

• A Sense of Entitlement: Tweetie 2 – I think Apple needs to do more here — to allow for paid upgrades — but I also congratulate the author of Tweetie for having the nerve to charge for a significant update. He’ll come across a lot of resistance but it’s absolutely the right thing to do and it, potentially, paves the way for smaller developers to do the same thing.
• Peep Show ‘won’t change’ for anyone – Looking forward to this. Slightly worried that it might overstay its welcome — how can you top eating a family pet in terms of gross out? — but then I thought that for the last couple of series too…
• Fail Yet Succeed? – Nice discussion of the kind of things that all software projects go through. Really this is about half of my job!

Last week I complained that my iPhone’s camera was no substitute for my 50D.

The next day I was lucky enough to have my DSLR with me at sunset, and it looked a bit like this.

[](<http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendarlington/3962039016/[/flickr]

The following day I was in the neighbouring town of Competa and managed to capture these beautiful colours.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendarlington/3961264013/[/flickr]

The church also looked fantastic bathed in the evening light.

[flickr]http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephendarlington/3961264081/[/flickr]

I’ll be posting some more pictures taken earlier in the day over the next week or two. Stay tuned!

At times like these I wish that my 50D was small enough to have with me at all times. Still, my iPhone did an okay job.

Most people reading this will know that Snow Leopard refers to version 10.6 of the Macintosh Operating System, Apple’s latest update released late last month.

I wasn’t sure whether I should upgrade initially. I have been stung before by being an early adopter. Mac OS X 10.4 was a nightmare on my iMac G5. The big ticket new features such as Dashboard and Spotlight worked just fine¹. What didn’t work were little thing like, oh, networking. Eight times out of ten it couldn’t connect to my AirPort Base station. This made almost everything, including downloading patches to fix this very problem, a compete and utter pain. I think it took until 10.4.3 before everything worked reliably.

I normally try to be pretty positive here. Most reviews you’ll find here are of products that I’ve bought with my own money and that I’m broadly happy with.

That makes this post the exception.

You may remember that ZX81.org.uk went off-line for over twenty-four hours last month. Shortly afterwards I switched away from Adept Hosting, but it’s not only, as you might expect, because of the reliability.

I posted the following review at Review Centre:

• After 1,100 miles and 52 days, Eddie Izzard has finishing line in sight – Awesome achievement. And I don’t mean “awesome” as in an “awesome hot dog.”
• John Marcotte, Author of the 2010 California Protection of Marriage Act – Marcotte is trying to get divorce banned. “People who supported Prop 8 weren’t trying to take rights away from gays, they just wanted to protect traditional marriage. That’s why I’m confident that they will support this initiative, even though this time it will be their rights that are diminished. To not support it would be hypocritical. "
• PM apology after Turing petition – About time too!

• “The Government” – “Try something. Every time somebody complains about the evils or failings of ’the government,’ strike out ’the government’ and see what results.” (via @marcoarment)
• People get red-dy – “The idea of a ginger festival may sound like little more than a bit of fun, but when 3,000 redheads came together for a recent gathering it became a bonding experience.”
• Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate to Know Why. – “It’s not that the old meds are getting weaker, drug developers say. It’s as if the placebo effect is somehow getting stronger.”

• Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty – I find that there are many convincing arguments against capital punishment but maybe it’s the emotional one that works in the end. It could be you?
• Why do some countries drive on the right and others on the left? – Fascinating look at why (and where) we drive on which side of the road.
• Hidden Developer Gems in Snow Leopard – I know it’s geeky but I’m more excited about the new APIs in Snow Leopard than any of the new stuff or even, to a certain extent, the performance improvements.