Taxation: Like your music, Apple is in the Cloud

Hugo Rifkind writing in The Times this morning:

So Apple, the trendiest of all trendy massive technology companies, turns out to be bang on trend for massive technology companies by not paying much tax. Indeed, like many of its gadgets, Apple's tax arrangements would appear to be so covetable as to leave competitors standing.

While lumpen second-raters such as Amazon and Google allegedly seek to dodge tax by funnelling their British dealings through more favourable regimes (in Luxembourg and Ireland), Apple, at least according to a US Senate investigation, has "sought the holy grail of tax avoidance" and managed to base itself nowhere at all. Yep, that's right. Like your e-mail and your music collection, Apple is in the Cloud.

SteamTrains: West Somerset Railway booming

My friend Ralf Meier of Trainphilos.com is a frequent visitor to Britain, drawn inexorably by the multitude or railway museums and heritage railways. He often comments that Britain is like a living Disney World with the difference that everything is genuine and historic. Last week he was in London and I drove him down to Somerset to ride on one of the few steam railways he hadn't visited.

Great Western Railway Manor Class locomotive Norton Manor under steam at Minehead terminus after hauling our train from Bishops Lydeard.

Resplendent in its black wartime livery (enhanced by the post-war British Railways badge), No 3850 was one of the last batch of twenty three 2884 Class locomotives built at Swindon in 1942 at a cost of £7,911 each (about £325,000 in depreciated 2013 pounds)

Storm clouds gather over Bishops Lydeard station at the southernmost end of the West Somerset Railway. Norton Manor steaming at the head of the train

The West Somerset Railway is surprisingly popular. Our train was packed, with every seat taken and people getting on and off at intermediate stations: Just like a real train service and not simply a museum line. The 90-minute, 22.75-mile journey from Bishops Lydeard, near Taunton, takes passengers to the pretty resort of Minehead on the North Somerset coast. The round trip costs £17 (£15 in advance) and there is a regular service. But check with the web site because it varies throughout the year. The volunteer staff run a mix of diesel and steam, so check that also when planning a visit.

Both Ralf and I much preferred the North Yorkshire Moors Railway between Pickering and Whitby which we visited last year; but the West Somerset is definitely worth the effort if you are in the West Country.

This was a three-day outing from London. We needed somewhere to stay and, for once, I hit the jackpot when I selected Farthing's Hotel at Hatch Beauchamp, about five miles outside Taunton. This small family hotel offers superb accommodation and excellent food and was a real find.

An amazing variety of fowl, from peacocks to geese, ducks and hens, roams the grounds and provides fresh produce for the kitchen. The breakfast eggs were the bes I have tasted, used as I am to supermarket fare. If you are visiting the area, especially for the West Somerset Railway, I cannot think of a better place to stay. You will need a car, of course. Our only complaint was the rather patchy wifi in the hotel. Unfortunately this is a common problem with hotels throughout the world.

Farthings Hotel in the small village of Hatch Beauchamp is one of the best small hotels I have visited in the past few years: Fine dining and comfortable accommodation

During the stay at Farthings I  made the mistake of leaving my bedroom door ajar. Mr. and Mrs. Pea were just itching to get inside and try my bed. For hours Mr.P had been flexing his feathers in the face of complete female indifference. He probably thought a nice warm room would spice up the relationship

The pretty resort of Minehead is worth a visit, preferably taking the West Somerset Railway from Bishops Lydeard

Photographic note

All the pictures in this article were taken with the new Leica M240 and the superb 50mm Summilux ASPH f/1.4 lens. The rather noisy, hand-held night-time shot of Farthings Hotel was taken at ISO 1600 (f/2 at 1/45s).

by Mike Evans, 22 May 2013

Ralf filming Norton Manor on its way to head the return train. See Ralf's YouTube train videos by clicking this link

Art of product photography explained

Product photography is one of the most difficult tasks to do well. It needs perfect illumination and a neutral set. Somehow those little tents and lights you buy from camera shops just don't cut the mustard. So if you want to snap your iPhone or iPad with perfect result, watch this video. Warning: You need lots of expensive equipment.

Setting up the studio by Peter Belanger who is behind much of Apple's superb product photography. More here at Dpreview.com

by Mike Evans, 21 May 2013

Journaling with Day One: An easy slog

745 days in the bag and I am still writing every day in Day One. In the past, using notebooks, diaries, Filofaxes and various Mac applications, I have never managed more than thirty consecutive days. Day One is just so convenient and goes everywhere with me: it is on my phone, on my iPad mini and on both my Macs, perfectly synchronised and ever ready for my ramblings.

At its core, Day One is very simple: A date and a blank page. But there is a great deal more to it than that. It can handle Markdown, add weather information, accept tags and include photographs. You can even grab pictures on your phone from within Day One.

Using Brett Terpstra's Slogger, you can summarise your social network feeds in the journal. You can even use Slogger to journalise OmniFocus completed tasks as an automatic record of daily achievements.

Tulio Jarocki has just completed his Journaling with Day One series, a deeply knowledgeable exploration of Day One in all its glory. He does a better job of explaining the capabilities of Day One than I could ever do and I strongly recommend reading the series.

Hilton Lipschitz shows how Slogger can be used to track all your activities in Day One

Hilton Lipschitz, an independent software consultant, demonstrates the power of Slogger as a feeder for Day One in this article. As he admits, it takes a bit of effort to set up all the feeds but the result is worth it

The message is that Day One can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it. My usage is pretty straightforward, a relatively simple journal which is intended for my own consumpton and reference. Already I see the benefits of keeping track of activities and I only wish I could look back on a whole lifetime of daily doings instead of the ragbag of journals, diaries and notes currently sitting in a storage box in the attic. The beauty of an application such as Day One is that there is nothing to store in the attic when you get old; it will all be easily accessible from the Cloud.

by Mike Evans, 20 May 2013