Review of iPod Touch Software I Use

• BirdSight AU (Natural Guides, LLC) - the only app I have paid for, unfortunately it cannot handle any strings with apostrophes in it (ie. Thomson's Lake, a fairly basic bug in a database app I would of thought), otherwise this is a good app, would be better if there was a way to get all of the sightings out of it in one email (as opposed to one "observation" collection at a time);
• Files lite (Olive Toast) - does what it does perfectly, highly recommended, I am seriously considering buying the full version;
• Mactracker (Ian Page) - awesome, highly recommended, very slick interface;
• TouchCalc (Alexander Clauss) - very good, I use it regularly;
• To Do's (AustinBull Software) - basic ToDo app, does what it needs to do well;
• Sudoku (Mighty Mighty Good Games) - addictive;
• Solitaire (MobilityWare) - very good fun.

Upgrading to Snow Leopard

I have finally gotten around to updating the MacBook to Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6). Just running the Software Updates now (thank goodness we have decent broadband). I've still got to install some applications and copy across all my data but so far so good.

Also took the opportunity to upgrade the 120GB HDD to a 320GB HDD. Compared to the 12" G4 PowerBook HDD changeout procedure the process was trivial (take battery out, remove panel fixed with 3 screws, pull HDD sled out, replace disk, put everything back together). This future-proofs my MacBook for at least a few years (hopefully).

Birds #208 and #209

After the somewhat unsuccessful Cheynes Beach trip I had good birding day on Saturday picking up two new species:

• On the BAWA walk at Woodman Point we saw Arctic Jaegers (Stercorarius parasiticus) - thanks to the crew that ran this walk! The majority of the jaegers kept very high up but a few passed by at low altitudes offering great views.
• As the walk finished mid-morning I headed on to Herdsman Lake with John Graff and we located a pair of Red-kneed Dotterels (Erythrogonys cinctus). Thanks John!

I didn't get any photographs of these - too focused on getting a good view of them. I don't like my chances of hitting 250 by the end of 2010 (we are in April already) but I'm going to give it a shot anyway.

Rainbow Bee-eater

IMG_5187, originally uploaded by gjhmac.

Rainbow Bee-eater (Merops ornatus, Dampier, WA, Australia).

Recent (Apple) Purchases

No, I haven't gone and bought an iPad. They do look good though...

Just picked up a copy of Snow Leopard (Mac OS X 10.6) and one of the wired (USB) Apple keyboards with a full number pad. I'm using the keyboard now and it is awesome. Very minimal yet almost impossibly sturdy. Snow Leopard will be installed on the MacBook when I get the chance. I'm going to do a full (format the disk) install so it could take a while to get everything up and running again.