I mentioned the WordPress app on my list of essential iPad apps recently. In my write-up I noted that the editor was very basic without any formatting controls. This morning I checked the AppStore and found that an update for the WordPress app has been released. And lo and behold, they’ve added some formatting controls to the editor to make it easier to markup text.

Now, instead of having to manually enter HTML tags to bold something, for example, I can highlight the text and poke a markup button. This is long overdue and makes the app much more useful. There are still some tweaks they need to make, such as allowing you to specify whether a link opens in the same window or new one, but this is a good start.

With the beautiful weather Friday in Ottawa, you can be forgiven if you forgot that today is the first day of Autumn. Hopefully it’s the first day of a nice long warm fall because I know I’m in absolutely no rush to move into the next season.

So, what makes it the first day of autumn anyway? (more…)

I’ve had an Apple iPad since Christmas and I love it. I was a little skeptical when they came out, but that quickly passed. Since getting it, I’ve found a collection of apps that I consider essential and I thought I’d write about them because many of my friends are starting to get them.

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I happened to notice this storm passing through to the south earlier this afternoon and shot a couple of photos of it…

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It seems like there are more and more cyclists riding on the sidewalks rather than in the streets where they belong.

Aside from being illegal, it can be dangerous for the people walking on the sidewalk (where they belong).

I was out at lunch with some people from work one day last week and we were approached from behind by three cyclists – two women and a man – while walking along Parkdale. When I pointed out to them that they weren’t supposed to be on the sidewalk they responded that there “wasn’t room” on the street. Me and my friends responded that there was room and that regardless they shouldn’t be on the sidewalk.

The guy on the bike decided to respect the law and rode off the sidewalk and off in to the distance on Parkdale. The two women, however, continued to ride on the sidewalk behind us, so we eventually stepped aside to they could go past us. The picture above is them riding off into the distance.

The fact of the matter is that if you’re riding a bike, you belong on the road, either in the bike lane if it exists, or at the side if it doesn’t. It is illegal for you to ride on the sidewalk. If your comfort level is such that you don’t feel comfortable riding on streets that have traffic then you shouldn’t be riding on those streets. You, like the women I encountered, should be taking side streets and bicycle paths where you won’t have to deal with traffic.

For most of the day, yesterday, I had a headache that just wouldn’t go away. I took a look at the hourly weather observations and noted that the air pressure had been steadily dropping for several hours, as you can see from the graph.

My headache finally started to fade around 1730, after the pressure had stabilized.