If you have an iPhone then you have a chance to try out Adobe's free application for editing photos. The app is a downsized version of Photoshop and allows you to do some basic editing on an iPhone or iPod.

The app is available from the Apple iTunes store. Photoshop.com Mobile has tools for cropping, image rotation, colour control and some filter effects. Once done you can save the image on your device or upload it to a free Photoshop.com account. If you make a mistake you can revert back to the original image.

But here is the catch: the app is only downloadable from the US and Canada. Since Bermuda is sometimes included in the North American market area it is worth a try, or just tap into it the next time you go continental. I know I will. Photoshop is simply unbeatable as a way of adjusting and manipulating images.

I have been working with Photoshop CS4 and its related Lightroom software for the past year and am now comfortable with the "digital darkroom" process. It is as if I were back in a much more controlled darkroom, without the smells, though I miss those too.

In fact I am going slightly retro since my trip to Canada last month, during which I cleared out some of the stuff I have kept in my parents' garage for the past 15 years or so. Not only did I rescue two bins of vinyl records, but I also found a negative developing tank I had kept around along with some handwritten notes on chemical formulas.

Since I use both digital and film cameras I figured it is time to get back to the basics and start developing my negatives as well.

Currently I take my colour and black and white films and get them developed at a place I trust will do a good job: not many of those left. I then scan them into digital format using my Nikon Coolscan 5000 and edit them in Lightroom as raw files before transferring them for any further manipulation in Photoshop.

Now I can hardly wait to start mixing the chemicals to take control of the negative development part of the process. It is time consuming but rewarding. When I was an undergraduate at the University of Toronto, I used to mix up various chemical concoctions from scratch rather than buy the pre-packaged formulas. Perhaps I will not go so far since my wife might complain about the smells.

It seems to me that I am crossing and blending technologies both in how I listen to music and produce photographs. I wonder how many of us are doing this kind of easy moving too and fro across the generations when the supposedly "old" technology still has something essential to impart. I do not think I am being a fuddy-duddy. There is a nice sound atmosphere to be had from vinyl, one that CDs do not impart.

Yet the convenience of CDs on all fronts, including the relative lack of care needed when playing them coupled with the ability to transfer music easily to computers and mobile devices, is a boon no one would deny.

I also find a different kind of colour or black and white image can be obtained from a negative when the process and scanning are done correctly. I am not saying film is better than digital photographs.

Each technology has its place and brings something different to the image. Each is wonderful in its own right. I hope this ability to appreciate the various qualities is not lost in this era of convenience.

Sometimes technologies, like ways of doing things, do not have to be discarded. Some should. I have certainly thrown away most of my music tapes and all of my VHS videos. Ok, I confess. I still have the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll Circus on VHS. Nostalgia sometimes gets the best of me.

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Teleworking is a fact of life for many. The company I currently work for certainly has a good attitude towards the practice. It neither encourages nor discourages working at home. It offers it as a choice not to be abused and has laid down some very clear rules (no babysitting!). It also has clear guides on how to access our computers and the network and forward our phones.

I have set one day a week when I stay home (Thursday) and this gives me a nice break-up of the office routine, unless I happen to be travelling or need to be at a meeting. Teleworking as a growing trend seems to have reached a new peak.

According to the Consumer Electronics Association, about one-third of the total US workforce telework from home at least once a month.

The association's research shows that 38 million employed US online adults, or 37 percent of the total workforce, follow the pattern.

"Technological advances, economic considerations and the promise of augmented efficiency have elevated working from home from a novelty to a reality," says the association.

Whether Bermuda is ahead or behind the curve on this trend, it is one employers should consider as a means of giving their staff a bit more flexibility. After all, avoiding the time wasted during the daily road blocks might be an incentive to putting extra effort into cracking down early on all that work.

There is also the appreciation factor, which might give you the edge in keeping a valued employee.

Send comments to elamin.ahmed@gmail.com