Saturday Links

Today it's all about the Commodore 64, the coolest computer ever (hush now, Spectrum heads). And more specifically the music it made. Three voices - now THAT was a revolution.

Stuck in the past you say? Me? Well there are some who go to far greater lengths in their quest for nostalgia:

C64 Orchestra rehearsal, featuring Rob Hubbard, composer of The Last Ninja theme tune.

C64 Orchestra on MySpace - Check out their rendition of Monty On The Run. Not bad. Not sure about that "Weeeee" in the middle though.

And if you're really into C64 Music you could always subscribe to the C64 Takeaway Podcast, though maybe that's going a bit far. It is presented by an amusing sounding Danish chap though.

Actually, I'd be careful about that last one. People might think you're a complete nerd or something. Instead, visit My C64 games page, blog it yourself and send it to ALL your contacts so my Google Ad Impressions go up and I make some money.

Cheers.

Tuesday Link

The Animated GIF Appreciation Society. I've added a few of my faves, under 'Ade'.

Saturday Links - Video

Do it yourself - Slightly twisted short film / video.

Neave.tv - Watch videos through an experimental browser-based full window TV-style interface

Democracy - Free Internet TV Platform. All sorts of channels, from music videos to documentaries.

Thursday Link

Needs To Be Glassed – In its own words: "Everyone featured on this site requires a fucken glassin". I don't think they're really condoning violence, it's just something silly to read if you have a moment's downtime during the day. Or even if you don't, in my case.

Not brilliant or even consistently good, but it makes me laugh in places, and I mostly agree with their choice of glassees. I feel I should point out, for the record, that I've never glassed (or bottled for that matter) anyone in my life.

Wednesday Links

Inspired by Peter Gasston I've decided to start posting links to interesting things that I find on the web. I hope you'll find them interesting too. It's cheap blogging for me, anyway.


Links for Wednesday

An Abandoned City – "Here is a little photo-session of an abandoned city. When the Soviet Union collapsed, government didn't have much funds to...". I'd love to take my camera there on holiday.
del.icio.us: photography

Hello Kitty Exhaust Pipe – Not on my car, thanks, but maybe it's your sort of thing. I wonder whether it's connected to this car ?

Red Bull non-Air Race

A friend and I set off early on Saturday to go and watch the British leg of the Red Bull Air Race World Series at Longleat. Unfortunately:

i) Due to the amount of traffic going to the event the journey took seven hours. It would normally take under three hours from where we set off in East London but the congestion was so bad that the final 20 miles from near Stonehenge took four hours.

ii) About an hour after we got there the organisers confirmed that the event was being cancelled due to strong gusty winds.

...all of which was "somewhat disappointing."

Here are some more photos of the Air Race not taking place:

Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator gave me this interesting error message earlier. I thought I'd share it with you.

Mosquitos. Still. Grrr.

I still regularly get woken during the night by the high pitched whine of mosquitos buzzing round my head. And my face and arms are dotted with mosquito bites at various stages of healing. This has been going on since July.

It's very annoying.

It also strikes me as a bit weird as this isn't Morocco, it's England. In the autumn.

Well, I suppose writing about it isn't really going to help*. It's time to hunt this one down then get back to sleep for another hour before I have to get up for work.


*Unless you have any tips

Photosharing Rant, Episode III

And to complete my Photo Sharing trilogy...

I got round to it sooner than I thought I would. Mostly because it only took five minutes to set up. Here's a demo of a (Google) Picasaweb photo album. Check out the slideshow. I must say the LARGE slideshow is something that's really been missing from Flickr. I like to look at photos nice and big.

Checking out Picasaweb

Aug 29, 2006 - 4 Photos

Geotagging on Zooomr

If you click the image above it'll take you to its page on Zooomr.com, a relative newcomer and alternative photo sharing website to Flickr. I created my account a while ago but haven't used it much, largely because I already have lots of contacts on Flickr and don't want the hassle of using two sites. Flickr got there first you might say.

Now there's lots of things about Flickr that are still better than Zooomr: it's more refined, it's easier on the eye, it has great features like the Organizr and a great user-expandable groups system. But, Zooomr has some stuff that Flickr does not. And in my frustration at the geotagging functionality added to Flickr yesterday I thought I'd give Zooomr another go.

And its Geotagging facility is much better. I'd say this is largely down to the fact that it's based on Google Maps which is far superior to Yahoo Maps, but there are other differences too.

Apart from a few problems I had searching for locations on Zooomr, ("London, UK" didn't work for example, but I navigated to it easily using the GMaps controls) geotagging works great. OK, I can't drag and drop like on Flickr but I can select an image and just click the spot where I want it to go and that's just as easy. Check out Zooomr's tagmap here.

Here's Flickr's map of London for comparison. Now try to zoom in on that. Drag and drop or no drag and drop, it's pretty useless right now. Hopefully they'll improve it soon and prove me wrong!

So, the previously infallible Flickr has some competition. And competition is ultimately good for the customer. I had wondered whether Google would buy out and pour money into Zooomr but they recently launched a test version of Picasaweb which is an online sharing extension to their long-running Picasa desktop image management software.

So much to choose from! All jolly clever stuff anyway...


Oh, one more thing:

Check out the Zooomr's 'Portal' feature I've used on this image. It's great to see this sort of innovation.

Flickr has added a mapping tool

Flickr has added a map tool for geotagging photos.

Now this functionality was previously already available to early adopter tech-savvy types who used Firefox with the GreaseMonkey plugin, which allowed an 'add geotags' link to be added to each Flickr photo page. This in turn got the location from Google Maps and that returned longitude and latitude data as tags on the image. These tags could then be used to collect images from a certain location or region, even outside of Flickr owing to its API.

This system worked, and still works, perfectly well in fact.

But... If all of that tech stuff goes over your head you're probbly thinking 'it sounds like a bit of a hassle'. And for some it is.

So Flickr have added their own system. And it works like this:

1. Drag your photo or batch of photos onto a map in the Organizr



2. View the map location from the photo page.




"Great", I immediately thought. But hang on a minute. There's one obvious shortfall: the map.

They're using Yahoo's mapping tool, of course. Flickr's photo elements work really nicely as usual, but the navigation on the map itself is clumsy and slow. And maybe it's all shiny and high-res for those of you in the USA, but the map data for London (you know that 'not so inconspicuous little town in the South East of England' ?) is terrible. Most of the roads aren't named, most smaller roads are missing and if I zoom into anywhere at the highest three zoom levels I just get grey. This is the closest I can get to London:



So, it fails completely because I have no idea where I'm pinning my photo!

In short, I'm afraid to say I think it's crap.


Also, it doesn't add geoTAGS to the photos. The location data is embedded. Now, arguably, tags weren't meant for positional data and some say they were undermining the tagging system, but so what? Wasn't it an inventive way to use them thought up by the users?

Well, apparently there's a way to convert them to the new system should you wish to. And Flickr's Stewart Butterfield laid to rest my fears that the existing geotagging system would cease to function in this thread.

Still, the bottom line is that I won't be using Flickr's map tool until it works properly. Maybe I'm spoilt by Google Maps but that means having a fast and easily navigable map with every road on it.

Until then, well, I know they're taking over the world but at times like these I wish it was Google that had bought Flickr and not Yahoo.

Day Twenty Eight

Day twenty eight of my alcohol-free month, that is. The end of the experiment is approaching and I'm happy to report that it has gone well. On the whole it's not been a problem at all, in fact I've quite enjoyed the change (not to mention the absence of hangovers). I wouldn't like to quit drinking altogether though - once every few days it's nice to go for a few drinks with friends. This month I've nearly OD'd on pints of lemonade and lime a couple of times.

So what have I been doing instead? Well, as you might have noticed I've been busy pimping out a new version of my game Flashteroids. I spent so much time on it when I originally made it (in 2002) that I thought it would be nice to make a bit of cash out of it. And it's had its moments of popularity. Back in 2004 there was a week during which it had around 3000 players per day. It's popular with the kids.

So the new version is basically the same old game but with a few improvements. And the key addition of some Google advertising on the website. Sold my soul to the devil you say? Oh well.

Also - and I hope I don't jinx it by shouting about it on the web - I'm 99% of the way towards having purchased my first property, a studio flat in Camberwell. 99% because it's not signed and sealed yet. It's in the hands of solicitors, doing whatever it is they do in return for monolithic stacks of money. Here are some photos of the flat.

So, quite a productive month. I'm looking forward to that cold beer at the end of it. Now, what to do with the bank holiday weekend?

Flashteroids embed demo

This post is just for demonstration purposes. It shows how Flashteroids can be embedded into any webpage or blog.

If you're interested in putting Flashteroids on your site, you can set it up here. It only takes a couple of minutes.

Flashteroids 1.5+

After many a night of grappling with arcaic Flash 5 code I've finally got the intermediate update to Flashteroids finished. That means it's the same old 2002 game (started in 2001, hence the Flash 5 code), but with 11 completely new levels, lots of new features and a bit of a facelift.

Check it out here or alternatively watch the obligatory YouTube video:

Ubuntu

The copy of Windows XP on the tired old PC in my kitchen has been complaining of late that it's a pirate copy and that "I may be a victim of software piracy." Yeah, spot on... (well, sort of.)

It's funny though that only now- when they're (supposedly) close to releasing Vista - they've started asking people to pay up for XP. I 'built' this computer about four years ago! The odds of me being willing to pay (directly at least) for a copy of Windows XP are pretty slim. Similar to the odds of selling me, say, a 10 year old Ford Fiesta for £3000. Yeah, it was alright in its day, but now it looks to me like Microsoft are getting left in the dust. Maybe they'll pull it out of the bag with Vista, but they're taking their bloody time!

Anyway, all these piracy warnings were doing my head in so I thought "OK, screw you then", and stuck a copy of Ubuntu on there instead.

Now for those of you who don't know, Ubuntu is a computer operating system (i.e. like Windows) based on GNU/Linux (i.e. not like Windows). It's also free and open source.

I thought about setting up a Linux machine a few years ago, mainly for the learning experience and a bit of a project, but it all seemed to involve just slightly too much effort - doing things like compiling it yourself and stuff.

This on the other hand was really easy. I just downloaded a CD image, burnt it to disk, popped it in the drive and clicked a button. It even runs a demo version off the CD without changing anything so you can see if you like it. No techie questions asked, no settings to set, just two or three steps and it's done in about 20 minutes.

Anyway, this may be a bad reputation move. I'm forever trying to shake off the 'techie guy' image. I do creative work for a living and 'creating stuff' is what I enjoy most, but I can't help it - curiousity gets the better of me. Must... play... with... gadgets...

So... hmmm... I now run two Macs, one Windows PC and one Linux box. OK, maybe I'm a bit of a geek then. But please stop saying I 'work in IT'. Innaccurate. And no I can't come round fix your network, I've forgotten how. Honest :)

Day Eight

It's the eighth day of my alcohol-free month. So far so good.

After work on Thursday I went to the pub and sat there quite happily drinking lime and lemonade while my workmates steadily got drunk. There is limit to how many soft drinks one can manage though – when I left I felt a little bit radioactive from all the sugar. I suppose there's always diet coke, but that comes packed with caffeine instead. I might have to do some research... Oh yeah, water.

Despite it being OK, I've not been back to a drinking establishment since. And this weekend I've felt a strange feeling that I've actually opted for a month of isolation. It seems – from ‘the outside’ – that the sole mission of the masses is to get pissed between Friday night and Sunday night, and if you’re not taking part then: “Sorry pal, you're on your own.”

Of course this isn't really the case, entirely. I could have gone to meet some friends on the common (but I knew they'd probably have been drinking all day) and I could have gone out to my mate's night at 93 Feet East last night (but the thought of a [very] crowded bar on a Saturday night without a few beers really didn't appeal). I just chose not to.

On the flipside I did do some useful flat-hunting research yesterday. I checked out some previously unexplored (by me, I mean) parts of Camberwell and now have a better idea of where I do and don't want to live. I also checked out a few properties, one of which looks promising.

Right, I'm off to have another highly productive day. Don't get too drunk, you lot.

I can't work out whether to be smug or jealous.

The Blair Witch Project

I've not seen it before. It's on TV. I've just turned it off half way through because it appears to be a bit: rubbish.

It's so blatantly not all shot in sequence with one camera. The sound continues on when the video cuts to a different angle all the way through, for a start. Yes, this can be done in the edit suite but not when there's two angles on a live conversation shot with one camera.

And am I supposed to be scared when they find a pile of rocks and some twigs tied together?

The Curse of the Letter A

Because:

a. My name begins with A and I'm therefore at the top of most my friends' mobile phone contacts lists.

and

b. A considerable amount of people apparently don't have the technical know-how to activate their phones' key locks (most have automatic key-locks for god's sake).

I often receive a large number of empty messages from one person over the space of 20 minutes or so. It also happens with calls. I receive lots of four minute long (the maximum) voicemails of the sound of someone sitting on their phone on a bus or wherever. I get this pretty much every day.

IT'S VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY ANNOYING.

Please, if you can't manage to not do this, then add a blank contact at the top of your contact list. Or take me out altogether and revert to using a pen and paper.

Maybe I should change my name to "Zade".

</ venting anger>

Wasting My Time

I've been working on an interactive ad since last Tuesday, including ALL weekend, 2am finishes on both Sunday and Monday nights, lots of changing it around significantly, changing it back how it was, last minute stress and such...

And we've just heard that the client is nervous about running it and wants to go with a more conservative ad instead.

Sometimes I hate my job.

Sober till September

Inspired by the decision of one of my friends to give up booze, I've decided to go without for the duration of August. It's a kind of experiment - testing the water, if you like. My main reasons are:

• I think I'll save a fortune


• I think I'll lose weight


• I think I'll feel healthier


• I think I'll be more efficient at work


• I'm more likely to significantly chip away at my massive 'to-do' list (which includes buying a flat)

Of course, like many such abstentions, the idea occurred to me in the depths of a hangover - the one that arrived two mornings after this night out with mywork mates, in fact. Day One, however, was Sunday because I had a glass of wine and two pints on Saturday night.

I don't have what most Europeans would call a drinking problem, though I do probably consume over the average for a London-living, works-in-the-media-type. So still some.

Obvious hurdles will be: company meetings (there's always a crate of cold Beck's), company nights out (two celebratory dinners lined up), and seeing friends at the weekend (we always go to the pub).

But zero alcohol is the plan. I don't think it will be difficult. I hope not anyway. As I said to someone today, the worst possible outcome would be for me to secretly fail and pretend that I still did it. So if I crumble under peer pressure I'll be sure to let you know about it.

The Elegant Universe

If, like me, you find space, time, the universe and “all that stuff” fascinating you'll probably enjoy The Elegant Universe, a video documentary about unification of the theories of physics.

It's three hours long and I've only watched one half of the first episode so far, but it's already clearly illustrated the key difference between Einstein's theory of General Relativity and Newton's law of gravity, using excellent 3D animations.

I quit doing maths after my electronics engineering degree in favour of making things that look nice instead, but it does still hold a deep fascination for me. I want to know how things work. So I'm glad there are still people out there keen to do all the sums. Worth a watch!

who told them about the weather?

Originally uploaded by petrichor.

I've never been one to complain about the heat. I'm loving the ongoing UK heatwave with temperatures up in the 30s. It's great. But my room's at the top of the house, so it is far more pleasant to keep the roof windows open overnight, to let whatever breaze there is cool the room down.

Fine. Until last night, that is.

I almost leapt of bed when that familiar – yet usually associated with holidays abroad – high-pitched mosquito whine faded rapidly in and out of earshot by the side of my head. Gah!

Turning on the light revealed two of them sitting on one wall and I found another buzzing randomly around under my desk. And the worst thing is when you splat them and they're already full of blood. This happened. I hurriedly went to wash my hands.

Of course you can never get them all. I woke up with three or four mosquito bite lumps on my arm and one on my leg.

Since when did they invade this fine green land? I thought they languished further south in France, Spain and, you know, all those other countries. Who went and told them we got some sun? Damn them and their whiney biting little ways...

So now my windows are shut, it's too hot to sleep, and they'll probably find a way in anyway. And worst of all every slight itch now feels like a mosquito landing on my skin and preparing to tuck into a meal.

Photo, perhaps rather aptly, by David Midgley.

Minus 61 In Detroit...

...was a techno record released in 1995 by David Holmes.

I doubt it's been that cold in Detroit since the arrival of mankind, on either the Celcius or Farenheit scale. But it is currently +29ºC in London. Outside. And it's midnight.

For those of you who live in walmer climes, that's pretty rare. Possiby a record. No extra blanket required tonight...

India blocks blogs

According to Boing Boing, the Indian government has told ISPs in India to block a number of domains including *.blogspot.com. If this is true then it certainly represents a step in the wrong direction.

At the time of writing this, it's not clear why they have done it. Maybe they don't like people having access to independent news and opinions?

Read the article

Quinn

If – like me – you're supposed to be doing something constructive but would much rather waste time doing something unproductive (and if you're also a Mac user) then I recommend you download Quinn. It's an excellent and free Tetris clone with network gaming features.

Unfortunately, according to the website, its creator Simon Haertel has been forced to stop distributing the game due to a nasty letter from The Tetris Company. It's a shame really as judging from their website they don't seem to be too active, at least on the web front.

Anyway, a few seconds on Google turned up the goods and you can download it here from Softpedia. At least for the time being.

Rise Festival

Yesterday, The Eyechild and I went to the Rise Festival in Finsbury Park.

Well, we got there eventually anyway. I set off from home much too late and jumped on a bus to EyechildVille. Then we waited a while for someone else who was supposed to be coming along but had gone to Ikea instead. And doesn't own a mobile phone.

So we gave up waiting and set off. Then it took a painful amount of time to get there on buses and indirect tubes because the Victoria Line was offline.

Anyway – yawn – I'm as bored of this post already as you undoubtedly are. Suffice to say it wasn't that good which is a shame because its anit-racism cause is, as ever, a worthy one. Maybe if I'd got there earlier and found a stage with some good music it would have been more enjoyable. As it was the best thing about the day was this large bottle of Beck’s.

7/7

The policeman standing outside my local tube station this morning marked the first anniversary of the London transport bombings. No doubt at some point he’ll have the unenviable task of having to stop and search some ‘suspicious looking’ individual who happens to be carrying a Fitness First bag or something.

Now don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t expect the police to do anything other than put out an increased presence one year on from the event. Just imagine the situation if something did happen again and they’d not put extra eyes on the transport system. Then there’d be one hell of an uproar.

But the primary effect of this climate of paranoia is of course the loss of our liberties. Not to mention the life of Charles de Menezes last year (and correct me if I’m wrong but we’ve still not got to the bottom of that one have we?)

The bottom line is that there’s a huge cultural difference between western cultures and the middle eastern cultures. We have different values. And a small (yes, emphasis on small) number of misguided individuals take it all much too far. They’re deluded by the idea that they’re doing what their god wants (an idea with which – incidentally – I cannot begin to empathise with because I’m an atheist). Clearly: god or no god, there’s no excuse for their actions.

But the governments of the USA and the UK in particular are the ones largely responsible for this political and social mess. Their policies with respect to the middle east are terrible. And the right wing Neo-Christian US government (hey guess what - also deluded by the idea that they’re doing what their god wants) commits as many war crimes as any ‘rogue’ (oil harbouring) nation they care to pick on. Guantanamo bay anyone? Christ...

Oh sorry, I blasphemed there.

It’s the ideal breeding ground for more AK47-clutching madmen. The extremists hardly need any more fuel for their fantasies. Yet we’re still giving them countless ‘excuses’ to do what they want to do.

If only those with the intelligence to get together and sort out our differences were the same people with the drive and inclination to become leaders. It’s a rare combination.


This is hardly a new or rare viewpoint here in the UK. And a thousand bloggers have probably written much the same thing this morning. But the copper outside the tube this morning got me thinking about it so there you go. Rant over.

Al Scott Live

Well you wait months for a video to come along (umm OK, maybe not) then two come along on the same day! This is a video of my brother Alastair - AKA Al Scott - and his band performing recently in a north London pub. He's the shadowy figure tinkling the ivories.

Check him out at www.alscott.co.uk or here on MySpace.

Rat Race

I realised the other day that my compact digital camera can shoot and store up to 30 minutes of low-res video. So I recorded my journey to work. And made it into a sort of 90s-style dance music video. Shaky camera warning!



Music: Underground Resistance – Jupiter Jazz

Digg this video

My world: update

I was chatting to Tom yesterday, whilst sitting outside BRB in Camberwell enjoying (as best possible, between sneezes) the afternoon sun. We got onto the subject of blogs and it occurred to me that my enthusiasm for writing posts seems to have waned somewhat recently. That's not to say (as you can clearly see) that I've not written any entries, but the content of these entries has been mostly me providing a tertiary source of geek-news. Flickr website changes and the like.

Checking back, I've not made a personal-diary-type-entry since 17th April, so I'm going to have a go right here. If you're looking for geek-news, stop reading now.

So what's new? Well currently my body seems to have taken up sneezing as its favourite pastime, (completely without my consent of course). Or, to be more precise, I'm feeling like I'm about to sneeze, 24/7. And this feeling is only interrupted by the relatively enjoyable act of sneezing itself, about once every minute on average. Pollen allergies, hayfever, whatever - I hate it. Various types of antihistamine tablets and nasal sprays seem to have had little effect.

So poor, poor me basically. I need to get myself a GP. Either that or wage war on all pollinating plants.


So what else is new (and more interesting) ?

Well I'm still taking lots of photos, and enjoying it more than ever. I'm getting better at it too. I recently bought a 50mm (prime) lens which is helping me to explore different types of photography.



I'm still listening to the same old music, though it's not looking any more likely that I'll be producing any more any time soon. My initial enthusiasm for Abelton Live proved temporary. I think there comes a time when you have to decide what things to stick at and which to allow to fall by the wayside. I have the ability to write tunes (and with a little practice I'm sure I could come up with some good stuff), but right now it's photography that's getting me excited. And I don't have time for both.

I need to make more time for my Flashteroids project too, and if there's one thing that stresses me out it's leaving a trail of unfinished work behind me.

I'd rather do fewer things, but do them properly than do lots of things, and do them badly.


Barcelona



This is hardly hot off the press (see this Eyechild Post) but Duncan, my brother, has left Camberwell and moved to Barcelona. He's doing one of those TEFL courses for one month and aims to start teaching in September.

I went out there with him when he left (along with our friend Vic) and stayed for six days. It's a lovely city. We mostly did tourist stuff – bus tours, sitting on the beach, eating out, exploring, et cetera – so there's not an awful lot to report. ‘The ideal summer city break’, to summarise. I highly recommend it if you've not been there before. My Barcelona photos are here.

Going home was quite strange because Vic and I left early for the airport and had to leave Dunc in the hotel room. He got out of bed for goodbye hugs. I hate goodbyes at the best of times but I'm really going to miss him living down the road so I sort of lost the ability to speak properly, and ended up feeling like I'd not said enough. I sat quietly in the back of the cab to the airport. Good luck to you Dunc, and take care!

I think it's a good move for him though. If you're not enjoying it somewhere, move. And I can think of many many worse places to go and live in summer than Barcelona. If the worst comes to the worst you can always move back anyway. I look forward to visiting him later in the year.


Tomorrow

Time to wrap up this rant anyway. Tomorrow at work I'm taking a photo for an advert we're running later in the week in a magazine. I'm getting to do more and more photography at work which is great because I'm learning loads and getting paid to do what I enjoy best (yes, it seems to have overtaken designing, in my ratings). I took some photos of our creative directors recently too, and the one they pick is destined to be a fairly large full colour print in a magazine. Who knows where it will lead. It's all good for the portfolio anyway.

Whilst writing this post my sneezing seems to have calmed down a little so as soon as I've published it I'm going to shut the laptop lid, turn over and go to sleep. Who knows, maybe I'll write another ‘human’ post soon...

Good night.

Images of the Sun taken by the Transition Region and Coronal Explorer

From Digg.com. Impressive images. Looks toasty!

"""
As of May, 1999 TRACE has taken over 1.5 million images of various solar features in coordination with SOHO and other solar observatories around the world. Detector degradation has been unexpectedly light providing scientists with the hope of several more years of good seeing.
"""

read more | digg story

D&AD Nomination

Myself and a team I worked with at Wheel have been nominated for a D&AD Award this year. It's the Brahma music ads I worked on last year, and they're nominated in the Use of Music category.

It's nice to know that the morning I spent recording bottle tapping and bottle blowing noises in my kitchen has been recognised. Not to mention those stressful late nights hammering out Actionscript.

Flickr Beta goes Gamma

The mighty Flickr has changed! I've been so busy all day that I’ve just it noticed now. Immediately noticeable is the fact that there's a new nav structure, based heavily on dropdowns (including new dropdown menus off users’ icons). And The Flash Organizr has gone, replaced by an AJAX version. The new Organize application seems a bit buggy in Safari (pages sometimes not loading) but overall I like the changes a lot. The search box on every page is another obvious example of a welcome and overdue update.

There are many more changes too. See the Flickr blog for more info. Also Thomas Hawk, photographer and Flickr full-timer, has this thorough rundown on the Flickr updates.

Happy St. George’s Day

The Mixing Bowl

Did you go to events such as Tribal Gathering or Fantazia in the 1990s? Ever wish you'd not thrown away or copied over those mixtapes?

themixingbowl.org is a website full of BitTorrent downloads of DJ mixes. There's some really good stuff on there. For example I just got a 1993 Essential Mix by FSOL. For me it’s an Alladin’s Cave!

Wildlife Photographer of the Year

Well, I went back to Stockport and Manchester for a couple of days over Easter to see family and relatives. It was a short but enjoyable break. And it's always nice to get out of London from time to time.

Now, contrary to your assumption, the name of this post doesn't refer to the title recently bestowed on me in recognition of my taking the photograph of a pigeon shown above (though this is one of a number I predictably took in Stockport and Manchester this weekend - here and here respectively should you be interested).

However, I did go to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the National History Museum yesterday and it was excellent. As a keen but mediocre amateur photographer it was also an extremely humbling experience. There were three photos in the under ten year olds category all of which were very impressive. Under ten! And as for the rest, well... Very impressive stuff.

If you're at all interested in photography and / or wildlife and haven't been I seriously recommend you check it out. It's only on till this coming Sunday April 23rd though so you haven't got much time left.

photo blog

If you're tired of my rantings but like my photos you might be interested in my new photo blog. Starting with some shots from my archive and continuing with new photographs from day to day.

adesphotos.blogspot.com

Ade

p.s. photo blog: phlog?

Netvibes

A really handy customisable homepage. Great if you read news, blogs etc and use RSS feeds. Netvibes.com.

Drugged up on Beechams

I've been at home all weekend due to one of those generic sore throat, fuzzy brain, headache type illnesses. It's not that bad or anything, just bad enough for me to not feel up to doing very much. Like standing up, for example.

Anyway, good things often come out of being bedridden, such as having the time to enjoy a good book - which is a rare thing for me. This weekend I've made a lot of progress on the new version of my game Flashteroids. I've designed and tested four new levels and fixed a load of bugs / issues that have been outstanding since some time in 2002.

You can see all the level designs on the Flashteroids Blog, a blog I've created to catalogue the development process. The new version (1.5+) is now only a week or so away.

Dead Ringers

Getting a new mobile? Apparently there are seven billion mobile phones in the world and only 1.3 billion users (from this BBC Online article). That’s quite a lot.

Fortunately you can get your old one recycled.
(End of public service announcement)

slide

I just discovered this Flickr / Flash widget from slide.com. It only took 1 minute to configure and get the HTML code to copy and paste. A bit large for some purposes perhaps but quite a nice way to show your recent photos:

Overnight Success

One of the things I love about Flickr is the way that occasionally a photo will catch everyone’s eye and its popularity explodes like wildfire.

The photo above is one such example. I took this in Livigno, one morning on the day of a whiteout. Looking at the piste from the cafe at the bottom it reminded me of one of those L.S. Lowry matchstick men paintings, so I zoomed in and managed to isolate just the people on the slope.

I posted this (and a few other photos) to Flickr last night just before I went out. When I checked back this morning it had 27 comments, 450 viewings, 39 people had added it to their favourites and it was on the homepage of Flickr's Explore section!

Quite a pleasant surprise – and totally unexpected – though I suppose the photo did come out quite well now I think about it.

Gridrunner AKA Firstperson

Back in 2000, when I was at university in Leeds, I stopped writing tunes. Now I know that in my Ableton Live post I said I was starting again, but in reality I seem to get round to such things at a near-glacial rate. Yes, I’ve had a few attempts, but there are no anywhere-near-finished tunes yet.

But anyway, between 1995 to 2000 I put together a few tracks using my PC at home and various bits of kit at my 6th form college and university. Only about two or three of the tunes are actually any good but I like them all for their sentimental value and naivety.

I recently recovered a few of them off cassette and I’ve posted them up on Last FM under my old pseudonym Firstperson. There's one ‘EP’ (better) and an archive selection (older):

Firstperson – EP1
Firstperson – Archive

Make of it what you will. Console is the best tune IMO. They’re all a bit long though!

Back from Livigno

Well I’m back from my snowboarding holiday, which actually turned into a skiing holiday. I just couldn’t handle playing out the new media cliché. Well, that and the fact that I went straight to the top of a mountain, tried to snowboard down and spent over two hours falling on my arse. I got to the bottom of the run and decided to swap the board for skis. I just couldn’t be bothered spending the week learning when I knew I could already ski really well. I could do the same run in under 20 minutes on a set of skis.

All in all it was a great week. Lots of snow, lots of skiing very fast, a bit of getting stuck off-piste, and the predictable splashing of booze.

Here’s the photo set, which at time of writing only contains about half of my Ixus photos. I’ve not even looked at the one of the SLR yet. Check back in a week or so if pictures of snow and mountains are your thing.

So, back to normal now. Dunc’s back from his adventures in Honduras too, which sounds like it was pretty much amazing.

Going Snowboarding

I’m off to Livigno in Italy tomorrow morning for a week of snowboarding. I’ve been skiing before and was pretty good at that, though I realise that snowboading is completely different. I actually tried it for one day at the end of my skiing holiday and after a few hours I was doing OK. So hopefully I’ll be able to pick it up in a couple of days.

The only thing is that most if not all of the other guys going are quite experienced snowboarders so it’s probably just going to be me on my own on the baby slopes or doing lessons until I get the hang of it. The other beginner (my mate Robin) had to drop out due to a mix-up over dates and the subsequent clash with his trip to America.

Anyway, I’m very excited about it. I’ll be back in a week (hopefully in one piece) to bore everyone with lots of photos of white stuff.

Ciao,
Ade

dare’s new home

Dare, the digital marketing agency I work for, is bursting at the seams. We’ve outgrown our current premises and don’t have space to seat the people we want to hire. So we’ve recently signed on a new premises over the road.

Unfortunately a lot of work needs to be done on the interior so we’re not going to be able to move in for a few months. I went over there with a small group to take a look at the place in its current state. It’s HUGE compared to our current place: four floors each of which is double the size of our current three working floors.

And I believe we’re getting rid of those horrible carpet tiles!

Predictably, I took some photos:

...and made a set on Flickr.

Photo Catch-up

The one problem with taking loads of photographs is that you end up with a massive backlog. Because I mostly shoot in RAW format I need to do a lot of manual adjustment to get each final image as I want it. If shooting on a compact camera then taking the reulting JPEGs straight off it is the digital equivalent to taking a film to be processed at Boots, then what I do is essentially the digital equivalent of processing your own film in a darkroom. And it takes ages, an average of 20 minutes per image though sometimes as much as an hour.

Over half of that time is spent waiting for the computer to load the image, reduce noise, render adjustment layer settings and finally save it. So I could do with a faster computer. The problem is that resolution will probably keep going up so computers will always be slightly behind. Also, I said I wasn’t going to buy any more gadgets for a few months, so, hmmm. No I’m going to hold back for a while.

Anyway in this post a couple of weeks ago I said photos from my brother’s jam session performance were forthcoming. The shot above is taken from the set and the rest of the set is here.

Still being quite new to the whole photography thing I made a couple of glaring errors with the camera settings so there’s a fair bit of motion blurring and ghosting going on, but on the whole I’d say they’re not too bad.

Glow Party

I took this on the way home from Camberwell on Sunday. Glow Party, this Friday at The Swan in Stockwell.

Doesn’t it sound awesome? Not only are they giving out free glow sticks but there’s a Robbie Williams tribute act on too. I know which bus stop I’ll be alighting at on Friday. See you there*.

(*somewhere else)

I hate Arctic Monkeys

There you go, I’ve said it now.

Sick – to – death of that guy’s voice. Irritating prick.

Happy Valentine's Day

And what a wondrous celebration of love it truly is. Even the tube was oozing with it this morning – a subtle difference in the way people shoved past each other, to cite just one example.

And don't forget ladies, there's still plenty time to get your cards in to me.

Actually, the one Valentine’s message I've received so far today came from the staff at Clapham Common tube station. They'd affixed a couple of heart shaped messages (addressed to all commuters) to small notice boards at the entrance. I was going to stop and take a photo of it for this blog post but I was running late.

I hope that's not the only message I get – there's something slightly bleak about getting a Valentine’s Day message from London Underground.

Lenses, Fish, Jazz

Those are three of the keywords that I would use if I had to tag my weekend.

I went to London Aquarium on Saturday with Andreas, with the intentions of: (a) seeing some aquatic life and (b) taking some photographs of it.

I was fairly successful, despite (with hindsight predictable) huge midday Saturday crowds obscuring the tanks.

Andreas brought his impressive assortment of lenses, most of which I tried on my camera. It made a huge difference. The main advantage being the availablility of f/2.8 aperture. My 17-85mm lens only goes to f/4 or f/5.6 at its full 85mm focal length.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with camera jargon, a smaller f ratio means that the hole that the light comes through is bigger relative to the length of the lens – i.e. more light gets in. This means you can use a faster shutter speed and/or a lower ISO (sensitivity) setting. All of which results in less blurry / less grainy images.

The image above is my best one of the day so far. There are more that still need processing (from RAW files). See my aquarium set on Flickr (unfinished at time of writing).

The rest of the weekend was cool. On Saturday night I went to my mate Sam’s night It’s Bigger Than. It was their (2nd?) birthday party and Tom Middleton did a guest DJ set. He did a good job – I’ve never seen such a DJ get so enthusiastic before! Erm, actually I once saw Mark E.G. dancing behind the decks clenching a 12” record in his mouth. But that was more insanity than enthusiasm. But anyway – Tom Middleton - he’s probably my favourite all-round DJ. I actually met him about five years when I did the DJ slot just before him in a bar in Leeds. Very nice chap, not to mention a musical hero of mine!

On Sunday, The Eyechild and I met up with the Camberwell Flickr Group, in a bar in Camberwell. They were a really nice bunch. We sat in a bar, supped Guiness and generally waxed Camberwell lyrical. As I’ve moved to Clapham, I felt a bit like a deserter though! My excuse was that I still go there all the time (which is true).

Sunday was also my brother’s birthday. After the Flickr meet-up Tom (Eyechild), Dunc and I went up to visit him in Wood Green where we grabbed some food then went to a pub in Southgate where there was a jazz jam on. He got up and played on a couple of tracks. Photos from that to follow...

‘Pro’ Slideshow

Being rather handy at the old Macromedia Flash, I was going to make myself a photography showcase website using the Flickr API. The Flickr API is basically a software interface that enables one to get photos and related information (titles, descriptions, tags, sets, groups etc) from Flickr.com and to display the content on a different website. For example the little Flash widget on my blog's homepage is pulling my latest photos off Flickr and showing them here.

But anyway, someone’s already made one that’s quite neat so maybe I won’t bother any more. At least not for a while. It’s called Pro and here it is showing a selection of my photographs.

Totally Fu**ing Dental

A word of advice: don’t go too long without a dental check-up. I went a few weeks ago for the first time in about eight years (my previous visit was basically the last time it was free – as a student). He shook his head and booked me in for three appointments. It’s going to cost me quite a lot of money.

The first appointment was with a dental hygienist last week. That was fine.

But today I was in at 8:15 and had to endure six anaesthetic injections followed by an hour and a half of god-knows-what going on in my mouth. The only thing worse than the implements sticking out of your gob (and all the drilling) is those white swab things they pack your mouth with. Gah…

Less than pleasant.

And I’ve got to go back on Friday to get the other side done. Take my advice, get ’em checked.

Stock Photography

This may look like one of those awfully bland corporate Getty Images photos but, I’m ashamed to say, it’s one of mine.

I take a lot of photos. All the ones I put on the net are technically decent but, to be honest, only one in 20 or so are particularly interesting content-wise. Still, they serve a purpose. And the purpose is teaching myself to take better photos.

Anyway, the girlfriend of one of my mates happens to select and buy images for TheGuardian (and yes that was my HTML attempt at replicating their recently retired classic masthead), and she had a snoop around my Flickr account and said I “...have a good eye”.

Now, coming from someone that does what she does for a living, that’s a great compliment. But anyway, she went on to say that I should try making some money out of my photography. And suggested I sign up to stock photography site Alamy.

Some of my photos are mine, for me, to share with my friends and that’s that. But others, such as the one shown here, I have absolutely no emotional attachement to whatsoever. So I don’t think it’s such a bad idea to put them up for sale. If someone wants to give me £40 to put that on their corporate site I’m well up for it. It’s bland, but it could serve a purpose.

So here goes. Considering the amount of time I spend selecting, editing and posting photographs, it might make sense to see a bit of extra cash for it each month!

There’s nothing on there yet because they have to QA my images for quality and resolution, but shortly my images will be available to buy here on Alamy.com.

Lensbaby

My mate Andreas has kindly given me a new lens for my camera. It’s called a Lensbaby and it basically achieves an effect like in this photo (actually the first photo I took with it). You focus by stretching or compressing the lens itself with your fingers, and you can move the point of focus around by bending it.

Photography fun to be had – thanks Andreas! His Flickr photos are here, incidentally.

We met up yesterday in Camden to take some photos. Unfortunately the weather was awful. The plan had been to go along the canal and up to Primrose Hill from where there’s usually a great view of London.

We climbed it anyway hoping that the rain would subside. It didn’t. The view was rubbish. So we trudged back down and went into London Zoo (the logic: it was nearby, it has indoor bits). I did manage to get a couple of OK-ish pictures of some fish in the aquarium, and we briefly visited the giraffes before I hurried home for a – most welcome – roast dinner provided by my housemate Liam for me and a few friends. Thanks Liam!

Anyway, the photos from the day are here. Giraffes look quite camp, don’t you reckon?

Ableton Live

I recently installed a demo of Ableton Live on my laptop. It’s a fantastic piece of audio production software. I’ve still only had a couple of sessions with it and, because it’s a demo, I can’t save, but so far I’m really into it.

I used to dabble with writing music back at college and university and have a small number of semi-respectable (though now dated) mp3s to show for it. I’m also pretty damn good at mixing on a set of Technics, but music seems to have fallen to the wayside for me. I can’t put my finger on exactly why this is but it’s partly because it lost that excitement factor that comes with a new discovery. I remember first realising that I could edit samples and load them into the memory on my PC’s soundcard. I sat up all night with headphones on painstakingly putting a track together with Cubase. It was really satisfying.

That was back in 1995. Since 2000 I’ve not done any new tunes. I’ve helped friends produce tracks and mixes and I still have the technical know-how but haven’t been able to motivate myself. The annoying thing is I have ideas for tracks all the time but don’t have the set-up to just sit down and make them happen. Hopefully Ableton will be the spark I’ve been waiting for. If all goes well with the demo over the next couple of weeks I’ll have to buy myself a copy.

Stockport Encounter

Nothing noteworthy has happened to me so far this year so I thought I’d share the last photo I took in Stockport before getting on the train home last week. I’m averagely proud of it, despite bits of it being too dark. There’s still lots to learn on the photography front but, hey, that’s half the fun.

Of course, Stockport being Stockport, seconds after I squatted slightly to take this photo, some prancing towny idiots leapt out of the shadows to the left and started coming towards me. One of them shouted: “Hey mate! What ya taking photos for?”

Then another one of them: “Go on mate, take one of me, will I be famous?” Followed by screaching laughter.

I ignored them, opting not to point out that his best chance of becoming famous would be to fall in front of the next train that came in.

Anyone doing anything (or just looking) slightly out of the ordinary is immediately under suspicion up there. People can’t handle it. The complete lack of this sort of behvaiour is perhaps the thing I like most about London.

Here we go again then

Another one of those year thingies. Roughly the 2006th since some guy showed up, did a load of tricks and said "Hey, be nice to each other", in fact. Or at least that's how the story goes. I so don't believe that one about feeding the 5000 with two fish and a loaf of bread*. It would have been more helpful in the long term if he'd broken his Magic Circle vows and told the world how it was done. But then I guess the fishermen would have gone out of business pretty quickly.

But I digress before I've even begun… In fact I don't really have a point. I'm back at work, back at my desk, feeling slightly bewildered as if I've just appeared here Quantum Leap style. The fairly crappy photo above was my point-of-view for most of yesterday: bank holiday films on TV (shown here: The Maltese Falcon) and Flickr.com on my laptop (the guy across the room is my housemate and friend Liam, by the way).


New Year's eve was a good laugh. The party at my bro's place turned out to be a fairly low-key event but that was quite nice in a way. We basically played records, drank booze and watched the London fireworks on TV at midnight. Fortunately some girls turned up as well so it wasn't just a sausage party (and yes I'm talking about definition #1, if you follow that link).

The low turnout didn't stop a few of us from keeping going till the next morning. I trudged home after some broken sofa-sleep at about midday. Later that evening I met up with a number of people in a North London pub to say farewell to a friend who's leaving the country indefinitely. Bye Renée!

Should you have a particular interest in other people's crap photos of each other getting drunk there are some pictures NYE here.

Anyway, time to get on with having a productive and prosperous year. That probably should involve wasting less time writng this!

*Actually I don't believe any of it. I'll go along with the "Be nice to each other" bit though.

And so that was Christmas

Well it’s New Year’s Eve and I’m at home in my flat in Clapham. I’m making a playlist to go on a friend’s iPod (yeah ok, at least I was until I started writing this). She’s moving out of the country so a few of us have pooled together to buy her one and fill it with our playlists.

My housemate Liam is still back in Stockport where I also spent a few days over Christmas. It was really nice to get out of London, brief as the break was. I got the train up late in the morning of the 22nd, and watched the film Run Lola Run on my laptop during the journey. Call me sad but “Maaaaan, I love my gadgets”. Good film too.

I came back down south on the 27th, and in between I generally enjoyed the relative slow pace of life of the man on holiday. Here’s a summary: Shopping in Manchester, Christmas dinner, chats with my Nana about stuff, not trying to explain to her what I do for a living, seeing people in the pub that I’ve not seen since I saw them there last year, and of course The Queen’s speech.

A much needed break, anyway – especially as, in the preceeding week, I worked about 80 hours on a massive new business pitch (that, incidentally, we won – hurrah!)

I also took my other new gadget – my Canon DSLR camera – with me up to Stockport and took a few snaps around town. I’ve made a set here on Flickr.

So all that remains of the festive season (before we plunge headlong into the highlight-free gloom of January) is tonight. And the plan is to go round to Dunc’s place for a NYE party. Should be a larf. And, in case I don’t get back to you in the morning, Happy New Year!

Excercise

My bike has been sitting, unused, under a tarpaulin round at my friend's house since about March. So I'm lending it to my brother who'll make much better use of it at his university in Wood Green, north London.

I decided to cycle up there on Sunday to hand it over to him. Unfortunately I set off much too late in the afternoon. I also underestimated the distance quite significantly. In short it was a right mission – it soon went dark and I found myself cycling in heavy Sunday traffic, not being entirely sure of the way once I was past Camden.

Anyway in short I made it eventually, gave him the bike, and we went for some food and a couple of pints before I got the tube home.

I also managed to snap this rather nice photo of Battersea Power Station on the way there, just after sunset, as I crossed Vauxhall Bridge. There was a strang smog-like atmosphere that evening...


Oh yeah, excercise – I joined a gym the other day. I've not been to one for too many months and am 5 kg heavier than when I last weighed myself! Scary. They've put me on a harsh get fit regime. Let's hope my will power stays up to it...

H.T. Harris

Inspired by this post from The Eyechild I thought I'd “big-up” another great sandwich shop: H.T. Harris on Great Titchfield Street, off Oxford Street. Just up the road from my office, it's fast become my favourite lunch destination. Sandwiches and salads made from ultra-fresh ingredients with lots of olive oil are the name of the game. Always busy, which is a good sign.

But there are hundreds of places to eat around here. It makes a change from my old job in Kensington where the options were somewhat limited to either Tesco or eating out (rather expensively) at a pub or restaurant. Not ideal on a Monday.

Damn, with so many places to eat I'll probably get really fat now...

night bus

Don't you just love travelling on the night bus home? For me it's usually a case of getting to Trafalgar Square from wherever the hell I've been, then cramming on the 88 to Clapham (pictured).

Last night it was particularly packed with particulalry drunk people. Unfortunately I wasn't adequately pissed to join in with the deeply philosophical discussions that were taking place. One woman kept asking me drunken questions: "Are we going saaaf of the river? ... Are you sure pal? ... I really don't give a toss so long as I'm gaaan saaf. Where are we now then?"

From upstairs came the sound of vomiting...

Cassette Jam ’05

Someone's put together this page with LOTS of images of old cassettes on it. There was until recently a Russian site (possibly with the same images on it) called Project C-90, but all the images on there seem to have been removed and the text doesn't make much sense.

Anyway, this one is worth a check, especially if you're old enough to have used lots of these tapes in the past (and you're not too busy): Cassette Jam '05

we are holding customers...

'We are holding customers in the ticket hall area because the platforms are congested'.

It took 40 minutes from arriving at the tube station this morning until I actually got on a train. Rubbish. I'm seriously thinking about buying a scooter.

One week off

Stonehenge

I left my job on Friday last week and start a new one Tomorrow. Quite excited about it!

Anyway, having cunningly arranged for a week off in between jobs, I took a trip down to Cornwall for a few days. And naturally, I took a load of photos along the way. I've not finished sorting them out yet but I'm adding them to this set on Flickr.