Caught in the act

2006: A year in photographs

As I did last year, I've compiled a small set of photos that sum up 2006 for me. You can view them on Flickr.

Merry Christmas - I hope you've all been good little boys and girls. I know I have ;o)

Merry Christmas Y'all

For the first time ever, I'm actually prepared for Christmas ... like, three whole days in advance. Usually I'm one of these blokes who's still running around the shopping centre on Christmas eve, thinking 'Why didn't I order this cr*p off Amazon?!'.

Well, this year I did order that cr*p from Amazon, and it's all wrapped up and under our tree.

The problem is now I'm getting twitchy. I'm convinced I've forgotten something important. I keep checking my 'Presents Bought For People' list, and cross referenced it with my 'Presents I Bought For People And Have Now Wrapped And Put Under The Tree' list. Everything tallies. Nothing amis. So what have I forgotten?!

No doubt I'll find out on Monday.

Wishing y'all a Merry Christmas.

Oli.

New NEW design :o)

Yes, yes. It's all changed again. If you visited this blog in the last three weeks you'll have seen a fairly drab, colourless design that I started working on. Well, it's gone. Some of you complained that the RSS feed was gone: well, its back.

I was inspired through delayed reaction to a comment Tom made about a week ago. When I told him about my attempt to create a table-free design for my website, he said "keep it simple". I don't know why it took me so long to react, but he was right. I'd wasted almost an entire weekend wondering why the boxes in the sidebar were bunching up; why the spacing and padding wasn't consistent; and why my curved edges didn't display correctly...

...in fact I spent almost a week on this before I realised that I'd forgotten the purpose of my blog. Ho well, silly me. I'm back to reality now, and merrily posting away.

This new design is based on something I liked when browsing a couple of MSDN blogs. The header is easily updatable, so hopefully I can keep you entertained with weekly updates to the banner. I'm also looking into updating this template to work with the new Blogger layout tools. There's a host of useful add-ons which become activated once I do this, such as the ability to show RSS feeds from other sites, etc. All in all, I'm quite happy with this new design. Now, I wonder if my Starbucksblog buddies will let me apply the same treatment to that blog? Its long overdue for an update ;o)

A River Runs Through It

... I'm pretty sure that river wasn't in front of my house when I left this morning:

I'd better take my wellies to work tomorrow!

It's that time of year again!

Compared to the same time last year ;o)

Goodbye NMPFT

It may not seem like much, but those red letters mean a lot to me. They've been up there since I was very small and droolled a lot. When I was at that age, NMPFT was a magical place - somewhere I actually wanted to come.

Then I grew up, but NMPFT didn't. For some reason that I'm still trying to figure out I got a job there, and in those six years I've seen a lot changes. It seems that most of those changes involved removing the magic one little bit at a time, and there's not a lot left.

The photograph here marks the moment when NMPFT made one of its biggest changes I've seen whilst working there: It's changed it's name to the National Media Museum. It might not seem like much, and to some it probably makes sense, but to me it just hightlights a growing trend at the museum. For the last four years the museum seems to have been in a state of constant flux. Nothing, it seemed, was good enough and therefore needed to change. And then change again.

Four years of that has taken its toll. I don't think the museum will ever get back to where it was when I was a kid.

As for the future? The name change also comes with an expanded remit, which will no doubt entail further change. Not that I'm afraid of change. Change is healthy. But only if you get a chance to actually benefit from that change before the next wave of changes arrive.

Anyhoo. I've ranted on enough. The National Media Museum has arrived, and that's that. They even have a new website that I helped code. Check it out ;o)

Welcome Back!

Sorry, it's been ages since I last posted. I've been so busy. No really, I have!

I figured that I'd make it obvious I'd created a new post by completely redesigning my blog. I did this one all by myself, from scratch. I thought I'd have a go at creating a website without using tables for layout. It's proven a bit of a nightmare, with elements not sitting where they should in all browsers ... but I think it looks quite pretty. Well, for a first attempt it does.

A number of things have happened since I last posted, but I'll post them in the days to come.

In the meantime, Happy Christmas! (Is it too early for that yet?)

Office Fun

Claire carelessly dies whilst cataloguing the TV Gallery acrylic triangles. SPC, soon to be PC, Lacey takes control of the crime scene ... or something like that.

Tomorrow the team *might* actually do some work, but for now they seem happy. Best not to disturb them.

Who will win?

Apple iTV Media Hub

FINALLY! I've been holding back for almost a year now, convinced that Apple must have something in the works that can open up my media library in my living room ... and today they did just that.

I have gotten very close to buying a full blown Mac Mini to allow me to play my music and videos on my TV and HiFi, but I was loathed to spend that much money on a device that was capable of so much more ... and then just play music through it. A few years ago I bought an Apple Airport Express, which allows me to 'send' my music from a Mac or PC to my HiFi. It's been fun, but it's not practical - and since you have to trek downstairs every time you want to change tracks - it doesn't really let you enjoy your music.

So along come Apple today with the announcment of the 'iTV'. A media adapter, for want of a better phrase. It's basically a cut down mac that's sole aim in life is to play music, videos and photos - in HD - on my lovely LCD TV. Although it's not available until Q1 next year, it looks like it may only cost about £170.

So many new things to think about in the space of a single presentation. I tip my hat - that floppy white one I got on holiday - to Apple.

Right ... I'd better start saving!

:o)

Thank You Steve ...

Apple has today updated it's iTunes software to version 7.0 ... and it's a pretty major upgrade.

It's far easier for you to just download it and use it, than for me to explain what's new ... but this screenshot gives you an idea of how the album art is finally being exploited.

If, like me, you have gaping holes in your music collection with no album art - never fear. iTunes 7 now downloads the art for you.

Along with a host of new organisational tools, this really is a decent upgrade ... and it's free!

Slooooooooow Broadband

This is really getting annoying. I moved over to BT Broadband at the beginning of August with the hope of getting better download speeds that I had with my existing ISP.

My line was upgraded to ADSLMax, which is very flakey for the first week as it 'settles' down to the optimum speed. Everything looked promising at first, with downloads peaking at around 2Mbit/sec ... but about a week ago the speed dropped a wee bit. In fact, it dropped a helluva lot. If you look at that graphic carefully you'll spot that my download speed is actually lower than the upload. This test reports an average speed of about 124kbps ... but US sites are averaging about 50-60kbps. Wow! I'm paying £26/month for dial-up speeds!

Thankfully, BT in their ultimate wisdom state that the speed is 'below the contractural threshold', and they will perform a number of test to try and fix it.

May not be doing much blogging until then! TTFN.

From PC to Mac ... and back again

I grew up with PCs.

Actually, I grew up with my parents, younger sister and an imaginary friend called Rupert ... but that's beside the point. Where was I? Ah ...

Yes, I've grown up with PCs. My first 'real' computer was an Amstrad CPC-664. While my friends were busy playing games on their Amigas and Ataris, I was learning BASIC on the 664. Fun, eh? The Amstrad was soon replaced with a 286 PC running a curious operating system called 'Microsoft Windows 286'. It would never catch on. :o). In fact it was useless, so I ignored it - returned to DOS, and continued playing with programs using QuickBASIC.

I'm not going to give you a blow-by-blow account of every PC I've ever owned, but I've had quite a few over the years. It's only in the last five years, as I began working in a more creative AV environment that I discovered Apple, and Mac OSX. I have to admit, I was completely taken in by Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field - and continue to be taken in by it. The Mac is a fantastic platform for creative work, and the operating systems is years ahead of Windows. The Mac was the first computer I sat down to use, and didn't have the overwhelming urge to dive into the system settings and tweak everything to my preferences. Everything was just so easy to figure out and use that I just wanted to get on with the important job of actually using the software.

I've been using Macs for almost three years now, and about a year ago I even replaced my home PC with a G5 iMac. All went well until I began to realise the things I couldn't do on a Mac. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking of getting rid of the Mac. In fact, therein lies of the problem. I don't want to give up the Mac - but I want to get back to doing so many things that only the PC can offer. I've spent 6 years working in VB and ASP, and have started the move to the .NET platform. It seems a waste to throw all that experience away and learn Cocoa or Carbon - just so I can continue development on the Mac platform.

The other thing I've missed over the last two years is PC gaming. I've tried the consoles (XBox and Gamecube), and even the Nintendo DS ... but it's nothing compared to the sheer range of game genres and performance you get from a PC.

They say you can't have your cake and eat it ... but I disagree.

It's time to go... [CUE: Back To The Future music] ... Back To The PC!

... and if you're going to go back, it's best to do it in style. Yes, that is a Core 2 Duo. A 2.4Ghz to be exact. Combined with a nVidia GeForce 7900 GTX, I expect I'll need to wear goggles when I use this thing!

There's a home for this beast next to my iMac - so hopefully I can continue to enjoy the benefits of OSX. In fact, to highlight the difference, you may notice the PC is a nice jet black to contrast the iMac. How very Zen :o)

I've had no end of trouble getting this thing up and running ... and not for the usual reasons. I have everything ready ... except the motherboard. The company I ordered it from have sent me the wrong one - one which doesn't support the Core 2 Duo CPU - so I've had a very traumatic weekend. So many new toys, but I can't plug any of them in! Nghh!

Hopefully the motherboard thing will be sorted by Tuesday, and I'll be up and running by then. I've bought Oblivion to christen the system with. Its an amazing looking game, and apparently one of the most grueling games for any PC to run. Bring it on!

So then. There we have it. I've gone full circle - learnt a lot on the way - and now feel I've finally got a setup that meets my needs: PC for games and development, the Mac for everything else.

Once it's up and running I'll let you know how it performs. Until then, I've gotta go. I feel the need to go and sit in front of this beast. Maybe tap the keys and pretend it's all working. TTFN.

New Job!

I've accepted a new job!

For those of you know know me well, don't get too excited. I'm only moving offices. I used to be a 'Media Developer' ... and I've now accepted the completely different role of 'Media Developer'. I'm sure I'll figure out what the differences are soon, but the job looks very promising. More creative work - more development work - less messing around being the jack of all trades.

I start on the 21st of August, so I'll let you know how I get on.

A new month : a new look

I decided that was now bored with the old irrelevant lighthouse theme, so I've gone with an equally irrelevant dotty theme. Hope you like it ;o)

Too hot!

We complain when it's cold ... and now we're complaining that its too hot.

Having spent the week sat in an office at 35-degrees, the latest Weebl cartoon cheered me up ;o)

http://www.weebls-stuff.com/wab/cold/

Family Portrait :o)

Rush Hour

Hmm ... no one is going to believe why I was late for work ;o)

The Hoff

I thought I'd swing the topic away from work for once ;o)

My sister sent me this link, and it's one of those videos you watch the first time with a slack jaw ... then a second time with a wry grin; checking over your shoulder to see if anyone is looking your way.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3382491587979249836

I can't figure out whether is good-funny ... or baaaad-funny. It's either a clever attempt at self ridicule, or its a vain, lame, baaaaad music video :o)

Thanks Sis!

PS: Only 3 days to go. Eeeep!