Dec
17
2005

Your breathing rights have been removed until further notice

Me, Work | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Ah yes, is that time again, twenty-two minuets past midnight, surly this must be due an update.

Ok, round-up of recent events:

– The reason why my website (and all those I host with Jonners) have been up and down like a bloody yoyo, followed by a down with no return. They changed nameservers. I found this out by sending them a long (insulting) email asking why my site was down after the recent upgrade. I have since sent an email back explaining it was all Jonners fault (as is often the case).

You see, we have a contact email assigned with them. This is now set to mine, but it used to be set to Jonners hotmail. Had it been updated 3 months or so ago when he moved to gmail….like hell.

Suffice to say, all sites (bar the ones I haven’t spoken to yet) are all up and are purring nicely on the new server.

– We have now ceased all lectures for Christmas.

– My (very legal) Server 2003 Enterprise box found the point where my temper frays. I reinstalled it having put up with far too many random restarts. It’s probably because I’m running it on an old test rig, but I don’t care, it works now, which makes a change.

Today was a good day. It was a good day to the extent that from about 5pm I have had a nice big grin plastered to my face.

As part of my degree we have to do a year of real (paid) work in a vaguely relevant industry. You can get out of it, but I had no particular wish to (it being one of the things that attracted me to the course in the first place). The Uni has a placements office who are there to help you, but you are assured that they don’t do it all for you.

Last Wednesday (07/12/05) I got an email about a good placement at Merrill Lynch The placements office had just sent a blanket email to everyone on 2nd year computing courses telling us that it was the last chance to apply to them. I made an effort, wrote a covering letter and sent in my CV.

The following Tuesday (13/12/05) I got an email from Merrill Lynch asking me to come up to London on the Friday (today) for an assessment day. Suffice to say the 8:45 start in London concerned me a touch (in retrospect, rightly so, that was an un-godly hour I had to get up at). I left the house before the sun was up and I got home early and still watched the sun set from the train.

I’m not going to go into detail about the events of the day, but trust me, as the day went on I so wanted to work for them. It was such a great place, they had so much money it was almost untrue. I will take this opportunity to point out that we had no idea what the salary was going to be but I would have still be more than happy to work there even if it was low.

I was told at the end of the interview that we would get emails to tell us if we got in (there were 3 places for 9 of us (we are just those who made I there, I think there were several hundred apps)). In the knowledge I was going to have to wait, I set off home.

Soon after I endured the train home and was recalling the days events to interested parties (mum and my brothers) I got a phone call! I got in 😀

I could not be more happy, I am so looking forward to this. (not to mention the salary was bloody good (and trust me, I mean that)).

I’m so happy zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Dec
08
2005

Stupid woman

Random | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Ok, I was just watching the BBC news. They were running this story about a mother who has abandoned her newborn twins out in the cold.They were hours old when they were found, but are now ok, but motherless.

They ran all sorts of emotive shots of sleeping babies etc and then ran a short interview with some woman (I think they mentioned she was part of some women’s union, not sure, wasn’t paying attention).

Anyway, during this interview she said the mother should come straight in because they think she may have an infection. Fair enough, but its what she said next that confused me. She went on to say “and we really want to reunite her with her twins”.

Now stop me if I’m wrong, but if you are a mother who has abandoned her two babies in near freezing temperatures and are wavering over the prospect of coming into hospital to find out about this infection is the thought of getting the little buggers back really going to spur you on. You don’t think so either…hmm, perhaps I’m not nuts after all.

Dec
06
2005

Evil route

Me, Random, Tech | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

And now the time has come for me to introduce to a band you may not have heard of before. Well, I hadn’t heard of them before about a week ago. Perhaps I’m not introducing them to you at all, perhaps you have seen what I want to show you, perhaps this is yet another waste of my time, perhaps…..hmm, ok, so there are limited things I can say.

Ok, so perhaps it doesn’t hurt, in fact, there was no reason to brace yourself at all, but its not like anyone did. Heh, what would the world be coming to if people actually listen to me….mad I tell you, mad.

Anyway, to the matter in hand. The band is called Interpol and the first song of theirs I came across of theirs was called “evil”.

Now the reason I love the above video is because it combines a really good song with the worlds coolest puppet. I like it because I was never quite sure if I did or not to start with.

More of their stuff can be found here.

And on with the rest of the days news:

Went over to someone’s house yesterday evening on the premise that they were having trouble with their ADSL router. They used to have a USB one, but they wanted wireless, so had got this little (when I say little, it was far bigger than needed) Belkin box. Now all was reassembly straight forward and after a few mins of looking in the manual an IP and password were located. Connection details go in….and we wait and wait and wait and wait….and still the silly thing didn’t connect. Then just as I was about to reboot the bugger, it connected. It took so long…longer than I have ever seen one take. Now I don’t know if this was down to the ISP or the bugger, but I didn’t care, they were online.

Now, on with the security. There was a laptop going at the time as well, so it was simple to test the wireless. So first things first, I changed the SSID. Ok, laptop still connects, fine. Next thing to go was the “Unsecured” bit. I had the owner put in a nice little key for the WPA-PSK (tkip). And now the laptop decides it doesn’t want to connect. I go through all the settings that could possibly stop it connecting, all it fine. Hmm, fine then, time to add a different layer of security. I go back into the router via the desktop (which is using a LAN port on the back) and set to work on the MAC filtering. So I pop the laptop in the list and reboot the router (well, I tell a lie, it rebooted, without asking me). When it comes back up, I can’t get into it. Nor can the laptop, but that couldn’t before. So it transpires that the MAC filtering also applies to the 4 LAN ports on the back of the device as well as the wireless. Oh joy of joys, I had locked myself out.

Now call me stupid, but why does the MAC filtering need to apply to the LAN ports. It’s not like someone can plug in without you noticing. Now do bear in mind this was home kit, not enterprise. I was so pissed off as it then required a reset and a re-configure.

Guess I should get on with some work now. ho hum

Dec
04
2005

Is nothing sacred?

Me, Politics | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

It just gets more fucked up as we go on.

I have received two emails today that have made me pause. The first was from a friend of mine and has no particular qualities to note bar the fact that I was actually online at the time and signed into msn.

the 1 time i need 2 talk ur not on line bitch,dick, cock bite

The other email i received is one I would brand a chain email. This however was a particularly nasty variant. Does anyone remember the murder of the two girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman? Good, me too. For those stateside or who were out of touch with the news for the best part of a year, here is some info (my search on the BBC site gave 332 results).

The email I got was as follows:

this is in memory of holly Wells and Jessica Chapmen who were taken for no reason and murdered by Ian huntley a sick and twisted man, this to all of ur contacts who are online, if u dont it is purely out of respect, to show u care, rest in peace little angels holly and Jessica, Please forward if u dont u obviously dont have a heart

plz sign ur name at the bottom as a mark of resperct

This is then followed by a huge list of names. Apart from appearing to have been written by a 3 year old on steroids, I find this quite sick. The line that really wound me up was “Please forward if u dont u obviously dont have a heart”. Umm, yeah, if I don’t forward this shitty little chain email I have no heart. Myself I would say that if you had a heart you would just let the matter rest. This is at best a cheap way of trying to make people send an email.

Its people like this that make me question my part in the human race.

Dec
04
2005

Lights! Sound! err, sound? sod it, ACTION!

Me, Tech | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Oh how I hate those who just haven’t a clue.

I was asked several weeks ago if I could record a concert being held in my local church. I naturally said yes. The group performing the concert had brought their own sound system. They were quite justified in doing so too. They were using around 30mics, and most places don’t have 40+ channel mixers to hand.

What they did not bring with them however was someone who knew how to use it. The “sound engineer” they did bring knew how to operate it, but that’s a different thing. It took her 20minutes or more to work out which of the mics was the cause of a feedback loop. Interestingly I had noticed this one developing long before she did. In fact, she took so long working it out, I actually had time to walk across the town centre and back and return just in time to witness the cogs whir. Now this I find quite appalling. This problem could have been solved through process of elimination 30+ times over in the time it took her to work out. I might also add that the fault only occurred when she boosted the gain on ONE of the mics! How hard can it be to put two and two together. Not to mention this mic happened to be right next to a monitor speaker. I didn’t think silver platter got much bigger than this one.

Drummers seem to have two settings. On and off. I have yet to come across a drummer who is actually the right level. I have lost count of the number of times I have come on stage during a rehearsal and threatened the life of the drummer if he does not play quieter. They do not notice that they are drowning everyone else out and making things sound crap. They also seem to forget that the sound system can make them louder, but not quieter, so they have to play quietly and then allow/trust me to keep them at the right level. But no, they think they no best. Too many times have I watched an over enthusiastic drummer piss over everyone else’s performance.

In recent news:

– My website is coming on in leaps and bounds. Almost 400lines of very well thought out (almost too secure) code down, god knows how many more to follow, but at least I feel like I’m getting somewhere.

– My fame seems to be spreading as an “all things backstage related” man. I have been asked to rig and run the lights for one of the biggest amateur drama groups in the area. Nice to know I’m noticed every now and then.

– Phoned up the tax office to begin the log and arduous task of reclaiming my tax from the last tax year. I was on the wrong tax code, and so the government took a lot more money than they should have. It turns out I don’t exist. Not by name or number. This does at least have one plus side effect, I’m not mad, you are. You’re the ones who have been talking to a non-entity, not me.

Oct
31
2005

Rear View

Me, Tech | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

I have in recent weeks had complaint about the content of my journal. I was told it was all about things that were not very important in the grand scheme of things, things like computers. With this remark in mind, I was going to talk about the lovely sunset I saw today, but then I decided that actually, I would rather talk about where I saw it from. I saw said sunset from the rearview mirror of the car today. There is nothing quite like driving down a country road, in the dark with muse – absolution playing very loud on the speakers.

There are so many things that have bugged me in recent days, so I have little doubt I shall have remembered them all by the time I finish writing this. The few that I do remember will have to suffice and be clumped together and labelled “an entry”.

I read (some time ago) that a company was claiming a patent over xml. Now this annoys/concerns me in several ways. First off, I still don’t like this concept of a company claiming an intellectual right over such an obscure and ambiguous thing. In this case, the “transfer of data in its neutral form”. What the hell does that encompass for goodness sake. Having read some of the patent information on the us patent office site, myself I think this patent could actually include html if you choose to read it that way. As is see it, this could have implications so wide spread that it does not even bear thinking of. Imagine having to pay a fee for the use of xml….well, that hits most advanced free scripts for websites (so who knows how many sites), MS, google, all your major open source projects like the much acclaimed OpenOffice. Is nothing sacred to now? This is just becoming another extension of the sue culture with everyone trying to get a cut of money they don’t deserve.

Ah, just remembered the next thing that annoyed me today. It relates back to the driving. Why on earth cant road signs in this country be consistent. Mainly with regards to corners. Many a time do I come across a corner that has signs all round it telling me to slow down, telling me to not go over 20mph for it, telling me it’s a sharp bend etc. The road is marked red, large arrows have been put up all round it. There are more signs than hedge surrounding the corner. Then for all this hype I go round it at 50mph and wonder what all the fuss is about. Then other times I see one that has no markings, no red paint, no big signs with arrows and I take said corner at 50 and really wish I’d been doing 20. Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t drive like a madman. I do drive cautiously, but I do rather candidly it seems, rely on these signs to be consistent in mapping out the route ahead for me. Standards are wonderful things, we have so many of them on our computers. It would be nice to see a few more where it mattered.

Now, on to the more computer related parts of my life. I have for some time now been working on a website for myself. In fact this website is linked to on my LiveJournal. It also happens to be the name of my LiveJournal (Please Remove Your Feet From Under My Chair). Now this website (as you would see if you clicked the link) has little in the way of content (bar those sub-domains that I have actually been partially populating). Now there is a good reason that this website has remained under developed for so long. It is not for lack of content, as I have 200+ pages of the stuff ready and waiting. It is dues to this simple problem.

How do you order 200+ page of random, un related content in a way that means they can all be accessed simpley, and quickly from anywhere in the site, without building the worlds most annoying large menu with multiple entries for each page under different headings?

The answer to this problem has eluded me for about 2 years until 3 days ago. I mentioned this problem to a friend and the first thing he said was “why do you need to order them?”. This of course is the answer. You can order unrelated content in a sensible way, so why bother. So the concept that has now been come up with is as follows.

Each page is supplied with a selection of keywords for its entry in the database (the whole site is CMS based). This is very much like LJ tags. A list of key words is then generated so that users can see this list, guaranteeing them of content on the other end of a click. These keywords, along with the page content itself are then searchable (via a nice little bit of SQL). This now covers all those who know what they are looking for, but the final part is the best if you ask me. The menu at the top of the page will contain mainly static links for things like home, contactus, faq’s etc, but one part of it will be a randomly generated dropdown of pages in the site. This means that any users just wishing to browse the content the site has to offer will always be kept happy.

And here end this “entry” as I’m too sleepy to keep going.

Oct
26
2005

Fly away home

Me, Random | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

I’m too sleepy for the proper entry this LJ so desperately needs, so the following IM conversation shall have to suffice:

george: the shop over the road has 400g bars of swiss chocolate for 99p
me: buy them out…NOW
george: i might see how many i can eat before im sick
george: as a scientific experiment of course
me: lol
me: yeah, thats my type of science
george: it goes well with carlsberg
me: *takes note*
george: im getting a bit of a vicous chocolate-carlsberg-chocolate-carlsberg-chocolate-carlsberg-chocolate-carlsberg cycle going on here
me: and the problem….
george: ive drunk all my beer and the other cans are all the way over in the fridge
me: ah
me: yes, that could be problematic
george: i mean its about 2 metres as the crow flies
me: but your not a crow
me: which again, could cause problems
george: well its about 3 metres as george staggers

Oct
18
2005

UTP lunch

Tech, Uni | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

First things first, I just overheard someone on their phone saying “yeah, I’m in the library”….umm, no your not, your in a computer room, I would know because I’m here. The nearest library is well over 200meters away and in another building across a car-park and small park with water feature….I do wonder at times how some people manage to direct food into their mouths.

Anyway, to the matter in hand. I didn’t have the heart to make this entry yesterday, I was far too sleepy (not that I feel any more awake now, but I do have a 4 hour gap between lectures today).
Yesterday is my day off from Uni, and as such, I go to work. Work for me means run the network of a small primary school.

The network consists of about 30 desktop machines (1 for each classroom, a room with 17 of them in, a library machine and a few in the admin block) it also has around 35 laptops (maybe 10 of these are teacher laptops and are stand alones, the rest are either held by admin staff, or are part of the recent batch we were given which I yet to do anything with bar stack).

Now most of the network machines are on a workgroup based network with a variety of shared drives (soon to be NAS) providing files. The desktops run win98 and RM window box (which is like an attempt at a shell replacement, but RM style, so pants). Yes, I know this is a crap setup, but it has to stay, as these machines are used by children starting at 4years old (and it was like that when I got there). The laptops all run either XP pro or 2000pro bar one machine which I have on fedora core 4 for kicks.

Now yesterday was an inset day so the only people in were staff (and they were doing training in the hall), so I came in as normal to do 3 hours or so. When I entered the building I was informed that one of our switched was down (we have 3, 2 shit ones and one very nice cisco). Well, when I wandered into the store and had a look at my nice cabinet I could not help but notice that all the switches were on and the one in question (a 36 port beast) had a lot of lights on. So after about an hours worth of routing around etc I found, under a desk in the computer room the cable I keep plugged into a spare port (which I had there for when I’m working on laptops (pre wireless network)). When I followed this cable to its other end (which is normally meant to be free) I found some little bugger had plugged it into another spare port. Suffice to say, on of the little buggers had created a loop-back on one of my shit switches. But because it had been done the other side of my patching it had been very hard to trace.

It was at this point I thought “fuck it” and I took apart my whole network (pulled every jack out of every plug in my cabinet and spent 3 hours putting it all back in again). This achieved several things

a) my network was plugged together the way it should have been done had it not been pissed on by several engineers over a period of 3 months which they installed out fibre line and terminators for out internet link.
b) I allowed me to move around a few items in there (about 8U’s worth of kit in the end, just to give it a more logical layout.
c) I managed to have the cables neatly done using the cable management, as apposed to just run everywhere.

If anyone ever considers doing this to their network, don’t! and if you have no choice, do so much work beforehand. I went round with a laptop and drew up an excel spreadsheet of every port in the school, what room it was in, if it was used, what it was normally used for etc. I haven now have which port on which switch each item patches to….

Ok, I think that is enough for now. Although I will add, it did work after I did all this and I even managed to get the right lines going to the right IP phones…..I was so happy, so was reception…

Oct
11
2005

Let the war begineth

Tech, Uni | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Ok, I can’t take it anymore, I have to write something about this, just to vent at least. I am currently on the computing floor of the watts building (Brighton University). I am sitting/working in the section with all the dual screen computers (there are about 50-60 of them). Now as I look around this section, and in fact, every time I have looked round this section I have noticed that I seem to be the only person that has either noticed there is another monitor or who knows how to actually use it. This is driving me up the bloody wall. Why can these people just piss off and use other computers, ones that their pea sized intellects can comprehend fully….ok, so as yet there haven’t been enough of them to stop me using a PC, but one day I tell you it will happen, and I shall hit the roof. I seem to be one of a rare breed that understands the beasts and actually uses them to make my life easier and faster (in stead of the growing number for whom the other monitor just provides yet more space to loose the mouse).

While I’m having a go at them (and as I still have 3 hours till my next tutorial) I shall take this chance the note down my other pet peeve with them. As far as I am aware, we have actually advanced beyond the 60Hz refresh rate these buggers insist on providing us with. I have never understood this. The machines on this floor are in identical groups and there is a different build for each group, so there is no skin off any sys admin’s nose if they set the refresh to the highest the monitor can handle at its chosen resolution. Now, granted, for many machines this does bugger all as they are TFT’s, but for those on CRT’s (which is the higher spec machines (as they tend to be for graphics)) they have just left them on default. These machines are for top end graphics for Gods sake; these people will never notice the benefit of having a CRT if some tart cant set it up correctly.

EDIT: ok, ive been at this computer for almost 3 hours and i have yet to see another person use their other monitor (many of these people have been using flash and photoshop….) *grinds teeth*

Oct
03
2005

Keep paddling

Tech | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Why is it people just have to “go with the flow”? Actually, while I think about it, that’s a silly statement, as there are so many people in the world that you cant help but go with the flow. Even those who are supposedly “going against the grain” are in fact doing nothing more than going along with all the other millions of people doing that self same thing. Perhaps a little more needs adding to that then. Perhaps it should read “why do people have to go with the flow without knowing which way it is flowing, let alone why its flowing that way”.

This rather neatly brings me onto the ipod (question my judgment you may, but if I don’t get distracted for the next 10 mins all will be revealed). Now the ipod is a wonderful product, have no fear ipod lovers, I have little in the way of problems with it (bar the ipod nano, but most people should have problems with by now). It is for the most part a very nice little bit of technology wrapped up in a box that most people seem to nye-on faint over. What however I do hate in leaps and bounds is your typical ipod owner. Now although I have not seen any demographics charts for the sales (well, end users) of ipods, I think I can make a fairly educated guess that there are a good number of teens and adults in their early twenties with them bashing against their leg in their trouser pockets. Your typical ipod owner seems to think that they hold the solution to all the worlds problems in the palm of their hand. I regularly see posts in forums saying merely “get an ipod” when people are talking about a completely different mp3 (well, music is more fitting) player. Do they not understand that this is not the greatest invention since sliced bread, just a fairly featureless hard drive that costs more because its white and has fruit on it.

Myself I think apple is no longer the same from this ordeal. From what it has gained in popularity and sales, I think it has lost in diluting its own brand and removing some of the “class” and exclusivity that has surrounded the company for years. Now a few years ago, they got away with it because apple were not quite ready for the impact the ipod would have when it was released upon the masses so they were quite hard to come by. But as apple has sold more of the little white bundles of joy, they cease to fill people with amazement when they see them. Now of course the rose tinted glasses have begun to come off and people have started to see that there are better, more advanced, more interesting players out there on the market. They have now started to see the ipod for what it really is, a very nice looking mp3 player, but nothing more. It can’t even claim the “style icon” badge anymore, as to be stylish, you have to “go against the grain”, not with the masses. This just leaves us with probably over a million people trying to hold on to “the glory days” of the ipods early life, thinking they still have a style icon, thinking they are still being the rebel and gone against the grain when they are in fact just “going with the flow”.

Sep
22
2005

Roaches

Me, Musings, Tech | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Ok, I have been brewing rants about several things over the last few days, so I now feel I can’t hold it in any longer.

Norton vs McAfee

Now I know this is an age-old battle, which one better. I see this old chestnut brought up all the time in the tech section in my forum of choice. The problem is, no one seems to really know. I have seen horror stories from both sides. Just today I saw someone saying that McAfee had let in 1000’s of virus’s. I also saw another one by some one saying they had to turn Norton off just to surf the web. I myself do no understand this. How on earth can this be? I mean, they are both major products in consumer land and have a huge following on either side. But there is no way one can be deemed better than the other, as there are glowing reports and stinking rants for both widely available. I have therefore concluded that this has nothing to do with the product at all and they are both perfectly capable applications (I have Norton and have used McAfee with no problems) and it is entirely (yes, not just a little, but entirely) the fault of the stupid people using them. Therefore, new rule #1 people who post a problem with them on a forum should have their browsers redirected to a simple, easy to follow guide to how to turn of their computer and then disable the on/off switch.

Random

Next, in reference to this, I have decided that actually, the sending the money collected to open office is more a of a long-term scheme (as 1.1.5 only just came out today, so 2 is a long way off). So I think as a nice fast (labour style) quick recovery solution we should send all the money into the porn industry, helping them get better listings on their sites so they are not so badly beaten by “random”.

floor

I now have a wooden floor in my room (well, now = as in for the last half a year and wooden = as in laminate) and the dirt on it is driving me up the wall. I would love to know where it comes from because I’m really not sure. I mean it has no distinctive look or feel to it, its just dark and there. It does make me dread what my old carpet was like underneath the top layer of fibres. On another not about dirt. I would also love to know why may fan blades seems to have some black scum on the blades (it takes in air from the window). I am slightly concerned as to how much of that stuff is in my lungs since my fan has only been here for about 3months, and I’ve been on this pair of lungs for over 19 years…hmm

Thumb twiddling

What the hell is my computer doing with all its spare time? I saw all about this the other day (a project where you download their little prog and when your PC is idle it goes off and works for them doing something productive (or so they tell you) with its time). So since I saw about this I’ve been trying to come up with what my computer actually does. I’ve now settled on two idea’s. The first is that my files are playing hide-and-seek on my harddrive (which would explain this) or my computer is actually working on a cunning plan to lower it self out of my window to freedom (which would explain why I cant find my bag of salvaged DC motors anywhere).

Tell me what’s really going on

Oh I do so hate politically correctness. I went to an event for beaver scouts (which I helped out at) where at the end they were told that the winners were $foo and the runners-up were $bar and the rest had done well for taking part and so had also won…WTF! So now, these kids a) think that they are great at everything as they win all the time and b) think that other people are better winners , so however hard they try, even if they win, they still loose. What kind of twisted world is this?

Sep
21
2005

Munch Munch

Me, Musings, Tech | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Ok, that’s it! I swear my computer has taken to eating my files! There was one particular file I was looking for that I’m sure I’ve seen in the last few days, that today I just could not find. I looked in all the places it should have been in, I then looked in all the places it could have been in, and then I looked everywhere else (via some searches) but all to no avail. So I ended up getting the friend who gave me the file in the first place to send it to me again ( for the record). Now I worked on it earlier in Photoshop, so just now, when I go back to the folder where it should have been and discover its gone, I go into Photoshop and try and find it in the recent list, but no, its not in there, and there are items that should have been above and below it. So I start the normal trundle through the places it could be….but once again, no luck. So next I go into my msn logs to confirm the name of the file and where it should be. This reports back to me that it should be where I have looked (yes, I am viewing hidden files). So in an act of desperation I just ran a search for the filename and low and behold, as I’m writing this LJ entry, it pops up….where of all places…my desktop! What the hell, I didn’t put you there! Argh, you stupid file, stay where I tell you to. Ok, either this machine is past it, or I require a straight jacket.

Sep
20
2005

Red eye

Random | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Ah the wonders of photoshop. I am all very new to this great art, but already I’m enjoying it. I was asked a short while ago by a friend to see what I could come up with in terms of modifications to this image. I was told it was for a band (gridlock’s) front cover and that it had to be “cool”. Hmm, well, lets see what I can do with this beastie then…and I set to work. 20mins later, the following images were made:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

well, that was fun.

Sep
08
2005

Posidrive

Musings, Politics | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

Please, for the love of all things good will you just stop suing each other! Why is it that every time there is a ruling in America, someone has to be sued? It seems like it almost become the norm. I mean, in the end it does little to no good, because if you sue them, they sue you back for damages from the original sue. So you might as well put a few layers out of jobs and NOT FUCKING START! Suing never proves a point, or damages anyone other than shareholders of insurance companies (as said companies end up paying the sues anyway). In fact, because the insurance companies end up paying (if the company doesn’t have the money) there is no real punishment either. Now yes, I agree there are times when suing is a sensible course of action to pursue. These are times like when someone has invented something, copyrighted it and then another company makes money from that idea (in effect stealing that idea), so suing for damages I think is quite appropriate. However, once that sue has gone through, that’s it, no more….put an end to it.

I mean, you end up starting a blame culture if you just allow people to sue for virtually any reason (normally because they are greedy bastards). Think about it for a moment, if companies are being sued a lot (as they often do by the afore mentioned greedy bastards) then to pay for all these claims, they are going to need money. Well, that money is going to have to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is most likely going to be their customers. Therefore, as the companies put up their prices, they are going to force everyone who buys things from them to pay more. Now of course this isn’t going to bother the greedy bastards as they have shed loads of money from all the suing they have done, but it may well bother our hard working customer who has done nothing but earn their decent, honest living. So now, you end up with the rather odd situation where the company is screwing the people who have chosen not to screw it, yet not screwing the people who have chosen to screw it.

I do really hope this rather stupid system doesn’t fully make its way into the UK. For the moment, cases like this are rare, but I fear they will not be for much longer.

Sep
05
2005

What wheel? I can’t find it

Tech | Permalink | Leave a comment | Posted by Craig

I guess this kind of relates to this entry, but that’s not the point, I still feel like another on the subject. I am searching for a nice gallery script to use for websites/general image storage/photo’s etc and I have been looking through all the free/opensource ones (not that there is a huge option on the latter part when it comes to php scripts). Now as pretty as they all look and as many functions as they have, they still don’t do what I want. Now this is not because the feature I want is so advanced or so obscure that most people don’t see a need for it. Oh no, it’s far simpler than that. The feature I am so desperately looking for is simplicity itself. I want something that shows pictures, on pages and has an admin section to add them with, and that’s it. It however seems that to have something with just this is impossible. The people making these things want to be known for having the most features filled, advanced script on the web, not for making one that does what people want it to. It seems that they have re-invented the wheel so many times that they are no longer left with just a wheel. The problem is, I want the wheel, nothing more. Just something that rolls. I am now at the point where I am looking at building my own wheel (and from having hunted around on the web a bit, everyone else how has looked for a wheel has ended up building one too). Onwards dear friends, for now we must make it roll….