BBC in bed with MS
Tuesday, June 26, 2007

I'm appalled at a recent BBC decision to release its new online watch again service to Windows only. The problem for me is that I love the BBC normally and I want to consume their content but they always make it so hard for me. I don't like to consider myself anti-Microsoft but I don't want to use their software which means that I'm now pretty much stuck with the BBC's text only content. I'm afraid I'm going to be reduced to just listening to a bit of radio 4 when I'm near a radio. If I have already paid my license fee then why should I also have to buy software from an American company to watch it?

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posted by SkinOfStars @ 5:25 pm, ,


The wrong trousers

An American judge losses his 54 million dollar court case over suing a dry cleaners for lost trousers.... wtf?!

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posted by SkinOfStars @ 4:27 am, ,


A bit of giffing
Monday, June 25, 2007

Hmm, wonder if you can use the word gif as an adjective... Anyway, I spent a bit of time today making a simple animation inspired by such things as Noah's photo everyday for 6 years. Thought it would be nice to do a really simple version with photos I've taken of myself over the past 3 years. You can see the result in my avatar, but I'll reproduce it here in case I change it:

giffage

It's not great but it is pretty easy to do. First things first is to get some appropriate software to put this together. In my case I decided to use the GIMP with the GAP extension (erm, I'm just gonna let you find that). I'm sure there are far more specifically tailored programs but I know how to use the GIMP so it saved me spending time having to get familiar with a new UI.

Step two would be to get a tutorial, which luckily for me I have already read and used before on other projects but will be useful for any of you out there who are thinking a little bit of animation might also be a little bit of fun.

Obviously my attempt at animation isn't exactly going to get me a job with Disney just yet but it is an interesting little experiment. I'll also say that I had far better luck when I tried the same thing thing with some photos of my sister. Whereas I have a tendency to only take the odd photo of myself for avatars and the like and make do with the first one or two, my sister is more compelled to take many and then decide which one to use after. So lets string them together and see what we get:



Looks pretty neat eh? Though it may be worth pointing out that she'll probably kill me for posting this.

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posted by SkinOfStars @ 1:38 am, ,


Result time
Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Here are my marks so far for my first year of Uni. Not too bad considering how drunk I was:

Computer Systems - A
Multimedia IT Skills - A
Human Development and Learning - B+
Human Communication - B+
Communication in Groups - B+
Playing the Game: The Culture of Digital Games. - B
Structured Programming - C

It would seem that I'm at my best and my worst when I'm with computers, go figure.

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posted by SkinOfStars @ 1:18 am, ,


Shhh
Friday, June 08, 2007

Ok, I'll break my silence, if for nothing more than the fear that I may soon end on ECRs 'Where are they now?' list!

I've not ignored Thanet in any way, I take the Thanet Times back to Oxford with me (or get them brought to me!) when I can and keep up with blogging through the wonder of the internet. You know, I found I can be anywhere to read these blogs, not just in Thanet, amazing things these Internets.

I often find that when I see something interesting I think about how I would put it in a blog post, but it would seem I'm now into the habit of not posting. Lets take this example: The other day I was in Margate and was almost knocked over by Sandy Beach who was rounding a corner at high pace away from the town, only to find that when I got to Margate centre the whole town was without power... link perhaps?!

The topic of the moment though does seem to be TBLs birthday. I can hardly believe it to be a year already. That curious, spiraling turning of events that began with turmoil on the blogger circuit to the rise of the blog list. Though for my sins I may have started it, to my better judgment I handed it to Adem who has made it into a truly useful and enjoyable resource... though I must be honest, I cannot stand this Snap preview thing (cue tech tip). If you want to turn it off this is what you have to do: hover over a link to the snappy thing appears, got to options in that pop-up, check the boxes to disable, when it saves reload.

Ok, I'm here for the next month so I'll probably post again, mainly because I see this as a Thanet blog. After that I'll probably pull it into my new personal site that I'm planning (see if you can guess the web address ;) ).

For all you Thanet bloggers: Keep up the good work!

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posted by SkinOfStars @ 4:59 pm, ,