November 20th, 2008
Jazza, over on his YouTube channel rhymingwithoranges made a video recently on people who are obsessed with becoming famous, but who really don’t want to do anything to get there. I made this response:
We’re currently caught up in the made-a-fast-buck, reality TV era where people will literally do anything to get their few seconds in the spotlight. The problem with this is that with every new person cruising into the media the overall quality of celebrity gets dragged further and further downward. People are no longer interested as much in character, knowledge, longevity, experience, charisma or power but are fuelled on how cosmetically beautiful somebody is or how much of their body they’ll flaunt - or it would seem how rude they can make their telephone calls in the recent controversy over Russel Brand and Jonathan Ross.
Bring back high-quality, well made entertainment and skilled, worthwhile, inspiring role models and lets all feel better for it.
James
Posted in VLog | No Comments »
November 20th, 2008
Reports over at The Register, and EnGadget suggest that employees are suing their companies for overtime they are due during the periods that their computers are rebooting!
The problem, it seems, is that the system designed to keep a time check on employees relies on them being logged into their systems which of course is not possible when the computer in question goes down for a reboot. The problem wouldn’t really exist if the reboot took a minute, but Windows Vista, according to the article, is taking up to 15min from reboot to desktop which if done a few times a day can clock up quite a few hours unpaid overtime.
Of course, this is a ridiculous situation to be in for a few reasons:
- Why link a time keeping system to a device that is not used 100% on payable time?
- Who introduces Windows Vista into the workplace? (Why isn’t the tried-and-tested XP enough?)
- What kind of IT department does the company have if employees have to reboot so often?
I know people slam Vista for being the spawn of the devil but really, it’s not THAT unstable. Is it?
It’s stupid of employees to try to sue their employer for such a silly thing for a start; shame on them. Equally, it’s stupid of the employer to use such an obviously flawed monitoring system; shame on them too.
Only in a world this anal could we see news like this!
Posted in Blog, Technology | No Comments »
November 17th, 2008
It’s week 7 of term at the University of Reading and I’m finding myself at my first hard decision.
Recently I commented on MM1F10 - Student Enterprise, the only non IT discipline course. I tried as hard as possible not to be overly critical of the course, its’ delivery or its’ content but I cannot take it any more.
I just have to leave.
The question now, of course, is: “where do I go?”. I have three choices:
- Learn a language (French, German, etc…)
- Switch to Computer & Internet Technologies
- Switch to Computer Science Roadmap
So which way do I go? I don’t want to learn a language; I’m not very good at it. Then again, my maths isn’t great either so I guess CS Roadmap is out, which leaves me with Computer and Internet Technologies.
What do you think? Watch this space!
James
Posted in Blog, University | No Comments »
November 16th, 2008
According to TorrentFreak it looks as though record labels in France operating under the umbrella group “Société civile des Producteurs de Phonogrammes en France” (SPPF) are trying to sue the people behind file sharing software such as Limewire, Shareaza and Vuze. Of course, the driving force behind Shareaza is Sourceforge, one of the largest open-source software communities in the world.
If the SPPF can make the accusations stick, and can drag Sourceforge through the legal system it will be a tremendous blow for Open Source.
In other countries it is not possible to bring legal action against P2P software makers provided they do not make their software available specifically for downloading copyright work (songs, videos, applications, etc…). It is also true that while copyright material is transmitted across these networks, the networks themselves are also able to provide the sharing of user-generated content.
If Sourceforge does not come out of this well it will probably make other Open Source software communities think twice before doing anything in future if they know that they themselves can be held accountable for the actions of the user.
Personally I think this is a ridiculous situation to be in and the mighty armies of the RIAA, BPI, SPPF and others are only serving to anger the Open Source community needlessly and in a way that will hinder the efforts the stop the illegal spread of copyright material.
Why not work together with these communities? Approach them like humans in a non-intimidating collaborative way that means instead of hammering sharers with fines, jail time, etc… they are instead educated, encouraged to stop and prevented from sharing by modifications to the software.
The era of prosecuting individuals, in my mind, is over. It is now time to employ measures that help stop sharing at the root, rather than the leaf. Of course, there’ll always be a way around it no matter what happens because where there’s copyright material, there’s an illegal distribution network right behind it!
James
Posted in Blog, News & Politics, Web | No Comments »
November 14th, 2008
I can’t wait for the Christmas game this year which will be some time in December. Have a look at the Dragon Valley website for dates.
For those of you who have never been to a Christmas game with DV make sure you book in early because it’s probably the one event of the year that is definitely not to be missed! Here are some photos from last year’s game on Flickr:
James 
Posted in Airsoft, Blog | No Comments »
November 14th, 2008
“Congratulations, sir! It’s a blog!” said Apache, and it went downhill from there…
You might think that starting a blog is an easy thing to do:
- Exchange some monies for a domain (perhaps?)
- Find some hosting, or a free blog hosting service
- Start writing
- Become overnight sensation
- Get invited to amazing parties with rich and sexy people
- Buy a Mercedes
- Sleep with countless beautiful virgins
- Die happy
Simple, no? No! Writing for a blog even semi-regularly can be a right pain in the ass if, like me, you think you have nothing useful to say. Constantly I find myself sat at the keyboard ready to bash one out (and write a blog entry) and suddenly lose all sense of worth when I don’t turn into Shakespeare at the press of a key.
I’ve read countless advice articles that say you should write several articles a week to prove your credentials, or that you should post lots of articles up front to show off your work to the world but it really isn’t quite so easy. For a start how do you find a ‘niche’ any more? There is practically nothing that anybody isn’t writing about already, and that makes it hard to start. Plus, if you’re like me you think that everyone who reads your blog is going to comment you into the floor saying that you don’t know what you’re talking about, and that I should go fuck myself.
My advice? Don’t give a damn! Life is too short to be hung up about what a faceless commenter has said. Granted, when someone praises your work it makes your day and boosts your confidence, but if someone badmouths you so what? It’s not like they’re shitting on your front lawn is it? At the very best you can just hit ‘mark as spam’, or ‘remove’ - at worst you could block their IP and never hear from them again!
Also, just because you write beautiful articles and do so regularly does not mean that you’re going to become an overnight sensation. It takes almost the same, if not more leg-work to publicse your work than it takes to produce it. Reading other blogs, tweaking your blog, listening to advice, practice, adverts, etc… It all takes time and effort and only when you’ve sold your social life to the devil does it begin to even look as if it’s going to pay off.
So, if you’re thinking of starting a blog, or even have a fledgling one like mine the best advice would be to keep at it, write often, don’t take yourself too seriously and enjoy the overall experience. Write because you enjoy what you do and know a bit about it too, but don’t do it to chase ratings or sleep with virgins because unless you have the midas touch it’s not going to happen!
James
Posted in Blog, Web | No Comments »
November 13th, 2008
Introduction
In order to create good websites it is necessary to consider many aspects. Websites must be clear, concise and efficient whilst still communicating relevant and useful information. They must be simple enough to gain user loyalty, and inspire user confidence whilst being compatible with a wide audience through compliance with standards, further extended by being conservative with page dimensions and multimedia requirements and a consistent design throughout the site.
The development of websites has fast become an important concern for businesses and individuals since the birth of the World Wide Web nearly 20 years ago. One thing that is often overlooked is the black art of page layout and design. Web users behave in a predictable way but few websites consider this when designing their layout.
Too much noise!
In general, although there are exceptions, websites exist to provide a product, service or information about either. One of the key concepts of web design to keep in mind is that users scan web pages picking out only the information they find interesting and useful. Using the Google UK website as an example, it is easy to see that the page has been designed to contain only the information that is necessary to provide its’
service: search. Apart from the company logo the page contains no other images and no long paragraphs of ‘filler’ text welcoming the user. It is simple, concise, quick and massively popular.
As an alternative example; the dictionary is not read like a novel for the simple reason that it is uninteresting and because there is too much information – too much noise – on the page. Instead, thumbing through various pages and skimming across various definitions until the correct one is found, completely ignoring everything else in the book is the most common method of use. The same principle applies to websites. When designing a good website too much noise can become an issue very quickly. As skilled veterans, web users will scan pages in a matter of seconds rather than read them thoroughly. Unless the information they are looking for is easily identifiable, or searchable (as in the case of Google) they will simply move on - probably to another website altogether!
KISS – Keep It Simple, Stupid…
The best advice to remember when putting a website layout together is the KISS principle. Using simple HTML markup to put tables into a website to structure information is a very easy way to control the flow of the content being presented. Popular designs employed on many websites are the “two rows, two columns” and “three rows” design. Using simple, consistent layouts will make sure that all pages in the website look similar, are laid out in a familiar way to the user, and ultimately will make the user more likely to return to the site.
Size does matter!
As a designer it is not usually possible to know the exact specifications of the computers belonging to website visitors. It is not known if they have Adobe Flash Player installed, for example; although this is easily surmountable. One issue that is not so easily overcome is screen resolution. When designing the layout the “general rule-of thumb is to go as low as possible.” The average resolution in the United Kingdom for visitors to the Modern Life website in the 18 months prior to 2007 is 1.049 megapixels – roughly between 1024×768 and 1200×1024. If a website is designed to function in a 1680×1050 environment it will quickly become evident that the page will not look the same in a lower resolution.
Validation
Although it may seem like a minor point, ensuring the validity of the code behind a website is vital as bad or non-compliant code can have disastrous effects on page layout. Designers can spend a long time developing a very attractive, functional website that provides web users with an abundance of relevant information but if the site does not look the same – or at least similar - across many platforms and browsers the site might as well not exist. As the W3C mentions on its’ website:
“[Browsers try] to display [sites] even if they’re not legal HTML. Usually this means that the browser will try to make educated guesses about what you probably meant. The problem is that different browsers (or even different versions of the same browser) will make different guesses about the same illegal construct; worse, if your HTML is really pathological, the browser could get hopelessly confused and produce a mangled mess, or even crash.”
It is an on-going battle with browser software developers such as the Mozilla Foundation, Apple and Microsoft to make the next versions of their browsers standards-compliant. Ideally a page would display the same no matter where and no matter what platform it is viewed on but that is not the case and ensuring the page has valid markup can go a long way towards safeguarding carefully built layouts.
Summary
In conclusion it is evident that page layout is an important consideration when constructing a website of any nature. It is important to keep the pages short enough, but not too short; equally not too long and noisy. In addition, formatting pages in line with the KISS principle is advisable thereby ensuring web users do not become lost, or overwhelmed by the website. Finally, ensuring the pages are constructed using valid code, be it HTML, PHP, ASP, CSS, or any other web-related markup will help the website render correctly on a wider variety of browsers and platforms from UNIX to Windows Mobile; and Internet Explorer to Safari.
James
(Originally written as part of an essay I had to do for Uni, but thought it was quite relevant and useful!)
Posted in Blog, Web | No Comments »
November 13th, 2008
As part of my degree course at the University of Reading it is necessary to pick from a list of optional modules. I chose to study “Student Enterprise” as I thought that it would help me gather experience and ideas when considering setting up my own business.
We’re in Week 6 of the course and already I’ve begun to form some pretty strong opinions about the lectures, lecturers, and the course content.
The lectures are scheduled from 4pm to 6pm on a Thursday evening - not their fault I know, but still a decidedly inconvenient time of day. Of course, it’s not made any easier whatsoever by the fact that we’re held hostage for the full two hours with no break and an interrogation if we even try to move. Not a good start.
The lectures are long, they are loud, and they are very difficult to learn anything in. The course lecturer cannot maintain control over the students and the resulting noise means that those who do want to listen struggle to over the noise. Again, not good.
We have completed one piece of coursework so far, a simple ‘log’ essay about an entrepreneur and how we can relate our experiences and skills to theirs. We had the feedback given to us and quickly discovered (after asking eachother what we’d had as a mark) that the marks given vary greatly in generosity from marker to marker. It would seem the class is split in two by surname and each half is marked by a different lecturer (there are two for the course). The problem is that one half is marked noticeably harsher than the other resulting in disgruntled students who not only feel they have been done out of marks that will count towards their degree, but who also feel they cannot get any constructive advice from the limited scrawlings of the marking lecturer.
So, in conclusion, I believe that while the course has massive potential to be brilliant, in reality it is poorly delivered, poorly scheduled and unfairly assessed.
If I remain on the module for the duration of the year I’ll write again with my thoughts on the next block of weeks.
James
–
University of Reading - www.reading.ac.uk
Henley Business School - www.henley.reading.ac.uk
MM1F10: Student Enterprise - http://www.info.rdg.ac.uk/module/0809/HB/MM1F10.htm
Posted in Blog, University | 1 Comment »
November 13th, 2008
Using Google Docs Online
This is a short paragraph created using Google’s online suite of applications in order to illustrate the similarities and differences between Microsoft’s suite of Office applications. So far I appreciate the benefits of being able to create, store and share documents online but I still prefer the interface and extended functionality of Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. I am confident that as Web2.0 progresses and matures, eventually growing into Web3.0 it will be able to compete with and perhaps dominate the market in office applications.
James
Posted in Blog, Technology, Uncategorized, Web | No Comments »
November 11th, 2008
For a few years now I’ve been taking photos, however in recent times I’ve let my hobby fall by the wayside… I thought that now I’m in Uni it would make sense to get back into it as you only experience University life once and it’s not to be missed.
Since I started uploading photos I’ve been using PBase, a fantastic photo-hosting service that my friend Chris Thomas put me onto, but I’ve also been following Flickr - the Web2.0 giant of photo sharing and I wondered which was better.
I found this great comparison article: http://www.dpnotes.com/comparisons/flickrvspbase.php which is definitely worth taking a look at!
James
Posted in Blog, Web | No Comments »
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