Archive for October, 2009

31 Oct 2009

this is it – the film

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Last night i went to see Michael Jackson’s ‘This is it’ movie. Whilst it was a very strange type of film / documentary, i thought it was well put together and it showed just how much detail and effort was put in to the doomed 50-show sell out tour.

Michael Jakson - This Is It
Creative Commons License photo credit: Michael Jacksonfan

I would have been in London on July 18th (the 3rd concert) and i headed to london anyway but i was of course left wondering ‘what would it have been like?’… the film helped answer that question and also answered a lot of other questions…

In rehearsals, Michael Jackson did not look like a man in poor health… far from it. From paper talk, it was made out that he was struggling to cope with the dancing and not putting in the hours that he should have done, but from the footage shown, he looked like a man that was ready and willing to perform and not just perform, but perform to perfection.

The entire production was billed as the show to end all shows and from the looks of it, it probably was… they made new video / trailer introductions to all the songs, with some even in 3D and spilling out on to stage…

From the looks of it, Jackson didn’t want to hit the play button and mime…. it showed him basically ‘rewriting’ music and changing beats / rythm etc to his liking. The entire production looked amazing and that was just a sneak preview of rehearsals…. the real thing would have been incredible to witness.

Hopefully, the whole production will still go ahead at some stage with a mixture of artists – it just looked too good to bin and i know i’d definitely go, even without the man himself performing :smile:

30 Oct 2009

new camera has arrived

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A few days ago i ordered a panasonic tz7 from ebay. Despite the royal mail postal strikes in the UK, it arrived quickly and i now have it in my hands :-) Expect plenty of pics and a full review next week as i’ll be spending the weekend playing with it :smile:

Here’s it is compared to my old camera. It’s a lot meatier but then again my old camera was insanely thin. I didn’t mind getting a bigger, bulkier camera as it’s packed full of better features and i can still take it about in my pocket…

30/10/2009

30/10/2009

29 Oct 2009

the need for breaks

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The decision NOT to have mid term breaks this year at college was always going to be an unpopular one. We were one of the first colleges to start back – in early september. I won’t finish up until Christmas exams end which could be as late as 23rd December.

Succint
Creative Commons License photo credit: margolove

So that’s a pretty huge block of education – almost 16 weeks non stop (We’ve also had a study week before christmas exams taken away too). I could have done with this week off to catch up on things and not necessarily study, but just organise, relax and absorb everything i’ve covered so far.

I’m used to mid terms at this stage, so not having a break to look forward to is pretty tough going. Whilst i technically only have about 23 class hours per week, a lot more than that is required (if you want to pass exams).For various reasons i’m in college for about 38 hours per week anyway (and chuck in 10 hours in a car too spent going to / from college).

I learn more outside college than i do inside it, but i’ll be the first to admit that i need to be in class and getting assignments / projects for motivation. But not having time off will do some damage in that i’ll probably burn out before Christmas and lose interest in some subjects once i’ve done the bare minimum to pass them.

During the same period last year (sep – dec) i had two full weeks off which was great. I ended up genuinely needing one off to stay in bed all week in a bid to recover from pneumonia.

Anyway, like everything else, the reason for this lack of a mid-term break is blamed on the recession (see posts here and here). Not enough money to pay for staff development weeks which would normally take place on our weeks off. Plus of course having us thousands of students turn up for an extra week or two means more cash spent on campus.

I’d link to an official source or quote from an email or letter us students got about the reason why our breaks were cancelled, only we’re not kept informed about these things so i can’t…

28 Oct 2009

the ultimate task management application

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In a bid to restructure the way i do things, i sat down this morning and specifically went looking for task management software with a list of things it had to have;

  • it had to be in the cloud
  • it had to be simple to use

I’m constantly switching between college and home, and several different computers. When i’m on a college computer, i’ll usually put any work i do on to a usb stick or else i’ll email it to myself using gmail.

kid to do list, list, Be happy and go home
Creative Commons License photo credit: Carissa GoodNCrazy

I really hate using usb sticks these days – i think it’s because dropbox is spoiling me. Seriously. Dropbox is basically a usb without the plugging in and copying /pasting bit (which is of course the entire purpose of a usb!). Although i don’t want to de-rail this blog post by drooling over Dropbox, it gets two thumbs up from me and is definitely one of those ‘must have’ applications.

On another side note, college computers and usb sticks do not go well. It seems every second college PC is infected with the autorun.inf virus (first reported here about 9 months ago), but at this stage i’ve given up on college equipment working smoothly – i only use their PC’s if i have to.

Anyway, dragging myself away from Dropbox’s feet and defusing the college rant which is about to kick off, i came across many to do lists and task managers this morning. Some rubbish, some ok. Very rarely will i come across something and instantly love it but that’s what happened when i stumbled upon doit.im.

It’s an adobe air application, so it lives in the cloud just like dropbox (well, it’s the same sort of idea as sharing & updating information across multiple PC’s in one go). Download, install, set up an account and login. This is what you’ll end up with;

doit.im

Adding a task is as simple as clicking, typing and hitting return. If you’ve more time on your hands you can add more description, schedule it, add tags etc… in other words it can act as a simple to do list AND act as a more complex task manager.

The interface looks good, the functionality is perfect and it was so good that once i discovered it, i ended my search for similar software – as it was exactly what i was looking for. If you’re looking for a web based service, task.fm is also worth a look.

27 Oct 2009

windows 7 first impressions

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I’ve been using windows 7 for a few days now and i’m really getting used to it at this stage. Since Friday, i’ve been using it exclusively for everything.

windows 7 desktop wallpaper

Today was the first day since getting 7 that i had to use my netbook (and windows xp) for college. It was a real downgrade. Everything is just so much clumsier and slower. It seems cluttered even if it’s not… i always say design is important and windows have got it right with 7. It’s very apple-esque with a heavy emphasis on simplicity but with that all important gloss and shine too.

windows 7 desktop wallpaper

Probably the biggest change that you notice is the new taskbar. You no longer have long rectangular boxes with text in them – you just have square images. You can pin applications to the new tasbar which means it acts as an application launcher – something i used in XP and Vista, but as an independant application.

One negative i find is that the taskbar doesn’t do a great job of displaying multiple firefox / browser windows open at the same time (it’s a little too slow and awkward navigating through multiple firefox windows for my liking).

It basically stacks or groups all windows in to one and you have to hover over an icon to view all open windows which wastes time…. still, i’m prepared to get used to it and so far, windows 7 is a joy to use overall.

Nearly forgot ;) - July 26, 07
Creative Commons License photo credit: ThrasherDave

  • The search function is a million times better than vista and that was one of the first things i noticed – it’s remarkably quick and accurate when compared with vista.
  • The time at the bottom right of the screen is of course iconic, but how often have you hovered over the time to get the current date? Windows 7 places the time AND date by default which is one of those very small, but very nice touches.
  • The system icons panel has been completely decluttered – the way it should be.
  • You can set your background wallpaper to change every day / hour / minute… you decide when and what photos it should display…

Bottom line: windows 7 is well worth the investment. Either upgrading from XP or Vista. If you’re used to XP and have never used Vista, it will be quite a steep learning curve at first and i’d put money on it you’ll be wanting to switch back straight away, but that’s not because 7 is too complicated or rubbish – it’s because you’re scared of change :smile:

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