cubicgarden.com...

A glimmer of what a semantic web could be like

[ The Semantic web ]

Freebase Parallax: A new way to browse and explore data from David Huynh on Vimeo.

I love the idea of Freebase, even Tim O'reilly was upbeat about the project when it first launched over a year ago. But this video of a project called Parallax by freebase is simply amazing. It looks closer to the semantic web than almost anything else I've seen. Theres so much going on in this area now, you have things like DBpedia, Freebase, Musicbrainz, last.fm, etc, etc... Then lots of Linking data projects using foaf, atom, rdfa, etc, etc. W3C and other standard bodies working on things like RulesML, APML, etc, etc. And there's even stuff you can run yourself like the many Semantic Wikis and Blogs which are starting to popup. There's some real progress being made, the semantic web is closer that we think...

Random pictures taken on my phone

[ Just plain life ]

Over the last few months I've been taking pictures of interesting things on my camera phone (HTC Kaiser). The camera is actually pretty good but lacks a flash for all round use. Anyway, he's the selection...

I love seaside towns like Blackpool. They always have the best arcades and they never get rid of the old ones. So I found Ridge Racer full scale (good but slow) then Ridge Racer 2 (faster graphics and remixed sound track, much more techno)

Going back and forth between London and Manchester late night I see some interesting sights in Euston and Piccadilly stations. Usually drunk people doing stupid things. But this time I was passing the screenis in Euston and I noticed the Hamachi windows gui running. Closer shots show there using a secured hamachi network to control the advertising across a 3g link. This shows two things, Hamachi is good enough for commercial setups and can operate on adhoc low speed connections.

This is how I got my beanbag back from Mashed 08. Yes it does look like my scooter has a huge ass on the top of it. I was getting lots of people waving and honking there horns as I rode from Piccadilly to my flat.

Oh have I forgotten the joy of tapes...

The horrorist and Things to come records, hitting all the right notes

[ All media ]

So since adding my mix to the web which included the horrorist's - One night in New York city (chris liebing mix). I've been getting quite a lot of traffic from elsewhere, which is really cool but its all because Things to come records (owned or setup by Oliver Chesler aka the horrorist) have listed my mix in there dj mix directory. So I spent some time checking them out, as you do.

Things to come records seem to be doing everything correctly, there a model for other record labels. There linking to everything which is related to them and it would seem replying when possible. There making there live performances available online when possible or linking to fans recordings. There also providing remix kits of quite a few of there artists tunes and encoraging people to remix them and post them back under a creative commons licence. A shop selling there own music in 320k Mpeg3 (no DRM) along with other things like tshits, etc. A news blog with photos (using flickr) and video (using blip.tv) sections of previous events. Encoraging people to get involved in creating electronic music through raw sound and fx kits which you can download and use to make your own music.

Refreshing to see and i'm actually considering buying some there stuff because it all sounds like the type of music I enjoy, I wouldn't mind hearing more from simlar artists and hell there doing such a good job. I mean the only thing they don't have is a twitter account for each artist (*grin*).

Don't look if your veggie or don't like blood

[ Just plain life ]

So I thought I'd do a test tonight to taste the difference between rare and well done steaks. I use to a long time ago always ask for my steaks to be well done when asked but slowly over the years started asking for quite well done, then rare to medium then medium and sometimes now just medium-rare. So I thought hey lets actually do a taste test. I did errr on putting up the pictures because I know so many of friends are veggies and even when sitting at the same dinner table as them, I will ask if they don't mind if I order my meat medium-rare (what a nice guy I am right?)

So whats the verdict? Well I think this picture says it all. The steak was exactly the same cut and from the same package (bought at Sainsburys) but one cooked for 3mins each side and the other one 7mins each side. The rare steak was juicy and much nicer to eat. Yes hardly scientific but I can confirm I prefer them rare or medium-rare, but I was shocked at the difference in size.

Ok back to your usual programming...

Live mixes from the bank holiday weekender

[ Italic dj ]

So it was the 18th Gay pride in Manchester this weekend and I had planned to be Dorset but my plans fell through at the last minute. I had already turned down the two parties I was asked to go to in London (thanks Nicole and JC), so I was pretty free. Anyway I was hanging around sackfield garden reading my book and I started doing some mixing with the pacemaker against the loud music. Some guys spied the pacemaker and started asking me about it. Before you know it was djing at a house party in the northern quarter with about 40 people. It was pretty cool and I got two sets off (I charged my pacemaker in between, althought I think it could have managed without it, can't beat USB charging).

It was one of those unique experiences which happen and don't really think about too much. It was a party and I was having fun. Didn't really get chatting with too many people, but it seemed like a lot of people were in town for the gay pride weekend. The only person who seemed to live in Manchester was the host and she wasn't very happy about the music. But most of the others enjoyed it, specially the trance set. Later in the evening, I toned it down and went all down and dirty with some progressive trance and lots of electro dance. I think the playlist speaks for its self really but the tunes which got people going the most was the Josh wink remix and the horrorist which if you've never heard this tune, you've got to hear! Its so wrong on so many levels but so great. (Funny enough, I found my mix on the Horrorist site).

Some guy I spoke to said my dj name was crap and I should come up with something new and exciting to go with the pacemaker. The best they could come up with was Dj Pace.

I recorded both sets using the pacemaker's internal recorder, so I could upload them later. The party did have a name funny enough, but it was something obscure and sounded like progression. So thats where the name comes from.


Live at the progression bank holiday weekender (party mix)

1. Intutition - Marninx presents Ecco
2. Bulgarian (signum remix) - Travel
3. Embrace Embrace (ferry fix) - Ferry Corsten
4. The fall (richard durand remix) - way out west
5. In the dark (tiesto trance mix) - Tiesto
6. As the rush comes (carl B remix) - Amazon vs Midway
7. Big sky (agnelli & nelson remix) - John O'Callagham featuring audrey gallagher
8. resound - thomas bronzwaer
9. Born slippy (richard durand remix) - underworld
10. Seven cities (v-ones living cities remix) - solar stone
11. Shadow world - thomas bronzwaer
12. The labyrinth (part one) - Moogwai
13. Intuition (martin roth remix) - Marninx presents Ecco
14. Helsinki scorching (alex morph remix) - Super8 versus Dj tab
15. Communication (part 3 coldware remix) - armin van buuren
16. Heaven scent (greg downey remix) - bedrock
17. Beautiful thing (photon project remix) - andain
18. Moonlight party - fonzerelli
19. Southern Sun (dj tiesto remix) - paul oakenfold

Live at the progression bank holiday weekender (after party mix)

1. Roots - tomcraft
2. atom bomb (straight 6 instrumental mix) - fluke
3. the fade (oliver lieb mix) - ambassador
4. Attention - John OO Fleming vs Christopher Lawrence
5. Higher state of consciousness (dirty south & tv rock mix) - josh wink
6. flash (timo mass remix) - green velvet
7. On screen - tomcraft
8. Girls (the rouge element remix) - prodigy
9. Polar shift - Trentemoller
10. Grasshopper (raw version) - Sander van doorm
11. Body of conflict (dub mix) - cosmic gate
12. The red light (album version) - green velvet
13. One night in New York city (chris liebing mix) - The horrorist
14. Rheinkraft (extended mix) - Oliver Klein
15. Verdi - Mauro picotto
16. Percolator 2000 (album version) - green velvet
17. Communication (more mix) - mario piu
18. Answering machine (album version) - green velvet
19. Windowlicker - Aphex twin

Pictures of Salford Quays

[ Socially Offline ]

Someone asked me for pictures of Salford Quays and the MediacityUK site. So here you go...

Patrick Lauke wrote a interesting comment on my picture of the Lowry outlet centre.

captures the loneliness of the fake "human" environment quite well. no matter how many bars and cinemas they plonk in here, i can't see it become the bustling central location that the planners seem to have in mind. then again, they also never really got the idea of planning for actual people...in this case, for instance, where's the benches? these empty spaces seem positively hostile to people sitting down and relaxing. ah well...

Yep it is a shame. It could be a lovely space. Maybe a market, benches, who knows what. In Bristol there's a area like this called lloyds (its in front of the lloyds building on the docks). Almost exactly the same but its used for lots of great things as its a perfect outdoor amphitheatre for a lot of people. Looking at the plans for mediacityuk there will be a couple of spaces like this but right now its pretty dead around the lowry centres.

My old college Ravensbourne annouced its plan to move to North Greenwich about 5 years ago. And at the same time they talked about lovely human spaces where people could hang out and enjoy such things as free wifi while sipping a triple skinny mocha frappachino. Well its happening but I'm not seeing the lovely human spaces yet. Actually if you walk away from the dome, theres a great little pub in the middle of the peninsula which has a green park next to it and lots of benches around. I've spent many a sunday afternoon there. Its a combination of the man made and natrual, and it just works.

Flash based Camcorders, where it all started

[ All Technology ]

I'm on the edge of ordering 2 flash based camcorders for our team. Like all things in the BBC, we have to justify why were spending money on these cameras over other cameras we may already have access to. So why would we choose to buy flash based camcorders over miniDV or even DVCam/DVCpro. Well he're some public justification.

DV Tapes/technology is very old hat, painful and time consuming. The file sizes generated by the DV codec video and audio are stupid, there too big and problemanic for editing footage meant for the web, sharing and generally anything not for broadcast. DV relies on hardware which understands it and without it - its just a pain to use. Its not even like working with Mpeg2 which is more efficient (higher resolution at much lowe bit rates) or Mpeg4 which is extremely efficient. I mean a consistent 25mbit/sec no matter what is happening in the scene is pretty insane.

Some of you maybe saying but its huge file sizes for quality reasons. Well i'm not buying it sorry. DV is not a lossless format its based on DCT compression just like JPEG!

So a camcorder which doesn't use DV compression or/and tapes? DVD-RAM and DVD-R camcorders fell out with the general public years ago. HDD camcorders seemed like a good idea but for the most part they record to DV or Mpeg2. No its 2008, the big kid on the block is Mpeg4 and now with the h.264 codec you can quality which puts the pro DV stuff to shame. Yes it requires higher processing power but nothing a dualcore processor could not handle. The advantage is once your done editing, you just need to get the correct size, bitrate and framerate. No transcoding across formats needed.

So with that in mind, if the camera also supported Mpeg4, you could shoot, edit and upload in a matter of minutes rather that hours. Also the equipment is much smaller and portable. No more looking for a 6 to 4 DV cable and having to record it all in real time to a computer and huge drive.

Flash is the way forward and things are getting better and better.

I remember the first time I heard about a flash based camcorder (i'm pretty sure it was the worlds first) Panasonic Dsnap SDAV10. It could shoot 320x240 at 15 frames of second but a rare thing for the time, shoot as long as you had space on the card. It was amazing for its time (late 2002). The SD-AV20 and AV30 improved on the quality but Sanyo hit the market with there Xacti range of camcorders which shot up to VGA quality (640x480). They became the ones to get for the longest time, they even hit the market with the very first flash based HD camcorder. Since then there have been 1080p flash based records, upgrade of codec to h.264 at higher bit rates and serious challenges from Canon, Panasonic (3CCDs), JVC, Samsung and even Sony (which seems to be best you can buy right now).

Some people have been talking about the Flip, don't get me wrong it was a consideration but its too low quality and for the same price you can pick up a decent Sanyo Xacti C6 or even the Toshiba Camileo Pro

Rain uploaded videos from the Edinburgh Interactive Festival, which is exactly the justification for the flash based cameras. We do a lot of this type of interviews and I expect we'll be doing more in the future. We need to be able to edit quickly and upload files quickly. We also need to keep a reasonable quality version for future use, but it doesn't need to be huge files or tapes. I remember at Thinking digital I was able to record and copy files off the camera within the 2 min break between speakers and upload the footage to the web while the next speaker was talking. This meant by the time the conference was over, I was also done. No having to go back to the hotel to edit the footage or digitise huge files. I've also been thinking about paying Blip.tv to put a preroll (top) and outroll (tail) of the backstage logo sequence on all footage we upload. Which means we won't need to do much editing of the footage ever again. Makes sense right?

Flash camcorders are great and are really worth considering if your shooting for web content. Just make sure you get one which does capture to standard formats like Mpeg4 or Mpeg2. Avoid the cameras which shoot straight to Flash (swf) or even divx. They maybe great but a pain to edit. Also make sure you can read the flash card directly, aka can you eject the SD card and put it into a computer and read the files? If not run away! Most of the flash camcorders support USB connections but you should be able to swap cards around and read the data. Look for things like microphone inputs, stand mount and audio output which can be useful. For example my HD1 won't let you plug in a power cable and stand at the same time unless you use a special mount. I would also pick the biggest filming rez, because you can always squeeze a 1080p picture down to a nice SD broadcast quality picture IMHO. Lastly get backup batteries, the cameras eat power specially when using the higher rez's.

I was that close to installing Laconica today

[ The Semantic web ]

Evan from Laconica/Identi.ca/Wikitravel and much more, was on Floss Weekly this week. Here's the blurb from twit.tv.

Laconica, the open source microblogging tool implementing the OpenMicroBlogging standard used in Identi.ca.

Guest: Evan Prodromou for Laconica and Identi.ca

Its quite a long discussion but lots of lovely information about why Evan started Laconica and some of the changes he's planning for the project. I was a little shocked to find laconica isn't based on a messaging protocal but theres plan a foot to change towards that. Installing Lasconi.ca could do with being a little easier though. Some features include a Twitter compatible API, Tags, Feditaration, Jaiku like replies, FOAF, OpenAuth. Actually I missed Dan Brickleys blog post about it.

In a world where Twitter is falling apart (don't get me wrong I love twitter but whens the im bot coming back and then the total removal of the SMS service for the UK and parts of Europe), Jaiku seems to be stalled and going no where thanks to Google buying most of the developers up. And the rest of the copiers are copying the twitter silo to the pixel. Its great to have Ping.FM and Identi.ca busting these silos. I love the company name - controlyourself.ca by the way.

My in-home network

[ Home entertainment ]

My parents visited the flat in Manchester the other day, one of their comments was about the massive amounts of technology there was in the flat. I think it was the very first time they had ever seen my LCD TV and I guess it can seem a little dominating when your use to much smaller. Anyway that and people asking me how I do certain things, prompted me to quickly sketch this up in my favourite drawing app inkscape.

If I had thought about it a little more, I would have included where the FM transmitters are, as they allow me to walk in and out of the shower listening to the same thing as before. I've been less successful with a bluetooth audio network but do have bluetooth on every single machine except the smoothwall box and I own a bluetooth ghetto blaster thing which is useful when I walk in to the house listening to something interesting on the phone, using bluetooth headphones. Then want to switch to the speakers while cooking.

Some things about the setup which people might be interested in. I use to have a 24 port 3com switch to do all the network switching but I found with the 2 wifi access points I had enough network points to do everything i needed. I then replaced the smoothwall box with a solid state ADSL2 router and that also comes with 4 ports and wireless. So I got super strong coverages across the flat and a 100meg network link backbone. I do still use the Xbox (console) for any films which have AC3 sound, currently my replacement xbox (cleverly named xbox) doesn't support AC3 passthrough (Once I change the soundcard, that will all change). I got Ubuntu automaticlly logging in and booting up Xbmc right now, but I'm tempted to switch it to Boxee.

Some people might say why have I got Electrix and Stratrix? Well Electrix is a 1.4ghz AMD under-clocked to 1ghz with one 40gig HD, 1gig of memory and thats about it. Its my download and playback music in the bedroom computer. It hardly uses its internal HD, instead everything is on the NAS. If I could run this machine off Flash memory I would, because its meant to use a small amount of power. Its fitted with a 250watt power supply and I'm on the look out for 200 or less ATX power for it. I do have a fan on it, but I hope to one day have the guts to take it off and run it just off a huge heatsink and nothing else.

If FreeNas had Podcast download support and real bittorrent support which included time-throttling and RSS filtered downloads. I would switch off Electrix straight away and use that. I had even considered using boxee's download manager or installing Azureus and gPodder on Xbox so I wouldn't need the extra box, but it just wouldn't work.

Stratirx on the other hand is a modern-ish PC, 2.8ghz AMD processor with 1gig memory and 250gig HD, big graphics card, etc. Its doesn't really get turned on much because its been replaced by my laptop really. But if I was to do any video editing or anything like that, I would use this machine.

Honestly it all sounds complex but the thing to remember is that this whole setup is across 3 rooms and everything makes logical sense when you see it in context.

Spammers effected dating sites

[ Just plain life ]

So I'm on a couple of dating sites, no shame in this. There usually a good way to meet new people from totally different werks of life. Anyway I've noticed out of the two sites I'm on, one is full of spammers and the other there are almost none. What's strange is the one which is free (okcupid) is spam free and the other one (speeddater) which actually costs is spam heaven. Now to be honest I didn't really choose speeddater, it was attached to the speeddating events. But what kills me is how stupid the spam gets. Like I said a while ago about ebay, I'm outting all dirty spammers by posting their emails and email contents online for others to read and for google to index for others who might be tricked into their scams. I regularlly get 1-3 emails a day, I generally send back a stock reply saying.

Sorry I have to do this but please reply if your a real person and not a dirty spammer

Here's some of the replies and stupid emails I recieve.

From Sandraratrue (i mean come on!)

I dnt understand wat u mean

Email from Hellen_jennile (very odd name)

Hi thanks for the mail and am very soory to get back to you very late it
was due to my job.. i will like to know more about you and you can
meet me on yahoo messanger hellen.jennile2006@yahoo.com...Hope
to chat you soon.and i will like to tell you that am not that kind of
people am a real and god fearing lady.

Hellen..

This one kills me everytime, this time from Tracy2008200

Hello Sweetie,
How are you doing ? I was on this site trying to look at profiles
before i found your profile interesting . You sound so nice and i
will be happy to get along with you ) I think we have alot in
common if you are interested kindly give me a chance to get to
know you. I am a single dad of a Son *john*4years old .I live in
Alabama. I just think i will give it a try maybe i could find a
friend then see what happen. Can i be your friend?..I am easy to
get along with also a simple man. I own a house and i live alone
with Son and my pets . I lost my wife in unto Accident 3years ago.
Its a long story . I am willing to get along with you. Can you
give a chance so that we can get to know more about each other .
If you are interested please send me an IM or send..If you are
interested please send me an send me an message to my e.mail
address tracy.debby@yahoo.com
Hope to hear back from you.
Tracy

From Irino4ka (who interestingly cancelled _his_ profile today)

Hello not the familiar friend!!!
I the lonely girl from Russia, wish to find lonely beloved, is
not simple for games, and for serious attitudes.
There are interested persons, write to me I shall answer
without a delay. Beforehand I thank for your time given for me.
P.S. I write from the Internet - cafe, therefore I have inquiry
to you.
Please write to me on: konushnya@yahoo.com

Another Russian lady, this time olhakiska

Hello!
My name is Olga. I am interested in acquaintance with you. I am
interesting woman with good character, sense of humor, opens in
dialogue. I love to bring happiness to people, and the best thing I
need in this life is the happy smile of my Beloved man. I want to love
and to be loved. Tell more about a place where do you live. I will
look forward to hearing from you.
You can write me: ma3bl.lyalyagirl777@gmail.com
Have a good day.

Last one for today, Sallyisloving

Hi
I'm Sally, i seem to be new to this online thing.if you go thru my profile it would tell you
more about me..You seem to be very interesting..I'm seeking a relationship..Are
you?..Here is my email... sallyisloving@yahoo.com ,email me bcos i feel on email is
better than on here bcos its a more easier and better way to communicate... or you can
im me or add me on msn messenger ...I would be waiting to hear from you as soon as
possible..
Yours Sincerely
Sally

My Ubuntu desktop

[ All Technology ]

Someone asked in the comments for a screenshot of my ubuntu desktop. So here you go, one with quite a few applications open on just one of the workscreens. I usually keep about 5 workscreens and when everything is clear it looks like this. The background picture comes from Flickr which I slightly modified with permission from the creator.

Werewolf at BarCampLeeds2

[ Socially Offline ]

Frankly this picture sums up the first game of werewolf, which surprise surprise we didn't finish. Although to be fair we did get in some cracking games the next day in the lobby. A very good one where me and Gemma killed off the village in no time, and the other where it came down to 3 people and I could have saved the game for another round by healing myself. But instead I choose to heal who I trusted and I ended up healing the werewolf while I got killed off.

The move from windows is complete

[ All Technology ]

I switched to Ubuntu ages ago on my Dell XPS 1210 laptop. But I did go down the route of dual booting at first. Soon after I stopped using Windows for everything except virtualdj which simply would not work emulated or virtualised under Ubuntu. Then a while back I found my 120gig hard drive getting quite full (unknown to me that I was backing up to the same hard drive at the time) so I deleted the c:/windows and c:/program files directories. I had changed my /home/ian directory to map directly on top of c:/document and settings/ian forrester/my documents/, so if I did boot into windows every document and media file would be accessible to me under Windows XP/Vista. So for about year I've been walking around and using the laptop with a small ext3 partition and a huge ntfs partition.

Everythings been great, but I sometimes noticed my laptop getting slow and sometimes hanging. I looked into it and it came down to two things. One Flash is still badly written for gnu/Linux and kills the browser if loading a large video or attempting to use the webcam. But this seems to only effect the browser environment, so sometimes I need to force kill firefox. Number two is Fuse/3g, which allows Unix operating systems to read and write ntfs formatted file systems. This was great at the start but I noticed Fuse will be eating all my CPU resources. So I put out a pled for somes software like Partition Magic which can convert a drive not just format. Some advice came back, but generally people said copy the whole drive somewhere then format it and put it back.

So today I did using a spare 100gig hard drive and the Ubuntu live CD. It all went to plan but a couple of points to remember! Chmod all the files to match nobody:nobody so later on you can access the files and change the mod to yourself. As default Fuse makes files on a ntfs disk root:root. This is fine till you move them to a ext3 disk and those permissions take affect for real. Also check the boot flag is assigned to the correct drive.

So now with NTFS gone, its goodbye\ Windows for good now.

I just want simple Data Accessibility

[ Web 2.0 ]

People always think about the big things when thinking about Data Portability. You know the stuff about moving your friends list or your whole account complete with its data. But what about the stuff which is just not accessible? (or at least seen to be accessible).

One such example hit me when Katie Lips (what a lovely name for a lovely woman) demoed Treasuremytext. Now I've come across this site a couple of times actually though Katie but never really been that impressed. I've always had windows mobile phones, so copying text messages off is as simple as syncing with outlook, turning into notes or copying and pasting. But at BarCampLeeds2, I started thinking about all those people who use those phones which don't allow such things. For example is it possible to save a thread of conversation off a iphone? It maybe even possible but how easy is it? Well services like treasuremytext are part of the data accessiblity landscape, making your data portable.

This should really be the default state of most of the applications/services we use right? Taking something untangable into something tangable which you can maybe takeaway.

Right this moment I'm having trouble with Tesco online shopping. Me and Sarah use to use the same account and so the recommendations and previously bought shopping baskets are for a couple not a single guy. Ideally there would be some APML output and input, so I could remove items and adjust the preferences (geez think of shopping list as concepts instead of items of food) then feed it back into Tesco or one of the rivials who should be looking for my online business. Hey even, I could feed the APML into a broker/comparison site which would work out what my monthly average would be if I use another supermarket. And this is so all do able, even Tesco supply a download of there prices and other information weekly (they may even support a API by now).

Its great putting name to faces, meet the xbmc team

[ Home entertainment ]

I really wanted to go to Amsterdam for the Xbmc meetup but it was the same time as Mashed I think, so it never happened. Anyway, its great to see the XBMC team, even if the interview isn't the best. Its a shame we never got to see Frodo and ProjectMayhem who for me were some of the people critical to the sucess of XBMC.

By the way, if you do a search for xbmc in Boxee under bliptv (videos / internet videos / blip.tv / search videos). You can find this video and watch it directly in boxee instead of your browser. You will also see a couple of other videos by myself relating to xbmc.

HighSpeedDownloadPacketAccess in the real world

[ Mobile and Wireless ]

So I've started using my windows mobile phone as a USB 3g modem (maybe not as elegent as the USB 3g modems but its more useable. For some reason since I've upgraded the phone to Windows mobile 6.1, the bluetooth connection has failed to work and I've not found the time to really find out what's wrong. Anyway I did a couple of speed tests using the phone connected via USB while sitting on the 13th floor of the Travelodge (trust me, your licence fee is not going on expensive hotels) in Holborn. The phone was showing a strong HSDPA signal and I wanted to know exactly what that meant in real speed, because it felt like I was using wireless or something.



The best download speed I could achieve was 1995 kbps (249.4Kb/sec) and upload speed 361 kbps (45.1Kb/sec). Frankly this is pretty amazing speeds, although a long way off the therotical 1440Kb/sec on the download the upload is very close to the maximum 384Kb/sec. Even on average I'm not getting less that 200Kb/sec download or 38Kb/sec upload. Not bad for a 6 pounds a month extra charge for evening and weekend 3g access.

Ubuntu is already more attractive that osx

[ Design and Ideas ]

Keeping your social data in sync with Atomkeep

[ Design and Ideas ]

Atomkeep simply keeps your profile synchronised across multiple social networks and services. I'm obviously in favour of this simply from the point of Data Portability. I found it via readwriteweb in my aggregator and I got to say I'm pretty impressed so far. I do wonder how easy it is to import and export from atomkeep without going to another service? I'm not going to say this is ground breaking because thats reserved for Ping.FM which I still use everyday, but its not far behind. Atomkeep tends to want your username and password from the get go. Even when the service supports other means of connecting and controling the account like APIs, OpenID, etc. It ignores them and throws up a login/password prompt for you to fill in. Whats also interesting is what's underneath it.

I confirm that this is my private authorization credentials and I acknowledge my approval for Atomkeep to facilitate data input and update for me in this system. I completely understand and accept Terms of Service and Privacy Policy of Atomkeep and every other system engaged in the transaction.

Wow thats quite a leap of trust, saying that Ping.FM knows about 9 of my accounts too. I'm still looking forward to the day when you can have these types of services on your desktop or on your own server. Plaxo pay attention, you should have done this ages ago, you had the data already and you already have the link to linkedin.

Stereoscopic writing

[ Design and Ideas ]

I love the idea of stereoscopic writing in public places... Found via the play guru Brendan at work

The real problem with cinemas today

[ Just plain life ]

I was reading Melinda aka Miss Geeky post about the Dark Knight then linked off to a old post which I've never seen before. 10 problems with today's cinemas is a frank look at the problems with cinemas. I'll quickly run through them here.

1. Poor Projection Quality
2. Bad Volume
3. Screen Size
4. Bad Seats
5. Coat and Bag Space
6. Air Conditioning
7. Seat Selection
8. No Decent Waiting Area
9. Queues
10. Movie Showing Duration

So I've got some comments about most of these.

The Poor Projection Quality is a big problem, not only is it lazy projectionist but also dirty glass. I have a couple of times gone out and asked for someone to fix the projection. I remember in one film in Beckenham Odeon, the screen was so out of focus half the cinema went out and complained. Who knows what the other half did. Bad Volume, is again another big problem but its more that this. Some cinemas haven't been setup correctly. For example a cinema where I worked didn't even have a working sub in a couple of the smaller screens! The larger ones were THX certified but that was when they first opened. Speakers can blow or more likely go out of phase. Hell I think a rat in one of the big cinemas in London had chewed through a speaker wire because the sound was so unbalanced. Its not always the cinemas fault is true. For example me and my cousin have done tests between different multi-channel formats. Dolby Digital 5.1 can sound very harsh and in your face sometimes, while the same film in DTS 6.1 can sound more natural and more spread out. Then throw into the mix SDDS and things get clearer again. This isn't scientific in anyway because it depends on the audio track, how it was mixed and what equipment the track is run through. For example most Dolby Digital equipment is realtively cheap in the cinema world, while DTS is more expensive and again getting in SDDS equipment is not going to be cheap. I've seen cineams which do crazy stuff like put all the input throught a normaliser before going out to the speakers!

In totally agreement about relative screen size, you can't have a 132 inch screen in your living room (well one of my friends actually tried this). I feel the Odeon Leicester Square screen is good but the empire is nicer for general action movies. The old skool (spelt that way for a reason) cinemas which are more like theatres are actually pretty good. If you've never experienced one, imagine Empire but you walk down instead of up. The best cinema I've seen for this is screen one in Odeon, Streatham. The modern multiplexs tend to use the staduim seating which leads me to a new frustration. Bad Seats, when I was growing up all cinemas went for the gentle slope and tiny seats which flipped up when you stand up. Then Showcase Cinemas came to town and brought stadium like seating and adjustable seats. So the seats flipped up but the back would also go back. These were "the lick" (best you can get) at the time but if you actually sat in them for a while it would push on your back not be very comfitable. The best seats i've ever sat in are the gallery seats at the Filmworks/Odeon Greenwich. There like a car seat which don't flip up but also have depth so my legs are comfitable. If your smaller, I guess the depth will mean you will have a gap between your back and the seat. Sofa style is a welcome additon too (aka the ability to flip the arm rest up). And with these seats theres even enough room to put my motorcycle jacket on the back of the seat in front or my bag next to my feet. On Seat Selection, its got to be closer to the front, enough to almost fill your vision. Odeon have/had standard measurement ratios for cinemas seats to the screen, so I would usually aim for row H or I. I'm sure others do too. When I worked at the Odeon Leicester Square, if I was unhappy with the customer I would put them in Row AA which is near the back of the lower circle. Generally all cinemas should give you a good seat where ever you are. For example theres a legal limit on Row A, its just a matter if you like the intense feeling (almost IMAX like actually)

Actually about the IMAX experience... Its great, I've been to the IMAX in Bristol, Berlin, Minneapolis, San Francisco and London. But I have a problem with them being used for films like the Dark Knight. For me its mind blowing but its too much. Its just like sitting in Row A. When I watched Matrix revolution on the IMAX it just didnt work. The Matrix was not shot for the IMAX and it showed, maybe Dark Knight will be different due to all the action sequences shot on IMAX cameras. 1.33:1 works well for those scenes of atmosphere and depth but not for story telling I feel. The first thing I ever bought online was the Twister DVD from Amazon.com. It comes in 4:3 (fullscreen) on one side and 2.35:1 (letterbox) on the other. Trust me I never want to see that movie in 4:3 ever again. Maybe if it was a 132 inch screen in my living room it would be something special.

Air Con is a must for cinemas, I was actually sweating in the Dark Knight after 3hours. This is wrong! I like it cranked up because I want to feel like a ice lolly (popsicle) and make my ice cream last longer. Decent waiting areas is a good point, see I prefer the big lobby solutions to the corridor solutions of multiplexs. Going back to Odeon Streatham, Screen One has a upstairs lobby where you wait and downstairs is where the food and drinks are. So you can wait away from the hustle and bussle. Another thing this cinema screen has for it (new point inserted) small toilets in the screen! There's nothing worst that having to run the length of the cinema to pop to the loo. Having them in the screen also means you can hear whats happening while just going for a quick one. Another problem is the lighting. The lights should be on at the start, dim during the adverts and again at taiilers and at showtime they should be off. The light of the screen should be enough. Oh and at the end, the house lights should never come on till everyone has left the screen or the credits have finished.

At the Odeon, as a usher. If we turned the house lights on before everyone had left, those people were entitled to a complete refund of somekind. Actually thats something most people don't know, you can legally ask for your money back up to 15mins into a film. So if somethings not right, walk out and ask. Don't settle for they will fix it, remember your missing the film. The last time I ever had to do this was when me and Sarah went to the Odeon Leicester Square to watch Red Dragon and there were rats or mice running around the cinema. Yeah it was nasty and wrong on so many levels. But one thing Miss Geeky also missed is people! Certain people won't frankly shut the fuck up when the film is on. And there seems to be a trend towards not having a usher (blame the multiplexs) in the screen to keep people quiet. So now you have to decide yourself if your going to boldly tell them to quit or just live with it. Thats not right, the cinema ushers should be there to keep the volume level almost slient, stop people wondering in and out with there phones and generally make sure everything goes smoothly. So finally the cinema experience will be worth the money there charging.

I made reference a while back to how much I go to the cinema (almost once a week!). And I got to say I do like cinema and have really high hopes for digital cinema which may flatten the field and cause a longer tail effect. So maybe we'll get the perfect cinema experience in the future, but I got to say home cinema is hot on its tail and rightly so.