July 31, 2006: July 31, 2006
Requiem for a Toy
My first effort of editing something. Shot with our new camera and edited in IMovie. I definetly needed Final Cut or Premiere as IMovie is just way to basic.
Im pretty happy with how it turned out as I didn't have an idea in mind when I shot all the footage.
July 29, 2006: July 29, 2006
Dell 20 inch Laptop!!
I guess you can call it a laptop and it's come in at $6,000!
Check the Dell site for full features but a 1.3 MP camera built in, remote control, 8 speakers!?!? and it's being marketed just like an Apple. Check the site for similar layouts to the information.
It has a carry handle to make lugging a 20 inch mofo around easier. Not sure if I like this machine but at least Dell is trying.
Photo Jojo
I found this great blog with Tips and DIY stuff for digital photography called PhotoJojo. Very interesting no matter what level you are. Well maybe some snooty professional photography wont enjoy but weveryone else can.
Sony HC3 HDV Handycam
We just bought the Sony HDV HC3 handy cam for our office on Friday. We just tested with tapes and importing today and couldn’t be happier with the quality.
We shoot a lot of still work for projects and have never had the ability to do video. As more of our work involves video we decided to get one of our own. We also needed it to do those "viral" videos that seem to be in vogue right now.
We bought it from a retailer we found on Shop Ferret which is pretty good at comparing prices. Don't pay the 2,299 mentioned on the Sony site as that's a rip off. Even still $1,900 for a HDV camera is amazing value.
I guess Sony will make their money on all the accessories we need to buy now ie battery, tripod, case and other shit.
So look out for more videos which will be f better quality than the two I have on Youtube right now.
July 28, 2006: July 28, 2006
SlingShot 100 AW
Ok I've gone a little digital camera crazy but I'm pretty excited about this new camera Lowe Pro 100 AW Sling bag (I sound like a women)
I have 3 camera bags now and they all have their place. A big backpack one that carries everything, a shoulder bag for my camera and a big nappy bag one that holds a few lenses and the camera. This one shoudl take the place of all 3 hopefully.
But this new Lowe Pro bag looks great. It's like a sling bag that easily flips around and opens on the side for easy access. Then bamn its back on your back.
it's even got an all weater cover (see below) Very handy for my numerous treks in the jungle.
I just need to decide on weather to get the 100AW or the 200AW. Hopefully I can find one of these in the city to test out.
Sony Alpha 100 Digital SLR
Sony steps upto the plate with their Alpha 100 a 10MP DSLR. With the D70s and the Canon 350D dominating this market Sony have a lot to catch up to.
I like the addition of the anti dust CCD and the Steady shot (both missing form the beforementioned DSLR's) See the full rundown on Sony's site. It seems that Minolta and Sony have teamed up with Minoltas digital camera team being absorbed by Sony. Probably a good move. This means Minolta lenses will work with this new Sony camera.
Nikon have already announced a 10.2 MP sucessor to the D70s so let's see what deatures they add to that as the mega pixels really matter less and we get into these big sizes. FOr me 6 MP is enough. I want stuff like Anti Dust sensors and built in Shake reduction rather than just a slightly bigger photo.
So i'll be very interested on how this new player goes. When I mean new I mean to the DSLR market.
July 24, 2006: July 24, 2006
Myspace Flash Hack
In an effort to stop a Myspace flash hack from spreading, Myspace has introduced strict new counter measures for any piece of flash embeded into a profile. Sadly this means any external links no longer work. I hope they fix this as it really limits the amount that advertisers can do.
I mean you put a link to say "Check out BRAND X" in a piece of flash on a profile and the user cant even click it if they want to.
I doubt these new measure will be in splace for long as it seriously reduces the scope of what can be done on myspace for advertisers. And seeing as it's the advertisers paying the bills right now they will get their way.
July 20, 2006: July 20, 2006
Irish Hoff
This email was sent to an ad agency in Ireland. I've left the phoen number in just in case anyoen needs to get in contact :)
Dear "Stakeholdergroup",
After having my eyes lasered a month ago I've been mobbed by people in
Belfast asking to have their photographs taken with me because I look
like David Hasselhoff and I reckon that I could use this unusual talent for PR events.
I live in East Belfast, so its pretty easy for me to turn up to local events.
My telephone number is 07866 411 144.
I have a degree in Business Studies too that specialised in Marketing, so I might be able to help you in other ways.
Please tell me your thoughts.
Many thanks,
Magnus Ramsay
July 17, 2006: July 17, 2006
July 16, 2006: July 16, 2006
FUCK + STICK
Why do some people make it their duty to be a pain in the ass?
We're dealing with one guy who is creating a site for our of our clients and a simple request for FTP access to the server has been met with nothing but delays.
Rather than set up a username and pass for the one folder we need access to, he has decided that that would be "insecure and therefore unprofessional" and gives a week turnaround to create a "SFTP or SCP chroot jail." What ever the fuck that shit is.
These are the type of guys who got wedgies at Highschool and now will hold that pain for the rest of their life. Making everyone else feel the pain they experienced.
I never gave or received wedgies at Highscool so why do I have to deal with idiots like this guy?
This guy has a baseball bat worth of karma coming his way.
MySpace
In an effort to understand the juggernaut that is Myspace, I have created a myspace profile for myself. Some knob already had Mrtruffle so I had to become DrTruffle. 11 friends and counting!! Wow, I'm like so cool.
if only myspace was as well put together as Youtube or Flickr. But sadly It's a bit of a hodgepodge and if it wasn't for the huge userbase of kids on their no advertiser woudl touch it.
MT3.3
Ive started upgrading this blog to use some of thenew features of MT 3.3. Tags being the most obvious one.
Deadwood
I've just started Watching the first season of Deadwood on DVD now. Hopefully I can soldier on through them and get up to speed with Season 3 which just started in the US.
It's the most cuss filled TV I've seen, and you can't help but call someone a cunt faced cocksucker after watching a few episodes in a row. Oh sorry I meant mother fucking cunt mouth lying cunt faced cunt. Yeah, that's truer to the script.
Did they really swear that much back then? Cussin aside I'm enjoying watchign the town of Deadwood evolve and have the characters grow on you.
July 15, 2006: July 15, 2006
Software Management for a creative agency
If you run or are thinking of starting your own company here's my tip. Keep track of your software from day 1. We now have a team of 17 people and keeping track of every licence, disc and serial number is quite tough. Especially when any one of 6 people can make a purchase.
A perfect example of this is we have 7 copies of Office for Mac but only 6 Macs with two people have conflicting serials.
Other times we have the CD & box but can't find the serial or receipt and other times we have the receipt but no CD or box. Half the software if bought online with just a serial number and email as proof of purchase.
Staff borrowing and losing the CD's is also another problem.
We've tried to keep all the CD's in a CD holder and separate them from the bulky boxes as this makes it easier to find the CD you need.
Starting next week we'll do a major software stocktake and create a workflow for any future purchases. Always through the same person with serials and receipts logged in a central area. Any new installations will be run through that designated person with any conflicts fixed.
Software is a major investment with a every new staff member requiring between $4-6k worth of apps. Luckily management staff are cheaper with only about $1-2k worth of apps needed.
I'd be interested in hearing how other people manage their software or if they too have similar problems. Maybe their is an application you can get that makes this a simple process?
July 14, 2006: July 14, 2006
July 13, 2006: July 13, 2006
MT 3.3
Movable type 3.3 is in Beta and there's some great features to make it even more powerful to use. I can't live without MT and these new features address the few issues I had with the software.
July 11, 2006: July 11, 2006
Ciggie
Here's one of my fav photos I forgot all about and was left on a HD somewhere. The colours really give me a hard on in this one.
July 10, 2006: July 10, 2006
Scary Church
This is the burnt church just down the road form our office. I was so pissed at missing the huge flames as I live 5 minutes from here and didn’t see anything.
In the grand scheme of things a burning church is nothing special, it’s only used really once a week and only by a select group of people Cristians (or Catholics I’m not sure which side of the fence these guys sit on.
To me I’d be more pissed if a school burnt down or a shopping centre or anything that I used by everyone or provides a service. I’d be more annoyed if the Kebab shop burnt down.
July 09, 2006: July 9, 2006
Semi Permanent
I spent my Friday and Saturday at Semi Permanent at Darling Harbour and had a great time. Not technical fuckups and all the speakers, except 2 unprepared ones, were all imformative and inspiring.
I would prefer if people had a purpose to their talks and not just get up and crap on about their work but tried to tell a story or inform the audience in some way. The best speakers Paul Pope, Joshua Davis and Anyhow tried to do that.
The place was packed with peopel with 3,000 or so design type people in Darlin Harbour. Tehre was lots of bad hair (mainly the designer wanna be guys) and lots of sexy chicks (who will somehow dissapear into an abyss of print design)
July 06, 2006: July 6, 2006
July 03, 2006: July 3, 2006
Bush Walk
I did a 24km trek with Brett and his mates yesterday and totally rooted my hip muscles. I was doing OK for the first 18 or so K's and then I had to stop every 50 mtrs for the last 3 kms.
It didn't help that I had not exercised for almost 2 mths previously.
Brett went on to do another 9 Km's as I took the train from Thronleigh to the city.
I spent thre rest of the day in bed unable to life my legs like a cripple. It's a wierd feeling not being able to go on but not being tired, legs just couldn't go on.