I think not!
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Designing on the move
Nov 24
In recent weeks I have been doing some freelance work which involves me commuting to Dublin a couple of times a week. This normally means 2+ hours on a bus. Now I do not use a desktop computer exactly though my Dell XPS M1730 is a little cumbersome for the bus journey to say the very least.
Not to worry though also have a nice little Dell Mini 12 which I use when I need to be portable. Coupled with a USB 3g Broadband device I can be quite mobile.
Accessing the big machine!
So in the past few weeks I have discovered some applications that I would simply be lost without. The first of which I would like to talk about is LogMeIn. This is a very compact web based remote access program. The program itself sits the computer that you want remote access to and then you take control via any web browser. Super simple and for home users free. I use LogMeIn when the task at hand is a little to challenging for the 1.6GHz Atom processor or 1GB ram on the Mini 12.
I do not always log in to my main machine at home though when I am working on the bus. Sometimes I use the little Dell. Despite the relatively low spec, there are times that I need to open a file locally to get the full range of colour etc.
Keeping files in sync
In the first few weeks this meant duplicating files right left and centre on the two machines. Often meaning leaving home with the wrong (outdated copy of a file I had been working on. Enter DropBox. The basic service is again free of charge. Setup is straight forward and the application is quite small. You set a directory on your machine and DropBox keeps it in sync with any other machines that you have linked to your DropBox account.
I have been using it to very good effect in the previous weeks. It also means that I am rarely carrying a USB stick with me as I can access all of the files in my DropBox account via their web interface also. DropBox works on Windows, Mac and Linux which is very handy as I work on a Mac in the office. You can buy a premium account to increase the storage though the 2gb free account will be enough for most people.
Mobile
Of course I also use my iPhone when I am on the road. In recent weeks it has become even more useful with ActiveSync of mail and contact to gMail. I am considering hosted exchange for email having seen the advantages it has to offer after setting it up for a client of mine. We shall see though. DropBox above also has an iPhone app with limited support for opening certain file types. Really handy in a bind though.
I will be updating this a little more regularly as I find more useful applications for those on the move.
New 2D Sonic game!!
Sep 9
2D Sonic to make return!
Well today is indeed a good day. First they confirm that The Hobbit is being made and now this!!!! There is going to be a brand new 2D Sonic the Hedgehog game in 2010. I know I am not the only one who has been hoping for this. I have been a massive fan of the spikey blue hedgehog since I was but a nipper with a Sega Mega Drive (That’s Genesis to you yanks). I truly hope that Sega get this one right. Two Sega stories in one day!
There is a teaser video…. I like it. They have brought back the “Seeegaaaaaaahhhhhhhh” jingle thingy, which rocks.
Now Sega there are a handful of ways that you can ruin this game for me.
- Decide that it should only be released on the fucking Wii and DS. I don’t want to waggle my arms around like a twat to play Sonic. Bring it out on the Xbox 360 so I can play it with a decent controller. I don’t care if it comes out on PS3 or not.
- Slow down the gameplay so that we can all take in the wonderful graphics.
- Adding a poxy motion blur to make it look like everything is moving quickly even though it is not.
- Introduce a shit load of pointless new characters.
- Have lengthy cut scenes.
The end… please, please, please Sega…. don’t fuck this up!
J.R.R Tolkien
Yippppeeee!!! *Ahem*
Finally all of the legal wrangling has been put to bed and the Hobbit will indeed be making an appearance in our cinemas. The legal battle brought by the Tolkien Trust against New Line Cinema has been settled. New Line have made a settlement for an undisclosed fee and intend on releasing the new movie some time in 2011.
This is certainly good news in my opinion. I have to say I loved all three of the movie adaptations from the Lord of the Rings trilogy. What makes me excited about the Hobbit being turned into a film is that I actually preferred the Hobbit to the Lord of the Rings in book form. I genuinely thought it was a better read.
It is a more than a little disappointing that the Tolkien Trust who are a charitable organisation were forced to bring New Line Cinema to court to solve this issue, especially with the LOTR trilogy making an estimated $6bn worldwide between cinema, DVD and merchandise.
A quote from Christopher Tolkien, who is the son of the great J.R.R himself:
“The trustees regret that legal action was necessary but are glad that this dispute has been settled on satisfactory terms that will allow the Tolkien Trust properly to pursue its charitable objectives.”
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Legal path clear for Hobbit movie.
Eduardo infamous injury
Now I will start by saying that I am unashamedly an Arsenal supporter. As is being widely reported Arsenal striker Eduardo De Silva has received a two match Champions League ban from UEFA following his dive in the qualifying game against Glasgow Celtic at The Emirites. I genuinely do believe that Eduardo went down far too easily and there should never have been a penalty. That said I do not recall Eduardo turning too the referee to look for the penalty after he went down, as we see from other players so often.
Now I am sure you are asking why this matters. Well the thing is that Eduardo has received his ban for deceiving the referee with intent. Now since he did not go for the now customary throwing of hands into the air and bemused facial expression.
There is also of course the issue that what Eduardo did at the weekend is no different to anything that other Premier League players do week in, week out. Some of them are evening applauded for it.
Week 34 of 2009 in review
Aug 22
I thought to myself…
Darragh…. you don’t update this nearly enough! You need to come up with some kind of repeating feature to force yourself to update this more regularly!
Now you see the thing is, I quite like writing. That said, I don’t do it nearly enough. So with that in mind this is the concept that I have come up with. I am going to do a week in review post… well once a week obviously. Anyway it is going to be a bit of a mixed bag with regard to content. I will cover stuff that has directly affected me (in keeping with my usual personal blogs) and also some interesting news stuff from the past week. By interesting, I mean interesting to me. Read the rest of this entry »
The Pirate Bay... a sinking ship?
It appears that the hapless folks over at Ireland’s largest ISP eircom, will make good on their threats to censor sites that violate copyright laws. Eircom will take this action based on the advise of the IMRO. Now under ordinarily I would be outraged at the blocking of The Pirate Bay (or indeed any other website) on the grounds of my objection to censorship and my concerns for the privacy of my data. However in this instance I am quite looking forward to Eircom taking this action.
Why do I want Eircom to block The Pirate Bay?
Well this is simple really. As most web users will be aware The Pirate Bay is in the process of being purchased by Global Gaming Factory X (GGF). This deal is now almost completed and is due to be come into force on August 27th. Well what difference does this make I hear you say. Well the shock move to buy The Pirate Bay have angered much of the users of The Pirate Bay as it is the intention of GGF to legalize The Pirate Bay. They will do this by offering copyright holders the ability to request the removal of their data from the Pirate Bay. What is interesting though is that for those copyright holders who do not wish to have their IP removed from the site, GGF will be reimbursing the copyright holders every time their files are downloaded. Thus making The Pirate Bay a legal service.
Don’t know Father Jack is not more of an internet legend, but this crossed my mind today so I fired up photoshop just now to add this caption to a picture of the great Fr. Jack Hacket from the always brilliant Channel 4 series: Father Ted.
I'm a Happy Camper!!
iPhone 3g
I go through phones quite quickly (probably a hazard of keeping them in the pocket of a bike jacket) and the time had come to change again. I have become accustomed to using a smart phone have gone through a Blackberry Pearl 8100, then a Nokia N95 and then back to a Blackberry Pearl. So I was set on getting another email/internet capable phone. This time however I had no intention of spending hundreds of Euros on one. So with a bit of research I decided to go for a phone that I swore I would never own. So off I went to the o2 store to pick up my iPhone 3g. I went for the 16gb model in black. My reasoning behind this is that the iPhone is just €169 on a bill with o2. It also has all of the features that I was looking for. I originally stayed away from the iPhone becuase of the rediculous price of the first generation models, the touch screen, the lack of 3g network support on the first generation models oh and becuase it is made by Apple and would require me to install iTunes!!
First Impressions
Despite my apprehension about the iPhone I was amazed at how intuitive the touch screen interface became after just a few uses. The phone is much larger than my previous Blackberry Pearl but also has a much larger display. It is quite heavy also but to be honest I quite like to know that I have it in my pocket, unlike other smaller and lighter phones that I have owned I can actually tell if this has slipped out of my pocket.
