Archive for the 'Personal' Category

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I even look like an idiot in cartoons

Published on July 21, 2007 in Personal. Closed

Simpsonize Me is a shameless plug for the new movie. It’s blatant advertising for a certain burger company. It’s poorly designed and it’s unreliable (on my Mac, anyway, stupid Flash). It’s also pretty good fun.

I know they’ve sold out, but I’m really excited by the Simpsons Movie. It took a while for my scepticism to go away, but it helped that they’ve got a lot of the big-hitting writers (and ex-writers) on board, not to mention Hans Zimmer doing the music… and of course the peerless Kelsey Grammer reprising his role as Sideshow Bob. Seriously, anything with that man in is amazing by definition. Bring on the movie!

On Words

Published on July 20, 2007 in Personal. Closed

I really don’t like the word “fanboy” (or “fanboi” if you’re über-133t). Or rather, perhaps I just don’t like the context it’s used in – it’s merely an excuse not to listen to the other side of the argument, ironically used by those to whom the term is most applicable. I think we, the internet, should have a family meeting and decide not to use it.

Is it just me, or when you learn a new word do you suddenly notice it everywhere? For instance, one of my latest (and most loved) acquisitions to my internal lexicon is “portmanteau”. Currently I’m seeing it everywhere, from Wikipedia (yes, I do go there sometimes; no, I don’t think it’s very reliable) to print articles.

So I noticed something weird

Published on April 18, 2007 in Personal. 2 Comments

As you may or may not know, I maintain a log of download numbers for various files I offer (don’t worry, there’s no personal information recorded – just the fact that a download occurred). It’s kinda useful to know, for instance, how many active users of a widget there are, or whether something that I posted for a specific individual has been retrieved.

Now, one of the files I had up was an archive of some pictures of me and some mates on holiday (it’s gone now, so no need to search for it to find my ugly mug). There were only six people who knew about that archive, including me. Now, assuming that everyone who knew about it downloaded it, that’s 6 downloads. Imagine my surprise to note that there were considerably more than that. Sort of creepy to know that random people downloaded those pictures. I can only assume that it was in error. Fortunately, I don’t do anything interesting enough for those pictures to be embarrassing

BBC Radio Widget v3.0

Published on April 16, 2007 in News and Personal. 142 Comments

BBC Radio 3.0 is here!

There’s a new widget in town – BBC Radio Widget 3.0. Featuring, by popular request, an in-widget schedule!

Hopefully the first of several widget releases in the next few weeks (due to brief access to an internet connection, hurrah!).

Did you mail me about a Cinematic variant?

Published on April 8, 2007 in News and Personal. Closed

I wouldn’t normally post this as news, but this may be the only way:

Some time back I had a couple of emails from someone (whom I won’t name, seeing as that would be rude) who had made a Cinematic variant, and wanted permission to release it. I tried to reply twice, but my messages got bounced (grr, over-zealous spam filters) – so if that was you, please get in touch again if you’re waiting for a reply, preferably with some more details or a prototype…

Internet problems

Published on March 8, 2007 in News and Personal. Closed

Apologies to anyone who has commented or emailed me in the last few months. I’ve had no active net connection, and the only internet I can get – campus internet – is crippled with regards to email, in that they block all outgoing mail except through their server, and provide no access to their own mail server through the wifi network anyway. In short, it’s been webmail all the way, and as it’s such a pain in the behind to use then emails have gone unanswered.

If you have an urgent request and you don’t get a reply within a couple of days, feel free to send it again (via email). You’ll get a response eventually if you keep bugging me.

Not only this, but all development work has had to stop, due to our lovely excessively-firewalled campus network. I love the network admins, really I do.

Hopefully, my issues at home should be resolved soon; my ISP has promised to test and reactivate the line within the week, and that’s the final barrier to us having a net connection again. I’ll believe it when I see it though…

MacBook comments

Published on October 29, 2006 in Personal. 1 Comment

It’s fast. Really fast. Video encoding flies; code compiling is… bearable; startup is speedy; no long delays if I come back to it after some time away.

It’s changed how I work. Spotlight is now so fast it’s quicker to hit command-space and type a few letters than it is to navigate to files, even if I know where they are.

I love EyeTV. Recording is so straightforward.

The Apple remote is very well designed. It may be basic, but I very rarely find myself pining for another button. I love Front Row, too: particularly the ability to resume movies from where I left off last time.

The built-in camera is not as exciting as you might think. I’ve not used it since the first couple of days.

The surface on the MacBook isn’t great. Closing the lid has damaged it in paces. Grr.

MagSafe really works.

You can never have a large enough hard drive. 120GB already seems small…

I’m going outside now – I may be some time

Published on October 2, 2006 in News and Personal. Closed

No internet connection for – gulp – a month or more! Please address all enquiries to my email, I’ll aim to get back to you in reasonable time. In the meantime, enjoy the fact that Cinematic is going on general release after all. Enjoy!

So I bought a MacBook…

Published on September 27, 2006 in Personal. Closed

Yeah, I know they’ll probably be updated very soon, but I really need one now – before I go back to uni. I’m resigned to the fact that Merom-powered updates will be out sooner or later – probably sooner – but so long as not too many of the features are upgraded (better graphics would make me mad) I’ll be content. I don’t see this as a long-term machine; I desperately need more power in my mobile computing, but I forsee my main Mac in the future being a desktop. So much more bang for your buck.

I feel very extravagant right now, but I should point out that I’m going for the low-end machine; also, hello educational discount! Besides, my current Mac is a PB 12″ 867, with a paltry 256MB RAM. Hardly a stellar machine for development work. Here’s to a larger screen and enough memory and processor power to ensure I won’t spend half my time waiting for that damn Beachball of Doom to go away! (Seriously, half my time. I’m actually not exaggerating.)

So, how am I affording this? Waving goodbye to childhood savings, and a loan from my Dad. I’m not worried; I know this money is well spent.

Rant Time

Published on September 26, 2006 in Personal. Closed

Woo! Rant Time!

Un lapin heureux

You may have noticed that there aren’t any adverts on PhantomGorilla.com. That’s because I’m not too keen on them. People don’t come to this site looking for adverts, they come looking for content. My bandwidth bills, while non-trivial, aren’t that big; I can pay them myself. I’m not a site like Engadget, which must pay an absolute fortune… I can understand why they have so many adverts (even though I still loathe them with a passion). So, no ads – just content. I have a donation option – but that’s voluntary. I’m not profiting unfairly from my readers.

Lately I’ve had several emails from software update websites, telling me that BBC Radio Widget is listed on them. This annoys me. Why? Well, visit one of their pages, and what do you see? ADVERTS. Everywhere. They’re listing my software, without permission, and putting adverts on the page – profiting from work I offer for free. That’s low.

Now, I’m not totally against sites like this – I voluntarily list on Versiontracker and MacUpdate. But there’s a difference here: I choose to. I submitted the information. I can opt out if I want to, and not have my products displayed. That’s fine with me, and, frankly, the only honest way to run a business like that.

Most of these places, however, have no obvious way to get my listing removed. No button saying, “Actually, I’d rather you scumbags don’t profit from my hard work, thanks very much.” I think that’s disgusting, and I’m rather peeved right now.

Now, I realise that some sites accept submissions from users, as well as developers. Now that’s fine, and I appreciate the fact that a user has taken the time to do it – but that doesn’t change things: the site should still ask the developer’s permission before listing on any page which contains adverts.

Chances are, I’d probably allow the listing, if I were asked. I’m generally a fairly agreeable guy, when people are polite and honest with me. I don’t tolerate sneaky, underhand tactics though. I’m strongly considering blocking referrals from for-profit sites which have not asked my permission.

Je ne suis pas un lapin heureux.