Other World

I took this photo on a bright sunny day in St. Helier, Jersey of people walking along the exposed sea bed up towards Elizabeth Castle.

The sea goes out by more than a mile sometimes and others is right up to the sea wall and occasionally over it.

The area up to Elizabeth Castle looks incredible, a lot like some kind of alien landscape when the tide is out.

Add that to the few people walking towards the castle shown as a shadow and it looks like the end or opening sequence of some kind of sci-fi, post apocolyptic movie.

If I was more talented than I actually am I’d be inspired to write a story based on this photo - unfortunately I don’t have that much talent.

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Too much time

I like playing with photoshop and like childish toilet humour - I was also out and about taking photos after the Spirit of the Horse show left Jersey.

Unfortunately all these things together force me into doing things like this - I might learn one day.

However, in the true spirit of honesty I’ve included smaller versions of the original photos.

The best aspect of this is probably that the toilet is provided by a company called Rebecca Loos.

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New Look BBC ONE

I was hunting around the BBC Press Office website in the hope of finding a launch date for Torchwood. Alas I came away dissapointed on that front.

However, I did get very excited by the big promo at the top of the page. The new look BBC ONE has been unveiled and it will hit screens on Saturday 7 October (Robin Hood Day).

Basically the new design centres around a circle. The screen grabs above show the new BBC ONE or should I say BBC one logo surrounded by the final part of a movie sequence resulting in a circle.

They include a group of people in boats who pull out parts of the moon and piece it together. Four surfers riding big waves come together to ride one giant perfect tube.

22 players come together at a centre circle to pass footballs with mathematical precision, climaxing in 144 footballs being passed in a seamless circle and other similar sequences resulting in a circle.

From the look of things red will still feature in the design but will be much less prominent than currently shown by the horrible, horrible dancers.Â

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Bias in TV news?

I was starting work on a post idea about whether we should be relaxing some of the inpartiality rules surrounding TV News but then read this brilliant post by Doctorvee that pretty much put across everything I was thinking - only much better.

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At last…

Finally - a Liberal Democrat leader that isn’t content with just working towards being a strong third party. A Liberal Democrat leader with enough balls to say ‘we can be in power’.

I voted for Sir Menzies Campbell in the leadership election - but with some reservations - however I’m now VERY glad I did vote for him, he seems to be a Liberal in principle but with the ability, drive & ambition we don’t normally see from LibDem leaders.

“I have had three great opportunities in my life: in sport, in the law, and in politics,”

“And now I have been given one more: the opportunity to lead our party from opposition towards government.”

One of the biggest issues I’ve had with the Liberal Democrat party, a party I’ve supported since before I was old enough to vote, is what seemed to be an exceptance of just existing.

We seemed to fade into the background and just pop our head up now and then. We heard speeches where we were told ‘we could be a strong third party’. Finally, at last, we may now be coming out of the shadows and giving this country a real chance at a decent future.

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Pure Geek

I don’t normally post the results to the various ‘tests’ the float around the web to find out which simpson  you are, who you would vote for, what newspaper you read etc…

I enjoyed this one though - so I thought I’d share my result - it was a test to see if I’m a geek, dork or nerd - I’ve always been of the opinion I’m a geek and pretty proud of the fact.

So proud of it I’ve created a blog dedicated to geek culture - that’s the other reason I decided to publish the results. Why not share your results in the comments.

 

Pure Geek 34 % Nerd, 52% Geek, 21% Dork

For The Record: A Nerd is someone who is passionate about learning/being smart/academia. A Geek is someone who is passionate about some particular area or subject, often an obscure or difficult one. A Dork is someone who has difficulty with common social expectations/interactions. You scored better than half in Geek, earning you the title of: Pure Geek. It’s not that you’re a school junkie, like the nerd, and you don’t really stand out in a crowd, like the dork, you just have some interests that aren’t quite mainstream. Perhaps it’s anime, perhaps it’s computers, perhaps it’s bottlecaps, perhaps it’s all of those and more. Your interests take you to events and gatherings that are filled with people you find unusual and beyond-the-pale, but you don’t quite consider yourself “of that crowd.” Instead, you consider yourself to be fairly normal. Which, you are. Congratulations! You’re the one on the RIGHT! Also, you might want to check out some of my other tests if you’re interested in any of the following: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Professional Wrestling Love & Sexuality America/Politics Thanks Again! — THE NERD? GEEK? OR DORK? TEST

My test tracked 3 variables How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on nerdiness You scored higher than 99% on geekosity You scored higher than 99% on dork points

Link: The Nerd? Geek? or Dork? Test written by donathos on OkCupid, home of the 32-Type Dating Test

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Way to go OfCom

It’s not often I’m in a mood to praise OfCom but I think today is one of those rare days that the media & telco regulator deserves a firm pat on the back.

Based purely on a story in the Register, with the brilliant headline, summary pairing:

EU threatens to apply TV standards to web media
Web media threatens to move out: take toys

The article talks about how the EU wants to enforce regulation on web video services (and more) but how an OfCom report has said, basically, that it would be a stupid idea.

Apparently OfCom have told the EU that imposing the same regulatory burden television faces on new media sources will either stifle their development or just make them relocate to outside the EU.

This puts me in an interesting position.

One, I hate the concept of web regulation with a passion and think it’s the LAST thing that should happen.

But there is a two - Jersey is outside the EU, if they’re forced outside the EU a great place to set up shop would be this little island which could only be good for the Jersey economy.

But my intense desire to keep the web regulation free overides any chance of a quick buck or new industry for Jersey - so sorry Jersey the web wins.

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Does size matter?

I’m toying with a new design for the site - this time doing one from scratch instead of using a template. There are a couple of reasons for this bu the main one is that I want to update my skills.

I started my working life designing websites, well intranet sites for BT back in 1997 and have worked on everything from government portals to small acountancy sites since.

But I haven’t built a full on site from scratch since joining the BBC in 2002. It’s been four years since I’ve had a chance to scream at the screen because a piece of code wasn’t working or stay up all night because something was mis-aligned by a pixel.

I want to get back into it and try my skills at building a Wordpress template from scratch.

I’m thinking at the moment that it’s going to be easier than trying to build a site from scratch - before blogging became popular I used to build basic content management systems into my personal websites so I could update from anywhere - Wordpress handles that for me now.

The question I’ve got though is ‘does size matter’. The last site I built HAD to be built to a max screen width of 800px (or in reality 760px) - is that still the case or has 1024px taken over?

I know more and more people have bigger screens and very few within the target audience for a geek blog will use 800×600 screens (if any) but that doesn’t mean they don’t view there webpages at 800×600.

More often than not I find myself doing a few things at once on my computer screen (watching a tv show, browsing the web, writing in my blog…) so rarely have anything ‘full screen’ including my web browser - how many other people do that? Does that mean that it’s still just as important to design for 800×600 or does it not matter at all?

The re-design WILL have a fixed width, mainly because I don’t like pissing about with percentages, but also because I don’t like controls and menus far away from content if viewing at larger than ‘optimum’ width.

So should I worry about designing for 800×600 or not?

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Yes, Survey

Just finished listening to the latest Buzz Out Loud where Molly & Veronica refered to the Net Neautrality Survey and how the questions were put in a way that supported the telco position.

This reminded me of an episode of one of my favourite sitcoms - Yes, Minister - where they explain how opinion polls work.

The questions are being asked by Sir Humphrey Appleby, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Administrative Affairs.

Answers are by Bernard Woolley, Principal Private Secretary to Jim Hacker MP.

“Mr. Woolley, are you worried about the rise in crime among teenagers?”

“Yes”

“Do you think there is lack of discipline and vigorous training in our Comprehensive Schools?”

“Yes”

“Do you think young people welcome some structure and leadership in their lives?”

“Yes”

“Do they respond to a challenge?”

“Yes”

“Might you be in favor of reintroducing National Service?”

“Yes”

Having got an answer with on line of questioning, Sir Humphrey changes tack and has a go from the other point of view.

“Mr. Woolley, are you worried about the danger of war?”

“Yes”

“Are you unhappy about the growth of armaments?”

“Yes”

“Do you think there’s a danger in giving young people guns and teaching them how to kill?”

“Yes”

“Do you think its wrong to force people to take up arms against their will?”

“Yes”

“Would you oppose the introduction of National Service?”

“Yes”

So basically - take surveys, opinion polls and questionnaires with as big of a pinch of salt as you can hold then throw it over your right shoulder for good luck - or is it left?

I also completely agree with anyone that called or e-mailed about iTunes 7 - I love the look, I love the added features and structure but can’t stand the fact that it eats up 90% of my CPU when running.

It’s got so bad I can’t do anything else while iTunes is running and have to watch video podcasts in quicktime (with iTunes closed).

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