The Place of James Pain

(I only just noticed that the address to this blog wasn’t working for the past 2 months. I forgot to update something as I moved to a different server. …whoops)

Tumblr has been ever so good to me for the year or so I’ve been with them. The time with them must end though.

Even though I don’t post too often, I find alot of restrictions in their quest to simplify blogging. I’ve navigated past a handful but the problem that was keeping me from hosting my own is now gone.

I shall be moving to a self hosting Wordpress installation that will be integrated into my website (http://www.jamespain.co.uk).

As much as I like Tumblr, it isn’t what I totally need…no matter how much I like the Facebook integration.

If I don’t use blog.jamespain.co.uk I’ll setup a redirect but I’m pretty sure I’ll use it somehow.

Lastly, be aware that your RSS feeds will break when the move is done. Be sure to update them.

Right…I’ll get going with that then.
This is going in tandem with a website refresh too so good things are to come.

I tip my hat to you, see you in the next blog.

Instead of waiting to be hired for projects that I would quite like to dig my teeth into, I thought I’d might as well do it off my own back.

                    Teie - Social Network
A clone of Facebook if you like, but done in my own way.

Why:
It started on Facebook ironically. A friend of mine was complaining about the aforementioned social network and I came out and asked if I built one, would you be interested?
That was about two months ago, since then it’s been refined a bit and aimed at the home education audience, although it’s hardly noticeable.

Progress:
The website is up and in testing, should be fully swinging in a week or two.
It’s at http://www.teie.co.uk if you fancy testing it out.

Android Development
Making applications from the Android phone operating system.

Why:
I’ve been meaning to for ages. It would expand my knowledge of Java and finally create some of the apps I’ve been meaning to for too long.

Progress:
I only realized I should a few minutes ago.

Wiki site - Hesfes Wiki
A wiki centered around a small festival.

Why:
The festival is small enough for everybody to know everyone else but isn’t too friendly for new comers. A wiki with everyone and everything would do a world of good.
This would also expand my knowledge of the MediaWiki system used for Wikipedia.

Progress:
3 days of thought and will power. Oh, and I’ve just purchased a domain for it.

Just took some time to get rid of some UI annoyances on my computer.

• Skype is now integrated into my IM client, Trillian.
• Skype can now be minimized to the system tray instead of hanging about the task bar.
• Cleaned up the bookmarks in Firefox.
• Upgraded to the Firefox Beta for a cleaner look.
• Sorted my ~200 tab backlog into two categories; Read later and Bookmark.
• Cleared out my inbox and created some new labels and filters.
• Made my taskbar the same size as it was in XP.
• Changed my background.
• Cleaned up my desktop icons.
• Using Trillian as an IM client and docked it to the right side of my screen.
• Cleaned up start up list.
• Made the screen on my keyboard show only the first 12 characters in a IM user’s name.
• Deleted some of my IM contacts.
• Organized my work projects into folders (I’m sure they’ll get cluttered quickly)
• Started using Amazon Web Services.
• Sorted my servers with different roles.
• Wrapped up my emails to support.
• Banked my cheques.
• Unsubscribed from subscription services I wasn’t using.
• Cleaned up my twitter follows.
• Tided up my Google Reader subscriptions
• Changed my system clock to 12 hour.
• Changed the background to my phone to something less distracting.
• Changed my email signature.
• Stopped Virgin Media sending me to their branded search page in DNS errors.
• Sorted all of Windows 7’s Action Center’s complaints
• Cleaned up my external Hard Drive
• Started backing up my PC
• Fixed an overheating problem with my PC
• Started backing up my computer
• Installed an anti-virus program
• Cleared my downloads list

I feel so clean now. It’s given me a nice breath of fresh air and has made me so happy.

So you’ve just had a hard Monday at work? Here’s what to do.

• Break out your drink of choice, the more classy the better. Whiskey could do it.
• Open these three links all together in different tabs. A quick middle click or ctrl click should do the trick.
  Link 1 - Link 2 - Link 3
• Sit back and enjoy.

Someone on my Edinburgh TV crew just gave me a fantastic idea.

Required:
A TV that has media server capabilities (UPnP perhaps) or just a TV plugged into a computer.
A computer connected to the same network at the TV.
A smart phone with a internet connection be it wifi or 3g (Android preferred).
An event (A house party preferred).

The Idea:
Pictures that have been taken with the camera phone automaticly uploaded to the media server to be shown on the TV in a slide show form.

Techy bits:
Most modern TV’s have a ethernet port and can wander round windows shared folders. You also have the ability to play a slide show of a folder of photos.
A ftp server would be setup on the computer connected to that folder.
The phone takes a picture as normal but in the background connects to the ftp server and uploads the picture to the folder.

Notes:
The TV will (read: should) refresh the contents list on every picture load. It will (read: should) loop when it get to the end of the folder so a wait may be needed. It would be ideal to be able to just get the TV showing the latest photo uploaded and refreshing every time a new one is uploaded but I’m having a hard time thinking how it’s possible.
I only know that a cracked android hero has this capability but I’m sure anything else cracked (with lets say a cryogen rom) should do it too. If not, what are you waiting for? Learn a code language and code it yourself!

Let’s not debate how great the internet is, because it’s pretty bloody fantastic. So fantastic that it’s gotten to the point where we can stream video, live.

There’s a problem though. Anyone with the internet and a webcam is able to do it. This has the side effect of alot of unprofessional and non interesting content on the providers websites.

This means that someone with a good idea and knowledge of how to make it viewer friendly gets lost in this mass of…crap (The word of the month it seems).

Because of this lack of dedication and workmanship on these live streams, the providers aren’t too keen on making the quality of the stream any better.

If someone does want a quality stream, HD lets say, then they would have to shell out alot of money for the ‘extra’ service.

The only useful purposes I can see a live stream being beneficial would be if;

1. Viewer participation is required
2. Live event taking place (time critical)
3. Rolling content (a 24 hour stream)

The first one is the most common for some ego growing reason. An example would be a (stereotype alert) goth, emo type person just answering questions in the live stream’s chat with heavy metal music playing in the background.

The second one is mainly made by big American TV networks who are marketing an event like the Oscars or a movie première. These usually get huge advertisements and publicity on the live streaming website. There is little reason why these can’t be recorded and published on a site like youTube though.
Another example of the second one is a live stream of a radio show taking place.

An obvious example for the third one is Big Brother, although that doesn’t get streamed on live streaming websites. A good example I saw not too long ago would be newly born puppies in what looked like a box, streaming for a month. This was quite a inspirational live stream as you can see day by day the progression of these cute puppies.

The reason I’m posting this is because a few months I had an idea for a live streaming weekly show to be hosted on one of these live streaming websites. Properly made, produced etc. The reason being is I wanted to harvest viewer participation and incorporate it into the show, something you can’t do on TV.

The idea started out to be a quiz format but observing the ability to be able to stream outside of studios using mobile networks, it could have the ability of going to time critical events. But this hasn’t been thought out yet.

The reason I haven’t done this was stated earlier. It would be hard to get noticed among all the other streams happening. Even though the internet is a fantastic marketing machine with twitter and facebook helping out in a big way, it may not get enough viewership for it to be worth making.

It may be worth making none the less.

The basics of my new website is now up and running at http://www.jamespain.co.uk with only a few minor bugs I may be able to get rid of this weekend. Then I’ll slowly release the rest of the website over coming weeks.

Next up is leaflets I plan to print and distribute. I’ve taken a different colour scheme to the leaflets as opposed to my green’s for a decent reason.
As much as I would have liked it to all be the same scheme and universally recognizable, green isn’t the best colour for a leaflet that most people will feel is ‘invading’ their homes, according to a few studies.
Since blue is more calming, people are more at ease.
I’m not totally convinced but the person who told me this is the same guy that can print my leaflets for a discounted price so I’m not going to argue with him.

You’ll also notice that I’ve gone with a DL size instead of something like A6. This is because I can fit more information on a DL since it’s longer than a A6, it’s unusual so people pay more attention to it, and it’s much easier to put through letter boxes. I will be distributing no less than 5,000 of these myself so the last point really sold me.

I plan on putting my logo somewhere on here, might be at the bottom or on the back but I’m worried about the green clashing with the blue.

We shall see how it turns out.

I weep when I see at the end of crappy youtube videos ‘made with premiere pro’ not just because it gives it a bad name.
Anyone who edits that badly didn’t buy that program. Anyone who buys the program is serious about editting and knows what they’re doing.

This is why I cheer on Adobe’s anti-piracy team. Once it’s perfected, crappy youtube videos will come to an end.

Conclusion; Piracy = Crap YouTube videos.

Imagine youTube filled with good quality videos through and through.
…I guess that’s what Vimeo is for.

I’m all for young kids wanting to share their ideas with the internet but it would be better if they could find a better method of communication.

Perhaps I’m over estimating what YouTube can and should be.