Going in for a bit of a rant now, well, more of an argument but oh well.
People keep complaining to me (I don't know why, but still) on Twitter, MSN, the like that their order of Snow Leopard, the latest instalment of the Mac OS X Operating System that they pre-ordered hasn't arrived yet.. What a shame. I love Mac, I'll say that right now: It's reliable, looks good and makes you look like someone with a job beginning with executive.
I'm not going in for one of those Mac Vs PC, Mac Vs Linux, or even Mac Vs Pc Vs Linux arguments but I'll just say that on that day in October when Windows 7 comes out, the same thing will happen again. People in certain areas will be getting it before others, like now with Snow Leopard.
However, that day in October when Ubuntu Karmic Koala 9.10 comes out, I'll just log onto the Ubuntu website and hit the download button. No waiting for it to arrive in my country, no pre-ordering. No paying. Hit download, wait a few hours, done.
And the install, once I've downloaded, will be quicker than Mac OS X Snow Leopard too, 15 minutes. Up to 45. No more. Boot time? They're getting it down to less than 45 seconds from off to desktop, including time to enter user credentials. Beat that Mac and Windows!
Just a little rant I wanted to get off my chest.
In other news: I'm now on DeviantArt and Digg! My Digg is here and DeviantArt is respectively here.
For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion
We have a logo!
We have a winning logo! Congratulations to Jordan who designed this brilliant logo!
Monday, 31 August 2009
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Competition Update
Hello!
Already, after just 3 days of announcing the competition for the logo for the site I've already had two submissions and been told another is on its way in the coming weeks. Wow.
Anyhow, heres a small addition to the competition that you can use:
If you want to, you can use an animation making program to make an animation that is for the site. It still has to meet with all the criteria listed here though it's animated.
It needs to be exported as an animated gif so that people without Flash (or the latest version) installed and those on unsupported browsers, platforms and Operating Systems (like the iPhone, Chrome for Linux etc) can still view it. It must also be less than a minute in length so it's not too lengthy and for at least half of it, it must include the words "Ratscallion hints".
As mentioned in the Terms and Conditions it must include my avatar (found here), the Ubuntu logo (text or without, I don't mind) and the Windows logo (XP or later, again, with or without text).
As I mentioned earlier, it must be no bigger than 300x50pixels and preferably, no smaller, but it can be if you want it to be.
If you don't know how to export your .fla/.swf file in Adobe Flash (I'm using CS4, but it may work in other versions), I'll tell you how now. This is the final part of the post, so if you know how, you might as well skip down to the Other News bit..
So, once you've got your fla file open (must be fla, not swf) you go into the file menu, then on the export menu that's about 1/2-3/4 of the way down the file menu and then you want the Export Movie option (or you can just press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S, not sure on a Mac however, if anyone knows, feel free to let me know). Once you're in the new dialogue, click the Save as Type drop down and select Animated Gif. You can change the file name if you like... Then just hit the Save button and you're done! Well, you get a new dialogue. Most of the time you can skip this, but, if you're doing it for this competition, you'll need to change the dimensions to 300x50 pixels but Flash can't do this as it has to keep the same aspect ratio, so do this at the start of the creation of the animation as a whole. Feel free to change the repetitions to as many as you like, though I'd prefer 0, but it's your choice. Once you've clicked Ok there, then you'll get a loading bar and it's done!
For now,
Yours,
Already, after just 3 days of announcing the competition for the logo for the site I've already had two submissions and been told another is on its way in the coming weeks. Wow.
Anyhow, heres a small addition to the competition that you can use:
If you want to, you can use an animation making program to make an animation that is for the site. It still has to meet with all the criteria listed here though it's animated.
It needs to be exported as an animated gif so that people without Flash (or the latest version) installed and those on unsupported browsers, platforms and Operating Systems (like the iPhone, Chrome for Linux etc) can still view it. It must also be less than a minute in length so it's not too lengthy and for at least half of it, it must include the words "Ratscallion hints".
As mentioned in the Terms and Conditions it must include my avatar (found here), the Ubuntu logo (text or without, I don't mind) and the Windows logo (XP or later, again, with or without text).
As I mentioned earlier, it must be no bigger than 300x50pixels and preferably, no smaller, but it can be if you want it to be.
If you don't know how to export your .fla/.swf file in Adobe Flash (I'm using CS4, but it may work in other versions), I'll tell you how now. This is the final part of the post, so if you know how, you might as well skip down to the Other News bit..
So, once you've got your fla file open (must be fla, not swf) you go into the file menu, then on the export menu that's about 1/2-3/4 of the way down the file menu and then you want the Export Movie option (or you can just press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + S, not sure on a Mac however, if anyone knows, feel free to let me know). Once you're in the new dialogue, click the Save as Type drop down and select Animated Gif. You can change the file name if you like... Then just hit the Save button and you're done! Well, you get a new dialogue. Most of the time you can skip this, but, if you're doing it for this competition, you'll need to change the dimensions to 300x50 pixels but Flash can't do this as it has to keep the same aspect ratio, so do this at the start of the creation of the animation as a whole. Feel free to change the repetitions to as many as you like, though I'd prefer 0, but it's your choice. Once you've clicked Ok there, then you'll get a loading bar and it's done!
For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion
Wednesday, 19 August 2009
Back and a YouTube announcement (plus a small surprise)
Long time (ish) no see!
Came back from Devon at the weekend and as soon as I got back I had an enourmous amount of admin to do (photos of which will be up shortly).
When I moved onto my YouTube subscriptions, I discovered something new: there was a 'link' on the actual video. Now usually this is only on embedded videos which will link you to the official YouTube page of it, though this was different, it was on the main page.
I went to click and found that it now pauses it, with a fancy animation (really fancy). Try it yourself! It's simply a zooming in of the new status of the video, paused or playing, with the same icon as is on the pause/play button.
Gets quite addictive pausing and resuming videos when you first discover it.
As for the surprise that I mentioned in the title. It's more of a competition than a surprise really, but anyway, it still stands. Any of you into graphics design? Well, I need a logo for the site and instead of doing it myself, I'd like my readers to do it. You have just over one month (requests for longer are allowed, and I can extend it if you wish) to make me a logo which is no more (and hopefully no less) and 300x50 pixels. It must include the following:
I will slowly but surely wittle down the submissions (though all will be featured on my Flickr and on here) until I have one that is my favourite. This will be featured on anything I can including my YouTube, advertisements on other sites etc.
In other news: I'm dropping the Google Wave video. As I found out, there is already a shortened version of the keynote on YouTube which I will embed into the next post.
For now,
Yours,
For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion
Came back from Devon at the weekend and as soon as I got back I had an enourmous amount of admin to do (photos of which will be up shortly).
When I moved onto my YouTube subscriptions, I discovered something new: there was a 'link' on the actual video. Now usually this is only on embedded videos which will link you to the official YouTube page of it, though this was different, it was on the main page.
I went to click and found that it now pauses it, with a fancy animation (really fancy). Try it yourself! It's simply a zooming in of the new status of the video, paused or playing, with the same icon as is on the pause/play button.
Gets quite addictive pausing and resuming videos when you first discover it.
As for the surprise that I mentioned in the title. It's more of a competition than a surprise really, but anyway, it still stands. Any of you into graphics design? Well, I need a logo for the site and instead of doing it myself, I'd like my readers to do it. You have just over one month (requests for longer are allowed, and I can extend it if you wish) to make me a logo which is no more (and hopefully no less) and 300x50 pixels. It must include the following:
- The text "Ratscallion hints" in any font or size you wish, but it must be readable easily
- The Windows icon (any one you wish that is recent, ie, nothing that is pre-Windows XP)
- The Ubuntu icon (this can be with or without the text, I don't mind)
- My YouTube account avatar (found on Flickr here)
- Submit them to a photo sharing site (Flickr, Twitpic, etc) and paste the link to a photo in either a comment or email (or Tweet it to me, I'm @samozzy)
- Send it to me as an email. Just send it to my Google Mail account as either an attachment or within the email. Click here to make an email addressed to me.
I will slowly but surely wittle down the submissions (though all will be featured on my Flickr and on here) until I have one that is my favourite. This will be featured on anything I can including my YouTube, advertisements on other sites etc.
In other news: I'm dropping the Google Wave video. As I found out, there is already a shortened version of the keynote on YouTube which I will embed into the next post.
For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion
For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion
Thursday, 6 August 2009
Holiday!
Hi!
Just a quick announcement post here just to say that I'm going on holiday this weekend for one week and therefore will not be posting anything until a few days after I return.
Don't worry though! I have plenty planned for when I get back, reviews, tips and some videos all in store... Really, I have, I'm not making this up just to keep you interested :P
Anyhoo, I'll be coming back on the 15th, but will probably be relaxing that night, so the next post should be on the 16th. There may be a couple of more posts but I don't think so.
That's it for now then... No buttons on this post as it isn't worth it as much as the other posts are.
For now,
Yours,
Just a quick announcement post here just to say that I'm going on holiday this weekend for one week and therefore will not be posting anything until a few days after I return.
Don't worry though! I have plenty planned for when I get back, reviews, tips and some videos all in store... Really, I have, I'm not making this up just to keep you interested :P
Anyhoo, I'll be coming back on the 15th, but will probably be relaxing that night, so the next post should be on the 16th. There may be a couple of more posts but I don't think so.
That's it for now then... No buttons on this post as it isn't worth it as much as the other posts are.
For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Google Wave!
Hello!
Ever since Google Wave was announced, I applied for a sandbox account..
I got my Sandbox invite on Wednesday and sent off the link and received my account details on Thursday. I was like, omg, why me, but still, it's wave, no complaints!
When you first log in, you're prompted to change your password to something other than the one Google gives you. Not only do you get your sandbox account, but you also get a test account (which I let a friend into) for the collaboration parts.
Already, I'm loving Wave and have been playing with some of the Robots, things that can help you with Waves. One of the more famous robots is Rosey, the translator and Bloggy, which embeds a Wave into a blog or web page. At the moment, however, Bloggy creates a sample blog on the appspot domain because Wave is not yet released to the public.
My main concern, however, is the Embed API which is basically a manual version of Bloggy. I've been having a play with it and trying to get it to embed into my other blog (here) though, as yet, I haven't been able to implement it. Even if you're not on the Sandbox, you can see if a Wave is embedded by the fact there's something in the box. If you're on the sandbox, you get to see the Wave itself - and add to it if you're a participant or if it's a public wave - and if you're not, you get a messsage saying you're not on the sandbox. At the moment, however, there is nothing (or what looks like nothing) there at all.
As for Wave itself, I've been loving it!
More updates to come as I get further into discovering Wave and its many features!
Sorry about the lack of posts, I've been playing around with Wave and its APIs. I should be embedding a Wave here soon enough!
Also, if you want to add me on the Wave Sandbox, feel free to do so!
I am samozzy@wavesandbox.com
For now,
Yours,
Ever since Google Wave was announced, I applied for a sandbox account..
I got my Sandbox invite on Wednesday and sent off the link and received my account details on Thursday. I was like, omg, why me, but still, it's wave, no complaints!
When you first log in, you're prompted to change your password to something other than the one Google gives you. Not only do you get your sandbox account, but you also get a test account (which I let a friend into) for the collaboration parts.
Already, I'm loving Wave and have been playing with some of the Robots, things that can help you with Waves. One of the more famous robots is Rosey, the translator and Bloggy, which embeds a Wave into a blog or web page. At the moment, however, Bloggy creates a sample blog on the appspot domain because Wave is not yet released to the public.
My main concern, however, is the Embed API which is basically a manual version of Bloggy. I've been having a play with it and trying to get it to embed into my other blog (here) though, as yet, I haven't been able to implement it. Even if you're not on the Sandbox, you can see if a Wave is embedded by the fact there's something in the box. If you're on the sandbox, you get to see the Wave itself - and add to it if you're a participant or if it's a public wave - and if you're not, you get a messsage saying you're not on the sandbox. At the moment, however, there is nothing (or what looks like nothing) there at all.
As for Wave itself, I've been loving it!
More updates to come as I get further into discovering Wave and its many features!
Sorry about the lack of posts, I've been playing around with Wave and its APIs. I should be embedding a Wave here soon enough!
Also, if you want to add me on the Wave Sandbox, feel free to do so!
I am samozzy@wavesandbox.com
For now,
Yours,
Ratscallion
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