I've spent this evening working on a cartoon penguin in Inkscape. I'll release this with a liberal Creative Commons licence and as an SVG when I'm sure I'm happy with it. I've also attached my work in progress for those who may be curious. Any constructive criticism is welcomed. :)
I like public transport in theory, but in practice it's pretty crappy. Last night I got crowded by three loud and stupid teenagers who stank of alcohol and drowned out my podcast with details of their personal lives. This morning I missed the bus, but not because I was late, prompting the following snotty email to Cardiff Bus:
This morning, I arrived at the bus stop five minutes early to catch the 102, only to be told by someone that I had just missed it. I *ran* from my Allensbank Road stop to the stop by the hospital entrance - check on a map if you're not familiar with this route. It's no marathon, but it's far enough!
Fortunately the driver was still at the stop, reading his paper. 'Think of the exercise you got', he remarked sympathetically.
Although this is the first time I have run to the next stop, it is not the first time I have missed a bus because it turned up early. Of course, the bus is regularly late too (I imagine this makes your averages look pretty good).
So, do I have to leave a ten minute window to ensure I catch the bus (at a stop with no shelter), or perhaps could you communicate to your drivers the importance of keeping some kind of schedule?
Sincerely, [etc...]
Fast Dial is a great little Firefox add-on that gives you the speed dial functionality found in Opera. Rather, I should say it was a great add-on. I have just this minute updated to the latest version (2.15) and been greeted by some rather unwelcome modifications:
I followed the link from the Firefox add-on page to the official homepage of the project, only to be redirected and have pop-ups thrown at me (blocked, naturally). It seems reasonable to conclude that this add-on has been monetized by a team that didn't know how to do it tastefully and respectfully (or the project was co-opted by the spam mafia!)
Speed Dial is an alternative that I have used before. I prefered Fast Dial for its simplicity, but I guess I will give Speed Dial another look.
Much has already been said about the casting of Matt Smith as the new Doctor. Watch a short interview with him and see what you think. A few highlights excerpted below. I hope my transcribing skills haven't done him any injustice.
On the significance of the role:
It sort of has the... ummm ... the iconic kind of status that Robin Hood or Sherlock Holmes or ... and I'm sort of ... taking that on. That's my responsibility. That's exciting ... nervewracking ... exciting ... exciting!
On keeping his new role a secret:
It's like a giant secret. It's hugely significant. Yeah... yeah.'
On the future:
I've got this wonderful sort of journey in front of me where I've got this kind of six months to build this... this... this Timelord. And that's such an exciting prospect because I love that part of being an actor, I love the discovery of it and, uh, the detective bit.
I'm trying to reserve judgement until I see him in action as the Doctor. Hopefully Stephen Moffat and the other producers really can see something in the young actor that I'm missing. I'll tell you this much though - if they give him an emo or 'gofic' costume, I'm out!
Taken from the tops of two different 'mountains' near Caerphilly, these are the last pictures taken by me in 2008 (and my first post for 2009). I'd have taken a picture of the first sunrise too, but I actually completely missed the first morning of the year!
Happy 2009...
As I've mentioned here before, Ubuntu Eee, the first OS that I installed on my then-new Asus Eee PC, is having to rebrand itself so it no longer mimics the Ubuntu identity. They kicked off a competition to design a logo and win a snazzy netbook, and now the submissions are all in.
I hope they have the good taste to pick one of the more polished and original concepts. It's obvious which entries are good and which are bad, but some have more subtle problems. For example, many of the logos incorperate a tiny 'e', which instantly makes me think of Internet Explorer - not a positive association! There are others which are quite appealing, but fall very much into web 2.0 cliches, with rounded corners, a glossy plastic sheen and vivid colours.
Many others play with variations on the Ubuntu logo and/or lemons. Some of these are quite clever, but if it's too obvious it seems inappropriate.
I've picked a few of my favourites below: