Gentlemen, your attention please...

Do you enjoy elrevert's wonderful contributions to this blog?

Do you love the content at www.youtube.com/elrevert ?

Do you have more money than sense?

If the answers to the above questions are "YES!" then don't hesitate, click this button, and give something back! After all, as god is my witness, I deserve it!

My Android Cupcake

Quartz Composer - VJing Potential

The other day i stumbled across Quartz Composer. For those of you who don't know, this is a modular programming interface that lets you manipulate images/videos etc. It makes good use of Apples core image and video libraries, which would otherwise remain rather intimidating technologies for the casual programmer to harness.

After a few hours of playing around, adding filters to my iSight, and creating flashy screen-savers i decided to create a simple composition to wish my father happy birthday. All went smoothly and it was received well by the said recipient.

However, this got me thinking. Recently, DJM was complaining about how expensive VJing software is, and how taxing the programs are on the computers memory and storage space. If-someone was to code a new VJing software for Mac, which made use of all these free, built in and very powerful OSX technologies. The resultant program would be relatively small and could be priced quite modestly (or just for free).

When i get good enough at programming, i might be giving this a try.

Quartz composer is free with Xcode. 

Design Flaws

I don't really know where this is going, but I might as well try to write something. After seeing Elrevert write something, I knew I must.

My topic is the human body. There are many people (who are mostly religious) who would have you believe that the human body is the perfect one, no faults whatsoever. How could anybody believe this?

It is quite extraordinary for something like the human body to survive as long as it has. There are so many weak points it is hard to account for them all. A simple knock to the head in a sensitve spot can kill you. A pinch of a pressure point can have you unconscious for hours. Falling on a slightly jagged rock the wrong way has the potential to a) create a hole in you, and b) really hurt. And that's just on the outside.

Inside there's no end of absolute rubbish going on, some of it also potentially fatal. A small clot in the bloodstream for example. There is no point in the appendix. Humans have not eaten grass for thousands of years (probably), yet everyone has one of these timebombs in them at birth, waiting to burst. Evolution has a lot to answer for. Why didn't we get rid of this and keep something good, like gills perhaps.

Think of all the other useless stuff. Easily blocked airways. Sweat. This one is borderline ridiculous. The scientific explanation for sweat is that it is meant to cool you down. Does it? Has anybody ever thought 'Thank goodness I'm sweating.' No, you take a drink because you're losing precious bodily fluid, and you'll feel terrible if you don't rehydrate. And excretion is riddled with faults. Couldn't excretion be converted in a way so that all extraneous waste was boiled, removed of colour and released odourlessly as a gas through the pores instead of sweat perhaps? Honestly...

I can only conclude that I have no real way of finishing this well, but I felt some of these things needed saying and that if only our body was better designed, think where we could be now. Presumably not living in danger of the (very real) threat of dying of an infected papercut.

Feeding your mac coffee, even while the lid is closed

For full information on this, make sure you go to http://alexburgess.wordpress.com

But, have you ever found yourself wanting to close the lid of your macbook/macbook pro, while listening to music, torrenting, etc?

Well, the answer is called insomniaX. Well, nearly....

InsomniaX carried horrible, leopard-unfriendly icons in the menu bar. Not any longer, because now there is

INSOMNIAX - Kitty cat edition.

I loved the app, but hated the icons, so I had a little fiddle and changed them to cats.

Have fun!

... Oh - and download from http://www.wobblemation.co.uk/InsomniaX%20-%20with%20Kitty%20icons.zip

Humble readers of this blog, I have a question...

Have you ever felt a sudden urge to rip off your ears and beat yourself to death with them?

While this may seem like a strange idea at first, I believe it to be one of the few constructs of the human psyche to provide us with an instant (well, a slow and painful) relief from a noise so unthinkable, so paralytically horrifying that it hurts my tender, fragile eardrums just thinking about it. I am talking of course, about R&B sensation, Akon.

While some members of the Kielder may actually know what repeatedly smashing yourself with your ears feels like, I can assume that most of you don't. Well, in fact, you do. All you have to do is tune your DAB Digital Radio to BBC Radio 1XTRA, and wait for around the same length of time you do when listening to Kerrang, for "Rockstar" by Nickelback to unwelcomely knock on your door in the dead of night, sodden from head to toe, dying from the relatively unknown disease overplayedsclerosis (symptoms include a sudden and devastating loss of popularity), and you will inevitably hear the sound of a true R&B visionary cloud your senses with brilliance...

"I wanna make love right now now now, I wanna make love right now now now, I wanna make love right now now now, I wanna make love right now now now, I wanna make love right now now now, I wanna make love right now now now..."

That's right ladies and gentlemen, we are in the presence of genius. One man, one man stands alone (when I say alone, I actually mean surrounded by thousands of others) in his writing and composing talent bracket. One man has defied the odds to produce another multi-platinum selling album containing nothing but pure, unadulterated CRAP, which for some reason makes 14 year old girls across the globe want to "bop" up and down clubs all night screaming this shit into the ears of innocent, music loving people like you and me. It isn't fair, and I've had enough of it. 

I have one question. Why? Why is it that these retarded piss-heads enjoy listening to this rubbish? It can't be because of the melodic, thumping baseline and mind-numbingly repetitive synth. And it can't be because of the original, varied lyrics (note the sarcasm) discussed earlier. With these two reasons ruled out, I have come to the conclusion that people who enjoy this kind of music must be too wankered to either give a fuck, or understand that any sound is entering their ears at all. Or remember their own name, for that matter.

You think people downing shots all night every night next to the nearest speaker blaring out 1XTRA, "bopping" to Akon is unlikely? Well, so do I, but if you can think of any other reason why anyone would torture themselves by listening this complete and utter donkey dick, I'd like to hear it.

Over and out.

Hello

This is John, but you can call me Russ.

I have been asked to contribute to this blog, and am perfectly happy to when the feeling takes me. I may not be consistant, reliable, punctual or good, but I will be there.

Thank you,
John Russ

Speed up spotlight

Finding spotlight a little unresponsive? Just installed vista via bootcamp (or any other NTFS OS)? 

Go to spotlight preferences > privacy. Then add 'untitled' (or whatever your bootcamp drive is).

This will lose you the ability to search your windows partition, but who wants to anyway?

Movies

Like big-budget action blockbusters? Look no further than 2009.

- Watchmen
- Terminator: Salvation
- Transformers 2
- Star Trek

Gay quote of the day award goes to....

PGREEN !

For wanting to do up a double decker bus and call it the "Dudemobile"... Xzibit style.

Landyachtz B-Ride - A Newbies Review

I have recently aquired a longboard. For those of you who dont know, longboards are like a skateboard, but longer. For those of you who are ignorent enough to not know what a skateboard is, think: plank with wheels.

Longboards are used for general skating/crusing/commuting/downhill. As a result, their size and style vary greatly.

The board i have, the Landyachtz B-Ride, is actualy massive, even for a longboard (its 1.5 meters long).

Upon skating it i learnt several things.

The B-Ride loves smooth open tarmack

The B-Ride loves going fast and smooth

The B-Ride doesnt like grass

The B-Ride really doesnt like mud

The B-Ride throws a paddy on ice
The B-Ride also doesnt care for curbs

My head doesn't care for hedges or walls.

Having said that, the B-Ride is actualy awsome, skating on it is a breeze. You would expect such a big board to handle like a tank. However, the revenge trucks turn in a rather different way to normal trucks and as a result it handles like a much smaller board.

Having just used it to commute to college today, my legs hurt a little. But my jorney time was cut by about half.

In conclusion i absolutely love this board, all i need to do know is pony up some more money to finish paying its previos owner.

Reading and Leeds - Week 2

So these are my updated predictions based on a further 6-and-a-half days of headliner speculation. Despite the announcement of a new album and a "summer tour", Green Day stay below the bubble line due to speculation from eFestivals that they were initially going to sign for the festival but the deal fell through at the last minute.

Obviously, the stunning revival of Blink 182 has propelled them from 10th to 3rd, and many (some reluctantly) are now dusting off their baggy jeans and lip rings in preparation. Arctic Monkeys and Kings of Leon both remain strong favorites.

Don't forget to check the official festival website for the latest rumors and updates.

EDIT: Apologies, I did an update on another website 2 days ago, which is why the position changes don't make sense when looking at last weeks. Oh well, what the fuck are you going to do, kill me?! No, so shut up! Yeah!

Seen Eurotrip?

If you've seen thee film Eurotrip you know the song "Scotty doesn't know". (Or rather "Scottish doesn't know ... if your Aylestone 08 leavers)

Well i've decided there should be a song called
"Tommy does know"

Had to be said.

Festivals, festivals, festivals. Any self-respecting music fan loves them. Yes, I know that the summer rockfests are a fare distance away yet, but the rumors have started to fly around as is almost always the case around this time of year, especially for the Reading and Leeds Festival 2009. 

As myself, James and Matt are planning to attend this year, I have been spending quite a bit of time trawling through the many forums, and have come up with a fairly accurate prediction concerning the Headliners. This list will be updated each week, based on solid new information that manages to reach me through the acres of bullshit swirling around out there.

Obviously this is just speculation (I'd like to think relatively well-informed speculation), and the rankings will change each week as explained earlier. Bands like Slipknot and Lostprophets are almost dead certs to be playing, but they are lower down on this list as they are unlikely to headline. Oasis and Blink 182, however, are both very unlikely to appear in any form, especially since one of them is split. Some rumors suggest otherwise, however, so I have included them.

Movie Hybrids

X Men 3 : Batman Begins
Happy Feet : The Return Of the King
March Of The Penguins : The Empire Strikes Back

Somone please make these films.

Snow!

Yay, it snowed, just had a snowball fight and i cant feel my fingers. Hurts to type.

In Europe a lil snow doesn't do much. But here in Hereford a few inches will bring the entire transport system to a dismal halt. Its a bit silly. Then again, i cant complain about the lack of college.

Mmmmmm snow.

ME ! ...and..umm... ME again ! YAY!

Hey yet another new addition to the blog.
Im Matt, 17,Hereford UK, 6th form college.

Well not much for me to say here except Im going to try and keep my posts about music, games (both PC & Consoles...... PC > Consoles :) and anything else which takes my fancy.

Also yes I play guitar and make short films.

One more thing...
INNERPARTYSYSTEM Live is the most intense and amazing experience of anyone's life so far. Right next to your fist orgasm which like INNERPARTYSYSTEM is over too soon...

More about the gig soon + pictures and a video.

My first useful + informative post

OK, firstly, for the useful bit.
Go here : http://alexburgess.wordpress.com/2009/01/25/retro-toaster-screensaver/

And download the screensaver. It will be the best thing to happen to you, since you realized how to torrent.

And now the informative bit.
Does anyone get any blogger bugs with safari? For example, I'm having to use firefox to write this, because I can't paste anything into the box without it appearing somewhere at the bottom. And I have to double click on the 'insert images' to get the pop up to open. And it always seems to fail to publish.

Oh - and a big one. That red box, is meant to be a animated gif... Does blogger not support gif's?

That is all

Big computing

My living room is getting a new carpet...

So the TV is mine for a week! Wippee!

Music!

Hey hey. Shameless self promotion.

Check out the band i am part of. Good wholesome music

Support local music.

Oh, and at some point i may post some of my solo efforts at electronic music. Maybe

About Me...?

Hi im richard an i'm new to the HardWired crew

Soooooo... About Me...

Heya my name is Richard but some of you may know me as QleQ if u play alota CoD. Im 15 and live in the land of sex and drugs (holland =D).

Basically im gonna be introducing you into the 1337 world of gaming which these mac lovers wont know anything about (i hate Macs) For the record im into FPS and MMOs i like all the CoD editions except the french made CoD5 i like CnC ZH and WoW (which has a bad reputation but try it b4 u hate it...)

Man! Stuff sounds gay when you write it down... Oh and ppl who play FPS on consoles are fags

No one will care.... But whatever.

Yes, I married my memory card.

... I hate the blogger photo upload tool...

Essential Apps for the Casual User - Week 1

Here is a list of essential Applications for the Mac which I couldn't live without. Well, I could, but it just wouldn't be a very good life. In fact, I would probably commit suicide if I didn't have these Apps installed. 

1. VLC (VideoLAN Client)

This is the only media player you will ever need, and it's freeware. It supports almost every media format in existence, it plays DVDs and VCDs, it can stream media live over the internet or any local area network, it plays the Tuba in the National Youth Orchestra... no, wait, scratch that one.

2. Visualhub

Now discontinued, this is a fantastic little application that will convert from and to all of the popular video formats, as well as quite a few of the more obscure ones. Oh, and in half the time that Quicktime does it. Visualhub can still be obtained if you google it and look for a working mirror (the developer has removed the link from his website, although he has stuck the source code on there with some interesting GUI modifications, and no license restrictions). 

3. Screenflow

Okay, I'll just start by saying that this is not freeware (there is a free trial), but it is worth every penny of the $99 it costs to download. Basically this can record from your desktop in full resolution, as well as an iSight or other external video camera simultaneously, both with audio (you can even use the line input instead). 

But that's not all people, Screenflow also doubles as a fully-fledged video editor. You can edit your glorious HD recordings (or any quicktime-supported video file, for that matter), and add effects and the like. Personally, if you are after simplicity, I prefer this to iMovie. 

More will be posted in weeks to come. 

 - Tommey.

Question

... How many views does this blog actually get?!

Im in a computing lesson. Yay.

Private Sub btnGo_Click()

Dim strInput as string

Dim intOutput as integer

strInput = textbox1.text

intOutput = convert(strInput)

textbox2.text = intOutput.tostring.

Private Function  convert(strOld as string)

dim intdays as integer

dim intweeks as integer

dim intNew as integer

intweeks = strOld.substring(0,1)

intdays= strOld.substring(2,1)

intNew = (intWeeks * 7) + days

return intNew

End Function

Converts weeks and days into days. Not that i couldn't do that with my brain.

Free Alternative Games

Gaming is awesome. Unfortunately most of the time you have to pay to own a copy of the game. However once in a while you will discover free games that are addictive/cool/plain awesome.

So here are three of my favorites.

1) N way of the ninja. http://thewayoftheninja.org

Example of frustratingly addictive. Or that could just be plain frustrating. But this game is actually really quite good, and is a great example of flash games at their best.

You get to play as a gold hungry ninja who inexplicably has only has 90 seconds to live. Reminiscent of the oldschool classic lode runner, the player must avoid homicidal robots. Fun.

2) Toribash http://www.toribash.com

Toribash is turnbased strategic bloodshed and violence in which you manipulate a ragdoll. This is achieved by controlling their joints an muscles. Essentially you can have them perform any martial arts or wrestling move you can come up with. Steep learning curve. Lots of blood. Very alternative. 

3) BZflag http://bzflag.org/

This game is an old time favorite. Basically, you drive round as a tank shooting other tanks. You can play team capture the flag or free for all deathmatches. Powerups like the guided missile and laser come in the form of bonus flags. Slightly cartoonish in appearance, the graphics are not groundbreaking. However, the gameplay is usually fast paced if you join a busy server and did i mention the tanks can jump and even in some cases fly. Highly recommended for everyone.

Happy gaming.

Windows 7 wallpapers

Pretty nice hu?

Bastard games

I would just like to point out that I am also part of the bastard project (y'know, because I'm the actual legal bastard here).

Installed Hammer yet?

"The Bastard" Online FPS announced. By me.

Gentlemen,

I am pleased to announce that development has started on thegreatest game that will ever exist. Aptly named "The Bastard", the games will be based on the Half-Life 2 engine and will containseveral of the most challenging and ridiculous maps ever concieved.Oh, and I forgot to mention, it will be capable of up to 1000 playersonline in a single server.

More updates to come.

- Tommey.

Arduino!

I recently purchased a great bit of electronics kit. The Arduino is essentially a programmable development PCB. As i gather from their website, you can make it do a lot of cool (although sometimes pointless) things. But apart from the practical applications, this makes a great learning tool. All the code on it is essentially an adapted version of C/C++, much debugging fun awaits. Soon i will post some of my amateur attempts at creating something with it.

Guide to wordpress

Default theme > Edit CSS > Go insane

Sonic Disturbance (The Speakerbag) V1

OK, so a while ago i prototyped an invention of mine, the speaker-bag. My idea is hardly original and commercial alternatives exist, but essentially i was looking for a cheap quick portable music solution. (Skull-candy charge a bomb for theirs.)

Essentially my prototype was a rucksack fitted with 2 speakers (one sewn into each side-pocket), couple of 9V batteries and a small amp (stolen from disused computer speakers). The entire things was pretty-much held together with gaffatape and safety-pins. I just ran a line-in connected to an iPod for audio input. It worked nicely and was well received by my friends, who all fought over control of the music.

As you can see in the pic, it is an absolute monstrosity. 

Gaffataped grill on side is a feeble attempt to waterproof it.

Now i am looking at making a more efficient less sketchy (plain crap) version. DJM and i have a nice amp kit built and it should be made soon.

Amp + Speakers + Battery + Bag = Speakerbag

And yes, the bag, pictured actually works.

I am interested to see if anyone else has made anything similar or is now inspired to do so. I have a few wild ideas about wirelessly linking multiple bags (think portable 5.1 surround system!) but i am constrained by budget.

Happy making.

Why Hotmail should cease to exist.

All spam.

... Still hate blogger (directed at Pgreen)

I think we should move onto wordpress while we still can. Can do all the same - except more... And its prettier...

Alright, the other two have done a 'about me'...

Ok. Here we go.

I'm Alex Burgess, I sit next to both Pgreen + Tommey in computing...

... Ok, y'know what? I refuse to write a 'about me'. Its going to be right back in the blog roll, and people don't need to know about me...

I have the biggest mac. There. Over. I'm two to four inches bigger than you two.

Fuckin' hell.

Blogger?! BLOGGER?!

About me...

Hi, Tommey A.K.A. elrevert here introducing himself in the 3rd person for some reason.

Basically I'm a student studying computing, maths, film studies and English Language in Hereford, UK (sound familiar?). I'll be posting some general hackery from time to time as well as some Photoshop/iMovie type stuff.

I also do a podcast every few weeks or so, so if you want an insight into what we get up to at college, or just some cheap laughs, search for elrevert on Youtube and subscribe. 

 - Tommey

Lil bit about me.

Hey, im James AKA P-Green. I am a college student studying computing, physics, chemistry and maths in the lesser-known town of Hereford in the UK. I Hope this collaborative blog will be an outlet for the various tech related projects me and my friends get up to. Think make/hack/tinkering.

I am also a dancer, freerunner and amateur pyromaniac.

I hope to post interesting things soonish. Right after some upcoming exams.

Green

New Blog

Hello World.