Wass-Up Holms

Hardly elementary. Damn fine :-)

Get it direct from the gents at Famous Last Nerds, these being the chaps of Shawshank in a Minute, Hamlet In A Minute etc. fame.

A Rare Meeting

Just uploading a few old pics to Flickr, and found this.

Work alt (and Tetnus) meets main AV (and ETC) to quickly swap some scripts. It must be at least a year old. Loads of other old SL pics too.

Kinda spooky, and probably some kind of schizophrenic self deprecating caption comp. in it :-)

Killer Sock Monster [from iPhone]

Harry, complete with tiny little front paws like a T Rex.

Waking me up by shaking a disguarded sock around the bedroom...

...it's still very early.

The Dining Room [from iPhone]

Pete (the hero) turned up today and started helping Jem to replaster the downstairs of the house (which is currently a kinda crappy thick trowelled 70's affair that really don't suit a cottage built in 1790) .

I gotta be honest, it doesn't bother me any where near as much as it clearly offendeds the good lady wifes sense of the aesthetic. Still, I'm not genetically disposed to care about home furnishings so I'll nod and smile.

I just got in from work and, frankly, I have never seen as much mess in a fully furnished home...

...ah well, akin to moving house, things like this mean an inoperable kitchen so likely to be Georges fish and chips for tea :-)

No Heroics

Looks good, probably shit.

Coming to ITV2 on September 6th. Shamelessly riding the wooper-hero bandwagon like Cynthia Payne on a middle class gimp.

Mid Season Special

Okay, this is totally selfish. When Cylindrian Rutabaga played her tribute to Eva Cassidy at Tribute Island last time we loved it SO much we asked her back for a mid season special right away :-)

Cylindrian Rutabaga, professional RL/SL performer and recording artist Grace Buford, will once again be singing and playing her beutiful cafe sound for an hour in homage to one of her heroes, the vocalist & 'songbird' Eva Cassidy. This Friday, 1PM SLT.

This is an extra to our ongoing Tribute Island LIVE music events, sponsored by the good folks at Lasting Tribute, in association with Prim Perfect Magazine and Radio Riel.

This promises to be another very special evening, and most chilling. Cyn has an incredible voice and a talent for piano and guitar that just blew me away last time. When there's entertainment like this going on a Friday night, who needs the Holly Bush, well, maybe afterwards for a swift one ;-)

Tribute Island [SLURL]

TANGO Live Tonight for Astor Piazzolla

Tonight at 1PM SLT (9PM GMT), at Tribute Island in the virtual world of Second Life, Joaquin Gustav’s pays musical tribute to Astor Piazzolla.

One of the most important tango composers of the late 20th century, Astor was responsible for revolutionising the genre.

Argentinian artist, Joaquin Gustav (a composer, director, & teacher) is rich in smooth Jazz sound, tempered with classical rock, and steeped in those south American sounds of Tango, Milonga, and Candombe. When Joaquin first came to SL he spoke very little English and has used the virtual world as a tool to learn the language, now speaking what his fans affectionately call 'Spanglish'. His beautiful and passionate acoustic sets are legendary in Second Life, and Astor is clearly a great influence on his music.

The concert will be followed by 2hrs of dancing & music from the top draw DJ's of Radio Riel. Once again, an event not to be missed. These gigs are joint sponsored by Prim Perfect, Radio Riel, and Lasting Tribute. You can visit Tribute Island here [SLURL].

Rockstar, Derby

Done by Paul, a local lad from Derby. Now THIS is folks showing pride in their community by using the web and what's available to them! WAY better than 80% of the mass produced bobbo. Alas, it looks like young Paul blew his wad on his first attempt, as his follow up video of his mate walking around Spondon Co-op dressed as a rasher of bacon is utter shit. I guess it's all experimental when ya that age. Damn, sometimes I wish I was still a student :-)

iPhone Deja Vu

Relisting the old iPhone if ya interested, cos the eventual buyer was a feckin' time-wasting moron who didn't understand the concept of "PayPal only" and wanted to send cheques - http://tinyurl.com/niksiphone4sale

Another AV Creator

There's a lot of flash-based AV creators out there, WeeMee and it's clones like Digibody and Dream AV that are designed just to pull in traffic to other services, even to the likes of HeroMachine. All kinds of fluff without having to delve into Poseresque sliders and nose tweaking.

Here's a nice one that I was sent today, if you like this sort of thing. Face Your Manga. Comprehensive enough to get a fair likeness to add to your IM or Facebook, but easy to get something looking like you in a couple of clicks.

Personally I don't have a use for stuff like this, but it's always nice to fiddle. Doesn't matter to me, I always look like Tony Stark, Marcus Cole, a geography teacher, Boltar, or The Zohan no matter what I try to do with these things. I'll bet ya this one causes a fad though, watch out over the next week for those Twitter icons changing like sheep ;-)

Shuttle Launch from Passenger Plane

Cheers to @Vicky_B for sending me this one. VERY cool.

Thanks for the Notice

So, I get home to my emails this evening to find Twitter has, basicly, stopped.

Due to the high cost of SMS, Twitter SMS updates will only be available in the US, Canada and India. So that's 3 growing promotional campaigns (obituaries, UK green news and UK journalism news) and my international personal communications royally shafted up the Gary Glitter. I see why they are doing this, fair do's, but some notice would have been nice.

So, that's it then. Second class UK again, it's just like my ongoing gripes with the iTunes store and Star Wars merchandise (don't get me started). If I'm not sat at my desk or in a WiFi/3G area then I can go take a leap. For me, and probably 90% of users, getting news and updates via SMS is the main frackin' feature of the application. Suddenly, gone. I mean, gee, it's Twitter, could they not have sent us a txt? Maybe they could have dashed off an RSS feed that was just folks we follow by SMS and let us cobble something useful together for our own platforms? No.

Ah well, off to join the "UK mobile operators: cut Twitter a decent deal on SMS charges" group in Facebook and moan about it to the SL Brits tonight.

Looks like it's time to start playin' around with Jaiku again...

Bigging Up Adams

Nice present from AB this morning, for Tribute Island [SLURL]. A sperm whale and petunias for our mutual childhood hero, Douglas Adams. Well worth a look.

This drove me to the site to see what was already there, and horror of horrors there was bugger all. Jack. Nada. Bupkiss.

I'm letting the geek-flag fly here and summoning the troops.

Please, if you can, write something for Douglas. He deserves it. He changed sci-fi and the mindset of a billion generation Xers. There's modern day kids TV presenters on the site with 400 tributes, and SFA for the man who brought us Hitchhikers, Doctor Who, Monty Python, and just about most cool British things in the 80's that weren't The Young Ones or Spitting Image. That's just plain wrong.

Surely the guy deserves a few kind words of posthumous thanks, even if we ALL just chat "Zaglabor astragard, Hootrimansion Bambriar", which actaully isn't a bad idea :-)

Give it a Digg too, if ya like ;-)

Out in Shops

Out today in the shops, and probably gonna cost me a fortune.

Better start slowly and buy up the popular ones first...

Elvis Lives

Now, I like Elvis impersonators, which is probably a sickness of that I'm aware.

Way, way back in our 'Heroes of Film' days, when we had the office in Bradford, there was this curry house we used to go to called 'Tandoori Nights'. The place had a fountain in the middle of it, a tiny stage, and used to have these 3 Asian Elvis impersonators (one of which was on of the waiters) on a Wednesday night. We used to take investors and funding people there, it never failed to impress. Everyone loves a decent curry, and a good rendition of 'In the Ghetto' sung by a grown man dressed in sequins.

Well worth hangin' around the house this Saturday night, on Tribute Island [SLURL] in Second Life, come check out the BEST of SL tribute stars, the one, the only, a session from the soul, BubbaC John. BubbaC is an award-winning Elvis impersonator who can trace his Mississippi roots back to the King himself, and he's streaming live to a max of 100 guests August 16, this Saturday, 1SLT, 31 years to the day after the death of Elvis. Personally, to honour the man himself and the fine work of BubbaC, I'll be ordering in a vegetable Jalfrazi, tarka dhal, and a plain nan.

Get there early, this is bound to be packed. I'm getting the fireworks out for this one, come feel the lag. Hail to the king, and pass the lime pickle.

Across the Mersey Estuary [from iPhone]

Out for a strole with Pigg & Holly. Just stopped for water & a breather. Looking NW, out from Fox Hill, over M56, Mersey Estuary & Manchester Ship Canal.

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Pigs Disks [from iPhone]

A weekend of much testing. 'Pacific Rift' looking very sweet ;-)

Proper Cake [from iPhone]

Look at that. Proper cake.

Not cheap shit with chocolate on it to appease the masses. Proper damn northern cake.

My boss rules :-)

50 Virtual Worlds

A Film by Gary Hayes © Personalizemedia 2008, which is going to be in every damn Power Piont I do at work for the next 6 months.

Over 50 virtual worlds featured including Second Life, HiPiHi, Kaneva, Twinity, ActiveWorlds, LagunaBeach vMTV. There.com, Habbo, Google Lively, FootballSuperstars, Weblin, AmazingWorlds, CyWorld, Whyville, Gaia Online, RocketOn, Club Penguin, YoVille, Webkinz, BarbieGirls, Prototerra, IMVU, Spore, vSide, Tale in the Desert, SpineWorld, Stardoll, The Manor, There.com, ExitReality, Vastpark, Qwaq, PS3Home, GoSupermodel, Grockit, Croquet, Metaplace, Coke Studios, Dreamville, Dubit, Mokitown, Moove, Muse, The Palace, Playdo, Sora City, Voodoo Chat, TowerChat, Traveler and Virtual Ibiz. Amazingly this doesn't even touch on some of the big MMOs like the epic-sized World of Warcraft etc.

Top work, that beautifully highlights the scope of the virtual megaverse, and in many ways the user-base, that's out there.

Pimp My iPhone

This, is most pretty.

Colorware, the folks who do the smooth custom PS3 kit, ThinkPads, Guitar Hero axes, PSPs, BlackBerrys etc., are offering its 'mail-in' custom coloring services for the iPhone 3G. Geek chique extreme, if you can bare to be without 'The Precious' for a couple of weeks while she's in for the revamp.

Normal or metallic paint in 35 color options, scratch resistant, high-gloss finish, yada, yada. Getting just the back done will rush you a reasonable £75, the frame a mere £10, the home button a further £10, SIM tray £5, and your earbuds another £5.

If you like your indulgences just that bit more indulgent, you could do much worse. Alas, no way I'm being without for 2 weeks and I wish I'd know pre-upgrade while I could have still run the old one and my new one was at Colorware. I'm pretty sure getting this done would double resale value.

Guess I'll just have to make do with a well swish case.

This Friday at Tribute Island

This weekend, on Tribute Island [SLURL], Friday, 2SLT followed by Elrik Merlin of Radio Riel, Mankind Tracer plays his tribute to Syd Barrett - EVENT DETAILS HERE>

Syd Barrett! What an awsome chioice! My first record ever (I natuarally don't include 'Basil Brush Sings' or 'The Aristocats') was Relics, and I'm a long time Barrett fan. This one, as all the gigs in Second Life in this season, comes right from the heart, and Mankind (RL artist Seth Regan) is a top bloke, and a great artist, who (when ever I've seen him) never fails to leave his audiences applauding for more.

Make it over if you possibly can. Tribute Island live events are in collaboration with Lasting Tribute, Prim Perfect Magazine and Radio Riel.

Testing Twitpic

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Testing the new iPhone twitpic ap. for geotagging photos & tweets, which looks like it's passed :-)

Everyone Down the Cardiff Massive?

A bit of fun tonight, 8 GMT onwards in SL at The Doctor Who Experience & Cardiff [SLURL]. Head on over to the Who Bar for what promises to be a highly amusing 'best in sci-fi' do with prizes (Big Finish Audio CDs, over L$10k in cash, SL av's, props and more) plus tom-foolery, and yours truly (well, his knibs) DJing from 8 till 10.

Probably best not taken too seriously, this gravity-well for geekdom is home to some of the nicest, geekiest, friendliest, borderline grifers on the grid. Some truly impressive builders, seasoned fans, and bristling with all things Whoovian.

An interesting 'night out' if one is perhaps researching their doctorate on Asperger's syndrome or obsessive compulsive disorders, and without the dangers of a real Saturday night out in Cardiff or of waking up in Bute Park with your face in a munta/kebab.

Come and check it out, it promises to be an education.

Selling Up

Ok, loads of you folks (you know who you are) wanted a heads-up when I was selling it, so, my old iPhone (in feckin' pristine condition I gotta say from spending it's life in a case) and most of the stuff not even being used) is on eBay as of now - http://tinyurl.com

Go consume, and yes I will take cash-in-hand if the buyer collects by walking across the office and giving me cold hard cash ;-)

Fire! Actual Smoke! [from iPhone]

Smoke coming out of the aircon over in sales. Probably another dead mouse in the system. All out. Proof in this pic of the magnetic attraction towards firemen for the opposite sex.

Currently stood in the car park, bored, baking in the sun and chatting iPhones with Young Tom, Sianos, The Rodda, and @digitalpulse (who's having a birthday today and had just bought cakes). Funny, the building was on fire but everyone in the dept. managed to grab a cream cake on the way out. It's hot out here, and my beard smells like stale cream already.

Ah well, if it all burns to the ground at least I blogged it ;-)

Frackin' hay for the power of the press ;-)