A Donkey on the Edge

Helping Clem with her homework. The brief was “what would you do” and the required media was “any” which I felt was vague and demanding for a 5-year-old.

Undaunted, Clemmie wanted to make a film but I had to point out this was going to be a little challenging given the time we had. We ended up with a Keynote file. She made the time machine slide herself and did all the thinking. The words are all hers. My contribution was to suggest a structure and be her dtp operator:-)

The cool bit was watching her work out what was needed both to make her machine (lots of levers) and to actually get to Laura’s place. It took a couple of minutes but she eventually worked out she needed to know both a place and a date (the date is spoken to the time machine using the on-board microphone and the map of Wisconsin is included above the catering tray).

Wow, John Hardy and David Coates aren’t just medical doctors, they’re voice-over artists:-)

John offered me this fantastic arthroscopy footage after my operation. The arthroscope is hooked up to a video encoder which captures live footage for post-operative review. When I first received the disk it was just raw footage. After hearing about the number of arthroscopies on YouTube, John (who is not only a world-leading Orthopaedic surgeon but a painter, internet guru, web marketer and now film editor and voice-over artist) decided to have a go at an edited version.

The result is a complete transformation, a view of the whole op from me on very powerful drugs to the final phases of the joint smoothing, the whole thing narrated by the two doctors.

Oh, and before I forget, John was mortified by my earlier “before and after” pictures. He wanted me to point out that the surgery is very non-invasive and the recovery is usually very speedy. The following shot of my knee was taken roughly two weeks after the operation, the stitches are out and you can barely see the entry wounds:

I love this photograph for the Natural History Museum kids only sections (sorry about the image quality, snapped on a bus stop).

The portrait had to have been done in a massive black poly tunnel and considering the background is exposed to a stop more light than the foreground the dynamic range of the shot is astonishing. Information exists in the darkest shadows and none of the white fabric definition is lost on the sides of the hood (which are white on white after all). They should use this shot in lighting school.

Oh, and the art direction is lovely too;-)

Safe???!! WTF does that mean?!! This from the Flickr help files:

My account has been reviewed as safe. What does that mean?

Having a “safe” account means that you are good at moderating your own content. Awesome!

“Good at moderating your own content” wow that sounds creepy. I hate it when I read something like this that intellectually I know is right but somewhere hidden at the back there’s a little alarm bell that goes off… Now if I could only work out what it was.

One of the Flickr posters in my contacts has had a lot of grief with her regular readers complaining that they could no longer see her pictures. I’ve been doing a little reading ever since I became a libellous Flickr user (can you libel someone in an email address? I’m sure there’s a precendent out there…) and you know, this Flickr content filter thing is really getting up my nose.

Anyway, am not liking the feeling of being ‘handled’ this is definitely not the Flickr experience I signed up for.

You know, I wasn’t going to get all huffy about it, but I just don’t believe the explanations coming out of Yahoo.

I ignored the many emails explaining how this was going to be a seamless transition and that us early adopters who sent Katerina our cash from day one would be happily assimilated into the collective and that really this was for the best for all concerned. So I finally got this today:

Aside from just not liking their style or their products, one of the main reasons I never got a yahoo id is because the options suck. Well, not in any inherent way, but because they’ve been carrying a registration database around since 1996 so have more than two users.

Call me a wanker (and many do) but I’ve grown used to having nice logins, I’m “dug” on delicious and most other places. If not, I’m Bozo (generally for thing’s I’d be a little embarrassed to discuss with my mom) or even donkeyontheedge if I’m trying to extend or integrate with the blog.

So of course I tried donkeyontheedge@yahoo.com (and co.uk) and hey, of course they’re gone, as are dieyahoodie, dieyahoodiediedie, yahooarescum, filthyyahooscum (which I thought sounded a bit like self-criticism but which Nicki suggested) and any permutation of yahoo and sucks…

Nope, I’m not kidding;-)

So yeah, has this harmed my experience of Flickr, has it impacted our network of one? Well, yes it has. Am I going to stop using Flickr? No. Am I going to stop fantasising about Katerina? Well, probably not but I’m gonna try, dammit. In any case, while I was regressing to the state of a vindictive six-year-old, I finally managed to find a yahoo id that wasn’t taken:

This rant inspired by Digital Mavericks: Opal Fruits, Marathon, Jif, now Flickr - Grrrrr! via Technorati.

If only I could read Japanese I would understand what エストニア独立記念日 - Skype 日本語ブログ is all about. As it is, all I can do is wonder at the photograph…

Oh, and while I came for the photo, I stayed for the kinky Skype Pro stuff. Clearly I’ve not being keeping up with Skype’s new offerings. Is this a Skype employee blog or are they offering hosting to pro customers?

Total fabulousness, now that’s what I call a desktop.
(get yours at shilpa-shetty.com)

I’ve walked past this mannequin (is that the word?) for a week know and stop and stare every time I go in to buy a sandwich. I’m guessing this particular model is based on Kate Moss, but the hair-style, the lighting and position make her a doppelgänger for Meg White :-)

Browsing the Apple website in search of support details and came across this

A robot armada has been unleashed into the night sky. Its ships are unmanned interplanetary probes that fly faster than you will ever go, and cross distances you can’t even imagine. But with nothing more than an Internet connection, you can go with them, catching sights that are as real—and as beautiful—as they are strange.

Not only are the pictures wonderful, but there’s a desktop widget

So this is the time of year when we say good-bye to our Christmas trees. I have to say, there is something just a bit depressing about all these abandoned trees. I mean, I know they’re not puppies or anything but how can you be indifferent—one minute we’re inviting them into our sitting room and covering them with glitter, the next we’re lobbing them out the window:-(

Have been playing with Flickr and it’s bloody brilliant :-) Have slowly started uploading pics (several v. integrated ways provided) and came across this shot of Clem playing with Kihlo’s monster teeth:

Fantastic:-)