Assessment #1

I know, I know, I might've left this a little late, but I do have a fairly decent excuse: I was in the TV studio tonight, and probably having a bit too much fun pushing peds around. Television is in my blood, it would seem, and there's no way that I'm going to start wringing it out, despite what academic consequences it might have on me.

Nevertheless:

Blogger
This will be my 9th post on my blog. The actual design I've chosen is a cross between a stock template, colours that I chose that seem to work well together, and a few other bits and pieces thrown in for good measure. I have also managed to pick some Gadgets and elegantly lay them either side of my main content. I haven't actually blogged in several years, so it's a good feeling to be doing something that's actually academically worth it in the long run.

Delicious
I love Delicious - it's a great place to see where the hype in the world lies, with regards to trending topics and whatnot. It's also a great repository of ideas/tutorials/general mischievousness.

Flickr
Flickr and I go way back - back in the days of 2005 when all I had was a crummy EOS 20D and a crazy-bad kit lens. You'll actually see a few images that I dug out of the archives from that very camera and have managed to breathe new life into and upload onto the Internet for you to see. :) There's also plenty of iPhone photography, along with my newest love, the Canon 60D.

Back in the Game

It has been a long time in passing since I last visited this somewhat neglected blog. The usual excuses come to mind: being too busy, lacking enough focus, not being motivated enough to post more often, etc. And while I’m not going to deny any of the above, when you have as amazing a creative outlet as a blog, you should express yourself more often.

The TVP105 Files: House Lights Can be Deadly!

Walking into the studio from the outside, I encounter a dimly-lit studio - Bruce and David are milling over towards one side, a few members of the class are sitting down. The rest of the class hadn't entered yet. Knowing where the house light switches are, I decided to innocently walk into the prop bay and turn them on. This was a big mistake, as I'd eventually discover:

*hearing Bruce walking towards the prop bay door*
Bruce: 'What'd you do that for?!'
Jonathan: 'It's dark, I couldn't see anything, so I turned on the house lights.'
Bruce: 'Uh... Why?'
Jonathan: '...Without lights, you can't see; the camera cables are in the way of the door, they're a trip hazard.'
*David interjects*
David: 'Bruce is assuming role of floor manager - you can't turn the house lights on unless he asks for them.'
Bruce: 'You know full-well that the conditions inside of the studio are going to be different from those outside, including lighting; have you not considered that I wanted the house lights to be off?!'
Jonathan: 'Sorry, Bruce.'
While trying to retain a shred of dignity, I scurry away and plop myself down on a stack of seats at the back of the studio - meanwhile half the class that hasn't entered the studio is in the airlock.

'It's dark!'
'I can't see ANYTHING!'
'Oh! There's a cable there! I nearly tripped!'
--

Today we were introduced to resident TV Land B-list celebrity, Mr. Fugly, while practicing camera moves to music. Our rockstar was obviously Mr. Fugly. 'twas an interesting experience for all involved, especially for me at the beginning.

Enter: Quicksilver

I write these words on a computer whose already 17″ freakishly massive display has a pixel density of an Apple 24″ LED Cinema Display. Yes, the machine is huge. But it’s going to be put through its paces, very much so.

The keyboard feels amazing. It’s soft, understated, and very, very, very quiet. It also sports fibre-optic backlighting. The thumbscoop on the front is the result of hundreds of prototypes, each one being examined underneath an electron microscope and tested multiple times in usability studies before the final one on the front of each Unibodied machine was chosen.

The trackpad is wear-resistant etched glass, with no button; the entire surface is the button. Its tactility feels super natural, as is intended, and one doesn’t miss the presence of the button, as the thumb naturally falls into place and feels comfortable when making the click. The physical surface of the machine is hard to describe. The bead-blasting is something I haven’t ever experienced in a notebook before. Not even on my Powerbook G4. It’s just more refined, and totally gorgeous.

As for the body of the machine, it’s. CNC-machined aluminum. Very rigid. No flex in the body. Rounded corners, It’s hard to describe, unless you see it in person.

And did I mention the quality of the display?! This is no longer a notebook. I don’t think it even classifies as a laptop. It’s a freaking desktop-class machine in one’s lap.

Delicious (formerly del.icio.us)

Delicious is a social-bookmarking service originally founded by Joshua Schachter in 2003, and was later bought out by Yahoo! in 2005.

Much controversy was generated when the service was 'sundowned' by Yahoo! earlier this year. Throughout the Internet, this was considered by many to be considered the 'end' of Delicious, but as it turns out, Yahoo! is simply looking for a buyer. (Although considering Yahoo!'s current state/market share, I'd rather be holding onto good, strong, capable developers, and not losing them.)

Regardless of who owns Delicious, one thing is true: it's a fantastic service, and is well and truly worth the effort to make a collection of bookmarks on.

You can find my profile here:

Mmm... Donu- I mean, Delicious!

Flickr.

This isn't my first experience with Flickr - I've used it for many years prior, and it's always been an amazing community to intermingle, learn and show off your awesomesauce photography. What's more is that it is a community-focussed effort, with squillions of subject-centric groups that you are free to join and share your photography with those that have a penchant for what you do.

I'm intending on using this particular account for photography taken in other subjects whilst studying at CSU. Once my self-imposed embargo on VPA104 is lifted (once my assessment has been submitted) you can look forward to seeing those images uploaded to Flickr soon.

However, if you just can't wait/are curious as to what I do shoot, then you can find my Flickr profile right here:

Flickry-goodness

I've also linked some favourite images of mine to this post, for you to have a squiz at:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

Can Your Wind0ze-based PC Do THIS?! (#2)

For those of us that use a notebook, not holding a bar of soap and mousing around is something that few people get used to, especially if said notebook resides permanently at one’s desk. It’s like that innate need for a gundog (labrador, daschund, etc.) to always have something in its mouth.

But what if you have to wing-it with just your humble trackpad? How do you accomplish things like scrolling? On the PC side of things, an implementation has arisen by assigning the far-right hand corner of the surface to always scroll. Apple later came up with the idea of using two fingers to accomplish the same thing. Why? If you’ve used a PC’s trackpad for any length of time, you’ll encounter the scroll-area when simply dragging stuff across the surface of the ‘pad. Very bad UE. Apple solved this problem by forcing you to let the trackpad know you want to scroll. Simple, effective, and it works. Insanely great.

“But your Mac doesn’t even have a second mouse button!”

That’s true. But since when did Apple ever include something that wasn’t needed in its designs? You don’t need the RMB, because you can tell your computer to interpret a tap with two fingers as a RMB-click.

Still waiting for Windows to implement the same thing. (Guess we’ll see some sort improvement to scrolling when Windows 7 comes around, although considering prior experience with Vista, Windows 7 won’t be here for another 3 years. Give or take. Maybe even 5.)

The TVP105 Files: Sandbags and Chairs and Swingings, Oh My!

'Give it a good swing; make the poor bastard that's behind the camera have to HUNT for the sandbag!'
- Overheard on the studio floor
--

The studio felt awfully like a gym today - three cameras arranged behind various exercises designed to highlight abilities we need to practice. Known as 'Bruce's Bootcamp', activities such as tracking a sandbag attached to a rope that has been tied to the lighting grid and being swung, practicing panning, tilting and zooming all at the same time on an object, (it was actually meant to be Mr. Fugly) and manuvering a camera (and cablebasher) through an obstacle course of sorts, made out of a ladder and chairs that need to be negotiated around, whilst tracking Tigger - but that's not all - people that hit aforementioned chairs and ladder owe Bruce a golf ball.

In retrospect, I remember Bruce telling me that I owe him at least a baker's dozen, after taking a rather non-compliant ladder for a short walk.

Can Your Wind0ze-based PC Do THIS?! (#1)

Okay. Enough’s enough. I’ve lived on both sides of the tracks. Mac and PC. Started out with computers back in 1995, switched partially over in 2001, committing to the Mac full-time in 2004.

Welcome to a new mini-series on my blog that’ll hopefully put some of these issues of performance/myths to rest between the Mac and Windows-based PC platforms, once and for all. (Not for a moment did I say PCs in general; I’m all for open-source and whatnot.)

This first post is just such an example.

Look at that uptime. Keep in mind that while not a production machine, Anthracite has been used a lot heavier since he’s my only machine currently, and is also a laptop. Therefore, getting put to sleep and woken up upwards of 10-20 times a day is a reality for him.

But it’s okay! Really. I don’t envy those Windows users amongst us who have to deal with such issues as not being able to wake from sleep. You know, when you’ve got open documents that you’ve been working that may or may not have been saved. And that whole dialog box that asks you to disable sleep because ‘This is the second time that your computer has not responded while entering sleep. Do you want to disable it?” is such a glowing merit for owning a Windows-based laptop.

Read it and weep!

Arduino.

There are plenty of things that can be said for small, green and black objects with white silkscreen and not much else. Normal people would shun these sorts of things off as being 'uncool' or 'uninteresting', but beauty is indeed in the eye of the beholder, and when you don't look very interesting, that's easily something to overlook. Of course, if you're prepared to look beyond certain things, you'll often find beauty within.

And that's what makes the Arduino so special. The image above proves just how unassuming this piece of physical computing hardware is. But of course, it's what it can DO when you start to learn, understand, and start programming, that the real magic begins.

Here are some examples of what the Arduino can do:

Xmas Website Hit Counter

EL wire being driven by an Arduino

Charlieplexed LED cube

My First Post

Hi everybody! This is my first blog post on blogspot.com. It's swell.

We are robot sheep that follow Matt's words of wisdom.

The TVP105 Files: Technique-building is Character Building.

"A transformative experience unlike any other - your senses are heightened;
your pulse quickens;
your brain ticks over faster than you can think;
and you're in the middle of all of this wondering what the hell just happened.
It's not because you're jacked up on coffee,
running late,
or questioning the 'paracetamol' some guy gave you the night before,
It's because you've just walked in through the gates...
And into TV Land."
- Me
--

An enjoyable (non-production) workshop in the studio today, focussing on setup procedure for the cameras, driving the peds around, and tearing everything down. Of course, repetition is the mother of skill, and so many-many-many more hours will be need to be spent here before we can do it with our eyes closed. That and working on individual techniques.

The TVP105 Files: Our First Time. Honestly.

"One cannot expect to be perfect the first time they try something; if on the off-chance that they do manage to pull something off flawlessly, for the first time – ever, then they should be taken aside and be kindly reminded what they have performed is an impossibility, and that swarms of angry people spanning across the millennia of ages past, present, and future will be after their blood."
- Me
--

Being armed with a modicum of experience goes a long way in this industry, but by no means can anything prepare you for the delight (though some may beg to differ) that was ''A' you're adorable'. Simply put, it is a complete immersion, deep-dive sort of exercise that gets your feet soaking wet, and in the flurry of it all makes you appreciate just how the production of TV works - not existing as a single entity, but as a living breathing organism that requires each and every part to work harmoniously together.

Hits:
- Getting praised by Matt because I used 'ready camera x', 'focus camera x' in addition to asking the VM to take the shot
- Instructing the control room to briefly switch to camera 1 so that we could check focus on the monitor (don't forget your glasses, Krystal. ;))
- Being quick to respond on the intercom
- Keeping time on the VM when my director slipped up accidentally.
Misses:
- Calling out the names of the letters, instead of the number of the camera!
- Saying nothing to my VM Liam for 4 letters, and being kindly reminded by Matt
- Having the audio a little soft at the beginning of the song and not really riding the levels until partway through
- (Whilst on camera 1) Totally missing the letter 'C' without realising that one must reframe each letter - though in my defence, from that point on I did manage to zoom out, zoom back in, pull focus and keep the letters at a consistent size - not something everyone did, mind you!)
- Not flipping to the final card at the very end of the sequence infront of camera 1.
With all that said, for our first go, I don't think we did too badly!