http://creativeflux.co.uk CreativeFlux Feed en-us Symphony 1701 http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/google-chrome/ Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:06:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/google-chrome/ Google stepped into the browser market yesterday with Google Chrome after a rather novel introduction through a comic book. Now it’s certainly not groundbreaking when compared to other browsers in terms of features that users get to use/see, but technically, it’s rather good. (And I don’t just mean super fast!). Every tab is a separate process, something which at first I thought was crazy. Turns out, that insulates the rest of the browser from a crashing/hanging tab, something which I’ve had happen a few times with firefox and safari. I’m pretty sure I read IE was doing something similar in version 8 but still, it’s a good feature. Also, with javascript performance being focused on by all the browsers it makes sense that Google Chrome compete in this area too. Now I thought they would’ve just gone with SquirrelFish since it’s being incorporated into webkit (which chrome uses), but no. They’ve pulled in V8, made by a Danish team who are supposedly rather good when it comes to virtualizing laguages. The result is that in sunspider the benchmark most are using now, Google Chrome is about 30%-40% quicker than safari 4, at least that’s what I found in my brief testing, so it’s by no means definitive. Then we get to the ui. There’s not a whole lot to it to be honest but I’ve got to say for some reason, I kinda like it. I was scared when I saw all the baby blue in the screenshots but it turns out in vista, all that blue is replaced with the glass frame and actually looks remarkably nice (by google’s standards anyway). There’s a ton of other things too, a speed dial like interface when opening new tabs, which despite being blatantly pulled from Opera, actually works much better due to how it’s populated and the inclusion of search data. There’s also the way searching is handled via the omnibar, it’s surprisingly intuitive to use and makes searching any site you’ve visited previously quick and easy. I’m looking forward to seeing where this goes as there’s clearly still room for improvement, especially with preferences which are somewhat sparse at the moment. But the browser is solid, I’ve had only one crash so far and that was when I decided to be silly with the number of tabs I had open and dare I say it, I think I might use it as my default in Vista for a while since since my needs are few in that OS. http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/beijing-olympics-in-lego/ Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:31:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/beijing-olympics-in-lego/ We (Great Britain) have been having a rather awesome Olympic games this year but something almost as awesome are these images of the olympic village and stadium done in lego. Impressive stuff! http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/racedriver-grid-=-awesome/ Mon, 12 May 2008 09:24:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/racedriver-grid-=-awesome/ Been playing with this demo over the weekend and while I don’t play a huge number of driving games (mostly because I can’t find any I like) this game just has everything I want. Definitely a pre-order :) and for good measure he’s a vid of me winning in the BMW race with my extremely poor driving skills (bad line, cutting corners, hitting the odd car, etc etc…) Because I’m a tad lazy in the mornings you’ll have to have javascript enabled in the browser for this to work, but you can download it here if you want too. edit The video was pretty big (40Mb) so I re-compressed it down to 28Mb and in the process made it work on the iphone too! QT_WritePoster_XHTML('Click to Play', '/videos/grid-poster.jpg', '/videos/grid.mov', '480', '316', '', 'controller', 'true', 'autoplay', 'true', 'bgcolor', 'black', 'scale', 'aspect'); http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/wasps-why-me/ Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:00:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/wasps-why-me/ I’ve got a real loathing for wasps and I dare say a lot of other people have but I in particular hate them (in fact I’d go so far as to say I have a definite phobia of them (Spheksophobia). Just the sight of one or hearing that freakin’ scary buzzing noise is enough to send me running for the hills. So imagine my surprise when a month ago, I crawl under my desk to fix something in my PC case and lo-and-behold, there’s a wasp crawling around on the floor right in front of my face, needless to say I opened the window and ran for the hills.(well… downstairs) That was pretty darn scary (for me), but now, just 15 minutes ago, another of the buggers starts buzzing against my window, I nearly fell off my chair spinning and legging it out the room… I mean come on, what have I done to deserve this sort of treatment from dear old mother nature? http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/earthquake/ Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:55:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/earthquake/ Holy shit… It sounds absolutely crazy but not more than 30 minutes or so ago we had an earthquake… in Grimsby!? I’m watching the news now and it’s apparently nation wide but so far none of the reports seems to be quite as severe as what I experienced. The house suddenly started shaking… books came out of my bookcase, clothes fell down in my wardrobe, bricks and slates were falling off roofs. And the noise… it’s the loudest thing I’ve ever heard. Just down the street a car has been mangled by several pieces of bricks and debri sent tumbling off the roof and apparently there’s been some more severe structural damage in some places. It’s just crazy… Update Here’s a few pictures from outside my house, they’re a bit blurry as it’s still 3am here and my camera isn’t that good but you can make out what’s happening. There’s quite a lot of structural damage down my street and I’m told in some other local areas it’s even worse. http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/macworld-08/ Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:59:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/macworld-08/ I wasn’t going to write anything but, it’s Macworld and I didn’t join in with the predictions so I may as well post a reaction! Time Capsule This is pretty much exactly what I wanted! I have an iMac and an old iBook G4 and it’s a pain having to switch the drive between systems. Having this all in one device is superb and it takes up less space than having a drive plugged into a router, since it’s all in one. So… thumbs up for that. Apple TV + iTunes Move Rentals This wasn’t a surprise thanks to all the articles that have been flying around the last week or so, but nonetheless it’s very welcome. I hate going to the cinema and I love consuming my media in digital format (I hate disks, hence why quite a few of my DVD’s are ripped to h264 and stored on a big drive!) The AppleTV is suddenly worth the money(!) I was semi-tempted when it first came out but it didn’t quite offer enough so I lost interest in it. Now that I can buy music, video and movie rentals right on my TV it looks to be a perfect way to tie all of my media together in the living room. So needless to say I’ll be grabbing one of those later in the year! Those were really the only two announcements that caught my eye. The MacBook air is nice, especially if you’re someone who travels a lot and no doubt it’s an impressive engineering feat. But it’s just not something I’m interested in currently. And I don’t have an iPhone/iPod Touch so I didn’t really pay any attention to that either. All in all a great keynote, though I was hoping to get my hands on a 10.5.2 update (maybe it’ll come a bit later!) http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/good-bye-subversion-hello-git/ Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:00:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/good-bye-subversion-hello-git/ Recently, I had a bit of a disaster with Subversion. Unbeknown to me over the Christmas period my repository somehow “broke”, I was unable to retrieve any of my previous revisions and as a result all I was left with was some high experimental code I’d been working on in a branch on my local system. So basically I had lost pretty much everything. I know what you’re thinking already, I should have had it backed up, I did, but unfortunately not knowing the time it went bad made restoration impossible (since I only have so many backups of my slice). That’s how I came to try out Git and boy am I glad I did… http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/merry-christmas-2/ Tue, 25 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/merry-christmas-2/ http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/symphony-20-sneak-peek/ Sat, 08 Dec 2007 12:47:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/symphony-20-sneak-peek/ The next version of Symphony has been in development by the guys at Twentyone Degrees for some time now and it seems the beta is nearly upon us! Before that comes out though, the guys have been kind enough to put up a sneak peek site where we can check out some of these new features in action. There’s also a podcast over at Chaotic Pattern. It won’t mean as much to the non-symphonians but I think it looks like a great update regardless. Anyone excited?! http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/talk-about-a-long-absence/ Fri, 07 Dec 2007 22:43:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/talk-about-a-long-absence/ Yes, in response to several emails I’ve gotten, I am still alive and kicking :) There haven’t been any posts on here in a while for several reasons, but the main one is, my trusty iMac G5 broke on me. I was actually quite shocked about it as it’s the first time any Apple product I’ve owned has broken (lots of white dots all over the screen). Despite the 2 month wait for a resolution it finally arrived a day or two ago in the form of a brand new 20’ iMac as they couldn’t determine the fault (the latest model I might add). (Needless to say I’m very happy that I paid for Applecare as otherwise I’d be stuffed (and I don’t just mean financially!).) I’m still getting back data that I lost and setting things up how I want but rest assured I’ll be updating the site more regularly soon and hell, maybe I’ll even get around to that re-design I keep promising myself! http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/bourne-ultimatum/ Sat, 25 Aug 2007 18:03:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/bourne-ultimatum/ It was many years back that I stumbled upon the Bourne Identity, quite by accident in fact (I was studying at the time and hadn’t kept up with any movies at all). I was somewhat sceptical as I sat down to watch it, Matt Damon didn’t seem a very likely “action hero”. By the end of it however I was thoroughly impressed; it was fresh, it had action without being over the top or cliché and interestingly, the hero had an ounce of intelligence beyond knowing how to shoot someone. Then came the Supremacy which overall I would say was a step back compared to the first. Killing Marie off in the first 10 minutes was bold, maybe too bold and it only served to bring a shallow “I want revenge” quality to Bourne which was only balanced by his ongoing torturous memories and guilt over a prior assassination. It was however, still a pretty good film and it served it’s purpose: to lead us into the final film of the trilogy. [Don’t read the rest if you hate spoilers!] http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/content-aware-image-resizing/ Wed, 22 Aug 2007 08:49:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/content-aware-image-resizing/ Normally I resist posting really short entries like this, but since I don’t have a tumblelog or snippet section I’m making an exception in this case. Check out this video on youtubefor some pretty advanced (but very cool) “content-aware” image resizing. http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/new-apple-keyboard/ Wed, 15 Aug 2007 14:27:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/new-apple-keyboard/ I ordered one of the new Apple Keyboards last Friday and it arrived today (one day early I might add). It looks like I was quite lucky too as less than an hour after I ordered mine the wait time went from 3-5 days to weeks! When I first opened the box I was immediately struck by just how good it looks. The aluminum and white looks fantastic and dramatically more professional looking than the transparent plastic of old (which looks terrible after a few weeks of dirt gets stuck beneath the keys). But looks aren’t everything when it comes to keyboards, it needs to feel right and I’m happy to say that using the new Apple keyboard is just fantastic. Now, at first, it does feel a bit strange. The keys are flat (as opposed to concave) and the return key is a bit smaller so you might find that you make a few typos here and there. I’m already starting to get used to it though in the few hours I’ve used it. The response from the keyboard is lovely, it feels very crisp and the ‘mushiness’ from the old keyboards is gone. As is the noise! If there’s any downside at all it’s the new function key layout. I’ve gotten used to my F9-F11 exposé keys over the last few years so it’s going to take a bit of time to adjust (you could of course change the keys in system preferences). But I’m willing to put up with it, as the convenience of dedicated keys for controlling iTunes is just too nice. “No more having to use quicksilver to skip and pause!” All in all it’s a simply fantastic product and if you’re thinking of getting one, you won’t be disappointed. http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/iphoto-08/ Fri, 10 Aug 2007 12:21:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/iphoto-08/ I’ve been playing around with the new iLife since yesterday (specifically iPhoto, my most used iLife app) and it’s been great! The app feels much faster than ’06 on my iMac G5, scrolling, editing, importing, it’s all zippy and the experience is much nicer for it. Searching is much better and the new editing features are very welcome, especially for tweaking the shadows and highlights (sharpness is handy too), so hopefully I won’t need to use Photoshop as much as I did previously to touch up images. There are some glaring negatives though… http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/new-imac-ilife-08-iwork-08/ Tue, 07 Aug 2007 19:08:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/new-imac-ilife-08-iwork-08/ I’ve just finished catching up with all of the new Apple announcements made a little while ago. I’ve got to say this is what I thought Macworld way back in January should have been, as opposed to an extended promo of the iPhone. Firstly, we have the new iMacs which look pretty damn nice. I’ve seen a few people complaining that it’s not much of a change, personally I think that’s a good thing (if it ain’t broke don’t fix it…). Oh and how about up to 4Gb of ram supported? The only thing I’m not too sure about is the decision to include a glossy screen as standard, they don’t always look good under certain lighting conditions. Oh and the keyboard is lovely, when I saw some leaked images of it the other day I wanted one instantly, it looks much nicer than the Apple keyboard I’m typing on now anyway. Then there’s the iLife ’08 suite, I’m waiting patiently for the tour video to download at the moment so I can see what all the fuss is about, but from what I’ve read it should be a nice upgrade from ’06. iWork got a nice new addition too, a spreadsheet application called Numbers (it looks pretty cool) which finally makes iWork a possible alternative to Microsoft Office which I hate with a passion on the mac. I may write a bit more on this later when I’m fully up to speed but really you should just got to Apple.com and get excited whilst trying to resist the urge to whip out your credit card! http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/monitoring-server-processes/ Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:05:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/monitoring-server-processes/ There’s nothing worse than discovering your mail server has been down for x amount of time when you’ve been waiting for an important email. Or sshd crashing, leaving you without ssh access to your server. The list goes on (depending on the services you run), so it’s important, if you’re running you’re own server, to have some sort of system in place to keep an eye on things for you and restart failed or out of control services so that you don’t have to worry. There are a few monitoring applications that can accomplish this, monit for instance which quite a few people seem to like. For me, it’s a bit overkill though. I just want something simple, I don’t need all of the stats and other things it provides, I just want my services to stay running. So I turned to god*, and no I don’t mean God in the religious sense, in this case it’s just the name for a nifty little ruby application that lets you monitor and restart services. They probably should change the name (given the amount of grief they’ve been given in google groups) but for now, it’s called god. Installation is easy, via rubygems but the thing I like about it, is that the config files you write to monitor things are all written in ruby. (Example) You can also extend the framework with your own custom conditions allowing you to tailor it to your specific needs. It took me a matter of minutes to setup and the ruby process running god is using around 8Mb of ram which isn’t a lot really (especially after the ram I saved switching from pro-ftpd to pure-ftpd). So if you don’t already have service monitoring setup, it’s probably worth a look (more so if you like ruby). http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/transformers/ Sun, 29 Jul 2007 14:31:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/transformers/ I was a huge fan of Transformers when I was younger, I had all the videos, a huge collection of toys; there was something about the whole franchise that just captured my 5 year old imagination like nothing else. So naturally when I discovered that it had been made into a movie I was instantly excited to see how the cartoon would work when ported to “reality” (in a manner of speaking). In the time leading up to it’s release a lot of people feared that it may fail to deliver despite all the hype… After having watched it twice I can say without doubt that it was absolutely AWESOME! mild spoilers That’s not to say it was perfect of course. The two subplots following the soldiers and code-breakers seem largely irrelevant and seem only to serve as way to lengthen the movie. (Although seeing armed men running from Scorponox, burrowing and leaping out of the sand did make for quite impressive visuals.) I still don’t understand the rationale for taking the “AllSpark” into the middle of the city in the closing parts of the film but with such frantic action and masses of robot carnage I’m willing to forget about that… Overall if you like Transformers (or even if you don’t), can forgive a slightly cartoony story and enjoy a good bit of action then odds are you’ll probably enjoy what is certain to be the summer blockbuster of 07’. http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/caterpillar-invasion/ Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:12:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/caterpillar-invasion/ It seems my garden has just suddenly been invaded by these spectacularly fat, spiny caterpillars. There must be a least 15-20 of these roaming around outside… If anyone happens to know what species this is, please leave a comment as I’d love to know what these will turn into! http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/flooding/ Mon, 25 Jun 2007 07:48:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/flooding/ Of all the things i could wake up too I wasn’t expecting to be close to flooded this morning. There’s a rough shot video from my bedroom window here. And as well as the image below there’s also a flickr set with a few more pics. Flickr Set I only got a few before my camera got too wet. http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/beta/ Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:04:00 GMT http://creativeflux.co.uk/entry/beta/ The web is a very fickle place, all too often things get blown out of proportion or misinformation is spread like wildfire to the detriment of those involved. (Mentioning no names there…) A prime example of this? The recently released Safari 3 beta. Since it’s release on Monday the beta has been downloaded thousands of times and predictably many people have had problems and in fact a quite severe security bug was found too. Then you get people posting in forums, things such as “well it wouldn’t even launch for me”, “it’s really slow”, “this plugin doesn’t work” and always a classic “this browser sucks, Apple sucks”. This is beta, yes B.E.T.A. Personally I blame Google for this state of misinformation on the web. Actually blame is a bit of a strong word for this, but they certainly played a part in bringing about the new mindset in software development where beta actually means a bug free shipping version. So please, when you read poor quality, misinformed and premature reviews (did someone say Wired? ) about how poor the browser is, spare a moment to consider that this is just beta. (The first beta in fact).