Category: Internet

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Internet Personal

Audio Books – from where?

Trial Run Front Cover ImageMy family was always about words and stories. I remember from a very early age having story tapes with songs and books to read along. The first “grown up” audiobook i remember hearing was Trial Run by one of my favourite authors, Dick Francis (maybe one of the reasons I like him so much is this early memory.) There were frankly bits of the story that I didn’t understand and references I missed but I was hooked.

I love stories but am often too busy or too lazy to read for myself. I’ve been through hundreds of audio books from my local library (and they’ve done pretty well out of my overdue fees) but I’ve found a way to save myself all those fees!

Seth Godin was talking about audio books on his blog today, mentioning the high cost, but didn’t mention podcast audiobooks.

I’ve discovered new worlds, new creatures and all sorts of adventures from free podcast audiobooks. Here’s a list of some of my Favourites:

The best place to start is Podiobooks.com – They have a huge selection and you can get it all for free. For the record I have contributed towards some of those authors who give their work for free, including taking part in Scott Sigler’s victory over Amazon!

Categories
Fun Internet

If I were in the Simpsons I'd look something like this

A simpsons version of meI like the Simpsons, although I haven’t watched it for ages.  I fell into watching it on SKY ONE when we got cable in but now:

  1. the Muppets at Virgin can’t work out how to get me Sky One
  2. I’m never in at the right time

Anyhoo, now that the simpsons Movie is coming out I decided to check out the website and found a cool Simpsons character generator.  It’s kinda disturbing how much this guy looks like me.

We now have a gallery of all of us at work done as Simpsons character, which is kind of fun.

In the same vein you can try:

Categories
Fun Internet Music

Now it’s time for a round of “one song to the tune of another”

No, it’s not time for “I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue“, I just wanted to record a site which I found recently (almost certainly via BoingBoing.) It’s a site dedicated to cheesy records and compilations which are no longer available, and it’s called Way Out Junk. There are MP3 files available for download and some of it’s terrific. I’m currently enjoying:

And of course, let’s not forget the inimitable Hayseed Dixie whose reworkings of AC/DC and other groups hits in a bluegrass styleee are incredible.

Categories
Internet Movies SciFi

Missing Pages

Image from Missing Pages

I was reading on JC Hutchins site about a downloadable film called Missing Pages. It really is amazing. It’s in 3 episodes (quite hefty downloads) and tells the story of a man who invents a time machine and the consequences of his invention.

It is quite frightening in parts – some of the characters from the future are quite spooky – but it has real emotion and some genuinely interesting twists.

The interesting thing is that the film is not shot in live action, but created from thousands of stills, animated together. THese pictures are layered, zoomed and rotated to amazing effect.
It’s a fascinating story and really interesting to watch. Well worth checking out.

Categories
Internet Personal

okay, now I'm angry

okay, so maybe not angry yet, but annoyed enough.

I’ve been a Telewest subscriber since I moved into my home, and we had it when I was at home. I was happy with the Broadband options and the TV package, but recently I’ve been more and more irritated.

Ever since Virgin Media took over the system, it’s gone down the pan

  1. They lost Sky 1 and some other sky channel. They claim this is all Sky’s fault but frankly they’re acting like kids about it “Sky have taken their ball and gone home”. Stop making childish analogies and get it sorted – I’m supposed to be paying for this service!
  2. Their interactive TV has been pretty flakey recently and, whenever I phone up to complain, the automated message says “our engineers expect to have the issue resolved as soon as possible!” well DUH!! You will either have the problem solved as soon as possible, or expect to have it solved in a specific timespan – stop worming out of it!
  3. I now read that Virgin plans to cut my download speeds. I may rarely go over these speeds, but I do from time to time. If I want to download an Ubuntu install, at around 650 MB, then they’ll kill my download speed. This may affect me only occasionally but you can bet that, when it does, it’s going to be at the worst possible time

So now I’m going to have to go with ADSL and probably SKY TV (I get no reception where i live)

Categories
Fun Internet

Post-It DonkeyKong

I would love to be involved in something like this. These guys spend 5 hours arranging post-it notes in the shape of a scene from Donkey Kong. That takes quite some dedication. I suppose I just need some inspiration, a bit of planning and a whole heap of post-it notes.

In the meantime I’ll enjoy this one. There are loads of pictures.

This link comes to you courtesy of BoingBoing.

Categories
Blogging Internet Podcast SciFi Video

Podcast TV: Stranger Things

ChurchI was getting my weekly escapepod fix and Steve mentioned a new project, Stranger Things, a sort of podcast twilight zone series. I downloaded their premiere episode, which was adapted from a short story by Scott Sigler, and was really impressed. It was a good story, well acted and the special effects were really impressive. They had decided to postpone the launch of the podcast to make this the premiere episode and I’m glad they did. They recently released the second episode (actually two in one) and, while I’d have stuck with them, i wasn’t nearly so impressed with these episodes.

That said, what they’re doing is incredibly brave and must be a huge amount of work, and they deserve credit for that. I’m excited to see what comes out next month.

Categories
Blogging Internet

Posting via IMified

which allows you to perform various tasks using your IM client. I’ve given it my pordpress details and we’ll see what come sout of this – very exciting!

Categories
Internet Personal Useful Links

Sensible UK Copyright Laws – Sign the Petition

Did you know that if you rip a CD to MP3 files and then copy those onto your Ipod or other MP3 player, then you are breaking the law?
There’s a Petition to the Pirme Minister to look at more sensible copyright laws.
We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to create a new exception to copyright law that gives individuals the right to create a private copy of copyrighted materials for their own personal use, including back-ups, archiving and shifting format.
You can sign the petition here.

Categories
Internet

Wiki-wild wild

I love Wikis, but I can never say the word without thinking of that Will Smith song Wild Wild West

Wikis are amazing. I installed Instiki at work and now pretty much everyone uses it to document work procedures and meetings, and just bits and pieces that there wasn’t a place for before.

I also have my own free wiki with PBWiki. I probably don’t use it as much as I could but that’s just becaues I’m getting over the gradual demise of my PDA. The great thing about the PBwiki (and this is stating the obvious I suppose) is that I can get to it from anywhere. It’s really handy for storing notes on to access between home and the office, and pretty much anywhere else I may be. I can also store files there (disclaimer: by writing about thim on my blog they say they’ll double my storage space – I’m so easily bought), and I could store even more if I’d stump up for a paid membership (if I really get into it, you never know)

Anyway, I’d better stop now – my enthusiastic (read noisy) typing is attracting attention at work D