Fractals

Yesterday, during my lunch break, I was randomly browsing through the WordPress blogs and came across a post that talked about fractals. I remembered there was some fractals generator engines and went on to have a look on Wikipedia to find out there is a small piece of software called Apophysis that will generate fractals to your heart’s content.

I would have to say, a bit like Google maps is addictive, I could not take my eyes off the graphics this thing was creating.
I think I have only scratched the surface with all the tweaks you can do but it is truly amazing!

I like to have nice looking desktop background but not majorly keen on having a picture but rather something abstract with some movement in it. Since I have 2 PCs under the desk, one of them connected to a dual monitor, my 3 19″ monitors have some great backgrounds now. The one that attract me are the ones that look a bit like a picture taken at night with a very slow shutter speed where someone would hold a light or a stick on fire and waves it about. All this with some smoke effects.

Here is one of many images I created yesterday.

If you like this, you can download the program (PC only) from the Apophysis website.
One word of warning though… This is VERY addictive.

Skype on the iPod Touch

Probably a month ago I downloaded the (free) Skype app for the iPod Touch. Firstly I thought it would be a good idea just for the messaging than I remembered a conversation I had with one of the guys at the Apple store. The Touch has built in hardware to allow a microphone. Obviously the microphone is not actually built in into the iPod, like it is in the iPhone, but the 3.5mm jack connector has an extra pin in there to allow for a headset with a built in mic.

So I bought myself the Apple’s own for £19.95 (comes with volume control) and have been able to make perfectly clear phone calls using my touch.

It is a great app but I have encountered bugs:

1. A few calls had a very garbled noise but a reboot has always solved the problem.
2. Because the Skype screen remains bright, the power will get drained rather quickly. A 30 minutes phone call will reduce it from fully charged to about third left.
3. The app will not run in the background, this is a shame as if someone tries to contact you and you are not actually using Skype then you’ve missed it…
4. If you are on a call, you will not get notification of someone else trying to get through.

This app is still new and I would expect an update will eventually come down to solve these few annoyances.

Apart from the above points, I think Skype on the iPod is still great and am surprised it was released on the iTunes app store.
I agree Skype generally is probably not the perfect solution for everyone but if, like me, you have family abroad or travel a lot, then there would be great benefits in using this app (on an iPod, desktop pc or laptop).

I recommend it!

Windows 7

I have now been using the Windows 7 Beta build 7000 64 bit for just over 2 months and have been impressed with it so far.

The Beta got released back in January and first thought I would run it in VM on my Vista Business laptop but decided to get a new 300GB 7200 rpm HDD, bumped up the RAM from the standard 2GB to 4GB and am now running 7 natively.

The experience so far has been very good. I used to get a lot of problem, freezing and totally unreliable WiFi connection at work but since I have installed 7 it has been really good.

I have always been a little disappointed with the boot times and the RAM used by Vista but 7 seems to be more than happy with 30% of my RAM and will boot and shuts down in a flash.

I have not come across any compatibility issue so far. I have had a couple of freezes in odd places but I guess that’s what you would expect out of Beta software. Let’s put it this way 7 freezes less than my Vista business.

The other reason I decided to get an other HDD was that when Microsoft decides that Beta trial has come to an end I will swap the HDD back.

I have been running office, Skype, IE7, Firefox with add-ons, iTunes and various other apps.
I have joined it the the work’s domain, setup offline files… All worked without a flaw.

Looks wise it is close to Vista, the task bar has changed, especially in the way the icons are displayed. It has the tendency to group things. I wasn’t majorly keen on that so changed a setting in taksbar and start menu properties than changed the taskbar buttons (under the taskbar tab) default from “Always combine, hide labels” to ” Combine when taskbar is full”. It has done the trick. The preview is a lot nicer as well.

All in all I am a happy 7 user.

Animator vs Animation (1 and 2)

I thought I blogged about this ages ago but obviously didn’t…

The Atom crew did a series of animation in Flash with stick figures and cursor as the main characters.
If you use or have used Flash this will have a lot more relevance.

I love it.

This is the first one they did

Or if you want to have a look at the better quality (with adds at the start) go to http://www.atom.com/fun_games/animator_vs_animation/

The second one

Or, again, the better quality http://www.atom.com/fun_games/animator_vs_animation_2/

They’ve even done a game where you try to defeat the stick figure or the animator. To play go there http://www.atom.com/fun_games/animator_vs_animation_game/

Have fun!

iPhone OS 3.0

I think this is now almost common knowledge but Apple has announced a preview of of OS 3.0 for the iPhone.

Out of the features they will be adding I would have to say the one that will make the biggest difference for me will be the cut copy paste option. I assume this update will filter down to the iPod touch (I do not have an iPhone).
Let’s put it this way, when you replace your WPA password from the “abc123″ to something like “T6uGgxFNwD56y1cagkDcAdrbYEiy8FhIjuiFpj6zPmPh0KwAxrMEJHCVQErqw2E” or even “=/vLdyJQ7^M_#!NMa.!immZiC:]Grc-}qR6BCrf^’?+}2&_LAuY/^nA35`<!R7′” then you’ll soon realise that copy  and paste was indeed missing.

I Things you need to do to be secure… :-/

Just a quick tip, if you need very random, long and therefore increasing your security, visit the Gibson Research website https://www.grc.com/passwords.htm

If you like the password generator and the other stuff on his website and are generally interested in security, he does a podcast called “security now” on the TWiT network. Please visit www.twit.tv
Loads of good stuff there as well!

Sales Seminar

Yesterday, we (company) invited some of our very best customers to a rather nice hotel & spa South of Birmingham for a sales seminar covering new products, ways to improve the foot fall, increase profit and opportunities to increase their shops (and our brands) exposure.

The day went really well and it was interesting to finally meet face to face some of the people I have been working with for many years over the phone.

The marketing company we work with is really switched on and I am looking forward to the things in the pipe line.

The power of Linkedin

A few weeks back I received an invitation from a chap I used to go to Solihull College asking me to join him on Linkedin.

I knew about Linkedin but never had the chance, or remembered, to get my details online.
I joined that very evening and since I have been updating it bits at the time. I made contact with old colleagues since.

Knowledge is power, but it is not what you know, rather WHO you know.

Come and have a look at my profile on Linkedin here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidfreemanvalle

If you feel the need or urge to recommend me, well… Feel free.

Thanks

Tweeter addict

Hi,

My name is David and I am addicted to Tweeter…

My handle is dav1dfv

Come and join my 9 followers ! Sorry… 8…

http://twitter.com/dav1dfv

Is it Mickey? Nah… It’s a cop!

Whilst browsing, here is what I found:

This is the Polish Police. Click here to read more

I’m back…

Hi all,

I left the blog for a while but think it is time for me to post again. So here we go!