Apologies for the server errors in the last couple of days, unfortunately my web hosts (provider-one) decided to be completely unreasonable and take my cgi-bin down for a number of days for no reason.
Anyway, a few things to catch up on. Firstly, I've been using a new web browser recently called Flock. It's a web browser designed to incorporate social networking / web 2.0 (whatever you call it!) and is based on firefox, so it works pretty well. I'm not entirely convinced yet, but give it a go if you fancy.
I was watching a programme on BBC iplayer - Selling Power and it was very interesting, definitely worth a watch (in the next 6 days!) - But for whatever reason, the advertisement that struck home the most was that 1970s Smash advert (not really important for the programme!). But for those who didn't see this advert when it came out (me included), here it is in its entirety:
Now, for a bit of a change, I thought I'd post a bit of music. I was listening to the (very accomplished) tunes of Kerry Leatham and stumbled upon a link for an Ane Brun video. No disrespect to Kerry, but the Ane Bru song totally blew me away and I'd like it to blow you away too - have a listen:
I hope these links brighten your day as they did mine! :-)
It's all well and good talking about photographic design and image manipulation, but a great photo still requires one thing, an inspiring subject.
Photography from space has wowed people over the years (and rightly so), but until recently, these photos have mainly been limited to distant shots of planets and stars, or grainy shots of planetry surfaces.
The image below has recently been released by NASA and shows an avalanche on Mars:
(c) NASA / JPL-CALTECH / University of Arizona
"Hills near the Martian north pole have avalanches, according to this photo from Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter. The ground to the left, carrying carbon dioxide frost, is hundreds of metres higher than on the right. Fracturing of rock due to heating and cooling may produce debris for avalanches."
Seems a very impressive image, especially with its frost, cliffs and other recognisable features from our own planet..
Although the Beats! Design Blog has had an RSS feed for a few weeks now, I've now added one for the UK Webcams Blog so thought it easier to launch them both together!
The UK Webcams Blog contains stories from this blog that relate specifically to the UK Webcams project to help give users an idea of changes and progress: UK Webcams - Blog
Please click on the relative RSS feed in the image below to access it - it may be worth saving the permalink for this story ('P' button next to the title) to keep the RSS feed URLs handy - these links will always remain the same.
An RSS feed allows the blog posts to be imported into Blog Readers and Aggregators (which include Google Reader and Facebook Notes) and can allow the blog to be formatted and 'consumed' in many different ways. More info on RSS feeds can be found here: RSS Feeds Article
As shown in previous posts for this blog, code can be displayed in a seperate box (using a different font, such as a mono-spaced font) to allow users to easily recognise and understand it when published in HTML.
This is a very simple example showing a small piece of code and how this technique can work. As the technique uses code itself, the following examples will show how it can be done as well as the result - a 2 in 1 bonus!
First, set up the CSS for the "PRE" style class to be put into the HEAD section of the HTML page. This is the class you will use for the code box and defines all its style properties. As can be seen, this sets up a light orange box, with darker orange dotted border and a suitable size mono text:
Now the CSS is set up, simple wrap any text in the BODY section of the HTML page with the PRE class, in this case we have called it 'listing':
<pre class=listing>
YOUR CODE HERE
</pre>
Then this text will be shown in a code box. Be careful using ASCII characters in HTML, these will have to be converted to their relevant formats, see this link for help: ASCII Characters in HTML
Google Maps Street View is a potentially great mapping service, showing street-level imagery via Google mapping, but this brings in issues with privacy etc, with trucks driving around streets taking imagery without prior consent of those individuals on the street at the time.
Obviously, a lot of (bored?) individuals have spent their time looking for interesting things caught by these 'camera trucks'. For a top 15 sightings from this feature click here.
A humorous take on these privacy issues can be seen in the video below - OK, it's a bit corny, but quite nicely done:
There's been a lot of press coverage of the work of Banksy recently and to be honest, I don't like jumping on bandwagons, especially as there must be some reason all media sources are suddenly talking about him.
But, ignoring who he is, what he does, why he does it etc, I just rather liked this work that's recently sprung up on Pollard Street in London:
Brightens things up a bit in my opinion and a nice, effective design without being too complicated. I'd certainly smile if I walked past it!
Since the beginning of the UK Webcam Map (beatsdesign.co.uk/ukwebcams/), users have been adding data on a number of things. Each day, weather data is imported from the Met Office (changes 3 times daily) and each info box shows the predicted weather at that location.
Users can then look at the webcam image and say if the weather is as predicted or not. This can then be used to show how accurate weather predictions are for that location...
This is not intended to show how weather forecasting can be inaccurate, but mroe to show which areas are served well by a general weather forecast. It may be expected that big cities would have more accurate predictions as weather stations are located there, or maybe that mountainous regions are inaccurate as weather there is very changeable....but take a look at the (ever-changing) results and keep sending that data in - thank you!
