Ektopia

We popped over to London Town yesterday, which was an ideal time to link up with NYC The Telectroscope.

“Hardly anyone knows that a secret tunnel runs deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. In May 2008, more than a century after it was begun, the tunnel has finally been completed. An extraordinary optical device called a Telectroscope has been installed at both ends which miraculously allows people to see right through the Earth from London to New York and vice versa.”

Kind of like an silent old version of a webcam you could say! Anyways, we waited in line, so that our little Daughter could hold up a message (”MADE IN NYC”) to whomever was looking in NYC’s lens, but just as we got to the front of the line we heard one of the people looking after the miracle’s connection had “gone down”…I couldn’t work out how optics “go down” but accepted their explanation and left.

It’s a charming story and we’ll definitely go back in a few weeks…we will make a steam punk optical connection with NYC! Here’s Nina waiting patiently in line!

I’ve just upgraded to WordPress 2.5 and it all seems to have gone very smoothly now that I’ve tweaked it a little. The theme needs some heavy-duty work done on it to make the code a bit more friendly but apart from that I can highly recommend the update. The new features and general back-end usability are a great improvement. The WordPress team have done another cracking job with the latest version of the superb software that Ektopia uses. If anyone notices anything that doesn’t seem to work as it should then I would grateful if you could drop me a quick message to let me know. Otherwise, enjoy the site as normal.

Pandora Internet Radio was superb. However, due to the music industry being a complete bunch of arseholes in the UK we are no longer able to listen to it and the good people over at Pandora Labs have had to cut us off. Thanks for that Mr & Mrs UK Music Industry, I discovered a lot of music via Pandora that I went on to purchase. You short-sighted pricks positively encourage people not to support you. Don’t forget to turn the lights out when you shut down for good!

“Both the PPL (which represents the major record labels and some independent record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.

It continues to astound us that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music, and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don’t often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent… Both the PPL (which represents the major record labels and some independent record labels) and the MCPS/PRS Alliance (which represents music publishers) have demanded per track performance minima rates which are far too high to allow ad supported radio to operate and so, hugely disappointing and depressing to us as it is, we have to block the last territory outside of the US.

It continues to astound us that the industry is not working more constructively to support the growth of services that introduce listeners to new music, and that are totally supportive of paying fair royalties to the creators of music. I don’t often say such things, but the course being charted by the labels and publishers and their representative organizations is nothing short of disastrous for artists whom they purport to represent… “

Update (21/01/08) Xenmate has just let me know that Pandora IS still accessible via a site called Global Pandora…hurrah! Cheers Xen.

Merry new year all of you. Jeez, 2007 has flown by at an alarming rate. Here is my favourite post from each month in 2007. Here’s to 2008…

Jan - Abstractor

Feb - Thomas Allen’s Pulp Fiction Dioramas

March - Tibet Underground

April - Dark Daze Photography

May - Zezao Under Sao Paulo

June - Susan Burnstine’s Outafocus

July - Bears Book

Aug - MK12: The History Of America

Sep - Paris By Light

Oct - Saturno Butto

Nov - Merkley’s 111??? book (NSFW)

Dec - Petrusco’s Eye (Just for this photo alone)

Here’s my new print - Skulb.

Thick light grey A3 card and sanded the highlights with some course sandpaper. The highlights have been purposely sanded under the edge of the image for an under-sprayed effect. Therefore, each one of the varied edition of 20 is completely unique; some are sandpapered more more than others. I’ve just got to sign and number them and they are ready to tube up and post. These are just £18 including UK postage (recorded) and packing. If you’re outside the UK get in touch first please. As well as this varied edition, I also have a handful of proofs (12) on A3 white cartridge paper. These are just £12.50 each including UK postage (recorded) and packing. If you’re interested in either print you can visit The Ektopi(art) store.

In old print news - A few of the people that purchased the last print have kindly sent me over photos of it up on their wall. I thought these two were in such contrast to each other that they would make an interesting post here. One beautifully framed in a gilt frame and the other hailed to the wall with six inch nails. I love how they both look. It’s the ultimate compliment knowing that these prints are on peoples’ walls.

Guy Fawkes - I remember a T-shirt being sold at a hardcore gig (ENT, Carcass, Napalm Death etc.) back in the late 80s that said, “Guy Fawkes, the only person to enter Parliament with honest intentions”. I know you’ve probably hear that before but every year, when I see and hear those fireworks, I think of that shirt and Guy and have a little chuckle! My ears are still ringing from that gig too!

If you work for the NHS and you’re interested in buying a copy of Microsoft Office then head on over to Microsoft’s NHS Resource Centre where you can bag a copy of the Office 2007 Enterprise addition for £17.31. Yup, you read that correctly. I understand that there are a number of large organisations that offer this deal (BT, MOD etc.) but I’m a little pissed that I’ve only just found out about this as nobody at work, from the shop floor to the management, has ever mentioned it before and I’ve been with the NHS for about 10 years. All you need is an NHS email address (.nhs.uk) and it’s yours. I’m a heavy Outlook user so and the upgrade to 2007 is worth the money alone. Maybe this post will only be of interest for a few of you but if you know anyone (unfortunate enough?) who works for the NHS then feel free to let them know.

Hopefully you’ll have noticed the update on Ektopia. I’ve been wanting to use larger images from day one but till now I hadn’t worked out how I could do it with limited bandwidth. Flickr looks like it was the answer. Also, I hope that it’s working well for you all and that there are no glitches. If you noticed anything weird going on would you drop me a line to let me know please. I’ve also spent a little time trawling through my drafts section as I had such a huge backlog. Expect loads of great posts over the next few days before business returns to normal in a while. Anyways, cheers for continuing to visit, leaving comments and suggesting links etc.

It turns out that Yahoo are switching off their photo sharing thing in a while, October 18th to be exact. To encourage the Yahoo punters to migrate to Flickr they are offering 3 free months of Flickr. The best bit? Current Flickr users can also get hold of the 3 free months even if you don’t have a Yahoo photo account. So, here’s the how to -

1. Go here and sign up for an account. Because we’re Flickr users already this is a simple job as you should just have to re-enter your password.

2. Add a single photo to an album.

3. Go here and follow the instructions.

4. You should get an email saying that the migration is taking place and the next day the single photo will be added to your Flickr page and 3 free months added to your account :-)

A few quid saved…bargain!

Update - 19/08/07 - Looks like some people are doing this successfully while others aren’t. You may also try hitting the “Take Me to My Photos” link on one of the pages and then click on the same “Take Me to My Photos” link on THAT page too. That may work. Good luck.

Maybe I’m the last one to find out about OpenOffice. If I am, I apologise. However, if you’re in the market for Microsoft Office you may be interested to know that there’s a free alternative that’s completely compatible with the aforementioned software. It doesn’t have a version of Outlook but then there’s Mozilla’s Thunderbird for that I guess. Saying that it’s a bargain seems to be a complete understatement.