new skin, new outlook

A new skin for the blog, courtesy of the fine collection of templates supplied by Douglas Bowman of Stopdesign.

The unfortunate clash with the banner advert is too hard to get around - Blogger / Goggle seem to want it there, and as the entire space is free I have no choice but to leave it.

As some of you will have already noted, I have crossed the site blog feed to here - allowing me to make changes by simply emailing them in.

The move 'offshore' for the blog is only a trial until we see how the thing goes, but I expect it to run well, it certainly loads quick enough.

feeds to the right, feeds to....

Confusion is setting in - we have so many feeds going in all directions that I fear they will run into each other on day and cause a small nuclear reaction - the centrifuge you have when you can't get the parts to build one.

The compelling case for running on Blogger is to give viewers a choice - if they are only hanging off the Zoetrope site for the blog they may as well be getting it through Blogger, it's quicker and there remains the chance that they will subscribe themselves and join this huge community.

The RSS and Atom feed for those who travel with the much loved Feed Demon and others, will still be constantly updated as usual, being, as it is, the preferred method of delivery of enclosures - downloadable links for the give away stuff.

Keep your newsreader aimed at the original address - it's all still there!
And, if you're in the mood, the address for the Atom feed off the Blogger site is: http:zoetrope77.blogspot.com/atom.xml - just to confuse the issue.

What the World needs now....

Wap wallpaper - new designs available on the Zoetrope WAP site.

Zoetrope's WAP site now sports custom wallpapers for a range of mobile appliances to jazz up your WAP experience.

How we see it - if you're really serious about spending time on the net with your phone then you probably need something good to look at, so why not provide a few wallpapers to get peoples phone into the groove.

Currently we're covering Nokia and Motorola sizes - which includes the Ericsson screens as well, and the we should have our first ringtones up in the very near future.

Go to the WAP site www.users.bigpond.com/zoetrope101/index.wml to view the selection.

buggy nirvana not attained

Another week, another series of futile attempts to get out in the buggy thwarted by fickle autumn / winter wind patterns

Tuesday arrived at the park on the bay, 45 minutes away from home, to find it as smooth as glass, with an odd layer of mist over it in which you could just make out the shapes of fishing boats close to the shore

Strangely beautiful to look at, but not the sort of thing I needed to get the kite up.

Sat, defying the weather, in the buggy until, eventually it managed to produce some breeze, not enough to pull me and the buggy, but plenty to give me a leg workout.

Thursday the opposite - back over there to find a blustery bitch of a wind that managed to grab Jason with his 6m JoJo and roll him and the buggy, while I elected to be chicken and tried the 8' delta - just as the wind died again

All was not lost - fellow buggy driver Wayne was good enough to adjust the brakes on the Ngen, making it a whole new kite, and patient enough to give me a few lessons on how not to die while buggying

The rest of the week has been HTML and imaging - the only good bit being an entire day spent coming to grips with the previously mentioned 'TheTAB'animation software that we have been trialing for what seems like months now

It's seriously good product, superior to most of the packages around in the same field, but, unlike Toon Boom Studio it has limited import options which necessitate various workarounds to get EPS and AI stuff in there.

Apart from that it has a great layout and does all the things that we have come to expect from pure comic art animation tools.

The biggest news of the week I believe was getting a new email account with Google which boasts 1Gb of storage - massive and bloody handy. Means that there is no need to delete anything except the spam, which you get to block with ease. Great service, and much quicker than the labouring old Hotmail that I use as the primary spam collector I've become so obsessed with spam that I set up email accounts everywhere and publish the addresses just so they can waste their time sending their undeniably shit content to. I could almost forgive them if the represented anything more than just dross, but it's all the same old, same old. SPAMMERS GET BETTER CONTENT.

You can tell it's getting into winter temperatures when the focus turns back to software and old projects (2D animation) start getting looked at again

Bloody weather defies any attempt to be outside anytime other than the middle of the day, and brings out all sorts of old memories and emotions that seem to lurk, waiting for the cue from the cooler weather. I cannot be the only one that get's affected by the change of seasons - maybe the rest of the population are as well, but they choose to not let on.

The weekend promises to be introspective as well, the children being here means I will be out on my own with the Saturday contracts, a not altogether unpleasant outcome - gives me time to have a look around inside my own head.

Cruisin', kids away, home alone...

Kids away for the weekend with their Father - we're cruising, alone, through the cleaning contracts on the Saturday to rev up the digestive system for an onslaught of pizza as a reward. Overeating, falling into bed too late - the stuff we are not made of.

KiteFest on the Sunday sees us over at the Park - but this time sharing it with about 20, 000 other people - an event crying out for a TypeRadio type of set up, alas, not to be, at least not to be while the same outfit put it on.

Still, a good display of static kites - which become as exciting as watching paint dry after about 10 minutes.

BrisKites was in evidence, situated, as it is, directly across the road from the park,doing business, spreading the word.

The buggy didn't make it out of the car - the sensibilities of the locals may well have been offended with the sight of something that not only flew, but propelled as well. No sense getting them all fired up.

From what I can tell here, on the other side of the World from Berlin, the TypeRadio gig was a huge success, running flat out, non stop for the two days promised, straight to air on the lower fm band, and webcast at the same time for them that couldn't get a signal.
It's these things that need to be initiated from here - we should be identifying bland and executing it publicly - as a warning to broadcasters everywhere.

But, alas, I suspect the fires of self expression may well be a bit on the damp side here, in apathyville

On the subject of mass communication, have you all done your duty and been to BalloonSender to send a message to some random recipient? If not go there this instant, assuming it still lives, (it was a college project for a guy in the UK), and do your bit for global communication.

On the same subject Benetton had a video link set up in many of their shops round January - someone go check if they're still in action, we don't rate a Benetton shop here where we are. The concept is the same as BalloonSender, but does it with video.

The more you people concentrate on getting to know people all over the place, the less time you're going to have to be bitching at each other.

Seems that one who didn't get the idea is the great white hope - Prez Bush, a man who doesn't seem to have a lot going for him right now, and really needs some good press before November. Help him - write him a reference.

Anyone having a nervous breakdown about security would do well to download the Zoetrope PGP key and attach it to their keyring

Is this Blogger heaven?

Exciting time abound here in Blogger Land.

I've just discovered the ultimate email address - took me so long to find it because I am three parts idiot, and one part Kiwi, but I eventually got there.

Great service, great concept, great everything.

The new, ultimate address - comes care of Goggle, with their new Gmail setup - it has to be seen to be believed, but they really do offer 1Gb of space, the idea being that you archive everything and it remains there, searchable, for, presumably, the rest of your life.