Friday, 8 May 2009
I'm on Twitter
Yup, just like my blog I held off for a long time. But now I've finally given in to the Twitter lure. If you are a fellow twitterite you can follow me at http://www.twitter.com/lufferov, leave me your details in the comments below and I'll follow you.
Friday, 3 April 2009
Formula 1 and the FIA, what a joke
So the new F1 season opened in Malaysia at the weekend and it was a superb race. In fact it's the most excited I've been about a new F1 season for a long time. The rule changes are set to make things a lot more interesting. But just a few days later, the FIA have managed to turn a fantastic race into a complete farce and potentially ruin the entire season before it's barely begun!
There were a number of incidents in the grand prix, I want to focus on three of them here:
Trulli - Hamilton
Trulli was the one who lost control and put his car off the track. Hamilton gave the position back whilst waiting for race control to give them an answer, just to play it safe. Race control never gave them an answer as to whether he had to do that! So is it the right decision, I think that's controversial. But what's really not right is setting out to make Hamilton look like the bad guy in all this.
Barrichello
How about the first corner where Barrichello caused an avoidable accident taking out other competitors? Ending Kovalainen's race and ruining Webber, Sutil and Heidfeld's race! He finishes second and nothing is said about it. Now what if that had been Hamilton? I can't help thinking it would be a totally different story then!
Vettel - Kubica
Then there was the Vettel, Kubica crash, which in my view was clearly 50/50. Vettel had track position and Kubica did not leave him enough room, I don't see how or why Vettel should have been forced to give up his position there. A 10-place penalty for that incident is harsh.
It would seem there are now three stages to an F1 race, qualifying, racing, and the FIA manipulation of results. What's the point of watching a race when the result can change several times after the event?
Do FIFA go around awarding goals after a football match because of a foul the referee didn't see, or deducting them because the ref awarded a penalty which he shouldn't? In fact is there any other sport where this sort of thing happens?
There were a number of incidents in the grand prix, I want to focus on three of them here:
Trulli - Hamilton
Trulli was the one who lost control and put his car off the track. Hamilton gave the position back whilst waiting for race control to give them an answer, just to play it safe. Race control never gave them an answer as to whether he had to do that! So is it the right decision, I think that's controversial. But what's really not right is setting out to make Hamilton look like the bad guy in all this.
Barrichello
How about the first corner where Barrichello caused an avoidable accident taking out other competitors? Ending Kovalainen's race and ruining Webber, Sutil and Heidfeld's race! He finishes second and nothing is said about it. Now what if that had been Hamilton? I can't help thinking it would be a totally different story then!
Vettel - Kubica
Then there was the Vettel, Kubica crash, which in my view was clearly 50/50. Vettel had track position and Kubica did not leave him enough room, I don't see how or why Vettel should have been forced to give up his position there. A 10-place penalty for that incident is harsh.
It would seem there are now three stages to an F1 race, qualifying, racing, and the FIA manipulation of results. What's the point of watching a race when the result can change several times after the event?
Do FIFA go around awarding goals after a football match because of a foul the referee didn't see, or deducting them because the ref awarded a penalty which he shouldn't? In fact is there any other sport where this sort of thing happens?
Monday, 2 February 2009
Jailbroken iPhone 3G - essential apps
No activity here for a month, and then two posts in one day! What's going on? Well I've been finding out lots of cool things about the iPhone and I have to tell people.
I've got an iPhone 3G, I've had it for a while now. It's a great phone in so many ways, but it lacks some pretty unforgivable things, I've mentioned some of them here in previous posts. However, thanks to the wonders of the iPhone jailbreak these shortcoming can be fixed. That is if you are prepared to hack your phone with a little utility.
Just thought I'd post some of the really useful apps you can get on a jailbroken iPhone which lets it do the stuff you would expect it to out of the box. But also discover some of the cool things you can do to enhance the iPhone even more.
First of all though, you need to get your iPhone jailbroken. This really couldn't be any simpler, there are a couple of options but by far the easiest is QuickPwn. All you have to do is update your iPhone to the latest firmware from iTunes, then connect your phone up and run the QuickPwn application on your PC or mac. It gives clear instructions on what you need to do and it really is so simple and painless. You can download the latest version of QuickPwn here:
http://www.quickpwn.com.
I'm not going to give you a full step-by-step guide, it's all pretty self explanatory anyway and there are already hundreds of people out there who have done it before. If you're really confused just do a Google search!
Right, so I'm going to assume your phone is now jailbroken and you are free from Apple's closed world. The first thing you want to do is check out a new application installed on your phone called Cydia. It's basically a package installer/manager for the iPhone. A bit like the App Store, but consists of unofficial applications which are not approved by Apple. Most are completely free, but some require you to purchase a key to fully unlock them once installed.
You'll probably have to install some essential upgrades if it's the first time you've run it, so go ahead and do that first. To learn how to use Cydia I recommend this tutorial. When you've got the basic idea take a look below at my suggestions for what's essential for you to install from Cydia to get the most from you iPhone.
The first thing has to be WinterBoard. This allows you to theme your iPhone, from something as simple as adding a customised wallpaper to your iPhones menu (called the Springboard). To a full blown theme changing the icons, sounds, keyboard, clock, battery indicator etc... According to Cydia there are currently 673 items compatible with Springboard that you can download as well as 91 different battery icons, 27 keyboard layouts, 94 lockscreens, 44 sound themes, 103 system themes and much more besides!
For example, don't like the way you have to slide your finger to unlock the iPhone? No problem, just install "A Better Tap to Unlock". It will let you unlock your phone with a tap on the screen. There are so many customisations you can make!
Next on my list is ToneFXs. It lets you change your ringtone easily, but also lets you set sounds for new sms messages, Voicemail, email, calendar alerts, keyboard clicks, photo shutter, lock & unlock sound, charging sound. Check out this rather long video of ToneFXs in action. Can't say I like his choice of sounds, but that's the point, you can have whatever you like!
My next tip is BossPrefs which gives you quick access to turn on or off, 3G, Edge, Wifi, Bluetooth and email. It also gives you access to power options to respring the iPhone, reboot or power off. This can be very handy if you have a problem!
Other cool apps include LiveClock (used to be called LiveTime) which turns your clock icon into a real clock that actually shows the correct time. WeatherIcon, that means your weather icon will show the current weather instead of a sunny 73 degrees all the time. hClipboard that adds a copy & paste capability to your keyboard!
LockCalendar, which puts up to ten upcoming events in your calendar on the Lock screen. This is so useful and was a huge oversight by Apple!
There is also a selection of games available ranging from a Pacman style rip-off called "Macman", to a port of DOOM & Quake, emulators for the NES and Sega Genesis (MegaDrive), a MAME app and more besides.
To sum up, jailbreaking an iPhone really does open up a whole new world of possibilities! I could never go back to a generic firmware now, I've seen the light. Give it a try, but make sure you know what you're doing first. I'd hate you to destroy your precious phone!
EDIT: How could I possibly forget what is almost certainly the best app for a jailbroken iPhone. It's called Cycorder and it gives your iPhone video recording capability. It's truly amazing, the video quality is superb with almost no compression. It captures video at 384x288 which is a 4x3 aspect ratio at 15fps, although this will drop to 6fps in low light conditions. It sound like that might be bad, but trust me. The low frame rate means that the shutter is open longer allowing more light in per frame. This actually allows Cycorder to perform better in low light conditions than many other camera phones because you can actually see stuff... albeit slightly jerky, but in my opinion, that's better than not seeing anything at all!
Take a look at this demo of Cycorder which was actually recorded on another iPhone using the Cycorder app. Video quality looks great, sound is clear, the whole package is very well done.
UPDATE: There's now a follow up post to this article on my blog - More essential apps for a Jailbroken iPhone
I've got an iPhone 3G, I've had it for a while now. It's a great phone in so many ways, but it lacks some pretty unforgivable things, I've mentioned some of them here in previous posts. However, thanks to the wonders of the iPhone jailbreak these shortcoming can be fixed. That is if you are prepared to hack your phone with a little utility.
Just thought I'd post some of the really useful apps you can get on a jailbroken iPhone which lets it do the stuff you would expect it to out of the box. But also discover some of the cool things you can do to enhance the iPhone even more.
First of all though, you need to get your iPhone jailbroken. This really couldn't be any simpler, there are a couple of options but by far the easiest is QuickPwn. All you have to do is update your iPhone to the latest firmware from iTunes, then connect your phone up and run the QuickPwn application on your PC or mac. It gives clear instructions on what you need to do and it really is so simple and painless. You can download the latest version of QuickPwn here:
http://www.quickpwn.com.
I'm not going to give you a full step-by-step guide, it's all pretty self explanatory anyway and there are already hundreds of people out there who have done it before. If you're really confused just do a Google search!
Right, so I'm going to assume your phone is now jailbroken and you are free from Apple's closed world. The first thing you want to do is check out a new application installed on your phone called Cydia. It's basically a package installer/manager for the iPhone. A bit like the App Store, but consists of unofficial applications which are not approved by Apple. Most are completely free, but some require you to purchase a key to fully unlock them once installed.
You'll probably have to install some essential upgrades if it's the first time you've run it, so go ahead and do that first. To learn how to use Cydia I recommend this tutorial. When you've got the basic idea take a look below at my suggestions for what's essential for you to install from Cydia to get the most from you iPhone.
The first thing has to be WinterBoard. This allows you to theme your iPhone, from something as simple as adding a customised wallpaper to your iPhones menu (called the Springboard). To a full blown theme changing the icons, sounds, keyboard, clock, battery indicator etc... According to Cydia there are currently 673 items compatible with Springboard that you can download as well as 91 different battery icons, 27 keyboard layouts, 94 lockscreens, 44 sound themes, 103 system themes and much more besides!
For example, don't like the way you have to slide your finger to unlock the iPhone? No problem, just install "A Better Tap to Unlock". It will let you unlock your phone with a tap on the screen. There are so many customisations you can make!
Next on my list is ToneFXs. It lets you change your ringtone easily, but also lets you set sounds for new sms messages, Voicemail, email, calendar alerts, keyboard clicks, photo shutter, lock & unlock sound, charging sound. Check out this rather long video of ToneFXs in action. Can't say I like his choice of sounds, but that's the point, you can have whatever you like!
My next tip is BossPrefs which gives you quick access to turn on or off, 3G, Edge, Wifi, Bluetooth and email. It also gives you access to power options to respring the iPhone, reboot or power off. This can be very handy if you have a problem!
Other cool apps include LiveClock (used to be called LiveTime) which turns your clock icon into a real clock that actually shows the correct time. WeatherIcon, that means your weather icon will show the current weather instead of a sunny 73 degrees all the time. hClipboard that adds a copy & paste capability to your keyboard!
LockCalendar, which puts up to ten upcoming events in your calendar on the Lock screen. This is so useful and was a huge oversight by Apple!
There is also a selection of games available ranging from a Pacman style rip-off called "Macman", to a port of DOOM & Quake, emulators for the NES and Sega Genesis (MegaDrive), a MAME app and more besides.
To sum up, jailbreaking an iPhone really does open up a whole new world of possibilities! I could never go back to a generic firmware now, I've seen the light. Give it a try, but make sure you know what you're doing first. I'd hate you to destroy your precious phone!
EDIT: How could I possibly forget what is almost certainly the best app for a jailbroken iPhone. It's called Cycorder and it gives your iPhone video recording capability. It's truly amazing, the video quality is superb with almost no compression. It captures video at 384x288 which is a 4x3 aspect ratio at 15fps, although this will drop to 6fps in low light conditions. It sound like that might be bad, but trust me. The low frame rate means that the shutter is open longer allowing more light in per frame. This actually allows Cycorder to perform better in low light conditions than many other camera phones because you can actually see stuff... albeit slightly jerky, but in my opinion, that's better than not seeing anything at all!
Take a look at this demo of Cycorder which was actually recorded on another iPhone using the Cycorder app. Video quality looks great, sound is clear, the whole package is very well done.
UPDATE: There's now a follow up post to this article on my blog - More essential apps for a Jailbroken iPhone
Sunday, 11 January 2009
iPhone MMS, FINALLY!
I had to shout out about the iPhone finally being capable of MMS!
A new app is available on the store called "MMS Photo Messaging". It allows your iPhone to receive MMS messages and it works really well. The even better news is that it's free to download and receive messages. While you're reading the rest of this post go and:
Download with iTunes
Right, when you've installed it all you have to do is enter your mobile number and the PIN you use to read your MMS messages on the O2 website. It will remember these in future and just take you straight to your inbox. Once there it downloads any existing MMS messages and will download any new ones as they are sent to you. So, the next time you get the SMS alert from O2 to say you have a new MMS, just load up the new app and it will be there for. It works in a similar way to the email application, so it should be fairly familiar and easy to use.
Now it's not perfect, a couple of things are holding it back, they are:
1) It costs money to send MMS messages, you have to buy credits for approximately 35p per message depending on how any credits you buy.
2) It can only do picture messages.
3) The service can suffer during high demand meaning it keeps asking for you to log in.
Now these are problems that are not too serious, it would be nice to have MMS messages come from your tariff. But clearly that is not possible for a 3rd party application, and it really is simple to buy credits. The price of sending messages is cheaper now than it was when it got released, there are also claims that prices will fall further in the future.
Now the service has been running for a while and it has become a lot more stable. I haven't had it fail on me for a a week or so now. This is great news, it's also great that Apple let this onto the App Store, finally admitting the need for an MMS application for the iPhone. Perhaps we will see MMS integrated into a future firmware, that would be nice. Until then though, this is a brilliant programme that everyone should have installed.
A new app is available on the store called "MMS Photo Messaging". It allows your iPhone to receive MMS messages and it works really well. The even better news is that it's free to download and receive messages. While you're reading the rest of this post go and:
Download with iTunes
Right, when you've installed it all you have to do is enter your mobile number and the PIN you use to read your MMS messages on the O2 website. It will remember these in future and just take you straight to your inbox. Once there it downloads any existing MMS messages and will download any new ones as they are sent to you. So, the next time you get the SMS alert from O2 to say you have a new MMS, just load up the new app and it will be there for. It works in a similar way to the email application, so it should be fairly familiar and easy to use.
Now it's not perfect, a couple of things are holding it back, they are:
1) It costs money to send MMS messages, you have to buy credits for approximately 35p per message depending on how any credits you buy.
2) It can only do picture messages.
3) The service can suffer during high demand meaning it keeps asking for you to log in.
Now these are problems that are not too serious, it would be nice to have MMS messages come from your tariff. But clearly that is not possible for a 3rd party application, and it really is simple to buy credits. The price of sending messages is cheaper now than it was when it got released, there are also claims that prices will fall further in the future.
Now the service has been running for a while and it has become a lot more stable. I haven't had it fail on me for a a week or so now. This is great news, it's also great that Apple let this onto the App Store, finally admitting the need for an MMS application for the iPhone. Perhaps we will see MMS integrated into a future firmware, that would be nice. Until then though, this is a brilliant programme that everyone should have installed.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
It's in the can
Well the recording of Noel's Christmas Presents has taken place. It all seemed to go very well, even though it took over an hour longer to record than scheduled due to retakes. It was a great experience and I enjoyed every minute, but I'm not sure I'm interested in working in the TV industry. Not that I ever had any intentions of doing so, but nothing about the week has made me feel inclined to pursue it as a career path. I'd never say never, but I think theatre is where my heart is for now at least.
The show is already a fading memory, the very next day I was straight on to the next job. It's now time for Pantomime, this year I have the delights of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We're currently in technical rehearsals and opening night is Friday evening. So lots to cram in to get the show fit for the paying public.
Still got the transmission of the show to look forward to though. If you are interested in seeing my beautiful theatre in all its glory here are all the confirmed transmission dates for the show. First broadcast is on the 21st December on Sky One at 6pm, it is then repeated as follows:
Mon 22/12 11.00 Sky1
Mon 22/12 20.00 Sky2
Wed 24/12 18.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 10.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 16.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 21.00 Sky2
Fri 26/12 15.00 Sky1
Sat 27/12 20.00 Sky1
Sun 28/12 09.00 Sky2
Mon 29/12 08.30 Sky Real Lives
Mon 29/12 09.30 Sky Real Lives +1
Mon 29/12 11.00 Sky1
Mon 29/12 20.30 Sky Real Lives
Mon 29/12 21.30 Sky Real Lives +1
They certainly like to get their money's worth out of a show like this! There are no excuses for missing it, unless you don't have Sky I guess.
For now, "hi ho, hi ho, it's off to bed I go"..... more rehearsals tomorrow!
The show is already a fading memory, the very next day I was straight on to the next job. It's now time for Pantomime, this year I have the delights of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. We're currently in technical rehearsals and opening night is Friday evening. So lots to cram in to get the show fit for the paying public.
Still got the transmission of the show to look forward to though. If you are interested in seeing my beautiful theatre in all its glory here are all the confirmed transmission dates for the show. First broadcast is on the 21st December on Sky One at 6pm, it is then repeated as follows:
Mon 22/12 11.00 Sky1
Mon 22/12 20.00 Sky2
Wed 24/12 18.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 10.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 16.00 Sky1
Thurs 25/12 21.00 Sky2
Fri 26/12 15.00 Sky1
Sat 27/12 20.00 Sky1
Sun 28/12 09.00 Sky2
Mon 29/12 08.30 Sky Real Lives
Mon 29/12 09.30 Sky Real Lives +1
Mon 29/12 11.00 Sky1
Mon 29/12 20.30 Sky Real Lives
Mon 29/12 21.30 Sky Real Lives +1
They certainly like to get their money's worth out of a show like this! There are no excuses for missing it, unless you don't have Sky I guess.
For now, "hi ho, hi ho, it's off to bed I go"..... more rehearsals tomorrow!
Friday, 5 December 2008
Noel's Christmas Presents
So the lighting and sound is in, the set is up and the cameras are ready to roll! This whole week has been utterly crazy, a complete whirlwind. So much activity, so many people.... what do they all do? I have no idea!
Apart from a days rehearsal tomorrow we are pretty much ready to go. It's a really alien concept this TV malarkey though. So much time, money and effort goes into one performance, then it all gets ripped down and thrown away. Nothing like a week of shows or even a tour, just a one hit wonder. Of course the whole thing gets captured on film but it's not the same as a live show.
Haven't had a chance to take any photos until today but here is the finished set. It's looking pretty festive! I'll let you decide how it measures up to the model I posted earlier in the week.
Here's another photo from another angle, this time with one of the many cameras in shot.
So we've just got a day of rehearsal tomorrow with Mr Noel Edmunds and then record the programme in the evening. At which point someone will shout "That's a wrap", and the really hard work begins of dismantling it all into the early hours of Sunday morning!
Apart from a days rehearsal tomorrow we are pretty much ready to go. It's a really alien concept this TV malarkey though. So much time, money and effort goes into one performance, then it all gets ripped down and thrown away. Nothing like a week of shows or even a tour, just a one hit wonder. Of course the whole thing gets captured on film but it's not the same as a live show.
Haven't had a chance to take any photos until today but here is the finished set. It's looking pretty festive! I'll let you decide how it measures up to the model I posted earlier in the week.
Here's another photo from another angle, this time with one of the many cameras in shot.
So we've just got a day of rehearsal tomorrow with Mr Noel Edmunds and then record the programme in the evening. At which point someone will shout "That's a wrap", and the really hard work begins of dismantling it all into the early hours of Sunday morning!
Saturday, 29 November 2008
Sky One filming
So this week will see my theatre become a TV studio to record a programme for Sky One with Noel Edmunds. The show is "Noel's Christmas Presents" and will be broadcast on Christmas day. More details will be available nearer the time but for now Sky have this on their website:
http://sky1.sky.com/show/noels-christmas-presents
It will be an interesting week for me, I've never done any TV or film work before. Having to get used to a whole new dictionary of terms is bound to cause some confusion. Quite how two industries so closely linked can have such totally different names for things is slightly odd. But since theatre is far older, I maintain our names are the correct ones!
The content of the show is all pretty secretive given that the nature of the programme revolves around surprises, so I can't really tell you anything more about it at this stage.
We've already done a fair amount of preparation work to make the venue more TV friendly. Mainly involving the removal of seats to make space for cameras. It will be interesting to see how the set turns out. For those who don't know, a scale model is produced before it goes off to the set builders for full size construction. I took a photo of the model for reference which you can see below:
The red box with the teddy on it will be a large video screen for VT with the two sofas centre stage for Noel and his guests and the whole thing is encompassed by a star cloth. How accurate the finished set will be remains to be seen!
It all kicks off properly on Wednesday when we put all the lighting up, Thursday will be set build day and Friday is Sound and Cameras get in. Then we spend all day Saturday in rehearsals followed by the filming on Saturday evening in front of a "livestudio theatre audience".
I'll update the blog as and when I have time with photos and more details, but for now "STANDBY STUDIO"!
http://sky1.sky.com/show/noels-christmas-presents
It will be an interesting week for me, I've never done any TV or film work before. Having to get used to a whole new dictionary of terms is bound to cause some confusion. Quite how two industries so closely linked can have such totally different names for things is slightly odd. But since theatre is far older, I maintain our names are the correct ones!
The content of the show is all pretty secretive given that the nature of the programme revolves around surprises, so I can't really tell you anything more about it at this stage.
We've already done a fair amount of preparation work to make the venue more TV friendly. Mainly involving the removal of seats to make space for cameras. It will be interesting to see how the set turns out. For those who don't know, a scale model is produced before it goes off to the set builders for full size construction. I took a photo of the model for reference which you can see below:
The red box with the teddy on it will be a large video screen for VT with the two sofas centre stage for Noel and his guests and the whole thing is encompassed by a star cloth. How accurate the finished set will be remains to be seen!
It all kicks off properly on Wednesday when we put all the lighting up, Thursday will be set build day and Friday is Sound and Cameras get in. Then we spend all day Saturday in rehearsals followed by the filming on Saturday evening in front of a "live
I'll update the blog as and when I have time with photos and more details, but for now "STANDBY STUDIO"!
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