The latest news from Strife Strips en-gb 13/05/2008 19:52:30 60 A life time of computers It seems to be human nature to extrapolate unlikely future scenarios based upon things continuing the way they are at the moment. Take for instance the Terminator films, where technology gets so advanced it starts to think and then turns against humans. The problem with this type of thinking is the way we see things working today, just doesn't scale like that. I once thought computers would keep on going, getting better, faster and one day reaching that future dream. But in reality it seems IT has hit a glass ceiling , or at least entered a different era. You can now buy cheap laptops running Windows XP with a wireless internet connection. Then through the internet you can access free software and up to date information about virtually anything. Where do computers go from here? Speech recognition taking over from a keyboard and mouse, unlikely. PCs getting uber powerful? Most computers have enough power to do everything people need now - so this isn't the singular market force driving innovation. I've worked in the development of some form of software most of my professional life. The overall trend I can see is putting more of the grunt work on the computer, requiring the developer to do less coding or similar work. This typically means a less efficient piece of software, but we're at the stage were processing power isn't an issue. So the developer is being more of an architect , rather than a brick layer. Take for instance Adobe Flash: There are far faster development environments, but with Flash it'll work on any computer and is one of the faster and easier ways to create things. At the same time we seem to be reaching the limits of the way we interact with computers. Our interface may be more web based now, but most of the developments in the last decade have refined the GUI concept rather than re-written it. Computers have become a ubiquitous tool used for business and entertainment, but it appears for the immediate future at least, this is the extent of their purpose. Oh and by the way, I am now President of Mogulville :) Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=101 16/03/2008 00:00:00 101 Vote for President Bridger: Update My initial 30% lead has fallen dramatically because of a sudden surge in votes for candidate Nelson. I know not how this sudden surge in votes came to happen, but it forces we to up my campaigning to ensure that the presidency is granted to me. If you enjoy my films, watching the progress of my GTA clone, reading old comics or anything else here; then please show your support with your vote You'll need to create a forum account first, but that's very quick and easy - it doesn't require any e-mail authentication. Thank you friends :) Vote for President Bridger You know after writing my last news post only a few days ago, it seems a shame to bump it off so quickly... but this is important damn it! I'm running for the presidency of Indy Mogul which is a *fantastic* site for the amatuer film maker. They bring out new videos multiple times a week showing how to achieve fantastic looking special effects for next to no budget. I found the site quite a while back and I've been loving it since. Recently they opened for the floor to allow for future presidential candidates to submit their own 30 second campaign videos - you can view mine here - From all the entries five were picked as the best to them be put to the public vote. This my friends is why I'm making this post, to ask for your support as I run for the future president of Mogulvillie! You can make your vote count here Vote for Bridger "Because it would be nice!" Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=100 06/03/2008 00:00:00 100 RIP Xbox 360: 26th August 2006 - 1st March 2008 When I first heard reports about Xbox 360s failing I thought it was due to a production fault in a limited number of cases. As time went on more people seemed to be more vocal about the issue, but I thought it was a vocal minority rather than a true representation of the issue. Since then I've read into the issues and have come to believe that there is a real problem. It appears that at least 30% of 360s will fail , which compares to around 2-3% of Wii and PS3 consoles. It appears to track back to when the 360 was being created, Microsoft wanted to be first to market ahead of the PS3 and so they took a few shortcuts along the way. Sadly for us gamers, a few of these shortcuts have come back to haunt Microsoft. It all started to go downhill for me after I'd purchased a copy of Mass Effect for a nice second hand price. (Why pay full price for a piece of data?) I'd not played on my 360 since my brother lent me Assassins Creed , so I was looking forward to something new to get absorbed into. But literally a minute after firing up the 360 with Mass Effect it froze on the character creation screen! "Peh, must be a dirty disk" I thought, so I took it out and gave it a clean. Since then I've had to endure random lockups and freezing while playing through the game. Sometimes after a few minutes, other times it could keep going an hour or longer. It's much harder to relax and enjoy a game when you don't know how long it'll keep working for... Then tonight I'd made the decision to call Microsoft on Monday and pay £60 to have it repaired. I thought I'd try and play one final session on Mass Effect before sending it back. So I tapped on the power button and saw the ring of light give its final message. So the good news is I should be able to get it repaired for free at Microsoft will replace red ring failures for three years over the original purchase. But I'm seriously considering selling my soon to be repaired 360 and buying a PS3 instead, because I want a console that I can rely on. Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=99 01/03/2008 00:00:00 99 Zombie Report is released! Zombie Report: Part 1 Zombie Report: Part 2 A few pictures from the premier night, much fun had by all! :) Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=98 11/02/2008 00:00:00 98 Watch the grand premier live: Feb 9th at 7:00PM GMT I felt sorry for all the fans who aren't able to come to the premier of the movie, so I'll be broadcasting the whole premier evening over the internet so that everyone who's interest can watch the premier live along with all the cast, crew, friends and family! The premier will be kicking off on Saturday, 9th of Feb at 7:00pm GMT with the film showing at 8:00pm GMT You can watch live using the embedded video player application over to the right, over by going to http://www.justin.tv/maverickuk which is a dedicated channel for the show. See you there on the night :) DVD production Shooting and editing the film was only a portion of the work, having to design and package together a DVD is a fair bit of work! But taking the time to design and print up DVD covers, discs and insert really makes a difference. I've now almost completed an object that everybody involved will be able to put into their DVD collection :) My first attempt at designing the DVD cover wasn't all that great, I tried to fill the whole space with something, which lead to it looking overloaded and too busy. I was then lucky enough to have a read through a design book which features hundreds of examples of various objects and publications designed by some of the best agencies and invidiuals in the world. After looking through this I realised I didn't have to cover every inch of the DVD cover. So I started again, but this time I only put on the bare minimum of what I needed to get the message across. The result? You can kinda see the finished product in the photo here, but I'll be publishing full details and artwork after the movie premier! Zombie Report - Trailer Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=97 02/02/2008 00:00:00 97 Zombie Report Premier Screening: February 9th 2008 First there were just ideas, then through many discussions and cycles of thoughts these thoughts were distilled into a storyboard that would form the backbone of a fantastic day on location filming. Once all the actors had finished their work then everything had to be reviewed, manipulated and edited into the final movie. Once this movie and various extras had been encoded and burn onto a master DVD production has moved onto creating copies of the finished film in blood red DVD cases ready for the premier! I'm really proud of the whole Zombie Report project - everything about it has been a large step above anything I've been involved with before. I'm proud of the work done by everyone on the team and I hope they'll be proud to keep their own copy of the DVD for all time. Thanks to my Dad for helping me craft the meat cleavers for the film, for the Baggley family for the use of their house, to Phil for use of his gun and everyone else! After the premier I'll be uploading the film to YouTube to share with Strifers, YouTubers and the community at Indy Mogul . I'll also be giving the films section of this website a new lick of paint, with lots more information about Zombie Report for interested fans to absorb. Zombie Report - Trailer If you haven't already seen it, the trailer for this film is available here . 31st Jan: Update With the master DVD created I'm now using the awesome power of the StorDigital DVD duplication device to produce the many copies of Zombie Report needed to appease the appetite of the many hungry fans! The duplicator is a great device for doings runs like this, all you need to do is chuck the master DVD into the top tray and then load up the rest with blank DVDs. Otherwise I'd need to do one at a time which would take.... bloody... ages.... I've spent a lot of time on the editing stage putting the main movie together, but also lots of extras to make the most of all the material we shot on the day. With a project like this the longer you can spend polishing everything and picking out imperfections the better and cleaner the end result will be. Unlike a computer game, you can't patch a DVD with bug fixes over the internet ;) Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=96 28/01/2008 00:00:00 96 Welcome 2008 2007 has been a pretty good year full of lots of good things, but I'm writing this thinking about what is to come in 2008. Getting married Me and my fiancée aren't bothered by having a massive, expensive wedding, so we'll most likely get married in May at a registry office and then have a party for friends and family in the evening. 3D printer I had a good idea recently about using old scanner/printer parts to help build this device, as they've got some of the major mechanisms already designed and created. GTA clone Playing Desktop Tower Defense recently reminded me of the power of Flash games. I think creating the original GTA in Flash will be a really fun thing to do and for people to easily play online/ Contracting I've been wondering for a while about giving up my current IT job and contracting, as the market for asp.net developers appears to be very good at the moment. But it's something I'm still trying to work out, as to the best path to take for my future. Predictions for 2008 I thought I did this for last year, but I couldn't find the entry in my previous news posts... Desktop down, internet up The end of the desktop era is approaching as most applications and tools move to online versions. We're moving towards a time where an internet connection and a web browser can give you access to most the tools and applications you need. I've just ordered an Eee PC which I'm really excited to be getting my hands on, as it's ultra portable (weighs less than a kilogram) but with wireless built in it has access to everything I need. Solid state Moving parts are bad news in electronics and platter based hard drives are starting their decline. Solid state memory is now taking over portable music devices and is starting to make its way into high end notebooks. As time goes on it will slowly push out motorised hard drives just as LCD monitor did to CRTs. Digital delivery With fast and common internet connections digital delivery of movies, games and other media is becoming more popular. This trend will only continue as it becomes more convient to get instant access to content than it is to buy a box with it in. Jim and the stick A film I made with and for relatives this Christmas telling the story of a young man called Jim and how his life was changed after finding a stick. Part 1 Part 2 Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=95 31/12/2007 00:00:00 95 I'm getting married! That's me and my fiancée Alex at the end of a Lush factory tour, our last stop of the day was into the soap room where Alex and I turned out a giant piece of soap that fell open to reveal my message to her. Luckily for me she said yes! :) Back to the start... About six months ago I got in contact with Lush and found a fantastic person there called Hilary, who is one of the most selfless and kindest people I've ever met. I've been working with her since July 2007 to organise a contest that I pretended to enter - which I then ended up winning a tour of the Lush factory from :) There was an actual contest and there are five other real winners, but my name was also added onto the list... We went down for our factory tour on Monday 10th December and spent the day with Hilary going round the factory and seeing how they make all the products (Plus having a go at making some ourselves) with the final part of the tour being in the soap room.... It's a big relief to have the whole thing work out without a hitch. It's been a real strain over the last few months organising this, communicating secretly with Hilary and having to basically lie in order to pull it all off!! Now I'm looking forward to a lovely wedding with a wonderful lady and being able to tell the truth again!! :) A massive thank you to Hilary Jones of Lush, as without her this fantastic experience could not have happened. Neither of us will ever forget the day or Hilary. Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=94 11/12/2007 00:00:00 94 GTA clone I used to enjoy making comics for this site, whereas these days I get more satisfaction from building other types of things. At the moment mainly films and pieces of software - like the Strip Editor A few weeks ago I went on a course to learn ActionScript 3.0 , which is the newest verison of the programming language integrated into Flash . It's very much like JavaScript in it's syntax, but with very close ties to Flash specific abilities. Going on this course was extremely useful to me, as I was having learning pains going from AS1/2 into this new version. As a way to flex my newly learnt skills I wanted a little project to work on at home - then I remembered an idea for a game I'd had earlier in the year. The idea was to create a city simulation! Write code for cars to drive round, traffic light systems to work and people to plod around the city. It seemed like a really fun thing to do, something I could slowly add to and play with. I then thought, what if I based did this but using the original GTA art and sound and make it multiplayer? So that's what I'm doing :) A Flash multiplayer version of GTA! To the left is a build of the game from a few weeks ago. It doesn't do much yet, but it shows the basic tiling engine and car simluation code at work. Just gotta keep on building it up into a game! Controls Up: accelerate, Down: brake, left & right: steer Mav Website Programmer (£26,154 - £27,675) Are you a website developer living in the Bristol area of the UK? Do you have experience in .NET and working on database powered websites? Read more about the position and our previous projects and then you can fill in an application form an come in for an interview. Closing date: 30th November 2007 http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=93 24/11/2007 00:00:00 93 Website Programmer (£26,154 - £27,675) Are you a website developer living in the Bristol area of the UK? Do you have experience in .NET and working on database powered websites ? Would you like to work with this guy! ? Even if you haven't got much experience with .NET, you're more of a PHP person - what we're *really* after is someone with the talent and drive with the desire to constantly push forwards onto bigger and better things! Read more about the position and our previous projects and then you can fill in an application form an come in for an interview. You'll be working with me at Police Headquarters on lots of interesting projects. If you like the stuff I do in my spare time like Strip Editor , 3D printer , carputer and GTA online then imagine the cool stuff we work on during the day :) Learn more > Mav http://www.strifestrips.com/NewsView.aspx?nid=92 15/11/2007 00:00:00 92