evolution of entertainment: January 2009

Friday, January 30, 2009

designs and coding

This is a variation of the last design i uploaded. I like the attic styled room and i've decided to go with that. The last design was a nice one but the pink was very girly looking so i decided to go for a more neutral colour. i also changed the size from 1000 x 600 to 1000 x 750. hopefully it will still look ok. so trying out different types of designs at the moment and this is one of them.

I am also trying to sort out the flash for the dock menu but i'm still having trouble with it but i'll get it sorted i'm sure!

Monday, January 26, 2009

design

This will be the layout for the site that I'm doing. The background image of the room will most likely change to find a more suited but this is just the rough idea of how the site will look. The menu on the bottom (images) will be like the mac os dock. I have code on how to do but i'm finding it rather difficult at the moment but at least its something!

The white see-through panel will just be there for the beginning of the site. It will be an introduction to the site and you will be able to 'x' out of the panel by - you've got it! clicking the 'x' on the top left hand corner. I'm using the left hand corner to tie in with the dock style menu since the x button is on the left hand corner on a mac! i have a few other ideas but this incorporates the majority of my ideas into one!

The white background is also up for discussion. I have done similar designs with black and grey as the entire background of the site but i'm not sure which to use yet! Anyway thats all for now folks!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

Navigational Dock

i'm still working on my final design on my fyp. But this post isn't about that. I have decided on the navigation for the site. I'm going to do something similar to the mac os doc. i really like the look of it and hopefully i'll be able to do it with little hassle!!

Monday, January 19, 2009

Modern vs. Antique - Gladiators! Fffiggghhtt!!

The interface has been decided. Its only a rough one so far and i'll be making it more modern but the design seems to be there. I am going to have a modern and antique style working on the page.

I will most likely be using iStock images for the room (the background design of the site) but i'll be able to take some of my own images for modern appliances (PS3, Ipod docking station, television etc.) So i'll have a rough work one up probably tomorrow and we'll see how it goes down!

I also got some live band footage which i took this weekend. I'll be editing it (its a metal band and i realise that metal has a very selective fan base but the music will be mostly overdubbed with a script). I have more footage that i need to get (buskers and pub bands etc.) I also want to get different styles of music, to show that not only the social aspects of music has changes but the styles!

Friday, January 16, 2009

Design and documentaries

Ok the idea of using a room seems to have got the go ahead. I will use a modern room that will have information on each topic from present day to the 80's... roughly. i will have icons that are antique looking that will be the buttons to the information of each topic from their beginnings to the 80's... roughly. I'm going out this weekend to get some video footage so i can soon start the editing of the documentaries. The programming is going ok... the login isn't finished yet but its getting there... slowly but surely! And so far i'm not have a nervous breakdown and in the last few months before the end of year that is great news!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

out of the fire and into the frying pan!

ok! so first off 'happy new year!' the title of my post will have more to do with my 'lord of the rings' marathon which i did on new years day, rather than coming back to college... although it does kinda apply to it!! LOL

Firstly! i have started some coding... nothing major but what i feel to be important none the less. I had an epiphany over my design... which is going swimmingly!! now all i need to do is the documentaries, which i have intended to have completed by the end of january.

The image above is a rough work of my user page. It ISN'T the entire website, just one part. The quality of the image isn't the greatest (had to use my web-cam, which is why it is crudely photoshopped!) but i'll have a better one by tomorrow.

My website will be the design of a real life sitting room (since all my topics seem to hang out there) I'm going for a video based site, but i'll have to check out all the ins and outs of space, loading time etc. when i get back to college. If the video based idea doesn't pan out i will make the main areas dynamic but with the documentaries, but right now i'm reaching high!! fingers crossed!!

There will be a cork board on the wall of the sitting room which will be the navigation of the site that has to do with the user e.g. Login, Sign up, Contact us, Interesting Links, polls, quizzes and a nifty little thing called a praxinoscope that will allow users to add their own pic to the animation. These will be on postit notes. the information for each postit will be displayed on the white board. There will be default page on the whiteboard - either the login page or the latest news page.

It will also have one or two quirky things pinned to it... like a funny postcard (that will change from week to week) etc.

^_^

Sarah's Random Quote of the day*

Feb 9 - Words are slipping out like endless rain into a paper cup, they slither while they pass, they make their way across the universe...

Feb 10 - All man are equal till the victory is won... no colour or religion ever stopped a bullet from a gun!

Feb 11 - His will was set and only death would shake it.

Feb 12 - I close my eyes... only for a moment but the moment's gone...

Feb 16 - I'm gonna do the things that i wanna do, i ain't got a thing to prove to you

Feb 17 - Early to rise and early to bed, makes a man healthy but social dead.

Feb 18 - Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like Shaft!

Feb 18 - The night is young and we have umbrellas in our drinks!

Feb 20 - Ah Gravity!! Thine is a harsh mistress!

Feb 23 - We took criminology one semester for christ sake! What were we going to be? Batman??

Feb 24 - My pokemon brings all the boys to the yard,

and they're like,

'you wanna trade cards?',

damn right,

I wanna trade cards,

I could beat you,

I've got charizard.

Feb 28 - Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad...

Mar 1 - Howl: Calcifer move the castle 60 miles to the west.... and while your at it heat the water for my bath.

Calcifer: Fine! Like moving the castle isn't hard enough!

Mar 10 - What none of you seem to understand is that I'm not in here with you.... you're in here with.... ME!!

Apr 3 - Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volumes of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. 'Tis some vistor,' I muttered, 'tapping at my chamber door - Only this, and nothing more.'

Apr 8 - There ain't no party like my nana's tea party... hay... ho...

*may not be a daily occurrence.

The back up plan

If i fail college i do have a back up plan....

The Top 100 Things I'd Do If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord
1. My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear Plexiglas visors, not face concealing ones.
2. My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.
3. My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell in my dungeon.
4. Shooting is not too good for my enemies.
5. The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragon of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.
6. I will not gloat over my enemies predicament before killing them.
7. When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say,"No." and shoot him. No, on second thought, I'll shoot him and then say "No."
8. After I kidnap the handsome prince, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks' time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.
9. I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled, "Danger: Don Not Push". The big red button marked "Do NotPush" will instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will clearly not be labelled as such.
10. I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum - a small hotel room well outside my border will work just as well.
11. I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.
12. One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.
13. All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the afore mentioned disposal.
14. The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.
15. I will never employ any device with a digital count-down. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.
16. I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."
17. When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.
18. I will not have a son. Although his laughably under-planned attempt to usurp power would easily fail, it would prove a fatal distraction at a crucial point in time.
19. I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betrayher own father.
20. Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.
21. I will hire a fashion designer to create original uniforms for my Legion of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs that make them look like Nazi stormtroopers, Roman foot soldiers, or savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my troops to have a more positive mind-set.
22. No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.
23. I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way -- even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless -- my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.
24. I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strength and weaknesses. Even though this takes some fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!"(After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

25. No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible spot.
26. No matter how attractive certain members of the rebellion are, there is probably someone just as attractive which is not desperate to kill me. Therefore, I will think twice before ordering a prisoner sent to my bed chamber.
27. I will never build only one of anything important. All important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times.
28. My pet monster will be kept in a secure cage from which it cannot escape and into which I could not accidentally stumble.
29. I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion.
30. All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no source of comic relief.
31. All naive, busty tavern wenches in my realm will be replaced with surly, world-weary waitresses who will provide no unexpected reinforcements and/or romantic sub-plot for the hero or his side-kick.
32. I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by.
33. I won't require high-ranking female members of my organization to wear a stainless-steel bustier. Morale is better with a more casual dress-code. Similarly, outfits made entirely from black leather will be reserved for formal occasions.
34. I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.
35. I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X.
36. I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cellblock, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.
37. If my trusted lieutenant tells me my Legion of Terror is losing a battle, I will believe him.. After all, he's my trusted lieutenant.
38. If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately,instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age.
39. If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ridea t the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army.
40. I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable super-weapon, I will use it early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.
41. Once my power is secure, I will destroy all of those pesky timetravel devices.
42. When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys that happens to follow him around.
43. I will maintain a healthy amount of skepticism when I capture the beautiful rebel and she claims she is attracted to my power and good looks and will gladly betray her companions if I just let her inn on my plans.
44. I will only employ bounty hunters who work for money. Those who work for the pleasure of the hunt tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance.
45. I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him and say "And here is the price for failure." then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.
46. If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This." and kill the advisor.
47. If I learn that a callow youth has begun a quest to destroy me,I will slay him while he is still a callow youth instead of waiting for him to mature.
48. I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.
49. If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact which can destroy me, I will not send all of my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want-Ad in the local paper.
50. My main computers will have their own special operating system that will be completely incompatible with standard IBM and Macintosh powerbooks.
51. If one of my dungeon guards begins expressing concern over the conditions of the beautiful princess' cell, I will immediately transfer him to a less people oriented position.
52. I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyorsto examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned tunnels that I might not know about.
53. If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!", I will say "Oh well" and kill her.
54. I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being then attempt todouble-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.
55. The deformed mutants and odd-ball psychotics will have their place in my Legion of Terror. However before I send them out on important covert missions that require tact and subtlety, I will first see if there is anyone else equally qualified who would attract less attention.
56. My Legion of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Anyone cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.
57. Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will carefully read the owners manual.
58. If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.
59. I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am.
60. My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: This also applies to passwords.
61. If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a madscheme?" I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.
62. I will design fortress hallways with no alcoves or protruding structural supports which intruders could use for cover in a fire fight.
63. Bulk trash will be disposed of in incinerators, not compactors. And they will be kept hot, with none of this nonsense about flames going through accessible tunnels at predictable intervals.
64. I will see a compentant psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be disadvantageous.
65. If I must have a computer system with publicly available terminals, the maps they display will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment.
66. My security keypad will actually be a fingerprint scanner. Anyone who watches someone press a sequence of buttons or dusts the pad for fingerprints and then subsequently tries to enter by repeating that sequence will trigger the alarm system.
67. No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency.
68. I will spare someone who saved my life sometime in the past. This is only reasonable as it encourages others to do so. However, the offer is good one time only. If they want me to spare them again,they'd better save my life again.
69. All midwives will be banned from the realm. All babies will be delivered at state-approved hospitals. Orphans will be placed in foster homes, not abandoned in the woods to be raised by creatures of the wild.
70. When my guards split up to search for intruders, they will always travel in groups of at least two. They will be trained so that if one of them disappears mysteriously while on patrol, the other will immediately initiate an alert and call for backup, instead of quizzically peering around a corner.
71. If I decide to test a lieutenant's loyalty and see if he/she should be made a trusted lieutenant, I will have a crack squad of marksmen standing by in case the answer is no.
72. If all the heroes are standing together around a strange device and begin to taunt me, I will pull out a conventional weapon, insteadof using my unstoppable super weapon on them.
73. I will not agree to let the heroes go free if they win a rigged contest, even though my advisors assure me it is impossible for them to win.
74. When I create a multimedia presentation of my plan designed so that my five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, I will not label the disk "Project Overlord" and leave it lying on top of my desk.
75. I will instruct my Legion of Terror to attack the heroes enmasse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.
76. If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridgeover a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)
77. If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutenant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.
78. I will not tell my Legion of Terror "And he must be taken alive-" the command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonable practical."
79. If my doomsday device happens to come with a reverse switch, as soon as it has been employed it will be melted down and made into limited edition commemorative coins.
80. If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he gets closer and closer to my fortress.
81. If I am fighting with the hero atop a moving platform, have disarmed him, and am about to finish him off and he glances behind me and drops flat, I too will drop flat instead of quizzically turning around to find out what he saw.
82. I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing infront of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerously unbalanced structure.
83. If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet,then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him.
84. I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.
. I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 stones of power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more alone the lines of "Push the button"
86. I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.
87. My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walk ways above them.
88. If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate them for incompetence then send the same group out to do the task again.
89. After I capture the hero's super weapon, I will not disband legions and relax my guard because I believe whoever holds the weapon is unstoppable. After all, the hero held the weapon and I took it from him.
90. I will not design my main control room so that every workstation is facing away from the door.
91. I will not ignore the messenger that stumbles in exhausted and obviously agitated until my personal grooming or current entertainment is finished. It might actually be important.
92. If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead, I will say that his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.)
93. If I decide to hold a double execution of the hero and the underling who failed or betrayed me, I will die first.
94. When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop and grab a useless trinket of purely sentimental value.
95. My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with bodyguards. That way if a prisoner becomes sick and his cell mate tells the guard it's an emergency, the guard will fetch a trauma team instead of opening the cell for a look.
96. My door mechanisms will be designed so that blasting the control panel on the outside seals the door and blasting the control panel on the inside opens the door, not vice versa.
97. My dungeon cells will not be furnished with objects that contain reflective surfaces or anything that can be unraveled.
98. If an attractive young couple enters my realm, I will carefully monitor their activities. If I find they are happy and affectionate, Iwill ignore them. However, if circumstances have forced them together against their will and they spend all their time bickering and criticizing each other except during the intermittent occasions when they are saving each other' lives at which point there are hints of sexual tension, I will immediately order their execution.
99. Any data files of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45Mb.
100. Finally, to keep my subjects permanently locked in a mindless trance, I will provide each of them with free, unlimited internet access.