Abbottmister's Weblog

LAUNCHED CHECK OUT THE SITE

Thomas — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:44:52 +0000

LAUNCHED CHECK OUT THE SITE

www.itube2012.co.uk

This is just a beta version for testing on the public. hope all goes well.

Major blog. Itube

Thomas — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:03:28 +0000

http://itubemajor.wordpress.com/

Last year is this year…im scared

Thomas — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 12:40:03 +0000

Its my final year, and I must say how much I’m sh**ing myself. There is so much workload for this final hurdle of my uni education. With the minor over and done with, which I was very proud of myself for completing excellently in the presentation…and presentations, is not my forte. So the Major idea, oooooo, the idea is to create an interactive London underground tube map for the 800,000 tourists arriving in London for 2012 Olympics. The map will be specifically aimed at this target audience however people from all background and even those who live in London will be able to use the map. Currently there is not a fully interactive map out there, there are journey planner which my map will include, however currently on the TFL website a PDF download is available to anyone wanting current information in another language. This puts the 800,000 tourists at a disadvantage if they don’t know English. My map will be mainly constructed using symbols, as it’s the only global language. Other functions of the map will include using it to find top tourist destinations, venues of the Olympics and much more. All the information a tourist could want will be in one place, on one interactive map.

My research was fairly intense, I have contacted TFL and STILL waiting for their reply, but my research has really found this gap, where tourists sites are advising tourists to get the tube map from another source other than TFL as its not very efficient and take a while to download. This really is not acceptable from TFL; they should offer the best source of the information. I also found that tourists are told that the tube map is not as tourist-friendly as other countries, then to find a quote from TFL themselves announcing that the map has lost its simplicity, I feel I really have struck gold. However this is a big project to take on, and I’m still very much learning the code and processes needed to complete this project.

On the other hand it’s January and I now need to focus on the dreaded famous Dissertation, so much of my time will be dedicated to this as the deadline is drawing nearer. So I better go get back to that!.

Second entry of the year!

Thomas — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:52:18 +0000

Second entry of the year!

Its that time where I have done the work for the year and need to reflect upon the year, however more importantly looking to the near future. Today im looking at my dissertation proposal…and im still looking at the piece of paper. To find one question that’s suitable to be good enough to achieve my degree is hmm hard would be an understatement. Off the top of my head I know I am interested in language and the research around the subject of ludology. Also identity really interested me. However I feel im not ready to make a decision and focus on one subject, im gonna have a quick read over the subjects I have covered in the last 2 years! Hopefully that will give me more of an idea of what I what to do exactly. Scary times! Dissertation proposal, work placement and final year of uni! Oh and PDP essay ofcourse! Ha.

Return of the Blog!

Thomas — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 14:41:53 +0000

This year has gone far quickly than i expected, and so im going to try and put everything into one post. This year has most definitely been a learning curve to remember. So far i have created a website for my Authorship project, involving php and mysql, which i found fascinating to be honest, it is the way forward! However my design work needs to be improved, which was one of my comments in my feedback. The next task ahead was HHHUUUGEE! project in making a game, with a website some how connecting to the game. After a slow start, and thinking at the time our group is not going to get anything done, we managed to prceed and get past our problems and create a very amusing game about escaping prison. If your easily offended then…well hell to it i dont care. Although we worked in flash, as3, the game looks fairly good. I believe we hit our target audience and had fun in the process of making it. So yes the project did have a happy ending, and u can play the game at; http://impserver.bournemouth.ac.uk/~brain/

I was proud of the progress i had made since start of my course, i manage to create all the cut-scenes and characters and one of the mini-games. After this project i had a boost of confidence and did some freelance work…well technically did, i create a site for a group on another course needing a web site made for them, and yes they were very pleased. Tho i just got a thankyou and some choc, its astep up the right ladder.

Now its pretty much the end of my second year at uni, i have a confirmed placement at ‘Substance Media’ in Farringdon London, which i am very excited about. I walked in for my interview a month ago and as soon as i alked in there were people all around a whiteboard talking about ideas for new films out in the cinema like ‘Yes man’ and future projects like’Wolerine’, Ha! awesome. It was there i knew i wanted to do this for my career. I start my placement on July 13th, and up till then i will be studying hard so i dont feel like a complete idiot, i know im there to learn, but i want to make a good impression.

…and so thats pretty much it, second year has been hard hitting, and has flew by as you can tell from more fairly short post for the year! On a final awesome note, my company, f-promotions is taking off well, currently running friday nights at Fruit bar after finishing our events at DNA. I am dead excited for the company as we (me and my company partner) have big plans for Bournemouth…were taking over….(evil laugh)

Peace, T

Thomas — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 13:00:05 +0000

Flash project has been handed in finally!! jeeeesssus! that project was getting annoying, don’t get me wrong i loved the flash work …kinda..only the damn actionscript was sooo pissing me off its unreal, cannot believe i managed to finish even when i had lost most of my flash project the week before the hand in deadline! due to the file being corrupt all of a sudden. So yea learnt a hell of alot in a short space of time with the project. First of all REMEMBER to keep back up copies of ur work everyday!, i learnt the hard way, but other than that i am really proud of myself for basically learning flash and actionscript for myself. I was not getting much info from lectures and workshops so i taught myself using web tutorials and books on actionscript. I must say it is probably the most work i have done at uni so far! Anyway project handed in and overall happy with what i did considering all the problems i encountered. I look forward to seeing other peeps work, the work i have seen already is blooming amazing!, even though mine was no where near as good as others im happy becuase of what i have learnt from it i must say, the actionscript in part of my animation is pretty impressive, where i get an object to follow the mouse and the user has to click on a moving button, also on my website which took an age by the way, had actionscript for a moving menu bar, amazing affect. Time now to relax after many sleepless nights from doing work all night!, but all over and off to Turkey for a ‘OLIDAY! ‘,:) P.s not blogged in a while, totally forgot!

How flash…

Thomas — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:16:57 +0000

This week i’ve been learning how to use flash, this is what i have been waiting for since i got here, the much awaited flash. This week was just the basics but it still left me impressed and wanting more, this project is gonna be gooooooood! is it just me or is the theory really interesting too?? i don’t believe i’m about to say this but…i love theory! aha!

Technology vs Nature has come back to haunt me!

Thomas — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 17:02:22 +0000

My lecture today with claudia was pretty interesting, even though it was a lecture meant for our last project!, but never the less it was useful looking at the mapping and the different interfaces for the World Wide Web. wat really caught my eye was the Seadragon software from microsoft, absolutely amazing (you will find it at www.ted.com) It was then discussion arose about breaking the rules we conform to in. We have conventions in our culture that are foundations of our language and how we do things, like for example reading from left to right when we read a book or any text. So websites generally conform to these rules but to argue it is for our benefit. It may seem technology has not progressed however it is all for our benefit, we are constantly making ways of understanding things. Some websites have created an interface where the interent is shown though a virtual city, where the bigger buildings are the most important and poopular of websites. However this intereface is not a good representation of the World Wide Web, as there is infinite space, and to try and create or map a world where anywhere and anything is accessed in an instant is …well…impossible as i know of anyway. Maybe one day someone will create and very intelligent way of navigating the World Wide Web better than the very plain 2d version we use. However this is what i cannot get my head around, yes we understand things better through using what we already know, so like technology personified, or interpreted through nature or everyday for us to understand. There are metaphors everywhere in technology, bookmarks, ‘surfing the web’, ‘browsing’. Even the virtual world we have created conforms to the rules of our reality. Why do we not accept the virtual world as something new, learn it as we do a new language? i dunno what to really think about this because i could argue both sides of this argument, as this virtual world is i guess a reflection of this world, is it not? hmmmmm

A long awaited blog!

Thomas — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 22:15:56 +0000

Im back at uni fresh and ready to work, although was very dissapointed with my images unit mark, just passed. I put a lot of effort into those images and becuase i made them complicated and abstract i was peanilised for it!, jees, so im gonna keep it textbook from now on becuase that was a little scare. Yes back and refreshed and straight to work on the narratives group project. I feel we are ding ok, but need to get filming and actually show the work when it counts, like on thurs! ahhhh! a little nervous since i have nt done much work due to the fact that my role is need a little later in the project. So for now i have done research, whih was very interesting by the way, didnt know there were so many versions of different fairytales, especially Cinderella! I have looked a little at interactivty and now i need to create the storyboard!!!

On another note, todays lectures on gaming and about search engines was pretty interesting to know, useful info for future reference. Learning about xhtml, xml and all sorts! just soaking it up like a sponge. T

An Epiphany!

Thomas — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 22:06:25 +0000

It’s weird!, when you think your project is going shite! and give up trying to give meaning, it all comes your way! i was watcing T.V and suddenly on the news a break through in brain scanning technology, closer than ever before blah blah blah, they call it a ‘Brainbow’, i was like nice i could use that in my images. Then after reading some books i find perfect meaning to my images that relates to theory have been discussing in lectures! whoop! so it seems as if everything has come together at the last moment, I just hope i have spoke about theory for too long in my essay!, Its soooo hard sticking to 1500 words, and don’t get me started on sourcing everything! that did my head in! I feel i could have done better on myimages, but thats only becuase im still getting used to Photoshop!, my ideas are excellent, love em!…but putting it together on paper in an image im not so good at! But its finally over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!ENJOY!