Feb/101
Domain Renewal Scam
Letter from The Domain Renewal Group
When I came home from work, an official looking envelope from the ‘Domain Renewal Group’ was waiting for me. Inside was an equally official looking letter which I initially thought was a bill. It turns out it is just a marketing letter posing as a renewal notice for one of my domains.
It seems they look at the WHOIS records for domains which are expiring soon and send out these letters in the hope someone will think it is a bill and give them a cheque or credit card number. They expect me to pay £20 to renew my domain and make them my new registrar, this is vastly more expensive than renewing with my current registrar which would cost only £5.46 for a year.
I think this is a deliberately deceiving letter designed to look like a bill in the hope that it will just be paid and forgotten – many people with websites don’t really understand the roles of registrar, hosting company etc. and this will just confuse them further.
In short, if you’re happy with your current registrar, don’t bother changing. If you do decide to change, don’t be forced into it by someone sending you direct marketing letters.
Jan/100
Invasion of the Not Quite Dead Trailer released today!
IndywoodFILMS presents: ‘Invasion Of The NOT QUITE Dead’ teaser promo…
In August 2009, a special teaser promo was created to raise awareness for a horror feature film called ‘INVASION OF THE NOT QUITE DEAD’ which has the support of such names as: Tom Savini, Kevin Pollak, Ken Russell, David Hess, Lloyd Kaufman, HG Lewis, Lee Boardman, Justin Kerrigan & talk show host Jonathan Ross.
The teaser was shot on S16mm film on location at a small farm in Kent and stars horror veteran Leslie Simpson (Dog Soldiers, The Descent, Doomsday), Efisia Fele and Frank Jakeman.
Visit www.theindywoodproject.com and help them to independently raise funds to make the feature film, they are currently receiving an incredible amount of media attention due to them selling pre-order producer packages to help raise our £100,000 budget, so far as of Jan 29th they have sold 449 producer packages to 18 different countries, raising over £16,000 – help them to continue the success…
I am preorder number 10 and have recently upgraded to VIP Executive Producer status.
For more information on how you can help the production of ‘INVASION OF THE NOT QUITE DEAD’ please visit: http://www.theindywoodproject.com or http://www.invasionofthedead.com
and for real time updates why not folow them on twitter: @indywoodFILMS
and our official facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Invasio…
or contact writer/producer/director Antony Lane: adlane@indywood.co.uk
Dec/090
Edinburgh Winter Festival
Yesterday, @rich_dyson invited me to join him taking some long exposure photos of the Edinburgh Winter Festival in Princes Street Gardens. We met near the ‘Giant Wheel’ and set up the cameras in the middle of Princes Street looking towards the wheel, carousel and helter skelter. I knew I wanted a long exposure to blur the wheel and people, and to get some nice light streaks from taxis and buses passing in front of us. With my 18mm lens at the smallest aperature, the exposure was about 15″, so I put put on an ND8 to increase the length of exposure. I am happy with about 3 of the 20 or so photos I took, the best is probably this one. (20″ f/13 iso100 18mm)
After that we took a wander through the ‘Scottish Market’. I had taken a photo earlier of ‘Amelia‘ (1/60 f/1.4 iso800 50mm) who was doing Tarot readings in her Gypsy Caravan (are you still allowed to say ‘Gypsy’? I can never remember)… although I did see another woman giving readings there earlier – I wonder if there really is only one Amelia. I did a bit of photoshopping to add detail back into the sitter’s white hat and reduced the exposure of the background which was a bit bright before.
We set up on the Plaza between the Art Galleries at the bottom of the mound where I took the photo you see on this page (10″ F/9 iso100 92mm). It is actually a merge of 2 photos, the wheel, shed and clock tower are from one, the sky, trees and helter skelter are from another – I think it was worth editing to get the nice sky.
I had never tried a long exposure with my long lens, so I also took a close-up of the clocktower on the Balmoral Hotel (5″ f/9 iso100 149mm) from the same position. Unfortunately, the nice moonlit clouds were beginning to disappear.
Aug/090
Chomp! Descends on Edinburgh
The cast of Chomp! take over the Royal Mile
This evening I was doing the City of the Dead Underground City tour at 9pm, but I was on the Royal mile from about 6.30 to see the street performers and generally hang out. At about 7pm, the cast of “Chomp! The new Zombie Musical” took over the High Street.
Usually at festival time you get hundreds of posh schoolkid luvvies who are in productions and make a fool of themselves on The Mile trying to get people interested in seeing their shows. Chomp! seems a little different – these actors are really getting into the part – a gang of zombies came sprinting up the Royal Mile, chasing each other and terrorising members of the public. Luckily the army arrived and a huge fight broke out between them and the zombies.
There was some extremely realistic looking punches being delivered between a zombie in a bowler hat and tails (who I assume is the leader) and one of the soldiers. Then suddenly two of the Zombies broke into song… “Shooting Out The Brains of the Dead” – A jolly ditty about DIY zombie lobotomy – brilliant!
The show is on in C-1, Venue 34. 5:15pm 7-8 August. I’m working both nights so I can’t make it – you should go though!
Update, If you missed the show live, Andy Evans has made a video of one of the early performances available:
Chomp! The new Zombie Musical – Act 1
Chomp! The new Zombie Musical – Act 2
Aug/090
DDOS on Twitter – happening now!
Twitter.com is currently down. Status.twitter.com reports that they are currently fighting a DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack which has been running by my estimation since shortly before 15:00 BST.
In a DDOS attack, the server is sent enough requests to overwhelm the server and affect genuine users. In the case of a site like twitter, which has lots of bandwidth, the attack generally comes from a botnet (computers infected with malware which can be turned to a variety of uses – from sending spam emails to DDOSing sites).
There is speculation that this attack is being perpetrated by the same “Dastardly Hackers” who brought down Gawker on Sunday while ddosing consumerist.com.
Twitter status - down!
Twitter’s status page currently reports that the site is back up, but I have found that service is still intermittent.
I want my twitter back!
Aug/091
My second chain attempt
Having made my own jump rings from silverplated copper wire, I decided to put them together into something that looks a bit more like some jewelery. The result, a 7″ bracelet with a chain made of double links and a box-chain central section.
2x2 chain with Box section
The joins in the links are much tighter this time round than my last attempt. Things to work on for the next one are to scratch the links less with the pliers while closing them, and to make the chain of silver rather than plated copper.
I’m quite pleased with the decorative section in the middle though – really tight due to the aspect ratio of the rings.
Aug/090
Moo mini-cards
My second set of Moo mini-cards arrived a few days ago. I’m delighted with this set too. My last set featured photographs of Greyfriar’s Kirkyard and were intended to give to people who had been on my ghost tour and wanted my details. This new set are a bit more colourful and light hearted for general use where I don’t want to scare people away.
The thing I like about moo mini-cards is their quirky shape and size – they are different to any other business card anyone will have in their wallet (unless you’re at a tweetup where everyone seems to have them!). I love that you can get many different images printed in one order for a reasonable price. Anyway, these are my newest cards – let me know what you think!
Moo mini-cards
Aug/091
First attempt at jump-ring making
10m of 0.8mm Silver-plated copper wire
I found a shop on St Mary’s Street in the Old Town which sells jewelery making supplies and picked up a 10m length of 0.8m silver plated copper wire for the bargain price of £4.50. At home I looked around for a suitable mandrel and found a short length of metal bar from an old portable TV aerial (who said jewelery-making wasn’t glamorous?) and set about winding the wire round it. Winding will be much easier next time when I get a decent length mandrel and drill a hole in it to hold the wire. In this case, I just did it with my hands. I have a lovely blister on my index finger to prove it. Lesson learned.
Once the wire was wound, I slid the mandrel out and was left with a (not very springy) spring. It wasn’t as uniform as I had hoped for – the diameter was the same all the way along, but there were a few small gaps between each turn. I suspect this won’t make a huge difference, but some rings will be more open than others when I am finished. Hopefully it will not affect the size of each ring too much.
Wire after removing mandrel
Before cutting it, I decided to make sure that I didn’t lose the rings all over the floor. Paul had recommended taping the wire before cutting, but I am out of masking tape and Sellotape wasn’t sticking so well. I slid a length of thread through the middle of the wire and tied it in a loop – my thinking was that most of the rings would end up hanging on the thread. This was fairly successful although I found a lot of the rings ended up linked round the blade of the saw – this meant that the thread tended to get a bit tangled. Next time I may try without the thread or tape. I was holding the rings between my fingers anyway, so I don’t think too many will fall.
I put beeswax on the blade of the saw as recommended (for silver anyway – not sure what I was supposed to use with copper) and it seemed to do the job. It cut much more quickly right after applying the wax, so I stopped regularly to apply more.
After being so careful not to drop any of the rings, I was a bit gutted when I stood up and knocked them all over the floor anyway.
Hand-made jump rings
I now have 110 shiny little circles ready to link together. I suspect I’ll need more to make anything useful (Terri’s Byzantine chain bracelet took 200) but I still have plenty of wire left over to make more.
Jul/090
Lesault’s Top 10 things to do in Edinburgh
Although Edinburgh is a small city, there are a huge number of things to do. If you’re only here for a few days, here are my top ten things you have to do!
Edinburgh Castle from the Vennel
Edinburgh is internationally famous for its Castle built on a crag of volcanic dolomite rock at the top of the Royal Mile and overlooking the whole city. Go before 1pm and get a good view of the ‘One O’Clock Gun’ which fires every day except Sunday. See the Scottish Crown Jewels, the beautiful chapel, the huge Mons Meg cannon and much more. If you are here during the festival (August) you may be able to catch the Edinburgh Military Tattoo on the Esplanade.
2. Ghost Tour
Edinburgh has about 6 tour companies who do history and ghost walks of the city – but they vary in quality. My advice would be to avoid the free tours – they don’t go anywhere you can’t go on your own and will waste a few hours of your day! If you do decide to take a free tour, check your guides credentials early – see if they really know about the city or are just going to feed you a script! The other tours are all good – Auld Reekie, Mercat Tours, City of the Dead, Mary Kings Close, The Witchery Tours – you won’t be disappointed with any of them! City of the Dead is, of course, the scariest by far! Disclaimer: I work for City of the Dead (ask for Lesault!), these views are mine and not necessarily those of City of the Dead!
Arthur's Seat
3. Arthur’s Seat
A beautiful Highland Landscape only a few minutes walk from the centre if Edinburgh. A climb to the top isn’t too hard (if I can make it, anyone can!) Arthur’s Seat is another extinct volcano, it’s in the beautiful Holyrood park and gives an amazing view of the city. If you don’t fancy climbing all the way to the top, you can get similar views from the Salisbury Crags which are a good bit lower and a much easier walk. Also worth seeing is the ruined St Anthony’s Chapel perched above St Margaret’s Loch. Take a sandwich with you and enjoy the view of the city and the Firth of Forth to the north.
4. National Museum of Scotland
If you’re after a bit more culture, you can’t beat the museum. The Story of Scotland’s land, people and culture. The adjoining Royal Museum is slowly being reopened bit by bit after its renovation and promises to be an amazing attraction in 2011 when it fully reopens. See Dolly the sheep (although, once you’ve seen one clone you’ve seen them all!), Viking and Pictish artifacts and more modern exhibits like Jackie Stewart’s Formula 1 Car.
Palm house - Photo by Lawmurray
If you like plants and the outdoors, you could easily spend a full day here looking at all the exotic plants. It’s free to get into, but it’s worth paying the small supplement to get into the Victorian Palm House and the other glasshouses which join onto it. There’s a petrified tree nearby which is really interesting and I especially liked the Chinese Hillside, although there are many themed areas to visit.
A fantastic exhibition of Illusions and Holograms just outside Edinburgh Castle. One of the largest exhibitions of holograms in Europe – there is plenty to see on the way up the stairs to the Camera Obscura which sits on top of the building and is a landmark in its own right. The Camera Obscura was the height of Victorian technology and has been entertaining visitors for over 150 years. A mirror and system of lenses project a moving image of edinburgh onto a round table in the centre of the room. You get a humorous and knowledgable guided tour of edinburgh without movinf from your seat. Fabulous views of the castle, city and Forth.
About 40 minutes by bus (Lothian #15) from Edinburgh. The Rosslyn Chapel has been made very famous recently by the Da Vinci Code book and film so it tends to be much busier now than it was a few years ago, but it is definately worth the trip. See how many ‘Green Man’ carvings you can count, and find the carvings of maize which prove America was visited by the Scots before Columbus!
8. Bus Tour
One of the best ways of seeing a lot of the city and to get from place to place is with a bus tour. The buses leave from Waverly Bridge near the train station. My advice it to choose one of the tours with a live guide rather than one with a prerecorded tour and headphones. The live guides know their stuff, are witty and can answer any questions you have. Check out which attractions each bus takes you to and choose the best one for you – you can get on and off the bus as often as you like in a 24 hour period and can go round the route as many times as you want. I still try to do one of these tours every year or so and always learn something new.
A short bus journey out of the City Centre will take you to Edinburgh Zoo. Over 1000 animals, the Zoo specialises in rare and endangered species. The Budongo Trail lets you get really close to Chimpanzees, there is a penguin parade which is worth seeing. My tip is to see teh feeding of the Steller Sea Eagles – these are huge birds of prey and extremely impressive when in flight. Mercedes the Polar bear is also worth a visit.
Open weekdays 12pm-4pm (with longer hours during the festival), this is the weirdest museum I have visited. It presents the history of surgery with emphasis on Edinburgh’s contribution. There is also an exhibition of sports medicine, a Sherlock Holmes exhibition, and a history of dentistry. But, my favourite part is the pathology museum – all sorts of diseased body parts in jars! Brilliant! Plan for about 2 hours to see all the exhibits.
11. Walk around the Old Town
Ok, I said top-ten, but you’ll do this one anyway getting from place to place. Edinburgh’s Old Town is amazing – it’s the reason I like Edinburgh so much. The main street, the Royal Mile, runs from the castle at the top, to the palace at the bottom. Many narrow ‘closes’ branch off from the main street and are worth exploring. Check out the views you get between the buildings, often you get a stunning view of Arthur’s Seat, or the New Town. I especially like how the Old Town is on so many levels with so many bridges.. go and explore!
Jul/090
Graze.com – healthy food in a box
Cherries!
On the recommendation of @tinyblob on twitter, I subscribed to graze.com’s healthy-food-in-a-box-by-post service. They offer a variety of fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, savoury snacks, natural treats and olives, all packaged in a brown card box (100% recyclable, made of wood from a sustainable forest) -” just real food, no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives”. You choose what days you want boxes delivered each week and they post them out to arrive on the day you specify.
They have a nice system where you can browse the foods they offer and ‘bin’ any items you don’t like – fresh pineapple went straight in the bin for me! – and they won’t send you any of that item. You can also tell them you love particular items and they will send you more of that thing.
Each box is nutritionally balanced, and tailored to your likes and dislikes. My first (free)box should arrive on Tuesday and another on Thursday. I’m looking forward to eating healthily for a change!
I’m getting healthy food sent to me by graze.com. This is supposed to make me healthier, but now I don’t even need to walk as far as the vending machine!
Get your first Graze box free by entering my ‘Feed your Friends’ code D2W5PT5 at Graze.com
