Maria and Graham Photo Shoot

Last weekend I did a photo shoot for Maria and Graham, musicians in Belfast with residencies at several bars... a web site for them is in the works...



See the rest of the photo shoot here. Maria also sings at weddings.

WikiBelfast.com

One of my latest web projects is WikiBelfast.com - an all inclusive Wikipedia style websites for information on Belfast.

Useful for residents and visitors alike, I aim to cover absolutely everything Belfast has to offer.

But I need your help! Editing the wiki software is super easy, so sign up and join in :)

New Portraits

This blog has been a bit neglected for a while, but I'm going to try and keeping it a bit more up to date with news etc. So first up I'd like to share two portraits with you that I have just finished. I'm pretty happy with them for the most part...


Jocelyn by *rdch on deviantART



Peggy by *rdch on deviantART

Google wants your video AGAIN!

In August 2005 I blogged about the new Google Video service. Then Google went and bought YouTube and it looked like GoogleVideo might be a dead duck.

Then Google announced that they would be transforming Google Video into a general video search tool, listing videos from both GoogleVideo and YouTube and potentially other video hosting services such as MySpace (my speculation) .

Now we're beginning to see the full story of Google's plans for YouTube. It is planning on introducing a revenue sharing model (similar to AdSense) for video producers.

Basically, if you host a video on YouTube and people click the ads on that page, and if you are the sole copyright owner of the video, you will get a percentage of the revenue generated by the clicks. I estimate that this will be around 75% of the revenue to start with but will probably drop slowly over time (based on speculation of how the AdSense model works).

So if your video becomes huge, you stand to make a fair bit of cash from it all.

If it works, then YouTube will become THE place to post your content, and the amount of great content on there should blossom. In theory anyway - and with Google's track record I have no reason to think otherwise.

C'mon you creatives. Get filming!

ePassports 'at risk' from cloning

This story slipped past my radar a month ago when it came out, but it's worth a read...

ePassports 'at risk' from cloning

Yet another example of how ill-concieved security lockdowns will fail to improve our security at all. Another waste of money!

Complete URL control with .htaccess

[for webmasters]

OK so it's a bit of a dull thing to blog about, but this thread gives an excellent insight into the world of .htaccess and highlights lots of URL-based issues that you may not have even known were out there.... not least being the issues of duplicate content (on www and non-www versions of your site) in Google.

A guide to fixing Google duplicate content & URL issues

[for non-webmasters]

Kindly move along, there's nothing to see here... ;)

Petition Downing Street to Scrap ID Cards

ID Cards are going to be a huge waste of money. So I encourage you all to petition the government to scrap them immediately.

The deadline for this petition is 15th February so please do it asap.

Not only will they infringe civil liberties and dehumanise our population, but they wont improve our security one bit.

Security is all about the weakest link, and ID cards won't eliminate this fact at all. A British-born terrorist may even HAVE a valid ID card, and STILL commit an attrocity.

If they are going to be voluntary then they're just plain pointless - who in their right mind will want one? especially if you're planning on commiting an illegal act.

How will we issue them to immigrants that come from a poor country with an unreliable government that may not even be able to prove their ID anyway?

They say that ID cards may cost the tax payer over a billion pounds in total. I object to that. I don't mind paying taxes if the money is spent well, but I really object to such waste.

The government's record on computer databases (NHS) is so poor that why anyone would trust that this will even work is beyond me.

Spend that money on more intelligence. That's a much better way to improve our security.

SopCast - Free P2P internet TV

With this nifty little program - SopCast - you can, amongst other things, watch live premiership over the net... nice!

You do have to put up with the occasional long pause for buffering but you still get most of the action.

Free!

The Life and Times of Victor Bloom

TheLifeandTimesof is a new site I have set up to explore the possibilities of non-linear collaberative storytelling using wiki software on the Internet.

The wiki will consist of many interlinked pages, some telling stories, some detailing events, some describing people. Anyone can add pages and so the details of the

protangonist's life will emerge slowly and organically.

The wiki revolves around the main character - Victor Bloom - and the details of his life. I don't want to set too many rules for it, other than that is should be all fictional.

Sign up and join in!

We made sushi!

Well, we had a lot of good food in Minneapolis this thanksgiving, but the sushi we made at the weekend was fantastic! Thanks for a great week!