Iron Man 2 Trailer

Holy crap this movie looks awesome. Very few sequels ever fulfill my expectations but as far as Hollywood blockbusters go this looks pretty amazing!

Twitter Stats

Ah Twitter! When I’m working waiting from email correspondents this is where you will find me. I guess I would fit into the “chatty” category (I send an average of 5 tweets a day, sometimes 140 characters just aren’t enough!)

I found that out by doing a little research of my own… or rather I went to Tweetstats. You know you are interested in knowing what you’d get. Perhaps take a shuffle over here and finding out for yourself?

I know there are alot of people who don’t see the point in Twitter but, honestly, there are so many different reasons to get an account. It’s free for a start, so why not? Personally I’ve found alot of like-minded people on Twitter, using your mobile phone you can text to your account, so even when you are out and about you can send updates.

In alot of ways, it’s not dissimilar to Facebook status updates, it surprises me how many people have Facebook accounts but find it “weird” having a Twitter account. Twitter is like a non-stalkery version of Facebook in my opinion.

I do not have a Facebook account, for those of your who care, some girl with my name who also lives in London is wrecking my search results posing on the bonnets of cars… nice. Ew.

On that note, I have to say it makes me feel a weird kind of angry when someone with the same name as me makes *me* look bad on the internet.

I try hard to not embarrass myself online… if I say something stupid, It’s my fault, I can own that and deal with it. You have to care about your reputation when you consider these days that most new clients, bosses and even dates will Google you, and so when that scantily dressed Charlotte Knibbs pops up on the bonnet of a car as an associated search result…(still ew) it does obviously effect your character!

The above infograph was from InformationIsBeautiful.net and yes, it is beautiful!

What’s the Matter?

So the Large Hadron Collider went back online on Friday after all those (expensive) technical problems and the most bizarre malfunctions, whatever you think of the LHC you cannot deny it is a groundbreaking scientific experiment.

I found the above video through Vimeo created by Aleksandar Rodic. He says he was inspired by demoscene, “3D pipes” screensaver and sub-atomic particle collision images. Particle collision being what is going to be the main factor in the experiments carried out to find the Higgs Boson particle (The God Particle) which is expected to provide a scientific foundation for the origin of mass in the universe.

Exciting stuff!
If this is still gibberish to you then watch the LHC video below. Which is arguably a “Large Hadron Collider video for dummies”

…aaaaand to keep upto date with the LHC’s progress follow CERN on their twitter account.

A Steal of a Deal

I was recently introduced to Clients from Hell by Dan Griffiths via his Twitter and wasted a good few minutes sifting through the archives and contemplating the pure idiocy of some clients.

We have *all* had our fair share of stupid briefs, stupid requests, stupid emails or just stupidity so take a trot over to Clients from hell and have a look.

The blog image above is my favourite/worst one… depending how you look at it. Infuriating!

Traffic Shaping FTL

I have found something really REALLY crap about the internet in London. (Central London specifically) After all the trouble I had with BT earlier in the year in Frome, I was pleased to get away from them and use a different ISP in London.

We use free Orange broadband which OF COURSE we still need to use a BT landline with, costing the minimum contract amount of £40 a quarter.

So the annoying thing is this. If I do not use the internet from 8.30 to 9.00 am the internet is essentially *switched off* in our flat for the rest of the working day – until around 5.30 to 6.00 pm.
I cannot connect to web pages or my mail server, iChat continually disconnects me. Nothing. Which is of course really handy if, like me, you freelance from home and actually NEED the internet!

What I do to get round it is keep the internet from going dormant and run a streaming website like TVCatchup which if left on through 9.00 am keeps the internet from cutting out. This is tried and tested and it makes me 10/10 angry.

Essentially, the internet is being prioritised or traffic shaped at the ISP’s end. I understand the need for this if I were traffic throttling… but collecting email and running ichat is not what I would call throttling. Thanks Orange. As long as I am not using more bandwidth than I am “paying for” what is the problem?

If you are thinking “quit whining Charlotte, your not “paying” for your internet, you said it was free?”
Yes the internet we use is free, *because* one of my housemates has an Orange contract and gets free broadband included in the deal, therefore, (aside from paying for the BT phoneline) it should be free and *working* provided my housemate has his Orange contract.

So here I am drafting this post in Text Edit, because I was foolish enough to take a shower this morning instead of connecting TVCatchup and now the internet has gone down for the day. SUCH a ridiculous situation.

I am astounded as to how ISP’s can get away with skullduggery like this. BT and their speed capping and now Orange with traffic shaping? I cannot be the only one in England who is sick of being promised a certain internet speed and never ever coming close to getting it?

This post has been brought to you by the Walrus, significantly more superior to the vampire.

Eeek an announcement!

Everything IS going to be amazing!

But first, marvel at the awesomeness of this nebulosity. (It’s an emission nebula in the constellation of Cepheus.) Yet one of the many many things that makes me a dork, I read NASA’s APOD. Read the description here.

I love looking at the stars, there is something ancient and magical about them. Shame I have been doing no star spotting since coming to London ofcourse, nothing but orange skies to be seen here, so for now APOD can be my window to the sky.

So, without further ado, time for the announcement:

YES! I was accepted into the MA Graphic Design course at the London College of Communication at the University of the Arts… unconditionally! I have been doing a skippy dance since lastnight when I got the letter.

I am about to make the oh-so fun transformation from Freelancer to *Swot-who-freelances-in-her-spare-time*! So excited, mostly about the pressure. I like deadlines and schedules it’s motivating. Oh, they are going to hate me at uni.

*Edit* Term starts on the 11th January so that’s only *68 days* until crunch time. Watch me fall to pieces via my updates on twitter. I’m sure my mental demise will be visible… I get so nervous!

Snow Leopard

The only question here is… are you joking?

So Apple have just announced that the new OS, Snow Leopard, is to be launched on the 28th as in this Friday. This has been anticipated ever since Leopard turned out to be so glitchy – note to Microsoft and Apple: please don’t EVER race an OS release again! Vista and Leopard = Epic fail.

Ever since this box design was leaked lastweek I had to question the source, I mean, this is a seriously awful box design. It couldn’t possibly be real?? It must be a fake!

…However, yesterday it was announced and shortly afterwards the updated Apple site confirmed that this was infact the real design. Yuk. Clip art, eat your heart out!

Avatar Trailer

Wow! The trailer for this movie looks awesome, the first film to be made entirely 3D… rather than just having a few objects swoop out at you form the cinema screen, this one will be like looking through a window into another world.

I have to say I have seen a number of films at the cinema in 3D… but I just think it’s sad that it is only THAT amazing for the few weeks it is shown in the cinema, and then after that when it’s available on DVD it will just be another “flat” movie.

The technology just doesn’t exist yet to full appreciate a film of this cost.

The $237m budget of Avatar signals a leap in technology – indeed, David Cameron, the film director who pushed technical effects to the limit with the blockbuster Titanic in 1997, and ushered in the dawn of action films with ’80s classics such as Terminator and Aliens, waited 15 years before starting filming as technology had not advanced enough to portray his vision.

I don’t know how I would begin to explain the technology behind making this movie to the level of 3 dimension that David Cameron is after… but after a little googling… it goes a bit like this:

If you’ve had previous experience of 3D, your impression will probably be one of a flattish image with the occasional object ‘flying’ at you’.

But these advances are different – the entire screen has depth, taking on the appearance of a window through which the viewer is watching a ‘world’ on the screen, with a distinct foreground and background, rather than a flat, moving painting

In effect, the cinema screen becomes a theatre stage.

There’s still at least one throw-back to the ‘early days’ of 3D – viewers will need to wear glasses to get the illusion.

However these are not the red and green cardboard cut-outs you used to get free with Sugar Puffs before Comic Relief.

These are polarising glasses, untinted, which do not cause the headaches experienced in the past, or more importantly rely on frequent ‘pans’ of the camera to make the image appear in 3D.

Each lens has a different filter , which removes different part of the image as it enters each eye. This gives the brain the illusion it is seeing the picture from two different angles, creating the 3D effect.

Wallace & Gromit – A Matter of Loaf and Death Pictures

Yay pictures!!

So, I was responsible for designing this range of products, print and packaging to accompany the release of the latest Wallace & Gromit animated movie “A Matter of Loaf and Death”. This is not all the products as there are actually about 40 different items in this first range (I’m working with Aardman on the 2nd range now)

As you may have read earlier this week, these designs have come highly commended in Gift of the Year Award 2009!

Take a peek at the pics over in my portfolio

I’ve been waiting to get my mitts on these pictures for a long time, as usually happens with designing products, I send off the print ready artwork and then with the production time involved, before you know it, it’s months before I get to see the final pieces.

I’m super pleased to have worked on this, and with the 2nd range now in progress which will include more ceramic items like teapots, eggcups, jugs, cheese and cake plates I hope it can be even better than the last one!

Fantastic Mr Fox – The Movie (!) By Wes Anderson!!

I LOVED the Fantastic Mr Fox stories when I was little, and you may remember me saying that my favourite movie director of all time is Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenembaums, The Darjeeling Ltd, Hotel Chevalier, Rushmore…) so you can guess my delight when I read that Wes Anderson is directing this stop-motion animated (There is nothing more magical than stop-motion, can this get any more endearing?) movie adaptation of Fantastic Mr Fox!!

AND as if that wasn’t good enough already, Bill Murray is in it! I’m so excited about it I broke my cardinal rule and embedded the hideous YouTube player just so you can all see it in HD. I caaaaan’t wait! ^_^