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Topics - Jim_Campbell

#261
Off Topic / A Perfect Moment ...
20 April, 2008, 11:44:51 PM
In passing, I caught a small segment of Channel 4's "50 Bestest Somethings Of Something" last night. OK, it was Comedy Films, and it contained this moment from Dr Strangelove:

"Gentleman! You can't fight in here - this is the War Room!"

It made my luvverley wife laugh out loud, despite never having seen the film, despite not really knowing much about Peter Sellers ...

And it occurred to me that this one line is probably a perfect piece of comedy writing -it's independently and objectively funny. I believe that it would probably survive translation (which is a rare thing for humour) and, as such, it is a rare thing that should be treasured.

We're kind of in the same territory as the "Wow" thread, but casting the net a bit wider than just movies, but I was wondering what other single, crystalline moments in other media or genres embody actual perfection, the sense that it actually doesn't get any better than that in a particular field ...

Off the top of my head:

The big reveal in Watchmen: "Do it? I'm not a Republic serial villain, Dan ..."

Although I'm not a fan of the series in general, the page turn in Sandman #5 (or is it #6 - I can never remember?) after Dee destroys Dream's ruby, but turns out to be sitting in Morpheus' palm in that amazing full pager ... That's as good as comics get.

Despite being a thoroughly average film, the moment in Equilibrium where the strains of the (perfectly chosen) opening to Beethoven's 9th kick in, combined with Christian Bale's splendid reaction, evoke a pitch-perfect emotional response that renders the subsequent aww-it's-an-ickle-puppy scene completely redundant.

'Stonehenge' in Spinal Tap. It actually doesn't get any funnier than that. Seriously. Whatever your personal funniest-cinematic-moment-ever is ... is it actually funnier than Stonehenge and the dwarves?

The kid scratching at the window in the 80s version of Salem's Lot is as creepy as it gets.

The chest cavity moment in (Carpenter's) The Thing ... for some reason, I never remember this bit. Possibly, I'm misdirected by the severed head bit that follows, but this bit gets me every single time, as does ...

Capt. Dallas in the air vents in Alien. Every single time that "WHOA!" moment gets me ...

Anything else occur to anyone? A moment in a film, book, album, comic ... whatever ... when you just thought "Bloody Hell! That's as good as it gets."

Cheers!

Jim



#262
Sorry, folks, but I'm going to have to vent.

I've been a Mac User since 1994, and for ten years I was a design professional and production manager as well, so I'm not some clueless newbie when it comes to Apple products.

Last summer, I finally retired my graphite G4 and treated myself to a 20" iMac and a black MacBook. Both shipped with OS 10.4.9 and both seemed fine.

The update to 10.4.10 broke the wifi on my MacBook and I had to roll it back to 10.4.9. The 10.4.11 upgrade didn't fix it either. Not that the .mac service doesn't work properly unless you upgrade to 10.4.10, but since I can't get wireless internet access with 10.4.10 ... a bit of a Catch-22.

Having heard reports that Leopard had finally settled down with 10.5.2, I shelled out £129 for the family pack, intending to update all three Macs in the house (planning on doing the Mini that serves as a media centre last once I'd ironed out any bugs with the upgrade). I forked out another £150 for a 1TB external drive for Time Machine back ups.

Installed the upgrade (the disks were for 10.5.1 and then immediately ran Software Update to get 10.5.2) and almost instantly, my home wireless network stopped working - you may remember that I mentioned this a few weeks ago, because I had to blag a connection off my neighbours wifi.

I rolled back to 10.5.1, with no improvement and then deleted the original network, set it up again with a new name, and I was back in business.

Then the MacBook became unresponsive to its power button, only booting on the third or fourth attempt, and then refused to boot at all unless connected to the mains, misreporting a fully charged battery as flat. Upgrading back to 10.5.2 fixed this.

Then I discovered that InDesign CS3 refused to work. On the same day, Garageband announced that it couldn't start up because I had no loops installed. Some research on the internet suggested that if I completely removed CS3, reinstalled OSX and then reinstalled the Adobe apps then I might be able to get InDesign to work. At this point, I decided that I was going to restore the clone of the 10.4.11 version of my iMac's HDD and be done with it.

Before doing this, I had to sort out a presentation for work in Office 2004. I finished working on it on Tuesday night, and on Wednesday morning I discovered that the last 90 minutes of work I did hadn't saved. I'd been hitting CMD-S, but none of the changes had actually saved, in either PowerPoint or Excel.

I'd treated myself to a £215 Wacom Intuos A5 tablet for my birthday, but thought I'd get the iMac sorted out and stable before setting it up. So, yesterday, I rolled the iMac back to the 10.4.11 back-up.

(Let's leave aside that I am already out of pocket £129 for 10.5 and another £150 for a HDD that I only bought to use with Leopard.)

InDesign worked again, so I hooked up the Wacom, followed the instructions, and installed the drivers and the copy of Painter Essentials that came free with the package.

I now discover that I have pressure support for opacity/flow only in Photoshop CS3, no recognition of tilt, and support for increasing brush size with pressure. I have no pressure support at all in Illustrator CS3.

Painter Essentials likewise recognizes opacity changes with pressure but but not tilt and will not change brush size. On top of that, if I quit out of Painter Essentials, I can't re-launch the app without rebooting the machine.

Oh, and my mouse now reckons that it needs the batteries changing every two weeks.

So ... that's nearly £400 in completely wasted purchases over the last month, and hour upon hour of my life that I can't get back.

Quite frankly, I've lost the will to live, and I'm ready to launch this fucking machine out of the window.

Gah!

Jim
#263
I'm a bit unsure on this one and was wondering whether any of our illustrious board could provide something resembling definitive answer ...

At what point does a derivative work become sufficiently different from the original to be independent of the original's copyright?

For example: lightboxing. As I understand it, if you do a pretty much straight trace off a photograph, then you're copying the original work and need the copyright holder's permission to use the image.

However, given the common use of lightboxes, there must surely be a point where derivation becomes merely reference and copyright ceases to be an issue.

The reason I ask is because I came across some old digital artwork on some archive disks a while ago and wondered whether it could be repurposed on t-shirts or posters to make a couple of quid via Cafepress or someone.

One of these images is a collage, in which some twelve or so separate Photoshop layers are used. Eleven of them are either original creations by me, or confirmed royalty-free at source.

The twelfth is a pen and ink drawing of a face I made from a photo that I did not hold the copyright to. It's NOT a trace but it is - I suppose - a swipe since you could clearly identify the reference photo if the layer was pulled out of the montage and placed side-by-side with the original.

Given the length of time that has passed, and the obscurity of the original material, it's unlikely that this would come back and bite me, but I've been on the receiving end of some blatant copyright theft over the years, and I don't want to now be the one doing it to someone else.

Cheers!

Jim
#264
Film & TV / The Colour of Magic
06 April, 2008, 03:07:47 PM
Although I no longer get Sky, I watched this t'other night through the magic of teh interweb and I was surprised no-one on here had mentioned it ...

An improvement on Hogfather, in as much as it manages to pick a pseudo-medieval feel and pretty much stick to it, I thought this was a solid and fairly entertaining stab at a Pratchett adaptation.

It was interesting, from a writerly POV, to note how much of the books' humour comes from situation and dialogue (almost none) and how much from Pratchett's authorial voice (pretty much all), meaning that the TV version felt good-natured and amusing, rather than actually amusing.

The deficiencies of the budget showed through not infrequently, but a rather impressive cast (David Jason, Tim Curry, Sean Astin, Christopher Lee and an - I think - uncredited Jeremy Irons as the Patrician) might go some way to explaining where the money went ...

It passed an evening perfectly aimiably, anyway, and I was wondering whether anyone else had watched it.

Cheers!

Jim
#265
General / April Art Compo - Mega City One
02 April, 2008, 09:39:56 PM
"megacityscapes. show me a view of our favorite future city. ?

if thats alright with the boss ? jim ?"


I ain't nuffink but an 'umble counter of votes in these things, ma'am.

Megacityscapes it is, then. I don't think there's any problem if there's stuff going on as part of that cityscape ... street level, viewed from on high, day, night, stormy, sunny ....

The very best Dredd stories have - for me - always been the ones where MC-1 comes alive as a location. Show us the Mega-City One that lives and breathes for you.

Once again, congrats to our deserving winner and thanks for picking our theme.

The compo will run until midnight Friday 25th April, with voting running until Friday 2nd May. Results to be announced Sat 3rd or Sun 4th, dependent on how many fingers I have to use to count up the votes.

Cheers!

Jim
#266
Off Topic / Tech question for my fellow Mac users
23 March, 2008, 11:03:54 AM
OK ... I have to admit that having stuck with my trusty G4 and OS9.2 for nearly seven years, I'm still not all that comfortable with OSX and I need a bit of help here.

There are currently three Apple machines in the house, a Mini in the living room, acting as a Media Centre and also as a wireless router for the broadband connection, into which it is plugged directly by ethernet.

There is an iMac upstairs, for my general computery farting about, and a MacBook going out and about.

Due to problems with the Airport bug (where some specific combinations of hardware and versions of 10.4.x completely fubar wireless internet), all of these machines are running different flavours of 10.4.

Today, I intend to upgrade the lot to 10.5.2. I have purchased a zonking great extrernal HD and my plan is to partition it into three, image the pre-upgrade HDs of each machine with CarbonCopy, and then update to Leopard.

The only thing is, I'm not actually sure how to restore the machines back to the old version if I have problems with Leopard.

I'm asking the question now because, obviously, if it fubars the broadband on the Mini, then I won't be able to ask later!

Is it as simple as booting from the external, wiping the internal drive and copying the back up image over?

Cheers!

Jim
#267
General / Feb/Mar Art Compo - THE RESULTS
23 March, 2008, 10:12:51 AM
Another fine, fine bunch of fantastically diverse entries from you talented bunch of fuckers.

In the end though, there can be only one, even though you don't have to chop anyone's head off to achieve it.

In third place, inching out ahead of a tight pack for this position:

http://s211.photobucket.com/albums/bb36/jimcampbell2000/?action=view¤t=Larf02.jpg" target="_blank">http://i211.photobucket.com/albums/bb36/jimcampbell2000/Larf02.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket">

Larf's apocalyptic cityscape.
#268
General / Feb/Mar Art Compo - VOTING THREAD
16 March, 2008, 11:11:51 AM
First of all, a big thanks to Paul Von Scott for a fantastic theme this month. I think there was an almost audible scratching of heads for the first couple of days, and then the entries started to come in and proved to be a wonderfully varied and exciting batch. Good call, PVS.

Big thanks also to everyone who took the time to enter. A heartfelt "Thanks a fucking bunch" to my employers, who still seem to think that they can dominate my free time as much my contracted hours. Hopefully next month, eh?

Anyway, on with the voting.

As last time, rank your choices 1, 2, 3 and please make it clear which entry you're choosing if the entrant has multiple submissions.

(If you don't rank them, I will - in the order that you list them.)

Voting starts as soon as the entries are all up (which will be when Watcher's entry appears, if anyone has nothing better to do with their Sunday morning than watch posts appear on this board!) and will close at midnight Saturday 22nd, with the winner announced as soon as I have the votes tallied on Sunday.

Cheers!

Jim
#269
General / Art Competition Additional Info: Extension
09 March, 2008, 09:54:57 AM
Just in case you haven't been following the Art Compo thread because you were under the impression that it was now closed ...

"Iâ??ll give it my best shot at getting it painted for Friday, though donâ??t be surprised if I end up begging for the 15th & 16th."

Since I'll almost certainly be working next Saturday as well, in all likelihood the voting thread won't go up until Sunday anyway.

In which case, we might as well make it official: deadline extended until midnight Saturday 15th March. Voting will start Sunday 16th and run until midnight (UK) Friday 21st. Winner to be announced Saturday 22nd March.

So, come on you slackers - you now have an extra week. Let's see something!

Cheers!

Jim
#270
General / Feb/March Art Comp - SET THE CONTROLS ...
16 February, 2008, 07:26:18 PM
Brought to you courtesy of the first Art Comp winner of 2008, Mr Paul von Scott, we proudly present the February/March Art Competition:


'Set the controls for the heart of the sun!'

The sun, things crashing into suns, the sun crashing into things, things orbitting suns, suns orbitting things, suns over alien worlds, suns over ruined worlds, the sun giving life, the sun taking life, sun worshippers, sun loathers, dying suns, dead suns, strange suns, strangely shaped suns, twin suns, triplet suns, exploding suns, artficial suns and... puns on suns.


The competition will run until Friday 7th March, after which voting will run for one week, with the winner announced Saturday 15th March.

In addition to the usual voting, ranking your favourites 1 -3, I'm going to offer the option to cast one additional vote for "Honourable Mention" to give boarders the opportunity to recognize the funniest entry, or the most improved, or anyone who deserves, well, an honourable mention for their efforts ...

Looking forward to seeing what you all come up with.

Cheers!

Jim
#271
General / Jan/Feb Art Comp - THE WINNERS
16 February, 2008, 10:01:14 AM
Winning nothing more than a warm feeling, and the priceless knowledge that they have received the accolades of their fellow boarders, the winners are, in reverse order ...
#272
General / Jan/Feb 2000AD Art Comp - VOTING THREAD
10 February, 2008, 11:50:42 AM
Okeydokey, folks ... let's get the entries up. I've included everything that was drawn by a boarder and contained a big robot, even the comedy ones because they amused me and that's a good enough reason to vote for them!

My web-fu is weak, so all this IMG tag malarkey may go horribly wrong. Bear with me ...
#273
Books & Comics / Who Killed Round Robin
27 January, 2008, 12:27:11 PM
Has anyone posted a link to this yet?

Some rather familiar creators involved in a very entertaining Round Robin creation of a comic strip ....

Link: http://whokilledroundrobin.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Check it out

http://bp2.blogger.com/_EpQp9B6bYNU/R5m8M7YczSI/AAAAAAAAAVs/Gp7SoyKul_g/s1600-h/Page1.jpg">
#274
Off Topic / Keep Taking The Tablets?
23 January, 2008, 10:09:05 PM
Hmm ... as much as I'm enjoying grappling with my current entry for the Art Comp, trying to navigate Photoshop and Illustrator via trackpad and mouse has very seriously brought home to me how much I miss my graphics tablet ...

(My beloved CalComp Drawing Slate II didn't make the transition to OSX and the Intel iMac ... I can't complain - it was purchased to work with with 7.5.x and wasn't even supposed to work with OS9!)

So ... fuck it. I don't care, I'm buying a new tablet. I have my eye on the Intuos A5 and I was wondering whether my charming, talented, good-looking fellow boarders had any thoughts or recommendations ...?

Cheers!

Jim
#275
General / January Art Comp: BIG ROBOTS!
17 January, 2008, 07:54:14 PM
OK ... running until Friday 8th Feb, when entries will close and voting will begin for one week.

Multiple entries are allowed, but when voting, can we stick to one vote per entrant and make clear which piece you're voting for?

Ta!

Jim
#276
Megazine / Meg 266 - Forces of Law and Disorder
10 December, 2007, 09:15:55 PM
Only fair, since I've been on such an unrelenting downer where the Meg is concerned, to post this ...

I really enjoyed this issue. Dredd was fun, I've always liked Armitage and I'm glad to see the miserable old bugger back, Bob is new to me, and Tempest is interesting enough for a first episode with nice art.

I'll certainly go back and work my way through the Grant interview as well.

That's quite a turnaround, and it would be churlish of me not to acknowledge it. Good work.

Cheers!

Jim
#277
... It turns out there are no plans to release the new Futurama movie on anything other than Region 1 DVD. Of course, because there are no Futurama fans outside the US, obviously.

Oh well, their loss. My good friends Mr Bit and Mr Torrent have obliged and that fifteen quid of my money Fox won't be seeing.

Cheers!

Jim
#278
Off Topic / Curse My Weakness!
25 November, 2007, 09:39:52 PM
A friend of mine forced me to go into the O2 shop in town this afternoon and play with an iPhone.

I don't want one. I don't want one. Really. I don't. Honestly.

Maybe Santa will bring me an iPod Touch instead.

Gahh!

Jim
#279
Film & TV / Cloverfield ...
17 November, 2007, 10:50:02 AM
New teaser, apparently.

Cheers

Jim

Link: http://www.liveleak.com/player.swf?token=11d_1195229143" target="_blank">Holy shit!

#280
General / Oooh. Nice!
28 October, 2007, 10:34:25 AM
Looks like the Taylor droid is getting a shot at Dredd hisself ... hopefully his ludicrously talented artwork will get coupled with a story thats a little less, well, dull than Big Robots.

Cheers!

Jim

Link: http://d-taylor-comics-music-ford-mustangs.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog! Pencils!