Blog
Blog Coma · 605 days ago
Just realized it has been 170 days since my last post!
The blog isn't dead - it's just in a bit of a coma at the moment.
All efforts are focused on Bibliofaction.
Once that's fully up and running, I'll do some work on this website again. I have a list of ideas on the backburner.
— Adam Lofting
Using Google to Check Spelling. Has the dictionary seen its best day? · 775 days ago
I very rarely use a dictionary any more. I write at my computer (or other peoples computers) and I can’t remember the last time I used a computer that wasn’t connected to the Internet.
If I don’t know how to spell something, I don’t look it up in a dictionary, I don’t even search for it on dictionary.com, I type it straight into the search box in the top right corner of my web browser (which today isFirefox). I get a set of results from Google which will either confirm my spelling or say “did you mean…”.
Do you do the same thing?
I love the social development of language. Once a word becomes commonly used, it usually makes it into the dictionary but it can take a while. Using Google as a dictionary means you don’t have to wait for the editors at Oxford to approve the new word; if people use it, you can find out how they spell it.
The downside to this is that I have to accept the American spellings of words will eventually replace the UK spelling of the same words – even though the the UK spellings are the originals! Google is the ultimate social proof and the eventual merging of language is inevitable (no matter how much people will protest). For example, a search for the word ‘colour’ (note the U) will return 215,000,000 results. A search for the word ‘color’ (no U) will return 1,070,000,000 results.
In the past, people have tried to control the evolution language but all they have really done is slow down the change. Language cannot be controlled (although it can be used to control) and now language has been freed to evolve on its own at a much quicker pace. Encyclopedic knowledge has been freed by the Internet, in particular Wikipedia and the same will happen with the definition of words.
I still use a dictionary for reference every now and then, but a Google search can certainly help with that too.
— Adam Lofting
The Art of Imperfection - Circuit-bending and lomography · 779 days ago
I’ve come across two things recently that have captured my imagination.
Circuit bending according to Wikipedia is:
Circuit bending is the creative, DIY (Do It Yourself) short-circuiting of electronic devices such as low voltage, battery-powered guitar effects, children’s toys and small digital synthesizers to create new musical instruments and sound generators.
Lomography according to Wikipedia is:
Lomography emphasizes casual, snapshot photography. Characteristics such as over-saturated colors, off-kilter exposure, blurring, “happy accidents,” and alternative film processing are often considered part of the “Lomographic Technique.
The link between the two:
Neither of these things are new, but also neither of them are mainstream. Circuit-bending has existed since the 1960s and lomography is a creative pursuit that kicked off in the 1990s using cameras originally built in the 1980s.
Circuit-bending and lomography are two different disciplines (although discipline isn’t a word that sits well with either of them) – one is visual, and the other is technical/musical – but they both appeal to me for the same reason.
In both Lomography and Circuit bending, you have to give up a certain amount of control and you have to take risks. I think these are great skills to learn. In Lomography, you can shoot a roll of film to be left without anything usable. In Circuit-bending you can spend days rewiring an instrument only to connect the wrong two points together and destroy the thing permanently.
The people who love these pursuits know the risks. They know that their time and money may amount to nothing but they still explore. They explore with an open mind and an open heart. This is what Art is really about – focus on discovery, forget the end product and the end product will be better than you could possibly imagine.
— Adam Lofting
Flock versus Firefox · 786 days ago
I’d actually not paid any attention to the flock web browser up until now. I was an avid Firefox fan and didn’t see any need to look for alternatives. However, I’ve just installed flock, and it is mind boggling how many social networking tools they have integrated right into the browser itself. This might even prompt me enough to reply to messages in Facebook!
To see which sites you can use directly in flock, while you are surfing the web, check out this page
I don’t know if it would replace Firefox as my working browser for web design (I still use the Firebug plug-in every day) but for general surfing and social networking, I will be trying it out over the next couple of months.
— Adam Lofting
Art Photography vs General Snapshots · 786 days ago
I’ve added a couple of new sections to the website. Under Art there are some photographs of mine and under personal there are general snapshots for friends and family to see.
I’ve made a clear distinction between what I’m claiming to be art and what I’m posting for the sake of sharing photos with people who know me but I’m not always sure what seperates the two categories. I don’t have any strict criteria; I just go with a gut feel.
It’s interesting how the importance of photgraphs change when you know the person who takes them, or you know the places and the people in them. You judge them by very different standards.
When it comes to photography, what seperates art from snapshots? I like the idea that the photo should have as much potential to please to a total stranger as it would my closest friends. What do you think about this?
— Adam Lofting
Xbox Live Silver or Xbox Live Gold - Read this first · 796 days ago
If you’ve just bought an Xbox and you are connecting it to the internet this is a good thing to know…
When you register for your Xbox Live account, you are given the option of a Xbox Live Silver membership where you can setup a profile and buy stuff online, or an Xbox Live Gold membership where you can play games online (the real purpose of Xbox live).
Don’t start paying for the Xbox Live Gold membership straight away!
If you choose the Silver membership, then Microsoft will kindly give you 1 months Gold membership for free. You can then pay for your Gold membership after that.
— Adam Lofting
Last.fm is brilliant but today I saw something scary. · 810 days ago
I’ve been listening to www.last.fm a lot recently. I’ve discovered some great new bands and spent many hours reminiscing over the tracks that got me energetically through my teenage years. If you don’t know it already, last.fm is bascially a social networking site that revolves around listening to and discovering new music. You should check it out now. Type in the name of a band you like and find new music like it. last.fm
Anyway, the reason for the post is that last.fm scared the hell out of me today with some of it’s data…
I used to be in a band but I left the band when I was 20. By the time I left the band, we were musically pretty sound. We had recorded and gigged a lot and I was very proud of what we had done. However, we started this band when we were very young (about 13) and we were pretty forward thinking for 13 year olds. We managed to wrangle some recording time to produce a number of demos on various tapes and CDs that we sold for £1 a go with album covers printed in my bedroom. We were very proud at the time, but looking back, they must be pretty scary to listen to.
I had always assumed that these old recordings were safely swallowed up into the abyss of things that time forgot, but last.fm has proved me otherwise.
In the last 6 months people have listened to tracks from every one of our teenage releases! See the statistics here . I don’t even have copies of this stuff anymore but someone has it in their playlist, on their computer and actually listened to it recently. Too scary…
When I made those recordings the world was a different place. I would have loved last.fm when I was discovering music for the first time and I wonder how these sites will change music discovery for the future music makers of the world. My version of last.fm came in the form of a record shop wonderfully called “Heaven sent records”. If they stocked it, it must be cool. So it was safe to by anything from there; espeically if I had seen the band’s name written in tipex on the school bags of the cool kids :)
Heaven Sent Records is no longer there, but I’m happy with last.fm for now.
— Adam Lofting
My social bookmarks · 816 days ago
I’ve added a couple of new pages under the About section of the site; these show you my latest social bookmarks and my social bookmarking tags.
It’s a little insight into what I read online. If you also use del.icio.us, feel free to check out my profile details below:
I am adamlofting on del.icio.us ( Add me to your network )
— Adam Lofting
Papervision3D - If only I had 2 weeks! · 817 days ago
I found Papervision3D today through this website: ECODAZOO and I was mesmorised. I’ve seen lots of attempts at online 3D websites in the past but this was the first time I’ve found something that is actually responsive and engaging. Check out the pop-up books if you click through to the any of the characters’ profiles.
Papervision3D is basically a 3D engine you can work with in Flash using Actionscript, but also allows you to import 3D models created in other applications, so long as you save them as Collada Model Files. Which is handy because you can do this from Google Sketchup – possibly the easiest to use 3D modelling written to date.
I would love 2 weeks just to play with this. It has already given me too many ideas of sites to build!
— Adam Lofting
Pinning an idea to a page · 822 days ago
The art of documenting an idea.
Ideas start in your head. Ideas are fluid, shape-shifting and often delicate things. If you nudge them the wrong way they can be lost forever. If you leave them in your head, they will grow, shrink, distort, morph and transform. Sometimes they will develop and evolve, sometimes they will get cloudy, sometimes they will shrink and whither.
When you document an idea, you pin-down (or pen down) that shape-shifting form. Every word that you write, takes a corner or strand of the idea and pins it to the page on which you are writing. As you work your way through your idea, word-by-word, you continue to fix that shape to the page until it becomes a solid form. You might move the pins around, you might adjust the shape slightly, but basically, it’s there, and now your idea wont be lost.
The skill is knowing when to let the ideas float around in your head, and when to say, “that’s it” and document your idea as quickly and as clearly as possible. If you can get to grips with this you can make the most of your ideas.
— Adam Lofting