Journal
July 16, 2007 | Reviews
As I have mentioned a couple of times now I was recently invited to a press screening for the new film Ratatouille.
Initially I was sceptical, but I decided I’d regret it if I didn’t at least try - and I love Pixar films, so I had to say yes.
The screening was at a hotel in Soho, London, so I turned up with a friend from work and went in. Initial impressions were great. The hotel was very posh and there were also free drinks and nibbles going around. I was worried I was under dressed (jeans and a tshirt as normal) but slowly others turned up wearing similar clothes.
When I found out the venue was a hotel I had images of us sitting in a meeting room with a projector and a white board watching a dodgy copy of the film with terrible audio. I couldn’t have been more wrong. …
July 12, 2007 | Links
I’m going to the Ratatouille press screening today. Expect a review some time early next week (am away all weekend so can’t post straight away). To tide you over I found these Ratatouille panoramic images (via Drawn) and had to mention them.
When I was at University I had to create some Quicktime VR movies for one of my modules. Unfortunately they were nowhere near as nice as these ones, but then I guess that’s why I’m not Pixar. They even have some voice overs of the rat on top of the clips.
I love the richness of the images, the tiny little details and the wonderful lighting. Pixar films look nicer and nicer every time (watch Toy Story and see how primitive it seems now). I’m looking forward to seeing the film this evening.
July 11, 2007 | Links
This is so cool - a computer geeks wet dream. It’s a kit, that let’s you build your own games console, and then program the games on it.
It comes with a bunch of peripherals and tutorials so even the novices can get going quickly, provided you’re that way inclined. No doubt the games won’t be the best - there’ll be no HALO beaters here, but who cares? They’re your games.
I am really tempted by it, the biggest problem is the cost - not so much the price of the kit, but the additional cost of the import tax - I’ve been burned by Think Geek before. I wish they’d release it in the UK (along with this, this and this).
July 9, 2007 | Links
Found this on Wired.coms geekdad blog. The geekdad bog is a blog for Dad’s who are geeks, and want to keep the geekiness in the family. As someone who is not yet a dad I find the blog very cool anyway… apart from the design (what happened to Doug Bowmans wonderful design?). Anyway, it’s Star Wars, Lego, and animation all rolled into one - and that equals great in my book.
July 8, 2007 | General
Recently I have been thinking about Binary Moon and why it has plateaued and wondering if I can help it grow anymore. I like to think the site has some interesting content, and that it’s not inoffensive to look at, so why is my traffic starting to drop?
1. Lack of focus
I have never had any sort of focus on Binary Moon. I jump around quite regularly between video games and web design with the occasional movie based post, and I also like to post quick links to things that interest me. I even have a Harry Potter section that has become more popular than I had ever dreamed. However I wonder if this lack of focus turns people off, not everyone is interested in Video Games AND Web Design AND Films AND Harry Potter, so maybe they go elsewhere for their blogging fix?
2. Irregular posting schedule
I post when I want. …
One of the more underused features in wordpress themes is the ability to create and modify the 404 page - so to try to rectify this I thought I’d run through what I do with 404 pages on Binary Moon (and my other Wordpress site). I use this simple technique to try to make errors a bit more and helpful for people who have ended up at the wrong place. I’m hoping that not too many people see the 404 page but just in case here is what I’ve done.
Basically I duplicate a normal page template and name it “404.php”. I then remove “the loop” and add some some static code which explains that there has been an error and a few possible solutions (archives, search).
Finally I use query_posts to add in a new loop which displays links to the 5 most recent articles. Below is the …
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