So what’s new? Well I’ve taken the plunge and got my first smartphone, a Nokia lumia 800. Being a Zune fan I can’t help being impressed. Both the phone and the is are works of art.

I’m using the WordPress app to post this and it works very well so expect lots of new posts from me. Oh and look out for a new site redesign which I am currently working on and hope to have live soon.

Thanks for reading.
Thebettertwin

I have finished the Ricky Gervais show drawing I showed a glimpse of in my previous post.

Check it out and let me know what you think (Click to enlarge as always):

In addition to the drawing above, I have been playing around with Inkscape, getting to know how it works and all about Vectors.

I followed this tutorial from Chris Spooner to create a retro superhero book cover.

His tutorial was for Illustrator and Photoshop, but the same principles can be applied to Inkscape and Gimp.

Here is the result:

I applied the same concepts to create a Batman book as well:

The results turned out quite well I think and I learnt a few new techniques for both programs.

Feel free to tell me what you think.

Thanks for reading

thebettertwin

I am still trying to get used to the Wacom tablet pen at home. I’m finding it easiest to draw cartoons at the moment.

Heres a little work in progress.

While practising with Gimp I also created a gif for use in forum signatures;

At work I have mostly been helping with design related aspects.

Here are some pictures of the banners and business cards I created.

(click to enlarge as always)

I am also currently working on a new company brochure so may be able to share that soon.

As you can see I’ve been quite busy over the last few months, let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.

the better twin

The overwhelming emotion as a gamer is best described through a 3 letter word;

Meh.

Microsoft kicked off the show, repeating the method they followed last year, showcasing another Call of Duty demo. Early on the controller disconnected. Looking back it was an ominous sign of things to come. The demo played out exactly as anyone would expect, i.e. simply another COD (Yawn!).

Moving on we saw a demo of Tomb Raider, best described as an Uncharted rip off which also borrowed from a porno flicks soundtrack.

EA came on stage to announce Kinect support in future sports titles. A pretty meaningless gesture that can easily be backtracked on especially as they didn’t show anything. They did however, demo Kinect support for Mass Effect 3. Instead of pressing a button for dialogue you now shout out a phrase only for the main protagonist, Shepard, to repeat what you have just said but in different words. This is a use of Kinect that totally bypasses the whole idea of motion control while also showing nothing that could not be simply integrated with the cheap headset that the Xbox ships with. Well done EA.

Next  up, Ubisoft and Ghost Recon, ignoring the presenters irritatingly high pitched voice, they demoed Kinect integration. The American audience went wild over a feature which allowed you to break apart any gun and add attachments with your voice. While it was a neat trick, the next second they demoed trying out your new gun and all excitement evaporated. The aiming was inaccurate and slow. To look down the scope a user would raise their hand, not the best idea for a sniper. To fire, you would have to open your fist in an exaggerated manner.

This demo served to highlight how Kinect simply does not work for games as we know it. It makes developers resort to exaggerated gestures to perform the simplest of tasks.

The one positive to take from the conference was the redesign of the Xbox dashboard. I really like where MS is going with their unified approach to design, and being able to search with Bing is pretty neat. However, ever the cynic, I would question how well this will work in countries outside the US with their limited content support.

Gears of War 3 again showcased nothing new and was not enough to win me back after the shotgun-fest that the Beta proved Gears multiplayer remains to be.

Then a new game, excitement abound, we got to have our first look at the game Crytek have been working on, initially called Codename: Kingdoms, now entitled Ryse. Unfortunately, it appears to be a simple head butt simulator, using Kinect.

Forza 4 time now and it shows nothing to justify why MS are so keen to pump a new one out every other year.

Core audience satisfied (yeah right!) Microsoft proceeded to show the very best of what Kinect has to offer.  From a laggy on rails Star Wars game to a laggy on rails Fable game.

Neither looked remotely sophisticated and I would argue that not even children could be satisfied by the pre 90′s arcade like gameplay.

The best selling Kinect games, Dance Central and Kinect Sports received their obligatory sequels (although I would argue with an attach rate of 1:10 neither can really be classed as “best selling”) while a new Disney game and Sesame Street will have surely excited the massive number of children eagerly tuning into E3.

So Microsoft was left to round the conference off with an announcement of a new Halo trilogy barely 6 months after they shipped the last one.

So what have we learnt from Microsoft at this years E3?

Firstly, that their promises of not forgetting the Core gamer were correct, but not in the way most were thinking. Instead of showcasing stunning new franchises for us gamers to get excited about, they have attempted to shoehorn Kinect into existing titles with pretty meaningless functions or features.

They have shown that they believe a cycle of Gears, Forza and Halo is what they expect to rely on the next couple of years as they have done the last few.

Quite simply they have shown how out of touch they are with the Core gamer.

The Core gamer does not want mindless rehashes ala COD, they do not want motion controls full stop. What they want are exiting new games which thrill, games which define the reason for choosing one console over another, games which companies like Rare are capable of making but seem content to be consigned to history.

Games which, sadly, no longer exist on the Xbox.

the better twin.

(Images courtesy of Joystiq)

It is my first pen tablet so it has taken some time to get used to.

It seems to work well with Gimp. I especially like how it works well with pressure, so you can adust colour, size, opacity and hardness depending upon how hard you press.

Here’s a picture I drew while I was experimenting with the pen:

Hopefully I will have some more drawings to share in the near future.

Thanks for reading

thebettertwin

IE9 is really good and I have been using it all the time. However, it still lacks some key functionality that other browsers have.

Spell check is one of them and thats where Speckie comes in (it works on all versions of IE; 6,7 8 or 9).

It works in all text fields I have tried, and highlights spelling mistakes in the same way Word would. Just right click to see suggestions for correction.

It also offers a wide choice of dictionaries to install.

Best of all its free.

Download it now and spread the wrod (word ) !

thebettertwin.

If you are looking for a dedicated media player on the market then there isn’t a great deal of choice.

People seem to want a jack of all trades, master of none type device.

Personally, I have a phone that is supposed to have a battery life longer than the iPhone, all I do on it is text and call, yet I’m lucky to get two days out of it.

For me, I needed a device that could play my music while sounding good, play some of my movies (xvid preferably) and last for about a week before I have to recharge it.

Oh yeah and I didn’t want an iPod, for various reasons, the most important being using iTunes is torture.

So what else is there on the market?

Well… not much.

Businesses have decided that dedicated media players don’t sell and everybody should be happy with listening to music on their phones.

Erm no!

After much deliberation it came down to two players. The Cowon J3, which is sold in the UK, reportedly sounds fantastic, but thats about it; or the Zune HD, by all accounts a fantastic device just lacking in the apps department.

Well since I already love using the Zune software and as I have already mentioned, music and movies are the only focus, I decided to make my first purchase from America.

I brought the Zune HD 64GB from Amazon.com and it couldn’t have been easier. I was also shocked at how quickly it got to me. From the dispatch date (only a day after the order date!) it only took 4 days to get to my door!
This is something that shipped all the way from America (I tracked it from Minnesota) and it took less time than most deliveries in this Country. (Well done DHL)

As for the device itself?

Its exactly what I wanted. Sounds fantastic, is super fast, the screen looks good and the battery lasts me around a week.
I cant wrap my head around why MS never pushed this device. It certainly ticks all the boxes I want it too, and maybe if it had had more support, those all aboard the app train might have given it a second look too.

Fingers crossed that by the time I need a replacement, the focus for media devices is actually media once again!

Thanks for reading

thebettertwin

I am also working on a project with the very talented Marcus over at color2alpha.
Check out their site for some fantastic tutorials for gimp.
Here is one of the pictures I made after following this tutorial:

Definately worth checking out their site and I will keep you informed about what we are getting up to.

You may remember me posting a beta site of how I was getting on with a site redesign and then I went quiet. Well I decided to go in a different direction and after a fair few months of work in my spare time this is the result.

From humble beginnings, as a site to test out WordPress with a portfolio site added on, its come a long way.
This redesign has seen me getting a lot more intimate with the inner workings of WordPress. The result, I love WordPress even more.

Hopefully, the site gives a better impression of myself and the work that I do.

There is still a fair bit of work to do. The site has only been tested with IE9, Firefox and Chrome so far so there may be some bugs in other browsers left to fix in the coming months (If you see any report them to me!).

I should also point out that I am no longer supporting IE6 on this site. For one, the browser is now 10 years old and does not support many of the features I tried to integrate into the site. Additionally, most of the spam that I get on this site seems to originate from IE6 users.

Hopefully, that wont put most of you off however.

I should also be able to write more frequently now that most of the hard work is behind me.

Thanks for reading.

thebettertwin

So I went on their online site to arrange re-delivery and i asked them to leave it in a safe place.
Arriving home on Wednesday there was another missed delivery card so this time i rang them up to find out what was going on.

They claimed that it needed a signature and even had the cheek to say that i should leave a signed note saying that i was out and to leave it round the back. Why don’t i just leave out my keys and credit card while I’m at it?
Instead i asked for them to deliver it on Friday and waited in all day to make sure i didn’t miss it only for them not to bother turning up.

Another call and they said they would deliver it on Saturday, normally they charge for this service but as they didn’t bother on Friday they graciously said they would waive this.
Saturday comes and goes and yet another no show.

A further phone call (love the 10-20 min wait while on hold too) brings the revelation that it doesn’t need a signature after all.
The guy i spoke to said he would leave a note for the driver to ensure it was left in a safe place.
I get home at 3 today and low and behold another bloody “sorry we missed you” card so I’m straight on the phone to them to complain.

The guy said he would ring the delivery driver and try and get him to come back seeing as i was waiting in, he told me he would ring back to keep me informed.
3 hours later, no call, no delivery.
Its supposed to be coming tomorrow now.
I’ve complained to Tesco and hopefully they will give TNT the kick up the a$$ they deserve but like TNT’s delivery service I’m not holding my breath.