I recently spent some time downloading new episodes of The Simpsons to watch during my lunchbreak at work. Yes. I work in front of a screen all day and then at the time I am supposed to be resting my eyes, i sit and stare at another screen for an hour - then go and stare at the first screen again until home time.
I am usually a Torrent FanBoi, but using a combination of these two sites, you can get lots of episodes - and quickly too!
1. Go to Keepvid and drag the Keepvid Lite shortcut to your browser toolbar. This will allow you to click the shortcut when watching a video on YouTube, Google Video, Dailymotion and many more - and then get the option to save the video file to your hard disk for watching later.
2. Go to Dailymotion and search for Simpsons or any similar cartoon (family guy etc). When you find an episode or video you want to save, click the Keepvid lite shortcut and right click and Save As on the links provided to store the video on your hard disk!
I came to this method after finding the dailyepisodes.com site where they link to the majority of Simpsons and Family Guy episodes on the Dailymotion site - but I could’nt see how to integrate it with the Keepvid Lite shortcut though.
You might also need to get yourself a .FLV player such as the excellent VLC to watch the content.
Add the DailyEpisodes site to PeekVid.com and you might be sorted for a very long time. Its a shame that Keepvid support for PornoTube.com has not yet been implemented! Maybe this firefox extension is the answer…
Not wanting to be too controversial - Is it just me? Or is Family Guy funnier than the Simpsons?
I went to my local library recently and borrowed some graphic novels I had not seen before. A Hellblazer special and one called The Preacher. They were ok. The Preacher was not too bad and John Constantine in the Hellblazer story was as nasty, grumpy and evil as usual (not at all like the pathetic Constantine movie with Keanu in) - but what it did do was make me get up my ladder into my loft at 11pm last night to bring down my comic collection. I also have several comics I have downloaded from the internet and read on my laptop.
Since switching to a Mac I decided to see if there were any comic reading applications. Following closely on the heels of the Delicious Library comes the ComicBookLover application - and it’s ace!
It handles CBZ and CBR formatted comics as well as the usual JPG and PDF formats. This application is like iTunes for comics and is really good, with a built in reader and thumbnail preview of each comic you have. Click the thumb for a biggie pic!
Just something I knocked up on iMovie tonight in honor of my old Manager, Gaz. I felt quite guilty that when I left I never got him anything to say thanks - but I am sure he knows it…
I have recently installed the StumbleUpon toolbar into Firefox and have been “so random” and finding new and wonderful websites.
I punched in Star Wars as a search tag and came across this brilliant video called The Vader Sessions.
The creators, Akjak took the original Star Wars Episode 3 footage and dubbed in replacement dialog from James Earl Jones, the original voice of Darth Vader. All of the dialog comes from other films he has done.
Ever wanted to see Vader get down an’ dirty with that ho Leia? Now is your chance!
This is probably the funniest and best thing I have seen on the internet for ages.
Today is the day that nearly all of the rest of my old work colleagues leave the sinking ship that is their daily grind.
I already left the company a few months ago and am already contracting elsewhere in Milton Keynes. I now feel that I can say something about the company I left, without fear of employment assassination.
It was crap.
Not the kind of day in day out crap that you deal with at work every day in every job - this was real crap. Managers (not you Gaz!) who did’nt know what they were doing were frequently brought in from a totally different section to manage us. How can they then make any sort of decision about how the department should work and who should do what - when they have no clue about what is going on?
Ah… I now know.
Money.
It all comes down to money. When we were outsourced, we were promised alot, delivered little and shit on substantially. Keeping staff morale seen as a mere afterthought as the “sideways moving managers” swept through the organisation trimming and chopping the best staff out of the sections to save money, reduce cost and increase frustration for the customers.
It was my first real experience of “US corporate methodology” compared to the touchy feely ways of the previous company. It all just comes down to money at the end of the day.
Screw the employees, screw the customers, just screw them for every penny and then get out.
I think that sums it up quite nicely. I know that current employees and ex-employees read this blog and I am sure they will agree with me. I am sure they could even leave some comments about how they feel. They are all anonymous and will be treated in confidence.
I just wanted to help people. Have fun, fix PCs, do my job and go home. Why put so much red tape and corporate bullshit in my way? Why shut down the best support section in the whole company?
I am still just a little kid at heart - getting excited about new things.
In my youth it was the excitement of a new StarWars film coming out. But now it’s new hardware and software that gives me a mental stiffy.
Yesterday, Apple CEO Steve Jobs did another one of his Keynote speeches and announced a whole new set of iPods, software and hardware. I sat on my sofa and streamed the whole thing! Over 1 hours worth!
The iPod will get a brighter screen, more battery life, some new search features and better quality video.
The iPod Nano will get larger memory capacity, an aluminium casing - also available in different colors, and all of the same new features that its larger brother has now got.
The iPod shuffle has been totally redesigned and is now “the smallest MP3 player in the world!” coming in at a tiny 1.6 inches long! It also has it’s own clip to allow it to be attached to your clothing, belt, nipple etc.
iTunes gets an upgrade to version 7 and features new album art based browsing features, a slight new design and iPod managability sections. You also get free album art downloaded for any CDs you have ripped - as long as you have an iTunes account.
iTunes will offer movies for sale (US only at the moment). They will be at 640×480 resolution which is apparently “near DVD quality”.
Steve also demo’ed their new upcoming product which, at the moment, is known as “iTV“.
This small box, similar in design to the MacMini will plug into your TV and will allow streaming of audio, video, photos, podcasts and movie trailers wirelessly direct to your screen. It will work with iTunes on PCs and Macs. Almost like having “Front Row” plugged into your TV.
This iTV device is what impressed me most. I have used iTunes to share music between my PC and Macbook and it works perfectly and without any hassles at all. If the iTV can do this for visual and audio content that can be displayed on the TV - then it will be brilliant! I hope that it will also allow streaming content of movies you have imported into iTunes. DivX is pretty cool - but can be difficult to get working on remote devices due to different compression ratios and codecs being used in the creation process. I assume that converting them to H.264, the compression codec used by Quicktime will allow them to work on the iTV too.
The iTV is coming out early next year and looks freakin cool.
After seeing the new animated Coke advert on TV the other night where the Coke travels through a world of creatures who bottle it, chill it and serve it, it reminded me of the other one I had seen on Google Video which had been made in a GTA stylie!
Click the pics to go to the relevant Google Video - boycott YouTube now! (not really! just being controversial).
I have switched themes to one provided by my (online) mate, Atariboy AKA Andrew AKA Nez.
He is going it alone in the big bad world of website design and this theme is cone of his current projects. I like it. Mainly because its quick to load!
Well, it's not a giant lizard slaying robot and its not a new religion.
It's just a place for me to hang out, store my thoughts and technical musings and stay in contact with my friends. It's purpose may change in the future - who knows!
Well, it's not a giant lizard slaying robot and its not a new religion.
