News Archives

Cutting it fine...

OK well here's the plan... I'm going to finish up with Marmaduke before Christmas. It sounds kind of harsh but it's been going kind of slow since I started work at the BBC and so if I can just get the last updates done then maybe I can start on something new in the New Year... It's not like I won't miss the guy but fortunately he's now archived on the Interwebs for the world to see (if they so wish).

And so it is with a heavy heart I present to you the last Marmaduke strip. But do please check back tomorrow as there will be one final update to the Marmaduke archive. It's just not a strip... cryptic eh?

I hope you've got all your Christmas shopping done and all the presents under the tree. If not, you're in luck this year what with Christmas Eve being on a Monday and all. Me? I'm all more or less sorted out although thoroughly exhausted by it all. Looking forward to kicking back and relaxing for the rest of the year as a prelude to a 'getting fit and getting things done' kind of year. It's going to be mad but in a crazy, great kind of way - I just know it!

Overcomplicating things that are supposed to be simple, a bit like this title

I recently read that they are considering some kind of progressive enhancement to digital radio. I thought DAB was pretty awesome as it stood, what with live text information, digital quality and the ability to create receivers that can pause and resume and even record (although you don't see too many of those, I've got to say).

But apparently this isn't enough for today's ADD youth who get antsy if there isn't some kind of back-lit visual stimuli in front of them at all times. The considered enhancement is to add pictures to the radio stream.

Now the first thing I thought of when I heard that was 'podcasts', in particular one that I subscribe to - the Chris Moyles Enhanced podcast. This is the regular audio podcast with some pictures thrown in at strategic points for good measure. It's quite fun but to be honest a bit of a nuisance. I have listened to this podcast both at work and at home and on the move on my iPod. With the iPod the image didn't even change until I got my iPod Touch. Thing is, unless I'm watching a video on it I keep it in my pocket. I can't see the pictures in my pocket! There's no point keeping it out just to check if the picture is changing every few minutes.

At work and at home I listen on my computer. To see the pictures, however, I need to have iTunes in full expanded mode (not the mini mode which I use most of the time) and if I'm going to get on with something else at the same time I have to arrange my windows to leave a gap through which I can see the picture which isn't as easy as it might sound.

So these enhancements are very rarely enjoyed because I can't devote my full attention to it. And I think this is where we hit the nail on the head. Radio is meant to be enjoyed with the ears only, leaving everything else to do get on with other tasks. Adding pictures brings it a lot closer to television - add enough pictures at a high enough frame rate and you basically have GOT television. Where do you draw the line and say 'Hold on a sec... I think TV already has this covered?'

On a similar vein I was listening to the Webcomics Weekly podcast from the guys over at Halfpixel and they were talking about RSS. For the uninitiated, RSS sometimes stands for Really Simple Syndication and other times Rich Site Summary. Both expansions of the acronym provide an accurate description. It's basically a constantly updated list of items such as blog posts, news articles, comics... that sort of thing... that people can subscribe to and stay up to date with a website without actually visiting the site.

They were saying that they didn't like transmitting too much of their work in this manner because it meant people were benefiting from their toil without seeing the ads on their site. I can completely understand this, although I continue to transmit my comics through RSS because I find reading other people's comics through RSS more convenient.

But then they went on to say you could enhance your RSS feed to include various other elements of your site, like ads, and possibly even nav links etc... but just like with the radio, where do you draw the line? Where does 'Rich Site Summary' become just 'Site'?

When I get around to updating this site (which is making my credibility as a good web developer look a bit shaky) I will be inserting ads into my RSS, but just the ads. I will no longer be offering the option of a 'just comics' feed - it will come bundled with the news as well so any promotion I feel I need to do can be stuck in there. I figure the sort of person that will just skip over that feed item is the same sort of person that will just glance over the news on the site as well.

Even if I posted all my strips as links in the news post (just like I'm doing with today's Marmaduke, and just like they do it over at Penny Arcade) people who didn't care about anything but the comic would get used to hunting out the link without reading the surrounding article. With those people you're probably best off just being glad they like your work.

Talking of Halfpixel earlier, I have to confess the only artist from that group I read regularly was Scott Kurtz of PVP but I thought I'd check out the others quickly. While Starslip Crisis and Evil Inc are very good, they didn't click with me in the same way that Sheldon did, in particular this strip which I thought was a work of genius.

Food for thought

So I read (over someone's shoulder on the Tube) that people would be in favour of a ban on smelly food on the Tube. They currently ask people not to eat such food but there is no ban as such.

I'm not opposed to such a ban particularly but if it's offensive smells they want to rid the tube of, I can think of plenty more I've smelled down there that are a lot nastier than a McDonalds or a bag of chips. Something to think about...

As for Marmaduke, he's got a big smelly problem of his own!

Leaky pipes suck

I've got a leaky pipe. Unfortunately it's one of those slow leaks that you don't really notice until it's too late. I hate that.

So it's at times like these I'm glad I'm still renting. Much as I'd like to own a house, if I discovered I had a leak behind the washing machine in a house I owned that consequently made the laminate floor underneath it slosh when you walked on it I would be quite upset. Instead of rather indifferent to the whole situation which makes for a far less stressful life!

Having said that I really do think it's way past time to actually get on the property ladder. Better start saving for a deposit!

Enjoy another Marmaduke. I've started looking at the old strips from Bob's Your Uncle to try and get a feel for it again, as when I've posted the last Marmaduke I'm going to start to finish off the storyline in Bob. Hooray!

My nib hurts

I recently got a fabbo Wacom Intuos A5 wide graphics tablet and it's lovely. What I thought was particularly lovely was the selection of nibs it came with. I tried them all out but I was particularly taken with the felt nib. It gave a little bit of extra traction to the pen that made it feel a little more like drawing on paper, unlike the slippy slidiness of the regular nib that feels more like plastic on plastic (rather unsurprisingly).

The trouble with felt is that it's softer than plastic and so while the plastic nib will wear down in time, the felt nib wears down quicker. A lot quicker. I've worn it down and now I need a new one. But can I find somewhere that stocks such an item? Not likely!

I've found a shop over in Germany or somewhere that will happily sell me 10 nibs at a fair price... and charge me more than the price of the product just for shipping! I do have the option of buying the Accessory Kit from Amazon but that only has 5 felt nibs in, costs double than what the 10 nibs would cost (before shipping) and has a whole bunch of stuff in there that I don't want or need.

But enough of my ranting... I have a new Marmaduke for you! This is the other cover I drew for the book that never got published. Good times.