Handy links

A few more handy links:
MandarinDesign.com – Cool ideas for making your website have a magazine layout (CSS)
Dapino Blog – Some cool vectors. Also check out their main page, beautiful design
PickBee Icons – Lots of free pixel icons
Colour Lovers.com – Web colour trends
Obdisian Dawn Brushes – Beautiful (free) Photoshop brushes, work for mac too!
Squidoo Brushes – An index of sites offering really gorgeous Photoshop Brushes.
Bullet Madness – Free bullets.

Charminster Car Centre

I feel I should warn everyone NOT to use this garage. They mess you around, make stupid mistakes and rip you off. Apparently they’re having finance difficulties and brakes are their favourite problem. Don’t go there!!

Airport bug

I’ve been having problems with my Internet connection for about a month now. One day it seemed to suddenly go wrong. I’m on a Mac (10.4.11) and using Airport, and it just started to cut out the connection. Some days it cut out every hour, some days every 30 seconds and it was sooo frustrating! I kept having to connect via the airport again and again. So, after spending many hours on the phone to BT, I concluded that it was my computer. I searched on a few forums and realized that LOADS of people were having the same problem – all on 10.4.11. So I upgraded the version, downgraded the version. No change. I was considering reinstalling the system until I stumbled upon this article AND IT WORKED! Amazing! If you have the same problem then try it! I did get a bit worried when it took so long to restart my computer, but ever since then i’ve been able to surf trouble-free Apparently the version 10.4.11 has some airport adjustments that completely mess it up, upgrading doesn’t help. Apple still haven’t fixed it.

I’ve been reading loads of books recently. Well, i’ve started loads of books and about half-way through them all because i’ve been so busy lately. ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time‘ by Mark Haddon is an amazing book. Its the diary of a boy with Aspergers, and is amazing how his mind works, really interesting with unexpected twists. I’m also reading Cecelia Ahern’s ‘A Place Called Here’ about a detective who goes missing, and ends up in a world where all missing things (and people) go. Its an amazing concept and worth reading. After watching ‘PS I love you‘ at the cinema, I came across the book in a charity shop, haven’t read much of it yet but again, very good. I can’t read boring books. ‘Left Behind‘ by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins is also good. I am also reading Sue Townsend’s ‘Adrian Mole and the Weapons of Mass Destruction’. I read the first couple of books in the series years ago when Adrian was 14 or something, then I found this book and he’s like 35 with kids!! I can’t believe she is still making these books, they are still pretty funny. The final book I am reading is ‘Its not how Good you are, it’s how Good you want to be’ by Paul Arden. You have to stick your business head on to read this, it does it’s best to tell you how to be a successful business person.

Ideas

I’m so pleased i’ve finally come up with ideas for my minor/dissertation, even if they aren’t completely finished.

Dissertation:

- Idea 1) How/why people become addicted to media forms, more specifically Facebook. Displacement, addictions.
- Idea 2) Dangers and benefits of online networking websites. Conducting research on Facebook (specifically). Issues to include ID fraud, personal information, personal safety, online portfolio/work, education, personal development (speech), communication (and lack of one-to-one communication), time/life management, what this means for the future).

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We had an intensive day of pitching/coming up with ideas for our majors yesterday which I found very helpful. The 9 questions to apply to my idea helped, and i have been over them again and come up with even more ideas. Here’s a summary of the questions below…

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1. How can i adapt my idea to another subject? e.g. instead of basing my idea around photography, why not books?
2. What would someone in a different profession look for in my idea? e.g. an Artist might look for Aesthetically pleasing qualities.
3. Could i combine my idea with another product? E.g. my idea + facebook = Facebook application.
4. Can i magnify aspects of my idea?
5. Can i modify the purpose of my idea? E.g. instead of a portfolio website, make ita 3D game.
6. Can i put my idea to other uses? In what other ways can it benefit people?
7. Can i eliminate anything from the idea?
8. Can i rearrange aspects of my idea? E.g. Instead of uploading artwork, draw it online.
9. Can i reverse my idea or aspects of my idea?