Lost Ghost's Doubtlessly Useless Ruminations

If you came here and thought this blog was a bit dead, then you were right.

I still use software from six apart, but my blog has moved to http://www.cynergist.com

I was supposed to be at the Bristol International Comic Expo today.

Unfortunately it never happened. The person I was going along with telephoned me last night to say they were ill and couldn't make it. After careful consideration I decided that I didn't want to go on my own. I've never been to the Bristol con, and I was curious to see what it was like, but the main point of the trip was to meet up with a friend I haven't seen for a while.

Instead I spent an hour this morning playing with a good group in FFXI. Unfortunately they had mostly been playing for well over 14 hours. After getting me killed because their noob White Mage didn't want to cast "Cure" in combat, they decided they needed to break up and get some sleep. Once again there weren't very many people around Quifm, so I decided to log out.

I really don't feel like going out in the rain this afternoon, so I've been ordering my weekly groceries from Tesco's online service.

At least I have the Cybermen to look forward to this evening.

When I watched Dr Who as a kid (many years ago), I never really found the Daleks particularly frightening, but the Cybermen are a different story. There just seems to be something menacing about cyborgs - and don't foget they appeared on Dr Who a long time before the Borg became the scary baddies for Star Trek.

I've been experimenting with a new laptop for the last couple of weeks.

My old one started playing up around Christmas - the same time that both my desktop PCs failed.

After carefull consideration I decided to buy an ibook.

I bought a mac mini when they first came out - over a year ago now. I've been using it as a media unit. Its pluged into both my TV and amp. This means I can use it to play both my iTunes music and my media downloads, along with DVDs.

I've been very impressed with the unit so far. Especially because (unlike my PCs) it runs silently.

I have also found that the majority of the software I use (such as GoLive, Photoshop, etc.) are available for both PCs and macs.

My other criteria was that I actually wanted something portable. My previous laptops could only be asily transported if you had a car to carry them in, and I have noticed that there is a noticeable trend recently to have fully featured, wide screen laptops with batteries that may last an hour or two. Or at the other extreme very small and light laptops with extremely high price tags. The 12" ibook seems like a good compromise, and so far I have been getting on with it quite well.

After buying the PS2 I seem to be getting into back into games in a big way, and not just on the PS2.

I've tried quite a few MMORPGs during the last year, but I've never found any of them as good as my first - so I have been quietly playing FFXI again (still on the fairy server). I've even ordered the latest expansion (which should arrive in the next few days).

There goes my life :D

I had thought I may pop down to the cosplay cafe at Cafe Manga this Monday. Originally I wasn't going to go as I have made too many trips "down south" in the last couple of months. But then I changed my mind because I thought it would be very good if I could get new interviews, video clips and photos to use on Cosplay UK ( http://www.cosplay.co.uk ).

Unfortunately it looks like I left it too late. I tried to get a day return ticket today and the price was £212! Needless to say, I won't be popping down to London for the day.

After this disappointment I thought I would sort out my weekend in London for the Movies Comics Media Expo next month. Unfortunately it doesn't look like the trains are running from Manchester to London that weekend, so no Virgin Pendelino. I'm not sure I'll make it there either now.

Oh well. At least I've reserved a place for AmeCon now. And I've also got my cheap flights to Paris booked for the Japan Expo in July - I just need to sort out my accommodation now (and tickets for the convention).

How well do you know your music?

My cousin has just put together a quiz for his website. Its based on trying to identify CD album covers.

I scored 46 out of 100. Can you do better?

http://www.coolblueshed.co.uk/games/albumgame.html

Its been a week now since the ".eu" domain name was opened up to the public and the land rush began. In those seven days over one and a half million domain names have already been registered.

I did have some domains registered for the sunrise period, but it looks like they were picked up by a well known copany from the Netherlands that found a loop hole in Dutch law enabling them to grab a lot of domains even though it doesn't look like they already had a claim on the name.

Take a look at cosplay.eu to see how some of these new domains are actually being used. :(

However it isn't all bad news. I did manage to get 11 of the domains I wanted.


I'm not sure when these domains actually become active, but look for a few of my sites to change their addresses in coming weeks.

IMPORTANT NEWS





Stone Bridge Press have a number of cosplay handbooks on the horizon. They are now looking for hi-res photos of cosplayers. There isn't any pay, but you will get international exposure and a free book.



However you will need to hurry as they need your email by Friday 14th April 2006.





Full Details

In years gone by I used to spend a lot of time playing games. I guess this started from geting a ZX Spectrum (many years ago). I wasted many hours as a university student playing games on my Atari ST. Even after university I spent a lot of time playing games on my sega games consoles.

When Final Fantasy VII was released I bought a PlayStation specifically so I could play the game, and over the years I bought quite a lot of other games for the PlayStation, but none were ever quite as good as Final Fantasy. The only thing that came close for me was Tomb Raider II. I had played the original Tomb Raider game on the Sega, but it never really caught my attention in the same way as Tomb Raider II.

By the time of Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation I had bought a Dreamcast. However I really didn't get on with the game, and haven't played Tomb Raider again until yesterday.

I don't know if it was a wise decision, but I went out yesterday and bought a PlayStation 2 and a copy of Tomb Raider: Legend. After an hour of play I have completed 1%, but have got stuck on my first puzzle!

I guess its just been so long since I last played games on a home console that I have forgotten what to do.

If you are wondering why I have been fairly quiet on the net recently, its because I am suffering from a few hardware problems.

1) My laptop isn't charging and needs to go for repair

2) The hard drive in my main PC failed - effectively killing the machine

3) The back up PC has developed a fault and needs a rebuild

This means the only computer I have left in the house that actually works is a Mac Mini. But this is my media centre and is plugged into the TV and Stereo in my living room. It isn't really useable for web work.

I'm off to the large Manchester computer fair tomorrow. So hopefully I'll finally manage to get back on-line next week.

This is a start at a UK Liverjournal community for cosplayers.

I'm not sure if there is a demand for a community like this, but I guess only time will tell.

The next phase of the upgrade has now been completed and tested, and is finally working without any apparent bugs. This is the new Forum.

It may appear that the changes are only cosmetic, but this new platform includes a gread deal of new conectivity through XML. This means it is not only easier for us to export information from the forum, but we can also import information. The first of these steps is to copy the news stories from the website, and these upgrade announcements into new forum topics. We are also looking to import a number of other news stories that may be of interest.

Let us know what you would like included.

We have so much stuff to add, these are likely to be daily over the next couple of weeks.

After the problems experienced with the AE CMS system last year we drew up our plans for how we wanted to develop the site and began working on building a system capable of managing it all, and while it has been a bit of an uphill struggle, some of the commercial components we use are now catching up with how we see content systems developing.

It was a few years ago that we were one of only two active anime news sites in the UK (the other has now sadly closed down) and Dragon (from the London Anime Club) suggested to me that we create an RSS feed for all our news stories. At the time, I had never even heard of RSS and the only European feed on the subject listed by the syndic8 feed directory was for Dragon's club site. However the more I looked into the subject, the more interested I became in the possibilities of content being submitted between sites using XML.

We began in a small way by publishing our first RSS news feed back in 2003. However web browsers weren't offering support for reading RSS, and it was only the net geeks who were using separate stand-alone news aggregators. Now (as we approach 2006) we have many more plans for processing XML. We still produce an RSS feed for our news stories for members of the public to catch up on the headlines through their RSS reader (whatever form it may take), but this is just one of several feeds being created. While at the same time we are using XML information transmitted via RSS to integrate content into both the website and forum.

New developments mean that you no longer need specialist feed agregators to read the feeds. Our database converts feeds into html that are then displayed on webpages and our forum converts news items from feeds into new forum topics. In what may be seen as a step back, we even have the ability to convert the feeds to daily digests of news stories that can be sent out automatically to subscribers by email! This opens up the possibilities of distributing the information to an even wider audience.

Anyone remember push technology? This was Microsoft's vision of sending information to people, rather than people having to search and request the information themselves. It never really took off. But the new possibilities offered by RSS/XML certainly offer the same scope for the dissemination of information.

Lets see what happens next.

Finally back home and it seems like I've been away for an eternity.

After Aya I went to Barcelona for a few weeks, and although I got back to the UK about two weeks ago, I've been working in various towns, so net access has been almost non-existant.

It is really nice to finally be back home, but there is just so much work waiting for me to do.

The outstanding refunds have now all been issued and cosplay photos from Aya should all be posted out today. With luck I will get the supporting membership packs out tomorrow. I'll then take a look at contacting people who (for whatever reason) left stuff in the bring and buy. After that I can take a look at the banking and invoices.

Hopefully by the end of the month I will finaly be able to put Aya 5 to bed, and get back to my own projects - including (possibly) taking a look at any potential re-invention of a simplified replacement Cosplay UK by expanding some of the existing resources within AE and creating a custom mini-site.

Guests of Honour: BLOOD

The AyaCon Committee, in association with www.jmusiceuropa.com is pleased to announce the UK premiere of the visual kei band BLOOD.

BLOOD (official home page: www.curecreate.com ) were formed in February 2002 and have a strongly distinctive visual style and a wide musical repertoire, from joyful and light punk to heavy metal, to soft and gentle ballads. From their home city of Osaka, they have toured widely in Europe and the US, but this is their first concert in the UK.

BLOOD will be performing at AyaCon on the afternoon of Sunday 21st August, as the climax of a programme of J-pop, J-rock and VK-themed events which will run throughout the AyaCon weekend.

Other key events in the programme include a selection of music panels and video programme items, music themed cosplay, J-rock and J-pop parties in the venue's fully equipped nightclub on Friday and Saturday night, and, of course, a karaoke event.

Admission to the BLOOD concert and all other music programme events are free to registered AyaCon members: no additional tickets need to be purchased. Separate tickets to only attend the BLOOD concert will NOT be available.


In association with www.jmusiceuropa.com/en/index.php

BLOOD official homepage
www.curecreate.com

BLOOD profile and discography
www.jmusiceuropa.comen/database/artists/artist.php?id=67

--
Stephen Harris
Aya Publicity Officer aya@nyo.me.uk
AyaCon 2005 www.ayacon.org.uk

I'm mad as hell!!!

I've just left work and found an £85 parking ticket on my car.

While this may not seem strange, I should explain that I parked outside work in our staff parking area. This is a road between our office and the depot, but as far as I'm aware its owned by our company and is private land! No one else has from work is effected, because I'm the only person stuck in the office after 5pm (I left at 7pm).

The reason given on the ticket was "no permit". What permit do I need to park on private land?

As this is apparently a discounted amount for prompt payment, If I choose to question the ticket the amount payable would rise to the full amount of £135!

I've been away from the internet for quite some time. To begin with I was having quite a few IT problems. My main PC stopped working, and then I couldn't get the wireless network going again.

Finally when everything was working I had a few personal problems - including the death of my pet cat.

Once that was all behind me I then became ill, and its taken a while to get over it.

With luck this is now all behind me and everything will be fine going forward.

I'm also hoping that now I access this journal through the links in the AE forum that it will inspire me to actually post a bit more frequently.

Its not started out so well. I have spent ages trying to get my cat to the cattery for the weekend - but all the roads are flooded (and I got soaked to the skin loading her into the car).

I have now had a telephone call saying that my father has had an accident (apparently while he was out getting my birthday present) and has been taken to Northampton General Hospital. Apparently he fell, was unconscious and has damaged his hand.

Looks like I might be spending some time away from the con this weekend.

Lets hope nothing else bad happens - it usually goes in threes.

It looks as if this progress report is going to be monthly, but at least this gives a few more things to report on.

Work on the site slowed down recently, as I have been away every weekend and during the week often haven't finished work until fairly late. This is likely to continue through June. I will then be on a trip out of the country for a while, including a visit to the large Japan-Expo convention in July at CNIT in Paris.

Anyway. Its status update time. Here is a list of status changes during the last month:

1) Portal - Template links updated. Template logo fixed and "alt" tags added. New welcome message written for non-registered visitors. Shorter (above the fold) message added for registered members. Translation module fixed - the website is now available in 8 other languages once again. Security breaches resolved, database amended and security holes patched. Admin membership recording/monitoring functions enhanced.

2) Japanimation:UK - Due to current work requirements for the website, no time is available for producing the Summer 2004 issue of the zine. We may have to cancel the issue unless anyone else volunteers to take charge of the project.

3) Anime News Site - The backlog of old submitted stories have now been cleared. Existing categories (anime, event, manga and AE) are too restrictive and several new ones are to been added (general, music & reviews). We will monitor whether this is enough and add others if required.

4) Gallery - The error when the full size pictures are displayed is now fixed. The names displayed for photos has been changed from the file name to the photo title as this seems more useful. The old gallery archive was recently hacked and is currently under repair, many parts are still out of action. These repairs should be completed within the next 2 weeks. The German group behind the old software no longer offer much in the way of support. This is just one of the reasons why we have switched to coppermine (and it appears a few other UK anime groups have now followed our example).

5) Current Forum - 2nd Glasgow moderator added. J-Culture forum created. Report of delays on PM system investigated, but no problem uncovered - likely the hour delay could be some people not switching to British Summer Time in their control panel. Forum links updated to better feed through to main portal. Slight changes made to the moderators and admins section (for the discussion of reviews). No other major forum amendments planned until after the upgrade, although (as usual) several minor tweaks may take place.

6) v2 Forum - Usability testing continues. Forum skin creation not yet started due to not yet being a stable version. The new forum software looks very impressive. Planned alterations to the main forum are being implemented on the test forum.

7) Reviews - Original backlog of reviews now cleared. 2 batches of review DVDs received and sent to reviewers. Reviews for these DVDs will be updated to the website daily (until backlog cleared). Slight alterations to reviews forums are to be made to accommodate linking through to the review module.

8) Shop - We have decided to go with associatesshop. Although this means we pay more in the long run (and we had already bought the code for the ghostscript afiliate shop), it seemed much more customizable, faster and more stable than the other options. Support was fast and actually worked (unlike support from other suppliers) even though the developers are German. The shop has now been integrated into the site, but has not yet been customized and filled with relevant products. This is not likely to happen until slightly later in the year - after the reviews section has been running smoothly for a while and the forum has been upgraded.

9) Industry chats - Preliminary discussion has begun. This may be through using the chat room we integrated into the forum, restricting the discussion to registered members and allowing moderation in line with standard forum rules.

10) IRC integration - Preliminary investigation into including a web based IRC gateway has begun. Several scripts currently being investigated.

11) Netherlands Gateway - Work started - 5% complete. No change.

12) Poland Gateway - Work started - 20% complete. No change.

13) France Gateway - Work started - 30% complete. No change.

14) Scotland Gateway - Work started - 5% complete. No change.

15) Wales Gateway - Work started - 5% complete. No change.

16) England Gateway - Work started - 30% complete. No change.

17) Ireland Gateway - Work Started - 20% complete.

18) Tokyopop Manga Shop Gateway - Work started - 5% complete.

19) Other Gateways - Minor work started. No further action for the time being.

20) Hosting - Forum hosting under review. No plan to change until after upgrade. Forum hosting renewed. Cosplay:UK hosting under review.

21) Domains - No new domains added. Cosplay.co.uk due for renewal.

22) Publicity - No advertising has taken place.

23) Webmail - Delayed until after the v2 forum has been implemented and run without any bug reports for at least a month.

The number of unique users visiting the website seems to have stabilised at approximately 1,000/day. The news section is by far the most visited part of the site, but most users read just the headlines, rather than continuing to view the whole news story. Future news stories may feature links to the relevant section of the forum for discussion. Future reviews will feature links to the relevant section of the forum.

I thought it was probably about time I started using this Livejournal again.

I originally set it up so I could record the updates being made to AE somewhere other than within the website. However I have been so busy during the last year with changing jobs, moving from north London to south Manchester and selling my house in the Midlands that I don't know where all the time goes.

At least things are starting to settle down now. At work I have now recruited all the staff for my department. At home I now have the majority of the new furniture and equipment. And finally the work on the website is starting to get somewhere. Everything was held up for even longer because I injured my back and was not able to sit or stand. Thankfully everything seems to be normal now, but I am having to wear a back brace if I'm out and about much (like this last weekend). It has also significantly reduced my ability to exercise.

Anyway. Its status update time. Here is a list of status changes during the last week:

1) Portal - Mainly running normally. stripslash() errors resolved. New poll added. Translation module still out of action - not yet investigated. Template links to be updated.

2) Japanimation:UK - 1st issue online (complete). 2nd issue conversion from paper to web = 10%. 3rd issue production = 2%

3) Anime News Site - Due to injuries there are currently almost 1 months worth of news stories that have been submitted and not yet published.

4) Gallery - London meet folder added. Fixed upload restrictions. A new error has appeared when the full size pictures are displayed - not yet investigated.

5) Current Forum - Links to portal updated. Moderators added for "website review" and "Glasgow club". 2nd Glasgow moderator to be added and another new forum created. Cosplay fora to be amended. Report of delays on PM system being investigated. Birmingham Club forum under review.

6) v2 Forum - Test system set up to enable moderators and admins to learn how to operate the new forum. Testing has started for usability. Forum skin creation not yet started.

7) Reviews - A new module has been hand written and tested. 1st review uploaded and formatted. 2nd review to be added once official image link received. 3rd review being written. Organised for receipt of review DVDs. Reviewer team still to be agreed.

8) Shop - Three scripts currently being tested. 2 are hosted locally (one in php and the other in perl) while the third is hosted remotely. Currently all three scripts do not perform to a satisfactory level and are not being implemented. Support has been requested, but not yet received.

9) Industry chats - Initial discussion has begun. No further action for the time being.

10) IRC integration - Preliminary investigation into including a web based IRC gateway has begun. No further action for the time being.

11) Netherland Gateway - Work started - 5% complete.

12) Poland Gateway - Work started - 20% complete.

13) France Gateway - Work started - 30% complete.

14) Scotland Gateway - Work started - 5% complete.

15) Wales Gateway - Work started - 5% complete.

16) England Gateway - Work started - 30% complete.

17) Other Gateways - Minor work started. No further action for the time being.

18) Hosting - Forum hosting under review - awaiting response about transfer from potential new hosting company.

19) Domains - No new domains added. Anime.me.uk renewed.

20) Publicity - No advertising has taken place.

21) Webmail - Delayed until after the v2 forum has been implemented.

I'll try and keep the status updates to a weekly schedule.