The crack's are appearing...

Matty G, over at The Losers, was recently discussing the use of pirate software for educational purposes and the options that exist for someone wishing to be part of an industry that expects the graduates and the wanna-bes to already possess the skills when they come knocking at the door.

This is intended as a reply to his post, that grew a little too large in the comment box...so its moved over here to take root.

Many artists I know, including myself, are self-taught. We’ve poured over tutorials, videos and expensive books while pursuing our own projects, endeavouring to learn the ins and outs of the tools of our trade, or the trade we aim to make our profession. But, is it wrong? Yes, in each case using cracked software is a violation of the software’s licence. Is it a bad thing? No.

This is a interesting topic and one that is relevant to my own field of work too. Being a software developer, the choices of development platforms and environments range from the free open-source options (the Bazaars) up to the expensive, propriety solutions such as Microsoft Visual Studio (the Cathedrals).

Depending on where exactly you wish to work as a programmer and which career options you'd like available to you, there may not be as many choices as first thought. The fact is that the Visual Studio IDE is the most popular and, if you want to learn Windows programming, you don't have much choice but to pay for it. Its in Microsoft's long-term interests to get students and up-and-coming developers to get hooked on VB.NET, C#, MFC etc; but their focus is on the financial gains of selling software licences.

I try to draw the line personally as much as possible and opt to use legally owned software. In the past few months, I've started exploring open source alternatives for graphic design, video editting & web page development. These are normally things I do for myself, not really with education in mind, but instead focussed on the end result. These are things I want to be able to produce with legally owned software. But none of these things I do for commercial pursuits. These are all amateur hobbies of mine, so I will never see a return on an enormous investment into propietry software solutions...the Adobe Photoshops, Illustrators, the Macromedia Dreamweavers & Fireworks, Adobe Premier & AfterEffects and Sony Vegas software solutions that I know and would use if I was doing any of these pursuits for profit.

Thankfully, there are options out there. Thanks to great sites like www.osalt.com and more like them, the open source alternatives to the big names can be easily found and, even though, these open source alternatives may not provide the same diversity of features and level of support that the expensive solutions have, they have many things a hobbiest could want...passionate communities of users, a fast development turn-a-round for new features...and being open source, the code that produced the program freely available and waiting to be cracked open. Nothing stops a programmer like me from implementing the features I want anyway. Besides, there're plenty of good lessons available from 'poping the hood' and checking out these program's internals.

For open source alternatives to most programs that you currently use, visit the following sites.

www.osalt.com
www.opensourcewindows.org
www.digitaldarknet.net/thelist/

...and, if anyone cares to know about the seminal discussion on open source solutions, check out The Cathedral and the Bazaar.

A blog for losers...

A blog for losers...or, more accurately, a blog for The Losers.

The Losers is the thoughts and meanderings of all my school mates. Things can get a little random with postings from interesting tidbits found on the net, opinions on music, books, film & sport, and probably some good, old-fashioned banter.

Be sure to drop in...

thelosers.wordpress.com.

Helicoptors are fun!

Flying helicoptors must be a hell of a lot of fun!

Smashing them into the roof of the hangar probably less so..

film-making inertia

Since my partner in film-making, Cowan, has ducked back to the UK, my film-making efforts have slowed considerably.

A few good ideas have come to me over the past few months and 2007 will be the year of throwing myself back into the craft I enjoy.

I will be teaming up with Benno from Redhouse Productions within the next couple of months to shoot a couple of short shorts, being named the Solitaire duo.

Hopefully, my inertia will have worn off by then, and we can heave ourselves towards making The New Housemate, a story that has remained on paper for far too long now.

Anyway, I will update this blog with any progress or news that is made in either direction on these projects.

For now...enjoy the second film that I made. Its called 'three am'......view it here



Check out www.myspace.com/cinema_seventy_seven

A Few Days in Kolkata

Here are some photos I'd taken around Kolkata, while I was there for a few days in early December, 2004.

I'd arrived in Kolkata at the very end of my trip. After eight months of travelling, it was difficult to muster the energy required to explore a town like Kolkata properly. Considered to be the cultural capital of the country, I would have liked to have explored more of the cultural highlights that its reknown for...plays, exhibitions etc. Without preparing myself properly or really looking or planning ahead, I found it difficult to break out of the usual business of sight-seeing.

Approaching Calcutta

This is the view from the train-ride through Bengal, approaching Calcutta from Varanasi.


Life verged right onto the tracks. These small towns would have been magic to explore closer.


Streets of Calcutta


Calcutta taxis resemble a New York taxi somewhat. This was the only place I saw in India with yellow cabs.


Near the Writer's Building is Lal Dighi, a large pool of water, I noticed people washing in during the morning.

The Queen Victoria Memorial



Construction finished in 1921 of this grand legacy of the British Raj and to the then reigning Empress of India, Queen Victoria.



I wandered into the grounds of an old library which had a garden and this scarecrow hanging in it.

Park Street Cemetary

Park Street Cemetary is an enormous imperial necropolis in the centre of the city. It reminded me a lot of the Victorian graves at Highgate Cemetary in London. It was only a little eerie...really much more of a serene and peaceful experience...especially with the bustle of the city metres outside the walls.

The Larapinta Trail

For seven days in September, a group of us trekked the Larapinta Trail outside of Alice Springs and through the West MacDonnell Ranges.

It was an incredible experience being out in this country!



This is a photo from Day One that Mark took. Its looking back along the ridge of Mount Sonder as we climbed to the summit.

A long time between blogs indeed...

Do you like green eggs and ham?