Mike Tolley, Principal Consultant at Cogent (fm) Solutions, looks at the issues that concern the CCTV industry. Today Mike identifies a worrying trend that ‘cheapest is best’.

I believe that the more recent companies entering the marketplace, seeing the amount of CCTV that is being installed, are turning to the cheap end of the market, but some established installers are also coming very close to falling foul of ‘cheapest wins’.

Many end users are now also falling into the trap of ‘cheapest is best’. There are some excellent products out there that are not leading brand names, but excellent quality products at reduced prices, and I don’t rule out their place in our industry. But ‘fit for purpose’ must be considered. Under DPA guidelines it states that it must be adequate – for the sake of poor old Dannie Parkes and many others like him who are expected to perform ‘Mission Impossible’ or ‘The Bill’ type miracles on useless CCTV images.

If you care, consider for just one moment how your customer feels. They have had a CCTV system installed by your company with products recommended by you. They have an incident and, due to the poor quality of images from both camera and recorder, the police have said that there is nothing they can do with the images from the new CCTV system.

Do you believe that this is the end of your relationship or an opportunity to go back and up sell them some new kit? Consider now how you felt that last time you were sold something that didn’t work. You ranted at the sales person in the store, making a big show of it and wanted the world in return for their failings. Where is the balance?

Do you agree with Mike? Let us know what you think below.

For more comment and insight about CCTV  click here to read CCTV articles.

The extremes between the two are quite disturbing. Why isn’t there a divider between the two in the… hell, I don’t know if it’s contemporary or retro. Without a divider, I cannot go. Not even open to discussion. Why isn’t the Peace Corp there? Now the other one I have an issue with as well. The chair to the right in the back is totally wrong for this Loo. No debates, not even the color can convince me it belongs with this bathroom. Whoever put it there really screwed up. I’ll bet you, that person put it there when they were setting up the photo equipment and didn’t notice. He/she should of went all the way like having Mickey sitting on Goofy’s lap during the shoot. Or maybe Pops drinking a hard one with a cigarette stops to watch after he’s been told ten times to stay out of view. Then it just so happens the shot they pick is the one where Pops is scratching his balls. Good continuity people are hard to find. I may go with the no divider, Turkish prison Loo. I’ll sleep on it. Anyone else?

They just quite didn't get everything in the DIY FashionLoo Remodeling class. No divider is grounds for... termination.

That chair in the back on the right is totally screwing this up. Two great FashionLoo's today but because of a couple of significant details they're both ruined. Great job team!

Sigh…fucking hell. Here’s my list:

Beasts of Burden #3
Blackest Night #5 (Green Lantern Ring)
Chew #6
Criminal: Sinners #2
Detective Comics #859
Fantastic Four #573
Green Lantern #48
Incredible Hercules #138 (Agents of Atlas Back-Up)
Invincible Iron Man #20
Justice League of America #39 (Red Lantern Ring)
Secret Warriors #10
Superman: Secret Origin #3
Wonder Woman #38

This is ridiculous. I really should stop collecting comics. Who else is breaking the bank this week?

J.

“Husband and Wife”

 According to legend, Puru Maharshi did meditation at the hill, where the temple of Shiva now stands. It was a dense forest in those days; hence its name Puruvanam, which became peruvanam. The rishi brought the image of Shiva, the Lingam, a half cylinder, to be installed on top of the hill. Afterwards, the upper half of the hill, leaving the small area where the Lingam was placed, was razed down to its present size, making a vast plane, with the central high ground standing tall (MADATHILAPPAN) which is protected by massive walls on all sides, with twin temples of Eratteppan and Madathilappan, the latter standing tall, with a number of granite steps leading to the sanctum, from where, you get a sky view of the surrounding landscape. I am never tired of watching it, from childhood days, as my mother’s home was near the southern Gopuram (gate).

There were several venerable, old trees in the compound, including peepal tree and one perillamaram (meaning- tree without name, as it was a stranger there), all looking very old and about to die. New trees have replaced them.

 The big koothampalam, where chakyar koothu was a regular ritual in those days, is rare in the other temples.

The koothu is a sort of mono act and Ramayanam is the theme. The Chakyar will make fun of any body among the audience, however high his status!

Once, the chakyar came very near to the man, a VIP who had just entered the hall, stood there  for a few seconds, and commented: a real monkey, only the tail is missing!

 One is supposed to suffer and grin, never retort.

Every year, for one month or so, there is thevaruseva, when there will be feasting, both times in the day, only for Brahmins. The dining hall is very long, some four feet in height, cut into three segments to allow devotees to pass through. As children we had difficulty in jumping up on to the dining place.

Throughout the year, there is simple food served to brahmins which we avoided as something below our status. Tamil Brahmins made use of this facility. My maternal grandfather’s brother lived at the western gopuram, eating the free food.

The circular sanctum of Eratteppan ( there is one big lingam and one small lingam by its side, hence this name) is very spacious, with a circular covered veranda, allowing the poojary to go from Shiva in the west to Parvathy in the back of the sanctum. In Keralam, Shiva is alone; in rare cases, where she is allowed inside, she is at the back of the temple.

The eastern entrance, where the gopuram was destroyed by the soldiers of Tippu Sultan, leads to the broad sloping arena, where seven elephants can stand side by side, during pooram festival. Farther down is the spacious temple pond. All the villagers take bath in this waterhole, with steps to climb down and a pucca shed on one side, where the poojary takes bath before entering the temple.The pond will not dry up even in summer, in rainy season it will be full.

Mekavil Bhagavathy is near the western gopuram. Oorakath Ammathiruvady, Thiruvullakavu Sasthavu, and several other temples are in the vicinity.

The location of the temple is twelve KM from Trichur, on the road to Triprayar temple of Lord Ram.

Wah coba-coba share photo di photobucket nih karena beberapa fitur-fiturnya lumayan lah atau malah super ya…:).Nggak tahu deh cuman mau sharing aja nih kelebihan photobucket sebagai penyedia hosting untung foto-foto kita secara gratis.

Lumayan juga lho itung-itung sebagai zona narsis karena bisa dipakai sebagai tempat share foto-foto kita yang juga mudah terindex oleh google.Photobucket menjadi sarana yang aman dan nyaman untuk hosting foto kita(lho kok mbulet ya).

Pokoknya intinya join ke photobucket nggak rugi deh coba aja berekspresi ria di dunia maya dengan memanfaatkan fitur-fitur gratisannya Hehehe….

fitur di photobucket…

photo by T.R. Hummer

The taste for quotations (and for the juxtaposition of incongruous quotations) is a Surrealist taste.

—Susan Sontag

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Last friday I attended the Drawing Unlimited Workshop in University, it was a workshop that started at 10am and continued until 1pm. It was organised by the Vis Com Illustration tutor Christine Blaney. It was open to 1st, 2nd and 3rd year Vis Com students along with some foundation students. Only two of us 2nd years showed up, but it was a great experience to get to interact with fellow students and get some advice and inspiration from other students. The workshop consisted of many illustrative exercises ranging from image to typography. Many of the exercises consisted of using black ink, a thick paint brush and using the opposite hand to which you write with to give a more quirky image, there were also time constraints of a couple of minutes for each too. Each of the class created one of the letters above using these methods. Below is the first exercise we were given.

We were each given a post-it note and with a thick paint brush and black ink, using our opposite hand to writing we had to draw a self portrait, the outcome was actually quite beautiful and very free, this exercise loosened us up for the following exercises.

Again we had to use a thick paint brush and black ink, using our opposite hand to writing and draw a self portrait. This time we also had to add text that explained our likes. I decided to go more abstract and drew half of my face and focused on the typography coming out of my head in the form of a speech bubble to give a connection between the type and image. It was incredibly difficult to do with a large paint brush and my left hand, but never the less interesting.

We then were given a bit longer and were asked to create a self portrait using any hand, using any materials and I came up with this collage of news print, ink, and crayon, again I stuck with a thick paintbrush as I loved the freedom of it, the 20 mins flew in I thought it was too long at the start, but I really needed more time. It was however a really nice outcome.

and finally we had to create a typographic piece that would present advice to students whom wish to apply for the Vis Com course. This was my typographic poster I created. My advice were the 3 R’s: Remember (all you see and are told), Risk (take risks with your work sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t), Read (with this course you can never read too many design books, you constantly have to feed yourself inspiration).

This was a collection of all the advice from the class! It was an extremely fun workshop and a welcomed break from the chaotic few weeks at university trying to get the publication project finalised.

Today I was working with a teacher using Photo Filtre to enhance images. We used inspiration from the artist Andy Warhol’s art. Here is an example showing one of the neat effects you can use! Photo Filtre is freeware – click here if you want to download it and try some of the filtres and colours yourself.

I started research on social networking sites as a learning tool. I merely thought that FaceBook, Twitter, or maybe LinkIn…The point was that I didn’t think there are so many.

Danah Boyd’s view point was concentrated on youth culture and it slighted little off from my research focus…

Well, I am realizing how behind I was in terms of catching up the trend of new media. My legs seem like tearing apart if I try to catch up too fast. It is far ahead of me.

MY! I have to narrow down on my research question and the topic. Should I just limit on FaceBook since I do not have a lot of time on this? Or, should I just go ahead and expand to other social networking sites that are utilizing the concept? When I learn one thing and puts it down, I tend to immediately notice things that I have not caught up when I researched. What a dilemma to practice being a researcher!  Well, girl, you need a plan here anyhow. Have a bowl of pumpkin soup filled with cheese and red pepper powder, you will survive from this. Ok, let see how it goes in few hours…

And why oh why this theme doesn’t edit the RSS code from other sites?

Is Social Networking Human Capital? Or Learning?

Social Networking Sites Online

Check out this interview in which Snoop discusses business and branding.

ο άνθρωπος με την κινηματογραφική μηχανή είναι μια πειραματική βουβή ταινία γυρισμένη το 1929, διάσημη για τις επαναστατικές τεχνικές που χρησιμοποιούνται, όπως double exposure, slow motion, freeze frames, extreme close-ups κ.α. o δημιουργός της, dziga vertov υπήρξε πρόδρομος της ρεαλιστικής θεωρίας: πίστευε στη στενή επαφή του σκηνοθέτη με την πραγματικότητα και τη σύλληψή της εξ απροόπτου, καταργώντας τους φραγμούς που είχαν υψώσει τα στούντιο, οι ηθοποιοί, τα σκηνικά και το σενάριο. όπως μας προειδοποιεί ο δημιουργός στους τίτλους αρχής “η ταινία αυτή αποτελεί ένα κινηματογραφικό πείραμα πραγματικών γεγονότων, χωρίς την βοήθεια υποτίτλων, χωρίς την βοήθεια σεναρίου, χωρίς την βοήθεια ηθοποιών, σκηνικών κλπ.“. σκοπός αυτού του πειράματος, η δημιουργία μιας πραγματικά διεθνούς γλώσσας κινηματογράφου, απόλυτα διαχωρισμένης από την γλώσσα του θεάτρου και της λογοτεχνίας. ο vertov ήταν ιδρυτικό μέλος της κολεκτίβας των kinoks, η οποία απέρριπτε τον κινηματογράφο με τους σταρ, τα σενάρια και τα στούντιο υποστήριζε πως το μέλλον είναι ο “πραγματικός” κινηματογράφος, ο κινηματογράφος που απλά αποτυπώνει την πραγματικότητα όπως είναι. η ταινία παρουσιάζει τη ζωή στην πόλη της οδησσού και άλλων πόλεων της σοβιετικής ένωσης. από το χάραµα ως το σούρουπο, βλέπουμε τους πολίτες στη δουλειά και στη διασκέδαση. η κάµερα εστιάζεται τόσο σε άψυχα πράγµατα, όπως οι μηχανές και οι λειτουργίες τους, όσο και σε έµψυχα, όπως ζώα και άνθρωποι µε τις δραστηριότητές τους. ουσιαστικά πρόκειται για ένα κολάζ από κινούμενες εικόνες, περιστατικά που συνθέτουν ιστορίες ζωής, και πρόσωπα της καθημερινότητας πρωταγωνιστές σε μια “αληθινή” ταινία.

dld original movie
dld movie with embodied soundtrack from the cinematic orchestra
dld soundtrack from the cinematic orchestra
dld soundtrack from biosphere

I start with two truths:

God is Love.

I was created in His image.

Though the wonder of those two statements, and what lies at their intersection, can never be fully known, I do know one thing. That means I was created in love and for love.

‘Images’ were established by a sovereign ruler as a reminder or a memorial to his reign and to the establishment of his relationship with a people and/or a place. They were beautiful and impressive. They were very intentionally placed in prominent locations for all to see and take note of. Images were intended to last forever. Similarly, kings themselves were considered to be the images of gods, in terms of being a god’s ‘here and now’ representative. Fully equipped. Fully-commissioned. Fully-authorized. Intentionally placed by the god to serve in his place.

I am the love that God intentionally placed on this earth. I am specifically established by God as His love. What God’s love is to do, I am commissioned for. What God’s love is to accomplish, I am equipped for. The relationship He wants to establish with His people in this ‘here and now’ is to be recognized and beautifully expressed though me.

I am not saying that I am God. I am not saying that I am the essence of God. I am saying that I was created intentionally to be the image of God, the image of His essence. I am saying that I was intentionally created to bring love into Being in the Here and Now. And I am saying that because of God’s intense desire for intimacy with me – and because of the nature of the love for which I was made and its desire for Encounter with the Other – I was made to Be in Love.

For my newest necklace featuring one of my altered dominoes, I decided to pink up a minor color in the image on my domino, the light (baby) blue.  The mulberry paper background is a peachy pink and the image contains a few other shades of pink.  I decided to pull it all together with some beaded charms featuring both the peachy pink and the reddish pink.

I had a variety of vintage light blue buttons that I truly loved.  Some are glass. Some are plastic.  Some of the buttons have additional colors.  A couple of the buttons have little crystal rhinestone that tie in well with the rhinestone on the pendant.   I layered a couple of buttons and a bead on a couple of the buttons to make them extra special.  I did wire-wrap most of the buttons so that I could easily attach the buttons with a jump ring.

If you look closely you’ll notice that I have 6 reddish pink drops that I’m using as charms on this necklace.  The drops came from a set of earrings I found at an estate sale.  I love the verdigris patina on the beadcaps of these little charms.

I decided on a double chain as the foundation of the necklace.   I had quite a bit of very fine gold chain.  I thought the elements were to large and heavy for a single chain, so I connected them to two layers of chain. 

I decided to string some of those wonderful light blue glass beads that I acquired at an estate sale.  I thought this necklace should look nice from the front or back.  This is definitely a necklace for a updo or a short haircut.  The necklace fits close the neck and is pretty all the way around.