markbradshaw.net

• Football Heroes - Illustrations from the book Football Heroes.
• Passive-aggressive notes - The art of Passive-aggressive notes. More here.
  
• 100 Greatest Movie Posters - Nice list, waiting for No.1.
• The 20 Worst Album Covers of 2007 - Bit late but here’s Pitchforks 20 Worst Album Covers of 2007. At least there is some humour here, unlike the European CD/DVD winner for 2008.
  
• Olympic Games 2008 - Big photos of preparations.
• Russian Rip-offs - A gallery of Soviet era rip-offs of western technology. From Oobject.
• Chicago Spire - Panoramic views from the top of the (due to be completed 2011) Chicago Spire.
• Read At Work - Famous literary works clad as faux-powerpoint slides. More Powerpoint, an online Powerpoint creator.
• Beer - The price of beer around the world.
• Map of the Milky Way - Top view.
• Genius! - Fake bus stop keeps Alzheimer’s patients from wandering off.
• Best Visual Illusion of the Year - 2008 TOP 10 Finalists.

To play flac:

Use the best player for almost ANY audio file:

• Foobar2000

If you choose not to use the best, here are some helpful plugins for other programs:

• FLAC plugin for Windows Media Player
• CUE player (for disc images) plugin for winamp
• FLAC plugin for winamp

To burn Flac:

If you use NERO to burn CDs, here are som plugins to allow you to burn a CD with flac files without decompressing (just drop and burn, just like mp3). What you want to do is put them into this directory:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Ahead\AudioPlugins

• NERO FLAC Plugin

To decompress these files to wave so you can do whatever you like to them use this:

• FLAC Frontend

or you can use Foobar2000 to convert this format to any other format:

• Foobar2000

Here is a FAQ from the Flac homepage:

• Flac FAQ

Here is NERO so you can burn:

NERO 7.2.0.3 (CD Burning Suite) (Full with keygen included):

• Part 1
• Part 2

• Google search engine

Burning:

Roxio’s Toast 7 Titanium supports encoding to FLAC and CD/DVD burning from FLAC.

Decoding:

• iTunes-to-FLAC, an AppleScript for converting between FLAC and WAVE/AIFF with tagging via iTunes.
• MacFLAC, a FLAC distribution which also includes nice graphical front-end.
• Max, a CD ripper and encoder that supports several formats including FLAC.
• MediaRage, for editing FLAC metadata (also supports Vorbis and other formats).
• RipBeak is a nice GUI encoding frond-end that supports FLAC as well as Vorbis and MP3.
• xACT, another FLAC distribution with a graphical front-end to FLAC and other formats.

Playing:

• Cog
• Cynthiune music player
• MacAmp Lite X
• Play, a versatile open-source player/music manager that supports FLAC and Ogg FLAC.
• PureMusic Audio Player
• Songbird
• VLC Media Player
• XiphQT component for Quicktime/iTunes that supports Ogg FLAC playback

Burning:

• Roxio’s Toast 7 Titanium supports encoding to FLAC and CD/DVD burning from FLAC.

Decoding:

• iTunes-to-FLAC, an AppleScript for converting between FLAC and WAVE/AIFF with tagging via iTunes.
• MacFLAC, a FLAC distribution which also includes nice graphical front-end.
• Max, a CD ripper and encoder that supports several formats including FLAC.
• MediaRage, for editing FLAC metadata (also supports Vorbis and other formats).
• RipBeak is a nice GUI encoding frond-end that supports FLAC as well as Vorbis and MP3.
• xACT, another FLAC distribution with a graphical front-end to FLAC and other formats.

• ColorFlip - Flip coloured pages.
• Bon Scott - Jesus, my balls hurt.
• 35 Anti-U.S. Chinese Political Cartoons - Set during a time of escalating western imperialism, these images react against U.S. military actions in Laos and Vietnam.
• Italian Spiderman - Featuring Franco Franchetti of ‘Mondo Sexo’ fame in his last ever role before being killed in a spear fishing accident in 1969. Part 1.
• Life in Soviet Russia - Nice photos.
• Meetings - The practical alternative to work.
• Furry Nazi - No idea what this is about.
• Peter Beste - True Norwegian Black Metal, photographs.
• Will Eisner’s M-16 Rifle Manual - Distributed to every U.S. soldier from 1968-1972 during Vietnam conflict. Originally sealed in plastic to accomodate weather concerns, and for jungle distribution.
• Letting Go - 2 weeks and three days into quitting, read this piece “There were the Russians, the Italians, even some Chinese. Together we formed a foul little congress: the United Tarnations, the Fellowship of the Smoke Ring.”
• Damn Lies - 100 Food products, compared photographically between what’s on the packaging and the actual product. Frequently hilarious.
• Purple Nurple - Optical illusion.
• So Pure, So Relaxing - Two weeks into quitting….doing OK.

Dear Walter,

I hope you can help me here. The other day I set off for work leaving my husband in the house watching the TV as usual. I hadn’t gone more than a mile down the road when my engine conked out and the car shuddered to a halt. I walked back home to get my husband’s help. When I got home I couldn’t believe my eyes. He was in the bedroom with a neighbour lady making mad passionate love to her. I am 32, my husband is 34 and we have been married for twelve years. When I confronted him, he broke down and admitted that he’d been having an affair for the past six months.

I told him to stop or I would leave him. He was let go from his job six months ago and he says he has been feeling increasingly depressed and worthless. I love him very much, but ever since I gave him the ultimatum he has become increasingly distant. I don’t feel I can get through to him anymore.
Can you please help?

Sincerely, Mrs Sheila Usk

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Dear Sheila,

A car stalling after being driven a short distance can be caused by a variety of faults with the engine. Start by checking that there is no debris in the fuel line. If it is clear, check the jubilee clips holding the vacuum pipes onto the inlet manifold. If none of these approaches solves the problem, it could be that the fuel pump itself is faulty, causing low delivery pressure to the carburetor float chamber.

I hope this helps. Walter

• To Die For - A food critic tries the famously poisonous fish Fugu (Japanese Blowfish).
• Design for Despots - Forthcoming ambitious architectural projects in least free states.
• Timesonline - Top 100 films of all time. No Rutger Hauer films present.
• Tech histories. A history of early digital cameras / a history of the VCR player / a history of the Walkman / history of the pocket calculator / all about the Game and Watch / all about Casio digital watches.
• Titanic - The last meal served on 1st class.
• Photoshop disasters - http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/