Portfolio Culture March 9, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in portfolio worker.add a comment
Does anything matter nowadays more than a good portfolio?
Personally, I don’t think so.
Education is still very much important, but without a great portfolio, it simply isn’t enough. And its not just reserved to the traditional creative pursuits either, such as graphic design, animation and film. There’s a countless number of other jobs too: web design, hair design, fashion design, product design, game design, journalism, engineering….. I’m willing to bet that this is a sizeable portion of the entire job market.
But why the current empahasis on portfolios? Well, the world has changed. With globalisation, you are competing in an international job market. Its more important that ever to be great at one thing. This is irrespective of the diversity of the discipline that you’re involved in. For instance, if you are a product designer, it requires a lot of different skills, but focus on being the best at one of those. This could be rendering, or computer modelling, or conceptualisation, or ethnographic research. Just make sure that you’re the best at one of these things, and make sure that you have a portfolio which reflects this.
And it’s never too early to start building a portfolio. Even if you’re still in school, its good to have a portfolio ready, because this is surely you’re best chance at scoring a job. But remember: there can potentially be hundreds of candidates for a position, so make sure that your portfolio stands out. This doesn’t mean cramming in every piece of work that you’eve ever done: just focus on the outstanding pieces.
This might seem like obvious advice to the initiated, but it is often overlooked. It really isn’t sufficient to have a great degree anymore. The portfolio is king. And a person with a great portfolio will get more work, and hence be even more employable.
Imperial TTxGP March 7, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in Imperial College London, battery, green, isle of man, motorbike, ttxgp, website, zero emissions.add a comment
The first zero-emissions motorbike race is fast approaching, and we’re working hard to finish our bike. You can find out more by going to our new website.
Red Dwarf to Return February 23, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in dave, red dwarf, reunion, sci fi, special, tv.add a comment
I don’t know how this escaped my notice, but Red Dwarf is coming back! The good news first came to my attention through the Guardian website, and believing it was too good to be true, I checked out Dave, the producer of the new show, and its definitely true. Shooting is currently underway, so there won’t be a repeat of the Red Dwarf film debacle, where fans were left expectant for years. Two new episodes are being filmed, along with some improvised episodes (sounds interesting) and a making of featurette.
And in case your wondering, it’s the exact same cast as the original. Hurrah!
Akira bike February 23, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in akira, funny, modelling, motor bike, replica, sci fi.add a comment
This picture made me laugh so hard. It’s a real life model of the legendary bike from Akira. Sometimes its good to know that there are people out there who’re just as nerdy as I am.
bbpress and wordpress integration February 23, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in admin page, bbpress, forum, integration, software, wordpress.add a comment
I’ve been using bbpress for about a month now, and I’ve been really happy with it. However, I made a mistake by trying to integrate it with WordPress.
bbpress is only compatible with certain versions of WordPress, and not realising this, I tried to make it work with version 2.7.
When you try and do this you can no longer access the bbpress admin page, which as you can imagine is a royal pain, because you can’t edit the forum settings. And to compound matters further, when you try and upgrade to the most recent version of bbpress (1.0-Alpha-6, which I was hoping would remedy the matter) it won’t work, because it requires you to access your admin page (which you can’t do).
Net result: a fresh install of bbpress and a lot of wasted time searching for a solution.
This isn’t the fault of bbpress: it’s my fault for not having read the instructions more closely. But be warned: do not make this mistake! And don’t be fooled in to thinking that integrating WordPress and BBpress is straight forward. When they get this sorted, it will be a fantastic package, and even after these troubles, I still think it’s the most elegant forum software available.
Best inventions February 21, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in bit torrent, engineering, important inventions, technology.add a comment
During my interview for an engineering course, which albeit was a few years ago, I was asked what I thought was the most significant invention in the last ten years. I said the Toyota Prius, but I’ve thought it over a lot since then, and here is my revised selection:
1. Bit Torrent: What a brilliant invention this is. It allows the dissemination of media on an unprecedented scale, and practically eliminates band width costs. And before anyone says so, its not just about illegal content, Linux programs are often distributed via Bit Torrent, as are some podcasts. Furthermore, the BBC iPlayer download client uses an adapted version of Bit Torrent. Downloading Jonathan Ross on a Friday evening? You’ve got Bit Torrent to thank for that.
This may seem a strange selection, but this only goes to show how technology can touch our lives in different ways, and how something impersonal like technology, can become very personal indeed.
Made on a Hack February 17, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in hackintosh, iphone sdk, mac.add a comment
I love this so much:
Its referring to the Hackintosh, whereby Mac OSX is shoe horned on to a fat PC. I’ve heard mixed responses from people who’ve tried it, and thus far I haven’t encountered anyone who uses a Hackintosh as their main computer, but rather as something to impress their friends with.
It works best with Intel Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors, which means that a rather new PC has to be sacrificed to the cult of Mac in order to make it work. But it seems like more and more people are willing to give it a go, possibly because of Mac only software such as the iPhone SDK. Lets hope that a Windows version is released soon before the cult of Mac claims more innocent victims.
Project Utopia Rules February 10, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in dragstarr games, project utopia, rules, version 1.1.add a comment
Version 1.1 of the Project Utopia rules are now available from the Dragstarr Games website, and from Scribd.
And of course, any feedback is welcome. We have a forum set up especially.
WordPress image upload problem February 6, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in error, images, server, uploads, wordpress.add a comment
This may be of help to people. I was having trouble uploading files through WordPress, and the solution was to change Settings>Miscellaneous>Upload Directory to the full domain name i.e. http://www.example.com instead of example.com.
Can’t promise it’ll work for everyone, but if you have this problem then its certainly worth trying as a quick fix.
Smart(?) Stamps February 5, 2009
Posted by townsend51 in UK, post office, royal mail, smart stamps, subscription.add a comment
I came across a service from the Royal Mail today which allows customers to print off their own stamped labels. It costs £4.99 a month for a subscription, but this is reduced if paid on an annual basis. The subscription is purely for the liberty of using the service, and doesn’t include the cost of postage itself, but even so, it’s still likely to be much cheaper than a franking machine.
As you can probably tell, I’m impressed by it. In particular, I find the thought of not having to queue up in line for hours on end particularly appealing. But the point of this post is to reach out to anyone who has used the service, to see what their opinions are. A worthwhile investment? Or a waste of money?
For me at least, only time will tell.
