the-way-to-the-centre » Design http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog a Lazlo Woodbine thriller Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:20:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Team Ag2r http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/23/team-ag2r/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/23/team-ag2r/#comments Sat, 23 Jul 2011 12:51:22 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/?p=1275 This year Ag2r La Mondiale are again headed up by Nicolas Roche, son of Giro D’Italia & Tour De France winner Stephen Roche. Unfortunately Nico’s leutenant John Gadret withdrew fatigued after a strong Giro.

Nico has had an up and down tour, finishing with the gruppetto on the Alpe and finally slipping out of the top ten over all.

]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/23/team-ag2r/feed/ 0 thomas voeckler http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/17/thomas-voeckler/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/17/thomas-voeckler/#comments Sun, 17 Jul 2011 08:47:41 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/?p=1284 Thomas Voeckler is confusing those with a short-term memory by hanging on to the yellow jersey as he did in 2004. The only difference this time is that instead of loosing time to the big guns up Plateau de Beille he was climbing with them and indeed pulling back some of the attacks.

If things stay the same all the way until the final time trial in Grenoble it is going to be very close. Ti Blan leads Cadel by 2’06″ and Evans put 2’12″ into him in the TT.

]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/17/thomas-voeckler/feed/ 0 jens voigt http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/16/jens-voigt/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/16/jens-voigt/#comments Sat, 16 Jul 2011 13:14:33 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/?p=1278 At 39 years of old Jens is one of the quintesential hard men of the peloton. Always happy dishing out pain on the front or escaping for a long range breakway there can be few riders who enjoy their time on a bike more.

Jens has just signed up to twitter (@thejensie) and garnered over 30,000 followers within the first 24 hours!

Some other facts about Jens Voigt:

  1. When he crashed, sparks were seen flying from the pavement. They were from Jens’ face because he is a Terminator!
  2. Jens Voigt once challenged Lance Armstrong to a “who has more testicles” contest. Jens won… by five.
  3. Eddy Merckx was actually a neo-pro at the same time as Jens, but Jens dropped him so hard that he shot backwards in time to the 1960?s, where he became a great champion.

Jens is also blogging daily during the Tour De France for Bicycling Magazine here.

]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/16/jens-voigt/feed/ 0 team movistar http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/08/team-movistar/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/08/team-movistar/#comments Fri, 08 Jul 2011 10:19:47 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/?p=1255 Team Movistar have had a tough season this year. First the tragic death of Xavier_Tondo in May and then a horrific accident involving Mauricio Soler in the Tour De Suisse from which he has only just come out of an induced coma

Perhaps motivated by these incidents, Joaquin Rojas Jose is mixing it up in the sprints and currently sitting in second place in the Green Jersey competition.

Movistar have one of the longest team lineages – first as Reynolds in 1980, then becoming Banesto, Illes Balears and finally Caisse d’Epargne after which they came close to folding before last minute sponsorship by Movistar.

]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/08/team-movistar/feed/ 0 bernard hinault http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/06/bernard-hinault/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/06/bernard-hinault/#comments Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:56:19 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/?p=1244 In each be@rbrick series, there are around ten different ‘public’ models (their pictures are on the side of the box) and a number of secret designs too. The chances of finding each one are typically different, ranging from something like 15% to 0.5%.

I think Be@rnard Hinault would definately be a rare secret!

Bernard Hinault in the 1985 La Vie Claire team Jersey.

]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/06/bernard-hinault/feed/ 0 philippe gilbert http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/03/philippe-gilbert/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/03/philippe-gilbert/#comments Sun, 03 Jul 2011 09:50:16 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/?p=1218 One of the many things Japan does well (along with food on sticks, diminutive accomodation and fast trains), is the Collectible Toy. These come in a wide range, from bento phone danglies to pimpin’ robots.

My personal favourite are the MediCom Be@rbrick series since they are pretty cheap (around ¥400), and sold in blind boxes which adds to the fun.

Bearbrick (spelled Be@rbrick) is a collectible toy designed and produced by the Japanese company MediCom Toy Incorporated. The name is derived from the fact that the figure is a cartoon-style representation of a bear, and that it is a variation of MediCom’s Kubrick design. The at sign in the place of the letter a is a visual device that is a part of the Bearbrick brand, and as such, a trademark of MediCom Toy.

The figure is an anthropomorphized bear with an extremely simplified form and a pot belly. Each plastic figure features nine parts (widely referred to as tools in the toy industry): head, torso, hips, arms, hands, and legs; These nine tools allow eight points of articulation: swivel head, swivel waist, ball joint arms, swivel wrists, and ball joint legs. [wikipedia]

Be@rbricks are often created for special events, movies, stores and the like. Being a fan of both Be@rbricks and cycling, I thought I would have a go at designing some Tour De France style be@rs – after all, what is the peloton if not a rolling morass of graphic design?

In honour of Philippe Gilbert’s emphatic win on stage one, I present ‘Phillipe Gilbe@r’:

Phillipe Gilbe@r in the Beligan National Champion (road) strip. (Yes I know that Omega Pharma Lotto wear Ruby Project and not Oakley, but Gilbert is also not a bear in real life).

  1. Be@rbrick template courtesy of toysrevil.
  2. I have in no way, shape or form aquired any licensing for the above image, it was done for fun.1
  3. I’m not planning to release a-Be@r-a-day, but stay tuned for moar Be@rs!
  1. Though if Medicom would like to do a Tour De France set I would be most happy to be involved! ↑
]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2011/07/03/philippe-gilbert/feed/ 0 missing buttons http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2007/02/05/missing-buttons/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2007/02/05/missing-buttons/#comments Mon, 05 Feb 2007 23:07:43 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/archives/2007/02/05/missing-buttons/ A few people are linking to an article from Fridays Guardian blog:

[...] When I sit down to use a Mac, the first thing I think is, “I hate Macs”, and then I think, “Why has this rubbish aspirational ornament only got one mouse button?” Losing that second mouse button feels like losing a limb. [...]

This has to be the one thing that really bugs me in the Mac vs PC/Windows argument, trivial as it might be. Simply the answer is: It was never designed to have one.

Apple operating systems have, for a long time, been designed with the concept of one hand on the keyboard and one on the mouse – the keyboard hand therefore able to operate key modifiers such and cmd+click and option+click. Windows (not sure about Linux et al) on the other hand were designed with the mouse as the primary input device and so menus are acessed via right/middle/double click etc.

As for the content of the rest of the post regarding what is better or worse, I shall just say that my laptop is equally at home running OS X or XP, (and you can always buy a 2-button mouse if you really want one).

[From a link via Lori].

]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2007/02/05/missing-buttons/feed/ 0 apples new thing http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2007/01/11/apples-new-thing/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2007/01/11/apples-new-thing/#comments Thu, 11 Jan 2007 00:32:13 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/archives/2007/01/11/apples-new-thing/ Instead of commenting on Apples’ new phone (apart from wondering what they have written into their NDA, and hoping there will be a non-phone version), i’ll point to a link from when Apple released their last ‘new thing’.

Things might get a little awkward if the FCC decide to cause trouble though:

This device has not been authorized as required by the rules of the Federal Communications Commission. This device is not, and may not be, offered for sale or lease, or sold or leased, until authorization is obtained.

[Linkage]

]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2007/01/11/apples-new-thing/feed/ 3 loftcube http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2006/02/02/loftcube/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2006/02/02/loftcube/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2006 19:07:25 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/archives/2006/02/02/loftcube/ The LoftCube – a precast lightweight living space designed by a team of German architects to be placed of top of tall buildings1. Construction takes 3 people roughly 4 days, and the completed unit can be relocated by helicopter or crane.

The going rate is in the region of £38,000 (€55,000) plus another few thousand for fitting out etc, though if you have a roof to put one of these, that is not likely to be a problem.

[Related post]

  1. Though there is no reason as far as I can see that it can’t be used at ground level ↑
]]> http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2006/02/02/loftcube/feed/ 0 ajaxed http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2005/07/20/ajaxed/ http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/2005/07/20/ajaxed/#comments Wed, 20 Jul 2005 16:31:06 +0000 Ian http://the-way-to-the-centre.org.uk/blog/?p=452 Many things I end up doing seem motivated by being bored, so as a result of having a dead internet connection and nothing being on TV, I lashed a layout together so you can drag and drop the sidebar elements. It’s over at the provingground, just pick ‘ajaxed’ from the selector.

The coding is truly, truly vile and stuck together with gaffer-tape, but I just wanted to see if was possible. I am quite sure that it can be done more neatly1, and it really needs so do something clever like cookie-setting so it remembers the order you choose, but the concept works. I did want to make one of those animated screencast things, but haven’t got a clue how to without spending money on software. Why? To see if it can be done, and if that isn’t a decent reason then I don’t know what is.

Most of the resources used from script.aculo.us.

1A drag-and-drop write page should be in the next version of WP, so additional scripts should not be needed (as they are at the moment).
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