Drawing supplies in London Mar 5, 12, 5:54 a.m.

here's a question for all the illustrators/cartoonists/those of you who just love to draw and live in London:

Where's good to get supplies? Your pens, nibs, inks, paper etc?

I've always just dropped into London Graphics, but there must be some nice little back street independent shops that I've never come across.

Any tips on somewhere different to buy my stuff?

The level of spam lately Dec 10, 11, 2:07 p.m.

I think we can all agree that this place has been badly effected by spam over the past few months, you come on here sometimes and practically the whole of Public voice is filled with the same shite. Chinese knock off footwear, Kat_uk and her celebrity bullshit, you all know the stuff.

Now I don't know why this is getting worse lately, are there no moderators anymore? There certainly used to be - I remember getting getting a flag via email for calling someone a spaz or something equally throw away back in the Newstoday era, so there have been times when this place has been monitored.

Anyway, this isn't random venting, I have a suggestion to help the spam problems. It's taken from another forum I used to use a few years ago, but it does require a certain level of moderation - but I don't think as much as moderating a whole site.

On that forum there was a newbie level of registration which acted as a probation to being a fully fledged member. When a new user registered they could see the whole site but can not post on the main boards. Instead they had a newbie only section where they could post and where it would be easy to quickly spot spammers and time wasters. They were in there until the moderators thought they would be a good addition to the forum - or at least a real person who wants to be on here.

This maybe over complicating the problem, but I am so bored with logging in and having to sift through the Public Voice and Choice to find actual threads of interest I just thought I'd throw it out there.

itunes without a computer Sep 26, 11, 6:23 a.m.

Just thought I'd ask you guys if any of you had experience of running iTunes without turning your computer on.

What I want to attempt to do is stream all my digital music to my hi-fi system, probably using a NAS drive, I guess using air play (I'm on mac/iphone/ipad).

But, I don't want to have to switch my mac on to do this. It seems a bit of a waste of power and general mac wear & tear to have all my music sat on a drive to then have to send it to my mac to then send it to the hi-fi.

I've been reading about being able to run an itunes server on some NAS drives and I've seen a Cambridge network player that looks pretty good.

So as I say, I wondered if anyone had got any experience of setting something like this up?

Bike nostalgia Jan 19, 11, 12:10 p.m.

Hey there QBNers,
I’m working on a cycling brief at the moment and I need to do a bit of research and ask you all a couple questions:

1/ What was your first truly memorable bike, BMX? Chopper? This might not be your first bike, but the one that you remember most from childhood.

2/ What did you do when you were a kid and were riding your bike? Not so much when you had a reason to ride, an A-B journey, but when you would go out and ride the pure joy of it?
Did you pretend you were Streethawk?
...Or was it less fantastical and all about building ramps and stuff?

3/ Did you modify the bike superficially? Small things like stickers on the frame, spokey dokeys etc.

Any memories and nostalgia is what I'm after really. Things that remind you of the feelings of riding your bike as a kid.

I had a black Raleigh BMX (a burner) with yellow mag wheels.

Thanks

George Lucas... Sep 29, 10, 4:19 a.m.

...is a grade A twat.

Nothing new here, but look how he's cranking his twattyness up a notch:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entert…

RIP Frank Sidebottom Jun 22, 10, 1:24 a.m.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/engla…

It seems like there have been an awful lot of RIPs this year and this ones a shock.

Virgin Media Apr 30, 10, 4:51 a.m.

Anyone had to deal with the Virgin Media complaints department before?

My broadband has just been mended after a whole month of it being down (they had to replace the cable) and I want some kind of compensation for the inconvenience. I think I'm entitled to something because their Indian call centers messed up my technician appointments no less than 3 times - one of the many reasons it took a month to sort out.

They have credited my account with £30, but the broadband costs £25 so as far as I'm concerned they seem to think my time spent on the phones to them, my time off work to be there for their technicians and general crap I've dealt with is worth £5.

So anyone else had issues with this bunch of goons? and did anyone get a favourable outcome?

London freelance market... Feb 12, 10, 4:29 a.m.

How's it looking to you guys working in it at the moment? I'm talking more the print/branding/marketing side of things rather than digital.

I've been working with my head buried in the sand for the past 7 months, on a hellish in house job for a huge corporation where I've been little more than a creative art worker for a bunch of marketing suits.

I'm not moaning, because times have been tough and I've been happy to just get paid. I know on-going work couldn't be sniffed at over the last year of so.

but I'm thinking it might be time to try and get something a little better for the daily commute (I'm currently doing 1 and 1/2 hours each way) and for the portfolio.

So just wondering how you guys are finding it?

Ommwriter Dec 6, 09, 3:32 p.m.

Bored with TextEdit and need to find your neutral space when you're typing? Then this thing might be the thing for you, Ommwriter.

It's just a different take on a simple text editor that is kind of nice. There is a video and download links on their site:

http://www.ommwriter.com/

The mac version is a beta but seems to work fine.

Baseball tickets Oct 23, 09, 5:10 a.m.

So the Yankees lost and are bringing the Angels back to New york tomorrow night very kindly as I'm in town at the moment.

Here's my question, the tickets are sold out and I was wondering what I could expect to pay a ticket tout outside the stadium?

The Machester derby Sep 20, 09, 8 a.m.

Who watched that then? Sixth minute of four added on, don't you just love Old Trafford time?

"My old man,
said be a city fan,
and I said, bollocks,
you're a cunt"

Great day to be a Red.

Film branding/logos Aug 13, 09, 4:03 a.m.

Hey everyone.

What are your favourite examples of film logos and branding? Studios, production companies, dedicated film channels etc?

Just looking for general examples and inspiration

We've all been there.... Jul 29, 09, 7:44 a.m.

TV on the Radio Jul 13, 09, 4:44 p.m.

Just back from seeing them in Brixton.

Sooo friggin good. It was my gig of the year (or certainly a dead heat with Fleet Foxes @ Camden Roundhouse).

The Bass player, Kyp Malone does look a bit like Vic Reeve playing the hairy cornflake Dave Lee Travis:

Scorsese does Hitchcock... Jun 16, 09, 5:15 p.m.

This is a nice little film by Scorsese where he shoots a short piece in the style of Hitchcock. He's certainly caught his style well:

http://geektyrant.com/2009/06/sc…

Here's a sentence... Jun 4, 09, 3:46 p.m.

...that becomes much less interesting in context:

'Researchers tickled 22 young apes and three humans'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/t…

ampersand advice/suggestions Jun 1, 09, 3:37 a.m.

I'm doing an order of service for my sister's wedding and I am setting their names in Engravers Gothic but I want a contrasting font (serif or maybe script) for an ampersand between them. I tried a couple but I can't find one I'm happy with. Any suggestions?

I also tried it with a plus sign in engravers gothic too, but I think it needs the contrast.

The future Mar 3, 09, 5:04 p.m.

http://i.gizmodo.com/5162956/mic…

This is why me and my girlfriend have the same argument every few months, I am not signed up to donate my body parts when I die. She thinks it's not a moral way to be - well I say fuck it! I want to live in the future. Look how cool it could be. And by Microsofts calculations, that video is only 2019.

yup I'll be keeping my eyes when I go, I want to be frozen, sign me up to be a cryogenics guinea pig.

WeeWar Mar 3, 09, 9:28 a.m.

I've spent the whole day working on spread sheets, profit and loss and various other mind numbing stuff and now I want to blow things up.

anyone want a game of Weewar? If you don't know it, Weewar is a turn based game where you have a little army and you fight against another little army. It's all free and online:

Have a look here:
http://weewar.com?referrerid=561…...

If you've already registered here is my game link: http://weewar.com/game/143172

it's just a 2 player with 5 mins to make your turn and no points at stake.

Nice little comic strip Feb 23, 09, 3:07 a.m.

click for the full thing: http://www.dashshaw.com/