I have already said how I had to bail the course and my reasons for doing so.
Well, today I had to explain to one of my tutors why I was doing it. He was alright actually, but I hated telling him. It felt horrible.
But I did manage to get my website sorted a bit. That’s right, I know own the domain, http://riot-graphics.co.uk. At the moment there is nothing on line, because the server is being sorted out so I can add my files for the site.
This has made me so happy. Its like after all this planning something is getting me somewhere. I am building my base page, and should get that finished tonight. 🙂 And it will be uploaded to the service tomorrow. This feels like I am achieving something.
Youtube and Tumblr. I seem to be living on those sites right now. I have got so many Vloggies to catch up on. :SIf you want to know where else I live on the interwebs—-
Ok, this week has been a bit of a minefield, with my brain wanting to explode on me.
I have been left with the dilemma on whether I should finish college this year. I mean I have already decided that I am not returning to the world of education this year. Why? Because I hate it.
To put a few things straight here, I don’t hate everything. I hate my work being in direct comparison with others, when whether its better or no, makes no difference. I hate the atmosphere. The college seems to be such an uninspiring place at times. Because everything is in an open enviroment, as in one big room, lots of classes within that room, and if one person decides to fuck around, it distracts everyone.
Well, I’ve spent my last few weeks of bloggie silence to think about what I want to do. Because I have been so uninspired at college, and I work every night, I have fallen behind in my work very easily. And it gets to the point where I was wondering whether I should rush everything, just to pass, when I know that passing grade won’t get me anywhere, due to me not continuing with education. Is it not better, that I take time over my projects, do a good job, and use them to build my portfolio? I think that is a lot more beneficial to me.
Now don’t get me wrong, I liked the course, and I love the people at the college, it’s just everyone gets to the point where that can no longer work in that enviroment. To me, in the overall task of getting my business up and running, this is the best decision.
Its kind of taking a step backwards, before you can go forwards.
This is one story which has not been getting nearly enough publicity. Which is suprising, it seems to have been going on for a while.
Cut a long story short: Viacom tried to sue Youtube owners’ Google for $1 billion due to copywrite issues.
What happens, is that on youtube, as most know, people upload videos of things they like. So that would mean South Park snippets and clips from The Hills, would be shared by kids, and Viacom would take them down. Simples you would think, right? Wrong!
Who Are They?
Viacom are a huge corporation, which owns many brands, such as Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, Spike TV, Paramount Pictures, Nikelodeon, Neopets, and many more well know brands.
Google is primarily a search engine, which is the most used search engine on the Web. Google also provides an online office suite called Google.docs, and owns, video sharing site, Youtube,
What Happened?
Well, as said above Viacom accused Youtube of knowingly uploading copywrited material, and then profiting from it. Youtube says this did not happen, as there was no way they could moniter ALLLLL the content that gets uploaded. This all happened in 2007, when Viacom said that 16, 000 videos had infringed their copywrite and were deleted. It has since been said that:
1) only 3,000 videos included copywrite infringement, as it is stated by US law
2)almost 120,000 videos were infact removed by Viacom.
Anyways in 2007 Viacom started procedures to sue Google for $1,000,000,000, because of the damage this infringement had.
And now?
There is no love lost at all between Google and Viacom. In 2008, MTV.com posted almost every music video ever made onto its site, an obvious attempt to get Googles back up. This kind of failed, as to date, Youtube is still the most popular way to watch music videos.
So other than music videos, what else is Youtube reknown for? Viral videos. You know, the videos that you revieve in emails, and are posted on every site under the sun. The one that has about 22 million views? Yep, that one. These viral videos are (as in still happening) stolen from youtube, and magically appear on Spike.com. Spike is another video sharing site, which also shows premium content such as UFC events, but this site is owned by Viacom. Well, the videos appear on Spike as being embed, which is when you can post the whole video on a site. Now, Youtube has no issue with this, in fact it promotes sharing videos in this way. The only rules are, that you cannot edit the HTML code, because the video MUST link back to Youtube (fair enough). Well when the Youtube video appears on Spike, it DOES NOT link back to youtube. These are popular actual youtube videos just embed onto Spike, and there are no link backs at all, or any credit to the original video’s maker. So therefore, this breaks Youtubes T&Cs, and the original author is NEVER notified.
Note: in Spike.com T&Cs they say EVERY VIDEO is checked before it is posted.
So how can Viacom cry about Copywrite, when they dismiss others’ rights so willingly?
And, this does go into somewhat murkier waters. There is proof from various Youtube users, saying that there are fake Youtube channels set up, where they post things such as South Park clips. They then block their own clips. Why? To show that Youtube is allowing copywrited material onto their site. It is a very mean trick. And basically attempting to use dirty tricks, to sink Youtube and Google.
But that’s not all, now other ‘powers-that-be’ from the internet, have sided with Google in this battle. Yep, usually they may not be best of friends, but Facebook, Yahoo, ebay and IAC (InterActiveCorp) have all sided with Google. Basically saying that if Viacom are successful in sueing Google, it will effect the freedom of the internet. This has to be a good side, as I do believe that this will hopefully stop this war.
You seem to know I haven’t got a weekend right now, so you have decided to make it the hottest day of the year.
Grrrrr.
I have been doing my Riot Graphics logo all day, well for a couple of hours. I like it 🙂
I can see the ‘R’ being quite brandable, and I like that. I am getting my designs together for shirts as well, so they should be posted up here within the next few days before I send them off. I have decided I want a few shirts with just my new logo on them, just to so that I can wear them.
Hence the reason, if you know me, this is posted everywhere.
So that I can see what people think. *sigh*
So if you view this blog AT ALL, or see the logo anywhere else, please tell me what you think about it. I need to gage opinion before i get business cards and stuff printed out. Right, off to try and cool down for a bit, seeing as it is so so uncomfortably hot.
I am still making steady progress on the mountain of work I need to have done within the next week. Today I completed 3 pages for Shaun’s website. AND I finally managed to get a contact form sorted out, with the help of Paul.
So I have a bio page, which is just going to be writing, so I am planning that tonight at work, and will type it up when I get home. Then I have the portfolio, which will be done using ‘lightbox’, a javascript item, which gives your site a pop-out gallery thing. I have done Lightbox before, so I’m not really that worried, I will just fill it in with different colours untill Shaun gives me any images he wants to be in it.
So, that is a major unit, pretty much done. This one is important, because I know I have to design my own site, and get it online over the summer. So its good to know, I have only really come across one bump. And that was getting the contact form to display on the desired page. But that was more me, putting the wrong size for the container box (25555 px wide, when the site is 1028 px, d’oh). So yeah, me and Dreamweaver are good pals right now.
Going to be busy this weekend, need to try and get my t-shirt designs sorted and sent to the print shop, for pickup next Saturday. So yeah, get one thing done, but its not even a dent on what I still have to do. :S
Got some more of Shaun’s website designed, and its looking a wee bit better. It has a welcome banner and everything. So kinda happy that is getting somewhere. But nothing else is.
It’s like I have so much to do, I don’t know where to start. Most of it has to be in on Monday, and to be honest, that is kind of an unreachable target. *sigh*
But, I spoke to Caron, my tutor, today, and she showed me a bit about where the exhibition will be, and it looks a good space. And she said that I could put a few of my t-shirt designs up. So I need to have them ready to be picked up for next weekend, so they can be put in the exhibition come Monday/Tuesday. So I need to get the designs ready to be sent in by next Wednesday, so I can pick them up on Saturday. And at the moment they are still being finalised.
Graeme, web design tutor, told me about a company called Be Your Own Boss, where they partner with Scottish Enterprise, and they help people get their business off the ground. So I sent them an email, in hope that they will be able to help me. I hope.
Way too much stuff going on right now. My brain is about 3 different places at once. :S
Still stressed, and still not much further ahead. *sigh*
But I magically found time to do this :-
Isn’t it brilliant how I always find time to blog. *rolls eyes* To be honest it does relax me, and helps me get out all my agro out. So I am half way through ‘The History of New Media’ which is good.
But because of my laptop’s tendancy to overheat itself, I ended up going on to Play.com and looking ath Laptop coolers. Saying that, it will make things a lot better, as my laptop will be able to site on my knee or my bed, and work without getting too hot.
Today started off well. I went into college and did work on my Graded Unit. Was actually quite chuffed, cause I did a lot. Actually did about 12 pages of developement work. Which made me rather happy, and totally motivated about the project. So was happy, and for a change felt I had spent time in college well.
That was untill I went to Web Design, and completely wanted to cry. The class was so noisy, and something as simple as adding a contact form onto a website, did not work. *sigh* So I ended up in a two hour class, and the only outcome was that I wanted to kill myself
So I finished this afternoon, totally dejected and just wanted to go home. Then, to top off my feeling of uselessness, I lost my bus pass. As in, I had it this morning, and now its gone. Where the issue is, that I have no money, and can’t afford to go to either college or work. *sigh*
So I have such a headache cause of all this, and I just want to cry, everytime someone asks how I am doing.
After months of being static in where I want to go, with my work. I am now offically starting Riot Graphics as a business.
I know what you’re thinking, ‘so what have you been doing this past year’. Well, to be honest, I have been trying the name out, and seeing what people think of it. And it has seen some good feedback and interest. Also, I have been at college *cough*. Seriously, I have. 😛
What has started this, is that the clothing store I was in contact with, has contacted me saying that whilst they like my designs, they are not going to be able to print out the designs themselves. So, this means that I would have to pay for printing and send some prototypes, so that they can see what they look like.
To get these prototypes, I am going to have to order them from an online source. Which involves me sending them the designs, and them printing them for me. Ideally, I would love to screenprint them, but that is not going to be workable, given the amount of time that I have. Which is not very much, at all.
So, I am starting work on my business plan, and am going to start pricing up different resources which I will need. A business plan, shows what your company is, and where you expect it to be within the next year. You need to estimate turnover, and sort out taxes. It seems very complicated, and after reading over things, it seems like it is complicated. But you know what, the prospect of people paying for my work, is my motivation for this. I am so ready for this, can’t bare college for another year.
sueriot.com 