Rough Cuts Ltd Blog

2 weeks ago I went to a training session on 'Digital wellbeing' for schools. One of the things they discussed was how social media platforms get you hooked. Before that, I'd watched  'The Great Hack' on Netflix - well worth a watch and information from these two occasions got me thinking. First of all, there is a reason why we become hooked. It's designed that way. Your data is big business, Companies hold about 5000 data points about each and every individual using their services. So when a husband or wife searches for a new mattress, their partner is likely to see that sort of product appear in their ads. They literally know us better than we know ourselves. Our religion, our spending habits, our interests, our political and sexual persuasion, our family members, who our friends are and which ones we don't really like, everything, they know it all. Each share, each like, each angry face tells them something more about you, and it's all collated and u

So while waiting for a meeting in a local school, I spotted a redundant TV on the wall. Sometimes my mind is it's own worse enemy and I started to think about how we could put all of the old videos we've made together on it, using a Raspberry PI. Obviously the start of this is Google. So I got studying. The simplest and most functional way, wasn't the first way I tried. Surprisingly the current release of Raspbian (Raspberry PI OS) is huge, it almost fills an 8Gb SD card. Although I could have used a USB to store the video files I wanted to have it all on the one device, and I didn't really want to use a bigger SD card. (Like I say, my mind is my own worse enemy). So I found a command line version of Raspbian and tried a command line player called OMXPLAYER, but I struggled to get it to work initially; which paid off in the long run. After installing the barebones version of Raspbian (buster-lite) using balenaetcher on Mac. I found I needed a GUI a graphical us

I'm currently chatting with a good friend about their (new) phone options. They have an iPhone 7, but aren't happy with the picture quality of it. This means, there is something wrong. The first time photographers started taking smartphones seriously was around the time of the iPhone 4. Since then, cameras have only gotten better. So if your images aren't coming out the way you want, then perhaps the technique is wrong. So here are my top tips for getting much better images with your current handset. CLEAN YOUR CAMERA LENS. The first thing, with ANY smartphone, before you take a shot is to clean the lens. While the delicate optics will be behind a hardened glass cover, the glass will likely need a clean. This simple action in itself will produce sharper results, will cut down on glare or haze and allow the camera processor space to calculate the best exposure for the image. If you use a DSLR, then you will always want to ensure that the lens is immaculate, and your

In the not too distant future, most households should have the ability to generate and store their own power supply. Solar Panels installed on rooftops, which drip feed energy into a wall-mounted battery will supply power to the home. This is a principle recently brought into alternative-reality in the gaming world courtesy of No Mans Sky. (If you find this stuff entertaining, you can play it on the Playstation on a planet of your choice!) When our energy-ownership world happens, people will inevitably become much more switched on to the power they're using and how efficient their homes are. For now, we're all pretty much at the learning stage. To be honest, it's only in the past few years that I've become interested enough in our Gas and Electric supply to get the calculator out. But in a nutshell, it's pretty simple maths. Every device in your home draws power, measured (by in-home displays) in watts. If you're using 200 watts, then every 5 hours, you

If, like me, in the past, you've dabbled with Google Classroom, it's perhaps time to have another look. Although you may feel like the amateur or the pupil again, the payoff is well worth going through the learning curve pain, and as I've learnt today, the kids will really help you through it. Lessons are grouped together on the welcome screen. In addition if you're struggling, (like with so many things on Google;) , you can collaborate, meaning a willing teaching assistant, or another Teacher can share the workload and you can do everything together. While the layout of Classroom hasn't changed, some of the functionality has made it a powerful tool for any Teacher with additional benefits for the school. If you're unfamiliar with Clasroom, it's a portal that allows you to collate all of your school lesson plans, activities and resources, and now it indexes childrens work, provides detailed (albeit simple) reports showing who has 'Turned in

Before the end of this year Rough Cuts Ltd, permission for commercial drone operation from the CAA will expire. In 2020 we do not intend to renew this license for a number of reasons. It has been a genuine pleasure to serve some of the regions finest estate agents and we have been passionate about creating the best quality videos for the lowest costs, we've seen some truly stunning properties. But the annual cost of insurance, the time required to maintain and operate the drone, the constantly changing parameters for (and cost of) licence renewal and lack of recurring business in this field simply mean it's no longer sensible for us to continue. Moving forward we will look to maintain our relationship with existing partners to provide event photography and video services, as expected, but we will also focus much more on educational and social projects. Sharing the Knowledge we have of technology with pupils and people across Flintshire. We will still be a part of the Do-W

So the iPhone night mode is really pretty cool, yes? For all those times you need to take a photo in near dark conditions. Having this feature could prove useful. But the chances are, if your phone has a manual mode, or 'Pro' mode, you can probably do something pretty much as good. Let me tell you how in a few simple steps. 1. Start your camera app 2. Open the settings and look for Manual or Pro mode and select it. 3. Look for ISO and put it as high as you possibly can. I have the Samsung S7 Edge and 800 is the limit. 4. Look for the shutter speed and set it to 1/20 5. Hold your camera very still and take a photo. If you kept the phone still enough, you should find that, in very low light, you get a well exposed image. If it's over exposed, you have more light than you need and you can set the shutter speed higher, try 1/40 or 1/60. If you have very steady hands, you may find you're able to drop the shutter as low as 1/5 of a second and still get a clear bri

There are several rudimentary tech skills that every year 7 pupil should start High School with. By this age, it would be beneficial if a pupil knew how to complete their school work with a minimum of anxiety. In my experience, we currently do not have parity or equality when it comes to children transitioning into high school. Knowledge levels will be varied depending on the school that the pupil came from and the structure that the school has in place. Some children will complete their first assignments with minimum effort, focusing on the topic, instead of the technical problems, and others may become overwhelmed and anxious, which would lead to a loss of confidence and worry. What skills do I mean? I'm talking about advanced skills that reduce anxiety and pressure when the expectation is put on a child to complete a specific piece of work. Just using presentations and an example, (feel free to use as a checklist) in order of complexity; Adding slides Adding text boxes

18+ content only Do you find that films nowadays just don't scare you like they used to? For those not aware, the Resident Evil games have been around for over 2 decades. They've always been a blend of jump scares, complex puzzles and realism. To overcome the lacklustre processing power of earlier computers and consoles, they would paint an ultra realistic scene, where the only 3D animated aspect of the image was the main character. The hero, would collect items explore mansions or scientific laboratories and solve complex puzzles to progress. In between at key moments, usually when the players mind would be in a state of inquisitiveness, dogs might crash through a window, creatures might appear from nowhere or plants might burst into life to attack. These jump scares are usually infrequent enough to make the game enjoyable, but frequent enough to keep players on their toes. Relaxing, they are not. So far, so normal. Over the years, as consoles have become more powerful

The word 'stunning' is used far too often in the world of drone photography. Sometimes 'stunning' shots that make it into local newspapers wouldn't make it past a discerning content creator. Likewise, 'stunning video' can often be straight off the camera or poorly produced. In order to get high quality video for your project, before you hire, (once you've established they're licensed and insured), contractors should look for a number of skills that drone operators must have. Use their own previous content from their website or YouTube channel in order to judge their abilities and look out for these issues.... 1) Smooth movement.  When you watch drone footage back, keep your eyes on one moving object. Sheep in fields are great as they stand out. Does the object glide smoothly across the scene, or is it jerky? Smooth panning only happens when a number of things are set up correctly. Whilst some of the problems can be caused by playback devices (iP

EDIT ** AUGUST 2019 - MS OFFICE ADDED TO THE LIST ** This morning (10/7/2019) I have taken the shrewd advice from Apple's beta program and installed the Beta of Mac OS Catalina on my secondary Mac (an Air), not my main iMac. And I'm really glad I did. Apple have had subtle warnings that have said 'This program will not work with future updates of Mac OS - The developer needs to update this app to work". THIS IS WORTH MAKING A NOTE OF.  So Why? What's happening?  The new version of Mac OS is going to be for 64 bit programs only. 32 bit programs will no longer work. So what will be affected?  This depends entirely on what you use your Mac for and which programs you use. This list is what has happened on my Mac and what it will mean I will have to do now. 0) ** Microsoft Office 2011 ** At the time of writing I hadn't noticed, as the apps for this are in a folder in the applications folder. But this is the big one. Many people rely on Office

I've had the pleasure of dipping my toes into the teaching circle now for three years. Whilst I love what I do, I currently only work 1 and a half days over 2 schools (excluding the time I put into my lesson preparation). I've seen first hand and learnt a lot about the challenges and struggles the education system is fighting. It may not be a surprise to learn that the biggest are Money and Time, but in addition, a big concern is the increasingly rapid progress of technology. Technology depreciates quickly, yesterdays interactive whiteboards will soon become as archaic as chalk, new digital touch screen displays will be the future, with children and teachers able to demonstrate technological workflow at the front of the class. Whether that's art, working with layers, editing video, creating slideshows; 'showing' the how to process is much more powerful than telling or displaying screenshots of what the process looks like. But the screen tech is still in its infanc

A few people have said to me recently that they'd like to watch Star Wars, but they don't know where to start. I get this, instead of a neat 4,5,6 part trilogy, (as it was last century) it's now grown arms and legs and my attempts to simplify it (I made a spreadsheet) only seem to cause more confusion. But recently, I saw things slightly differently that may help the saga become more understandable to an outsider. So here's a brief summary of the stuff that happens and how you might want to watch it (Rated OK through to EPIC). It's assumed you know what a Jedi is, but a Sith (you may not know) is the Dark Side equivalent. I've tried my best to be ambiguous to avoid spoilers. Before we start - Clones, Stormtroopers and Droid Army's.  This can get complicated. 1) The Droid Army we see in the first films belongs to the Trade federation. They're used to enforce an illegal trade war against a small planet. 2) The original Clone army (the first to l

The EU just passed legislation aimed at increasing revenue for news sources and decreasing copyright theft. This  effects of this directive (not a law yet anywhere - but it will be) are as yet unknown. But change is inevitable. The main impact of these regulations are two fold. Copyright theft responsibility shifts to the platform (IE Twitter, YouTube, Facebook), not the user who uploaded the material.  (Memes, are exempt). Links to news articles will be liable to a tax.  The upshot of this is as yet unknown, many things could change. But the implications of copyright theft on the scale of operations like the social networks above are impossible for them to ignore. It's possible they may put in place charges to keep their services the same as they are now (to cover news link costs etc). It's possible they may block all links to news articles unless the user pays a fee. It's possible that they may halt all media uploads, or put in place measures to recover

MOMO, Blue Whale and Slenderman are all quite frankly sick. I've just this morning read a post from a mother who is distraught that her young child has been exposed to Momo and is now struggling to sleep, living in fear and causing distress with other children in school. If you have young children and they mention any of these, you do need to intervene. Having now finished the end of this blog post, I think it's probably best to talk to them about it or at least clue yourself up, before they suffer the same. So what are these new modern urban legends?  In a nutshell, they're all pseudonyms for bullying. Anyone can, in reality, pretend to be the Slenderman, Momo, or the operators behind the Blue Whale challenge. I guess that's the frightening thing is that anybody could chose to be any one of them by changing their Whats App name and profile picture. The Momo character is based on a vulgar sculpture called Mother Bird by Japanese effects company Link Factory.