Cheese Dreams

Bookcrossing.com - set your books free

2008-04-03T16:07:00.003+01:00

I've been a member for a while of the site bookcrossing.com, but today I set my first book free! Bookcrossing is an online database of books that have been read, logged, and then placed in release spots in your area to find another reader. It's international and release spots can be anywhere from a cafe, a supermarket or a dentist's waiting room. If all goes well, and about 25% of the released books get found, then the next reader can enter a journal entry on the book, and pass it on.

I chose H.G. Wells' The First Men in the Moon and released it on Western Road at the bus stop outside the Nero. I felt a bit suspicious, like I was planting a bomb but hopefully someone will pick it up, read the note on the inside cover and take it home. I've also signed up for alerts for other books released in Brighton and Hove so hopefully I shall be able to catch a new one soon! It's free to sign up and participate and I feel it's a perfect way to make sure books don't sit around languishing on your shelves but get read more than once.

How to download DRM-free video from BBC iPlayer

2008-03-09T01:42:00.014Z

Updated 15th March: Below will no longer work for iPlayer downloads. :( With scripting - iPlayer behaviour can still be mimicked to get the goodies. Read the bottom of the comments for links to alternative methods.

Updated 9th March: Have corrected the bookmarklet which seemed to be getting cut short when you dragged it to your toolbar. Also tested with the Mac OS X and works for me using VLC as the player.

Yes it's true. The new version of iPlayer for the iPhone delivers mpeg4's without the "You have 4 more hours to watch this show", self-destructing DRM of the Windows Media version. They are 480x272 which is decent, and a 45 minute show comes in around 160MB.

You have to jump through a few hoops to download these, but once it's set up it's easy to download whenever you want, so bear with me.

First you'll want to make your browser appear as if it's an iPhone. I'm working with Firefox, so sorry if this isn't your browser. Download one of the many handy Firefox plugins, The User Agent Switcher.
After installation and browser restart, add a new User Agent and supply the following information (Tools > User Agent Switcher > Options > Options)
- Description: iPhone
- User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en)
- App Name: AppleWebKit/420+ (KHTML, like Gecko)
- App Version: Version/3.0
- Platform: Mobile/1A542a Safari/419.3
Now switch to having your browser masquerading as the iphone (Tools > User Agent Switcher -> iphone)
Fire up an iPlayer page of choice.
Find out the URL that links to the video by dragging this handy bookmarklet to your Bookmarks Toolbar Folder. iPlayerURL2
Click the bookmarklet and the the URL you want should appear under the title of the video on the iPlayer page.
Paste this into a new Firefox tab, the iPlayer site will respond and it will begin to download in your browser. This is a pain, so hit the stop button ("X" in a circle), and instead save the page (File > Save page as..)
Bingo, your Downloads window should now pop open to show you the progress of the download, and the mpeg4 is yours forever to keep! You will want to download and play them in VLC which is by far the most accommodating of all the players, and is free.

Don't forget to reset your user agent back to default, otherwise you may find you're viewing iPhone mobile versions of web pages.

Also, not all the iPlayer content is yet available yet as the service was only launched Friday 7th March. I'm not sure if the BBC was meaning to release DRM free files, so this information may not be useful forever.

Thanks to PainInTheTech for the User Agent info, and Irregular Shed for his discovery of this iPlayer "feature".

Here's The Sky at Night playing in VLC on a Mac

Bonaparte's Retreat

2008-02-22T20:38:00.004Z

Been working on a brand new, high production value promo for the "new sound", that of Fuggs Few, with their red hot single Bonaparte's retreat (or er, Napoleon's Retreat as their version is called). Find it in good record stores near you soon.

There Will Be Blood reviewed - mild spoilers

2008-02-18T00:13:00.010Z

It annoys me when I read such gushing reviews of a film when you feel like the reviewer is diligently acting as a film critic, a peculiarly removed spectator, one who ticks boxes but essentially misses some of the key aspects of the cinema experience.

Yes, it's epic. Yes, the cinematography is fabulous. Yes, Daniel Day Lewis deserves recognition for his raw screen presence. But this film is far from perfect.

Firstly the plot. I will happily admit I did not feel at all restless in it's 2.5 hour length, but I found myself wondering afterwards, just what exactly happened in all that time? There are really only 4 or 5 key sequences that are actually memorable in the development of the plot about oil man Daniel Plainview. So much more could have occurred to add weight and depth and story, if not to the character of Plainview, to his colleagues, or his workers, or the villagers whose lives would surely have changed immeasurably by the newly created industry on their land. At one point we suspect we may learn about this as he promises the villagers schools and roads and employment at a town meeting, but none of this is ever revisited and we are none the wiser.

Plainview's past is wantonly overlooked, this man we spend so much time with. Surely the story is essentially one man's decent into a morally devoid madness of capitalism and greed. The problem being, he was never truly drawn for us from the start. We don't know his past, just his entry and further career in the oil business. Along the journey we are given few insights to work with.

It doesn't take long to establish Plainview is a driven, unscrupulous business man, but is he really the evil, cold hearted bastard we are meant to despise? Yes, he does some rather underhand deals impacting the inhabitants of the oil rich territories he purchases. He may have exacted some rather vicious crimes on individuals, but it doesn't really shock or evolve a great deal and his crimes (economic and violent) were surely very common in those ruthless times.

The appearance of his brother is a regrettably short interlude in Daniel's stoic, isolated existence whilst his relationship with his son, although strained and confused, didn't strike me as terribly unusual, or even that moving. I'll consent that the clash between the young preacher Eli and Plainview reached some worthy emotional pitches, but this too, could have been explored more.

I think one of the key problems is that There Will Be Blood knowingly breaks one of the key rules of Hollywood, it refrains from offering us any characters we will truly like, or can actively relate to. It does succeed in the only alternative, making interesting characters, or is that character? Daniel Plainview is terribly watchable, with his awkward limp and angry facial tics, he masterfully holds the attention. That however is entirely due to the power of Daniel Day Lewis, certainly not the writing. Nor is Paul Dano's minister, initially creepy enough, much help. Although the faith healing scene is eerie and darkly fascinating, Eli becomes quickly one dimensional and, eventually gives the impression of being mildly irritating, spoilt whiner.

In the end, despite the truly awesome black comedy of the final scene, I feel an absence of any emotion. I was slightly warmed that the preacher with the small mouth gets what he had coming to him, but I neither cheer nor mourn the final psychological position of Daniel Plainview. It just is. Perhaps that is the point but after the fever pitch, emotional whirlwind of Paul Thomas Anderson's Magnolia, it felt remarkably flat, cold.

So, There Will Be Blood, incredibly well executed technically but ultimately unsatisfying and lacking humanity. It brings me back to The Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men, where humanity, or the complete lack of it, was a key motif. A much more likeable film.

I'll leave you with my favourite scene from No Country for Old Men, that of Chigurh in the Gas Station. Enjoy.

New Indiana Jones teaser trailer

2008-02-17T23:42:00.007Z

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull trailer at Yahoo.

I have just returned home from (co-incidentally) watching Raiders of the Lost Ark on a friend's projector. Great film and almost timeless thanks to the 40's styling, and lack of dependence on available CG effects except for the odd dodgy key and some Ghostbusters-esque rotoscoped energy beams.

After one watch of the new teaser it looks like they've gone with some improbable, big impact CG (that ridiculous looking car chase on the edge of a mountain?) which saddens me. Somehow, the old stunts of Raiders are all the more exciting and believable as someone actually performed all the jumps, falls, and sliding-along-under-the-truck shenanigans. I still have time for Harrison, although has anyone noticed these days that when speaking his face stays strangely immobile, or there is at least a noticeable sluggishness to his expressions? Is this merely age? Would Han Solo botox? I like to think not.

Hello! I am tired today.I am nice girl that would like to chat with you..

2008-02-14T12:34:00.003Z

If the subject line is unfamilliar, your spam filter is better than mine. Anyway, some links first.

Register for Glastonbury before 14th March. Even if you don't think you'll want to go, about 20 of your closest friends will inevitably tell you they are all going just days after regsitration has closed.
Go see There will be blood. If in Brighton, go to the Duke of York picturehouse as it's the only local full-time art cinema and it's been open since 1910!
I found a site Chordie.com which collates music tab files for guitar, but more than that, it parses them enabling you to transpose them into alternative keys, and it shows you the relevent chord positions, including using other instruments like banjos. Here you can play S-Club 7's seminal hit Don't Stop Moving on a C-tuned ukelele. Nice!
Calling all animator/editor types.. Popbitch is offering some charming panda footage for anyone to remix in the style they see fit. They said they'd be prizes..

Finally, here is some advertising for Warren Ellis' new web graphic novel...it opens on 12 noon Friday if you weren't sure about that countdown.

D&AD Awards 2007 at Urbis, Manchester

2008-01-26T20:35:00.000Z

Spend a few hours today at the Urbis center in Manchester city center, visiting the D&AD Exhibition. I've a fond glow for the pinnacle of creative advertising these days since my days at Wieden and Kennedy Amsterdam, and I really enjoy seeing what the cream of the crop can produce, especially the broadcast spots.

This spot below "Trade" was for Skittles, directed by Tom Kunst, and it had me in tears of laughter. Excellent.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-01-25T14:21:00.000Z

Ahhh, Harrison Ford looks good! What a relief. Here's a slide show from IMDB of production stills. His co-star Marion (Karen Allen), the hard drinking bar owner from Raiders of The Lost Ark looks almost unchanged. Raiders of the Lost Ark was released in 1981, making her 27 years older. I want her skincare regime/surgeon/diet of stemcells.

Remember handsome Jan-Michael Vincent from Airwolf? The same can't be said about him. At 64, 2 years younger than Harrison, he's not quite so fit and well. This youtube video from last year of JMV makes me not want to drink alcohol ever again. It's so sad I won't even embed it on this page.

Other links of mention are the new HBO show In Treatmeat with Gabriel Byrne as a psychotherapist, bound to be another storming success.

DIY head-tracker with the Wiimote

2008-01-24T15:35:00.001Z

This video shows how to use the Wiimote and sensor to create a VR head-tracking system. How much fun would that be! (read full story here)

Last.fm new service: free full length tracks for a limited time

2008-01-23T18:06:00.000Z

Full tracks from Last.fm, which after a beta phase will become a subscription service! This is great news. Pandora have really lost it, especially as recently they were forced to close doors in the UK. Read original Last.fm blog story.

Celeb OD news consumes the 'net

2008-01-23T00:15:00.000Z

I've never been in the right (?) place at the right time time to see the internet mobilise itself with news - well except 9/11 which was not so surprising.

Heath Ledger kicking it, has spread like wildfire, wikipedia straight on it with a caption at the top "This article is about a person who has recently died.", IMDB too has recorded the death date, even ropey spoiler sites with production pictures of the new Gilliam film starring Ledger have added a tagline to explain.

Poor Terry Gilliam, after Lost In La Mancha, things just don't go well for him.

Anyway, not that I was ever a Ledger fan, but I must a admit a twitch of excitement in the news, repulsive as that is, that caused me to summon a flatmate at this late hour and eagerly confess the news. It was entirely underwhelming as said flatmate had no idea who Heath Ledger was, nor had he seen Brokeback Mountain. I was left feeling suitably pathetic. And a bit ashamed at my celebrity death joy.

Somehow a celebrity death, especially one from the youthful, square jawed, over achiever ranks, tips the immortality scale, for a moment, a bit back in my favour. Score one for the little people; we might not be bright and dazzling stars destined to touch the lives of millions... but, Ha! We just outlived one of yours!

That's a bitter little thought. I'll get back in my cave.

Funny signs - Burgess Hill, West Sussex

2008-01-20T16:12:00.000Z

This one comes from an eerie cafe I once visited, with a peculiar couple who manned the often deserted venue. I like the personal nature of the notice posted by the landlord in a "name and shame" fashion.

Again, mere feet from the site of the cafe, abandoned by the modern day Bonnie and Clyde, the local paper loudly barks about some pressing issues in Burgess Hill.

Gone in 60 Seconds or I made a BAFTA one minute film

2008-01-12T15:07:00.001Z

It's been raining for so long.

However, it's sunny today and shortly I shall avail myself of this computer and take a stroll to the beach, kicking pebbles, perhaps sighing deeply, looking for all intents and purposes like a wistful dreamer, thinking big thoughts. Or that's the image I wouldn't mind projecting.

So quickly on to an announcement.

This New Year I made a one minute movie with a friend. It's nominally for a competition between Bafta and Orange (who love to promote themselves as film sponsors) and asked amateur film makers to submit a one minute piece on the theme "Unite". Yes, an unpleasant brief, but one we tackled with agnosticism.

With about 2 weeks to write something, cast, shoot and edit it, especially over the Christmas and New Year period, we really surprised ourselves. A few story ideas came and went - mostly due to logistics and cost, and we fixed on a simple if slightly contrived story that we thought we could fit into a minute.

Shot in a day, and captured and edited in a day, we managed to get it onto the website with mere hours to spare. A great learning experience, there are a few things I would have done differently - but all in all for getting a story across in a minute, I'm pleased.

The film will be on the website until the end of January, please feel free to have a look and of course, give it 5 stars. No registration is necessary, and if you're reading this I'm hoping you are utterly biased and happy to cast aside your honest critical judgment to make me look good.

It's called Simply Delicious, watch it here.

The movies will be judged by the local film councils at the end of the month and a number of finalists (depending on quality and number of entrants) for each region will be put forward to a public vote. In the unlikely case our film survives the selection you can bet you'll hear from me again. (Note 28th of January is the day the public voting officially opens, votes before that are purely for show).

Thanks to all the people we roped into helping us, "It was amazing to work with you guys. Such vision, dedication... " Apologies, we've slipped into my Bafta speech.

Oh and very very quickly (the sun sets at about 4 o'clock) some TV/DVD tips.

The Wire Season 1: Fantastic HBO series about Narcotics agents on a case in the Projects of Baltimore. I have been slow to chase this up, but it's got some brilliant writing and characterisation and also great insights into drug culture, and police procedure in the US. More on this when I have finished the series.

Pushing Daisies Season 1: By Bryan Fuller of "Dead like me" a light comedy, drama about a man who can bring things back to life. Pure eye candy if you like the kitsch, re-invented 50's styling, however not terribly funny or deep. Think Tim Burton (mostly Chocolate Factory/Edward Scissor Hands) in a Desperate Housewives, voiced over style. Doesn't work quite, but a good effort.

5 Easy Pieces Loving my 70's movies at the moment. Awesome performance by Jack Nicholson, and although it's a long (2 hour) film, some scenes make it worth the effort. The angry woman who hitches a ride in particular, bedraggled dark hair, on her way to Alaska because it "looks so clean". She complains incessantly of how "filthy" man is, followed repeatedly by "It makes me so angry, I just don't want to talk about it". Great stuff. Also Jack Nicholson's character mocking the peculiar walk of his relative Carl (incidentally played by Ralph Waite who will forever be John Walton Sr of The Waltons) during a game of table tennis. It rings so true I wouldn't be surprised if it was improvised. A word of advice, I enjoyed this as I hadn't read a synopsis of any sort, and the film is one I believe is best enjoyed in ignorance.

Funny notices

2007-12-24T02:04:00.000Z

This first notice I found stuck upon the door to the men's loo in a building I work in.

The "phantom shitter" as he's known has been upsetting everyone, not in the least the cleaning staff who added to the sign in biro: "Yes, we agree with you. The Cleaners".

This next one was at the counter in my local Halifax branch. It amused me due to the ridiculous graphic of the misshapen character apparently trapping themselves in the safety screen. Is it rigged to snap shut like a bear trap?

"Faust Arp" video of Radiohead

2007-12-15T19:35:00.000Z

Somehow found myself researching Adam and Joe, whose XFM podcasts from 2006 were particularly hilarious (sample the extra long last one, number 20 if you aren't sure). Weirdly Adam and Joe went to school with Louis Theroux (another favourite of mine) and Adam has some connection with Garth Jennings of Hammer & Tongs (another favourite directing team) and Edgar Wright (another favourite director, who incidentally is only thirty bloody three) which got him a cameo in Hot Fuzz. Anyway, it's a strangely small world of comedy in the UK.

I found the most unattractive picture of Thom Yorke on Adam's website, along with a strange video Adam made of Faust Arp from In Rainbows, live on a hill somewhere. I love this, as something about Thom Yorke's wonky eye attracts me and I can't help but want to stare at it. It's the same slightly perverse pleasure as working a wobbly tooth. Enjoy?

Comic

2007-12-13T17:03:00.001Z

Cyanide & Happiness @ Explosm.net

20 Slides, 20 seconds, a wide range of creative ideas...

2007-12-13T16:37:00.000Z

November's Brighton Digital Festival included Designer's Night, an evening of quickfire presentations from 10 people involved in design or the creative industries. A open brief meant the guests spoke on a wide variety of topics from the future of the music industry, to performance in virtual worlds. Dan Nixon from local consultancy Cogapp recorded the presentations which are available online with each presentation lasting a very manageable 5 minutes.

Terry Pratchett has Altzheimers

2007-12-13T15:52:00.001Z

Rubbish news but the announcement was posted by Pratchett in a typically amusing tone, "An Embuggererance".

Joss Whedon back with a new television show...

2007-12-12T14:24:00.000Z

Thanks to internet diva Marjan for alerting me to this! The ever splendid Joss looks to have secured himself a seven episode show on Fox named Dollhouse. Starring Buffy's bad slayer Eliza Dushku, it sounds a surreal, futuristic affair about a group of people whose task is to perform as other's fantasies, without knowing a life or personality of their own. Great that after the failed Wonder Woman script and the abortive Firely series, Joss is back where we all want him with a new show.

EVE online update shafts XP

2007-12-06T15:23:00.000Z

Rather humongous error on behalf of CCP left thousands of users minus their boot.ini file after a big client upgrade. Oops

Audigy + "squeal of death"

2007-12-05T15:48:00.000Z

When I was working at EA, we moved offices and my boss had a boxed, never used sound card. It had all sorts of extra bits and a remote and loads of mysterious, audio cables. I looked it up on the net and it was only a year or two old - and not high end but better than I would ever bother buying, so I took it home.

To be clear it's an Audigy2 ZS.

The problem first occurred when I went to make a cup of tea leaving my door open, whilst some harmonious music was playing in winamp. A few minutes later and my flatmate has run into the kitchen clearly distressed explaining "Your computer is screaming and I'm worried it's going to blow up". True enough, the poor wee Compaq was having some kind of fit and had hung. I power cycled and the problem went.

Some weeks later and watching a video in VLC, I am 3 minutes in and the audio starts to pop and squeal and it happens again. I reboot, scrub to the same part of the episode and it happens exactly as before.

Then, on a more serious note, I am playing EVE online, a game you never want to hang on you when you are in the middle of an epic space battle (as you will effectively be leaving your expensive ship unpiloted and being destroyed) and the audio begins to stutter again, and hangs. Later again, in winamp, eeeeee..! sqsqsqeeeee..! machine seizes another reboot. So a quick google search for "squeal" and "audigy" finds me the known issue, the legendary "Squeal of death" or SOD.

Creative haven't apparently ever managed to isolate or create a bug fix for this although users have been busy bees suggesting workaround such as
PCI latency tweaks
3 different Audigy drivers
Changed around IRQs
Different PCI slots
Online and offline
Hardware/software mode
EAX on/off
CMSS on/off
Reduced speaker volumes

Forum posts vary from the ancient to the recent, with users strangely frenzied to come up with the ultimate fix. Beats me so I'm back on my onboard sound card. If anyone ever conclusively solves the problem, let me know, but the point is Don't buy Creative Audigy 2!

I'm Back!

2007-11-29T18:49:00.000Z

Mighty sorry for dissapearing like that. It wasn't personal. So much has happened and so many blog opportunities have come and gone, it's time for a lazy summary.

Great things!

Mighty Boosh is back! And streaming in some noxious formats, but hey, it's freeee (an' legal!)
I am moving to BeThere internet! TalkTalk you know what you did, now face the wall and don't say a word...
Radiohead did that whole fair pricing album release. Go Radiohead! And it's a lovely if rather short affair.
I finally got my head around last.fm.
I keep finding more great Mac software! Thanks Textmate! AND CCP those gorgeous beardy Icelandics realeased a Mac version of the EVE online client! Mwah!

Crapper things

People slopping around in misshapen, noisy, last year's Ugg boots. Please don't.
Facebook went from being quite useful to a massive irritant. Away with your vampire/zombie/food fight invites. I value my quality of life, thanks.
The plugin to track your listening iScrobbler (Mac OSX) for last.fm is a tad buggy, but still better than the official bloatware.
Heroes was crippled by the writers strike. But y'know, writers: we salute you, and triffid honks it horn in support.

Cheaper Final Cut Pro Keyboard, Roundhouse and Sonic Youth

2007-09-04T21:12:00.000+01:00

I've always been a bit jealous of those colour coded keyboards with both Final Cut and Avid keyboard shortcuts, but put off by the hugely expensive 70 UKP price tag. You've always been able to buy stickers for application to normal keyboards but somehow it never seemed as nice. I recently saw this company in Germany making their own keyboards for a fraction of the price at 22UKP. Whether the quality is any good I can't tell, likely it's the cheapest import with custom keys, but it might be of use to the editor on a budget.

Last weekend I enjoyed alt-rock pioneers Sonic Youth playing their classic album Daydream Nation at the Roundhouse in Chalk Farm. It neatly filled a gap in my formative live experiences, along with the fantastic performance at Benecassim festival of Dinosaur Jr. It's been a year of sentimentality, but entirely worth it as both bands performed brilliantly without a hint of any "In it for the money" tragedy. Sonic Youth looked almost spry as 10 years ago, with not a hint of the middle aged spread setting in. It was a joy to see Kim Gordon lurching about the stage in her mini dress, and Thurston Moore, with his trademark thick, curly bowl of an indie haircut, enthusiastically attacking his guitar with a drumstick as a makeshift slide. I made some recordings with the video capabilities of LV's N95, a super PDA/camera/phone and if I get a chance I'll edit it together up here.

For reference the Roundhouse is a gorgeous venue. A strangely polite bouncer on the door cautioned me that there would be no re-admittance and when I faltered on entering explaining I might get another quick ciggie in before committing, he replied "Oh, you can smoke upstairs, outside on the first level", so we entered and he smiled and said brightly "Enjoy yourselves!".

The first floor has a huge outside area, with plenty of space and seats, and on the night of the gig was offering freshly barbecued foods and salad. The bogs were clean and decent, the bars were plentiful and easy to get to the front of, and the gig was easy to see. Beirut are playing there in November so I'll definitely be returning.

Cowboy poets

2007-08-29T22:42:00.000+01:00

Fabulous twisted 'tache on the poet in this short video excerpt.

More than you ever wanted to know about my obsession with Wacom tablets

2007-08-27T22:07:00.000+01:00

Hooray! I found an affordable Wacom on Ebay! This is culmination of many days research on the subject, and constant scanning, bidding, attempted sniping and losing on Ebay. I feel like my new knowledge about Mac OS X and the humble graphics tablet should not be kept to myself, so I'll relate to you my story.

If you didn't know, graphics tablets are great. Great for artists but also for video editors. Once you've started using them as an extra limb, there is simply no going back to a mouse. I was privileged to have worked in the last two places with firstly an A4 wide screen Intuos 3 (top of the range!) and secondly with a sprawling, impressive Intuos2 A3. The latter made artists gasp with awe on sight. I also firmly believe an over sized graphics tablet creates a shimmering aura of professionalism and creativity that makes producers more respectful and unquestioning of your work. Handy.

Now I am freelance and poor I have been reduced to a paltry logitech mouse. It makes an unpleasant scraping noise against my desk. So, I decided to get myself a tablet.

Any review is likely to award the Wacom series of tablets top marks, almost always eclipsing over lesser brands. Digital Arts magazine, always a gushing Wacom fan, shows their review with percentages on this page. So, it has to be a Wacom, which leaves roughly 3 types. The Intuos 3, the Porsche of graphics tablets, available in multiple sizes, and wide screen versions to map more accurately to today's displays. The Graphire, available in A5 and A6, respectable and slightly more reasonably priced, and the Volito, the one size "entry level" tablet.

So, a Volito? Here from Wacom's page is some introductory copy:

"Whether it's invitations, birthday cards or creative holiday photos - you can now add your personal touch on the PC".

No, No, No, No. I recoil in horror that I might be the kind of person to personalise birthday cards. Also, they may try and hide it in the description but it is an "entry level" product. Entry level? Is my life entry level? Is my work entry level? NO! All product developers must know that the bottom range in any line exists to make consumers seek the more expensive one, after all, who values themselves so little!

On to the Graphire, a well respected tablet although lacking the slick design of the Intuos. It also has an irritating child on the packaging which echos back to the blood-curdling Volito copy, and brings to mind editing something, probably Comic Sans titled, called "Sammy's first steps". Anyway, technically the Graphire differs from the Intuos a a few areas, one being is that it's pressure-sensitivity is 512 levels, instead of the Intous' 1024. There are more factors such as co-ordinate resolution but I am not a certified Wacom nerd yet. No really. The Wacom seems to inspire a certain dedicated following who could recite the technical specifications of all Wacoms since the Art Pad II (I'm thinking of the Wacom fan in an 8-mile style battle.. but anyway..). Considering my budget, and the fact that I am unlikely to require a graphics pen to accurately replicate the action and sensitivity of an antique brush made of Ox hair (they make brushes with that, you know? Also sable, which is an animal like a weasel..) I don't think I'll miss those extra 512 levels.

For budgetry concerns I also researched second hand, older Wacom tablets and consensus on the web is that older Intuos, or even graphire are almost as good as the lastest models. One concern is that you have to be careful of is the connectors. Apple and Wacom no longer support serial and ADB tablets (via USB conversion) on OS X. There a some open source software that enables the serial Wacoms here, but it looks a little risky. This is tough as those tablets are still very usable on older OS's and are very attractively priced on Ebay. Quite a few people get caught out. The benefit too, of USB is that they don't require an extra power supply.

Finally the size. A6 (the smallest) is rather small for lots of desk work, but I travel a lot and can compromise. A5 or A4 is what most regular users would want, and A3 is for showoffs.

Ebay tactics have involved searching the "All sellers" to bring up tablets available in Europe, which are overlooked in the standard ebay.co.uk search, checking for tablets wrongly, or sparsely identified, tablets in misplaced categories, and the standard search "find a seller who doesn't know how extortionately priced these things are". The last tactic was the winner, a DVD salesman who included a 20 pound "Buy it now" which I nabbed after the item had only been live a few hours. It's an A6 intuos 2, USB and including pen (some of the older ones were bundled with a mouse OR pen although both devices will work). If you find a tablet without a pen, ignoring that it might be damaged, be warned that the pens themselves can cost 70 UKP! So, don't fall for false economy. Hope this has been useful to someone, I am available for Wacom purchase consultation, at a very affordable rate.