Aug
12
2009
Well I haven’t actually worked on a newer version of my WordPress Theme, RubiX for sometime simply because I’ve been busy with other projects but I am resuming progress soon with heaps more options and ironing out anything that seems to cause issues.
I might release my theme (the one you are looking at) if people want it and will work on another theme!
Stay tuned for the new release!
Aug
11
2009
Well the X Games was a bit of a let down. Even though Travis competed in Best Trick it still wasn’t that exciting since everyone crashed! And Bilko was once again robbed! Kyle Loza should have got 2nd since Best Trick is innovation. A 360 Downside Indy is far more technical than an Electric Doom in my opinion. Anyways to the point of this post…
I was thinking about the results of x Games MotoX Best Trick and Freestyle and everything comes in 3′s. Have a look at this; In 2007 Adam Jones got Gold in FMX and Silver in Best Trick, in 2008 Jeremy Lusk got the same thing and this year Bilko does the same thing! Also, the past 3 years in Best Trick Kyle Loza always got Gold and Todd Potter always got Bronze! Pretty cool aye?
I still haven’t seen FMX or Rally yet so I can’t really comment but the Step Up competition was quite exciting. Ricky Carmichael again proves he is Pro Everything taking Gold with Ronnie Renner.
Aug
08
2009
Well as stated in my last post I have been expecting my account to be closed for some time. The final straw was an x Games 14 MotoX Best Trick mashup I posted. ESPN wasn’t very happy about it. I guess deleting 5 videos didn’t cut it. Anyways I don’t even feel like I lost something because I have been working on an even better project (this site’s video section).
I will have all my videos plus more posted on this site as soon as I can. I’ll have to upload them at University since their speed is…. fast. Honestly, YouTube is not the place for my sort of videos. I understand I own nothing and don’t claim the video nor music but the editing is mine. Anyway the stats were:
Obviously I can’t get exact stats since I don’t have access to my channel anymore, these are from memory.
Stay tuned! KICKERMAN360 will live on at KICKERfilm.com!
Jul
29
2009
It takes no rocket scientist to see my videos have copyrighted content. However I make sure I tell people who the artist etc is and had started to include a website link later on. I think that was sufficient to YouTube standards a year ago when I had a partnership believe it or not (I was genuinely shocked); a channel with 100% copyrighted material became a partner? The only other channel I know of that has done that is FailBlog and it is a miracle that they can post so many illegal videos and post ads!
Anyway, slowly Youtube has been enforcing their anti-copyright measures. My Chad Reed: First Race with Suzuki video actually got rejected but I reuploaded it with a voice clip of Chad which bypassed their system (this method doesn’t work now). From there on I knew I wouldn’t be lasting too long since the big music corporations target Youtube (ignoring most other large video sharing sites which host the same content) to take money from, advertise and control.
Most of my videos, well at least half by now are only allowed to be shown in certain countries. This was probably the worst thing that could have happened. My viewership dropped by half. Literally in 2 weeks it was half of what it was and I couldn’t really do anything about that. Everytime I upload a new video it doesn’t get the attention it used to get either.
Just in the last week, for the first time ever one of my videos got deleted. It was the Travis Pastrana at X Games Best Trick (2005) which had over 200k views. The claim was made by ESPN which owns the X Games but I don’t understand why they delete videos with high amounts of views but leave the 40-100 other versions there. I also have about 5-10 other X Games videos which have less views but no doubt will be deleted.
According to YouTube “repeat offenders will have their accounts terminated.” It’s a pretty harsh policy but I guess they want to keep out of trouble seeing as Google apparently makes no money from it (makes you wonder why they bother). So from what I can gather from that is, my channel, KICKERMAN360 won’t be around for much longer. I probably won’t make many more videos or re-upload any that get deleted or aren’t shown in some countries. It just isn’t worth my time or bandwidth seeing as I am on a limited bandwidth broadband plan to do so.
Also, editing videos isn’t as fun as it used to be. I used to always learn something new in each video. You can probably tell after watching some in order of release. Now days it is just plain boring to me. I’m not saying I am an expert; because I’m not, but the hours of time to make a video is something I’d rather spend doing something else.
Maybe if I had more incentive to make videos I’d get back into it but as of now even though people are still subscribing which is awesome, I reached over 3000 the other week, I’m either too busy or not interested in making any more videos. Perhaps later I’ll get back into it.
On a more positive note, hopefully I can upload all my videos to this website. I have been meaning to do that for ages, just never really been focused. So for all you fans, maybe you guys can take over!
Jul
11
2009
Note: I didn’t take any pictures or video anything because I thought I would fail.
Well just last week my mum’s (yes, I am Australian so we spell it “mum” not “mom”) monitor started acting funny. Her entire computer is a mixed bag of brands and the monitor just happened to be an Acer, as the computer prior to that was an Acer but as expected it died after 2 years. I was ammused when I found out the actual LCD was made by LG/Phillips and the power supply board was made by TDK so I thought maybe I could fix it.
The symptoms were the monitor turns off after roughly one second. After about 5 minutes of Googling and forum stalking I was sure it was the power supply and a capactior was the issue. I took it apart and in my case, the power supply board and the board for the display adapter (excuse my lack of terminology) were two separate boards which made it a little easier. I ripped apart the monitor.
I had to wait 7 days however until I had enough time to run down to Jaycar and get some capactiors. I thought I’d take the board with me and show the person and to make sure I wouldn’t forget the rating of the capacitors I needed. The guy was rather helpful and set me up with 4 capacitors, a soldering iron and some solder. He suggested I replace all 4 of them, although he said 1 of them looked alright.
Now this was my first time using a soldering iron and it was quite the experience. I had an old motherboard (the one from that Acer computer I mentioned earlier) and decided to do some practise on that before I try it for real. After about 20 seconds I went straight into the deep end. I started trying to melt the old solder; a process that took longer than expected but I eventually got there.
I am pretty sure the existing solder had a layer of some metal hence why it took a while nevertheless I eventually got the first capactior out. I initially took care with the capactiors (the old ones that is) but I was doing this ghetto style and I didn’t have a vice on my desk so I just ripped them out after weakening the solder.
I almost gave it away though, I accidentally let my soldering iron touch the power cable of the same device… lets just say I was lucky and I was very cautious from there on. I replaced the capacitors, taking note of the correct polarity and soldered them in. I must say my soldering work was quite good for being self taught, and doing it for the first time. Moving forward I thought i would test it after replacing on capacitor. There was an improvement: The monitor stays on for more than one second but flickers so another capacitor is the issue.
I tested it after 2 more replacements and it was alright however there was a slight noise, a high pitched ringing noise. I thought why not replace the last one, surely the new ones would have no issues. To my surprise the last capactior was fine, one of the new ones wasn’t yet the monitor worked. I was really happy at this point.
I basically replaced 4 blown capactiors and it worked! It only cost $25 for the equipment I used. I bought a Soldering Iron ($15) and 4 capactiors (25V, 470 micro farad) and solder which totaled another ten dollars. I also used some pliers to pull the capactiors out and the screw driver inbuilt into it (it was one of those multi-swiss-army-knife-wannabe tools).
However if you are doing this I would suggest to you this: Get a vice, get a work place with heaps of space and wear safety glasses. I sort of walked into the dark and got kind of lost with this one but it is very satisfying to fix something as complicated as an LCD screen. It only took 3 hours or so as well but I had something to eat during that time.
P.S. Also make sure your capacitors discharge, I waited for the LED to go out.
Jul
02
2009
Transformers 2 Poster
I’m sure everybody has seen it, and right off the bat I’m gonna say it was average. These following words will sum up the whole movie: Big explosions, Panning shots of large areas and slow motion. The plot was nothing short of a failure in my opinion. Even after watching the first movie days prior I had no idea what was happening when the movie began. The prior movie didn’t even give a lead on to a sequel yet explain further plot elements.
Through out the whole movie I was trying to figure not what would happen next (that is pretty obvious) but who was fighting who. When the machines tackle each other it becomes nothing short of a mess. I also never knew Autobots could fuse together and Decepticon could turn good; I’m sure they could have come up with another, more interesting way to figure out what the symbols meant.
The movie takes a stab at some humour but I hardly laughed because of the jokes, instead laughing at the stupidity of the film. Michael Bay’s films are nothing more than what was described before; explosions, slow mo and huge panning shots. Transformers has been transformed into something else than what I and every one else thought it was.
Here a few things I couldn’t understand:
Those are just a few of my questions. It may just be that I haven’t read enough comics – I will admit I’m not a total Transformers fan but I will see the film nevertheless. In my opinion I give it a 6/10. Hardly worth any praise. The story was probably picked from a school writing contest.
The best parts to the film were of Reggie Simmons, some of the things he said as well as the actions had me laughing despite the illogical nonsense going on. He was the former CIA agent of Sector 7.
Jun
22
2009
Well like most people who watch my videos – well probably the people who watch the supercross ones know, the 2009 season of AMA Motocross is kind of boring yet exciting at the same time. Stewart, Alessi, Villopoto and Windham are not even racing and it’s only been 4 rounds.
Good news is though, Chad Reed will likely grab his first AMA Motocross Championship title, I don’t think he won any in the 125cc class, especially against Stewart all those years ago. For those people who say Chad only entered because James wasn’t I bet you didn’t know Stewart never signed the contract for a motocross season. The only reason, and a stupid one at that, Kawasaki didn’t give Stewart a moto ride for 2009 was because they preferred Ryan Villopoto since he crashes less often. Looks like their plan didn’t work out, Ryan was out in round 2 I believe.
What I don’t understand is why they didn’t sign both riders, I’m sure they’d be happy with a 1st and 2nd for the series. I also thought it was pretty cool that James has been Kawasaki his whole life, hardly any riders do that the only ones I know of are Travis Pastrana and Ryan Dungey, both Suzuki riders.
Back to the Motocross and I have to say NBC is the worst when it comes to broadcasting Motocross. No joke, half the show was talk about the first moto, when they could have shown it. Also the commentary is boring, I prefer Jeff and Ralph since they know what they’re talking about.
Since I’m a Suzuki/Reed fan, I hope he wins the series and hope he gets the next Supercross season as well.
I’ve also been watching the 2007 Lites Motocross season, it’s also very exciting to see Grant, Villopoto and Lawrence battle.
Jun
15
2009
Well the day as finally come, my WordPress theme was approved. It feels good since I basically tought myself everything and to know it made it into the Themes Directory is awesome even though it was fourth time lucky! If you want to download it click here! Head to the themes page if you want to see a little more about it or just browse my site for the complete tour.
There were only really two problems, them thinking this wasn’t my personal site and not having theme options however I overcame those issues eventually. Thanks again if you download it and make sure you return, I am always updating the theme to make it better for you!
Jun
15
2009
IQ Test Fails
Here’s something that makes me wonder how the people who made this passed school. First, the story. I was quite bored so I decided to click on one of those ads on Facebook offering an “IQ Test”. As expected I was led off site but still bored enough to answer some questions knowing I would have to likely sign up to something to receive my “IQ” back. Anyway, this was Question 4 (pictured).
I was actually going to click 100 (which is wrong) until the most basic of mathematics kicked in. Multiplication before Addition. To make sure I wasn’t insane I check with my calculator and sure enough (6 + 4 x 10) = 46. No surprises there.
For those interested it would have to be (6+4) x 10 to answer 100 and impossible to get 50 or 75.
Jun
14
2009
Well I haven’t been editing many videos lately but what I have been doing is making this theme called RubiX (I say Rubi -X, you can call it whatever you want!). Hopefully soon you’ll be able to download it (for free) just as soon as WordPress approves it to enter their themes directory. It’s better to have it there so it gets more exposure and is kept up to the standards. Check out the themes page is the next week if you’re interested.
Haven’t been making many video lately for one main reason. YouTube is getting the squeeze on copyrighted content and doing the good ol’ “only allowed in these countries” act. Sadly my viewership as dropped by half from this. Meaning a) I’m not going up the rankings anymore (more like going down) and b) Half my audience is gone. When I get some more time/motivation I’ll get back into it
That’s about it for now, I’m gonna be posting more stuff in my blog now as well, stay tuned!
