Intellectual property rights

Without naming names, as i could do without the hassle, I work for a mid size international IT based company creating a lot of their web and graphics work with another designer. I started this job – what? 7 months ago? Something like. I came to my interview and showed them my print and my online portfolio and they offered me a job. Great! I like working here – the people are nice and and the work is good for me and for my portfolio. Until yesterday that is.

Yesterday I was told that I had to remove all said compnaies work from my online portfolio as they did not feel it was appropriate for it to be on there. That was what I was told. Nothing specific – just vague misgivings on their part that i was showing things like their website which i designed, and some other bits and bobs which i designed for them in work. A fraction of what I have created for them – and indeed only work which I can claim a majority of input with – and i did credit the other designer as well.

Passing over intellectual property rights to your employer in your contract seems to now mean that they can even force you to remove work which is already in the public domain. i suspect it is because they do not want my name especially associated with it? Though because no one actually gave me a reason I am left to wonder whether this is industrial paranoia or if they are are trying to damage any prospects I may have of moving on. I was upfront from the beginning – I said this was my portfolio site which I keep up date – and I asked if that would be an issue at my interview (to which the answer was no i might add) so now i have had to remove 7 months worth of work from my portfolio living it looking rather sparce, and as though I have been sitting with my thumb up my backside for 7 months. This has never been an issue with any of my freelance clients, and it has never been an issue with a previous employer – until now they decide to change their minds.

Still I guess, if I was not looking around before with any kind of enthusiam – (hey i’m a designer – we are always on the lookout – with a general cap of £25k out of the City we have to) – I am now.  Its a shame though because I like it here but such is life – the longer I stay here now, the thinner my portfolio is going to look.

What do you do with tat?

In the safe knowledge that my grandma does not know how to switch on a computer never mind use the internet and so the liklihood of here ever finding this is remote, I have to ask the question – why do people find it necessary to buy me tat? And I am not necessarily talking cheap tat either.

A couple of years back my grandma (bless her) bought me a set of very expensive cups (well mugs – they are doulton, crompton and woodhouse or something or the sort – they have authenticity certificates). They are Egyptian in design, and had gold leaf and were, basically, gopping. They are truly nasty, garish items of china, the designer of which should be shot for making a complete hash up of some very beautiful traditional egyptian artwork. She thoought I would like tham as I like the big Egyptian statues of cats and gods and whatnot. So she basically bought me a bunch of expensive mugs – can’t see the connection there, but there we go – relatives make some strange connections when it comes to presents.

So I did what all good granddaughters do – pack them in boxes and put them in the loft so I do not have to sully my eyes. However my dilemma returns in that I now have my own place – with (horror) a display cabinet. So do I put these travesties of chinaware into my cabinet alongside all of my nice tasteful pieces, or do I upset my grandma, and leave them in the boxes – and maybe surreptitiously flog them to someone on eBay? And yes she would notice – I swear she has been waiting for the last 5 or so years for the day she can admire these grim cups from the comfort of her granddaughters (tasteful) sofa.

Argh!

Stuff that happens

As they say s*** happens. Came off the bike the other day on some black ice. That was an enjoyable experience… Hurt my shoulder a bit – but nothing serious. Bike has a dent and the brake lever needed replacing, but as it fell over on the highway boards and on me it was mainly OK. I think my boss finally realised that I have no alternative to get into work other than the bike (and that I was not riding in the winter because i enjoy it…?)  as he did the whole concerny thing over the bike rather than over me.

I got my Christmas tree – though it is a small 3 foot affair, which somehow seems less than worth it. Still – enforced Christmas spirit is being had by all, or I scowl at them. There will be jollity dammit.

Ba-Humbug!

When I was a kid, Christmas was the one time of year I really looked forward to. Indeed as far as I was concerned, it was the reason for the year. My birthday is so close to Christmas that relatives always plumped the two together (mainly to save cost on presents – they were not especially ‘bigger’ presents than anyone elses – a point which always irked me when i saw all the stuff my sister got because her birthday was in July…) I have tried to carry on some of this Christmas spirit now that I am an adult, but have found myself somewhat hampered by my partners ba-humbug attitude.

Apparently its all commercialism now. It all about the hard sell. Its all about cynical advertising making it a requirement that you purchase the latest toy/watch/jewellery/socks for your loved ones. Ant is, apparently, not fussed about Christmas. He would quite happily do without decorations, christmas trees and crackers, would rather call someone than send a card, and feels that Santa can take a running hike. He has even volunteered to work Xmas Eve and Xmas Day nights.

So why do some people manage to keep their Christmas spirit even in face of such overblown advertising, and some people just give up on the whole thing and end up grumbling more than they have fun? Christnmas is supposed to be about being with family and having a laugh, not sitting alone.

Why is the damn div not working…

I am a graphic designer by nature, or so I have been told. I get overly excited about colour, mildly obsessive about pixels and quite scary if something does not look on the screen/paper like it does in my head.

Part of being a web designer is of course making websites. If I could go about making websites without looking at code, I would be a happy bunny indeed, as to my mind, not so much the code, as the method of display for the code makes no sense, and to my mind this is incredibly frustrating. I talk of course about that great bane of most web designers life – browsers. Browsers are a necessary evil – without them we would not be able to see the wonderfully (and occassionally not so wonderfully) crafted websites available. The issue I have with them is compatibility – what looks GREAT on one, is broken on another. One format is fine, another is not. Often trying to get a website to work on the major browsers actually takes LONGER than making the website in the first place.

And so we come to the title of this piece. I seem to have the worst cases of browser cock ups occur to me when I am attempting CSS websites. I love CSS. Its efficient. Its relatively clean, and its easy to troubleshoot. until we start getting clever and try to make tableless websites, and then the happy, happy world of the ‘float’ and the complete non-adding up of pixels seems to come into play. 1+1 may equal 2 on some browsers, but on others they actually equal 5, and trying to compensate for this, for me is like trying to gouge my own eyes out with a hairbrush.

In the main I enjoy my forays into the world of web design, but I would enjoy them far more if there was some more consistency. Instead I am reduced to tantrum-ridden insanity by a div which will be in the right place in IE but in a completely different place in Firefox, and different again in Opera.

Apparently I’M compulsive. Apparently.

Well i am shocked. Today I have been accused of being compulsive. The words ‘picky‘ and ‘difficult‘ were used. The company I work for are launching their new website today, and one of the pages that was worked on was not quite right. OK. So it was maybe 1 pixel out. But it was noticeable. And I wanted it fixed before it went live.

Now it has been pointed out to me before that ‘normal’ people will not notice a pixel difference in the page – but I say this is beside the point. If one is trying to put across a professional image, then the output media should be perfect. You would not make an advert that was slightly too big or small – or the text was wonky or badly spaced, you would not have a brand that you changed every five minutes (or would you..?) – so why have a website that jumps everytime you go to a different page?

As a graphic designer, I am a bit of a JOAT – a jack of all trades, but I also insist that any work that my name is attached to has to look right – or I do not want to be associated with it. I have been known to take stuff out of my portfolio if its wrong, or is not working properly – it does not promote a good impression or me or the company it was produced for. Is this compulsive, or is this maintaining standards? It is difficult in my view to define what a ‘normal’ person is. And indeed whether they will notice a ‘leaping’ website – but I ask if they do – will not their impression of that website, and the professional image that it represents not be damaged by shoddy workmanship?

I THINK someone is trying to tell me something.

Well I had a GREAT night (and morning). Was on my way home last night and the chain fell off my bike – I was pulling out of a petrol station at the time – I had gone in there to try and work out why my heated gloves were not working. I fixed that, pulled away and the bike lurched and the chain fell off. I put the chain back on, got very mucky, and then very carefully rode home. Had to call Ant out of work to come and fix it as had no idea on how to tighten the chain properly (I do now). I called him and he said – you need a spanner. And I was like yeah coz I carry one of those around with me ALL the time.

And then this morning the bike did not wnat to start. Got her started and rode happily away only to find a massive tailback on the A17 because a lorry was all across the road. Got past lorry and trundled away only to get stuck behind a muck spreader. A MUCKSPREADER I ask you – what the hell is one of those doing on the road in the middle of Winter when the ground is all solid. After chucking crap all over the road, and me, I got past that. A series of idiots, ambulances and people who were afraid of salty roads (?) later I managed to get into work.

Most car drivers seem to have no idea..

If you have read my About page, you will know that I ride a motorbike. This is not out of specific choice – though I do like my bike – it is out of necessity – basically we cannot afford a second car. Now at this time of year I’m sure you can appreciate it is really rather grim riding – cold, windy. foggy, icy etc. Fortunately my 30 mile commute to work is gritted (but this has its own major downside of everything on the road seeming to chuck or splatter black oily, salty crap in my general direction.) I manage though – and my heated gloves and about a billion layers of clothing help (I look a bit like a russian doll when I am taking it off again.) However todays grumble I’m afraid revolves around that epitome of excellent driving skills – car users. Now before you all go getting on your high horses and calling me names, hear me out.

This does NOT apply to all car drivers – some – though I admit it seems a minority lately – are perfectly good drivers, with good road skills. They are observant. They don’t all swerve around like idiots because they are faffing with their radios, or their air conditioning, or yakking to thier mates next to them. They don’t all get in a stupid tizzy when a motorcyclist passes them in traffic. However a lot of them do. Many seem to be unaware that their car has a dip headlights feature for example. Being blinded by morons with stupid neon lights is somewhat dangerous for a motorcyclist. Another pet hate I have of car drivers is tailgating – possibly one of the MOST dangerous and stupid things to do in the dark – not only are you shining your stupid headlights right in the mirrors, but in cold or wet weather if we have to slap on the brakes we are going to end up about 40m down the road, while you sit their in your cosy little shell wondering what the bump was.

All I ask is just remember that bikers are road users that are exposed to the elements. And we only have two wheels and two brakes and one headlamp – and you have double that – and central heating to boot. Try not to get too complacent in your warmth is all I ask. Have some consideration please. Not all of us are as lucky as you to have a nice warm car this winter.

Safestyle UK are pants

OK. I have already ranted about these blithering idiots on a number of grumble based forums, and although this did happen last week I think it ought to be said here as well. Safestyle UK are complete bunch of useless pant people. We had two reps turn up and and spew complete bull at us for nearly 3 hours, they virtually demanded hot drinks and biscuits (and then proceeded to eat all of our biscuits.) They offered a stupid quote for our windows, and only reduced it when we said no. They were rude and uncouth, and between me and this blog, quite gross as well. The manager was this enormous lump of a thing with half of his belly sticking out from under his ill fitting shirt – and he stank as well. Eugh! We ended up turfing them out in the end because they just started getting obnoxious because we were refusing their offer – part of which they were ‘apparently’ paying for out of their own pockets (…yah right). Hey don’t get me wrong, I used to work in sales and can handle most types of bull, but this was just ridiculous.

We went with a local company called Cliffside – £2500 for 7 windows, a bay and a back door – which is not too bad – mind you, its all in white when all of our neighbours have mahogany effect – still if they wish to donate the extra £700 odd quid that would have cost they are more than welcome. They will coming to fit them in February.

Changing a habit of a lifetime

Tagged along with Ant to the bowling alley last night – he was working (well thats what he calls it – it looks suspiciously like getting paid to sit around and drink coffee to me but there we go.) I had a dreadful performance with the new bowling ball on Monday night in the league (sub 400 – bleugh) so I thought I would take the opportunity to turn up on their £1 a game night and get some practice in – and mainly see if I could work out what was going on. The new ball has been drilled differently – to allow for greater revs and a bigger hook – but it was going totally straight when I bowled it. And I got somewhat irate about this.

Thing is, Ant and Steve (the guy who drilled the ball) have advised me that I have been ‘palming’ the ball instead of flicking it (ooo technical) which is why my ball has not been turning. And so if this is the case I have been bowling wrong since…ooo…1986? So I tried doing what I was told (for a change) and yes it did work. Turning my hand out slightly and bringing my fingers up in a big flick makes the ball rev enormously and hook. Problem is it puts an awful amount of strain on my thumb, and the tips of my fingers were wrecked because of the really harsh lifters Steve put in it – they work but they do hurt! Ant says I will get used to it.

This new ball is the latest in my quest to get the most interesting smelling bowling ball bag ever invented. So far I have watermelon and orange smelling bowling balls. If I keep on going i will eventually have a Jolly Ranchers set.