Month: December 2015
Best movies of the 1990’s
After the booming 80’s came the 1990’s, and more great movies, and here they are…..
1) Star Wars: Episode1: The Phantom Menace (1999)…. just when you thought Star Wars was done with the original 3 movies, back it came with this, the first of the Prequel trilogy.
2) Star Trek: First Contact (1996)… The 8th(?) of the original 10 `proper` Star Trek movies, and worth it just for the soundtrack alone.
3) Braveheart (1995)… stars Mel Gibson as Scottish hero William Wallace, though it is rather long at 2hrs 58minutes.
4) Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995)… the 3rd and my favourite of the Die Hard movies.
5) Backdraft (1991)…. Ron Howard movie about 2 brothers in the Chicago Fire Department
6) Home Alone (1990)… the original and best of the Home Alone films, with Macaulay Culkin as Kevin.
7) Back to the Future: Part III (1990)…. the 3rd and final Back to the Future movie, this time set in the Wild West, in 1885.
8) Pretty Woman (1990)… doesn’t need too much introduction, the one with Julie Roberts as a hooker, who hits it off with Richard Gere as a rich business man.
9) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)… the last major outing of the original series crew in a movie, the one where the Federation negotiates peace with the Klingons.
10) Flight of the Intruder (1991)…. a maybe somewhat under-rated film, about the crew of a Grumman A-6 Intruder tactical bomber onboard a US Navy Aircraft carrier during the Vietnam war.
11) The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992).. a Muppets version of the story of Scrooge.
12) Arachnophobia (1990)… story about a small town in America that gets over run with deadly little spiders.
13) Forest Gump (1994)… Tom Hanks film about the life of Forest Gump, a not too bright guy who lucks his way to success.
14) Apollo 13 (1995)… a Ron Howard movie, starring Tom Hanks, following the tale of moon mission Apollo 13, which went a bit wrong, but they safely made it back.
15) Days of Thunder (1990)… stars Tom Cruise as a NASCAR driver.
16) The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear (1991)… Leslie Neilson, returning as Detective Frank Drebin…. the 2nd of The Naked Gun movies based on the Police Squad tv series.
17) Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992)… the 2nd of the `proper` Home Alone movies, and the last with Macauley Culkin as Kevin.
18) Men in Black (1997)… first of the Men in Black films with Will Smith.
19) Mrs Doubtfire (1993)… stars Robin Williams as a Divorced Dad who tries to spend more time with his kids by dressing up as an old lady to act as their babysitter.
20) Beverley Hills Cop 3 (1994).. the 3rd and so far final adventure for Eddie Murphy as Detective Axl Foley, a Detroit Cop who takes his investigation to Los Angeles.
Christmas Gifts & Gadgets (2015)
It’s that time of year again, and here’s a few ideas for gifts to buy for others, or for yourself if you got Amazon Giftcards……
WindowsPhone based SmartPhone:
Cheaper than an iPhone, and some would say having a better looking interface than newer versions of iOS, these are well worth a look with the Nokia Lumia 530 weighing in at under £70 (or if you’re lucky £40 with some case colours).
Android Based Smartphone
Having had a look around, I’d maybe go for a Samsung Galaxy Y, costing just under £60.
Android Tablet
For this, for people on a bit of a budget, you probably can’t go too far wrong with an Amazon Fire Tablet for £50.
Windows Tablet
For this, as much as I’d prefer a Microsoft Surface tablet, I’d recommend the Linx7 Tablet for £60
Laptop
The best value one I’ve spotted recently is the HP Stream 11 for £220, and the HP Pavilion X2 for not much more.
Streaming TV Stick
Well this one’s easy enough…. Amazon Fire TV Stick.
Keyboard, Mouse, Wristrest & Mousemat
I prefer wired to wireless (no batteries to run out and cause things to go haywire)…. I like my Trust illuminated keyboard, Tecknet Mouse, Kensington Wristrest, and hoping to get a new mousemat soon too.
20 of the best movies of the 1980’s
The 1980’s eventually turned into one of the best decades ever, it was my first full decade…. Margaret Thatcher was British Prime Minister…. Ronald Reagan was American President…. Home computers started to become feasable…. VCR’s started to become common, and a deluge of some of the best movies ever made were made and released.
Here’s the ones you should make sure to have in your DVD/Blu-Ray disc collection (or via iTunes or Amazon Instant Video if you can’t wait for it)…………..
1) Crocodile Dundee (1986): The movie with Paul Hogan as Mick `Crocodile` Dundee from the Australian Outback, who then goes back to New York with a woman journalist after he showed her around the outback.
2) Ghostbusters (1984): The cult-classic comedy sci-fi about a group of university scientists who go into business catching ghosts after getting the boot from their college lab.
3) Back to the Future (1985): The cult classic movie that recently celebrated it’s 30th Anniversary, with Michael J Fox as Marty McFly, and the time travelling DeLorean.
4) Crocodile Dundee II (1988): The sequel to the original movie, where Mick goes back to the Australian outback to fight a drugs gang on his terms.
5) Stand by Me (1986): The tale of a group of boys who go on an adventure to look for a dead body.
6) Die Hard (1988): The first of the 5 Die Hard movies made so far, with Bruce Willis as Detective John McLane.
7) Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (1980): The 2nd of the original Star Wars movies, and now known as “Star Wars: Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back”.
8) Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (1983): The 3rd of the original Star Wars movies. and now known as “Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi”…. one of the first movies I ever had rented on video.
9) Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981): First of the Indiana Jones movies
10) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984): 2nd of the Indiana Jones movies.
11) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989): 3rd of the Indiana Jones movies.
12) Back to the Future Part II (1989): The sequel to Back to the Future.
13) Top Gun (1986): The cult classic movie with Tom Cruise as a US Navy Fighter Pilot.
14) Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (1982)…….. the 2nd of the `proper` Star Trek movies
15) The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad (1988)… the first of the 3 “Naked Gun” movies with Leslie Neilson as Detective Frank Drebin, from cult classic comedy detective show “Police Squad: In Color”.
16) Turner & Hooch (1989): Stars Tom Hanks as a Police Detective who has to take care of a Dog to find the people who murdered it’s owner.
17) National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989): A Christmas adventure featuring The Griswold Family, headed by Chevy Chase as Clark W Griswold.
18) ET: The ExtraTerrestrial (1982): Another cult-classic movie from the 1980’s, made by Steven Spielberg, and of course features an Alien left behind on Earth, waiting to go home.
19) The Great Outdoors (1988): movie starring John Candy & Tom Hanks, with a pair of families going on Holiday (one of which, the in-laws, weren’t exactly invited).
20) Gremlins (1984): The movie about cute little creatures, who when fed after midnight or exposed to water turn into mischievous little creatures who cause havoc.
How to get started Youtubing
This popular video site sharing website has been around for over 10 years now, and gone from short crappy quality clips of pets & people doing the sort of stuff you’d see on You’ve Been Framed, to High quality HD footage of the same stuff + even people having a crack at doing their own “Online TV Shows”.
These range from things like Tech Reviews to DIY Electronics + Prank Shows, some of which are better than mainstream shows like Beadle’s About or Candid Camera managed to pull off.
There seems to be more & more people wanting to have a crack at it (not just because you can earn money online by Youtubing), but not quite sure how to get started, so lets see what I can do to help……….
The first thing you’ll need is a camera. It doesn’t have to be anything too special, but basically helps if you use pretty much any camera made in the last 7yrs or so that’s capable of recording in 720p or 1080p High Definition (HD).
A Digital SLR Camera (DSLR) or a “Bridge” camera is likely to be too big & heavy to lug around if vLogging (video blogging) on the move like Roman Atwood (and others) do on a regular basis, and you’re best off with either a Digital Compact camera, or a small handheld video camera such as from the Sony Bloggie range, and their equivalents from other manufacturers such as Panasonic.
A proper camcorder such as my Panasonic is acceptable and not too bad to carry around with you all day too (and the quality is quite stunning).
My long time favourite for digital compact cameras is Fujifilm, but last time I looked it appeared they’d slimmed their range down to a selection of “Bridge” cameras + some very expensive compact system cameras with interchangable lenses. They’ve got exceedingly good colour reproduction qualities though.
Most the top Youtubers appear to be using Canon + Sony Digital Compacts at the moment, and GoPro cameras for when things get a bit more sweat inducing, such as ziplining or messing about in water.
The next stage (assuming you’ve already set-up your youtube account), is to shoot some video…. that’s easy enough, just point the camera at want you want to film, and press the record button, etc.
After that, you’ll probably want to edit the video, and for that you’ll need video editing software. Some of this you can get for free (e.g. Windows Movie Maker), other higher end software can end up costing you as much as the camera did. If you’re a Mac user, you’ll probably be using iMovie. For Windows users like myself, my current personal favourite is Corel VideoStudio Pro X5, which has been succeeded by a number of newer versions, it’s up to VideoStudio Pro X8 now I think. You can buy it either as a standalone product, or bundled together with my favourite photo editing software Corel Paintshop Pro X*.
Editing isn’t really too complicated if you’ve never done it before, it’s basically just a matter of dropping the video file onto the timeline at the bottom of the software, and adding the various bits & bobs like captions as and where needed.
When you’ve finished editing, you’ll need to save the finished video file, then wait for it to start rendering. This may take a while, and it helps if you’ve got a fair bit of RAM installed in your computer….. it’ll do it, but very slowly if you’ve got the minimum 2GB of RAM needed to run Windows… and it’s best to have at least 4GB of RAM installed, and perhaps even make use of Windows ReadyBoost.
Once done, you can then start uploading the video to Youtube. This also takes what feels like forever. While that’s in progress you can add a video title, keyword tags, opt to monetise the vid (if you’ve enabled that) + put a place tag on a map to show where you shot it (though you may want to give that a miss in some circumstances).
And that’s got you started Youtubing, I hope.
Though there’s still more to do yet… you may want to gain followers & views on Youtube by promoting your video via other Social Media outlets such as Twitter + Facebook + Instagram (among others), and collaborations with other Youtubers via sites such as ChannelPages, and checking your Video Stats via Youtube + elsewhere.
Check out our favourite Youtube Vids, or read our free guide on how to start blogging for money that could help you earn extra money online in addition to posting stuff on Youtube.
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Youtube Video Picks Playlist
A selection of Youtube vids I playlisted……….
AlltheInterweb Now does Web Design
AlltheInterweb now offers Web Design services, as a new part of the website, in the form of an actual business I’m setting up via the UK Government’s NEA scheme for self-employment.
You’ll find further details HERE on the website I made for the web design service.