Since restarting the site, all of a week or so ago, I hooked it up to Google Webmaster Tools and had a look at the stats. I was quite surprised to see a number of 404’s related to people trying to visit the very ancient and long dead Sim*Stars site that I used to run, which featured celebrity Sims created by me and a few tutorials on skinning.

Personally, I stopped playing The Sims many years ago (I moved onto Second Life in 2003!), and originally the reason I shut the site down was that I was annoyed. I was annoyed that people were republishing my work without credit. I was annoyed that people would leech my downloads in a frame or hidden link, taking great care to make it look like it was their own content. I was annoyed with people passing off my work as their work, actually going as far as to say ‘I made this!’. I was annoyed with people selling CD’s of my Sims on Ebay. I was generally annoyed at giving up my own time and effort providing something for free and getting, well, sh!t on for it.

But now I don’t much care, and I’m far more sceptical these days - I recognise there will always be people out there who are just out for themselves, trying to get recognition and/or money for other people’s efforts; I see evidence of it all the time, all over the web. Indeed, I still see my skins in various places, largely without credit or passed off as someone elses… so they’re pretty much in the public domain anyway, but it seems people are definitely still coming in their numbers to find the original site.

That said, I also recognise that there are many more people who are basically decent, and punishing the majority for the actions of a minority is something best left to Governments and lawmakers.

So, like, is there still a demand for these things? If I can find it all, should I bother to put Sim*Stars back up? If I do, it will be purely archives - I don’t envisage creating any new content.

If you have an opinion, leave a comment!

To blog or not to blog. That is the question.

Hello! Today I am struggling with the nature of blogging… now that I’ve resurrected it, what should I actually say on my personal website blog thingy? It’s a tough decision. Ideally, I think I need three or four personal websites with no discernible links or affiliations!

Ok, now you’re probably wondering why I need multiple websites, what the hell I’m talking about, and why it’s a tough decision on what to say here. (Either that or you could not care less and have already moved on to read something that DOES make sense…)

Still here? Then I’ll try and explain!

» Read The Rest

Did you know that Google Earth has a built in flight simulator? It’s great fun to play with!

Keyboard controls and how to access it from within Google Earth are here:

Google Earth Flight Simulator

You know all those annoying websites that want you to sign in just so that you can read one bloody article you’re interested in? Well, bugmenot.com provide generic user logins that you can use to save yourself the bother. Definitely a handy one to remember!

They also provide throwaway email addresses that you can use if you find yourself having to give email addresses to receive verification links or the like at email.bugmenot.com

It might also be worth mentioning that if you came by an article that refuses to let you read it from a Google search, very often there is a cached version indexed that IS fully readable! Instead of clicking the main hyperlinked title from your Google results, just click the link that says Cached just beneath the link description.

I thought I’d write this up, because it always surprises me how few people I talk to know about it!

You can download any Youtube video to keep and watch at your leisure from your hard drive simply by going to kissyoutube.com

Even better, if you’re already on youtube watching a video, just add ‘kiss’ before youtube.com in the URL and it will immediately take you to the kissyoutube link for that video.

Videos are saved in .flv (Flash Video) format, and links to a free player are included on the video download page, but there are plenty of free .flv converters out there if you prefer another format

Yes, I have some content! w00! Mainly because it was really quick and easy to add, and is my most recent useless contribution to the world (read: the two other people for whom the article is relavent).

So what is it? Well, it’s instructions on how I managed to make the non-MIDI capable but otherwise rather excellent value for money ION iED05 USB Digital Drum Kit work with all kinds of MIDI software… for free! So, yes, as I said, this probably doesn’t apply to a whole lot of people, to be honest, but for those that are seeking to do the same, well, here it is!

Using the ION iED05 USB Drum Kit with MIDI capable software

It’s been a fair while since wibwobweb.com had any content, and to be honest, there isn’t a whole lot even now, but something is more than nothing!

Basically, I dumped my hosting company some time ago and just never bothered to resurrect the site - partly due to time constraints, partly due to lack of interest. It’s never really been anything more than a personal dumping ground for my various stuffs, such as artwork, music, experimentation with AI and the like.

Eventually, I hope to put back some of the more useful and fun stuff I had here before, like the particleIllusion site featuring tips and free emitter libraries. Like the wibwobwebbot. Like my tips articles on obscure stuff you didn’t know you wanted to try. And of course I’ll repost my various artworks, which now include quite a number of new renderings since anything was last here.

I’ve also moved on to new interests, so I guess some of the content will reflect those when I get round to it. That might be quite soon… time isn’t really an issue these days since I’m currently unemployed :/