Rob Hilken

Really happy with the way this looks framed :-)

2009-07-10T21:14:00.002+01:00

A few short comic strips

2009-06-16T11:09:00.001+01:00

See a penny, pick it up... by *rdch on deviant ART

teeandtoast comix 1 by *rdch on deviant ART

teeandtoast comix 3 by *rdch on deviant ART

Back garden birdwatching

2009-06-15T22:09:00.001+01:00

Spending a bit of time at my computer again recently has proved fruitful in a few ways. Meet a pair ofjackdaws that have been hanging out on the roof of the house opposite this summer. Jackdaws are cracking little birds, playful and sociable.

Two Isobels

2009-06-15T14:47:00.001+01:00

Isobel by *rdch on deviant ART

Isobel Too by *rdch on deviant ART

Click here for details on how to Commission a portrait.

Smoking Blonde Graffiti

2009-06-15T12:28:00.001+01:00

Smoking Blonde.alt by *rdch on deviant ART

New Portraits

2007-11-15T13:01:00.002Z

This blog has been a bit neglected for a while, but I'm going to try and keeping it a bit more up to date with news etc. So first up I'd like to share two portraits with you that I have just finished. I'm pretty happy with them for the most part...

Jocelyn by *rdch on deviant ART

Peggy by *rdch on deviant ART

Petition Downing Street to Scrap ID Cards

2006-11-17T15:00:00.000Z

ID Cards are going to be a huge waste of money. So I encourage you all to petition the government to scrap them immediately.

The deadline for this petition is 15th February so please do it asap.

Not only will they infringe civil liberties and dehumanise our population, but they wont improve our security one bit.

Security is all about the weakest link, and ID cards won't eliminate this fact at all. A British-born terrorist may even HAVE a valid ID card, and STILL commit an attrocity.

If they are going to be voluntary then they're just plain pointless - who in their right mind will want one? especially if you're planning on commiting an illegal act.

How will we issue them to immigrants that come from a poor country with an unreliable government that may not even be able to prove their ID anyway?

They say that ID cards may cost the tax payer over a billion pounds in total. I object to that. I don't mind paying taxes if the money is spent well, but I really object to such waste.

The government's record on computer databases (NHS) is so poor that why anyone would trust that this will even work is beyond me.

Spend that money on more intelligence. That's a much better way to improve our security.

Google wants your video

2005-08-30T13:01:00.000+01:00

Google wants your video by ZDNet's Dan Farber -- During a panel at NCTA today, Google co-founder Larry Page announced his company's latest experimental service: video on demand. Users will be able to upload videos, which Google will catalog, host, rank and distribute. Page said that video is more difficult to deal with (bandwidth demands, hosting costs, etc.) than audio (podcasts), but that Google might consider a similar [...]

UK Organ Donor online register

2005-08-22T13:50:00.000+01:00

OK so you carry a donor card, but maybe you don't have it on you all the time... Why not sign up for the online Organ Donor register now?

Who Should You Vote For?

2005-04-21T13:54:00.000+01:00

Aim
The aim of this site is to provide voters in the 2005 UK general election with a simple tool to see how the main parties represent their views. While this site is not pursuing any political agenda we would obviously urge all users to research the issues in greater detail themselves before making their final voting choice. This site is not funded by any political party or interest group.

As expected, it told me that I should vote Lib Dem, followed by the Green party.. unfortunately I live in Belfast and am not totally clued up on Northern Ireland politics just yet, so my options aren't as simple as that.

Should people be jailed for graffiti?

2005-04-11T12:54:00.000+01:00

Is jail the best way to deal with young people who scrawl their names over property, costing the UK millions of pounds in clean-up costs a year?

One judge in Manchester thought so - on Thursday he sentenced two young men to 10 months' youth detention for spraying their signatures, or "tags", onto trains and bridges. He said he hoped it would deter others.

The BBC News website went to one of London's graffiti hotspots to see if people thought it was so serious a crime that it merits a custodial sentence.

The Westway flyover, which stretches for miles over west London, has long attracted graffiti artists and taggers.

Colourful artwork festoons the grey concrete arches supporting the dual carriageway and along the neighbouring underground railway track.

In some parts, local authorities and building owners have worked with graffiti artists, commissioning works and encouraging what many admire as a vital urban art form.

Less admired are the ubiquitous and uninvited taggers, who have left their mark on almost every lamp-post, doorway, pillar, shop front and wall in some areas as well as etching their names into bus shelters and train windows.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea says it removed graffiti covering 50,000 square foot - the equivalent of 45 full-size football pitches - on private property alone in 2003-4.

It sees graffiti as an "enviro-crime", which, along with fly-posting, litter and dumped cars, blights its neighbourhoods and can pre-empt spiralling crime and anti-social behaviour.

The cost of cleaning up graffiti across London each year is estimated at £100m.

But in trendy Ladbroke Grove, by the famous Portobello Market, most passers-by saw a clear distinction between genuine street art and messy tagging.

Few thought taggers deserved to be locked up.

Yuri Cardenas, 38, of west London, said it would be better to force offenders to clean up the mess they had made.

He said: "I believe it has to be punished in some way but jail is too harsh."

Nardos Michael, 17, and her friend Ferewaini Habton, 16, said tagging was "stupid", adding: "There's just no need."

But they said locking people up for graffiti was "heavy-handed".

Nardos said: "I think community service would be more appropriate. They could make them clean it up themselves."

Social worker Ines Berg, 34, said she did not see most graffiti as a problem.

She said: "I think the kids should be given more space where they can do something productive with it. It's great. Why shouldn't the place be colourful?

"If this happened, I think a lot of this silly nuisance stuff would stop."

Portobello resident Rachel Collingwood, 39, agreed.

She said: "I like graffiti. I think most people do. I'm just not so mad about it when they write their names over my front door.

"It's grim enough looking at all these grey buildings, especially under the Westway, so let's have a bit of colour - just not on my door please."

Rudy Gad, 37, said the authorities should find out what young people were interested in and provide more activities for them to distract them from nuisance behaviour such as tagging.

"When graffiti originally came out in my school days in '84 or '85 it was done as an art form. But the authorities tried to suppress it.

"Tagging is just done by bored children. If they like art so much then send them on a course for artwork rather than sending them to jail.

"If someone who scrawls their name on walls is sent to prison with bank robbers and murderers, they're going to come out doing much worse things than tagging.

"A 12-month community service order scrubbing off tags would be better."

Patricia Roche, 59, of central London, said the idea of custody for graffiti was "dreadful".

She added: "I like graffiti if it's done well. I don't see anything wrong with it. It brightens up the day sometimes.

"I just don't notice the tagging, I don't care about it and I don't see why people make such as fuss."

New UK Map Site Online

2005-03-18T19:11:00.000Z

I have finally launched the beginnings of my new map of the UK site. I'm very happy with the level of detail of the maps on these UK maps.

Are you blogging mad?!

2005-02-17T12:22:00.000Z

I have decided that the best way to get all the great material I have on the countries that I have visted or lived in, out there is to blog about them!

Scotland travel - Spectacular and scenery characterises Scotland's diverse landscape.

Spain Holidays - Spain is the third most popular tourist country in the world, and its not hard to see why.

Malaga Travel - Malaga is one of 8 provinces in Andalucia. It is also the name of the city that is the capital of the province. The coastline of Malaga is commonly known as the Costa del Sol.

I'm sure there are more to come!

Harry's Top Ten Movies of 2004!

2005-01-06T10:59:00.000Z

From 'Ain't it Cool News'

10 - THE CONTROL ROOM
9 - INCREDIBLES
8 - THE DREAMERS
7 - SILMIDO
6 - ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
5 – JA ZUSTER, NEE ZUSTER
4 - HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS
3 - AVIATOR
2 - BEFORE SUNSET
1 - TAEGUKGI HWINALRIMYEO

Read the article for a brief summary of each film. I'll be trying my best to see all of these in the next few months.

Murals in Belfast

2004-11-15T13:30:00.000Z

I have uploaded a gallery of murals in Belfast, taken mostly in the Shankhill and Falls areas. I have yet to take photos of the ones in East Belfast, but I will upload them as soon as I do.

KLF Communications

2004-08-13T15:09:00.000+01:00

I've always loved the KLF.

I loved it when they burnt a million quid and I loved it when they deleted their entire back catalogue at the height of their fame, but unfortunately that meant that I never got to hear some of their best work.... until now.

You can use emule to get almost their entire back catalogue in a single download, but that wasn't enough for me :)

So I have been hunting around and these are my tips for the best sources of KLF material:

http://www.biglouis.de/klf/home/ - Loads of news and links... a great site.

http://www.biglouis.de/klf/home/ftp.php - Olav's ftp server works, the other one didn't.

http://www.blacksmoke.org/ - Jimmy Cauty's new project.

http://www.youwhores.com/ - A new Bill Drummond project.

http://www.swcp.com/lazlo-bin/discogs?klf - A complete KLF discography.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/onemusic - Jimmy Cauty talks to OneMusic about his new project - Blacksmoke.

Bill Drummond's web site - Includes details of all of his other projects, including 'You Whores' and 'My Death'.

Blackspot Sneakers: An Anti-Corporation Corporation

2004-08-10T17:31:00.000+01:00

"Blackspot sneakers. What an intriguing idea. A non-brand. An anti-brand. Its own brand. A shoe whose only advertising is the word of mouth of its owners, and the impact of the image of its wearers.

But then, I thought, why stop there? Why be an organization marketing an anti-brand, when it can become so much more than just that? Why not turn blackspot sneakers into an anti-corporation? Fight fire with fire. Make the shoes' owners the company's owners. Whenever someone buys a pair of blackspots, he or she is buying a share in blackspot sneakers. A cooperative. An anti-corporation."

Words are stupid!

2004-07-29T14:20:00.000+01:00

Why isn't 'phonetically' spelled that way?
Why do 'flammable' and 'inflammable' mean the same thing?
Why is 'dyslexic' so hard to spell?
Isn't it cruel to spell 'lisp' the way it is?
Why does 'fast' mean to stand still and move quickly at the same time?

Create M3U playlists in folders with the context menu

2004-07-22T18:54:00.000+01:00

The blurb says "Mp3ListShellEx is Windows Explorer shell extension. It allows to easily build many types of playlist (wpl, b4s, m3u, pls) and mp3 list (htm, xml, xls, csv). To create list just select in your favorite file manager drive(s) or folder(s) with mp3 files and choose desired list type from context (right-click) menu."

If you download music and organise songs in folders (by album etc.) then this very handy little application will let you right click on the folder and create a playlist. Much better and simpler than doing it through winamp etc...

Sample the Delights of Dan the Automator!

2004-06-25T14:48:00.000+01:00

Dan "the Automator" Nakamura is one of hip-hop's most prolific DJs, working with Damon Albarn in Gorillaz as well as a host of projects under bizarre pseudonyms.

Here are my favourite records by Dan the Automator. If you want to buy one on Amazon try the used/marketplace sections, as they are often cheaper there than from Amazon itself.

Handsome Boy Modeling School
So...How's Your Girl

Deltron 3030

Wanna Buy a Monkey?

Gorillaz

A Much Better Tomorrow

Nathaniel Merriweather presents
Lovage - Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By
(Instrumental version)

Roomania hits the web!

2004-06-23T18:20:00.000+01:00

Apparently Wayne Rooney's success at Euro 1004 has launched a massive surge in Rooney domain names being bought. Me and Chris decided to launch our own site as a tribute to the man himself!

Visit our Wayne Rooney Fan Site.

My Favourite Newsletters

2004-06-16T14:05:00.000+01:00

Like many people, I have signed up to quite a few email newsletters. Here are a few of my favourites:

Popbitch - Showbiz gossip. Bitchier than OK and Hello put together, this is guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Arrives on Thursdays.

B3TA - Links to very surreal websites, made by the B3TA crew and friends, and a selection of the best other websites out there. Compulsive reading which arrives on Fridays.

Crypto-Gram - A much more serious newsletter, but one that is no less compelling reading. Written by security expert Bruce Schneier, this monthly newsletter has easy to understand articles on the most important security and cryptography issues of the day. Arrives on the 15th of the month.

The Onion - A much talked about satirical news newsletter, The Onion lives up to it's reputation and more. From the cynical and cutting to just plain silly, there is something for everyone in the Onion's email. Arrives on Mondays.

The Silicon.com weekly roundup - One for the Geek, this email contains the pick of the weeks tech stories, written in a light hearted and usually funny format. I havent been able to get this one without the almost daily news emails that come with it, but the weekly roundup is worth the junk. Arrives on Fridays.

The BBC daily email - Customised daily news headlines from around the world. This allows you to go directly to stories that interest you without having to trawl the site daily to see if there is any news.

The Google Newsletter - Essential if you work as a webmaster to keep up with the latest development in the industry. Of course you will probably know most of the stuff in the newsletter way in advance of it arriving, but it is nice to hear stories direct from the horses mouth.

Feel free to recommend any great newsletters that you recieve, and I hope you enjoy some of these!

Maps of Ireland

2004-06-10T16:32:00.000+01:00

Well, it seemed only natural, now that I am living in Ireland, to start making some sites based on it, so here is my first - Map of Ireland!

James Rosenquist

2004-06-01T17:40:00.000+01:00

An artist that Mel & I discovered at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, in their permanent Pop Art Gallery. I have always loved Pop Art, especially Roy Lichtenstein, and fell in love with Rosenquist's stuff immediately. I particularly like his more recent stuff including the 'Speed of Light' series and this untitled piece from 2002:

The Greek Mythology Link - Troy

2004-06-01T17:39:00.000+01:00

After seeing and enjoying the movie 'Troy' this week, I did a litte digging on the Internet and I came accross this very detailed and complete site about the whole of the Trojan War and more. Very readable stuff.