Not So Flashy Tablet

The HTC Flyer, the Motorola Xoom, the LG G-Slate, the new Samsung Tab, and others besides.  That's the Android line up for 2011.  Amongst those Tablets we've got dual cores, 3D screens (no glasses required), 3D picture and video recording, front and rear facing camera's, HDMI outs, USB Hosts, SD card slots, 3G and if you're in the states 4G, and all sorts of nice software features and all the goodness we've come to know and love from Android - full Sat Nav as standard, native Flash support, Desktops and Widgets and allllll that jazz.

Flanking the squadron of Droid Tablets we've the Blackberry Playbook and the WebOS driven TouchPad from HP.  These two have the disadvantage of being pretty much a cold start.  Blackberry are looking to overcome this by putting an Android App emulator in the Balckberry OS, allowing them to instantly run the vast library from the Android platform.  HP are maybe relying more on the platform capabilities - the OS is ultra-smooth, but then, it was on the Palm phones and they hardly sold at all.  All the HP WebOS phones and Tablets will have contact based communications - that's a nifty thing I'd like to see expanded on.  Have a website up on your phone and decide you need to see it on a bigger screen - just brush the phone against the tablet and the browser on the tablet will open up and go right to it.  One feature and and slightly more smooth scroll... I don't know if that's going to be enough but... good luck to them.

That leaves the defending champion - the iPad.  This week we'll find out what's in store for the iPad2, and it's all over the web what that might be.  Dual core?  Thinner and lighter of course.  Extended battery life?  Perhaps.  Better GPU, no doubt, near field communications (the touch based sensor thing like in the HP WebOS Devices), probably.  A camera?  Almost certainly on the front for video calling, maybe on the back too.  Rumour has it the iPad2 wont hit the shops as soon as they should have because there was a last minute change to the hardware spec which caused something of a bottle neck in production.  This could be a new killer feature, planned all along but held back from manufacturer to ensure secrecy.  It could be that the iPad2 wasn't expecting so much from the rival camps and decided they should follow suit with something they were going to leave off.  Who knows.  But whatever the iPad2 brings, there's one thing I'm looking intently for.  The elephant in the iOS room so to speak.  Adobe's Flash.

Full disclosure - I'm probably going to get the iPad2.  I had intended to get, well, nothing, or an Adroid Tablet if the price was right.  I was hoping HTC would bring out a equal to their brilliant Shift device from years ago - dual OS, triple form factor - something similar with Windows7 and Android would be epic and I'd get it in a heart beat, probably even if the price wasn't right :P  But no such bravery from HTC this time round - and considering the Shift came before it's time and hardly sold at all... I can't blame them.  Anyway, I happen to have a need for an iOS device, since KPM are in the business of Apps at the moment, and I have no need for an iPhone nor iPod Touch.  I was going for the touch as the 'cheapest' iOS thingy but then I saw the price, and after I'd stopped laughing I figured, rather than paying that much for something I really have no use for at all beyond app testing, I would rather throw on a hundred or two more but get something that at least will find a use for itself.  So I'm expecting to get the iPad2, and I'm quite looking forward to it but for one, well, two minor niggles, and the first is Flash.

My hope is that Apple will allow me to use Flash on the iPad2. It's not really likely but as much as people try to tell me I don't use any Flash, I'm afraid I simply do.  I'm certainly able to tell when I'm using Flash and to what extend, and I promise you it's out there on the web.  Tonnes of the stuff.  It's everywhere - and tell me it's dead as many times as you like, but you'd be delusional is all.

People say it's buggy and crashes, and can not run well on a phone or tablet OS, but I have an Android phone and I use Flash on that all the time - I don't recall a single time it's crashed, and I've never noticed glaring bugs.  So while I might have believed someone telling me Flash can't work on a phone 18 months ago, Google and Adobe have proven this assertion flatly wrong.

People say it guzzles battery life.  And I suppose on this point you could be right.  Although... only when you actually choose to use it - it's not like it's running in the background draining the battery and in fact it wont even auto load on a web page unless you want it to.  It's happy to politely wait for you to press the flash object, and only then will it load that particular object.  It's really simple and uses no battery at all.  When I do run some flash on a page, it uses battery no more heavily than an App does, so to say, "Anything that uses battery should be outright banned" would be a reason to ban the Apps too.  Even 3G and calls.  Certainly video calling will suck the life out of the device at the same rate.    And the iPad has *plentiful* battery, being as it's essentially no more demanding than the phone but with huge battery.  No no, battery hasn't been a problem for my HTC Desire and I'm sure the iPad2 could best the Desire for battery life.  Also, FYI, Flash is now on version 10.2, which has less battery consumption than it did when Apple first issued the ban.

So it's alive and kicking, it works well, and it's as battery friendly as half a dozen features that aren't banned.  HTML5 is not an alternative to every capability of Flash.  So come on!  It's one thing saying it'll be the end of the world before it's been successfully done on another platform, but now it has, drop the pretence and let me use Flash.  They don't have to install it by default - I don't mind having to download the App from Adobe - but let it be an option at least.

My other hope for the iPad2 is that both the 3G and WiFi versions have GPS.  On the last model, the WiFi version lacked GPS.  I don't need a 3G version, since I've got an Android phone I can create a wireless hotspot and share the 3G contact from that without another contract.  But I *do* want GPS still, since Apps we make will sometimes use it and... well... why wouldn't I want it?  I suppose they imagine if you don't get the 3G version - you will have no other possible means of using the iPad outside your house.  Or... more to the point, they want to make it less useful outside the house if you don't stump up for the 3G.  I hope this attitude fades with the 2nd generation in face of competitors features if not just not to be adversarial towards their customers, but I know the GPS components Apple uses are integrated onto the 3G parts, and it's unlikely they'll have a "GPS only" version of the component to put in when the 3G isn't to be used but... a boy can dream.

And that's it.  Flash and GPS.  Lacking those two basic features is just about the only way the iPad2 may fall short, and given that it's a premium priced product falling short is the biggest reasons I find it difficult to hand over my pennies.
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Phil
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Ninjas! Yarrr!

A few of you will already know that some friends and I are bringing some games to market.  It's been a lot of fun for us, seeing them start out as Biro scribbles on napkins, becoming lines and basic shapes on a screen that fall apart and disappear on collision, and progressing up to physics driven engines with a setting and a personality, bonuses and power-ups.  I'm going to talk mainly about the more advanced game we've been working on, we're hoping people will have as much fun playing it of course, and I'll keep you posted on when it's out in the various mobile app stores and wotnots.  As you might guess from the title, you play a Ninja, and you spend most of your time swinging about the place getting from target to target, while obstacles and dangers chip away at you.

We're basically working on the menu layouts and settings at this point.  There's some awesome graphics coming for those parts too and some pro cut scenes being built by people with more graphics skillz than I have, but what's there already has us pretty excited - it's just good to see ideas take actual form.  Well.. virtual form... you know what I mean.

Anyway, here's a little sample board.  These graphics aren't final copy but it gives you a sense of the elements... maybe.  Next time I update on this I might be brave enough to add some screenshots.

That's right - it's got Ninjas, it's got bombs, it's got cannons.  What more do you want in a game?!  What?  Sharks?!  Ohh... go on then, just a little one...


Be good!

Phil
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News from London Town

Long time no blog huh?

A few people have asked me about my blog over the past, well, year or so that I've not really done much, and in case you aren't one of them, my general view on MOMS was that it's shut down.
I did attempt to restart once or twice but I wasn't feeling the magic, which is to say I wasn't really blown away with my own posts, and so still, I guess it's kinda moth-balled.
There is a question of where to go next - since very occasionally I'd like to make a post, maybe spurts of regular blogging again, but I doubt I'll be committed to the pace I kept in the past.  An occasional blog doesn't get checked by the readers (those no RSS'ed up anyway) so doesn't serve the same function, yet, I suppose that's just how it is.
I'm also not too sure about keeping it 'Windows Live'.  It's always had some pro's and con's but I think I might check out Blogger and WordPress and have a think about a rebrand, and change of platform.
I've recently started a Twitter account, and I think it's fair to say I'm not really getting into that.  None the less, maybe there's a place for that in the new face of this blog... perhaps my twitter feed could post to a microblog section of the main blog site... keep up some small content between real posts.  But then... oh I dunno - I'll sort something out - watch this space.
But on the subject of occasional posts - if ever there was a time, this would be one of them.  Let's do a quick update on personal life...
Big Cheese to Big Smoke (well... medium cheese perhaps... anyway...)
I have moved from Manchester to London.  This has involved quitting my job for the corporate group whos' name shall not be spoken, leaving the team of bright sparks and tough nuts to fend off the business without me, and heading to Event Connections to take on the roll of Technical Manager.

I have to say... the adjustment has been hard.  Not that I didn't expect that to some degree, but really - it's been and continues to be hard.  I miss some of the people - there's more than a fair share of vipers around in any financial company but you know, that's just part of the game, and there's also really great people who make you laugh and keep you going, and as often as not some people can be all those things.
On a more... introspective note, I guess I felt like... well, important I suppose.  I had a lot of business knowledge and a broad roll for my skills.  A lot of freedom and answered to no-one really, barring the very occasional scrutiny of direct boss or the odd interest of the MD.  I always a strong bargaining position in daily work life and I had a good amount of influence and usefulness.  Changing jobs... you suddenly go from being a chief to being the new guy.  You know nothing, you're exposed to new things, and that highlights holes in your skill set you didn't know were there.  It's hard - humility was a post-it note on the back of my project folder before, now it's a daily companion and I hadn't realised how bad at knowing when to ask questions and knowing when to apologise I'd become.
Having said all that...
The stress levels in my previous job were insane.  Mattius and I were discussing it last week, as he's an old company vet/graduate/escapee too - from the same post in fact.  He'd recently had the first week in about 18 months that had come close to the stress levels he used to endure daily and it reminded him of the time.  Don't get me wrong - he loved it, but, we both also remember that you can't live like that for long.
And the new job is hard to handle now, but that will pass as I get more familiar, and once it does I think I'll be very happy here.  The exposure of weaknesses was one of the reasons to change environment, and it's all good opportunity to learn and improve.  In the mean time, I have a lot to offer in return - a lot of specialist knowledge I can turn to this place as time goes on - there's a lot to do and I'm in a good position to do it.  I hope :)

Manchester for London is an even swap for me.  Manchester has some obvious pro's - great people, familiarity, a manageable size - but London has its' share of charms too.  I have good friends here, the city is full of life and its' scale is inspirational, and there's something attractive about a city you've never quite explored.
I now live in Streatham, in a big house with a few other people.  Not living on my own isn't something I'm really finding hard to adjust to, mainly because when I 'lived on my own' I always had someone staying or visiting anyway, and I've got a lot of space in my new pad, so it's all good.
So there we go - I'm a small fish in a big ocean here, but that just means there's plenty of room to grow.
Be good!
__
Phil
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Aspirations

No no, I’m not talking about breathing out.  The other kind of aspirations – the ambition stuff, to aspire to be, to… well, let’s have a dictionary definition eh?  No expense sparred around here!

Dictionary.com tells us…

as⋅pi⋅ra⋅tion
1. A strong desire, longing, or aim; ambition
2. A goal or objective desired

And the urban dictionary adds…

aspire
1. To perspire around the area of the ass. Usually occurs between cheeks in temperate conditions or during exercise.
Leads to loss of body fluids, resulting in the need for rehydration.
Has been known to leave an arse-shaped residue on plastic chairs, which may lead to public humiliation, social disintegration and polarisation. Be warned.

So there you are. 

Russ said over lunch today that people lose their aspirations when they reach a certain age –  that age might be different for everyone, but at some point you’re not bothered about being more than you are.  Harsh eh?  I think I prefer to flip that round and say at some point people can become content with life, they realise the value of what’s around them and what they’ve accomplished.  He asked me if I thought I’d ever reach the point where I don’t aspire and without hesitation I replied ‘No’.  I surprised myself there if I’m honest - I thought that was an odd reply for me… because… I don’t feel like I’m aspiring much, and if I am, I don’t know what I’m aspiring to, but with 100% self assurance I blurted out a ‘no’, and the realisation of why I did so was in some way more hollow a thought than the alternative.  I think I’ll always aspire to be more than I am, because, and I’m kinda opening up here more than I like to do, because on a very deep level, I don’t believe I will ever feel content with what I am.  Those words are carefully selected there… I think a lot of people aren’t content with who they are, and I don’t think I’m one of those people.  I’m like who I am, but I don’t think I’ll ever be content with what I am.

This train of thought comes off the back of some longer term thought and provoked most recently by a group of people down south who I did church with a few weekends back.  They were thinking about who they are – who, when you take of all the labels you wear – who you are to everyone else and the ‘off the shelf’ identities that you’ve poured yourself into the shape of and cling to so strongly… when you stop being your job, or the friend of your friends, or the partner of your partner, or your nationality… when you’re completely on your own in the middle of nowhere special with nothing to do but be… who are you.  And I gave that some thought… and chatting with the others about it afterwards I came to a point where I think I know who I am, or at least, I’m in touch with who I am – but, there was something that felt out of joint when I stripped off those labels to get at the me that’s left.  It evaded me for a little while, then I figured out the problem was the labels.  In my mind here, the labels are the ‘What’ I am, while the me without labels is ‘Who’, and in my life, the ‘What’ contradicts with the ‘Who’. 

If that makes sense. 

I don’t like what my work contributes to.  Sure – I make a difference when I can and like to think I have a positive influence in decision making that would otherwise be less tempered by… well… I play the games so I can win the odd round.  Anyone with any element to politics in their job will identify with that I think.  And it’s not all bad either – there’s some good in the service portfolio of my work, in fact it has to be at it’s core or no-one would need us and we’d have no business full stop, but it’s just littered with so much other stuff that is perhaps slightly less… based on best intentions.  I suppose that’s business.  I’m just saying I think sometimes we don’t do all we can do in the best interests of peoples lives, though sure, if we did we probably wouldn’t be around for long. But in my personal work remit and how it feels… well the truth is, what few situations I can push positively in, are vastly outweighed by how good I am at my job in the rest of the situations.  I’m not exactly making a legacy of my life… I think that’s why I treasure my time at e8 so highly.  Sure I was poor, very poor, and it wasn’t a sustainable life perhaps, but through all our trials and tribulations, the lean months and the hard sweat… we know, (potentially on the rarest occasions on a global and lasting scale), we know we did some good in this world, in some peoples lives, and it was my honour to be part of those things.  But that’s not what I am now, and maybe that’s ok… but… there’s a part of ‘Who’ I am that demands that.

I had this sussed.  I figured it out before, when I was deciding what to do post-London and if you recall I went to join the RAF.  While we’re being a bit more open than usual, and since I don’t suppose it matters anymore, MOD had been the goal for a long time.  Even going to London, working for e8 was a short term arrangement at first.  Six months to one year I confessed in my initial lunch/interview with Matt to be my commitment limit, and I explained my ongoing application to GCHQ.  That application was moved to MI5, and I interviewed at two stages for a position with them.  I didn't get the post, and there was a day when I walked through the streets of London city heavily weighed down by the knowledge I’d never get to retry that process again, and the aspiration to be what I knew I could have been had to slip away and let me lift my head to fresh ambitions.  I decided where I was (elucid8) had at least been a good thing in the world, and refocused to commit there longer.  When I left to force myself to find a next step, I found the RAF and I realised there was another chance to do the job I knew I was made for.  It’d be harder, and it’d have more strings attached in ways I was less equipped to deal with, but it was a plan for my life that fulfilled who and what I was and could be, and could be good at.  And it didn’t come to pass. 

So, now I wear the only labels that were to hand, and like everything I try to wear them well… but… it’s not who I am.  I don’t know there’s a way to ever be that now, not completely – not all day – and that can’t be unique to me.  You can miss it sometimes, you do.  And you know it’s not so bad – it’s like I said – at some point in your life, even if you don’t meet those aspirations – you become content.  Because life isn’t really about your plan, or what you think you’re going to be.  You don’t happen to life, life happens to you – and one day you’ll have a loving family and a community who are part of you and you’ve brought safety and security and provision to your loved ones and you realise life worked out pretty well despite your best plans.  But I’m not sure I count on that.  I’ll never stop aspiring, because I have nothing but my aspirations to be content by.  And what stopped me in my tracks this lunch time at that realisation, was that I don’t see a way to meet those aspirations anymore. 

But… it’s not an entirely bad thing.  I mean, it sucks, sure. It’s that afternoon in London city all over again and it’s heavy, and it even hurts a little.  But just like then, it’s not just an end – it’s a challenge to find something new.  New aspirations.  A lot of doors are closed to me – I can’t serve the public in an establishment pretty much full stop, but that doesn’t mean I’ve no way to make my mark, or rise to something… useful… to someone.  Maybe it’s a simple as nurturing the heart and giving another thought to becoming someones’ special someone.  There’s a lot of stuff I packed away at various points because they weren’t convenient or I didn't quite see how they’d fit in at the time… and maybe there’s something more to those things.  I’m not over the loss of my MoD ambitions, truth be told it fills me with sadness to think about it, but I’ll get there, and at the same time, I’m looking forward to what else can now be.

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Phil
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A Klingon Challenge

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0f-IzaOUro&hl=en]

When I woke today I had the geekiest urge I’ve had in a long long time. 

In my younger days I’ve been a keen trek fan, and as adulthood and a lack of new series has set in over the last few years that part of me has become much more of a footnote of my overall personality. 
I’m not sure if it’s because of the new upcoming Start Trek film, or because of the later to come games, including the MMORPG Star Trek Online, but I’ve felt that part of my geeche (it’s like a psyche but for geeks) flicker with the spark of fresh life.

My nephew has also apparently taken an instant liking to Star Trek, and has stolen my old Star Trek TNG VHS tapes.  He’s 4… I think, so he’s starting way earlier than me on that but it’s just as well – I saw started watching Star Trek at about 14 and by the time he’s 14 I’m sure we’ll be onto ‘WhiteBeam’ discs or something, which will be like… full surround 3D atmosphere video shizzle or something, and the thought of watching media designed for a flat screen 520 pixels across will seem as odd to him as playing with a flickbook for more than 10 seconds would seem to me.  Ok.. maybe we wont be quite that far from flat media but still…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdSfIZRURPg&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&hl=en]

I’ve also been moving boxes and possessions to the new flat from my rents house and amongst the board games box I chuckled to myself when I saw the ‘Star Trek: The Interactive Video Board Game: A Klingon Challenge’, which is one of those games from the 90’s where you played a VHS tape along side playing the board game and the VHS character would interrupt you at set times and shake it all up. It’s also from the category of ‘So bad it’s funny’ sort of fun, and not only do I own it but I might be guilty of having played it more than once.  With Kai occasionally coming round for the day and a desire to think of a means to occupy him other than slaughtering countless men in various shoot ‘em up games on the x-box, (and he being an excellent excuse to play this shameful game yet another time), I found myself wondering if I could find the video element on YouTube, as I doubt I’ll ever have the means to play a VHS again.

It’s not really on YouTube.  There’s clips but you can’t just play the thing as it needs to be played for the game.  I checked a wider web search and found some torrent sites that claimed in search results to have it but in fact didn’t, and not having any torrent software on my PC I wasn’t sure if I’d be bothered enough to fiddle with all that to get an AVI of the video anyway (which is basically what I’m after), so as a last attempt, I searched for official sites to do with the game (funny how the official sites are the last ditch places I’d go to) to see if other people had shared my desire and complained, resulting in readily available solutions.  Turns out people share my desire but there’s no solutions already available, but I did come across the information that a sequel had always been planned too.  Swap out the VHS with a different one and use the same board and pieces to have a totally different game.  That was always the point of Interactive Video Board games, and I started thinking if they did it on DVD they would have also been able to have interactive selection in the footage like DVD menus (which can be inserted between chapters of video easily enough).  I wondered what the next one would be like, if they’d have an extension to the board that you put on the side, if there were a few new pieces, and what the story might be.  Then I realised, ‘why wonder what it might be?’  I could make one.  Get a small cast together, write a short script and play with the games mechanics a bit.  Any video camera, PC, and video editing software is more than sufficient to produce something of the same quality with which the board game video was made (well… except they had the actual sets to use but… we can do something for that problem with easy to use CGI commonly available to plebes like me in this wonderful age)… I wondered which of my friends would be in on such a project and how we could put it up on a website for anyone with the original board game to use with a download and a few printouts to extend the board with.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atWnjWvF2jg&hl=en&fs=1&hl=en]

Then I looked at the list of things I should have been doing this whole time instead of playing with possible story lines and decided I probably wouldn't have time to see a project of this scale through properly. :-(  And it’d be utterly embarrassingly bad even if we did it I’m sure… still… maybe one day when I have more time and less concern about how cheesy it’d be :)  Until then, I’ll just share the thought with you, and sign off.

Be good,
__
Phil
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O2 - see what we can't do

So... I went for the HTC Touch Pro in the end.  I have to say, the Touch Pro, the iPhone, the G1, and the Xperia... they're all awesome devices worthy of adoration and bring much fun and functionality to ones life.  For all their comparative measure, they're each top of the table in very distinct ways.  Go smart phones!

So yeah, I went for the touch pro on O2.  I ordered the phone and got an email telling me the order had been received.
I waited...
I enquired, being on hold for over 20 minutes, about porting my number over.
I got a response telling me I'd be able to do this once I could tell them the serial number and phone number of the phone that they were sending to me. 
I waited...
I waited...
I called, on hold for ... actually I'm about done spending time on O2, I'll just summarise briefly that they're pretty crap and were unable to sort out an account for me for no better reason than their software can't undo an administrative error.  This would be the same reason I left then years ago, as in, the exact same error that apparently was never solved - only 'paused indefinitely'.  Last time this error cost me bank charges and a lot of inconvenience - I didn't feel like giving them another few months to mess me around in and did not believe they would resolve the problem even if I did... so I cancelled the order and that's that.

This left me Vodaphone who stock the X1 and Touch Pro, but their contracts are a bit on the pricey side and I got to looking at the G1 again.  I decided to give it a go, and now own a T-Mobile G1!  It's been a fun toy so far - I hope software continues to come out for it, that's the main risk really, but it's got everything a boy could want and then some, and for surfing the web on, I think it might well be the best of the 4.

Maybe a post for the G1 when I've really explored it.  Until then, be good :)
__
Phil.
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Cam-Op

I'm helping a friend cover a gig next week and I'll be operating a camera.  To be honest, I haven't logged that many hours behind a camera in my time.  Lots behind the visual control desk, but not so many on the camera itself - so I'm no expert really.  But I have done it, and having been on control desk often, I do know what shots I'd want to be receiving, so there is some reverse insight.  Would that be outsight..?  Hmmm... well, you know what I mean.

In any case, it's been a while, so I'm trying to refresh my memory on the basics of what I used to tell people who were fresh to cam-op'ing.  While I'm churning it over I may as well share my basic top tips with you all.  These tips have been formed over a few years, mostly from the legends Simon Graham and Matt Smith, with  some... indeed more than I'd like, learnt the hard way from mistakes.

Scene and Positions
Fairly obvious - but make sure there's good camera positions reserved for you, some nice backdrops to use, make sure nothing is in the backdrops you're going to use that shouldn't be, etc etc.  Don't interview someone with the sun behind them, be aware of wind direction on microphones and on the subjects themselves - spend some good time weighing up the setting and the angles well before the event and it will pay of a thousand fold when you come to shoot.

Shot Types
Firstly, let's talk about the basic kinds of shots we use.  When you're on camera, the person mixing the feed in post or live production will be lifting segments from you.  Not everything you point your lens at is going to be used, so you spend your time moving from one 'shot' to another to give the mixer a variety to pick from, taking instruction where possible.  While a shot is live, you tend not to move from it, but many a cam-op have watched the big screens confused as to why their feed is not being used at all - so try to think about what it is you're actually providing and where it fits into a mix of the other cameras on the team.
You might find it helpful to ask yourself how your view fits into one of these categories, and to look at what the mixer already has available.
Long
When mixing, I always liked to have one cam on long.  This is a view that carries little detail - it's an 'audience eye view' if you like, and will likely cover the entire stage or setting of activity.  I sometimes call this the safe shot - because if the closer zoomed cams are missing some sudden and key action, flicking to long will capture it at least in a wide setting.  You can always fade back to a closer cam once the op's on the ground have picked up on the action.  Generally because of the nature of the shot - you only need one long per setting/stage, because it's saying everything there is to be said.
Ambiance
This is a variation on the long - it's just even wider and your subject is not the main subjects of the piece.  In a concert situation, this would be a crowd shot, or extreme long of the stage from the very back of the audience.  There's no detail at all in fact - it's an establishing shot, a super safe shot, and something you should be hardly ever using beyond that.
Mid
Focus on a person or group, capturing their waist to their heads with a little space around them.  This is a nice shot for getting some detail closer than a live audience can make out on the ground, but giving you some margin to follow smoothly should the subject move about.  Especially useful on speakers who pace, sporting events, drama groups.  The majority of shots will tend to be mid shots - it carries with it some context, some subject detail - it's just nicely balanced for the viewer.
Close
So the band's doing that bit of the song where all the instruments have built up to a very loud very intense noisy sound and the singer is about to go into that really long emotional wailing that started as a word but just carries on as an undefined emotional drone and then there's a sustained series of similar effects.  The guy always looks hilarious when he's doing this - like he's constipated or something, and that amuses you and the team, meanwhile the audience and the band think it conveys a depth of emotion or something... point is - we all want to see they guys' face, tightly shot on the big screens so we can see the wrinkles and the sweat beads and everything.  The close is the most detailed, the most intense shot, but if that guy moves the camera will lose him instantly. 
Do use this shot - it's well worth it but don't over use - it will lose potency for the bit in the song you really want it for.  Don't use when they're likely to move a lot, and if they do move out the shot - don't try and follow them - either smoothly zoom out until your range is broad enough enough to catch them in it or stay still, and the mixer will change camera.  Following a moving target on close will just make the audience dizzy.
Craftsman
A very special close up.  Just like the above but specifically this is a close shot not of the subject, but of the subject of the subject.  Using our band example, this is the lead guitarists hand on the strings of the guitar during an impressive solo.  Another example is where we get the name - a craftsmans hands as he's working on a wooden carving. 
Partial/Merged Shots
When in doubt, go to the shots listed above.  But where you are one of several cameras, some more advanced shots might be acquired.  Remember you are one part of several, and where the technology allows, a number of views might be combined to make a more unique effect.  These shots will be sprinkled in amongst stretches of the above basic shots to just keep interest fresh and liven things up periodically.  There's lots to do, but a simple example I often use is to have on person get a mid shot, but hanging the subject to the very left side of the view, leaving loads of empty space on the right.  A second camera should get a close up but only using the right of the screen.  The desk will fade them together with a soft transparency and hey - funky shot.

Bringing it together then...
We start with an ambiance shot, looking down on an old industrial shed like building.  We cut to a view inside the building - a mid shot of the man working a block of wood, perhaps mix in a long shot of the internal of the workshop for better context.  Back to mid, and then fade to a close up of the mans face - see his concentration as the voice over will talk about his years of experience.  As the narrator moves from that to talking of the techniques the man uses, we merge to the shot of the mans hands as he carves, stay for a moment, then back to our mid.  Yes - using that formula alone, over and over, you could produce any program on the BBC's education hour.  And they do.
If you're looking for a homework assignment - try thinking of what merged shot you could use in this little example if you wanted to really shake things up with the education production team.

Head Space
Let's talk about space.  The space is the area of the shot that is not a subject, and getting the right balance of space and subject is what makes the quality.  As the viewer you get engrossed in the subject - so much that your brain filters out the space around them and you don't much notice, but this is where we separate the men from the boys.  It is your job to not let your brain filter it out, and to keep the space in your thoughts.  There some common sense to be had on this whether the subject is a person or an object or whatever, but I'm going to just talk about people subjects because it's what I see wrongly done most often.  
Back and Front
When dealing with people, there should be little to no space that is directly behind the subjects head.  Best illustrated by side shots - the back of the persons head should be close to or touching the frame of the shot, even if this leaves you with more space in front of the subjects head.  If it looks wrong - you need to zoom in a bit, but space in front of a person will look good - you're including a bit of space the person is looking into and that pleases the viewers brain - makes you feel like you yourself have space to occupy - that there's a wider area - less 'squashed up with the subject'.
Top and Bottom
Too much space above and below the subject isn't often helpful.  Again - you need to zoom in a bit if you're in this situation.  Back, top, and bottom space is 'dead space', and I think top space is the easiest to creep in on you.  A small margin might work nicely, but too much and you're making your subject look short and insignificant.  In some cases, you might actually be going for this - perhaps a contrast in a drama, but in general camera work you want to be conscious of top space and try to keep it trim.  Bottom space isn't so bad if it's adding context - the stage floor can provide an interesting angle effect but be critical and conscious of what the space below the subject is doing to your over all picture.

Motion
The word is smooth.  I usually tell green op's if they're on screen, just don't move - it's easier and I'll cut to another view when I want change.  This removes a huge amount of effects though and isn't always possible, so when you move, try and be smooth about it.  Remember the audience isn't controlling the camera - similar to a driver in a car, you don't quite feel how sharp that swerve you just made was because you were expecting it.  The passenger didn't know it was coming, and don't know when you were going to swerve back, and so will have been much more disturbed by it.  Keep the audience in mind and try not to make them sick.
Zooming
Again - smooth.  Zoom at an even pace, and here's a gotcha for any human subject when zooming from mid (waist to head) to close (head) - the centre of a mid shot is the breast plate.  If you zoom, you will be looking at their breasts, so you need to slowly tilt up as you zoom in equal proportion.  Practice this a little to get it smooth because I can't tell you the number of times I've seen a zoom into boobs, then a sharp tilt up to face.

Exceptions
All the above guidelines may well be suspended or deliberately broken to achieve a particular effect.  Perhaps you want jerky zooms in and out to match a crashing sound effect, perhaps you're emphasising that the person is facing the wrong way, or that you are anticipating and event to occur in the top space.  Camera Op'ing is about instinct and intuition more than strict rules, and your director should help guide you in specifics.

Well... hope that's been helpful.  There's tonnes more but this is about all I mention to monkeys who get landed with me.
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Phil
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