April 2005 Archives (31 posts)
Yahoo News Redesigned
Yahoo News has been redesigned. Wow! Talk about effecient. I love how the photos appear when you put your mouse pointer over a headline.
There is some pretty nifty DHTML going on to let you compare news sources side by side in the different news sections. Very nice. How long before the other news portals start to look like this?
Posted in Web at 4:59 PM | Comments (0)
Soderbergh’s Bubble
Director Steven Soderbergh has started work on his next film, which will be called Bubble. This will be the first of 6 low-budget films, shot in HD and simultaneously released in theatres, television and DVD in an effort to combat piracy.
If that isn’t radical enough, the film will contain a cast with no previous acting experience. I love that Soderbergh is trying to be creative and make films like Truffaut and Godard did in the 60s.
The Guardian Unlimited website has more information.
Posted in Movies at 4:38 PM | Comments (1)
No digital camera raw file support
I can’t get no digital camera raw file support for my Canon Digital Rebel XT. It’s too new.
The camera raw plug-in is up to version 3.0 (Adobe Photoshop CS2 required). My camera came out in February but Adobe won’t be supporting it until next month. Their website says:
Note: Adobe expects to offer preliminary support for the Canon Rebel XT and the Nikon D2X in May.
What a drag. I shot a few photos today in just the “raw” format. I’ve since changed my camera settings to shoot RAW + JPEG (at the highest quality). I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself.
Posted in Photography at 3:51 PM | Comments (0)
OS X Tiger Observations
Last night I went down to Carbon Computing to pick up OS X Tiger with all of the other Apple geeks in Toronto. The place was mobbed.
Installation takes about 30 minutes. Once installed you have to give the system another 30 minutes for Spotlight to index your system.
Dashboard
Dashboard is awesome. You’ll need a fast machine to see all of the cool animation and effects. If your friends thought the Genie Effect or Exposé were cool, then Dashboard will certainly impress them.
When setting up the widget for Weather, you’ll need to enter “Toronto, Ontario” to get the proper forecast for Toronto in Canada. I was getting the forecast for Toronto, Ohio, which is a little further south.
Safari 2.0
Safari is much faster. Built-in RSS support is a nice feature that I’ll use a lot. I was never a fan of any of the RSS shareware apps that are out there.
Safari is the fastest web browser on the Mac but it still has some Javascript problems. I’m still unable to access the formatting tools in the latest version of Movable Type. Firefox for OS X and Internet Explorer for Windows doesn’t have this problem.
Screen Saver
The RSS Visualizer screen saver is possibly the biggest surprise. It allows you to view a realtime display of any RSS feed from Safari RSS. You have to see this in action. I haven’t watched a screen saver since After Dark came out with those flying toasters.
Automater
Automater is one of those new features that will take a little work to figure out but save you loads of time down the road. If you build websites and CD-ROMs then you’re often having to rename large groups of files. Automater can do repetitive tasks like this for you, saving you time and boredom.
Preview
Big improvements here. Preview finally recognizes annotations. I often receive client changes to my design work as annotated PDF files. In the past I would have to use Adobe Reader to view annotations. Now I don’t have to.
RAW Camera Image Support. Awesome! Now I can quickly view RAW images from my Canon Digital Rebel XT quickly in Preview. No Photoshop plug-ins required.
Screen captures are now saved as PNG files instead of PDF. Not sure why. They open up fine in Preview.
QuickTime 7
Time to upgrade to the Pro version again. If you want to get the most out of QuickTime 7, you’ll have to purchase QuickTime 7 Pro for $29.99. If you’re doing any kind of video work then this is a must.
Posted in OS X Software at 1:45 PM | Comments (0)
Tuborg. Blech!
I was at a corporate event tonight where they were serving beer—Blue, Canadian and Tuborg. Naturally, I chose the Tuborg, the premium beer. I was eating cheese, shrimp, fruit, the usual appetizers at an event like this.
After a couple of sips of the Tuborg, I thought I was going to be sick. I had a bad experience with Tuborg on Boxing Day of this year and think it will be.
Danish beer is officially on my list of things not to drink. Chewing tobacco and potato salad are also on my list of things no to ingest for fear of immediate spewage.
What’s on your list?
Posted in Personal at 8:55 PM | Comments (2)
Life After Darth
There is a great article in WIRED magazine this month about George Lucas and what he plans to do next in terms of filmmaking. Part of this article makes reference to several Canadian filmmakers that had a strong influence on Lucas in the 60s.
Of particular interest was Canadian director, Arthur Lipsett. He made a short film called 21-87 which had a great influence on all of Lucas’ early films. References to 21-87 appear in THX-1138, American Graffiti and Star Wars.
Another WIRED article takes a look at Lucas’ new gaming/effects factory called Letterman Digital Arts Center. This one is available online—The New Heart of the Empire.
If you’re a Star Wars fan (Dave King) then this is compulsory reading.
Posted in Movies at 1:36 PM | Comments (0)
I need to get a life
Designing websites, email newsletters and CD-ROMs has become as routine as eating, breathing and sleeping. Two projects go out the door, another two come in and they always need to be done ASAP. “How soon can you show us something?” is usually how my meetings end these days.
Just when I think I’m getting ahead, the scope creep in one project starts to increase (along with my billable time). I’ve become a master juggler when it comes to managing multiple projects because I can’t say no.
I never want to say no to a client. You never know when a dry spell is going to hit and you have bills to pay. This hasn’t happened for a couple of years but it’s always in the back of my mind.
I should probably hire someone but that presents a whole other set of challenges that I’m not ready to face. I don’t think I’m a control freak. I just find it easier to do everything myself. Denial? I don’t know what you’re talking about.
I need to get a life and get out of this office. I need to watch more movies, play more hockey, spend more time with the family, take some pictures, visit a gym and get some sleep. I need help.
Only 4 CD-ROMS, 1 PowerPoint presentation, 1 email newsletter, and 3 websites to go.
At least it’s raining outside.
Posted in Personal at 12:00 AM | Comments (7)
Reasons to fear Canada
One of the latest lists from McSweeny’s caught my eye—Reasons to fear Canada.
Funny stuff and typical of what many Americans think of Canadians. Hey, at least there wasn’t any meniton of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police or SARS.
Posted in Web at 2:03 PM | Comments (1)
The season is over
My winter hockey league is done. Our team went to the semi-finals last night, tied 5-5, played a period of over-time, then lost in a shoot-out. I played 4 games this weekend and I’m wiped. It didn’t help that I pulled an all-nighter on Thursday but that’s another story.
One of the guys on the team was almost in tears after the game. Another guy said he wasn’t sure if he’d play next year—too much pressure during the playoffs. Me, I had fun. We lost. Whatever. Summer hockey starts this Wednesday night.
The best part about last night, was when I told one of the guys on my team, how old I was. He’s 23 and thought that I was 26 years-old, maybe 27. When I told him that I was 36, going on 37 he was shocked.
When you’re 36, and people think you’re 26, losing a hockey game just doesn’t seem like a big deal.
Posted in Observations at 12:28 PM | Comments (3)
More Kottke in Paris Photos
Jason Kottke has posted the rest of his Paris photos. I particularly like this one.
You just can’t get great baguette’s and cheese in Scarborough. All I have to do is look at a few photos like the ones he posted and I want to go back to Paris immediately.
Posted in Photography at 5:02 PM | Comments (3)
Six Apart Comments on YPBC redesign
Six Apart (makers of Movable Type and TypePad) posted a news item on their ProNet Weblog about the Yorkminster Park Baptist Church website redesign that JAK MEDIA just completed. It’s always nice to get some recognition for the work you do. Thanks to Anil for his comments on the redesign.
Posted in JAK MEDIA at 10:33 AM
YPBC website
JAK MEDIA launched a new site today for Yorkminster Park Baptist Church in Toronto.
This is a redesign of their old site. The entire redesign, development and testing has taken over 10 months to complete. Everything was coded using XHTML/CSS and validates.
I used Movable Type 3.15 for the content management system (CMS) to publish news on the homepage and other pages throughout the site. It’s taken a long time to get this one off the ground but the client is very pleased with the new look. Using the new CMS they can update the news related content, quickly and easily.
Posted in JAK MEDIA at 12:06 PM | Comments (5)
OS X Updated
If you’re on a Mac then you should know that OS X has been updated to version 10.3.9. Included in this update is a new version of web browser, Safari 1.3.
Unfortunately this hasn’t fixed the Javascript problems I was having with Movable Type. The good news is, that Safari is much faster and has a lot of other improvements.
Posted in OS X Software at 11:50 AM | Comments (0)
Adobe to buy Macromedia
Whoa! Stop the presses! Adobe is about to become a software monopoly in the design industry. Forget graphic design. They want to go after Microsoft—the new “enemy”.
I don’t know. I love Adobe’s products but it scares me to know that one single company will make most of the design tools on my desktop.
Kottke has a great analysis of the deal with plenty of links to industry feedback.
Posted in News at 11:09 AM | Comments (0)
Recent Bombippy Photos
There are new photos on Bombippy Photos using the new Rebel-XT. In future, just check the VIEWING sidebar to the right. Under Recent Bombippy Photos you’ll find links to the most recent photos.
Posted in Photography at 9:53 PM | Comments (0)
Canon Digital Rebel XT
This afternoon I visited Henry’s and picked up a Canon Digital Rebel XT (Canon EOS 350D). This is a beautiful 8 megapixel, digital SLR camera. I’m sure it will make it a lot more easier for Lissa and I to take our photos and publish them to our sites. I also plan to use the camera for some of my design work with JAK MEDIA.
For the photojunkies out there, here is a breakdown of the camera.
- Canon Digital Rebel XT black body
- Sigma 18-125mm f3.5-5.6 lens
- Lexar 80x 1 GB Pro card
- Lexar card reader
- Canon Digital Rebel accessory kit (includes a battery grip, extra, extra battery, Canon UV 58mm UV filter and Lowepro camera bag)
- 62mm UV filter to fit the Sigma lens
I also received a $100.00 gift card that can be used at Henry’s. I’d like to get a polarizing filter or maybe take a camera course on lighting. I’m pretty happy with the purchase and look forward to taking a lot of pictures with this baby.
Thank you to David Duchemin for patiently offering advice and tips in terms of what lens and accessories I should purchase. He’s a professional photographer and has some fantastic photos on his site.
Posted in Photography at 9:29 PM | Comments (3)
Movable Type Entries in Safari
If you’re using Mac OS X and Movable Type to publish your weblog then this will be of interest to you. When you’re creating a new entry using Safari or IE 5.2 (OS 9), you won’t be able access some formatting buttons for bolding text, adding hyperlinks, etc.
There is a Javascript bug in Safari that prevents you from seeing these formatting tools. Using Firefox under OS X, you’ll be able to access these formatting tools and save some time when formatting that next entry.
If you’re using a PC then you won’t have a problem in any browser. You’re probably already using those icons to format your entries.
Safari is still my browser of choice on the Mac. Hopefully this bug gone in the next version of Safari, due out in a couple of weeks.
Posted in Web Development at 9:10 PM | Comments (4)
Walter Murch on Soundtrack Pro
Apple announced Final Cut Studio this morning—Final Cut Pro 5, Soundtrack Pro, Motion 2, DVD Studio Pro 4. Everything in this package just keeps getting better.
There is a nice video clip testimonial with famous film editor and sound designer, Walter Murch. He talks about the benefits of Soundtrack Pro.
Posted in OS X Software at 8:27 PM | Comments (0)
$209.84 and 10 Air Miles
Yesterday is a day I would like to forget.
The day started off badly when I was late for a meeting. In my haste, I pulled a u-turn in front of a police cruiser. I held my breath while I waited for the flashing lights. 5 seconds later the police cruiser was lit up like a Christmas tree. The good news is that he pulled a u-turn as well and chased somebody else going in the opposite direction. Whew!
I was doing my best to break the speed limit and make it to that meeting. I passed two speed traps and hit the brakes just in time. No tickets and I made it to my meeting—15 minutes late.
My meeting was only going to be about 20 minutes and I was late. Fumbling around, looking for change to feed the parking meter didn’t seem like a good idea at the time. When I came out of my meeting I had a $30 ticket on my windshield. My luck ran out.
Now I was late for conference call back at the office. When I got back to the office, I decided to park in front of my building. Why waste time looking for a parking spot?. I’ll move the car later I said to myself.
I’ve been consume with way too many design projects lately. Hours seem to slip by in the blink of an eye when you’re focused on work and under a lot of pressure. Hours slipped by and I panicked when I realized that it was 5:55 pm.
I ran downstairs to the front of the building knowing that my car would be gone. It was.
Towed.
Rush hour commuters don’t like parked cars on Kingston Road in Toronto. Neither do the police. I could have my car back for $119.84. Great.
When I found my car in the yard I noticed another yellow ticket on the windshield. $60.00. Not a bad day for the City of Toronto I thought.
Total cost for my stupidity: $209.84
As a small consolation, I paid for everything with my Mastercard and earned 10 Air Miles.
Posted in Personal at 4:06 PM | Comments (2)
Kottke’s Paris Photos
Looks like Jason Kottke is in Paris this week and he’s posted a bunch of photos. It’s kind of weird seeing photos of places I was standing in a month ago.
It’s interesting to see how different everything looks now as well—the leaves are out, the tulips are in full bloom and more people are sitting around in the parks. I can’t wait to go back. I just hope it doesn’t take another 15 years.
Posted in Photography at 2:34 PM | Comments (2)
Mac OS X Tiger
Mac OS X Tiger, the next major upgrade to Mac OS X comes out in a couple of weeks and it looks awesome! It makes me feel a little sympathetic to all of those people in the world that have to use Microsoft Windows XP, every day.
The next version of Windows (Longhorn) is a couple of years overdue. It’s now scheduled to be released in 2006. Enough Windows users have switched fro Internet Explorer to the Firefox web browser (because of security threats and spyware) that Microsoft has begun to panic. They are finally releasing an upgrade to Internet Explorer this summer. Yawn.
Meanwhile, that little company in Cupertino is launching another major release of its operating system that makes Windows XP look like 1989, all over again.
It’s at the point where Mac OS X now looks like those futurisitc operating systems we’ve been seeing in Hollywood films for years. You know, the ones where windows flip over and animate impossibly. Watch the Dashboard demo and your mouth will drop.
The Dashboard widgets called Dictionary, Translator and Unit Converter will be used often on my desktop. I often use Google to find sites that convert imperial to metric.
On-the-fly translation of text also looks very cool. Sure you can get most of these tools from third party software developers but now they are available as part of the basic operating system. This is a huge savings and extremely convenient.
Automator is another great feature that I will get a lot of use from. I often use a third party piece of software to rename files. This capability is now built-in to the operating system and will save me time and money. No more third-party software costs.
The next version of QuickTime looks incredible. Expect much larger movie trailers at lower data rates/file sizes and HD support for HD-DVD and Bluray.
Did I mention RAW camera files can be viewed in the Preview application?
How about the ability to read RSS feeds in Safari or the new search tool called Spotlight. There are plenty of new features and upgrades that make the upgrade to OS X Tiger a no-brainer.
Still using Windows? Don’t worry. Longhorn is on the way. It will probably look like another version of Windows 98 with a new “skin”. There might even be some upgraded applications and a handful of new networking features.
Posted in OS X Software at 12:39 AM | Comments (2)
Stressed out
What do you do when you’re stressed out? What do you when you have deadlines fast approaching and not enough hours in the day?
Here’s the Bombippy approach to dealing with stress:
- make a call and offload some work to another designer
- go to your favourite magazine store and pick up some photography and design magazines
- buy a couple of Cuban cigars
- chat with the owner of the magazine store who throws in Jamaican cigar for free
- buy a coffee
- go to a park with a view of the lake
- pretend you’re from Vancouver and know how to relax
- enjoy cigar, coffee and flip through magazines for 44 minutes
While I’m entering this post, a client calls with another job. I feel like I’m in a losing battle here.
Posted in Personal at 2:27 PM | Comments (1)
Bombippy Photos
Bombippy Photos has launched. I posted 27 photos of our trip to Paris last month.
I’m using Movable Type 3.15 to power this new photoblog. A thumbnail gallery will be available in the archives section where you will be able to view photos by month o category (Paris vacation, nature, architecture, people and so on). I have to figure out a few more plug-ins before that happen.
All shots were taken with a Canon Rebel and painfully scanned with an Epson Perfection 1260. Lissa took a number of the photos and these are noted in the photo descriptions.
For now, enjoy the Paris photos and bookmark Bombippy Photos. Once I pick up a Canon Rebel XT I’ll be taking a lot more photos.
Posted in Photography at 4:58 AM | Comments (4)
Paris Photos
The photos from our trip to Paris are coming. I have 20 scanned in, cropped, tweaked and ready to go. There are about 10 other photos I’d like to scan in before I post anything. Tedious work.
Posted in Photography at 11:25 AM | Comments (1)
Google Maps
How cool is this? Google Maps rock!
Check out these satellite views of my office in the Upper Beach (Toronto) and my house in the Scarborough Bluffs.
If you zoom into the house map, we’re actually to the left by about 100 pixels. Close enough. I’m impressed.
Posted in Web at 12:25 AM | Comments (0)
Sin City (2005)
I couldn’t take it any longer. The curiosity was killing me. After my hockey game last night (we won) I had to see the late show of Sin City (2005).
Director Robert Rodriguez created a film that is incredibly stylish and unique. Visually, the movie is like nothing you’ve seen before (unlesss you’ve seen Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow). All of the sets are virtual and are quite incredible to look at. The camera angles and tracking shots throughout Sin City are also impressive and will make you wonder, “how did they just do that”.
I would have to disagree with those that view Rodriguez as a “hack”. How does a “hack” get $40 million dollars to make an incredible film that would cost any of the studios $100 million to make?
There is talk that Sin City will be studied in film schools for years to come. It isn’t Casablanca or even close to Pulp Fiction in terms of it’s story but I think it is an important film. The amazing thing about Sin City is its visual style and approach to filmmaking. Rodriguez is an incredibly effecient filmmaker and a bit of a control freak—director, producer, camera operator, editor, music. What he’s managed to pull off with Sin City is quite impressive.
The movie is dark. Very dark. If you can get past the blood and the violence then I think you’ll be impressed. I found it odd that there was little to no soundtrack throughout most of the movie. I felt that certain scenes could have used some music. Any music. I’m not sure why the Rodriguez chose to make the film this way.
Overall I enjoyed the film. I don’t think it will make my top 10 list of best films for 2005 but it’s definitely worth seeing in the theatre. There are some great performances by Mickey Rourke (I’m not kidding!) and Clive Owen.
Posted in Movie Reviews at 4:51 PM | Comments (0)
Site Meter
A lot of people use Site Meter for tracking visitors to their blogs because it is free and easy to use. I’ve been using it for 3 years and now and it’s great.
Last night the lovely discovered the little rainbow coloured Site Meter icon. She noticed it on other blogs and had to have it on her site immediately! She’s becoming dangerous on that G3 laptop.
A couple of things you should know about Site Meter. If someone clicks the Site Meter icon on your site they will be able to view you website statistics. The default setting for Site Meter is to make your site statistics public.
If you don’t want everyone to know how many visitors you have, who’s on your site right now and where they are coming from, make your statistics private. Go to the Privacy Level settings in your Site Meter account and change the Privacy Level to high.
Site Meter has updated the options for the HTML code you place on your pages to track web traffic. If the code on your site is XHTML (and if it’s not is should be) then update your code so that your pages validate properly.
Posted in Web Development at 3:58 PM | Comments (1)
Epson Perfection 1260
The Epson Perfection 1260 scanner is anything but perfection. It is the biggest friggin’ piece of crap that I’ve purchased in a long time.
I picked this scanner up a few months ago to replace an old Umax model. I paid a little extra for the 35 mm slide adapter. The feeder was designed by somebody on crack and produces the worst scans I’ve ever seen. Yes. I’ve ready the bloody manual a dozen times.
The drivers for OS X are the flakiest I’ve ever used. After Previewing a photo I click on Scan and hold my breath. Half the time it scans the image (which takes forever) and the rest of the time it flashes a couple of screens and returns to PhotoShop.
I found that unplugging the power and USB cables sometimes work. I’m just about ready to throw this junk in front of a streetcar on Kingston Road.
Waiting to see those Paris pictures? You may never see them at this rate. This weekend, JAK MEDIA is so buying me a Canon Rebel XT.
Posted in Technology at 4:04 PM | Comments (3)
Fearful Fiberals
I got wind of a story that is creating quite a buzz online—Canada’s Corruption Scandal Breaks Wide Open.
The Liberal Party of Canada is allegedly starting to panic and prepare for a snap election. Why? The Gomery Commission has created a publication ban on the testimony of three key witnesses. Once this is lifted the Liberals might be a little more than embarassed at the level of corruption in their party.
While the Canadian press is unable to report on this testimony, you are free to read it online if you know where to look (see link above). This calls into question the whole point of publication bans and their effectiveness.
The Canadian government can’t prevent Canadians from reading political blogs from around the world. A judge imposing a publication ban is pointless when you consider that most people have access to the Internet.
Despite the gun registry fiasco, Canadians for the most part forgave the Liberals and put Paul Martin into power. The sponsorship scandal won’t amount to a billion dollars of taxes payer’s wasted money but it may be enough to wake up the rest of the country.
Posted in Observations at 8:05 PM | Comments (0)
My Architect: A Son’s Journey (2003)
This is an excellent documentary film. The director, Nathaniel Kahn is the son of American architect, Louis Kahn. He examines his father’s architectural work, some bizarre family relationships and some of the mysteries behind Louis Kahn.
Nathaniel Kahn never really knew his father (who died 25 years ago) and goes on a search to find out who he really was. For five years he traveled the world to examine his father’s buildings and talk to former colleagues. I think the results are fascinating.
The production value is exceptional with some great archival footage and a nice score. There is a nice Q&A feature on the DVD that gives you some great background information. If you enjoy documentary films then put this one on your list of required viewing.
Posted in DVD Reviews at 4:44 PM | Comments (0)
Ed Wood (1994)
Zip.ca sent me this DVD about three weeks ago but I didn’t feel like watching it until Friday night. I forgot how great Tim Burton’s film about Hollywood’s worst director was.
Johnny Depp is a lot of fun to watch as Edward Wood Jr. Martin Landau is terrific as Bela Lugosi and won an Oscar for his performance.
My favourite scene is between Orson Welles (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) and Ed Wood in a bar. Welles complains to Wood about the difficulty he’s having in making a film about Don Quixote. Welles tried to make a film about Don Quixote for his entire life and never succeeded.
The irony in this scene is that Johnny Depp went on to star in Terry Gilliam’s film The Man Who Killed Don Quixote which was never completed. See Lost In La Mancha (2002) to see what happened to that film.
The black and white DVD video looks great in anamorphic wide screen (1:85:1). The sound is great as well but it won’t give your a receiver a workout by any means. DVD extras? Lots of them although nothing really stands at as a “must see” featurette.
Posted in DVD Reviews at 4:10 PM | Comments (0)
