January 2009 Archives (27 posts)
How To Edit A Scene
Film editing with Albert Brooks is a scene from the film Modern Romance that has been posted to YouTube. In the scene, Albert Brooks and Bruno Kirby are editing a film. Brooks makes a great cut that changes the scene and builds suspense. The director of the film (James L. Brooks) walks in, watches the scene and doesn’t like it. He wants it restored to the original cut that is dumbed down for the audience.
This is brilliant because it demonstrates what is wrong with so many mainstream movies. I’ve never seen Modern Romance but based on this scene alone I have to see this movie. (Via Kottke).
Posted in Movies at 8:27 PM | Comments (0)
What is Your Hardware Software Setup?
waferbaby has a series of interviews that asks various people about their hardware and software setup. I love this stuff!
I’m always curious what tools other designers, bloggers and artists are using to do their work. It’s a great way to discover some really useful apps.
My Hardware
All of my work is done on a Macintosh Dual 1.8 GHz PowerPC G5 with 2 GB of RAM. For storage I have two internal hard disks (150 GB, 500 GB) and 3 external hard disks (1 TB, 500 GB, 120 MB). I’m using a 23” Apple Cinema Display and some Edirol speakers (MA-20D).
An Apple AirPort Extreme manages my wireless network and shares my HP Colour LaserJet 2550L laser printer.
For photography I’m using a Canon 5D with 3 Canon lenses — EF 50mm f/1.8 II, EF 17-40mm f/4.0 L, EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L. An Induro tripod and ball head keep things stead and a Lowerpro backpack keeps my kit organized.
When I’m not in the office I stay connected with a 16 GB iPhone 3G.
My Software
For email I’m using Microsoft Entourage with SpamSieve to keep my inbox clean. Web browsing and development is done in Safari. I also use the Safari Tidy plugin to validate pages. NetNewsWire is my feed reader of choice.
I code everything with BBEdit, check my CSS with CSSEdit and FTP with Transmit.
TextExpander saves me a lot of time with text/code snippets. Yojimbo is another utility that gets used constantly to store bookmarks, notes, images, serial numbers and more. Everything is tagged and very easy to find when I need it.
1Password manages all of my passwords and fills out my online forms. Default Folder X improves the Finder and also saves me a lot of time. Cocktail and Disk Warrior handle file/system maintenance while Time Machine and SuperDuper! manage my file backups.
Adobe Photoshop CS3, Illustrator CS2 and InDesign CS3 handle design. Microsoft Office handle my documents and spreadsgheets. Final Cut Studio takes care of my video production and On2 Flix Pro encodes all of my video files so they are ready for the web.
Miscellaneous apps include xScope, DVDpedia, Xtorrent, FontDoctor, and TVShows.
If you’re looking for more great utilities then have a look at Merlin Mann’s Desktop Tour.
Posted in Design and OS X Software and Web Development at 12:00 PM | Comments (0)
Speakerphone!
Occasionally I get these really funny phone messages from a friend of mine named Andy. He’s the same guy that crafted Pick Up The Phone Flippy.
Andy recently left a crazy voicemail message that I call Speakerphone! Turn up your volume and press the play button below to listen in.
A while back I told Andy that I wasn’t a fan of the speakerphone (he loves them). I prefer to pick up the phone and talk through the mouthpiece. Sometimes a speakerphone cuts off the beginning or ending of a sentence making it difficult to follow a conversation.
The woman on the speakerphone message is Andy’s wife, Lisa. She’s not as crazy as Andy but in a few more years I think she’ll be completely mad.
I’ve heard Speakerphone! at least 20 times and somehow it still makes me laugh.
Posted in Humour at 8:47 PM | Comments (1)
Ban Fighting in Hockey?
What is wrong with this country? Every couple of years somebody in Canada thinks it would be a good idea to ban fighting in the National Hockey League. Today the Globe and Mail published this:
A recent Harris-Decima poll found that 54 per cent of Canadians believe the NHL should ban fighting, while 40 per cent favoured continuing to penalize it with five-minute major penalties.
Have we become a nation of wimps? You can’t ban fighting in hockey, it is part of the game. It’s like telling the NFL that there shall be no more quarterback sacks. Give me a break!
Four years ago The Canadian Academy of Sport Medicine called on the National Hockey League to ban fighting. Groups like this are just contributing to the pansification of the game.
NHL commissioner Gary Bettman admits fighting sells tickets and won’t ban it. Instead, the league will look at the rules of engagement when it comes to fighting. Nobody likes to see another player get sucker punched and hurt but an outright ban is not the answer.
I’m with Joe Thornton on this issue:
I think it would be a shame to take it out of the game. It’s part of hockey, like tying up your laces or shooting the puck. It’s been part of hockey for a long, long time.
Posted in Observations at 1:22 PM | Comments (6)
Adobe User Interface Gripes
While I’m on the topic of customer service and complaints, have a look at Adobe UI Gripes if you use any Adobe software products. Most of the complaints are warranted and very funny.
I’ve never been a fan of the Windows user interface creeping into the Mac version of Photoshop CS3. The person that writes Adobe UI Gripes really hates this kind of meddling.
Posted in OS X Software at 10:34 PM | Comments (0)
Funniest Complaint Letter Ever
Telegraph in the UK has published the funniest complaint letter I’ve ever read. The letter was sent to Sir Richard Branson by a passenger on a Virgin flight to India. Apparently they were dissatisfied with the in-flight meals and entertainment. Funny stuff.
Posted in Humour at 10:14 PM | Comments (1)
Niagara Falls in January
I’ve been wanting to make a photo like this since last July. This morning at 5:30 AM I decided to head off to Niagara Falls and try my luck at sunrise. By 8 AM I was frozen by the Falls but I had my images. The clouds weren’t spectacular but I wasn’t about to go away with a blank memory card.
Traffic accidents on the QEW delayed my trip back to Toronto and messed up a few of my appointments but that’s another story.
Larger image on Bombippy Photos.
Posted in Photography at 9:43 PM | Comments (2)
Alltop Has All The Top Stories
I’m really digging Alltop for finding news stories that interest me. The site is inspired by Popurls.
Posted in News and Web at 8:09 PM | Comments (0)
Online Backup from Backblaze
I am paranoid when it comes to keeping a backup of my computer files.
I backup my files every hour using Apple’s Time Machine software. The backups happen automatically and on a few occasions these backups have saved me a lot of grief.
I use SuperDuper! to make a backup of my Time Machine backups to 1 TB LaCie hard disk (USB 2.0). Sometimes I backup my photos and Client files to DVD and put them on a bookshelf in my office.
I also use SuperDuper! to make a bootable backup of my main hard drive to an external LaCie FireWire drive. This saved my bacon a few months ago when my Mac refused to start.
Backing up my files has saved me days of work and frustration on a number of occasions. If you run a business and you don’t do daily backups then you are a complete fool. It’s only a matter of time until you learn your lesson.
Off-site Backups
I have plenty of backups but most of these are sitting on my desk in front of me. This is a problem that has always bothered me.
What happens if somebody steals my computer? What happens if my house burns down? My backups will be gone and so will my business.
Off-site backups are the answer but they are usually infrequent and a hassle to perform. I know that I need to get another external hard disk and make a backup of my backups and take them to a friend’s house, but I don’t.
Online Backups from Backblaze
Backblaze provides online backups for $5 per month. It works with Mac and PC and you have unlimited storage. One of the best things about Backblaze is that he backups are automatic. Your files get backed up when your computer is idle.
The only problem I have now is that Backblaze only supports Macs with Intel processors. I have an older Power Mac G5. Yet another reason to upgrade my computer this year.
Posted in OS X Software and Technology at 7:00 PM | Comments (0)
How to save $20k a year with a home office
I used to rent an office for my web design business, then I got tired of driving back and forth to work and paying someone else’s mortgage. Solution? Work from a home office and save money.
By conservative estimates I save more than $20,000 per year and 156 hours of time with a home office. Sound too good to be true? Here is breakdown of my time and cost savings:
Rent
- I used to pay a monthly rent of $803
- Now I write off a portion of my mortgage, heat, and hydro (conservative estimate of $400/month)
- Annual savings: $14,436/year
Telecommunictaions
- No longer pay for Internet service at business rates
- Use my residential DSL service instead and save $80/month
- Annual savings: $960/year
Transportation
- No commute saves me 40 minutes per day (13 hours/month)
- Fuel cost savings ($150/month)
- Less ‘wear and tear’ on my car and I’m putting less CO2 into the air
- Annual savings: $1,800/year and 156 hours/year (6.5 days)
Daycare
- After school daycare and summer daycare ($300/month)
- Picking up son after school is a forced coffee break
- Annual savings: $3,600/year
Food
- Lunches ($200/month)
- Coffee ($60/month)
- I tend to eat a lot more leftovers now and throw out less food
- Annual savings: $3,120/year
I was very conservative with these time and cost savings, yet my calculations show that I save $23,916 per year by having a home office.
Time Savings
I take only 2 weeks of vacation each year (self-employment has its cons as well). By simply not having to commute to work ever day I gain 6 days of free time each year or another week of vacation. Too bad I can’t bank those hours for a week in July.
In addition to the financial and time benefits, I tend to be more productive with a home office. I don’t have people from neighboring offices interrupting my work flow with general conversation, computer help, thin walls and bad music.
Home Renovation
I failed to mention that I did a major home renovation so that I could have a really nice large, bright, home office. Instead of putting my money into rent I invested in my home for the long term.
Home Office Cons
Having a home office isn’t for everyone. If you have to do a major renovation then there is a huge disruption to your family life, not to mention the stress of delays and cost overruns.
You have to be disciplined to work at home because you’re faced with distractions all day long. I’ve talked to people that tried working at home but spent more time watching TV or cleaning than actually working for their clients.
If you’re a workaholic you can end up spending all of your time in a home office. It can be hard to turn off and spend time with family, cut the grass, have a life.
Isolation can also be an issue if you’re a very social person and need the buzz of an office around you to be productive. Sometimes I miss the water cooler conversation which is why I try to get out and have lunch with friends and colleagues whenever I can.
For me the pros of having a home office far outweigh the cons. I just wish I made the move sooner.
Posted in JAK MEDIA and Observations at 12:01 AM | Comments (3)
Wingsuit Base Jumping
I thought base jumping was crazy but wing suit base jumping is just insane! This video was shot by Matchstick Productions. Be sure to check out MSP TV to see more incredible footage.
Posted in Observations at 8:34 PM | Comments (0)
Community Alliance Church
A couple of weeks ago I finished a website redesign for Community Alliance Church. I’m very pleased with how the site turned out. It gave me a chance to try out a few new web development tools.
I love how easily Google Calendar integrates into the site. I just wish I had some control over the colour elements and fonts in the calendar views. I suppose when something is free you really can’t complain too much.
Posted in JAK MEDIA at 10:28 PM | Comments (0)
Mode Premium Home Recycling Center
Williams-Sonoma has a nifty gadget called the Modeâ„¢ Premium Home Recycling Center that compacts your recycling to save space.
We recycle a lot in our household and our recycling bin never seems to have enough room. I could upgrade to a larger size recycling bin at no cost but I live in the city of Toronto where red tape rules. I’ve been trying for 3 months to get a larger bin without any success.
Posted in Technology at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)
Tracking US Airways Flight 1549
The New York Times has a fabulous interactive graphic with 3D animation that clearly shows the flight path of US Airways Flight 1549.
YouTube has some incredible video footage of the plane crash into the Hudson River.
Posted in News at 3:57 PM | Comments (0)
Outliers
Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book, Outliers is a fascinating read. Gladwell examines the story of success — why some people are outliers (“for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience”). Some of the outliers he examines are Canadian junior hockey players, Bill Gates and The Beatles.
For Gladwell, “success is not a random act. It arises out of a predictable and powerful set of circumstances and opportunities”. If you want to be on the Canadian junior hockey team then it matters what month you were born in (January). If you want to be a Silicon Valley billionaire then it matters what year you were born in (1955). If you want to be a successful airline pilot then it matters what country you were born in.
This book is for everyone, whether you’re successful or not. Gladwell writes with clarity and uses some interesting examples to explain success. I found the book hard to put down after the first few pages.
I never knew that Malcolm Gladwell was a fellow Canadian that grew up in Elmira, Ontario, and graduated from the University of Toronto. He’s been a staff writer with The New Yorker since 1996.
A conversation with Malcolm Gladwell — Charlie Rose Show
Outliers — Wikipedia
Posted in Books at 10:36 PM | Comments (1)
Will Steve Jobs return to Apple in June?
Wired is reporting that Steve Jobs Probably Won’t Come Back to Apple and I’ve got a bad feeling that they are right. My guess is that his cancer is back. I hope I’m wrong.
Posted in Apple at 2:09 PM | Comments (0)
Ricky Henderson’s Hall of Fame plaque
Here’s a sneak peek at Ricky Henderson’s Hall of Fame plaque. Cheeky to say the least.
Posted in Humour at 12:31 PM | Comments (0)
Rain of Madness mockumentary is hilarious
Rain of Madness is a 30 minute mockumentary that can be found on the Tropic Thunder Director’s Cut DVD. It’s just as funny as Tropic Thunder and if you know anything about Francis Ford Coppola or Werner Herzog then you’ll find this mocumentary to be hilarious.
Just as Tropic Thunder borrows heavily from Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), Rain of Madness parodies the documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (1991) — a film about the extraordinary making of Apocalypse Now.
The entire mockumentary also emulates Werner Herzog’s style of documentary filmmaking and pokes fun at his films (Little Dieter Needs to Fly, Grizzly Man). There’s even a Werner Herzog character that narrates the film.
This is a brilliant film but don’t take my word for it. It has several awards to prove it:
- Nominee: Best documentary (Pensylvania Dutch Film Festival)
- Winner: Best documentary (Bangkok Adolescent Film Festival)
- Winner: Tijuana’s Shrieking Donkey Award
- Honorable Mention: Everyone’s A Winner Film Festival
I watched the Blu-ray version of the film and the video quality is outstanding. In fact, Tropic Thunder Director’s Cut is a must-have Blu-ray disc. The HD transfer is one of the best that I’ve seen and there are plenty of supplemental features.
Also worth watching on this disc is a feature called Full Mags — Robert Downey Jr. and Ben Stiller improvise a scene for 11 minutes. This was funny and fascinating to watch. Robert Downey Jr. is simply brilliant.
The MTV Movie Awards feature is also very funny and worth a look if you haven’t seen it yet.
Tropic Thunder MTV Movie Awards Digital Short
Posted in DVD Reviews at 12:04 AM | Comments (0)
Top Gear’s The Stig is no longer a secret
The secret identity of Top Gear’s famous test driver has been revealed, sort of. Apparently he’s a married man in his 30s and he drives a “reasonably priced car”.
Nobody has publicly revealed the name of The Stig but the Telegraph is reporting that The News of the World has discovered the true identity of The Stig. Apparently somebody at the BBC couldn’t keep their mouth shut and leaked the story.
Posted in Television at 1:28 AM | Comments (1)
DVD Collection Updated
I finally updated my DVD Collection on this site using DVDpedia. A companion product called Pocketpedia for iPhone lets me take my DVD Library with me. Now I can keep track of which special editions I own and who has my Blu-ray copy of Planet Earth: The Complete Series.
Posted in Bombippy at 9:55 PM | Comments (1)
Top 10 Blu-ray Discs of 2008 by DVD Beaver
DVD Beaver has a list of their top 10 Blu-ray Discs for 2008. I love Casablanca and The Third Man but I don’t think I can bring myself to purchase them again on Blu-ray.
Posted in Movies at 11:41 PM | Comments (0)
Palm Pre
The new Palm Pre looks like a worthy competitor to the iPhone. The hardware stands out from most of the phones I’ve seen. It also has a nicely designed interface, something that Microsoft and Blackberry are sorely lacking. Can’t wait to see a review and a price for this.
Posted in Technology at 12:12 AM | Comments (0)
Cheap HDMI cables and picture quality
You don’t have to spend a fortune on expensive HDMI cable to get great picture quality with your HDTV or Blu-Ray player. I’ve mentioned before that expensive HDMI cables are a waste of money.
Cheap HDMI cables are just as good as the expensive HDMI cables and don’t have a noticeable effect on picture quality.
My brother was looking for some inexpensive HDMI cable and found that the discussion on redflagdeals.ca was suggesting some 12-foot cable from Zellers of all places. You’ll have to go to an actual Zellers store because their website is like a ghost town with very little inventory.
For $12.97 you can get a 12-foot HDMI cable - a “cheap brand out of Quebec that is made in China and called Chateau.”
After testing the HDMI cable with a Rogers HD PVR he was impressed with the results:
Did a comparison with the ThunderCable brand that I paid $45 for last month (and that is only 6’) and couldn’t tell the difference.
I’ve gone through a lot of home theatre forums and talked to quite a few people about expensive vs. cheap HDMI cable and nobody has ever complained about picture quality.
Posted in Home Theatre at 11:01 PM | Comments (1)
Contour Reality Capture Used in Benjamin Button
I’ve been wondering how David Fincher placed Brad Pitt’s face on different actors in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. A system called Contour Reality Capture was used to capture facial expressions, convert them into 3D and place them on the face of other actors. For more information have a look at How Contour Reality Capture Works.
Last summer’s The Incredible Hulk also used Contour Reality Capture on Ed Norton for character animation of the CGI Hulk used in the movie.
Posted in Movies at 12:03 PM | Comments (0)
Benjamin Button and Final Cut Studio
Director David Fincher made The Curious Case of Benjamin Button using a tapeless HD workflow and Final Cut Studio. I love these articles about the filmmaking process.
Posted in Movies and OS X Software and Technology at 11:46 AM | Comments (0)
AMC Theatres have terrible projection
Why do I have to visit a film festival or a home theatre to watch a movie projected properly? I’m sick of going to AMC Theatres and paying a premium for movies that are poorly projected.
AMC Kennedy Commons 20 is consistently bad when it comes to poor projection and they have the most expensive ticket prices in the city at $12.50 (CDN)! Last year I watched No Country For Old Men and their theatre and the experience was awful. The entire length of the film was slightly out of focus, projected on a five degree angle and had a bright flicker all the way through. One patron stood up and yelled that he was getting his money back.
I left the theatre to find a manager and complained about the projection as well. He gave me a couple of free passes and admitted that there was a problem with the projector. Instead of canceling the screenings until the projector could be fixed AMC just carried on like everything was fine and probably figured that the stupid public would never notice.
Yesterday I watched Valkyrie at AMC Whitby 24. The entire freaking movie was out of focus! What the hell is wrong with AMC? What’s wrong with the audience that they put up with this crap?
Disappearing Projectionists
Part of the problem is that most movie houses aren’t using projectionists anymore. According to Torontoist, AMC’s newest theatre at Yonge and Dundas has 24 screens with more people running the concession stand than the projectors:
Instead of projectionists, there are one or two non-union workers overseeing all 24 screens from a single console; their duties are essentially limited to pressing a “play” button and being aware of any error messages that might pop up.
To be fair to AMC, most movie theatres are guilty of poor projection and sound. I don’t know how many out of focus documentary films I’ve watched at the Bloor Theatre. They have a speaker on the east wall that has been crackling for the last 3 years as well. Maybe I should complain more but I don’t think the theatre owners care.
First Run Films
Why should I pay $12.50 to watch a film and another $10 for popcorn when I can watch a movie in Blu-Ray at home that has more clarity than anything I’ve seen in any movie theatre to date? First run films. I like to see movies when they are first released and unfortunately that means lousy projection at the cineplex. You might think that digital projection is the answer but read You Pay Thirteen Bucks, And What Do You Get?
I suppose I could download the screeners that are floating around on the BitTorrent sites but I prefer quality over crap. Most of the DivX movies that are “free” suffer from really poor quality, lack of surround sound and audio drift. I can’t watch a movie that sounds like a poorly dubbed marshall arts movie. And not to sound self-righteous but there is also the whole piracy thing. If people continue to steal movies the industry will continue to suffer but that’s another rant.
Posted in Home Theatre and Movies at 10:04 AM | Comments (1)
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008). Directed by David Fincher.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is an epic film that tells the story of a man that ages backwards. Benjamin is born into the body of an 80-yearl-old man that grows up to become a young man, a boy, then a baby before he dies. Along the way he makes friends, finds love and experiences “the joys of life and the sadness of death”.
Director David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) spent years trying to figure how to make this film work. The computer animation and the special effects industry have matured to the point that this incredibly ambitious tale can work as a film. Previously it was a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Love him or hate him, Brad Pitt does an exceptional job at playing the lead character of Benjamin Button. The makeup and CGI (computer generated images) that transform him into a little old man or a teenager are miraculous.
Cate Blanchett is always perfect but it was Tilda Swinton that surprised me in her role as a love interest to Pitt’s character. I thought she had one of the best performances in the film.
David Fincher does a first rate job of creating an incredibly rich and detailed experience that is pure movie magic. A DVD release with a director’s commentary is sure to be fascinating.
I wondered if the film really needed to be almost 3 hours (166 minutes). It does. It never drags and the long setup is worth the pay off in the second half.
The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button needs time to soak in. You’ll find yourself reflecting on your own life, assessing the different stages you’ve experienced so far — the birth of your children, parenting, the loss of your mother or father, your relationships, friends and maybe more.
It’s hard for me to believe that on this day, 8 years ago, my mother passed away. Time can pass by so quickly. In a weird sort of way this film is a timely reminder but also a distraction that makes me enjoy it even more.
½
Films are rated from 1 to 4 stars.
Posted in Movie Reviews at 11:03 PM | Comments (0)
