Archive: Technology

January 23, 2008

Mucking Up the Fireworks

Anyone following me on Twitter will likely tell you I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe products, specifically Photoshop, the application I use the most. After all, Photoshop is chiefly an image-editing application, but like most people I know, I use it as fully fledged layout program. Unfortunately, this requires jumping through numerous hoops, leaving one a pitiful sobbing mess… more »

December 12, 2007

Gamma Gamma Hey!

Ah, perfect. This is the most brilliant design I shall ever produce. Everything is in order; all of the colors are amazing. If I died right now while sitting at this computer, even the EMTs will say to one another, “that’s the most breathtaking design I’ve ever seen”, as they pick my corpse up off the floor. Now, let’s just… more »

November 13, 2007

Where They Should Be

When I saw the new Apple keyboards a few months back, I thought they were pretty ridiculous; they’re as thin as a Ritz cracker and barely raised off of your desk. It seemed more like comical modernism, as in the case of the Mighty Mouse, than something realistically useful. I must admit, after trying one out and finally buying one,… more »

April 13, 2007

Archival Quality

I can clearly recall one particular afternoon from my childhood when I went over to a friend’s house to play. I walked in the back door, as I ordinarily would, and encountered his mother standing at the kitchen table with the day’s newspaper, and beside it, a scrapbook. When I asked what she was doing, she said, “Today is… more »

January 29, 2007

Minted

Huzzah! Today is a big day for a close friend: Shaun Inman has released Mint 2, a snazzy update to his website stat tracking application. I’ve been helping out (alongside the other crumb-bums) with beta-testing for months now, and I can tell you first hand, this is a significant upgrade. To be honest, I didn’t know what more Shaun could… more »

January 14, 2007

A Plea for the Fat-Fingered

My grandfather used to call them “working man hands,” friends seem to prefer “sausage fingers,” while Liz affectionately goes the heritage-sensitive route with “mozzarella sticks.” Whatever you call them, I have big hands, and consequently, big fingers. They aren’t necessarily short and stubby; the proportions are fairly usual, they are just sort of scaled-up. Regardless, I am sure many others… more »

January 7, 2007

Wanted: Apple Mobile Device

Ah, MacWorld. The place where the hopes and expectations lie every year for an oh-so-special Apple announcement. This year my mind is set on one thing. However improbable, or senseless, all I am hoping for is an Apple mobile device. I must admit, even writing that is an interesting thing for me. I went from hating cell phones a few… more »

September 8, 2006

Old Tech

My workhorse of an iMac is desperately in need of an uprgade. It’s a sturdy iMac G4 flat panel that’s seen me through many projects. My computer runs sluggishly at best, and I often have to quit all applications that aren’t of immediate use. I’ve come to the realization that if you wait too long to upgrade, then you might… more »

July 24, 2006

Casualties

I would love to know the ratio of successes to failures for products and services touting themselves as an ”[insert industry leader] killer”. To me, it reeks of insecurity and fears of lost investments. The tech media craves conflict and the companies play right into it, completing the cycle. What’s left after the buzz? Has anything been killed in recent… more »

December 13, 2005

Markmaking

Ok, so I finally decided I want to start using a bookmarking tool. I have a wealth of bookmarks from the past 8 or so years that I’ve painstakingly kept organized and categorized in a variety of browsers (Safari being the latest). This works out great, except for when I need to find something which I can’t recall the name… more »

November 8, 2005

Adobe Illustrator Rounding

Ok, this one goes out to all the Adobe Illustrator users out there. I upgraded to Adobe CS2 a few months back and have been on the whole very pleased. I love Adobe’s products, and they do oh so very much oh so well… but man, I should start a weekly feature on details they could improve upon. Lately… more »

September 13, 2005

FontExplorer X

I’ve just come across Linotype’s new FontExplorer X, another font management application. Hmm, very intriguing that it’s coming from a foundry. Could this finally replace the stagnant Suitcase on my computer? Here is a comparison chart with other popular font apps. Simple. Smart. Free. Well, the price is definitely right, and it looks very promising. I also like that it… more »

September 3, 2005

Pepper Makes Mint Better

Shaun: So, what do you think of ShortStat? Me: What, you mean after I finally got the damned thing installed? Shaun: *sigh* Yes. Me: It’s pretty cool. Shaun: … Me: I still tend to use Refer more often. All of ShortStat’s little scroll panes bug me. So went the usual exchange between Shaun and I about ShortStat. ShortStat 2,… more »

May 31, 2005

Attack of the Show

I’m going to lapse into some heavy nerdery for the next few minutes (yes, possibly more than usual). A few years ago I discovered there was a channel dedicated to video games called G4 TV. At first I figured this would be pretty great, 24 hours of video games to flip to when nothing else was on… or sometimes when… more »

May 13, 2005

Friday Frippery

I’m hot on the heels of a fresh Tiger installation, and happy to report all systems seem normal. On the whole, I am quite pleased with Tiger’s pungent new car smell, though it should be noted a few things appear to be a bit wonky. Some are confusing: like the seemingly random window chrome designs (of which we can add… more »

March 21, 2005

Typographic Glass Ceiling

Last week Microsoft announced six new typefaces which will start being bundled with Windows next year. The new faces are specially designed for screen usage; meaning an emphasis on readability at small sizes and the ability to scale up and not look like death (Verdana, I’m looking in your direction). The new collection is made up of two serifs: Cambria… more »

February 28, 2005

Independent Workflow

When I started out on my own a few months ago I quickly became aware of the need for better organization; not only for myself, but for the sake of the people I work with. I have always considered myself an organized person, but this was a bigger jump from being employed. It’s always easier when you can just focus… more »

July 18, 2004

Real World Standards and the CSS Ballyhoo

I went to school with a lot of good designers. My school was a bit behind when it came to technology and wasn’t able to muster up a good base of interactive classes until after I had already graduated. I originally wanted to be an illustrator. I love to draw, but quickly realized I am much better suited as a… more »

June 29, 2004

Apple announces Tiger and more

It is still almost a year before Apple will release (unleash?) Mac OS X Tiger, but I request Steve Jobs give me a copy now. This just looks fantastic. Spotlight is Quicksilver on speed, Dashboard gathers up all the mini-apps you use throughout the day in one place under one hot key ala Expose (hopefully they will throw together some… more »

April 1, 2004

Fun With A Purpose

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind is yet another superb outing from Charlie Kauffman, penman to such personal favorites as Being John Malkovich and Adaptation. Favorably, Eternal Sunshine comes in just as twisted as his predecessors, blending great character and dialogue control while injecting a realistic human element absent from most fare these days. Pair this with Michael Gondry’s fantastic… more »

February 19, 2004

The New Netscape?

What the hell is so new about The New Netscape? Seems like they are offering the same slow, memory-hogging, program polluted browser as before, but now you are paying for a connection too! You say, “Well, it must be new, the word new is underlined”. Yow! Add to all of this a horrible Flash 4 style “program tour” that butchers… more »

February 11, 2004

Mozilla Firefox

There has been a flood of browser releases lately (a flood being relative). Two weeks ago Apple released Safari 1.2, last week the Omni Group released OmniWeb Public Beta 5.0, and this week Mozilla jumps back into the pool with Firefox 0.8, a renamed update to Mozilla Firebird due to trademark issues. Firefox is a terrific update to the lightweight,… more »

February 4, 2004

Music for the Day

Something Old The Proud… The Few… The Descendents are back with an upcoming EP and full-length in the works. What’s more, they finally have a proper website. Something New Franz Ferdinand (the band, not the archduke) has a very cool sound, and a nicely designed video for Take Me Out… yes, I say designed because it’s teeming with old typography… more »

December 17, 2003

Panther and a 20 inch iMac

So long old friend! I have put my old workhorse blue and white G3 tower out to pasture and bought a new Apple 20 inch iMac. I giggled excitedly, not unlike a young schoolgirl, on the arrival of the new box…and to be honest, really haven’t stopped. It truly is a thing of beauty. The screen is gigantic with plenty… more »

October 16, 2003

Making Your PC Nearly Tolerable

I really am beginning to believe that the creators of Windows are off somewhere laughing at how absurd it is that they have made a fortune from an operating system that tries to do everything it can to work against the user. Have you ever tried to do anything with fonts other than the ones that came with your PC?… more »

August 25, 2003

Macromedia Studio MX 2004

In an effort to further confuse everyone about their product names, Macromedia has announced its forthcoming Macromedia Studio MX 2004. The package includes Flash, Dreamweaver, and Fireworks, all sporting the continuation, 2004, of the already nonsensical “MX” moniker. But wait, there’s more! You could get the better version of Flash, Flash MX Professional 2004 for just a few more bucks.… more »

March 6, 2003

The Arrival of the PrayStation Hardrive

Yesterday also brought the arrival of the PrayStation Hardrive by Joshua Davis, a CD-Rom collecting 3,637 files (most of which being Flash source files) from the last several years. It really is an extraordinary thing, considering it’s just a CD-Rom with all of the work thrown on it in folders as if you had made it for yourself. So, the… more »

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