Safari RSS which provides great RSS support and a new “Private Browsing” feature that keeps everything you visit out of your cache…you know, so you can shop for bithday presents online and your family won’t be able to see where you’ve been 🙂
One thing I found interesting about the search mechanism was that they had programmed in things like “wallpaper” to help former Windows users find where to change their “desktop”. It would be very useful if they could team up with Google and use Latent Semantic Indexing to find relevant, but not necessarily matching, content on your machine.
Here is my one card for AIGA Nebraska’s Design The Hand You’re Dealt. It’s a somewhat De Stijl inspired five of clubs. It’s a simple design derived from a varied scale, in which everything is in proportion to the length of each side divided by the aspect ratio. For example, the cards are 8″ by 12″, so the aspect ratio is 1:1.5, so the varied scale is 12″, 8″, 5.33″, 3.55″, etc.. Each side of all of the elements on this card are one of these lengths, and many of them are the same aspect ratio. There’s still alot that’s arbitrary about the design, I’m sure, but at least I can pretend there isn’t.
Ever been confronted, in Photoshop, with this (totally useless) crop tool icon? Or been using a large paintbrush, and seen this equally useless icon: Even though your preferences clearly designate the “brush size” cursor should be used?
In either case, press CAPS LOCK. You will get the latter icon, which is the only good way to crop, if cropping, and you will toggle back to the “brush size” icon if you are using the brush tool (and your brush size is big enough).
It was quite awhile before I discovered this, and I always thought I had a buggy copy of Photoshop in the “brush size” situation. It seems everyone else I’ve encountered has thought the same, so I hope this helps you.
Most of the pictures you see on this site will have been taken with my Minolta Dimage Xt (its no longer available new on Amazon, but the Minolta Dimage Xg is, and I struggle to see any difference).
I did a great deal of research to find this camera, because I was sick of seeing photo-ops like I was able to capture in CAUTION: Inverted Chairs and not having a camera handy, or going to social gatherings where having a bulky camera was too inconvenient to hassle with. The camera is smaller than my wallet, lightweight, has a flash, zooms up to 3X and with a 256 MB SecureDigital Card, I can take up to 12 minutes of video, with sound, at 320×240 (VHS quality), at 15 frames per second (not VHS quality).
I used this camera to film my ski videos (featuring the music of Criteria), which I edited with iMovie, created the graphic animation with Flash.
The camera is not free of problems, however. Its battery tends to die very rapidly in the cold of skiing conditions, I once had to send it back to the factory for repair (under warranty) because the sliding door that covers the lens wouldn’t operate, and the optics, understandably given the camera’s small size, are not stellar. I also had an issue on a ski trip during which every evening I would replay the day’s movies on the hotel’s television set. After all of that replaying, stopping, rewinding, and slow-mo-ing, some of the quicktime movies became irrevocably corrupted. I now try to avoid replaying my precious videos off of the camera.
I saw this odd scene on my way into the UNO Library today. Browsing through the design book section there, I happened to run into Design of Warning Labels and Instructions. If I get around to reading it, I’ll be sure to tell you about it.
Last night, I saw Super Size Me, a documentary in which the director eats nothing but McDonald’s three times a day for thirty days. Seeing the movie didn’t make me much more anti-McDonald’s than I already am, but I have to say watching it was an unpleasant experience. The shaky camera work added to the nauseating effect of watching this guy wolf down big macs and fries. I soon found myself covering my eyes every time he took a bite. I don’t think it’s a bad thing when a movie makes you feel something other than good, though.
Last night, I watched Swimming Pool (Amazon), a rather ambiguous movie a la Mulholland Drive (Amazon) or 8 1/2 (Amazon). I enjoy such movies because they make wonderful vehicles for discussion. Of the many interesting posts on this movie, I think the interpretation that the Julia we see for most of the movie is Sarah’s creation makes the most sense.
I have added a background pattern and framed the content with my parody of the ever-popular drop shadow. I’m tempted to resist the aqua-esque design trend and stick with pixel-by-pixel designs. I feel that it gives a good understanding to how all of the pixels work together, and while exaggerated, expresses the limitations of this medium.
Whenever I do work, or see work, that acknowledges the limitations of the pixel through exaggeration, it reminds me of the de Stijl movement, not only because the forms they derived from the principles of de Stijl are rectilinear, but because, in some cases, the form seems to derive from the limitations of the medium at hand. Granted, Mondrian’s paintings are counter-expressive of the inherent qualities of paint in contrast to the work of Van Gogh or Jackson Pollack, but seeing a piece such as Theo van Doesburg‘s logo for de Stijl Makes me suspect that maybe having a typecase full of only fonts and rectangular rules may have had a strong influence on its final form.
