Is it just me who thinks they've completely naffed up the opening titles of (otherwise totally wonderful) medical comedy drama Scrubs? The first series had quite possibly the best ident ever, a nifty riff that played out in something like eight seconds. Stunning.
The second series takes the same idea and runs it over more like fifteen seconds. Er... no, wrong. More is most definitely not more in this case. Sorry.
You have to be kidding. Paul Guyot et al have released a preview of their Newton Connection Library, which should eventually replace Apple's stuff for hooking a Newton to a desktop (which was flaky anyway). NCL seems to do everything it possibly can with XML and TCP/IP... but there's also Rendezvous/ZeroConf autodiscovery in there.
Is this the first ZeroConf implementation in a handheld? Outrageous!
One day, 13 hours to go... and no more room on my desk. Damn.
It's five years since the Newton was cancelled. Which means I've had my current one for... five years. No sign of it being retired: as the saying goes, 'will the last person to leave the platform please turn off the backlight.'
Television pixels are not square. Photoshop only handles square pixels. This is not a happy combination.
Like all terrestrial TV in the UK for the last couple of years, my current series is shot widescreen. That is, at an aspect ratio of '16:9'. But this merely reflects how much the TV stretches the image - it's still exactly the same pixel resolution as conventional 4:3 screens. That is, 720x576 pixels.
The more astute amongst you may immediately have spotted the problem; 720x576 is 5:4, not 4:3. Yes indeed, '4:3' pixels aren't square either.
So... I have a bunch of logo artwork that's 720x576. I'm reasonably confident that it's 16:9... but munging it to heights of 540, 432 and 406 pixels never produces images that look quite right. In the end I've gone for 432 as looking least wrong, but it's a judgement call. My recommendations:
Dang, I fail on both counts.
Jonas Salling, the guy who first released software to let your Ericssony phone talk to your Mac via Bluetooth, has done it again, with Sony Ericsson Clicker. Not only does this allow you to control your Mac from your mobile, it also allows the triggering of AppleScripts based on proximity.
Right now, when I walk away from my Mac (with my phone), iTunes pauses. When I return, it starts up again. This is... er... kinda cool. It's really not a million miles away from some of the stuff AT&T Labs Europe were doing with RF tags back in the mid-90s, moving peoples' desktops around the building as they sat in front of different workstations.
Only, unlike RF tags, most people actually do carry mobile phones.
My parcel from the Apple Store finally arrived, and suddenly my life is subtly but distinctly better. No, really.
First up: JBL Creature speakers. Not only are these things nicely packaged (literally - even the box is a bit cool, and unexpectedly rather funny). Not only do they look terrific. Not only do they have colour-coded and physically keyed connecting plugs (which could still be replaced with standard jacks)... but they also sound rather spiffing too. Not to put too fine a point on it, they rock.
Next: Griffin Powermate. Mmm... rotary controller, with pulsating blue light. Just as cool as everyone says, this really is the only way to scroll: stuff that wheel mouse nonsense. That said, I might still pick up a Contour SpaceShuttle A/V and send this thing to Martin. When I ordered it it was vaguely supposed to be a pressie, or something.
Next: PowerBook power supply. I've had a PowerBook G4 on my shelf for three months. It's not mine any more, but the (probably) rightful owners don't seem interested either. So I'm kinda slowly claiming it. Ah, it's good to have a PowerBook again, even if the possession is both dubious and implicit.
Finally - and perhaps most significantly - Bluetooth. Oh. My. Heavens. Mobile phone/address book/calendar/telephony/SMS integration. This is the most amazing thing. If you have a Mac and use a mobile phone (a.) get a Bluetooth mobile, preferably an Ericssony one, and (b.) get a Bluetooth USB dongle, or a Mac with such stuff built-in.
Rock. on.
Badly in need of moving pictures someone else has slaved over, I stopped by the local cinema on my way home from rehearsals yesterday and caught Catch Me If You Can.
I hugely enjoyed it, and only partly because the aforementioned 'someone else' slaved over it. The much-mentioned titles are indeed refreshingly lovely, and the pictures that follow lilt along at a thoroughly pleasing pace. OK, so it does tail off a bit after he escapes Miami, but it's still a deftly presented and deceptively clever romp.
Rehearsals, by the way, are going well enough. I may not be the funkiest producer ever, but people do seem to have fun when they're working for me. Which is nice.
Emperor's New Clothes, the live album 'East on the West Road.' All praise Acid Jazz, back from the dead again; this is vintage stuff, I really must track down some of the new material.
At work, we've been trying to make a skybow, an effort somewhat hampered by lack of wind and entirely hampered by lack of free-spinning swivel things, segment rotation for the decoupling of.
However, today was filming day, so we had to go with what we had. Nicki and I were, therefore, standing in the cold at Roundhay Park, and stuff me but the thing actually worked. Still not right, but the combination of late afternoon sun glinting off the ribbon, the arc path it cut into the blue sky, and the way it descended periodically to kiss its own shadow... well, it was beautiful.
Of course, by the time the crew finished the previous item and joined us, the wind had dropped and the sun was settling into haze, no longer providing the spec(tac)ular highlights I so adored. Fifteen minutes later, when the presenters had (with admirable alacrity, I note) learned how to fly the thing, it was dark so far as the cameras were concerned.
Blast. Nobody's fault, just one of those things that happens - and one of those things you won't be seeing on your screens in the near future, sadly.
However, if anybody reading this (in the US, perhaps?) can send me some Sampo ball-bearing game fishing swivels, I'd be very interested to hear from you. The Skybow will fly again.
I was recently reminded of something I said over a year ago, that's still the single quote of which I'm most proud. Curiously, it came out of a good old-fashioned baseless argument, of the kind in which I'm usually least interested.
A colleague and I were arguing about chocolate. She extolled the virtues of milk chocolate: I advocated dark. This particular colleague hated to lose an argument, even if that meant agreeing to disagree. At length, matters descended to:
Look, I'm a woman, and women understand chocolate. Milk is better.
To which I responded, somewhat disconsolate:
Ah yes, but I am a man, and we understand bitterness.
We both took the resulting silence to indicate mutual satisfaction with our statements of final position. And I, for one, will quote that line for the rest of my life.
So, I woke up each day last week with The Cure's 'Close to Me' going round in my head. Today, I woke up with New Order's 'Every Little Counts' running.
What's that about? Am I regressing to GCSEs? Will it be something from Talking Heads' Little Creatures next week? What should I do if Joy Division starts up?
Birruva discussion kicking off again about (ancient history but way ahead-of-its-time) Newton vs. (WinXP with a pen screen) Tablet PC. It seems to have started when Robert Scoble wrote:
By putting ink into a real OS and not just a Palm device, Microsoft has brought us something dramatically new. Apple never had that vision with the Newton.
...which is unfortunate, since that was exactly what Newton was. It was a 'real OS' by any metric I can think of, and also something dramatically new. Arguably far more so than any retrofit of a desktop OS, in that it directly addressed the specific problems of what one actually wants in a handheld. As a result - and as I've posted here before - Newton can today do a whole raft of stuff that's beyond any other handheld. While Psion's stuff runs it close, you have to remember that there's five years' more development in those things.
The other thing Scoble misses is that there really were A4-size tablet Newtons. Sure, they were prototype units that were never sold commercially, and I have to wonder how the hardware of the day coped with the demands. Then again, I wonder what 'Newton' was really like - what we got was 'Newton Jnr,' a cut-down hack to ship the bloody thing.
However, I can't get too uppity for two reasons. First, it's not clear to me that handheld and slate computing in the manner of Newton is strictly comparable to 'Tablet PC' ideas, in that they're really addressing different sorts of use. Second, Apple poured a heap of money into Newton and pretty much lost the lot. It's not clear to me that Microsoft's luck will be any better this time round.
Mind you, a Tablet PC would be fan-stuffin'-tastic for playing Neverwinter Nights.
Blimey.
So, I'm on a mailing list with a bunch of chums, many of whom now live in the US. Last week we were discussing the BBC, and I chipped in a description of John Peel's Saturday morning Radio 4 show, Home Truths.
My chum Martin copied it to the editorial office, and stuff me if it didn't appear in the introduction this morning. You can hear it for yourself, this week only, here (RealPlayer). It's about two minutes in.
I'm going to have to lie down now. Named by John Peel! John! Peel!
Ever wondered what happens if you call the customer care number on the back of your food packageing? So did Matt Webb. Storming.
Every time I start typing the word 'dinosaur' into Word, it offers to complete it as 'Dino Micouris.' All I can tell from Google is that he's a Toyota MR2 owner. Why he's in my Entourage address book, I have no idea - particularly since (a.) it wasn't doing this on Friday, and (b.) I've never used Entourage anyway. Weird.
...Soma FM's Secret Agent channel. Tagline: 'The soundtrack for your stylish, mysterious, dangerous life.' Is this the best mix stream ever?
Currently playing: Locust, The Girl With the Fairytale Dreams.
Oh, I love working with talented people.
This afternoon I was writing (slowly...) at home, while my colleagues were partying away at (art consultant) David's house. They rang me so I could hear the first public performance of (researcher) Gavin's song. Top stuff.
We've been burned by cool-melt glueguns,
Eaten Pringles till it hurts
Made [indecipherable] out of cardboard
'n said, 'Dave, please make this work.'
I'll see if I can't get a recording up on here somehow. Of course, it's all in-jokes. Tough.
The whole Europeans are wusses thing continues to fascinate me. In part, because there's a chunk of the (predominantly ill-informed and nonsensical) allegations to which I'm quite happy to plead guilty. And that, so far as I can tell, is precisely what gets up the Americans' noses.
So, smart are bringing out a roadster and coupé later this year. By the time it's out, my Mini Cooper will be two years old, and I had wondered about doing the trade-in thing - the Mini is holding its value astonishingly well at the moment, so it might make no less sense than any other plan.
But today, I discover that the smart Roadster will cost £13,495, the Coupé £14,495. Add in a few options, and... but... that's more than a Cooper S would be.
Bang goes that plan, then.
Matt Jones has some hilarious observations on Colin Powell's address to the UN. I'm not sure which is more incongruous; Powerpoint at the UN, or Matt noticing it.
Mark Pilgrim writes a personal summary on the currently-simmering existential blog debate. Just what are we all doing, spilling our guts out in public like this? Does anyone really care? Much has been written, and Mark's piece doesn't try to be an overview, but he does a reasonable job of that on his way to something else.
Meanwhile, I'm fascinated that thus far, I've not seen anyone share my own rationale. I blog for the same reason I take photographs; not because anyone else might be interested in the results, but because I'm interested in the process. I carry a stills camera everywhere, and that simple act makes me look for images I might wish to remember. I like looking at the world that way.
I write this blog because I enjoy trying to condense thoughts into a few brief phrases. I watch myself spot suitable stories, then edit and re-edit as I blunder around seeking the optimum combination of brevity, clarity, and style. I have no success criteria; the process is the end in itself.
It matters not if nobody happens across this site; it's intended to be written, not read. I make no apology for that.
Traction control rocks.
I've mostly been unconvinced by my Mini's flashing little yellow light, in part because the stability and traction system driving it is one of the cheapo kind that's linked only to the anti-lock brake sensors - it's rather like the inverse of anti-lock, I suppose. Also, it can't work until the wheels are actually moving, so it doesn't help when pulling away on slippery surfaces. Oh, and there's enough rubber, and insufficient torque, that it's normally only possible to trigger the system by driving like a complete hooligan. Which I tend not to do.
Driving on snow, however, it turns out to be well worth the modest investment. It cannot - and indeed, should not - make one forget about the slippery stuff, and the tail still wags away when invited. But somehow, the car manages to head solidly in the direction you point the front wheels, the little yellow light flashing with manic joy as it finally gets to do something. It's a slightly disconcerting experience, in that (if you're a bit mad and there's nothing around, including any ditches) you can simply nail the throttle and... not much happens. It happens to an accompaniment of weird slithering and thumpy juddering sounds, but it's a damn sight less scary than the car swapping ends.
Best of all, the steering wheel completely fails to do the usual twisty writhing thing, since the wheels aren't spinning. Couple that the steering being fairly weighty, and there's nearly as much feel as in the old non-power steering Rover 213 I used to have. All in, the Mini feels like the safest thing I've driven on snow. There's still fun to be had with a prod of the right foot, but more importantly it's easy to back out, when you realise what a bad idea that is. Or when a townie nutter in a Discovery thinks '4WD' means 'indestructible,' and rounds the corner ahead at forty, sideways.
Panic's Steven Frank says pretty much exactly what I would about Ico. Damien and I played this for ten hours straight, and never tired of the gorgeous atmosphere it evokes. I've recently loaned my copy to Gavin, who's less completely hooked but still hugely complimentary.
