Category: Uncategorized

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, 720×576 pixels.

The more astute amongst you may immediately have spotted the problem; 720×576 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 720×576. 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:

1. Artwork that involves geometrically accurate squares or circles will never display correctly, anywhere.
2. It doesn’t pay to get too prissy about precise branding issues

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.

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.