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May 31, 2005
How To Draw a Cartoon Character in Flash
May 30, 2005
Subaru Tribeca
I don't imagine these will be anywhere near my price range. My price range being whatever a '95 Sunfire and a couple grand can get you.
Something Geeky - Multi Person iChat in Tiger
This is what video conferencing looks like in Tiger. I especially like the reflections of each person to make it look like you're all sitting around a shiny conference table.
Flickr from iPhoto
If you're using the iPhoto flickr export plugin, there's new version out that fixes a few bugs.
May 27, 2005
Recording Off Shaw's Digital Cable Terminal
I don't know why I didn't see this sooner, but apparently you can record directly off of some of Shaw's new digital cable terminals right to your computer with a simple firewire cable. No need for an expensive tuner capture card. This site lists how to do it for Macs but I'm sure something similair could be worked out for PC users out there.
I heard about this from a Unix guy on campus who bought an iBook to try out 'The Mac Side' and seems to be enjoying it:
[quote]
I connected my Shaw Digital STB to my Mac iBook. I then downloaded Firewire SDK 19 from apple.com. Voila, I can now record TV onto the mac. Works great. It captures the TV into mpeg-2 Transport files (.m2t) A program called VLC is used to play these files on the mac. You can record and play High Def. They say that it only works for Digital channels - but they were using the previous Shaw PVR - Motorola 6208. I have the newest one - Motorola 6412 -and it appears to transmit analog channels down the FireWire just fine.
My space consumption estimates on the Mac side:
Digital SD - 1.5 GB /hour
Analog SD - 3.0 GB /hour
Digital HD - 9.0 GB /hour
Now I am looking for a way to convert the .m2t files for DVD burning.
[end quote]
May 25, 2005
Matteo passed out
Matteo passed out
Originally uploaded by Jamita.
This is my new nephew Matteo - tired after a long day of crying, sleeping, eating and no doubt, pooping.
Bono Rants on a Chicago Journalist
"Those [rap metal] people should just take suicide pills and go away."
Read the rest of the interview here. The journalist really takes Bono to task for some of the issues U2 fans have had with U2 lately... going soft, not taking risks... selling out to Apple and the Superbowl, etc. Blah blah.
May 24, 2005
New Game: Carcassonne
Playing Carcassonne with Kev & Lue
Originally uploaded by iChris.
We picked up a new game this weekend called Carcassonne. People compare it to Settlers of Catan but it's really it's own game. I remembered reading about it on Matthew's site awhile ago but never got around to checking it out until now.
Pretty simple game but lots of fun as far as board/tile games go.
Web Site Design
I enjoy designing web sites.
I do not enjoy designing web sites so they can support crappy web browsers.
Why would a simple unordered list, styled to be displayed horizontal work fine in Safari and Internet Explorer - and then in Firefox (both Win and Mac) have arrows come out of nowhere.
May 19, 2005
Google Personal Portal
Google is on it's way to becoming an 'all you can eat, one stop shop' portal, even if it is a optional one - check out their new portal page here.
Cool Tiger Trick
command-control-D
Invoke Tiger's dictionary in any Cocoa app by hovering over the word with this key combination. So handy. Visit site
For those that don't know, 'Command' is also known as the 'Apple Key' on your keyboard. A Cocoa app is, as far as I understand it, something that has been designed for OS X. If you're a new mac user, then most of your apps should be 'cocoa'ized.
Crazy Guitar
Double-necked guitars we can understand, but what does this thing sound like? I suspect the dual pickups whang out some odd sounds and that Glenn Branca, art rocker for the ages, plays this with barre chords because you're probably not going to get much out of it otherwise.
Branca has also create something called Symphony #13 with 80 guitars, 20 basses, and some drums. What, no cowbell?
Glenn Branca's Double Body Guitar [BillTMiller via MusicThing]
[Gizmodo]May 18, 2005
Coldplay X&Y
Pre-order Coldplay's new album, X&Y, on iTunes Music Store and get 2 extra songs.
Done and done. I am a buying machine after all. I don't know how to do anything else.
v3.16
Movabletype v3.16 is installed and seems to be running.
May 17, 2005
Apple's New Codec Shines
H.264 encoding explained/reviewed.
H.264 is a codec that is used to "wrap" your video/audio content in to compress it. It scales really well from cell phone content all the way up to HD (high definition) content.
Sims 2 Coming Soon - Travis This is For You
The Sims 2 Now At Final Candidate
May 17, 2005 8:40 AM
Aspyr has recently posted on its project status page that The Sims 2 is now at the final candidate stage of development. At this point, the game will go through its final testing and will be sent to Electronic Arts for final approval. If all goes well, the game will be declared golden master and will be sent to manufacturing, putting it on track to be released sometime in June.
Be on the lookout for an in-depth IMG preview based on a recent beta shortly.
The Sims 2 Trailer
Maxis
Aspyr Media
The Sims 2
May 16, 2005
Rhetoric, Americana Style
Here's something from Kottke's list of 50 things to do with your iPod - MP3s and real audio of famous speeches from the past.
May 13, 2005
Lofty Living
Someone is renovating the former downtown Bay building to house a bunch of lofts - and they're trying to sell them. The ad I saw said prices started at $90k but everything seems to be $138k and up. I've always wanted to live in a loft for some reason - but I don't think I could justify this.
As a bonus, a underground parking spot is only $10k!
Too Much Music
I just passed 2000 songs on my iPod. That's 6 days of music totalling 9.54GB. Granted, half of the songs haven't even played once - I just dumped most of my CD collection on to my iPod 'just in case' I might want to listen to Never Tear Us Apart by INXS.
Any Mac OS X (especially if you've upgraded to Tiger) users have to check out Comic Life. It's a cool little program that basically allows you to make a comic book out of your photos in iPhoto, complete with comic book page templates, caption bubbles and filters to make your photos look more like a comic. The demo lasts for 30 days so you get a good chance to try it out before deciding whether to buy it or not.
May 12, 2005
Never A Truer Word Has Been Spoken
From a recent Slashdot article on Google's recent purchase of Dodgeball.com, a service for finding people using cell phone technology:
Initial Post: "I know it's unreasonable at the time being but, could there be a possibility of integrating this feature with google maps or google local eventually? Google local search of "what bar are my friends hanging out at tonight?" drop down some phone numbers, get a google map to where they are."
Witty Reply:"If you're searching Google to find out where your friends are hanging out, perhaps technological integration isn't exactly your biggest problem."
May 10, 2005
Back In Saskatoon
Yes, we have made it back to Saskatoon. It feels very wierd to be back home after being gone for a month. On the one hand, everything feels different... but then if I blink, it feels like we never left and Australia was all a dream.
Jet lag is starting to become an issue as I woke up last night at 3am and couldn't fall back asleep. Byron Bay is 16 hours ahead of us so it can really mess with your head when you think too hard about it.
There's so many different experiences that it's hard to relate any of it very well here. It was an amazing time spent getting to know Sue's family (her sister and brother-in-law live in Byron Bay, Australia which is why we all went). We got to see all things Australian: koalas, kanagaroos, beautiful beaches that go forever, surfing and boogie boarding in the ocean, dolphins, Sydney, the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, Foster's Lager, dingos, platypus, rain forest. We didn't get out to Uluru (the rock formerly known as Ayer's Rock, now known by it's proper Aboriginal name) because it's a long, long way out and in the middle of nowhere.
The best part of the trip was to get to know Chris & Lorinda (Sue's sister and brother-in-law) in their life in Byron. We saw where they live, where they work and got to meet their friends and the places they go for fun. They have an awesome church (nevermind the cheesy website) that puts a lot of North American churches to shame with how giving and caring it is for the community it lives in.
I read lots of good books, most of which were supplied by Troy, but I also picked up a book by Bill Bryson (In a Sunburned Country
I could very easily go back and live there, if called to. But I know we're not meant to be there (right now anyway). It's probably for the best, since death lurks around every corner in Australia in the form of deadly snakes and spiders. Not that we saw anything deadly while we were there - but I'm sure they were around, they probably just don't go for tourists so as to not scare them away.
Lots more to say - but some experiences are better related in person than on a blog. Pictures are here for those that like pictures.
May 1, 2005
Sydney Opera House
Sydney Opera House
Originally uploaded by iChris.
Apparently they have this thing called an 'Opera House' in Sydney? Anyway, people seemed to be making a big deal so I grabbed a picture of it.
I couldn't hear any opera so I'm not sure what all the fuss was about.