blimps are cool

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:08:19 PDT

Blimps are Cool too

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:17:30 PST

So I've decided to try an experiment: I'm going to start using Tumbler rather than blogger. Mostly because this blog has changed to my ranting about post and personal issues to links to other things.

So you may want to start reading the tumblr blog instead of this one. I promise I'll post more frequently.

http://blimpsarecool.tumblr.com/

Ball. Park. Gone.

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 22:48:19 PST

Google's basic goal in life is to drive the cost of everything in the world to zero -- except the one thing Google sells... butt-ugly little text ads.

-- (Fake)Steve Jobs on the Google Android.

Naked Light

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 16:43:55 PST

Naked light features nodes—simple building blocks in a composition like a images, filters, and sets of brush strokes. Nodes can be arranged in novel ways that layers cannot. And because they are the blueprints for a composition, nodes are infinitely re-editable.

Finally! A node-based still image editor. Looking forward to it!

Growl and Leopard Mail

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 00:06:50 PDT

Growl doesn't work by default under Leopard Mail.app, because of the revised plugin architecture. However, some simple terminal hackery will get it working for you (once you have the growmail bundle installed):

defaults write com.apple.mail EnableBundles -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.mail BundleCompatibilityVersion -int 3

Cinemator + AppleTV == Dailies System

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 03:09:13 PDT

We haven't completely got all the parts together, but our new low cost dailies system is going to be

Pomsofort's Cinemator and an AppleTV connected to a widescreen TV.

With a few hours of coding (shell scripts wrapped inside Bigcat) to glue it all together and we should be ready to roll. Total cost? Oh, something under $1,000AU.

Every other dailies system I've ever built? At least $1,000+ in people time.... and they suck.

Gmail gets IMAP

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 23:49:52 PDT

IMAP Access is being rolled out to GMail Users.

This has pretty much made my week... (its been a tough week). Curious to see how gmail specific features like archiving and labelling are handled. Well, I hope.

Awe inspriring combination of productivity geekery, apple geekery, and open source geekery.

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 01:01:18 PDT

For Leopard, Apple pulled its iCal development in house, and paired its iCal client with a new calendar server. [...] Apple built a standalone calendar server based on the open CalDAV specification. It also announced plans to release its calendar server as an open source project in the same pattern as the Apache web server.

This strategy allowed Apple to focus specifically on the demands of a calendar server, rather than delivering a single product with a wide scope attempting to do a little bit of everything. It also offers the open source community an alternative to emulating Exchange Server. By offering a standards compliant CalDAV server under the Apache license, Apple can use the best existing email server while also sharing its calendar server to the community and Linux administrators, encouraging the adoption of CalDAV.

-- AppleInsider on iCal 3.0

Just an awe inspriring combination of productivity geekery, apple geekery, and open source geekery.

Bang On.

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 08:12:10 PDT

People buy iPods because they love them. If your music doesn’t play on iPods, it isn’t going to sell. And so if (a) you refuse to sell music downloads without DRM; and (b) no other DRM system other than Apple’s is compatible with iPods; then we’re left with a situation where the only successful store is going to be iTunes. What Universal and EMI now seem to have learned, at long last, is that (b) is completely under Apple’s control; only (a) — the labels’ own willingness to allow their music to be sold without DRM — is under their control.

-- Gruber (as always, getting it) on the Amazon Mp3 Store

Think I'm going to give it ago, just because Apple needs the competition.

Beowulf

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:10:52 PDT

... And I’m still not sure I understand why you would go through all the trouble of motion capture to make the animated character look exactly like a zombie version of the original actor/actress.

-- Slashfilm on Beowulf: Why Bother? from Robert "Please Kill My Career Now" Zemeckis

Soulless is the word I would use.

Believe the Hype

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:01:05 PDT

iPhone. Believe the hype.

... it really is the birth of a new paradigm.

(I'll do a post later to do a step by step of how we got it working in Australia under Optus, including using GPRS in lieu of Edge).

Logic Pro 8

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 20:53:55 PDT

Finally. After bitching that Apple has done nothing (really) with Logic in the 2.5 years that I've owned it, they've finally released Logic Pro 8 under the banner of Logic Studio... and they have abandoned the dongle. Awesome. (Means I don't have to worry about insuring it any more).

Big Changes? A huge interface overhaul, Mainstage (which is more about live Soft Instruments than being an Abelton Live competitor), and... um...

the Lost Art of Art Direction

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:15:26 PDT

Art direction is... deeply entwined in the development of an idea, and in expressing that idea through a larger narrative — both in the sense of... creative process [and] the final product, which makes liberal use of storytelling in the invisible spaces between typography, color, shapes and illustrations.

-- Khol Vinh on the Lost Art of Art Direction

Law 40: Despise the Free Lunch

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:42:15 PDT

What is offered for free is dangerous – it usually involves either a trick or a hidden obligation. What has worth is worth paying for. By paying your own way you stay clear of gratitude, guilt, and deceit. It is also often wise to pay the full price – there is no cutting corners with excellence. Be lavish with your money and keep it circulating, for generosity is a sign and a magnet for power.

-- from the 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene

Stunning in their amorality; shocking in their callousness; and fascinating in their thoroughness.

Michael "The Whisky Companion" Jackson Dies

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 16:38:59 PDT

The man who brought Single Malts to the attention of the world has died in London, UK. A dram of single malt in his honour tonight.

(Originally via Daring Fireball)

blimps are really cool

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:47:04 PDT

I always like to use the word "audiophile" in there because nowadays a "mastering engineer" is someone who mangles the sound to the lowest common denominator. In other words, so that their CD is just as loud as everybody else's out there. Sort of the old, "my radio station is louder than your radio station" thing. My personal opinion is that there has to be a bastion of good sound out there and many of my jobs entail much more than mastering. There's all different kinds of restoration from old records to old tapes to this and that. I didn't want to be lumped in with the mass of guys out there who just follow orders now and compress the hell out of everything.

-[ Mastering for the "Breath of Life", Steve Hoffman on super geeky audio mastering for vinyl ]-

Alpha found this after discovering a remaster of Dark Side of the Moon has been issued on Vinyl.

Don: The Chase Begins Again

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 22:42:59 PDT

Why didn't anyone tell me about this? They've remade Don (which I fucking loved):

Don - The Chase Begins Again, directed by Farhan Akhtar, is a remake of the blockbuster 1978 film, Don. The film was released in India on October 20, 2006 and it was also simultaneously released internationally. It received a very good response worldwide, and collected over Rs. 30 crores in India in its first week itself. The script of the previous film was written by Akhtar's father, Javed Akhtar and Salim Khan (father of Salman Khan).

-- via Wikipedia or all places

[Cause I'm looking for Indian rotohouses if anyone knows any, y'know, off hand]

Corey Feldman and Corey Haim Return for The Lost Boys 2

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 19:54:59 PDT

Last month on their new reality television show, Feldman broke the news to his best friend Haim that Warner Brothers were making a direct-to-dvd sequel [to the Lost Boys] without them. Haim started crying. You can watch that footage here.

{however}

According to BD - the two-Corey’s are back! Corey Feldman and Jamison Newlander are returning as the Frog Brothers, and Corey Haim will be reprising his role as Sam Emerson. Not only that but Angus Sutherland, Keifer’s half-brother (and son of Donald Sutherland) will star as this film’s vampire villian.

-[ via Slashfilm ]-

The Leading Myth

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:42:37 PDT

Truly successful leaders don't even try to control events. They recognize that the only way to direct a large group of people is through some ruling idea. That’s what they supply: a vision to believe in; a set of ideas to guide the thousands of individual decisions being made every day without any direct input from them.

[...]

Nor will the myth of leader as “man of action” serve our needs. Thought without action has long been the stock-in-trade of academic ivory towers, but action without thought—the hallmark of the current crop of macho managers—is far worse. Plenty of people can take action, but it requires someone (or some team) with real wisdom and insight to guide that action wisely.

-[ Debunking today's mythology of leadership via Slow Leadership]-

Replace "leader" with "director" if you prefer.

Esoteric Technoism

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Sun, 29 Jul 2007 21:26:36 PDT

I made the switch last week. All my biki.net e-mail is now being pulled into my gmail account and I almost couldn't be happier. I just wish it was easier to maintain a "zero inbox" philosophy within Gmail. At the moment, I need to use a separate "toAction" filter to flag e-mails that need follow up.

That is all.

The Bayer Myth

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:32:20 PDT

We could start to talk about 3 chip vs. Bayer, but I have yet to see a 3 chip anything - camera or projector - where the chips are 100% aligned. So Bayer seems less of an issue somehow, especially as the most 35mm area sensors provide enough cells to enable 'super pixel' 2K compared to 3 chip camera's HD. And obviously 4K is possible if the de-Bayering algorithm used is a good one (for 4K Bayer cameras obviously).

-[ Steve Shaw of Digital Praxis talking about the F23 and HDC1500 on the CML 2K-444 list ]-

Hmmgo.

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 17:42:09 PDT

You're Les Miserables!

by Victor Hugo

One of the best known people in your community, you have become
something of a phenomenon. People have sung about you, danced in your honor, created all
manner of art in your name. And yet your story is one of failure and despair, with a few
brief exceptions. A hopeless romantic, you'll never stop hoping that more good will come
from your failings than is ever possible. Beware detectives and prison guards bearing
vendettas.

Take the Book Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

At least Dave loves me.

-[via Esoteric Rabbit]-

Zodiac: Director's Cut

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:24:10 PDT

Apparently David Fincher’s Zodiac: 2-Disc Director’s Cut will be arriving in 2008... And of course, this new release will be packed with special features missing from the single disc version... I wonder, how much longer could Fincher’s directors cut be? I was one of the few people that really fell in love with this film, but a lot of people have complained that the film is too long and that Fincher was given too much room to “do his own thing”.

-[ via SlashFilm ]-

Musical Blackmail

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:19:35 PDT

You may have noticed that the only ones howling about it are the retailers. They're threatening not to stock any Prince albums as a form of pay-back. Here's the thing. Would you really want to do business with people whose chief form of negotiation is blackmail?

-- (the fake) Steve Jobs on Prince, Music Retailers, and Dell

For a joke blog, Fake Steve always comes out with pretty nasty on the money analysis.

(Part of me would like to believe its the real Steve who pretends he's a fake so he can call the real shit on iTards)

Bayhem Smack Talks

noreply@blogger.com (stu willis) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 21:24:34 PDT

[...]

What these guys did do was stuck with a ‘silly toy movie’ and pushed it around town and kept the faith after everyone turned them down, always with the hope that maybe someone somewhere would make it. Now I commend them on that. Hats off to them, but trying to taking creative credit in the press let me just say it – irks me. Too many credits are given to too many people who had nothing to do with the movie. Hell, even investment bankers with not the slightest idea of how to make a movie all of a sudden are big producers in town.

-- Michael Bay smacking down two of the Transformer producers. Lovingly republished by Slashfilm.

However, the real smackdown is this:

And on Friday, Paramount sent a statement to The New York Times marked “urgent,” crediting only Mr. di Bonaventura and Mr. Bryce as the two producers who did the work on the film.

-- "The Knives are Unseathed" at The New York Times