Twisted Melon - The Blog

Can't ship this sale...

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 00:00:01 -0400

Have you noticed the new item we're stocking in our online shop?

It's time for a moving sale, literally. A few months ago I moved my office into my home in preparation for the process of selling it. There was a bit of a mess to be made and a lot of clean up to follow. Coincidentally, we were running low on stock of the Manta TR1 so inventory storage, luckily, wasn't a problem.

Servers, printers, routers and other machines have found their new homes, while desks & decorations have gone into storage. New Manta stock is hidden away in the basement and the place has generally been decluttered to make it easy on the eyes.

Much to the dismay of the agents who call here daily, we've decided to try and sell the home ourselves. We've listed it with bytheowner.com and I've also put up our own gallery web site. I can hear some of you saying "of course!"

How could I not?

The current home of Twisted Melon is for sale

The listing just went live last week and I'm still putting the final touches on the 17gully.com web site (which I based on the page I made for my brother's stag earlier this year). I'll try to update the blog with additional information about this process and my experiences as a private seller as time permits.

As a special bonus/incentive, we're offering a complimentary Mira Family Pack and Manta TR1 to whomever buys our house. ;)

Bribery baby

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 13:15:23 -0400

How would you like to be paid to watch a movie? Or in a different light, how would you like some free software? Keep reading.

Last night I had the pleasure to watch The 11th Hour, the DiCaprio-produced environmental and social-responsibility wake-up flick. I knew before going in that I agreed with the perceived sentiment, but at the same time didn't know how this title would go about telling its story. The narration is sparse and the movie consists mainly of interview segments pieced together with news and other footage of various disasters and surveys of the world around us. The film makers interviewed more than 50 scientists, ecologists, professors, authors and other experts. But this is not a movie “about global warming” - that's only a single topic of this 95 minute reality-check.

Over all it was a concise and poignant film. We could have watched another thousand scientists and experts interviewed for another three weeks and the messages would ring no more true. The human race has a problem. That's us folks! It's not the environment that has the problem, it's only showing the signs of our abuse.

Some days it's hard to have faith in humanity. Every day in supposedly beautiful Ontario I see people treating the streets and parks as their own personal trash heap. You can't travel anywhere, even a five minute walk from any neighborhood, without seeing at least the littered evidence of carelessness and self-importance. Whether you believe or doubt the dire predictions and immediate causes of global climate change, you need only look around you to see the abuses I mentioned by others in your neighborhoods.

Everyone should see this movie, but I don't believe for a second that writing about it here will convince someone who simply doesn't give a damn to stop for two hours and soak it in. But maybe, just maybe, you might be able to convince a couple of people you know to make the effort. And like the old shampoo commercial, they'll tell two friends and so on... While the vast majority of people might say they "care" many of them also think it's “someone else's problem” - the problem is with all of us. And the only way to make a difference is to actually MAKE a difference. Change something you do, something you buy, anything. Start somewhere. Start here.

To increase motivation, how about offsetting that movie ticket price with free software? I'll give away full Mira registrations to the next 50 people who go out to see The 11th Hour. You just need to email me a scan or digital photo of your ticket stub and at least one sentence telling me about something you already do, or will do, that demonstrates you care about the world we live in.

Is this collusion or bribery? Well, I don't have any association with the movie or film makers, I simply give a shit about where I live and where my children will live. If you want to find out more about collusion, bribery, misappropriation, deceit and unlawfulness, I suggest you go take a look at this other site.

To other developers out there, how about matching my offer? No more, no less, just give away a few copies of your software to those willing to show they give a damn and are willing to do something about it. I'll be glad to provide or create custom artwork to help you promote this event if you need it.

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Sunny, stop chewing that!

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The site's been unavailable a few times today and believe me, no one is more upset and stressed about it than me. Except perhaps Sunny. The little guy thought he was at fault for having chewed through dad's internet pipe, so I had to reassure him it was just our host's, and Cisco's, crappy equipment.

Everyone's feeling more relaxed now and the site seems to be humming along again. The boys at Dreamhost are still working out their issues, so if you notice anything drastically broken for the rest of the night, please have some patience and please try back again later.

Now excuse me while I go take a closer look at Media Temple's web site...

Smoothya Later

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:50:56 -0400

Updated with an addendum on the site.

Why do so many issues have to be boiled down to philosophical debates? There's nothing wrong with philosophy, but something such as font rasterizing (converting a vector image into a raster image, also known as a bitmap) and anti-aliasing (collectively “rendering”) can easily be debated on a technical battlefront. At least arguments can be had putting forth facts rather than hypothesizing on philosophy and obvious flame-baiting. Because at the end of the day, that's all this recent hullabaloo has been. Hypothesis on Apples versus Oranges, err, Windows and flame-baiting for increased hits purported to be “readership.”

Adobe Illustrator CS2's custom font rendering
(Arial 14 pts zoomed to 500% - Vector, Plain Raster & Anti-Aliased Raster )

Credit where credit is due of course. The inspiration for this post came from a ZDNet TechBlog post linked by John Gruber on Daring Fireball. I think john needs to start a new Jackass-only feed. Frankly I'm amazed he can whittle down to a single winner every week, but this past one was just head and shoulders above.

Microsoft first introduced “Font Smoothing” for Windows 95 with its Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95. This technology anti-aliased screen type above specific point sizes to arguably make it more legible. I say arguably because it was possible for certain fonts to become quite muddy at small sizes and while they looked terrible without the anti-aliasing, they were nonetheless readable. A number of my machines spent a long time running Windows 95 before jumping directly to 2000 back in the day. Having painstakingly anti-aliased type and graphics by hand (pixel by pixel) since the mid 80's I was well aware of its benefits, so the Plus Pack was a welcomed addition for this feature alone.

Apple introduced their own font smoothing with Mac OS 8.5 in 1998, the same year Microsoft announced and demonstrated a new sub-pixel technique of font rendering for LCDs, called ClearType. This form of anti-aliasing uses multicolored pixels which, on an LCD, allows the turning on/off of the individual color elements (RGB) which make up every pixel. The technique therefore triples the effective unique horizontal image elements available to create a smooth edge. Microsoft first shipped ClearType on the desktop in Windows XP in 2001.

Current operating systems from both Microsoft and Apple can use sub-pixel anti-aliasing for on-screen font rendering. This is where the fact reporting begins to break down in a number of the articles and rants recently written on this topic, not to mention the streams of comments following each one.
Mac OS X includes settings for font rendering in its Appearance Preference Pane. This preference pane is the first icon in the top left corner of System Preferences. At the very bottom of the window you can specify “Font Smoothing Style” to be either Automatic, Standard, Light Medium or Strong and minimum font size to be either 4, 6, 8, 9, 10 or 12 and above. This part is important so read it carefully:

By default, Mac OS comes set to “Automatic”

Mac OS X 10.4 Appearance Preferences

The automatic setting will, as the name and description in the UI implies, apply the optimum smoothing setting depending on what type of screen the text is being rendered to (CRT, LCD, TV, etc..) When you install or use your Mac for the first time, there is no need to touch any font properties. You don't have to know anything about smoothing at all - it just works.

In Windows XP, still the more prominent non-Apple OS, font smoothing is not turned on by default. Read it again, George Ou. In Windows XP, font smoothing is not turned on by default. In fact, to turn this feature on you have to do a little digging in Display Properties, one of the Windows Control Panels. A quick way to reach this panel is to Right-Click on the desktop and select the last option from the pop-up menu, Properties.

Windows XP Display Properties' Appearance Tab, Effects Preferences

Once the panel comes up, select the Appearance tab in a similar vein to Mac OS. However, you won't yet see the option. Now click the button near the bottom right titled “Effects.” You should now see a check-box allowing you to enable font smoothing and select the method. Either Standard or ClearType - there is no automatic option which will support both LCDs and CRTs equally well.

In Windows Vista... Well, if you're running Vista may I suggest you install Windows XP for sanity and usability's sake.

That covers the most basic concept of the saga - how to actually turn on the font smoothing options (if needed).
I don't want to get into the topic of pixel grids, nor as I mentioned, philosophy. The fact of the matter is that Windows implements font rasterization pretty much the way it always has. Most of what exists in Windows today is about legacy, not about philosophy. Things are written or done a certain way because that's simply the way they were originally done and no one wants to rock the boat. Or the boat is so large it's nearly impossible to rock. For perspective, as a long-time dual-platform user, I still run multiple Windows systems to this day.

Mac OS X, as many have pointed out, is based on a number of older technologies and frameworks from NeXT along with plenty of new hooks designed to create the best operating and best looking OS. The process was not an instant one and is much more comparable to building a house, one brick at a time, starting with version 10.0. Apple has very much shown a new invigorated focus on style, from product design to advertising to user interfaces.

Text is most readable when one can most easily recognize the letter forms. Typographers have spent hundreds of years perfecting the printed letter form with the most subtle of details, many designed strictly to increase legibility. Early computers with low resolution screens, limited memory and slow processors weren't afforded the ability to use anything but bitmap fonts. These pixel based fonts often had to fit each letter form into an 8x8 matrix using only a single color.

Detail of original Commodore 64 font at 400% magnification

Imagine making letters using checkers on a grid. These blocky fonts on some computers benefitted greatly from analogue displays that smeared their appearance on screen. But blocky is still blocky. Not to mention the need to print something you'd written. You would really have very little idea of what it would end up looking like on paper.
When given the opportunity, artists creating logos and title screens for games and applications, long ago started filling in the jaggy spaces with additional pixels that averaged the colors of the foreground and background, creating a less harsh transition and appearance of smoothness to the eye. This is anti-aliasing and just one technique any respectable pixel pusher had to master.

Animated 5 second interval: Original artwork / hand-applied Anti-Aliasing

300% zoom of original and Anti-Aliased versions

Logo sample circa 1988 - Originally created in DPaint in Amiga OS (16 colors)

The desire for smoothness and appearance of higher resolution has been in the hearts of computer enthusiasts for over 25 years. With the desktop consumer revolution of the mid 90's, spurred in large part by Microsoft and the development of the Web, these machines, programs and technology were adopted by the masses. The same masses who had looked at clunky machines and displays from years gone by and easily dismissed them as either toys or overly complicated calculators.

Consumers today expect high quality and high usability. They don't need to learn the technicalities nor design philosophies of someone squirreled away in an office, lab or studio on the other side of the country. We want things to look good. Shiny, new, smooth, but of course recognizable and usable.

There's already so much to learn and keep track of that one shouldn't need to worry about whether or not two lines of text will print the way they're expected to. The way they were typed on the screen for instance.

In the simplest form, issues of disparity involve working with differing standards. That is, doing one thing at the time of creation and then doing something else at the time of viewing. Whether the final medium be paper, another screen or even the same screen in another application.

There are likely more font rasterizing and anti-aliasing algorithms (methods) than people reading this blog right now. You definitely encounter at least two of them on a daily basis, some people confronted with some three or four right on their own screens.

{Continue Reading the full article on our site...}

Of Keyboards and Men

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 12:00:00 -0400

The long-time rumored Apple product refresh event came and went, leaving many of the net's blogs in a tizzy. Official invitations set expectations clearly with regards to the nature of the announcements. This was going to be a time for Mac press coverage, not the second coming of the Jesus phone nor the iPod that would walk on water.

Did that mean hopes weren't dashed or we'd see less rants this time around? Of course not. Apple unveiled new hardware in the form of a redesigned iMac, keyboards, speed-bumped Mac mini and refreshed Airport base station. iLife 08 and iWork 08 both debuted on the software front, introducing a brand new iMovie and spreadsheet application, Numbers.

There's plenty of coverage scattered around the net about each and every announcement along with the usual interpretation of Steve Jobs' tone and selection of words. The most recent gripes I've read have been about the keyboards. Specifically the re-assignment of keys.

Having worked closely with Apple for numerous years, I can assure you that despite some design decisions lacking customer appreciation, none of them are ever “random.”

{Continue Reading the full article on our site...}

The Wedding Bells

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400

I'm very happy to promote a sale for all our supporters and future customers, and of course the Summer is bringing some amazing recreational weather. But the overwhelming theme of this summer for myself, family and friends, seems to be marriage.

On Saturday June 30th, 2007, Derek Fernandes and Gabriela Calero will be tying the knot in what's sure to be an amazing event. I wish my "little" brother and his future wife all the best for the day and the future. I'd also welcome Gaby to the family, though it's been long enough that's she's been a part of it for years.

He's he's off to a good start by choosing a spectacular bride and of course the "best" best man money can't buy - yours truly. After all, do you know many people that would make a website for their brother's stag? Complete with online ticket sales and gift processing no less.

I would also like to take this opportunity to announce my own recent engagement to Erin Hawkins, my beautiful fiancée (and recent Facebook addict - I'm sorry I didn't invent it first baby). I'm still getting used to that word, it's been "girlfriend" for the past five years. Coincidentally, this week is also our anniversary. Remind her that all good things take time, and come to those who wait.

We're not done yet....

AppleTV and Missing Content

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 00:00:00 -0400

The hacks and enhancements for AppleTV have been coming fast and furious since the day the little "Mac nano" was released. Some really great possibilities exist with this affordable and convenient platform, both in front of and away from the TV.

While a number of people have been throwing their own content at the box in the form of XVID and other encoded files, including at higher resolutions, I think everyone is noticing that a big piece of the puzzle is curiously missing. Namely HD content in the form of movie and TV program releases.

What I haven't seen recently is anyone making an educated guess on the real reason. The reality of the situation is that no conspiracy exists and the reason for lack of content is a very simple one. Simple to explain in any case. HDCP. Or lack thereof anyway.

Read the rest on our site...