Gary Price points out that in their quest to become the command line of the Internet, Google has added several new features: you can now enter UPS and FedEx, patent, aircraft registration, and FCC equipment ID/tracking numbers
I’ve had an interesting couple o’ days with a freelance client I just picked up. I got the go ahead on tuesday-ish. On wednesday afternoon I get a call from the other person I’m working on this project with. Let’s call them Red Wolf. So Red Wolf calls me just as I’m leaving day job / full-time work early ’cause I felt like shit, and informs me that client X wants new logo by friday so he can whack ’em on business cards, and that I should give him a call. You bet I should give this guy a call. Who the hell decides to organise logo design three days before he goes to print? I’ll tell you who, people who think design is just about some pretty shapes ‘n’ colours. These are the people who think that they are also designers because they know some, or own a copy of Photoshop. AAARGGGGHHH!!!!!!
You know what, there are designers who take this approach, and I pity them. These guys only see the surface of what their craft is / should be, in fact they don’t even see it as a craft. Then there are the designers who take a good, well thought out and researched approach to their work. These are the guys who make informed and educated descisions on colour, shape, typography and etc., as well as using their artistic and intuitive sensibilities. What can I say there are designers, and then there are good designers.
Sigh! Everyone thinks they are a designer. Sorry to burst any bubbles, but chances are you are not. Using the lastest fonts won’t help you, neither will using white, grey and orange. Knowing basic concepts or buzz words such as consistency, usability, font, pixel or rounded corners isn’t going to perform any transformations either.
Logo is done now and I sent off an .eps and .ai files to client X so they could shove them infront of their print guy. I then got an email back with him saying he couldn’t open the files. Then another saying I opened it in Photoshop, but it’s cropped weird can you fix this. This e-mail was met with some grinding of teeth, and responded in such a way as to educate him succinctly and diplomatically on the ways of graphic design and print. All seems fine now.
On another note, I’ve actually been eating breakfast at work in the mornings now. Our ceo’s son got a whole swag of mini cereal boxes for free. They kinda fell of the back of a truck.
The rain has set in for the day, which is nice. The pods would disagree, well Malamute would, Husky loves the rain. He especially loves to run about in and share its wonderful wetness with his humans.
The thunder has been a constant since the early hours of the morning and Malamute has been a bit distressed and refused to settle. But her non-settling antics were nothing compared to what I got after her favourite human left for work.
Malamute stole favourite human’s slipper, buried herself under the covers and squished the slipper as far under me as possible. She then snuggled into me, using the slipper as a pillow. Most adorable. Until Husky spotted her co-opting his favourite human. One Springbok-like leap onto the bed and a bit of head gnawing later and I decided that it was time to get up.
I now have two canine shadows. Malamute is here beside me because she’s scared of the thunder and Husky is crammed under the desk, doing a fine job as a foot warmer, to make sure Malamute does steal my affections.
The pods are amusing.
Sydney is regularly voted one of the world’s best cities to live in, but a new environment report has warned its affluent lifestyle is ecologically unsustainable. The 2003 environment report on New South Wales says Sydney residents are wasting millions of gallons of water, demanding ever more electricity and remain car obsessed, increasing greenhouse gas emissions. One of the best ways to help with sustainability is to sack all of the profiteering arsehole developers who, if not actually council members, have them well in their pockets
Wireless guru Rob Flickenger details the known records for Wi-Fi link distances, included is a new distance record for an un-amplified Wi-Fi link, set by the students of Utah’s Weber State University. 82 miles was accomplished with 802.11b
A research group at the Australian National University is getting symmetrical 250Kbps at 20km, using empty 7MHz-wide broadcast TV allocations in the 45MHz band. Story here, project homepage here. Aim is to put some bandwidth out beyond the reach of the wires, where users are few and far between
Almost half the Australian public agree with Mark Latham that the retarded monkey boy is incompetent and dangerous — via Southerly Buster
I’ve been after a 00ga double flared titanium eyelet for a while. Had a look around at the various items on offer with no luck. Some of the members of the BMEzine Live Journal community suggested Anatometal. Even though Anatometal only have a single flared eyelet listed in their range they were happy to machine an eyelet up to my specs, and even anodised it light purple for me. The price was reasonable, even with the obscene US international postage rates added in, it was still far less than I would have been forced to pay locally
A brilliant idea for a card game, discussed here.
Some sample cards:
Update: just found this Blank White Cards History page.
Name Statistics is a site that checks your name against data from the US census. My first name was in the database, but my middle and last names weren’t even a blip
Cab Elvis lives! And so do any other Seattle cab drivers who want to trade their black slacks and crisp shirts for costumes. The Seattle City Council approved an ordinance allowing cabdrivers to hit the road dressed like Santa Claus, Superman or whatever strikes their fancy, as long the costume is approved by their cab companies
New Zealanders use the internet more than their neighbours across the Tasman as well as 30 other countries covered by a new international survey
Shalom Gelbman is in trouble with the local cops after making a few small errors in judgment — he was impersonating a police officer; pulling someone over for a traffic offence; the someone happened to be an off-duty state trooper
The Argonne National Laboratory have designed nanoparticles which identify, and then latch onto, target molecules. The nanoparticles are injected into the bloodstream, where they circulate through the body, picking up their target toxins as they go. Once they have made their rounds, all that’s needed to remove the particles from the body are a magnet housed in a handheld unit and a small, dual-channel shunt inserted into an arm or leg artery
Yahtzee has an amusing fusion of reality telly and fandom with Queer Eye for the Fandom Guy. While all are amusing her take on Angel rocks:
Kyan: It’s like he’s the One Straight Man foretold by prophecy.
The Pagan Prattle beat me to the punch this morning with Who Will Be Eaten First? A Jack Chick style comic explaining why you need to find Cthulhu
This year, Google started a widely used news service. Last week, it seemed to some users of the Google search engine that the site had started to editorialise. Anyone searching on Google for the phrase miserable failure was sent to the official White House biography of the retarded monkey boy. George Johnston, is the man who started this particular Google bomb
Bruce Simpson, the New Zealand man who built a cruise missile in his garage using parts bought off the internet to show how easily it could be done, claims the New Zealand government forced him to shut down his project after coming under pressure from the United States — via Die Puny Humans
A naked, samurai sword-wielding martial arts expert screaming, ‘I’m god! I’m immortal’, hacked his wife to death in a blood-soaked Bronx rampage. When the madman lunged at police, one cop fired 14 shots — bringing down the suspect but also hitting her partner twice. The cop’s vest stopped one bullet from hitting his chest, though another slug penetrated his knee — via Die Puny Humans
When officer Jason Zier pulled over a 1992 Mazda 626 on Thursday afternoon, the vehicle’s registration had expired. By the time he’d finished writing up Sean Leach for the infraction, the car was legal again. That’s because the 36-year-old Jersey City man had a mobile, a friend with a computer who he could reach and the foresight to use the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission’s online registration service. Leach’s ingenuity did not save him from getting a ticket, but it did keep him from having his car towed and getting socked with the towing bill
RSS – Posts