CK Blog:
June 10, 2005
Behind the scenes museum photography
Wow, I just love finding cool, weird, interesting stuff like this. Justine Cooper is a photographer working at the Amercian Museum of Natural History in New York and has an exhibit up at the Kashya Hildebrand New York Gallery. Not only are these stunning photos, but they were made with a wood camera from 1910.
Check out the photos at:
Justine Cooper
Wow, I just love finding cool, weird, interesting stuff like this. Justine Cooper is a photographer working at the Amercian Museum of Natural History in New York and has an exhibit up at the Kashya Hildebrand New York Gallery. Not only are these stunning photos, but they were made with a wood camera from 1910.
Check out the photos at:
Justine Cooper
Escher Photoshop Contest
Worth 1000 is sponsoring a photoshop contest with an M.C. Escher theme:
Photoshop Contest
With so many fantastic results, it's going be a hard contest to judge. Shark Pond, Where's Waldo, Escherangelo, and the Hot Air Baloon are some of my favorites.
Worth 1000 is sponsoring a photoshop contest with an M.C. Escher theme:
Photoshop Contest
With so many fantastic results, it's going be a hard contest to judge. Shark Pond, Where's Waldo, Escherangelo, and the Hot Air Baloon are some of my favorites.
May 21, 2005
Film your own Lightsaber
Just in case you ever want to make a video with a lightsaber in it:
Lightsaber Effect Rotoscoping In A Premiere Filmstrip
Updated:
Check out this page for some free software to do this:
Nakes Software
Just in case you ever want to make a video with a lightsaber in it:
Lightsaber Effect Rotoscoping In A Premiere Filmstrip
Updated:
Check out this page for some free software to do this:
Nakes Software
Wal-Mart hands over DVD rentals to Netflix
Hmm... I was just going to post something comparing the two, but I guess Wal-Mart gave in before I could. And for a good reason, I recently tried both services and Netflix won hands down. They were much more organized, had better selection, and were delivered easily twice as fast as Wal-Mart. Turnaround time for Netflix (time from mailing a return to getting a new rental) was only about 2 days! They must have been getting them overnight, and shipping out a new title that same day w overnight delivery. Wal-Mart easily was 4 days if not more. Next up - Blockbuster
Wal-Mart teams with Netflix on DVD rentals
Hmm... I was just going to post something comparing the two, but I guess Wal-Mart gave in before I could. And for a good reason, I recently tried both services and Netflix won hands down. They were much more organized, had better selection, and were delivered easily twice as fast as Wal-Mart. Turnaround time for Netflix (time from mailing a return to getting a new rental) was only about 2 days! They must have been getting them overnight, and shipping out a new title that same day w overnight delivery. Wal-Mart easily was 4 days if not more. Next up - Blockbuster
Wal-Mart teams with Netflix on DVD rentals
March 5, 2005
Daring Fireball's Apple News
Like any1 who's seen their stock almost quadruple in the last year I read a lot of Apple computer news. And stories about Apple seem to get passed around like... well, I'll let you fill in the analogy. But there is one blog that really seems to stand alone with unique, thoroughly investigated articles - John Gruber's Daring Fireball
He recently wrote a very insightful article about why something as simple as the removal of firewire cables from iPod packages has caused such a spark in the Apple community:
Daring Fireball: Nerve Touching
Like any1 who's seen their stock almost quadruple in the last year I read a lot of Apple computer news. And stories about Apple seem to get passed around like... well, I'll let you fill in the analogy. But there is one blog that really seems to stand alone with unique, thoroughly investigated articles - John Gruber's Daring Fireball
He recently wrote a very insightful article about why something as simple as the removal of firewire cables from iPod packages has caused such a spark in the Apple community:
Daring Fireball: Nerve Touching
March 4, 2005
Links Section Updated
CK Links:
I finally found a format that I like for my Links section! I've been working on this one for awhile, and yes it seems really simple, but it had to meet my criteria. I wanted something where I could export my links from Mozilla's Firefox browser, and through a few conversions get a nice looking page that I can update easily. The key is "update easily," since I've noticed that most of the links on my old Links page were dead. So if you find any links that don't work please let me know. There are a lot of good resources in there that I've found over the years, so enjoy!
CK Links:
I finally found a format that I like for my Links section! I've been working on this one for awhile, and yes it seems really simple, but it had to meet my criteria. I wanted something where I could export my links from Mozilla's Firefox browser, and through a few conversions get a nice looking page that I can update easily. The key is "update easily," since I've noticed that most of the links on my old Links page were dead. So if you find any links that don't work please let me know. There are a lot of good resources in there that I've found over the years, so enjoy!
March 2, 2005
Gehry Building = Giant Magnifying Glass
Disney Concert Hall to Lose Some Luster
Oops, guess they never factored in the sun when they built the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles! Seems the reflected light from the building heats up the sidewalk to 140 degrees! - "enough to melt plastic and cause serious sunburn to people standing on the street." So the building that cost $274 million is going to have some of the reflective steel panels sanded down to look more like brushed steel. I was surprised to learn that the exterior is in fact steel and not titanium like many of the other Gehry signature buildings. Originally the building was to be clad in limestone, but was changed because of the cost and potential earthquake damage to limestone.
Disney Concert Hall to Lose Some Luster
Oops, guess they never factored in the sun when they built the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles! Seems the reflected light from the building heats up the sidewalk to 140 degrees! - "enough to melt plastic and cause serious sunburn to people standing on the street." So the building that cost $274 million is going to have some of the reflective steel panels sanded down to look more like brushed steel. I was surprised to learn that the exterior is in fact steel and not titanium like many of the other Gehry signature buildings. Originally the building was to be clad in limestone, but was changed because of the cost and potential earthquake damage to limestone.
February 28, 2005
101 things you can do in Mozilla
Just in case you needed a few reasons to switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to the Mozilla suite or Mozilla's Firefox browser:
101 things you can do in Mozilla
Here is another article about why Firefox is so much better than IE:
How Firefox Works
Just in case you needed a few reasons to switch from Microsoft's Internet Explorer to the Mozilla suite or Mozilla's Firefox browser:
101 things you can do in Mozilla
Here is another article about why Firefox is so much better than IE:
How Firefox Works
February 12, 2005
Suggested Listening & Archive.org
Recently I added a new section in the right hand bar called Suggested Listening. It's my own little attempt at spreading good free music that does not involve the RIAA in any way shape or form. All the music is brought to you by Archive.org which catalogues high quality live concerts from bands who don't fear the spread of free music. Just good clean music from bands that do one thing well, play music. You wont find any Ashley Simpsons here, or bands that play the same setlist every show of a tour. This in my opinion is what music is all about.
Although Archive.org really encourages the spread of lossless audio (in formats like flac & shn) I'm going to be linking to the high quality mp3s versions of the songs. Just because it's a lot easier for most people to deal with, and smaller for previewing purposes. I'll also link to the artist's page on Archive.org, so if you like what you hear, you can download (for freeI just love saying that) the rest of the show in whichever format you prefer - lossless or mp3.
I also wanted to note Arhive.org's Wayback Machine. What you ask is a Wayback Machine? Well Archive.org for years now has been cataloging the internet (or the Internets if you live in Mr. Bush's world) and allows you to search for previous versions of a webpage. Really neat if you've had your own webpage and you want to see how it looked years ago. Heck it's just plain neat, try searching for a company or your favorite band to see what their website used to look like. (Note: it does not seem to catalogue large images, so some webpages look a little empty) It's sort of scary in a way though, since it just reassures you that everything you post on the internet is saved.
Recently I added a new section in the right hand bar called Suggested Listening. It's my own little attempt at spreading good free music that does not involve the RIAA in any way shape or form. All the music is brought to you by Archive.org which catalogues high quality live concerts from bands who don't fear the spread of free music. Just good clean music from bands that do one thing well, play music. You wont find any Ashley Simpsons here, or bands that play the same setlist every show of a tour. This in my opinion is what music is all about.
Although Archive.org really encourages the spread of lossless audio (in formats like flac & shn) I'm going to be linking to the high quality mp3s versions of the songs. Just because it's a lot easier for most people to deal with, and smaller for previewing purposes. I'll also link to the artist's page on Archive.org, so if you like what you hear, you can download (for freeI just love saying that) the rest of the show in whichever format you prefer - lossless or mp3.
I also wanted to note Arhive.org's Wayback Machine. What you ask is a Wayback Machine? Well Archive.org for years now has been cataloging the internet (or the Internets if you live in Mr. Bush's world) and allows you to search for previous versions of a webpage. Really neat if you've had your own webpage and you want to see how it looked years ago. Heck it's just plain neat, try searching for a company or your favorite band to see what their website used to look like. (Note: it does not seem to catalogue large images, so some webpages look a little empty) It's sort of scary in a way though, since it just reassures you that everything you post on the internet is saved.
February 10, 2005
Blog Creation & Blog Aggregator Notes
Notes on Blog Creators:
Ok, I'm still new at this, but here are my notes on Blog creation programs and Blog Aggregators (newsreader programs that gather any new information from the blogs that you define, and display it all together in one easy to access way)
Blogger:
http://www.blogger.com/
-would be nice to have a built in aggregator like Bloglines
-like being able to save everything (images & html) on my personal web page
-needs RSS, well you can add it via Feedburner, but Atom does not seem to be the way to go
-slow posting some times & w errors, doesn't seem to be a problem using the BlogThis addon
Bloglines:
http://www.bloglines.com/
-Extremely nice RSS Feeds aggregator - By far the best I've seen
-Allows you to copy feed entries to your blog or clippings folder very easily
-Has a firefox notifier extension to let you know when there is something new
-Distinguishes between read / unread items (not all aggregators do)
-con: not a great program for creating blogs
LiveJournal:
http://www.livejournal.com/
-no easy way to post pictures
-no rss feed section
-can not save blog on your personal webpage
-love the client programs available to make liveJournal posts without loging into www.livejournal.com
MovableType:
http://www.movabletype.org/
-PHP Publishing, and guess what, my webpage host does not provide that w the hosting package I have :-(
FeedBurner:
http://www.feedburner.com/
-I guess it is a way to add RSS support to Blogger or any other blog, instead of Blogger's typical "Atom" syndication
BlogRolling:
http://www.blogrolling.com/
-this creates a list of links to other blogs for your blog. Don't really get why you don't just html it out yourself
Blogging:
http://www.blogging.com/
-seemed really nice but only 1 free month
-News Aggregators -
Newsburst:
http://www.newsburst.com
-ehh, decent web based aggregator created by CNET. Bloglines still kills it. My biggest problem with it is how bad it handels read / unread items /lack of an option to save items as unread (so you can read later). I would recommend it for people who don't check the news on a daily basis (dont care if they miss items), but when they do, they want to get that day's news from a bunch of different sources... if that makes any sense.
NewMonster:
http://www.newsmonster.org/
-seems like a great program but requires Mozilla Suite or Netscape installed, and I just don't feel like installing either of those. Not sure if it runs under Firefox... would probably use it if it did.
BottomFeeder:
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/BottomFeeder/
-Did not like the gui at all
-Still buggy
-Did not like to view feeds in title format, I like to have them all expanded in summary format
RSSOwl:
http://www.rssowl.org/
-Much nicer and less buggy than BottomFeeder, but still does not view feeds like I want, ie in a expanded summary format like Bloglines
Notes on Blog Creators:
Ok, I'm still new at this, but here are my notes on Blog creation programs and Blog Aggregators (newsreader programs that gather any new information from the blogs that you define, and display it all together in one easy to access way)
Blogger:
http://www.blogger.com/
-would be nice to have a built in aggregator like Bloglines
-like being able to save everything (images & html) on my personal web page
-needs RSS, well you can add it via Feedburner, but Atom does not seem to be the way to go
-slow posting some times & w errors, doesn't seem to be a problem using the BlogThis addon
Bloglines:
http://www.bloglines.com/
-Extremely nice RSS Feeds aggregator - By far the best I've seen
-Allows you to copy feed entries to your blog or clippings folder very easily
-Has a firefox notifier extension to let you know when there is something new
-Distinguishes between read / unread items (not all aggregators do)
-con: not a great program for creating blogs
LiveJournal:
http://www.livejournal.com/
-no easy way to post pictures
-no rss feed section
-can not save blog on your personal webpage
-love the client programs available to make liveJournal posts without loging into www.livejournal.com
MovableType:
http://www.movabletype.org/
-PHP Publishing, and guess what, my webpage host does not provide that w the hosting package I have :-(
FeedBurner:
http://www.feedburner.com/
-I guess it is a way to add RSS support to Blogger or any other blog, instead of Blogger's typical "Atom" syndication
BlogRolling:
http://www.blogrolling.com/
-this creates a list of links to other blogs for your blog. Don't really get why you don't just html it out yourself
Blogging:
http://www.blogging.com/
-seemed really nice but only 1 free month
-News Aggregators -
Newsburst:
http://www.newsburst.com
-ehh, decent web based aggregator created by CNET. Bloglines still kills it. My biggest problem with it is how bad it handels read / unread items /lack of an option to save items as unread (so you can read later). I would recommend it for people who don't check the news on a daily basis (dont care if they miss items), but when they do, they want to get that day's news from a bunch of different sources... if that makes any sense.
NewMonster:
http://www.newsmonster.org/
-seems like a great program but requires Mozilla Suite or Netscape installed, and I just don't feel like installing either of those. Not sure if it runs under Firefox... would probably use it if it did.
BottomFeeder:
http://www.cincomsmalltalk.com/BottomFeeder/
-Did not like the gui at all
-Still buggy
-Did not like to view feeds in title format, I like to have them all expanded in summary format
RSSOwl:
http://www.rssowl.org/
-Much nicer and less buggy than BottomFeeder, but still does not view feeds like I want, ie in a expanded summary format like Bloglines
February 2, 2005
Movielink - Movie Downloads
Tried my first movie download service last night, Movielink, and I'm fairly impressed. It didn't take long to download - was ready to begin viewing in like 10 minutes or so (not completely downloaded, the rest would continue to download as I watched the movie) . And the quality of the picture and sound was good, could always be better :-)
Couple of things that really need to be improved though:
1) The price was on the high end - $3.95 for 24 hours. I'm not sure if I would use Movielink again, but if they cut the price in half and double the rental time I'd use it.
2) Movielink does not work w Mozilla's Firefox!! - come on who actually thinks IE is a good browser? And I would guess that Movielink's typical customer is fairly computer savvy and a good number would be smart enough to use Firefox or the Mozilla suite.
Personally I cant believe that legal movie downloads haven't taken off even more. The technology is there, this service has been around for awhile (2003?) and just look at illegal movie downloads! Living in the snowbelt of Cleveland, OH there are a lot of winter nights where I really don't feel like leaving the house to get a movie but for a couple of bucks I'd download one. Which is probably one of the biggest problems like I noted before the price and DRM (how long and where you can view it).
I think Apple really needs to jump on the bandwagon for this quick. They've got a perfect window of opportunity, with the popularity of iTunes a similar service for movies is inevitable. Perhaps we'll see it with Apple's H.264 (their new video codec, or well standard) that they just recently announced. And hey, isn't Mr. Jobs chairman and CEO of Pixar?? And didn't they just get rid of Disney for their distribution... Hmm....
Couple of things that really need to be improved though:
1) The price was on the high end - $3.95 for 24 hours. I'm not sure if I would use Movielink again, but if they cut the price in half and double the rental time I'd use it.
2) Movielink does not work w Mozilla's Firefox!! - come on who actually thinks IE is a good browser? And I would guess that Movielink's typical customer is fairly computer savvy and a good number would be smart enough to use Firefox or the Mozilla suite.
Personally I cant believe that legal movie downloads haven't taken off even more. The technology is there, this service has been around for awhile (2003?) and just look at illegal movie downloads! Living in the snowbelt of Cleveland, OH there are a lot of winter nights where I really don't feel like leaving the house to get a movie but for a couple of bucks I'd download one. Which is probably one of the biggest problems like I noted before the price and DRM (how long and where you can view it).
I think Apple really needs to jump on the bandwagon for this quick. They've got a perfect window of opportunity, with the popularity of iTunes a similar service for movies is inevitable. Perhaps we'll see it with Apple's H.264 (their new video codec, or well standard) that they just recently announced. And hey, isn't Mr. Jobs chairman and CEO of Pixar?? And didn't they just get rid of Disney for their distribution... Hmm....
January 20, 2005
Picasa 2 & Hello Tests
The last couple of days I've been trying out the new Picasa 2 software from Google, along with the Hello program, which adds more functions to Picasa (blogging, picture sending, etc). I'm fairly impressed right now with the program, I think it will be a great piece of software for most people, but if your photo library consists of thousands of photos I would look elsewhere. Here are my initial thoughts:
Things I Like:
The last couple of days I've been trying out the new Picasa 2 software from Google, along with the Hello program, which adds more functions to Picasa (blogging, picture sending, etc). I'm fairly impressed right now with the program, I think it will be a great piece of software for most people, but if your photo library consists of thousands of photos I would look elsewhere. Here are my initial thoughts:
Things I Like:
- Does not import the files like Apple's iPhoto. I hate this feature of iPhoto!! I would love to use iPhoto for my Dad's G5 iMac, but we've got thousands of photos each organized by job. And personally I like just using the typical file hierarchy for organization. There should be the option to not import photos into iPhoto, maybe I'd use it then.
- Does not save thumbnail info in every folder like Canon Zoombrowser. As I've mentioned in previous blogs I hate this feature, it's so annoying to have a little Zoombrowser file in every folder on your computer that has an image in it (thousands of files, that I routinely delete before burning DVD backups). Picasa I do believe saves all thumbnail data in one location, which is how it should be done.
- The collaboration with Hello software. Works nicely for publishing images to Blogger blogs. The image at the bottom of this post is an example of using Picasa and Hello to post to a blog. Very easy, however it didn't work at first for me, not sure why, but it seems to have corrected itself.
- Picasa's ability to make screen savers is very nice, but needs more transitions.
- The Create Web Page option does a decent job at creating a photo gallery. I would like to see it become more cusomizable though. Here is a test gallery I created: Picasa Test Gallery
- You are forced to use Picasa's organization method (by date). This is not always suitable for cataloging pictures. I wish you could turn this off and just view the pictures in the computer's actual hierarchy. I've got tens of thousands of photos on my computer all sorted depending on the type of photo / project / job, and Picasa just messes up all of this.
- Not a big fan of the way it uses tags, can be done better.
- Really a Hello problem, but when you post an image to a blog you can not title your post. Stupid not to have this feature
- Also a Hello thing, but there is not an easy way to post multiple picture, I know there is a way, but it's not easy. Hopefully it will be fixed when the software makes it out of beta.
Just Cruisin' 
