what's behind this door?

Kow Kow gave J the present that he's been saving for nearly 4 years. He bought it when J was a few months old, and it's this Beauty and the Beast talking figurine set, complete with ballroom doors, a dance floor, and the rose under glass. Anyway, when you put the figures on certain spots, it plays a bit of dialogue from the movie. One of the lines is Belle asking "What's behind this door?" J quickly quipped..."Lucky Ducks!", looking through the doors at the game sitting behind it!

Blogged with Flock

the eve before the party

It's 10:50PM and J is still awake. Our lunch / AGO excursion was a success, but she crashed afterwards at around 4:15 and slept till 6. It means that she's completely messed up now... good thing there's a birthday party tomorrow. That should completely mess her up, and then she'll go to bed early. We have a nice quiet evening planned... :)

Ansel Adams / Eisenstaedt was fun. Not as leisurely a time as I would have liked, but to be expected with a 4 year old to corral. I noticed that all the pictures are hung too high for little kids, and there's a lot of reflections for them to contend with. I guess that's why she was happier when I carried her. We spent the most time looking at "Rose on Driftwood". She seemed to like that one. Because the AGO is under construction, there was not a whole lot to see. Actually, it was probably fine, because as it was we spent nearly 2 hours there. There happened to be a kids art installation which was more like a play area, so there were some construction toys we played with for a while, and some paper to draw on, which she did.

Hmm.. sounds quiet upstairs... Birthday girl is finally asleep.

There really is something about viewing the Adams prints in real life, not reproduced in books or posters. I was struck by how sharp they were, how detailed, and yet how small. The posters you buy are bigger than the actual prints he made. One of the prints which I have in a wall calendar was very small, 4 or 5 inches square. Maybe it was a contact print. Anyway, I thought it was quite small, and surprised.

It helps my thought process actually, because I've been wondering if I really need a wider format printer than 13". Oh yeah, I'm thinking about printers, in case you didn't know. More on that later. Anyway, perhaps there is something to be said for printing 'small' (although 13 x 19 really isn't small) and viewing the prints more intimately, at 3 to 5 feet.

Anyway... enough musing for one night. Time to finish preparations. I'm off!

Blogged with Flock

party planning

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Been battling a sore throat that wouldn't go away. Better now.

J's birthday party is this weekend. She's been counting the days for over a week now. She's been itching to decorate for almost as long. On the weekend I relented and helped her hang up a few paper snowflakes we had made. That seemed to satisfy her for a few days, anyway.

She's more excited about the party than her actual birthday, which is the day before.

It's a secret, so don't tell, but I have the day off on her birthday, and I plan on taking J to the AGO on her birthday, just her and I. There's a Ansel Adams / Eisenstaedt exhibit there right now. Maybe we'll go out for fish and chips for lunch first.

I want to start traditions in our family, and a father-daughter birthday outing is a great idea. Doing something was my wife's idea, I can't take all the credit. Going to the AGO was my idea. J's been asking about going for a long time, and we keep telling her "when you're older". Well, I guess she's older! I have a feeling we won't be in the gallery long, but at least she'll get a taste.

She really is getting older. She plays on the computer now... her favourite site is uptoten.com. Kwala and Boowa are on there, and they have lots of games and animations to watch. It's pretty silly. Her current fave song to sing is "Our friend the jolly snowman, has a very big ab-Do-men..." You have to hear it to appreciate the true heights of silliness this song reaches. As it turns out, Kwala has the same birthday as J, which was kind of a bizarre coincidence. Sharing your birthday with a cartoon character, how odd.

Blogged with Flock

organization

day 2 of being organized thru Entourage Project Manager. (gah. I'm using a MS product to be organized.)

Is it sad that "My Life" is a Project?

I made a number of phone calls today that I'd been meaning to make for a long time, tying up loose ends. It felt good.

See? I can be productive when I want to be.

Blogged with Flock

argh

I hate being frustrated.

I mean, why would FedEx list a location as being a drop off centre when they're not? I went there, and they said they wouldn't be set up for a week. Ahhh! Of course, it was 4:15 and too late to go anywhere else, not that I could remember where any of the other locations were... this place was like an internet cafe / falafel house / corner store. I guess you get hungry for some food while you're pwning your friends...

discovered a new show today... 30 Rock. It's pretty good, I think. I liked Studio 60 (cancelled yet? not yet.) but it was kind of too serious, and I never got to see enough of the sketches. At least with 30 Rock you don't see the sketch but the rest of the show is actually funny. And Alec Baldwin deserves that Golden Globe for the show... he's so straight it's hilarious.

technorati tags:30, Rock, frustrated, TV, Alec, Baldwin

Blogged with Flock

sick

ugh.

After watching the iPhone being demo'd by Steve at the keynote, I am inflamed by desire to have one. So bad.

But really, I am actually sick. I have a wretchedly sore throat. hurts to swallow. Food goes down funny. Food tastes funny. I don't like that.

New Dream Rig:

• MacBook Pro 15" Core2Duo (must have 2GB of RAM)
• Rugged Portable drive (like the ToughTech eSATA from WiebeTech)
• (wait, the MBP doesn't have eSATA...)
• eSATA Express34 Card
• Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom (whenever it's ready to ship)
  
• and I've been eyeing the HP B9180 printer

And all this for what? I feel like an incomplete artist if I can't hold something in my hand. A print. We must do everything in service of the print. Every photographer wants to see his or her work in a print, preferably a big one.

I don't know, maybe I'm sick in the head. Anyway, the list is just the dream. The reality is a little bit slower, a little more pokey, but it works. So I just need to make some prints! :)

technorati tags:wiebetech, sick, sore, eSATA, Mac

Blogged with Flock

a tale of two keynotes

Bert Decker, CEO of Decker Communications, had this to say about Jobs vs Gates.

Presenting: Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates

In their contrasting keynotes today and yesterday, there was no contest of course. Steve Jobs presents an experience and Bill Gates presents data. But it’s worth a brief look to see their different approaches, so we can do the former, not the latter.

You can read the whole article here:

Jobs versus Gates

technorati tags:keynote, communication, jobs, gates

Blogged with Flock

MacWorld Keynote

[my pseudo live reporting on the Keynote... as I read it on macrumorslive.com and engadget.com, and yeah, I stole the pictures from engadet...]

So, what have we here?

Apple TV. Knew about it already, the iTV. Cool. Only 720p.

The new device. A widescreen, touch contol, iPod/mobile phone/internet mobile communicator. Do I want one? Not sure yet. Looks like a revolutionary UI, though. iPhone. iPhone? Can they call it the iPhone?

RUNS OSX. wow, it looks sleek. Desktop class applications? They're giving Blackberry a run for their money. Cool. Looks like widgets to me...

Syncs with iTunes. shows 8GB on screen? is that enough? must be flash. Is that just for iPod?

2MP camera. Slim... 11.6mm. wow. Don't sit on that baby...

screenshot with Nemo (clown fish) looks gorgeous. my kids would love that. Nemo!

Oh, playing the Beatles on his iPhone. Finally!

Automatic sensors for orientation, automatically rotates. Very smart.

It's a GSM + EDGE phone. Will we be able to use that in Canada? My poor phone is looking pretty beat up by comparison... I think I need a new one, don't you?

SMS/texting is like iChat now. Nice. Probably still never use it, but nice.

Photo management. nice use of gestures, you grab the picture with two fingers and 'pinch' it to resize the picture.

Hmm, he's summing up the iPhone now, and there's still 45 minutes left in the keynote. What's next, what's next?

Push IMAP email with yahoo. smart. Web surfing with Safari. Mail with, well... Mail. OSX on a mobile. Who would'a thunk it?

Ok, so he's not wrapping up. Now it's the Internet capabilities. He's demoing Google Maps... which now senses where you are, and gives you a map of your surroundings. So that's what Google and Apple have been up to... Eric Schmidt makes a guest appearance on the show.

(engadget is so funny. They keep commenting on the crowd reaction. They're leaning forward, on the edge of their seats. Going crazy. "People are rapt, everyone is actually literally leaning forward and on the edge of their seat. We've never seen a presentation like this before." Guys, that's because you're used to watching Bill Gates talk. Sorry, Bill. Welcome to the Reality Distortion Field that is a Steve Jobs keynote.)

Steve is now showing the iPhone in use. He's not demo-ing the features, but he's using it like you or I would. Listening to music, call comes in, music fades, looks for a photo to send, looks up movie time, ends call and music fades back in.

I'm waiting for him to say "And it's available today." And how much? Wait for it... wait for it... details, I want details!

OK, here it is. 4GB for $499, 8GB for $599, shipping in June. Cingular in the US. Europe by 4th Quarter 2007. Asia by 2008. Canada... who cares to mention Canada? Nobody lives there.

So.

Anything else?

(wow, they're roasting Stan Sigman, CEO of Cingular. He's using cue cards. Aparrently, he's really boring.)

(ooh, Steve's presentation clicker went AWOL. The backup too. A rare hiccup in an otherwise stellar keynote so far... we could say it all went downhill after Sigman came on... so funny, he tells a story about Woz and their high school hijinks... smooth...)

Announces change of company name to Apple, Inc. dropping the "Computer" from their name. Look out Sony.

That's it?!

John Mayer is there to play. Cool. But... that's it?!

Mayer plays: Gravity • Waiting for the World to Change

And it's over.

technorati tags:apple, keynote, reaction, iPhone, AppleTV, Canada

Blogged with Flock

gaah... do I wait or do I tune in?

decisions decisions.... do I wait for the keynote video stream to be posted online, or do I tune in to the text only live update?

Blogged with Flock

IPTV? come on...

I... P... TV. Hmm..

Doesn't sound very comfortable.

Does Microsoft THINK before they name their products and services?

technorati tags:microsoft, IPTV, comment, silly

Blogged with Flock

CES is on, but I don't care

The big buzz is on in Las Vegas. Microsoft is spending millions to market Vista and XBOX, I guess. I don't care. I'm a true Mac-head, I just want to see what new stuff Apple is going to bring out on Tuesday.

True, there are a few trends that will affect Apple in the near short term. 802.11n, for example. Or HD-DVD vs. Blu-ray.

Bill Gates' keynote is this evening. Steve Jobs' keynote is Tuesday. (funny how both their names end with an "s"... huh...)

What would I like from Apple? A Mac. Not a Mac Pro, just a Mac. Not an iMac, a Mac. Something without a screen, with a Core2Duo, with 3 slots and a real graphics card. A place for 3 hard drives.

But since everything is going portable, I guess I won't be getting what I want. Look for something new in the laptop space.

Just two more sleeps till Tuesday!

technorati tags:keynote, apple, macworld, wish, dream, mac

Blogged with Flock

I love T.O. in the springtime?

I can't believe the temps this weekend. It's nuts.

things to know about OSX, part II

Hey, hope you all enjoyed teenagefanboy's OSX tips. Here are some of my own:

1) Don't turn on Filevault unless you absolutely have to. It's a hassle and a slowdown It's found in the Security preference pane. It's most annoying feature is that whenever you delete something, it has to do a secure delete from your encrypted user space whenever you shut down or restart, which can take quite a long time (5 minutes?) when all you wanted to do was restart because you installed a new program or something. Annoying.

2) Where do you put your Dock? Mine is on the right. I find it's easier to zip the cursor over to the right than to the bottom.

3) If you have a Macbook (Pro), you can two finger scroll on the trackpad. Put two fingers on the trackpad and drag up and down. Voila, you have scrolling!

4) If you want to convert an audio file from one format to another, say WAV to mp3, you can use iTunes. First set the import format to what you want to convert to (a little counterintuitive) and then select "Advanced -> Convert selection to"

5) Command-Option-Esc. This is the "Ctrl-Alt-Delete" of the Mac world. It will bring up the Force Quit window, in case you're experiencing the "spinning beachball of death". I like it better than Ctrl-Alt-Delete because you can do it with one hand instead of two. Use your thumb on the Command-Option keys, and hit Esc with whatever finger reaches up there and feels most natural. Maybe it's because of piano lessons, but it feels totally right to press two keys with the thumb.

let me know your favourite OSX tips, or questions you might have. I'm here to help. :)

for all you newbie Mac users... check out this article...

Ten things I wish I had known before I switched to OS X.

technorati tags:blog, quote

Blogged with Flock

superduper

with two friends recently switching to mac (lured by the ever so enticing MacBook Pro) I thought I'd share a neat utility that no one should be without: superduper. It's a backup utility for OSX that really is very nice. And because the new year's is always a good time for resolutions, make "Back up regularly" one of your resolutions for 2007. Somewhere down the line you'll thank yourself for doing so.

The nice thing about superduper is it's free, although you can pay for it and unlock extra features. I'd encourage you to at least use the free version to make a backup of your hard drive. Of course, you need some kind of external hard drive to back up to. And one might question the reliability of backing up one fallible medium to the same fallible medium, but hey, it's better than nothing. You can make the stack of DVD backups some other time, but for me, I'm backing up my hard drive overnight, automatically. It'll even shut down the computer when it's done. How cool is that?

Here's hoping your hard drive never crashes, but for those who have experienced that sinking, gut wrenching feeling, you know how much a backup is worth!

Happy 2007!

technorati tags:superduper, backup, hard, drive, computer, recovery, resolutions

Blogged with Flock