VPA110 - Assessment #1

HTML. Buttery goodness.

Hyper Text Markup Language. It sounds ugly, but is really quite pretty. It be the primary layout-building language of the Interwebz.

I've actually previously coded my own websites for, well, for lack of a better term boredom before - I think it was back in 2003 when I had a means of doing so; there was this band I was contracted to do some work for, they figured I'd be smart enough to code something up for them, the quality certainly wasn't very high, but the experience in doing so was great.

Needless to say it's been a few years since then, but I still remember most of the tags to use. Although with HTML5 on the horizon, I figure that I'll need to know a few hundred more.

Ugh.

Assessment #1

I know, I know, I might've left this a little late, but I do have a fairly decent excuse: I was in the TV studio tonight, and probably having a bit too much fun pushing peds around. Television is in my blood, it would seem, and there's no way that I'm going to start wringing it out, despite what academic consequences it might have on me.

Nevertheless:

Blogger
This will be my 9th post on my blog. The actual design I've chosen is a cross between a stock template, colours that I chose that seem to work well together, and a few other bits and pieces thrown in for good measure. I have also managed to pick some Gadgets and elegantly lay them either side of my main content. I haven't actually blogged in several years, so it's a good feeling to be doing something that's actually academically worth it in the long run.

Delicious
I love Delicious - it's a great place to see where the hype in the world lies, with regards to trending topics and whatnot. It's also a great repository of ideas/tutorials/general mischievousness.

Flickr
Flickr and I go way back - back in the days of 2005 when all I had was a crummy EOS 20D and a crazy-bad kit lens. You'll actually see a few images that I dug out of the archives from that very camera and have managed to breathe new life into and upload onto the Internet for you to see. :) There's also plenty of iPhone photography, along with my newest love, the Canon 60D.

Back in the Game

It has been a long time in passing since I last visited this somewhat neglected blog. The usual excuses come to mind: being too busy, lacking enough focus, not being motivated enough to post more often, etc. And while I’m not going to deny any of the above, when you have as amazing a creative outlet as a blog, you should express yourself more often.

The TVP105 Files: House Lights Can be Deadly!

Walking into the studio from the outside, I encounter a dimly-lit studio - Bruce and David are milling over towards one side, a few members of the class are sitting down. The rest of the class hadn't entered yet. Knowing where the house light switches are, I decided to innocently walk into the prop bay and turn them on. This was a big mistake, as I'd eventually discover:

*hearing Bruce walking towards the prop bay door*
Bruce: 'What'd you do that for?!'
Jonathan: 'It's dark, I couldn't see anything, so I turned on the house lights.'
Bruce: 'Uh... Why?'
Jonathan: '...Without lights, you can't see; the camera cables are in the way of the door, they're a trip hazard.'
*David interjects*
David: 'Bruce is assuming role of floor manager - you can't turn the house lights on unless he asks for them.'
Bruce: 'You know full-well that the conditions inside of the studio are going to be different from those outside, including lighting; have you not considered that I wanted the house lights to be off?!'
Jonathan: 'Sorry, Bruce.'
While trying to retain a shred of dignity, I scurry away and plop myself down on a stack of seats at the back of the studio - meanwhile half the class that hasn't entered the studio is in the airlock.

'It's dark!'
'I can't see ANYTHING!'
'Oh! There's a cable there! I nearly tripped!'
--

Today we were introduced to resident TV Land B-list celebrity, Mr. Fugly, while practicing camera moves to music. Our rockstar was obviously Mr. Fugly. 'twas an interesting experience for all involved, especially for me at the beginning.

Enter: Quicksilver

I write these words on a computer whose already 17″ freakishly massive display has a pixel density of an Apple 24″ LED Cinema Display. Yes, the machine is huge. But it’s going to be put through its paces, very much so.

The keyboard feels amazing. It’s soft, understated, and very, very, very quiet. It also sports fibre-optic backlighting. The thumbscoop on the front is the result of hundreds of prototypes, each one being examined underneath an electron microscope and tested multiple times in usability studies before the final one on the front of each Unibodied machine was chosen.

The trackpad is wear-resistant etched glass, with no button; the entire surface is the button. Its tactility feels super natural, as is intended, and one doesn’t miss the presence of the button, as the thumb naturally falls into place and feels comfortable when making the click. The physical surface of the machine is hard to describe. The bead-blasting is something I haven’t ever experienced in a notebook before. Not even on my Powerbook G4. It’s just more refined, and totally gorgeous.

As for the body of the machine, it’s. CNC-machined aluminum. Very rigid. No flex in the body. Rounded corners, It’s hard to describe, unless you see it in person.

And did I mention the quality of the display?! This is no longer a notebook. I don’t think it even classifies as a laptop. It’s a freaking desktop-class machine in one’s lap.

Delicious (formerly del.icio.us)

Delicious is a social-bookmarking service originally founded by Joshua Schachter in 2003, and was later bought out by Yahoo! in 2005.

Much controversy was generated when the service was 'sundowned' by Yahoo! earlier this year. Throughout the Internet, this was considered by many to be considered the 'end' of Delicious, but as it turns out, Yahoo! is simply looking for a buyer. (Although considering Yahoo!'s current state/market share, I'd rather be holding onto good, strong, capable developers, and not losing them.)

Regardless of who owns Delicious, one thing is true: it's a fantastic service, and is well and truly worth the effort to make a collection of bookmarks on.

You can find my profile here:

Mmm... Donu- I mean, Delicious!

Flickr.

This isn't my first experience with Flickr - I've used it for many years prior, and it's always been an amazing community to intermingle, learn and show off your awesomesauce photography. What's more is that it is a community-focussed effort, with squillions of subject-centric groups that you are free to join and share your photography with those that have a penchant for what you do.

I'm intending on using this particular account for photography taken in other subjects whilst studying at CSU. Once my self-imposed embargo on VPA104 is lifted (once my assessment has been submitted) you can look forward to seeing those images uploaded to Flickr soon.

However, if you just can't wait/are curious as to what I do shoot, then you can find my Flickr profile right here:

Flickry-goodness

I've also linked some favourite images of mine to this post, for you to have a squiz at:
Image 1
Image 2
Image 3

Can Your Wind0ze-based PC Do THIS?! (#2)

For those of us that use a notebook, not holding a bar of soap and mousing around is something that few people get used to, especially if said notebook resides permanently at one’s desk. It’s like that innate need for a gundog (labrador, daschund, etc.) to always have something in its mouth.

But what if you have to wing-it with just your humble trackpad? How do you accomplish things like scrolling? On the PC side of things, an implementation has arisen by assigning the far-right hand corner of the surface to always scroll. Apple later came up with the idea of using two fingers to accomplish the same thing. Why? If you’ve used a PC’s trackpad for any length of time, you’ll encounter the scroll-area when simply dragging stuff across the surface of the ‘pad. Very bad UE. Apple solved this problem by forcing you to let the trackpad know you want to scroll. Simple, effective, and it works. Insanely great.

“But your Mac doesn’t even have a second mouse button!”

That’s true. But since when did Apple ever include something that wasn’t needed in its designs? You don’t need the RMB, because you can tell your computer to interpret a tap with two fingers as a RMB-click.

Still waiting for Windows to implement the same thing. (Guess we’ll see some sort improvement to scrolling when Windows 7 comes around, although considering prior experience with Vista, Windows 7 won’t be here for another 3 years. Give or take. Maybe even 5.)

The TVP105 Files: Sandbags and Chairs and Swingings, Oh My!

'Give it a good swing; make the poor bastard that's behind the camera have to HUNT for the sandbag!'
- Overheard on the studio floor
--

The studio felt awfully like a gym today - three cameras arranged behind various exercises designed to highlight abilities we need to practice. Known as 'Bruce's Bootcamp', activities such as tracking a sandbag attached to a rope that has been tied to the lighting grid and being swung, practicing panning, tilting and zooming all at the same time on an object, (it was actually meant to be Mr. Fugly) and manuvering a camera (and cablebasher) through an obstacle course of sorts, made out of a ladder and chairs that need to be negotiated around, whilst tracking Tigger - but that's not all - people that hit aforementioned chairs and ladder owe Bruce a golf ball.

In retrospect, I remember Bruce telling me that I owe him at least a baker's dozen, after taking a rather non-compliant ladder for a short walk.