web-goddess

Category: Computers

  • Photoshop 5

    A sneak preview of Photoshop 5’s content-aware fill. My jaw dropped. That is some magic, magic stuff happening there. It’s the kind of thing that laypeople imagine computers should be able to do, but people who work with computers think of as pretty much impossible. And somehow they did it.

  • ROWWWWWWWRRRRR

    Chewbacca says you should have your own domain name. Good tip.

  • Boudicca: Back from the dead!

    As you may recall – or not – my iMac G5 “Boudicca” died just over a year ago. She was one of the very first unibody iMacs, and she was nothing but trouble from the start. (The one I’m talking about was actually a replacement for the original one that self-destructed within six months of purchase.) When she died the last time, we were given a ridiculous quote from the Apple Store to have her fixed. The logic board was riddled with blown and leaking capacitors. She was out of warranty, out of AppleCare, and out of luck. I found out that there had been a Repair Extension Program for this specific issue – and my serial number was even covered! – but alas, it had expired in December 2008 (about two months before mine died). I bought a new laptop and set her aside, hoping that maybe she’d be worth some money on eBay. One of my resolutions for the New Year was to deal with the issue, so I started calling Apple repair shops to see if they were interested in her for parts. Nobody was interested. In desperation, I tweeted that she was for sale if anybody wanted her. A friend-of-a-friend (who happens to work in Apple tech support) wrote back, suggesting that I call Apple Support again. He said that he still regularly saw machines come in with my issue, and that several of them had been granted “exceptions” to the Repair Program and fixed free-of-charge. It seemed too good to be true. I called up the number and spent half an hour talking to a nice guy, who eventually transferred me up to the manager. They put me on hold for a bit… then the magic words: “You’re approved!” He put it into the system and I took the machine to NextByte the next day. They told me there’d probably be some wait before they could get to it, but I didn’t care. Hey, at this point it’s a free computer, right? Six weeks later, I finally called Nextbyte to see what the heck was happening… and was told that my machine had been fixed for weeks. They just had never called me! (Idiots.) This morning we picked her up. I deliberately didn’t plug her in before heading to the Guild AGM, knowing that if she was still broken I’d just stress about it all day. So when I finally got home tonight, I plugged her in and hit the power button. BONGGGGGG! Success. I was up and running on the network within minutes. It’s so nice to have a desktop machine again! And now DeskCam will actually be from my actual desk again! So huge, huge thank yous to Stu for advising me how to fix it up. I owe him one!

  • CodeOrgan

    CodeOrgan – you enter a URL, and the site generates music based on the HTML. GetUpGo is surprisingly listenable, while w-g is kind of repetitive.

  • On iPads and ebook readers

    So… the iPad. I was half-hoping it didn’t exist, just because the rampant speculation of the past few weeks was driving me nuts. I wanted Steve to come out, do a big preso on iPhone OS 4.0, then turn to the audience and say: “Oh, and one more thing. SUCKS TO BE YOU!” Exit, stage right. But he didn’t, and now I’ve spent 24 hours reading crap like “HEEHEE, HE SAID IPAD. OMG WHO WOULD WANT TO USE SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT GOES IN/NEAR A VAGINA EWWW! HA HA! #iTampon” (I think the iPad-period meme has worn out even quicker than the previous speed record holder, the Kanye “Imma let you finish” joke.)

    Anyhoo, the big surprise for me was the price of the thing. When was the last time Apple released a project that cost 50% less than everybody predicted? How about NEVER. Also, they’re going into a nascent market with a device that has 140,000 third party apps at launch. (If I were Amazon or Sony, I’d be crying into my cornflakes.) That’s just crazy. Still, I don’t really see where I need one of these in my life. Sure, it’d be nice to have in the kitchen (seeing as how I cook a lot from my iPhone or laptop these days). And I’d love to be able to subscribe to comic books and magazines. Those aren’t huge, compelling, drool-worthy reasons though. Then I read Stephen Fry’s review. Okay, I’m a little more interested now. Fry knows his gadgets, and when he says something feels magical, I believe him. I like stuff that feels like it’s from the future, but is actually usable and relevant today. (Like GPS. Snookums has commented more than once before that Google Maps on iPone feels like magic to him.)

    As for reading books on the thing, I dunno. This morning, I noticed a girl two seats ahead of me on the bus reading from a Sony Pocket Reader. It was red and looked pretty nice. The text – at least from my view – didn’t look very clear though. The black-and-white display reminded me of a 1st-gen Gameboy. I’ve heard that E-Ink displays are good stuff though, so maybe up close it was better. I tried reading books on my iPhone with Stanza, but I found that I just don’t absorb digital text the way that I do printed text. It took me a lot longer to finish, and I didn’t retain the story like I usually do. I do like the idea of carrying around a whole library though. I also really hope that the iPad will be the catalyst for the ebook market to really take off.

  • Swish and flick!

    Whoa. A magic wand that is actually a TV remote with an accelerometer? That is so cool! I could be swish-and-flicking my way through Seinfeld each night. (Link courtesy of not marth.)

  • Project Management

    Workshop! I spent the day at AIMIA’s Essential Digital Project Management Skills course. No, I’m not going over to the Dark Side. But I work fairly closely with Venks (our PM), and it seemed like a good opportunity to get some useful advice and tips. The class was on Pitt Street in the city, and there were probably 30 of us there. (To my surprise, I recognised one chick from when she was my customer at Tapestry Craft!) The course was really good, focusing much more on practical advice than on any particular methodology. The information on stakeholder management, risk mitigation, and communication were all particularly relevant for me. After lunch, we had a Q&A session with three business owners in various parts of the I.T. industry. (Note to self: Advertising agencies sound like hell.) So it was a good day. I don’t know that I need to do the Advanced PM course, but if AIMIA ever put on any BA-specific classes, I’d definitely book it. It was well worth it.

    Edited 29/04/2025: Link is dead and not archived.

  • Amazon Acquires Stanza

    Hm. Amazon has acquired Lexcycle, makers of the iPhone e-book app “Stanza.” I’ve been using Stanza for a few weeks now to read Red Mars, and it’s great. I would’ve downloaded the Kindle app, but it’s not available outside the U.S. I hope Amazon doesn’t kill off Stanza and screw all the overseas customers.

  • Christian’s Lecture

    My friend Christian has posted his presentation notes from his talk at Yahoo last week. There’s some interesting stuff in there if you build websites!

  • Christian Heilmann at Yahoo!

    Well, that was fun! A few weeks ago I finally signed up for LinkedIn, after realizing that EVERYBODY else in the industry was on there. I found a few former co-workers, including Christian from Netdecisions in London. (I voluntarily took a layoff package in 2001 to save Christian’s job, which also allowed me to emigrate to Australia. The rest, as they say, is history.) Anyway, I added him, he added me, and then I visited his blog. To my surprise, I saw that he was now a fancypants “Developer Evangelist” for Yahoo! and that he was coming to Sydney this week! The Snook and I quickly signed up to attend.

    Me and Christian

    The Sydney Yahoo! offices are stunning. They also won immediate points with me by not requiring me to sign an NDA just to walk in the door (like Google did). They had good beer too. There were maybe 40 or so of us there, and Christian’s talk was entertaining and enlightening. He succeeded in getting me to think seriously about using some Yahoo tools and libraries for my next site redesign. Afterwards there was food and everybody mingled, and we got to catch up a bit. Man, was it really that long ago? When Snookums and I lived on Rannoch Road with Alex and Condie, and we spent the cold nights in pubs arguing over the finer points of HTML? Good times, good times.