Jieison no Brog

There has been a little bit of a bruhaha lately over Mozilla...

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:32:00 +0900

There has been a little bit of a bruhaha lately over Mozilla using some visual assets from a UI design company without their permission. Apparently, Mozilla was “greatly inspired” by MetaLab’s top page design for their JetPack project - after ML approached Mozilla to do design for said project and were subsequently declined after several communications. Frankly, if what MetaLabs has claimed happened actually happened, then shame on Mozilla.

However, looking over the ML site one eyebrow has been firmly raised.

Since MetaLabs has made it a point to show a side by side comparison of the works in question (which can be seen here) I thought I would extend Apple the same courtesy. There may not be a pixel to pixel duplication for a specific element going on here, but seriously guys. Are you really going to make a big deal out of this when your own top page uses many elements (including shapes, colour palettes and iconography) from another company, too?

What was that thing Jesus said? “Judge not lest ye may be throwing stones off of high horses at black kettles.” Or something…

Thanks to Bob for pointing this one out to me.

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:32:33 +0900

Thanks to Bob for pointing this one out to me.

Well, the sub-description really clarifies the alert,...

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:37:00 +0900

Well, the sub-description really clarifies the alert, doesn’t it?

It’s also inane because the only way that I could have possibly have the software to update it is if I own the “major version” of the software in the first place.

Seriously, iTunes is really pissing me off lately. Spinning beach-balls which last upwards of 30+ seconds when jumping between tracks, even longer wait times while “determining gapless playback” and the inability to re-recognise tracks *automatically* which were previously listed from a disconnected HDD.

Apple, please stop adding features to iTunes which I will never use and start making the core software more reliable. Alternatives are starting to appear and they are looking more attractive day by day.

We Are The What? (A minor rant)

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:29:00 +0900

I was never a big fan of the song “We Are The World” 25 years ago. I mean the song, not...

Tee-hee! (link)

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:31:00 +0900

Tee-hee! (link)

Time to strip tax-exempt status from churches in America. (link)

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:22:00 +0900

Time to strip tax-exempt status from churches in America. (link): Amen.

Not much the one for romantic things, but this short film is...

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 02:15:54 +0900

Not much the one for romantic things, but this short film is pretty great. Not sure if the old film look was necessary, but I do especially like the way the music builds.

Video link for the FB crowd.

Thoughts on "Thoughts on the iPad"

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 18:42:36 +0900

Everyone has had their say on the iPad. I don’t pretend to have anything more important to say...

Reminds me of my 10th grade chemistry teacher, Mr. Krivan,...

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:19:00 +0900

Reminds me of my 10th grade chemistry teacher, Mr. Krivan, commenting how molecular bonding was like a dance… “Move over carbon, I wanna react with oxygen!”

Thanks to Ravi for the head’s up.

I particularly love the end with the hitting of the sandwich.

Fri, 22 Jan 2010 15:37:29 +0900

I particularly love the end with the hitting of the sandwich.

What to do next…

Sat, 02 Jan 2010 13:06:49 +0900

What to do next…

This is how we spent Christmas evening. At the ER. Not visible...

Sat, 26 Dec 2009 20:54:26 +0900

This is how we spent Christmas evening. At the ER. Not visible in the picture is all the vomit smashed inside the pink towel. Or the 40.6° temperature Akanè had at one point. Or the projectile vomit all over her bedroom, and subsequently ours.

Happy holidays!

Something which always perplexed me about Castle Grayskull is...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 14:52:44 +0900

Something which always perplexed me about Castle Grayskull is the front door. Is it me, or is the security bar on the outside? And come to think of it, why would the good guys use a castle which looks like the head of their enemy? Maybe that was why Skeletor was always so pissed off…

Grandpa should get a kick out of this one…

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 01:44:48 +0900

Grandpa should get a kick out of this one…

aboyinmidair: = Yep.

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 03:14:47 +0900

aboyinmidair:

=

Yep.

Spent about 15 minutes messing around with the Wacom tablet for...

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:59:10 +0900

Spent about 15 minutes messing around with the Wacom tablet for which I will be interviewed tomorrow. It’s smaller than my Cintiq and Graphire, but the drawing feels infinitely more precise. The software radial menu is a neat idea and I hope to play with it a bit more.

But that actually leads me to one small issue which I know is totally all on me. The extra hardware-based interaction options which come with it (screen-neighbouring buttons / wheel) are a little overwhelming. I’ve had over ten years of “left hand on the keyboard for shortcuts” muscle memory pretty much hard-coded, so I am a bit uncomfortable having my hand on the Wacom itself, but I suppose that I’ll get the hang of it at some point. The fact that the buttons have lit-up text naming each function on the tablet itself is pretty effing awesome, so at least I won’t forget what each button does. And the way I figure, if I got used to using a 13 button mouse, an 8 button tablet shouldn’t be that bad.

Momoko, Akanè and I went to the Shinagawa Aqua Station Aquarium...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:26:56 +0900

Momoko, Akanè and I went to the Shinagawa Aqua Station Aquarium today. It was a 9 minute train ride from home - and an equally long walk from the station. We originally intended to see the dolphin show, but the wait didn’t coincide too well with Akanè’s eating / napping schedule. Additionally, the jumping dolphins kind of scared the piss out of her. Literally.

Momoko and I got the stroller and walked her around the aquarium for a while and she seemed sleepily intrigued in all the different fish and colours. Aside from a few idiots using flash cameras every 10 seconds - while standing next to signs which clearly indicate that you aren’t supposed to do it and apparently not understanding that their pictures will come out as just a white patch on a piece of plastic - we had a good time.

Perhaps when Akanè is a bit older we can go back and she may appreciate the dolphins. In the meantime, you can check out the few photos I managed to take sans neighbouring idiot flash.

Took a break from work today to take Momoko and the little one...

Sat, 14 Nov 2009 19:14:03 +0900

Took a break from work today to take Momoko and the little one out for a stroll. Took a few nice pics of Akanè (which will appear on her blog later) and noticed a crazy-awesome red sky on the way home.

It’s crazy. And awesome.

Took Akanè to see the x-mad lights last night. She liked them...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 20:58:42 +0900

Took Akanè to see the x-mad lights last night. She liked them last year, too, but considering she was only 4 to 5 months old last time she seems to have a new found interest this year.

For some reason, though, she was more drawn to the cedar chips surrounding the trees and kept picking them up and giving them to me and/or Momoko.

Either way, she had fun. And I got some new pants.

Zombi.

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 17:42:54 +0900

Zombi.