I'm still here...

It's been awhile since I last posted and unfortunately it will stay sporadic at least for this month of July and hopefully it should start picking up again next month. A lot of things going on specially on the home-front, I'm in the midst of packing and relocating from the 'burbs of Chicago to head back to the city. I can't wait to get settle and resume normal day to day functions. I'll try and post here and there but if I can't you know why...


Listening to: Medicine Show from the album “Planet BAD Greatest Hits” by Big Audio Dynamite

Technorati Tags: pixelnoise

Microsoft's Acrylic

Not a Mac related post but a design news nonetheless, Microsoft today announced the availability of the beta version of Acrylic, a vector based graphic application that mimics traditional painting style. This application is based on Creature House's Expression 3 which was acquired by Microsoft last year. A free version of Expression 3 for Mac OS is available and of course no further development (i.e. Acrylic for Mac) will be available in the future. I'm not sure why the press is calling this a “Photoshop Killer” since it really doesn't do any image editing or manipulation at all. This application is more comparable to Illustrator CS if any. It is a very good application if you're trying to achieve a traditional, painterly style but if you're trying to achieve a photo-realistic effect, stick to Photoshop.

Technorati Tags: design, illustration

Apple Switcheroo

Apple yesterday tasted their own medicine by being a switcher themselves and will be moving to Intel processors. I'm still a bit mixed about this strategy since game consoles (Xbox 2, PS3, Nintendo revolution) are all moving to PowerPC to gain more power in their consoles. Apple seems to be doing the reverse. One thing for sure is their current line will suffer since people (me included) will be deferring purchases to see how the Intel powered Macs will pan out.

Technorati Tags: apple, mac

Best 24 ever!

The fourth season of 24 just ended and oh what a season. It's the best 24 I have ever seen, not one dull moment. Some key points/moments that I love about this season are...

• Best villain: Habib Marwan (formerly held by first season's Gaines)
• Tony Almeada's (among others) sudden appearance.
• Chloe and Edgar. This one is aching for a spin-off.
• Mandy the hottie assassin. More screen-time this time.

I can't wait for the next one... If there is a next one.

By the way, the Frank Miller (Sin City) inspired illustration above will be the next topic at the tutorial section. Promise. :-)

Technorati Tags: 24, tv

Vintage Apple TV commercials part 2

This one is the mother lode! There are a lot of old Apple ads in this site that I've never seen before. Thanks to Gary L. Gray for putting this together and providing a both educational and entertaining resource. A definite bookmark-worthy.

Technorati Tags: apple, marketing, video

PS3: My spider sense is tingling

Is it me or Sony is actually using the font from Spiderman as the logotype for Playtation 3? I wonder what happen to their previous logo which is much more edgy and appealing.

Technorati Tags: design, logo, playstation, sony

Mac user's survival tools in a Windows environment

As a creative individual (or team) using a Mac in a Windows dominated environment such as a large corporation setting can be very daunting. Using a Mac as a creative tool is such a great privilege despite your IT's smirk whenever the “M” word is mentioned (nope, I'm not going to touch the perennial mac-windows debate). So it's best to keep ourselves under the radar as possible, move from network neighborhood to network neighborhood right-neighborly as possible to avoid any problems with the IT folks. With each OS X update, mac-windows networking becomes more and more compatible, however it's still not perfect. Below are a couple of freeware tools to help your Mac run smoothly as possible in a Windows environment.

CleanUp SMB mess. Just like the morning after for most young rock bands in a five star hotel, Macs tend to leave a whole lot of mess after you use and save files in a Windows network. These files (“._*” files, .DS_Store files and .Trashes) are used as a way for the Mac OS to remember the icon and file settings, etc. It's invisible to Macs but a big mess in Windows. You can use this small utility to drag and drop a network folder and it will clean up all those junk files. It's best to use this once you are done with that folder. You can go high up the root level to clean the folders (and sub folders), the more files/folder the longer it takes of course.

WInShortcutter. Simply put, this utility makes the Windows' “Shortcut” files executable on Macs. It will even mount a network drive if the shortcut points to it. This is great tool since the less time you spend clicking folders around and use the shortcut links, the less mess (junk files) you have to clean up.

I'll add some more in the future. If you have any recommendations please swing me an email and share your tip.

Technorati Tags: apple, mac, network

Tiger feature: Slideshow

Another great addition to Mac OS X is the Slideshow utility found in the contextual menu. This is a perfect tool for any graphic creators and photographer or anyone who wants to make a quick presentation in a slideshow form. Start by selecting several images within a folder and right (ctrl) clicking on the files to invoke the contextual menu. The first image will appear in full screen along with an overlay control panel.

You can control the playback from here. The playback uses a smooth transition (using core image technology) which gives it a nice effect. What I really like is the thumbnail mode which gives you an overview of the files that you are viewing and jump to a particular spot in the slideshow. This happens in real-time with no lag (I'm using a Powerbook 1ghz) and in smooth transition as you jump from image to image.

Give it a try. Pretty soon it will be a part of your efficient workflow instead of opening and using a third party application to do the trick.

Technorati Tags: mac, tiger