by simon baird

Friday, February 22, 2008

a short list of essential firefox plugins (for developers)

Firebug
Web Developer
(toolbar)
Save as Image (I like it better than Screengrab)

Well you probably already knew the first two, but checkout Save as Image if you don't already have it. Also shortlisted is ColorZilla but I've not installed it. I'd like one that was just a colour dropper and less confusing UI wise. Attention Chris Pederick, how about putting a colour dropper into Web Developer?

Update:
I forgot IE Tab.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

I enjoyed this guys views on the macbook air

http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/01/macbook-air-haters-suck-my-dick.html

Some journalists get so close to the truth it hurts, yet miss the large print. "OMG! The unit is all sealed and self-contained like the iPod!"

Yes... the iPod. That huge failure. Also, the iPhone. Stunning disappointment that it was. I mean, jeebus, why would Apple make ANOTHER device incredibly simple? Clearly the market has spoken, and it wants tons of ports and screws and geegaws and flippers... no, wait, no it doesn't.


http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/02/macbook-air-rambling-first-impressions.html

Sunday, February 17, 2008

one more post...

I wanted to tell you about my friend, lets call him meangreen. he's got one of the top ten coolest jobs I can think of at the moment. his job is to drive around queensland in holden astra loaded with eighteen terrabytes of disk, a multidirectional camera rig mounted on a pole sticking up through the roof of the car. he gets put up in hotels and has a company expense card. can you guess? google. specifically google street view. he said he found the job advertised on google's web site and called up. they said, hey you're the first applicant, it's only been advertised for about thirty minutes. so, hot tip, australia's getting google street view. hotter tip, if you know meangreen, see if you can find out when he's scheduled to drive by your house or favourite landmark. you could wave for the cameras. or make a sign. be creative.

dell's chinese factory workers work on the weekend?

angus[1] would not approve.

[1] an antiglobalisation, anticonsumerist guy I had a conversation with on the way to the opera house

ps, sorry about the blogostorm today. a tip for successful blogging: post at regular intervals. don't overwhelm your readers with a flood of posts (especially in between long silences).

kimya dawson

one good thing about juno is kimya dawson:

It was a Gayageum

And a very nice one too. Sounds like this (played by Miss Korea 2006): I'm guesing this isn't a traditional tune:

panda bear equals

a). the beach boys crossed with kid A crossed with a mellowed out accoustic version of the stone roses. but not quite. b). my new favourite band?

blue-ray wins format war against hd-dvd

I hope the guy who invented betamax was also involved somehow in the design of blueray. he's walking tall for the first time in thirty years or so. his wife has a small happy tear.

panda bear

may indeed be very good. yep. http://www.last.fm/music/Panda+Bear/_/Bros

japanese for comb over

I learned this yesterday. the (or a) japanese term for comb over is "barcode". heh heh.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

election campaigning in south korea involves a lot of people like this dancing on street corners to their candidate's theme songs. the music is loud. the dancers always seem to be in a good mood. these guys are supporting candidate two who in fact was elected.

Posted by Picasa
random building somewhere or other

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Friday, February 08, 2008

mini review

28 weeks later. omg. cool.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

joanna news

joanna hangs with andy samberg

joanna is indeed very good (stereogum review)

I saw her two shows at the sydney opera house. it was an amazing experience: first up was Ys, start to finish, with the orchestra, her banjo guy and her drummer. her voice sounds better than it does on cd and I think better than it did twelve months ago I think. she's more confident now in her vocal ability it seems. van dyke parks' over-showy orchestration annoys me a little and some of the louder orchestral sections felt a tiny bit forced or over-done, but I try to go with it. the banjo and tambura (lutey looking mandolin type of thing) was perfect. the sound (at the opera house, who would have thought) was utterly perfect. her drummer does quite a bit of backing vocal which sounds pretty good though his style of playing the percussion feels a little pretentious. all this aside, hearing Ys performed from start to finish with orchestra at the opera house is probably the best thing I've ever seen. I don't think anyone who was there will forget it. of course sawdust and diamonds (sans dyke parks) is a highlight. during only skin bjork (sitting near us but on a different level) is on the edge of her seat and grinning. after cosmia there is an interval. then she's back which her two band members for a set of milk eyed mender songs and new songs. peach, plum pear gets a brilliant new arrangement with lots of tambura. there's a brand new untitled tune with a country music feel, esame (not it's official name, she said it was untitled) done solo (which is turning into one of my favourites) and colleen from the EP. a short encore, sadie (skipped on the friday show) and inflammatory writ and we're filing out onto the concrete steps into circular quay. nerds are trying to convince sound techs to give them the setlist. it's rumoured that after the show there was a sing along backstage with Bjork, the Arcade fire, Andrew Bird and Joanna. But surely it's just a rumour, what with Bjork's sore throat and all. One disappointment, Joanna wore the same two dresses both nights! we'd have liked to see the red one from BAM think!

juno

I saw juno. it was pretty good. not as good as say napoleon dynamite but then again what is.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Saturday, February 02, 2008

Obama FTW

based on the opinions of Joanna Newsom, Joanna Newsom's percussionist, the xkcd guy and this rodent I have decided to endorse Obama for president. US readers, please take note.

Friday, February 01, 2008

some jcu related news

1. the vice chancellor has a blog. I get the feeling it's not going to be too exciting. I'd like to see her holiday snaps, photos of pets, thoughts on britney, obama, angelina. probably not going to happen.

2. ex-deputy-vice chancellor (allegedly) turns out to be a creepy perve. nice one harry.

3. after feb 29th I won't be there