Still As Life

Rearranged

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:38:00 +0000

Today, along with plotting to take over the world with Rhi, I rearranged me desk setup, and for that matter, most of that side of the room.

I've chucked one of my bookcases up on the back of one of my desks. I've run out of room on the ground level, so logically, start building up. Tetris style.

It turned out that the bottom shelf of the bookcase is the perfect size to fit my pair of 19" widescreens with about 3mm to spare above them and about 2cm in total to spare horizontally. Sweet.

I've migrated the main work stream applications over to Quadzilla. As a result of this, I've noticed about a 50% performance decrease in the performance of Adobe Photoshop CS3 when working with large files compared to the old XP box that is around a quarter of the power of Quadzilla. That doesn't make any sense to me and I sure hope it's just a temporary problem.

I have left the old box up and running next to the new one. I need it for access to the RAID 0 array in it. At the moment, I have it plugged in to the second input in my secondary monitor, however I am accessing it predominately via the Windows Remote Desktop Connection software as this saves the trouble of switching the inputs and the keyboard and mouse.

Since moving the bookcase, I all of a sudden seem to have so much extra space. I need it since I'm planning on getting a filing cabinet soon, all the same though, it's remarkable the amounf ot space it seems to have made. I'm also thinking about getting a fourth desk from somewhere to get myself some more desk space since I seem to keep running out.

Great Food and Great Company

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 11:38:00 +0000

Thanks to Tim and his wife Judith of Spy Journal and Jethro Consultants for inviting Rhi and I over for dinner last night. We had a great time and the food was awesome.

Tim and Jude keep Stimsons Pythons, bearded dragons, lizards, heaps of fish, and even more pets. I got to hold a snake and a dragon for the first time! Probably something I should get used to since Rhi is hoping to get her spotted python on Thursday (she didn't get her license in time to get it this weekend).

It still amazes me how placid they were, and how content they were to be held.

Tim also has a very, very awesome computer setup. 4 screens in a curve following the curve of the desk, 80" of screen, nice.

They also showed us some interesting games I have never heard of before, Tim, you are going to have to show me the computer version of Carcassone (is that how it's spelt?) sometime.

Thanks again Tim and Jude.

The New Still As Life - Where Is It?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 13:44:00 +0000

I've been talking about it, so where is it?

The new Still As Life blog?

Well, the design is virtually completed, and setup for Wordpress, I just have a few more small things to sort out in it along with setting up the basis for the second half of the website.

That's right, there's a second half!

Don't all pass out at once, I have been working!

The new Still As Life design is, I am proud to say, in my opinion Web 2.0, though as Web 2.0 is as flexible as any other definition of a design style, that is open to interpretation.

So, I can safely say, it will be alive soon.

Since I'm changing over to Wordpress instead of Blogger, and the file paths will be changing, that does mean a different RSS URL along with other changes, but in the long run, I think it will be very beneficial.

That's all for now, catch ya.

Jedi Academy Problem Solved

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 13:40:00 +0000

As I mentioned the other day, I have been stuck at the same place in Jedi Academy that I was stuck at last time, and was quite frustrated. I just solved it, and realised how stupidly simple it was. I have no idea how I managed to get stuck there twice. Ah wells. Crisis over.

Quadzilla Begins - Graphics Unveiled

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:36:00 +0000

As you would have seen earlier, the box for my brand new Gainward Nvidia 8800 GT Golden Sample is bigger than my new motherboard box. Now, the unveiling of the contents.

As you can see in the photo on the left, there is a smaller box within the big box. In the other sections around it are the manuals, disc's and other accessories.

Basically, a TV out cable with HDTV support, molex to PCI-E power adapter, DVI to VGA adaptor and a DVI to HDMI adapter.

It came with the usual Cyberlink PowerDVD bundle along with the standard software. Additionally, it came with a full copy of Tomb Raider Anniversary.

Now, as you can see on the left, once I opened the smaller box, it was literally ALL video card!

Sweet.

This is easily the beefiest video card I have ever owned, and is also the first Nvidia graphics card that I have bought in a good many years, I have previously used predominately ATI cards.

So what is so special about this video card? Why did I buy it over any of the other brands of 8800 GT's, or for that matter, why did I buy it over the other Gainward 8800 GT's?

For starter's, the Golden Sample cost only $359 compared to the $308 for the standard version from Gainward. Now what is the Golden Sample? Basically, it's faster. It comes factory clocked at higher speeds. The core clock speed is 650mhz and the memory clock speed is 950mhz. The standard model is 600mhz by 900mhz. In addition, the Golden Sample comes with a bigger cooling solution to cope with the higher speeds.

In my opinion, the extra $50 is well worth it considering that to overclock the standard model to the same speeds and then add a better cooler to cope with the higher speeds would add up to $50+ anyway. Plus, it would no longer be under warranty where the Golden Sample is.

The reason for this brand over any other's was initially the price, it is on par with the prices of all the other brands and is actually cheaper than some others. In my previous experiences, Gainward are an excellent video card manufacturer, so to find that their prices are now equal to other brands, but with higher clock speeds, I jumped at it.

Next up, putting things together.

Jedi Academy Frustrations

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 12:21:00 +0000

As I mentioned the other day, I have been playing Jedi Academy again, because it is awesome.

However, it is extremely frustrating to find I have gotten stuck at exactly the same spot I got stuck at the first time I played it and I do not recall how I got past it then.

That is all for now, expect happiness when I figure it out.

Now I will go and wreak havoc on unsuspecting city folk in my SimCity 4 Nation!

Developments and Widgitization

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 04:09:00 +0000

No, I have not been procrastinating about any of my personal design projects as mentioned earlier. Okay, I have a little bit. Anyway, the point is, I have been doing things.

You probably wouldn't have noticed this yet, but the copy on TerraMedia, particularly on the Home and Learn More pages has been updated. As the description meta tag is also what shows up in Google when TerraMedia comes up, this has also been updated to better reflect the primary target.

The new copy and tags don't yet show up in Google as it has not yet been crawled again, but this will hopefully be there in the next week or so.

Now, that's not that much is it?

No, but I have been doing other things too.

I was working on the new template for Still As Life, then it was looking awesome and was almost finished when a thought popped into my head. "Hey, I think I might change this blog over to WordPress rather than keep it on Blogger."

So I have spent most of the past couple of hours converting the template to a widgetized theme for WordPress. Despite having made widgetized themes before, as well as worked on ones that have already been widgetized, I always seem to forget something. A very useful thing to have on hand if you plan on widgetizing a WordPress theme is the article on Automattic about it. Very easy to follow and makes lots of sense. However, the section where it explains how to add multiple widgetized menus is a little confusing. So for the unsuspecting widgetizer, it may not work as simply as it would first appear it should. For that reason, here is what it should look like if you have 2 widgetized menus:

<?php
if ( function_exists('register_sidebar') )
register_sidebar(2,array(
'before_widget' => '',
'after_widget' => '',
'before_title' => '<div class="title">',
'after_title' => '</div>',
));
?>

Note that when it is mentioned on Automattic:

"I have a theme with more than one sidebar. How do I make them all dynamic?

Oh, that’s easy. Instead of register_sidebar() you should use register_sidebars(n) where n is the number of sidebars. Then place the appropriate number in the dynamic_sidebar() function, starting with 1."

It is referring to the second register_sidebar, not the first.

Anyway, hope that helps someone. There is also a possibility I won't use WordPress, but I'm having fun with my beautiful code all the same.

Explorer Using Excessive CPU Time

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 14:18:00 +0000

I have been having some interesting computer problems the past few days. I have noticed that upon a fresh boot the past two times I have booted, Explorer.exe has been using 100% of the CPU time and rarely drops below 90%, thus everything else has trouble running. Of course if you change the priority to low and increase the priority of everything else, they run fine, but that's hardly suitable.

AVG has not picked up any virus or other malware problems.

As soon as I end the Explorer.exe process and restart it manually, it's fine. Everything is back to normal.

There is a process that has had to be force quit when I have rebooted because of this problem that has a very obscure name. I don't remember it and I didn't think to write it down because it consists of numbers and letters and is very long.

I can't find anything resembling this process in the Task Manager, not that that means a great deal.

While I wouldn't mind knowing the cause, I'm not overly worried about it as I am hoping to upgrade within the next week or two which means a fresh install of Windows anyway.

Though this does pose a problem, Vista or XP 64. Okay, it's not much of a problem, XP 64 is the clear winner out of the two, however I already own Vista Business (I just don't like it and thus don't use it), whereas I only own XP 32 bit versions which to my understanding do not support the amount of RAM I will be upgrading to.

Anyway, will work all that out when I get to it.

Tooble - YouTube Video Downloading

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 13:22:00 +0000

Earlier this month I posted some information about downloading video's from YouTube and other video sharing websites that use Flash Video's.

Now I have just come across tooble which is a program for Mac's that will download YouTube and other Flash Video's to your computer and converts them mp4 format for use with an iPod. Of course it will also play on an iPhone, Apple TV, or your computer.

There is a Windows version in the works, but at the moment it is Mac only.

Enjoy.

Macbook Paper

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 13:48:00 +0000

For some reason, this really doesn't surprise me. A very good idea though for those of us who can only dream, ladies and gentlemen, the Macbook Paper.

Australia Day '08

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:14:00 +0000

As promised earlier, here are some photos and a run down of my Australia Day.

My family had come up the coast for the long weekend, so I went down to visit them there and we went up to O'Reillys in Lamington National Park for the day.

It's been quite a while since I was last up there and it has changed a lot, but it's still a very nice place. In the photo on the left, there's my sister and brother with a king parrot and crimson rosella, with myself in the background.

I really enjoyed the day, as you can see the view was absolutely amazing and there are quite a few houses hiding away up there. To be honest, I would love to live up in an area like that, aside from the lack of a decent internet connection.

I expect, aside from getting a satellite connection, the fastest available would be dialup speeds.

There is phone reception in some places, so mobile internet is a possibility, but I expect speeds would still be limited to GSM which is no better than dialup anyway.

On the way back down, we stopped at this place, a tunnel that had been carved through solid sandstone back in 1901 by the Lahey brothers for a private tramway to haul logs instead of bullock trains. Due to the steep inclines the trams often had to climb, specially geared trams had to be imported for use on it. Apparently $60,000 was spent on it at the time which would be quite a lot really. The line ran from Canungra, a really nice little town that sprung up around the Laheys sawmill. Have a look at the Canungra website for some more info on it.

And this, the last photo, is an Australian mouse. We came across it while we were out in the rainforest, it wasn't worried about people at all and we were able to get to within about a metre of it.

Okay, so it's not really a mouse, I don't remember what the actual name for them is though and it looks like a big mouse, so there you go.

I hope everyone else had a great Australia Day long weekend!

P.O.D. When Angels and Serpants Dance

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:11:00 +0000

The Payable on Death website has recently been updated to reflect the album art of their new CD, "When Angels and Serpants Dance", which is due out on the 8th of April 2008. There is a sample clip from one of their new songs, by the same title as the album, playing in the background of the website once you enter it. However, there is also a download available from inside the website that is of the full song. So if you want a preview of what the new album is sounding like, get in there and have a listen. It's sounding awesome in my opinion.

There is also a special offer at the moment that ends March 16th to pre-order the album for $9.97 US which comes with a special edition booklet and your name gets printed on the Warrior Wall.

Nice.

The Force Unleashed

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 02:49:00 +0000

I have been playing Jedi Academy again recently as this is one of my favourite Star Wars games, and I have been in a bit of a Star Wars kind of mood. Now, I just saw this trailer/documentary about the making and technologies used in the latest Star Wars game, due out mid 2008, "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed".

If you watch it you'll find out anyway, but the new game uses Havok physics, Euphoria dynamic motion synthesis and Digital Molecular Matter.

So what this means is, you have physics, so everything moves based on physics rather than pre-determined movements, Euphoria gives the computer controlled characters the ability to think for themselves and react to what you do.

An example given in the video clip is that if you throw a crate at someone, they could either duck under it, jump out of the way, or even grab onto it. Such as if you throw a person, or pick one up, they will try and grab onto things. It is described as a sense of self preservation.

Then there is also the Digital Molecular Matter which combines with the physics to give everything different characteristics. It means would will break like wood, metal will bend like metal, a crate thrown into another crate will have a much different result to a crate thrown into something much lighter, like a person.

Anyway, have a look at the video and be amazed. I want this game now. Actually, I want to upgrade first so I can play it when it comes out, but you get the idea.

Also, the game story sounds absolutely awesome, after all, who hasn't always wanted to be Darth Vader's secret apprentice?

Fondue, Healthy Dessert? Not quite

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:51:00 +0000

I spent my Australia Day down at the Gold Coast and out at Lamington National Park and up at O'Reillys with my family today, I have photo's, but they are for another post.

Having been out all day, I had already had dinner before coming home tonight, and Rhi had already eaten. However, when I got home, she made Fondue! We were going to have it last night, so we had bought berries and things to use, but it didn't quite happen. Tonight though, it did. After all, the berries needed to be eaten.

I have never had fondue before, but it was absolutely awesome! If you are someone such as myself who has not known about this marvelous idea, it can be done with all sorts of things, I believe it is most commonly done with cheeses. We however had a dessert one.

Melted dark chocolate with coffee and cream mixed in with it into a delicious paste. Then we had our selection of berries, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries.

Basically, the chocolate or whatever you have is kept soft and melted and then you use these funny, skewer style forks to dip things in it, in our case, berries, though I think Rhi ended up using her fingers as much as her fondue fork. Thus we had delicious, caffeinated, dark chocolate coated berries! Yum! Almost makes the chocolate seem healthy, what with the antioxidants already in it and all of the berries. Okay, I'm probably kidding myself a bit there, but it's healthier than just the chocolate.

Australia Day recap and photos will be coming soon.

The Golden Compass Vs Star Wars

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 13:32:00 +0000

You may recall my post about when I saw The Golden Compass last month. If not, to recap, I didn't think it was very well put together, and was not a good movie.

Rhi loved it, my sister loved it etc, I did not like it.

I just came across a post by Paul Jenkins over at Pauls Blog that pretty much echoes my opinion of The Golden Compass. However, he added another perspective to it that I hadn't even thought of.

He noticed that the story has vast similarities to the original Star Wars story. I find this quite funny really, but it is very true. The story is remarkably similar, except of course, Star Wars was actually good.

For example, as Paul pointed out, in reference to Star Wars, The Magisterium from The Golden Compass is trying to control the world, similarly to The Empire of Star Wars. At the same time, the Gyptians defy them and rescue Lyra. This can of course be referenced to the Rebels of Star Wars rescuing Luke and Leia Skywalker. Luke can use The Force, Lyra can operate the Golden Compass. The most obvious thing though, that I really can't believe I didn't see, near the end of The Golden Compass, Mrs Coulter, the main antagonist reveals to Lyra that she is actually her mother! Oh my! Darth Vader, the main antagonist of Star Wars reveals near the end that he is indeed, Luke's father!

The book was published in 1995, clearly after Star Wars was released in 1977 kind of makes one wonder about it. Ah wells, perhaps I should stop being so cynical.

My apologies to anyone that liked it, but I really don't see what the great appeal of it was/is.

New Powerhouse Music and Technology Website Design

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:32:00 +0000

Powerhouse Music and Technology is a music store that sell musical and computer gear. They specialise in guitar parts, especially pickups, knobs, scratch plates, effects peddles and other guitar modifications.

I have been working on their site since the beginning, including the transition to a Zen-Cart based website.

Zen-Cart provides a vast amount of functionality and automation of things, thus it can almost be used entirely in the place of MYOB Retail Manager style inventory and sales management, it prints invoices, keeps the website up to date with current stock and so on.

Everything is customisable.

It does have a few downfalls, for example, only one image can be used for each product, unless you know how to use FTP and know HTML image tags. If this is the case, than you can put more images in the product description since it allows HTML to be entered in it.

It also does not have built in warranty claim management or return authorization management, so this must all be done manually by email, phone, or any other means.

Powerhouse Music and Technology has recently undergone a makeover. I did not design the original Zen-Cart website for them as they found a template much to their liking. I did do all of the custom graphics and so on, as well as all of the custom code.

Over the past week or so, we have been going through the website and making various changes to the template. For anyone that had not seen it previously, it had a dark grey/blue background and used varying shades of dark blue throughout the website. It was a fixed width and had a plain black background behind the main content area. Boring.

If you have a look at it now, you will notice a few key changes that we have been working on. The first and foremost is that the website has been lightened significantly without changing the colour scheme. It is now a much lighter grey/blue with darker rows alternating lighter product rows so they are easier to read.

The second main change to the website is that the background is no longer a boring plain black that does nothing but emphasise the empty background. It is now a tiled pattern based off the material covering of an early Vox Guitar Amplifier. The pattern does not scroll with the rest of the website so it remains the same no matter where you are or what your screen resolution is. The decision to do this was made because having the website automatically adjust to fit different resolutions, while being based on the current template would take a lot of time and work and would rewriting the majority of the CSS. Thus, something else was needed to emphasise the content.

The background does this perfectly. The colour scheme does not clash with the current colours and even the black material on it's own without the stitching provides a better background than the plain black because it contains various shades. The background as a whole however now emphasises the content and makes the website more interesting, especially on higher resolution screens.

There have been other changes made as well, though not so significant, with the switch from dark to light, the text colour has all had to be changed and in doing so, the link hover colour has been changed to a green rather than a blue, to fit in with the green used in the logo.

The menu has also been adjusted to remove gaps in it that left it seeming empty, which it is far from being.

Finally, there have been a few fixes to widths that had not previously been noticable with the darker background that became apparent with the light background.

The past couple of days we have been gradually working through the site and picking up the colour glitches here and there that have been caused by the change and were missed for whatever reason in the main styles. So if you have a look and notice anything that doesn't quite seem right, such as unreadable text, it would be great if you could let me know.

Thanks.

Designs and Developments

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 12:03:00 +0000

The past month, I have been brainstorming and experimenting with idea's on new and interesting (to me) things to do on the web.

So far I have a few things. Of course, high up on the list is to market TerraMedia and Ultralight more, but at the same time, there have been other things come up as a result of that.

Company and product image.

For example, I have been trying to come up with a new and interesting logo for TerraMedia. I did a subject at university first semester last year that was based entirely around product and company image, through logo's, packaging and so on. KIB101, Foundations of Communication Design 1 is the subject. Great subject, I learned a lot doing it. The problem is, I could not get past one of my early logo idea's which I realised after I finished it, that it was very similar to the old Sony Walkman logo which is a trade mark, and while it's not the same, I didn't particularly like the idea of Sony having a reason to come after me. Thus, I ended up with the current logo, which is nothing too special, I like it, but it's not what I would ideally like.

So, this is something I have been aiming to change. I still don't really have anything set in stone yet, but I have some idea's that I am working on since my mind has seemingly been freed of it's mental block at the moment. How long this will last I cannot say, but hopefully for a while yet.

In working on this new logo, I have also been considering redesigning the TerraMedia website, and reworking it to better fit my new marketing strategy (which is at the moment still in it's planning stages, so I can't give you details because it is not yet in an entirely logical structure and will most likely come across as a bunch of babble). I spent a couple of hours with Rhi on Sunday afternoon brainstorming possibilities in this regard, and along with things I have since come up with on top of our combined masses of brain power, I think we have some very interesting idea's that I plan on experimenting with. I'd show you, but that would ruin the surprise.

Rhi is also helping me out with the new logo design which is awesome as she is a fantastic artist! So a big thanks goes to her!

Portfolio.

Next on the list is a possibility I have been throwing around in my mind and have just begun experimenting with using Joomla!

Joomla! comes with a weblinks component when you install it, and that, combined with part of my new marketing strategies has thrown into the works a directory style portfolio. In a way, like a Yellow Pages of web site's by TerraMedia. Of course, there aren't that many at this stage, and it probably doesn't sound like much, but the idea's that are whizzing through my mind regarding this have me really intrigued about setting it up. I have something partially working at the moment. I'm hoping to get it up and running properly within the next couple of weeks.

This also is a reason behind the changes I would like to make in the design of the TerraMedia website. The current design does not incorporate any real portfolio the way I would like, thus it does not have one, which is not a good thing, in fact, it is a very bad thing.

Next up is email.

I have a Microsoft Exchange Server partially setup for TerraMedia. It's still in it's trial phases at the moment, but I am hoping to have it setup properly soon. This will make maintaining my email's, contacts and calendar (why does the spelling of calendar look wrong?) far easier from all over the world, not that I'm frequently all over the world, but you never know.

Once the Exchange server is fully setup and operational, TerraMedia will be offering it as a service instead of our current webmail/POP3 email service, if anyone is interested, pricing will be sorted out shortly. I aim to have this fully operational within the next couple of weeks as well to coincide with my plans.

Blogging.

I am planning on rearranging the news and client information blogs so that they are one and the same rather than two separate ones. I also accidentally blocked myself from allowing RSS, ATOM and OPML feed's from the news page, which is potentially problematic and another driving factor of a new design.

Blogging part 2.

Still As Life is still running off of what is essentially a standard template. Yes, I have changed it significantly. Background image, size, footer, menu etc, but it is still basically a standard template. This I do not like. In my brainstorming for TerraMedia, I stumbled across the foundations of a new design for Still As Life hiding in the dark, atramentous recesses of my mind.

So this is underway as well. I have it in progress, on the Still As Life server, but I'm not going to give you the link because that would ruin the surprise. If you can figure out the path to it though, enjoy and keep in mind that it is still in progress and the colours are far from final.

More Still As Life?

Yes, there is more. Still As Life was not originally intended to be solely the home of the personal blog of me, Matthew Brown. No, it was also meant to be a haven for my fractal gallery. Yes yes, there is my Deviant Art gallery, which does give me unlimited space and bandwidth for free. However, it is not really what I want. I have been tossing around ideas in my mind ever since I first began considering names for this blog. There is actually an installation of Coppermine Photo Gallery setup on this server and has been since I set up the domain. It's just one of those things that never quite went ahead.

Is there anymore?

As a matter of fact, yes! I just don't remember what else there was at the moment, that was actually part of the reason for this blog, so I don't forget everything. Oh well, I'll remember sooner or later. I actually have paper with stuff on it all over one of my walls for this reason as well, however this is one of the things that hadn't made it to paper yet. Though Rhi thinks the paper makes it look like I have gone mad with illegible scribble writing and drawings that look like they are part of the writing and so on. I am happy being mad.

Last but not least, in my creative and un-mentally blank mood, I have been doing some drawing (that does not look like scribble) as well. I have the outlines of a picture that I am quite proud of so far. Hopefully the rest of it will work right and I don't end up with, well, badness.

Counting to A

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 11:39:00 +0000

I was reading some interesting little facts in an email that I received today. Yay for completely useless but interesting forwards. Anyways, one of the things it said was, "what number do you have to count to before you reach the letter A?".

That's a good question and something I've never thought about before, and if I hadn't read this, I probably never would.

Anyways, when I started to think about it, I got up to about fifty seven and then realised, hey, I could be here a while, I still haven't gotten an A, so I started skipping up in ten's, sixty, seventy, eighty, ninety, one hundred. I gave up then realising that everything from then on is just repeating something that's already been spelled out.

So off I went and read the answer. Lo and behold, one thousand is the first number with an A in it if you spell it out. I then also felt quite stupid for not realising this when I reached one hundred.

And now I have written four paragraph's on something that could be said in one sentence, as well as state the obvious. But hey, you learn something new everyday.

24th Anniversary Mac Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 09:20:00 +0000

This is a pretty cool idea, though quite pointless really.

A Mac Mini inside a Macintosh 512k!

Perhaps using a colour screen would have made it a little bit more useful. However I suppose in doing so, it would have lost some of it's uniqueness.

Ah wells. Interesting all the same.

Domain Resorts Websites

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 04:50:00 +0000

There are a few other websites now live that I have been working on as well.

You may or may not have seen the first two Domain Resorts websites that I worked on, if not, they are:

Since completing these two, I have also been involved in working on five other websites for them through Webtrix™ Technologies.

The websites are as follows:

For more websites that I have worked on, have a look at my portfolio.

Enjoy.

Swallow Fashion Website Live

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:22:00 +0000

The Swallow Fashion website has been live for about a week now. This is a website that I have been working on for Webtrix™ Technologies for some time now.

It was a very slow website to develop, however, it has turned out quite nicely. I was not the only person working on this website mind you, it was just one of those ones that takes a long time to get done, for no real reason.

Swallow Fashion have 3 stores in Brisbane city and do just about anything with clothes that you can think of. They mend, make dresses,perform alterations, dry clean, can work with leather and furs and so on.

I might be biased when I say I don't like some of the parts of the website that I didn't do. However, if you know what parts of the site they are, you can probably understand my dislike of them.

Modbook By Axiotron

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 02:46:00 +0000

With all the awe and wonder surrounding the official unveiling of the gorgeous new Macbook Air at the MacWorld Expo last week, another fantastic new Mac laptop has been somewhat overlooked.

The Modbook by Axiotron. This is not an official Apple Mac, however it incorporates the magic of OS X and the same components used in Macbooks with leading tablet technology from Wacom!

That's right, the Modbook is effectively the first and only Mac Tablet! With prices for the basic Modbook starting at $2290 US, it is not much more expensive than the basic Macbook Pro ($1999 US), and only slightly less powerful.

The standard Modbook comes with a 2ghz Intel Core 2 Duo processor that can be upgraded, 1gb of RAM, also upgradeable, built-in iSight Camera, optical drive (either combo-drive or SuperDrive), and just in case you get lost, global positioning system (GPS).

It is based around a 13.3" screen, and since it doesn't close like, it is protected by chemically strengthened Axiotron ForceGlass™ to ensure it is as safe as possible from damage at all times.

The screen incorporates digitizer technology from Wacom and the included Axiotron Digitizer Pen is:

Fast - 133 position updates per second
Accurate - 20x display resolution
Sensitive - 512 levels of pen pressure sensitivity
Efficient - No batteries required

As it is based on a Macbook, it retains the full Macbook connectivity suite, including 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet, USB 2.0 (two ports), FireWire® 400 (one port), Bluetooth 2.0 and AirPort Extreme® Wi-Fi.

It does not come with a built in keyboard like some tablet PC's do. Instead, you have the option of either just tapping the letters you want on an on-screen keyboard (a little time consuming in my opinion), or just writing like you would on a piece of paper. The Modbook has full support for Apple’s Inkwell® software on Leopard, so writing is no problem at all! Alternatively, you can get a USB keyboard.

The weight and battery consumption is no different to the standard Macbook, so there is no real reason there to cause problems.

The Unofficial Apple Weblog got a demonstration of the Modbook on video which I have embedded below:

One thing I am not quite sure about from the video is that the Axiotron rep indicates that a wireless adapter would be needed. The Axiotron website though indicates that it comes with wireless (as I mentioned above). Either way though, it is still a very nifty and highly useful device.

If I didn't already have a Macbook Pro, the Modbook would be on my list way above the Macbook Air.

By the way, if anyone would like to donate me a Modbook, I would happily accept.

Unreal Tournament 2004 Screenshots

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 14:32:00 +0000

As promised earlier, here are some screenshots of how my computer runs Unreal Tournament 2004 to compare to how it runs Unreal Tournament 3.

Unreal Tournament 3 is running with all of the settings as high as they go, including running at the highest supported resolution, 1280x1024 at 32bit.

It does not chunk, at all, even in large skirmishes, with Photoshop open in the background and also compressing a video file that I forgot I was compressing when I decided to see if it would allow me to take screenshots today, seeing as how it is picky like that.

When I was trying out Unreal Tournament 3, I had it running with nothing else going in the background and on low settings and it still chunked.

This is to be expected, but I am used to the low quality settings of new games still being around the same, or better than the previous versions so the fact that it was so much worse was a real surprise to me.

On another note, if you are in Brisbane, Gametraders currently have Unreal Tournament 3 for $89.95 with $10 off, or the collectors edition for $109.95 with $10 off. Or they do at Garden City anyway. This may be a nation-wide thing, it may not, definitely worth it though if you have the computing power to do the game justice.

Sun Buys MySQL

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 13:35:00 +0000

Recently, Sun Microsystems purchased MySQL for $1 billion. A little late I know, but I only just read about it.

There are articles about it on both the Sun and MySQL websites.

With a gigantic customer base, MySQL is a very successful open source endeavour, so purchasing something like this, potentially brings millions of customers, including clients like Facebook and even Google.

Along with such a large client base, comes the potential to really screw up. There are plenty of other database systems out there, both open and closed source with similar features and performance to MySQL, in particular, PostgreSQL. This means that if Sun were to mess it up, there are systems waiting with arms open. For example, on the TerraMedia server, we have both MySQL and PostgreSQL running. Of course, for many larger clients, transferring to a different system would be a lot of work and for many, it probably would not be worth it. However, for smaller clients, or transitioning systems, there is a much bigger possibility.

Added to that, at the Queensland University of Technology students are introduced to databases and taught using PostgreSQL in the introductory database subjects, no doubt this occurs at other universities as well. This means other systems are in a prime position to take a piece of the market from MySQL if things go sour.

Having used both systems though, I can see there are many similarities, so even someone who has only used MySQL could pick up PostgreSQL with very few problems.

However, I can't point out the possible pitfalls without mentioning the benefits.

Sun is a giant in the I.T. industry with a large amount of finances available to back MySQL. Not to mention, Sun has been extremely successful in releasing the Solaris source code in 2005, and the Java programming language in 2006. Thinking along similar lines, you can hardly talk about Sun's support of open source software without mentioning projects like NetBeans and OpenOffice.org. Both of these have thrived under Sun as well.

Additionally, work conditions are not expected to change, including being able to work from home, and Sun have invited the current staff to continue work on the system, including the current leadership and executives.

It is clear to me that Sun understands the value of open source technology and the communities surrounding it and I don't doubt at all, that in adding MySQL to their arsenal, Sun won't screw things up and MySQL will continue to thrive from the added support.

For anyone reading that has heard my theories on the future of the I.T. industry, involving companies such as Microsoft, Apple, Google and so on, this move by Sun supports my expectations completely.

I will write up my theories one of these days, or copy a chat log about them, or something.

Microsoft Excel Security Issue

noreply@blogger.com (Matt) — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:09:00 +0000

As you may recall from the 18th, I made a post about a Microsoft Excel security issue that had been brought up in the Sydney Morning Herald. At the time I could not seem to find anything on the Microsoft website about it. Evidently I was looking in the wrong place or searching for the wrong thing, as Tim over at Spy Journal has found the official Microsoft Security Advisory information under Microsoft Security Advisory (947563).

According to the official Microsoft release:

"Microsoft is investigating new public reports of a vulnerability in Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Service Pack 2, Microsoft Office Excel Viewer 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2002, Microsoft Office Excel 2000, and Microsoft Excel 2004 for Mac. At this time, our initial investigation indicates that customers who are using Microsoft Office Excel 2007 or Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac, or who have installed Microsoft Office Excel 2003 Service Pack 3 are not affected by this vulnerability."

So basically, the latest version's, Excel 2003 SP3, 2007, and 2008 are all in the clear. Everything else is potentially vulnerable.

Common sense should apply, as with anything received over the internet, if it looks suspicious, it probably is, unless it's me.