Local font boy gets added to AGFA/Fonts.com.

The other night a drake mallard was sitting on my sidewalk next to my back door. I approached slowly, wondering why he was there (no bodies of water in the immediate vicinity), and as I got closer he got up and slowly walked away from me. Very casual. Suddenly the bushes next to my house burst into rustling and another drake mallard shot out and skulked rapidly around the corner. I got the very distinctive feeling that they both looked furtive, guilty, perhaps even sheepish (can a duck look sheepish?) But I didn't ask and they didn't tell. I'm just wondering how my backyard became a hot spot for ducks of an alternative persuasion.

Cool beans. You can build links to iTunes Music Store items. So, if you wanted to find "Play Dead" from Bjork, you could link it here (probably works only with iTunes 4). [via WDIK]

Went to a special screening of the 1995 movie Hackers tonight. Damn amusing movie and Angelina Jolie's head looks funny. Some great quotes: "RISC technology is going to change the world." Or "It's got a 28.8 kbps modem!" Got a free T-shirt out of the deal, too.
Non-movie quote from last night: "I don't know what I just spit out of my mouth... oh, [pointing] THAT's what it was."

With the new version of iTunes you can now add album artwork to your song(s) and the best, most easiest way to do this is with Clutter. You could search on Amazon or Google or AllMusic and do a drag-and-drop or you just let Clutter do it for you. Clutter will grab the album art and display it in a little floating window. Just copy (cmd-C) and highlight your songs in iTunes, get info (cmd-I) and paste (cmd-V) into the artwork spot and voila!

Whoa. Since upgrading to QuickTime 6.2 and iTunes 4 last night (which are totally and completely awesome), my computer has been suddenly unstable, actually even crashing every 15 minutes or so. A quick (had to be!) Google search found reports of Canon scanner drivers causing problems. There are two items placed into the Login Items that poll just for button presses on the scanner. Removing these from the Login Items will fix the polling problem and I never use the buttons anyway, just the interface in Photoshop. What is odd is that they've been in there for months with no adverse affects. Hmmm...

ok, NOT - system still unstable - crashing every 12 minutes or so...
UPDATE: methinks this is related to the known IO USB Hub bug in 10.2.5 but why it didn't appear prior to this is a mystery. I think I've got a fix for it and will try it out later tonight. Simply unplugging the hub is not a viable solution.
UPDATE 2: The USB bug was the problem. Very odd that it appeared after several weeks of running fine. You'll need to download the IOUSB kext file from 10.2.4 and install it over the 10.2.5 version and you'll be good to go until Apple releases an official update.

Apple did as expected today and released new improved iPods (along with a new kick-ass version of iTunes 4) and their online legal music service, which appears at first glance to "get it" and get it right. No subscription fees, 99-cents per song, one-click shopping right into your iTunes. About time. They also made some new ads and it would appear they've made one just for Irish-Girl.
UPDATE: The music service rocks! Their interface is superb and easy to use with no clutter (ie: banner ads or pop-up windows) and ordering really is a one-click operation. I bought the "Elvis 56" CD with 22 tracks for $9.99 and it downloaded with only one glitch. A quick menu click and it continued. Seems fairly robust. I was surfing and listening to other music in iTunes as well.

Finally all the PC users can see what us Mac folk have known (and loved) for so long: iView Media is great asset-management software. This is the "consumer" version of iView Multimedia Pro and appears to be a very good value. Notably absent, however, is the ability to create custom HTML Gallery templates for export of your media to the web. You only get one choice, but a nice clean one, with Media.

Stumbled across this online digital photo course from AGFA. Looks like it is quite good, with some professional level tips hidden in there.

I like to throw dry or old bread out in the yard for the neighborhood wildlife to nibble upon. This morning I spotted a chipmunk rolling around a bagel in my driveway. I ran and grabbed my camera and took this shot from inside the kitchen so I wouldn't scare him off.
UPDATE: now you can view a quicktime video clip of the bagelmunk. the first part is enlarged 200% for cropping so it looks grainier and I hadn't yet grabbed my telephoto lens or tripod. the last part is much nicer looking. 320x240, 4.5 megs.

Went to a new restaurant last night (well, not new-new, but first time visiting new) over in St. Louis Park -- Thanh Do. Nice little place, good selection on the menu, decent prices, nice ambience, great mango sorbet. Bill and Michelle and maybe Jack had eaten there and liked it and I would have to concur. I think I may be swinging by on a regular basis prior to work for their lunch specials. Oh, and their Vietnamese fresh spring rolls are simply divine! I think I'm gonna try their cranberry curry next time.

Free Press mediareform.net is looking for public input on upcoming FCC actions regarding media ownership laws (ie: control and power). Please pass this information on and take the time to write your congress-person -- it affects us all.

Dear friend,

If you believe that we need a free and independent media in the United States, we need you to send an email to Congress right now telling them so. Go to www.mediareform.net now, or stay here and let us explain.

On June 2, big money special interests and the Federal Communications Commission plan to further relax or eliminate the remaining significant media ownership laws. They call it "deregulation," but it is no such thing. It is actually "re-regulation," such that all the choice radio and TV licenses can go to fewer and fewer massive firms, and these firms can buy up far more newspapers and cable TV systems and channels than was ever possible in the past. If you like what has happened to radio since its ownership rules were scrapped in 1996, you'll love what is about to happen in the rest of the U.S. media. It can get worse. Much worse.

The majority of the FCC members are under the thumb of the massive media conglomerates that are demanding these changes so they can get bigger and face less competition. They are working to rush these changes through without any public involvement.

The AFL-CIO, Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America and leading religious and civil rights groups have argued that the changes go too far. Yet, polls show that most Americans do not know that the FCC is preparing to dramatically shift the landscape of American media, journalism and democracy.

Only concerted effort on our part can stop the FCC.

In the next few weeks, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will hold crucial hearings on the proposed deregulation.

Public comments will determine whether or not Congress allows Big Media to have their way.

Please go to www.mediareform.net. One click will send your message to Congress and the FCC demanding they preserve current media ownership rules for the sake of a diverse, independent, and competitive media.

If we lose this fight, the likely stampede of mergers will give a handful of large corporations greater influence over what is-- and is not -- reported in the news. The quality of media will get even worse as the public's ability to have open, informed discussion with a wide variety of viewpoints declines, eroding the foundations of our democracy.

No matter what your issue, media reform is integral to it. As they say, You control the news, you control the views.

Finally, please send this message to everyone you think might be interested via email. We can win this fight.

Bob McChesney & John Nichols

PS -- Free Press is a new group we co-founded. It is a national organization working to increase informed public participation in crucial media policy debates, and generate a range of policies that will produce a more competitive and public interest-oriented media system. For more information, please contact Free Press: info@mediareform.net or call toll free 866-666-1533 www.mediareform.net

I just remembered that I love the taste of peach jello. Mmmmm.

MacCentral says they've been invited to a special Apple press event on April 28th that "will be music to your ears" or something like that. Could this be the rumored release of Apple's new online music service? Their announcement of the purchase of Universal Music? New improved iPods? All the above?!? Rumors also say on Friday, May 2nd, there will be a special in-store Apple event - the actual release of all the above?

Last night a bunch o' people got together (nine of us) and went to see "A Mighty Wind", the new movie from Christopher Guest (ala "Best In Show," "Waiting for Guffman," etc) about a folk music memorial concert. It was a hoot and a half. You'll enjoy it if you go. Thankfully we got tickets in advance 'cuz all those suckas sitting in line outside the Uptown in the rain did not look too warm, although the audience was really upbeat and happy about the movie and there was much laughing and clapping.
Prior to the show we grabbed some dinner at Sawatdee and we all said we were gonna blog this conversation we overhead, but I'm gonna do it first as the others must've forgot (nyah nyah!): these two guys were sitting in the booth behind us and the elderly man was complaining about his food and eventually said something to the waiter. "It's not as good as in San Francisco, I've had good Thai food, something something, blah blah blah." The waiter apologized and offered to replace the food and the older guy says, in all seriousness, "No, I'll keep eating it... but I'm gonna keep bitching."

My first entry in Photo Friday and the theme this week is "water." I picked two shots for this entry as I couldn't make up my mind on which was nicer.

Went down to the Open Book building last night with some cool people for a "seminar" put on by Chank and Spunk entitled "Quit Your Job: Learn How to Run Your Own Business." Well, I didn't really learn that. I learned that even if you are a bit of a nerd/geek, you can find a niche and make money from it. And I learned that once you sell a $40 font, the whole darn world can use it to pimp their wares. The event was amusing, but a bit long-ish. I was coveting the IndieFont books they were giving away.

Either the cold crappy weather arrived at the right time or the six new DVDs I ordered a while back did... take your pick. What better way to endure this regression into winter than viewing some flicks: Far From Heaven, Secretary, Spirited Away, Supercop, Operation Condor 1 and Operation Condor 2 (those last three are all Jackie Chan and please note that OC2 is actually the first movie but it was positioned as a "prequel" here in the States and OC1 is the second movie).

Damn, how many mortgage companies exist in this universe and why do they all have my telephone number?! I get a multitude of calls every day, tons of hang-ups on the voice mail. Argh. Stop calling me! If they'd do their research they'd know I already refinanced.

Purchase Hayao Miyazaki's "Spirited Away", "Kiki's Delivery Service", and "Castle in the Sky" DVDs from any Best Buy store and get "Princess Mononoke" for free. Good through April 19th. [via dealnews]

Thanks to my pal Jeremy out east I now know about Photo Friday, something else to occupy my 'free' time. Join in if you have a camera and a website. Or maybe you just strive to achieve inclusion in the Anti-Photobloggies.

Tazarat Vegan Recipes looks to be quite the nice little resource for cooking.

Have you seen the new Honda commercial? Brilliantly done Rube Goldberg-esque chain reaction video. Well done. And it only took something like 606 takes to get it right. If so, I think that is a world record of takes.

Apple has release Beta 2 of Safari, their new, fast, amazing web browser based on open source and open standards. Very nice improvements - tabbed browsing and pop-up blocking! My new favorite browser. Mac OS X only.

Daring Fireball examines the issue of Quark XPress vs Adobe InDesign today: The Sticky Business of Page Layout. He wonders why InDesign isn't catching on faster. I'll tell you why: inertia. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest until acted upon by another force.
Designers (anybody who puts stuff on a page) will stick with Quark mostly because it is familiar. Sadly, they will probably stay with Quark until they are forced to get InDesign due to company policy or migration to Mac OS X or continued delays in an OS X version of Quark. Let me tell you, though, many people in the industry are taking InDesign training to prepare themselves for the eventual switch. Those who already have are very pleased. Stop the stagnation and get yourself into InDesign today! Please. Don't worry about your service bureau or prepress shop -- if they want your business, they'll support InDesign files or they already do and you don't know it yet.

While meandering around yesterday, I had to sit at a railroad crossing to wait for the train going across Nicollet Island. Grabbed a short movie of it with my Sony digital camera and then added a song clip and some old film and color effects. QuickTime format. Enjoy.

I was down at the scooter shop today, helping out, and it was quite a bit of fun as so many people came by to check out scooters or pick up new bikes. Such a great variety of interesting folk. On the way home, I meandered through Minneapolis snapping photographs along the way. I ended up taking about 70 shots, of which about 20 are decent enough to post. Look for them over in the KOS Photolog on the right in the next few days as I work them into the site.

Well, it took much much longer than anticipated (apparently I haven't yet figured out that most house projects do) and five trips to the home store (I'll explain) but now I have an under-sink water filtration system AND a brand new faucet. I went to Home Depot and got the filter and came home to install it. I was missing a coupler necessary for the job, so back to HD I go. Maybe I was flustered over the second trip or maybe I was mentally elsewhere but I wasn't paying attention and managed to render inoperable the cold water supply tube on my old faucet. Twisted that sucker right into oblivion. Great. Very smooth move. Back to HD for a new faucet after much struggling to remove the old one. I hated that old faucet anyway as it wouldn't stay in place on the sink. I tried to install the new one and wouldn't you know it, but my three-hole pattern cast iron sink must be from before there was a standard -- no fit! Argh. Guess where I went again? Yup. Ok, the new faucet installs just fine and looks way nicer than the old one and it solidly stays put as it should. Finally, time to install the water filter! Since my first new faucet wouldn't fit I didn't need the three-way coupler I purchased. One last trip (I can drive it with my eyes closed now) was necessary in order to buy a 69-cent cap for the unused connector on the three-way coupler. Goodness. Anyway, after all that stupid wasted time, the project is finished and the water is clean and clear. Whew.
[new images and links added 04-13-03. never let it be said I don't aim to please my visitors. ahem, bill.]

Haha! I figured out what is moving around under the leaves in the yard -- nightcrawlers! worms! Interesting, but somewhat disappointing. I was envisioning hordes of tiny furry creatures. And I swear I could just see them out of my peripheral vision. But at least nightcrawlers don't get into your house, eh?

Zowie. As BoingBoing said, "holy crap."

In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world's largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said. Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry. Universal, which reaps about $6 billion in sales annually from artists such as 50 Cent, Shania Twain, U2 and Luciano Pavarotti, would be controlled by a maverick who revolutionized the computer market and coined the mantra "rip, mix, burn," which many in the music business read as an invitation to electronic piracy. [LA Times Link]

Please excuse the mess in the KOS Photolog. I've been tweaking and adding features here and there as I find time and I intend to do a complete overhaul on that section someday soon so it doesn't look like ass.

I've been very, well, distracted, I guess you could say, for the past couple of weeks. In a good way. This weekend, starting Friday morning, I'm gonna try to Get Things Done around the house. I intend on installing an under-sink water filtration unit, maybe starting Phase 2 of the bathroom project, trying to fix the water softener, maybe taking the VW in to get new shocks, fixing a few things on the old scooter, cleaning some of the garage, and inspecting the roof and windows as I've got some pesky and pecker-y animals around. Oh, and there are leaves in the yard that need raking. But I'm reluctant to rake until I find out what sorts of little creatures are scurrying around under them in the dark of night. Kodama? Mice? Shrews? I can hear them and sense them if I sit outside and be real still, but I can't spot them, not even with my camcorder's night vision turned on.
Currently listening to: Pass It Around from the album "Spend The Night" by The Donnas

By his own blog! And his Encyclopedia Brown approach to sleuthing. This is one crazy messed up true story about a psycho girl and a blog boy. [via BoingBoing]

Yeee-ha! Huge awesome news. Apple today unveiled Final Cut Pro 4 and it is crammed (crammed, I say) with hundreds (literally) of new features and improvements. Zowie! FCP 4 now features the brilliant Soundtrack (automated audio scoring), LiveType (amazing animatable titles, objects and textures!), Compressor (-duty file compression), RT Extreme (way more RealTime effects and output), and CinemaTools is now built-in (formerly an additional $999). FCP 4 will be out in June and already I can barely wait. Argh.
Apple also announced DVD Studio Pro 2 (now half-price!), Shake 3 and Logic 6 and they all appear to be majorly kick-butt new versions.
Maybe you'd want to add a handy-dandy editing controller as well, like the Bella keyboard with jog/shuttle wheel or the ShuttleXpress.

As I was taking a shower this morning, I got to thinking (which I highly recommend (both showering and thinking)) and this little jewel of wisdom suddenly began to coalesce and finally popped into my head:

"It is not my afflictions but my passions which define me."

I guess I'm nervous about my impending doctor's visit.

Pretty nice website about Lomo cameras and photography. Turn on your sound so you can hear the commentary. [via 28mm.org]

omigosh! you might not believe this, it being april fools day and all, but i'm blogging this from meghan's sony clie via a compact flash wifi card she got! damn, this is so flippin' cool! now i've got techno lust for a similar setup of my own. but the teensy tiny microdot keyboard means you have to type with your thumbs and my wpm rate is seriously hampered. but it's mobile!! so so cool.

South African woman's photo gallery of self-portraits taken over a one year period. Reminds me of Natacha Merritt's stuff, but not as explicit. (Probably not work-safe viewing, kids).

I think of the spring petal woman in my bed
sun playing at her milky skin
arm, leg, feet, breast
light incubating languid visions of two
under me, heave, soar, moan out
our delicate sweet ache so lazy, frantic, raw
lie there, cool music whisper, dreaming of the moon

(assembled from stock magnetic poetry kit)

Soybo. Create web services from most any application. Really. Looks amazing.