Behind the (Quick) Times

November 29, 2004 by Steven Garrity

The free version of Apple’s QuickTime Player software has, as far as I can remember, always presented a window when started up asking if you’d like to buy the full QuickTime Pro software. Putting aside, for now, the worth of this window, I have always been bothered by the implementation of this window.

Rather than using actual Mac OS X buttons, the buttons are faked bitmap images of buttons. As a result, when the underlying operating system changes the visual style of the buttons, which it has twice since the original Mac OS X release, the buttons to not reflect the change.

View full size screenshot

So, here in OS X version 10.3 (with 10.4 soon on the horizon), this old QuickTime window still has buttons that look like OS X 10.0.

For shame.

November 28, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Don’t get off the grid, be the grid

November 26, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Very cool video of interaction between live-action video and computer-generated snow

November 26, 2004 by Steven Garrity

I stumbled across an old cover design for the local student newspaper I did in 2001

Lazy Journalism on Buy Nothing Day

November 26, 2004 by Steven Garrity

When “news” becomes a product delivered on a regular schedule, press releases and made-for-news events must become pretty attractive to journalists.

Today, most major American news websites are running something along the lines of “Lots of People Go Shopping” as their leading story.

Screenshots from MSNBC.com and CNN.com on November 26, 2004
CNN screenshot #1	CNN screenshot #2	MSNBC screenshot

The CNN front-page story blurb reads:

Early bargain hunters packed stores across the nation this morning, but industry watchers say it remains to be seen if the buying momentum will hold going into the weekend. The day after Thanksgiving is one of the most important shopping days for U.S. retailers.

Is this news? Who decides to run a story like this? I understand that holiday shopping is a powerful economic driver in the U.S., but this is so hollow a “story” it feels like a vacation for journalists.

Note, as always, the “More News” stories on right side of the CNN.com screenshot are so absurd as to be hilarious. All of this on Buy Nothing Day.

Garment Interlocking Standards

November 24, 2004 by Steven Garrity

I wrote last year about a simple marvel of real-world standards when a paint-roller handle broke and we were able to screw in a broom handle into the same socket (fantastic!).

I was amused and amazed at lunch the other day by my colleague Peter Rukavina with another simple display of standards. He was layered up in two coats. The first coat (green) was purchased at the REI corporate store in Denver, CO in April of 2004. It was assembled in Mexico of US material. The second coat (grey) is a Ralph Lauren Chaps-brand coat purchased at the Eatons store in Toronto in 2000. It was made in China.

Both coats sport the ubiquitous YKK zipper brand and as Peter demonstrated with flair, despite their distinct origins, the coats can zip together because they share a common zipper type/size.

Also dining with us during this marvel of overcoat synergy, Dan James informed us that sleeping bags can be easily zipped together. This seems like the thing of nightmares for the parents of teenagers on co-ed camping trips.

November 23, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Is it just me, or was the San Francisco Airport transit system designed by the Star Trek set designer?

November 22, 2004 by Steven Garrity

Photos from my recent trip to San Francisco including some photos from a 49ers game

November 22, 2004 by Steven Garrity

The next version Mac OS X (10.4) will have Jabber support in iChat

New Sounds for Gaim, thanks to Brad Sucks

November 20, 2004 by Steven Garrity

When looking for help in creating an improved set of sounds for the open-source instant messaging application, Gaim, I turned to a virtual rock star. The ironically named Brad Sucks was a great help and came back with a great set of sounds.

Here, for contrast, are the previous set of Gaim sounds (still included in current releases of Gaim) and the BradSucks-engineered new set (to be included in the upcoming 2.0 release of Gaim).

Gaim Instant Messenger sounds: Before and After (all files in WAV format)
Gaim 1.x	Gaim 2.x (by BradSucks)
Message Sent	Message Sent
Message Received	Message Received
Arrive/Online	Arrive/Online
Leave/Offline	Leave/Offline
Alert	Alert

Thanks Brad! Ok, what’s next…