Ξ March 30th, 2007 | → 0 Comments | ∇ News |
Finally a word from John Gruber and I congratulate him on his honesty. I have been waiting for 12 months for my T-Shirt to be delivered.
Order your T-Shirt now
There are dozens of pending shipments for shirts ordered during the last few months, and, at the moment, I have an embarrassingly large queue of support email regarding delayed and lost orders. All pending shipments (and re-shipments for lost packages) will ship before new orders begin shipping in mid-April. Most pending orders will ship from my existing stock of shirts.
Expect this site to be relatively quiet for the next day or two as I work through these piles. My thanks to everyone for their support of Daring Fireball, and for the patience of those of you who’ve had to wait far longer than is reasonable for your shirts to arrive.
I see Merlin got his though.
If you are not sure what that all means then you are possibly not alone.
Virb is the site having just come out of beta that looks to be the new social network site of the age. It is well built and beautiful to look at, unlike MySpace which is as ugly as hell. 
This is an example of their advanced image optimisation at work, they do a great job at creating thumbnails and medium sized images from your originals.
This is a page I have been working on.
Virb also allows you to upload video, audio, iTunes® playlists, etc. You can even create and write your own blog. It looks to be everything you need in one place. I don’t think it will be long before someone offers a few Billion dollars for this site.
Gretag Macbeth have been leaders in the field of monitor calibrators for some time, so it was interesting to see their latest affordable calibration tool in action.
The Gretag Macbeth huey is an entry level device for those who need to be color accurate for photography, video, web design or graphic design. At $240 it is a fantastic investment even if you only have one screen. Some industry experts say your screen can vary over time and needs calibrating every month at least.
I have to say on both the 23 inch Apple LCD and the 17 inch iMac screen the change was immense. I will be monitoring results as prints go to the Epson for accuracy and artwork that goes to press. At least for now the various screens in the office now look identical, something that is essential in a collaborative environment. Drop into the office with your laptop or Mac to have it calibrated, we will demo the unit for free as we are sure you will want to purchase one if you need color accuracy. Prices for more expensive models are also available.
From the Getag Macbeth site.
There’s a reason your blues aren’t always true. Same goes for your reds, greens and every color in-between. What you’re seeing onscreen isn’t necessarily accurate - it all depends on your monitor. huey is an entry level, easy-to-use monitor color correction tool that automatically adjusts the color of your monitor so what you’re seeing is true. huey can even make further adjustments to your monitor to compensate for changes in room lighting. Everything becomes more accurate and predictable: digital photos just as you remember the scene, game graphics that give you the intense edge you’re after, movies with brilliant life-like color and a Web-browsing experience that delivers colors that you can trust.
Ideal for digital photo enthusiasts, freelance designers, gamers and serious Web shoppers, huey is easy to use on any CRT, LCD and laptop monitor for the best possible color.
UPDATE:
In testing the accuracy I ran through the process of preparing a Canon 5D RAW camera file for print on the Epson 4800 Pro. First it was opened in “Aperture” on the iMac edited for color and density, then exported to my Mac as 16 bit per channel TIFF. When edited in Photoshop it was printed selecting the supplied output profile for the ink/paper combination used, allowing Photoshop to color manage output.
I have to say that this represents the closest I have been to monitor accurate color in a print. Now that I know how close it can be I will have more faith in the screen representation prior to print.
There has been a bit of a buzz going on in the past few days about Migila having lost the Elgato EyeTV software license. It seems something is up as bloggers speculate that Apple may be acquiring Miglia to add hardware that records Free to Air, Cable, and Satellite TV.
I am not too sure that this is the case but it is interesting to read the Miglia website…
Explore a world of creation, imagination and enjoyment by allowing TVMax+ to become your very own TV and Video hub teaming up with Apple TV and your iPod. (Talking about their new software) TVMax+ will provide the content for your Apple TV, that can be wirelessly streamed from your Mac.
Looks to me like the hold up with the release of the AppleTV could have more to do with Miglia or Elgato for that matter and that mysterious USB port on the AppleTV. This having been explained as a service and diagnostics port after questions were asked of Apple.
This device by Miglia is the current form of analogue tuner for partnership with the MacMini. Not much of a future there but this device (the same shape as AppleTV) and multiple Digital HD tuners would be the form that seems logical. Make HD TV broadcasts available to Apple TV through iTunes®. Get all the software to work as one and the digital living room is complete. Apple has 110 million iTunes users and it is the defacto standard Media Centre. The problem has been a simple method of HD TV integration with iTunes, rather than the integration of iTunes with current Windows Media Centre systems. This approach would clear the one big advantage Microsoft has in the digital living room.
I went on a little river cruise down the Maribyrnong last night. Thanks to the guys at Maribyrnong River Cruises who looked after the navigation through the Port of Melbourne. Tough job holding still at 30th sec in the dark but the Canon 5D is a dream to shoot with.
Next time we may try going nearer to the docks, a special permit is required apparently.
Above is Webb dock.
Newport power station.
Bolte Bridge.
I love this article The Fake Steve has done about the Open Source quest to be rid of DRM on their iPods.
It seems there are those that wish to make their iPods not synch with iTunes or play DRM encoded music. The idea that music downloads should not be encumbered with digital rights management is a reasonable request, but to make the iPod unable to play DRM encoded music is a little odd.
If you have purchased DRM music, Rockbox will make it unplayable….very useful.
This is an encouragement to rip CD’s so that they are unencumbered.
What is the big deal? You can do that with iTunes. I think the article refers to an MIT concept of acceptable copyright law.
I can’t see how Rockbox changes anything, short of get The Fake Steve all fired up.
Well it seems that the times are a changin’…again.
Elgato, having released the superb DTT USB stick for Digital HD TV on the Mac, now intend to have the export files compatable with Apple TV 720p streaming capability.
I have been testing the Elgato on a 17 inch iMac Core 2 Duo and despite it’s small size it is amazing. It pulls 1080i digital signal straight through with the original compression as MPEG2 from “Free to air TV” providers. It also handles DIG radio amongst others. It can record this file for later viewing or export as some other Quicktime format for playback on DVD, iPod or even HD BlueRay DVD and burn disks using Toast. This system comes with a fairly optimistic antenna but works best when a roof mounted TV arial coax is connected.
You can subscribe for 12 months to Ice TV so that Eye TV software included with the Elgato DTT can make a scheduled recording of any show. Elgato are working with Apple to formulate the exact nature of the 720p spec that is best suited to AppleTV’s stream. When recorded it is likely that the file will be re-encoded for that specific format and then passed on to iTunes for later retrieval using the Apple TV device that is connected to your Plasma or LCD TV.
For a system that was built initially as a way to watch TV on your Mac, the Elgato may become your best way you record live TV. No more tapes, DVR’s, DVD recorders, just a stream from your Mac that has been recorded to the hard drive, firewire drive or indeed network drive.
All this for a fraction of the set up cost and complexity of traditional Digital TV home theater system. You don’t need a set top box, DVR, VHS tape recorder, tuner, or DVD player for that matter.
The biggest advantage I see to using the AppleTV is the ability to view all video on one device, DVD, BlueRay, Free to Air Digital, and most importantly the small but emerging video podcast content. Some shows are now up to 1080p HD and are available as a free subscription via iTunes. I suspect that the upper standard for this downloaded content will be 720p to match ApplTV. Check out MacBreak in HD to see what I mean.
Call us if you are interested to try the system.
Eye TV and Elgato DTT sells for $175
Apple TV around $449
12 Month subscription to IceTV $99.
Depending on Network, either Gigabit Ethernet or Airport Extreme (80211n) $259, will be required.
UPDATE: Elgato also make a EyeTV Diversity which is a similar device with two tuners. One of the difficulties faced when using the Mac to record is that TV shows often overlap and having two tuners means you can watch one channel and record another or indeed record two shows at once. It is also sort of possible to add another Stick or Diversity and have more than two tuners.
Early start to the day thanks to Tree Logic who needed a shot for their latest newsletter. I was surprised at the amount of activity down by the river this morning. The “carnies” were setting up the Moomba stuff and the Melbourne council workers had the brooms out sweeping the gravel. Very pleasant start to the day if I had had time to get a coffee and doughnut.
These pics were part of a feature story on drought affected Elm trees in Melbourne city and the measures they have employed to keep them going.
In order to better deliver downloadable content, TreeLogic has implimented a CMS and RSS feed for printable pdf’s of tree species and arboricultural management facts. This information is of interest to local arborists and also to homeowners looking for a few tips.
As most of the information is seasonal such as what tree would look good in Summer, what to do when your Oak is suffereing the effects of drought, etc the subscribable feed is a perfect vehicle. Users can see at a glance using feed complient browsers or aggregaters if a new article has been submitted.
Check out the latest news on trees at treelogic.com.au
They say never work with animals or children, but Dellwyn Apted has broken that rule.
Her new business involves taking children on a journey into the design of a masterpiece. Dellwyn spends an afternoon one on one with the children where she goes through the process of concept, design and execution of a large painting on canvas. The process is guided by Delwyn so that the finished piece will work in a color sense in the household and also represent the artistic ability of the child or group.
At the end of the process when the piece is hung most are delighted with the results and the children have a painting that will remain on display for some time.
Have a look at her new website designed by Big Trousers
