WhatSize

what size

“WhatSize is a simple tool for OS X that allows the user to quickly measure the size in bytes of a given folder and all subfolders and files within it. You would be surprised at how many useless files might be laying around on your hard disks. The files and folders are automatically sorted by size, with the biggest sizes first.”

id-design, inc. | WhatSize

Plank in the Gazette

“Michael Moore pushes small firm into big leagues
Concordia graduate grateful; Filmmaker sticks with local Web creator Plank Multimedia after making it big

MIKE KING
The Gazette
Wednesday, May 18, 2005

Warren Wilansky started his business with one thing in mind – to work for himself, preferably in music production.

But four years after earning his BA in communication studies at Concordia University, Wilansky found himself starting up Plank Multimedia Inc. with a pair of partners in late 1998.

His fellow co-founders have since left, and 33-year-old Wilansky is now heading a growing Web site and digital creation company boasting such high-profile clients as award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore.”

“For a small company, we’ve pulled off getting some big customers,” Wilansky said from his downtown Ste. Catherine St. office this week.

He recalled visiting Moore’s Web site in February 2002 and not being very impressed.

“I sent him an e-mail about it and he called me that afternoon,” Wilansky said. “He wasn’t where he is now; it was a very low-key operation he had.”

It was before Moore won an Oscar in 2003 for Bowling for Columbine and a Palme d’or at Cannes last year for Fahrenheit 9/11.

Wilansky credits Moore for “sticking with us from that low ebb” before his international success and remaining a client.

Plank has also been good to Moore, taking his site from an average of 6 million hits a day in the beginning to 250 million on U.S. election day in November.

“Moore got us a lot of attention,” Wilansky noted.

Through distributors of Moore’s movies and books, Plank has been introduced to such clients as AOL Time-Warner (books division) and Lions Gate/Miramax.

Plank’s expertise in visual design, motion graphics and interactive content has served other customers, like MGM/United Artists, the CBC, National Film Board of Canada and Montreal’s Airborne Entertainment Inc.”

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/business/story.html?id=d5790c92-fb1c-41f7-9805-4248ea6e7354

Go Skateboarding Day 2005

GSD

Go Skateboarding Day is June 21st, 2005

“If skateboarders have their way, that will be the scene on the first day of summer—Go Skateboarding Day. It’s a day for skateboarders to skate above all else. It’s also an opportunity for those who’ve never been on a skateboard to grab a friend and join in.

The inaugural Go Skateboarding Day this past June caught on quicker than anyone imagined. Skateboarders held events throughout the Americas, Europe, Australia and Japan. Some of those events included backyard jams, skatepark sessions and impromptu street missions.”

http://www.skateboardiasc.org/goskateboarding/

The Pricing Wormhole

“Designers have a responsibility to show the value of good design, just as a car dealer sells the highlights of a new model automobile. Cite branding campaigns that were a success because of professional logo and identity design. Or a well-designed catalog that generates more sales than its shoddy brethren. Or a website redesign that holds customers longer through intelligent navigation and better usability in the shopping cart. Clients must understand the differences between a Lexus-class design and a used Saturn design, and how that value can affect their bottom line.” … [cont.]

graphicPUSH: The Pricing Wormhole (Articles and Tutorials)

Finder Slideshow

Slideshow Controls

A Small feature in 10.4 that’s been overlooked by most designers, is the Finder Slideshow.

  • Select any number of media file’s in the finder (i’m not sure exactly which supported, i assume it’s any type that Quicktime opens)
  • Right click to bring up the contextual menu and choose “Slideshow”
  • Once they’ve opened, you have the options to go Play/Pause/Fwd/Rev/Show expose type thumnails, Max/Min to screen size , etc.

Very useful when looking through a folder full of 50 photos’s.

Bell must be fuming ..

Last Thursday, the CRTC issued its decision about Voice Over Internet Protocol.

from my co-worker Allen…

“..basically the CRTC said that VOIP service should be subject to the same rules as traditional telephony, but only if offered by existing local telephone providers such as Bell Canada. If they are offered by someone else, e.g. a cable company, they will not be subject to the regulations. Some of those regulations notably include having to submit your phone rates to the CRTC for approval. The CRTC spins this as encouraging competition by not allowing the big telephone companies to low-ball price to stifle the upstarts. ”

I bet Bell Canada spent the weekend crying into it’s collective Blue Dry’s.

BOM’s

bom

My friend Jay get’s best blog in MTL .. amazing …. congrats man …. and another great freind get’s on the list too .. way to go V !!

http://www.montrealmirror.com/2005/051205/bom05_7.html

“Best Blog
1. J. Gallagher (jgallagher.blogspot.com)
2. Montreal City Weblog (w5.montreal.com/mtlweblog)
3. Zeke’s Gallery (zekesgallery.blogspot.com)
4. Blork Blog (blork.typepad.com)
5. Letters to Memphis (carnets.ixmedia.com/fred/archives/002015.html)
6. AD HOC (http://agencychick.typepad.com)
7. Isabel Brinck (isabelbrinck.blogspot.com)
8. Richard Martineau (voir.ca/martineau)
9. YULblog (yulblog.org)
10. ni.vu.ni.connu (martinepage.com/blog)

You picked J. Gallagher’s wry observational humour as No. 1 in our first year with a Best Blog category. The newsier Montreal City Weblog follows, with Best Gallery owner Zeke’s mostly art-media criticism and article word counts coming in third. Hey, reading’s good for you, but don’t forget to get outside and play too.”

Addition
OMG … seems we all missed this …. My girl made it to #8 in the Loudest Activist category !!!

WE Spring

WE Spring

“WE are proud to present the new spring collection (2nd delivery).
It is a ”not so limited” collection done in collaboration with with three international very well recognized designers.
The Japanese designer is Mr Kazuki, well known for his design of A Bathing Ape.
The german designer is Marok, editor of the legendary magazine “Lodown”.
Half German/Half Mexican designer is: Nathan Jobe, graphic designer at adidas original.

Go and check out the collection at your local Westore. ”

http://www.wemfg.com/wenews.cfm

Links for today

Need some new tunes ? More music logs than you can spit at ….
http://tofuhut.blogspot.com/2005/05/even-when-you-dont-find-music-here-you.html

US researchers have devised a simple robot that can make copies of itself from spare parts…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4538547.stm

Having app trouble ? Check Your Prefs in 10.4 …
http://www.tuaw.com/2005/05/12/terminal-tips-check-your-prefs/

Computer sits in an aquarium filled with oil — and still works…
http://www.oilcomputer.com/

Alinea’s 28 course meal

Alinea

“Upon getting to the restaurant, only an address mounted onto the exterior facade tells you where you are. There is no signage, except for the removable free-standing valet parking sign. No hours of operation, no deliveries at back, no we accept Visa/MasterCard. As you open the full height doors, you find yourself within the entry vestibule. At this point, there is no signs or anyone telling you what to do. You must move through the space until you get to the opposite side where a couple of solid opaque sliding doors (reminiscent of Star Trek) open as you trigger the motion sensor….”

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?s=8cf00bae8fd96d4fc4231d209f61734c&showtopic=66997&st=0

Typography and OS X 10.4

Typorgraphy

Seems the one area of my mac that i just can’t whip into shape, is how to deal with fonts. After having used Suitcase for the past couple years, i’m trying other options and will try and keep track of them here,

The most basic option availble is to use the OS and Font book to activate and deactivate your fonts,
http://www.apple.com/pro/training/fonts/index.html
http://images.apple.com/pro/pdf/L303878B_Font_TT_v4.pdf

Some more info and options to be investigated,
http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/15266.html

This piece of software might have some potential… FontAgent Pro 3.0 …
http://www.insidersoftware.com/FA_pro_osx.php
http://www.macworld.com/2005/04/reviews/fontmanagement/index.php

And … in searching for this … found a nice little primer from adobe,
http://www.adobe.com/education/pdf/type_primer.pdf

Links for today

For lovers of colors…
http://www.colourlovers.com/

“So what if I told you that while speeding down the road, trying to shave minutes off my best time from Orange County to Los Angeles I looked up from the dash gauges after hearing a peculiar noise to see a white BMW, fifteen yards in front of me, also traveling at 82 MPH but sideways, perfectly perpendicular to my own car…”
http://www.airbagindustries.com/archives/007426.php

If you have a digicam and want to shoot action… 14$ will get you a steadicam …
http://www-2.cs.cmu.edu/%7Ejohnny/steadycam/

Sweet clear ipod shuffle …
http://shufflehacks.blogspot.com/2005/05/hak-clear-ipod-shuffle-hack.html

Burn cd’s from Tiger Finder…
http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/cd_dvd_data_burn_tiger.html

A brief history of sampling..
http://jessekriss.com/projects/samplinghistory/

The ZEN of concentrating on what your doing…
http://www.studygs.net/concen.htm