The following list is of the cities in which I've spent one or more nights in each place. Cities marked with an asterisk were visited multiple times or on non-consecutive days. I've also ordered the non-asterisked cities in order of visitation.
Alexandria, VA*
Wirtz, VA*
Lafayette, IN*
Dulles, VA
Austin, TX
Emerald Isle, NC
San Francisco, CA
Las Vegas, NV
Chicago, IL
I increased my city count from 5 to 9 this past year.
Okay, done now? Good. I was intrigued. Over the past four years I had begun appreciating quality technology hardware. I was beyond the phase in my life of wanting to tinker with hardware and experiment. I was tired of hardware failing on me, being unreliable and having to maintain it. I switched to Apple and have loved their products since fall '06. Their peripherals were another story
I despise Apple Mice and can barely tolerate their keyboards. I've used Logitech Mice for well on 8 years or so and feel they make the best mice in the world. My current favorite is my G500. Their keyboards, however, I feel are not of the same quality. Up until a few days ago I was using a Microsoft Natural ergonomic keyboard. I'd been using this for years. It was just 'okay'. Nothing spectacular but I couldn't really find an alternative that I felt was far superior.
This has been nagging me ever since I listened to that episode of the old Talk Show from April 2008. For Christmas this year I asked my lovely wife to get me a Matias Tactile Pro 3 Keyboard because it was supposed to be a modern version of the famous Apple IIe keyboard that Gruber spoke of from that podcast episode. And boy, let me tell you...
This thing is amazing. Please see my Twitter timeline from yesterday evening:
This keyboard feels nice to type on. Each key press gives this very satisfyingly resonating click that your fingers get used to. It is substantial. I'm back at work in my office this morning typing on an old keyboard (Apple style circa 2005) and this thing feels like a toy compared to The Beast I have at home on my desk.
Would it be too over the top to carry my own keyboard into work each day in my messenger bag? That's not weird, right? Right guys? Anyone?
So many of my readers, family, and friends come to me around the holidays, and throughout the year, asking for tech gift buying advice. Starting in 2009 I simply compiled a list of various tech gadgets that I could think might be interesting to people and wrote a paragraph or two about each of them.
I've now completed my 2010 Holiday Tech Gift Recommendation List and linked to it in the top navigation above. As stated on the page, I've owned or currently own all of these items with a few exceptions. In the case of the exceptions, they are items that I've used before extensively or want for myself. You can't go wrong by buying any of these items for yourself or a friend/loved one.
Jeffrey Zeldman would like to remind everyone that tomorrow is Blue Beanie Day:
The Fourth Annual International Blue Beanie Day in support of web standards will be celebrated this Tuesday, November 30. That gives you just over 24 hours to …
Take a self-portrait wearing a blue beanie (toque, tuque, cap) and upload it to the Blue Beanie Day 2010 pool on Flickr.
Add a blue beanie to your social network avatar on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, etc.
Write a web standards haiku and post it on Twitter with the hashtag #bbd4 for your chance to win web design books from Peachpit and A Book Apart in the Blue Beanie Day Haiku Contest.
Below are a bunch of selected photos that I took today during The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear which took place on the National Mall from 12:00 - 3:00. At the bottom is a slideshow of all the images I took.
Before I get to the photos though, here are two short videos I shot during the event:
During the pre-show portion of The Rally For Sanity and/or Fear on the National Mall in Washington DC on October 30, 2010. The Mythbusters appeared on stage and conducted several experiments using the crowd to help. I recorded the first and third experiment, The Wave and The Jump.
Update: Comedy Central now has the entire video of the Mythbusters posted if you care to see it from the vantage point of the stage:
This movie is comprised of three short clips. The first is a 360 degree pan of the crowd before the rally got started, just to show the size of the crowd. The second is a bit of Jon Stewart at the beginning of the show (didn't think to start filming until after he came out - sorry about that) and the 3rd clip is just after Stephen Colbert started coming out of the stage in his faux Chilean miner rescue capsule.
Update: Comedy Central now has video posted of the hilarious duet Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert sang, entitled "I'm More American Than You":
And finally, Jon Stewarts moving speach at the end of the rally:
Using the wonderful words of acclaimed writer, actor and allround know it all (I mean that in the best of ways) Stephen Fry I have created this kinetic typography animation. If you like what you hear you can download the rest of the audio file from Mr. Fry's website. stephenfry.com and then go to the audio and video section at the top of the page and look for the file entitled language. You can also find the file on iTunes by searching the name 'Stephen Fry's Podgrams'.
I loved this particular essay on language and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to make my first kinetic typography. I hope you like it and even if you dont I would like to heard what you think in the comments section. Also I know that at points the audio does not match the text so you do not have to write that. It is because I copied the transcript off of Stephen's website and it was not 100% exactly what he said and i did not notice until I was well underway. However these cases are few and far between.
Just incase you were wondering the programs I used to make this were all by adobe. Mostly after effects but also flash and illustrator. Flash for the changing background colour transitions and illustrator for putting the words in to the shape of 'language' before loading it into after effects to animate.
My wife, Steffanie, and I lucked out and got tickets to today's (Tuesday) taping of The Daily Show here in Washington DC. We saw them when they were first posted online, back in August, and managed to reserve 2 of them.
Fast forward to today, we both took the afternoon off work and ventured to the Sydney Harmon Theatre in Chinatown. We were some of the first people to arrive, securing a spot 5th in line around 1:30 pm. We proceeded to wait until about 3:45 before they let us in the building but they held us in the lobby until 5:10 due to the fact that we overheard that rehearsal was still going on. Asaf Manvi, John Oliver and Olivia Munn passed by us up the stairs as we were waiting and I managed to get pictures of Oliver and Munn.
By 5:00 we were in our seats (first row, just right of the middle if you're facing the audience!) but had to wait a further hour, until about 6:00 before the warm-up comedian came out to talk to the audience. At around 6:15 Jon Stewart came out and spoke to the audience for a short bit, taking a few questions. From my seat, I had a spectacular view and was only about 10 feet from where he stood while taking questions.
Shortly thereafter the show began. Their first segment started off with a continuing bit about the various correspondents getting around in DC. One particular segment had one of the correspondents ending up on K Street, although in SE instead of NW (he was looking for the lobbyists) which drew the biggest laughs from the crowd.
Another VERY funny clip from the first segment features lots of video from Republican candidates + John McCain saying how they wanted to change Washington. Jon then showed clips from John McCain for each year going back to 1984 saying the exact same thing over and over again. My second favorite bit from the show, I think.
The middle segment was a continuation of some Daily Show viewers who were on a 'bus trip' to DC for the rally on Saturday featuring Jason Jones and John Oliver. Again, this clip was very funny but was "to be continued" until tomorrow night.
The guest interview was with Delaware Senator Ted Kaufman who discussed how well the Senate has gotten legislation passed since Obama has taken office and what some problems are with Washington and money.
As we were standing to leave, some of the crew walked down the first row handing some of us pieces of John's blue papers. We managed to get all of the interview questions he had for the Senator as well as the cue card words from the "Global" introduction they taped after the show for the international viewers
Below is a slide show of all the pics I snapped on my iPhone 4. I had very limited access once inside the theatre as they were strict about mobile phone use. I managed to snap 1 pic and a 2 second video of the set as I was leaving.
Updated: The episode of The Daily Show that we saw live is now up on The Daily Show website.
Out this month, the slick coffee-table tome The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back chronicles the complete tale—from pre-release to blockbuster success—of what’s become the fan favorite of the Star Wars series. Released in 1980, George Lucas’s Episode V pushed the boundaries of special effects and left audiences with one of cinema’s most epic cliffhangers.
