Valhalla Island

Last week I upgraded my computer not just with more power or better features but from a notebook to a desktop. From the original Macbook to the latest 24″ iMac. It holds a 2.4ghz Core2Duo and is maxed out to 4GB of RAM, which should always be the first thing you do when it’s only $100. It also packs a ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics processor I don’t know how good that is but I do know it’s my first ever computer holding something resembling a graphics card. Continue reading →

…all I want to do is post to Twitter about how frustrating it is that Twitter is down.

Graphics tablets have always been the quintessential graphic designers tool. Like Apple computers once were, they used to be out of reach for me financially. Now Wacom, the tablet maker, have released the Bamboo, an entry level tablet short on many advanced features but also short on price. I first saw it on Next Byte’s store shelves, after quickly checking reviews at Amazon and a few other places, all positive, I bought it right there. Continue reading →

It’s not often I see just released movies but in the past couple of days I’ve seen Juno and Cloverfield. The new cinema they’ve built just 10 minutes away is only $5 for students, which is the price movies should be. Here’s a couple of short reviews of those movies. I warn you, there are spoilers, read on at your own risk. Continue reading →

This “Visual Enforcement Kit” from the Design Police has been widely linked across the websites I follow because it’s just so funny, right? For me it’s symbolising everything I hate about the culture of graphic design. I’ve always found it difficult to articulate what I don’t like the snooty, high and mightiness surrounding good design but here it is. Continue reading →

Think about this. Tomorrow a thousand aliens show up in whatever kind of space craft. They’re friendly, they’ve learnt our method of communication and they say hi. They’re way ahead of us in technology, they can teleport and travel vast distances quickly. They’ve been to the edge of the universe and they tell us it’s infinite but repeats itself, that is, if travel for a long time in the same direction you’ll eventually get back to where you are. You have to go a long way though. Continue reading →

My original Macbook Air reactions were made about 10 minutes after I’d first heard about it. The buzz around the internet is telling me to look deeper, so, here we go. Continue reading →

Yesterday my family picked up two new computers — an iMac desktop and a Toshiba notebook. I wasn’t going to go into why we didn’t also get a Mac laptop but I think it’s important to the story. Continue reading →

In a place where the top selling magazines are Woman’s Day and Cosmopolitan, Monocle felt like it was made for me. Thick, durable, using beautiful page stock, typography, huge and many photographs, whitespace, long articles deeply discussing the best of economies, ideas, systems, products and living with a truly global perspective. It was perfect — Just look at that logo, just look at any issue’s cover. Continue reading →

For the last couple of months I’ve had a lot of fun working on a great project called Readeez. They’re short videos for kids with things like music, rhymes, education, stories, language, maths and lots of other topics. Readeez are similar to Pixar movies and Sponge Bob Square Pants as they’re are made for children but are still enjoyable for adults. My favourite by far is Indescribable, an original song with a killer solo at the end. Continue reading →

Just finished watching the 2008 Macworld Keynote and I’m disappointed. I’m soooo sick of hearing about the iTunes music store and the iPod touch. I could not care less about iTunes movie rentals and to justify an Apple TV I’d have to increase my TV watching time 100 fold which isn’t something I want to do. Continue reading →

The software, not stuff. I started using Things around a month ago when soon after signing up for a preview I got an email to say it was ready. This was the beginning of a good relationship, other software I’ve signed up to see a preview have taken over six months with still no application in hand. If you don’t want to read a long review — in short I enjoy using Things and it genuinely helps me get things done.

Here’s a list of a few things I see every day at school. There seems to be this huge culture of fake studying — doing things that on the outside may seem like they’re productive and habits of a motivated student but really, it’s useless time wasting. I’m not sure whether the students are aware they’re doing this, it’s just to keep up appearances or whether they actually think it’s working. Either way, these are the students that “study” non-stop and still get ordinary marks. Continue reading →

It’s never been too hard for me to get out of bed in the morning. I rarely hit the snooze button and within a couple of minutes I’m up and about. This isn’t always the case, if it’s the end of the week and there’s no food left, it’s not so easy. A huge array of delicious breakfast foods is what does it. Continue reading →

I’m home! I’ve been blogging while away so I won’t bore you with a detailed recount but I thought it’d be interesting to compile a list of trip statistics.

I… Continue reading →

It’s January again, time for my feed reader to fill with Macworld predictions. It’s something I usually like to participate in, though I don’t think I’ve once checked back to test my accuracy. I don’t follow rumor sites or sites like Tech Crunch that normally report on Apple leaks, my predictions are based on what’s been released or updated, what hasn’t and my gut feeling. Continue reading →