Daring FireballMac and web curmudgeonry/nerdery. By John Gruber.How Pixar Created the Wall-E Visual Style- July 3, 2008 Fascinating Animation World Magazine story on the steps Pixar took to make Wall-E look and feel like a traditional film by mimicking the limitations and optics of real-world cameras. Director of photography Jeremy Lasky: We used a spherical lens as a kind of control to look at depth of field and barrel distortion and the optical breathing you get when you rack from things really close to really far away. It gave us a chance to have something tangible. We used an Arriflex camera with...http://mag.awn.com/?ltype=pageone&article_no=3682 Gus Mueller on Adobe Reader 9- July 3, 2008 Craptacular.http://gusmueller.com/blog/archives/2008/07/adobe_reader_9_is_out!.html Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner- July 3, 2008 I don&8217;t see how this will ever catch on with kids &8212; there&8217;s no dialogue.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wile_E._Coyote_and_Road_Runner Judge Orders Google to Turn Over YouTube Records- July 3, 2008 Miguel Helft, reporting for the Times: A federal judge in New York has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom a database linking users of YouTube, the Webs largest video site by far, with every clip they have watched there. The order raised concerns among users and privacy advocates that the online video viewing habits of hundreds of millions of people could be exposed.http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/04/technology/04youtube.html?ex=1372824000&en=2b6bf8ca7... Regarding Wall-E and Kids- July 3, 2008 Tyler Cowen (via Kottke) on Wall-E: Better than better than good. It is, however, not recommended for children. I have no idea why not. My four-and-a-half year-old son loved it. Rapt attention the entire time. That large stretches of the film have no dialog whatsoever does not make it difficult for children to follow. If anything, I&8217;ve found that Jonas is much better at following stories which are told cinematically than those which are told verbally. I&8217;d go so far as to say...http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2008/06/wall-e.html Walkman Phone Nails Form, Fails Function- July 3, 2008 Danny Dumas reviews the Sony Ericsson W350.http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/06/review-walkman.html Microsoft Equipt- July 2, 2008 Ina Fried, reporting for CNet on Microsoft Equipt, a new $69 annual subscription software package from Microsoft for Windows users: The idea behind the subscription service is to convert more new PC buyers into Office buyers. It plays on the fact that although most people don&8217;t buy Office at the same time as a computer, many do purchase a security software subscription. Microsoft is trying to tap into the fact that while many people would rather find a copy of Office that they...http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-9982212-56.html Current iPhones Keep Cheaper Plan on Reactivation- July 2, 2008 Glenn Fleishman: You won&8217;t pay a 3G rate for a 2G iPhone with a new service plan, AT&T confirmed for me today. This should be good news to anyone looking to either sell their so-called 2G iPhone when they upgrade to an iPhone 3G, or for those looking to buy (or beg) the older iPhone model without paying a fee for bandwidth they can&8217;t use.http://db.tidbits.com/article/9680 Buy n Large to Brand Direction North- July 2, 2008 What&8217;s next, the Year of the Depends Adult Undergarment Jiminy. (Via the BnL home page.)http://buynlarge.com/NewsCenter.html?storyId=34 Tooltips for Disabled Menu Items- July 2, 2008 Lukas Mathis suggests that Mac OS X apps should provide tooltips to explain why menu items are disabled.http://ignorethecode.net/blog/2008/07/01/disabling-inactive-menu-items/ |