bitdepth

Last week I got the new car. As expected, it’s a Toyota Yaris hatchback (which is called a 5-door). It’s a bit shorter than the Echo was, but inside it feels like there is more space. In the back (in the hatch part) there is less storage space than the trunk of the old car, but I think that it will be ok, since there is a bit of hidden space under the doors covering the spare tire. I’ve read through the manual and have taken the car on a few trips, so it’s quickly become familiar to me and I really, really like it.
Toyota has the design thing down cold and it’s a beautiful and functional design. One of the things that I’ve noticed is that Toyota often is ahead of the other carmakers in terms of design. With the Echo 8 years ago, many people commented on the way the car looked as it was taller and angled differently than most of the other cars around. Now it fits right in and most other sedans have a similar look. The Yaris is wider and shorter in the front. It’s great since when you’re driving you don’t see the hood, but the road in front of you. The instrument panel (like the Echo) is not in front of the steering wheel, but in the centre of the dashboard, which I really like, since you don’t have to look through the steering wheel to see the information.
The fuel economy is fantastic and I’ve only filled it up a couple of times, but it looks as though I’ll be able to go about 700 kms on a 42 litre tank of gas. That means I’ll probably save about $100 - $150 a month during the school year when I’m commuting in to the city every day. Even though the federal government has decided not to continue the program, the 2008 fuel-efficient cars are still eligible for the $1000 ecoAUTO rebate, which helps a lot.
One option that I’m excited about, but it isn’t installed yet, is the iPod connection, which will let me control my iPod from the steering wheel. So it’s not completely set up yet, but I’m very happy to have the Yaris and it’s going to be a great car that I think will probably take me another 400,000 kms or so.

My web browser of choice has been Firefox for a few years now. I love how it works and it just keeps getting better and better. I’ve been using the betas of version 3 of Firefox without many problems at all for a few months now, and happily the official release is happening next week. This time it’s different and the Firefox team has set an ambitious goal of setting a Guinness world record by having the most software downloads in one day. The launch date is June 17, 2008, and I would encourage everyone to download Firefox 3 next Tuesday. I’m going to be downloading it and celebrating (probably with some Guinness).
It’s been a remarkable journey for the web browser from the early days when the code was released by Netscape (as documented in the film Code Rush) to the revitalized and dynamic progress that Firefox has made. It’s changed the online world and made the web a much more exciting place.

It’s funny how things all seem to happen with impeccable timing. Yesterday while driving home a deer ran across the highway in front of me and I slammed on the brakes to slow down and the deer just made it across. But when I started accelerating the car felt sluggish and then the “check engine” light came on as well as the overheating warning. Luckily I was close to a gas station, so I pulled over, checked the oil on the coolant, and then went home. The car was still sluggish and I had a regular checkup and motor vehicle inspection scheduled for this morning, so I knew that someone would be looking at the car this morning.
The car is a 2001 Toyota Echo, which we started leasing 8 years ago (I thought it was less than that, but the model years don’t always reflect the calendar years), and now it has over 400,000 kms on it, so it’s both the years and the miles. There is a REJECTED sticker on the car as it needs some repairs to the exhaust system and one of the cylinders is misfiring (so it’s a bit louder and feels like it’s going to stall when the car is idling). Luckily there are some more temporary repairs that can be done to get the car through a few more months, but it’s probably the last bit of money that I’ll put into the Echo.
A lot has changed over the past few years, and the most remarkable thing is how many things that I was able to quickly figure out today without going into a dealership. With anything that I get, from a camera, to a phone, software, gadgets, food or even a car, I usually will research it. Eight years ago in researching the Echo and then test-driving it, I knew that I loved the design which was built from the inside out. It’s been a reliable car, so I’m going to stick with Toyota.
What I’ll probably end up with is a Yaris Hatchback, which has a similar design as the Echo, and great fuel economy. I’d love to get a hybrid, but the cost difference isn’t worth it. If I lived in a more progressive province I could get a $5000 tax credit for buying a hybrid, but I should be able to get a $1000 federal incentive for buying a more fuel-efficient vehicle. The great thing about the car manufacturer web sites now is that it’s quite easy to see the options, configure vehicles and check the pricing. You can find out what people think of their cars and be very prepared before you even walk in. I was hoping to get through the summer since I have less than two weeks before my summer vacation starts, but now it looks as though a new car is in the immediate future.

At this point in my life I’ve seen most of Jean-Luc Godard’s films and there is something to love in just about all of them, but I didn’t think that I’d be surprised yet again, but I was by Pierrot le fou. It takes the energy and joy of his “A bout de souffle” and adds brilliant, beautiful colour as well as a bigger budget and a more sophisticated array of equipment. The problem with Godard and a film like Pierrot le fou is that it makes it all look so casual, but with Godard directing and Raoul Coutard shooting, it’s a series of virtuoso shots that constantly seem to gleefully shout “watch this!” Released in France in 1965 it lovingly alludes to all of Godard’s earlier films and combines his sense of humour with his politics and love of cinema together in an almost perfect balance.
Continue reading “Pierrot le Fou” →

While OS X and most Apple stuff is well-designed and simple, there has always been a bit of room between the smooth lines for utilities and software that make it just a bit better. Fascinating little economies and ecosystems spring up around things like the iPod or Dashboard or the iPhone and the indie Mac developers are there making their stuff and being part of the community. It really hit home with me as I listened to the first Core Intuition podcast with Daniel Jalkut and Manton Reece.
I found out about podcast through Daniel’s Red Sweater Blog, which I found out about because I use (and bought) MarsEdit (which I’m writing these very words with). My using MarsEdit for writing blog posts came about because it was originally developed by Brent Simmons, who also writes NetNewsWire, but Red Sweater took it over. It was originally included with NNW and then became separate and I bought both because they’re useful and I like supporting the little guys in the same way that I like supporting indie bands.
In the Core Intuition podcast it is just two indie Mac software developers talking about developing software and the world that they live and work within. Not overly geeky (a bit geeky, I guess) or technical, but very real and human, which I like. (Cyborgs generally aren’t interesting in a podcast.) So much of the software and films and music that we use now is made by large groups of people with massive amounts of money, and I realized how the Long Tail really applies to the small Mac developer who isn’t developing things for the biggest market. For me it’s the same as buying food and produce at the farmers market as you’re a lot more connected with what you’re getting. It’s about the people and the connections.
Manton’s shareware product is Wii Transfer, which I’d thought of trying out (it lets you listen to music, view photos and move video to your Wii), and now I took the plunge and bought it before I tried it. Luckily I like it and I’ve no regrets. While I don’t think that the intention behind the podcast is to drive a massive amount of sales, it does show how having a voice and a presence can have indirect benefits. It’s nice to be connected a bit more to the people who make things that I use and I think that it’s great both ways as you’ll make better stuff if you know your customers by name.
Even though they’re both relatively far away geographically, it feels like I’m buying locally as they’re members of my community in terms of software and what they do. That’s why I also love being able to buy from indie developers and keep their virtual factories running.

I like it when things are organized and I’m not ashamed to admit that I alphabetize my nearly 300 DVDs on their shelves to make it easier to find. But how is it possible to keep track of all of those shiny discs that magically let me watch great films whenever I want?
A few months ago I started using Delicious Library, which is an almost magical way to keep track of about anything that you have that has a UPC code on it. I’ve used databases to organize my collections before (and even used index cards many years ago to keep track of my books), but this is different in that it’s a lot faster and more flexible. The brilliant and easy thing about Delicious Library is in using the built-in iSight camera of my MacBook Pro to scan the barcode on DVDs. It looks them up in Amazon (the Canadian store for me, but it also uses the American, UK, French, German, or Japanese stores) and adds all of the information to the database and presents your collection neatly arranged on shelves.
If you have an iPod you can sync your collection to it as a set of notes that has all of the relevant information, so you can always look something up when you are away from your computer. If you want to share your library you can also publish it online as a web page or just export it to a folder. But it gets even more sophisticated and useful in how you can keep track of who in your address book you are lending DVDs to. It even will give you a reminder after a couple of weeks and when you search for that particular DVD it won’t show up in your library (because someone else has it) but will still be visible as being translucent.
I love having everything organized and I’ll be organizing my books and videogames using it as well. It’s an example of great software that is well-designed with enough complexity to get the job done, but not so much as to make it difficult to use. To lend a DVD to someone, you just drag the DVD onto their name (but you still have to physically give them the DVD as it doesn’t move the actual case). Delicious Library is something that I’ve been waiting for and I’m very glad that it exists.