IT notes

Monday, May 31, 2010

Font Management in OS X, 10.4-10.6

Fonts in OS X seems to change in every version. They’re a mystery, wrapped in a puzzle, often dotted with a umlaut and an accent-grave. Whether you’re a a Flash developer wondering why your final Helvetica looks larger than it should be, or a print designer who’s output looks strangely un-kerned, this link is for you…

I know nothing about JKL Studios other than they’ve got the most detailed and easy-to-understand overview I’ve seen about Mac font management.

Read it.
Learn it.
Live it.

And download the PDF for when you stupidly remove the LucidaGrande.dfont from your /System/Library/Fonts/ directory.

No…I admit to nothing.

Posted by Admin on 05/31 at 09:28 AM
Posted in: Gadgetry   IT notes   Project 52  
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Wednesday, February 03, 2010

Podcasts not syncing - here’s the fix

Can’t sync your podcasts? Playlists with podcasts don’t show up on your iPhone? Here’s the fix..

Previously the Podcast bug affected only the playlist order, but in the current iTunes 9.0.3 and iPhone 3.1.3 firmware (for example) the bug will remove any Podcast in a playlist from the iPod section of the device. If the Playlist is comprised of only podcasts, the playlist will not even be visible on the device (it will show in the iTunes sync).

To return podcasts to a playlist, you have to use the iTunes 9 trick:

  • Right-click your particular playlist and choose EDIT SMART PLAYLIST
  • Turn off LIVE UPDATING
  • SYNC

    • Then your podcasts return in a playlist in the correct order, but you’ll have to toggle it on again to update the playlist list.

    This bug has existed since iTunes 9 and it seems to only be getting worse. Hopefully Apple will fix it soon - I can’t believe they don’t want us to listen to podcasts in a playlist! C’mon Apple - fix this already!

    Posted by Admin on 02/03 at 02:18 PM
    Posted in: Gadgetry   IT notes   Project 52  
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    Thursday, January 28, 2010

    Who Got What Wrong - After the Apple Event

    Guessing what Steve will pull out is a bit of a “mug’s game”. We all should know that by now.

    Part of the mystery is not in the device or service, but what fantastical future we see Apple providing for us. Apple doesn’t promote or market these events…in fact, they hardly say a word, sending out only a invitation. In watching the media frenzy, I wonder how many people understand this, because when the blog-o-sphere doesn’t get what “they” want, the collective hue and cry makes them seem like a slighted lover holding a padded bra.

    Not Apple’s fault you got your hopes up. You wanted to believe in every fantasy out there and so you did. That’s about your religion - not Apple.

    Then there’s the Whispers. About a sales rep speaking higher than his pay grade, he’s a “insider with exclusive access”. Some CEO who blabs for a bit of self-promotion on every front page (but he’s not at the event…hmmm).  Part of this is genuinely newsworthy - but for week’s we’ve seen fanboy renders and ridiculous articles that make the product everything from the Second Coming to the moment Apple lost it. Speculation, endless speculation, that drives traffic, that angers readers, that drives traffic, that engorges fanboys, that drive’s traffic, that also drives stock prices unnaturally high in expectation and hinders entire market segments. If you’re financially involved in Apple, in some commercial way, shape or form, I’d imagine you’d feel it almost your ouroborostic duty to create, conflate, regurgitate and re-gorge on every other bit of speculation out there.

    Not Apple’s fault your stock dropped after the launch. You wanted people to believe you knew something you didn’t, that you were something you were not. Makes writing easier if you get your own “Princess Diana” to promote/slate/reconcile, I guess. A proper journalistic source? Sorry - you don’t even appear relevant this morning - you’ve been caught with a sock in your pants.

    This is not a healthy ecosystem. Replace “the media” with “the banks” and We The People would have had them in front of Congress by now.

    If you’re disappointed in Apple this morning, I’d say you’re blaming the wrong people.

    Posted by Admin on 01/28 at 08:35 AM
    Posted in: IT notes   Project 52  
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    Tuesday, January 19, 2010

    The 27th cometh for the last of a 1000 times

    Ever since my trusty Newton program was cancelled by the just-returned Steve Jobs, people have been speculating about a new Apple Tablet. What they mean to say is that mouse-based computing was then beginning to suck. So will does Jan 27th mean to computing? Let’s prognosticate!

    I think we can all agree - we’ve all had about enough of the Apple Tablet vapor/rumor-mill over the years. In some ways, I’m too nervous to even contemplate what the experience will be like on one. My experience with Sony smartphones never prepared me for an iPhone life; no-one saw it coming. It was new, fresh, a complete rethink of the phone experience, and while it’s not perfect, it’s a damn better world because of the iPhone.

    I say that because people today poo-poo the Mac and it’s graphic interface, and there are generations living now that have no idea what it’s like to boot up a tape-drive and wait 5 minutes for a text adventure to start. And rightly so: these were neanderthal systems and the more advanced graphic systems left this branch of early hominid-interface far, far behind. You have to know where you came from to appreciate where you’re going.

    For years, there was a constant howling about what the next steps should be. I genuinely missed my Newton (I still have one, a 2100, sitting on a shelf - near pristine and unused) but the downsides were too much to bear in this connected world. For years, at every coming of a MacWorld, the whispers that a new “tablet was coming” drove bloggers into a delicious madness.

    Such speculation considered the Tablet to be a small, light Mac. With Apple’s current success, desires morphed it into a big iPhone. Big iPhone = Dumb Tablet, at least to me. The core of the iPhone’s success is it’s ability to move small bits of information to and from you - a photo, a video, a web page, a tweet. Small screen, small consumption.

    Enter the Apple Invite for the 27th of January 2010:

    image

    Looks like whatever it is, it’s primarily a creative device. The Zapruderization of the invitation has already fueled another day’s speciousness and speculation. The truth is, as we always already know, not to be found on webpages anywhere. This is the age of the news we want, not the news we need.

    I know nothing other than what I’ve experienced with the iPhone (v1 & v3), my Newton, a decade of experience with Macs and my desire for a Star Trek slate handed to me by a pretty yeoman. But since blogs are a suckers game…I’m in.

    What I’d like to think is this:

  • It’ll have a new interface on a stable file system: It’s not going to be a big iPhone or a Half-Mac. It’s going to involve the immediacy you find in an iPhone and the depth of a real creative device. I can’t imagine a creative tool without a descending filing system, even with tags, too many visual clues would overwhelm selection, so I’d also expect the iPhone to upgrade its flat UI very soon too
  • Hardware: The card shows a thin, round-edged border, so there’s a good likelihood when closed that the Tablet will be similar in feel to a big phone; which is to say, very ergonomic. I have faith in Apple in this regard - say what you want about any of their products, they feel good to the touch.
  • I’m going to guess it’ll not have a removable battery but a moulded one like all their other products - we’re beyond throw-away batteries.
  • Yes, it’ll be wireless - it has to be these days. Will it be 3G? Only if there’s a way to have 2 devices on the same number, but without that I doubt Apple would niche the system by making you get a second phone account. With AT&T. Think about that a second and you’ll know I’m right.
  • The paint splatters everywhere give the impression of color, texture and density. Were I a betting man (and we know from past history it’s best I don’t) I would worry if I owned Wacom and PainterX stock. Possibly Adobe should worry too - this could be the cornerstone of an attack on the Creative Suite that could work if the apps were sold cheaply enough. You’d need the Tablet to use them; a reverse of the “Razor and Blades” theory, sure, but there’s plenty of other blades in the App Store, and it’s a way to get even with Adobe for the crap that CS4 and especially Flash have become.

    • But that’s all I can guess at, given what we all know; anything more is a mugs game. I’ve got the credit card warmed-up and parked in the garage, raring to go. I’ll let you know what happens to my bank balance in a bit over a week..

    Posted by Admin on 01/19 at 10:07 AM
    Posted in: Gadgetry   IT notes   Malarkey   Project 52  
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    Friday, January 01, 2010

    2010 - now is the time,,,

    I’m looking forward to 2010 with a mix of excitement and apprehension. Happy, not an equal mix. 

    Let’s cover apprehension first: I’m a web developer, and unlike many of my peers I’ve worked with only 2 big companies over the past 10 years, not hop-skipping from one job to the next. There are pluses and minuses on both sides, but for an American, moving to another country - different language, different work/life mix, different mindset…different everything - the best thing to integrating into a culture (aside from marrying someone there) is getting stuck into a company.

    The thing is - as a non-EU citizen, you need to have the company sponsor you. That means them navigating the changing channels of immigration policies, tax credits and financial barriers, etc. Very few are inclined, unless you possess a skill that is in need, and happily web development is such a skill. The problem is, ultimately, you can be too jacketed in a company, especially when they know you can’t actually leave without leaving the country as well.

    I’ve been fortunate in my first two companies - the initial group were tied to government and big business, and could move glacially slow, but we were asked to always innovate and so we went from FrontPage websites to Flash (yes, sorry, it was 2000) and up to Broadvision and Documentum-based sites. The latter also goes to show that often large organizations are moved to change not by needed technology but by valued partnerships. Documentum, a great package for document storage and archival, can’t make a website without considerable back-end programming. Ultimately we moved on to a smaller application, ExpressionEngine, that did more than either of the previous powerhouse efforts - but only with major management changes.

    The next jump went to a company who has long-since run fast and actively tried new technologies, but it too suffered from politics and internal wrangling. I came to work on the EE platform, and while I (and others) could try many options, the final choice of Wordpress was made long ago, for reasons long since invalidated. So, considering the number of css developers alone who can mark-up a WP template, it’s no surprise they no-longer do new development in-house - far too expensive. Still, you grow and learn, and they were fantastic people to work with—one of the few groups I’ll genuinely miss.

    So here I stand - where to next?

    I love the Netherlands, but they’re often more management-driven than solution-driven. Do I work for another company? Do I start out on my own. My heart says the latter, but previous work habit instills apprehension, and that can divert energies. Must. Stay. Focused.

    Where to next…that’s the $2010 question…

    Posted by Admin on 01/01 at 11:59 AM
    Posted in: Idle Chatter   IT notes   Project 52  
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