I have put Windows in a Window on my Mac. The geek in me is ecstatic to have two computers in one, and as a practical matter, this makes the testing aspect of my job of web designer immensely more efficient. Everything is much easier now.

The thing is, it is disconcerting to hear the PC startup noise in my Mac. I feel like I have violated a pact I made with Apple back when I started with the family's Apple IIC+ twenty years ago. I've been with Apple through thick and thin, Even though I've picked up a respect of Windows along the way, I'm proud of my "little" company—Fortune 500 ranking number 159—taking on the PC man—number 48.

Or to put it a different way, I don't care what you say, but it does look better on a Mac. Even so, I can't work without Windows...

Posted by Colin J Allen at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

It is Christy's birthday today down here, so today is a fun day. And given the wonders of the International Date Line, it could work out that she will be still be receiving congratulations through tomorrow from her friends in the States. That's a little disconcerting, but no more than the fact that it is a beautiful spring day here. Summer is just around the corner, which is odd to me but exciting as well. I kinda put that season on delay when I moved down here. Even if my second winter was mild, I'm still excited to get me some of those long days coming up.

There will be a birthday gathering tonight at the studio if any of you are in the area. I'm excited to test out my gift, a Lomo color flash. (Yes, the presents I buy are usually things that I want, and if you ever need an idea of what to get me, you'd be spot on if you just regift something from me). One the great things about gift-giving to loved ones is that you can often just borrow said cool doohicky whenever you wanna. What a better way to spice up party pictures than by a splash of color?

I am a sucker for anything that the Lomo people come up with. Unfortunately, their price point exists slightly past my line of justification. I never can talk myself into purchasing it for myself—that would be excessive—but when time comes for me to find something cool, the Lomo family usually has something for me to splurge on. The only time I got a Lomo for myself was when I won my own white elephant gift. Good times, good times.

Below is a test of some of the lenses so you can get an idea of what I'm talking about. I think that there is some interesting potential in mixing this flash with the modern pinhole camera. Hmm...

Posted by Colin J Allen at 12:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Posted by Colin J Allen at 4:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

My bank thinks my mom's name is Dorthy.

I got in an argument with the verification people at my bank today. I don't know how they ever got Dorthy into their files, but here I was calling them to verify a purchase, and they up and decide that my mom's name should really be Dorthy—not Debbie—and lord knows what they have as her maiden name.

Needless to say, after I failed the mom's-maiden-name test and the mom's-first-name test, the operator was pretty convinced that I was not myself. She proceeded to ask me a series of are-you-really-who-you-say-you-are questions, and I must admit, that I didn't do the most convincing job arguing that I was me. It is just hard to justify one's existence before your first cup of coffee. Next time I call them, I'll be sure to be fully caffeinated.

On the topic of identity confusion, I met up with a friend of Chip, my old roommate from college, this weekend. His name: Colin. We hit it off, and so I foresee great confusion if we ever hangout with a group of friends. As I don't get to meet many people with my name, so this name confusion would be something new that I haven't dealt with before. I suppose that I'd get a descriptor pegged onto my name, like 'fast and witty Colin' or 'super badasssss Colin', or more realistically, 'American Colin.'

I've been testing out interesting questions to ask strangers for ages now. The goal is to avoid small talk, and to move on to something with more depth. A brief job description is only entertaining for so long, and what do you talk about next? I have been puzzling over the best cut through the crap questions with Christy, and I think that we hit on something while we were asking not-me Colin about himself, and vice-versa. It's all about least favorites.

What is your least favorite band? Or more poignantly, what band do you hate the most? Drinks, personalities, professions you name it. Give it an ask, and you quickly get to see what really gets someone's blood boiling. I know in this modern world that we are supposed to be beyond hate, but I can't get rid of my animosity towards The Dave Matthews Band, even if he does do a song with Jurassic 5. For the record, I don't mean to promote hatred, I am just sussing out people's interesting opinions. In fact, if you want to avoid people who, say hate oranges, it might just be best to ask about that right from the get-go. That's certainly more interesting than asking about work.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 4:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I'm heading back to New York next month to be the best man at my old roommate's wedding, and I must say that I am annoyed that those darn terrorists are at it again with the planes and the exploding. It is not that I am worried that I'll get vaporized on my 20 hour trip, those odds are about as likely as me winning the lotto. No, my fear is that I'll be stuck in the air for nearly a day with nothing to do because of the latest carry-on luggage restrictions. Good lord, that would suck.

Fortunately, it looks like I'll be in the clear with a laptop or an iPod, as I'm not traveling from Britain. I just need to remember to check-in my toothpaste and duty-free when I get my ticket. What a pain in the ass. And, um, not to make anyone worry, but how long can it be till the bad guys figure out that they can just check in their liquid explosives? It's not like it would work any less in cargo with a little bit of chemical gumption.

Oh terrorists, is this really the best way to stick it to the man? What is it with this obsession with planes?

Posted by Colin J Allen at 1:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I miss my newspaper.

Neither the New York Times, nor it's international brethren, the International Herald Tribune, are to be found in Sydney. I had figured that the preeminent newspaper from the preeminent country in the world could be found in at least one newsstand in this, the financial capital of Australia. Nope. You can get Le Monde, but not IHT. At first I thought that I was just going to the wrong newsstands, but I eventually ended up talking to the distributer, who put to rest any such hopes. Two years ago, the IHT decided to pull out of non-essential areas, Australia being one of these targeted areas. Sigh, I had hopes that if any newspaper company could resist the shrinking paper syndrome, it would be the Times Company, yet here I am with no good broadsheet down here for me to read.

What may you ask is the shrinking paper syndrome? It is this misguided idea that making the paper smaller will attract more readers. I maintain my stance that less people are reading papers because there is less in them to read. The trend in newspapers is to have smaller and smaller stories, so that the paper can be smaller and more narrow. In any other medium this would be seen as suicide. If a 24-hour cable news show was struggling, would it cut back to 21-hours of coverage? Would a lagging news website post fewer, smaller stories? Come on now media-owner folks, what the heck are you thinking as you follow this business model? If you are not going to throw your cards in, perhaps it is time to hit the drawing board again.

Alas, no matter how much I complain, the only quality paper I'm going to be reading down here is of the dot com variety. And it just ain't the same.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 12:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I have been waiting a while to show you these images. There have been some technical issues related to a lack of general lack of scanners near my vicinity. I now have my very own ubërprinter, and this means you can finally see the pinhole pictures.

What may you ask is a modern pinhole camera? Take yourself a professional camera, the type that has a detachable lens. When you take off a lens, there is a little steel or plastic cover that you use to seal over the lens socket. Take that cover, put in a pin-sized hole, and you are in business. You have all the advantages of a real camera, namely the ability to use the light meter, so you don't jack up the exposure. But now, you also have the advantages of a pinhole camera, which give your shots that lovely soft and fuzzy retro feel.

I took these shots on a trip up to the Blue Mountains, which are a few hours out of Sydney. I suppose that I should just let the pictures speak for themselves.

Posted by Colin J Allen at 12:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)