April 24th, 2008 rabbell
Last week I was having a conversation I seem to have with a lot of people about movies. They turn and say “Yeah I can’t watch black and white movies”. I ask why not and they can’t answer me. They usually just shrug.
This is quickly becoming my pet peeve. How can you not be able to watch a movie just because it’s in black and white. Some people in the world are unlucky enough not to be able to see anything yet they still enjoy movies.
It just amazes me that people can rule out all of Chaplin and Laurel & Hardy, movie classics like Casablanca, The Apartment, Psycho, White Heat, all just because it’s in black and white. It’s not just one genre of movies they’re cutting out, but different varied movies that I know they would enjoy. People who I would describe as smart and even open to trying new things, just won’t entertain the idea of black and white movies.
People say they like romantic movies I always say “Well you need to see the ultimate love story Casablanca”, again they’ll say it’s black and white. I like comedies, you should check out Some Like It Hot then, nah it’s in black and white.
If you’re one of these people I’m asking, no I’m begging you to do one thing. Think of your favourite movie genre…whether it’s horror, romance, gangster, western, whatever and head over to IMDB Top 250. Look for a highly rated black and white movie in that genre and give it a chance.
I promise you, that you won’t regret it. After 20 minutes if the movies no good fine, turn it off but at least give it a chance. If it is a good movie the story will suck you in, you’ll become interested, you know the way a good movie can suck you in and the rest of the world melts away. I gurantee if you find the right movie for you, it won’t matter if it’s in black and white.
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Posted in Thoughts | 1 Comment »
April 17th, 2008 Goat
An Interface Evaluation of Safari Version 3.1
So I downloaded the new update for iTunes and now packaged along with it is Safari. I saw the update was of pretty substantial size so I decided to put away my disdain for Apple for two seconds and try it out. No biases, no presuppositions. This is a pretty dang cool browser. This is available on PC now too. I, however, am using it on my iMac at work. Once I grow a little more accustomed to it, I may start using it at home on my PC.
Before I start, lets get one thing straight, this absolutely does not replace FireFox.
First, all the good stuff!
OK, so I open up Safari and the first thing I notice is, of course, it looks like everything else Apple makes. Gray, gradients, same buttons that are in Finder, etc. This is expected. I notice 5 buttons. 3 of them I can figure out what they mean but the other two took some testing. Here is what they look like.
The two on the left, under the 3 colorful window function buttons, are apparently “Back” and “Forward.” Acceptable. The next one I assumed was “Reload.” It is. The next two are what puzzled me. The next is somewhat of a snipping tool that lets you save certain parts of web pages to your Dashboard. What?!
I decided to test this bad boy out. I go to the good ol’ place, YouTube. I find most of my videos by watching what other people are watching. YouTube’s feature, “Videos being watched right now…” is exactly where I look. I decided to see if I could snip THAT, the flash object updating from the YouTube server in real time, to my Dashboard.
So I snip it and as soon as I do, it brings me to my Dashboard and adds that snip to it. I can move it where ever and it loads the flash objects in real time, just like I’m on YouTube. So I put it right above my Chuck Norris Facts Widget.
That, my friends, is pretty dang amazing.
The next button, the plus sign, is “Bookmark.” A very versatile Bookmark though. I can choose to save to my “Bookmarks Bar” (like in Firefox), or I can save to any other location on the computer. Pretty nifty. It is, however, in the most valuable real estate on the entire window. Do I save a web page every time I go to it? I would have at least put the Refresh button in its place. (Or like Firefox put the “Home page” button there.)
“But Joel, didn’t you say that you would put all of the good stuff first and not be so biased?”
I did, and I told you that because then I looked for a fix… and found one. Click on…
View > Customize Toolbar..
and you get a fancy little box that lets you “fix” the broken interface! Check it out.
So guess what I did… yep. Now my precious Home button is right where it should be.
The rest of the stuff is pretty standard: popup blockers, locked down privacy settings, tabbed browsing, etc. All of the shortcuts are pretty much the same across the board, Cmd + N is a new window, Cmd + T is a new tab, etc. So I am very pleased with the browser.
Not to mention it is the only browser than runs smoothly on Apple. Everything else I try is so jerky and crappy. All in all, it’s awesome.
Now for the bad stuff.
Two complaints.
“Only two, Joel? And they’re mere complaints? Not inherent flaws designed by the devil?”
Only two minor complaints.
1. F5 does not reload the page, Cmd + R does.
Now this may not seem like a big deal, but it really is. The only reason that F5 doesn’t reload is because it is preserved for other functions that Apple has put on the key. I turned off those functions so now my F5 key does absolutely nothing in Safari. Now I have to press two buttons to reload the page. And with the awkward position of Cmd in the first place, it is very inefficient.
2. It’s Meat and Potatoes, simple goodness.
Now this also may not seem like a big deal because it isn’t. Apple is simple. That’s what they have been pushing since day one. SOMETIMES, (yes sometimes) I like complicated. I like intricate. I like the ability to put as many add-ons and colorful skins as I want. Even Internet Explorer lets you do that. Apple is forcing me (not everyone) into a simplistic world. I like my stuff to be custom… anything but default. Not a biggie, though. I still have Firefox.
So what now, has Firefox been dethroned? No. I still NEED some of the add-ons that only Firefox supports. I couldn’t give it up if I wanted to. But when I am browsing the web at work, its all Safari.
I had to make a new place on my reflect-y dock so that nautical compass could feel apart of the group.
But I think the other kids are making fun of him, cause he’s a little bit autistic.
Posted in Geek, Thoughts | 1 Comment »
