Bells & Whistles

Reburnt and resynced my FeedBurner Feed and added Feed Image Burner. This should display the following promotional GIF in popular RSS Readers.



iPodderX is now downloading and updating posts correctly again. Safari 1.3 (and above) and Opera 8.0x browsers continue to 'leak' hyperlink code into the RSS Reader sidebar (formerly Post Editor). The latter's page rendering is now comestically pleasing.

Looking forward. iTunes Music Store podcast publishing elements should be fully integrated as early as this weekend.

The Net

Undertook further research into adding enclosures to Blogger and learnt that the link feature was insufficient! Had to copy the additional code into the template. I then tested 'Add a Subscription Feed' in iPodderX. The application transparently found and downloaded the video file from the appropriate post. NetNewsWire is also game.

Finally got around to displaying 10 posts on the main page (in parity with Recent Entries sidebar). Still have a few minor code creases to iron out, both here and on The Scratching Post. Will the toils of my labour bear fruit?

Wired

Now that the FeedBurner code has been up and running since Friday afternoon, there's no time like the present to test the new podcast facility. This QuickTime video was created using Bryce, Photoshop and iMovie.

iPodderX is a popular application that handles audio, video and image feeds. Windows users please download jPodder.

Added a Bloglines subscription feed to the Syndication sidebar.

Yosemite National Park

Happy Fourth of July to my US readers and Nick Smith. Have a great day, but don't forget those Amity Island sharks!

Currently testing Deer Park! What's this? Deer Park is the codename for the Firefox 1.1 Alpha release.

Alone in Kyoto

Whilst watching Lost in Translation's impressionistic 'Alone in Kyoto' montage, I had an epiphany! In the summer of 2000 I began reading 3Dworld and briefly made the acquaintance of a Mac User, who had returned to the UK after teaching English in Japan and was an accomplished 3D artist. 3Dworld's inclusion of Metacreation's Bryce 3.x, a 3-D landscape generation application, reignited further self development within the flourishing CGI arena.

For two years Bryce was the platform from which I revived my video game artworker ambitions (Codemasters interviewed me in 1998). When I fully transitioned to Mac OS X 10.x, invariably use of Classic ceased. Bryce was consigned to a similar fate and I devoted my creative energies to web design.

Metacreations sold the application to Corel and its future was uncertain! Now with the release of Bryce 5.5 (DAZ Productions) my interest is renewed afresh. The latest version boasts enhanced OpenGL support for Macs running an nVIDIA GPU.

Somewhat serendipitous, I discovered that Scarlett Johansson is Jewish!

Andy Warhol

Last night I had a bit of free time and whipped-up a possible cover (based on iTunes recommended specifications - 170 x 170 pixels square at 72 dpi) for a podcast demo (taken from my video major December Duet, 1996).



The original December Duet video cover wasn't archived as a photoshop file (and, if so, it was deleted long ago), therefore I traced the original Frankenstein font (from Corel) and approximated the color.

To facilitate future podcasts, I've added FeedBurner and new content aggregators to the blog. On May 14 2004 my FeedBurner account was created and there was no impetus to incorporate the feature until now. OK, I was a blog newbie and the code was outside my comfort zone.

Thanks to those friends who submitted browser display feedback. Safari 1.3 (and later) leverages new WebCore frameworks, and this is causing cosmetic problems with the Syndication sidebar. I've sent a bug report to Apple. Please use Firefox.

Do you Yahoo! 360°?

Return of the Joker

Can you keep a secret? I've created closet space for Mattel's Hot Wheels Batmobile (1:18 scale) and Batman Begins Deluxe Powered Batmobile!

Since watching '70s reruns of Adam West's tenure as the eponymous 'camp crusader', I've been a self-confessed Batman fan. Consuming comics, toys and board games. The childhood memory of eating Nabisco Shreddies (containing Tom & Jerry Shrinky Dinks*) is enshrined with those Saturday morning adventures!

[*Remember The Black Hole (1979) Shrinky Dinks Weetabix pack-ins? The U.S.S. Cygnus melted in the oven!]

Invasion

With the advent of iTunes 4.9, podcasting goes mainstream.

Podcasts are easy to produce with very low financial overheads - if you already own a Mac, GarageBand and a blogger account you're good to go. I'll be preparing a test podcast for release in July (no promises).

Excuse the tangent, but this morning I 'trashed' my Xbox due to the power cable flaw. It had 'zero' resale value and was a dust collector. Paves the way for next generation PlayStation kit.

Press Gang

Over the coming weeks and months I'll be increasing my coverage of Sony PlayStation, which is exciting to say the least.

Scarlett fever

Several months ago I bought Lost in Translation (2003) and consigned the acclaimed movie to the bookshelf for future viewing...

The movie is an unabridged delight. Sofia's non-intrusive direction lends itself towards the early 'cinéma vérité' of her famous father, Francis, and his apprentice George Lucas. The absence of subtitling enforces the theme of alienation and disenfranchisement.

Tokyo has never looked more arresting; whether the viewer is subjected to the neon-drenched kaleidoscopes of advertising, arcades or more traditional temples of Japan. Air underscores the ambience, tempo and melancholia.

Bill Murray (one of my all time favorite actors) and Johansson's chemistry and relationship, which could have so perilously veered towards Stanley Kubrick's Lolita (1962) if it had been consummated, culminates in a deeply moving coda.

Sofia Coppola artfully blends universal themes with personal introspection (her young marriage to fellow filmmaker Spike Jonze). Roxy Music's "More Than This" serves as a haunting lament. Lost in Translation takes pride of place alongside Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Romeo + Juliet (1996) in the pantheon of pathos.

This time my tendency for a liking of tragic romances gets an Apple Macintosh credit too!