I never knew

Great little tutorial at Simplebits, explains how they built the rollover tabs at Fast Company. It uses images for the tabs but also includes text links for screenreaders. It isn’t quite accessible for users with reduced vision but a nice solution is offered in the comments.

Balzac et la Petite Tailleuse chinoise

The new Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King trailer.

Lately I’ve been thinking (yeah I do that sometimes), not deep concentrated thinking, more like the “it crossed my mind a few times and I wondered about it” type. The “it” here is the way we appreciate movies or not and what our criterias are. Just this week John said he didn’t like Underworld all that much, while I liked it (not impressed that much but liked) and Steph was lukewarm about Lost in Translation which I loved.

Now, obviously it’s everyone right and privilege to have their opinion on movies or anything else for that matter so this isn’t a “rebuff” on their feelings, just something I’m wondering about. One of the reasons John doesn’t like Underworld is that the vampires do some un-vampire like things, such as breathing. Agreed, I noticed that too but … vampires dont exist, it’s anyone’s prerogative to re-invent vampires and werewolves in any way they wish. Isn’t disliking a movie because vampires breathe (only part of the reason I know) kind of like saying Star Wars spaceships suck ass because Star Trek ships have teleporters? They are both invented!

Steph felt so-so about Lost in Translation because it didn’t push enough in it’s undestanding and de-stereotyping of Tokyo. I agree with everything she says but the movie is about these two people feeling lonely in their respective mariages and finding common ground together. Granted, Tokyo and japanese people are in large part sketched out and Coppola doesn’t dig very much but she’s just using that Tokyo as a background for the story, for which she doesn’t go further than what most people already know or think they know about the place.

Anyway, like I said, I’m not contradicting John or Steph and not saying their view of those movies is wrong, I’m just wondering how much of what we know does it make sense to bring to a movie? From all reports Gigli is a stink fest, everyone can agree on that so there are definetly criterias that everyone can agree on but when we don’t like movies because they don’t fit with what we know or think they could have been, are we missing out because we are seeing it through our own eyes too much or on the contrary is that something we should try to do even more because that’s the way movies make us think? Probably a mix of both but I’d like to know what you think.

As regular readers will already know, my iBook busted a kidney and doesn’t work properly anymore, I need to fix it and at the price they are charging for parts I’m considering a switch to something better, i.e. a Powerbook. I’d like to find a 12”, 867Mhz, combo drive model used or refurbished.

Now, since Apple people are both brilliant in their product design and moronic in some of their decisions, I can’t buy a refurb here because they sell them only through the US store who sells only to US clients so I guess my chances are more along the lines of finding a used one or a demo. The refurb is 1199$ US so I’m looking for a similar deal. Any ideas where in Canada I can find such a thing? I’m already monitoring Craig’s list Toronto and Vancouver editions as well as ebay.ca but no luck, there’s pretty much nothing on there and when there is it’s a flat out scam or almost the price of an out of the box PB. Ebay.com does have some decent deals but the sellers only ship to the US, yeah freetrade!

If you do have a solution (don’t say buy a PC) please comment or email me.

Last year Alias was one of the best shows on tv. A minute ago the season premiere ended, it pretty much sucked. The requisite sexy scene while often somewhat baseless was this time totally for no reason whatsoever, they are redoing the whole series concepts for the second time and tried to do it in one episode, the way they are dumping the whole Rimbaldi thing is ludicrous and the re-arranging of Arvin Sloane is just as bad. And the thing that bothered me the most; they were always whispering for dramatic effect, so much so that the volume on my tv was at triple what it’s usually at and I still had to stuggle to hear. Not good. I’ll give them a couple more episodes to get better and if it doesn’t, I’ll be free to watch Law and Order Criminal Intent.

A couple of days ago I finished reading Vagabonding which I just loved. It’s probably a bit hippy, trippy, spiritual questy and candy coated but still, it’s well written and fun to read. It details “taking time from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms.” and to do it repeatedly. Rolf Potts gives examples of people who work only a few months a year and leave for longterm trips year after year, living a basic life at home so they can get enough money to then leave for months living on a shoestring in exotic countries.

For many people, myself included, it seems like a great way to live and that’s the candy coated aspect I mention, I dont think everyone can actually do that but everyone might feel they can after reading the book. That’s not really the author’s fault though, he does bring things into perspective time and again, includes tips security wise as he does for a host of other subjects but he just makes it look so great by all the travel accounts he gives that I’m not sure we pay attention. Not necessarily a bad thing.

One surefire method to keep travel from getting too predictable is to occasionnaly acquire or improvise your own tranportation. In Laos, I bought a local fishing boat with some other travelers and drove it down the Mekong River for three adrenaline-filled weeks. In Burma, I bought a Chinese-made one-speed bicycle in Mandalay and pedaled it south for then days before trading it for a fistful of pearls. In Lithuania, I stuck out my thumb on the side of the road in Vilnius, and found myself four countries away (in Hungary) three days later. In Israel I did away with transport altogether and walked acros Galilee, Jesus-style.

Now doesn’t that sound like fun? But how many people actually have the guts and capacity to do it? Great fun to read anyhow, he includes many other books and websites as reference and at the end of each chapter there is a short portrait of a well known, sometimes legendary, vagabonder as well as quotes from many travellers he has met throughout the world. Possibly motivating and certainly fun.

When announcing his company’s copy of the iPod Michael Dell says:

We are revolutionizing technology for our customers—again

Yeah… right. I was going to say that it’s new to their clients but that’s not even true! Dell sells iPods (or used to I guess)! How is that any kind of revolution??

As expected, already a few reactions to WeblogsInc’s announcement. First Nick Denton with 5 valid points. Then Jeff Jarvis also gives a detailed and intelligent opinion. Nothing more to add.

Nokia has announced some new phones and gadgets coming out next year and they look like props form Minority Report. I wouldn’t wear those necklaces but I think the simple fact that products like that are coming out is cool. The Imaging Phone doesn’t look anything like one, I think it might be the first phone (that I remember at least) that really looks like the normal way to use it is with headphones and not by speaking “to” it. And finally the Kaleidoscope which lets you carry and privately view a few images. A new spin on the wallet full of photos but why only 24, with the memory prices so low?