Month: August 2005

In a move to prevent communication between it’s employees and their union leaders, Telus blocked subscribers’ access to a Web site set up by an employee labor union intended to publicize the union’s views about its dispute with Telus. As a result Telus also blocked access to at least 766 additional, unrelated Web sites.

What a terrible and ridiculous thing to do! Telus is playing very dirty. Why do we stand for it? This is inexcusable: imagine if Telus chose to block all calls into union headquarters. Then ask yourself how is this any different?

So I decided instead of just whining about it, I would actually try and do something by lodging a complaint with the CRTC. What I discovered on their website kind of surprised me:

You may not be aware that the Commission does not regulate the rates, quality of service or business practices for Internet Service Providers and cannot pursue complaints on these matters on your behalf.

The CRTC doesn’t care about business practices for ISP’s, and unless what they are doing is illegal, there doesn’t seem like there is much you can do.

Illegal actions fall under the Criminal Code of Canada or other federal statutes. Consumers concerned about possible illegal actions should contact the appropriate enforcement authorities.

I’m not even sure if what they are doing is illegal, and it’s not like I’m going to call them on it if it is. I should probably get a backbone and show my disapproval of their actions by switching providers.

Just now I stumbled upon Robert J. Lang’s amazing origami site. Robert creates the most fantastic things out of paper.

Having been working with vector shapes a lot yesterday, I was getting pretty frustrated when trying to switch between tools quickly. Though it’s not in the menu commands or tool tips within Photoshop, I found this table of helpful hints in the help file. I realize that for most people it’s going to be pretty boring content, but for me, it’ll be a handy resource for vector art (and most likely easier to find than looking it up in the help file).

Result	Windows	Mac OS
Select multiple anchor points	Direct selection tool + Shift-click	Direct selection tool + Shift-click
Select entire path	Direct selection tool + Alt-click	Direct selection tool + Option-click
Duplicate a path	Pen (any pen tool), Path Selection or Direct Selection tool + Control + Alt-drag	Pen (any pen tool), Path Selection or Direct Selection tool+ Command + Option-drag
Switch from Path Selection, Pen, Add Anchor Point, Delete Anchor Point, or Convert Point tools, to Direct Selection tool	Control	Command
Switch from Pen tool or Freeform Pen tool to Convert Point tool when pointer is over anchor or direction point	Alt	Option
Close path with straight-line segment	Magnetic Pen tool + Alt-double-click	Magnetic Pen tool + Option-double-click

I spent the afternoon making this cartoon character in Photoshop. It’s mostly vector shapes with some brush strokes for highlights and shadows.