Category: Miscellaneous

The following picture shows the location of Super Shuttle’s fleet at the time of this posting.

The search giant Google is tracking participating shuttle and taxi services using technology from their Google Maps. So far the list of participating cities is small and even then the services within each city is limited, but I’m betting this will catch on – BIG TIME. In New York, as pictured here for example, these marked points represent the locations of each of Super Shuttle’s vehicles.

I think this concept is great, are other real time services just around the corner? When does all this easily accessible information become “too much information”?

In other Google news, it’s been a year to the day since Google announced Gmail and in a continuing effort to keep everyone happy with the free service, they are now offering 2GB of free storage for their web based email service. Happy April Fool’s Day!

This is an interesting interview with Brad Bird, where he talks about his success, The Incredibles, and getting fired from Disney:

I got fired for quote rocking the boat unquote. They were basically saying that if I’d stop complaining about quality, I could hold onto my job. I said, “I’m complaining about stuff your master animators taught me to complain about. So either I’m getting fired or I’m selling out everything you guys supposedly stand for.”

He also has advice for young animators trying to break into the industry.

So I’ve created version 1.0 of my F.A.Q. which answers the top 4 most frequently asked questions. It’s a work in progress so I’ll probably come up with some better answers when I’m feeling up to it, and there are probably other questions worthy of being entered, so maybe I’ll do that one day too.

A classic, it’s the SUCK SCHOOL OF COMIC ART.

• Stocking feet are funnier than either shoes or bare feet. White socks with red toes and heels are the funniest of all.
• Fuzzy clothes never fail to amuse. One of your repeating characters should wear a fuzzy suit or sweater.
• Contrary to popular belief, cigarettes are funnier than both cigars and pipes. Draw them with smoke swirling up from the tip, and guffaws are guaranteed.
• Silly-looking hats are cheap devices employed only by inferior cartoonists and should be avoided if at all possible.

This morning there were reports of an 8.2 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia. So far there have been no reports of Tsunamis.

(CNN report)

I have just over a month until I leave for Malaysia and another giant earthquake has occurred in the Indian Ocean; it’s just what I want to hear about. Hopefully there will be no Tsunamis this time. At least Malaysia is a lot safer than many of the countries along the sea because it is somewhat shielded by Indonesia.

What is it about Christmas and Easter? I’m just saying.

The details about Adobe’s new version of Photoshop have been accidentally released.

Dubbed Adobe Photoshop CS2, the new release promises better tools to fix common image problems such as red eye and blemishes, as well as updated support for raw, or uncompressed, images. The software is expected to start shipping in May.

The software will also allow users access to online stock photos and new batch processing features among many other new features. I love Photoshop.

(via Slashdot)

The Gauntlet is the student newspaper at the University of Calgary. It just happens to be the same paper that my brother worked as the Photo Editor while he went to school there (2001-2004). Controversy is nothing new to student newspapers, but today I read about some misdirected anger.

Two editors are being suspended without pay because they allowed an article to be published which was accompanied a photo of a nude woman. The woman had paraded through the U of C food court completely naked except for a chain mail bikini as part of a student union sponsored sexual health awareness event.

In a response published in the Gauntlet by News Editor Dale Miller, one of the suspended, he defends his actions by explaining that the outcry should be directed towards the ones creating the event, not the ones reporting it.

“The performers were hired by the SU to put on the show, they chose their own outfits and performed in a public environment, in front of both media and the University population,” said Miller.

“I didn’t try and shock you by allowing these women to walk around naked, the SU did. I merely reported it, and brought the controversy to the larger student population.”

To top it all off the student portrayed in the picture has demanded that the Gauntlet be shut down. She feels the picture violates her rights in some way – never mind the fact that she was the one willingly prancing around naked in public and that the Students’ Union allowed participants to chose their own outfits. Seems like she may just want to jump on the controversy band-wagon. Maybe she’s trying to run up publicity for her night job as an exotic dancer; all I can say is “talk about someone giving mixed messages”.

There is a couple from Calmar, Alberta (small town west of Luduc) that has put “the opportunity to be their maid of honor” up for auction on ebay.

From the site:

We had asked my good friend to do this honor, but unfortunately, because of financial difficulties (she lives in a different province) she can no longer afford to attend. We had thought on asking someone else, but we do not know anyone else in the province that we would like to ask. We then thought that we would like to give someone the chance to do this that may not otherwise have the chance!

The preview documentary you are about to watch is about, Darkon, a game for “live action role players” (Wikipedia Entry).

Yay! I just received an email informing me that jeffmilner.com has been accepted as a Google ads and AdSense provider. That does mean there will be ads on the site but I’m hoping that since they are from Google they will be relevant and mostly unobtrusive. It’ll be good to bring in some revenue to help pay for the site since I’m pretty much strapped. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that.