Jeff Milner

Would you settle for an island that sort of looks like a part of a continent? Well now you can – assuming you have several million to buy it.

It’s a collection of (soon to be) man-made islands designed to look like the world. Construction has begun on the $1.8 billion(US) project that is scheduled to be completed late 2005.

The World will consist of between 250 to 300 smaller private artificial islands divided into four categories – private homes, estate homes, dream resorts, and community islands. Each island will range from 250,000 to 900,000 square feet in size, with 50 to 100 metres of water between each island. The development is to cover an area of 9 kilometers in length and 6 kilometers in width, surrounded by an oval shaped breakwater. The only means of transportation between the islands will be by marine transport.

Here is a report from The Emirates Network. While you’re there, check out their interesting promotional video.

Not everyone is happy with the islands, with complaints about harm to the ocean’s natural eco-system and eroding shorelines due to current changes.

Soccer players David Beckham and Michael Owen don’t seem to be worried about it, because apparently they each bought apartments in one of the archipelagos. It’s also been reported that singer Rod Stewart bought the island designed to represent Britain. (link to divernet.com article)

Also check out ‘The World’ Official Site.

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)