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Wednesday, 30 October 2002 |
Jozef programs with Microsoft and Open Source software, and has a particular interest in databases and middleware.
Open Source has become a popular enterprise IT solution in recent years, and Jozef compares it to home cooking. “It’s the difference between buying takeaways and doing it yourself,” he says. “I’m a pretty good cook, and Polish home cooking is the best. When I need a recipe I just phone up Mum.”
When he is not in front of a computer Jozef loves holidaying in Europe, most often staying with friends and relatives. He is an avid student of cultural and social difference, having lived and worked in several countries including England and Poland, but is proud to call Australia home.
Martial arts, specifically Karate and Jiu-Jitsu, is Jozef’s third love, after programming and travel. Why? “Turning your opponent’s force against them—now that’s the key.”
1:16:52 PM 
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Architecture, fashion design and photography are Toni’s number one visual inspirations.
She looks for extreme innovation in the use of space and form. “I admire people who push the boundaries of their field,” Toni says. “They do something new that strikes us, and gets us thinking.” She cites Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao and his more recent Neuer Zollhof office bulding in Düsseldorf. “The best kind of eyecandy—compelling!”
Toni gained her qualifications in film, video and multimedia just as the Web was beginning to break big, and taught herself to handcode web pages within a week. “What I love about the Web is that it’s fluid, it’s democratic, and it’s the medium for communicating one-to-one.”
Her affection for Photoshop comes from an early fascination with photography, and she lists classic American landscape photographer Ansel Adams high amongst her favourites. She also admires Nick Knight’s hard-edged, high colour fashion photography for British Vogue and Vogue Italia.
Toni adds that, given a choice, she would only ever wear Issey Miyake.
1:07:14 PM
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Davide is living testimony to the adage that Italians have all the fun. He is a fan of high-powered Japanese motorbikes, knows where the best food in Italy can be found, enjoys dark, futuristic gangster movies and blisses out to the music of Robert Miles and Vangelis.
His tip for where to eat in Milan? “Lo Spuntino, in Via Spontini. They make nothing but pizza with an extremely thick base, a mixture of cheeses that I can’t identify, tomatoes, and a gentle sprinkling of anchovies. They serve it either abbondante or normale. Best in the world!”
Davide should know—he got around a lot in earlier days. Right now he is looking forward to his first trip to Cuba, but is concerned he might tower over the locals—he stands 196cm in his bare feet. But given KubanEmpire’s name, Cuba is the logical place to go.
Logic played a role in Davide choosing the digital media.
“Rock painting, moveable type, radio, TV and now the Web—it’s the logical progression. The Web is the tool for everyone.”
1:02:47 PM
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Nina in the TV show 24 turns out to be a baddie. Pity the actress playing this baddie, Sarah Clarke, is such a spunk. Will we see her again?
12:10:18 PM
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The Fox spy drama TV show 24 is now in its second season in the US. Salon magazine sums up the first season and ofers some insight into the second.
Australian actress Sarah Wynter plays lawyer Kate Warner in the new season.
12:05:29 PM
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Alexis’ school and college career followed an eccentric path, to say the least. Physics, mathematics and English, with architecture in first year university. Then he switched to product design, followed by multimedia. Finally he settled on visual communications.
“Everything I loved about each of those courses comes together on the Web,” he says. “Typography, branding, structure, all the lessons of the great graphic artists. And I get to do it on computers that are the epitome of great product design!”
Alexis is one of those designers who keeps a musical instrument stowed beneath his desk—in his case a bass guitar. “Music is my greatest passion. When you are playing with the right people it’s like having a conversation with them, in public, out loud,” he says.
Alexis rates Roni Size and Herbie Hancock, both freeform collaborative musicians, high on his list of favourites. He looks forward to the day when sound, motion graphics and interactivity converge to take the Web into a whole new dimension.
11:42:04 AM
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I am tired this morning. Six Feet Under is shown from 10:30PM to 11:30PM Tuesday nights and I like getting to bed no later than 10:30PM these days, especially when I am writing.
But I would not miss this superb TV show for the world, or a little extra sleep.
10:27:17 AM
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Jeffrey Zeldman is writing a list of his favourite web design books, and amongst the first three is Joe Clark’s Building Accessible Websites. Also on this list is Hillman Curtis’ MTIV: Process, Inspiration, and Practice for the New Media Designer.
Clark’s book is due here any day now. I am looking forward to it even more now.
10:23:26 AM
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I have made some more obvservations about these Perth CAT (Central Area Transit) buses, counting the numbers of medium-sized and big ones as opposed to small ones, and the time zones they run in. It is an informal survey, obviously.
It appears that the buses that run during morning peak hour are almost entirely small ones, with the very occasional medium-sized one turning up. At about 5 to 9, when the peak hour is almost over, the medium-sized ones start turning up in force. That is when they are least needed, and so they are almost completely empty.
All buses on the Red CAT run, whether small, medium-sized or big, run every 5 minutes according to the publshied schedule. I have not spotted the big one again, after seeing it a few days ago.
10:17:12 AM
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© Copyright 2002 Karl-Peter Gottschalk.
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