Friday, 1 November 2002

Also Useful, The Armchair Grammarian. This site is also useful I think. Its page on apostrophes should be required reading for all signwriters, graphic designers and writers of business correspondence. Not to mention all damned journalists and subeditors. 5:10:57 PM    Add a comment.

Awake While Dead. Interesting little article from Wired News, where two views of the universe are mentioned—the transcendent view and radical materialism. I suggest you follow the sidebar See Also... links at left of the page. 12:12:34 PM    Add a comment.

Paranoia, Perth and Photography. I was out for a walk around the location of the old East Perth Children’s Court, Leica in hand, when I got a taste of the kind of fear and loathing that is more commonly found in the suburbs, and not the city and inner city up to now.       The workers all dropped tools and stood staring at me while I made a series of photographs of this possibly-soon-to-be-gone landmark. By the expressions on their faces they were not happy. Some made threatening gestures.       I rarely make photographs in the suburbs these days, and did not do it much in the past compared to the city and Fremantle, but last time I did I got a big dose of suburban paranoia. I was studying an amazing street of houses in the north, making a large series of photographs as I went, when an angry man in a white sedan slowly rolled it up to me and demanded to know if I had permission to take photographs.       I replied that this was a free country and that nobody needs to ask to be allowed to be anywhere in public or to take pictures of anything there. He shouted the same question several times, I replied with the same words. He slowly drove down the street, then slowly drove back, and as I walked along the street he followed me at a distance, menacingly.       Last time I made photographs in the suburbs was at the height of the bottled water on the front lawn cult in the late 1980s, and I came across many such threatening men. 12:01:29 PM    Add a comment.

Tree of Life. All over East Perth, wherever you went, in everybody’s front garden, you would find the tree of life plant growing. I had put it there. I was fascinated by this odd little plant, whose leaves sprouted new plants so long as you did little more than throw a leaf onto some moist dark soil.       All the trees of life have been ripped out of the parks and gardens of East Perth now. When the developers moved on to a lot here, the first thing they would do is destroy the garden. The first plants to be obliterated were the trees of life.       I cannot find any trees of life, now, and I want one! 11:34:30 AM    Add a comment.

Fox Searchlab Lecture Series. Fox evidently understands content, and that a web site is not just the hard data that goes into it about the products the site’s owner is selling. Or more likely Hillman Curtis and Jeffrey Zeldman did a great job at persuading Fox to include real content in the site.       I really dislike a number of movie studio web sites and could not care less about the rest—a real waste of opportunities for the most part given the rich material that is there to work with. I think I am going to like this one. Especially its series of lectures from respected filmmakers, in QuickTime. 10:00:54 AM    Add a comment.

Really Useful: Common Errors in English. It is more concerned with common errors in North Amercian English, but a useful reference nevertheless. 9:53:00 AM    Add a comment.

Great Resource: The Internet Public Library. This looks really useful. I will have to remember this URL! Some excellent and rare online references are linked to from the IPL. 9:51:25 AM    Add a comment.

New Standard in Movie Studio Websites. The new, currently only soft-launched, Fox Searchlight website sets a whole new standard in movie studio websites. Motion graphics by Hillman Curtis, CSS and page building by Jeffrey Zeldman of Happy Cog.       Zeldman reports that work continues on this site until its hard launch soon, so it will keep getting better. Great job so far. 9:47:54 AM    Add a comment.

More Switcher Stories at Apple. Another 6 or so Windows (and Unix) to Mac switcher stories at the Apple website today. Smart people. 9:13:22 AM    Add a comment.

It Rains When You Water. The skies were clear last evening until I turned the sprinkler on. Then the grey clouds turned up, and it began raining 20 minutes later. Must be some kind of trick in it. 9:11:00 AM    Add a comment.

Those Damned Buses! Caught the Red CAT to East Perth again, as it was raining this morning. Nothing but small buses again! I guess the medium-sized ones will come out after the rains when nobody needs them. 9:07:05 AM    Add a comment.