instead of waiting for my dj friends to give me content for my radio project, I decided to make a podcast out of any good mixtape mp3 file I found on the web (like this set from dj spark). so, as anyone with ANT can subscribe to my videoblog feed, people could also subscribe to my music feed on ipodder…
.
the thing is, this ipodder doesn’t recognize my feed… i’m trying now ipodderx, which downloads even torrents (way better to handle the traffic) but it’s a paid app…

a lot of emotions I want to share, but I’m not very good with english language. but music is universal, huh? so I decided to share some of the songs I’m most into, five at a time.
.
click on the banner below, and you can listen to it. courtesy of soundblox (which I used in zona visser, another project of mine)

800.03, Gab.Gato

this song is so obscure I don’t even have it’s actual name… just 800.03.mp3, and that’s it.
how I feel: a cyborg rechecking its peripherals before a procedure. a subroutine. grey, cold, and monotone. detached and snobby.
also check: the “automatuch”, or something like that. the different voices for different subroutines.
grab it: there’s no way iTMS has it (even google shows meager pages about). and since some other sites offer the mp3, you can download from me too. (control-click on windows, alt-click on a mac)

Aéro Dynamik, Kraftwerk

how I feel: in a happy airport. optimistic. it’s a mantra, you know.
also check: the starry bleeps. the chorus, sinalizing the way.
grab it: iTMS has it, fellas. buy it there, and deDRM it later with jhymn.

In The Future With Machines, FPU

how I feel: a good song for a drag queen to perform. vfull of drama.
also check: the egiptian bg. the lyrics, in fact.
grab it: no digital store around, but cds, still. sorry, folks

Konpyuta, Plastique de Réve

how I feel: archeologists find an ancient document detailing the purposes of computers. historic revisionism, reifying the digital experience. technognosis.
also check: the german/japanese voice. the attention to spell kon-pyu-ta right. like if the desitiny of mankind depends on it.
grab it: nowhere around, so grab it from me. (control-click on windows, alt-click on a mac)

Scorpio, The Fever

how I feel: powerful, but headed to a fall. doomed. scorpio people are short-sighted, you know. feel like placing a bet you can’t cover. pokerface all around.
also check: egyptian bg also. guitars, a thing I don’t usually like, but worked right on it.
grab it: on iTMS. (did I say about jhymn already?)

promethea DVD
.
I’m used to read comics on my computer (all I have to do is to turn my notebook to the side, and view the pages as a slideshow) and since I installed iDVD, i was dying to try it out.
.
so, I decided to make a comics DVD, which means, a slideshow DVD with an entire comic collection. I wanted to make sure the navigation was the same or better than the paper version, so I decided for a comic I didn’t read it yet and I would surely love. alan moore’s promethea seemed like a good bet.
.
below are some screenshots of my progress. sadly, I realized I had no more blank DVDs to spare, so I have to wait till I’ll buy a new batch.
.
click on each image to view it bigger, with technical notes (another nice feature of flickr). then, roll the mouse over each square to read them.
.

DVD cover menu: this one is default from iDVD. since you can’t use more than 12 chapters and I had 31 issues, I organized each 3 issues on one.
.

chapter detail: iDVD shows the exact same folders and organization from iPhoto (pictures) and iTunes (music). it’s no good at refreshing, tho, so the best move is to organize all folders & pictures on iPhoto, and then start on iDVD.
.

project map: iDVD has a limit of 99 images on each slideshow, so a manga has to be chopped down, for example. it worked fine with american comics, tho.
.
disclaimer: I made it for my own consumption, and although I downloaded the entire collection from bittorrent (bad boy) I also own the editions. i guess I don’t have to bother about it, since ABC comics is a small company, and instead of think “ohmygod, those little rascals found another way to rip us off” they’ll probably think “hey, another source of revenue for our collections, and look: it’s cheaper to produce than our trade paperbacks!” (sadly, it only works good on dvd notebooks - you have to rotate the monitor to read it)
.
update:sadly, ABC comics is a branch of wildstorm comics, which is an offshot of DC comics, owned by warner. shoud I wait the media conglomerate unleash its minion of ferocious lawyers upon my (literaly) poor soul, or is the plutocratic police state of amerika not done yet?

getting organized
.
in this week alone, i started three new projects. all easy and fun, but I can be overwelmed by small details (i’m an ADHD-type person, and i’m more confortable with abstract concepts than with this cold hash reality, sniff!).
.
so i built this calendar, to be printed (and cut in half, and glued together) and shown poster-like, so you can write down every new appointment or timeframe and consult it to get organized.
.

.
BTW, this flashpaper was made on a mac, thanks to contribute 3.
.
I don’t give a flying fuck for contribute features - to depend your project updates on a corporate communications system is simply insanity for my open source tastes - but flashpaper (macromedia’s solution for adobe acrobat, give or take) is da bomb!

from woostercollective, a graffiti collective blog from the whole world.
.
i’m amazed with flickr. cute interface, nice features, the right policy (releasing their API for free to any non-commercial project).
.
i was getting worried about my picture collection growing impossibly big because of our new camera (it’s easy to get lost if you don’t index it wisely), but flickr is a good tool, both for image input (by web, mail, desktop app and bookmarklet) and output (groups, calendar, blog feature, this nice zeitgeist flash app on your left…).
.
since brazilians are migrating from orkut to multiply, I’m preaching my fotolog friends to move to flickr.

back button troubles
.
reading at slashdot about usability problems on OS apps, i remembered some nightmare cases from the company i worked with, still in brazil.
.
we were building a corporate CMS, the program was getting bloated (impossible marketing promisses, lack of planning) and we reached an impasse: in addiction to the task at hand, some other tools were added - like IM, bookmarks, notes, quick tutorials - and with just a window to navigate, each new task competed for the user’s attention.
.
our solution (me and another interface designer, amid a sea of 11~12 programmers) was to divide the window in frames, separating the central tasks (workflow, word processing, programming) from the peripheral ones (messages, dictionary, to-do-list, quick tutorial).
.
the problem: we invalidate the back button (back what? the message? back the work at hand? back the action of sending the message? undo?). since it’s the most used feature, we had to find a solution.
.
and we did: a small log window on the bottom of the peripheral tasks window, with a history of what you did, and the possibility to return to where you were, and possibly undo some features. the default would be 3 lines, but a multitasker user could change the preferences to 10, 12 lines. with a better back button than the original one, we could drawn the users to our interface and reduce confusion.
.
they loved the ideas, both. sadly, they implemented the first one (the frames), but not the second one (the log window). dunno why, everytime i asked for the second feature, they answered it was easy and could be done later. i assume that the mindset of programmers works this way: if it’s hard to do, it has to be important. if it’s easy, it’s probably irrelevant. that is, a subset of loving to do hard mental jobs, is the impression of any easy job as a personal offense to their abilities.
.
don’t get me wrong, i love work surrounded by technical people. they are straightforward, they love a new challenge, and if they are in a project with you, they are all to this, with no passive-agressive, competitive sabotages that some artistic people are full of. but if you get this only-hard-work feature unchecked, you soon get trapped in a bloated, neverending project, with a lot of contempt for criticism.
.
well, in the end they accomplised the first feature, but never the second one. the back button was still there, confusing users. some months later, we were moving to another floor, but two programmers were busy finishing something “really important” for the client. i asked what it is, and they said “it’s a fullscreen for the system”.
.
“why would they need a fullsccreen system, anyway?” (at the time, it was already know that users feel annoyed by fullscreen browsers, and tend to move away, simply. they didn’t know why the fullscreen. i asked some other people around.
.
in the end, all the client wanted was to get rid of the back button. it was his solution to the problem, because we failed to offer a complete one.
.
and yeah, the users complained later…

the outside, inside
.
internet at home. vonage on the way. new project. money from the old project soon. netflix redirected. 50% discount at supermarket (really, they were closing doors), so fridge full of nice food. home the way we like it (minimal & funny). bathtub (in brazil it’s not a commodity as it is here. and damn, it’s therapeutic!)
.
when i came here, i asked “to be solid”. and then i made a pact with ganesha. because surely there’s some space for me here, i just wanted the right doors to open. and they did.
.
and at the same moment i got solid, my dreams changed, and i remebered what i intentionally forgot (too much to carry, when you have to worry about your basic needs).
.
rise and shine, dude.