Hottest Women in Technology
I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts since the summer. I listened pretty exclusively to TWiT and Cranky Geeks a few years ago but stopped because I was always doing other things that required my attention while I was listening. A friend mentioned to me in the summer that he likes listening to his podcasts while driving– HELLO! That’s an idea! At the time I was driving 6 hours a weekend in 3 hour intervals (which I understand is not an outstanding amount of time, but it is enough time to get bored). So I resubscribed to TWiT, Cranky Geeks, Buzz Out Loud, TWiF, TWiG, and WNYC’s Radio Lab, and also picked up Diggnation, The Totally Rad Show, HD Nation, and Tekzilla to watch in place of crummy TV.
I absolutely love TWiT and Diggnation. I’ve listened and watched quite a few episodes, but I’ve found a startling consistency. The obsession with women, and specifically techy women is overwhelming. When women are mentioned all serious comments hover around how physically attractive the woman is. Even the “old dogs” like Leo Laporte (TWiT), who would I have thought could control his hormones to refrain from obsessing over a woman’s physical worth is not immune from mentioning, “She is is a gorgeous woman.” But what really tuned me in to this was Diggnation’s choice of covering a story regarding the hottest women in technology. I’m not sure this is the original story, but this received over 2000 diggs on Digg.com and literally (at least apparently literally) ranks women based on their ability to attract others: Top 10 Hottest Women in Tech (oh, and there is a “Top 10 Hottest Women in Tech Part 2” with over 1000 diggs). The articles actually point out that these women are as successful as they are because of how attractive they are.
I know it’s the feminist in me, and women are not as common in technology as men are, but I still find it ridiculous that a woman can apparently only be successful in technology if she is physically attractive to her geeky male counterparts.
OVFC Logo
A couple months ago I designed a temporary logo for the Ottawa Valley Food Co-operative because their website is currently undergoing an overhaul. I wasn’t very happy with the logo so today I redesigned it and it turned out infinitely better.
I designed the logo in Adobe Illustrator, which was problematic because I haven’t and don’t use it very often. I like to think I’m getting better though– Sometimes I still think there are things that Photoshop does better than Illustrator.
Business Card
I designed myself a new business card today that I will probably get printed tomorrow. I keep running into people at school that I’d like to stop and ask if they’ve modelled and if they would be interested in modelling. I figure I should give them a business card when I do so. So here it is (front and backs)!
Apple In-Ear Headphones
I currently have two iPods: my iPhone 3G, and a 30GB iPod video. The iPod lives in my car, while I use my iPhone for every-day use because I hate carrying more with me than is necessary. Monday, after my Info midterm, the headphones that came with my iPhone decided to konk out. I had been looking at the Apple In-Ear Headphones for a while because I’ve heard the sound is impressive in comparison to the standard set of earbuds.
They arrived, today, 3 minutes before FedEx guaranteed them to be delivered! I decided to do a photo unboxing; it gave me a chance to play with my fun lenses. I used a 50mm 1.8 with closeup filters for macro, and the Lens Baby Composer for all the fancy blurs.
With the earbuds, you get a carrying case, two extra sets of silicone ear tips–which equates to sets of small, medium, and large–two replacement mesh caps, and instructions.
We’ll look at the earbuds, first. As I said, they come in a carrying case, as do the extra ear tips.
The earbuds, to me, appear smaller than the traditional earbuds in that the necks are slimmer. Also, the ear tips are softer than I had anticipated. When I plugged the headphones in and listened to some Coldplay, the sound was quite obviously crisp and clean. I even plugged in my old headphones and finally realized how mucky the sound was. There isn’t as much bass support on the new earbuds as I’d like, but I like how defined and clean the sound is.
The remote on my old headphones was the one-button remote that only let one turn off the headphones to answer a call. The new remote has volume control, and allows one to play, pause, and skip songs. However, since I only have the iPhone 3G, the volume control does not work. It’s not a deal breaker, obviously, but it would be nice to have that support. As for the microphone, entertainingly enough, my mum called me just when I plugged in the headphones and put them on. The microphone seems to work–no complains; no raves.
Something I immediately took note of when I plugged the new headphones in, was the actual jack. This is something I’ve noticed with quite a few Apple products: where a chord meets a plug, the casing sometimes separates and you can see and touch the wire beneath it. But the jack on the new headphones seems quite a bit more secure.
As I said, the extra ear tips–small and large–come in their own carrying case, and the medium ear tips come installed on the earbuds. I tried the small and large but ultimately settled on the mediums. I like Apple’s attention to detail in the case for the extra ear tips, but why would one need to carry around extra tips? They’re kind of useless after one has determined what size their ear is.
Thanks for the extra caps, Apple! I’ve never had to replace caps–not even on my first iPod headphones, which I still have and use on occasion. These will sit in the box, in my closet. Don’t misunderstand, though, I think it’s great that Apple includes these, just in case.
Overall, I’m impressed with the headphones. I’m glad I got them–even though my old headphones decided to fix themselves the day after I ordered the new ones! 
Nikki
Today I worked with Nikki, from the Agency. I haven’t shot in a while, and was really needing to, and it’s been quite some time since my last nude session. Also, I was planning on shooting this girl all summer but never had the time!
Sweet, Sugary, Ratty Goodness
The question I find hardest to answer is “What is your favourite band?” Well first of all I find this question very misleading as generally what is meant by this question is not “band” but “band, musician, or singer?” But that is not why the question is difficult to answer. My issue is that my musical interests are so broad that they are hard to narrow to a few words, lest I bore people to death or scare them into never talking to me again. Furthermore, my all-time favourites are typically artists that no one my age–or any age, for that matter–has heard of.
I do find fleeting love in popular music from time to time. However generally my interest is geared toward alternative rock–and I don’t mean the Alanis Morissette “alternative rock”–acoustic, and folk–and yes, I intentionally left that open to sub-genres. To shorten the guessing game, I will list for you some of my favourite artists: Margot & the Nuclear So & So’s, The Dresden Dolls, Martin Sexton, Vance Gilbert, Jory Nash, and Hoots and Hellmouth. These are artists that I find particularly exceptional. But this is the problem I’m really trying to address here! I generally only like listening to music that is strumming the exact chord in me, at the time, that requires me to stop doing what I’m doing and listen, and sends shivers all over my body. This is hard to find, especially when one’s taste is as obscure as mine. While I’ve been able to rely on my friends in a few cases–I found Margot and The Dresden Dolls through friends–generally my friends aren’t interested in the same type of music as I am.
However, years ago a friend did introduce me to Candyrat. Candyrat is an international record label that is, as I have come to discover, home to some of my most favourite artists. Of course I discovered this because Candyrat posts videos of recently recorded material and up-coming albums on their YouTube channel. So far I’ve had to buy three albums: Stefano Barone’s Particolare#uno, Brendan Power & Andrew White’s self titled album Power & White, and Gift Horse by Mark Minelli. I’m also a big fan of Don Ross, Andy McKee, and Antoine Dufour.
It’s actually becoming a bit ridiculous how often I have to visit the iTunes store in order to download the latest Candyrat album. And another has just been released! Jimmy Wahlsteen’s album 181 Songs has just been released on the Candyrat website, and will be released in the iTunes store on the 28th. Because I’ve been repeating this and other videos posted of him–and because the arm socks are so cool–I figured I’d share this with you: Shifts of Attention.
Layer Masks vs Clipping Masks
Today I received this question on Aardvark: “In Photoshop CS4, is it possible to lock the position of a layer mask and not the image layer position itself?” I hopped on Photoshop to see if there was actually an option to lock a layer mask, but there didn’t seem to be–not surprisingly, as the asker probably explored some options. So what options are there?
My first instinct was to unlink the layer and its mask. Unfortunately, while this provides control over the positioning of the layer and its mask individually, it does not solve the problem of accidental movement of the layer mask–which is quite easy, since the mask is automatically selected when one selects the layer. So instead, I suggested a clipping mask.
The clipping mask is not entirely unlike a layer mask in that it allows one to display and hide content without destroying the original layer. The only difference is that a layer mask is applied to the original layer, whereas the clipping mask IS the original layer, applied to another layer. Usually I use clipping masks for layer-specific colour correction or curve alterations, but in this case the clipping mask would be equally as effective as the layer mask.
We’ll assume that we are familiar with the layer mask, that being a layer mask is a black and white image applied to a layer; where white displays the layer and black hides the layer–rendering it transparent. The process is very easy, one just chooses Layer > Layer Mask > Reveal All, and paints black what they want to hide.
The clipping mask is different than the layer mask in a couple distinct ways, beyond how the effect is applied. Unlike a layer mask, the layer to which a clipping mask is applied is not restricted to black and white. It can be any colour, many colours, and even another image. Furthermore, it is, in my opinion, more easily accessible, alterable, and expandable, especially for people who are less familiar with the Photoshop interface. However, it can seem a bit more complicated on first glance.
GraphicConverter
One of the most aggravating consistencies in web design and image display on the web is the web’s lack of rules regarding colour display. What do I mean by this? Well, depending on your browser, you may or may not be able to view an image with the colour profile that it was intended to be viewed with. This can be particularly aggravating when your most favourite new photo set sports spectacular colour, but the colour gamut is far larger than that of Generic RGB–the closest I’ve seen to what is possibly displayed on the web. It is even more particularly aggravating when the website you designed using “safe for web colours” displays as an ugly yellow instead of the vibrant and nearly blinding green you had originally expected.
I thought I had made some headway in remedying the problem when I discovered Photoshop CS4’s option to merge an image’s colour profile when saving for web. I was excited, when I viewed my new images in Safari 4… but then I viewed it in Firefox, only to discover that Safari apparently has the ability to display an image with its original colour profile. Darn it!
Out of boredom, tonight, I decided to give the software that a friend encouraged me to download a try. I have to admit that in theory it looked awesome and confusing, but tedious as it would add to my workflow–I hate adding to my workflow.
After following his instructions, and getting some reassurance, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it in fact managed to apply an image’s original colour profile to the image, instead of the common convention of requiring various software to apply the profile itself–something most browsers opt out of doing altogether.
It is called GraphicConverter, and it is awesome. They call the method “embed[ing] an ICC color profile”, but all I really care about is the fact that my website looks the way it was meant to!
I found the interface somewhat daunting on first glance, and so I will now outline instructions for exporting your images.
- 3 Comments | GraphicConverter, Ben Anderman
- Apple, artist, colour, design, photos, Photoshop, software
Aardvark
When I’m having technology-related problems, I often seek help from my tech-savvy friends via MSN… This is not entirely the most convenient method as not everyone is always online, like me, and not every who is online at any given time knows the answer, or has time to answer.
Recently I was looking for a fix to monitor calibration issues I was having with Photoshop. I had JUST calibrated my monitor, but noticed that photos were displaying differently in Photoshop than they did on the web. This is incredibly aggravating, as the photos in Photoshop appeared purple, colour correcting would subsequently prove difficult. In an attempt to find the answer, I asked a photography friend, who pointed me to a tech friend, who pointed me to Aardvark.
Aardvark is a system which allows one to ask a question, and receive an answer. It expands communication from friends and Google to a world of professionals, hobbyists, and enthusiasts in practically any field.
Paraphrased, you sign up for Aardvark, add it to your favourite IM client (although that isn’t even necessary, as it also supports email and web-based communication), and start asking questions. It will determine which other members are likely to know the answer, and messages them, asking if they’d like to give your question a shot. All answers are sent back to your IM account (or email, if you’ve gone offline before getting your answer).
Aardvark would of course appreciate if you opted to answer questions, as well. When you register, it asks for three fields in which you are knowledgeable, with the ability to add more, later. From time to time it sends you an IM message or email saying you may know the answer to someone’s questions, and asks whether you want to try answering or not. If you do, type “sure”, if you don’t, type “pass”, or just exit the window. Aardvark also allows you to “try” a question, if you’re bored (I’ve used this to pass the time a couple times, already).
I never did get a satisfactory answer to my question about monitor calibration and Photoshop, but in Aardvark’s defense, the answers I did get were as helpful, if not more helpful than my friends and Google! Otherwise, I’ve had satisfactory answers to my questions, and I like to think I’ve helped a few people!
Acquired Taste
I’m redesigning my personal portfolio website. I’m using the same Flash system I am using, now, but Ben is making a few changes to the code for me so that I have a few more awesome features, like photo navigation by numbers, and links that point directly to photos in the gallery!