Mr Altruistic

It was recently mentioned by Brad that I plug ‘n’ played a Microshonk USB optical meese. *Gasp!* I can hear all the dedicated Apple users cry… Why did you do that?

Because I’m not one to stop using something simply because I have a fucked up notion in my head that I’m fucking cool because I use Apple. I don’t wake up thinking, where’s my iPod, and my iCereal and my iMilk, geez I need an iCoffee. If you think like that, and I’m pretty sure a lot of Apple users do, then you are an iDickhead.

The reason I use the MS mouse is because it is simply, far superior to a one button mouse that has no scrollwheel (whoever at Apple thought that was a step towards the future needs a bullet). It’s a fact. I apologise to all Apple users if this update was a little pro PC. Bill has 2 things going right:

1. An OS that can install fonts simply;

2. A mouse with superior functionality.

Fonts.

The building block of any designers work.

The backbone of an idea.

The strength, silkiness and confidence that allows one to say I can do that!.

The dilemma?

Font’s that wont install.

The software?

Apple’s very own Font Book and another commercial Font Manager that is proclaimed to be exceptional at handling fonts Extensis Suitcase.

The reality? Both programs are extraordinarily bad at handling something so simple as font installation. The Font Book just doesn’t work. Ask most Mac users and they either don’t know about Font Book (because they’ve never bothered using it) or they’ve tried using it, realise it doesn’t work, then tried something else. So what’s the alternative? Extensis Suitcase. This is described as “an expert font manager that lets you break down your large arsenal of fonts into nice neat compartmentalised categories of fonts”. Sounds great? But it isn’t!

When you try to install more than about 5 fonts at a time you are greeted with a colour wheel that seems inspired by Microsofts blue screen of death, because that is pretty much what you get, an application that requires a force quit. Sure, you can install the fonts one at a time absolutely hassle free. But who in God’s name has time to install 2000+ fonts one at a time? I never had this problem on PC, and it’s a sad indictment on Apple that claim to be “designed with the geek in mind”.

Considering that the Apple is the designer’s machine of choice you would expect that fonts would install effortlessly, but it seems the PC wins this war. Click left mouse button to select first font, Press [Shift], scroll to end of fonts, select last font, drag entire list to the font folder in the windows system directory, watch the progress bar as the fonts install themselves.

Try something like that on the Apple. colour wheel. Abysmal. Almost makes you want to go back…. Almost.

Australian Idol is starting to gather momentum with the final 12 now announced. They are (in no particular order): Amali Ward (f), Angie Narayan (f), Anthony Callea (m), Casey Donovan (f), Chanel Cole (f), Courtney Murphy (m), Dan O’Connor (m), Daniel Belle (m), Emelia Rusciano (f), Hayley Jensen (f), Marty Worrall (m), and Ricki-Lee Coulter. The Australian Idol Forum needs to start firing up now that we are in the final 12 stage of the competition, so sign up and share your opinion with the rest of the great people already there.

Telstra’s very own bum, Civick, introduced me to Salad Fingers one of the weirdest net freaks I’ve ever come across. This reminded me of that long running flash site newgrounds that has many many flash animations but none more classic or disturbing than Britney Spears Getting A Dirty Sanchez. Strong stomachs recommended (for the belly laugh) hehehehe.

It’s amazing how much you miss something so small when it isn’t around to take snaps of opportunities that don’t always present themselves to you. For those who don’t know I own a Canon IXUS 400 Digital Camera, which has been used for all the digital photography on the vilesilencer site. By all accounts it is an amateur camera designed for quick and easy snaps, and since it fits in your pocket it can come in handy. Especially for those armed only with tripod mounted behemoths that need 3 days of perfect light to achieve their ideal shots, the ixus gives you the freedom to take the shots that don’t require artistic perfection (which is about 99% of all the shots I take anyways)…For the last fortnight I have been without said camera (a family member currently in the Kimberley’s in outback Australia has borrowed it) and I have missed the opportunity to take photos of my friend Nathan’s 30th. Ahhh well a good time was had by all, and since I was well and truly drunkskies I probably wouldn’t have taken any in-focus shots anyways. Happy Birthday Old Man and congrats on making it to the big three 0.

Not much else to report at this stage… I still haven’t thought about the long overdue facelift that this site requires. The dilapidated nested tables are starting to crack under their own weight and with only 10 meg left in the hosting bank the animal is fast outgrowing its cage. With that in mind I shifted another resource to the CSS tutorials and SEO resources site. The Add URL page has been updated and moved as it is more an SEO resource than pure silencer content. It is an important page in the scheme of search engine optimisation as it contains a large list of directories and search engines (all free no catches) that you can add your site to, in order to increase your traffic. If those pages all contain good Pagerank (PR), then the in-bound links to your site will also boost your PR. In theory anyways