Mr Altruistic

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

Ah Cityrail aka Shittyrail. This was the message that greeted me as I arrived at Hornsby Station on a Thursday night recently after catching a late-running train from work:

Attention passengers on platform 3, Due to an incident with a hand grenade at Concord Station, your 5:57 Cityrail service is running approximately 18 minutes late

So when my train arrived over 40 minutes late (where did they get that approx. 18 from?) I thought to myself Hand Grenades? Now who in their right mind would want to blow up Cityrail? The “hand grenade” in question turned out to be a plastic toy that didn’t even resemble a hand grenade… is paranoia setting in or what? One bad observation from a dim-witted passenger and the entire Cityrail network goes into chaos - Interesting how life works isn’t it.

While we are on hoaxes, as predicted by vilesilencer several weeks back, the internet beheading fraud videos have started. One 22 year old American chap by the name of Benjamin Vanderford has taken it upon himself to demonstrate how simple it is to create, with the help of a few friends, an authentic looking terrorist beheading video which the media will run as a story when really the cast of the video are sitting snug in their suburban homes not in Iraq.

The Olympics are also upon us, and I am similar to Dave who suggests in the latest Shintara update that he doesn’t watch much sport. I will usually watch the odd game of Rugby League if 2 decent teams are playing (watching the bunnies get flogged week after week isn’t my idea of entertainment), and I do like the Union internationals. In the latter’s case though after last weekends dismal performance by the Wallabies where no less than 3 penalties were given (where one resulted in a try) for not delivering the lineout throw in time, you could be forgiven for thinking it was a schoolboy match.

Back to the Olympics the latest drama seems to be the failure of young Sally Robbins to complete the womens 8 rowing final, and not being one to sit on the fence I’ve decided to dedicate some page space to my opinion on this issue. The other 7 rowers and the cox (the girl in the boat that keeps them in rythym) have all come out labelling Sally a quitter and a choker. Many top coaches have also said they have never seen this sort of thing happen in a rowing event before… BUT it has happened before, and it was the same rower involved. Sally Robbins. In the 2002 World Championship Quad Scull race she collapsed from exhaustion AND the current coaches and rowers in the squad KNOW of this performance. Why then did they not only have her in the team but put her in the “engine room” the number 6 seat in the boat, which is where you put the power source of the team, the most powerful and competent rower goes there. If they knew she had failed before, why do this??? Well it’s interesting and we could debate about it for hours, but it really all comes down to trust in a team, and they trusted her in that position. So to me, those that gave her the chance in that position are also at fault in this, if we are going to start blaming people.

After giving her all for the team Sally has let them down, and no one will be more hard on her than herself for that… Maybe she rowed too hard too early, but what’s been lost in this whole spectacle is that the Olympics is not about winning medals, or ruining peoples lives if you don’t win. Sure a medal is the reward at the end of winning the race, but surely the games is about mateship, sportsmanship and pride in your country and your team. Because the team didn’t win all the blame has rested at poor Sally’s feet. If Sally has rowed herself to the point of exhaustion, where was the rest of the team? Were they not pulling their weight forcing her to do more? I think its disgusting for 7 other people that have oars in their hands to blame one person for not winning. They put her in the power #6 position. They knew she had failed in a championship before. They are at the Olympics and should behave as a team, wether they come in first or last. I’ll leave the last word on this from Pat McNamara, Rowing Australia President, who passed on what one of the coaches said to the rest of the team “He told them the reason they were in the position they were in was because of Sally, Being in the engine room, she was the strongest. His comments were: ‘Don’t be too hard on her because she got you to the position where you were challenging the Romanians. If the rest of you had put in as hard, you probably would’ve been a length in front of them’.” I think that says it all

What’s happened to the wrestling? I flicked over the other day and none of the big names are ever on anymore… Goldberg, Nash, Steiner, Stone Cold, Big Show, The Rock, Mankind, Sting, even The Hulkster. None of them wrestle anymore… Whose this Chris Benoit bloke? He sux. Dodgiest champ they have ever had. I know he’s been around for a long time but he was never championship material, he was usually fodder for the other wrestlers. And what about John Cena? He’s like a 2k version of Vanilla Ice. Word! hehehe Bring back Stone Cold, the show sux!

Australian Idol have almost decided their top 12, and after the unheralded success of the Big Brother Forum and to a lesser extent the chatroom, we’ve decided to support Idol as it rolls into the top 10. The Australian Idol Forum is already off to a flying start. There is a lot of discussion, including a massive fan base supporting Chanel Cole and her bid to become the Idol. So join us at the Australian Idol Forum or the Australian Idol Chatroom and join in the fun

For a few weeks now I’ve been going to the Greengate Hotel on a Thursday night to have a few bevvy’s after work and play a few games of Big Buck Hunter (see image). A great cover band coverdrive began playing up there and made the nights a lot of fun… The guys played all throughout July and Thursday a few weeks back was their last gig. I wish the guys well and thank them for entertaining me during July.

After a big night on Saturday just over 2 weeks back, I blew the KFC ban the following morning. A Bacon & Cheese combo, with BBQ and satay sauce to compliment the large chips and popcorn chicken, went down like a dream, and cured the hellish hangover. Therefore the NO KFC counter resets after a mammoth 135 days without The Colonel. Perhaps the longest stint without those 13 secret herbs and spices since its inception into the Australian culture.

My final snippet this week is to share with you this hilarious picture parody I stumbled upon last night. It’s probably been around on the net for years, but I will share it anyways as its a clever way of showing why you should Never post your picture on the internet - enjoy

Apologies for the delay in creating Version 2.0 of this site. It really needs a facelift but finding the time to alter the text file to make these updates is difficult enough let alone finding the time needed to do some back-end coding, so the wait will continue.

2 months in oblivion, but I’m back and busting to update The Silencer. So what have been my thoughts over the last couple of missing-in-action months:

(i) I was appalled at the beheadings carried out by the fundamentalist/extremist/terrorist groups in recent weeks, though I have watched several of the videos, including the one involving Nick Berg (be warned the video is extremely graphic). No one deserves to die that way. Whilst I can understand the killers motives behind taking and killing hostages, their method of execution is barbaric and will only prolong the conflict and create greater tension. I can see no end in sight anytime soon for this. We will also have to put up with hoax videos.

(ii) I think the Tahitian Temptress from Barker College in Sydney, Francesca Willis, is a total babe, and I wish the girls were more like that when I was at High School (Barker College was in close proximity to where I went to school hehehe). The school uniform photos were done in an artistic and professional way, and whilst sexy, I don’t think brought the school into disrepute. I’d be more worried, if I was the Headmaster, about Barker students drinking under age. Hey, I’m not preaching, I know it happens I’m not suggesting that 16 and 17 year olds don’t get on the piss… BUT, Francesca was suspended for portraying the school in a bad light. Surely, teenagers photographed having alcohol is far more damaging to the school and its faculty than a couple of sexy photos - My $2 worth hehehe.

(iii) I think Australia Big Brother 4 has outplayed itself, and is no longer a viable show (though you can still view my comments at the BB forum under the pseudonym RaGe). The Hot Tip? I think Paul or Trevor will take out the Million Bucks on offer.

(iv) The Day After Tommorow (2004)? saw it, and found it to be (like Independence Day (1996) before it) wallowing in self-praising American patriotism, that quite frankly detracts from what otherwise would’ve been a very good film… The plus out of the film is that it is arguably Dennis Quaid’s best performance and showcases his transition from ordinary to established actor.

Well, It looks like I’m back peeps. Woo hoo! and with a vengeance. Whilst Andrew Johns was too wrapped up in his comfort zone to switch from Rugby league to Rugby Union, I’ve taken the giant leap and moved from PC to Mac. However whilst Joey Johns had to make an all-or-nothing decision, I have the luxury of switching back and forth as it suits me. At this stage I’m looking at purchasing perhaps a low cost PC desktop to complement this laptop. That isn’t something that will happen in the near future though, as I want to really get to know this OS and machine back-to-front, and know I won’t whilst jumping back and forth between the 2. So you never know I may put the hot box (the Lian Li customised PC desktop I was building) back on the construction list… who knows? anything is possible at this stage.

So what incarnation of mactology did I get? Well if you know me, then you know I don’t do things by halves so I went out and got the 17″ G4 Powerbook, so that I had the combination of portability and power.

First Impressions? Well I have used Macs before so it’s not really first impressions lol. The first thing I notice is that I am heavily reliant on the mouse. The trackpad, whilst being nifty and clever, is still one of the most annoying things about a laptop. I am a little torn on the whole meese issue. I’ve never been a fan of the Apple one-button mouse. I know they think it’s ultra cool, but seriously, it’s perhaps the most backward thinking idea i have ever come across. They advertise it as “no scroll wheel”, like that is a good thing - umm I like the scroll wheel - its why im so reliant on the mouse. Getting rid of that is just plain dumb. Having said that I am conscious of the fact that Dave from Shintara will call me a dirty windows user if I stick with their mouse technology so I’m contemplating adopting the apple meese even though I don’t like it. I plugged in my mate Filthy’s optical USB PC mouse and it works superb on this, I nearly walked out of his place with the mouse still attached hehehe.

The whole comfort of having applications that you know everything about, plus being able to plug all the holes in windows, now all go out the window (along with that operating system hehehe), and I think that as much as anything is the challenge that I am looking forward to. PC’s for me are a bore and a chore. After using them for over 20 years in an expert capacity you get to the point where they are no longer a clever tool and become extremely tedious.

What’s creamed my daks me about this machine straight up? The screen… Its huge and it is exceptionally sharp - I’m sorry but unless you are using something like a 21″ SGI monitor on your PC then my screen absolutely and utterly shits all over yours. The other thing is the user friendly apps, like iTunes where you’re libraries are all sorted out by the application itself not the user. A lot of the tedium is taken out of the housekeeping tasks so that you just get to do what you are on the machine to do. The last thing is the speed. This thing flys, and I know in a previous article I haven’t noticed too much of a speed difference between say a 3Ghz P4 and a Dual-2Ghz but this is different. I think it is probably a little unfair as the machine is almost brand new and therefore devoid of garbage, but as far as straight out of the box goes, this thing is ultra fast - I was surprised - and that’s rare.

So what else has been happening? I’ve cracked the no-KFC ton, and I’m looking for a double century (and after that I guess Bradman’s 334 looms) and haven’t had Maccas or Burger King either in probably just as long a time… Take-away pizza and hot fish and chips still get a large workout though so I have to work on removing them from the diet.

I am about halfway through an ADSL application, so I will be a broadbander in the next few days, which will also be a welcome change. I’m looking at it for several reasons. First off, I find it ridiculous to have such a powerful machine and to have to sit and wait for shit to load on the net. Secondly, The deal that the geek put me onto looked too good to resist. 16 gig download a month, for a slight amount more than what I was paying for dialup - Un-fucken-beleiveable. Thirdly, I’m looking at getting back into the xBox scene, and thought what better way to do that than shift to xBox live in anticipation of the release of Halo 2, which is set to be the best multiplayer game ever released, bar none…

I’ve been back on the bass guitar a couple of times, care of the completion of the Time Signature Studios, in which I played a hand at building. I was a bit rusty, but it doesn’t take too long to get a few riffs and licks happening again. I’d love to get a fat Musicman Bass one of these days, but it’s not a high enough priority for me at the moment, given that they cost about as much as a new car. Oh By the way I have some dakcreaming before & after shots of the TSS studio which I will share once I get settled on this machine. Hopefully by next update so stay tuned on that one.

Vilesilencer Version 2.0 the second coming of the site is close to beginning construction. I have an idea for a brand-spanking new banner, and that usually prompts me to overhaul a site. Also in keeping with the new line on technology that I have taken, I want the site to reflect that. Previously I have dabbled with making the site available to as many browsers as possible. Now my thinking has changed. By making this site available to shit browsers like Netscape 4.7 (and just about every early version of IE), I have been one webmaster prolonging the use of those browsers - Time to cut the cord. Either download the latest versions of browsers or live in the past…

I hope fellow webmasters, who I know also contribute to the longevity of those dodgy old browsers, take the same steps to help remove them from the ‘net. I want the site to be super easy to build, maintain and render - so it will be a full CSS site in a very basic format. I still want to be friendly with search engines so I will cater to their whims for a little bit longer…

Until next time peeps. Maintain the rage!

I’ll just let you know im a couple of glasses into a 2002 Tatachilla partners Cabernet Sauvignon Shiraz. But tell me, whats with the screw top lid these days? no corks? Don’t like it. Anyways If I start slurring my typing, you’ll know why… I nailed another good red the other night that I’ve been cellaring for a couple of years. It was a d`Arenberg “The Footbolt Shiraz” 1998. I cellared it and a ‘96 on advice from my boss a few years ago now, and it’s paid off, the ‘98 was exceptional. I’m pretty sure the ‘96 is going to be super special. I’m saving that one for a special occassion, perhaps to share with another wine afficionado (you might have seen me spell this with one “f” in previous threads - it can go either way - I swear it’s not the fault of the booze ;).

Other news? Im surrounded, bombarded if you will, by KFC. First off my friends live next door to a KFC and secondly where I currently work you can walk halfway up the street and smell the aroma from a KFC. Walk the other halfway and you are standing at the front door. I had a healthy lunch today, and after reading through the North Shore Times and ogling the houses in picturesque locations that I would never be able to afford I went for a little walk up the street just to think through a few things, and I was piled-drivered by the all-pervading aroma of the KFC - so much so that I very nearly went and got some, I had to force myself not too. Then there’s the ads. I was watching the v8 supercars last weekend, which I don’t do very often, and every second ad was a KFC ad. On top of that they seem to have tripled their advertising in prime time… arrgghhhh!!!!

If that’s not bad enough nearly everyone I chat to eats the stuff and goes on and on about how good it tastes. So why the self-imposed KFC ban? I hear you ask. Well, I’m a KFC addict. If you start me on that stuff I’ll eat it nearly every day. I used to work for a large firm that was across the road from Maccas and KFC. Now, I probably had Maccas once or twice a week, but I had KFC at least 3 times a week. It was shocking I put on so much weight. I’m losing it now, and that’s because I have banned myself from ingesting this junk. Hey I still love it, much like a smoker loves a cigarette, but I’m forgoing it so that I can graduate from the Brad Pitt School of Buff.

I’m tossing up what direction I’m going in at the moment. I’ve been working at a digital printing place for just on a month now, and I’m dead bored of it. There’s no autonomy and access to a PC is a first-come basis. We are all sitting there waiting to use the machine it is just pathetic. I’m seriously thinking about returning to my former place of work, something I told myself I would never do, but there I had my own desk, own machine, own clients and a position that had a decent level of responsibility and respect. It wouldn’t be a position I could see myself in forever, but it’s stable and at least I’m using a computer all day in order to keep my skills fresh.

So what’s happening with the silencer? The version is now 1.7 of this current design. I decided to remove the random banners again as they were repeating on resos higher than 1024 x 768. I’ve gone back to the charred face, as its been synonymous with the design and vilesilencer name for some time now.

Since the bandwidth has been increased on the site, I’m planning on adding some more photography in weeks to come, so there’ll be more viewing pleasure. My motivational level is lacking but I plan on getting a laptop very soon too, and then broadband, so if that all goes ahead expect to see a lot more new stuff on the silencer. I might even start the long-awaited version 2.0 - an all new look on an all new back-end design.