Alex Hardy

I’ve not been shy in the past where it comes to making derogatory remarks about Microsoft, their products or the PC in general. My preferences are evident. Going forward though, I want to use this website as a professional vehicle and for it to have some worth.

I don’t want to host a forum for propaganda and bickering. So I’ve made up my mind: I’ll continue to post observations on the tools of my industry, but I won’t stoop to pointless pro-Mac or anti-Windows rhetoric. If I ever do, by all means comment and remind me of this.

If you think that PCs suck or that Macs suck then I offer you Google as a starting point in your quest for like-minded discussion. Enjoy.

Yugop.com is the online playground of acclaimed designer Yugo Nakamura.

With a combination of a slick style and head-melting mathematics, he’s created a collection of artworks in Flash that have been exhibited internationally in galleries as prestigious as the Design Museum in London and the Kunstlerhaus in Vienna.

He is one of the authors of New Masters of Flash by Friends of Ed.

Thanks to Akismet, none have slipped past it so far.

Maybe I should feel flattered. I’ve truly arrived.

Bastards.

It seems that my wishes have been answered…

Adobe have released version 1.0 of Photoshop Lightroom, along with a trial version which replaces the downloadable beta. Prospective users would be wise to download the Aperture trial and put them through their paces in comparison to each other.

I plan to do just that and will report my observations. If anyone else cares to do the same, your comments will be most welcome.

Mark, Gordana, Steph and I went to see the Killers at the M.E.N. Arena last night. Steph’s quickdraw mouse finger had scored us the tickets which sold out in seconds. I got Mark’s ticket as his 30^th birthday present. I thought it would do him good to listen to some of that rock and roll that ‘kids today’ enjoy.

After an unremarkable support band who were too heavy for Steph’s liking, the Killers came on at 9ish. They didn’t waste much time on audience interaction (lead singer Brandon Flowers didn’t seem to know what to say) and pressed on with a selection of songs from their debut album Hot Fuss and their new album Sam’s Town.

I’ve been a bit indifferent to Sam’s Town and a couple of dodgy performances on television meant I didn’t expect great things from Flowers’ vocals. I was pleasantly surprised. What he lacks with hit and miss pitching he makes up for in power and an animated presence on stage. Their songs lend themselves to live venues with plenty of bits that the crowd were singing along to.

I’ve got soul but I’m not a soldier.

I also have a badge, but I’m not a badger.

They sang a Joy Division song as part of their encore, which thanks to Google and my recollection of a few lyrics I have identified as “Shadowplay”. I read they have recorded it for “Control”, a biopic of the band’s front man Ian Curtis.

There was a great buzz in the (packed) arena and I think Sam’s Town may grow on me yet. Steph has lent it to me along with Costello Music by the Fratellis - homework because we’re seeing them tomorrow night at the Apollo

[EDIT] I should also mention that the above photo was taken on my phone, a Sony Ericsson K800i. Not bad at all considering…

You know, the Mac’s Finder is a great piece of work. Simple to use and pleasant to look at, it’s fine for general purpose use. If like most people, ninety percent of your computing life is lived between your browser, email, music, photos and Microsoft Office then it is more than enough for your needs.

However, some of us crave something rather more powerful, less candy-coated. Graphical flourishes may be new to users of Windows Vista, but the novelty of scaling, shadows and transparency wore off for us five years ago. We have needs that Apple are not hurrying to address.

We want a discreet, flexible alternative to the dock. We build websites and applications so we want to access files in several places without having to constantly press F9 for Exposé. We’re heartily tired of having to open image files from list view just to find out their pixel dimensions.

Enter DragThing and Path Finder, you heroes of the shareware world!

Have a look at this screengrab (300k) to see my desktop.

I’ve used DragThing ($29) since the Mac OS 9 days, and it’s a fantastic way to get to the items that you use most. You can make docks and put anything you like in them, configuring them to pretty much any arrangement and style you like. I’ve got a ‘process dock’ for running apps and two little tabs at the bottom-right that I keep apps in.

On the other hand, my relationship with Path Finder ($34.95) has been a bit on-and-off. I used it on my iBook, but found it slow in comparison to the Finder on that humble little computer. I’ve recently tried it again and it offers a compelling replacement.

Dubbed “The Finder for grown ups” by MacUser, it does away with brushed metal and replaces it with a clean, consistent style. Among its features (which you can see on the screengrab) are tabbed windows, a directory crumbtrail, a ‘Drop Stack’ for putting items on as you move them around and *sweet relief* an ‘info’ column where you can see image dimensions.

These applications play nicely with each other (an option in DragThing turns on Path Finder support), and I have merely scratched the surface of their capabilities. At a little over £30 for them both, it’s a deal.

Funny. Probably not work safe.

Cameron Moll has decided to end his spell as a freelancer by taking a full time job. To mark the change, he has posted an article on his website entitled “Farewell to freelancing: Final lessons learned”. He offers advice for freelancers or those considering the leap, elaborating on these key points:

• You’re a business. Act like one.
• Secure office space within 6-12 months.
• You’re not a bank. Remind clients of that.
• Smooth out revenue flow with residual income.
• There’s more to life than business.

A favourite of mine is:

Don’t wait for great ideas to auto-execute. The web economy moves so incredibly fast today. Great ideas won’t turn into profitable action by themselves. If you think you’ve stumbled on that killer idea — one that nobody else is doing, one that others are doing poorly, one that sounds ridiculously simple but deceptively compelling, etc. — the time to act on it was yesterday.

Wise words.

I’m currently applying the design to this website. So it’s probably going to look a bit of a mess for a week or so. When I’ve finished, I’ll post about it.

I bought Okami for the PS2 last week, having eagerly awaited its release. This isn’t a review (I’ll save that until I’ve explored the game further), but I thought I’d post my thoughts on it.

It’s a terrible shame that Clover Studio has been dissolved by parent company Capcom. It seems their unusual games (which include Viewtiful Joe) haven’t managed to turn critical acclaim into commercial success.

Okami itself (via an almost boringly long introduction) tells the tale of a village cursed by the demon Orochi, a many-headed black serpent that lives outside the town in a cave. Every year the villagers were forced to sacrifice a young woman to the demon. This continued until a young man, with the help of a mysterious wolf, fought the demon to save the girl he loved. Together they banished the demon and a shrine was built to mark the site.

But, as the intro says, that is not the end of the tale…

A hundred years later, an unidentified someone removes the hero’s sword from the plynth. This act releases the demon once again. The world is now a blackened, lifeless wasteland. An appeal by the forest nymph Sakuya sees the sun goddess Amaterasu appear in the form of a white wolf.

I’ll put it plainly: Okami is the most beautiful game I have ever played. The artwork, which moves and flows like a combination of impressionist painting and Japanese calligraphy, is breathtaking and seems to get better with every moment you spend playing the game.

Innovative touches are in abundance, the main one being the brush. Through the discovery of techniques you can use it as a weapon, or to restore life. I’ve already used it to paint a bridge over a cliff and a star back into the night sky.

There are also genre formulaic gameplay elements. There’s a bit of pot smashing for money and Amaterasu’s little friend Issun is rather like Link’s companion Navi in Zelda: Ocarina of Time. As long as I don’t end up lighting torches and pushing blocks around I won’t complain too much.

Okami seems tremendously promising and may earn a place in my top 50.