Archive for June, 2009

I Hate Lazy Graphic Designers

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

Why do I hate lazy graphic/type designers?  Because I’ve been seeing shit tons of ads on USA for Royal Pains while I’m watching Burn Notice, and they always show this shitty Futura-looking logotype:

royalpains

And I can’t get it out of my head that some designer at the USA Network is cheating on his wife with an ExxonMobil branding specialist.  There’s no fucking way it’s a coincidence that there’s modified “X” form in the same font of each logotype:

exxonmobil

FUCK ME. The more I look at these two logos the more I want to murder people. I know I’m not a trained, certified, hipster graphic artist, but for the love of Christ, do some research before submitting your work!

UPDATE: A friend informed me that the typeface to be angry about is Avant Garde, not Futura.  He also looks like he should be featured on “Look At This Fucking Hipster.”

Posted in Douchebaggery, Graphic Design, Jackassery, Rants, Typography | No Comments »

The Bootable SD Slot And You: Facts To Know

Saturday, June 27th, 2009

With the recent announcement of Apple’s Mid-2009 lineup of MacBook Pro models, and the introduction of the 15-inch and newly rebranded 13-inch models with SD (and SDHC) memory card slots, the world has been drooling over the notion of bootable SD cards serving as emergency disks for oh-shit recovery of a fallen Mac while on the road.  I am completely in favor of this idea, but the SD/SDHC boot capability has been around since January 2006.

Beginning with Apple’s adoption of Intel processors and implementation of EFI, booting devices over Macs’ built-in USB buses has been a trivial task. Those Apple computers with FireWire ports can also boot from a properly configured 1394 device as well.  The large majority of SD/SDHC memory card readers, including the Belkin-branded model living in my ExpressCard slot, are USB bridges that are usually bootable.  Apple’s own built-in SD readers are also USB, which is half of an ExpressCard slot (but I’ll not rant about that now.)  Almost any device on a bootable interface, including USB flash-based thumb drives, can hold an emergency bootable operating system.

For several months, I’ve been using the OCZ Diesel 16GB USB flash drive to test my OH SHIT image with pretty decent results. I’m a cheap bastard, and I’m not going to be spending $100+ to get the super duper high speed flash drives from OCZ or Corsair.  When I bought my two, I paid around $26 or so from NewEgg, but the price has fluctuated to almost $40 before coming back to $33 as of today.  Anyways, I create my boot image on an external FireWire drive because it is so much faster to create, update, and image.  Once finalized and set up for restore, I use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy everything to the Diesel, and it’s amazing.

If you want to see a tutorial for dummies because I’m too lazy to do it myself, here’s a video on Macworld.com on how to set up a bootable SD card, which would work the same for any appropriately sized USB flash drive as well.

Just don’t let anyone tell you this is a “new” feature. Except that the SD slot is “built-in”, this functionality has existed for years.

Posted in Apple, Mac Stuff, Technology | No Comments »

Another Year, Another iPhone Launch…

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

Well, this is the 3rd iPhone launch that I’ll experience up close and personal. This time, however, I will not be involved in the bastardry and insanity that is waiting in line like a goddamned fool to get a phone.  No, I’m just going to take some pictures of the crowds whenever I feel like wandering over to the local Apple Store.

I don’t understand things like product launches drawing this kind of crowd.  Movies and concerts I get, but all of this hubbub for a piece of Chinese plastic that is WAY better designed, but not completely unlike other pieces of Chinese plastic to hit the market.  It’s insane, and I like it.  A LOT.

Don’t get me wrong: I own some Apple stock and I’d like to see it go up to the 160+ range this summer so I can sell off and relieve my debt ratio that has given me Goatse-like pains the past 2 years.  When Apple does well, it helps out the rest of the “Mac economy” so to speak, and I am just such a member of that economy.  More success is good.  Watching crazy douchebags break their credit cards doing it: priceless.

Just thought of something: they should sell the JesusPhone in vending machines at all Starbucks and Saddleback Church locations.  Please contact me so I can provide a mailing address for commission checks thankyouverymuch.

Posted in Apple, JesusPhone, Phones, Rants, WTF, iPhone | No Comments »

Looks like my next MacBook Pro will have a 17-inch screen

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Because Apple has neutered the 15-inch models with an SD card reader instead of something, oh I don’t know, professional like a FUCKING EXPRESSCARD SLOT.

And just because enough people bitched about FireWire being stripped from the 13-inch portables doesn’t mean you can add it back on, praise it like a gift from Jesus, and call it a “pro” portable when it has integrated video.

And maybe I’m just a bit cynical when I say that Apple is looking to have more retail shelf space available by not stocking spare batteries because STEVE JOBS SAYS YOU DON’T NEED A SPARE BATTERY ANYMORE. YOU’LL LIKE THIS ONE JUST FINE.

But people will buy them, and a few of us will be sitting in the corner bitching about lack of options.  Bleh.

Posted in Apple, Douchebaggery, Jackassery, Mac Stuff, Rants, Technology, WTF | No Comments »