Thoughtful Preparations: Media Spin Blog

AT&T jobs promotional e-mail header

Are they all sharing one cubicle?  Do they always have lunch together, have outrageous fun, and make their coworkers sick?  Is their boss trying to squeeze into the janitor closet to join the party?  Is she envious of their youthful exhuberance?  Will they continue to bond this closely when one or two of them are right sized?  Will I get more emails with more positions?  Does the company provide free happy pills?  Is the white male trying too hard to belong?  Are they laughing at you because they have better jobs than you do?  Are they standing waist high in a big hole?

Here it is, I’m going to write it down so we don’t forget: the secret to designing a great product. This nugget of advice appeared in Friday’s SF Chronicle, in The Tech Chronicles article by Ryan Kim, “Apple iPhone exec jumps to venture capital firm.”  In the article, the Apple exec, Bob Borchers says,

The key for developing products at Apple was saying no to a lot of features and additions and instead focusing on usability and ease of use.

iPhone 4G Prototype

Scrap iron sculpture of CP30

I am exploring Emeryville, California, as I commute to work there.  There are many warehouses such as Sherwin-Williams paint and Peets Coffee.  Drive along its flat pavement and see old trucks hauling loads of garbage bags, scrap metal and junk.  Some of the junk is recycled very nicely, as in this scrap iron version of the shiny golden Star Wars butler robot CP30.

This futuristic robot is rusty, but well preserved for a Cylon built well over 150,000 years ago.

CP30 Star Wars character close up

This is so cool.  I’ve got to learn how to do stuff like this!

Almost every graphics project is a new experience, for a new platform, new application, or new users.  The Google Android mobile phone has a set of app icons that are arranged in a side lit pseudo 3D perspective.  If you have an Android app you are working on, you will want your icons to be PNG format with a transparent background.  Here is an enlarged icon frame I made to place the company logo for the Android app project I’m working on.  There are very few resources out there, so here is a free one to help other Android GUI visual designers along on their merry way.  Of course, the 240×240 PNG is over-sized for the app, so you have room to work with your own graphics on it. Enjoy!

48×48 icon

Android app icon, 240x240 PNG

ahgdesign.com screenshot

Just finished completed numerous content updates on my new Papervision3d website ahgdesign.com.  The first two galleries have still images that have been in circulation with stock photo agency, SuperStock.  The third gallery has images with links to  animation and Flash projects.  This is the first fully contained Flash website I’ve done in ActionScript 3.

It was more fun to build a brand new site, rather than overhaul the content grab bag of mediaspin.com.  Here I have simply updated some of its content, such as exporting movies to larger sizes using the H264 compressor in QuickTime.  Perhaps mediaspin.com will morph into something different, who knows if I have it in me to take on yet another media watchdog type web site, although I would love it.

The 3D World of the Five Senses

2008 has been a busy year starting with the launch of The 3D World of the Five Senses CD-ROM produced for publication by Teachers Discovery.  Contracting took me to some interesting places in San Francisco, the Peninsula and Washington, D.C., as well as telecommuting from my own home office.  I would have to agree with those who voted SAP as one of the top 10 workplaces.  Their Palo Alto offices are well stocked with grace and grooviness.

Not only am I suprised that 2008 is almost over, I’m surprised the first decade of Y2K is closing out.  Remember all that Y2K excitement?  Will your analog TV set blow up in 2009?  Don’t delay!  Order your Grebevision Blackbox today!