DesignWell

With cheap 300GB disk drives available now it has become easier to procrastinate archiving one’s creative work. Everyone hates archiving their work. It’s so boring–so uncreative. The following is how I archive my work and hopefully it will allow you to archive faster and more efficiently.

The main points to consider when archiving are:

• Do I have everything for this project?
• Do have a list of everything on the disk, so I can locate files in the future?
• Do I have a way of marking that I have archived this project and so can delete my project folder in the future?

DVDs vs CDs
With printable DVDs costing a few cents more than their CD counterparts and the ubiquitousness of DVD players now, I always burn one DVD instead of trying to burn multiple CDs.

Listing files in OS X
A co-worker of mine said there used to be a print window (a Finder window) command in OS 9. I was unable to find an equivalent in OS X. One could screen capture the Finder window in List mode and print the resulting PNG or PDF. That would work, but it would be a pain expand all the folers, and you would still need to fold up the piece of paper and place it in the CD case.

A few months ago, I discovered an AppleScript on a forum that uses Unix commands to recursively list all the file contents of a folder’s directory tree (meaning all subfolders and their contents), and saves it to a text file. Here is the folderPrint script, and the folderPrint OS X application (PowerPC version).

The folderPrintApp.app will open up a Choose Folder dialog and ask you for a folder. It will then save a text file named “folder_list.txt” to the Desktop. You can open this text file and copy all the text (Ctrl+A) into a textbox in the following disk template.

Listing Files in Windows
Coming Soon. . .

Disk template
If you have a direct to CD printing printer (or if you want to use labels), use this archival CD label template (PDF made with Illustatrator CS2) for the Epson R220. For directions on using the Epson R220 to print to CD in Illustrator, read my previous post on the topic. It isn’t the prettiest, but your archive disk ends up in a CD album or with a job ticket, after all.

Marking that a folder that has been archived
I place a text file called “_FOLDER_ARCHIVED” in a folder after I archive it. With the “_” first, I know it will appear at the top of the file list. Once this file has been placed in a project folder, I know that I can delete it, since I have a backup copy.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

My Creative Director sent me this post from UnderConsideration. It’s about animationed logos. Now with so many sites incorporating flash and video, it’s something that can’t be ignored.

And?¢‚Ǩ¬¶ Logo Action!

As the author opens, he says he had no cable for a year. I can relate. Whenever I am around a television at a friend’s house I have to watch the commercials. I analyze the editing the video and the effects, especially any graphical compositing.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

As the last semester for the next batch of job hopefuls gets into full swing, I wanted to offer my advice. (Much of this is aimed at the college junior though). We were introducing ourselves at church the other day (in a small group). Everyone mentions their job–even if it’s under their breath. I introduced myself as saying that I worked at an ad agency and do exactly what I did college–except that it’s better quality–and I get paid for it. As we went around the room, I was surprised at the number of people that this is not true for.

1. Decide what you actually want to do
2. Actually do it (intern, get hired, etc.) before you leave college
3. Preferably before your senior year
4. And preferably under someone who is good at it. It was raises your standards bar. All your previous work will begin to have an awful stinch–but hey isn’t that good? You will also see that a 50 hour project is small and that great work is often collaborative. You will also learn that collaboration saves time, too. Hopefully, you can throw a Fortune 500 company on your resume.
5. Drop names, drop a few critical names. You need to gain the trust of your future employee. You need to project that you can do the job.
6. Put your three best projects on the web, so that your future employer can view them. (Okay, put more than that if you’ve been in the business a while–but don’t put stuff in your portfolio just to make it big). They are looking for quality. Let me repeat. They are looking for quality. Can you do the job? As a recent college graduate, you won’t get the job no way/no how if they wanted experience or busines acumen in the first place.
7. Prove your versatility. Can you do graphic design? Video? Flash? Audio? Hey, don’t present it if it’s awful. It only takes one project to impress your future boss. Impress him (or her) in a multimedia presentation and storm the castle from multiple sides, Mr. Swiss Army Knife. They wouldn’t be hiring a recent college graduate unless they wanted new blood. What can you provide that someone who’s been in the industry 20 years can’t provide?
8. Read What Color Is Your Parachute? It covers job seeking, interviewing, and salary negotiation as well as identifying your true passion and learning more about the type of jobs you would really want to do.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

This Saturday, I realized that sometimes I’d rather data mine about my favorite movies. You’d think that NetFlix and Blockbuster would enable movie blogging–similar to Rhapsody’s send to blog. I know that feature films aren’t constantly playing in the background, nor are they 2:46 min long, but blockbuster doesn’t even do RSS–which is why NetFlix is so much cooler.

I’m still not sure why people STILL go to movie rental stores and pay $4 per movie. Maybe it’s because they are impulsive. Maybe it’s because they’ve only bought books online from Amazon.

If you are listening, NetFlix make one’s RSS of their Queue public–optionally, of course. Why? Because I ONLY watch cool movies.

Tonight’s readings/watching:

Security Now! 24: Questions and Answers

I, Cringely - Google’s Grand Plan to Take Over TV Advertising

I, Cringely - How Pay-Per-Click Is Killing the Traditional Publishing Industry (death to magazines by mail!)

I, Cringely - The Falafel Connection (NSA wiretaps explained–it’s based on data mining)

After Words: Ambassador L. Paul Bremer interviewed by James Hoagland

Afternote: I had to reinstall Apple Motion 2.0 last week in order to get it to work. Readers, if you are keeping track, that’s the third time in two months.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

We’ve all used a VCR to record a movie on TV, and now TiVO’s Digital Video Recorder does the same–just automatically. This is legal right?

From Replay Music’s website:

Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA)

Section 1008. Prohibition on certain infringement actions

No action may be brought under this title alleging infringement of copyright based on the manufacture, importation, or distribution of a digital audio recording device, a digital audio recording medium, an analog recording device, or an analog recording medium, or based on the noncommercial use by a consumer of such a device or medium for making digital musical recordings or analog musical recordings.

Section 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù

(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;

(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or

(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

(3) As used in this subsection ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äù

(A) to ?¢‚Ǩ?ìcircumvent a technological measure?¢‚Ǩ¬ù means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

(B) a technological measure ?¢‚Ǩ?ìeffectively controls access to a work?¢‚Ǩ¬ù if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

So as long as you are not circumventing copyright protection and are not publically distributing (file copying?) a work, then you are legal?

This means that services like Replay Music are legal and programs that crack CSS like DVD Decrypter are not?

Either way, using Replay Music does violate Rhapsody’s and Yahoo’s Terms of Service. But does it make it illegal? Can the RIAA sue you and win?

So what about AnyDVD from Slysoft? It hides the CSS from your PC, but somehow doesn’t circumvent it?

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Core attributes of Web 2.0

• Services, not packaged software, with cost-effective scalability
• Control over unique, hard-to-recreate data sources that get richer as more people use them
• Trusting users as co-developers
• Harnessing collective intelligence
• Leveraging the long tail through customer self-service
• Software above the level of a single device
• Lightweight user interfaces, development models, AND business models

More on this by Tim O’Reilly.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Why read when you can listen? Here are some mp3s of authors discussing their business books. Each month 800-CEO-READ interviews an author.

800-CEO-READ Podcasts Blog

Some of this year’s books:

10 Rules for Strategic Innovators, Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble
Starting from Scratch, Wes Moss
The Undercover Economist, Tim Harford
True to Our Roots, Paul Dolan
Beyond Reason: Using Emotions as You Negotiate, Roger Fisher, Daniel Shapiro
Grapevine: The New Art of Word of Mouth Marketing, Dave Balter
Executive Intelligence, Justin Menkes
The Rules of the Red Rubber Ball
Brand Autopsy
Escher Cycle, Finn Jackson

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Today, I found out that Apple Motion 2 crashes when applying filters and behaviors if you have Final Cut Pro outputing to a AJA KONA LH with the desktop preview option enabled.

To change the option (which is the default, by the way), run AJA KONA LH Control Panel and click the Control tab in the middle and change Default Kona Output to something else (like Test Pattern or Black).

I have read a similar problem happens with BlackMagic DeckLink.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

So I’ve got my Stolen Moments movie poster and my Athna 2004 poster up above the Cinema display. They are just taped right now, but my employer said we’d get them framed once the egg-crate foam came in. We talked about making the back of the A/V suite like a lounge with a sofa and a coffee table for clients. Right now, we are considering a Beta deck purchase. It’s either that or send a tape away twice for the DV/Beta conversion.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com

Last week, I put the Kona/AJA card (digital to analog converter) and the RAID card in the Dual G5 in before the IT consultant my agency hired to install it showed up, so he just sat around and answered questions while we installed FCP Studio.

I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢m not a big Mac fan. I know I?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢ll never figure out how creative directors can stand putting 500 files in one folder or on their desktop. Can you say subfolder? I hate not having a subfolder for everything. I don?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢t believe that Spotlight is going to help this habit, not to knock it–I guess it’s the artistic thing to do.

We ordered the A/V equipment from ProMax and the computer products from MacMall. (We had problems with MacMall. It took over 3 week to get the G5 here.) I called up ProMax yesterday and the tech guy tried to troubleshoot why the Trinitron monitor wasn’t working. He helped me get a picture, but it was luminance (black and white). Well, the tech guy was stumped once we got that far. He asked if the cables were all connected. It?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s not a good sign if technical support asks that. I had planned on buying an S-Video cable to test the monitor with the DVCAM deck, but this morning just looking around the AJA board control panel application I switched the Component Y/C/VBS to a Composite Y +C and it worked. So much for technical support. . .

Also, for some reason my agency?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s D-Link wireless router won’t let my G5 on. It won’t assign me an IP address via DCHP. So what’s a geek to do? Bring his wireless router from home, of course. So it’s been “National Bring Your Router to Work Day” for a week. The downside of course is then there is now no hurry to get the problem solved if an employee can just bring his from home everyday.

–Stephen M. James
www.smjdesign.com