SoundWorks Collection has been publishing videos to Vimeo.com to give not just some behind-the-scenes peeks, but insight into the efforts taken in sound design. By my estimation their efforts are quite lengthy and employ top-notch use of the world’s open spaces, objects, devices, you name it, in sound capture to give audiences the director’s intended overall experience.
“There are so many misperceptions about sound for film. SoundWorks Collection helps de-mystify the art, and show how pros in the trenches are really doing it. An incredible resource. I’m shocked there was nothing like it until now.” -Erik Aadahl, Supervising Sound Editor “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”
This is an awesome initiative that I think places SoundWorks Collection way ahead of the game in how they are taking advantage of social media–simply put!
Gladly I’m not in need of this, but I most certainly get and appreciate the humor in this.
Lovingly made by Aaron Dra-blah-blah. I’m kidding Aaron. …Just in case you see this post. It’s Aaron Drazcynski. Check out his site: www.papermodelplane.com.
I learned of this thanks to my friend Jason Dunn on Facebook.
Basekit.com is not a new site, but it has received renewed attention in addition to it’s 20,000 registered users. It’s been launched in the US and UK due to a recent $2.6 million dollars of VC funding from Eden Ventures and NESTA.
The whole premise is that coding is time consuming, costly and prone to immense error (Hello, W3C) when it comes down to developers that need a site quickly and easily. In so many words, BaseKit has stated that they are filling a market hole that provides ready-to-use features for web building. Think SquareSpace, but not–which is of a similar purpose: get a site up and running for your needs lickity split. The difference between the two is that SquareSpace has ready-to-edit templates for one to build and modify. BaseKit allows uploading your own Adobe Photoshop site design, although technically SquareSpace can do something similar, but through a blank slate template offered on their site. Nevertheless, both provide the user with the means to customize and edit almost every component of the site.
BaseKit was originally set-up by web design entrepreneurs Simon Best, Richard Best and Richard Healy in 2008 after realising that the technical design of websites could be improved if processes were streamlined. By reducing iterative development tasks through a common, fully hosted framework, BaseKit is able to create websites faster and make them easier to manage.
Here is what you can do with BaseKit:
Draft Sites as well as Active Sites
Your own, individual template (via Adobe Photoshop – PSD)
One change, unlimited instances
Limitless design and layout (site width and column layout)
CSS customizable dynamic widgets (layout widgets, content widgets and form widgets)
Preview and make quick changes
Built in CSS editing
Instant preview
No set-up or download required
See changes in real-time
Easy hosting
Edit in your own browser
Coding free (for photo and video uploads, adding twitter and RSS feeds)
Customizable forms
Easily redesign template with little hassle
Drag and drop
Manage your own forms data
And most importantly it’s all W3C compliant
As a person who in recent years studied web design at the Art Institute only to find that coding is for super geniuses who literally enjoy thinking in code 24/7, this may in fact be the answer to a lot of people’s prayers. Furthermore, I think the appeal for BaseKit is the option to just be a designer for all the Photoshop lovers without having to get bogged down in coding it all correctly by web standards. So I think BaseKit attracts developers in a rush as opposed to a novice to web design. SquareSpace may be a better option regarding the latter. …Just my opinion.
iPhone 4 pre-order access has failed on two fronts: both Apple and AT&T’s pre-order sites, but probably due to AT&T’s servers getting locked up or should I say clogged with requests. I got these two screens some time after 5:40am today. My wild guess is that everybody thought to do what I did. “Oh I’ll just check the site in the early morning, do my pre-order, no problemo.” Nay. Instead, we are all hit with a strong sense of déjà vu. Think back to the release of the iPhone 3G. I was among the many people that walked a out of AT&T in my area with a shiny black brick for several hours after purchase because AT&T’s iPhone sales processing literally went from a run to a crawl then a halt 30 minutes after opening it’s doors.
Apple
AT&T
Anyway, there is a bright side to having woken up early this morning. Apple decided to suprise us all with a new Mac Mini.
Besides the obvious physical changes to bring it in line with the unibody design that Apple’s other products have gone through there are these configurable options:
Processor up to 2.66GHz
Memory up to 8GB
Hard drive up to 500GB
HDMI port
24-inch Apple LED Cinema Disply
Then there is the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server.
You have got to see this! Adobe’s Photoshop team has come up with an advance version of the healer tool that is, for all intents and purposes, “smart” and aware of the contents of the image. So when you want to correct or fill an area within an image, the tool automagically fixes it. Just whip out your magic wand tool, choose your area, say zippity zap, and in a snap your image is fixed! It cuts out what would usually take a ton of time to achieve conventionally.
I recently spoke to the designer and owner of markjardine.com, about his site and how much I love the design. It’s just a basic tumblr.com blog, but it so well done. So I asked him if I could get a custom version of it at a cost. I was denied, but I still like the website and thought I’d share Mark’s work here. You can also see the great work from his company tapbots.com, which has developed some really awesome looking and apps that provide great service–among which I think PasteBot is the coolest (a cut & paste iPhone application).
…Just in case you see this post. It’s 
