QuickTime X vs. Final Cut Studio

Those of you starting to use Snow Leopard will notice the new QuickTime player.

Apple markets this as part of QuickTime X. However, it turns out that the new player is a small part of this new version of QuickTime.
As detailed as part of a 23 page technical review of Snow Leopard over at Ars [...]

Final Cut 7 Alpha Transitions work in 6.X

Alpha Transition is being marketed as one of the major new features of Final Cut Pro 7. It allows you to use a third clip as a transition between two existing clips. It uses the transparent parts of the transition clip, so that makes it an alpha transition.
This Alpha Transition effect is implemented in FxScript, [...]

Digital Village Halls?

In which I provide some feedback to the UK government on their Digital Britain report: a place to build and democratise access to the internet.
From ‘two birds with one stone’ part of my brain, I’ve come up with an idea for the government that will head off complaints that Post Offices are being closed all [...]

NAB and me

In which I say why I can’t make NAB, but pass on a code ‘worth $150′ that their PR agency sent me.
Over the years I’ve watched the stories coming out of the NAB Show, and heard tales from those who visit. Sometimes I daydream about visiting – especially if I’m going to be in the [...]

Create an iPhone version of your blog

Before the iPhone 3G phone came out in July, people created web applications and website designed for the iPhone. It’s still possible.
In fact, if you have a blog, you can use use VenueM.com to generate a version of your blog designed to be easier to read on an iPhone or Android-powered phone.
All you need [...]

When will subtitles catch up?

This is an example of what I’ve been talking about. A twitter thought leads to a blog post… or two.
When I woke, my guest was watching TV. Part of the show was an interview with a French person. His voice was dubbed. As I know a little and my friend knows all French, it was [...]

Twitter: Have a look without signing up

Twitter’s home page might put you off… Their definition isn’t really up to date. Also, users have come to ignore the ‘What are you doing?’ question. What if you want to see what using Twitter is like without signing up?
You don’t have to. You can follow individual people’s thoughts, status updates, links and reports [...]

On Vimeo they criticize because they care

A few months ago I provided some constructive criticism to an initial edit of a video shot by the talented Mr. Philip Bloom on Vimeo. Another user immediately told me that Vimeo comments should only be supportive and positive, unless the owner requested other kinds of feedback.
There’s a debate about this on one of their [...]

Video doodles

As Vimeo kindly gave me ‘Plus’ membership, you can now watch these videos in HD right here (if you click the full-screen control), until I run out of HD plays. After that, you’ll still be watch them in HD at http://www.vimeo.com/alex4d

This is a little long, in widescreen so that the limited bandwidth is used [...]

1993 vs. 2009

1993:
I Love Typography – A reminder of the kind of stuff I used to read at the St. Bride Printing Library in the early 90s.
The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web – Schizophrenia resulted from me being a SGML purist in the early days of the web while designing magazines. One part of [...]