Automatic Unsubscribe Links by Travis on June 24th, 2008

What not to do: make a person who wishes to unsubscribe from your newsletter not only enter their details with the “automatic unsubscribe” link but then send you a confirmation page to confirm the unsubscribe! Come on guys!

You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL:

WRONG. Case and point Freeverse. Boooo.

Elbow: Some Riot by Travis on June 3rd, 2008

When artists like R.E.M. and U2 give critical acclaim to their peers and it’s Elbow they are praising, you know you’re in for something special. This has been something true of Elbow since the second I heard them back in 2004. They’ve proven to not only be one of the best finds for me in the past 8 years but best finds in my entire life.

The Seldom Seen Kid is Elbow completely back on their game and Guy Garvey is in his best form. I really, really missed these guys. 2005’s Leaders Of The Free World just didn’t jump like Elbow’s previous two.

I chose this song because I think it illustrates how beautiful Elbow is. They have such a deep, dramatic and masterful sense to their music that I just don’t hear from very many bands. This song just scratches the surface of this album and of all my recommendations this year, I think The Seldom Seen Kid is at the very top.

IRC Chat: getting punched by a Kangaroo by Travis on May 22nd, 2008

Talking about our lunch ordering system at work…

Tim Travis showed me this thing. It kinda weirds me out.
bretto hah
bretto how so?
Tim It’s definitely cool, but I’d rather walk downtown and get some air on my lunch break.
bretto it’s like a magical sammich generator
bretto Tim, you’re missing one very important point in that “geting some air” senario
Tim Travis also used the word magic to describe it.
bretto there are things that can kill you outside
Tim Oh right. Like wet roads and cars and thugs.
bretto or getting punched by a Kangaroo

VLC Tip: Adjust Buffer for Better Wireless Playback by Travis on May 19th, 2008

VLC Icon

For those of you who have files stored on a network drive and connect primarily over wireless (like me) you have probably been annoyed many a time with VLC’s less than great performance. Turns out there’s a preference you can modify to adjust the amount of buffer VLC will use for local file playback.

Vlc Buffer Preferences

Fringe and Dollhouse by Travis on May 16th, 2008

Fringe

There are 2 shows I am primarily amped for this coming TV season and unfortunately they are both on Fox. The plus side to this is that they are both from two of my favorite TV creator/writers J.J. Abrams, and Joss Whedon.

Fringe made headlines earlier this year when Fox announced the two hour pilot was given the green light for a budget of $10 million. If memory serves, this makes it the most expensive pilot episode ever made.

The X-Files fan in me has faith though. J.J. is a pretty great story teller and he knows how to keep things interesting. The only two worries I have is that one, Fox will mess this up like they have so many times, or two, that it’s simply to much like X-Files.

Dollhouse

For the first time in a few years, Joss Whedon is returning with a new show called Dollhouse. The show is probably going to rock–I have the faith but like Fringe, it’s on Fox. What makes this worse is Tim Minear is involved… The guy has been involved with so many of my favorite and shows and they’ve all been cancelled. Poor guy really.

Here’s the interesting thing. Fox has decided to air both of these shows with less commercials. I suppose trying to position these shows as something you would be more likely to see on Showtime, or HBO. I am assuming the runtimes for each episode will be longer, which I appreciate and I am also going to trust Fox to air these shows in good time slots to atleast get a fair chance (Harsh Realm anyone?).

Until then, I am sitting here anxiously to see what these two guys can whip together. It will probably (and hopefully), rock my world.

One word: Freaky by Travis on May 15th, 2008

ManBabies.com - Dad?

Via ManBabies.com.

About the rumored BlackBerry Thunder by Travis on May 13th, 2008

Business guy 1: “Hey what phone is that?”

Business guy 2: “It’s da Thunder! In yer face!”

Via Todd.

Campfire Linkinus Theme by Travis on May 11th, 2008

Linkinus Logo

I’ve been a long time user of the Campfire theme for Colloquy but recently I discovered Linkinus. I looked around and couldn’t find the much desired Campfire theme so… I made my own.

Linkinus is a pretty decent client and as much as I tried to love Colloquy, it just always felt un-finished. Some cool things that are a part of this theme:

  • Inline images (any valid image link will be rendered inline rather than just linked)
  • Inline audio (any valid audio link will get turned into an embedded QuickTime player)
  • I included the Riceball emoticons

Some things to note:

  • I made some design changes so it’s not 100% like Campfire
  • Multiple messages from the same user (one after another) should be simplified
  • Tiny design tweaks as I move to using this fulltime

Nine Inch Nails: Discipline by Travis on May 8th, 2008

You know what makes Trent different than everyone else? He gets how to market and treat his fans with respect. The Slip was released last week as a free (yes, 100% free) download where he said the following:

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

What can I say but thanks Trent. Thanks for understanding the Internet, and thanks for making such awesome music. Even better, not only does he provide your standard MP3 versions but he also included lossless FLAC, M4A and WAV formats for download. This guy is so awesome, I can’t even put it into words.

Discipline is probably the most radio friendly song on the disc but it’s an awesome track. Give her a listen and should you feel compelled, grab the rest of the disc from theslip.nin.com.

Calgary vs. Sydney (Round 1): Weather by Travis on April 10th, 2008

Since I am moving to Sydney on April 16, I thought it could be fun to showcase some (obvious) differences I find as Cortney and I make our move half way around the world. Quick recap, we’re leaving Calgary on April 16 since I got a job working for Freshview. We have both been granted a 4 year working Visa so by all rights, we could end up staying for a while. Oh, and I’ve lived in Calgary my entire life.

For this first round, I thought it could be fun to showcase the weather. In the first image here, lets just lament for a second at the sheer temperature differences. Eee…

Calgary Sydney Weather

That’s freakin’ stupid. Guess I won’t be missing our Calgarian winters!

In this image, lets compare the temperature on Sunday. I know, I know, Syndey is heading into their fall but seriously? Only in Calgary could there be such a temperature shift.

Calgary Sydney Weather

Bottom line, I don’t think I’ll be missing the weather. And just for fun, so you can compare what we woke up to this morning…

April 11 in Calgary

Oi.