Elliptic Blog

Kids Health Galaxy

Yay!!! A site I worked on for over a year as Information Architect and Usability Coordinator has been graced with a Webby nomination in the Family/Parenting category:

http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=10

Kids Health Galaxy
The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
http://www.kidshealthgalaxy.com

Makes me extremely happy and am very lucky to work with a great bunch of people on it.

By the way, do an erratic blogger a favor and vote for this puppy in the People's Voice Awards section?

http://peoplesvoice.webbyawards.com/

Much obliged!

...and that's the truth, Ruth!

In one of those occasional cases of serendipity, D. Keith Robinson at Asterisk just published a rant that is a carbon copy of the rant that has been rattling in my mind today at work.

"Technological Excuses: A Rant"

Nothing more to say but "Amen!" (and this from an atheist).

2.0 Ghz Dual-Processor Apple G5

Following my unofficial policy of upgrading or getting a new computer every three years or so, I recently got a new dual-processor Apple G5. So far, so smooth, sleek and fast. It has been whisper quiet as promised -- the cats are confused. They like to sit next to the tower, staring at it as if it were the cryptic monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Since I am all excited about its arrival, I have been scouring the web for software and utilities for it. Since I tend to download many of these that then tend to accumulate digital dust, I have exercised some stricter judgment this time around. Here are some of the standouts so far:

Volume Logic by Octiv: This is a plug-in for iTunes that remasters the digital music on-the-fly as it plays. Apparently, tons of FM radio stations use this technology when broadcasting. The improvements are significant on my Creative Inspire speakers.

Konfabulator by Arlo Rose and Perry Clarke: This is a beautiful looking application that allows you to activate "widgets" on your screen that do tons of things depending on what developers build for it. Some examples include a weather indicator, retro clocks, news feeds, automatic CD cover art locators, etc. Take some time exploring the hundreds of widgets -- hours and hours of fun for the whole family.

Quicken 2004 for Mac by Intuit: This is a standout because this is the first time I will be doing banking, bill pay and stock portfolio management electronically. I am in the midst of migrating my funds away from a bank where notable discrepancies between my home-calculated balance and their own calculations happened every two months or so. Let's see if this helps figure things out.

Feel free to drop some comments letting me know about any cool and/or genuinely useful applications for the Mac.

Visual Collections

I bumped into a wonderful site that collects hundreds of thousands of "maps, fine artwork, photographs and other items from over thirty renowned collections." These are not simple jpg images, however. You will need to use their Insight Browser or Java client in order to search and zoom in to view the fine details.

The Visual Collections site from Cartography Associates contains dozens of digital image collections from Museums, Universities and private collections throughout the world. Our mission is to encourage the development of future collections and facilitate their worldwide distribution to both scholars and the general public.

Cartography Associates strives to provide an on-line environment wherein all types of digital collections from a wide range of resources can be seamlessly fused together into one large, comprehensive collection.

| Visual Collections |

Bag Jones

I recently saw a beautifully designed briefcase from Nava Design at Fosters Urban Homeware down the street. I did a double-take, thought about getting it, and then simply moved on without it. Sure enough, it disappeared later that day and I cannot find a place on the Internet that has the exact model. Argh!

I can find the canvas versions, but not the brown "ecoleather" version that struck my fancy. Here are the blah midnight blue versions of the Cube Box and the Cube Brief -- not sure which one to get yet.

Here are some links to slake your thirst:

City Comforts Blog - A blog about "cities, architecture, the 'new urbanism,' real estate, historic preservation, urban design, land use law, landscape, transport etc etc from a mildly libertarian stance."

Zach Korb's "an affair with urban policy" - Excellent blog about urban affairs. Don't ignore the Photography section.

Walnut Street (between Front and 2nd St.) - A couple of developments are in the works in this block: the Bookbinders renovation and a residential condominium building at 101 Walnut.