Dont Trust This Guy why not take my word for it? A blog by Jim Jeffers

Daniel Day Lewis delivers a performance that is equally brilliant and psychologically disturbing. The film, based off Upton Sinclair’s “Oil!“, portrays the life of Lewis’s character, an oil tycoon: Daniel Plainview. This film is not one that clearly tells a story. Rather, it creeps under your skin and strikes you to force you’re own interpretations. As a result, the film’s chain of events and subtleties initially confused me, but after further thought I came to some of my own conclusions…

• NOTE: before reading further, know that I expose some of the plot in my interpretations.

Read the rest of this entry »

I run my own personal business and have a day job. So I have double the fun when it comes to monitoring my checking and savings accounts. On top of that I have credit cards for myself and my business, an auto loan, and a student loan. Managing all of that can be pretty hectic. Fortunately, I’ve discovered an awesome free web 2.0 service called Geezeo and all I can say is this thing frickin rocks!

Read the rest of this entry »

There are many tools reserved for the lucky few who have the luxury to afford and use Adobe’s Creative Suite. One of them is the livetrace tool in Illustrator. Using livetrace a photograph does not always work out quite that well, it also eats up all of your system resources to perform traces on highly detailed images. To that point, when I first saw Vector Magic, a project from Stanford University, I didn’t think much of it at first. But after using it I can’t help but highly recommend it!

Here’s why

• It’s completely free.
• The software is web based so there is no installation and more importantly the processing is done remotely from my machine.
• It’s incredibly easy, the process is straightforward and the UI guides you through every step clearly.
• Most importantly it works GREAT! I think it can trace photos better than illustrator’s livetrace.

You can even share your images if you’d like. I tried it on one of my photos. You can see the results of a photo I took last week at Harvard Square.

Read the rest of this entry »

I mosied on over to the Apple store yesterday to get a glimpse at the much alluded iPhone. Some words to the wise: come the day after to avoid standing in ridiculous lines. The iPhone is surrounded by a lot of hype, which a lot of folks don’t think it can live it up to. I for one can see that it doesn’t but it does come close. When I first caught a glimpse of it in the store I saw about 6 different people surrounding the table with display models. The iPhone is spectacular to see in person. It’s probably the nicest, most intriguing little hand held gadget I’ve come across. The device is about the same size as a conventional iPod but so minimalist in design that it has a sort of mystique to it.

Don’t get me wrong, it is VERY cool. The product is amazing in many ways but at the same time it’s equally unimpressive in many ways. For instance, Safari on the iPhone, the best implementation of web browsing online in phone to date, is still not without it’s problems. Scrolling around pages was very laggy. The phone does not zoom in as fast as it does in the commercials. Zooming within the web browser is a bit of a test of patience. The animation is fluid but results in a blurry screen until the screen is redrawn. It’s a bit like zooming in and out in google maps. It’s just not conducive, but I suppose it’s better tha nothing. Additionally, developers such as Joe Hewitt are already facing problems experimenting with the iPhone. So software for the iPhone will be coming but it’s going to still be a while before we see polished products specifically for the iPhone that will ‘revolutionize’ how we do things.

Finally, the AT&T wireless plans are not that bad of a deal considering what you get. I think the price is a really good value when you consider you’re on AT&T’s Edge (premium data network) with unlimited data transfer included in every iPhone plan. Not ot mention rollover minutes. HOWEVER, AT&T’s Edge network blows. The US lacks a true 3G network and the closest carrier to providing anything comparable is Verizon. Edge currently maxes out at 80Kbps. Dialup is 56 Kbps. And while AT&T is investing in their infrastructure to increase the capabilities of Edge to hopefully achieve 200Kbps by next year, Verizon already achieves transfer rates higher than that on their own network right now.

So yeah, I’m a bit bummed but grateful at the same time. I would advise any smart consumer to hold off buying the iPhone unless you need it for testing. Let the silly early adopters spend their money on a device that is well polished for the most part but somewhat frivolous in our present day premature environment. I’m just glad Apple has done something which has put the wheels in motion to improve phones everywhere. And I am counting on it being successful, as you know, I would like to buy a second generation iPhone. One that corrects all of the mistakes from the initial product offering and has a healthy amount of web based productivity solutions and features to encourage the necessity of such a device.

If you work as a designer or a developer you might be frequently bombarded with requests from potential clients that go nowhere. The conversation starts out promising, but you soon realize they want to you to spend a couple weeks to develop a custom website for a measily $500 budget. When you return with a realistic number above $500 to say the least your point of contact lets you know “they’ll get back to you on that.” And that’s that. A rather passive aggressive manner of parting ways. The price they can afford is not worth your time, the value you offer is not conducive to what they can afford. What win/win solution can you create in a situation like this?

Read the rest of this entry »

Everyone is raving about the RAZR these days. Despite the fact that the initial version was first introduced to the market over a year ago, today it is the new trendy phone. It’s stylish thin design caught the attention of most cellphone geeks who paid extra to order the RAZR unlocked and become the only person they knew who had one. But it’s really nothing special today. After all, I have one. I got it for free. Now everyone is starting to have one. So what’s the cool new phone for 2006?

Take a close look at the Samsung Serene. This phone is unique not because Samsung builds it, but because Bang & Olufsen has designed it. If you take a look at the phone it’s a completely unique design, something I would have expected to come from the lack-lusting Motorola ROKR (iPod phone). The user interface is unique in that the screen is intended to be the bottom of the phone with the keypad representing the top half. Why flip the screen? Because by placing the screen on the bottom the user no longer places his or her ear onto the screen causing it to become greasy. A significant problem I’ve noticed with my RAZR.

Bang and Olufsen’s minimalism is present throughout the design. There is no screen on the outside, the keypad is circular like b&o remote, and the ring tones are noticeable yet unobtrusive pings which make the phone all the more elegant. The Serene’s unique design comes in a small package. When the phones are closed side by side the Serene appears to be about half the size of the RAZR but not quite as thin.

Indeed it will be nice to see this phone in person. I’m doubtful this one will pick up and become mainstream like the RAZR. If it did it may be disastrous for bang and olufsen as their brand is intended to be an exclusive product only for the privileged. I don’t own any b&o products, and I certainly couldn’t imagine getting one for free. For more information on the serene visit: www.serenemobile.com. You can also check out the detailed review from Mobile Review.

I recently became aware of extratasty.com; a website that is basically the flickr equivalent for drink recipes. The best part about the site is how well done and professional it is. The company developing the site, skinnycorp, has done an extraordinary job illustrating how you can create an extremely valuable resource for pretty much any topic of content matter.

My favorite part about the site is the quote in the top right corner: “You’re watching skinnyCorp make this site LIVE! Email us with your wtf’s.” That’s classic.

I recently stumbled across another excellent blog. In this case, it’s a blogfolio, showcasing portfolio of work in a blog format, for Ben Sekulowicz-Barclay. I think Ben has don an excellent job keeping it simple and clear. I love the lime green / dark grey / white color scheme but what makes this site really interesting is the fact that there’s no navigation whatsoever. No tags, no category listing, no archive lists. Just content. I really like it because his design makes it work. It only takes a few minutes to realize how easy it is to find anything on his site.

Check it out: Beseku