I studied photography in the mid 90's. Back then Photoshop was in it's relative infancy. I think in my 2nd year photoshop released layers, this of course was amazing. However we were still in the old paradigm. Black and White tonal printing, a huge expnsive colour processing machine, and when we wanted to experiment and push the envelope some we'd reverse colour process, image transfer onto cloth with horrible turps gel, coat objects with liquid light and take it into the dark-room. In other words it was a tedious process, with hit or miss results.

Now I wonder often what they're studying at art school photography in terms of technique and creativity. Photoshop of course changed everything. Now that's been taken to another plane with Instagram and hipstamatic for iPhones. Now cool filters are a finger slide away and any noob can make mundane into groovy in an instant and what's more send to the world in the next.

That's not to say I dislike the app - I think it's amazing, a whole new genre created overnight. It's a weird phenomenon though isn't it - that we want to make our pics instantly vintage.

There's enough right there for a photo theory thesis. Now, who remembers mixing chemicals?

Incidentally, if you're looking to recreate instamatic filters without an iPhone. Here's a nice little set of Photoshop actions kindly provided by blogger Daniel Box
http://dbox.tumblr.com/post/5426249009/instagram-filters-as-photoshop-actions

Photograph: Paola Ayre

OK we did it. After a year's preparation. A thousand meetings, designs, wireframes, technical hurdles, road-blocks, discussions, frustrations. The new site is up. Not 100% yet - that will take a few more months. But it's a satisfying feeling. I work with an amazing team.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

The new Weekend Masthead

 

As for the paywall. Well once upon a time I would have kicked up a stink. I'm now a convert. I mean - lets face it - you wouldnt expect to stroll into a newsagent, pick up a paper and stroll out again and hope that the ads pinned to the wall justified it. Would you?

The amount of work needed to get a national broadsheet out daliy by an enormous amount of people + journos is phenomenal. We just can't keep getting it for free online. However you've got to get better at doing that. This week was a good start - and I can't wait to keep improving it.

One would have hoped the recent High Court decision deeming offshore processing in breach of Australian laws would be the perfect opportunity for Gillard's Labor to revert to a humane, less expensive, and less offensive policy regarding the issue of people fleeing wretched lives and seeking a new start in Australia.

But no. It looks like the 'shock-jock' view of Australia (fully embraced by the Liberal Party) has won the day. That this country has learnt nothing from the miserable Howard years is depressing. On a global scale our 'problem' is miniscule.

Let's process them here and be done with it.

Enough of the Xenophobia.

The Amco Cup in 1974 has a lot to answer for. It was the combination of blonde haired superstars, the colours red, white and blue, and the black face paint under the eyes* that did it. The Eastern Suburbs Roosters. An inexplicable obsession.

The fact my dad won tickets to the 1975 Grand Final and Easts won a famous game by a record 38-0 over another powerful side St George confirmed it. I was going for no other side..

Fast forward 36 years and I'm still hopelessly at it. Highs and lows, and currently they're killing me. Almost champs last year to chumps this. Same side. Go figure.

Watched too much footy this weekend. 2 games on TV Friday night, had a retro day at Henson Park Newtown on Sat watching the Jets (Easts feeder side), listened to Easts abysmal effort in Nth Qld on the radio Sat night, and backed up for Tigers/Saints on TV on Sun. Apart from that I got a lot done...

I drive my partner mad though - she just doesn't get it. Nor do I for that matter.

 

*A Jack Gibson inspired innovation that was fashionable for 5 minutes in that era, I think the Mythbusters recently proved it ineffectual anyway....

Cleaning out some cupboards today and came across my forgotten collection of band flyers and set-lists from the 1980's. I wondered how many people out there like me that thought they might be collectible one day... If that is what I thought.. I honestly can't remember.

Regardless, it's a nice nostalgia trip. I wished I'd got more actually, saw so many memorable gigs back then. The better ones I have;

Hunters & Collectors (Macquarie Uni 1986) [with beer stains and footprints

John Kennedy's Love Gone Wrong (Graphic Arts club 87 with Billy Bragg)

The Lighthouse Keepers, The Stems, Chad's Tree - all around 86/87/88

The flyers were a mixture of Ska bands and one for reformed punks 'The Anti Nowhere League'. The one flyer I hoped I'd kept sadly wasn't amongst my stash. It was a photocopied flyer for the 1st reformation of The Scientists in 1986 - I nicked it straight off the front door of The Sydney Trade Union Club on Fouveux St.

I can't bring myself to chuck all this stuff , so I checked online to see if there's interest in this inconsequential pursuit and as you would expect there exists a 17 year collector!

http://www.songkick.com/blog/2011/03/04/the-setlist-collector/

My little collection suddenly looks a little pathetic....

Been noticing a lot heavier critique of Google's search performance lately, seems the search behemoth is taking their eye of the ball in their core business - that is - providing the best non-spam search results.

Questionable SEO spamming techniques rule at present. A good account how is provided by self-described 'jaded' search engine consultant Jill Whalen, in Google sucks.

Seems to me - if their search ceases to work - all the other cool stuff becomes redundant pretty quickly.

I am not the first small business nor indeed average customer to welcome the release of credit/debit cards these past few years by the major banks. In short these allow you to use it as a credit card online and in store quickly and easily, track all your purchases for tax purposes, but most importantly, not spend money you don't have.

During the week, in desperate need of a larger external hard drive to back up all my precious data, I strolled into Dick Smith in response to their marketing catalogue to purchase a 1TB number to fulfill said purpose, with Mastercard biz debit card at the ready.

Imagine my surprise when the teenager at the checkout informed me I couldn't purchase the item "because Woolworths [their owner] has a policy of not accepting debit card as credit"....!

Incredulous - I asked for the manager, who appeared soon after and parroted the company line. He 'helpfully' mentioned that I wasn't the only customer who was pissed off and he empathised with me - telling me 'he didn't agree with it either'. Apparently Woolworths is getting charged some piddling amount per transaction and can't hack the impost.

Now I don't know what bone headed fiscal decision-makers are dictating policy in the Woolworths boardroom, but it surely is a customer management issue. If people want to hand over their hard earned for your product YOU DON'T TURN THEM AWAY.

A few days later I was accosted by a friendly young Irishman in a Woolworths grocery store (ok it's my local and it's convenient if you're questioning my sanity...) and he regaled me with the savings on offer IF I took up a Woolworths Mastercard!! Surely this is not related to the rejection of my Matercard Debit card a few days earlier? Woolworths would never stoop so low as to string their customers out on credit. Would they?

In any case I took great pleasure in thrusting my would-be purchase back in Dick Smith's face and driving a kilometre up the road to Officeworks (owned by historic rival Coles Ltd) and purchased the exact same product with exact same debit card. In your face.

Is it any wonder Woolworths is taking a share price beating from Coles ?

-----UPDATE ----

Woolworths customer relations reply Feb 8 2011 [my highlights]

Thank you for your email to the Customer Service Website regarding changes to the way Woolworths processes Visa and MasterCard Debit cards in our stores.


Firstly I just want to emphasise that Woolworths still accepts all cards and unlike many retailers does not surcharge customers for making payments.  However, retailers large and small are increasingly incurring rising fees for processing payments and these fees inevitably flow through to the price of goods we sell.  For that reason, we have moved to try and reduce some of these costs so we can keep our prices as low as possible. These changes only affect Visa and MasterCard Debit cards.

Previously Visa and MasterCard Debit cards payments could either go through the international credit network if you pushed 'credit' or the Australian-owned EFTPOS network if you pushed 'cheque' or 'savings'.  The different buttons perform the same function but in reality the two systems have very different cost implications for retailers - costs that are ultimately paid for by our customers.

When a retailer processes a payment through the credit network, the financial institution charges a fee to the retailer. However, for transactions processed via EFTPOS, the cost to the retailer and ultimately the customer is a lot less. EFTPOS is secure, convenient and it is a far less costly option for all - something that absolutely benefits all our customers in the long run. As the Visa and MasterCard Debit cards are in essence a ‘Debit Card’ not a credit card we want to keep their associated costs aligned and so believe it is appropriate they go through the EFTPOS network.  I also realise that you can choose not to accept this and shop elsewhere. Ultimately however, I think that our position on this sees fees kept lower is the right position.  Saving of a few cents per transaction might not seem much, but when you consider that we serve millions of customer a week it certainly adds up to a lot of fees and costs.

We understand there are still some financial institutions that charge their customers for EFTPOS debit transactions. There are also many who offer unlimited EFTPOS transactions or rebate the fees.

<Name>, I do understand this has caused some confusion and I apologise for the inconvenience caused and I thank you for taking the time to write and share your concerns with us.  I sincerely hope this explanation helps you to understand the change and why we have implemented such change and we certainly hope that we be able to serve you again in the future as your custom is both highly valued and appreciated.


Kind Regards
Woolworths Customer Service Team

I read in The Sydney Morning Herald on the weekend that sales of Glock automatic pistols skyrocketed after the shooting of US Senator Gifford in Arizona some weeks back. Draw your own conclusions - but this is a sick society.

Tell me there are rational Americans who realise it's wrong that a nutcase can walk into Walmart and buy weaponry like this AND extended magazines that shoot off 30 odd bullets before reloading. Tell me that that's necessary in a civil society, even the self-defence proponents.

I'd like to see guns eradicated off the face of the earth. Now I'm the nutcase.

I admit - I've been the proverbial painter who doesn't paint his own house. The mechanic who doesn't fix his own car.... The web guy who doesn't update his own site!!!

Well it's a low key start I know. I've moved it into Joomla - finally - and plan to put up all sorts of eclectic content. Not just a site for my biz. Kinda hybrid... I just want to tinker.

 

Watched the documentary Man on a Wire recently. Enthralling for many reasons; from the sheer talent, fearlessness and chutzpah of this small wiry French tightrope walker, and the poignancy of seeing the World Trade Centre in its naive (in hindsight) glory days.

On the latter note, the beautiful black & white 16mm footage of the guerrilla tightrope team ascending the fire-stairs of the WTC jolted me. The insignificance of this action then and the knowledge of history I carry in viewing this now. Could they have imagined what would happen in that very stairwell 27 years later?

The doco conveyed the symbolic power of the twin towers. America - the powerhouse. The stratospheric height. That Philippe Petit was obsessed with rigging a wire between them to walk, is understandable - if one wants the ultimate headline grabbing challenge. That he did it just blows my mind. The act of pulling of 'the heist' surreptitiously is the subject of the film. Again, given what has occurred in the world since, his extraordinary feat will never be repeated.

Can you imagine the fear that would grip your body to step on a thin piece of wire in wind a kilometre above a New York city street? That he frolicked and crossed 7 times taunting police is beyond my comprehension. To conquer your fear like so - I would bow down to this guy.

In the lead up footage of the preparation for the WTC act - some wonderful crisp 16mm footage of his 'minor' walk between the Sydney Harbour Bridge Pylons. Amazing. As a Sydneysider I could 'feel' that 1970's traffic look and feel,I chuckled while viewing the Valiant* police car taking Phillipe away - as clear as I could today.

An added interest was the down to earth Aussie offsider and friend of Phillipe who (along with the other protagonists) offer such rich and personal and emotional accounts of events 3 decades ago.

The documentary looks beautiful. The existing footage is so strong, stills and film. As a record of an epoch and a crazy project that will never occur again - it's peerless.