Isolationism

I’ve been searching around today (in vain so far) for an open-source, command-line tool that allows for the conversion of an SVG-formatted file to PDF—I know of ImageMagick which would be perfect if it weren’t for the fact that it rasterises the damn SVG before converting to a PDF (which defeats the purpose of creating a PDF at all in my opinion).

In my travels, however, I stumbled across Xara Corporation’s press release page (looking at something to do with Über-Converter, which would probably do the trick if I were willing to spend 12 hours getting all the Perl dependencies installed required to get the damn thing running), when I stumbled across the latest entry which was amazingly dated today (how lucky is that?):

(more…)

I am a great fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune novels; anyone who is familiar with the series probably knows that Herbert’s story is a thinly veiled analogue for the plight of the citizens of the Middle-East (Fremen) and their oil supply (spice).

I wonder if Herbert was aware that the most valuable commodity on Arrakis—water, of course—is rapidly on its way to becoming a valuable commodity here on Earth, too?

I enjoy the novels but that doesn’t mean I want to live through them. Let’s all be mindful of how we use our natural resources.

Nothing definite, but now The One Ring is reporting that the rights to the film fall back to Saul Zaentz, the owner of Tolkien Enterprises, some time next year—and according to Saul, “[The Hobbit] will definitely be shot by Peter Jackson.”

This is the last article I’m writing on the matter until shooting starts, if ever—it is clear to me that the politics involved mean the story is going to change a couple times a week until production begins, which—according to Saul—could still be years away from now if Jackson wants to shoot another movie, first. My heart can’t take it.

A recent blog entry by Mark Shuttleworth (owner of Canonical, creators of Ubuntu Linux) describes a gripe about audience response to his presentations about Linux: “pervasive support.” I think Mark and I agree that this level of product support is required, but our opinions perhaps differ a bit on perceived vs. actual levels of “support” in/for Linux, or even the multiple meanings of the word.

He first points out that commercial distribution vendors are willing to offer end-user support for their products—for a fee of course. He however neglects to point out there are multiple levels of end-user support, including the “non-critical” variety that is acceptable—even preferable, in some cases—to home users and DIY types (who prefer to learn to fish rather than be handed one when they get hungry)—as well as those working on a budget who don’t have the extra cash to shell out for support (or the operating system itself).

(more…)

Anyone watching the news has no doubt long-since encountered the news of Novell entering a “protective covenant” with Microsoft to essentially line Novell’s pockets in exchange for “protection” against patent infringement suits from Microsoft, because according to them, Linux infringes on many of their patents, and Ballmer has made a lot of noise (read: FUD) about how Microsoft is going to start to pursue legal action to protect them. It smacks more of posturing tactics to me; kind of like how they got caught red-handed lining SCO’s pockets through investment intermediary BayStar Capital, except this time they’re operating overtly instead of covertly.

(more…)

I’m not quite back on my feet after a solid 11-12 hours of driving in the space of 30 hours over the weekend to visit Midland (splitting headache today since I woke up), but I felt well enough to start this last night and finish today as I don’t feel well enough to concentrate on much. This drawing is also of Bex, my wife and best friend, done in pastel to complement an earlier piece I drew years ago. Click the image for a larger version.

In a crushing reversal over the previous exciting news of The Hobbit being shot to two films by The Lord of the Rings’ pundit Peter Jackson, according to news site The One Ring (down at the time of writing), Peter Jackson (and Fran Walsh) will not be involved in the making of the film version of The Hobbit at all.

I am crestfallen. As are, I am certain, many other fans of Peter Jackson’s films (and of course Mr. Tolkien’s books). Bummer.

As you may have gathered from comments in another thread, my grandfather on my mother’s side passed away late on Tuesday night. We’re headed to Midland to say our goodbyes this weekend, so this blog will be sparsely populated with news for another few days around here to come. My thanks go out to all who have offered their condolences. He will be missed.

There hasn’t been much to say to make it worth posting lately. I’ve been generally disinterested about following the news, although the few things I care about seem to be going ill and leave me feeling sick and wanting to withdraw further from the world. My schedule has been badly out of balance the past week or two—staying up late to work or draw, or just because I don’t feel tired, and sometimes waking late, sometimes not (but always feeling more worn down than when I went to bed). Headaches come easily to me if I didn’t already wake up with one. It seems like moments of happiness are as brief as the interludes of sunlight that have managed to filter through the rain for a few brief moments every few days before vanishing as quickly as they arrived.

(more…)

Well, what did you expect? I’ve never been one for much besides figure drawing; the human form is immensely challenging and what I enjoy drawing most.

In honour of my very good friend Marc who is abroad in Taipei, I present this portrait to let him know he’s still very much in our thoughts and hearts. Though it may still be another year before we see him again on this side of the Pacific, I haven’t forgotten what a true, loyal friend he’s been to me and my family. Cheers, mang.

Every once in a while you run into a piece of really nice software that you have to sing form the hilltops about. Everyone who’s even casually glanced at my blog knows by now that I feel that way about Boodler, although I know my audience’s interest in the same is considerably less than my own.

I’m writing today to talk to about another piece of software that is right up my alley that you probably don’t care about: It’s called ArtRage and is made by the folks at Ambient Design who appear to write software geared toward designers and artists.

(more…)