distinctPixel.org

Fireworks: The death of an old friend

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:17:00 GMT

Here's something I’ll admit to very few people: I rarely use Photoshop anymore. No, really, it’s true—I’m a professional designer and I hardly use it at all.

Back in 1997, I was invited to Macromedia’s headquarters over on Townsend got to participate in a beta for a new program they were launching called “Fireworks”. The premise was pretty amazing: they were building an image editing program based on the failed Xres that had editable type and vector graphics, specifically for web design.

Fireworks 1.0 (I think)

I still remember, watching the demo thinking: “Oh my god! It has editable text and drop shadows!” I was stunned—just completely blown away.

Now, by todays standards, this is hardly a big deal. But in 1997, (begin old, codgerly voice) we had Photoshop 4, and there was no editable text. Creating a drop shadow meant duplicating the layer, filling it with black, running the gaussian blur filter on it, and offsetting it by hand. Need to fix a typo? You're re-generating the whole text layer… and the drop shadow.

Fireworks made so many of these little things so much faster and easier for building comps. And, at the same time, it's image compression rivaled that of the omnipresent Debabblizer. This meant you could layout your art, quickly edit text and filters during iteration, and then slice it and compress the final assets, all in the same application. It was an amazing time saver.

Starting with one of the early beta versions, I started using Fireworks, and never looked back. It’s been one of the main tools in my chest for over a decade now, and I've turned many other designers on to it's magnificence. Adobe has since bought Macromedia, and last year’s version of Adobe Fireworks CS3 was just OK. Many of the new “features” were crap, (no, please don't generate Javascript or CSS for me, thanks), but I guess it was nice to have an intel-native application for my macbook (it sure didn't seem any faster).

I finally upgraded to Fireworks CS4 this weekend. Once again, there was no good reason to do so feature-wise (no, please don't generate “better” CSS for me, thanks) but I thought I'd give the heavily criticized new Adobe UI a go.

What in the fuck happened here?

This has got to be one of the buggiest applications I've ever—in my entire history of computing—used. How did Adobe, who's QA is usually pretty solid, let this ship? In the 2 days I've been using it, CS4 has crashed dozens of times.

One of the more common crashers I've found is: draw a box, changed the fill to a gradient, and boom, there she goes. A box with a gradient. Seriously.

There are a number of bugs in the “symbols” implementation—something I rely on heavily—where breaking symbols no longer works, resizing symbols can corrupt and lose data in the symbol, and occasionally, things inside symbols move around all on their own. This is bad.

There are bugs with elements forgetting their filter effects: i.e. put a drop shadow on an object, move to a different frame and back, said shadow's properties changed.

And then there's the new type engine.

Can I have my money back, adobe?

They’ve apparently replaced the old Macromedia based engine with Adobe code. Unfortunately it’s completely broken. Fonts change their rending on redraw. Type boxes move around without doing anything. And, like you can see above, type displays outside of the type box. This is one of those things that I saw within 10 minutes of using CS4, and judging by the bugs filed with Adobe, I'm not alone.

After a couple of days, I've gone back to Fireworks 8 (which is after MX 2004, and before CS3, if you're keeping track—gotta love those naming conventions), as it seems to be the fastest and most stable version to me.

There’s an open letter from another Fireworks user to Adobe bemoaning the death of one of our most valuable tools, but frankly, I think this is it for Fireworks. Adobe has made a statement here: they're clearly not willing to invest the time or expense into developing or maintaining it any longer.

Like a carpenter with a favorite hammer, I feel an almost emotional bond with Fireworks. I'll likely hang on to version 8 for as long as it will run on my computer… and when it finally does die, it will be heartbreaking.

“It’s not me, it’s you”

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 18:33:00 GMT

★★ (/5)

Picked this up this morning. It’s just OK for me. Seems a little over-produced vs. the previous album.

edit: On a second listen through, demoting it from ★★★ to ★★.

25 Things

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 09:05:00 GMT

From something going around on facebook, here's 25 less known and trivial facts about me…

25. When I was about 10, I got a shoelace caught in an escalator at Macy's. As it started cinching up my shoe, I was convinced that it would drag me down and turn me into hamburger. Finally, the shoelace broke. I avoid escalators to this day, and will always take the stairs if that's an option.

24. When I was 12 I got stuck alone in the dark on in elevator for about an hour when the power went out. When the power finally came back on, the elevator kinda shifted, and I was convinced it was about to go crashing to the ground. Again, if there's an option, I'll take the stairs.

23. Which leads to: I have an absolutely crippling fear of heights. Even some stair cases can give me vertigo. Roller coasters are not an option. Ever.

22. There's not a single vegetable that I won't eat. Fruits on the other hand, not so much.

21. I have no sense of smell, but a pretty darned sensitive sense of taste.

20. I've never broken a bone.

19. I've never had a cavity.

18. I've never chewed gum, and won't eat candy. (peanut butter cups and flipz are exceptions)

17. I've had Bell's Palsy before, possibly as a result from a flying Three Musketeers mini.

16. I've had sideburns ever since 8th grade. The last time I accidentally shaved them I had a panic attack. They're like a security blanket, just made out of hair and attached to my face.

15. I detest romantic comedies—not for the romance, but for the poor attempt at comedy, and that they're so goddamned predictable. I'm not opposed to romantic dramas.

14. I'm a crier when it comes to movies. Last of the Mohicans? Like a freakin' faucet.

13. I cannot stay awake in musicals, no matter what.

12. I tend to laugh at the wrong times in movies.

11. I loathe talking on the telephone. I'm usually brief and rushing to get off. I assume this is a result of being a teenager that would spend hours and hours on the phone.

10. All things being available, I'd prefer champagne.

09. I do not have a passport, and have never left the country.

08. I've traveled all over the states though.

07. I'm a dismal speller, and live and die by the red squiggly line.

06. I'm a terrible flyer. Although I understand the physics principals behind jet engines, it still freaks my shit out that something so big, made out of metal, is that high off the ground.

05. I typically won't wait more than 10 minutes for a table. Most restaurant's food just isn't worth it.

04. I appear to have negative buoyancy, and can not swim. At camp as a kid, the swim instructors would just give up and tell me to stay out of the pool.

03. I was a boy scout, but I cannot tie knots to save my life.

02. I'm a complete geek about my music collection. 78GB or so of MP3s, all immaculately labeled, and tagged—complete with cover artwork.

01. Carpel Tunnel is the boogie man that keeps me awake at night. Nothing scares me more.

I’m engaging

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 09:20:00 GMT

A 2008 retrospective.

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:23:00 GMT

It seems like over the last week I've read 2 or 3 dozen people's various retrospectives for 2008—so I figured it probably wouldn't hurt to sit down for a few minutes with a cup of coffee and do some contemplating about this year that’s just passed us.

On Christmas day of 2007 Kate and I had all of our belongings in boxes and paint in our hair. We made the huge 12 mile move from my little apartment in Mountain View (where I had been for almost 5 years) to our new place here in Redwood City. I had just started a new job at Renkoo. We had also just adopted a new little puppy, and were in the process of getting to know each other. So, new job, new place, new dog… it was a lot to be starting out with.

Work-wise, 2008 has been a an interesting ride. On the one hand, I had a whole lot of fun building the CarShow application for myspace. Doing the little flash-based drag racing game allowed me to check off one of those life goals of “building a video game”—even if it was just a primitive little side scroller (hey, there was parallax scrolling!). That said, it's been no big secret that I could never quite settle into working there… It was clearly a square peg, round hole type of situation. So then, it took me as no surprise that when the layoffs came this christmas, I was let go.

But, like all of life’s lessons, I’ve really learned a lot about red flags during the interview process, doing back-door references as the employee, and listening more closely to not only what people say… but also what they don’t say.

I've had many big plans for side projects this year (like learning objective-c, making a killer iphone application, and becoming wealthy), but only one of them actually came to fruition (wigalert.com). Maybe this next year will work out a little bit better for doing more fun or interesting stuff in my free time.

Our little pup, Domino, has turned into the best little dog. Hard to believe 12 months ago we were still working (a bit unsuccessfully) on crate training. Next month, Kate will be starting him in agility classes, and he'd been coming to work with me 1 or 2 days a week.

Over the spring, Kate and I got on my old rusty mountain bike and her big slow cruiser, and started riding. The first time we rode up Woodside Road, I was convinced we were going to die. Over time, our 13 mile loop around and up Sandhill got easier and easier. Then we did a 20 mile loop. Then 30. Late in the summer we bought new bikes. Then a 50 mile loop. Then we tackled Old La Honda Road. On September 14th we (along with 2000 other cyclists) rode from AT&T Park 130 miles into Napa Valley for the MS Waves to Wine bike tour. It was an absolute high, and I'll freely admit that I completely broke down in tears when we crossed the finish line.

This fall, we found ourselves in a situation resulted in us having to part ways with some of our good friends. This was a huge emotional ordeal for both Kate and I, and we've come out of it having learned a lot about ourselves.

So, predictions for 2009… Not many. It will be interesting watching the president-elect getting sworn in. I'm hoping to find a place to work that I can really connect with. I’ve also signed up to be a volunteer with troubled dogs at the Peninsula Humane Society… that will likely be interesting. Other than that, I’d really just want more of the same. All in all, 2008 was a pretty good year.

2006 Clos de los Siete

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 13:44:00 GMT

I also really liked this. It's a 45% Malbec, 35% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Syrah blend. I was expecting something quite a bit different, crazy and new world—but it's actually pretty subdued. A lot of lush cherry up front (though, not sugary which is nice). Some notes of dark chocolate, and a real surprising amount of structure. The finish is spicy and dry… maybe a little oak heavy, but not too overdone. Very nice—I'd totally buy it again. Paired it with a roasted pork with green peppercorn sauce, rough mashed fingerling potatoes, and sautéed asparagus.

It's also worth noting: the label, I thought was really nicely done.

(Cork'd Review: 91.0/100)

Working with PHP

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 11:18:00 GMT

Recently, I've come across a number of articles talking about problems with the LAMP talent pool, and some of the future predicaments of PHP. Since I recently started a new job that works entirely in PHP, I thought I might add my 2¢.

Many of these articles talk seem to point to academia as part of the problem. That the CS courses are all teaching Java/C++/C# (and not PHP), and they correlate that to a lack of genuine talented PHP devs out there. But I don't think that's entirely it.

A commenter on one of these posts says:

PHP has a good learning curve. I think most Java people can do PHP within 3 weeks. PHP people can't do JAVA in 3 weeks (most of them).

Which I think comes closer to it. Most Java, or traditional CS trained devs should be able to pick up PHP pretty quickly. The language and constructs in PHP aren't anything different or new; it's just a matter of remembering the names and signatures of the methods, and keeping track of the syntax subtleties. As an average C# guy, I was able to whip together a small web application over a weekend (before interviewing with the new gig).

But here's the thing… and I think this is the bit that the above comment almost hit: as a C# developer, there would be no reason for me to ever want to build anything in PHP—when given the choice. For me, there's no itch that it would scratch. To kill a metaphor: the grass doesn't even appear greener on that side of the fence.

If, left up to my own devices, I decided I wanted to work with something open source (and not pay the dreaded microsoft tax), I'd be much more apt to look into Python, or another language that's different, interesting, or had a lot to offer (Ruby, Smalltalk, etc). PHP, while light weight and absolutely functional, comes across as downright sloppy. And, since I'm just a developer (not an architect, CTO, or ops guy), writing good, clean, or interesting code is what really gets me off, not arguments of TCO, or scalability (all of which may be where PHP wins the most).

And I think that's the crux of it. There are plenty of talented devs out there that could work just fine in PHP (I am)… but PHP's biggest obstacle is the language, itself.

Domino Montenegro

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:29:00 GMT

World, meet Domino Montenegro.

Bonny Doon 2006 Vin Gris de Cigare

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 23:56:00 GMT

Wait… Pink wine? Barclay? For real?

Yup.

And you know what… it was damned tasty, too. Real fruity and sweet on the nose, but the sweetness stays off the palate. It's very dry, with just a bit of acidity, and the smallest expression of strawberry. At $10, this is a great summer patio wine. Different, interesting and fun.

(Cork'd Review: 89.0/100)

chester tracy loftus

blog@distinctPixel.com (barclay loftus) — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 18:26:00 GMT

My boy Chesterdog left us today. He had been quietly battling systemic histiocytosis, and it finally got the better of him.

There's so much to say. How can you express when your very best friend in the world passes? The void that's formed when his amazingly pure unconditional love is gone?

He really was the "best dog ever", and I reckon, I'm gonna miss him for the rest of my life.