I admit I did a vanity purchase

To say the truth, whilst I'm quite satisfied from the old keyboard, I'm not very happy of the bowl-effect: every two weeks I have to clear the dirt with a vacuum cleaner and a brush. The new one seemed the kind of keyboard easier to clean and such. So I bought it.

One: 35 megabytes of system update? To remap ten keys? Bzuh?

Two: writing is quite easy. I was used to stomp on the keyboard like a hammer, but a couple of years of typing on the PowerBook probably calmed me down. Oh, well.

Three: the apple symbol on the command key is no more there. This thing caused a little turmoil among Apple fans. Personally, I didn't notice it... but I noticed (after only two years of working on OSX) that I can change the modifiers keys all at once. And incidentally make the behaviour identical to Windows modifier keys set. D'oh.

BUT

(there's always a 'but' somewhere)

Probably because I'm such a luser: but even if I downloaded the system update, I haven't still found the way to change the keyboard shortcuts related to special keys (volume and other ones). Because now they are mapped on the function keys, and not separated like in the old one. I can't leave the keys as is because they get in the way in my own shorcuts (especially on Photoshop, I mapped a number of actions on the function keys).

On to Google to search for a solution...

EDIT: found it and solved, even without googling around. I'm not saying it, because it's really embarrassing. Only a hint: I should have looked closer at the keyboard other than the preferences.

--JK

_{FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]
JK Livejournal --> [link] [quick sketches and other assorted ramblings]}

This month passed in a blink.

Something that has to do with a bit of a stressful period, a utter lack of inspiration for anything that's not work related and the fact I sleep a lot but I'm always tired nonetheless.

So... my yearly bus pass has expired, meaning that now I have to decide to renew it or continue to go at work by car. I think I'll give a couple of weeks to decide if the time gained in the travel is comparable to the major expense and the extreme boredom of being stuck in the traffic. And environment concerns.

Funny thing, I have the same photo either on the bus pass and on the licence guide. With the usual stoned face I have in photos. Sigh.

Tagged!

from ~hybri5 :P
I remember I already made this some time ago... too lazy to search my old journals ^^;

Rules: I'll comply only to rule 3) :P

Eight facts about me

1) Differently from the last time I wrote a list like this, now I have a licence and I can drive a car. Bwahahaha!
2) ...I said drive a car, not park a car.
3) In summer I go around with a sort of pineapple-shaped hairdo. Hair like mine aren't suited for hot weather...
4) Tapparella by EElST is my song. Maaaa perché fate cosiiiì / io che credevo / io che speravo
5) When I reply to a message, if I don't know the person in real life I always imagine to speak to the image he/she has in the icon. Really.
6) I have this nickname, Juzo-kun, from more than twelve years.
7) I snore like a chainsaw. Blame my chronic rhinitis.
8) I do a lot of fanart, lately, but I always did since I began to draw (I have still somewhere an embarrassing rendition of the main Space 1999 cast done at age seven). And I always imagine the characters commenting on my drawings. Usually with a lot of sarcasm.

--JK

_{FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]
JK Livejournal --> [link] [quick sketches and other assorted ramblings]}

And now, on to a month of messages backlog...

--JK

_{FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]
JK Livejournal --> [link] [quick sketches and other assorted ramblings]}

Yay! Holidays! As usual, the days before went to be the most messy and exasperating ones of the whole year passed so far -- work and heat wave and such. Seems the heat wave went away, still kinda high temperatures but a more natural shade of heat you'd expect to find in northern Italy at the end of July and not a "we're in the middle of Death Valley" kind of heat.

I'll scrounge as usual my rest in a mountainside house. Six hundred meters, quiet, fresh and silent. I'm craving for silence, having my apartment right side to one of the most busy street of my city is driving me mad.

Anyway. I'll have a sort of Internet access but dial-up only and for limited time -- well, I can't scrounge too much I suppose. Maybe if I feel inspired I could write some rambling but I will probably catch up all the messages when I come back ^^;

See you at the end of August!

--JK

_{FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]
JK Livejournal --> [link] [quick sketches and other assorted ramblings]}

Aurgh, again. Seems we're in the middle of another one. Yesterday one of downtown public display thermometers was on 42° *_*

[Note to self: don't look at public display thermometers and don't ask why the powerbook fan is always on.]

This is one of the causes, while I try to drive around a bit, I still catch a bus everytime I can.
Buses have air conditioning. My car don't.

A slight problem could arise from the fact that apparently bus air conditioners have only two settings: "off" and "penguins are asking for a scarf". Which can lead to a well known effect when it's time to get down from the bus, especially at noon: the metaphor of smacking oneself against a wall of heat becoming quite real.

_{8 days until holiday! Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! *runs back and forth waving arms and shrieking with an obnoxious high-pitched voice*}

--JK

_{FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]
Livejournal --> [link] [quick sketches and other assorted ramblings]}

Me and my habit of nicknaming anything. My computers, and now the car. See title.

I bought the car used from an acquaintance. The prior owner smoked in it for at least eight years... Febreeze didn't do much and the man bought one of that "blast everything in sight" room deodorizers. I stressed on him buying the neutral scented one, because I don't like very much artificial smells.

But he bought the wrong one, I put that in place without realizing it and left here for two weeks without using the car. Bad idea. Now it seems that that an entire crop of Lily-of-the-Valley was burnt in the car. With petrol. Ew.

<sub>and I hate Lily-of-the-Valley scent, it's one of those scents that register in my brain in a weird way and give me an headache every time.</em>

--JK

FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]
Livejournal --> [link]</sub>

Marathon

I installed Marathon Rubicon.

And, eeee! I half forgot how creepy Rubicon's general atmosphere is... a subtle kind of creepy. Not as much an "aurgh, I have four Hunters right behind me!" creepiness, but rather more a "whatever you do, it'll end badly and we won't let you forget that even for a second" one. [The "four Hunters" tidbit adds a lot, however]. The new and improved Aleph One engine and the remade textures convey this even more. The X version gave me a couple of surprises in comparison to the old one, hehe... and I'm still at beginning. I think Rubicon is the best third party scenario I played so far (but I haven't played all of them... by now, hehe).

_{Whyyyyy I always end in the Pfhor plank? Do not want!}

Transformers

Seen the movie. Eeee! Very very funny! The visual is fantastic, I love how the robots move and interact, and the human characters are hilarious. I also managed to catch some of the G1 references, hehe.

-- JK

<sub>20 days before holidays! Eeee! Eeee! Eeee! *runs back and forth waving arms and shrieking with an obnoxious high-pitched voice*

FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]
Livejournal --> [link]</sub>

I made a LiveJournal

Here: --> [link]

To say the truth, I was thinking on mounting a blog engine on my site. Like Wordpress, which seems easy enough to setup and run. But I realized that even if the work required for this appear easy, there are many thing that I should know and do to have a basic level of security... and I don't have even the basics.

In example, installing an *AMP engine on one of my computers to have a local copy of the whole deal mirroring the remote one. My knowledge of that things is between zero and nothing, and before attempting to install a personal web server it's way better being at least slightly aware on what I'm doing.

[The sad truth is, outside Photoshop, webdesigning and other graphic related subjects, I'm a total and hopeless luser.]

So I resolved to use a external blog platform. LJ has a couple of things I liked: they don't spam my address and there is a complete CSS customization available. That means, even if I can't fully control the page structure, I can control how it appears in every aspect, except the comments page because I'm on a basic account -- I'm such a cheapskate, I know.

I think I'll put here a bunch of useless rants and some sketches too sketchy even for the scrap section. So, DeviantART for my finished pieces and fanarts, LJ for ramblings ans doodles, and my site as a hub of these and as personal portfolio.

--JK

_{FAQ --> [link]
Linux-girls desktops --> [link]}

June, already ^^;
I really should stop being surprised...

_{...and maybe I should take some English lesson...}

--

_{JK FAQ -- [link]
Linux-girls desktops -- [link] (added widescreen size!)}

--JK

June, already?

Busy month. So busy that I jumped an entire month in updating my website, never happened since I started it. I'd like to update the graphic and maybe make the English pages more evident... problem is I lack the spare time to do so. *sigh* But at least I was able to scrape a brief holiday: I went at the local Star Trek convention for a day. Met friends I didn't met from ages and had a fun time.

Fortunately after a nasty heatwave [35°/95F... in May!] temperature lowered in the limit of tolerability again... hope it stays so!

And about another kind of "d'oh"...

Do you remember my old ramble on finding that my supposedly original ideas aren't so original after all? Heh. I wondered "Uh, given my late Transformer craze and my Steampunk penchant, why don't give a try at the two concepts at the same time?"

...Transformers Evolution: Heart Of Steel was published  nearly a year ago... and I wasn't aware of that until now. ^^;

*goes to Amazon.com site with her debt card ready*
^{ooh! shiny things!}

And now... on to the message backlog ^^

--JK

_{JK FAQ -- [link]}

In short:
-- I had a short vacation with my friends
-- I found a car. Hehehehe.

--JK


_{JK FAQ --> [link]}

-- Added a FAQ journal entry, if you have other questions related to my works feel free to ask

-- Also added a widescreen resolution on my Os-tan mini-site! Sorry for the delay! Here: desktops [link to my domain]

--JK

[more correctly, NSFBSAQ: Not-So-Frequent-But-Still-Asked-Questions]

EDIT: Update! The new f.a.q. is in my LJ, [here]

--JK

-- Still have a ton of backlog ^^;

-- Still searching for a car. Insurance will hurt me >_>;

-- It's colder now than in January. [Not that I'm complaining, I prefer cold to heat. But...]

-- I activated the internal spell checker provided in Firefox. My syntax will be wacky as usual, but at least that will help me in getting rid of misplaced apostrophes, inverted 'i' and 'y' and randomly scattered 'h'.

-- I realized my main e-mail account seems a bunch of letters randomly smashed on the keyboard. I also was told at least a couple of times the receiver of my replies had to search for these in the junk folder. I think the two things are suspiciously connected. Sigh.

-- I can't stand Daylight Saving Time. I always need an entire month to readjust my internal clock to match the rest of the world. Snort.

--JK

I was telling myself "hey, let's do a journal entry that doesn't speak of computer related ramblings or weather, for once."

And in a forum opened in another browser tab I've just seen the same old "Macs can't use a two button mouse, haha"

Buh?

I'm using a three button mouse from System 9... five or six years ago, I think. I vaguely remember playing Marathon with fire, secondary fire and action key mapped on mouse buttons, maybe not the first but Durandal and Infinity I'm sure.

[Well, I could understand "Macs aren't equipped with a multi-button mouse in standard configurations" -- I think this was somewhat true until the production of that Mighty Mouse thingy, correct me if I'm wrong. But "can't use?" Not the same thing...]

Now I feel compelled of speaking of weather but I don't know what to say. Except that the fact we had a warm winter so probably it will snow in April.

--JK

A coworker of mine said: "I bought a new PC, he has Vista on it, would you give a look before I format and reinstall XP and Linux?"

JK: "Oh, yes, let's see it." Curious, I'm curious.

Results of thirty seconds of tinkering: "Oooh! Exposé! Oooh! Dashboard! Oooh! Spotlight!..." except that Spotlight actually finds something. And I'm sure XGL and related projects developers have a thing or two to say on that, too.

I'm aware this could sound as bragging from me, but I've seen too many commercial blurbs that claims Vista's interface is the first one to do eye-candy and such.

But I also must say that the eye-candyness is vaguely appealing, way much more appealing of that of XP. Not that it was possible to do worse (first thing I did when I had to switch to XP at work was resetting the interface to the standard, W2k like one). And I'm speaking as someone that like a spartan look&feel: I even think OSX is too fancy and I just plain despise XP one.

From various comment seen around (coworkers, forums) I'm shaping the idea that Vista is successfully trying to do a task deemed as impossible until now: making people appreciate Windows XP.

<sup>maybe it's a subtle plan...</sub>

I wish I had the time and knowledge to install Ubuntu on my PC. I know that there are point and click installers, but I have a W2k installation and I want to keep it, and I'm too much of a luser to attempt to install in dual boot mode. But if you happen to have pointers to helpers and such at hand, they are welcome. Remember that when I go out my field of expertise (graphic programs) I'm the kind of a "uh, you have to switch it on before?" type of user.

--JK</sup>

...of the really, really, really boring kind

After uploading the 20 years piece I recalled the first time I began to use a computer.

In 1989 I obtained my Visual Art Degree high school diploma (Italian school rank, don't know how to translate in other schooling systems) and after that I attended a course of graphic design specializing.

In the latter I used my first graphic program... DPaint, DOS version. I had 16 colors and a 320x240 screen to work on, but at least I could choose from a palette of 256 colors. My first drawing? The Yamato, of course. I still have the print of that somewhere, a print made taking a snapshot at monitor with my camera. The drawing was pretty hideous, anyway.

I began to work in 1991, as a freelancer. The computer systems I used in first working years were the clients' or the firm ones -- I bought mine much later. And despite in the early years graphic related jobs were nearly strictly a Macintosh thing, I always ended to operate on DOS-Windows systems. That brought unmentionable quantities of pain and teeth gnashing when it was time to bring works to print, since typographies had Mac systems 90% of times.

My first real scenario hands-on-a-keyboard experience was Aldus Pagemaker 2 on Windows 2.5. I had to learn how to use that in a week. I'm still wondering how the heck I managed to do that, since when it come to computer related maneuvers I'm dumb as a brick and I always been.

Windows-two-dot-five. No drag and drop, I had to move files via written strings on that shell-thingy. The machine holding that marvel was a 286 with 2 megs of ram and a hard disk of 15 megabytes. MEGAbytes. When I had to save, it was coffee time, and sometimes go-down-at-supermarket-on-rush-hour-and-stack-for-a-week time.

After that first experience I switched to another client and began to use another specimen in the programs fauna. Many of my works, by client requests, were done on a monument of computer graphic history: Dr. Halo. EGA graphic palette, which means 16 basic colors, a third of these nearly unusable (try to do something even remotely tasteful with R255 G0 B255 or R0 G255 B0). If you use Paint Shop Pro, you'll notice that in the file format the program can manage Dr.Halo .cut is still present nowadays.

And on that I used a graphic tablet, because tablets are much older than you may think: used mainly in CAD and the like, came with a precision pointer mouse and a pen... connected with the tablet by a power and data cable that had the amazing capability of entangling in the most creative ways. The cost was three times the most powerful hardware you could buy around the beginning of nineties.

256 color depth was the norm, but a couple of years later I put my hands on the marvels of 16-million color depth with a Targa card and TIPS photo retouching program. One of the few that managed to fully make the most of that color depth. Having to deal with 16-bit image usually meant renouncing at undo capability: memory wasn't simply enough to hold two instances of the image, and disk swapping was something painfully slow. So working on TIPS was like working on traditional media: a mistake and the only thing you had is the last quicksave. Which obviously I always forgot to make.

Graphic tablets developed too: no more pen cable, at last pressure sensitivity, and the pen was powered by batteries. That always run out on the brink of deadlines.

And on, Windows 3.11. Wow! Drag and drop! Wow! Local network! Wow! Pentiums! ...what do you mean, floating point errors? Whatever. And Windows 95 came, and so the first version of Photoshop I used: 2.5. No layers (these were introduced on the 3.0 and after, while multiple undo in 5.0, I think).

Did you ever used SCSI external peripherals? No? Lucky you. Yes? You can understand me. I'm still persuaded a certain cartridge reader had the electronic version of PMS. I cannot explain its behaviour otherwise.

Then, my first own computer. Pentium 90, 24 megs of ram, 1gb of hard disk. I felt like I was on the Enterprise. Was... hmm, around '96, '97, maybe. And Windows 3.11, later upgraded to 95. (I'm slow in upgrading, I'm usually a major release below the official one). First backup device, a SCSI/parallel Zip drive. First tablet, a Graphire A6, serial port version.

Apparently there wasn't USB capability on Enterprise...

--JK

Here I am again
And now, on to the message backlog. Sorry if I always reply so late!
[the fact DA servers hang half the times doesn't exactly help, too...]

--JK

Happy birthdaaaay tooo meee

--JK