:: April 2009 ::

Tilley Enterprises
This is a website I designed for an environmentally-friendly painting service based here in Portland. I bartered for some interior painting – which is a good thing in these economic times.

I designed the site using WordPress and a modified K2 theme. The slow panning banner images use javascript and panoramas of the client’s work shot by the client.

For the animated image above, I used ScreenFlow to record a .mov file which I imported into Adobe ImageReady and exported as an animated GIF.

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Sometimes the best stories arrive by accident as The Oregonian’s television critic and reporter Peter Ames Carlin discovered when Jeff Alan, former news director of Portland’s KOIN-TV, a CBS affiliate, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit and exposed a larger-than-life character with a past. You know, things like

  • Jeff Alan wasn’t his given name
  • His Social Security number wasn’t his
  • He left his wife and daughters in Los Angeles in 1986
  • His ex-wife declared him dead in 1993

Oh, and did I mention he was present at the Ambassador Hotel when Sirhan Sirhan shot Robert Kennedy; had a thriving career in television syndication; reinvented himself as a TV news anchor and executive; wrote two books; taught broadcast journalism at the University of Pittsburgh; and appeared on CNN and MSNBC as a media expert?

Does it sound over-the-top? Sound too good to be true? Sounds like it’s time for a sequel for Catch Me If You Can.

Read the entire series in Carlin’s three-part special.

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Signage in front of the Baptist Church in my neighborhood. A possible response to Jeff Jarvis‘ book, “What Would Google Do?“?

Looks like someone's been reading Jeff's book.

Looks like someone's been reading Jeff's book.

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Love this watch. Thanks to @softfacade for the find.

Love this watch. Thanks to @softfacade for the find.

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In an interview with Wired, CompUSA’s chief technology executive has made available to customers every screen in every CompUSA store with a connection to the internet:

“We are using tech to change the retail experience for the customer and giving them access to all the information on the internet anytime they want during the buying process. ‘And there are no restrictions. Users can surf the internet, check their Facebook or even Twitter if they want,’ says Fiorentino.

Check their Facebook and Twitter?

Um.

Note to quasi-Luddites: make sure you guide your cursor using the mouse or the trackpad and click on the “Sign Out” link before you leave said computer. Why? Well, basically ’cause that’s like leaving your keys in the car with the engine running.

And while I think this is all a push in the right direction for tech retailers, let’s hope it doesn’t translate to other types of retail. Like Home Depot, for instance.

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This could be a label in the future of battery-powered gadgets. Okay, maybe not. Even so, the geniuses at M.I.T. have developed a genetically-engineered virus which infests a harmless bacteria to create a smaller, longer-lasting battery which

…could hold the promise of relatively inexpensive, nonpolluting, lightweight powerful batteries—a holy grail for an energy revolution.

But, how does it work? Glad you asked. According to Scientific American, all bacteria consist of

…a single cell, although they’re rarely found in isolation. They have a habit of exhibiting unique behaviors when there are enough of them together in once place, such as the formation of protective biofilms.

The silver-disc in this photo is a virus-built battery used to power an LED.

Still with me? A battery has two essential parts: anode and cathode (picture the “+” and “-” on your typical battery). A few years back, the scientists simulated the anode part by infecting a bacteria with a virus which produced a coating of cobalt oxide and gold.

This month, researchers announced they reproduced the cathode part (by making iron phosphates grab onto carbon nanotubes).

While this new technology may induce visions of viruses and bacteria spreading to humans, did I mention the bacteria is harmless to humans? If it’s any comfort, the batteries you put in your remote control now are purely chemical reactions.

Welcome to the future of energy.

UPDATE: For you nanotech fans, read about MIT’s research on batteries the size of cells.

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