Balloon Tales | Articles | The Case for Upper Case | Part 1 of 2

Balloon Tales | Articles | The Case for Upper Case | Part 1 of 2

OK, most of my readers (Hi, Mom!) won't care too much for t his, but even those not in my interest area (comic books) might find this discussion about something you've likely never though about interesting. The fact that I worked in the publishing field and do design with fonts helps too.

So... should comic books and stips be lettered in all caps, or should they use small letters? It's a deeper topic than you'd realize, and it's one only possible becuase of computers. In the good old days, all comics were hand lettered, and lettering a comic book by hand with small letters would drive one nuts, even if time allowed.

But now it's done by computer. The art, after inking, is scanned into the computer, then a layer on top of the art is used to place word ballons.

Anyway, a good and interesting discussion. Anybody that works with type could learn something here, and it may give you something to think about next time you read the comics in the paper.

ABCNEWS.com : How Much Does a Hurricane Weigh?

I may have even asked how heavy a cloud was when I was a kid. Well, for parents with nosey kids, here is the answer... think in terms of elephents...

The Blackout

For those that found the coverage of the blackout interesting, here is another viewpoint... or viewpoints. Look at 'on the ground' coverage from people that were their, using their camera phones.

We will be seeing more and more of this. Look for the first camera phone picture of a news story being sold in the near future, but that isn't even the biggest change.

The real thing to look for is coverage of events by the people there. The pictures won't be professional all the time, but they will be there, in the event.

You will know it's a mainstream, accepted happening when news outlets start to have automated/quick ways for people to submit their photos and get paid for them. The only thing that might stop this is that so many might be doing it, payment might not be needed... just credit.

Digging for Googleholes - Google may be our new god, but it's not omnipotent. By Steven Johnson

We all use Google, but now some problems with using it are coming up. Here many are listed, and it's something to think about. The most interesting one to me was that, as we are researching more and more by net rather than book, and books aren't on the net, it's making for a very big collective blind spot.

At some point, we need a system where a book can be on the web and able to be searched, with maybe paid access or some other system.

I knew for years (just ask my Mom) that we would have a global information market. We ain't there yet, and we are going though the growing pains now.

Just saw a great story on CBS News Sunday Morning. It's about a Red Hawk that made it's home in NYC, putting a nest up on one of the most exclusive buildings with a park view. It's been there for a deacade, and raises chicks even.

It seems quite a group has formed around watching him and his family. Here is a website put out by them. Interesting stuff, and lovely pictures.

Sea blob a sperm whale, experts say

Yeah, I know... I have a thing for large sea creatures. This one is a whale, a dead one. I find the bit about how the bodies of whales act at death very interesting.

Lady Liberty Fireworks

Fun, pointless Java fun (Java being a net programing language... you don't need to know anything about it, don't worry). Make the fireworks fly over NYC! Fun!

Browse the San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection - SFPL.org

For those that like old pictures, this is a great site. And it's easy on the bandwidth... everything is text until you get to the picture you want. Old banks, earthquakes (It is San Francisco!), churches and more.

I'm mainly doing this to test the new Blogger. I have another blog, but I think I'll keep them seperate for now. Once I see how this version works, I may move it over.

I've been quiet interested in blogs for awhile now. I've only used Blogger, but have kept an eye on the other ones. Not sure I want audio entries (I have a hard enough time getting people to read these things, much less hear them!), but putting pictures up in an easy way would be.