The New Header Design Above the Old

Amazon.com (or is it just Amazon now?) just redesigned the header across their site, along with a few other elements on the home page. Product pages seem untouched, aside from the new header. They’ve stripped almost all the color from the previously teal-blue header bar with orange buttons. It is now in shades of gray, with just a few select touches of color, some orange notification type and a few blue links. It looks bigger and less cluttered, yet is actually just a few pixels shorter.

No More .com, Uncolored Departments Menu

The .com has been dropped from logo at top left, and the type weight slightly adjusted so the name appears larger and clearer. The Shop by Department menu is now hidden until you pop it open, and submenus expand more uniformly with more rich content. The search bar now appears nearly twice as tall, with all elements (department selector and go buttton) integrated into a single visual element, much like Firefox’s recent Address Bar revisions. The cart button is a larger and much cleaner line graphic now without a text label.

Cart and Lists are separated from the integrated Search Bar

Front page “headline” banner type is now in gray, with highlights in only one color per piece, instead of gray with orange and blue, and the typeface is slightly lighter-weight and less narrow.

Lighter, less-compressed typeface, fewer colors.

This feels very much like what Google has been doing to their products. I’m a fan of these clean, tailored designs. Stripping the old-web glitter, decluttering, combining elements, and making things larger and clearer and grayer, with more breathing room all around. Color is becoming a much more conscious choice, used for emphasis, instead of ambiance. Amazon must be doing a phased roll-out or A/B testing, because in Firefox i get the new version, and in Chrome i still get the old.

Red with big elements and plenty of white space.

Coincidentally, i just saw the other day that Target did a major redesign of their entire site. It’s very on-brand for them. Very designy and clean, yet fun (no capital letters) and easy. It looks more like one of their print ads or TV commercials now, instead of just a web store. I don’t shop Target.com often, so i’m less familiar with the changes, though i definitely did notice that it was new when i visited last week. They even made a little video to show it off.

Update: Apparently, Target’s redesign is a complete relaunch of their entire web store presence in order to be independent of Amazon.com who previously ran their e-commerce services. That explains the “reset your password” links on their new homepage. I had no idea that Target’s redesign was related to Amazon when i started writing this. It was just an ironic coincidence that i noticed both their redesigns this week.

*That’s a reference to the trend in films to color grade everything severely orange and teal.

This is the card to get if you have a DSLR that shoots HD video. It’ll also let you blast continuous still frames as fast as your camera will go until the buffer is full. Slower cards will drop out on HD video recording and can’t keep up with high-speed continuous frames. “Brand name” cards (from Lexar and Sandisk) cost twice as much!

I’ve been using Transcend cards since i got my SD790 PowerShot in 2008 (that was an 8GB class 6 SDHC). I got a 600x 8GB card when i got my 7D this April, and quickly realized 8GB wasn’t big enough when shooting 25MB-per-shot RAW stills and HD video. I haven’t used all that many brands or types of cards for comparison, but these have never given me any problems.

In short, the Transcend 32GB 600x are solid quality, and the biggest, fastest CF cards at a great price!

Writing is only half the battle.

Don’t forget, to maximize the speed of transfers from the card to your computer you need a fast card reader. USB is too slow! I found this chart a while back showing the speeds of various card/reader combinations. The thing that stood out to me is that the fastest USB reader will hit 36MB/s, however some can do no better than 20MB/s — either way, far less than the 90MB/s maximum of 600x cards. A FireWire 800 CF card reader will be 2x faster than a USB reader. And an ExpressCard reader will be about 3x faster than USB. So multiply that out whenever you’re dumping a 32GB card to your computer. It could be the difference between checking Facebook updates vs going out to get lunch while you wait.

I’ve been using ExpressCard readers from Sonnet in my MacBook Pro, and have been very happy with the speed and convenience. If you have a notebook with an ExpressCard slot, Sonnet’s Multimedia Card reader is a must-have for SD and other smaller formats. It sits flush in the case, and makes viewing and copying photos super easy, no extra cables or parts needed — a no-brainer if you have a MBP with ExpressCard. I leave this reader in my MBP all the time. For CF cards, i got Sonnet’s CompactFlash reader. Slightly less convenient because the larger cards stick out from the side, but the speed is great, and it’ll mount two cards at once. And with both there’s no dangling cables and nothing taking up a USB or FireWire port.

Everyone needs to see this documentary — a truly eye-opening look at what really goes into the “food” we eat every day, how it has come to this, and the effects it has on us as consumers, workers, and a society.

Essentially, over the years, ignited by the fast food industry in the 50s, almost all our food — even “fresh produce” — has become byproducts and patented intellectual property of giant corporations, engineered for efficiency and economy at the cost of our health and well-being. And the agencies in our government that are supposed to be regulating these industries are often powerless to prosecute because those multinational corps lobby for laws in their favor (Google veggie libel laws) and staff those agencies with their own employees, who act in the interest of the food industry. These companies leverage their bottomless pockets and abuse their government connections to squeeze every last cent from contracted farmers and food industry workers. They go unpunished when children die from E. coli contamination resulting from unsafe processing practices.

It’s all very frustrating.

But, in our own backyards, there are still old-fashioned farmers, producing honest crops and livestock without technology and genetic engineering. Desire for natural food is rising — retail giants like Walmart are stocking organic products because of consumer demand, not because it’s the cheapest. People are voting with their dollars. But it’s definitely an uphill battle. And the slopes are greased with Washington’s red tape.

Here’s the trailer:

You may be able to catch it on TV. It’s available on DVD, download, and Netflix.

My first glimpse of Inception was in the midst of trite and tedious trailers shown before a movie months ago. It stood out from the first shot, and i said: “now that is why you go to the movies!”

Walking out of the IMAX theater after seeing it, i thought the same thing. Really one of the most amazing movie-going experiences i’ve ever had. Visually stunning, clever cast, flawless special effects, cinematic action and technique that up until now you could only dream of. It seemed to have a little something for everybody. At the most basic level it’s a heist flick — a gang of specialists hired to get something. But what they specialize in — stealing ideas from someone’s mind while they dream — is what sets this story apart. There’s so many layers, literally and figuratively — there’s a lot going on. Interestingly the unique plot itself is almost inconsequential, just a vehicle to propel and expose the characters and their relationships and conflicts. I feel like i followed pretty well, but it seems that a second viewing would solidify and clarify some points in my mind. But i also like that many blanks were left to be filled in by the audience. So almost paradoxically it satisfied everything i’d want to see in a film, but left me wanting more.

Decades of summer blockbuster, super hero, sci-fi, and kung-fu flicks, and even visual effects groundbreaker The Matrix could not match the zero-gravity fight scene in the middle of Inception. It wasn’t that the special effects hadn’t been good enough, or the budgets too small, or the action and stunts too limited. They just weren’t high-concept enough, and didn’t have a story able to carry and justify such a visually awe-inspiring scene. Worth the price of admission.

I got to the Airbus IMAX theater at about 9:00 for the 10:30 show, and there were already nine people in line. By 10:10 when they opened the doors, the line had become a mass of at least 300 people filling the entire lower lobby of the Air & Space museum for this sold-out show. It was a great feeling to be at the front of that crowd, to get to choose my seat before them all. Aside from one incredibly obnoxious guy trying to steal a seat from one of my friends, the crowd was great. But the film was so mesmerizing that the audience was in awed silence the whole time.

A simple measure of a “good” film is whether you’re talking about it when you’re walking out of the theater. Inception will have you thinking about and discussing its many layers for quite some time, and probably leave you itching for a second viewing as soon as possible.

Somehow i’ve never seen The Fugitive before.

The thing that stood out most about this film was how many familiar faces were in it. Most under-the-radar of whom is probably Laverne Scott Caldwell who played Rose on Lost.

What is there to say? Harrison Ford is Harrison Ford: smart, resourceful, and in trouble. Tommy Lee Jones is Tommy Lee Jones: an old cop with a country accent that just wants to go home.

I remember from a class at Full Sail the instructor using The Fugitive as an example of protagonist and antagonist vs hero and villain. Protagonist is the character that changes and the antagonist is the character that doesn’t. Harrison Ford was actually the antagonist: in the beginning: “i didn’t kill my wife”, in the end: “i didn’t kill my wife.” Tommy Lee Jones’ marshal character was therefore the protagonist. I have no idea if that’s “correct”, but for some reason that’s one of those little things that i remember.

Interesting that all the dramatic shots i remember from trailers (jumping from the waterfall) were in the first 20 minutes or so. Drawn out fights between hero and villain for the conclusion bore me. But i like being thrust into a mystery with the hero.

The story fell into the same sequel rut as many other recent action blockbuster sequels. The first movies were interesting and involving because we as viewers are thrust into the mystery or conflict with the hero and we become involved with their success. The sequels then remove that part of the equation and multiply the explosions and bling, and add extra characters and meaningless sponsorships that we have no reason to care about. No thanks.

Meanwhile, i can’t wait to check out Inception.

…And they just keep coming.

…And finally the menu, and pressing play.

This is starting just like Beauty & The Beast — Disney-sounding “French” accordion score, with people speaking french, nuns walking in the town square.

Streep’s Child impression just makes you smile.

Butter! In the good way, not the near-gross Paula Dean way.

And hey, there’s Chloe from 24, poaching eggs. She’s kinda just one degree, one flavor.

“Madame, s’il vous plait, you must hold szee knife like sziss.”

And there’s the requisite chick-flick fight. I’m not worried. They’ll work it out and live happily ever after.

Bon apetit, i guess. This movie is wrapping up, but i don’t feel satisfied.

I really like the idea of cooking — it appeals to the scientist, artist, and foodie in me. And know my way around a kitchen. But i don’t really have much time logged making real food, and can’t say i have any recipies memorized or any dishes i know how to make. A challenge like Julie’s would be fun, but i can’t realistically imagine being able to do it. Though i did get Alton Brown’s Good Eats book for Christmas, and he’s my Julia — my cooking idol.

Still waiting for a crawl-through-the-ventilation-ducts scene. I started watching the show in the middle of season 3 because it had the balls to have Jack execute an innocent man. But all this other crap they keep pulling is getting old.

By the way, if you watched all four hours of the premiere on Sunday and Monday nights on live television, you sat through 1 full hour of commercials.

This movie is pretty much all musical montage. Noticing a trend in war movies: the leader that makes bad calls right off the top then the lower-ranking soldier steps up and shines. I guess war is war. It’s also hard not to compare everything to the yardstick of war on film, Band of Brothers. There’s almost too many familiar faces in We Were Soldiers that bring with them the baggage of previous rolls — a problem that Band of Brothers didn’t have to deal much with (aside from Ross).

So, i’m having trouble believing the radioman on the ground was talking directly to the air support pilots. …And that’s a degloving. Crucial.

The dynamic range on this soundtrack is hard to keep up with. Lots of quiet whispering right next to huge explosions and gunfire. Thumb staying on the volume button.

…Aaaand a slo-mo battle scene. I’m becoming too picky about my war flick cinematography. Oh yeah, this doesn’t look like Vietnamese jungles, more like the hills of California, but i’ve never been to Vietnam.

So how about that AK-47? Greatest gun of all time? If you’re a bad guy.

Roll credits. Some memorable scenes — can’t get over the closeness of the combat. Modern war seems like such a remote affair — scopes and satellites and unmanned vehicles. Bayonets and fists and grenades: the side of war i’d hope to never experience if i were a soldier.