Kernow Soul

While getting the photo of my new business card ready for the web I fired up Photoshop on the laptop. I soon realised I’d not used Photoshop on the laptop before, when I hit the save for web button my lovely photo changed into something hideously washed out. As someone who rarely uses Photoshop any more I always forget how to set-up colour profiles and remember spending quite some time doing this on the desktop machine.

To my amazement a quick google search and a couple of minutes later I was all set-up and exported my photo exactly how I wanted it. Thanks Usability Post for your amazingly simple and accurate guide to setting up colour profiles for web design.

I’ve been making do with some terrible old business card for the last few years and thought it was about time for some nice new ones. I wanted to go for something nice, clean and simple so designed them with just a little type, a bit of custom kerning then shot them off to the nice little moo bot to print. I have to say I do quite like the playful tone and nice little touches moo uses in their communications, it makes you feel happy.

I certainly am, Merb 1.0 is due to be announced at MerbCamp on the 11th October. Right now the guys are hard at work polishing the knobs and working on documentation.

I’ve been following Merb with interest ever since I first heard about it. One of the things I found hard to keep up with-just dipping into it now and then-was the speed of development and change. Every time I had a few minutes to play with it everything had changed. Its a bit like having the rug pulled out from under you every time you manage to get to your knees.

With the 1.0 release Merb should be far more stable, and with some decent documentation I hope it will start taking off quickly. The barrier to entry will be greatly lowered. Even though I won’t be at MerbCamp I’ll certainly be following it closely.

I wonder if the 1.0 release will be promptly followed by a 1.0.1 release as is tradition.

So the rain has backed off for the first sustained period since I moved back to the UK, I’ve taken the opportunity to lay on the grass in the sun and read a book I picked up the other day, Punk Marketing. Not that far in and I’m allready enjoying it, who would have thought a book on marketing could be entertaining!

I came across a quote I thought I would share… “Go to a multiplex, sit through the ads, and see how abused you feel by the start of the movie. Then to to a cinema in the UK and motive that most peole turn up to view those commercials. Because they are actually fun-sensible and intriguing and full of messages that make people applaud.Yes, shout out with glee! These are entertaining, funny, well-produced, and cool. Four terms you’d never use to describe an ad at movies in the US of A today.”

I couldn’t agree more, those poor Canadians are force fed the majority the USA’s crappy ads. What’s probably worse is that often the product or service isn’t even available to them! I digress, having suffered with the Canadians for the last three years I can say I would gladly watch several hours of English commercials than a single US ad break.

In closing… Well done Britain, we produce some of the best ads in the world.

After floating around without a proper home the javascript_auto_include plugin now has a nice cosy permanent home on my website. I’ve also added an update for Rails 2.x compatibility submitted by davidsch.

You can find the official plugin page under the Rails Plugins heading on the right. Or visit the javascript_auto_include page link.

Finally I have a personal blog online! It’s about time too. For now it’s using the scribbish theme and powered by my own blog engine. It’s late at night so I will write my first “real” post tomorrow.