I’ve done two more Mozilla posters, which are all now located here. Also, I noticed a few small flaws in the original SVG, either there originally or maybe created during the importation into Illustrator 11 (it was originally made and exported to SVG by Illustrator 9). I fixed those up, and saved it as an SVG, and as a PDF for folks without SVG capabilities. Everything is there in the directory, all in PDFs, with previews in PNG. These are not original works, I have just remake them in a scalable vector format. They’re all based on works on the Mozilla.org website, in raster format, usually small, and all unsuitable for large scale printing. I’ve already gotten word of folks in Japan enjoying them printed and hung on the walls, so let me know what you do with them, too. 🙂

Well, MightyMu was looking at the images here and mentioned how he’d love to see this as a poster, preferrably 24″x36″. So, I made this. It’s 100% vector, so it will scale to whatever size you like. It’s in 2:3 ratio, so it will fit a 24″x36″ poster paper without any alterations, or 18″x12″ posters, etc. Here is a preview image made directly from the original. It was drawn in Adobe Illustrator, so I can export it to other formats, if folks wish, such as SVG, EPS, etc. I’ve got an SVG version, but it’s half a meg, so I am looking to see if it can be optimized or whatever.

Wow. I previously detailed my experience with SafeAuto, and in that missive I stated I’d manage to get back a measley $21 refund of the $86 they’d stolen from me. They lied, again. I got a check (finally) for thirteen dollars, not $21, but $13. So, to recap, they lied, took my money, never got the policy information, got screwed, lied to again about a $21 refund, and then only gt $13. It cost me $73 to learn SafeAuto Sucks. Boy is that a lesson I won’t soon forget.

These guys were the randomly (and boy do I mean randomly) picked winners who entered via a comment in the previous entry, and the emails where the invites were sent:

Zach (zachspoelstra [at] yahoo [dot] com)

Bryan Simonson (manticor24 [at] yahoo [dot] com)

DNapalm (dnapalm [at] hotmail [dot] com)

Martin Morrison (mam53 [at] cam [dot] ac [dot] uk)

Simon Salzer (gmail [at] sizzite.endjunk [dot] com)

Michael Diestelberg (md [at] winfuture [dot] de)

Happy GMailing, guys. To those who lost, I’m sure I’ll get more, so check back. And keep looking at other Mozilla folks’ blogs for other giveaways.

I have 6-8 invites open right now, and left a note about it on Asa’s blog, after he gave away his extras. He only had some many, so maybe I can help a few folks he couldn’t. I’ll do it the same way. Post a comment that you want one, and in a few days I’ll randomly pick a few. Bribes are accepted and encouraged, although I still make no promises. 😉

PS: Only one “Hey, me!” comment will count per person, so it’s just like those coupons in the paper, one chance per person. 🙂

Firefox has FireSomething, the random name generator, so I think Thunderbird needs something similar. Maybe even add a random-interval feature where the name will change (surprise) at random intervals. Imagine an application that just keeps changing it’s own name, randomly, while it’s still running. 🙂

I have some extra invites to GMail, with most of my friends covered already, so I can give a couple away. Asa is giving some away too, as is Pav, and now that I have extras, I’ll join the club. I have no idea how I’ll pick, so just throw your name in the hat, and we’ll see. 🙂

I am flabbergasted. This mini-series is easily some of the best television I have ever seen. Absolutely riveting. I have just finished watching the final episode, and I’m sweating from the tension and anticipation. I just can’t say enough good things about it, and as I think for a moment, I can’t think of anything I didn’t like. SciFi will replay all 5 parts of “5ive Days To Midnight” back to back Sunday night, starting at 7pm eastern time. I strongly recommend it to anyone who likes murder mysteries, thrillers, SciFi, and good TV in general.

Two things, basically. One, it looks like the Firefox team should have mailed Arvid Axelsson to tell him that since he wouldn’t open the license to the theme, they would be dumping it. And two, I hope Arvid sees that he has reduced the visibility of his work, reduced the respect for his name, and caused a lot of uproar in the community and extra work for the Firefox and Visual Identity teams. Had I been in his shoes, I’d have been glad to open the license. What’s better than having millions of people looking at your work, and all the potential name recognition (and potential employment) that could come from it?

Wow. I’ve only seen the first two hours of this 4 day, 5 hour miniseries on SciFi, but 5ive Days To Midnight is already fantastic. It’s tightly written, shot beautifully, and the acting is top notch. It’s got Timothy Hutton (I loved him in the Nero Wolfe series too), Nicole de Boer (who took up the part of Ezri Dax in the final season of DS9), Randy Quaid, and the incredibly beautiful and talented Kari Matchett.

In short, Tim Hutton’s character J.T. Neumeyer (a physics professor, which makes him cool from the start) comes across a briefcase very carefully intended for him, with evidence he’ll be murdered in five days. He now has to figure out if it’s real, and if so, how to stop it. This all happens on June 7, 2004, which is when you’re watching it. Meaning he’ll die on this coming friday. This is an additionally cool feature because it’s carefully planned to fit into the real calendar we live in while watching the film, which deepens the sense of reality and puts the viewer in the same timeline as our protagonist.

All the little pieces of the puzzle (he loves puzzles, like the huge jigsaw puzzle on his table at home) fit wonderfully, and are revealed to us in an unpredictable manner. It’s not braindead linear like many mysteries. Clues revealed to us come at seemingly random times, and may not be understood till much later. Really good. Like an excellent novel. I can’t wait for hours 3-5.

Ignore what Melanie McFarland, of the Seattle Post Intelligencer says. I don’t know what movie she was watching, but it wasn’t this one. Yes, it’s got a Sci-Fi bent to it. Wow, figure that out, a sci-fi movie on the SciFi network! Larry Niven called sci-fi a literary ghetto due to it’s total lack of respect from the outside. And yet science fiction has produced some of the greatest books ever, it’s even infiltrated our language and culture. If you check your sci-fi prejudices at the door, you’ll love this mini-series.

Update: Someone at the New York Times knows what I’m talking about. Thank you Virginia Heffernan!.