Monthly Archives: December 2010

Google Docs Now Includes Drawings

This is pretty neat: Google Docs, which I’ve mentioned here before and increasingly trust, now features a drawing app. It seems to be pretty full-featured, although it doesn’t seem to have scaling and measurements. By full-featured, I mean, compared with Powerpoint, not with Illustrator.

Google Drawing (export as PDF)

Google Drawings is also (in my testing) a little buggy, but (in my experience) web apps get updated faster than desktop apps. Anyway, there it is, for what it’s worth. Your mileage may vary. You can export your drawing in number of popular formats, and they look pretty good to me. Here’s the PDF I exported from the above drawing.

Google Drawing (Exported)

VLC vs. DVD Player.app

Apple’s DVD Player.app has been broken for so long, I honestly can’t remember the last time I was pleased with it.

It’s very telling that if you go to Apple’s web site, you can’t find DVD Player there. If I was them, I’d be ashamed of it too. I wouldn’t be surprised if Windows Media Player worked better.

Since (at least) Snow Leopard version 10.6.4, and continuing now in 10.6.5, DVD Player has been impossible. Routinely it crashes before you get to the main disc menu, and I’ve probably sent in 20 crash reports.

But no more. I switched to VLC. And you know what? “It just worked.” It’s a shame Apple can’t make software like that any more.

So Now It’s Okay…

…to like Rush? That’s what it says in the Toronto Globe and Mail:

Both the book and the film attempt to come to grips with a band that has had the most unusual career trajectory, defying age and the loathing of critics to fly high for decades, with no end in sight.

I’ve been listening to Rush since they assumed control with 2112, and honestly, I don’t much care for anything they’ve done in about 20 years. I just checked iTunes, and the highest rating I’ve given anything they released since Counterparts is 3 stars. I gave that to “Faithless” on Snakes and Ladders, and “Vapor Trails” and “Earthshine” on Vapor Trails also have 3 stars.

Still, even if their work hasn’t done much for me lately, I’m glad they’ve kept trying. I’d hate to see Rush become a nostalgia act going from casino to casino playing nothing but the old standards.

Ah, but what standards! From Permanent Waves to Moving Pictures to Signals, Grace Under Pressure, Power Windows, Presto, and Roll the Bones: what great records! (Great live performances, too: my Amazon wish list has some of their concert DVDs. Hint, hint.) As an old headbanger, I’m glad that these kids today are learning the awesomeness that is Rush. (Check out this performance of “YYZ” for an example.)