Mythbusters

The coolest show on Australian TV right now is not Lost, Desperate Housewives nor Big Brother.� Its Mythbusters.� According to Nielsen, its rating a good 1 million viewers at 7:30pm Monday nights on SBS.� Adam and Jamie are my kinda nerds.� Apart from busting commonly held myths (like exactly how deadly is a ceiling fan?) – they get to (legally) blow stuff up.� Now, that is what I call job statisfaction.� What you may not know is that their production team in Australian, and Adam actually responds to emails from us general public.� Now to find an online job application to join the team…

photo blog experiment

To the right of the front page of www.nickhodge.com is a quick experiment: the Photo Blog Experiment. Now that MMS is working from my Sony-Ericsson phone, I can email to a special process running on this web server. The photo is de-attached and inserted into the database. Within 5 minutes of taking a photo, it is published here. This extends the SMS to blog system I created in 2002.

A surprise in InDesign 2.0, InDesign CS and InDesign CS2.


Wow, again!

InDesign CS2: [2147] InDesign CS2 About Box...

Thanks to the product management team, I made it for the third time running. You’ll find my name in the InDesign CS2 about box, too. Way cool. An honour. Again

InDesign CS:
[1567] I have arrived at adobe, again!

Sometimes, its the little things…

[991] I have arrived at adobe!

A goal of mine whilst working at Adobe has been to get my name in the ‘About box’ of an application. Its sorta like the credits you see at the end of movies.

In one sense, this is easy to do. Just ask a product manager or engineer to place your name there. However, these seem to be controlled to (rightly) only include those who actually contribute something to the development of the application, and adds input to its direction (even in a little way).

The difficult part is adding your input to an application. Programs such as Photoshop which have deep features and strong user community are difficult to get any significant input that would warrant an inclusion in the about box. Suffice to say, there are much smarter people than me who have their hands on the Photoshop tiller.

InDesign, however, is a relatively new application that needs strong input from our customers to influence its direction. Thanks to a good friend on the inside, the local Adobe office has been assisting the InDesign team to ensure that it meets local requirements and customer requests as much as possible. There are features in InDesign 2.0 that are a direct result of local customer feedback. This makes me proud of the application

After a little nudge, I’ve managed to ensure that my name goes down in a little piece of history. To anyone that has suggested InDesign 2.0 features to me: this is all thanks to you

Nick, December 2001

Machiavelli

Reading a highly informative biography of Niccolo Machiavelli, the Renaissance thinker and writer on Power and Politics. Written by Michael White, from Perth, “Machiavelli: A Man Misunderstood” details the life-and-times of a man today renoun for the perjorative term Machiavellian. Whilst his most famous piece, The Prince, details the methods a prince (or leader) must undertake to gain and retain power in Renaissance Italy – it has modern day implications for all politcal operatives.

Note: For those in Sydney, Machiavelli’s also happens to be my favourite business lunching venue. Save up your dollars and head down to Clarence Street in the CBD for some hearty Tuscan/Italian food.