Short talk....

I don't have a lot to say right now... but I wanted to talk about something I find funny.

Before the funny, though, I wanted to mention something that I find disgusting.

My laptop was stolen on Friday. It was taken out of my office, which someone had left open when they'd left. I work in a public place, so of course, with a laptop being stolen every second (yes, I'm just making that number up, but I know it's a very frequent thing), it was bound to happen that my exposed machine would go fast.

I didn't lose much, just a few active things that hadn't been backed up, but won't be hard to re-do. It's just frustrating that we live in a world where people feel the need to take things. The thief was kind enough to leave my bag and everything else in it, including a camera worth a couple hundred bucks, my Zune, and a variety of flash and portable drives.

I replaced it with a Toshiba U305-S2804, which is a nice little 13.3" machine I'd had my eye on anyway, wanting something more portable than my 15.4" Sony. I'm doubly happy about that because I can use my little portfolio again, a Wenger Swiss Army thing that I originally got back when I was thinking of getting a little PowerBook. (I ended up with a 15.4" PowerBook then anyway, which I got rid of within a few weeks because, try as I might, I just can't get into MacOS X.)


Anyway, I've been pretty busy getting this machine set up again, and other various things. Mike and I have started a 'writing project' because we've both been feeling pretty lulled in terms of writing. So, we're working with random topics that one suggests, we both write it in a few days and present the work to the other. It's been fun, I'm finishing the third one now. Who knows, we might actually end up with something worth while from the endeavor.

Now, my main point in writing tonight...

Aviary

I finally got my invite for Aviary. Right now, I only have access to a couple of tools, but the main one I wanted to check out was the Image Editor, they call it Pheonix.

Already I've found a few issues, most of which are minor. Cosmetically it's nice, and neat, but I'd like more control over my workspace. Also, there seems to be an issue with Ctrl-A (select all) where it leaves a 1px gap at the bottom. Also, the gradient tool makes me want to stab myself.

I have to give them the fact that they've built something as powerful as they have using Flash. It's hard not to compare it to Photoshop, and I can't see myself dumping PS for a.viary yet, but I can certainly see the draw.

This brings me to the humor, though. They've built this whole thing in Flash, an Adobe product. They're building something to rival the gamut of Adobe products, and they're doing it using an adobe product! There's something deeply amusing to me in that.

Either way, I would encourage people who are interested to sign up for the beta. It's interesting, and I'm eager to see what they do with it. I'm going to try and work with it some more, and we'll see what happens.

Now that I'm in, I also have 5 invites available, so I plan on getting some feedback from some other people on what they think too.

I'm hoping that I'll get access to their Vector editor soon, which I'm really eager to see in action.

Actually... I also got in on the Photoshop Express Beta as well, and I'd like to talk about that more, as well as compare the two products, but that will have to wait.

Goodnight...

I need to get some finishing touches done on my current writing assignment, and then hit the hay. But I'm hoping to find some time, soon, to talk about more stuff. I've been seeing movies, playing games, and generally living life as usual... so I've got plenty of fuel for the fire... when the time comes.