jeremyfoster.ca

As many people have noticed, the new trend in both the box-office and home-theatre is 3D technology. The largest grossing movie of all time, Avatar, was the one that everyone had to see on the IMAX screen in full HD 3D glory. I for one didn’t experience that (I wish I did), but the result of the success of that film was the new glut of 3D-HD TVs that are now available for the home.

What you might not know is that the technology behind what you may have seen at the theatre is quite different than the 3D technology you’d have at home. This means that the glasses you stole borrowed from the Avatar screening will not work with your new glorious 3D-HDTV… Let me explain:

There’s a little science involved here so be forewarned – If you purchase a LCD 3D-HDTV, it is likely to have polarizing filters built into it. The glasses you would use in the theatre ARE the polarizing filters. “So what?” you might ask? This leads me to the main reason I will never own a 3D Television. The glasses required to view 3D on a LCD or Plasma TV (LC Shutter Glasses) have what are called “micro-shutters.” Small shutters inside each lens that open and close at a rapid rate to create the 3D effect with televisions with polarizing filters. Those glasses…. $300-$450 for each pair. That means that for a family of 4, you could be paying up to $1000 just to watch TV with a 3D effect. These glasses are breakable, can get lost or stolen and in my case, I paid $3000 a few years ago (laser surgery) to NOT WEAR GLASSES to watch TV…..

3D is made possible by a visual effect called Stereopsis. The eyes of an adult human lie about 2.5 inches apart, which lets each eye see objects from slightly different angles. The two images on a 3D TV screen present objects from two slightly different angles as well, and when those images combine in the viewer’s mind with the aid of the glasses, the illusion of depth is created. The old 3D glasses had red and cyan colored lenses which create two different colored images. This image, called an anaglyph creates the illusion of depth when a stereoscopic image is viewed.

3D requires people to sit directly in front of the screen to get the best, rewarding 3D experience. Viewers of Avatar who were far off to the left or right of the screen did not have the same rich experience as those who were lucky enough to sit in the middle of the theatre. Perhaps the best review of this was Wilson Rothman’s (from Gizmodo) review of Avatar. Unless you have a home-theatre room which allows for all of your guests to have a perfect head-on view of the screen – the majority of people (myself included) will not enjoy the 3D experience.

If I am ever back in the market for another TV, it’ll probably be a 60″ Plasma or something that makes watching hockey (or Avatar) more epic than on my current 42″ Sony…. 3D just doesn’t add up for me.

Every now and then Critical Mass has an event called Beercamp and most recently it has morphed into an event called “Frideas.” The first friday of every month gives employees the chance to discuss any topic of their choice for 15 minutes while the crowd enjoys their favorite flavor of beer. Last Friday I presented my first Fridea or Beercamp on (fittingly enough) beer – the micro-brewed variety.

The speech covered why you might want to choose a micro-brew over a macro-brew, health-benefits, movers-and-shakers and why the growing micro-brewing industry might matter to people who work in an agency like Critical Mass.

Unfortunately there wasn’t enough room for me to display the beers that I’d brought to recommend to the attendees, so here’s the list:

If you’re wondering why I’d include beers available only in BC Liquor Stores, next time you’re in Radium having a soak in the hot-springs, head into town (Invermere)….They carry most if not all of the beers mentioned here!

Cheers, J.

Yep, I’ve seen the signs posted all around town. “We build great websites”, “Custom Web Design – $300″, “Your business, Your Website – Call us today!!” There’s an influx of people trying to take advantage of the entrepreneurs in our city by building cheap websites and providing even cheaper design and brand development. We’ve all seen the templates you can buy online for $20 and you might be thinking, “Yeah! – that’ll do! That’s all I need and I don’t need to spend “X” dollars for some professional to build me a website….”

You can even get full flash templates online for less than $100 that are like the shiny, sparkling toy in the store window – that one you just HAVE to have… So, say you buy one…what now? Say you hire one of these guys who posts flyers on the signs at turn-signals and on your neighborhood’s telephone poles? What then? What is your brand? What colors or fonts or phrases, keywords and symbols describe YOU or YOUR BUSINESS? Whether or not you know the answers to those questions still begs the question: How do you know the guy with the flyer is going to deliver what he promises?

The answer to that question is “do your homework.” Would you take your car to be fixed by someone posting a bill in your neighborhood? You might – but you’d find out if they were a mechanic – whether by asking them directly, through neighbors or judge by the car(s) in his/her driveway (most ratchetheads have at least a 70′s era Corvette or 40′s era hot-rod in the driveway to tinker with). It’s the same thing with trusting your business’ website to someone. Find out if they’re someone who has at least a portfolio (eg. – that 70′s era Corvette in pristine condition) or if they’re that guy who just returned “learn HTML in 24 hours” to the library and is an expert at Googling “how to build a website”…

There’s an old fable about a man that had a very successful barber shop offering $10 haircuts. One day another shop opened across the street advertising “$5 haircuts”. The established barber, after watching the results of his competitor, over a few days, erected a sign stating “We fix $5 haircuts”. This is what I find myself doing on a consistent basis after my freelance clients have been sucked into one of these quick website-in-24-hours schemes and end up having a shit website they can’t do anything with.

I don’t pretend to be the best web developer out there. I don’t tell everyone I have the best portfolio either. My strength is customer service. I find out what exactly my client’s goals are in having a website and where they want it to be in the grand scheme of their business. A lot of what I do is education. Most of my clients don’t know what SEO is, why a good hosting company is important, whether a CMS is a good thing for their needs or not, should they be blogging?, Twitter?, Facebook?…. These are all things I can help with because I’ve made the mistakes, seen the successes, and have applied the lessons to help promote some really big brands. Almost all of the sites I’ve developed over the past 4 years came to me via client-testimonial or simply by word-of-mouth.

When a client asked me “Why should I pay you for a custom design and a full custom website when I can buy a template and drop my own words and logos into that.” Aside from pointing out the obvious (because 100000 other people are using the SAME template) – I take the time to educate them on how their business *could* benefit from a Search-engine-optimized architecture, keywords, color palette, icons, font-treatments, full motion (flash) and even social media integration. People like it when they learn something new – especially if it’s technology based – it makes them look good! (This is quoted from a client – I can’t make this stuff up…)

Every single URL I checked for “Web Design Company X” that I’ve seen posted around the city DID NOT have a portfolio linked on their site. NOT ONE. Don’t believe me? Next time you see that sign around town, take the 2 seconds it takes to memorize the URL and check it when you can. I’ll wager they don’t have links to any sites they’ve built, any case-studies they’ve completed or any reviews from current or past clients showing the results of their work. This is because the crap they deliver is BRUTAL. I know — I see it every time I pick up a new client.

The best Web Design Companies don’t post bills around town. They may even have a very simple site of their own at best. The reason why? They’re too busy making life BETTER for the small guy. They’re too busy helping entrepreneurs or enterprises build their business online, designing brands and making the web work for them!!

The next time you see that ad for “Custom Web Design” posted somewhere in your town – think about how you might find that Web Designer who is too busy ACTUALLY WORKING to advertise. When you find them – you’ll know you’ve made the right choice.

A few people have asked me to provide a transcript of what I read at my Mom’s memorial. Here it is in its entirety.

My mother was awesome – I will start with that.

I remember sitting in her old ’64 VW Beetle listening and singing along to Elton John, Paul Simon, Tina Turner and the Beatles from a very young age. My mom’s taste in music has stuck through even to today with her love for artists like John Mayer, B.B. King and Van Morrison. When I went through my rap and hip-hop phase in the early 80′s and 90′s I knew she didn’t appreciate it but there were a few songs I’d catch her dancing to in the kitchen if I had it on loud enough. When I called her on it she’d just say “I don’t like it but it’s got a good beat you can dance to!”

My mom always encouraged me to do better. I remember her yelling at me when I couldn’t do my math homework or my science homework because she knew I was capable of doing more. She had a lecture (more times than I cared to mention) about taking the right path in life or “playing at the waterfall.” She kept telling me this right up until the time I signed up for the Computer Systems Technology course at age 25. I remember telling myself when times got tough – I’ll show you who’s at the waterfall…. She was so proud the day I graduated but didn’t like the fact that I was Calgary bound. I think she knew Victoria was where the “waterfall” was…

My mom had an uncanny ability to know what was cool. She encouraged hockey, soccer, baseball and all the events and clothing styles to go with it. I clearly remember shopping with her for MC Hammer pants because I REALLY HAD TO HAVE THEM. If I showed up in the kitchen wearing a funny hat, tight-rolled jeans or even really bad, wavy (over-moussed) hair she’d let me know about it. In fact she had her own term for someone who looked/dressed silly and that was “Derwood” – as in “Jeremy, go brush your hair and put on a clean shirt – you look like a Derwood!!” I still, to this day don’t know what a Derwood is but I can tell you it’s not cool.

My mom really knew her sports. When I would play soccer she’d be yelling plays I should have done, or telling us what the other team was or wasn’t doing. At half-time she’d take me and whoever else would listen aside and give us inside information on how to beat the defense and how to correct our passing. In hockey games she’d be yelling at the top of her lungs – I never knew what but I can only assume that it was the same deep knowledge she had for other sports. I think if she’d written down the things she’d coached me about hockey she’d have given good ol’ Don Cherry a run for his money.

I know that she would have loved to have done the same for my kids. Correcting their homework, fixing their hair and calling them Derwoods. I know she would have been at every soccer, hockey (and even ballet?) practice yelling encouragement, coaching and doing what she does best. I’m sure she’s going to be there and I’m sure she’s going to have a huge impact on my kids because of the impact she’s had on me.

My mom was awesome and I will miss her very much. She was a force in my life and her voice will always echo through when it comes time for me to coach, mentor and guide my children through their lives. Thank-you mom.

For those interested in attending my mother’s memorial, it will be held at:

First Memorial 4725 Falaise Dr. Victoria, BC on Saturday March 13th, 2010 at 11:00am

In Theresa’s memory, donations can be made to Victoria Hospice Foundation, Stadacona Centre, 1510 Fort St. V8S-5J2 (250-952-5720). Flowers graciously declined.

They say that each of us is but a single drop of water in the great blue sea. But that some drops…sparkle.

–Camelot

My mother was an amazing woman with a strong will and kind heart. She battled cancer for the last 5 years and was surrounded at all times with words of encouragement, best-friends, love, sudoku puzzles, crosswords, her friends grandchildren, crock-pots of amazing food, baked treats and people I can never thank enough. She fought a hard fight and was able to spend quality time with us during our trip to Tofino in the summer of 2009. She passed March 3, 2010 in the presence of her immediate family and friends.

I love her with all my heart and will miss her laughs, her wisdom and her love for life.

Thank-you to all the friends and family who have given their time, strength, conversation, encouragement and faith during this time. For that I cannot thank you enough.

All I ask for are your prayers, condolences, kind words and help through this difficult time.

Jeremy.