SlimTimer for tracking time. Everyone on our production team is using it and I can instantly see what costs are accruing on each project.

Gantt Project for planning. Forecast completion dates and resource useage by creating a Gantt chart. Exactly what I need for a small workgroup. Easy to use, but a little limited it is currently in development as an open source project with new features added often.

Basecamp is a project management software (not free) that allows member to track projects and add files and messages. Very beneficial for working with a group – communication is the key! (Or is organization the key…)

I used the Thinking Particles presets to emit red blood cells, white blood cells, and small particles to create the illustion of a fluid.  The particles follow the path of a spline. I used the TP Accelerator and TP Friction to create a pulsing movement of the particles.  I even edited the TP Spin preset to cause the particles’ spin speed to change according to the acceleration to help the illusion of moving within a fluid.

Image uploader suddenly is not working where it was working before.  I haven’t changed anything!  Arggg.

This morning I was setting up my audio recording studio, which happens to be right next to the network room.  The AT&T tech is in there, so I ask what he is up to.  He is installing a fax machine.  What!?!  It requires a special line, since the phone system is VOiP.

Why do fax machines live!  I am sorry, fax people, but it is time for the fax machine to die.  You are sending black and white Tiff files over phone lines at dial-up speed.  Everyone else is be sending full color jpeg files over broadband!

 Incredible.  And in the next room, we have not one but 2 “BizHub” machines with scan and email functionality.  Enter an address, put the paper in the tray and hit [start]!  Whoever requested the fax machine needs to go in for training.

If I am completely off my rocker? Please leave a comment and help me see the reasoning.

One of my favorite Lolcat characters is “Hovercat.”  He just looks so sleek and futuristic.  Here is a photo of one that seems to have crashed.  The look on his face is too LOL!

Note: The following paragraph explains the experience I had with downloading.  Most users did write in to say that they can begin watching after only a small portion of the video is downloaded.  I did not have such luck.  I will research this to find if I can change a setting or if I have a download speed that is slower than required.

I expected a few minutes of buffering and I would be watching the movie in 15 or 20 minutes. Unfortunately, this is where things started to go bad.  Unlike any other quicktime video, movies are not progressive download.  My quick calculations showed that it would take over 2 hours to download the complete movie over the AT&T DSL connection I use.

Sunday night we sat down to finally watch our movie.  I was pleasantly surprised at the video quality.  It is slightly lower quality than DVD.  You can see artifacts in dark shots or on large areas of solid color, like on doors and walls.  We watched most of the movie before deciding that it was getting close to bedtime and the end would have to wait for Monday.

Ah, the second snag – You only have 24 hours to watch the movie.  Since we started watching at 7:30 on Sunday night we only have until 7:30 Monday to watch the movie.  Unfortunately, we’ll be attending an art lecture Monday evening.  I’ll be driving down to my local BlockBuster to rent the same movie later Monday night!

Overall, the rental process was easy and the selection of movies is OK.  I can see where some would find renting over the internet to be very beneficial.  It just doesn’t work for me right now.  I am already a Netflix subscriber and have a BlockBuster store 2 minutes away.  Once Lafayette Utility Services begins offering “Fiber to the Home” in early 2009, my opinion of Apple TV may change. I live in the “Phase 1″ area and plan on purchasing FTTH immediately when it is available.