November 2006 Archives
I'm not sure if I've stuck the Porktrasher's MySpace site up here before, but here it is We've stuck up a few of the rough off-the-floor mixes from The Farm, and even used the nifty slidshow module. Like the blog space, it's all CSS controlled, but unlike the blogosphere, the level of taste is markedly lower. Oy. There's some phenomenally ugly sites there. The Trasher site is fine in what I've done so far I guess, but dull. I'm more sorry than ever that I'm so lame at CSS because you could really go to town. And it seems like it will also accommodate
In other news, we're rehearsing now for our annual Christmas gig (well, second annual), which is both nerve-wracking and of course very exciting. I'm back into my vocal strengthening exercises, which means that twice a week I go out to the car in the garage with a beer, a CD, lyric sheets, and sing my head off for an hour or so. I'm thinking that's not how Bono or Pavarotti preps for concerts, but whatever, they're such hacks.
I loved this email I got from Quark (somehow I'm on a customer list):
"Upgrade to QuarkXPress 7 and continue to run QuarkXPress 6
Yes, it’s true. Your license for QuarkXPress 6 remains alive and well when you upgrade to QuarkXPress 7. Quark has announced that, effective November 1, 2006, customers who upgrade to QuarkXPress 7 will automatically be able to use a QuarkXPress 6 license on the same computer."
So their exciting announcement is that if you bought a copy of Quark 6 (Retail $975, plus $370 to get to 6.5), and then upgraded to Quark 7 (Retail: $1299), then they don't take away the first version you paid for from you. Imagine! I can certainly see why they'd want to trumpet that type of forward thinking.
This is the service-centric approach that has made Quark the standard by which all arrogant and mean-spirited companies are measured. It was one thing when they owned the market and were untouchable, but now that InDesign is eating their lunch, you have to wonder how long it will be before they finally just get pushed out of the business altogether. I was given a free copy of Quark, and didn't even bother installing it. Who needs the hassle?
It would would be a sad story of the decline of a great product, if they weren't such a bunch of dicks.
