MacBook Pro 15″ with 160Gb Hard Drive, 2Gb ram, etc, etc…

Regular Price: $2919.00 CAD
Student Developer Price: $2335.00 CAD
Cost to become student developer: $119.00 CAD
Net Savings: $465.00 (about 16%)

Plus they’ll send me OS X 10.5 Leopard for free when it’s released. (Normally $149)

Any student can do this, and it’s a totally painless process. You buy the student membership, they get you to fax them your transcript and ID, then you get to buy your computer from the ADC online store. Presumably you don’t even have to know how to develop software to take advantage.

See this and that for more info.

Two new website projects that I’ve finished in the last month:

They use XHTML + CSS + Custom PHP Template System + URL Beautification (for the Zymeworks one). I keep trying to stop doing web design but there seems to be an endless supply of projects…

I just got back from visiting my sister in freezing cold Saskatoon. Her basement suite doesn’t have a thermostat, so choosing the temperature of the entire house is left to the weirdos living upstairs. Since they weren’t even home this weekend, the place was too cold.

So naturally we hotwired the furnace because, being in the basement, we had access to it.

If you’re ever in a similar situation…

1. Pop off the main panel and peer inside. You’ll see the little pilot light burning away and some simple wiring.
2. If it’s a simple old furnace, there will be two little wires going up into the house (to the thermostat). If it’s a fancy new one with a digital thermostat or something, all bets are probably off.
3. Since a mechanical thermostat is basically just a switch, all you need to do is short it out to close the circuit. When the circuit is closed, the electric gas valve gets power and opens, and the burners fire up.
4. When the house is warm enough, you un-short out the wires leading to the thermostat, and everything is back to normal. Ta da!

Here’s a diagram:

AND REMEMBER: This is probably dangerous so try it at your very own risk. I take no responsibility for your future burnt down house. Don’t trust anything you read on the internets.

WindoWorks is a program where local artists produce artworks in the windows of vacant storefronts in downtown Swift Current, SK.

“30 Lights in a Room” is my site-specific installation using electronic media. Thirty 40-watt light bulbs hang from the ceiling of a small room, each hung at different levels and spaced in no particular pattern. Each bulb flashes independently at random. Below are pictures showing the construction process and a few of the final work. The window is located at 121 Central Avenue North in Swift Current, Saskatchewan.

From the WindoWorks Exhibition Guide…

This contemporary installation reminds us of what is typical of a display in a lighting store: a selection of lights is presented together in order for the viewer to see them. This display does something similar but different. The lights are seated in the most basic light fixtures and are presented in the most austere of settings. This causes the viewer to look a little harder at what they may think they recognize easily. The viewer will search out for themselves what the sculpture is doing, what the artwork is about, and what the experience is reminiscent of.