The Lorax hates Android

…and, apparently, any mobile OS other than IOS.

I’m actually kind of interested in seeing the upcoming CG version of the Dr. Seuss classic, but I’m perplexed as to why such a blockbuster film would have an Apple-only mobile version of its web site. I mean, even if Apple is giving Universal (or whoever) wads of cash for some kind of exclusive mobile deal, it still seems like a terrible idea to make your site available to only a fraction of the mobile web. Unless, of course, we’re talking really huge wads of cash, I guess. The kicker for me, though, is that the desktop version of the site is built in Flash. How weird is that?

The Lorax has no love for Android

Android: 'But I thought you liked green!'

Addendum

For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, I tried to visit the official movie site on my Android phone and was greeted with this notice:

No Lorax for you!

No Lorax for you!

Upon clicking “OK” I saw a lovely white screen. That’s it. No simplified version of the site, no hold page, not even any text. Just a blank white screen. And, see, here’s the thing: they are apparently proactively deciding not to show me any kind of site at all simply because I’m not visiting with an iPhone or iPad. It’s astonishing to me.

I know this doesn’t rise to the level of importance of, say, starving children in Africa, but I’m tempted to stage a boycott of the movie simply because of this practice. Yeah, I know: good luck with that. Nonetheless, the very idea of dividing up the web based on who has what device is completely contrary to the concepts of open standards, net neutrality and the like. It’s not a behavior I want to reward with my hard-earned dollars. It is kind of par for the course for Apple, however, although it’s still unclear to me exactly what – if anything – Apple has to do with this particular instance.

Stupid practice is still practice

The main points of this exercise were 1) to learn how to use MyPaint-GIMP-Inkscape in a comics production chain and 2) to practice drawing, inking, and painting stuff (as always). I wanted to do actual backgrounds but ran out of time, so here it is. I have no idea whether boots of frost resistance actually exist in the Skyrim universe, but I couldn’t resist the SkyrimShots title, so there you go.

Boots of Frost resistance

Boots of Frost resistance

Something old

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I found this old snippet from an abandoned project while cleaning out my hard drive. It makes me want to revive the project. Most of the art was created in Inkscape and then imported into KoolMoves where I added a few faint, wispy clouds (using a blur filter) and then animated the camera moves and the train cars. KoolMoves, unlike most of the software I use, is not open source, but it’s a really good and very inexpensive alternative to Flash, and it imports SVG files (which is what Inkscape makes). I’ve even been able to get KoolMoves running on Ubuntu using Wine/CrossOver. I plan to use KoolMoves to make a few original games for the Creepspace website. Take that, Adobe!

On a completely unrelated note, I’m not crazy about the new page layouts for individual videos over at YouTube. In particular, having the “more videos by this user” link on top of the main video seems like a really bad idea since opening it pushes the video you’re watching down the page. Not sure what YouTube is thinking with this redesign.