Today’s digital technology is so good that sometimes it’s hard to tell whether an image is real or computer-generated (CG).
Of course, we’ve been exposed to CG imagery in movies (and recently TV) for years now, and oftentimes for me, I can instinctively know something is not “right” about an image and know it’s been artificially created.
At the same time, however, sometimes you just want to enjoy the story.
I guess it’s just that once you know the sleight of hand behind a magic trick, then the trick (and future tricks) loses some of the aura of coolness, as you’ll always be wondering.
In any case, the above images make up a challenge from software maker Autocad.
Can you tell which ones are real photos, and which are computer generated?
I’m pleased to announce a recent revamp of DownHomeBluesFestival.com
Down Home Blues Festival is an annual workshop dedicated to blues dancing, and is sponsored by the Northern California Lindy Society.
Here’s the final look:
Here’s the before image:
The Initial Problem
Two things jumped out at me with the old site:
It took up a fixed amount of space – with today’s monitors favoring the widescreen format, and coming in various sizes, including large, larger and Ginormica!, we really were not utilizing monitor real estate efficiently.
It took a long time to update – The Down Home Blues Festival has been taking place every year, and it’s always taken a bit more time than I’d like to update the site with that particular year’s information partly because I was always “manually” updating and formatting each page as needed.
In addition, there are many pieces of the site revamp to wait for: logo design, updated biographies, schedules, dances, etc. And often times, I prefer to blast through a sizeable update in one sitting, instead of doing it piecemeal.
Of course, because a workshop of this magnitude requires a lot of coordination on the organizer’s part, there is inevitably a wait. Understandably so.
Still, I wanted to find a solution that would eventually make updating the site a more pleasurable experience for all involved: the organizers, me the webmaster, and ultimately, the dancers who are visiting the site to register for the workshop.
Solution
What I finally decided was to install Wordpress, and to use that as the main CMS (Content Managemen System). More and more sites are using Wordpress on their backend, including this one, and some sites, in fact, do not even look like blogs.
In any case, once I decided on that route, the next step was to create an updated logo.
Here’s the old one:
I did not have access to the original design file, so what I did was us Photoshop to trace the house with the path tool and then added in the new text, utilizing my own design sensibilities from my Graphic Communications days in my early college “career”.
The result is this:
I reduced the height of the logo to decrease the amount of header real estate that would be taken up.
After the logo was done, then it was a matter of created the pages and populating them with the appropriate content.
There you have it — a quick and dirty run-down on a “simple” website revamp.
When a TED Talk results in a standing ovation, you know it’s just resonated with the audience in a big way.
Shai Agassi’s idea resonates with me. I think he had me when he pointed out how American car companies (car 1.0) have always insulated themselves as an industry from what’s happening on the entire planet.
I hope he continues the good work, and hopefully, his plan will come to fruition.
Well, not quite. At last count, there were some 30,000+ apps in Apple’s App Store. It’s getting to the point where there are almost too many choices — I mean, how many of you have bought an app that’s now relegated to the last page, or even *GASP* removed? *RAISES HAND*
Well, never fear, DWongster’s here to help.
The following are apps that I actually use on my iPod Touch on a regular basis. Most of these apps are ones I’ve had for a while now. What I’ve found are certain apps “bubble up” to my “top screen” — the first or second page.
I’ll state my estimated frequency of use, how I use the app, and some final thoughts.
DWongster’s Top built-in iPhone/iPod Touch Apps:
I should note that the iPhone/iPod Touch already comes with a great set of built-in apps — they obviously contribute greatly to the device’s popularity.
Safari – everyday – I actually use the browser primarily for email, specifically Gmail. I also recently started using Gmail’s Tasks. All of the Gmail apps have been optimized for the iPhone/iPod Touch, and look great (for Gmail). If I really want to surf the web, then I fire up my Mac.
Calendar – everyday – I have Gmail Calendar sync’ed with my Mac’s iCal, and from there my iPod Touch, so I can enter or edit events at any location and have everything sync up. I really enjoy the user-interface on the iPod Touch Calendar. The one improvement I’d like is the ability to jump to any date (say a year or more in either direction — hard to do right now via scroll-swiping).
Contacts – 2 or 3 times a week – Interface is great for entering contact info. I love how touching an address will automatically access Google Maps. All that’s needed is a “back” button from Google Maps to go back into my Contacts where I left it.
Clock – everyday – I must say I’ve never been happier with the built in Alarm feature. You can easily set multiple alarms, choose from a large variety of alarm sounds, etc. The World Clock is great to know when international friends are (or should be) awake, and I use the Timer for various cooking tasks. Truly useful.
Remote – for parties – (not built-in–it should be, though, but a Free Download from Apple) It’s great to be able to access my iTunes music library from anywhere in the house.
DWongster’s Top Tracking Apps (Lists):
Grocery IQ – few times a week – This app allows you to add items to a shopping list. It’s got predictive typing — start typing the first few letters and you get a list of possible guesses, plus it’s easy to add items. In additional to the shopping List, there’s Favorites, History and Aisles (which I don’t use; I know where my products are). User-interface is pretty good: as you shop, you can tick off the items.
Gas Cubby – every fill-up – Awesome app that allows you to keep track of gas fill-ups and any service you have done to your car. My favorite is seeing my gas mileage at a glance. The UI is great: enter odometer reading, two out of three and the third is automatically calculated (Gallons, Cost/Gallon, Total Cost). Options include Payment type, Location, gas brand and quality (87, 89, 90+ or Diesel), tracking multiple cars, and cool graphs showing your mileage, cost per gallon, total gas expenses, automatically accessible by turning your device to landscape mode. The one feature I’d like to see is the ability to download or email the info, say for tax records. Update: The developer just tweeted me, informing me that the export (email) feature is available via tapping on the Search key, then the email icon shows up on the upper right. Cool! And kudos for their near instantaneous support!
DWongster’s Top Social Media Apps:
Tweetie – everyday – awesome app for using Twitter with a very intuitive interface for lots of Twitter-related tasks
Retweet – everyday – great app for keeping tabs on what’s popular on Twitter, specifically what people are “retweeting”. Can be set to see what’s popular from the last 30 minutes, 3 hours, 12 or 24 hours
Facebook – every 2-3 days – I normally log on via web browser, but this free app will let you access your FB account. Interface is pretty good.
Byline – everyday – this is my preferred RSS reader. It accesses my Gmail Reader account and presents my feeds in an easy to use manner. I can very quickly scan through the hundreds of posts I get daily, reading only the ones that interest me with its built in browser. The interface allows you to go right back to the reader feed. One downside: it does crash once in a while — perhaps once a week.
DWongster’s “Justs for Fun” Apps:
There are times when you’re just waiting for other people, and so here are some cool, fun apps that are interesting, and don’t take up a lot of time. So while I don’t use these everyday, I do use them when I have minutes to kill.
Rolando – a “platform” game if you need to describe it to someone, but it’s really more than that. It’s cute and quirky, with a cool soundtrack, fun premise, and awesome use of the touch interface and accelerometer. Gameplay can be as long or short as you want, as there’s autosave, plus the design of the game is such that even if don’t replay it for a long time, you can jump right in where you left off without skipping a beat. Highly recommended!
Sway – another platform game with a very good user interface. Much like Rolando, you can jump in and out of playing the game, for as little or as long as you want. This was a recent addition, so I have not played a lot, but it’s definitely fun!
Stanza – here’s a great app for downloading and reading ebooks in the public domain — and there are tons of books: Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes, Swiss Family Robinson are some I’ve downloaded. Plus, a recent update now allows you to purchase ebook versions of today’s books as well. Interface is really good, with the ability to change font styles and sizes, portrait or landscape mode, and much more.
Crosswords – a great crossword app with a terrific interface. Included are Clues and Hints (ability to reveal a single letter or entire word, or just show errors). The best part is the ability to download free crosswords from various publishers.
7 Chords – a guitar chord tabulature studying aid. I’m a rank beginner very too little time, but with this app you can check out any chord, and in that chord a bunch of variations. The inteface cleverly uses gesture swiping and a scroll wheel. You can even hear the chord played out in successful single notes by tapping.
So there you have it — my top 16 apps for the iPhone/iPod Touch. They could all fit on the first screen.
Of course, I have a bunch more, but if you’re either new to the device, or just want something that will not be relegated to page 8, check out some of the apps I mentioned.
Do you have any favorite apps you think I should check out?
Today, Wacom introduced their newest line of pen tablets, the Intuos 4.
I currently use the Intuos 3, which I’m very happy with.
The Intuos 4 sounds like some extra tweaks to the user-interface, plus a pen with double the sensitivity.
What I’d like to see is a new Cintiq model that incorporates the Apple’s latest multi-touch functionality.
Imagine using your off-hand to swipe, pinch or squeeze the image you’re working on, while your pen-hand does its thing, all while looking right at the tablet! Wouldn’t that be cool?
Anyway, one can dream.
In the meantime, this would probably be a good time to get a pen tablet if you’ve always wanted one. Either get a new Intuos 4, or find a discounted Intuos 3 as those are (probably) discontinued.
Read of couple of interesting articles on the state of the newspapers.
In the first, author Mark Evans points out that journalists (and newspapers) really need to reinvent themselves.
It seems pretty obvious that the word “journalist” will soon — if it hasn’t already — mean something so much different from 10 or 20 years ago.
Gone are the days where a reporter sees something happening, rushes into the fray to the get the story, and “phones in” the “scoop”.
Today, he or she needs to know how to blog, twitter, podcast, videocast, etc. In fact, I feel the same with way myself. While my primary vocation is wedding photography, I happen to know illustration, web design, video and film editing.
Citizen Journalism?
As Evans mentions, the Internet has broke the Newspaper’s back:
Twitter allows anyone with a mobile device to give an immediate play-by-play of what’s happening down a few houses from your pad.
Blogs allows anyone to write more in-depth stories
Distance becomes a moot point, as someone can focus on his or her own neck of the woods
In short, (almost) anyone can report, and they do.
But what about the Fundamental questions in Journalism?
Who’s going to check on accuracy of the report? What if 2 people tweet something different than the other 83? There can easily be a “lemming” effect if the wrong information is tweeted.
Which anonymous “reporter” are you going to believe in?
What about objectivity? Critical thinking?
A Journalism Revolution Underway
In another article, author Clay Shirky likens today’s newspaper industry turmoil to the transition period in between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, pointing out Elizabeth Eisenstein’s look at what happened when Gutenburg introduced the printing press, and books and newspapers became the new way to spread information.
So it would seem that we are in our own midst of an information revolution.
Indeed, we have never been more deluged with information than we are today.
However, sifting through, sorting, verifying, and coming to depend on what information, and from who, is becoming more and more time consuming (or wasting?) task.
Perhaps this will become the realm of the “Neo”-newspapers?
In an interesting post here, author Tom Arah argues that because more and more new (and revamped) sites are blogs or other CMS (Content Management System) like Drupal, then applications like Dreamweaver are needed less and less.
How we manage content
In the end, content is king, as the saying goes, and blogs and CMS allow for the easiest way to manage content: easy to expand, to add, to make searchable — all done by the content provider.
I certainly think that this is true. Many of the “pre 2.0″ sites are simply adding a blog component to them, such as Wordpress. I still do use Dreamweaver CS4 myself, but at the same time, more and more I find myself editing the CSS of a blog template.
Of course, even THIS site use to be static HTML.
What Does this Mean?
What this means is that more and more, people will be focusing on content: creating and editing content, getting it online to blogs, social media sites like Flickr, YouTube or Facebook.
I think it’s safe to say that as the web gets more crowded with content, there will probably be new, innovative ways to find, aggregate and make sense of all that content.
I still remember the date the iPhone came out — June 29, 2007.
I only remember this because I photographed a wedding the next day, and a few of the guests already had the shiny new toys in their hands, including one at the table I was seated at.
It was sooooo cool.
I’m Not an Early Adopter
At least, not if I could help it. With technology, version 1.0 always, always have things that can be improved upon, bugs to be worked out, features as yet perhaps not up to their full potential, etc., etc.
Sure enough, soon came software updates, and then the iPod Touch.
“Cool, I thought. That might be worth getting.”
Reasons One Would Choose the iPod Touch over the iPhone
I already had a more than serviceable cell-phone
I only use the phone for talking – no games, no camera(!), no text messaging
I find I check my iPod Touch’s iCal and Contacts often when I’m speaking on my cell phone to clients, so having the phone separate made sense for me
I did not want to pay what is thus far an exorbitant amount of money for the iPhone’s monthly fees
iPod Touch 2nd Generation
In the fall of 2008, the 2nd generation of the iPod Touch came out, and I went into action, buying the 32 GB model.
Love, love, love the Interface!
To me, that is the single most important feature of the entire iPhone/iPod Touch experience — the interface!
Here’s why:
No more stuck keys – my very first cellphone, a Sprint model, developed a nonfunctional “5″ key, which meant I couldn’t call a number of people unless they happened to be in my speed-dial! At that point, I HAD to get a new phone. That’s not the case with the iPod Touch: no physical buttons to wear out!
Intuitive – the touch interface, pinching, swiping and other gesture movements all contribute to many of the Apps’ intuitive user experience.
Updatability – the fact that the Apps can be (and are) regularly updated makes spending money for them worth while, knowing you won’t be “stuck” with a non-supported piece of software.
App Store – speaking of money, I’ve never ever spent a dime for any added service or “games” on my old cellphones. However, as I’m sure the folks at Apple are happy about, I have purchased quite a few Apps for my iPod Touch. Reviews are aplenty, and purchasing and downloading the Apps couldn’t be easier.
Lower Obsolescence Factor
Unlike computers, the interface allows the device to be less likely to be obsolesced as easily as normal phones/music/pda device. In fact, while Apple just announced their revamped line-up of Mac computers today, I am sure they are busy working on the next iteration of the iPhone/iPod Touch.
But guess what, the other cool thing about the iPhone/iPod Touch is that Apple can make further improvements, add new features and such to the software, and we can just update our existing device with a new version of the software.
And even when newer models are introduced that have speedier processors or improved camera (which I hope will be added to the iPod Touch), we can still use the older model or get a new one (if something really cool is added — see below), while passing the older one to someone else, someone who’ll definitely not mind getting a “hand me down” device of the iPod Touch’s caliber.
What are some improvements I’d like to see?
I actually have little complaints, but the ones that jump out at me are:
Add a camera to the iPod Touch – I’d love to not have to carry both devices
Add GPS functionality – imagine the iPod Touch working just like a Garmin or TomTom, but with Apple’s flair for form and function
Add Bluetooth so that I can use a wireless speaker or headphones
After 6 Months
Now it’s March, about 6 months since I bought my iPod Touch. I’ve bought, downloaded, tried and use a large number of Apps. In a future post, I will talk about some of my favorite Apps.
In the meantime, however, I will say that Apple is right: It IS the funnest iPod ever.
It goes without saying that the original Star Wars trilogy inspired so many people, changed the paradigm of movie-making, and otherwise entertained millions, 100’s of millions of (or perhaps even a billion or two) people around the world, that creative, geeky type folks (of which I may be one) made all sorts of short films, homages and parodies on the series.
Here a a few that I’ve encountered over the years. I still get a smile when I watch them — maybe you will, too.
Star Wars meets 90’s reality-tv COPS
A really clever take on an imagined “what led up to?” tie in to a major plot point in A New Hope. I actually saw this circulating on VHS back in 1997-98, and am glad to see it’s been put online.
Star Wars Cars Salesman
Brilliant tie-in of lines from A New Hope, with an excellent actor portraying Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Chad Vader
This is the first in a series of “episodes” on the exploits of Darth Vader’s “brother”, Chad — the night shift manager at “Empire Market”. Quite awesomely funny!
