Topics

26

Living Room / Raspberry Pi project: wireless file server

« on: December 02, 2014, 09:33 AM »

I would drool at the idea of a raspberry pi sized wireless file server.  Something portable (battery capable) that you can maybe toss into your backpack and grab and send files from.  It doesn't have to stream, but simply browse through the folders and read/write stuff back and forth, maybe with a syncing program even.  I wonder what it would take.  My list so far:
raspberry pi
some kind of distro with a gui, but still lightweight enough for rpi
a wifi usb adapter (there's a popular model rpi users use i believe)
a batter of some sort, i'm guessing one of those smartphone sized usb battery packs

bam!  let's get this show on the road!

27

General Software Discussion / windows services manager. such a thing?

« on: November 20, 2014, 12:22 PM »

Is there anything that will quickly allow me to toggle a bunch of services on and off?  For example, if I want to do a lot of photoshopping, I want to disable a bunch of unecessary services to speed things up.  Then I want to reenable them again once I'm done.  is there anything where I can make a few profiles or something and toggle them?

28

Living Room / eesh: picture definitely doesn't go with the article

« on: November 19, 2014, 09:37 AM »

from here:
http://www.usatoday....alon-death/19266143/

the photo:

29

Living Room / Still weird: The mouse is more accurate than a finger

« on: November 18, 2014, 05:59 PM »

I still find it weird that the mouse is still more accurate to use than a finger.  I've been using a touchscreen for a while now, and it's not even close.  Touching the screen with a finger should be intuitively more better...I mean, you're just touching the actual thing you want to touch.  Yet doing it with the mouse is far easier, faster, accurate.  Is it because of the finger-pad being too big?  Would it be different if my finger ended in a needle-tip?  I don't think so.

It seems to be one of the main things holding back touch screens.  What is going to be the breakthrough here?  I can't even guess.

30

General Software Discussion / MBAM: how is it starting automatically with windows??

« on: November 16, 2014, 08:18 PM »

So MBAM...good program.  But lately, it keeps auto-starting with Windows, and I have all the auto-start options turned off:
In MBAM settings, i have the start with windows UNCHECKED.
I checked with Winpatrol, and there are no MBAM entries in startup or otherwise.

How is it able to keep auto-starting??

31

Living Room / Do any wifi-DIRECT adapters actually exist?

« on: November 14, 2014, 04:15 PM »

I'm looking for an adapter that can turn my desktop pc into a wifi-direct enabled computer (without using another access point or router).  Now, as I'm looking into it, it's quite unclear how to do this.  I was thinking there would be some kind of wifi-direct USB device that I plug in like a bluetooth adapter, and bingo.  But I can't find a single one!
I go to the Wifi Alliance website:
http://www.wi-fi.org...r-wi-fi/wi-fi-direct
then I go to where it says "product finder", which sends me here:
http://www.wi-fi.org...i-fi-direct-products
Which is basically an empty page.
So where are these devices?
I don't want a Miracast or anything, because that's basically a restricted-use device.  I want an adapter that will connect the computer directly and then I can do anything that I normally do over wifi.  I don't want Miracast dictating what I can and can't do.  But that seems to be where the tech is at currently.  However, I'm not sure, and it's not clear, and so forth.

It appears to me that the "industry" is keeping wifi-direct out of the spotlight, because the technology is definitely in most of the newer high end devices (phones, game controllers, HDMI adapters like chromecast) and all the implementations so far are quite restricted.  You will not be able to take advantage of the technology in an open manner.

Anyway, so I want an adapter basically.

32

Coding Snacks / IDEA: tablet toolbar creator (willing to pay)

« on: November 03, 2014, 05:53 PM »

So I've had a windows tablet for a couple of months now, and I'm itching for a decent toolbar creator.  I posted most of my thoughts here, below is a copy:

Well...I've been holding off on this trying to figure out which of mouser's programs would I want touchified first.  THe answer is pretty obvious...LBC.

The artist community has been having fits trying to deal with the lack of keyboards.  Some of the third party tools being used:
toolbar creator 2.2
touchkey
artdock
Radial Menu

none of them is really perfect, they all have major klunky issues.  But they get the job done if they work.  They don't all work on all windows devices (which is weird to me, why shouldn't they?)  The best one is actually touchkey, but it's pretty much all in japanese and you configure it with text files....so I need to set aside a couple of hours to learn that syntax. undecided

LBC would be perfect for this sort of thing.  But it needs to be touchified.  That means:
--being able to scale well on high-res devices.  Windows tablets are high res, and there are some interesting settings for scale and such.  Basically, it makes some programs look really odd and buttons and menus are too small or text is too small, etc...you have to be very precise with touching things that tiny.  So scaling needs to be addressed.

--Beyond scaling, individual buttons would need the ability to be resized.  That's what most of the programs listed above are specialized at (the other stuff is just what the button does if pressed, all already in LBC).  So you can make buttons bigger or smaller, etc.  Some even offer more interesting layouts than just rows and columns...radial menus, or masonry-style layouts...all handy to have.

--Ability to detect difference between a finger and a pen.  Sometimes you only want one of them, sometimes both.

I'd be willing to pay for this, maybe $100.  It sounds like the challenges are with the scalability of the buttons (high-dpi screens), interesting combinations of triggers (not just normal buttons, but press-hold, press-drag, press+release, etc.).  Most of the options listed above have these built in, but like I said, they just don't really work.  The other challenge seems to be compatibility with both the Wacom pens and the N-trig pens.

If it could be done in the usual high quality style of DC, that would be awesome.  I've already spent hours on this, that's why I feel I'm willing to pay for it.

33

LaunchBar Commander / Request to "touchify" LBC

« on: October 28, 2014, 02:49 PM »

Well...I've been holding off on this trying to figure out which of mouser's programs would I want touchified first.  THe answer is pretty obvious...LBC.

The artist community has been having fits trying to deal with the lack of keyboards.  Some of the third party tools being used:
toolbar creator 2.2
touchkey
artdock
Radial Menu

none of them is really perfect, they all have major klunky issues.  But they get the job done if they work.  They don't all work on all windows devices (which is weird to me, why shouldn't they?)  The best one is actually touchkey, but it's pretty much all in japanese and you configure it with text files....so I need to set aside a couple of hours to learn that syntax.

LBC would be perfect for this sort of thing.  But it needs to be touchified.  That means:
--being able to scale well on high-res devices.  Windows tablets are high res, and there are some interesting settings for scale and such.  Basically, it makes some programs look really odd and buttons and menus are too small or text is too small, etc...you have to be very precise with touching things that tiny.  So scaling needs to be addressed.

--Beyond scaling, individual buttons would need the ability to be resized.  That's what most of the programs listed above are specialized at (the other stuff is just what the button does if pressed, all already in LBC).  So you can make buttons bigger or smaller, etc.  Some even offer more interesting layouts than just rows and columns...radial menus, or masonry-style layouts...all handy to have.

--Ability to detect difference between a finger and a pen.  Sometimes you only want one of them, sometimes both.

Just trying to create some work for you, that's all. 

34

General Software Discussion / Microsoft: slowly (very slowly) yet surely improving the tablet experience

« on: October 24, 2014, 05:06 PM »

http://surfaceproart...ailable-for-download

Title is a joke of course.  The Surface Pro 3 comes with a pen.  The pen has 3 buttons.  They are not configurable.  The top button opens onenote, that's it.  The other two buttons offer right-click, and something else that is largely useless.  Users complained about the inability to customize.  A couple of months later, Microsoft now has the improvements shown in the article.  I'll explain the improvements in easy to understand terms:

--The top button (which artists like to use as an eraser) is NOW...wait for it...no change!  It still can only open onenote, that's it.  The new "app" just offers a new place to set the option of whether you want it to open onenote the app, or onenote the desktop version.  Who really cares?  Not me.  That option was already there in the control panel...but now the app has the option.  WHoop dee do.

--The other two buttons?  Still not configurable.

--Pen pressure sensitivity.  A new feature?  Yes!  We can now adjust the pen pressure settings to your liking.  Useful for photoshop users.  Manga Studio/Clip Studio already has this built in.  This is basically the only new feature.

Perhaps in a year, MS can muster up enough resources to customize the buttons.

35

General Software Discussion / Drawing software thoughts for 2014: Clip Studio (Manga Studio), Photoshop

« on: October 06, 2014, 03:45 PM »

A lot of my time in my life has revolved around drawing and computers.  I used to draw a lot, then got into computers, stopped drawing by hand and started messing around with Photoshop and digital content creation.  Well, a solid 20 years later, I now have a pc tablet that I can draw directly on and I guess I'm back full-circle (sort of) to drawing by hand.

There doesn't seem to be much discussion online yet regarding drawing directly on tablets right now, it is a relatively recent development in the community.  Also, most artists are quite budget-conscious, so it will take a while before the community that really counts starts using these things (they are expensive right now).  Here are my thoughts:

The current tablets that I know of that can do drawing:
Surface Pro (I use this, Surface Pro 3)
Cintiq Comapanion (basically, a large windows tablet built under Wacom)
Modbook (a custom, very expensive, big, heavy, converted Mac or Windows pc with Wacom tech added)

With these devices, you can install regular Photoshop or the recent player Clip Studio to create art.  This is what I want to talk about.  We all know Photoshop, industry standard, blah blah.  It's good, no question.  In the recent weeks, Photoshop has JUST added touch capabilities to it.  What that means is you can now pinch/zoom, pan/rotate with fingers...that's about it.  These features are located in their "experimental" section of the preferences.  I've tried it, I like it, it works well.  Drawing on the surface pro 3 is laggy on photoshop.  Sometimes it's not though.  I can't tell why or when.  It seems to be fine for a while, then there are all these windows updates and things get slower.  It could also be due to photoshop updates.  It also gets a little faster if you let the program open and sit for a few minutes (something to do with the scratchdisk?).  Currently, it's too slow for me, so I'm using Clip Studio mostly.  There is one very critical feature photoshop has that is brilliant and unique right now: the Quick Selection tool.  This thing is amazing.  Clip Studio doesn't have this (although it has a pretty nifty feature itself, I'll get to that).  But the Quick Selection tool, IMO, is probably the greatest single feature in any drawing software currently.


So, let's talk about Clip Studio, which I'm sure most people don't know about.  This is something from Japan, and as I've learned about it, it's been pretty fascinating.  First, there's a weird marketing thing going on with it right now, I don't quite understand.  It's similar to how some other Japanese things work.  When I first learned about this software, it was called Manga Studio.  Then I learned that Manga Studio is just Clip Studio rebranded.  The actual company that develops it is Celsys:
http://www.celsys.co.jp/en/
(there's a sale going for a few more hours, totally worth it)
Smith Micro, the parent company of Manga Studio, apparently is just marketing Clip Studio in the US or something like that.  They've been marketing the past few years quite aggressively.  So you have one software under two names (Clip Studio/Manga Studio), and two companies (Celsys/Smith Micro).  Now, Smith Micro calls the software "Manga Studio" if you buy the physical boxed version.  If you buy just the digital version from Smith Micro, they call it "Clip Studio".  So whatever.  FYI, I guess.

Just to complicate matters further, there are also differences in the versions of the software by region.  Namely, the Japanese version is considered to be the best, most updated, most exclusive.  What exactly is more updated or exclusive?  I have no idea, it's all in japanese.  I haven't dug down that rabbit hole yet.  Maybe they have access to some kind of clip repository or something.  I see that the latest japanese version is 1.3.9, and the current english version is 1.3.8 (which just came out).  I don't really know.

There's another element that is exclusive to the japanese: a hardware hand controller and a poseable robot doll.  I'll get to these.

Back to the software, Clip Studio.  I soon noticed that a ton of artists on the web were really raving about it and calling it a "game changer" to photoshop.  And it really is, I confirm.  I've used both concurrently for a while now, and the ONLY thing I miss (but miss badly) from Photoshop is the quick selection tool.  Now I understand why a lot of the artists are now drawing in Manga Studio and coloring in Photoshop.  So what makes Clip Studio great for drawing?  Well, the lines you draw can be vectors if you choose that option (i always do now).  

This means the drawings are scalable without loss like in illustrator, but you can still draw like in photoshop.  Very cool.  I though this would be more important, but so far I haven't taken advantage of it much at all.  It's nice that it's there for now.  It has better brush mixing options that photoshop, so it seems to work better for painting style effects.  I prefer the GUI better than photoshop for speed; things are placed more conveniently that photoshop.  It doesn't have a quick selection tool, but it has a similar tool where you can paint over an area like you are drawing something, and whatever you paint becomes a selection.  This is handy and awesome, but it isn't as "smart" as the quick selection tool so it's far less convenient (qs tool is more than smart, it's genius!).

What really sets apart Clip Studio is the built-in speed/efficiency tricks.  It has a "materials" pane area...what this is is a bunch of objects you can drag onto your canvas and build some scenes really easily.  A lot of these objects are 3D, scalable, rotateable, etc.  Really great stuff.  The japanese manga/comic industry churns out TONS of art on a daily basis, so they are quite obsessed with efficiency and speed.  Much more so than the Americans with our polished Photoshop and slow attention to detail.  There are human characters that are completely poseable, truly amazing stuff.  It's like Smith Micro's Poser software built into the Clip Studio, essentially.  So you drag these things in, pose them, and paint/draw over it.  Forget the old style of puppets or live nudes, etc.
Now I should mention that robot thing.  So Celsys is now selling this thing called Qumarion.  It's a physical robot doll.  You plug it in with USB I think, then you pose the doll however you want and it shows it on your screen so you can draw over it.  This makes it easier to pose.  Moving all the arms/joints around with the mouse is time-consuming and difficult.


Since I mentioned that, I should also mention the other hardware: the Tab-Mate controller.  Celsys sells this as a little controller you hold in your hand to quickly assist you while you draw.  The buttons and stuff are all programmable in Clip Studio itself, and it even has a mouse mode where you can control the mouse with it in Windows in general.  If you really want to, you can use additional third-party software to customize the controller further for any need in Windows (I am currently doing this).

I should also point out the other features that artists rave about, like the perspective tools in both softwares.  Clip Studio has some mature, advanced perspective tools that Photoshop doesn't really have.  In comics, there's always the issue of perspective and the artists usually draw on perspective grids of various kinds...these are built into CS.  IN Photoshop, its' not built in, but recent features like puppet-wrapping and other kinds of 2D-to-3D warping that are very powerful.  I haven't taken advantage of these tools yet, but if it were my job, I'd be using them constantly.  Both software's fans love these features.



PROBLEM WITH THE ABOVE HARDWARE:
You can only get it in Japan.  They will only ship to Japan.  Why?  Japanese don't really want Americans getting their cool shit.  I first encountered this attitude when I was trying to get minidisc players from Japan.  They know their shit is good, they are proud of it, and they don't want us getting it (I remember one japanese artist responding to my inquiry "Cuz, F-U Americans, that's why! lol").  Plus, there might be a whole Photoshop vs. Japan stuff war brewing.  That's all fine, but I still wanted my toy.  I arranged for a japanese friend to get me a couple,  .  Well, I love it, it's a fantastic little controller.
If you are familiar with the Playstation Move Navigation Controller, it's very much like that.  Or the wiimote, less so.  It has a joystick and a bunch of buttons on a slender egg-shaped device that you hold in one hand.  It helps with zooming, rotating, scrolling/panning, redo/undo, and a whole bunch of quick shortcut menus.  The japanese artists are quite brilliant at using it.

Sidenote regarding Playstation Move Navigation Controller: This little experiment of mine turned out to be interesting enough to discuss.  When I saw the tab-mate, it immediately reminded me of this.  So I was like, why can't I use that instead of using up my japanese friend's favors?  So I bought one.  To make it work with a Windows PC is some work.  Firstly, the bluetooth connection didn't really work on the surface pro.  However, I read that with certain bluetooth adapters, it will work.  But the USB wired way does work.  You need a couple of software to have Windows recognize it: Motionjoy: this is like installing the driver, has a bunch of options.  The main program interface is very weird in that it requires a internet connection.  It looks like a website encapsulated in a regular window.  You have to get all this offline files to make it work offline.  It's a pain, very odd.  Anyway, I spent a night with it and got it to work. Xpadder: This is a software you pay for, and it is used to create profiles for controllers attached to your pc.  I know about this because of my arcade-emulation hobbies; they use this to configure the joysticks and gamepads for all the MAME games and stuff like that. So with those two softwares, you can get any controller to do basically anything you want on Windows.  You can even assign one controller multiple profiles so that it does different things with different programs.  Very cool stuff.  I was able to actually use the tab-mate in other programs because of it, and not just in mouse-mode...I can customize the buttons with xpadder. Anyway, so I got the Playstation controller to do basically everything the tab-mate can.  But not exactly.  The tab-mate is programmatically integrated into Clip Studio, so it just works better.  I can get it probably exact if I spend more time tweaking in xpadder, but I got tired.  The tab-mate is also about half the size of the playstation controller.  There is one advantage the Playstation controller has, which is it has both a joystick AND a D-pad.  The tab-mate just has a joystick...it can switch between joystick/dpad mode by pressing the joystick.  (of course, you can do the same with the playstation joystick). My conclusion with this mini-experiment: If the playstation controller worked flawlessly with bluetooth, it would be better than the tab-mate.  But it's not...it will have connection issues, and those two software sometimes need to be exited/restarted (so it goes with such things).  So tab-mate is the best for now.

That's about the end of my update.  Like I said, I felt compelled to write this since there isn't that much out there right now and it actually is pretty confusing stuff.  I'm personally very excited by all these developments, more excited than I have been for a very long time about content creation technology/progress.  There are a couple of people out there that have created sets of premium brushes that mimic real pencils, paint brushes (I have one set for PS and one for CS, both are superb).  These brushes are so freaking fun and exciting to use.  I've been just coloring like a child lately because it's so damn fun now.  I mean, compared to the whole drawing setup back in the day with all those pouches, erasers, weird dusting tools/devices, pen and pencil sets that cost a ton, all the space you needed, all the technique and lighting, etc.  Yes, it still remains a special spiritual experience, but man, it's a lot of work and dedication.  So this 2014 is some kind of turning point for me, art-wise.
I hope this has been useful, maybe I'll go back later and add links and photos and stuff.  But I just wanted to vomit this all out for now.  I may be wrong, but this might be the definitive tablet/Clip Studio/Photoshop essay currently online in english.

36

Living Room / Samsung pays MS $1 billion in royalties for using Android. wtf.

« on: October 06, 2014, 02:40 PM »

So I've seen these stupid headlines now for a few days.  My first reaction: wtf.  Ok, so I know patents and lawsuits and technology is a good recipe for confusion of the dumbassest variety.  But what I can't seem to glean from any of the articles is what "features" is Microsoft collecting royalties on as it relates to Android?
The most reasonable explanation I found was on reddit:

Hilarious amount of butthurt and missinformed nonsense in this thread.

Let me give a little history lesson to those of you who were apparently born after 2010 and have no idea how mobile industry has developed:

    Microsoft has been in mobile bussiness since early 2000s, long before anyone heard about Android or iPhone, or in fact, long before average person had any idea what smartphone even is. They've developed hundreds of their own patents in that time.

    Google ripped of their patents when creating Android and started giving it away for free to hardware vendors.

    Google then went and bought Motorola for 12 fucking billion $ to have enough patent cushion to prevent them from being sued.

    Microsoft, in a brilliant move (you can have moral objections, but as far as business goes its a sheer stroke of genius), starts targeting Android-based hardware vendors with a lawsuit-protection racket.

    For every Android device out there, the vendors have to pay Microsoft. If vendors don't pay, they'll be sued. Rumours are, its 5-10$. Off every device. Think for a second just how much money they make of this. As such, MS doesn't bother with additionally suing Google, because that would ruin their little scheme.

    Google is helpless to stop it. While Motorola gave them a bit of a cushion, they can't sue Microsoft because they'd be ripped to shreds in open court battle.

    Vendors can't stop it because they're basically in the wrong. They're using Microsoft patented technology on their phones. You can't exactly hide that shit.

TL;DR - all of this happens because Google was trying to rush Android to the market and stolen bunch of key technologies in the process.

37

General Software Discussion / IDEA: a software that makes normal windows apps more touch friendly.

« on: September 25, 2014, 04:53 PM »

I don't know if something like this is even possible, but I'll be interested in the discussion.

SO after using a windows tablet for a while, I now understand the main complaint. The problem when you are using windows in desktop mode with a touch interface, is basically the size of the touchable things.  THey are too small, and this is mainly where all the complaints are.  The only difference between normal programs and windows "apps" is that the apps are running in full screen, and instead of the menu bar and other normal desktop elements, those options have been designed into more touch-friendly elements...big buttons, large text, etc.  Unfortunately, the apps are lame and useless.  With windows, most people just want to use their normal windows programs.

But the frustration is that it's not so easy to touch the tiny things.  Now, we can wait for the developers to convert all their interfaces to touch-friendly apps, but this will take years.  Maybe there's some way to just make the standard toolbars and menu bars bigger.  I got the idea from programs like Actual Window Manager and other things that add stuff to toolbars and can add features to standard windows.  So maybe there's a way to just make stuff bigger.

An example is mouser's screenshot captor.  I'm using it, and i have the windows settings for icons and stuff set to larger than normal.  However, the buttons in SSC are still tiny because the tablet resolution is so high.  The text is ok, but things are scrunched.

Anyway, this is really the main issue with the windows interface, and I'm curious how this will progress.  I love the fact that the windows desktop is now as portable as an ipad or android.  Windows programs are very powerful...that's why there are so many buttons and menu items, etc.  Ipad/android can't do anything...you only have a button or two, how many features can you really have?  That's why these tablets are not very powerful right now.  On the other hand, they are smooth and very easy to use.  This is the dilemma.  Big buttons, big text == fewer options.  Lots of buttons, lots of text == tinier elements that are hard to touch.

38

Living Room / new blackberry passport runs android apps "without delay"

« on: September 24, 2014, 03:40 PM »

I just read the above line.  That's pretty amazing, if the new square shaped phone can do android seamlessly.  That's all.

39

General Software Discussion / Outline 4D >>50% off sale<< (only $50)

« on: September 18, 2014, 05:25 PM »

http://www.screenpla...p-77-outline-4d.aspx

Outline 4D has a 50% sale going on right, so the price goes down from $100 to $50.  Good deal if you ask me!  Pointed out here by 40hz, it might be my preferred tool for organizing just about any multi-layered idea/outline, but it's mainly intended for screenwriting I guess.

40

Living Room / rant! new features

« on: September 11, 2014, 11:01 AM »

New features coming!  amazing!  After several months of development and beta testing with our millions of users, billions of dollar revenue, and the best resources available on earth, we are introducing the following NEW features:  (omg can't wait)
--We are changing the default wallpaper from the orion constellation to an image of arizona wildlife.
--Our icons are now hexagonal instead of the traditional octagon shape.
--We are getting rid of the microUSB connector for safety reasons, and replacing it with a magnetized rubiks-style connector.
--Users can change their profile photos.
--The display has an improved 551 ppi vs the original pathetic 487 ppi.
--Remember that rounded corner on the bottom left?  It's straight now.  We're considering straightening the others by 2019.

41

Living Room / bluetooth: folder browsing possible?

« on: September 03, 2014, 05:17 PM »

Can bluetooth be used to browse the folders of devices wirelessly?  Ultimately, can it be used to sync files in a directory back and forth?

I have tablets and phones that have bluetooth that I want syncing folders in places where wifi/cell is not available.  How can I do this?  The only way is bluetooth or something like wimax which I've never really tried.  The problem I am running into with bluetooth (using the CSR Harmony stack) is that it doesn't seem to be able to do any file transferring.  It has this feature called PAN (personal area network) but I don't know what the hell it does nor how it works.  I click on the PAN icon and it connects, but then what?  I don't see any folders to browse anywhere, or a drive/device that appears in my explorer.  It just connects and then nothing.  I don't get it.

42

Living Room / Celluloid vs digital: what are the REAL differences?

« on: July 31, 2014, 09:42 AM »

I've been reading a little about this celluloid issue in film recently.  One of my favorite directors is Tarentino, and he is very vocal about his preference for celluloid.  But I don't *quite* understand what the complaint is.  It doesn't sound like a technical complaint...that is, it doesn't sound like there's anything you can do with celluloid that you can't accomplish more easily with digitial.  And the way he explains it doesn't sound like that's what it is either.

Some claim there's a look to celluloid that digital can't do.  But I don't know if I buy that either.

At some point, it sounded to me like it was more of a complaint of accessibility.  Like, he just prefers that the process is more tedious and difficult so that it won't be so easy to make a film.  That's really what it sounds like to me, but I can't tell.  And if that's what it is, what's the complaint there?  That there will be a lot of mediocre films being made?  I don't really get it.

43

Living Room / What is the logic of bezier curves? (for Illustrator pen tool)

« on: July 15, 2014, 11:36 AM »

I've never quite gotten the hand of bezier curves, and it's a mental block.  I keep trying the tutorials, but I don't have the time to really do enough practice for me to get it naturally.  But, I know how I think...I need a logical explanation of how bezier curves work.  I don't want just practice, I want an explanation of the idea.

Like, "When a handle is like this, it is doing this and this, so it makes this sort of shape."

Anyway, I'm looking for good explanations.  There are tons of tutorials and explanations of how to get a shape, but hardly anything that just explains what it is and how all the parts work.

Wikipedia has some good, helpful animations.

44

Living Room / Does anyone understand what Android does with contact photos?

« on: July 14, 2014, 12:59 PM »

I'm trying to figure out what Android is doing with contact photos so I can keep cleaning up my contacts and end up with a nice addressbook that gets managed properly.

I'm trying to understand what the best resolution is for an android contact photo.  Now, the phone is 1080p (1080x1920).  The contact photos appear in full screen, so I would assume 1080x1920 is ideal.  However...contact photos are required to be square.  So you can't really have that rectangular resolution.  So what's the best square resolution? 1080x1080? or 1920x1920?

But android will still make the picture full screen.  So I want to assume 1920x1920 is the better option so they don't have to enlarge the photo and lose quality.  But I don't think it works that way.  I once read that the photos are or should be 720x720.  I don't get it.  And I couldn't find clear answers on google.

So...help?

45

Living Room / Picture of photosynthesis in action. Where is the picture?!

« on: July 11, 2014, 12:24 PM »

So I get all excited about this news of the first pictures of photosynthesis in action:

The researchers report the first direct visualization of a crucial event in the photosynthetic reaction, namely the step in which a specific protein complex, photosystem II, splits water into hydrogen and oxygen using energy provided by light.

ok....so where is the picture?  May I please see it?  gd.
I searched and searched.  Big teases.  Can I please see the freaking picture.  I'm less interested in the words about the picture, I just want the picture.  Thank you.


[edit]
Oh I forgot, you have to pay for it.  Nature magazine.
http://www.nature.co...ure13453.html#access
I can't tell if it's in the magazine or just online?

46

Living Room / I'd like to get a Windows Tablet: help me decide.

« on: July 09, 2014, 11:47 AM »

After considering the new Surface Pro 3, I am intrigued by these tablets now.  Can we have a discussion about our experiences with windows tablets?  I'll start....

No RT nonsense; the full Windows package.
My female cousin has an original surface pro, I picked her brain about it.  She's not a techie at all.  She loves the thing.  For school, she says it's so much better than android tablets, ipads, etc.  Like by a longshot.  I played around with it, did some of the things she likes, and I gotta say, it's pretty nice.  The complaints in the press sound really weird after my experience.  The complaints don't make sense.  The tablet is fast, runs all windows programs, has a decent enough pen input where I'm not bothered much at all (I haven't tried Photoshop though).  Feels better than the Samsung pen input.  The only pen experience I've had personally that I like better is my actual wacom tablet.

With that big screen on the new Surface Pro, I am drooling about using it to read my books and digital magazines.  Being able to clip stuff like a windows computer, pictures, cropping, file management without any tortured procedures like in android/ios.  God I love having a fully featured file manager.
I'm excited about being able to sketch on it.  I'm excited about sharing files and windows programs with it.  I'm excited about some nifty things I may be able to do with music applications...remote midi control?  i dunno.

I mean, for us Windows power users, haven't we been waiting for something like this forever?! 

47

General Software Discussion / help needed: owncloud contacts on vmware with IIS

« on: June 30, 2014, 09:41 PM »

OK, I don't know much about this stuff.  I'm testing out owncloud on vmware as a contacts/calendar syncing solution.

host machine: win7 x64
vmware machine: win7 x64, network is bridged
owncloud v6, installed in AMPPS
IIS is enabled on the virtual machine
AMPPS Apache had a conflict with port 80, so IIS is enabled on port 8080

everything works fine in the virtual machine.  On the host machine, i can login to owncloud, but the contacts gives an error "failed loading groups" and basically doesn't work, contacts don't show up and it hangs.

It's not clear to me from google searches what the issue or resolution is, so I'm turning to you guys here.

48

Living Room / What modern music (today) is considered to be both pop AND intellectual?

« on: June 04, 2014, 06:09 PM »

Really wondering about this.
Jazz is too intellectual.
Most pop is too pop.
What is in the middle that is still relatively well known, but also can be appreciated by intellectuals?

49

Living Room / For websites: cool hierarchy navigation animations and presentation

« on: June 03, 2014, 01:07 PM »

I'm looking for wordpress plugins, html templates, basically anything that can take a hierarchy of information and present it with cool animations.  Like if I want to go through a branch of a hierachy, it has nice visuals/popups/animations to do it.
The example I'm thinking of is Personal Brain, which can export to a website:
http://www.thebrain....m/products/thebrain/

I can pay for it and use it, but I was curious if there are existing things available that work with wordpress or html.  ANy suggestions are welcome.  Thanks.

50

General Software Discussion / Any tool to set/manage windows default directories? (program files, users, etc.)

« on: May 21, 2014, 12:15 PM »

Let me know if there is any tool out there that can help set the different default directories for windows systems.  Normally I don't mess around with this stuff, but now that we have SSD's I am doing this.  Is there something that can easily manage and change these directories?  I swear I've come across one, but can't remember it.

I know the windows way of doing it, but am looking for something third-party.