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Friday May 30, 2008
Friday Greetings! It's another nice late spring evening and I'm back with more of the good stuff. Tonight's topic is computing and I'll focus on portable applications. A portable application is a program that can be that can be installed and carried around on a portable storage device and used on any Windows computer. What this means is that you can take a small suite of your most used programs on a handy USB flash drive or portable hard drive and have them ready to work wherever you go. PortableApps.com has collected a number of free/open-source programs with a handy launcher application. The set includes portable versions of Mozilla Firefox, the OpenOffice.org productivity package, and ClamWin anti-virus. Being the artist/musician/geek that I am, I was also interested in graphics, games, programming and music applications. For 2D drawing you can use GIMP, or Project Dogwaffle. For 3D graphics, Anim8or and a few different portable versions of Blender are available. For music you can use the brilliant and free Audacity sound editing application. For games you have a fair selection of low calorie, limited resource options to choose from. Programmers can use the Decimal Basic programming language to create small applications. As an exercise I put together a bunch of portable stuff that took up only about ½ of a 2gb flash drive. It's perfect for computing and creating away from home. Give it a try!
The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some fat bass parts.
The PC game of the week is the classic puzzle game Bejeweled.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday May 23, 2008
Hola! The topic for tonight is music and the focus will be on a unique all-in-one solution for music making. In the past I've tried a few different Linux distributions, most recently settling on Suse. While I've had some success with most applications, the one area that really favored the Windows OS was sound and audio. Getting my Terratec EWX 24/96 audio card to work with Linux proved particularly problematic. This past week I found the Musix Linux live CD distro and decided to give it a whirl. Musix is a single CD containing both a Knoppix Linux OS and a slew of music and media programs; a sort of portable music/graphics studio on a CD that has the added advantage of being FREE(!). I downloaded the ISO image, burned the CD and proceeded to try Musix on a number of machines. On the first PC (Athlon XP) Musix was able not only able to run, but properly configured my “problem child” Terratec card. I immediately got some music running through Jack and Rosegarden. Next I went on to the more powerful Athlon X2 PC with the Emu 1212M. This time Jack couldn't configure the sound card, and after a few fruitless minutes I gave up and went on to the next machine. The 3rd computer I tested is a lower spec AMD Sempron machine, with a Terratac DMX Xfire 1024 sound card. This time Musix was defeated by the LCD monitor I had hooked up. The resolution/frequency was out of range so I wasn't able to test it properly. So the final score for this outing was 1 out of 3. Musix might work on the other 2 systems with a bit of research and effort, but that's been one of my major beefs with Linux from the start. It's still kind of a computer geek's OS rather than a easy consumer product like Windows. I'll continue testing Musix, but in the meantime I don't see it replacing my other commercial music packages like Orion, Acid, and Music Creator.
The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some static synth runs.
The PC game of the week is still Travian.
The book/graphic novel of the week is “Preacher: Gone to Texas” by Garth Ennis and Steve Dillon. I can't believe I missed this remarkable series (and Neil Gaiman's Sandman) during it's first comics run in the late 90's. Thank goodness for trade paperback collections.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday May 16, 2008
Hola! It's Friday once again and I'm back with more stuff and fun to share. The topic for tonight is graphics and the focus will be on layers. Layers in computer graphics and animation are a part of most 2D applications whether commercial or free/open-source. You can think of a layer as a drawing on a transparent sheet. When you stack a number of layers, those closest will appear to be in the foreground. You can superimpose one image over another, or build a scene comprised entirely of overlapping images. In the case of animation you can create the illusion of motion by moving an upper layer around a background. This technique was the cornerstone of traditional animation in the days before computer graphics. Each frame of every scene was assembled from transparent cels over painted backgrounds. Thousands of cels would need to be meticulously hand-painted to create the finished animated film. Layers in 2D graphics are important enough to have inspired at least one book on the topic of using layers in Adobe Photoshop. Layers are also a key feature of Anime Studio 5 and Corel Draw. If you're using a 2D graphics editing program, check the documentation and help files for layers. You might have a wealth of untapped graphics power at your fingertips. Check it out!
The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some funky drums.
The PC game of the week is still Travian.
The book of the week is still The Poetry of Robert Frost
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday May 9, 2008
Friday Greetings! Today was a bit gray and cloudy but all told not a bad spring day. The topic for tonight is music technology and the focus will everyone's favorite portable media player, the iPod. What most folks don't know is that Apple's tiny tech marvel is really a small computer, complete with CPU and RAM. Given that information, some clever folks have successfully ported the Linux operating system onto the iPod, and dubbed their efforts iPodLinux. With Linux comes a whole range of serious and frivolous applications, including the seminal FPS game Doom. If turning your iPod into a pocket computer is too geeeky, then you can always get the cute little dancing doggy shaped speakers. Having said all this, I must confess I've never owned an iPod, though as with all cool, tech-toys I've coveted them on occasion. Perhaps at some point the fates (and my budget) will allow me to catch up with the rest of the civilized world. The picture of the week was created using Makehuman and Anim8or.
Click on the image for a full-sized view 
The loops of the week are some rock drums.
The PC game of the week is Travian, a browser-based building game.The book of the week is The Poetry of Robert Frost
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.Bye for now!
Friday May 2, 2008
Hi all! Friday brings lovely spring weather and slightly cooler temps. The topic for tonight is music software and the focus will be on upgrades. Software for music creation runs the gamut from free trackers to pricey studio packages. I've always tended toward the applications somewhere in the middle of the price/performance curve. The sneaky “gotcha” that underlies building a library of cheaper programs comes when a new version of your favorite music tool is rolled out. The good news is that the upgrade is usually available at a decent discount from the maker to users of the earlier versions. The bad news if that if you go through enough of these incremental updates, you end up paying a higher cumulative amount. I suppose this problem applies to buying the premium, flagship products as well, but when you're on a tight budget you feel the pinch a bit more. I actually ended up about 3 versions behind the current Acid Music Studio release until I could raise enough to upgrade. Some music software companies also offer the option of upgrading to a higher version (again at a reasonable discount) once you've purchased one of their entry-level products. I've been a long time user of the Orion Pro music production package and have been very happy with it. Orion formerly came in to flavors: Orion Pro, and Orion Platinum. With the relase of Orion 7.5 on May 1, the old Pro version has been dropped. Synapse software, the makers of Orion, are graciously offering Pro users an upgrade to the current version for a limited time. It would ordinarily be great to get the latest version of Orion for about a quarter of the retail list price, but even that fractional amount is a stretch for some of us on a tight software budget. Until free or open source stuff catches up to the performance level of commercial apps, I'll have to keep trying to play catch up when I can.
The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some big bass runs.
The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3.
The book of the week is The Plot: The Secret Story of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion by Will Eisner. A graphic novel that is the final work of a great comics innovator.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
Friday April 25, 2008
Greetings! 'Tis Friday and I'm back with the usual mix of creativity and high spirits. This week the topic is writing, and in particular we'll talk about working with others. I recently started on a collaborative project with a small group that has been working on creating a short film. This is new territory for the old Gray Cat but it's fascinating to be in this type of learning situation. In the past I've only completed short poems and outlines for stories. In the group, every session yields new insights and quantifiable progress. My point is that like a musician who only spends time practicing alone I had been isolated as a writer. You need to join a band or group to truly grow and develop as an artist. The payoff is both better productivity and a wealth of other viewpoints and ideas. If you're looking to get a start on your next artistic work, give collaboration a try. You may be surprised by the results.
The picture of the week was created using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some bluesy electric piano riffs.
The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3.
The web spot of the week is the Philharmonia Orchestra site. Lots of cool stuff to be found here including a great library of sampled orchestral instrument sounds.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now
Friday April 18, 2008Hi All! Friday is here once more and the topic for tonight is music. Rehearsal is a subject that every musician must deal with. Hours of exercises, scales, and general noodling build confidence and skill. I must confess that being both a keyboard player and guitarist, I find myself waxing in one department while waning in the other. Practice time can also conflict with whatever other interests, jobs, or projects you have going on at the same time. In my case the pull of computer programming, graphics, web surfing and TV all detract from hours available. Some players recommend setting aside a regular practice time each night, and my former guitar instructor suggested even taking time to strum while watching TV. The moment of Zen occurs when muscle memory and reflexes kick in, and your fingers seem to play the notes themselves. I think tonight I'll give my downstairs neighbor a bit of Smoke on the Water or Sunshine of your Love on guitar. If you really want some inspiration to keep practicing, take a look a this t-shirt bearing the classic “Carnegie Hall” joke. When faced with practice time, don't get discouraged by the challenge and keep on trying!
The picture of the week was created from a photo using Project Dogwaffle.
Click on the image for a full-sized view
The loops of the week are some vaguely Asian flutes.
The PC game of the week is still Command and Conquer 3.
The Web spot of the week is the official Electric Light Orchestra site.
The book of the moment is Asterix and the Laurel Wreath by Goscinny and Uderzo; a classic European comic combining both sharp humor and beautiful artwork.
Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.
Bye for now!
