I'm not sure if Ars Technica user ppc970 is kidding or not in a Pixelmator update post. If not, it makes me very sad.
You guys don't get it. In this highly gradient-competitive web 2.0 world, the gradient tool is the most important element of any program
(Yes, I'm aware this page design uses gradients.)
No, we're not talking about simple Ken Burns effects here. Some CS students at the University of Washington have come up with what can only be called an incredible video enhancement program. To be honest, I have no idea how they've accomplished this (I was only in CS for one year at Marquette), and it's almost a little scary.
Though some of the effects seem a little unnatural, they've gone a long way to make everything as seamless as possible. I won't say I'm out of a job, and I'm pretty sure they had some insane computing setups, but I'm both looking forward to and dreading the day this capability reaches the hands of the masses.
[via Daring Fireball]
Ran across this when trying to figure out how to keep "MMS Opt Out" on my account:
For the record, searching for "opt out" yields the same results.
Motionographer has a nice piece up from Bret Ashy of The Ashy Agency about preparing for life in the real (design) world. There are several good tips in here for recent graduates and newcomers as well as freelancers. My favorite:
2. Humbly Go – No matter where you interview, always treat the company as if they’re your top choice. Don’t approach your interviews with any attitude of self-importance. The reason I say this is because one of the companies in your ‘Not in a Million Years” column could be the big star six months from now. If you gave them attitude at your interview, they’ll remember you, and you’ll have burned a bridge at a company that might have moved in your Top Choice column overnight!
DON’T BURN BRIDGES, EVEN IF YOU THINK YOU’RE A GREAT SWIMMER
Seriously. Don't come off as self-righteous. I've been involved in discussions regarding these people. It's never good.
So today officially launches the 6th redesign of conigs.com. This time around, though, a few things have been moved around.
First of all, you'll noticed that the blog now lives at http://blog.conigs.com. This is because the main domain will now be used for my portfolio—of course, still in progress. The redesign also ties the two together. At first I was unsure whether or not I wanted the blog linked directly to my professional life, but I figure, why not?
So here, it is. Hopefully I'll actually keep this moderately up to date. With a baby on the way, I'll either barely touch the blog, or I'll be updating it constantly with "baby kinda-sorta half smiled at me today" posts. I'm guessing the latter.
Okay, so I have no idea how I missed these. So far, I've seen Statler & Waldorf, Sam the Eagle, Gonzo, Beaker, and the Sweedish Chef (featuring Beaker). I have to say, my favorite part is reading the descriptions on the Beaker and Chef videos. (The videos are also embed after the break, if you want them all in one place.)
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So, I don't know if you've seen the High-Five! montage by my friends Jake, Bob and Jack. If you haven't, go watch it, I'll wait.
That video was enough to get the attention of Jake's higher-ups at Funny-or-Die and they created the much anticipated sequel: High-Five Hollywood! Take a look, it's fun times.
As a side note, I did the effects for the final shot of the Hollywood video.
So I finally made the jump to Leopard last weekend. Overall, I'm fairly impressed with it. Time Machine is definitely nice. But Something always bugged me about the way Time Machine is accessed.
If I'm looking for something in a folder and I want to access a TM backup, I have to go down to the dock, then click Time Machine. Sure, I could put it in the sidebar, but it's not a search or directory or drive, it's not even really a program, it just brings up an interface. And yes, you could put Time Machine in the toolbar, but that just looks ugly.
After some very minor searching, I ran across this post on The Pug Automatic blog. So I grabbed the PSD, threw a Time Machine icon on there, and turned it into a .icns fle with Icon Composer. Here's how I got it into a copy of Time Machine for the toolbar:
So I found this little gem of a game called Zwok. Basically, it's a snowball fight, but online! It's actually quite a fun little game. Catchy low-key music, great art, and easy to pick up! You can either join up and create an account (and save your scores, stats, etc) or just play anonymously. I'm "halation" on the green team if you ever see me.
The gameplay is also very basic. Use the arrows to move your player, then click the mouse to aim. After everyone's made their choices, the server updates and you get to see who hit who. Last team standig wins! This game was apparently created by Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.
Thank Eric H for this one. The reactable is a a different kind of instrument. It is essentially a synthesizer, but instead of using a keyboard it has a tabletop surface that reacts to specific objects placed on it. You really have to see it in action to understand what I mean.
More info after the jump.
Eric sent me a link to coverage of Bjork at the Coachella Music Festival. Supposedly this was one of the first times they/she used the reactable for a public performance. (Supposedly they also used at for the SNL performance the week before, but I didn't see it in the video.) A site called Trend Hunter is crediting Bjork with introducing the instrument as well.
The reactable looks like an incredible instrument. It is simply used by placing object on the table that react and control each other based on their proximity and orientation. Think of it as patching various components on a rack and twisting knobs. All of this is determined by a video camera underneath the table, meaning the object themselves are passive. there are no electronics inside of them.
What is even more interesting to me, though, is how the relationship between objects is displayed. A projector also sits underneath the table and shows oscillating waves and patterns moving between the objects. Overall it looks like a very intuitive, fun instrument and I wish I could get my hands on it!
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