Dolphin became the default file manager when KDE went to 4.0, so Kubuntu users already know what a great program it is (unless they preferred to stick with the previous default file manager, Konqueror). While Ubuntu’s desktop environment, Gnome, has certainly stepped up of late when it comes to visual effects, screenlets and the like, KDE has always been about “bells and whistles”. And while Gnome can end up looking pretty stunning, the same can’t be said about its default file manager, Nautilus, which is about as plain as they come.

Dolphin, on the other hand, has the little niceties one would expect of a KDE file manager, like animated folder icons, and a lot more. There is an easy to access zoom slider for thumbnails, and has some pretty unique “views”. You can customise it in ways you could only dream of in Nautilus or Thunar, like not only add extra panes, but also move them where you like, and resize them to your needs.

If you look at the above pic, you’ll see that you can add a Folders (“tree”) pane and put it above the Information pane on the right (you could put it under Places, of course, but why not save that for shortcuts). Also, you can add a Terminal to the bottom, so whatever folder you’re in, you can just type commands without having to open a terminal in each folder (or continually change paths).

The views are “Icons“ (like the same in Nautilus, but smaller, and just the icon, no preview), “Details“ (your standard row-by-row format with information next to each file), “Columns“ (starts off with 2 columns, and every sub-folder you click on opens another), “Preview“ (turns your icons into thumbnails, and folders will show previews of pics inside), and “Split“ (gives you 2 columns you can browse with).

When you are in “Split“ mode, you can look at the beginning and end of a large folder at the same time, or use the second column to browse another folder or drive. The “Columns“ mode offers another interesting and useful way of browsing, so you certainly have a few choices in ways to browse.

Some things to note are that with Dolphin, like other KDE file managers, the default is to treat a single-click as a double-click. This can confuse Gnome users, as even slowly clicking a file will open it. All you need to do to select a file is click the green + that appears in the top left corner when you hover your cursor, and it will select it. But if you’re selecting a file simply to know the filesize, like you would in Nautilus, then you don’t need to, as that information will appear in the status bar and the Information pane simply by hovering your cursor over the file.

Not only that, but if you are in “Icons“ view, hovering over picture files will show the preview in the Information pane. In “Preview“ mode, another nice feature is that when you hover your mouse cursor over a folder, its preview thumbnail will cycle through other pictures in the folder (which you can see in the second pic, as the selected folder looks different from the preview in the Information pane).

So there are some great reasons to try out Dolphin. There’s a lot more you can do to customise its interface, and if the single-click/double-click issue ends up annoying you, then don’t worry, you can change the setting to what you’re used to. You can change that and other default settings via Settings > Configure Dolphin.

While Dolphin needs certain KDE libraries, etc, to function, any such dependencies will be installed with the program into your Ubuntu/Gnome system. Mark it for installation in Synaptic, or enter in a terminal:

sudo apt-get install dolphin

Xiamen, December 2008

———

This is photo viewing for ADD sufferers, impatient people, and people running late for dinner. One page, one fat wall of photos.

People tell me they really like this element of my photography website; it’s my favorite page as well.  Clicking on a thumbnail reveals the photograph beneath the mosaic, on the same page. From there you can activate a slideshow or go back to the mosaic. You never leave the page.  Personally, I just love having it all right in front of me .

I hope you find  the small amount of time you will need to visit  sarasilver.com and enjoy the “Mosaic Image Wall” .

The default “view” in both Nautilus and Thunar file managers is the “Icon“ or thumbnail view, which you can of course change if ever you want via the View menu. If you’re happy with thumbnails, but they’re too big for your liking, or you actually want to make them larger, like in your ~/Pictures folder, hold the Ctrl button while you zoom in or out with your mouse scroll wheel.

In Nautilus (the default file manager in Ubuntu), you can make the thumbnails of pics rather huge, like only 2 fitting in each row, and the icons for any folders in there won’t be too large. On top of that, the change will only be recorded in the folder you’re in, so you can have most of your folders displaying thumbnails at the default size, have a few where the thumbnails are quite small, and then have huge thumbnails for folders like ~/Pictures.

In Thunar (Xubuntu’s default file manager), you can only go so big, and in your ~/Pictures folder the icons for any folders in there might actually look bigger than the thumbnails for pics; also, do that to one folder, and it is a global change (ie: it happens to the rest).

I actually started doing thumbnails when doing Mayhem & Cuddles, I did  a few last night while watching AMC’s “The Prisoner”.  As you continue to love M&C, please always keep in mind I’m in no way an artist, so this is sort of crazy.

Speaking of thumbnails, Mike Howell sent me a few and I’m stoked.  The Underground rolls on!

E’ indubbio che i ragazzi di Mountain View siano sempre più impegnati a cambiare la nostra esperienza di navigazione nel web. L’ultima loro trovata riguarda la ricerca di immagini all’interno della rete. Solitamente siamo abituati a googlare in GOOGLE IMMAGINI (implementato nel lontano 2001) per ricercare e filtrare le foto, diapositive, Clip art o disegni al tratto corrispondenti alla nostra ricerca. A tale proposito non da molto è possibile affinare la ricerca non solo per dimensione, ma anche per tipo e per colore.

Leggendo il blog di GOOGLE abbiamo scoperto che da oggi è possibile visionare le nostre ricerche con il nuovo servizio GOOGLE IMAGE SWIRL che cerca di portare una ventata di innovazione nella visualizzazione delle thumbnails, come potete direttamente provare clikkando qui.

L’utilità della nuova visualizzazione balza subito all’occhio: le immagini simili vengono raggruppate in una singola thumbnail grazie alle tecnologie “Similar Images” e a “Picasa Face recognition” cercando di rendere più veloce la nostra ricerca. E’ poi possibile far esplodere a proprio piacimento, accedendo con un nuovissimo approccio circolare alle immagini sottostanti.

Al momento non è possibile ricercare qualsiasi lemma di nostro interesse, ma ci dobbiamo accontentare di quelle già organizzate dai programmatori di LABS.

Encontre este link que dejo a disposicion, me parecio muy bueno como muestra la creacion de funciones y seguro que me ahorrara mucho tiempo cuando necesite algo similar.

Creacion de una Galeria de fotos flash con XML en Action Script 2http://www.tutoriales-flash.com/tutorial.php?id_tuto=29

Detalle:

Galeria de foto flash 8, AS2, XML, miniatura o thumbnails y foto grande.

Link de descarga

Aqui esta el Tutorial, pero por supuesto la fuente es la puesta arriba…

COMO HACERLO.
Como veremos más delante, este tutorial es el resultado de juntar varios tutoriales existentes en tutoriales-flash.com.

Lo primero que hay que hacer es crear las miniaturas en nuestro programa de manipulación de imágenes preferido. Tanto las miniaturas como los originales deben estar en formato JPEG no progresivo, PNG o GIF, de lo contrario, Flash Player no podrá cargarlas.

Una vez que tengamos listos todos los JPEG, los metemos en dos directorios llamados originales y minis. Es importante que cada imagen tenga el mismo nombre de archivo en el original y en la miniatura.

Después de esto, preparamos el archivo XML que nos va a dar la lista de fotos.
En este ejemplo se trata del archivo http://www.tutoriales-flash.com/php/verMiniaturas.xml que podéis visualizar. Para aprender como enviarle a Flash un XML con la lista de archivos de determinado directorio tenéis disponible estos otros tutoriales.

Recepción de datos externos en Flash. La clase XML.

Como leer los archivos que hay en una carpeta del servidor con ASP y pasarlo a Flash.

Como leer los archivos que hay en una carpeta del servidor con PHP.

Para el resto del tutorial no saldremos de Flash. Todo el código del ejemplo va en el primer fotograma salvo unas pequeñas acciones en los botones de pasar página. Vamos a ir poniendo el código de este primer fotograma en bloques para comentarlos.

// acciones en fotograma 1
stop();
System.useCodepage = true;
XML.prototype.ignoreWhite = true;
import mx.transitions.Tween;
// separacion-> distancia entre las imágenes
// tanto horizontal como vertical
var separacion:Number = 116;
// vbles para pasar de página
var pagina_actual:Number = 1;
var num_paginas:Number;
// array donde metemos los elementos del XML
var IMG_array:Array;
// objeto XML que carga la lista de miniaturas

Hasta aquí hemos definido una serie de ajustes iniciales.

var miniaturasXML:XML = new XML();
miniaturasXML.onLoad = mostrarMiniaturas;
miniaturasXML.load(“/asp/verMiniaturas.asp”);
// funcion que se ejecuta al cargar el XML
function mostrarMiniaturas():Void {
// contadores de columna y fila para
// disponer las miniaturas
var fila:Number = 0;
var col:Number = 0;
// paso los datos del XML al array
IMG_array = this.firstChild.childNodes;
// como caben 12 fotos por página podemos
// saber el núm de páginas necesarias para
// mostrar todas las fotos
num_paginas = Math.ceil(IMG_array.length/12);
// creo el clip donde meteremos todas las miniaturas
var lienzo:MovieClip = _root.createEmptyMovieClip(“lienzo_miniaturas”, _root.getNextHighestDepth());
// lo posiciono donde nos conviene
lienzo._x = 19;
lienzo._y = 100;
// y lo enmascaro con el clip situado en la
// capa mascara. se enmascara para hacer el deslizamiento del
// clip cuando tengamos muchas miniaturas y no entren todas a
// la vez en pantalla (nuestro caso)
lienzo.setMask(mascara_mc);
// recorro el array que contiene la lista con los nombres de
// los archivos de las miniaturas e invoco la función crearMiniatura
// que es la que carga la imagen, la recoloca, le pone un pequeño
// marco y le asigna las acciones para verla ampliada
for (var k:Number = 0; IMG_array[k]; k++) {
// extraigo la ruta del archivo de imagen
//var ruta:String = “minis/”+IMG_array[k].attributes.nombre;
// como sólo tengo tres columnas, cuando llegue a
// la tercera, avanzo una fila y retorno a la primera
if (col>2) {
col = 0;
fila++;
}
// creo la miniatura. extraigo la ruta del archivo de imagen
// y la paso como tercer parámetro
crearMiniatura(col, fila, IMG_array[k].attributes.nombre);
col++;
}
}

En el bloque anterior hemos definido el objeto XML que va a recibir los datos y también la función encargada de procesarlos.

function crearMiniatura(columnaF:Number, filaF:Number, ruta:String) {
// bajo_clip es el clip que contendrá el marco de la miniatura
var bajo_clip:MovieClip = lienzo_miniaturas.createEmptyMovieClip(“bajo_”+filaF+”_”+columnaF, lienzo_miniaturas.getNextHighestDepth());
// clip contendrá la imagen
var clip:MovieClip = lienzo_miniaturas.createEmptyMovieClip(“foto_”+filaF+”_”+columnaF, lienzo_miniaturas.getNextHighestDepth());
// para cargar la miniatura definimos un objeto MovieClipLoader
// y un objeto detector de eventos
var mi_mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
var miListener:Object = new Object();
mi_mcl.addListener(miListener);
clip.valor = “aaa”;
// cargamos la imagen
mi_mcl.loadClip(“/minis/”+ruta, clip);
miListener.onLoadStart = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
// cuando comienza la carga de la imagen
// ponemos al _alpha a 0
target_mc._alpha = 0;
};
miListener.onLoadProgress = function(target_mc:MovieClip, bytesLoaded:Number, bytesTotal:Number) {
// aquí podéis poner acciones para mostrar una precarga,
// este caso no lo hemos considerado oportuno
};
// cuando ya se ha completado la carga y tenemos disponible el clip
miListener.onLoadInit = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
// recolocamos la imagen (todavía está oculta, con _alpha=0)
target_mc._x = (separacion*columnaF)+(100-target_mc._width)*0.5;
target_mc._y = (separacion*filaF)+(100-target_mc._height)*0.5;
// recolocamos el marco que rodea a la foto
bajo_clip._x = target_mc._x-5;
bajo_clip._y = target_mc._y-5;
// dibujamos el marco
with (bajo_clip) {
beginFill(0xffffff);
lineStyle(1, 0xEEEEEE, 100);
lineTo(target_mc._width+10, 0);
lineTo(target_mc._width+10, target_mc._height+10);
lineTo(0, target_mc._height+10);
lineTo(0, 0);
endFill();
}
// al pinchar sobre el área del marco,
// mostramos la foto grande con la función
// verFotoGrande
bajo_clip.onRelease = function() {
verFotoGrande(ruta);
};
// muestro la miniatura animando el _alpha hasta 100
var myTween:Tween = new Tween(target_mc, “_alpha”, mx.transitions.easing.Regular.easeOut, 0, 100, 2, true);
};
}

Hasta aquí hemos definido la función que crea cada una de las miniaturas. En este tutorial tenéis material de apoyo.

Carga de clips externos en Flash. La clase MovieClipLoader.

function verFotoGrande(ruta:String) {
clearInterval(intervaloColor);
// creo el clip donde irá la foto grande en una profundidad fija
// para que se reemplace cada vez que pincho en una miniatura
var grande:MovieClip = _root.createEmptyMovieClip(“grande_mc”, 2*IMG_array.length+11);
// igual con el clip que contendrá el marco
var bajo_grande:MovieClip = _root.createEmptyMovieClip(“bajo_grande_mc”, 2*IMG_array.length+10);
// posición vertical fija
grande._y = 100;
// para cargar la foto grnade definimos otro objeto MovieClipLoader
// y otro objeto detector de eventos
var grande_mcl:MovieClipLoader = new MovieClipLoader();
var grandeListener:Object = new Object();
grande_mcl.addListener(grandeListener);
// cargo la foto grande
grande_mcl.loadClip(“/originales/”+ruta, grande);
grandeListener.onLoadStart = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
// aplico una transformación de color que deja el clip
// tintado de blanco
myColor = new Color(target_mc);
myColorTransform = new Object();
myColorTransform = {ra:100, rb:255, ga:100, gb:255, ba:100, bb:255, aa:100, ab:0};
myColor.setTransform(myColorTransform);

};
grandeListener.onLoadProgress = function(target_mc:MovieClip, bytesLoaded:Number, bytesTotal:Number) {
// aquí podéis poner acciones para mostrar una precarga,
// este caso no lo hemos considerado oportuno
};
grandeListener.onLoadInit = function(target_mc:MovieClip) {
// recolocamos la imagen (todavía está oculta)
target_mc._x = 382+Math.round((315-target_mc._width)*0.5);
// recolocamos el marco que rodea a la foto grande
bajo_grande._x = target_mc._x-5;
bajo_grande._y = target_mc._y-5;
// dibujamos el marco
with (bajo_grande) {
beginFill(0xffffff);
lineStyle(1, 0xEEEEEE, 100);
lineTo(target_mc._width+10, 0);
lineTo(target_mc._width+10, target_mc._height+10);
lineTo(0, target_mc._height+10);
lineTo(0, 0);
endFill();
}
// con estas rutinas hacemos la transición de color desde el blanco
var indiceColor:Number = 255;
intervaloColor = setInterval(cambiarColor, 10);
function cambiarColor() {
myColorTransform = {ra:100, rb:indiceColor, ga:100, gb:indiceColor, ba:100, bb:indiceColor, aa:100, ab:0};
myColor.setTransform(myColorTransform);
indiceColor -= 2;
if (indiceColor == -1) {
clearInterval(intervaloColor);
}
}
};
}

Ya hemos creado la foto grande. Para hacer las transición de la foto grande hemos usado el método setTransform de la clase Color. Es este otro tutorial se explica un ejemplo de su uso.

Tutorial para cambiar el color de un clip en Flash, usando ActionScript.

// con esta función desplazo el lienzo de las miniaturas para
// pasar de página
function moverLienzo(posY:Number):Void {
var myTween:Tween = new Tween(lienzo_miniaturas, “_y”, mx.transitions.easing.Regular.easeOut, lienzo_miniaturas._y, posY, 1, true);
}
// deshabilito de inicio el botón de volver atrás
// ya que se muestra la página 1
pMenos_btn.enabled = false;
pMenos_btn._alpha = 30;

Por último queda el código de los botones de pasar página.
En página-

on (release) {
// activo el botón página+
pMas_btn.enabled = true;
pMas_btn._alpha = 100;
moverLienzo(100-(pagina_actual-2)*464);
pagina_actual–;
// si llego a la primera página
// ya no puedo retroceder, por tanto
// deshabilito el botón
if (pagina_actual == 1) {
pMenos_btn.enabled = false;
pMenos_btn._alpha = 30;
}
}

En página+

on (release) {
// activo el botón página-
pMenos_btn.enabled = true;
pMenos_btn._alpha = 100;
moverLienzo(100-(pagina_actual*464));
pagina_actual++;
// si llego a la última página
// ya no puedo avanzar, por tanto
// deshabilito el botón
if (pagina_actual == num_paginas) {
pMas_btn.enabled = false;
pMas_btn._alpha = 30;
}
}

En este tutorial os hemos enseñado los pasos para hacer una galería de fotos, ahora es el momento de experimentar con código e introducir vuestras propias variaciones sobre el ejemplo.

Podéis descargaros este mismo ejemplo y ver cómo funciona: galeria.zip

I just love the original Marcos so much that I had to do a modern vision of it !

Cuando usaba Ubuntu y desde que empecé hace unos 3 años no mas me gustaba poder ver una imagen de los videos y no el primer cuadroo frame, sino de un lado mas adelante, cuando me pasé a xubuntu pues este no tiene esto por defecto… pero si que se puede activar, solo basta con instalar un paquete:

 sudo apt-get install ffmpegthumbnailer thunar-thumbnailers

Y listo, se ven un poco pequeños … pero se ven!

via -> ¿Cómo arregle esto?

Counts the numbers of images in a post, if there’s at least one image, it does ’stuff’.

<?php
$content = $post->post_content;
$searchimages = '~<img [^>]* />~';

/*Run preg_match_all to grab all the images and save the results in $pics*/

preg_match_all( $searchimages, $content, $pics );

// Check to see if we have at least 1 image
$iNumberOfPics = count($pics[0]);

if ( $iNumberOfPics > 0 ) {
     //do stuff
}

?>

Nautilus no genera vistas previas (Thumbnails) para algunos archivos sin haber instalado antes los codecs correspondientes.

Parece ser que si no instalas los codecs correspondientes para reproducir el formato de vídeo, Nautilus ‘omite’ los archivos sin codecs (como era de esperar).
La solución es bastante simple:

cd $HOME/.thumbnails/fail/gnome-thumbnail-factory/

rm *

Con estos dos sencillos pasos, Nautilus regenerará todas las vistas previas de los archivos (Previews – Thumbnails). En caso de que no se regenerasen:

killall nautilus

nautilus &

Listo

Espero que os sirva de ayuda.

Some of you might be tired of aircrafts… since this is a car designer’s blog

Anyway here s what s collecting dust on my desktop at the moment ! The few remaining lineworks are from an Artrage doodle and colours from photoshop.

Zuda’s October competition ends in a coupla days. Things have been crazy exciting so far, so I figured I’d do a bit more blabbing about what qualified as work behind our entry… just to take my mind off things for a bit.

I was honestly thinking about showing a bit more of action in this page, like an actual sequence of moves, but space constraints would have forced me to make them too small and possibly a bit muddled. Instead, I settled for showing key snippets of how violent the battle was, because that’s all we needed to know anyway.

This page required a different approach than the first five because it’s the first daytime sequence in the comic thus far. Not being too comfortable with it all being too bright, I made sure to play with line weights to at least hint at a sense of depth. There’s an occasional big black shape to add character to each panel, but having to limit my use of them took a bit of doing.

I walk away from this page fairly pleased with myself and my use of the hand as a gestural tool. To be totally honest, as I was just learning to draw, I was one of those guys who would use any and every excuse to obscure a character’s hand because I dreaded having to draw them in. Not saying that I draw hands perfectly now, but I’ve surrendered to them often being a indispensable tool for expression sans dialogue.

Let’s just ignore my failed attempt at a Bryan Hitch-style camera lens flare and move on to panels 4 and 5, shall we? The thumbnail will tell you that i planned for the characters to appear a lot bigger in the middle panel, but it killed too much of the castle’s… regalness (yes, that’s a word now)… if you can call it that. Not too happy about how those small figures ended up looking, but I guess it carries the action across.

The last panel was actually a bit of an issue because Gabe and I needed it to act as a strong enough hook to make people want to read more… but without over-dramatizing the scene. The script actually had the king saying something to Pluck, and we also thought of Pluck sheepishly introducing himself. Ultimately, we decided that a relatively subtle one-point perspective shot would emphasize that all eyes were on Pluck, and his looking up would show that not only is he being looked at… but actually looked down upon. Fidgety hands and a sheepish grin helped bring the panel home.

Anyway yeah, that’s what went into the PLUCK Zuda entry and my layout process in general. Was it good for you too? *huff

You can read the first part of this commentary here.

If you haven’t yet read the comic, I’d really appreciate it if you checked us out and dropped us a vote. Enjoy the comic here.

As most of you guys have probably already gotten sick of used to by now, I like to post sketches and such just to share a bit of the process behind certain projects. Here are the rough thumbnails for PLUCK, along with the finished fully inked renderings.

Though the roughs for page one were pretty much what I wanted to go with fairly early on, this still took a bit longer than I wanted because I was actually designing the characters right on the page. I had done a handful of prelim sketches to get some looks down, but I wasn’t really happy with any of them. I’m a big fan of HBO’s Entourage though, and it may not be apparent to anyone other than myself, but I imagine Pluck’s mannerisms and speech to resemble that of a young Kevin Connoly.

The black outlines for clouds in panels 2 and 3 were afterthoughts, but I hope they helped to add a bit of weight as well as frame those beats in the story.I imagined Dreda to have black hair initially, but I found it fit the character better to have her be a dirty blonde. The negative silhouette of the knight on the horse was a late addition to this page, as I felt the thumbnail needed a bit of clarity.

This was easily one of my favorite pages to do, since it’s the first time it becomes apparent that we’re dealing with a fantasy story. And I gotta say… nothing pisses me off more than pretty boy knights, so I was just snickering as I was putting this together.

The last panel of this page came out a little less dynamic than I would have liked, but I think it’s somewhat clear anyway.

A coupla big influences on how the art for PLUCK came together was Mignola’s Baltimore and Tony Moore’s run on Walking Dead. I don’t have any grays in it at all, but I thought this a threshold version of a grayscale image. Granted that most black and white stories are either horror or crime, a comedic fantasy needed a bit more hatching for some midtones, so I looked at some old copies Xenozoic Tales I still have. It’d be great to come back to this and slap down some gray tones myself though, so I guess we’ll see…

I hope you guys found this interesting. I’ll post the second half of the commentary in a coupla days.

You can read the actual comic here. We’d really appreciate your votes!

When a reader visits your blog for the first time, you’ll want to give them a first impression that will blow them away. It’s actually quite simple to do this. Here are 10 tips for grabbing the attention of a new reader and push them to keep coming back.

1. Your pitch

Tell readers what your blog is about. Don’t ramble on and on – give them a concise explanation of your blog, and give them a compelling reason to stick around. This isn’t easy, but it’s important to get it right. Otherwise, you may be losing potential readers at the very first hurdle.
2. Your latest post

Writing “pillar content” is all about writing great posts. But it shouldn’t be something you do every now and again. Every time you publish a post, make it a great post. Make every post a work of art. Any of your posts could be the first one that a reader sees – so how can you justify publishing half-baked posts?
3. Your best posts

No matter how much effort you put into your posts, some will stand above the rest. You’ll need to decide how to measure the success of a post, whether it’s down to pageviews, the number of comments, the quality or length of comments, the post with the most retweets on Twitter, or something else entirely. Whichever you choose, be sure to list some of your best posts on your home page.
4. A striking, unique, clean design

We’re not all designers, but even a small amount of effort on your design can make the difference between “blah” and “blimey!”. If possible, hire a designer to help you out, or use a theme that can be easily customised. Make the most of your header area – don’t waste space with a huge banner or loads of ads – keep it simple. Also, ensure you keep clutter to a minimum.
5. Images

It’s pretty boring when a blog is nothing but text. You need to include a few images that add value to the site, but don’t go overboard. Thumbnails are a good compromise – they look good, but they’re small, unobtrusive and fast-loading. That’s what I use on the front page of Top Ten Blog Tips.
6. Clear and concise categories

While writing new posts is very important, don’t keep churning out post after post without thinking of how your blog should be organised. Every now and again, it’s a good idea to tidy up your blog categories. You should also look at how to improve your navigation.
7. Recent updates

In point 2, I said that you should highlight your recent posts. It goes a bit further than that – you need to have recent posts! Readers may be turned off if a blog has no recent updates, say within the last few weeks – or even more. It might be less of an issue for blogs that already have a lot of content, though. What do you think?
8. Comments and replies

A blog with no comments looks lonely and abandoned. A blog with no replies from the author looks like the blogger doesn’t care. Comments are one of the most important lifesigns of youir blog – don’t ignore them, and don’t stop trying to increase your blog comments.
9. A quick way to subscribe

There’s a fine line between helping people to find your subscribe link, and putting it right in their face. Sure, make it easy to find – but I’ve never been keen on these popup windows that appear on my first visit before I’ve even had a chance to read the latest post, saying “subscribe now!”. Hey, how about giving me a chance to decide if I want to? I’ve heard some bloggers saying that these popups give them loads of new subscribers – how about all the people who didn’t subscribe because they found the popup really annoying?
10. A personality

Readers are much more likely to relate to a real person than some mechanical robot writer. Posts written with style, character and personality are far more likely to make a connection than a generic set of ideas that the author doesn’t even follow on their own blog.

What do you think? What makes people stop and check out your blog? What makes you stop and check out other people’s blogs? Is there anything else you’d add to or remove from this list?

Time sure goes fast when you’re having fun, but this second week was pretty slow for me. No it wasn’t because school was a pain but rather because I was literally in pain with a bad case of the flu.

It all started with a fever last Wednesday after I finished writing my week one blog. My temperature measured in at a frightening 103 degrees Fahrenheit and that had me secluded to my bed with oddly enough, severe cold shivers, so something was definitely wrong.  Nonetheless, I still wanted to attend BCIT the next morning so I could participate in my first Photoshop class.  Not knowing if I was going to be capable of driving myself there, I got my father Kris to set his alarm clock for 7 AM as well in case I needed him to drive me.  Well as it turned out, our efforts to wake up early were all for nothing because my sickness increased for the worse and his sickness had just begun.  My mother Cristina soon suffered the same fate as we had my brother Derek to thank for passing along his sick love

I guess the least bit of comfort I had in missing that class is the fact that I’ve been a Photoshop user for close to six years now. So being that this was the first class I missed, I most likely only missed the bare basics along with the itinerary of this first term class.

Friday was a different story because I actually found myself at BCIT that day. I hadn’t totally shaken off the flu bug, but I definitely was not going to miss a second straight class because attendance is a big deal for this program and I too don’t want to miss anything.  The class is appropriately called Graphics & Colour for the Web and I learned a lot about what makes up the design process for new media on the web.

As someone who has already done a lot of web and graphic designing, I never really stopped to consider the process pattern of development because everything I’ve done has been self taught.  Over the years that I’ve been involved with new media development, I’ve gone about the process in an order that felt of most comfort to me.  However, the four main points I learned to consider when processing a design are to first, identify the problem or challenge, do your research, develop a concept, and finally implement solutions.  This all goes along with the AIDA guideline, which stands for attention, interest, desire, and action.  Keeping all that in mind, our instructor gave us the criteria for our final term project.

The project will be to artistically and creatively create a two-series poster with a dimension of 11’’ x 17’’related to the KidZone Art Museum.  The museum’s mission is to promote a cultural and visual art exchange between children and youth in different countries for the engagement and advancement of success in the arts and education. So that’s a really broad statement that provides a boundless opportunity for any graphic designer.

Our first order of instruction for this project is to develop six thumbnails, which are rough ideas done with pencil on paper.  No applications such as Photoshop are used for this process; in fact, no computers are to be used at all. This process is very new to me because in the past I’ve always started every clean graphical slate on the Photoshop interface but for the first time I’ll be starting on a good ole physical sheet of paper. The thumbnail process is similar to that of a web cluster that you would write with words when doing research in a library or what have you, only in this instance, it’s a collaboration of illustrations.

Now as for what the two-series poster entails…

They will both bare the same conceptual design but both will show off variant differences in appearance.  For instance, in class we were looking at a series of Adidas posters. Each poster looked remarkably similar in that an athlete was showcased in a paint splattered-like fashion, but each was different in its own right because of the different physical athlete in the poster along with a different array of colour tones.

So with that in mind, it’s obvious that this project is largely being attributed to our creativity for concept design and that’s exactly what we’ll be marked on along with problem solving skills.  Our software expertise will not be the basis of marking, which caught me off guard initially when I was handed the criteria without further explanation, but when the instructor explained everything, I understood the reasoning.  To be a true masterful graphic designer, you need that traditional craftiness of illustrating your creativeness with pencil on paper before then manufacturing your development onto a digital platform. This is what I gather to be a full packaged graphic artist when you have the ability to multiplatform your work.

The next and only class I had since my last blog entry was my Information Architecture (IA) class today, and that got really interesting today, especially since I was now healthy and coherent.  Besides already knowing that IA is the foundation for great web and media production design, it is imperative to know the logistics behind IA in that it is the blueprint of a website upon which all other aspects are built, such as form, function, metaphor, navigation, interface, interaction, and visual design.  Initiating the IA process is the first thing you should do when designing or re-designing a website.

Also imperative for any aspiring web developer these days is the knowledge behind a content management system (CMS) and databases, in addition to software such as Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Flash.  Any good web developer will also know software programs beyond what they regularly use.

Our homework for next week will involve a bit of an imaginary instance, but not too imaginary in that it will be of real matter down the road once we graduate BCIT.  We have to believe that we’ve been hired to develop a website relating to the market of renting electric scooters.  The make-belief compensation for this work is $250/month.

I’m not entirely sure if we will actually be developing a practice website of this nature or not down the road, but for next week we only need to come up with five bullet points where as a web developer, you have done research on the product to show that you are taking a personal approach to your work, which will translate in a better product outcome. So the five bullet points will include rates, pricing, equipment, advantages, and disadvantages.  We have to use the advantages to cop out the disadvantages because the company we are developing a website for will not want to promote their disadvantages. So this is why it’s also important to know of any disadvantages because you don’t want to promote any cons inadvertently.

A website I do know we will be developing is either a re-design of a poorly developed website we know of or one of creation from scratch. This will be our final project so without thinking too deeply into this project yet, I do know I will be choosing the second option since it’s only natural for me to create rather than re-create someone else’s work.

So overall a slow week being that I was working through a sickness and missed one class, but as you can see I did get to dive into a lot of interesting information that will be of use for various projects we’ve been given to complete. In fact, this blog entry you’re reading right now was an in-class assignment for my Communications class today.  It had to be finished between an allotted amount of time and no later, so before I ramble off into space, I guess I’ll sign off until next week.

Ciao for now!

Didn t post in a while ! So sorry, I was working on a full scale model which is now signed off. Time began to become rare, I am now more free to take care of this place.

Here are some concepts I have in stock, been quite keen on aircrafts lately !

Let me cut to the chase by saying Heritage Softail bars are going on the 2010 Road King Classic.

There’s a very, very long story of handlebars that goes with my FLHRC.  And it’s not a good story.  But it does end with finding money, and maybe flava the dragon came too …

I want beach bars.  I think they look great and I think they capture how I feel about riding: casual, relaxed, chill.  The opposite of drag bars.  The opposite attitude of ape hangers.  The kind you’d find on a 1955 bicycle if you rode to the pier and bought an ice cream cone.

Beach bars won’t work for me.  They pull back a lot and my arms are very long.   Yes, that long.  Well, ladies, what can I say …

So yeah, no beach bars.  I’d have to pull my elbows up and it’d look like I was riding a wheelbarrow (that’s “wheelbarrel” for those that have never been to a Devitt’s and seen the price sticker with the proper wasp name on it…).

What then?  I really like the Chubby Wild1 bars.  They all look good, and the construction videos and the customer testimonials really sold me.  Or sold the bars, I should say, because I was fixin’ to pick up some.  The question became which?  The Road King and Road King II bars were the obvious choice, because they improved on the already-there bars and that seemed the prudent way to go.  I wasn’t taken with them, though, because I want something sexy for all that money ($215 for the bars, in 2009 dollars*  –  then around $500 for labor, since the lines all need to be extended and the ABS and TBW complicate things).  The RK and RKII bars have that crimp, crinkle, harsh bend, ugly turn, etc., that I couldn’t abide.

So I looked at baby apes, of all things.  They really grew on me.  They really do work with all sorts of bikes, and all eras, but they’re not really ‘me’ so I figured I’d let it go.

Back to square one.

Then, after what was so frustrating and annoying I’ll just skip to the end, I found the adjustable Heritage bars (same as on Police models) were an easy swap (no extension wires to run except the blinker cables, which is negligable).

The frustration could be summed as follows: WHY THE HELL can’t we put in perspective/angle parameters when using a google image search?  How long will it be before they crowdsource the cataloging of images to include what view you’re getting? Some things have MANY views, MANY sides, and having 44,000 pictures to sort through just to get the few dozen from “underneath left” really, really pissed me off.  It felt like blind hunting through FTP sites before thumbnails were ubiquitous.  Google image’s thumbnails need to evolve to have perspective tags. SRSLY!~

Heritage bars are the same as the Police bars on FLHRP(I)’s.  Have you seen what the MC cops can do?   They tend to be the *best* with maneuvering (skip 34 seconds in for the Road King):

Obviously the rider has great skill, but the Heritage / Police bars don’t get in the way at all.  I mean that literally – you can got *THAT* tight in your turns without hitting your own knee.  I’m 6′ tall and my legs are actually somewhat shorter than average (pant length 31″), I believe, but for whatever reason my knees are up way over the tank on the Road King.  Maybe I sit like a dweeb!

By the way, if you’re impressed by great riding, the hardest thing (IMO) is the slowride.  Here’s a video that still amazes me:

And of course, the Heritage / Police bars are adjustable, so that right there is a major plus.  They’re made for comfort as well as performance, and if they’re good enough for the Police then they’ll work for me and all of my different riding moods.

Looks wise, they’re not as sharp looking as the beach bars, but someone thinks the tall bars look right:

I'm not imitating anything - I have ALWAYS loved peanut butter, banana, and fried, in any combination.

Just hope they look good with the windshield off.

And while I was at it, I ordered the 1962 gun sight tank badges.

Now I can go around telling everyone about my life behind bars.  And when they say “what bars?” I can say “Police bars, son, Police bars…”

And no one will think it’s funny, because I’ll have taken that old joke too far.

*Allow me to admit that I hope this blog gets picked up by anyone else looking for information on a Harley-Davidson 2010 Road King Classic (with ABS … or without!).  You can tell I’m throwing in the model very often, almost as much as I can without (hopefully) becoming overbearing.  It’s intentional.  I AM advertising (but only ’selling’ my free information; the story of my experience).  I want people who were stuck in my situation (“will this work with a 2010?” or “what can I expect from a 2010?”) to have at least SOME trustworthy resource.

And yes, I realize that by 2012, no one will care at all about a 2010.  So there’s not much need to label pricetags with the year.  But fuck it, there’s a comet coming in 2012, and the 2010 model may be more popular than ya think.  Especially if the MoCo screws something up.  Plus I can use this blog for my own records.

FreewareGenius has a post on Thumbview which adds thumbnail support for a wide variety of image formats not natively supported in Windows.

Ever have a file not show you a thumbnail view of certain kinds of graphic files, like png or pcx?  This fixes that.

Recentemente, tive uma aula de pintura digital onde tivemos que criar alguns thumbs de cenários, utilizando apenas tons de uma cor para criar a sensação de profundidade.

Após criar os thumbs, selecionei o mais bacaninha para dar cor e um pouco mais de detalhe.

+ Bjins +

If I had known that wordpress how the gallery button worked on workdpress, I would have done this sooner instead of manually putting them in… sigh… Anyway, this week’s works. The skateboard images were due last night, unfortunately, I got a 503 error in my browser while trying to log in because too much traffic going in? That sucked… I would have made it… 11:35pm, I had 25 minutes to upload, such ample time too. So sad. I try not to make excuses when I turn in late things because of opportunities and chances. I suppose this answers one of my old questions about letting opportunity pass. But still, I think that some opportunities are facades that are truly out of reach. The supposed “missed opportunities” are more like lessons we learn about how to get the next opportunity that comes along. There will always be something to counter an excuse anyway, such as mine, what is the counter? “You had ample time, an entire week to do it. Spend time wisely.” Etc. I can’t say much about that because that’s mostly my inner voice chiding me about how I like to waste time by reading online comics and playing time-waste games like bejeweled. Even thinking about it makes me want to play….

Well, this week, I’m a little more ready to face my assignments. I’ve a real fear of failure so when I feel like the teacher could be mean and bot-like, it makes me not want to come to class and avoid it altogether…. Which I feel like is my illustration class, perhaps the teacher needs some warming up to. :\

So, it turns out that the website admins noted all the teachers that there was problems with logging in at 11:15pm to 12:15, so we got an extension of time. Whee! So there wasn’t much to worry about. I wasn’t worried, but I was resolved to my fate….

note: do you get the title? … this entry won’t be getting any royalties.

notes to myself #2

In Grade 11 don’t keep asking Amy out on dates: she’s a lesbian.