I know, I know... the current photoshop version is 10.something or so, i was referring to the web 2.0 remote computing style applied to photo editing. This is a solution that never convinced me too much but this morning I eventually stumbled on something interesting.
It is a web service called Splashup. Basically it is a web based photo editing application accessible trough a browser, much like Photoshop Express but with an interface more reminiscent of the classical desktop based Photoshop look.
The program allows to upload a photo from the computer, import it from a photo sharing service such as PicasaWeb or Flickr, or from just any web source trough an ordinary link. Once you have it there you can edit it applying a fairly standard set of tools (selections, crop, brushes and such), and effects (from the basic hue/saturation and brightness/contrast to some more advanced blur and glow).
What in my opinion puts Splashup head and shoulders above Photoshop Express is that, as opposed to a more amateurish "Picasa style" from Adobe, Splashup handles multiple pictures at once (thus copy-pasting from one to another and such), it has layers (yep, layers!) and allows different modes for them (such as multiply, screen, overlay and such).
The only thing really missing is a levels/curves panel, and I realize that some quick fix offered by Photoshop Express such as red-eye removal might be handy if you do not know how or do not want to do it yourself, but yet these are not big showstoppers for me.
One more thing, on my office computer (a crappy productivity oriented windows machine who has been around for more than I am) The GIMP runs really slow, and I was very disappointed to see that even Photoshop Express frequently freezes the whole box (that's right, not just the browser). On the contrary Splashup performances are snappy even on my prehistoric box, so now I will not have to loose an entire afternoon if I Just have to crop and adjust a couple of workshop machinery shots to send a warranty claim or the likes... That's it, at home I'm sticking with The GIMP (even if I plan to give Pixel a try one of these days, I know it is not free nor open... but I'm curious none the less) because I remain of the idea that local based solutions are still better, but as far as web based solutions go, I have finally found something that does not entirely disappoints me :-P
mercoledì 23 aprile 2008
Photoshop 2.0? Not yet, but damn close!
venerdì 18 aprile 2008
Something useful from Microsoft?!
Ok, I should not flame... Perhaps they had a couple other useful toughts in the past as well and maybe we are just pissed off because they had tose ideas first and now they over-capitalize on them.
Anyway, one annoying thing I always found in the mouse (perhaps the only real annoyance of what i think is very close to the perfect human interface device since it was invented) is that while you are typing on the keyboard, having to move your hand and grab the mouse kinda breaks the rithm... ok, I know, I am building a case out of nothing but I am one of those who type looking at the keyboard rather than the screen so, I have to move the hand, look for the mouse, rise the eyes from the keyboard, look for the pointer... it's a lot of little steps so any solution which removes one is more than welcome.
Uncle Bill just adressed step one and two: "moving your hand away" and "looking for the mouse". The idea illustrated below basically involves a "mouse" which is always strapped to the hand and does not interfere with regular typing, but when the fist is closed some accelerometers are engaged actually turning on the pointing device.
It sounds nice, the only thing that does not convince me is the position of the "left and right mouse buttons" which are the 114and 116 in the diagram and although they are meant to be engaged by the thumb are very close and very ill placed, just try to touch your index finger knuckle with your tumb to get an idea, and then think of doing it n times per day with enough precision to hit two different buttons (or three buttons, i do not understand what 120 is, the scroll perhaps?).
Anyway, I do believe that accelerometers will soon or later show up in day to day pointing devices and it will be for good, but I do not believe that the good old mouse will be sent to retirement too soon.
martedì 15 aprile 2008
Under forced vacuum
This post is a little off topic, as it is meant for those of my readers that are going to share with me the long winter which is already knocking at the door of my country. I would call it an inside joke... but unfortunately it is no joke at all. I will write in English none the less, but the topic is a very italian one. As it became suddenly clear yesterday evening my people
Personally the perspective of having comedy and drama all in one TV program (we used to call them News, back when we were free) is a very little consolation in front of all the grim and creepy anticipation on the economy, the foreign relations, the social justice and whatever else you can think of a country that could fuck up. And it will, I know because we have seen it all already, then the people will return crying to politicians more wise and guess what? They won't like the cure, so they will revert to the crappy governors once more... morons, morons ho deserve to chose their leaders but morons none the less.
So I am packing, well not literally, not yet, but mentally I prepare my nuke-bunker where I will try to survive this political holocaust. There is a tune that came to my mind this evening while I was in the shower. You can enjoy the original here while below I try to translate it in a way that saves both metrics and message.
Leaving solid nerves and a smile without my teeth for when it matters... for real.
Sure that I can use it in the future I adorn it with the best of.. my patience
I wanna put away another pair and to be certain not to run ever... without them.
We will need we will really need them all, when the god of all the fools
will want to force on me his worship and his rules.
We will need we will really need them all, when I'll have in front of me
just one cry and just one banner, one belief and just one king.
I have to remember just a pinch of salty wisdom and a gesture... of joy,
close with care the bags and put a mark on when I feel more... alive.
Not just for the pleasure of collecting like some photos every moment... I'm happy,
day will come the day when I will feel washed away without my breath nor... my voice.
We will need we will really need them all, when the god of all the fools
will want to force on me his worship and his rules.
We will need we will really need them all, when the enemy will have in his shotgun just one more round and in his aim...
What a surprise! Facing the hatred, to find some laughter, to feel so happy
What a surprise! Facing the hatred, to find me naked, so happy and playful
I really wanna keep with me the moment when the breathing of the things from crowd and chaos resurfaces to life,
not for pleasure of collecting moments but for when I'll have to throw it up without a hold
We will need we will really need them all, when the god of all the fools
will want to force on me his worship and his rules.
We will need we will really need them all, when the enemy will have in his shotgun just one more round and in his aim...
What a surprise! Facing the hatred, to find some laughter, to feel so happy
What a surprise! Facing the hatred, to find me naked, so happy and playful
We will need we will really need them all, when the god of all the fools
will want to force on me his worship and his rules.
We will need we will really need them all, when the enemy will have in his shotgun just one more round and in his aim no one but me.
...in his aim no one but me.
...in his aim no one but me.
...in his aim no one but me.
...in his aim no one but me :(
Ok, now I have to get some sleep before tomorrow because among other things I have fucked up pretty bad as a scrutiny officer as well so tomorrow morning I'll have to enjoy a little trip to the electoral district some 100 Km away to give some explanations (I did nothing anti-democratic, just inverted the worthless contents of two worthless envelopes... bureaucracy but yet...).
'Night folks, and remember:
will take arms; and short fight it will make,
since the ancient valour
in the italic hearts yet is not dead.
mercoledì 9 aprile 2008
Scientology Dead Sea Scrolls Unveiled
Forenote: I am deeply convinced that Scientology is evil, this point will not be elaborated because it is not functional to the topic of this post, nor can be discussed under point four of the home rules (see the the side column). Details on my personal point of view are however available upon request.
Ever heard of Wikileaks? It is a very original website tailored for anyone who has some "hot stuff" to show the world but fears the repression of his state, the mafia... or the Church of Scientology as it is the case (I'd no doubt prefer the mafia). Wikileaks offers to the deep throats all over the world two fundamental services yet very difficult to conciliate: anonimity and visibility.
Today I read trough the blogsphere that an anonimous contributor (obviously ^_^') published nothing less than the Collected Operating Tethans of the Church of Scientology, the secret bible written by the founder Ron Hubbard himself the sci-fi writer, who invented the biggest mind-wiping money siphon religious corporation ever. This document shall not, in the policies of the church, be released for any reason, beacuse if made public anyone could see how dork they are access some gnostic knowledge which is better kept among the cultists hierarchy.
I am not sure but perhaps the unhearting of the sacred tome could even endanger some criminal plan enlightenment effort of theirs. After all if I had unraveled some deep mystery of the Cosmos, the very meaning of existence perhaps, why would I keep it away from mankind, why would I not spread it properly... oh yes, I forgot the starting assumption that tey are evil, so enlightenment for members only and of course you pay for the privilege.
Scientology already proceeded to sue Wikileaks (aka "yes,it's the true thing" and "yes, we feel uncomfortable seeing it around"). Wikileaks in turn already proceeded to tell them (politely) where they can settle their lawsuit. Unfortunately the Scientologists have both nightmare lawyers from hell and very little sense of humor so the outcome of a lawsuit is uncertain and I would not be surprised if the document would end up removed from the website.
Right now anyway, there is one thing we all can do in order to twart anything the lawyers from hell could achieve: the forbidden tome is now out, so please, visit Wikileaks and download it, then share it as you please (edonkey, torrent, limewire, Direct Connect, anything will do). Tey cannot track down and create problems to individual users. The goal is to assure that what was made of public domain remains of public domain, it is a matter of freedom. I don't want to live in a world were a few individuals of dubious morality can decide what I am or I am not entitled to know.
Today is a bunch of moronic religious fiction, tomorrow it could be something I do care about.
Edit. I have glimpsed trough the document in my lunch break and, aside from a couple of really creepy things, I have noticed a little poem in the incipit which is worth mentioning:
The stars twinkle in the Milky Way
And the wind sighs for songs
Across the empty fields of a planet
A Galaxy away.
You won’t always be here.
But before you go,
Whisper this to your sons
And their sons —
“The work was free.
Keep it so.”
Edit2: cool, adsense suggest a Scientology ad at the end of the post... cool, it says "think with your head, get the facts", well I guess downloading their hidden tome from Wikileaks IS thinking with our heads and getting the facts, so they practically support my campaign, now THAT's cool! Anyway I don't recall asking for an ad in that position (but I might have tampered without noticing), and I have already provided to inform the adsense bot that Scientology shall be filtered, I hope it works and they don't kick me for clicking of one of my ads ;)
mercoledì 2 aprile 2008
OOXML ISO standard... No, it's april 3rd
Of all the sadistic April fools I have read this one is the one I really hoped to be a prank (on the contrary I was really looking forward to the Virgin-Google Joint venture for Mars colonization).
Instead it was not an innocent prank (I still hope that everything I read around is just a colossal April 1st leftover but I have a terrible feeling about this), OOXML is now an acknowledged ISO standard.
I don't want to delve in the tortuous technical arguments that have already been pointed out to demonstrate how this is a very bad news for the users but there is a single piece of reasoning that I'd like to share with my 3 readers (2 of them are actually indexing bots but I love them nonetheless).
What, in the name of everything is good and transparent, leads a major company (thus we will assume that they are not entirely stupid) to fight to the point of telling lies and bribing judges, to impose another standard format when there is already a fully functional, open and widely used one?
Let me make an example with something different: it is like if I invented another format for, say, television images. Now we have PAL and SECAM, both perfectly working, and widely used (honestly I don't know if HDTV is a different standard or just a different use of the old ones, but it does not matter for the example). One day my quasi-monopolistic TV making company decides that in order to consolidate my endangered monopoly offer a better service I want another standard that is open enough for people to use it but closed enough for me to be the only one to truly capitalize on its potential. What happens? Nobody will accept my "standard"... unless I make it worth their while wink wink. OK, now that the pesky bureaucrats are settled here is what the TV market will look like:
-thanks to my mastery of the new "standard" I can have good performance with it (or at least enough to offer to the marketing guys some leverage)
- thanks to my gargantuan and overfed marketing department The new "standard" sells well and all the more or less independent 3rd party makers have to support it if they want to sell their products (alas, would you REALLY buy a TV that does not even support $new_useless_standard?! How do you think you can impress your friends if it doesn't???)
- for some mysterious reason my TVs have better images, not that my competitors do not work, they are just fine but you know... there's something, a shining my TVs have, but this is certainly due to some insider knowledge I have not disclosed about how to use my standard my superior and perfectly clean expertise at making better TVs.
This is what is happening with document standards, I know I am not the first to say this but we have a standard, the ODF, which is just fine, it does its job and it does it well. Microsoft could have embraced the open standard and spared a lot of money (we are talking of the yearly income of some African nation and perhaps also some Asian one here) to offer the users a perfectly compatible and powerful tool, instead they preferred to spend their cash for developing an alternate one, marketing it as a free and useful one, bribing the ISO board to approve it... and they have not finished yet because now that it is ready it still has to be implemented. Who do you think will pay for this? The fairy fucking godmother? Us.
Ultimately I can se no "clean" reason for them not to just open to ODF or better stick to their proprietary de facto standard... Instead they chose the expensive and cloudy way, I cannot help but thinking that they have some evil intent up their sleeve, call me negative.
There is even darker news... although with the wisdom of the grave it was not difficult to foresee: OOXML is not compatible with the General Public License. If a bell is not ringing in your head yet, this means that no free software can use it without having licensing problems. What? I thought it was an OPEN standard... like in Office OPEN XML, this means that no free software can use it and that those who decide to support OOXML will be under the constant risk of a lawsuit from Microsoft unbeatable_lawyers_from_hell shoud they decide that your project poses too much of a threat to their monopoly (but it will not because their mastery of the "standard" will always be unsurpassed due to insider knowledge).
The European Union has opened an investigation on the matter but I really doubt it will lead somewhere... for now the best I can do is to stay the hell away from Office and OOXML (which is kinda difficult as I work in a windows environment, but go tell my boss...).
Spread the word guys, because OpenOffice.org is there and it scares The Beast to the point of causing this shit, perhaps we should use it more just to prove that they are soooo right to be scared ;)
