Archives for the month of: December, 2006
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Somebody set me straight on Hip-hop for 5 year olds

December 13, 2006 //
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1. Breakfast done, Dad flips it to The Learning Channel and then heads to the kitchen to ready the school lunch for his almost-five year old daughter.

2. Dad overhears the backbeat of hip-hop music and some rapping.

3. Peeking into the living room, it’s Hip Hop Harry. He’s rappin’ the benefits of sharing, playing fair and staying fit.

4. It’s kinda like Barney, only instead of being annoyingly sanitized and corny, he’s leading a breakdance competition to end the show.. oh yeah, and he’s a bear wearing a big medallion, not a purple dinosaur.

5. In the show-ending dance off, each kid takes a turn in the circle, body-popping, spinning around - y’know all the moves, but everyone - even the girls- are dancing with a very serious, almost grimace on their faces. It’s like they’re saying ‘yeah, that’s right.. I’m a bad mofo..’.

6. Tonight, almost-five year old is quietly singing/rapping, ‘Go Harry..Go Harry..Go Harry..’

Ok. I’m torn. I’m not supposed to pre-judge. I told myself I’d always be open to new things. But in my head I’m thinking, “Hip-hop aimed at 3 to 6 year olds????”

I know that listening to hip-hop doesn’t turn you into a street hood. Even I like listening to it sometimes. But can you honestly tell me it wasn’t borne out of that culture? Why are so many hip-hop videos about SUV ridin’ maniacs tearin’ down da house?

Yo yo yo… I don’t have a problem with the hip-hop. It can be da bomb so to speak. But 3 to 6 year olds?? C’mon. Would there be a complaint if a show was created with goth-type characters to the backbeat of something like Marilyn Manson (does that even have a backbeat?) ?

Am I simply a confused middle-aged Canadian father whose falling into the conservative trappings of so many before him? I don’t have a problem discussing the state of death metal with my 17 year old nephew. Why am I so confused with this?

Somebody please set me straight.

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Categories family

Short Answers and the Fall of Civilization

December 12, 2006 //
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Here’s the email I send to a client asking for confirmation on a couple of items (of course the names and subject matter have been changed to protect the innocent… and me):

Hi Zanzibar,

So it is full height jibberjabs and blickity blocks with a continuous 12x9 pinky-doo everywhere? Are blingitybings or additional rinkydinks required?

Thanks,

Richard Querin, P.Eng.

No fine work of literature to be sure. But it was simple and clear enough don’t you think? Here’s the response (via frickin’ Blackberry of course)

 

Yes

So is that a yes only on the jibberjabs, blickity blocks and pinky-doo? What am I to assume for the second part of the question?

Is this a result of PDA/SMS/Blackberry short cryptic notation syndrome? Where is the art of communication going? I read plenty of emails a day. You would think the proliferation of written communication would yield some improvement, but all it’s done is laid the problem bare for more to see.

I know, I know. Another grammar rant. But there wasn’t even a period on the end of that single word reply! But at least it was spelled correctly.

I must be going a little batty, because I actually enjoy reading the odd email that comes to me with full punctuation, correct spelling and some semblance of coherence and planning. It happens once or twice every couple of weeks (I swear - no more frequent than that). You have to enjoy them when you can.

Apologies for liberating the curmudgeon in me again. But somebody has to document the fall of civilization. Why not me? ;)

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Categories Uncategorized

Photos and Inkscape

December 12, 2006 //
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[click here to see a higher resolution version on Flickr]

A quick note to the Inkscape mailing list today gave me a couple of quick ways to trim imported bitmaps to the shape of any arbitrary boundary:

1. Select both objects and then choose Object->Clip->Set

or

2. Create a pattern fill based on a bitmap using Object->Pattern->Objects To Pattern, and then fill the object with that pattern.

This proved to be quite fun, so I put together the little collage you see above. It was probably easier to create this in Inkscape than in a bitmap editor like GIMP or Photoshop since you could easily create, rotate and modify each ‘snapshot’ throughout the process and modify gradients etc..

You can do quite a few neat things with a bitmap photo imported into a vector based editor like Inkscape. There are a few neat demo video’s over on the Xara site. One of them shows some interesting things about photo editing on a vector graphics editor. Good stuff.

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Categories graphics, inkscape, linux, photography

Inkscape Screencast 2 – A Quicky Glass Globe

December 9, 2006 //
2

Did you know that if you take a strip of masking tape, one cheapy Dell stick microphone (which came with some of our old systems at work) combined with my mini camera tripod, a creatively bent coat hanger and one of my daughter’s nylons for a wind/breath screen, you can actually record a screencast with narration? Hah!

It took about 4 takes before I was even remotely satisfied that it was audible enough. The sound seemed so low and hissy at first. Still, it’s not the greatest - and of course YouTube has simply butchered the video quality, but it might be useful to some.

In this screencast I create a quicky glass globe. Now, as I’ve mentioned ad nauseum, I’m no Inkscape expert or graphic designer. If you’ve got Inkscape tips or some other constructive criticism, please, let’s hear it!

Categories graphics, inkscape, linux, screencast

Inkscape Screencast – My First Experiment

December 8, 2006 //
6

A few posts ago I gave a few quick examples of shiny web2.0-like objects I created in Inkscape. Before I posted that I actually did a little half-hour attempt at a screencast with a program called Xvidcap. It failed miserably, generating a tiny video at about 2 frames per second. Not Good.

Will Simpson commented on that post that he’d like to see a screencast of some Inkscape stuff, so I took a little more time to investigate. With the exception of having to modify the first line of the configure script (changing bin/sh to bin/bash) the instructions in this post worked! So I configured, compiled and built this patched ffmpeg program that let me create a somewhat decent screencast.

The long and short of it? I created a quick screencast showing the creation of a simple black shiny button using Inkscape. Before criticizing it too harshly, read the notes and caveats below.

A few caveats:

  1. Uploading the video to YouTube significantly degraded the quality (originally 800x600 at 30fps - 1000 kb/s bitrate) - if I find a decent place to host it, you will be able to download a much better version.
  2. I don’t have a microphone to create decent sounding narration so I didn’t even attempt it. I may try to pick one up in the next little while.
  3. Tutorial-type screencasts are kinda (very) useless without narration, so don’t expect to learn too much from it - it’s really only an experiment.
  4. To help alleviate 3 minutes of utter boredom I dubbed in a nice Rob Costlow track using Kino - I hope you like some nice solo piano.

Notes:

I converted the avi video from ffmpeg to dv-video for use in Kino. I dubbed in the music with Kino and trimmed it slightly. However I couldn’t figure out how to get Kino to export to mpeg4 which supposedly converts best with YouTube so instead I generated an mpeg2 file which may be the main reason for the blurry YouTube quality. I’ve got to figure this part out better.

The patched ffmpeg program seemed to capture the 800x600 video flawlessly, but when I tried 1024x768, even at lower bitrates, the capturing program would just quit on me. Not sure why. Meh. 800x600 is ok I guess.

Categories inkscape, linux, screencast

Christmas Recon Mission – Circa 1981

December 6, 2006 //
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Talk about your tough love. Makes you wonder why people complain about wasted tax dollars and court resources..

Some of you will hate me for this, but what the hey…

I clearly remember sneaking into my parent’s closet on several occasions during mid to late Decembers of years gone by. If the coast was clear, I would look for the presents with my name on them (opening my brother’s gifts would clearly be immoral!). Boxes were evaluated not by size, but by heft - a much better indicator of the potential cool-ness of a gift. A quick scan of the taping method and a couple of deft razor blade slices later (my Dad still uses a Wilkinson double-edger by the way) I was in.

Of course I never actually played with the toys. I would open them up just enough to see what they were. After that I was perfectly content to wait until Christmas morning to get them. And I never went through them all. One or two of the heftiest was enough to satisfy me. And it wasn’t always smiles and sunshine. It could be Stretch Armstrong, it could be a pair of shoes, you spin the wheel, you takes your chances.

Did it ruin Christmas morning for me? Nah. The excitement was still there. I didn’t have to feign the enthusiasm, nor the excitement - only a little bit of surprise. And besides, the greatest parents in the world (my parents - in case you didn’t know) weren’t idiots and I was no world class cat burglar. I’m sure they knew what I was doing - at least had some clue - because there always seemed to be the one or two “awesome” presents at Christmas that I never ever saw coming.

Would you have called the cops? Heh.

Tags
Categories family, humour

Variations on a Shiny Black Theme

December 6, 2006 //
3

I’ve noticed a seemingly endless number of “Web 2.0 Shiny Button” tutorials lately. Most of them involving Photoshop. Looking at a couple, it all seems to be about gradients and transparency - something that Inkscape is good at.

I figured I’d take the opportunity to practice my Inkscape chops and play around a bit. So here are some variations on a theme. If you’re sick of Web 2.0 with it’s shiny, chunky buttons, then take this as your final dose. :)

For anybody interested in playing around with these, you can download the inkscape svg file right here: buttons-fun.svg

First, your typical fat shiny button. Literally 20-30 seconds work in Inkscape.


Next a shiny black and red power button. BTW exactly when did this symbol become synonymous with the power switch anyway?


An over the top version of a vertical scroll control. Either that or a power window switch in your car. This ain’t getting any better is it..


Started as a lozenge. Then went for a control button. Ended up with a shiny, buttonless Kensington Trackball.


Is it a remote, or a phone? Not sure. Take away all the buttons and you’ve got the start of a perfectly good shampoo bottle. Spent about a half-hour on this one. Probably 15 minutes too much. ;)

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Categories graphics, inkscape, linux

Lowering the Bar

December 5, 2006 //
0

I have a question. How can someone go to work day in, day out for over 10 years where the primary objective is not to aid progress, not to develop, not to grow, but simply to plod through, exerting only enough enthusiasm to do two things: get paid, and cover your ass. How?

While everyone else both up and down the proverbial totem pole is trying to get to the root of a problem, this person’s far too busy eschewing any culpability or fault to contribute to the solution.

Clearly there is no shame in it for him. He casts away blame with such outward vigor that he’s clearly proud of it, or ignorant.

The ironic thing is that in most cases this person probably ISN’T the source of the problem, ISN’T to blame, but the act of immediately and vigorously denying any blame does more to hurt his reputation and respect than actually causing the problem.

I’ve always believed that owning up to mistakes is a necessary part of building reputation, character and respect. But that assumes you care about building those things. If you don’t, then happily escaping blame, avoiding responsibility and getting paid is fine I guess.

Ten years on and I still find it hard to believe someone can go through life perfectly happy to wallow, perfectly happy never learning anything and perfectly happy never progressing.

Maybe it’s time I lower my expectations of others.

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Categories Uncategorized

Will Wright on Colbert this Monday night

December 3, 2006 //
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In case you hadn’t heard or read:

Will Wright is going to be on the Colbert Report tomorrow (Monday) night.

Wright is the designer of such awesome games as SimCity, TheSims, and the upcoming Spore game.

I love his games simply because they make you think, make you work, and illustrate how great computer games don’t have to be about burning down Santa Monica Blvd or (the Streets of Baghdad) with guns ‘ablazin.

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Categories design

Video editing on Linux – Any Recommendations?

December 3, 2006 //
0

Back in August of 05, just as a test I posted this short video clip on my family blog. I think it illustrates how effectively a well chosen bit of music can enhance just about anything (slideshow, video or otherwise). I haven’t done a heck of a lot of video editing since then (just too many other pursuits I guess). I’ve shot video clips off and on, but they’ve yet to make it from the mini-dv tape to the pc in the last year. The clip you see above was created using (gasp!) Windows Movie Maker. The music is by the awesomely talented Rob Costlow.

But I’m hearing and reading more and more about video editing on Linux lately. I’ve tried out Kino once or twice and while it seemed a little alien to me, I’m sure with a little patience and a little effort I could nibble into the stack of DV tapes on my desk that just sits there collecting dust.

Right now I’ve read or heard about Kino, Diva, Cinelerra, QDvdAuthor, ManDVD, and KDEnlive.

Have you edited video on Linux? What have you used? Any recommendations?

Note: Apologies for the poor quality of the youtube clip. I only had the video in wmv format (which supposedly doesn’t convert so well to flash I guess) and I didn’t have time - and didn’t know how to convert it to mpeg4 or divx which is supposed to work better. If anybody’s got tips on that, please let me know.

Tags
Categories linux
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