GoheX

What is VTW?

GoheX — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 23:10:02 +0000

I know, I fail at blogging. I'm the one that shouts at the blog team for not publishing anything, I publish weekly for a few months, then stop completely for a few more. I'm not going to fall into the trap of promising weekly content, instead I'm going to be realistic and sensible and say when I can, when I have something to talk about, I'll write one up.

So let's get to it!

I wanted to talk about something that I have always been a part of, always enjoyed, but up until recently never truly appreciated. The community here. The best thing about the station to me anyway, isn't necessarily the shows or the blogs, but the community that has been built here based around the geeks that we are.

It's amazing how little drama there has been. I mean honestly. Compared to the majority of websites out there, I've barely had to deal with anything in the forums, ventrilo or IRC at all. It's great. There are occasionally a few little petty arguments, and the odd banning, but it's never HUGE. It's never devastating, making the community split into groups or anything. It's been one or two people being silly, that's it.

That doesn't say nearly enough about it though. That's just saying "the community isn't crap". Which is true but doesn't really highlight the good parts! For the past month, every couple of days I've popped into ventrilo and asked if anyone is up for a game of League of Legends. And every single time -EVERY single time, someone has either said "Yeah sure" or "Yeah just gimme 5 minutes" then comes along and joins in. And I'm not even a good player, and that's well known. I can also assure you that it's not just me this is happening to. Yesterday, a long-lasting fan TheRock jumped into Ventrilo and started playing some LoL with us and he's completely new to the game, just jumped in and had a few games with us. The completely mixed skill range that is our group, from summoner level's 1 to long term 30's.

THAT is what's great about the community. Not just people are all willing to play together, but with new players, bad players, just so long as they are friends. Friends, you say, on an online community? You must be sad.

But no! It's not as if I'm a complete social recluse in real life, but I consider these people -some of whom I have known for 6 years now -my friends. Some of whom I've spent more time with than some real life friends -and family. 6 years is a long time.

People are still rising up randomly, taking the courage to drop into ventrilo and say hi to a bunch of strangers they don't know. Some people don't talk at first. Then slowly they get used to hearing everyone, and eventually do. We actually have inside jokes. How strange is that? I, the Scotsman, have inside jokes with Americans, Canadians, Australians, Norwegians, people from all around the world.

The best thing about VTW is definitely the community. Some of the best experiences I've had with games are with these people. Sure there's drama here and there, but we carry on.

Plus, there's nothing like being friends with the people you know are much better at you in a game -and they're on your team!

So far I've met one person from the internet in real life and enjoyed their company, and one day I'd love nothing more than to travel the world and shake the hands of the people I've spoken to for years.

Come along and take part in the fun that is the community, be it the forums, the ventrilo or the IRC during shows. You won't regret it.

Hope you all had a great Summer.

Ken's Guide to HDR Photography

GoheX — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:07:40 +0000

Hello photographers!

"Tutorial" is not quite the right word for this topic, since a tutorial teaches you how to do something in an algorithmic way. HDR however is completely based on your own opinions and creativity, so remember throughout; this is how I go about doing things, don't feel pressured to do it the exact same way. Feel free to mix things up, might have better results, or results you prefer over ones I do.

So, let's get started! This is going to be very basic, so feel free to skim read if you're a more advanced user.

HDR = High Dynamic Range.

There are two main categories of HDR photography that you'll need to be concerned about from the very beginning: Pseudo-HDR and Multiple Image HDR. Multiple Image HDR is the more commonly refered to type of HDR, but I tend to work with pseudo HDR. The difference between the two is quite simple: either taking ONE image, or taking more than one image, and combining them into a single shot during post-processing.

What you will need

-A camera capable of taking RAW format pictures (I think all SLR cameras are capable, and some others. Check your camera settings / guide to find out)
-Photomatrix Pro http://www.hdrsoft.com/download.html this costs $99 but is well worth it if you seriously want to try out HDR photography. Wouldn’t recommend the illegal route of getting this software, the company deserves what it worked for.
-Any other normal photo editing software you enjoy (Photoshop Lightroom is great, but Picasa and Windows Live Photo Gallery do me just fine)
-Somewhere to share your photography! I’d recommend two places, www.deviantart.com and if you’re a fan of VTW, http://media.vtwproductions.com/forum/index.php?board=21.0

You do NOT need a fancy top of the range computer / camera to do this. These ofcourse will help and make the process faster, smoother and more efficient, but not necessary.

Taking the Shot(s)

HDR is a hotly discussed topic within photography, many artists love it, many despise it and say it’s an amateur’s route. I believe that like all art, it has it’s place, and it’s completely up to you how to go about it. I’m still trying to find where HDR fits it with my photography, so feel free to experiment. I think the safest bets would be landscape, transport and street photography. You’ll get a feel for it.

So first off, you have to decide if you want to work with one or more images. Personally I work with one the majority of the time, since working with more than one requires a tripod for your camera to sit on, a remote control and ABS (Auto Bracketing System) within your camera, or for you to be good at changing exposure quickly yourself. “Pseudo” means “fake” by the way, which is almost true, I’d say pseudo-HDR is “artificial” as opposed to “fake”. So choose your shot, choose if you want to take one shot or more, it majorly depends on how still the shot is. If there are people moving, you will get an effect like this:

(QUICK TIP: Links above each image are in higher resolution, better quality.)

http://fc07.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/122/5/0/Light_Kills_the_Shades_by_GoheX.jpg

which to be honest I like, and is currently my 5th most popular photo in my gallery so can work in certain situations.

When taking the shot in RAW, you will most likely be working in the “manual” state of your camera. So be careful, read up on the different settings you will need to know about, e.g. aperture, AWB (Auto White Balance), exposure, etc. These WILL majorly affect your shots.

And remember, it’s trial and error when learning. Don’t just take 3 shots and assume it’ll do. Take tens, hundreds maybe, of the same shot to get it right. Eventually you’ll know your camera and settings better, but for now, you gotta push through all the “maybe” settings.

So in order to make this guide easier to understand, I decided to use an old RAW pseudo-capture I took last year. Here it is in it’s RAW glory:

http://img38.imageshack.us/img38/3674/img10202.jpg

Pretty crappy eh? Well, it’s in RAW format, so that’s the bare bones of the shot. However since it IS in RAW format, we can unlock more information saved. Load your image into Photomatrix pro. Behold the now HDR’d version. Basically photomatrix take the image, makes another two copies, one at a higher exposure one lower, then combines them, and this happens:

http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/3124/36538232.jpg

Already it looks alot more interesting. Not done yet though! Not even started processing it yet. So now is the second creative part, you get to play with the settings. So click on the image, press CTRL+T. Tone mapping will pop up, and load the last settings you used and plaster it over the current image. For example, here is what my previous settings were applied to this image:

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/216/59044700.jpg

Not quite what I want to go for! Doesn’t look bad mind you, but that’s just pot luck really. I want colour. So, fiddle with the effects. This is also trial and error and changes dramatically depending on the shot (metal has interesting effects, and it’s always both fun and a pain to get the light levels right if you have sky + ground in your shot. You’ll see!)

So after a bit of playing around, this is how it looked:

http://img191.imageshack.us/img191/3382/77939682.jpg

I think I’ll settle for that. So now that I’m finished with Photomatrix, I now press “OK” at the top, and it generates the complete image. Then hit “File”, “Save As” and remember to save it as a TIFF file! This is very important, JPEGs lose quality, and we don’t want to do that.

Open up the file wherever you saved it with your preferred editing software. Here I’m about to use Picasa:

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/4238/35493327.jpg

Then, when all is said and done and you’re happy with your tweaks, upload it somewhere and show it off! Critique will help you improve, so be sure to ask for it. Constructive criticism is better than “nice photo mannnn”.

And here is the finished photo here:

http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/119/2/9/Airthrey_Castle_Number_2_by_GoheX.jpg

Good luck! And if you like the look of this photo, ofcourse, feel free to give me criticism, respect, gifts and comments over on my deviantArt account: http://gohex.deviantart.com/gallery/?sort=popularity&catpath=/&q=

Thanks for reading!

Windows 8 to Support Xbox 360 Games!

GoheX — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 16:22:30 +0000

Source: http://www.insideris.com/more-xbox-360-games-on-windows-8-details/

So! Windows 8, Microsoft’s next big O.S. is to support our Xbox 360 games. Pretty interesting stuff, so I thought it would be a great little piece to discuss with you guys.

Why would Microsoft do this? Let’s take a step back. Microsoft, just like any other company’s main goal is to make money. To make money, your product has to make people happy. People hand over money in order to feel good. And by allowing Xbox 360 games to be played on the PC, this opens up more people for them to sell to (so people don’t need to buy an Xbox 360) and they have a step up compared to their biggest competitors (Nintendo, Sony) since they won’t (or more to the point, can’t) just let their games be playable on the PC, since Microsoft OWNS the most commonly used operating system for PCs! Pat on the back there Microsoft, your monopolizing strategy of one entire market is about to stretch into another.

And, ofcourse, this is great for the gamers too. Now people can stop moaning about Xbox’s being too expensive, and can just go out and buy the games just like the console kiddies players.

So much for PC gaming dying, huh internet?

Like I’ve been spouting for about a year now, technology is always shifting towards more efficient, more powerful, more utility. Devices are being built no longer towards one specific thing (gaming, word processing, recording audio, taking pictures) everything is being melded together into tiny little devices which do all the above. So, since computers already can do the job of a dedicated gaming console, it’s no surprise it’s more popular since it can also do an abundance of other things. Like word processing, recording audio, etc.

“BUT!” I hear you cry, “BUT THAT’S UNFAIR!”. No, it’s not, don’t worry. For the moment PC gamers will not be mixed with Xbox Live players, so you won’t get your asses handed to you in modern FPS’s by people using more efficient controls than you. Not yet, anyway.

And to be honest, the first thing I thought when I read about this was “Heyyyyy.... Why didn’t they do this in the past?” well now is the perfect time to do this. If they announced this alongside the release of the Xbox 360, then there would be no Xbox 360 sales! They’ve more or less realized that since their console is a whopping SIX years old (November 22, 2005 to be exact) there are more up to date gadgets to play with (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Vita ) and iPhone, so I doubt sales of Xbox 360’s will be any higher this year than last, but their games will be a massive source of revenue because of this fantastic decision.

This is quite unrelated, but last week I discussed Google+, and here’s a little update: Facebook have announced teaming up with Skype for group video chat on facebook. Oh, so that’s Google+ buggered I hear you say? No. Because Facebook group chats on Skype, at the moment anyway, are going to cost. Google+ will not. Article: http://techcrunch.com/2011/07/06/facebook-video-chat-google-hangouts/

Let's Look at Google.

GoheX — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 22:54:46 +0000

Google have been hard at work this year, releasing their Chromebook and now a whole new bunch of features for some of their more classic tools, and and completely new projects aswell.

Google have often been looked at as the new Microsoft, since they have such a ridiculous amount of power at their fingertips (your bank details, your search history, your personal details, etc) and because they’re so freaking rich. Being the number one looked at website (aswell as 14th, 20th, 21st, 25th, 26th, 30th.. you get the picture), Google have an incredible amount of power over the internet. Just like the many so-called WoW killers out there, Bing is sitting there on a puny 24th, when compared to the sheer billions more clicks per day google has -Google will be staying, for awhile.

And, to be completely honest, I welcome this great company. I have not seen one case of them misusing their complete dominion over the internet, but perhaps their power comes from people acknowledging the depths of their power, rather than having to abuse it. In any case, let’s look at some shiny new tools:

http://www.wdyl.com

This little piece is great fun. Released rather quietly, “What Do You Love” is google’s new master search engine, which incorporates all of their features into one page. So search for, say, Scotland. You’ll be shown a map of Scotland, offered YouTube videos in / about Scotland, see pictures of Scotland, measure Scotland trends on the internet, etc. Nice little tool, but whether it’s actually efficient and useful, only time will tell.

My next little piece of information which I found via Digg forewarns the world that Google may be entering the Gaming market, in particular, through social networking. I look forward to seeing what Google unveils, being pretty inventive in the past on many different creative mediums, gaming will be no doubt looked at from a new perspective with Google’s new project.

Google plus -I was recently informed of, and I have to say didn’t seem to offer enough new features to pull me, or in my opinion many other people, in. However now that I’ve played with the demo, I am looking forward to trying it out. Whether that be through the BETA invite program, or when it’s simply released to us commoners, it will surely be interesting. The idea of “circles” for grouping different sects of friends, workers, family together and posting status updates, photos etc through these is the biggest flaw with other social networking websites (coughfacebookcough) and a couple of interesting new features, like the awesome GUI and this new idea of “Sparks”, I think this could be a pull on even the most addicted farmville players.

And lastly in this article, check out the new look to Google calendar, google search and google docs, and probably many other google products. While I could post screenshots here, I will instead trust you to look yourself, as you should all have a google account by now. Google is trying, and succeeding, at covering all bases. Jumping in head first right now will be better for you in the future, with quicker invitations to BETAs and new features, and on many platforms (such as Cydia for jailbroken iPhones) a google account is required to pay for transactions. In any case, Google are going for polish right now with all their products, improving the look aswell as attempting to add some simple intuitive features and buttons which weren’t quite so obvious beforehand.

See you all next week, be sure to tune into Show X this Sunday, for a special show with myself and Wayne, and possibly, a different than usual Todd.

Top 10 Lists Draw Attention!

GoheX — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 16:31:13 +0000

You know, I have a million and one things to talk about here, but the difficult thing is talking about something that is interesting to people other than just myself. So after much thought and consideration of my current hobbies, interests and past times, I decided to share with you not just one thing I find interesting, but many things. The websites I have found to be useful, helpful, interesting, and take up my time.

10 Useful Websites You Should Know About.

1) www.convertfiles.com

Self explained title really, but it’s a very useful website. Nevermind googling “mp4 to mpeg” or “mp3 to m4a” for some shareware with an annoying trial date that you’ll eventually just uninstall and find an alternative trial software -use this free online tool instead. Done.

2) www.fyels.com

Interesting way of spelling “Files”, but store up to 9gig free online there -for free. Welcome to the cloud.

3) www.visionwidget.com/showcase/product/395-desktop-customize.html

Bored of your normal desktop? That’ll sort you out. No longer will you be stuck with generic OS look -have a shiney looking, even 3D, interface.

4) www.swapaskill.com

You know craigslist? Well, this is the same thing. Except forget money, this is all about trading your skills. Guitarist? Photographer? Podcaster? Good at lifting heavy things? Painter? Trade your skill for someone elses. And make a friend while you’re at it.

5) www.allmyapps.com/instant-setup

All the applications and general setup software you’ll need for your freshly formatted computer. Or you can use this site for finding alternatives to your current software.

6) www.stumbleupon.com

Just to prove to you how awesome this site is, I used it to find the first 5 websites. You can find the most incredibly interesting websites on the internet within this one discovery engine (like a search engine, but more random!)

7) http://www.dropsend.com/

Send up to 2gig large files. I recently used this for sending large emails consisting of all the recorded lectures for my last semester to some friends to listen to. Pretty handy.

8) http://www.dropbox.com/

Imagine having a folder on your desktop. Except, it’s the same folder on all the computers you want. Same files within it. Not only that but you can access this folder on a public computer via your browser. Well, this is that. Enjoy 2gb free storage space.

9) http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/downloads/date/any/

Interfacelift is a website dedicated to awesome photography and digital art, for your wallpaper. Very high res stuff, and many of the images are made for native displays (meaning can fit perfectly onto your iPhone aswell as your laptop!)

10) http://www.last.fm/home

I want to give you guys a mix of links here, and so I thought this would be an appropriate end of list kind of thing. Make an account, pay if you want, don’t if you don’t, and enjoy music related to a specific “tag”. This tag can be an artist, a genre, an album, whatever -it will find similar music and help you increase your music taste! Great for finding new music, terrible for listening to preset stuff. Just like the radio, a bit more personalized.

I always encourage bloggers to put a picture in to allow readers to have some pretty colours to look at, and since I don't have any copyright free images to link related to the above links, here is some self promotion:

Check us out Sundays 2pm EST / 7pm GMT: Show X with Todd & Ken

Initial Thoughts on iPad

GoheX — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 22:47:59 +0000

There's a pun in the title. Worked it out? I'm typing this on an iPad. Not an iPad 2 sadly but an iPad nonetheless. For weeks now I have been swithering whether to buy the new iPad 2 or to wait and see the tablet market open up a bit more, or to not buy it at all. Before I let you into my current thoughts, let's travel through my thought patterns for the past few weeks, and the different arguments that have risen and fallen concerning where an iPad fits into someone's life, and whether it's worth the -to be frank -mountainous price it's currently set at.

So I never quite understood what the exact need for an iPad is or exactly where the appeal for it came from. But since it was a shiny new piece of tech that people seemed pretty excited about, I became interested and curious to try it out; so I began researching. What I found increased my drive to try one for myself: good specs, gorgeous screen, incredibly resistant to general wear and tear (as you'd expect with a touch screen) and still I didn't quite get it. I mean, it's suppose to be the medium between the laptop and the smartphone. More portable than the average laptop and more powerful (particularly graphically) than the smartphone. You could also surf the web, watch HD movies, connect via WiFi or 3G depending on which version you purchase.

And what probably made this understanding both more difficult to grasp at first and later more obvious, is it's so damn similar to my iPhone. Just a big iPhone which can do the majority of the same features. Don't get me wrong I love my iPhone, but what the heck is the point in this new gadget? As you can guess, I was getting pretty frustrated -if so many people were buying, ranting and raving about tablets, why wasn't it instantly obvious where this fits in the life of the average person?

But the truth is the iPad is very subtle in it's capturing of people's interests. It does not have obvious features that a smartphone flashes, it has hundreds -thousands, even, of smaller and incredibly useful features that make it hard to put down. It is difficult to capture exactly what it is that makes the iPad appealing. Many people I know, both technology orientated and people from disciplines other than computing science, believe that the iPad is pointless, gimmicky and unnecessary. And yes, they are right with the latter two arguments. The iPad is gimmicky, after all it is made by apple, a brand name that people love to hate and hate to love. The iPad is unnecessary -no doubt! But it makes life easier and more enjoyable, just like smart phones, electric toothbrushes and ready meals. Bit of a stretched metaphor but I hope you get my point, every single one of us loves efficiency and extending less effort. And an iPad is a damn good attempt to not having to bring both your laptop which will need a power point and your smartphone onto the train with you for that long journey.

The iPad is an immalgimation of the smart phone and the laptop but it doesn't replace them, not yet anyway. The iPad is an entertainment device more than anything, but ranges over many genres of entertainment (watching films, TV series, reading books and comics, writing blogs and code, creating and listening to music etc.) And this might fit into gimmicky, but it's a freaking damn cool piece of hardware. It feels powerful and like something from the future, something that is ahead of it's time -take that as a pro or a con if you wish, but regardless let me remind you. I am greatly enjoying the iPad I am typing on just now. The iPad 2 is more powerful and less bulky, also has some additional features like front facing and back camera.

My conclusion is thus (don't you always feel smarter writing the word thus?): the iPad will fit perfectly into your life if you're the kind of person who loves your smart phone and enjoys social networking and communicating with friends and people across the Internet. If you still have an old phone and don't see the need for a new one, yeah, don't bother with an iPad.

If you have the cash for it and you think you might be interested -borrow your friend's! See if it's for you. And hopefully after a few more days with this one I'll see if it wears on me or if I still use it like I used to use my smartphone.

Dvorak vs QWERTY Keyboard.

GoheX — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:01:21 +0000

The QWERTY layout, the culprit who to this day causes injury to tens of thousands of people and only exists because people prefer the norm and cant be bothered changing!

But don’t get me wrong! I am incredibly sympathetic to that general malaise of lazyness and stubborn refusal to change. Trust me. I am typing this at approximately 8 words per minute, down from my normal maximum of 120wpm (yes I tested that one). I am typing 15 times slower than normal. So why on earth would I change away from 120wpm to a mere 8 you ask?

The Dvorak keyboard, unlike it’s elderly ancestor Mr QWERTY, isn’t designed for people using a typewriter. That’s right -your average run-of-the-mill keyboard is not even made for computers. You’d have thought that during the popularization of the personal computer, that they’d ship with Dvorak layout instead then -but no, too many people were used to typing with qwerty even by then, and ofcourse companies are more interested in ensuring sales than drastically improving the world’s efficiency.

But they have a point. You can’t expect the world to change to something that is a bit more efficient, when some people have been typing on qwerty keyboards for tens of years. I have been typing for about 12 years now, and I can tell you, the change is damn hard. Impossible, infact, for companies that require work to be done quickly. Just not worth the 1month+ time to adjust to the change, that would bankrupt companies, and not only that but do you really think society will accept having to spend effort, time and money on something that doesn’t need replaced, but could do with it? No. You can trust me on that one too, when I announced my conversion of facebook, and politely explained that it’s more efficient to people -they turned around and seemed almost angry -annoyed at the idea of change. People are lazy. They won’t learn something new if it can be helped.

Which is why, this is the perfect time for me. I write a weekly blog, and type alot inbetween, and my University term is just over. I will hopefully have this new keyboard down within a few weeks, I now more or less know where all the keys are now after a few days -I don’t have to look, just concentrate very hard on where each character is. Learning this new layout requires patience.

Now, let’s have a look at this Dvorak layout!

Funky huh? Even punctuation has changed. There’s a reason for that specific layout, now let me give you some insight. You’ll see A, E, I, O & U are all within reach of your left hand in the “home” position (the middle row) and your right hand is over the keys that would be your second choice when playing hangman. This change makes sense, now almost all the keys you use 70% or so of the time (thanks for that statistic wiki!) are in your fingers should be at rest, so less distance to travel, so faster typing. Much better than the current random sprawl. Also this layout makes sure you don’t have too many weird combinations. For example, on a QWERTY keyboard, the word “Goddess” is typed almost completely with your left hand -this is inefficient, slows you down dramatically, but wouldn’t happen on a Dvorak keyboard.

But, once again, there are drawbacks to the new layout. Some games (Emphasis on the word some!) are linked to the QWERTY layout. For example, Portal 2 didn’t recognize the change i made, and I was very much confused when attempting to play with “, AOE” instead of “WASD”. But Crysis 2 picked up the change, and required no fiddling which was alright, so some programs will cater for the dvorak layout, some won’t but most are customizable so that’s more of an inconvenience than a game-breaker. However, the majority of windows native programs have the same hotkeys embedded into them. Non jargon version: things like copy and paste are no longer easy button presses, but more of a challenge than right clicking and hitting copy! Pretty annoying, and according to some time spent googling, something that won’t be changing in a hurry.

So you have to way up your pros and cons!

Pros of Dvorak:

-Faster typing in the end.
-”Better” for you -apparently less likely to develop injuries.
-Letters are generally typed different hands each stroke, improving speed and apparently reducing error!
-Interesting topic started, and also stops people who aren’t Dvorak converts from touching your lovely machine!

Cons:

-Many default hotkeys won’t work on dvorak -e.g. copy paste & cut.
-Many public keyboards will use QWERTY and not allow the user to change the settings.
-Some games require customization in order to work.
-Takes a long time to learn, for new users and QWERTY users alike.

Final Thoughts

I think dvorak is a great system for people who work in an industry with lots of typing involved, or just prefer a more optimised layout. However there will never be a complete turnover as people hate change and people are lazy.

On that happy note enjoy the next week of your summer!

Discussing Creativity & Why Photography is an Art Form.

GoheX — Mon, 16 May 2011 21:58:41 +0000

What is Art? Well, no matter how long I sit here arguing what I think art is, I’ll only ever succeed at that: explaining what I think of as art. So by that logic, art is what you think it is. Art to you, is not what art is to me. Not completely anyway. Some people tell me art is showing creativity in any format. But I argue art doesn’t require creativity, which is why nature is sometimes beautiful. To me art is being able to appreciate the way something looks. Appreciate, not like.

There’s a difference between appreciating and liking something. If you like a piece of art: great! Liking it implies you appreciate it too. But you can appreciate something without liking it, for example, I look at any piece of anime or manga and I instantly dislike it. Just not my thing, and perhaps I haven’t looked enough into it, but I can appreciate it for having it’s own unique style and being well drawn by animators. But I won’t look at it if I can help it.

I've also heard the argument that art must bring human emotion to surface. But I disagree, yes good art should be able to do that, but that doesn't mean art is necessarily bad if you only have a slightly pleasant sensation when looking at a great, but boring, picture. In the same sense that just because a piece of art is incredibly violent and brings up great amounts of emotion, doesn't make it "better". It certainly is achieving the artist's original goal though.

So that’s art. Creativity is what humans (usually) use to create art. Not always, I’m sure there are people out there who have made art by accident. But most of the time, when you create art, it’s through being creative. You are following a specific path in your mind. The human mind is incapable of creating something “at random”, the best we can do is pick something out of our current thoughts. Our brains are too configured for pattern matching, we can’t actually generate “new” ideas, only compare, link and store new things gathered from our senses.

When you think of an artist drawing or painting, they are always following something. Whether it be their perception of a real life item near them that they’re concentrating on, or something they’re developing from memory. And thankfully we can’t draw or paint perfectly, making traditional art a great way of adding a “random” element!

But what’s an art form then? Well if art is what you think it is, then an art form can be anything! Anything at all. From music, to dancing, to painting, the way someone walks or brushes their hair. Even computer programming contains alot of creativity. It too can be gorgeous, have a brilliant flow and show a beautiful understanding of logic.

So, since photography can be appreciated it’s an art form. True. But how come some photographs are better than others? How can you have a claim over a photo, when you’re simply “collecting images” of the real art?

You might not know it, but photographer’s cameras aren’t simple point and click disposable £2 kodak cameras. On just the device itself, you have to control:

-ISO speed
-Choice of automatic exposure bracketing
-Flash exposure compensation
-White balance
-Aperture
-Shutter speed
-Depth of Field
-Lens choice
-Flash choice & settings
-Manual focus / automatic focus
-Filters

Among many other more advanced workings of a camera, those are some semi-basic settings and things to worry about. Nevermind what your actual shot is going to be of! What I’m trying to emphasize here is that a photographer has a massive influence over what the shot is going to look like, even before post-editing begins. You’ve also got to work out what angle to take the shot from, things that might screw it up (e.g. weather, sunlight, reflection from your own flash), and ofcourse whether you like what you see or not. Or, more correctly, if you appreciate it or not.

Then, there’s post editing. There are mixed views on it, but to me I see it as almost a form of digital art pressing upon photography itself. Photo-manipulation is at the most edited side of the scale, but I prefer to work with some basic edits -for example changing the warmth and tones of colours, the contrast levels, sharpess. I also enjoy using some more advanced techniques such as HDR. This technique blends several photos taken within a few seconds of each other into one highly editable piece. Many people don’t believe in editing, and say it’s pointless, and only used by people who can’t take photos in the first place. It’s not pointless, as I’m about to prove by example, and yes quite often people do use it to cover up mistakes, but a true masterpiece has to be improved upon, not repaired.

Non HDR piece (Link from wikipedia):

HDR(Link from wikipedia):

If you’re interested in looking further into HDR photography, here’s a tutorial guide: http://abduzeedo.com/how-create-hdr-photos-hdrphotomatix-tutorial

If you want to see more examples of HDR photography, you can google it or check out my own photography gallery: http://gohex.deviantart.com/gallery/

Till next week!
-Note: Yes, this was released on Monday 16th, but due for Thursday 19th. Thursday will still be the normal due date for blogs.

Google Enters..

GoheX — Thu, 12 May 2011 10:11:35 +0000

Funny how just a few weeks ago I had the oppertunity to do an entire 4000 word essay on the topic I chose to do today, but didn’t, because a few weeks ago, this interesting piece of hardware hadn’t been unveiled!

Allow me to introduce you to yet another “is it worth buying” piece of kit, the Chromebook:

No, it’s not just a laptop. This little piece of hardware is a netbook with the operating system known as “Google Chrome OS”. This operating system is linux based, and in it’s core is the ability to process and work with web documents in a more superior way than general multi-tasking computers.

Is there a place in this world of combining technologies for something so specialized? Well, yes. Yes there is. I don’t think anyone can complain about having an 8 second boot time. Plus, don’t think of it as being limited by being web-based. Think of it as opening a door to the future. I say this at an appropriate moment, as I type this into Google docs. Meaning this little bit of hardware can still be used as a media computer (watching videos, listening to music), for work (writing up presentations or code) etc. Though don’t expect to start playing Crysis 2 on it.

So, a completely new OS! Interesting thought huh. Not windows. Not mac. Not linux. Not iOS. Something shiny! What does it look like you ask? Well, this isn’t 100%, but here’s what an earlier version of this operating system looked like at the log in screen:

As to whether they’ll stick to that we’ll see, but it’s grabbed my attention.

It doesn’t need to be attached to the internet. No, it will still work without it, can still be used to work offline with documents and media etc, but ofcourse in the same way your iPhone or Android works without signal. Something of an empty shell.

Chromebook will be released by two different companies, each with two different versions. Acer & Samsung, both will be working on their own versions of Chromebook, The Samsung Chromebook will have a gorgeous 12.1 inch screen with 1200x800 resolution, where as the Acer will have an 11.6 inch screen. Both versions will have an HD webcam and two 2.0 USB ports. Samsung will have a mini VGA out and the acer an HDMI out. (Thanks wiki!)

And similar to the iPad’s different versions of release, you can get the 3G+WiFi version, or just the plain old WiFi version. Depending on your needs you can choose to save some money by going for the latter or going all out with the former. But the way I see it is if you’re going to be handing out wods of cash (yes, wods, that measurement) you may aswell go fo the whole package and sign up for a 3G plan. But, if you only plan to use it on the train to work which has WiFi, then ofcourse whatever suits you best.

Apps! The new shiny way of saying “software!”. There will be many, many apps for the Chromebook (including YouTube, AIM & Angry Birds from the looks of things!) which according to Google: “many apps keep working even in those rare moments when you’re not connected.”

The chromebook has essentially poured petrol over the old argument of cloud computing. Essentially the concept of cloud computing is that we won’t store much data client side (as in on your laptop, computer etc) and instead save it on the internet. People have been saying we’re many years away from that, there are too many security issues, and it would be too costly. But you already have seen many examples of cloud computing -yes, I’m talking to you steam users. And PSN+ subscribers. Saving your games on “the cloud” means you can log in to someone elses machine and continue playing where you left off on your own. Neat eh?

So, we’ll have to wait and see how this does. It might crash and burn, due to a lack of true connectivity (I mean really? 3G coverage isn’t 100%) but with some offline capabilities you should be able to continue on with any important work without being greatly affected during downtime.

But to me, it looks like a stepping stone towards our phone watches that we can remotely control our entire household with! I’ll just keep my eyes set on the iPad 2 for now. Maybe after a Summer of working I can afford to treat myself to some new tech goodness.

NOTE:

I am up with Docdead tomorrow, which is bound to be fun. Keep an eye on my twitter to stay updated, who knows, maybe you bloggers will get some secret VTW meetup content next week.

Being Two Faced.

GoheX — Thu, 05 May 2011 05:19:04 +0000

Being “two faced” comes with a variety of perceptions. It has always been seen in different lights but to me it’s a good, and normal thing. But it depends on the definition of the phrase: To some it means pretending you like person x, then complaining about person x to person y. To others, two faced means you change your personality and the way you act depending on who you are around.

In the same way people saying “you should never hit kids”, “violence is wrong”, this is generally dependant on the situation. If your child just hurt his baby brother and is laughing, your child deserves to be hit. I’m not saying bloody his nose, I’m saying make sure he is familiar with the same feeling he just caused another human being. Negative reinforcement is needed in bringing up a child. A child should always be punished when he does wrong, and rewarded when he does right. “Violence is wrong”? No. Violence is a tool. Else the army and the police wouldn’t ever enforce law and regulation, and would instead protest peacefully outside drug dens. Osama Bin Laden would still be walking around alive today. There is nothing wrong with the tool itself, more what it’s used for, and that is a completely different moral debate.

What I’m getting at, is being two faced is a social phenomenon I’m sure we all adhere to. When speaking to your Mother, you would not speak the same as to your best friend, or coworker. To me, being two-faced simply means you act differently around different people. I know I do it. I don’t think I consciously do it, it’s more the persona you slip into when you become comfortable with people, you begin to learn more about their personality, what quirks and jokes they enjoy, and you bend towards that. You act more in that way to please them, and to enjoy yourself more. Not a bad thing, just how we work as humans. “Being yourself” often means showing different parts of yourself to different people, “two faced” is another way of phrasing it.

You are one person, but with so many different things going on in your mind you will rarely act the same from one conversation to another, never-mind person to person! So many things factor into what you think, how you act, whether it be the weather or other people’s attitudes towards you that day. You change daily, you grow and adapt to your social environment. It’s not as if you’re pretending to be different, not as if you’re trying to be someone else -it’s just the human mind is so complex that it isn’t satisfied with being the same in any social situation. Over your entire life you learn what works better in certain circumstances and what doesn’t; you’ll (hopefully) have learned that crying and having a tantrum doesn’t work past age 5. If you haven’t learned that, you will soon, or you will be taught to act better by others negative reinforcement. They’ll ignore you, and you will get lonely, and you will learn.

Society is a horrible and beautiful thing. It is cruel to the people who don’t “fit in” and “aren’t normal”. But the truth is, the people on the opposite end of the spectrum are rewarded for being different and not normal. It’s not so simple ofcourse, as it never is. People who are boring will always be in the middle, not disliked or overly liked. People who you enjoy being around will compliment your own personality in a certain way, whether it having similar tastes in humour or understanding and surprising each other in pleasant ways. To put it simply, the people you like you’ll find interesting, and will enjoy being around them.

The way I see it is often the problem with boring people is they are always the same. They don’t surprise you, you can -after some time -almost predict their emotional reaction to your chat. Maybe these people aren’t two-faced enough. They are stuck in their ways which they know people will not dislike but will never respond really well with either. Neutral, gray, boring. Emotions are part of us for many reasons, for survival instincts (anger, rage, love, pretty obvious the main reasons for them) but also for socialising. If you’re a dull near-emotionless person you’ll also be boring to be around. I recently watched Stephen Fry’s “The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive”. Sounds very saddening, but if you didn’t already know, “Manic Depression” is another term for bipolar. Which is the radical change between extreme highs and lows. Almost every person in the video said they would not ask to be normal, because they enjoyed the highs and lows too much. It’s interesting. There’s a reason so many celebrities are bipolar -their highs are very entertaining, and the drama from their low’s is interesting.

Going away from the norm is always intriguing, regardless of the outcome. Interesting is always more fun than sticking to the safe zone. That’s why drama is such a good topic of debate, it’s pretty standard that people are drawn to drama: whether it be a fight happening nearby, or a relationship beginning or ending where it is unexpected (between friends, coworkers etc). Drama is fun. Imagine how boring society would be if everyone stuck to the norm, relationships were as they were “supposed” to be 60 years ago. There’s a reason one-night stands and affairs exist. Just so much more interesting and fun than the norm.

I used to go by the principle that drama was bad. I hated it. But in the same way competition can’t be hated just because someone has to lose, drama can’t be hated because someone might get hurt. Sometimes you have to stand back and laugh at your situation, take the view of an outsider and realize how ridiculous things are sometimes, and enjoy it.

Footnote

I knew Stephen Fry would somehow leak into this post. I knew it. That’s what I get for listening to all his Harry Potter audiobooks and watching his TV series this week. Ach well (yes, Scottish “ach” noise), he is awesome. Highly recommend watching that TV series, very interesting insights.Thanks for reading, hope you all have a great week.