I am always startled to see something out of context, it evokes a strong reaction in me. Putting a child's potty in the livingroom might be accepted with ease, an adult's urinal in a public place is embarrassing and outrageously out of place (done with artistic intent). Some artist are committed to shock art. Architecture can be shocking when "that building" is placed in the context of other buildings. Is it a centerpiece, a catalyst for change, an eyesore or the proverbial sore thumb? It was a progressive idea, an engineering marvel whose meaning and purpose is lost in the eye of the beholders. Quick, someone call the PR and the news station we need to educate the people (until there is a collective sigh). We need spin, we need spin here!!!
OK, get a grip. Where would car performance be without drag racing, road racing, stock-car racing. I grew up dreaming of George Barris custom cars, he made luxury in cars standard. Today even trucks are well appointed. Many times in design there is a fore-runner, one who dares to break free, bend the rules and explode the square or cube in our case. Tell me when folks start putting trees in the home as house plants, huh. Or when did folks start converting garages and basements into comfortable living spaces. I am tempted to convert my garage into a personal gym because I got the space and the community gyms are too expensive, crowded and a sanitary hazard.
In my old neighborhood they got all upset when prefabs started being brought onto the street. They were the same size as the stick built homes and sat on full basements (because the building commission required it to limit prefabs on slabs).
These prefabs were factory built, some of the features were cut back to fit module production, but really nice and really, really livable. But the big advantage was the cost was cheaper and finishing faster for the owner. To this day I gasp when I see a stick house being built. I go "What, no panelized construction, no finished house section on a truck??" They bought from the first little piggy, I bet.
There is a design gap where it is not profitable at all. Well moneyed folks never had a problem. People who are tight buy and take what they can get, whatever. The group with improvement aspirations are full of high demands and empty promises. They can not afford the ritz and don't want the grits. I know this is true, when you see the houses on my old street you'd agree. The lots are tiny and shallow for the big houses and while they are dramatic inside, height can't make up for useful space. What is useful space? That is the space between the floor and the furthest reach of your fingers. Oh, I just love high ceilings! Is that an echo? echo? echo? Please don't speak up I can hear myself think, several times. Slightly lower profile, yet same useful space, fewer building materials and a tad larger lot makes comfort dollars for a family is well spent.
Radical design in my old neighborhood was there, two log homes, both nice. There was also the two built by a foreign builder, both with attached garages and one with the entry over the garage so that a curved stone stairway ascends up. Man, that's got to be awkward and it looks weird. Now we know what not to do. In my thinking, radical means not conventional. Factory built homes are not conventional, they would be if we thought of replacing existing energy and maintenance hog housing stock with efficient, sustainable homes. We are vexed with two thoughts, a house must exist for at least 100 years and be paid for by the time we die. We console ourselves by saying "it's a classic", Paul Revere would be happy here". I saw beaming at exclaiming "it's a century house" and cursing "it's bankrupting me with upkeep cost." "I can't keep this up and pay it off too!. I am Paul's great great grandson, I need to keep it in the family."
I think the container home is practical but add some other kinds of structure so that others can have at the cheap boxes too, and we can have variety of form. Imagine a street full of stacked boxes, doesn't look like homes. Looks too cold, austere, modern. I'd go for a warmer contemporary look by adding some curved forms. As far as prefabs go I'd find a way to repro the container form so that features can be added to facilitate modular building and finishing. Then, you can buy new container like box or convert actual cargo containers. We have the technology, we already make mobile homes and prefab houses, not much diff? The factory becomes a necessity with the volume of the need. As long as the homes are high-end homes demand will be low. Start replacing mid to lower range homes in existing hoods, you will have to build more home factories.
If homes were more autonomous and self sufficient we wouldn't have to stack and huddle them to share resources. Space between homes and neighbors is fine with me. What's a little tree between me and thee? It's a park and your house is not blocking the sun from the east. Oh, did you suffer the misfortunes of unsubsidized rent and unregulated utilities when ones more fortunate can know mother nature's got their back? No, mine is against the wall, the wall is cold, the shadow of your satellite dish buffets me. Ah, yes, reception is sweet yet I feel for your plight. Take this Pringle can antenna, tap my network to watch PCTV till my cable comes...........and if it's well with you, perhaps you can buy cable too. Yes, and bread we can break for lunch, perhaps a fast break on yonder b-ball court. Is that a challenge? Me thinks you wish revenge. No, my intent is fair and neighborly, but if pink slips is your wager, I'd pass for a bat to deal swiftly with your dish. What if I win my roguish neighbor? Why you get to keep your precious dish, of course, till I find another challenge and spare me the Pringle can. Hey, I try to recycle when I can.
Thursday, March 04, 2010
the serendipity of simplicity - combitechture
Oh man, it can't be that simple!! It just can't be! Oh but it is! I watched the movie, "Eddie and the Cruisers 1 and 2". Eddie was a driven rock-n-roll dreamer looking for a pure sound that would sustain itself and resonate forever in your heart and be memorable. I had to laugh when Rick Diesel who flaunting his technical skill and manual dexterity was told to take his ego tainted music and stuff it. The music is not for you, it's for them, Eddie told them all. Many hot shot musicians have been bridled and told to slow down and actually play the music they are playing. Listen, feel the spaces, the silences as well as the sounds. Oh, you like the head banging wall of sound do ya! I can't help you.
You think this doesn't happen in other disciplines? We barely survived the eye candy wars when the best desktop was the one that mimicked Fantasia. Hey you must buy our video card and added memory just to power our user interface desktop effects. Desktop interfaces are quite workable today Gnome and KDE are pleasant, Macs and Windows 7 is nice also. A good looking and responding desktop is of great and lasting value and as an added feature some adjustments to tweak the look and feel for a more edgy and personalized outcome.
One of my latest pre-occupations is thinking about cargo shipping containers converted into homes. I think many of the designs are fine but..........."I am trying to exhaust the square in my work", artist kind of thing is going on. It is like the government regulating corn crops by insisting on a certain strain of corn because it is scientifically the best. Mono-culture thinking says only use this stuff.
The cargo homes today are mostly cubes, stacked cubes. We are still getting over cubical living in the office why do we think living in cubes are fresh and modern? So many designers would take one or two cargo units to make shelter for poor or disaster stricken folks, that is fine. Then they will double those same units, stack them in a different way, add glass and covered walkways and call it a custom luxury house. We are cargo home designers, we just use cargo containers.
I guess I am sort of a idea integrator sort of guy. I was in love with quonset huts, geodesic domes and grain silos as soon as I saw them, and now cargo containers. I see no reason not to mix them for variety and interesting living spaces. My view goes like this. The forms or shapes are simply appealing similar to basic shapes of art (sphere, cube, cone, cylinder). Then the parts are larger, each piece encloses more space. (Try that with a brick.) Fewer pieces means probably more economic per square foot. Then the possibility of round corners without loosing valuable floor space. Yeah, you could do the Frank Gehry thing, (no offense Frank!) but I am talking about homes for the neighborhood not a statement of wild imagination meets architectural accomplishment. Exploding the box is like fishing with dynamite sticks. It's exciting but I can't hear and I'm eating fish chunks. Then the one size sits all, ticky-tack, change the color, reverse the design, development formula doesn't do it either.
If the envelope is restricted (50 x 150ft city lot) and the resources are bordering on not sustainable and not green (wood products, plastic products, steel products) and the finances are limited (wage loss, tight banks), you don't want to flaunt. I get riled to see well heeled folks "buy up" cargo containers to build cheap palaces of stacked cubicles, replacing container doors with floor to ceiling glass, the mark of architectural wealth and adding cantilevered walkway covers. Two folks and a dog living in a 3000-4000 square foot cargo container palace stack while struggling folk buy cast-off second-hand regular homes of the old standard technology. I keep hearing a guy on TV, "don't waste your money!"
The thoughtful design of balanced choices, homey curb appeal with upgrade possibilities, durable and good value for the buck for both buyer and bank. Perhaps steel quonset structures and grain silos and geodesic domes could add flavor to our quick and easy cubic living. But blend them into each other and change them. Do Boolean addition.
My mantra, you are not advanced until technology is pushed down into the strata of average people. Cellphones and cars are cheap advancement, homes don't change for 50 or more years, they are always behind the times. We practically live in the past. It's ironic, we buy more and more cellphones and cars and now we want to live in the boxes they are shipped in. Then we don't want to change the boxes because it's cool and sheik (rhymes with "geek"), quick and easy. We are too lazy to really be creative in domestic architecture saying the quonsets are for ww2 vets, silos for farmers and geodesics for hippies and now cargo containers for the shipwrecked and the hip. We consume and have discovered the box it all comes in. We aren't a square people, no, we are cubic baby, 3D!
My thought playground will help you see a little differently, take note please:
I want to go inside!
The rooster roof or mohawk roof.
The day the earth stood still!
You think this doesn't happen in other disciplines? We barely survived the eye candy wars when the best desktop was the one that mimicked Fantasia. Hey you must buy our video card and added memory just to power our user interface desktop effects. Desktop interfaces are quite workable today Gnome and KDE are pleasant, Macs and Windows 7 is nice also. A good looking and responding desktop is of great and lasting value and as an added feature some adjustments to tweak the look and feel for a more edgy and personalized outcome.
One of my latest pre-occupations is thinking about cargo shipping containers converted into homes. I think many of the designs are fine but..........."I am trying to exhaust the square in my work", artist kind of thing is going on. It is like the government regulating corn crops by insisting on a certain strain of corn because it is scientifically the best. Mono-culture thinking says only use this stuff.
The cargo homes today are mostly cubes, stacked cubes. We are still getting over cubical living in the office why do we think living in cubes are fresh and modern? So many designers would take one or two cargo units to make shelter for poor or disaster stricken folks, that is fine. Then they will double those same units, stack them in a different way, add glass and covered walkways and call it a custom luxury house. We are cargo home designers, we just use cargo containers.
I guess I am sort of a idea integrator sort of guy. I was in love with quonset huts, geodesic domes and grain silos as soon as I saw them, and now cargo containers. I see no reason not to mix them for variety and interesting living spaces. My view goes like this. The forms or shapes are simply appealing similar to basic shapes of art (sphere, cube, cone, cylinder). Then the parts are larger, each piece encloses more space. (Try that with a brick.) Fewer pieces means probably more economic per square foot. Then the possibility of round corners without loosing valuable floor space. Yeah, you could do the Frank Gehry thing, (no offense Frank!) but I am talking about homes for the neighborhood not a statement of wild imagination meets architectural accomplishment. Exploding the box is like fishing with dynamite sticks. It's exciting but I can't hear and I'm eating fish chunks. Then the one size sits all, ticky-tack, change the color, reverse the design, development formula doesn't do it either.
If the envelope is restricted (50 x 150ft city lot) and the resources are bordering on not sustainable and not green (wood products, plastic products, steel products) and the finances are limited (wage loss, tight banks), you don't want to flaunt. I get riled to see well heeled folks "buy up" cargo containers to build cheap palaces of stacked cubicles, replacing container doors with floor to ceiling glass, the mark of architectural wealth and adding cantilevered walkway covers. Two folks and a dog living in a 3000-4000 square foot cargo container palace stack while struggling folk buy cast-off second-hand regular homes of the old standard technology. I keep hearing a guy on TV, "don't waste your money!"
The thoughtful design of balanced choices, homey curb appeal with upgrade possibilities, durable and good value for the buck for both buyer and bank. Perhaps steel quonset structures and grain silos and geodesic domes could add flavor to our quick and easy cubic living. But blend them into each other and change them. Do Boolean addition.
My mantra, you are not advanced until technology is pushed down into the strata of average people. Cellphones and cars are cheap advancement, homes don't change for 50 or more years, they are always behind the times. We practically live in the past. It's ironic, we buy more and more cellphones and cars and now we want to live in the boxes they are shipped in. Then we don't want to change the boxes because it's cool and sheik (rhymes with "geek"), quick and easy. We are too lazy to really be creative in domestic architecture saying the quonsets are for ww2 vets, silos for farmers and geodesics for hippies and now cargo containers for the shipwrecked and the hip. We consume and have discovered the box it all comes in. We aren't a square people, no, we are cubic baby, 3D!
My thought playground will help you see a little differently, take note please:
I want to go inside! 
The rooster roof or mohawk roof. 
The day the earth stood still! 
This last house has 1st floor containers, 2nd floor silo.
Yeah, I know, corny but cool.
I'm just giving you enough for you to get in trouble. In 3D, with some landscaping, etc, etc, etc; it will be different for you.
You can even add a pitched roof if you must, I myself would like to see something different and more useful. You can add the stuff to preserve life and space in the box, Dropped ceilings to hide mechanicals and/or raised floors, spray-on insulation paint and thin thermal blankets/thermo barriers from NASA spin-off products. You can add solar panels, skylights, etc.
It is not the fanciness of form or fineness of materials, just what's a tad short of the cutting edge, the sweet-spot nobody wants to admit to. Now that you have the basics, go get Frank G. and fly.
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
a nerd cluster of homies for business
One thing you can do in Linux that I have yet to see with other operating systems is the ease to link computers together to work as a bigger computer. It is called a cluster. We've done it with humans for years and it works sort of OK. I have always marveled at the word "think tank" and have wanted to be a part of something like that. Governments and institutions are good at clustering, nerds are not because we are free radicals, but can you imagine the power of a nerd cluster?? Linux was born from this kind nerd clustering, look at Ubuntu Linux. It is quite an orchestrated effort to converge and whittle down all the scattered talents, motives and views into a process to pursue a focused goal and carry it out.
Call the cluster what you want, a think tank, a focus group, a small business, support group or homies. The idea is that no one man can wear all the hats, see all the angles and do all the work. You need others with the same goal and also support people, staff. We have made it more than difficult to start a small business with our laws, regulations and requirements. And because of our idolizing the individual, we have to waste too much time going at it alone. The hardest thing in the world is to find a like minded person, then the both of us surrender a portion of our "I am the show" to collaborate. It is exasperating to prepare all through schooling as an individual, be pressed to individual achievement, accomplishment and expectation only to surrender to a team effort. Ever wonder why kids in sports fair better than others in business, a team is a cluster. Sports add the clustering dimension to schooling.
Where would the sports star be without the other team members sitting on the bench? If he messes up, some crazed spectator might pick up the bench and whack him with it. Guys on the bench keeps this from happening, ha ha!
What I am looking for is some folks who want to form a design cluster. I am interested in interior design concepts, decor, artwork, home design but I am not a interior designer or architect or a drafter in those fields. I sort of dabble with ideas and that is the excitement. To collaborate on some projects would be very cool.
So there it is, I am an individual who wants to cluster. A nerd cluster of homies for business in the direction of my interest.
Call the cluster what you want, a think tank, a focus group, a small business, support group or homies. The idea is that no one man can wear all the hats, see all the angles and do all the work. You need others with the same goal and also support people, staff. We have made it more than difficult to start a small business with our laws, regulations and requirements. And because of our idolizing the individual, we have to waste too much time going at it alone. The hardest thing in the world is to find a like minded person, then the both of us surrender a portion of our "I am the show" to collaborate. It is exasperating to prepare all through schooling as an individual, be pressed to individual achievement, accomplishment and expectation only to surrender to a team effort. Ever wonder why kids in sports fair better than others in business, a team is a cluster. Sports add the clustering dimension to schooling.
Where would the sports star be without the other team members sitting on the bench? If he messes up, some crazed spectator might pick up the bench and whack him with it. Guys on the bench keeps this from happening, ha ha!
What I am looking for is some folks who want to form a design cluster. I am interested in interior design concepts, decor, artwork, home design but I am not a interior designer or architect or a drafter in those fields. I sort of dabble with ideas and that is the excitement. To collaborate on some projects would be very cool.
So there it is, I am an individual who wants to cluster. A nerd cluster of homies for business in the direction of my interest.
Monday, March 01, 2010
iNerd
"I'm not a nerd, you're the nerd! You with your white shirt and slide rule and thick black spooky looking glasses. And you can't explain things without going into detail. Oh everybody is normal except you, you nerdy dude." They spin on their heels, nose up in the air and in a fluid motion whip out the iPod and the iPhone and become oblivious to the world around them, iTexting and iBopping and iYaking. "Yo, dude, you get my text?.........." "Actually my shirt is gray and it's a pen in my pocket and my glasses are pewter, PEWTER! and that's profiling and you can't even see yourself!", I yell back in a fuss.
I cross the street to almost get hit by a guy staring intently at his GPS instead of DRIVING HIS CAR. I turn into a building, the elevator, then a room with people sitting in a ring. I am motioned to speak and calm down to deliver, "Hello, My name is Arno and iNerd!
Ah, the techno life is with us all. I'm not here because I have a nerd ailment, but because the ones who don't admit to nerd like behavior are giving me nightmares.
I am awake, I touch things, see things and am deeply interested in stuff and I am always tripping over nerd zombies. Think your not a nerd? Nerds are the result of fact filled education and the regurgitation test regimen. "Hey man I don't speak in strings of facts!" No, you just speak because you must, having content is just something added if you actually had it on your mind. It has become the way you express yourself. If you had a beat behind it, you'd go off and lay down your rap.
What ever we do as nerds, we like to hear ourselves, see ourselves or get into stuff with the caveat, "Don't interrupt me when I am in my world!", "Don't touch me when I am in the zone." You know I like basketball, but when Michael Jordan goes into slow motion...........I walk into Office Max to make a purchase, whip out my credit card to make a killer buy, time slows and the world rotoscopes to a different angle and even the guy in the back of the store grins and nods as I make the slide. I leave the store beaming and when I get home I do the online survey to re-live the experience, all the while the imagined sound of cheering crowds fill my mind. Arno, snap out of it!
I'm glad we don't wear cartoon voice bubbles so that others can see what we think or say. I would be embarrassed, you would hit or kill me. I would close my eyes so I wouldn't hate you. You would say over and over, "Man, shut up!"
Of course most cover their propensity for being nerdy by saying they are savvy. Hey man, what's savvy? What's saaaaavvvvvy?
Don't blame me, I am compelled to tell the condition we all live in, after all iBlog.
I cross the street to almost get hit by a guy staring intently at his GPS instead of DRIVING HIS CAR. I turn into a building, the elevator, then a room with people sitting in a ring. I am motioned to speak and calm down to deliver, "Hello, My name is Arno and iNerd!
Ah, the techno life is with us all. I'm not here because I have a nerd ailment, but because the ones who don't admit to nerd like behavior are giving me nightmares.
I am awake, I touch things, see things and am deeply interested in stuff and I am always tripping over nerd zombies. Think your not a nerd? Nerds are the result of fact filled education and the regurgitation test regimen. "Hey man I don't speak in strings of facts!" No, you just speak because you must, having content is just something added if you actually had it on your mind. It has become the way you express yourself. If you had a beat behind it, you'd go off and lay down your rap.
What ever we do as nerds, we like to hear ourselves, see ourselves or get into stuff with the caveat, "Don't interrupt me when I am in my world!", "Don't touch me when I am in the zone." You know I like basketball, but when Michael Jordan goes into slow motion...........I walk into Office Max to make a purchase, whip out my credit card to make a killer buy, time slows and the world rotoscopes to a different angle and even the guy in the back of the store grins and nods as I make the slide. I leave the store beaming and when I get home I do the online survey to re-live the experience, all the while the imagined sound of cheering crowds fill my mind. Arno, snap out of it!
I'm glad we don't wear cartoon voice bubbles so that others can see what we think or say. I would be embarrassed, you would hit or kill me. I would close my eyes so I wouldn't hate you. You would say over and over, "Man, shut up!"
Of course most cover their propensity for being nerdy by saying they are savvy. Hey man, what's savvy? What's saaaaavvvvvy?
Don't blame me, I am compelled to tell the condition we all live in, after all iBlog.
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Attention all Nerds, America needs you!
We have relied on and trusted in the fruits of our institutionalized way of life. Our leadership in the arts and sciences has dwindled not because of lack of talent, but because we preemptively channel our talented into prescribed narrow views. Then we play up the canned culture as the holy grail of development and civilization.
Meanwhile, off the grid, in the bedrooms, basement workshops, garages and on kitchen tables, folks who diddle and dabble and tinker and toy are having great unacknowledged dreams. They see what's going on and say "I would have done it differently and done it better." Yes, this is the reason there are nerds and geeks.
Over seas folks have been using decommissioned shipping containers as building components for several years. When they started to be converted into homes here, you'd think innovative thinking would be the rule. Basically what I've seen so far is boxes, pretty and pretty ugly boxes. We have called this ultra-modern. I have also seen container homes indistinguishable from the homes that can be seen on any street. Can you folks be more boring? I'm both broke and not an architect but in the open source spirit I'm going to inject some life into this party.
Add some Quonset hut slices to your shipping containers for variety of clear span space, architectural interest, yet concise form. Here are a couple of ideas you can kick around:
Ah yes, the geodesic is quite respectable on top of a container square, a livable attic with no wasted space. Quick, get your pencil while your mind is racing. All your schooling didn't prepare you for this moment, you had to get it from a guy who knows less than you. You think your rocking now, wait till ideas wake you up in the middle of the night!! And you can thank me later!
Many, many good ideas come to people not able to actuate them, because of lack of education, money, credentials, etc. We are so twisted that we "only" respect the properly trained and grant them honor and privilege and status, even if the only original thought they have is taking a breath.
So, among the vast urban wilderness there are scattered uncultured and uncivilized multi-talented and highly intelligent yet mis-educated people. Who because they have no credentials are deemed less. Hail to the ones who master a single avenue and darned be the jack of all trades who is obviously the master of none. We moved from a milk nation to a beer nation. The cream of milk is worthy, the froth of beer is just bubbles.
And by the way, no Microsoft products were used in making the above artwork.
Meanwhile, off the grid, in the bedrooms, basement workshops, garages and on kitchen tables, folks who diddle and dabble and tinker and toy are having great unacknowledged dreams. They see what's going on and say "I would have done it differently and done it better." Yes, this is the reason there are nerds and geeks.
Over seas folks have been using decommissioned shipping containers as building components for several years. When they started to be converted into homes here, you'd think innovative thinking would be the rule. Basically what I've seen so far is boxes, pretty and pretty ugly boxes. We have called this ultra-modern. I have also seen container homes indistinguishable from the homes that can be seen on any street. Can you folks be more boring? I'm both broke and not an architect but in the open source spirit I'm going to inject some life into this party.
Add some Quonset hut slices to your shipping containers for variety of clear span space, architectural interest, yet concise form. Here are a couple of ideas you can kick around:
See how the quonsets and the containers compliment each other. The cool thing is that quonsets are wide open space with lots of design possibilities. Steel farm building components should be a no-brainer for us in Ohio, we just don't associate steel buildings with homes, except steel studs and garages. These are designed with a 50 x 150 city lot in mind.
Ah yes, the geodesic is quite respectable on top of a container square, a livable attic with no wasted space. Quick, get your pencil while your mind is racing. All your schooling didn't prepare you for this moment, you had to get it from a guy who knows less than you. You think your rocking now, wait till ideas wake you up in the middle of the night!! And you can thank me later!
Many, many good ideas come to people not able to actuate them, because of lack of education, money, credentials, etc. We are so twisted that we "only" respect the properly trained and grant them honor and privilege and status, even if the only original thought they have is taking a breath.
So, among the vast urban wilderness there are scattered uncultured and uncivilized multi-talented and highly intelligent yet mis-educated people. Who because they have no credentials are deemed less. Hail to the ones who master a single avenue and darned be the jack of all trades who is obviously the master of none. We moved from a milk nation to a beer nation. The cream of milk is worthy, the froth of beer is just bubbles.
And by the way, no Microsoft products were used in making the above artwork.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Nerding, the art and science of it.
The need to nerd comes a couple of ways, an epiphany that requires immediate attention, something dawns on you and weighs on your mind, or you doodle and dabble and it becomes apparent you have a knack for this thing you always gravitate to. Artist usually start like this and if you or others notice they might push you to acquire the science (skills and techniques) in order to apply it all. We call this channeled to get a job. It is good to get paid but the initial calling to art is more transparent than practical. I know because once you get the skills to apply it in specific ways, you strive to bring your unique signature to the forefront.
Consider the Japanese way of training under a master, coping stroke for stroke. Over time you are so related to the spirit of the master, but the twist is that a new flavor emerges, an extension, a going farther. John Coltrane was my jazz hero, his son Ravi can continue on and/or go off in other directions. I hear his father, the father and the son and the son by himself. I listen to other jazz musicians play Coltrane songs, I hear Coltrane's phrasing and I hear the unique expressions of those other jazz musicians also.
Nerding is the process, the obsession, to make the skills and techniques second nature so that they follow you, not you follow them. Maybe you can apply this in other things but artist have been nerding long before the computer. And a lot of us try to have a certain personna to perpetuate and extend the nerding experience. We dress a bit odd or out of step or lack some social graces or drop out of sight for a time. When we emerge we are ahead of our time or behind the time or have no concept of time. I am annoyed at the physical world and people with blank stares and thrilled when folks say, "now that's cool!" I can say, "I nerded and this is the result."
Most of the time we get to do repetitive processes at a job because it serves clients and customers. We don't often do the whole show, just our part. The artist applies nerding to converge all the training, skills, techniques and resources into the project. With every part able to go in any direction, it can be hard to narrow the view down. I say this because I didn't have a master to channel me till I was established. I was exposed to many artist and kinds of art so that I had to feel my way through to discover what I liked and was destined to do. My prejudices are always before me and I am always finding the thing I felt strange about is the thing that describes me. It gets me because I would have done it differently in that same genre. That is the madness that drives the artist. It is like emulating a singer to sound like them and every time you sing it it sounds more like you, yet the original voice is in your head. I can't tell you how many times I was scatting a tune, embellishing it way beyond the original, in the shower, at my computer.
We keep nerding to build machines to play the sounds we hear and paint in the colors we see in our head. In the old days artist would find rich patrons to support them so that they could nerdle unhindered. Most of the time I can nerdle an hour here and there. Once in a while I get so into the nerd realm I have withdrawl symptoms when I surface to do family stuff. "Arno, where you been?" "Please don't ask me to explain, I couldn't tell you in a short sentence."
What do you do in that computer room, you don't play games and your not working a job? I try to get the ideas in my head onto the screen, then realize them in print or sculpture or a building or a..........want ta see?
Consider the Japanese way of training under a master, coping stroke for stroke. Over time you are so related to the spirit of the master, but the twist is that a new flavor emerges, an extension, a going farther. John Coltrane was my jazz hero, his son Ravi can continue on and/or go off in other directions. I hear his father, the father and the son and the son by himself. I listen to other jazz musicians play Coltrane songs, I hear Coltrane's phrasing and I hear the unique expressions of those other jazz musicians also.
Nerding is the process, the obsession, to make the skills and techniques second nature so that they follow you, not you follow them. Maybe you can apply this in other things but artist have been nerding long before the computer. And a lot of us try to have a certain personna to perpetuate and extend the nerding experience. We dress a bit odd or out of step or lack some social graces or drop out of sight for a time. When we emerge we are ahead of our time or behind the time or have no concept of time. I am annoyed at the physical world and people with blank stares and thrilled when folks say, "now that's cool!" I can say, "I nerded and this is the result."
Most of the time we get to do repetitive processes at a job because it serves clients and customers. We don't often do the whole show, just our part. The artist applies nerding to converge all the training, skills, techniques and resources into the project. With every part able to go in any direction, it can be hard to narrow the view down. I say this because I didn't have a master to channel me till I was established. I was exposed to many artist and kinds of art so that I had to feel my way through to discover what I liked and was destined to do. My prejudices are always before me and I am always finding the thing I felt strange about is the thing that describes me. It gets me because I would have done it differently in that same genre. That is the madness that drives the artist. It is like emulating a singer to sound like them and every time you sing it it sounds more like you, yet the original voice is in your head. I can't tell you how many times I was scatting a tune, embellishing it way beyond the original, in the shower, at my computer.
We keep nerding to build machines to play the sounds we hear and paint in the colors we see in our head. In the old days artist would find rich patrons to support them so that they could nerdle unhindered. Most of the time I can nerdle an hour here and there. Once in a while I get so into the nerd realm I have withdrawl symptoms when I surface to do family stuff. "Arno, where you been?" "Please don't ask me to explain, I couldn't tell you in a short sentence."
What do you do in that computer room, you don't play games and your not working a job? I try to get the ideas in my head onto the screen, then realize them in print or sculpture or a building or a..........want ta see?
mr. rno, put down the spatchla, come out the kitchen
Every once in a while I get to cook, like when the wife is dysfunctional or out. Of course I cook what I know and risk only when I have explicit instructions (from the misses).
This brings me to my two pet software peeves, graphics software reviews and wait and see users. 99% of the graphics software reviews are probably read right off the box. I can't tell you how much the lack of real experience keeps you asking the "which is the best graphics app to use?" question rolling in your head. It is frustrating to see site after site quoting the same line. Cut and Paste reviews should be banned!! I think many savvy reporters refuse to type the disclaimer "I am not getting paid for endorsing this product". Wait, what endorsement? This is not about reporting turned into paid advertisement, it's about trying out the stuff and honestly saying cool or not cool or maybe cool. Or maybe reviewers are just slinging names around because if they actually took time to try it, they wouldn't have time to report on it.
Peeve number too, wait and see users, waiting to see what cut and paste reviewers are saying, looking for any new information. I guess the shear volume of cut and pasted reviews means this stuff is popular enough to check out. I'm having a flashback of the cartoon AristoCats, where the mouse has to rally some cats to rescue other cats from the cat napping butler. The mouse was lunch until he said "O'Malley!"
Us users all know name drop reporting is lacking in substance. We want to tap the keyboard, squeeze the mouse and see what it look like. Then we want the how-to and the play by play, the replay, the man in the computer room.
Wait, the room is quite, he picks up the digital pen and makes his move, the click is barely heard above the PC's hum. On the screen it forms with ease and in his mind the theme from the Airwolf TV show is playing. It's just a box but the feeling of power at the click of the pen. Slide click, slide click, beads of sweat form around the pen, he adjusts his grip, tries to relax, but can't his vision is appearing right before his eyes. The lights blink, it's the washing machine downstairs overloaded but thinks his software's power is responsible. He is immersed, totally and rapturously nerdified. He'll blog later, right now all he can say is "wow man, you should have been there!"
This brings me to my two pet software peeves, graphics software reviews and wait and see users. 99% of the graphics software reviews are probably read right off the box. I can't tell you how much the lack of real experience keeps you asking the "which is the best graphics app to use?" question rolling in your head. It is frustrating to see site after site quoting the same line. Cut and Paste reviews should be banned!! I think many savvy reporters refuse to type the disclaimer "I am not getting paid for endorsing this product". Wait, what endorsement? This is not about reporting turned into paid advertisement, it's about trying out the stuff and honestly saying cool or not cool or maybe cool. Or maybe reviewers are just slinging names around because if they actually took time to try it, they wouldn't have time to report on it.
Peeve number too, wait and see users, waiting to see what cut and paste reviewers are saying, looking for any new information. I guess the shear volume of cut and pasted reviews means this stuff is popular enough to check out. I'm having a flashback of the cartoon AristoCats, where the mouse has to rally some cats to rescue other cats from the cat napping butler. The mouse was lunch until he said "O'Malley!"
Us users all know name drop reporting is lacking in substance. We want to tap the keyboard, squeeze the mouse and see what it look like. Then we want the how-to and the play by play, the replay, the man in the computer room.
Wait, the room is quite, he picks up the digital pen and makes his move, the click is barely heard above the PC's hum. On the screen it forms with ease and in his mind the theme from the Airwolf TV show is playing. It's just a box but the feeling of power at the click of the pen. Slide click, slide click, beads of sweat form around the pen, he adjusts his grip, tries to relax, but can't his vision is appearing right before his eyes. The lights blink, it's the washing machine downstairs overloaded but thinks his software's power is responsible. He is immersed, totally and rapturously nerdified. He'll blog later, right now all he can say is "wow man, you should have been there!"
Friday, February 26, 2010
mr. rno, a little fries wid that ketchup!
You walk into the Linuxville guide office, the aroma of french fries wafts past your nose. It's a new manly sports party scent by Glade, ha ha! Also comes in pizza, chicken wing and nacho scents too.
I am caught up in the Linux graphics applications, mainly because they are free open source programs, but also because they are pretty darn good. GIMP is a wonderful app and the worst thing I heard about it is the multiple windows for tools and the drawing area. Here is how I get around the complaint:
You see the tool windows covering the drawing window. I have it so that if you double click the window heading bars, they roll up like a shade and out of the way, yet still accessible. It looks like this:
The Linux desktop, Gnome in this case, is very flexible. So I want all you die-hard pixel-heads to de-res a little, let the desktop work for you. I hear a single windowed GIMP is in the works, I hope it is better. Some like a static never changing interface. I like options I can set and save. The config file has long been a Linux standard. I am surprised that the GIMP config is not an applet like what Tux Paint has. It would be cool to have several custom configs to change GIMP from a photo mangler to a draw and paint slinger or to match Photoshop or not, at will.
As you can guess, I try to avoid using the mainstream graphics applications that run only on Microsoft, but there are times when a little Wine gets you through the night. I do have a lite version of Photoshop which runs well in Wine. I tell myself that learning the Photoshop interface is a good thing. When and if I turn pro, that is, work at a job that requires Photoshop, I will at least be familiar and may not have to purchase it myself. I don't have to hold my breath though, there is Pixel. Pixel will probably be the Photoshop alternative that runs on Linux. It is not free and it does not require a personal loan to purchase. I have a trial version, it is so cool:
Do the Google search and check it out. I have not used it much yet so I can't speak for it. I think it is OK for Linux to have some applications which you pay for. Many high-end graphics applications that run in Linux are like this, like Maya. Pixel is reasonably priced and compared to Photoshop is cheap.
The real problem is that I can't use them all, get good at them all, hands-on time is required. I divide my time between job hunting, family and nerding. If you can do the time, you'll be fine. I am finding the limitations of using open source software is mostly about others using other things (so-called pro-ware). A lot of vocal folks do not actually spend the time to really use open source. Their bags are packed, why unpack to put it in new bags? The new bag, paper, plastic, rich Corinthian leather, whatever it is worth, you need to go where few dudes or dudettes have gone before, to Linuxville.
I am caught up in the Linux graphics applications, mainly because they are free open source programs, but also because they are pretty darn good. GIMP is a wonderful app and the worst thing I heard about it is the multiple windows for tools and the drawing area. Here is how I get around the complaint:
The Linux desktop, Gnome in this case, is very flexible. So I want all you die-hard pixel-heads to de-res a little, let the desktop work for you. I hear a single windowed GIMP is in the works, I hope it is better. Some like a static never changing interface. I like options I can set and save. The config file has long been a Linux standard. I am surprised that the GIMP config is not an applet like what Tux Paint has. It would be cool to have several custom configs to change GIMP from a photo mangler to a draw and paint slinger or to match Photoshop or not, at will.
As you can guess, I try to avoid using the mainstream graphics applications that run only on Microsoft, but there are times when a little Wine gets you through the night. I do have a lite version of Photoshop which runs well in Wine. I tell myself that learning the Photoshop interface is a good thing. When and if I turn pro, that is, work at a job that requires Photoshop, I will at least be familiar and may not have to purchase it myself. I don't have to hold my breath though, there is Pixel. Pixel will probably be the Photoshop alternative that runs on Linux. It is not free and it does not require a personal loan to purchase. I have a trial version, it is so cool:
Do the Google search and check it out. I have not used it much yet so I can't speak for it. I think it is OK for Linux to have some applications which you pay for. Many high-end graphics applications that run in Linux are like this, like Maya. Pixel is reasonably priced and compared to Photoshop is cheap.
The real problem is that I can't use them all, get good at them all, hands-on time is required. I divide my time between job hunting, family and nerding. If you can do the time, you'll be fine. I am finding the limitations of using open source software is mostly about others using other things (so-called pro-ware). A lot of vocal folks do not actually spend the time to really use open source. Their bags are packed, why unpack to put it in new bags? The new bag, paper, plastic, rich Corinthian leather, whatever it is worth, you need to go where few dudes or dudettes have gone before, to Linuxville.
Friday, February 19, 2010
mr. rno, you want fries with that?
I've just devised a temporary fix to the XP dilemma, I installed it on a 8gig drive and I also have a 1.2 gig drive in there. I got XP running but I can't load it up with apps, there's no room. I did put Google's Sketchup 7 on it. I am telling you if you want to model some sculpture, a building, whatever and get a good idea of space relationships, proportion, composition, etc; then Sketchup is "da bomb!" You can stack boxes or detail the heck out of a model. Of course there is a pro version of Sketchup that will let you get all photo-realistic and all. But Sketchup is another one of those apps that runs on Mac and MS but not Linux. It makes me mad! This is why you need two computers, a MS and a Linux , then you can do the Samba to share files and folders on your network and play with platform specific applications and this is why I never get good at anything. Too much fun looking around.
I did look at a Linux app that is similar to Solid Edge, a parametric 3D modelling program. Parametric is another way of saying it is vector in 3 dimensions. So you can draw tiny and scale it up large and not change the proportions. The program is called "FreeCad" and it is still in the early stage of development, yet is workable enough to play with. From the looks of it so far you can make shapes similar to how you can in Sketchup but because it is a drafting app, you have more control to model your part. It has promise because it is based on an engineering platform called Open Cascade. Open Cascade is a fancy high-end engineering drawing engine and library, probably has roots in Unix. In any case, the potential is great, it only needs a sea of users to play with it and give a flood of feedback to the developers. So all you users who wish for Linux engineering software need to step up, be interested in the development cycle.
Another wonderful app is Sweet Home3D, it is open source and Java, so it runs on Mac, MS and Linux. So Sketchup needs to catchup in this respect. This could be the thing to get descent design software on the Linux platform, Java. Gee Google, if you had written Sketchup in Java, then you wouldn't need a Mac version and a MS version or resist my urging for a Linux version. The cool thing about Sweet Home 3D is that it says interior design but it is more that that. I do not think the present documentation says all what you can do here. Parts can be modeled in other softwares and imported in to use in Sweet Home 3D.
Here's my home work assignment to you. The intent is to clear the fog in your 3D adventures. First spreadsheet the names of all the apps you use or are bound to use and then all the formats they can import from and export too. Then notice the symbiont relationships. If it is easier to make stuff in one app and export/import to/from another, this is very cool. If there are conversion apps that convert from one format to another, that also is a plus. Sweet Home 3D has the potential to do a little more than just interior design.
One thing is true, if you want to get good enough to be impressive using graphic software, you have to sacrifice. Somebody goes "hey dude, check out this and check out that", you have got to curve your killer app appetite, dedicate time to getting your chops down on what's before you. There are far too many applications to know them all. It's human nature, once you learn, say Blender, you'll tell everyone the learning curve is not so steep. You spent the time to learn the ways of the force. This is why I get so irked when folks tell me, "you can do that in Blender real easy". Yeah, if you know Blender!! Anyway, Sweet Home 3D will export to Blender if you want photo-real rendering and also to Art of Illusion, another Java app, which has rendering capability. I know, I know, Blender, Art of Illusion, I gotta learn them too!? Yes, you have to, but at your discretion, you may find something more useful for yourself.
This is why there are nerds and geeks. They are a class of people who are not instant know-it-alls with photographic memories and total recall. They manage to cut themselves off from everyday life to immerse themselves into every knook and granny of their chosen fixation. Some find jobs at this stuff, some are so deep they will won't be happy till Ella sings (is it real or Memorex?). Me there is the teleporter and the holodeck and the flux Y capacitor.
I did look at a Linux app that is similar to Solid Edge, a parametric 3D modelling program. Parametric is another way of saying it is vector in 3 dimensions. So you can draw tiny and scale it up large and not change the proportions. The program is called "FreeCad" and it is still in the early stage of development, yet is workable enough to play with. From the looks of it so far you can make shapes similar to how you can in Sketchup but because it is a drafting app, you have more control to model your part. It has promise because it is based on an engineering platform called Open Cascade. Open Cascade is a fancy high-end engineering drawing engine and library, probably has roots in Unix. In any case, the potential is great, it only needs a sea of users to play with it and give a flood of feedback to the developers. So all you users who wish for Linux engineering software need to step up, be interested in the development cycle.
Another wonderful app is Sweet Home3D, it is open source and Java, so it runs on Mac, MS and Linux. So Sketchup needs to catchup in this respect. This could be the thing to get descent design software on the Linux platform, Java. Gee Google, if you had written Sketchup in Java, then you wouldn't need a Mac version and a MS version or resist my urging for a Linux version. The cool thing about Sweet Home 3D is that it says interior design but it is more that that. I do not think the present documentation says all what you can do here. Parts can be modeled in other softwares and imported in to use in Sweet Home 3D.
Here's my home work assignment to you. The intent is to clear the fog in your 3D adventures. First spreadsheet the names of all the apps you use or are bound to use and then all the formats they can import from and export too. Then notice the symbiont relationships. If it is easier to make stuff in one app and export/import to/from another, this is very cool. If there are conversion apps that convert from one format to another, that also is a plus. Sweet Home 3D has the potential to do a little more than just interior design.
One thing is true, if you want to get good enough to be impressive using graphic software, you have to sacrifice. Somebody goes "hey dude, check out this and check out that", you have got to curve your killer app appetite, dedicate time to getting your chops down on what's before you. There are far too many applications to know them all. It's human nature, once you learn, say Blender, you'll tell everyone the learning curve is not so steep. You spent the time to learn the ways of the force. This is why I get so irked when folks tell me, "you can do that in Blender real easy". Yeah, if you know Blender!! Anyway, Sweet Home 3D will export to Blender if you want photo-real rendering and also to Art of Illusion, another Java app, which has rendering capability. I know, I know, Blender, Art of Illusion, I gotta learn them too!? Yes, you have to, but at your discretion, you may find something more useful for yourself.
This is why there are nerds and geeks. They are a class of people who are not instant know-it-alls with photographic memories and total recall. They manage to cut themselves off from everyday life to immerse themselves into every knook and granny of their chosen fixation. Some find jobs at this stuff, some are so deep they will won't be happy till Ella sings (is it real or Memorex?). Me there is the teleporter and the holodeck and the flux Y capacitor.
Sunday, February 07, 2010
whoa mr. rno, you need help with that.
The furnace is fixed, bad motor bearings, burnt armature, weak capacitor. Good to have friends in the HVAC business, comforting and reasonable. I am experiencing heat with a whisper instead of clank, grind and rumble. One down, the hard drives will have to wait for now.
I was looking at shipping container homes, they are amazing. The shipping container is.......imagine a solid truss (8 ft to 9.6 ft high I beam), it has a top and bottom rail and the corrugated panel between them, then use 4 of them to form a box and seal the ends. This is all Corten steel made to withstand harsh sea travel. If you cut holes for windows and doors or remove a side for a clear span opening you have to add steel to reinforce the rails to return the strength. Welders will be back in vogue, we in Lorain had ship building at one time. They use a plasma torch, ooh! that sounds so high tech. The altered box can be finished in high tech or conventional materials. So you can get the industrial look or the California/Florida look or the homespun Ohio look if you want. What you build doesn't have to be square or cubic and with a little finesse, you can leverage a quite interesting living space even on a 50 x 150 foot city lot. Since the major part of the structure is pre-built, you can spend the rest of the cash on finishing. I would not look for cheaper over all cost but for the same cost a higher quality and more aesthetically appealing space. You could put $200,000 design in a $100,000 house.
Most of the so-called modern home designs I've seen on the net are boxes and flat planes jetting out all over the place. Having a city lot with restricted space and views I am going with the traditional box with a twist. I am opting for a flat roof on which I can perch a quonset or a geodesic. The building codes won't allow a dome home but might stretch for a dome roof. Man! that's what I call an attic!
It is so simple, we have a cargo container square which we can alter any number of ways and the clear span of the dome sitting on the flat roof which can also be altered any number of ways. It looks simple and is basically a hybrid design. Just add a widow's walk railing and a deck on the side which doubles as a carport and hmmmmmm.......The garage would have a similar treatment only a quonset on the roof for a studio. I know the city architectural review board will try to "Colonial-ize" or "Greek temple-ize" this design.
Getting back to designing in Linux, I was looking for 3d models of shipping containers. There are a few if you look hard, but mostly they are for sale. The price is smaller if you are serious about modeling with these structures, freebies are rare, after all it's just a reinforced box. I thought modelers were a strange lot, some model every bolt and weld seam. That's too much detail or too many vectors to crunch moving around a 3d scene or rendering. I am looking for somewhere between photo-realistic and a cartoon. My needs are simple.
The thing is you don't need pro-ware to visualize a concept and nail it down to where an architect can "get it". I'm am using my trusty Gimp and Inkscape for now and am starting to explore Cycas Cad 3D. I am imagining what kind of art can I put in a space like this.
I was looking at shipping container homes, they are amazing. The shipping container is.......imagine a solid truss (8 ft to 9.6 ft high I beam), it has a top and bottom rail and the corrugated panel between them, then use 4 of them to form a box and seal the ends. This is all Corten steel made to withstand harsh sea travel. If you cut holes for windows and doors or remove a side for a clear span opening you have to add steel to reinforce the rails to return the strength. Welders will be back in vogue, we in Lorain had ship building at one time. They use a plasma torch, ooh! that sounds so high tech. The altered box can be finished in high tech or conventional materials. So you can get the industrial look or the California/Florida look or the homespun Ohio look if you want. What you build doesn't have to be square or cubic and with a little finesse, you can leverage a quite interesting living space even on a 50 x 150 foot city lot. Since the major part of the structure is pre-built, you can spend the rest of the cash on finishing. I would not look for cheaper over all cost but for the same cost a higher quality and more aesthetically appealing space. You could put $200,000 design in a $100,000 house.
Most of the so-called modern home designs I've seen on the net are boxes and flat planes jetting out all over the place. Having a city lot with restricted space and views I am going with the traditional box with a twist. I am opting for a flat roof on which I can perch a quonset or a geodesic. The building codes won't allow a dome home but might stretch for a dome roof. Man! that's what I call an attic!
Getting back to designing in Linux, I was looking for 3d models of shipping containers. There are a few if you look hard, but mostly they are for sale. The price is smaller if you are serious about modeling with these structures, freebies are rare, after all it's just a reinforced box. I thought modelers were a strange lot, some model every bolt and weld seam. That's too much detail or too many vectors to crunch moving around a 3d scene or rendering. I am looking for somewhere between photo-realistic and a cartoon. My needs are simple.
The thing is you don't need pro-ware to visualize a concept and nail it down to where an architect can "get it". I'm am using my trusty Gimp and Inkscape for now and am starting to explore Cycas Cad 3D. I am imagining what kind of art can I put in a space like this.
Thursday, February 04, 2010
well mr. rno, there's bad news and good news!
Ah yes, the Linuxville Guide office was caught off guard today. I've been trying to install XP on my second machine. XP can run several graphics programs I want to use for interior design modeling that Linux doesn't have. I kept getting a master boot record error. I tried every tool I had MS and Linux, finally I gave up on XP and proceeded to re-install Linux. The hard drive died along with the fan on the furnace. The two are not related but it made the lost more intense. Oh well, the furnace comes first, I guess. That's the bad news.
The good news is I did discover a gem of a Linux in the process. The Linux I was installing was DreamLinux 3.5. Let me tell you something about Linux distributions, with every new revision usually comes new features and better operation and snappier looks. When I first saw DreamLinux it was cool but clunky compared to what's available now. It uses XFCE desktop just like Xubuntu and it is Debian (Lenny) but not Ubuntu based. Many of the necessary add-ons are included already and the installation methods are tweaked to perfection. DreamLinux will also allow you to re-master a version of itself of your design to a fresh CD or jump drive.
So, the plan is to replace the furnace motor, and get two hard drives for my second PC. One that XP and DreamLinux will share and one for my "home" partition. Did I tell you, DreamLinux asked me during installation if I wanted to designate one drive as my "home" folder, that alone is awesome. This is cool if your operating system or hard drive gets hosed, your personal data is still intact and accessible.
If you are a dreamer like me you have to be careful reality doesn't take you by surprise, you could turn into a DIY person over night. Once you get a project in your head, sleep is hard, eating and dressing is meaningless. Every meal is lunch and a jumpsuit, slippers and bathrobe is business attire. Work on the "project" becomes a seamless reality and when interrupted by practical chores "Mr. Grumpy" emerges. Mr. Grumpy can't discern between a temporary stoppage and a cease and desist order. Mr. Grumpy unless your defusing a bomb, relax.
The tizzy that got me is cargo container homes. As I am a victim of a faulty education system I'm not an architect or a engineer but being who I am, I know great design logic when I see it. Modular construction of Corten steel modules into anything from a bus shelter to a highrise apartment building is really incredible. I am not nuts, I saw videos of Bob Vila explaining the conversion. What you want to know is what has that got to do with Linux. If you got an idea and you want to nail it down or model it in 3d, you have to have the software to do it. Linux does not have many efficient, easy to learn 3d software packages. Blender is more geared for animation graphics and learning it is a job in itself. You can model in Blender, you just have to be good with Blender. I was looking at architectural cad. Why? Because when a software is targeted for a particular process, the intended audience wants features and work flows that make their job easier. I found two, Octree and Cycas Cad. I think Cycas Cad is more what I want.
Please don't tell me to try MS stuff in Wine, most of the plentiful MS platform software for this type of 3d work is poorly written. They have poor quality graphics, are resource pigs, run way too slow as a virtual machine and are not free. Cycas Cad has a Public version which is free, a Student version and a Professional version, the cost are very reasonable.
But in the wild, AutoCad is the standard and this one and that one that all runs on MS. Most Linux engineering software is top shelf and pricey for an individual. The problem with open source and low cost applications in Linux is that people want to make money with them but don't want to develop them, time is money. If you want to have Linuxware in your budget bracket, you must help by using them. Via the user base is how things get done in Linuxville. GIMP would not be what it is if it didn't have a user base. The user base gives the developers feedback and adds useful stuff like tutorials, models, scripts, documentation, etc.
It is easier for folks to be fanatic about Blender, man if I could do Avatar movie like graphics! The professional architectural and engineering folks usually don't have time to play. Hey, we value our play time highly and digital entertainments overshadows more serious pursuits and for many is a lucrative market.
For any generation who threatens to change the world by viewing it differently, you have to contend with pre-existing conditions. In the built environment I always say what we call a house has to change. Not a problem if you live outside the city, the further out, the freer. In the city, it's block after block of the same box with a pitched roof. People who think differently move out, people who give in move in. Changing the physical world of our practical living takes guts, cash and often a change in the building codes and zoning laws. Then how many architects are willing to take on a single city-home makeover?
It's all about tools, and digital tools you have access to. And it's about ideas that paid professionals don't get. Chew on this, one time we all lived in the one room shack, cabin, tent. We did everything in the one space or outside. Today we have designated rooms for eating, lounging and personal space. The family lives in a cluster of personal spaces with common spaces. We want to each fight for our personal space vs the common space. The common spaces are filled with family distracting entertainments and the personal spaces are self isolation chambers.
If a family were to buy a tenement building with shared kitchen and bath, it would be the same as any typical home. I guess it is the values we have that drive the physical changes in our environment. So what could you design in a home to enhance the family quality and preserve personal development. Now project these values to the house structure, yard, block, community, city, county, etc; etc.
We, especially in Ohio don't live so well with new design. We like our antiques and retro-styles and are subject to fashion and trend buying than good solid timeless design. Our lives are so hurried, we buy what meets the need at the time. I drive past so many homes where the garages are filled with stuff, we are a messy lot, aren't we? Design and Linux, still a work in progress, we'll just have to keep plugging away at it.
The good news is I did discover a gem of a Linux in the process. The Linux I was installing was DreamLinux 3.5. Let me tell you something about Linux distributions, with every new revision usually comes new features and better operation and snappier looks. When I first saw DreamLinux it was cool but clunky compared to what's available now. It uses XFCE desktop just like Xubuntu and it is Debian (Lenny) but not Ubuntu based. Many of the necessary add-ons are included already and the installation methods are tweaked to perfection. DreamLinux will also allow you to re-master a version of itself of your design to a fresh CD or jump drive.
So, the plan is to replace the furnace motor, and get two hard drives for my second PC. One that XP and DreamLinux will share and one for my "home" partition. Did I tell you, DreamLinux asked me during installation if I wanted to designate one drive as my "home" folder, that alone is awesome. This is cool if your operating system or hard drive gets hosed, your personal data is still intact and accessible.
If you are a dreamer like me you have to be careful reality doesn't take you by surprise, you could turn into a DIY person over night. Once you get a project in your head, sleep is hard, eating and dressing is meaningless. Every meal is lunch and a jumpsuit, slippers and bathrobe is business attire. Work on the "project" becomes a seamless reality and when interrupted by practical chores "Mr. Grumpy" emerges. Mr. Grumpy can't discern between a temporary stoppage and a cease and desist order. Mr. Grumpy unless your defusing a bomb, relax.
The tizzy that got me is cargo container homes. As I am a victim of a faulty education system I'm not an architect or a engineer but being who I am, I know great design logic when I see it. Modular construction of Corten steel modules into anything from a bus shelter to a highrise apartment building is really incredible. I am not nuts, I saw videos of Bob Vila explaining the conversion. What you want to know is what has that got to do with Linux. If you got an idea and you want to nail it down or model it in 3d, you have to have the software to do it. Linux does not have many efficient, easy to learn 3d software packages. Blender is more geared for animation graphics and learning it is a job in itself. You can model in Blender, you just have to be good with Blender. I was looking at architectural cad. Why? Because when a software is targeted for a particular process, the intended audience wants features and work flows that make their job easier. I found two, Octree and Cycas Cad. I think Cycas Cad is more what I want.
Please don't tell me to try MS stuff in Wine, most of the plentiful MS platform software for this type of 3d work is poorly written. They have poor quality graphics, are resource pigs, run way too slow as a virtual machine and are not free. Cycas Cad has a Public version which is free, a Student version and a Professional version, the cost are very reasonable.
But in the wild, AutoCad is the standard and this one and that one that all runs on MS. Most Linux engineering software is top shelf and pricey for an individual. The problem with open source and low cost applications in Linux is that people want to make money with them but don't want to develop them, time is money. If you want to have Linuxware in your budget bracket, you must help by using them. Via the user base is how things get done in Linuxville. GIMP would not be what it is if it didn't have a user base. The user base gives the developers feedback and adds useful stuff like tutorials, models, scripts, documentation, etc.
It is easier for folks to be fanatic about Blender, man if I could do Avatar movie like graphics! The professional architectural and engineering folks usually don't have time to play. Hey, we value our play time highly and digital entertainments overshadows more serious pursuits and for many is a lucrative market.
For any generation who threatens to change the world by viewing it differently, you have to contend with pre-existing conditions. In the built environment I always say what we call a house has to change. Not a problem if you live outside the city, the further out, the freer. In the city, it's block after block of the same box with a pitched roof. People who think differently move out, people who give in move in. Changing the physical world of our practical living takes guts, cash and often a change in the building codes and zoning laws. Then how many architects are willing to take on a single city-home makeover?
It's all about tools, and digital tools you have access to. And it's about ideas that paid professionals don't get. Chew on this, one time we all lived in the one room shack, cabin, tent. We did everything in the one space or outside. Today we have designated rooms for eating, lounging and personal space. The family lives in a cluster of personal spaces with common spaces. We want to each fight for our personal space vs the common space. The common spaces are filled with family distracting entertainments and the personal spaces are self isolation chambers.
If a family were to buy a tenement building with shared kitchen and bath, it would be the same as any typical home. I guess it is the values we have that drive the physical changes in our environment. So what could you design in a home to enhance the family quality and preserve personal development. Now project these values to the house structure, yard, block, community, city, county, etc; etc.
We, especially in Ohio don't live so well with new design. We like our antiques and retro-styles and are subject to fashion and trend buying than good solid timeless design. Our lives are so hurried, we buy what meets the need at the time. I drive past so many homes where the garages are filled with stuff, we are a messy lot, aren't we? Design and Linux, still a work in progress, we'll just have to keep plugging away at it.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
the digital art elephants need their daily walk
Just in time, they're awake and need their exercise.
Art elephants are like sheep the way they nuzzle each other.....wait, elephants do that, I get confused they have the texture thing down, biggest sheep I ever saw.
Let me paint the picture. Microsoft is a huge tech city, hurried, crowded, multi-layered and fingers in every direction. Apple is small to mid-sized town of diverse but laid-back folks. Linuxville is a vast open savanna with enclaves, hamlets, homesteads. The one I live in is small in surface appearance, but deep down there are catacombs (cave of wonder), labs, gardens, etc; all connected by an intricate network of tunnels, at least till I get the physical presents transference machine online.
Yeah I know all about the genetics of art elephants but still you need a good gene mapper (gene = pixel, get it?!). Most folks in Linuxville know of Blender 3D, it has even been used to make movie effects and animations. What troubles me is that folks who went through the curve to learn Blender 3D are stuck on it because now they know it. This is cool but becomes a right of passage under the must have banner. Another trouble is that the assumption that a 3D graphics application has to be game art worthy, animation art worthy to get praise. Excuse me if I don't ride my art elephant off into the sunset.
On the other horizon are 3D applications that need more exploration. K-3D looks good and in need a village of pixel practitioners to get into it. Also Equinox-3D, which looks very promising and attractive to me. Ah, the allure of an interface. When you look at the interface, does it invite you to come and play?
Let me explain pixel science this way. There are the graphics algorithms which are embedded by means of some programing language for better or worse and an interface (tools) so that the user can interact and get output. It does not matter how good the science behind it is if the tools to use them are awkward and the process to get the output is too multi-layered. The 3D approach to drawing is much more complex than 2D vector drawing and much much more than 2D raster.
You listen to the developers and users and viewing screenshots hoping to get all your questions answered. Still you must try them out along with your inquiry to user communities. Realize that the Blender community is older and a bit biased because it is sooooooooooo cool for so long. You might discover an underrated gem, a diamond in the ruff, in the other applications. If you got the time to get into it, you can start your own rock group instead of jumping on the band wagon.
It can be lonely, a user sharpening the cutting edge yourself. Any benefit to you being the software proving ground? Yeah, in the words of Henry Jones Sr. (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) when asked what did he get, "illumination!".
And don't forget the rule, if you live to tell the tale, don't forget the pictures.
Art elephants are like sheep the way they nuzzle each other.....wait, elephants do that, I get confused they have the texture thing down, biggest sheep I ever saw.
Let me paint the picture. Microsoft is a huge tech city, hurried, crowded, multi-layered and fingers in every direction. Apple is small to mid-sized town of diverse but laid-back folks. Linuxville is a vast open savanna with enclaves, hamlets, homesteads. The one I live in is small in surface appearance, but deep down there are catacombs (cave of wonder), labs, gardens, etc; all connected by an intricate network of tunnels, at least till I get the physical presents transference machine online.
Yeah I know all about the genetics of art elephants but still you need a good gene mapper (gene = pixel, get it?!). Most folks in Linuxville know of Blender 3D, it has even been used to make movie effects and animations. What troubles me is that folks who went through the curve to learn Blender 3D are stuck on it because now they know it. This is cool but becomes a right of passage under the must have banner. Another trouble is that the assumption that a 3D graphics application has to be game art worthy, animation art worthy to get praise. Excuse me if I don't ride my art elephant off into the sunset.
On the other horizon are 3D applications that need more exploration. K-3D looks good and in need a village of pixel practitioners to get into it. Also Equinox-3D, which looks very promising and attractive to me. Ah, the allure of an interface. When you look at the interface, does it invite you to come and play?
Blender opening screen and a work session.
Equinox-3D first screen and work session.
K-3D first screen and work session.
As you can guess, I care more for interior design and architecture than game graphics and cartoon animation. Same tools but the focus is different. When doing the more engineering related graphics, you want something a little more streamlined in the process and straightforward in the interface. No matter which application you use, chances are once you get used to using it, you will say it is easier than other applications to use. These 3 graphics programs can accomplish a broad sweep of outcomes but there is another more focused approach. The targeted graphics tool. One is called Sweet Home 3D and it is for interior design. It looks like this:
Sweet Home 3D first screen and work session.
Let me explain pixel science this way. There are the graphics algorithms which are embedded by means of some programing language for better or worse and an interface (tools) so that the user can interact and get output. It does not matter how good the science behind it is if the tools to use them are awkward and the process to get the output is too multi-layered. The 3D approach to drawing is much more complex than 2D vector drawing and much much more than 2D raster.
You listen to the developers and users and viewing screenshots hoping to get all your questions answered. Still you must try them out along with your inquiry to user communities. Realize that the Blender community is older and a bit biased because it is sooooooooooo cool for so long. You might discover an underrated gem, a diamond in the ruff, in the other applications. If you got the time to get into it, you can start your own rock group instead of jumping on the band wagon.
It can be lonely, a user sharpening the cutting edge yourself. Any benefit to you being the software proving ground? Yeah, in the words of Henry Jones Sr. (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) when asked what did he get, "illumination!".
And don't forget the rule, if you live to tell the tale, don't forget the pictures.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
does the clothes finally make the man?
While the art elephants are taking a siesta or selah, lets race over to the Linuxville sports center to ask the age old question, do the clothes finally make the dude or dame? You'd think our local p-ball (platform-ball) players would know, as they play in different attire to stir the fans and intimidate the rivals. The fans have mixed reviews, some even think the team plays better in their favorite uniform. We've touched this topic before, but it is always good to hear the locker room reaction.
I have Kubuntu, the Ubuntu with the KDE desktop installed. It comes in the default blue tones and lays claim to being fresh and exciting. Then I also installed Gnome desktop because I like it also. Gnome comes standard on Ubuntu with the orange and brown, no brag, it's just handsome. I've also tried Ubuntu with KDE too. In the wild, they do the one up, taking turns improving, showing, with fans exclaiming a coup over the other. I come up with this, many folks don't like the orange/brown of Ubuntu or the idea of skin tone colored themes. I'm no psych major but the implications are...............
KDE in blue is fresh and exciting for lovers of blue. Looking up in the sky all the time can get boring too, not to mention your eyeballs getting tanned. I will admit that Gnome in orange and brown is not an easy combo to swallow, but being a person of the brown persuasion, I've grown to appreciate the subtleties of brownness. It is earthy but not green like Ubuntu Mint, or Suse Linux. Fedora is blue and so is the Blue Man Group, but they're a rock band not a distro. Mandriva at last look was yellow, Xubuntu is blue outside and gray inside.
In the end game the controversy is about the boot screen you see first and how you have to sit through it, while it announces what is to come and sets the tone for the computing session. "Are you kidding?" What if we put a color selector bar on a pre-boot screen so that Ubuntu will boot in the color of your choice? No wonder folks are trying to demand faster boot times, I thought it was so they can get to work faster, NOT!
Color choice aside, the real diff in KDE and Gnome is the programming libraries used and the goals of the developers. I can't really say which choice, KDE or Gnome is best for you, for me Gnome is just handsome and warm. Gnome is a tad bit more surefooted in operation on my PC and snappier. And to all you fast to critique folks, Gnome in Ubuntu can change color too if orange and brown just won't do. Gee folks, I used Crunchbang in basic black and it didn't get as much flack as Ubuntu in brown. Think about Palomino ponies and rich Corinthian leather and Coco Wheats (ha ha!).
No one in the sports center locker room can agree on the best uniform and the fans too are dead-locked. I guess the team management also gave up on this decision. In a press release they state; "While we reserve the right to demand the best possible play of the game, we have left the ultimate uniform choice up to the fans, if you don't like it, change it!"
There you have it from the Linuxville Sports Center, now let's get back to the Linuxville Guide office before the art elephants awake.
I have Kubuntu, the Ubuntu with the KDE desktop installed. It comes in the default blue tones and lays claim to being fresh and exciting. Then I also installed Gnome desktop because I like it also. Gnome comes standard on Ubuntu with the orange and brown, no brag, it's just handsome. I've also tried Ubuntu with KDE too. In the wild, they do the one up, taking turns improving, showing, with fans exclaiming a coup over the other. I come up with this, many folks don't like the orange/brown of Ubuntu or the idea of skin tone colored themes. I'm no psych major but the implications are...............
KDE in blue is fresh and exciting for lovers of blue. Looking up in the sky all the time can get boring too, not to mention your eyeballs getting tanned. I will admit that Gnome in orange and brown is not an easy combo to swallow, but being a person of the brown persuasion, I've grown to appreciate the subtleties of brownness. It is earthy but not green like Ubuntu Mint, or Suse Linux. Fedora is blue and so is the Blue Man Group, but they're a rock band not a distro. Mandriva at last look was yellow, Xubuntu is blue outside and gray inside.
In the end game the controversy is about the boot screen you see first and how you have to sit through it, while it announces what is to come and sets the tone for the computing session. "Are you kidding?" What if we put a color selector bar on a pre-boot screen so that Ubuntu will boot in the color of your choice? No wonder folks are trying to demand faster boot times, I thought it was so they can get to work faster, NOT!
Color choice aside, the real diff in KDE and Gnome is the programming libraries used and the goals of the developers. I can't really say which choice, KDE or Gnome is best for you, for me Gnome is just handsome and warm. Gnome is a tad bit more surefooted in operation on my PC and snappier. And to all you fast to critique folks, Gnome in Ubuntu can change color too if orange and brown just won't do. Gee folks, I used Crunchbang in basic black and it didn't get as much flack as Ubuntu in brown. Think about Palomino ponies and rich Corinthian leather and Coco Wheats (ha ha!).
No one in the sports center locker room can agree on the best uniform and the fans too are dead-locked. I guess the team management also gave up on this decision. In a press release they state; "While we reserve the right to demand the best possible play of the game, we have left the ultimate uniform choice up to the fans, if you don't like it, change it!"
There you have it from the Linuxville Sports Center, now let's get back to the Linuxville Guide office before the art elephants awake.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
art elephant bagging and tagging.
When approaching an art elephant, you should do so with caution, if by chance it does not relate well to you, you could be cast aside like a bad peanut. How do you relate to an art elephant, you ask? Actually, they don't mind if you are clueless and want to dabble in order to discover your talents, but if you got skills and attempt to force the issue, they can be quite rude.
My law of thumbs is like this, if you have a traditional painting or drawing background, then digital raster type painting and drawing will be a pleasant encounter. Folks who do desktop publishing, line illustration, perhaps Cad (like me!) will find friends with vector drawing. I think a mix of talents is good, game artist and cartoonist do 2D, 3D modeling, surface textures and background painting. And as we all know there are a glut of photo buffs. It is OK not to be able to do everything, learn what you need to know.
Approach straight on, an open mind, be fearless. Don't come in from the side like you know this beast, many are surprised by how agile the art elephant is to turn and trample, "I didn't know they could now do that!!". Yes, there are big game hunters (graphics pros) who don't always have good things to say about Open Source Graphics Apps. I think they are too fond of their zoo animals behind bars. I have met several who hide their wounds behind flack jackets or wear their pit helmets indoors. The Open Source Jungle is safer for learners than for ones who presume to know. They say "that elephant" is still under development, it doesn't do this, and it can't do that. Then they walk away assuming the elephant won't change, won't improve, won't evolve and can't possibly compete with the caged animal they are use to.
Unbeknown to the mainstream, though whispers might be heard, in a clearing in the Open Source Jungle, a billboard touting the virtues of art elephants in the wild with bold letters, "WE CAN DO IT ALL! (though mileage may vary)". Just because there are no big established company names behind Open Source Graphics, don't think it is a static, hopeless and futile situation.
Mostly it is about spending enough time with an application to where you learn what it can do and what you can do with it. What artist does not devise his own tools? I find it is production artist who insist a tool be there and criticize if it is not. This is a good thing as the pros often initiate the further development of good software. The very cool stuff we use today was very wimpy yesterday and will be the killer app tomorrow. You can almost apply Darwin's theory to software, if it sustains long enough, it will evolve, even persist, maybe even dominate.
Most artist aspire to have the most developed, advanced and "in use" graphics software they can get, even if they are beginners, even if they only use it occasionally. They want the industry standard at all cost and will pirate if necessary. I want to emphasize that it is the tools themselves and the file formats that matter. If you can get the tools and produce the file formats for less money, you are ahead of the game. If you are locked into the professional track with must have software, I can't help you. If you have options, choices and wiggle room, by all means give Open Source Graphics Applications a shot. You don't need the whole bakery shop in order to have a loaf of bread.
I know art elephants are a temperamental lot and I don't want you to use Linux just because I say so. I think it's a better choice, but we can compromise with Open Source Apps which run on Linux or Windows. And I say this because some graphics hardware, pen tablets in particular, may or may not work under Linux. Wacom tablets are supported under the Linux Wacom project. Wacoms are normally Windows compatible as are any other graphics tablets. So, Windows platform PCs can use any tablet that does the job, where as Linux platform PCs should stick with Wacom tablets. The good thing is that many tablet users upgrade and resell their older tablets. If it does the job at a small price, you win again.
Now that you have become symbiont to several art elephants in the herd, you will want to connect with others in the same situation. The Linux Graphics Users is a good place to start, the forum is wonderful. Also the Wacom Community page is cool. If you need some encouragement in digital art, http://www.karencarr.com/how-you-can-paint-using-digital-tools-and-software.php
Now as your Linux guide and art elephant herder, I say, "Get out there and dabble!!!"
My law of thumbs is like this, if you have a traditional painting or drawing background, then digital raster type painting and drawing will be a pleasant encounter. Folks who do desktop publishing, line illustration, perhaps Cad (like me!) will find friends with vector drawing. I think a mix of talents is good, game artist and cartoonist do 2D, 3D modeling, surface textures and background painting. And as we all know there are a glut of photo buffs. It is OK not to be able to do everything, learn what you need to know.
Approach straight on, an open mind, be fearless. Don't come in from the side like you know this beast, many are surprised by how agile the art elephant is to turn and trample, "I didn't know they could now do that!!". Yes, there are big game hunters (graphics pros) who don't always have good things to say about Open Source Graphics Apps. I think they are too fond of their zoo animals behind bars. I have met several who hide their wounds behind flack jackets or wear their pit helmets indoors. The Open Source Jungle is safer for learners than for ones who presume to know. They say "that elephant" is still under development, it doesn't do this, and it can't do that. Then they walk away assuming the elephant won't change, won't improve, won't evolve and can't possibly compete with the caged animal they are use to.
Unbeknown to the mainstream, though whispers might be heard, in a clearing in the Open Source Jungle, a billboard touting the virtues of art elephants in the wild with bold letters, "WE CAN DO IT ALL! (though mileage may vary)". Just because there are no big established company names behind Open Source Graphics, don't think it is a static, hopeless and futile situation.
Mostly it is about spending enough time with an application to where you learn what it can do and what you can do with it. What artist does not devise his own tools? I find it is production artist who insist a tool be there and criticize if it is not. This is a good thing as the pros often initiate the further development of good software. The very cool stuff we use today was very wimpy yesterday and will be the killer app tomorrow. You can almost apply Darwin's theory to software, if it sustains long enough, it will evolve, even persist, maybe even dominate.
Most artist aspire to have the most developed, advanced and "in use" graphics software they can get, even if they are beginners, even if they only use it occasionally. They want the industry standard at all cost and will pirate if necessary. I want to emphasize that it is the tools themselves and the file formats that matter. If you can get the tools and produce the file formats for less money, you are ahead of the game. If you are locked into the professional track with must have software, I can't help you. If you have options, choices and wiggle room, by all means give Open Source Graphics Applications a shot. You don't need the whole bakery shop in order to have a loaf of bread.
I know art elephants are a temperamental lot and I don't want you to use Linux just because I say so. I think it's a better choice, but we can compromise with Open Source Apps which run on Linux or Windows. And I say this because some graphics hardware, pen tablets in particular, may or may not work under Linux. Wacom tablets are supported under the Linux Wacom project. Wacoms are normally Windows compatible as are any other graphics tablets. So, Windows platform PCs can use any tablet that does the job, where as Linux platform PCs should stick with Wacom tablets. The good thing is that many tablet users upgrade and resell their older tablets. If it does the job at a small price, you win again.
Now that you have become symbiont to several art elephants in the herd, you will want to connect with others in the same situation. The Linux Graphics Users is a good place to start, the forum is wonderful. Also the Wacom Community page is cool. If you need some encouragement in digital art, http://www.karencarr.com/how-you-can-paint-using-digital-tools-and-software.php
Now as your Linux guide and art elephant herder, I say, "Get out there and dabble!!!"
Sunday, January 10, 2010
No one man can tame a herd of art elephants.
After a vigorous workout at the gene-splicing table, we move on to cloning. My assistant eGor (all assistants have that name!), got accidentally locked in the cloning booth, there was a boom, a gawd awful smell and; "eGor, what's that clone you're wearing?" (Sorry, Mel Brooks meets the Muppets!)
Actually, I need a clone or two, plus a symbionic mind link to multiply my ability to explore all the Linux graphics applications. Today I have installed "FreeCad". It is an 3d Cad program the likes of SolidEdge. Now I have used AutoCad for years to do schematics and other 2D drawings. FreeCad and Blender both do 3D, what is the diff? FreeCad is precision optimized (engineering) and Blender is more fuzzy (scenes, games, animation). I hear there are scripts being developed to give Blender the precision for cad work. I think the math engines in the programming are diff so they can do what they each do best. I will have to read through the docs and learn the work flow before I'll be able to do anything useful with FreeCad and practice like crazy.
Wow, GIMP, Inkscape, Blender 3D, Krita, Synfig, My Paint, Xara Xtreme, KD3, FreeCAD,..............egads eGor!
In all, you can see my problem, too many drawing applications doing too many differing kinds of drawing, not enough time and too few of me. If I spent all my time exploring I'd never get good at anything.
The main problem in taming the herd of art elephants is us users. Who among us, born in the industrial revolution, has not been indoctrinated, trained, programmed, brain imprinted with the posture of the typewriter cult. It is an iconic image that endures without fanfare, persons hunched over a keyboard (I saw it in Egypt! (pyramid shaped office building, Pharoah Street, nth floor)). OK, you got the proper posture down......hmmmmmm! (ergo-nomics, egor-nomics, extremes of the same thing!?). You go to the office, sit at your machine, a voice in your head tells you to "assume the position" before you type. At the keyboard I always have flashbacks of high school typing class. I could never get it right. I guess I am more eGor than ergo. I see there are more typing/mousing casualties than there are football injuries. Bouncing fingers up and down on keys was bad enough, now figgiety mouse moving from side to side and back and forth.........
I got a Wacom Graphire 2 pen tablet years ago. I am back to playing with it. What a relaxing relief for my hand, wrist and forearm. And I can't believe how programmed I am. It is traumatic learning to use it, my body wants to say, "hey, I remember pencils but it's so not a mouse." So, if you do a lot of graphics and do not have a pen tablet, you will devolve from Ergo to........... eGor.
I am working on a hardware project which may require one of those tiny keyboards. How tiny can a keyboard get before it dawns on you that you can't "assume the position"? When will typewriter entrenched hardware critics stop judging tiny qwerty keyboards by the "touch typing" standard? "It's a qwerty but it's too small to actually touch type on it!". Double duh! Our logic defies logic at times. It is OK to hunt and peck on a small device. If you are typing a term paper, a business report or translating War and Peace using a tiny keyboard, perhaps your fingers are not the real problem. Please send $25,000 and I will send you my book "Typewriter Cult Deprogramming Guide" and tickets to attend my seminar "End Pain by Using A More Appropriate Computer Input Device". As a followup, if you act fast, I will send you a CD titled "When Body Language Cusses You Out, Know the Signs". Actually, I am trying to wake you up, you keep doing this to yourself!
So, to sum it all up, if you are suffering the casualties of making do on the computer input devices you got, it may be time to consider alternative means. The pen (digital pen) is mightier than the mouse, especially in drawing. That picture of the elephant in panic over a mouse under foot, guess who gets trampled?
Actually, I need a clone or two, plus a symbionic mind link to multiply my ability to explore all the Linux graphics applications. Today I have installed "FreeCad". It is an 3d Cad program the likes of SolidEdge. Now I have used AutoCad for years to do schematics and other 2D drawings. FreeCad and Blender both do 3D, what is the diff? FreeCad is precision optimized (engineering) and Blender is more fuzzy (scenes, games, animation). I hear there are scripts being developed to give Blender the precision for cad work. I think the math engines in the programming are diff so they can do what they each do best. I will have to read through the docs and learn the work flow before I'll be able to do anything useful with FreeCad and practice like crazy.
Wow, GIMP, Inkscape, Blender 3D, Krita, Synfig, My Paint, Xara Xtreme, KD3, FreeCAD,..............egads eGor!
In all, you can see my problem, too many drawing applications doing too many differing kinds of drawing, not enough time and too few of me. If I spent all my time exploring I'd never get good at anything.
The main problem in taming the herd of art elephants is us users. Who among us, born in the industrial revolution, has not been indoctrinated, trained, programmed, brain imprinted with the posture of the typewriter cult. It is an iconic image that endures without fanfare, persons hunched over a keyboard (I saw it in Egypt! (pyramid shaped office building, Pharoah Street, nth floor)). OK, you got the proper posture down......hmmmmmm! (ergo-nomics, egor-nomics, extremes of the same thing!?). You go to the office, sit at your machine, a voice in your head tells you to "assume the position" before you type. At the keyboard I always have flashbacks of high school typing class. I could never get it right. I guess I am more eGor than ergo. I see there are more typing/mousing casualties than there are football injuries. Bouncing fingers up and down on keys was bad enough, now figgiety mouse moving from side to side and back and forth.........
I got a Wacom Graphire 2 pen tablet years ago. I am back to playing with it. What a relaxing relief for my hand, wrist and forearm. And I can't believe how programmed I am. It is traumatic learning to use it, my body wants to say, "hey, I remember pencils but it's so not a mouse." So, if you do a lot of graphics and do not have a pen tablet, you will devolve from Ergo to........... eGor.
I am working on a hardware project which may require one of those tiny keyboards. How tiny can a keyboard get before it dawns on you that you can't "assume the position"? When will typewriter entrenched hardware critics stop judging tiny qwerty keyboards by the "touch typing" standard? "It's a qwerty but it's too small to actually touch type on it!". Double duh! Our logic defies logic at times. It is OK to hunt and peck on a small device. If you are typing a term paper, a business report or translating War and Peace using a tiny keyboard, perhaps your fingers are not the real problem. Please send $25,000 and I will send you my book "Typewriter Cult Deprogramming Guide" and tickets to attend my seminar "End Pain by Using A More Appropriate Computer Input Device". As a followup, if you act fast, I will send you a CD titled "When Body Language Cusses You Out, Know the Signs". Actually, I am trying to wake you up, you keep doing this to yourself!
So, to sum it all up, if you are suffering the casualties of making do on the computer input devices you got, it may be time to consider alternative means. The pen (digital pen) is mightier than the mouse, especially in drawing. That picture of the elephant in panic over a mouse under foot, guess who gets trampled?
Saturday, December 26, 2009
gene splicing 101
As promised I am going to splice the genes of an elephant with that of a chameleon. First you must have two species with the same nature. In this case the most obvious is the elephant with his ability to hide in a room. Then the chameleon who really doesn't hide but whispers so convincingly (Jedi mind trick!) that you just don't believe he is there. He says " you don't see me, do you?", the answer is always no. "Man, don't force me to use my color skills on you."
Then realize I am using metaphors. The elephant is the computer and the chameleon a particular kind of user (a digital artist, of course!). Unless the artist messes with traditional media, you can't tell his studio from any other filled with computer junk. But I think digital artist in particular have this knack for transforming things, making things out of stuff (even digital stuff) and doing it without a big mess. See If my wife came in the room and smelled paint, saw paint on the brushes, on me, she would say, "sorry hon, your busy". But on the computer I am spotless so she says, "are you busy, when you got a minute..........". I think I'm going to sell vinyl stick-on paint splatter and oil paint scented air spray for digital artist.
There are many kinds of digital artist and we all don't need a fortress of solitude to do our digital deeds. For me though my desk is the place where I can think artistic thoughts. Other places are so distracting. My stuff is so typical, not dedicated and certified. Unless you are a pro, the need for top of the line equipment is not part of the trade. A powerful PC, Wacom tablet, etc, etc, etc.
I want to see what I can do with simple tools of modest means. Yeah, I am a typical starving artist whose life is "more important" and whose art is a hobby in everybody else's mind. This is why the chameleon, folks don't realize how serious I am about my art efforts, "I am doing serious work, you do see that don't you?", the answer is always no.
The wizard in the OZ story tried to fake the chameleon persona. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!", he bellowed with electronic thunder and pyrotechnics. You see, the elephant in the room is quiet, so the chameleon is quiet also. The wizard called attention to himself and had to account for himself. I hate explaining on a regular bases, it's hard enough for me to explain it to myself, to keep people informed and in the loop is not the artist's way. We work in semi-seclusion (sometimes total) and reveal it all when the work's done. And yet there are a few performance artist who do speed painting, in public!!
So, with digital art it is recommended you have two displays, one for work and one for tools, docs, tutorials, etc; a graphics tablet because drawing with a mouse is like a 2.5" wide laddie pencil, and you got to have a scanner and a printer or two. Then I also recommend a camera of some sort. These are the basic tools, they don't have to be top of the line but quality is a must. If it's cheap, it better be a sale price.
My ideal is to have a laptop with enough umph to do graphics. I want to buy my next PC from a Linux dealer as mentioned in my last blog. The secret is that Open Source GIMP and Inkscape softwares require less power than Photoshop or Illustrator. This may not be an advantage for commercial graphic folks but for me, it is the cream and fine for what I do. Folks are always trying to get you to compete on a higher level and buy from the higher shelf. I say it is OK to use what you have access to, fits your need and make your own tools if you have to. The only thing that really matters is the type and quality of the final file format anyway. How you get there is what an artist does.
I was driving toward downtown on a freeway overpass, looking to the right the billboard changed, I said "that's the mother of all digital monitors!" Something in my head went "epiph!" (short for epiphany). Then I went to a lady's home to fix her computer. She had a 42" wide flat screen on the dresser so she could work sitting on her bed. Hey, there's that "epiph!" again. For me If I get a 42" screen it will sit in the living room to share with the whole family. But the thought of a large digital canvas is very intriguing. I started having flashes of the movie "Minority Report". Tom Cruise was gesturing in front of a very wide display that floated in front of him. And I also saw CNN folks doing the multi-touch thing and thousands of Wii users waving their remotes. So, you see, the technology is there, it is just not dedicated to the purpose of digital art. It is up to the artist (the chameleon) to bring together the computer tools (the elephant) in one place.
Art is all about the process toward the finished piece. Songs, poetry, stories if written well, depend upon the delivery, the same with music. Having cool tools makes the process worth the hassle to get it out there. OK, now, let's see, move this nuclei here, snip, slice, dice and..............!?! There it is, the elephant can now ripple his color in any pattern, shape, form and that tongue, you thought the trunk was a nuisance. The chameleon, "you don't see me here, do you?"
Then realize I am using metaphors. The elephant is the computer and the chameleon a particular kind of user (a digital artist, of course!). Unless the artist messes with traditional media, you can't tell his studio from any other filled with computer junk. But I think digital artist in particular have this knack for transforming things, making things out of stuff (even digital stuff) and doing it without a big mess. See If my wife came in the room and smelled paint, saw paint on the brushes, on me, she would say, "sorry hon, your busy". But on the computer I am spotless so she says, "are you busy, when you got a minute..........". I think I'm going to sell vinyl stick-on paint splatter and oil paint scented air spray for digital artist.
There are many kinds of digital artist and we all don't need a fortress of solitude to do our digital deeds. For me though my desk is the place where I can think artistic thoughts. Other places are so distracting. My stuff is so typical, not dedicated and certified. Unless you are a pro, the need for top of the line equipment is not part of the trade. A powerful PC, Wacom tablet, etc, etc, etc.
I want to see what I can do with simple tools of modest means. Yeah, I am a typical starving artist whose life is "more important" and whose art is a hobby in everybody else's mind. This is why the chameleon, folks don't realize how serious I am about my art efforts, "I am doing serious work, you do see that don't you?", the answer is always no.
The wizard in the OZ story tried to fake the chameleon persona. "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!", he bellowed with electronic thunder and pyrotechnics. You see, the elephant in the room is quiet, so the chameleon is quiet also. The wizard called attention to himself and had to account for himself. I hate explaining on a regular bases, it's hard enough for me to explain it to myself, to keep people informed and in the loop is not the artist's way. We work in semi-seclusion (sometimes total) and reveal it all when the work's done. And yet there are a few performance artist who do speed painting, in public!!
So, with digital art it is recommended you have two displays, one for work and one for tools, docs, tutorials, etc; a graphics tablet because drawing with a mouse is like a 2.5" wide laddie pencil, and you got to have a scanner and a printer or two. Then I also recommend a camera of some sort. These are the basic tools, they don't have to be top of the line but quality is a must. If it's cheap, it better be a sale price.
My ideal is to have a laptop with enough umph to do graphics. I want to buy my next PC from a Linux dealer as mentioned in my last blog. The secret is that Open Source GIMP and Inkscape softwares require less power than Photoshop or Illustrator. This may not be an advantage for commercial graphic folks but for me, it is the cream and fine for what I do. Folks are always trying to get you to compete on a higher level and buy from the higher shelf. I say it is OK to use what you have access to, fits your need and make your own tools if you have to. The only thing that really matters is the type and quality of the final file format anyway. How you get there is what an artist does.
I was driving toward downtown on a freeway overpass, looking to the right the billboard changed, I said "that's the mother of all digital monitors!" Something in my head went "epiph!" (short for epiphany). Then I went to a lady's home to fix her computer. She had a 42" wide flat screen on the dresser so she could work sitting on her bed. Hey, there's that "epiph!" again. For me If I get a 42" screen it will sit in the living room to share with the whole family. But the thought of a large digital canvas is very intriguing. I started having flashes of the movie "Minority Report". Tom Cruise was gesturing in front of a very wide display that floated in front of him. And I also saw CNN folks doing the multi-touch thing and thousands of Wii users waving their remotes. So, you see, the technology is there, it is just not dedicated to the purpose of digital art. It is up to the artist (the chameleon) to bring together the computer tools (the elephant) in one place.
Art is all about the process toward the finished piece. Songs, poetry, stories if written well, depend upon the delivery, the same with music. Having cool tools makes the process worth the hassle to get it out there. OK, now, let's see, move this nuclei here, snip, slice, dice and..............!?! There it is, the elephant can now ripple his color in any pattern, shape, form and that tongue, you thought the trunk was a nuisance. The chameleon, "you don't see me here, do you?"
Wednesday, December 23, 2009
a mouse mechanic in Linuxville
Hi folks and welcome to the Linuxville garage. Every now and then I don the PC mechanics jumpsuit and tinker under the hood. Today, I stumbled on a web page that talked about fixing the scroll-wheel on a mouse. I have two mice that I put aside because they did not scroll anymore. Going from a mouse with scroll-wheel to one without is a BIG back step.
Flip the thing over and use two fingers to turn the donut and remove the ball. Usually when you look inside there is all kinds of personal forensic evidence caked on the ball rollers. Most time you can clean these with a knife, tweezers and a little air (your own is fine, don't spit!). Keep q-tips, lint-free towels, rubber gloves, a new mouse still in the bubble pak or the phone number of the nearest PC shop handy.
Mice have one screw on the bottom at the stern (back end), the front is held by body clips. You got to slide the top part back gingerly but with controlled force. Inside are plastic gears, the roller assembly, tiny switches and, Oh-My-Gosh! Tiny Dust Bunnies!!!
I cleaned the bunnies the best I could and even removed the scroll wheel don't try this at home carefully. The scroll wheel sits on a hub, not very tightly, it slides a little. I clean the wheel, the hub and put them back together. One web site recommends a little spray glue to keep it from sliding around the hub.
I put the whole thing back together in the reverse order of disassembly. I did this with both mice, one fully recovered as new, the other is a cripple (still doesn't scroll).
The crippled mouse is the wireless one that came with my Wacom Graphire 2 graphics tablet. And it works great while using Synergy, I can move the cursor from screen to screen, it just doesn't scroll. No, no, it's part failure, not PC mechanic error.
I still have my dream, an artist's sketching PC. There are none on the low end (pros have all the fun) and all the laptop modders are painting lids, not tinkering with laptop insides. I want to kill the last visage of the "typewriter cult". First by building a panel to cover/replace the whole laptop palmrest. This new panel will have a Wacom pen/touch embedded in it. Then if I need to type I will have two external keyboards, a regular size one for desk typing and an ultra trim mini travel size for portable finger poking (what I do). Depending on the laptop I will have to modify the hinge assembly so the lid/display will close properly. And lastly, the customary gray/green tarp that looks like a 57 Chevy is under it. The technology exists, it's mostly a repackaging job and a new tee shirt that reads, "back away from the cutting edge, please!". Come on, try this at home. Put your Graphire 2 tablet over the laptop keyboard and let it melt into place, see, and it's cheaper too! No, it's not a professional graphics workstation, it's not meant to be.
Part of my job is to egg you on to use Linux, Open Source Software and to divide that pile of used junk into two smaller piles. Computing is fun/work, but you have to work at it and have fun with it. Next project gene splicing an elephant with a chameleon.
Flip the thing over and use two fingers to turn the donut and remove the ball. Usually when you look inside there is all kinds of personal forensic evidence caked on the ball rollers. Most time you can clean these with a knife, tweezers and a little air (your own is fine, don't spit!). Keep q-tips, lint-free towels, rubber gloves, a new mouse still in the bubble pak or the phone number of the nearest PC shop handy.
Mice have one screw on the bottom at the stern (back end), the front is held by body clips. You got to slide the top part back gingerly but with controlled force. Inside are plastic gears, the roller assembly, tiny switches and, Oh-My-Gosh! Tiny Dust Bunnies!!!
I cleaned the bunnies the best I could and even removed the scroll wheel don't try this at home carefully. The scroll wheel sits on a hub, not very tightly, it slides a little. I clean the wheel, the hub and put them back together. One web site recommends a little spray glue to keep it from sliding around the hub.
I put the whole thing back together in the reverse order of disassembly. I did this with both mice, one fully recovered as new, the other is a cripple (still doesn't scroll).
The crippled mouse is the wireless one that came with my Wacom Graphire 2 graphics tablet. And it works great while using Synergy, I can move the cursor from screen to screen, it just doesn't scroll. No, no, it's part failure, not PC mechanic error.
I still have my dream, an artist's sketching PC. There are none on the low end (pros have all the fun) and all the laptop modders are painting lids, not tinkering with laptop insides. I want to kill the last visage of the "typewriter cult". First by building a panel to cover/replace the whole laptop palmrest. This new panel will have a Wacom pen/touch embedded in it. Then if I need to type I will have two external keyboards, a regular size one for desk typing and an ultra trim mini travel size for portable finger poking (what I do). Depending on the laptop I will have to modify the hinge assembly so the lid/display will close properly. And lastly, the customary gray/green tarp that looks like a 57 Chevy is under it. The technology exists, it's mostly a repackaging job and a new tee shirt that reads, "back away from the cutting edge, please!". Come on, try this at home. Put your Graphire 2 tablet over the laptop keyboard and let it melt into place, see, and it's cheaper too! No, it's not a professional graphics workstation, it's not meant to be.
Part of my job is to egg you on to use Linux, Open Source Software and to divide that pile of used junk into two smaller piles. Computing is fun/work, but you have to work at it and have fun with it. Next project gene splicing an elephant with a chameleon.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Linux throughbred PCs and Laptops
Most people wanting to try Linux, especially on a laptop, did not buy their laptop with the idea of installing Linux. It is too bad the most vocal of the group vent their frustrations so that everybody gets the impression that Linux is crap. Gee folks, put butter on frozen bread and tell the world how bad your toast is.
It has been years since I poked at the little penguin approved hardware logos to see what's behind them. I am so surprised that hardware has improved right along with the software. There are bullet-proof Linux PCs and laptops as well. And there is a secret that might help you. As long as the PC is in the middle of the road, chances are Linux will work on it (though mileage may vary!). If you have special stuff or hardware where vendors only supply MS version drivers, good luck with that. The sure fire way to enjoy Linux is to get Linux certified hardware. That is PCs and laptops with hardware guaranteed to run Linux.
http://system76.com/
These folks have been around forever............
http://www.linuxcertified.com/index.html
These folks also have been around long time and I like their stuff/prices
http://www.emperorlinux.com/
These guys are long timers too.
They each have many configurations, services and support. So with great anticipation I will buy my next computer from one of these vendors, a laptop made to run Linux, and MS (only if I want to). To have Linux pre-installed is so wonderful and time saving, and to have all the hardware working is an over the top user experience. I don't want to dismiss the HP's, Dell's, IBM's or any of the imports, but for the most part, Linux is a sideshow for which they tend to hide their enthusiasm and marginalize their support.
Sour grapes, no, I bought my used Chevy from a Ford dealer. I get great service but it's a Chevy. They have to order parts that Chevy dealers have on hand. So, after 10 years of MS dealers I will go to a Linux dealer for my next PC. Gee, I feel at peace now! Nerdvana!
It has been years since I poked at the little penguin approved hardware logos to see what's behind them. I am so surprised that hardware has improved right along with the software. There are bullet-proof Linux PCs and laptops as well. And there is a secret that might help you. As long as the PC is in the middle of the road, chances are Linux will work on it (though mileage may vary!). If you have special stuff or hardware where vendors only supply MS version drivers, good luck with that. The sure fire way to enjoy Linux is to get Linux certified hardware. That is PCs and laptops with hardware guaranteed to run Linux.
http://system76.com/
These folks have been around forever............
http://www.linuxcertified.com/index.html
These folks also have been around long time and I like their stuff/prices
http://www.emperorlinux.com/
These guys are long timers too.
They each have many configurations, services and support. So with great anticipation I will buy my next computer from one of these vendors, a laptop made to run Linux, and MS (only if I want to). To have Linux pre-installed is so wonderful and time saving, and to have all the hardware working is an over the top user experience. I don't want to dismiss the HP's, Dell's, IBM's or any of the imports, but for the most part, Linux is a sideshow for which they tend to hide their enthusiasm and marginalize their support.
Sour grapes, no, I bought my used Chevy from a Ford dealer. I get great service but it's a Chevy. They have to order parts that Chevy dealers have on hand. So, after 10 years of MS dealers I will go to a Linux dealer for my next PC. Gee, I feel at peace now! Nerdvana!
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Have Synergy and live to tell about it!
I think I got a bad case of DIY-make it better now syndrone. Here at my digital abode in downtown Linuxville, where the orange barrels are as abundant as cracks in the sidewalks, I have made another milestone. Building upon the engineering wonders of others is not my forte, but packaging and repackaging, aaaahh! Most times the technology is there, just not in the places where I would put them.
The Linuxville desk has two ATX style computers, one LCD and two CRTs, two keyboards and two mice and don't forget the router, DSL and printer. It's a digital fortress, am I getting overdosed in eddy currents? I needed to at least get rid of one keyboard and one mouse so that I can end some confusion. I swapped the two CRTs so that the big one is usable. The smaller CRT is a spare. I dedicated one computer to documents where I can store all my training stuff, tutorials and whatnot. My other computer is my main workhorse. They are on the same network, but how to use them together from one keyboard and mouse is expensive with a hardware KVM. Well, comparably anyway, after I installed a program called Synergy. KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) consist of a junction box. On one side you plug in all your PCs, the other, a keyboard, a monitor and a mouse. You could just share the keyboard and mouse and let each PC have its own monitor. You can select which PC is viewed and controlled with a key-click.
It is not hard to setup Synergy, though not as cool as running two monitors on one computer, but you do have more computing resources at you disposal with two or more PCs.
First I installed Synergy on each computer. Then I write a text file describing what each computer is called and name it synergy.conf and put it in my home directory. This configuration file says which PC is the server and which are the clients. Then I use the dreaded terminal window to issue a start the Synergy server command. This is done on the PC that will be the server. Then on each client machine, using the terminal window I issue the start Synergy client command. You can automate it all if you have the savvy. The web site is helpful and the Ubuntu site also has setup notes.
What is the results? I can shelve the mouse and keyboard for one computer. The mouse and keyboard on my main computer controls whichever computer has the cursor on its screen. I can now do other things on my desktop because I can see the wood surface.
Synergy also works with MS Windows so I can add my laptop if I wanted. This would be great because the touch pad is awkward, I don't have a USB mouse and of course my laptop has no PS/2 ports. And no, the Wacom graphics tablet plugged into my main PC doesn't work well on the other screen. I think maybe if it were in mouse mode it might work. I will have to get back with you on that.
I so much enjoy the uncluttered freedom and access.
Ubuntu Synergy setup
The Linuxville desk has two ATX style computers, one LCD and two CRTs, two keyboards and two mice and don't forget the router, DSL and printer. It's a digital fortress, am I getting overdosed in eddy currents? I needed to at least get rid of one keyboard and one mouse so that I can end some confusion. I swapped the two CRTs so that the big one is usable. The smaller CRT is a spare. I dedicated one computer to documents where I can store all my training stuff, tutorials and whatnot. My other computer is my main workhorse. They are on the same network, but how to use them together from one keyboard and mouse is expensive with a hardware KVM. Well, comparably anyway, after I installed a program called Synergy. KVM (keyboard, video, mouse) consist of a junction box. On one side you plug in all your PCs, the other, a keyboard, a monitor and a mouse. You could just share the keyboard and mouse and let each PC have its own monitor. You can select which PC is viewed and controlled with a key-click.
It is not hard to setup Synergy, though not as cool as running two monitors on one computer, but you do have more computing resources at you disposal with two or more PCs.
First I installed Synergy on each computer. Then I write a text file describing what each computer is called and name it synergy.conf and put it in my home directory. This configuration file says which PC is the server and which are the clients. Then I use the dreaded terminal window to issue a start the Synergy server command. This is done on the PC that will be the server. Then on each client machine, using the terminal window I issue the start Synergy client command. You can automate it all if you have the savvy. The web site is helpful and the Ubuntu site also has setup notes.
What is the results? I can shelve the mouse and keyboard for one computer. The mouse and keyboard on my main computer controls whichever computer has the cursor on its screen. I can now do other things on my desktop because I can see the wood surface.
Synergy also works with MS Windows so I can add my laptop if I wanted. This would be great because the touch pad is awkward, I don't have a USB mouse and of course my laptop has no PS/2 ports. And no, the Wacom graphics tablet plugged into my main PC doesn't work well on the other screen. I think maybe if it were in mouse mode it might work. I will have to get back with you on that.
I so much enjoy the uncluttered freedom and access.
Ubuntu Synergy setup
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
better homes and computers
OK, here's the fix, I know OS's, Linux or Windows or Mac, have a way to separate each user's stuff but I am going to tell you a better way. Buy a portable bookshelf disk drive for each member in the family. You can work the system a number of ways but for privacy and security nothing beats your own drive. Newer PC's will even allow you to boot from a remote drive, this means the PC can have say Win7 on it and the remote drive can have Ubuntu Linux on it. So when you want to Ubuntu, plug in the drive and drive.
Also if you got kids and your laptop looks it, buy a remote keyboard and mouse, this will channel the sticky fingers away from your laptop. Now, now, compare the cost, $50 remote keyboard and spilt milk vs $700 laptop and spilt milk, aah, you get it!
Personally I don't like those digital picture frames. Besides looking like an old fashioned wide matted photo, they barely do a slide show. I would take a wimpy laptop, turn the screen backward so that you can see it when it is closed (for the coffee table or wall mount) or on a stand (on the mantle), then use a remote keyboard instead of a built in one. I can hide the keyboard, the picture frame is a wonderful 10"-15" diagonal, and I can have sound with my pictures. The thin PC frame looks sleek and modern. You can do the same similar thing with an old and/or cheap PC but recycle that old CRT monitor and get a LCD display.
I have a question, how many PCs can one have for one's self and not go mad? I now have three and they are driving me mad just thinking about it. Two Ubuntu and one XP (the laptop). I guess it is time to dedicate PCs for different uses. On my network I can make one a server for file storage or a multimedia machine and plant it in the living-room TV cabnet. This is an old dilemma you know, ever wonder about the madness in a clock shop during a daylight savings time change, same thing. Add to this the personal computer vs the computer you share with the whole family.
It's kind of a weird thought to have so much potential in a PC and restrict it for a specific use, but lets replace the word limit with focus or dedicated. However, if you need to rearrange or rebuild or reprogram your devices, the potential is still there. it's not wasted, just redirected. So, if you have your computer setup as a multimedia center to be accessed and used by the whole family, you probably wouldn't want to use it for personal internet adventures unless you're home alone, but you can. With my laptop, I can now sit in the livingroom, watch TV and converse with my wife (she misses me!) instead of hiding in the computer room.
Watch TV?? Yeah, through the multimedia center. That depends on what you have connected to it, cable, satellite, internet (like YouTube), DVDs, CDs, what ever source that can be played on the TV through the computer, including regular broadcast TV stations. With a lot of what is deemed as entertainment these days going up in quantity and down in quality, I go to the library for DVDs and download stuff of interest. The big question though is can you do this stuff with Linux???? Yes you can! There are several Linux applications that do multimedia. Miro, and MythTV are the ones known to me, there are more, like Moovida (looks hot!).
If you don't like what is on broadcast TV, cable, yet you want entertainment, news, you can be choosy, picky and downright discriminating about what comes into your house.
I tell you the DIY cult is alive and well. There are still backyard tinkerers, mechanics and stereo/video buffs, extreme gamers and home theater fanatics. You can even turn you garage into the Lowes but the marquee violates zoning laws and a ticket window! Come on!
But why DIY when you can buy a pre-packaged, ready to plug-in and use system? Because you can take it all apart and rebuild it better, with the ready to plug-in and use systems you are stuck with what you get. The caveat, mileage may vary, so check it out before you commit.
Well, I got to go, I'm eying my garage for a major renovation, a mini iMax, pass the juju-bees.
Also if you got kids and your laptop looks it, buy a remote keyboard and mouse, this will channel the sticky fingers away from your laptop. Now, now, compare the cost, $50 remote keyboard and spilt milk vs $700 laptop and spilt milk, aah, you get it!
Personally I don't like those digital picture frames. Besides looking like an old fashioned wide matted photo, they barely do a slide show. I would take a wimpy laptop, turn the screen backward so that you can see it when it is closed (for the coffee table or wall mount) or on a stand (on the mantle), then use a remote keyboard instead of a built in one. I can hide the keyboard, the picture frame is a wonderful 10"-15" diagonal, and I can have sound with my pictures. The thin PC frame looks sleek and modern. You can do the same similar thing with an old and/or cheap PC but recycle that old CRT monitor and get a LCD display.
I have a question, how many PCs can one have for one's self and not go mad? I now have three and they are driving me mad just thinking about it. Two Ubuntu and one XP (the laptop). I guess it is time to dedicate PCs for different uses. On my network I can make one a server for file storage or a multimedia machine and plant it in the living-room TV cabnet. This is an old dilemma you know, ever wonder about the madness in a clock shop during a daylight savings time change, same thing. Add to this the personal computer vs the computer you share with the whole family.
It's kind of a weird thought to have so much potential in a PC and restrict it for a specific use, but lets replace the word limit with focus or dedicated. However, if you need to rearrange or rebuild or reprogram your devices, the potential is still there. it's not wasted, just redirected. So, if you have your computer setup as a multimedia center to be accessed and used by the whole family, you probably wouldn't want to use it for personal internet adventures unless you're home alone, but you can. With my laptop, I can now sit in the livingroom, watch TV and converse with my wife (she misses me!) instead of hiding in the computer room.
Watch TV?? Yeah, through the multimedia center. That depends on what you have connected to it, cable, satellite, internet (like YouTube), DVDs, CDs, what ever source that can be played on the TV through the computer, including regular broadcast TV stations. With a lot of what is deemed as entertainment these days going up in quantity and down in quality, I go to the library for DVDs and download stuff of interest. The big question though is can you do this stuff with Linux???? Yes you can! There are several Linux applications that do multimedia. Miro, and MythTV are the ones known to me, there are more, like Moovida (looks hot!).
If you don't like what is on broadcast TV, cable, yet you want entertainment, news, you can be choosy, picky and downright discriminating about what comes into your house.
I tell you the DIY cult is alive and well. There are still backyard tinkerers, mechanics and stereo/video buffs, extreme gamers and home theater fanatics. You can even turn you garage into the Lowes but the marquee violates zoning laws and a ticket window! Come on!
But why DIY when you can buy a pre-packaged, ready to plug-in and use system? Because you can take it all apart and rebuild it better, with the ready to plug-in and use systems you are stuck with what you get. The caveat, mileage may vary, so check it out before you commit.
Well, I got to go, I'm eying my garage for a major renovation, a mini iMax, pass the juju-bees.
Arno's App List
ABC's Nightline has the plate-list and the play-list, Arno's Art has the app-list. I fling and sling a lot of terms but what is on my machine. My main machine is a HP Pavilion a1030e, not a powerhouse by any stretch of the imagination. I won't detail it, it is a middle of the road typical desktop. I have Kubuntu installed, that's Ubuntu Linux with the KDE desktop GUI.
Firefox is my main web browser.
Konqueruor my second web browser is also a file manager, viewer, etc, etc, etc, swiss army knife.
Open Office is a complete office suite, does MS file formats except MS macro stuff.
eSword is a Bible study center with multiple translations, commentaries, maps, etc; totally wonderful and you can get multiple languages too, including Arabic.
GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program is raster graphics like Photoshop.
Inkscape, is vector graphics like Adobe Illustrator.
Blender 3D is 3D graphics and animation, like no other!
Gwenview is a picture viewer.
Scribus is a desktop publisher system.
Amarok is a audio player and management system.
VLC, VideoLan Controller is the absolute best play anything media player, it streams and captures stills, records and makes Julian fries.
Kb3 is the KDE CD/DVD copy/burner software, does a great job.
Dolphin is a file manager with previews, kills the need for desktop shortcuts, the refrigerator door magnet look is over.
Basket Note Pads is a note pad that handles pictures and text. It is better than a mind map.
Kmail is my email handler.
Synaptic is how you access Linux repositories to install and remove software. It also finds and installs required libraries and extra stuff needed to run software you chosen.
These are the main stuffs on my PC, not nearly a third counting all the small apps like calculators and screenshot apps. OK, I did't mention games. I have lots of games, but I am not a gamer. For the most part Linux does not have Microsoft PC games, Xbox games, Nintendo games, Wii games, Mac games or Play Station Games, so get over it. It does have it's own array of games that might or might not be sort of like those games or not. Not being a game connoisseur, I can not say, but Linux is not lacking in games, if you want Linux games.
I just do what I do on my PC and I am sure others do differently. I can not cover the full breath of what Linux users can do. But you have the liberty to explore, to check it out, to roam like a free range chicken and go to the outer limits or just check your email and play solitaire. Now, you can get all this glorious wonder for free, the cost of download time or the cost of purchase of a CD/DVD is minor. This leaves a hollow feeling in many, so I encourage you, if you are so inclined, to donate to the various software projects of the software you accumulate to help continue development, upgrades and availability. You can also put in your 2 cents by offering suggestions and reporting bugs to these projects. It's a community thing.
Firefox is my main web browser.
Konqueruor my second web browser is also a file manager, viewer, etc, etc, etc, swiss army knife.
Open Office is a complete office suite, does MS file formats except MS macro stuff.
eSword is a Bible study center with multiple translations, commentaries, maps, etc; totally wonderful and you can get multiple languages too, including Arabic.
GIMP, the GNU Image Manipulation Program is raster graphics like Photoshop.
Inkscape, is vector graphics like Adobe Illustrator.
Blender 3D is 3D graphics and animation, like no other!
Gwenview is a picture viewer.
Scribus is a desktop publisher system.
Amarok is a audio player and management system.
VLC, VideoLan Controller is the absolute best play anything media player, it streams and captures stills, records and makes Julian fries.
Kb3 is the KDE CD/DVD copy/burner software, does a great job.
Dolphin is a file manager with previews, kills the need for desktop shortcuts, the refrigerator door magnet look is over.
Basket Note Pads is a note pad that handles pictures and text. It is better than a mind map.
Kmail is my email handler.
Synaptic is how you access Linux repositories to install and remove software. It also finds and installs required libraries and extra stuff needed to run software you chosen.
These are the main stuffs on my PC, not nearly a third counting all the small apps like calculators and screenshot apps. OK, I did't mention games. I have lots of games, but I am not a gamer. For the most part Linux does not have Microsoft PC games, Xbox games, Nintendo games, Wii games, Mac games or Play Station Games, so get over it. It does have it's own array of games that might or might not be sort of like those games or not. Not being a game connoisseur, I can not say, but Linux is not lacking in games, if you want Linux games.
I just do what I do on my PC and I am sure others do differently. I can not cover the full breath of what Linux users can do. But you have the liberty to explore, to check it out, to roam like a free range chicken and go to the outer limits or just check your email and play solitaire. Now, you can get all this glorious wonder for free, the cost of download time or the cost of purchase of a CD/DVD is minor. This leaves a hollow feeling in many, so I encourage you, if you are so inclined, to donate to the various software projects of the software you accumulate to help continue development, upgrades and availability. You can also put in your 2 cents by offering suggestions and reporting bugs to these projects. It's a community thing.
Wednesday, December 02, 2009
best kept secret in Linux is FOSS
Artist must suffer but you can suffer less. My latest project is resurrecting a slightly older laptop PC. Seemed hopeless, no memory, power supply and dust bunnies. I took it all apart and put it back together. It kept running for 10 minutes and shutting down. The CPU was cooking and the thermo paste failed to make a good seal with the heatsink. I did put on enough thermo paste, but it oozed out when I tightened the heatsink down. Then, I got a thermo pad which looks like a smear of putty, cut square on a strip of tape. I put it in place and screwed down the heatsink. When running it got warm, I was concerned, but it didn't shut down, it now runs all day, must be OK. Older laptops do heat up.
The laptop had XP on it, I burned it off and installed Xubuntu. It was fine except the sound didn't work or the wireless. I went to the Gateway web site and all the chip set drivers were for Microsoft OS. I thought of dual booting and installing Linux inside of XP (you can do it!). I have decided to put XP back on, what an experience!, because the laptop was made for XP. I am enduring all the usual pain of service packs, unknown updates, authenticating and activation and endless anti-virus updating. So, to me, when I boot-up, I always wonder if the PC is going to work without a hitch, get past all this stuff and let me get to my work. I never experience this anxiety with Linux. Linux has updates with descriptions and just works without the drama.
Now for the suffering less part, I am using mostly Free Open Source Software (FOSS). Almost all of my typical Linux applications are available in the XP flavor also. This is a good situation actually, I get to keep a rusty hand in the XP world and still extol the virtues of Linux with software that runs on both platforms. FOSS stands pat to bridge the digital gap.
Earlier in my blog I gave some web links for FOSS, this new one is especially for Microsoft users, http://www.theopendisc.com/ These are two DVD iso's, the OpenDisc and the OpenEducationDisc. They each are a DVD sized download, if you don't have a fast connection better buy the discs.
Back on the laptop, I find my time and date settings have to be reset at each boot. My CMOS battery on the motherboard is near dead. Time to hit Radio Shack. I also have a problem when running the laptop and the power supply cord gets accidentally pulled out, it does not switch to battery mode. Then, even if I run it all day, either the battery is not charging or the power reg on the motherboard is shot. New batteries and refurbished or used motherboards are all overpriced for this machine. It seems to be OK as a desk machine (semi-portable), I'll have to take my power brick with me.
I have few comments about the laptop world. First, it is too bad there isn't more standardization in laptop design, or a file format for the chip-set and card drivers that isn't operating system dependent. Then a standard connector for the power cable with a slight snap that can't be pulled out so easily. Finally, I guess I still like display screens in the 4:3 aspect. They seem to be better for document viewing and artwork than the 12:9 aspect screens. But if you get a big wide screen on the laptop you might get by, only that laptop is not so portable. I was in a lawyer office, they had 4:3 aspect displays turned sideways to view 8-1/2 x 11 pages full screen. If you turn a notebook PC sideways and hold it like a book, gee, you can see the full pages on the left and on the right is the mouse pad. Not bad if you must hold a book.
Then for the Linux world I like to see a step-by-step how-to for typical home users. To know how to setup a home network and wireless would be a big help. This would include a Linux only network, a mixed Linux/Win/Mac network, file sharing between network machines and printer sharing. Once you have a typical model explained in simple terms, most can deal with special situations and such. The writer will have to use his/her best mouse-side manner because us typical home users are not system admin or PC wizards.
Linux on the laptop is not as easy as Linux on a desktop, laptops have less standardization in design. There is a web site http://tuxmobil.org/. This has mostly older hardware as the newer stuff seems OK but how would I know, this paragraph brought to you by "this ole laptop PC."
I'm sorry to say there is no know cure for users concerning older hardware. I know, I know, it still works fine. Putting new software on old hardware smacks of the wineskin thing in the Bible. There comes a point when retiring the old stuff is probably the best thing. If money is not the problem then please get newer stuff, please. You will notice PS/2 connectors being missing from newer PC's because keyboards and mice are USB or wireless. Also the cost of memory for older PC's does not lower with age, it goes up because of rarity. Then with improvements in both software and hardware it is a plus to have newer stuff. Withdrawal discomfort, separation anxiety and frugal reasonings will go away if you insist on grieving, let go, please! I would say "buy a little smaller TV so that you can get a new PC" (this is your subliminal techie speaking).
The laptop had XP on it, I burned it off and installed Xubuntu. It was fine except the sound didn't work or the wireless. I went to the Gateway web site and all the chip set drivers were for Microsoft OS. I thought of dual booting and installing Linux inside of XP (you can do it!). I have decided to put XP back on, what an experience!, because the laptop was made for XP. I am enduring all the usual pain of service packs, unknown updates, authenticating and activation and endless anti-virus updating. So, to me, when I boot-up, I always wonder if the PC is going to work without a hitch, get past all this stuff and let me get to my work. I never experience this anxiety with Linux. Linux has updates with descriptions and just works without the drama.
Now for the suffering less part, I am using mostly Free Open Source Software (FOSS). Almost all of my typical Linux applications are available in the XP flavor also. This is a good situation actually, I get to keep a rusty hand in the XP world and still extol the virtues of Linux with software that runs on both platforms. FOSS stands pat to bridge the digital gap.
Earlier in my blog I gave some web links for FOSS, this new one is especially for Microsoft users, http://www.theopendisc.com/ These are two DVD iso's, the OpenDisc and the OpenEducationDisc. They each are a DVD sized download, if you don't have a fast connection better buy the discs.
Back on the laptop, I find my time and date settings have to be reset at each boot. My CMOS battery on the motherboard is near dead. Time to hit Radio Shack. I also have a problem when running the laptop and the power supply cord gets accidentally pulled out, it does not switch to battery mode. Then, even if I run it all day, either the battery is not charging or the power reg on the motherboard is shot. New batteries and refurbished or used motherboards are all overpriced for this machine. It seems to be OK as a desk machine (semi-portable), I'll have to take my power brick with me.
I have few comments about the laptop world. First, it is too bad there isn't more standardization in laptop design, or a file format for the chip-set and card drivers that isn't operating system dependent. Then a standard connector for the power cable with a slight snap that can't be pulled out so easily. Finally, I guess I still like display screens in the 4:3 aspect. They seem to be better for document viewing and artwork than the 12:9 aspect screens. But if you get a big wide screen on the laptop you might get by, only that laptop is not so portable. I was in a lawyer office, they had 4:3 aspect displays turned sideways to view 8-1/2 x 11 pages full screen. If you turn a notebook PC sideways and hold it like a book, gee, you can see the full pages on the left and on the right is the mouse pad. Not bad if you must hold a book.
Then for the Linux world I like to see a step-by-step how-to for typical home users. To know how to setup a home network and wireless would be a big help. This would include a Linux only network, a mixed Linux/Win/Mac network, file sharing between network machines and printer sharing. Once you have a typical model explained in simple terms, most can deal with special situations and such. The writer will have to use his/her best mouse-side manner because us typical home users are not system admin or PC wizards.
Linux on the laptop is not as easy as Linux on a desktop, laptops have less standardization in design. There is a web site http://tuxmobil.org/. This has mostly older hardware as the newer stuff seems OK but how would I know, this paragraph brought to you by "this ole laptop PC."
I'm sorry to say there is no know cure for users concerning older hardware. I know, I know, it still works fine. Putting new software on old hardware smacks of the wineskin thing in the Bible. There comes a point when retiring the old stuff is probably the best thing. If money is not the problem then please get newer stuff, please. You will notice PS/2 connectors being missing from newer PC's because keyboards and mice are USB or wireless. Also the cost of memory for older PC's does not lower with age, it goes up because of rarity. Then with improvements in both software and hardware it is a plus to have newer stuff. Withdrawal discomfort, separation anxiety and frugal reasonings will go away if you insist on grieving, let go, please! I would say "buy a little smaller TV so that you can get a new PC" (this is your subliminal techie speaking).
Thursday, November 26, 2009
the artist must suffer
The artist must suffer is a phrase I heard as a kid. What are they talking about? First there is the suffering of your life circumstances, everybody has that. Then, suffering is when you take all your skills, training, experiences and realize you aren't that great and your artist desire is a delusional fixation. Then you survey the past, present and up and coming artist's work and find you don't have anything new or significant to contribute. Then after you are totally convinced you are a worthless blob with delusions, on the verge of depression, and ready to get a job like everyone else, epiphanies come out of nowhere. It's like falling/jumping off the cliff and either wings sprout or the cliff is really a short hop.
"Everybody can make art, that's no special skill, that's no earth shaking practical talent, like a doctor or a lawyer." I beg to differ. Learning a skill set is science, applying it is an art. Ask any doctor or lawyer. The two are joined at the hip, art and science. The cloth dyer must know the science behind his/her dyes and the art. Knowing law is meaningless if you can't work the space between the judge and the client. Doctors without patient empathy (bedside manner) make everybody nervous. This is a reciprocal mantra, "art/science, science/art" it applies to everything. It is the process of everything that passes through a man's hands or mind. If it is just science, it is cold, dry, dimensionless, the same with art, it becomes meaningless and there is no art without science.
Art is the process that applies the science. Art requires science, expresses with the science. A drawing of a house, then the stacking of bricks to make the house. The art is the picture and the meaningful composition of materials (roof, walls, windows, etc.), which validates the science of structure, the forces of nature (gravity, load bearing, etc.). So, to be committed to the process of art is a suffering. It is not instant like thought. To get a flash of inspiration or have a nagging concept or a story you must tell and do so through your body's function and the materials you gathered around yourself to communicate to others is a suffering. Why? Because you reveal yourself in your expression and are subject to others. "Hey, you talking to me? What the heck are you trying to do or say or show me? I don't like that! I don't understand that! That is not art! That is ugly! You are a nut! or That's pretty cool!, That resonates with me! That says what I feel!"
Art also illustrates ideas, dreams, visions, conveys mood, emotion. This is the art most of us contend with. The picture that speaks a thousand words, clear and precise or garbled unintelligible banter. From a technical drawing to an endless chaos of splotches. There is a context and a setting and an audience. A Jackson Pollack painting in a junkyard is..............but put it in a different light, context, setting and a magic emerges some can appreciate. A political cartoon generates amusement or death threats depending on the audience. A urinal on a wall but not a restroom wall is not art to me. I grew up with the child potty in the living-room, to put the adult potty there is sick. Sometimes context shifting is thought provoking, challenging, controversial or statement making. Some make their mark with this kind of so-called "art".
What about the art we live with, the furnishings we purchase or acquire for our living spaces? I am an African-American, been here for many generations, yet when I go to the store there are few if any African inspired furnishings that reflect my mythic past. The stuff from furniture stores, department stores and antique shops all reflect other cultures. So, in that light, my art aims to validate and illuminate something that is missing in America and down-played by this new diversity movement. This arena gives a hint at my personal suffering as an artist. How to blend and still have a strong flavor, how my roots are as valid and vital as any other man's roots. And I ask, are we in a competition to show who is more superior, intelligent, creative by category (race, sex, age, social status, wealth, culture)?????
We have ascribed to both evolution and intelligent design and still conclude that the composition of a man's body is a marker of his intelligence and supremacy over/under other men. By composition I mean color, height, weight, center of gravity, physical ability, etc. Today especially in America, the mixing of gene-pools has produced humans of every range and description and yet we battle to label ourselves by national origin, historic past, racial roots, cultural traditions to keep whirling (separated) in the rim swirl and not funnel into the pipe to become just an American. How long does it take to become a native? How many generations? Heaven forbid we become native to the land we invaded or were dragged to centuries ago. Do we keep receiving immigrants to refresh our separateness? This is a dilemma that everybody here faces with no exception. We celebrate cultures to keep it alive, so that we don't forget where we came from. As each generation passes, that past is not so strong and we scold our kids for not remembering and get enraged when they have so much liberty to blend, have kids and blend some more.
The phrase "I am an American" is worn so proudly by fresh immigrants but is bitter mutter 2 or 3 generation later, what is becoming of us? Relax, you are becoming a native to the America you've created. Those whom we have called "Indians or Native Americans" are doubled over in laughter as we are succumbing to our fate, the very thing we stigmatize them for. We are becoming the dirt we stand on just like they did. Maybe if you become a world traveler you can escape being rooted here, or say I'm a citizen of the world, I embrace everybody and everything. Maybe you can search out life on other planets............. to prove you are bigger than any country or history itself. No wonder men buy stainless steel hermetically sealed casket to preserve and keep separate remains that would ordinarily be remixed into the earth they came from. No need for a pyramid, we can can you.
It was said that "the American Experiment" is an iffy situation, it is art. A living art on the face of the earth. It is criticized by ones outside affected by it and ones inside experiencing it. The artist's job is to time-stamp the process so that overtime you can see where we've been. Our successes, our failures, our misgivings and aspirations are all recorded in our art.
I ramble to give you insight as to the questions, observations and considerations I go through, I play in my mind as an artist. Then I use a computer and printer instead of paint, brush and canvas. I use Linux with GIMP, Inkscape and Blender 3d instead of Microsoft or Mac with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. I target the space behind your living room sofa instead of the museums of the world. Art to me is about making beautiful things instead of laughing at mis-guided and duped art lovers. The killing part is that it is different for every artist and ultimately you are the judge in any case.
This is "Ameba Dance".
This is "Tribal Essence".
And there is more to come.
"Everybody can make art, that's no special skill, that's no earth shaking practical talent, like a doctor or a lawyer." I beg to differ. Learning a skill set is science, applying it is an art. Ask any doctor or lawyer. The two are joined at the hip, art and science. The cloth dyer must know the science behind his/her dyes and the art. Knowing law is meaningless if you can't work the space between the judge and the client. Doctors without patient empathy (bedside manner) make everybody nervous. This is a reciprocal mantra, "art/science, science/art" it applies to everything. It is the process of everything that passes through a man's hands or mind. If it is just science, it is cold, dry, dimensionless, the same with art, it becomes meaningless and there is no art without science.
Art is the process that applies the science. Art requires science, expresses with the science. A drawing of a house, then the stacking of bricks to make the house. The art is the picture and the meaningful composition of materials (roof, walls, windows, etc.), which validates the science of structure, the forces of nature (gravity, load bearing, etc.). So, to be committed to the process of art is a suffering. It is not instant like thought. To get a flash of inspiration or have a nagging concept or a story you must tell and do so through your body's function and the materials you gathered around yourself to communicate to others is a suffering. Why? Because you reveal yourself in your expression and are subject to others. "Hey, you talking to me? What the heck are you trying to do or say or show me? I don't like that! I don't understand that! That is not art! That is ugly! You are a nut! or That's pretty cool!, That resonates with me! That says what I feel!"
Art also illustrates ideas, dreams, visions, conveys mood, emotion. This is the art most of us contend with. The picture that speaks a thousand words, clear and precise or garbled unintelligible banter. From a technical drawing to an endless chaos of splotches. There is a context and a setting and an audience. A Jackson Pollack painting in a junkyard is..............but put it in a different light, context, setting and a magic emerges some can appreciate. A political cartoon generates amusement or death threats depending on the audience. A urinal on a wall but not a restroom wall is not art to me. I grew up with the child potty in the living-room, to put the adult potty there is sick. Sometimes context shifting is thought provoking, challenging, controversial or statement making. Some make their mark with this kind of so-called "art".
What about the art we live with, the furnishings we purchase or acquire for our living spaces? I am an African-American, been here for many generations, yet when I go to the store there are few if any African inspired furnishings that reflect my mythic past. The stuff from furniture stores, department stores and antique shops all reflect other cultures. So, in that light, my art aims to validate and illuminate something that is missing in America and down-played by this new diversity movement. This arena gives a hint at my personal suffering as an artist. How to blend and still have a strong flavor, how my roots are as valid and vital as any other man's roots. And I ask, are we in a competition to show who is more superior, intelligent, creative by category (race, sex, age, social status, wealth, culture)?????
We have ascribed to both evolution and intelligent design and still conclude that the composition of a man's body is a marker of his intelligence and supremacy over/under other men. By composition I mean color, height, weight, center of gravity, physical ability, etc. Today especially in America, the mixing of gene-pools has produced humans of every range and description and yet we battle to label ourselves by national origin, historic past, racial roots, cultural traditions to keep whirling (separated) in the rim swirl and not funnel into the pipe to become just an American. How long does it take to become a native? How many generations? Heaven forbid we become native to the land we invaded or were dragged to centuries ago. Do we keep receiving immigrants to refresh our separateness? This is a dilemma that everybody here faces with no exception. We celebrate cultures to keep it alive, so that we don't forget where we came from. As each generation passes, that past is not so strong and we scold our kids for not remembering and get enraged when they have so much liberty to blend, have kids and blend some more.
The phrase "I am an American" is worn so proudly by fresh immigrants but is bitter mutter 2 or 3 generation later, what is becoming of us? Relax, you are becoming a native to the America you've created. Those whom we have called "Indians or Native Americans" are doubled over in laughter as we are succumbing to our fate, the very thing we stigmatize them for. We are becoming the dirt we stand on just like they did. Maybe if you become a world traveler you can escape being rooted here, or say I'm a citizen of the world, I embrace everybody and everything. Maybe you can search out life on other planets............. to prove you are bigger than any country or history itself. No wonder men buy stainless steel hermetically sealed casket to preserve and keep separate remains that would ordinarily be remixed into the earth they came from. No need for a pyramid, we can can you.
It was said that "the American Experiment" is an iffy situation, it is art. A living art on the face of the earth. It is criticized by ones outside affected by it and ones inside experiencing it. The artist's job is to time-stamp the process so that overtime you can see where we've been. Our successes, our failures, our misgivings and aspirations are all recorded in our art.
I ramble to give you insight as to the questions, observations and considerations I go through, I play in my mind as an artist. Then I use a computer and printer instead of paint, brush and canvas. I use Linux with GIMP, Inkscape and Blender 3d instead of Microsoft or Mac with Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator. I target the space behind your living room sofa instead of the museums of the world. Art to me is about making beautiful things instead of laughing at mis-guided and duped art lovers. The killing part is that it is different for every artist and ultimately you are the judge in any case.
This is "Ameba Dance".
This is "Tribal Essence".And there is more to come.
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