As you know Linuxville is a virtual place in the hearts of all Linux users. If it were a real place we would be stretching to use what ever technology we have at our disposal. I like to focus on the home front because that is where the practical effect of progress is to be felt. Yeah, we all know some businesses have the money to do this stuff (if they want to invest), but us home folk never seem to get it until years later.
I live in a small city. It is an older post industrial city (nobody here will admit that post part!). There is too much talk about revival of industry of the same nature, scale, scope and reuse of infrastructure. I can hear Springsteen singing "Glory Days". The problem is that most of the older era folks are near to retirement and the younger only want that kind of work if they can't find anything else.
Then the governor wants to put green technology here. So we got a couple of wind turbines to tack onto the grid. Oh, we are making progress in the green direction. The smidgen of power produced is not noticed and most of us don't care where our energy comes from, nor can we say, we just flip the switch. The only green things we can do is buy mercury laced light bulbs, double pane windows and wall/ceiling insulation. If I could afford to buy solar panels and a wind turbine for my home there would need to be new ordinances on the books and insurance options. We don't have flag poles, we won't have home wind turbines on poles either (at least in the city).
How will the green effect sweep down into our lives on a level where we can touch it, see it, feel it? If this does not happen, we will always resist anything dubbed green.
Let the city have it's whirly pin-wheels in the sky, it is a good symbol of green, but plugging them into the existing grid is tacky in small numbers. I would have used that nearly free energy to power a wind turbine factory to make more turbines for us.
On the home front I would install a low power subsystem, first in a group of houses, then a block. On or near these homes put solar arrays and those vertical wind turbines and some batteries, not to power the whole house but the subsystems. On this subsystem the first item would be lighting. GE, an American company, is developing OLED lighting, that's Organic Light Emitting Diodes. It is thin as a sheet of paper and is low power, yet will light a room at way lower energy requirements. Our communications, computers and entertainment stuff would also be on this subsystem, so the AC adapter would become an antique over time. A big part of our living just became low powered, green, off-grid........ things we use daily.
Then we slowly begin to add other green ways and means to our homes. The point is to lower SOME of the demand side. We don't need to insist solar cells and wind turbines meet ALL our needs before we jump into it. This all or nothing view is killing our efforts and support. We could call the few homes a "Green Village", having local contractors and local trade schools working side by side to practice installing and applying green technology. It would spread as green technology and products here find usefulness and value in the lives of actual people. It buys us time as we develop greener products to replace the energy guzzlers we have in the home.
Will that be gas or electric please? There should be city cars like the Smartcar, I would want something a tad bit bigger, then for long trips I could lease or rent a fuel efficient distance car. Maybe personal car ownership is not the best way. A car dealer could be a one stop shop. You could rent or lease, get insurance, mechanic service, any car related service, etc, etc, etc.
Small homes should be discounted for military folks and for college grads to stay and build communities. Larger homes should remain an incentive for those who can afford them. We should change our attitude about smaller homes, make them energy efficient and desirable and resist unreasonable pricing, and............ it getting fuzzy again..........aw, you blinked.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Saturday, July 25, 2009
the all seeing crystal mouse sees all, of course!
Sci-fi art is wonderful at sparking the imagination, the only problem, you won't soon see a product in a store near you.
How green is your world these days? I am willing to bet green is not even a practical consideration. Today green is not cheap. In fact, anything new that will save you money in the long run is priced so that the up front cost will make up for the money the product company spent to make the product. You must realize that ideas are wireless, products are not. For an idea to materialize into a product takes so much human effort. Then you have to account for inertia, all the forces resisting the product, including you. Saving you money at who's expense, the energy company who is pimping you will resist. And if you can't figure you need this thing, you resist. Companies will fight for and against you having this product, you pay for this in the price.
What got you all stirred up, man! I just saw a few companies who developed organic light emitting diodes or OLEDs into lighting panels that light your TV and computer screens. Now they are talking about lighting your rooms in your homes and offices. This thing is not a tube like florescent, or like that ice-cream sundae swirly thing we call a green light bulb. It is flat and flexible like a sheet of paper. My crystal mouse started glowing and the visions of my head produced a pan-o-rama of possibilities. When reality came back to me, I saw what was being offered. The same old thing we are used to in another package.
These companies need to fire half of their present designers and hire some who do sci-fi art on the side. Maybe they can apply their visionary talents to seriously get out of the box. No, we don't want products that are miniature Los Vegas stage set parts, but practical approaches that elevate homes into the next century. I was thinking of lighting panels of various sizes and shapes to be mounted on walls and ceilings or perched on shelves or hung from wires. And not necessarily square or round.
But the great thing about OLEDs is the low power requirement. How we wrestle with trying to power the whole home with solar and wind. We can't swallow the expense to cover every roof with solar cells and put a lightning attractor/bird whacker wind turbine in every yard. Instead, we should design a low power sub-system to be installed in every home. This low power sub-system would feed all the low power equipment. OLEDs would handle the lighting, laptops the computing, then the other low power communication and entertainment systems. Ac adapters would become antiques. A smaller array of solar cells, some batteries, maybe a vertical wind turbine (small envelope), and /or other power generating/storage technology would take part of our energy burden off the grid. This buys us time to work on the energy hogs, heating and cooling, cooking and food storage, laundry.
We have the technology, we don't have the practical application because we are trying to swallow the whole problem at once.
How green is your world these days? I am willing to bet green is not even a practical consideration. Today green is not cheap. In fact, anything new that will save you money in the long run is priced so that the up front cost will make up for the money the product company spent to make the product. You must realize that ideas are wireless, products are not. For an idea to materialize into a product takes so much human effort. Then you have to account for inertia, all the forces resisting the product, including you. Saving you money at who's expense, the energy company who is pimping you will resist. And if you can't figure you need this thing, you resist. Companies will fight for and against you having this product, you pay for this in the price.
What got you all stirred up, man! I just saw a few companies who developed organic light emitting diodes or OLEDs into lighting panels that light your TV and computer screens. Now they are talking about lighting your rooms in your homes and offices. This thing is not a tube like florescent, or like that ice-cream sundae swirly thing we call a green light bulb. It is flat and flexible like a sheet of paper. My crystal mouse started glowing and the visions of my head produced a pan-o-rama of possibilities. When reality came back to me, I saw what was being offered. The same old thing we are used to in another package.
These companies need to fire half of their present designers and hire some who do sci-fi art on the side. Maybe they can apply their visionary talents to seriously get out of the box. No, we don't want products that are miniature Los Vegas stage set parts, but practical approaches that elevate homes into the next century. I was thinking of lighting panels of various sizes and shapes to be mounted on walls and ceilings or perched on shelves or hung from wires. And not necessarily square or round.
But the great thing about OLEDs is the low power requirement. How we wrestle with trying to power the whole home with solar and wind. We can't swallow the expense to cover every roof with solar cells and put a lightning attractor/bird whacker wind turbine in every yard. Instead, we should design a low power sub-system to be installed in every home. This low power sub-system would feed all the low power equipment. OLEDs would handle the lighting, laptops the computing, then the other low power communication and entertainment systems. Ac adapters would become antiques. A smaller array of solar cells, some batteries, maybe a vertical wind turbine (small envelope), and /or other power generating/storage technology would take part of our energy burden off the grid. This buys us time to work on the energy hogs, heating and cooling, cooking and food storage, laundry.
We have the technology, we don't have the practical application because we are trying to swallow the whole problem at once.
Monday, July 20, 2009
You are here, it's not a virtual world
Well it is a recession and money targeted for research has been being diverted for years. What will this generation do in the name of progress? How do you use what we already have to go forward? Man, it's quite a trick to keep old values and move on to new frontiers. Our vision of the future has moved from clean and sanitary with enlightened human perfection to grunge and urban decay with anarchy and corruption. We have sort of given up on ourselves and are giving in to baser elements. Technology has not really been pushed down into our society except for cell phones and computers. Our other possessions are anchored in the past. Home furnishing are the major block to the perception of progress, we like period furnishings and antiques. We detest history yet love to look back to a romantic past, less complicated and more peaceful. Even I have dreamed of an electric African, being as advanced as can be yet still primitive or at least tribal in many ways.
In our looking back we try to make new art on old forms which doesn't work too well. We are so stuck on square shapes. Square defines what is a picture, windows, plumb walls, ceilings, floors, rooms, buildings, city blocks. Yet, when you look at the earth from space it does not resemble a "Borg" ship, is not a cube. It is so easy to manufacture a flat surface with 90 degree edges and border them with a frame. No matter what we put in the frame, it allows us to look back on an ancient technology. And you wonder why we don't progress. We think ditching the square will release us from our values also. Relax, your values are in you, not in the things you construct around you. The things reflect you, but are not you. You can make adjustments, the things don't change, become antiques, don't move on with us.
The latest love of my art life is to look at both African art and sci-fi art. The organic and the technical go together so well. I like the idea of using the present as a bridge between the past and the future. It sort of destroys the disconnect. I am not talking about turning tribal markings into facial or body tattoos or turning family reunions into tribal gatherings. Nothing we do can fix us or change us from what we are, humans living in today. We should stop trying so hard. Art and the things we gather around us though, create an environment around us in which we live. Art can have an effect on us, how we grow up, develop, are inspired. And I would like to avoid a grunge future and also the clean, sterile future. Neither are very practical or healthy or account for our ability to be decent. I am working to release both the death-grip of the past and the fear of the future.
So here we are, don't speculate, just move forward, when we get there, we are what we've become. We remember, we dream, but we live in today.
In our looking back we try to make new art on old forms which doesn't work too well. We are so stuck on square shapes. Square defines what is a picture, windows, plumb walls, ceilings, floors, rooms, buildings, city blocks. Yet, when you look at the earth from space it does not resemble a "Borg" ship, is not a cube. It is so easy to manufacture a flat surface with 90 degree edges and border them with a frame. No matter what we put in the frame, it allows us to look back on an ancient technology. And you wonder why we don't progress. We think ditching the square will release us from our values also. Relax, your values are in you, not in the things you construct around you. The things reflect you, but are not you. You can make adjustments, the things don't change, become antiques, don't move on with us.
The latest love of my art life is to look at both African art and sci-fi art. The organic and the technical go together so well. I like the idea of using the present as a bridge between the past and the future. It sort of destroys the disconnect. I am not talking about turning tribal markings into facial or body tattoos or turning family reunions into tribal gatherings. Nothing we do can fix us or change us from what we are, humans living in today. We should stop trying so hard. Art and the things we gather around us though, create an environment around us in which we live. Art can have an effect on us, how we grow up, develop, are inspired. And I would like to avoid a grunge future and also the clean, sterile future. Neither are very practical or healthy or account for our ability to be decent. I am working to release both the death-grip of the past and the fear of the future.
So here we are, don't speculate, just move forward, when we get there, we are what we've become. We remember, we dream, but we live in today.
Friday, July 03, 2009
the path is wide for some, narrow for others
If you hang around me for any length of time I will rub off some gleanings that have helped me to PC paradise. Of course I don't do old PCs, but if you do, more power to ya!
I'm always talking about backup and the USB drive is key. If your PC can boot from a USB device then here is the thing. You are a wide open XP or Vista user and you want to use Linux on the side. You can get an 8 or 16 gig jump drive and put Linux on it or on one of those USB book style portable drives (250-500 gig). Who'd know but you when and if you booted up Linux on it's own external hard drive. I still have problems with the OS and the personal data on the same drive. The OS is not suppose to crash or get overly corrupted but it does, especially in the case of MS, far too many malware and virus attacks. I wish all PCs came with 20-40 gig drives just for the OS, it can even be solid-state. Then a separate big hard drive for your personal data.
In the Linux realm there is always a better, newer Linux. Either a revision, upgrade or a different Linux distribution you want to try. This is why booting from CDs and jump drives are so cool. If your data is on the same partition of the same drive as your OS, copy it elsewhere or say goodby. This is if something goes wrong or you want to change OS's and have to delete and/or reformat. Data on separate partition or hard drive is safer for you. Of course if your data is on the USB drive, you can plug into any computer to access it, cool huh!
Another cool thing is the pen pad. It is too bad that Wacom is the only pad that has Linux drivers (third party) for it. Some other pen pads are cheaper. The thing about the pen pad is getting use to holding the pen when schooled in mouse mashing. It takes a while to become accustomed to the pen. The pen also has quirks and must be tweaked for your comfort. And if you decide to use only the pen, you might have to adjust it for the kind of use. The pen as a mouse is one thing, as a drawing tool is another. As a mouse, pen pressure gets in the way or you might not want pen pressure to be so sensitive even in drawing mode. The only thing missing with pen pads is the training manual. This guy Dusty Ghost is the man. This tutorial will give you pen pad exercises.
I bet your laptop bag will get heavy, haha! Let's see, laptop, extra battery, AC adapter, E-net cable, USB mouse, USB pen tablet, USB drive, some jump drives, CD's, DVD's, mouse pad, digital cam, cell phone, decoder ring, utility belt and face mask. Yep, you're ready!!
Let's see, ya got the ideas, the tools, you're spending time to dabble and doodle, you've even made some test prints to see what it'll look like. The number one obstacle for any artist, IS IT WORTH THE HASSLE TO TRY TO MAKE A LIVING AT THIS??????
I could fill a phone book with the phrase "it would be a good hobby" or "cool if you are retired", as many times I've heard it. Being an artist must have a long "earning curve". Of course you can be a professional commercial artist using your tools and talents in the context of employment, but I am not talking about that. To use your resources and talents to perfect your art or produce your masterpiece often requires a level of pain and suffering most don't understand. Why? Because they think you should be normal, doing what the rest of us are doing, etc. The saying "an artist must suffer" is kind of a metaphor for the internal and sustained effort required to materialise your art. Instead of concentrating your efforts on an employers project, you are wearing all the hats to do your own. I know I am not much on the business end and more apt to do the art part. We must face Vader (the business end), then our training will be complete, then will we be a Jedi.
One thing for sure, if you put your art skills and talents on the back burner, be sure to fiddle, dabble and doodle. It is like slow cooking, a lot of great things can happen over time. I have revisited old ideas with new technology a couple of times. Things that were laborious in the past are kids stuff today because of computers. I also learned a lot of things in other areas that I can apply to my craft. Don't just say "someday I will devote time for this. Yoda said, "just do, there is no try!"
I'm always talking about backup and the USB drive is key. If your PC can boot from a USB device then here is the thing. You are a wide open XP or Vista user and you want to use Linux on the side. You can get an 8 or 16 gig jump drive and put Linux on it or on one of those USB book style portable drives (250-500 gig). Who'd know but you when and if you booted up Linux on it's own external hard drive. I still have problems with the OS and the personal data on the same drive. The OS is not suppose to crash or get overly corrupted but it does, especially in the case of MS, far too many malware and virus attacks. I wish all PCs came with 20-40 gig drives just for the OS, it can even be solid-state. Then a separate big hard drive for your personal data.
In the Linux realm there is always a better, newer Linux. Either a revision, upgrade or a different Linux distribution you want to try. This is why booting from CDs and jump drives are so cool. If your data is on the same partition of the same drive as your OS, copy it elsewhere or say goodby. This is if something goes wrong or you want to change OS's and have to delete and/or reformat. Data on separate partition or hard drive is safer for you. Of course if your data is on the USB drive, you can plug into any computer to access it, cool huh!
Another cool thing is the pen pad. It is too bad that Wacom is the only pad that has Linux drivers (third party) for it. Some other pen pads are cheaper. The thing about the pen pad is getting use to holding the pen when schooled in mouse mashing. It takes a while to become accustomed to the pen. The pen also has quirks and must be tweaked for your comfort. And if you decide to use only the pen, you might have to adjust it for the kind of use. The pen as a mouse is one thing, as a drawing tool is another. As a mouse, pen pressure gets in the way or you might not want pen pressure to be so sensitive even in drawing mode. The only thing missing with pen pads is the training manual. This guy Dusty Ghost is the man. This tutorial will give you pen pad exercises.
I bet your laptop bag will get heavy, haha! Let's see, laptop, extra battery, AC adapter, E-net cable, USB mouse, USB pen tablet, USB drive, some jump drives, CD's, DVD's, mouse pad, digital cam, cell phone, decoder ring, utility belt and face mask. Yep, you're ready!!
Let's see, ya got the ideas, the tools, you're spending time to dabble and doodle, you've even made some test prints to see what it'll look like. The number one obstacle for any artist, IS IT WORTH THE HASSLE TO TRY TO MAKE A LIVING AT THIS??????
I could fill a phone book with the phrase "it would be a good hobby" or "cool if you are retired", as many times I've heard it. Being an artist must have a long "earning curve". Of course you can be a professional commercial artist using your tools and talents in the context of employment, but I am not talking about that. To use your resources and talents to perfect your art or produce your masterpiece often requires a level of pain and suffering most don't understand. Why? Because they think you should be normal, doing what the rest of us are doing, etc. The saying "an artist must suffer" is kind of a metaphor for the internal and sustained effort required to materialise your art. Instead of concentrating your efforts on an employers project, you are wearing all the hats to do your own. I know I am not much on the business end and more apt to do the art part. We must face Vader (the business end), then our training will be complete, then will we be a Jedi.
One thing for sure, if you put your art skills and talents on the back burner, be sure to fiddle, dabble and doodle. It is like slow cooking, a lot of great things can happen over time. I have revisited old ideas with new technology a couple of times. Things that were laborious in the past are kids stuff today because of computers. I also learned a lot of things in other areas that I can apply to my craft. Don't just say "someday I will devote time for this. Yoda said, "just do, there is no try!"
Monday, June 29, 2009
The Linuxville save the Linux desktop user campaign
OK, ok, enough of my black digital artist manifesto talk, but I do try to engage folks in the deeper thought life from time to time. The Internet has a way homogenising certain words to where you can not find what YOU are thinking of. Search engines are like shepherds and users like free range chickens or cats (I know a little about cat herding).
Here in Linuxville there is still the anguish cry for Linux learning materials that are less all inclusive. I think the zeal to teach Linux is overshadowed by an overbearing desire to explain it all (in detail), wither a user wants it, needs it or not. What am I talking about? In the Microsoft Windows world a regular desktop user is not subjected to the full knowledge of system administration and server maintenance. In the Linux world, the mere mention of the idea of Linux evokes expectations and conversations of servers, networks, and system administration. Interest in Linux infers you are savvy enough to comprehend the complexities and the inner workings and of course there is no other way to learn Linux.
In the MS Windows world you can get a whole book that illustrates life on the MS Windows desktop. In Linuxville a chapter or two is dedicated to the desktop user. Proof, you want proof? You can find MS Windows desktop specialist as a profession. They are experts in user support. In Linuxville the System Admin does it all, there is no Linux desktop specialist. It is a catch 22 situation, which comes first the Linux desktop users that need support or the simple focused training to allow a sizable user pool to exist. There is no separation of user and admin in the Linux explanation. In Linuxville you are promptly told you have to "administer" your own Linux PC. How is this different than administering your own MS PC?
I will bring up cars again. I don't need to be a mechanic to own and drive a car. Besides driver training and a few maintenance things the only other thing is to be able to say the car sounds funny, rides funny or the lights keep flashing. The sense and feel of the user's experience is required by mechanics to properly fix the problem, both the physical car and the drivers perception (feels funny, something's wrong) are addressed. So, in reality you don't need the knowledge or the understanding of a Linux system admin in order to use a Linux desktop. We should sort out what is useful for users, say it, illustrate it and save the deeper explanations for another book. Actually we have those deeper kinds of books already, in abundance.
We say there are enough MS Windows books out there and Linux is just like Windows. You and I know that skills are transferable but the average Joe/Josette does not think like that. You have to explain things in the context in which they exist. If you insist that Linux is just like MS Windows, you instantly start the comparison mill. If it is not "just like MS Windows" you already lost a potential Linux user. Just show folks how it works, let them conclude "hey, it's just like MS Windows!!", but don't you say it.
So, the Linux desktop consists of GUIs and Applications supported by tweaks and tricks and seasoned with annoyances and gotchas. If there is a GUI way to do it, stop there. The extended, alternate and workarounds are all in the Linux Bibles of various titles. The parts of Linux on the server have all been explained too much, we need to focus on the user side. The problem is that there aren't many desktop Linux book writers. Mostly Linux is on the web. You could say Linux is greener and paperless compared to MS and Apple (you never thought of that!). And that's another line of thought. But extensive books on various types of Linux applications might be appreciated, like business apps, graphics apps, etc. Not because they are popular but because users have free access, acquisition, unlimited user rights and the manuals are online rather than printed in a book. The printed published page is still more respected and regarded than works readily available online, ask any library patron.
Perhaps paper books are not your thing and you have the tools and the info to teach us, I myself am very fond of instructional tutorials and ebooks. Collected tutorials on a CD is an exceptional way to teach/learn Linux applications. Short videos cut to the chase and free you from lengthy explanations. Make a thin book with some by whom info and references, then put the CD in the pocket. As much as I like YouTube, if you treat this similar to regular publishing there is more a sense of on the shelf permanence. Great and useful things that exist only on the net can and do disappear.
Ebooks in the .PDF format are wonderful. If you haven't seen the Fullcircle Ubuntu magazine, you have no idea what I am raving about. Nice size, full colour and full of user experiences, it is an eye opening publication.
Now, who wants to carry around a bunch of CDs especially with the rash of netbooks out there? The jump drive is overly handy. You can download this info to the jump drive and view it on whatever PC device you use. Your entire collection of reading/reference material can be put on a handy jump drive. Think utility belt like Batman's or a Scouts merit badge sash or a bullet bandoleer only with jump drives.
If you have a really good product there is no reason you can't charge a little for the info. I know we in the Linux realm have gotten use to free files for everyone, but we either bilk folks with a outrageously high price or endlessly beg for donations. I prefer a token price and asking for support. In all, printing on paper, though not the green thing, is more apt to make money for the writer/publisher. I think effort deserves compensation if I get convenience and help.
Here in Linuxville we need to rely less on the virtual idea. It has devolved into a kind of lazy assumption of "it's posted, it's out there, you have the liberty to get it or not". We should package and present or package and deploy in ways that are practical and convenient for others. Web pages are good for user chatter, back and forth, for intros and brief encounters, but less good for presenting a body of work. Ebooks are more like real publishing. Maybe not as impressive as having a wall full of printed books, but just as effective and you can use the wall space to display my art work.
Here in Linuxville there is still the anguish cry for Linux learning materials that are less all inclusive. I think the zeal to teach Linux is overshadowed by an overbearing desire to explain it all (in detail), wither a user wants it, needs it or not. What am I talking about? In the Microsoft Windows world a regular desktop user is not subjected to the full knowledge of system administration and server maintenance. In the Linux world, the mere mention of the idea of Linux evokes expectations and conversations of servers, networks, and system administration. Interest in Linux infers you are savvy enough to comprehend the complexities and the inner workings and of course there is no other way to learn Linux.
In the MS Windows world you can get a whole book that illustrates life on the MS Windows desktop. In Linuxville a chapter or two is dedicated to the desktop user. Proof, you want proof? You can find MS Windows desktop specialist as a profession. They are experts in user support. In Linuxville the System Admin does it all, there is no Linux desktop specialist. It is a catch 22 situation, which comes first the Linux desktop users that need support or the simple focused training to allow a sizable user pool to exist. There is no separation of user and admin in the Linux explanation. In Linuxville you are promptly told you have to "administer" your own Linux PC. How is this different than administering your own MS PC?
I will bring up cars again. I don't need to be a mechanic to own and drive a car. Besides driver training and a few maintenance things the only other thing is to be able to say the car sounds funny, rides funny or the lights keep flashing. The sense and feel of the user's experience is required by mechanics to properly fix the problem, both the physical car and the drivers perception (feels funny, something's wrong) are addressed. So, in reality you don't need the knowledge or the understanding of a Linux system admin in order to use a Linux desktop. We should sort out what is useful for users, say it, illustrate it and save the deeper explanations for another book. Actually we have those deeper kinds of books already, in abundance.
We say there are enough MS Windows books out there and Linux is just like Windows. You and I know that skills are transferable but the average Joe/Josette does not think like that. You have to explain things in the context in which they exist. If you insist that Linux is just like MS Windows, you instantly start the comparison mill. If it is not "just like MS Windows" you already lost a potential Linux user. Just show folks how it works, let them conclude "hey, it's just like MS Windows!!", but don't you say it.
So, the Linux desktop consists of GUIs and Applications supported by tweaks and tricks and seasoned with annoyances and gotchas. If there is a GUI way to do it, stop there. The extended, alternate and workarounds are all in the Linux Bibles of various titles. The parts of Linux on the server have all been explained too much, we need to focus on the user side. The problem is that there aren't many desktop Linux book writers. Mostly Linux is on the web. You could say Linux is greener and paperless compared to MS and Apple (you never thought of that!). And that's another line of thought. But extensive books on various types of Linux applications might be appreciated, like business apps, graphics apps, etc. Not because they are popular but because users have free access, acquisition, unlimited user rights and the manuals are online rather than printed in a book. The printed published page is still more respected and regarded than works readily available online, ask any library patron.
Perhaps paper books are not your thing and you have the tools and the info to teach us, I myself am very fond of instructional tutorials and ebooks. Collected tutorials on a CD is an exceptional way to teach/learn Linux applications. Short videos cut to the chase and free you from lengthy explanations. Make a thin book with some by whom info and references, then put the CD in the pocket. As much as I like YouTube, if you treat this similar to regular publishing there is more a sense of on the shelf permanence. Great and useful things that exist only on the net can and do disappear.
Ebooks in the .PDF format are wonderful. If you haven't seen the Fullcircle Ubuntu magazine, you have no idea what I am raving about. Nice size, full colour and full of user experiences, it is an eye opening publication.
Now, who wants to carry around a bunch of CDs especially with the rash of netbooks out there? The jump drive is overly handy. You can download this info to the jump drive and view it on whatever PC device you use. Your entire collection of reading/reference material can be put on a handy jump drive. Think utility belt like Batman's or a Scouts merit badge sash or a bullet bandoleer only with jump drives.
If you have a really good product there is no reason you can't charge a little for the info. I know we in the Linux realm have gotten use to free files for everyone, but we either bilk folks with a outrageously high price or endlessly beg for donations. I prefer a token price and asking for support. In all, printing on paper, though not the green thing, is more apt to make money for the writer/publisher. I think effort deserves compensation if I get convenience and help.
Here in Linuxville we need to rely less on the virtual idea. It has devolved into a kind of lazy assumption of "it's posted, it's out there, you have the liberty to get it or not". We should package and present or package and deploy in ways that are practical and convenient for others. Web pages are good for user chatter, back and forth, for intros and brief encounters, but less good for presenting a body of work. Ebooks are more like real publishing. Maybe not as impressive as having a wall full of printed books, but just as effective and you can use the wall space to display my art work.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Yeah but do we design, Yeah we design
Have you ever had an unsolvable problem or a nagging complaint about a situation in the world? I guess when I was a young man trying to find role models among African-American men that pertained to my artist interest, there were few if any. It really hasn't changed. One name stood out, Sam Gilliam. He is an abstract artist. I still don't know or appreciate his vast body of work, but just to know a black guy has the guts to be who he is, is enough. Like John Coltrane, his work is an acquired taste I check out from time to time to calibrate myself.
Against this abstract expression is a menagerie of black artist who play to the supposedly popular demand. Mostly pictures of p-e-o-p-l-e in African subjects, religious subjects, jazz musicians, etc, all with the stereo-typical air of this is what we are about. I wondered in the face of our unique art history, is there an African-American style that we could put into architecture, art, home furnishing and decor. We put our influence into music and dance but not into home decor other than old stuff. There is so much appreciation of our slave past in our practical living, that it keeps us slaves. There are exceptions, but if you look over the mainstream offerings, the influences are not there. I want to tell all black artist to look forward more, look back less, I think we need to look at ourselves less, need to explore outside. We could keep our tether to our history, I don't think it is going away. Maybe the world is ready to see what we see when we are not explaining ourselves.
Let me illustrate further. You want to decorate your home with some African-American themes. You buy pictures of black people in various poses and guises and a starving artist canned abstract or two. If you go more African, you buy African subject matter, carvings, masks etc. Your home resembles the museum of collected African stuff. You are surrounded with reminders of oldness, but you force yourself to think revolution, overcoming adversity and embracing the black aesthetic. Oh, Africans are really colourful, so you layer fabric prints into a nauseating display and try to convince us saying poly-rhythms, syncopated patterns and complex cross-cultural influences. You know, ugly is ugly, no matter where it is from.
This is why style is carefully crafted over time, not haphazardly thrown together (fad or trend). Black artist need to spend the time to access the symbols, patterns, colours and influences and use the normal tools of art; line, colour, proportion, composition. With me, I looked at lots of African things, allowed the images to settle into the back of my mind. I wrestle with those images until something must come out, I see something new heavily influenced by the images I've been taking in. Now I add my art into the mix of other artist and a style emerges. In the past there have been design movements where cultural interest produced a style. However the artist were gathered, college, international consortium, world's fair collaboration, the thrust produced a outcome celebrated in the market place. It was not just material culture that produced the various styles of home furnishings we have today. We black folk still don't admit we even have a material culture. Much of what we display is about the person, clothes, make-up and bling. We rap, sing, dance and shoot hoops, but do we design?? Ah!! Do we design??
Yeah, we design, but there's not enough of it in one place to make an impression beyond fashion, fad and trend. Time will tell and I am endeavouring to put in my two cents.
Against this abstract expression is a menagerie of black artist who play to the supposedly popular demand. Mostly pictures of p-e-o-p-l-e in African subjects, religious subjects, jazz musicians, etc, all with the stereo-typical air of this is what we are about. I wondered in the face of our unique art history, is there an African-American style that we could put into architecture, art, home furnishing and decor. We put our influence into music and dance but not into home decor other than old stuff. There is so much appreciation of our slave past in our practical living, that it keeps us slaves. There are exceptions, but if you look over the mainstream offerings, the influences are not there. I want to tell all black artist to look forward more, look back less, I think we need to look at ourselves less, need to explore outside. We could keep our tether to our history, I don't think it is going away. Maybe the world is ready to see what we see when we are not explaining ourselves.
Let me illustrate further. You want to decorate your home with some African-American themes. You buy pictures of black people in various poses and guises and a starving artist canned abstract or two. If you go more African, you buy African subject matter, carvings, masks etc. Your home resembles the museum of collected African stuff. You are surrounded with reminders of oldness, but you force yourself to think revolution, overcoming adversity and embracing the black aesthetic. Oh, Africans are really colourful, so you layer fabric prints into a nauseating display and try to convince us saying poly-rhythms, syncopated patterns and complex cross-cultural influences. You know, ugly is ugly, no matter where it is from.
This is why style is carefully crafted over time, not haphazardly thrown together (fad or trend). Black artist need to spend the time to access the symbols, patterns, colours and influences and use the normal tools of art; line, colour, proportion, composition. With me, I looked at lots of African things, allowed the images to settle into the back of my mind. I wrestle with those images until something must come out, I see something new heavily influenced by the images I've been taking in. Now I add my art into the mix of other artist and a style emerges. In the past there have been design movements where cultural interest produced a style. However the artist were gathered, college, international consortium, world's fair collaboration, the thrust produced a outcome celebrated in the market place. It was not just material culture that produced the various styles of home furnishings we have today. We black folk still don't admit we even have a material culture. Much of what we display is about the person, clothes, make-up and bling. We rap, sing, dance and shoot hoops, but do we design?? Ah!! Do we design??
Yeah, we design, but there's not enough of it in one place to make an impression beyond fashion, fad and trend. Time will tell and I am endeavouring to put in my two cents.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
approaching art
So you want to be an artist? The page is blank, what do you draw? Do you draw what you see around you or what passes in front of your fantasy world view? With me it's I won't know till I see it. I tend to stay true to my drafting background, designing pieces and fitting them together. I imagine the work on a wall in your home, something you can live with. I don't imagine what you would like to see, I don't know that. Many artist become trained pros who can do your bidding, I am not one of them. Drawing anything and everything is not my voice.
Art can shape an environment and nurture your thoughts. I noticed as teens we outfit our bedrooms with huge flashy embraces of what ever impresses us. The problem is that if this is our world, it is so limited. Makes life hard if we define ourselves by the momentary and have to move on, grow up, or change our scene. In my area, rock 'n' roll is dominate and it's symbol, the Fender guitar is iconic, the metaphor is replayed and acted out over and over, but have you ever seen and heard the Chapman Stick? It makes the guitar seem like a tin box with rubber-bands. The Chapman Stick is not a symbol of rebellion like the guitar, it is art, refined and cultured. It is like the classical acoustic guitar only way way advanced.
The computer as an artist tool is the same as the Chapman Stick. It can mimic many of the same styles and looks as traditional media's but is way advanced. It can be approached simply or with mind numbing complexity, depends on the artist. We like to show all what the computer can do, but we don't think much of simplicity. We boot it up, the lights blink out across the city, the earth shakes a little, the screen blazes layer upon layer of animation, explosions, laser flashes. The animator's daughter visits on bring the kid to work day, she sits in your chair as you fire up the behemoth digital manipulator. She takes the mouse or pen in hand and draws a flower on the screen, simple but exquisite. Who is the digital artist now?
I put a program called Tux Paint on my two computers (one Ubuntu Linux, one XP). My 8 year old grand-kids dabbled for 3 hours straight. I learned a lot just watching them figure it out, explore and create. When school art programs get cut it is a big mistake. Art is a thought process, very useful and needed in today's world. It is a thought process you can't adequately learn from regurgitating facts, history and formulas. Art teaches you to take what is in you, around you and what you have access to, combine them in traditional and unique ways. Art teaches you to visualise, plan, gather resources, utilise tools and talents, execute, perform and produce an output, a final product or a result. Art is applied science. Like anything else in life you have to teach kids to think in different ways. If you cut out one way of thinking, you lose the fruits of those kinds of skills on the graduating end. A doctor who can not creatively apply his skills and knowledge is safer sticking on band-aids than fixing hearts.
So, you don't want to teach art with a future profession as a focus, but the art process as a method, a way of thinking is essential. Let me repeat, don't teach art as a skill set, but as a thought process. This is more valuable than learning to draw. If kids have the art gene, they will pursue drawing. The important thing is that kind of thinking. Being able to apply the factual training to different situations and different people is the key, this is creative thinking.
This is also why I appreciate Linux. Linux is not all packaged and thought out for you. It requires some forethought, some thinking things through and a realisation that Microsoft is not all there is. With Microsoft there are legal limits, with Linux there are no limits that hinder you from designing and inventing on many levels. Linux is not free in the sense it does require commitment of time to learn it, feel it. Though MS acquired skills are transferable, Linux has quirks that are unique to itself. It is not hard to know multiple computer platforms, much simpler than learning multiple languages. This is why it's hard to separate art from science, they are the application of each other.
Art can shape an environment and nurture your thoughts. I noticed as teens we outfit our bedrooms with huge flashy embraces of what ever impresses us. The problem is that if this is our world, it is so limited. Makes life hard if we define ourselves by the momentary and have to move on, grow up, or change our scene. In my area, rock 'n' roll is dominate and it's symbol, the Fender guitar is iconic, the metaphor is replayed and acted out over and over, but have you ever seen and heard the Chapman Stick? It makes the guitar seem like a tin box with rubber-bands. The Chapman Stick is not a symbol of rebellion like the guitar, it is art, refined and cultured. It is like the classical acoustic guitar only way way advanced.
The computer as an artist tool is the same as the Chapman Stick. It can mimic many of the same styles and looks as traditional media's but is way advanced. It can be approached simply or with mind numbing complexity, depends on the artist. We like to show all what the computer can do, but we don't think much of simplicity. We boot it up, the lights blink out across the city, the earth shakes a little, the screen blazes layer upon layer of animation, explosions, laser flashes. The animator's daughter visits on bring the kid to work day, she sits in your chair as you fire up the behemoth digital manipulator. She takes the mouse or pen in hand and draws a flower on the screen, simple but exquisite. Who is the digital artist now?
I put a program called Tux Paint on my two computers (one Ubuntu Linux, one XP). My 8 year old grand-kids dabbled for 3 hours straight. I learned a lot just watching them figure it out, explore and create. When school art programs get cut it is a big mistake. Art is a thought process, very useful and needed in today's world. It is a thought process you can't adequately learn from regurgitating facts, history and formulas. Art teaches you to take what is in you, around you and what you have access to, combine them in traditional and unique ways. Art teaches you to visualise, plan, gather resources, utilise tools and talents, execute, perform and produce an output, a final product or a result. Art is applied science. Like anything else in life you have to teach kids to think in different ways. If you cut out one way of thinking, you lose the fruits of those kinds of skills on the graduating end. A doctor who can not creatively apply his skills and knowledge is safer sticking on band-aids than fixing hearts.
So, you don't want to teach art with a future profession as a focus, but the art process as a method, a way of thinking is essential. Let me repeat, don't teach art as a skill set, but as a thought process. This is more valuable than learning to draw. If kids have the art gene, they will pursue drawing. The important thing is that kind of thinking. Being able to apply the factual training to different situations and different people is the key, this is creative thinking.
This is also why I appreciate Linux. Linux is not all packaged and thought out for you. It requires some forethought, some thinking things through and a realisation that Microsoft is not all there is. With Microsoft there are legal limits, with Linux there are no limits that hinder you from designing and inventing on many levels. Linux is not free in the sense it does require commitment of time to learn it, feel it. Though MS acquired skills are transferable, Linux has quirks that are unique to itself. It is not hard to know multiple computer platforms, much simpler than learning multiple languages. This is why it's hard to separate art from science, they are the application of each other.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
voice of the artist
Have you found your voice yet?
It is so nerve wracking, I see web art all day long, comics, fantasy art, game art, 3D movie art and movie special effects, animation, then technical art, CAD, electrical schematics, enough, enough, enough!!!
Findings ones own voice takes a lot of consideration and an assessment of your entire repertoire of skills and likes. If you've been down the road a while it is no easy task, but at least you can narrow down avenues by experience. Being an electrical drafts-person for years I've built up some technical bones. Some drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture exposure gave me some traditional muscles. Computer skills is in there too. Shake well!!
Oh, sweet spots of life, they come, at least in my experience. I was in high school, in my doodle times I used to draw houses, architectural renderings they were called. Just my luck I wondered into a lunch time open study hall. I heard a group of students harmonising on some Motown tunes around a table. When the singing stopped they talked about their latest exploits. A couple of them were into fantasy football with those vibrating football games. A couple were into drawing and designing comic book heroes and cars. One guy was into psychology and creative writing. I joined, though I couldn't sing, as the house guy. It was embarrassing awkward for a reclusive teenager like me and liberating because I was accepted as a fellow creative explorer with obvious talent. I have had many experiences like this to prove to myself, I was going in a good direction. I just needed to propel myself beyond myself. Take it from me, life concerns you, includes you, but is not about you.
There are a few tracks, train for your target activity come hell or high water or find your unique voice, express yourself. Of course you can just fall into it. I never had the dream of being a professional artist via an employee of some company. I saw the roving artist, semi-retired or at least appearing to be, free from constraints of deadlines, bosses and paperwork early in my life. Freelancing like a free range chicken and producing that highly valued output, unique and special. I am not striving for Carnegie Hall or a museum so I don't need to practice as if my life depended on it. But lacking the business side of art I had to get a regular job to keep on keeping on. Now I have to figure out all that business stuff so that I can continue to develop my craft and support my family too.
I am not an embracer of complexity, chaos, disorder, ultra realism, technical prowess or mathematical genius, yet they all have their place in art. I heard an African artist being interviewed years ago, it struck me when he said, "I just want to make beautiful things." This word has shaped my idea of art and my creative motives.
Africa, Africa, the roots of my ancestry, so I am told, the stories are so faint, someone did write them down, but they were not rehearsed in my youthful ears while growing up. Today they seem like myths and legends. Tribes are no longer the mainstay of Africa, families scattered by (slavery in the past) job seeking, education and travel today, has given way to very mixed cosmo-cities. Urbanisation and mixing with other peoples and cultures across the globe is all I have ever known. I joke, we were tribal, now we are urbal. There, I've coined a word, "URBAL". We are urbal and so my art is urbal. In America we sorely need to drop the hyphens. How long, how many generations will it take for us to be natives? We strain so hard to maintain our hyphens yet we effortlessly mix and blend our DNA. We get so origin proud, but two generations down the road our kids have the liberty from race constraints and social restraints. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, America is a melting pot, a stone soup. We old guys always say race, the next generation always says people/persons.
If you settle on Mars, over time you will become a Martian, yet in America you become hyphenated!?!
If your family has been here a while, you could say your family came from wherever, but you are de-hyphenated since you were born here and raised here in America. Will America collapse if our hyphens are taken away? I think the hyphens keep us from being Americans. We are afraid of being just Americans. We still haven't given up our tethers to other countries (King George is still laughing at us from the grave). We are still over proud and ruled by our ancestry, we are still trying to have our DNA stream be the dominate one, the winner. Our religions, cultures and politics all reflect this, in spite of the blending liberty we have. America is not free yet! We all need to let go, be Americans, then America will grow.
These are some of the thoughts that have shaped my artistic efforts. A maddening flurry of influences, an ocean of ideas, a history of what's gone before and being drowned out by the outspoken loudness of today's trends, the artist learns to filter, to quiet it down, to hear his own voice. For me it began when I disagreed with and was made uncomfortable by the things common in my generation. I discovered both choice and control over what I let into my world.
I drew a line on a page of my own accord. I signed my name under it. "I made that line", I boasted. Folks still ask, "how did you do that?"
It is so nerve wracking, I see web art all day long, comics, fantasy art, game art, 3D movie art and movie special effects, animation, then technical art, CAD, electrical schematics, enough, enough, enough!!!
Findings ones own voice takes a lot of consideration and an assessment of your entire repertoire of skills and likes. If you've been down the road a while it is no easy task, but at least you can narrow down avenues by experience. Being an electrical drafts-person for years I've built up some technical bones. Some drawing, painting, sculpture and architecture exposure gave me some traditional muscles. Computer skills is in there too. Shake well!!
Oh, sweet spots of life, they come, at least in my experience. I was in high school, in my doodle times I used to draw houses, architectural renderings they were called. Just my luck I wondered into a lunch time open study hall. I heard a group of students harmonising on some Motown tunes around a table. When the singing stopped they talked about their latest exploits. A couple of them were into fantasy football with those vibrating football games. A couple were into drawing and designing comic book heroes and cars. One guy was into psychology and creative writing. I joined, though I couldn't sing, as the house guy. It was embarrassing awkward for a reclusive teenager like me and liberating because I was accepted as a fellow creative explorer with obvious talent. I have had many experiences like this to prove to myself, I was going in a good direction. I just needed to propel myself beyond myself. Take it from me, life concerns you, includes you, but is not about you.
There are a few tracks, train for your target activity come hell or high water or find your unique voice, express yourself. Of course you can just fall into it. I never had the dream of being a professional artist via an employee of some company. I saw the roving artist, semi-retired or at least appearing to be, free from constraints of deadlines, bosses and paperwork early in my life. Freelancing like a free range chicken and producing that highly valued output, unique and special. I am not striving for Carnegie Hall or a museum so I don't need to practice as if my life depended on it. But lacking the business side of art I had to get a regular job to keep on keeping on. Now I have to figure out all that business stuff so that I can continue to develop my craft and support my family too.
I am not an embracer of complexity, chaos, disorder, ultra realism, technical prowess or mathematical genius, yet they all have their place in art. I heard an African artist being interviewed years ago, it struck me when he said, "I just want to make beautiful things." This word has shaped my idea of art and my creative motives.
Africa, Africa, the roots of my ancestry, so I am told, the stories are so faint, someone did write them down, but they were not rehearsed in my youthful ears while growing up. Today they seem like myths and legends. Tribes are no longer the mainstay of Africa, families scattered by (slavery in the past) job seeking, education and travel today, has given way to very mixed cosmo-cities. Urbanisation and mixing with other peoples and cultures across the globe is all I have ever known. I joke, we were tribal, now we are urbal. There, I've coined a word, "URBAL". We are urbal and so my art is urbal. In America we sorely need to drop the hyphens. How long, how many generations will it take for us to be natives? We strain so hard to maintain our hyphens yet we effortlessly mix and blend our DNA. We get so origin proud, but two generations down the road our kids have the liberty from race constraints and social restraints. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy, America is a melting pot, a stone soup. We old guys always say race, the next generation always says people/persons.
If you settle on Mars, over time you will become a Martian, yet in America you become hyphenated!?!
If your family has been here a while, you could say your family came from wherever, but you are de-hyphenated since you were born here and raised here in America. Will America collapse if our hyphens are taken away? I think the hyphens keep us from being Americans. We are afraid of being just Americans. We still haven't given up our tethers to other countries (King George is still laughing at us from the grave). We are still over proud and ruled by our ancestry, we are still trying to have our DNA stream be the dominate one, the winner. Our religions, cultures and politics all reflect this, in spite of the blending liberty we have. America is not free yet! We all need to let go, be Americans, then America will grow.
These are some of the thoughts that have shaped my artistic efforts. A maddening flurry of influences, an ocean of ideas, a history of what's gone before and being drowned out by the outspoken loudness of today's trends, the artist learns to filter, to quiet it down, to hear his own voice. For me it began when I disagreed with and was made uncomfortable by the things common in my generation. I discovered both choice and control over what I let into my world.
I drew a line on a page of my own accord. I signed my name under it. "I made that line", I boasted. Folks still ask, "how did you do that?"
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
the making of a digital artist
Man, you are some artist, not doing much art and you call yourself an artist. Some folks are so tuned they can art on anything, anywhere. Me, things have got to be right. I can grab moments when inspired but mostly things have got to be right. Oh when will they ever be right!
Right is not when everything is in order, right is when I got a goal and I'm on my way to getting there. When I see something and start moving toward it, things are right. The old saying "one thing leads to another" is true. Of course the outcomes are not always as I planned but sometimes better. I dare to take the risk, to wander and wonder, to explore the possibilities, in the spirit of seeing what happens. So, in this creative realm I look over what I have to work with and think, I need to improve some things to not cramp my style.
Two ways to improve things. One is the digital pen pad (new sable brush, brand of paint, graphics software) just ain't working out. It's me, I haven't spent the time to learn, get the feel, make it mine. Second is buy new then return to number one, anyway. The difference between an amateur and a pro is that the newbie spends 95% of the time learning the tools. A pro knows what to expect from the tools and has established workflows for the kinds of operations he wants to do. Say it with me, "tutorials help me develop repeatable results" and become the basis for new directions and discoveries.
Hybrids are a way of life for me, as much as I like to be a Linux graphics purist, many commercial and professional avenues are only channeled via the Microsoft PC platform. Good thing there is virtual machines, emulators and compatibility layers. I've been using Wine which allows some MS Windows platform software to run on Linux without installing the OS (XP or Vista). I have Photoshop 5.0 Light Edition, Artweaver 0.5 and Paintshop Pro all running with some degree of success.
Then I have GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, and other Linux natives. Now being expert on all is impossible for me. You might be the graphics guru though!
As I am an artist dabbler I am pressing into the 95% of spending time to learn my tools. No matter the software a bit drawn line is the same, a vector is the same, a fill is the same. They may use different icons or even allow you to tweak parameters, but they are common tools, thus the user experience is shared. All you need is to remember where each program has put the tools so you can find them. Camel hair or sable or acrylic, each brush has its feel, the same with software, find what works for you and spend some time with it. As a computer artist you have to do the art stuff and computer stuff together.
Not much help at the library!! I just went through all the available books on computer graphics here at my local library. Photoshop books galore, some Paintshop Pro, all about manipulating photos. Very, very brief and little about drawing. With digital cams, cell-phone cams and the phrase "post pics on the web", seems no need to draw anything. Drawing, as it seems, is reduced to an art, but ain't that the point!! Drawing an art!! Now there's a concept!! I am sure you can do sooooooooo much with photos, but do they really supersede drawing and make drawing a primitive and passe art-form? Nah! As far as art goes, photos might require a good eye, drawing requires a good eye and a good hand too. As I am older I am tired of today's realism standard. Please don't explicitly explain it in exquisite pictorial detail, just tell the story well and let me imagine according to all that's in me. Ah, that's art.
When you work with paints, brushes, canvas, you are in so much control over what is put on canvas and what you see is what you get. In digital art what you see on the monitor is not always what you get on the print, if you print out at all. Web art has addressed the problem with web-safe color. They sort of guarantee pictures will appear the same on any monitor and any web browser, sort of. The difference between monitor and printer is handled another way.
I was determined to push aside the color chemistry of computing but alas, even I must succumb to the realities. For the most part RGB (red-green-blue) color makes up what drives monitors, scanners and at least desktop printers. It is satisfying for most stuff but for artwork you want something more precise so CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) is the way to go. Why? Because and especially if you use a print service, they require CMYK. This is a bit rough on us Linux graphics folk as our beloved GIMP has CMYK as an add-on plug-in, I don't think I've heard much boasting success. There are other apps that have CMYK like Scribus, Inkscape and Xara Xtreme, perhaps others and the ability to convert is there with varing degrees of success. The thing is to establish a track record of workflows that work with Linux graphics applications. You see printing artwork is not just push-button document printing.
So, now you got skills, tools and know-how and output to manage. An artist does a lot the computer can only help with and to do it in Linux is not impossible, just a learning process.
The irony is that even if you can manage all the inputs and outputs, if the final image is poor art, it is just poor art. You are the artist but don't forget your audience. Oh and the disclaimer, "95% of the art process that created this image was done in Linux!!"
Right is not when everything is in order, right is when I got a goal and I'm on my way to getting there. When I see something and start moving toward it, things are right. The old saying "one thing leads to another" is true. Of course the outcomes are not always as I planned but sometimes better. I dare to take the risk, to wander and wonder, to explore the possibilities, in the spirit of seeing what happens. So, in this creative realm I look over what I have to work with and think, I need to improve some things to not cramp my style.
Two ways to improve things. One is the digital pen pad (new sable brush, brand of paint, graphics software) just ain't working out. It's me, I haven't spent the time to learn, get the feel, make it mine. Second is buy new then return to number one, anyway. The difference between an amateur and a pro is that the newbie spends 95% of the time learning the tools. A pro knows what to expect from the tools and has established workflows for the kinds of operations he wants to do. Say it with me, "tutorials help me develop repeatable results" and become the basis for new directions and discoveries.
Hybrids are a way of life for me, as much as I like to be a Linux graphics purist, many commercial and professional avenues are only channeled via the Microsoft PC platform. Good thing there is virtual machines, emulators and compatibility layers. I've been using Wine which allows some MS Windows platform software to run on Linux without installing the OS (XP or Vista). I have Photoshop 5.0 Light Edition, Artweaver 0.5 and Paintshop Pro all running with some degree of success.
Then I have GIMP, Inkscape, Blender, and other Linux natives. Now being expert on all is impossible for me. You might be the graphics guru though!
As I am an artist dabbler I am pressing into the 95% of spending time to learn my tools. No matter the software a bit drawn line is the same, a vector is the same, a fill is the same. They may use different icons or even allow you to tweak parameters, but they are common tools, thus the user experience is shared. All you need is to remember where each program has put the tools so you can find them. Camel hair or sable or acrylic, each brush has its feel, the same with software, find what works for you and spend some time with it. As a computer artist you have to do the art stuff and computer stuff together.
Not much help at the library!! I just went through all the available books on computer graphics here at my local library. Photoshop books galore, some Paintshop Pro, all about manipulating photos. Very, very brief and little about drawing. With digital cams, cell-phone cams and the phrase "post pics on the web", seems no need to draw anything. Drawing, as it seems, is reduced to an art, but ain't that the point!! Drawing an art!! Now there's a concept!! I am sure you can do sooooooooo much with photos, but do they really supersede drawing and make drawing a primitive and passe art-form? Nah! As far as art goes, photos might require a good eye, drawing requires a good eye and a good hand too. As I am older I am tired of today's realism standard. Please don't explicitly explain it in exquisite pictorial detail, just tell the story well and let me imagine according to all that's in me. Ah, that's art.
When you work with paints, brushes, canvas, you are in so much control over what is put on canvas and what you see is what you get. In digital art what you see on the monitor is not always what you get on the print, if you print out at all. Web art has addressed the problem with web-safe color. They sort of guarantee pictures will appear the same on any monitor and any web browser, sort of. The difference between monitor and printer is handled another way.
I was determined to push aside the color chemistry of computing but alas, even I must succumb to the realities. For the most part RGB (red-green-blue) color makes up what drives monitors, scanners and at least desktop printers. It is satisfying for most stuff but for artwork you want something more precise so CMYK (cyan-magenta-yellow-black) is the way to go. Why? Because and especially if you use a print service, they require CMYK. This is a bit rough on us Linux graphics folk as our beloved GIMP has CMYK as an add-on plug-in, I don't think I've heard much boasting success. There are other apps that have CMYK like Scribus, Inkscape and Xara Xtreme, perhaps others and the ability to convert is there with varing degrees of success. The thing is to establish a track record of workflows that work with Linux graphics applications. You see printing artwork is not just push-button document printing.
So, now you got skills, tools and know-how and output to manage. An artist does a lot the computer can only help with and to do it in Linux is not impossible, just a learning process.
The irony is that even if you can manage all the inputs and outputs, if the final image is poor art, it is just poor art. You are the artist but don't forget your audience. Oh and the disclaimer, "95% of the art process that created this image was done in Linux!!"
Saturday, May 30, 2009
artistic encounters of the Linux kind
The first thing that comes into play to an artist using a computer is economics. We say if I could have one machine that could do it all (I only can afford one), what would that machine be? That totally depends on what kinds of artistic work/play we are planning to do. So, let's see, digital art requires at least.......... I can't answer for all you pixel pushers so I won't. For me it goes like this:
Some kind of laptop I can carry around to dabble and doodle with, not necessarily my main work horse computer. If I lose, misplace or it gets stolen, my doodle machine can be somewhat expendable. I don't want to carry around a $2000.00 machine without Lloyd's of London backing and a full replacement warranty. This doodle machine can be new/used/inexpensive but must run my idea developing software. Of course I'm a Linux and open source software guy.
Then I will need a work horse computer that stays locked up in my studio. I could then use the jump drive or e-net to move files to this studio machine to have the full weight of graphic power push ideas in any direction.
If you only have one machine to do it all and you want a laptop, you will want a big wide screen, fast processor, maximum memory, extended battery life, etc, etc, etc. You want a desktop in a laptop wrapper. Good luck and second mortgage with that.
I still have a vision in my head of the artist roaming the country or city with his box of paint, pallet, easel and small canvases, all situated so he can move about, setup, paint, catch some rays, pack up and go. When he is done capturing he goes to his studio with his visions nailed down and incorporates them into larger canvases. Well this is more or less how I work, only I have sketchbooks and ball-point pens. I'd like to replace this with a laptop.
I have to say though the reason I can get away with doing much on the cheap is because I value the simplicity of 2D design. Many computer artist are into processing power to do 3D graphics, animation or run engineering software, complex programming and imaging software. You must have the equipment to be able to comfortably run the applications you need. The more power you need, the more display options, the more the costs go up. This is why I want a dabble and doodle machine and then also a studio machine.
Another thing I have been impressed with is backup. Especially with artwork, get USB jump drives or USB hard drives to save your work on. Nothing is worst than an OS crash or drive failure and your work is on the same drive as the crashed OS. Recovery services can be expensive. Also this USB drive allows you to carry your work with you, plug in to other computers. With some Linux you can even install the OS and apps on the jump drive and use them if the computer can boot from the USB device. I'm seeing a new cyber superhero wearing a bandoleer of jump drives like a utility belt, ready for anything. So, a laptop with a smallish hard drive is of little concern, rather USB ports is the key along with jump drives.
Sometimes the latest technology is a desire stirrer upper that has nothing to do with getting the work done, just spending your money. Step back from the edge, away from the "having the latest" excitement. I know many handymen and artist who can't give up an old brush that works fine. You pros must be competitive in your market, us dabblers and doodlers have a more relaxed pool of resources, challenges and expectations.
The last stroke of genius for artist is output devices. I've seen a video projector that fits in the pocket and used LCD's can be had very cheaply. Multiple display electronics are out there and we can't even adequately touch printer technology. If the typical desktop printer can put out digital photos, you can bet it will do justice to your digital art work. Now, multiply that times 10, wide format inkjet printers can do poster size and larger and can get pricey if you want to print on more than paper. I can get very exciting if you let it.
I am just poking at a niche, a lot of digital graphics never leaves the screen. Most folks when they think of computer graphics probably think web stuff, or game graphics, movie special effects or cartoons. The digital art world is plenty big. Got a big screen TV, what do you do with it when not watching videos. Computer input makes it a huge multimedia display.
Yeah, I know you can exploit all this with MS or Mac but this is Linuxville.
Some kind of laptop I can carry around to dabble and doodle with, not necessarily my main work horse computer. If I lose, misplace or it gets stolen, my doodle machine can be somewhat expendable. I don't want to carry around a $2000.00 machine without Lloyd's of London backing and a full replacement warranty. This doodle machine can be new/used/inexpensive but must run my idea developing software. Of course I'm a Linux and open source software guy.
Then I will need a work horse computer that stays locked up in my studio. I could then use the jump drive or e-net to move files to this studio machine to have the full weight of graphic power push ideas in any direction.
If you only have one machine to do it all and you want a laptop, you will want a big wide screen, fast processor, maximum memory, extended battery life, etc, etc, etc. You want a desktop in a laptop wrapper. Good luck and second mortgage with that.
I still have a vision in my head of the artist roaming the country or city with his box of paint, pallet, easel and small canvases, all situated so he can move about, setup, paint, catch some rays, pack up and go. When he is done capturing he goes to his studio with his visions nailed down and incorporates them into larger canvases. Well this is more or less how I work, only I have sketchbooks and ball-point pens. I'd like to replace this with a laptop.
I have to say though the reason I can get away with doing much on the cheap is because I value the simplicity of 2D design. Many computer artist are into processing power to do 3D graphics, animation or run engineering software, complex programming and imaging software. You must have the equipment to be able to comfortably run the applications you need. The more power you need, the more display options, the more the costs go up. This is why I want a dabble and doodle machine and then also a studio machine.
Another thing I have been impressed with is backup. Especially with artwork, get USB jump drives or USB hard drives to save your work on. Nothing is worst than an OS crash or drive failure and your work is on the same drive as the crashed OS. Recovery services can be expensive. Also this USB drive allows you to carry your work with you, plug in to other computers. With some Linux you can even install the OS and apps on the jump drive and use them if the computer can boot from the USB device. I'm seeing a new cyber superhero wearing a bandoleer of jump drives like a utility belt, ready for anything. So, a laptop with a smallish hard drive is of little concern, rather USB ports is the key along with jump drives.
Sometimes the latest technology is a desire stirrer upper that has nothing to do with getting the work done, just spending your money. Step back from the edge, away from the "having the latest" excitement. I know many handymen and artist who can't give up an old brush that works fine. You pros must be competitive in your market, us dabblers and doodlers have a more relaxed pool of resources, challenges and expectations.
The last stroke of genius for artist is output devices. I've seen a video projector that fits in the pocket and used LCD's can be had very cheaply. Multiple display electronics are out there and we can't even adequately touch printer technology. If the typical desktop printer can put out digital photos, you can bet it will do justice to your digital art work. Now, multiply that times 10, wide format inkjet printers can do poster size and larger and can get pricey if you want to print on more than paper. I can get very exciting if you let it.
I am just poking at a niche, a lot of digital graphics never leaves the screen. Most folks when they think of computer graphics probably think web stuff, or game graphics, movie special effects or cartoons. The digital art world is plenty big. Got a big screen TV, what do you do with it when not watching videos. Computer input makes it a huge multimedia display.
Yeah, I know you can exploit all this with MS or Mac but this is Linuxville.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Dabbling and doodling with Linux.
There is a lot of stigma surrounding using Linux. This is why some never get past comparing Linux applications to Microsoft and Mac applications. Does which one is best matter if they both do the job? If you use Microsoft, try this, if Linux try this. Why ask can I run Microsoft stuff on Linux? If you want Microsoft, stay with Microsoft. Any advantage to using Linux is somewhat lost running Microsoft stuff on it. It is extra work to do this kind of stuff. And that word compatibility is thrown around so often folks don't know compatible with what. So, in that light, it is simpler not to mix platforms, but if you don't mind the mess, it's your computer.
I fancy myself an artist dabbler. There ought to be a Linux graphics understanding to deal with the Microsoft platform graphics application bias.
1) It is OK to use GIMP even though it is not Photoshop. There are lots of graphic apps that run on the Microsoft platform (including GIMP) some free, some not. Using the industry standard is good if you need to use it. If you don't you are free to use whatever avails.
2) CMYK is not necessary if one does not need it (mostly required for offset printing). If a software does not have it, use one that does, if you need it. GIMP does not have it but can get it. In any case, GIMP handles RGB used in displays and inkjet printers quite well and is all most people ever use.
3) Linux graphics applications work well on computers with lower resources, no need to buy top shelf. To need pro tools but hold off doing digital art until you can get them is insane. If you can do it at lower cost, why not? Skills are transferable. Being able to handle the technology today with what we have available to us is better than pirating a pro-ware copy or waiting for someday when we turn pro and get on the job training (after hours).
4) We Linux graphics users (especially us dabblers and doodlers) can use any tools we want. If we manage to get professional results it is a testament to our skill and artistry.
5) It don't have to be the so-called best, it just has to work, do the job.
6) Dabblers and doodlers don't require lots of power, we don't need to have commercial pro-ware to do what we do. (we can wing-dang-doodle all nite long!)
7) Using Linux graphics does not alienate us from the rest of the graphics world. We expand it, make it better. We are making room for ourselves.
I bring up the movies Tron and Star Wars. When they started the computer and camera technology needed to produce them scarcely existed. Much of it was invented during the production. We have given in to ready made products forgetting how short a time they have been with us. We Linux users have to invent our own technology when necessary.
So, if you are a digital artist and especially if you use Linux and open source software to do it, flaunt it loudly (not made with Photoshop!), (this picture contains no Adobe made content!).
Actually, I don't care what you use to make your digital art, but this is Linuxville, you know.
Art is art, there is no state of the art, cutting edge what ever. Folks are still using oils and brushes and cotton canvas. But we do have an opportunity to explore this new digital media and make it just as viable as the old school traditional medias.
Getting back to stigma in digital art, we value a watercolor or an oil painting and when you want a reproduction (a copy), chances are it will be photographed, scanned into a computer and printed out. But a digitally created image also printed out is treated with less respect than the repro. Digital art is not new, in fact art was envisioned as soon as displays could show what software and programmers could do. We do a lot of art on computers today and there are all kinds of professional work, web design, cartoons, movies, etc, etc, etc, except one area.........., the kind of art that gets fastened to your livingroom wall or your diningroom wall. That casual art we can live with, a popular art, art drawn by computer art dabblers and doodlers.
I fancy myself an artist dabbler. There ought to be a Linux graphics understanding to deal with the Microsoft platform graphics application bias.
1) It is OK to use GIMP even though it is not Photoshop. There are lots of graphic apps that run on the Microsoft platform (including GIMP) some free, some not. Using the industry standard is good if you need to use it. If you don't you are free to use whatever avails.
2) CMYK is not necessary if one does not need it (mostly required for offset printing). If a software does not have it, use one that does, if you need it. GIMP does not have it but can get it. In any case, GIMP handles RGB used in displays and inkjet printers quite well and is all most people ever use.
3) Linux graphics applications work well on computers with lower resources, no need to buy top shelf. To need pro tools but hold off doing digital art until you can get them is insane. If you can do it at lower cost, why not? Skills are transferable. Being able to handle the technology today with what we have available to us is better than pirating a pro-ware copy or waiting for someday when we turn pro and get on the job training (after hours).
4) We Linux graphics users (especially us dabblers and doodlers) can use any tools we want. If we manage to get professional results it is a testament to our skill and artistry.
5) It don't have to be the so-called best, it just has to work, do the job.
6) Dabblers and doodlers don't require lots of power, we don't need to have commercial pro-ware to do what we do. (we can wing-dang-doodle all nite long!)
7) Using Linux graphics does not alienate us from the rest of the graphics world. We expand it, make it better. We are making room for ourselves.
I bring up the movies Tron and Star Wars. When they started the computer and camera technology needed to produce them scarcely existed. Much of it was invented during the production. We have given in to ready made products forgetting how short a time they have been with us. We Linux users have to invent our own technology when necessary.
So, if you are a digital artist and especially if you use Linux and open source software to do it, flaunt it loudly (not made with Photoshop!), (this picture contains no Adobe made content!).
Actually, I don't care what you use to make your digital art, but this is Linuxville, you know.
Art is art, there is no state of the art, cutting edge what ever. Folks are still using oils and brushes and cotton canvas. But we do have an opportunity to explore this new digital media and make it just as viable as the old school traditional medias.
Getting back to stigma in digital art, we value a watercolor or an oil painting and when you want a reproduction (a copy), chances are it will be photographed, scanned into a computer and printed out. But a digitally created image also printed out is treated with less respect than the repro. Digital art is not new, in fact art was envisioned as soon as displays could show what software and programmers could do. We do a lot of art on computers today and there are all kinds of professional work, web design, cartoons, movies, etc, etc, etc, except one area.........., the kind of art that gets fastened to your livingroom wall or your diningroom wall. That casual art we can live with, a popular art, art drawn by computer art dabblers and doodlers.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
so much Linuxville, so little time
The absolute saddest part of my job as a Linuxville guide is not being able to try everything, do everything or know everything. I guess this is why I only dabble in art. If I am blogging I'm not making art. If I fixing PC's I'm not making art. It is not just me, count how many general practice doctors you know, then how many specialist (todays trend). Why can't you specialize in general medicine? It pays better to know in depth and people respect you and say to their friends, you are a geek, nerd, guru, pc whiz or techie. You have karnal knowledge of the OS (the wizard of OS!), and maybe can sense my problems before they happen. Please come and work your magic. "That will be $.25 for the parts and labor and $175.62 for the advice, thank you."
Oh, Arnold, what did you do? I loaded Gnome desktop on my Xubuntu, what a mess. My thought was to explore Gnome as an alternate now I'm stuck with Gnome as my main desktop. You see, when installing multiple desktops there is not much to isolate them from each other. XFCE and Gnome share somethings but Gnome tends to be the dominate personality. In some distributions I've used in the past there was a check box to enable/disable which desktop manager was ruling the roost. This is not the case here, so until I sort this out my Xubuntu has become Ubuntu.
XFCE is a little leaner in resource use but who cares, if I really wanted lean, I'd use Fluxbox or IceWM. What is really nice about XFCE is how it is set up. Simple menus, simple configurations, it just does not get in your way with whiz bang zowie, look at what I can do!!! Gnome, I can set up to look like XFCE but it's not zippy like XFCE. There are more options like transparency in the panels "behind" the icons. I do like the timed wallpaper changer and the ability to easily customize the theme colors. Performance is not bad in Gnome, I increased my RAM to 1024MB. XFCE is already zippy but more RAM and it's zippier yet!
You ever wonder why some well padded folks own a fleet of cars? Believe me if one car could satisfy that person it would be quite a car. Holographic skinning outside and inside. I wonder if chameleon skin could be wired to a computer? Multiple fuel tanks and a golf cart to Autobahn speed regulator. The ability to convert from Mini to Hummer at the drop of a hat, a gear shifter with seamless gear meshes and selectable car noises from stealthy to a gas guzzling HEMI. The funny part is someone will want a fleet of those, oh well. It's human to not get enough.
The kick the ATX PC case to the curb project is rolling along smoothly. Here's how you can get one. First buy a bigger laptop, one with the regular keyboard. Then drop it, oh did you break the display? But instead of replacing the display, remove it with the lid. Now dig out the video cable and LCD monitor from your former computer (check the closet!) and plug that in. Hey, this works quite nice as a desktop. I've got leg room and shelf space. They could make it a convertible/transportable kind of desktop computer thingy, I love it!!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know about those all-in-one PC's with the computer built into the display. It's just like those TV/VCR combos, if that is your only one and it's broke, you got to send the whole thing in to be fixed. As a techie I stand for the separation of computer and display and church and state. I will not compromise my principles! (vote for me, please!) I will fight for your desktop PC but there needs to be a CHANGE.
Speaking of standards, the ATX PC standard is recognized by all hardware manufacturers, but laptop makers enjoy a design engineer's free for all. At least they are not devising new ports on the fly. What would happen to the laptop market if a standard laptop manufacturing format emerged similar to the ATX standard? Can you imagine your favorite laptop brandname being reduced to a system integrator of OEM parts? Hey, it's not our fault, we didn't make that part! (hey Harry, I think we need a different gadget vendor, our good name is getting besmirched by poor quality). Think assembly lines diverging to different points from the same warehouse and different logos for different brands being slapped on. And you thought going to that better store got you better cheese! Ha!
My current realization has been that I am now comfortable with using Linux. I am not a Linux system admin wizard maintaining servers and flocks of networked PC's. I am a humble personal computer owner who has found Linux able to run wonderfully and meet all my computing needs. The Linux OS runs great, now what? For me, it's all about the applications. I am throwing down the mouse hand glove. To administer systems is one world, to manage and use a personal computer is another. Who doesn't know Linux on servers or high-powered workstations? But also, who knows Linux on the average personal computer? This is the part people wrestle with. The history of Microsoft and Apple is engrained in our computer user memory, but still we ask, when did Linux came about. If you were a Byte Magazine fan like I was, you'd know. Byte Magazine tracked all the computer happening in geekdom. I am showing my age here, I know Byte was before many of todays computer user's time. I miss the focus and the coverage. There is no mag covering it all today, we have divided off into MS, Mac or Linux based interest and support groups. We flaunt our loyalities and allegences and logos. The machines claim user-friendliness and the users don't.
So much talk about Linux the OS, now that I got it, what do I do with it? Run applications, just like with MS Windows or Mac OS. First people ask can I run my Windows or Mac stuff on Linux? If you bought a Mac you don't ask if Windows stuff will run on it. The same for Windows. You learn about the software that runs on it. Linux is expected to run what you already know, but Linux has its own stuff. At your insistance Linux has accomodated some of your wants through emulation and virtualization. In that sense Linux is becoming a universal OS. But again, Linux has it's own stuff. As your Linuxville guide I try to explore the Linux stuff. I don't care about comparing GIMP to Photoshop. I just use GIMP. That which is better, knowing which is best, competition, there can only be one thing is dumb. If Photoshop ran on Linux and Windows the way that GIMP does, then we'd have a fight. Besides, how many graphic packages on the Microsoft platform make Photoshop a non-issue, many of which are free?
Take it from the Linuxville guide, when you come to Linuxville leave the MS and Mac bags at home. You don't have to look back when you know you can go back any time. If you settle in here, you can manage a remote residence, or go back to visit or have dual citizenship. My intent is that you can appreciate what's here. And even I haven't seen everything that's here, I am but one person still discovering and my interest are probably not yours. So, if you explore, you can be my guide. This is normal in Linuxville.
Oh, Arnold, what did you do? I loaded Gnome desktop on my Xubuntu, what a mess. My thought was to explore Gnome as an alternate now I'm stuck with Gnome as my main desktop. You see, when installing multiple desktops there is not much to isolate them from each other. XFCE and Gnome share somethings but Gnome tends to be the dominate personality. In some distributions I've used in the past there was a check box to enable/disable which desktop manager was ruling the roost. This is not the case here, so until I sort this out my Xubuntu has become Ubuntu.
XFCE is a little leaner in resource use but who cares, if I really wanted lean, I'd use Fluxbox or IceWM. What is really nice about XFCE is how it is set up. Simple menus, simple configurations, it just does not get in your way with whiz bang zowie, look at what I can do!!! Gnome, I can set up to look like XFCE but it's not zippy like XFCE. There are more options like transparency in the panels "behind" the icons. I do like the timed wallpaper changer and the ability to easily customize the theme colors. Performance is not bad in Gnome, I increased my RAM to 1024MB. XFCE is already zippy but more RAM and it's zippier yet!
You ever wonder why some well padded folks own a fleet of cars? Believe me if one car could satisfy that person it would be quite a car. Holographic skinning outside and inside. I wonder if chameleon skin could be wired to a computer? Multiple fuel tanks and a golf cart to Autobahn speed regulator. The ability to convert from Mini to Hummer at the drop of a hat, a gear shifter with seamless gear meshes and selectable car noises from stealthy to a gas guzzling HEMI. The funny part is someone will want a fleet of those, oh well. It's human to not get enough.
The kick the ATX PC case to the curb project is rolling along smoothly. Here's how you can get one. First buy a bigger laptop, one with the regular keyboard. Then drop it, oh did you break the display? But instead of replacing the display, remove it with the lid. Now dig out the video cable and LCD monitor from your former computer (check the closet!) and plug that in. Hey, this works quite nice as a desktop. I've got leg room and shelf space. They could make it a convertible/transportable kind of desktop computer thingy, I love it!!
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know about those all-in-one PC's with the computer built into the display. It's just like those TV/VCR combos, if that is your only one and it's broke, you got to send the whole thing in to be fixed. As a techie I stand for the separation of computer and display and church and state. I will not compromise my principles! (vote for me, please!) I will fight for your desktop PC but there needs to be a CHANGE.
Speaking of standards, the ATX PC standard is recognized by all hardware manufacturers, but laptop makers enjoy a design engineer's free for all. At least they are not devising new ports on the fly. What would happen to the laptop market if a standard laptop manufacturing format emerged similar to the ATX standard? Can you imagine your favorite laptop brandname being reduced to a system integrator of OEM parts? Hey, it's not our fault, we didn't make that part! (hey Harry, I think we need a different gadget vendor, our good name is getting besmirched by poor quality). Think assembly lines diverging to different points from the same warehouse and different logos for different brands being slapped on. And you thought going to that better store got you better cheese! Ha!
My current realization has been that I am now comfortable with using Linux. I am not a Linux system admin wizard maintaining servers and flocks of networked PC's. I am a humble personal computer owner who has found Linux able to run wonderfully and meet all my computing needs. The Linux OS runs great, now what? For me, it's all about the applications. I am throwing down the mouse hand glove. To administer systems is one world, to manage and use a personal computer is another. Who doesn't know Linux on servers or high-powered workstations? But also, who knows Linux on the average personal computer? This is the part people wrestle with. The history of Microsoft and Apple is engrained in our computer user memory, but still we ask, when did Linux came about. If you were a Byte Magazine fan like I was, you'd know. Byte Magazine tracked all the computer happening in geekdom. I am showing my age here, I know Byte was before many of todays computer user's time. I miss the focus and the coverage. There is no mag covering it all today, we have divided off into MS, Mac or Linux based interest and support groups. We flaunt our loyalities and allegences and logos. The machines claim user-friendliness and the users don't.
So much talk about Linux the OS, now that I got it, what do I do with it? Run applications, just like with MS Windows or Mac OS. First people ask can I run my Windows or Mac stuff on Linux? If you bought a Mac you don't ask if Windows stuff will run on it. The same for Windows. You learn about the software that runs on it. Linux is expected to run what you already know, but Linux has its own stuff. At your insistance Linux has accomodated some of your wants through emulation and virtualization. In that sense Linux is becoming a universal OS. But again, Linux has it's own stuff. As your Linuxville guide I try to explore the Linux stuff. I don't care about comparing GIMP to Photoshop. I just use GIMP. That which is better, knowing which is best, competition, there can only be one thing is dumb. If Photoshop ran on Linux and Windows the way that GIMP does, then we'd have a fight. Besides, how many graphic packages on the Microsoft platform make Photoshop a non-issue, many of which are free?
Take it from the Linuxville guide, when you come to Linuxville leave the MS and Mac bags at home. You don't have to look back when you know you can go back any time. If you settle in here, you can manage a remote residence, or go back to visit or have dual citizenship. My intent is that you can appreciate what's here. And even I haven't seen everything that's here, I am but one person still discovering and my interest are probably not yours. So, if you explore, you can be my guide. This is normal in Linuxville.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
well known recipe for stone soup
There was this iron pot that sat in a booth at the end of the market. You have to walk past all the canned goods with flashy labels and cool sounding familiar names to get there. I thought people were returning food that was stale, rotten or otherwise not to their liking. But their faces weren't twisted with disgust and dissatisfaction, they were smiling with gimpish grins as they tossed stuff into the pot, stirred and tasted. "Can you believe this started with a stone?", they said to me. I saw a stack of bowls and someone passing by exclaimed " feel free to help yourself, no need to ask permission or sign a waver, it way surpasses FDA approval." In my head I reviewed what I saw being dumped into the pot, smelled the smells, then cradled the texture over and over with my spoon. I pulled the spoon to my lips and tasted, "I know this recipe!" I exclaimed out loud. The passerbys smiled and nodded in agreement. A gimpish grim came from nowhere, I still can't seem to shake it.
When I go to the market I now notice the signs and placards all telling me to buy the cans. TV ads and radio jingles extolling the virtues of the canned goods. Techno show hosts cautioning about trying what's in the pot at the end of the market. The canned goods companies conduct studies on the effects on users and the potential threats to their own products. They whisper about their secret ingredients locked away from prying eyes. Who knows if they actually use them. But they boast, "see, the cans are still flying off the shelves". Its true. But some still find their way to the pot in the booth at the end of the market. After being hammered by canned goods mania they venture to taste what's in the pot. Yes, the gimpish grin that comes from nowhere and the sudden outburst "I know this recipe!" are legendary reactions noted in the words of the guy who invented the stone (kernel).
Secret ingredients in a can or a stone in a pot you can see, smell and taste. You can cook, bring your best stuff, put it in the pot, stir and season to taste. You can't cook, come sample the culinary delights. Your face will ache, that Joker's grin doesn't go away and people will say there's something different going on with you. Just tell them you tried the stuff in the pot in the booth at the end of the market. Some will say they won't go there, some have no idea about it, some have wondered but have no strong urge. There is a small sign that says "Welcome to Linuxville" and there is a line you cross though faint from wear, but there is no passport checking or baggage scan. And the bowl is yours to keep.
When I go to the market I now notice the signs and placards all telling me to buy the cans. TV ads and radio jingles extolling the virtues of the canned goods. Techno show hosts cautioning about trying what's in the pot at the end of the market. The canned goods companies conduct studies on the effects on users and the potential threats to their own products. They whisper about their secret ingredients locked away from prying eyes. Who knows if they actually use them. But they boast, "see, the cans are still flying off the shelves". Its true. But some still find their way to the pot in the booth at the end of the market. After being hammered by canned goods mania they venture to taste what's in the pot. Yes, the gimpish grin that comes from nowhere and the sudden outburst "I know this recipe!" are legendary reactions noted in the words of the guy who invented the stone (kernel).
Secret ingredients in a can or a stone in a pot you can see, smell and taste. You can cook, bring your best stuff, put it in the pot, stir and season to taste. You can't cook, come sample the culinary delights. Your face will ache, that Joker's grin doesn't go away and people will say there's something different going on with you. Just tell them you tried the stuff in the pot in the booth at the end of the market. Some will say they won't go there, some have no idea about it, some have wondered but have no strong urge. There is a small sign that says "Welcome to Linuxville" and there is a line you cross though faint from wear, but there is no passport checking or baggage scan. And the bowl is yours to keep.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
user mind and cpu's
I hate to bust your bubble, but no one really multi-tasks, really. Some have the ability to swiftly shift attention while managing several trains of thought, I guess you could say this is multi-tasking. But I guarantee that because focus is required to deal with each thought train to avoid confusion, no one truly multi-tasks.
In the secret life of computers we see they handle one data stream at a time, though computers now do it so rapidly, it would seem to do multiple things at once. And some computer circuits can sort of do preemptive data processing to speed things up. OK, you got 4 cores and can process 4 streams at once, in theory. Does your software written for single core computers really divvy up the workload and share it, or use cores as needed? It is hard to escape how we think, sense, reason, even putting this in circuits to aid us, because the logic is our logic. If we could capture a UFO with a live alien and interrogate them to discover their alien logic, perhaps a different kind of circuit could compute differently. Vote for your favorite alien mentality, Vulcan, Klingon, Borg........hey we invented those guys. Microsoft, Linux, Mac..... we invented those guys too.
So, in this light, what kind of user are you? The desktop GUI's of today allow you to open many tasks at the same time. Widgets, gadgets and multiple windows and workspaces all so that you can have instant access to the things and data you use. While MS Windows is the one workspace wonder, Linux has always had multiple windows and multiple workspaces and multiple desktops. But even if you can have all programs running at once, you can only give attention to one thing at a time. This is the focus that gets things done.
As much as I like XFCE as my desktop of choice, it doesn't allow me to dress up each workspace differently. Gnome has this ability with the right application. You can assign a different wallpaper to each workspace so that you know it's a different space. I think you can also assign applications to open in an assigned workspace, I'll have to check this out to be sure. So, the idea is that when you boot-up, your work enviorment is ready for use. I have to admit, I am a one program at a time person, open it, use it, then close it, but I don't have to be. You have to remember that all these open applications are using resources, though minimally until you focus on that workspace and window. If you want all this functionality you will need system RAM, else it could be slow.
This is all reflextive of the saying we use about 10% of our brains. I have to ask, is this the awareness precentage? Lots of brain activity happens without our awareness, like organ function and other body functions and regulation. You can't use your entire brain for awareness and reason thinking, your focus would kill you if it could override your automatic body functions. Besides the brain has sections to do different tasks. We could say hard wired. And where is your personality stored, anyway?
I think it is time to come down from Mt. Guru in the center of Linuxville. Maybe play a game or two or do some art dabbling. Think I getting a head code. 6 years in Linuxville, I've never had a virus. Must be alergies, have to go out to fix an MS PC.
In the secret life of computers we see they handle one data stream at a time, though computers now do it so rapidly, it would seem to do multiple things at once. And some computer circuits can sort of do preemptive data processing to speed things up. OK, you got 4 cores and can process 4 streams at once, in theory. Does your software written for single core computers really divvy up the workload and share it, or use cores as needed? It is hard to escape how we think, sense, reason, even putting this in circuits to aid us, because the logic is our logic. If we could capture a UFO with a live alien and interrogate them to discover their alien logic, perhaps a different kind of circuit could compute differently. Vote for your favorite alien mentality, Vulcan, Klingon, Borg........hey we invented those guys. Microsoft, Linux, Mac..... we invented those guys too.
So, in this light, what kind of user are you? The desktop GUI's of today allow you to open many tasks at the same time. Widgets, gadgets and multiple windows and workspaces all so that you can have instant access to the things and data you use. While MS Windows is the one workspace wonder, Linux has always had multiple windows and multiple workspaces and multiple desktops. But even if you can have all programs running at once, you can only give attention to one thing at a time. This is the focus that gets things done.
As much as I like XFCE as my desktop of choice, it doesn't allow me to dress up each workspace differently. Gnome has this ability with the right application. You can assign a different wallpaper to each workspace so that you know it's a different space. I think you can also assign applications to open in an assigned workspace, I'll have to check this out to be sure. So, the idea is that when you boot-up, your work enviorment is ready for use. I have to admit, I am a one program at a time person, open it, use it, then close it, but I don't have to be. You have to remember that all these open applications are using resources, though minimally until you focus on that workspace and window. If you want all this functionality you will need system RAM, else it could be slow.
This is all reflextive of the saying we use about 10% of our brains. I have to ask, is this the awareness precentage? Lots of brain activity happens without our awareness, like organ function and other body functions and regulation. You can't use your entire brain for awareness and reason thinking, your focus would kill you if it could override your automatic body functions. Besides the brain has sections to do different tasks. We could say hard wired. And where is your personality stored, anyway?
I think it is time to come down from Mt. Guru in the center of Linuxville. Maybe play a game or two or do some art dabbling. Think I getting a head code. 6 years in Linuxville, I've never had a virus. Must be alergies, have to go out to fix an MS PC.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
welcome to the Linux world
"You know it's not so easy, especially when your only friends, walk, talk, look and feel just like you, and you do the same just like them", or so goes the Jimi Hendrix song. Moving on to Linux is like striking out on your own when all you know and love is a Windows and Mac world.
"Are you experienced? well I aaammmmmmm!!"
A lot of the view of Linux comes out from ones experience. The long timers would probably squint at Ubuntu and say it is too tuned to new Linux users. And after my latest adventure, I understand and agree, somewhat. What new adventure? Why, I installed Fedora 10 (dual-boot with Xubuntu 9.04) and I can see there is a lot of Linux you don't deal with in Ubuntu. I would say that Ubuntu has pushed really hard in the new user direction to make Linux as point-n-click as possible. This is absolutely OK for surfing and snorkeling, but if scuba is your thing, you need a Linux with tanks, able to go deep.
Firstly, Linux is Linux is Linux, but then each distribution distinguishes itself by the tools, utilities and user access (look and feel of the system). So, you could put a distribution together that works but is more expert rated like Slackware or Gentoo or Red Hat. And you can also put user ease in the forefront like Ubuntu, DreamLinux, PC Linux OS. Scratch the GUIs because XFCE on either Fedora or Xubuntu makes them seem like twins. If you are a bit more serious about Linux then Fedora is more robust with expert rated features.
What the heck is expert rated, you ask!? Fedora has a full compliment of programs, applications, utilities, and tools to tweak, adjust, configure and manipulate data using both the command line and GUI. Fedora can do user friendly but more stuff is there targeted to programmers, engineers (various kinds), and system admin. Ubuntu has some of this but mostly favors popular desktop user needs. You have to realize Linux is like motorcycles, cars, vans, trucks, and big diesel rigs.
All vehicles have the standard user (driver) interfaces. It is the same with Linux only some may handle different environments and work loads better. Server, workstations, kiosks, newbie users, and long time users, all different skill, knowledge and requirement levels. Be glad, one size does not fit all. These days finding your size is easy. Start with the user friendly Linux and as your experience grows stay or move on at your own pace. User friendly does not mean dumbing down. At one time you had to know and type to mount drives, today auto-mount is standard with Linux. So, user friendliness is automating features to make them easier, convenient and/or accessible to a greater swath of users.
Let me tell you an ancient guru secret, those really intelligent appearing nerdie, geeked-out, do everything computer whiz types have one skill more than the rest of us. They have great memories. Take two average tech folks and give one of them an above average memory. They can comprehend tech stuff and remember facts and experiences and have excellent recall when needed. Good memory in humans and computers is what makes them excel at what they are.
In the real world you would ask which is better, Xubuntu or Fedora. If you can deal with Xubuntu but not Fedora, who is going to berate you? You use what works for you. I myself dual-boot because Xubuntu is easy and convenient. Fedora is slightly different in how it is Linux so it broadens my knowledge and experience. I will be the first to say the documentation is a big help. It is a misguided thought that computers are intuitive. There are too many features hidden inside for that. This is even true of Microsoft OS's. People write books on OS's so that you can learn the deep things. If you can't be taught, your local PC mentor or computer shop stays very busy.
"Are you experienced? well I aaammmmmmm!!"
A lot of the view of Linux comes out from ones experience. The long timers would probably squint at Ubuntu and say it is too tuned to new Linux users. And after my latest adventure, I understand and agree, somewhat. What new adventure? Why, I installed Fedora 10 (dual-boot with Xubuntu 9.04) and I can see there is a lot of Linux you don't deal with in Ubuntu. I would say that Ubuntu has pushed really hard in the new user direction to make Linux as point-n-click as possible. This is absolutely OK for surfing and snorkeling, but if scuba is your thing, you need a Linux with tanks, able to go deep.
Firstly, Linux is Linux is Linux, but then each distribution distinguishes itself by the tools, utilities and user access (look and feel of the system). So, you could put a distribution together that works but is more expert rated like Slackware or Gentoo or Red Hat. And you can also put user ease in the forefront like Ubuntu, DreamLinux, PC Linux OS. Scratch the GUIs because XFCE on either Fedora or Xubuntu makes them seem like twins. If you are a bit more serious about Linux then Fedora is more robust with expert rated features.
What the heck is expert rated, you ask!? Fedora has a full compliment of programs, applications, utilities, and tools to tweak, adjust, configure and manipulate data using both the command line and GUI. Fedora can do user friendly but more stuff is there targeted to programmers, engineers (various kinds), and system admin. Ubuntu has some of this but mostly favors popular desktop user needs. You have to realize Linux is like motorcycles, cars, vans, trucks, and big diesel rigs.
All vehicles have the standard user (driver) interfaces. It is the same with Linux only some may handle different environments and work loads better. Server, workstations, kiosks, newbie users, and long time users, all different skill, knowledge and requirement levels. Be glad, one size does not fit all. These days finding your size is easy. Start with the user friendly Linux and as your experience grows stay or move on at your own pace. User friendly does not mean dumbing down. At one time you had to know and type to mount drives, today auto-mount is standard with Linux. So, user friendliness is automating features to make them easier, convenient and/or accessible to a greater swath of users.
Let me tell you an ancient guru secret, those really intelligent appearing nerdie, geeked-out, do everything computer whiz types have one skill more than the rest of us. They have great memories. Take two average tech folks and give one of them an above average memory. They can comprehend tech stuff and remember facts and experiences and have excellent recall when needed. Good memory in humans and computers is what makes them excel at what they are.
In the real world you would ask which is better, Xubuntu or Fedora. If you can deal with Xubuntu but not Fedora, who is going to berate you? You use what works for you. I myself dual-boot because Xubuntu is easy and convenient. Fedora is slightly different in how it is Linux so it broadens my knowledge and experience. I will be the first to say the documentation is a big help. It is a misguided thought that computers are intuitive. There are too many features hidden inside for that. This is even true of Microsoft OS's. People write books on OS's so that you can learn the deep things. If you can't be taught, your local PC mentor or computer shop stays very busy.
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
who's got your back?
The most terrifying thing in my computer life is having worked so hard on one or more projects and then the operating system crashes/gets corrupted or the hard drive fails. Chances are the operating system is on the same hard drive as the data. Either way I am in trouble. What could I have done to save my self the aggravation.
1. Put the operating system and software programs on one drive and my data files on another.
a) two internal hard drives or one internal and one USB external drive.
2. Use two internal drives in a Raid 1 setup. This means what ever is put on one drive is automatically mirrored (copied) to the other. Still with this Raid 1 I would separate my data to an USB external drive (because it's portable).
3. I've seen in a catalog a backup disk drive that will completely copy your drive contents at various times creating a hassle free near transparent backup. The best is to copy the system while it is working great. Some operating systems will allow you to keep a known to work copy. This is very handy if you add and remove drivers or adjust settings all the time.
4. NAS or network attached storage is also very nice. It is a self contained unit with multiple drives you can set up as a raid system or a regular storage server.
5. Jump drives are pretty cheap and large, under $20 for 8 gig jump drive. This is small size, big storage to back up important docs, data and put out of sight, off-site, in your safety deposit box, wherever.
6. You could also burn archival CD's or DVD's.
If you are doing huge graphics files, you especially don't want to loose any work so backing up files is a necessity.
The other part of a backup plan is moving backup files off-site in case of theft or disaster or for securing data. We like to think nothing will go haywire, but don't bet on it! A safety deposit box is a comfort to many. Remember the cheapo copyright, take your docs, copy them, put them in an envelope, mail them to yourself, when you get them back don't open them, the post date and sealed package is your cheapo copyright (store them off-site). Now that would be quite a service if your local PC shop had secured file storage/backup.
I've been watching all the anguished faces in California because the fires have devastated so many homes and possessions. Seeing people rake through ashes for a picture of family, if they had a computer backup plan, at least part of their anxiety could be eased. We are in a habit of not taking precautions. We bet against the odds, nothing is going to happen and eventually we will get around to it. Think of a backup plan as your flight recorder. Man, that would be a great product! A self contained battery powered, fire, flood and thief proof backup computer. You could bury it in the yard or some out building, the basement. It could be cabled or secure wireless and encrypted.
I was working with a client who had a Raid 1 and external USB drive setup. One of the Raid 1 drives went bad. I was sent to replace the Raid drives. Instead of replacing both drives at the same time and having to re-install all software, (data files were backed up on the USB drive) I replaced the bad drive, had the system rebuild it into the Raid array, then replaced the other drive and had the system rebuild that one. The client didn't lose or have to re-install anything. He was very happy just to able to get back to work in a short time, as if nothing had happened.
This guy was ready, a warranty to cover the parts and backup to recover his data.
Now, what about you? Who's got your back?
1. Put the operating system and software programs on one drive and my data files on another.
a) two internal hard drives or one internal and one USB external drive.
2. Use two internal drives in a Raid 1 setup. This means what ever is put on one drive is automatically mirrored (copied) to the other. Still with this Raid 1 I would separate my data to an USB external drive (because it's portable).
3. I've seen in a catalog a backup disk drive that will completely copy your drive contents at various times creating a hassle free near transparent backup. The best is to copy the system while it is working great. Some operating systems will allow you to keep a known to work copy. This is very handy if you add and remove drivers or adjust settings all the time.
4. NAS or network attached storage is also very nice. It is a self contained unit with multiple drives you can set up as a raid system or a regular storage server.
5. Jump drives are pretty cheap and large, under $20 for 8 gig jump drive. This is small size, big storage to back up important docs, data and put out of sight, off-site, in your safety deposit box, wherever.
6. You could also burn archival CD's or DVD's.
If you are doing huge graphics files, you especially don't want to loose any work so backing up files is a necessity.
The other part of a backup plan is moving backup files off-site in case of theft or disaster or for securing data. We like to think nothing will go haywire, but don't bet on it! A safety deposit box is a comfort to many. Remember the cheapo copyright, take your docs, copy them, put them in an envelope, mail them to yourself, when you get them back don't open them, the post date and sealed package is your cheapo copyright (store them off-site). Now that would be quite a service if your local PC shop had secured file storage/backup.
I've been watching all the anguished faces in California because the fires have devastated so many homes and possessions. Seeing people rake through ashes for a picture of family, if they had a computer backup plan, at least part of their anxiety could be eased. We are in a habit of not taking precautions. We bet against the odds, nothing is going to happen and eventually we will get around to it. Think of a backup plan as your flight recorder. Man, that would be a great product! A self contained battery powered, fire, flood and thief proof backup computer. You could bury it in the yard or some out building, the basement. It could be cabled or secure wireless and encrypted.
I was working with a client who had a Raid 1 and external USB drive setup. One of the Raid 1 drives went bad. I was sent to replace the Raid drives. Instead of replacing both drives at the same time and having to re-install all software, (data files were backed up on the USB drive) I replaced the bad drive, had the system rebuild it into the Raid array, then replaced the other drive and had the system rebuild that one. The client didn't lose or have to re-install anything. He was very happy just to able to get back to work in a short time, as if nothing had happened.
This guy was ready, a warranty to cover the parts and backup to recover his data.
Now, what about you? Who's got your back?
Friday, May 01, 2009
where is the open computer?
I repeat because it becomes clearer to me and if you see what I see there might be a full court press. Besides, it's kind of fun to change the game once in a while.
I would like to see a laptop base unit with a full-size keyboard on top (arrow keys and number keypad on the side). The floor brick power supply is handy and the battery pack would be optional. The LCD display, mounted in the traditional clamshell lid is not only detachable but is optional, so you can buy it without a display and use a display mounted on a desk pedestal or on the wall. In other words you can choose wither this machine is a laptop or a desktop machine. On the insides, the system ROM which contains the BIOS, has the boot loader built-in. All operating systems (including MS) are redesigned to use this boot loader (points to the boot file and boots it). The claim to fame for this computer is that it will run any OS. This is in a nutshell, my view of an open computer.
I really think the ATX case has gone away for most PC users replaced by laptops. Businesses like the ATX case because you can't walk out the door with it. The laptop base could be secured to the keyboard tray or to the desktop itself if need be. It takes up less space on the desk and in the IT room usually stacked with worn out ATX cased PC's. Then there is less PC to recycle, or less PC sitting there looking out of date and tired. What about upgrading? How many people really upgrade their computers after the initial purchase? Laptops usually contain all that people want and if they want more they can buy a laptop with more. At the most they might get a memory upgrade, maybe a faster processor, the other components are usually small cards that don't require PCI slots or are USB plug-ins. There might be a few laptops that have upgradeable graphics cards. If adequate graphics hardware is built-in from the onset, it is not an issue. Obviously a PCs for gaming and high-end graphics require more than PCs for office work and web browsing. So, cutting a wide swath across computer users for whom portability is not a big need but would like the same functionality in a smaller and lower powered package, this hybrid design is pretty close to the best of both worlds. And looking at the laptop display and hinge arrangement, it would be a snap to add a short video cable and a detachable hinge. Now mind you, I would only do this for the larger full featured units leaning toward the desktop, let the regular laptops stress portability.
I had 512 MB of memory, now 1024 MB or 1 gig. What did I gain? Elbow room. When in a room full of folks, shoulder to shoulder at a table, all trying to eat, you can not finesse your fork or pass the peas without saying "excuse me". So I am not seeing a huge performance increase, but a little ease here and there. Yeah, the feel is more relaxed, things work just better enough to notice. Of course it helps not to complain or be picky, the dark side of the force, you know.
I have had this HP desktop machine since 2005, but it seems the upgrade thirst has subsided. For a long while computer makers were all racing to update features and upgrade speeds. I think we have reached a plateau to where the speed of the machine doesn't increase the speed of the software any appreciable amount. I am talking about regular computer use. I tried to install a flight simulator game and it still requires more beef than what I have, even after these many years of hardware improvements. If I could roll out my wish list, perhaps a better graphics card, another 1 gig of memory, and a USB hard drive.
I would like to experiment with so-called entertainment systems. That MythTV setup has haunted me since I first saw it. The idea is that the pictures and videos stored on your computer, and internet accessed pictures, radio and video, also broadcast radio and TV through tuner cards can all be accessed, recorded, played back through one machine, it's mind numbing.
Then I would like to get into multiple displays as a design element in interior design. Yeah, the digital picture frame is just the appetizer.
My local library just got a new Linux book. "Linux In Easy Steps" by Mike McGrath. Some enlightened soul at my public library has blessed us with a book that brings you into Linux without deep techno speak. A little intro, a little history, a lot of practical instruction. If Linux were explained to me this way from the get-go, I'd be a guru today. At $15.00 US, I'd put this book on my desk and the big Ubuntu Bible on the reference shelf for when I get into deep inquiry mode. I'd tip my penguin beak to the library except still no GIMP books. Open source software is as free as the public library itself and yet libraries insist on stocking only or mostly books on popular and pricey software. And you ask why there is a "digital gap"!! An inspiring young person wanting to get into computer graphics sees only Photoshop books. They beg, barrow or steal sacrificing their integrity to aquire Photoshop. They could have been using GIMP honing their skills while saving their coin to buy a legal copy of Photoshop. Their integrity and skills transferable, they can acquire the pro-ware without having been trained to look over their shoulder.
Then if I see one more Photoshop book centered on cameras or photo editing I am stagging a camera demolition in protest. Computers were used in art long before digital cameras became practical, not just for scanning and printing art, but as the very instrument to produce art. I have been a computer aided drafter for over 20 years. In many colleges computer science has pushed the use of digital graphics in many fields including the fine arts. The computer as an artist's tool is not new. Today computers can be used to hand draw and hand paint in many fine art techniques and styles, including 3-d and photo-real effects. And with the progress in printers, computer art should be booming. And concerning art, there is a lot that a camera can not do except photograph something hand drawn.
So here is something every computer group, arts group can do. Take donations, put them in a fund, then purchase open source computer books and donate them to the public library for the enrichment of us all. If anyone ask why, tell'em that Linuxville guide guy sent you.
I would like to see a laptop base unit with a full-size keyboard on top (arrow keys and number keypad on the side). The floor brick power supply is handy and the battery pack would be optional. The LCD display, mounted in the traditional clamshell lid is not only detachable but is optional, so you can buy it without a display and use a display mounted on a desk pedestal or on the wall. In other words you can choose wither this machine is a laptop or a desktop machine. On the insides, the system ROM which contains the BIOS, has the boot loader built-in. All operating systems (including MS) are redesigned to use this boot loader (points to the boot file and boots it). The claim to fame for this computer is that it will run any OS. This is in a nutshell, my view of an open computer.
I really think the ATX case has gone away for most PC users replaced by laptops. Businesses like the ATX case because you can't walk out the door with it. The laptop base could be secured to the keyboard tray or to the desktop itself if need be. It takes up less space on the desk and in the IT room usually stacked with worn out ATX cased PC's. Then there is less PC to recycle, or less PC sitting there looking out of date and tired. What about upgrading? How many people really upgrade their computers after the initial purchase? Laptops usually contain all that people want and if they want more they can buy a laptop with more. At the most they might get a memory upgrade, maybe a faster processor, the other components are usually small cards that don't require PCI slots or are USB plug-ins. There might be a few laptops that have upgradeable graphics cards. If adequate graphics hardware is built-in from the onset, it is not an issue. Obviously a PCs for gaming and high-end graphics require more than PCs for office work and web browsing. So, cutting a wide swath across computer users for whom portability is not a big need but would like the same functionality in a smaller and lower powered package, this hybrid design is pretty close to the best of both worlds. And looking at the laptop display and hinge arrangement, it would be a snap to add a short video cable and a detachable hinge. Now mind you, I would only do this for the larger full featured units leaning toward the desktop, let the regular laptops stress portability.
I had 512 MB of memory, now 1024 MB or 1 gig. What did I gain? Elbow room. When in a room full of folks, shoulder to shoulder at a table, all trying to eat, you can not finesse your fork or pass the peas without saying "excuse me". So I am not seeing a huge performance increase, but a little ease here and there. Yeah, the feel is more relaxed, things work just better enough to notice. Of course it helps not to complain or be picky, the dark side of the force, you know.
I have had this HP desktop machine since 2005, but it seems the upgrade thirst has subsided. For a long while computer makers were all racing to update features and upgrade speeds. I think we have reached a plateau to where the speed of the machine doesn't increase the speed of the software any appreciable amount. I am talking about regular computer use. I tried to install a flight simulator game and it still requires more beef than what I have, even after these many years of hardware improvements. If I could roll out my wish list, perhaps a better graphics card, another 1 gig of memory, and a USB hard drive.
I would like to experiment with so-called entertainment systems. That MythTV setup has haunted me since I first saw it. The idea is that the pictures and videos stored on your computer, and internet accessed pictures, radio and video, also broadcast radio and TV through tuner cards can all be accessed, recorded, played back through one machine, it's mind numbing.
Then I would like to get into multiple displays as a design element in interior design. Yeah, the digital picture frame is just the appetizer.
My local library just got a new Linux book. "Linux In Easy Steps" by Mike McGrath. Some enlightened soul at my public library has blessed us with a book that brings you into Linux without deep techno speak. A little intro, a little history, a lot of practical instruction. If Linux were explained to me this way from the get-go, I'd be a guru today. At $15.00 US, I'd put this book on my desk and the big Ubuntu Bible on the reference shelf for when I get into deep inquiry mode. I'd tip my penguin beak to the library except still no GIMP books. Open source software is as free as the public library itself and yet libraries insist on stocking only or mostly books on popular and pricey software. And you ask why there is a "digital gap"!! An inspiring young person wanting to get into computer graphics sees only Photoshop books. They beg, barrow or steal sacrificing their integrity to aquire Photoshop. They could have been using GIMP honing their skills while saving their coin to buy a legal copy of Photoshop. Their integrity and skills transferable, they can acquire the pro-ware without having been trained to look over their shoulder.
Then if I see one more Photoshop book centered on cameras or photo editing I am stagging a camera demolition in protest. Computers were used in art long before digital cameras became practical, not just for scanning and printing art, but as the very instrument to produce art. I have been a computer aided drafter for over 20 years. In many colleges computer science has pushed the use of digital graphics in many fields including the fine arts. The computer as an artist's tool is not new. Today computers can be used to hand draw and hand paint in many fine art techniques and styles, including 3-d and photo-real effects. And with the progress in printers, computer art should be booming. And concerning art, there is a lot that a camera can not do except photograph something hand drawn.
So here is something every computer group, arts group can do. Take donations, put them in a fund, then purchase open source computer books and donate them to the public library for the enrichment of us all. If anyone ask why, tell'em that Linuxville guide guy sent you.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
using GRUB to catch Little Foot
Ha, Ha, you didn't see the orange cones when you came by did you? Good, I hoped you hadn't noticed! I was sitting here musing at the latest upgrade version of Xubuntu. I had installed version 9.04 on an empty partition. It's not a big upgrade just by looking at it, so I was in no hurry to have it. This morning before I went out on a call, I got the usual "you have program upgrades available" notice, but added to that was chance to upgrade the whole Xubuntu 8.10 to 9.04. I said why not and pushed the button. An hour and 20 minutes later the files were downloaded and installed. Some of the artwork is nicer, the performance a little snappier and when the 512MB of extra memory I ordered comes we will see more improvements. Boot-up and shutdown times seems a little faster. I am more thrilled to be up to date than having extra flash.
This latest iteration of Ubuntu is called Jaunty Jackalope. Yeah, Ubuntu names!?! A Jackalope is a legendary creature the likes of Big Foot, but more of a "little foot" in this case, not as illusive as the following picture attests. If you do see one, approach with caution or you'll be the endangered species, Ha Ha!
It was not a smooth a transition as I would have liked. Why? There is this thing called a boot loader (GRUB). And like all boot loaders, is wonderful if it is installed in the correct place. Then when you install a second OS, supposedly the software will recognize that you have or have not installed Grub. If Grub is there, it should say, Hey do you want me to up-date your already installed Grub config-file!?! Can I hear a "Yes, Please!!" You usually can have Grub installed in the MBR (Master Boot Record) or in a boot folder of your OS. Some OS's do not handle this well at all. In my case, Grub was installed in the MBR but when I installed a second OS, a second Grub was put in the new OS's boot folder and designated the place to boot from superseding Grub in the MBR. You just can't edit Grub number two and expect Grub number one to spring back into action. Sooooooooooo, I slid in the Xubuntu 9.04 live-CD and got into the CD session. From there I got into the Grub config file and tweaked until it worked. Another way is to invoke in the terminal or command line "sudo update-grub".
Remember when you had to manually mount drives? That was until someone wrote a script, then a little program to do the job. Now all Linux has auto-mount standard built-in. The same should be done for Grub. The Linux install software should have a Grub locator in it. Find Grub, fix it if it's broke, tweak the config according to what's installed. Grub tools should be on the CD so that if thats all that needs to be fixed, you can fix it. Install or find it, fix it, tweak it!
OR put a boot loader in the bios with a switch for single or multiple OS's. Then require every OS (MS, Linux or Mac) to have a boot file that the bios can see. We do this with bootable devices already (boot order). Wow, all my problems seems to have gone away!
Why would anyone want or need more than one Linux OS on his/her computer, you ask????
Except for curiosity, I can't answer that. Normally you shouldn't encounter this unless you insist on dual-booting. Just remember to install WIN before LIN and if you are installing LIN and LIN, opt out of installing Grub a second time if you can.
Oh and my 512 MB did come and things are snappier yet. I'll tell you in a week if things of the normal use are truly better.
This latest iteration of Ubuntu is called Jaunty Jackalope. Yeah, Ubuntu names!?! A Jackalope is a legendary creature the likes of Big Foot, but more of a "little foot" in this case, not as illusive as the following picture attests. If you do see one, approach with caution or you'll be the endangered species, Ha Ha!
It was not a smooth a transition as I would have liked. Why? There is this thing called a boot loader (GRUB). And like all boot loaders, is wonderful if it is installed in the correct place. Then when you install a second OS, supposedly the software will recognize that you have or have not installed Grub. If Grub is there, it should say, Hey do you want me to up-date your already installed Grub config-file!?! Can I hear a "Yes, Please!!" You usually can have Grub installed in the MBR (Master Boot Record) or in a boot folder of your OS. Some OS's do not handle this well at all. In my case, Grub was installed in the MBR but when I installed a second OS, a second Grub was put in the new OS's boot folder and designated the place to boot from superseding Grub in the MBR. You just can't edit Grub number two and expect Grub number one to spring back into action. Sooooooooooo, I slid in the Xubuntu 9.04 live-CD and got into the CD session. From there I got into the Grub config file and tweaked until it worked. Another way is to invoke in the terminal or command line "sudo update-grub".Remember when you had to manually mount drives? That was until someone wrote a script, then a little program to do the job. Now all Linux has auto-mount standard built-in. The same should be done for Grub. The Linux install software should have a Grub locator in it. Find Grub, fix it if it's broke, tweak the config according to what's installed. Grub tools should be on the CD so that if thats all that needs to be fixed, you can fix it. Install or find it, fix it, tweak it!
OR put a boot loader in the bios with a switch for single or multiple OS's. Then require every OS (MS, Linux or Mac) to have a boot file that the bios can see. We do this with bootable devices already (boot order). Wow, all my problems seems to have gone away!
Why would anyone want or need more than one Linux OS on his/her computer, you ask????
Except for curiosity, I can't answer that. Normally you shouldn't encounter this unless you insist on dual-booting. Just remember to install WIN before LIN and if you are installing LIN and LIN, opt out of installing Grub a second time if you can.
Oh and my 512 MB did come and things are snappier yet. I'll tell you in a week if things of the normal use are truly better.
Monday, April 27, 2009
"are we there yet?"
Have you ever seen that movie with the rapper "Icecube" called "Are we there yet!?!" It's got a Swedish handyman the likes of "Mr. Hanny" on "Green Acres". Being a Linuxville guide is like that. Just about everything in town, I can do, learn to do, or direct you to who can do, given enough notice. Hey, I've got the scars to prove it! Linuxville is a pretty diverse place, I live among the Ubuntu and am rather fond of XFCE as my desktop of choice (Xubuntu).
You want to know so much more than I can tell you, you want me to explain every reason and nuance and condense the whole of Linux into a few sound bytes...........impossible. Here is what I did. I read about Linux on various sites to get a handle (never quite clear!). Then I went to http://www.ubuntu.com and downloaded the appropriate .iso file, burned the CD. And just so I could have the official CD, I ordered the free CD too. AOL had free CD's also, if you remember, only when you ran them, you got stuff you didn't expect installed on your computer. Now with Linux (any flavor), you only get the software you asked for. Put the CD into your machine but instead of trying to run a file from MS Windows, restart or reboot your system, so that your computer boots from the CD instead of your hard drive with MS Windows on it. And then you will be asked to run it without installation or to install it. Linux will run off the CD, not install anything on your machine and when you shut it down will quit without a trace. While it is running, you can see what it comes with, how it works, what it looks like and if all your hardware responds. This answers all those questions you were going to pelt me with. Close your mouth before you ask, how they can offer this for free........ please. The catch, it's not a Mac, not MS, it's Linux!!
The live-CD of Ubuntu is wonderful, no time limit, no secret codes, no disabled features, what you see is what you get. The live-CD is the basic system, once you install it, you have access to change it, add to it, tweak it. And like I said, if you are not sure about installing, you now have a Linux live-CD you can play with anytime your curiosity gets stirred. If you want you could never install it yet use it and save files to your jump drive!! Now that's awesome!!
Aside from all the neat web sites you can google, there is one magazine you can download in .pdf format that is superb, Full Circle Magazine. The link is, http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org/ and of course, it is about Ubuntu. In the latest issue there is another interesting link for you social types, http://myubuntu.ning.com. This is on top of all the forums and news pages. If you got an inkling of the artist gene, check out http://www.linuxgraphicsusers.com. You will not be turned away. If you are a document maker Open Office is the name and for tips check out http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/.
I felt much separation anxiety until I visited http://www.webi.org/ and http://www.schoolforge.net/ and said these run on Linux or MS. Then after a bout of "what about" I visited http://www.linuxalt.com/ and http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software, to realize there is a chance I may not even need MS at all. The clincher was when I could output documents in MS file formats if I had to and I could read them and convert them, all without a single MS boot-up. My one MS machine probably gets turned on once every other week, if that.
I am completely happy in Linuxville except for the GUI unrest between the KDE and Gnome crews. XFCE uses the same libraries, tools as Gnome yet has managed to avoid headlines. If lower resource use is a must, XFCE is the way to go, but there are desktops that are even leaner if you need them. XFCE provides a good mix of functionality and lightness. My realization goes like this, an older machine is fine but the cost of adding memory to them has not gone down. If you have 512 MB Linux will not give any hesitation on the desktop. Less memory might require you seek lightness. I just ordered another 512 MB for my newer machine. That will give me 1 gig (1024 MB) of memory and a better performing machine. I could install KDE or Gnome, which do work in 512 MB, but I won't, XFCE works just fine. Yeah, I'm there!!!
You want to know so much more than I can tell you, you want me to explain every reason and nuance and condense the whole of Linux into a few sound bytes...........impossible. Here is what I did. I read about Linux on various sites to get a handle (never quite clear!). Then I went to http://www.ubuntu.com and downloaded the appropriate .iso file, burned the CD. And just so I could have the official CD, I ordered the free CD too. AOL had free CD's also, if you remember, only when you ran them, you got stuff you didn't expect installed on your computer. Now with Linux (any flavor), you only get the software you asked for. Put the CD into your machine but instead of trying to run a file from MS Windows, restart or reboot your system, so that your computer boots from the CD instead of your hard drive with MS Windows on it. And then you will be asked to run it without installation or to install it. Linux will run off the CD, not install anything on your machine and when you shut it down will quit without a trace. While it is running, you can see what it comes with, how it works, what it looks like and if all your hardware responds. This answers all those questions you were going to pelt me with. Close your mouth before you ask, how they can offer this for free........ please. The catch, it's not a Mac, not MS, it's Linux!!
The live-CD of Ubuntu is wonderful, no time limit, no secret codes, no disabled features, what you see is what you get. The live-CD is the basic system, once you install it, you have access to change it, add to it, tweak it. And like I said, if you are not sure about installing, you now have a Linux live-CD you can play with anytime your curiosity gets stirred. If you want you could never install it yet use it and save files to your jump drive!! Now that's awesome!!
Aside from all the neat web sites you can google, there is one magazine you can download in .pdf format that is superb, Full Circle Magazine. The link is, http://www.fullcirclemagazine.org/ and of course, it is about Ubuntu. In the latest issue there is another interesting link for you social types, http://myubuntu.ning.com. This is on top of all the forums and news pages. If you got an inkling of the artist gene, check out http://www.linuxgraphicsusers.com. You will not be turned away. If you are a document maker Open Office is the name and for tips check out http://openoffice.blogs.com/openoffice/.
I felt much separation anxiety until I visited http://www.webi.org/ and http://www.schoolforge.net/ and said these run on Linux or MS. Then after a bout of "what about" I visited http://www.linuxalt.com/ and http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_to_Windows_software, to realize there is a chance I may not even need MS at all. The clincher was when I could output documents in MS file formats if I had to and I could read them and convert them, all without a single MS boot-up. My one MS machine probably gets turned on once every other week, if that.
I am completely happy in Linuxville except for the GUI unrest between the KDE and Gnome crews. XFCE uses the same libraries, tools as Gnome yet has managed to avoid headlines. If lower resource use is a must, XFCE is the way to go, but there are desktops that are even leaner if you need them. XFCE provides a good mix of functionality and lightness. My realization goes like this, an older machine is fine but the cost of adding memory to them has not gone down. If you have 512 MB Linux will not give any hesitation on the desktop. Less memory might require you seek lightness. I just ordered another 512 MB for my newer machine. That will give me 1 gig (1024 MB) of memory and a better performing machine. I could install KDE or Gnome, which do work in 512 MB, but I won't, XFCE works just fine. Yeah, I'm there!!!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
coming to appreciate "what if's"
Henry Ford's famous "any color as long as it's black" or one size fits all, can not be applied to Linux. "We did the research for you, compiled the best out there and present to you the best product available", can not be applied to Linux. The many hands and eyes that have shaped Linux have always said "what if". So, in the car realm, cars have the looks they are known by. A shape, a grille, a logo, a style, a cost and a reputation produced by ones who bought it.
Human psychology is strange, some will emphasize a particular virtue to the exclusion or downplaying of others. I am finding I am like this (I can't escape either!) about computers. The secret, the one you are presently using is always better. And even though you are putting up with annoyances, at least you know what to expect. Some just buy it and use it, are oblivious to pain.
Linuxville, the land of what if. You design a GUI (graphical user interface), everybody loves it, plays with it, but in the back of their mind they say what if. They make another GUI, not to supersede yours, just different. Maybe it's different tools used to code it, or a different programming language or the interactions of user and graphics are different. Maybe it's simpler or more robust. Eventually there are GUI's for a number of kinds of computer users, with features certain groups of users appreciate. So, here's the Linux dilemma, it is hard to nail down a comprehensive best GUI the same way as you can with a product. With a product, everybody uses it, good, bad or ugly. With Linux, somebody will change it, the pool of "everybody" is smaller or happier using something else.
In Linuxville some will swear by KDE, some by Gnome, me I like XFCE. It is almost too bad that GUI's are not entirely separated and placed on top of the operating system. A certain level of integration insures internal cooperation, I'm sure. Maybe that is a future what if, OS selector and boot loader in ROM, GUI as a customizable personality plug-in and the operating system to manage the hardware and file system. But in general there is much heat between KDE and Gnome camps and has been for years now. It's funny how you could make them look like each other at times or make them seem like XP or Macs. All the nuances and differences are points of contention because we think somebody's got to win, to be on top, to be "thee Linux GUI."
The GUI is what identifies the operating system for the user. A "look" makes a thing recognizable and implies a certain "feel" is behind the looks, a thing called familiarity. When you like something you want it to go on forever. You hope that later iterations, revisions, recoding, revamping and security upgrades, will never destroy the look and feel you have come to love. Sometimes improvements and innovations require us to sacrifice familiarity. We try other things because the look and feel is not the same as it was, or we need to try something fresh. So the GUI of choice for me is XFCE.
Is the GUI on the other Linux desktop greener? I have tried different Linux distributions based on their GUI's and based on their packaging systems. Different Linux distros look and feel the exact same due to having the same GUI. Xubuntu (Ubuntu), Fedora (Red Hat) and Wolvix (Slackware) look and feel the exact same under XFCE. They will still be the same if they all had Gnome or KDE. Don't ask which distro has the best GUI, ask which GUI is coolest, then which distro exploits it best?
I have also tried Linux distributions based on the packaging systems. It is more accurate to say based on what is behind the packaging systems. That is the completeness of the pre-compiled, ready to install program inventory stored in the user accessed "repositories". In distributions with the Debian or .deb packaging, there is a reputation of having the most up to date collections with the most recent revisions. Distributions sporting the Red Hat Packaging Management or .rpm packaging, come in second at least by my reading. The oldest, Tarball or .tgz packaging (like a zip file) used by Slackware and others seem slow on the uptake. If you are prone to compile software yourself if you need to, it does not matter which packaging you use. But I have never wanted to compile or needed to because I have found all of what I need already compiled, ready to install in the .deb repositories of my chosen distribution.
Arnold, what are you saying?? I am saying that in Linuxville, you can simply use what's here and when the "what if" bubble gets attached to your thought processes, you can always do something about it. Linux is not a single product of a company's experts, yet there are some experts among us. We all get to put our two cents in on some level and some love to get in on development projects. You don't have to be an employee or work with Delbert. And figuring out which Linux is not that hard, your Linuxville guide (in various modes) is here to help.
Human psychology is strange, some will emphasize a particular virtue to the exclusion or downplaying of others. I am finding I am like this (I can't escape either!) about computers. The secret, the one you are presently using is always better. And even though you are putting up with annoyances, at least you know what to expect. Some just buy it and use it, are oblivious to pain.
Linuxville, the land of what if. You design a GUI (graphical user interface), everybody loves it, plays with it, but in the back of their mind they say what if. They make another GUI, not to supersede yours, just different. Maybe it's different tools used to code it, or a different programming language or the interactions of user and graphics are different. Maybe it's simpler or more robust. Eventually there are GUI's for a number of kinds of computer users, with features certain groups of users appreciate. So, here's the Linux dilemma, it is hard to nail down a comprehensive best GUI the same way as you can with a product. With a product, everybody uses it, good, bad or ugly. With Linux, somebody will change it, the pool of "everybody" is smaller or happier using something else.
In Linuxville some will swear by KDE, some by Gnome, me I like XFCE. It is almost too bad that GUI's are not entirely separated and placed on top of the operating system. A certain level of integration insures internal cooperation, I'm sure. Maybe that is a future what if, OS selector and boot loader in ROM, GUI as a customizable personality plug-in and the operating system to manage the hardware and file system. But in general there is much heat between KDE and Gnome camps and has been for years now. It's funny how you could make them look like each other at times or make them seem like XP or Macs. All the nuances and differences are points of contention because we think somebody's got to win, to be on top, to be "thee Linux GUI."
The GUI is what identifies the operating system for the user. A "look" makes a thing recognizable and implies a certain "feel" is behind the looks, a thing called familiarity. When you like something you want it to go on forever. You hope that later iterations, revisions, recoding, revamping and security upgrades, will never destroy the look and feel you have come to love. Sometimes improvements and innovations require us to sacrifice familiarity. We try other things because the look and feel is not the same as it was, or we need to try something fresh. So the GUI of choice for me is XFCE.
Is the GUI on the other Linux desktop greener? I have tried different Linux distributions based on their GUI's and based on their packaging systems. Different Linux distros look and feel the exact same due to having the same GUI. Xubuntu (Ubuntu), Fedora (Red Hat) and Wolvix (Slackware) look and feel the exact same under XFCE. They will still be the same if they all had Gnome or KDE. Don't ask which distro has the best GUI, ask which GUI is coolest, then which distro exploits it best?
I have also tried Linux distributions based on the packaging systems. It is more accurate to say based on what is behind the packaging systems. That is the completeness of the pre-compiled, ready to install program inventory stored in the user accessed "repositories". In distributions with the Debian or .deb packaging, there is a reputation of having the most up to date collections with the most recent revisions. Distributions sporting the Red Hat Packaging Management or .rpm packaging, come in second at least by my reading. The oldest, Tarball or .tgz packaging (like a zip file) used by Slackware and others seem slow on the uptake. If you are prone to compile software yourself if you need to, it does not matter which packaging you use. But I have never wanted to compile or needed to because I have found all of what I need already compiled, ready to install in the .deb repositories of my chosen distribution.
Arnold, what are you saying?? I am saying that in Linuxville, you can simply use what's here and when the "what if" bubble gets attached to your thought processes, you can always do something about it. Linux is not a single product of a company's experts, yet there are some experts among us. We all get to put our two cents in on some level and some love to get in on development projects. You don't have to be an employee or work with Delbert. And figuring out which Linux is not that hard, your Linuxville guide (in various modes) is here to help.
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