Wednesday, October 30, 2013

feeeeeeel the power

As you all know I've been totally taken by my new tablet. It's starting to get forensic evidence embedded in the cracks and crevices. If you have one of the various tablet devices, especially with a stylus, and can do drawing on it, you kind of know where I'm going. Getting the feel of drawing on the slick screen is awkward. My Wacom Graphire had a slick surface and a hard plastic pen point. There was not enough traction and I tried to tape paper on the tablet to work better. Better was not great, just OK. The new tablet has a protective film over the screen. This helps but the real thing is that the stylus has a hard rubber tip. The combination is perfect for a good control and feel, like a felt pen.

Now when you draw because it is a capacitive relation between the pen tip and the tablet surface, there still a connection when the pen is barely touching. The effect is like a nib that is fine on the line part but splotches at the start and when you stop. You learn the feel to put it down to draw and pick it up when you don't. Believe me, DustyGhosts' tutorial is good practice. Starting and stopping lines, circles, shapes. Here is a project. Get a pencil, a ball point pen, a felt tip pen, chalk, charcoal, crayon. Then do the same exercise. Each has a feel, the digital stylus is no different, depends on your feel of it.

I saw on line people using their Galaxy tablets as input devices for their PCs. I think it is a remote connection. I haven't tried this my self but to use my wireless tablet to control the graphics apps on my laptop PC would be sweet. I will investigate further, perhaps I might give it a shot.

I have talked about Xubuntu Linux in the past. It is Ubuntu Linux with the XFCE desktop suitable for older PCs and a light weight Linux for low resource PCs. I found another Linux called Lite, that's Linux Lite. It is also XFCE desktop but tweaked a little different. At least the looks are different. It is snappy and if you are new to Linux, there is nothing to scare you away. It works great, looks cool, gets the job done, with flair. I like it. Got a power machine, Linux Lite will not clog the circuits with extraneous business. This means even more power to run the applications, paint effects, 3d drawing and games. Did I mention it looks good? 

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

a few more tablet discoveries

I'm back, had to do an oil change to re-slick myself. I have the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet, so far it is wonderful. You iPad users are safe with me, though I reserve the right to differ. Android OS which is basically an smartphone OS enjoys expanded use of the larger screen and the pen. The pen centric apps are not as numerous as touch apps but I find that many people are more prone to give the finger rather than the mighter pen. BUT, digital dabblers, scribblers, doodlers, stick pokers, sand tracers and wall scrawlers will find the pen as handy as a light sabre.

So, I discovered on the Galaxy is Samsung Screen saver app. It can play endlessly displaying some tips on how to use the Note tools in multi-tasking mode. This is sweet because 'show you how to do it' videos are the best things in the world. Now having said that, there are not many if any in-depth Android app tutorials. I think because there are so many apps that do the same things and the changeableness of Android users. As platforms go long term usage of any application is fleeting. But with the advent of the larger Android tablets as a useful and dependable assistant, the need for a stable set of tools is evident. Will the artists' apps gain a following to the point that tutorials are developed? Probably not and this is because the interfaces are not difficult to figure out and the tools in them are basic. If you have tinkered with PC art applications then the tablet apps are simple. I will say that the people who use the PC art applications are finding the smartphone and tablet apps cool for graphic notes and sketching. In this vein there are YouTube videos that show and tell. I myself am totally amazed when higher quality artwork is done on a small device. For instance, in our gallery is a set of note cards for sale with some cute geeky art on them. Last night I saw the the app that produced the art. The print quality is very good. I am inspired, I can do that.

Well let me go, I've got to get moving and seeing where else I can take my tablet and doodle.

Oh wait and let me add. Go over to DustyGhost.com click on tutorials, then the graphics tablet tutorial. Read it, do it, thank the man profusely. 


Monday, October 28, 2013

a docu-mercial

 the promise of multi-purpose snake oil

There are many stories in the "Ole West" about the Mr. Hannie types who sold snake oil and medicinal spirits. LOL, you can do the same with olive oil if you are from the Middle East, coconut and kola nut oil probably have their equivalents from Africa and the Caribbean. Nothing in the world though is like cold pressed whale oil and we all have greased pans and palms with butter as Ms Dean will attest, is the best, lard knows.

The only real difference in snake oil is the kind of snake it comes from. It is guaranteed to work no matter what and be of fortuitous benefit even though the sacrifice of a snake to give up his life sustaining oil for your anointing is a small price to pay. What shall this oil exactly do for you beside the customary making you as slick as the guy who sold it to you? Depends.

You see, snake oil is a suspension. Meaning it will hold other ingredients in place until you get the benefit from them. I guess the word they use today is a topical. The really good oil will open your pores so that what ever is suspended will soak in. This explains why medicines are expensive and makeup is cheap. It goes way beyond the physical application of minerals to the human flesh. Snake oil in it's various forms is also used to administer cultural pathologies, kingly and priestly authority and prevent diaper rash, interchangeably and simultaneously. Human history is both taught and learned via this way.

We flaunt our ability to market and apply snake oil to every facet of our lives. We are pickled in our own juices to the point we can't tell what is oil and what was added. We dig up "original recipes", ancient sauce, primordial stew, and alien mash. We add new packaging, snappy commercials, instill need and limit access, availability and quantity. We offer the same oil, tell one group it's diluted for mild application, another group it's so concentrated the smell alone will grease you.

The oil is a distraction, used to slip something past your mind so that the real operation can happen. The main drive is always selling, pushing, dispensing, proselytizing and not the actual using. Have you noticed that to use a thing you have to get away from others. Don't know why we are so compelled to promote snake oil to others as soon as we see others, it's an automatic response. All snake oil users have to isolate themselves to have enough wherewithal to apprehend the delicate nuances of the oil and appreciate its subtle effects. If you get to actually use the snake oil it is reasonable to assume you have been duped and will not offer an opinion on the subject due to the embarrassment of being stupid enough to buy into it. But, like the kid who said the emperor has no clothes, you might be the only one aware enough to say it. And who would tell a bully, "your greasy granny too"? Thus greasy emperors and clergy all over the globe assisted by the Slick Willy Corporation, slide past our notice leaving a trail of rancid lard called history.

Having been trained to let it slide, we can not put two and two together even when forensics can tell you the difference between snake oil and lard. You have to cook pork and milk a snake. A little snake can fill a big container. Some folks have been milking the same little snake for generations. Everywhere you go folks are oiling everything, they're marinaded in the stuff and basting everything with it. Snake oil is the reason for everything, the source of everything, damn near the cause of everything. We will cease to exist in our present condition if snake oil is eliminated. But don't worry, untreated lard is a universal snake oil replacement. While it needs refrigeration to keep it you don't have to saddle up to a live creature to milk it.

This documentary is a comment on the world situation and can be applied with a liberal slathering of snake oil. Any use of this text with the aforementioned lard as the lubricating vehicle will result in unfavorable and unstable reactions for which I am not responsible. You'll just have to let it slide.  

Saturday, October 26, 2013

the tablet report, yeah right

I have 3 drawing apps that are similar except their interfaces are different. So I'm cruising along trying to learn and the up dates come. Oh no, everything is better! Artflow is one, Autodesk's Sketchbook Pro is two and Infinite Design is three. So hard to let one of them go. They each make logical sense in their way and I have no favorite, darn! I'm not a big freehand drawer but the worst thing is resting hand on the screen to leave unintended marks. I gotta test to see which app handles that the best, I think it's Sketchbook Pro.

I'm watching HGTV and darn it they just ran a Samsung tablet ad. More power, multitasking, I just got this thing, it's not even warm yet. Anticipation is not going to make me wait. (boo-hoo hoo). The new tablets will have more power with the same size. I'm jealous of the future, lol.

The one thing I can say is that after a time you acquire a feel for drawing on the tablet and there is a vaccine for the "gotta have the latest" infection. Now mind you we are sporting an Android device. Evolution is inching toward laptop power in a thin low power device. I have heard that some programmers think Android is crap for code work, but for users, not bad at all. Me, I use it, like it and it's better than Java, to me. Don't tell anybody, I'm tried to run Android in Virtualbox on my Linux laptop. It ran but no touch screen or mouse.

Next project, elocution lessons so speech to text works. See ya.