Once again, it’s time for Toronto’s excellent Free Software and Open Source Symposium, where students are admitted for a mere $30 and others for $75:
October 23-24th, 2008 - Seneca@York Campus, Toronto Open source, open content, and open formats are changing the way we work, play, and learn. From software to the web to television and the media, the open source movement is spreading. Come see and hear the future in person: some of the most important thinkers in open technologies will be here at Seneca@York on Thursday October 23 & Friday October 24.
Welcome to Free Software and Open Source Symposium 2008
It’s been a very busy past few weeks for us. In addition to the new team addition, we’ve also been furiously working on improving all currently released tools AND gearing up for the alpha release of 2 new birds (Some users are already seeing access to them in their accounts, but more on those later).
Let’s start this off with some new feature enhancements to our image editor, Phoenix! In our next post we’ll touch on some of the amazing new features added to Peacock, our visual laboratory (for creating complex patterns and filters).
Right-Clicking on the canvas to choose a specific layer
Now you can find and select any layer automatically by rightclicking anywhere on the canvas. A list of the layers directly below your mouse will appear. Clicking on the name in that list will select the corresponding layer in the Layers panel on the right hand side and allow you to immediately begin working on it.
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Peacock underwent some exciting updates over the last few weeks and I wanted to highlight one of the most exciting ones here: terrain generation. That’s right: you can now render 3D natural scenes in your browser using Flash.
We’ll be discussing all the changes over the next few blog posts.
The terrain generator node gives you control over everything from the shadow and light intensity, angle and height of the light source, and even the 3D angle the terrain is viewed from. In short, Peacock just got a hell of a lot more powerful!
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Gaming consoles need an external drive, which is formatted to the FAT32 file system. You can drive almost any currently on the market, as FAT32 disks can support up to 2 terabytes in size. However, the limitation of
FAT32 is that they can not keep individual files larger than 4 GB in size. Even Windows 2000 and XP can not create or format partitions larger than 32GB.
Windows 98 users can only create partitions and disks with up to 127GB in size. Also, a FAT32 partition, and format it on the 32GB or 127GB restrictions, you will need a utility like Partition Magic or another disk / partition utility. I recommend CompuApps Swiss Knife, which can be downloaded free at download.com for PC users.
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Since most people who are Linux, I am very evangelistic, when it comes to my OS. In the “PRO” column, Linux has some significant advantages over other operating systems. For starters, it’s free. All 100% of the time. There are a ton of different flavors of Linux, for each specific application under the sun. While there are many arguments in the Linux community, which is the best distribution for the average user, there is only one that is simple enough: Ubuntu. That is one thing, which I reviewed here. For starters, always online with Ubuntu is as easy or easier than it was in XP. Select your network, and you are online.
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They are by far the most beautiful machines I have ever laid eyes on. If you use a Mac, and not immediately, then you are not human. Everything about it screams “Buy Me”, and if the money is not an object, you probably should. Everything is included. It just works. They expected the average user needs and approached them to the smallest detail. Basic video editing and sound are amazing, not to mention the advanced software suites that you can buy. Mac is the choice for audio, video and graphics professionals. It is very stable, and you can never be to install anti-virus software. Ever.
So, what’s the problem:
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Let’s talk about the disadvantages of the upgrade from XP to Vista. Most people were quite satisfied with XP. He did what she wanted. He crashed occasionally, but they could find what they needed to proceed with relative ease. It went fairly quickly, although their machine was from the age a bit. Then they upgrade to Vista.
Suddenly, the previously nice sound card was not supported. My processor was not fast enough, and the upgrade alone filled up a large chunk of their hard drive. Here’s the kicker:
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For starters, the main advantage that Windows has over other operating systems, it is the omnipresence. You can not throw a stone without hitting a Windows system. Because, as common Windows actually is, you still have to find time a game, application or hardware that is not supported by Windows. If a producer wants to make money, then they will support Windows. As far as surfing the Internet, the same applies. It is relatively easy, the Internet connection, and most things are for the average user in the background. Easy. What about an Office suite?
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