Fun with Google Scribe

When you start with "A" and then continue with the space bar and chose the first suggestion every time, what kind of sentence structure do you get?

You get this:

"A new study finds that the proposed method is based on the seller 's handling of the case and the relevant law and any other information that results from a study of the effects of the drug in the treatment of the subject areas below and select the most appropriate way to deal w ith th e in for rm a t i o n s o r e a s t e m p l e t e r n a t i o n s o r e a s t e m p l e"

After a while it breaks down to single letters that seem to form spaced out words that run into each other. It continues like that in a repeating pattern. Very interesting.

http://scribe.googlelabs.com/

Start with other letters, numbers or symbols and see what you get.

How to import custom doc sizes from Photoshop CS4 to CS5

I know a lot of people make custom document size presets in Photoshop and rely on them to create new projects. Here's how to import them across versions of Photoshop in Mac OS X.

First locate the older version X's "New Doc Sizes.psp" file in "~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CSx Settings/". Open the "New Doc Sizes.psp" file in Text Edit as plain text (don't turn on the Rich Text feature). Select all of the presets with Command+A then press Command+C to copy.

Go to the newer version Y's "New Doc Sizes.psp" file in "~/Library/Preferences/Adobe Photoshop CSy Settings/". Open the "New Doc Sizes.psp" file in Text Edit as plain text (don't turn on the Rich Text feature). Select all with Command+A then press Command+P to paste. Press Command+S to save. Then quit out of Text Edit with Command+Q.

Open up Photoshop CSy (the newer version) and voila! You have your old file sizes!

In this instance I imported from CS4 to CS5 and it worked! :) CS4 was CSx and CS5 was CSy.

Week 4 of college life

Yeah, I'm late in posting this, but I have to mention this at least once. I'm enrolled in Rasmussen College of Business (or School of Business or whatever they're calling themselves now) and I couldn't be more happy. Well, I could if I'm hired by a studio after this.That would make my day.

I'm taking a Multimedia Technology course which is a 4 year A.A.S. degree. So far it's started out very well and I'm having a lot of fun. I'm also taking English Composition and I'm burning my brain out on it. I've never been a formal writer really. But I hope I get better. At the very least to pass the course, at the most to actually learn how to write a story so I can write my own comic book. See how those two compliment each other? I'm also taking Success Strategies and that is an online course; A course that is so much a breeze I wonder if I'm doing it right. I'm getting good grades so I must be...

First quarter so far. I expect to graduate in 2014. They always say make sure you plan for an on-time graduation. I'm not sure what they mean by that exactly, they're kinda cryptic, but to me all that means (if I'm interpreting it right) is ace your courses and take responsibility for any costs and obligations and you'll graduate. Cake. With chocolate frosting and sprinkles on top. Easy. Just do it. I wondered why they make it sound so hard for people to do, but I notice as time goes on I see which students are taking it seriously and professionally and which are simply not showing up (still treating it like high school). So that's what they must be indirectly referring to. And it helps if you're interested in what you're learning. If you're not then it'll be a struggle.

I hope it's like this still in 3 years or 4 years. I'm having so much fun. And I get a "free" software package. I say "free" in quotes because we all know it's not really free unless the government grants (the money you don't have to pay back) cover it. If it's covered by loans, you'll pay, it's just over a length of time. lol I just hope my loans cover it all and I can pay some of it back in time to keep a good credit score. But I get Adobe CS5 Master Collection! WOO! And of course the obligatory Microsoft Office 2008 which I'm becoming more and more used to.

Well, wish me luck! I need some extra luck along with hard work just to push me over the top (or fling me so far over the top I'll need a parachute to come back to the top). :)

LEGO 10213 Shuttle Adventure designer interview

Why I am Using Google Buzz as An Alternative to Facebook

A very interesting piece on why Google Buzz is better.

Why I am Using Google Buzz as An Alternative to Facebook: "The Internet is a big place, and there are a lot of opportunities for me to find places to spend time. But I am increasingly spending my time in Google Buzz. Google Buzz made sense to me from the first day it was launched, and it continues to improve. This is not a surprise to those of you who have been using the service in the last few months, but I thought I would explain why I am choosing to devote more of my social networking activity there, and why I think it is critical that the product succeed."

[ link ]

Does Ubuntu Capture the “Mac Vision And Spirit” Better Than Mac OS X?

Does Ubuntu Capture the “Mac Vision And Spirit” Better Than Mac OS X?: "
A week ago, on April 29, Linux distro Canonical released Ubuntu 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx) in Desktop, Server and Netbook editions. It featured a new look that some rate more attractive and up-to-date than Snow Leopard’s. “Lucid Lynx’s” new graphics card drivers and other consumer-oriented innovations front a Linux-based operating system package containing all the essential productivity applications you need, all for free: a web browser, office suite, media apps, instant messaging and much more, and is being pitched as an open-source alternative to Windows and Office or Mac OS X and the iApps. Ubuntu’s core applications are all free and open source.


The Register’s Gavin Clarke reported last week that with Lucid Lynx, Canonical is hoping to entice Mac and Windows users to switch, quoting the company’s COO and blogger Matt Asay asserting that changes in the consumer-oriented Ubuntu 10.04 LTS edition will cause “Apple fanbois” to reconsider their love for Steve Jobs, while “milk-fed Windows users” will be less inclined to run screaming to their retailer to return their Ubuntu PCs.





Given Apple’s increasingly evident distractedness from Mac OS development as it concentrates more and more on the mobile space with the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, some are also suggesting that Ubuntu captures the traditional “Mac” spirit and vision better than the actual Mac OS does these days.


In an April 28 essay anticipating the imminent Ubuntu 10.04 release, ServerWatch’s Paul Rubens said that Apple is fading from relevance in the computing space as it focuses more and more on phones, web tablets and other consumer gadgets, and that if you’re an old-style Apple fan (by which he means a fan of real Apple Mac computers, not so much the new Apples-R-Us toys and games company), there’s no need to fret because while Apple may not “get” it anymore, it seems Canonical does. He asserts that during the past 12 months Ubuntu has evolved into something that’s powerful, easy to use, and far more stylish than Snow Leopard, which he thinks is not really that surprising when you consider that Apple is far too busy with its iPhone OS to bother much with updating OS X. Rubens says that Ubuntu is innovative, forward-looking, stylish and fun, and rapidly becoming everything that OS X might’ve been had Apple not decided to turn its back on it and become fixated with iPhone OS — “except for being overpriced and closed.”





The concept of desktop Linux possibly better capturing the early-days essence of Mac culture isn’t entirely new. A decade ago I reported on another user-friendly Linux GUI project by a startup called Eazel. The Eazel team was spearheaded by a who’s who of Macintosh alumni. Staffers included Mike Boich — former head of Macintosh evangelism for Apple Computer; Andy Hertzfeld — lead programmer for original Mac OS development in the early ’80s who wrote much of the code that became the iconic Macintosh GUI; Susan Kare who did the graphic design for the original Mac OS Finder icons; Darin Adler who had been technical lead for System 7 development at Apple; and Bud Tribble — first software architect on the Macintosh project and manager of the original Macintosh software team. Mac people all from way back. Arguably, that bunch had a more purebred Macintosh “pedigree” than the folks who were developing OS X at the time.


I suggested back in 2000 that there was a case to be made that the thinking behind Eazel may well be truer to the original Mac essence than OS X itself. I wondered whether OS X would retain enough distinct classic Mac-ness, that je ne sais quois that made the Mac a Mac for many of us veteran users, to sustain the dogged loyalty that had characterized the Mac community through thick and thin for 16 years up to that point? Or would it be so NeXT like, or much, much worse, Windows-like, that hitherto Mac loyalists might be tempted to stray into other pastures? As it turned out, the Eazel project eventually withered on the vine, as it were, and we Mac OS fans adapted to OS X, which turned out to be a very decent computing environment, but lately there are rumblings that Apple is losing interest in the Mac OS with its focus shifting primarily to the mobile space.


Indeed, in his April 29 philippic against Adobe Flash, Steve Jobs appeared to refer to “the PC era” in the past tense, “implying that the computer and mouse paradigm is passé, with the mobile era being about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards (notwithstanding that ironically the iPhone OS environment is anything but ‘open’).”


Not so with Ubuntu, which is committed to traditional desktop and laptop computing, and where the ‘free’ in ‘free software’ is used primarily in reference to freedom, and not to price — although the company says it’s committed to not charging for Ubuntu, and that the most important thing about Ubuntu is that it confers rights of software freedom on the people who install and use it, freedoms that will enable the Ubuntu community to grow, continue to share its collective experience and expertise to improve Ubuntu and make it suitable for use in new countries and new industries.


What do you think? Does Canonical with Ubuntu have a realistic shot at convincing significant numbers of Mac OS and Windows users to switch?

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