The opensource screenwriting program Celtx, has released a new version (0.99). You can write the script any indian language (Tamil, Telugu etc). Built on Firefox base, this is one of Opensource programs great gems. You can find a few more in my wiki
Category Archives: Software
Another Free Google Tool
Google has released a new version of Sketchup, adding a few effects/features (see new feature list). Sketchup is a great 3D modelling tool even before Google bought it last year. In typical google fashion, it bought this commerical tool and made it FREE. I have been using to build some sample models, and even some storyboards (for short films).
A self explanatory video:
The Onyx Project
“The Onyx Project” is a lowbuget interactive movie releasing today on DVD. It seems like a media experiment from a Design School.
From NYT: “One idea behind the venture is that no two viewers may see the movie unfold in the same way, yet its basic facts, characters and message will permeate the experience.”
It doesnt play in normal DVD players, since its driven by a software, it needs a computer to play. They are selling the DVD for $24 online.
Coding Fireworks
The July 4th fireworks was sure impressive. Spectacular display of synchoronized pyrotechnics coordinated with computer precision.. computer? Well, you didn’t think that little midgets set off the fireworks with such precision by hand, running around a carefully arranged maze of stacked fireworks waiting to be lit – did you? If so, sorry to burst your bubble – while we are at it…Santa Claus is not real either 
How to effectively blow taxpayers money up in the air? It takes 3 things.
- First, obviously the Fireworks, ($147 at Costco)
- Software to choreograph the display ($2000-$4000)
- Hardware which ignites the fireworks (via firewire port ($8000)
Dont have a budget for all these? Well, you can do it all yourself in the computer you are reading this on…
Unfortunately due to rain, I was scared to bring my camera out (well, not really, I forgot it in the car 
– so no pictures except from my phonecam.
A Mac with a Window
If Apple had announced 4 days back that it is going let Microsoft Windows officially run on the new Macs - I would never have believed, as history clearly shows that big corporations have not exactly been truthful on April the First (with classics such as the BBC report on ‘Farmers growing Noodles on trees’, Burger King announcing ‘Left Hand Burgers’, Tacobell purchasing and renaming Liberty Bell… Ford Lincoln Memorial… Google Romance… Google Rooms).
But today, April 5th, Apple announced Bootcamp – an official installer which lets you install Windows on a Mac (dual boot). Maybe they did it because it was unofficially hacked anyway – an underground group of programmers have successfully hacked new Macs last month to run Windows. So it was just a matter of timing and face saving.
Personally I have been waiting for fast video editor which is as good and as fast as the mac only Final Cut Pro HD. Now I can get one of those superfast supersleek mini macs without worring about my other windows investments.
Superbowl Skycam
Those who watched Superbowl on Sunday might have noticed the wonderful Skycam in action. The change in perspective is startling for us folks who have been used to pretty ordinary cricket telecasts. Whenever we need to get closer to the player in field, we have always been used to a simple Zoom. But robotic Skycam flies down to that part of the field and shoots the player over his shoulder!
Skycam can any point in a specified 3D space as shown the illustration below. The Skycam has 3 components:
- The guiding Software called Skypath.
- The Hardware which holds the camera (equivalent of a tripod)
- The wires which move the Camera in 3D Space.
The whole unit is around 3feet and can fly as fast as 30mph. Now the most obvious question. Will it bump into a player, stopping play at a critical stage or even worse, what happens when the ball collides with the cam when flying towards the goal post?
The Skypath software takes care of it – the operator programs the shape of the object to look out for – like a cone, box, cube or in case of a ball, round.
I am sure they are working on a ball-cam and a bat-cam. Imagine seeing the point of view of a ball getting released from Shoaib Aktar’s hand at 150mph, hitting Lara’s bat darting skywards for a six, flying off the stadium towards the parking lot… to your car’s windshield at 100mph!
Google Earth
The most amazing piece of free software you will ever get. After buying Keyhole, Google has released the product after a long hibernation.
Just like God you can tilt, rotate and zoom into almost any point on US – except maybe destroy and create
Things to do:
Add Layers : Particluarly 3D buildings. 3D builtings have been implemented only for metro cities (like NYC, Seattle). They are just awesome.
Play Tour Put some driving directions and hit PLAY. You now have a helicopter tour from Point A to Point B
Tilt and Rotate - Its no fun to just look from the top, hit tilt and now you can see everything in any prespective.
Drag and Leave - After tilting, drag the map and leave it, you will have a wonderful tour of your neighbourhood.
Update: They have pulled the software back. I have a copy if anyone needs it.
For those of you outside US, here are some US addresses you can play with.
700 5th Ave , Seattle ,WA
144 W 19th St New York, NY 10011
Some US zip codes – 98040 (Mercer Island) 02886 (Warwick, RI)
And if you really want to knock yourself off the chair – checkout the mountains at a prespective. Pick a mountain range in Montana or Rockies – tilt the angle a bit, do a wee bit rotation – and the graphics could easily pass off as the title sequence of CliffHanger – so realistic 3D mountains.
1) go to : West Glacier, mt
2) Zoom out a bit
3) Go north and tilt
Google Earth never stops to amaze me.
Microsoft Photoshop ?
Microsoft takes baby steps into a Graphic designers toolbox with Microsoft Acrylic. Will it be the end to Photoshop ? scary but I think not.
Back in 2003, Microsoft quietly acquired a little known graphic software house called “Creative Expressions”, so it got 2 years to massage the code and grow a decent software out of its remains. I am not too much worried about any imminent threat to Photoshop, Macromedia tried once to unseat the king, with its Vector/Bitmap combo tool Fireworks, but failed (and got acquired to boot)
So I am sure Photoshop is here to stay, but I am curious. I am beta-testing this new Microsoft Photoshop beater – full review soon.
Pricelessware
Some of the incredibly useful stuff I can’t live without in a (new) computer. I always carry the installation files with me (thanks to Yahoo Briefcase)
Whenever I move to a new computer or buy a new laptop (not that I buy a new lappie every year) I immediately customize my comp by loading these tiny softwares to make me feel home.
Task bar utility - 1st Clock Lite:
How many times have u glanced at your task bar looking for todays DATE or DAY ? Version after version since Windows 95 – I always tell myself “MS will smarten up and provide this simple common sense information in the task bar” But no, Win 98 came, Win XP, Media Center – alas my prayer went un-answered – In an elaborate conspiracy ‘Date and Day’ information was always withheld from me – I never knew where I am.. whether it is a Monday or a Friday, showing up to work on a Sunday and taking Monday off – total mess, partially total amnesia! Till I met a Green Parrot, which whispered the name of a software it wrote – “1st Clock koo koo”. Now, Not only I can tell where and when I am – but I can do it in style in different timezones! – now with a wave of the mouse I can precisely tell the time in Sumo land to Switzerland – Now, I can full understand why it is yesterday in Australia and tomorrow in India!
Instant Messenger - Trillian:
A Ding in Yahoo, Blink in MSN and an offline message in ICQ – all fight for my attention from the same spot in my taskbar whose real estate is already sparse – each behaving like an ever blinking traffic light. As an early entrant to WWW, I was exposed to ICQ much before any of these IMs existed, so I have a bunch of my friends in ICQ, AOL IM, and a whole list of friends in Yahoo, and a library of friends in MSN. Not that I am extremely popular – usually it is the same ‘Paul’ or ‘Shanx’ in different avatars, and some friends who are so loyal to their IMs, that in order to be in touch with them, I have to use all IMs all the time – MSN and Yahoo and ICQ and AOL and so on.
Enter Trillian – the oldest and most popular IM aggregator – Now, I can load up all my cahoots in one IM – it aggregates my buddy list from Yahoo, MSN, ICQ, AOL and IRC into one single UI, one single window. Now I can talk with all my buddies by logging into one single application. Talk about convenience!
Trillain does have its dark sides – it is ugly, it is painful to send or receive files/images – but on top of the convenience it offers – it leaves a very tiny footprint, it doesn’t hog my system resources. That by itself is a big advantage.
Browser – Maxthon:
If you think Firefox is da-bomb, you should try Maxthon. The most intuitive and user friendly software I have come across which is FREE. No strings attached (yet). Unlink Firefox, Maxthon comes with so many thoughtful utilities as a default package.
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Mouse Gestures – I cannot live without it. Back in IIT days, I got spoilt with Alias Wavefront (a powerful special effects software – now called Maya) and its wonderful Gesture based Menu Selections. Browsing is never the same again – I can refresh a page by holding rightclick and moving the mouse up and down, to go back I can move the mouse to left, to move forward I move my mouse to right
Tabs – Bottom tabs, I usually work with 10 websites open – now with tabbed browsing I can organize everything in a single window.
No Ads – Nada – no single ad – I have never seen an advertisement or orbitz popup window for the last 2 years. Even Timesofindia and rediff is clean and readable. No flash ads, no popups, it strips the page clean.
Apart from that it has so many thoughtful applications like a scribble pad to copy paste stuff (no long u need to open Notepad to store a Phone Number or jot down a link), IP address in status bar, Weather, News mode, Group Mode everything just a click away. And No fancy Pirate themed default Skins!
Firewall - Zone Alarm:
A silent killer – it works. It kills off malicious pings and renders any trojans or spywares useless. Each and every time your internet is (ab)used you will know. You can preset permissions to all your frequently used software like Outlook, IMs etc – and ZoneAlarm will never bother you again – but when “eShophelper.exe” asks permission to access the internet, you can just kill it, and use the software below to root it out totally.
Spyware Killer – Spybot:
You can run on every startup but you can’t hide. This can get bad guys from the streets of brooklyn to the dark dungeons of your windows folders
C:/DocumentsandSettings/~tmp/O78731/MS/[hidden]/systemfiles/%2318OFL/ocm/install/root/[temp]
it will find you and unlike Vijaykanth – it will kill you without any dialogues popping up. Very effective without melodrama.
Photoshop CS2 Review
Today I upgraded my trusty old Photoshop CS into CS2.
After initial installation (took forever) the interface popped up. Very sleek, the first thing you notice is smooth icons and well rounded tabs. Looking under the hood, I found the menu has changed a lot – CS had a lot of options CS2 has a lot more options.
As with any review – negatives or quirks first. I am sure after a while I will get used to it.
Font Preview in Drop down menu –
At last photoshop caught up with the rest of the software world. But unfortunately the font is preview with a static ‘Sample’ word. It would have been much cooler and usefull if it actually previews the word (if there is an active selection). For example, if I select “Bombay” and want to preview different fonts – I still have to cycle through all the fonts in my system, the new font preview features doesnt lead a helping hand, it just previews the words “Sample” not “Bombay”
Layers –
Linking layers are gone! I almost panicked, but found that now you can control or shift select layers and ‘click’ on Link button to link’em together. Hmm… I am not sure that was a good idea, I usally run my mouse over the link layer area to link or unlink the layers – now I have to select each layer and press a button.
Talking of layer selection, it loses focus pretty quick, I am not sure what triggers it – but if I have an active layer and do something – my layer selection is gone! I have to manually re-select it again after getting “No Layer selected” warning.
Status Bar -
The status bar is gone – so the whole interface looks unframed. The status bar is now sticking under the open image. Not sure I like that either.
Bridge –
This feature is much touted as a rocket powered File Browser. I never liked File Browser – so I was hoping this one is fast – but alas – no! its still bloated, slow unlike my superfast ACDSee 3.0 (not the new version – but 4-5 year old version)
Adobe Raw –
There is a marked improvement in ACR – now it has curves! Awesome!
Vanishing Point –
Another well touted feature – it does work – but its applications are limited, and I am not sure of its usefullness. How many times do you have to paint or clone in flat prespective – I have never done it, but i guess it would save some time if the need arises.
Animation!
Photoshop treads into ImageReady territory with Animation pallette. I havent played with it yet – so I donno what it actually does different from IR.
Next, I will play with ‘Smart Layers’ and update the review.
As far as I can tell, this is not a revolutionary upgrade – but worth the $149 for its new media orientation. Now it recognizes the need of graphic design in video, digital photography and special effects domain, and tries to meet their needs. A step in the right way.
Adobe + Macromedia
Adobe buys Macromedia for $3.4 billion. I didnt see this coming – I am shocked as I was shocked when AOL bought Netscape.
I wonder what happens to competing softwares – Photoshop v/s Fireworks, Dreamweaver v/s GoLive, Flash v/s LiveMotion(?) – but it would be too stupid of Adobe to kill MMs software – no, not in a million years. Except possibly Photoshop and Illustrator, Macromedia trumps Adobe flat with its killer Flash and Dreamweaver. My guess is that Adobe will let MM do its own thing in SFO’s Landsend while it does its thing in San Jose. I cant figure out why this doesn’t violate Anti-trust laws, by this merger they flattened out the field.
Adobe Releases the next version of Photoshop
Photoshop – the bread and butter software for any graphic artist, has gone through a new version upgrade.
Photoshop CS2 – a wierd name… hmm… also for a software that is so perfect in all aspects – what is left to improve ?
HD of course more and more resoultion! It seems it can handle 32-bit images now (HDR – High Dynamic Range). It also has a new tool (gimmick ?) ‘Vanishing Point’ which lets you paint to prespective. Will it die like the useless ‘Paint History’ , ‘Art History’ and Audio Annotation, which was forced into CS to make the users ‘want’ and upgrade ? Not sure, and too early to say without playing with it.
Vanishing Point
HDR Support
It looks like the above picture effectively compresses the dynamic range of a series of photos into a single photo. Current digital cameras cant shoot a picture like the one above. Why ? Because the CCDs cannot resolve such a wide dynamic range. Well, what is a dynamic range ? It is the distance between blackest black and whitest white – the farther the better. So, a 2 stop dynamic range will look black and white with no greys. A 12 stop dynamic range will look like the picture above, where you can see bright sky and also the dark shadows.
Looks like CS2 takes a bunch of pictures and extracts such a picture automatically (?) Previously, we used to do it with a trick called ‘digital-stitching’. Tho I’d not like to admit, a few of my photos in http://www.andshoot.com are digitally stiched to preserve the dynamic range.
Will I upgrade ?
I have to…right ? and so will thousands of fellow graphic designers. Nobody wants to be a freak…nobody wants to be left out… its after all Adobe – will they ever let us down ?