How to Prep Line Art for Coloring in Pixelmator

April 1, 2011

This is mostly here for my own future reference, because I keep forgetting how to take some scanned line art and make all the white pixels transparent.

1. Adjust the line art using curves, brightness/contrast, etc. until it looks exactly how you want it. You might also want to create a duplicate of the layer the line art is on so you have an original to fall back to.
2. In the Image menu choose Desaturate.
3. Go back to the Image menu again and choose Invert.
4. Click on the Filter menu, go into Color, and select Mask to Alpha.
5. Once again, go to the Image menu and choose Invert.
6. Enjoy your fancy transparent line art!

Better Pies Through Technology

February 11, 2011

Technology has entrenched itself in so many aspects of our lives that it’s almost impossible to get by without it. Here’s something to ponder: what’s the last building you set foot in that didn’t have a computer somewhere in it?

The problem with technology is that it’s such a vast, deep, and murky field that very few people want to venture out of the shallow end of the pool. A lot of people don’t even realize that there are probably about half a dozen things hidden in the deep end that could make their life dramatically better, and who can blame them? The deep end is filled with thousands upon thousands of other things that don’t apply to them, and visibility is near zero. Very few people have the time or inclination to even bother.

So what happens is this: People know that computers are good at certain things, like spreadsheets and email. What most people don’t know is how much better Dropbox would be for them than the flash drive on their keychain, or that there are super simple ways to print things directly to a PDF.

Sure, there are tons of tips and tricks sites, places to go for tutorials, and so on, but there are only two types of people who visit them: geeks and people who know what they’re looking for. A lot of people don’t even know that there’s something to find.

So what’s the answer to this problem? People who are passionate about technology itself need to get together with people who are passionate about other things.

If Ned the pie maker is doing his pie shop accounting in a spreadsheet he’s probably not going to bother learning how to set up complex formulas and calculations. Why? He’s too busy making pies! What he’s got works, even though he has to spend nine hours a week with it and it gives him a headache.

Enter Chuck, who comes in, gets a basic understanding of what he’s trying to accomplish, and then sets Ned up with an optimized spreadsheet that will allow Ned to spend less time moving numbers around and more time making tastier pies.

To me it seems like there are a ton of Neds out there and not enough Chucks. On top of that, most of the commercial attempts to address this kind of thing are laughably bad.

So, please, if you’re passionate about technology, try to show someone who isn’t a thing or two that will make their life a little better. In the end it means better pies for everyone.

Fire →

September 28, 2011

Chris Espinosa:

The “split browser” notion is that Amazon will use its EC2 back end to pre-cache user web browsing, using its fat back-end pipes to grab all the web content at once so the lightweight Fire-based browser has to only download one simple stream from Amazon’s servers. But what this means is that Amazon will capture and control every Web transaction performed by Fire users. Every page they see, every link they follow, every click they make, every ad they see is going to be intermediated by one of the largest server farms on the planet.

SEO for Non-dicks →

September 21, 2011

Good SEO is a by-product of not being a dick on the internet.

Matt Legend Gemmell nails it.

∞

RECOLL: a personal text search system for Unix/Linux →

September 15, 2011

Recoll can index an MS-Word document stored as an attachment to an e-mail message inside a Thunderbird folder archived in a Zip file and more…. It will also let you open a copy of the file without any fuss. There is little that will remain hidden on your disk.

Too nifty to not link to.

Immune System, Loaded With Remade T-cells, Vanquishes Cancer →

September 15, 2011

At first, nothing happened. But after 10 days, hell broke loose in his hospital room. He began shaking with chills. His temperature shot up. His blood pressure shot down. He became so ill that doctors moved him into intensive care and warned that he might die. His family gathered at the hospital, fearing the worst.

A few weeks later, the fevers were gone. And so was the leukemia.

There was no trace of it anywhere — no leukemic cells in his blood or bone marrow, no more bulging lymph nodes on his CT scan. His doctors calculated that the treatment had killed off two pounds of cancer cells.

A year later, Mr. Ludwig is still in complete remission. Before, there were days when he could barely get out of bed; now, he plays golf and does yard work.

“I have my life back,” he said.

Fuck yeah science!

Futurama Sculptures by artanis-one →

September 2, 2011

Amazingly detailed work.