INCIDENTAL COMICS: The Treehouse of Adulthood

INCIDENTAL COMICS: The Treehouse of Adulthood: "This comic originally ran about a year ago and can be found on this blog in its original form. I decided to update it with color, mainly bec..."

DAW mixing

DAW mixing
Originally uploaded by Mooganic.

Cantering on Coney

Cantering on Coney
Originally uploaded by Mooganic.

Early morning in front of Rhych point, Porthcawl

Imogen Heap concert

Imogen Heap concert
Originally uploaded by Mooganic.

The Giant in the Crack in the stairs

Redleaf iphone wallpaper

Redleaf iphone wallpaper
Originally uploaded by Mooganic.

free iphone wallpaper

Wizardly machines

Wizards of Mass Distraction: machines No. 1 Funkylator from Peter Morgan on Vimeo.

The Novation Launchpad standby sequence reminds me of a seventies disco floor...

Retro glory

Trailer for "The Toaster With TWO BRAINS" from Bradley W. Schenck on Vimeo.

Here's the retro-futuristic trailer for my new project, "Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual". The Thrilling Tales web site hosts lightly interactive, densely illustrated stories from Retropolis - the world of the Future That Never Was. The stories can be viewed in their entirety on the web site (with a few nifty web-only features) for free - but they can also be purchased as full color printed books that you can read on the porch, or in the passenger seat (please!) of your flying car.

The first story to appear on the Thrilling Tales web site (which is at http://thrilling-tales.webomator.com/ ) is "Trapped in the Tower of the Brain Thieves" - Part one of "The Toaster With TWO BRAINS". This trailer features some art from that story and a few other things that I threw into the mix.

I've built the site and that first story over a period of nine months. While updates shouldn't take as long there is a large amount of work that goes into the illustrations for one of these; the web version of "Brain Thieves", for example, has 82 story illustrations and some other art. So in the next stage I plan to also add a current "non-interactive" story to provide some more frequent updates.

Anyway, there you go: and although I do understand that Vimeo isn't here for commercials, I also know that there's a specific exemption for individual artists who want to promote their work. And, you know, that's me. I'm as so individual that even the the ad banners at the Thrilling Tales site all lead to other sites of mine. S'aright?

Those That Teach You What You Know. Ed Rees and the Thunderheads.

Katapult for Novation Launchpad - flexible MIDI mapping

Katapult Demonstration from Mark Qvist on Vimeo.

A rundown of some of Katapults features. See http://www.midikatapult.com for more info and downloads.

Keep it simple.

Mr B Gentleman Rhymer. Splendid.

Great free software for a new Laptop or Desktop PC

There are some great free programs available that are must haves for setting up a new laptop or desktop PC:

1. Firefox http://www.mozilla.com/en-GB/firefox/ - an obvious candidate for secure browsing, particularly recommended are the plugins Adblock Plus http://adblockplus.org/en/ which allows selective display of advertising on sites helping to speed up display of pages. For the truly security conscious the Javascript blocking plugin NoScript http://noscript.net/ which disables Javascript on a selective basis. Using the easy to access controls you can allow certain elements of a page to load and run or allow a complete site to run Javascript but by having the default blocking Javascript it significantly lowers the risk of visiting pages which may have malicious scripts running. Note that many Javascript exploits are cross platform and effect all moderns operating systems.

2. 7zip http://www.7-zip.org/ - Open source, easy to use utility for manipulating compressed archives. Ideal for compressing files for emailing or archiving large collections of files for storage. Formats 7z, ZIP, GZIP, BZIP2 and TAR are supported fully, other formats can be unpacked. Supports AES 256bit encrypted archives (secure password protected) which are cross platform and can be opened on Macs and Linux.

3. Irfanview http://www.irfanview.com/ a very fast picture viewer, which handles a huge number of image file types and can manipulate images a by applying resizing and filter plugins. Can be used to batch convert many image types from one type to another.

4. Foxit reader http://www.foxitsoftware.com/pdf/reader/ this is a very fast and smaller alternative to the Adobe Acrobat PDF reader software. Allows you to annotate PDF documents.

5. Thunderbird http://en-gb.www.mozillamessaging.com/en-GB/thunderbird/ the email client counterpart to Firefox - fast, configurable and easy to use. Easily customisable with skins and hundreds of plugins.

6. Spyware removal tool Spyware Doctor http://www.pctools.com/spyware-doctor/ this is an accredited and thorough spyware checking and removal tool.

7. Avast antivirus http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download a free and effective antivirus tool. A good paid equivalent is Trend Micro, Trend Micro also offer a free online virus check http://housecall.trendmicro.com/ The bundled limited trials of software such as Norton/McAfee etc. often are very bloated packages which significantly slow down your laptop.

8. Picasa http://picasa.google.com/ an excellent picture/image library and editor from Google. Much better than most software bundled with digital cameras. Similar to iPhoto on the Mac, with face recognition and online albums.

9. Launchy http://launchy.net/ Launch programs and documents with a simple keystroke, much faster than using the Start menu. “Launchy is a free windows and linux utility designed to help you forget about your start menu, the icons on your desktop, and even your file manager. Launchy indexes the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes!”

10. Notepad++ http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/ a great, tabbed notepad replacement for plain text writing. Plain text files are ideal for simple lists, notes and drafts. They are readable by any computer and very small. A portable version of Notepad++ is available that can be run from a USB stick. Ideal for editing system files, quick notes, html editing and coding with syntax colouring.

11. VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/ VLC is a media player that seems to be able to play anything you give it. So if you have trouble playing back a video file, try VLC.

12. Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com Dropbox is a free applicationa and service that allows you to sync files across PCs, Macs and Linux computers. 2gb free when you sign up. Files are availabel online.

Dropbox creates a folder on your PC and can be used to

• sync files across several machines
  
• access your files via the website
  
• storage for back up files
  
• share large files to other people
  
• set up shared access for several people to a folder or files
  
• host image galleries
  
• compatible with Truecrypt containers etc.
  
• all files remain on your PC/s as well of course
  
• it actually works, unlike many of these things

Also dropbox has a decent versioning system so if you change or delete a file you can look back at previous saves and restore previous versions. The developers are helpful and very active in releasing new versions, check the forum for the latest experimental builds of Dropbox.

2gb storage is free.
If you register using my personal link, below, I get more free space and so do you (above the usual 2gb)
https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTI2MzA5ODk

Nuit Blanche explores a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection in a hyper real fantasy.

Nuit Blanche from Spy Films on Vimeo.

http://www.spyfilms.com - Nuit Blanche explores a fleeting moment between two strangers, revealing their brief connection in a hyper real fantasy.

Directed by: Arev Manoukian

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain

Seth Godin: Quieting the Lizard Brain from 99% on Vimeo.

"What you do for a living is not be creative, what you do is ship," says bestselling author Seth Godin, arguing that we must quiet our fearful "lizard brains" to avoid sabotaging projects just before we finally finish them.

How to achieve the highest sound quality from Ableton Live

Many of the default settings in Ableton Live are intended to optimise playback smoothness and keep CPU usage low. This is great for performance and working on a track but doesn’t provide the highest sound quality available from Live.

Perhaps you are at the final stage of a project and you wish to ensure you have the absolute highest quality playback and effects to bounce down a high quality recording. This is when you can tweak settings to achieve higher quality output. All these settings will increase the load on your CPU and you may want to freeze tracks before and after engaging the high quality settings.

Full article:

http://www.molebomb.com/audiotech/Ableton/abletonhiq.html