psyrendust

This is a very cool concept for online video manipulation: A Direct Manipulation Video Player
Here is the project site: DimP

Here is a quote that describes the concept.

DimP, a direct manipulation video player, lets users drag items on the video screen to move forward and back instead of just via a scroll bar on the bottom of the video. This is not only more fun, but it also allows users to scroll through video to where they want to be “at least two times faster,” In a paper presented by Pierre Dragicevic, Gonzalo Ramos, Jacobo Bibliowicz, Derek Nowrouzezahrai, Ravin Balakrishnan, Karan Singh from the University of Toronto, the authors present their method for browsing video by directly dragging content by “1) automatically extracting motion data from videos; and 2) a new technique called relative flow dragging that lets users control video playback by moving objects of interest along their visual trajectory.”

Check the video’s after the jump.
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I’ve been thinking about getting an AppleTV to manage my media. But my fear has always been the size of the processor. I could spend a few hundred bucks and get one, or I could spend another $300-$400 more and get a mac mini. But if I did get a AppleTV I would definitely hack it. I came across this link from tuaw that has tutorials on how to hack your AppleTV: iClarified - Tutorials - AppleTV

When I log into the network at my job my Mac’s hostname always turns to:

larryx.na.corp.ipgnetwork.com

I have my local hostname set to:

larryx.local

So What I would like to do is set my Mac’s hostname to my local hostname. You can do this all from Terminal in a single line.

Run this command in Terminal:

sudo scutil --set HostName larryx.local

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Collis over at PSDTUTS has a really nice tutorial on how to make text with a grass effect in Photoshop. The results are really nice and the process is simple.

Check it out: Create a Spectacular Grass Text Effect in Photoshop - PSDTUTS

This is cool. This company has created a Flash component that will give you some quick and elegant visual effects for displaying images. The component is a wrapper for Papervision3D, leaving you to do little to no code. This is AS3 only.

Check it out: Flash 3D Wall Component | Flashloaded

Great UX design for the new OLPC project. Check out the story:
BBC NEWS | Technology | Design revamp for ‘$100 laptop’

This is a really cool use of Flash 9, Papervision 3D, and web cameras. Beautiful data visualization and UI design.

Spectra Visual Newsreader | msnbc.com

Once again I’m testing out a different blog editor for the Mac, Qumana. This is a test post from the little Mac app.

In my previous post, Checking out MarsEdit 2, I did a test post using MarsEdit 2.

I have to say that I like using a desktop editor for doing my posts. The only downside to this is that the Media Manager is lacking a few features.

Plus

• The custom template option is great for seeing what your post will really look like
• In-line spell checking as-you-type
• You can do advanced text editing (it’s in the “Markup” drop menu)

Minus

• No WYSIWYG advanced text editing (you have to write the html for formatting text) Correction, see 3rd entry under “Plus”
• No ability to edit/add title, caption, or description to an image that you upload
• You cannot remove or edit an image/file in the Media Manager

This seems like a great app for doing quick posts. It seems to need a bit more polish for more advanced editing if it’s going to take me away from using the online editor that comes with WordPress.

Me being the lazy person that I am, I’m always looking for ways to do things better or faster. I was checking out a new desktop RSS reader (NetNewsWire) and came across a default feed from Red Sweater Blog. Turns out they sell a few Mac programs. I decided to check out MarsEdit 2. This is my first test post with this new program. If I like it then I think it’ll be worth dropping $29.95 for a copy.