Dec
Happy Holidays!
Wishing everyone a great 2009. To get you off on the right start, here’s a new robots desktop picture. 2009 and robots, what could be better?
Sep
Following up on the art toolset followup
As I mentioned before, I’ve been trying to figure out how to set up the best possible (cheap) system for making art and web sites. I tried Ubuntu, but things were buggy – especially wireless – and I was wasting more time trying to make it work than making actual things.
So, I caved and bought a Mac mini to use as my server, and though I’m back to being forced to pay for my OS, it opened up a wide range of options, and I’m floored at how great a lot of the indie software is for the Mac. Case in point:
- Coda : $99. I’m still saving up for this one, but it’s a steal for the only consolidated web editor I’ve seen that wipes the floor with Dreamweaver for site management.
- Pixelmator : $59 for a fine Photoshop replacement, replete with real-time gradients. Though I’m still a Photoshop geek at heart.
- VectorDesigner : $69. I’m no Illustrator fan and this does 95% of what I need without taking 8 minutes to load and crashing constantly.
- Versions : Free. For Subversion greatness.
- Others: Cyberduck (Free), Smultron (Free), NetNewsWire (Free)
Plus, VMWare Fusion gives you Ubuntu and Windows on the same system for testing, web servers, and various un-Mac tasks, so all of these good things are in addition to my first list. And yeah, OK, it also runs Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office. If you have to.
Anyway, this will be the last of these toolset followup followup posts, though I will be starting a short series on tweaks and other fun stuff.
Sep
The Windows 95 Political Strategy
I’ve noticed that this election cycle seems more about celebrity and product than any other in my memory. Expounding upon the idea of political-process-as-product, I would like to pose the theory that the McCain-Palin ticket is the political equivalent of Windows 95:
- It adds flashy improvements (GUI interface/Palin) resulting in a big upgrade from its previous crufty and old-seeming incarnation (DOS/McCain by himself)
- It “borrows” several core thematic elements from its more liberal-seeming competitor (Mac OS/Obama)
- It’s more conservative and corporate-friendly, possibly leading to widespread adoption among businesses
- It’s different enough from what we’re used to (Windows 3.1/Bush era) to seem new and exciting, but not different enough to be scary (Apple Hippies/Democrats)
- It seems less expensive upfront, but the true costs show up later, in support and maintenance.
- It proclaims interoperability without providing specific details, but it seems like it should work alright based on the press kit.
(Possible followup: the Clinton administration as Windows XP, and the Bush administration as Windows Vista. :)
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Jul
Jun
May
Followup on the art toolset
OK, so after living with Ubuntu for a week or two, I don’t know. I like the free part, but I’m not digging the broken stuff, such as:
- Rhythmbox crashing randomly
- Weird glitches
- Wireless connection cutting out and forcing reboots
- Substantially high nerd status of running Linux and posting about it on one’s blog
We’ll see. So far, I nearly lost my old data, and have made no art. More on that later.
Apr
Building the ultimate (and cheap) web and art development toolset
Since I left UIUC in 2006, my spare time has been devoted to pretty much everything except making art/data visualizations. At my day job I get to play around with web technology, which has satisfied my curiosities, but I miss doing my own work.
Unfortunately I no longer have the resources of an art school at my disposal, and I’m not excited about dishing out hundreds of dollars for software. So I got to thinking: how can I build a decent art-making setup with mostly open-source/free tools?
Requirements: I need to be able to do everything I already know how to do, and I don’t necessarily want to spend months relearning new software that duplicates software I already use. It’s doesn’t all have to be free, but AFAP (as free as possible!) I also would like to stay compatible across OSes and use the least amount of hardware possible.
So here it is, my new art/datavis-development tool set. I’m still in the process of completing this task, but I’m going to chart my progress here. Doing this has convinced me to bail on Windows, but I’m sticking with OS X for Photoshop, and any other absolutely necessary commercial applications.
Hardware: (1) home-built Intel Core 2 Duo desktop/server with a 24” LCD, and (1) Apple MacBook.
Operating Systems: Ubuntu 8.04, Mac OS 10.5.
The Ubuntu machine:
- File Server with 500GB+ of RAID 0 storage
- Print Server
- Remote access with SSH and VNC
- Subversion server for project management
- Web server with LAMP/phpMyAdmin and Ruby on Rails
- Tomcat (maybe)
- Music playing and serving with either Rhythmbox or
Amarok - Photo management with flickrfs
- A place to work when a 13.1” screen won’t cut it.
The Mac will do:
- Adobe CS apps when I need them
- Windows in VMWare Fusion (for testing only)
- A place to work when carrying a 30 pound desktop won’t cut it.
Both machines will have:
- Processing
- Eclipse (Europa JEE) with:
- Web Tools Platform
- Aptana Studio (no more Dreamweaver!) with PHP and RoR Plugins
- Adobe Flex Builder
that should be enough to get started. Hopefully soon there will be some output from this new setup :)
