Preview of an awesome feature from Adobe Photoshop CS5

This is simply awesome. I have never used Photoshop before, but after seeing this I can definitely see using it someday, especially for digital special effects such as matte-painting for film.

The preview video:



Isn't that seriously awesome?!

The fourth dimension for television

According to Mr. Sulu, the company Sharp has been developing a brand-new HDTV that better reproduces natural colors by adding a fourth color element to the standard RGB palette: Yellow.

I have heard arguments for and against this technology. According to some, "G+B=Y, so why do we need to include 'Y' when it's already technically in there?". Personally, I believe that adding a fourth color will make a difference, but not a huge difference. It will certainly help tone down over-saturated red hues, but some things might look uber-orange now. We shall see.

Here's what Mr. Sulu has to say on the matter:




Looks good to me!

Ubuntu and Windows 7

I'm finally doing something I've been meaning to for ages; testing out Ubuntu Linux through the use of a "Live CD".

Personally, I really, really like Ubuntu so far. I'm definitely setting up a separate partition for it so that I can have two OSes on my system. I see myself using Ubuntu a LOT for everyday things, like casually browsing the web and doing some web development, as well as casual C++ programming. School work is also something it will be great for.

The Live CD I was using for the first couple of days was actually the new beta for Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx". So I actually ended up testing out a future version that appears to want to introduce a few new features, which seem rather promising. Once I "downgraded" to the 9.10 Live CD, I realized what Linux is doing, and look forward to using 10.04 when it comes out in late April. But for now, I need to install 9.10. There's something about Ubuntu that makes it feel right for me. I really don't know what it is. I never thought I'd actually use it, but once it booted up for the first time and I realized what it's capable of and great for, I couldn't imagine never using it. I decided within ten minutes of checking it out that it needed to be on my hard drive as a secondary OS.

So I'mma go set it up now. I'll update y'all on how it goes, and post screenshots of it.

Hi everyone.

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. Unfortunately, my level editor/game project has been abandoned since January 4th (I can tell by the timestamp). The reason is mainly because I realized that to complete it, I'd need to expand my knowledge of programming. The code was messy, I barely knew what I was doing with file access and output, and the performance overall was shoddy because I wasn't sure how to program something to be completely performance-friendly. It also didn't help that I managed to get myself infected with a nasty virus from a false Adobe Flash Player update. I'm still not sure how that even happened; I don't remember downloading any files or accessing any "untrustworthy" sites. My guess is it came in an email that I opened and deleted because I realized it was junk, but I'm not certain. It could have even come from a virus on facebook, too. Anyway...

I have started to study C++. I've also been intently studying mathematics, as 98% of programming is math. Somewhere between basic Algebra and Geometry (and even some basic Trigonometry for super-advanced stuff) is the knowledge one needs to become a better programmer, especially when it comes to physics simulation for games and constructing 3D models. My knowledge is improving and I expect to be a better programmer within the next month or so. I'm also studying C# so that I can use Microsoft XNA Game Studio to program my games. Maybe someday I'll even program a small game in C++, once I have it all learned and figured out.

So that's it. Just thought I'd update y'all.