Small talks over Coffee » Computer

Online Democracy: Digital Divide

nickizen — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 13:11:02 +0000

by Ben Heine

What it is

“Digital Divide” refers to the gap between those who benefit from digital technology and those who do not. It took digital-divide researchers a whole decade to figure out that the real issue is not so much about access to digital technology but about the benefits derived from it. Examining the situation more closely, it turns out that upper-to-middle classes have high-quality access to digital technology because the profit motive pushes technologists to work hard at creating “solutions” designed specifically for them. In this equation, however, the poor are ignored because the assumption is that designing solutions for them will not be profitable. The result is that even where the poor are provided access to digital technology, it is low-quality. Furthermore, the digital technology they do have access to is often of a design that ends up being harmful rather than beneficial. This, in turn, widens the digital divide.

Consider, for the example, cyber cafés. Years ago, many pointed to their spread as an example demonstrating that the digital divide was shrinking. But when a local youth in a Cambodia village ignores his school work and instead spends his evenings playing violent video games at a local cyber café, he is not really benefiting from digital technology. Thus giving to the poor digital technology that has been designed for the rich may actually add to the causes of poverty and accelerate the exodus of the rural poor into cities already bursting at the seams.

The new view is that closing the digital divide will be most effectively achieved through a two-pronged approach, one direct and the other indirect: The direct approach will be for governments and businesses to work together to change the incentives that shape digital markets. The indirect approach will be for them to team up on e-government digital technology initiatives that extend rural health care and quality education to the poor. Through these two approaches, the poor will be able to reap many of the same benefits from digital technology now derived by the wealthy.

Serious Sam: The Second Encounter

nickizen — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:39:10 +0000

Hmm…where to start? For a game with such a bizarre title, it’s actually rather good. In my opinion, it’s very similar to the Quake series, for example, the rocket launcher and the shotgun both reduce the enemies to some meaty chunks on the floor. In the demo I downloaded, there are a variable selection of weapons, from a chainsaw to a sniper rifle. There’s a point. Picking up the chainsaw just after beginning the demo will trigger a phrase:
“Look ma, Ah’m a lumberjack!”, which I find rather amusing. The environments are almost fully destructible, as you can cut down, or just annihilate trees at the start of the level. Croteam made one hell of a game out of this. Gameplay consists of frenzied running around, blasting anything that moves. They created a vast array of enemy races, which are both original and unoriginal at the same time, if that makes sense. Every time you kill an enemy, details about the species are added to a computer, accessible from the game screen, along with information about the area the character is in, the weapons he owns and the current mission objectives. There is also an online feature, but that wasn’t accessible in the demo. I have not yet made it to the end, I quit because I had to review the game, not just play it all the time. Once I write this, I should have no problem playing through the game.
Croteam overuse the ‘serious’ gag. The difficulties ingame are: Tourist (Errr….get lost and ask for money?) Easy (yes, very.) Medium (I always saw that as a burger size) Hard (Need I say it?) and Serious. Yeah. Clicking the Quit button triggers a dialog box: “Are you serious?”
That word can get a little old. And run into the ground. Stop saying it, it’s getting a little muddy.

I suppose I’d better rate the game too. 8/10. Seriously.

Photoshop CS3 Extended Review (3D Compositing)

nickizen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:39:58 +0000

I bet you know now the system requirements you need. Now lets focus on the application itself. Since this is a review of Photoshop CS3, I will naturally describe how Photoshop works - its new features (lets focus on 3D compositing first). Initially, I want to say that I feel Adobe has taken a tremendous jump ahead in the development of Photoshop CS3.

The UI of Photoshop CS3 is similar to Illustrator CS3, InDesign CS3, as well as Flash CS3 (those 3 applications that was mentioned were other application products of Adobe). I use two monitors, and I was able to bring any palette I wanted onto the second monitor which is where I like to open them. As can be seen from the image below, palettes can now be docked for easy accessibility. They can be expanded or contracted to show just the icon of the palette or the name as well. The palettes can be grouped together or docked singly. Below there are three groups of three palettes. However, I could have had those palettes arranged in any grouping.

In order to describe the new features of Photoshop CS3, I decided to use the help Photoshop splash screen and its list of new features. One of the first new features is Zoomify. It creates an image that allows the user to zoom into it and see details that otherwise would be missed.

The tools for working with 3D models open up a whole new avenue for Photoshop. You can now open 3D models in Photoshop CS3 Extended. The textures of these can be modified and, then, applied to the model. Models can, also, be placed in 2D scenes. Models can be rotated, have lights applied to them, as well as styles.

When working with models, I found that some models worked better than others and, in general, that 3DS models worked better than the OBJ (OBJ is a simple data-format that represents 3D geometry alone) ones that I downloaded from the web. The one I used in the bug picture is an e frontier model from their special download collection of “Poser 3D Content for Use with Adobe Photoshop CS3″. You will notice that I changed the textures from the original. To save the textures to the model, you go into Layer>3d layers>replace textures. You can also paint on the textures as well as just adjust the colors. My original OBJ scarab now has new textures. However, I could have just changed the textures in the 2D image and not modified the original at all.

Referring again to OBJs, I can say that some OBJs acted peculiarly. Some came in sideways, which could be corrected, and some were hard to manipulate. However, I believe that this had more to do with the object than Photoshop because there did not seem to be any correlation between polygon count, file size, or textures.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended (System Requirement)

nickizen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 03:07:44 +0000

Since I’ve introduced this application in my previous blog, now I’m going to further more elaborate this application. But before anything else let’s talk first about the proper system requirements that you will need in order for you to fully maximize the potential skills of this Killer application.

System requirements for Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Windows version, include a system based on an Intel Pentium 4, Intel Centrino, Intel Xeon or Intel Core Duo or compatible processor running Microsoft Windows SP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista Home Premium, Business,Ultimate or Enterprise (certified for 32-bit editions). The system also needs to have at least 512 MB of RAM and 1 GB of available hard disk space (additional free space is required during instalation) and a DVD-ROM drive.

A Monitor with at least 1,024 x 768 resolution and a 16-bit or greater video card is required. Some 3D features in Photoshop CS3 Extended require a DirectX 9-capable graphics card with at least 64 MB of VRAM.

The Macintosh version of Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended requires a PowerPC G4 or G5 or multicore Intel Processor Macintosh running Mac OS X v.10.4.8. You’ll need at least 512 MB of RAM and 2 GBof available hard disk space (still additional free space is required during product installation). You’ll also need a DVD-ROM drive for installation. As with Windows version of Photoshop CS3 you’ll need a display capable of at least 1024 x 768 resolution with a 16-bit or greater video card. Some 3D features in Photoshop Extended requires OpenGL 1.4-capable graphics card with at least 64 MB of VRAM.

Killer Application

nickizen — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 01:01:46 +0000

It’s been awhile since I started using this one of a kind graphic editing software. It has been my primary tool for trade when everytime I’m editing photos, making graphics and wallpapers. Since the day I learned how to use this application I got also hooked to art and became an addict user of it. But what is Adobe Photoshop a.k.a PS anyway? What makes this software a must to use when you are in graphic or photo editing?

If you haven’t know yet what is this application I’m talking about well, here’s a brief information about this amazing software.

Adobe Photoshop, or simply Photoshop a.k.a PS, is a graphics editor developed and published by Adobe Systems. It is the current market leader for commercial bitmap and image manipulation, and is the flagship product of Adobe Systems. It has been described as “an industry standard for graphics professionals” and was one of the early “killer application” on Macintosh

The current (10th) iteration of the program, Photoshop CS3, was released on 16 April 2007. “CS” reflects its integration with other Creative Suite products, and the number “3″ represents it as the third version released since Adobe re-branded its products under the CS umbrella. Photoshop CS3 features additions such as the ability to apply non-destructive filters, as well as new selection tools named Quick Selection and Refine Edge that make selection more streamlined. Adobe released Photoshop CS3 Extended (version that I’m currently using), which includes all the same features of Adobe Photoshop CS3 with the addition of capabilities for scientific imaging, 3D, and high end film and video users.