Arranged Delirium

Thank you Facebook, for removing the last useful feature (for me at least). Today, FB removed it’s feature for posting RSS feeds via Notes, which was a convenient way for me to post once to my blog and have it posted to FB:

I’m saddened in some sense, because it really does remove that last reason for sticking with Facebook for me. But at the same time, it makes it easier to leave FB forever now. With the absence of the functionality combined with the never-ending privacy concerns, it’s just not worth it. BTW, there’s a recent article at ReadWriteWeb that does a good job of articulating Why Facebook’s Seamless Sharing is Wrong. And, am I really the only one that finds the streaming update feature creepy? It seems excruciatingly easy for that content to be taken out of context (since, in essence, it has none).

Anyway, I’m done with Facebook. I hope you’ll consider joining me on Google+. It’s quiet over there, but perhaps it’ll pick up as others become more active. At least it provides a way to share limited information in ways that I want to. I’ll admit Google+ is still going through its growing pains, but I don’t feel that I need to be constantly on guard to protect the information. I’ll leave a pointer page up on Facebook over the break, but won’t be reading or posting anymore.

Adobe appears to have thrown in the towel recently regarding flash development - at least for mobile devices. Reuters has an good article on the topic here. This clears most of the remaining barrier for the broad-based acceptance of HTML 5 as the development platform of choice for web development and web-based mobile apps.

This really shouldn’t be too surprising. Adobe has updated Dreamweaver in version 5.5 to be a viable mobile app development platform, and it’s bought out other text editors that might have fulfilled a significant competitive role. This does however make the forthcoming Adobe Edge product more appealing as well. In combination with the PhoneGap API libraries that you can access through Dreamweaver, this tool could enable app creators to include a significant amount of interactivity.

I had a student yesterday that needed to resize a good number of images. I told him to go look for some online tutorials (and there is 1 good one) but many of them were, well, more difficult than they needed to be. So, for student of new media, here’s how you resize multiple files at once:

Step 1) File menu -> Scripts -> Image Processor…
Step 2) Identify the source directory
Step 3) Identify the destination directory
Step 4) Make your desired changes
Step 5) Click the Run button

Thats it. There are a number of other options you can select if you know what you are doing, and as usual - you’re mileage many vary if you are using earlier versions. (For instance, I think the sub-folders option only came around in CS4, so if you are using the machines downstairs with CS3 you are out of luck.) Another tip: If you are at all confused about file locations and directory structures, do yourself a favor and just make two folders on the desktop: one with all the images you want to modify, and another one for where you want the new images to appear.

While not necessarily recent, we’ve seen a bit of controversy in past months regarding Limor Fried’s Wired cover. And, its a great example for my New Media and Digital Imaging courses. Not in the traditional form - usually we are critiquing the over-ambitious or questionable Imagery edits - but this time we see the lack of editing that was critiqued in ignorance by GOOD.is editor Cord Jefferson. Of course we should be thoughtful about media representations and how they affect us - after all, that’s the whole point of several of my classes. But it’s similarly important to know your facts before you write something - even if it’s an opinion piece. In this case, the cover was produced with lighting and some basic tonal adjustments that I would suggest any photographer would use.

The Mary Sue has an article with all the details, and Wired has a nice Q&A up for Limor Fried if you are not familiar with her or her contributions. You can learn more about the photographer, Jill Greenberg, and her work through this post illustrating some of her past work and detailing a talk she gave recently…

Rounded corners should be easy. As I’ve been doing more work with mobile app development, I’ve realized that I have a number of old ways to do it, but I want to get it done fast. So, I’ve put together this little example for making quick rounded edge icons for mobile apps; but you can extrapolate the process for about any image.

First some assumptions: we’ll want to save this as a 24-bit png file - don’t worry, it’s so small it wont make any appreciable difference as far as file size is concerned. Speaking of which, I’ll be using a resolution of 114X114 pixels which will ensure the image looks good on high resolution displays (others will simply render it down to the right size). Lastly, I’m assuming we’re all working in RGB mode. If you are taking an image you’ve already used and indexed (as a gif or png file) make sure you change the mode you are working in or you’ll be flummoxed.

OK, so here we go:

1) Open your file and re-size to 114X114 pixels.
2) Select your Rounded Rectangle tool. You’ll want the defaults for the tool selected in the options bar - specifically, ‘shape layers’ - and set the radius to your desired amount (I recommend 20px).
3) Draw your shape - this will create a new layer for you, with a vector mask. How convenient!
4) CMD-click on the vector mask (in History, you’ll notice this loads a new selection).
5) Click on the original background layer and press CMD-J (this copies the selected pixels to a new layer).
6) Make the original layer and the layer with the vector mask invisible, then Save for Web as a 24-bit png file with transparency.

Of course, as with anything Photoshop, there are a dozen ways to do this. I’ve just found this to be the most efficient for me. I could have made a selection, inverted it, and smoothed it out, and then deleting the pixels in that inverted selection. But I wasn’t as pleased with the edges of the corners, and I found it usually left me with additional trimming work to do. So, I think this works most efficiently.