WaFiTz! » Archive
Creating a Quick n’ Easy Fake Tilt-Shift Photo with Gimp
One of the reasons I haven’t been posting lately is I’ve been going through our holiday photos. I’ve just created my first fake tilt-shift photo with the aid of Gimp! There are lots of tutorials on the internet, but some seem to be outdated or missing steps leaving me to suss out the commands. It’s not the most brilliant I’ve seen but for an amateur I’m suitably happy with it. This is how I did it: Open up photo in Gimp Click on the Toggle Quick Mask icon (bottom left corner of image window) or press Shift+Q Select Blend Tool from the toolbox Select Gradient FG to BG (RGB) Select Shape: Bi-Linear Choose your focal point (the part you want miniaturised – usually the centre) Click and drag vertically from your focal point Uncheck the Quick Mask which should leave … Read entire article »
Filed under: Distractions
Solve my Mystery Geocache
I’m headed to Cork, Ireland for a week and a half, so there’ll be little or no posts, check twitter @wafitz for updates. Currently I’m sitting on a car ferry from Fishguard using wifi@sea – via satellite, pretty cool. In the meantime, we just published a new mystery/puzzle geocache. To be solved at home then searched for at night following a trail of firetacks. See if you can solve it here: geocacing.com listing Mystery journal … Read entire article »
Filed under: Geocaching, WaFiTz!
The Walking Dead: Zombie School
How cool is this? The latest production video from AMC for The Walking Dead adaptation. I’m really anticipating this new series in filling the hole that Lost left, for me anyway. I also wonder how close they’ll stick to the comics, I’m kind of hoping they do stray a little otherwise there’ll be no surprises for me. At the same time I hope they’re gutsy enough to kill off the same characters – Too many shows get attached to certain actors then it really drags down the storyline. This is why I like Dexter so much – not only were they prepared to stray from the books they were really ballsy with their Season 4 cliffhanger. Check out the black guy at the end of the video, he’s totally into it, method … Read entire article »
Filed under: TV Shows
Bookshelf: The Pirate’s Dilemma
I recently finished reading The Pirate’s Dilemma: How Hackers, Punk Capitalists, Graffiti Millionaires and Other Youth Movements are Remixing Our Culture and Changing Our World by Matt Mason. I posted a link to Amazon to buy the book but it’s free to download (you choose the price) from the Official website. I’ll start by saying that this is a great well-researched book for anyone who is (a) a pirate (b) a creator (c) a media exec or (d) wanting to look at the history and origins of piracy in context. Mason starts off from the odd perspective of introducing us to the punk revolution. The entire first chapter is devoted to punk capitalism. Whilst I think this has it’s place in the history of piracy, I didn’t think it was necessary to devote … Read entire article »
3gp Video Format on Linux
I don’t know about you, but it irritates me how many mobile phones I’ve used that only save their video in one propriety format – 3gp. From what I gather 3gp is a format backed by 3GPP – a collaboration of telecoms providers – probably for it’s compact size limit (for sending MMS) but why then can’t they offer another encoding version for video you don’t intend to send? 3gp doesn’t work out of the box on Linux – but I’ve found even with restricted media packages in place that the audio won’t play. Google “3gp audio” and a myriad of results will return with links to free converters. Support for linux seems to range from either some fairly complex command line fu, to manually installing and compiling codecs for working in your … Read entire article »
Filed under: Complaints, Linux, Troubleshooting
Bluetooth on Ubuntu Linux vs on Windows Vista
The introduction of new technology into our lives always seems to have a ripple effect on our existing hardware. Recently I bought a Sony Alpha 330 DSLR which as an entry level SLR I am very happy with. However, I discovered my 4 year old desktop PC’s card reader could not handle the SDHC format that this camera uses. So I ended up ordering an EVO Labs Internal Card Reader with Bluetooth from Amazon and found it installed into Ubuntu Linux without a hitch. I was then able to utilise the bluetooth chip to connect with my mobile and send/receive files. The only complaint I’d have is since my tower sits under my desk sometimes the bluetooth signal is a little choppy – I don’t know if this is a power issue … Read entire article »
Filed under: Linux, Technik, Troubleshooting
Twitter
Identica
Youtube
Facebook