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Just for giggles, I found an image from the web and tried the technique I described. The only thing I did different was I used Threshold on top of it to make it 1-bit B&W. Have a peek.

This example does illustrate the distortion problem, though. I don't know if an OCR could actually read this. (I'd be impressed!)

" Video games and other interactive media will never surpass textual resources for quality."

Erm okay. I don't buy that as an absolute. Teaching requires interacting with the student. Textual resources offer some interesting abilities here. However, it's not a safe assumption that this is correct every single time. I've actually watched kids pick up and grasp ideas they couldn't get from a book from simple Apple II games. Why did it work? a.) It was made interesting to the kids and b.) the games presented the information in a way the kids could really quickly wrap their minds around. Text books are fine and dandy, but they're not a one-size-fits-all approach.

"Give me a book any day. You can have your flash, video games, and propreitary applications."

Give me all of the above. A mix of all three has led me to indepdent study. Right now, I'm an animator for a full-length animated movie. Books got me interested in the story making process. TV/Movies got me interested in how the visuals are captured. (Special FX, filming actors, etc.) Video games got me interested in interaction and UI design. So now I'm writing tools to make the process smoother.

Nothing wrong with having multiple options.

" If some guy wants to port Firefox or OpenOffice to something off the wall like AROS or some other nearly unknown platform, let him."

On the other hand, if some guy makes some software because he wants to get it done quickly AND get it out to a lot of people, he could choose to develop for one platform and reap the benefits of it.

Just because Microsoft suggested it (and I SERIOUSLY doubt they were the first or the only one) doesn't mean it's bad, mmkay. It's all a matter of what your goals are when writing software.

Heck, I recently had this choice. I recently wrote a rather complex plugin for Lightwave using its native scripting language. (here's an image of it in action so you can get an idea of what it does...) One of the questions while developing it was "should it run on the Mac?" This question wasn't so simple to answer. Because it's LW's scripting language, the code (theoretically) works on any platform that Lightwave runs on, including OSX. However, the cost of that was that the code had to be tested on both the Mac and the PC. In the end, it also meant writing code specifically to make it work on the Mac. (fortunately, that wasn't TOO hard, but Mac's file system is a little bit different. I had to cook up a standard to adhere to when using files. Also, there were a couple of bugs in Lightwave specifically on OSX that I had to get around.)

In our case, we wanted greater portability. We wanted to support both the Mac and the PC. However, if we wanted to get it out sooner, the alternative would have been to focus on the PC version. Heck, I could have added a few 'windows only' features that would have been handy.

My point? It all depends on what your motivations are. Your way is right, in one scenario. It's totally wrong in another. The point of writing code is to create something useful for the end user, as opposed to entering it in a good code writing contest. Think about your goals and make the right choice. Don't base your choice on whether or not you look like Microsoft.

"An animator, cool. Yeah, I can see how that would be a rather restrictive job space.."

Yeah... you almost have to be in close orbit to LA. Hehe.

Try http://www.nanogator.com/gallery. If that doesn't work, try this. If those are blocked... err.. sorry! :)

"One major problem with open-source is the lack of artists willing to work under such a license. For an example ot what results, see the "new" FreeCIV."

I see your point, but I'm not sure the problem is the licensing. I think it's the lack of incentive.

To get a job as an artist, you have to do some stand-out work and/or have project experience. Sadly, this creates a nasty problem: How does one get a job as an artist if they haven't had a job as an artist? The answer? Do some cool stuff on your own. Many artists do this. (Check out www.cgtalk.com to see what I mean.) However, it can be difficult for a self-starter to complete some ambitious work. I know I had that problem. If I couldn't get something done in an evening, I wouldn't do it. So what'd I do? Simple: I took on some pro-bono work.

I did some artwork for a game called Ferion. (Now some of you will understand why it's in my sig.) There was no paycheck. Instead, the agreement was that I'd do the work provided I could take the time I needed to expand on my artform. The result? The work I did for Ferion almost single-handedly got me my dream job. There's absolutely no way I would have produced anything like that without somebody needing me to do it. I'm too lazy.

So, how's this relate to OSS? I think really all it needs is the right presentation. There are LOTS of people who want to make artwork for a living. So long as they know that they're gaining valuable experience, you'll be able to find people willing to get the job done. If the project can offer some visibility, even better!

That's a nice image, man. And I'm a 3D artist, so hopefully you won't take that as a hollow compliment. :)

"Well, talented artists are good enough to make their own music, so they don't have to sample. Eminem couldn't play a musical instrument if Suge Knight was threatening his life..."

Comments like this rub artists like myself the wrong way. Let me paint you all a little picture of my world, maybe this will help in understanding why sampling is part of the industry.

I'm a 3D artist. When you work in 3D, there are a lot of subcategories that one can go into. You can do texturing, character animation and rigging, visual effects, matte painting, and a few others that aren't readily popping into mind. I specialize in modelling with a secondary skill in design. What I mean by that is my talent in other areas isn't so strong. Am I talented a talented? There are lots of people who would say yes. Can I do character animation? Nope, I haven't climbed those steps yet. Does that mean I'm not a 3D artist? No.

So what do I do if I'm commisioned to do a project that requires other areas? Simple, I either license other stuff, or I get another person involved. Right now, I'm working on an Ore facility designed to operate on the surface of an asteroid, it's for a game. I've designed the station, gotten that approved, and now I'm building it. The thing is, my client needs it rendered with a backdrop. He has a very specific goal in mind and I have to complete it. I have so much time to get it done in. One of the things I need to do is make a realistic terrain for it. Well, that's not really my area. For one thing, I need textures for it. (note: What I'm about to describe is like sampling.) Now, I can't go to an asteroid and take some photos that I own the copyright to. So what do I do? Well, Nasa is pretty darn cool. They've got a lot of photos of the surface of the moon and on Mars that I can put together in Photoshop to create a new environment. This involves taking small pieces of their images and putting them together into something new. Nasa's agreement is pretty open about that. It says I can use their images provided I say "Courtesy of Nasa" in the credits. In addition to those images, I have a royatly free photo CD I purchased that more or less says "use it as you like, you've paid for it." So here I am, 'sampling' other artists work to meet this goal. I'm doing this LEGITIMATELY and ethically. (In other words, they'd be happy for this use.)

Now, there are exceptional artists out there who'd do it all. They'd probably design it, build it, hand-paint the textures, and do a lot of other things that somebody with years (decades even) of experience under their belts. (Craig Mullins, for example.) However, I'm not there yet. Most artists aren't. That's not because they suck, it's because it takes a long time to get there.

So let's get to Eminem here. So he can't play an instrument. So? That's not his talent. His talent is the lyrics he puts together. I can't say I'm a fan of his, but I have listened to his music, and he's definitely a guy with a style about him, and is most definitely an artist. Has he sampled music? Yep. There's a song called Stan that uses some chunks of some of Dido's work in it. If he were a 'talented artist', the way the parent poster is describing them, would this be a bad move? No for a couple of reasons: 1.) It fits the song. You have to hear it to understand, but it was an appropriate choice. 2.) He licensed use of that song. The result? A better piece. Could he have pursued his own? Eh maybe. Would that be automatically better? Automatically? No. It really depends on what your goal is.

Sampling is not an evil. It can be done wrong. You can grab a riff from a song and not get the permission to do it, that'd be awful. Artists are very protective of their work. I could grab a texture from somewhere and not acquire for it, that'd be equally wrong. Somebody could download somebody else's work and put their name on it

I don't agree with servers having a UI. I agree that the fluff that tends to come with Windows servers is definitely a security risk. (I can't believe NT Server comes with Outlook Express installed.) The nice thing about Windows servers is that you can like see what you wanna do, and just click and it's ready to go. This is in stark contrast to Apache where you have to muck with conf files to make things work. You can be up and running real fast with NT Server with the stuff you want or don't want, but with Apache it initially takes some nasty research. Found that out the hard way. However, I've climbed the learning curve with Apache and prefer to use it now. (You get addicted to SSH...)

Can ya name a specific prob or two you had with Aston? Just curious. I've been using it for months and haven't had any real problems. The only nitpick I have is that I lost a couple of features I liked. For example, Windows explorer lets you ctrl+click on a bunch of windows and then close/min/max/restore them. I agree it's a little 'hacky'.

I'm not terribly impressed with the Matrix series either. The first one was kinda fun to watch (remember, I'm really into VFX...) but the second time around I was like really really bored. The second movie was a total waste of time. Funny thing is, you can draw some paralelles between Terminator 3 and Matrix 2, and T3 wins in all the places that Reloaded misses. Reloaded was such a letdown for me that when Revolutions came around, it had nowhere to go but up. And it did. I liked the ending to it. (Though my interpretation of it seems to be different from everybody else's.) I really liked that Neo wasn't the hero of it, and if I'm right about what was happening then it also explains why a compputer hacker like Keanu is so fucking brainless. Revolutions is not anywhere close to being my favorite movie of all time, but it was a pleasant surprise for me. I also liked the big'ol machines they used to take on the sentinels. In case your curious, that's the type of 3D modelling and animation I an strongest at. I may find myself working on a project sorta like that down the road. I know I'd enjoy the heck of it.

Wanna see some of my artwork? http://www.nanogator.com/gallery As you can see, I've still got some learning to do, but I've grown a lot in the last 2 years.

Let me know after you've read Red Dwarf?

I read an interview with Groenig (or was it Cohen?) recently that discussed having Futurama picked up. Unfortunately, for a cartoon, it's an expensive show to produce. Comedy Central, Cartoon Network, etc are not terribly enthused with the per-episode price. From the read, it seems as though a continuation of the show could result in a noticable budget cuts. However, they did say that they could really cheaply make a movie. They're so good at getting the animation out quickly and at decent quality that 10 mill could make a movie. They seem to think that coould happen.

I'd like to see the Sopranos. Going to get the DVDs one of these days. Speaking of drama, ER reaally impressed me last week. I'm getting into that show. Ever watch it?

Cheers, and sorry about the delay. Just been busy.

Those are good starting places, but you're
forgetting this logo:

Mozilla's Splash Page.

It took a little digging around, but I finally found a pic of one of the test pilots in training. Click here. I'm surprised at how athletic she appears for a Russian woman.

One man's garbage is another man's +1, Funny.

http://www.nanogator.com/pimpsmiley.gif

You know what sucks? How come there isn't a thread specifically for challenging moderation?

I had a chance to meta-moderate this post, and I said the 'troll' (or was it flamebait?) moderation was unfair. And I will continue to mark these types of things unfair as long as Slashdot doesn't have a forum for griping about unfair moderations.

Mod-bombing does happen. I got hit by it in April. Here's some proof:

http://www.nanogator.com/slashdot.jpg

I wouldn't go as far as to liken Slashdot to Nazis like the parent poster did, but I do think it's awful that there isn't a forum to discuss this. The worst part is that we can't bring it up in the thread that it happens in. I challenged a posting I made once and it got modded down as 'off-topic'.

So wtf?

I have a feeling this post is going to get modded down because I'm not talking about my computer as a fire hazard. Oh well, at least I've expressed myself.

I really wish that moderators would be careful about who they mod down. We've all seen too many instances of people getting modded down because their opinion's different from your own. I'll never forget getting modded down because I said Flash was a cool product. All the hatred against Flash anims cost me karma even though I was specifically talking about it from the development point of view. *eyeroll*