I have family in 3 different states and 3 different countries. I feel your pain.
www.logmein.com
Okay, so it's not VPN, but it's a verynice little
remote access program. It allows remote access via web
browser. The basic version is free. If you want to
pay $60 a year for the pro version, it allows you to transfer files.
I just installed it on my families computers, so when they need tech
support, I can have them open logmein, and I can just fix their
computers remotely instead of talking them through itstep by
step. It also allows me to install anti-virus, anti-spy,
firefox, etc... We also had a nice long chat about disabling
the service unless I specifically call them.
For free file transfers, we use gmail for under 10 MB and you could use
Gdrive for anything over that. It's a bit of a hack, but it
works. It's not like we're transferring huge DIVX files to
each other.
Most of my 2D animation has been done either with Flash or Adobe
After Effects.
After Effects is an industry standard package, and it costs about the
same as Flash, last I checked. One of it's most powerful
features is the scripting language. It helps to create
procedural animations which can be difficult to do by hand.
You also might want to consider doing 2D animation with a 3D package.
Most of my time 3D time was spent learning Maya.
The strength that 3D animation packages have, is that they
get used more often for character animation than the 2D packages,
therefore they have a lot more tools forcharacter animators
such as bone structures and deformations. A lot of them have
physics packages that can help automate certain types of animation.
Most 3D packages also come with built in scripting languages
for procedural animation.
The down side to 3D packages is the intense learning curve.
At last count, I heard that Maya had over 80,000 commands.
These are huge and complex software packages. The
proprietary ones also tend to cost quite a bit, although Blender
is free as well as open source.
A lot of what software to use depends on what kind of
animation you want to do. Are you doing short character
animations? Are you doing experimental stuff? Are
you Rotoscoping? If you tell us a bit more about the type of
animation you want to do, we could be a bit more specific in
recommending specific packages.
Other thoughts:
--I know that Photoshop and ImageReady can be used to animate between
layers ( but involves a bit of hackery to get it to work well).
--The integration between Photoshop and After Effects is really nice.
It's one of the reasons AFX is used so much in television.
--FilmGimp/Cinepaint
has been used for wire removal and image clean up for a while in the FX
industry, I have no experience with it.
--I know that there are also some animation
plugins for the Gimp
that have been written. Again, I have no experience with
these.
Regardless of the tools, there is always a steep learning curve, and
there's always seems to be a lot of work coaxing the software program
to do what you want it to do. If it's not coming easily, it's
because we still have a lot of work to do in developing great animation
software.
So much of medicine is plumbing and pipes. If pipes are clogged
in one area of the body (the retinas), pipes are going to be clogged
in another area (the heart, or the brain). This isn't a
revolutionary concept.
What would be revolutionary is using image recognition algorithms
to look for specific disease patterns in retinal vasculature. It is
then a simple process of imaging the retinas and automate the image
processing. That would give you a list of risk factors, and be able
to direct additional screening exams. Here's the deal, how many
opthamologists do you know who can code?
Cost per patient: $2 Billing per patient: $200
There you go, boys, a $20,000,000 start up idea for free.
The novel idea that there are an infinite number of time
dimensions in the Universe revolutionizes gravitational theory and
much of modern science with it. A number of outstanding scientific
mysteries are definitively solved, including observations that lead
to the concepts of 'dark energy' and 'dark matter'.
A number of outstanding scientific
mysteries are also solved with my new unpublished theory that 1+1 =
2. Doesn't mean that the idea holds water, though.
I think that many problems in academia
are because of "publish or perish" advancement. I think
this is an example in point.
I'm pursuing a degree online in CMIS at University
of Maryland, University College. They have a well respected
Distance Education curriculum, and handle a contract for Continuing
Ed with the Department of Defense.
Most of my classmates are in the military. I'm taking classes
online with an Army Sargent who's working in Counter Intelligence,
several soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a patent lawyer in
Maryland as well as a Senior Network Engineer at Fannie Mae. Most of
us finishing our degrees at UMUC are doing so online, because we
can't go to school any other way.
My Data Structures and Abstractions professor has published over
30 papers in the past 8 years.
Last fall I received an email from the NSA, asking me to apply for
their Information
Assurance Scholarship Program, because of my GPA and the fact
that the school that I attended was a Center
of Excellence for Computer Science. The scholarship was a
full ride plus $10,000 a year as a stipend—as an undergrad. I
declined to apply, because I don't want to sell my soul to Uncle Sam
for the 4 years after school.
I'm putting in at least 30 hours a week on my schoolwork while I'm
holding down a full time job as a Emergency Room nurse.
When I graduate, my diploma will say that I've graduated from the
University of Maryland.
Slashdot Mirror
I have family in 3 different states and 3 different countries. I feel your pain. www.logmein.com Okay, so it's not VPN, but it's a verynice little remote access program. It allows remote access via web browser. The basic version is free. If you want to pay $60 a year for the pro version, it allows you to transfer files.
I just installed it on my families computers, so when they need tech support, I can have them open logmein, and I can just fix their computers remotely instead of talking them through itstep by step. It also allows me to install anti-virus, anti-spy, firefox, etc... We also had a nice long chat about disabling the service unless I specifically call them.
For free file transfers, we use gmail for under 10 MB and you could use Gdrive for anything over that. It's a bit of a hack, but it works. It's not like we're transferring huge DIVX files to each other.
Most of my 2D animation has been done either with Flash or Adobe After Effects.
After Effects is an industry standard package, and it costs about the same as Flash, last I checked. One of it's most powerful features is the scripting language. It helps to create procedural animations which can be difficult to do by hand.
You also might want to consider doing 2D animation with a 3D package. Most of my time 3D time was spent learning Maya. The strength that 3D animation packages have, is that they get used more often for character animation than the 2D packages, therefore they have a lot more tools forcharacter animators such as bone structures and deformations. A lot of them have physics packages that can help automate certain types of animation. Most 3D packages also come with built in scripting languages for procedural animation.
The down side to 3D packages is the intense learning curve. At last count, I heard that Maya had over 80,000 commands. These are huge and complex software packages. The proprietary ones also tend to cost quite a bit, although Blender is free as well as open source.
A lot of what software to use depends on what kind of animation you want to do. Are you doing short character animations? Are you doing experimental stuff? Are you Rotoscoping? If you tell us a bit more about the type of animation you want to do, we could be a bit more specific in recommending specific packages.
Other thoughts:
--I know that Photoshop and ImageReady can be used to animate between layers ( but involves a bit of hackery to get it to work well).
--The integration between Photoshop and After Effects is really nice. It's one of the reasons AFX is used so much in television.
--FilmGimp/Cinepaint has been used for wire removal and image clean up for a while in the FX industry, I have no experience with it.
--I know that there are also some animation plugins for the Gimp that have been written. Again, I have no experience with these.
Regardless of the tools, there is always a steep learning curve, and there's always seems to be a lot of work coaxing the software program to do what you want it to do. If it's not coming easily, it's because we still have a lot of work to do in developing great animation software.
Good luck, and have fun.
I whole heartedly agree. My wife and I have been playing on and off for the past couple of years. She loves it.
Now, now, boys. Be nice to the noob.
So much of medicine is plumbing and pipes. If pipes are clogged in one area of the body (the retinas), pipes are going to be clogged in another area (the heart, or the brain). This isn't a revolutionary concept.
What would be revolutionary is using image recognition algorithms to look for specific disease patterns in retinal vasculature. It is then a simple process of imaging the retinas and automate the image processing. That would give you a list of risk factors, and be able to direct additional screening exams. Here's the deal, how many opthamologists do you know who can code?
Cost per patient: $2
Billing per patient: $200
There you go, boys, a $20,000,000 start up idea for free.
You're welcome.
My bad. I did mean 1+1=3
The novel idea that there are an infinite number of time dimensions in the Universe revolutionizes gravitational theory and much of modern science with it. A number of outstanding scientific mysteries are definitively solved, including observations that lead to the concepts of 'dark energy' and 'dark matter'.
A number of outstanding scientific mysteries are also solved with my new unpublished theory that 1+1 = 2. Doesn't mean that the idea holds water, though.
I think that many problems in academia are because of "publish or perish" advancement. I think this is an example in point.
Upload video to Google video or YouTube.
Use their bandwidth to stream your video.
Use their API to embed the video on your website.
You lose control over the distribution of the content, but you save a lot of money in the process. The other option is Bit torrent.
Also, have you looked into DigitalBicycle? They are working on a PeerCasting system for Using Bit Torrent, RSS, and web community software
Yes
Yeah, but will I have the option to buy the pages used?
I'll be sure to brush up on how to say "RTFM" in Korean.
I'm pursuing a degree online in CMIS at University of Maryland, University College. They have a well respected Distance Education curriculum, and handle a contract for Continuing Ed with the Department of Defense.
Most of my classmates are in the military. I'm taking classes online with an Army Sargent who's working in Counter Intelligence, several soldiers deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, a patent lawyer in Maryland as well as a Senior Network Engineer at Fannie Mae. Most of us finishing our degrees at UMUC are doing so online, because we can't go to school any other way.
My Data Structures and Abstractions professor has published over 30 papers in the past 8 years.
Last fall I received an email from the NSA, asking me to apply for their Information Assurance Scholarship Program, because of my GPA and the fact that the school that I attended was a Center of Excellence for Computer Science. The scholarship was a full ride plus $10,000 a year as a stipend—as an undergrad. I declined to apply, because I don't want to sell my soul to Uncle Sam for the 4 years after school.
I'm putting in at least 30 hours a week on my schoolwork while I'm holding down a full time job as a Emergency Room nurse.
When I graduate, my diploma will say that I've graduated from the University of Maryland.
Online Education = Diploma mill, my ass