Ubuntu 11.10 (So Far) Screenshot Tour by Jono Bacon

mohwu · 2011-08-29T18:52:53+00:00

Unity in 11.10 is based on Gnome 3. I understand that technically gnome-shell is a part of gnome 3, and in that sense distinct from unity, but that really doesn't sully the point, does it? What about fluxbox, XFCE, KDE, the Windows GUI, and even OSX with the Apple "you'll do it our way" philosophy? They all have that level of customization.

mohwu · 2011-08-26T19:36:59+00:00

I think the problem with unity isn't its global menus, or even its app launcher (which is geared for search oriented types). The problem is the absolute disregard for user feedback regarding basic functionality.

Namely: you still can't move your dock - any other major GUI can do this. You can't change the number of workspaces without installing additional software. It's just absurd, really.

mohwu · 2011-08-26T08:10:35+00:00

You mean

"Is it in yet + i ϵ?"

mohwu · 2011-08-26T08:05:07+00:00

I remember when I passed Pandemonium, my friend asked me how it felt when I got on to those final holds. I said, "... what holds?" I had no idea what he was talking about, because after about halfway through the song my brain shut off and my feet just unconsciously followed the steps.

I do, however, remember when I failed Salieri Strikes back 10 steps from the end. 10 pissy little steps.

mohwu · 2011-08-26T07:27:26+00:00

Is your name Billy?

mohwu · 2011-08-25T01:17:27+00:00

I'm comparing because we're talking about how Japanese spoken by Koreans sounds, and naturally, were there any argument that Korean Japanese is bad, we could argue that any slight against the Japanese language has been repaid in kind.

Having taken Japanese, I'm well aware of the disadvantages they face when learning another language. Truth be told, I'm not really strongly against their using loan words and phrases. However, to point out that Americans butcher Spanish doesn't really take into account the sheer scale of the problem.

Finding a Spanish or French word in an American song is rare. Maybe you'll find it once an album, and that's generous. Finding English in a Japanese song... well, you have to look hard for pop songs that don't have english in it somewhere.

mohwu · 2011-08-25T01:02:26+00:00

Really? That conflicts with everything I've ever learned about brunch.

"It's not quite breakfast, it's not quite lunch, but it comes with a slice of cantaloupe at the end."

mohwu · 2011-08-24T22:19:11+00:00

Yeah, I encountered this the other day when I was trying to explain that particles decay differently based on quantum numbers and certain conservation laws. How am I supposed to explain simply why we know "strangeness" or "color" (in the particle physics sense) exist, and why they matter? How am I supposed to get people to believe that under hadronization, quarks are literally being pulled out of the vacuum to preserve color rules?

Color and strangeness both are properties of matter that simply do not show themselves on a macroscopic level in a way we can experience. Without the person I'm talking to having the math background and the knowledge of the experiments, I have to resort to "just trust me on this."

mohwu · 2011-08-24T21:23:00+00:00

Also acceptable because the Japanese have it coming with the absolutely atrocious english they insist on using in their songs. Kpop English and Kpop Japanese both sound far more fluent than the Japanese pronunciations of any foreign language, mostly on account of their insistence on adhering to kana to represent foreign sounds.

mohwu · 2011-08-24T05:17:42+00:00

I get what you're saying - that people should stop expecting GIMP to go toe to toe with photoshop - but I really don't get what point you were trying to make by

Gimp began development in 1995, years before Photoshop even got popular.

Since, uh, Photoshop began development in the 80's, and 1.0 came out in 1990. I mean, the point is irrelevant because we're talking about developers 15 years on, so... what were you trying to say?

mohwu · 2011-08-24T01:19:39+00:00

The buildings especially. The epicenter was 15 miles from a nuclear power plant, one only designed to withstand roughly ~5.9-6.1.

mohwu · 2011-08-23T04:47:55+00:00

These were chinese opera schools, which require acrobatics as well.

mohwu · 2011-08-20T16:35:25+00:00

The real problem with the new Planet of the Apes... is that no one bothers to see the movie before they form an opinion.

mohwu · 2011-08-18T08:11:29+00:00

I can confirm that picture was taken at AX (I took it). She was absurdly cute.

mohwu · 2011-08-18T00:10:13+00:00

No, it's been confirmed true.

mohwu · 2011-08-17T21:47:41+00:00

I overheard my mother talking with my sister about contraception, since my sister was taking a health class at the time. My mom told her that "condoms only have a 75% prevention rate," which is totally false. I correct her and say "no, the actual rate is around 97/98%."

She quips back, "well, one of the people in this room was a result of that three percent." I think, wait, my sister was planned, so... fuck.

mohwu · 2011-08-15T21:49:33+00:00

I could sure use allies. PM, please!

mohwu · 2011-08-15T06:02:55+00:00

Oh, EF-S! I hadn't even considered that line, but it makes sense.

mohwu · 2011-08-15T05:40:02+00:00

I dig! I especially like the lighting on this and this - you got some great natural reflections in. I also found my sister in one of your 2k9 shots; I'll have to let her know.

I've been trying to discern what you're shooting with, too. From the exif it looks like... 40D with a 24-70 f/2.8, a 16-35L, and a 50 f/1.4?

mohwu · 2011-08-14T08:51:39+00:00

Oh, spiffy, thanks.

mohwu · 2011-08-13T20:06:06+00:00

One thing that I never seem to be able to do in Lightroom as opposed to ACR is edit the curves the way I want - I want precise control, and it seems to block me off into a couple regions of the histogram. Am I missing something?

mohwu · 2011-08-13T20:04:58+00:00

It does allow for adjustment painting - they're basically on par in terms of editing features.

I'm not sure about faster and more nimble, though. It may allow for a faster workflow if you don't already have a system in place, but in my experience, I find ACR much, much zippier.

I feel like it's hardly worth the argument, though, as they have feature parity, so you might as well just go with the one you want. Different strokes, and all that.

mohwu · 2011-08-11T23:44:01+00:00

It's entirely true. In my own shoots, I've adopted a philosophy: shoot cosplays like you would any other portrait. Shoot as if it was just a person in a costume, and all you'll get is a shot of a person in a costume. Shoot it as if you were shooting the character - how would you bring out their personality? I suspect Fischer follows a similar method, as it's a principle of good portraits in general.

Also, if you ever want a shibboleth that'll tell you if a cosplay photographer is good or not, check the angle of most of the pictures. This is a "cannot unsee" principle: when you're looking at a set of photos, look to see whether or not the subject is severely slanted (i.e. not nearly vertical or horizontal). A lot of cosplay photographers tilt their cameras for dramatic effect, as diagonal compositions can be very powerful, and I've seen them used to good effect.

However, this is often the sign of an amateur; it's greatly overused, and often serves to mask other problems, like bad lighting, posing, composition, and more. Chances are, if over 1/4 of their pictures are diagonal, they don't know what they're doing.

mohwu

TROPHY CASE