Archive for May, 2007
I am a college student and my schedule varies everyday. I am often forgetful to even set an alarm or sometimes I mess up the time. I usually set alarms in iCal, but have found there is too much room for error. Sometimes my volume is muted and the alarm never sounds!
Aurora is a free application that allows me to set up an alarm schedule for every day of the week. I can rely on Aurora to wake up my Mac from sleep or turn the volume up when muted. Aurora can open iTunes playlists, podcasts, applications, even eyeTV channels. Aurora will put my Mac to sleep, similar to a television. This is the ultimate Application for anyone trying to schedule their sleeping habits.
I travel extensively for work. Usually I have my MacBook along for the trip, but sometimes I am left to use someone else’s devices. That is way I original signed up for Gmail. After three years of using Gmail, I am now a believer. Gmail is what I have always wanted in an email service. Almost 3GBs of space (not on my hard drive), Archiving, Contacts, Labeling, Amazing Spam Filter, Chat, and much more! I use Gmail for the iUseApple.com domain and it allows me to administer users and email accounts. Sign up for Gmail here.
Anyone else who uses Gmail on a Mac is probably annoyed by one aspect of it. Whenever I click on an email on a website, Mail tries to open and makes a blank email composition for me to write. There are some fixes for this problem out there if I use Firefox. Mail is an elegant application, isn’t it? I can hook up my Gmail address to Mail, but I lose half the functionality that makes Gmail so brilliant!
Mailplane to the Rescue!
Gmail and Mac weren’t friends until now. Mailplane is an Application currently in development that marries Gmail to OS X. Mailplane has the elegance of Mail with the functionality of Gmail. I can now directly print emails from Gmail easily. Whenever I click an email address on a wesbite, Mailplane pops up to handle it. Mailplane fits seamlessly with the rest of OS X.
Mailplane is still a Beta application. Ruben is the man behind the Mailplane project. I found one bug when I first signed up a month ago. The problem was addressed promptly in the next update after I messaged Ruben on the Mailplane forums. There are so many people interested in Mailplane that there is waiting list. I signed up and within two weeks received an invitation email to participate in the Beta.
Go sign up for the Mailplane Beta to start using Gmail on a Mac!
In Part 2 of “Create Visuals with NodeBox!” we will explore the interface and give examples of correct syntax when dealing with common Python commands, for loops, variables, importing images, and templates. This post is a crash course in programming 2D visuals with NodeBox, perfect for the aspiring artist or Mac tinkerer who wants to play around with the powerful graphical capabilities of an Apple computer.
Just a disclaimer: I am not a programming super star! I am learning NodeBox as I write about it. So, if you are the least bit intimidated by programming, take a deep breath and clear your mind. I am a beginner just like you! I can’t believe how easy it is to program graphics with Python. The language is easy to remember and NodeBox is remarkably stable.
What Does This all Do?
To understand NodeBox, we must first understand the interface we will be using. NodeBox is unlike many applications we use for design, since it asserts simplicity over displaying a bunch of buttons. There are three basic parts to the NodeBox interface:
Code
Code is typed into the upper right portion of the NodeBox window. Any keywords and commands will be highlighted in blue. These are built-in terms NodeBox understands. In the example, def, for, random, fill, rect, and size are all highlighted in blue. Random is a NodeBox command that computes a random number. Rect is a command that outputs a random number.
Output
Once the program is ready for viewing, I can run it by pressing Cmd+R. The output for the program will be displayed to the left.
Messages
Error messages will be displayed on the bottom right of the NodeBox interface. I can figure out how to fix broken code here.
Working with Code in NodeBox
NodeBox makes coding easy. The syntax, or the language, is rather bare, allowing for fewer mistakes when writing code. Lets look at a basic command:
rect(x, y, width, height, roundness=0.0, draw=True)
This is the basic syntax of a command: the name of the command ( parameters ). The name of the command gives us a hint of what it will do. The rect command draws a rectangle. Parameters tell the command how to behave, these are separated by commas inside of brackets. The rect command specifies x and y position, width, height, and edge roundness.
The Coordinate System
2D graphics are displayed using a X, Y coordinate system. The origin point (0,0) for both X and Y is at the top left of the output window. As X increases, the position of an object will move right horizontally across the output window. As Y increases, the position of an object will go down vertically.
Throttle
I can easily change the values of numerical parameters with the throttle. Click on a numerical parameter. Hold down Cmd and move the mouse left to decrease the value by 1 or move right to increase the value by 1. Hold Cmd + Option while dragging to increase and decrease by .01. Cmd + Shift by 10.
Defining a Variable
Variables are handy, since they allow me to store a value for the computer to use. Suppose I want to draw a circle in a random position between 0 and 100. I can define the x position as x = random(1,100). Every time the program runs, x and y are given a random value between 1 and 100.
Indent the last line of this program to make it work.
The above example draws a circle at a random position between in a 100 x 100 pixel space.
The For Loop
Computers love repetition. The For Loops tells the computer to perform a certain task repetitiously. The syntax for the For Loop looks like this:
Notice how the For Loop has a variable and a range. This is written as: For i in range(10):. i is the variable. The range is 10, meaning everything indented below the for loop will be executed ten times. The colon at the end of the for statement is crucial! Do not forget the colon! All the code I want to loop must be indented below the For statement.
The above example draws ten circles instead of just one. When I run the program, a black blob will appear. This is because all ten circles have the same fill color and stroke.
If I define a Fill and Stroke color before the oval is drawn, I can see depth between the circles (assuming the fill and stroke are different colors).
Colors
The RGB system is used anywhere a specific color value can be inserted as a parameter. In the above example, I filled every circle with red using the command fill(1, 0, 0). Color values are based on a numerical value of 0 to 1. Green = (0, 1, 0). Blue = (0, 0, 1). White = (1, 1, 1). Black = (0, 0, 0).
Templates
Templating is a way I can define the certain look of an object once and then call upon that object as many times as I like. This would be called a function in traditional programming. Suppose I want to draw 100 images. I don’t want to write the code from each image 100 times. I can just designate the specific design of one image, then use a For Loop to draw 100 of them.
To run this program, save this code as a project file. Download the first image in this post of the NodeBox logo. Create a folder called images where the project file is saved. Put the downloaded nodeboxapp.png file into the images folder. Run the program. It is important to use nodeboxapp.png, since it contains a transparency that the program will need to run. NodeBox looks for images in the folder where the project is saved first and then in the Home Directory.
Notice the def statements? These define a template and have the following structure: def template_name (variables). After each def statement is a colon! Do not forget the colon! The properties of the def statement are then indented beneath the initial syntax. In the above example, def nodeboxlogo (x,y): defines a template for the following image: image(”images/nodeboxapp.png”, x, y, alpha=0.7). So, whenever I call upon nodeboxlogo, it will always draw the image with an alpha of 0.7. The Alpha is the transparency of the image. This image is stored on my hard drive, in a folder called images that is in the same folder as the project file. See how nodeboxlogo has two variables, x and y? At the end of the program, I call upon nodeboxlogo to draw itself at a random position 10 times in a For Loop. x then equals random(0, sizewidth).
Variable Output Size
The size command designates the size of the output window. A good rule of thumb when designing programs for computer screens is to make the output size variable. In the very beginning of the program, I defined two variables: sizewidth=400 and sizeheight=600. I put these two variables into the size command, allowing me to control the output size from the very top of the program. Another time I call upon these two variables is at the bottom of the program, where I assign a random position for each nodeboxlogo.png. This is so the image never escapes the dimensions of the output screen. Otherwise, every time I wanted to change the output size, I would then have to change the range of the random values. This applies to the size of the background rectangle as well. It is superior to have the position of all the objects scaled to the overall dimensions of the output window. With a little tweaking, I could even make it so each NodeBox image always stays within the bounds of the canvas. This would require a little math and variable dimensions for the image. Understand how this is helpful?
Export to PDF
I can export my composition to PDF by selecting File: Export as PDF… The exported dimensions will be dictation by the size command. In the export options, I can designate the number of pages. This is nice with a randomized program, since it will run the program as many times as I like, outputting each randomization as a separate PDF.
In Part 3, I will dive into NodeBox math and drawing paths! Check out the tutorials at the Official NodeBox website.
The Finder is the way we browse and search for files in OS X. It is comparable to Windows Explorer on a PC. The Finder “is responsible for the overall user-management of files, disks, network volumes and the launching of other applications” (Wikipedia). When I turn on a Mac for the very first time, the Finder stares me in the face. It is the first application we use when using a Mac. It is good to know all that I can do with it.
When I first used the Finder in OS X I was in a small video editing lab on my college campus. It looked like this:
And I said to myself “Is this it? This is Apple’s spectacular competition for Windows Explorer. Maybe you are saying to yourself, “This isn’t what my Finder looks like!” When I click the button in the upper right, the Finder transforms into this:
That button toggles the Finder between these two different views.
Navigating and Viewing
The back and forward buttons allows me to navigate through folders easily. It works just like an internet browser. There are three views I can see files with in the Finder: icons, lists, and columns.Click each button to choose the different views. The column view is the foreign to most people. Don’t be afraid of it, it can be very useful. If I click a Folder while in Column View, it will spring load the contents of that folder into another column and so forth.
The Sidebar
I can drag and drop any File, Folder, or Application to the Sidebar so it is always easily accessible. You don’t see a sidebar? Then drag the small button on the left of the Finder window to the right and the sidebar will appear.I can remove aliases here by dragging them out of the sidebar and releasing the mouse. The icon will go poof! and disappear.
Rename Files and Folders
Click once on the folder, then click again a second later, a slow double click.
Color Label Files and Folders
Color Labels are a great way to distinguish folders and files from one another. I can give any folder or file a color label so it stands out above the rest. This makes browsing through the Finder easier, since I can color code standard paths I may take.
To color label any file or folder, just Right Click or Ctrl + Click the file and select the appropriate color from the drop down menu.
Customize the Toolbar
I can customize the toolbar and add many useful options that will now be a click away! Ctrl+Click or Right Click the toolbar (any grey space at the top of the Finder), then Select Customize toolbar… from the drop down menu.
Drag and drop any icon to the toolbar to add it. I can now have one click access to Get Info, Ejecting, and Burning!
Finder Preferences
Select Preferences… from the Finder menubar at the top of the screen. Here I can select the items I want shown on the Desktop, designate the folder I want viewed in a new Finder window, name color labels, select what is visible in the Sidebar, and turn on file extensions.
Navigate to Recent Places
When I am working on a project, the files or that project usually get saved in one place. I could drag that folder to the sidebar for easy access while working on a project. But, if I have visited that folder recently I can save to it easily. Every Application uses the Finder when I want to Open and Save files. So when I select Open or Save from the Application’s menubar, I can navigate to a recent folder by clicking the selection tab and selecting the folder under Recent places.
On a larger scale, I can open recent items and applications directly from the Apple Menu. Click the Apple icon in the top left of the screen and Select Recent Items.
Buying RAM for an APPLE can be tricky but installing it is a piece of cake! Some RAM may have the correct specification but simply won’t work. Make sure when buying RAM it is certified for running on an Apple.
Where do I find out what RAM I need?
The online method below tells me the exact specification of memory I will need to purchase and give me a tutorial about installing the RAM as well. Instructions for installing RAM should be in the user manual that came with the computer too. The specification will be listed there as well.
Surf to www.apple.com and click the Support Tab.
On the left hand side of the Support Page, choose the model and the support page for that Mac will appear.
Click the How-To tab in the middle of the page. Click the How to install memory link.
Specifications for the RAM and an Installation tutorial will appear. Print these out.
What RAM is already in my Computer?
I can check this in System Profiler. Click the Apple in the top left of the screen. Select About this Mac. In the window that pops up, Click More info… Select Memory from the list of devices in the System Profiler window. A list of available memory will appear.
Each list item = a module of RAM. My MacBook Pro can only hold 2 DIMMS of memory, meaning two modules. Turns out my MacBook Pro holds 2 DIMMS of 512 MB each. So, if I wanted to upgrade to 3 GB I would have to buy a 1 GB DIMM and 2GB DIMM, since I only have two slots available. It is never a good idea to exceed the manufacturer’s recommended amount of RAM.
Where can I buy RAM?
I usually search for good prices for RAM on Pricewatch.com. Look for the correct specification found in the User Manual or on Apple’s support site. The specifications for RAM should look similar to these:
- 1.25 inch or smaller
- 512 MB or 1 gigabyte (GB)
- 200-pin
- PC2-5300 DDR2 667 MHz Type RAM
This is the specification for RAM in a 15 inch Intel MacBook Pro.
If you are nervous, pay the extra and by it direct from Apple. RAM purchased direct from Apple will work. Everything else is a gamble. It may seem like it works for a time, then when you try to install OS X the system just can’t handle it and CRASH! Buy the RAM that meet the specs and seems like a good deal. Double check it meets all the specifications listed. Make sure the website says it works with Apple.
Follow the instructions for Installation from the Apple support site or the user manual that came with the computer. Make sure you are grounded! It is really easy to do.
Pages actually makes formatting letters fun, doesn’t it? With all the templates for making newsletters, storyboards, even brochures and business reports, who could ask for more? Well Windows users, I guess.
Suppose my coworker has Microsoft Word and he needs to read the document I created in Pages. He won’t be able to open a .pages file on his Windows machine. In Pages, I can Export to Microsoft Word easily. But this comes at a price. The way Pages and Word format documents seems to be extremely different. They really do not like to talk to one another even. If I export a document from Pages to Word that has little formatting, like a standard letter, it will most likely export to and from Word nicely. But once I try to export a .pages file that contains a groovy design from one of the templates, Word freaks out and puts all the images where it thinks they should go.
The trick really is to do this like the professionals do: write the copy and design the document separately. If I must export from Pages to Word, then try to just include only the copy, or the text of the document. The export should work or be close to the original when opened in Word. When I want to make the document look fancy, copy and paste the text into the design template.
Here is the method to export a .Pages document to .Doc Word format:
Select File -> Export from the menu bar in Pages.
Click the Word Tab and Click Next…
Select where I want the .Doc to be saved.
Click Export.
If the guy using Word wants to print the .Pages document and doesn’t need to edit it, then exporting into a PDF would be the wiser idea. Just follow the direction above, but click the PDF tab instead of the Word Tab in Step #2.
I can open a .doc in Pages and even edit it and save as a .Pages file. If Pages isn’t set as the default application to open Word files, just Ctrl + Click the .doc file in Finder and Select Open With… Pages. Again, there may be formatting differences between the two applications.
For those who didn’t like the new icons, here is a very cool pack to download.
read more | digg story
I get excited when I find new and easy methods to create art with my Mac. Quartz Composer is a fantastic free application created by Apple that uses OpenGL and Core Image to create 2D and 3D animations in real time. Installing Quartz is a little bit of a hassle, which is why I am excited to tell you about NodeBox!
NodeBox is a Mac OS X application that lets you create 2D visuals (static, animated or interactive) using Python programming code and export them as a PDF or a Quicktime movie. NodeBox is free and well-documented. (Nodebox website)
Don’t be afraid to start programming
Basically, I type in some code and out pops some amazing visuals. The programming language Python is well documented online, so even a newbie to programming should find it easy to figure out. Anyone with a good foundation in C should have no problem. Python looks cleaner than OpenGL and is easier for me to figure out.
NodeBox Does it All!
NodeBox includes support for Adobe products. So I can import vector art created in Illustrator and output 2D art in PDF. These features alone make me want to use NodeBox over Quartz Composer for 2D art making. NodeBox is open source, meaning anyone can improve upon it. It even supports Core Image, which opens up exporting in different formats and creating layers for 2D animation.
Subscribe to iUseApple and find out instantly when I post a “Getting Started” tutorial for NodeBox! Download NodeBox from the Official Website and check out the Official NodeBox Tutorial.
Did you learn something new about your Mac? Donate to iUseApple.com now, so I can improve the site and set up an online community for Mac users. If you donate $50 or more, I will give you a FREE 1 hour tutoring session on iChat AV. Just email steveblue@iuseapple.com with the subject line “PAYPAL DONATION”. Include your PayPal ID and what you would like to learn. I will send you back an email asking what time would be best for you to receive expert knowledge about your Mac! If $50 sounds like too much, please donate a small amount to support iUseApple.com.
I want to get the most out of my photographs! Scrapbooking family memories with an Apple is a piece of cake, but how do I make the photos look their best? When my pictures reach iPhoto they can be tilted, blurred, overexposed, afflicted with red eye, the list goes on… Well, there are things we can do inside the camera to reduce the amount of problems with our photos. Here is a basic tutorial about good photo composition.
First, let’s review the basics of editing photos in iPhoto. To edit any photo, double click the photo in Library view. A window like the one below will appear.
If I make a change to the photograph I do not like just Undo or hit Cmd+Z. I can not undo the changes once I click Done or move to another photo. iPhoto keeps the original image stored on my Mac. When I make a change, iPhoto creates a whole new image in the Modified folder in the Pictures folder of my user account. iPhoto then links to the edited image in the Library. Making a whole new file for the image is the smart way to go, so I can always reimport the original to the Library if I really do mess up while making alterations. This does hog up disk space though, so I make smart edits and when I am satisfied with them delete the originals on my Hard Drive. Remember to Undo changes immediately if I do not like them! The arrows in the bottom right of the iPhoto window allow me to scroll through my iPhoto Library.
Full Screen Editing is a Must!
Editing in full screen view provides a distraction free environment for me to edit photos in. To edit in full screen, click the full screen icon at the bottom of the iPhoto window.
All the editing tools are still available at the bottom of the screen, with an added bonus! A zoom tool! Slide the zoom slider and a small navigation window will appear. I can zoom into the specific part of the photo I want to retouch.
There are a set of tools available to us at the bottom of the iPhoto window. I am going to explain the problem each tool addresses.
The photo is turned 90 degrees
If I click the Rotate button, the photo will turn 90 degrees. It will keep turning 90 degrees if I click again. Click Rotate until the image is right side up.
I want my photo to be sized for an 8 1/2 x 11
The constrain tool will allow me to crop the image to the specific dimensions needed to print the following proportions:
Select the appropriate size for my photo in the Constrain menu. I can even select a custom size, if I need something specific for a collage or a scrapbook. A clear box will appear above the photo, with greyed out regions that represent the part fo the photo we will crop off when resizing. Fine tune the crop marks by dragging the clear square around the photo with the mouse. Click Crop.
I need to cut off part of the photo
The crop tool will allow me to select a region of the photo I want to keep and throw away the rest. Click and hold the left mouse button to drag a rectangle around the section of the photo I want to keep. Fine tune the selection by hovering the mouse over the edge of the rectangle and moving the edges to and fro. Click the Crop Icon.
There is red eye in my photo
Red eye is easily eliminated in iPhoto. Click the Red Eye icon and then click the centers of the eyes that need to be corrected.
There is an undesirable word in my photo
In the iPhoto window example above, I had to retouch the man’s name tag so it wouldn’t display his name. I did this with the Retouch tool. This tool masks undesirable parts of the image by magically painting the pixels around your brush to fill in the bad part. This is only good for small swipes, but does not really compare to the Clone Stamp Tool in Photoshop. Click the Retouch Tool and paint over the bad part of the photograph.
How do I add photo studio effects?
Click the Effects Tools and a window with nine thumbnails will appear.
Click on a thumbnail of the desired effect. Click again to see the effect happen even more. Click multiple effects to see who they work together. For instance, click B+W, Black Vignette, and Boost Color. Click Original to return to the original image.
My photo is too light or too dark
Even professional photographers can battle with over or underexposed photos. There may be a little fine tuning necessary for the photo to have brilliant colors. iPhoto has a very basic tool called Enhance for this very problem. More in depth Adjustment tools are available in the Adjust tool. Usually iPhoto gets it right the first time, so Click the Magic Wand Enhance Tool to see your photo brighten up and the colors become more distinct. This only works to a certain point however. If my image is well balanced, meaning the darker values have as much representation as the lighter ones, then iPhoto will easily correct it. That is to say, there are as many blacks as midtones as whites in the photo. The Enhance tool works correctly only if the entire image is overexposed or underexposed. If the image is extremely contrasty, then we may need to resort to some manual fine tuning of the exposure.
Enhance Didn’t Work, So What Do I Do Now?
Immediately Undo (Cmd + Z) the enhancement to return to the original photo. Click the Adjust tool and a set of tools will appear. I suggest tweaking all of these settings to see what they do. Just Undo anything undesirable or Click the Reset Sliders Button. In terms of Exposure, there are a few sliders here that will be useful to us.
Color correcting requires a keen eye when looking at the photograph. Ask these questions: Are the blacks truly black in the photo? Are the whites really white? If what is supposed to be white appears grey, this means the photo is underexposed. If everything casted a certain color? Does everything appear shifted toward blue, for instance?
How to read the graph
The Graph labeled Levels at the bottom of the Adjust Tools is a representation of the amount of Red, Green, and Blue from dark to light values. Exposure is represented in the height of the graph. The most ideal graph would be a bell shaped curve that spikes suddenly on each end. If the histogram is short, this means the photo is entirely underexposed. When the histogram is too tall and busting out the top of the graph, this means the photograph is entirely overexposed. If there is a lot of dark blue in my photo, the blue histogram will spike on the left side of the graph. If there is a significant amount of light red in my photo, this will be represented by a spike on the right side of the graph in the red histogram.
How to correct the photo using Exposure and Levels
The Exposure slider will adjust the overall exposure for the photo. Slide the Exposure slider so that the histogram fills about 3/4 of the graph vertically. I can adjust what iPhoto thinks is white and black manually. If the histogram already reaches the ends of the graph horizontally, then the photo is probably overcontrasted. But, if the graph doesn’t reach the edges there is still hope! The idea here is to tighten the graph horizontally. Slide the right slider beneath the graph left to adjust the whites. Slide the left slider beneath the graph left to adjust the blacks. Keep an eye on the photo, making sure all the midtones do not get lost in the adjustment.
That’s it! Those are the basics to editing photos in iPhoto. Search in the right sidebar to find more articles on iUseApple concerning how to use iPhoto. There will be more blog posts to come soon: including how to impress friends with a slideshow and how to submit a photo album to be printed by Apple.
