Archive for July, 2007
Did you ever have a vision in your head, maybe a dream or idea that you wanted to make into reality? Max/MSP is a graphical environment for music, audio, and multimedia. I can make virtually any interactive artistic work I can imagine with Max.
What have others created with Max? Virtual environments, unique instruments, synthesizers, effects for instruments, theramins, DJ interfaces, VJing applications, just to name a few.
Max/MSP is a wonderful way to get into programming. Instead of traditional line based code, Max/MSP was one of the first languages to offer a graphical method of coding. To use Max/MSP, I basically string objects together in a certain fashion to write the algorithm of the program. There is plenty of online documentation available on Cycling 74’s website.
What makes Max so powerful? It is Max’s ability to interface with almost any hardware controller, from MIDI to a Wii controller. I created an eye tracking headset for my Undergraduate Thesis and wrote a program in Max/Jitter than analyzed the incoming video signal from the camera on the headset and tracked the position of a pupil in the video frame.
You can download Max/MSP at Cycling74.com and try it for 30 days.
Do you get excited whenever you have the chance to peer into the heavens through a telescope? Imagine peering into the universe virtually on your Mac! There are plenty of Astronomy Applications out there for OS X, since the academic scientific community often uses Macs for their research. In this post, I will cover the most popular Applications the beginners and professionals use on a daily basis for astronomical viewing.
Astronomy Picture of the Day
Whether you are into learning about Astronomical Phenomena or just want an awesome looking wallpaper for your Desktop, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day website will fill your craving. Packed full of years worth of images from planetariums and even amateurs across the globe, the Astronomy Picture of the Day always delivers fascinating imagery straight to my computer.
Download the Astronomy Picture of the Day Dashboard Wigdet from Apple or visit the APOD website.
Stellarium
Stellarium is an excellent Planetrium Application for Amateur Astronomers that will deliver real time maps of the sky, making it possible to see anything you would be able to with the naked eye, binoculars, or a small telescope. This application is the perfect companion for anyone just getting into Astronomy and it’s free!
Download Stellarium from the Official Website.
Starry Night Pro
Starry Night Pro is the best astronomy software an amateur or professional can buy. My astronomy professor in college often used Starry Night to present data in class about different constellations, galaxies and the planets. “Starry Night focuses heavily on providing attractive, realistic imagery, although recent versions have also increasingly targeted the amateur astronomy community with features like observation planning, telescope control, and multiple-panel printing” (Excerpt From Wikipedia).
For a free and extremely stripped down version of Starry Night Pro for Dashboard Widgets check out this article.
A More Definitive Listing
For anyone looking for a different Application beyond those listed above, check out this excellent listing of Astronomy Applications for OSX @ pure-mac.com.
An Excellent Resource for Serious Astronomers
This link from Harvard.edu will reveal a plethora of Astronomy links for Professional Astronomers who need to calculate the big numbers and see the big picture using OS X.
To celebrate the 100th blog post on iUseApple, I have created an online community for the blog. Now iUseApple readers can join an online community with other Mac users to discuss OS X tips and tricks, and the latest news coming from Apple, Inc.
iUseApple has a new social network on Ning.com, a social netwokring website created my Marc Andressen, co-founder of Netscape. If you join you can ask questions and discuss everything Mac OS X with other Mac users. Members will receive future incentives, including a 10% off iUseApple.com’s upcoming eBook about the 300+ new innovations about OS X Leopard. Get advice straight from a Mac Pro, for free!
To sign up for iUseApple’s new social network, hover your mouse over the iUseApple widget under “Subscribe” in the Sidebar and Click Join Us >>
Sometimes when I drag and drop files in Icon view to the Finder, they end up looking like a messy bunch of files.
To clean them up, just make sure nothing is selected and Select View -> Clean Up from the View Menu in the Finder Menu Bar.
Ta da! The icons will now be arranged in a grid fashion!
I’ve been thinking about purchasing an iPhone for months now. This post contains some research I’ve done concerning the iPhone, so other prospective buyers can learn the truth behind the hype…
Steve Blue’s Opinion
I am certainly not ready to purchase an iPhone. I think Apple made a poor decision going with an exclusive cell phone service. C’mon Steve Jobs, if the iPhone is so revolutionary with it’s features, why couldn’t Apple be revolutionary with it’s business practices as well and offer the phone on multiple wireless services? And while there are hacks out there to disable the AT&T Activation, anyone who has a laptop that will connect to wireless networks can do much more than the iPhone is capable online. The iPod began the current Podcasting craze, but the iPhone doesn’t follow up with the ability to capture video with the onboard camera. If the phone can receive YouTube, how come I can’t submit videos as well? The iPhone has Google Maps but no GPS. The iPhone runs a flavour of OS X but doesn’t even have copy and paste! Many users are commenting about how tasks cannot be accomplished in batches. For instance, I cannot delete more than one e-mail at a time. It seems like Apple cut corners throughout the entire device. The $599 price tag plus switching to AT&T for a $79.99 a month 900 minute calling plan would mean that I would be spending over $2000 in the next two years for a new phone. This is over $800 more than my calling plan and cell phone cost with my current service.
I am going to wait patiently until the next revision of the iPod, which will hopefully occur in the next six months. I think certain iPhone innovations will make it onto the iPod. I am also curious to see how Apple updates the iPhone and fixes certain issues users are having. The iPhone certainly has a lot of potential…
But don’t take my word for it. Decide for yourself whether or not the iPhone is suitable for you…
How does the iPhone stack up against other existing Smart Phones?
The Ultimate iPhone Decision Tool at lifelearningtoday.com. This website really breaks down iPhone for someone thinking about purchasing it.
Why I returned my iPhone Blog Post at Salon.com.
10 Things that “Absolutely Suck” About the iPhone (Yes I have One).
Can I turn the iPhone into a glorified iPod and not activate it with AT&T or Apple? I certainly can. nanocr.edu has a blog post called “iPhone Independence Day” that contains instructions on how to hack the iPhone activation.
ifixit.com completely took apart an iPhone. Look inside of an iPhone here.
Apple opened up Third Party Development for the iPhone only weeks before it’s release. This blog post details the guidelines I would have to know to design an Application for the iPhone.
iPhoneNova.com is the world’s first iPhone Download site! Unlimited free Movie, Music, Tv Shows, Games, Software and more!
Wow! A tutorial about how to Design Custom Widgets for the iPhone!
The iPhone Remote Project will allow users to stream music and videos direct from a Mac to the iPhone, browse files, run Applescripts remotely, capture iSight images, and search in Spotlight.
Check out this awesome listing of every App that should be on your Mac. This post is more a “reminder” for every Mac user and for me.
Here is a pot-pourri of the best Mac applications that you really have to have…
read more | digg story
Since I started getting into applications that take up a lot of video processing power, I’ve found methods to cut out the little effects OS X does to show off. One of those effects I wanted to kill is the shadow behind the frontmost window.
Anyone running Apps like Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, or even iMovie should think about downloading the freeware Application called ShadowKiller.
This is a small tweak, but when working with live video, any processing you can squeeze out is worth it. I have ShadowKiller set up to open at Login and activate. It then disappears, killing shadows in it’s wake.
Download ShadowKiller and Start Optimizing Your Video Performance Today!
