The Most Common Item An American Can Own

Probably the most common item for anyone in America to own is (drum role please):

A wallet.  Truly the wallet is an ingenious design.  Look at the design of your wallet - is it a trifold?  A bifold?  Does it have a space for a license that flips up or down?  Either way a wallet is a modern marvel that almost everyone should own.  It contains a small space for your coins, a large opening for your cash, and slots for credit cards, debit cards, business cards, and any other cards you can think of.  No space for those grocery store receipts?  Stick them in your wallet.  Tired of your black wallet?  Then buy a grey one, make one out of ducktape, or buy a cellphone case that also acts as a wallet.  There are 100's if not 1000's of designs (and it's hard to argue against the shape and design of them).

Hey, Listen!!

We all love listening to music.  It's a simple statement but considering the impact that music has had on everyone throughout the ages... who can argue with it?  So the question becomes, "Are you wearing something that is comfortable around the ears, or a rickety pair of earbuds that are painful every time you stick them in."

Enter Bose Audio.  One of the most comfortable pair of headphones I've ever warn, they definitely take 1st place in design.  Developed with comfort in mind, these headphones are wrapped in a fine foam padding that protects the ears from any discomfort one might experience.  The headband has also has a bit of foam padding at the top that makes them a delight to wear.  If I had one complaint (and would consider a design flaw) it's that the cable going to your audio device to the headphones is detachable.  The headphones get a little awkward because it's easy for the cable to pop out when you walk too far away from your audio device.  All in all, I really enjoy these phones.

Focus... Focus... Done

Something a little different today.  I saw this car while a friend of mine (and myself) were driving to Northern California.  It's a Lamborghini!

I wish I could have taken more pictures of the car as it was driving and all.  Yet sadly it was too fast for me to snap another.  But I must confess that I love the angular design that Lamborghini implements into all of there cars.  The look of there cars, the way they design them so that there are very few seams or sharp edges from front to back has always allured me.  Plus they're bloody fast as well.  All in all, I've always though Lamborghini were very smart in the design of the bodies of there cars.

Some Cheese with that Wine.

Sadly the wine walk has ended, its time has passed.  The poster (however) still exists.  The design isn't terrible: it's very striking with the red wine against the light yellow back drop.  And surprisingly the text isn't terribly confusing on the eyes... But damn if the placement of the text isn't horrible then I don't know what is.  Its all over the place with everything set off to the right side of the poster (the heading is slightly centered but not a lot).  And, instead of keeping a consistent font size across the board the designer gradually made the text smaller and smaller as you go down, making it difficult for anyone to read if they wanted more information about the event.  And, to top it off, most of the extra information isn't that important.  It could have been moved to a website, freeing up the poster for additional artwork (or a cleaner layout).  Don't know what to say about the poster (other then the wine was good).

3D is all the rage.

So, you may or may not know this but I've been spending a lot of time at a local hacker space, MagLabs, down in the Pomona area.  It's fairly knew, it's only been open for a year now but it's a pretty awesome place to hang out and just work on stuff.  But this little guy...

This is the first thing I've ever 3d printed, and off a 3d printer that I managed to fix as well.  It's a neat little guy, just a simple memory card holder.  Quite handy and pretty useful.  It's a pretty ingenious design that could be improved just by obtaining a better 3d printer (the one we're using is a RepRap model, one of the originals).

ROAR

Hahahahaha, I saw this at the movies and the child in me screamed in excitement.  Apologize for the photo quality (it's not great I know).  But that being said, I have to admit I was impressed when I saw this poster.  If I was 10 or 12 years old I would be begging my parents to take me to see this movie.  I even added a version that I found off a google search.

 

The poster is pretty self explanatory - the first thing you would probably notice is the group of dinosaurs depicted on it.  It's not meant to be fearsome or terrifying, calming and relaxing.  It's just meant to be an awesome photo of, well, dinosaurs.  The title though... honestly it might confuse some people.  Walking with dinosaurs started off as a BBC show where the viewer was shown a depiction of the day to day lives of different dinosaurs at the time.  If would usually follow one dinosaur at at time and, to some extent, played on peoples perceptions of certain dinosaurs.

But take a look at this poster for the movie.  The premise of the movie becomes much clearer: we have a little dinosaur aimlessly wandering around, oblivious to the dangers around him.  Compare this to the movie poster shown above, which do you think makes more sense for the viewer.  Let me know in the comments below.

Aggravations Over A Sign

Going back to an early post where I discussed a set of slippery stairs over the art building I wanted to point this out.  This is a sign for the said stairs and, even though I had noticed it in the past I had never actually red it until now.  The reason is because the sign is about 5" by 11" and is a descent 4 to 5 feet away from the stairs.  Unless you are actively hunting for it, you wouldn't really notice it. 

 

Design Flaw - Stairs

I never understood why the stairs outside the art department are the way they are?  Looking past the fact that the stairs are located outside the building, one has to ask why they are all metal without any form of rubber foot holdings.  Admittedly when the days are dry these stairs are not a challenge at all, they are just stairs after all.  But during the rainy and wet seasons (as few as they are in California) they become quite hazardous.  And the ability to slip and fall is quite easy, I should know as I have tripped twice on these stairs when they are wet.

 

Storyboard Drafts

For my Interactive Web Design class, we're required to make a video.  When I heard that my mind went into a frenzy with one idea after another.  Eventually, I settled onto this.

I came up with this idea while listening to spotify --> conveying the enjoyment of music on screen.  It is something that has been done before, but it isn't something you see very often.  Typically you see people making music videos with some sort of message or promoting an idea or person.  I didn't want that, my idea was to create a music video where the musician is merely enjoying himself.  Hopefully the audience enjoys it when I finish it.

This is "for all intensive purposes" the final draft of my storyboard.  I admit my drawings are rough and a little crude (but I never said I was an artist, so take what you can get).  So I apologize for that.  Let me know what you think, what needs to be fleshed out.

Finn.

The Nifty Fifty

For any Canon Camera user, finding a new lenses is never an issue.  But finding a new lens with descent optics, and at a descent price, can be like finding a needle in a stack of hay.  That's where the nifty fifty comes into play.  The Nifty Fifty is the nickname of canon's 50mm lense.  And at $75 to $125 (depending on if you buy it new or used) it's hard to argue with the quality of the lense itself.

Side Note: (All photos of of the lens are taken with a cellphone camera)

Upon closer inspection the lens might look and feel cheap and plastic-y.  And you'd be absolutely right. It's not suppose to be the highest end lens in the world, it's meant to be for someone who has a budget to stick too, but still wants a lens that can take professional quality photos.

Now for the good and the bad about the lens:

• Good
• The lens is $75 to $125, depending on where you purchase it. 
• The lens has a huge depth-of-field range, making your subject nice and clear while keeping foreground and background out of focus.
• It's a prime lens - meaning it has a fixed focal point and doesn't zoom in or out.
• Excellent Macro mode and focal ring.
• Image quality of photos is on part with a $500+ lens, making this probably one of the best camera values out there.
• This 50mm lens has been around since the early days of photography and cinematography (I.E. - early 1900's) so it's really hard to find a "bad" 50mm to begin with.

• Bad
• Build quality is cheap, meaning that it isn't the best of ideas to make this your primary lens for too long
• It's a canon lens - meaning it will only work with Canon cameras.
• It's a prime lens - meaning you don't have your typical zoom-in/out.  This may be a problem if you need something more versatile.
• On that note, you have to get creative with your shots to get something descent.

All in all, the lens is both a great tool for any photographer trying to step up there game "&" an excellent lens for anyone looking to get into photography.  You really can't go wrong with it, it's just a descent product at a descent price.

Great Men Have Great Hearts

I do not own this video.  But given the fact that it is "supposedly" within the free domain I think it's okay for me to leave this here.

Photoshop is as Photoshop does.  I make no bones about it, I'm not a photoshop wiz.  I merely do it for fun.  That doesn't mean I don't like to experiment with certain things.

-- Gif --

This is just me at a beer fest.  Was a lot of fun and I met some awesome people during the trip.

-- Crop Shop --

The image below is the original, unedited version.

The image below this is just a simple crop using the Rule of Thirds.  With the edited image I'm focusing more on the Korbel label on the bottle, and less on the glass of wine.

-- Selection --

The following 4 images are all different photos of me being... silly.

 
 
 

Admittedly the pizza photo was an attempt to make something delicious.  How'd I do, professor?

-- Content Aware Fill --

For this one I choose to do something really simple and subtle. Take a look at the original, versus the edited, and see if you can spot the difference (image is reduced by 50% so don't be surprised if you don't notice it).

Original



Edited



The difference between the two is the ground itself.  It's a minor change, but if you look carefully you can see the dust and debris have been removed from the ground.  The roof as well had some touch ups done.  Admittedly, this is more noticeable at its original resolution (roughly 2580px by 2140px)... but that is a little too large for this site (and most monitors) to hold.

Constrained



I cheated a little with this one.  I removed the man on the storage bin by simply cropping him out.  This way I can preserve the image as it is while more on the skateboard, and less on the background.

-- Compression -> PNG or JPG --

Good -> 400kb

Okay -> 299kb -> You can start to see some notice in the sky, but otherwise it looks like the original.

A Little Wonky -> 143kb

DWAH -> 135kb

-- Filters... GG --

Welcome To My New Blog

Do to time constraints I'm using blogger for the rest of the quarter.  It will house all of the information required for CIS 421, as well as info and projects for other classes.  Good luck to everyone in my classes, and have fun this quarter.

Jeff Fredericks