Monthly Archives: May 2003

…Goodbye Adobe Photoshop

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CreativePro`s came with the rather expected news that now that Steve Job and his techie stormtroopers at Apple have decided to drop support for us faithfull but poor “old school” Mac users who presently can`t afford to buy another computer (and in fact, for a long while now…wont have to) that – Adobe will Drop OS 9 support in the next major Photoshop Release …

Let me just say this: I survived 3 years with PS3.1 and another 2 with PS5 .. and PS7 has such a smorgasbord of features and improvements that I am not likely to “suffer” much from this standoff. I notice the eMacs go for about the same price as the low-range economy computers.. If I ever get the office space at home, I`d might consider between purchasing a brand new Mac and yesterday`s Intel box.. 🙂

Which is to say, I am not abandoning Adobe Photoshop.. I`ll just stick with the “old new technology” and see whats up.. PS: Did you know it is possible to write a perfectly good letter in MS Word version 6 ….and design a perfectly good flyer in Version 3.1 of Quark Xpress? ..And that clients don`t care if the tool you have is silver and sports bells and whistles?

Staying on…

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It looks like I am staying in my job at the Zoological Museum at Toeyen in Oslo. A bit of a downside is that I earn around 5.50 Dollars (49 Nok) an hour due to the indecently low pay the Work and Administration Ministry has decided people rehabilitated from long-term illness needs.. I think they need twice the amount just to “pay” the tax of 35% of our income to secure social securities for the future.On my freetime I suspect sometime in the future I will hang around our Finance Minister and the Director of the Work and Administration Department homes waving menacingly with a steel-capped baseball bat and demand they dish out some breadcrumbs. Americans, Class War is reality in Norway and your brilliant invention “the Free Market” gains more popularity among politicians (spineless things.. in fact, I suggest we look into the possibility they might have been misrepresented as mammals, perhaps they are invertebrae.. I`ll look into the taxonomy, if I have the time) and voters

and employers..we`ll either have another French Revolution on our hands, or Norway, the second most richest nation will have a majority population consisting of mute and beaten slaves, like 19th century Africa and contemporary Bangladesh.

My job consists in registering the data contained on labels fixed to needles with specimens of Coleoptera – that`s “beetles” ..nice little carapached chitin critters with six legs and antennae.

Some of the specimens are over 2 centuries old, they change color, sometimes turning translucent at times due to some weird exposure. Some of them smells of mothballs.. When I began I thought it was some kind of poison ether or formaldehyde..in terms of the first possibility, our Civil worker friend, Hallvard, reported that poisoning the critters were a popular way of killing them, until Entomologists (thats “bug freaks”) began falling over with their legs in the air.. I think he exaggerated, like the rumour he loved spreading about the cleaning maid letting out infamously poisonous Black Widows from their terrariums, forming invisible and lethal lairs around this ancient building… Never trust a kid that cuts off George Bush`s head and places it on Elle MacPherson body and pastes the infamy on his wall..

Anyways… this snippet pleased me somewhat as a Gnostic:

Among the most famous quote about beetles comes from the great population geneticist J.B.S. Haldane, who was asked what might be learned about a Creator by examining the world. His response: “an inordinate fondness for beetles“.. Terry Pratchett, in his Discworld novel The Last Continent lets a creator (not The Creator, but among them) begin Genesis anew on an separate and new island in the great Circle sea..somewhere off the coast of EcksEcksEcks …blooming and sprawling with life, vegetative and animal.. only possessing one rather noticeable and vital flaw.. there are only one of each.. hence the name Mono Island.. anyways, at a significant place in this story about a young creator and his island (sic!) *plot spoiler alert*, the most observant of the Wizards (your academic and traditionalist type of wizard, forget Harry Potter and Gandalf a moment..) who are stranded on this particular island, Ponder Stibbons, decides to stay behind on the Island while the wizards are rescued into a boat and pushed out to brave the sea in a ship grown for that purpouse – gets to discover that the particular creation of this creator appreciates most and above all…. is a Cockroach! Cockroaches and Beetles, incidentally, are not the same species.. a Beetle evolves through several morphic stages and processes.. Cockroaches clutch out their evolved self and only grows bigger.. and nastier… Anyways, Pratchett most probably found that quote of Professor Haldane.. he is quite a multivarious scholar, that Terry..

Beetling along…

And sorry for all the ranting. 😉

Opera 6.02 comes to Mac

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Rumour had it that the Norwegian software entrepeneurs behind the most user friendly and efficient Internet browser application Opera were ceasing support and update the product for the Macintosh platform. This is fortunately not the case, Macminute reported today that Opera has released version 6.02 of Opera (sic!).

Im relieved, but notice they want me to upgrade my OS from 9.1 to 9.2.2 .. which is quaint since Apple`s rather user-unfriendly attitude has made Os 9.2.* incompatible with the older generations of G3 computers.. including my “brand new” Powerbook G3 series laptop…so I`ll just have to wait and see..

Passing through to the Banquet of Souls

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I thought I would share some impressions from the interim between the “regime” of Easter to the “regime” of the Holy Spirit in its descent at Pentecost. Realization dawns that where the wind blows the hardest and

resistance has become most dense, there the presence of Sophia is felt the most intense. Why not ask then if the price for the most gracious and loving instruction is not indeed the hardships we must reconcile ourselves with?

Notice I use the term reconcile, not “abjectly accept”. There are galaxies floating between the stretch of distance and distinction which exists between the two. Pentecost promises the active indwelling of the Holy Spirit – a radical penetration of our condition which reveals that within the Mysteries of the redemption and the ascent to our eternal abode – We are Sophia. As this is intuited on one of manifold levels, we need inspect again the premise of Gnostic Myth of Sophia`s fall into chaos and a begetting of the Shadow. For at its root, the space which encompass all things which follow as a consequence of this arrest of consciousness, this interruption of the unfolding mystery of Being – we find the ladder of ascent, as Gnostics.

Consider how the descent is unfolded within the Gnostic revelatory treatise
The Apocryphon of John:

“And the Sophia of the Epinoia, being an aeon, conceived a thought from herself and the conception of the invisible Spirit and foreknowledge. She wanted to bring forth a likeness out of herself without the consent of the Spirit, – he had not approved – and without her consort, and without his consideration. And though the person of her maleness had not approved, and she had not found her agreement, and she had thought without the consent of the Spirit and the knowledge of her agreement, (yet) she brought forth. And because of the invincible power which is in her, her thought did not remain idle, and something came out of her which was imperfect and different from her appearance, because she had created it without her consort. And it was dissimilar to the likeness of its mother, for it has another form.”

The Mystery of the all-elusive and unapproachable paradox of our free will and our inability to instinctually master our psyche`s impulses is quite apparent in this – and is involved in the creation of the authorities. Spiritually speaking, this developement emanates out of our first experience of absence of the consort/the ever-present witness who engages us in a consciousnesss-creating dialogue interior and exterior to ourselves – the “life in God” which nevertheless is a vital theme in all theistic religions, even Gnosticism.

I am not entirely content with the premise that this is incurred by the developement of a distinct personality as opposed to the “panoramic” and passive personality of the infant/small child. Separate existence is also completely different from “division” or even “duality”.

The doubt of parents and persons of authority haved touched us and upon impact we are carried into the perception and modus operandi which they themselves inhabit. However, all we carry, whether we are found within the mystery or on its perimeter – is this potentional, this seed – which has its own life, so far as we do not proceed from this interior life, in sleep or wakeful meditation, it is inactive, but a hope of glory – but when the light which is within the man of light shines, it enlightens the entire world. This life of active manifestation is the bringing forth that which is within you, which will save us – from error, from a complete deficiency, a total failure in being spiritual men and women. This is how we “attain” the consent, agreement and participation of the Spirit of God in our lives.

Further in The Apocryphon of John :

“”And when the light had mixed with the darkness, it caused the darkness to shine. And when the darkness had mixed with the light, it darkened the light and it became neither light nor dark, but it became dim.”

Here we may inspect the premise of mixture. Why is distinction, integrity and genius still considered of great value by human beings inhabiting the 21st Century? Perhaps its nostalgia and everything really is one massive Block of Shite; perhaps someone consciously attempts to burrow through, to explode, to dissolve it from the inside, someone who is someone – while stars and pulsars ignite and fade, galaxies appear and collapse – as they are bound to do. Perhaps that someone is either me or you. Perhaps that someone can say something meaningful from his or her predicament. Perhaps this is where language originated.

This is where the descent of the Holy Spirit comes in – and the gift of the tongues.

May we have safe passage through this difficult and most challenging landscape, interior as well as exterior.

Last Sunday`s epistle reading from the Gnostic Lectionary of the Ecclesia Gnostica instilled , from the Great Book of the Mandaeans (the Ginza Rba) in our thoughts, this triple prayer to Divine Reality:

Mildness in which there is no rebellion.

A strong heart to bear both great and small.

Smooth paths to ascend and behold the place of light.

May we attain to these three, and proceed towards our liberation, and in turn, assist in the liberation of our fellow beings.

Butterflies

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Ironically, surrounded by these critters everywhere at my job at the Zoological Museum in Oslo.. they still serve as a metaphor for what I am feeling inside. An expert procastignator who have neglected again to check the balances of future employment.. A lot of stuff has happened here since last time I mentioned my job in this blog.. chiefly, a conflict has arisen between the University in Oslo`s Information Technology department and the three big Museums of Natural History.. the ORACLE-based database into which I register the contents of our diverse collections of bugs,ants and other crawlies, is one of the bones of contention.. I have noticed a series of issues with the database which if it were a commercial product or service would have been ironed out during the test phase.. unfortunately, in the institutional culture of the universities – necessary and continued use of the databases in all their incarnations.. constitute the testing phase.. ladies and gentlemen, I am confined to doing my live`s work on Alpha technology and no user support. But not for long…. I guess it is panic speaking, but I no longer care what my employment shall be, only it does not devour me and spit out a dead shell of some kind. Three weeks from now, optimistically speaking, I could report from any kind of employment that does not demand 20 years education and anything higher than a high-school diploma.. 🙂 But hasn`t the Master said “Do not be concerned from morning until evening and from evening until morning about what you will wear.”

The Gospel of Thomas, Logion 36, Lambdin`s translation.

Corel releases Painter 8

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CreativeMac reports on release of Corel Painter version 8

http://www.creativemac.com/2003/05_may/news/corel030508.htm

Corel announced about a week ago that they are releasing the new

version of Painter. Number 8 this time. Which is nice, I grow somewhat nostalgic over Version 3 by Fractal Design, it was a great innovation on the theme of “Natural media” painting programs.

If you stop and think you will discover there aren`t really that many around. Photoshop? It is beefed up with a brand new “brush engine” in Version 7, with

the expectations created by the innovations made to Version 6 it was

downright necessary..

Photoshop is and remains (thank ye gods) a versatile and heavy-weight Image processing and manipulation program. Painting in Photoshop can be great fun , but sketching and drawing from the ground up in the envoirment given you in PS is not the most stimulating. I personally wound up with Version 6 of Painter, the first “version” patronized by the big company Corel, it were part of Metacreations (creators of Kai`s Power Tools, KPT Bryce, KPT Poser and so forth) stall of graphic and video production applications, during a time when Corel chomped up WordPerfect….

It`s colourful brush icon has haunted my desktop since I installed it sometime during the year 2001, only a year or so after Painter version 3 featured with my acquired Microtek flatbed scanner (which since has begun hickuping and whining to the extent of being confined indefinitely someplace I cannot remember)…

Anyways… Back to Painting in Painter… in Painter you are helpless and basically doomed if you do not own some kind of input device which is pressure sensitive – you cannot emulate that kind with thumb-pressure on a mouse-button. Then comes the new way “canvas” and layers work and interact.
Computer programs do not adapt to the way we think and create. Unfortunately, it is definitly the other way around, and this is why the user interface and the process-sequence of operations bugs most users so much – and why it is so damn difficult to teach anyone completely green anything about the effective use of computer programs. It`s eerie, but if you stop for a moment and think about one of those annoying questions inexpert and computer-ignorant people ask you from time to time – it is probable you will observe that there are no perfect sense to why you must precisely do what you must do (or else the Program cannot help you, can it?).

Back to Painter… the program in the previous generations grew more and more massive in features and innovations, arcane, esoteric and probably lost-to-the-world interactions of operations and processes remain so and will never come to the surface due to the complexity offered in version 5.5 and onwards…

You can master Photoshop on “prinsciple” – you have a prinscipal overview and controll over the most basic and essential functions for the program – and therefore can choose to solve a particular problem from quite a few directions.. not so with Painter, which is to say, I have no idea how Version 8

will repair this.

Last time I looked on the Press kit that Corel presents on their page, I saw the feature of “Color Mixer” – not to be confused with what you find in PS, which I still haven`t found much use for.. anyways, the Color Mixer is your actual Pallete, do you know what those things are? It`s a surface

of some kind which you can put dabs of different oil colors to produce a specific hue,tint and color for use on a canvas painting or something like that..so Corel decides to let you emulate the process of making the colors as you would do on an actual physical artists pallete.. wont you feel the genius then?

“That color isn`t your typical Peach/Maroon/C14M21Y109K2/Pantone C2091 ..It`s my color..it`s kinda orange-green-purplish with a hint of silver“… wonderful for the computer screen, but… Know what im getting at?

So Corel appeals to the vanity of some of us, I suppose.. like pre-fab java applets which you can make a variation on, adapt and then put your name next to the original programmer… if you dare.. :-i

Digital Brush… what they lack on the actually flat and lifeless dimension which the computer screen is ..

is some kind of touch, some kind of interaction with surfaces..
I want a Pallette Knife which I can Stab with, damn it!

The Photoshop “Brush” trend hasn`t blown over yet,same with the Actions craze.. fortunately, even though you can script

Painter, it hasn`t contaminated the users to the degree the Photoshopper scene has been overkilled.. Adobe has even in many

respects stimulated to this kind of thing.. Painter has.. essentially, from version 5 and onwards, an adaption and creation ability

which outdid PS..necessarely. Surfacing (Paper/Pattern interactions with effects, painting modes and brushes) is also an essential

feature in Painter you wont see in PS, you can do it with a final image, or with some extensive masking techniques, with satisfactory

results, but not on the way to your result.. I recently discovered the many pleasing effects you can attain with Impasto and Water color

in Painter 6 and were well pleased..as well as nothing there is a reason why version 6 shipped with the full set of version 5.5 brushes;

If you want a sketching tool which interacts with the texture of the Papers provided with Painter, you want the Pencils,Chalks and Pastels

that came with that version.. as far as I am concerned at the very least. No idea what happened with Painter 7, or for that matter Painter 8,

they don`t show off anything of this kind in the Interactive preview at the very least. Inks and Liquids is also a nice feature, and cloning, “repainting” photographs or other images with different stroke techniques and brushes, is a nice productive feature you have with Painter from version 5 and onwards. The “Sketch Effect” which Corel now pushes might be an innovation on the theme. A reason to acquire Painter version 8 appears to be if you are likely to import/export between Photoshop and Painter – the confusion

and at times unsatisfacory results you get in Painter 6, if you don`t tweak, collapse and produce multiple TIFF copies of each separate layer in PS/Painter for composition or work in either of the programs..can be a major setback and a cause for endless frustration.

Can`t say buy it, since I haven`t got hooked on it (but I have gotten a craving for pursuing my projects in Painter 6 these days..), since I haven`t bought it..yet.. what a useless preview.. really, it is no kind of preview

and I never claimed it was.. I am only sharing some observations which is useful to consider, if Painting “digitally” is something you imagine yourself to be doing.. I can only say that Photoshop alone does not cut it, best thing to do is make extensive use of your digital camera along with a decent flatbed scanner – Photoshop is wonderful for compositing, processing and manipulating results

from those mediums. Alternatively, create imagery in Illustrator or FreeHand for the same purpouse.

Just realized that this is the first entry in the Computer Art category on my weblog.. cheers for that.