ksymeon

There seems to be a huge debate on the net over the new Adobe icons introduced in Creative Suite 3. People's reaction to the new icons is like their reaction to Marmite . They either *love* them or *loathe* them. I've first seen the Lightroom icon which I thought that it was alright if not very simplistic. After seeing the PS icon however, I pleasanlty realised that the concept behind the new icons is the elements of the Periodic table . Despite my dislike of Marmite, I find the new icons really nice and they look quite neat on my Toolbox: Searching a little bit on the web, I have discovered the beautiful "The Art of Adam Betts" and his alternative CS3 icons (for those of you who agree with him and disagree with me :-) ). Adam has created a nice picture of the evolution of the Photoshop icon , but what I love most is the Adobe's Wheel O'Icons . Also, check out the amazing Adobe Icon Set in a rotating flash wheel .

Only because I've built the computer I'm working on I think... Check it out:

Amongst several other things that I find to occupy my (free) time, is computer generated imagery. Landscapes and worlds, plantation. Whatever. Ever since I wrote RFS (Random Fractal Surfaces), a DOS-based surface simulation in isometric 3D back in 1988 (!), I have been following the software scene steadilly. Vue d'Esprit was one of the first programs to make a difference and produce some really realistic renderings. Went to Digital Blasphemy today to see the latest wallpapers there and I read the news that Vue d'Esprit 6 has been released. Just check the video on the web page. It speaks for itself. I'm sure I will be downloading a trial version very soon, only to play a little bit with it and then just leave it over there, in the corner of my hard disk until the next version arrives :-) Talking about that RFS, the history of it is quite funny - I've even found a Borland Pascal-based version of it that is supposed to run on Windows written in Nov '93. Crickey! That...

Glad to see vpapanik's post that Thessaloniki is now on high-resolution on Google Earth. Next thing I tried to do is to measure the exact distance from my parent's house to the place I live now. To my amazement it measured exactly 1,333.33 miles!!! What an amazing number! :-) And, here's the proof: Of course, if you measure it in kilometers is a rather uninteresting number... Ah, being a mathematician is no fun!

Downloaded the demo a couple of weeks ago and I wasn't impressed to be honest, however since I really like that occassional flight I decided I should go and get the latest version of FS especially since my computer can now afford this kind of "load". I wasn't wrong. Despite a BSOD that I got when I tried to install it on Vista, FSX is a real treat on WinXP. Everything seems to be working ok, I haven't seen any problems with the two monitor setup or graphics that I have experienced with the demo. Good work beta testers! :-) I remember the first Flight Simulator that I played in some awful 640x200 graphics probably 20-25 years ago (Check out the history of Flight Simulator here - wikipedia). Since then I probably tried a couple of more versions, never put much effort into it. When I came to England in 2000, MS FS 2000 was out featuring the Concorde! I bought a copy and I remember that I enjoyed it a lot. I also remember flying from Leros to Kos on a Cessna in the m...

Here I am, having been waiting for weeks for the Windows Vista RC1 DVDs to arrive. The beta 2 arrived in July/August but my computer was not poweful enough at the time to install it. When I lost Titania (see previous post "End of an Era" ) and upgraded, I've kept a primary partition on my new Hard Disk to install the RC1 later. Installation Last night I went through the installation procedure. I ran the installer from within XP and chose the empty partition (V:) to install Vista. So far so good. Soon after, the first BSOD appeared. Oh yes, I was hoping that Vista would have a different way of informing you of problems, but BSOD it is! Memory Management error it said... However, after the reboot the installation resumed and it seemed to be ok. First boot First boot, everything looks neat and in order. A few questions about regional settings, computer name and it's ready. The new interface needs a few moments to get used to but it looks nice. Minutes later, a new BSOD ...

Went looking for Kai again today. What I found this time is Art Rage. A free painting tool for Windows and Mac OS X with a fantastic Soap-like user interface. Downloaded and played with it a little bit. This piece of software is amazing! A true conveyor of Kai's user interface design ideas. Excellent work. Don't miss it. For serious artists, the $19.95 price tag is basically nothing. Don't forget to check the gallery forums for some amazing examples of true digital art!