Layers magazine Tip of the Day

After Effects CS5 Tip - Use Imagineer Systems mocha for After Effects for motion tracking

After Effects includes the mocha for After Effects (mocha-AE) standalone motion tracking application from Imagineer Systems. This planar tracker handles motion-tracking jobs that would be difficult with the built-in After Effects motion tracker. So, whether you need to replace a billboard on a bus or the contents of a mobile phone screen, try mocha for After Effects.

Best Nokia N8 review ever !!! (Updated)

Ok the headline might be a bit misleading but I couldn’t resist as I was reading this article that Gizmodo posted on their site and all I was doing while reading the post was laugh my head off, it is possibly the worst post ever written by tech blog. Basically the article is is saying why Gizmodo will not review the N8 and they come with some stupid reasioning that makes them more amateurish than they really are. Don’t get me wrong the N8 has some faults, but seriously this is the site reviwed the frackkin Microsoft KIN and where did that end up?

Didn’t want to give Gizmodo the satisfaction of more pageviews so I have posted some their stupid reasons why here

As much as we’d love to see a great new phone from Nokia, we’re not reviewing the N8. The phone was, unfortunately, irrelevant before it launched. Like a top-of-the-line horse-drawn carriage released shortly after Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon.

Nokia itself has declared that it’s abandoning Symbian for all of its N-Series phones. Nokia serves a billion phones a year, but it’s the N-series that represents everything Nokia wants to be, its ambition forged into tiny pocketfuls of technology. Their phones that geeks gushed about once upon a time. The N8 is the very last of its kind. The head of Symbian even quit today. It’s a dead OS running.

A year ago, after looking at the very best the number one cellphone maker in the world had to offer, I said Nokia faced a particular kind of doom. Not because Nokia won’t keep selling a billion finely engineered cellphones—oh it will—but because it simply doesn’t make the kind of phones that geeks care about anymore. When the most prominent enthusiast site calls it quits because the platform is stagnant, something’s wrong. No wonder Nokia putting all its eggs in the MeeGo basket.

The N8 itself, even in isolation, isn’t very good. It has perhaps the most technologically advanced camera ever packed in a phone. But its unusable. Even as Engadget says the N8 “is easily the best Symbian device that Nokia — or any company, for that matter — has ever made,” the fact is “Symbian^3, sadly, regrettably, heartrendingly, isn’t there yet.”

And well, we don’t like pissing on gravestones all that much, even in October.

BTW I dont read Gizmodo anymore, stopped a long time ago , I found this on twitter and couldn’t resist to comment on such piece of s***, just wanted to make sure that I clarify in saying I don’t usually read that peace of rubbish that calls itself a blog

And to be honest I cant be bothered to link to such an amateurish site

let us in the comments below what you think

Updated: OMG Nokia just commented on the Gizmodo piece with their PR saying

Hi Matt, this is Anna from Nokia PR.

Matt, thanks for your opinion. We’re sorry you have chosen not to review the N8, and it’s ok that you don’t like our products. Millions of other people (and some of your peers at Gizmodo) like our products, but we’re happy to come pick it up from you. There are plenty of other influencers who would appreciate the opportunity to experience the N8.

As you know through various discussions with us, we are committed to the Symbian platform, which is still the world’s most widely used smartphone OS, contrary to your own viewpoint. Our newest Symbian devices are already shipping and we’ve had a record number of preorders for Nokia N8’s. You could’ve bashed the device and we would’ve been ok with it, really. We’ll just send them to people who write a review to help their audience make a decision.

Some companies might be tempted to blacklist you from future reviews, but that’s not our style. However, we have decided to give this N8 away to a lucky consumer – learn how by following @Nokia on Twitter

http://mynokiablog.com/2010/10/19/best-nokia-n8-review-ever/

Netflix CEO: ‘We Are Now a Streaming Company’

Netflix now considers itself a “streaming company which also offers DVDs by mail,” according to CEO Reed Hastings in the management commentary that accompanies its third-quarter earnings release. According to Netflix, the company now spends more money on streaming content than on DVDs, and as a result consumers now stream more videos than they watch on DVD.

In the commentary, Hastings is quoted as saying:

We are very proud to announce that by every measure we are now a streaming company, which also offers DVD-by-mail. In Q4, we’ll spend more on streaming content than DVD content, and we’ll deliver many more hours of entertainment via streaming than on DVD. More impressively, a majority of our subs will watch more content streamed from Netflix than delivered by us on DVD. DVD-by-mail shipments are still growing, but streaming for us is much larger and growing much faster.

More subscribers are streaming more content than ever before, according to Netflix. It added 1.9 million new subscribers in the quarter, bringing its total subscriber count to 16.9 million, which is up 52 percent over the previous year’s third quarter. And two-thirds of its subscribers now stream content, which is up from 41 percent a year earlier and 61 percent in the second quarter.

Revenue in the third quarter grew by about 30 percent, to $553.2 million compared to $423.1 million for the third quarter of 2009. But disc shipments only grew about 10 percent during the same time period, and in some places — like San Francisco — the number of disc shipments actually declined during the period. Since the company still spends more than $500 million in disc shipments, it says it will have plenty of cash to boost the amount of streaming content it brings online.

It’s doing so aggressively, with moves such as its a five-year, $900 million deal to stream content from Epix for titles from Paramount, MGM and Lionsgate. It’s also struck an exclusive content deal with Relativity Media.

The effect has been what Hastings calls a “virtual cycle” through which it is able to attract new customers through word of mouth and is able to retain them by keeping customer satisfaction high. Subscriber acquisition costs dropped below $20, to $19.81, compared to $26.86 for the third quarter 2009 and $24.37 for the second quarter of 2010. Churn also fell during the quarter, to 3.8 percent, compared to 4.4 percent for the same period a year ago and 4.0 percent for the second quarter.

In the third quarter, Netflix launched in its first international market with a streaming offering in Canada. The company said it is on track to be profitable in Canada by the end of next year, and, if things go well it could roll out a streaming service in the U.S. soon. Hastings is quoted as saying, “Our success with our pure streaming offering in Canada at $7.99 has encouraged us to test this model in the USA. If our results are as strong as we think they will be, then we will look to start this offering later in this Q4.”

http://newteevee.com/2010/10/20/netflix-ceo-we-are-now-a-streaming-company/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+newteevee+%28NewTeeVee%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Adobe Photoshop CS5 Extended Tip - Punch out holes in your extrusions!

In the Repoussé dialog you can manipulate the constraint (sub-path) using any of the Internal Constraints tools to either punch it out to make a hole or add separate extrusion parameters. You can also add constraints to an existing Repoussé object by drawing a selection or path and choosing either 3D>Repoussé>Create Constraints From Selection(s) or Selected Path(s). You can also use the Add(Selection) or Add(Path) buttons in the Internal Constraints section of the Repoussé dialog.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS5 Tip - Interactive, cross-browser previews

When using Live View, you can hit the F6 key to "freeze" JavaScript-pausing drop-down menus in place, Ajax data in a particular state of display, tabs in a particular open/closed configuration, etc. With integration with the new Adobe BrowserLab cross-browser testing service, you can then send that local "state" of your page right to BrowserLab to view it in all of the available browsers across operating systems.

DNN Creative Magazine

Welcome to issue 61 of DNN Creative Magazine.

This issue is the beginning of Volume 6, so it's our 5th birthday! We would like to say a special thank you to all of you who have supported us over the past 5 years, it means a lot to us.

In this issue we demonstrate two advanced mapping modules available for DotNetNuke.

To begin, we walk you through how to implement and customize ReachOutsides’ GeoSprawl DotNetNuke Locator Module and demonstrate its potential within a DNN portal. We show you how to add several locations onto a map and give your users the power to search for their closest locations to a specified address or postcode, this is ideal for businesses with multiple store locations.

GeoSprawl Locator can be customized to suit all types of business needs, we show you how to customize the layout, display and styling of the module and explain how to customize specific map functions.

Next we take a detailed look at the ZLDNN Biz Map Module, we demonstrate the modules extensive features such as Google Maps integration and how to implement advanced features such as GeoRSS feeds into map layers. ZLDNN BizMap comes packed with four different integrated modules and we walk you through how to install, configure and use each one.

After following these specialised mapping tutorials you will have a good idea of all the features available and how they can benefit your website and your visitors.

Following this we continue our tutorials on DotNetMushrooms Rapid Application Development software, we show you how to implement pre-defined and custom lists for use in a DNM RAD application, this technique saves a large amount of development time by removing the need to create forms and tables to input list data.

Finally we introduce the first in a new series of Podcasts, we invite David Finley from InteractiveWebs.com to talk about the amazing new technology called Microsoft Pivot and the DotNetNuke Pivot module. We then move on to the latest news from the DNN community including the recent ASP.NET security scare.

This issue comes complete with 10 videos.

http://www.dnncreative.com/Home/Issues/Volume6/Issueno61/tabid/592/Default.aspx

The 2014 FIFA World Cup Logo – Discuss

This is a guest article by Ana Paula Rodrigues outlining the unveiling of the new 2014 World Cup logo.

The silent vuvuzela’s mark the end of the 2010 World Cup, but the preparations for the 2014 games are well underway. The 2014 World Cup host, Brazil unveiled the official logo last Thursday in Johannesburg, South Africa. In a clever marketing campaign, both the Brazilian Soccer Delegation and FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) decided to strike while the momentum of the 2010 games were still in play, and while it still garnered the attention of a worldwide audience. By revealing the logo now, rather than later, the Brazilian Soccer Delegation and FIFA began the process of building excitement and branding the 2014 World Cup games – four years before the start of the event.

The Sao Paulo, Brazil based agency, “Africa,” beat 25 other agencies to score the winning logo design called, “Inspiration.” The logo illustrates intertwined hands that form the shape of the world cup trophy highlighted by the iconic Brazilian colors of green and yellow. A panel of seven distinguished Brazilians including members from FIFA, writer Paulo Coelho, architect Oscar Niemeyer and supermodel Gisele Bundchen determined the winning logo. The chosen panel produced some controversy within the Brazilian graphic design field.

The acclaimed Brazilian graphic designer Alexandre Wollner in an interview with Terra Magazine denounced the absence of graphic designers on the judge’s panel. The Brazilian Graphic Designers Association noted that they were excluded from the process by FIFA, even though they had a prior arrangement. Wollner, who has designed more than 180 logos said, “They don’t respect the professionals, or professionalism.”

Many soccerphiles on message boards questioned the accuracy of a pair of hands on a soccer ball, since goalies are the only players who can use their hands in the game. Obviously, they were unaware that the illustration is based on a photo of several hands holding up the world cup trophy in victory. On Facebook, soccer fan Jennifer Mortagua wrote that one word best described the logo, “unity.” Another fan Paul Amorim wrote,“it looks like a 5 year old designed it.” Alexandre Wollner was also very critical about the design of the logo and gave it a red card. He said, “É uma porcaria,” — its garbage. “If you look closer you will be able to see a face hiding behind a pair of hands in shame,” Wollner asserted in Terra Magazine.

One aspect of World Cup fever is picking your favorite team and standing by them until the very end – win or lose. Whether you side with team Wollner, or not the design of the 2014 World Cup logo is here to stay. With less than 1,460 days left until the games begin again, the Brazilian Soccer Delegation and FIFA are standing by their logo with the belief that they scored a world class goal.

P.S. Congratulations to Team Spain on bringing home the 2010 World Cup – the first time ever for Spain. Olé amigos!

What do you think of the new 2014 World Cup logo? What do you see?