26 April 2005

Game map editing - finale

After the two previous posts is time to put the puzzle together:
map

Not too bad for a couple of hours of work I would think.

Update: Download my RPG map tileset clipart in SVG format (released as Public Domain)

Game map editing - part deux

The same symbols from the first part, now with a little colouring.
WARNING: those are raw images, without any significant polish

color rpg

Game map editing

Bryce, of course it would be a breeze to create in Inkscape maps like those described in the Slashdot article.
You must have a library of symbols, (the one below is created in a few minutes using pen and paper and automatically traced, without any polishing) and an easy way to insert those elements (drag and drop from a Nautilus window in Inkscape is enough)
symbols

But the most important is to have enough motivation to create a comprehensive library of symbols.

23 April 2005

Disco Jesus

The orthodox Easter will be celebrated in about one week, this gave me the opportunity to see what I consider the kitchiest thing in the world (thanks God I'm an atheist, otherwise i would find offended :p )
disco jesus
Yes, Jesus and disco lights, at least it does not produce any sounds and it costs about 1.2 Euros.

All this is made using the finest Chinese plastic and some LEDs and is so well built that my photo session broke the damn thing:
disco jesus

A couple of super glue drops later, the pieces at least stay together, but the Disco magic is gone: now only the blue light works.

20 April 2005

Gold

The first step is to create such an image in Inkscape and export as bitmap (at least two layers: one for model and another for background)


Then import as a layered image in The Gimp, apply bump map, adjust color curves and finally a drop shadow. The end result is:

18 April 2005

Dumb Ms posters

I think those are the dumbest posters i saw. Ever.

This one has the message (aproximative translation):
What work from the first try,
Navigate safely
And has free techical support?

The answer in smaller letters: Computers with preinstalled Windows XP Home Edition

And the second one:
Computers with preinstalled Windows XP Home Edition
A serious motivation to return happy at home

On the footer of both posters is placed the following text:
With preinstalled Windows XP Home Edition,
your new computer is functional from the first moment,
you navigate securely on internet
and, additionaly, you receive free technical support.

17 April 2005

Office suites

I think I'll trow my two cents at the discuss regarding the OpenOffice.org versus Gnome Office competition.

Some OOo people like to talk about The Digital Tipping Point and how Open Source applications like OpenOffice.org will replace proprietary ones in the same way Sony replaced RCA, they call it "disruption". I believe at some point Gnome Office will start disrupting OOo.

In present people think they need the full MS Office, but OOo is changing this mentality. Once it will gain a certain threshold (some OOo people estimated the needed market share at 15-20%), the mentality will change and OOo acceptance is supposed to increase dramatically. Well, I think that will be a very good opportunity for Abiword/Gumeric.

Open Document
I saw the new file format used in OOo 2.0, OpenDocument, like the best of their initiatives so far: if it is declared an ISO standard this could means immediate acceptance in governments, which will generate industry-wide support.

This is where i see a missed opportunity for Gnome Office: Abiword does not have very good support for OpenDocument (as a counter example, KOffice is using it as the default format).

15 April 2005

FOSS projects and corporate membership

Uraeus counts GNOME Foundation members working for a company on GNOME and find an impressive number: 85.
Well, the number of corporate people working on OpenOffice.org is bigger (note: this list does not include all Sun people), but OOo is very much developed cathedral-style and is not very clear all the time if those people work on OpenOffice.org or on StarOffice.

14 April 2005

Geekiness


My computer savviness is greater than 91% of all people in the world! How do you compare? Click here to find out!

SVG support in Firefox 1.1

Ath the first sight it may look like a rumour but it is confirmed, Roc (Robert O'Callahan) say:
Barring major catastrophe, we will be turning it on for FF1.1.

12 April 2005

useless post

ignore this, its only reason is to test time/date in Planet aggregation

recruitment strategy

I like Alan's attitude: "have been added to Planet OpenClipArt.org [...] I guess I should also take it as encouragement to contribute more Clipart".
If more people would think the same we can develop a strategy: include people on Planet Open Clip Art and get in exchange more contributions.

09 April 2005

spam for Planet

this post is completely useless, its only purpose is to provide an entry for the upcoming Planet OpenClipArt