Every year since it started, I’ve lamented my lack of ability to scrounge up the funds necessary to attend either of the PAX conventions. After the news from PAX East, I’m really sad. It seems that the official Juliet Starling, Jessica Nigri, brought too much hotness to PAX with her fairly revealing costumes and was asked to change – twice. The outfit in question was the pink one that shows plenty of skin, enough to get complaints.
The problem came in when Jessica changed back into the original Juliet costume she wore a day prior. That too was out of bounds for the show goers, even though it was good enough just one short day earlier. Instead she was  told to tone it down even more or leave and finally changed into a outfit that covered a considerable amount more skin. unsecured loans

Granted, PAX instituted a no booth babes policy to further distinguish itself from other cons but they do allow cosplayers to attend, as long as they are sticking to the source material. Characters like Jessica’s are also allowed as they represent the game itself but they aren’t allowed partial nudity. Not really sure how the first official costume violates that one, that’s the typical amount of flesh one sees on a daily basis bad creidt loans and less than what gets displayed on a sunny day.

PAX is right to want to keep the conventions family friendly but let’s be honest here for a moment: they’re showcasing some very mature and gory games there. Games like Lollipop Chainsaw, Assassin’s Creed III, Max Payne 3 and plenty more “M” rated games were on display among the “family friendly setting”. Jessica’s day one costume is the one the titular character wears in game, which plenty of folks got their hands on. Double standard maybe?
What do you geeks think? Sound off in the comments, especially if you attended PAX East.

Kinect sensor nerf gun mod

In light of the gorgeous (is it tasteless to call guns gorgeous?) Gravity and Portal Gun replicas by Australian artist Harrison Krix, and in spirt of Team Dis-Kinect who hacked a Kinect to make a motion-controlled puppet for this year’s New York event, we bring you a How-To that combines the popularity of shooter games with the creative brains of a hacker.

In order to modify your Nerf gun to play rail shooter games on your computer you will need a Nerf Finder EX-10 foam dart gun (you’ll need the battery pack to power the wireless trigger), a five-button wireless mouse (to dismantle for parts) and a PC enabled Kinect sensor.

First you need to connect the Kinect sensor to your PC and install a collection of tools that will enable you to control the Windows mouse pointer by moving your hand in front of the sensor. Find instructions on how to install Windows Kinect drivers, middleware and the FAAST mouse control toolkit.

Configure the tracking software by using the FAAST bindings found in Step 2. This will allow the Nerf gun to move the mouse pointer. Do note that the settings are designed for the Nerf gun to be tracked at shoulder height about 5-6 feet away from the Kinect. FAAST will activate the tracking when you press Connect, Start Emulation and wave the Nerf gun in front of the Kinect until a white focus dot appears on the tracking image.

Now that your Nerf gun is able to control the mouse, add a mechanism to enable your gun to shoot in the game. Unscrew the Nerf gun case and remove the spring loaded bolt. Then take the circuit board from your dismantled mouse and fit it into the cavity in the Nerf gun that use to hold the spring bolt. Then wire the circuit to the Nerf’s battery pack and wire the side button’s jumper wires to the Nerf’s trigger operated switch. After that, black out the mouse laser and side vents with insulation tape, since we are only using the circuit for the trigger button. Make sure your PC USB mouse and the Nerf’s USB wireless receiver are connected to the same external USB hub.

Map the Nerf gun trigger to the left mouse button using X-Mouse software, and set mouse button 4 and 5 to activate. unsecured loans

With FAAST and X-Mouse running in the background, download a demo of House Of The Dead 3 and start it in windowed mode (FAAST won’t operate if the game’s running in full-screen mode. Now you’re all ready to make your gameplay that more real. bad credit loans

susan calman radio script

Poor Susan Calman. Her worst night in Edinburgh seems to have gone on for about a month.
She gave up a lucrative career in corporate law to become a comedian – which has eventually paid off, with regular Radio 4 New Quiz/Unbelievable Truth appearances and her own Radio Scotland chat show Funny Friends, not to mention a new show Constantly Seeking Susan. But the scars from that first Fringe remain.

My first Edinburgh is also my worst Edinburgh. I know that a lot of people say that, but in my case it truly was a month of absolute hell. Part of me is glad I got it out of the way early because I know that nothing can ever be as bad ever again, but I also know I am scarred for life.

In 2006, I had been doing open spots for about six months, juggling the excitement of gigging with an office job as a solicitor. Because I was young and foolish I decided, after the very short time, to give up my well-paid, reliable and respectable job to become a stand-up comic. One of the main reasons I made the decision was that a couple of comedian friends had secured a venue at the Edinburgh Festival and asked me to MC a late night comedy show at the Cafe Royal. The festival, a late-night comedy show, what could possibly go wrong I thought?! Answer: everything.

Some of the problems were admittedly my own fault. I had never been to the festival before and had no idea how it worked. My ignorance meant that I didn’t know that late-night comedy was already pretty much covered with Spank, Late and Live, Maxwell's Fullmooners and the Late Show at the Stand to name but a few. Trying to do a new late-night show at the Fringe was like trying to go through the festival without having a drink. Impossible and stupid.

I knew before I started that it was a risk to do the show. It cost me thousands of pounds and some people were sneering about taking on such a foolish endeavour. Fellow lawyers said the venture was bound to fail, and that I would some come crawling back to law, begging for my job back. That kind of talk was like a red rag to a bull and I was determined to prove my doubters wrong. It must be possible to be a success at the festival without an agent, PR or any reputation whatsoever! By the end of August I would be a household name with a sitcom, radio show and film in the works. bad credit loans

I know. I was a fool.
It became apparent early on that the numbers were bad. For bad, read almost non existent. We did one show to a front row of two irish men who spent the hour punching each other in the crotch. That front row was, in truth, the only row. We needed an audience. Desperately.

But how do you get an audience when there are 3 million other shows on? We tried everything that it was possible to do when you have a show with no money, no PR, no famous names and no track record. I blogged, Facebooked and begged journalists to cover us with absolutely no success. In the end it became clear that we would have to do it the old-fashioned way. By flyering. And this is where the festival of 2006, despite how bad it been before, became a living hell.

There is one indisputable fact during the Festival, and that is that the public don’t like people who flyer. And I know why. You try and walk anywhere in Edinburgh during August and a desperate looking person will shove a piece of paper into your face begging you to come and see a play about the life cycle of potatoes. But for most of the shows it is the only way to try and get people in. So I started flyering. And because it was a midnight show, I started at 9pm and carried on until 11.45pm when I would run to the venue.
I stood on the Royal Mile in the rain, hail and freezing cold for 20 nights. I even ended up making my own sandwich board out of a cardboard box I found at the back of a shop, and put all the details of the show on it so I didn’t need to speak to anyone. After a week of being sworn at, ignored and, once, punched by a child, I couldn’t take it any more.


But I had to keep going. And that is the one part of the experience that was positive. After the first week of that first festival I wanted to pack up and go home; call my former colleagues and tell them that they were right, that I was a failure and that I needed my job back. But my stubbornness wouldn’t let them win. So I carried on. I did the shows every night to the few people that did show up. I stood on the Royal Mile every night whilst drunks shouted at me. I accepted the pitying comments from my fellow comics who knew how badly it was going. But I carried on. unsecured loans

The show that year didn’t get any awards, good reviews or plaudits. But I survived. And to be honest that is what the festival is often about. Survival. I know that no festival since or in the future could ever be as bad. And I always take flyers from people on the Royal Mile. And so should you. You might rescue a young comic's dignity.

Metacafe videos to DVD

Metacafe is a community based video sharing web site, that specializes in short-form original entertainment, where users upload, view and share video clips. The site features short-form videos in a variety of categories, including Animation, Comedy, Entertainment, How To, News and Events, People and Stories, Sports, Video Games and others. Original content is uploaded to the site by independent video creators, small to mid-sized production groups, and major media companies. In you prefer enljoy Metacafe Videos on TV system to online-watching, you can burn Metacafe videos to DVD or Blu-ray disc. But how to burn the funning Metacafe videos to DVD or blu-ray disc? Here our programs can help you burn your desired Metacafe videos to DVD.

Any Video Converter and Any DVD Converter Professional feature a new characteristic: both of them can burn Metacafe video to DVD with DVD Menu.
Here the following is a brief guide on how to burn Metacafe video to DVD/Blu-ray disc.

Step 1 : Add/Download Metacafe video to the program.

If you have downloaded the Metacafe Videos from the website and saved in your computer disc, you just need click Add Video button or go to menu File > Add Video Files to select your desired video clips from your hard drive. But if you do not download the Metacafe Videos, with Any Video/DVD Converter, you can download videos from Internet and then burn it to Blu-ray disc. unsecured loans
Firstly, you need to visit Metacafe.com and right-click on the desired video to choose Copy Link Location (this is for Firefox users) or open the video and then copy the URL from the navigation bar (this is for IE users).
Secondly, you can click online video download button to begin download Metacafe directly.

Or you can choose File> Import Video to from Internet to begin downloading videos.

Thirdly, paste the link in the program

After you have downloaded the Metacafe Videos, all of them will be displayed on the middle panel with their detailed information, including duration, format and size, etc.

Step 2 : Choose Burning to DVD output profile.

Please unfold Output Profile, choose Burning to DVD from the list, and then choose DVD video NTSC Movie or DVD video PAL Movie according to your TV system.

Step 3 : Click Convert button to start encoding Metacafe Videos.

Once everything is ready, you can click on Convert to start the exporting process. If you would like to cancel encoding, please just click the Stop button and click Yes in the pop-up window then the encoding will be stopped.

Step 4 : Choose DVD Menu.

You will be prompted to choose DVD Menu when the program finishes Metacafe video conversion process.

--In DVD Menu Tile, you can name your DVD and input it into the box directly.
--In Background Music, you can browse music file from your local computer for your DVD.
--In Background Image, you can change your DVD's background image by click Browse Image File to select your desired image from your computer. bad credit loans
--In Menu Navigator, you can choose the playback mode for your DVD.
After you have made sure the settings, please click Next>> to follow the next step.

Step 5 : Insert DVD and start burning Metacafe video to DVD

In DVD Configuration, you can see the following pop-up window;

The program supports burning video to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD+R Dual Layer, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-R Dual Layer, random access writes, Blu-ray media, Blu-ray Rewritable media.
Insert a DVD media to the DVD burner, select recorder from the drop-down list, enter your desired Disc Lable, and then click Burn button, then the program will begin to burn video to DVD.
Note: If the inserted disc is not empty, you will be prompted to erase the disc. Click Yes, all data on the disc will be overwritten!

You can see the progress of burning Metacafe video to disc:

After the program finish to burn Metacafe video to DVD, it will pop up a DVD Burning Engine to congratulate you that your disc has been successfully burned.
Click OK button, the drive automatically ejects the disc.

Now your Metacafe video have been burned successfully to DVD/Blu-ray disc, just have fun!

piranha 3dd

I don't like Alexandre Aja. I think HAUTE TENSION was pretty terrible, and his subsequent efforts have been worse. However, I adore PIRANHA 3-D, if only because it's nothing more than non-stop ridiculous violence and gratuitous nudity. Despite my penchant for psychological thrillers, I have a soft spot in my heart for tongue bad credit loans-in-cheek gore flicks. Maybe that's why I'm so excited for the sequel to PIRANHA 3-D, which has finally been given an official release date.

As Shock Till You Drop reports, the cleverly titled PIRANHA 3-DD will kick off summer with a June 1 release, nestling it next to SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN starring Kristin "What's Emotion" Stewart." The following week it will have the Ridley Scott-directed PROMETHEUS to contend with.
The flick, directed by John Gulager, is penned by Marcus Dunstan and Patrick Melton, who made a name for themselves after penning several SAW installments and unsecured loans THE COLLECTOR, a pseudo-SAW flick that actually wasn't that bad.

Real Life Barbie girl

Valeria Lukyanova is a Barbie girl, living in a Barbie world - but does she really exist?

A satirical animated video making the rounds this week purports to show how the 21-year-old Ukranian model went from a striking blond to full-fledged Barbie through a series of transformative plastic surgeries.
The video, posted on Jezebel.com on Sunday, says Lukyanova claims to be the "most famous woman on the Russian language internet,” and is also interested in making music and "astroplaning.”
Valeria Lukyanova/via Facebook Lukyanova seems to have achieved her doll-like look through a combination of heavy make-up, plastic surgery, and Photoshop.

Animated by Taiwanese production company Next Media Animation, the company behind viral spoofs of many other news events, the video is set to Aqua's famous "Barbie Girl" song and shows a cartoon version of Lukyanova lying on an operating table and undergoing dramatic surgery, complete with sound effects including sawing noises.


 The video intercuts the animation with photos of Lukyanova, asking viewers whether they find her too “artificial” to be attractive.
Despite some critics’ doubts over her authenticity, many Facebook profiles exist in Lukyanova's name, dating back almost a year.

Valeria Lukyanova/via Facebook Lukyanova has posted countless pictures of herself online to show off her Barbie-esque body.
A Tumblr page in her name also features pages of pictures of the Ukranian waif, as does a website she seems to use professionally.

While many of Lukyanova's pictures do appear to be photographs of a real person, her body and facial features are so surreal in other shots that it seems her appearance could not have been achieved without surgical enhancement - or a heavy dose of Photoshop. unsecured loans

Lukyanova's big blue eyes are cartoonishly childlike, her eyebrows are pencil-thin and unnaturally high, her skin has a flawless plastic sheen, and she boasts long, silky blond Barbie hair.
Her body also mimics the proportions of the children’s doll, from her huge chest to her tiny waist, bright make-up and vacant stare. bad credit loans
The real-life Barbie hasn’t addressed the video, but if her online persona is to be believed, she is seemingly busy living by the words of her theme song: “Life in plastic, it’s fantastic.”
Valeria Lukyanova/via Facebook Valeria Lukyanova, a 21-year-old Ukranian model, is being dubbed the Human Barbie for her doll-like looks.

5 Situations When Manual Focus is Better than Auto Focus

 Digital Cameras present photographers with an ever increasing array of Automatic and Semi Automatic shooting modes. Most of these center around different ways of exposing your shots – however many cameras also give options for different focusing modes (auto, continuous focusing for moving subjects and manual).
It’s no wonder then that many photographers never make use of their camera and lens’ ability to focus manually. In fact this week I spoke with one DSLR owner recently who hadn’t even noticed the manual/auto focus switch on the side of his lens.

When is Manual Focus Better than Auto Focus?

Let me start by saying there is no right or wrong time to use either manual or auto focusing – both can produce great results in almost all circumstances – however there are a few times when you might find it easier to switch to manual focusing:

1. Macro Work

When doing macro photography I almost exclusively switch to manual focusing.
The narrow depth of field in these shots mean that you need to be incredibly precise with focusing and being just a smidgeon out or having your camera choose to focus on the wrong part of your subject can completely ruin a shot.
To use it you’ll also probably want to use a tripod to eliminate any movement of the camera which can make focusing either in manual or auto mode frustrating.
Manual focusing puts the control completely in your hands when shooting in this very precise setting.

2. Low Light

Shooting in dimly lit environments can be difficult for some cameras and lenses when it comes to focusing.
You’ll know when your camera is struggling in Auto mode when every time you go to take a shot the lens will whirl from one end of it’s focusing options to the other and back again before deciding on where to focus. unsecured loans
This can really lengthen your shooting process and make taking quick candid shots quite frustrating.
Switch to manual mode and you can quickly find your focusing point and get the shot you’re after.

3. Portraits

When shooting portraits focus needs to be precise.
The majority of your shots of people will need to have their eyes in perfect focus (although in the example to the left it’s the lips) and so switching to manual focus will give you complete control to enable this to save you from having to line up the focusing points on your camera on the eyes, press halfway down and then frame your shot.
Manual focusing in portrait work helps to ensure the viewer of the image is drawn to the part of the face that you want them to notice.

4. Shooting Through Glass/Wire Fences

If you’ve ever shot through anything like a window or a mess/wire fence you’ll know how cameras will often get confused on where to focus your shot.
Whether it’s shooting out of a plane window, taking a shot of an image at a museum or photographing animals through fences at the zoo – you might find your camera is confused.
Manual focusing will avoid this completely and allow you to get things just right – focusing upon the subject behind that glass or fence. If you do this in conjunction with a large aperture (which decreases depth of field) and get in close to the fence or glass you might well eliminate it completely from being noticeable in your shot.

5. Action Photography

Shooting fast moving subjects (like racing cars, planes, bikes, running animals etc) can be a frustrating experience when shooting with auto focus.
Even the continuous focusing modes can get left behind or confusing if you’re not panning with your subject smoothly. bad credit loans
One way to overcome this is to switch to manual focusing and pre focus on a point that the subject will move through – and shooting at that point. You need to get your timing just right – but you’ll find that it’ll often give better results than relying upon auto focus modes (particularly if you shoot in continuous shooting/burst mode).

ios 6 rumors

Apple fans have been all over the rumors surrounding the iphone 5, it’s release date and features, that some people are missing out on the upgraded operation system also due out this year. iOS 6, Apple’s newest operating system is set to show its face to the public this summer and it will certainly impress us all.
The biggest rumors surrounding the Apple’s newest OS, iOS 6, and the newest iPhone, iPhone 5, are the release dates. And with Apple’s World Wide Developers’ Conference (WWDC) just seven weeks away many think both will be released then.

iOS 6 Release Date


Unless there is a major setback, you can expect to see iOS 6 released on June 11th at Apple’s WWDC. The WWDC is usually where Apple releases updates to its iOS and this year shouldn’t be any different. However, some folks are calling for a Mac OS X upgrade and that could certainly take precedent over the iOS 6 release.

So What’s Going to Make iOS 6 Stand Out?


Again, nothing is certain, but CNET has some ideas unsecured loans about what we should look for. Among them are multitasking – great for those on the go, bad for battery life; a map app that offers directions by voice; Facebook integration and deeper integration with the Cloud, as well. According to IB Times, you can also expect to see an App Store shopping cart, quick toggles in notification center, and improved SIRI.
As with any rumor round up though, we will not be positive until the actual release.

iPhone 5 to be the iOS 6 Flagship


According to a report in IB Times, there’s no reason to believe bad credit loans that we’ll see iOS 6 in operation on an Apple device until the iPhone 5 rolls out. This may mean that we see the new operating system in June or it may mean that we have to wait until late summer or even fall to see it, as the release date for the iPhone is still way up in the air and nobody’s been able to hammer out anything definitive on it. However, Apple usually releases a developer version of the iOS prior to its main release, so expect to see a few sneak peaks in the coming months.

How a bounce umbrella works

A bounce umbrella works very simply by taking the light from a light source and expanding it’s spread.
A bounce umbrella is typically lined on the interior with a silver, gold or white reflective surface and on the outside with black to reduce light from escaping.

To show you exactly I’ve put together some diagrams that show where the light goes. For this example we’ll assume that an umbrella is a cut of a perfect sphere. The focal point, through which all the reflected light passes, is 1/2 * radius of the circle, or half way between the sphere’s center point and the edge of the umbrella.




When the light hits the reflective surface it bounces back in unsecured loans a straight line through the focal point.



You can see where the reflected light hits the subject. bad credit loans



At first you’d expect to want to place your subject at the tip of the umbrella (like shown in the diagram) but that’s rarely the best idea – we’ll cover that in another article.

holga lens

It’s not everyday that you ruin £260 worth of digital camera. But that’s exactly what I did to my Nikon P7000 in a winter blizzard on Rhinog Fach, in North Wales, a couple of weeks ago. It was a long time since a camera had died on me, the whole £25 of it: my Holga camera. One day something mysteriously started rattling inside it and the camera stopped working.  It was a plastic toy camera after all.
The sheer frustration of losing expensive Nikon gear that I only bought five months ago is making me think that, perhaps, my next mountaineering camera will be another Holga. At least they make them with a glass lens now – which is a shame, really. Yes, the classic medium format Holga film camera has a plastic lens that renders the world is such an imperfect and distorted way that, actually, it shows it very much as it often is.

Lomography cult followers swear by the dreamy, surreal image quality delivered by Holga lenses. The camera also has poorly engineered light seals that let light leak into the film plane, adding some ‘visual interest’ to the image. Every camera leaks in a different and unique way.
It may well be plasticky but you can also do pretty serious work with the Holga. I have had Holga work that tackles issues of identity and place published and even exhibited. Thomas Michael Alleman took some Holgas to Inner Mongolia and produced a remarkable set of images. And a few years back  David Burnett took a whole series of images of Al Gore with a Holga camera. I’m not sure I would have had the courage to turn up on a magazine commission branding a plastic toy camera though.
Toy camera or not the Holga does something remarkably well. It liberates the photographer from the responsibility of having to transcribe the world in a visually accurate way. In other words, it does away with the tension between aesthetics and subject matter. By not being able to fully control the look of the resulting image, the Holga photographer has no option but to concentrate on content. Surprisingly, the Holga can make you a better photographer.

Having said that, the Holga image  can also be all about aesthetics, regardless of content. The plastic camera has the potential to foster pure instinctive photography based exclusively on aesthetic appeal and visual perception. Inforescence-art sells large format canvas prints of Holga photographs based on this principle.
Or it can be primarily a visual experience but still have a certain documentary unsecured loans flavour, as the work of Susan Bowen demonstrates. Working with a Holga camera, Bowen purposefully overlaps exposures to create quasi-cinematic photographic images.
I know what you will be thinking, that there is no point having a medium format plastic toy camera with a plastic lens when you can simulate the effect in Photoshop. Admittedly, you can achieve very convincing Holga-like results with digital manipulations. But that would be missing the point, because the Holga experience is not just about achieving the soft, vignetted, scratched and light-leaked trademark Holga look. The point of the Holga experience is precisely using the Holga camera itself, in all its plastic wonderfulness.
Mind you, if you want the best bad credit loans of both worlds, as in the digital world and the classic poor quality of the plastic fantastic Holga lens, now you can buy the actual Holga lens with an adapter to fit most DSLR mounts.
In fact, I’m tempted to buy the Holga lens for Nikon mount myself.

Cat Breading

Bread and cats don't usually go together, but now these two disparate things are joining forces to power the latest online meme: cat owners place their kitty's head through a piece of bread, take a photo and upload them to "cat breading" forums.

What looks like an adorable photo whim has now become one of the most unique viral pet trends. On Thursday night, Stephen Colbert introduced the phenomenon bad credit loans on his Comedy Central talk show. Colbert's endorsement of a person or idea is said to get the "Colbert bump," meaning it suddenly spreads across the world faster than a celeb sex tape.

Cat breading enjoys a Facebook Page with 15,300 members, and is quickly getting media attention, from New Zealand to the U.K. Gawker is believed to be one of the news sites giving rise to even more people acquainting themselves with cat breading.

How does it work? Cat owners cut a hole in the centre of a bread slice, then gently place the bread over the cat's face. Take a photo. Upload the pic to the Facebook unsecured loans Page or on Flickr.

Some observers believe placing bread around animals is cruel, such as commenters in this Daily Mail article. So far, no cat breaders are replying to allegations of animal cruelty.

Cat breading is reminiscent of a performing rabbit in Japan named Oolong, who balanced food on his head. Oolong's website became known to the general public after it was covered in 2001 by Syberpunk, a site which focuses on odd things in Japanese culture.

Drawing the french flag with code :)

 Finding the specifications for these flags, and attempting to reproduce the flag perfectly, according to the specifications, is a great way to teach yourself basic graphics programming. I’m going to start with the French flag, which isn’t the simplest flag, but pretty close to it. Eventually, I’ll work up to more complex flags, like South Korea and Australia.
Like many flags, you’ll find a reasonably detailed description of the layout of the French Flag in its Wikipedia article.

The three main issues you have to get right with this flag are:

• Its overall shape, or aspect ratio.
• The width of the stripes.
• The colors of the stripes.

This is a good time for you to go through the same exercise – try coming up with a Processing sketch that closely fits the description of the flag. Then read on!
According to Wikipedia, the flag is 50 percent wider than its height (i.e. in the proportion 2:3) and, except in the French navy, has stripes of equal width. Like many countries, the flag specification has undergone revisions over time, and different versions of the flag are used by different parts of the French government. In these articles, I will try to choose the specification that best represents the flag most commonly seen, and in this case that’s the 2:3 flag with three equal stripes.
In order to achieve an aspect ratio of 2:3, I’m using a fixed value for the height, and than computing a width which has the correct aspect ratio:

int kHeight = 300;
size(kHeight*3/2, kHeight);

I could have just as easily have done it by specifying the width, like so:

int kWidth = 450;
size(kWidth, kWidth*2/3);

Its worth noting here that width and sizes in Processing are integers. This means it’s possible to get slightly off if you choose a bad initial height or width. By using a height of 300, I get a width of 450. But if I had used 301, the width would be computed as 451.5 which would get rounded down to 451, and our aspect ratio would be slightly off. The way I’ve done it, only even numbers work for the height.
If you use an even number, you’ll get a flag width that’s unsecured loans an exact multiple of 3. That’s good, because we want the width of the stripes to be exactly 1/3 of the width.

float stripeWidth = width/3.0;

Width is an integer. I specified 3.0 (a floating point value), rather than 3 (an integer), so that I get a floating result, even if the width were not a multiple of 3. In Processing, When you divide two integers, you get an integer result which can loses precision. For example 299/3 would compute as 99, and not 99.66666…


When you use both an integer and a float in an bad credit loans arithmetic operation the result is a float. That’s why I used 3.0 instead of 3.
This loss of precision with integer divides is a feature of strongly typed languages, like Java, Processing and C. Weakly typed languages, like Perl and Javascript, don’t have this problem, and it is safe to just say width/3. It can be confusing when you program in Processing.JS, because you have to switch back and forth between weak and strong typing as you switch from Javascript to Java syntax.
Having computed the stripe width, I go on to draw the stripes.

fill(blueColor);
rect(0,0, stripeWidth, height);

fill(whiteColor);
rect(stripeWidth,0, stripeWidth, height);

fill(redColor);
rect(stripeWidth*2,0, stripeWidth, height);

Finally, there is color choice. Here you will sometimes have to make an aesthetic choice. Most governments specify Pantone colors or a similar color system for their flags. These colors are for pigments, not light, and they don’t have exact RGB equivalents. There are websites you can find that will list RGB equivalents for Pantone colors, and that’s what I’m typically using, but these websites can disagree with each other.
Some governments (such as the United States) recommend using very bright RGB colors for their flags, when displayed on monitors, for example #F00 for red, and #00F for blue. These colors are highly saturated, and don’t look as good as good to me as the Pantone colors they recommend for printed and cloth flags. In those cases, I prefer to find a Pantone equivalent and use it.

In the case of the French flag, however, the RGB colors listed in Wikipedia aren’t overly saturated, so I’ve used them.

color blueColor = color(0,85,164);
color whiteColor = color(255,255,255);
color redColor = color(250,60,50);

The French Bulldog

The French Bulldog is generally an energetic and affectionate dog, creating strong ties with his master. These pets are faithful watch dogs and are happy to spend as much time as possible with their owners. Environmental movement needs of the breed tend to point out that this is a very sporty dog. The French Bulldog has characteristic bat ears and is a tiny dog, compact and robust. This dog is a beloved companion and will serve his master for many years. Although considered an asset of the French, this dog seems to come from the English bulldog.

The French Bulldog most likely comes from the bad credit loans English bulldog, among other English or French breeds. It is said that the French Bulldog was originally created in England as a miniature version of the English bulldog. Around 1860, breeders have imported these dogs and bred them with French terriers. The French Bulldog has enjoyed much popularity in France in the late 1800s and was imported into North America around the same time. American Kennel Club accepted the French bulldog as a breed in 1898.
This dog looks like a dwarf with broad shoulders, deep chest, thick neck muscles which are well developed and well evidenced. He has a pear-shaped body with a wider thorax and narrower basin. Its fur is short and glossy. The colors accepted for dogs shows are clamps or white clamps, brown and white. Copies that do not participate in dog shows and can be black, gray and dark red. The French Bulldog adults have a body weight of about 9 to 13 kilograms and a height at the withers by about 27 to 30 centimeters. Specimens over 13 kilograms are disqualified in dog shows.


These pets are faithful watch dogs and are happy to spend as much time as possible with their owners. They like to play with other dogs, but some males can become aggressive. French Bulldog is also an unsurpassed hunter of mice. He is a good companion, but has the tendency to get better in families with more mature members. He is always unsecured loans very understanding and tolerant of children’s antics. Other pets are generally tolerated by him, especially if he has been in contact with them since puppy years. This small breed has minimum needs and flexible nature of motion which is ideal for the elderly or those living in an apartment.

funky pidgeon

Funky Pigeon now have a store! I flew into Charing Cross making sure that I was careful to avoid all of the hustle and bustle of the busy station and behold a flash of FunkyPigeon.Com caught my eye!

I hovered in mid air and saw a dedicated Funky Pigeon store! This is news at carrier pigeon speed as the store only launched yesterday! How coohool! And I got to see it on the opening day!

Filled with a fantastic range of cards, stationery and accessories. From Hello Kitty notebooks to mobile phone covers. All you humans could need in a whistle stop unesecured loans shop!
There’s even a terminal where you can personalise a card from FunkyPigeon.Com! So if you don’t have computer access and you are ever in the area then hey presto easy personalised cards! Plus anything else you may need along the stationery lines!

So if you get the chance to visit let me know bad credit loans what you think of the new Funky Pigeon store by posting a comment below! Coo!

Colours

Included in our Baker Ross  parcel  was a box of acrylic paints. I use acrylics for my painting and find that one of the key components to painting is mixing the right colours.  I therefore thought it might be a good opportunity for the girls to experiment with colour mixing.

I provided them each with 2 pieces of tin foil, unsecured loans one had a blob of each of the acrylic colours on and the other was for mixing. I avoided giving instructions about what to paint or even that they had to paint at all.  Often young children enjoy the process of mixing and don’t really want  to paint with the colours.  My 3 year old used up most of the colours mixing them into various shades.  I explained that acrylics dry quickly so once the colours are mixed they need to be used quickly for painting


My 7 year old on the other hand carefully mixed a variety of colours, trying out the different combinations.  I gave them a pot of water each to clean their brush and bad credit loans kitchen roll to mop up any excess water.
She proceeded to paint a picture.  Half way through she ran out of one of the colours that she had mixed and was unsure what to do next.  I explained that the new colour wouldn’t need to be exactly the same   as the good thing about acrylics is that you can layer one colour on top of the other.  She mixed another colour and came up with a pretty good match.  

How to take wedding photos. Ish :P

You’ve seen them. They’re the once-in-a-lifetime photos that bring out the best in the bride and groom on their special day. Somehow, the pros know how to get extremely unsecured loans elegant portraits in some of the most challenging lighting situations. No matter how dark it is inside the chapel, the pros make it work. How do they do it? It’s all in the flashes they carry and the aperture on their lenses.

Wedding Photographers Have A LOT Of Equipment

All well-respected photographers know that the big money is in weddings. If you want to get famous for your artistic photos, you need to get famous for your wedding photos first. Many wedding photographers have a lot of equipment because photography isn’t just a hobby for them. It’s a business. All those expensive lenses, flashes, gel packs, mounts, and assistants can be considered a tax write off. What a great way to pay for doing something you love!

But those items aren’t just a tax bad credit loans write off. Weddings are one of the hardest occasions to shoot – mainly because of the low light and dress of the bride (usually white that drowns out everyone else).

There are two very important items in any wedding photographer’s quiver. One of them is an externally mounted flash, and the other is a wide aperture zoom lens.

The wide aperture zoom lens is useful during the ceremony (as flash photography usually isn’t allowed). This type of lens can zoom in to capture the bride and groom’s vows while ensuring the camera’s sensor receives the maximum amount of light possible – very handy when there isn’t much light indoors. These lenses have an aperture of F2.8 or F1.4 (remember, small F-number means lots of light getting into the camera) so it doesn’t matter how dark it is inside. You’ll be able to get an even exposure and some wonderful candid portraits.

Understand The Importance Of Bouncing Flash And Diffusing It

How many professional wedding photos have red eye? None of them, and there is a reason for that. Professional wedding photographers know that the best way to use flash is to bounce it off of walls and reflectors. When you do this, the light comes at your subjects from a less direct angle. It is much more gentle, and it does a better job of eliminating red eye and strong shadows.

Bouncing flash can be very handy, but it isn’t simple as you might think it is. The color of the surface that you bounce the flash off of has an effect on the color of the light returned. If you want red light, bounce your flash off a red wall. If you want white light, find a white wall. You get the point.

A flash diffuser can achieve the same ‘bounce off wall’ effect for those moments when you just can’t find a nice white wall. A flash diffuser can be anything that covers your flash and spreads out the light. I’ve seen a lot of great do-it-yourself solutions. Me favorite is a few tissues in front of the flash. As long as you have some kind of white fabric or soft paper in front of your flash, you will have an effective diffuser.

Carry Multiple Cameras, Each Equipped With A Different Lens

When you’re spending all day taking photos and you don’t want to take the time to change the lens. So pro wedding photographers have multiple cameras with different lenses mounted to them. Different kinds of shots can happen at different times, so it’s nice to simply pick up one camera for one kind of shot and then switch to another right away for a different kind of shot. This investment pays itself off with more great photos for every shoot.

Most professional wedding photographers have two cameras. One of them is a lower end SLR with an 18-55mm lens while the other is a higher end SLR with a 70-200mm lens. The camera with the wideangle lens is perfect for closed spaces while the standard to telephoto camera is great for getting candid shots across the room.

Wedding Photographers Understand The Importance Of The Little Things

No day will ever be the same as your wedding day. Wedding photographers go out of their way to find the little things that make the experience so special. Take the time to photograph rings, garters, floral bouquets, and everything else that sets the scene. All of this provides context for your more traditional wedding photos.

Whenever you can include a small detail like this in your portraits or other photos, people will notice. Your job isn’t to simply create great looking wedding photos. You are there to help people remember the little things. Doing this will set you apart from every other wedding photographer!

A Wedding Photography Business

If you are thinking of building a wedding photography business, start off by taking pictures at your own relatives’ and friends’ weddings. If you’re not sure about your results, make sure they hire a photographer and tag along with the pro. This will give you experience with the often hectic schedule and awkward shooting conditions. Many seasoned wedding photographers also scope out the location of the wedding before arriving. This added experience gives them the preparation they need to get the shot when it really counts.

Pixelate faces tutorial

Here is a quick tutorial on how to pixelate faces for use on people shots etc.

The instructions are based on Adobe Photoshop CS3, but should apply similarly to any other version or graphics application.

For a source image here i am going to use a screen grab from an episode unsecured loans of Friends.



Open your image in photoshop then select the Elliptical Marquee Tool (1) and ensure it is set to New Selection (2)



Click and drag an ellipse / circle around the first face in the picture.

If there is more than one face, hold in the shift key which creates multiple selections and repeat this step by dragging an ellipse around each face in the image till they are all selected. If you mess up while selecting one face you can release the shift key, press Ctrl+Z (Mac: +Z) to undo that last selection then re-hold shift and continue again.



Using the menus at the top select Filter -> Pixelate -> Mosaic
Move the Cell Size slider until you are happy the faces are sufficiently unrecognisable then click OK.



And there you have it, your image is now pixelated and no one should be recognisable.



Save your image and upload as usual. bad credit loans

Digital SLR Camera Settings

If you have just purchased your first DSLR camera or been given one as a gift, you will be looking for some good tips on how to use it. Digital SLRs are not as easy as point and shoot camera's due unsecured loans to them having many more settings for you to learn how to use. This website serves as a free SLR Photography Guide, helping you to better understand your digital camera's DSLR settings.

 Jump straight to Manual Camera Settings

The first time you try your digital SLR camera, use fully automatic settings.

If you are a beginner to SLR photography, you should simply enjoy using it and get a good feel for how to handle it. The best way to do this is to set it on fully automatic. Look for a symbol on your camera's mode dial that looks like a rectangle. When your camera is on automatic, all important settings such as ISO, Aperture and exposure are made for you, taking out the guess work.

When your camera is set on automatic, it's also bad credit loans recommended that your lens is set on automatic focus. That is if it has that option. If your lens has an option for automatic focus you will notice on the side of it letters AF.

Beginner Tip for focusing: Always press your shutter button half way down, then once it focuses correctly press it the rest of the way down. ie focusing and taking the shot is always a two step process.

Six automatic settings you will find on your digital SLR camera:

The following DSLR settings are found on most camera models. However, depending on your camera brand, some may not be available.

• Portrait - DSLR camera settings for portraits. Set your digital camera to portrait mode when your taking photographs of people. Portrait mode will set the image color for skin tone perfectly. 
•  Landscape - Use this SLR camera setting when your taking photos of landscapes. For example if your photographing beach or mountain sceneries. 
•  Close Up - Close up mode speaks for itself. For example, when you want to photograph small objects so they fill the whole frame as if to appear larger. 
•  Sports - Sports mode should be used when you want to photograph a moving object such as a child or dog running. 
•  Night Portrait - Choose night portrait automatic mode when you want to shoot a person in low light such as night time. 
•  Flash Off - This mode is useful for times when your not allowed to use a flash. For example, in an art gallery.

Manual DSLR Camera Settings Explained

Once you have a good feel for your digital SLR camera's automatic settings, you can start learning how to use manual settings like AV and TV mode. Manual settings give you full control over your photography and the style of images you take. The following links will explain in detail how to use all manual DSLR camera settings.

1. What is ISO and how do you use it? 
2. What is AV mode, f numbers and aperture settings?
3. Shutter speed priority and the difference between fast and slow shutter speeds. Shutter speed priority may be represented as a TV setting on your camera.
4. Full manual mode - Includes examples and step by step lesson to help you fully understand using your SLR camera in manual mode.
5. Can you turn off shutter noise?
6. What is mirror lockup and when should you use it?
7. RAW CR2 file format. What is it and what are the advantages and disadvantages?
8. How to properly focus your SLR camera. DSLR focal points explained and how to use them. 
9. Exposure compensation tips. How to compensate for overexposed or underexposed photographs? 
10. How to reset your camera's factory default settings. Instructions for Nikon D40 and Canon 400D explained. 
11. What is the difference between A, AV, DEP and A-DEP modes. 
12. How to use white balance settings 
13. What is a histogram and how do you read them 
14. What is EXIF metadata - why is it a useful learning tool and how do you read it. 
15. How to use metering modes - When to use matrix, pattern, evaluative, center weighted metering, spot and partial metering.
16. How to use depth of field preview button (if your camera has this option) what it does and tips for using it.