Rumi had a bad morning

Rumi my Irish Setter. an abandoned dog that i adopted 2years ago. been having a series of strokes over the last few months.

had her worst stroke today.. it lasted 45+ minutes. She's doing fine now.

Smoothest Ubuntu version Upgrade

I have to say it. Smoothest Ubuntu version Upgrade ever!

Last night when i upgraded my installation of 12.10LTS(Long Term Support) to the spanking new 14.04LTS went through with the minor-est of issues!

Backstory: 
In the past i've always wound up doing a clean wipe and fresh install for each version.. because everytime i did an upgrade.. all hell would break loose .. drivers would stop working, applications would get corrupted.. and the horror of all horrors  GRUB would get screwed up. Of course the major complications would usually be blamed on the fact that this was usually a dual boot laptops.. but then i've now had a desktop with Ubuntu running exclusively for the last 6 years.. with more or less the same issues during an upgrade.

Back to the present(or rather last night):
So yesterday i downloaded the latest LTS version of Ubuntu .

Now i don't have the kind of net connection(Airtel is so bad some days) i can trust a big download on.. 

so i went to the alternate downloads page and grabbed the torrent.

Once it downloaded, I promptly created a live usb drive of Ubuntu 14.04LTS using Lili(Linux Live USB Creator) .. then waited for the end of the day when all my work was done, and my primary machine(dual boot) was free for some shenanigans.

On booting with the usb it detected that i already had an older LTS version installed, and offered me the option to upgrade it. There was a warning that some apps may need to be re-installed.

The entire upgrade then happened in under 20minutes. And i was logging into Trusty Tahr.

The only apps that i've had to re-install so far were Blender and Vlc Player.

the only real issue i've heard of is the privacy one described in detail at http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/22/ubuntu_14_04_review/
In a nutshell, the Unity's desktop search includes Amazon integration. Not something i'm personally worried about since i have the kindle installed on most of my devices anyway.

So is it worth it?

The changes from 12.01 are visually pretty great.. the only performance thing i see is that unity is less buggy and .. for the fellow 3d modellers.. Blender was able to display models with Matcap materials with virtually no lag.. ie: the graphics drivers work great with my Dell XPS L502X. 

However 

1) if your not using unity.. and have opted for something else(cinnamon or others)
2) your not having any graphics drivers issues.. 

3) arn't that interested in the new ui refinements

Then stay with what youve got. If it aint broken.. 

if however you arn't on an LTS(5 year support) version of Ubuntu, 
this is the one to get.

Go get it right now.

"Give Life Back to Music" - fan made Daft Punk Animated Music Video

A tribute animated music video for Daft Punk's song "Give Life Back to Music". 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BitterStrike...
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Shezmen

This is a fanmade video, it's a review of the song from my own perspective so there's no copyright infringement intended.

Check out Jayjaybirdsnest's channel and his awesome 3D artworks:

http://jayjaybirdsnest.com/

The 3D Printing Bandwagon

This is in response to an article on entrepreneur.com-
The Hottest Internet Jobs Right Now - read it here

heres an excerpt: 

"... major driver in Internet-related jobs posted on Freelancer.com in the first quarter of 2014 was 3-D printing. The number of 3-D rendering jobs listed on the platform was 2,784, a 44 percent surge from the previous quarter. 3-D animation jobs and 3-D modeling jobs jumped 36 percent and 35 percent, respectively, during the same time."

aaand heres my take on that: 
3d jobs have been around for decades.. 3d printing is likely to boost it a little.. but not to the extent that you'd imagine. I've been a 3d designer for a while, and was one of the first of my peers to print a model via Shapeways(heres my shop).. since then only 3 other 3d artists of the 30 i personally know have actually 3d printed anything?! let alone worked on a project that required it... speaking of the projects.. they are the kind i do over the weekend and they pay for my petrol or dogs'  food etc..  None of them from Freelancer.com .. i personally find that those sites, are a waste of time.. and a bit scammy.

I've got all my projects form word of mouth, or via my youtube and behance pages.

there's no boom here. at least not yet.
Its good clean fun though, and pushes the boundaries of one's creativity.

Also there is generally a lot of propaganda to pull people into the 3d fields.. usually so they can be used as underpaid overworked labour in vfx and gaming industries.. just look at what happened to all the talented 3d artists at Rhythm and Hues.. 200+ laid off in a day! and these are people who worked on the 3d animals in the oscar winning movie Life of Pi.

It is a very good field to be in as a creative, with talent. The projects that do exist are fun to work on and look really good in a portfolio.
But as an entrepreneur looking to hit a lottery .. i'd advise you to either have a solid original idea to start with.. or you'll end up bankrupt. 

Easter Egg Painting Contest

They’re getting in the mood for Easter over at Sketchfab, and decided to celebrate this by turning their web-based sculpting tool Sculptfab into a 3D Egg Painter app! 

What’s more - they're picking 15 winners.. 
who will win 15 awesome 3D printed Easter eggs!

You don’t need to be an experienced 3D designer to enter this contest - just visit their Egg Painter, paint on the egg with your mouse and save the model to your Sketchfab account.

For full instructions(on how to paint the egg) and contest rules read - http://blog.sketchfab.com/post/82296236693/paint-an-easter-egg-in-3d-and-win-a-3d-print

Enjoy, and happy Easter!

These are my entries so far:

Black Desert

Black Desert is an MMORPG under development in Korea.. the graphics and character customisations are incredible for a game with a free to play business model.

take a look for yourself:

This character customisation video set the interwebs abuzz.. it seems to have body and costume customisation and posing features that simply blow away pretty much all the mainstream competition.




For more news on the game - https://www.facebook.com/BlackDesertOnline
..as of writing this post the beta was in Korean.

All in all it looks like a visual treat.. too bad i'm not that interested in the genre.

Bill Nye: I Took Astronomy From Carl Sagan

Bill Nye explains how he took an Astronomy class from Carl Sagan & carries on his legacy.

Bill Nye is a Cornell-trained engineer who worked at Boeing before winning a gazillion Emmys and turning millions of kid onto science as "Bill Nye, the Science Guy." The man also totally knows how to rock a bow tie.

Like Bill Nye's profile? Visit "The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers" online and on Facebook.
Web: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/secretlife/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Se...

The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers" is an Emmy-nominated web video series and site from the makers of the acclaimed science series, PBS's NOVA. Each episode profiles one of today's leading scientists, and shows what happens when the lab coats come off. Secret Life is produced by Seftel Productions, Inc.



heres more:



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<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/Gcr3ZyZgPys?list=PLbGkbfsn-hiEanc7MD_RXFxr3M4WuCP0O" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Nischay Parekh and Jivraj Singh - Monkey Inside Me

From Nischay Parekh and Jivraj Singh's first performance at The Humming Tree. 

Nischay Parekh: https://www.facebook.com/nischay.parekh |https://soundcloud.com/nischay-parekh
Jivraj Singh: https://www.facebook.com/jivrajsingh |https://soundcloud.com/jivrajsingh

Audio recorded live at The Humming Tree:https://www.facebook.com/thehummingtree
Video by Falana Dimka Films:https://www.facebook.com/falanafilms | http://falanafilms.com/

Puch 250 version 2.0

Variant of the Puch i modelled earlier..

 this one is closer to the client's spec.. so will probably get used. updates on that to follow.

Again, entirely done in Blender 3D.