Monthly Archives: July 2008

On fire – Sasha in the mix

By Peter Backx | Published: July 29, 2008

The more repetitive and percussion-based progressive music tends to walk a thin line between brilliant hypnotic beats and rhythms and boring never-ending loops. In many cases called the “dub” mix, it’s a very fine line and it’s a line that changes based on personal preferences, the mood, the context and many other factors. Many of the [...]

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Tagging the real world – steal this idea

By Peter Backx | Published: July 25, 2008

photo credit: tgkohn New phones and technology allow for crazy intersections between the real life and the online/virtual one. With Google’s Android and especially the challenge to win lots of cash and adoration, many ideas have surfaced. Like Bubbles, which is basically, a location based Twitter. You can enter a status message, which is then [...]

Posted in ChangingMedia | Leave a comment

Visual effects 101 – Morphing

By Peter Backx | Published: July 22, 2008

While you are reading this, I am enjoying a break on a sunny beach, far away from any electronics (except maybe my DS). To give you a little taste, I’ve taken a few random shots of Flickr and morphed them together with one of Deadmau5′ early tracks. Morphing is a visual effect to transition between 2 [...]

Boost your site with free clipart

By Peter Backx | Published: July 18, 2008

There are many sites offering free clipart (usually as vector graphics). Many have annoying pop-ups and banners, many are way too specific to be useful to any one but that one or two guys out there. But if I’m looking for something particular, I have found the Open Clip Art Library to be a very [...]

Posted in VisualMedia | 2 Comments

Trance radio guide revisited

By Peter Backx | Published: July 15, 2008

photo credit: Retinafunk If you’re into trance music, you might be interested in my updated trance radio guide. Go have a look and let me know your favorite online station. update: the guide is currently undergoing one more urgently needed, it will be back soon.

Posted in MusicMedia | Tagged recommended | 1 Comment

BookSmart gotchas – howto publish your book with Blurb

By Peter Backx | Published: July 11, 2008

I have been experimenting with Blurb’s service and their publishing tool, called BookSmart. It allows you to arrange your photos and create your book in a user-friendly way. However, it is not a desktop publishing (DTP) tool, like Adobe InDesign or Microsoft Publisher. While it is very convenient, it is also limited. There were a [...]

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Advanced beauty – the power of Processing

By Peter Backx | Published: July 8, 2008

Processing is an open source programming language and environment, specifically for animation and interaction. Impressive things are possible, such as this Advanced Beauty. I must say it all looked pretty arty-farty: “Advanced Beauty is an ongoing exploration of digital artworks born and influenced by sound, an ever-growing collaboration between programmers, artists, musicians, animators and architects.” But after [...]

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Vector vs Bitmap side-by-side – SVG & PNG in Flash

By Peter Backx | Published: July 4, 2008

(Either JavaScript is not active or you are using an old version of Adobe Flash Player. Please install the newest Flash Player.) Looking back at my previous post and the comments, I don’t think the vector versus bitmap comparison was very clear, so I tried to show it differently with the applet above. In the meantime [...]

Posted in FlashMedia | 4 Comments

Microsoft does the mashup – howto get started with Popfly

By Peter Backx | Published: July 1, 2008

Note: Microsoft has retired Popfly. It was only a short lived project that never really got traction. Although there were some advantageous over other mashup toolkits (but also disadvantages). Microsoft Popfly consists a few components, the latest they added is a game builder that lets you easily create games. But this post is about the mashup [...]