Corel released CorelDRAW X4 today, with over 50 new features for designers. We’re happy to say that CorelDRAWConceptShare integration is one of them, we even got a mention in the promo video about CorelDRAW X4. I guess that says both companies are pretty excited about bringing web based collaboration right into desktop software.
We’ll have more news soon about how the integration works. If you just can’t wait to see for yourself, take a spin with a 15 day full featured free trial of CorelDRAW X4.
We’re super proud of our partners at Corel for launching CorelDRAW X4. Having worked in the desktop software world myself at Flock, I know how many months of hard work that goes into each release. We web companies have it easy by comparison.
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Posted in ConceptShare, Design , Technology, Tools ~ 3 Comments
Written by Will Pate
Adobe recently announced a big upgrade to their Flash Player. Here are just a few new additions in this version that will directly impact your use of ConceptShare:
- Better quality and faster performing image scaling
- Support for H.264 video, and High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio codecs
- Multi-core support for faster rendering of many file formats including vectors, filters and video.
This new plugin is much faster then previous versions. ConceptShare runs twice as fast now with this new version, and we couldn’t be more excited about that. We recommend that all users upgrade their Flash plugin right away. Make sure you uninstall your existing plugin with the Adobe Flash uninstaller before you download and install the latest flash player..
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Posted in ConceptShare, Technology ~ No Comments
Written by Chris D'Aoust
We recently upgraded our infrastructure to include two load-balanced web servers to run the ConceptShare application; and another server for file storage of concepts, user images, and account images. After experimenting with various combinations of permissions and configuration options, I looked back and saw that it wasn’t a straightforward process. Here is a summary of what is required, so that you can get started quickly.
First, you should know a little about how the .NET framework runs on IIS. In our case, we are running IIS6, which means it is running under the “Network Service” identity by default. This runs in its own environment with its own desktop and user settings. Mapped drives are held at the user level, so direct mapping of virtual drives to mapped drives is out.
For simplicity’s sake, we decided to use a new account to give some separation and prevent any excess permissions being granted. You could technically use a “shotgun” approach: set the Administrator password on all servers to the same and use it to configure your IIS. But that is a huge potential security issue and we take security very seriously. Here is a basically run down on what you need to do:
-
- Create a limited permissions account with the same username and password across all servers. Suppose we call this account “IIS_ASP_NETWORK”.
- To be useable as a process in IIS the account requires setting a few security permissions. But it’s much easier just to add your newly created account to the IIS_WPG security group, which will give it all the appropriate rights.
- On the storage server give full permissions to the folders you are going to expose as virtual folders in IIS. We do both writing and reading, if you are just serving content you can go with just read.
- On each web server create a new application pool and set the process identity to your newly created account. This will make .NET run under that account, unless impersonation is used.
- Set the website to use the new application pool that you just configured.
- Create your virtual directory using the full UNC path to the folder in question (i.e. \\SERVERNAME\SHARENAME). Be sure to provide the same credentials that you use for the new account.
That should have you up and running with a virtual directory hosted on a network resource. We never tried to run the entire site as a network resource, only the images, so I can’t comment on the stability of running an entire site off a network resource. If you need to do some debugging you can throw up an ASPX page with Trace=”True” in the page tag and it will let you know which process it is running under. Also, ProcessMonitor from SysInternals will help you diagnose any permission issues.
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Posted in Development, Technology ~ 1 Comment
Written by Matt Richer
Twenty years isn’t that long ago. But things have sure changed since then. Check out how much storage technology has changed in that time. Both of the devices are able to store 1 gb of info ……Which one would you rather have in your camera?
Where will we be in another 20 years?
Cheers
Scott
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Posted in ConceptShare, Technology ~ No Comments
Written by Scott
Nokia …are you launching a music service on August 29th? Come on …let us in on the secret.
The rumor is:
Fortune has learned from sources involved in the project that Nokia CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo will launch the new worldwide service Aug. 29 at a London event that will include live music at the Ministry of Sound nightclub. The new Nokia Web site will let consumers download songs to their PCs and transfer them to mobile phones and other portable music players, similar to Apple’s iTunes. Nokia is expected to let users transfer songs to non-Nokia phones using digital-rights-management software. Fortune
They have launched a site that is meant to intrigue users into uncovering more. The site actually has 4 messages that users have to pause the video as it constructs the outline of the new phone. I couldn’t tell too much from the futuristic message that is reminiscent of something from the minority report.
Check this site out and see if you can discern what they are telling us …..
www.070829.com
Here is a banner that is linked to the site.
[flv]http://www.bannerblog.com.au/banners/PID_285278_300×250_v2.swf[/flv]
link
My only question …can Nokia compete with itunes ? They had limited success with the ngage which was designed to be the entry for nokia into the handheld game arena. I guess we have to wait and see what they have come up with on the 29th.
cheers
Scott
UPDATE : when you look at all four of the orientations you get to subscribe to this rss feed : http://feeds.feedburner.com/070829
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Posted in Business, Technology ~ 1 Comment
Written by Scott
I was reading Micheal Geist’s post “Copyright Board Give Go Ahead to Ipod Levy”
I am continually surprised at how our government bureaucracies are making rules that really don’t solve the problem. Will putting levies on products that have the ability to store music stop illegal distribution of music….. probably not.
But that doesn’t stop the Copyright Board of Canada. See the legal ruling here.
This certainly isn’t a new issue, the board has looked at this issue many times in the past and it is only recently that they have sought to include devices under the heading of recoding medium. But what if I use all of these things for completely benign uses? Can ask for a break on the levy?
I use CD’s and DVD’s to back up and transfer files for production in the creative world. I use my Ipod to unite my CD music collection. I haven’t broken any laws ….why should i be paying this fee.
I think that as Canadians we should become more aware of the laws that are being passed and how they will affect us in the future. How does this translate into Cell phones, Removable harddrives, flash memory,computers, smartphones and anything else that can store data.
I think they are playing on a very slippery slope.
Take the time to read Michael Geist’s post and the ruling. The more we know and share what is happening we can make better judgement calls in the future.
Cheers
Scott
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Posted in Technology ~ No Comments
Written by Scott
Lots of people have been calling and emailing wanting to know more about how we made our demo video and where they can get the music etc, so I thought I would answer some of the questions here. The actual production happend pretty quick. After a few takes of each screen capture movie they took only about the time that they ran which is usually no more than second 5-15 seconds.
The Video:
The screen video grabs can be done quickly with any number of screen capture utilities. The popular ones are Camtasia Studio and Scott uses Snapz Pro for OSX. These popular ones give you alot of options for exporting (flash, quicktime avi) which give you the most amout of flexability in editing.
Once the videos are captured, they are then imported into Adobe After Effects for assembly in a timeline format and I can create the text with some effects and transistions and also add some other types of media quite quickly. Alot of this can be done with online services lately so check some of those out. We will probably do more of a ‘talking head’ tour type demo in the future. Oh, and after the video was published, I switched my PC to Vista and the source that was on my desktop got lost. So yes, we know there is an error or two that most people won’t pick up on, but not much I can do now. Lesson learned about backing up everything. Expect a new demo video shortly with some of the new features we have and are releasing.
The Music:
For the music overlay we wanted something original, catchy yet not take away from the visual content. It would also be nice if it could fit the tempo of the video that was already being assembled. Oh ya and also if it could done the next day that would be great too. For that I enlisted the help of my brother Ben who records under the name Ben Cooper, who is a professional musician, singer songwriter and composer. Where I’d like to be in the digital media/designer world he is in the musical word. I sent an early composition of the video to Ben at 9PM on Monday and he had this musical piece back by 11:50PM the same nite. Simply amazing! Very little direction was given. When you have a extremely talented, creative musician at your disposal you just learn to let them do their thing. For anyone that is not related to Ben, he’s available to do contract work for commercials, movies, demos etc at fairly competitive rates.
Contact him if you are interested bencooper37 at hotmail. Also checkout his Myspace page to hear some of his original vocal music. You won’t be dissappointed.
http://www.myspace.com/bencooperlive
Have fun,
Bernie
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Posted in ConceptShare, Technology, Video ~ No Comments
Written by Bernie
We are showing a first look at the video/audio interface we will be opening up shortly. Basically you will have all the functionaility currently available for commenting on visual including the newly added Text Tool, except they will per frame.
Comments can actually fade up a bit early and show for an adjustable length of time. Adjust the handles on either side of the green bar on the timeline to indicate the time the comment shows during play back. Comments will show up as little flags so you can choose navigate the comments in the sequence they appear in the video.
Audio review will work pretty much the same as video, however instead of the video frames you will be able to point out and illustrate on a visual waveform. This way you can point out audio ‘pops’ and crackles to adjust for example.
This should be rolling out shortly over the next few weeks with Adobe Flash SWF import to follow soon after that.
Have fun!
Bernie
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Posted in ConceptShare, Technology, Tools, Video ~ 5 Comments
Written by Bernie
As our idea for visual conversations continues to spread I have the opportunity to meet and talk to some great people. It has been very interesting to say the least. Many of them come from industries that we never expected to connect with. Most of are core users see ConceptShare as a way to streamline the design and innovation process. To some the image is all important, discovery and discussion have to happen around an image.
One of the coolest people that I have had the opportunity to talk with is Felice Frankel, admittedly I didn’t know about her work before we started talking. I am not even sure where to start to describe Felice’s achievements. I leave that to her site and a search on google, there is a plethora of great reading about her work. Felice is a leader in the use of image to promote discussion of science using images.
“The Image and Meaning (IM) events, part of Harvard University’s Initiative in Innovative Computing (IIC), began in 2001 by Felice Frankel in MIT’s Envisioning Science Project. Felice Our purpose is to help scientists, writers and visual communicators develop and share improved methods of communicating scientific concepts and technical information through images and visual representations. The goal is to enhance the level of discourse within the scientific community, among teachers and students, and those who communicate with the public.” There is a great movie on the site that I think is tremendous …it is a montage of great shots from their workshops.
I am most taken by Felice’s ability to capture incredibly stunning images. These images are much more then just pretty pictures. They provide a discussion point. So what is this image? If you are like me this image creates questions and a natural sense of wonder. How much better is an image vs text? In this case is worth 10,000 words. How much conversation can happen over this image?
Photo Credit MAGNETIC A 3-cm drop of ferrofluid, a suspension of magnetite in oil, placed on a glass slide. Under the slide is a yellow Post-it and seven circular magnets.
© FELICE FRANKEL, FROM “ENVISIONING SCIENCE”
“This compound is the basis for one of the most astounding demonstrations I have seen in science: the response of a ferrofluid to a strong magnet. A common ferrofluid comprises nanoscale particles of magnetite suspended in a liquid. When a magnet is brought up to a black quiescent puddle of ferrofluid, the liquid suddenly seems to come to life: The placid surface of the puddle erupts into spikes as suspended nanoscale particles of magnetite relocate themselves in the magnetic field and drag the liquid along for the ride. Ferrofluids are used to dampen unwanted resonances in loudspeakers and to create seals for high-speed computer disc drives. There is even experimental work in which drugs are combined with ferrofluids so that their physiological location can be controlled with magnets.” Arthur B. Ellis
I wouldn’t even know where to start talking about the above paragraph, does nothing to help me understand what is happening in this experiment. I am really interested to hear about how our readers use images to communicate meaning. So much more effective in sharing information, there is very little left up to the personal interpretation of words or linguistic differences. Show me a picture …
I am also very glad to know that Felice is a Mac User, curious as to how she captures such brilliant images? Check out her profile page on apple, it has her complete setup. From the sounds of it …she has a really pro set up.
I have been looking for her book “Envisioning Science : The Design and Craft of the Science Image” Once I have had a chance to get down and check out her book i will be sure give it a read and let you know.
Cheers
Scott
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Posted in Innovation, Technology ~ No Comments
Written by Scott
We have just hit the pages of Techcrunch.
Check us out …
cheers
scott
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Posted in Technology ~ 2 Comments
Written by Scott
