My Geek Notes

So… it’s been a while since I have posted anything and I’m starting to have withdraws. But I just haven’t been inspired enough about anything lately to write a post.

That all changed today. I just discovered a designer’s web site that has really inspired me to create better work. The site is New Ezra. It features the personal work of Jonathan Moore. He is the Art Director for 2Advanced Studios. If you want to see some really sleek web designs featuring great Flash, 3-D, and great visuals… check out his site and view some of the work that he has done.

So i was recently browsing the web to find some new wallpaper for my monitors at work (a weekly ritual to help liven up my work week), when I came across the really cool one shown here on Iconfactory’s website.

The wallpaper intrigued me so I decided to find out what the word “frenzic” at the bottom of the image stood for. After researching for a minute on Iconfactory I found out that the image came from a new game that ARITS Software had released earlier this year called Frenzic.

I downloaded the free trial from their site and gave it a go, not knowing what the game was about. After my first game I was hooked. The game is laid out with a main circle (where the new pieces show up) and six surrounding circles (where you place the pieces). There are three different color of pieces in the game and each circle is broken down into six wedges. A piece will show up in the center circle and you have to place it into the corrosponding spot in one of the three outer circles before the timer reaches full. You get points whenever you fill up an outer circle. But the most points come from filling up a circle with a pieces that all have the same color. This also gives you a bonus: 3 circles give an extra life and the other three give you a bonus action: slow speed; destroy all peices in outer circles; double points. The speed with which you have to place the peices increases the longer you are able to play so it gets harder and harder.

On the Frenzic website they have instructions, high score boards, forums and all sorts of of other stuff about the game. So if you have a Mac and are looking for a fun game that you can play for a few minutes (or a few hours) download the free trial from the homepage of their site and give it a try. And if you get addicted to the game you can buy it for $14.95, or pay $24.95 and get unlimited lifetime access to all of the online features available on their site.

While browsing through a few of my favorite blogs the other day I started to see posts about NASA’s STEREO project. It is a really cool project that NASA has been working on for a while. They set-up two satellites, one on each side of the earth, so that they could map out 3-D photos of the Sun.

As far as I’m concerned this was one of the coolest ideas that NASA has had in a long time. Finally we can see the sun in all the 3-D glory that it was meant to be in. I just wish I would have heard about it a while ago. It is definitely worth checking out when you have a minute.

Oh, and while your there… don’t forget to check out the sweet tutorial they have for making your own 3-D glasses (just in case you don’t have any lying around to look at the photos with).

Today I want to talk about one of my favorite music making programs: GarageBand. And some tutorials Apple has put together for it.

GarageBand has been one of my favorite programs to mess around with ever since I first discovered the program when I made the permanent switch to Macs. It is an easy to use music creation program with quite a few features. One of my favorite parts is that you can quickly create music using preinstalled “loops” and the songs come out great. Or if you get a little more indepth you can create or record your own music right inside the program and then chop it up any way you want to.

I recently stumbled across Apple’s tutorial site for iLife ‘06 (which includes GarageBand). All of the tutorials are Quicktime movies that you stream from Apples website. They are usually a minute or two long (some are much longer) and contain easy to follow step-by-step instrutions. The GarageBand tutorials can be found here. With topics ranging from a basic introduction to capturing live music to scoring your latest cinematic masterpiece, there is pretty much something for anyone.

Some of the tutorials are a little basic if you have used GarageBand before (or have any music editing experience in more advanced programs like Soundtrack Pro). But if it is your first time with the program or creating your own music in general, these tutorials are definately worth checking out. And while your there you can find tutorials on all of the other iLife programs (iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie HD, iDVD & iWeb).

So today I got to mess around with a cool Flash tool that I had never used before. It’s an add-on for SlideShow Pro a really neat photo slide show component for Flash.

The new tool I got to mess with today is called SlideShow Pro Director (I wonder where they came up with the name). The tool works seamlessly with SlideShow Pro. All you have to do is install it on your site and then login.

The online tool is designed fairly well with slick AJAX transitions and things that make using it easy (at least for me, but I’m a web designer too). The tool will let you upload your images and then resize them for both your main and thumbnail images. It will then automatically generate the XML used by SlideShow Pro to create and display the slide show on your site. The online tool will also let you create different “Albums” and “Galleries” to keep track and manage different slide shows for different sites. One of the coolest features is that when a new image is added, or anything is changed on a current image, Director will automatically update your slide show and display the new content live on your site without you having to do anything.

The only down side is that you have to buy both SlideShow Pro and Director separately. But if you need a really easy way to add dynamic slide shows (that are really easy to update) to your website it’s worth the $50 to get both programs.

So this being my first post on mygeeknotes.com I wanted to talk about something really cool. But I’ve thought about it for a week now and can’t really come up with anything “geeky” to write about. So I thought I would just mention Apple’s new 8-core Mac Pro.

The new Mac Pro uses an “exclusive” Quad-Core Intel 3.0GHz Xeon processor. But not only does it use the new processor, you get two of the Quad-Cores inside the machine. It also features up to 3TB of storage space and 16GB of Ram.

As good as all this sounds, just to upgrade the processor from the Quad-Core to the 8-Core will cost you a hefty $1,498 (why they didn’t just make it $1,500 is beyond me). That brings your total up to $3,997 for a basic no frills 8-Core Mac Pro.

If you add on the 16GB Ram, 4 - 750GB hardrives, a NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI) graphics card, two 16x SuperDrives, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR, AirPort Extreme, a Quad-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card, and an Apple wireless keyboard and Mighty Mouse this brings your total to $13,177 (no monitor included). That is a hefty sum for something that I could probably never have a use for, but would love to own. If you add on a couple of 30″ Apple Cinema displays your price goes up to $16,775.

So if you ever have an extra $17k lying about the house and want probably the best computer system that you could own (at least right now in my opinion) go ahead and pick up the fully loaded 8-Core Mac Pro. And don’t forget to invite me over to check it out when UPS drops it off.