muzicman82.net

So, now that I am through with the Adobe CS3: Creative License Conference, I have a better understanding of the very tight integration between the CS3 applications. Now, I’ve been going through the applications since they launched, but there’s something about seeing Adobe Engineers do the steps and explain why things are new and others have changed to fully grasp some of the concepts. The list to follow is a list of my favorite new features in the applications.

Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended
Refine Edge – In previous versions of Photoshop, if you wanted to soften an edge of a selection, you used the Feather command. This command was a gamble. You basically guessed what value to use. Now, the Refine Edge gives you a live preview of several edge modification functions, with different preview modes.
Smart Filters – Photoshop welcomes a way to add filters non-destructively! You previously had to duplicate your layer, apply the filter, and ditch it if you didn’t like the settings. Smart Filters let you modify settings, stack filters, and add masks all without harming a pixel.
Vanishing Point – This feature now allows angles other than 90 degrees when making planes. So, you can put 2D images on 3D planes, and even save the 3D plane for 3D rotation. Lots of possibilities here.

Adobe Illustrator CS3
Eraser Tool – You can now use an eraser to put holes in vector art, or separate with a brush. These types of modifications would’ve taken dozens of steps or been impossible to accomplish.
Live Color – Along with color groups, it is now possible to experiment with different color schemes and harmonies for a few or hundreds of different colors with a few clicks. The Kuler community is available for premade swatches.
Live Paint – You can now cycle through colors in a paint group with Live Paint without going back to the swatches panel!
Flash Integration – You can now predefine Flash objects, names, symbols all within Illustrator. When you import into Flash, it is fully aware of these settings and layers.

Adobe InDesign CS3
Multi-place – You can now setup multiple image placeholders in InDesign, select multiple images in Bridge, and place them all instantly.
Illustrator Integration – It just got better. You can now use Illustrator’s new crop areas to define regions to show in InDesign. You can also cycle through different layers of an Illustrator file.
Adobe Flash CS3 Professional
ActionScript 3 – It’s becoming more and more a real, object oriented language and less of a scripting language.
Motion to ActionScript – You can convert a motion tween to code! This allows you to reuse it on multiple objects.
Drawing Tools – The pen tool is more like Illustrators. There’s now easier ways to draw donuts (or parts of them) or corner-modded rectangles.

Adobe Dreamweaver CS3
Photoshop Integration – You can now copy and paste Photoshop files directly into Dreamweaver.
Browser Compatibility – Dreamweaver inspects code and gives suggestions on fixing browser bugs.
Spry AJAX Framework – Built-in ability to add dynamic effects without dealing with code!

Those are so far the coolest new features in those applications. I haven’t had a chance to play with the video products yet, but those will come soon.

A Mouse You Can Wear On Your Finger

This is nifty, but a little unnecessary, I think.

I put my free copy of Windows Vista Business on my desktop PC tonight. It took all of 2 hours to get it up and running, and another hour to update drivers. Vista’s online driver search is really good. I’m impressed. It turns out that my laptop has a higher performance rating. Why? Well, the laptop has a faster and better processor and graphics card. Other than that, the desktop wins with disk speed and memory speed.. two things laptops won’t win on for a while.. although this isn’t a fair comparison as the desktop has two 80GB drives in RAID0. Not sure how it’d report if it wasn’t.

And I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about right?

The camera behind Google’s Street View

$26,000,000,000 is a lot of money. But, Street View is darn cool. But hey, just imagine how much as been spent to date on even the generic map data we frequent at MapQuest or even the old school paper maps you buy at the local gas station. Even then, a 360 degree camera is darn cool.

Windows Mobile Team Blog : Introducing….the oFone!

OK, this is pretty darn funny!! Yes, it’s done by Microsoft Windows Mobile Team. I need to find a high res version of this for keeps. =)

This is totally a geek post. You may stop reading it if you choose.

So, I’ve always used the Quick Launch Toolbar with Windows XP and so far with Windows Vista. I don’t like it being so wide that it steals the space from the rest of the taskbar. So, I began searching for ways to make submenus. Now, I know that you can throw dozens of icons in there, and make it small so that a “>>” appears next to the rightmost icon. However, there’s no keyboard shortcut for that, and the popup menu can’t be customized.

I then discovered an awesome program called True Launch Bar. It cost me $20, but it’s pretty worth it. It’s completely compatible with current toolbar folders and allows virtually unlimited customization. You can see from my screenshots here that I have one menu for Adobe programs and another for my common programs. You can also assign keyboard shortcuts to menus or any application. There’s also all kinds of plugins and skins, but I’ll check that out later. I highly suggest everyone check out this sweet little program. From what I can tell, it uses little to no memory! It rules!

And, here’s a shot of my desktop. You’re welcome to wish you had 1920×1200 resolution too.

I did myself a favor and purchased Adobe CS3 Web Premium tonight. I’ll be upgrading it to the Master Collection once it’s available in July. This gives me a couple months to learn some of it before I attend that CS3 Conference in June. The only programs really missing are Premiere Pro, After Effects, and InDesign. I can deal with that for now. CS3 is also designed for Vista, so I may delete my Windows XP partition this weekend.

I keep telling myself that even though it sucks to spend this much on software, I’m paying it off by motivating myself to do more side freelance work. And, I can deduct all of the software purchases on my taxes this year. Yay.

I have to work in the morning and should go to bed like nowish.