If you are a fan of the excellent Open Source 3D modelling and animation package Blender and work somewhere that has a lot of computers sitting idle (overnight for instance), then FarmerJoe is an excellent, free renderfarm solution that’s easy to set up, is reliable, and has a web-based GUI to monitor and schedule jobs.
Based on a set of PERL scripts, binaries are available from the FarmerJoe Website for Windows, Linux and OSX : http://blender.formworks.co.nz/. While you’re there, check out some of the other excellent scripts written for Blender.
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Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
As designers there are a couple of questions that constantly pop up? “Hey, what font is that in?” and “What will it look like with a different font?” Sometimes the answer is easy, but not always. Here are two excellent type tools online that can help answer these questions in a pinch.
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Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
A List Apart has created a web-survey to try to get a handle on how workers are distributed through the web design and development community. I think this is a valuable asset to our industry and would encourage all those who work in the industry to respond. Plus, you could win an iPod.
Link to the survey: http://alistapart.com/articles/webdesignsurvey
David
As rtraction's fearless leader, David spends most of his time finding new work to keep the rtraction engine busy. As the face of the company, he also works with clients to identify and find solutions to their communication and technical challenges. He has been in the web industry for over 14 years and brings that perspective to rtraction's clients, our community and his writing.
Microsoft has launched their re-branded rich internet application (RIA), Microsoft Silverlight, in direct competition with Adobe Flash. Considering Adobe’s current domination of the marketplace it will be interesting to see what type of an impact Silverlight is able to make; while it’s a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in, Linux and Apple users will be more apt to take a pass on installing the plug-in then the already ubiquitous Flash. Competition in this market is always welcome and we look forward to seeing how the market for RIA will continue to evolve. More information is available on Read/Write Web.
David
As rtraction's fearless leader, David spends most of his time finding new work to keep the rtraction engine busy. As the face of the company, he also works with clients to identify and find solutions to their communication and technical challenges. He has been in the web industry for over 14 years and brings that perspective to rtraction's clients, our community and his writing.
Occasionally you run into a free utility that makes complex tasks so easy that you ever wonder how you did without it. Virtualdub is a linear video processor that has been highly optimized for speed. The authour Avery Lee is, in his own words, “very impatient†which means that a lot of effort has been expended to make this application one of the fastest available for the tasks it performs.
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Shawn Adamsson
One of the original three founders of rtraction, Shawn describes his role as being a "cat herder". He ensures all of the work is done on time, on budget and spends a lot of his time facilitating the dialogue between clients, coders and the creatives. Shawn’s approach to life is based on the belief that it doesn't matter what you're doing if you enjoy the company of the people you are doing it with.
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