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Creating images with pre-multiplied alpha using GIMP

24 Apr
  1. Load the image with GIMP and in the layer window; name the image layer “image“.
  2. Right click the layer and select “Add Layer Mask“. Select “Transfer layer’s alpha channel“, click “Add“.
  3. Create a new layer by hitting the “Create new layer” button in the bottom left of the layer window, call this layer “alpha
  4. Left click on the alpha mask of the “image” layer (white border around right thumbnail); press Ctrl+C.
  5. Left click on the “alpha” layer; press Ctrl+V.
  6. Right click on the new temporary layer that is created, select “Anchor Layer“.
  7. Create a new layer with black (0×000000) and call the layer “background“.
  8. Order the layer like this (by left clicking and dragging the layers around):
    • alpha
    • image
    • background
  9. Right click the “image” layer and choose “Merge Down
  10. Right click the resulting layer and select “Add Layer Mask“. Select “White (full opacity)“, click “Add“.
  11. Select the “alpha” layer; press Ctrl+C.
  12. Select the alpha mask of “background” layer; press Ctrl+V.
  13. Right click on the new temporary layer, select “Anchor Layer“.
  14. Delete the “alpha” layer.
  15.  Export/save as PNG.

 

(Source credit: How To Create Pre-Multiplied Alpha for use with OpenGL)

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Posted in Art Assets, Geek, Tips and Tricks

 

Impermanence and the Eternal Flame

07 Oct

The simple, creative, über-geek elegance of XKCD's social commentary never ceases to amaze me.

“There’s always the hope that if you sit and watch for long enough, the beachball will vanish and the thing it interrupted will return.” — xkcd #961 (alt-text)

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Posted in Apple

 

Beware the Manipulators

07 Aug

“In addition to watching out for deliberate evil, some people are just naturally awful. If you haven’t already, you’ll probably encounter a master manipulator who can plant ideas in your mind without you really ever realizing it. They’ll find ways to twist a situation so it’s always your fault, convince you to do what they want by using pity, and never let the attention in the room shift away from them. Sometimes you’ll even know you’re being manipulated and but you’d rather give the person what they want rather than exerting the energy necessary to fight them. If you can recognize these tactics, you can try to shut them down or just get as far away as possible. People who don’t know they’re evil because the behavior comes naturally are best avoided at all costs—but you can only do that if you can identify how they act.”

How To Use Your Dark Side For Good – lifehacker

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Posted in Quotes

 

Foresight…

05 Jul

“I think there’s a world market for about five computers.” — attr. Thomas J. Watson (Chairman of the Board, IBM), 1943

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Posted in Quotes

 

Govern Others…

03 Jul

He that would govern others, first should be the master of himself.

– Unknown

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Posted in Quotes

 

Finster’s Law…

17 Jun

Finster’s Law: A closed mouth gathers no feet.

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Posted in Quotes

 

iMurphyCalc Source Code Published

04 Jun

You can now find the entirety of iMurphyCalc’s source code over at Github. While it’s not what I’d call the “cleanest” code, it does demonstrate that I can code fast and keep things simple without wasting time.

Enjoy!

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Posted in Apps, iPad, iPhone

 

Conversations and Solitude

19 Apr

Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.
– unknown

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Posted in Quotes

 

The world is moving so fast

31 Mar

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can’t be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it. — E. Hubbard

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iOS Application Company Name…

12 Mar

This is ridiculous. Since the release of iMurphyCalc on the App Store I’ve been banging my head against every wall possible trying to find where the company name is set. The reason for the last two updates to the application were specifically to try and fix the problem of the application being labeled as a product of “Layonara Studios LLC” (which is now a defunct and non-existant company that I used to be a part of).

Places I’ve searched (and removed) for all instances of the string “Layonara Studios LLC”:

  • The application sources themselves.
  • The Xcode project files.
  • Every single place on Apple’s plethora of websites/sub-domains where I have an account.
  • My contact in the AddressBook.app


Even after all that, I did find one last place where there was an instance of that string: ~/Library/Preferences/AddressBookMe.plist.

So, after ensuring that the AddressBook.app was closed, I manually edited the file and replaced the string.

Let’s see if this next update (1.0.3) will solve the problem.


Update May 16th, 2011

Ultimately the problem could only be solved by Apple Support changing the Company to my real name. I’ve, because of this, realized at least one reason why this task is so difficult; fraud prevention. While it’s not what I’d call a silver bullet for the case of fraud prevention, it is a strong deterrent. iMurphyCalc is finally fully attributed to me.

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Posted in iOS