Summer Edition: Comparing Apples to Lemons (and The Penguins That Love Them)

By Casey

“What the heck does this guy mean!” you say. Well this is the first debate (not including the Electric Car story) here on An Aspie’s Thoughts. What about? Which Operating system, or OS, is best?

Apple’s contender is widely known for its few viruses: OS X! In the other corner, Microsoft’s two best OS’s. First, widely known for its many problems and Apple’s ad campaign: Vista! Also, its other OS: It’s widely adopted and often downgraded to from Vista: XP! Finally, last but not least, the shadow warrior, Linux! Now what is Linux? It’s an open-source, user-developed OS. Which will win? Read on!

First we’ll cover the info. At posting time, Apple has released OS X update 10.5.8 and has Snow Leopard on the way. OS X runs on Intel motherboards and many “clones” exist. As well there are many ― sometimes on the border between semi- or completely illegal ― ways to install OS X on a PC.

At posting time, Microsoft has released XP Service Pack 3 and Vista Service Pack 2. Microsoft’s OS’s run on any motherboard or anything else for that matter! Unlike Apple, Microsoft only makes software, not hardware, so many companies build Microsoft machines (Apple on the other hand, makes their own machines, but not motherboards). They also make Word and Internet Explorer, on version 8.

Finally, open source Linux. There are many types of Linux, called distributions, or distros for short. I prefer Ubuntu. They are not owned by companies (with the exclusion of ones like Google’s OS, not going to be covered here) but are open source. In plain English for you non total techno-geeks like myself, that means many people develop it independently. But they also work as a whole to make Linux better, free of company, language, and location barriers. It also comes with OpenOffice.org, a free text editor by the makers of Java, and Mozilla Firefox, another open-source web browser, the only one developed especially for Linux. Linux will run on any, I mean ANY hardware. Mac, PC, Intel, AMD, Nvdia, they even have a full Ubuntu OS for the PlayStation3! It’s also worth noting Linux is very similar to Apple’s Unix-based OS X

Now we’ve covered every OS, so the debate is on!

History

Windows. Ah Windows. They have a long history, including good ol’ MS-DOS (pronounced M-S doss), the first Home-user text based OS. Now they have most of the market, and they make the Office tools. But the first GUI ― or Graphical User Interface, the term for a non-text-based OS ― was Apple’s. And they once worked out of a garage. Linux is open source and is actually older: it was distributed in the 1960’s and 70’s. Microsoft was founded in 1975 and Apple in 1976. But to more modern times.

Today

Apple has a diverse range of products, including the iPod, the iPhone, possibly soon the Mac Tablet, along with their notebook line. They also have iTunes, the famous Mp3 music store. But even it has flaws. It can be quite a hassle in Europe or Asia to get an iTunes account for example. Microsoft has Zune Pass, and they point out that it take $30,000 to fill a modern 120 Gig iPod. Here is the ad:

But this debate is about the OS’s, not products, so let’s get back on course. Microsoft is cheaper, as shown in their laptop hunter ads. This is a one where a mother and son go looking for a laptop:

But their OS is bad enough, I’d rather pay an extra $700 for OS X, which can dual boot XP anyway if I want to “return to the dark side”. I admit, I don’t really like that you can’t find many games for Mac but I have the solution: dual boot Linux with Wine, a free Linux program that lets you run Windows software. Neat, huh? Apple comes with so much more than Microsoft, so it’s worth the extra money. Microsoft is DEAD. But until then, the debate will go on…

We might find a verdict here at least. Me, I’ve made my decision. But there’s a little more info for you. While Windows has more games available, Apple comes with more tools, like GarageBand and iMovie. And Linux can run like Windows. So here comes the verdict.

The Verdict

I have a verdict: I’m dual-booting Linux and OS X. I hope I helped you reach a verdict. What is it? Comment on it! By the way, the title means this: Apple is good and Windows is Lemons, while Linux’s mascot is a Penguin.

Stop-Motion Animation

Hi!

Here's my next post!

Stop-Motion Animation

By Casey

Stop-motion animation takes patience. And that would be an understatement.

So what is stop-motion animation? It’s taking many many still shots with a camera in order to make normally still subjects (like Lego) to look like they’re moving by turning them into a very fast video. But keep in mind, as I said, it takes patience. Trust me. My first video, which was only 2 seconds long, took 18 pictures! That’s 9 pictures per second! Yes, I said second. Now, I’ll show you how to make one yourself.

First, get everything ready. Get a backdrop. Maybe even make a mini-studio if you shooting in your house (Unless, of course, your house is the backdrop). Also, keep in mind that you’ll need a lot of memory, so delete all those pictures of your sister’s mouth (or maybe that’s just meJ). Place your camera on the stable platform you’ll be shooting from (or the first stable platform, if you have more than one location). It’s probably best you don’t move your camera until you change scenes. Now, get your subject(s) ready. You’re ready to start shooting.

Now to begin shooting. If your subject(s) will be moving into frame, it’s best to take a before picture before they move into frame. Also, if they move out of frame, take another picture, especially if they change the scene (ie. Taking someone who was already in frame with them). To shoot the actual movement, if someone is moving into frame, move them so that only a part of their body (or car, ship, etc.) is showing (or are showing if there’s more than one). Then slowly move the subject(s), making tiny changes, taking pictures each change. Eventually you will have all the shots you need to show motion for all of the video (whatever it’s about). Now you’re ready to turn them into a video.

Now you’ll need to use a computer to put the images together. Don’t worry, I’ll walk through the steps. First, offload the pictures from your camera onto the computer in the normal way. Next, if you don’t already have it, download Microsoft Movie Maker. It’s free at microsoft.com. Now I’m not a fan of Microsoft, but Movie Maker is OK. Once Movie Maker is installed, open it to start a new project. There should be a white space in the middle with a “Movie Tasks” Menu to the left and a Preview screen on the right. Click the arrow pointing down next to “Capture Video” and select “Import Pictures”. Find and select all the pictures to import them into the white space. Now go to the top menu labelled “Tools” and select “Options”. Go to the “Advanced” tab, and lower both picture duration and transition to the lowest option. That will make the best video. Now drag only the pictures you want in the video onto the storyboard in the right order. Unless you want to add sound (which I’m not going to explain) you should probably add some silent movie-style plates for explanation, sound, or dialogue. You can do this by using Paint in Windows or the equivalent on other platforms. When you are going to add your plates, go back to the “Advanced” menu and raise the duration to 5 seconds. Now when you add the plate it will last 5 seconds so you can read it but the rest will be the stop-motion animation (unless you keep and/or re-enter the duration).

That’s it! You can add Titles and credits under the “Edit Movie” menu, and then it’s as easy as going under “Finish Movie” and selecting “Save to My Computer”. Then sit back and enjoy your work!

Until Next Post,

Casey