Wacom Cintiq Companion

Like a lot of people probably, I received an email from Wacom announcing their new Cintiq Companion tablets. I clicked it assuming it was just new peripherals and not stand alone computing devices. I was seriously blown away by what I saw when I went to the site.

Some background first. I've been using Macs since 2009 but have had to go back to using Windows machines because Apple hasn't been serious about creating workstation grade hardware for quite awhile now. They are finally getting around to updating the Mac Pro. I could, and probably have written a while blog post on that subject.

Anyway, I've been using my Surface Pro quite a bit to create digital artwork, and it's fast enough to handle working in 300 dpi when I'm doing something for print. The screen resolution is great and the color gamut sufficient. However, it's a 10" screen and there are no physical controls beyond the pen. For ticky-tack stuff I end up on my Lenovo workstation with a Wacom tablet wishing there was some way to have the benefits of both in a single device.

It sounds like Wacom may have gone and done just that. From the specifications it appears to have a lot of what I'm looking for, including a 64 bit OS and 13.3" full HD screen display. I'm sure there are already people grumbling that this doesn't have Haswell, but I'm just happy someone is making a tablet device, with pen input, with this form factor.

Check it out for yourself here.

Privacy Intrinsic

My guinea pig, Pickle, loves to run and I'd always felt bad that she didn't have a bigger living space in which to do so. I don't think she cared one iota, but after some looking I found her an eight square foot living space. She really likes it, but she kept going to the bathroom on the side where her litter wasn't. After giving her box a thorough cleaning, I moved her makeshift canopy over to the side with the litter. I'd used a ferret swing to give her a place to hide under if she wanted. Sure enough, the added privacy over her litter did the trick. 

Pickle's old living space.

If privacy is important to such a guinea pig in some intrinsic way, how vital is it to a human being? I don't think our society, institutions, government, and business do enough to protect people's privacy. It should be really hard to find someone desires seclusion. These days it generally amounts to a single payment of $19.99 on one of many find-a-person dot coms or similar.

The collection of data by our government is worrying as well. I do think dangerous criminals and terrorists need to be tracked and stopped, but not at the expense of engaging surveillance on innocent people. President Obama dismisses these intrusions into people's privacy as being necessary for national security, but like so many of our leaders before him, he hasn't considered the cost or unintended consequences of collecting such data. 

The Government shouldn't be above the law, otherwise it loses the confidence of the people in trying to enforce that law. If corporations have to seek our consent to be tracked or have our personal data stored, so too should our government if for any other reason than collecting a fair tax or registering a vehicle.  

The analogy here is obvious I suppose. This is uncharted territory for the US Government because they are collecting this data with the knowledge of the public, but without it's consent. It's a dangerous experiment where we are all the guinea pigs. 

Pickle expressing distress at having her new living space partitioned with a wall (I removed it).

Shameless Plug - Uroboros Saga Book 1

Buy my new book at Amazon!

Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00E2Z0XVK

Four Years

The sum of a person goes beyond merely the rules they've decided to follow or ignore. We each are equally composed of habits, vices, loves, hates, and everything in between. I understand why people become hard toward others that they don't agree with. 

I get it. Really. 

I don't believe in second chances. People need more opportunities than two if they're to figure things out. We should call it somewhere around five to seven chances to figure things out. The first three times we make a mistake, we barely even know what we've done is wrong. The fourth and fifth times generally start to tickle the conscience. After that the mind starts to grasp what the body may have done. 

The veneer of the wood from which each of us is carved has it's own grain even if it isn't representative of what's underneath. To wander around raw is too painful. Even to go against the flow of our own facade, false or otherwise, hurts even worse. 

Pain is the first motivator of conscience. The initial indiciation we've gone and messed everything up. Then comes the fear people will judge you, because only Heaven knows anyone else has made mistakes. Sins don't pile up on the soul, and they don't leave a stain either. To assume anything could burden the soul is simply to deny the divine entirely.  

Some things are inviolable. Unfortunately, the mind and body don't quite make the list. Nor do the relationships we try to maintain with both. All sorts of earthly organizations try to rule us through a fear of what will happen outside of this life, while ignoring the straight up facts one doesn't need faith to realize. I worry more about the hell we can create for ourselves in life than any awaiting in death. 

To live is to live with regret though. Even when one of my fellow humans forgives or validates me, I can't help but feel guilty for having troubled them at all.

Here comes the tangent.

I've spent a lot of time strongly disliking Henry David Thoreau and his four years of civil disobedience. It felt cowardly what he did. I think deep down what I really felt was envy. Four years of solitude to just think and write, barely a bother to anyone. In September of this year I'll have had my four years to think and write, and at just a couple years different in age from when Henry did the same. I don't liken anything of what I've done or written to Thoreau but I understand why the man did what did. 

I get it. Really.

This probably reads like something a first year college student would write after being assigned to read Thoreau and thinking they have something lent to them from the past of a great man. Yep, pretty pathetic. It's true though, the works that endure the greatest amount of time seem to resonate with me the most. 

January - June 2013: Workspaces

Since I decided to write full time in 2009 I've constantly refined, moved, and defined my workspace. More than just moving things around, I've gone from various chairs, to a standing desk, and back to a sitting desk. The state of my workspace has become a window into my work and my own well being. 

I didn't abandon the standing desk because it wasn't a good set up for me. I still have it sitting in the basement in the event I want to go back to it. I was tired after the first six months of the year and the thought of standing for 8-10 hours a day was difficult to reconcile with my physical state. It was a decision arrived at through what I still feel was wisdom garnered over the last three years. 

After a summer of riding my bike, resting, working out, eating better, and finishing a great many things, I'll need my standing desk back I've no doubt. I'll be stronger, and ready to create new things as opposed to relying on my common endurance to merely finish things. My own creative cycle is not unlike a very long day where one wakes, works on their feet, tires, finds a place to sit, and eventually rests. 

Having endured every level of emotional and physical strength over those three years, and keeping track either through word or photograph has helped. Even if you don't keep a log as a creative person, the best thing one can do is take a picture of your workspace and date it. Sometimes looking back at my old workspaces has given me far more perspective than a log ever has. 

Refining the tools one uses and the way they work within ones workflow hasn't been as enlightening for me. I've gone through something like four laptops, two ultrabooks, a netbook, two tablets, a desktop, and two smartphones trying to strike the right balance. The search goes on for the best device (or devices) for my own process and workflow. I think if someone made a device like the Lenovo Yoga, with a backlit keyboard, pen digitizer, sim card equipped, and 12-hour battery life that would be ideal. At least on paper.  

Finally feeling somewhat settled in Wichita I've been productive. Not as much on my Windows Phone game as I would like, but I've done more work on my novels in the last two months than I did in the six months previous. My log and recollection seems to indicate that this is an exaggeration but it certainly feels that I've done more lately than the first part of the year. 

In 2010-2011 I wrote three novellas, all part of the same story. It's a story I've gone through different phases of loathing for (hatred, disgust, etcetera). Previous to moving to Kansas I probably hadn't looked at them for a year. They really did frustrate me that much. Having given the work some space I came back to them and found I liked them better having been granted some much needed perspective in the interim. 

If you're a writer particularly, keep everything. Your work may yet have merit in a different time or in that odd situation where you find yourself to be a different person. Hey, it happens occasionally.

Taco Time

Whenever I visit a Taco Time in Boise, I get consistent professional service and a good product for my money. I've gone there for years and never had a bad experience. Over the years it's left me to ponder something though. Why can't I get that level of service and value almost anywhere else?

I've gone through several banks and insurance companies because they weren't even half as competent as your average Taco Time employee. To put things in perspective, being half as good would still be pretty darned good. I've been to all the Taco Time locations, dozens of time,as each over the years and never had them mess up my order - 100% accurate.

I wonder if it has to do with the management or training program? My wife and I had to deal with several banking institutions, insurance companies, and government agencies relative to selling our house and moving from one State to another. In all those dealings, I met not a single individual (other than our Realtor and her Photographer) that possessed the skills Taco Time employees exhibit.

To look at the individuals serving in our Government, rare is the one I would trust to handle a taco or take from me a list of things I desire. Taco Time has slowly become the means by which I measure a great many things. Would I trust this person or organization to make my Taco; fast, friendly, and accurate?

So many times the answer has been no.

I think it would be great if there was a website where people could rate everything by comparing it to their best experience as a consumer or citizen.

How was your experience with X today?

1. Does not live in the same ballpark as Taco Time.
2. Not nearly as good as Taco Time.
3. Almost as good as Taco Time.
4. As good as Taco Time.
5. Better than Taco Time!
 
It runs through my mind all the time. What would this person (insurance agent, banker, President of the United States) think if they knew I was comparing them to a taco place? Having this as a means to measure my experiences makes life more fun for sure.

In my own work, that is what I strive for... to be as good as the Boise Taco Time restaurants. In a world without heroes, I have at least one.

Surface Pro, 3 Months Later

I've logged just under 100 hours on my Surface Pro and while I have few complaints, it is not a device I would recommend to everyone. The best the device has to offer is not what most people need. I haven't bothered to re-read my old post about this device. Apologies if I end up repeating myself a little bit.

 

This device is designed for work. While the coating along alloy bits chip and scratch, the device is rugged and can take a beating. I ended up buying a thick laptop sticker and cutting it to size and applying it to the back. Otherwise, the thing is extremely resilient.

 

I find the four and a half hours of battery life, while nerve-wracking at times, adequate because of how quickly the device takes a charge. As long as I find an outlet once a day, my Surface Pro chugs on.

 

I've struggled with the pen somewhat. I had downloaded the newer Wacom Driver but recently went back to the original one deployed with the device by Microsoft. Having my cursor trapped in the upper left hand corner of the desktop every other reboot got old, and I don't need pressure sensitivity in Photoshop just yet. Later this summer, when I start painting covers for novels and larger resolution textures for my Windows 8 game, such will become more inconvenient. Sadly, for the portability, there is no better option currently. I like Sketchbook Pro better in some ways anyway. Telling myself that is only going to go so far though.

 

I've deleted every metro app except for Camera, Skype, Skydrive, and Windows Phone. Microsoft's unwise placement of ads within the included metro applications became intolerable. If I pay good money for a device and an OS, I will not endure ads, period. I've sought out third party or open source replacements wherever I could and found plenty of options. However, I'd like to offer kudos to Microsoft for actually allowing me to delete the apps. Sadly, Apple Inc. won't allow such acts of reason within iOS, you have to resort to hiding them in a folder.  

 

I ended up procuring both versions of the cover; type and touch. They are both equally useful depending on what I'm doing and they are light enough I put both in my bag. I'm glad my wife coaxed me into eventually getting the touch cover after much prevarication. If I'm using the device casually, to draw, or away from my desk, the touch cover is way better than the type. For serious text generation, the type cover is a better choice.

 

The regular updates the Surface Pro receives makes it work better and better each month. It runs like my old hand built XP machine, using minimal resources to keep the system running. It so clean and uncluttered that I sometimes prefer it to my W530. I love my workstation, but it works best plugged in with plenty of power and Ethernet cable connected. I've said it before, and I'll say it again, do not pay to upgrade a laptop's WiFi connectivity to anything Intel if you can help it. From what I've seen, they do not support their own hardware and care nothing for the end user.   

 

I thought space would be an issue, but between getting the 128GB version and mapping a 32GB microSD card, I've got plenty of room to spare, 56 GB to be precise. I could even see someone using this device as a righteous mobile gaming platform by rotating games and being careful with hard drive space. I've had my own delusions of running a Steam Version of Fallout: New Vegas and an Xbox controller with it on the road.

 

Getting the device to work for me and the effort required trying different configurations, mapping drives, and similar is mostly above the skill level of the casual user. That isn't to say it was rocket science, or that a non-techy couldn't figure those things out. However, they are less likely to do so and would likely endure the faults of the device with no small amount of frustration.

 

Anyone looking at a Surface Pro should first put a Surface RT or a Lenovo Yoga 11 RT device in their hands first. For most people one of these two devices is going to fit the bill far better than a Surface Pro would. If you find that either of those devices lacks necessary functionality (64 bit OS, Adobe Creative Suite, etcetera) then look at the Surface Pro, but only if you think having pen input is essential. There are some great ultrabooks on the market right now, with more to come if Haswell is half as good as the hype.

Treesizeverse's Fold Top Rucksack & Carry All

I love bags. Really, the best part of making a new acquisition is the part where you find something to carry it around in. I've had really cheap bags that I loved (and still love) and expensive bags that were too much bag, even for me. Looking at Etsy is always a dangerous activity if you like bags, gizmo carriers, and similar.

 

There is a wide array of stuff out there, but the stuff that always caught my eye seemed to all be made by the same guy, Ronald Ceuppens. Even from the pictures, I could tell this guy was an artist relative to how his bags were crafted and arranged. His shop is featured on Etsy here.

 

My wife noticed I was looking at his wares longingly and asked which bags I liked the most, and she'd get one for me for my Birthday. Turns out she got me two.To say I am blessed would be an understatement.

 

The Carry All is built kind of like an old engineer's bag you can sling over one shoulder. It's crafted of emerald blue waxed canvas with leather handles. It has two interior pockets within the main compartment and expands to carry a lot of stuff. It's tall, so you could roll up a light jacket and stick it on top and probably still zip it up.

 

 

The rucksack fold top is made very similarly with almost the same leather and the a similar waxed canvas. Unless you look really closely you cannot tell they aren't a matched set. The rucks sack is very svelte but holds a lot of stuff due to it's height and width. You could put an 11" MacBook or Lenovo Yoga in lengthways and the buttoned interior pocket would be perfect for and iPad or Surface RT/Pro but you'd want to be careful setting the bag down if the device didn't have it's own case.

 

 

The snaps on the outside are tight enough you could put a light jacket or similar between them and the outside of the rucksack. there are two spacious exterior pockets that don't get entirely covered by the flap, so I wouldn't keep gizmos in there if it's raining, but everything in the main compartment should be really comfy and safe.

 

Jetpack Librarian

 

Last year my wife asked me if I would design a mascot of sorts for use on literature and a web presence for the Southwest Idaho Library Association. The SWILA conference has come and gone so it's alright for me to share this. Thanks Elle and Nick for all your advice relative to creating this. The one below was my first attempt. In hindsight, I think I'd just seen Prometheus when I rendered this one.

 

 

18 Days in Wichita

The new workspace.

 

I woke up this morning and headed straight to work. I had my online meeting, which I wasn't really awake for and had my breakfast. It felt like a normal day.

The morning mail arrived bringing a large envelope and a box. In the envelope was our mail from our home in Boise, collected and sent to us by friends. In the box was my battle mat left mistakenly at the last table top game I ran in Boise. Also, there was a box of plastic zombies begging to be assembled, painted, and unleashed on unsuspecting D&D player characters.

Reminders of my old home and the friends who still lived there.

My wife and I have been in Wichita for almost three weeks now, and being the adaptable guy I am, things already feel pretty normal here. I kept a travelogue of our journey and even wrote several blog posts in the time we've been here. None will probably ever see the lights of the Internet.

Writers write to write.

In logging time, I've been less productive in Wichita than I was in Boise, but in moving to a new place, people take a happiness hit. There's also all the time spent trying to reaffirm and redesign relationships and connections with the people you no longer share a county with. I feel like much of that has been sorted out.

X-Files night happened via Facetime, I'm making a Pathfinder Character for a table I'll be telecommuting to, and I'm already planning to keep up with all my old friends via similar methods. The Internet provides in that regard. Even as I still struggle with routers and connectivity on both ends, it still works. I get a glimpse of the faces I want to see.

I'm looking forward to seeing more of my uncle and cousins in Kansas City, exploring Wichita, and meeting more new people. I really had no doubt we'd make it all work, it's just that the mind can't always conceive of the outcome, however certain, and this produces a certain amount of anxiety.

Sadly, I continue to ignore my novels in favor of creating textures for a Windows Phone 8 application and doodling in my spare time. It took a lot to get me to render visuals (sometimes called artwork) when I live in Boise. The past week or so, I've really wanted to draw and I've had to put my knee to the back of my poor old Intuos 4 pen tablet once already. (They bow with use.)

Fair weather artist, winter writer? Maybe. The happier (or sunnier) I am, the harder it is to write and easier it is to make visuals.

Our new home in Wichita is really nice, located on a quiet street, and near to all kinds of places my wife and I have enjoyed visiting. It even has a basement suitable for some old school table top gaming. I went with a sitting desk this time around, because I wanted to be able to sit across from my wife while we worked or played in the evenings.

Moving can put stress on a relationship, and there were certainly moments when my wife and I struggled to communicate amidst the process. The moments when we worked well together really happened as a result of my Father and Brother coming with us. Liz and I did the whole journey in the truck together which really helped in avoiding and mitigating some of the trouble encountered along the way.

Wichita is an interesting place. It feels like a really big used book store where you have to wander the shelves to find what you're looking for and wander you will. The good news is that we've found some pretty nice places to eat, shop, procure used books, and wander for it's own sake. In between those places are vintage buildings looking for renters, old industrial areas, and neighborhoods that look to have been forgotten by time.

I like driving in Wichita (a big compliment coming from me) and I'm looking forward to finding places to ride my bike. I've been told there might be a bin of used RPG books at a particular used book store not far from my home. Having already found a few treasures (GAZ2 with map!), I'm enthusiastic about engaging in more exploration.