Box...

I'm not quite sure how to explain this video, it is simply stunning.

Box from Bot & Dolly on Vimeo.

Becoming Men...

This is a fantastic short film about a summer in Dublin, Ireland. It may be this year, last year or 20 years ago, it doesn't matter, the sentiments haven't changed through the years.

Becoming Men from Motherland on Vimeo.

DraftSight V1R4.0 Released

The latest version of DraftSight, the free CAD package from Dassault, has been released for Windows 32 and 64 Bit, OS X, Fedora and Ubuntu. While they are all V1R4.0, it should be noted that the OSX and Linus releases are still classed as Beta. You can download your chosen version here.

What's new in V1R4.0? Well…

Windows 7 Preview: This feature will show a preview thumbnail for each opened DraftSight file when a user hovers over the DraftSight taskbar button. This functionality allows the user to activate/close a document through the taskbar button.

Enhancements to EXPORTPDF - Dialog boxes have been combined for ease of use (DraftSight for Windows only).

Slide Library: A slide library is a file containing one or more slides. Slide library files are used for creating custom image tile menus and for combining several slide files for convenient file management. Users can create slide libraries from slide files using the MAKESLIDELIBRARY utility. After users have set up a slide library, they can view slides by specifying the name of the slide library and the slide (DraftSight for Windows only).

Print Scale List: We have a list of some pre-defined scales that can be used to setup view scale size in ratio to model space. Instead of calculating size and setting up that size at each place, users can use the pre-defined scales to speed up tasks – being able to add to the pre-defined scale list, edit values and remove unwanted scales.

True Type Font improvements for Asian texts.

Migration to ODA3.8.

Enhancements to DraftSight APIs (application programming interfaces) (for the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight only).

The name changed for DraftSight Premium Pack to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight.

The addition of a Drawing compare tool to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight (formerly the Premium Pack).  This add-on can be used to graphically compare entities between two drawing documents. The differences between the drawings are displayed in color codes. Note: Drawing Compare compares the bitmaps of two drawings at the bit level. Only visual changes are captured when the drawings are compared. For example, if you move an annotation 2mm to the left, this change is reflected in the comparison. Conversely, if you change a custom property such as the Description, this does not reflect in the comparison (DraftSight for Windows only).

The addition of a Design Library to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight (formerly the Premium Pack). This add-on utilizes a tab in DraftSight's task pane to provide a central location for user-defined reusable elements, such as blocks. These elements are added to the drawing file and contain the properties associated with the content file, such as Line Style and Layers. Simply drag and drop the content from the palette into the task pane (DraftSight for Windows only).

The addition of Toolbox for DraftSight to the Enterprise Pack Offering for DraftSight (formerly the Premium Pack) (DraftSight for Windows only).

I haven’t installed it as of yet myself, my PC is in the throws of dying and I’m trying to back it up, but I will probably install it on my Netbook tonight.

It’s great to see the updates coming thick and fast for DraftSight, long may it continue.

In With The New And Out With The Old…

Back in December 2011, I bought my first tablet, a Blackberry Playbook. I brought that tablet all over the world, everywhere I went, it went. Late last year, I brought it to Tokyo and it served me well on the flights to and from Japan and had plenty of juice left in the tank.

I really liked OS 2.1, but like most Playbook users, was waiting for the upgrade to BB10.  Unfortunately, back in June of this year, Blackberry announced that the Playbook would no longer be getting an upgrade to BB10, and that was the final nail in the coffin.

I had put up with the lack of apps on the platform as the browser served me well, likewise I had converted some Android apps to work on the Playbook, but some of the ones I really wanted, would not convert and will never see the light of day on the Playbook.

Yesterday I bought a Google Nexus 7 2.  It’s a beautiful piece of kit, really light, fast and an incredible screen. It’s not perfect, but at least I know the OS will be updated regularly and there will be no shortage of apps (both good and bad) to help me waste some time.

I’m unsure what to do with the Playbook.  I’ll not throw it away, that much I know. It is, as I have said before, a fantastic piece of hardware. It’s just a shame that Blackberry have seen the need to give up on it.  If only Blackberry had not been so damn good at locking it down, someone might have been able to hack it and get Android on it!

Anyway, that’s it. No more Blackberry Playbook for me, from here on in, it’s the Google Nexus 7 2. I’m sure I’ll be posting more about it in the future.

RIP Blackberry Playbook.