Echo Binary

I downloaded the trial versions of Adobe After Effects 7.0 and Premiere Pro 2.0 two days ago in an attempt to discover what’s new in these new versions but unfortunately my PC is running out of disk space so I would probably free up some space first. After Effects 7.0 trial is 1.18 GB (PC version) while Premiere Pro 2.0 trial is 563.2 MB.

My first impression in After Effects 7.0 and Premiere Pro 2.0 is that they support more 3D renders judging from their new logos alone. OpenGL 2.0 rendering is enabled in After Effects for blending modes, motion blur on 2D layers, anti-aliasing and track mattes, shadows and transparencies, and more. Premiere Pro on the other hand have GPU-accelerated rendering now. It takes full advantage of the power of your graphics card making preview, applying effects and rendering video faster than ever. These are noteworthy features in After Effects and Premiere Pro. The rest of the added features are enhancements only. I still have to check out the new interface of After Effects 7.0. The graph editor also looks promising. It makes styling and motion tweening easier. I have nothing much to say about Premiere Pro for now. I think it’s a good update from Premiere Pro 1.5 but I still have to test it too.

I wonder what’s next for other Adobe products. Will Photoshop, Illustrator and other digital imaging softwares have an enhanced GPU-accelerated rendering soon? I certainly need to upgrade my graphics card soon.

Links:
Adobe After Effects
Adobe Premiere Pro
Technorati Tags: Adobe, After+Effects, Premiere+Pro

There is an article on Lifehacker.com about laptop tips and hints. If you carry your laptop very often you may want to read this helpful article on how to maximize your productivity off the road while extending the life of your laptop.

Links:
Lifehacker.com: Geek to Live: Laptop Tips
Technorati Tags: lifehack, lifehacker, laptop, tips

I have two (2) Visual Studio 2005 Team System Beta 2 DVDs right now. I fetched it from Microsoft Philippines this afternooon to test it at my own risk. Quite outdated since there’s already a final version of VS 2005 but it’s the best way to get it free of charge for our thesis. That’s really annoying because the .NET 2.0 framework might conflict — of course there’s no guarantee that two conflicting versions will work in harmony specially when the former is “beta” and the latter is “final”. I actually don’t want to install Team System Beta 2 right now because having Visual Studio Express edition of Web Developer does the job… for now. I just want to use the load testing and profiling feature of Team System edition of Visual Studio for our beta testing phase. And one more thing — this beta release of Visual Studio 2005 is intended for evaluation only. It is time-sensitive and will cease functioning after May 1, 2006. We still have some time to play around with our codes, so hopefully we can use Team System beta 2 to test our web application before it expires.

We are writing the documentation for our thesis right now and I find it really convenient to share to-do list with my peers. Using shared to-do list can streamline our work much better than we do it traditionally (round-robin) because shared to-do list provide us preemptive approach. We could have used a project manager tool but Ta-da list provides a simple interface to manage our tasks — good enough for organizing small group of people and short term goals.

Ta-da makes it easy to…

• Keep track of all the little things you need to get done
• Make lists for other people (co-workers, friends, family)
• Share lists with the world (”My favorite movies of 2004″)
• Subscribe to your lists in RSS so you’re always on track

…and more!

Links:
Tadalist.com

Ka Ernie died this morning at the age of 65. He was declared dead on arrival at 9:30 am at Medical Center Muntinlupa. Click here for details.

He will be remembered as “the walking encyclopedia,” the famous weather reporter of ABS-CBN and host of the TV show and radio program Knowledge Power.

It’s really sad because we lost an icon for science and educational TV program. His brilliance and charistmatic personality is one of a kind. I think it’s very hard to replace the position he had embodied in the media because no one has ever followed his footsteps yet. It will take some time before somebody eventually takes the TV personality Ernie Baron had emptied.

His place is just one ride away from my house so we are technically “far neighbor”. (His 5 storey mansion is one of the most prominent building near our vicinity so we all know it’s Ernie Baron’s). Condolence to his family and friends.