PhotoShop CS5's Content Aware Fill

Like I took this photo at a wedding and cut someone off because they where outside the frame and I don't know who they are, can you fill them in?

Adobe PhotoShop CS5's Content Aware fill just might.

Random Scifi Idea

I was just thinking the other day how cool it would be to have some photo editing software that would change the season, or time of day a photograph was taken.

So you would for example load in a photograph taken in the summer and then you could change the season to winter. It would adjust the lighting, put snow on flat surfaces, even change the cloths people where wearing in the photograph to make it look like winter.

Also if you took a photo and didn't like the time of day it was taken, it would figure out where the sun is and then change all the lighting and shadows to make it look like a different time of day.

I don't have the time or money to make this software, but if I patent it then maybe my grandkids can sue whoever makes it after I am dead.

Earth Hour

Just a reminder that this Saturday from 8:30pm to 9:30pm is Earth Hour.

Failure Is Always An Option

Adam Savage who you might have seen on Mythbusters gave a talk at Makers Fair about times in his life where he has failed.



[Direct Link]

EVE Online's Dr Eyjolfur Gudmundsson

The BBC of all places did An Interesting Article about Dr Eyjolfur Gudmundsson and the role of economy in EVE Online.

If you didn't know, Dr Gudmundsson was an Academic Economist who joined CCP to help the staff with the in game economy and produce quarterly economic reports.
As the game is player driven, and all items in the game are the result of in-game crafting. So keeping the system fluid and fair is key to keeping EVE a fun place to trade. Hiring an economist seems then like a logical decision, but I know of no other MMO that has one; despite how everybody seems to realise or Write About how important a stable economy is.

And if you are so interested, you can download EVE's 2009 Fourth Quarterly economy report from Here.

During the BBC's video interview, Dr Gudmundsson talks about how pressures in real our world economy could be lessened if like EVE it was transparent and allowed people to make their own choices. But I think Jon Stewart Has Proved That Will Never Happen.

Happy National No Smoking Day

Penny Arcade's The Tester

This is just me trying to get you to watch the Penny Arcade WebTV series so if you already watch it, you don't need to read this.


Sony put together a show called The Tester which is a reality show about a group of people playing silly games in order to win the show prize of becoming a video games tester. See trailer:



Working in the video games industry is though and sucks the life blood out of many unfortunate souls. But the lowest position is that of a tester. If you work in other industries Quality Assurance can have some respect, but not in the video games industry. If the company misses a milestone payment from the publisher, before management will give-up their quilted toilet paper, some testers are going to go.

Penny Arcade captured this competition and the crushing reality of the prize in a strip titled Here's Your Reality Program.

Now the reason for this post. Jerry and Mike have a reality show of their own and last week their documentary team (2PlayerProductions) released a Video Of Them Creating That Strip.

STEAM Lies

It is post midnight and I am waiting for Supreme Commander 2 to unlock. All I have to look at is the pre-load screen and that keeps telling me that when the game is released I will be able to play it immediately. I am not sure about Valve's definition of immediately, but clearly we have a disagreement in this matter.

Identify Unknown Fonts

There is a website called Identifont that has an Identify Fonts By Appearance feature. Kind of cool since I already used it productively at work to identify a font we used as a company a long, time ago.