How To Make Money With Free Software 187
fons writes "Dutch Python hacker/artist Stani took part in a contest organised by the Dutch Ministry Of Finance to design a 5 euro commemorative coin. And he won, using only free software: 'The whole design was done for 100% with free software. The biggest part consists of custom software in Python, of course within the SPE editor. For the visual power I used PIL and pyCairo. From time to time also Gimp, Inkscape and Phatch helped quite a bit. All the developing and processing was done on GNU/Linux machines which were running Ubuntu/Debian. I would have loved to release the coin under the GPL, which could maybe solve the financial crisis. However for obvious reasons I was not allowed to do that.'"
Re:I don't get it.... (Score:5, Informative)
Did you RTFA (or more specifically LATFC)? This coin has algorithmic outputs both on the front (the Queen made out of architect names) and on the back (an outline of Holland made out of books). I can't see how anybody could create it using Photoshop or Illustrator. The coin designer probably spent more time coding than sketching (like the book Snow Crash).
Also, it's beautiful. I want one, no, a few million of them.
Whatever. (Score:5, Informative)
The more talent you have, the less important the tools are.
Re:As a Computer Graphics Instructor... (Score:0, Informative)
Without fail, they come back and say, "hey, I can't do anything with this. It's not Adobe. It sucks." So I point out to them that their Adobe software skills make them think they're pretty good at design.
I have few thoughts after reading your post:
1) If they think knowing Photoshop makes them good designers, then it means you're a bad teacher. Have you not explained to them typography, use of whitespace, negative space, layout, color harmonies etc.? None of this can be perceived as exclusive to Adobe.
2) I do use GIMP and Photoshop *together* every day, and I have to say, GIMP does pale as a Photoshop replacement for professionals. It's the fact. I could start listing specific reasons, but that's boring. However GIMP is still useful if you don't put artificial limitations on how and when it's used. Tools don't make the artist, but they certainly do help.
3) You can draw Mona Lisa in MS Paint [youtube.com]. That doesn't mean that not using MS Paint I have "marketing-infused mental block". It just means I have lots of free time and will to show off.
Re:As a Computer Graphics Instructor... (Score:4, Informative)
"You seem to be setting up a straw man. Can I help you with that?" -Clippy (because no, I never said what you suggest I did)
Most of my students have no context in which to understand the difference between the two. But since you asked, I will be teaching GIMP soon, as the art faculty in my college have demonstrated an interest in helping students grasp the Open Source aesthetic. Also, you may have noticed that I *do* teach GIMP currently, as an optional item.
I'm not sure where you heard that. The school has already shown interest in paying me more to develop a curriculum for more advanced students which would heavily involve Open Source software. We also like the idea of establishing a one-of-a-kind creative lab by spending more money on capable hardware installations than on software. You may have seen this happen at schools like MIT. But still, I come to /. to hear the old arguments against Open Source stuff, so...well played, my literal-nicked friend.
Re:This is a compiled example (Score:3, Informative)
Re:And?? (Score:2, Informative)
2) The oft stated "Linux is no good for graphic designers because it doesn't have photoshop" now has a response. Not that I see any photoshop users switching because of this, but serious professional graphics work has now been done on linux.
Re:That's Impressive (Score:3, Informative)
I was thinking the same thing about his mastery of visual symbolism. However, in what sense are ancient greek and roman buildings dense with symbolism? Are you talking about the sculpture on them?
I took a class on Sacred Architecture, and basically, the Greek buildings are loaded to the hilt with meanings. Well, it was all mathematical, though. You can thank the Greek philosophers for first originating the idea of the Matrix. The reality we see with the senses is a shadow of the real world, which is mathematics.
:)
For one, they liked to use the golden ratio wherever they could. Here's a page [milanovic.org] that has an image of the golden ratio in a Greek temple. Second, look closely at the columns. See who they taper on top? That was done on purpose, so that when you're up close, looking up at them, the appear to rise straight up, instead of bending slightly inwards over you, as Manhattan skyscrapers do. The Greeks understood perspective and corrected for it with an optical illusion.
There are a lot of other things, which I've forgotten from the class, but it's utterly fascinating. If you have a chance to do a little reading, you'll be greatly rewarded!
Re:Fuck Python (Score:3, Informative)
Malbolge is a public domain esoteric programming language invented by Ben Olmstead in 1998, named after the eighth circle of hell in Dante's Inferno, the Malebolge.
Re:As a Computer Graphics Instructor... (Score:3, Informative)
This is the same rhetoric that always gets brought up in these /. discussions. As if an instructor would just cart in Open Source software one day and tell students they are forbidden to use some in-demand commercial package. Yeah, that sounds like a love of freedom to me.~
Does this type of presuppositional thinking usually help you communicate? It's failing here because you seem to be asking a question I've already answered.
My more advanced students want to know what I do at work, since I teach part-time as a hobby. They want to know how I can keep running my own business in a creative way, and in a dead-end, isolated town. They want to be high-tech so badly that they'll follow me around the school, asking for private lessons, portfolio reviews, or whatever. They've already responded well to the concept of Open Source, mainly because they see pros in advanced fields using it alongside proprietary stuff more and more. And they would *love* to be able to spend money on nice hardware like a Wacom tablet rather than paying for locked up software. Anyway, I seem to sympathize with my students much better than you would even attempt to, so there's no use explaining beyond that. The bottom line is, your straw man ran away; deal with it.
Re:Fuck Python, no, Fuck C# (Score:3, Informative)
First, you say that C# is a closed and proprietary language. You also say there is no spec for the C# language. While Microsoft's C# compiler itself may be closed source and proprietary software, it is an open standard per ECMA. You also state that developers won't be porting the language to new systems, yet I can count at least two compilers (both open source) available for non Microsoft systems.
You then ask if it can be used to create an operating system, if it can program set top boxes, or be used in embedded systems. Well, yes (Singularity), eventually (it has been noted that one use of Singularity would be set top boxes) and yes (.NET Compact Framework or Embedded Linux with Mono).
You may state these solutions are inefficient or inadequate, and I won't argue against that. However, to say they don't exist at all is not true.
Re:That's Impressive (Score:4, Informative)
His editor is really good, but some performance issue on my 64bit. I prefer it over Erik4 otherwise.
I think you can savely assume that if he is not happy with something, he just changes the source code and recompiles.
Stani's talk at python user group meeting (Score:3, Informative)
Stani explained the way he made the coin at a Dutch python user group meeting in Amsterdam. Everyone attending was really enthousiastic about it. http://reinout.vanrees.org/weblog/archive/2008/09/12/python-calculated-coin [vanrees.org]
Good to see that he's written an article himself with the full explanation and graphs! Nicely done.