e^t

还是那句话——不要偏执!

和我们这人间所有相对稀有的东西一样（IPhone算不算？），Linux这种东西也是会培养出一些牛气烘烘的人。不管是真牛，还是个高高鼓起的充气牛皮。至少说话的口气，那个调子、那个场！不由得让你噔噔噔后退起步，倒吸一口冷气。这个人——不一般；再一看，这个人——不？正？常？

说什么Linux是一种信仰。信仰是好事，可惜排斥异己的信仰总会培养出一群偏执狂。这种例子多的实在让人烦心，就不举了。更甚的是，很多伙计其实是嘴上的信仰。就像“清高”的人一看到钱就赶快双手遮眼大叫“哟，拿走，咱嫌脏！”，其实手上不知道“脏”了多少次了——可能各位已经猜到，我最反对的是对Windows以及其他商业软件莫名的抵制和攻击。

当然，这种事情本来该是“你走你的阳关道，我过我的独木桥”，谁也不欠谁，谁也别说谁。无奈就是看不惯那些在新人面前指手画脚的嘴脸，新人没有形成自己的观点谦虚求教——学习精神十分可嘉。你倒好，上去二话不说一通火炮，自己爽够了，可是把别人搞得云里雾里——严重影响、延迟、甚至断送别人的学习道路！这个，还真不行！

先举个最流行的例子，就是不少人喜欢到处说“那些高手都是用记事本、用VIM写程序；那个啥VS是给草鸟/民工用的，和前面那几个杀手级比起来就是个垃圾”。我想请问说“高手都用VIM，民工采用VS”这种话的人，你自己信这个吗？你见过这种高手吗？如果见过，他们在整个“高手群体”里面占了多大比例？那些从事大型项目的程序员是不是在用VS系列？这些个问题我会爽快回答“不知道”，不过我也不会蛊惑群众。那你这个宣传家呢——有事实证明自己是对的吗？我个人是VIM用户（另外还有Code:Blocks），用它写东西是很爽，原因就一个字——“快”，读程序也很不错。可是调试什么的我是屡试“不爽”，同时本人也没有大型项目经历。所以在此建议一下：你自己不会、或者只是写个Helloworld、再或者虽然用你的杀手神器级开发过大型项目但是没有个详细的配置合作过程来分享——就不要说这种不负责任的话。个人愚钝，知道VIM的学习曲线，过去几年里试了放然后又试、断断续续至少四五次才终于上手，所以不会贸然把它往别人怀里塞。还有，按这个说，想当年MS vs. Borland岂不成了争夺草鸟的战役……这个恐怕不可能吧。

还有人拿网页设计说事：“哦，那些高级设计师都是用文本编辑器设计网页，而且还要好的多”。糊弄人的吧？比较好奇网页上面的东西种类比一般意义上的程序设计多多了，而且还涉及到视觉设计，一个纯Editor是怎么比Dreamweaver等工具更好的。个人不懂行，不多说。再举个我稍微了解的设计的例子，那些拿着GIMP和PS比较强弱的人简直是白痴；而盲目推荐Blender的人也不知道他们碰过Maya/Max/Houdini没有，更不知道是不是了解业内行情。还曾经见过向搞飞行器设计的人推荐Blender的，真造出来什么不用飞就可以直接叫“坠毁号”了。个人不认为Linux适合专业级别的艺术设计，自己外行的偏颇观点就是最起码显卡驱动就无法满足高质量的图像要求。不过特别说一下，Blender的发展很是惊人，现在配合别的开源渲染器已经可以做出一些专业的静帧了，虽然影视级别的要求恐怕暂时还达不到。另外还有更实际的一点，三维设计基本都需要彼此配合，除非自由艺术家或者业余爱好，否则你一切开源而别人用主流的商业软件的话，那么work根本无法flow——你根本找不到工作。关于工业设计（CAD）我也不倾向于Linux，AutoCAD这种旗舰没有Linux版本就更别提其他公司的产品了，就连最后产品的展示恐怕也是问题（用Autodesk和Adobe的软件制作华丽丽作品，展示或者技术文档的创建编辑甚至MS Powerpoint的Presentation）。再重复一下，大型设计软件往往需要充分发挥硬件性能，所以驱动依然是个影响。不客气说，这些在Linux上的替代品玩玩可以，想严肃（或者为了糊口，或者为了梦想）就别纠结于开源。当然大型CAE计算的话Linux环境很有优势，顶尖的科学计算集群也会使用Linux——这些不假。可是除了系统管理员谁去亲密接触它呢？一个终端软件ssh发出计算命令，然后命令行或者干脆FTP软件下载计算结果然后本地分析就可以满足很多需要了。就像集体厨房里面的师傅使用特大号的铁锅炒菜——难道这就意味着你也要手端着这种铁锅吃饭？当然，如果你有时间有兴趣并且是个喜欢学东西的人，我自然推荐尝试Linux。

说了这么多，我的目的是什么——就是想劝劝那些分不清工具和能力的区别，还乐滋滋靠着工具自以为是并贬损他人的人。实话说：别拿这些个玩意儿说事——否则你就OUT了！都什么时代了，搞自然搞工程的人几个没有玩过Linux？

当然，我更希望拿这个话题长篇大论说事的我其实才是out了，世界其实已经很美好，已经没有不该有的偏执狂了……

-clarifications

By digital painting I mean paint the traditional way on a computer, excluding the way you would use MS Paint, that is you have pencils, watercolors, albeit all digital version.

–Photoshop
So far my own experience with Photoshop is limited to amature level photo retouching following some random tutorials step by step, but I’ve already felt the unlimited freedom and how both beginners and masters can enjoy it.

Previously the main use of PS is photo editing, but apparently Adobe tried to extend this territory. From recent version (Since CS5 or earlier?) PS added a brand new digital painting perspective, together with the assortments of brushes (i.e., draw media and wet media) to simulate traditional media, PS is becoming a more and more suitable and pleasant environment for digital painting.

-Tip: if you want to learn digtial painting, STOP trying different fancy brushes! Stick to one (like chalk) and learn all thing define the word “painting”: perspetive, value, composition, through that single brush. Trying different brushes at the begining is same as steping at the same location – you feel you are learning but you aren’t!

I haven’t started using PS yet, but for anyone want to take digital drawing/painting seriously, I think PS is a must-have. And please see some videos of masters’ using it before you give it up (for its price).

-Tip: classic ways are always crucial, although there are no undo-redo, no layer mode, but these ‘deficiencies’ simply can never undermine its value. It is the way has been followed by great artists all over the world, all through the time. Besides, this is no distraction from modern electronic device, believe me, it feels really ‘quiet’ when you are holding a pencil and draw traditionally.

-Tip: you can’t have your laptop and tablet everywhere with you, but it’s possible with a pencil and sketchpad, I think the first step towards an artist is to start carry your drawing tools with you when you start a trip.

–Corel Painter
Simply, it is not suitable for my needs. The reason is I have mypaint and Photoshop already. I once tried Painter but felt it’s user-unfriendly, and the softwere is slow on my machine. So I don’t think I’m going to use it, though the brushset is more complete than any other software and many artist like it.

–MyPaint (http://mypaint.intilinux.com/)

MyPaint screenshot (work by David)

Free and powerful, that’s my impression of this software. Mypaint is a free, open source software that I with to recommand to everyone. Everything was designed to be as simple as possible (GUI is the simplest of all I’ve seen, also there are many single-key shortcuts calling the most-used functions like eraser, canvas flip, color pick, etc.), so when you work, there is no need to look for any functionality (whick is distractiong, by the way) – they are right under your left hand (assuming that you are right-handded and your right hand is holding your digital stylus.

The are also many choices of papers and brushes. Personally I like David’s brushset a lot, which is embeded in mypaint by default, along with other well made brushes.

-Tip: as to paper, I would suggest you NOT to stay on the default white paper for ever. Try something else, like the yellow-tinted paper which some professional designers use to show their production level work. Sometimes, a change of paper do give you a ‘pro’ feeling :-/

Another thing worth mentioning is this is a fast evolving software. On youtube and its offical website, the number of artworks created with mypaint is steadly increasing. The development is very active too (you can check their git commit log if you wish to look into the code), and new funtions are being added. The next big step to take for the developers seems to be layermode, some of which are already implemented. I havn’t chekc that out because currently I only use pencil, but for people working with colors, you may want to download the source code and compile the newest version.

Simplicity does not mean function limited, you can create professional drawings with this software.

–One Great Resource

Please Google Fengzhu if you don’t know about him, you can find his blog and the school of design he tutors. Also search him in YouTube for about his 46 free video tutorials (http://www.youtube.com/user/FZDSCHOOL).

Fengzhu is not only great in his art skills, but also in that he shares all his experiences, including how he use certain tools and the real-time working process. There are ~40 videos in his YouTube channel and new upload generally comes every two or three weeks. I can assure that you can learn a lot.

-Tip: all videos are accompanied by vocal explanations, so many tips are ‘hiden’ in a random minute of a random video. For me, as a beginner, I would watch them all so nothing would be missed.

1. Cygwin Assembler Error

My situation: I’ve configure my gVim to compile all programming languages I commonly use by pressing one key (F3 for object file, F4 for executable for example). But recently (under Win 7) this handy shortcut stopped working, with the recurring and annoying error message:
Assembler messaes: FATAL can’t create ***, no such file or directory
As always, I quickly began to blame Windows 7 — “what’s the problem with you, I can’t make modifications of my own computer?”
It was Google, instead of the madness, gave me the answer.
According to my understanding: Cygwin is more like a smaller ecosystem residing inside Windows, rather than an installed software. Being a ported version of Linux, it certainly has a stronger notion of user privilege or authorization control. my gVim was configured to call gcc-4 for compilation, and gcc requires a location for storing temporary files, which it should have the right to modify. The directory I had used was C:/tmp, which is on the system disk and the path interpreted by Cygwin is /cygdrive/c/tmp — not quite ‘natural’, I can only say.
So the solution is:
export TEMP=/tmp
Again, something still confusing is my original configuration actually worked for quite a while, and broke down all of a sudden — I can only attribute this to my own Windows’ long existing unknown problem.

Change Matlab Directory
I often close my Matlab with several files opening, so they are automatically opened the next time I start Matlab. There is a small problem: the default directory Matlab opens is its installation directory, not the one containing the opened scripts.

Normally I would use cd command or the file explore, or just run it… Today a much faster trick came to me accidently. It is:

1. Set a breakpoint in your editor – Matlab will ask you if you want to switch directory.
2. Click yes.
3. Unset the breakpoint.

超级担疼无聊文……

今天忽然发现Chrome的Tab显示有些不正常，字体往右渐隐了。上网一查发现竟然是更新的特性。比较惊讶，因为之前Chrome的每次更新都是锦上添花，从来没有出现过这种几乎是带有恶意的情形。

添加了直接影响用户浏览体验的新功能，同时没有给出任何选择——这是非常不明智的。简单的说就是强加，而且是这种主观性很强的东西。
先说说这个Fade给我的感觉，我常常就某个问题打开多个网页，除了上下滚动外，彼此来回切换对我而言就是最频繁的操作了。之前切换几乎是不用想的，向上瞟一眼就行，花的时间<1s。现在好，每个Tab上都多了花哨的装饰——字体颜色从黑到白或者从白到黑。扫视的时候每个Tab都要停留那么一下——就像目光被“一路绊倒”似的。

这个其实还好，关键是注意力被分散了，这是不可容忍的！如果浏览器市场你是一家独大，那么你做出这些变化用户可能没有什么怨言——有也没用，可是事实不是这样。另外很多用户的网龄都超过十年，而且是多浏览器用户。浏览器的作者想凭借一己之力改变这么多人长久的习惯，有些妄自尊大了。退一步说，即使用户想接受这个特立独行的改变，但因为别的浏览器都没有这个特点，在不同浏览器之间切换的时候这种差异感肯定无法消除。根据网上的讨论，这个问题最早在四月的开发版被反映，可是到了今日的稳定版还存在。恐怕Chrome的设计者认定这不是个问题而是个很酷的东西、并且决意加以保持了。不过对我Chrome这个“新特性”顿时让Firefox好看了不少，恐怕二者使用的时间比例要互换了。

If you are using Win7 and Wacom tablet together, you have a good chance to suffer  from the extremely annoying ring that appears whenever you press your stylus , even very slightly.

The result is your painting stroke becomes very intermittent or sticky, and of course, with a series of blinking rings. Plainly, this is a disaster for your creativity and mood

I know there must be people searching the web for the answer every day, so I write the solution here to increase the possibility of encounting an useful answer.

So, let’s take a few steps to get rid of it!

1. Press Win+R (R for “run”)Type in “msconfig” (omit the quote when you type!)
2. Select the “Service” tab and take your time to find the “Tablet PC Input Service”
3. Notice the checkbox? Uncheck it and press apply!

4. After restart, you can try your Wacom stylus – the ring once drove you crazyno longer appears, so enjoy your smooth stroke!

Add the following line into your vim configuration file _vimrc(mswin) or .vimrc (linux). Then after any searching

or replacing work you can click backspace key to remove all the highlights.

nmap <BS> :noh<CR>

BS is BackSpace key, nmap means normal mode. noh is short for ‘no highlight’. <CR> means Return key in MS Windows.

Reference (talks about diverse maps in Vim. My own _vimrc only uses nmap and already achieved much functions)

http://www.linux.com/archive/feed/54936

Cheers~