What’s Up with DropFolders?

In mid-2010, I released a small project of mine called DropFolders to the general public. The application is built upon Adobe AIR and makes extensive use of the Native Process API to coordinate video transcode jobs through an embedded instance of the HandBrake CLI. It also adds a simple mechanism to employ a set of watch and destination folders along with custom video presets.

Sounds cool, right? Well a lot of other people think so too – I still get multiple emails every week asking about further development or just general usage tips. Since releasing the application, I’ve had to move on to other projects and simply do not have the time to improve the codebase on a regular basis. My plan was to open source everything last Summer – but I never found the time to do so and that’s sorta how things have been left since then.

However, I am at the end of a new project for the university which involves the integration and expansion of the DropFolders codebase into a new, server-based application called CrunchBuddy. I plan on integrating some of the improvements from CrunchBuddy into DropFolders and releasing this as an update across both Windows and OSX platforms. So… I know many are in need of an update – and I do have a list of general improvements… hoping to get this done over the next month or two.

Adobe Edge Preview 5: New Tools and Properties

Adobe Edge is a new motion and interactivity tool from Adobe which can output rich, interactive compositions using standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. I’ve recorded a small set of videos demonstrating some of the new features of Adobe Edge Preview 5 and present them here.

Joseph Labrecque demonstrates how to use Adobe Edge Preview 5: Covers the Transform Tool, Clip Tool, Cursors, Easing, and Symbol Events.

Adobe Edge Preview 5: Publish Settings

Adobe Edge is a new motion and interactivity tool from Adobe which can output rich, interactive compositions using standard web technologies like HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript. I’ve recorded a small set of videos demonstrating some of the new features of Adobe Edge Preview 5 and present them here.

Joseph Labrecque demonstrates how to use Adobe Edge Preview 5: Covers the Preloader, Down-Level Stage, Poster Capture, and Publish Settings.

Big day for Adobe releases; Lightroom, SWF Investigator, Adobe Gaming, and SHADOW

So Adobe has gone kinda nuts over the past 24 hours. Here’s all the new goodies:

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4

Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 4 software provides a comprehensive set of digital photography tools, from powerfully simple one-click adjustments to cutting-edge advanced controls. Create images that inspire, inform, and delight.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html

Adobe SWF Investigator

Adobe® SWF Investigator is the only comprehensive, cross-platform, GUI-based set of tools, which enables quality engineers, developers and security researchers to quickly analyze SWF files to improve the quality and security of their applications. With SWF Investigator, you can perform both static and dynamic analysis of SWF applications with just one toolset. SWF Investigator lets you quickly inspect every aspect of a SWF file from viewing the individual bits all the way through to dynamically interacting with a running SWF.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/swfinvestigator/

Adobe Gaming

Only the Adobe® Flash® Platform lets you deliver your game to 500 million iOS, Android, Blackberry, Kindle Fire, and Nook mobile devices and 99% of connected computers — with no additional install. One codebase. Unmatched reach and possibilities.

FLASH NOT DEAD… FLASH NOT DEAD… FLASH NOT DEAD…

http://gaming.adobe.com/

Adobe Shadow

Adobe® Shadow is a new inspection and preview tool that allows front-end web developers and designers to work faster and more efficiently by streamlining the preview process, making it easier to customize websites for mobile devices.

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/shadow/

Announcing a new release from Fractured Vision Media

shivervein - bloodletshadows

…so raw and powerful – it evokes so much…
…made me feel cold from the first chord…
…there’s some denseness here that is utterly dark and beautiful…
…feels like a march on a stormy shoreline with landmines going off around me…
…very cinematic and minimal – I can hear something bubbling under the surface…
…tipped over the edge into a dark dystopian major city in the not to distant future…
…I can still feel its grip after it has ended…
…very intense!…

This work is the result of February Album Writing Month 2012 and is pretty raw and conceptual in nature. The tracks on the album have been somewhat tweaked from the original recordings in that they have had additional post-mixdown treatments applied and are mastered for CD. The tracks are also ordered not in the publish order established through FAWM, but rather are ordered in light of how they flow into one another to establish a more ideal listening experience.

These tracks are do not fall under the An Early Morning Letter, Displaced catalog… so I’ve developed a new project name for experimental material like this: shivervein.

This initial release, “bloodletshadows” is available as a free download from FVM as either a CD-Audio image to burn to CDR, or as a collection of MP3 files encoded at 256kbps.