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the-odd-job · 4 years

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I want to get into digital drawing. Do you have a program to recommend? And what ipad or tablet do you use?

This got long so I’ll just put it under a read more.

First, tablet. I have a Wacom Bamboo CTH-470, which is like, super duper basic and cost around 100€.

But it’s always been well enough for me, so if you’re just starting out I’d suggest getting something from a similar price range (it’s also going at its eighth or so year and is yet to fail me despite getting abused quite a bit, so needless to say I’m p happy with it.) I also like smaller tablets like the one I have now, ‘cause they fit into smaller space and I’ve never felt the need for anything bigger. I have tried a bigger tablet (that I didn’t own), but I did not like it.

I can’t really tell you anything about iPads. I have used one a few times (Procreate as the drawing app), but I... Wasn’t a fan of drawing directly on the screen. So personally I’d never get any tablet, iPad or screened drawing tablet or anything of the like, where you need to draw on the screen. But that’s just a personal preference and probably comes from being so used to just regular drawing tablets; I’m sure that if I used one for long enough I’d get used to it. I just have no interest in learning.

Another personal preference: styluses with no batteries in them. I’ve never looked into why some styluses have batteries, but I do not like the thought of needing one for the pen to work.

Then, programs! Me, I’ve been using SAI since I started digital art, first SAI 1 (pirated version), and now SAI 2 (legit version), and I swear by it.

However, SAI is stupidly basic as a drawing program, which is a very big part of why I love it (it lets you focus just on the drawing without any distractions), but is also a huge downside of it. In the exact same price range is also Clip Studio Paint, so honestly, if you were ready to shell out 50~€ for a drawing program, I’d just go for CSP and learn to use it from the beginning, ‘cause CSP is anything but basic and is actually a very powerful piece of software (and 30 day free trial goes without saying. For SAI too I think, if I remember right).

If you don’t wanna pay and don’t wanna pirate, there’s a bunch of free art programs too, most of which I’ve never used to any great extent. Except GIMP, but GIMP isn’t exactly a drawing program, it’s an image manipulation program, so I can’t recommend you’d try to draw with it.

A couple of free drawing drawing programs I have heard good things about are Krita and FireAlpaca, so you could check those out.

And unless you’ve used drawing programs before, word of warning: every last one of them is gonna look complicated and scary at first, some more so than others. Part of what drove me to SAI was exactly because it was so stripped down, which made it easy to learn, but even that was a learning curve. Just take it slow and don’t be discouraged. Once you learn to use the drawing program of your choice it’ll become second nature.

But you gotta weigh the pros and cons of the programs for yourself. In my case, yeah, SAI is basic, but it’s also easy to use and I can achieve the results I want with it, so it’s enough. But what you want and need from a program only you can say, and will only come with a little bit time and a little bit of experience. For me, one feature I can’t live without, is stabilizer. SAI has one for across the board, CSP has one for individual brushes, and idk about other drawing programs. But I need the stabilizer, it gives me so much more control over my brush strokes and brush pressure (for reference, I keep SAI’s stabilizer at 12 excepting the rare instances where I need to turn it off). Some might kinda call that cheating but WHATEVER I like my stabilizer sue me.

Another thing is SAI’s layer and layer folder organization methodology. I have it down for my art flow and use of hundreds of layers for basically everything I make, and is what keeps me from even trying to switch to Photoshop, ‘cause Photoshop doesn’t support the same layer folder clipping thingy. Which is why even if I save as psd from SAI, opening it up in Photoshop will just have it look fucked.

I can’t remember if CSP handled the layers the same as SAI or Photoshop rn, but yeah. Once you get to using something and get used to it, you’ll find features that you just need that will weed out the potential programs for you. Not that you can’t ever learn around them or learn to live without them, but it becomes an issue of do you want to.

Sheesh, that got long. Hope it helps though!

#asks #anonymous #not art

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starstruck-xavier · 4 years

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[5] 5 Times Someone Stopped Virgil From Self-Harming and 1 Time He Stopped Himself

my mum fixed the power so it’s remus time!! bruises because cough cough i totally don’t do the same thing at all the final chapter is getting v v long so i hope i can finish it before the end of today jfhgjdfhgdf

1 - Logan || 2 - Roman || 3 - Patton || 4 - Janus || [5 - Remus] || 6 - Virgil

ao3 || wattpad || fanfiction masterpost

words for this chapter: 1018 ships: platonic dukexiety, background queerplatonic moxiety warnings: one brief mention of (fake, mechanical) spiders, self-harm

When Remus first saw the bruises on Virgil’s collarbones one day, when he was wearing a looser shirt to deal with the heat and had unknowingly sweated away his concealer, he assumed they were hickeys from Patton and teased him about it until he was told that Patton doesn’t do that kind of thing. His affections don’t go much further than sweet kisses, warm cuddles and pun-infused compliments. So who else could’ve done them? Virgil had playfully told him that it’s a secret, then a few nights later, as Remus pressed ice onto a blossoming of new bruises, he tearily admitted that they’re self-inflicted.

It’s not the habit that Virgil’s most proud of, in fact it took him a while after that night to allow Remus to tell everyone else. Of course, he was met with a mix of shock and sympathy from everybody and has tried not to do it since, but sometimes the frustration over his work just gets to him and he always directs any tension or anger back towards himself. Most of the time it’s with his art - sharp pencils and digital drawing styluses are unsurprisingly easy to bruise with - he’ll be doing his warm up sketches and keep failing to draw a near-perfect circle, or he’ll be already halfway through a drawing and keep making the same mistake over and over on his drawing tablet, or maybe he’ll even be doing it on paper and make a mistake that can’t be taken back with the undo button on his keyboard.

It’s a good thing Remus is stronger than him.

“Virgil!" He catches Virgil’s arm just before he can attack his own shoulder again, firmly pulling it back and taking his pencil from him. "Don’t do that, stormcloud. What’s wrong?”

They’re in an empty art room that they were given permission to use. With both of them being rather socially anxious and preferring to be alone while they work, combined with the easy access to acrylic paints and good-quality scissors, it’s the ideal atmosphere for them to be working on their art pieces together. If only Virgil could regain his focus.

"Sorry, Re." He exhales slowly to calm his suddenly racing heart. "My art just isn’t going how I'd like it to." Scanning the canvas for invisible mistakes, he brings his free hand up and presses at the bruises, wincing at the revived ache.

Remus takes his other hand as well, now holding them both. "Take a couple of deep breaths. It’s going to be okay, you’re doing really good!" While Virgil breathes in, Remus looks over at the canvas and smiles. "I love the colours you’ve chosen! And your paintbrush strokes and pencil sketches are just perfect. See? Your art is amazing, nothing to beat yourself up over.”

Virgil can’t help but smile at all the compliments Remus is sending his way; he feels better already, the urge to bruise completely gone. But even so, there’s still the tiny mistakes that Virgil can never ignore when he looks at his art for long enough. While Remus calls his pencil sketches perfect, Virgil can see the infinitesimal wavers in the straight lines due to his shaky hands. Logan or Janus would explain that it’s to do with how the more you look at your art while you make it, the more details you notice and commit to memory, and while it’s useful to know, Virgil doesn’t exactly like that it’s true.

“Virgil?” Remus’ voice quickly brings him back out of his train of thought. "You still there, cobweb?”

"Oh, yeah, sorry." He smiles sadly and looks back at his own canvas. "I was thinking about the art. I wish I could look at mine as positively as I do with other people’s art.”

Remus observes the expression on Virgil’s face; a little solemn, perhaps because he had narrowly avoided attacking the already sensitive skin that thinly stretches around his shoulders. Though, Remus can’t forget that he’s also had a rough week, as has been explained to him. He softly squeezes Virgil’s hands at regular intervals, suddenly coming up with an idea. "Want me to tell you about the time I filled a high school teacher’s desk drawer with fake mechanical spiders to take your mind off things a little bit?”

An amused snort makes its way out of Virgil. "Oh my gosh, what did the teacher do to you?" Noticing the use of a distraction, his face brightens a little and he picks up a pencil to divide the attention between Remus’ story and his art piece.

"You can probably ask Roman and he’ll remember too.” Remus then goes on to dramatically reenact the tale, making grander and grander hand gestures that has Virgil focussing more on the story than his work, and somehow it allows him to still work over that area that previously had him frustrated and then carry on with the sketch in that corner of the canvas. He has to pause to let his laughter fully subside when Remus gets to the part where he hides behind the classroom door with Roman to see the teacher’s reaction, and then Remus goes right into a different story detailing his and Roman’s shenanigans, how they adopted and raised a cat until it had kittens without their parents ever knowing, or the backstory of why neither of them are technically allowed into Hot Topic anymore.

Virgil makes a mental reminder to ask Roman about these stories later, surprised that he hasn’t been told by him already.

There’s so many stories Remus seemingly has stored up in his brain, just waiting for the opportunity to tell them, that the successful distraction plan takes them well past the time they were planning on leaving. That’s okay, though, because Virgil’s feeling surprisingly satisfied at how his work looks now. Any bad feelings or urge to take it out on himself feel like distant, forgotten whims and all that’s left is the amusement in his eyes as his friend talks and talks about these crazy high school stories that he wishes he was there to witness too.

~ (let me know if you want to be tagged for the last chapter!) @underestimatemethatwillbefun

#dukexiety #platonic dukexiety #self harm tw #tw bruises #xavier's fanfiction #sanders sides #sanders sides fanfiction #sanders sides fanfic #virgil sanders #ts virgil #remus sanders #ts remus #tw spider mention #tw arachnophobia

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thedappleddragon · 3 years

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I woke up really warm and cozy because I slept under some extra blankets which was really nice. I made breakfast and offered my sister the other half f the last bagel, but she sounded annoyed and told me she didnt want it in that way that means she was probably saving it for later and was mad at me for eating it, so I left the other half and the cream cheese on the counter for her. instead of the other half of the bagel I toasted some bread and ate that with cream cheese. later I saw the bagel half in the trash which was annoying and wasteful but whatever. I melted just a little bit of chocolate and had strawberries but the glass I melted the chocolate in had a crack, and when I opened the microwave I watched at the crack circled almost all the way around the glass so I cautiously closed the microwave and waited for it to cool off in case it exploded or something and then threw out the glass. while I was watching tiktoks one came up about being a vet tech and putting animals down and I started crying about my cat who is still very much alive and at the foot of my bed. i’ve been thinking about her eventual death and how I'll have to leave her behind when I go to college and I really dont want to. I'm already devastated just thinking about it. I know no-one at my house will appreciate her as much as I do and it just makes me so fuckin sad. it was a short moment and I was able to shake it off but typing this out made me sad again. I spent a lot of time crocheting, and the sweater frog is almost done aside from the eyes. I noticed the hours slipping by as I made my mom some fish, but I let the thought go and crocheted again, remembering all the things I was watching/listening to while working on different parts as I sewed everything together. someone in my friend’s discord posted a crocheted sweater they has just finished so we talked a little bit and I got so inspired to make my own sweater and became fascinated with he idea for a little bit, researching yarn types and seeing what joann’s had available. until my laptop died. I had some chocolate covered strawberries again because I have a massive sweet tooth apparently and chatted with my dad a little bit. I watched raggedy Ann and Andy; a musical adventure (which I had never seen before) and it was so damn cute and charming and both raggedy’s voices are so damn cute and soothing and gets close to scratching the same itch as the old Care Bears movies but without the nostalgia factor. it was so cute until the camel started hallucinating and the whole animation staff had their coffee pot spiked with acid because WHAT THE FUCK. the greed monster was horrible but the animation was so mesmerizing and gross and reminded me of my mom. honestly the whole middle part of the movie makes NO goddamn sense but it’s still very cute and nice at the bookends. the little girl’s sweater at the start was also very cute and tbh if I was fashionable I would wear it. the “just a rag dolly” song is maybe my favorite? and stuck in my head in a good way. it’s a nice change from various rhythm heaven levels which just reentered my head goddamnit. OH YEAH I ordered a 10 pack of ds styluses a while ago and they finally arrived. they were supposed to be assorted colors but I got all pink lmao. they dont match my white ds but I dont care. I also have a clear case coming eventually that I want to decorate with posca pens :) I played a little bit of Nintendo's and rhythm heaven to test out the styluses and yep they work. but it made me want to repair my touch screen because it’s got some big scratches on it that I just dont like running my stylus over in fear of making it worse. the screen still works totally fine, I just wish it wasn't scratched. I'm so glad that my ds is still in pretty dang good condition, and I want to keep it that way. I might do an all-over general maintenance (I cant think of what the computer version of a makeover Is called asdlkfjsdf not a refurbishment but something else) just to make it last. anyway after watching the movie I went into the bathroom all smiley and singsongy and looked at myself in the mirror and got so happy I stimmed really hard. I'm literally in fucking love with myself im the cutest bitch around im goddamn narcissus and perfect girlfriend material. idk why my self esteem had been skyrocketing lately, but I want to ride this high as long as can. hating yourself is exhausting and miserable and I dont want to go through that again. anyway m knees hurt and I have too much energy but I want to go to bed anyway goodnight mwah sorry for the long post ALSO IT’S MY FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY NOW :D

#thanks for coming to my ted talk #February 2021 daily #2021 daily #long post

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speedyengineerfury · 3 years

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Pro Engineer For Mac

A great deal of digital ink has been spilled (pixels have been randomly arranged?) over whether the iPad is actually a useful productivity tool and much of it has been written by artists, technology journalists and bloggers, but I have yet to see much of a comprehensive examination of the iPad from an engineering perspective.

Engineer Mac Unit

Pro Engineer For Mac High Sierra

Pro Engineer For Mac Installer

Before I go further, if you prefer listening to podcasts, I talk about it extensively on Episode 68: Paperless of Pragmatic on The Engineered Network.

Jun 29, 2020 Not only has the iPad Pro moved towards the ethos of a MacBook with the release of a Magic Keyboard and touchpad for the tablet, the user interface of both MacOS and iPadOS have a growing similarity. Aug 11, 2020 New Apple MacBook Pro (16-inch, 16GB RAM, 512GB Storage, 2.6GHz Intel Core i7) - Space Gray Universities like Virginia Tech recommend the highest graphics possible with a good screen resolution. The new 16-inch Macbook Pro with retina display is the only contender for a Macbook for engineering majors.

I know several other engineers that aren’t interested in the Apple cult, and prefer the configurability of Microsoft products of the past and they latched on to the Surface when it came out however reports of its sluggishness and heft as a tablet made it more of a laptop with a detachable keyboard than an actual tablet, and the Surface Pen was not held in very high regard either. I heard of issues with palm rejection and accuracy as well as lag, but observation is the best tell and I’ve observed those people using their Surface almost exclusively as a laptop, and seldom if ever using the Pen.

As I am more personally invested in the Apple ecosystem, I’ve owned and throughly used an iPad 1, iPad 2, iPad Air, iPad Mini, iPad Mini 2 and now an iPad Pro. In that time I’ve used a Griffin 2-in-1 Pen/Capacitive Stylus, an Adonit Jot Pro and now an Apple Pencil. So with those qualifications out of the way…

What’s Special About Engineering?

Engineer Mac Unit

Engineering involves conveying a lot of information diagrammatically and it’s not the only profession that does. In that sense marking up drawings, flow charts, red lines and whiteboards are our tools for this job, but what frustrates me more than the old tongue in cheek comment “the age of the paperless office” which apparently happened in the 80s but the world must have missed it somehow, as I intuitively know that moment is coming. What device/service or combination thereof will finally deliver on that promise-turned-running-gag?

To be effective as an engineering tool for me personally it needs to solve several problems I have:

An engineering notebook everywhere that stores sketches, handwritten as well as typed notes

Accurate markups of PDFs without loss of resolution

Creating flow charts and diagrams quickly and easily

Portable enough to take everywhere with me

Able to physically sign documents, in Word and PDFs accurately

The goals are to eliminate three issues I encounter every day at work:

I need to carry three pens everywhere (Blue, Black and Red) and they leak, they get lost, they run out of ink, they suck

I currently have to print a document, write my markups on it, then scan it in again which erodes the resolution every time and makes the original document unsearchable even with the best OCR software currently available.

I make notes in my engineering notebook (a legal requirement) and need to take it everywhere with me but its size is limited so I move from book to book with transitional periods between books requiring that I carry multiple at once.

Pro Engineer For Mac High Sierra

iPad for Engineering: Take 1

The iPad Pro for engineering is therefore first and foremost about the stylus, but the ability to use the device with a touch screen keyboard would be a huge plus as well if it could pull it off. That said I’d tried styluses before without much luck and touch screen keyboards as well without any success, so call me skeptical from the outset.

I drew several Enginerd comic strips using my iPad Mini 2 and the Griffin and Adonit mentioned previously but to be honest it was difficult and frustrating. I tried to use older iPads and styluses at work and the two big issues that kept arising were:

Stylus accuracy and speed made drawing markups, signatures and notes effectively impossible to do

I found myself regularly erasing and trying strokes and signatures again and again and eventually giving up (signatures bared no resemblance to my signature with a traditional pen and paper)

Typing was slow because the key sizes on the Mini were too cramped and on the original iPad the typing lag was beyond horrible much of the time

Of course the typing problems of an iPad can be overcome in some ways by using an external keyboard. To that end I used an original iPad keyboard dock with all of the models from time to time, even using a 30-pin dock to lightning adaptor with a box of old business cards to support the weight of the iPad (a trick that worked fine until the iPad Pro came about). It was excellent, however only useful on my desktop at work and for portability to meetings and on the train it was useless.

I also tried the Clamcase, but it just wasn’t stable enough even on the train with the keyboard component regularly disconnecting and being horribly sluggish at the best of times. I wrote about it, I podcasted about it and honestly I gave up on the iPad as an engineering productivity tool.

That was, until the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil were released.

iPad for Engineering: Take 2

Ever willing to give technology another chance, I obtained an iPad Pro, Apple Pencil and Smart Cover and took it to work for several weeks in the lead up to Christmas determined that if it didn’t work out, I would return them. If they couldn’t earn their place then they had no place. The TL;DR: I still have them all.

Double Touch Typing

Yes I did a year of typing classes at high school and I’m a touch typist as a result of those hard yards. Keyboard key spacing is critical when I’m going from device to device. I’ve tried many times to use touch screen keyboards for touch typing, but there have always been two issues: No locators for your index fingers (see those notches on your F and J keys on your physical keyboard? Yeah those things) and the key-sizing and inter-key spacing a were always just off/small enough such that when typing on the screen like it was a physical keyboard, many keys didn’t align. Typing on older/smaller iPads was slower, very inaccurate and ultimately frustrating typing and in the end I just gave up.

Pro Engineer For Mac Installer

When I’m talking about key-sizing and inter-key spacing, what I’m referring to is that the physical dimensions of the screens on iPads make it physically impossible to create a virtual keyboard that matches a physical equivalent. The same is true of the iPad Pro, actually but it’s damned close. The key sizes and spacing on the iPads 1, 2, Mini, Pro, Smart Keyboard and a Apple Wireless keyboard for comparative purposes as shown below:

Device / KeyboardWidth (mm)Height (mm)Key Spacing (mm)iPad Mini Landscape1211.514.5iPad Pro Portrait1211.513.5iPad 1 & 2 Landscape151417iPad Pro Landscape161518iPad Pro Smart Keyboard1514.519Standard MBP and 1st Generation Aluminium Physical Keyboards161519

A real world physical keyboard is 273mm wide from the left hand edge of the Caps Lock to the right hand edge of the Return key. The full width of the iPad Pro screen is only 263mm, and that missing 10mm has to come from somewhere. As you can see from the table above, Apple shaved it off the inter-key spacing, which is the obvious choice and honestly the one I would have made as well.

Touch Typing: How Fast is Fast?

As a way to test just how different the typing was between the touch screen and a real physical keyboard, I took a good old-fashioned typing test, using a 1st Generation Aluminium Apple physical keyboard as well as the new Smart Keyboard vs the iPad Pro touch screen keyboard in landscape mode. I used the app “TapTyping” and each test was performed three times in each configuration and the best time taken from each.

Just for good measure I threw in a test on the same hardware and software by using the iPad Pro in portrait mode whose keyboard dimensions closely approximates my previous failed attempts to get screen touch typing utility from the iPad Mini keyboard. Hence, same software, same hardware iPad with only the keyboard data entry as the variable. The results:

Device/KeyboardSpeed (wpm)Accuracy (%)iPad Pro soft keyboard in Portrait Mode3994iPad Pro Smart Keyboard6396iPad Pro soft keyboard in Landscape Mode6797iPad Pro with Apple Bluetooth Keyboard8598

It’s important to note that the typing test accuracy does not rely on auto corrections and letters must be corrected prior to proceeding. That said, the occasional need to glance down at my virtual keys really hurt my speed and the slightly different key spacings also hurt my accuracy, but it’s the same old story: physical keyboards will always be faster for raw speed.

Without a physical edge to feel for, once your fingers are visually aligned on the F&J keys, the maximum error on the iPad Pro is now only 1mm for the standard keyboard keys. For me at least, that turns out to be the threshold of usability for the first time for touch typing on a touch screen. (I henceforth refer to that as double touch typing)

I’m still slowed down initially when I glance down at the glass to position my fingers for the first letters but after that it doesn’t require any further thinking or retraining and I’m happily typing away. My fingers sometimes need to realign on the stretch keys that can drag my hands away from their home position over the F&J keys which then slows me down.

The verdict though: the iPad Pro is by the far the best and perhaps only iPad out there that I can double touch type on.

Smart Keyboard

The Smart Keyboard is designed to work only with the iPad Pro and uses the three small and well disguised pins located on the left hand side of the tablet. It has several folding configurations depending upon whether you want to use the keyboard or not, or in carrying mode. All of these took a fair amount of practice in the store to get your head around.

I tried typing on the Smart Keyboard in an Apple Store several times for up to 30 minutes at a time trying to decide what I thought about the key mechanism but I ultimately came away with the impression that it felt rubbery, sluggish and annoying.

Interestingly though, despite being a physical keyboard, I wasn’t able to type faster than the touch keyboard, but as the results show it’s not by much of a margin. The marginally smaller keys and texture of those keys made it harder to feel the edges than the standard Bluetooth keyboard but those locating notches were nevertheless helpful.

The truth is however, if I wanted to lug around a physical keyboard it needs to have more normal physical keys on it. The keys on the Smart Keyboard feel like a material compromise too far, most likely as a weight reduction measure, thinness and possibly also for moisture resistance, but either way it doesn’t feel that great, and for that kind of money it needs to.

I wanted to try the touch typing experience on the touch screen before I spent money on the smart keyboard and with the results of the touch keyboard being promising, for the moment at least I think I’ll pass on the smart keyboard. If I didn’t have a laptop and the iPad Pro was my only device then I could understand buying a physical keyboard as well.

Such a big screen needs some sort of protection however so if you’re serious about protecting your investment then the ideal typing experience could include a Smart Cover and an external keyboard of some kind. To that end I looked at two Apple-based options.

DeviceCost (AUD)Cost (USD)Weight (g)Smart Keyboard$269$169337Apple Wireless Keyboard$165$99231Smart Cover$89$59162(AWK + SC Combination)-$15-$11+56

The best typing experience would be to buy the Bluetooth keyboard and the Smart Cover and only take the keyboard when lots of typing was anticipated. I dare say for the vast majority of tablet owners the Smart Keyboard will get little use if they have another computing device with a genuine keyboard. I think, to borrow Tim Cooks expression, the keyboard makes the iPad a more “confusing product” than it needs to be. Especially when you consider just how good the double touch typing experience now is on the iPad Pro screen.

Also to prove the point that the touch screen is plenty good, this entire article was typed in double touch.

Apple Pencil

I’ve always dreamed of having both a responsive and an accurate stylus but until I tried this one, I hadn’t found it. Yes I did the slow motion thing and I know there is still lag, and yes some apps haven’t been updated to fully utilise the Apple Pencil specific APIs. Honestly though, those apps that have been updated are a dream to use and the drawing lag is barely perceptible unless you’re trying to find it.

Before we get to that though, as a drawing device I had no option but to compare them with the competition:

Writing ImplementWeight (g)Papermate InkJoy boring old normal ball-point pen7Apple Pencil20.5Adonit23

Of course it’s not a fair fight since the Apple Pencil is an active device with a battery and such, and the metal case of the Adonit makes it quite a bit heavier, but the thing I noticed the most was that the Apple Pencil feels like the heaviest pen to hold in your hand when you’re writing like due to its weight distribution. I sometimes remove the lid from pencils to make them lighter and reduce their overall length when using them for longer periods. (Reduces hand fatigue) This also has the effect of reducing the pressure I write with when I do so. The plug/cap on the end of the Apple Pencil doesn’t make much of a difference to either the weight or the length of the device and it still feels just as heavy.

Okay that’s a bit of a nit pick for sure but I personally don’t like a hefty pen when I’m writing with it for a long period of time. It feels unnecessary and adds no real value since it appears as though they’ve added steel to weight it to prevent rolling and also to be attracted to the magnets mounted in the iPad. Directly comparing it then, I’ve found using it for longer periods tires my hand more so than a traditional pen would, which is understandable given the additional weight.

I can get used to that of course, since I used to be able to write six pages of text notes during a two hour lecture 20 years ago without my hand cramping. Those were the days…(insert old man comment here)

Logistics

Carrying the iPad Pro between meetings is no different to bringing my traditional notebook, and the battery life easily lasts the day with practically constant use. I do get annoyed about the short battery life of the Apple Pencil with a full day of use in my job requiring an emergency charge mid-afternoon on two separate days. That said, the charging was quick even though inserting it into the Lightning port looks ridiculous and is particularly prone to accidental damage if you or someone close by is careless.

Software

I started out using the built in Notes app for taking my notes but moved to GoodNotes shortly thereafter and even transcribed my notes into that app for its amazing handwriting recognition features. I’ve been using Grafio for charts and diagrams and PDF Pen for marking up PDFs. Sync services via iCloud and Dropbox for those apps work really well but refer to my individual reviews of those apps for more about the software component of the iPad Pro equation.

Non-Engineering Tasks

Having owned and extensively used all of the iPad form factors now, I can safely say that the size extremes have clear use cases with the mid-size model being a bit of both.

Mini is for single handed use and great for reading novels

Pro is for two handed use and great for newspapers and comics

Air is a bit of both and balances portability with the above two

There is something magical about being able to touch the screen and see things respond directly to your touch. When I used my first light pen in the late 80s I was impressed but it was nothing like what we have now. I worry that people get a bit blasé about it with the near ubiquity of smartphones these days, but the fact remains the immersiveness you feel interacting with a touch device only draws you in more, the larger the screen is.

I use my laptop on the train a few hours each work day but primarily at my desk. I use my iPad on the couch or in a comfy chair. For reading Twitter, the newspaper, Instapaper, my RSS feeds, and just surfing the Internet the iPad Pro has been the best iPad yet for those tasks.

I thought that I would miss the one handed operation of the Mini but ultimately I just prop the Pro up on my leg or knee bent at a comfortable angle and don’t really hold it at all and I’ve been fortunate to spend a few hours in that position over the Christmas holidays and it hasn’t been an issue.

Video and audio playback is simply amazing with excellent bass reproduction and the volume can easily fill a small room. Much to be happy about there.

I’ve been avoiding using my iPad in bed for a few months now since I’ve trying to avoid artificial light before bed so that hasn’t been issue either. In short: one-handed operation of an iPad turns out to not be a big issue for me. Your mileage may vary.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that achieving a truly paperless office is a challenging task. Asking yourself the question: ‘do I really need that printout?' certainly helps, but truly collaborative software tools are only just now becoming available that allow the sorts of digital collaboration we need to bring ourselves over the line technologically speaking.

So long as organizations and legislators rely on wet ink-signatures, we’ll be stuck with paper. So long as employees are given laptops and not tablets and styluses for their jobs, we’ll be stuck with paper. Where we have a choice, or decide to draw a line and stump up our own funds to try and escape the shackles of the paper world and all of its flaws, I think going paperless is absolutely possible.

The iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil, in conjunction with GoodNotes has allowed me to completely ditch my written notebooks. I can search those notes with good accuracy, and I can double-touch type on the tablet with no external keyboard or special (heavier) cover required, at quite a respectable speed for the first time ever.

For me at least, I’ll be keeping this device and using it for my job every day, and for many days to come.

16-inch model

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thisnerdsadventures · 4 years

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end of semester 4.2....... oh my god

and just like that, we have hit the end of 4 years together. i remember when i started this blog, i really thought it was gonna die within like three months, but im so glad i kept this up because its very rewarding to look back and see how much i’ve grown and all the things i’ve done as an undergrad. But all good things it seems must come to an end to make way for new beginnings - there will be more emo posts to come, but for now, here is my wrapup of the semester!

computer and network security - you will recall that i took computer systems security the other semester, but this class is much more math-y and focused on crypto and such. Notably, ron rivest teaches this class (he made RSA encryption!) which is a big reason of why i’m taking it and also why a lot of people i know are taking it. so far, the class seems all right, i haven’t had to angst until 3am about it yet (which some of you might be like “oh this is just the second week though” but oho last semester i was already in tears over operating hell by this time)

So for some odd reason, ron didn’t lecture like half the time? uh lol, but yeah i think i learned one or two things in this class, i definitely feel like i would’ve learned a lot more had we actually been on campus and had I gone to lecture and such, but i guess this is kinda what happens during a pandemic. quality content though, very interesting

intelligent multi-modal UI - i was tied between taking this class and taking another UI class, but since I ended up with a conflict with the other, I’m now taking this one. This class gives me major interactive music systems vibes because its a lot of implementing interactive systems (oh this makes sense now) with I’m assuming an AI component???? anyways, the professor seems super cool, he went off today about how Apple originally was not a fan of styluses, but now they’re all in with the new iPad Pros and such. should be a chill-ish class hopefully

um so i guess the class was ok??? again, i know i mentioned this in another post, but i didnt feel very excited by any of my technicals this semester, which explains the lack of interest in this reflection. But yeah i made a thing, u can check out the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1m3m3e3M9jM

Basically it’s a system that lets you drum in the air and change chords and rhythm and such. Again, probably would’ve tried a little harder and learned more if i were on campus, but those are the circumstances. also this class cemented the fact that i dont like machine learning, ok moving on

negotiation - ANYWAYS our first class was yesterday, and it was fun and a little nerve-wracking because of the hype, but definitely very different from any class I’ve taken here. but its refreshing to have a class led that with that kind of enthusiasm where everyone in the class is also really excited to be there. I think it’s easy to get caught up with a lot of classes here because people don’t really want to be in class a lot of times, but this class was definitely a different story. super excited to be able to learn a lot this semester

I’m definitely writing a longer post on this coming soon, but wow. This class taught me so much. I also was really intrinsically motivated to learn as much as i could in this class, and it was refreshing to be in a class that i was that excited about and surrounded by people who were also that excited to be there. Not gonna lie, it was pretty demanding, I definitely hit the 12 hours a week for a 12-unit class every week, if not more, and I dont think i have ever read or written as much for a HASS class, even my CI-M’s, and I don’t think I’ve quite been challenged in a similar way that this class did for a long time. What really gets me is that every part of that class felt so deliberate, yet so relevant, that nothing seemed unnecessary or like busy work. At the end of the day, this class wasn’t even just about negotiation it was also about being a better person and striving to reach that, and it really has inspired me to do more and reach higher, and I am very grateful that I got to take this class, even though the thought to do so only occurred to me like five months ago, and five months ago, i really was just searching for an easy HASS class. But I’m glad I didn’t settle, because I really feel that my perspective on life has shifted bc of this class, which is honestly kind of ridiculous if you think about it.

6.UAR was about the same - didn’t go to class after pandemic, but you know circumstances. my TA was awesome lol she really was helpful////

Other fun/notable things that happened this semester:

I got published! back in February

MITMUNC happened again! I chaired for the Facebook Board of Directors

not that many other good things happened this semester so i’ll just skim through my photo album for like fun-ish things

My dorm dropped nearly a thousand dollars at yamatos (first time at yamatos)

had a great night at harvard with a few of my friends during dine out boston

honestly there was just a lot of drama t,bh im ngl lol

obviously, we got kicked off of campus, i had like two panic attacks during this week, cried on the plane home, and am still trying to figure out how to function as a normal human being without calling my friends every six hours!

we had a darty on killian

mccormick had a senior sendoff, which was the cutest thing ever

a bunch of us did a virtual hackathon and now we might have a nonprofit??? idk on this either, stay tuned

i secured my MEng RAship which is very exciting

I successfully got my reimbursement for spring break plane tickets????? LOL

also i ran a campaign for my friend for a student government position and she lost, but i guess it was kind of fun? cant really remember what happened that three weeks because i didnt sleep that much haha! omg

went to the grocery store on thursday

goals for summer

cook more

exercise more

stay sane

actually learn a new language

thats it, im setting the bar real low for summer in quarantine lol

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abstracttheworld · 4 years

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so i had a wild ass dream and im blabbing about it here. under the cut cause it long

So heres the wild ass super long dream

it started out with, i think, me having some friends over and expressing concern over having the screen door to my house locked, citing bad dreams about a man coming to the door and demanding entry, and then having to fight him. I'd always win tho.

Then it jumepd to me being asleep? And having other bad dreams, and trying to wake ...a sibling? Cousin? up so he could take me to class on time. He did not wake in time and i panicked with only like 25 minutes to shower, get ready, and get there.

Then it jumped to there being very strange people hanging out in the space between my house and the neighbors, also the neighbor being like, part of the mob? Or something? Something to do with metal hoarding? Anyway it was weird af.

Two of the weird people got in the car with me and my dad, dad disappeared and i was at a store with the weird people, getting roped into shoplifting with a very complicated act and story.

It involves me pretending one of them is my father? Even tho im still an adult, clearly so? And the other idk- note: it was a lady and a dude before but now its two dudes. for some reason I was trying to steal ds styluses? and one big one for...something else?

anyway we get caught because i Can't Do ItTM , and me and one of the dudes laughingly explain to a clerk about the tale we lied about, but the other dude walks in and the clerk, who is a lady, waves and is like "sir i have your daughter!" and the dude is like awkwardly smiling and coming over to kiss my forehead or w/e and i promptly explain yeah that was a lie plz just arrest me

and we do and while were in the police car one of the dudes becomes some guy in a youtube channel? weird but aight hes cool

and i actually dream i have a panic attack. in the police car. but im like "its cool my meds are in my backpack" which for some reason hasnt be confiscated. and i chew them up and swallow.

and somewhere along the way as we get to the station my friend is inthe car with me and i ask her to lock my phone for me cause idk how so like, privacy. she disappears after that???

at the police thing we're walked in and like, briefly read papers or something? and then taken to the cafeteria and i grab like, chili and fries. im briefly made fun of by the food lady for getting so much food but i brush it off.

i sit down to eat and someone? a officer lady? comes by and is like "would u guys like different bowls, they seem pretty dirty" and i and the dude have to explain nah we just like, dipped them in sauce and stuff be accident.

briefly im like “huh this isnt as bad as i thought, its like, more like a normal cafeteria”

then the cops who arrested us come in. Suddenly its like, two older dudes with me? and one younger person? and they basically release the younger one, i think, all chill, and the older ones get off easier. And im called like "young lady, come with me, this has been a big misunderstanding, and we need to fix this"

and the cop is like, weirdly friendly and jovial and takes me to some room WITH A BED and im like. nah. w/e you were thinking of doing in a room with a bed with me is a nope. put me in jail.

and he like. BRINGS OUT SOME SAPIENT ANGRY GOOSE LADY? its just a goose with eyelashes- and is like YOU CAN BARE THE NEW SPECIES LET HER LAY EGGS IN YOU and im like LMAO NO

and he tries to stop me from leaving only i bust ass back to the food area and slam the doors shut and suddenly like...do magic? to lock the doors? and then suddenly everyone realizes they have powers too and its somehow connected to some other realm?

so now we gotta like. go on a journey, me and this one dude now- who was one of the weird people, and he was like "aren't you worried about your family missing you?" and im like "its cool i guess"

so we jump to some weird old mansion to look for clues and theres this shadow trying to come at us in the dark and we have to like, yoga sit pose and clasp our hands together to then shoot a ball of light? but it ends up getting me and as im dragged down im trying to reassure the dude that "its okay i think this is a scripted event"

and i get dumped into a weird room with a ton of kettles, cauldrons, and iron and stone statues, and a TALKING CARROT that i decide is deku explains to me that there is a force corrupted here that i need to stop or itll take over the top world.

the dude shows up and is like UR OKAY and im like yeah and fill him in

and as we leave the weird room i grab carrot deku and take him with me, and he turns into a teddybear as i leave.

i think for a time we were still in the weird world and its like...currently mimicing my stuff? who i find attractive? so its a bunch of the same people walking around waving at me n shit while dekubear is in my arms.

i think somewhere toward the end of this part, i encounter like...vaguely fantasy themed kiri on the road? and imiediately run up to smooch? and the guy im with teases me about how im macking one some other dude, the dekubear, and now this guy.

Then...i think it jumps to a different scene of me and him walking? the rando dude? its kinda jumbled there in sequence so i cant remember for sure

we start walking and for a while its my mother instead of the dude, and im trying to explain to her whats going on, i think? for a second were in the car, but then walking again

and im like "its not just the people in our yard. theres like. huge fucking deer all over the city just wandering and going into peoples yards. i think i prefer the deer over the guy who tries to break in..."

and then we're walking again and suddenly a huge tv thats...mounted on a tree? across the street? shows some older lady who i know as "bertha" and im like ..."BERTHA CAN U HEAR ME. BERTHA IM HERE" and some random eprson is like "bruh its a tv that doesnt-"

but then bertha responds and wigs out the rando lmao

i forget the conversation but i end up walking mroe and now i have a friend with me too? and some dude like...grabs the friend? but not? maybe its someone else? but obvi hes trying to kidnap her or something and me and the friend basically go ape on his ass and its great. knock him out and put items from the mysteriously present store shelf in the middle of a road.

i then walk into a store but apprently all the people in it are this duo whose trying to stop me from ending the corrupt force in the other world?

but then i do some spell and dissolve their illusion and its normal people. but some are like...people i met in the other world?

like some blonde dude who has to do with "scanning" as im getting items sanned (its like a cvs or some shit) and i look startled as he makes a joke about scanning me like YOU RMEEMBER but nah he doesnt its one of those "people from the dream world are real but dont know wtf ur on about"

and then the other is some girl in a wheelchair who was a princess? but is now just a rich girl whose kinda vapid but im like. its cool.

also i think by that point dekubear has disspeared and that is Sad.

the end, i think? i got woken up.

#no i will not fix tpos #im stil lgroggy #and kinda wanna sleep more #if i get the chance #ooc

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