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  • 9 Key Machine Learning Algorithms Explained in Plain English

    www.freecodecamp.org/news/a-no-code-intro-to-the-9-most-important-machine-learning-algorithms-today/

    Recommendation Systems

    Linear Regression

    Logistic Regression

    K-Nearest Neighbors

    Decision Trees and Random Forests

    Support Vector Machines

    K-Means Clustering

    Principal Component Analysis

  • Raspberry Pi – introduction and basic projects

    Connect through SSH on windows
    https://www.putty.org/

    Connect through Desktop
    Remote Desktop

    Common commands
    > sudo raspi-config
    > sudo apt-get update
    > sudo apt-get upgrade
    > ifconfig
    > nano test.py
    > wget https://path.to.image.png
    > sudo apt-get install git
    > git clone https://REPOSITORY
    > sudo reboot
    > suto shutdown -r now (reboot after shutdown)
    > cat /etc/os-release

     

     

     

    Starting kits:

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  • colorhunt.co

    Color Hunt is a free and open platform for color inspiration with thousands of trendy hand-picked color palettes.

    colorhunt.co/

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  • The modern phenomenon of the two days weekend break

    www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200117-the-modern-phenomenon-of-the-weekend

    “The idea of reducing the working week from an average of five days to four is gaining traction around the world.

    “There are a number of parallels between debates today and those that took place in the 19th century when the weekend as we now know it was first introduced. Having Saturdays as well as Sundays off work is actually a relatively modern phenomenon.

    “the weekend did not simply arise from government legislation – it was shaped by a combination of campaigns

    “Religious bodies argued that a break on Saturday would improve working class “mental and moral culture”…. and greater attendance at church on Sundays.

    “In 1842 a campaign group called the Early Closing Association was formed. It lobbied government to keep Saturday afternoon free for worker leisure in return for a full day’s work on (Saint) Monday.

    “a burgeoning leisure industry saw the new half-day Saturday as a business opportunity… Perhaps the most influential leisure activity to help forge the modern week was the decision to stage football matches on Saturday afternoon.

    “The adoption of the modern weekend was neither swift nor uniform as, ultimately, the decision for a factory to adopt the half-day Saturday rested with the manufacturer. Campaigns for an established weekend had begun in the 1840s but it did not gain widespread adoption for another 50 years…. it was embraced by employers who found that the full Saturday and Sunday break reduced absenteeism and improved efficiency.

  • MDL – NVidia Material Definition Language

    www.nvidia.com/en-us/design-visualization/technologies/material-definition-language/

    developer.nvidia.com/mdl-sdk

    THE NVIDIA MATERIAL DEFINITION LANGUAGE (MDL) gives you the freedom to share physically based materials and lights between supporting applications.

    For example, create an MDL material in an application like Allegorithmic Substance Designer, save it to your library, then use it in NVIDIA® Iray® or Chaos Group’s V-Ray, or any other supporting application.

    Unlike a shading language that produces programs for a particular renderer, MDL materials define the behavior of light at a high level. Different renderers and tools interpret the light behavior and create the best possible image.

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  • Photography basics: Color Temperature and White Balance

     

     

    Color Temperature of a light source describes the spectrum of light which is radiated from a theoretical “blackbody” (an ideal physical body that absorbs all radiation and incident light – neither reflecting it nor allowing it to pass through) with a given surface temperature.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

     

    Or. Most simply it is a method of describing the color characteristics of light through a numerical value that corresponds to the color emitted by a light source, measured in degrees of Kelvin (K) on a scale from 1,000 to 10,000.

     

    More accurately. The color temperature of a light source is the temperature of an ideal backbody that radiates light of comparable hue to that of the light source.

    As such, the color temperature of a light source is a numerical measurement of its color appearance. It is based on the principle that any object will emit light if it is heated to a high enough temperature, and that the color of that light will shift in a predictable manner as the temperature is increased. The system is based on the color changes of a theoretical “blackbody radiator” as it is heated from a cold black to a white hot state.

     

    So, why do we measure the hue of the light as a “temperature”? This was started in the late 1800s, when the British physicist William Kelvin heated a block of carbon. It glowed in the heat, producing a range of different colors at different temperatures. The black cube first produced a dim red light, increasing to a brighter yellow as the temperature went up, and eventually produced a bright blue-white glow at the highest temperatures. In his honor, Color Temperatures are measured in degrees Kelvin, which are a variation on Centigrade degrees. Instead of starting at the temperature water freezes, the Kelvin scale starts at “absolute zero,” which is -273 Centigrade.

     

    More about black bodies here: https://www.pixelsham.com/2013/03/14/black-body-color

     

     

    Details in the post

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  • 11 The Nine Situations | The Art of War by Sun Tzu

     

    https://medium.com/@shahmm/building-a-great-business-and-the-art-of-war-strategy-part-01-b8e4db611d4f

    https://tweakyourbiz.com/global/the-art-of-war

     

    https://www.fastcompany.com/3021122/fighting-your-business-battles-6-lasting-lessons-from-sun-tzus-art-of-war

     

    – Being prepared at what you do can be the difference between success and failure when things go wrong

     

    – Your king is your own customers. If you care for them, they will care for your project. Anticipate their needs, desires, wants and fulfill them with an unbiased mind.

     

    – Understand and respect the scope, ownerships and accountabilities of the project you work on.

     

    – Be subtle and diplomatic. You can only learn when you listen. But always be prepared to answer and follow up.

     

    – Share efforts with other people in the project by offering free help, as that will come back as an investement.

     

    – Focus on key elements of a production which are the least organized or efficient.

     

    – Validate and qualify your resources before taking on a plan.

     

    – Invest into a plan only if you are sure it can be completed successfully.

     

    – Value a project’s requirements and its users’ experience before the technology development itself.

     

    – Motivate your teams by the gains in specific production investments.

     

    – Organize tasks and teams based on their strenghts and self efficiency.

     

    – Analyze the project’s requirements and resources. Then prioritize them accordingly.

     

    – Observe and resolve bottlenecks, opportunities and users’ needs

     

    – Detail a plan B as soon as you striclty commit to a detailed plan A.

     

    – Dedicate some time and small teams to research efficient alternatives.

     

    – Build only and always on top of stable and known cycles.

     

    – Focus on the big items if they can resolve a lot of small ones.

     

    – If something worked before is still worth to think out of the box.

     

    – Combine all your team strengths into a unified collaborative effort.

     

  • The Public Domain Is Working Again — No Thanks To Disney

    www.cartoonbrew.com/law/the-public-domain-is-working-again-no-thanks-to-disney-169658.html

    The law protects new works from unauthorized copying while allowing artists free rein on older works.

    The Copyright Act of 1909 used to govern copyrights. Under that law, a creator had a copyright on his creation for 28 years from “publication,” which could then be renewed for another 28 years. Thus, after 56 years, a work would enter the public domain.

    However, the Congress passed the Copyright Act of 1976, extending copyright protection for works made for hire to 75 years from publication.

    Then again, in 1998, Congress passed the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (derided as the “Mickey Mouse Protection Act” by some observers due to the Walt Disney Company’s intensive lobbying efforts), which added another twenty years to the term of copyright.

    it is because Snow White was in the public domain that it was chosen to be Disney’s first animated feature.
    Ironically, much of Disney’s legislative lobbying over the last several decades has been focused on preventing this same opportunity to other artists and filmmakers.

    The battle in the coming years will be to prevent further extensions to copyright law that benefit corporations at the expense of creators and society as a whole.

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  • Composition – cinematography Cheat Sheet

    https://moodle.gllm.ac.uk/pluginfile.php/190622/mod_resource/content/1/Cinematography%20Cheat%20Sheet.pdf

    Where is our eye attracted first? Why?

    Size. Focus. Lighting. Color.

    Size. Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) on the right.
    Focus. He’s one of the two objects in focus.
    Lighting. Mr. White is large and in focus and Mr. Pink (Steve Buscemi) is highlighted by
    a shaft of light.
    Color. Both are black and white but the read on Mr. White’s shirt now really stands out.


    What type of lighting?

    -> High key lighting.
    Features bright, even illumination and few conspicuous shadows. This lighting key is often used in musicals and comedies.

    Low key lighting
    Features diffused shadows and atmospheric pools of light. This lighting key is often used in mysteries and thrillers.

    High contrast lighting
    Features harsh shafts of lights and dramatic streaks of blackness. This type of lighting is often used in tragedies and melodramas.

     

    What type of shot?

    Extreme long shot
    Taken from a great distance, showing much of the locale. Ifpeople are included in these shots, they usually appear as mere specks

    -> Long shot
    Corresponds to the space between the audience and the stage in a live theater. The long shots show the characters and some of the locale.

    Full shot
    Range with just enough space to contain the human body in full. The full shot shows the character and a minimal amount of the locale.

    Medium shot
    Shows the human figure from the knees or waist up.

    Close-Up
    Concentrates on a relatively small object and show very little if any locale.

    Extreme close-up
    Focuses on an unnaturally small portion of an object, giving that part great detail and symbolic significance.

     

    What angle?

    Bird’s-eye view.
    The shot is photographed directly from above. This type of shot can be disorienting, and the people photographed seem insignificant.

    High angle.
    This angle reduces the size of the objects photographed. A person photographed from this angle seems harmless and insignificant, but to a lesser extent than with the bird’s-eye view.

    -> Eye-level shot.
    The clearest view of an object, but seldom intrinsically dramatic, because it tends to be the norm.

    Low angle.
    This angle increases high and a sense of verticality, heightening the importance of the object photographed. A person shot from this angle is given a sense of power and respect.

    Oblique angle.
    For this angle, the camera is tilted laterally, giving the image a slanted appearance. Oblique angles suggest tension, transition, a impending movement. They are also called canted or dutch angles.

     

    What is the dominant color?

    The use of color in this shot is symbolic. The scene is set in warehouse. Both the set and characters are blues, blacks and whites.

    This was intentional allowing for the scenes and shots with blood to have a great level of contrast.

     

    What is the Lens/Filter/Stock?

    Telephoto lens.
    A lens that draws objects closer but also diminishes the illusion of depth.

    Wide-angle lens.
    A lens that takes in a broad area and increases the illusion of depth but sometimes distorts the edges of the image.

    Fast film stock.
    Highly sensitive to light, it can register an image with little illumination. However, the final product tends to be grainy.

    Slow film stock.
    Relatively insensitive to light, it requires a great deal of illumination. The final product tends to look polished.

    The lens is not wide-angle because there isn’t a great sense of depth, nor are several planes in focus. The lens is probably long but not necessarily a telephoto lens because the depth isn’t inordinately compressed.

    The stock is fast because of the grainy quality of the image.

     

    Subsidiary Contrast; where does the eye go next?

    The two guns.

     

    How much visual information is packed into the image? Is the texture stark, moderate, or highly detailed?

    Minimalist clutter in the warehouse allows a focus on a character driven thriller.

     

    What is the Composition?

    Horizontal.
    Compositions based on horizontal lines seem visually at rest and suggest placidity or peacefulness.

    Vertical.
    Compositions based on vertical lines seem visually at rest and suggest strength.

    -> Diagonal.
    Compositions based on diagonal, or oblique, lines seem dynamic and suggest tension or anxiety.

    -> Binary. Binary structures emphasize parallelism.

    Triangle.
    Triadic compositions stress the dynamic interplay among three main

    Circle.
    Circular compositions suggest security and enclosure.

     

    Is the form open or closed? Does the image suggest a window that arbitrarily isolates a fragment of the scene? Or a proscenium arch, in which the visual elements are carefully arranged and held in balance?

    The most nebulous of all the categories of mise en scene, the type of form is determined by how consciously structured the mise en scene is. Open forms stress apparently simple techniques, because with these unself-conscious methods the filmmaker is able to emphasize the immediate, the familiar, the intimate aspects of reality. In open-form images, the frame tends to be deemphasized. In closed form images, all the necessary information is carefully structured within the confines of the frame. Space seems enclosed and self-contained rather than continuous.

    Could argue this is a proscenium arch because this is such a classic shot with parallels and juxtapositions.

     

    Is the framing tight or loose? Do the character have no room to move around, or can they move freely without impediments?

    Shots where the characters are placed at the edges of the frame and have little room to move around within the frame are considered tight.

    Longer shots, in which characters have room to move around within the frame, are considered loose and tend to suggest freedom.

    Center-framed giving us the entire scene showing isolation, place and struggle.

     

    Depth of Field. On how many planes is the image composed (how many are in focus)? Does the background or foreground comment in any way on the mid-ground?

    Standard DOF, one background and clearly defined foreground.

     

    Which way do the characters look vis-a-vis the camera?

    An actor can be photographed in any of five basic positions, each conveying different psychological overtones.

    Full-front (facing the camera):
    the position with the most intimacy. The character is looking in our direction, inviting our complicity.

    Quarter Turn:
    the favored position of most filmmakers. This position offers a high degree of intimacy but with less emotional involvement than the full-front.

    -> Profile (looking of the frame left or right):
    More remote than the quarter turn, the character in profile seems unaware of being observed, lost in his or her own thoughts.

    Three-quarter Turn:
    More anonymous than the profile, this position is useful for conveying a character’s unfriendly or antisocial feelings, for in effect, the character is partially turning his or her back on us, rejecting our interest.

    Back to Camera:
    The most anonymous of all positions, this position is often used to suggest a character’s alienation from the world. When a character has his or her back to the camera, we can only guess what’s taking place internally, conveying a sense of concealment, or mystery.

    How much space is there between the characters?

    Extremely close, for a gunfight.

     

    The way people use space can be divided into four proxemic patterns.

    Intimate distances.
    The intimate distance ranges from skin contact to about eighteen inches away. This is the distance of physical involvement–of love, comfort, and tenderness between individuals.

    -> Personal distances.
    The personal distance ranges roughly from eighteen inches away to about four feet away. These distances tend to be reserved for friends and acquaintances. Personal distances preserve the privacy between individuals, yet these rages don’t necessarily suggest exclusion, as intimate distances often do.

    Social distances.
    The social distance rages from four feet to about twelve feet. These distances are usually reserved for impersonal business and casual social gatherings. It’s a friendly range in most cases, yet somewhat more formal than the personal distance.

    Public distances.
    The public distance extends from twelve feet to twenty-five feet or more. This range tends to be formal and rather detached.

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  • Daniele Tosti Interview for the magazine InCG, Taiwan, Issue 28, 201609

    Interview for the magazine InCG, Taiwan, Issue 28, 201609

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  • Processing – a flexible software sketchbook

    https://processing.org/

     

    Processing is a flexible software sketchbook and a language for learning how to code within the context of the visual arts. Since 2001, Processing has promoted software literacy within the visual arts and visual literacy within technology. There are tens of thousands of students, artists, designers, researchers, and hobbyists who use Processing for learning and prototyping.

     

    » Free to download and open source
    » Interactive programs with 2D, 3D or PDF output
    » OpenGL integration for accelerated 2D and 3D
    » For GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, Windows, Android, and ARM
    » Over 100 libraries extend the core software

     

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  • Portrait lighting

     

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  • 11 Hints for Resolving Relationship Irritations

    http://psychcentral.com/lib/11-hints-for-resolving-relationship-irritations/

    1. Get to the real issue. it boils down to “unmet needs
     
    2. Consider if it really bothers you. Try to let it go and see how that goes
     
    3. Don’t dismiss a key issue for you. If “you’re dreaming about it, and you’re thinking about it, you’ll have to talk about it,”
     
    4. Use the softened startup.
     
    5. Be patient.
     
    6. Push through the avoidance. staying conflict-free isn’t a marker of a happy relationship
     
    7. Listen, don’t fix. Before you talk about the solutions, make sure you both understand each other and your core concerns.
     
    8. Collaborate on a solution.
     
    9. Don’t focus on the fiery feelings. “Anger, frustration or irritation may be there, but those are not the most important feelings. The more important feelings will be something softer and more vulnerable like anxiety, fear, hurt or sadness.”
     
    10. Set up some structure.
     
    11. Get help.

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