Gauge example in Inkscape (SVG)

If you're tasked with creating gauges for a dashboard and you want an example on how to do the graphics, I've create one in Inkscape. Inkscape is a free vector application if you are on a budget and can't afford Adobe Illustrator. I made this while getting a feel for a new dashboard I'll be working on at work and thought that I'd release it under Free Art License since I'm not going to use. Each part is in a layer and can be unlocked and edited how you see fit. I hope it's helpful to someone.

Download the file

Here's two versions, both are included by selected or deselecting layers. Here's what they look like.

Photoshop CS6 is pretty nice!

This is not a review, just a quick image I created in Photoshop CS6 Saturday. I haven't been real thrilled with Adobe's Photoshop updates over the last couple of years, but CS6 is worth the price... Still wish it was a little cheaper. It looks really nice though. I fancy darker themes.

Install MyPaint on Mountain Lion via Macports

I previously posted a way to run the Windows version of MyPaint on OS X in Wineskin, but If you're more interested in a faster more stable MyPaint and don't mind getting your hands dirty, and you have plenty of drive space, go the Macports route - it's really easy. I found this to be a better alternative to Wine. This guide is for Mountain Lion, but should work on previous versions. Not sure about 10.5 or lower though...

The first thing you need is XCode 4.4, which is free from the AppStore. Once XCode is installed open XCode and go into Preferences, Downloads tab and install the Command Line Tools.

Mountain Lion no longer includes x11 so you will need to download and install XQuartz. This is free also. Once that is finished download and install Macports.

Fire up the Terminal, which is in '/Applications/Utilities'.

Type the following to install a more Mac like theme for the program window:

sudo port install gtk-theme-switch

Go get some coffee and a sandwich... Once finished install the theme:

sudo port install gtk2-aurora

Once it's finished type: switch2

Select Aurora if it's not already selected.

Now it's time to install MyPaint, type:

sudo port install mypaint

Go take a nice nap... When you wake up hopefully it's finished loading and compiling everything including MyPaint.

To run MyPaint simply go into /Applications/Macports and click on MyPaint like any other Mac app.

So what's this Macports stuff anyway? Macports allows you to run Linux software on the Mac. It manages software dependencies and all the hard stuff like compiling everything. If you are familiar with Linux then you'll likely compare it to Apt or Yum package managers. If you're worried what it has done under the hood don't worry too much. It installs the majority of files in /opt keeping it fairly separated from the Mac file system. To uninstall you can simply delete the Macports files. A command to do this can be found here.

Enjoy

MyPaint OS X Lion Install via Wineskin

MyPaint is an open source and free to use natural painting application similar to Painter. It’s really good, but unfortunately there isn’t a native port to the Mac. No fears, thanks to Wineskin it’s trivial to use it on your Macintosh. I created an easy to follow instruction to walk you through the process of created a Wine wrapper so you can run MyPaint on OS X, download it here.

Moon Phase Icons, All 24.

I've been working on a script to calculate all twenty four moon phases and I needed some images since I was only able to find the common eight phase images. I made a series of individual high resolution PNGs with the Photoshop layered file included if anyone is interested. Download here and share!

CrapCleaner now on Mac!

I've been using this free product for years to quickly clean up Windows machines, I was pretty happy to see it on OS X! Most of these things can be done easily by hand, but to have a free tool to do them all in one place speeds things up.

CCleaner for Mac

Some Angry Bird

I had a little down time and created this just for fun. It's freely available under GPL for whatever you like. Download SVG

Apple's Stickies Notes tips to get your sticky note into Notes for syncing:

Open Stickies and type: Command + N, type your note.

Highlight your Sticky Note content then follow the menus: Stickies, Services, New Note With Selection. Mail should open and your new Note with the Stickies note content should pop up. If you are syncing Apple Notes in iCloud, or wherever, you should get them on your other Macs as well as your iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch devices like magic. 

Nice, but....

Apple, please enhance the Notes and Stickies applications as follows. 

Create a small unobtrusive menubar note app that runs when I log in! Allow the creation of notes from this tool without having to open or run the Mail app, but sync to Mail's Notes as well as in the Notes apps on the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad via iCloud. As a bonus, allow this tool to also create Stickies from existing notes without having to run a service in which both Mail and Stickies have to be running; it does not make sense that Stickies runs separately from Notes anyway, they are both notes! Give the user the ability to sync or not sync each individual note, and maybe add some cool tagging to give it a little organization, but keep it mostly simple. 

I know this really isn't artsy, nor is it open source, but this note thing bugs me.