Every now and then, I like to look back at some fonts in my CD collection. Some of the fonts that I have are outdated and can't be used in the latest macOS. There are a few that are still usable.
One of the fonts in my collection that I found interesting is the Zephyr Font. Benn Coifman, the developer, named the font after the Zephyr trains.
What caught my eye about the font is that it is very similar to the GoPro Logo font. Here's an example of the font:
Font Description
After you have installed the files, "Zephyr.suit", "CZHer", and "CZHeralds.bmap" in your font folder, restart your word processor and print out a copy of "Zephyr Legend" (If you don't have Microsoft Word, I hope your translator can handle the new fonts). The top 2/3's of this file demonstrate the Zephyr font. At the bottom, you will see a couple of special characters that are in CZHeralds font. Note that the California Zephyr logo is split into three letters so it will have a lower probability of crashing your printer.
This still works in MacOS 11.3 even though it is 27-years old (Created July 24, 1995). In fact, the copy I had was from a CD that was also about 27-years old. This means that I installed the same font that was released 27-years ago - I didn't just download it.
There is a similar font called Rail RoadRoman available on FontFreak. I wasn't able to find the Zephyr.suit font. There are other Zephyr fonts, but they didn't look the same.
Font was created using Altsys Fontographer 4.0.4D2 7/24/95
There are a couple of Easter Eggs in the font collection:
There is a Burlington Route logo when you type in # - this is a reference to the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad. To get this simply type in Shift8.
There is a Face and a black cat. These are found by typing in Shift2 for the face and Shift3 for the cat. No clue on why these are there.
The best way to learn about GoPro is through regular people that use it all the time. If you don't know anyone, then head over to YouTube and check out some cool things that people have done with GoPro.
Many of these YouTubers experiment with the latest accessories and can help guide you to which accessories are worth getting and which ones to avoid going cheap.
To start, make sure to visit the official GoPro YouTube account for quick tips on using the GoPro.
YouTubers
Here are three accounts that I think are worth following:
Gemini Connect - New Videos Every Week to inspire you to Go Out and Shoot. Good videos about vlogging with the GoPro.
Air Photography - Capture Life. Great reviews on various GoPro Accessories. If your thinking about a particular accessory - changes are that Air Photography has done a review of it.
Danny Black - Real Reviews for Everything. Danny reviews all sorts of tecnology items and every once in a while he'll encounter a new cool "mush have" thing for the GoPro. Check out this channel for new ideas.
XHR is the XML HttpRequest to get and post data from the server. This is a powerful feature because you can update a web page without reloading the page. In addition, you can request data from the server based on user selections - without having to jump on another page.
Common Use
Some common places where XML HttpRequest is used:
List of customers when users log in.
Google Search shows predictive search queries as you type is based on the XML HttpRequest functionality.
Forms that get auto populated based on certain criteria, such as the list of city names when you pick a state.
This topic was selected as today is day 'x' in the April A-Z blog challenge. Honestly, there's no way I could possibly cover all the capabilities that jQXHR has in a single blog post.
The Wind Behavior is a creative way to move objects in a nice smooth continuous force.
Five Things I Learned
This is a new behavior that I haven't used before, so I thought I would play around with the different ways to use the functionality.
The behavior is located in Behaviors > Simulations. It's the last item on the menu.
You have more control of the Wind using the HUD functionality. Simply select the Wind behavior and then click on HUD in the toolbar.
Using the 3D control in the HUD, you can make the object move towards you or away from you. The 2D control simply focus the movement to left, right, top, and bottom.
Combining the Wind and Throw behaviors to create a nice curve effect.
When you apply the Wind behavior you'll see a red line to show the path that the object will take.
In the late 1990's one of the late-night infomercials was Video Professor. They produce training CDs on how to use the computer. In the half-hour-long Infomercial, they were promoting the ability to try out their videos in any subject that people want. All you had to do is pay for shipping and handling.
What Video Professor didn't talk much about is the "fine print." Customers would be signed up for a subscription service where future videos would be charged to the credit card on file. They wouldn't get charged if they canceled their subscription. Some of the videos would cost between $50 to $399.
Due to various lawsuits and lagging sales, the company folded in 2002.
Here is a clip of the commercial that I recorded on April 24, 1999 - nearly 22 years ago.
This is the final week of another successful A to Z April Challenge. Next weekend I'll post my retrospective on how the challenge went.
I have been thinking of May Blog topics. I have decided to do a bit of a change-up. Here's the tentative lineup for May.
Sunday - Open Topic Sunday
Monday - Media Monday
Tuesday - Final Cut Pro
Wednesday - Popcorn
Thursday - Tech Tools
Friday - Macintosh
Saturday - Internet
New in May 2021
I have decided to introduce two new topics in May - Tech Tools and Popcorn. I am excited to add these to the weekly blog topics.
Tech Tools - This will cover anything technology. Most of the tech topics have been a focus on Apple technology. The Tech Tools blog posts will be centered on general technology. This can be from smart switches to flashlights.
Popcorn - I really enjoy popcorn and for the past year, I have been experimenting with different ways to make popcorn. The blog post will focus on things that I have found that work the best.
Future Topics
If there are any blog topics that you would like to see, let me know by sending me an email. You can also reach me via various social media accounts.
Have you ever wanted your comments to stand out on social media? Try something different, make your text upside down.
UpsideDownText.com makes it really easy to flip your text. Simply type in the phase and instantly it gets converted. Then copy/paste the text into any social media text box.
Website Description
Tired of Times New Roman and Arial?
Well, **** them. Introducing UpsideDownText.com - the text converter, that takes boring ol' letters, and flips them 180 degrees. Whether it be just a word, symbol, or even an essay, we can take what you got, and make it 100x cooler. So WOW your girlfriend, or annoy your teacher, using the fast, simple, free, and totally awesome UpsideDownText.com.
I am a huge fan of FontDoc - an application that lets you see the various font faces that you have installed. You can select the preview word, and copy and past the content into any document while maintaining the font format.
Recently I became aware of another Font Manger called TypeFace. So I thought I check it out and see how it might be better than FontDoc. TypeFace cost $19 and FontDoc is Free.
Six Things I Discovered
By default TypeFace uses "Hamburgefonstiv" as the preview word. This is a "filler text" use to test the appearance of a typeface. You can easily change it by toggle preview input.
I can "dig down" in the fonts and see all the characters.
There's no way to copy the preview text and font style into another document.
You can tag fonts! This is a nice way to organize fonts that you use for different projects. This way when you select a collection on the left, you can see all the fonts that is used. For example, you may have a collection for Facebook Posts, Holidays, or Videos.
You can easily import fonts from folders, this makes it easy to identify which fonts you want installed. When you find the one you want, right click on it and select Activate.
When you are done with a font, perhaps it's something that you don't use anymore, you can also deactivate it. This will remove it from the system font menu making it easier to find the fonts you want.
Will I Purchase this?
I am not going to purchase this application. It looks great and works great too! However, I really don't need this kind of font management.
I am more interested in finding font styles that work great for the text I am using right now. I don't think I'll be needing to create various collections.
Maybe someday, but not now.
This is a cool application, and I had fun playing around with it.
Available in SetApp
If you have an active SetApp subscription, you can just download TypeFace.
Using the screen menu on the GoPro Hero 9 is a bit tricky. I have found that I have to touch it a certain way to do certain actions. For example, it's really hard to scroll - especially if you're trying to change the action item.
There is a neat trick I found that makes it easier. No, it isn't using the smartphone.
Easily Select the Right Setting
When you need to select a different setting, simply change the orientation of the GoPro. You'll see all the available action options.
Steps to Do This
Turn on the Camera
Go to the action that you want, (Time Lapse, Video, Photo)
Click on the bottom row where the action.
You'll only see 3 action items.
Now, physically turn the camera 90-degrees and you'll see at least 6 action items!
Simply click on the one you want, and change the orientation back.
Quantizing in Apple Motion is when you want to add a "step" approach between two keyframes. Instead of the usual smooth action that Motion makes, using the Quantizing feature, you can create a skip type of effect.
This isn't something that you would use a lot, but I can see that this might be an effect to add when you want that extra effect.
Things I Learned
You can apply the behavior to an object using the Properties panel. Basically, you add the Parameter Behavior to a Position. (See the graphic above.)
You can control the step size and offset. This is like adjusting the height of the stairs.
If you like Quantizing, you might also want to check out Wriggle. It provides a randomized step-up approach. It's located in the same menu as Quantizing.
Had things been different - tomorrow would be the annual Boston Marathon run.
In the past year, things have been different - because of the COVID-19 virus.
2019 Boston Marathon
We usually watch the Boston Marathon from Framingham. In 2019, I noticed more security than normal. There was a lot of ground security and some in the air.
I checked the Flightradar24 app to see what was going on in the skies. That's when I noticed this pattern.
I suspect that it was either media helicopters or just security watching the starting line in Hopkinson Massachusetts.
Flight Radar 24 App
The Flight Radar App is good to have. It really helps identify some of the planes that you see in the sky.
Optimizilla is "yet another" online image compressor. It's an easy way to drag and drop 20 images.
It's good, however it doesn't beat the compression done by shortpixel.com. In my test, I compressed the same image using Optimizilla and ShortPixel. Optimizilla was able to compress the image 13% while ShortPixel was able to compress the image by 65%.
Website Description
This online image optimizer uses a smart combination of the best optimization and lossy compression algorithms to shrink JPEG and PNG images to the minimum possible size while keeping the required level of quality.
Upload up to 20 images. Wait for the compression to finish. Click thumbnails in the queue for quality setting. Use the slider to control the compression level and mouse/gestures to compare images.
I was looking for something unique to blog today. Since this day "N" of the A-Z April challenge, I was looking for something that started with the letter "N." Here are some of the topics that I was thinking about:
Apple Notes - I have been using it a little and thought it would be a useful topic, as maybe I can find some new feature.
Notion - Great note application. Its a tool that I use a lot since I stopped using Evernote.
News App - I don't use it that much, maybe its something that I should use?
Numbers - Maybe I'll discover a new feature or a tip?
None of those applications really sounded interesting to write about. So I decided to head over to the finder and do a search in Help for the letter "N."
To my surprise. I found something interesting. One of the search results was for NSMenuItem. I thought it was a weird menu name, so when I selected it, the help arrow pointed to an empty area above the word "Tag" in the File menu.
Is this a Bug-
I checked a couple of computers and they had the same results. There is no NSMenuItem in the File menu, yet it appears when you do a search for in. (Only in the Finder)
According to the Apple Developer site, the NSMenuItem is a command item in the app menu.
Apparently this is a legitimate item, but whoever worked on the Finder's File menu didn't hide the feature properly. This bug appears in macOS Catalina, so it's been there for a while.
Check It Out!
If you have a Mac, try this:
Select the Finder, then the Help menu. Type in NSMenuItem, or simply 'N.'
You'll see one of the search results will be the mysterious NSMenuItem, select it and you'll see that it points to the same place as the above screenshot.
The GoPro support website has a list of all the supported micro SD cards. This makes it really easy to find the card that will work with the camera - no second-guessing.
I put together a visual chart of the supported cards. I focused this chart just on the 128GB size cards, as it should be the minimum size card to buy for the GoPro Hero 9.
Terminology
Here's some reference to all those symbols that you see on the cards.
Video Speed Class - The number following the "V" indicates the minimum number of MB/s the card is capable of sequentially writing. Example: v30 - the card can sustain at least 30MB/s continuous video recording. The V30 is the best Video Speed for 4k/5k videos.
Speed Class - Indicates the minimum writing speed. In this case, it's 10. You may see other cards have 2, 4, or 6. 10 is the best for video recording.
UHS Class Speed - list a UHS class rating to designate the minimum write performance for the card, with U1 indicating 10 MB/s and U3 indicating 30 MB/s or more.
Bus Interface - This indicates the maximum amount of data that can physically move into and out of the card. A II Bus Interface is more powerful and has a second row of pins. Most likely to be supported in the next version of GoPro.
A note about the Micro SD XC - This is the card format and the SDXC is the most popular format as it supports card sizes more than 32GB, up to 2TB. If you need cards bigger than 2TB you'll be looking for a card format that has SDUC.
One cool feature of jQuery is the ability to load up content and place the content in a webpage. This is done using the LOAD() function. It's an alternative way to share a file between web pages.
Official Description
This method is the simplest way to fetch data from the server. It is roughly equivalent to $.get(url, data, success) except that it is a method rather than global function and it has an implicit callback function. When a successful response is detected (i.e. when textStatus is "success" or "notmodified"), .load() sets the HTML contents of the matched elements to the returned data.
In order to use the load() functionality you can't use the jQuery slim minified version. You should be using the jquery minified version.
Developers should call the jquery.js file in the header before calling the load action. Otherwise, you may get delays or undesired behavior.
The full load() syntax is: $.load(url,[data],[callback]); Where data is the GET data to send to the URL and the callback is the JavaScript function to be executed when the request is successful. The data and callback are optional.
One of our favorite pizzas is the 'Against The Grain.' While some people may shy away from it because it's a Gluten-Free pizza - that would be a mistake.
Apparently people have this notion that gluten-free pizzas taste like cardboard. That is not the case with the 'Above the Grain' pizza.
It's really good and leftovers are pretty rare.
Cooking The Pizza
We cook our pizza with a circular pizza pan. We cook it at 400-degrees for about 18 minutes. It's a bit longer than the directions. We do this so the crust is nice and crispy.
Finding The Pizza
We get our pizza at Super Stop & Shop. They stock it with the other gluten-free items. Usually in a special foods section. It cost about $12 - about the cost of premium pizza that isn't gluten-free.
If your looking for great graphic deals, the place to go is InkyDeals. I have purchased several of their graphic packages. InkyDeals have some of the best collection on the Internet.-
You can't beat their deals!
Not all their graphic collections are paid packages. They have some great freebie collections that are free. In fact, they have 35 freebies that you can download.-
Website Description
Since 2011 Inky is bringing great Designer Deals every day for creatives all around the world. InkyDeals.com was created from the desire to offer our fellow designers (beginners and veterans alike) high-quality resources at unbeatable prices.
One way, is to use a program like Hemingway. Its purpose is to help you write better sentences.-
How Hemingway Works
Information From their website:
Hemingway makes your writing bold and clear. It's like a spellchecker, but for style. It makes sure that your reader will focus on your message, not your prose.
Too often, our words are like our thoughts ' innumerable and disorganized. Almost any bit of writing could use some cutting. Less is more, etc.
So, the Hemingway Editor will highlight (in yellow and red) where your writing is too dense. Try removing needless words or splitting the sentence into two. Your readers will thank you.
Abraham Lincoln would have benefited from the Hemingway App.
Seven Things I Learned
The Hemingway Application cost $19.99 via the company store. This is a one-time fee, there is no subscription. I purchased it in August 2015 and in January 2017 got a free update.
You can export the text into 4 formats: Plain text, Markdown, HTML, Word Doc, PDF Document and PDF.
You can also Publish the document to Medium or WordPress.
You don't need internet access to use Hemingway - which is the case with Grammarly.
The sidebar can give you interesting statistics about your content. One stats that I find interesting is the Reading Time. So if you are into SEO, you'll be able to create content that matches the desired reading time. You can get information on the Adverb, Passive Voice, Phrases, and sentence readability.
Hemingway Editor didn't catch some basic grammar errors. For example, when composing this blog post, I wrote the words better twice, it was caught by Grammarly.
Hemingway Editor is a good last step in the editing process. I don't see it as a good writing environment to composed content. The Markdown export is really good and clean.
The "arm" or Gooseneck is 18 centimeters or 7-inches long. The official GoPro version is 8-inches.
There is a longer Gooseneck available on Amazon.com which give you 14-inches Gooseneck.
My Topmener Jaws Flex Clamp Mount with Adjustable Gooseneck sells for $13.99 on Amazon.com. It's a good price for a "nice to have" accessory.
The GoPro version sells the Gooseneck and Jaws separately. The Gooseneck cost $19.99 (or $9.99 with the cloud discount) and the Jaws cost $49.99 ( or $34.99 with the cloud discount).
I am certain that the GoPro Jaws is really tight, so if you plan on using this in a moving vehicle, the GoPro version is the way to go. While the one I have works well. I don't really want to test its strength attached to a railing on a moving car or boat.
This Gooseneck has worked great! It's really easy to adjust. The clamp has fit on just about everything that I needed. Note: The clamp is design to fit between .25" and 2".
My only concern with the Gooseneck is trying to make sure that the GoPro is level to the shot. It's very easy to make minor adjustments, just not all that easy to determine if the shot is leveled.
This is something that I learned a long time ago at a Web Developer's conference
Developers should put in place to make sure that people are not adding improper data. The best-case scenario would be to add this check to the browser.
QA teams should add a check to make sure that field data validation is actually occuring.
HTML Select Options
Developers usually use HTML form select option functionality to make it easy for users to select from a set of options. This is more commonly used as selecting states. There's even a GitHub code snippet available to make it easy for developers.
Challenge the Code
Using jQuery, you can change the values in a select menu. This is useful to test to make sure that form validation is happening. Hopefully, it's done on the client-side and not on the server-side.
To do this you'll need to know the name of the select tag. This might be an ID or a class name. If there isn't a name, you could always use an XPath tree. (That is a bit more complex for this post.)
We'll assume that it has a Class Name or an ID set. You can find the class name/id by clicking on the field and right-clicking and select inspect.
Change the Options in a Form
Class
Change the "selectClass" to the class name of the select field. You can't append values, so we have to wipe out the options and put in new options.
This afternoon we came from Connecticut to Massachusetts via Interstate 84. Shortly after crossing the border, we saw the "Massachusetts Welcome You" sign.
According to Google Maps the sign is 2,174 feet from the Massachusetts/Connecticut state line. I don't know why Massachusetts didn't put the sign closer to the border.
The sign features the state bird, the Black-capped chickadee. As well as the state flower, the Mayflower.
The State "Game Bird" is Wild Turkey. (Some people get that confused with the State Bird.)
The Collections database consists of entries for more than 480,000 works in the Mus-e du Louvre and Mus-e National Eug-ne-Delacroix. Updated on a daily basis, it is the result of the continuous research and documentation efforts carried out by teams of experts from both museums.
There are a lot of websites that sell Bokeh overlays that you can apply to any image. If you have Photoscape X, you already have some cool Bokeh effects.
What are Bokeh?
Bokeh is adding a lighting overlay on an image to give it a bit more flair effect. It is supposed to show additional lighting towards the camera.
Sample Bokeh with the menu in Photoscape.
Bokeh in Photoscape
You can find all sorts of Bokeh in the Light -> Bokeh section of the editor. There are 17 default tools, with all sorts of configurations. You can change the Light, Scape, Angle, Aspect Ratio, and Shapes.
Five Things I Learned
There are 40 different shapes to choose from. Everything from stars, hearts, snowflakes to mix color circles.
You can adjust the center of the Bokeh light by using the controller in the center.
The bokeh is also available in the Batch mode, so you can apply the same unique effect to a group of images.
If your really good at applying bokeh, you can always use the scatter brush to create your own.
There is a Bokeh Blur in the Adjustments section, but that is to make the background out-of-focus. This isn't the same as adding a group of lights as an overlay on a photo.
There are 4 video presets that come standard with every GoPro Hero 9: Standard, Activity, Cinematic, and Slo-Mo.
The Activity preset is set up to work with any action shots - which for most people is why they got the GoPro.
GoPro Description
Use this preset to capture ultra immersive footage of your favorite activities. It records 2.7K video at 60 fps with the SuperView digital lens. This gives your video the classic GoPro look with high-resolution full-screen playback.
According to the GoPro Cheat Sheet guide by Project GoPro, those settings are best for Vlog, and Hiking. Just about every other activity has higher frames per second and video resolution.
Activity Recomendations
I setup my activity to be 4k and at 60 fps. That way I can get some great action shots (at least 2x the slowness.) 4k because it gets the best quality picture at the time of the shooting. I can always downgrade to 1080p at post-production.
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