The Herald: October 2007 Edition

[The Herald]

Following from last month, I thought we'd take a look at something more hardened. As with leatherwork, you'd be surprised at the different styles and items you can make with metal. From hammering a sheet into shape to winding wire and even welding items together, all these methods can be used to produce something cool.

Take a browse through the metalwork gallery and see if you can spot how these items were made. The items below show some of the techniques described above, but there are many more to see in the gallery itself.

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[The Herald]

Jack666rulez - Jack666rulez.deviantart.com



Jack666rulez has a really cute style of drawing, very inspired by eastern art but with their own twist. Plus, it's nice to see that traditional art is still alive and well. Just goes to show you don't need Photoshop to colour your line art

muszka - muszka.deviantart.com/



I really like Musza's photography. The concepts are really interesting, and the make up work on the models is fantastic. The gallery does not contain high resolution images, which is a shame, but you can still get a great feel for their work based on the images they've put up anyway.

jessie145 - jessie145.deviantart.com/



jessie145 is a really amazing artist. The images are perfect and the shading is not too overpowering. If you check back at some of the older images you can really see the progression they've gone through.

GunnerRomantic - gunnerromantic.deviantart.com



GunnerRomantic's work is simply put: amazing. I love the vibrant colours, and the scenes depicted are so interesting! The creature concepts are also pretty cool. I'd love to have this person's imagination.

crouching-kitty - crouching-kitty.deviantart.com



Crouching-kitty also has a really good imagination. The images have a slight comical twist on them too, which is nice. The variety of work in this gallery is nice to see as well, ranging from items that look like they should be in comics and cartoons, to images that could be concept art for computer game characters.

[The Herald]

One of the problems when attempting to make the switch-over from Windows to Macs is compatibility of programs. Your favourite IM client, bit-torrent software and others. Hence, this article will discuss alternatives to the familiar Windows softwares for Mac.


I. Windows Live Messenger

Your familiar (and common, unfortunately) Instant Messenger (IM) has a Mac port, called "Microsoft Messenger for Mac". However, this port lacks several functionalities, and also lacks support. I do not recommend using this software. Here are some alternatives.

• aMSN
  aMSN is a Windows Live Messenger(WLM) clone, which supports many of its features including nudges, which is lacking in the official port for Microsoft. However, it lacks several styling functionalities; this is a limit with the graphic toolkit which it uses. For example, it doesn't support anti-aliasing of text. aMSN is a single-protocol messenger, and only supports WLM.
  
  Personal thoughts
  I have not used this IM client before, but from what I've read, it seem to fit the basic functionalities required, but lacks many of the advanced options available to other IM clients.
  
  
• Adium
  Adium is one of the most, if not the most popular IM client for Mac. It supports a lot of functionalities, and they can be extended via plugins and also styling themes they call "Xtras". Adium is a multi-protocol messenger, and support the following account types:
  
  • OL Instant Messenger
    
  • Bonjour (formerly Rendezvous)
    
  • Gadu-Gadu
    
  • Google Talk
    
  • ICQ
    
  • Jabber
    
  • LiveJournal
    
  • Lotus Sametime
    
  • .Mac
    
  • Novell GroupWise
    
  • QQ
    
  • SIP / SIMPLE
    
  • Windows Live Messenger
    
  • Yahoo! Messenger
    
  • Yahoo! Japan
    
  • Zephyr
    
  
  
  Personal thoughts
  Adium is one of my top two choices for IM client on Macintosh platform. It supports many functionalities, and is easily extended. The reason why I don't use this, is because of its icon. It's a damn duck!
  
  
• Mercury Messenger
  Mercury Messenger is a single-protocol messenger that connects to the WLM service. Like Adium, it supports many features of the WLM, including webcam functionality. It also allows styling of the client, though to a lesser extent than Adium's "Xtras". It does not support plugins.
  
  Personal thoughts
  I am currently using this messenger, and I like its functionality. However, styling support is limited.
  

II. Bittorrent

There are many bittorrent softwares out there, and their functionalities are of the same level as their Windows alternative.

• Azureus
  Azureus is one of the top two popular bittorrent softwares for Mac currently. It boasts many functionalities which other bittorrent softwares don't have. For example, Azureus has a free online service that's like a "demand-TV". You can download other videos by other users using the service.
  
  
• Transmission
  Transmission is the other top popular bittorrent software for Mac. It boasts up to 75% enhanced downloading speed compared to Azureus. It also offers the ability to view download and upload rates in the dock.
  

This concludes this month's Mac Corners. Next issue, we will be discussing office tools for Mac, and various other softwares. 'Til next issue!