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sunlit-helix · 6 years ago

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learning how computers work again. Very long post about CPU research for a workstation.

since im rambling about computers im typing out my thought process and maybe ill link it to a few nerds to see if my conclusions make sense or not.

Purposes for building my computer as a workstation:

Primary Goals: Efficiency at 3D rendering. Primarily using C4D, but in the long run, probably Blender. 4K footage processing.

Secondary Goals: Efficient in Adobe suite. Primarily After effects, Premiere, Media encoder.

Tertiary goals: Gaming.

My first question was: Should I render using my CPU or my GPU? Several quick google searches told me the choice did not matter much, it was mostly project dependent. Well I already have a decent GPU in my gtx 970, so let’s put off buying a new video card for now, and get a really good processor

Second question is:Single-Core or Multi-Core focus?

I read two articles. this one and this one

They both give CPU recommendations based on different factors. I learned something important, some processors are better at editing and gaming, and others are better at rendering and exporting. Basically, some processors are better at doing one thing really well(single-core speed), while others are better at doing lots of things somewhat well (multi-core speed).

I compared CPU’s by cinebench score. I use Cinema 4D for most of my rendering, so using a benchmark for telling me how fast something is in the program I use? pretty good. These are the charts I stared at for 27 years.

The articles I read suggested getting processors that are high end in both single core and multicore, so they’re just generally good at both things. Well, trouble is, those are really expensive. Processors that prioritize just one or the other are a bit cheaper, funny enough.

So for options under $1,000 I was deciding between the i9-9900k and the Threadripper 2950x, along with the other threadrippers. This took a long time to decide. the i9 is about $500 while the threadripper is $800. on paper the cinebench score is about 1,000 points higher, which about 38% higher. It took me some research to find out if that actually means it’s 38% faster at rendering and it turns out that’s true. But the ‘proof’ is a little shaky, I watched this video (x) with very few views, but actually watching the benchmark as it’s happening is convincing enough. If I’m going to be rendering videos in 4K I like, 40% is big. that’s the difference between a project taking 10 hours and 14 hours. 20 hours and 28 hours.

Here’s where things get a little more subjective.

The stats didn’t totally convince me. I mean, i can render 3D images out as PNG sequences, meaning that I can render a bunch of images overnight, and if it’s not done, I can use the computer during the day, and start rendering where I left off the night before. Having a computer that’s fast at rendering isn’t *Super* important for just rendering.

Likewise, Having a desktop that’s super good at single core either isn’t the most important thing ever. every 3d modelling program has ‘subdivision surfaces’ meaning that you can preview and edit models at lower resolution and render them at higher ones than the ones you’re editing. I could see having a good single core processing being good at sculpting and certain simulations, but... I hate sculpting. I hate character design in 3D in general. rotopology fucking sucks.

But one thing I remembered is that you are constantly rendering things as you’re editing them, while adjusting lighting and shaders. Having a better processor for rendering is going to massively speed up the workflow, not just the exporting and rendering process.

Also, I’ve been... pretty content with the speed of editing -not rendering- in general with my 3D programs. Sometimes my scenes get too complicated but I can usually tell you why and adjust my viewport, and hide objects to compensate. So let me think, if I’m pretty content with the speed already, what’s the point of getting something spectacularly good?

Let’s compare single core Speed, AKA speed of editing, not rendering, using Cinebench scores.

The average score of the processor I’m currently using for editing, the i5-6300HQ, is 131

The speed of the threadripper 179

The score of the I9 is 218

So whatever I pick, It’s going to be faster. And not constrained to a shitty laptop.

Meanwhile, Let’s compare the scores for multi-core processing.

the i5, my laptop, is about 466

the i9 is about 2,000

the threadripper 2950x is about 3,200.

no matter what I get it’s a HUGE leap, but the threadripper is an even bigger leap over the i9. So if my issue is rendering, then this solves that issue. Still funny though, the I9 is far from a bad choice, it is after all, 4x faster than my current renderer. But it’s also not 6x faster. It is $300 cheaper though.

And for single core rendering, the difference between 179 and 218 isn’t huge. It’s not minor either, but it’s not nearly as big as the difference in rendering.

So I go back to my original goals. I want a computer to render out 4K footage so I don’t have to rent a render farm, or at least don’t have to do it that much. I don’t want to skimp out on computer parts, but I want things to be within a decent budget to. Waiting till I have the money to get the thread ripper makes the most sense.

BUT WAIT, I JUST SAW A REDDIT COMMENT. it says that it makes more sense to get a good video card than a processor. Well, I thought I solved that problem but I couldn’t find a good benchmark, so let’s research it again. I searched around a bit and finally found a benchmark that can compare CPU’s to GPU’s for rendering. Let’s figure this out once and for all. (article here)

VRAY PROCESSOR SCORES

Vray Video card scores.

I wish that these had prices listed next to them but basically heres my interpretation.

The threadripper 2950x is $800, and renders the benchmark in 40 seconds

the the cards that come close are the 2080TI and the TITAN XP which are both well over $1000.

The cards that beat it are 2 1080 TI’s which together will be over $1,500 and the titan V which is like over $2,000.

So my conclusion is, then, this processor about as good as all these cards but at a significantly cheaper price. This allows me to skip buying a good video card, and instead I’ll just put the 970 thats in my current laptop into my new computer. And in terms of gaming? This thing has been bottle necked by my decade-old processor the AMD phenom 2 x4 black edition that’s even worse than my laptop processor. I’m going to get a performance boost just by having my GPU free from a shitty processor.

Also while researching I just found out there is a benchmark site for blender, and it lists two gtx 970′s as having a time of 39 seconds which is really close to the thread ripper. So I suppose, then, an option would be to get a worse processor and another 970, but running two GPU’s has it’s own problems isn’t significantly cheaper than just getting one processor to handle the problems. Most games don’t take advantage of two video cards, many rendering programs only use the CPU and not the GPU. I haven’t done much research but I’m fairly sure having two video cards wouldn’t help render anything in media encoder/after effects any better. Having a better processor has more versatility than having two video cards, if they have the same speed. At least, that’s my conclusion for now, I haven’t found anything to prove otherwise.

Lastly, I’ve some research told me that adobe doesn’t support AMD processors as well as intel. this could be an issue since I’ll be putting everything through after effects and then exporting in media encoder, and maybe using premiere. So I looked up some benchmarks on that.

Seems fine to me.

Perhaps this amount of research has been overkill but It’s what I need to do to justify spending this much money on something. It’s worth researching because your individual needs might not be the same as everyone elses. I think the 2950x is my best option for rendering right now while still being good at single core stuff even if it’s not the “best” it’s still good.

It does mean the build will be more expensive though, so I’m still expecting to wait at least 4 more months savings before I build this machine.

I still have to research motherboards, Psu’s, ram, those PCI storage cards that are apparently faster than SSD’s and cheaper. I have a case picked out but since those are largely subjective I don’t like, have to decide on one yet either.

If you bothered to read this, thanks for reading and let me know if my reasoning is alright or bad!

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nabrenna-blog · 7 years ago

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My 5 Paragraph Mishap

After reading the article assigned this week I now better understand what it means to break away from the five paragraph essay and write with meaning. In the beginning of this year those five paragraphs were all I knew. In highschool that was the way we were taught to write no matter what the subject was or the topic. For SAT and ACT testing this was the way the college essay graders were looking for so thats how I did it. (I now know my words probably just went thrue a machine to be read by an algorithm, hence why the 5 paragraph format was so important) In result of these years of 5 paragraph instruction, when I got to college this was the first time I was told I could stray from the five paragraphs and try something new. I had no idea how to do this effectively or what it meant to not write in 5 paragraphs. The idea of it actually kind of scared me a lot.

Until I read this article tonight criticizing 5 paragraph essays, I thought I had successfully made improvements to bring my writing away from this format. I have been writing more paragraphs in college instead of only sticking to the traditional five and I have been trying to write in a more advanced way with multiple drafts and edits. I now realize I was wrong about how much my writing has changed. Yes, I am writing more paragraphs and in a more efficient way but I am still following the same basic format of the five paragraph essay ( intro, body items, conclustion). I did not switch up anything at all or get creative, I only split up the format a little differently to create more paragraphs. For example in the synthesis essay I just wrote I followed the exact structure described in the article...

Section 1: Introduce the argument

Section 2: Summarise the relevant literature

Section 3: Spell out your research method

Section 4: Present your findings and analyse them

Section 5: Draw conclusions

This is the format I followed and I didnt even realize I was doing it. I was shocked reading this and now realise that just because I write with more than five paragraphs does not mean I am doing anything different than this same structure . This is something I would definitely like to work on and make improvements with in the future. I want to write with more meaning, not just to fill in a structure and get a grade. I believe that my writing has a lot of meaning already and I have a lot to say but this format can be restrictive to my words and take me away from deeper writing.

Writing Routine I liked

http://www.well-storied.com/blog/11-tips-for-creating-writing-routine

Optimal college workflow

https://lifehacker.com/5334886/getting-things-done-explained-for-students

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magzoso-tech · 5 years ago

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Leverice is a team messenger app that’s taking aim at information overload

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/leverice-is-a-team-messenger-app-thats-taking-aim-at-information-overload/

Leverice is a team messenger app that’s taking aim at information overload

Meet Leverice: A team messenger and collaboration platform that’s aiming to compete with b2b giants like Slack by tackling an issue that continues to plague real-time messaging — namely, ‘always-on’ information overload. This means these tools can feel like they’re eating into productivity as much as aiding it. Or else leave users stressed and overwhelmed about how to stay on top of the work comms firehose.

Leverice’s pitch is that it’s been built from the ground up to offer a better triage structure so vital bits of info aren’t lost in rushing rivers of chatter than flow across less structured chat platforms.

It does this by giving users the ability to organize chat content into nested subchannels. So its theory is that hyper structured topic channels will let users better direct and navigate info flow, freeing them from the need to check everything or perform lots of searches in order to find key intel. Instead they can just directly drill down to specific subchannels, tuning out the noise.

The overarching aim is to bring a little asynchronicity to the world of real-time collaboration platforms, per co-founder and COO Daniel Velton.

“Most messaging and collaboration tools are designed for and built around synchronous communications, instant back-and-forth. But most members of remote teams communicate at their own pace — and there was no go-to messaging tool built around asynchronous communications,” he tells TechCrunch.

“We set out to solve that problem, to build a messenger and collaboration platform that breaks rivers down into rivulets. To do that, we needed a tech stack and unique architecture that would allow teams to efficiently work with hundreds of channels and subchannels distributed between scores of channel branches of varying depths. Having that granularity ensures that each little shelf maintains topical integrity.

“We’re not discussing Feature 2.1.1 and 2.1.2 and 2.1.3 and 2.1.4 inside a single ‘Features’ channel, where the discussions would blend together. Each has its own little home.”

[embedded content]

Of course Slack isn’t blind to the info-overload issues its platform can generate. Last month it announced “a simpler, more organized Slack”, which includes the ability for users to organize channels, messages and apps into “custom, collapsible sections”. Aka folders.

So how is Leverice’s subchannel architecture a great leap forward on the latest version of Slack — which does let users organize themselves (and is now in the process of being rolled out across its user-base)?

“All structuring (including folders) on other popular messengers is essentially an individual preference setting,” says Velton. “It does not reflect on a teamwide channel tree. It’s definitely a step in the right direction but it’s about each user adding a tiny bit of structure to their own private interface, not having a structure that affects and improves the way an entire team communicates.

“Leverice architecture is based on structuring of channels and subchannels into branches of unlimited depth. This kind of deep structuring is not something you can simply ‘overlay’ on top of an existing messenger that was designed around a single layer of channels. A tremendous number of issues arise when you work with a directory-like structure of infinite depth, and these aren’t easily solved or addressed unless the architecture is built around it.”

“Sure, in Leverice you can build the ‘6-lane autobahns’,” he adds, using an analogy of vehicle traffic on roads to illustrate the concept of a hierarchy of topic channels. “But we are the only messenger where you can also construct a structured network of ‘country roads’. It’s more ‘places’ but each ‘place’ is so narrow and topical that working through it all becomes more manageable, quick and pleasant, and it’s something you can do at your own pace without fear of missing important kernels of information as they fly by on the autobahn.”

To be clear, while Slack has now started letting users self-organize — by creating a visual channel hierarchy that suits them — Leverice’s structure means the same structured tree of channels/subchannels applies for the whole team.

“At the end of the day, for communications to work, somebody on a team needs to be organized,” argues Velton. “What we allow is structuring that affects the channel tree for an entire team, not just an individual preference that reflects only on a user’s local device.”

Leverice has other features in the pipeline which it reckons will further help users cut through the noise — with a plan to apply AI-powered prioritization to surface the most pressing inbound comms.

There will also be automated alerts for conversation forks when new subchannels are created. (Though generating lots of subchannel alerts doesn’t sound exactly noise-free…)

“We have features coming that alert users to forks in a conversation and nudge the user toward those new subchannels. At this stage those forks are created manually, although our upcoming AI module will have nudges based on those forks,” says Velton.

“The architecture (deep structuring) also opens the door to scripting of automated workflows and open source plug-ins,” he adds.

Leverice officially launched towards the end of February after a month-long beta which coincided with the coronavirus-induced spike in remote work.

At this stage they have “members of almost 400 teams” registered on the platform, per Velton, with initial traction coming from mid-size tech companies — who he says are either unhappy with the costs of their current messaging platform or with distraction/burnout caused by “channel fatigue”; or who are facing info fragmentation as internal teams are using different p2p/messaging tools and lack a universal choice.

“We have nothing but love and respect for our competitors,” he adds. “Slack, Teams, WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, Viber, etc.: each have their own benefits and many teams are perfectly content to use them. Our product is for teams looking for more focus and structure than existing solutions offer. Leverice’s architecture is unique on the market, and it opens the door to powerful features that are neither technically nor practically feasible in a messenger with a single layer containing a dozen or two dozen channels.”

Other differentiating features he highlights as bringing something fresh to the team messaging platform conversation are a whiteboard feature that lets users collaborate in the app for brainstorming or listing ideas, prorities; and a Jira integration for managing and discussing tasks in the project- and issue-tracking tool. The team is planning further integrations including with Zoom, Google Docs and “other services you use most”.

The startup — which was founded by CEO Rodion Zhitomirsky in Minsk but is now headquartered in San Jose, California, also with offices in Munich, Germany — has been bootstrapping development for around two years, taking in angel investment of around $600,000.

“We are three friends who managed complex project-based teams and personally felt the pains of all the popular messengers out there,” says Velton, discussing how they came to set up the business. “We used all the usual suspects, and even tried using p2p messengers as substitutes. They all led us and our teams to the same place: we couldn’t track large amounts of communications unless we were in “always-on” mode. We knew there had to be a better way, so we set out to build Leverice.”

The third co-founder is Dennis Dokutchitz.

Leverice’s business model is freemium, with a free tier, a premium tier, and a custom enterprise tier. As well as offering the platform as SaaS via the cloud, they do on-premise installations — for what Velton describes as “the highest level of security and privacy”.

On the security front the product is not end-to-end encrypted but he says the team is developing e2e encrypted channels to supplement the client-server encryption it applies as standard.

Velton notes these forthcoming channels would not support the usual search features, while AI analysis would be limited to “meta-information analysis”, i.e. excluding posts’ content.

“We don’t process customer or message data for commercial purposes, only for internal analytics and features to improve the product for users,” he adds when asked about any additional uses made of customer data. (Leverice’s Privacy Policy can be found here.)

With remote work the order of the day across most of the globe because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it seems likely there will be a new influx of collaboration tools being unboxed to help home workers navigate a new ‘professionally distant’ normal.

“We’ve only been on the market for 6 weeks and have no meaningful revenue to speak of as of yet,” adds Velton.

#Miscellaneous

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ruettira · 5 years ago

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Interaction Design Method

Monday, 30 March, Lesson 6

At the beginning of today’s blog I would like to remember all of you of something really important you should never forget. The best way to learn something is by doing it, the best way of thinking is by making it and that prototyping is a mode of thinking or advancing concepts.

Celina and Baran presented today The question of the prototype. Celina started and she tried to explain to us why we use prototypes. Before we can answer this question we have to know what the definition of prototype is. Wikipedia says a prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. And the Cambridge Dictionary says that it is a first or preliminary version of a device or vehicle from which other forms are developed.

Celina showed us the four Prototype categorisation from these authors Lichter,H., Schneider-Hufschmidt,M. and Zullighoven, H. from the year 1993.

Presentation prototype → communicating ideas among clients and manufacturers

Prototype proper → Understanding user experience, needs and problems

Breadboard → evaluation and testing of manufacturing

Pilot system → final adjustments

I think these for categories are specially used in software development.

After that she explained the the two terms: low fidelity prototypes and high fidelity prototypes. Low fidelity prototypes, are simple and low-tech concepts. All you need to get started is a pen and paper. The goal is to turn your ideas into testable artefacts that you can then use to collect and analyse feedback in the early stages. The opposite of this are the High-fidelity prototypes, they are highly functional and interactive. They are very close to the final product, with most of the necessary design assets and components developed and integrated. Hi-fi prototypes are often used in the later stages to test usability and identify issues in the workflow.

This was something that I really learnt trough reading the texts and my research (https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/low-fi-vs-hi-fi-prototyping/) to understand the readings with this topic. The definition and the usage of those two terms.

Another important topic for us is the prototyping in design. The most basic form of making some idea visible in the real world for us designer is the sketching. It becomes something that you collaborate with through externalisation. In the reading “The Anatomy of Prototypes: Prototypes as Filters, Prototypes as Manifestations of Design Ideas” from the authors Youn-Kyung Lim, Erik Stolterman and Josh Tenenberg in the year 2008 they write something really interesting. They say: “Prototypes stimulate reflections, and designers use them to frame, refine, and discover possibilities in a design space. (...) In the focus of prototyping is framing and exploring a design space, what matters is not identifying or satisfying requirements using prototypes but finding the manifestation that in its simplest form, filters the qualities in which designers are interested, without distorting the understanding of the whole.“ on page 2. This aspect was really inspiring for me. Also they say that there are two fundamental aspects of prototypes form the basis of our framework:

prototypes are for traversing a design space, leading to the creation of meaningful knowledge about the final design as envisioned in the process of design

prototypes ate purposefully formed manifestations of design ideas

They say that the best prototype is one that, in the simplest and most efficient way, makes the possibilities and limitations of a design idea visible and measurable.

Now I drifted off from the presentation of Celina and Baran. Celina also talked about five examples of the prototypes as filters:

Appearance dimension

Data dimension

Functionality dimension

Interactivity dimension

Spatial structure dimension

And about examples for the prototypes as manifestation:

Material

Resolution

Scope

The prototype is fundamentally different from the final product, whether or not it is identical to the final product. Prototypes are means and tools for design and are not the ultimate target for design. In this regard, the designer’s mindset in forming prototypes is different from that in forming the final design. When treating something as a prototype, the designer can start to put in different materials or take out certain materials based on the purpose of using that prototype for the design.

Now we come to a much more complex topic and reading, the cybernetics. Celina showed us two different definitions of this term:

“Cybernetics is applicable when a system being analysed incorporates a closed signalling loop— originally referred to as a "circular causal" relationship—that is, where action by the system generates some change in its environment and that change is reflected in the system in some manner (feedback) that triggers a system change.” - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybernetics), 30 March, hour: 17:43, 2020.

“Cybernetics is, in the Paskian sense, the study of communication between men, animals and machines. His own theory is known as “second-order” cybernetics: frameworks that don’t just account for control and feedback toward the achievement of goals, but also account for “observers” and “participants” in such systems.” - Haque (https://www.haque.co.uk/paskianenvironments.php), 30 March, hour: 17:44, 2020.

Even after reading the text from Gordon Pask “A comment, a case history and a plan”, 1968, and those definition I find hard to understand how and when to use cybernetics. That is why I can not write much about this and would like to continue with Baran’s presentation.

Baran presented us the effective application of prototyping. First he showed us again the low fidelity prototyping which I described further up. He gave us some examples of tools and methods for the low fidelity prototyping:

Role-plays / Games

Sketching & paper prototyping

Storyboards

Digital prototyping (Screen-Design Programs, CADs)

Cardboard, Foam, 3D Print

Then Celina and Baran gave us a task, to make a rapid prototype with paper that can hold a pen 10cm above the desk. They grouped us and we had 3 minutes time to do so. It was funny and the solution really easy. Thats how my prototype looked like:

This point is a good way to end today’s blog.

“Man is always aiming to achieve some goal and he is always looking for new goals” - Gordon Pask, 1968.

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screwdriver-game · 8 years ago

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The Screwdriver Editor

It was a while since last post, core team was(and kinda still is) busy shitting bricks how lighting works UnrealEngine4. So to compensate we will share more info something more tangible than concept art and lore.

(top side editor view, bottom in-game render)

The Screwdriver Editor (SDE in the future). Probably our biggest time investment in the project, took us around a whooping 1 year to develop a standalone piece of custom software which is nicely synchronized with UE4.

So why spend so much resources on just one tool? Wouldn’t it better to work on in-game mechanics and content? Several reasons:

1st Game is in its nature is supposed to be an oldschool-ish RPG where player has decent freedom of movement. Which often requires quite big world compared to more linear games, which is quite a task for a small team like us. Solution was to rely on reusable assets with grid-based placement for simplicity, something UE isn’t tailored for. And by having editor at our disposal, something trivial like creating a building is matter of hours not days.

2nd Screwdriver changed as concept. Initially game was supposed to be 2.5D game with 2d scenery and 3d characters, which seemed reasonable with artist+programmer duo as core team. Sadly UE while “supports” 2d games, it done quite poorly, specially on level design perspective. Which is also why our floors have this specific 2d feel, thats one of few things which survived concept change - tile-based floor creation. Which lets efficiently creating detailed floor with interesting look with minimal effort, something also not possible in UE alone.

(floor tiles in SDE)

3. SDE is quite good chore reducing tool. While it doesn't sound too impressive, things like automatic sorting of items where they belong on the level saves up lots of time on low man-power team.

So what does all of this means? Firstly a decent developed big world to explore in solo campaign without simplifying it drastically or hurting visual aspect. Secondly after game is finished, SDE can be potentially reused for expansions(or modding) making next delivery much faster. Thirdly, its a very cool thing i wanted to show off.

(general look of SDE)

This puts some smaller limitations on our games. I already mentioned grid based placement of building geometry, this will result in many buildings having similar angle like in old isometric games. Insignificant downside, given plenty of modern games have same approach without people really seeing it as a downside. Additional limitation for us would be no camera rotation, something what can be softened by proper level design.

(top in-game render, bottom SDE view)

In conclusion

A solid tool, optimizing workflow and giving a game its own look.

#screwdriver #gamedev #indie #editor #SDE

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guioximitsu · 8 years ago

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Download Vegas Pro 14.0 Build 244 + Activation Patch [TORRENT]

VEGAS Pro is your project companion from start to finish. Edit professional video and audio material in high resolution formats up to 4K. Discover workflow-optimized plug-ins for image stabilization, design dynamic titles and create custom DVDs and Blu-ray Discs. Experience a new type of creative freedom with MAGIX VEGAS Pro 14. VEGAS products are the first choice when it comes to efficient video and audio editing. The VEGAS Pro versions are suitable for both amateur and experienced film makers and any user can benefit from the innovative tools and efficient workflows in the software.

Vegas Pro 14

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Note: To download Torrent, use the Download Manager µTorrent.

Give your creativity space to grow VEGAS Pro 14 guides your video editing projects with its intelligent workflows and industry-leading audio editing tools, putting professional standards within easy reach. Native support for HEVC and ProRes file formats lets you place all common formats alongside one another on the timeline – even video from RED cameras. Amazingly efficient VEGAS Pro 14 gives you more editing power than ever before. With new velocity limits, you can create fast motion that's 40 times faster than normal speed. New hover scrub capabilities make marking in and out points and adding footage from the Trimmer much faster and more efficient. That leaves more time for your main goal: creating impressive videos. How to Install: 1). Instructions are included in ReadMe.txt if needed. 2). Thats all, Done & enjoy

#fireslim #Activation #Multimedia #patch #Torrent #Vegas Pro #Vegas Pro 14 + Activation Free

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wikimakemoney · 5 years ago

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The pivot to video is back, and that’s a good thing for innovation

30-second summary:

While surfacing the phrase “pivot to video” to any publisher may generate feelings of frustration and overall discomfort, the modern publisher needs to have a strong video strategy to make it in today’s digital media landscape.

Since the onset of the global COVID crisis, video viewership has been surging, with consumers spending nearly a half hour longer per day watching digital video content than they did last year.

To compete for viewer attention with the huge wave of streaming services introduced by media behemoths, social media companies have brought to market a raft of new video offerings.

In order to ensure creative content is highly visible, publishers must come to understand how to leverage social media to amplify distribution. There is no single recipe, each will need to find their own balance.

In order to ensure a healthy ecosystem and meet the rising demand for video, publishers must re-strategize and re-tool – and fast – learning as they go, overcoming new obstacles and creating content that will go the distance.

With much of the world spending a lot more time at home over the past few months, media consumption patterns have experienced a substantial shift in a short timeframe. With more time available, consumers’ typical “tl;dr” article skim has given way to sitting back and watching content in video form, a much-desired escape from home and daily routines.

Since the onset of the global COVID crisis, video viewership has been surging, with consumers spending nearly a half hour longer per day watching digital video content than they did last year.

While that peak is beginning to subside, the overall trend may actually lead to permanent shifts. Although mobile continues to be the screen favored by most for watching videos, data from cross-device solution provider Tapad shows connected TV (CTV) usage soaring by up to 60% throughout the day.

New forms of popular video entertainment are what’s really driving engagement (and ad dollars) right now, and as remote work becomes the new normal, having an innovative approach to content creation and digital video production is a requirement for success.

What’s driving digital video’s accelerated growth

The amount of time spent by viewers on digital sites has increased nearly 50 percent from last year, an indicator of their move to a “lean back” approach for content consumption that’s fit for the video medium.

The pandemic is certainly fueling growth, but there are other market factors contributing to this latest resurgence in digital video.

Younger cord cutting generations have all but abandoned a traditional TV model built around cable subscriptions, and that fact hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Large media companies from CBS to NBC have introduced streaming services over the past year with a lineup designed to captivate a younger audience while also bringing older viewers over to their platform.

While people across age groups may have tested a few different offerings anyway, quarantines perpetuated broader, faster adoption of both subscription and ad-supported models.

To compete for viewer attention with the huge wave of streaming services introduced by media behemoths, social media companies have brought to market a raft of new video offerings.

While Facebook focused on building out programming for Watch and bulking up capabilities for Instagram’s IGTV, Pinterest launched video on their platform.

Most recently, YouTube made its strongest bid yet to go after TV ad space, releasing YouTube Select for advertisers to purchase ads against premium content that approximates what audiences would see on TV, and touting more than 100 million viewers a month who stream their content on TV sets.

And as video content grew increasingly popular during quarantine, TikTok took off as a new favorite across a variety of demographics.

For publishers, the need to diversify revenue streams is not new, but it’s been amplified by an increasing sense of urgency to build up first-party data stores in advance of the demise of the third-party cookie on the popular Chrome browser in 2021.

During IAB NewFronts in June, publishers including Condé Nast, Barstool Sports, Vice Media Group and The Wall Street Journal all made presentations touting both their audiences and their creative capabilities via digital studios.

The second pivot to video is in full swing, but this time, publishers are aiming to gain more control of their own destiny.

Prime time for innovation

Now is the time for publishers to innovate. The confluence of outside forces, from the state of the digital media market to the normalization of remote work, are signals that media companies must drive and adopt change quickly, just as other industries have done to meet the world’s current demands.

Not only should content fit the platform, but publishers must be able to interpret viewing patterns, trends, and how people are engaging with content.

At TheSoul Publishing, we debuted English-language channels on Pinterest and TikTok for “5-Minute Crafts” earlier this year, capitalizing on the desire for DIY and craft ideas during quarantine.

By testing and tailoring our content, we were able to quickly amass more than 10 million TikTok followers and see our Pinterest channels grow considerably month-over-month.

Innovation also needs to facilitate remote creation and creativity. Efficient workflow processes and new, tailored systems for creation must be adopted to foster the creation of quality video content.

And as more digital media companies are challenged with the need to adjust to new market realities, global talent resources may prove to be more efficient in the long run. Having team members located worldwide can provide the foundation for additional organic creativity.

The post The pivot to video is back, and that’s a good thing for innovation appeared first on ClickZ.

source http://wikimakemoney.com/2020/09/02/the-pivot-to-video-is-back-and-thats-a-good-thing-for-innovation/

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office-deals-blog · 6 years ago

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ACTIE ML-5015ND 1200 x 1200DPI A4

ACTIE ML-5015ND Printtechnologie Laser Aantal printcartridges 1 Gebruiksindicatie maximaal 200000 paginas per maand Maximale resolutie 1200 x 1200 DPI Maximale ISO A-series papierformaat A4 Printsnelheid zwart standaardkwaliteit A4US Letter 48 ppm Standaard invoercapaciteit 520 vel Standaard uitvoercapaciteit 500 vel Duplex printen Kleur van het product GrijspFeatures such as anti-jam technology 1 Gigabit Network and 600MHz Dual-core processor will ensure that your document workflow is smooth and always driving office productivity Its user-friendly features such as the 43 colour touch screen and one-touch convenience eco button the Easy Print Manager and Secure Printing are suited for any modern office environment And with the heavy media handling capabilities with full range of paper input output options the busier times wont seem so stressful Truly a printer designed for your office needs Effortlessly upgrade with the simple and professional Samsung ML-5015ND printerbrbrbFree your day with a reliable printingbbrbrSet your workday free from time-consuming and stress-causing printer blocks with Samsungs anti-jam technology Utilising a retard roller which provides a backward friction during the paper pickup process your operation will see increases in productivity and even bigger reductions in work frustration Common problems that often add to stress-levels such as miss-feeding and multiple paper feeding from the cassette tray will become things of the past An impressive high monthly duty is one of the clear-cut and measurable benefits found with anti-jam technology and will add to a more streamlined and reliable workflow So with Samsung anti-jam technology your printing operation can finally be hassle-free efficient and reliable brbrbIts both user and eco friendlybbrbrBring your office into the 21st century with a printer that is beneficial to both business and the environment Making life easier is the 43 colour touch screen It provides an easy-to-use interface and ensures that professional printing doesnt need to be complicated The ML-5015ND printer also features an innovative eco-button This automatically reduces paper and toner use which helps minimise operational costs and just as important the impact on the environment brbrbA top printer thats low on noisebbrbrFrom a company that knows its business the new Samsung ML-5015ND printer can work flat out at a mere 54 decibels an office-friendly volume you wont be hearing our competitors shout about With a standby volume of 30dBA it signals an end to colleagues having to scream to be heard even before their printing has begun Doors can stay open along corridors as the ML-5015ND outperforms the other leading printers copy after copy brbrbBeing eco-friendly just got easierbbrbrMake hitting your environmental goals a whole lot easier with Samsungs new Eco Mode which also includes a Results Simulator to check how well you are doing The Eco Mode features a one touch Eco Button which conveniently serves as your default setting once activated and reduces paper consumption with Duplex printing 2-up printing and a Toner Save setting Thanks to the Results Simulator you can really appreciate how much good work you are doing The simulation shows levels of carbon dioxide emissions electricity and paper usage The Eco Mode is an easy and effective way of keeping track of your printer consumption which is better for you and the planet brbrbLow cost per page saving you money-selectedbbrbrWhether your office is big or small the Samsung ML-5015ND printer will continue to deliver the best copy at a budget price Save on money due to the separated toner and drum Also utilising a polymerised toner the Samsung ML-5015ND printer lowers power consumptionbr its thin and uniform toner layer wastes less toner while operating with a lower fusing temperature and thus requires less power So the Samsung ML-5015ND printer delivers the perfect combination of professional printing that also saves you money which is very business smart http://dlvr.it/R2mvmW

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dangerousinfluencerbarbaria-blog · 8 years ago

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Industrial And Residential Basic Contractor & Construction Administration Stellar Improvement

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I'm in UAE I searched an excessive amount of for code fibo I personaly have handbook forex trading system which works for me however outcomes from code fibo those i searched so removed from internet are wow thats why I need to need to test it as soon as. We cease calling the thought ” smart contracts” and we begin calling the idea Trustless Multiparty Monetary Computation”. For instance, the result of a smart contract execution may depend upon external data akin to change charges, the GDP of countries, temperatures in cities and sports activities scores amongst different data. This demand shouldn't be a theoretical one, for with out such service our brokers can't reap the benefits of the difference in quotations on a inventory on the exchanges on either aspect of the Atlantic. Non-obligatory If not set, defaults to true, which means the API will watch for BlockCypher to guarantee the transaction, utilizing our Confidence Issue The guarantee often takes round 8 seconds. The authenticity of each transaction is protected by digital signatures similar to the sending addresses, permitting all users to have full control over sending bitcoins from their own Bitcoin addresses. A: I'm not conscious of every other academic papers that link the blockchain to the way it may help the surroundings. You will have to pay for arbitrage software program subscription or alert service each month and these providers are a bit expensive for arbitrage beginners, so you should get accustomed together with your bookies first and do some trading with small stakes which can take you a number of weeks. There are automated arbitrage betting software in South America now using bitcoin to protect their financial savings due to out-of-control inflation, and it is an instance of a pure opportunity for Bitcoin to be used. On Friday, 20 bitcoin exchanges launched a statement saying that they whereas they wouldn't expressly endorse the new platform, it's incumbent upon us to support a coherent, orderly, and business-broad method to making ready for and responding to a contentious laborious fork”. Moreover, it was smart to make use of a pseudonym, he argues, because it compelled people to give attention to the know-how itself quite than on the persona behind it. At the end of the day, bitcoin is now far bigger than Satoshi Nakamoto. The primary bitcoin pockets to bring testnet help to each iOS and Windows Cellphone. Automated forex arbitrage software professional customers the flexibility to make use of knowledge feed from the automatec account. https://wanelo.co/house85aggerholm went to and requested the community about the Taggart's declare to be a co-founding father of Bitshares and several other of the actual founders backed him up (although, as mentioned some did not). Bitcoin is a digital asset and a payment system invented by Satoshi Nakamoto who printed the invention in 2008 and launched it as open-supply software in 2009. Dutch lender ABN Amro lately announced it's constructing a 30-sturdy team to research blockchain use. We're honored to be a part of this group of truly stellar firms and assist the migration from present methods to Blockchain. Beforehand, BitShares obtained criticisms from the cryptocurrency neighborhood and blockchain builders that the sluggish and inefficient efficiency of the platform negatively affects user experience, and that the mannequin object fails to engage real-world utilization. It auto configures your Bitcoin miners and provides efficiency graphs to for easy visualization of your Bitcoin mining activity. This page record a number of the extra full time contributors to the project, as well as those that have some administrative roles. 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Qtum, in cooperation with its educational partners, develops instruments and strategies to standardize the workflow for business sensible contract improvement. As of Bitcoin zero.12, the crash prevention depends on a special mechanism, and the minrelayfee has been lowered to its original amount of 1000 satoshis per KB. The default mempool higher limit for an individual node is now 300MB. Whaleclub also provides demo buying and selling where customers can commerce using demo funds provided by Whaleclub. Bitcoin remittance will be verified, settled, and signed off on for free in a few minutes, making the transfer environment friendly. It fully merges an online-primarily based banking experience with the Bitcoin blockchain, and supports an API and white-label resolution for the Fintech trade. Many individuals starting with on-line arbitrage simply want to make just a little extra money in their spare time. Whenever you first start off with your personal cryptocurrency you are unlikely to attract as many miners or to have as many nodes as, for instance, Bitcoin. We've a tough time labeling bitshares as a real trade, as a result of bitshares can only be exchanged against bitshares derivatives. Studying the mechanism and the technology behind bitcoin is a key component for the establishment of the forex as mainstream. At this point, Steem and Bitshares have extra actual world transactions occurring every single day than the remainder of the main blockchains combined. Bitcoin merchants are no completely different; in addition they use bots to assist them earn money on on-line exchanges. Mining crypto coins means you'll get to maintain the total rewards of your efforts, but this reduces your possibilities of being successful. Bitfinex, the most important Bitcoin trade by quantity, announced that 119,756 bitcoins of customer funds had been stolen by way of a security breach, a worth roughly equivalent to $seventy two million USD. The new model of Arbitrage Forex Skilled Advisor Latest PRO three.7 Exclusive we've taken into consideration all of the nuances and drawbacks of previous versions. Also in developing international locations the place individuals don't have bank accounts but do have phones, Bitcoins can play a significant function in how individuals transfer money to 1 another. This Bitcoin 2.zero presentation incorporates more data on the considering behind the protocol. Last January it claimed a famous sufferer: longtime Core developer Mike Hearn, who give up the bitcoin world dramatically (paywall) because of the block measurement deadlock. And so what I believe we'll end up operating right into a tautology with smart contracts, it is going to be used by people who need to make use of them. It's precisely the identical software program as Core, however with additional patches that trigger it to forged a vote for raising the restrict. A robust bitcoin index, uniquely designed to stop manipulation, serving because the reference rate for tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars of registered spinoff products. Hearn's essay touches on various matters that he feels have collectively wrecked the Bitcoin concept. I developed arbing software to observe horse racing arbs on ~15 bookies with sub 1 second refresh rates. Bitcoin adoption has continued to grow over the past few years, to eventually attain a market capitalisation of almost US 7 billion dollars. At any time when you are going brief on a BitAsset, you must present a margin requirement equal to 2x the market value of the BitAsset, in the type of Bitshares. There are so many ways in which bitcoin is kind of broken in comparison with the beliefs of the group that are much more involved than blocksize, and I'd even written about these problems in June of final year, because the block size debate was amidst rising to crescendo. Mr. Andresen does not repeatedly publish to his weblog, but when he does, the Bitcoin developer group pays consideration. It pretty much dumb down the whole buying and selling process so you can concentrate on what's actually matter…when to buy low and promote high. This curve can be utilized to view traits in market expectations of how rates of interest will transfer sooner or later. Arbitrage Forex Skilled Advisor Latest PRO 3.7 Unique has come a good distance from the start the concept of arbitrage buying and selling to today. You get an distinctive genesis block, the source code and a compiled Linux & Home windows client. The Internet Retailer listing contains arbitrage deal finders , and costs range from around $20 to $one hundred per 30 days.

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marcomoochala · 8 years ago

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Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to one very special machine, the Legendary HP Designjet T3500. In my humble opinion possibly one of the best large format printer and wide format plotter in Singapore (for medium size companies).

So why do i say it is one of the best, well let me share some of my experiences so that this may help in making a valuable decision when your purchasing or considering purchasing this machine.

Lets begin for those inclined to the technical side, at the time of writing this article, it has still the heaviest technical load outs for a machine at its price point. Even though HP , Canon and Epson have updated their machines, in terms of technical superiority at this price point it still reigns supreme , why is that so?

Intel i5 Core Processor

2.5 GB of ram

128 GB of Virtual memory

500 GB AES Encrypted HDD

A 100 Page Stacker

Jumbo Rolls

So you see folks…, this machine lacks in no way any lack of technical prowess. So how do all of these things actually really matter what makes this machine one of the best?

First of all lets begin from the very top of the machine and then work our way down so that we can fully appreciate the form and the design of this machine , which is no surprise as to why it won the IF design awards.

The Stacker: 100 Pages Of Perfectly Stacked A1 Copies

You might be wondering, why is the stacker even mentioned after all….how exciting could a stacker be? well if you think about it closely, the T3500 gets its form factor from the mercury line of HP products. This most notably is the HP T930, HP T2530, HP T1530, which formed the core of the machine. Now remember prior to HP’s innovation most plotters did not come with a stacker ( unless of course they were the really expensive ones) A masterstroke in design and functionality the HP Mercury Platform stackers, for the first time allowed an affordable solution for this very important aspect…..stacking.

So what! Its a damn Stacker! whats so special about a stacker! well, here’s the thing, suppose you have a set of drawings to print out, 1 set 20 copies, if you should purchase any machine without a stacker….then yes…you’d get a basket. You heard me right, a basket. Who wan’ts their precious drawings ending up in a basket, crumpled, unsorted, disorganized and need i mention a Glorious Waste Of Time!! can you imagine yourself sending 20 copies to your plotter , then having to retrieve them from a basket which practically has other drawings on top of it and then having to take them out place them flat and straighten it all over again…jeez give me a break. Trust me if your a business owner you owe it to your staff and your company to invest in a machine with a stacker..if not it will just waste their time and by wasting their time wasting your money.

One of the most convenient and easy ways to stack and retrieve your drawings.

Instead, imagine a scenario, you just sent 20 copies to the plotter, its all been printed. Now its held on neatly by a stacker , simply walk up to your machine hold the copies on both sides and pull straight up….really its that simple. Oh and did i mention, its a 100 page stacker so should you attempt to print 100 a1 drawings on any other machine…fair warning its gonna get chaotic really quickly. One last thing, other machines do have stackers, however they seem to be rather…how should i say..angled…so in order to see what you were printing you’d have to walk to the back, lift a copy and verify it was indeed your drawing…such hassles should be avoided at all cost!

The Scanner : Color / Mono Scans up to 36″ wide

When it comes to scanning, the HP T3500 is actually powered by another industry giant Contex Scanners. In the world of high performance and good quality scans context is hands down the leader. The HP T3500 wide format plotter comes equipped with this amazing peice of technology from contex. This combination offers seamless integration in a perfect sized bundle. So lets learn about this scanner.

First of all, the tech specs(for the tech inclined),

7.5 inches per second in monochrome

2.5 inches per second in color

600 dpi max scan

Scan formats : pdf, jpeg, tiff etc.

Not bad for an all in one scanner…again..tech specs are one thing, lets think of a real life scenario i see every time i see and speak to the customer. Most drawings are rolled, and you know what happens when your drawing is rolled….well it curls. Don’t you just hate having to uncurl your drawing! imagine you had to do 30 scans…curl ,uncurl, curl, uncurl and so on. In a short time your going to get really really really frustrated . So its not really the technical load out that impresses me about this scaner . its two things one its large table size and two its auto width detection. Let me explain.

When you have a large format print or wide format document that is curled and you try to scan it, you better make sure your scanner has the right table width for you to easily slot in your scan drawings. If at the point of inserting your drawing you have to fiddle around just to get that damn curl out of the way the time taken to scan is going to be exponential. The image below shows you what i mean, take the two examples from two leading manufacturers and critically examine the insertion point of the document..then ask yourself..is it going to be easy to slot that drawing in?

Narrow Scan Path

A Super Narrow Scan path

A narrow path might have been advantages to the brave spartan men in the movie 300, but to the brave architect , engineer or construction personnel, not really. So what i love about the T3500 large format plotter is that its scan path is HUGE! You literally get a working table for you to lay your curled drawings flat and easily slot it into the scanner!

A massive scan path to easily place and flatten your curled up drawings

I hope that now you can clearly see the difference a wide scanning input can make, especially when you have a great many scans to scan. The auto detection of the width is also really nifty, you don’t really have to align the document as per the size of the table, simply insert any document at its center and then the machine will automatically realize its width. It performs other cool functions like anti skew and neatly crops out your drawing for you. So its as simple as that.

Scan and copy quicksets : Making life a little easier

Owning a large format plotter and large format scanner is suppose to make your life much more smoother and alot more efficient. In this respect the HP T3500 comes with this ability to create quick sets.

What is a quick set? : A quick set is a set of parameters that have been preset for you so that when you walk up to the machine no further inputs are needed.

This works in a simple way for scanning or copying, support you have a color a1 size drawing that you now wish to print in mono chrome. well you can easily do that now. Simply walk up to your machine , slick on scan, select the quick set you desire and thats it.

In another respect you can also make quick sets of enlargements and reductions, so for example you can easily enlarge an a3 size document without having to worry about percentages if you have a quick set ready, simply walk up to the machine and select A3 to A1 and there you have it. No manual calculation needed or any of that brain numbing work.

There are factory quick sets that come with the machine but you can always add your own and you can also delete them if you find them no longer useful. The scanner allows you also to scan a multi page document, so if you have 10 copies and simply want one pdf file, then select the multi page file format. Its really that simple!

Well folks as this is part 1 of my blog post of the T3500, i shall continue again to show you how and why this plotter is one of the best large format printers in singapore…and trust me we are just getting started!

Do write to me or visit my webpage below to see my entire portfolio and i look forward to hearing from you!

Full Range Of Machines : www.largeformatspecialist.com.sg/

WordPress : http://largeformatplotters.wordpress.com

Facebook: : www.facebook.com/uscsolutions

Add Me On Google+ : google.com/+MarcoMoochala

Sales & Marketing CAD Division USC Solutions Pte Ltd

203A Henderson Road

#02-03 Henderson Industrial Park

Singapore 159546

M: +65 90266787

T: +65 6278 3110

F: +65 6273 4208

One Of The Best Large Format Printer In Singapore (Part 1) Ladies and Gentlemen, let me introduce you to one very special machine, the Legendary HP Designjet T3500…

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viralhottopics · 8 years ago

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Move Over, Jony IveBiologists Are the Next Rock Star Designers

Here. Smell this.

Effendi Leonard smiles and pushes a vial of pale, cloudy liquid toward me, like a grandfather offering a plate of cookies. I unscrew the cap and take a whiff. The scent is earthy, a bit like rising dough.It smells like bread, I tell him.

He beams but doesnt say anything, then hands me another vial. And this?

This one smells sweet, like fruit, but harder to place. I inhale again and guess.Grape soda?

Were standing around a lab table at Ginkgo BioWorks, a Boston biotech company, playing Name That Smell. I was right. The second vial is meant to smell like grapes, though you’d never know that from its contents. There isn’t the slightest trace of grape in it. In fact, designers created it using “a regular bakers yeast,” says Leonard, an organism designer at Ginkgo.

To make something that smells like grapes without using grapes, designers inserted genes from various plants, including corn, into the basic yeast chassis to build a new genetic architecture. The redesigned genetic sequence gave rise to a variant of yeast that, when fermented,produces a chemical that smells distinctly of grapes. The sweetness, the tartness, the hint of dirt—it’s all there, emanating from a tube full of fungus.

Effendi Leonard is an “organism designer” at Ginkgo BioWorks in Boston. Maggie Shannon for WIRED

You could describe Ginkgo BioWorks as a biotech startup, a research lab, or a well-funded band of biohackers. Ginkgo calls itself an organism design foundry. Semantics, perhaps, but the wording is important. Throughout history, biologists have focused on describing and understanding the natural world. But a greater understanding of life’s building blocks has given them a greater proclivity for engineering and designing organisms.

This creative practice,which falls under the umbrella term synthetic biology, views DNA as something to be manipulated and rearranged. Proponents see a day when biologists can build organisms capable of anything imaginable with a degree of reproducibilitytypicallyreserved for engineering. In this new world where biotech companies like Ginkgo and Amyris and Craig Venters Synthetic Genomicsplay, biologists become designers working with one of the most powerful substrates imaginable: life.

In this new world, biologists become designers working with one of the most powerful substrates imaginable: life.

Advocates of this technology promise revolutionary advancements in everything from green energy to medicinetofood production. That has brought money pouring in. The so-called bioeconomy already generates $350 billion annually in the US, according to one report, with much of it coming from the creation of biochemicals, biological feedstock, and biofuels. Still grander ideas—eradicating Lyme disease or malaria, terraforming Mars, or resurrecting extinct species—underscore why the opportunities presented by this technology exhilarate, and terrify, people.

There are quite a lot of philosophical and ethical questions we need to explore rather than jumping right into designing biological systems, says Oron Catts, an artist who leads the University of Western Australias SymbioticA program, which explores the intersection of art, design, and synthetic biology.

Beyond the science lies the ethics and oversight. How can science and society ensure such technology is used for the greater good? How should it be regulated, and by whom? And what of the unintended consequences that inevitably will arise when people begin meddling with the foundation of life?Its a very complex issue, Cattssays. We need to be having a nuanced conversation.

That conversation,traditionally led by scientists, is drawing people from beyond the lab. Designers and artists are shapingthe future of synthetic biology by helping scientists understand the power of this technology. Their participation is vital, says Kevin Esvelt, an evolutionary biologist at Harvards Wyss Institute, who’s exploring how synthetic biologymight help eradicate diseases like malaria by inserting disease-resistant gene drives into some species of mosquitoes. Scientists, unlike designers or artists, are oftenhyper-focused in their research. Scientists are not scientists because they want to change the world, he says. Theyre scientists because theyre interested in increasing human knowledge, which may have direct benefits on changing the world for the better.

Esvelt believes synthetic biologists, perhapsmore so than other scientists, are in a position to think differently about their field. They can—and have already begun— to adopt a more holistic way of viewing their work, in no small part due to their collaborations with artists and designers who possess tools and ways of thinking that they themselves do not. It forces us to be philosophical in ways that other areas dont have to be, he says. And I think we should embrace it.

Foundry Of Life

MIT professor Tom Knight co-founded Ginkgo BioWorks seven years ago with a handful of his biological engineering doctoral students. It operates out of an old factory overlooking Boston Harbor in the citys Seaport neighborhood. I like to say that were the only startup with a better view than its lawyers, Knight says.

Knight is perhaps best known for his seminalwork in electrical engineering in the 1980s, though he—along with pioneers like Harvard geneticist George Church and biotechnologist-cum-entrepreneur Craig Venter—is regardedas one of the grandfathers of synthetic biology. It’san apt description—between his puffy white beard and warm-but-wonky demeanor, Knight comes across as something of a hybrid between Einstein and Santa Claus.

MIT professor Tom Knight co-founded Ginkgo BioWorks in 2008. Maggie Shannon for WIRED

Ginkgos headquarters is full of scientific ephemera: Turtles swim in a tub in the kitchen, a Ginkgo-emblazoned hazmat suit hangs on the wall, company T-shirts feature a Jurassic Park logoand the tagline There Will Be Dragons. Towering shelves line the entryway, packed with books withtitles like Culturing Life, Genetics: Second Edition,andMethods in Enzymology.

The team has 18,000 square feet of space, and a second round of funding—$45-million—from Viking Global, Y Combinator, and OS Fund has it looking to significantly expand BioWorks 1, the biological foundry that opened earlier this year into a second foundry called BioWorks 2.

The first thing you notice in the bright white lab are the robots. Theyre everywhere. Ginkgo has one for nearly every stepin the organism-synthesizing process—there’s a robot devoted to pipetting drops of DNA, arobotin charge of fermenting yeast, and another robot for analyzing the molecular composition of the yeasts’ fermentation products. But Ginkgo’s labor force isn’t totally robotic; biologists are also on hand to shuttle samples from one machine to the next.One of the dreams while we were building out the foundry was that maybe it would be totally automated; youd have robotic arms moving samples around, says Patrick Boyle, another organism designer at Ginkgo. It turns out that the way we put workflows together and do experiments in a lab, people are just more efficient at some of these processes.

Remixing life is intensely physical. It requires mixing bits of DNA, often in the form of tiny drops of solution Ginkgo buys from sequencing companies. Stitching together a new genome is something you do by hand, if you don’t have a robot to do it for you—and cutting and pasting DNA is painstaking work. Youd spend two-thirds of your time putting DNA together, which isnt an interesting thing for a designer, says Ginkgos creative director, Christina Agapakis, of her time working in research labs. You want to see what it does when youre done with it.

Separating the design and creation processes has freedGinkgos crew to spend more time thinking about the design of the organisms it’s creating. Think of it as the difference between architects and contractors, says Drew Endy, a professor of biological engineering at Stanford and former MIT professor who worked with Knight. The architect comes up with a vision, and the contractors execute on that vision.He puts it another way: Jony Ive, how good is he at building a silicon wafer? Approximately, not at all.

By automating tedious lab tasks, Ginkgo can generatestrains at an otherwise unthinkable rate. Our design approach is to simply build as many prototypes as we can, Boyle says. You can fit literally billions of different prototypes on a petri dish. You dont want to look at them all, but you can generate that many.

Ginkgo BioWorks creative director Christina Agapakis. Maggie Shannon for WIRED

Ginkgo’s samples, which include live organisms and pieces of purified DNA, are held in tiny tubes labeled with a barcode; scanning these tubes reveals the creation date and genealogy of the sample. Lab co-founder Jason Kelly says the team sequences hundred of enzymes from a database that catalogs natures diversity to glean a better understanding of their behavior. We don’t just quickly screen these enzymes for the specific activity we’re looking for but rather test them more deeply to catch activities we might not predict,” he says. Ginkgo tracks all of this information in an enormous database, which is what helps the companys software generate what the designers hope will be increasingly accurate predictions of which biological partswork together to produce certain compounds. Thats really why you need that foundry scale, Boyle says. Because we dont know all the design rules yet.

Once those rules are more fully understood, the Ginkgo team will be able to design organisms more efficiently. I think understanding has to come before the manipulation, Knight says. In that way, designing organisms mirrors designing with more traditional substrates like wood or code: A deeper understanding of the material leads to better designs.

Ginkgo collects this infoin a Github-style Wiki. Software developers—who comprise one-third of the companys staff—translate that data into designprinciplesthat help the robots mix and match certain genes more efficiently. This allows the designers, as Boyle describes it, to shoot in the dark effectively, freeing up time for them to conceptualize and solve problems.

Nature relies on the glacial pace of evolution to dictate a biological solution, but Ginkgos designers must work faster—they have customers to answer to. In many ways, the company is like any industrial design firm. It has contracts for more than 20 organisms from customers that include Ajinomoto, a Japanese food and chemical company seeking a yeast strain for animal feed; a major beverage company that wants a new sweetener; and another looking for an organic pesticide.

When I visited the lab, designers were working through a brief from Robertet. The French perfume company wanted Ginkgo to engineer a strain of yeast capable of producing rose oil. The yeast-derived rose oil would be more sustainable and less expensive to produce than oil from actual roses, the availability of which can be inconsistent, thanks tothe unpredictabilities of things like climate and disease.It’s not a new idea:In the late ’80s, scientistsgenetically modified E. coli to synthesize chymosin, the enzyme used to turn milk into cheese. Most cheeses are now made with GMO-derived chymosin, which is cheaper and more reliable to produce with microbes than it is to harvest from thestomachs of baby cows.

Rose oil derived from genetically engineered yeast has all the complexity and nuance of the real thing. When you smell a rose, youre not smelling a single compound that is the rose smell,” says Boyle, “youre smelling all the different compounds that rose makes. Thousands of different molecules, he says, contribute to the fragrance profile of a rose’s essential oils.By comparison, a rose accord—a combination of compounds that approximate’s a rose’s scent—typically contains just three or four chemical compounds. Rose essential oil is like an orchestra or symphony whereas rose accord would be more like a string quartet, he says. You can play the same notes, but you dont get the same overall impression.

Maggie Shannon for WIRED

But the chemicals Ginkgo is making dont come from a rose, exactly. By selecting specific genes from roses and crossing them with yeast DNA, were taking the exact biochemical pathways from a rose and putting them into yeast,” Boyle says. The result is a genetically modified strain of fungusthat produces a cocktail of chemicals close to the one produced by an actual rose. By separating those chemicals from the yeast that produced them, Boyle’s team is left with a productthat smells remarkably like natural rose oil’s symphony of fragrance.

Ginkgo started in late 2008 with $15 million in funding from Darpa. Its aim was to design synthetic probiotics that could reduce gastrointestinal problems in soldiers. That project is still ongoing, but, according to Kelly, is in “very early stage research.”For now, the startup is focusing on fragrances and flavors like natural sweeteners (they just signed a new multi-million-dollar contract with Robertet to synthesize lactones, which impart a sweet, creamy scent to fragrances). Knight concedes thats not the most headline-worthy of ambitions, especially when you consider what’s possible with Crispr, a technology that allows scientists to edit genomes by cutting and pasting bits of DNA. My goal is to get into much more complex organisms, but I have no illusions about that happening anytime soon, he says. Theres a reason why were working with simple organisms; were having a hard enough time understanding what they do.

Thereare practicalconsiderations at play, too. Fragrance and flavors can be brought to market more quickly than, say, pharmaceuticals or biofuels, both of which are moreheavily regulated,have a lower return on investment, and can take decades to develop. Theres very little that is going to stand in the way of making short term profits out of this, Knight says. That money, certainly if I had my way, will be re-invested in the development of the technology and will make us able to engineer biology more effectively. Thats what its about.

Biology Goes Industrial

One afternoon, Knight is sitting in his office at Ginkgo BioWorks pondering how he might put the foundry’s additional space to use, once its finished expanding after its most recent round of funding. One thing hed like to do is build a cabinet of curiosities and fill it with scientific novelties—animals, fossils, and otherstrange or interesting things he comes across. Heres one of my favorite objects, he says, liftinga reflective sphere about the size of a grapefruit from his desk. This is my crystal ball. Most people have crystal balls that arent really crystals, but this one really is a crystal ball. Do you know what it is? he asks, turning it over in his hand. Its siliconpure silicon. This lets me see the future.

Biology, its said, is like an integrated computer circuit that can be programmed.

Before starting Ginkgo, Knight was a researcher and professor at MIT, where he taught electrical engineering. Knight sees many parallels between what he does today and what he did in the 1980s when he was miniaturizing transistors. Its common in the synthetic biology world for researchers to compare their work to the early days of computer programming. It’s ametaphor that makes the dizzying world of biology a little easier to grasp. Biology, its said, is like an integrated computer circuit that can be programmed; only instead manipulating ones and zeros, you’re tinkering withgenes, RNA, and proteins.

Organism designer Patrick Boyle. Maggie Shannon for WIRED

The silicon ball, then, is an apt metaphor for what Knight and his colleagues hope to achieve at the foundry: The purity of the ball is a feat of man, not of nature. “This silicon ball is ridiculously pure. It could never occur in nature, he says. Somebody had to go to a lot of trouble to make it as pure as it is now. Biology, like this silicon ball once was, is incredibly messy and complex. Knight believes that to make progress, biology has to be as simple as this shiny sphere, and that requires human intervention. A lot of what weve been doing over the last several years is intentionally making biology simpler, he says.

In 2001, Knight introduced this idea in the form ofBioBricks, a standardization system designedto helpbiologists assemble complex sequences of geneticcode. A DNA segment thatadhered to the BioBrick Standard was called a “part.” Each part coded for a specific biological function, and was catalogued in a registry. The idea was that biologists could pick and choose parts from the registry like bricks from a bin of Lego,and snapthem together intoincreasingly complex combinationsof genetic instructions (aka “devices”) that could later operate inside a living cell. Back when the BioBrick repository housed just six parts, the idea seemed pretty ridiculous. But today, the repositorycontains more than 20,000 parts. It’s also the officialregistry of iGEM, an international competition that challenges students to build novel biological systems out of BioBricks parts. Needless to say, the idea no longer seems sofar fetched.

Ginkgo doesnt adhere to the BioBricks Standard(it’stoo simplistic for Ginkgo’s purposes, and the company is looking to outsource more of its DNA synthesis), but Knight says they were animportant precursor to Ginkgo, because it changed how people thought about living systems. Its the enabler to the kind of technology you’re seeing here, he explains. Its the enabler of transitioning away from the artisanal craft of biology to the industrial scale.

Thinking Like A Designer

If biology no longer requires a hand-crafted approach, it frees up scientists to consider the applications—and implications—of the technology.In his class, Foundations for Engineering Biology, Endy no longer teaches undergraduate students how to cut and paste DNA because hed rather them think about what they want to design with DNA. Design in the scope of biology has a lot to do with judgment. Its not necessarily about knowing what to do, but knowing when to do it, he says. It turns out that once biological engineers are equipped with technical skills, theres an even bigger, and arguably more important, question to answer: What will they do with these tools?

Esvelt, of Harvard, thinks about that question often. Tools like Crispr are wildly powerful, but with power comes responsibility. We have never before had the power to pretty much unilaterally alter the shared environment, he says. Synthetic biology opens the door to more “specific and elegant” solutions to many man-made problems, Esvelt says, but hes not blind to the fact that this raises urgent questions about how such manipulations might affect other organisms in an ecosystem.Even if youre reasonably sure that there arent going to be side effects, how on earth can we decide whether or not we should use it and when we should use it? he asks.

Thats where thinking like a designer comes into play.Despite having trained as scientists, many synthetic biologists are slowly acknowledging that design thinking, in addition to technical understanding, is an essential skill. The evolutionary process is iterative, but it is mindless. The person who designs genetic architecture, on the other hand, does so with aesthetic, utilitarian, and social considerations in mind.

I believe scientists are not designers, and designers are not scientists, says Paola Antonelli, senior curator of design and architecture at the Museum of Modern Art, who has said that biodesign will be oneof the most important design fields in the future. What she means is that both disciplines bring a distinct set of skills that contribute to the advancement of synthetic biology, and aremost effective when they work together.

Ginkgo Bioworks co-founder Jason Kelly. Maggie Shannon for WIRED

Designers are drawn to the field of synthetic biology for the same reason scientists have begun to adopt design thinking—using biological matter as a material can lead to some wildly creative possibilities. Last monthin New York City, designer Suzanne Lee organized a day-long symposium called Biofabricate that brought together a few dozen designers, scientists, and artists who have been working with the medium of life. Leeis the founder ofBiocouture, a startup that’s investigating how synthetic biology will impact consumer goods, and the conference was a like a demo day for researchers and designers working in the field. There wereaesthetic works on display like scarves dyed with ink made from bacteria and a prototype for a self-folding shoe that reacts to humidity. But alongside visual designers there were molecular biologists, Harvard scientists, architects, and bioethicists. The field is beginning to blur the boundaries of disciplines, which is important says Agapakis, Ginkgos creative director. People are approaching the field and asking these really complicated questions like, what does it mean to design a living thing? she says. What does it mean to design a beautiful life form?

Using biological matter as a material can lead to some wildly creative possibilities.

In Synthetic Aesthetics, Endy, designer Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, and a handful of other designers and engineers explore Agapakis’question. In the book, social scientist Pablo Schyfter explains that at its core, design is about making a series of weighted choices. Design doesnt happen for its own sake: It is always motivated by something. In that way, synthetic biology, with its commercial aspirations, ultimately comes down to a series of judgment calls. The best biologists Ive ever worked with are the best people at choosing what to work on and choosing when to kill projects, Endy says. And I think that has a lot to do with the design process.

Ginsberg, a designer who Antonelli describes as the goddess of synthetic biology, believes its the role of designers to ask uncomfortable questions of the technologists and scientists who are working in these fields. I think its a social issue, not just a technological issue, she says. I think imagining technology can solve our problems is kind of a techno-utopian view and I think its much more complex. Its about how we behave and build our societies, which technology can be a part of.

Synthetic biology would have a real-world impact on politics, employment, and land-use. Endy points to the creation of syntheticArtemisinin, a malaria vaccine derived from wormwood plants. If you were to start producing Artemisinin in yeast instead of through wormwood, which is now possible, what does that mean? On one hand, it sounds really good, he says. The synthetic variety reduces land use by an exponential amount, which in theory opens it up for food production. On the other hand, it looks like youre replacing the jobs of 100,000 people who grow trees with about a couple hundred people who grow potatoes. Who is talking about that?

Designers have in some ways become the ethical whistleblowers of the field, using the process of speculative design to ponder what a synthetic future will look like (see Ginsberg’s Designing For the Sixth Extinction).Rodrigo Martinez, a researcher at Ideo Boston who focuses on life sciences and synthetic biology, believes that theres a lot of room for synthetic biologists and designers to work together, and that this union will push the field not just forward but in the right direction. He and his team look at the future of synthetic biology by crafting stories around possible futures. This helps both scientists and the public crystallize how this technology could possibly be used in the coming decades. “Theres an opportunity for designers to not just help with the packaging of science or technology, but telling stories about what it is that it does and how it does it, he says. Especially in an area like synthetic biology where its not easy.

Martinez says we often tell stories about the world we want before it actually comes to into existence. By imagining possible futures, we’re effectively deciding what kind of future we want to create. And the fact is, weve barely started exploring whats possible with this technology. Martinez and his team are working on ways to extrapolate synthetic biologys impact into the future, to a time when it will have an impact on our children or grandchildren. It probably wont look like Jurassic Park or genetically designed offspring—at least not anytime soon—but rather as biology embedded into more nuanced moments of our daily lives. Things like bio-sensors that monitor air quality or at-home kits that allow kids to tweak living matter. Maybe, Endy says half-jokingly but with true optimism, well even be able to program a bush in our garden to grow into the shape of a unicorn. I cant imagine,” he says, “not being able to pull that off eventually.”