Lin Evans

Hi Daniel, Those are beautiful photos - it seems a place the birds love also and probably because there are lots of tasty snacks to eat! The panorama was excellent and this looks like a great place to visit. Do people live in the little houses along the shore or are these places where they work to select oysters? In Tahiti, on the little atolls such as Manihi where the main business is the pearl oyster, there are tiny houses out in the lagoons where the pearl "farming" in done. There work is done during the day, but nobody actually lives in the little shacks, just a place to work. Thanks for a wonderful view of life in Bassin d' Arcachon! Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Those pesky flies are always throwing "monkey wrenches" in our understanding of physics. Actually, it mirrors the behavior of lighter than air substances inside a moving body. If you were to place a helium or hydrogen filled balloon inside a car and stop with a sudden crash, the balloon would not move forward, but rather backward. This is because the air which is contained inside the vehicle goes forward, is somewhat compressed and then rebounds. The fly, being lighter than the air via the act of "flying" is cushioned by this rebounding air, and like the balloon, moves backward rather than forward. Likewise with sudden acceleration. The fly moves forward rather than being "pinned" to the back of the seat as we "heavier than air" creatures experience. I'm thinking that in a vehicle traveling through space at incredible speeds with no gravity but an artificial atmosphere, probably the same cushioning effect would be felt. Hard to say, because any collision these days with our rudimentary technology would probably result in "lights out" for all occupants... What's even more interesting to me, would be what would be the effect of traveling at faster than the speed of light. Since light waves or "particles" depending on how one looks at it, have been traveling from distant stars, would their be an "increase" in the amount of brightness as we "collect" excessive photons traveling at greater than the speed of light (assuming, of course, that it might someday be possible). When I was the official photographer for the 10th annual UFO Congress in Laughlin, Nevada some years ago, I met an interesting person named Bob Lazar, and had some lengthy chats with him. Bob claimed to have worked at Area 51 reverse engineering alien space craft. Of course his claims have been highly criticized and much disinformation has been put out about him, etc., but in my opinion, I believe he is legitimate. I also have met and talked at length with Nuclear Physicist Stanton Friedman who questions Bob's credentials. Regardless of what one might think and of Bob's somewhat shady history, he is and was a brilliant person. Bob, of course, is not the "only" person whose credentials can't be verified - including one very close to us in DC right now. Of the two, I prefer to believe Bob. Bob told me that he was informed that space travel to distant galaxies was possible because space can be "warped" and that by doing so, objects separated by thousands of light years can temporarily be brought very close together. So were this true, it might be possible to effectively travel "straight line distances: of thousands of light years without actually exceeding the speed of light. It's all well beyond my pay grade, but I suspect that this might be closer to fact than fiction. At any rate, it's sure fun theorizing about how it might be, and knowing the background of where the "warp speed" concept originated. Best regards, Lin

Hi Lee, Yes, do take it apart and if you have questions, let me know and I'll try help get you on the right track. The "actions" of the individual photos can be found by observing the keyframes and 3D transforms, specifically the X and Y axis values between these keyframes. The "position" of the photos are controlled by both the position of the mask rectangle within the mask and the position of each image inside each mask. The "Container" position will "move" the position of the image and mask rectangle, but they were not used for this purpose, just set to encompass the entire image. The text position for the individual letters is overall under the control of an invisible "frame" but the individual child letters each have their own positions set via keyframe and "Pan" values. Their "Zoom" values determine their size. The individual letters were created in the text mode then "rasterized to individual PNG" objects and for the "contour" appearance, I took them into Photoshop and set contour in the FX settings. This just gives them a bit more "zip" than the plain PNG output by "rasterize to PNG" feature in PTE. The "roll-up" on the introduction is one of the PTE transitions, but I also did a screen snap and placed it on the "back side" of the main image so there would be more than just the lavender "color" on the roll up. Timing between individual appearances of the five images was accomplished via keyframe. In all, doing this type thing isn't really what PTE does best, but you "can" do it once you are thoroughly familiar with how the program works. Even if you discover that other possibilities offer ways you have not yet discovered, taking apart the sample is, as you say, a good way to learn what the program does. Best regards, Lin

Hi Lee, Here are the links to a similar thing in PTE. These are both the exe and the PTE project so you can see how it was done. I wouldn't attempt it if I were you for something due soon - there is a learning curve. http://www.lin-evans.org/sample/Lee.zip (zipped exe) http://www.lin-evans.org/sample/Leepte.zip (zipped pte project) Best regards, Lin

Hi Colin, Thanks - it was improved a good bit in the Hubble show - if you have the time check it out at: http://www.lin-evans.org/sample/spaceflight.zip (about 78 meg) Best regards, Lin

Hi Lee, Unfortunately, I can't get the link to work. I suspect you would be better off for the short period, as Barry suggested, by staying with Power Point until you have some time. If you could double check the link - I think what you want to do can be done, but need to see what you have. Best regards, Lin Later - O.K., I got it to work outside of the forum. Lee, what you have done with PowerPoint is actually quite simple to do with PTE. There are a number of ways to do it, but the "easiest" way to create your opening page is, as Jean Cyprien suggested, with masks. By masking you can more easily control the "position, size, opacity and time of display for any single slide with multiple objects." The thing which is not possible is having other than simple opacity fades or 3D transforms of some sort for each "object" on a single slide. I will make you a quick sample using screen captures of your MP4 to show you how it can be done. It's not "necessary" to use masks, it just makes it "easier".... Give me a half hour and I'll post a link. What you will get with PTE is much "smoother" actions and much higher quality images. Best regards, Lin

Hey Davy, Thanks for the promotion! Actually, I'm only the Captain. I have some good single malt we could share and discuss the phaser - maybe stun would be good as long as you don't partake of too much of that single malt and accidentally "stun" yourself - LOL Later dude, Lin

LOL - as long as there is "anything" to tax, or any "excuse" to "tax" something, then it will be done. The old saying about death and taxes is pretty much insured for the future of mankind. Yep, in 3434 there will be taxes and all "carbon lifeforms" will be subject, of this I'm certain. Thanks Ken - a fun project and keeping me out of trouble! L

Hey Tom, Ahh, the old "seat belt" - yes, they were rendered obsolete in 3029 when localized gravity was abandoned for intergalactic flights. Now passengers have no need for restraints since the motion of the starship is never transmitted to the occupants who live in a complete "atmospheric" cushion of soft protons. It's rather like being suspended in air. While the "container" surrounding one might bounce around a bit with warp speed vibration, the passengers are comfortably held in their cocoons of plasma in complete safety and comfort. The cockpit was fun - I forgot to turn on the "warp gage," but it's fixed now, and the "revised" upload is about 90% and expected to successfully complete in precisely 2 minutes and 32 seconds from 10:46 mark. Lin

Hi Greg, Indeed - the implications of space and time are unfathomable. It's been great fun making the introduction (and ending) of this show. I suspect it might primarily appeal to children, but perhaps to the "child" in us all. It was a monumental undertaking - "much" more complexity than meets the eye and not easy to accomplish. The "slideshow" part is quite simple, but the introduction has myriad pieces and parts all which must work simultaneously and at the proper times. If it looks relatively simple, then I've done my job which is to make it appear so. Best regards, Lin

Hi, If you could create and post a link to a short PowerPoint show demonstrating what it is that you wish to achieve, then it might be much easier for us to show you how to do this with PTE. The difficulty is that describing in words sometimes makes it unclear exactly how and what you wish to see. PTE is a very powerful tool and there are multiple ways to do most everything depending on your needs. One slide with the effects you want to achieve would then make it much easier to give you a straight answer. Best regards, Lin

For those who dare to go where no man has gone before - we present: The Journey To The Carina Nebula and the antique PTE slideshow created in version 7 of PTE. In honor of the release of PTE version 167 now with full holographic projection, and in memory of version 7.0 back in the early 21st century, we present this antique slideshow with 80 images taken with the nearly prehistoric Earth orbiting Hubble telescope and camera. For those with sufficient bandwidth to download this 78 megabyte presentation, the links are: http://www.lin-evans...spaceflight.zip (Windows zipped exe - 78.3 meg) http://www.lin-evans...ceflightmac.zip (MacIntosh native exe) Though there is no navigation bar, for convenience, you may stop and start the show with the space bar and go forward or backward with the right and left arrow keys. Running time 23 minutes 48 seconds 16:9 aspect ratio Lin

Hey Greg, Don't we all!! Best regards, Lin

Hey Davy, We defeated the Klingons several hundred years ago and adopted their cloaking technology for the Starship Papa Tango Echo. Warp 6 is now a different technology than old warp factors which were based on warp drives which could only partially warp timespace. With our new warp drives, warp six is now equivalent to warp 60 in the days of Scotty and Captain Kirk. Phasers were outlawed in the 47th century and now we have peace in the galaxy. The interplanetary commission holds an annual historical review to discuss the reasons for wars and disputes. It was a hundred years ago when they concluded that not drinking enough good single malt brew was causing a mis-alignment in the molecular structure of all lifeforms and good single malt liquors are now required by interplanetary law at least three times daily. With proper work/life balance and a ready supply of delicious single malt, life is good! Live Long and Prosper! Lin

Hi Tom, I don't use DivX very often, most of the AVI's are MicrosoftMPEG-4 Video Codec V2 made with Screen Recorder Gold, and will work with most of the standard free players such as VLC or Kantaris. On newer systems even Windows Media Player will work, but not one of my favorites. I could drag and drop them and output to exe format, but many people are still afraid of exe files so I have left them in their original formats. Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, I compiled it in zipped Mac format so you can compare with what your machine makes.... http://www.lin-evans.org/dom/mactest.zip Best regards, Lin

O.K. - second childhood? LOL - who cares.... This is just a fun intro for a planned slideshow on the images captured by the Hubble Orbiting Telescope and Camera. It consists of a StarShip Console with instrumentation and a flight from Earth past the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, etc., into the Milky Way and through the Carina Nebula, a distance of between 7 and 10 Light Years. Of course to navigate such a tremendous distance requires warp speeds vastly exceeding the speed of light. We leave Earth at sub-light speed, past the moon then accelerate to warp 2 and approach the Carina Nebula. Once we enter the vast nebula, we accelerate to warp 6 then exit the other side where we slow again to sub-light cruising speed. We encounter some space anomaly and an errant planet resembling Venus, then cloak for our return and see the first two slides of what will be about a 70 slide show ending abruptly, for now. It's a long journey, even at supra-light speed and takes about seven minutes, but made for an interesting construction. About 43 meg download for those interested in child-like things..... http://www.lin-evans...flightintro.zip (Windows PC zipped exe) http://www.lin-evans...ghtintromac.zip (MacIntosh native exe) Lin

Hi Dom, If you will send me the PTE file, I'll make a Mac Show and send it back to you. If it works on your Mac, then compare the files one at a time with the one you created until you find either one missing or somehow "different" from what is created by your own system. Obviously, something is slightly different if your system will play creations from someone else's native MacIntosh exe files, but not from your own. Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, Wow! It's all the dropped frames which are causing the problem. I'm not certain whether it's your ISP or Youtube's server which is causing the problem. I've had intermittent issues with Youtube in the last hour with running the show once and having a total of (2) dropped frames, to running it a few minutes later and seeing (99) dropped frames. When you have as many as you are seeing, the results would indeed be terrible. Rest assured it's not a problem on your end, but something between your ISP and Youtube's servers. Best regards, Lin

Hi Tom, Thanks, I'll check out the blue marble animations... Best regards, Lin

Hi Eric, It's difficult to guess why a Youtube video might work well for some and not for others. It's pretty smooth for me and for several others who have tried it. It could be a resource issue (too much going on in your system simultaneously) or it could be a web dowload speed issue or even your own player might be problematic. I'm assuming it's playing for you as a Flash rather than as an MP4. On most systems that's how it would be seen. I see a slight "stutter" in the rotation at about 20 seconds (by the watch) then pretty smooth the rest of the way. Best regards,

Hi Mick, I wish I had an answer, but they are just zipped exe or native Mac zips uploaded to my website and a link provided. I really have no idea why they would work differently...... Best regards, Lin

Hi Dom, It's the greatest - must let the world know!! Best regards, Lin

Hi Igor Maybe the word will get out in the U.S. !! Best regards, Lin

Or - subtitle - Stop at the Cradle of Civilization at 3:21:37 pm http://www.lin-evans...gicearthvid.zip (PC) http://www.lin-evans...earthvidmac.zip (Mac) 24 meg Or this variation on the theme: (Youtube version)PC Version: http://www.lin-evans.org/sample/watchmagicearthtransvid.zip And the Mac version: http://www.lin-evans...transvidmac.zip Lin