The Lounge

I do not know how they do it but today the VLC icon is wearing Santa's hat.Maybe a brainstorm for Adobe engineers?Joyeux Noël !

The Southern California wildfires are all around us threatening horse & alpaca ranches, wineries, wildlife rescue centers and countless public and private  properties in and around Los Angeles and Ventura counties.  Fire makes no distinctions.  It consumes everything in its path including Rupert Murdoch's Bel Air estate. Major roads into parts of Los Angeles remain closed.  The fire threat for un-scorched areas remains very high as powerful Santa Ana winds that drive these fires are predicted to return later today and tonight.   In our area, the wind gusts reached 75-80 MPH and electric power has been sporadic.   The smell and smoke from the fires is pervasive.  It's unsettling & eerie. We're saying prayers for all our friends who have lost their homes and for anyone who is still in harm's way.  Mostly we pray the winds will stop so the first responders can get a handle on this before it gets any worse.  Google and Facebook

WRONG !Do you answer posts in Adobe or other forums?I am often tempted to answer that, in capital letters and even not smiling smileys.As English is not my native language, I am curious to read from other types of answers like:- I beg to differ...- Simply not true...- If you believe that...- Nonsense! / Crap ...- Urban legend...- don't believe those self-promoted gurus!- may I suggest to look at the issue in an other way?- Don't believe XXXX or YYYY. They are spreading idiotic misinformation in their sites. (good one to bypass moderation...)- " Sutor, nec ultra crepidam " (I prefer "bonum vinum laetificat cor hominum", but when I think about how many users will rush on Wikipedia...)- Can you substantiate your (legitimate) thesis by logical reasoning, forum metrics, marketing shares, possibly some common sense?- So, you have been programming for 50 years? / you are a retired IT manager? / You are a [Microsoft / Apple / Google] expert consultant?- Incorrect use of language. According to

Not enough RAM memory in your new Apple MacBook Pro? Big file users of Adobe’s Acrobat, After Effects, Animate, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere Pro will attest to that. Apple’s fully loaded MacBook Pro has a maximum of 16GB of RAM when a minimum of 32GB makes more sense for those memory hungry projects. Time to dump macOS and just to Windows 10?Is the other big media technology laptop favorite, HP, just figuring if 16GB is all Apple is offering, that’s all they’ll offer, in their ZBook?In the midst of all that Internet chatter of nasty accusations against Apple and HP, don’t blame them. 16GB is all the RAM those Intel i7 laptop microprocessors can handle. So, is HP’s Book catch phrase of “mobile workstation” just a very far away dream?If laptop memory power is on your list of New Year resolutions, there’s a confirmation that the Apple executive suite is listening, so that appears to mean Intel is listening, too. (We’re sure HP’s ears are open, as well).This month, in Washington DC

Do you need the new iMac Pro? (Keep in mind that “need” is different than “want.”)Without a doubt the new iMac Pro is a great high-level production computer. And, it’s easy to talk yourself into it by saying, “I’m in media production. I ‘need’ it for my work.” But, what kind of work do you do which requires that kind of muscle?If you are in web/mobile development, and that means you work with images in Photoshop and craft websites with Dreamweaver or Muse plus create some AIR app versions of those sites with Animate, you can get that kind of work done with the basic iMac or a MacBook Pro.How about document creation in Acrobat and InDesign, with some Photoshop and Illustrator as an essential workflow? That could go either way. You have to ask yourself, “Are the documents huge books with big two page spread photos and intense colorful vector art gradients and painted or 3D illustrations?” Then, without a question, you need big horsepower. But, if your work is literature, which totals 16

Some movies portray pirates as humorous. But, when overseas pirates steal those movies and rob all the creators of those films of their income, not much of the Western World laughs over those types of very real pirates.We know the saying, “See something, say something.” That became popularized in relationship to preventing terrorism.We’re told not to get involved when an armed robbery is in progress—we’re supposed to leave that stuff to trained law enforcement officers. But what about when you hear of intellectual property thieves at work? Do you get involved, then?The Internet is filled with innocent questions like, “I’ve recorded all 18+ seasons of ‘Law & Order SVU’ to the DVR from my satellite TV provider. How do I get them out of the DVR and onto DVD to give as Christmas gifts for people at work?”The proper response is, “You can’t. Those materials are copy protected. It’s just for you to watch at home.” But you see that someone has responded with a product which is sold on the

I like many kids, love animation, love making it, but i can't afford 20 dollars a month. It's very bias to say "make it" on your ads, and expect little kids like me, to come up with a monthly subscription. Animation was gonna be one of my dream jobs, and when that was taken away from me, i  was depressed - i am depressed, my heart is broken. Yeah, i will probably be able to afford it in the future, but that's a different place, and i need practice. 20 dollars a month comes out to 240 dollars a year, and while you MAY be able to make money off of it, there are (and i could be wrong) 1 billion people on the internet. imagine trying to find one exact piece. You would need to pay a lot to get it to be noticed. 240 dollars a year is like asking for a cheap hotel. Animate does not provide you shelter, it does not feed you, nor does it give you water. Once again, this was going to be a career for me, but i can't afford a career that's 20 dollars or more a month. Sure there are free alter

Don’t mess with the electronic ecosystem.We have talked about Information Technology (IT) enterprise focusing on a very tight spec. Well, a one person shop can learn something from big IT.So far, that conversation has focused on Apple and HP’s computer hardware. But, IT has a much bigger ecosystem to consider. By way of example, the Commonwealth of Virginia has 39 public colleges and universities with over 100 campuses. That means on any full session weekday, over a half million people on Virginia’s public college campuses are plugged into that IT ecosystem. For those 18-88 year old learners, that system needs to be as close as humanly possible to 100% uptime.As the sarcastic saying goes, “What could possibly go wrong?” That’s exactly what IT program directors have to ask themselves about. Here are the suppliers at the core of a pubic college system’s IT ecosystem:AdobeAutodeskAppleCanonCiscoEpsonHPLaCieMicrosoftNikonSonyWacomThe IT people do a great deal of testing and regular upgradi

nice to see some thing new and VERY cool

Join us Thursday December 21, 10.00 -11.00 am Pacific Live with the Pros:Featuring Daniel Presedo Adobe Photoshop Imagineer.https://my.adobeconnect.com/acpshowcase

Over on the Illustrator Forums a topic was started to discuss rich black tips and information. I thought the discussion would be better placed here because it goes well beyond Illustrator and, indeed, Adobe products overall.So, what's your go-to rich black formula? What tips and advice do you have for other designers; for people working in Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat, and other printing products, and; for those new to print design who might not know anything about the what, when, and why of rich black?

I doesn't snow here in San Antonio very often so it's a really big deal when it does.

After offering to show a poster how to achieve an effect in this thread  it turned out to be a bit of a slog and took me half an hour by the time I'd pasted all the screen shots across, and I was thinking of all the times we have done things like that between us (the various forum regular posters).  The OP in that thread PM'd me to remind me, so I guess at least he saw what I posted, but on the whole, those big 'how to' threads probably get lost and might never be viewed again after they slip off of page #1.  So it occurred to me that we could start a sort of master thread, and either paste other threads into it, or probably better, just post an image and a link to the original thread.  That would make it quicker and easier to scroll through it all.I'm thinking back to that Displacement Map thread where Norman posted some pure gold advice, and Semaphoric pointed out that 1) they don't work if backward compatibility is not set to Always in Preferences, and that maps

Because of vision problems are use my ears more than My eyes, I’ve these days do Adobe  products work with text to speech software like Voiceover

I love plants but blimey, I'm woefully ignorant of their names. Viewing these pictures can anyone place names to the plants. Would be much obliged if you could. Thanks. Oh yea, and please don't say "grass" or "tree" as I'm not that dumb.

In another forum (Photoshop), a post was made with a request for responses. I think that's a GREAT learning idea! Wouldn't it be great to have a forum location to share their work and learn by critique? Critiques can include feedback on how well the work was accomplished - but additionally about learning efficient, powerful, non-destructive techniques to accomplish their wishes. Does anyone else think this is a good idea?

Apple MacOS High Sierra flaw lets you log in without a password - CNET

hi,how do you start a blog to post tutorials within my adobe forum profile?

Have you checked out the recent Adobe MAX sessions? It is an great resource to learn more, and be creatively inspired. The sessions are organized into these sections: Creative CareersGraphic, Web, and UX Design Illustration & Creative ImagingPhotographyVideoHere is the link for you to check out, where you can find some great sessions:https://max.adobe.com/sessions/max-online/#20035

Nature Photographers and Illustrators Have the Secret to Better Health. Their work could be classified as “Ecotherapy.”  There’s medical evidence that taking a walk in the woods assists with issues of depression and motivation. 50 doctors in 11 states prescribe it to patients and there’s signs of it working.So, that being the case, how does getting out in nature and capturing all that ecological beauty sound? Take a Digital Single Lens Reflex (dSLR) camera, HD movie camera, audio recording devices, or iPad/stylus.Your assignment? Try it!If you need more convincing, watch this 2 minute piece:https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/dose-nature-doctors-prescribe-day-park-anxiety-n823421

My tablet worked fine until the fall update of windows 10 the other week, ever since then the calibration is off on my tablet display. I use an extended display but if I set to 'duplicate' or 'show only' the calibration is fine. It works okay with a mouse but when I use the pen the cursor will appear halfway across the screen from where I'm pressing. I was using it the other day and the cursor started glitching out, in the Windows Defender menu it had said there was an issue with a pen table bus but even after applying this and restarting I still had no luck.I've uninstalled the driver and reinstalled to no avail, I'm putting this down to a standard windows screw up (every time windows has an update it usually breaks an Adobe app on me.)Monitor is an Acer S220HQL - 1920/1080Tablet is an UGEE 1910B - 1440/900

are there loads of questions to be answered?

Looking for recommendations on some worthwhile design or marketing conferences in spring of this coming year.

I'm trying to access the FAQ websites linked from this new Lightroom CC community, but it seems the links are not working. I get "404 Page not found" errors for most of them. Also, one of the active links ("Bug? Feature Request? Add it here!") takes me to another site, a Photoshop family forum, where it seems I need to make another account to post. It's all very confusing. Why can't I make bug reports and requests here using my Adobe account?