To be called and recognized as a truly creative genius is one of the best accolades a person can be conferred with, no matter what industry he or she is related to. The ability to see and imagine things in a different way than others, to be able to come up with bright new innovative ideas and then visualize them and realize them for a larger audience is a daunting task that only a few can actually accomplish.

However, with the advent of computers, as everything around us has become much easier than before, so has the expression of one’s creative ideas. Software like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, Corel Draw, 3DS Max, Maya amongst others have been the pioneers in providing tools that let people display their talent through the channel of computers very easily. Imagine the convenience to an artist, who can just use the paintbrush tool, hook up their computer with a digital drawing pad, install compatible software and create instant digital portraits. Apart from this, media professionals can use software like Flash and create attractive advertisements which highly appeal to customers.

Software
Companies like Macromedia, Autodesk, Adobe and Corel have been widely recognized as the front runners in the digital graphics genre of computers. They have given to the world some of the best and the most unimaginable tools. Maya and 3D Max are extensively used in motion sensing related animations and movie special effects. Flash and Fireworks are used to create impressive web graphics, both as advertisements or as complete website presentations. Software like Corel Draw and Photoshop are more used where still or static images are to be produced. They find a wide application for print media.

The cost of these software is a daunting factor for many startups. For example, the Adobe CS Suite retails for close to $500-$600, which is not really affordable for many individuals. Although, these software are easily pirated and can be downloaded off the internet, full technical support and upgrades are not available in such case which is a major drawback.

Websites
To see what kind of endless possibilities are being realized by people all over the world using digital image processing software, check out some of the brilliant websites CueBlocks has dug out for you listed below. Be sure to have ample time on your hands before you scamper off to these URLs, because they are heavy websites which take some time to load, and you would spend an equal time being amazed by what these fine individuals have done with their creative talents.

• Jonathan Yuen (CueBlocks Pick – Most Creative)

A personal website by an advertising executive from Singapore. The artistic excellence depicted in his web pages is guaranteed to blow you away. This website is so rich in creativeness that it is simply unbelievable. Truly epitomizes attention to detail.

• 2Advanced Studios (CueBlocks Pick – Most Advanced Flash)

Long known as the pioneers of flash technology on the web, 2Advanced Studios LLC, is one of the most respected media companies in the world. Their seriousness for providing the best web experience to their clients is gauged from the fact that they have their own hosting servers, which are some of the most advanced in the world. Their current website is in version 5, with version 3 having been rated as the most influential flash design of the millennium. Truly, a company with an advanced vision of design.

• DJ Volcano

A website for a DJ based in Germany, the complex design which makes you feel as if you are in some other world is truly outstanding. Great interface, coupled with a high focus on detail truly makes this website highly ranked in terms of visual appeal.

• Bluestorm

The website has a very gothic element to it. However, the color themes are such that your senses of visual interpretation are heightened. A very good example of a website, which uses both image editing as well as image enhancing tools like Photoshop, Corel draw and Flash to produce the ultimate graphics.

• Deviant Art

Long recognized as the best outlet for displaying your creative genius in photo editing tools, Deviant Art has some of the most awesome graphics on display. Right from amateur designers to works completed by high profile agencies, people love posting their work on Deviant Art for the large number of admirers that visit this website each day. A must see for all graphic enthusiasts.

We hope you enjoyed surfing our choice of some of the most creative websites that we have picked out for you. Of course with over 15 billion pages on the internet, many more options exist for one to explore. However, we can surely say that it is a good beginning!

Data is the most crucial element of computing. The very need for computers has arisen from the need of processing data. Right from the invention of the floppy disk to the more recent innovations of new storage formats, data storage has been one of the hottest research topics at most R&D centers all over the world.

Importance of data storage

Companies and educational research centers spend millions researching to present a new technology that might solve the problem of being able to provide much more space than is needed by one to store data on their computer. With advent of technology, the amount of data being provided by vendors has also increased tremendously. A Windows 95 installation in 1995, required you to have a free space of nearly 800 MB on your hard drive in order to be installed, today Windows Vista requires you to have close to 5-10GB free, depending on which version you install.

Today, data storage is a multi billion dollar industry in itself. Big companies have special data storage centers which are linked to the workstations in the complex. They are the backbone of the corporation with ready backup for all data that has been stored.

Recent times have seen two new optical storage (storage on a disc through laser) emerge. These are the HD-DVD (High Definition Digital Video Disc) and the BLU-RAY technology.

Format War

A format war describes competition between competing, and typically mutually incompatible, electronic media formats, usually very costly to the format-owning parties involved. It results from a failure to agree on a technical standard. The most recent format war has been the battle for emerging as the superior storage format between HD-DVD, developed by the DVD Forum and BLU-RAY, developed by Sony.

HD-DVD

The HD-DVD was developed as a successor to the hugely successful DVD format. DVDs were a breakthrough over the preceding format standard, compact discs (CDs). They gave a huge jump in terms of storage capacity, up from 750 MB to 8.4 GB (Dual Layer).

High Definition mostly concerns video encoding, giving much superior quality as compared to a standard encoded DVD. HD-DVDs have a storage capacity of around 15GB (Single Layer) and 30GB (Dual Layer). Although, in high definition format, around 3 hours of video can be recorded onto these discs, the capacity can be utilized to store any kind of data.

BLU-RAY

This new technology comes from the stables of one of the most admired tech companies in the world – Sony. Sony has been the trendsetter over the past few decades. They have given us amazing innovations like the Trinitron picture tube, Playstation, the Walkman and the Discman. Now, they have officially lodged themselves as a serious hardcore computer company by launching a new format called the BLU-RAY. BLU-RAY is amazing, it does what it sets out to do in the first place – make other storage options look minute in front of it. A standard single layer BLU-RAY disc can hold up to 25GB of data and a dual layer one can hold up to 50GB! Even if high definition video is encoded and stored, it provides a whopping 3 times more storage than HD-DVD.

BLU-RAY achieves this feat by using a shorter wavelength laser. In less technical terms, the shorter is the laser wavelength, the more data it can store effectively. People might ask, then why doesn’t a company just shorten these wavelengths and increase storage space. Well to start off, it would take close to 10 million dollars just setting up the test lab and employing technicians to do so. It is not an easy task and may take up to 5 years to just release a prototype. An example can be taken from the high pricing of the Playstation 3. The device is the most futuristic gaming console in the market. It comes equipped with a BLU-RAY player, which is considered a dream come true for most game designers as they do not need to keep space as a factor while building a game. However, as this is the first product released with the BLU-RAY technology and the company has to recover the money it spent on researching and developing it, the device is highly priced.

Who is the winner?

Well to be very honest, no one has been able to edge out the other as yet. People would like to use the BLU-RAY more than HD-DVD because of obvious reasons. However, the high pricing is a major hindrance for the same. On the other hand, HD-DVD players have been built around the standard DVD technology, making them much cheaper.

As storage demands continue to rise, BLU-RAY would eventually emerge as the winner according to me. It can offer you the option of having multiple virtual portable hard disks, each with a capacity of 50 GB. It is also the best alternative for viewing HD videos or as the medium for game publishing.

Pricing

In terms of gaming consoles, a typical Playstation 3 costs around $600, while a Microsoft Xbox 360 with a HD-DVD player retails for around $550. Although the price difference here is not that much, it is more prevalent in normal drives and stand alone video players. A stand alone BLU-RAY player retails at around $500 while a similar HD-DVD player is available for around $300. Similarly, a HD-DVD computer drive is available for around $150, while the same for BLU-RAY can cost up to $300.

Conclusion

I have always been a fan of Sony technologies, especially the Playstation. However, my reason to choose Sony’s BLU-RAY as the winner, is not just a reflection of the same. It has much better data transfer rates, higher storage and better engineering and design than any of the close competitors. Although it supports a hefty price tag, it must be remembered that all good things come at a price.

Human creativity on the computer has seen phenomenal growth over the past few years. The evolution of computer games, animation, web design and graphic design are testimony to this fact. Computers are the medium that people bursting with creativity have been praying for since forever. Whatever you imagine, you can bring to life. With the advent of cutting edge technologies and high end software like Flash™, Adobe™ Photoshop™, 3D Max™, Maya™ and Director™ to name a few, transforming your thoughts into reality has become easier than ever.

What’s the next step?

It is then that the inevitable question arises in our mind, what next? Necessity has given way to competitiveness as the mother of innovation and inventions. The desire to succeed and do better than your counterparts is the driving force behind the high tech research and development being carried out by individuals and departments alike. This is only beneficial to the world, as these practices are churning out awesome products for future generations.

Enter Multi Touch

One such technology that holds great promise in becoming a major success in the coming times is Multi Touch. As the name suggest, it is a human-computer physical interaction based technology, which involves more than one point of contact in the touch screen based scenario. We have all used touch screens at some point of time, be it in the form of a personal tablet pc or the ATM kiosk. However, you might have noticed that in case you touch the screen simultaneously with more than one finger, the computer gets ‘confused’ and you do not get desired results. Multi touch eliminates this disadvantage and lets you use not just two but the entire set of ten fingers on your hand, in case you want to.

What can it do?

As is imaginable, the possibilities are endless. Designing and editing, which needed to be processed through the keyboard and mouse devices for input, can now be done by just using the fingers of the person. You can just draw away; it is as simple as that! The prototype displayed recently, involved a 32 inch flat screen that acted as a canvas. The researcher then used his fingers and simultaneously drew figures, which even went on to interact between themselves. But just in case you thought this technology is limited to designing ad drawing, think again! You could simulate maps in real time, ‘grab’ the map and turn it around or take a virtual trip through cities. You could actually ‘drag and drop’ applications on your desktop with your fingers, instead of using a mouse. You could have an on screen keyboard; resize it according to your needs and type in whatever you want. You can even take gaming to the next level by performing in-game actions using your fingers!

So how does it work?

From the technical viewpoint, the system is based on the theory of the Total Internal Reflection phenomenon in optics. When the screen is touched, light sensors are activated. The signal is received by the processor which in turn figures out what kind of action has been performed. In layman terms, the touch interaction is as good as it would have been, had the computer been a real canvas. The difference being that this digital interaction is much better. The process includes the determination of the position and pressure or degree of each touch point independently, which allows gestures and interaction with multiple fingers or hands and can provide rich interaction (including direct manipulation) through intuitive gestures. Depending largely on their size, some multi-touch devices support more than one user on the same device simultaneously (like Microsoft™ Surface™). One salient aspect of this technique is that it makes easy to zoom in or out in a Zooming User Interface (ZUI) with two fingers, thereby providing a more direct mapping than with a single-point device like a mouse or stylus.

Technology Outlook

This exciting technology is all set to be tested in the real world. Two new products are on their way for consumers to test and review. They are completely based on the Multi Touch phenomenon. These products are the Apple iPhone and Microsoft Surface PCs. More products are currently in the pipeline. One might wonder as to why the industry response is low to this technology, in terms of products being released. This can be attributed to the fact that research for this technology has been going on since the past 15-20 years and thus the initial setup costs involved are pretty high.