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Posts published in “Tutorial”

Using Inkscape in Cartography

There are literally thousands of practical uses for the free and open source Inkscape vector graphics editor. Here, we get a glimpse at how mapmakers can use it in combination with another FOSS tool.

The Video Screening Room

Michele Tobias, an environmental scientist with the California Department of Parks and Recreation, gave a fascinating talk last month at the FOSS4G North America conference in Raleigh, North Carolina. She spoke about cartography and Inkscape, explaining the process of bringing GIS (geographic information systems) software data into Inkscape. Her tips and insights are available for all to learn from in this YouTube video. Viewing this video, you not only learn some GIS, you learn some Inkscape features too.

Learning OpenToonz the Easy Way

The Video Screening Room

Especially when dealing with a visual art, it might be easier to see how it’s done rather than read about it.

Some of the OpenToonz animation software tutorials being uploaded to YouTube are excellent. I’m fond of Phil Ray’s explainer videos — especially this one.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Learn Perl Online for Free

The Video Screening Room

You don’t have to invest a fortune to get started learning a programming or scripting language. Don’t believe it? Take a look at this free and easy to understand tutorial for learning Perl.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Learn Git and GitHub Through Videos

The Video Screening Room

These days, GitHub is pretty much the warehouse district where nearly all open source projects are stored and maintained. There are some tricks to navigating the site, which can easily be mastered by watching tutorial videos.

If you’re an open source enthusiast, you need to be advocating for interested community members to familiarize themselves with GitHub, an amazing web tool for collaborative work. There are many introductory videos about GitHub on YouTube, but this one by Udacity I found particularly accessible.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Another OpenToonz Tutorial Video

The Video Screening Room

The studio quality 2D animation software, OpenToonz, which was recently open sourced continues to find adopters. Luckily for those trying to figure out how to use it, there are plenty of videos.

OpenToonz was released as open source less than a month ago and the quality of tutorials for it on YouTube continues growing. I was especially pleased to run across a series of tutorials created by Alon Dan, who has a Patreon account to fund further tutorial creation. I learned a lot watching this tutorial – OpenToonz Painting Tricks and Color Model.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Michael DeHaan on Achieving Project Adoption

The Video Screening Room

While open source software has many advantages over proprietary software, it takes more than writing good code to find a user base for a project.

Starting a successful open source project requires a lot more than technical skills. You need to have wise strategies, which Michael DeHaan, founder of the IT automation company Ansible, clearly explains in this valuable video. In this talk, recorded March 22 on the Centennial Campus of North Carolina State University, he explains that for users to adopt your open source creations, the documentation needs to be outstanding. Your web site needs to be very well done. Learn these and other tips in this video.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

A First Look Tutorial of Newly Open Sourced OpenToonz

The Video Screening Room

The same 2D animation software that’s used by Studio Ghibli in the making of its feature length anime films is now available as OpenToonz under an open source license.

OpenToonz, 2D animation software based on the proprietary Toonz, was released as open source on Saturday and the OpenToonz tutorials are already rolling in to YouTube. This one by Ryan A. Boone, of Tacoma, Washington, caught my eye. I learned some helpful tips and tricks watching this.

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

A Usability Study of GNOME

Gina Dobrescu and Jim Hall

“Thou shalt make thy program’s purpose and structure clear … for thy creativity is better used in solving problems than in creating beautiful new impediments to understanding.”
~ “The Ten Commandments for C Programmers” by Henry Spencer

How easily can you use your computer? Today, the graphical desktop is our primary way of doing things on our computers; we start there to run web browsers, music programs, video players, and even a command line terminal. If the desktop is too difficult to use, if it takes too many steps to do something, or if the cool functionality of the desktop is hidden so you can’t figure out how to use it, then the computer isn’t very useful to you. So it’s very important for the desktop to get it right. The desktop needs to be very easy for everyone to use.

Whenever we think of how easily you can use a program, we’re really talking about the usability of that program. Developers sometimes discount usability and think of usability as making things look nice instead of adding new, useful features. Other times, developers assume usability is too difficult, something that only experts can do. But usability is a very important part of software development.

Learn Inkscape Ins and Outs Using Videos

The FOSS Force Screening Room

Sometimes learning how to use software such as Inkscape only seems difficult because you don’t have anyone to show you how it’s done.

I’d like to kick off this column by spotlighting not one video, but 116 outstanding screencast videos giving tips and techniques for using Inkscape, the vector graphics program that is popular on Linux, Mac and Windows. Created by two friends several years ago, these videos are exceptionally well done. If you’re new to Inkscape, start off viewing the short Microsodes. I particularly love the Photo Popping Fun screencast:

Phil Shapiro

For the past 10 years, Phil has been working at a public library in the Washington D.C.-area, helping youth and adults use the 28 public Linux stations the library offers seven days a week. He also writes for MAKE magazine, Opensource.com and TechSoup Libraries. Suggest videos by contacting Phil on Twitter or at pshapiro@his.com.

Getting Started With the Raspberry Pi

The Raspberry Pi Report

Some of you might have received a Raspberry Pi for Christmas or know of a family member or friend who received one. While some of us know exactly what to do with the devices and what peripherals to buy, that does not hold true for a majority of non-technical people. This article, focused on the Raspberry Pi 2 B, will help serve as a guide to answer questions you or someone you know might have.

Raspberry Pi treeWhat equipment do I need? If you did give or receive a Raspberry for Christmas, hopefully it was part of a kit where all the necessary parts are included. If not, you may be asking what you need to get started.

Isaac Carter

In addition to hosting a Raspberry Pi meetup in Washington D.C., Isaac Carter is a co-host on mintCast. He’s also a software engineer who enjoys working with Java, JavaScript, and GNU/Linux. When he’s not coding, you can find him reading on any number of subjects or on the golf course.

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