Cool Magic Tricks

Internet Magic Tricks

Internet Magic Tricks Biogoraphy

As long as you don’t mind breaking compatibility with older browsers and have no need for animation, the Portable Network Graphic (PNG) has replaced the Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) as the preferred transparency-supporting lossless image format of the internet. Over the next few weeks, we’re going to explore the different ways you can optimise the size of PNGs while compromising little on quality.

The first trick we’re going to learn is using posterisation to reduce the colour complexity of an image. This process works best on images with few colours and as long as you don’t go overboard, the visual differences are virtually unnoticeable. if you look at the left-hand side of the photo above, you can see an extreme case of posterisation. Similar colours become blobs of the same colour and a lot of detail is lost.

So let’s not go that far. Fire up either Photoshop, GIMP or your photo editor of choice. Load up your image and in PS, go to Image -> Adjustments -> Posterize…, while in GIMP you need to navigate to Tools -> Color Tools -> Posterize or Colors -> Posterize. Both programs will show a dialog box where you can adjust the number of levels of posterisation.

A good starting point is between 30-45, though you should go higher if you notice a huge drop in colour depth and lower if you think you can get away with it. Once you’re happy with the appearance, save the image as a PNG. The compression ratios will vary depending on the size and complexity of the image, but a 640 x 360 shot of the flower here went from 363.1KB to 213.3KB, using Photoshop CS5 and a Posterize setting of 30. That’s a 41.3 per cent drop in file size; for web development, the bandwidth benefits massively outweigh the tiny drop in quality.

Internet Magic Tricks

Kid Magic Tricks

Kid Magic Tricks Biography

Indian and international speakers from different sectors, including academics, business and entertainment, addressed school students in the age-group of 13-18 from different schools in Delhi on the topic of 'relentless curiosity' at a TEDx Youth talk event.

Israeli mentalist Lior Suchard (30) drove the audience to frenzy with his 'supernatural' tricks. Lior randomly chose a 17-year-old student from the audience to play a magic game with him. While he made the boy think of his first crush, with eyes closed, Lior wrote the girl's name on a board. He then asked the boy to speak her name aloud. The boy couldn't believe his eyes when he saw that Lior had written the girl's name correctly even before he had revealed it. This was one of the many mind tricks that Lior performed at the event.

Lior is known to bend spoons with his eyes, read minds 'like people read newspapers' and influence people's thoughts. He was once a shy kid who also suffered from an attention deficit disorder. "I still suffer from an attention disorder. I think of too many different things at the same time. But that also made me realize that I have the power to focus deeply on things and that gives me the power to read people," said Lior. "Shrinks, scientists, doctors and all kinds of sceptics have checked me and found no answers. But I know I can do impossible things because I believe in myself."

Ethan Brown (12), an eighth grader from Bethel, near New York, also cast a spell on the audience, but with maths. While most students of his find maths rather tough, Brown likes to have fun with it. He holds the world record for reciting from memory 2012 digits of the number tau and has raised over 3000 dollars for his town library. In no time he made a magic number square, with numbers given by the audience - but every row, column and diagonal added up to the same number. "I just love doing maths. Though I make mistakes on my shows sometimes, I like solving a problem in different ways. My teachers are also very encouraging," said Ethan. He was joined by his inspiration, Arthur Benjamin, professor of maths at Harvey Mudd College and a 'mathemagician' who also showed the audience some unbelievable maths tricks. "I think schools are very rigid in the way they teach maths. Children need to be exposed to the fun side of maths. I feel maths is a very creative subject that can be like a beautiful symphony or a poem when understood properly," added Benjamin.

Jordan Casey (13) from Ireland is the youngest European app developer. He has developed three games which are commercial projects and many others that are very popular among kids. "I was using a mac book and, hence, it was easier for me to develop programmes on IOS. I am selftaught and learnt writing codes from books and websites," says Casey, who already earns a handsome remuneration with his finances being managed by his parents who are accountants. He is a member of Coder-Dojo, a global collaboration that provides free learning to young people in programming technology. "My catch phrase is 'making coding cool'. Many youngsters like me find programming very cool. I just hope it's included in school curriculum " adds Casey.

Kid Magic Tricks

How To Do Cool Magic Tricks

How To Do Cool Magic Tricks Biography

The Raptors have not had their starting five together since the fourth game of the season yet they routed the injury-ravaged Magic 123-88 with tight team play.

DeMar DeRozan scored 21 points, Ed Davis had 18 and Jose Calderon added 15 points and 10 assists as the Raptors had six players in double figures against the Magic's makeshift lineup.

``We don't have any Kobes or LeBrons who just go out and win games for us, we've got to do it as a team,'' Calderon said. ``When we do that, we're pretty good.''

``We've had a lot of bad luck early in the season with injuries and close games so it's desperation time every time we step on the court,'' DeRozan said. ``When we make the game fun, everybody's confidence gets high and it feels like we can't be stopped.''

There is a sense of desperation creeping into the Magic, who lost their fifth straight since Glen Davis went out with a shoulder injury. Starting point guard Jameer Nelson (hip) and his backup, E'Twaun Moore, joined Davis on the sideline, forcing Orlando to piece together a starting lineup and playing rotation.

It didn't work well. Magic coach Jacque Vaughn gave playing time to all 11 healthy players in the first half when Toronto shot out to a 67-47 lead, but none of the combinations were effective.

Rookie Andrew Nicholson, starting for the second time this year, led Orlando with 22 points. Arron Afflalo had 14 points and Ish Smith, who started in place of Nelson, had 13 points and six assists.

How To Do Cool Magic Tricks

Sunday, 30 December 2012

Internet Magic Tricks

Kid Magic Tricks

How To Do Cool Magic Tricks