Archive for February, 2013
Becoming a Professional Poker Player
Posted by admin in Entertainment on February 19, 2013
This article is for the recreational poker player that aspires to become a full-time professional.
Poker may seem like a cool job with a glamorous lifestyle, but is that really the case? Read on to see if you are ready to turn pro.
The Benefits of Playing Poker for a Living
First, let’s start with why anyone would want to become a professional poker player. If this is obvious to you then skip to the next section!
- Choose your own hours – if you don’t feel like working today, you don’t have to!
- You are your own boss – there is no one ordering you around.
- You get all the freedom that you want – it is possible to wake up whenever you feel like it.
- You can make more money than people your age, with relatively less effort.
- There aren’t many jobs in the world that are as fun as poker.
- You can make huge sums of money in a very short period of time – everyone loves a quick buck!
- If you move to somewhere like the UK, poker is completely legal and you don’t have to pay any taxes on your winnings.
- You can be lazy and disorganized, yet still make a fortune! This is something you simply can’t get away with in the real world.
- You are able to fulfill your dreams. In life, you should do what you enjoy the most. Most people grow up wanting to be an actor, tennis player, singer etc. Professional poker is an alternate route to one of those glamorous careers.
How Much Do You Really Enjoy Poker?
OK let’s begin!
If you are reading this, you have probably played poker ‘a bunch’ and are quite enjoying it. But do you want to play poker 5-6 times a week for the rest of your life? It may seem like poker is the only thing you want to do right now, but in a few years’ time you may think otherwise!
Also take into account the variance involved. It is possible that you may have been running above expectation. In poker, downswings are inevitable and you have to be able to handle it. Downswings can be very tough and cruel. Be prepared for them, because no matter how good you are, it will happen to you.
You need to be completely immersed in poker and know about pretty much everything related to poker. You need to have that urge to play poker every single day if you want to become a professional poker player.
What Skills Are Required To Become a Professional Poker Player?
Another factor to consider is how good you really are at poker. Are you really cut out for it? Most people aren’t. Here are some of the qualities that you need to become a successful professional poker player:
- Have good temperament, discipline and self-control.
- You need to be fairly intelligent. You don’t need to be a genius, but if you are always bottom of your Math’s class then reconsider your career.
- Have a reasonable mathematical background – you need a general understanding of odds and variance.
- You need to be competitive, but at the same time be able to put your ego aside.
- Good analytical skills.
- Good at reading people.
- Have a good knack for games and gambling. This is similar to in business where people talk about having a good ‘business acumen’ – the term sounds a lot like bulls*** but in fact it matters enormously!
- You should generally be a positive person.
- Able to handle pressure.
- Be able to pick yourself up during bad times.
The Realities of Life as a Professional Poker Player
When you turn pro, you need to keep improving constantly. Most professional poker players keep on improving after they have turned pro. You need to constantly put in the hours and keep studying the game.
Generally, poker and social life do not go hand in hand. But if you can find the right balance between poker and life then that is a bonus. You need to ask yourself how you will be viewed by your family, friends and the community in which you live in. Ignore this last advice if you don’t care about what others think of you!
Forget about what you see on TV. Life of the average professional poker player is not quite like the poker players that you see on the World Poker Tour or the World Series of Poker. Prepare for a long grind. Read the rest of this entry »
Animation Technology
Animation is an optical illusion. It is a technique of visualization of motion by the rapid sequence of images of 2D or 3-D artwork or model position in order to create an illusion of movement. Each sequence of image contains a little change. It involves the appearance of motion caused by displaying still images one by one. By rapid viewing of the images human eyes fill the gaps and optical illusion movement is complete. The optical illusion is due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision and can be created in a number of ways.
In addition to its use for entertainment, animation is considered as a form of art. Animation picture is often displayed at film festivals throughout the world. Animation has its place in learning and education also. The animated cartoon made first its appearance in the early part of the 20th century.
Most of the animation made for television and film are produced by professional studios because it is not only time consuming but also costly to produce. However there are many resources such as lower cost programs and distribution network that have made the work of the animator much easier.
Frames can be produced by using computers or photographs of images. Frames can also be generated by altering a model unit in small ways and using a special camera to take pictures of the results. Irrespective of method, the animated film or movie fool the eye with the help of continuous movement.
The eyes are fooled by continuity of vision that is not really happens. In fact, brain and eyes together store a mere fraction of a second. The minor interruptions are automatically smoothed out by the inherent power of the brain. Movements are seen uninterrupted as the animation frames are shot in very fast pace.
The incorporation of animation into your own application depends largely on the type of interface your application provides. The applications that create their own user interface, such as educational software, have much freedom in determining how much animation is necessary for their users. When used rightly in your application’s user interface animation can enhance the viewers’ experience by providing a dynamic look and feel. With the combination of creating new custom controls with special visual effects can produce a cinematic computing experience for the viewers.
Each animation has its target object or a visual element. This target object is displayed to the users. This target object starts and stops the animation. Duration, pacing, and the repeating behavior determine the overall timing of it.
When adding animation to your application you should follow some important things to choose the appropriate technology. Use Cocoa views for the portion of your user interface which only require static, non-rotated, Aqua controls. Use animator proxy support provided by Cocoa views and windows for the portion of your users that require simple animation. Consider using layer baked Cocoa for the portion of user interface. Read the rest of this entry »
Trick Photography and Special Effects E-Book – Inspirational Or A Waste Of Your Money?
Posted by admin in Photography on February 17, 2013
It’s Christmas. The kids are home from school, the family is together and our thoughts are on letting go and having fun. It’s the silly season as we say in Australia. I wasn’t going to review another weight loss solution or online money making program. I wanted to review something that was fun and something I was interested in. Photography for me is relaxing and fun and I hoped others feel that same way too.
How many of you got a camera for Christmas? OK… How many of you love photography? Now, how many are envious of other photographer’s work and wish you can create pictures like they can? How many of you aren’t very good at Photoshop but love to learn more? And how many, like me, are old school and were taught to do everything in camera not on a computer? I thought so, well if you answered yes to any one of these questions I want to tell you about an e-Book you’ll love. It’s the Trick Photography and Special Effects e-Book. It teaches, it inspires and it is a lot of fun this Christmas holidays.
What Is Trick Photography and Special Effects?
Trick Photography and Special Effects is a 190 page e-Book. This e-book is made so it’s easy to understand whether you are a beginner, advanced or a working professional. It’s well thought out with literally hundreds of real examples and real photos taken by photographers for photographers. You can open this book on almost any page and get engrossed in topics that are fun to do and at the same time learn more about what we love doing, which is photography. I love it because even though it’s very detailed it also re-ignites your creativity with new ideas and new techniques. There is something in it for everybody who is into photography.
Trick Photography and Special Effects is broken up into 3 categories:
Long Exposure Effects and Light Painting:
• Fundamental lights and techniques
• Light sources
• Light painting techniques
• Lightning
• Motion blur
• Star trails
• Many more fun long exposures
Trick Photography and Special Effects:
• In-Camera illusions
• HDR photography
• Infrared photography
• 360 Degree panoramas
• The Droste Effect
• Time-Displacement photography via scanner
• The Harris Shutter Effect Read the rest of this entry »