Create nice Icons with Inkscape

Today I will briefly show you how to make in a few steps nice icons with Inkscape.

First we open Inkscape and characterized e.g. a circle. You can also take another form. Next, we duplicated the circle (Ctrl + D) and move it to another place. Hold down the Ctrl key, the horizontal / vertical orientation should be the same.

Inkspace 2 circles
2 circles

Now we worked the second circle with the path tool (Shift + F6) that an arc arises. The arc is the important thing in our Icon. Otherwise, the path must be closed, ie at the beginning point again.

Inkscape path tool
Path tool

Then you mark the circle and the path (hold down Shift) and select in the path menu Interchange section. The remaining piece will now be colored white and shelved back again on the first circle.

The next step is to adjust the opacity. To create a „glass effect“ to obtain coverage should be between 20% and 30% – according to your taste.

Inkscape glass effect
Glass effect

Now you need only a symbol or text at the circle. Here you should make sure that the icon or text layer is between the „circles“. Now, we actually already finished, but the icon can be a little blur at the edge adding. This fits the fuzziness at the first circle.

Inkscape Icon
The final icon

So … that’s it already. The icon is finished!

In the german wiki article you will find many more links to tutorials, which are worth a look.

search engine answeres your questions

The developers of the popular computer algebra system Mathematica are being developed in an unusual search engine, a completely new approach and thus could compete with Google.

The „Wolfram Alpha“ dubbed search engine searches not just a huge archive of web pages and returns the hits, it returns you real answers to your questions. So you get after typing „Where is Timbuktu?“ the correct answer.

Unlike similar services, „Wolfram Alpha“ retrieves the answer not from a database, they are calculated. For this purpose, many techniques are combined, for example, the language is parsed and it relies on formal models from various scientific areas.

Wolfram Research has been working for some time now on this project – approximately 100 developers should be involved. Official information is still scarce, however, Nova Spivack from Twine.com had recently the possibility of a first look at the search engine.

For years there is the idea that computers will one day answer any question you can. With „Wolfram Alpha“ to get that goal is a big step closer. Now it remains to be seen how the unusual in everyday search engine will suggest. A beta version is scheduled from May will be available.

[Update] What the doctors say…

Last week I already had announced that my back is not very healthy. Yesterday I had now the CT. And you can say I am lucky in disguise! Because I do not have an inborn error in the spine (vertebrae sliding) but my disc is „only“ pretty bad. That means I can still do sports, except jogging. In addition, I also don’t carry heavy stuff because the risk of a herniated disc is too large. But I can be a relatively pain-free life, as long as I am doing my physiotherapy and note a few rules!

All in all, I am glad it is not that worse!

The Wrestler – Mickey Rourke as Randy „The Ram“ Robinson

In the last recent weeks we could read very good critics about „The Wrestler“. Wait … a film in which wrestling plays the main role will be praised by film critivs from around the world! This cannot be? Yes, it can be!

The Wrestler

So, what is „The Wrestler“? The former major wrestling star Randy „The Ram“ Robinson, who sold out every arena in the 80s, became older and older. 20 years later, Randy only have casual appearances to get money for his trailer. The audience is much smaller and also the fee for Robinson to make something with it, has shrunk. When he was at a bloody hardcore match he suffers a heart attack, his doctor advised him never return to the ring again to rise to his life not at risk. Randy want to make his life better, to come clean with his estranged daughter and he want more to know about a stripper, which he adored. Yet he never quite consequently from wrestling business.

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What the doctors say…

Today I was by a radiologists to look closer on my back after the health check I made for two weeks, which I past with very good results. My back hurts for a longer time now, so it was time to check this part of my body. The result is the following, I will certainly suffer herniated disc in the next few years, and if it runs very stupid I will never ever been able to make real sport again. Apart from physiotherapy. Details comes out after CT next week.

For those of you who want to know it more detailed, here’s a link that explains what my back could have suffered http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spondylolisthesis

Well, you cannot have everything in life. I know this is bad, but I have to live with the pain in my back. Mainly everything else runs great at the moment.

I wish you all a nice winter-ending season and let us hope that spring comes soon.