Any window that displays data in a tree structure and allows users to expand the folders, groups, or other listings by clicking the + symbol next to it. For example, as can be seen in the example below of the Microsoft Windows Computer management window the console tree is the left portion of the window that allows users to see multiple categories at once. In the example pictured below, the Local Users and Groups section is expanded allowing you to see the users and groups folders.
Also see: Hierarchical file system, Tree structure
Logo work. Some of the hundreds of logos Aaron designed over the years
In the opening talk of the last day of TYPO Berlin, Aaron James Draplin shared some ‘tall tales from a large man,’ covering the importance of saying yes more than no, and how working for friends led him to designing for the president.
The man behind Draplin Design Co. might have been jet-lagged, but this larger than life character showed no sign of flagging as he bolted through 130-odd slides, covering recent logo work, favourite Bauhaus archive material, and several photos of his sausage dog Gary.
The core of Aaron's philosophy is work for the right people for the right reasons, and you'll flourish, something he's been living by since he designed his friend's logo for a hot dog pop up stand. This was before he washed dishes for four summers to get money for a computer, he says, and after going freelance in 2004.
"I found a way to work with my friends. It got better every year. There was not much money, but then freelance brought in some, and how much money do we need?"
The point is made as Aaron put up the Cobra Dogs logo against his Air Max 360 logo, which he did for Nike. "Nike wanted everything yesterday. There’s loads of work, then it explodes everywhere, and then it disappears - too weird,” he explains.
Aaron and Chris Glass worked on these two presidential logos
Ultimately, he got more work from helping others than taking the big company dollar. "Not everything is about cash and making money. We forget that we can make our own things."
A case in point is Aaron's Field Notes series of memo notes. Inspired by the notebooks of the 1920s, they're now sold in 1,000 plus stores in the US. "I think compromise is a big deal in design, so I'd reduce [my fee] with a client. But with Field Notes, every dollar we get back is ours."
Of course, Aaron isn't suggesting designers should say yes to every client, pointing out that, "We have something valuable - clients need something from you."
He spoke of the unsung heroes of design, and told of how digging through archives can inspire creativity
The point is to be OK with letting your passions push you. With president Obama’s inauguration, his new logo caught Aaron's eye. He got obsessed with it, collected images of it on cakes and as tattoos. Then the White House called, and Aaron and Chris Glass found themselves designing the new logos for the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) team.
As the 20th TYPO design event comes to a close, Aaron's view that you should, "Say yes a little more than you say no, and do good work for good people," is, much like the man himself, a hard one to ignore.
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Today's new design graduates face a unique set of challenges – and how to present a portfolio is one of the biggest.
Portfolio formats are evolving all the time. Just as big agencies and studios struggle with how best to present work to potential clients, designers searching for jobs have all sorts of decisions to make when it comes to creating a stunning portfolio to show a creative director.
Do you put it up on Behance and email out a link when you apply for a job? Should you make a flashy iPad presentation to swipe through in the interview? Would it be better to buy a big, old-fashioned folio book and fill it with high quality print-outs of your latest and greatest projects? Maybe something even more imaginative is what's expected?
It would be lovely if there was one sure-fire answer to all of these questions, but really it depends hugely on who's doing the hiring. Every creative director has different needs in terms of the job itself, and they all have different tastes when it comes to presentation. But instead of trying to guess what's expected of you, the best thing to do is to focus on your work and let it guide your decisions.
"I do like a physical portfolio – an iPad presentation can be good too," muses Karen Jane, head of design at Wieden+Kennedy London.
"Ultimately, your discipline is likely to dictate how the work is best presented. If you have a range of work you may want to present on screen but have some printed pieces too. Or your work may be entirely screen based. It's about putting the work across in the best way."
Working in a big, global agency with so many different clients, Jane oversees a huge variety of projects. So it makes sense if you're aiming to work for a big agency to develop a portfolio that demonstrates your versatility.
"A range of work is really important, one that shows off how you tackle different projects. The range of projects we work on here at Wieden+Kennedy is pretty broad so it's good to be able to see versatility in a portfolio."
Employing 10 people – though they're hiring a few more designers – Leeds-based Golden is much smaller than W+K, so co-founder and creative director Rob Brearley takes a slightly different approach to portfolios. Personality often plays an important role in a small organisation, and showing that you understand the studio and its mission helps.
"We're looking for 'golden people' who share our vision, talented visual thinkers, who can turn their hand to anything," says Brearley. "Initially I'd prefer to be contacted with either a link or PDF attachment of work examples – a brief, well-presented taster of who you are and what you can do," he continues.
Illustration: Mister Phil for Computer Arts issue 238
"For face-to-face interviews, I don't mind what format the work is presented in, either print or digital. The format should be invisible, allowing the work to shine through," says Brearley.
"It should be bold, simple and ultimately relevant to the work and the personality of the presenter. Folio presentations should flow smoothly, without awkward paper folds or software glitches. Think it through carefully."
It's a similar story if you apply to Steve Richardson, co-founder and creative director at Mr B & Friends in Bath. The agency started off small but has grown fast and roles they're recruiting for include artworkers and middleweight developers. There might also be a spot coming up for a senior creative.
What Richardson looks for is a practical and direct form of presentation."I don't mind how someone shows their portfolio, as long as it gives a really good snapshot of their skills and talent," he explains.
If impressed, a creative director like Richardson will then want to find out what you're really like via an interview. As with Golden, it's a case of proving you're the person they're looking for in terms of work and personality.
"I'm much more interested in the individual, hearing from them what they have achieved and what makes them tick, to make sure the cultural fit is right for my team. Then it's about the portfolio, how they present, is the candidate engaging, do they look interested, have they credibly done this work and can they talk about it fully," says Richardson.
Telling your story, as well as the stories behind your work, is a crucial criterion for a successful portfolio if you're applying to Kjetil Wold at the Norwegian agency Anti.
Wold is co-founder, creative director and consultant with the company, where there's a growing emphasis on motion at the moment. Because motion work requires narrative, Richardson is keen to find designers and animators who understand this. The ability to explain concepts and show purpose is what he looks for.
"We always look for people who understand concepts and storytelling, and can make excellent visuals. We want to see work that's anchored in a reason for being there. Right now we're searching for more motion-graphic designers because everything needs to be in motion these days," he says.
"The best thing is to start off with an online reference to give us a reason to say, 'Hi'. It could be a link to your work on Behance, or impress us even more with a well-designed personal site. Then we might meet up and see if your personality and the arguments behind your solution actually match what we're looking for."
Endless is a mini PC with a very specific target audience
Endless is a crowdfunded mini PC that's founded on the idea of turning a user's television set into fully functional PCs. It runs on a proprietary operating system and will launch with a library of apps that work both on and offline.
The small, colorful PC runs on a low-end, dual core Intel Celeron processor, with 2 GB of RAM. As it's built for the developing world, providing offline functionality was a priority for the company behind it and there are over 100 applications available for the system, including an encyclopedia, designed to work with or without an internet connection.
Its proprietary operating system, which the company calls Endless OS, has been designed to require no training to use. It's similar to what you'd find on a smartphone – something that the company believes will make it more accessible to users who aren't used to working with desktop software.
The system connects to displays via HDMI or VGA and is available in three variants. It can be configured with a choice of 32 GB of flash storage or a 500 GB HDD. The 500 GB variant offers Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity and a speaker as standard, but they're optional extras on the lower capacity model. All configurations offer a single USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit LAN and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
While you could argue that the Endless PC doesn't offer anything more than the wealth of other mini PCs out there, its specific focus may well win it a spot in the market. It's off to a good start in that regard, concluding a successful crowdfunding campaign earlier this month, having raised more than US$176,000 from backers – well in excess of its $100,000 target.
The company plans to use the funds from the campaign to enter its first markets – Mexico and Guatemala – before later expanding into much of Latin America.
As the Kickstarter effort is over, the Endless PC isn't available for direct purchase right now, but you can sign up to be notified when they become available on the company's website.
A computer is not an acronym and sometimes abbreviated as comp or 'puter. The term "computer" was originally given to humans who performed numerical calculations using mechanical calculators, such as the abacus and slide rule. The term was later given to a mechanical device as they began replacing the human computers. Today's computers are electronic devices that accept data (input), process that data, produce output, and then store (storage) the results.
The first digital computer and what most people think of as a computer was called the ENIAC, built during World War II (1943-1946). Early computers like the ENIAC used vacuum tubes and were large (sometimes room size) and only found in businesses, Universities, or governments. Later, computers began utilizing transistors as well as smaller and cheaper parts that allowed the common person to own a computer.
Today, computers help make jobs that used to be complicated much simpler. For example, a user can write letters in a word processor, edit any portion of the letter anytime, spell check the letter, print multiple copies of that letter, and even send that letter to someone across the world in a matter of seconds. All of these activities would have taken someone days, if not months, to do before computers. Also, all of the above is just a small fraction of what computers can do.
Today's computers have some or all of the below components (hardware). As technology advances, older technologies such as a floppy disk drive and Zip drive (both shown below) are no longer required or included with computers.
A diagram of the back of a personal computer and a brief description of the computer connections can also be found on our connection definition.
A peripheral is any accessory or add-on that can be attached to your computer, but is not required. For example, a computer printer is a perfect example of a peripheral. See the peripheral definition for a full list of peripherals that can be attached to your computer.
When talking about a computer or a "PC", you are usually referring to a traditional computer that you would find in a home or office. Today, however, the lines of what makes a computer are blurring. Below are all the different examples of what is considered a computer today.
Also see: Barebone, Compute, Computer family, Computer Hope, Connection, Home Computer, Laptop computer, My Computer, PC, Rig, Server
Could Hiive be the website to kick start your creative connections?
There's no denying that when it comes to showcasing your portfolio, Behance is ahead of the game. However, recent months have seen a surge in Behance-like sites, such as Desinion as well as others. Hiive is another such site, which aims to combine the portfolio aspects of Behance with the connectivity of LinkedIn to produce a creative site with a difference.
We sat down with editor Ciaran Burke to find out what makes Hiive stand out from the crowd and what he hopes the site will do for the creative community.
We've set up Hiive to become the professional network for creative people. Hiive allows professionals, companies and course providers to kick-start creative connections with jobs, projects, courses, knowledge and people.
If you're a creative it's a fantastic place to showcase your talent or business, discover opportunities and ultimately grow your network.
The idea was born out of the success of the creative industries. The industries grew by almost 10% in 2012, representing 5.6% of UK jobs. We needed an online platform that could champion these industries, encourage this growth and get creatives talking to one another within and across the different sectors.
Not only that but there was and still is a huge need to open up careers in the creative industries to a much broader, more diverse demographic across the UK. We now feel we have created a website that has the ability to do just that through giving people a platform to showcase their talent.
There are a lot of great sites for the professional communities, like LinkedIn, and others for a creative audience, like Behance and Dribbble, but none that brings everything together in one place for individuals, businesses and course providers.
With Hiive you can showcase your skills and portfolio as well as connecting with other creatives and influencers. Users can learn new skills and collaborate across Hiive Swarms, our new microsites.
If you're a business, you can find new talent and connect with other companies facing similar challenges and opportunities. If you offer courses, we have a community of over 10,000 creatives desperately keen to keep learning and getting better at what they do.
Yes, it is part of Hiive's ethos to help make the creative industries more diverse. Thankfully it's becoming a lot easier for new talent to get into the creative industries because social networks are helping to break down the traditional barriers you had to get through to see an employer.
With Hiive we want to bring those barriers down another level. By being able to being able to bring all of your online content into one place as a cohesive portfolio on Hiive, it's much easier to be discovered by the right people, regardless of your background.
Hiive's aim is to make the creative industry more diverse
We have a great team with a wide range of skills, and we're constantly asking our users for feedback. This really helps Hiive to evolve, and new features are constantly cropping up on the site as a result of this feedback such as freelancer availability, the ability to use gifs and the need to build our own audio player.
We were probably guilty of trying to build too many things at once, so I think it is always a good idea to prototype an idea, test it out with your target demographic and then get it to a level that is ready for market instead of trying to do every feature at once.
The Hiive Agency is something I'm very excited about. It's all about unlocking the talent in the Hiive community through generating paid commissions for them. I can't say too much at the moment but we've already had some incredible ideas flying around.
We want Hiive to be synonymous with people in the creative industries. The day is coming when I'll overhear someone saying, "Oh, I saw your Hiive," and that will please me greatly.
A large (2.7 inch) PaPiRus mounted on a Raspberry Pi 2
British company Pi Supply has created a low-power, low-cost e-ink display module for the Raspberry Pi do-it-yourself single-board computer. PaPiRus, as it's called, comes in three interchangeable screen sizes (1.44, 2.0, or 2.7 in), and like all e-paper devices it's readable in sunlight and it remains on (which is to say it can display a static image) for a very long time without power. Its creators note that it is particularly well suited to data-logging applications and outdoor displays.
PaPiRus fits the recently-released Raspberry Pi 2 Model B as well as prior models A+ and B+. It comes with 32 megabits of flash memory, along with a battery-backed real-time clock with a wake-on-alarm functionality (if connected via an optional "pogo pin" to the Raspberry Pi "RUN" header). It also has a temperature sensor and a general-purpose input/output (GPIO) breakout connector, as well as four optional slimline switches that fit on the top of the board.
The 1.44-inch (3.66-cm) screen has a resolution of 128 by 96 pixels, the 2.0-inch (5.1-cm) display has 200 by 96 pixels, and the larger 2.7-inch (6.86-cm) option has 264 by 176 pixels.
PaPiRus comes about thanks to a collaboration between Pi Supply and e-paper company Pervasive Displays. It integrates with the existing open-source RePaper codebase, with a suite of example code and wiring diagrams already available for the Raspberry Pi.
Pi Supply has taken PaPiRus to Kickstarter to fund a manufacturing run and add more features to the module. With around two weeks to go, the project has blown way past its £5,000 (US$7,818) funding goal. At the time of writing PaPiRus has just passed a £25,000 stretch goal to include the four optional buttons free to all backers.
You'll need to pledge at least £25 for the small screen package. A set of each of the three screens with one PaPiRus HAT board is listed at £65 or more. If all goes to plan, all packages are expected to ship in July.
You can see the PaPiRus Kickstarter pitch video below.
