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Microsoft Designer

designer.microsoft.com

111–120 of 230 posts

Re: Microsoft Designer

#111

I feel a deep sadness, a sympathy, or sense of loss for the countless artists who have toiled to produce beautiful works over the decades (centuries?), just for them to be approximated by a single click as a vector mashup in an AI generative search space. And without so much as a by your leave. I'm not saying it's logical to be against AI image generation, but definitely have a feeling that something has gone wrong h…

I couldn't agree more.

Re: Microsoft Designer

#112
post #43
post #28

I expect hoards of graphic designers to arrive at Redmond with pitchforks and torches this afternoon.

Graphic designers tend not use microsoft tools. I mean , when is the last time you saw someone fire up MS Publisher for a professional graphics project?

I’ve never seen it happen either. But the point is this allows them to be bypassed entirely.

Re: Microsoft Designer

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Windows 11 calculator is creating many problems such as the app surprisingly crashes, opens then immediately closes, or not performs as expected. Some people complain that the built-in Microsoft Store application does not work after they have received an update." [1] The fact that there are 14 ways to fix the Calculator app listed in this article, including even "Disable Windows Firewall temporarily", is simply beyo…

> the takeaway was: we must delete every software, destroy every CPU ever made, and start all over again. Understandable sentiment, but good luck doing it any better than what we currently have. Every technology and the assumptions it was based on is outdated pretty soon.

~4 billion years ago there was possibly a big refactor [1]; after the refactor the RNA machine got somewhat stable for the next 4+ billion years. There is no technology in our computer machines that will be able to withstand 4 billion years of external change. In fact, with all our clouds and AIs, we are closer to the caves than to that kind of technology. But it's great that the techno-giants of today with trillions in market cap and billions in R&D give us new drop-shadow effects: we need more riboswitch-like technology [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RNA_world

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riboswitch#:~:text=Gallery%20o...

Re: Microsoft Designer

#114
post #107

I feel a deep sadness, a sympathy, or sense of loss for the countless artists who have toiled to produce beautiful works over the decades (centuries?), just for them to be approximated by a single click as a vector mashup in an AI generative search space. And without so much as a by your leave. I'm not saying it's logical to be against AI image generation, but definitely have a feeling that something has gone wrong h…

What has gone wrong is that AI researchers and futurologists have warned for decades that AIs replacing jobs was coming (though everybody was taken by surprise that artists would be first) and that we needed to change our paradigms about labor quickly. We should be embarrassing the weight of labor lifted from our shoulders and organize society so that it becomes desirable. Replaced professionals should be allowed to…

We should be embarrassing the weight of labor lifted from our shoulders and organize society so that it becomes desirable. Replaced professionals should be allowed to go into retirement directly and access some form of basic income. There should be incentives to automating your own work.

Completely disagree with this view, especially when it comes to art.

This is not advancing society, or art, or anything, it's a freaking knock off factory that's been developed and used for commercial gain. It's not the same as manual loom weavers being replaced, this is a way to steal peoples stuff with little trace or accountability. This is legal trash and MS has plenty of lawyers to make you feel otherwise.

I was playing with it today and I couldn't believe the crap I was seeing. Nearly every single known artist is known because they developed a unique style, and worked to develop that style. They didn't just copy other peoples stuff and sell it. To make a machine that just rips off peoples styles and then you charge money for it is freaking lame as and I really hope they get sued hard for it, actually they should be taxed to pay for all the fantasy retirement money you speak of.

Do you know that throughout history there has been many, many artists who made counterfeit art works for money? There has been many, many print shops ripping off work etc. This is absolutely no different to automating that same level of theft. In my opinion, what's going on there isn't even really that original.

This isn't just about research or advancing anything, because it's not. It takes much and gives back very little. If it was for research, do it in a university, generate some new cool things with it and leave it at that. Having a machine which can just "draw this and do a half ass job at ripping off someone who worked hard to create something cool", what a low blow.

Disclaimer: I'm not an artist, so it's not personal, I just now bullshit when I see it, and that thing is bullshit, regardless of the technology behind it.

Re: Microsoft Designer

#115
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Windows 11 calculator is creating many problems such as the app surprisingly crashes, opens then immediately closes, or not performs as expected. Some people complain that the built-in Microsoft Store application does not work after they have received an update." [1] The fact that there are 14 ways to fix the Calculator app listed in this article, including even "Disable Windows Firewall temporarily", is simply beyo…

Microsoft also seem keen to deprecate two other simple Windows applications - Paint (being replaced with "Paint 3D") and Snipping Tool (to be replaced with "Snip & Sketch"). I don't understand it, it feels like they've started with the question "ok what if we replaced $tool?" rather than "what does $tool need to do?"

Paint 3D itself was deprecated later and Paint was un-deprecated, it's just updated by the store now. (It even has a Windows 11 redesign!)

Snipping Tool was deprecated, but everything at this point was ported over to the (arguably better) "new" Snipping Tool, and it just got screen(/area) recording too.

Re: Microsoft Designer

#116
Before opening this link I thought it was referring to Microsoft Expression Design before remembering the correct name of this older product :)

But clear not! This looks a bit like a competitor for Canva?

Re: Microsoft Designer

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is a link [1] from the Microsoft forum with an advice to ...right click on Windows PowerShell and select Run as administrator. Then type following command and press Enter key: Get-AppXPackage -AllUsers -Name Microsoft.WindowsCalculator | Foreach {Add-AppxPackage -DisableDevelopmentMode -Register "$($_.InstallLocation)\AppXManifest.xml" -Verbose} It's just ridiculous for a Calculator app fix , no matter how you p…

But this command isn't about fixing the calculator app at all, it's for reregistering the application if you have removed it from your profile. I have the new calculator app open literally all of the time and I've not run into any issues with it at all. In fact since it's been updated, it saves me from using Google searches for plenty of types of conversions too so I'd suggest the new update has been a large success.

Yes, and that makes it even more funny (and disheartening): 2023's self-fixing technology is the old classic "have you tried turning it off and on again" [1].

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nn2FB1P_Mn8

Re: Microsoft Designer

#118
post #77
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in the "Alte Pinoteke" in Munich, Germany, on Sunday. It is a fabulous gallery full of huge and old master paintings. There was a certain 4 frame series with each frame about 5m long by 3m high. Each was an architectural study of Rome with each being from a different view direction. What struck me was the text written below the paintings which indicated that the artist, after *3 years of work*, had been quoted…

This seems completely irrelevant. Photo cameras don't instristically rely on painters having existed and continuing to exist to do their thing.

Counter example:

Cameras often do rely on other professions to have existed to do their thing.

e.g. Architects who built city buildings, fashion designers who designed clothes, and engineers who built cars.

They don’t get paid every time their work gets put on Instagram, etc.

Re: Microsoft Designer

#119

I feel a deep sadness, a sympathy, or sense of loss for the countless artists who have toiled to produce beautiful works over the decades (centuries?), just for them to be approximated by a single click as a vector mashup in an AI generative search space. And without so much as a by your leave. I'm not saying it's logical to be against AI image generation, but definitely have a feeling that something has gone wrong h…

Art, in terms of creating a beautiful rendition of some part of the real world or even a fantastical but recognizable scene has not been a big part of the mainstream capital-A Art market for over a hundred years. Nobody cares if you can paint really well or whatever. Art schools churn out thousands of people a year who can do that.

Artworks since at least Duchamp have been more about some abstract concept rather than a nice painting.

Now if ChatGPT can churn out convincing BS about why taping a banana to a wall or something is a piece of revolutionary art, then artists will really be in trouble.

Re: Microsoft Designer

#120
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was in the "Alte Pinoteke" in Munich, Germany, on Sunday. It is a fabulous gallery full of huge and old master paintings. There was a certain 4 frame series with each frame about 5m long by 3m high. Each was an architectural study of Rome with each being from a different view direction. What struck me was the text written below the paintings which indicated that the artist, after *3 years of work*, had been quoted…

> I can only assume that the same arguments and complaints were raised at every stage a new technology was introduced that lowered the cost and time to produce "content". Which of those technologies were based on billions of copyright violations? And of course this copyright still exists but is only enforced in one direction, just like on YouTube where random corporations can claim copyright on any video and hurt the…

What's the infringement? You can't copyright style, no? If artists can look at each others copyright-in-full-force works and then imitate it, why can't AI?

Corporations having too much power is different from technology encroaching on previously uniquely human faculties.

Of course both are phenomena that ought to be addressed by society. At which point we see that it's a political problem, and of course politics is broken.

> I'll think differently about that comparison if it is possible for random people to legally train models & create images from Disney's intellectual property on affordable hardware.

... that's a very strange set of criteria. that said, last year one of my designer friends tried Midjourney, one of the pictures was so and so in Star Wars style.

Of course generating pictures is different from using them, let's say in ads.

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