Newbie question about 10 bit Uncompressed Video

Hi guys
Am I correct in understanding that Uncompressed formats are only for digitizing analog video?
Like, with DV or HDV or HD 1080p/ P2 etc.. I would never need to use any Uncompressed codecs.. is that right??
Basically my question is: when would I use one of these Uncompressed codecs?
Thanks!

Animation for interchange between platforms is no compression, and with alpha if millions+ is chosen. Basically these files would be exported from 10 bit files at our shop. Image sequences would be generated the same way unless they were going out to a grading station or VFX in which case they would be 16bit tiff or DPX files.
The main reason for not passing 10 bit video is gamma interpretation between platforms.
we have had success with AJA 10 bit uncompressed being passed to PC shops with them using the AJA codec on their systems. Most of these transfers are aftereffects based projects, captured via Kona3 in FCP automatic ducked to AE and passed with media and project. They come back the same way in an AE project. we can then control which layers go where depending on their use and workstation.

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Newbie Question about FM 8 and Acrobat Pro 9

Hello:
I have some dcouments that I've written in FM v8.0p277. I print them to PDF so that I can have a copy to include on a CD and I also print some hard copies.
My newbie question is whether there is a way to create a PDF for hard copy where I mainitain the colors in photos and figures but that the text that is hyperlinked doesn't appear as blue. I want to keep the links live within the soft copy. Is there something I can change within Frame or with Acrobat?
TIA,
Kimberly

Kimberly,
How comes the text is blue in the first place? I guess the cross-reference formats use some character format which makes them blue? There are many options:
Temporarily change the color definition for the color used in the cross-reference format to black.
Temporarily change the character format to not use that color.
Temporarily change the cross-reference definition to not used that character format.
Whichever method you choose, I would create a separate document with the changed format setting and import those format into your book, create the PDF and then import the same format from the official template.
- Michael

Question about 64 bit

I was thinking about reloading my Arch system and was thinking about 64 bit. Just wonder if its mature enough for me to use it on a day to day basis. Such as, full web access to software such as Flash 9, mplayer plugins for media, music plugins for Amarok, Cedega use and other games like Quake 2, 4, RTCW, Enemy Territory, and such.
Is it recommended, or should I stick with 32 bit for a time?
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i installed it yesterday and have only been using it since then, so take these comments with a grain of salt. but it does seem relatively mature, actually. flash 9 was easy to set up using the wiki, it took under 5 minutes. the only things i've noticed so far (only less than a day of use, remember) is that .mov content in mplayer is really slow and choppy for some reason. there have been a few minor non-issue things, but nothing worth mentioning. so far everything's working. no experience with the gaming stuff, though.
i would recommend doing what i did and installing it on a spare partition. that way you can check it out to see if it does what you need, and if anything's not working or missing, you can boot back into 32 until you get it sorted.
>> one other thing to mention is that unless i'm doing something wrong, java doesn't seem to work. i also haven't gotten my palm working yet, but that might just be a configuration thing, udev rules i have to copy over, etc.
Last edited by slackhack (2007-05-21 16:38:15)

Newbie question about loading servlets on tomcat

I have what is probably a very basic question about loading simple servlets on to tomcat to test its installation. I have followed instructions from numerous tutorials to the letter but still I can't get it to work.
I have installed tomcat on win2k in c:\tomcat. I set up the jdk, environment vars (JAVA_HOME, CATALINA_HOME, TOMCAT_HOME) which all point at the correct dirs. I can compile a servlet without errors. I can also place a test jsp and html file into the root directory and they both work fine.
However, now I am trying a test servlet and no matter what I do it gives me a 404. I have a servlet class file called "HelloServlet.class" which I placed into the %install_dir%\webapps\ROOT\WEB-INF\classes directory. I try to reference it using this url:
http://localhost/servlet/HelloServlet
Tomcat is configured to use port 80 and has been restarted after adding the servlet class file. Does anyone have a clue why this is not working for me?
Many thanks
Marc

You have to add in the web.xml file that it is in the WEB-INF dir, the information about your servlet. An example:
<web-app>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>HelloServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>HelloServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>HelloServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/HelloServlet</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>

Newbie question about saving files

Hi all,
A newbie question here, and maybe it is a dumb question, but I can't get my head around this and sofar found no answer in the forums here.
When I save a file on my macbook, I can only save it to "top" folders.
What I mean is I try to save a file for instance to documents/worddocs/lyrics just to say something, then I have to save the file first to documents, and the move it to the lyrics folder via finder or move it to :worddocs folder and then move it again to the lyrics folder. Hope you still get my drift here
Is there a way to just save it to the subfolders without going through all this moving around?
Thanks in advance for any advice
Peter

When you click File>Save As, you will see the Save As window pop up. At the top, you will see a box entitled Save As, which has a space for your to enter the file name. To the right of this box is an arrow pointing down. Click it. The full file hierarchy will be seen. Then you can save directly to the file you want.
Hope this helps.
Don

2 newbies question about diskgroups

Hi gurus,
I have 2 newbies question:
Im working in a RAC Database (11.2.0.3) on Redhat 5.3 with some disk groups. One of this groups have 6 disks on it with different space (134, 236G, 236G, 185G, 185G and 185G).
My questions are:
1) What would be happend when the lower space disk will be full?
2) At this moment the diskgroups are at 45% so i was thinking to change their spaces to have all with the same space (around 193G each), it would create any problem? i should restart database or can do it with database up?
Thanks

if a disk is filled, what would happen? could i resize the disks with same size without stop database and without affecting the data stored within each disc?
By the word 'disk' I assume you mean LUN . When a LUN in a disk group is filled, ASM will use the remaining LUNs to store the data. You should always use LUNs of uniform size to avoid uneven I/O .
could i resize the disks with same size without stop database and without affecting the data stored within each disc
You can get the Unix/Storage team to allocate more LUNs for this Server. Once these LUNs are added , check if the following pre-reqs are met for the LUN which is yet to be added to the disk group
v$asm_disk.HEADER_STATUS = 'CANDIDATE'
v$asm_disk.PATH = /dev/rdsk/youLUNname
v$asm_disk.NAME will be NULL
Now you can add the LUNs using
alter diskgroup DATA_DG01 add disk '/dev/rdsk/youLUNname' rebalance power 4 ; wait for rebalance to finish (check status in V$ASM_OPERATION)
Yes. The above can be done without stopping the DB. It won't affect the stored data either.

Two (too much?) newbies questions about KT3 Ultra 2

Goodmorning all.
I've bought a KT3 Ultra2 (MS-6380E) motherboard and i've two questions about it.
First of all I need to buy the optional S-Bracket to use my SPDif sound sistem... where can i buy it in Italy or in Internet?
In second i've to know the highest processor my MB support becouse i have to upgrade my PC.
Can U help me?
Tha a lot and sorry for disturb.
Hallo.

Hello,
question 2, not sure about question 1,
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_cpu_support_detail.php?UID=341&kind=1
You may need this BIOS update too.
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/bios/bos/spt_bos_detail.php?UID=341&kind=1

Newbie question about video quality in CS3

I'm new to Premiere CS3. I've been using iMovie but wanted to move up to an app with more features and finer grained tuning. However, I'm having trouble getting my imported clips to maintain their quality. Don't know if I've got PrCS3 set up incorrectly or if I don't know enough about video formats.
I'm running Premiere v3.2.0 (374) on a MacBook Pro, 2.16GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 3GB memory, OSX 10.6.6
Here's my scenario:
I have a video clip with the following specs: .mov, 720 x 480, H.264, 30fps, bitrate 244 (see screen shot below). It was captured from my computer using Snapz Pro X.
I imported the clip into PrCS3 and was surprised the clip preview and composite preview were displayed at less quality than the original (even made sure the quality mode was set to "highest"). The video clip was squeezed a bit and the clean edges of my vector art were jagged. The entire thing seemed out of focus.
I thought the exported video might be better quality. I exported the sequence using the following settings:
But the results were no better (I've actually gotten better results using iMovie HD). Below is the final exported movie.
Any help from the PrCS3 community would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Justin
Providence, RI

Hi,
capturing from your computer would give you square pixel aspect ratio....and you're using an aspect ratio for SD TV ( ntsc ), so it is stretching ....no longer a perfect "circle" in the paw print...
Your project setting should be made in custom / desktop ( dont use a preset )...and set it for 720x480 square pixels progressive ( no interleaving ), 29.97 fps... the codec choice for rendering when you set up the project could be dealt with later on if this solves your basic problem..
your export would then be the same as your project setting....720x480, progressive, square pixels, 29.97 or 30 fps ...should be good.
one note: h264 is already "compressed" quite a bit....its a "delivery" format...for viewing ...not really meant to be edited...know what I mean ? So you will lose some quality due to that stuff already being compressed...
but your pixel aspect ratio being "fixed" with the above should improve what you see quite a bit.
good luck

A few newbie questions about video.

I just bought a canon hf10 and am new to the video arena. I've got a macbook 2.16ghz with 4gigs. Imovie 09 and FCE 4.0.1.
I want all my films to display a cinema like feel. Movie quality look if you will. I'll be doing small movies of vacations and intro videos for my church. Stuff like that.
What's the best settings for the hf10 to record with? I've been using cine mode at 24p. really don't know what all that means.
What is the best route for importing, ie.. settings for FCE?
Same Question for exporting.
And not to have to many questions in one topic this is the last. What's the best way to get a good fluid shot without all the shakiness that comes with a small hand held? I know imovie has a nice image stabilization feature that works well but it zooms way in on the video to stabilize it. Does FCE have this same function?

It's worth remembering that:
iMovie is a consumer product, designed to enable untrained enthusiasts to turn out nice-looking video easily and quickly. You can do some cool things really easily, but it can be hard work when you want to go against its automated functions.
FCE is Final Cut Pro without most of the add-on applications, and without a small number of features. It's designed for pros on a budget, students and advanced amateurs. You have a far greater degree of control than in iMovie, but you have to know the product well to be able to exercise that control.
A good analogy is between a fully automatic camera/camcorder (iMovie) and a fully manual one (FCE). In the first case, you can get good shots without having to spend time learning how to use the equipment. In the second, you must learn how to use it to get anything worthwhile from it.
FCE doesn't include any of the big consumer-oriented features of iMovie: stabilisation, themes and so on. in FCE, you have to get what you want manually.
Th best way to get stable images in your shots is to use a good tripod; failing that, some other kind of support. Even a not-so-good tripod will be better than nothing.
One final point - if you have some unstable shots, you could get them into iMovie, stabilise them, then export the project as XML for full editing in FCE.

Newbie question about imported video

Hi,
I am trying to embed a movie into the timeline. I want it to
play once and then have the page redirect to another page afterward
(I am trying to create a splash screen). I don't want the movie
player which is why I have chosen to embed it.
I can import the movie and embed it fine but it just loops
forever and I can't seem to get it to redirect.
Can anyone help with this one?
Thanks,
James :-)

Hi,
I tried that but it still doesn't work.
When I look at the HTM is contains the following:
AC_FL_RunContent(
'codebase', '
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=9,0,0,0',
'width', '720',
'height', '480',
'src', 'movietest',
'quality', 'high',
'pluginspage', '
http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer',
'align', 'middle',
'play', 'true',
'loop', 'false',
'scale', 'showall',
'wmode', 'window',
'devicefont', 'false',
'id', 'movietest',
'bgcolor', '#ffffff',
'name', 'movietest',
'menu', 'true',
'allowFullScreen', 'false',
'allowScriptAccess','sameDomain',
'movie', 'movietest',
'salign', ''
); //end AC code
Coudl this be what is causing the issue:
'allowScriptAccess','sameDomain',
James :-)

Question about CPU usage for video playback

I've asked a related question already on the Safari forum, but would like some clarification, please.
The speed of this iMac is 400 MHZ and whenever I go to YouTube or almost any other site that requires video I see that the CPU usage can peak way up at 80% or more. I have Flash 9 installed which has a minimum of 500 MHZ, so I get pretty choppy video, but that's not the issue here. I can live with that. I keep any other applications closed. I'm often running a small fan over the top of the iMac to help vent the buildup of heat. I can monitor the temperature at the Hard Drive and I suppose that gives me an idea, of sorts, about general temperature conditions inside.
The answer I got was that this kind of CPU usage could be detrimental to the processor as it builds up excessive heat and to keep this kind of video to a minimum.
My question is can anyone roughly suggest what a maximum time on YouTube, for example, would be, 2 minutes, 5 minutes, is 10 minutes too long? I have plenty of RAM at 768. Some guidelines?
Thanks.

Hey WZZZ,
Thanks for the star and kind words.
I'm the de facto Mac guy at my kids' school and we have around 25 iMac Slot Loaders working there. You can imagine they get abused quite a bit. There are 10 running Garage Band in the Music Department. That puts a tremendous strain on the CPU and I'm actually surprised that they run it so well. My son had a 600 iMac running GarageBand, he was complaining that it was getting jumpy and when I looked at it he was running 10 unlocked tracks simultaneously! So now he has an eMac G4 800 and that of course runs a lot better.
So to sum up, with all the abuse of those machines in terms of the CPUs the problems I have with them have nothing to do with that. The problems have more to do with parts of the OS that they toss, headphone jacks abused, CDs jammed in the slots, and the like.
A couple of other related things. I've got Hardware Monitor, demo, installed and I think it reported it could only find the hard drive sensor, if I'm not mistaken - nothing else on this Mac with a sensor. Is that right?
I see references to CPU sensors on 400 iMacs but on the 400 I have here for repair Temperature Monitor reports no sensors. Perhaps there were different versions of the 400.
But very good to hear that the fan is a good idea for CRT related things. Should I keep the fan running-mostly for that hard core CRT stuff- even if the computer is sleeping and the room temp. is only around 62-64 F.? (We need to put on warm clothes to sit in front of this thing now, but worth it to keep this old machine happy).
On the one I did the fan pushed the airflow in the direction of the passive flow of the iMac - in at the bottom and out the grill by the handle.
One more question, more out of curiosity than anything else: If I move this small clip-on fan close to the case - right now it's about 3 feet away and the image is stable - the screen begins to flicker and flutter quite a lot. My theory is that that's happening not necessarily because of electro-magnetic interference from the fan motor, but rather, because the back of the tube is getting cooled unevenly. What do you think?
Well the classic failures that I see in the iMac are in this order:
1) Dielectric breakdown of the flyback transformers internal insulation. This is heat/age related and a common problem with CRTs in general.
2) Breakdown of high voltage electolytic capacitors and regular high voltage capacitors on the neck board and PAV supply.
3) Solder problems with the flyback itself. This is diagnosed by the upside down boot technique.
I used to repair these problems but now it's easier for me to swap the Firewire boards into working 350s. I've got 12 of those in the basement currently.
Richard

Newbie question about livecycle data services es

Hi all.
i've downloaded the LiveCycle ES2 VMware virtual appliance, setup it up on a esxi server, workspace, content space, all are up and running, but here comes my question, how do i install livecycle data services in there?how do i set it up to start working with the rest?
i've read the documentation on how to install, but i'm a bit confused.
can anyone give me any pointers about this?
help would be appreciated
thanks in advance

1) In Workbench ES2 create a process to create a new user. If you need to create a group there is also a service to create group. Create a short-lived process using the Avoka service > Create User operation. The Create User operation has the inputs depicted below.
2) Create a process variable called 'newUserXml' of type 'xml' and declare the variable as input. Ideally, create a schema for the xml.
3) The Create User operation has a single output, a string containing the user ID. Create a process variable called 'userID' of type 'string' and declare the variable as output.
3) Save, check-in, and deploy the process.
4) To test the process, invoke the process from the Workbench. For the input variable, plug data into an xml structure such as this...
<NewUser>
<Login/>
<Password/>
<CommonName/>
<CanonicalName/>
<Description/>
<Email/>
<Initials/>
<OrgName/>
<Address/>
<Telephone/>
</NewUser>
5) If the test succeeds, you are ready to create the Flex application. If not, figure out why.
6) Build a Flex app. Once you deployed the process, the remoting endpoint is automatically created and can be accessed by Flex. Here is a stub.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" creationComplete="initChannelSet()">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
import mx.messaging.channels.AMFChannel;
import mx.messaging.ChannelSet;
import mx.rpc.events.ResultEvent;
import mx.rpc.events.FaultEvent;
private function initChannelSet():void {
var cs:ChannelSet= new ChannelSet();
cs.addChannel(new AMFChannel("my-amf","http://localhost:8080/remoting/messagebroker/amf"));
ro.channelSet = cs;
private function submitRequest():void {
var newUser:XML = new XML(getXmlData());
ro.setCredentials("administrator","password");
ro.invoke({newUserXml:newUser});
private function remotingResultHandler(event:ResultEvent):void {
var userID:String = event.result.userID;
private function remotingFaultHandler(event:FaultEvent):void {
Alert.show(event.fault.faultDetail.toString());
private function getXmlData():String {
var xmlStr:String = "<NewUser>"
+ "<Login>" + login.text + "</Login>"
+ "<Password>" + password.text + "</Password>"
+ "<CommonName>" + commonName.text + "</CommonName>"
+ "</NewUser>>";
return (xmlStr);
]]>
</mx:Script>
<mx:RemoteObject id="ro" destination="MyApplication/processes/CreateNewUser"
   result="remotingResultHandler(event)" fault="remotingFaultHandler(event)"/>
<mx:VBox>
   UI goes here...
   <mx:Button label="Submit" click="submitRequest()"/>
</mx:VBox>
</mx:Application>
Steve

Question about transfering pictures and videos to my iPad

I just found out that I am getting an iPad as a birthday present, which is cool and all but I never ever even thought about owning one, the main reason is because I already own a pretty good laptopp with a good enough hard drive and the reasn why I love this is because when I go on vacation or whatever, I can take my Samsung camcorder which records in 1080p (mp4 files) and has a pretty decent 60gb hard drive but recording in HD requires a lot of space so whenever I run out of space in the cam corder, I just unload all the videos to my laptop in my hotel room and start again from sracth, that way I can come back home with 80 to 90gb worth of high definition vacation footage.
Now that I am geting an iPad, I want to use it as a laptopp replacement, it fits every category perfectly except the one I just mentioned, which leads me to my question.
If I purchase the usb adapter to transfer pictures and videos to the ipad, will this recognize my samsung camcorder? I dont remember the model as I dont have it here but it records in HD and the format is .mp4 so I don't see why I shouldnt.
the iPad I am getting is most likely the 64gb version, which is still pretty low on HD space compared to a regular laptop but if I take an empty ipad (no music and very few movies) to my vacation, I guess I still have a good 50gb or so to dump all my videos from my cammera and unless I am on a long vacation, I shouldnt have any trouble about running out of space but all of this would be moot if my iPad wont even recognize my camcorder in the first place. I don't even care if the iPad wont play the 1080p files properly (does it?) all I care about is if the ipad can at least store them until I get back home and transfer them to a real computer, thanks!

I'm not saying NO your iPad won't work with your camera, but you are clearly going to run out of storage space quickly, so it hardly matters.
I would try to convince you that you should think of your iPad as something to consume and share your media with, not store it. Keep using your laptop. BUT as you go through your photos and videos each night during vacation, throw the best ones onto your iPad to show your friends and family the next day. You can even set it up to down convert the videos for transfer to the iPad without losing the original 1080p files.
If the iPad DOES work with your camera (probably just photos), then you could do a quick transfer of selected photos and use the iPad to review them in the field (instead of your camera's screen). But I'd clear them off pretty regularly and just do proper transfers to the ipad of just the best stuff.
But anyway, everyone gets to use technology however they want. I don't think the iPad sounds right for what you want to do, but that's your call - why not give it a try.
(ever considered using mobile me or another cloud solution to store your photos. You can password protect them, upload from your iPad, and retrieve from your iPad (with mobile me and some other choices).

Newbie question about Premiere Elements Organizer

This is a pre-newbie – let’s say “virgin” question. If there is an answer already posted elsewhere, please send me a link.
I’m about to install Premiere Elements 9 to do some clip editing and animation from still images. This would be my first attempt to edit clip or do some animation from still images, besides using Windows Media Maker with my HS students. However, I have been a pretty serious photographer for 20+ years with 1,000’s of images which I now work on in PS CS5 Extended and Lightroom 3. I use Adobe Bridge and LR library to catalogue and organize my images. I’d like to continue to use AB / LR Library to organize my new clips and projects. From reading Bill’s posts, it seems I can use Adobe Bridge, copy my original file, resize in Photoshop, and save in a new folder to use for a Premiere project. This would seem to be most intuitive way for me to work. I already have keywords, metadata, actions in PS… etc. But I think Bill is using Premiere Pro, while I’ll be installing Premiere Elements, which comes bundled with Elements Organizer. Do I need to install or use Elements Organizer? What are the advantages/disadvantages or EO? I guess I’m a little worried about installing the programs and having EO automatically acquire images using presets/defaults that I don’t want to use as well as issues with subfolders, etc. I'm running Windows 7.
Thanks
FYI- this is a great animation project
http://www.thejohnnycashproject.com/#/explore/TopRated

ziggycat4 wrote:
I guess I’m a little worried about installing the programs and having EO automatically acquire images using presets/defaults that I don’t want to use as well as issues with subfolders,
EO doesn't do much with the files themselves, just maintains links to the sources.
For folders you are best to use the folder view in EO to move them as it doesn't keep track of folder locations when changed in Windows Explorer. From the File options in Bridge I think that is pretty much the same.
ziggycat4 wrote:
I would like to get as much input as possible on the advantages/disadvantages of using EO vs say Adobe Bride from others who use Elements Organizer.
Any insights would be appreciated.
Can anyone who has used both EO and AB comment on how EO handles missing (hidden) files, syncing issues, computer hanging up or crashing....etc?
I've only messed around a little with Bridge. But to me it seems lightening fast by comparison to EO. The features Albums and Tags in EO seem much the same as Collections and Keywords in Bridge.
EO has Face Recognition abilities - getting more sophisticated in each version. I've not seen this feature in Bridge.
By default EO allows you to open a file in any of:
Photoshop
Photoshop Elements
Premiere Elements
A single used-defined application (I have mine set to ColorPilot).
Bridge only seems to link to Photoshop.
Missing files can be located manually or by allowing EO to search for them.
Cheers,
Neale
Insanity is hereditary, you get it from your children

Newbie question about C coding and SDK for iPhone app

Hello,
I am interested in trying to create an app. However, I have NO experience writing code I already have downloaded and installed the latest version of the SDK.
I know I have to learn: C, Objective C, and Cocoa.
I just picked up "C for Dummies" as a starting point. I figured the K&R might be a bit overwhelming to start with. Thing is, "C for Dummies" suggests doing some exercises in Text Edit and then using GCC to compile and test. But, then again, it has a copyright of 2004--long before Snow Leopard.
My question is, do I really need to do the exercises in Text Edit? Can I just use Xcode for entering the code and testing it? And, any suggestions for learning C and Xcode tutorials are greatly appreciated.
Thanks!!

But, I really want to learn coding and not just take the easy route by using Xcode.
The simplification of using Xcode may have been a bit exaggerated throughout this thread. You will still learn how to program full-on by using Xcode -- it's not like you're taking a shortcut or anything. Well, technically speaking, you are, but Xcode is the expected way to develop on a Mac nowadays -- it's how Apple expects you to develop and how most people are doing so. Should you choose, you can taking a deeper dive into the inner workings of compiling and whatnot by using a text editor and the Terminal, but keep in mind that the extra complexities here could complicate the more important overall goal of learning the basics of how to program. There is absolutely nothing wrong with simply using Xcode for the novice part of your programming days. In fact, it's probably the path I would recommend. Some here might suggest that it is beneficial to learn the intricacies of compiling through the Terminal and whatnot early on, and they are right -- it is beneficial, but the benefits of taking a route (at least for the time being) that allows you to focus on the more pressing issues of learning how to program without having to delve too deeply can be just as beneficial. After all, it's not like you can't go back and learn how to compile via Terminal later on -- that's what I've done (or, rather, am in the process of doing).
I always thought Terminal was something not to mess with.
Not so much. Like most things in programming (or life, for that matter), the Terminal is something not to mess with +if you don't know what you're doing+. Basically, it breaks down like this. The GUI that Apple has created for you in Mac OS X (by GUI I mean "graphical user interface" -- the icons and windows and buttons and so forth that you use to perform tasks on your Mac -- in other words, everything outside the Terminal) is geared toward the common user who does not need to access advance aspects of the system's functionality. Consequently, it makes common tasks much simpler to perform, but in the process it hides some of the deeper levels of the system's functionality from the user. This is a good thing, since most people wouldn't know what to do with this functionality and would create problems for themselves if they did have easy access to it. However, for some users who know more about the inner workings of the operating system, there needs to be a way for them to access this functionality, so that they can do certain things (like accessing certain files and performing certain tasks) that they would not be able to do using the Mac OS X GUI -- that's what the Terminal is for. It allows the user to operate the system on a lower level. In other words, it allows you to get closer to the operating system. This is good in a way, because it allows you to perform tasks that you wouldn't otherwise be able to perform by giving you more control over the operating system, but it is also bad in a way, because it can allow you to mess up some of the deeper aspects of your system if you don't know what you are doing. Most people leave the Terminal alone for this reason, and because they have no need of it, but if you want to be a good developer, you're going to have to work with it sooner or later.
Now, with all that being said, it's not that easy to mess things up using the Terminal. It's not like your system's going to crash if you misspell a command. All in all, the Terminal is very forgiving, but it will do what you tell it to do, even if you tell it to kill itself, and it is for that reason that you need to know what you are telling it before you try to tell it something. If you understand what you are telling the system, than operating on a lower level and being closer to the operating system is completely safe.
The Mac OS X operating system is based around Unix, so when you are communicating more directly with the operating system by using the Terminal, you are interacting with its Unix core. For this reason, using the Terminal goes hand in hand with understanding Unix. So, if you're going to want to use the Terminal, then I recommend you get a good book on Unix to teach you the basics of Unix commands and shell programming and whatnot. Any book on Unix will do, since more or less everything you learn will be applicable to the Mac OS X's Terminal, but there are a few that are specifically directed to Mac OS X users, and that always makes things easier. Most of these books aren't updated to cover past Tiger, but this really doesn't matter (someone correct me if I'm wrong). A few examples are O'Reilly's "Learning Unix for Mac OS X Tiger" by Dave Taylor or Peachpit Press's "Unix for Mac OS X Tiger" by Matisse Enzer. Also, the book "Unix Programming Environment" by Kernighan and Pike is an excellent book on Unix, although fairly outdated, so I would highly recommend it, although I would recommend it as a supplement to another, more recent, Mac-based Unix book and not as your primary source for learning Unix. The skills you will acquire from these books will help you later if not sooner, so I recommend giving one of them a read at some point, whether you are planning on compiling using the Terminal right now or not.
Anyways, I hope this helped to clear some of this up for you, and please let us know if you have any further questions.

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