The STEEM Engine Express Episode 4

Welcome to Episode 4 of The STEEM Engine Express podcast.

The STEEM Engine Express is a podcast produced by Ethan D. Smith that features short summaries of five posts recently shared in the Discord community, The STEEM Engine.

For more information about the group, visit the Steemit account @thesteemengine.

Listen to the podcast in one of the following ways:

► Listen on DSound

► Listen from source (IPFS)

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Listen on YouTube:

Intro music is "Biking in the Park" by Lee Rosevere. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Background track is "Crushin'" by Jason Shaw. Used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Other audio clips obtained via the Internet Archive and also used under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License

Today's featured posts:

Full transcript:

We begin today with a look at an important part of the STEEM blockchain: witnesses. STEEM Engine passenger @jasonshick is currently in the middle of his "Meet Our Witnesses" series in which he interviews prominent STEEM witnesses. Witnesses are vital to Steemit because they host servers which produce the actual blocks of the STEEM blockchain, among other things, which enable all of our posting and voting, as well as you being able to visit my blog right now. Jason's most recent witness interview is with Steemit user @gtg, or Gandalf the Grey. Be sure to read his interview, where he outlines reasons why you should use one of your 30 witness votes to vote for him. Jason has done a great job with this series so far, so if you want to learn more about Steemit witnesses, head over to his blog today.

One of Steemit's gray areas involves paid upvote bots. A source of controversy across the platform since they began, these accounts offer high-value upvotes for a set price in STEEM or Steem-backed dollars. In his most recent blog, "Post Boosters That Guarantee Returns," passenger @eonwarped goes through the math of whether it is profitable to use a specific two of these paid services. If you've ever wondered whether these votes are worth it, try using @eonwarped's formulas on your own account, and decide for yourself.

In travel this week, user @coldsteem takes us on a delightful journey to Zhongxian, China, where we see beautiful pictures of the Shibaozhai Temple, which is located on the Yangtze River. ColdSteem recounts his journey through the site, as he and his wife encountered beautiful views, fascinating history, and many merchants, including one who played "Oh, Susanna" on an instrument he was selling. When reading this blog, you'll discover a plethora of new information, including that the entire temple was built without the use of nails. This blog may have you booking travel plans sooner than you think.

Want to make your Steemit profile page look more attractive? Passenger @Mental-extract knows just the trick. In his post, "Creating My Steemit Cover Image Using GIMP2," we take a look at how he constructed his Steemit header image using GIMP, an open-source image editing program. As an avid user of GIMP myself, I appreciate the look into creating a cover image, so I invite you to explore the features of GIMP if you have any future image editing to do. @Mental-extract makes the most of his Bitmoji images in his final cover image, so be sure to check it out, as it gives a great look at his personality.

Finally today, we take a look at one of the technical aspects of animation. In the 13th installment of his animation series, Steemit user @zord189 uses shots from the popular animated film, Despicable Me, to show how animators choose the actions and motions of secondary characters to reflect on the actions of the main characters and enhance the main story line. I've seen many animated films, but I can't say I've ever stopped to consider what's going through an animator's mind when choosing how the background characters behave. "Setting aside the MAIN & SECONDARY Characters" is a thought-provoking blog that every animation fan should be sure to add to their reading list.

The STEEM Engine Express features five of the best posts curated by the STEEM Engine each week across the Steemit platform. The Express is produced by Ethan D. Smith exclusively for The STEEM Engine initiative on Steemit.com

That's all for this week's episode! To read posts mentioned in today's Express or to listen to past episodes, visit steemit.com/@ethandsmith. I hope you'll catch the next Express!

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The STEEM Engine Express Episode 4 | Ecency