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  • Best press photos from Australia

    Holy Kaw!
    21 Mar 2010 | 11:33 pm
    Check out these photos from the Nikon-Walkey Awards. These is a competition for press photographers from Australia. Total news coverage. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • iPhone Font is Not Very Readable, Still Amazing

    Mashable!
    Stan Schroeder
    22 Mar 2010 | 1:24 am
    First, we’ll tell you that it took the author – self-described as someone with too much free time – 540 iPhone apps to create this font. Second, we’ll tell you that it’s not all just pretty pictures: he actually used iPhone apps in different colors so he can show off the font live, directly off his iPhone.Not impressed yet? Then check out the video below, and the entire iPhone alphabet a little further below. While you probably won’t be writing long letters with that font, it’s still a beautiful sight to behold.You can find an even bigger version of…

  • Sprint Ad Uses the iPhone to Show Off Its 4G Network (Yes, That iPhone)

    Fast Company
    Dan Nosowitz
    22 Mar 2010 | 1:41 am
    Sprint's Overdrive portable Wi-Fi hotspot is similar to Verizon's MiFI: it's equipped with a wireless antenna like a phone, but instead of merely using it, it exports it as a Wi-Fi network that any device with a Wi-Fi antenna can use. The MiFi is great, but it's still just a 3G network--Sprint's Overdrive uses Sprint's fledgling 4G network, which is several times faster and in daily use often approaches the speed of a home broadband network.So the Overdrive is compatible with any Wi-Fi device: laptops, most smartphones, PMPs like the iPod Touch and Zune HD, and a whole host of other connected…

  • UK Gov Shifts To Open Data, Broadband – But We Could Use Some Detail

    TechCrunch
    Mike Butcher
    22 Mar 2010 | 2:36 am
    The British Governement, faced with an upcoming general election in which policy toward the internet, digital inclusion of the masses and how government IT interfaces with the private sector will all come into play, has rolled out the big guns in the shape of the Prime Minister and a clutch of ministers and advisers today. In a speech in London, billed as "Building Britain's Digital Future", Gordon Brown ranged over a wide range of topics. Here are the highlights:

  • Do you make slush?

    Seth Godin
    Seth Godin
    21 Mar 2010 | 2:43 am
    A few months ago, the Journal wrote a piece about the demise of the slush pile, that undifferentiated mass of unsolicited ideas from authors and screenwriters in search of a publisher or studio.They missed the point.In the words of Michael Brooke, "I'm not interested in creating slush."If you have something good, really good, what's it doing in the slush pile?Bring it to the world directly, make your own video, write your own ebook, post your own blog, record your own music.Or find an agent, a great agent, a selective agent, one that's almost impossible to get through to, one that commands…
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    Holy Kaw!

  • Best press photos from Australia

    21 Mar 2010 | 11:33 pm
    Check out these photos from the Nikon-Walkey Awards. These is a competition for press photographers from Australia. Total news coverage. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • A little lesson in good customer service

    21 Mar 2010 | 11:08 pm
    I’m at the Grand Hyatt in Kauai right now. I haven’t stayed at this hotel for approximately twenty years. One of the things that most impressed me back then was that the washers and dryers were free. I used this as an example of “don’t ask your customers to do anything you wouldn’t do” for years. Tonight I checked if they’re still free, and they are. It’s remarkable that a “Grand Hyatt” class hotel not only has laundry rooms, but that the washers and dryers are free. Kudos to this hotel for not trying to nickel-and-dime people. More…

  • Facebook rising as a source of news traffic

    21 Mar 2010 | 9:47 pm
    It looks like Facebook is turning into a powerful source of traffic for news sites. According to Hitwise, as of February, Facebok ranked fourth: Google: 17.32% Yahoo!: 7.89% MSN: 4.43% Facebook: 3.52% As of March, Facebook ranks third because it passed MSN. Now Hitwise data indicates that Facebook users are more loyal to news and media sites than Google News: 78% of Facebook users were returnees versus 67% for Google News. More on journalism. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • The 7 new ways to use Twitter

    21 Mar 2010 | 9:36 pm
    Scott Sheper, author of The Art of Focus, has compiled seven interesting new rules for using Twitter. His perspective is that Twitter 1.0 (“What are you doing right now?”) is dead. Twitter 2.0 is “What’s interesting?” and involves sharing links. Here are three of his seven new ways to use Twitter: Avoid Twitter clients. Don’t market yourself within Twitter. Schedule your tweets. Full story at How to Get Focused. More Twitter tips and tricks. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • Reminiscing: Introduction of Macintosh, 1984

    21 Mar 2010 | 6:00 pm
    Just for grins, just in case you’ve never seen this: Introduction of Macintosh, January 24th, 1984. Total Macintosh news and tips. Permalink | Leave a comment  »
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    Mashable!

  • iPhone Font is Not Very Readable, Still Amazing

    Stan Schroeder
    22 Mar 2010 | 1:24 am
    First, we’ll tell you that it took the author – self-described as someone with too much free time – 540 iPhone apps to create this font. Second, we’ll tell you that it’s not all just pretty pictures: he actually used iPhone apps in different colors so he can show off the font live, directly off his iPhone.Not impressed yet? Then check out the video below, and the entire iPhone alphabet a little further below. While you probably won’t be writing long letters with that font, it’s still a beautiful sight to behold.You can find an even bigger version of…

  • Zerista Offers Mobile-Optimized Social Media Tools for Groups

    Christina Warren
    21 Mar 2010 | 10:47 pm
    DEMO Spring 2010 officially kicks off on Monday morning, but at the welcome reception earlier tonight, we got a chance to meet with some of the companies that will be presenting their products over the next two days.One of those companies is Zerista, which is a tool that lets groups, clubs, teams and organizations build their own mobile optimized applications. Think of it as a private Facebook/Foursquare/Twitter mash-up.What we like about Zerista is that it can integrate with your existing social networks, while also creating a web-based (and mobile optimized) network for communicating news,…

  • “Baby Killer” Becomes Healthcare Vote’s “You Lie” [VIDEO]

    Adam Ostrow
    21 Mar 2010 | 9:29 pm
    On Sunday night, the House of Representatives passed a $875 billion healthcare bill with a vote of 219-212. While discussion of the news is currently dominating the social web, a specific moment from the proceedings is also getting attention – a member of the House yelling out “baby killer” as Rep. Bart Stupak was speaking.According to Trendistic, about 0.4 percent of all tweets from 11-12PM ET contained the phrase (about 2 percent included “HCR” – the acronym for healthcare reform). The moment is reminiscent of back in September, when Rep. Joe Wilson shouted out “You Lie!”…

  • 140 Reasons We Love Twitter

    Samuel Axon
    21 Mar 2010 | 6:02 pm
    Today is Twitter’s fourth birthday, and to celebrate the occasion we asked our Twitter followers: “Let us know how Twitter changed your life – add hashtag #thankstwitter4 so we can find your tweet.”We got thousands of responses — in fact, #thankstwitter4 has become a trending topic. As promised, we did our best to sift through the tweets and find 140 that represent the Twitter zeitgeist as we enter the social network’s fourth year. Below are our selections, split up into categories or sentiments that we noticed were particularly common.Consider this…

  • California on Social Media [VIDEO]

    Pete Cashmore
    21 Mar 2010 | 2:56 pm
    Comedian Kassem G conducts “man on the street” interviews each week with Californians — issues tackled include drugs, stereotypes and Tiger Woods.This week, Kassem asks beach goers for their views on social media, from Twitter to MySpace, Facebook and Farmville … he doesn’t get very far.Reviews: Facebook, MySpace, TwitterTags: california, social media, video
 
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    Fast Company

  • Sprint Ad Uses the iPhone to Show Off Its 4G Network (Yes, That iPhone)

    Dan Nosowitz
    22 Mar 2010 | 1:41 am
    Sprint's Overdrive portable Wi-Fi hotspot is similar to Verizon's MiFI: it's equipped with a wireless antenna like a phone, but instead of merely using it, it exports it as a Wi-Fi network that any device with a Wi-Fi antenna can use. The MiFi is great, but it's still just a 3G network--Sprint's Overdrive uses Sprint's fledgling 4G network, which is several times faster and in daily use often approaches the speed of a home broadband network.So the Overdrive is compatible with any Wi-Fi device: laptops, most smartphones, PMPs like the iPod Touch and Zune HD, and a whole host of other connected…

  • Nation's Jews Abandon Facebook and Twitter, One Day Per Week, Starting...Now

    Dan Nosowitz
    21 Mar 2010 | 9:11 pm
    It hasn't officially been rebranded, of course; God is notoriously conservative about updating that Bible of His. But, as reported by The New York Times, Reboot, a nonprofit Jewish think tank, has come up with a new version of Shabbat that is not only restive but sort of cheekily appropriate. And if you notice a lack of Jews on the Internet, starting about now, you'll know why.Shabbat, observed sundown Friday to sundown Saturday, usually involves traditional Jewish meals (including bread, wine, and meat and/or fish), prayers, lighting candles, and spending relaxing time with family and…

  • Top Designers Strut Their Flatware at "Cannes of Tabletop," DIFFA's Dining Extravaganza

    21 Mar 2010 | 8:03 pm
    Film maker John Waters famously dubbed the Design Industries Foundation Fighting AIDS (DIFFA)'s annual fund-raiser, "Dining by Design," the "Cannes of Tabletop." And with good reason. If these tables could walk, they would have been at home strolling the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals, dressed to kill. Such design heavy-hitters as David Rockwell, David Stark, Vincente Wolf, Joseph Carini, and Michael Tavano put their talent where their heart is this week by ponying up designs for the event, which is being held at New York's Pier 94 in conjunction with Architectural Digest's Home…

  • Infographic of the Day: All Music Should Look Like This

    Cliff Kuang
    19 Mar 2010 | 9:15 pm
    A French animator's soundtrack visualization brings to mind the Kaossilator.So, this video by animator Renaud Hallée isn't quite a pure infographic--but as you'll see, it's pretty damn close. Titled Sonar, the short film basically visualizes the sound track. Now, we've previously covered such projects, but this one's interesting because of how much information about the song Hallée manages to squeeze into the image. It quickly gets crazy complicated:The one element that's purely visual about it is the placement of the blips--they don't correspond with pitch or tone. If they did, you could…

  • 3-D Printed Shoes: Quite the Feet

    Cliff Kuang
    19 Mar 2010 | 4:02 pm
    You can make anything from 3-D printing, from impossibly complex lamps to chain-mail bags to entire buildings. So it's actually kind of surprising that 3-D printed shoes aren't more common. Maybe someday soon: For her master's thesis at ArtEZ in Arnhem, The Netherlands, Pauline Van Dongen created a line of high heels, dubbed Metamorphosis. The pieces were exhibited recently in a show in Amsterdam called "The Future of Fashion," curated by Freedom of Creation, a Dutch outfit that specializes in 3-D printed design. The shoes themselves are, like many 3-D printed objects, made of powdered nylon…
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    TechCrunch

  • UK Gov Shifts To Open Data, Broadband – But We Could Use Some Detail

    Mike Butcher
    22 Mar 2010 | 2:36 am
    The British Governement, faced with an upcoming general election in which policy toward the internet, digital inclusion of the masses and how government IT interfaces with the private sector will all come into play, has rolled out the big guns in the shape of the Prime Minister and a clutch of ministers and advisers today. In a speech in London, billed as "Building Britain's Digital Future", Gordon Brown ranged over a wide range of topics. Here are the highlights:

  • ChaCha Launches ChaCha.me For Social FAQs. Businesses And Celebrities Welcome.

    Michael Arrington
    21 Mar 2010 | 11:31 pm
    I like recent products that let users created personal FAQs one step at a time based on questions from others. You put up a box that invites people to ask you anything. People then ask questions. You answer the ones you want to and publish them. In no time you’ve got an interesting profile of your personality, likes and dislikes. We wrote about Formspring in January, and Tumblr launched Ask Me a few days later. Now comes ChaCha.me, a new product from ChaCha, where people and businesses can ask and answer questions. ChaCha.me has good integration with Facebook and Twitter right off the…

  • Help Us Google, You’re Our Only Broadband Hope. (The Government Has No Spine.)

    MG Siegler
    21 Mar 2010 | 7:24 pm
    For the future of innovation in the United States, few things seem as important access to broadband Internet connections. The FCC seems to realize this, which is why they’ve set up the National Broadband Plan. And yet, we’re screwed. As Harvard Law professor Yochai Benkler lays out in an excellent op-ed today in the New York Times, this new broadband plan may sound great, but it won’t go nearly far enough. The reason is that there is simply nowhere near enough competition in almost all of the markets in this country. In fact, under the new plan, some 85% of homes covered…

  • TRUSTe Places Privacy Seal Of Approval On Virtual Currency Platform gWallet

    Leena Rao
    21 Mar 2010 | 6:05 pm
    Virtual currency platform gWallet is announcing a partnership with online privacy certification company TRUSTe to reinforce gWallet ethical guidelines in the virtual currency space. gWallet partners with both brands and game developers to bring users virtual currency offers on games within social networks. Following the Scamville controversy in the virtual offers space, the startups which provide these offers on games have been working to rid their platforms of misleading offers. In fact, Offerpal CEO George Garrick promised to take a leadership position in cleaning up scammy ads. Competitor…

  • NSFW: Jimmy Wales Wants Me Dead (The Neutrality Of This Article Is Disputed)

    Paul Carr
    21 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am
    Some weeks, writing this column is easy. All it takes is for an influential person – a politician, a business person, perhaps even a fellow columnist – to say something dumb and I get to spend a thousand words or so explaining precisely why they’re wrong. The “why x is wrong about y” construction is the columnist’s best friend: it’s as old as the hills and even easier to build a house on. Some weeks though, it’s even easier than that. Someone will say something so breathtakingly wrong – so tracheotomy-cravingly moronic – that I…
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    Seth Godin

  • Do you make slush?

    Seth Godin
    21 Mar 2010 | 2:43 am
    A few months ago, the Journal wrote a piece about the demise of the slush pile, that undifferentiated mass of unsolicited ideas from authors and screenwriters in search of a publisher or studio.They missed the point.In the words of Michael Brooke, "I'm not interested in creating slush."If you have something good, really good, what's it doing in the slush pile?Bring it to the world directly, make your own video, write your own ebook, post your own blog, record your own music.Or find an agent, a great agent, a selective agent, one that's almost impossible to get through to, one that commands…

  • When a freelancer changes the game

    Seth Godin
    20 Mar 2010 | 2:43 am
    Often, businesses hire freelancers (writers, photographers, process consultants, trainers) to solve a specific problem for the lowest possible cost. And a good freelancer at the right price is often the right approach.Sometimes, though, you spend more and get something great. You seek out and find a linchpin who combines inspiration and professionalism and initiative and pushes back on your quest for average. When you interact with someone like that, you might pay more but you get far more than you paid.I recently did a photo shoot with my friend Brian, and from the moment I walked into the…

  • First and never

    Seth Godin
    19 Mar 2010 | 3:07 am
    I met a new addition to the family the other day. She was eleven days old. It was the warmest day of her whole life the day I was there. And she had just eaten her biggest meal ever. Firsts are fun and exciting and it's neat to keep topping ourselves. I've also come to grips with the fact that I'm never going to eat tuna ever again, and that I'm never going to be able to easily walk onto a shuttle flight at the last minute and just show up in Boston. Never is a lot harder than first, but I guess you get used to it. The internet is like Ice 9. It changes what it touches, probably forever. We…

  • Anxiety is nothing...

    Seth Godin
    18 Mar 2010 | 2:53 am
    but repeatedly re-experiencing failure in advance. What a waste.[and a bonus from George Orwell: "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."]

  • Not for me

    Seth Godin
    17 Mar 2010 | 2:41 am
    A worthwhile discipline: when giving feedback, separate "not for me" from "not for anyone."If someone brings you a business plan for a power plant that will use perpetual motion as a power supply, it's fair to say, "this will never work, it's impossible."If someone brings you a business plan for a chain of hot dog sushi restaurants, it's fair to say, "this is disgusting, I will never go here," but not helpful to assume that it won't work anywhere under any circumstances.You can say you don't like a book or a movie or a political candidate, but without more data, it's impossible to say that it…
 
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    Wired Top Stories

  • Channeling Earth: Rivers Seen From Space

    Betsy Mason
    21 Mar 2010 | 9:01 pm
    Rivers carve many different beautiful paths across the planet which can best be admired from above. We've collected some images from satellites and astronauts of some of the most interesting rivers on Earth.

  • March 22, 1995: Longest Human Space Adventure Ends

    Alexis Madrigal
    21 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov returns from a record stay on the Mir space station. He advances the idea that humans can tolerate time in space long enough to reach Mars.

  • SXSW Scenes: Hot Dogs, Hare Krishna and Rock

    Lewis Wallace
    20 Mar 2010 | 2:33 pm
    Characters of every stripe fill the streets of Austin, Texas, during the annual South by Southwest music festival. Oh, and there are some bands, too.

  • Palm Can Still Win: Here Are Five Things They Need To Do

    John C Abell
    20 Mar 2010 | 10:34 am
    Palm tanked after turning in a dismal 3Q earnings report driven by bad smartphone sales. The good news? The phone is becoming just an app on a smart, portable device. The disruptive contours of that smart, portable device is still in flux, and about to get buffeted again by the release of Apple’s iPad in about two weeks. This is still anybody’s game — heck, if even Google is worried about the next Google, why can’t Palm be the next Palm?

  • Review: 'Hubble 3D' Takes You on Beautiful, Brief Space Journey

    Scott Pierce
    20 Mar 2010 | 7:13 am
    Immerse yourself in vivid interstellar visuals as Imax brings extraterrestrial wonders down to Earth.
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    ProBlogger Blog Tips

  • The Casual Observer: Anatomy of a Multi-Author Blog

    Darren Rowse
    21 Mar 2010 | 7:12 am
    A Guest Post by Kosmo from The Casual Observer. I am the founder and editor-in-chief of The Casual Observer, a site that has the goal of bringing an eclectic mix of fresh content to its readers every day.  We currently have ten authors contributing on a regular basis, with a handful of others writing an occasional article.  In a blogosphere dominated by niche-oriented, single author blogs, what makes The Casual Observer tick? Why Multiple Authors? When I started the site, I had no intention of involving multiple authors.  While I always intended for the site to contain an eclectic mix of…

  • Do you Disclose Affiliate Links?

    Darren Rowse
    20 Mar 2010 | 6:43 am
    One of the most common questions I’m asked since the new FTC regulations regarding bloggers came in is around disclosing affiliate links. As an Australian I’m not directly impacted by the FTC and its regulations so I’ve not really had to change my own approach to disclosure – but I’d be interested to hear a bit of discussion on the topic – particularly around these questions: Do you disclose affiliate links on your blog in some way? If so – how do you do it (every time you use one, in the bottom of posts, site wide disclosures…. something else)?

  • Tips for Doing the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Challenge

    Darren Rowse
    18 Mar 2010 | 7:31 am
    A Guest Post by Elle from Couple Money. I’ve been blogging for a couple years now and I’ve enjoyed it tremendously. Couple Money is not my first blog, but it is the first one I created with a specific goal in mind. I wanted to share how we’re building our net income while creating a mobile income from our passions and create a community of like minded couples. My other sites started off as personal blogs and haphazardly morphed as I gained readers. Without a particular goal or process, the blogs’ growth tapered off. I wanted to change this with Couple Money and I knew…

  • 30 Valuable Lessons Learned Using Social Media for Small Business

    Darren Rowse
    17 Mar 2010 | 6:39 am
    In this post Mark Hayward shares some great tips on social media for small business. Image by jn is not here Do you own a small business? How long have you been using social media as a marketing tool and what have you learned? In a little over a months time I will have owned my business for just about three years. When I began using social media some thirty six months ago, I had no real marketing background experience, and I certainly had never written a blog post, interacted in a forum, or sent a Tweet. My social media evolution began with a simple foray into blogging as a way to try and…

  • Updates from SXSW

    Darren Rowse
    16 Mar 2010 | 10:30 am
    Over the last few days I’ve been in Austin Texas attending the South by South West Interactive (#SXSWi) conferences. Sometimes known as ‘Spring Break for Geeks’ I try to get out to this gathering each years because there are so many of my colleagues in attendance and it is an opportunity to meet up with old friends, network, do a little business and a meet a few readers at the same time. Today is the last day of SXSW (I return home tomorrow) and despite some late nights I woke up this morning with a start on the dot of 5am (jet lag sucks). As I lay in bed reflecting upon the…
 
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    Chris Brogan

  • Redrawing

    chrisbrogan
    19 Mar 2010 | 12:10 pm
    I built my brand on being accessible. You know me because you know that I care about you, that I care about your projects. This is true. But there’s a huge flaw in how this all works out, in the basic math level, and this came really clear to me over the last 10 days. I can’t keep up. If I just manage my inbox, that’s about 10 hours of work a day (600 new mails divided by 1 minute each). If I spend time on Twitter, on Third Tribe, on Facebook, on my blog (in the comments), that’s another 3 hours. If I take two phone calls or do a webinar, that’s another 2 hours.

  • Oprah Needs More Social

    chrisbrogan
    18 Mar 2010 | 1:30 am
    I was interviewed by Derrick Ashong from Oprah Radio, part of the Oprah Winfrey Network. He was smart, personable, fast-moving, and definitely a great person for this space. The experience left me thinking about how FastCompany magazine said that Ashton Kutcher is the new one to watch on the salvation of media and entertainment. To me, the potential savior list looks a bit different: * Oprah * Jon Stewart * Conan (especially if he doesn’t go to Fox) * Rick Sanchez from CNN (from the news perspective) To me, the thing they’re all missing is a deeper integration to social media…

  • The Difference Between Recipe and Restaurant

    chrisbrogan
    17 Mar 2010 | 7:37 am
    I have intent on the brain. So does Tim Sanders, it turns out. During my speech at the first ever GR2L event (get ready to live), I talked about shifting from connections into intent. I was talking about networking at that juncture. I want to expand. And I have a comparison/analogy to light this up. The difference between talking about human business and social media and doing it is the difference between having recipes and running a restaurant. We go to events and network. We collect business cards. Why? Because we don’t know what else to do. We know we’re supposed to network. We…

  • On OPEN Forum- Quick Customer Touchpoints

    chrisbrogan
    16 Mar 2010 | 11:12 am
    I’ve written a post called Quick Customer Touchpoints for business people today over at the American Express OPENForum. It talks about contact/customer management topics, as well as some ways to keep your connections alive. Hope you enjoy. Quick Customer Touchpoints.

  • We Could Do So Much More

    chrisbrogan
    15 Mar 2010 | 7:13 am
    I’m at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas. It’s been called “spring break for geeks,” which is definitely the vibe. To the plus, lots of people are making lots of relationships and connections. I think the networking is unsurpassed. Startups are a big deal here, and I think people are going to see some good things coming out in the tech scene (though I didn’t really hear of anything especially giant or buzzy). People have been so very nice at this event. I’m so happy to meet people that I’ve only seen from online. That’s a wonderful thing.
 
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    Copyblogger

  • The Betty Crocker Secret to Email Marketing that Works

    Sonia Simone
    19 Mar 2010 | 8:09 am
    You’ve heard it a thousand times: the money’s in the list. If you’re serious about getting results online, you need to build a list of people who are paying attention to you, typically an email list. So how do you get people to sign up for your email newsletter? You probably already know the answer to this one: Reward them. Give subscribers something great as a “thank you” for signing up. This is usually some form of content — a useful video, a killer PDF special report or white paper, an exclusive podcast. Sure, everyone else does that. Because it works. It works . . . if you…

  • Landing Page Makeover Clinic #23: BabyNapsWell.com

    Roberta Rosenberg
    18 Mar 2010 | 7:55 am
    This is another addition to our ongoing series of tutorials and case studies on landing pages that work. Nicole Johnson wants to get babies and their moms some much-needed rest. She’s packed napping plans, schedules, and strategies into her $37 ebook/consultation package. She’s tried different pricing, Google Adwords, different offers, freemiums, and more to pop conversion, but her results still ping between a snoozy 0.5 to 3%. She has good traffic, but needs more help getting those tired, sleepy moms to buy. Let’s see if we can’t help Nicole give her sales a…

  • Why You Should Always Write Your Headline Last

    James Chartrand
    17 Mar 2010 | 9:24 am
    When you write a post for your blog, your headline is the last thing you should be thinking about. OK, I realize this is Copyblogger heresy. There’s a lot of emphasis on writing a good headline. Hell, I’ve written posts about how to write an eye-grabbing title myself. Brian wrote an entire series on headlines (including a post on why you should always write your headline first), and he’s been known to come up with some pretty catchy ones. But while crafting a good headline is critical to getting people to read a blog post, open the email, or get past the headline to the copy,…

  • The Secret Ingredient to an Irresistible Blog

    Josh Hanagarne
    16 Mar 2010 | 8:18 am
    Things were going pretty well until I bit into my hamburger. Ow. Something was really wrong. “Are you okay?” asked my date. My eyes started watering. I was so confused, but I nodded. I bit down harder and suddenly the hamburger flew out of my hands. I’ve never been so bewildered in my life. Only when I held my hand up did the sorry truth stare us in the face. Somehow, my left ring finger had slipped inside the bun of that burger. I bit down on it. And when it hurt, the cause wasn’t immediately obvious, so I bit down harder . . . so hard I forced myself to drop the hamburger. When I…

  • What Avatar Can Teach You About Repurposing Your Content

    Sherice Jacob
    15 Mar 2010 | 7:58 am
    The entertainment and CGI world has been fawning over the movie Avatar for months, and it seems you can’t watch any entertainment news program without hearing about James Cameron’s groundbreaking 3D epic. And even if Cameron went home last week without the armful of Oscars he expected, directing the highest-grossing movie of all time probably takes the sting out. But despite the movie’s brilliant effects and the unique world it creates, you’ll likely feel as if you’ve heard its underlying story before. In fact, you may very well predict the ending about an hour into the film. So…
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    Macworld

  • First look: Kylo media browser

    21 Mar 2010 | 11:14 pm
    Hillcrest Labs, makers of the Loop pointer, have released Kylo, a media browser designed with a computer-connected TV in mind.

  • Review: Paper Boat Race for iPhone

    21 Mar 2010 | 9:30 am
    Paper Boat Race is a novel racing game where you race paper boats around a pool—by blowing into your iPhone’s microphone! While the game has its moments of nerdy joy, blowing into the microphone while trying to control the boat is hard to do—and there’s really anything else going for the game.

  • Review: MouseWait 1.5

    20 Mar 2010 | 10:00 am
    MouseWait is great for planning your trip to Disneyland.

  • Review: Hellemental for iPhone

    20 Mar 2010 | 9:04 am
    Developers Intersog and Dirty Edge seek to redefine the tower defense genre with Hellemental. Unlike traditional tower defense games where the player sets up a slew of strategically placed weapons in hopes of slaughting lemming-like foes in an assembly line fashion, Hellemental instead relies on the magical abilities of a single defender.

  • Review: Be.ez LE Rush laptop bag

    20 Mar 2010 | 8:00 am
    Available for 13-inch and 15-inch laptops, and a choice of three subtle yet stylish colors (Lagoon Dream, Black Coffee and Lime Park), Be.ez's LE Rush is a great choice for MacBook owners.
 
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    ReadWriteWeb

  • ReadWriteStart Weekly Wrapup

    21 Mar 2010 | 3:40 pm
    By now, South by Southwest is wrapping up and the legions of nerds and geeks that partied heartily over the last two weeks are slowly crawling back to their homes with their SXSW hangovers. Here at ReadWriteStart, we've kept on truckin' through that time, so here is this week's Weekly Wrapup. This week we discuss whether tracking pageviews is still worth it, how micropayments and subscriptions could be the future of startup business models, which mobile platform is best for small business development, and how credibility is your best friend. Sponsor The Death of the Pageview The Web has hit a…

  • Cartoon: The Winter of Our Dis-content

    21 Mar 2010 | 1:00 pm
    Have you noticed that we aren't writers any more? Or filmmakers, or video producers, or even musicians or cartoonists? We're content-creators. Way too often, I hear Web folks talk about "content" as some kind of undifferentiated commodity: "Yep, figger we're gonna need ten, maybe twelve kilos o' content for that page. You got a bulk discount?" Back a cargo truck up to the content silo, fill her up and you've got yourself a website. Sponsor But there's actually something interesting about the term - once I get past my visions of container ships laden with content, plying the seven seas. It's a…

  • Check Out the Companies That Make ReadWriteWeb Possible

    21 Mar 2010 | 11:00 am
    Our readers know ReadWriteWeb as the blog that's ahead of the technology curve. Our sponsors know us as that, too. Once a week we introduce our sponsors to our readers and let them know a little more about who they are and what they do. You can say thanks to the companies that make ReadWriteWeb happen by tweeting them (see the link below each sponsor) or following them using our Twitter list. Interested in being a ReadWriteWeb sponsor? Our readers are smart, tech-savvy decision makers; 40% have a graduate degree or PhD, and over 45% play a key role in information technology purchasing…

  • ReadWriteWeb Events Guide, 20 March 2010

    20 Mar 2010 | 11:30 am
    In the next few weeks, the ReadWriteWeb events guide will take you from New York City, to San Francisco, to Portland, Oregon. Along the way you'll find a conference on search engine strategies, a showcase for startups, an in-depth look at the freemium business model, and a day filled with of social media case studies. How do you like your events calendar? As a world map? As an iCal (and Google Calendar-importable) file? You can also import individual events using the link beside each entry. Know of something cool taking place that should appear here? Let us know in the comments below or…

  • Weekly Wrapup: Nexus One, Facebook, Ai Weiwei, And More...

    20 Mar 2010 | 6:00 am
    Our top story this week was about bad news for the big guys: Google, Facebook, Digg's top users. As you catch up on the news, be sure to watch the conversation about China, tech and democracy that took place between activist/artist Ai Weiwei, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and ReadWriteWeb's Richard MacManus. We also continued our exploration of the significant Internet trends of 2010, including Real-Time Web, Mobile Web and Internet of Things. Note: We've refreshed the format for our longest running feature, the Weekly Wrapup. It now focuses more explicitly on the key trends that ReadWriteWeb is…
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    Photoshop Insider Blog By Scott Kelby

  • This Week’s Blogging Schedule

    Scott
    21 Mar 2010 | 11:11 pm
    Hi Gang—-it’s Photoshop World Week (Whoo Hoo!!!!). In an effort to give you guys the “you are there” feel (and to make my blogging duties somewhat lighter during the conference), this week I’ll be posting live during the conference—mostly photos taken with my iPhone and posted using the iPhone App “Blog Press.” I’ll also include a headline with the photos, and I’m going to see if at the end of each day, I can get Brad Moore (one of our official show photographers) to upload some quality images from the day’s events as well.

  • Come to the Expo Floor For Free!

    Scott
    21 Mar 2010 | 10:26 pm
    Don’t Forget—-we open the Photoshop World Expo floor to the public for two days (This Thursday and Friday), and all you have to do is register for your free pass online (here’s the link). You’ll find booths with all the latest Photoshop plug-ins, printers, photo accessories, and about everything Photoshop or photography you can think of. And of course, Adobe is there as well, where you’ll meet some of the Photoshop product managers, and the development team behind Photoshop, face to face (they’re some of the coolest, most down-to-earth folks you’d…

  • My First Shoot with the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8

    Scott
    18 Mar 2010 | 11:16 pm
    Tuesday afternoon I was walking by Kevin Agren’s office (he’s our Director of Sales), and he asks if I ever got a chance to try the Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 zoom he had gotten us as a loaner. I told him I had actually tried it out on a shoot I did back in December for an upcoming book (one of the images from that shoot is shown above), and that I really liked it, (even more so after I looked up the price—-around $725, whereas most of the f/2.8 glass I had been using for the past few years was more in the $1,800 to $2,300 range, which any way you look at it, is a lot for a…

  • Nancy Staggs Wins 2010 Dean Collins Educators Scholarship

    Scott
    18 Mar 2010 | 10:59 pm
    Honoring the legacy of educator Dean Collins—his gift for teaching, his passion for quality, and his lifetime of contributions to the Photoshop and Photography community—the Dean Collins Scholarship is awarded annually to one high school or college educator nominated by his or her students. The scholarship features an opportunity to attend NAPP’s annual convention – Photoshop World Conference & Expo and includes round-trip airfare, hotel accommodations, a one-year NAPP membership, and subscription to Photoshop User magazine. A big congratulations to educator Nancy Staggs, who…

  • New Online Class: How to get Killer Prints from Your Epson Printer

    Scott
    17 Mar 2010 | 11:04 pm
    We just released this brand new class on Kelby Training Online, and although I’m the host of this new class, the star is really Dan Steinhardt from Epson (better known as ‘Dano’), and in this new class we dispel many of the long-held myths and folklore about printing, and show how really easy it is to get great looking prints every time. Dano, the man behind Epson’s Print Academy, knows this stuff absolutely inside and out, and he delivers his insights and information in such a fun, casual, straight forward way and you’ll love learning from him. Here’s the…
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    Smashing Magazine

  • The Beauty of India: 50 Amazing Photos

    Juliya Izgiyeva
    20 Mar 2010 | 8:17 am
      Today we’d like to publish something completely different for a change. India, the country of mysterious paradoxes; the land where civilizations and times intermix, a mysterious place which attracts people from all over the world. In today’s showcase we are presenting a little showcase of this astonishing contrast between wealth and misery, contemporary technologies and ancient historical monuments, plenty of languages, cultures and traditions.We present people, places, traditions, culture and a broad overview of the incredible beauty of India — something…

  • Showcase of Academic and Higher Education Websites

    Cameron Chapman
    19 Mar 2010 | 4:59 am
      College and university websites have a lot of roles to fill. They need to provide information for prospective students (both new and transfer), parents of students and prospective students, current students, and alumni. In many cases, they’re also the gateway to the school’s intranet and the public face for both academics and athletics. They often need to include reams of information in a way that makes everything easy to find. It’s a huge challenge.And the truth is: most college and university websites are horribly designed. Either they look like they were…

  • Applying “A Pattern Language” To Online Community Design

    Cameron Chapman
    18 Mar 2010 | 6:36 am
      A Pattern Language is a book about architecture that was written in the 1970s, before the Web as we know it was even conceived. But the book provides hundreds of valuable patterns for community planning and architectural design, many of which can easily be applied to online communities and social networking websites.Niche social networks are popping up online all the time, with many designers and developers taking advantage of pre-built social network platforms and making little modification. It makes sense, after all: why reinvent the wheel when perfectly good ones are…

  • Starting Out Organized: Website Content Planning The Right Way

    Kristin Wemmer
    17 Mar 2010 | 7:06 am
      So many articles explain how to design interfaces, design graphics and deal with clients. But one step in the Web development process is often skipped over or forgotten altogether: content planning. Sometimes called information architecture, or IA planning, this step doesn’t find a home easily in many people’s workflow. But rushing on to programming and pushing pixels makes for content that looks shoehorned rather than fully integrated and will only require late-game revisions.[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has one of the most influential…

  • How to Create a Promotional Snail Mail Campaign

    Dan Redding
    16 Mar 2010 | 3:27 am
      It’s important to promote your design business. This is especially true when economic times are challenging, you’ve got news to announce, or you’re simply hungry for growth. Many forms of promotion are available to the modern designer – with banner ads and Google AdWords among the most popular.In this digital age, it’s easy for web and graphic designers to overlook one of the most effective and fun forms of promotion: the mail campaign. In an era when people are accustomed to communicating electronically, the value and meaning of something you can hold in your hands is…
 
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    The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

  • iPodMeister gives you an iPad for your old CDs

    Michael Grothaus
    21 Mar 2010 | 3:00 pm
    Filed under: iPad Want to get a new iPad but a little short on cash? Trade in a bunch of your old CDs or DVDs to a company called iPodMeister and your problems are solved. Sound too good to be true? It's not, reports the New York Times. iPodMeister was founded by a group of musicians and students who realized that though CDs are virtually worthless in the US, they often fetch higher prices abroad. Their business model is to collect your discarded CDs or DVDs, giving you an iPod, iPhone, or iPad in return, and sell your CDs and DVDs for a profit in other countries. A fringe benefit of this is…

  • Analytics Pro, the app that Google forgot

    Michael Grothaus
    21 Mar 2010 | 1:00 pm
    Filed under: App ReviewI'm a Google Analytics geek. I think it's one of the coolest things Google has ever invented. I only have a few websites but I've injected Google Analytics code into all of them so I can track who's viewing my pages, for how long, and where from. Needless to say, I was astonished when I checked Google Analytics on my iPhone and I didn't see an iPhone-optimized page like their mobile search and Gmail pages. Thankfully Thomas Blackburn has picked up Google's slack and created the slickest Google Analytics app I've seen. Called Analytics Pro, the app provides a simple but…

  • TUAW Talkcast tonight at 10pm Eastern

    Mike Schramm
    21 Mar 2010 | 12:00 pm
    Filed under: PodcastsOur trademark talkcast goes on the air once again this evening at 10pm Eastern, and it's going to be a heck of a show. We're right in the middle of the runup to the iPad, so we'll be talking about Apple's rumored scramble for content deals, those test units hidden in the wild, and the doors opening up for app submissions on the App Store. And "iPad" isn't the only word on the street -- Apple has chosen to ban protective screens for some reason, 10.6.3 could be sneaking out this week, and we've even got new hardware rumors (but then again, don't we always?). It's sure to…

  • Apple's iPad ad goes viral

    Michael Grothaus
    21 Mar 2010 | 11:00 am
    Filed under: Apple, iPad Apple's "Meet iPad" ad, which debuted during the Oscars, became the second-most viewed viral video ad last week. Michael Learmonth, writing for AdAge, points out that "Apple has had a YouTube channel since 2005, but only recently started using it. In the past, they'd focused on driving views on Apple.com, but for the iPad, they allowed the video to be embedded across the web, and views were distributed across 100 different placements." Those 100 different placements totaled a cool 2.5 million "Meet iPad" ad views last week. The only ad that beat "Meet iPad" was…

  • Apple preps 2010 school field trips

    Sang Tang
    21 Mar 2010 | 10:00 am
    Filed under: Education Apple, through the Apple II, served as the gateway to computing for me; my third grade classroom had two Apple IIs neatly tucked away in metallic lock cases. With them, I was exposed to word processing, printing and, most importantly, Carmen Sandiego. Education is deeply ingrained in the Apple ethos. During his keynote at Macworld 1997 -- where he made his return -- Steve Jobs, in a not so understated way, said that "Apple is the largest education company in the world" and that this provided the company "an incredible foundation...and legacy to build off of." This…
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    CNN: Top Stories

  • Landmark health care bill heads to Obama's desk

    22 Mar 2010 | 1:15 am
    After a year of bitter partisan debate, a sweeping bill overhauling the U.S. medical system goes to President Obama's desk on Monday to be signed into law.

  • Tiger Woods: Living life of amends

    21 Mar 2010 | 9:26 pm
    Tiger Woods said Sunday that he is focused on "living a life of amends" after "living the life of a lie" in one of his first interviews since a November car crash outside his home unleashed a media frenzy amid rumors of extramarital affairs.

  • 4 more arrests in Juarez massacre

    21 Mar 2010 | 7:59 pm
    The Mexican military has arrested four more people connected to the killings of 15 people at a January house party in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, bringing the total to seven suspects arrested and one killed, according to documents from the Mexican attorney general's office obtained by CNN.

  • Immigration rally draws thousands

    21 Mar 2010 | 7:16 pm
    Tens of thousands of people turned out on Washington's National Mall on Sunday to support the Obama administration in its next big battle, a renewed effort to overhaul U.S. immigration laws.

  • Israeli forces kill 2 more Palestinians

    21 Mar 2010 | 6:13 pm
    Israeli forces killed two young Palestinians on Sunday, hours after the military announced that a teen shot on Saturday also died.
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    Strobist

  • The Most Powerful Light In Your Bag

    21 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Last year I photographed Michael Stebbins for Rep Stage, which is how I got to know him for the Glass Menagerie photos.The Smith Theater, where I shot him, is big and dark. In fact, I had shot someone else there about twenty years earlier for a magazine assignment -- and the Smith Theater had kicked my butt. I brought every light I had (many, many watt-seconds worth) but I still did not have what I really needed -- the understanding required to work in a big, dark setting. I even had with me the exact of piece of gear I needed. It was just that I just didn't know how to use it.__________Time…

  • Light Fare: The "Jarvie Window"

    18 Mar 2010 | 9:00 am
    Here's a new use for your ring flash. Salt Lake City-based photographer Scott Jarvie made a unique set of portraits using a Ray Flash ring flash adapter and an 8mm fisheye lens.Gimmicky? Perhaps. Fun and creative? Yup. Cue the flood of imitators on Flickr in 3, 2, 1…(Thanks much to Ben for the tip via the comments section.)-30- New: Strobist Index

  • Something Fun While You Do Your Brackets

    16 Mar 2010 | 7:55 am
    For those of you not in the US, please excuse us while our collective attention turns toward "March Madness," AKA the always exciting, single-elimination NCAA college basketball championship tournament. Our productivity plummets to zero as we spend our workday filling out our brackets and trying to pick the winner in the office pool.What does this have to do with lighting, you ask? Nothing, except for this: I think it is safe to say that, with the airing of the above commercial, Buffalo Wild Wings has just become the Official Chicken Wing of Strobist.com. You gotta love the Frankenflash thing…

  • Worth a Sub: Michael Grecco's New YouTube Channel

    14 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pm
    Celebrity / Nekkid People photographer Michael Grecco has created a YouTube page to display his many excellent behind-the-scenes videos.Some of you may not know that he started out as a photojournalist, and began pushing the lighting envelope way back in the very beginning of his career.The Will Farrell shoot (c. Blades of Glory) embedded above is a great example of why I always enjoy Grecco's time-lapse BTS vids. There's a lot to learn in a minute and change. Not only is he showing you the whole set build, shoot and tear, but there are several cool lighting info nuggets to be had. Hit the…

  • Q&A: How to Use Your Nikon SB-900 in Optical Slave Mode

    10 Mar 2010 | 9:00 pm
    As most of you know, the discontinued Nikon SB-800 speedlight has an awesome -- yet, oddly undocumented -- built-in slave. But given the questions I have gotten recently, many people who own the newer SB-900s are not aware that their flash has the same capability.A walk-thru on how to access and use the built-in slave in your Nikon SB-900 speedlight, and how to get better results from any slave outdoors, inside.__________SU-4 Mode Button SequenceSU-4 mode is a legacy TTL mode which existed long before Nikon's CLS system. Props to Nikon for continuing to include it. And the day they stop…
 
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    Digital Photography School

  • 41 Delicious Flower Photographs

    Guest Contributor
    21 Mar 2010 | 1:01 pm
    Photo : floridapfe This guest post was submitted by Martin Gommel from the German Blog KWERFELDEIN (flickr). Photographing flowers can be one of the hardest things to do. I have deep respect for any photographer who manages to do it well. In these days I am trying different new things and shooting flowers is part of my adventure. To get myself inspired I collected some of the best photographs of flowers that I could find on flickr. I hope that you enjoy these 41 delicious flower photographs as much as I do. Enjoy and get inspired! Update: don’t forget our recent Wildflower photography…

  • 10 Fashion Photography Tips

    Natalie Johnson
    21 Mar 2010 | 7:45 am
    Fashion photography should convey an essence of authority, so your direction of the model(s) needs to be confident and self-assured.  Showing signs of anxiety, stress or lack of direction will invariably be reflected in the performance of your model so make the subject feel comfortable and involved.  Organise a shot list before the shoot and rehearse technique and composition for each shot in your mind. Prepare the location, props and clothes ahead of time and for a truly effective shoot be sure to communicate your agenda, objective and posing directions coherently and calmly.  Fashion…

  • Journey Behind a Lens…

    Guest Contributor
    20 Mar 2010 | 1:03 pm
    A guest post by Prateek Ahuja from Purple Karma. For an artist, there is nothing as gratifying as having known they have yet again created a masterpiece – and masterpiece, here, is nothing but what they want to bring to life. Likewise, for a photographer, if there is something that they see behind the lens and are able to capture its essence; the job is well done! Personally I’ve come across people who are caught up in the complexities of photography and this holds them back and hinders their creativity. They are of the opinion that one should have a knowledge about aperture,…

  • This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (14-20 Mar ‘10)

    Nicole
    20 Mar 2010 | 7:01 am
    Weekly Assignment This week we finished our Commute assignment. We wanted you to show us how you or others typically got from point A to point B. Our winner this week was Draycat for the photo of the man walking to work under an umbrella. We liked the depth of field in this shot, and we thought that the black and white treatment really suited the rainy day weather for the shot. Our first runner up was Annwen’s paddock commute. Sometimes your commute may only be between farm paddocks, but that doesn’t make it any less of a commute. We liked the warm tones punctuated by the bright…

  • LIFE – Winners Announced!

    Sime
    19 Mar 2010 | 6:31 pm
    It’s been a very tough task for our judges and we’ve finally managed to whittle the 1,925 entries down to just three… It took a little bit longer than we’d have liked and it’s cost us a lot more in coffee! But here they are. LIFE In first place, michaelmix In second place, Flavunish In third place, merzzie I wanted to list so many images here in this post, what I will do is list the top ten (so, seven more) though I am sorry there are only prizes for the first three winners, I really want to thank everyone that participated, commented, viewed and supported each…
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    Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

  • Follow Up – How Should I Teach Lightroom

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    19 Mar 2010 | 6:30 am
    First off, there’s a tip for today in a post right below this so make sure you scroll down to read it. Next, thanks very much for the kind words many of you said in your comments yesterday. And even if you didn’t agree with me, everyone was really civil in the way that they did it. Here’s what I’ve learned and I feel we can now put the discussion to rest: 1) I’m going to keep teaching the way that I do it. 2) If the way that I do it entails something that costs extra money (Photoshop not included – see #3 below), if possible, I will try to make brief…

  • Video Tip – Reordering Photos in a Slideshow

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    19 Mar 2010 | 6:20 am
    This is another one of those times where I started to write a tip down and realized it was so much easier to show you in a video. This is one I came across while preparing a slideshow last weekend. I wanted to move the order of the photos and let’s just say, I had a small problem. I’ll show you what happened and what I realized the trick is for reordering your photos. Click here to download the video to your computer. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

  • How Should I Teach Lightroom?

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    18 Mar 2010 | 5:29 am
    Weird title for a post huh? After reading some comments from yesterday’s Before/After video with a Black and White example, it got me thinking. A few people commented that the video was a disappointment because not much of the work was done in Lightroom (and it used a 3rd party plug-in). Some even went as far as saying it was a promo for the plug-in. It was odd for me to read that because I was just showing the way I do it and what kind of technologies I’m excited about. So I figured I’d ask you. Not because the comments were so overwhelming (there were only a few). But…

  • News Update – Where’s Matt

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    16 Mar 2010 | 9:13 pm
    Hey folks. First, be sure to scroll down and check out the next video post. It’s another one of the Before/After videos and it’s a little different this time. That said, I wanted to give you a quick “Where’s Matt” update and let you know where I’ll be teaching (at least what I know of) throughout the year. • First, I’ll be at Photoshop World in Orlando next week. If you’re there make sure you stop by and say hi. • In April, I’m co-teaching a workshop that I’m incredibly excited about. There’s still a few spots left but…

  • Video – Lightroom Before/After for Black and Whites

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    16 Mar 2010 | 9:12 pm
    This week I’m heading straight to the request lines for Lightroom Killer Tips. A couple of weeks ago some one requested a before/after video on black and white conversions. It’s actually much easier than most people think, but there’s a few tricks to the whole process so I figured I’d share how I do it. Enjoy! NOTE: I’m adding this after reading some of the comments. I personally use a plug-in from Nik software that I mention in this video (I also show you the LR way). Here’s the thing. I can only show you the way that I do my Black & White conversions.
 
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    Joe McNally's Blog

  • Santa Fe, First Day

    Joe McNally
    16 Mar 2010 | 6:35 am
    Got a good class here in Santa Fe. We started rocking and rolling yesterday, just examining light shaping tools, exposure differences, control of light, both with big and small flash. As I said during the day, we shoulda all been arrested, ’cause we were having too much damned fun. Professional boxer Clara de la Torre came in to be our demo model. It was cool. We did some pretty simple, straightforward umbrella stuff, and then decided to head in the direction of bad ass light. I’ve messed around with this type of light before, which is pretty ideal for athletic bodies. Thing is, I…

  • From the Low Desert to the High Desert

    Joe McNally
    15 Mar 2010 | 7:11 am
    Rick, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dockworker, Dubai. That was the week that was, surely. No blog post last week. Anything I might have written would have been just as incoherent as my schedule. I never plan it this way. Only an idiot would actually plan it this way. Hmmmm……. But I had a bunch of stuff just box car up last week and bump into each other, mostly in the air, in the middle of some time zone my body and my noodle was completely unaware of. But have been shooting a lot in between my travels, and pretty happy with a few things. Up top, the formidable Rick is shot with an…

  • Whose Knees Are These?

    Joe McNally
    4 Mar 2010 | 8:14 pm
    Okay, I ‘ll give you a hint. He’s at GPP in Dubai. He uses speed lights. And this is the 3rd time in this millennium he has worn long pants. Give up? Mystery man revealed here. (I also went to his class on social media and if there is anybody on the planet who knows more about the role it is currently playing in our industry, I certainly don’t know them.) Speaking of knowledgeable people in exotic places, my buds Eddie Soloway and Renie Haiduk are heading for Africa. Both are wonderful shooters and teachers. Eddie’s book, A Thousand Moons, is simply one of the most…

  • It’s Raining Here….

    Joe McNally
    1 Mar 2010 | 11:43 am
    It’s not supposed to be raining here. This is Dubai, that giant mushroom of concrete, glass and steel that erupted out of the sun blasted sand and became a magnet for all things over the top. Put the adjective “tallest,” or “biggest” in front of any number of things, and they be here. I’m convinced it’s me. Bad weather just follows me. Last year in Las Vegas, in the springtime, fer chrissakes, I lost a day’s shooting to a snow storm. Here, where for a chunk of the year the temperature dial is set at “fricassee,” it just ain’t…

  • That Kelby Clan…..

    Joe McNally
    23 Feb 2010 | 5:10 am
    Had a blast last week with the gang from Tampa out at PhotoShop 20th anniversary in San Fran. Though a couple folks let me know that no one out there refers to their fair city in those terms. It’s either full blown San Francisco, or just simply, SF. Okay. Nicknames or no, it’s still a great place. We dovetailed with the Kelby Online Training video team, led by the intrepid Scriv, and shot a new video. We had great fun, and great subjects. How can you not like a bunch of guys who sing nothing but Leonard Cohen songs, acapella, and call themselves a Conspiracy of Beards? When they…
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    Planet Photoshop

  • Open in Camera Raw from Bridge

    Web Editor
    18 Mar 2010 | 7:15 am
    You can open RAW images in Camera Raw right from Bridge in Photoshop CS3. This frees up Photoshop to continue working on your files while they’re being processed in Camera Raw. Just select one or more images in Bridge, Control-click (PC: Right-click) on them, and choose Open in Camera Raw. This will open the image(s) [...]

  • Check Out Photomerge!

    Web Editor
    17 Mar 2010 | 7:15 am
    You can create really cool panoramic images with Photomerge. Located under File>Automate, Photomerge has taken great leaps to make your panoramic photos as painless as possible. In some cases, you can shoot holding your camera close, and shoot in a circle. Thanks so much to Dave Cross for the tip, although I’m sure many people [...]

  • Google 3D Warehouse

    Web Editor
    16 Mar 2010 | 7:15 am
    Photoshop CS3 Extended’s new 3D capabilities make it easy to modify models created in other 3D programs. However, there are some that may not have a 3D modeling program. Google has introduced the Google 3D Warehouse, which is a library of free 3D models you can import directly into Photoshop and manipulate using the available [...]

  • Exporting 3D to After Effects

    Web Editor
    15 Mar 2010 | 7:15 am
    When you create a grid box inside Vanishing Point, in addition to having the option of returning that grid back to Photoshop as a 3D object, you also have the option of exporting it as a 3D object that you can import into After Effects CS3 and manipulate in a 3D layer. Just click on [...]

  • Free Color Management Webinar

    Corey Barker
    15 Mar 2010 | 6:54 am
    Datacolor will be hosting a free webinar this Wednesday, March 17, 2010 on color management workflows. Ever wonder how your prints can look ok on screen and just awful when you print them. More than likely you need to calibrate your display. Anyone who uses the monitor settings out of the box should have their [...]
 
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