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    Holy Kaw!

  • 5 keys to online fundraising success

    11 Nov 2009 | 5:21 pm
    Many non-profit orginizations have online donation pages but receive very few donations. The reasons for this problem range from low site traffic to a poorly designed website. To ensure you get lots of visitors who will want to click the donate button, it’s essential to master these five keys to online fundraising success. 1. Make sure your website clearly identifies who you are, what your mission is, and who you serve. No one should have to dig for this type of information, so display it effectively and simply. 2. Ensure your site appeals to visitors on an emotional level. statistics…

  • 7 accounting tips for beginning businesses

    11 Nov 2009 | 4:59 pm
    When starting a business, you want a solid accounting setup. Here are seven great accounting tips for beginning businesses. 1. K.I.S.S. Keep it simple starting out. Sole proprietorship requires no special communication to the IRS until you start paying employees. 2. As the sole proprietor, you might be required to obtain an occupational license if your country or municipality mandates one. You are also liable to remit all city/state taxes on retail or wholesale sales, but service businesses are exempt from state tax collections. Be sure to check out all seven tips. It’s solid advice…

  • 21 ways great bosses foster innovation

    11 Nov 2009 | 4:27 pm
    Bob Sutton has compiled a list of twenty-one ways that great bosses believe in and do to foster innovation. #6 is “Say I don’t know” on a regular basis. How many times have those words passed through your boss’s lips? Bob is The Man when it comes to things like this since he literally wrote the book about asshole bosses. A plethora of ways to Innovate. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • For sale: Pabst Brewing

    11 Nov 2009 | 3:39 pm
    What's a hipster to do? Pabst Brewing, the producer of the ever celebrated and dirt cheap Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer, is on the market. The owner is reportedly looking for a buyer with about $300 million or so, according to the New York Post. That’s like 150 million cans of PBR! [via beernews.org] Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • How strict company policies hurt employees

    11 Nov 2009 | 3:34 pm
    According to eight separate studies, your company policies directly impact an employee’s risk of heart disease, how long they’re able to sleep, and their family’s well-being. By implementing fexible policies, you can add years to your employees’ lives, and improve their overall quality of life. But implementing the allowance of flexibility isn’t enough. You must also re-assure your employees that it’s ok to request these exceptions from time to time. Currently, close to forty percent of employees believe they’d be less likely to advance within the…
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    Mashable!

  • The Future of Movie Rentals: Buy DVDs or Wait 30 Days

    Jennifer Van Grove
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:01 pm
    Movie studios are none to happy by the growing decline in DVD sales. So, what’s their solution to the problem? Target the cheap movie rental companies like Netflix and Redbox and force their hand into delaying new movie rentals after release, which would give consumers no other choice than to purchase the DVDs. According to PaidContent, Redbox, the kiosk distributor, is fighting back with lawsuits, but Netflix is ready to deal. CEO Reed Hastings is apparently trying to barter with the studios and, in a recent earnings call, has been quoted as saying, “if we can agree on low enough…

  • Twitter Retweets Temporarily Disabled

    Jennifer Van Grove
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:46 pm
    The official Twitter Retweet rollout started last week, but yesterday Twitter ramped up the rollout process in order to give more Twitter users the native retweet feature. The semi-controversial new feature started popping up everywhere, and CEO Evan Williams took to his own blog to explain the why and the how behind the change. Today, however, it appears as if there’s trouble in the Twittersphere, as many users noticed earlier in the day that the retweet button had disappeared from their homepage. Now, we have confirmation from Twitter that the feature has been temporarily disabled.

  • What’s Your Favorite Brand of 2009? #openwebawards

    Ben Parr
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:17 pm
    Open Web Awards Nominations will remain open until 11:59 pm ET on Sunday, November 15th. Submit your nominations here. Social media has not only transformed how we communicate with each other, but it has even changed how we, as consumers, interact with brands, companies, and agencies. The old forms of customer service and customer relationships have been challenged by the direct and open access that Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and other social media services have sparked. That’s why the #OpenWebAwards for Brands, Startups, Companies, and Agencies are so intriguing. It provides us a…

  • Mozilla Jetpack Gets a Gallery

    Christina Warren
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:06 pm
    One of the keys to Firefox’s continued success as a browser has been its support of browser extensions. Always looking to expand its extensions library, Mozilla introduced an experimental program called Jetpack in May, which allows developers to create add-ons for Firefox, even if they have limited programming experience. Extensions are built using CSS, Javascript and HTML, which means that more people can build them and install them without restarting the web browser. What Mozilla is ultimately planning for Jetpack isn’t clear, but we’d place a wager on some of the…

  • Hair Pulling Soccer Player Even More Famous Than Balloon Boy

    Jennifer Van Grove
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:44 pm
    When we first wrote about Elizabeth Lambert — the New Mexico soccer player whose physical behavior on the field was caught on tape, subsequently posted to YouTube, and resulted in an indefinite suspension — the YouTube clip was nearing one million views. Now there are more than 150 clips of the incident online, and just six days after being posted to web, they’ve amassed a total of more than 10.2 million views and 24,000 comments. Interestingly enough, Visible Measures, a video analytics company, claims that the Elizabeth Lambert clip rose to viral status faster than both JK Wedding…
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    Fast Company

  • When Design Is Also the Teacher

    Tucker Viemeister
    11 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Design has ramifications beyond the simple form and function--teacups are actors in rituals and environments are where we stage experiences. Turns out the design of my grade school building played a bigger role in my education than I thought. I grew up in Yellow Springs, Ohio, home of Antioch College, where I attended the Antioch School. Arthur Morgan started it in 1921, the same year in New York that Elizabeth Irwin founded the Little Red School House and seven years after City & Country School opened. It was very progressive when progressive was really experimental! While we played with…

  • Via Wheat-Based Plastics, Ford Slashes Petroleum and CO2 Emissions

    Ariel Schwartz
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Last year, I had the chance to check out a number of green building materials in Ford's vehicle pipeline. Some of these materials have yet to see the light of day--Indian grass molding compounds, anyone?--but Ford has finally brought wheat straw-reinforced plastic to market, in the 2010 Ford Flex's third-row storage bins. It's a bigger deal than you'd think. The natural fiber-based plastic, which contains 20% wheat straw bio-filler, cuts down on Ford's petroleum usage by 20,000 pounds each year, reduces CO2 emissions by 30,000 pounds each year, and represents an innovative use for the waste…

  • Geekiest Chic: Computer-Generated Jewelry

    Cliff Kuang
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Nervous System designs custom, high-tech jewelry on the cheap using rapid prototyping. What do you get when you combine the brains of one Harvard-educated architect and one MIT Media Lab vet: Nervous System, a company that makes bespoke jewelry using generative algorithms. These pieces are cheap, compared to the custom data-visualization jewelry and furniture we've covered before--just $25 to $50 for a ring or necklace. And that points to a seachange in custom design. While rapid prototyping and computer modeling usually produces expensive one-offs, Nervous System is actually showing how…

  • Yee-haw! Texas Dominates Best-Performing Cities Index

    Dan Macsai
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm
    Perhaps that famous photo illustration should read, "Everything's bigger--and better!--in Texas." Lone Star cities, led by Austin (#1) and Ft. Hood (#2), lassoed nine of the top 16 spots on this year's Milken Institute/Greenstreet Real Estate Partners Best-Performing Cities Index, which ranks U.S. metros based on their ability to create and sustain jobs. Why Texas? For one, many of its residents work in the oil, gas, and alternative energy sectors, which in recent months have proved considerably more stable than, say, finance. (Sorry, New York City.) And Austin, home of Web mecca South by…

  • Google Lets You Search World Bank Data

    Chris Dannen
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Whether you think the World Bank is an engine of worldly improvement or a bunch of corrupt plutocrats, you'll probably still want to look at their exhaustive trove of data, which Google made available today. Google has mashed up its public data search with the World Bank's API (who knew?) and the result is this: a robust data system that capable of giving you real data-driven results to questions like "life expectancy in Brazil" or "energy use of Iceland." (Below, some graphical comparisons of various nations' GDP.) While the data might be World Bank's, the interaction design is all Google.
 
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    Guy Kawasaki

  • The 19 bloggers Inc. thinks you should read

    GuyKawasaki
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:20 pm
    Inc. named 19 bloggers that you should read. We’ve aggregated them all in one place: Inc19.alltop.

  • How to Get Found

    GuyKawasaki
    4 Nov 2009 | 3:29 pm
    The reality is that people and technology is getting better and better a blocking out unwanted interruptions—aka, “marketing.” Brian Halligan is the CEO of HubSpot, and he explains in my post on the American Express Open Forum “how to get found.” It’s all about creating great stuff and letting Google et al do what they do: find great stuff.

  • How I tweet

    GuyKawasaki
    2 Nov 2009 | 8:47 am
    By popular demand (and some complaints), I’ve done a FAQ with myself about how I tweet. Hope this helps you use Twitter for your business too. I explain how I use ghostwriters and why I repeat my tweets among other “unusual” practices.

  • Current Twitter Demo Script

    GuyKawasaki
    28 Oct 2009 | 2:26 am
    This is the set of links that I used to demo Twitter by going down through this list to show why Twitter is such a valuable marketing tool. Introduction Home page Profile page Monitor Search Guy Kawasaki or Alltop Starbucks VIA introduction Search for “Prius” or “Civic” Sell Dell Outlet Kogi BBQ Support Comcast Cares Engage JetBlue Virgin America Fandango Prospect Camaro Camaro near Palo Alto Advanced searches Surfing or skateboarding (shows how to eliminate extraneous results such as “surfing the web” How I Tweet - Find Alltop MyAlltop helped me find this.

  • How to Avoid Twitter Cluelessness

    GuyKawasaki
    26 Oct 2009 | 4:24 pm
    Over at the American Express Open Forum blog, I explain how to not look clueless on Twitter. The first five ways are: Don’t tell other people how to tweet. Don’t tell the world that you unfollowed someone. Don’t ask people why they unfollowed you. Don’t constantly tweet mundane updates and babble. Don’t use a small picture for an avatar. To read all ten and why they impugn your intelligence, click here.
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    TechCrunch

  • Facebook Coming To PS3 In Mystery Update

    Devin Coldewey
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:40 pm
    Some leaked screenshots from Sony show a PS3 running with what looks like a native Facebook client configurable. There's also a new photo browser and the ability to change the color of your gamercard, but at those features I make a dismissive gesture— thusly. A Facebook app would be handy, though a constant stream of status updates from heavy players might be lead to mutings by less gaming-orientated friends. "Devin found a new item!" There's one small picture of Facebook on the PS3 (yes, that's all there is), and it's not even of a client. It's a user accounts configuration screen that…

  • Interview With Matt Bromberg, CEO of Major League Gaming

    David Diaz
    11 Nov 2009 | 4:28 pm
    This past weekend, thousands of gamers descended upon the Anaheim Convention Center to spectate and compete in one of the biggest video game competitions of the year, put on by Major League Gaming. Over two hundred teams of four individuals competed for the Halo 3 Championship where prize money totaled almost $60,000; while an additional $60,000 was up for grabs for titles such as Gears of War 2, World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, and EA Sports Madden NFL. An estimated 700,000 people viewed the live stream over the course of the weekend. I had the opportunity to speak with the CEO of Major…

  • The Crunchies Are Coming, The Crunchies Are Coming!

    Michael Arrington
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:51 pm
    Let the trumpets sound and the games begin. It’s not the Oscars or the Olympics, but it is the commencement of the 3rd annual Crunchies Awards that we’re pleased to co-host with GigaOm and VentureBeat (click for their coverage today). Yes, this is the time of year that we stop bickering among ourselves as bloggers, and come together to honor the startups, products and entrepreneurs who make our lives so much fun. The Crunchies Awards celebrate the best technology accomplishments of 2009. There are 18 award categories to recognize accomplishments across a variety of fields and…

  • Online Advertising Stops Falling, Thanks To Search

    Erick Schonfeld
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:38 pm
    After two straight quarters of annual declines (aka, the Great Ad Recession of 2009), it looks like online advertising revenues stabilized in the third quarter. The combined online advertising revenues of Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and AOL rose 1.2 percent to $8 billion. While the online advertising industry is not out of the woods yet, it might be stabilizing. At least it is for Google, which was the only one of the four horsemen of Internet advertising to see its ad revenues rise in the quarter (up roughly $400 million from both last quarter and last year). Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft were all…

  • Facebook iPhone Dev Quits Project Over Apple Tyranny

    Jason Kincaid
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:04 pm
    “My decision to stop iPhone development has had everything to do with Apple’s policies.” – Joe Hewitt Facebook developer Joe Hewitt, the man behind the immensely popular Facebook application for iPhone, has just tweeted that he’s done with the project: “Time for me to try something new. I’ve handed the Facebook iPhone app off to another engineer, and I’m onto a new project.” We reached out to Hewitt for more details, and he attributed his decision to quit the project entirely on Apple’s tyrannical App Store approval policies: My…
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    Seth Godin

  • Choose your customers, choose your future

    Seth Godin
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:38 am
    Marketers rarely think about choosing customers... like a sailor on shore leave, we're not so picky. Huge mistake.Your customers define what you make, how you make it, where you sell it, what you charge, who you hire and even how you fund your business. If your customer base changes over time but you fail to make changes in the rest of your organization, stress and failure will follow.Sell to angry cheapskates and your business will reflect that. On the other hand, when you find great customers, they will eagerly co-create with you. They will engage and invent and spread the word.It…

  • The why imperative

    Seth Godin
    10 Nov 2009 | 2:42 am
    Successful organizations spend a lot of time saying, "that's not what we do."It's a requirement, because if you do everything, in every way, you're sunk. You got to where you are by standing for something, by approaching markets and situations in a certain way. Sure, Nike could make money in the short run by licensing their name to a line of wines and spirits, but that's not what they do. "That's not what we do," is the backbone of strategy, it determines who you are and where you're going.Except in times of change. Except when opportunities…

  • Upside vs. downside

    Seth Godin
    9 Nov 2009 | 2:22 am
    How much of time, staffing and money does your organization spend on creating incredible experiences (vs. avoiding bad outcomes)?At the hospital, it's probably 5% on the upside (the doctor who puts in the stitches, say) and 95% on the downside (all the avoidance of infection or lawsuits, records to keep, forms to sign). Most of the people you interact with in a hospital aren't there to help you get what you came for (to get better) they're there to help you avoid getting worse. At an avant garde art show, on the other hand, perhaps 95% of the effort goes into creating and…

  • Fabulous

    Seth Godin
    8 Nov 2009 | 2:37 am
    This is so cool: because we only look at things we want to look at, only talk about things worth talking about, the amount of fabulous in the world continues to rise exponentially.Even though we're at the tail end of the great recession, think about all the cool stuff in your life. Not just stuff you can buy, but experiences, works of art, innovations of all kinds... the bar has been raised for what you need to do to be noticed, and the market is responding.Not only do I notice more fabulous, but it sure seems as though the creators of it are more engaged, dedicated and yes, joyful, than…

  • Take what you can get (?)

    Seth Godin
    7 Nov 2009 | 3:34 am
    When you're just starting out or when your organization is struggling or when the economy isn't hot, it's very tempting to take what you can get.You just graduated from law school and you have a lot of debt and the best job you can get is doing collections work. Should you take it?Your consulting firm is organized around providing high-value work for large corporations, but the only gigs you can get in the consideration set for are small, struggling companies looking to spend a few hundred dollars a day. Should you take them?The list goes on and on.There are two things worth…
 
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    MACRUMORS

  • Apple Releases Safari 4.0.4

    11 Nov 2009 | 1:27 pm
    Apple today released Safari 4.0.4, bringing improvements for JavaScript and History search performance, stability improvements in a number of areas including third-party plug-ins, and fixes for a handful of security issues.This updat...

  • Mac Market Share Surges to 5% in UK

    11 Nov 2009 | 10:57 am
    A new study from market research firm Gartner pegs Apple's share of the personal computer market in the UK at 5.0% for the third quarter of 2009, ranking the company fifth among all vendors. The company's unit shipments increased 26.6% to move up co...

  • New Malware Allows Hackers to Access Personal Information on Jailbroken iPhones

    11 Nov 2009 | 8:08 am
    Security firm Intego reports that it has spotted new malware, termed iPhone/Privacy.A, that is capable of allowing hackers to access personal information stored on certain jailbroken iPhones and iPod touches. Non-jailbroken iPhones are not vulnerabl...

  • Core i7-Based 27" iMac Now Shipping, 3% Discount at MacMall

    11 Nov 2009 | 7:32 am
    Earlier this week, we noted that customers were receiving notifications that their quad-core Core i5-based 27" iMac orders had begun shipping. At the time, we had not received word about the status of order for machines carrying Intel's Core i7 proc...

  • Apple Widens Lead Over Nokia as Most Profitable Handset Manufacturer

    10 Nov 2009 | 1:41 pm
    Telephony Online reports on data from research firm Strategy Analytics that places Apple as the most profitable mobile phone manufacturer in the world for the third quarter of 2009. Apple's estimated $1.6 billion profit easily topped Nokia's $1.1 bi...
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    ProBlogger Blog Tips

  • Getting Over the Blogger’s 6 Month Itch

    Darren Rowse
    11 Nov 2009 | 6:10 am
    A Guest Post by Annabel Candy – Get In the Hot Spot In marriage they talk about a seven year itch. It’s the time when people get restless and think about giving up on their relationship. For bloggers that itch and desire to give up comes sooner. In fact, most bloggers give up on their blogs after only 6 months. I’ve been writing my blog for 6 months now and I can relate to people quitting at this time. It seems as if you have put a lot of time and effort into your blog, but it’s still to early to reap the rewards of that hard work. It seems as if you’ve made every…

  • An Important Question to Ask Before Hitting Publish on Your Next Post

    Darren Rowse
    10 Nov 2009 | 6:07 am
    Here’s a question I’ve learned to ask on a daily basis at the completion of every post I write: “Would this post work better if I split it into two (or more) posts?” While the answer is usually ‘no’ for me I do semi-regularly get to the end of a blog post and realise that what I’ve actually written is probably better if it is split into parts. For me the reasons that I split posts this way generally fall into these categories: Length – some posts just contain too much information to digest in one sitting. Multiple Topics – sometimes a post…

  • ProBlogger.com Price Rise Coming in 1 Week – Lock in the Intro Price Today

    Darren Rowse
    9 Nov 2009 | 6:13 am
    A number of people have been asking how ProBlogger.com (the new community section of ProBlogger) has been going since we launched a month ago – so today I thought I’d give a bit of an update – including giving some news on the new price which will go live 1 week from today.. Some stats: As things currently stand we have 2080 paying members. In the first month the forum has had 1,400+ threads of conversation started and 15,000+ actual posts. Less than 1% of those who registered for the first month decided not to renew their subscription. The section with the most new threads…

  • Do you Write Outlines for Your Blog Posts?

    Darren Rowse
    8 Nov 2009 | 6:04 am
    Do you plan your posts or do you just write them free flow as they come? This is a question that one of our members at ProBlogger.com (Mark Dykeman) started off a conversation with in the last week. Mark talked in the thread about how he does both (sometimes he uses bullet points for his main points and then writes on each point while other times it just comes) – but I thought it’d be an interesting question to open up to everyone. What’s your approach? My own approach is mixed and sometimes starts with one approach and ends up as the other but in general the way I work…

  • Blogging is Rocket Science

    Darren Rowse
    7 Nov 2009 | 6:07 am
    Today’s post is by Kevin Sanders of Strong and Fit. Do you ever have those moments when seemingly random, unrelated thoughts kind of merge together in your mind? This happened to me a couple of weeks ago. I remembered a documentary I watched on the space shuttle years ago. Something was said about the percentage of fuel it burns within the first two minutes of liftoff. It stuck in my mind and I tried to find the information on Google. No luck. Then I remembered that one of my family members (Dale Hutchens, Ph.D.) works with NASA. He is a chemical engineer who was directly involved with…
 
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    Wired Top Stories

  • Exploring the Non-Planet: Journey to the Rim of the Solar System

    Hadley Leggett
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:05 pm
    In 2015, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft finishes a 3-billion-mile journey to the edge of the solar system to get a closer look at Pluto. Astronomers think the most exciting discovery will be something we haven't imagined.

  • Underdog Planet: Why We Love Pluto

    Betsy Mason
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Alan Boyle, author of The Case for Pluto, talks with Wired Science about why Pluto matters, how the former planet got demoted, and what might be in its future.

  • The Fight for the Ninth Planet

    Alan Boyle
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Read an exclusive excerpt from the new book, The Case for Pluto by Alan Boyle.

  • Dwarf-Planet Rebranding Contest

    Alexis Madrigal
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Pluto may be a dwarf planet now, but that's nothing to be ashamed of! Pluto and its four fellow dwarfs just need a better name for their category of celestial bodies — and we need your help coming up with one.

  • Google Poised to Become Your Phone Company

    Ryan Singel
    11 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Google could be your new phone company, now that it's reportedly bought Gizmo5 -- an online telephone company that fits very well with Google's current voice services. Skype and AT&T better watch out.
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    Chris Brogan

  • Discipline and the Bloggers Opportunity

    chrisbrogan
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:04 am
    It’s 4:46AM as I write this. I’m en route to two events today, one in the north of the country and the other at the southern tip. In the middle, I’ve got work to do on planes that might be cramped. And I’m writing this blog post because it’s my obligation to you: to provide you with useful content. You might blog for passion and whim. If so, this blog post isn’t for you. You’re invited to check out The Oatmeal (hat tip Julien). For the rest of us, let’s talk about discipline and the blogger’s opportunity. Every time you post, you build an…

  • Skip1 and Simple Cause Giving

    chrisbrogan
    10 Nov 2009 | 8:02 am
    If you want to see a simple cause effort execution, check out Skip1.org. The mission is simple: skip something and donate the money to the cause instead. So, forget that $35.00 lunch downtown and send it to feed an entire village. Easy, right? The site, Skip1.org is set up to allow people to build a profile and do repeat giving. For those of you who like challenges and game mechanics, there’s a leaderboard to see where your skipping stacks up. (That might not be for everyone, but lots of people are motivated by competitions, so I can see it working for them.) Founder Shelene Bryan and I…

  • Marketing and How Social Software Aligns

    chrisbrogan
    8 Nov 2009 | 8:36 pm
    Sometimes, we overcomplicate things by being worried about the technology part of it. Twitter and Facebook and blogs and mobile apps aren’t all that fancy. They’re just an unknown, and so people are worrying how they’ll do what they know how to do by other means with these new tools. Yes, it takes some new understanding, but at the end of the day, marketing hasn’t changed a lot. Think about the Four P’s of Marketing: Product Depending on your product, you might want to think about these kinds of alignment questions: How does it share? – In software, this…

  • First Look- Droid Phone by Motorola

    chrisbrogan
    8 Nov 2009 | 7:30 am
    I just picked up the Motorola Droid phone from Verizon Wireless the other day, and have started taking a look at the features and benefits that the device has (or doesn’t have) over the iPhone, my current sidearm. My point in writing this is not to compare the phone to the iPhone, but to tell you what I found about the Droid so far. Note to iPhone fanboys: I don’t think this is an iPhone-killer as much as it’s another scoop out of Blackberry’s bucket. This beats the crap out of the Storm, and probably also the Tour. I think the Palm Pre will also get smooshed a bit by…

  • Small Talk is Big- Overnight Success

    chrisbrogan
    7 Nov 2009 | 8:39 pm
    Small talk. We think of it as something to avoid, or we glance through it on the way to more important things. And yet, I’ve found it vital to what I’ve accomplished, as a little kindness goes a long way. This is part 8 of the Overnight Success series. If you can’t see the video, click HERE to watch it.
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    Macworld

  • More Mac bundles for the masses

    11 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm
    TheMacSale 2 and TheMacBundles offer their own respective bundles of Mac software for $50, but at what cost to developers?

  • Bing to use Wolfram Alpha results

    11 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm
    Microsoft introduced some improvements to its Bing search engine, including integrating results from computational engine Wolfram Alpha.

  • Apple tops Q3 handset vendor profit list

    11 Nov 2009 | 12:34 pm
    Thanks to strong iPhone sales, Apple has seized the crown of the world's most profitable handset vendor from Nokia.

  • Intel to roll out new low-cost and high-end SSDs

    11 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm
    Intel will release a $120 solid-state disk drive positioned as a server "boot drive" with only 40GB of capacity, but the drive could also be used in low-end laptops PCs and netbooks.

  • CES 2010 Preview: Gloom, but not doom

    11 Nov 2009 | 12:07 pm
    Consumer Electronics Association officials see some breaks in the clouds for rising technologies such as e-book readers, 3D televisions, and mobile apps, as the group that organizes the CES trade show gave its forecast for the coming year.
 
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    Photoshop Insider Blog By Scott Kelby

  • It’s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Scott Rinckenberger!

    Brad
    10 Nov 2009 | 9:01 pm
    When you get comfortable, move. First off, thanks to Scott and Brad for this opportunity to connect with such a broad and passionate audience.  I’m Scott Rinckenberger, right hand man to Chase Jarvis, the fastest moving photographer I’ve ever seen. We recently brought on a new intern at Chase Jarvis Inc.  It’s a tough gig to get.  For a while I couldn’t really put my finger on why he had made the cut, despite being the person in charge of the hiring.  Sure, he was hard working with a great attitude, but that’s an absolute prerequisite among the talented field of applicants…

  • Tuesday News Stuff From The Photoshop Insider

    Scott
    9 Nov 2009 | 10:39 pm
    Hi folks—here’s what’s up: New Help Portrait Web Site and Must-see Video As Brad and I are starting to ramp up for our local “Help Portrait” shoot (on Saturday, December 12th), we just got word that organizer Jeremy Cowart (a really terrific guy and incredible photographer) has released a new updated version of the Help Portrait Web site, along with a quick video you’ve just got to see. Here’s the link (seriously, if you’ve got a minute, this is really an incredibly wonderful thing he’s doing. Don’t stand on the sidelines—-get…

  • My 2nd “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” Online Class Goes Live in Two Weeks

    Scott
    9 Nov 2009 | 10:19 pm
    The first of my three “Light it, Shoot it, Retouch it” online classes went live two weeks ago, and I just heard today that they’ll have the 2nd class live in just about two weeks. I’ve gotten loads of great feedback from the first class, so I’m looking at adding more segments in the future, so if you’ve got any ideas of particular lighting looks you’d like to see, let me know and they might wind up as one of my next series of shoots. In the meantime, here’s a link to my first of the three “LSR” online classes.

  • 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users

    Scott
    8 Nov 2009 | 10:10 pm
    I got the idea for this post from an excellent post from Rob Sylvan (Rob is one of our Photoshop Help Desk gurus, as well as a Lightroom author and instructor), called “10 Things I Wish I Could Tell Every New Lightroom User.” Rob’s article ran on Scott Bourne’s must-visit PhotoFocus.com site, and he had lots of really great tips for new users (here’s the direct link). I thought his idea was brillliant, and I sat down and started thinking about what I would tell new users, and then I thought I oughta do a similar post (with a different list of ten). I was thinking…

  • Today We Celebrate: The Springs of Hope Kenya Orphanage has opened its doors!

    Scott
    6 Nov 2009 | 4:46 am
    I am absolutely thrilled to share that last night I got an email from my friend Molly Bail from Springs of Hope, Kenya, to let me know that today they’re welcoming the first children to the Orphanage that you, the readers of this blog, helped to build. Your contributions literally helped finish the roof on this orphanage earlier this year, and then later you helped buy the beds, furniture, and kitchen appliances, and now today there are homeless children that are homeless no more because of your gracious generosity. I am incredibly thrilled, and humbled at what you all have done in…
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    Lifehacker

  • From the Tips Box: More Milk Foam, Chrome History, and Deodorant Streaks [From The Tips Box]

    Whitson Gordon
    11 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Readers offer their best tips for making coffee-house milk foam at home, searching your history from Chrome's address bar, and easily wiping deodorant streaks off clothing. Don't like the gallery layout? Click here to view everything on one page. About the Tips Box: Every day we receive boatloads of great reader tips in our inbox, but for various reasons—maybe they're a bit too niche, maybe we couldn't find a good way to present it, or maybe we just couldn't fit it in—the tip didn't make the front page. From the Tips Box is where we round up some of our favorites for your…

  • Remains of the Day: SafeSearch Update Makes Your Kids Hate You Edition [For What It's Worth]

    Adam Pash
    11 Nov 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Users are brutally honest when they're searching Google, TweetDeck for iPhone updates, and Google's open-sourced a new programming language. The Go Programming Language Google launches their own open-source programming language. It's called Go, and it's aiming to be fast, safe, and fun. We'll see! Locking SafeSearch Google now let's users lock their adult-content filtering technology, SafeSearch. When SafeSearch is locked to Strict, search results show colored balls on top of search pages so parents and teachers can see that SafeSearch is still enabled from across the room. And an impatient…

  • Norbt Sends Top Secret, Encrypted Messages [Security]

    Sarah Rae Trover
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Web application Norbt (short for "no robot") creates web pages with encrypted text; only people who can answer your challenge question can access the text. Got anything secret you want to share? Norbt uses browser-based cryptography to secure your information and keep it safe until someone with the correct answer to your challenge question comes along. As a bonus, you can create whatever challenge question and answer you want. There's no sign of the typical "High School Your Maternal Grandparents Went To" type stuff, which is always frustrating to remember. You'll need a separate password to…

  • Use Your Net Worth as a Psychological Carrot to Motivate Saving [Saving Money]

    Adam Pash
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Saving for the future is important, but it's hard to stay motivated if you don't have something concrete to measure your progress. Personal finance weblog The Simple Dollar details how to keep score—and stay motivated—by tracking net worth. Photo by pfala. Keeping score is an easy way for me to know how well I'm doing. It lets me judge, in a very clear way, whether I'm improving and whether I'm making forward progress towards my goals. The primary way I "keep my own score" is by calculating my net worth quite frequently. I use my net worth as a score to judge whether or not I'm…

  • Netflix May Delay New Release Movies by a Full Month [NetFlix]

    Sarah Rae Trover
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm
    Netflix has become the savior of home entertainment for many, but recently Netflix has been in talks with major studios about delaying new release movies by a month or more. Why? The major studios are willing to drop the price of the DVDs it sells to Netflix with the understanding that all new release movies wouldn't be accessible to its customers for up to a full month after release date—presumably in hopes that more people would buy their stupid DVDs. It would cut Netflix's costs by almost half, but there's no word yet on if that savings would be passed on to its loyal customers. So…
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    Copyblogger

  • What My Five-Year-Old Son Taught Me About Marketing

    Johnny B. Truant
    11 Nov 2009 | 7:22 am
    You know that “inner child” we hear so much about — the one that’s supposedly deep inside of all of us? Well, I live with it. As a matter of fact, I call him “Austin.” In the five years I’ve been a parent, I’ve realized that the notion of the inner child is more than just a neat psychological construct. It’s very nearly a literal thing. As we grow up, we don’t change so much as drape layer after complicated layer of adult emotion on top of that inner child. The child doesn’t vanish; he just gets obscured and filtered. You…

  • What Purple Rain Can Teach You About Effective Online Marketing

    Brian Clark
    10 Nov 2009 | 6:18 am
    Ever had an idea that couldn’t miss? You took immediate action, created the perfect warm-up content, the best launch strategy, and the perfect offer . . . . And then it totally failed. So yeah, the film Purple Rain contains the consummate lesson on this one. No, really. The Lesson of Lake Minnetonka Upon mature reflection, the album Purple Rain is a work of genius, while the film . . . not so much. But any true Prince fan loves it anyway. And as a teenage boy in 1985, the fact that a diminutive man sporting a Jheri curl and a ruffled shirt could score with gorgeous women was rather…

  • How to Make Money with Free

    Nathan Hangen
    9 Nov 2009 | 7:42 am
    We live in a world of free. If you’re trying to make money, especially online, you might think that would make things difficult. Every day, someone releases a new eBook, video, or podcast that not only contains tremendous value, but gives away many of the “tricks of the trade” that we used to have to pay for. You’d think that the paid content business would be shrinking in the face of all this free information, but it keeps getting stronger. How can that be? For instance, there are a lot of free materials that teach people how to set up a Wordpress blog or to use Twitter…

  • The Thesis Theme for WordPress Gets Even Better

    Brian Clark
    7 Nov 2009 | 5:38 am
    There’s a new version of Thesis out that has our customers excited, thanks to some really cool new features. And it occurred to me that there are a lot of new Copyblogger subscribers who might use WordPress, and yet not really “get” what this Thesis thing is all about. So in this post I’ll tell you what’s brand new in Thesis 1.6, and also bring everyone up to speed on why Thesis makes WordPress way better. What is the Thesis Theme for WordPress? Thesis is the flagship product of DIY Themes, a partnership between Chris Pearson and me. It’s the theme framework that powers…

  • The Oscar the Grouch Guide to Building a More Remarkable Blog

    Sonia Simone
    6 Nov 2009 | 7:33 am
    This week marked the 40th anniversary of the breakthrough TV program Sesame Street. I’ve written before about some of the many lessons you can learn from this cultural icon, but today I’m going to zero in something new. You might have an Elmo blog, a Cookie Monster blog, or a Big Bird blog. (How you define those is up to you.) But some of the smartest and most successful bloggers out there bear more in common with the show’s least-likeable character: Oscar the Grouch. Oscar was an important character from the show’s beginning, and on the surface he doesn’t seem to quite fit in.
 
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    ReadWriteWeb

  • Shop Different: 5 Sites & Apps to Ease the Pain of Holiday Consumerism

    11 Nov 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Shopping is horror. The prices. The lines. The hordes of clamoring consumers - the thought of holiday shopping is, in itself, enough to make us wish for simpler days when putting coal in someone's sock was a legitimate option. But, whether we like it or not, we can't Grinch out; so we'd better start thinking about the gift-giving season now and get it over with. And since your friends at ReadWriteWeb are huge geeks, we thought we'd amuse you with a few Internet-enabled oddities that might actually make your obligatory retail purgatory a little more bearable. Sponsor 1) Wishzilla If there's…

  • Hewlett-Packard to Buy 3Com in Quest for China Market

    11 Nov 2009 | 4:38 pm
    Hewlett-Packard will acquire 3Com for $2.7 billion to compete more effectively against Cisco Systems in the competitive computer networking market. The deal, announced this afternoon, appears on the surface to help HP gain a position in China. This is where the action is in the computer networking market and a main reason for the acquisition. But below the surface is a story about 3Com's falling position in the Chinese market and the rise of Huawei Technologies, a player that everyone is watching, including Cisco, which considers the Chinese company its biggest rival. Sponsor At stake is…

  • A Messiah for Streaming Music: Playdar

    11 Nov 2009 | 3:57 pm
    Let's face it, the music industry is broken. Labels charge stations and providers exorbitant fees, independent sites have little chance of recouping their costs and in the end, the listening experience is fragmented and confusing. In our current model, a company like Grooveshark pays a fee for your stream even if you have access to a song via a separate paid subscription service or download. In other words, labels are getting paid twice on songs you already own the listening rights to. In order to change that, Playdar offers us a chance to search for music by artist and song including…

  • Finding Jetpacks Made Easy: Mozilla's New Plugin Framework Gets a Gallery

    11 Nov 2009 | 1:05 pm
    Mozilla just launched a new directory for Jetpack add-ons. Jetpack is Mozilla's newest technology for building Firefox extensions with Javascript, HTML and CSS. Mozilla announced a major update to Jetpack yesterday. Today's launch of the new gallery will finally make it easier for Jetpack developers to showcase their plugins and for users to find interesting and useful new plugins to try. The new gallery has a lot of extra features that the Firefox add-on library doesn't currently have, including the ability to showcase new plugins with video demos. Sponsor Some Interesting Jetpacks As of…

  • Google Makes World Bank Data More Discoverable: Takes a Swipe at Wolfram Alpha

    11 Nov 2009 | 12:15 pm
    Google just announced that it now uses public data from the World Bank to display graphs for queries like "children per woman in brazil" or "internet users in the united states." To do so, Google makes uses of the World Bank's public API. Through this, Google can access 17 World Development Indicators. Google displays this data in interactive graphs that make it easy to compare stats for different countries. The timing of this announcement was likely planned to coincide with the news about Wolfram Alpha's integration with Microsoft's Bing. Sponsor Google vs. Wolfram Earlier this year, Google…
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    Strobist

  • Hey, Your Flash is Hawt …

    10 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    No, not as in the vapid, Paris Hilton sense. But rather the laws-of-thermodynamics sense.Made-for-photography gels are meant to be used near theatrical light sources. So they can handle the heat. But even still, the front lens of your flash can get very hot with repeated cycling -- especially at higher power settings.Don't believe me? Try this little trick: Hold a piece of printer paper right next to the front of your flash and set off just one, full-power pop. Now smell the paper. That would be a burning smell. From just one pop.Be CoolWhen you gel, leave a little space between the flash and…

  • Mono Monday: Choosing the Right Big Lights

    8 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Normally, I try to balance lighting technique, trends, gear and a smattering of general silliness on this site. Apologies for fact that that Strobist is in somewhat of a gear-oriented spate of posts. There is a reason for that -- namely that I have gotten a little ahead of myself.A few On Assignment posts are in a holding circle because they were shot with larger light sources. And before getting to those, I wanted to take a look at the process of how to go about choosing a big light system in the first place.Recently, I revamped my kit after spending 20 years using the same set of well-worn…

  • Shedding Light on the Gender Gap

    4 Nov 2009 | 7:20 pm
    UPDATE: I figured there would be some comments on this one. But still, I had no idea. Kinda like turning on the comment firehose.Thanks much for all of the helpful feedback, and to those asking, I got the 94% number from multiple polls.__________I am getting ready to hop on a plane to Mexico, where I will be teaching for Santa Fe Workshops next week. So if emails go unanswered, or comments are a little slow to moderate, thanks for your patience.Interesting fact: My SFW class, whom I have already met via email, is 75% female. This is interesting only in that the readership of this site is…

  • This Finn O'Hara Shoot Probably will not Fit in the Conference Room.

    3 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    [UPDATE]: Just talked to Finn on the phone, and the original video -- with the final images included -- had to be pulled as per the client's request. Turns out they have backed up the run date a little. Oh, and Finn was not expecting 10k views when he put it up on Vimeo, either. But he swapped it for the one below, which does not include final images. So, those of you who saw the finals, please forget you ever did. Just puuuurge it from your minds...Also, Finn answered a couple of Q's from the comments. First, no Zamboni because of all of the wires. It just was not practical. Nor were other…

  • Ray Flash vs. Orbis vs. AlienBees ABR800 Review, Pt. 2

    1 Nov 2009 | 9:00 pm
    Last week, we looked at the Orbis and Ray Flash, which pretty much compete head-to-head in the ring flash adapter arena.This week, we take a closer look at the AlienBees ABR800. Although it is a ringlight with a self-contained studio monobloc flash, it is priced in the neighbor of the other two units -- especially when you consider a standalone flash is not needed to make it work.__________The AlienBees ABR-800For the sake of (relative) brevity, I am going to assume you have already read both last week's post and seen the comparison video at SportsShooter. (Again, they talk about the "Zeus"…
 
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    The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

  • Microsoft manager admits to copying 'Mac look and feel'

    Aron Trimble
    11 Nov 2009 | 4:30 pm
    Filed under: OSWe've been saying it for years, but everyone thought that we Mac-heads had a chip on our shoulder from the once-sour relationship with Microsoft. Finally, however, the truth has come to light; a group manager from Microsoft has gone on record and admitted the source of some of Windows 7's prettier bits and pieces. Simon Aldous sat down with PCR for an interview and when he was asked to comment on the agility of Redmond's latest operating system, he had this to say: "What we've tried to do with Windows 7 - whether it's traditional format or in a touch format - is create a Mac…

  • Google to deliver free airport Wi-Fi for the holidays

    Megan Lavey
    11 Nov 2009 | 3:30 pm
    Filed under: InternetHere's one holiday treat that Mac and PC users alike can enjoy. Google announced yesterday that during the holiday season, it is sponsoring free Wi-Fi at 47 airports around the United States, as well as on every Virgin America flight. According to CNN, those who choose to take advantage of this will be urged to set Google as their home page, or receive an offer to download Google Chrome. Google has also suggested that those utilizing the free service should donate the money they would have otherwise spent on airport Wi-Fi to a worthy charity. Full details, including a…

  • iPhone leads Apple past Nokia to #1 in mobile phone profits

    Ken Ray
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:30 pm
    Filed under: Apple Financial, iPhoneApple doesn't make the most mobile phones but, as of the third quarter of 2009, the Cupertino company does make the most money from them. Research firm Strategy Analytics says Apple is now the world's most profitable mobile phone maker, kicking Nokia from the top spot between July and September. Apple's phones only command about 2.5% of the world's cellphone market, though the iPhone's cool factor and the company's premium pricing let it rake in about $1.6 billion in operating profit from the iPhone in the third quarter of 2009, besting cellphone stalwart…

  • Apple updates Safari to 4.0.4

    Joachim Bean
    11 Nov 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Filed under: Software, Internet, Software Update, AppleIn just two days after Apple released the Mac OS X 10.6.2 update, there's now an update for Safari. This new version, 4.0.4, improves and fixes performance, stability, and security of Safari including: Improved JavaScript performance. Improved Full History Search performance for users with a large number of history items. Stability improvements for 3rd-party plug-ins, the search field and Yahoo! Mail. This update requires Mac OS X 10.6.1 or 10.6.2, Mac OS X 10.5.8 or 10.5.7, Mac OS X 10.4.11 or Windows 7, Vista, XP and is available…

  • New iPod touch rumors go against the grain of "holiday lineup is set"

    Dave Caolo
    11 Nov 2009 | 1:30 pm
    Filed under: Hardware, Retail, Rumors, iPod touchNow this is how we like our rumors: Cheap, fast and totally unsubstantiated. Phil Schiller told Gizmodo that Apple's holiday lineup is in place, but the rumor mongers seem not to care. Last week we heard that AT&T was considering an 8GB iPhone 3GS. The latest speculation to hit is that a new iPod touch will be released before December, according to iPhone Alley. Citing a "reliable source" who couldn't go into details (mmm-hmm), iPhone Alley speculates that it could be the touch with a camera that we all expected several weeks ago. Given…
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    Smashing Magazine

  • Redesign: When To Relaunch The Site and Best Practices

    Kayla Knight
    11 Nov 2009 | 6:42 am
      Redesigning a website is a big job (needless to say) and should be handled with care. Many of us with a portfolio, blog or other website have probably thought about a redesign or at least know we need one. For many designers, though, that redesign never comes. As big and important as it is, the job can turn into a hugely daunting task that we put straight on the backburner of our to-do list.Why is doing a simple redesign so daunting? Why is it so difficult to follow through, even when we’ve decided to do it? How can we work on designing our clients’ websites…

  • Designing “Coming Soon” Pages

    Cameron Chapman
    10 Nov 2009 | 1:27 am
      Deciding what to do once you’ve purchased a domain but haven’t yet launched the website is always a bit of a conundrum. Leaving up your domain registrar or Web host’s generic page seems unprofessional, especially if you’re trying to drum up advance press for your new project. At the same time, you don’t want to spend too much time on a temporary page when you really should be working on the website itself.The best thing to do is create a simple “Coming soon” page to notify visitors of what will eventually be there. Good “Coming…

  • Getting Clients: Approaching The Company

    Peter Smart
    9 Nov 2009 | 3:08 am
      A defining factor in any freelancer or agency’s success in gaining new business is their ability to market their skills effectively. In this three-part series, we will explore ways in which designers can strategically promote themselves to get new clients. Securing new business by approaching companies can be a very challenging process, full of pitfalls. Here, we will look at 10 steps to impressing potential clients and avoiding the most common mistakes.Step One: Be FocusedA focused approach to work is paramount for success. Freelancers often take on every job opportunity that…

  • Getting Started With Content Management Systems

    Robert Hartland
    8 Nov 2009 | 9:18 am
      The need to update websites faster to keep content fresh has been ever growing. Ever since the first business owner wanted their Web designer to update their website faster, content management systems have played an important role on the Web. Why does this matter to you? How do you know if your company is ready?In this article, we will look at how to tell if your organization needs a content management system. We will also give you information on the abilities of content management systems to help you better understand what they can do. While content management systems may seem…

  • Glassical: A Free WordPress Theme

    Smashing Editorial
    7 Nov 2009 | 1:21 pm
      We love our readers. We respect the hard work of designers and developers across the globe. And we do our best to make the web design community stronger and the Web a little bit prettier. Therefore we ask talented artists and creative professionals to showcase their skills and release something unique and beautiful as a gift to the community. And when designers agree, impressive works see the light of day.Today we are glad to release Glassical — a free professional Wordpress-theme created by Abdullah Ibrahim. This theme was designed with the main focus being on typography,…
 
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    Joe McNally's Blog

  • Letter to a Young Photographer….

    Joe McNally
    9 Nov 2009 | 5:43 am
    Lectured last week at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism. In the photojournalism department, the students all had that traditional mix of energy, enthusiasm, angst, and doubt so typical of that time in your life when you have just picked up a camera and are looking at it, wondering where it will lead you. The usual mix of questions are ever present: Who do I work for? Can I make a living? Will I ever be any good at this? Will my pictures have impact? Nowadays, that traditional line of questioning is accompanied by another significant set of queries. What is the future of…

  • New York Frame of Mind…..

    Joe McNally
    6 Nov 2009 | 6:57 am
    Yankees won. Cool. I’ve been a Yankee fan before I even knew anything about NY. We lived in Cleveland when I was a kid, and my dad would only bring me to the ballpark when those damn Yankees were playing. He brought me down to the third base seats and Casey Stengel was standing in the coaches box. My dad yelled, “Hey Case!” Stengel was standing there, thumbs hooked in his belt, and gave me a wink and a quick wave. Been a Yankee fan ever since, though, like Yogi, I did have a hard time liking anybody in pinstripes back when The Boss was in full cry. Corny, right? But hey, it…

  • This Just In…..

    Joe McNally
    4 Nov 2009 | 6:44 am
    Hot Shoe Diaries was the number one reader’s pick for the arts and photography category on Amazon for 2009. Pretty cool. I’ve gotten some wonderful feedback from folks who really enjoyed the book and I thank everyone for the kind words that have been sent my way. Very appreciative of the support, and thanks for letting Amazon know about it! It’s been an interesting week.  There was the good news about the book, and then Lynn, my studio manager for 18 years, was going back and forth with a major multi-national who had a check for us, but had the wrong address listed. It…

  • Mongo Make Pano……

    Joe McNally
    29 Oct 2009 | 4:57 am
    In New York City leading a National Geographic Expeditions Workshop. Doing alright so far. Haven’t lost anybody yet. Nice group of folks. Hope they’re not disappointed that I’m not, you know, Nick Nichols, or somebody like that who’s got a lot of great Indiana Jones type photo stories. “I stood there in front of the enraged water buffalo, with the only thing between me and his massive horns was my Nikon DS4000XL Red Sonja series camera with the 12 to 3000mm over under combo zoom with the bore sighted grenade launcher. I had one round left…” I make up…

  • Kelby Tours, DC Stop

    Joe McNally
    27 Oct 2009 | 4:53 am
    As I always say, what could go wrong? 5 hours of live lighting in front of 950 people. Thankfully they were very gracious, easy going people, who were an enormous source of support and good will all day long. Very cool. Day started with Drew, Will and I on the loading docks at 6am getting a boatload of gear up into the Wash. DC Convention Center. Ah, the glamorous life of a shooter. At that point, it’s just a matter of racing the clock to get ready for the doors opening at 9. Both Drew and Will worked incredibly hard, going full blast with only 3 hours sleep. We started simple. Basic…
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    Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

  • Video – Before & After Family Photo

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    11 Nov 2009 | 8:38 am
    Please install flash player to view video. Here's another one of those before and after videos for you folks. I know these are popular because they really show the workflow and the link between the two programs we tend to use most - Lightroom and Photoshop. I thought this particular photo made a great candidate because I was able to do some very neat things in Lightroom (more than a lot of people think is possible) but I also needed to move into Photoshop for some quick retouching. Hope you enjoy it. I'm actually taking the day off to spend with the family since they're off from school, but…

  • Scott’s Top 10 (+ 3 of my own)

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    9 Nov 2009 | 7:29 am
    If you haven't seen it already, Scott Kelby posted a "10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users" article over on his blog today. Its a must read if you're a new-ish Lightroom user and I'll be you'll find something cool on there even if you've been using Lightroom for a while. However, I wanted to add 3 of my own. 1) Lightroom saves all of your history states... forever! Ever notice that when you're working in Lightroom you never actually have to save your image? In Photoshop we're always going to File > Save but not in LR. That's because Lightroom has a History panel in the Develop module…

  • Tip – Rotating Identity Plates in Slideshow

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    6 Nov 2009 | 7:56 am
    Your tip for today falls victim to one of those little things that I never knew about before and found out about the hard way. It has to do with the Slideshow module. You know how you can put an Identity Plate on your slideshow right? You can also put other various text overlays that show some metadata about your photo (which is exactly what people really want to see when they're watching a beautiful slideshow by the way) :-) Anyway, I ran into some one who showed me their computer and the fact that their ID Plate was rotated 90°. Naturally, I'm used to working with the ID Plate in the Print…

  • A Few More Dates for David Ziser’s Tour

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    6 Nov 2009 | 7:56 am
    Hey folks. I've mentioned David Ziser's Digital Wakeup Call tour before and I just wanted to let you know there's a few more dates left. Of course you'll learn lots of stuff about shooting weddings but David is also a master at Lightroom and he's got some great things to share when it comes to the production end of things. Here's his website and here's a write-up I did a while back after attending his seminar. If you have the chance to go, its definitely worth it. Bookmark It

  • What’s a Lightroom “Snapshot”

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    5 Nov 2009 | 6:41 am
    During a recent workshop I had some one ask what a Snapshot was (its a panel on the left side in the Develop module). Then everyone else kinda chimed in with a "yeah what the heck is that?". They don't get used a lot, but I think they definitely do come in useful at times. Basically, a snapshot is a freeze-frame of your photo at that moment in time. It's a way to save all of your develop settings at a certain point in case you ever wanted to revert back to them. So let's say you're working on a photo. You're pretty happy with the way the photo looks but you want to try a couple of other…
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    Digital Photography School

  • Ricoh GR Digital III – Review

    Barrie Smith
    11 Nov 2009 | 12:22 pm
    Occasionally Ricoh has delivered cameras to the market that are innovative, ingenious and unique. Like the Ricoh GR Digital III. But who ever heard of a camera with a fixed lens and no zoom? To answer, you have only to look at the major companies with their DSLRs. Fine cameras you say. But what makes them even finer is the availability of a fixed focus ‘pancake lens’. The advantages are a small form factor along with high optical quality, a lack of aberrations in a no-zoom lens and reduced internal flare. Ricoh GR Digital III Features So, the Digital III stands alone. Powered up, the lens…

  • 7 More Daily Photo Blogs That Provide Inspiration

    Peter Carey
    11 Nov 2009 | 6:45 am
    It’s been a while since I last wrote about finding daily photography inspiration on the web through photo blogs.  Since that initial post, a number of other high quality sites have come across my radar and I’d like to share them with you.  This list contains blogs that provide a daily photo and have an RSS/Email feed for easy ingestion.  I personally like them because they can be grouped together and scanned when I’m looking for something different to get me out shooting. Click on the site name to be taken directly to each RSS/Email feed.  Internet Explorer may not…

  • On Location Product Photography

    Christina N Dickson
    10 Nov 2009 | 11:24 am
    You want to get your name into the community. You want to build relationships. You want to display your work in an unconventional way. Perhaps you ought to consider the possibilities of on location product shooting. On location product shooting looks something like this: You go into a storefront, use the available and supplemental lighting to feature the pieces best, shoot to highlight the store offerings and other unique aspects, and present to the store owner for use and possible display. While a generally simple process, follow these few tips and you will be sure to have a successful…

  • How to Photograph Flowers

    Darren Rowse
    10 Nov 2009 | 6:14 am
    Photo H@Ru Earlier in the week I had the chance to sit down with a photographer whose specialty is photographing flowers. As I tend to do with pro photographers – picked his brain as we chatted and took as many notes as I could. Here’s what I gleaned from him and his flower photography experience: By the way – he also recommended two flower photography books – Photographing Flowers: Inspiration*Equipment*Technique by Sue Bishop and Field Guide To Photographing Flowers by Rokach Preparation is key Getting your gear together and in working order, choosing the right lens,…

  • 5 Ways to Use Your Gifts and Reach Your Community

    Christina N Dickson
    9 Nov 2009 | 12:52 pm
    As an artist, you have the ability to powerfully affect others. Your artwork can touch people in ways you don’t even realize and with the holidays just around the corner, now is the time to start thinking about how you can give back and reach your community with the gift of art. Whether you want to invest a good amount of time in a project, or simply give a print, the opportunities to use your art for the good of the community are endless! Here are some ideas to get you started: 1. Host an Art Fundraiser: Pick a nonprofit that regularly affects your community, and ask if you can sponsor…
 
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    The Luminous Landscape - What's New

  • 8 November, 2009 - On The Road With Phase One in Death Valley

    7 Nov 2009 | 4:57 pm
    Today begins a five-day workshop in Death Valley, CA, run by Phase One at the famous Furnace Creek Inn. I am among the group of teachers that includes Bill Atkinson, Claus Molgaard, Jeff Schewe, and Mark Dubovoy. Kevin Raber, Phase One's US Vice President, is blogging the workshop this week and you can follow his blog, which will be updated daily, here. The new Home Page photograph, taken with the Leica X1 (hey –  I'm ecumenical), was taken on Saturday evening on the way to the park. ____________________ ...

  • 6 November, 2009 - xrite ColorChecker Passport Review

    6 Nov 2009 | 3:29 am
    Adobe's raw processing programs; Camera Raw in Photoshop, and Lightroom 2 as well as Lightroom 3 Beta, all now allow users to create their own camera profiles using the free DNG Profile Editor. This program came out in the summer of 2008 and was reviewed here at the time. Now xrite has introduced the ColorChecker Passport, a simple and inexpensive device and accompanying software, that allows us to create custom camera profiles quickly and easily in the field for any light conditions. My review is now online. ____________________ There are still two seats available for An Introduction to…

  • 3 November, 2009 - Mac / Photoshop / Epson Profiling Problems Solved

    2 Nov 2009 | 12:45 pm
    If you have a Mac running Snow Leopard, run Photoshop CS4, and use the latest Epson printer drivers, you may have a problem creating proper printer profiles. In fact, it may be impossible to do so. This problem has been driving people nuts for many weeks, and the Net is full of complaints, finger pointing, and half-baked solutions. Last week Mark Dubovoy encountered the problem, and being a very fussy fine art printer as well as a scientist by profession, he set out to find the source of the problem and also a solution if possible. He polled a wide number of the industry's top printing and…

  • 2 November, 2009 - Canon S90 Field Report

    1 Nov 2009 | 11:58 am
    Panasonic knocked one out of the park last year with the Lumix LX3. This camera combined small size, raw capability, a fast high-quality zoom lens, and fine image quality, all in a shirt pocket sized package. Now Canon has issued its challenger in the form of the Powershot S90. This is the smallest and lightest pocket camera yet with a zoom lens and that shoots raw, and it's a worthy competitor. The S90 uses the same sensor and processing engine as the new G11, all in a much smaller and more convenient size. What's not to like? Find out in my just published S90 Field Report. UPDATE: It…

  • 31 October, 2009 - LL Holiday Gift Store Now Open - 25% Off All Products

    31 Oct 2009 | 9:05 am
    25% OFF The holiday season is about to begin and that brings the question of – what gift to buy for photographer friends, wherever in the world they may live? We have the answer – a multi-hour download video from The Luminous Landscape. These range in price from $15 to $50 at our regular prices, and most are available in SD as well as HD formats. We have four major tutorials available – From Camera to Print, Raw Processing in Photoshop, Guide to Lightroom 2, and Guide to Digital Asset Management. There are also Issues 17 & 18 HD editions of The Luminous Landscape Video…
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    Planet Photoshop

  • Increase and Decrease your Text Without Scrubbers

    Web Editor
    11 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am
    To increase and decrease your text size, select all of your text in a type layer and press Command-Shift-< or > (PC: Ctrl-Shift-< or >). Command-Shift-< decreases the text, while Command-Shift-> increases the text.

  • Place an Image from Bridge

    Web Editor
    10 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am
    You can place an image into any Adobe application right from Bridge CS3. Just choose File>Place and select the application you’d like to place the file into.

  • Down & Dirty in Chicago | Photoshop.com Mobile

    Corey Barker
    9 Nov 2009 | 2:16 pm
    Well the Photoshop Down & Dirty tour continues with my next stop being Chicago this Friday, November 13. Come on out an join us and see what everyone is talking about as we explore some of the newest and coolest Photoshop techniques around. It’s a fun day of learning and it will recharge your creativity. [...]

  • Use the Adobe Media Gallery

    Web Editor
    9 Nov 2009 | 6:15 am
    Taking your files from Bridge to the Web is simple using the Adobe Media Gallery. You can simply select the images that you would like to use, and choose a Template from the top pop-up menu in the Adobe Media Gallery panel. After filling in some Style Information fields (things like your email address, some [...]

  • More Fun with 3D

    Corey Barker
    6 Nov 2009 | 1:32 pm
    Continue exploring the possibilities with Photoshop's new 3D tools.
 
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