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    Holy Kaw!

  • 7 surprising truths about happiness

    30 Dec 2009 | 4:52 am
    When it comes to resisting temptation, Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project explains that some people find it much easier to abstain while others do better using moderation. There is no right or wrong and here's a quick quiz to determine if you're an abstainer or a moderator. Rubin shares that she was quite surprised to learn that she was an abstainer and through her research for her book she was even more surprised by these 7 truths about happiness. Here's one that was quite surprising to me, but made sense: Don't practice "random acts of kindness." We've all been urged to…

  • 10 tips for grilling in inclement weather

    30 Dec 2009 | 4:16 am
    I have a friend Danny who lives in North Houston who loves to grill in the backyard with family and friends. But, it's snowing this winter and he won't wimp out and grill indoors. For all the Danny's of the world, here are 10 tips for grilling in inclement weather. I know my friend would love to have Tip #7. Another solution is to read about BBQ. Permalink | Leave a comment  »

  • Is coffee really healthy for us?

    30 Dec 2009 | 1:40 am
    News flash: Coffee is maybe probably either good for you or bad for you. Yikes, the health benefits of coffee are not definitive at all. A recent article in The Wall Street Journal seems to agree. The story takes a careful look at both the pros and cons of coffee in attempt to cut through the haze. As a taste, some of the potential pros are: - Lower risk of getting colon, mouth, throat, esophageal and endometrial cancers. - Decreased likelihood to develop Type 2 diabetes. Balanced, of course, by alleged cons: - Raised blood pressure, heart rate and levels of homocysteine, an amino acid in…

  • Another wine column's demise

    30 Dec 2009 | 1:13 am
    For me, the question came when Gourmet magazine closed: Is traditional food and drink journalism disappearing? Just a few days ago on Christmas day, long-time wine critics John Brecher and Dorothy Gaiter announced their last column at the Wall Street Journal. Explained wine blog Vinography: This unannounced departure of the unique husband and wife wine journalists represents yet another brick falling from the crumbling wall of professional wine journalism. The word on the street suggests that while the Journal has no intention of discontinuing its wine coverage, this was a layoff along the…

  • Top Newsweek videos of the year

    30 Dec 2009 | 12:58 am
    Year-end wrap ups galore! Over on Newsweek.com, an editor has curated the top 10 videos from 2009. The selection includes two of my favorites, one of which documents the transformation of Compton, Calif., which at one time was one of the nation's most dangerous areas. The video is produced by the ever excellent Jennifer Molina and Jessica Bennett. In my other favorite, produced by Jon Groat, Stephen Colbert takes to West Point to probe the minds of the graduates of 2009: Is Iraq still on anyone's brain? The other eight are fantastic as well. Try keeping up with Newsweek headlines in a cool,…
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    Mashable!

  • The Complete National Geographic Collection on a Hard Drive

    Stan Schroeder
    30 Dec 2009 | 1:52 am
    National Geographic, the legendary yellow magazine that’s been an important part of many young nerd’s childhood, has been around since 1888. Even if you have a very large room dedicated to storing the magazine, that’s a lot of issues. Thanks to modern technology, however, you can now have all those issues on one 160 GB hard drive, and it’ll still leave you a full 100 GB to spend on data of your choice. Besides all the magazine issues, and the accompanying maps (which, some would say, are equally valuable as the mag itself), this collection will get you an app that…

  • LEAKED: New Details and the Price of Google’s Nexus One

    Ben Parr
    29 Dec 2009 | 6:19 pm
    The Nexus One, also known as the Google Phone, has been making a stir this month after details began to emerge about the project. Earlier today, we learned that the phone will likely be revealed on January 5th at a Google press conference (which we will be covering). Information on the phone’s already starting to leak through the Google gates, though. Screenshots obtained by gadget blog Gizmodo reveal one of the most important details about the device: its price. The screenshots seem to be the future landing pages for the Google phone. It will apparently go live soon at google.com/phone…

  • Is YouTube About to Jump into Online Gaming?

    Ben Parr
    29 Dec 2009 | 5:10 pm
    YouTube is the world’s online video portal, but if a recent patent application filed by Google is any indication, it may be looking to become an interactive gaming portal as well. The patent, “Web-based System for Generation of Interactive Games Based on Digital Videos,” was filed by Google earlier this year but published this month. Uncovered by BNET, the Google patent seems to detail a system where the creation of video annotations can be used for gaming-like mechanics and video behavior change. The following is the full abstract from the patent application: “Systems…

  • Google’s 2009: A Glimpse of the Web’s Next Decade

    Jennifer Van Grove
    29 Dec 2009 | 2:18 pm
    In 2009 the web as we knew it changed dramatically. Twitter graduated to become a media darling and a mainstream communication staple. Facebook became the most significant social network of this day and age. And Google changed the way we search. When historians look back on 2009, they’ll be forced to acknowledge Google’s role in shaping the future of how we search, how we browse, how we communicate, how enterprises store information, and how the population at large has adapted to a web-rich mobile environment centered around applications. Here’s a look back at Google’s…

  • New Usability Testing Tool Packs Power and Simplicity

    Jennifer Van Grove
    29 Dec 2009 | 2:17 pm
    This post is part of Mashable’s Spark of Genius series, which highlights a unique feature of startups. If you would like to have your startup considered for inclusion, please see the details here. The series is made possible by Microsoft BizSpark. Name: Usabilla Quick Pitch: Usabilla offers a fast and simple way to collect feedback on a webpage, wireframe, mock-up or image. Genius Idea: Whether you’re looking to test out an experimental layout, a full-fledged mock-up or a working website, Usabilla’s usability testing platform combines power with simplicity, offering insight…
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    Fast Company

  • Google's Nexus One: Go Home Folks, Nothing to See Here

    Kit Eaton
    30 Dec 2009 | 4:32 am
    Ah, Google's Nexus One...the Googlephone. For a while we were excited about the amazing things you might do. Then we worried. And with newly leaked info on how you'll be sold, we're done: You're way less exciting than we'd hoped.The chaps over at Gizmodo landed a superb late, late Christmas gift yesterday evening--supposedly leaked documentation that set out exactly how much the Nexus One is being sold for, and how much it'll cost to run.The answer: $530 unsubsidized and unlocked through Google's own web store. This represents the "real" price of the phone, lacking a carrier subsidy. And its…

  • Did John Mackey's Media March Cost Him the Whole Foods Chairmanship?

    Stephanie Schomer
    29 Dec 2009 | 8:13 pm
    Since Whole Foods CEO John Mackey wrote his now-infamous op-ed in The Wall Street Journal about health care this summer, he's been a target. It's unclear whether his own conscious consumers or media heat--first cranked up in mid November for the December issue of Fast Company and in the last few days in The New Yorker and Reason--led him to announce via his blog on Christmas Eve that he was relinquishing his role as Chairman of the Whole Foods board. But something clearly got to him. "I have held the Chairman title since Whole Foods Market's [sic] beginning in 1978, but the reality is that…

  • Infographic of the Day: What Food Is in Season Now?

    Cliff Kuang
    29 Dec 2009 | 10:11 am
    A handy guide, for insuring your food isn't traveling half way across the world, to get to your table.Local food is the rage, among savvy eaters who also want to slim down on their carbon consumption. The idea is that locally produced food cuts down on all the distance the food travels and the carbon emitted in the process. But that leaves a curious problem: Walk into most grocery stores, and you'd be hard pressed to tell what's local, because everything looks fresh and in season. You can solve that by simply knowing what's in season, when. Along those lines, GOOD, working with design studio…

  • No, I Don't Want to Be Friends With My Butter: Brand Relationships for the Social Media Era

    Nathaniel Perez
    29 Dec 2009 | 8:44 am
    While brands still try hard to "crack the Social Media code," most seem to understand consumers no longer find the prospect of being friends with a brand more engaging than the single click it took to fan the brand page on Facebook. After all, what's so novel about the thought of a friendship with my butter? Precisely, nothing. The impact of social media at the heart of new media is shaking up how brands think of experience design and what consumers expect from brand experiences. Let's talk digital sociology. I'll quote three impactful points of view from Michael Wesch, Assistant Professor of…

  • Gadgets of the Decade

    29 Dec 2009 | 8:41 am
    Tech innovations that changed the way we read, chat, listen to records, and clean the rug.
 
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    Guy Kawasaki

  • When You Care Enough to Aggregate the Very Best

    GuyKawasaki
    22 Dec 2009 | 1:52 am
    There is no better way to please and impress people around Christmas time than to make them something. If you can cook, make them a meal. If you can paint, make them a painting. If you can sculpt, make them a sculpture—you get the picture. What if you don’t have these talents? What if you’re out of time? I have a totally conflicted suggestion for you: Build them a customized MyAlltop page. Surely you can point and click. It will take about thirty minutes, but the output of those thirty minutes says, “I didn’t just rush out and buy the first thing I saw at BestBuy. I used my unique…

  • The Six Twitter Types

    GuyKawasaki
    20 Dec 2009 | 12:02 am
    If you’re new to Twitter, you might be wondering about the basics types of people on the services. I explained the six types over at the American Express Open Forum.

  • My Favorite Applications

    GuyKawasaki
    19 Dec 2009 | 11:57 pm
    Over at the American Express Open Forum, I provided a list of my favorite applications. Check out the list if you want to see what makes me tick.

  • LinkedIn as an Advertising Medium

    GuyKawasaki
    8 Dec 2009 | 7:33 am
    According to the LinkedIn site, its users are rich, young, educated, and powerful. If you’re looking for a medium to reach such people, check out this comparison to publications such as the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and BusinessWeek.

  • Baby Steps to Success

    GuyKawasaki
    8 Dec 2009 | 7:29 am
    Rosabeth Moss Kanter explains how innovation can involve short bursts and baby steps to success. Most people believe only “breakthroughs” count. Really, innovation is a process, not a big event.
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    TechCrunch

  • The 100 Millionth Deviation on DeviantART Is A Gay Sex Story, But I’m Going To Show You This Arctic Unicorn Instead

    Erick Schonfeld
    29 Dec 2009 | 11:18 pm
    On deviantART, the site for anyone who thinks they are an artist, member submissions are known as “deviations.” The site’s been around since 2000, attracts 33 million monthly visitors (comScore), and just recently passed its 100 millionth deviation. It is, appropriately enough, a short story about gay sex. I could quote from it, but it is more of a deviation from good writing than anything else. I might as well just show the “Blizzard” drawing above featuring some sort of black unicorn frolicking in the snow with an arctic fox. How should I put this? There are…

  • Flixster Users Name Top 2009 Movies: Avatar, Star Trek And The Blind Side

    Michael Arrington
    29 Dec 2009 | 11:02 pm
    Forget the Academy Awards and the professional movie critics. Flixster users reviewed movies 55 million times in 2009, says the company, and they’ve released the top movies based on those ratings. At the top is Avatar with a 92% like rating (compared to 83% for the critics). Second is Star Trek with 91%, and The Blind Side comes in third with 90%. The year’s lowest-rated movies were Whiteout (35%); Year One (32%); Dragonball Evolution (30%); Streetfighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (30%); and Transylmania (25%). I’d add Transformers 2 to that list of terrible movies, which is the…

  • Outside Puts The iPhone Weather App To Shame

    Daniel Brusilovsky
    29 Dec 2009 | 9:18 pm
    I typically use the Weather iPhone app once a week, at most. The only reason I would ever use the application is if a friend asked me the weather for a certain day of the week. Outside is trying to change the way we see weather applications on the iPhone with their new iPhone app developed by Robocat. Outside combines current weather and local forecasts with custom push notifications on the iPhone. With Outside, you can setup push notifications to for various weather conditions and get alerts when the weather matches your criteria, even when the app isn’t running. To get the notifications,…

  • Siebel’s Stealth Carbon Startup C3 Lands $26 Million And Condoleezza Rice On Its Board

    Dan Levine
    29 Dec 2009 | 8:36 pm
    What do Thomas Siebel, Condoleezza Rice and $26 million have in common? They are all connected to stealth energy startup C3, which may be entering the business of managing carbon cap-and-trade systems for corporations. In the past two weeks, C3 has filed three Form Ds with the SEC disclosing financings totaling almost $26M. Very little is known about the company publicly, and the company declines to comment on its future plans (or anything else). But from other publicly-available sources, an interesting story can be pieced together. C3 is the brainchild of Thomas Siebel, former CEO of Siebel…

  • Is The Nexus One Bringing A New Android Backup Service With It?

    Jason Kincaid
    29 Dec 2009 | 7:54 pm
    Earlier this evening Gizmodo published leaked images that apparently show off the pricing details for Google’s upcoming Nexus One phone. The Nexus One comes in at a hefty $530 for an unlocked device, or $180 with contract on T-Mobile — pricing that’s pretty standard for a smart phone. But even still, it’s a very big deal. It also looks like Gizmodo’s screenshots may have included clues hinting at a previously unannounced feature for Android: automatic backup of your data. Under the section for Optional Accessories, the Nexus One will apparently have a docking…
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    Seth Godin

  • Cheapest reliable alternative

    Seth Godin
    30 Dec 2009 | 2:36 am
    For most products and services, most of the time, people sign up for the Cheapest Reliable Alternative Plan. If everything appears to be the same, then of course they're going to pick the cheapest one that's good enough.In the face of this understandable strategy, you have a few choices:You can be cheapest (difficult to sustain).You can be more reliable (great if you can figure this out).You can be redefine the playing the field to be the only one (most preferred).Buying a new microphone or lights for your DJ business doesn't do any of these three to your competitive status, it merely makes…

  • Put a name on it

    Seth Godin
    29 Dec 2009 | 2:50 am
    Here's a positive step to avoid the faceless bureaucracy that wants to take over your organization:Every new rule needs to be associated with one and only one person who is willing to stand up for it and explain it (to your people and to the public)."No swimming until 45 minutes after eating." Really? Why? Who made this rule up? Why?I think most international travelers would like to know who made the rule that bans wifi from international flights. Or the name of the other person who made the rule that you can't have a blanket covering your legs during the last hour of a flight. If we knew the…

  • It's not the rats you need to worry about

    Seth Godin
    28 Dec 2009 | 3:03 am
    If you want to know if a ship is going to sink, watch what the richest passengers do.iTunes and file sharing killed Tower Records. The key symptom: the best customers switched. Of course people who were buying 200 records a year would switch. They had the most incentive. The alternatives were cheaper and faster mostly for the heavy users.Amazon and the Kindle have killed the bookstore. Why? Because people who buy 100 or 300 books a year are gone forever. The typical American buys just one book a year for pleasure. Those people are meaningless to a bookstore. It's the heavy users that matter,…

  • How far away is your future?

    Seth Godin
    27 Dec 2009 | 3:25 am
    Let's try a thought experiment:A flying saucer comes to Earth, destroys a major city to get our attention, then announces that in 10,000 years it is coming back to destroy the Earth. In order to eliminate any doubt, it then blows up Mars.Assume for a moment that you believe the threat and there's nothing we can do about it...Question: how would knowing that the planet would disappear in 10,000 years change your typical day?Okay, now run the same story, but 1,000 years from now instead.You can probably guess where this is going. What if it were twenty years? If it were twenty years, how would…

  • Represent

    Seth Godin
    27 Dec 2009 | 3:10 am
    The great brands of our time are not about what they are. They are about what they represent.Apple, Sarah Palin, Harley Davidson, Tom's Shoes... In each case, the reality of the product means far less than what the brand represents.The facts of iPod battery life, knowledge of world affairs, gas mileage and foot comfort are almost irrelevant. What matters is the Jungian rush these brands connote, their ability to allow us to identify ourselves and fellow tribe members, the sense of belonging and labeling and the journey we're on (or not, our choice).Great brands represent something bigger than…
 
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    ProBlogger Blog Tips

  • How to Make More Money From Your Blog in the New Year : Best of ProBlogger

    Darren Rowse
    29 Dec 2009 | 5:56 am
    Todays post in the Best of ProBlogger 2009 series looks at the topic of making money from blogs. By no means is it a comprehensive or complete guide to the topic but below are 12 of the more popular posts we’ve had on the topic this year. The Importance of Having Your Own Product to Sell How to Make $30,000 a Year Blogging The #1 Reason My Blogging Grew Into a Business 5 Ways to Make Money Blogging Once You Have Traffic $72,000 in E-books in a Week: 8 Lessons I Learned How to Find Direct Advertisers for Your Blog How I use Email Newsletters to Drive Traffic and Make Money What is…

  • Learn from 15 Successful Bloggers: Grab Your Copy of Beyond Blogging Today

    Darren Rowse
    28 Dec 2009 | 1:02 pm
    What do these 15 bloggers have in common? Chris Brogan Gary Vaynerchuk Chris Guillebeau David Risley Penelope Trunk Chris Garrett Darren Rowse Pete Cashmore Jonathan Fields Shama Kabani Michael Dunlop Steve Pavlina iJustine Brian Clark John Chow There are a number of commonalities between these people actually. They all blog, they’ve all had at least some level of success with their blogs, they all make a living (to some extent) from their blogs and they are all featured in a new resource – Beyond Blogging. Beyond Blogging is a 200 page book pulled together by Nathan Hangan (a…

  • 13 Tutorials to Help You Grow Your Blog Readership Next Year

    Darren Rowse
    28 Dec 2009 | 6:36 am
    Finding Readers for a blog is one of the biggest challenges that bloggers face – as a result we cover the topic quite a bit here on ProBlogger. As part of this week’s Best of ProBlogger 2009 series today I’d like to share a list of 13 tips and tutorials related to the topic of finding readers for a blog that I hope will help you in your planning for next year. The Myth of Great Content Marketing Itself 9 Things to Do to Make Sure Your Next Blog Post is Read by More Than Your Mom 5 Ways to Get Your Blog Indexed by Google in 24 Hours SEO Tips for Bloggers How Not to Promote…

  • How to Write Great Content for Your Blog In the New Year

    Darren Rowse
    27 Dec 2009 | 6:23 am
    As part of Best of ProBlogger 2009 series – today I want to look at the topic of ‘writing content’ and present a series of posts that went live this year on how to create compelling blog content – after all, it’s a cornerstone of successful blogging that bloggers simply can’t ignore. How to Get Write Compelling Blog Content 20 Ways to Write Posts that are Guaranteed to Grow Your Blog How to Use Google’s Wonder Wheel to Find Topics to Write About 13 Types of Posts that Always Get Lots of Comments Why Stories Are an Effective Communication Tool for Your…

  • Best of ProBlogger 2009: Holiday Series

    Darren Rowse
    27 Dec 2009 | 5:27 am
    2009 was a massive year for me – both personally and on my blogs, including here on ProBlogger. As a result I’ve decided for this last week before the new year that I’m going to do two things: Take a break from blogging – I have another project I need to complete so I’ll still be around working – but a mini break from writing new posts will probably do me good. Look back on the year that was – I’ve been reflecting a lot lately upon how my approach to blogging and business has shifted in the last year. As a result I thought it might be…
 
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    Chris Brogan

  • Never Give Up- No, Give Up

    chrisbrogan
    30 Dec 2009 | 1:30 am
    I see this phrase a lot: “never give up.” People utter it as a kind of bravado, a kind of challenge to say that you have to persist to succeed. The problem is, the thinking is flawed. There are PLENTY of times when one should give up. I see them every day. Every day. Mister Seth Godin schooled me personally HARD in The Dip. If you didn’t buy that book, do so. And read it. It’s like… a half hour of reading. It’s tiny and yet so powerful. There is a right time to give up. There’s a right time to quit. The trick, and it is a HUGE trick, is knowing which…

  • Forget Rockstars- Let’s Make Construction Sexy

    chrisbrogan
    29 Dec 2009 | 1:30 am
    I’m guilty. I’ve used the word “rockstar” often to express my passion that social media makes everyone equal on the “potential to be awesome” spectrum. I’m every bit as much to blame for the “cultification of social media” as anyone. But no more. It’s great to be flashy. It’s whatever to be famous. But if you really want to make it and keep making it, you’ve gotta make being a construction worker sexy. Hard work. That’s what’s pushing this forward. You know what Brian Solis is sexy? Because he works hard. Know…

  • The Old Value-Cost Conversation

    chrisbrogan
    28 Dec 2009 | 11:20 am
    I’m an affiliate for the Beyond Blogging ebook. In the comments section of this post, people questioned the $47 cost of the ebook (which I think goes up to $97 after a fashion). It’s a question I’ve seen many times, and the question works something like this: There’s no paper expenses. There’s no mailing costs. Why does this cost more than a traditional paper book? First, let’s take free off the table. I covered that in the audacity of free. So, given that we believe there’s some value in what’s being sold, let’s talk about how pricing…

  • Beyond Blogging Now Available

    chrisbrogan
    28 Dec 2009 | 4:41 am
    As of today, the new ebook Beyond Blogging (affiliate link) is now available. Nathan Hangan and Mike Cliffe Jones compiled advice from over 15 professionals in the space (including me), added their thoughts to the story, and have compiled it all into a very useful product. What would you be able to do with the thoughts and ideas of over 15 bloggers who’ve made their business success using the ideas covered in these pages? And who are these people? There’s advice from: Chris Brogan (hey, that’s me!) Gary Vaynerchuk Chris Guillebeau David Risley Penelope Trunk Chris Garrett…

  • The Opportunities Authors Might Miss

    chrisbrogan
    27 Dec 2009 | 7:59 am
    Over Christmas, I blazed through and finished the incredible steampunk book Leviathan (amazon affiliate link), by Scott Westerfeld. I loved it. It’s an alternate fantasy/sci-fi telling of the events of World War I, from the perspective of two young people. Technically, it’s a “young adult” book, meant to be read by teens. (Don’t let that discourage you. The best fiction seems to be coming out of this genre.) What came next is the part I want to talk about, and also the part that authors need to think about in the current world. The first thing I did after…
 
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    Lifehacker

  • Notepad GNU Boosts Basic Text Editing on Windows [Downloads]

    Kevin Purdy
    30 Dec 2009 | 5:00 am
    Windows: What's the most popular and powerful editor on Windows among text aficianados? Notepad++, by a hefty margin. Want something a smidge less menu-rich and, well, different? Notepad GNU is a very clever, open source alternative. Notepad GNU has a lot to recommend on its own, including optional background transparency, loads of HTML and other code-minded plug-ins, a menu that can quickly send a file to a browser or other app (even Notepad++), and all that text tweaking tools you need without the Office integration nonsense you don't. It doesn't offer everything that Notepad++ does, but…

  • Remains of the Day: Write an iPhone Game in an All-Nighter Edition [For What It's Worth]

    Kevin Purdy
    29 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Printer ink cost mores than blood, web-based programming can't help but make its way to your TV, and two journeyman iPhone developers show how to whip up a functional app in 12 hours. 12 Hours, 2 Guys, 6 Cups of Coffee, 1 iPhone App One's a marketing guy with a little code experience. The other's a developer with some business savvy. Put them together for a weekend, and they develop a clever decision-making iPhone app—and show you the nitty-gritty of how it's done. [Gizmodo] How to Watch Internet Videos on your TV - Bring the Web to your Living Room If you thought you only had a few…

  • Repurpose Old Furniture With LEGOs [Household]

    Lisa Hoover
    29 Dec 2009 | 3:00 pm
    If the idea of stripping and repainting an old table or bench bores you to tears, dress up the eyesore and entertain your inner child at the same time by covering over the entire surface with LEGOs. Take a cue from a Scandinavian design team who covered an entire kitchen island from IKEA in 20,000 LEGOs. It took a week—and, no doubt, a lot of patience—but the results are trippy and so very cool. Schlepping to the store to clean the shelves of every last box of LEGOs would be an expensive undertaking, but if you scour local garage sales and thrift stores, you can probably find bags…

  • Best Wallpaper Site: Interfacelift [Hive Five Followup]

    Jason Fitzpatrick
    29 Dec 2009 | 2:30 pm
    Customizing the interface of your computer is fun and changing the wallpaper is a simple way to freshen up your workspace. Earlier last week we asked you to share your favorite wallpaper site, then we rounded up the top five contenders for you to vote on. Now we're back to share the results of the Hive Five with you. Leading the pack with 36% of the vote was Interfacelift, a well stocked and popular wallpaper sharing site. Just slightly trailing Interfacelift with 32% of the vote was DeviantART Wallpaper, a site not initially conceived as a wallpaper sharing site but as a online nexus for…

  • Cook Pasta Faster and with Less Water [Food]

    Lisa Hoover
    29 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Most people use six or more quarts of water to boil pasta "because that's how it's always been done." What if you could get by with a lot less water and still have great noodles? Here's how. Photo by Jakob Montrasio. Grandma was a smart cookie, but she might not have given you the best advice when it comes to cooking pasta. Turns out it's not really necessary to use enough water to fill a bathtub just to make a couple servings of spaghetti. Food science wizard Harold McGee did some experimenting and discovered a pound of spaghetti cooks in as little as 1 1/2 quarts of water, as long as you…
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    Copyblogger

  • The Best of Copyblogger 2009

    Brian Clark
    29 Dec 2009 | 7:46 am
    You didn’t think we’d close out the year without a “Best of 2009” post, did you? Well, you’re not getting off that easy. Here’s the best Copyblogger content of the year, based on your enthusiasm via comments, links, retweets, and gratuitous offerings of produce-based holiday deserts. We thank you all for your continued support (even though we threw out the fruitcake, sorry). Let’s get started. The First Rule of Copyblogger – It’s a wonderful thing to wake up one morning, check the blog, and see that your Senior Editor has made a Fight Club reference that also establishes the…

  • Happy Holidays from Copyblogger!

    Brian Clark
    24 Dec 2009 | 12:25 pm
    Here’s to a safe and joyous holiday season for you and yours. In case you’re actually looking for something to read, here are some Copyblogger gems for your solstice surfing pleasure. Copywriting 101 Content Marketing 101 How to Write Magnetic Headlines SEO Copywriting 2.0 Landing Pages Turn Traffic Into Money Keyword Research for Bloggers Internet Marketing for Smart People (free 20-part course and newsletter) See you next year!

  • Five Smart Things You Can Still Do in 2009

    Sonia Simone
    24 Dec 2009 | 8:10 am
    Copyblogger is about to go on our annual holiday hiatus. We’ll be taking a break from posting while we catch up, get rested, and get excited about what we’ve got in store for you in 2010. You may be taking a little time off yourself. Or you may still be going into the office, but the last week of the year is often a time when routine tasks slow down or stop altogether. So what’s the smartest, most productive use you could make of the next seven days? Here are five ideas that will let you take what some people think of as “dead time” and use it to jump start your year in 2010. Doing…

  • How to Make a Living as a Social Media Rock Star Writer

    Sonia Simone
    23 Dec 2009 | 10:38 am
    Earlier this year, Brian and I created a course called Freelance X Factor. It was designed for the “typical” Copyblogger reader. (Smart, interested in writing, pretty savvy about social media . . . but possibly “not there yet” when it comes to packaging all of that up and turning it into income.) The course is designed to give you a “business model in a box,” to take what you’re great at and start using it to make a better living. Our focus was to take social media writers and turn them into effective businesspeople. While we were at it, we included a lot of content…

  • 5 Lessons Learned from a List to Santa (All of Them Can Make You Money)

    Sean Platt
    23 Dec 2009 | 7:05 am
    In the eight Christmases since life changed my name to Dad, Santa’s list has never been more important. In our house, the tradition is that each child requests a single gift from the big guy. The problem is, this year both kids asked for something a little beyond Santa’s typical reach. Fortunately, my wife and I have learned enough about persuasion and selling to turn our trip to the store into an opportunity to keep the magic alive a little longer. It’s important to me that Santa deliver what they ask for. My kids are five and seven, and still believe. I’d like to preserve that bit…
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    Macworld

  • Review: Notecards for iPhone

    30 Dec 2009 | 5:29 am
    For basic self quizzes and reviews, this flashcard app gets the job done -- especially when you use it in tandem with its free desktop companion app.

  • 2009 in review: The year in digital photo

    30 Dec 2009 | 5:00 am
    We look back at the biggest photography news of 2009 and take a peek at what's in store for 2010.

  • Review: AOC L42H961 HDTV

    30 Dec 2009 | 4:30 am
    The 42-inch AOC Envision L42H961 LCD struggles with fast-motion content, but is otherwise a decent no-frills TV at a rock-bottom price.

  • 2009 in review: The year for creatives

    30 Dec 2009 | 4:00 am
    The Mac creative community saw positive changes and developments in 2009 and we look forward to innovations in the new year.

  • Review: Order Pizza for iPhone

    29 Dec 2009 | 2:03 pm
    The technology behind this pizza ordering app is impressive. But anything other than simple orders causes it to falter.
 
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    Photoshop Insider Blog By Scott Kelby

  • Tuesday News Rodeo (Lite edition)

    Scott
    28 Dec 2009 | 10:22 pm
    Photoshop Pranks! The new episode of Photoshop User TV (which goes live some time today), is our year-end episode, and rather than doing the usual stuff, we foolishly decided to instead share our all-time favorite Photoshop pranks (ya know—stuff you can do to co-workers and friends copies of Photoshop so it kind of drives them insane, slowly. Painfully. Hilariously). That part is actually pretty cool, but after that, Dave and Matt went on to reprise the dramatic conclusion of “As The Snowman Turns” which…well…you just have to watch it, but be forewarned—-the acting…

  • My “New Year’s Week” Blogging Schedule (or lack thereof)

    Scott
    28 Dec 2009 | 10:15 pm
    I’m using this week’s holiday as a springboard to a few days off, so here’s the schedule for this week: Wednesday Yup, we gave our Guest Bloggers the Holiday off, so tomorrow there’s no guest blog, but fear not—the Guest Blogger program is alive and well, and firing back up on the first week of the year, with some all new faces, and some old friends, too. Thursday It’s New Years Eve and you know what that means? That’s right, the day before a Holiday which is reason enough for me to sluff off and take a day off, so it’s No Blog Thursday. Friday It’s New Years Day, and…

  • Anything Cool Under Your Tree?

    Scott
    27 Dec 2009 | 9:55 pm
    Hi everybody. Welcome back, and I hope you guys had an awesome Christmas!!!! If you’re wondering about the camera gear I got for Christmas, well…. here’s the thing: I didn’t get any. None. Zippo. Zilch! I must be really hard to buy for when it comes to camera gear, because most everybody got me guitar gear instead (my buddy Dave got me a new practice amp for the house, my wife got me a guitar, and my buddy Rod got me a Guitar Center gift card, and I loved ‘em all!!!). My kids had a ball, and their enthusiasm, gratefulness and overall Christmas spirit really made…

  • Merry Christmas (from some very special friends)

    Scott
    24 Dec 2009 | 9:05 pm
    I got this card from the Springs of Hope Orphanage in Kenya and thought you guys would really enjoy it on this Christmas Day. May your Christmas be filled with love and laughter, and may your home by filled with peace, health, and happiness in the New Year. Merry Christmas!!!!! -Scott

  • An Unexpected Christmas Song From My Wife, Kalebra

    Scott
    23 Dec 2009 | 9:22 pm
    Below is an audio clip of “The Christmas Song,” made by my wife on her iPhone (that’s her and I above at Vegas Photoshop World—photo by Mike Kubeisy), using her iPhone’s built-in Recorder App (which is normally used for making voice memos), but how it came to be is what makes it special (and it’s why I asked my wife if I could run this on my blog today). Here’s the story behind it, which I copied and pasted  from an email my wife sent to one of her friends. Here it is in her own words: Kira [our 3-1/2 year old daughter] is constantly playing with the…
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    ReadWriteWeb

  • 10 Things You Need for Your Social Media Road Trip

    30 Dec 2009 | 12:44 am
    Ever since two friends and I staged a two-week jaunt around the Midwest to attend a great new conference earlier this year, I've been more and more aware of a growing trend: the social media road trip. While on the road this year, I've come upon long-term social media road warriors such as Mark Simonds of the Twitter Road Trip, brand ambassadors such as Sara Lopez and conference-hoppers such as Dave Delaney. I think we've all heard about Tara Hunt's widely publicized karaoke/book promo tour. There's even a SxSWi session about the phenomenon this spring. For folks intent on packing up the…

  • Twitter 2.0: API Rate Change Could Lead to a World of New Apps & Features

    29 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm
    One of the best things about Twitter is its wildly creative ecosystem of applications built by people outside the company. Those apps have been constrained, though, by technical limits imposed on retrieving data from Twitter. Those limits are just about to be raised much higher and developers tell us that a whole new world of applications and features may become possible. Twitter's Director of Platform Ryan Sarver followed up on earlier public announcements this weekend with an email to developers explaining plans to raise the limit on the number of times an application can request…

  • iPhones Share Data with SwapKit Protocol

    29 Dec 2009 | 5:55 pm
    Emanuele Vulcano is making waves with his latest Infinite Labs release. The grad student recently released SwapKit - a new iPhone OS exchange protocol that allows developers to share data between locally installed iPhone apps. Sponsor SwapKit is a unique protocol in that it allows developers to transcend the walls of the iPhone OS and pluck information from across a local network. In his own Mover application, Vulcano allows iPhone app users to add photos, videos or contacts to Mover's table. From here you can slide your various forms of media to nearby Mover app users. The result is a…

  • Sprixi Makes Searching for Free Photos Smart, Fast and Painless

    29 Dec 2009 | 4:20 pm
    Looking to spruce up that bland PowerPoint presentation for your next meeting with possible investors? Or do you need high-quality photographs for your product's homepage or blog? Lifehacker recently profiled Sprixi, a free use image search engine, is an excellent source for finding just the right image to add those finishing touches. Developed by Sydney, Australia-based company Thirsty Minds, Sprixi crawls Flickr and OpenClipArt.org for images licensed under Creative Commons and implements a user-based recommendation system to produce relevant results. While viewing photos, you can tell…

  • The Perils of 3rd Party APIs

    29 Dec 2009 | 3:00 pm
    In 2006, Flickr co-founder Caterina Fake coined the term "BizDev 2.0" when looking at the phenomenon of supplying commercial API keys to startup partners. Said Fake, traditional business development meant "trying to get hopelessly overbooked people to return your email. And then after the deal was done, squabbling over who dealt with the customer service. [It's] much, much better this way!" Three years later, many are finding that while APIs are great biz dev tools for the larger provider, startups can often suffer under the thumb of their platform keepers. Sponsor In November ReadWriteStart…
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    Smashing Magazine

  • Stunning Fireworks Photos

    Vailancio Rodrigues
    30 Dec 2009 | 5:31 am
      It is a most beautiful experience — the sounds and colors of fireworks in the silence and darkness of night. Words alone cannot describe such an experience. The sky comes alive with so many vibrant hues, starbursts, and showers of light along with ribbons of smoke, making us happy and awestruck. Photographing fireworks, however, is not an easy task.To celebrate the beauty of fireworks, we present a showcase of beautiful fireworks photography. Each image is linked to the original photographer’s page with their profile names — so you can view more of their work or…

  • Smashing Highlights 2009

    Smashing Editorial
    29 Dec 2009 | 5:52 am
      2009 was a very successful year for Smashing Magazine. It was a year of ambitious goals and an intense time schedule, which brought many changes over the past year. In 2009 we published more posts than ever (on average, 8 posts per week). We broadened our areas of interest: for instance, we explored freelancing and the business side of web development, but also tackled user interface design and mobile web design. We also discovered new formats, such as the “Global Web Design” series and Q&A-Sessions — unfortunately, the latter (the Ask SM series with Chris…

  • How Many Ideas Do You Show Your Clients?

    Graham Smith
    28 Dec 2009 | 2:12 am
      I read somewhere that showing your client the full range of your creative ideas during a project is important, the rationale being that the client is entitled to see the ideas coming from the creative professional who they have hired and invested in. While this approach has some benefits, in some cases showing too many ideas is counter-productive to the natural flow of a project. Proof of how imaginative you are can be shown in other ways.Spoilt For ChoiceScenario 1You look at your Illustrator pasteboard and see half a dozen cool logo ideas… not just cool, but…

  • Yummy! Free Food and Cakes Icon Set

    Smashing Editorial
    24 Dec 2009 | 5:58 am
      Today we are glad to release something extremely tasty — Yummy Icon Set, a set with 20 beautiful, original and sweet icons in resolutions 48×48px – 128×128px and formats .png, .ico, .incs and .tif. Also, the vector source (.eps) is available for free download as well. This set was designed by our friends Iconeden and released for Smashing Magazine and its readers.Download the icon set for free!You can use the set for all of your projects for free and without any restrictions. You can freely use it for both your private and commercial projects, including…

  • Design Something Every Day!

    Jad Limcaco
    22 Dec 2009 | 4:10 am
      As designers, we’re all trying to get better at what we do. We surf the Web daily for hours trying to find useful tips and tricks to enhance our design skills. But what if we spent less time surfing the Web looking for inspiration and more time creating and designing things?The ChallengeSomeone once said, “Practice makes perfect“. While that statement might not be completely true, I do believe that practice makes you better. That is why in this blog post, I would like to propose something to every designer: Why not try to design something every day for one…
 
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    Strobist

  • Hunkered Down, and 2010-Bound

    27 Dec 2009 | 1:30 pm
    The twenty three inches of snow we got last week is melting fast after hanging around for a week. But I have figured out how to put the remaining mounds to good use: We now have a rather large-ish, walk-out Diet Mtn. Dew refrigerator.The caffeine will be timely and appreciated, as I am spending the week in The Cave trying to knock off my first of three, blog-related New Year's resolutions. More on that in a few days -- hopefully.But before we head into 2010, one last look at some of my favorite stuff from Strobist in 2009, in case you missed it the first time. (Windows will open in a new…

  • Christmas Lights and Lighting Christmas

    23 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    So, we're definitely gonna have a white Christmas here in Maryland. We are buried in snow, with the high between now and Christmas only hitting the mid 30's. That stuff ain't goin' nowhere.I took advantage of the first pristine evening to do a twilight photo of our house with the Christmas lights, right out of the tutorial that was referenced last week.Twilight is the magic hour when it all comes together. And the snow is an added bonus, making large, formerly black areas in the photo very easy to compress tonally. You can underexpose it by a full three stops and it is still a rich medium…

  • On Assignment: Photography for Social Media

    20 Dec 2009 | 9:00 pm
    I have been getting a new type of assignment over the last few months that I would have never anticipated even a year ago: Shooting corporate headshots and portraits specifically designed to be used in social media.If you are a photographer who is savvy with Facebook and Twitter, you might do well to hook up with forward-thinking people who are heavy users of social media sites. More, inside.__________Ahead of the CurveFor me, the first thought of social media headshots was in an email exchange a while back with fellow blogger Ben Popken. He was sporting a cooler-than-thou avatar pic, and I…

  • DIY Awesomeness: Level-Headed Light Stand Mod

    19 Dec 2009 | 12:55 pm
    We love Reuben Krabbe's lazy-leg light stand mod so much we will be more than happy to help pimp his blatant appeal for new followers on Twitter and Facebook.This mod is designed for a standard light stand. But for those of you who use compact, 5-section light stands, remember that they work differently because of the 180-degree leg-fold design. Just eyeballing it, my thinking is that the extra holes on the leg -- going further down the leg -- would have to be spaced much tighter than two inches. (Half an inch, maybe?) I'd line it up and check the angles before drilling. Also, you might have…

  • "Donner, Party of Four, Please…"

    19 Dec 2009 | 11:18 am
    We are snowbound here at Strobist World Headquarters, 14 inches into a forecast two feet of snow. The whole Mideast Atlantic is getting pummeled. I'm an indoor cat today, not at all missing the mandatory snow art assignment at The Sun. We are (I hope) sufficiently stocked up on food, and cracking the occasional "Modest Proposal" sub-reference around the kids. They remain clueless as to why we think that's funny.Happy to be snuggled up near the fire and working on an OA post for next week. If you are traveling -- in any form -- on the East Coast today, please do so carefully.-30- __________
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    The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

  • Our Favorite Apps: Stuff that stayed on our phones in 2009

    Erica Sadun
    29 Dec 2009 | 6:00 pm
    Filed under: Features, iPhone, App ReviewAs the year draws to a close, we thought we'd shine a spotlight on some of the favorite apps we used this year. These are the "sticky" apps, the ones that lingered on our iPhones after we gave them a preliminary spin. There's so much on the App Store, good, bad and indifferent; here are a few suggestions for items that deserve your attention. iAssociate [$1.99Hugely challenging and long-term fun, this Funny-Farm-style game makes you brainstorm out associations from a core word or phrase. (Original TUAW review) -- Erica Sadun TrailGuru [Free] Not a…

  • 'I'm on a Mac' parody video makes noise

    Mike Schramm
    29 Dec 2009 | 5:00 pm
    Filed under: Humor, Odds and ends, Music It's just incredible how fast some things can transmit themselves around the ol' blogosphere -- when I first saw this silly parody song video over on Laughing Squid last night, I chuckled and figured I'd share it for you all on TUAW the next day. But of course since then it's been all over the place. For a silly parody of a song that was already a silly parody, it's really gotten around. Just in case you haven't seen it, it's now posted after the "read more" link below (put there because while there isn't actually any NSFW language in the video, there…

  • 'iGuide' another rumored tablet/service name from Apple

    Mike Schramm
    29 Dec 2009 | 4:00 pm
    Filed under: Rumors, Odds and ends, iTunes, Apple"iSlate" isn't the only less-than-exciting name that Apple may be considering for their rumored upcoming tablet release. MacRumors has uncovered another possible trademarked name for the new device: iGuide. They found what appears to be a shell company created by Apple a while back (December 2007, around the same time that the iSlate trademark was filed) designed to trademark the name "iGuide" for a new device or service. The purpose of said service? To browse, transmit and play many types of multimedia content, including videos, audio, movies,…

  • Welcome to Macintosh to air on CNBC on January 4th, 2010

    Steven Sande
    29 Dec 2009 | 3:00 pm
    Filed under: Macworld, Odds and ends, Blast From the Past, Apple History If you missed Macworld Expo 2009 in San Francisco last January, then you probably missed the premiere showing of Welcome to Macintosh, an indie documentary that provides an intimate look at Apple's history. It's been shown at different times and places over the past year, and you can also buy it from iTunes, but now you can watch the documentary for free. On Monday, January 4th, 2010 at 9:30 PM ET, CNBC is broadcasting the documentary for the first time on a major network. Welcome to Macintosh features interviews with…

  • The App Store Expense Monitor: Be scared. Be very scared.

    David Winograd
    29 Dec 2009 | 2:00 pm
    Filed under: Software, iTunes, iPhone, iPod touch I know that we're between Christmas and New Years, but it seemed more like Halloween when I checked out The App Store Expense Monitor from WetFish Software. It scared the Yuletide right out of me, taking me from Ho Ho Ho to OMG No!!! This free Mac application looks into your iTunes library, finds the apps you bought under all iTunes accounts on your computer, searches for the current prices of the app, and then gives you the bad news in some detail. It's scary how all those innocent little $.99 US charges add up, but it might not be as bad as…
 
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    Digital Photography School

  • 4 Practice Techniques to Develop Photographic Observation

    Christina N Dickson
    29 Dec 2009 | 6:09 am
    The greatest skill of a talented photographer is not how accurate he or she can be with exposure; it’s not being spot on with all of the tech details, or putting out thousands of images a week. The greatest skill any photographer can hope to possess is that of observation. Observation will define your work. It will give life and breath to the stories you capture and the beauty you create. Observation will be the difference between an average photo and a captivating photo; between an image that is a visual picture, and one that speaks to it’s audience in the most audible ways.

  • Tips on Early Morning Photography

    Barrie Smith
    28 Dec 2009 | 6:32 am
    A Guest Post by Simon Davidson. As all photographers know, there are two times of day when the light is most ideal for capturing breathtaking images, sunrise and sunset. The reason being is because at these times the angle between the sun and the earth’s surface is small which allows for the sunlight to flow over the landscape in a way that intensifies the colours of nature and also creates spectacular shadows. All in all, it is a photographers dream land! Planning For Your Early Morning Shoot: Below are a couple of pointers that will help you effectively plan for your upcoming sunrise…

  • WIN an Educational DVD Set from DPS and Celebrity Photographer Mike Colón!

    Natalie Norton
    27 Dec 2009 | 6:50 am
    This year has been a wonderful one here at Digital Photography School.  We’ve literally been reaching photographers around the globe.  We’re so grateful to all of you faithful readers and members of the Digital Photography School Forum!  As a way to tell you just how much we love you, we’ve coupled with photographer extraordinaire Mike Colón to give a MEGA gift to one lucky DPS reader.  Just comment for your chance to win (see our simple rules below) an educational DVD set including the following popular resources from Colón (retail value of $1,000 usd)! 1.  The…

  • This Week in the Digital Photography School Forums (9-23 Dec ‘09)

    Sime
    26 Dec 2009 | 4:46 pm
    Weekly Assignment With the festive season (whatever that may be to you) upon us – this weeks assignment was “Holiday Memories” So it was only fair that we had Santa come in and judge it for us, right? Well, we couldn’t get hold of him, so our awesome moderators have chosen for you and have come up with this weeks top three entries! We’ve given First place to BryanC with his set-up shot of “Milk & Cookies” that you can see to your left. Well done BryanC! It was a tough choice with so many entries! Second place goes to KidAtHeart with (what we…

  • Share Your Best Holiday Shots Here

    Darren Rowse
    25 Dec 2009 | 6:41 am
    Image by garlaandcannon I suspect that over the past 24 hours that many of us have taken more photos than we normally would in a whole month. It seems like a shame not to see some of them – so I invite you to share your very best 2-3 in comments below. Once you’ve taken your photos – choose your best ones, upload them to your favourite photo sharing site either share a link to them even better – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so. Looking forward to seeing how people around the world are celebrating (and recording) the holiday period this week!
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    Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

  • Presets – How to Steal a Preset and Make it Your Own

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    28 Dec 2009 | 7:28 am
    First off, I hope you had a Merry Christmas weekend. I had a great time with my family and, of course, my kids got way too much stuff. Anyone else have in-laws that, even though you try to moderate how much you buy your kids (sorry, that Santa brings your kids), they still go out and buy crazy amounts of gifts for them? Its all good though and they had a blast which is what counts. Anyway, its a vacation week for me but I had an idea for a quick article so I wanted to write about it. Its about stealing. Yep, I said it. Stealing! A while back there was a bit of controversy about a little…

  • Q&A – Plug-in Follow Up

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    22 Dec 2009 | 6:52 am
    The other week I wrote about my all time favorite plug-in of 2009 and asked for your opinions as well. As I read through the comments I saw a lot of questions pop up so I figured I'd cover them today. Here goes: Q. Lightroom has plug-ins? Did I miss this because I'm still on version 1? A. Yup! And I gotta tell you. There is not an upgrade of software that I know of in our field that is a no-brainer more than Lightroom 2 over 1. So if you're still holding out, get it! :) Q. Matt, will you do a plug-in workflow video? A. That's actually a pretty good idea. Its not going to be revolutionary…

  • Adobe Updates Lightroom 2.6 and ACR 5.6

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    18 Dec 2009 | 8:23 am
    Just a quick FYI. Adobe has released Lightroom 2.6 and Adobe Camera Raw 5.6 today. They're basically updates for new camera so if you fall into that category (Nikon D3s, Canon 7D, etc...) then you'll want to check it out. Also, a quick note for all the Lightroom 3 beta users out there. This update does not update the Lightroom 3 beta. Its only for Lightroom 2. You can find out more and download the update over at Adobe's website. Bookmark It

  • Tip: Black and Whites…Difference Between RAW and JPEG

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    18 Dec 2009 | 6:52 am
    I know that most of us using Lightroom probably shoot raw most of the time. But I'm constantly importing photos from my point-and-shoot as well and those aren't i the raw format. Plus, I'll typically work with photos my family takes and they're DEFINITELY not in the raw format. So when it comes to black and whites this tip is kinda important. See, if you import a RAW photo into Lightroom, it automatically adds contrast to the photo as part of Lightroom’s RAW conversion process. (If you look in the Tone Curve panel you’ll see that Medium Contrast is selected in the pop-up menu.) However,…

  • Presets – The Cutting Edge

    jgilbert@photoshopuser.com (Matt Kloskowski)
    15 Dec 2009 | 7:01 am
    Its preset time again. This week I've got an one with an edgy feel to it. You'll see it works perfectly for photos like the sample below. Its a little desaturated in nature with some extra exposure and a few other things packed in there. One quick note about the preset that I found was that you'll probably need to tweak the Exposure setting the most. Depending on the brightness (or lack thereof) of the photo, I found the Exposure setting to be something I had to change significantly for just about everything. I left it pretty bright though since that's the whole point of the preset is a very…
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    MacRumors iPhone Blog

  • iPhone Continues Strong Sales in France

    29 Dec 2009 | 10:38 am
    French newspaper Le Figaro reports [Google translation] (via 9 to 5 Mac) on the success of the iPhone in France, where observers have previously looked to as an example for the market share growth possible in transitioning from exclusive carrier arra...

  • China Unicom Passes 300,000 iPhones Sold

    29 Dec 2009 | 7:09 am
    iPhonAsia.com reports on news from Chinese site TechQQ [Google translation] that China Unicom has now sold 300,000 iPhones in that country. The milestone marks a significant acceleration of sales for China Unicom after it sold only 5,000 iPhones dur...

  • MacRumors: O2 Apologizes for Wireless Network Performance Issues in London

    29 Dec 2009 | 6:56 am
    U.S. exclusive iPhone carrier AT&T has received significant criticism for its apparent difficulties in maintaining network performance under heavy demands from iPhone users, but it appears that it is not alone in its struggles. The Financial Times r...

  • iHologram - For Real This Time

    29 Dec 2009 | 2:08 am
    iPhone developer Jormy just submitted their latest app to the App Store. This is an actual implementation of the iHologram concept that we posted about back in 2008. The app uses the iPhone 3GS's compass feature to dynamically change ...

  • MacRumors: Apple's Quarterly iPhone and Overall Sales Estimates Continue to Rise

    28 Dec 2009 | 1:31 pm
    Just two weeks ago, a suggestion that Apple could sell 10 million iPhones during the current quarter began to make its way around the Mac investor and rumor communities. At the time, the claim was significantly higher than analysts' consensus in the...
 
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    Joe McNally's Blog

  • Memories of Christmas Gifts Past….

    Joe McNally
    28 Dec 2009 | 7:23 am
    Hope everyone is having a great bunch of holidays. We had a houseful of people Christmas Day. 20 folks, all hungry. Annie did an amazing meal, and I didn’t blow the barbecue end of the deal, thankfully. That was ’cause my sister Rosemary ran the grill basically, and I just did what she told me to do. (Thus proving that a knuckle dragger like me can listen even when standing at the grill, where usually the sheer raging din of testosterone drowns out all rational thought and conversation and all that is heard is a series of hoots, clicks and grunts.) We had lots and lots of family…

  • Kandra and One Light…

    Joe McNally
    22 Dec 2009 | 4:23 am
    I work with Kelby Media a bunch, and, as I have said before, they are like family. So much so, the intrepid Scriv, their videographer, volunteered his lovely wife Kandra for a shoot we did not too long ago. (Why do guys persist in doing this to their women? Putting them on the spot? What part of “Honey, I don’t like surprises,” can’t we figure out? The phrase, “I don’t think that would be a good idea,” doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation, really. And it’s often uttered, methinks. Might be right up there with, “Thanks for…

  • Whadja Do This Weekend?

    Joe McNally
    14 Dec 2009 | 2:51 am
    For me, it was a shoot fest. I was part of a three shooter team that went in on an event this weekend and just didn’t stop. Collectively, shot roughly 265 gigs.  I’m knackered, so not much of a blog for Monday, but will catch up a bit by mid week. Just got word, actually via Scott Kelby’s blog, that The Moment It Clicks was cited by Professional Photographer as a “Hot One” for 2009. I did not know this was happening. But then again all of 2009 happened while I was finishing my rough draft of the early 90’s, so CNN needn’t be threatened by my news…

  • Numnuts Goes to Space….

    Joe McNally
    10 Dec 2009 | 6:28 am
    A few folks were interested in the a sketch of the light grid for the hyperwall deal of yesterday, so made a quick Iphone pic of the above. Now, when the figures are silhouetted against the screens, the foreground lighting (the 2 units on left) are off, and you get real mood and saturation. When you need to see what’s going on the in the foreground, the other two units crank up. One is for the face, and one is for the ground, which is important to see, otherwise the guy just….floats….in….space….. Easy to trigger the whole deal by just bouncing the commander…

  • A Pointing Picture!

    Joe McNally
    9 Dec 2009 | 4:38 am
    Always wanted to have one of these published:-) Actually, I’m pretty happy with the picture, and my editor at the Geographic, Bill Douthitt, made a good pick here. The jazzy looking thing in the photo is NASA’s  Hyperwall-2, a conglomeration of 128 hi def screens all linked together via a main frame computer the size of Arizona and spinning out coordinated images of the galaxy. The huge telescopes at play now generate tons of information every night on ever deeper areas of space, and this device is one way scientists can actually visualize the info these puppies are generating. I…
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    CNN: Top Stories

  • Governor wounded in deadly Iraq blast

    30 Dec 2009 | 4:45 am
    Two back-to-back explosions in western Iraq's Anbar province on Wednesday killed at least eight people and wounded 20 others, including the provincial governor, the interior ministry said.

  • Iran opposition leader's nephew buried

    30 Dec 2009 | 4:34 am
    The nephew of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi was buried Wednesday, three days after he was killed in anti-government demonstrations.

  • Blue moon to shine on New Year's Eve

    30 Dec 2009 | 4:31 am
    It happens only once in a blue moon -- and scientists say a blue moon is exactly what we'll see in the skies this New Year's Eve.

  • TSA extends expanded airline security

    29 Dec 2009 | 11:30 pm
    The Transportation Security Administration extended through at least Wednesday heightened security measures in the aftermath of a failed attempt to blow up a U.S. jetliner, the agency said.

  • Big names left off Pro Bowl rosters

    29 Dec 2009 | 9:15 pm
    After the Pro Bowl rosters were announced Tuesday evening, I asked three of those who were honored which players were snubbed in the voting. Shockingly, each of them said, "No one."
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    Planet Photoshop

  • Before and After in Camera Raw

    Web Editor
    29 Dec 2009 | 6:15 am
    As you work on a photo in Camera Raw, you’re undoubtedly going to want to see what it looks like in comparison to the original. Well, Camera Raw doesn’t really have a side-by-side preview, but here’s the next best thing: When you’re in Camera Raw, there’s a Preview checkbox at the top right of the [...]

  • Turn Layers into Separate Documents

    Web Editor
    28 Dec 2009 | 6:15 am
    If you’ve created a multi-layered document and you’d like to create separate documents from those layers, there’s an automated way to do this.  From the File menu, choose Scripts>Export Layers to Files.  A dialog will appear offering you many options, including which format you want to use, file naming, etc.

  • Holiday Greetings From Planet Photoshop!

    Corey Barker
    25 Dec 2009 | 12:39 pm

  • Applying a Layer Style to a Layer Group

    Web Editor
    25 Dec 2009 | 6:15 am
    You can apply a layer style to a layer group. Simply convert the layer group to a Smart Object by clicking on the group, then choosing Convert to Smart Object from the Layers panel’s flyout menu, and all of the layer styles will be available to you.

  • Grouping multiple layers in a Layer Group

    Web Editor
    24 Dec 2009 | 6:15 am
    Layer groups are a great way to collect multiple layers into one set and manipulate them. Rather than creating one set and dragging all of the layers into the set, select all of the layers first. Once the layers are selected, press-and-hold the Shift key and click on the Create a New Group icon at [...]
 
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