Month: October 2008

So we've been told that the writers of next year's Star Trek reboot want to "bring more Star Wars" to Gene Rodenberry's brightly-colored vision of America's interstellar tomorrow. But what does that actually mean? We've given it some thought and come up with five ways in which the crew of the Enterprise should model themselves after Luke Skywalker, C3-PO and company.

136-weird-ad-slogans.gif (GIF Image, 500×1204 pixels)

Home – Make money for your video clips! Lesspulp is the only way to get your original videos clips to the people who can make you money for them! Upload, tag and share your videos worldwide and get paid for them! – Lesspulp – The original clips from the original creators.

It's an epidemic. It can strike anyone. It begins harmlessly enough… maybe with a cell phone, an online social network profile, or an IM. But before long, the electronic screens invade every corner of your life. There's a name for this tragic and extremely annoying condition: Screen Addiction. But there is hope. Send an intervention to someone you care about! Help them take the first step towards recovery.

Internet advertising is a strange beast. Some of the most popular ads play directly off our insecurities – that we’re fat, that we’re lonely, or that our penis is far too small. The immediate emotional response to what basically amounts to a controlled insult online can gall you into the all important “click” of the ad. While this emotional manipulation is effective, it doesn’t give you the ability to completely half ass your campaign and still expect no one to call you on it. I saw this ad online recently:

Blues Traveler Tabs , Blues Traveler Chords Please, support Blues Traveler

How to Advertise Windows Vista (comic)

Dear AOL Journals user, We're sorry to inform you that on Oct. 31, 2008, AOL® Journals will be shut down permanently. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. It is very important that you save your Journals content before the shutdown. We're working on a way to easily move your Journal to another blogging service — you can expect an email within the next week with more details about how to do it. We want the transition to go as smoothly as possible for you, so you'll have two choices. You can either save your information manually and find another place to blog on your own, or let us handle the migration for you and automatically transfer your Journal to a different blogging service. In the meantime, please bookmark the People Connection Blog, where you can find out more about AOL Journals. You can also subscribe to the People Connection Blog RSS feed to stay informed about any changes. We'll be updating the People Connection Blog often, so please

Dear AOL Hometown and Journal's users, Soon you will be receiving an e-mail providing additional information about Hometown/FTP and Journals. Both of these experiences are closing their doors. Please read the following blog entries to learn more about AOL Hometown/FTP and AOL Journals.

FFFFOUND! | z5670628O.jpg (JPEG Image, 1853×1118 pixels) – Scaled (89%)

It is difficult to find a web development language today which is as misunderstood as XHTML. In the following article we’ll examine why, sort out a few concepts that frequently confuse authors, and offer practical suggestions on real–life XHTML usage. The intended audience for this article are those developers who consider using XHTML for the first time, but also authors and content producers who wants to learn more about the topic of extensible markup languages.

With the shape of the economy and ever changing gas prices, online shopping may end up growing even faster than some have predicted. If your business hasn’t added an online shopping cart yet, why not? The technology has been around for years now, and there are solutions for just about every skill level: you can do it yourself, outsource the work, pay companies for hosting, or even turn a WordPress blog into a simple shopping cart using plugins. Here are over 35 shopping cart solutions for your business. Does your company already use a shopping cart solution? Tell us about your experience with it in the comments.

The photographer’s worst nightmare: being hauled out from behind the lens and forced to stand in front of a camera. Why must people photograph us? Yes, photographers are adorable, and yes, we have unparalleled style. But we are shy, and we prefer to hide behind our cameras like frightened woodland creatures behind large trees. Still, people do insist on taking our pictures. So, what to do when you can’t avoid being photographed? Stand tall and follow our tips for instant photogenicity.

Network Solutions lies like George Bush on an aircraft carrier. Or Bill Clinton about his sex life (just to be non-partisan about it). You can't pin any of them down, but you know damned well they're pulling a fast one. I got an e-mail from a client today asking: "Why should we pay you $5,000 a month for SEO when Network Solutions will guarantee us top 10 for $400?"

Stack Overflow is a collaboratively edited question and answer site for programmers — regardless of platform or language. Jump in and share your software engineering expertise! No registration or account required.

Learn how the combined value of search engine marketing tools with email marketing from Constant Contact® can enable you to attract, connect and grow your customer base.

In June I joined Network Solutions. As I said back then, Shashi’s enthusiasm for their social media efforts was contagious. Shashi & Network Solutions made a commitment to engage with their customers online. The conversation was already happening… While Shashi was on vacation I learned more about his story in an interview on the NetSol blog that highlights the person who encouraged him internally. Last fall I met Shashi when he reached out to me in search of resources to convince management to add a Community Manager position. Network Solutions is now growing that program.

I'm not sure if they care or if they more concerned with damage control, but Network Solutions actually responded to a negative twitter post I made today. I really got a kick out of it, but since they are an online company it's nice to see that they are utilizing social media from a brand control standpoint.

Retro and vintage are becoming a new trend. Once rarely used in this robust, dynamic medium, early, retro and vintage elements are now becoming more and more popular in a variety of design contexts. Online shops, corporate designs, portfolios and blogs incorporate both styles on a small and large scale. When applying “old-style” elements to their works, designers produce creative and appealing designs that make their websites stand out and look really different. As a matter of fact, if executed carefully, such designs almost never look boring, although one might intuitively think that the opposite would be the case. Retro and vintage designs exhibit graphic solutions that are strongly influenced by the time period that they are supposed to represent. While retro focuses on the style of the 1910s to 1930s, vintage recalls the time period between the 1950s and 1980s. In both cases, design elements reflect some old-fashioned motifs, trends,

CHICAGO – Using a fan to circulate air seemed to lower the risk of sudden infant death syndrome in a study of nearly 500 babies, researchers reported Monday. Placing babies on their backs to sleep is the best advice for preventing SIDS, a still mysterious cause of death. Experts also recommend a firm mattress, removing toys and pillows from cribs, and keeping infants from getting too warm. Such practices helped slash U.S. SIDS deaths by more than half over a decade to about 2,100 in 2003. But SIDS remains the leading cause of death in infants ages 1 month to 1 year. "The baby's sleeping environment really matters," said study senior author Dr. De-Kun Li of the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif. "This seems to suggest that by improving room ventilation we can further reduce risk."

It’s always the simple things that get me. OK, maybe you don’t find that equation as fascinating as I do. But I also get distracted by shiny objects and Wheel of Fortune.

These are common in desktop applications when a program needs an important decision made. They are becoming more and more popular in web applications thanks to the JavaScript “light box” (or one of it’s other many pseudonyms). Undeniably, they are overused. However, there are circumstances where modal boxes make sense and are used effectively to focus a users attention to the important task at hand. In some situations, logging into a website is one of these important tasks.

At a moment's glance this picture could be the real Big Ben. But then you notice the hand below and the incredible optical illusion is revealed. Tourist Michael Hughes today unveiled his extraordinary holiday snaps of the world's famous landmarks – perfectly blended with cheap souvenirs. Michael, 56, stumbled across his unusual technique in 1998 and has perfected it after travelling to hundreds of famous sights. His series of stunning photos include a Golden Gate fridge magnet slotted ideally into the San Francisco landscape.

All of these are companies that didn't spend quite enough time considering how their online names might appear – and be misread…

Social bookmarking is a powerful tool in promoting a website. But going through all of those social bookmarking sites is very time-consuming and downloading all toolbars is madness! That's where SocialMarker.com comes in, the free service designed to reduce the time and effort needed to socially bookmark a website.

When Carrie Fisher says she’s seen it all, she isn’t kidding. Born into Tinseltown royalty (the daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds), she achieved instant celebrity in the ’70s as a certain be-bunned princess in the original “Star Wars” films. She’s been romantically linked with the likes of Paul Simon and Dan Aykroyd, penned four novels and is one of Hollywood’s top script doctors. But Fisher’s also spent much of her life battling drug addiction and bipolar disorder, and has seen more than her share of loss and heartache. She’s channeled it all, good and bad, into “Wishful Drinking,” an autobiographical one-woman show that comes to the BU Theatre starting Wednesday, courtesy of the Huntington Theatre Company. Calling from Washington, D.C., Fisher dished about mental illness, creativity, fame and why it’s OK if she never lives down that infamous metal bikini.

LifeLines records are stored in GEDCOM format; you organize, edit and maintain your data in this format. GEDCOM is a standard that defines a file format for moving genealogical data between computer systems. LifeLines has adopted this format for structuring the records in its databases. This approach provides a structured yet flexible method for storing all the data you wish to record. There are few restrictions on the format, amount or type of information you may store in a LifeLines database. GEDCOM is defined at two levels. At the syntactic level GEDCOM is a simple set of rules for organizing and structuring data into records, with no concern about the types of records, types or formats of information in the records, or the relationships between records.

Brains and charm are fine, but a real guy needs to know how to do real stuff. After months of debate among PM’s expert editors, here’s our lineup of essential skills, broken down in 10 categories for the competent man—plus 20 tools you need to own. Did we leave anything out—or included a skill you don’t think is worthy? Sound off in our chat, then take PM’s interactive DIY quiz to see how you measure up—and pick up the new issue of Popular Mechanics for the instructions!

NiftyPlayer – a small and simple Flash MP3 player!

Beauty retouching is one of the most sought-after skills in Photoshop arts today. The techniques here are used not only on magazine covers, but in advertising campaigns, digital artwork and professional photography. Here are 40 excellent tutorials to help you add this skill to your arsenal. Note: We know that there are plenty of good arguments against the use of beauty retouching. If you find these techniques objectionable, we encourage you to think about their potential for use in your digital art, whether you want to render a killer with blood-red irises or a Goddess with glowing skin. Either way, remember that you have ultimate control over how you choose to use your Photoshop skills, and in what context you put these effects into practice.

50 years of goofs in Best Picture winners and notable nominees, as reported on The Internet Movie DataBase.

Soft and natural two-column template. Single column and no-header version also included.

Math test activities for students and teachers of all grade levels

All of the sites listed on this page are interactive, unless otherwise noted. Sites that have an * next to their name are excellent sites, however, they have ad banners on the page.

It's Mortal Kombat style political thrashing when the presidential candidates and their wives do battle!

This image won first prize in the 2007 CGTalk.com Matte Challenge

20ksw89.gif (GIF Image, 640×480 pixels)

* home * › * Limited Editions * › * Star Wars Collection

An offshoot of the uber-popular Lingerie Bowl halftime show that's appeared during Super Bowls past, there's now a fledgling league of extraordinary women who will play tackle football against one another in their underwear. Tryouts for the Seattle team, the Mist, are this Friday at Greenlake, although official league play won't start for another year and games will be played indoors, ala arena football. Fully-clothed details after the jump. It'll be really interesting to see how this goes over in Seattle. Horizon Productions requests your coverage of the Lingerie Football League’s (LFL) Seattle Mist mini-camp try-out on Friday, October 3rd at Greenlake Field. The Super Bowl halftime special called ‘Lingerie Bowl’ has become one of television’s most watched properties and apart of Super Bowl Sunday festivities for millions worldwide.

This collection of Star Wars themed pumpkins are incredible and jaw dropping. I would need the force to even attempt to make a basic one. Of course, people can cheat to win a contest like this. There is a growing army of websites where you can download pumpkin tattoos and carving templates. These are simply applied to the gourd of your choice, and off you go. The gallery shows ten of the ones I like most, but there are thousands out there on the web! Check out the video to see an example of how it is done.

Scribus is an open-source program that brings award-winning professional page layout to Linux/Unix, MacOS X, OS/2 and Windows desktops with a combination of "press-ready" output and new approaches to page layout. Underneath the modern and user friendly interface, Scribus supports professional publishing features, such as CMYK color, separations, ICC color management and versatile PDF creation.

The Atlas of the Real World uses software to depict the nations of the world, not by their physical size, but by their demographic importance on a range of subjects. Here, we select a series of travel- and news-related maps.

Forget everything you've heard about frankness, sharing your feelings, getting him to express his. New research into the male mind makes it clear that discussion may be the fastest way to shut down communication. (Oh, you noticed that, have you?)

In honor of our 10th birthday, we've brought back our oldest available index. Take a look back at Google in January 2001.

Now that we're a decade old, we figured we're long overdue for some spring cleaning. We started digging around our basement and found all kinds of junk: old Swedish fish, pigeon poop, Klingon translation books. Amazingly enough, hidden in a corner beneath Larry's and Sergey's original lab coats, we found a vintage search index in mint condition. We dusted it off and took it for a spin, gobsmacked to see how different the web was in early 2001. "iPod" did not refer to a music player, "youtube" was nonsense, and if you were looking for "Michael Phelps," chances are you meant the scientist, not the swimmer. "Wikipedia" was brand new. Remember "hanging chads"? (And speaking of that election-specific reference — if you're a U.S. citizen, it's not too late: please register to vote.) We had so much fun searching that we wanted to put this old index

Image optimization is an art that not many people master. There are many good image editing tools that allow us to get the best visual result for a certain file size but "under the hood" a lot more optimization can be done. Smushit.com is a service that goes beyond the limitations of Photoshop, Fireworks & Co. It uses image format specific non-lossy image optimization tools to squeeze the last bytes out of your images – without changing their look or visual quality. You'll get a report of how many bytes you can save by optimizing your images and all the changed images as a single zip for download. Smush it comes in different flavours: * You can upload a bunch of pictures in your browser * You can provide us with a list of image urls or * You can get a Firefox Extension to optimize the images found on any web page Saving bytes has never been so easy – you point us in the right direction, and we'll do the rest for you. A ZIP archive with optimized

DigitalTips.org is your ultimate guide for electronics products you want or already own. You'll find buying guides, tips and how-to videos for audio, digital TV, digital imaging, home networking, car and wireless electronic products.