Here is a fun illusion. Make sure you do not have your mouse over the picture so that you can see the dot on the color negative.
Color Castle
Reply
Styles Contest
MovableType helped sponsor a styles contest. There are 146 entries. You can browse through them at thestylecontest.com/browser. You scroll across to see the thumbnails. Click on a thumbnail to zoom in. There are about 20 “pages” of thumbnails, so use the page links at the top right to go through those.
If you see one you would like to use on your site, look for the name (on the left) and let me know. I’ll help you get it loaded. If you like having a random photo banner, or just random photo, think about picking a style that will work with a photo.
For example, I picked out “Rudimentary” and set it up on Stonegate.
Carol in Space
Carol did a space movie, too. I’ve moved the movies to the “Read more…” area because otherwise they would try to play at the same time.
Eric and David @ Mission Space (The Movie)
I wondered if I could extract the movie out of Eric and David’s Mission Space card. Did it. So if Disney eventually flushes it, the movie lives on at Mac5….
iWeb
I watched Steve Job’s keynote speech at Macworld. I always enjoy these presentations because Steve is simply one of the best presenters on earth. He talked about the amazing iPod sales, introduced the new Intel Macs, and showed off several of the new iLife applications that make photography, movie-editting, podcasting, and web building very simple.
(As I type, Claire and Kelly are giggling at the their podcast created in the new version of Garageband. They are using voice effects that make them sound like chipmunks and Will Farrell.)
In addition to iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband, and iTunes, I was really impressed with a new member of the iLife suite called iWeb. It makes web page building easy. Including photos, movies, graphics, and text using fun templates can be done so quickly and easily, I couldn’t believe it.
So I bought iLife for $99. I can install it on up to five family Macs. There is nothing like this suite of software in the Windows world. Apple is so far ahead with integration between consumer-friendly applications, I don’t think Microsoft can ever catch up.
Here are two simple pages I created in a few minutes and then published to our home web server. I was happy to discover I did not have to pay for a .Mac account to publish these pages.
Honda Sounds
A new commercial for the new Honda Civic. (Worth the download time, Ted.)
Turn up the speakers or don headphones and listen carefully to the sounds as the video loads.
When you see the car, click on the “WATCH” button at the bottom. Watch the film. Then watch the rehearsals.
Proper Care of VHS Tapes
I have all the pieces to convert VHS tape to DVD with our iMac and its iMovie, iDVD, DVD writer, and plenty of hard disk space. The only thing I lack is the analog to digital video converter, which I just ordered: a Datavideo DAC-100.
The article that recommended the DAC-100 gives step by step tips on converting VHS tapes to DVDs. It ends telling how to properly take care of VHS tapes, even after converting. So I’m thinking “leaving them around on the floor in the basement to be stepped on” is not recommended.
Keep your burned DVDs in jewel cases, and store them in a cool, dark place. And consider stashing a couple of backups in a safe-deposit box.
And what about those old videotapes? If you’re like me, you can’t bear to throw them out, even if you’ve digitized them. To prolong their life, rewind them and store them vertically (like a book), with the full reel on the bottom. Store them in a cool, dry location. Fast-forward and then rewind the tapes once a year.
Count The People. 12? 13?
Here is a fun cartoon. Count the people. Wait. Count again.
Answer explained in the extended entry.
Quick Dictionary Lookup on a Mac
If you are browsing the web using Safari on a Mac, and you run across an unfamiliar word, you can quickly look it up. This isn’t easy to remember, because the keystrokes are odd, but it is useful.
Hover the mouse over the unfamiliar word. (You do not have to highlight it.)
Type ctrl + Command (Apple) + d (as in dictionary.)
Here I was reading an article about Shakespeare from Project Gutenberg by Mark Twain and did not know what “capricious” meant. Twain does not believe Shakespeare wrote the works of Shakespeare, especially given how poorly written (yet documented to be authored by him) was his own epitaph. Project Gutenberg contains writings that are in the public domain. (That’s free books, mom.)
Uploading Photos in MovableType
Including one or more photos in a blog entry is a little tricky, but once you’ve done it a few times, it is easy. You may want to print out this tip to use the first few times.