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Re-toucha-toucha-touch Me

I thought this was a great article for anyone who uses Photoshop to retouch photographs.

"Beauty Retouching in Photoshop"

It is from the book "The Glitterguru on Photoshop: From Concept to Cool" which looks like a great guide, if one had time to spend reading such things.

Let Us Commence

Just linking today.

Found this by a roundabout way, which would take more time to explain than would be satisfying once read. So, moving along....

Want to hear Steve Jobs give a commencement speech to Standford's Class of 2005? WiredAtom has the entire speech for you to download. Seems like dropping it into iTunes and listening to it on an iPod would be the best way to listen. Click here and be sure to say thanks via the tip jar!

Picture Pages, Picture Pages

My good buddy, and proprietor of Blogomania (this site's host), has replenished, revised and resurrected her photo site Pixelog. She wanted some traffic sent her way, and I was more than happy to do my part.

Hey Christine, is it pronounced Pixie-log, or Pixel-log? Either way, do check it out.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

At the risk of sounding like I support a song nominated for A Small Victory's worst songs ever thread, please understand I had no other choice for a title.

I just got wind (ha ha) of Kite Aerial Photography. At first I imagined some kid strapping a Kodak 110 film camera to a $2 kite. But no, this is major league stuff. HUGE kites with expensive digital cameras, rigs, and remote controls.

It all sounds so complicated, but once you see the results! It makes all KAPpers effort worthwhile.

Enjoy the view!

Further reading

Charles C. Benton's KAP Gallery
Scott Haefner's Gallery, be sure to view the QT Panoramas!
Google Search on KAP (sorry, I am too tired to do the legwork this time)
Link that started my discovery found thanks to HowToons.org

Milk Made

Yesterday I was thinking "I bet that would look good with the font from the 'Got Milk' ads!"

So after a good amount of Google-ing, I found out the name. So, to save anyone else the trouble here is what I learned:

Font Name: Phenix American
Cost: $22
Status: commercial
Sold by: Agfa Monotype
Designer: Morris Fuller Benton
Year: 1935
Example: Here

You will need to do a good amount of kerning, but that's the "official" font and the one you'd want. Plus, the cost is pretty reasonable.

There is a knock-off version called "Borzoi" (which may or may not be free) that can be found on several sites, but it doesn't even compare to the quality of the original. Also close (and free) is Larabie's "Steelfish" (and don't overlook his "Purple Rain" inspired "Still Time" just below it). PizzaDude produced "Fake Plastic" which is similar (and free). Lastly, there is the freebie font called "Qhytsdakx" by Tepid Monkey that might do the job.

For fun, I'd say go with the freebies. For commercial work, do the right thing.

I wonder what the legality is of producing a "copycat" font? I mean, it the "original" is considered someone's intellectual property, so you'd think even a font would be protected by copyright laws. After all, Marvel and DC routinely go after comic book characters that are similar to theirs. Wouldn't the same be true of a font? It probably isn't worth anyone's while to go after the "copycats" anyway. But if I were to produce a commercial work with "Phenix American" and hadn't paid for it, I'd expect to get in trouble with Agfa. I wonder if the same is true if you use a "freeware" lookalike, would Agfa demand you pay for the real thing? Would they not care? Just something to ponder. Hmmm.....

Santa Mario

Just found this game that the kiddies might enjoy - Santa Claus in Trouble.

It is a free full game with 10 levels. It is described as a platform game like Mario Brothers, but with 3D graphics (not the kind with the red and blue glasses, but 3D meaning cool graphics).

The file is about 10MB and while it is an older game, it still looks pretty snazzy. And Free is Free, right?

Rules Meant to be Broken

If you design web sites, then you know about the "Three Click Rule." It says your site visitors should be able to find what they need in 3 clicks or less.

I've never held fast and true to this (as apparent by my own site design here), but I have heard it a lot and often think about it when flow-charting a site I am to design.

But did anyone ever research this, or is it just a "rule of thumb?"

In the article "Testing the Three-Click RuleTesting the Three-Click Rule" Josh Porter has actual research that will finally give us some answers to whether users really do give up after three clicks.

Found via Nick Bradbury while updating FeedDemon to Release Candidate 4a.

Book Ends

Yeah I know I sound like a broken record, but here are the latest (possibly last) batch of free eBooks from Microsoft:

Buy, Rent, and Sell: How to Profit by Investing in Residential Real Estate
by Robert Irwin

This book arms the millions of investors who are returning to real estate as an established instrument of wealth creation with surefire strategies for making a killing in the real estate market.

The Manitou
by Graham Masterton

It only grows at night. Karen Tandy was a sweet and unassuming girl until she discovers the mysterious lump growing underneath her skin. As the doctors and specialists are puzzling over the growth, Karen's personality is beginning to drastically change. The doctors decide there is only one thing to do, cut out the lump. But then it moved. Now a chain reaction has begun and everyone who comes in contact with Karen Tandy understands the very depths of terror. Her body and soul are being taken over by a black spirit over four centuries old. He is the remembrance of the evils the white man has bestowed on the Indian people and the vengeance that has waited four hundred years to surface. He is the Manitou.

Cat's Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut

If any single novel of Kurt Vonnegut's can represent his unique voice and freewheeling imagination, it is probably the wildly funny and provocative Cat's Cradle, published in 1963. Though it might not be his most substantial or popular novel, Cat's Cradle is a perfect vehicle for his idiosyncratic style and his kaleidoscopic view of the modern world.

Go get some, they are free through next Thursday. OK? OK.

I was shakin' in my shoes

Here is my costume today, such as it is:

Actually, that shirt is so old I am almost ashamed to be wearing it (I got it at Fox in 1992).

Other halloween links:

Google's Halloween logo (I suppose it will eventually wind up here in their Logo Gallery)

NPR's Halloween Tricks and Treats

Carve The Virtual Pumpkin at Newgrounds.com

Xoinks!

Did you see this Quicktime of the 3-year-old girl rockin' the box on the Xylophone?

She is adorable!

And amazing too!

She had so many devices, everything that money could buy

For the gal who has everything for her laptop - a USB powered *cough* personal massager *cough*....

It would certainly make time fly on those long flights or endless department meetings.

Finger it out

Why do I find this page of folks giving "the finger" so entertaining? [link removed due to questionable content, and is now replaced with the original, intended link]. I sure don't like them when it comes from a guy who cuts in front of me because he thought I was driving too slow in the pouring rain! "Same to you fella, there's a ditch up ahead with your name on it....loser!"

Maybe it is the variety of ways it can be given. Some are loose, some are rigid, some downright forceful.

Isn't there a "the Finger" project out there somewhere? We have so many "Projects" out there, there must be a gallery of folks flipping the bird out there. I think I even recall seeing one once. Anyone know?

UPDATE:
Cinefreak Justin is right, there ought to be! If I were to start a "Finger Project" page, would anyone contribute?

Bustin' Makes Me Feel Good

Did I ever scan and post my Ghostbusters Halloween costume from when I was in college? I will have to go find that. Hope so, since I don't have a scanner anymore.

Were I to do it again, I would make my own.

But would I ever be able to sell it like this guy? Maybe! His Ghostbusers Proton Pack is fetching at least $550 on flEa-Bay right now! (link will expire after 90 days)

Impressive work, and you can see more here. It would be hard to part with, but I guess we all gotta grow up sometime...or at least, pay bills!

One for the road

How many times have you come across a site that is a great resource of photos and wish you had it on CD-ROM?

Well, it happens a lot with me. For example, this site "Dreams of Space." It is a vast collection of retro space art from children's books from the 50's through the 70's.

But look at the URL. It is on a server at the University of California, and from past experience, sites on University servers can vanish before you know it. Wouldn't it be nice to save a copy of this website? Maybe have it on CD-ROM to go back to later? Well you can!

OK, so downloading local copies of websites is not anything new. There are loads of programs that can do this. But how many are free? Not many. So it was great to discover WebHTTtrack. It is an open-source program that has oodles of options for downloading entire websites locally. For example, it will correct links and image names to be ISO compatible for burning to a CD-R. It even maintains a cache, so if you want to see if the site had updated since your download. If it has, the program gets all the changes. Nice!

Finally, I can be at peace knowing that one day, given enough time, I could have all these sites safely on a CD-ROM.

Cereal Box Archives:
Star Wars cereal boxes
The Imaginary World archive - more than cereal boxes. Just Amazing!
Vintage Advertising:
Tack o Rama
Print Ad Archive 1850-1920
EphemeraNow.com - " dedicated to the advertising and illustration art of mid-century America"
Art:
Shag
Magic Posters
The Jim Flora Gallery
The Tim Biscup Gallery
Hostess Ads from comic books
The Advertising Artwork of Dr. Seuss
Retro Goodness:
Googie Architecture
Googie Art
Board Game Catalogs
Weight Watchers recipe cards from 1974
Vintage Vegas
Vintage and Futuristic Imagery
The Future We Were Promised - An impressive tribute to the art of Radebaugh.
The Gallery of Regrettable Food - a classic
......................................................did I forget any?

Now all I need is the link to that retro-postcard gallery. I know I have it somewhere....