J-Walk Blog: February 03, 2004 Archives

3 February, 2004

Learning Photoshop

I was playing around with layer masks in Photoshop Elements, and I answered a nagging question: What would George W. Bush look like if he were combined with Mrs. Ohio. Something like this:

You can click the third image for a larger view.

I know this is very disrespectful of the leader of our nation (not to mention Mrs. Ohio), but I'm just trying to learn photo editing techniques, OK?

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Corkscrews

Check out the Virtual Corkscrew Museum.

It's actually a very impressive site, and it's updated daily.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

1,000 Journals

A social experiment called 1000 Journals.

One thousand blank journals are traveling from hand to hand throughout the world. Those who find them will add stories and drawings, and then pass them along. This is an experiment, and you are part of it.

So far, one journal has been returned. Read about the travels of Journal #526, and see what's inside.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Body Worlds

Images from the Body Worlds exhibition.

The specimens are preserved by plastination - an impregnational technique carried out in a vacuum where the body tissue is saturated with special plastics.

Animated Uke Players

At Rock That Uke: A large collection of tiny animated ukulele players.

During the three years we were in production on ROCK THAT UKE, and well before the existence of our website, RTU producer and co-director Bill Robertson embarked on the peculiar hobby of taking historic images of ukulele players and making small animated .gif files out of them--or, as he called them, "tiny ukers." As production progressed, he expanded the activity to living ukulele players. Eventually, the tiny ukers were incorporated into the website's design and became a winning aspect of its look.

The example shown here is of Bob Brozman playing a resonator uke:

(via Ukulelia)

Posted on 3 February, 2004

One More Clock

Here's another for Wendy's clock collection: Bar Code Clock.

This is from Scott Blake's Bar Code Art site -- great stuff.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Computer Solitaire Patented

Thomas Warfield posts a letter he received about patent infringement -- on computer solitaire. Thomas says:

Take a real close look, guys.

The earliest date on any of these patents is a filing date of Dec 3, 1996 (it has some kind of amendment that says Jan 19, 1996, but whatever). Solitaire has been around for hundreds of years, and computer implementations have been around for decades. Windows Solitaire dates from around 1990. Most importantly in this case, our solitaire games were first released in 1995.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Rock-And-Roll Bugs

An extensive collection of album covers that feature insects -- either in the artist name, the album name, or an image.

I was pleased to see "Grasshopper," by J.J. Cale in the collection. I listened to this CD a few days ago.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

kbAlertz

If you have a special interested in a particular Microsoft product, you might like kbAlertz.

kbAlertz.com is an e-mail notification system that scans the entire Microsoft Knowledge Base every night, and e-mails you when updates or additions are made to the technologies, you subscribe to. Since we scan the entire knowledge base, we also have a pretty good search system for you to use on the left menu.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Attention Photoshop Users

If you use Photoshop, you should definitely check out The Photoshop Guru's Handbook site, by Mark Anthony Larmand. I spent about an hour there yesterday, and learned lots of things.

If you'd just like to browse some pretty pictures, head for the gallery.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Product Placement

From How Stuff Works: How Product Placement Works.

So, when is an ad not an ad? When it's a product placement. Once mainly found only on the big screen, product placement has been making quite a few appearances on television -- not to mention in video games and even books. In this article, we'll explain what product placement is and examine how it is used in movies, television shows and other media.

There will come a time when life is nothing but a series of advertisements.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Painting With Light

120 interesting photos at dpchallenge: Painting With Light.

Use a non-stationary light source (for example, a moving flashlight in your hand) as the primary method of illuminating your subject in a creative manner.

Shown here is "Old Boots," by agwright.

Completely dark room, only had a small fine light torch. Traced the torch light over the length of the lace for 20 seconds. Then a further 2minutes with torch light diffused.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Scott Richter, Spammer

I love these stories that spotlight a spammer. Here's one about Scott Richter: Mr. Spam Man. Like most spammers, Richter thrives on denial:

He prefers to describe himself as a bulk e-mail marketer, not a spammer, insisting that his mailings are perfectly legal. They're also not unsolicited, he says, because the people on his lists "opted in" to receive commercial offers, whether they realized it or not.

But maybe the end is near...

But last month, Richter's bid for legitimacy hit a brick wall -- make that two brick walls -- in the form of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer and the friendly spam investigators at Microsoft. A week before Christmas, Spitzer announced that he was filing suit against Richter, OptInRealBig and the principals of two other companies for allegedly sending millions of fraudulent e-mails over hijacked servers around the globe. Claiming to have evidence of "more than 40,000 instances of deceptive conduct" in nearly 9,000 e-mails captured on Microsoft's Hotmail service, Spitzer's suit seeks $20 million in damages; another suit filed by Microsoft seeks an additional $18.8 million.

"We believe Scott Richter is clearing several million dollars a month in profits from his illegal activities," Spitzer said. "We will drive [him] into bankruptcy."

We can only hope.

Here's a link to scott-richter.com, which shows photos of Richter, his wife, and and his twin boys.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

Happy Birthday Julia

Google's logo today is decorated with fractals, in honor of the birthday of Gaston Julia, who was born in 1893.

Here's a link to the complete collection of special Google logos.

Posted on 3 February, 2004

DVD Rewinder

Here's a great service for busy people: Rewind your DVDs for One Dollar. Just enter your credit card number, and insert a DVD. In less than a minute, the DVD will be completely rewound.

No More Embarrassing Fines or Hassles at your Video Rental Store !!!

(via The Museum of Hoaxes)

Posted on 3 February, 2004