Dave Burke : Freelance .NET Web Developer specializing in Online Communities

Bits for January 19, 2008

Vista Bandwidth Boost.  As a recent Vista convert (at least on my little girl's PC--one PC at a time) I'm paying attention to quality of Vista life issues like this post that claims to boost Vista net download speeds on an intranet from 700KB to 18MB.

Good checklist on finding work online for freelancers. Freelance Switch is one of those incredible blogs that cranks out great content week after week.  Here's a good checklist on how to find work online, or more specifically, getting work to come to you rather than the other way around.  I won't forget the reaction of a local business group I consulted with not long ago.  "You mean, companies call YOU for work?  They pay you...and you never meet them???"

With a minor in Photoshop.  Speaking of freelancing, I don't think I would have ever gotten here without healthy Photoshop chops.  I have to thank my last Dilbertville job back in the 1990's for a lot of that.  I was Manager of the 1500-employee company's Intranet and was bored to death in my little cubicle, so for months I worked through every Photoshop book I could find.  I keep thinking I'll have a block of time to go back to Photoshop School, but that's Real World unlikely.  Here's a Photoshop Tutorials - Best Of list from Smashing Magazine, which re-awakened the hunger. 

The Meta-Emotional World around a Steve Jobs comment.  Someone at MacWorld asked for Jobs' thoughts on Microsoft's Robbie Bach statement that Zune was a "worthy alternative" to the iPod. Jobs responded, "Was he inebriated?  Do you even know anyone who owns a Zune?"  Can't Jobs simply say something funny (and probably pretty accurate) without spawning 250 comments on whether he's an ass or not?  Or if he's brilliant, is it okay for him to be an ass?  Geez.  What I did find interesting about the first 50 comments or so was how many people really love their Zunes.  Maybe the next Zune will be the one that gets me to switch from my 160GB iPod Classic.

End of a great rock band.  There's something about the sound of Oklahoma rock-n-roll bands that I love.  Upside was one such band, who sadly, recently broke up.  Here are two Upside albums available on Amazon MP3 Downloads.   Scope & History is my favorite, but Jim Beam & The American Dream is excellent, too.   Start with "Does This Make Me Look Dead."

 

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Posted on 1/19/2008 12:31:30 PM by Dave Burke
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Comments (5) -

1/19/2008 1:59:19 PM Permalink

Thanks for the heads up on Upside.  Been looking for a new rock band worth listening too.  Amazon MP3 is also the greatest thing to happen to music in a long time.  Death to iTunes (I don't use an ipod anymore)

Tom Lynch |

1/19/2008 4:31:58 PM Permalink

thanks for the link to all those photoshop tutorials dave...i have cs3 web pro on the way to the house and i will certainly have a lot of learning to do...also...sorry to hear about all of those trips to the hospital...i hope you are feeling better...

shakes |

1/20/2008 1:26:18 PM Permalink

Tom, you are so right about iTunes and Amazon MP3s!  Amazon's also doing a good job adding new content.  That seconde Upside album wasn't listed two weeks ago.

Shakes, congrats on going with CS3.  I loaded CS1 but didn't see a lot of usefulness in it over Photoshop 7.  I also didn't like the activation requirementAdobe started with CS.  But hopefully I'll join you after I move to Vista.  I think I'm out of the hospital for a while.  Thanks for the good wishes.  

daveburke |

1/24/2008 7:09:19 AM Permalink

Dave, I got my chops in Photoshop versions 3 and 4 years ago. I still spend some quality time in Photoshop from time to time, though. In fact even if I just need to crop and resize a photo I will use PS.

I had some friends who were decent programmers, but took to the web very quickly because they were equally versed in design. They would just whip fresh logos and designs up in no time, write up the HTML from scratch and then begin adding ASP code. I was so jealous (because I've always longed for design skillz) that I began buying and pouring through any Photoshop tutorial book that I could find. Unfortunately the answers that I were looking for were not in any tutorial! But the good side effect is that I am now pretty good at using PhotoShop for production purposes.

When trying to do my logo for WIWM I looked through a lot of these Web 2.0 tutorials: http://www.drweb.de/weblog/weblog/?p=780. There is some good stuff in there, lots of fun.

Dan Hounshell |

1/24/2008 7:18:40 AM Permalink

Dan, I knew you and I had symmetries in more than a few technical areas of experience.  Thanks for confirming the importance of having those Photoshop chops!  Thanks for the tutorials url.  I hope I can check it out soon.  And as always, thanks for visiting.

daveburke |


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