Must have GIZMOS

Video: Russian GMail Art?

You Suck at Photoshop by Donnie Hoyle

Donnie Hoyle has created a hilarious series of “You Suck at Photoshop” tutorials:

Volume 1: Distort, Warp, & Layer Effects

Volume 2: Covering Your Mistakes

Volume 3: Clone Stamp and Manual Cloning

Gizmodo Pranks CES By Turning Off Displays Using TV-B-Gone

Wow, the Interwebs are exploding over Gizmodo’s prank at CES where they turned off a bunch of displays on the expo floor using TV-B-Gone devices provided by Make Magazine. Their prank, instigated by Richard Blakeley, ended up getting him banned from the conference.

CES has no shortage of displays. And when MAKE offered us some TV-B-Gone clickers to bring to the show, we pretty much couldn’t help ourselves. We shut off a TV. And then another. And then a wall of TVs. And we just couldn’t stop. (And Panasonic, you’re so lucky that 150-incher didn’t have an active IR port.) It was too much fun, but watching this video, we realize it probably made some people’s jobs harder, and I don’t agree with that (Especially Motorola). We’re sorry.

Star Wars Lost Intro

Here is the lost intro to A New Hope, edited out due to time restrictions.

Important health announcement

I will only post personal health issues, when it’s to let you know I may be too ill to post on time.

Today is an entirely different situation. I have contracted a condition that I have been told is treatable, but has thus far been unresponsive to any known medical treatments. I trust you will understand and pray for a speedy recovery for me.

So, to confirm any rumors you may have heard, it is true; I do have a cold!  I should be up an rumming on Monday.

Black Friday Results

Once again, we prove that we are a nation of shoppers. Retailers Post Robust Start to Holidays.

The nation's retailers had a robust start to the holiday shopping season, according to results announced Saturday by a national research group that tracks sales at retail outlets across the country.

According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., which tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets, total sales rose 8.3 percent to about $10.3 billion on Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, compared with $9.5 billion on the same day a year ago. ShopperTrak had expected an increase of no more than 4 percent to 5 percent.

"This is a really strong number. ... You can't have a good season unless it starts well," said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak, citing strength across all regions. "It's very encouraging.

That works out to about $34 spent for every man, woman, and child in the country.

Snopes: Is Black Friday The Biggest Shopping Day of the Year?

The answer will supprise you. Snopes

The result is that Black Friday nearly always ends up ranking below the last Saturday before Christmas (or December 23, if Christmas Day falls on a weekend), and in recent years it has ranked between fourth and eighth on charts of the year's busiest shopping days. Source (1997-2002 ICSC International Council of Shopping Centers)

What would your phone do?

One gigabyte of memory, 20 years ago... and now

 

How to Stretch YouTube Video in a Resizable Browser Window Without Switching to Full Screen

Here's an excellent alternative to FullScreen instead you can auto resize the video player to fit the browser window. When you resize the browser window, the dimensions of YouTube Video player will change as well.

Here's how to do it:

1. Let's say we take this very funny Anti-Piracy Ad YouTube Video clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTbX1aMajow

2. Now to watch this clip in a resizable browser window without switching to Full Screen, just rewrite the above URL to http://www.youtube.com/v/MTbX1aMajow

So now you can work while watching YouTube videos.  Plus I believe this is the best way to send YouTube videos by email