How to Make, Create, Design... Stuff

Always on the look-out for new projects, I found this web site, Instructables, that promises step-by-step instructions on how to make... well, just about anything. From Food to pets, to art, to the offbeat, ideas about. Users submit their own "how to" instructions, photos and all. Get inspired--in a cast? paint it into a funky high-top sneaker, like this one. Teach yourself how to divide, throw a punch, enroll your kid in school in San Fran, or teach your dog tricks.

Tutorialized Tutorials

Tutorialized is packed full of good old fashioned, F1 help. Learn how to make hair in Illustrator, or how to get started in Adobe Premiere. There are technical and business tutorials there too, but I'm mostly interested in the free online graphic design education I can give myself. Maybe you simply want to learn more about making animated banners in Flash. Whatever the reason, if you can see past the many blinking ads, this handy web site is your one-stop shopping for freebie online learning.

PodCamp Montreal, 2008: My Weekend.

I'm back from PodCamp Montreal, 2008. Here were a few pics, taken during this morning's sessions. It wasn't as crowded this morning, as it was yesterday. My head is swirling with information that I need to sort out, so I can write about it.

Designer's Toolbox

Designers' Toolbox is THE graphic designer's resource. It contains all things designer: names of various folds for brochures, HTML special characters, proof reading marks, a Lorem Ipsum generator, and so on (too much info to list in this small space). They make their money with the store, which sells handy templates (like forms or client contracts), portfolio hosting, and vector maps of this entire planet.

If it's designer info that you need, they've got it--or almost. I am still waiting for a metric/imperial unit converter... although they are readily available elsewhere on the (just Google the term).

1971 Computer Savvy

In 1971, Ladybird published "How it Works... The Computer"--One in a series of "How it Works" books (other books in this series cover the motor car, the rocket, ocean liner and telephone, among other technologies of the time). "If you are interested in computers, their function and operation, but are discouraged by their complexity, you should read this book".

Topics discussed include, "What are Computers?", "Operation of Magnetic Tape Unit", and "Does a Computer Make Mistakes?". The entire book is scanned in and available for viewing at The Pointless Museum.