Four Sites that Could Teach you to do Just About Anything
November 4, 2009 by redsneaker
Filed under Web Stuff
Have you ever wanted to learn how to play guitar, change your car’s oil, increase your Twitter followers, or become way more skilled in Photoshop? Knowledge is power and there are many web sites out there offering a Boat-load of knowledge for free. I will cover four web sites that cover a wide array of topics and have instructions for you to accomplish just about anything you want.
The first is eHow (http://www.eHow.com). A great multi purpose site, eHow, covers topics like Careers, electronics and even legal and Parenting. For instance, are you wondering what constitutes Reasonable Suspicion for a police officer to stop you? There’s an article on that. Are you wondering how to pierce an ear like a professional? Or maybe how to best choose a tattoo design? eHow has a mountain of user-submitted articles covering all these topics and more. The downside to this site is that many of the instructions are of a very basic nature. Over all, eHow has provided me with a few tips and tricks valuable enough that I will go back.
Next is Tutorialized (http://www.tutorialized.com). Focusing on the more technical side of tutorials, Tutorialized does a really good job of providing articles on Photoshop, Gimp, and even AutCAD. With over 12,000 tutorials on Photoshop alone, this is a great resource for any graphic designer or photographer. They have some great articles on simple enhancements all the way to very specific tips and tricks, like How to Create Glossy Lips and Change Hair Color. Each tutorial has stats like the number of views, votes and a simple rating system so you can quickly evaluate which tutorials seem to be better.
Not commonly thought of as a tutorial site, but Mahalo (http://www.mahalo.com) has some pretty decent tutorials covering a wide range of topics. Just check out the How To section of the site (http://www.mahalo.com/category/how-tos) to find some great articles like How to make Pumpkin Pie or How to Make Money off of Facebook. The articles are well done and rival just about any tutorial I’ve seen on the internet. Don’t under estimate Mahalo the next time you are looking for directions on how to do something.
Lastly, MonkeySee (http://www.monkeysee.com). An aptly named site, these tutorials are all video-based and range in topics from automotive repair to pet care. One of the more interesting articles is, How to Play Air Guitar and How to Read Tarot Cards. I thought I knew how to play air guitar, but watching a video from the world champion air guitarist, I guess everyone has something to learn.
So, the next time you find yourself wondering how to accomplish a task on your Honey Do List, don’t worry, because you can look it up on the internet.
66 Awesome Twitter Articles
Not too long ago, the mainstream media discovered Twitter and since have created a storm of articles and opinions on the little social network that could. Today my computer-illiterate mother asked me about Twitter for the first time, and the shock almost knocked me off my flabbergasted feet. This inspired me to filter through some of the clutter and find some quality Twitter articles.
Compiled here is a list of 66 fun, interesting, and informative articles about Twitter.
3. Demi Moore Uses Twitter to Stop Woman’s Suicide Attempt
4. Phoenix Suns Create Twackle
5. Tweeting Between Students, Faculty Gains Popularity at Princeton
6. Call in Your Tweets to Twitter With TweetCall
7. Twitter Makes National Television Debut
8. Schools Go On Twitter
9. Moldova’s Twitter Revolution
10. Twitter Wouldn’t Sell for $1B: Better Make Sure It’s Worth It
11. Move Over Twitter, Make Room for Shitter
12. On Twitter, You’re Nobody Unless You’re Fake
13. Kansas City Tree Seeks Friends on Twitter
14. Should Entrepreneurs Twitter? Uh, no.
15. Astronaut Uses Twitter to Detail Training
16. Twittering for Your Business or Just Twittering the Hours Away?
17. No New Trial Over Juror’s Twittering
18. Tips for Journos or Anyone Else Wanting Better Twitter
19. Twitter Can Improve Work Productivity
20. Online Marketing Teams Take Note: Twitter Popularity is Rising
21. Twitter is the Future
22. I Just Made a Twitter Account
24. Everyone is Twittering, But is Anyone Listening?
25. Lessons Learned from Celebrity Twitter Scandals
26. Survey U Shifts Ditches E-Newsletter in Favor of Twitter
27. Twendy Twitter Spawns New Lingo for Tweople
28. How to Search Twitter Smarter
29. All A-Twitter On Capitol Hill
30. Frisco Man Saves Woman’s Life Thanks to Twitter
31. The Best 10+ Sites To Look For Stunning (and Free) Twitter Backgrounds
32. 10 Ways Twitter Will Change Blog Design in 2009
33. The 5 Stages of Twitter Acceptance
34. Bakery Uses Twitter to Announce Freshly Baked Bread
35. How Do Celebrities Find So Much Time for Twitter?
36. Twitter Business-Small Business Ideas Through Twitter Offers Unique Marketing Opportunity
37. Using Hootsuite to Manage Corporate Twittering
38. What Twitter is Good For: Restaurants!
39. Graphic Designer’s Guide to Twitter: How to Get Twitter Followers, Increase Traffic, and Get Clients
40. 10 Reasons Why Your Company Probably Shouldn’t Tweet
41. Twitter By Voice: Use TweetCall
42. Twitter Offering Commercial Accounts For a Price
43. DealTaker.com Hand Picks Deals For Twitter
44. Has Twitter Peaked?
45. Fake Twittering: You’re Doing it Wrong
47. YouTube Gives Twitter Love
48. 11% Tweeting
49. Device Allows Plants to Twitter
50. Is Twitter’s Breakneck Growth Causing Backlash?
51. How and Why to Launch Business Presence on Twitter
52. Twitter Added to Federal Emergency Response Network
54. The Twitter Celebrity Ecosystem
55. Someone’s in the Kitchen With Twitter: Frontier of Foodie News
56. Physician Group joins Twitter Fad
57. Want to Feel Better About Retirement? Twitter Might Help.
58. Twitter Went Main Street Yesterday, Goes Enterprise Today
59. Google Can’t Afford Twitter, No Longer a Growth Stock
60. Field Recording, Pre-amps, and Twitter
61. Does Twitter Whale = Twitter Fail?
62. Simon Cowell Criticises Fellow Celebrities for Twitter Obsession
63. How to Speak twitter
64. Why You Should Give a Tweet About Twitter
65. Lazy Twitter Stars Call in Ghost Writers
66. The Gay Revolution Will Be Twittered
Top 7 Graphic Design Forums
January 5, 2009 by ArthurM
Filed under Design Stuff
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Being a part of a forum community is a great way to get help and inspiration for any creative soul. Actively participating in a design community is important because you can promote your work, share ideas, get helpful critiques, and expand your creative imagination. Speaking with other designers and becoming part of a social resource community will only help you grow as a graphic designer.
Forums that focus solely on graphic design and still have an active community are a surprisingly hard thing to find. For that reason I have compiled a list of the top 7 graphic design forums I could find on the Internet. The websites I list here still have active communities that are sharing work and helping each other become better designers. If you have any others to add, please link to them in a comment below.
The Top 7 Graphic Design Forums
1. Estetica
Estetica is probably the most active forum on the list. As of this moment there are 85 members and 1794 guests visiting the forums. This place is great for receiving help on any aspect of graphic design, from illustration to 3-D to logo design. The members are energetic and seem eager to answer any questions you may have. The off topic and entertainment section of the website are the most popular. If you’re looking to join a design community where you can share common interests with other graphic designers, this would be the place for you.
GDF has one of the largest graphic design communities around. The website has been alive and kicking for a number of years (the design of the site itself reflects its age) and has built up a member base of over 23,000. GDF is nearly as active as Estetica, but the community has a stronger focus on graphic design. The forum categories are more general than most of the other forums on this list, but the site offers advice and resources that stand above most others.
DF is a younger community that is growing at a rapid pace. The forum has sections for tutorials, search engine optimization, inspiration, competitions, marketing and more. DF has the best design itself among the websites on this list. DF gives off a cool vibe that will be attractive to the younger and hipper designers on the web. The community is very active for how small it is at the moment, but I think within a year or two this forum will grow in size and may become the top graphic design forum on the net.
4. HOWDesign
HOWDesign focuses mostly on showcasing work, giving and receiving constructive feedback, discussing business and marketing as related to web design, and freelance work. This is a great community to join if you want to get your name out there and start making a buck on your work. You can learn a lot about how to begin your graphic design career and how to successfully market your creations.
5. All Graphic Design
Holy crap would you look at all of those forums. There may be 50 or a 100 of them, I’m not going to count. AGD offers all of these forums so you can find exactly what you are looking for, down to the very specific. At first glance this may not seem like an active community because many of the forums have not been posted in days, weeks, or months. Don’t let that scare you away though, the general design section is very active. This is also one of the only communities that has a focus on printing advice and helping designers set up their files properly.
YDF is another new forum community that is growing at a steady pace. There is a core user group that is waiting to help you with design, business, motion graphics, and more. There are only about 2,000 members right now, but many of them are very active and have built up a decent amount of posts for such a small community.
7. Secondbrain
OK, so this one isn’t really a forum. I put Secondbrain here because I was having trouble finding more active forums to put on the list, but also because Secondbrain shares important qualities with the forum sites on this list. Secondbrain is sort of like a social network for users in the design community. You can upload and share your works so that others can comment on them. You can create posts (blog posts?) that others will respond to. You can join a network, build up a following of friends, share ideas/resources, talk with others about whatever you want, and more. Secondbrain is a graphic design community that just isn’t exactly a forum, but it shares the aspects of discussion and inspiration that make the design communities helpful and fun.
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