A work in progress

Google Hints Beta :P

2008-11-04T20:46:00.003-06:00

Have any of you noticed the subtle hints that start to go on around election day? Possibly seeing new casters wearing a red or blue tie?

It is tradition for Google to revise their logo on days that is special to the country. Today is no different as they came up with this graphic.

Is it just me or do you also think that there might be a motive behind them picking the blue G to be fully exposed? I don't think it's a coincidence and I like it :P

Make animated pics for www.hi5.com

2008-04-24T18:42:00.002-06:00

Do you have a hi5 account? If so you just might find this interesting. You can create animated profile pictures also knows as "animated .gif files" at www.gifninja.com for free.

So here's the scoop

Click here -----> www.gifninja.com

then click on "create animated gif" in the upper right tool bar.

Now browse to your images

then select your speed

and click on "Make my gif"

Now all you have to do is save the .gif when it pops up by right clicking on it and selecting "save as"

After you've saved your .gif to your computer go ahead and upload it to your favorite social network or website like myspace, hi5, facebook, bebo or youtube.

Go on and make yourself some moving pictures now!

P.S. you can make them from picture images or even video clips :)

Why Google is targeted by webmasters

2007-01-14T13:44:00.000-06:00

In the webmaster world there is a lot of buzz going on about how much junk gets through the the SERPs (search engine result pages). If you have ever Googled a term and came up with a page the seems to be irrelevant or virtually bare of content and don't understand why it made it to the top of Google's ref feral list I am going to try to clear things up in this post.

Let's get raise some facts and try to connect them. Google is by far the leading search engine in the world, Myspace is the leading social network in the world and Microsoft internet explorer is the leading web browser in the world. What do all of these services have in common? They are all targeted by spammers and black hat advertising for the same exact reason, they are the largest. They reach more computer screens in homes and offices on a daily basis than many of their competitors combined. If you can the cheat the system why not cheat the best.

If you are able to reach the top of Google you will reach 1.5 times the people that you would reach if you top out on Yahoo and 3 times as many people if you get the #1 spot on MSN. Take a look at THIS page to see the amount of searches a day through the major search engines.

HERE is a great pie chart showing the dominance (although fading) of Internet Explorer web browser. If you can get your spyware into the computers of IE users you are going to reach approximately 88 people for every 1 you reach with Firefox. This is exactly why so many people are moving away from IE and towards Firefox. If Firefox were to ever take the top spot for web browsers you can put your money on Firefox seeing a whole lot more spyware and viruses.

The same rules apply for social networks that apply for Google and Internet Explorer. With sites like digg, Myspace, Stumble, Flikr, Wikipedia and many powerful niche forums you are bound and determined to run into a more than fair share of spam and inexpensive advertising.

In conclusion I guess you have to ask yourself if you are with them or against them. can you disguise your spam really well it won't be spam at all. Your spam will actually be quality content that gives the user what they are looking for but leaves them hungry for more with a mouse that can pay your bills.

surge of 20,000 plus troops to Iraq?

2007-01-13T21:55:00.000-06:00

OK, I have been waiting a few days since the news of the troop surge to iraq to post my thoughts or feelings about it. At first I could have said yeah that'll do the trick or what on earth are they thinking a troop surge would change but I decided to let my feelings get a little stronger. Then it just kinda came to me yesterday while I was at work driving my tugger (hauling things around the plant) and now I am ready to write a blog post about it.

If you have a few children that always fight in school what do you do? Do you lock them in the same room and hope they'll sort it out? Or would you seperate them and maybe suspend/expel them from the school? I think that most rational people would say to separate the kids that are fighting and causing all of the trouble. Why don't we do something like this in Iraq?

Lets say the Sunni's and the Shiites are the ones causing all of this sectarian violence in Iraq because they are. They are fighting for power over this oil rich nation and have been doing so for the last thousand plus years. Who is to say that they are ever going to stop fighting for power?

Why don't we divide the the country of Iraq and the oil fields evenly into two nations and give them each the % of land/oil that their population would demand. That's right, if we can make 1 government why don't we just make 1 more and be done with it. Split them up and give them things constructive things to do for their own people rather than destructive things to do against their enemies.

If we could implement this than our troops would be able to come home safely.

On another note I almost broke into tears today as I was in our local Caribou Cofee and I saw a post on the bulletin board. They are having a benefit at one of our local legions for a young soldier who got injured in Iraq. He was riding in his humvee when a IED blew up underneath them and his 2 best friends died. He sustained many life threatening injuries such as losing both of his legs, breaking both arms, breaking his hip and fracturing his skull. I can not imaging how hard it would be to keep moving forward in life after an experience like this. I wish him and his family the best and I will definitely pray for them.

Make your car blink or wink

2007-01-09T16:24:00.000-06:00

The other day I blogged about how I turned my Jetta into a Pixar Car by following a Photoshop tutorial that I found on digg. Well I decided to take it one-step further and turn my picture into an animated gif. I am going to show you quick what steps I did to do it here.

Step 1: Take a picture of your car and click HERE to go to the digg tutorial. After you are done, you should have a picture that looks something like the one below.

Step 2: Open your finished picture in Photoshop and close the eyes on your car. I did this by selecting the bucket paint tool, targeting 1 part of the eyelids color (Alt click) and then filling in the eyes with that color.

Step 3: Save the image.

Step 4: resize the images down a bit if they are huge. I used Microsoft Office Picture Manager to resize the two images to the "web-small" size.

Step 5: create a new folder and put 7 copies of your original image (eyes open)in there along with 1 copy of your picture with the eyes shut.

Step 6: Compress the folder by right clicking on it, click send to and then in the drop down click on "compressed (zipped) folder"

Step 7: Now to go Gifninja's image to animated gif making web tool HERE, browse to your zip folder and click upload. I kept the slower faster setting at the default and this is what I ended up with.

I had a ton of fun making this picture and .GIF and I hope you will too. Get creative cause there are infinite things you can do with Photoshop and Gifninja.

Kodak Z650 review; Photos included

2007-01-07T08:09:00.000-06:00

Right before Christmas, I decided to finally replace my broken HP digital camera. I was looking for a camera with a higher pixel rating and good optical lens but didn't want to spend the 800 + dollars to get a SLR. So after searching the internet, talking to friends and going to Best Buy, Circuit City and Target I decided on the Kodak Z650.

The Kodak Z650 runs under 200$ at most retail stores that carry them. It packs a nice 6.1-mega pixel with a whole array of 17 diff3erent scene modes for taking pictures. Another great feature is the 10X optical zoom Schneider-Kreuznach Variogon lens. The Camera is definitely designed for the person who wants to take great pictures but does not have the time to make a full time hobby out of photography.However if you do want to take a bit more advanced photos the settings definitely allow you to take your photographs to the next level.

Video features on this camera allow you to take 640X480 at 11 frames per second or 320X240 at 20 FPS. I have not really used the video mode a whole lot yet but it is also extremely easy to use (just turn the top switch to video, press the button and point).

Kodak Easy share Software comes with the purchase and installs in just a few minutes. I find the software good source for organizing all of your photos. Easy share software allows you to share your photo albums on the internet with family and friends effortlessly. There is also the option to order your prints off the web and have them mailed directly to your house.

Overall, I find this to be a great purchase for a family camera.

Click on the picture below to enlarge it and see the quality pictures you can take with this affordable Kodak camera.

If you are looking for more details on the Kodak Z650 you can check out this thorough review at DPreviews.

Turning your winter beater into a pixar car :)

2007-01-06T23:12:00.000-06:00

As I posted the other day, I have been playing around with Photoshop recently. I learned how to make miniature sets from photos and now I have learned a new little trick. Following This tutorial, you can turn your car into a Pixar car.

I took the smile, eyes, wheels, stickers, exhaust tips from Lightening McQueen from Cars, and put them on my Jetta. With a few tweaks of hue/saturation and distorting the size and angles, everything fits very nicely. If you are familiar with Photoshop and using layers, you will find this a fun and simple task :)

Here is the picture of my car before the chopping.

Here is the picture that I cut the graphics out of.

And here is my final product :)

I had a lot of fun with this product. I am new to photo editing so the end result was very gratifying.

Video .GIF making tutorial.

2007-01-02T20:07:00.000-06:00

How to convert a video clip into an animated .GIF in 4 easy steps.

In this tutorial, we are going to go through the easy steps of converting your .WMV video file into an animated .GIF in less than five minutes.

1: Select your clip.

First, you are going to have to select the video file that you would like to turn into an animation. I have selected the clip that I have embedded below. However, I only want to use the second part of the clip.

2: Crop your clip

Now that we have selected the clip, we need to make sure that it is no longer than 4 seconds. I only want the second trick in this video so I'm going to edit it quickly using windows movie maker.
Editing videos with Movie Maker is extremely easy and is mostly click and drag techniques.

HERE is a great video tutorial to show you how to crop down a video file and use a few time effects.

3: Go to Gifninja.com

Now we need go to the video converting website to make our animated .GIF file. once you are at Gifninja.com click on "convert video to gif" on the upper left bar. Browse to the video file you created with Movie Maker and click "upload". Now just sit tight for a few seconds and your .GIF should appear shortly

Voila!

4: Save it and use it!

Now right click on your animation and select "save as". Pick a name and a location for your new animation and then start using it :). These animations have found a seconds wind on the WWW in recent years as they are being used in banners, profile pictures, forums, websites, e-mails and much much more. Now that you know how to make them help spread the word and the knowledge.

Making miniature sets with photoshop :)

2006-12-31T11:45:00.000-06:00

The other day when I was surfing digg I found this great little tutorial to make photographs look like miniature sets. Here is the link to the tutorial.

Above are two pictures that I tweaked a little bit. Click on them to see them at full scale.

Rubik's cube causes migraines :P

2006-12-28T10:06:00.000-06:00

I got a fun little present for Christmas from my lovely wife that has been keeping me 100% occupied for the last few days. I started searching around the net to find some tips on solving the Rubik's cube and I found a few sites. Some of the sites were not helpful at all but 1 in particular is awesome!

The most helpful site I've stumbled upon so far is the Rubik's cube solver. If you have come to your wits end and you want to finally solve your cube just go there and enter your cubes block positions into the chart and click solve. The site will generate probably around 100 moves to complete all colors on all sides. If the move directions confuse you just click on the text "Click here to see a diagram version" and it will show you with pictures what each move should look like.

I understand that this is a cheat but it helps you learn how to do it and understand the moves a little better :)

GL and HF with your cube!

Here are some great tutorials that helped me solve my cube. All the algorithms you need to know are displayed here!

Step 1 - complete the bottom layer

Step 2 - Understand Rubik's cube notations and basic terms.

Complete the second layer and top side :)

Learn the algorithms to move top corner and edge pieces into place without messing up the bottom and sides.

Your cube should be complete :)

Rosie Odonnell takes on the Donald

2006-12-21T22:13:00.000-06:00

The giant jellybean is taking on the wig and I don't care. Are we that bored with the regular terrorism and war banter that we have to lower ourselves to being entertained by Rosy Odonnell and Trump?

Both of these rich and famous sudo celebrities are making total asses of themselves along with fox news, talk radio and the blogosphere ( yeah I guess that would be me ).First off Rosy made a few good points that didn't need to even need to be made in the first place. Donald Trump isn't the greatest morale model in America today but he is not the worst by far. Donald sure made himself look like a degenerate though when he started ripping on Rosy for being fat. I mean come on, is that the way that you handle yourself in an argument?

This is all just one big giant joke and I really wouldn't be surprised if they are both in on it go raise their ratings.

Does digg use a algorithm?

2006-12-20T21:07:00.000-06:00

Recently I have noticed that when I go to digg.com I see all of the top ranked stories from all categories on the front page. Then I log in and it redirects me to the Technology page. Is this some sort of algorithm based on what type of stories I digg most often or are they pushing to be branded as a technology site?

Just curious if you had any thoughts on it.

Powell casts doubt on troop level increase

2006-12-18T18:33:00.000-06:00

It looks like the Former Secretary of State Colin Powell is casting a doubtful eye on the proposed surge of troop levels in Iraq. Some democrats and republican senators are suggesting a short-term surge in troops to Iraq to calm down the Sectarian Violence.

Honestly, we have the best military in the world serving in Iraq right now and they are having trouble keeping their civil war at bay. Is bringing more men into the picture going to help? It seems to me that every time our people go into the cities where the Shiites and Sunnis are fighting they turn their guns on us. The more men we have in there the more unwanted casualties we are going to face and it may be for diminishing returns.

Is this Iraqi civil war just something that they have to fight out or can we calm it by bringing in 20-40,000 more troops? I am also wondering, if we do calm it down is it going to just flare up as soon as we draw back troops again anyway?

How to resize images using MS Paint

2006-12-15T17:23:00.000-06:00

As the world moves towards technology many people are finding themselves using computers for the first time. In this tutorial I am going to help some of those people out for resizing your images using Microsoft Paint. This is a very simple task and will help you out immensely.

First you are going to have to open your picture file in MS Paint.

Do this by right clicking on the image filing, Select "open with" and click on Paint.

Click on the picture below to see what it should look like.

Now that you have the picture file open in Paint you need to edit it.

On the top tool bar of Paint click on the word "Image" and then select "stretch/skew"

Click on the picture below to see what it should look like.

Now adjust the width and height of your image to whatever size you want.

Change the "100" numbers that the red arrows in the picture below are pointing to to 200 if you want to double the size of the image or 50 if you want it to be half the size.

YOU DID IT!!!!

now you have re sized an image using Microsoft paint. Look forward to more tutorials from me in the future.

Republicans blood thirsty?

2006-12-14T17:57:00.000-06:00

Here is where we really see the blood thirst of the republican right in American politics. Senator Tim Johnson of South Dakota underwent Brain Surgery today to repair damage from a brain hemorrhage he suffered on Wednesday during a Press meeting.

What could this mean to congress? Well, if god forbid this incident lead to the demise of Mr. Johnson the republican governor of South Dakota Mike Rounds would be able to assign a candidate to serve out the rest of the term. This would bring congress to an even 50-50 democrat republican split of power with Vise President Dick Cheney's vote tipping the power to the republicans.

However if Johnson lives through this but is not at the capacity to serve as senator there are no laws stating that he must resign from his position. There are also no laws stating that once elected to represent the people you must vote in the senate. So Technically as long as Johnson is alive he can serve out the rest of his term.

Has something like this been done before?

Wow... Great question. Yes, in the same state of South Dakota in 1969 Republican Sen. Karl Mundt suffered a debilitation stroke. He requested that the governor assign his wife as Senator and he would resign. Then governor denied his request and Mundt served out the remaining 4 years of his term.

This may get very interesting in the next few months. Let's pray and hope for the health and peace of the Johnson family

Another dish from our man Tony

2006-12-10T16:20:00.001-06:00

I'm pretty much all for skateboarding in major media outlets cause it usually helps move the sport forward. My feelings are no different with this advertisement for Jeep and Sirius Radio Starring Tony Hawk and 2 other professional skateboards. I'm not sure exactly who the guys are that do the board slide and 50-50 down what looks like a 18 stair handrail.

Here is another hot dish served by "skateboardings Micheal Jordan"

Is judgeing others constuctive?

2006-12-10T15:23:00.000-06:00

I notice it at work at home or with friends or family. People judge others. You can see it in the simple looks or scrunching of the face when you are telling a story about your children or work. A glance off to the side when you are complaining can show you apathy. Raised eyebrows can say, "Are you nuts". Does all of this judging make the world a better place or a more bitter and joyless one?

I guess the argument for it making a better place is that it can make you feel a little bad when you do something you should not have. Let us say you called in sick to work to do absolutely nothing. You are father in law comes over for dinner and says, "what'd you do all day?” You say, ah I slept in until noon and I got paid 30 bucks an hour to do it. With a scrunch of the father in-laws eyebrows you instantly feel a little guilty for what you did and may tend to avoid doing that again.

What about judging and criticism over the small things? I think that when people start nit picking about taking the wrong turn in the car or forgetting to grab the mail on the way up the drive and definitely be destructive criticism. Are these things really something that you should get down on a person for? In my opinion, they are not.

What are your thought on this topic? Do you think Criticism and Judging of others is Constructive or Destructive?

Top Gear - British show covering mechanical engineering feats

2006-12-10T14:54:00.000-06:00

I may be a little behind the times catching this show but it is amazing. After watching a few episodes of British Top Gear I bumped into this one.

This episode covers the history of the amazing Lamborghini Miura 1967-72. Only 761 of these bad boys were made so if you can afford one buy it up :P.Imagine driving this car in 1967 against the rest of the bulky sports market.

I hope you enjoy the video :)

Borat in Britain-Fantastically funny.

2006-12-10T09:50:00.000-06:00

Here is a little compilation of British Borat video clips. As most of you all know by now Sasha Cohen created his characters and found fame long before he even hit the HBO comedy screen years ago in America. Some of the skits are very similar to the American one but they are hilarious all the same. The last one is MY FAVORITE although it is American.

I hope you enjoy

Borat learns how to be an English Gentleman! This one is hilarous

Borat learns to play the British game Cricket. As expected things don't turn out quite right.

Borat learns how to be prim and proper with Britain’s high society

Here Borat dables in British politics a little. Halarity ensues

Learning how to play Kroket can be hilarious. Here's the proof

The great Khazak learns alternative dance and interprative arts. LOL

These last two aren't British but I had to throw them in.

The deer calling part in this one is 10 stars. ROFL

My motha, she neva luved meh!

SanDisk Sansa e250

2006-12-10T09:22:00.000-06:00

SanDisk Sansa e250 (2gb)

If you are in the market to buy an mp3 player this year, I recommend the new I-pod killer from the SanDisk Sansa series.

The Sansa offer many great qualities like the sleek and lightweight design, an optional 2GB micro sd slot if you need more memory, video playback, easy synchronization with many pc media players, picture storage, an FM tuner and a easy to use interface. There are currently a 2, 4, 6, and 8-gigabyte models all with the same design and user interface.

I used this mp3 player last week skateboarding. It is so lightweight and thin that it being in my pocket never bothered me once. The sound quality is great and it is very easy to unlock the keypad and switch to the next song without looking at it. Its Volume was also great enough that I could drown out the music the skate park was playing to enjoy my Simon & Garfunkle :)

Video quality is also great in a pinch. It is not something that I would want to watch hours of video if I had a larger device nearby but it is great for quick videos to pass a few minutes. I brought mine in to show some co-workers some great Borat clips. They loved it and did not complain about the video or sound one bit.

I only have four small gripes about the mp3 players. The video formatting software for your computer is a little slow and cumbersome; it is difficult to navigate to the video files from your computer to delete them off the device, The video files get broken up into 10 minute sections and the fast forward is a little too slow for my liking.

All in all I give this device a 9 1/2 of 10 Candy Bars

2006-12-07T21:54:00.000-06:00

HONESTLY...

I am denouncing global warming as it was 0 degrees with a -20 fahrenheit windchill when I woke up to go to work. Granted there isn't any snow on the ground yet but it was SOOOOOO cold.

In related news I will probably announce my agreements on the global warming topic on Saturday. Our 2 day forecast says it's going to be in the 40s and sunny this weekend.

:P

Is there a graceful exit from Iraq?

2006-12-06T15:59:00.000-06:00

WHAT IS A PROPER EXIT?

Right now we are facing a very important question. With the approval of Robert Gates for Defense Secretary just around the corner we have to ask which way should we go? Should we stay the course? Should we promptly leave?

The Iraq study group is making recommendations to pull combat troops by '08. They are suggesting we take a Diplomatic offensive approach where troops will be more of guidance for the Iraqi security forces.

As we stand right now, we are in a situation that not even the strongest military in the world can easily tame. Are the Iraqi forces going to be able to do a better job? Alternatively, will the sectarian violence calm in the region once our troop levels lower?

Are we the cause of the violence in the region or Does a place like Iraq need a ruler with the iron fist like Sadam?

2006-12-05T21:11:00.000-06:00

Ok, Ok, Ok, Keith Ellison is the first person on many fronts. He is the first Muslim to be elected to United States congress along with the first non-white congressional representative elected in Minnesota.

He has decided to push to be the first person to do one more thing too. The first person to swear in at his congressional inauguration on a book other that the Christian Bible. Keith Ellison wishes to swear in on the Koran.

There are no laws or documents in American history stating that congressional representatives must swear their oath with their hand on any book more less the Bible. Therefore, it is clear that we cannot make him do it. However, what is unclear is weather or not we should want him to.

What does this mean to us? Is this the very breaking down and thinning out of our jewdao Christian morals that this very country was founded on? It is not deniable that the forefathers of America based their ideologies on Christianity. It is also hard to argue the fact that we are moving away from that very base.

So. If we are moving away from what started this country on the path that made us the greatest nation on earth, are we moving in a better direction? Are we improving the mold, like humans do? Or are we letting our grip slip and our respect fade away?

2006-12-04T16:42:00.000-06:00

WHO WILL IT BE?

As the Democratic candidates keep adding up for the '08 presidential election I ask myself whom would I want. It looks like Hillary Clinton is going to throw her bonnet into the ring with the likes of Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh and Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack plus possible candidates Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and His 04 running mate North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.

To be honest I do not know much about Evan Bayh, Tom Vilsack and Bill Richardson. I do know that John Kerry already gave it his go and lost to the poorly approved of wartime president G.W. Bush and I kind of hope he does not win the primaries. Hillary worries me just because of the fact that if the dems are going to win they are going to need the swing states and I am not sure a Lady can pull that off right now. Barack seems like a great person but I think he is a little to fresh to take the Presidents seat. Therefore, that leaves us with John Edwards.

John Edwards did a fantastic job in the 04 elections. He is seen as a honest religous moderate democrat in the eyes of many Americans. People trust his smooth southern drawl and all American look. Dirt? I do not really remember any dirt coming out in the 04 elections. He is a clean politician and I think that he should make a run for it this time around

My prediction is John Edwards for President with Hillary Clinton as his running mate.

2006-12-03T23:14:00.001-06:00

Recently I heard a report stating that from 5-50 million birds die each year due to the existence of cell phone towers. Apparently at night the birds circle the red light on the top of the towers thinking it's a star. They repeatedly circle the light thinking they are following it to their destination and finally just get exhausted and drop to their death.

At first glance I thought, well we should do something about this. Something has got to be done. Then I looked into it a little further and found that this is not a significant amount of bird deaths at all. Compared to things like cars, high tension wires and of course windows Communication towers are the least lethal of the list of man made things to fly into.

An estimated 97 to 976 million birds die each year from flying into windows. Yep, you heard me right. Flying into windows… So if you feel guilty when you are using your cell phone next time do something good for the birds. If you put a screen on the exterior of your home windows you just might save a birds life :)

Here is a little video that I thought might add to this article :)

I got the chart above from sibleyguides.com

This article is reposted with a revised version :)

2006-12-03T22:52:00.000-06:00

This has got to be the greatest video Ive seen on YouTube to date!

Watch as this (I think French) guys licks his eyeball and puts his lower lip over his nose. Rofl...

Could you use a few extra hundred bucks a month?

2006-12-03T21:50:00.000-06:00

The Internet has had a well-kept secret for quite some time now. There is money to be had and lots of it. Moms, dads, brothers, sisters and friends can all do it too. It is called advertising, plain and simple.

If you have interest in something and enjoy the Internet, you could be making money. Do you have a great amount of knowledge on knitting? If so, why not make it a hobby to start a knitting blog or website. Offer great free content to your viewers and update the site as often as possible. Start publishing advertisements by Google, Yahoo or many others and the money will start rolling in.

If you are going to spend time reading and writing articles on your topic of passion, why not earn money for it too? It works; I have been doing it for about 3 months now and have received three checks. My first check was for 182 bucks, the next for 202 and the last for 230.

What is the limit?

The sky is the limit. There are people who have posted pictures of their checks from Google for up to 400,000$ a month by Markus Frind the owner of Plentyoffish.com. This is obviously a rare case but there are thousands of people who have quit their jobs to run websites. Many of these people have never had formal training in web design or advertising at all.

Where to start?

Once you have decided what niche you are going to target and start your site make sure you read up on the forums like digital point. Digital point is a collection of forums for web developers specializing in advertisement. There is wealth’s of knowledge there.

What is key for publishing?

Content, content and content. Write quality content for your site and do it as often as possible. Try to make your articles as original as possible. In addition, spread the word.

Good luck, I hope you are successful.

2006-12-03T10:04:00.000-06:00

How to make an animated GIF with pictures

In this tutorial, I am going to show you how to make an animated GIF with some pictures that you already have. First, you have to decide on what images or photos you would like to use to make your slide show. I am going to use the three pictures below of my cat that have been altered in MS Paint.

Now that you have picked out the JPEGs that you want to turn into an animated GIF you are ready for the next step. Go to

www.GifNinja.com

and browse to your three picture files that you have created.

Now select the speed that you would like your images to rotate. I always make my animations on the slower end of the slider bar but it is all up to you. Below are two examples.
Here is a animation on the Slowest Setting.

Here is the sideshow on the Fastest Setting.

And you can adjust it anywhere in between to fit your liking :)

All in all this service is extremely easy to use, it's free and they store your animations for you in case you lose yours. I will also be doing a tutorial on converting video into animations at GifNinja too.

If you found this tutorial useful or have something to add please post a comment. I hope it was helpful.

2006-12-02T10:02:00.000-06:00

FREE MOVIE DAY! FREE MOVIE DAY!

On November 30th I wrote this article about AOL Video giving away 1 free movie download to users for one day only.

Well today is the day to get over to AOL Video. Here is the list of movies that you can download for free :)

Nacho Libre
The Muppets Take Manhattan
M:I:III Mission Impossible III
SpongeBob SquarePants Movie
Lara Croft: Tomb Raider
Charlie's Angels
My Dog Skip
Failure to Launch
Jack Frost
Zoolander
Patriot Games
National Lampoon's Christmas
Last Holiday
School of Rock
The Perfect Storm
Jackass: The Movie
Adam Sandler's: Eight Crazy Nights
Rugrats Go Wild
Breakfast at Tiffany's
Can't Hardly Wait
Maid in Manhattan
Star Trek I: The Motion Picture
Men in Black
All I Want for Christmas
Prince and Me
The Natural
Analyze this
D.E.B.S.
Easy Rider
Flatliners
White Christmas
Golden Child:The

I think I'm gonna get Mission Impossible III considering it looked like a cool movie but I just couldn't justify paying 20 bucks to watch that crazy guy in the theatre.

THIS IS CREEEEEEPY!

2006-11-30T21:27:00.000-06:00

All right, I can understand that singles go through great lengths to meet people. I also understand that if you are busy and in a circle that does not have the right one for you it makes it tough to branch out. So people do the dating service thing, which is great. I personally know people that have done it and have been happy with it. I know a few couples that met over the internet, got maried, and lived happily ever after.

However, this next step in dating services I just do not understand. In this CNN report, they discuss how mobile companies are now starting to text message you when a compatible single is in your area. Yep, you could be at the mall and get a text message stating that a 27-year-old female from your town is at the forever 21 store.

So let's say you are this 27 year old female on one of those "I don't want to be out of the house cause I look like crap and just needed milk" runs and she's got dudes looking all over the gas station to find her cause she's compatible. ROFL I just think this is strange.

but if whatever floats your boat. Apparently it's the rage in China but if you've ever seen MXC you'll understand how I feel about that statement.

AOL video is offering free movie downloads for one day only

2006-11-30T16:26:00.000-06:00

AOL Video is offering free movies to all

HO HO HO!

This Saturday users will be able to download 1 free movie selected from over 30 different titles per user at http://video.aol.com/. It looks like they are trying to drive a little more traffic to their lackluster performing product. No price beats free, so head on over there at 6:00 AM Eastern time and get your new movie. Regular pricing for the videos range from 9.99 to 19.99 but $0.00 is the best price yet.

I don't know how easy it is to use AOL Video but I'm excited to find out this Saturday :)

I'll post back with a review of the transaction.

Helio cell phones dish up great tech packages

2006-11-29T22:34:00.000-06:00

Helio has its crosshairs centered over being the new web leaders in mobile technology. They are dialing in on some of the hottest web plans to date including MySpace mobile and GPS controlled Google maps.

MySpace Mobile

With the new MySpace mobile option you can log in to your profile at any time and anywhere. Have current updates on your blog comments, comments and personal messages at all times. You will never find yourself looking for a fix to know what people are thinking about your new mirror picture again. In addition, if you are a Helio member you get four extra profile pictures for your MySpace account. If you weren't already sold you gotta be by now.

GPS and Google Maps Mobile

Never get lost again with the Google maps in hand at all times. Find locations by address or business name while on the go. In addition, use the GPS buddy beacon to keep tabs on your friends, family or significant other at all times.

The three different devices from Helio range from 100$ to 225$ with packages running from 65$-135$ a month with free 2-day shipping on all orders.

2006-11-29T18:39:00.000-06:00

Are we to the point where we get annoyed to be reminded of the death toll in Iraq?
You can read the story here http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/11/29/hillside.crosses.ap/index.html and decide for yourself.

In my opinion it seems like some people would like it to be more publicly known what is going on with our troops and there are others that would like to hide it and never discuss it.

2006-11-27T20:49:00.000-06:00

Cingular, Samsung and Microsoft have teamed up to make one badass phone (if that is what you want to call it) with the new Blackjack. This thing is pretty much a tiny computer that makes phone calls.

Get ready to enjoy all of the innovative technology when you wrap your hands around this bad boy. The phone comes equipped with Windows Mobile software, Media Player 10 Mobile, Cingular video, a microSD slot, over five ways to receive e-mails and messaging, a 1.3-megapixle camera and much more.

This phone is also very stylish. Its sleek design makes all the other smart phones to date look like hunks of garbage to me.

I just signed up with a new 2-year contract with Qwest so I am pretty much stuck with the phone that i have. If I were not I know that I would be getting one of these things.

976 million dead birds a year.

2006-11-27T20:14:00.000-06:00

Here is a little video that I thought might add to this article :)

I got the chart above from sibleyguides.com

How to create a animated gif

2006-11-20T18:17:00.000-06:00

Ok, I am going to show you how to create an animated gif using www.gifninja.com

You are going to need a few photgraphs or a short .wmv file to make your animation. I am going to use the photograph to the right and alter the color using Microsoft Picture manager a few times.

Now that you have your pictures selected go to this link at gifninja to create you gif.

MySpace fights against friend requsting robots.

2006-11-19T12:34:00.000-06:00

Ever since Myspace became the #1 social network of the web people have been using programs like adderrobot or autoadder to promote their bands, self or websites. Myspace has recently been making some drastic changes to their coding to cripple the robots ability to navigate the site.

Does this mean no more sleazy girls pretending to like you and "hang out with new people in the area". Maybe for a little while but I'm sure the bot creators will eventually figure out a way to work around the changes. Many older users on Myspace are driving away from the site due to all of the spam. They tend to find refuge in networks like facebook or bebo.

GifNinja - A refreshing new site

2006-11-18T20:07:00.000-06:00

www.gifninja.com is a refreshing new site that I have come across. This free site allows the user to create animated gifs from their pictures or video files without having to buy a program or download a 30 day trial. I found the converting process very painless as you just browse to you file location, click upload and your gif appears on the screen shortly after. This site also offers free storage of your gifs in your profile section where you can view your pictures, their ranking and the comments that people have made on them. There are thousands of gifs to comment on or view to get ideas for your next one also.

Once you convert your files into animated gifs you can use them all over the place. It seems that animated gifs have seen a revival in recent times due to people using them for their signature in forums and as profile pictures for social networks like MySpace.

Here are a few examples that I found on the site :)

-Here's one made from video.

-And here's one made from pictures.

Now go and check out the site your own self! GifNinja

2006-11-14T17:44:00.000-06:00

Adsense earnings are like the stock market.

Have you ever talked to a financial advisor? If you do, they are going to tell you one thing repeatedly. You must diversify your account. By diversifying your account, you lower the risk of loosing all of your earnings. You know the old idiom "don't put all your eggs in one basket". Well, the same applies to adsense.

Let us say you have poured all of your time and effort into one site about widgets. You have acquired Hundreds of links, traffic is doing well and you are getting high search engine results. You are averaging about 50-60 dollars a day with clicks. What happens if that niche starts paying .03 or less a click for widgets? Now you are driving 2,000 people to your site a day, getting 300 clicks and it is all for 9 dollars.

Of course, everybody starts out with his or her first site. Take the knowledge and earnings you have gained from your first site and branch out. Reinvest at least some of what you get out of your work and it will start building like a snowball. Just do not forget to pay attention to your older sites and update them as regular as possible.

Therefore, here is the connection. Create a few sites that you enjoy and divide your time amongst them. Drive 650 people a day with three sites your adsense portfolio will be much more stable. If one of your niches takes a large drop in earnings, you have other niches to fall back on. Hopefully another site will pick up the slack during slow times.

The fun of TV shopping...

2006-11-14T17:14:00.000-06:00

I bought a new TV this weekend. Actually I bought a new TV and exchanged it for a different brand.

I have just finally finished up a nightmare 1 1/2 year relationship with Apex digital. It's a long story but to keep it short I'll just say their TVs suck and their customer service it 10 times worse.

So me and my wife headed out into the big world to find ourselves a new TV. Circuit City is where we ended up and we bought a Polaroid 32" HDTV LCD. After bringing it home and unwrapping it like a kid at x-mass both the wife and I were very upset with the picture. We hooked it up to cable box with component cables. The picture along with the sound were terrible. I tried to like the TV but for 750$ I just couldn't convince myself that it was worth it.

Once at Circuit City again we found the Magnavox 32" HDTV LCD tv for 50$ more than the Polaroid. Now we have this TV at home and it is a slick machine. The HDTV comes in crisp and clear on the HD channels and looks great on regular TV. It doesn't have trails like the Polaroid did and the sound quality is much better. All in all I'm happy with my purchase of the Magnavox along with the customer service at circuit city. They handled the exchange in a matter of about 2 minutes with no complaints at all.