September 2007

Well, well well, it looks like O.J. Simpson is at again, this time O.J. allegedly attempted to recover stolen football memorabilia at gunpoint with some of his fellow thugs.  O.J. Simpson was arrested on two counts of robbery with a deadly weapon, mark up two more for assault with a deadly weapon and put some icing on the cake with a count of burglary with a firearm.  If convicted, poor old O.J. could go to jail for 30 years!  Wooo Hooo!  That’s what you call karma, baby!

Here is the audio of the O.J. Simpson Robbery that occurred in Las Vegas:

The most shocking thing about this whole story for me is the realization that O.J. Simpson is 60 years old!  WTF?!

One thing that has been missing on my new iMac is a good image editor like Photoshop.  I’m a little strapped for cash right now, so I did some searching for free image editors for the Mac and currently it seems that GIMP is the closest thing to Photoshop for free.  So, if you don’t want to shell out $649 for a copy, follow these instructions and use GIMP instead.  This install is for an iMac using OS X 10.4.10.

First, install X11.  If you have your Mac OS X install DVD, you can pop it in, close the first window that opens and open the finder window.  Select the CD/DVD icon and double click the Optional Installs application to the right.

Click continue, agree to the software license agreement and choose the hard drive you want to install on.  Next, click the arrow next to Applications and select the checkbox that says  X11.  Then click the button on the lower right corner (mine says “Upgrade” but yours should say “Install”).

You will then be prompted to enter your password to finish the install and you should be good to go with x11!

Now, all you need to do is download GIMP and install that like you’d install any other Mac application.  I went to this Gimp.app site to download the “self contained application bundle of the GNU Image Manipulation Program for OS X”.  I installed GIMP like as normal and then was ready to go…or was I?  For some reason GIMP didn’t run on the first try.  But, when I closed X11 and tried again it worked fine.  Not sure what that was all about.  There are other ways to install GIMP, but this seemed to be the easiest way.

The funny thing is that I’m not too excited about GIMP as it reminds me of Windows.  You can’t use the command key when copying and pasting… you have to use the control key.  But, it is packed full of features and is a pretty close contender to Photoshop.

Now that I have it installed, I’ll probably play around with it a bit, but so far my free graphic editor of choice is GraphicConverter.  But, I discovered another image editing program that I believe will blow them all away whenever it gets released.  It is called Pixelmator.  It is a closed beta, and it is going to be agonizing to wait over the next few months until they release it.  Check out this video of Pixelmator in action.

Sorry, Adobe… if you’re going to charge $649 for photoshop, people like me are going to look for alternatives… and find them! 

Well, after many years of using a PC, I’m finally making the transition back to Apple with a brand new, shiny, brushed steel looking 20″ iMac.

I must say that I am VERY GLAD I BOUGHT THIS IMAC!

It is so clean, sexy looking and much more enjoyable to use than my clunky old Dell. I actually use to be a Mac user and still have my old Mac in the closet, but the last time I was a Mac user was probably in the mid 1990’s…maybe around 1995 or so? The main reason I switched to PC back then was the huge amount of software available and the fact that the PC industry was on fire with new stuff every month. And, they were a lot cheaper than Macs.

Since that time viruses, spyware and buzz about how much Windows Vista sucks made me realize I did not want a new PC for my next computer. I’m done… toast. In one word, Windows is annoying, and the last thing I want to do is mess around with hardware and software compatibility issues after investing in a new PC.

I got this 20″ iMac for $1,199 and it comes with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1 GB memory, 250 GB hard drive and more. I’ve only been using it since Monday and it is amazing how quick I am remembering how to use a Mac after a good 10 years or more of being away from one. My favorite part of this iMac is the display. It is bright, sharp, crisp and clear… stunning to say the least. I treasure it so much I put a towel over it to protect it from my cat.

Actually, I think it would be a good idea if Apple provided some kind of display protector to put on when you’re away. Until then, I found this site which sells iMac screen covers or ScreenSavrz. I’ll probably buy one in the near future or have my fiance or someone maybe knit me one? Wouldn’t it be cool to have a knitted cover with an Apple logo on it? Hmm… sounds like a good money making idea to me!

So far I like everything about this iMac. It boots up in no time, makes my online experience much more enjoyable and best of all I don’t have to worry about viruses and spyware! Right? Well, I must admit I’m not totally up to speed on Mac security, but do know it is far less of a worry compared to PC’s.

My only dislikes so far is that I didn’t do my research and take notice that Mac OS X Leopard will be out soon (I think in October). So, I could have waited a little longer and more than likely got an iMac that shipped with Leopard. Oh well, live and learn. My other complain is that it would be nice if OS X shipped with some kind of Photoshop like graphic editor. I installed GraphicConverter for now and it does the job pretty well. Maybe I can save up a few hundred bucks and buy Photoshop down the road, or get an older copy on eBay.

That’s all for now… I’m still just scratching the surface and have much left to explore. I think I may start posting Mac Tips & Tricks on this blog to help other new Mac users out. To be continued…

I just received my Ball of Whacks today and thought I’d take a picture of my cat, Bobo with the ball for the fun of it.  My mind has been in a slump for awhile, so I thought I’d give this a shot to help get my creative juices flowing.  The Ball of Whacks is a creation of Roger von Oech, author of books such as A Whack on the Side of the Head, A Kick in the Seat of the Pants, etc.  I have every one of his books and both whack packs (I think there were two).  If you have not read his books, I HIGHLY recommend you do…. they are MUST READ books for anyone, anywhere.  Click here to get your Ball of Whacks, books and other stuff from Creative Think.

Interestingly, I just noticed his article titled Could You Go a Day Without “Made in China”?  I would have to say probably not!  A very interesting read and makes me re-think my previous post where I complained about my iMac coming from Shanghai.  I suppose just because one manufacturer in China makes exploding batteries, etc. doesn’t mean every manufacturer does.

Anyway, I’ve disassembled my Ball of Whacks and now it’s time to read the book and see if I can use it to come up with some ideas.  To be continued…

I recently ordered an Apple iMac and finally got a FedEx tracking number today.  I logged on to check the shipment status and my jaw dropped when I saw the shipping origin.  Shanghai, China?!  WTF?!  With the bad rap China has been given over the last few months regarding exploding laptop and cell phone batteries, lead in Dora the Explorer toys and even chemical burns on feet I think maybe Apple should think different about this.

Yeah, we all know their products probably come from China, but we don’t want to think about it or be reminded of it.  Sorry, but I had a fantasy of my iMac coming from near the coveted headquarters on 1 Infinite Loop, or at least somewhere near there in California.

We pay a premium for these awesome computers…so Apple, please don’t ruin our fantasies by shipping from China.  Kthxbye.

I meant to post this a few days ago, but what the hell…better late than never.  Check out this clip from Conan O’Brien where he can pull a lever to get a hilarious clip from Walker Texas Ranger, a show from the early 90’s starring Chuck Norris.  I think I’m going to HAVE to buy the DVD’s!  If you can’t get enough of these clips, click this link for more Walker Texas Ranger.

I was browsing around the Digital Point forums the other day and ran across this thread titled Girl Make $70,000 Month With Free Myspace Layouts. Catchy title, I must say. The thread then pointed to an article on Fast Company titled Girl Power. After reading through half of the article, I had to stop and email it to some friends and join in on the forum discussion. How is it possible that a 17 year old girl could be making so much moola? I’ve been working on the web for over 10 years and haven’t even come close to this level of success.

The girl who makes this obscene amount of cash is Ashley Qualls, and her site is Whateverlife.com. Apparantly she has been obsessed with computers/web design since she was 9 years old. So we have our first clue to the secret of her success - passion and a true love for what she was doing. But, what else contributed to her success? Or…was it all just dumb luck?

I took a look at her site and used one of her layouts on my Myspace account that I never use. The key thing I noticed is she links and/or plugs Whateverlife.com on each of the free layouts she gives away. During the time frame that Myspace was peaking, this probably created a viral effect for her site. More than likely her layouts got featured on an army of Myspace profiles and that number must have grown at an exponential rate.

She eventually ran into problems and couldn’t afford her web hosting bill. Luckily for Ashley, her host suggested she put Google Adsense ads on her site. Amazingly, her first check was $2,790. This must have provided a nice motivator to make even more layouts and further grow her empire. She now makes as much as $70,000/month and was recently offered $1.5 million, which she turned down. I think this was a mistake as it is quite obvious that Myspace is going down the tubes. I think she should have taken the money and started a new venture with a fresh, clean slate.

Anyway, I’m very fascinated by this story and had to write about it to hopefully gain some insight as to why her site is so successful. What have I learned so far? First thing is that maybe it is a good idea to capitalize on an existing success. Myspace was hugely successful, but is now fading fast as everyone moves to Facebook. What is hugely successful right now that you can create a product or service for? Hmm…perhaps the iPhone? Facebook?

Since she included her web site URL in her layouts, this created a viral effect allowing her traffic to grow exponentially. So it’s probably a good idea to add some kind of viral component to whatever product or service you are trying to sell. Of course, if you are giving away something for free this definitely helps. Everyone loves a free product. Let’s throw that in as an ingredient to her success.

Overall it seems that if you can provide something to the public for free and include some kind of viral component you can eventually build an audience that will hopefully grow at an exponential rate. If you can get enough traffic to your site you should have no problem converting that into advertising dollars.

Sound simple? Murphy’s Law will ensure that if you TRY to become successful using some kind of formula, you will probably fail. So, you’re probably better off just following your passions and hope for the best. I’m sure if Ashley reads this, she must be laughing. So, Ashley… or anyone else out there that has a clue - please leave a comment and tell us what the secret is! I’m outta here….