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Read Tech Buyer's Guide For Netbooks
The PopSci Top Pick?  HP Mini 311-1000NR 11.6-Inch Black Netbook

Read Tech Buyer's Guide For Point-n-Shoot Cameras
The PopSci Top Pick?  Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS3 10.1 MP Digital Camera with 12x Wide Angle MEGA Optical Image Stabilized Zoom and 3 inch LCD

Read Tech Buyer's Guide For Pocket Camcorders
The PopSci Top Pick? Kodak Zi8 HD Pocket Video Camera

Read Tech Buyer's Guide For Entry-Level TVs
The PopSci Pick? LG 47LH50 47-Inch 1080p 120Hz Broadband LCD HDTV

JOE CHILDS and THOMAS C. TOBIN, staff writers of the St. Petersburg TImes, are writing a scathing expose of the "church" of Scientology. Based on extensive interviews with high ranking defectors of the faith, their story is broken down in chapters and includes video interviews, and anecdotes describing all kinds of weird cultish behavior. What else would you call playing "Musical Chairs" to prove your devotion?

But that is not really the point of this post.

Can you spot the point in this picture?

_{Click to see full size image.}

Unless this is some Advanced SEO Tactic I haven't heard about, the scientology banner ad won't get the desired results. I am going to assume that it was a keyword targeted ad based on the perceived subject matter of the page.

In this world of unintended consequences,. I can only imagine that their click-thru rate will be thru the roof from uninterested -if not hostile- visitors to this page.

The best thing I can say about it is that it will probably make a gazillion dollars.

It’s not The Dark Knight.
It’s not 300.

It is better than V for Vendetta.
And as the bard would say, therein lies the rub.

The real problem is the nature of storytelling. Zack Snyder may have given the world 300 (the movie) but the narrative was classic Frank Miller. His vision is very clear cut and his narratives always hammer away at the concept from all angles.

Alan Moore ’s genius lies in telling a story through a series of meandering relativistic vignettes, the equivalent of tugging on a loose thread to unravel a sweater, then choosing another thread to continue the unraveling.   It  is brilliant in print but I have yet to see anyone successfully translate this style onto the big screen.

There is a subtle difference between non-linear multi-thread narrative and an episodic narrative. In the case of Watchmen, the short but constant deviations from the central story – ah hell, I couldn’t really hang on to a central story long enough to care. The whole concept might have worked better as a mini-series.

While Dan Dreiberg banging Laurie Jupiter in Archie may go down as the best Super Hero soft porn yet, I really didn’t need to see that Dr. Manhattan was circumcised.

(did I miss Alan Moore’s name? Or did he not get credit?)

Font nuances are many and, unless you are a font expert, it can be very difficult to recognize the subtle combinations of elements as a specific type face. Sometimes it’s an easy match. If the original artwork is mine, i usually have to depend onmy memory or dig up the original files. If I am adapting a logo for web use, I usually start with the usual suspects:

In the case of a recent client- SleepytimeStore.com/blog- I had to resort to asking the client for the original logo file. And I still didn’t know which font was used.

What The Font

Recently, my morning coffee reading brought me to Taylor Loran’s Blog- I’m A Designer. 

I like this blog. I get to rediscover websites I used to visit on a regular basis (like Coudal Partners ) and remind me I have stopped receiving the bi-weekly Photojojo newsletter.

So when Taylor recommended What The Font I was intrigued.

How It Works

It is actually quite intriguing.

First, upload an image containing the font to be identified.

In my case, I placed the white logo text on a black background for a sharp contrast. The upload page has some recommendations to speed up the process. Of course, I uploaded the logo text as big as I had it- which really wasn’t very big. The body of the lowercase letters were approximately 16 pixels high.

After uploading, the site requests your help to identify each character.

Then it gives you its best guess.

Did I mention its free?

Visit the site at http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/ and check it out.

In 1977 while hanging out with some friends in Philly, I inadvertantly left my camera at an outdoor lunch joint near Second and South. Having shared a few bottles of Merlot (to wash down the double cheese steaks with onions and mushrooms) I hadn’t realized the camera was missing until later in the evening and by then, I figured I was out of luck. In those days, there was no craigslist on which to post lost & found, and I had no idea of the name of the place where we’d eaten lunch (see Merlot ref. above) so I couldn’t call them to find out if it was there.

That was then. The camera is history and as time goes on, the memories become soft and faded like an old pair of jeans. Fast forward thirty some years – timing is everything. What you lose today, has a good chance of showing up tomorrow, thanks to the internet and a few good people who still believe in reaching out.

In the summer of 2008 while hiking in New Hampshire, a man named Matt found a camera at the bottom of a river. The camera was completely rusted out and worthless. A kind and curious dude, Matt took the camera home and fiddled with it until he was able to retrieve the memory card from which, after a little more fiddling, he was able to extract over two hundred photos and movie clips.

Taking it one step further, he set up a blog (http://basinfoundcamera.blogspot.com/ ) and posted some of the photos there with hope that the owner of the camera would see them and he could reunite the two. Eight days later, that’s exactly what happened, giving rise to a great new site, aptly called: iFoundYourCamera. (http://ifoundyourcamera.blogspot.com )

Every Thursday the website is updated with photos sent in by people who have found cameras. Those who have lost a camera can browse through the photos and see if they belong to them. The two are then reunited.

The internet provides us with great opportunity, but people and ideas are what bring it to life. For those who look to reach out and perhaps further the greater good, even if it’s only one camera at a time, there is no chasm that can’t be crossed. All you have to do is picture it.

After years of struggling with my better nature, I can finally confess that my belief system is best triangulated by the Buddha, a samurai, and Harry Lockhart. I don’t play well with others. I fake it fairly well though, but hate myself for it later. I just don’t have any patience for posers, fakers, and paper-pushing mediocre middle management.

So it should come as no surprise then that, even in these desperate economic times, I have difficulty grasping the 21st century business models championed by Seth Godin and Tim Ferris. I see endless blogs and companies and people advocating these ideas without actually digesting them. Instead, these charlatans actualize success through surreptitious black-hat strategies while reciting chapter and verse that which their betters have said, well, better. The hype is so loud I cannot hear the message.

"Whatever else happens, I’ve got that sofa problem handled."

Skim through the posts at ArtsJournal.com and you too will see the negative effects this economy is having on the Arts as a whole. The misery is the reverse of trickledown: for every established art entity battling bankruptcy, there is a sea of talent drowning in the zeit geist of the changing markets.

IMHO, the failure of imagination by the carrion and the sheep at the center of our economic collapse has been dwindling the possibilities available to artists and creatives everywhere. If a prospective buyer can get a painting at IKEA or Pier 1 while shopping for a couch, why would it occur to him/ her to buy original art? The consumer "wins" by knowing the art they are purchasing matches their "style" because the retailer or HGTV told them so. That $400 painting produced in assembly plant style, has slowly strangled any opportunity for independent artists and craftsmen all over the US. In the years of the economic boom, Arts festivals all over the US partied more but have sold less, year after year.

So I do understand the need for the relevant application of these marketing principles to the business of art. It is why we here at DigitalAppleJuice chose to syndicate Bill Weaver’s Blog as part of our content.  But it doesn’t mean that it resonates for me personally.

I cannot explain why, how, or what blind-link- following I took to get there, but I stumbled across Mark, Tony, and Brian of  LateralAction.com. They have put THOSE concepts in perspective.

Tyler Durden’s 8 Rules of Innovation

Go on. Read them.
Yes, now.

You are thinking, "Really, Fight Club?". You may even think I am kidding. I am not. Buried deep in that aggressive testosterone driven rhetoric lives the seed of Buddhism:

"…suffering is brought on by desire and attachment to wordly objects…"

Or in Fight Club speak:  

"We’re the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession."

"I Know This Because Tyler Knows This…"

The singularly brilliant mind of Brian Clark has correlated Tyler Durden’s drive to be exceptional in a world of mediocrity to 21st century  Business Strategies.

Rule No. 1

“No fear. No distractions. The ability to let that which does not matter truly slide.”

See that? Succinct and precise. Surgical even. Do I really have to read another explanation or book or website about the 80-20 rule of productivity?  No, not I.

Cause the boys at LateralAction.com are speaking my language.

Remember when networking was something that was accomplished at blazer-wearing cocktail parties and on the golf course followed by a cocktail?  Even if you don’t remember that, one must realize historically there was such a thing.  Leaving the house and beating the streets socially was absolutely the only way possible to network in the community and create a name, credibility and resource.  It was an era of creating importance amongst people of importance.

Enter the Digital Era of Networking

Got a computer?  Of course you do.  Well, throw away your taste for shrimp cocktail and the smell of freshly cut grass coupled with too many gin and tonics.  Your social and business network has not only become easier to access but absolutely endless.   You are a rock star in the infinite world of your own virtual networking.

There are no people of self importance.  We now understand that importance is relative to the task.  And we also understand that the tasks are constantly evolving.  It’s a better day.

Modern Party Chatter and Tee Off Times

The basic difference between networking in the past and networking now is the comparison of a closed circle to an infinite web.   There are no limits to a social web presence, guaranteed.  And you don’t have to hear the rancid gossip either.

Creating a brand name or identity in the digital era involves a very simple infrastructure of URL presences coupled with what we in the digital social networking industry like to call maintenance.

The infrastructure is the name branding and the maintenance is the social trust building.

Digital Social Infrastructures

Social networking sites are ever evolving.  They change faster than you can beat an egg.  The sites of interest to networkers today are: Face Book, Twitter and Linked In.  These URL’s maintain groups of social networks that constantly interact, change and identify.  It is imperative in modern social networking that you do not only have one presence but many that interlink.  They work together.

Other important factors that assist in connecting equally are:  e-mail accounts, personal or professional websites and blogs.  Each one of these is a necessary piece but not one of them more important than the others..  That chain is the infinite web of digital social networking.

The system works perfectly.

The Hitch

Quite frankly, even though this system is an extremely effective method to achieve niche recognition – there is one major drawback.  It takes a great deal of time to update, connect and communicate.  There absolutely aren’t enough hours in the day to run a business AND keep an interactive web presence for marketing purposes.

It can be done.  It has to be done.  But it doesn’t have to be done alone.

But not to worry, mind you.  You will notice more agencies that specialize in the area of social networking maintenance to assist in the process.  

And you will notice more specialized niche business coming your way as well as higher sales in the process.

And lastly, you never had to lift a cocktail fork or listen to so and so go on about his bum knee and his bad marriage.  Imagine that.

It’s a brave new world.
 

Amelia was just ten years old when I was a volunteer at the Bancroft School in Haddonfield NJ, a residential/boarding school facility for children and adolescents with mental and emotional disabilities. I was seventeen and working toward community service hours, spending Tuesdays and Thursdays at the facility after school. Amelia was there for lack of a better place to stash her because, while her parents had means, they had neither the time nor inclination to take proper care of a deaf child.

On my second Tuesday there, I was assigned to over-see the residential pod where the girls slept and hung out while not in school. There were perhaps fifteen girls to the pod, all of varying levels of disability ranging from proufound Autism to mild social adjustment disorder.

Amelia had neither. She simply couldn’t hear, and henceforth, had never learned to speak.
Having gone to sleep away camp, I’d learned how to sign the alphabet and I attempted to communicate with her as well as I could, spelling out entire words instead of proper signing with symbols and such. And being a 1970’s hippy, I carried a napsack instead of a purse and Amelia, like any pre-adolescent, was curiously curious about it’s contents and immediately wanted to see what I had inside. What was inside was a camera- A Polaroid One Step.  The picture would come out and develop right there in front of your eyes.

I took her picture and let her watch it come to life. Mesmerized, Amelia had never seen such a thing and I must admit, I thought it was pretty cool too.

I handed her the camera and let her shoot. Her first shot was of the ceiling of the dorm. Having no idea why she would shoot a picture of the ceiling, I let her continue, figuring that she was having fun and who really cared what she was shooting. The next was of the corner of the hallway near the bathroom door. Then more. I reloaded the film and let her have at it. There were probably ten to twelve photos in all, not counting the ones that were blurry.

I took the photos and placed them on her bed, one next to the other, and we looked at them. Touching them ever so gently with her fingertips, she held them up to me and smiled, pointing to the places in the photo she wanted me to notice. I focus in, then, I see it. Little black spots in the ceiling that look like a constellation. She shows me a book she has under her pillow. It’s a book of planets and stars. She opens it to the page of constellations and shows me Orion’s Belt. It looked just like the pattern of the little black stains on the ceiling of her dorm room. She points out the photo of the wall near the floor by the bathroom door. There are scratch marks. Many of them. I come to learn later it is in this corner they sit for time out.

Each photo, a story in it’s own right. There was the photo of the empty bed, the bed of a girl who went away. Story was she had a seizure and choaked on some food and that was it, but they just told the kids she went away. The kids knew better though. Even the ones you couldn’t really reach.

She picked up two of blurry photos and held one in each of her hands. Stretching out her arms like the wings on an airplane, she began to spin around and around. She spun for a few moments and then flopped on her bed and laughed a deep, gutteral laugh. She signs to me the letters for DIZZY, and points to the blurry photos. I come to realize that the blurry photos are how she feels when she spins. I get it. I nod and sign YES, and smile. She smiles, takes my hand, and shows me the proper sign for I Love You.

A photograph. A connection. A link between two people in diametrically opposite worlds.

I leave my camera with Amelia and bring her some more film the next time I come by. After a few weeks I am transfered to a different pod and then school is over and that is that.
I don’t see Amelia again.

Then, In 1994 I receive an email. She’d found me.

Some years after I’d left, during a showing of some of the Bancroft student’s art for a fundraiser, a few of Amelia’s photos caught the eye of a teacher from the Moore College of Art, who, after some string pulling, arranged a grant for Amelia to attend some classes on campus. It was there she met a student professor who, as it turns out, had been raised by a hearing impared single mother. They date for five years and in 1988, are married in a small ceremony behind the Philly art museum, overlooking the Schuylkill River and a backdrop of vintage boat houses.

Today, Amelia teaches hearing impared children in a small town in Maine and helps her husband (the student professor) with his photography business on the weekends. They have two adopted sons, both hearing impared, and one biological daughter with no hearing disability. The family is happy and thriving.

It is with a heavy heart that I have come to accept Polaroid’s imminent demise, but in the words of Bob Dylan, ‘The Times They Are A Changin’. And while we can’t interfere with progress, I take this moment to raise my glass and bow my head to Polaroid and it’s legacy – for it has done far more than just capture moments, it has in many respects, set spirits free.

Namaste, Polaroid. Gone but not forgotten.

Introducing Power to the Poster, a somewhat user generated yet creatively moderated site that offers free downloads of powerful, culturally important, high quality art and graphic posters for you to print out and use and share for free.
 
There are artists who would shudder at the thought of giving away their work, saying it cheapens the importance and is a waste of their time. And there are artists who use their work as a form of political protest, and what better way to protest than to go against the grain and give your message away for all to see, hear and feel? Art doesn’t become important until someone other than your parents, significant other, or aunt Petunia want more of it. It’s one of the reasons many historical artists didn’t get famous until they were mealworm. The ability to disseminate one’s work was limited. As social and technical civilization evolved, more people were able to get their work noticed. The country opened up as did the world, by ship, car, and aviation, and because it’s in our nature to seek. And now there is the almighty internet. A massive labyrinth of galleries of artists all around the world if you’re so inclined. Today, if you’re an artist, there is no excuse for obscurity. And if your agenda is about reaching an audience with a message, evoking someone’s spirit to speak or their ego to listen, then go check out Power to the Poster.

 
My husband, who went to art school in upstate NY but who opted for the mortgage, the car payment, the orthodontist and college tuition bills in lieu of his true passion, counseled our eleven year old son recently when he informed us that he wanted to be an actor and be really rich and famous like Josh and Drake.
 
"A true artist is one who does it for the love of the art, whether or not he is able to make a living at it. The actor will act in the village square, the musician will play on the steps of the library if need be, and the painter will paint until his pallet runs dry, but never will they deny their passion. Do you understand?"
 
To wit our son answered "Yep. So, you’re saying I should come up with a plan B?"

For more information, visit powertotheposter.org

I pulled my workout pants with its myriad array of pockets out of the dryer and felt an all-too familiar lump in one of the tie-pockets. "*&^%" I thought, while pulling out my iPod Nano. There was not any visible damage. The only evidence that it went through the wash at all was the trapped moisture in the silicone case that was around it. The first thing I did was slip off the silicone case, hoping that it offered some protection. However, it was the type that left the jack exposed at the bottom in order to dock. I was fairly sure the soap and water from the washer crept into its innards. Additionally, it may have gone through the dryer twice while on a high heat setting since the pants shared space with heavy jeans. I’m thoroughly kicking myself at this point as the Nano, nicknamed "The Bat Pod," was a gift from my husband. It’s name comes from the engraving on the back: "Does it come in black?" (You get engravings like that when you get asked on the spot "What do you want on your black iPod?" when Batman Begins just gets released. His coworkers think I’m quite insane.)

Past experience with Macintosh computers in academia has taught me that liquids when spilled on Apple products are not necessarily a disaster as long as you give the device a chance to dry out thoroughly before attempting to power it on. So I let it sit on my desk for a couple of days. When it seemed certain that it was dry, I turned it on. Nothing. Then I remembered that the battery was low prior to its "trip." It connected successfully to the USB cable and gave me the familiar charging screen, which at the time seemed to me a digital "thumbs up." Sure enough, after an hour "The Bat Pod" came up in iTunes and on the Desktop. And the media was still on it! To be safe, I went ahead and reset it to factory defaults for a clean *cough* start. Only one injury persists, and that the menu button doesn’t work anymore. But I deserve that.