Tuesday Update

Hi all,









Journals Product Manager Susan has good
news to report on the archive fix install -- check it
out.

In other news, we seem to have survived the
Great Snow of Early December '06 (barely):

Thanks
-- Joe

Staying Off the Roads

Hi everybody. Right now, it's snowing in the DC metro area (we're going to get a whole 1-3 inches, everyone panic!), so I'm going to post a few links until the idiot drivers (well, the other
idiot drivers) finish stripping the supermarkets of bread, toilet paper
and milk (and wouldn't you just know it -- I needed milk, too).

* Wikipedia in the News
Over at Wikipedia,
the online, collaborative encyclopedia where anyone can post content
and make changes (I link to articles there all the time), there have
been a few mini-scandals this past week that are causing them to change how they develop content.

Previously,
anonymous users were allowed to both create new entries and edit old
ones; Wikipedia depended on a system of norms and self-policing to make
sure all information was good, that the porn and spam was weeded out,
etc.

Apparently, an anonymous user posted an entry a few months
ago saying that John Seigenthaler, a former aide to Bobby Kennedy, was
somehow linked to the Kennedy assassinations. Mr. Seigenthaler then
threw a hissy fit, one result of which was a USA Today opinion piece last week.

Also last week, we were treated with a slapfight between Adam Curry and Dave Winer over who should get what credit in starting the whole podcasting phenomena
(which, as you know, allows you to subscribe and have audio files
download automatically, in the background, to a desktop or portable MP3
player.)

Mr. Curry edited the entry on Podcasting
in a way that suggested he was trying to shut out Mr. Winer's role,
though he later claimed it was due to incorrect information.

So,
the upshot of all this drama is that anonymous users will no longer be
able to create new articles (though they will still be able to edit),
and people are going to be looking more closely at how and who can edit
content on Wikipedia.

* The Non-Diet Diet
The AP ran a story on BYU health science professor Steven Hawks's new "Intuitive Diet" (which has it's own Intuitive Institute, coming in 2006), which basicially comes in two parts:


1. You can eat whatever you want, but only when you're hungry.
2. You have to stop eating when you're full.

(One
presumes that "full" is "not hungry anymore" full, not "ohmygod, I ate
so much food at Thanksgiving dinner, I thought I was going to burst"
full.)



By George, it's so simple it might actually work! Anyway,
read the article and see what you think.

* Top 30 Facts About Chuck Norris (contains some profanity and adult situations)
This has been floating around for a while; it's funny, in kind of a stupid-funny way: It's the top 30 "facts" from a database of user-submitted "facts" about martial arts and action star Chuck Norris. Why all the quotes around "facts"? Most of them revolve around roundhouse kicks, godlike powers and his beard. Here are some examples:

A
blind man once stepped on Chuck Norris' shoe. Chuck replied, "Don't you
know who I am? I'm Chuck Norris!" The mere mention of his name cured
this man blindness. Sadly the first, last, and only thing this man ever
saw, was a fatal roundhouse delivered by Chuck Norris.

Chuck Norris can make a woman climax by simply pointing at her and saying "booya".

Like I said, stupid-funny stuff.

If
I were ambitious, I would try to tie the Chuck Norris piece with
Wikipedia, since they both rely on submitted content, but I won't.

Talk to you later. -- Joe

Phun With Digital Photos

Hi everybody,

I'm in the middle of downloading and
processing a

bunch of digital photos from various weekend festivities/activities,
so

I thought I'd share a few image resources I've collected recently (I

think a few were Digg
links, but I'm not sure which ones):

First
off, this one is just a neat trick my friend Paul
showed me. If you take an indoor closeup,

especially in a dark place (I'm told that this is a common situation
in

bars), the flash can have a pretty harsh result on your subject (not
to

mention it's annoying to everyone else).

You can
avoid this and get a cool effect simply by putting your finger
over the flash. Your finger acts as a filter, which gives
everything a reddish haze.

I'm not sure if different
skin tones or finger thicknesses affects the
effect.

While we're on the subject, here's a
discussion of more filter
hacks on Flickr.

*
Top
10 Tips for Great Pictures
There are a lot
of lists of photo tips around; this one is from Kodak, and it's pretty good;
simple stuff (like using the rule
of thirds), but well-illustrated with examples of how photos
can be improved.

* 8 Basic Steps of Image
Editing
I found this in the Maine Media-Arts Project blog

-- it's a quick guide to editing your images, including the order you

should do things to get the best results. It's Photoshop-centric, but

you can find the same basic features in most photo editing
programs.

Now, when it comes to photo editing, I am
fortunate enough to have Adobe
Photoshop,

which is pretty much the standard -- so much so that "photoshop" is

essentially a generic term for digitally editing a photo (including
the

ever-popular "putting people's heads on other people's
bodies.")

If

you don't have Photoshop, there are still plenty of options for
editing

photos. Most scanners and digital cameras include some form of photo

editing software -- it may be a stripped-down version of Photoshop or

something else; they're typically geared to basic cropping and
editing,

as well as doing stuff like removing the dreaded
redeye.

If you're interested in more
powerful image manipulation tools, here are some free
alternatives (Please note: I haven't personally tried all of
them, so your mileage may vary. But you can't beat the
price.)

* GIMP
GIMP
is a Photoshop alternative, described thusly:

"GIMP

is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed
piece

of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and

image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many
languages."

If you're interested in the history of
the GIMP project, check out the Wikipedia entry.
If you just want to download the installer, here's the Mac OSX and Windows XP

versions (Make sure you download the executable installer -- you're

probably not interested in the source code. Also, be sure to read all

the instructions
and known issues first.)

* Paint.NET
Paint.NET
was originally developed at Washington State University,

as a replacement for Microsoft Paint (so the interface is meant to be

familiar to anyone who's used Paint.) It's available for Windows-only.
I've downloaded it, and am just starting to play with
it.

(As an aside, you may be asking, how can these
programs be free? I should probably do an entry about free
software and the open-source movement, but
that's something for another time. In the meantime, if you're
interested, you can read about the GNU Project and the Free Software
Foundation.)

Finally,

if you're interested in seeing just how much the photos you see in

magazines and other media are retouched, airbrushed, or otherwise

digitally enhanced, check out Greg's
Digital Retouching Portfolio,

which has somegreat befores and afters (just rollover with your

mouse).  It's pretty enlightening and/or appalling. 
Also,

that's why I was looking at pictures of bikini
models, honest.

If

you've got any other photo resources you want to share, or you want to

show me your own finger over the flash experiments, post a link in the

comments.

That's it for now, talk to you later (snow
in the forecast tomorrow, oh fun). Thanks -- Joe

Tags: photo editing programs, photo tips, paint.net, gimp, free photo software

Message From Above About the Ad Banners

Hi everyone. Bill Schreiner, VP for AOL
Community Programming

(he's something like my boss's boss's boss) would like to address the

ad banner situation:

Folks,




Joe has told you that

the senior executives here at AOL have been listening to your opinions

and comments about the addition of ads on AOL Journals.  I'm

stopping by Magic Smoke to let you know he's been straight with you on

that point.




I'm not here to report that we're changing our

strategy on the ads.  The ads are staying for the foreseeable

future. Advertising is an important part of how we make money, and

we're not ashamed of that.




I'll admit we'd all love a “do-over”

when it comes to how this was communicated. On that score, the best we

can do now is to work harder at making sure big changes don't occur

again without proper communication.




We've learned a lot in the

last two weeks... so thank you for your comments here and in email.

We've heard loud and clear that you are passionate about what you
write

about in your blogs. Some of you are convinced that the addition of
ads

destroys that experience.  I am less certain of that.

 I  can't reconcile it with the fact that we have
wonderful,

passionate communities thriving in ad-supported pages in message

boards, Groups, Chat, Hometown, Email, AIM... really across the entire

network both inside the paid service and out.




Just like you, we

don't all see eye-to-eye on this internally. That's understandable.

Since AOL Journals had no ads for so long, I can understand why some

believed that they never would.  Some of you have moved on
because

of this and that's understandable too. We're sorry this change has

affected the way you feel about us. We thank you for the contribution

you made while you were here. We will miss your words. We will miss

your passion.  If you've moved on to another blog provider,
we

hope you'll maintain the relationships you've made here. You'll always

be welcome in J-Land no matter where you choose to blog.





We've

also learned how important the J-Land community is to the majority of

you who have elected to stay. You are important to this community and

to us, and we appreciate the understanding and support that you've

shown. A special thanks to all the folks who have thrown a virtual hug

around Joe here at Magic Smoke and in email. Thank you for putting
this

bump in the road in your rearview mirror. We're excited about moving
on

as well.




I've asked the team to double down and speed up the

delivery of some new features you've requested. They are eager to get

to it.  Some of my favorites that are coming before the end of
the

year:



Buddy List Rostering:
instantly set your

Buddy List as the "roster" for your private Journal - changes to your

Buddy List will update the roster automatically.


Blog This: a new feature
that allows easy creation of new journals and blog entries that link
back to other posts.

Partner Ping:

makes it easier for 3rd party indexers such as

Feedster, Technorati, BlogPulse, PubSub, Google and others to

receive updates to your Journals. This will make your blog easier to

find.




Early in 2006, we're working on mobile blogging, online presence,
skinning,

shared journals and other features that you've mentioned in the past.

We would love to hear from you about which of these features you think

you'd use the most and why.




Thanks,




Bill Schreiner, VP AOL Community Programming.


Email me at: CommProgramming@aol.com,
or leave your comments here.

Thanks,

Bill, for swinging by. This is his first post to Magic Smoke, but I'm

definitely going to make sure it's not his
last...

If you'd like to send him your feedback,
please avail yourselves of the e-mail address
above.

Thanks, and have a great weekend. --
Joe

New Guest Editor's Picks for 12/02

Hi everybody. As posted to the Journals Message Board, our new Guest Editor's Picks are up on the Journals Main Page:

Brandi
is very, very excited to be this week's Guest Editor. She's a
self-described goober from Texas, who also has the distinction of being
a Hurricane Rita evacuee. Check out her top blog picks (she uses the word fantabulous, so I guess that's her theme) in her blog, Something New:

* Hey I'm Country
* Blah
* Pink Thoughts
* Inane Thoughts and Insane Ramblings
* My Boring Life
* Jessica's Dragonflies

Got an update or two pending before I make tracks for the weekend. Thanks -- Joe

Tag: Guest Editor's Picks

Character Fix Install a Success

Hi folks...as both Journals Product Manager Susan and Tech Project
Manager Yoel report, the character set fix was installed successfully
this morning.



Thanks -- Joe

Thursday Status Update

Hi folks -- welcome to December. In her blog, In the Know, Journals Product Manager Susan has an update on an install that's going to happen tomorrow morning that should finally fix the charset issue and keep scooters from flying over your Journal entries again. Check it out for details.

Thanks -- Joe