Just hit the “browse” (on FireFox or IE) or “choose file” (Chrome) button towards the bottom to add an image to your comment. Click on the image to your right for a bit more direction.
What can I say? It’s a Friday… the week has finally dragged on and there isn’t much longer until the weekend officially starts. Rather than writing on one topic, I thought I’d share the best of what was going on today, in the world of tech and software at least…
Chinese Schools Spurred Online Hacking Remember the series of cyber attacks not too long after Google first threatened to pull out of China? Although it was never proven at the time, China was highly suspected of launching those attacks. It’s recently been discovered that two schools in China may have been responsibly. According to the New York Times, “a series of online attacks on Google and dozens of other American corporations have been traced to computers at two educational institutions in China, including one with close ties to the Chinese military.”
Andrew, our graphic designer here at SoftwareMedia.com, put together an animation tutorial using Adobe Flash and Adobe Fireworks (after much pushing and nagging from me, I admit). Learn how to apply motion to objects in Flash by using the classic tween feature.
If Andrew starts to bug the crap out of you, click on the image above to get him to stop waving and bobbing. Don’t worry, I got annoyed too — so I made sure he built in that click to bring things to a halt. Just kidding, Andrew… you rock, for making this tutorial….
Blame it on the Monday but I’m just going to cut to the chase.
Congratulations Brian! Your design won over the SoftwareMedia.com office today. Check out Brian’s winning design and the three following runner-ups. Careful not to stare at it all too long — there’s a whole lot of animation going on all at once below here.
Brian
Daniel
Dave
What’s your verdict? Do you agree with the SoftwareMedia.com office? Hit “Comment” and tell us your thoughts!
Thanks to everyone who entered! We look forward to utilizing the above favorite designs to promote SoftwareNewsDaily.com and gain more readers. Keep tuned via RSS Feed, Twitter or Facebook to learn about upcoming contests. Perhaps we’ll be upping the ante even more!
Adobe Captivate was awarded “Best Simulation Tool” from the 5th Annual Best of eLearning! Awards. Winners were chosen by the magazine’s readers through an online ballot. Shameer Ayyappan from Adobe’s Captivate Blog tells us, “This award is especially valuable because these are based on end user nominations – our customers are voting for us.”
Captivate allows you to easily and quickly create simulations and software demonstrations. It allows someone without any programming or multimedia skills to make engaging content with audio and video. Dave Lukasik, chief learning officer for Professional Service Industries, an industry-leading engineering, consulting, and testing firm, attests, “With Adobe Captivate, we’ve achieved efficiency and effectiveness for both learners and training developers.” Captivate helped Lukasik train 2,500 employees at 125 offices across the United States with the new major overhaul of the company’s core operational system. Read more about his success story with Captivate.
In the same category that Adobe Captivate snagged a winning title, Atlantic Link Capture Point, Qarbon Viewlet Builder and TechSmith Camstasia were also given Awards of Excellence. And Adobe eLearning Suite (eLS), at less than a year old, won an Award of Excellence for “Best E-Learning Development Tool.” Congrats Adobe!
As rumors and suspicions prove true, the Google Nexus One phone was announced today at the Android event. Already available sans service or with T-Mobile (but both seemingly unlocked), it will also soon be available for CDMA carriers (Verizon Wireless in the United States and Vodafone in Europe) in Spring 2010. AT&T users are able to use the unlocked Nexus One phone, but will not be able to use the radio feature trhough AT&T’s 3G network.
The Nexus One, closely designed in partnership with HTC, resembles an iPhone. Okay, maybe it looks a lot more like the DROID ERIS by HTC…
SoftwareNewsDaily wants your help in spreading the word! In an effort to gain new SoftwareNewsDaily readers, we are hosting an animated GIF design contest. There is a $100 gift card to Bestbuy.com in it for the winner. Yep, you read that correctly, $100! We’re upping the ante from our last contest. Of course, this also means, we’re asking for a fancier graphic. It’s stays quite simple, though.
We’re in need of a few banners to help promote SoftwareNewsDaily. Think something similar to: http://www.softwaremedia.com/link-to-us.html, but animated to give it more pop! There are just a few guidelines:
Image must be 180 pixels in width and 60 pixels in height.
Promotes SoftwareNewsDaily.com.
GIF file size may not exceed 1MB (original PSD file may exceed 1MB).
Animated GIF file must be viewable in Internet Explorer and Firefox browsers.
Original work only.
All entries must be received by January 10, 2010, a bit after the New Year (so not to cram your holiday partying, of course). Keep these things in mind when you enter:
Include your name in the email with your entry.
Also, please tell us how you found out about the contest along with your entry.
Submission of artwork automatically grants SoftwareNewsDaily permission for use. Author may retain rights to artwork, but SoftwareNewsDaily has any and all permissions to use the image for promotion.
I thought I would continue the theme of freeware (okay, maybe it’s not a theme with just one article on free/entry-level programs) with a list of other useful programs. Um, wasn’t the economy getting better? Or did I hear the rumors wrong? There seem to be layoffs happening left and right. I guess it gets worse before it gets better, as the saying goes, eh? Hopefully this list will start the path to better…
The entries have been received. The office has deliberated. The votes have been counted. And we have a winner! Congratulations to Nathan for “Unchained Melody.”
Photoshopped image:
Original images used to composite entry:
Check out these other two great images from our runners-up.
Halloween by Daniel.
Autumn by Kim.
Which one is your favorite? Do you agree with the SoftwareMedia.com office? Hit “Comment” and tell us your thoughts!
Many thanks to everyone who has entered. Be on the look out for more contests from Software News Daily! In the meantime, keep your browsers tuned to http://www.softwarenewsdaily.com for software news, deals and info.
For this video tutorial, I show you how I created an animated GIF in PhotoShop CS4. The GIF animation is of the twitter bird, who flaps around around a bit and then shows a little banner that asks you to follow him.
In the video below, I walk you through the whole process, from importing the images, to saving it as web content. I show you how to create a timeline, edit slides, and watch your animation before exporting. Read the rest of this entry »
SoftwareMedia.com is itching to give away a few copies of Adobe Photoshop Elements. And SoftwareNewsDaily.com is making it easy to win! Show and tell your favorite photoshopped image. Submit an entry by simply commenting on this post and submitting your favorite photo.
Remember the series of cyber attacks not too long after 
Adobe Captivate
I thought I would continue the theme of freeware (okay, maybe it’s not a theme with just 
