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.”
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!
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.
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 »
I just wanted to post the first contest submission here, to get all our creative juices flowing.
The author is Jordan Konkel of Boston, and the photo is entitled, This Way to the Cafeteria Sir. It is a composite of two pictures, with himself as the subject in the picture, then photoshopped into a picture of an alley way. He was kind enough to let me post the original photos (below.)
This photo with it’s title, I thought, was pretty damn funny. Please note however, this is solely his interpretation of the guidelines, and not in any way indicative of the preferred theme or content for the contest. In fact, narrow as my expectations were, I wasn’t anticipating a humorous submission, but there you go. Anyway, thanks Jordan. Happy choppings everyone.
Easter eggs are amusing features or displays in an application, left behind by the developers for users to find. They are sometimes as simple as a funny message, or as elaborate as an entire flight simulator game, such as could be played way back in Excel ‘97.
Here are some of my favorite recent Easter Eggs in common software.
Windows XP
Candy Cane Pipes: Turns 3D Pipes into candy canes
1. Right click desktop, click Properties, click Screen Saver tab
2. In the Screen saver pull-down menu, select 3D Pipes, and click Settings
3. In the Surface Style category, turn on Textured, and click Choose Texture button
4. When the Choose Texture window comes up, Click cancel, and the Pipes should now be candy canes.
Pinball game: How to cheat
1. Open the Pinball game.
2. Type: “hidden test”
3. Right click the ball.
4. Now left click and hold, and you should be able to move the ball with your mouse.
Notepad: Anti-Bush? Strange and pointless… I’m not sure if this is intentional. Anyway.
SoftwareNewsDaily is hosting an 2009 amateur Autumn Photoshop contest! The prize will be a $50 gift certificate to BestBuy.com. The contest is sponsored by SoftwareMedia.com.
The theme is Halloween. Submissions will be judged primarily on aesthetic sense, originality, and innovation, so anything remotely related to the tone of Halloween, such as harvest, autumn, or the sentiment of spooky, is acceptable. Straight-up Photoshop skill is important of course, but will not be the deciding factor.
Please e-mail or post any questions you may have.
Click here to see submission guidelines and details.
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 
Easter eggs are amusing features or displays in an application, left behind by the developers for users to find. They are sometimes as simple as a funny message, or as elaborate as an entire flight simulator game, such as could be played way back in Excel ‘97.
