The Shat

OK, a little off topic for my usually techie post. But techie is fairly close to Trekkie, isn't it? :) Of course, Trekker is the proper nomenclature, but I'm not THAT nerdy...

So, have you heard who is playing Kirk in the new Trek movie? Heehee. Phew. Hope Ben Affleck isn't playing Spock. ;)

In the meanwhile, study the master:
http://simshatner.fanspace.com/

Web 2.0 Color Palette

E pointed out this fun article on the Web 2.0 Color Palette (becaues Web 2.0 "is the new black")

"Organised into 3 distinct colour groups - neutrals, muted tones and bold colours, you may recognize a few of the shades from some of your favourite Web2.0 sites. Now you can quickly and easily assemble your own colour scheme - simply choose any number of bold or muted colours, then add as many neutrals as you see fit - you'll have a Web2.0 masterpiece in no time at all!"

Neutrals

Shiny silver [#EEEEEE]

Reddit white [#FFFFFF]

Magnolia Mag.nolia [#F9F7ED]

Interactive action yellow [#FFFF88]

Qoop Mint [#CDEB8B]

Gmail blue [#C3D9FF]

Shadows Grey [#36393D]

Bold

Mozilla Red [#FF1A00]

Rollyo Red [#CC0000]

RSS Orange [#FF7400]

Techcrunch green [#008C00]

Newsvine Green [#006E2E]

Flock Blue [#4096EE]

Flickr Pink [#FF0084]

Muted

Ruby on Rails Red [#B02B2C]

Etsy Vermillion [#D15600]

43 Things Gold [#C79810]

Writely Olive [#73880A]

Basecamp Green [#6BBA70]

Mozilla Blue [#3F4C6B]

Digg Blue [#356AA0]

Last.fm Crimson [#D01F3C]

Windows 2003 Server and FLV

Something to keep in mind if a FLV just won't play in your SWF...

Windows 2003 Server does not stream FLV videos

(Don't worry, it does. But it has to be configured.)

Ten years, ten perspectives

This is a fun retrospective about Flash written by several “big name” Flash developers! My only complaint: why isn’t Colin Moock on this panel?

“We asked ten experienced Flash designers from all around the world to tell us how they started with Flash and what it’s taught them about creativity and the web, and to offer some tips for working with Flash. The following articles offer a wealth of advice and tips on Flash, and stories about how Flash found these designers.”

Free Photoshop Shapes

Two free resources I’ve discovered lately for Photoshop Custom Shapes:

1. Adobe Studio Exchange
http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseSubmit.asp?t=14
(Also, for a complete list of Photoshop filetypes, such as brushes or filters, check out: http://share.studio.adobe.com/axBrowseProduct.asp?p=2)

2. Free Photoshop Shapes
http://www.freephotoshop.com/html/free_shapes.html

These files are of varying quality, so some manual sifting is required. But hey, they’re free. :)

To make these shapes available in Photoshop:

1. Put the custom shapes library in a directory of your choice. (I added mine here, but it does not need to be in the Photoshop directory: C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop CS2\Presets\Custom Shapes).
2. Choose Edit > Preset Manager.
3. In the Preset Manager dialog, select "Custom Shapes" from the Preset Type drop-down menu.
4. Click Load.
5. In the Load dialog, find the new Custom Shapes library and click Load.
6. The shapes will now be available in the Shape pop-up menu, which is found in the Options bar when a shape tool is selected.

Poking a Stick Into the 'Hive Mind'

Heh, I don't agree with this (at least in terms of a Web phenom), but it's interesting nonetheless:

In a recent essay posted on the Web site Edge.org, Lanier disparages the recent spate of efforts that rely on conscious collaboration (like the anyone-can-participate online reference work Wikipedia) or passive polling (the so-called meta sites like Digg, which draw on user response to rank news articles and blog postings). To Lanier, these represent an alarming decision—rejecting individual expression and creativity to become part of a faceless mob. To emphasize the enormity of this movement, Lanier titled his essay with a fearsome moniker: "Digital Maoism."

Check out the full article here.