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Kevin Mitnick’s business card is a break-out lock picking kit. Photo taken by ProzacOD.

Shameless unrelated plug: RANH50 - coupon code for 50$ off at DreamHost web hosting.

If you arrived through Digg or StumbleUpon, welcome! Feel free to have a look at my latest photos, my personal favorites, or my sets. This is my profile.

This photo was Dugg (with about 7.5K diggs), and Stumbled, and I wrote about the whole thing on my blog (in Hebrew). As of January 26th, 2008, it has upwards of 320,000 views, and about 450 people marked it as favorite.

TAKEN FROM www.flickr.com

Timing is everything, particularly in the case of amazing photography. Sometimes that means waiting through a whole sports game and getting lucky to catch just the right shot. Other times than means trudging through nature for weeks to get the perfect environmental photograph. Here are 25 examples of perfectly timed images from around the world and in various genres.

With extreme sports it is the danger and challenge that tends to excite people. Often the most amazing and bizarre images are taken right at the moment when disaster strikes. Sometimes these are tragic and painful though some are just plain funny.

With conventional sports there is always the opportunity for comedy but also the potential for artful photography. The spray of sand during a long-jump or that moment before the splash when someone is diving both provide a moment of calm in a fast-paced sport that is normally impossible to see.

In war it is often hard to find or revel in humor or traditional beauty. Instead, it is often the images that capture grave or impressive moments in time that stir us most deeply. This can come in the form of a rocket frozen in space or the geometry of a cloud of smoke from a tank.

With people comedy tends to be the rule and other things the exception. Humans tend to be at their most interesting when they are at their funniest. Whether this means a young man falling into a fountain or an old woman riding a sled, it’s worth keeping your eyes open in public places for the perfect shot!

Nature images truly span the spectrum of artistic possibility. Sometimes animals are funny, sometimes scary, often tragic and sometimes downright strange. Whether they be shot in a conventional park or bedroom or taken deep in the wilds, environmental images taken at just the right time can provide unique insights into nature and the relationship of humans and animals.

TAKEN FROM www.sawse.com

Welcome Digg and Reddit users!

We love vertical farms and while they may not be as practical as green roofs, the idea of food being grown right in the city doesn’t get any more local than this. New York magazine asked four architects to dream up proposals for a lot on Canal Street and Work AC came up with this. “We thought we’d bring the farm back to the city and stretch it vertically,” says Work AC co-principal Dan Wood. “We are interested in urban farming and the notion of trying to make our cities more sustainable by cutting the miles [food travels],” adds his co-principal (and wife) Amale Andraos. Underneath is what appears to be a farmers market, selling what grows above. Artists would be commissioned to design the columns that hold it up and define the space under: “We show a Brancusi, but it could be anyone,” says Wood. ::New York Magazine

Keep reading for more vertical farms covered in Treehugger.

It is a “Center for Urban Agriculture,” a building, located on a .72-acre site, that includes fields for growing vegetables and grains, greenhouses, rooftop gardens and even a chicken farm.” Mithun Architects’ Vertical Farm for Seattle

We present Gordon Graff’s Sky Farm proposed for downtown Toronto’s theatre district. It’s got 58 floors, 2.7 million square feet of floor area and 8 million square feet of growing area. It can produce as much as a thousand acre farm, feeding 35 thousand people per year and providing tomatoes to throw at the latest dud at the Princess of Wales Theatre to the east, and olives for the Club District to the north. ::Sky Farm Proposed for Downtown Toronto

“Cities already have the density and infrastructure needed to support vertical farms, and super-green skyscrapers could supply not just food but energy, creating a truly self-sustaining environment.” Imagine an urban highrise CSA where we just walk across the street from our highrise to the next to pick our dinner. ::Futurama Farming in New York

“Robots tend crops that grow on floating platforms around a sea city of the future. Water from the ocean would evaporate, rise to the base of the platforms (leaving the salt behind), and feed the crops.”:: Wayback Machine 1984: The Future of Agriculture

Daekwon Park designed this prefab system: “Clipping onto the exterior of existing buildings, a series of prefabricated modules serving different functions would be stacked on top of each other, adding a layer of green space for gardening, wind turbines or social uses to make new green façades and infrastructures.” ::Retrofitting our Skyscrapers For Food and Power

::Weburbanist has great coverage of Pierre Sartoux of Atelier SOA’s vertical farm.”r. A light-shading skin wraps around the structure and opens to admit sunlight at particular locations for various functional (and aesthetic) purposes. The building’s air, heating and cooling systems are wind-driven and circulate oxygen and carbon dioxide between growing and living spaces. The simple but reinforced structure is designed to handle additional dead loads from the weight of growing floors and also serve to make the entire building more durable (and thus sustainable).” ““Urban Design Proposals for 3D City Farms: Sustainable, Ecological and Agricultural Skyscrapers

TreeHugger Background on ::Vertical Farming – The Future of Agriculture? Mike wrote: I’m more excited about this concept as a way to help us stop the use of pesticides, herbicides, oil-based fertilizers, and to give a break to a lot of land that we have been stressing for decades than as an extra food source. Another advantage: the food would grow quite a bit closer to the consumers, something that will become more important as oil prices keep rising and transportation on long distances becomes a luxury (no more kiwis from New-Zealand in Canada during the winter).

TAKEN FROM /www.treehugger.com

Spider-Pig! Spider-Pig! He’s made of folders, Spider-Pig is! Can you make him into bacon? No you can’t! He’s foldspider pig! Lookout! Here comes Spider-Pig! Today a reader sent us an ad illustration made out of Finder folders and document icons, which gave me an excuse for two things: 1) organize a desktop clutter art contest for Mac and PC users, and 2) get out my head the song that I’ve been humming all morning. Full high definition Spider-Pig “illustration” and instructions about how to do it right after the jump.

Full resolution Spider-Pig desktop

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As I’ve discovered after making Homer and Spider-Pig, these things are not easy. Follow these steps to make one.

1. Clean up your desktop.
2. Get an empty folder (or a set of folders in different colors,) document icons, or whatever other thing is around your desktop. Don’t get big documents, as you will need to duplicate them to create your image.
3. Third, deactivate automatic snap-to-grid in the view desktop options in Windows or Mac OS X.
4. Optionally, load an image in the background to “trace.”
5. Start placing your folders/icons/whatever, always on a row and rendering the subject matter from top to bottom to ensure that no text from the icons on the top rows overlaps the icons on the bottom rows.

Please send your illustration to tips@gizmodo.com.

TAKEN FROM gizmodo.com

One of the most fantastic things about building a suite of tools around a community, instead of the other way around, is that users are always willing to pitch in and help out others with tutorials and forum assistance. It’s our plan to build our applications with a very deep set of community tools, built around forums, wiki-documentation, chat, user-made tutorials and sharable workspaces.

Aviary super star Meowza has already begun paving the way with more than a dozen “photo-phixing” tutorials for other users of Phoenix. Got a specific question on how to make a technique in Phoenix? Ask and ye shall receive.

Unzipping a Kitty

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Chocolatizing a Statue

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Cyborg Frog

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Smoking Woman

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Alien Overlords

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Correct Shadow Perspective

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Aging a Photograph

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Making a Snow Storm

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Popping Elements with Dodge and Burn

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Aging a Boy (or How we Faked Dodo)

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Genetic Cross-Breeding

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

How to Precision Select Custom Shapes

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Another tutorial on the same topic

Masking fur by Ziaphra

View the full tutorial | Full layered file

Using Blend Modes; Having Fun with Liquify and Mating Celebrities

TAKEN FROM a.viary.com

How Starbucks is using a special brown logo to evoke the chain’s beginnings and restore some goodwill for the brand

The new old logo: Starbucks is temporarily using a sanitized version of its original branding on new packaging.

Brown is certainly a color that communicates coffee. So, when you order a cup of the new Pike Place coffee at Starbucks (SBUX) this week, it doesn’t seem out of place to see a special brown logo on the cup and paper sleeve. Except that, as everyone knows, Starbucks’ iconic logo is green. So why change such a successful corporate symbol?

The image of the twin-tailed mermaid inside the brown medallion harkens back to the chain’s 1971 beginnings. The logo has evolved over the years, going from brown to green in 1987. This is the second time in three years Starbucks has trotted out the brown mermaid, inspired by a Norse woodcut. Back in 2006, she was resurrected to mark the chain’s 35th anniversary. This time, she is a messenger for Chairman Howard Schultz, who is trying to restore some of the goodwill and warm feelings for the brand that have gone by the wayside because of increasing coffee prices, machine-made lattes, and bad press.

Starbucks plans to use the logo on all its cups for about eight weeks. It will remain in ads and as the logo for Pike Place bags of coffee. The new blend, which will be available in every store, has been crafted for a smoother, cleaner finish than many of the rotating blends Starbucks has traditionally carried week to week. This was done to combat the chief criticism of the company’s coffee by reviewers, including Consumer Reports, that it tastes “burned.”

“Nostalgia Effort”

“Now that Howard Schultz is back at the helm, this is definitely a nostalgia effort and a strong push to get back to the core values of the company,” says Rob Giampietro of New York design firm Giampietro + Smith, referring to the reintroduction of an old icon. The tagline below the cup’s sleeve reads: “Roasting coffee since 1971.” Starbucks spokesperson Bridget Baker says, “It’s a good time to celebrate our heritage.”

Giampietro compares the move with those of baseball teams that have their players don throwback uniforms. The retro nods are meant to enliven the mood of patrons who, even while enjoying a visit to the ballpark, may resent paying $100 or more for a family of three to see a nine-inning game. “Old logos can engender a brand’s story and history, and spark or rekindle an emotional bond,” says independent Los Angeles-based marketing consultant Dennis Keene.

Tapping a logo change to convey a corporate strategy is not a fresh idea. In 2000, then-Ford CEO Jacques Nasser took the Ford Blue Oval logo off the headquarters building in Dearborn, Mich., and replaced it with a script rendering of “The Ford Motor Co.” that was also used in corporate advertising. The move was meant to convey that Ford (F) was not just blue-oval Ford products, but also Jaguars, Volvos, Land Rovers, and the myriad of other outfits Nasser was buying to diversify the company’s interests. After Bill Ford took over as CEO in 2001, he embarked on a strategy meant to take Ford “back to the basics.” He directed that the blue-oval Ford brand logo be rehung on the company’s building to convey that the brand was the one that would carry the corporation back to health. Ford has continued to struggle financially, but under a new CEO, Alan Mulally, the company has embarked on a worldwide reemphasis of the Ford blue-oval brand. In the meantime, it has sold Jaguar, Land Rover, and Aston Martin. “The move was done so no one inside the company, especially, would have any doubt about what brand will lead our recovery,” says Bill Ford, now chairman.

Giving Up Green?

Is there a danger that, by rolling out the old logo once again, Starbucks might overplay the authenticity card? “There is never a danger in reminding your employees or your customers of your authenticity as long as you also keep moving forward in new, surprising ways that are relevant to people,” says Brian Collins, principal of the New York-based strategic branding firm Collins:. “When it’s done right—and consistently—it can be the smartest way to market an established brand.”

It’s unlikely that Starbucks would ever consider going brown for good. The color is muddy and almost makes the cup look like it came from another company altogether. “As a color it’s so much less distinguished than the green, and the green conveys both a friendlier and more upscale image,” says Giampietro. “And it’s so Italian!” he adds, referring to Starbucks’ inspiration for the color, the Italian flag.

But Starbucks’ throwback logo is fodder for the bloggers: They’re poking fun at Schultz’s accommodation of conservative coffee drinkers. In the original logo, the twin-tailed Greek mermaid showed her navel and bare breasts. In 2006, when the logo was originally revived, the chain received complaints about the “decency” of the logo and, despite the chairman’s well-known liberal politics, the lady grew long hair to cover her indecency. That’s the version we have today. Italians would never have given in—or complained in the first place.

TAKEN FROM www.businessweek.com

Pet lovers may make something out of this latest pet-related offering, designed to keep kitty away from your technology but still close to hand.

This Kit In Box is essentially a clamp-on box - a cat bed of sorts - that attaches to the side of your computer desk. The idea is that you can work and pet the feline without the feline marching over your keyboard, spilling coffee and peeing on your mouse. Again.

As my search for methods to increase my browsing productivity continues, I have come across some excellent keyboard shortcuts for Firefox (my preferred browser) which I will discuss here .I am sure you’ll benefit from it if you use Firefox as your browser .

1: Automatically complete .org and .net addresses

Yes, we know that if we type ‘google’ in the address bar and press Ctrl+Enter it directly goes to www.google.com . But what about .org and .net addresses? . In Firefox, Shift+Enter takes you to .net and Ctrl+Shift+Enter takes you to .org addresses automatically . So if you wanna go to Problogger , just type the word in firefox address bar and press Shift+Enter .

2: Alt + D

You can use this to navigate directly to the browser address bar of firefox. Very useful.

3: Ctrl+T and Ctrl+Shift+T

Ctrl+T helps you to open a new tab and Ctrl+Shift+T reopens the last closed tab.
This comes quite handy in case you accidently close a tab. Another way to do this would be go to History -> Recently closed tabs.

4: Alt+Enter

This can be an extremely useful shortcut. It automatically opens a website in another tab when you highlight it in the autocomplete list. For example you want to go to Facebook and you start typing www.face…, in the address bar and it starts showing the list below. You just need to use the down arrow key to highlight the selection (facebook.com in this case ) and press Alt+Enter so that it opens in a new tab.

5: Use of Delete Key

The Delete key can be pretty useful because it helps you delete specific addresses in browser history or autocomplete forms. For example in the diagram below, when I type ‘a’ in google search I get 3 entries . If I want to delete the 2nd entry from autocomplete history , I’ll just point to it and press Delete key . Simple,isn’t it .

6: Ctrl+Tab

Ctrl+tab helps you to navigate between different firefox tabs quite easily.

7: Ctrl+[1,2….9]

Ctrl+tab can help you navigate alternate tabs but if you are a heavy tab user like me and want to go to a specific tab then just use Ctrl+corresponding tab number. Ex:To go to the 3rd tab use Ctrl+3 .

8: Spacebar and Shift+Spacebar OR PageDown and PageUp

Spacebar or PageDown key scrolls down the webpage you’re on and Shift+Spacebar or PageUp scrolls up the webpage you’re on .

9: The Middle Mouse Button

This is not a keyboard shortcut but it is an excellent shortcut . Just point to a link anywhere on a webpage and press the middle mouse(scroll) button . It opens the page in a new tab .

I hope these shortcuts will enhance your browsing productivity with Firefox . Do you know about other interesting shortcuts which I may have missed ?

TAKEN FROM /www.jeetblog.com

IKEA has outfitted a train in Kobe with sofas and curtains—probably with names like Oompa-loompa, Svenssonjohansensson, Frida, and Bucarest. Unfortunately, the makeover is temporary, to mark the opening of a new shop in the city. Good, because otherwise I would move to live in there. I will miss my stair bookcase, yes, but I would make as many one-serving friends per hour as the number of pictures in the gallery after the jump.

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TAKEN FROM gizmodo.com

Swedish furniture giant IKEA has converted the Kobe Portliner Monorail into a moving showroom before the April 14 opening of a new retail outlet at Port Island. The redecorated train, which features a colorful exterior, bright upholstery and fancy curtains, will carry passengers in style until May 6.

 

TAKEN FROM /www.pinktentacle.com