HiddenKenshin

I've never actually used gimp, infact i'm still using photoshop cs1. I havn't had the time to upgrade and cs1 does just fine.I'm not exactly sure what features gimp has etc but i know that the photoshop i have does exactly what i need. I usually don't change programs unless something stuffs up or i need other features.
So that means i'll be sticking with photoshop cs1 for a while. When i need to change i'll try out gimp and see what its like.

-HellFire

On the matter of CS1/CS2, you're not missing out much. CS2 improvements, for me personally, was a user-friendlieer way of applying filters (instead of freezing for a few seconds, photoshop now shows a loading bar when applying a heavier filter). To point out a single, of the few improvements. The rest is quite the same, and a few other apps are added, like the adobe bridge.
Which I've never used and prolly never will use either.

ok, I'll try to refrain from going OMG KMFDM IS LIEK THE BEST BAND EVER OKBut, KMFDM is probably the best band ever. (oh, the humor!) Well, for me it is. They're incredibly "underground" and won't be found anywhere NEAR mainstream, ever. Unless for a remix of something or another.What kind of music does KMFDM offer? They do something in the likes of metal, electronica, industrial, hard rock and I guess experimental can be added to the list. All of that makes live performances seem unlikely, but they are AMAZING live. And they've been around since over 2 decades.The line-up has changed so often that I've lost track, but familiar faces and Sasha Konietzko and Lucia (Luu-chia). They usually bring music that has a lot of sarcasm, irony and bare, straightforward, blunt truth. They don't take themselves seriously at all, but they take themselves serious for the fans. They don't sell out to a major, for a couple 'a bucks. (that was a line straight of a song, actually)Their songs are also littered with one-liners and, how I like to call them "battlecries". "KMFDM, better than the best, megalomanicial and hard than the rest" - "rattle your chains-never back down-one step back is two steps ahead". The last line is actually a wink of the creed of the Russian soldiers when they invaded Berlin. If a russian soldier would retreat, their commanders would be waiting for them, tearing them apart with the PPSh 41's. Stalin's idea is that Russian soldiers may only advance, and retreating would allow the enemy to take to steps ahead). They're not commies though. Hehe.But, for example, they amassed all the general critic KMFDM gets, and combined them into a song called KMFDM sucks! It had me laughing from start to end first time I heard. They also link back to their fanbase in their songs, which only adds to my respect for them. Whenever a reporter asks what KMFDM stands for, the member usually make something up, like, "kill motherf*ckin' depeche mode". This is because they got tired of reporters no bothering to check up with the band they were interviewing. KMFDM stands for "Kein Mitleid für die Mehreit", loosely translated as "no pity for the majority" from German. It might be a downside for non-German listeners, because some of their songs are either entirely or partially German.They often tend to tread "political" views, which is the only downside for me. Pink's "Dear Mr President" makes me cringe everytime I have to hear it in a public place. I hate that.Perhaps, if you've seen the movie Mortal Kombat, you might remember the catchy, asskicking tune that occurs when they fight in the hall, on the stairs, against the "footsoldiers"? That's KMFDM. They also did some work for major animes, like Ghost in the Shell ("Ultra", "Virus"), Juke Joint Jezebel is heard in several movies, including Bad Boys, an anime and a few other flicks that don't come to my mind.To close up, reccomended songs:DogmaJuke Joint JezebelKMFDM LightKMFDM sucks!JihadStray BulletHau Ruck!MegalomaniacMoneyRisenVirus-PestilenceRevengeFeed Our FameTrust...

slipknot is a good band but why not you like there jumpy-rebelness. it's a change from disturbed and mudvayne. the only other band ive seen close to slipknot is Drowning Pool

OH, dun worry, I like the "jumpy-rebelness" to a certain level, but I grew out of it at the age of 16/17. When I first heard Rammstein (loud, straightforward industrial-based metal, with AMAZING lyrics and wordplay of the german language), I was heavily indulged, because it added to my need to identify myself with something powerful at the generally tender age of 14. Eventually, they grew on me and I finally understand the songs and the lyrics better, same for slipknot, but some people need to tone down on the thing I explained above. Because then you no longer like the band, you just fulfill your own selfish need to "acknowledge" yourself.

It may all seem a little overthought and all, but they're all just stages that you'll need to experience yourself. So, what it comes down to, rawk out hardcore, even if it's disturbed or mudvayne. Disturbed is pretty awesome too...

Hey Marky, could you be kind enuf to point me to that source ? Cause i was going to use Gmail Drive in these few days to get files of my joint Class account to make an archive. Could you please confirm this news.

 

Going into each mail and d'loading each attachment is crazy so thought GDrive could help me get all the files at once.

 

Regards

Dhanesh.

 

I came across something like that as well. Sorry to jump to the other person's asked clarification, but it was due to the mass sharing of wares, illegal apps, keygens, cracks, etc... That google intervened on this.

 

You don't get banned for it, apparently, you got locked out for a duration of-usually-24hours. I assume that, if you keep things low-profile, you should stay clear.

 

Gmail's policy doesn't really approve or forbids gmail drive, unless, once again, things get funky:

 

 

Why has my Gmail account been locked?

 

If we detect abnormal usage that may indicate that your account has been compromised, we may temporarily disable access. It will take between one minute and 24 hours for access to be reinstated, depending on the behaviour detected by our system.

 

Abnormal usage includes, but is not limited to:

 

* Receiving, deleting, or POPing out large amounts of mail in a short period of time.

* Sending mail to a large number of recipients in a short period of time.

* Using 3rd party file-sharing or storing software in your account.

* Logging in from multiple locations in a short period of time.

* Using your account for purposes other than email.

 

If you're using POP to retrieve your messages from Gmail and your account has been locked, please read I enabled POP access, and now I'm locked out of my Gmail account.

(source: https://support.google.com/accounts/troubleshooter/2402620?visit_id=0-636173174010777039-3047810907&rd=1)

 

And other relevant info to gmail drive:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gmail_Drive

 

Especially the "caveats" section.

I like the golden plate signature, but for some reason (might just be me) the detail quality looks a bit blurry. You're right in saying that it does seem a bit big for a signature, but if that was the intention then that's what it is! I think it might have looked a bit more rustic/bold had you added a more defined border around that particular signature. Maybe even the addition of a drop shadow as you have used in some of your other signatures, would have given this one a more 3-dimensional and bold look. Nice font though and sort of rustic design.
The hellwars signature is cool. It's pretty bold and dark, and seems very prominent in it's design, like it would stand out very nicely against a dark background. Being against the white though, it's good too. I think it would have benefited a bit from a drop shadow as well, to give it an even more prominent look. The fire is cool though, and the chains are neat. I like the rather dark marron/red that you've chosen, as it works well with the metal and the dark theme you've gone with for this signature.

The Travian signature is very nicely done I think. It seems to be the perfect size, and it is very appealing. I like the textures, and the colours, and the nice, simple, red/brown border that it has. I think the drop shadow is great here, and really adds to the signature. I also like how you've utilized transparency to give it even more variety. I think I like this one the best out of the ones you've shown here. This one just really seems to flow together, and isn't so obtrusive as the others, due to their size. This one though, it looks very, very nice and clean.

The Maplestory banner is nice as well, and I much prefer it's size than some of the larger ones you've shown. I like how you've incorporated your character into the banner, and I like how he has a shadow and is slightly larger than the banner itself, to give it more dimension. The font would be slightly hard to understand, if you hadn't provided your name, but that's not really a problem I guess. It's good that the font has that white outline for it, so it doesn't blend into the background. It has a nice separation between the background pattern and the font itself.

Nice work on all of them. I just commented on a few that I really like, but I like the variety in all of your signatures. It's nice to see that they're all pretty much different, and that you've tried new things and techniques with each.

w00t!

Thank you kindly for taking the time to review my siggies.

My most favorite siggies seem to have disappeared, along with my previous hosting, I'll try to reupload them somewhere...
It's nice to hear the positive sides, but I surely do would like to hear the downsides. Like, I always wonder if my font, is in fact, readable, especially with the whole animaniac nickname thing I got going on.

The Luthien sig was indeed unfinished, but she didn't want any changes on it. Next to that, it's only since the more recent sigs that I've started using .png, they deal with shadows muuuuch better than .gif. In fact, .gif seems to hate me a little bit.
Everytime I learnt myself summin' new, I moved on to a new style, or adapted the previous one. Right now, I'm looking into vector things, never done those before.

The layout and the design of the site is very nice but somethings are somewhat hard to read. The font style and size should be changed. The site comes out fine in both IE and firefox. Also, if you want, you might want to opt for a flash navigation menu or something. I personally like the menus that glow or give some kind of response when you put the mouse over it.

From the perspective as a photoshop addict:
*Banner: quite nice, but the effects are clearly a collection of tutorials. I like the foreground, the text with the translucant panel, but I don't quite enjoy the background.

*Menu: nice idea, but the pixel font is too small. Consider your visitors, who might have limited vision, or just crappy computers. The concept for the layout of the menu buttons are nice, but look a little out of place for me.

*Content area: please use another font. It seems it's defaulted to use the browser's preferred font, as I get times new roman on Iexplorer and verdana on FF. Verdana looked quite well.
Like someone else said, red and silver aren't the best of buddies. I'd try a different color scheme, but that's just me.

Take heed, I'm pointing out my personal negative points, overall, the site is nicely made, and obviously some work was put into it. Now you need to finish it. Add some content, advertise,...

i agree about that firstly
i think drupal is bad
but now i think it's pretty good

I've been through Joomla, Mambo, phpNuke, PostNuke, Xoops and Drupal is indeed the only one that did the trick for me. Mostly, because it's just so simple, clean and easy to use. Joomla drove me up the wall, with it's many bells and whistles, while the rest was quite nice, but unstable or dodgy. Xoops had a lot of mods, but often quirky or erroneous.

As soon as I get my hosting, I've got my plans laid out on what to do.

I have now conducted a few tests on my router and am led to believe if you are in an area someone elses router and dont have permission, you can hack the router, find out all their website history and view current connections. If you a WEP key installed on your router, this is the problem. Remove it and use another security method, WEP is hackable and can allow users through quite easily, i disallowed my laptop from router, then used certain software to generate the WEP, got on then used Internet Tracking tools. It's so simple, people can Hack your router! use WPA or authorised connections only. keep your router password around 8 letters with letters CAPITALS also.
See a big white van across the road? that could be the hacker

Simon.

No reason to get paranoid. In fact, a "hacker", if he really wanted secure information, would probably find other means than trying to get in reach of your wireless network.
Besides, hacker usually aren't interested in your-average-household-wifi-network. Those "vans" are usually cruising leechers, trying to steal some bandwith.

I do, however, agree with you, that wireless network are victim of nonchalance. Initially, a router gave people the household-computer-user the heebejeebees, because they were so hard to configure and setup.
Over time, the made routers good to go out of the box. A little more than plug and play, but barely secured. Most people don't even know how to protect their network, let alone know the difference of encryption on WEP or WPA/WPA2 keys.
What's worse is that these people leave their router login on default, so it only takes a quick google on the brandname, to look for the default logindetails. which are usually "admin-admin", or "blank-blank" anyway. It seems that protecting your wireless network has become a little more user-friendly, lately, but that's just from what I hear from people.

Like xboxrulz already pointed out, what the hell? It always confuses my poor, poor dutch brain... What about the rest of the WORLD? The articles are always written, considering the US laws. Not that I'm saying it shouldn't be, not at all, it would get a little confusing, wouldn't it?Also, at least gmail's being transparent (to some degree) about how it deals with it's content. At the time that hotmail was launched, popular and over-used, I think fairly little people were aware of the privacy issue. At least not as much as now, anyway.But anyway, if it's for security measures, my door's damn open. I've got nothing to hide, and am all in favor into halting terrorist activity.In the long run, it's them we have to think for all these big-brother scenarios.

A friend of mine showed me a nice tool which lets you use your gmail account as a virtual disk drive on your computer. The site can be found here: http://www.viksoe.dk/code/gmail.htm

 

Basically what it does is it makes your GMail account an online storage.

 

There is a similar firefox extension that basically does the same. It is, however, quite slow, at least what I tested.

 

How is the functionality on that tool? Speeds?

First of all you'll need content and lots of it so SE can spider through all those words. My site had a moderate amount of content in a page and typed in a statement from it and Google found it.
Content before Advertising.

Anyone willing to share some results? I'm very curious as to how much a person earns on what means, on how many unique visits, with what kind of site, in what kind of timeframe?

I've seen my fair share of supposed results on bunches of "get rich overnight" sites.

Are we talking hundreds? Thousands, even?

For those who want basic stuff to make signatures, or enhance a photo - I recommend using GIMP rather than pirating Photoshop. You won't make use of extra features and it's easier to use this way.
Professional people however will find no problems comparing these versions based on their features list on their websites.

I'm happy I got a college licensed photoshop, because I've never seen a person with a legit photoshop version running on their computer, outside my college.
Prolly one of the most pirated pieces of software of the moment.
I'd still pick PS over the GIMP anyday.

Tip: Make your title less ambiguous; it would be like asking does anyone like music. There is too much of a range.


It depends on what the song's like, the same with any other genre other than chav, mc or pop (they shouldn't even be classed as music).



Of the rappers, I've only come across one that I like, that is Eminem. 50 pence and his hommies have taken rap down the route of crap.

It will be a grand day when rap removes the stigma of gangsta rap, and individuals such as 50cent and other hippity hop, bling-bling and gun bearing creatures that believe a chorus needs to start, end and be interrupted with a gunshot.

Not to flame, but I was incredibly amused when 50cent made a rather unwanted appearance at a rock festival here in Belgium(Pukkelpop) a few years ago. Next to the stage were two gigantic panels that screened cameras around the stage. Occasionaly it zoomed in on the audience.
Amidst the people was a dude who stole a sign from a public toilet that said "Public toilet: 50 cent".

Know what's a good effort? Guys like Skindred. Reagga metal hip-hop rock in a sweet package. Anyone who played a recent'ish NFS might've heard them.

Well as i said not really alternative, but all of the fans chat here I'm personaly a fan of Slipknot and Corey Taylor

I think it fits in the major not-too-mainstream bit. I don't really care if a band "sells out" or not, I just listen to what I like.

I was there, years back, when wait and bleed and spit it out where found etched in schooldiaries, with darkred pens, or on schoolbags and stuff. Back then, I didn't really enjoy what I can't understand due to the screaming (do mind, I'm dutch, not english), but the last few years I've started to appreciate them more.

I dislike the jumpy rebel-against-anything crowd that comes along with it, though. Too tiring. The kind of people that are frustrated and like to identify themselves with loud, screamy music in order to feel on top of things. (been there mahself, heh)

Hi, I just want to ask for opinions about CafePress and if it makes money. If anyone has ever earned money from this service then please don't hesitate to post. If you've tried and it didn't work out please tell us. I'm planning on launching a project with this website so I can get some revenue off my website but I don't want to waste my time so I'm asking.

I tried, I put a few days of concentration in it, and it turned out to be nothing. I've had a few "interested" people, but they ended up buying nothing. The only succesful people I've seen on CP, are people who got famous on deviantArt.

thanks for the tipsit really help me

[nice tips]

what do you mean exactly by "styles"? I assume you mean something like a template, a standard layout for a sig you want to re-use over time?

Like the person above already said, when you save a project as a jpeg, gif, png or whatnot, it will be a "compressed" image, meaning all the layer info and such are discarded.
That would be under the "save for the web" option.

However, when you want to keep the project, as in, the files, the blending options, the guides, etc... Then you'd best save as a .psd.
Which is under the "save as..." option.

As for "styles", in a little more advanced sense, you can use actions, to let photoshop remember a set amount of applied options. Much like a macro. You can save this set, as an "action". If you look around the web for "photoshop actions" there's a bunch of premade ones you can download and use.

I find that word of mouth is one of the best ways to promote a website. Tell a couple of friends to tell their friends and so forth.

I <3 this topic. It's quite a wealth of information.

Can anyone provide a bunch of good links to start? Preferably free links to generate traffic?

Yup! GetAFreelancer specifically has been the most successful freelance site that earned me some money. I recommend it to those programmers/designers out there who want extra money.

Project4hire is pretty decent as well, but GAF most certainly has a much larger userbase and projects up. Actually works too.

Nice to see that you've gained some postive experience from it as well? Care to share? Perhaps offer a few tips? I'm rather new to GAF.

So.... do people make money off of this? That's basically the question he's asking. This idea is pretty interesting and I would like to find out also.

Well, me too, I just summed up my experiences.

No one really gives a straight answer. What you usually get is that it eventually always comes down to either cloning a successful competitor, or spending lots of money on cheap marketing. I've yet to come across a clear, honest person who successfully makes a living off of this. Not the kind of people who claim that, if you give them money, they will make sites for you, sell products for you and give you all their money! lyk whoa!

The only working option for me at the moment are the freelancer sites I mentioned.

Can i just clarify that global warming does not mean that the world is going to get hotter, all it means is a weather change and that the water will rise about 5cm and all the low countries will be flooded. If you want to know what global warming is like there's a movie called "The Day after tomorrow" and the movie is abit extreme with the effects of global warming but it explains it well.

But, i think due to Global warming and weather change that it hasn't snowed in England

 

Actually, that is the very jist of it. It doesn't take much scientific insight to know that the global warming effect is caused by the greenhouse effect, i.e. the atmosphere warms up due to human activity.

 

How else do you expect the water to rise in 5 cm? Water doesn't just show up out of nowhere. It's the heating of polar areas that will cause massive amounts of ice to melt and flow into the ocean. Not only will this con tribute to disasters, but the oceans and seas are in fact very fragile systems, with types of currents. When these are distorted, due to the sudden increase of colder and unsalted "icewater", large changes could take place in the climate, which on it's turn is also a delicate system.

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming)

 

As for the OP, I doubt that the condensation effect from airplanes really make much of a difference, the atmosphere also isn't limited in effecting just America, I believe that recordings of this effect would've been noticed all over the world. It wasn't just in America where planes were forced to stay on-ground.

Don't forget the people that are going to operate these machines. For your standard, run-of-the-mill routines, a mac is unsuitable, from what I believe. Also, with a mac, you chose to pay a rather unhealthy sum for the brandname. Simple as that. The flashy design, smooth white plastic and the apple logo don't return in usability. I'm not pro-windows and anti-mac-geek, I just easily get annoyed with these things...Even considering the light graphical work, Photoshop runs perfectly well on a winOS.Also, Wutske has a few outstanding arguments. Once again, the audience is forgotten with a few other posters. I also don't think overclocking will be needed, and in the future, upgrading might be needed, which is limited on the Dell option.

Hi, me be Ian, aka HiddenKenshin (or even HK), a belgian, 21yr old male on the loose. I got here since my paid hosting has ended, and I need a free alternative. After skimming through about a few dozens of sites, this one seemed most promising. Actually, I'm pretty amazed I almost got all 10 credits rounded up already... And this community seems, well, not rotten or spam-flooded, that's always a plus because I'm a bit of a forum addict...Uh, as for interests, real quick: I'm nuts about graphic designing, educated myself in photoshop, dreamweaver, apophysis, etc... I'm addicted to japanese culture, thus I am also a kendoka, meaning that I do Kendo, a japapense swordfighting martial art that is heavily concentrated on budo as well. Budo can be widely seen as "the elightened way of the warrior". Being a warrior at heart, mind, spirit and body. Not just slicing and dicing your opponent.Next to that I enjoy playing a game now and then, and am still loyal to command and conquer, more importantly, red alert 2. Idunno why...Naturally, most of my time, dedication and interest go to my lovely girlfriend Emilie and my close friends. For eventual fellow beljuns, I'm from Hasselt ^^Oh. I have an inexplicable love for ninjas. Again, idunno why. I like to pretend I am one.

I've noticed several sites that offer a commission for web layouts. Has anyone ever done this and successfully made money from it? I have always wanted a way to make some money in my off time without getting a second job. I've also heard of websites that post jobs for graphic/web designers. From what I've seen though, a lot of the jobs require a solid time investment that I can't really do with my current job. Any comments on this subject?

 

I'm in the same mindset as you, apparently. I would really enjoy getting a little extra from doing what I like best, graphics design.

 

Raising a site from ground up and selling templates would probably require some serious investing, starting with your own domain name, to getting proper SEO (i.e. Search Engine Optimization). Regretfully, the web is cluttered with frauds, scams and malicious websites claiming to up your search engine results so it's hard to achieve this, although there are solid ways of improving this.

Next to that, you'd need a series of flash templates, because for some horrible reason, that is what a lot of businesses want, and probably what pays off best. As attractive as a flash site may be, it's often intrusive and annoying.

Then you need partners, affiliates, people who are willing to spread your site, etc, etc, etc... People are getting paid to do each section of the cycle, so doing this alone, is incredibly hard.

 

On the other hand, the power of a community is often an underrated one, in my humble opinion. I've seen people from around 16-18 years old, earning loads of money, because they started off being a talented an respected member from a community. I'm talking about Newgrounds, deviantArt, Retrogade, customize.org, etc etc...

 

That aside, I'm currently getting most succes by starting off as a freelancer. Yet again, there's thousands of sites, clones and malicious sites that offer freelancers the option to offer their services-and clients to post projects for freelancers to bid on. I've taken the time to browse a plethora of fora (I rhymed!) in the search of a few hassle-free, no scam solid and working freelance sites (https://www.project4hire.com/ and http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/). Where others require payed sign-ups, and such, these just offer a limited amount of bids (15 a month), or deduct a small percentage of your paid fee.

 

A good portfolio with a fresh, clever and good webdesign will do you good.

 

Good luck, though. I'm on the same road >_<

An incredibly long title it is!

 

The initial reason why I got "into" graphics design were signatures. I soon moved on to wallpapers, but still, I'd very much appreciate some ratings/comments/feedback.

 

Do note, I'm not all too wild about your-generic-signature with a random style and a videogame render blended in. If you're expecting this, I don't have much to please your eye for.

 

---OLDER---

Emperor Siggy

Lightly animated banner for a buddy of mine who was also playing Travian.

 

The Ursa flag

No, it doesn't say beer, it's dutch for bear ^^ (hence, Ursa, latin for bear), this is prolly the most complicated and painstaking signature I4ve ever made, since everything was done from scratch. The waving effect included, which is a sort of image map, NOT just a filter effect.

 

Luthien golden plate

Signature for a charming young lady called Luth, it's a bit big and bulky, because it was a concept design at the time. She was nuts about it, and took it as it was. No idea if she got away with it on other fora ^^

 

Elite-Nicco

A good guy from Denmark requested a Halo-based siggy. Since I was sorta reluctant to yet-another-Master-Chief siggy(requested somewhat around the release of Halo II), he wanted an Elite covenant featured in it. I animated it for kicks, and I liked the effect.

 

Hellwars banner/siggy

A hellwars banner that was supposed to serve as both a signature and a site banner.

 

---MORE RECENT---

Travian siggy:

Signature for myself on an MMORPG called Travian. I was a roman tribe, hence an old, Roman theme without turning into a gothic theme.

 

Zanshin MapleStory banner

Another pseudonym I use is Zanshin, if HiddenKenshin is too long. For a game community of maplestory.

 

Another Zanshin

Same as above, but just for any other fora where I use Zanshin

 

Azmidiske pack

A signature I made to accompany the wallpaper she requested (seen here)

 

Khan siggy

Request from a forum.

Photoshop is much more powerful program, but because it isn't free, as Gimp is free, open-source, it is quite simple and also quite powerful. I started with Gimp and to get used to it was quite hard, but with some time using it practically I really started to like to use it, later I got Photoshop and it was how to say it in short "to complicated" so I didn't use it, but also with time and tutorials learned to use it, even though I am not a graphics designer rather a coder/programmer, but I need to work with graphics sometimes
Gimp in some way is much faster and less resources hungry, but with current computer hardware I don't think that is a very big problem. Photoshop can't eat everything, at least, it doesn't use all my resources and I don't have a to powerful hardware myself.

(uh, hi, I'm new here ^^)

As passionate or addicted to "digital" graphics design as I am, I've also tried several programs; to broaden my horizon. The three "major" ones were PS CS1 (at that time), JASC PSP and GIMP. Personally, PS CS1 was too complicated, like said before in other posts, JASC was buggy as hell, and GIMP was just too unintuitive and lacking power.
Over time, I found much more resources and tutorials for Photoshop, and seriously, once getting used to, PS is the way to go. I lost all intrest in GIMP because in the long run, it would require a boatload of tweaking, plugins and scouring opensource sites to up GIMP to a photoshop level. Then again, I'm more accustomed to windows plug-and-play-out-of-the-box-come-as-you-go-routine (I can't say if that's a good or a bad thing...) so perhaps if you're more Linux/UNIXminded, GIMP might be a better and cost-free addition.