 JULY is brought to you by
the color HOT
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- Where in the world are we?
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I got a letter last month that gave me a real wake-up call: “Fred, I love the newsletter
and the Design Center, but it’s kind of hard to imagine being “HOT” when we’re down
here freezing our buns off!” Of course the letter came from a reader in Australia,
where the seasons are just opposite of ours in the northern hemisphere. A sober reminder
that the internet brings a completely international readership. So in honor of those
in the southern hemisphere, where you’re freezing your buns off in the midst of winter,
I send this month’s color: HOT! (See the front page.) I’ll also keep in mind this
coming December, and January when we’re talking about snow and cold winds, you’ll
be enjoying nice warm weather at the beach — I’ll send you the color COOL!
___ July means a lot of things to a lot of people. Besides
the Declaration of Independence for America, signed on July 4th, 1776 by the first
Continental Congress in Philadelphia, it also happens to be “Anti Boredom Month”
— get out there and actually DO something! I always tell my kids when they complain
about being bored: “With so many things to do in this world, there’s never, ever
an excuse to be bored!
___ July is also a big month for our Canadian friends:
Canada Day up at Watson Lake, and all through the Yukon, and the ‘not to be missed’
Montreal Jazz Festival. For the TV fans, Court TV made it’s debut in July of 1991,
giving rise to peering video cameras in the court rooms of America. July also saw
the first opening of the National Women’s Hall of Fame (1979) in Seneca Falls NY.
For those who like to grumble, you’ll note that Abraham Lincoln signed the first
Federal Income Tax into law on July 1, 1862 — which probably had something to do
with the birth of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (IRS) in July of 1862. Nobody wanted
to pay Lincoln’s 3% income tax! YIKES, a whopping 3%, imagine that! (5% if you made
over $10,000!)
___ Most important to visual communicators however was
the July 21, 1911 birth of one of the most influential names in the communications
age, Marshall McLuhan. You’ve heard me quote McLuhan, and recommend his books many
times. A University professor from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, McLuhan was known as
“The Canadian Sage of the Electronic Age” authoring such milestone books as: “Understanding
Media” and “The Medium is the Message.” — BOTH would be important additions to your
summer reading list. Read them again folks, the message still holds true even in
today’s knowledge age:
“Most people are alive in an earlier time, but you must be alive
in our own time.”
___ So join us in Edmonton to celebrate one of
the great minds of our own time! McLuhan passed away in Toronto in 1980, and it’s
really too bad he never got to see the birth of the personal computer, the Macintosh,
the Palm, cell phones, wireless cable, video guided missiles, organic memory, nanorobotic
implants and, of course the Internet. Wonder what he would be writing about today?
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- Fireworks and fireworks f/x and Design
- Since you’ll probably get this newsletter on or after July 4th, the fireworks
will be over. But for many, Fireworks will be an ongoing extravaganza of drawing,
painting, vectoring, bitmapping, and kicking fun with very cool graphics and web
page development. That’s why Joyce Evan’s new book “Fireworks 4, f/x & Design”
is on our minds, and should be on the minds of anyone out there who uses Macromedia’s
Fireworks and/or Macromedia Dreamweaver! We’ll also be highlighting the “Macromedia
Freehand 9 Authorized” in a special review by Arvita Mott, a frequent poster to the
Designer’s CAFE list, and one of our special “Designing Women” FOLIO owners!
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- Speaking of Dreamweaver
- ...we finally got our Dreamweaver rollover examples into the little “The
Cost of Rollovers” experiment from back in May. It’s not included here, but the
web page has been updated with two, count’em, two Dreamweaver examples of simple
rollovers.
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- Summer Reading Special
- Check out this month’s Designers’ Bookshelf for my annual “Summer Reading” special
with all the books most recommended for your trip to the beach. (Or where ever you
like to read books!) I just got back form LA and San Fran, and I took along the wonderful
QuickTime 5 book and the manual for my Olympus 2020 camera to enjoy on the trip!
___ Lots of people ask me “Fred, how come you take computer
books on vacation with you?” It’s like this: “VACATION” means different things to
different people. To some, it’s the beach and summer surf. To others it’s hiking
in the mountains, shopping on Manhattan. To me, it’s getting away to see new visuals
and experience new things. I get a huge creative shot in the arm just traveling —
suddenly I’m compelled to start shooting pictures or writing thoughts I never have
at the office. It isn’t work. Anything this much fun can’t be called work.
___ This month, enjoy more than 75 new titles that have
been released in the past 90 days that will add to your enjoyment and skills covering
more than 12 different topics in the visual communications fields. During the month
I have another 35 I’ll be adding — while the year started out sort of slow, the book
explosion hit sometime in May.
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- &Else
- Here's some news items that wouldn't fit any place in the regular publicaitons,
so we just post them in "Else"... * Designers are getting paid less... Manage
your Files with Style (Windows)... Important Coca article from O-Reilly... (Mac)...
iClean Eliminates Internet Clutter Ensuring Net Privacy(Mac)... Outdoor Maps for
Your Handheld Pocket PC... Royalty Free Stock Video Footage... SCML LISTVIEW PRINTER
(Windows)... TypeStyler $20 Off Discount (Mac)... WOW... MovieWorks 33% discount
(Mac) and of course What else?
GO: http://www.graphic-design.com/news/else/index.html
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- Off to Macworld
- Remember, July is also Macworld New York month. I’ll be there meeting and greeting
with many DT&G and User Group friends. I’ll also bring back the latest news from
the Corel, Adobe and Apple breakfasts. If you’re there and happen to run into me
(I’ll be wearing the Design Center or DT&G shirt... can’t miss it) just come
up and get a card. On the back will be a special gift voucher from the Design Center
and the Publishers’ Warehouse! See’ya there
...and have a wonderful July
Fred Showker
July 4th, 2001
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Fred Showker, your lowly editor -- showker at graphic-design.com
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"The most valuable of all talents is that of
______ never using
two words when one will do." ... Thomas Jefferson
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Design & Publishing Center
* http://www.graphic-design.com/news/index.html
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- Please read: Top Ten Signs You're About to be RIPPED OFF
- Fred tracks the illusive spammer! With the influx of thousands of new UCEs ('Unsolicited
Commercial Email" -- aka: SPAM) hitting the Graphic Design Network servers,
our spam-hunting team decided to track a few of these low-lifes down, and find out
where it's all coming from.
___ What we found was rather alarming, and out of more
than 7,000 UCEs gathered since January 1st -- so far -- we haven't found but ONE
honest person. But we've found lots of them who would sell their mother for a quarter,
or stab you in the back for a nickel. Not a pretty sight.
___ So, here's the Top Ten things to do with your email.
A short version
in this month's PDF Edition ... a 3-minute version is at:
* http://www.60-Seconds.com/articles/130a.html
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-------------------------- POSTSCRIPT -----------------------------
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* Design-U Associate Program Brings You Cash -- If you think YOUR site has sufficient
traffic of people who would benefit from the Design University seminars, why not
become a Design University Extension Campus. This allows you to offer D-U courses
to your visitors, and earn a 15% commission for every Seminar your readers buy! Contact:
Admissions at Design-U.org for details
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How to contact us?
http://www.graphic-design.com/contact.html
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Photo Retouching Seminar .. http://www.design-U.org/Photoshop.html
The Designers'Bookshelf ......... http://www.design-bookshelf.com/
News Serve Net, news & stuff........... http://www.news-serve.net/
60-Second Windows, Editorials ......... http://www.60-Seconds.com/
The User Group Network ............... http://www.user-groups.net/
The Rumor Manager ....... http://www.user-groups.net/RumorManager/
The Resource Manager ....... http://www.user-groups.net/resources/
Mac Shareware .... http://www.user-groups.net/shareware/index.html
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Folks, we can’t help you if you don’t
cooperate...
Each month accesses (looking for that new EPS clip art disk) and prize registrations
are denied in the Publishers’Warehouse.
__ Why? Because the email address keyed into the Loading
Dock request was incorrect, or no longer in use. I find it hard to believe that people
would register for something and then drop the address.
__ Remember: no spaces, correct spelling. Dozens
of AOL users didn't put in "@aol.com" -- remember: name@aol.com, no spaces.
(We assume they were AOL since they had no "@" indicator.)
__ Remember too, that the loading dock changes locations
each month. You'll find the clue you need to the new location in each issue of this
column.
Don't forget to write.
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Contents Copyright (c) 2001, Reproduction or reuse of parts or
all of this manuscript without prior written permission is expressly forbidden.
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