Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Making Money Web


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NFL draft 2011: No NFLPA event on first or second night of draft


The NFLPA will not stage an alternate event head-to-head versus the NFL on the first night of the draft, instead opting for a three-day celebration that will not interfere with the televised airing of the selection process on April 28 and 29.


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autosport.com - NASCAR <b>News</b>: Raikkonen to compete in NASCAR

Former Formula 1 world champion Kimi Raikkonen will make a surprising move to NASCAR this year, the Finn joining the series with a new team.


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Japan Nuke Accident Seen From Seattle - Science <b>News</b>

Clues to events at crippled plant found in traces of radiation reaching Pacific Northwest.


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Editor’s Note: Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more than 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple and on his Web site at The Loop.


Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday introduced the iPad 2 at a special event in San Francisco, taking even more momentum away from its competitors.


I’ve had a lot of people in the last 24 hours tell me that the iPad 2 isn’t as revolutionary as the first generation device. Yes, that’s true. But not every device a company releases has to be or can be revolutionary.


Apple has released three revolutionary products in the last decade alone: iPod, iPhone and iPad. I really can’t think of any products from Apple’s competitors that fit in the revolutionary category in that same time period.


People also said that Apple wasn’t very forthcoming with the specs of the iPad 2. Again, that’s true, but there’s a good reason for that—nobody cares.


Well, some people care. Those of us who are geeks care about specs. However, have you ever noticed that when you sit with your non-geek friends and start listing off specs their eyes glaze over and they rest their chin in their hand.


That’s because they couldn’t care less.


The iPad 2 is no slouch either. It lost one-third of the thickness of the previous generation, and therefore it is one-third less than the size of the iPad competitors too. It also has new technologies like a gyro built-in that will launch another round of cool apps.


Yesterday’s iPad 2 announcement wasn’t about the geeks—it was about all the other people who will buy an iPad. What those people want to know is “what can I do with it?”


If it fits into their lifestyle, most people are good with that. Apple showed many ways how the iPad 2 can fit into your lifestyle.


From the very beginning, Apple was very smart with how it marketed the iPad. The first thing it did was get the device into businesses and promote the fact that it could be used to get work done. And it was quite successful with that.


In an analyst call in October 2010, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the iPad was already being used in 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies. That was four months ago and the iPad has grown since then, so we can only imagine where that number is now.


This strategy allowed Apple to do two things. If it came out with the iPad and pushed the gaming capabilities of the device, the business world would have looked at it as a toy. That would have certainly meant slower adoption. It also allowed them to work on some consumer software, two of which we saw yesterday.


In addition to the iPad 2, Jobs also unveiled iMovie and GarageBand for the iPad. This is what people want to know about—what can I do with the iPad that’s exciting and new.


Obviously, creating movies and being able to edit and share them with friends and family is a very popular thing to do these days. iMovie makes that easy.


Creating music, whether a novice or pro is also a cool thing to do. GarageBand is a great app to get that done and you can move your projects to your Mac and continue working on them.


It’s not just about the hardware. Apple delivers the whole experience that nobody else can. Jobs said yesterday that there are 65,000 apps on its App Store specifically designed for the iPad. That’s a lot of things you can do.


If you think Apple’s competitors are jumping for joy because the iPad 2 isn’t revolutionary, I believe you are wrong. I think they’re scared. Yesterday, they figured out Apple’s strategy too, but a little too late.




Editor’s Note: Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more than 15 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jdalrymple and on his Web site at The Loop.


Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Wednesday introduced the iPad 2 at a special event in San Francisco, taking even more momentum away from its competitors.


I’ve had a lot of people in the last 24 hours tell me that the iPad 2 isn’t as revolutionary as the first generation device. Yes, that’s true. But not every device a company releases has to be or can be revolutionary.


Apple has released three revolutionary products in the last decade alone: iPod, iPhone and iPad. I really can’t think of any products from Apple’s competitors that fit in the revolutionary category in that same time period.


People also said that Apple wasn’t very forthcoming with the specs of the iPad 2. Again, that’s true, but there’s a good reason for that—nobody cares.


Well, some people care. Those of us who are geeks care about specs. However, have you ever noticed that when you sit with your non-geek friends and start listing off specs their eyes glaze over and they rest their chin in their hand.


That’s because they couldn’t care less.


The iPad 2 is no slouch either. It lost one-third of the thickness of the previous generation, and therefore it is one-third less than the size of the iPad competitors too. It also has new technologies like a gyro built-in that will launch another round of cool apps.


Yesterday’s iPad 2 announcement wasn’t about the geeks—it was about all the other people who will buy an iPad. What those people want to know is “what can I do with it?”


If it fits into their lifestyle, most people are good with that. Apple showed many ways how the iPad 2 can fit into your lifestyle.


From the very beginning, Apple was very smart with how it marketed the iPad. The first thing it did was get the device into businesses and promote the fact that it could be used to get work done. And it was quite successful with that.


In an analyst call in October 2010, Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer said the iPad was already being used in 65 percent of Fortune 100 companies. That was four months ago and the iPad has grown since then, so we can only imagine where that number is now.


This strategy allowed Apple to do two things. If it came out with the iPad and pushed the gaming capabilities of the device, the business world would have looked at it as a toy. That would have certainly meant slower adoption. It also allowed them to work on some consumer software, two of which we saw yesterday.


In addition to the iPad 2, Jobs also unveiled iMovie and GarageBand for the iPad. This is what people want to know about—what can I do with the iPad that’s exciting and new.


Obviously, creating movies and being able to edit and share them with friends and family is a very popular thing to do these days. iMovie makes that easy.


Creating music, whether a novice or pro is also a cool thing to do. GarageBand is a great app to get that done and you can move your projects to your Mac and continue working on them.


It’s not just about the hardware. Apple delivers the whole experience that nobody else can. Jobs said yesterday that there are 65,000 apps on its App Store specifically designed for the iPad. That’s a lot of things you can do.


If you think Apple’s competitors are jumping for joy because the iPad 2 isn’t revolutionary, I believe you are wrong. I think they’re scared. Yesterday, they figured out Apple’s strategy too, but a little too late.



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The Found Animals Foundation is an LA-based non-profit devoted to saving the lives of animals and solving the problem of animal overpopulation. Founded by Dr. Gary Michelson, a billionaire entrepreneur with a lifelong love of animals, Found Animals blends compassion with innovation and business sense. The organization does everything from working with local shelters to finding homes for strays to offering multi-million dollar incentives for research on animal sterilization.



The foundation will be opening its first ever "Adopt and Shop" retail space next month, so we caught up with Aimee Gilbreath, Executive Director of Found Animals, to find out a little bit more about the foundation, its goals, and LA's newest "pet shop."



HP: What is Found Animals most committed to?



AG: Our mission at Found Animals is to minimize the number of pets killed in animal shelters. We believe that our society, in the 21st century, can do far better than killing 4 million animals each year at a cost to taxpayers of over $2 billion annually. We look for innovative, entrepreneurial approaches to solving this problem. Over the past three years we have built a world class team of business and science professionals and launched programs that include sterilization, microchipping, owner support, adoption and more. Found Animals considers Los Angeles our test market for programs with plans to export successful ideas.



HP: What is the one thing you are most proud of that Found Animals has been able to accomplish?



AG: I’m most proud of our accomplishments with the Michelson Prize and Grant program. It’s our own version of the X-Prize and offers $25 million in prize money for creating a low cost non-surgical sterilant for use in cats and dogs. In addition, we are offering up to $50 million in grant funding to help researchers develop a prize winning technology. Sterilization is one of the best tools we have in our arsenal to reduce the number of unwanted pets that crowd the shelter system and overwhelm available resources. Unfortunately, current surgical spay/neuter approaches are expensive and often difficult to access for the pets and people who need them most. A “doggie Depo Provera” or “Kitty Norplant” type of product would revolutionize how we manage the pet population.



We created the program from scratch and its world class. Our Director of Scientific Research, Dr. Shirley Johnston, is world renowned in small animal reproduction and our Scientific Advisory Board is comprised of experts in many fields. Our program staff has created a fantastic grant process and we do outreach to scientists worldwide. So far we’ve received over 140 grant applications and a dozen projects have been approved for funding totaling over $5 million.





Preview of Final Result



 


Resources



  • PT Sans Bold – FontSquirrel

  • Free App Icons for Developers – WebAppers


Step 1


Open Photoshop and create a new document that is 1200 x 1200 pixels, 72 dpi, and RGB Color. Fill the layer with white. (Ctrl+Backspace or Delete)



Step 2


Now create a rectangle for the header and fill it with a white-grey color, then use the colors on the image for the “Gradient Overlay”. Our search and logo will eventually be part of the header.



Step 3


Create a new rectangle above the previous one, with attributes as shown below. The following drop shadow effect creates a look of a 1 pixel stroke which does increase the look of that simple bar. Note: this step creates a horizontal line.



 


Step 4


Now add the “Gradient Overlay” layer style with the hex codes indicated.



Step 5


Add a white 1 pixel stroke. The following stroke of 1 pixel will divide the grey shadow effect. It’ll eventually work as a divider.



Step 6


Make one more rectangle in the middle-right zone, and fill it with white and add a 1 px stroke as indicated – it will be our search box.



Step 7


One more rectangle should be created and filled with blue. Set the inner shadow as indicated below, this will be our search button. This blue works great in combination with grey, white and light-grey. Blue will be the major contrasting color we use as we work through this template.



Step 8


Add the Gradient Overlay details to the button with the details from image.



Step 9


Add a 1 px stroke to the button with the color indicated. Take a look at the first and the final result of the button so you can see the difference all these details made.



Step 10


Now add this drop shadow effect for the text placed in the search box, using PT Sans Bold. This will be the final step in creating your search button. You may want to try other fonts, but the PT Sans Bold is really good for this small button.



Step 11


Make another fill under the header section, this will be the navigation area. Here we will place the navigation links of our template.



Step 12


Write your navigation links using a dark-grey color, then add a white “drop shadow” effect. The effect used for the navigation links is the same used for the search button.



Step 13


With 1px vertical line, make divisions between each links. The lines should be black and will really increase the beauty of the navigation area.



Step 14



Over the home section, make a fill with the blue and then add a Gradient Overlay style as indicated.



Step 15


Copy the Home link, this time color it white and add a drop shadow effect.




Step 16


Create a big, grey zone under the navigation, it should be about 30% of the layout. This will be the background for the featured area.



Step 17


Now create a big, white rectangle and add some shadow with the details shown. A big stock image, a big headline and some text with another great button will be added.



Step 18


Add a any dummy image you want to that featured area. Be sure it covers more than 80% of the area. The one I chose is from a stock website.



Step 19


Add some text to it, use the PT SANS Bold font and make the font big.



Step 20


The remaining area should be filled with grey, in it we’ll place some text. This is really a secondary area which describes the image, the services, the company itself, or whatever you’d like.



Step 21


Place some blue-colored text which will be the title of the information below. Use the details in the image for Drop Shadow style.



Step 22


Add some dummy text. This could be some important information or whatever you’d like.



Step 23


Create another grey area under the featured zone, where we will add some text and icons later. Add the details as stated on the image. Mostly, the icons will promote the services offered by the company behind the website.



Step 24


Continue by adding a Gradient Overlay style for the last rectangle we have created in the anterior steps.



Step 25


Now we are adding titles and icons, as well as some divisions. The icons can be found in the resource list at the beginning of the tutorial. Be sure to choose your icons and text thoughtfully.



Step 26


At the border of both zones, create a small circle and fill it with dark brown color. Add some inner shadow as stated on the image.



Step 27


Continue by adding a drop shadow layer style. It is another small detail, but it really makes that button zone minimalistic, nice-looking and well designed.



Step 28


To finish, add a Gradient Overlay effect.



Step 29


By using the Custom Shape Tool (U), create an arrow in both circles. Now add the details shown on the screenshot.



Step 30


Continue by adding some Color Overlay for the arrow. It should also be a blue color because otherwise, it will not fit the contrast and the colors used on the whole template.



Step 31


Add a video screenshot in the free space and place a title for it. For this template, I have used a simple screenshot of a YouTube widget.



Step 32


Add the text “Product Highlights” and “Case Studies.” Let the text under the “Product Highlights” be links so you could showcase some friends’ websites or resources you admire/promote.



Step 33


Finish it by creating another form for e-mails, place all kind of other information, and whatever you’d like.



Step 34


Don’t forget to make a relevant/small footer for our template. If you have paid attention, you should know how to create the same effect as below. 



 


All done! If you have questions or suggestions, feel free to drop a comment. I hope you enjoyed this whole tutorial!



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New York Yankee <b>News</b>: Granderson, Chavez, Joe West and Barry Bonds <b>...</b>

All the Yankee news you need. ... News links: Feliciano, Romulo, Chavez and the Canseco twins. Mar 2011 by Travis G - 51 comments. Around SB Nation. Game Thread #-1: Brewers @ Padres. Mar 2011 from Brew Crew Ball - 4 comments ...


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Q&amp;A: How dangerous is the plutonium found at Fukushima power plant <b>...</b>

Plutonium has been detected in soil at five locations in the crippled Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant of Tokyo Electric Power Co. The following are questions and answers regarding the potential health hazard of the highly toxic ...


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