Vector Magic

Came across this site not too long ago when I was deeply involved in developing my Photoshop knowledge. Although it isn’t cheating per-say it is still pretty cheeky.

Vector Magic is an online tool that can be used to turn any image that you have into a vector*.

For any of you that have vectored images in Photoshop, I’m sure you can see how much time this can save.

*Vector graphics are resolution independent because they can be output to the highest quality at any scale.

Tutorial9

For those of you who are at least somewhat interested in art, whether it be physical, photography, Photoshop etc. You absolutely have to check out Tutorial9.

Started by David Leggett (you may know him from GreyCobra) it is exactly what the URL suggests. A site dedicated to tutorials. This will eventually include photography tutorials but currently it is quite focused on Photoshop. And no, you don’t need to be terribly experience with Photoshop to get use out of these tutorials. Especially with the upcoming School of Photoshop section which is expected by the end of this month.

I was part of the community forum beta testing, and have watched this site grow and develop from almost the very beginning. And from what I’ve seen so far, I can tell you right now it’s going to be big. So go check it out.

P.S: New domain! www.Useful-Box.com

Picasa

For those of you out there who are digital photo fanatics, here is your ultimate solution to organising, editing and sharing those photos.

Picasa is part of Google’s little collection of software but don’t let that turn you off. Here are just a few things you can do:

• Organise your photos
• Send photos via Gmail
• Upload pictures to your own website
• Make slide shows
• Move photos to and from devices

The software has low system requirements whilst still looking fantastic with many smooth scrolling bars etc. All in all, it just looks really pretty.

After you install it and run it for the first time, it’ll scout your computer for images and videos and organise them by date. After that you can use all the tools provided (such as red eye removal) to touch up your photos.

You can also organise them in various ways like collages before printing them.

Check it out here.

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Mozilla Firefox – ‘Must Have Add-ons’

By now it must be quite obvious I’m a big fan of Mozilla Firefox.

One of the greatest features about this web browser is that it allows add-ons. These can be made by any member of the public, and you can find them here.

I already mentioned Adblock Plus in my first post, but here are a few more add-ons I recommend:

- FasterFox
FasterFox includes a bunch of ‘performance and network tweaks’ for Firefox.

- Download Statusbar
Download Statusbar removes the pop-up window that appears when you download something and replaces it with a tidy bar down the bottom of the browser.

- ForecastFox
ForecastFox is a small tool at the top of the window which shows weather in your area for the next few days.

- StumbleUpon
I won’t go into great details about StumbleUpon but after some multiple choice questions and a few other survey style questions, StumbleUpon will decipher the types of websites you like. This means that every time you click the tool bar you are taken to an interesting site that you may have never seen before.

- Save Session
Allows users to quite their Firefox session and save it for the next time Firefox is opened with a simple click of a button.

…and for all the bloggers like me out there…

- ScribeFire
‘ScribeFire is a full-featured blog editor that integrates with your browser and lets you easily post to your blog.’

gOS – New operating system

Well, technically not new but new to me.

According to wiki:
On 7January, 2008, a test version of gOS, intended to demonstrate the CloudBook and named “gOS Rocket”, was released at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. However the definitive second (beta) version of gOS debuted end Febuary 2008.

As far as I’m concerned, it’s the best looking, best designed operating system I’ve seen in a long time. It comes packed with all the software needed to run it:

- Open Office (A free clone of Microsoft Office)
- A music player – RhythmBox
- A movie player – Xine
- A disc burner – GnomeBaker
- Gimp (A freeware version of Photoshop)
- Mozilla Firefox
- Mozilla Thunderbird
- Skype

And many, many more.

It runs straight off the installation, no other software is needed for anything other than basic PC use. It is also a direct port to every Google app there ever was. You can run Facebook, Blogger, Google Docs etc. straight off the desktop without an internet connection.

So if you’re interested in switching from Windows, you can go here and download some software to run it on top of Windows purely for testing sake.

I warn you though, this OS probably won’t run much except for what it comes with. Forget any games.

The first and most influential post

Intriguing?
Thought so.
Think I’ll tell you a little about myself before I tell you about this blog:
My name is James, I’m an Australian residing in Sydney. A few of my interests include music, Formula 1, Guitar (playing), and just the internet itself I’d say. It’s pretty brilliant. I’m not particularly experienced when it comes to blogging, I’ve mucked about a bit with previous blogs but never really got into it. I’m not usually politically correct.

And now onto the purpose of this blog. For a while now I’ve had nothing that I’ve been passionate about, nothing to do apart from school work and talking to friends. So over the past few weeks I’ve been thinking about something to take up or do. And then I thought about possibly starting to write another few posts on an older blog, had a go at that. Didn’t interest me any more.

So – considering I’m such a heavy web browser, I thought I might enlighten some of those who aren’t in to the ‘happenings’ of the internet.

- New software, websites, jokes
- Small tutorials for basic and advanced use of the internet
- Anything at all that our authors think you need/want to know

And of course, many more additions when the time comes.

So, this being the first and most influential post. I want to make a request that anybody who views this site, to please. Please do it with Mozilla Firefox. Just for your own benefit. And after that take a look here and download that add-on. For many people, this is common knowledge but for those who haven’t even heard of Mozilla Firefox it is essentially Internet Explorer (a web browser). It’s just faster, safer and more attractive.

Hopefully going to add a few more people to the Useful Box team in the near future, if you are interested email me – toohey.james@gmail.com

Cheers.