slantback.

chrbutler: I’m impressed by these genealogy charts and family...

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:54:40 -0700

chrbutler: I’m impressed by these genealogy charts and family trees. Very elegant.

The many sliders of Photoshop CS4

Sat, 07 Nov 2009 16:33:22 -0700

mrgan:

Preferences > Memory Usage

Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast

Filters

Blur (note the rendering of the thumb arrow)

Layer Blending

Layer Style

Threshold

Color Balance

Things to keep in mind:

These can be found in just Photoshop; I can’t imagine what I’d find elsewhere in the suite. Actually, fine, here’s the first one I found in Illustrator CS5:

The most common out of all these seems to be second one, Brightness Adjustment.

They’re all ugly. The only near-acceptable one is the Layer Style slider.

None of these looks like the standard OS X slider:

"there is a tendency to prize a few standout individuals while ignoring how much they draw on their..."

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 23:58:59 -0700

“there is a tendency to prize a few standout individuals while ignoring how much they draw on their surrounding systems for support. For instance, many companies, sports teams, and entertainment businesses hire a star when they want to quickly improve the organization’s results. More often than not, however, newly transplanted stars fail to deliver, because they’re separated from the people, structures, and norms that helped make them great in the first place. In one study, professors from Harvard Business School tracked more than 1,000 acclaimed equity analysts over a decade and monitored how their performance changed when they switched firms. The dour conclusion of the research: “When a company hires a star, the star’s performance plunges, there is a sharp decline in the functioning of the group or team the person works with, and the company’s market value falls.””

- When Individuals Don’t Matter - HBR.org

With a revolutionary and patented design featuring 18 buttons,...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:02:55 -0700

With a revolutionary and patented design featuring 18 buttons, an analog joystick, and support for as many as 52 key commands, the OpenOfficeMouse is intended to provide a faster and more efficient user interface for OpenOffice.org applications such as Writer and Calc than the conventional icons, pull-down menus, and hotkeys presently permit. (via OpenOfficeMouse: The Multi-Button Application Mouse for OpenOffice.org)

Ancient Hebrew Cosmology (via Michæl.Paukner)

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 12:59:28 -0700

Ancient Hebrew Cosmology (via Michæl.Paukner)

"Since 1999, starting pitchers on short rest were 9-28 in the postseason against pitchers with normal..."

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 00:23:41 -0700

“Since 1999, starting pitchers on short rest were 9-28 in the postseason against pitchers with normal four days’ rest.”

- RealGM Baseball: Wiretap Archives: ‘91 Twins Were Last Team To Successfully Use Three-Man Rotation

"Moore explains that “for pragmatist customers, the first freedom in a rapidly shifting market..."

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:30:44 -0700

“Moore explains that “for pragmatist customers, the first freedom in a rapidly shifting market is order and security. That can only come from rallying around a clear market leader. Once the apparent leader-to-be emerges, pragmatists will support that company, virtually regardless of how arrogant, unresponsive, or overpriced it is.””

- Does Slow Growth Equal Slow Death?

"Fear is ugly because it makes you irrational. Fear makes you jump to conclusions. Fear makes you..."

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:02:27 -0700

“Fear is ugly because it makes you irrational. Fear makes you jump to conclusions. Fear makes you reactionary.”

- Bug tracking isn’t a network-effect business - (37signals)

Advertisers or engineers. Whose ideas would lead to a better...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:25:36 -0700

Advertisers or engineers. Whose ideas would lead to a better train ride between London and Paris? « Nudge blog

"For instance, the King of Prussia wanted his subjects to eat potatoes so he ordered people to eat..."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:51:53 -0700

“For instance, the King of Prussia wanted his subjects to eat potatoes so he ordered people to eat them. Complete failure. Undeterred, he got the idea to restrict potato consumption to the royal family and set up a special King’s potato garden. Suddenly everyone wanted one.”

- Putting the special in special teams: Perceived value and football at the University of Texas « Nudge blog

via chrbutler Read More >

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 12:46:54 -0700

via chrbutler

Read More >

"Researchers sent a survey-taker into a downtown mall, where she coughed and sneezed before handing..."

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:30:46 -0700

“Researchers sent a survey-taker into a downtown mall, where she coughed and sneezed before handing her survey to several passers-by. She was careful not to sneeze when administering the same survey to a second group. The sneeze witnesses were more likely to disapprove of American health care. They were also more likely to say they were at risk of having a fatal heart attack or accident or succumbing to a murderer.”

- Do You — *Achoo* — Support Health Care Reform? - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

VisualSport: Visualizing Football (Soccer) — Simple Complexity

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 11:29:05 -0700

VisualSport: Visualizing Football (Soccer) — Simple Complexity

Unemployment, 2004 to Present – The Country is Bleeding |...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:48:51 -0700

Unemployment, 2004 to Present – The Country is Bleeding | FlowingData

A New Bible for Interactive Designers: 'The Times' Innovation Portfolio

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 17:27:00 -0700

A New Bible for Interactive Designers: 'The Times' Innovation Portfolio:

The New York Times interactive group creates an online encyclopedia of all their stunning inventions. But what’s the motive?

"Part of that is setting up this filter in your brain that’s like, “I’m working on..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:02:15 -0700

“Part of that is setting up this filter in your brain that’s like, “I’m working on this thing now.” So, everything I read, everything I look at, and everything everybody says to me is put through this filter of the project I’m working on. “Is this useful?” Everything you’re telling me right now is first going through a filter of, “Is there something in there that I can use on the project that I’m working on?” and then it passes through and I answer you.”

- Gamasutra - Features - Valve’s Writers And The Creative Process

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By...

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:49:47 -0700

xkcd - A webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - By Randall Munroe

"If you can figure out how to communicate, “it’s not your fault,” then people will..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:24:07 -0700

“

If you can figure out how to communicate, “it’s not your fault,” then people will be grateful, and they’ll return. It might not be right, it might not be mature and it might not be the behavior society wants to advance, but it works.

Even better, figure out how to teach your customers to enjoy taking responsibility. It’s the long term solution that builds a healthy relationship between customer and vendor… you coach them on good choices and they embrace what happens after they make them.

”

- Seth’s Blog: Help your customers avoid taking responsibility

"2007 study found that a vigorously flipped coin is likely to land on the same side it started on at..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 13:17:51 -0700

“2007 study found that a vigorously flipped coin is likely to land on the same side it started on at least 51 percent of the time, possibly more depending on the person doing the flipping.”

- Not So Random After All - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com

"‘The Wire’ has done more to enhance our understanding of the systemic urban inequality that..."

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:00:38 -0700

““‘The Wire’ has done more to enhance our understanding of the systemic urban inequality that constrains the lives of the poor than any published study” Sociology Professor William J. Wilson said.”

- The Harvard Crimson :: News :: HBO’s “The Wire” Earns Credits