The TV-B-Gone In Action

CES has no shortage of displays. And when MAKE offered us some TV-B-Gone clickers to bring to the show, we pretty much couldn't help ourselves. We shut off a TV. And then another. And then a wall of TVs. And we just couldn't stop.

Pool Update - The Inside

Tornado In Vancouver, Washington

An enthusiastic storm watcher, Nye said he was amazed he was not hurt in the ordeal.

“It is one of the most remarkable experiences I’ve ever seen. I’ve always wanted to see one, but never wanted to be in one, Nye said. “I thought Wizard of Oz, here we come.”

Connie Storey said she was suddenly surrounded by at least 15 downed trees and power lines in her Hazel Dell neighborhood.

“I was literally holding on to the fence for dear life and my dog… he leaned against the fence as well and put his head against my legs and we just held on. The amount of stuff that blew by me was pretty intense,” she said.

I heard the sound-wave first… I walked outside and noticed a really dark cloud. I had a camera phone but I was too nervous and freaked out so I ran inside the house,” said area resident Paul Robinson. “It sounded like a jet aircraft right outside my house, the whole house was vibrating in and out.”

The last time a tornado hit the Vancouver area was back in April 5th, 1972. That tornado was more severe, a level F-2. It flattened buildings, threw boats onto land, and sent massive amounts of debris flying. An F-2 storm has winds up to 157 miles an hour.

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Vancouver Tornado Photos

Hand-Picked Photoshop Tutorials

Adobe Photoshop is a powerful tool for designing various visual elements one can use for web-pages. However, sometimes it’s important to know what to do in order to achieve some effects. In such cases, step-by-step tutorials can provide help and save a lot of time you would have to spend on finding a solution otherwise. Let’s take a look at some of the best Adobe Photoshop tutorials we’ve found in the Web so far.

Best Of Adobe Photoshop Tutorials

When it comes to graphic design, Adobe Photoshop is usually the first option to consider. However, the software itself is a quite tough nut to crack — and definitely extremely hard to master. For instance, the concepts are not always intuitive and it’s not always clear when to use what tool and how to use it effectively. In fact, in Photoshop it usually takes pretty much time to achieve something you have never done before.

However, you don’t need to muddle through numerous Photoshop features and extensions for every design problem. You can use professional suggestions instead, e.g. professional step-by-step tutorials which provide excellent results and thus can save you a lot of time.

One year ago we’ve presented a hand-picked collection of Photoshop tutorials. Now it’s time for a fresh portion of healthy Photoshop learning material. This article provides professional Adobe Photoshop tutorials which can enrich your design skills and improve the quality of your works. Although the authors of the tutorials rarely provide the information about the used version, we tried to pick only those tutorials that can be used with both CS 3 and older versions of Adobe Photoshop.

The Happy Towel Family

This one almost got me to squirt a tear! I personally don't understand why anyone would want to steal a hotel towel that has graced the bodies of complete strangers...

Day Thirty-Four

DAY -

Here is the top down view of the back yard as it sits today. Two days ago the blue roof you see was built over the pool. Since the last update trenches have been dug for gas, water, and electrical. Unfortunately they nicked the gas line to the shop in two places and ripped it completely in half in another! All fixed now, but if I have to light another pilot light in the next five years it will be too soon.

Now, we are not talking just a few tarps and rocks holding this thing up. So far it has endured 30 mph winds and it is being buried in snow as I type.

Here is the view from the inside. Deb and I are standing in the deep end, and it feels really deep! We thought of doing something romantic like carving our names into the rock wall, but it was too cold.

Quite a bit of work has gone into making the curved flowing edges around the pool.

The rock pile from the last "Chipping" has been hauled out of the hole and replaced with a layer of gravel. All of the plumbing for the electrical (Pool lights) and cleaning and draining systems are going in currently.

I guess we'll have to drain it from time to time.

And cleaning it makes sense too.

For Those With An Xbox Live Account!

As many of you know, I have keeping you up to date on the status of Xbox LIVE. Here is an official message from Marc Whitten (Notwen) GM of Xbox LIVE on where we are and what we are going to do. Again, thanks for your patience.

Dear Xbox LIVE Members:

During this past holiday season you helped us break a number of Xbox LIVE records. This included our largest sign-up of new members to Xbox LIVE in our 5 year history and just yesterday you broke the record for the single biggest day of concurrent members ever on the service.

As a result of this massive increase in usage we know that some of you experienced intermittent Xbox LIVE issues over the holiday break. While the service was not completely offline at any given time, we are disappointed in our performance. I would like to take this moment to thank you each and every one of you for your patience and understanding as our team has worked around the clock to return the service to a stable state.

At the same time we would like to offer a token of our appreciation to all of you in celebration of record success for the service. And as a thank you for your loyalty during this holiday period, we will be offering all of our Xbox LIVE members around the world access to a full Xbox LIVE Arcade game that will be available to download free of charge. In the coming weeks we will be sharing the specific details of this offer with you.

Thank you again for helping make Xbox LIVE everything that it is today!

Sincerely,

Marc Whitten
General Manager, Xbox LIVE

No, Marc is not a relative. Sounds like a nice guy though!

He's Back!

Coin Jar Calculator

Most of us have a jar in our house full of loose coins... Ever wonder how much money that jar is worth? CoinCalc.com will help you figure it out.

Are There Really Continents of Floating Garbage?

Since stories have started surfacing more recently, many have wondered if the rumors are true. Are there really ‘continents’, or massive floating garbage patches residing in the pacific ocean?

Edinburgh, Scotland - New Year 2008