How to find images on the internet, an extensive list of links and resources.
Advice for 1985: how to survive a nuclear blast. (via delicious ghost)
A list of 21 ways to shoot better photographs. I can hear my photographer friends snickering about the cliches on the list, but if you don't know much about photography but are interested in learning, you could do worse than to explore some of these techniques.
Ed Boyden on How to Think "in a world where problems are extremely complex, targets are continuously moving, and our brains often seem like nodes of enormous networks that constantly reconfigure".
Make your mistakes quickly. You may mess things up on the first try, but do it fast, and then move on. Document what led to the error so that you learn what to recognize, and then move on. Get the mistakes out of the way. As Shakespeare put it, "Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt."
(via spurgeonblog)
Short piece on how to tell if you're being followed.
If you must check for surveillance, don't keep glancing over your shoulder. Appearing to suspect you're being followed suggests you're doing something to merit it. Anyway, if you're being tailed by a serious outfit they won't only be behind you, but ahead and to the side as well; there won't just be one or two people on your case, but a whole team, with others in reserve. Maybe the whole street is following you.
I read a lot of Tom Clancy in high school and some of my favorite parts were the descriptions of how surveillance worked.
How To Survive in Prison as an Innocent Man Convicted of a Sex Crime, written by an innocent man convicted of a sex crime. This is an odd article, at once full of good advice, hints of mental instability, and defensiveness. In a section outlining the importance of regular exercise, he suddenly switches gears to:
Not only do we prisoners have to stick together, but we men must also join forces in our fight against feminism.
Exercise regularly, keep healthy, stay away from drugs, and keep your mind sharp. And ps, down with the feminists!! (via cyn-c)
How to make a fireball you can hold in your hand. Sweet Jesus, that's cool.
Update: According to the commenters at Boing Boing, this may or may not be a hoax. As usual, use caution when attempting to hold fire in your hand. (thx, seuss)
One of these days, I should learn how to type.
Advice from a photo editor at a national magazine on how to talk about photography, particularly to those who know little about it.
I have a sweet technique I use for finding the great images from a shoot that really tends to piss-off the editors: I edit the film without reading the story. This helps me tune into which images have the most impact on me and which ones transcend subject matter and become forces in their own right.
His description of defending good photography applies to design as well.
How to run Greasemonkey scripts in Safari. Doesn't work with some scripts, but something is better than nothing. (via justin)
For my future reference, How-to: Proper GMail IMAP for iPhone and Apple Mail.
Tip for reading long online articles with footnotes: open the article in two browser windows, one for reading and the other for the footnotes.
How to make clear ice cubes: boil filtered water twice to eliminate dissolved air and minerals.
Mario Batali on how to sauce pasta.
What you want to eat when you eat a bowl of pasta...is pasta. Americans overdress their pasta 99.9 percent of the time. It should never be a bowl of soup. It should be noodles, with a little stuff.
Everything is open for negotiation and for three months, Tom Chiarella tried to get deals on everything, from a hot dog to a gallon of gas to a TiVo.
Within weeks I discovered that restaurants will typically give you four desserts for the price of three if you ask for a sampler. That a draft beer is generally good for a free refill with a little prodding. That you can get an extra 20 percent off at Ikea by pressing past the cashiers, past the floor salespeople, up into the bottommost managerial rungs, by comparing the price of one perfectly well priced dresser with its slightly less well priced but better-sized counterpart one floor down.
Update: Bargainist has a piece about how to haggle that's worth a look.
A 13-step guide for buying a car while controlling the sale and the price.
It works only if you truly are willing to walk away...and then refuse to bend when they try to put you off or change the terms. Stay civil, do not let any emotion in. You are on a mission, Marine!
Fantastic advice. My dad is a skilled car buyer and on one particular occasion, spend two grueling hours dinkering with a used car saleman over a junky but good-running truck. He walked out at least twice and kept escalating up to the manager before getting the price down from $2300 to around $400.
For your fun office lunchtime activity: a bunch of tips, folding instructions, and paper patterns for making sweet paper airplanes.
A bunch of presentations on how to scale web apps, including Flickr, Twitter, LiveJournal, and last.fm.
How to find 4-leaf clovers. "However, the more leaflets, the harder they are to find (and the luckier they are): the record is an 18-leaf clover, and the highest I've ever seen is 10-leafed." (via bb)
How to survive a black hole. If you're in a rocket ship about to fall into a black hole, you might live a bit longer if you turn on your engines. "But in general a person falling past the horizon won't have zero velocity to begin with. Then the situation is different -- in fact it's worse. So firing the rocket for a short time can push the astronaut back on to the best-case scenario: the trajectory followed by free fall from rest."
How not to write a science book. "6. Avoid mentioning scientists or experiments. You're a journalist, so it's your job to explain things to people in ways they can understand. You always found science class difficult, and that class was taught by a scientist and involved experiments. Therefore no one can understand scientists and experiments."
Edible origami cranes made out of wonton wrappers and deep-fried. Includes how-to instructions.
As this video demonstrates, an 8.5x11 piece of paper can be folded into a beer bottle opener. (via clusterflock)
For next time around, how to photograph a lunar eclipse. Here's a list of upcoming eclipses. (via inmyallstars)
4-hour BBC documentary on how to be a gardener. I only watched the first few minutes, but it seems promising. (thx, avi)
How to build a really fantastic snow fort. "Your secret weapon would be a garden hose with a misting attachment at the end, so long as it provides an extremely gentle mist. Work from a distance, letting the water have some time to cool in the air before it hits the fort. And you'll want to work in layers, giving the ice time to build up."
Sorry this is late, but clip and save for next year: how to win your Oscar pool. Short answer: follow the wisdom of the crowds.
How to crap properly. (No, really! It's safe for work and everything.)
For a rainy day: learning the Unix shell.
A thoughtful article on how to make it as an actor by Jenna Fischer, the actress who plays Pam on The Office. "I have a great acting coach who says that success in Hollywood is based on one thing: opportunity meets readiness. You cannot always control the opportunities, but you can control the readiness. So study your craft, take it seriously. Do every play, every showcase, every short film, every student film you can get. Swallow your pride. Be willing to work for nothing in things you think are stupid. Make work for yourself. Make your own luck. Don't complain. Hopefully, the work will find you if you are ready." Worth reading even if you're not an actor. (thx, dunstan)
How to extract stem cells from a placenta and store them for possible future use, all from the comfort of your own home. The cost runs in the thousands of dollars but it's totally doable at home.
Tremble funnyman Todd Levin dons the Non-Expert's hat over at The Morning News to explain how to buy wine. "FANCY SERIF FONT + PARCHMENT LABEL + SOMETHING YOU KIND OF REMEMBERED FROM THE MOVIE SIDEWAYS + $12-$16 PRICE TAG = SUCCESS"
Classic Slate piece: how to buy a mattress. "The mattress biz is 99-percent marketing. So just buy the cheapest thing you can stand and be done with it, because they're pretty much all the same." (via torrez)
How to choose a good book to read, a tip from Marshall McLuhan: turn to page 69, read it, and if it's good, you've got a winner. (via snarkmarket)
Update: A kottke.org reader writes, "It's known (although perhaps not well) that he often only read the left-hand pages of books. It's one way that someone could get through as much as he did and apparently he thought there was usually too much redundancy, anyway." (thx, steve)
Two interviewers for The Onion AV Club talk about how they prepare for doing interviews. "First, I think about what I might ask subjects if I were at a party with them, just making conversation. Then I read as many interviews as I can find with the subject, so I can avoid asking questions that have been asked a thousand times, and steer around the pat answers."
How to be interesting. "The way to be interesting is to be interested" and "interesting people are good at sharing". (via spurgeonblog)
Grist Magazine: How to talk to a climate skeptic. Looks pretty comprehensive.
Let's say, like Steve Wynn, you've punched a hole in your Picasso. Here's how to fix it.
Wally Wallington demonstrates how to move anything by yourself, including a barn and a Stonehenge-sized rock. More information available at Wally's site.
15 ways to improve your newspaper business. "1. Go out in street, see news, write it up."
Photo cans
If you asked me today to choose a medium in which to focus my future artistic energies, I'd have to go with the photo can. After finding this great Photojojo tutorial yesterday on using tin cans and glass jars as photo frames, I selected three recent pictures I'd taken and made this can triptych:
So cool! And simple too. I didn't follow Photojojo's directions exactly and I have a few observations to offer for those looking to play around with this:
- Paper quality. I just used regular old printer paper, not glossy photo paper or anything like that. This made the photos look more like actual cheap labels. I also didn't worry too much about being careful with the glue. Again, a little mistake here and there actually enhances the effect.
- Glue. I removed the original label from the can and glued the photo directly to the can itself. Instead of rubber cement, I used a glue stick with acid-free acrylic emulsion. The glue stick made application really easy. And I didn't apply the glue all the way around the can. I just glued down one end to the can, waited for that to dry, wrapped the photo around the can, pulled it tight, and glued the underside of that end to the end already affixed to the can. (When I tore the existing label off the can, I noticed that's how it was glued on there, so I tried the same thing and it worked.)
- Can size, etc. Shopping in the canned food aisle of the supermarket takes on a different meaning when you're not attempting to find green beans for dinner but trying to find aesthetically pleasing art supplies. I went with a larger can, one with stewed tomatoes; its proportions seemed more pleasing than those of a soup can. The problem was that when I got it home, it was almost 13 inches around, meaning that 8 1/2" x 11" paper wasn't going to work. (I ended up getting some 8 1/2" x 14" paper.) So bring your tape measure to the grocery store with you to make sure the desired can will work with your paper size.
- No pop-tops. A lot of soup cans now feature pop-tops. Get the old fashioned kind instead...the last thing you want is Uncle Steve lifting your photo can off of the coffee table, fiddling with the pop-top, and, hey!, Chunky Vegetable three years past its expiration date all over the place.
- Botulism? Speaking of past the expiration date, what's the shelf life of your artwork? The answer seems to be almost indefinitely when kept at temperatures at or below 75 degrees F, but I wouldn't advise eating anything from your photo cans after a year or two. The risk of botulism is almost nonexistent in contemporary commercially canned food, but if you see any of your art swelling up, throw it out. In addition, botulism dislikes acidic environments, so you're probably better off selecting cans with acidic food items in them, like tomatoes, fruits (without sweet syrups), and sauerkraut. But be careful not to get items that are too acidic...over a long period of time, the acid may eat through the can.
Good luck!
Nobel Prize winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft on how to become a good theoretical physicist. He lists the subjects you need to learn (from languages to quantum field theory) and resources (both online and off) for learning them. A note on the 't in his name.
Tutorial on adding surprisingly realistic beards to people with Photoshop. (via photojojo, who's having a contest for the best bearded woman)
Street hacks: how to survive a freestyle rap battle. "Have your first real battle against someone you at least somewhat dislike. If you can find someone who just gets you emotional or who angers you, it makes it easier to flow about them." (thx, steve)
Author (and reader) Nick Hornby on how to read. "Please, if you're reading a book that's killing you, put it down and read something else, just as you would reach for the remote if you weren't enjoying a television programme."
How to do a click heatmap on your site with JavaScript and Ruby. Includes source code. Very slick.
Lifehacker has a great thread going about how to find cheap airline travel, online and off. Going through a travel agency situated in a neighborhood populated by people from the location you're travelling to is a great tip.
How to DJ your first set without knowing how.
Update: For another take on how to DJ, see Vice's Hey DJ, Fuck You! Anyone Can Rock the Party. (thx, dave)
Examples of *very* photorealistic illustrations made with the gradient mesh tool in Adobe Illustrator. Here's a quick gradient mesh tutorial.
How to fix photos that are too dark or too light with Photoshop. Color range + levels is your friend.
Guide for how to win at Pac-Man. "Pac-Man is the game which represents everything that's good about gaming (any kind of gaming) and nothing that is bad."
Advice for cleaning the CCD image sensor on Nikon digital SLR cameras. Doesn't look that scary....does anyone have any experience doing this? My D70 needs a little TLC in this area.
Tutorial on how to draw a photorealistic portrait using only Photoshop 6 and a mouse. Look out, Robert Bechtle.
A list of 20 things everyone needs to know how to do, written by experts in their prospective fields: how to iron a shirt, how to hit a tennis ball, how to listen ("I never learned anything when I was talking"), and how to sleep.
Update: This has disappeared behind the Independent's paywall. Sorry. But the tips were all taken from this book, The Experts' Guide to 100 Things Everyone Should Know How to Do. (thx, brian and joe)
Update: Here's a mirror of the original full-text article. (via get rich slowly)
Bruce Cole shares his Academy Award-winning steak cooking technique.
Update: Bruce's technique is very close to that of Alain Ducasse...but Ducasse finishes the steak with butter and garlic. Whoa, momma. (thx, bryan)
Abortion manual for the women of South Dakota
In reaction to the South Dakota Senate passing an abortion ban bill, a woman named Molly has posted an abortion manual for the women of South Dakota:
In the 1960s and early 1970s, when abortions were illegal in many places and expensive to get, an organization called Jane stepped up to the plate in the Chicago area. Jane initially hired an abortion doctor, but later they did the abortions themselves. They lost only one patient in 13,000 -- a lower death rate than that of giving live birth. The biggest obstacle they had, though, was the fact that until years into the operation, they thought of abortion as something only a doctor could do, something only the most trained specialist could perform without endangering the life of the woman.
They were deceived -- much like you have probably been deceived. An abortion, especially for an early pregnancy, is a relatively easy procedure to perform. And while I know, women of South Dakota, that you never asked for this, now is the time to learn how it is done. There is no reason you should be beholden to doctors -- especially in a state where doctors have been refusing to perform them, forcing the state's only abortion clinic to fly doctors in from elsewhere.
(via cyn-c)
How to fold a fitted sheet perfectly. We've been having a bit of a problem with this in our household lately, so this is helpful.
Waiter Rant on how to order wine without looking like an asshole. "When I see someone [smell the cork] I know I'm dealing with a complete amateur. Guess what you're gonna smell? Cork!"
How to make your best-of-the-year music list as hip as it can be. "Make sure to include an album that just came out. This will lead people to believe that you got an advanced copy months ago and had plenty of time to get into it."
Travel tip
Much to my irritation (and that of others), many hotels charge for broadband internet access and the standard practice (at least on this trip) seems to be to charge per computer. So if both you and your traveling companion want to connect to the internet (via ethernet cable one at a time or both via wireless), you're screwed. Luckily, we brought along an Airport Express; it's small and fits easily in a suitcase. You hook that up to the ethernet cable and then you can both connect to that wireless network.
(With the Powerbook, you can also hook it up to the ethernet cable and then share your connection via the Airport. But the cables are typically short, so one of you loses that lounging-in-bed web surfing experience.)
"This guide demonstrates using SSH tunnels and VNC screen-sharing software to use your Mac from any PC over the Internet. It's fast, secure, cross-platform, and can be done entirely with open source software." (thx tag)
Here's the formula for a New Yorker cartoon: take a person/entity from Column A, and have them interact with a person/entity from Column B in a location from Column C. Voila, comedy jackpot!
Merlin's excellent advice for writing sensible email messages. This one is excellent advice for email and blog comments: "Emails to a thread are like comments at a meeting; think of both like your time possessing the basketball. Don't just chuck at the net every chance you get. Hang back and watch for how you can be most useful. Minimize noise."
How to make X-wing fighters (from Star Wars) out of Paris Metro tickets. I gotta try this...I've got about a zillion of these laying around because they make great bookmarks.
In case you ever need it, a long, long piece about how to vanish in America without a trace.
Advice on surviving an unplanned free fall. "By tilting forward and putting your hands at your side, you can modify your pitch and make progress not just vertically but horizontally as well. As you go down 15,000 feet, you can also go sideways two-thirds of that distance -- that's two miles! "
Popcorn hacks
If you've got a bag of Orville Redenbacher's Butter microwave popcorn on hand but no microwave, there's no need to panic. Just tear open the bag and pour the kernels into a large pot. Put over medium heat. The kernels will be in a big clump of congealed butter-like substance...break them apart with a wooden spoon as the pot heats up and the "butter" starts to melt.
When the "butter" is melted, stir the kernels around with the spoon so they don't burn. At this point, you may want to don some protective eyewear so that when the first kernels pop, you don't get hot butter-like liquid in your eye; I just put on my sunglasses. When the first kernels pop, cover the pot and shake it across the burner so the kernels don't burn. Stop periodically to listen for pops and to exclaim, "I can't believe this is actually working!" When popping stops, quickly remove from the heat, and get it out of that hot pot into a bowl. Eat. As good as microwaved.
Advice from Dr. Michio Kaku on formulating a proposal for the Unified Field Theory. I can just imagine all the crackpot theories that prompted this list.
Scott Berkun on how to learn from your mistakes. "We're taught in school, in our families, or at work to feel guilty about failure and to do whatever we can to avoid mistakes."
"So You Want to Write a Book?". O'Reilly Media's guide for new authors.
To read: How to writ more clearly think moor clearly and learn complex stuff more easier and stuff. Yeah need that.
How to be more charismatic. "Don't despair if you haven't got these qualities because you can learn them. Professor Wiseman estimates charisma is 50% innate and 50% trained."
How Danny Gregory makes those nifty watercolors that illustrate The Morning News. "Roz, the color theory teacher, warned against it, but I laid down a blue underpainting!"
How to take the sting out of a sunburn. By taking a hot shower?
How to use your cell phone anywhere in the world. Get a GSM phone, pay through the nose for roaming, or unlock your phone and use local pay-as-you-go SIM cards wherever you are.
A blueprint for the writing process: "Sniff. Explore. Collect. Focus. Select. Order. Draft. Revise.".
How to become an early riser. "The solution was to go to bed when I'm sleepy (and only when I'm sleepy) and get up with an alarm clock at a fixed time (7 days per week)."
Some great tips on grilling. "And if you think this takes a lot of time and concentration, you're right. There's time enough for socializing later. Do you want to grill an excellent steak or not? Okay, then. Concentrate."
Twelve ways to think differently. "Twelve methods that will exercise parts of your brain that rarely get it, and make you more creative and better able to understand the world."
A guide on how to speak gangsta. "I give yous props for dat phat ride man" means "I give you thanks for the good ride my friend". And don't miss the step-by-step instructions for high fiving someone.
