Networking.... Anywhere

In yesterday's entry, I talked about having  networking skills. This is  a skill I am still working on the basics. Anyway, today I have just interviewed for a position taking orders for a big national retailer. The thing is, it would be nice to have the perfect people around to network through that is in the perfect career field. However, I bet that rarely happens. So, today I am committed to be prepared to network wherever I go.

The idea started with just the idea to network at the possible new job I met get, but there is plenty of opportunity to network ANYWHERE you go. Start a conversation with the person behind in line at the grocery mart. Use networking sites, and take advantage of any opportunity. An employer is much more likely to be upfront with you when it is not during an interview and they can lay things on the line.

Til tomorrow,
Josh

It's Who You Know

We've all heard the phrase "It's who you know" and maybe believe it to a certain degree. However, my brother's friend has been trying to get a job on a production set for quite some time. He has applied to countless places for any kind of work. Then one night he meets a guy at a party who works for a production company and has a job the next week working in production. The real kicker is that he had not been able to break into the industry for 30 years.  I know this is the type of example that is spread around quickly when you can't get the job you are looking for in the field you want. However, it still seems highly likely that the only way to get in the industry is to know somebody.

I'm not one to complain about it not being fair, how do you begin to create a network of people if you are not currently into the field? Is there a strategy in for an online social network out there? Has anyone had success at these type of strategies?

Making DVD Burning Kid Simple

Burning DVDs can be an extremely intricate with the variety of functions you could use like animated menus. While programs like Adobe Encore exist to this end, there remains a gap in DVD burning software for the common user. Encore may provide excellent authoring software but takes an extensive amount of time to create. What about the everyday DVD burning user?

Thats where DVDFlick steps in. DVDFlick is a program that lets you easily design and burn DVDs in the simplest form that even a small child could navigate. However, what drew me to this program was not its easy user interface but the fact that it will convert video files for you. There is no other program up to this point that will convert DivX files and burn them in one hassle-free step. Beyond conversion it still offers a simple menu setup that is just a click-and-go process. No checking for errors and using mapping functions. More complex menus are not offered, but it is heaven for someone who just wants to burn their DVDs and go on with their business.

You can check out this program completely free from DVDflick.net

Blazing Fast Photoshop- The future of mobile phone Photoshop.

Adobe now brings the brilliant design of Photoshop editing software to your iPhone. The app has very few functions of the original but it is a leap for editing for digital images on any mobile device. Some of those functions are cropping, rotating, color corrections and some basic filters.

The new app is barebones compared to the desktop software. The future of the digital imaging on mobile devices is surprisingly doable within the next 5 years. Cell phones have more than quadrupled processing speed in the last 6 years. Consider that with the fact that you can get a memory card that is as big as your desktop computer, and you’re looking at a close prospect for Photoshop.

As the program features increase, it will eventually reach a point where it is too much features for the phone of the average consumer. However, there are more practical uses like newspaper and blog reporters posting cropped and edited photos to the editor or blog in a matter of moments.

The Photoshop app does cost money like most of the programs on the iPhone . The iPhone is the only phone with this app. Adobe has not officially said they are developing for other phones but it may be the case considering the market for it.

What does this mean for other programs like Flash? How practical is it to have an app for Flash. A scaled down featured of Flash where you can create based Flash Lite features from a preselected library may be a possibility. Uploading slideshows to blogs or profiles is a definite possible function of program like that.

The future of the programs for mobile devices is not crystal clear. However, as it stands right now, mobile devices can never have the functionality of the full desktop software of programs like Photoshop. The reason has to do with the limitation of working on a small device. Even with a top-of-the-line phone, navigating the internet is not as easy on your computer as it is on your phone web browser.

FLASH CS4 IS MAKING ANIMATION CHILD'S PLAY

Flash is the most intuitive animation program, and now they are upping the bar even further with the new Bone Tool. The bone tool allows you to create shape relation structures between objects, making it easier to create more realist animation movements. Where as before you were subject to make your animations from a single pivot point.

This is very exciting news - especially for animators in Flash. The bone tool also makes a new kind of layer - the armucture layer.

Here is a quick example of that tool: