This week you begin to learn how to create a web page. You will be using Dreamweaver, which is part of Adobe CS3/4. The Dreamweaver notes etc are on WebCT.

Here are some links to Dreamweaver tutorials and hints and tips.

Adobe Design Center

Adobe TV

Adobe Design and Film School Connection

Dreamweaver CS4 help

Enjoy!!

Pathfinder 5.1.1 is an award-winning, comprehensive file browser for Mac OS X, which combines the best of Apple’s Finder with powerful, integrated utilities and some innovative ways of accessing and manipulating your files.

Cooliris (formerly PicLens) instantly transforms your browser into a full-screen, 3D experience for viewing photos and videos on the Web. Photos and videos will come to life via a cinematic presentation that goes well beyond the confines of the traditional browser window. With Cooliris, browsing and viewing media on the Web will never be the same again. Search sites like YouTube, Flickr, Google Images, deviantART and more. You can visually shop at Amazon.com and you can discover content from sites like ESPN, MSNBC and BBC, as well as movie trailers and the latest pop culture.

CoolIris v1.10 lets users view locally-stored photos, revamps its Facebook interaction, and supports full metadata display, including shutter, aperture, ISO, image size, source, and ratings. (http://download.cnet.com/Cooliris-for-Firefox-3/3000-11745_4-10870217.html)

Cooliris can also be embedded in your web page.

Cooliris is also available for the iPhone.

Networking the nerds

Sydney’s famous harbour landmarks and many of its high rise buildings have again been plunged into darkness, with tens of thousands of residents and businesses also turning their lights off for Earth Hour.

Now in its third year, Earth Hour saw Sydney turn off its bright lights in aid of the environment.

Earth Hour originated in Sydney in 2007, with just 2.2 million Sydneysiders taking part.

The event has now become a truly global event, with almost 4000 cities and towns around the world, and about one billion people, expected to take part.

In Sydney, city landmarks including the Harbour Bridge, Opera House, and Anzac Bridge powered down for an hour from 8.30pm (AEDT), when ferries at Circular Quay blew their horns to signal the start of the event.

Residents and businesses across Sydney switched off lights, while people gathered at harbourside vantage points such as the Botanic Gardens, Kirribilli and Taronga Zoo, to see the city wreathed in darkness.

NSW Parliament House also went dark.

Celebrations in Melbourne included a bicycle-powered concert at Federation Square, with more than 8000 people expected to watch performances by Nic Cester, Chris Cheney, Kram, Ash Naylor, Renee Geyer and Vika and Linda.

Many of Melbourne’s key buildings, including St Paul’s Cathedral, turned their lights off.

Lights at prominent landmarks in other capital cities, including Parliament House in Canberra, also went out.

At Bondi Beach earlier today, Earth Hour director Andy Ridley said the event was not merely to reduce energy consumption for one hour on one day of the year, but to get people thinking about climate change.

“We need massive change – one hour in terms of change is not that much,” he said.

“The primary reason we do it is because we want people to think, even if it is for an hour, what they can do to lower their carbon footprint, and ideally take that beyond the hour.”

Atlanta, San Francisco, Bangkok, Vancouver and Dublin were among 371 cities and towns to join the Earth Hour movement in 2008.

In 2009 the figure has ballooned to at least 3929 cities and towns in 87 countries.

Newly listed landmarks that will switch lights off in 2009 include the Eiffel Tower, the Vatican, Beijing’s Birds Nest Olympic stadium, The London Eye, and Egypt’s Great Pyramids at Giza.

And climbers taking on Mount Everest intend to carry an Earth Hour flag with them.

Chatham Island, the largest of a tiny group of Pacific islands 800km southeast of New Zealand, kicked off Earth Hour by switching off its diesel generators at 8.30pm local time (1745 AEDT) tonight.

New Zealand followed suit, including switch-offs of the country’s tallest building, the Sky Tower in Auckland, and the Beehive parliament building in Wellington

AAP, AFP

http://www.theage.com.au/environment/earth-hour/lights-go-out-for-earth-hour-20090328-9esl.html

50 icon sets to download.

What is E-Waste?

E-waste problem at ‘crisis point’.

Taken from http://www.earthshare.org/2009/02/erecycling-quiz-enter-before-february-20th.html

E-recycling Quiz

Question: Which of the following office items can be recycled?

A. Computer monitors

B. Televisions

C. Printers

D. Computer mice

E. All of the above

According to the U.S. EPA, discarded electronics accounted for 2.5 million tons of landfill waste in 2007. Electronics, which can contain toxins like lead and mercury, need to be carefully recycled to ensure that contaminants aren’t released into the air or into groundwater.

Commonly referred to as e-waste, the dumping of old electronics into landfills can wreak havoc on ecosystems and human health, due to the metals and chemicals used to make some of our most valued tools and toys. According to the EPA, these substances can include:

Lead – used in TV glass and personal computer (PC) cathode ray tubes (CRTs). The EPA reports that older CRTs contain an average of four pounds of lead, while newer CRTs contain closer to two pounds.

Mercury – small amounts of mercury can be found in the bulbs that light flat panel computer monitors and laptop screens.

Brominated flame retardants – while this material has been phased out as new products have come online, this substance can be found in the plastic casings on old wires and cables.

Cadmium – older models of rechargeable batteries for laptops and other portable electronic devices may contain cadmium, while newer batteries do not.

These substances have been known to produce a range of substantial health effects, including impaired endocrine and nervous systems, kidney disease, and even cancer.

Reusing and Recycling E-Waste

According to EPA estimates, a mere 18 percent of e-waste was recycled in 2007. A similar study by Consumer Reports’Electronic Reuse & Recycling Center found that nearly two in 10 consumers that disposed of a computer monitor in 2007 threw it in the garbage. Fourteen percent of those that disposed of a laptop computer threw it into the trash.

Reusing and recycling e-waste can keep harmful substances out of landfills and give electronics a longer shelf life, through reprocessing the materials for a new generation of electronics or by donating it to those who need it.

Reusing or recycling your electronics can also reduce energy use and emissions produced from mining and manufacturing new items—the EPA estimated that if we had recycled 100 million old cell phones in 2006, we could have saved enough energy to power 194,000 U.S. homes for a year.

Recyclers Beware?

In 2006, OnEarth, published by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), reported that as much as 80 percent of the world’s e-waste ends up in Asia—and 90 percent of that waste ends up in China.

In November, 2008, 60 Minutes aired a report in which they tracked illegally shipped e-waste from the United States to China, where retired electronics are broken down by low-income workers, often times by burning toxic metals and plastics.

According to the report, scientists found that the town profiled in the investigation had the highest levels of cancer-causing dioxins in the world, and that pregnancies were six times more likely to end in miscarriage. Seven out of 10 kids were found with too much lead in their blood.

While the 60 Minutes crew was able to single out the source of this particular illegal trade, it learned that the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) had set up a sting in which 42 other American companies were willing to illegally export this waste to foreign countries.

So how can you ensure that your electronics will be properly recycled?

1. Donate first. If you’re getting rid of electronics because you’ve upgraded to a newer model, consider whether you can donate your items first. Of course, EarthShare would be proud to accept your donation through its partner, MyBoneyard.com. Your donation will keep your computer out of the landfill, support EarthShare, and you can even get cash back. Or, check out special re-use programs like Computers for Schools. You can find more resources like this on the EPA’s eCycling page.
2. Check with your manufacturer. Many manufacturers and retailers offer take-back programs through which you can return your used items, including Apple, Dell, HP, Office Depot and Best Buy. The NRDC recommends checking a manufacturer’s web site to get the scoop on their take-back policies.
3. Do your homework. The NRDC points us to a comprehensive list of “e-Stewards,” comprised of businesses and organizations who have committed to “the most rigorous criteria for sustainable and socially-just electronics recycling.” Bookmark or print this valuable list to reference e-Stewards in your area.

E-Waste Resources

From our offices to our homes, we can all do our part to reduce e-waste and ensure its proper disposal. For more information, take a look at the resources listed below. And, if you’re interested in becoming an environmental steward through your workplace, check out EarthShare’s workplace giving campaigns.

eCycling, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

What To Do About E-Waste, National Resources Defense Council

E-Waste Statistics, Greener Choices, Consumer Reports

The eStewards Initiative, the Basel Action Network

“The World Confronts Its E-Waste Nightmare,” OneEarth Magazine, National Resources Defense Council. Fall 2006.

“Following the Trail of Toxic E-Waste,” 60 Minutes, CBS News. November 2008.

“E-Waste: Dark Side of the Digital Age,” Wired Magazine. January 2003.

As a designer, you will need to be familiar with the Periodic Table Typefaces (screen shot below). To access the table, click here.

According to Creative Bits

“The Periodic Table of Typefaces is obviously in the style of all the thousands of over-sized Periodic Table of Elements posters hanging in schools and homes around the world. This particular table lists 100 of the most popular, influential and notorious typefaces today.

As with traditional periodic tables, this table presents the subject matter grouped categorically. The Table of Typefaces groups by families and classes of typefaces: sans-serif, serif, script, blackletter, glyphic, display, grotesque, realist, didone, garalde, geometric, humanist, slab-serif and mixed.

Each cell of the table lists the typeface and a one or two character “symbol” (made up by me simply based on logic), the designer, year designed and a ranking of 1 through 100.

Ranking was determined by statistically sorting and combining lists and opinions from the the sites listed below. The final overall ranking was achieved depending on how many lists the particular typeface was presented on and it’s ranking on the lists (if the particular source list used a ranking system; some did not, in which case just the typeface’s presence on the list boosted it’s overall score.) After averaging the typefaces appearances and rankings a composite score was given and the list was sorted on a spreadsheet then finally given an overall score of 1 through 100 based on its final resting position.

Unfortunately, the typefaces could not be sorted exactly numerically on the table while at the same time keeping them in groups of families and classes. It had to be one or the other. Of course it COULD have been done but I would have had to seriously sacrifice aesthetics of the overall design (i.e. it wouldn’t have come out looking AT ALL like a traditional periodic table.) However, upon close inspection, you find that at least the typefaces are ordered within their family/class groupings”.

(taken from http://creativebits.org/inspiration/periodic_table_typefaces)