Tagged: Internet

Every second on the Internet…

Every minute on the web

I came across this web page that shows what happens on the Internet every second, and though it was extremely cool. I don’t know where they get their data from, but it’s fun to see how quickly various sites grow.

As you can see in the screenshot above, the time it took me to scroll down to the Twitter section and take the screenshot, over 157,000 Tweets were registered on Twitter.

Rant: Stop worrying about your privacy – you aren’t that important

Social Network privacy

Stop complaining about your privacy on social networks and just think about what you post before you post it. What you share is up to YOU!

The last few months, tech sites on the web have been filled with stories of privacy invasions by Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft and Santa Claus. I’ve grown so tired of hearing about it because for the most part, it’s A) your own fault for not understanding how to configure the site preferences. And B) you shouldn’t worry about it, because you simply aren’t that important.

Let’s take Facebook for example

With the recently-released Ticker on the newsfeed page and the yet-to-be-released Timeline update to your Profile page, people are barking at the moon that their status updates are now out there for the world to see; thus invading their privacy. Well uh, I hate to tell you this but, THEY ALWAYS WERE. And isn’t that the whole point of a SOCIAL network? (more…)

How the world uses the Web

Stats of the web

An interesting infographic that visually shows how the world spends its time online

The average American spends more than 60 hours a month online, the equivalent of 30 straight days a year. I certainly hope at least one of those days per month is here at The Graphic Mac. Regardless, this infographic offers plenty of interesting information about how the world spends its time online. Not only is it great information, but the graphics are quite nice as well.

3 great cloud-based apps every designer and Mac user should use

Cloud appsThere is certainly no shortage of applications available that heavily rely on “the cloud” to do their work. It’s the hip thing to do nowadays. Personally, I prefer a more robust, reliable and feature-rich desktop app any day. But there are a few cloud-based apps that I love, and simply couldn’t live without.

The advantage, of course, is that these applications store information on servers accessed via the Internet, so that information is available to you anywhere you go, from any computer you have access to. This is huge for any Mac user who’s lucky enough to have a desktop and a laptop, or splits their time between their office and home computers. The three apps below can, and for many people have, killed the need for transferring files via physical media such as CD or USB thumb drives, and made accessing and sharing information dead simple.
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Rant: Internet assholes and how to spot one

The Expert:

Internet

The Expert

The number one way to spot an Internet @$$hole (referred to in the rest of this article as I.A.s) is to look on the potential turd-burglar’s Twitter page in the Bio section. If you see the word “expert” or “S.E.O.” or my favorite “S.E.O. Expert,” you have struck gold. You’ve come across the highest order of I.A. there is. If you follow them, drop them. If they follow you, block them. But for cryin’ out loud, don’t engage them – you’re just feeding wild animals that will eventually knock over your trash can and spill your garbage all over the driveway! Keep reading. There’s plenty more I.A.s out there to learn about.
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History of the World Wide Web

With all the technology improvements to the Web over the last several years, it’s hard to believe that the Web is still in its infancy. Despite popular belief, Mosaic (later changed to Netscape Navigator) was not the first Web browser. Mosaic was released in 1993 and was simply the first popular one used by the general public. The first Web browser, known as WorldWideWeb (see screenshot below), was invented by Tim Berners-Lee in February 1991, the same guy who invented HTTP (hypertext transfer protocol) in 1989. WorldWideWeb, later renamed Nexus, ran on the NeXTSTEP platform, which of course was formed by Apple’s Steve Jobs. Berners-Lee developed the software on his NeXTcube while working for CERN. The original code still resides on that NeXTcube in the CERN museum. Unfortunately, we’ll never get to see that code, because the computer is a historical artifact. While we were still using technology like Gopher, FTP, Usenet and various text-based BBS systems to access the Web (prior to the WWW), large corporations jumped on the bandwagon early. The oldest registered domain name was SYMBOLICS.com, registered in March of 1985. It didn’t take long for other companies to catch on. In 1986, Xerox became the 7th domain registered, followed by HP (#9), IBM & Sun (#11), Intel (#13), AT&T (#15), Boeing (#26), Adobe (#42), Tandy (#50), and Unisys (#50). On February 19, 1987, Apple Computer registered Apple.com (#64). As is typical, Microsoft followed the leader and finally registered Microsoft.com in May of 1991. For a list of the 100 oldest registered .com domain names, click here.

Fixing blurry text in Web graphics

ps_kerning_paletteWhen using small text in web graphics in Photoshop, you may notice that your text looks blurry at small point sizes (usually, anything below 12 to 14 points). Running a sharpening filter over rasterized text only serves to make it look worse. To clean up the blurry text, try increasing the tracking (kerning)amount of the text using the Character palette. By increasing the tracking amount it lowers the effects of anti-aliasing, thus making the letters appear sharper/cleaner.

Cool Web site: Montage-a-Google

web_montagoogle Montage-a-Google is one of those sites that isn’t immediately apparent how fun & useful it can be, but that should change fairly quick. Of course you could do this sort of thing manually, this Web-based application written by Grant Robinson makes it a bit more fun, and a little less work. As you can see by the sample above, I used the keyword “bikini” – a favorite subject matter of mine! I can think of a few projects I could have used this for, simply for a background image. Just remember, you don’t own the images used in the montage, it’s perfectly legal to use the images for personal use, but you might want to avoid using them in an ad for a national client!

Disposable email addresses to combat Spam

In an effort to combat SPAM, I came across a disposable e-mail address site. SpamBob offers a free email address that you can use for registering with Web sites that you don’t really want to give out your real address to. While these Web sites offer what appears to be valuable services in the war against spam, I urge you to take caution when using them. Some sites may or may not be a front for spammers to begin with.

Cool Web site: Tonik Health

For the most part, any site with Flash is a site I don’t like to frequently visit. I find all-Flash sites to be about as annoying as it can get. There’s really no reason to do it, other than the fact that “you can.” web_tonikhealth Every once in a while though, I come across a site that doesn’t go overboard with animation, even though the site is done completely in Flash. Check out the Tonik Health site by Blue Cross of California. It’s a great example of a Flash site that’s NOT used for Evil!