Word 2007: Creating Envelopes and Labels [tutorial]

In Word 2007: Creating Envelopes and Labels, instructor David Rivers shows how to use Microsoft Word to address, format, and print envelopes and labels. Whether to a single recipient or multiple addresses, timesaving techniques are shown that result in crisp and elegant correspondence. This course covers how to create a recipient list within Word or retrieve an existing contact list from Outlook, and then use the list in Mail Merge to address labels or envelopes. Other topics include customizing labels with graphics, printing electronic postage, and dealing with common printing errors. Exercise files accompany the course.

Topics include:

• Printing from a sheet of labels
• Creating recipient lists
• Using the Mail Merge wizard
• Printing e-postage
• Creating business cards

SUBSCRIBE TODAY – Word 2007: Creating Envelopes and Labels – lynda.com

Dung Beetles Inspire Video Enhancements for Camera Phones

Video cameras on your cellphone could soon be good enough to record a jazz concert, a nighttime street scene, or a candlelit dinner. A Swedish start-up has created an algorithm, inspired by dung beetles, that can be integrated into camera modules to offer high-quality video in extremely low light situations.

“We are talking about shooting video in situations that seem almost pitch black,” Benjamin Page, business development manager for Nocturnal Vision told Wired.com. “We can offer an unbelievable amount of noise reduction and contrast enhancement at the same time.” Nocturnal Vision presented its technology at the ISE 2010 imaging conference in London Thursday.

Toyota, which financed a significant portion of the research and development, has secured exclusive rights to use the technology in night-vision systems for cars. [Read]

The reality of digital content (lose the cookie, lose the fortune?)

A magazine with a million subscribers might spend more than a million dollars to deliver a single issue to its subscribers. A million dollars spent on postage, printing, subscription sales, fulfillment, ad sales, sub rights and more. I wouldn’t be surprised if the freelance budget for the writers and photographers (the real reason people read the magazine) is less than 15% of the cost, perhaps a lot less.

The economics of this business are interesting. Millions spent, millions earned, and almost all of it goes to pay for the paper and the friction it brings.

Now, we fast forward to a world, our world, where the cost of delivery is zero and so we’ve removed 95% of the costs.

What happens to the writers and photographers? Where do they get their money now?

Without fortune cookies, are there fortunes?

See, Gourmet magazine or the frontlist at a midlist publisher were mostly wrapper. They were 95% fluff and overhead and only a sliver spent for the actual content. And now the wrapper, the cookie is gone. [read Seth Godin]

Istanbul Agop Alchemy Power-X Cymbals [review]

Though part of the Istanbul Agop family, Alchemy cymbals are deliberately marketed under their own banner.

This is because the Istanbul Agop brand is, for many drummers, synonymous with jazz. The name Alchemy was coined to promote Istanbul’s more contemporary cymbal designs and over the past decade Alchemy has built up its own identity with five ranges of cymbals.

Build

Power-X cymbals have definitely been designed to operate in rocky territory. Like all Alchemy cymbals they are individually cast from B20 bronze then hand-hammered and lathed. In common with other Alchemy models they sport a brilliant finish.

Each cymbal features a mixture of surfaces, beginning with a large unlathed area which stretches from the centre hole across the bell and onto the bow. This blends into a section of wide lathing bands which cover roughly another quarter of the radius, which in turn leads to a final tightly-lathed portion. . . [read]

Istanbul Cymbal Official Site

Mixr Shows the Delicious Promise of Multitouch Music iPad Apps

So, sure, the iPad may just be an overgrown iPhone. But this teaser shot of Mixr, a fully-featured, multitouch DJ app, should give you a sense of just how awesome apps designed for an oversized iPhone can be.

The iPhone itself has a whole host of music-making apps, though they’re mostly just novelties. But when you start pumping them up for the iPad’s 9″ screen, they start looking like they’re going to be a whole lot more usable.

The previews for Nota, a piano app, looked good, but Mixr is really mouthwatering. The developers are looking to create a professional-grade DJ app, including “cross-fading, equalizing, cue, drag & drop tracks, and full effects such as delays and auto filter.” Mixr also has a specially-designed library for displaying all of your tracks, so you can quickly grab and mash up, say, “A Kind of Magic” and “Revolution #9” [read]

World-Class Channel Strips with API, GML, Great River, Manley, and Millennia

Just the thought of this seventh Session Trial — PAR’s ongoing series of comparative, real-world gear evaluations — filled me with excitement and curiosity. I must admit that I was originally a little overwhelmed when considering the prospect of picking favorites amongst this field of signal-path heavyweights. Truth be told, a “world-class” designation doesn’t adequately describe this collection. I didn’t discover anything that top industry veterans don’t already know about these five trusted signal processors.

For those who haven’t tried an API 7600, GML 2020, Great River Electronics MEQ-1NV, Manley Labs VoxBox, or Millennia Media Origin STT-1, let me tell you that each defines “professional” and is eminently usable at most any tracking task. Each is differentiated from the other four by features and flavors alone but not by standards of quality. And what tasty flavors they offer!

The Session

I enlisted the help of a band with which I’m very comfortable and can trust for discriminating judgment — The Lights, Fluorescent. We tracked one of their loud indie-rock songs rearranged for just acoustic instruments. Recording djembe, electric bass, two acoustic guitars, and two vocals (female lead and male BGVs), we used only one input per performer and did test recordings with each channel strip. Then we would listen to playback, discuss, and evaluate. Finally, we would lay down a keeper take for our song with our favorite channel. [read]

How to Get Back Into Your Routine After a Break

At various times, we take breaks from the normal run of life. Sometimes, this is due to work itself (e.g. a conference) and sometimes it’s a vacation. Whatever the reason, there’s always going to be a transition period where you need to get back into your regular working routine once you come home.

Instead of getting hugely stressed trying to catch up, here’s a simple five-step process to getting back into your normal routine:

1. Clear Urgent Tasks Before You Leave
   When you’ve got a planned break like a vacation coming up, make an effort to prepare for it. Most of us do this naturally, but it can be too easy to stick our heads in the sand and hope that everything will magically come together! . . . [read]

Fear of philanthropy (avert your eyes)

Peter Singer is famous for posing a stunningly difficult question, paraphrased as, “If you are walking by a pond and you see a child drowning, do you save her? What if it means ruining a very fancy pair of Italian shoes?” Okay, if we assume the answer is yes, then why not spend the cost of those shoes to save 20 kids who are starving to death across town or the world? There’s really no difference. Or by, extension, invest in research or development that solves a problem forever… The issues are proximity and attention.

My take is that most people would instantly save the kid, but given the choice, probably wouldn’t take the road by the pond again any time soon. We like to avoid these situations, because these situations make us uncomfortable. [read via Seth Godin]

Using Hashtags To Increase Your Twitter Presence

One of the most egregious errors for an artist using Twitter is overlooking the use of hashtags (the “#” symbol before a keyword).

Using a hashtag is like including a keyword in your tweet. It’s an unofficial feature of Twitter but now widely accepted and supported, and is an easy way for people to search for and find a particular topic.

Here’s how it works, using some of my own tweets from the last couple of days.

“The Secret To The Merch Table. Want to sell more merch at gigs? Here’s how. http://bit.ly/7GFjDq #merch #gig #bands”

This is a simple tweet regarding my Music 3.0 blog post from yesterday, complete with a shortened url link. At the end are the hashtags #merch, #gig, and #bands. How did I select them? First of all both “merch” and “gig” appear in the tweet, but I researched them first to see what kind of searches there were by going to hashtags.org (You can also do the same search on Twitter at twitter.com/search)…..

Read more: http://music3point0.blogspot.com/#ixzz0jINopYZ5
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike

Olympus E-600 DSLR [review]

The 12.3-megapixel E-600 from Olympus is aimed at photographers wanting a light and portable digital SLR camera. It coms in a kit with a 14mm to 42mm lens and a 40mm to 150mm lens. You also get lightning-fast, 7-point twin auto-focus system; three-mode, in-body anti-shake, courtesy of a sensor shift mechanism; and protection for the Live Mos chip when changing lenses, in the shape of the dust-busting Supersonic Wave Filter system.

Looking and handling like a traditional SLR, in about 1.5 seconds you’re ready to start shooting, with the rear LCD (which flips out and rotates through 270 degrees) providing an overview of currently selected shooting settings. Our only grumble about the case is that it could have done with a slightly larger, rounder grip. This smacks of corner-cutting to reduce bulk, as do the smaller-than-average backplate buttons. However, these are well labelled and thoughtfully laid out. [read MacWorld]

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