IceflowStudios

I’m very pleased to announce that TutCast V2 has launched. V2 sports a much more professional design and keeps the future in mind. Future training material will be much easier to not only add, but to access from a user’s point of view. We’ve also added an RSS feed, so users can subscribe and receive instant updates when a new tutorial is released.

Over the last few days, I’ve been in contact with many talented designers and video editors who will be providing training material for a wide assortment of applications. We plan on eventually having the largest video tutorial website where users can learn what they want, when they want, for free!

Thank you to all who have helped out, and keep checking back for updates.

Some drank, some did drugs, some went to clubs. As for myself, I sat in my basement and Photoshopped from the age of 13. I grew up with Photoshop, and Photoshop grew up with me.

When I started out, there was no such thing as a ‘layer’ in Photoshop! Try and imagine that if you could. It was as primitive as it could get. It is this that I contribute to my success and the reason I am where I am. As every new version of Photoshop came out, I only had to learn a few new features, where as someone who is just starting now, they are bombarded with thousands of features and no real starting point. At first glance, a beginner might get scared off by the ‘depth’ of the program, and without direction, they’ll get lost and give up.

Here’s my point. If you’re serious about learning something, start early and start slow. NEVER rush a learning process. Without  knowledge of the basics, the advanced features will seem that much harder. Take your time and don’t give up.

Ever since I switched over to a Mac, Safari had been my primary browser, for many good reasons. It’s fast, stable, and handles browsing websites very well. Recently, however, Mozilla released a series of beta versions for the upcoming Firefox 3. I was skeptical at first. Being a beta, there are bound to be bugs. So I waited until the ‘candidate release’ made it’s debut. I thought it would take some time to get used to not being on Safari, but I quickly found myself liking Firefox’s experience. Shockingly, the new Firefox release runs FASTER than Safari, which was known for being the ‘fastest browser on the market’.

There are only a few things which I will have to get used to with Firefox. When using Safari, I kept my most accessed sites on my ‘bookmark bar’. To quickly access the desired site, I could easily press Command + the corresponding number to get to that bookmark. While on Firefox, there are no shortcut keys for navigation. Hopefully when the official version 3 release comes out, there will more shortcut key customization.

Aside from the little things, I have officially switched Firefox to my main system browser. I am very pleased with it’s current state and I hope it continues to improve.

With Twitter’s huge success in the blogging and social networking community, one has to think a website of it’s capacity and status must be forking out some serious cash to keep it’s users happy. Though Twitter has raised well over $15 million from VC’s, it can only go so far with startups.

Here’s the issue. Twitter has constant traffic going to and from it’s servers at all times of the day. Millions of users are letting others know that they are making pasta, going to the mall, posting links of sneezing pandas, etc. All these updates cause an enormous strain on the Twitter servers, and like most of us have experienced, downtime. In order for Twitter to improve their systems, there needs to be a steady source of income. Implement ads, right? WRONG!

Without doing any extensive research, I would say that at LEAST 85% of all active Twitter users use a 3rd party client to send and receive ‘tweets’. These 85% of users access the actual Twitter site maybe once per week, if that. That’s not nearly enough to generate 1% of what Twitter needs to keep their site up and running smoothly. Even if Twitter introduces their own client with visible ads, most Twitter users have already found and settled into a client which they like. There’s no need to switch.

The ONLY way that I can think to generate income, is if all users are required to ‘follow’ a certain Twitter bot which would send out 1 or 2 tweets per hour containing an advertisement. Aside from that, Twitter needs to do some serious thinking and research.

Post your thoughts as a reply.

Starting hopefully this Monday, we will be running weekly design contests on our channel! These contests will run from Monday to Sunday and will involve editing a given image in any way you please. Winners will be announced during the new contest announcement on Mondays.

In order for a contest to end, the announcement video must receive at least 100 comments and 100 ratings. If these requirements are not met my Sunday at midnight, the contest will be deemed VOID. No winners will be chosen.

Prizes will most likely be iTunes gift cards, unless a sponsor provides prizes for any given week.
These contests will be open to anybody. No age or location restrictions!

With the ever growing technologies that are being released by the day, and the constant barrages of new online services, you would think that something as simple as obtaining a job would be an easy process. Think again!

With numerous websites such as Monster.com, Workopolis, Craigslist, etc, there are potentially millions of available jobs up for grabs. Some may consider this a good thing; a lot to choose from. Personally, this is the worst thing for both employers and people like myself who are in need of work. Not only does it take away from the ‘personal’ side of things, but you are up against thousands of people who are all competing for the same job!

One. Applying online for a job in retail is the biggest waste of time. One huge aspect of being a decent salesperson is your personality, and to some degree, your looks. By submitting a resume and a questionnaire over the internet tells the employee absolutely nothing useful! A resume can easily be faked to show you have experience in retail.

Two. Applying for a skilled trade on a website like Workopolis is also useless. Thousands a day can submit their application for free to as many job listings as they like. You are one of God knows how many applicants, and most are probably not even be qualified for the job.

When it comes to Craigslist, the listings seem to be a little bit more personal and local, which limits your competition, but there is no guarantee that you are not being set up for spam. More often than not am I finding myself sifting through garbage posts, not finding what I need.

Finding a job these days is ridiculous. There needs to be a service which simplifies things, and brings back the ‘personal’ aspect to finding a job. It should also be required by law for companies to accept resumes IN PERSON.

It never ceases to amaze me what a simple picture of breasts can do. It acts as a magnet to thousands of people who would never otherwise watch your videos. 

The other day, I put up a ‘tutorial’ which focused on enlarging breasts in Photoshop. The video was titled: “Enlarge your Breasts for Free” and the video’s thumbnail was a close-up of breasts. The main purpose of this video was to one, test the power of a simple image/title, and two, poke fun at all the top partners who constantly use images of this nature in their video. Within 24 hours, the video has received over 7,000 views; almost 6,000 more views than I usually receive in a 24 hours period. 

Now, from a business point of view, my mind is telling me “do more, do more!”, but from a professional point of view, it’s not ethical. The female body should not be exploited for views, and in a partner’s case, money. For me, this was a one time thing. I have no intentions of creating more videos like this. I will continue with my regular tutorials and work my way up the ladder.

A big thank you goes out to Google for reinstating me in their Adsense program. A little over a year ago, the account was suspended because of ‘invalid clicks’. Basically, there were too many ad clicks per page view, causing suspicion. It was my job to prove to them that the clicks were in no way my doing and that I am dedicated to protecting any future websites running the Adsense codes.

After many, and I mean many appeals and emails to not only Google, but to YouTube as well, they gave in and the account was reinstated this afternoon! To everyone who is in a similar situation, my suggestion is to be persistent. You need to show them that you are not out to harm their system. Indicate what you will be using ads for in the future and how you intend to keep them safe. And of course, keep your story straight. Tell the truth. If your stories in the many appeals you send to not add up, it will look as if you are lying.

Very few people get reinstated, but it can be done! Good luck!

Tonight, YouTube launched their new messaging system to replace the old, boring, broken one they previously had. For the most part, from that I have tested, it seems better than it’s predecessor. It’s a step
in the right direction.

It’s more professional, and seems to work a LOT more fluidly. One thing I get aggravated with is the ‘Received Videos” and “Subscription Invites”. There are constantly people spamming me to subscribe and
sending me their videos. In return, cluttering the inbox. There definitely needs to be some customization to either block those messages or filter them out. Sending me a message to subscribe will make me want to subscribe LESS. Don’t do it!

I’ve looked around, and haven’t seen a feature for this yet. The only thing I have seen is the option to turn off “Receive a private message or a shared video”, which in my option, should be separated. Knowing
when a new PM helps to answer user’s questions in a timely fashion, but I have turned that option off because I get WAY too many “shared videos”.

Just a few thoughts.

Welcome to my blog. This is the place where I can ramble what whatever I feel like. Right now, I’m still feeling things out and setting things up. Stay tuned!