Smashing Magazine have compiled a fantastic list of photoshop tutorials specialising in beauty retouching. The tutorials cover a vast range of subjects from Skin retouching, body shape alterationssome fcusing one eyes, mouth and hair and tutorals in both text and photographs and video tutorials.

While the majority of the tutorials are quite basic there are one or 2 more advanced techniques so there’s something for everyone from the photoshop novice to the professional photographer.

Free Photoshop Brushes from www.brusheezy.com with the added feature of user submitted reviews and ratings of the brushes. some handy brushes to add to my collection you can never have too many enjoy!

Watch and learn:

Please remember to change the name from game150 to game otherwise it will not work

To download the simple upgrader file

the link is

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=FF6QN09P

Custom firmware is a must have for PSP owners I’ll dig up some stuff on downgrading soon but those who have 1.50 enjoy i’ll be installing 3.40 OE-A soon!

Go to www.ziphone.org and download the required files here currently available for windows and mac. Follow the instructions on the video below:

ZiPhone2.4
First! Copy or Move the ZiPhone2.4 folder to the C:\ folder (to make it easy, and have it named to ZiPhone)
Plug in your iPhone
Windows + R (RUN): cmd
Command Prompt: cd c:\ziphone [ENTER] (Should say folder’s destination in cmd)
In cmd type: ziphone -e (NOT for 1.1.1 or prior (3.9BL OTB), only for those who have already jailbroken or unlocked their phones with 1.1.2 or later, and not needed for those who have 1.1.2 or 1.1.3 OTB)
Once Restarted, Restore to 1.1.3 (If you get ERROR 6 Restore again)
________________________________
Key:
A: To Unlock, Jailbreak, & Activate (for any GSM, use for any 1.1.2 or 1.1.3 OTB iPhone)
B: Jailbreak (for AT&T users who registered through iTunes)
C: Jailbreak & Activate (for AT&T users using their OLD sim OR if you have ALREADY UNLOCKED your phone using ZiPhone)
________________________________
In cmd type:
A: ziphone -Z Y
B: ziphone -j
C: ziphone -Z N (less)

Top 10 Online Video Downloading Sites

Heres a great list of 10 video downloading sites that allow you to download and save videos from youtube etc in various formats check out the articles for a more in depth review of the sites.

No you’re all probably familiar with the google maps / google earth platform which allows users to view ’satellite images’ and aerial photographs looking down over almost the whole globe and now even branching out into space with mars and the moon already being mapped. With the introduction of street view this added another dimension to the user experience allowing you to view a 360 image from street level and navigate the roads.

Recently I was passed a link to aboutmyplace.co.uk which utilizes Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Software to show yet another innovation a 45 degree birds eye view from 4 directions north, east, south, and west. aboutmyplace was established to help home buyers in the uk view potential properties without leaving the house but the potential is endless and for a more global use you can visit Microsoft LiveSearch Maps.

Map Resources and Links:

www.aboutmyplace.co.uk

Microsoft Live Search Maps

Google Maps

Google Earth

Smashing Magazine has out done itself again with a fantastic list of 100 free wordpress themes.

Here are some of my favorites from the list:

Elixir

Insense

Morning After

WP Polaroid

Gluttony

Tumblelog For Wordpress

A Beginners Guide to Bit Torrent

Bit torrents is an alternative to the p2p or Peer to Peer way to share files over the internet. Instead of downloading a client which you use to search for share files then queue to download them with bit torrent you need an application (see below for a list) that will allow you to open .torrent files (small files which contain the information of who has what pieces of a file and where it is being tracked).

1. So let’s get started download one of the following applications:

· µTorrent (http://www.utorrent.com) – windows 95 to Vista recommended

· Azureus (http://azureus.sourceforge.net/) Windows/Mac Compatible

· BitComet (http://www.bitcomet.com/)

· Transmission (http://www.transmissionbt.com/) Mac Client

· Tomato Torrent (http://sarwat.net/bittorrent/) – Mac Client

There are no doubt hundreds more clients but I find these to be among the most commonly used an easy to set up. You can find installation instructions and quick set up guides on each of the sites

2. Once you have a client installed you need to the torrent files. There are thousands of sites out there which allow users to share torrent files. Some of the commonly know public trackers include:

· Demonoid – recently closed down due to legal issues.

· Mininova – Still going strong currently the largest public tracker.

· ThePirateBay – Another large public tracker.

· BTJunkie – Bit torrent search engine

· Torrentz – Another bit torrent search engine

These sites should get you started with what you’re looking to download but try and find yourself a couple of private tracker sites which are much more reliable in terms of download speeds and new releases. Although these public trackers boast the largest number of torrents and active users you may often come across slower download speeds and sometimes finding yourself stuck with an incomplete download.

The above sites have search facilities that allow you to find torrents based on their title and or description. Once you have found the torrent file you are looking for there are a couple of things worth checking. First are there any seeds (people with complete files sharing them)? Second read the comments if there are any about the file you can often find out how good the quality of the download is here or any problems with the files other users may have had.

3. Ok you have picked the torrent you want to download. Download the file by either clicking the link to the torrent file or right click ‘save as’ however you want to do it just make sure you end up with a .torrent file on your PC.

4. Next all you need to do is open that torrent file by double clicking it and it should open in your client of choice. This will start the connection with other users and begin the download.

5. If you have any difficulties with the connection not starting once the torrent is open in your client then this is likely to be issues with either a software firewall or hardware firewall on your router. To remedy this you need to allow access to user defined ports on your firewall allowing access for the program (see instructions on your firewall for how to do this.)

Other Useful Resources:

µTorrent a beginners guide

Mooter’s BitTorrent Guide

TorrentFreak - Bit Torrent News

10 Most popular torrent sites 2007

Just a few online tools. Most of you will have probably heard of them but theres always someone who hasnt enjoy the sites and please post any other useful internet tools below.

BugMeNot - Find and share logins for websites that force you to register.

RetailMeNot - RetailMeNot.com is an easy way to find online coupon codes. Enter these codes at the checkout page of participating merchants for instant discounts. Also available as a firefox Add-on.

InviteShare - InviteShare allows registered users to trade invites to the increasing number of beta testing sites and invite only internet tools.

Last.fm - A music social networking site which though a free download program monitors your listening habits and recommends you new music and artist.

Digg - Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. From the biggest online destinations to the most obscure blog, Digg surfaces the best stuff as voted on by our users.

Docstoc - Docstoc is a user generated community where you can find and share professional documents. Find free legal documents and free business documents. Upload your documents for all the world to share.

Sputtr - Nice little search engine hack. from a single page search all sorts of sites from the google groups, web, images, video, news, blogs to lots of other sites like last.fm, stumbleupon, Digg, Yahoo, Youtube… I could go on forever just check it out.

Spock - The people search engine. Find people!

Listible - The quick way to get resources. Lisible has thousands of lists created by its users. Create your own list or add to an already existing one.

Pownce - Pownce is a way to send messages, files, links, and events to your friends. Pownce has recently added a mobile version of the site and is also available as a desktop download.

StumbleUpon - Channel surf the internet with the StumbleUpon toolbar to find great websites, videos, photos and more based on your interests. StumbleUpon learns what you like and makes better recommendations. Highly addictive!

SpeedTest - Speedtest.net measures the performance of your broadband connection. At the end of each test, you are presented with the download and upload bandwidth speeds.

Del.icio.us - del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website — the primary use of del.icio.us is to store your bookmarks online, which allows you to access the same bookmarks from any computer and add bookmarks from anywhere, too.

BugMeNot Disposable Email Address - When forced to register for a site often you’ll need to provide an email address to receive a ‘verification’ link. BugMNot allow you to make a disposable address which lasts 24 hours. Enjoy spam free emails.

10 Minute Mail - Same as above but lasts only 10 minutes.

SpamBox.US - Another temporary email address this time you can specify how long you want the mail box to las. The site boasts up to a year for free mail boxes.

YouConvertIt - Free! Convert any media file format (Documents, Images, Audio, Video & Archives) without buying or installing anything on your PC.

Wakoopa - Wakoopa tracks what kind of software or games you use, and lets you create your own software profile. Great for discovering new software.

www.allshow.tv - Provides the latest episodes of some great series for you to watch anywhere for free. Using flash based video streaming you can tune in to various shows including Heroes, The Office, Smallville, House, Southpark, Bionic Woman, Desperate Houswives, CSI Miami, Prison Brea, Dexter and Grey’s Anatomy. The site only provides the latest seasons episodes and appears to be updated regularly. Boasting video quality of 700kbps 3 times that of youtube, the site promises to be popular bookmark for those of us who have missed an episode of our favourite show or in my case can’t wait  for the latest seasons to hit the shores of the UK.

Printer Anywhere - A simple free program that allows you to share your printer with friends via an application which you both install and print as normal over the internet. Once installed the software allows you to be either an ‘Owner’ sharing your printer, or a ‘user’ which can simply use the software to print over the net to a friends printer. The software is free and can be downloaded here. installation and use of the application are both very straight forward and there is a wealth of support on the Printer Anywhere home page.

System Requirements:

* PC running Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/Vista
* 128 MB RAM (256 recommended)
* 10 MB free disc space
* Internet connection (broadband recommended)

A useful freeware application that I would recommend.

The Anti-Facebook! A well-executed Facebook parody site called Hatebook has stepped in to provide (temporary) misanthropes with a place to air grievances about everything they hate.

• upload blackmail material or publish lies
• get the latest gossip from your enemies and friends
• post photos and videos on your hate profile
• tag your friends
• get hate points from disturbing people who live, study, or work around you
• take over the world

I dont know how long this will last or if it will take off at all but you must admit it the concept was funny. Without the open source platform and the funding of other giant social networking websites hatebook is unlikely to make any waves.

www.hatebook.org

 A collection of the best websites to download free fonts. Thousands upon thousands of fonts for you to choose from most with previews before you download them. Most of the fonts are Windows and Mac compatible.

1. http://www.dafont.com
2. http://www.searchfreefonts.com - 13,000 Free Fonts
   
3. http://www.fontreactor.com
4. http://www.abstractfonts.com
5. http://neatfonts.com
6. http://www.urbanfonts.com

Anyone else got any favourites for me to add to the list???

How to completely wipe all of the data from your hard drive - This tutorial shows you how to completely remove every trace of data from your hard drive. In case you have something on there that you don’t want anyone to find. With the aid of a boot disc iso download named DBAN which is 100% free you can make sure all that data disappears.

I must admit I am a huge fan of Eduardo Recife’s work displayed at misprintedtype.com but the purpose of this post is to let you all know about the cool fonts and photoshop brush packs on offer there. 19 free fonts and 6 useful brush packs for photoshop.

First up we have seeqpod.com

A great site for finding free mp3 files to listen to, the site has many features once you create and account for free you can search for songs and videos which are hosted on the net so that you can listen to them for free as well as making your own playlists which you have the option to save for playback anytime your logged in. You can generate an embed code so that you can post songs or playlists on the your own sites or forums.

If simply listening to the songs online when ever or where ever you have an internet connection isn’t enough this next site, audioraider.com might be more up your street.

This site takes advantage of google’s customer search API and allows you to search for open index’s which hold mp3 files simply by typing the name of the artist or song then download them for free. No registration no way to trace it 100% safe free mp3 downloads without having to remember the customer google search. enjoy.

Have you ever wondered how to open all those canon raw files (CR2) .CR2 files with Photoshop? Are you itching to open up the full potential of your canon 350D XT Rebel or other models such as the 400D and 30D among others by being able to use photoshop as the default raw editor? simply download the following file and read the instructions to be able to use the raw editor and open your .CR2 files directly within Photoshop.

<– Click the logo to download the Photoshop file then unzip the download and copy and paste the canon raw.8bi file in the the correct directory for your operating system. Current I am only aware of the locations for the files for Photoshop CS3 and CS2 in Vista and XP see below for instructions of where to place the file for either of the afore mentioned combinations.

For Photoshop CS3 the canon raw.8bi file needs to go in the following location my computer -> C: -> Program Files -> Common Files ->Adobe -> Plug-Ins -> CS3 -> File Formats.

If the above directory does not exist then create it and insert the file. The next time you boot up Photoshop you should be able to open the .CR2 files

Next up is Photoshop CS2 again the file location is similar my computer -> C: -> Program Files -> Common Files ->Adobe -> Plug-Ins -> CS3 -> File Formats.

Thanks to benscamera.com for the story

www.psbrushes.net A huge collection of photoshop brushpacks download the .abr files and simply copy them to the photoshop brush files on your hard drive (comment below if you need help finding this).

Full credit goes to Lord Foul who posted this list on the Revision3 Forums:

Belarc Advisor
Builds a detailed profile of your installed software and hardware and displays the results in your Web browser.

ShowIP
Shows ones Private and Public IP address and alerts you of changes.

Folder2MyPC
With this utility you can add any folders or program shortcut to ” My computer ” and “Control panel”

Hamachi
Hamachi is a zero-configuration virtual private networking (VPN) application.

Alarm
Nice free Alarm clock with mp3 support

TrayIt!
Minimize anything each application which applies TrayIt! creates a small icon in the System Tray.

HiderPx
Allows one to reopen a window of any process in the background which “vanished” from the taskbar.

NetStat Live
TCP/IP protocol monitor which can be used to see your exact throughput on both incoming and outgoing data

MaxMem
Realtime physical memory management program that automatically ensures that you always have as much physical memory available as possible.

CacheBooster
CacheBooster allows you to tweak your harddisk caching to help achieve the best possible performance from your system. Win95/98 ONLY

TuneXP
Windows Tweaking software.

CCleaner
Removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space and cleans traces of your online activities.

HijackThis
A general homepage hijackers detector and remover.

PuTTY
PuTTY is a free implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and Unix.

Unlocker
Unlocker lets one delete/rename/move a file that is locked by Windows for whatever reason.

µTorrent
A very tiny Bittorrent client and a very powerfull Bittorrent client.

RootkitRevealer
RootkitRevealer is an advanced rootkit detection utility

nlite
nLite is a tool for permanent Windows components removal and pre-installation Windows setup.

Citrus Alarm Clock
Citrus is a software alarm clock which can use your existing Media Player.

TerraIM
TerraIM is a free, lightweight, cross-platform AOL Instant Messenger client.

The Wonderful Icon
Minimize programs onto the taskbar tray instead of just onto the taskbar and much more.

Sizer
Resize any window to an exact, predefined size.

Foxit Reader
Free reader for PDF (Portable Document Format) documents.

IrfanView
Very fast, small, compact and innovative graphic viewer for Windows.

7-Zip
File archiver with high compression ratio.

Autoruns
Autoruns goes way beyond the MSConfig utility bundled with Windows Me and XP.

BurnCDCC
Used to burn an ISO file to a CD/DVD/BD disc.

KeePass Password Safe
Password manager or safe which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way.

Notepad2
A small, fast and free text editor with syntax highlighting for HTML and other common languages.

Process Explorer
Shows you information about which handles and DLLs processes have opened or loaded.

Pstart
A portable start menu that can be installed on a USB drive or your local PC and provides quick access to programs and documents.

RegSeeker
A powerful registry cleaner and can display various information like your startup entries.

Restoration
Undelete files that were removed from the recycle bin or directly deleted from within Windows.

Steganos LockNote
Hide your serial numbers, passwords, phone numbers and everyday notes in a safe place.

TrueCrypt
Create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a virtual drive.

SyncBack Freeware
Small, free, powerful folder syncing utility.

allSnap
Make windows snap to the screen edges and each other.

Angry IP Scanner
Very fast IP scanner and port scanner that can scan IP addresses and their ports in any range.

Gaim
A multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client.

WinRoll
Make a window roll into its title bar, send it to the tray or make it stay on top.

Taskbar Shuffle
Drag and drop the programs on your Windows taskbar.

SyncToy
Copy, move, rename, and delete files between folders and computers quickly and easily.

desktopListView
Turns your desktop icons into a list for viewing.

StartupList
A simple tool that lists all and every auto starting program on your system.

CDWinder
Media cataloging tool for the Win32 platform.

Power Menu
Adds “Always On Top”, “Minimize To Tray”, “Priority” and “Transparency” sub menus to all top level system menus.

ATnote
“Post-it” type system tray note taking software available in many languages.

AutoHotkey
Write a mouse or keyboard macro by hand or use the macro recorder to automate almost anything.

Launchy
Index the programs in your start menu and can launch your documents, project files, folders, and bookmarks with just a few keystrokes.

ImgBurn
Write CD / DVD images and it supports all the latest writers (including booktype / bitsetting on many of the major ones - i.e. BenQ, LiteOn, NEC, Plextor, Sony)

WinSCP
SFTP client for Windows using SSH.

freeSSHD
free implementation of an SSH server.

Miranda IM
multi protocol instant messenger client for Microsoft Windows.

SlickRun
Instant access to any program or website.

KatMouse
Mouse wheel enhancement for Windows.

Volumouse
Control the sound volume on your system - simply by rolling the wheel of your wheel mouse.

NirCmd
NirCmd is a small yet powerfull command-line utility.

Wallpaper Master
Automatically change your background wallpaper with a huge range of options, and is great for indexing large collections of personal photos or any kind of image.

MWSnap
Small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen.

CamStudio
Record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer; turn those AVIs into Streaming Flash videos.

StrokeIt
Advanced mouse gesture recognition engine and command processor.

ShellEnhancer
enhance the default shell of Windows allows you to make your own tasks and switch between them; tasks can be executed with hotkeys, mouse gestures or screen corners.

RKopie
Create and manage customized backup jobs.

XnView
Utility for viewing and converting graphic files.

4t Tray Minimizer Free
Minimizes to tray any application.

4t HIT Mail Privacy Lite
Hide email within an image.

Active Ports
Monitor all open TCP/IP and UDP ports on the local computer.

A.F.9
Edit files by replacing characters or any other bytes.

Anyone have any other suggestions for the list? I will be happy to add it to this post.

Free Icons are always useful! here’s but a few examples: