{weblog_url} en james@studioshadowlight.com Copyright 2010 2010-07-07T23:35:13+00:00 http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/nostalgia_music http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/nostalgia_music#When:23:35:13Z Proof that no matter where you grew up, this music truly shaped who we are today. Totally blows me away. I never thought that this would get the full orchestral treatment when I was a kid, but dammit, I really hoped it would happen…   2010-07-07T23:35:13+00:00 http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/spam_it_rules_the_world http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/spam_it_rules_the_world#When:14:25:19Z If you’ve been reading the comments on this site, you’ll have unfortunately seen all of the comment spam we’ve had to deal with lately. I’m working on it. It’s getting very tiresome having to delete “fake” members, and comments because of the spam, but I do it everyday because this site is better than that. I’ve been looking into options that will curtail this activity on the site, as it’s been killing the opportunity to conduct meaningful discussion around huge obtrusive comments peddling online pharmacies and porn. (It still really makes me laugh when I see all Russian text, with a link about boobies though, I’m not gonna lie…) I’m always open to ideas, so if you’d like to chime in, leave a comment. Just make sure your not talking about boobies or drugs, or it’ll get deleted. Industry News, 2010-05-05T14:25:19+00:00 http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/inspiration_hdr_photography http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/inspiration_hdr_photography#When:13:45:54Z Here is a decent set of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photos for you to soak up. I have to admit that some of these look Photoshopped to death, but for the most part these are true HDR photos. The image below is by a photographer that goes by the name of shoebappa. Click here to see the rest. Art and Design, 2010-04-28T13:45:54+00:00 http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/synesthesia_a_film_by_jonathan_fowler http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/synesthesia_a_film_by_jonathan_fowler#When:15:49:34Z   A better look at the phenomenon known as Synesthesia. I’m curious if any of you experience or associate colors with things like words and numbers. I’d like to hear your thoughts. Industry News, Animation and Video, 2010-04-07T15:49:34+00:00 http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/adding_a_forum_to_your_website http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/adding_a_forum_to_your_website#When:02:15:54Z Adding an online community to your website can have many benefits. It is one of the best ways to increase repeat traffic to your site by giving your guests a way to connect more deeply with your product, service, or purpose. When considering the impact of implementing a forum on your website, the largest benefit to consider is user-generated content. Your guests may often have very important points to bring to a discussion - points that may have otherwise gone completely unnoticed. This of course, lends itself to a sense of pride and ownership in your guests. Another benefit to consider is rate at which user-generated content grows. User-generated content grows far faster and generally contains more information than you could publish by yourself. This in turn, gives search engines more content to index your site by. If these benefits sound attractive to you, perhaps adding forum is something to seriously consider.   Once the decision has been made to add a forum to your website, the question is of course, how exactly does one get started? There are many factors to consider when adding a forum to your website. The first question you should ask yourself is how will your website’s niche dictate the interaction on the board? Will a simple discussion board suffice, or will you need a board that is more suited for community interaction? After you have answered this question, the next question you should ask yourself is, “If I were a user on this board, what kind of tools would I need to communicate my ideas most effectively, in the easiest way possible”?  After carefully considering these factors, you should look at your options.   There are two types of boards to download for use on your site, free boards and paid boards. When deciding between free or paid forum software, you should ask yourself how much time you can spend on setting up your forum. If you don’t have much time to devote to fine-tuning the options in your forum, or rewriting lines of code, you should maybe opt for a paid board. This type board is stable, programmers have already done all of the work, and most have very user friendly interfaces used to change the boards options without having to know any code. This is, of course not to say that all free boards require a lot of work, as there are free forums that are very well designed. However, if a paid board seems like the right fit, you can download vBulletin for a one time licensing fee. This board is very flexible, and easy to use. Because it is a paid board, if any technical issues arise, you have a dedicated technical support group to assist you. With free forum software packages such as Vanilla or phpBB, you get support through a very robust community of developers that are willing to volunteer their free time.   Whichever type of board you decide to go for needs to be installed on your sever. Most boards come with their own specific instructions on how to do this, but it is generally done the same way. The first thing you need to do is check with your hosting company to see if your server can utilize PHP, and if you have access to a MySQL database. Most hosting companies do have these capabilities on their servers as well as frequently asked questions pages dedicated to these subjects. If your server has the capabilities, you need to FTP the forum software to your server. Once the folder containing all of the forum’s information is on your server, you must open your web browser and navigate to its location. If the folder containing the information is named “forum” for instance, you would point your browser to “yourwebsite.com/forum”. This will start the installation process, and in minutes you will have a forum on your website. Now that you have a forum on your website, it is time to capitalize on those benefits that were mentioned earlier. Any unrealistic expectations you have about the growth of your website’s online community will be dispelled here. The very first thing to realize is that a robust online community does not grow overnight. In fact, like most things that grow, your forum must be looked after, and maintained on a regular basis. A website lives and dies by its content and an online community lives and dies by its people. The best way to bring people into your forum is promotion. Go to other websites that are in your niche and promote. Visit other forums with a link to your own forum in your signature. Promote your website on social networking sites. Do the necessary footwork. You should also establish a cohesive culture in your forum, which attracts the type of people that will enrich the environment inside your forum. It is this culture that people in your forum will protect, weeding out disruptive people and providing an even deeper sense of community and belonging to your regular guests. Web Design, Tutorials, 2010-04-06T02:15:54+00:00 http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/ridiculously_elaborate_internet_scam http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/ridiculously_elaborate_internet_scam#When:13:37:31Z I’ve recently uncovered a ridiculously elaborate online scam while shopping around for a MacBook on Craig’s List. I’m still in disbelief that people would go to these lengths to steal people’s hard earned money. I know that opinions may differ on what actually defines an elaborate scam, but read on, and you’ll see that I’m not exaggerating. While on Craig’s List I spotted a post for a black MacBook for $400.00. I thought “This sounds way to good to be true!” but I decided to investigate this “awesome” deal anyway. Remember the old saying; If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I sent an email stating that I was interested in buying the laptop and waited for a response. The next day I received this reply: “Bold Dreamer” 10/03/2008 04:30 AM
Subject
Re: 13” MacBook, 2,16 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2 Gb memory, 120 Gb HD - $400 Hello, The laptop is still available and I hope you are still interested. My name is Amy and I am now in Manchester, U.K.
This machine has been used for professional needs over the past 13 Months, it is in great condition and runs perfectly, and beyond evidence of normal use the laptop is in perfect shape. The warranty is good until August 2009 and it is fully transferable. One more thing, it works on US voltage so you do not need a converter.
I have attached some pics with the laptop to this e-mail so you can see the condition of the laptop.
Please get back to me and let me know if you like the laptop if you’re really interested in buying it. Thanks,
 Amy Seems pretty straight up at first glance, but a few things should jump right out at you if you’re good at sniffing these types of scams out. The first thing - It’s the ‘ol bait and switch. “Sure I still have the computer, but I’m in the UK now.” Then why are you posting this in US cities on Craig’s List? Why not just put it on eBay? They do make power/wattage converters. Secondly Also, why isn’t the keyboard completely visible? How am I supposed to verify that it is a US model? I decided to have a little fun and send an email to “Amy” (probably a dude) to see if I could get some more out of her/him/them. This is what I received: Hello,
 The laptop will come with everything in the pics, case, mouse, disks.
I will pay for a 2 days delivery so you will receive the laptop within 3-4 days.
Obviously we need a safe way to complete this deal that will allow us to make sure we receive what we are after.
I have found a way for us to complete the deal safely and fast, and in this way you will receive the laptop in less than 3 days, if you move fast as well. The solution is provided by a worldwide delivery company DHL, and they will provide assistance in hadling the payment and delivery of the laptop.
With this procedure you will have the change to test the laptop before I receive my payment.
The procedure is explained on the DHL webpage and please click on the link below to the DHL website to see how we can complete the deal safely and fast directly from the website of the company.
dhl.co.uk/publish/gb/en/services/log_services/air.high.html 
 Let me know, 
Amy (I’ve broken all of the links so you’re not tempted to click on them. You can reassemble them and go for it if you want to though) That’s weird. I’ve used DHL before. They don’t offer any kind of escrow service like the one described in this email. They are a shipping company- nothing more. If you follow that link you’ll see that there is absolutely nothing there that describes anything of the sort either. Also, it seems that “Amy” is suddenly having a hard time grasping the English language. Now, check this out - a few minutes later I receive this email: Look at the red text in the yellow box in this photo (near the middle). You’ll notice another red flag, you have to “pay first then we ship”. Yeah, I bet you will… They went all out, didn’t they? Contained in this email from “DHL”, were two email addresses (seen in the last photo):
customerservice@sameday-logistics- dhlpost.com (online customer support)
paymentservice@global- dhl.com (payment service) This is getting pretty interesting! Let’s have some fun! If you put sameday-logistics-dhlpost.com into your address bar, you get a website that has absolutely no ties with DHL whatsoever. Here’s a shot of where you end up: An untouched stock template. These scammers are using this domain to send the emails that are made to look like they are from DHL. The same is also true of the other email address. This really makes me mad, I’m not going to lie. You know, our parents (and grandparents) could easily fall for this. It’s just convincing enough. At this point in this scandalous transaction, all that’s left for you to do is wire the money to the “DHL” agent. He’ll then clear the package for delivery and you’ll receive it in just a few days. Hold on a minute… Wire the money? Sure, I’ll get right on that… The sad thing is, these scammers have gone to great lengths to dupe people out of their dough, and after doing some research on Google, I’ve unfortunately found out that it has been working. So, I bring this to you as a warning (and I hate to put it this way, but… ) - There really are some people out there that are just waiting to catch you slipping - and then bang you for all you’re worth. Hopefully this entry has saved either you or someone you know some hard-earned money. Industry News, 2010-04-05T13:37:31+00:00 http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/samurai_champloo http://studioshadowlight.com/index.php/site/samurai_champloo#When:18:26:52Z Here is the first Episode of Samurai Champloo. I’ve been watching it for years, enjoy! Animation and Video, 2010-04-04T18:26:52+00:00