Personal software tutoring via Internet phone

Expert hands-on tutoring in Photoshop, InDesign, Dreamweaver and other graphics stuff

I like to teach. I am, in fact, a damn good teacher. And I love talking about and demonstrating graphics software and graphics techniques. Therefore, I have decided to offer private tutoring sessions by phone in Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, XaraX and various graphics subjects. I have conducted such phone tutoring sessions with several people, and it works really well.

You — the student — and I will work on the same image or project in the software of your choice, for instant back-and-forth feedback. If you are online during the tutorial (recommend) we can easily send each other files while we talk.

The Awesome Deal

I charge $30 per 60-minute hour (phoning included) — which is a great bargain, if I may say so myself. I guarantee that you will learn a lot in just one hour. In fact, I am so confident you will be happy with our tutoring sessions that I offer a full money-back guarantee: I’ll refund your money without question if you tell me it wasn’t worth it — or give you some extra time for free, to “fill in the blanks”.

Am I legally required to say I did not, am not now, and will not in the future, benefit financially in any way from this recommendation: no stocks, bonds, money, Monopoly money, gold, silver, jewelry, diamonds, rubies, pirate treasure, books, old wadded up paper or gum wrappers, pencils, certificates, awards or anything else of a material, or spiritual, sort?

Update (2-16-10, 8:15 AM): Corrected a typo: I had written “an” instead of “am” in the last sentence.

It is fascinating to read how technology of a time reflected and was limited by the science of the time, and how technology develops as physical science — reasoned knowledge of the cause-effect relationships amongst and the identity of physical objects — develops.

In “How Early Texans Beat the Heat” (Monday, August 3, 2009), U.S. Sen. John Cornyn writes:

Early Texans also used well water to cool their homes. They pumped water from the well to fan radiators, which were installed in spaces they wanted to keep cool. The practice of using well water as a coolant proved costly and not entirely effective. Unless homeowners used the water for other purposes after they cooled their homes, it was an expensive effort that didn’t yield significant results, with the well water usually only reaching 62 to 72 degrees

In the 1800s, German dairy farmers in central Texas began practicing evaporative cooling as a means of keeping their dairy products cool. The system involved placing the evening milk in metal cans, covering those cans with wetted blankets, and using fans to blow air through the blankets. This typically cooled the milk to 70 or 75 degrees, and the practice was eventually modified and used to cool homes.

Soon Texans were able to purchase natural ice from northern states that was cut from frozen lakes and rivers and shipped to Texas. When this supply was cut off during the Civil War, Texans used their ingenuity and resourcefulness to produce ice mechanically. In 1865, Daniel Livingston Holden of San Antonio installed a Carre absorption machine, which had been shipped from France to Mexico, and eventually made its way to Texas. Holden made several improvements to the machine, which previously used a combination of ammonia and water as a refrigerant. Holden fastened steam coils to the machine and used distilled water to make clear ice. His practice became popular and by 1867, three companies in San Antonio were manufacturing artificial ice.

As early as 1870, Texas cities began manufacturing cooling devices, which opened the door to a new industry in Texas. Manufacturers developed creative ways to use ice, as it became more readily available, combined with fans and air ducts. By placing a 300-pound block of ice in a vault, and then using a fan to blow air through the vault and into an outlet duct, cool air was emitted into a room or space that needed cooling. By 1920, Texans placed large blocks of ice in enclosed pools. From there, the ice water circulated to fan radiators that then cooled rooms, restaurants and other spaces. For many years, this process kept churchgoers cool at the First Baptist churches of Dallas and Austin, along with Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas.

Rice Hotel cafeteria became the first refrigerated air-cooled building in the Houston area in 1922. San Antonio was home to the Milam building-the first air-conditioned high-rise office building in the country in 1928.

Source: Texas State Historical Association’s Handbook of Texas Online.

The Statistics Dictionary says on Answers.com about Charles Babbage:

(1792–1871; b. London, England; d. London, England) English mathematician and inventor. He studied mathematics at Cambridge U, graduating in 1814. At Cambridge he was a co-founder of the ‘Analytical Society’ which advanced the cause of what is now the standard notation for differentiation. He was elected FRS in 1816 and FRSE in 1820 (the year in which he was a co-founder of what is now the Royal Astronomical Society). He is best known as the ‘Father of Computing’, having formulated the idea of a mechanical calculator during his student days. A first model was demonstrated in 1822, at which time he stated ‘I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam’.

Statistics Dictionary. A Dictionary of Statistics. Second edition revised. Copyright © Oxford University Press, 2008. All rights reserved.

It may look like a piece of honeycomb, but this lattice-shaped image is the first ever close-up view of a single molecule.

Scientists from IBM used an atomic force microscope (AFM) to reveal the chemical bonds within a molecule.

‘This is the first time that all the atoms in a molecule have been imaged,’ lead researcher Leo Gross said.

Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd
Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday & Metro Media Group

© 2009 Associated Newspapers Ltd

Amazing. Check out the picture they have!!

From medicine to jet fuel, the oil industry has not only powered progress, but transformed the world. It all began in the United States in 1859 in northwestern Pennsylvania, when Colonel Edwin Drake drilled the first successful commercial well.

Oil 150 is the official website of the 150th anniversary celebration of the oil industry, which occurs in 2009.

From now through 2009, this site will be updated with information on anniversary events, educational materials, historical places to visit, commemorative items, and more.

You are invited to join the celebration and share our pride in an American-born industry that has fueled unparalled progress in lighting, heating and transporting civilizations worldwide.

Check out the Drake Well Museum’s Website!!

Image from Wikipedia.

And Titusville Oil 150 says, in a blog post:

Titusville Oil 150 Planning Committee

Written by Terry Kerr
Wednesday, 17 September 2008 15:26

Welcome to the Titusville Oil 150 Website.  We are working hard to prepare for what we believe will be an event of monumental impact for all of NWPA and especially for the City of Titusville.  The opportunity to bring Titusville into the national spotlight has not been this available since the Centennial Celebration held in 1959.  Dan Beck, formerly of Titusville, now residing in New York City has described the importance of this coming year extremely well when he wrote the following:

“Very few communities in the entire United States are the home of an historic event that warrants an anniversary celebration able to impact local and national attention.  The discovery of oil and oil’s ultimate impact, not only on our nation, but on the entire globe, is perhaps the most pivotal economic moment in man’s history on earth.  Billions of people have been affected every day of their lives over the past 150 years because of the imperatives oil has established in such a vast array of consumer and industrial goods.   This impact has only intensified, and today, oil is the #1 topic on the lips of world leaders, both corporate and governmental.  It is affecting the personal decisions of billions of people on a daily basis.  

The celebration of this discovery is not just to commemorate the birth date of this staggering economic transition upon our human existence.  This is a moment of profound comprehension of the vast social and environmental impact that has transpired from this discovery over the past 150 years.  Henry Ford and the Wright Brothers, modern medicine, and virtually every invention since that day in August of 1859, has been either made possible by or heavily influenced by that discovery.
Next August, Titusville will be in the news on a national and international level.  The people of Titusville have an enormous and distinct opportunity to embrace this historic event, plan for it, and create a new respect and new benefits for the community at large.”

Please join in enthusiastic support of the Titusville Oil 150 Celebration by volunteering to serve on the planning committee.  For more information, feel free to contact any of the following members.

The Titusville Oil 150 Logo and all material on this site are Copyright ©2008-2009 the Titusville Oil 150 Committee.

Chevron has a pdf with some beautiful pictures of modern oil field equipment and structures. (HT: Garret S.)

HT: Alex Epstein.

HT: Dr. Paul Hsieh.

Some want lights on and electricity in use. Mr. Don Boudreaux says in “What Earth Day Means to Me:”

I’m thankful for the automobile, which has cleaned our streets and highways of animal feces, which is both foul and filthy itself, and that attracts flies that spread it into our homes and workplaces.
…
I’m thankful for electronic appliances, such as those that (along with modern detergents – for which I’m also thankful) allow us to clean our used clothing and dirty dishes.
…
I’m thankful for electricity for making these appliances possible – and for enabling us to light our home without dirty candles, and for enabling us to heat our homes without coal, wood, peat, or other filthy substances.
…
I’m thankful for chemical fertilizers that increase the productivity of the earth’s soil, and thereby helps to prevent malnutrition — which, in turn, better enables each of our bodies to succeed at fighting off diseases that are more likely to sicken, or even kill, malnourished persons.

What would it be like if “Earth Hour” becomes “Earth Week,” “Earth Month” or “Earth Year?” No lights, no electricity, for a week, a month, or a year.

How has it been for those of you who have been in regions struck by hurricanes? What is life like with no electricity for two days, a week, or a month?

And that’s even with the benefit of some power — other people in the US still have it, so you get to benefit from that eventually and indirectly. What if no one in the US had electric power for a week or a month?

Without oil and gas, how would we power ambulances, trucks that bring groceries to market (there are too many people where I live to be fed by “local farms”…who would still need trucks to get product to person), fire trucks, school busses, etc.?

Where do we get the electricity to charge cell phones (which we use for business, to talk to loved ones, to talk to friends and family, to call for help in emergencies), to power hospitals, to power movie theatres and home TVs, to power our stoves, ovens and microwave ovens?

And where would we get the electricity factories need to turn out clothes, toys, food, and medicine?

Where would we get the power without oil and gas?

We pretty much cannot build dams because they mess with the environment. We pretty much cannot build nuclear power plants because of scare tactics, restrictions, and regulations. People call for solar power or wind power — but where would that be put? If we are not supposed to “despoil” the land, we won’t be able to build them anywhere.

What do the restrictions on oil and gas do but put us between a rock and a hard place?

We need rational thought, and the freedom to reason, if we are to get a viable answer. We need a society, business world, and government that are required to leave us free to think, that can ask us to believe something, but cannot coerce us to believe  — i.e., we need the principle of individual, inalienable, natural rights; we need the doctrine of man as a self-sovereign being.

vs.

Holiday: The Competitive Enterprise Institute has an awe-inspiring video to celebrate Human Achievement Hour.  See also The Real Meaning of Earth Hour by Dr. Keith Lockitch and Alternative to Earth Hour by the people who came up with the idea for Human Achievement Hour (but which they call Edison Hour).

Interesting. Certainly food for thought (questioning, research, reading, reasoning, appeal to induction and facts…not to authority or “consensus”) and food for action…

I don’t recall my original source of that claim, but at amug.org they say:

In 1755, a steam engine was first reported used in America, at a copper mine in New Barbados Neck (now North Arlington), NJ. It was imported from England by Josiah Hornblower and put to use pumping water from the mine of Colonel John Schuyler.

And at SteamTraction.FarmCollector.com, they say:

The first steam engine in America was an English Newcomen-type engine, erected in 1755 to drain a copper mine.