The Future of Music? I think so!

Thanks to my friend Gui I have been invited to try out a cool new online music service called Spotify.

This is a music service that combines free music streaming, ala Last.fm, with an interface just like iTunes. So unlike other services that are just like radio, or where you download mp3 files for a fixed fee, this service is completely free (if you accept non-annoying audio ads every so often) or low cost. You do not download music files, but you can create your own playlists or play individual songs or albums from a very comprehensive library.

My tastes are, uh, eclectic, and even so I managed to find LOADS of songs and artists that I have never seen on other competing services.

The way Gui describes it is music in the cloud, which is a pretty good way to put the service into an internet technology context.

Think about it, we use Gmail, Google Docs, and so on, why should we have physical CD’s or download Mp3 files? Once we have ubiquitous connectivity the idea of owning music will go the way of the grammaphone.

It’s the future!

Unfortunately right now it is only available for desktop computers, but I can see it moving to iPhone and so on very quickly.

What do you think? Is this the future, or am I so wrong you just have to put me right? (and not just in music tastes!) … let me know in the comments …

Free Microsoft Excel Cheat Sheet to Download and Print

I don’t use Excel very often so when I do I have to remember or research all the keyboard shortcuts and functions that I normally use, even the most basic ones.

Rather than keep writing and losing post-it stickies I thought I would put this cheat sheet together, and because I figured I wouldn’t be alone in this, I thought I would share it with you too.

This cheat sheet shows the major keyboard shortcuts and a list of useful formula functions. Stick it up near your monitor so you will never need to Google that keyboard shortcut again!

Download the Free Excel Cheat Sheet

Software to Create Your Own Ebook and Download Ecovers

You know when you go to a site and they say “download our ebook” or when you land on a sales page and they have 3D graphics of DVDs, books and audio? Those are called in the trade “ecovers”. They are not the real product, just an illustration representation of the product, but they do help create visual appeal and encourage downloads.

ecover software

In the past I have had to have a designer create them for me, at a cost of $70 a shot. This is not cheap if you need lots of them done, or if you need to change them over time. I realized this was a daft approach recently as I have been working on an online course with 12 modules, all of which requiring one of these graphics, and where the titles of them might well change. On top of this, I intend to do a freebie download about Excel right here for this blog.

So I started looking around for how I can create them, and you know what? It’s easy!

OK, you do need to be able to create the basic, flat cover image, but minimal skills in a photo/bitmap editing package suffices. The tools do the rest, converting your 2D cover into a 3D box, book or CD case as required.

There are two main approaches.

  1. Photoshop plugin - This uses Photoshop tools in a kind of macro/wizard, where it does all the tweaks and distortions necessary to achieve the effect. The plus is it’s all in Photoshop, the minus is it requires the full and expensive Photoshop CS, which is overkill if all you need is a few covers for your ebook downloads.
  2. Dedicated software - These packages vary in price or quality, but they get the job done and you can usually try before you buy.

As I am a photoshop elements user I had to go with the second route, and hunt for dedicated software. Most of the software I turned up was for PC users, but I did manage to find a pretty decent tool for Windows and Mac called Box Shot 3D.

Box Shot 3D

This sofware allows you to create 3D graphics representing books, CDs, DVD, and also change angles, perspective, shadows and lighting. It’s all very intuitive and the results are not bad (see the graphic at the top of this article).

What do you think? Would the graphic make you want to download? Know of any better options? Let me know in the comments …

InkScape - A Great Free Illustration Software Tool Download

Would you like a free alternative to Adobe Illustrator or Coreldraw? If so, I think I have found a great download for you.

This week I have been working on logos and other graphical bits and pieces for client websites. Now, I am not a graphic designer, but I do get called on to do this kind of thing, mostly tweaks and making sure elements fit where they need to go.

My tool of choice is the cut-down Photoshop, Photoshop Elements. It does pretty much everything I need. But Photoshop is a bitmap paint tool, a photo editor as the name suggests. When you need to edit illustrations you need to work with “vectors”, files that are made up of points and lines.

I wasn’t about to buy Adobe Illustrator for a one-off task. Thankfully the open source community has really come along in leaps and bounds, the software tools the free software folks produce is as feature complete and powerful as commercial software, so I knew there would be an option out there. Just check out the mainstay alternatives of the common business software choices:

It wasn’t much of a search to be honest, almost immediately I found InkScape, and what a tool it is!

As you can see from the screen shot below, it is exactly what you would expect from an illustration application, allowing you to edit lines, fills, nodes. Also you will see that on my Mac I am running the X11 windowing system to load the software.

Inkscape

You can download the software for free from the Inkscape site. Everything installs easily, just like any other desktop application.

In use it can be quite quirky, for example it took me a few tries to work out graduated fills, but that is only to be expected from open source software as the volunteers who work on these tools like to spend time on the glamor or glory jobs, not making it easy to use!

I am so happy I found Inkscape, I am sure it would make a great addition to your software tool collection too.