Published by Megan O. Read | Friday, November 20th, 2009
When Curt Frye started working with lynda.com, we were all very excited about the slew of new and much needed Microsoft Excel courses he was planning for us. With the state of the economy, and more people doing their own finances, as well as tightening their belts nearly to the point of of asphyxiation, it is becoming more critical for the general public to understand their finances, even on a very basic level.
In the November 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review, The Forethought column “Teach Workers About the Perils of Debt.” states:
“It’s widely known that many consumers have poor numeracy–they can’t figure out percentages or do other elementary calculations–and have barely a rudimentary grasp of economics. In our research, we looked deeper, studying consumers’ ‘debt literacy,’ the ability to understand how interest rates work and make simple decisions about borrowing. We found it to be strikingly low.”
Curt's aim in creating a course on financial analysis was to teach skills required to analyze debt. Photo courtesy of iStockphoto, image #3154423
“My aim in creating Excel 2007: Financial Analysis was to teach the skills required to analyze debt,” said Curt Frye of his first lynda.com course. “I’m hoping that it helps subscribers better understand some critical skills that not everyone is taught at home or in school.”
Curt is currently working on a new book, as well as new lynda.com courses. For a full list of his training, visit his author page.
Published by Jim Heid | Wednesday, November 18th, 2009
The computer industry is usually a secretive place. Companies keep their product plans to themselves, and all product discussions take place under the Cone of Silence from TV’s Get Smart.
That’s one reason why Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is a breath of fresh air. Adobe has made a prerelease version of its popular photo-management and photo-enhancement software available for free downloading. Curious to see what’s new? Grab the beta preview and try it.
But how do you learn it? By diving into Photoshop Lightroom 3 Beta Preview, a new lynda.com course from Chris Orwig, photographer and instructor at the Brooks Institute. It’s more than two hours of detailed instruction on all the new features in Lightroom 3’s beta version, and it includes comparisons that illustrate what has changed from Lightroom 2.
Chris will also be doing courses on the final version of Lightroom 3 next year. But why wait? Download the free public beta and dive into the next version of Lightroom right now.
Published by Crystal | Tuesday, November 17th, 2009
Be they pits, pock marks, or pimples, we all suffer blemishes that we wish we didn’t. Or so we would were it not for Photoshop’s Healing Brush. This amazing tool grafts good skin onto bad—and heals the seams in between. This week, Deke shares his techniques for using the Healing Brush to its full potential.
Published by Megan O. Read | Friday, November 13th, 2009
David Blatner is a man on the go! He is the author of many lynda.com courses, well known InDesign speaker (most recently jetting over to Moscow for an Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop conference), a regular on Twitter, and has recently announced his new plug-in package for Adobe InDesign, appropriately named Blatner Tools.
Blatner Tools is a suite of about 12 plug-ins to make your InDesign experience more fluid. It has been in public beta for about a week now, and will ship in another few weeks. Also in the InDesign-y world of David Blatner, is the exciting news that the popular website he runs with fellow InDesign guru Anne-Marie Concepcion, (InDesignSecrets.com) has just announced it’s free forum and membership. And, because Anne-Marie and David never stop working, they’ve announced their first eBook today, too!
David Blatner at the Kremlin in Moscow, who was there speaking with Russell Viers (not pictured) at an Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, and Photoshop conference last week.
Published by Crystal | Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Jason Yim, president and executive creative director at Trigger.
Trigger may be the biggest little interactive shop that probably has never been heard of. This amazing boutique shoots out web sites, online games, Facebook apps, and iPhone apps for major motion pictures like Spider-Man and District 9, and consumer brands like Nike and Red Bull. Combining a talented design team with solid software engineering, Trigger has mastered the integration of creative expression and technology. With offices in Los Angeles and Shanghai, they’ve found the elusive winning formula for East-West collaboration. This installment of Creative Inspirations in the lynda.com Online Training Library® takes viewers inside what may be a prototype for the next generation design firm.
Vivid Savitri, creative director-Shanghai, gives us a tour of the Shanghai workspace.
Published by Crystal | Tuesday, November 10th, 2009
If you use the Magic Wand tool, stop what you’re doing and switch to Color Range. This outrageously useful command lets you select an image as easily as the wand, but with more flexibility and much better results.
Published by Megan O. Read | Monday, November 9th, 2009
Jen Kramer is awesome. She is the queen of Joomla!, her first book is rapidly approaching completion, she plays a mean flute, and she’s in town recording a couple of really cool CMS courses for lynda.com (CMS Website Strategy and Planning, and Preparing CMS Web Graphics and Layouts Using Open Source). Hooray for more Jen Kramer content! We took her to lunch at a local vegan/raw restaurant on Friday, because we wanted to give her the “Southern California Experience”—and because we think it’s yummy. Looking forward to your next visit out here, Jen!
Jen and her organic and vegan "hamburger," lynda.com Producer Samara Iodice, Author Relations Manager Megan, and the fantastic Jen Kramer at a Mary's Secret Garden in Ventura, CA.
Published by Megan O. Read | Friday, November 6th, 2009
This week, eight lynda.com authors and other talented industry speakers gathered in Washington DC for the MOGO Media conferences Photoshop Live (November 2nd & 3rd) and The InDesign Conference (November 4th & 6th).
Mordy Golding, Jan Kabili, Lesa Snider, Ted LoCascio, Michael Ninness, Derrick Story, Anne-Marie Concepcion, and Michael Murphy were all in fine form teaching an eager audience at the U.S. Naval Heritage Center, located just off the Mall in downtown DC. If you were in attendance, you know this was an excellent opportunity to get to sit and listen to some inspiring instruction, go on an evening Photo Walk with Derrick Story, and eat pizza while Michael Ninness gave an awesome three and a half hour (by demand!) session on InDesign. If you missed this show, be sure to check out other MOGO conferences and seminars.
Left column: Photoshop Live poster, Michael Ninness. Middle column: Mordy Golding, Derrick Story, Jan Kabili, Anne-Marie Concepcion, Michael Murphy, Right column: Washington Monument, White House, Author Dinner featuring Lesa Snider, Jay Nelson, Garrick Chow, Jan Kabili, Derrick Story, Ed and Megan Read, Michael Ninness, and Mordy Golding.
Published by Crystal | Thursday, November 5th, 2009
Growing and Sharing Your Family Tree shows how rewarding and informative building a family history can be. Genealogy instructor Jeff Sengstack teaches how to find lost ancestors, connect with living relatives, and collaborate with others to grow a family tree. He explains how to use the Family Tree Maker application along with Ancestry.com and other internet sites to track down census data, immigration records, and other important documents, and then organize family tree data. Jeff also presents tips on how to scan old photos, create video slideshows, and build family web sites.
Jon Gray, an out-of-work planning and analysis manager featured in The Wall Street Journal “Laid Off And Looking” segment, today named lynda.com as his online training site of choice in his blog entry.
The Modern Media Leadership Institute recently blogged about the importance of digital literacy and how it “is critical in life and in every kind of job and organization.”
