Are you smarter than a 5th grader?

Take the quiz and find out.

My score: 75%, with three of my five errors being related to geography. I probably need to get out more.

Answer: The Bucket

“Liar, lawyer, mirror, show me what’s the difference.”
– Tool

‘Wordsmith’ ambigram

langdon ambigram illusion

The word “Wordsmith” reads exactly the same when rotated 180 degrees.

Source: John Langdon

Slowfari

It’s true! I just did my own test. Using Safari can slow your system down as much as 76% vs. Firefox on a Mac.

Get Firefox here.

My two favorite improvements in Flash CS3 after using it for a week

When Adobe acquired Macromedia a couple years ago, I almost did a backflip. Not so much for business reasons, but because of the creative implications. The idea of merging (and Adobify-ing) Adobe’s superior graphic design tools (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat) with Macromedia’s comparatively clunky Web development tools (Dreamweaver and Flash) promised nothing but joy to those of us who use all of them on a daily basis.

I’ve been using CS3 for about a week, and have already noticed two monstrous improvements to Flash that are nothing short of world-changing. (My world, anyway.) Both of these specific improvements are directly related to the larger improvement Adobe’s made in integrating Flash with its brother Photoshop and sister Illustrator, creating an almost seamless workflow. They are:

1. Flash can now import native Photoshop and Illustrator files, preserving the layer structure.

It’s about time! Praise God!

2. The Pen Tool has been updated in Flash, where drawing objects is now more consistent with what we’re used to in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Not a moment too soon! Hallelujah!

Possessed

“Paint like a fiend when the idea possesses you.”
– Robert Hann, The Art Spirit