Use the following links to take advantage of this opportunity:

http://seebook.at/oajm (US)

http://amzn.to/16wqOhd (UK)

http://amzn.to/12JVXYs (CA)

You can click the link to check out the book now, but it won’t be free until 18 May 2013 at midnight PST: http://vew.im/3oav

Owen Sage is the emblematic college freshman at Easton Falls University. With all the worries about his first year in college, he was not prepared for what would happen next. His way of life was flipped upside down when he mysteriously crossed into another dimension, into the beautiful land of Everville. His excitement was abruptly halted when…

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I start out with this comparison, because many of my students come into the class with this question in their minds: If I have Photoshop, then why do I need Illustrator?

Photoshop is for manipulating photos.

Illustrator is for creating illustrations.

In Photoshop, you deal with rasters, which are pixelated images.

In Illustrator, you deal with vectors, which are path-based illustrations based on math.

When you start making a raster image bigger, the image will begin to distort, and you can discern the pixels when you look at the image.

When you start making a vector image bigger, it continues to look the same, because you’re simply expanding the paths.

You can make raster images in Illustrator, but you can’t make vector images in Photoshop.

Think of it like this:

You’d use Photoshop to resize and remove the red-eyes from the family reunion pictures you took last weekend.

You’d use Illustrator to create the logo for the family reunion t-shirts, website, letterhead, envelopes, picnic banner, etc.

That’s because with Illustrator, you can make that family reunion logo as big or as small as you need to for all the different places you want to put it without there being any distortion.

Anyway…

Now that you know (or have been reminded of) the difference between raster images and vector images, here are 11 sites where you can find free vectors:

Free Resource for Designers

123FreeVectors

Free Vector Art & Graphics

Designious

FreeVectors.org

AllVectors.com

FreeVectors.net

VectorStock.com

FreeVectorsDaily.com

Vecteezy.com

FreeVectorArchive.com

Envato

In the Marketplace, over 500,000 (and counting) sellers and buyers are treated to some fantastic goodies.

If you’re a creator, you can sell your eWares on one or all of the eight Envato sites:

• 3DOcean - royalty-free 3D models, textures, concepts, and materials and shaders
• ActiveDen - royalty-free Adobe Flash and Flex files
• AudioJungle - royalty-free music and sound effects that are completely Podsafe
• CodeCanyon - scripts and components for a variety of languages and frameworks, currently including JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET, and Java
• GraphicRiver - royalty-free, layered Photoshop files, vectors, icon packs, Adobe add-ons and design templates
• PhotoDune – royalty-free stock photography provided by photographers all over the world
• ThemeForest - HTML templates as well as themes for popular CMS products like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal
• VideoHive - royalty-free footage and motion graphics as well as After Effects Project files

Envato gives away a free file each month in each one of its eight Marketplaces. Although many of the items are definitely worth buying, getting a little something free each month does sweeten the pot and make you keep coming back for more.

This month, the free files you can snag are as follows:

3DOcean – Stone Pillar 02 Concept by BITGEM

Description: “This item contains full color front and back view of a dungeon stone pillar. If you are looking for a concept for your next game prop or just want to practice you modeling skills to build up your portfolio, then this will help you get started quickly.”

ActiveDen – AS3 XML Banner Rotator with Thumbnails by LGLab

Description: “AS3 File – Can be embedded into HTML page or loaded into a flash template; Choose rotator size and image size independently; XML file path set with FlashVars for HTML embed; More than 60 XML parameters and more than 40 transition types to choose from; Unlimited number of images and unlimited number of captions per image; Captions options include: positioning, text size, text color, background color, background alpha; Optional image animation direction: “left”, “right”, “bottom”, “top” or “none”; Optional thumbnails, any size, with optional number of thumbnails visible; Optional Play/Pause button; Optional background image or background color”

See a preview.

AudioJungle – Don’t Look Back by DamianN

Description: “This is a motivational / uplifting piece with sounds of modern synthesizers, choirs, electronic keys, bass guitar and acoustic drums. Very atmospheric, romantic melody, slow and also dynamic rhythm gives a feeling of hopefulness, hence the name of this track. It’s perfect for cheerful, romantic presentations, slideshows, videos, commercials, etc.. The pack contains both WAV and MP3 files.”

You can listen. The version you download won’t have the audiomark on it.

CodeCanyon – Responsive Twitter Timeline by liviu_cerchez

Description: “Twitter Timeline gets the latest tweets from a user profile and displays them in a horizontal or vertical timeline. It is PHP server-side based because it offers very fast loading by using a smart configurable caching function. It supports all devices: desktop, touchpads and smartphones.”

See a preview.

GraphicRiver - 12 Vintage Light Leaks Photo Actions by DigitalYardSale

Description: ”Want to create awesome old, film-style photo from just a snapshot? Now you can do it with the click of a button! This action allows you to simply open ANY image, click play on the appropriate action and your ordinary picture will transform into an old, vintage photo complete with light leaks!”

ThemeForest - Hosted Landing Page by QuanticaLabs

Description: “Hosted is a stylish & clean landing page with expandable login panel best suited for hosting services. Template comes with 5 color versions including pricing table, working contact form and working newsletter.”

See a preview.

PhotoDune - Smartphone with Broken Glass by themedia

Description: “Smartphone with Broken/shattered Glass”

Video Hive - Fashion Expoby rushes

Description: “Full HD AE CS4 project template for your expressive flashy slideshow… Prepared with 6 video placeholders…and a logo holder.… Its very simple and easy to customize.. Fonts used in this project could get it from www.dafont.com”

Also see Snag nine free files from the Envato Marketplace each month to learn more about Envato.

Please note: images and descriptions are copy/pasted verbatim from their original sources.

However, what do those of us do when we don’t have either a dedicated fax machine or an all-in-one printer, and we don’t want to pay a monthly fee to send one or two faxes every two or three months?

We find sites like the following that allow us to fax free!

Check them out (listed in alphabetical order):

BestFreeFax.com

FaxBetter.com

FaxFree.com

FaxOrama.com

FaxZero.com

FreeFax.188usa.com

GotFreeFax.com

HelloFax.com

Messagenet.com (for Italy and the UK)

MyFax.com

Some of these sites will allow you to send and receive faxes for free, and some others only allow you to send for free. Make sure you know which does what you need it to do before you use it.

Happy Faxing!

Envato

In the Marketplace, over 500,000 (and counting) sellers and buyers are treated to some fantastic goodies.

If you’re a creator, you can sell your eWares on one or all of the eight Envato sites:

• 3DOcean - royalty-free 3D models, textures, concepts, and materials and shaders
• ActiveDen - royalty-free Adobe Flash and Flex files
• AudioJungle - royalty-free music and sound effects that are completely Podsafe
• CodeCanyon - scripts and components for a variety of languages and frameworks, currently including JavaScript, PHP, ASP.NET, and Java
• GraphicRiver - royalty-free, layered Photoshop files, vectors, icon packs, Adobe add-ons and design templates
• PhotoDune – royalty-free stock photography provided by photographers all over the world
• ThemeForest - HTML templates as well as themes for popular CMS products like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal
• VideoHive - royalty-free footage and motion graphics as well as After Effects Project files

Envato gives away a free file each month in each one of its eight Marketplaces. Although many of the items are definitely worth buying, getting a little something free each month does sweeten the pot and make you keep coming back for more.

This month, the free files you can snag are as follows:

3DOcean – iPad by iJatrat

Description: “This is a very accurate model of the iPad. Each and every detail has been noted down and has been implemented into the 3D model. The curvature of the back, which is indeed a difficult task to recreate has been achieved perfectly and even the texturing of it has been done perfectly. Despite the high amount of detail and work put in this model, it is still structured and kept as simple as for every one to understand it.

All parts of this model have been modelled separately to achieve as much realism as possible. Furthermore each and every detail of the real product has been noticed and has been turned over into the real model e.g. the body has been assigned the porous and matte metal material whereas its edges have been assigned a shiny material which makes it so photorealistic.

Conversion into the non 3G version (without the black part on the top) is possible as well. Both versions look great.

There are even two maps included in the package which make it easier to locate different objects and parts of the model as well as the exact material assignment.

The formats included in this package are: .c4d; .3ds; .obj; .fbx (however, unfortunately, in these versions you will have to assign the materials yourself since the model has been modelled in Cinema 4D only.)

If you have some questions regarding this product feel free to contact me. You will definitely enjoy this model!”

ActiveDen – Sudoku Solver by Joost

Description: “Hey and welcome to my Sudoku Solver!

This file is everything you’ll ever need if you wish to solve a Sudoku puzzle! The file functions quite easily: simply fill in a Sudoku start state, and then press the Solve button to have the algorithm solve it.

When it is done (as far as it can) it will probably present you with a fully filled Sudoku. It might, however tell you it can’t solve it purely by logics. This usually means the start state you gave it didn’t provide enough information, and there were multiple solutions possible – the solver (both man and machine) would have to guess a number instead of being able to derive it forms logics. Then, you will be asked if you want to use a search algorithm to still obtain an answer.

The search algorithm is quite a nice piece of AI, using various heuristics to keep the search duration to a minimum. It often finds a valid solution within seconds, to even the most difficult sudoku’s!

Included in the preview are a couple example Sudoku’s, so you can see the algorithms in action!

Enjoy!

If you are trying to customize something, but you’re not quite succeeding, or you just want me to make a few changes for you, you can always contact me!”

AudioJungle – Night Walk by dan_djorgi

Description: “Night Walk – A smooth, relaxed and emotional ambient / chill out tune for all kind of media – Use it on websites, games, presentation, your portfolio or showreel, or movie, podcasts, etc.)

WAV + MP3 included!”

You can listen. The version you download won’t have the audiomark on it.

CodeCanyon – FAQ Manager (Standalone or integrate to WordPress) by jordie

Description: “A simple PHP FAQ Manager script is designed to allow you to quickly add and manage a collection of frequently asked questions which can be displayed on your website or used in wordpress.

It includes a WordPress plugin for easy integration, and instructions for using it with any other PHP Website.”

See a preview.

GraphicRiver - Urban Shift Action by Alter

Description: ”Nice elegant action to make an urban film look; Gives a nice soft cross-processing touch to your images; Looks beautiful in architecture photography; Very easy to use, but a Help file is included; Font used in preview: Helvetica Neue”

ThemeForest - KLASS – Creative One Page Portfolio by Smartik

Description: “Creative Portfolio Template for personal or business use.”

See a preview.

PhotoDune - profit by OlegDoroshin

Description: “calculator and pen grip on the calculations of profit, loss, etc.”

VideoHive - Glass Project by AlexTantsura

Description: “1920×1080; 25fps; Cinema 4d R12; AE CS5,CS5.5; Dynamics system need; The audio used in the example is “Epic Hip Hop outro” which is available for purchase here; No Requires Plugins; The font is free here”

Also see Snag eight free files from the Envato Marketplace each month to learn more about Envato.

Please note: images and descriptions are copy/pasted verbatim from their original sources.

Romance, humor, family drama, with a touch of Buddhism. Sound interesting?

When approaching life’s problems, Sophie sees in black and white. That is, when they’re someone else’s problems. So when it comes to her sister, Sophie is sure she has all the answers, and offers them without hesitation. If only her sister would listen.

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Young computer programmer Rob Donovan receives an emergency call from his boss at the First Malden Bank in Boston after the first successful cyberattack in American banking history scrambles thousands of account records. First Malden’s survival is on the line as furious customers and voracious reporters descend on the bank. Rob is part of the team trying to

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Europe, in the year of the Lord 772

Like a bloody storm, Charlemagne’s armies ravage early medieval Europe, leaving devastation and misery in their wake. They have subdued the kingdom of the Langobards, defeated the duchy of Bavaria; they threaten the Moors in the west and, in the south, the pope in Rome.

[learn more]