Jeffery Zeldman has a post on 24 Ways, the advent calendar for web geeks, about how to survive in a recession. I thought you might be interested. If not, pretend you’re in class and ignore me.

For web designers, there are four keys to surviving bad economic times: do good work, charge a fair price, lower your overhead, and be sure you are communicating with your client. As a reader of 24 ways, you already do good work, so let’s focus on the rest.

Source: 24 Ways

Just got this from Ruth.

“Hi Everyone. One of my co-workers also works at Gibsons, she told me that today the textbooks for our class ActionScript 3.0 – Game Programming University are on the shelf as of today at Gibsons.”

And let me give you this list of other good Flash books before I forget, again:

Chris Crawford on Game Design, Chris Crawford, ISBN: 0-13-146099-4
Chris has been around the gaming industry since the early days and in this book he shares some of the lessons. My favorite part though, is called, “Old Fart Stories”, where Chris tells stories of his years in the industry. Some funny and some sad but all with a lesson, not just on games, but also life.

Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Game Design Demystified, Jobe Makar & Ben Winiarczyk, ISBN: 0735713987
This is the original textbook for this class and I really do wish they’d write a CS3 version!

Macromedia Flash Professional 8 Game Development, Glen Rhodes, ISBN: 1584504870
I don’t know Glenn personally. I suspect he’s a smart guy but his publisher and/or editor should be taken behind the barn. This is the text book we used last semester and it was a fiasco. The only good thing to come out of this book is the chapter on optimizing graphics. Damned good chapter – I’d go so far as to say the best I’ve read.

Foundation ActionScript 3.0 with Flash CS3 and Flex, Steve Webster, Todd Yard, and Sean McSharry, ISBN-13: 978-1-59059-815-3
Now here’s a good book. Had it been published a little earlier, it would’ve been your text book.

History of the Internet from PICOL on Vimeo.

Think you have mad drawzing skilz? Prove it by entering Newsweek’s contest. Be creative in helping Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney find new employment. I’m sure they’ve gotten enough submissions of prison jump suits and Darth Vader renditions. Deadline is 20th of Jan, so hurry up!

Source: Newsweek

Six Revisions has another nice post. This time it’s 35 Basic Tutorials to Get You Started with Photoshop. I thought to myself, “Wow, I need to post this to my blog because there’s students who need this stuff! There’s stuff on there that even advanced students should know but may have forgotten.”

Here’s a short list to whet your whistle:

• Getting Started with Photoshop
• Photoshop’s Pen Tool: The Comprehensive Guide
• Understanding Layer Masks
• Introduction to Blending Modes
• Getting to Grips with the Vanishing Point Filter
• The Hidden Power of Photoshop Brush Tool
• A Comprehensive Introduction to Photoshop Selection Techniques
• Saving Images for the Web

Here’s my new pal, Stan. No, not the Stan (as in Stine) but a Stan all the same. Virtual Stan is really played by Jason Maria in this neat Flash piece.

One of my favorite blogs, Freelance Folder has a post I thought my students might fine useful if not interesting. Here’s a very brief summary of the seven pieces of timeless business wisdom. You’ll want to read the post to see the details.

1. Push through your limitations
2. Never stop improving
3. Action is more important than talk
4. Success takes hard work
5. Hard work brings happiness (and success)
6. Don’t be afraid of failure
7. Strive to provide something great

Source: Freelance Folder | The Blog For Freelancers And Web-Workers