Craig W. Samson - A website about who I am. Photo by Peter Crowley. Craig Samson
Craig W. Samson - A website about who I am. Photo by Peter Crowley.
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Craig W. Samson - A website about who I am. Photo by Peter Crowley.

Classroom Resources

All of the stuff on this page is intended for my students. They will use these resources when taking my classes, so the purpose of each item will be discussed in the classroom.

Filler Text

Okay, so every time I teach class, my students are in need of some filler text for their pages. Lorem Ipsum (the graphic designer's latinesque filler text) works okay, but causes a fit with FrontPage's spell checker. So, I offer you this instead...

Short Sample


Long Sample



Sample Images

Here are a handful of photos that you can download to play with. These pictures came from various places on the Internet and are here for educational use only.


Flying Bull Graphics

Ah yes, The Flying Bull, my fictional online newsletter. It strives to be the web's finest purveyor of filler text. You can download the site's main graphics here.


Sample Style Sheets

Here are three sample stylesheets. The first is the one in use for this site. The second is one of the core styles from the W3C organization. And the last is for the Flying Bull project. My stylesheets are fairly simple, while the W3C's is quite comprehensive.


Javascript Doodads

Javascript can add useful interactivity to your web pages. These scripts can also just be fun, although the fun ones generally just junk up a site, so use with caution. The ones included here are just fun or interesting, not useful.

Flying Clock


The, Um, Amazing Maze Builder

Annoying “Butterfly” Text

STEP TWO: Insert this code into your BODY tag.

 


Photographs

The following sets of images are generally high resolution photos for use in a variety of photo manipulation exercises. Although primarily intended for use in Photoshop, many of the exercises can also be done in Fireworks.

Composites

  • These photos of Sara and David are composited in such a way that they appear as a "pile" of photos. See the composited version in Photoshop or Fireworks format.
  • Add Daisy to the front lawn of the Carriage House. Trust me, she'll like it there just as much as the anonymous field she's currently grazing in.
  • Bring a more dynamic sky into the boring picture of this Irish house.

Crop & Color

Here are a bunch of photos that need cropping, color adjustment, and touching up.

Background Removal & Color Correction

These product photos need help. Unfinished on the left, finished on the right.

Liquify

Have fun messing with the happy couple and the baby photo. This is just a silly exercise of "liquefying" the facial features.

Object Removal

This wedding photo would be perfect, except for the blue tarp. It shouldn't be there, so let's get rid of it!

Panorama

Create a single panoramic image from the two scans of a yearbook inside cover. Here are the left and right scans.

Red Eye Removal

Ah yes, red eye removal. An oft-asked feature of anyone taking pictures. And, the needs for humans differ from the needs of animals. So, humans on the left, animals on the right.

Restoration

Fixing old photographs that have been damaged with time is a labor of love. Some photos take an incredible amount of work to restore, others are a snap. Here's a bunch of old photos that need your help. Original scans on the left, finished work on the right.


An Angry Cow, not a Mad CowFlying Bull Webpage

In case you lost yours from class, here's a copy of my Flying Bull page, ready for the navbar to be added.

Flying Bull


Flying Bull Navbar

When its time to replace that plain text navbar with something more sophisticated, you've come to the right place.

Navbar (Fireworks PNG file)


Everything Wrong Page

I just love this moose!The Everything Wrong Page is an atrocious (and somewhat exaggerated) example of the occasional "web design" work that we have the misfortune of encountering in our web travels. Pages like these are created by overeager "designers" that possess just enough knowledge to make them dangerous. I've personally replaced sites that had much in common with this example. Usually, these sites were created for their owners free-of-charge or at a reduced rate by a relative or friend or 14 year-old neighbor's kid. I call this sort of thing an "over the garage" design, because I envision that 14 year-old neighbor's kid over his parents garage toiling away to produce such a wonder.

Well, you get what you pay for. View the Everything Wrong Page.


Sites of the Day

The following sites have been given to my students as Sites of the Day...

09.07.06 HTML Goodies The ultimate resource for the burgeoning web designer.
www.htmlgoodies.com
Wikipedia A free online encyclopedia.
www.wikipedia.com
09.12.06 WebMonkey Very useful web design resource.
www.webmonkey.com
Fun With Words Anagrams, spoonerisms, and wordplay of all sorts.
www.fun-with-words.com
09.14.06
Textism Online tool that strips MS Word formatting junk for clean HTML.
textism.com/wordcleaner
Extreme Science World records of this and that.
www.extremescience.com
Useless Information Fascinating reading on a variety of topics.
home.nycap.rr.com/useless/
09.19.06 Newsmap Site visually reflects the changing landscape of Google News.
www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm
Retro Junk Ah, nostalgia. This site is retro cool. Junk-wise that is.
www.retrojunk.com
09.21.06 Flickr An interesting picture sharing and searching tool.
www.airtightinteractive.com...
Space Imaging Desktop wallpaper. Web designers need it to look good.
www.spaceimaging.com/gallery/ioweek/archive/...
09.26.06 Jump The Shark When did your favorite TV show start going downhill?
www.jumptheshark.com
Braingle Brain teasers, games, and more...
www.braingle.com
09.28.06 Holy CSS Quite a CSS resource.
dezwozhere.com/links.html
Second Life Enjoy your second life...
www.secondlife.com
Wrong Diagnosis A medical information resource.
www.wrongdiagnosis.com
Don't Click It Check out this site. You only click once (ever)...
www.dontclick.it
10.03.06 Colours on the Web Everything you ever wanted to know about color...
http://www.webwhirlers.com/colors...
Awful Plastic Surgery Photos of celebrity plastic surgery victims...
www.awfulplasticsurgery.com
10.05.06 Computer Technical Tutorials Ugly site, but neat fireworks stuff...
www.techtutorials.info/wdfirew.html
All Recipes Into cooking? Need ideas? This site is for you...
www.allrecipes.com
10.10.06 Free Photo Bank Free stock photos for your sites...
www.freephotosbank.com
eHow How to do just about anything...
www.ehow.com
10.12.06 Texture Library Textures to add dimension to your images...
textures.forrest.cz
Clumsy Crooks Amusing real-life crime stories, etc....
www.clumsycrooks.com
10.17.06 The Smoking Gun Celebrity news, scandals, mug shots, and more...
www.thesmokinggun.com
Which Book? Find a book (in an interesting way) that you want to read...
www.whichbook.net
10.19.06 Logotypes Looking for a certain corporate logo. Look here first...
www.logotypes.ru/default_e.asp
Word Count A neat way to see the 86,800 most frequently used words...
www.wordcount.org
10.24.06 Weird Food Various unusual foods from the U.S. and around the globe...
www.weird-food.com
Morphases Make faces with the "More Faces" website...
www.morphases.com
10.26.06 The Web Developer's List Useful online resources for web designers.
www.devlisting.com
LookMind Intellectual development through optical illusions and games.
www.lookmind.com/
10.31.06 I want a freeware utility to... A list of the best freeware.
www.econsultant.com/i-want-freeware-utilities/
Snopes The ultimate urban legend reference site...
www.snopes.com
11.02.06 Imagination Web-based drawing and collaboration tool.
www.imagination3.com
SongTapper Find music by tapping its rhythm on your keyboard.
www.songtapper.com/
11.07.06 Photoshop Tutorials Learn new ways to use Photoshop.
photoshopcontest.com/tutorials/photoshop-tips.html
Tea Games Free online games.
www.teagames.com
11.09.06 Dropload Leave files on the site for others to pick up.
www.dropload.com
JigZone Assemble jigsaw puzzles online.
www.jigzone.com
11.14.06 Pragt.Net Numerous photoshop tutorials.
home.versatel.nl/epragt/tutorials/photoshop/...
Speed Test Find out how fast your Internet connection is.
www.speedtest.net/index.php
11.16.06 Symbols Need to know what a symbol means? Start here.
www.symbols.com/
Board Game Central All you ever wanted to know about board games.
boardgamecentral.com
11.21.06 iDigit The (Photoshop) Art of Beauty.
www.idigitdesign.com/blog/... 
FareCast Airfare price predictions so you know when to buy.
www.farecast.com 
11.28.06 fontso A guide to free fonts in high quality.
www.fontso.com
Zunafish Trade the stuff you're done with for the stuff you want.
www.zunafish.com 
11.30.06 I Want One of Those Ahh, a place to satisfy your favorite geek.
www.iwantoneofthose.com 
Found Magazine Offers a glimpse into real life by sharing found stuff.
www.foundmagazine.com 
Hot Website! What's hot, what's cooking, and what's going on...
www.hotwebsite.net
12.05.06 Resources for Web Design Yup, resources for web design...
www.kayodeok.btinternet.co.uk/favorites/webdesign.htm
Museum of Hoaxes Hoaxes, pranks, chain letters, and more...
www.museumofhoaxes.com
12.7.06 1001 Fonts Download free fonts (simple as that)...
www.1001fonts.com
Swarm A new way to browse the web.
www.swarmthe.com/
12.12.06 The Onion The Web's satirical newspaper...
www.theonion.com
The Picture of Everything An extraordinary piece of artwork...
www.howardhallis.com/artgallery/tpoe/index.html
12.14.06 Atom Films Short independent films streamed over the Internet.
www.atomfilms.com
IN4MADOR A website with links to other interesting websites...
www.in4mador.com

Honorable Mentions

These links are from Sites of the Day past, but worthy of remaining on the list.

  • 2/3/05―The Internet Movie Database―www.imdb.com
    The ultimate online movie information resource.
  • 2/10/05―A9―www.a9.com
    A cool new search engine by Google and amazon.com.
  • 3/1/05―How Stuff Works―www.howstuffworks.com
    Explains how many things in our lives―from devices to ideas―work.
  • 3/3/05―Yahoo! Games―games.yahoo.com
    All sorts of games you can play to pass the time lots of time!
  • 3/17/05―NNDB—www.nndb.com
    Biographies of just about everyone noteworthy.
  • 10/4/05―And the Bride Wore—http://www.visi.com/~dheaton/bride...
    A hilarious collection of questionable bridal-wear with accompanying commentary.
To Top Copyright © 2004 by Craig W. Samson