I’ve been working on this project at work for a new client, and I’m pretty excited about it. The website is a mini-app that helps calculate your financial needs in retirement based not on what you currently have but rather what you want in retirement. It’s not your standard retirement calculator. I started the interface build this past week and learned that Photoshop was ruining my templates with its nasty color profile embedding. 

For each and every PNG, GIF or JPG I sliced out of this beautiful design, Photoshop seemingly stripped the brightness and sharpness from the images. My template’s images looked perfect in Safari, Opera, and IE—even IE6!—but not in Firefox. Firefox, in which I do my initial development, is apparently the only browser in the market which acts this way: (I eventually learned) it cannot read color profiling embedded in images. Let me say that differently: Firefox 3 can read profiles, but they’re turned off and only available with an add-on or some configuration changes. I changed every possible setting in the Photoshop “Save for Web…” dialog with no success.

After further snooping and a little detective work in our design department, I learned my version of Photoshop was embedding a color profile—without my knowing—and this profile wasn’t “generic.” The generic profile means Photoshop won’t “color manage” your file and save it out to whichever format specified in true color. Interestingly enough, CS2 was making matters worse for me. I hadn’t yet upgraded to CS3 at work, so after doing just that, I followed these instructions—which should be set by default in Photoshop—and am feeling happy again.

A few years ago, working from home was my thing. I loved it. I discovered early to be successful at home meant being disciplined. Get an early start. Get exercise. Get dressed into “work clothes.” Get away from the house once in a while. Don’t watch TV. Break the routine. 

ALA #270 has more work-from-home tips, including links to web-based tools, pre-fab home office buildings for your yard, and more.

A neat little app that puts package tracking on Google Maps. Helpful if you really need to see where your package is.

(via SimpleBits)

Mulitcolr: Search millions of Creative Commons Flickr photos by color. Freakin’ cool.

(via Inman)

I love the photographs Callie has made in this collection. I love even more she lives in one of my favorite places.

The Digital PhotoJournalist:

Four years ago Time photographer Callie Shell met Barack Obama backstage when she was covering presidential candidate John Kerry. She sent her editor more photographs of Obama than Kerry. When asked why, she said, “I do not know. I just have a feeling about him. I think he will be important down the road.” Her first photo essay on Obama was two and half years ago. She has stuck with him ever since. 

(via Kottke)