Surendra Lawoti is a Nepali photographer based in Somerville, Massachusetts. Read the India New England article about him here.

Can you tell why The Seattle Times‘ Rod Mar has the Best Seat In The House?

blogmailr allows you to send in your blog entry from your email service. Nifty!

Adobe Lightroom Killer Tips

LitSum is a free online repository of book summaries. Yes, sorta like Clif Notes online. [via lifehacker]

Photography All Stars. “This site is intended to help anyone from the beginning photographer, to the experienced Pro. Every member will have access to all five instructors to learn skills, techniques, and marketing.” Cost is $995/year. Only open to those who are serious about improving their craft.

JobCoin. Add a job board [as I have] on your blog.

Ambient Design has released ArtRage2. Get it. It's absolute fun!

Smashing Magazine [WARNING: For Geeks like me!]

As an active blogger, I have to find ways to make “a living” but not sell my soul. Well, truth to be told, there are very few bloggers who do make a living at blogging. For the majority of us, it continues to be a labor of love. But we persist, don't we?

When Google Ads and merchant carts don't do the trick, one has to go and seek out other revenue streams. Well, a couple of days back, I received an invitation from Patrick Gavin of Text Link Ads fame in which he mentioned a new venture called ReviewMe. Briefly, ReviewMe is an opportunity for companies to have their products and services, well, reviewed, by bloggers, for a fee. That fee is determined by how many people visit your site and some thing called an Alexa rating.

Based on the popularity of your site and how conscientious you are about posting your reviews in time [you usually have 48 hours after accepting a call for review], you could make a bundle. Paying off the year's subscription fees for TypePad [currently $120 for this site] is one of my goals. I think it's a target that I can hit. I enjoy discovering new websites, new programs, new things that will hopefully make it easy and interesting to lead our lives.

Far from being forced to review products, websites or services that one could care little about, the ReviewMe guidelines allow you to control what, when and how you review anything. This, in my mind, makes things fair. You aren't caught in an awkward situation defending or explaining what something is when you are indifferent to it or totally opposed to it.

Take this very review of ReviewMe, for example. I am writing about this website and service only because I think it is a great idea and I am open to using it as often as possible. I however promise that I won't review anything that won't make sense to you or something you won't find useful in some way. The rationale is very simple: If I find I will benefit from whatever I am reviewing, then my assumption leads me to believe it will help you as well. So, in short, I promise that I won't be a shill to just to pay off my TypePad bill.

“In the ReviewMe system, advertisers choose which blogs review them. So basically, sit back, and let the review offers come to you.”

As I said earlier, once you accept a review offer, you have 48 hours to complete and submit a URL link to that completed review. The review has to be at least 200 words long and should mention somewhere that your post has been sponsored [my full disclosure is up top, just in case you missed it.] If it all looks good, you get paid by the 4th of the month. On the ReviewMe site you can submit the name of your other blogs and post reviews on multiple sites as well [upto six sites, but I think more than two should keep you crazy busy]. The simple, bright user interface makes it a snap to use the site.

So, if you are blogger, check out ReviewMe and sign up for its services. Still not sure why you would want to do this? While you get paid, the company, product or service you reviewed gets a bit of a kickstart in the Internet. You become an integral part of creating a buzz about something that has caught your fancy. Years from now you can tell your grandkids that you helped make the zBox the hottest selling doo-dad in history.

So, you will have both the loot and the legacy in your back pocket. Time to go get some!

This is a well-crafted, well-delivered editorial that makes it MUST-see television [yeah, those rare times do exist]. I confess, though, that I came upon this a few days too late [thanks to 3mew.com]

I get a sense that there are a lot of people out there either looking for work or want to post a job here on this site, so I have created a JobBoard.

Look in the right hand column to find it or click the link right above this sentence. Right now, there aren't any jobs listed, but I hope recruiters and employers alike will look to Tiffinbox as a resource to post their open positions.

Tiffinbox IS all about connecting and helping people. So, if you know of a photo, web design, graphic design or editorial position, please use the JobBoard to post it.

Full disclosure – I receive a percentage of $50 for your posting. It helps support this website and the work that goes behind the scenes. Thank you!

For digital photographers who shoot raw files, this is DAM useful. Also check out Peter Krogh's book and video tutorials on digital asset management, DAM for short. Now, you didn't think I was swearing did you?

True stories, told in one sentence: One Sentence [via Sree Sreenivasan]

Copyright Caveats

National Geographic photographer [and may I add, Legend] Sam Abell helps a young photojournalist discover her signature style [via Aphotoaday.org]

Two Minute Photoshop Tricks

Photograph your polling place [this is directed to Americans on November 7, 2006]

Souvenirs

Kiva: Loans that change lives

Zamzar. Not your daddy's file converter.

Photojojo's Mailable Photo Frame [these guys simply up the ante on coolness every single week!]

I am lusting after a subscription of Before & After magazine. It's “only” $24. Anyone want to send me a Christmas surprise? I'll send back positive Karmic vibes, I promise.

Desipundit, gone and then back again … phew! [via Quick Online Tips]

Dhingana provides free streaming Indian music online. [via Quick Online Tips]

Adobe's Design Center Tutorials

I am comparing two web-based form builders: Wufoo and Icebrrg. Will post my thoughts on them in a week.

If you ever wanted to know what different colors woulc go well together and you have a photograph to use as your guide, this little color palette generator will get you going a lot farther.

Tiffinbox t-shirts with the affable Tiffinbox icon are now available. Sizes available are Large and Extra Large. The t-shirts are all black and made of 100% cotton. Help support this site by buying a t-shirt for $25. Shipping included. Will only ship to US and Canadian addresses. Will accept a PayPal payment. Email me first and then I'll email you back with my PayPal email id. Spammers and scammers, please move along.

Catalyst for Human Development

Newskweek's article on Annie Leibovitz is now online

What it takes to be great

How-to guides for your “small” business

Using Photoshop Lightroom Part 1 & Part 2

Learning to use your flash/strobe? This has to be your first stop and this, your second stop

Adobe Illustrator Techniques [brought to you by the same folks who publish Photoshop User magazine]

Computer Darkroom – “instructive feature articles, tutorials, reviews and technical discussions relating to digital image processing”

This site is a labor of love, but sometimes it is nice to get paid. Instead of begging for your support, I have set up an online store where you get to buy some amazing books and in return I earn a small commission. You win, I win, everybody smiles.

So here is it – Tiffinkart.

If you have any issues with your purchase, please take it up with our friends at Amazon. I am sure they will be only too happy to sort it out. Most people, however, will have no trouble with their orders. Order through the link above and I'll get a nice fat check every month [I am allowed to do a little day dreaming.]

Why this sudden urge to go capitalistic? I have my eye on one of these and I need to find a legal way to pay for it. So, help a brotha out.

“Up until now, life has chronologically built one year upon the next: high school to college, college to job, but job to random-inexplicable-year-doing-development-work-in-a-place-I-call-“the homeland”, that does not follow the line. So instead, it is like I am currently standing outside of this lifeline and watching it progress without me. At some given point I'll hop back on this destined course and resume my position in the world of right angles, round circles, and perfect squares.

Stepping away from the beaten path lets me see something only distance can reveal. I now know something that others just do not see. That I believe I will hold on to as my secret between life and me.”

Naeema Ginwala
2004-2005 Indicorps Fellow
Women's Health and Education

Celebrating its 5th year as a fellowship program, Indicorps is adding a new January 2007 fellowship to engage young Indians willing to fully dedicate themselves to an intense service-leadership process. Indicorps is a non-profit, non-governmental-organization that provides intensive structured grassroots Fellowship opportunities for Indians from around the world. The Indicorps Fellowship is a highly challenging, personally transformative experience that enables young people to become leaders through dedicated service. As an Indicorps Fellow, you will join a community of highly motivated individuals who constantly test their limits in order to contribute to a collective impact.

For the January fellowship, Indicorps seeks committed Indians from around the world with experience, motivation and leadership potential to find constructive solutions to India's most pressing needs. Projects range from a public health/nutrition project in tribal Tamil Nadu to a marketing project with bamboo artisans in rural Maharashtra. Project descriptions and applications are available online at
http://apply.indicorps.org. The application deadline is November 1, 2006.