deke

First of all, I have to say, Chuck Joiner of MacVoices.com is a gem. If you haven't heard of him, you got to check out his site. Because the guy is the most congenial, warm-hearted, patient host you could hope for. And his list of interviewees reads like a who's who of the Mac community.

In my case, he's content to say about three words and listen to me rattle on like a mental patient for one 70,000-word sentence, and then act like I said something insightful and ask his next question.

If nothing else, it's a wonderful experiment in word conservation. Chuck makes his extremely wise points in as few words as possible, and I make no point whatsoever using up as many words as I can possibly utter without punctuation.

Based on this podcast, my favorite words include: "Uh," "um," "we-a," "but-a-but," "the the," and "and and." You owe it to yourself to check it out, if only because freakish things peak your curiosity. Read more » 

Over at O'Reilly Digital Media, Derrick Story has posted an interview he did with Deke at last Spring's Photoshop World, wherein Deke enlightens O'Reilly's evangelist on the mysteries of smart objects. It's a fun conversation, with Deke the graphics guru and Photoshop connoiseur enlightening Derrick the photographer and Photoshop anarchist. (I like the audio only when my eyes need a break from the screen, or you know, I'm driving a car.) OK, so this picture is actually from last month in Las Vegas (y'all are going to figure it out from the dekePod logo on the screen anyway). But it is, in fact, Deke and Derrick, and they are talking about something related to Photoshop. It could be smart objects. And my shots from Orlando were apparently affected by humidity.

It just so happens these are the two guys I'm putting out there for my Photoshop CS4 book offerings this fall. You all know what Deke has to offer, and the Adobe Photoshop CS4 One-on-One book will be ready as soon as the project launches (thanks to Deke's amazing amazing team--Carol, Spink, Ron, Julie, David, Toby--woohoo!). Derrick's book, The Photoshop CS4 Companion for Photographers, will be day-and-date with CS4 as well, providing photographers with a streamlined plan for Photoshop that gives them everything they need, and nothing they don't. See? I gotcha covered. 'Cause I know smart when I see it.

Is that victory I smell? Smells like the waxy goodness of a 96-color box of Crayola crayons dumped out on my dining room table.

Which one of these chapter opener pages would you call "purple?" What's that? You can't quite read the label, here let me help: Read more » 

So, I know it's hard to believe, but sometimes Deke and I don't agree. I realize that I'm revealing the discordant underbelly of dekeDom, but I thought you should know. And I thought you should have the opportunity to hear both sides and align with me. So here's the first of our most recent debates, surrounding the definition of the color "purple."

As you know, or you should know if you're a true fan, the lessons in Deke's One-on-One books each have a different color scheme, rotating between four colors throughout the book, as follows:

The Photoshop CS3 book was created in InDesign CS2, and I was trying to bring the lessons up to InDesign CS3-compliance in case we ever needed them for a revision, doing all the tedious formatting drudgery so that Deke's genius mind and delicate fingers could concentrate on his brilliant content. I needed a purple chapter from the InDesign CS3 book (our current template gold standard), and called Deke to see if he could post if for me. The conversation went something like this. Read more » 

Time for a rare moment of public introspection. Yes, you're welcome.

Recently a member of this very site asked me if my real name was Deke. Answer: it is (as if I would choose a name that rhymes with eke, freak, reek, and oblique). But, to be honest, the reason I got the name is unclear. Maybe it's a Scottish nickname, maybe its a hockey thing, maybe I'm named for the grounded Mercury Seven astronaut. But after a friend forwarded me this movie, it all became clear. Quite obviously, I was named after a Hindi movie called Dil Deke Dekho. I mean, consider the facts: Read more »