#accounting software cheap

[taxxbooks]

Streamline Your Finances with Top UK Bookkeeping Software

In today's fast-paced business environment, efficient financial management is crucial for success. Whether you're a small business owner, freelancer, or entrepreneur, keeping accurate records of your income and expenses is essential for making informed decisions and staying compliant with tax regulations. Fortunately, with the advancement of technology, managing your finances has become more accessible and streamlined than ever before, thanks to top-notch UK bookkeeping software.

UK bookkeeping software offers a comprehensive solution for managing your finances effectively. From tracking expenses and invoicing clients to generating financial reports and managing payroll, these software solutions are designed to simplify complex financial tasks and save you time and effort. Let's explore how leveraging UK bookkeeping software can benefit your business:

Enhanced Accuracy: Manual bookkeeping processes are prone to errors, which can lead to financial discrepancies and compliance issues. UK bookkeeping software automates tedious tasks and performs calculations accurately, reducing the risk of human error. By maintaining precise records of your financial transactions, you can make informed decisions and ensure the financial health of your business.

Time-saving Features: Time is a precious resource for any business owner. With UK bookkeeping software, you can streamline repetitive tasks such as data entry, invoicing, and reconciliation, allowing you to focus on growing your business. Automated reminders for overdue invoices and upcoming expenses help you stay organized and ensure timely payments, improving cash flow management.

Real-time Financial Insights: One of the key advantages of UK bookkeeping software is the ability to access real-time financial data from anywhere, at any time. Cloud-based solutions allow you to monitor your finances on-the-go using your computer, smartphone, or tablet. Instant access to financial reports, dashboards, and analytics empowers you to make data-driven decisions and adapt to changing market conditions swiftly.

Seamless Integration: Most UK bookkeeping software integrates seamlessly with other business tools and applications, such as payment processors, banking institutions, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems. This integration eliminates the need for manual data entry and ensures data consistency across different platforms, improving workflow efficiency and collaboration within your organization.

Compliance and Security: Maintaining compliance with HMRC regulations and ensuring data security are top priorities for businesses operating in the UK. Leading bookkeeping software solutions adhere to strict security protocols and comply with industry standards to protect your sensitive financial information. Additionally, these platforms are regularly updated to reflect changes in tax laws and regulations, keeping you compliant and minimizing the risk of penalties.

In conclusion, UK bookkeeping software offers a myriad of benefits for businesses of all sizes. By automating financial tasks, providing real-time insights, and ensuring compliance with tax regulations, these software solutions empower you to manage your finances more efficiently and effectively. Whether you're a sole proprietor or a growing enterprise, investing in top-notch bookkeeping software is a smart decision that can help you achieve your financial goals and propel your business forward.

[davepaste]

Installing tidal-dl-ng + finding some "freely available" premium accounts got me a nice mostly trustworthy source of lossless music with synced lyric files

[what-even-is-thiss]

Free or Cheap Mandarin Chinese Learning Resources Because You Can't Let John Cena One Up You Again

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Mandarin specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Dong Chinese - A website with lessons, a pinyin guide, a dictionary, and various videos and practice tests. With a free account you're only allowed to do one lesson every 12 hours. To do as many lessons as quickly as you want it costs $10 a month or $80 a year.

Domino Chinese - A paid website with video based lessons from absolute beginner to college level. They claim they can get you ready to get a job in China. They offer a free trial and after that it's $5 a month or pay what you can if you want to support their company.

Chinese Education Center - This is an organization that gives information to students interested in studying abroad in China. They have free text based lessons for beginners on vocab, grammar, and handwriting.

Pleco Dictionary App - This is a very popular dictionary app on both iOS and Android. It has a basic dictionary available for free but other features can be purchased individually or in bundles. A full bundle that has what most people would want is about $30 but there are more expensive options with more features.

MIT OpenCourseWare Chinese 1 2 3 4 5 6 - These are actual archived online courses from MIT available for free. You will likely need to download them onto your computer.

Learn Chinese Web Application From Cambridge University - This is a free downloadable file with Mandarin lessons in a PC application. There's a different program for beginner and intermediate.

Learn Chinese Everyday - A free word a day website. Every day the website posts a different word with pronunciation, stroke order, and example sentences. There's also an archive of free downloadable worksheets related to previous words featured on the website.

Chinese Boost - A free website and blog with beginner lessons and articles about tips and various resources to try.

Chinese Forums - An old fashioned forum website for people learning Chinese to share resources and ask questions. It's still active as of when I'm making this list.

Du Chinese - A free website and an app with lessons and reading and listening practice with dual transcripts in both Chinese characters and pinyin. They also have an English language blog with tips, lessons, and information on Chinese culture.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Chinese For Us - A channel that provides free video lessons for beginners. The channel is mostly in English.

Herbin Mandarin - A channel with a variety of lessons for beginners. The channel hasn't uploaded in a while but there's a fairly large archive of lessons to watch. The channel is mainly in English.

Mandarin Blueprint - This channel is by a couple of guys who also run a paid website. However on their YouTube channel there's a lot of free videos with tips about how to go about learning Chinese, pronunciation and writing tips, and things of that nature. The channel is mainly in English.

Blabla Chinese - A comprehensible input channel with content about a variety of topics for beginner to intermediate. The video descriptions are in English but the videos themselves are all in Mandarin.

Lazy Chinese - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos on general topics, grammar, and culture. They also have a podcast. The channel has English descriptions but the videos are all in Mandarin.

Easy Mandarin - A channel associated with the easy languages network that interviews people on the street in Taiwan about everyday topics. The channel has on screen subtitles in traditional characters, pinyin, and English.

StickynoteChinese - A relatively new channel but it already has a decent amount of videos. Jun makes videos about culture and personal vlogs in Mandarin. The channel is aimed at learners from beginner to upper intermediate.

Story Learning Chinese With Annie - A comprehensible input channel almost entirely in Mandarin. The host teaches through stories and also makes videos about useful vocabulary words and cultural topics. It appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners.

LinguaFlow Chinese - Another relatively new channel but they seem to be making new videos regularly. The channel is aimed at beginner to intermediate learners and teaches and provides listening practice with video games. The channel is mostly in Mandarin.

Lala Chinese - A channel with tips on grammar and pronunciation with the occasional vlog for listening practice, aimed at upper beginner to upper intermediate learners. Some videos are all in Mandarin while others use a mix of English and Mandarin. Most videos have dual language subtitles onscreen.

Grace Mandarin Chinese - A channel with general information on the nitty gritty of grammar, pronunciation, common mistakes, slang, and useful phrases for different levels of learners. Most videos are in English but some videos are fully in Mandarin.

READING PRACTICE

HSK Reading - A free website with articles sorted into beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Every article has comprehension questions. You can also mouse over individual characters and see the pinyin and possible translations. The website is in a mix of English and Mandarin.

chinesegradedreader.com - A free website with free short readings up to HSK level 3 or upper intermediate. Each article has an explaination at the beginning of key vocabulary words in English and you can mouse over individual characters to get translations.

Mandarin Companion - This company sells books that are translated and simplified versions of classic novels as well as a few originals for absolute beginners. They are available in both traditional and simplified Chinese. Their levels don't appear to be aligned with any HSK curriculum but even their most advanced books don't have more than 500 individual characters according to them so they're likely mostly for beginners to advanced beginners. New paperbacks seem to usually be $14 but cheaper used copies, digital copies, and audiobooks are also available. The website is in English.

Graded Chinese Readers - Not to be confused with chinese graded reader, this is a website with information on different graded readers by different authors and different companies. The website tells you what the book is about, what level it's for, whether or not it uses traditional or simplified characters, and gives you a link to where you can buy it on amazon. They seem to have links to books all the way from HSK 1 or beginner to HSK 6 or college level. A lot of the books seem to be under $10 but as they're all from different companies your mileage and availability may vary. The website is in English.

Mandarin Bean - A website with free articles about Chinese culture and different short stories. Articles are sorted by HSK level from 1 to 6. The website also lets you switch between traditional or simplified characters and turn the pinyin on or off. It also lets you mouse over characters to get a translation. They have a relatively expensive paid tier that gives you access to video lessons and HSK practice tests and lesson notes but all articles and basic features on the site are available on the free tier without an account. The website is in a mix of Mandarin and English.

Mandarin Daily News - This is a daily newspaper from Taiwan made for children so the articles are simpler, have illustrations and pictures, and use easier characters. As it's for native speaker kids in Taiwan, the site is completely in traditional Chinese.

New Tong Wen Tang for Chrome or Firefox - This is a free browser extension that can convert traditional characters to simplified characters or vice versa without a need to copy and paste things into a separate website.

PODCASTS

Melnyks Chinese - A podcast for more traditional audio Mandarin Chinese lessons for English speakers. The link I gave is to their website but they're also available on most podcatcher apps.

Chinese Track - Another podcast aimed at learning Mandarin but this one goes a bit higher into lower intermediate levels.

Dimsum Mandarin - An older podcast archive of 30 episodes of dialogues aimed at beginner to upper beginner learners.

Dashu Mandarin - A podcast run by three Chinese teachers aimed at intermediate learners that discusses culture topics and gives tips for Mandarin learners. There are also male teachers on the podcast which I'm told is relatively rare for Mandarin material aimed at learners and could help if you're struggling to understand more masculine speaking patterns.

Learning Chinese Through Stories - A storytelling podcast mostly aimed at intermediate learners but they do have some episodes aimed at beginner or advanced learners. They have various paid tiers for extra episodes and learning material on their patreon but there's still a large amount of episodes available for free.

Haike Mandarin - A conversational podcast in Taiwanese Mandarin for intermediate learners. Every episode discusses a different everyday topic. The episode descriptions and titles are entirely in traditional Chinese characters. The hosts provide free transcripts and other materials related to the episodes on their blog.

Learn Chinese With Ju - A vocabulary building podcast aimed at intermediate learners. The podcast episodes are short at around 4-6 minutes and the host speaks about a variety of topics in a mix of English and Mandarin.

xiaoyuzhou fm - An iOS app for native speakers to listen to podcasts. I’m told it has a number of interactive features. If you have an android device you’ll likely have to do some finagling with third party apps to get this one working. As this app is for native speakers, the app is entirely in simplified Chinese.

Apple Podcast directories for Taiwan and China - Podcast pages directed towards users in those countries/regions.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Learning Chinese Characters - This series is sorted by HSK levels and each volume in the series is around $11. Used and digital copies can also be found for cheaper.

HSK Standard Course Textbooks - These are textbooks designed around official Chinese government affiliated HSK tests including all of the simplified characters, grammar, vocab, and cultural knowledge necessary to pass each test. There are six books in total and the books prices range wildly depending on the level and the seller, going for as cheap as $14 to as expensive as $60 though as these are pretty common textbooks, used copies and cheaper online shops can be found with a little digging. The one I have linked to here is the HSK 1 textbook. Some textbook sellers will also bundle them with a workbook, some will not.

Chinese Made Easy for Kids - Although this series is aimed at children, I'm told that it's also very useful for adult beginners. There's a large number of textbooks and workbooks at various levels. The site I linked to is aimed at people placing orders in Hong Kong but the individual pages also have links to various other websites you can buy them from in other countries. The books range from $20-$35 but I include them because some of them are cheaper and they seem really easy to find used copies of.

Reading and Writing Chinese - This book contains guides on all 2300 characters in the HSK texts as of 2013. Although it is slightly outdated, it's still useful for self study and is usually less than $20 new. Used copies are also easy to find.

Basic Chinese by Mcgraw Hill - This book also fuctions as a workbook so good quality used copies can be difficult to find. The book is usually $20 but it also often goes on sale on Amazon and they also sell a cheaper digital copy.

Chinese Grammar: A beginner's guide to basic structures - This book goes over beginner level grammar concepts and can usually be found for less than $20 in print or as low as $2 for a digital copy.

Collins Mandarin Chinese Visual Dictionary - A bilingual English/Mandarin visual dictionary that comes with a link to online audio files. A new copy goes for about $14 but used and digital versions are available.

Merriam-Webster's Chinese to English Dictionary - In general Merriam Websters usually has the cheapest decent quality multilingual dictionaries out there, including for Mandarin Chinese. New editions usually go for around $8 each while older editions are usually even cheaper.

(at the end of the list here I will say I had a difficult time finding tv series specifically made for learners of Mandarin Chinese so if you know of any that are made for teenage or adult learners or are kids shows that would be interesting to adults and are free to watch without a subscription please let me know and I will add them to the list. There's a lot of Mandarin language TV that's easy to find but what I'm specifically interested in for these lists are free to watch series made for learners and/or easy to understand kids shows originally made in the target language that are free and easy to access worldwide)

[river-taxbird]

Have YOU got an old Windows PC Microsoft has told you can't run Windows 11? It's time to give it a new life!

How to install Windows 11 on unsupported PC Hardware using Rufus. You can also disable some other Windows 11 bullshit like data harvesting and needing a Microsoft account.

It has been in the news a lot lately that Windows 11 isn't allowed to be installed on PCs without certain requirements, including the TPM 2.0, a chip that was only included in PCs made in 2018 or later. This means that once Windows 10 stops receiving security updates, those PCs will not be able to (officially) run a safe, updated version of Windows anymore. This has led to an estimated 240 million PCs bound for the landfill. Thanks Microsoft! I get you don't want to be seen as the insecure one, but creating this much waste can't be the solution.

(I know nerds, Linux is a thing. I love you but we are not having that conversation. If you want to use Linux on an old PC you are already doing it and you don't need to tell me about it. People need Windows for all sorts of reasons that Linux won't cut.)

So lately I have been helping some under privileged teens get set up with PCs. Their school was giving away their old lab computers, and these kids would usually have no chance to afford even a basic computer. They had their hard drives pulled so I have been setting them up with SSDs, but the question was, what to do about the operating system? So I looked into it and I found out there IS actually a way to bypass Microsoft's system requirement and put Windows 11 on PCs as old as 2010.

You will need: Rufus: An open source ISO burning tool.

A Windows 11 ISO: Available from Microsoft.

A USB Flash Drive, at least 16GB.

A working PC to make the ISO, and a PC from 2018 or older you want to install Windows 11 on.

Here is the guide I used, but I will put it in my own words as well.

Download your Windows 11 ISO, and plug in your USB drive. It will be erased, so don't have anything valuable on it. Run Rufus, select your USB drive in the Device window, and select your Windows 11 ISO with the Select button. (There is supposed to be a feature in Rufus to download your ISO but I couldn't get it to work.?

Choose standard windows installation, and follow the screenshot for your settings. Once you are done that, press Start, and then the magic happens. Another window pops up allowing you to remove the system requirements, the need for a microsoft account, and turn off data collecting. Just click the options you want, and press ok to write your iso to a drive.

From there you just need to use the USB drive to install windows. I won't go into details here, but here are some resources if you don't know how to do it.

Boot your PC from a USB Drive

Install Windows 11 from USB Drive

If you had a licensed copy of Windows 10, Windows 11 will already be licensed. If you don't, then perhaps you can use some kind of... Activation Scripts for Microsoft software, that will allow you to activate them. Of course I cannot link such tools here. So there you go, now you can save a PC made from before 2018 from the landfill, and maybe give it to a deserving teen in the process. The more we can extend the lives of technology and keep it out of the trash, the better.

Additional note: This removes the requirement for having 4GB Minimum of RAM, but I think that requirement should honestly be higher. Windows 11 will be unusable slow on any system with below 8GB of RAM. 8GB is the minimum I think you should have before trying this but it still really not enough for modern use outside of light web and office work. I wouldn't recommend trying this on anything with 4GB or less. I am honestly shocked they are still selling brand new Windows 11 PCs with 4GB of ram. If you're not sure how much RAM you have, you can find out in the performance tab of Task Manager in Windows, if you click the More Details icon on the bottom right. If you don't have enough, RAM for old systems is super cheap and widely available so it would definitely be worth upgrading if you have a ram starved machine you'd like to give a new life.

[genericpuff]

"As cheap as owning a tablet" as if those weren't expensive, as if you didn't need a decent art program,... Man, fuck Webtoons.

All the other expenses of creating a comic that Webtoons doesn't take into account:

The cost of software

The cost of resources (3D models, licensed font packs, etc.)

If you're an Originals creator or someone who wants to work with others (like myself), the cost of an assistant which is entirely out-of-pocket (the cost of resources is also out-of-pocket, Webtoons doesn't cover the cost of 3D models and other resources that creators practically have to rely on just to meet their deadlines)

The cost of learning how to draw to get to the point of creating a comic. Sure, you can start drawing a comic at any skill level, but if you want your comic to actually grow on a larger scale - which is exactly what Webtoons is compelling people to use their platform for - then you're gonna need to brush up on a lot of foundations both in art and writing that take years of work and practice.

The cost of actually making the damn comic, because that's hours of labor that are largely unpaid / completely voluntary. Much of those hours amount to just a little bit of content that the majority of people swipe through so fast they don't even absorb what they're looking at and never read again.

It's really easy for a company like Webtoons to say "making webcomics is cheap" when that same exact company has foot all the financial burden of creating a comic onto the creators. We all know who they're really trying to appeal to when they say creating comics is 'cheap' - other companies and investors who are also looking for 'cheap to produce' content that they assume is cheap because they're only putting in the bare minimum to sign them on and aren't the ones doing the fucking work. And we all know where that line of thinking leads, because it's exactly where we are right now with social media platforms and streaming services. Art has become "content" and the platforms hosting the content have become completely enshittified.

Man. Fuck Webtoons.

[sirfrogsworth]

Amazon-Style Product Photography Tips

I got this message from a lovely follower.

Now, a fairly large part of my new steady job is product photography. Not glamour shots, more documentation. The company I work for makes, among other things, licensed drinkware (think water bottles, mugs, tumblers, etc.). Part of my team's duties is to photograph a mockup or finished product both for our records and to submit to the license holder.

The routine typically goes: put item facing forward in lightbox. Click. Rotate to the left. Click, etc. for the back and right. Then a closeup of the copyright info.

Here, finally, is my question: one of the license holders decreed that all of our photographs must be taken at f/8 and shutter time (?) of 1/25s. This strikes me as… not always optimal, considering the range of colors of objects as well as different materials: polypropylene both transparent and opaque, stainless steel, and lacquered cardboard for packaging. I would love to hear your thoughts on how I might better (while being consistent!) adjust camera settings to account for these kinds of factors

As an added bonus, we let the camera decide white balance/color correction. But I don't think I'm knowledgeable enough to try and correct myself, considering none of the monitors/printers I use are color-correct in the first place. I just know there have been many times where I've submitted photos only for the license holders to be like, "Hmmmm, that green doesn't seem like the right kind of green…RESUBMIT!"

First, I'm going to answer this specific question, but at the end I'm going to recommend a full setup for taking these type of rapid fire product shots.

My answer:

f/8 makes sense. Outside of macro photography, this allows a deep depth of field assuring the photo is sharp and in focus for the entire depth of the product. It is usually the sharpest part of the lens and it is not so small of an aperture that you risk diffraction effects softening your image. They probably were told this by a photographer and thought it applied to all of the camera settings.

The shutter speed is problematic. By forcing it to a fixed setting, your camera is going to choose whichever ISO gives a good exposure. And if you don't have enough light, it will choose a high ISO that will possibly add a great deal of noise to your photo. Noise can corrupt the colors of your photo and it just looks bad.

If your camera is on a tripod and they want the sharpness and depth of field f/8 grants you, then I would set your camera to aperture priority mode (usually Av), lock your ISO to it's lowest number (usually 100) and then your camera will choose the best shutter speed on its own.

So… Camera on tripod Av mode f/8 ISO 100 Camera chooses shutter speed

This is all assuming you are using a tripod and continuous lighting. If you are handholding the camera or using flash, I can rewrite the recipe. Otherwise this will get you very sharp photos with minimal noise.

I'd also recommend getting a shutter release cable so you don't shake the camera when taking the picture. Just search your camera brand and “shutter release” and get the cheap wired version unless you really need wireless.

This is the Canon DSLR one, just to give you an idea.

Be warned, if you do not have powerful lighting, you may get some long shutter speeds. That is perfectly okay as long as it is on the tripod and you aren't shaking the camera when taking the picture.

As far as white balance goes, if you really want it to be accurate, you can order a cheap photography “gray white balance card”. They are as cheap as 10 dollars.

This is the one I use.

There are a couple of ways to utilize the gray card.

Option 1:

You put the gray card in the exact lighting as the product or just hold it directly in front of the product.

You take all your photos in RAW format (JPEG will not work) and adjust the white balance in Lightroom, Photoshop, or any RAW editing software. Use the white balance picker tool (looks like an eyedropper) and click on the gray card.

This will give you an exact white balance for that lighting environment. You can synchronize those white balance numbers across all of your photos. Lightroom has a copy and paste function or a "sync" button that will change adjustments in all selected photos as you go.

This is the most accurate option because it allows for “tint” adjustments for extra color accuracy.

Option 2:

Do the same as above and remember the white balance value. Then set your camera to a custom white balance matching that value. It will probably be around 3200K or 5500K depending on your lights.

Pro tip: If you have any ambient lighting from overhead or other room lights, it could contaminate the photo and skew the white balance into a weird color temperature. Try to make the room as dark as possible aside from your photo lights to avoid this. If you are using flash or have really bright photo lights, this isn't a huge concern.

Option 3:

Use your camera's built in custom white balance tool. It's different for every brand, so you will need to search for a tutorial. But the basic idea is the same. You put the gray card in the lighting of the products, take a picture, the camera analyzes it, and then sets a custom white balance. This can also be done with a white sheet of paper in a pinch.

Here is a video demonstrating the process. Remember every camera brand mau have a slightly different method.

Good white balance means accurate colors. That is important with product photography and a good value add for your clients. Just be warned, if you change the lighting even a little bit, you have to redo this process. If you bump a light or switch it out for a different one, redo your white balance calibration.

Also, some continuous lights have white balance drift, especially if they allow you to adjust the color temperature manually. Not only will the white balance change depending on the power setting, but it can also change over time. Especially if the lights are used frequently.

Move the lights, redo white balance. Change the power, redo white balance.

And if your lights are stable and on the same power all the time, I’d still redo the white balance every week or so. Personally I would do it before every shoot, but you’ll have to decide if that is worth it depending on how fast you need to turn things around. I usually do it as my first photo in the series so I can set the white balance, select all the photos, and copy the settings to all of them at once.

The nice thing about doing white balance with a gray card is that the results are display agnostic. Even if your monitor is poorly calibrated, you can be assured the white balance is accurate. And if someone says your photos are green, it will be their monitor and not your problem.

You just have to avoid doing any color specific adjustments to the images. Trust the gray card and white balance tool more than your eyeballs and display.

You can boost saturation a tad, but that is all I would mess with unless you know what you are doing. Even if the photos look a little drab or not very colorful, I would leave it alone. It sounds like the importance for this task is accuracy of color rather than making them as pretty as possible.

------------------------------

Okay, that is the question answered. Now I'd like to go through how I would build a setup to do this kind of work.

In the product photography world, this workflow is referred to as "pack shots." The idea is to create a consistent setup so you can just swap out the product one by one and speed through the shoot. It is best to control as many variables as possible so all you need to do is set the product down, take the shot, and repeat.

I'm going to show you my ideal pack shot setup with a light cube. I think it will be similar to what my follower is using. And, if not, it might help him streamline his process a bit.

A light cube is just a box made of diffusion material.

You drape a background with the color of your choice. White is usually preferred for Amazon-style pure white background photos. Though I prefer dark gray for aesthetic reasons. You just want to make sure the backdrop has that natural gravity curve so there isn't a hard line or wrinkles.

For lighting, you should get two *identical* lights. They can be desk lamps as long as they are the same and have the same light bulb inside. Then you just place them on either side of the cube. You want the ball of light on the cube to be in front of your subject.

Remember, your light source isn't your actual lights. It's the ball of light on the sides of the cube.

If you want to make it a little fancier, you can get a black or white acrylic sheet to create a reflective surface. You want it as far forward as possible and a little elevated. Here are some things I did in a simple light cube with the setup above.

Here is what the white acrylic looks like.

I placed a big book under the acrylic sheet like this.

This allowed me to hide the curve of the background and get a nice crisp transition between the acrylic and the background.

And if you do white acrylic, you can get the background to seamlessly blend.

As I said, two desk lamps will work, but if this is for a business and you want something fast, convenient, and reliable, I would suggest something more robust.

I'd probably get two daylight balanced COB (chip-on-board) LED video lights that have a Bowens mount attachment.

This Godox light is very reasonably priced for its features.

Daylight balanced means one consistent color temperature, so less chance of drift. These are very bright so you can use a quick shutter speed and you won't even need a shutter release cable (still a good idea). You also don't *need* a tripod, but you should still use one. The main advantage of bright lights is they can't be overpowered by room lights. You can be assured any overhead lights or window light will not contaminate your photo. A darker room is always preferable, but if you crank these it won't matter.

The Bowens mount allows you to place any modifier you wish on the light from softboxes to reflectors. But the standard reflector should be fine for the light cube. But if you are taking photos of tall cylinders, a couple of strip boxes might help.

Don't worry about putting the grids on. You just line them up towards the front of the light cube so you have even light from the top to the bottom of your cylinder. Again, this is optional.

Since these lights are so versatile, you can do any kind of lighting for any other photographic needs. Slap on a white umbrella and take company portraits if you want. Or you can use them as video lights to film a worker safety video.

So, here is my recommended ingredient list for a pack shot light cube setup.

Light Cube COB video light Black Plexiglass Seamless paper (color of your choice)

Colored poster board also works if you keep it from getting dinged up. And the light cube also comes with some cloth backgrounds, but watch out for wrinkles.

BONUS TIP: If you want that pure white background like in Amazon shots, add a third light from behind with no background paper. Make the light cube material your background and shine a light through it. You have to make sure it is bright enough to give you pure white, but not too bright that the light blasts your subject from the rear.

Otherwise just use a white backdrop and use Photoshop to brighten it to pure white.

Karl Taylor shows a pack shot setup without a cube, but the same principles apply. He shows you how to dial in that white but not too white background. Just imagine instead of shining a light onto a background, you are shining a light through the background (the back of the cube).

[feyspeaker]

Hi! I made an account just so I could follow your work. Your art is brilliant and honestly and inspiration to where I want to be. I’m an older artist who has all the anxiety when it comes to improving my process. I’m trying to get into digital portraits and I have so many ideas in my head, but it’s frustrating because I’m not where I want to be to make this happen. What are some tricks that help you/software do you use? Of course, you don’t have to share anything that makes you uncomfortable. I currently have procreate and an iPad, but I feel a little lost. Wondering if I need a different writing tablet and photoshop. Not sure. I just eventually want to find that 3D, but also artistic look you are able to achieve.

hey there! thank you so much!!

ultimately, I will sound like a broken record but I always recommend you sign up for local figure drawing or painting classes. have people pose for you at home and sketch with charcoal and paper. go to the zoo and sit down in front on an exhibit for an hour and try to draw the animals in front of you as fast as you can and fill a couple of pages, move on to a new exhibit and do it again!

nothing is more powerful of a tool to learn than whatever writing utensil you have in your purse and the back of a napkin when you see something you'd like to capture. I've spent quite frankly my entire rememberable life doing this. I used to spend every single day in middle school/high school/my brief failed stint in community college with a pack of cheap sharpies and a beat up binder full of old worksheets and homework to draw on the backs of.

drawing/painting from life will teach you better than anything.

I use a very outdated version of Photoshop, and only got a "nice" tablet in the past 7 months.

Also, a huge tip to you and anyone else reading this: do NOT get too focused on a "style" that you want. Obsessing over that just ruined me for years and years. I wanted so, so, so badly to be the next Matsuri Hino when I was a kid. I copied her work religiously and it NEVER looked right. Frustrated me to no end. And you know why my stuff never looked like hers? Because I'm not her! You can't force your art to come out any way that isn't natural, and the sooner you can accept the art your hand wants to create, the happier you'll be and the easier art will get for you.

The past couple of years before I started diving into this more realism based work, I was just shoving myself through trying to make what art I envied of others. Very stylized/textured watercolor comic book style stuff. And I just was NOT getting any better at it. I have always been more inclined toward realism work, but I've hated it and yearned for stylized work. Yoshitaka Amano? God, I just drooled over that artstyle and beat myself up for never being able to capture it in studies or otherwise.

I finally essentially restructured my entire career around making the art that makes me happy instead of what I "wanted" it to look like. I was extremely depressed, my life was falling apart, and I still needed to make art to survive but I couldn't "art" if I was depressed and hated doing it, so I just had to step back and stop worrying so much about what I thought I wanted to make, and started making what felt most natural.

there's no easy way, and art can be a soul destroying path at times, truly. your software and hardware should come very last place compared to practicing from life (it doesn't matter if you want to paint cartoony stuff of realistic stuff, always start from life). naturally you will find what makes your heart sing the most.

I get a lot of messages from people telling me similar stuff "oh your art is EXACTLY what I want to do!" but I promise you that kind of thought process is chasing a dragon that is likely to harm or drag your creative process down. art style is such a deeply personal thing, so of COURSE it's important to find inspiration, but the second looking at someone else's artwork stops inspiring you and starts frustrating you, put it away.

There are some artists who I love, that I do not check up on often because their artwork ignites, like, serious bitter jealousy in me. It's the truth. I get so mad at myself for not being more like them, and it's such a poison. I think more artists should be transparent about this feeling because I KNOW the art community has a lot of jealousy and ugliness in it.

A fact of being an artist is that you will never be completely happy with a piece you make. You are always going to see the flaws, and that doesn't change whether you'd been drawing for 2 months or 20 years. Occasionally, you will get one piece that you are like "how did I make that???" and then get frustrated that you can't recreate it lol! It's a tough beast.

It's just really important to step back and work on yourself and where you are at, because at the end of the day, the way your soul wants to express artwork might be WILDLY different from what your brain wants, and it can be really detrimental to let those two go to war.

I hope this helps. I'm very passionate about this, and when I started out I ALWAYS ignored the artists who gave the same exact tips as above. I thought they were so annoying and unhelpful, but now I /get it/.

[elementoftheeye]

A flower with many names. Rain kept me up most of the night. Along with my aches and pains... sometimes the rain on the metal roof is soothing, sometimes it can be down right deafening. Rain all day yesterday and it's going to rain most of today as well. I am in a funk, I got lost in a thought while taking a shower this morning. A business thought. I put my photography business to rest a few years ago, but sometimes I question that decision, when I show up at an event that I want to take pictures of and there are photographers that are actually there to make money. I will sometimes keep shooting and wonder whet they are thinking... or maybe it doesn't bother them like it does me... I didn't like that kind of competition when I was shooting, I found many people would pick a cheap shitty photo over a more expensive good photo... well subjectively good anyway. I found people were also okay with taking screenshots of photos without paying for them... It's just pixels or digital data right? No accounting that I am walking around with $$$ around my neck and in my bag... not to mention the post processing time, hardware and software. It's a mindset for sure being in business. ... sorry I am tired. Did I mention the squirrels destroyed one of my feeders? Well not completely, I can probably use 4 or 5 zip ties to repair it. Have a beautiful day...

[taxxbooks]

Conquering Tax Season: Navigating the Maze with the Best Business Tax Software

Tax season – that dreaded phrase strikes fear into the hearts of even the most organized entrepreneurs. Navigating the complex world of business taxes can feel like deciphering ancient hieroglyphics, leaving you lost and bewildered. But fear not, brave business owner! Enter the savior of sanity – the best business tax software.

Choosing the right software is like finding the Excalibur of tax preparation. It empowers you to slay filing deadlines, vanquish filing errors, and emerge victorious with maximized deductions and minimized stress. But with a plethora of options flooding the market, how do you choose the knight in shining armor that's perfect for your business?

Consider your tax battlefield:

Sole proprietor or small business? Look for user-friendly interfaces and affordable pricing, like FreeTaxUSA or Cash App Taxes.

Growing enterprise? TurboTax Business and H&R Block Self-Employed offer robust features for complex business structures and integrations with existing accounting software.

Need expert backup? opt for services with live CPA assistance like TaxAct Premium or TaxSlayer Pro.

Beyond ease of use, consider these essential features:

Form support: Does it cover all the forms your business needs, including Schedule C and 1099s?

Import options: Can you seamlessly integrate data from your accounting software or bank transactions?

Deduction guidance: Does it help you identify and maximize eligible deductions to save money?

Audit assistance: Does it offer audit support or insurance for added peace of mind?

Remember, the best business tax software is the one that aligns with your specific needs and budget. Take advantage of free trials and compare features thoroughly. Don't be afraid to ask for help from customer support and read online reviews.

Tax season doesn't have to be a battleground of stress and confusion. With the right business tax software as your loyal companion, you can conquer those daunting forms, claim every deduction, and file your taxes with confidence. So, equip yourself with the best weapon in the tax arsenal and march onwards to a victorious tax season!

Bonus tip: Remember, even the best software can't replace professional advice for complex tax situations. Consult a qualified tax advisor for personalized guidance and ensure your financial well-being.

By wielding the power of the best business tax software, you can transform tax season from a fearsome foe into a manageable quest. Remember, knowledge is power, and the right software is your ultimate tax-slaying weapon. Go forth and conquer!

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[sailescaithuisce]

PSA:

**not witch related, apologies lovely followers**

I was just on twitter, and noticed a post, where someone was calling this individual out for stealing their art.

Typical. I scrolled.

Then I came across ANOTHER post by a different person, about this same individual stealing THEIR art.

So out of curiosity, I check the account of the accused.

There is art made by people I follow, my friends, and even myself. This girl is stealing art, brazenly posting as theirs, trying to sell it, and responding to any criticism with “shut up, it’s on the internet, it’s free”

DO. NOT. BE. LIKE. HER.

Point blank fucking period.

Art is expensive, i know. Commissions are expensive, I’m aware. But let me just break some things down for you.

Art is expensive because you are paying a person for their time/effort/talent/materials and usually last minute edits.

Paint isn’t cheap. Glass isn’t cheap. Yarn isn’t cheap. Hell, even for digital you need to replace Apple Pencil tips, screen protectors, software for PCs/Drawing tablets, etc etc. And that doesn’t even begin to touch the TIME.

Yes, I will absolutely charge $100+ for a drawing, because art takes TIME. $100 for a piece that took me 2-3 days alone is less than minimum wage. Let alone computer animation, 3D models, 2D animation, etc etc. I, like many other artists, know my fucking worth as a human being.

I understand with the current economical climate that finances are hard, buying art is a luxury, etc etc. But DO. NOT. steal the hard work/time/talent/materials from another and pass it off as yours. Especially to gain profit. That is disgusting fucking behavior, and I can/will fight a bitch.

Thanks for coming to my TEDtalk.

[what-even-is-thiss]

Free or Cheap Portuguese Learning Resources to Eat Feijoada to

I will update this list as I learn of any more useful ones. If you want general language learning resources check out this other post. This list is Portuguese specific. Find lists for other specific languages here.

For the purposes of this list "free" means something that is either totally free or has a useful free tier. "Cheap" is a subscription under $10USD a month, a software license or lifetime membership purchase under $100USD, or a book under $30USD. If you want to suggest a resource for this list please suggest ones in that price range that are of decent quality and not AI generated.

WEBSITES

Practice Portuguese - This website is European Portuguese specific. It has a lot of free lesson notes to read through and a free podcast. More in-depth lessons require a paid subscription that's a bit more on the expensive side. The website is available in multiple languages.

Learning Portuguese - A free website with beginner vocab and grammar lessons as well as reviews for different paid courses and country specific information. The website mostly focuses on European and African Portuguese but does have some stuff for Brazillian Portuguese. The website is in English.

Portuguese Government Sponsored eCourses - The Portuguese government's institute for promoting Portuguese language and culture has a few free online courses. An account is require to take the courses and the website can be viewed in English or Portuguese.

Portuguese With Leo - I have linked to this website's free resources page. The free resources seem more useful for beginner learners. He also has a few free video lessons. This website also provides courses for intermediate learners but they're pretty expensive. The website is available in English and Portuguese.

Portuguese With Eli - This website focuses on Brazilian Portuguese. There are paid courses and groups but there's also a lot of free articles and blog posts about grammar and vocabulary. The website is in English.

Really Learn Portuguese - This website focuses on Brazillian Portuguese. They have free lessons for beginners, a blog, and flashcard lists. They also have a paid tier at $4.50 a month with audio recordings, video lessons, and worksheets. The website is in English.

learnbrazilianportuguese.com - This website has a free English language blog with learning tips and a limited amount of free scheduled courses. They require you to create an account to view the entire site.

Ciberduvidas - A website with explanations of more complex concepts in the language. The website is entirely in Portuguese.

YOUTUBE CHANNELS

Learn Portuguese Today - A channel aimed at beginners with information on vocabulary and grammar. The channel is mainly in English and the channel host is from Portugal.

Decoding Words - A channel with lessons for beginners and detailed breakdowns of different clips of native speakers talking. The channel is mostly in English and the channel host is from Brazil.

Easy Portuguese - A channel part of the easy languages network that has a combination of videos with useful phrases for beginners and interviews on the street with people in Brazil. Their videos have dual language subtitles in Portuguese and English.

Portuguese Tune - A newer channel that seems to be posting regularly. It’s a comprehensible input channel in European Portuguese for beginner to lower intermediate learners. The host teaches entirely in Portuguese and uses a whiteboard and other visual aids.

Portuguese With Cristina - A channel aimed at intermediate learners with videos and podcasts on a variety of topics. The channel is entirely in European Portuguese.

Teach Yourself Portuguese - A channel with podcasts, listening practice, and grammar videos for absolute beginner to intermediate learners. Videos are in Brazilian Portuguese.

Talk the Streets - A channel with pronunciation and learning tips and useful phrases in different subjects. The host teaches European Portuguese but herself speaks Portuguese as a second language. The channel is mostly in English.

Plain Portuguese - This channel has a lot of videos on grammar and vocabulary and also offers explanations of scenes from tv and movies. The host is from Brazil and uses a combination of English and Portuguese.

Speaking Brazilian - This channel has a lot of tips on grammar, vocab, and pronunciation and appears to be aimed at beginner to intermediate learners. Videos are all in Brazilian Portuguese and have dual language Portuguese and English subtitles onscreen.

READING PRACTICE

Read Brazilian Portuguese - A website with short articles in Brazilian Portuguese. Each article has comprehension questions and a list of key vocab words. The website is in a mix of Portuguese and English.

Portuguese Reading Comprehension Texts - A graded reader for beginners with 30 different texts on a variety of different topics. The link leads to the Harvard bookstore to buy the book for $12. I also saw it used on Amazon for $10.

Short Stories in Brazilian Portuguese by Olly Richards - This book ranges from $5-$15 depending on the format. Every chapter has comprehension questions and a vocab list. You can also find it used for cheaper.

Portuguese With Luciana - This website has a few free short stories for beginners and upper beginners.

Graded Readers by Susana Morais - This author has written short stories and mystery stories for learners from absolute beginner to upper intermediate and her books are organized by CEFR level. The books are about $25 each new but I’ve seen them as low as $4 used.

PODCASTS

Brazilian Talk - A podcast about language and culture for intermediate to advanced learners. The podcast is entirely in Brazilian Portuguese.

Easy Portugués - A podcast entirely in Brazilian Portuguese for intermediate to advanced learners. The hosts discuss a variety of topics and give tips on how to sound more natural when speaking.

Portuguese With Carla - A free beginner audio course in European Portuguese.

Portuguese Lab - A podcast entirely in European Portuguese about various topics for A1 and A2 beginner and upper beginner learners on the CEFR scale.

Todo Mundo Pod - This website has two podcasts. One partially in English that has tips for learners and one fully in Brazilian Portuguese. They also have a blog and the website is available in Portuguese and English.

Fala Gringo - A podcast fully in Brazillian Portuguese that goes over various cultural topics for intermediate level learners.

SELF STUDY TEXTBOOKS AND DICTIONARIES

Basic Portuguese from Mcgraw Hill - A textbook that is also a workbook. It's generally $20 for the print edition and $10 for the digital edition.

Gramática portuguesa - A Portuguese grammar textbook entirely in Portuguese. This same publisher also has a general course called Portugués fácil. The books go for somewhere between $20-$25 new but cheaper digital and used versions are available.

Brazilian Portuguese For dummies - The for dummies series has one of the cheaper self study books for Portuguese. A new copy at full price is about $25 but older editions and used copies also go for cheaper.

The Oxford New Portuguese Dictionary - This is an older edition but it's also only $9 and there are used copies for sale. Newer editions are around $13.

Português para principiantes - This is an online book of free study material from the University of Wisconson-Madison

KIDS SHOWS

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[andmaybegayer]

Hello it's me with another very naive computer question!

One of the really common complaints you see about modern software (from Adobe, Microsoft, etc.) is the move from the single-purchase model to a subscription-based model. While I understand that people are upset about paying more money over time, this also feels like the only viable option for shipping products that work with modern OSes, especially Windows (I don't have any experience with MacOS). Windows pretty regularly updates, and if you want your product to continue to work, you have to continue paying your engineers to maintain compatibility through time.

Obviously I understand that there are lots of FOSS options out there, but for the companies that are built on making money from these sorts of software products, I don't see another way. Am I way off the mark here?

This is a really good question. I don't have a great answer, but the model I have in my head is that "traditional software distribution" is partially an artifact of an era where companies were starting to use computers but internet use was still spotty so providing support for software was just a very different ballgame. A lot of what I'm saying here is not like. Fact as much as it is my understanding of The Software Business from the side of someone who is a little involved in that but mostly not in that.

(This is mostly about "business software", that is to say, accounting packages, creative suites, design packages, modelling tools, etc. This model does not explain like. Spotify. But that's much easier to explain.)

You're not wrong that the subscription model really make sense given modern software development, where patches come out continuously and you get upgraded to the latest version every time something changes, but there has been a significant change in how software is developed and sold that makes it noticeably different. I think that the cause of this is mostly because it's finally practical to do contract-style deals with hundreds of thousands of customers instead of doing one-off sales like we used to do.

In the Traditional model you charge a pretty sizeable upfront cost for a specific version of the software, you buy Windows XP or Jasc Paint Shop 7 or whatever and then you get That Version until we release The Next Version, plus a couple years of security and support. When the next version hits, we stop adding any new features to your version, and when that hits end of life, you maybe get offered a discount to buy licensing for the latest version, or you drop out of support.

Traditional software with robust support typically costs an awful lot, Photoshop CS2 was $600 new in 2005, or $150 to upgrade from CS, because you're paying for support and engineering time in advance. A current subscription for just Photoshop is $20/mo, and that's after twenty years of inflation. Photoshop is also cheap, a seat for something like SolidWorks 2003 could probably have run you $3000-4000 easy. I can't even give you a better guess there because SolidWorks still doesn't sell single commercial licenses online, you have to talk to their salespeople.

The interesting thing to me about Traditional pricing was that I think it was typically offered to medium to small businesses or individuals, because it's an easy way to sell to smaller customers, especially if it's the 90's and you're maybe selling your software through an intermediary reseller who works with local businesses or just a store shelf.

Independent software resellers were a big business back in the day, they served as a go-between for the software company and smaller businesses, they sold prepared packages in a few sizes and handled the personal relationship of phoning you up and saying "Hey there's a patch for your accounting software so that it doesn't crash when someone's surname is Zero, we'll send you a floppy disk in the mail with some instructions on how to install it." Versioned standard releases are a thing you can put in a box and give to resellers along with a spec sheet and sales talking points. This business still exists but it's much smaller than it once was, it's largely gone upmarket.

If you were bigger, say, if you were a publishing house that needed fifty seats of editing software you'd probably call the sales department of Jasc or whoever and get a volume deal along with a support contract.

Nowadays why would you bother going through resellers and making this whole complicated pricing model when you could just sell subscriptions with well-established e-commerce tools. You can make contract support deals with individuals at scale, all online, without hiring thousands of salespeople. You can even provide varying support levels at multiple cost brackets directly, so you don't need to cultivate a direct business relationship with all your customers in order to meet their needs. Your salespeople handle the really big megacorp and government deals and you let everyone else administer themselves.

It also makes development easier. You can also deploy patches over the net, you just do it in software. You can obsolete older versions faster, since you can make sure most people are using the latest version, and significantly cut down on engineering time spent backporting fixes to older versions. I think a lot of this is straightforwardly desirable on most software.

Now, there are still packages sold by the version, and there are even companies selling eternal licenses.

Fruity Loops Studio is still a "Buy once forever" type deal.

MatLab can be purchased as a subscription or as a perpetual one-version license.

Windows is still sold like this, but also direct to customer sales of Windows are minimal, Windows is primarily sold to OEM's who preinstall it on everything.

But it's a dying breed, your bigger customers are going to want current support and while there are industries where people want to hang around on older versions, for a lot of software your customer wants the latest thing with all the features and patches, and they'd rather hold on to their money until later using a subscription rather than spend it all upfront. Businesses love subscriptions, they make accounts books balance well, they're the opposite of debt.

Personal/private users who might just want the features of Photoshop CS2 and that's fine forever don't matter to you. They're not your major customers. This kind of person is not a person who your business cares to service, so you don't really care if you annoy them.

Even in the Open Source business world, subscriptions are how the money is made, just on support rather than for the software itself. You can jump through relatively few hoops to run Ubuntu Enterprise or SUSE Enterprise Linux on your own systems for free, but really there's not much benefit to that unless you pay for the dedicated support subscription.

In many ways I think a lot of things have changed in this way, I have a whole thing about the way medium-scale industrial manufacturing has changed in the past thirty years somewhere around here.

While there are valid reasons you might want to buy a single snapshot of some software and run that forever, the reality is that that's a pretty rare desire, or at least that desire is rarely backed by money. If you want to do that you either need access to the source code so that you can maintain it yourself, or you need to strike a deal with someone who will, or it needs to be software so limited that it (and the system it runs on!) never need updates. Very few useful programs are this simple. As a result subscription models make sense, but until recently you couldn't really sell a subscription to small businesses and individuals. Changes in e-commerce and banking have enabled such contracts to be made, and hey presto, it's subscription world.

[justforbooks]

Source Code: My Beginnings by Bill Gates

In contrast to the current crop of swaggering tech bros, the Microsoft founder comes across as wry and self-deprecating in this memoir of starting out

Bill Gates is the John McEnroe of the tech world: once a snotty brat whom everyone loved to hate, now grown up into a beloved elder statesman. Former rivals, most notably Apple’s Steve Jobs, have since departed this dimension, while the Gates Foundation, focusing on unsexy but important technologies such as malaria nets, was doing “effective altruism” long before that became a fashionable term among philosophically minded tech bros. Time, then, to look back. In the first of what the author threatens will be a trilogy of memoirs, Gates recounts the first two decades of his life, from his birth in 1955 to the founding of Microsoft and its agreement to supply a version of the Basic programming language to Apple Computer in 1977.

He grows up in a pleasant suburb of Seattle with a lawyer father and a schoolteacher mother. His intellectual development is keyed to an origin scene in which he is fascinated by his grandmother’s skill at card games around the family dining table. The eight-year-old Gates realises that gin rummy and sevens are systems of dynamic data that the player can learn to manipulate.

As he tells it, Gates was a rather disruptive schoolchild, always playing the smart alec and not wanting to try too hard, until he first learned to use a computer terminal under the guidance of an influential maths teacher named Bill Dougall. (I wanted to learn more about this man than Gates supplies in a still extraordinary thumbnail sketch: “He had been a World War II Navy pilot and worked as an aeronautical engineer at Boeing. Somewhere along the way he earned a degree in French Literature from the Sorbonne in Paris on top of graduate degrees in engineering and education.”) Ah, the computer terminal. It is 1968, so the school terminal communicates with a mainframe elsewhere. Soon enough, the 13-year-old Gates has taught it to play noughts and crosses. He is hooked. He befriends another pupil, Paul Allen – who will later introduce him to alcohol and LSD – and together they pore over programming manuals deep into the night. Gates plans a vast simulation war game, but he and his friends get their first taste of writing actually useful software when they are asked to automate class scheduling after their school merges with another. Success with this leads the children, now calling themselves the Lakeside Programming Group, to write a payroll program for local businesses, and later to create software for traffic engineers.

There follows a smooth transition to Harvard, where in the ferment of anti-war campus protests our hero is more interested in the arrival, one day in 1969, of a PDP-10 computer. Gates takes classes in maths but also chemistry and the Greek classics. Realising he doesn’t have it in him to become a pure mathematician, he goes all-in on computers once a new home machine, the Altair, is announced. He and Paul Allen will write its Basic, having decided to call themselves “Micro-Soft”.

The early home computer scene, Gates notes, was a countercultural, hippy thing: cheap computers “represented a triumph of the masses against the monolithic corporations and establishment forces that controlled access to computing”, and so software was widely “shared”, or copied among people for free. It was Gates himself who, notoriously, pushed back against this culture when he found out most users of his Basic weren’t paying for it. By “stealing software”, he wrote in an open letter in 1976, “you prevent good software from being written. Who can afford to do professional work for nothing?” This rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way and still does, at least in the more militant parts of the “open-source” world. But he had a point. And that, readers, is why your Office 365 account just renewed for another year. Fans of Word and Excel, though, will have to wait for subsequent volumes of Gates’s recollections, as will those who want more about his later battles with Apple, though Steve Jobs does get an amusing walk-on part. (Micro-Soft’s general manager keeps a notebook of sales calls, on one page of which we read: “11.15 Steve Jobs calls. Was very rude.”). This volume, still, is more than just a geek’s inventory of early achievements. There is a genuine gratitude for influential mentors, and a wry mood of self-deprecation throughout. Gates gleefully records his first preschool report: “He seemed determined to impress us with his complete lack of concern for any phase of school life.” Later, he explains how he acquired a sudden interest in theatre classes. “Admittedly the main draw for me was the higher percentage of girls in drama. And since the main activity in the class was to read lines to each other, the odds were very good that I’d actually talk to one.” Strikingly, unlike most “self-made” billionaires, Gates emphasises the “unearned privilege” of his upbringing and the peculiar circumstances – “mostly out of my control” – that enabled his career. Adorably, he even admits to still having panic dreams about his university exams. The book’s most touching pages recount how one of his closest friends and colleagues in the programming group, Kent Evans, died in a mountaineering accident when he was 17. “Throughout my life, I have tended to deal with loss by avoiding it,” Gates writes. He says later that if he were growing up today, he would probably be identified as “on the autism spectrum”, and now regrets some of his early behaviour, though “I wouldn’t change the brain I was given for anything”. There is a sense of the writer, older and wiser, trying to redeem the past through understanding it better, a thing that no one has yet seen Elon Musk or Mark Zuckerberg attempt in public. That alone makes Bill Gates a more human tech titan than most of his rivals, past and present.

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[harsjaip]

How to Access Canva Premium for Free or Cheap in 2025

Affordable Ways to Access Canva Premium in 2025

In 2025, visually compelling content is essential—whether you're growing a brand, teaching students, or raising awareness for a cause. That's why many creators turn to Canva Premium. This upgraded version of the free design platform delivers advanced features that boost efficiency and creativity. While the full plan carries a cost, there are several practical and budget-friendly methods to access Canva Premium without overpaying. Let’s explore the best options available this year.

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Before diving into cost-saving methods, it's important to understand why Canva Premium stands out. The upgraded toolkit empowers users with time-saving and professional design features that aren't available in the free version.

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Access to 100M+ Premium Assets: Choose from exclusive images, templates, and videos.

With such a powerful suite of tools, it's easy to see why Canva Premium is a must-have for serious creators. Now, let’s explore how you can get these features at a fraction of the cost—or even for free.

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One of the easiest ways to try Canva Premium is by activating the free 30-day trial. This is a great choice if you're starting a campaign, updating your portfolio, or testing design tools for a new project.

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Sign in or register for an account.

Enter your billing information (be sure to cancel before the trial ends if you don’t want to continue).

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Once verified, you'll gain access to a wealth of design tools that enhance learning and creativity. From lesson plans to digital presentations, Canva Premium empowers both students and teachers to create with confidence.

3. Canva Premium for Nonprofit Organizations

Nonprofits often operate on tight budgets. Thankfully, Canva supports these missions by offering Canva Premium at no cost to verified nonprofit organizations.

To apply:

Go to Canva’s Nonprofit Program page.

Submit proof of nonprofit status.

Wait for verification and approval.

With access to Canva Pro tools, nonprofits can create impactful visuals for fundraising, events, and advocacy—without paying for expensive software.

4. Purchase from Verified Discount Resellers

If you don’t qualify for the free educational or nonprofit plans, you can still get Canva Premium at a reduced rate. Trusted resellers like Saasyto offer discounted subscriptions, making this an attractive option for freelancers, marketers, and small businesses.

Here’s what to do:

Visit Saasyto.com and search for Canva Premium deals.

Choose a monthly or annual subscription that fits your needs.

Follow the site’s instructions to activate your account.

Although it’s not free, this method can cut your design costs significantly over time while giving you full access to premium tools.

Make the Most of Canva Premium—Affordably

In conclusion, creating top-notch visual content no longer has to be expensive. Whether you’re an educator, nonprofit worker, or content creator, there’s a way to access Canva Premium without exceeding your budget. From free trials to education plans and nonprofit programs, several legitimate methods exist to help you unlock professional-grade tools.

Even if you're paying, discounted options from authorized resellers can make Canva Pro features accessible at a lower cost. By selecting the option that matches your needs, you can elevate your designs and stand out in today’s visually competitive world—without breaking the bank.