AE List is down, wah

The Media-Motion Server is down due to a server crash.

General Specialist: Render in the Background

If you lost track of how to render in AE in the background, for Mac or Win, see Jonas Hummelstrand's General Specialist.
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Apple Mac Pro reviews

AnandTech has a 20 page review of Apple's Mac Pro -- "A True PowerMac Successor."

See also the slightly older Ars Technica's review and HD For Indies' meta review blog on Mac Pro.
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Web movie helpers

Two web movie helpers for Mac OS X:

PodTube encodes any YouTube video for iPod. Also it simply and quickly
downloads, encodes for iPod and adds to your iTunes library any YouTube
video you browse with Safari in a single click

iGetMovies gets save-disabled QuickTime files.
And when you play QuickTime and Flash movies or audio files (that you cannot save on your hard drive) in Safari or movie trailers on the iTunes Music Store, wait for them to be completly loaded, and iGetMovies will copy them to your Desktop. Ah, fight, fight, fight -- you get the idea, ah.

also for Mac and WINDOWS:

VideoDownloader Firefox Extension...works for many movie types even QT
VideoDownloader Firefox Extension add a small icon on the status bar at the bottom of your firefox window, and a toolbar button. Click a button and you get a pop-window for an easy downlad. For Flash movies you'll need a player like VideoLAN.
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Photoshop for Video

Richard Harrington has opened a Photoshop for Video website, which may fill in any missing pieces of PS knowledge. And don't forget John Nack's "12 Tips for Photoshop Text".
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Neat Video, a noise reduction plugin

Neat Video has a noise reduction plugin for After Effects, Premiere, VirtualDub that provides "the most accurate video noise reduction currently available" using device noise profiles to reduce sensor noise, as well as reducing visible grain and compression artifacts.

Sounds good, though I haven't tried it or compared it to the built-in version of Grain Surgery in AE Pro.

Woohoo Flashes AE

via John Nack:

Dr. Woohoo has added Flash 2 After Effects-Transform Properties to his AE<->Flash utility belt, and now goes both ways! Metaphorically of course. This new extension can convert both Flash keyframes and ActionScript animation into AE keyframes.

Photoshop SlipkNot

A picture on the GOP.com website was Photoshopped to make Howard Dean look a bit like Hitler, according to bloggers. Click on the 3rd pict from the top of Interesting Times to see the hastily reposted version versus the one in cache.

If Govinda dances when mice appear, what makes the Repulicans shake? RATS?