At barbiegirls.com girls can create their own, personalized online space–everything from designing a "room" to creating a character–where they can then play games, chat with gal pals, watch videos, and even shop with earned virtual money. Word filters, moderation tools, and other safety features ensure that the virtual world stays friendly and fun to all visitors, but the added security and benefits of this Barbie Girl device are ingenious.

The Barbie Girl device is basically an MP3 player with attitude. First, it offers a range of customizable fashions and accessories, delivering the next generation of fashion doll play. Second, it is a music device with 1GB of on-board memory. Third, the Barbie Girl device acts as a "key" for girls who have a room on barbiegirls.com. Girls who have this device and who have physically connected them into one another’s computer docking stations can become "best friends" and chat in "secret." It’s a more personal touch to the site experience and an extra layer of safety for parents. The device also allows its user to unlock additional pets, games, hangouts, fashions, and more online.

Born in Montreal in 1976, Tyler Gibb grew up on Godzilla movies and cartoons like Saber Rider & the Star Sheriffs. Later came Tank Girl comics and the films of influential directors like Tim Burton, Baz Luhrmann, David Fincher, Robert Rodriguez and Hayao Miyazaki. Gibb’s irreverent and prolific short animations garnered viewership around the world via the internet and were licensed by AtomFilms, Uproar.com (Vivendi), Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and Carsey-Werner Productions for ABC Television. Most recently Gibb has been tirelessly crafting the 90 minute epic "Minushi." The first of its kind, the feature was produced using "Flash animation," a form of animation extremely popular with a youthful online audience that is eagerly awaiting the movie’s release. Currently Gibb is developing at least two future projects planned for both animation and narrative feature.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.

Take screenshot from inside your favorite PC games

Drag-and-drop into easy-to-use comic book templates

Choose fonts, colors, and effects with intuitive editors

Easily add text, effects, and balloons to your story

Create the story the way you want it to read

Save you comicbook as a PDF and share it online with friends

Print it out on your home printer to take with you

There are a number of manuals available on Flash, but too many of them get bogged down in details about ActionScript or interactivity. Frustrated with wading through such information in other Flash manuals, author/illustrator Mark Stephen Smith set out to make the book he wished he had when he started learning Flash. This book is both a practical primer in the fundamentals of classical, hand-drawn 2D screen animation and a basic introduction to Flash’s expert handling of recyclable symbols that make independent, web, and television animation both more affordable and more efficient. It is conveniently divided into two parts. Part I is for those who are new to the terms and techniques of hand-drawn animation, character design, and storyboards. Part II covers scanning and digitizing artwork into Flash, as well as setting up scenes and symbols.

Join indie-guru Hal Niedzviecki on a how-to journey through the world of pop culture. In his upbeat, spirited style, Niedzviecki first provides a quick history of entertainment — from its origins through to the present day, when corporate powers largely determine what we read, hear and watch.

Niedzviecki then shows how to reclaim cultural expression by encouraging everyone to use the tools of modern media: print (self-publishing zines, comics and books), video (making movies and shows), CD (creating original music) and the indie-paradise of the Internet (websites, blogs, video games). Quick and easy do-in-a-day project ideas are included, so emerging artists will feel ready to tackle more ambitious works.

Punctuated by inspiring interviews with young creators, engaging sidebars, and zine-style graphics that capture the spirit of the indie movement, The Big Book of Pop Culture is an empowering guide to original artistic expression.