Have you ever been browsing through << enter trendy social networking site here >> and seen a friend’s photo that made them look infinitely better than they usually do? If so, chances are high that the photo was touched up using image editing/manipulation software such as Adobe Photoshop.

While I do not condone activities like this that promote a sense of “false advertisement” if you will, I do believe that everyone should be on a level playing field in terms of being able to dress up like Halloween and portray themselves as nothing like the original. Luckily, for the non-Photoshop-skilled of the Internet, a new Web site has arisen to help you look as least like yourself as possible.

Pixoo, which is still in private beta, has dubbed itself the “profile picture enhancement service.” Come the end of this month, you too will be able to have yourself airbrushed like one of Hugh Hefner’s delectable bunnies for the low, low price of $20.

As far as the available modifications to your photo, you can specify just about anything that you want done, from skin color to clothing to setting and much more. About 15-20 improvements are made to each photo, and the turn around time is typically around 24 hours — although Pixoo staff will continue to work with you until you are satisfied with your fake self.

Their Web site has no examples posted and only contains a brief introduction to the service and a form to sign up for the private beta. To see an example of Pixoo, head on over to Techcrunch where one of the bloggers submitted founder Michael Arrington’s photo.

I think this is a ridiculous idea. If someone is self-conscious to the point where they’d pay $20 for a costume, they ought to seriously reconsider publishing their photo in such an open environment.

Although it wasn’t slated to reach U.S. iPhone users until tomorrow, the latest firmware update version 1.1.2 is now available. It hasn’t *technically* come to the iTunes masses yet, however Engadget has uncovered the file buried somewhere on an Apple server. If you’re interested in grabbing it before it makes its way to iTunes, check out this download link:

iPhone1,1_1.1.2_3B48b_Restore.ipsw (160MB)

*photo courtesy of Engadget

Unfortunately I have yet to install this myself, as my iPhone dock isn’t at my apartment right now so I’ll have to wait until tomorrow. However early reports are stating that this update brings support for international languages (recall that it launches in Europe tomorrow) and numerous bug fixes. Not included with this update, to the dismay of many including myself, are voice memos and the ability to use the iPhone as a storage disk. Also, a word of wisdom to those with unlocked iPhones, this update will break jailbreak and you will not be able to use it, so it may be a good idea to hold off on this update until a fix is drafted.

Courtesy of Christopher Knight in Rockingham County, North Carolina. There truly are no words to convey just how amazing this campaign ad is, so I’ll let this this YouTube video speak for itself.

If only G-Dubya had this guy as a member of his cabinet…

Tonight I made the switch from Fedora to the latest version of Ubuntu, 7.10, dubbed “Gutsy Gibbon.” I have long been a Fedora user over Ubuntu for the simple fact that the Fedora worked better “out-of-the-iso” in terms of supporting my hardware — an old Sony Vaio VGN-S480P. However, given some recent issues with configuring the wireless adapter, coupled with the fact that I had installed an older version of Ubuntu a few years ago and wireless worked instantly, I decided to give it a go.

I downloaded the Ubuntu ISO and burned the image to a blank CD using Alex Feinman’s ISO Recorder. Everything up until this point worked like a charm and I booted up the Ubuntu Live CD to the desktop.

Older Ubuntu Live CDs had failed to even reach the desktop on this old Vaio, so already I was making much more progress than in the past. Once on the desktop, I was able to connect to my wireless network and I got a warm, fuzzy feeling inside that this would be the one. Then things took a turn south.

After testing the wireless I double-clicked the “Install” icon on the desktop to put Ubuntu on the hard drive for good. Navigating through the on-screen menus and selecting my preferences was no problem, it’s once the actual process started that problems arose.

Without getting into too much detail, basically the install froze during the installation at 5% and wouldn’t budge. To make a long story short, the problem was with the ntfs-3g driver during the ext3 formatting step. After a rather extensive investigation into the Ubuntu support archives and The Google, I discovered a few solutions which somehow, some way fixed the issue. I’m not sure exactly which command got the installer to stop hiccuping and complete the installation, but the two I used were:

killall -9 <ntfs-3g process>

rm -rf *

Maybe I needed only one, maybe both, I have no idea. But I do know that now it works, and I encourage anyone having similar problems to use these commands as a starting point for your research into a fix.

Once I got past that the rest of the install was a breeze. The computer booted up no problem and has been running like an absolute gem for a few hours now.

The GUI Add/Remove Software application is simply awesome, and made getting Flash, MP3 support, and many other items a breeze.

Now that Gutsy Gibbon is up and running you can expect some Linux-related posts in the future, I just wanted to check in with you all and say a few words about my installation troubleshooting experience.

To end with, here is a screen shot of my current Ubuntu desktop: