This was a commissioned painting of a street sign for a main Toronto intersection where Bathurst meets Lakeshore. See the steps below for how I created this.


Getting the perspective right is one of the hardest parts of this. Faint pencil lines ensure that I can get this right before I work on the outline.

Once the outline is right, I can start to colour. All of my art is painted using shellac and earth pigments. I do not purchase plastic products unless there is a gun to my head.

Worth it in the end as we have a nice painting with leaves almost all the way to edges as requested by client.

I have done several of these hand painted street signs now. Check out some others below:

• Queen St East and Sackville
• Wallace Ave and Emerson Ave

Businesses, large and small, are in the midst of preparing for compliance with the Europeans Union’s new data privacy laws: The General Data Protection Regulation, or the GDPR, which will go into effect on May 25, 2018.

What is it?

It was passed by the European lawmakers to create a harmonized data privacy law across all the EU member states. Its purpose is to:

• Support privacy as a fundamental human right;
• Require companies that handle personal data to be accountable for managing that data appropriately; and give individuals rights over how their personal data is processed or otherwise used.

In a nutshell, GDPR defines personal data as “any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.”

Okay, so what does that mean?

In addition to the kinds of information you might think about – name, address, email address, financial information, contact information, identification numbers, etc., personal data can in some cases be information related to your digital life, like an IP address, geolocation, browsing history, cookies, or other digital identifiers.

It also could mean information about a person, including their physical, mental, social, economic or cultural identities.

In short, if information can be traced back to or related in some way to an identifiable person, it is highly likely to be personal data.

Does it apply to me?

Individuals, companies, or businesses that have a presence in the EU or, if no presence, offer goods or services to, or monitor the behavior of, individuals in the EU need to comply with this law. Please consult with your own legal counsel about whether GDPR applies to you and your business.

After working with Ben Smith in California, I was instantly inspired to start a podcast. Ben's Podcast, the Voice Entrepreneur is an interesting listen and hits on some great ideas about what the future holds. For my podcast I am going to focus on Privacy as much of my work at Thexyz seems to revolve around Privacy. I will also hit on other topics too but with Facebook in the news, GDPR around the corner, Privacy seemed like a good choice. Episode 1 was published today and you can have a listen below.

Subscribe on Anchor and Pocket Casts. More services coming soon!


Here is the transcript for those that prefer to read....

Hello, welcome to Perry on Privacy Before I begin I would like to point out that this is my first podcast, all opinions are my own and I have no idea what I am talking about. 

While this podcast is mostly about Privacy, I will hit on other areas in my skill-set such as; email, cyber security, spam, domains, hosting and of course your questions. As many of my know, my background is with Thexyz, where I have helped thousands of people just like you, take control of their privacy. 

If you are the kind of person who thinks "I have nothing to hide" when you hear the word privacy. This podcast is for you. If you are already concerned about your privacy and want some tips and tricks on privacy and security, this podcast is for you. If you think that the SSL lock next to a URL of an online store is actually a shopping bag. This podcast is for you. If you are a person who just likes hearing someone with a British accent speak. Then this podcast is for you too. 

My topic for today is the "late majority" Over the past few years I have attended a number of tech conferences and heard this term thrown around. It used to mean people that were older, didn't grow up with technology etc. Where as today it actually includes everyone. The reason for this is that many young people are not grasping the important aspects of technology. A British study in 2015 found that most teens could not tell the difference between a google ad and a search result. This is very concerning as what difference does it make when we have companies like Facebook and Cambridge Analytica in the news if we can't tell the difference between a paid ad in the first place. 

The late majority includes everyone and we all have an invested interest in each others security and privacy. Cyber security cost the global economy $600 billion last year and this very much a growing problem. Let's make America use strong passwords again! Please subscribe to this podcast for more tips tomorrow. Be brave, be proactive. Bye for now.

There are some great websites offering up free public domain images with a CC0 License. This a list of a few I use. 

Skitterphoto

A beautifully curated collection of CC0 Licensed images. The site features works of theirs own photographers so you will find less used and unique photographs.

Pickup Image

PhotoDorks

A unique collection of public domain CC0 Licensed images.

LibreShot

A collection of free images by Martin Vorel. A SEO consultant in online marketing agency and hobbyist photographer.

Free Images

Formally sxh,xchang and now owned by Getty Images, Free Images has an even larger collection of free images.

Pixabay

Pixabay is a vibrant community of creatives, sharing copyright free images and videos. All contents are released under Creative Commons CC0, which makes them safe to use without asking for permission or giving credit to the artist - even for commercial purposes.

Public Domain Archive

A very well organized and large collection of public domain photographs. You can easily browse images filed under categories or use the search feature.

Unsplash

A very popular destination for high quality CC0 licensed photographs. The site releases 10 photos every 10 days. It has a nice search feature which you can use to find images matching certain themes like nature, office, work, etc.

StockSnap.io

StockSnap is a growing collection of free stock photos where hundreds of images are added weekly.

Little Visuals

Sadly this site is no longer updated with free images but there remains a good collection of public domain images available for download.

Some other sources worth mentioning:

• Pexel
• Fine Prints: Japanese, pre-1915
• Wikimedia 
• The British Library Flickr