Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips: Part III
Oct 27, 2008 Computers and Internet, Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
Alrighty, kids, we’re about 80% into our better computing lifestyle and so far we’ve focused pretty much on the computer, now it’s time to grab the mirror and take a good hard look in it. All of what I previously posted is completely useless unless the talking monkey sitting at it (that would be you… ooop oooop) doesn’t know some basic rules when it comes to actually using the dang thing.. Viruses spread because people don’t take a few moments to check attachments before running them, people download dubious software from unheard of sites and then wonder why they have 5,000 pop-ups. Here are a few ways to help realize the risks out there and take a little extra time to keep your computer safe and functional.
Part III – The user
Tabula Rasa: A clean slate and why it may not be bad for your blog.
Oct 24, 2008 Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
Your heart is pounding, you have visions of all the wonderful comments and fun conversations had within every post. You spend hours reading other blogs, visiting to see what they’re using and what’s ‘cutting edge.’ You download plug ins and add ons and extensions to help promote your web blog, give a little back to the commenter and just to have some neat touches to your site.
And then, it happens.
Your site is slower than that old lady in front of you at the coffee shop.
Or at least, it happened to us on 2phatgeeks. The plug ins and add ons we were using became too much and too many. While Shawn was away, the wife had played–with plug in after neat plug in, switched on and off until 2phatgeeks began to slow down significantly.
Oops. Did I do that?
In my enthusiasm and attempt to keep up with the Must Haves and You Needs and the Things To Look Out For, the speed and ease to which one could navigate through 2phatgeeks suffered. It’s hard work keeping up with everything, though, isn’t it? There are hundreds of pages of advice on what people will tell you one must have in order to have a successful web blog. A lot of it is good, excellent advice that would not harm you to follow–but the problem is, there is so much of it. How do you know which one to follow? This plug-in you just downloaded seems to have a newer, better version? This plug-in just downloaded actually needs four more to function correctly? This plug-in works best with another plug-in!
Stop. Breathe. Don’t let it get too confusing and don’t make the same mistake I did. In my beginner’s enthusiasm and hopefulness, I downloaded and installed too many. I didn’t stop to truly consider the difference between what I thought was neat, what I thought I needed, and what I thought was absolutely important to have.
So many plug ins slowed 2phatgeeks down and no doubt cost us readers.
Choose your plug ins wisely, grasshoppah.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t experiment and enjoy yourself by trying out what’s hip, happening and out there–what I am saying is that when it comes to the core plug ins to use with your weblog, make sure they are all the plug ins you absolutely cannot live without and make sure you aren’t compromising the speed, in addition to the performance of your site! Too many plug-ins and add ons can and will do that. Trust me when I say that I know, because we were experiencing it.
So what did we do?
Shawn and I sat down last night and played “Turn off and on.” It’s not as kinky as it sounds. We turned off every single plug in and one by one reactivated them to see which plug-ins slowed down or effected performance of 2phatgeeks the most and chucked ‘em. We then decided which plug-ins were essential to us. Obviously, we felt that several plug-ins aimed to commenter and commenting were absolute must, SEO plug-ins as well as one or two other plug ins to help with SEO. We kept the core group of plug-ins that seemed the most important to us as well as the main group of plug-ins almost everyone in the blogosphere appeared to recommend the most.
Everything else was deactivated and removed and then tidied up after.
- Take more time to consider what plug ins you really need as opposed to want.
- Compare what everyone is telling you what you need to have. Is there a plug in that shows up on nearly every list? Chances are, that’s a plug in you will need or should have.
- Don’t let yourself get overwhelmed by it all. There’s plenty of time to build yourself a blog that is kick ass. Take your time and don’t rush yourself.
- Don’t be afraid to ask your fellow bloggers if you truly feel lost. You’d be surprised how awesome and willing to help some of them are.
After running down the list and cutting away what we don’t need, we have noticed a significant rise in kick-ass speed and performance, and that’s something of a relief for us. There’s nothing that irks me more than a site that takes forever to load or get somewhere, I can’t imagine what first time visitors were feeling when they came to our site!
For those of you who may have experienced this, or something like it, how did you decide which plug-ins were an absolute must and which ones weren’t? Are there any plug-ins you believe is an absolute-must-have for any blog owner?
Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips, Part II
Oct 22, 2008 Computers and Internet, Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
In the last part of this guide, I spent some time laying the hardware foundations of your computer system. In this portion of the guide we’ll spend some time discussion tips tricks and tweaks for making your operating system to get the most out of your hardware. There are many good options for your OS, but since most of you are going to be using Windows XP or Vista, these tips will be targeted to those OSes.
Part II - Software
Most systems start with waaaay, waaaaaay, waaaaaaaaaaay more extra crap, doo-dads, bells, whistles and useless nonsense on them than is really necessary. Start the system off properly by removing as much of this excess fat as you can, getting to the delicious meaty center that we all want and need. Remove programs you have no intention of using, don’t know how to use, or are out of date and you’ll have yourself one kick ass geek steak of a machine.
Updating - The OS and it’s drivers is the foundation upon which you’ll be running. When building a home, you don’t use rotten wood from the old barn to build it, so it makes sense that you don’t use shoddy out of date programs and drivers on your brand new hardware. As soon as Windows is installed (and you have an internet connection), run Windows Update until nothing else is left to install. When all of this is done (and it might take a while) then go to the appropriate websites and download new drivers for every piece of hardware in your system and install them one at a time, with a reboot in between each install.
Install your drivers in this order:
Chipset – These are basically the drivers for your motherboard. Making sure these are properly installed can have a massive effect on your computer’s performance. Most commonly they are Intel and VIA and more recently nVidia.- Video Card/GPU – these are usually self explanatory. Generally, every manufacturer has its own customized driver package, but you’ll usually find the newest drivers at either nVidia or ATI , since 90% of the video cards you’ll be buying will have chips made by those manufacturers. Keeping these up to date can not only improve speed, but can also improve stability and the performance of certain games can be significantly improved. Updating your monitor drivers at this time will often make things a bit clearer, too.
- Sound Card/Chipset – whether your Sound card is built into your motherboard or a secondary card like a Soundblaster X-Fi, making sure you have the latest and greatest is always a plus. While it’s not always a speed booster, it almost always increases stability.
- Everything else – Cameras, Scanners, Tablets, card readers, video and audio codecs. The only things you really don’t usually need to install are things like keyboard and mouse drivers. 99 times out of 100 these drivers are usually a waste of valuable RAM. And speaking of RAM…
Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips, part I.
Oct 20, 2008 Computers and Internet, Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
I wasn’t always a customer service manager.
In a former life I worked for–and at one point, owned–a small, honest, computer repair business; working on everything from large office networks to private home computers. Unfortunately, as usually happens with any good business, the market became crowded and turned into the abusive used car lot that is computer business today. I bowed out as gracefully as I could before losing my shirt.
In that time, I learned quite a bit about the best ways to build computers and keep them running. I’ve managed to turn this knowledge into a few bucks here and there and build and maintain my own tidy little home network, including two gaming grade machines, with a minimum of time and effort and without spending every dime I own to do so.
Here’s the thing, though: About 90% of the money I make and the tricks I use are basically the sort of thing that anyone can do. No, seriously. Anyone.
So, rather than horde this knowledge to myself and dish it out to our internet friends and readers through rushed IMs typed by my better half, I’ve decided to put together a little guide to making and keeping your computer running as quickly as it can. There are billions of guides available on the internet for people that are technically minded, but this guide is not for them. This guide is for you, semi-normal people.
In order to keep your brain from exploding, I’m going to split this up into three installments. Each installment will cover one of the three key components of any good system, the is the Holy Trinity of Computery goodness: Hardware, Software and The User (That’s you, if you hadn’t guessed).
So, let’s get on with it shall we? Shawn’s easy computer tips to save you time and money:
Part I - Hardware
Improving your Cell Phone Pictures
Oct 10, 2008 Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
Thanks and inspiration for this post goes out to The Geek Lawyer, who responded to my article with a question on how to improve cell phone picture quality. You could call this a side-article to go along with the others I have written on photography in general.
Improving your cell phone pictures, is it possible? It is!
Light it up!
You might remember me going on an on about light in my other articles about photography and digital photography, right? The same is going to apply here when you are using your cell phone to take a picture. Of course, the best light you’re going to have is outside on a clear sunny day or a very bright cloudy day. If you are inside, throw on all the lights, open the windows (if it’s day), if you cell phone comes with a light or flash–use it! Even if you are outside, use it. It can double as a fill flash too!
Digital Editing is your friend.
Do you have GIMP? Adobe Photo shop? Do you have google? There are countless of free to pay-for digital editing software that you can use these days to adjust levels, brightness, hue, saturation and sharpness. All of these tools will be a great help when it comes to cell phone pics especially.
Here are some off-the-tips-of-my-fingers free cell phone editing and free photo editing software or sites you can use for free to help improve your images:
Clean your messy lens!
Often, cell phone camera lenses are placed on the back of the phone’s screen and ear piece. (Usually. Some models aren’t.) Or at the very least, placed in such a manner where our hands will at some point, pass over the lens or protective cover. We leave fingerprints, and fingerprints or dirt can lead to blurry pictures with spots, or blurred halos where the dirt is on the lens. Use a very soft cloth (you don’t want scratches to marr your photos!) or if you wear glasses like I do–use your cloth you use to clean your glasses just for the camera lens.
Steady as she goes!
Your cell phone generally takes a little longer than digital cameras to take a picture, there’s often shutter lag and of course, a lower shutter speed when you are in low light. Keeping your cell phone as still as possible will help you to take clearer shots.
If you are having a hard time keeping it still, look around you for things that can help you keep still. Lean on the bar, against a wall, a friend, a chair, a table or any surroundings you think can give you an extra hand in keeping steady.
Got some spinach on your teeth, Bob.
Get in close. Or at least, get in as close as you can before someone tells you to step off or get out of their grill, yo’. The closer you are, the better the image will be. Don’t try taking a beautiful shot of the magnificent vista miles off, because, unfortunately, most cell phones are still very low res. (Well, mine is, I can’t afford an uber phone!) Plus, getting close will save you from having to edit your photos later to zoom in–which will just make the quality of your image go out the window.
Do not zoom gently, into that good night.
Avoid zoom if you can, or at all costs. Zooming in with your camera will probably compromise image quality. Try the step above, which is to get in closer to your subject!
Tinker with it.
Most cameras in cell phones have some settings you can tinker with. Several of them can be changed to help you take better pictures.
- Make it the largest resolution your cell phone’s camera can take. Change the resolution to the largest your phone camera can take to help with quality. Don’t leave it on itty bity!
- Play with your White Balance. If you camera has a setting for White Balance, this is a great tool for you and you should be poking at it often. White Balance can help with color balance according to where and what you are shooting, you could get sharper images with more brilliant colors with the right setting. Play around with this!
- Try playing around with contrast or any other settings. One of the keys is to familiarize yourself with your cell phone camera and what it can do!
Remember the rules of Composition, and then forget them.
Use the same rules of composition, framing, and leading lines as you would for your photography with a real-camera. They apply here and can still help you get that great shot from a cell phone. Of course, once you are familiar with them or have used them, feel free to chuck them right out the window and try your own rules!
Experiment, not just for scientists.
Don’t hole yourself in just because I, or some other website tells you what you should or should not do. Go ahead and break all the rules or follow them–the best way to figure out what works for you and your cell phone pic is to take a billion pictures in practice and tweak your settings the same amount. Keep your “mistakes” or the oddly lighted images, you never what they’ll look like once on the computer screen!
I hope these tips have helped shed some light (haha, light, get it? Ge–oh, nevermind) on the subject and maybe get you better quality cell phone pics. Hey, if you take any and notice an improvement? Show me! I want to see!
Interested in reading my other articles on photography? You can do so here: Tips & Tricks to get the move out of your digital camera and photography, and here Tips & Tricks to get the most our of your Camera and Photography II .
Tags: Photography
Tips & Tricks to get the Most out of your Camera and Photography II
Oct 8, 2008 Tips, Tricks & Tutorials
Earlier, I wrote a little bit on some beginner tips to photography and digital photography in general. Since there is such a wealth of information available, I’ve decided to split what I know and what I have learned into three or four posts. This post I’d like to cover framing your photos, little details, rule of thirds, and leading lines, all simple and excellent ways to improve your photos.
Here are some simple, cost effective, no need for extra bits and pieces tips to help you take better shots.
Framing & Composition : the first one actually has nothing to do with wood.
When you think of a frame for photos, does your mind immediately think four pieces of wood around a photo hung on the wall? I bet it might–but that’s not the kind of framing I’m going to be talking about. I’m going to be asking you to think outside the…ahem…frame for a moment to look around you for things which you can use that isn’t wood.
For instance, take a picture of something in an empty window with a vista of trees and green grass in the background. You can use the window as a frame for the shot–a door way, support beams–anything that can create a frame within the picture leads to a more eye-drawing shot. If you’re still confused as to what I mean, here is a great stock example:
See it? It’s a great way to compose an image. Here are some quick tips on photo composition:
- Some times, people aren’t the most important subject. If you’re at an event, wedding, baby shower, picnic, family reunion, don’t just fill the card or roll of film with images of people–try capturing the environment around you to help preserve memories. Take photos of the meals, the drinks, clasped hands, wedding bands, decorations, baby booties freshly unwrapped and still in the gift box, streamers on the floor and so on. Capturing the environment events take place in often helps preserve the emotion and atmosphere, perhaps preserving a precious moment and memory for long after it has passed.
- Try to be aware of what is going on in the background anytime you take a shot. A too busy background, with buildings and cars and people and kids and dogs and godzilla might not help in taking that intimate portrait of someone. Be conscious of what’s going on behind your subject or object, if it’s too busy or comical (such as branches of a tree looking as if they are magically sprouting from behind your subjects head) change the angle of where you are shooting.
Use your negative space. Negative space is generally just space without much in it. It’s a great way to focus the eye on your subject or that which you want your viewer to look at. An example of this would be to take a portrait of a loved one on a bare painted or textured wall. The eye is forced away from the negative space of the wall to focus in on the person in the photo, for a great example of negative space use, take a look at the image I’ve put up to the left. Your eye is drawn to the bowl of m&m’s in the center, isn’t it? This is a great example of using negative space!
Always experiment, you are never holed up into one guideline or rule. In fact, feel free to set up your shots the direct opposite of what you are told not to do. Why? You never know what you’ll get! You may end up with a fantastic shot by breaking all the “rules”!
This way to the awesome! Using leading lines to direct a viewers attention.
Leading lines can be a great way to also draw the viewer along to the focus of your image. Lines pretty much represent a path between two points and lines in your photography don’t always have to be straight. They can be curvey, jagged, vertical, horizontal, or diagonal.
Lines imply and suggest motion.- Lines can be implied to your viewer. You don’t have to actually find real no foolin’ perfect lines. You can use shapes, objects and other things to suggest lines, the mind just needs a suggestion, most people will see them or have them form from such a suggestion.
- Did you know that, even the way you place a line in a shot could even determine emotional impressions? Horizontal lines could imply tranquility and rest, while vertical could imply power and strength, curved of S shapes could imply quiet, calm or sensuality.
- Lines that meet can suggest depth, scale and distance–like shots of railroads and fences.
Look for lines around you to help your photo!
Rule of Thirds, its not for diets.
Having the object you wish to take a picture of, or the subject of your image smack in the middle of every image every time isn’t always the best way to photograph someone or something. The rule of thirds basically divides your images up into nine even squares, with three lines both ways, splitting your image into thirds. Your subject or object should align somewhat near these lines or near the intersection. Lining your subject up to the left, right, top, or bottom instead of in the middle can create a far more attention grabbing, and, not only is it more interesting to look at? You are almost forcing the viewer to have to take a look at all of your photograph, taking in it’s entirety and the scene.
There are of course, several other things that can help you compose a great shot, but I feel that these are some of the more important tips to think about when you are just beginning. I hope that they’ve helped you as much as they have helped me!
If you are interested in reading the first article I wrote, you can do so here: Tips & Tricks to get the Most out of your Digital Camera and Photography I
Thanks & Credit goes to these Deviant Art photographers for the use of the wonderful stock:
clasixart - m&m’s
riktorsashen - Smith River
vw1956stock - Happy New Year
welder-stock - alps through columns
