2PhatGeeks.com » Tips & Tutorials

Money-saving gifts for the crafty sort: be awesome & save cash.

Melissa — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 11:18:07 +0000

Money sucks right now for a lot of us. Everywhere I look there’s someone lamenting over what they can get for people for Christmas, without relying on something from the dollar store. How can you give a gift that really says, “hey, I fucking love you!,” without breaking your bank and your relationship with the gift giver this year?

Hand made gifts. Yes, I said it–I think home made Christmas gifts are the way to go this year! Nothing says I love you more (I think), than: I didn’t just go to some store and buy this–I made it specifically FOR you and it even has googly eyes–you love googly eyes, right?

There’s something to be said about working on a gift by hand for someone you love and respect. Nobody wants those two pencils and note pad you won last year at work to show up as their gift on Christmas. Nor do they need pages of glued macaroni art–so put that shit aside and let’s smash faces with awesome crafty, money saving gifts!

Hand Made Gifts For Her

Cut out & Keep: Bathbombs

Teach Soap . com – Soap Making Instructions, tutorials and advice
(Remember! Unless it is Glycerin all soaps need sodium hydroxide, also known as “caustic soda”. Lye is needed to make soap. Here’s a great article to read more on this: Soaps With No Lye? )

Snowdrift Farms – How to make Whipped body butter/creams

Not Martha – Bubble Bath

TipNut – Homemade Sugar Scrubs

futuregirl Tutorial: Lace Bracelet

Design Sponge: Teacup candles

Papier Mâché Trinket Box

Hand Made Gifts For Him

Microwebtech – Homemade beef jerky

Epinions – A memory jar

Seanm.ca-Duct tape Wallet
(For a good laugh!)

Mix that drink – Skittles flavored Vodka

Wiki-How- How to Make a Hollow (Secret Compartment) book

About.com – Sew a BBQ apron

Hand Made Gifts For Either Her or Him

Neither Hip nor Funky – Freezer Paper & T-Shirt tutorial
(This is a great tutorial for several reasons: you can customize the shirt with anything and you can rejuvenate a shirt you purchased at a thrift or second hand store. No need to spend $$ at jinx, or t-shirt hell! Make it yourself!)

Cut Out & Keep: Cozy slippers made from towels

Wikihow- Tiny Polymer clay Book

Letterfu – Make your own letters without using envelope

Origami Instructions – Simple Origiami Box

I know I haven’t covered nearly half of what can be hand made this year for Christmas gifts but hope this is a great start to leading you along the path of frugal, heart-felt and awesome.

Speaking of not covering it all, tell me 2phatgeeklings–what have I missed? What have you crafted by hand for Christmas, recent or past, that’s become a solid hit?

♥

Stinky and scary: tips and tricks for bus travel.

Melissa — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 12:42:42 +0000

When I first came to the states eons ago it was by bus. It was a five day trip and I had wished I was dead. I then got on another bus and went to Denver. From there, I got on yet another bus and went home. But I wasn’t done yet! I turned around later and grabbed another bus to Florida. This was another five day trip which I have been trying my very best to block out.

Now, however, since I am on my way on April 15th to visit my parents in Airdrie, Alberta via–you guess it–bus, I thought I’d share some tips and tricks, a few pros and cons for long travel or short.

Avoid getting touched in Nono places. Or at least, having all your stuff stolen.

Sit on it, eyeball it. Seriously, wherever you are that is not on the bus take all of your stuff with you at all times and be in physical or visual contact with it 100% of the time. Going for a smoke? Take it all with you. Gotta pee? Take it all with you. Going to go eat? Take it all with you. Going to stretch your legs? Take it all with you. It seriously sucks but it will seriously suck worse to have all your stuff stolen.

Much like people found in various other places, some of them chilling at bus stops aren’t stellar examples of humanity. Some may just be waiting for a tired passenger to screw up and they are watching.

Tuck your backpack under your feet and wind an arm strap around ankle while sitting
Sit directly on your suitcase if you can
Keep a hand or arm woven through straps or handles
Take it all–yes, all of it–to the bathroom with you. Never ever leave it behind on the bus, in the station, with someone you don’t know.
Keep your wallet, passport, cellphone and other valuables either around your neck, in your pockets, or at your waist. People are going to notice someone sidling up to you to fondle you for your shiznit more than a snatch n’ grab of a bag.
Overhead racks on the bus really aren’t any safer. Consider keeping the most important stuff with you and on you. Just because you and a potential thief are on the same bus together does not mean they will think twice about attempting to snatch yo’ stuff.

Boarding: it’s not just for 2×4′s and your baggage anymore.

Vroom vroom, bitches.

Getting off the bus and on the bus and off the bus. It seems pretty cut and dry at first, but there are a handful of things to keep in mind here, not all boarding and unloading is the same.

Buses occasionally have maintenance stops. This is when everyone is required to leave the bus and is probably the only time I would semi-sort of be all right with the idea of leaving a bag or two behind. However, common sense applies here–pick your bags off the floor, take anything extremely important to you with you. The bus company will not be responsible for anything lost, stolen or destroyed during this time either.

In between your maintenance stops you’ll have your regular change overs. When you do, get whatever you need to do there done and then attempt to get to the line to re-board first. Most buses are a first come, first serve deal. Get to the gate, line, door or wherever you need to go A.S.A.P. It is first come, first serve when it comes to travel by bus. So be aware most of your stop over time will probably be spent waiting in line.

Getting in line first is not only beneficial to make sure you do not miss a bus, but seats are also first come, first serve. If you want a particular seat in a particular area, the only way to get there is to get it first.

During all of this boarding, re-boarding, loading, unloading and change over business your luggage has to follow you, too. You are the only one responsible for your bags. Someone will chuck them, heavily, into the under belly of the bus and someone will dump them on the side of the road when it is time to go. Otherwise the moving and transferring of your luggage is all you baby.

If the bus stops to pick up new passengers at a depot, station or stop, if the stop is a longer one–don’t fret. Those who were on the bus first will be allowed back on first while new passengers will have to wait to take their seats. So if you take a break in Missouri but don’t get off there, the bus driver will let you on first before those just starting their journey at Missouri board.

Last but never ever least and most important: buses and drivers will not wait for you. If you leave your bags on a bus and miss it, if you are late to the gate, if you are held up inexplicably it doesn’t matter. They will leave whether you’re on the bus or not. So stay sharp! If you miss the re-boarding call or boarding call, you may be stuck for however long it takes at wherever you are waiting for the next bus!

Comfort, Clothing & Munchies

If you’re going long distance there are some things you should seriously consider packing or taking with you. Buses and bus stops as well as depots are not known for their glorious comforts.

Bus terminals and bus stops often take advantage of tired, hungry, worn out travelers. Their prices are ridiculously high for food, drinks and other such needful things. Save yourself some cash by packing your own food.

Some great travel foods are:
Granola, Fruit cups, Canned Fruit, Any kind of nuts, and bottled water/juice/drinks. Perishable food, such as a sandwich or fruit could work for the first day but will perish quickly without refrigeration. Look for canned, sealed, nonperishable food at a size favorable to traveling by bus. As in: food you’d be willing to lug around with you in a bag or other carry on storage.

Some excellent clothing choices are:

Loose, comfortable clothing that will allow your skin to breath.
A sweater, shawl, small blanket or warm extra shirt. Temperatures on the bus and off will veer wildly if you are traveling long distances.
Sneakers or super comfy shoes. Sitting upright for long periods of time can cause feet to swell. There are only two positions generally on the bus: sitting up right and standing to get off it and back on. Wear shoes that make sense for you.

And you can keep yourself sane by:

Carrying your favorite book(s)
Your preferred Mp3 player
A hand held game system
A cell phone to text the hell out of your husband and friends wishing for the boredom to stop (oh, wait, that’s just me I guess)
A sketch pad
A diary to write in between long stops or on the bus if you are a master at bumpy writing

Does this Bus seat make my butt look big?

Where to sit on a bus? That’s the question. Some people don’t really care so long as they get a seat and some are particular. Here’s some tips for my fellow picky bitches. Representin’.

Mmm, comfy spine breakers.

Back aisle seats do not recline.
Front aisle seats close to the driver do not have lights.
If you like to get up and down a lot, a seat nearest the aisle is best.
If you like to sit in one place, take a window seat.
Sitting on the aisle seat tends to discourage people from trying to squeeze in by the window and may net you two seats to yourself. That’s only if the bus isn’t crowded.
Major stops in major cities will always be crowded.
Bus bathrooms are only meant for emergencies and –well–stink. Sitting near them might be an experience you’ll want to avoid.

Safety Tips

Don’t look like a mouse. Sit up straight, look around you alertly (but not like a crack addict looking for the police okay?) and don’t be afraid to look people in the eye. Try and keep proper posture with shoulders back. Even if you are tired and beat, try and walk with confidence.

One of the first thing most predators of any kind look at is body language. The guy hunched over his feet staring at his toes is going to be a hella lot easier to steal from than the chick beside him that seems to have her shit together.

I would even advise some sort of self-defense extras if possible and legal. Mace is great for doling out the justice and laying the Spicy Eyes smack down if really needed. Use at your own discretion however…a baseball bat or machete might hamper your travel.

Random Bus Fun Facts:

Travel is best in the middle of any month because it is less crowded. The first and last of every month tends to be far more crowded.
Children, students, seniors and those who order their tickets well in advance get discounts.
Rules regarding luggage can be very strict. Call ahead of time or visit your local Grayhound website to learn before hand weight specifics and any other restrictions on luggage and carry on’s.
Label your bags in a manner that will make them stand out to you. Not only will it help you find it, it’ll be harder for the 300 pound bearded man to explain why he’s wheeling away a black suitcase with SPARKLY PRINCESS (YOUR NAME HERE) :D in bright bold, pink, and glittered suitcase to the security and/or police.

Pros and Cons

The good:

Dude this is way cheap, way cheaper (now that gas prices are down) than flying or the train.
Lots and lots of time spent by yourself. You can blend easily with the thousands of other human fish minnowing about their day to day traveling with you.
Get to meet some super interesting folks that are traveling with you.
Get to stop some times in the weirdest and best places and depending where you are going, major cities.
You aren’t driving and you aren’t making your significant other, friends, parents and the like drive either.
Travel is stimulating, period. New places, new faces, new people, new sights and things to take in.

The bad:

You can’t lay down to sleep. If the bus is full you can’t even recline well.
There’ll always be that guy or girl that REALLY NEEDS A BATH sitting near you, passing you by, or doing the same during your stops/change overs.
You can’t always get two seats to yourself and have to deal with other people’s body parts all up in yours. Maybe even some one sleeping and drooling on you.
You could get your stuff stolen at any time, on or off the bus.
Traveling very long distances–there’s no accounting for the weather. A snow storm, flood, torrential rain and other lovely things can screw up a route. You may end up waiting hours for a road to clear.
Vehicle accident death is still way, way, way, way higher than airplane. How many bus crashes do you hear about in a year? Okay, now how many airplane crashes? Right.
People are rude bitches and 90% of them will take the bus.
Bus bathrooms smell like pee.

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is my advice to you. I hope that if you’re ever faced with bus travel that my mind numbing experiences will be able to help you out.

Have you traveled by bus and feel that I have missed something? What important tip or fact would you give someone traveling by bus? I’m interested in hearing it!

♥

Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips: Part III

bariguy — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 19:15:19 +0000

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

Get your fingers off the ‘download attachment’ button

Let’s get one thing straight first: Your mom is your computer’s mortal enemy. If your mom sends you a cute little attachment and you just have to see this because she immediately thought of you, download it and scan it before you even think of clicking any other buttons. About 80% of the viral infections I’ve been able to trace tend to go back to a particular email that came from someone the owner is related too, or very close with. Trust no one! ….Except for me, of course.

Scan Scan Scan: All of this great scanning software we discussed in part two is completely freakin’ useless unless you actually use the stuff. Save attachments and scan them with your anti virus and spy ware software. Usually it’s a right click on the saved file followed by a “Scan using blah blah” or “Scan file name.” If it’s infected, delete it, don’t save it or quarantine it! Just kill the thing, kill it dead, with fire and squirrels, and squirrels on fire! If it’s an important file that someone from work sent you, tell them to scan on their end and make sure it’s clean before resending it. It takes half a second and it could save you hundreds of dollars. Especially if the closest computer ‘expert‘ you have to go to is the Geek Squad.

Too Good to be true usually is

Don’t download software from places promising you normally paid software for free. Pirated software, especially the cracks, are notoriously infected. If you handle pirated or illegal software be very careful and don’t be surprised if you get infected. If you see a piece of software you really want, buy it and be safer. Also, beware of software like eAnthology and similar suites. These are spy ware dressed up to look like anti viruses and the like. Bonzai Buddy and similar on screen diversions like cute little screen savers also apply here. Just don’t download this crap, do a little research and you can avoid heaps of trouble.

Screen savers are so 1994

There hasn’t been an actual need for a screen saver since about the mid 90s. Newer monitors just don’t burn in like the old monster CRTs did. If you walk away, just turn the computer off or the monitor if you are REALLY worried. Screen savers are nothing but a waste of RAM and system resources. Yes I know they are shiny… I know watching the fish is fun. Get a real aquarium instead.

Speaking of 1994: Don’t forward chain letters! OK, This actually won’t speed your computer up, these just annoy me. But seriously people, they won’t work. There are plenty of sites you can look up to verify that none of these stupid “Forward to 10 people and you’ll be entered for a prize” things work. What they can do is help spread crap attachments that spread real viruses. Delete them and hate people that send them to you.

Your Brain. You has one.

JFGI: Just Freakin’ Google It… and other unsavory versions. Before you delete something you don’t think you need or install something you think you do, do some damn research. If I can’t easily identify all the parts of a car, I don’t go around ripping off random parts I don’t know the use of and try to shove them into my engine, you shouldn’t do the same to your computer.

Use the cheapest computer on the planet: your brain. You can’t just install every single tool bar every program asks you to, every IM client, every game and anything else under the sun all at once and twice on Sundays. Use logic. You only need one good anti-virus, two is simply redundant but you’d be surprised how many computers I’ve worked on have two and even three anti-viruses, all of them out of date.. When you stop using something or no longer find it useful, uninstall it. Software running in your task bar slows down everything. And just don’t delete the directories, uninstall!

Some of these tips, and the ones in the previous two parts, can easily be followed. Some of them you might need a little time, practice and research to get. Following any or all of these should guarantee a faster, smoother experience with your computer and a much longer life between reloads which even a well kept computer will likely eventually need. These tips also have the valuable benefit of helping you get the highest performance bang out of your hardware buck, which ensures you have lots of computer goodness while still getting to enjoy things like a roof and food.

Over to the readers: What’s your favorite tip, programs, and any other handy advice for cleaning your computer running speedy without hiccups?

Liked this article? Missed the first two? Read them here: Time and Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips Part 1 & Part II

♥

Tabula Rasa: A clean slate and why it may not be bad for your blog.

Melissa — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 19:58:05 +0000

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

bariguy — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 11:36:19 +0000

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…

It’s time to introduce the mantra that we shall all be chanting the remainder of this section of the guide: RAM is everything. Every program runs on RAM. The more of it you have, and the fewer programs you have accessing it the more stable your computer will be and the more you can do with it. The following two areas will focus on reducing the amount of RAM you and your computer use. This is the part where you really start to tweak your computer and get the most out of it.

Protip: Do a complete system back up using Windows’ system restore function before doing any of this. You can seriously hose up your system if you aren’t paying attention. This is what back-ups are for. Do not skip this step or you will be loading everything from scratch again.

Turn Off stupid features - I’m looking at you, Vista side-bar, and shaking my meaty fist! There’s disk Indexing, Search/Speech Bars, along with a slew of other pretty-pretties that are all about as useful as an anchor on your car. Most of this stuff is useless, you’ll probably never use it and all it will do is slow you down. I know, I know, Windows Side-bar is really cool! Sure, but it’s also a system hog. Shut it down and make sure it’s no longer loading at start-up. Everything you stop from loading is time saved later.

Take a look at the clock in the bottom right corner of your screen. Next to it are a few icons. Each of these icons represents memory you can no longer access. Some things, like your antivirus and speaker icon and the like, are useful and worth keeping. Other things, like mouse controls and camera icons and Image/Picture managers, are pretty much useless and a waste of memory. Often times, these programs don’t make these little “features” easy to remove. You, however, have the ability to take this monster by the horns.

Click on Start, then Run and type in msconfig and press enter. Through this service you can control what programs load at start up. The bit that we’re going to focus on is under the Startup Tab. Clearing the check box next to any line will ensure that the associate program will not load after the next boot. You can usually safely remove anything relating to Adobe Acrobat as well as Windows Defender if you have a anti-spyware software of your own, which you most likely will. As a side note, this would be the only Microsoft software I’d touch in this area. The important thing to note about these programs is that all of them usually provide some level of function. If you’re not using the function, you can unload the program without much issue. If you’re not sure, leave it alone and look it up on the internet.

Tuning System Services – Services are the functions and features that your computer is capable of. This is where most of the sorcery that keeps your computer running is located. Some of these services are really important and do critical things like allow connection to the internet. Some do less useful things like allow a secondary user or terminal services, neither of which most people use. For every one of these services that is started more RAM is used. Since RAM is everything, the more we can save the better off we are. Most services are provided by Microsoft, though some more important drivers and more software may have services of its own; things like Antiviruses and the like.

Rather than make you guess, here are a couple great guides for system tweaking the services. One for Vista, here: Windows Vista Service Tweak Guide v1.0 and here: Windows XP Services Tweak Guide. There are others and feel free to look around at any of the others but these are the ones I use. My suggestion during this phase is to disable only a couple services at a time. After the change, reboot to make sure everything is working. If something you need doesn’t work, restart the last things you stopped. The trick here is this: if you don’t need it, Stop the service, then Disable it. For most of us, it’s unlikely that anything useless now will be useful later.

For a more in depth guide to the services, there is no place better than BlackViper. This is a comprehensive list of all the services running on your computer along with discussions of how important they are. If you’re feeling really brave (and bored) take the time and do this.

Control Your Installs – Whenever you install something, especially something from the internet, the install almost always includes extra software that you either A) don’t/won’t need or b) don’t/won’t want. During your installs you can save yourself trouble later by doing two things: pay attention and just click NO. No, you don’t want the Yahoo/Google Toolbar (Mozilla has the Google search bar built in anyway). No you don’t need the Microsoft office speech bar because no one freakin’ uses it. No, you don’t want free updates. You can do them yourself. No, you don’t need anything extra in your task bar, dastardly Quicktime! No, you don’t want Bonzai Buddy (but more on that later). All you want installed is your program.

Get a good, fast Anti-virus: Most people have heard enough to know they need an anti-virus, but some have a difficult time knowing which ones to chose and which are right for them. There are quite a few excellent, and free, anti-viruses out there. I have used Avast! for several years now and the home version is free and well supported. Avast! (and other free anti-viruses like AVG) also has the benefit of not being as much as a system gobbling hooker when they’re installed. The two more popular paid anti-viruses, Norton and McAfee are certainly effective and have their staunch supporters, but they throw so much extra crap at you that it bogs the system down. As paid anti-viruses that I’d actually recommend, I think I’d go with Kaspersky. No matter what, you HAVE to have antivirus protection on your machine. There is no excuse. …Unless you like your computer not working.

Keeping that Anti-virus up to date: This is enough of a problem it needs it’s own bullet point. Anti-viruses need their definitions updated since this is what they use to determine if a file is infected or not. I can’t keep track of all the viruses I’ve removed to the astonished and surprised computer owner. When asked how I did it when they couldn’t appear to get rid of the infection, I tell them: Your anti-virus definitions were from 2005…I just downloaded the newest ones. Keep’em up to date or they don’t work!

Get a good, fast Anti-Spy/Adware program: Back in the day when I used to paint mammoths on walls and hunt with the other spearmen of my cave-tribe, it used to be that every piece of problem software was either AOL or a virus. Over the last few years though, I’ve seen Spyware responsible for a huge amount of questions and problems brought to me by the unwary. I used to be a huge fan of Lavasoft’s AdAware (I even paid for it! The horror!), but the recent release was really disappointing. Lately I’ve taken to Spybot Search and Destroy. It is certainly far from perfect but it’s free and it’s decently thorough enough for me. Keep whatever you chose to use up to date just like you would an anti-virus and run it once a month or if you start seeing pop-ups more frequently.

Defragment regularly: Windows defrag is acceptable if that’s what you’re alright with using, but I tend to think it’s not as useful as it could be. Here are some ways to make the defrag process more effective: Before defragging, delete your temporary files from your web browser (easier if you use Firefox and set your browser to auto-delete when you close). Clean out temp files from c:\Windows\Temp and C:\Windows\TMP. While you’re deleting them, if anything says you can’t because it’s already in use, don’t sweat it. Once the temp files are cleaned defrag away. I suggest one of two options. For what I think is the best defrag ever, use Perfect Disk by Raxco Software. This is awesome if you’re willing to shell out a few bucks to make sure your defrag is thorough. I sprung for it, and I think it’s worth every penny. If you aren’t willing to splurge, then try Auslogics Defrag, which is completely free. It’s also an excellent defragger and fast as hell. I used it until I found Perfect Disk. At any rate, remember to run whichever defrag you choose at least once a month.

And so ends our no-so-short journey through basic software set-up. In our next and final thrilling installment we’ll be focusing on you, dear reader and how you can avoid being your computer’s worst enemy.

Just tuning in? You’re reading part II! Don’t miss Part I: Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips, Part I

♥

Time & Money Saved. Shawn’s Easy Computer Tips, part I.

bariguy — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:08:22 +0000

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

Hardware is and always will be your starting point for getting the most out of your computer. First and most importantly: This is not going to be a buying guide. This is a discussion on the basic requirement any good computer set-up needs to maximize speed while minimizing cost. The average person does not have unlimited funds to dump into what is essentially entertainment. You need the most bang for your buck and the best life for your investment.

Components

Whether you buy or build, there are going to be a few basic components that will be at the heart of the system’s performance. Motherboard, CPU, RAM, and GPU are most important. While the Hard Drive and Power Supply certainly play a role, it’s a bit less critical in mid-range systems.

Motherboard – While minimally important in it’s own right when it comes to it’s effects on the performance of the mid-range Computer, it will determine what sort of components you’ll be getting. Make sure any CPU, RAM and video card you get will function on the motherboard you choose. Find out the maximum of each of these your motherboard can support and make note of it when you go out looking for these parts. Make sure the motherboard has 4 RAM slots on it, to leave us room to grow.

CPU - This isn’t just the brain, it’s also the muscle. The better this component, the better your PC. I won’t dive into Intel vs AMD; both make great CPUs. Just make sure it matches up with your motherboard selection. However, the newer CPUs can be insanely expensive. Sometimes the CPU alone, if you buy bleeding edge, can be well over $1000. This is not our CPU. Our CPU was $1000 about a year ago. It’s about $250-$350 now. All the games that are being released over the next couple years will have been designed with this processor in mind. Get the best one you can find in this price range. Chances are this won’t be the max your motherboard can support, which will give you an easy upgrade in a year.

RAM - If the CPU is the brain and muscle, the RAM is the heart and circulatory system. About 95% of the system instability I see are caused by either bad, insufficient or improperly addressed RAM. I’ve seen otherwise great systems crippled by a shortage of RAM and numerous crashes caused by low quality or mismatched RAM. Is more RAM better? Yes, to a point. Any 32 bit Windows can’t access more than 3GB and while I like accessing 4GB of RAM with Vista 64, the truth of the matter is that it’s really not a necessity at this point in time. Plan on buying 2 Gig of the best RAM you can afford and your motherboard can support. Don’t worry if you’re not buying the fastest RAM your motherboard can support. It just makes it easier to upgrade later when the prices drop.

Video Card/GPU – The right Video card for our computer is not the top of the line. Top of the line GPUs make CPUs look cheap. For the sake of discussion, we’ll assume we want our computer to play games, otherwise any onboard video would be good enough for you. So, what we need is a video card that will play games and make them look as pretty as possible without breaking the bank. Not surprisingly the same rule that works for CPUs work for GPUs. Buy the bad boy from a year ago, maybe a year and a half. It’ll likely be about as much as your CPU, if not a bit more. The nice thing about Video cards is that while the GPUs change all the time, the slot on the motherboard that they fit into doesn’t, so we’ll likely have room to grow here, too.

Hard Drive – There have likely been actual wars fought over the proper hard drive set up, and if money were no option, we would grab a super fast 15,000 RPM hard drive just for the OS and install our data and apps on a 4 Disk RAID of 1 Terabyte Drives in 1+0. However, money is actually an object for most of us, so the rule here is, buy a decently reviewed large drive and make one large partition. At the moment, the good $-to-GB ratio is in the 7200 RPM drives, so grab a 300-500GB drive for around $60-$100 and make sure it (and your motherboard) support SATA.

Power Supply – One basic rule: Don’t go cheap here! Cheap Power supplies burn out and take your PC with it. Figure on replacing the cheap, no-name one your case came with. Try to get efficient/green PSUs if you can afford it. Not because I care, but because your power bill will thank you. 200 Watts is a little more than enough to run a Hard drive, DVD, a newish CPU, 2 GB of RAM and onboard Video/Sound. 100 Watts is not. The more you have, the more power it takes to run it. For most mid-range computers, including ours, 400-500 Watts is more than enough.

One final note on all of this: Don’t try to use old hardware you have laying around. The only acceptable piece of hardware that can basically be passed down for more than a couple years is your floppy drive. The same thing goes for spending good money on most of your parts and the cheap out on one part. Our basic goal in all this is to keep our system from bottlenecking, or slowing down because of one cheap component. You can’t buy a great CPU and 512MB of cheap slow RAM. You also can’t load up your computer with tons of hardware and USB devices and try to run it on some cheap 100W power supply.

Now, it is not enough to simply buy all this and put it together (or have it built) and just leave it the hell alone. Just like your car, the insides of your computer need to be taken care of in order to work properly.

Maintenance

Much like a car engine, the number one enemy of computer hardware is heat. Inside a case, this heat is normally dissipated with fans moving air through the case and over little fins of metal called heat sinks. In addition to cooling air, these fans drag dust and cat hair and smoke, and everything else through your system where it promptly gets stuck on these blades and heat sinks. This makes the temperatures rise which shortens the life of your expensive hardware and makes it more likely to break down.

Obviously, this just won’t do. You will have to clean out the fans, heat sinks and the intake and outflow grills in your computer case to keep the cool air flowing. Depending on how dusty your house is, you should be cleaning your computer out anywhere from every 3 to 6 months almost exactly like your car’s oil change. Usually a couple of cans of compressed air and a little patience will get the dust off of most of your computer. If you smoke (much like we both used to) you will likely need to do a more thorough cleaning and more often.

Cleaning your computer is vitally important. I have had computers brought to me with costly repairs that were basically the result of damage done by improper or impeded airflow. Keep the system clean and save yourself some dough.

So ends the first part of our little adventure. You’re now ready to run off and spend hard-earned money at my favorite store, Newegg. Next post we’ll tackle the software part of the puzzle and show you how to put all your new found hardware to use.

♥

Improving your Cell Phone Pictures

Melissa — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:41:57 +0000

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 .

♥

Tips & Tricks to get the Most out of your Camera and Photography II

Melissa — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:33:00 +0000

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

♥

Tips & Tricks to get the Most out of your Digital Camera and Photography

Melissa — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:00:28 +0000

A lot of people generally can’t afford top of the line digital cameras, or at least, the more expensive top-of-the-line DSLR’s available to them, but still want to know if it’s possible to improve the photos they take with their off-brand cameras. Here are some simple tips to help improve the quality of your images.

What’s this button do?

No matter what brand of camera you have, R. T. F. M, Or Read the Freaking Manual. Take time to read it back to front then back again, learn what your camera can do. Learn what the controls are and what they can do. If you don’t understand a setting or explanation, thankfully Google is everyone’s friend and there are a million web sites out there that will help explain things like shutter speed and aperture.

And Mel said: Let there be light.

Light, first and foremost is going to be the most important thing in any photograph you take. Learn a little about light and what settings of Flash your camera has. Then you can start playing in it, whether it’s a lot of light or a little, everything you do should revolve around light. There are some things to keep in mind when it comes to light and how to use it in a photo.

Sunlight/Natural light is pretty much the best kind of light around for photos and for those of us who can’t afford recreating it. Unfortunately, the weather and other factors can muddle that up a bit. Believe it or not, however, a bright, but nevertheless cloudy day can be an excellent environment to shoot in. The clouds can often soften the usual harsh shadows that sunlight creates.
When shooting in daylight, put the sun to the side of your subjects, because behind them (if it’s not the effect you want) will give you a dark silhouette of the subject. The sun directly in front of them might make them squint.
Think about the angle of light. Shadows can be powerfully cast over one half of something depending on where the light is coming from and where you have the subject.
Time of day can influence the color of light in your shots. Early morning shots generally have a red or orange hue, morning to before noon is more yellow, noon is obviously the brightest part of the day and most shadows are gone. This is the best time for landscape photography but often considered the worst time for photographing people. Day to evening gets you similar colors as what is in the morning sun.

Do it over and over and over and over and over again.

Yes really. Take a bajillion pictures of the same thing, from seven different angles. Set a side a day and take pictures of everything you do if you don’t have anywhere “exciting” you can go to. Take pictures of your loved ones. The old saying is practice makes perfect, and it suits photography. It’s not just ‘pick up camera, take awesome shot.’ You might get a great shot 1 out of every 500, but why not practice so that it’s a great shot every time?

See the photo before you take it.

Start thinking in photos. Instead of seeing a tree with the sun behind it, start imagining a photograph of it. What about the top of the tree with the rays of light just poking behind it? Or maybe lay under the tree and see what the sun is like through the branches? Maybe have the tree and the sun to the left and blue sky fill the right? Imagine what the picture you are about to take might look like.

I can see your nose hairs.

Think outside the frame/focus. Get right on top of your subject, go far, far away. Lay down on the ground or floor to take a picture at the same height of something down there, or to take images from up above. Try turning the camera upside down–or if you are very brave, you could even try taking a picture while tossing it! Experiment with angles and strange camera positions to get an interesting image.

Hold it!

How you hold your camera can determine whether or not that shot’s going to turn out sexy, or shaky. Hold your camera in your dominant hand, (left or right if it’s comfortable, generally the button you need to use to take a photo should be near and easily accessible) and keep your elbows close to your body, not outward. Your opposite hand should curl around the lens (if it can) for further stability. If your camera doesn’t have lens like that, you can of course, grip the other side of it. Your feet should be shoulder width apart. This stance will help you take your images in a bit steadier of a grip.

There other do-it-yourself tips and tricks too, to keeping your camera steady, such as the bottle cap tripod, and pocket tripod, as well as shelling out for an actual tripod if you can afford it.

Flash. And we’re not talking the guy in the leotards.

You’ve got to know when to hold it. Know when to –okay, okay, sorry. But it’s true, there’s a place for flash and there are places where flash should never go. First, keep in mind that flash generally has no use for objects far away. Your camera’s manual should tell you exactly how far your camera’s flash can reach before it becomes moot.

Use Flash for objects up close indoors, don’t use flash for taking pictures of objects 4-6 feet away!
You CAN use flash outdoors. On bright, sunny mid-days, sometimes the sun creates extreme and harsh shadows across the subjects you want to take a picture of. If you have it, Fill Flash will be your friend for those bright noon-day images. Fill flash does exactly what it says, it will try and fill the shadows with light.
If you are taking pictures of multiple subjects with flash, try and make sure they are all the same distance away from the camera. Otherwise, the objects within the images will all be exposed to different intensities of light.
If you are using a disposable camera, or a camera where you just cannot turn the flash off at all, get in close and try experimenting with a diffuser.
Diffuse or direct the flash yourself. A roll of semi-opaque tape over your flash, a cigarette box with top open, a small white piece of paper of card held in front of your flash tipped to the ceiling to throw it away from the subject, experiment with this to find what works for you and your camera. Bouncing your flash from the ceiling or a wall instead of the subject can also help to reduce red eye.
Your camera does NOT always know when to use the flash and when not to. Don’t trust your camera to use a flash when it should or shouldn’t. If you are taking photos inside, on a well lit sunny day with plenty of light, turn off your flash. You shouldn’t need it and it will just wash out your photos, creating harsh shadows.
For indoor photos, make sure that you are in between the window and your subject. The light should be at your back and falling on the object in front of you.
Experiment with everything. Experiment with your camera’s flash setting to get to know its in’s and outs and what works for you and what doesn’t.

This is really just the icing on the cake when it comes to photography in general, leaving out composition, rule of thirds, framing, leading lines, photography at night or in low-light, which I plan on covering in a second part, as well as an endless list of little DIY tips and tricks I wasn’t able to cover. But for a beginner with no clue (such as myself) I think these might start you on the right path to improving your photos, let me know if they help and let me see any photos you have!

♥

Seven Random yet neat Adobe Photoshop tutorials

Melissa — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 20:12:37 +0000

Adobe Photoshop CS4

Thanks to Stumble Upon, I’ve managed to amass a small collection of Adobe Photo shop tutorials I’ve really thought useful, or just tutorials I’ve really loved. Without further ado, here are some of my favorites, I hope they’ll help you!

Making a Movie 100×100 icon, by Gawariel Design

“I know this icon isn’t that pretty, but all the basics of movie-making are in it.
Just remember that all the settings I used are for this specific icon only. Every setting depends on the icon you want to make. So, you wont be able to litteraly copy everything I have done to make your own movie icon, but at least you’ll get an idea on how it’s done!”

Make a Realistic planet, by dangtruong, on 9tutorials.com

“This tutorial should step you through making a simple, yet realistic-looking planet using Adobe Photoshop 7, and ONLY Adobe Photoshop 7. We’re working small here, so keep in mind that the larger you work, the harder the planet will be to create (just a bit more work as size increases).”

Out of Bounds tutorial, by agaraga: tilted reality

“OOB effects can be done with only one photo or with several images composed and you can either leave the original background as is or distort it to add a different look. Following example was done using only one photo and the background hasn’t been distorted.”

Add a misty or dreamy effect to your photos, by Nifty tutorials

“This quick tutorial will show how to add a really cool dreamy or misty effect to your photos. This tutorial works best with nature related images.”

How to create a lense baby effect in Photoshop by Nicora.net

“I will be the first to say right away that this technique does not exactly replicate what Lensbabies can achieve. In fact I discovered this technique without even having Lensbabies in my mind, but instead later realized there are some similarities. Anyway, lets jump into the tutorial.”

Create your own web 2.0 button, by hongkiat.com

“Photoshop tutorials are probably one of the hottest categories in any Photoshop tutorials site and since Web 2.0 is such hot topics now, lets go about doing a simple button suitable for any Web 2.0 application of websites.”

Making a realistic star field, by artofgregmartin.com

“Let’s face it: stars can be really hard to draw. I’m not talking about the singular balls of blazing gasses, though, I’m talking about the subtle and beautiful star fields that make a piece of celestial art what it is: a portrayal of space.”

♥