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Restore Old Antique Photos and Remove Cracks with Photoshop

Nathan — Tue, 26 May 2009 21:20:41 +0000

Yesterday was Memorial Day. I didn’t really do much for it, other than do a few touchups on some pictures my Mother had found and scanned into the computer. The problem was that the picture looked dry, and had a huge crack down the middle. So I used my trusty photoshop “patch” tool and did a little brightness/contrast adjustments. Just an FYI – The Brightness/Contrast tool SUCKS in pre-CS3 versions. Only use it in CS4 and new photoshops.

Full Size Before Picture

Full Size After Picture

Why Is Windows 7 Amazing? The Benefits of Windows 7!

Nathan — Sun, 10 May 2009 09:06:34 +0000

Tonight, while bragging about having W7 (Windows 7) and saying how much I loved it, my good friend Jeremy told me I should write a blog post about the benefits. So here I am, heeding his Elite Advice.

I recently downloaded Windows 7 RC1 from Microsoft. My system had been running Vista for over a year and it was becoming fairly unstable. I even started to receive the blue screen of death upon every shutdown. After dealing with that for over a month, I decided it was time to move on to bigger and better things. By bigger, I mean the additional 1TB of space I added to my already massive arsenal of hard drive space. By better, I mean upgrading from Windows Vista to W7.

Right now, here are my personal ratings for the mainstream OS’s today:

Ubuntu – 2/10 (hard to learn – definitely not user friendly)
Windows XP – 5/10 (old, not very friendly to the eye’s compared to the new stuff)
Windows Vista – 7/10 (it works, but it lacks in friendliness – UAC is also a major pain)
Apple OSX – 7.5/10 (remember, these are overall scores)
Windows 7 – 9.5/10 (read the rest of this post and find out)

Overall W7 blows anything I’ve touched out of the water. OSX still have the strong side with media, but it lacks in “customization”.

Windows 7 Highlights

- New Taskbar: To fully discover the awesome-ness of the new taskbar, you need to use it firsthand to understand it completely. A cool trick is minimizing/maximizing everything. You can now do this by clicking on a small block on the taskbar right next to the clock! You can also drag files around! It’s definitely more similar OSX’s taskbar.

- Windows XP Mode: Run Windows XP SP3 completely inside of W7 on a virtual machine. The integration is amazing! Although it does have a few requirements and requires and additional download.

- Problem Step Recorder: A simple application that records steps you take, and compiles them into an MHTML document. The document can be opened in any web browser, and shows pictures and has a brief description of each step the user takes. And the best part is the user only has to hit “record” and “stop” when they are finished!

- Beautiful Wallpapers: Although most of the internets are going crazy over some of the new and more interesting wallpapers, Microsoft actually included quite a few amazing landscape wallpapers. (sample1, sample2, sample3)

- Windows Explorer: The new Windows Explorer tab is my favorite addition to W7. It adds a “Libraries” section to your computer’s explorer! It comes with a Documents, Music, Picture, and Videos “Library” by default. What you do is add a shortcut to all of the folders you want in each section. For example: instead of navigating to “C:\Users\Nate\Downloads\Torrents\Finished Torrents” every time you want to open a file in “Finished Torrents” you can just add that folder to your “Documents” library and have it at your fingertips! And if you click+hold and drag up on the quick launch icon, it will have “Frequent” folders! Amazing!

- Sticky Notes: I actually use them. They are an actual program, so you don’t have to worry about using them as a gadgets like in Vista.

- Windows Media Player: You can finally play DVD’s on your computer without additional software/drivers! After a fresh install of W7 I just popped a DVD in the tray, and it took me through the commercials and straight to the DVD menu. An also much improved file compatablity. And even better: PC to PC streaming!

- Aero: In W7, Microsoft takes Aero to a new level. Dragging maximized windows on multiple screen desktops is now very easy. Not only is it easy – it’s fun! A cool trick is to “shake” a window, and it will minimize the rest! Leaving only the one you “shake” open.

- Calculator: The New Calculator can do much more than the previous version. Not only does it look nicer, but you can do conversions, statistics, date calculations, and much more!

- System Performance: My computer has more available memory! There are less processes in the Task Manager, and programs take less system memory! It requires less power to run! Which means longer battery life on laptops!

- Paint: In W7, Paint looks wonderful! They did a great job making it user friendly and a bit more powerful. Take a look!

- Windows Media Center: W7 comes with Windows Media Center pre-installed! It looks beautiful and works perfectly!

- Blu-ray: W7 supports Blu-ray out of the box! Now you can read and write without additional software!

- Multiple Displays: Not only does the Aero Maximized window display hopping help users with dual screens, but you can now easily switch outputs just by pressing [Windows Key] + P. This is extremely helpful for presentations.

- Internet Explorer 8: IE8 is included with W7. While many people hate IE, it is an extremely stable and rounded web browser. It follows chrome in tabs having separate processes, and follows FireFox by having add-ons. It’s actually quick too!

- Networking: HomeGroup is basically a way to connect all of the computers in your house, so you can easily share files, video, and devices (printers) with little or no setup!

- User Account Control (UAC): W7 finally gives the user some control! No need to hack your system to hide those pesky popups before you install or run anything! UAC has 4 settings ranging from strict to (basically) off! It much less annoying than in Vista.

- Program Compatibility: I have personally installed more than 25 programs onto my system in the past 48 hours, and everything works equivalent or better than Vista!

- Personalization: The new Personalization Center in the Control Panel has more options. You can now choose from over 20 radiant colors, a few more Dual-Screen compatible screen savers, rotating desktop background (you can set on an auto-rotate with a time limit, or just right click on your desktop to change!), and over 15 different sound themes! Everything from pleasant notifications to annoying beeps!

Overall Windows 7 is by far the most advanced and user friendly operating system I have yet to use. You should use it too! Just download the Windows 7 RC1 before June 2009, and use it for free until June 2010!

My current configuration for W7:
- Windows 7 RC1 64-bit
- Intel Q6600 2.4ghz Quad Core CPU
- 1.5TB Hard Drive Space
- 512mb nVidia 8800 GTS
- 3GB Ram Memory
- Dual 19″ 1440×900 Displays

Want to know if your system can handle Windows 7? Try the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see if you can!
Want to upgrade from Vista or XP? Lifehacker has an excellent post just for you!

You can pre-order Windows 7 Now @ Amazon

Facebook Ads Manager – Not Suggested For Advertising

Nathan — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 01:28:15 +0000

I recently found a few coupons for Facebook Advertising. After getting My Ad for Empire Board Games I figured I would start advertising and spending about $50 a day so I could use the coupons before their value expired.

After looking at the statistics, I was very surprised. I had nearly 400 thousand impressions with only around 200 clicks!!! CRAZY!

I decided that it is not a great place for Pay Per Click, but it could be very good for getting your name/logo out.

Removing People With Photoshop

Nathan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 21:54:22 +0000

I was recently bored, and decided to do something *kind of* productive with my time. I decided to play around in photoshop to see what I could do. It took me about an hour to figure everything out and make it look presentable. I would like to see how talented you readers are, so download the original image here.
I did everything in adobe Photoshop CS4. Let me know if you see any major errors.

Original

Modified

Note: I didn’t take “Jared” out for any specific reason. It just seemed like he was a valid candidate and it would be fairly simple, yet still require a bit of work.

Get The Windows 7 Beta (Beta Is Over)

Nathan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:09:20 +0000

If anyone is interested in trying out Windows 7, you’ve come to the right place!
Microsoft released the beta on Friday 1/9/2009. Due to thousands of request, the servers went down and one day after promised, the beta has been released!

[System Requirements]
You can download the image’s here:
Windows 7 32-bit (Beta is over)
Windows 7 64-bit (Beta is over)

After you have completed the download, proceed by burning the image to a DVD.

Once this is done, you can install Windows 7 using any of the following keys:
(Don’t worry about which code you choose, Microsoft only release these 10. They can be used as many times as you like)

32-bit
6JKV2-QPB8H-RQ893-FW7TM-PBJ73
TQ32R-WFBDM-GFHD2-QGVMH-3P9GC
QXV7B-K78W2-QGPR6-9FWH9-KGMM7
4HJRK-X6Q28-HWRFY-WDYHJ-K8HDH
D9RHV-JG8XC-C77H2-3YF6D-RYRJ9

64-bit
JYDV8-H8VXG-74RPT-6BJPB-X42V4
7XRCQ-RPY28-YY9P8-R6HD8-84GH3
RFFTV-J6K7W-MHBQJ-XYMMJ-Q8DCH
482XP-6J9WR-4JXT3-VBPP6-FQF4M
GG4MQ-MGK72-HVXFW-KHCRF-KW6KY

Let us know how it goes in the comments!

Abstract Artwork Project

Nathan — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:37:52 +0000

I recently completed the class Art 2. The Teacher was Doug Larson, and it was a great class! It opened up my creative side, and I have absolutely no regrets taking it. The picture is of our final project, a 3D object. If you are interested in doing this yourself, then keep reading.

Needed for project:
1 x 2×4x4 of Wood
1 x Wire Hanger
1 x New Nylons (woman’s undergarments)
1 Cup of Gesso
Paints
Paintbrush
Glue
Drill

Steps:

Cut wood block to 2 x 4 x 4
Drill 2 holes into wood block (up to 5, to give more options for design)
Bend Wire Hanger to desired design. Use up to 2 hangers if desired.
Glue Hanger into the holes. (Elmer’s glue should work)
Put Nylons over the project, and pull tight. (Slip on from top to bottom)
Glue Nylons to wood block. Works best to smear on with fingers. (after nylon is on project)
Let dry for 1 hour.
Paint a thin layer of Gesso over the entire project except the very bottom of the wood block. Make sure there are no holes in the nylons, and try to keep the layer as thin as possible as long as there are no holes. If there are holes, it will hurt the structural integrity of the project
Let dry for approximately 2 hours.
Paint desired design.

Feel free to submit a picture of your finished project!

Tribal Wars

Nathan — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 23:02:49 +0000

I’ve been playing Tribal Wars for around two years. It is a real time strategy game. When I say “real time,” I mean it. It take about 1 hour to send troops to the nearest village.
In Tribal Wars you upgrade your village, create warriors, and attack and capture the enemy. Every village (except barbarian villages) is maintained by another human around the world. I play on World 31, which has over 100,000 users. So this is an extremely large and popular game.
In the beginning of the game you start by upgrading your resources and warehouse. It takes around 10 minutes to go from level 1, to level 2. After you’re resources are all around level 15 you’ll want to start upgrading other buildings.
After you’re done with that, you’ll want to try to get invited into a dominant tribe in your area. This will help with security, and give you plenty of allies to assist when in battle.
In the end game, you’ll have multiple villages and will want to try to conquer as many high level villages as possible. Just to give an estimate, upgrading a “Clay Pit” from level 29 to level 30 takes around 10 hours!
If you are on the internet often, I suggest giving it a try! It’s fun, and a great strategy game that doesn’t require too much quick thinking.

You can check out my profile on World 31 here.