Contact Sheets to Slideshows

As most of us know, Adobe's Photoshop is the premiere tool for editing photos. However, how many of us know how to create slideshows? This video, by Richard Harrington, shows how to use Adobe's Bridge tool, which comes with Photoshop, to create both contact sheets and slideshows. The only drawback - you can't see Flash slideshows on your iPhone!

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Non-Destructive Image Editing

Photoshop has a tool called Smart Objects, and it is able to preserve the image quality as one edits, or transforms, the photo. Watch this Adobe TV video by Michael Ninness to see how it's done:

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Drupal Dreaming

Today I came across a website I'd like to use as an idea-template for our narfe65.org website. Believe it or not, the site belongs to - the White House! What I especially liked was the navigation setup at the top. It's the same type of navigational functionality I've admired at the Business Week site. So, naturally, I decided to explore the code behind the scenes, using "View Source" from the Web Developer module added on to my Firefox browser. Lo and behold, I found the undergarment was built with Drupal. Hummm - I've come across this before. In fact, there seem to be two contestants in the help-me-code contest. Offhand, I forget what the other one is - but both are supported by Blue Host (where I think I'll move my webs and blogs).

What I noticed about Drupal is that, in spite of it's odd-sounding/looking name, it's written in "plain English". The code seems less-Greek-and-Geeky than so many web languages. Which means - I think I can do this! So, for now, I've become a Drupal Dreamer, waiting to dive more deeply into this mysterious-sounding, web-authoring-assistant tool.

The video that follows shows how Drupal handles photo galleries. It's a bit over my head as of now, but not TOO far out of reach such that I don't think I'll ever be able to do it. Again, the nice thing is, notice how many options one has, and how understandable they are. They're written in ordinary English. Indeed, I'm ready to explore more...

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How to Buy a GOOD Laptop

Here's another version of the same thing: a 2011 British video telling us what to look for when we purchase a laptop. The six areas to focus on are: 1) performance, 2) size, 3) battery life, 4) connectivity, 5) hard disk size, and 6) operating system. So, give it a whirl!

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How to Buy a Laptop

Here's an old video (2010) titled "How to Buy a Laptop". Even though technology has changed a lot since then, this information is still relevant! My interest, of course, is a little late. I just recently purchased not one but TWO laptops. Well, it's never to late to learn how the process should be done...

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Smart Objects

This week's class in Deigital Media Skills is on "Editing Graphics". I can't wait! This following video is just a small taste of what lies ahead. It tells how to make non-destructive transformations using Smart Objects. Take a look:

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The Street Corner

Here's an EXCELLENT example of a classic sociological study of urban design. This one-hour digitized movie by William Whyte shows "The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces".

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