Many Windows PC users don’t know their computer has a virus until their system starts to act funny. Maybe everything seems to be fine, but there is something that doesn’t seem quite right. Their computer might seem a little bit sluggish or a favorite homepage has suddenly been replaced by something else. Worse yet, their default browser can’t get access to the internet. When this happens to you, what do you do? » Read more: Does your Windows PC have a virus?
Archive for the ‘DIY’ category
Does your Windows PC have a virus?
June 4th, 2010My thoughts on moving
April 19th, 2010During the months of March and April I have helped several people move from one house to another or transfer their possessions from a house into storage. During this time, I have been thinking a lot about moving – the tools of the trade and what I liked or disliked about the moves I helped with. One of the moves was planned, the rest were not. The planned move went smoothly. The other moves each had their good points and bad points. With each move I learned something new, a new packing or moving technique. Everybody has an opinion - either good or bad – about the things they’ve experienced. Here are a few of my thoughts on moving. » Read more: My thoughts on moving
I need power tools
March 17th, 2010I don’t know how crafstmen survived before power tools. I imagine they brought their hand tools and the tools to sharpen their hand tools with them to the job. Without power tools, they must have taken hours or days to finish a project that now takes us little time at all. I’m sure the secret to their success was keeping their tools clean and sharp. No running to a big box hardware store like Home Depot, Lowes or Orchard Supply if a tool broke.
I started work on a project today. It turned out I didn’t have power tools for this project; a Dremel would have been so nice. I completed the project the old fashioned way using a hacksaw, cross-cut file, single-cut file, and sandpaper.
I had to reshape a metal part to fit the contour of another part. At my last job, there was a lot of part fabrication so there were many power tools on hand. You might say I got kind of spoiled with access to power tools on-demand. There were multiple Dremels with all kinds of grinding and polishing attachments. They also had belt sanders, drill presses and many other tools on hand.
I’m starting to realize that I need more power tools to make my life easier.
How to remove bathtub stickers
March 15th, 2010This weekend I was given the task of removing adhesive bathtub decals or stickers. These stickers had been attached to the tub for at least 7 or 8 years since we moved into our current residence. Who knows how long they were attached before we moved in. The stickers weren’t peeling, they were just ugly and had to go. So how do you remove stickers from a bathtub? » Read more: How to remove bathtub stickers
Vector Graphics & T-Shirts
March 9th, 2010I have been talking with a company that produces silkscreen T-Shirts. They require the graphics in a particular file format called Vector graphics. It appears that all graphics aren’t created equal. » Read more: Vector Graphics & T-Shirts
Dust bunnies will kill your computer if you let them
February 16th, 2010Those little dust bunnies aren’t cute, they’re little killers. Consisting of dust and pet dander, they like to latch onto air vents, cooling fins, and anywhere there is moving air. Where you find one, you can bet you will find more. They like to congregate in warm places, especially around electronics cooling components. One thing that will adversely affect your computer’s performance and shorten its life is dust and animal dander. Your computer relies on proper airflow to stay healthy. If you’ve noticed your computer fan seems to be running louder or more frequently than it has in the past, it might be a sign that your computer is overdue for some basic maintenance. » Read more: Dust bunnies will kill your computer if you let them
Macro Photo Studio 1.1.1
November 21st, 2009A while ago I posted ”Macro Photo Studio 1.1“ I mentioned some modifications I wanted to make for Revision 1.2 of Macro Photo Studio. The main issue I was experiencing was a brownish hue showing up in pictures taken with the Macro Photo Studio. It turns out, it was the reflection off the cardboard. » Read more: Macro Photo Studio 1.1.1
Resizing your image for social network profile
September 21st, 2009Have you ever uploaded a picture for your social network profile only to discover it was resized on you? The problem is not that it was resized, the problem is with the scale. If the scaling isn’t proportional then that great picture might not be so flattering. It will be like looking in one of those Distortion Mirrors in the Fun House. It could distort the picture so much that it doesn’t represent the true you.
There are 3 options to resolve this issue:
- Offer your techie friend a coffee, Jolt or Rockstar in return for helping you scale your image to the right size.
- Resize and crop it yourself using a graphic program.
- Resize and crop it yourself using an online utility.
Option 1 should be relatively quick & painless. They’ll ask you to send them an email with your picture enclosed. They might ask you the following questions:
- Which social network is this for?
- What are the dimensions in pixels?
- Which image format do you need?
Option 2 is not as simple, since you will be doing the work yourself.
- Open your image file using a graphic program that will allow cropping and resizing images. My favorite is Paint.NET, a free photoshop like program.
- To keep the whole image
- Select Image Resize
- Make sure “Maintain aspect ratio” is checked. This will ensure the width is proportional to the height.
- Resize to the desired pixel size.
- To keep part of the image
- Change view from inches or centimeters to pixels
- Use rectangle select tool to outline the area of your image you want to work with. As you resize the rectangle, it should show the approximate size of your cropping area.
- Crop selected area. This might be an icon or a menu selection depending on the graphic program you’re using.
- The cropped area might not be the perfect size yet. Your width or height might be a few pixels too big.
- Now you can resize the canvas. Paint.NET has this option.
- Turn off the aspect ratio. We don’t want to distort the cropped area.
- Adjust height or width to fit the exact pixel dimensions required for your profile.
- Save the file using the dimensions as part of the name “myPic_50x50.jpg” or “myPic_50x50.gif”
Option 3 is probably the simplest method of all to resize your image for social networks.
- Visit http://mypictr.com/ a web based social picture resizing application
- In most cases it takes only 4 steps to create a resized picture that is customized to the desired social networking profile requirement.
- Browse and load the picture from your local hard drive.
- Select the desired social network. This determines the required dimensions. From what I could tell they have most of the networks I know about. They also allow the user the manually set the dimensions.
- Select image view
- Drag the floating visibility frame to your desired picture focus
- NOTE: The darker area outside the box will not be part of the picture.
- You can use the zoom to adjust the scale of the picture. Zoom out to get more of the picture. Zoom in to get less.
- Create the picture
- Once the picture has been created, you can download it to your local hard drive or send it to yourself via email.
My personal choice was Option 3. Of course, I’m already that techie guy and the web application mypictr.com saved me a lot of extra work.
For those who aren’t techie people, just choose Option 1 and ask your techie friend to show you how they did it. Then you’ll know how to do it the next time you need it.
Macro Photo Studio 1.1
September 14th, 2009Last month, in my blog “Making my own Macro photo studio“ I mentioned a few changes I would make to my studio and environment to improve the macro photography experience.
Updated Macro photo studio
Revision 1
1.) I opened up the front bottom of the Macro photo studio. This allowed me to place the object in the studio without the problems of maneuvering it over the front lip of the box.
2.) I increased the lighting source from 40 watt to 75 watts for each bulb. Each bulb outputs 830 lumens.
3.) I added a third light source to the top. I improvised with a mechanics drop light. In the future, I’ll probably get another goose neck lamp, so I can control the light direction from above.
NOTE: in this version, I did not add velcro for the backdrop. The backdrop I’m using which is poster board, seemed to work fine for these photos.
My Zen Garden photos
I took a few shots to see how well some of the modifications did. I’m pretty happy with the results. Of course my camera, Olympus C-3000 Zoom, did a pretty good job.
Zen Rock Garden (Angle shot)
Zen Rock Garden (Length shot)
Changes for Revision 2
A few more modifications I plan to make in future revisions of my Macro photo studio:
1.) Remove the floor panel, so the studio can be rotated 90 degrees for taller objects.
2.) Make side and top light diffuser walls into configurable light diffuser panels. So, I can quickly change the light diffusing material as needed.
3.) Apply white primer to interior to improve reflectivity of light source.
Final thoughts:
My 3x optical zoom camera didn’t do too bad with my Revision 1 Macro photo studio. I’m sure with a 10x optical zoom the photos would have been even better. I can’t wait until prices of digital cameras with 10x optical zoom fall into my desired level of less than $150.
How do you like my Miniature Zen garden pictures? Please post a comment.
How to: Use Fog Creek Copilot an alternative to Remote Assistance
August 30th, 2009I’ve known about Fog Creek Copilot for some time now, but I never really tried it before. I knew there was an offer to use Copilot for free on the weekends, so I decided to try out Copilot today.
The method for setting up a Copilot help session is as follows:
- Step 1 – Helper initiates help session
- Visits Copilot.com
- Clicks on Help Someone tab
- Enters name
- Clicks Go button
- Enters the email of the person being helped
- Downloads and runs Copilot Helper program
- When Copilot Helper runs, it establishes a session with a remote server that will connect the two computers together.
- Step 2 – Help Receiver accepts help session
- Email invitation received from Fog Creek Copilot Support
- Or Receiver contacted by phone from the helper
- Receiver accepts invitation
- Visits Copilot.com, clicks on the receive help tab, enters a 12 digit code the helper was given.
- or Visits embedded link which automates the previous line
- Download and Run Fog Creek Copilot
Once the session is established, the Helper can quickly access the issue to be resolved.
The helper can use Copilot as follows:
- Navigate through the Receiver’s system to take appropriate action.
- Copy files quickly from the Receiver’s system to Helper’s desktop
- Copy files from Helper’s system to the Receiver’s desktop
- Perform ctrl-alt-delete to reboot the system – the copilot gives the option of reconnecting automatically after the reboot occurs.
A few notes about Copilot:
- The window displayed session remaining information in the window Title bar, so you can see how much time is left
- The Copilot software allowed creating a session with one PC, then allowed a session with a completely different PC. That was very useful today when I needed it.
- I can definitely see the value in this service. Only 2 steps and you’re connected and no worries about whether the System will allow a Remote connection or not.
- Transferring files to/from the Helper/Receiver is easy. Helper can do it all.
- The pricing on this service seems reasonable, when I was doing Tech Support as part of my job I could have used a tool like this. It would have really made my life so much easier.
I spent a couple of hours today working with someone who needed help with a PLESK control panel. The Copilot software made the Tech Support session pretty painless. When the connection process takes only two steps, it’s really easy to explain.
If you’re looking for an alternative to Remote Assistance why not give Copilot a try for free on the weekend. You never know, it might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.
