Over a year or so I’ve been preoccupied with other online projects and have not focused on this blog.  In the meantime, I have developed two of the worlds best acoustic guitar blogs, Acoustic Guitarist and Acoustic Guitar Player.

Curently I am building my own Social Network at Bling @ Ning to bring together people in my local region , to allow them to have a global web presence and to share their skills with local businesses.

DrNerdy is not dead, he has just headed off in other directions at the moment

For information about Solar Hot Water Systems that are Eco Friendly and help reduce Green House Gases in the Northern Rivers Tweed and Byron Shire, check out James Mc Laughlan at solarhotwater.wordpress.com

I submitted an image for the photo editing contest mentioned in my last post 

photo-projectz.blogspot.com/2008/02/edit-this-photo-contest.html

 THE ORIGINAL

 THE EDIT

PROCESS USED TO EDIT THE IMAGE

Opened Fireworks and saved as new png file

Man

Selected area around man

Used Magic wand + delete to remove unwanted areas

Used Hue saturation tool

Used Color Invert tool

Resized selection

Copied and pasted man twice

Relocated men and flattened to one image
 

Background

Selected tree area

Converted to Grayscale

Used Color Invert tool

Copied and pasted image

Use Flip Horizontal tool

Lined up images so they were symmetrical

Selected both images

Copied and pasted images twice to form background

Flattened background images

Bridge

Selected section of bridge

Removed unwanted pixels with rubber tool and magic wand + delete

Copied and pasted selection to form one long bridge section

Flattened selections to make one element

Use Hue Saturation tool
Changed opacity of image to approx 45%

Copied and pasted bridge

Used different Hue and Saturation levels for each color bridge

Changed opacity of each bridge approx 40 to 60%

Used transform tool to change angles of bridge selections

Exported as jpg

Embed in Web page

Created html file

Inserted image to html file

Uploaded to web server

Tested, tested and tested

http://www.the-acoustic-guitar.com/images/photo3.htm 

Click the link above to see the result

As mentioned in my previous post, there is a photo editing competition at another blog

photo-projectz.blogspot.com/2008/02/edit-this-photo-contest.html

 I’ve decided to approach it from another angle, to see my contribution go to

http://www.the-acoustic-guitar.com/images/photo2.html

A blogger over at http://photo-projectz.blogspot.com/2008/02/edit-this-photo-contest.html has decided to run a contest.The idea is to edit the supplied image.  You might like to check out or even enter the competition.

I have decide to use Adobe (formely Macromedia) Flash. It took about an hour and I worked more organically than anything else. read as: I didn’t plan like designers do.

My entry (if you want to call it that) is a little playful and probably extending the boundaries a little.  If I  get a bit more timre I’ll do a very serious one, but this one is a nice starting point with a little humour.

No competitions aren’t necessarily about winning, it’s always about participating and giveing yourself a short term project to focus on

http://www.the-acoustic-guitar.com/images/photo.html

I have listed an overview of the process, these are not the whole instructions, just a rough guide to the approach.

Brief overview of Editing Process

Open Flash Editor
Create a new file
Import image
Extended timeline
Used trace bitmap tool
Selected various areas
Copied to new layers
Created motion tween
Used colour editing tool
Changed alpha state at various points
Imported other images drawn in Flash
Added text content
Created buttons
Added stop actions and script to buttons
Created html page
Imported swf file
Saved file
Uploaded swf and html file
Tested, tested and retested

This was fun

DrNerdy  Sunday morning Techy moment 

I was just digging around in Hostgator and looking to see what inbuilt autoresponders were there and I noticed that in the Fantastico scripts there is an upgrade available there now for WordPress.   As you may be aware, the WordPress upgrade has been available for a while, but it wasn’t added to Hostgator immediately. 

Anyone that is hosting their blog/s at Hostgator and hasn’t upgraded for a while can easily upgrade:

• Log into cpanel
• Click on the Fantastico De Luxe icon
• If you need to upgrade, you’ll notice in the center of the screen there is a RED ALERT about what needs upgrading
• Click on the upgrade to 2.3.1 next to your blog address

Please note: 
There is also a script to copy and paste just in case the upgrade went skewiff

drNerdy has been out of action for a while getting ready to record a number of musical projects

Yesterday I posted an article about blog addiction.

These are some of the responses I got from a discussion that I posted at Blogcatalog:

QUESTION: How do you know if you have a BLOG ADDICTION?

• When you put people on hold on the phone so you can jot down quotes for your blog.
• Not tonight honey, I have a blog.
• If you post things on your blog like…”I had to go out for an hour but I’m back now”
• When the question “Are you a blogging addict?” makes you blush, like I am right now. 
• In your dreams, do you create a new post for your blog?
• When you shout your blogs name out during sex?
• When you keep eating pizza and drinking coke, continue sitting in front PC blogging!!!
• When you spend almost half a minute squinting at the screen before your eyes can see clearly enough for you to see what you’ve just typed, and you still keep going for another few hours!! (I think I need glasses??)
• When the the print is completely worn off of your F5 key from the zillion times you have refreshed to see if you have a new comment
• When your outgoing message on your phone has your blog url and any urgent messages should be left as a comment on your blog.
• (If you didn’t have to blog on the run you’d ditch the cell phone all together)
  me im now addicted to blog…it has many useful articles 

Lately I’ve found myself spending more time in front of the screen than I actually like.

As a musician and lover of some of the visual arts, I find it a little frustrating when the virtual life takes over the artistic. 

 So I thought I’d run the issue past drNerdy, and he came up with this question

Is scripting and computer programming an art form?

Blogs, have you got an addiction or what? 

With every wonderful new invention enivetably comes a number of issues to be dealt with.  

I started blogging a few years ago because I could see the potential of Blogs for IT students that wanted a web presence that would be a bit of a no-brainer to set up,  providing they had good instructions.  I stepped out of the blogosphere for a while. Meanwhile I have been living my life doing other virtual things which keeps me on the computer about 60 hours a week.

Stepping back into the Blog universe a few weeks back has been quite a shock; the technology has changed, numerous widgets and tools to drive traffic have appeared, lots of people using blogs as affiliate doorways…it really is a new world that is changing while we’re staring at it.

And like all areas of Info Tech, when you’re concentrating on one area, a whole new technology emerges. Or, a pre-existing one morphs into a monster.   

Now there is a whole new digital generation living their lives online, sharing their worlds with strangers, sending messages/comments to people that they pass in the digital street.  I guess it had to happen.

• Forums were too black and white and not pretty or customizable enough. 
• Rebuilding a web page each day was too nerdy and impracticle. 
• Email a bit too too spammy.

So enter the blog, the land where you can add pictures and build /shape your virtual personailty, tell people your woes and break throughs, and tell others what you think about the way they view the world.

But after having a little bit of a dig around the blog lands I’m seeing the foundations of a potential issue. Over the past few years I’ve been exploring computer addictions a little. Our education systems and the business world is pushing everyone into the world of computer technology in a manner that really divides the community. This means:  you know or you don’t, like it or lump it it’s coming anyway.  And there are many people that have a lot of trouble just locating the on button…and mind you…many that can’t find the off button.

 A few of our common digital addictions that really need addressing are

• young teenage guys at LAN parties
• teenage girls that spend hours chatting
• downloading endless amounts of MP3’s that there is not enough time to listen to
• people in jobs that spend all day checking their emails

So what I’m starting to see know is the foundation of a new addiction the BLOG ADDICTION

So how do we know if we have an issue?  (Please note this is a bit tongue in cheek)

• If you create comments on your own blogs
• If you get upset when no-one comments
• When you ask people to comment
• If you get depressed when your blog stats are down
• If you check your blog before breakfast
• If your blog friends out number your physical friends
• If changing your avatar is a stressful experience
• If you post things on your blog like…”I had to go out for an hour but I’m back now”

Ok let’s watch this phenomena closely, its upside or downside.

I’ve created a simple tutorial to print out, to help people set a  WordPress blog.

 Some people prefer step by step instructions

You’ll find them at create a blog