Dr Nerdy Reincarnates as a Non Nerd
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
Stupid Videos
I never thought I’d hear the day when the Grapelli and Reinhardt tune Minor Swing would be used for silly videos, not sure whose version this is. But here’s a silly gravity video
Eco Friendly Hot Water Systems Tweed Rivers Australia
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
Photo Editing contest at other Blog
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
Photo Editing Competition V2
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
Photo contest at another Blog
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
WordPress Hostgator Upgrade
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
We buy houses hot property channel 7
We buy houses
People that are familiar with the Rick Otton way of buying a house that live in Australia may be very interested in the fact that in the hot property programme this Sunday 7th and Sunday 14th. channel 7 they are covering his Strange way of buying a home. For more information about buying and selling houses go to http://www.strangehomes.com.au/index.html
I’m putting this information in my blog because I know a number of people are interested in Investing in Property and saving money. As a friend of Darren and Shelly Strange from Strange Homes and also the person that built their site I thought watching the show would be a great idea for people to get a better undrstanding of purchasing houses in an unconventional way in the Northern NSW, Byron, Tweed, Pottsville and surrounding areas.
Tony Hogan
A life changing event v2
Some days back I said I was going to post some info on a life changing event. I have not been able to complete the article because I am waiting on some reference material that is relevant to the article.
When the information arrives, I will post immediately.
Blog addicts
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
Is scripting and computer programming an art form?
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?
Blog Addiction to Blogging
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.