Lessfeet

If you’ve been reading this blog then you know it’s very important to keep your operating system up to date for security purposes. It is also very important to keep your other software up to date especially software that connects to the Internet.

Linux distrobutions like Ubuntu, Fedora and Open Suse keep all of the software installed using the systems software installer up to date. Windows does not do this. Some software checks to see if it’s up to date. If it does not you have a problem.

The Personsl Software Inspector by Secunia will check to see if you have critical software out of date and will prompt you to install the new version. I have a very up to date system but I install  Secunia PSI and ran it. After a couple of minutes it found that my Skype had a new version. I don’t think I’ve heard of a real problem with Skype but you would not want to take that chance.

Secunia is a Danish computer security service provider best known for tracking vulnerabilities in more than 12,400 pieces of software and operating systems.

This is a tip from Paul Thurrott’s Supersite for Windows. You may know the keyboard shortcut for Internet Explorer start fullscreen mode is F11. What you don’t know is the same shortcut works in for Windows Explorer and other applications.  Many other shortcuts work as well. I’ll let Paul tell you more about it.

The email from all of my account goes to Gmail so I have to go to different sites or open and email program. I go to Gmail and it’s all there.  See Lifehacker. But that’s not the tip!

Google does not check your POP account frequently so you may have your Gmail open but your not seeing all of you messages because they’re still on the server. You can go to “Settings”,  “Accounts and Import”, go down to “Check mail using POP3″ and click on “Check mail now”. This will import any new messages.

This method is very inconvenient. A better way is to turn on this new feature that checks your POP accounts whenever you click the “Refresh link” just above your messages.

At the top of the Gmail page click “Settings” and “Labs”. Find “Refresh POP accounts” and enable it. Now you can check your POP accounts with ease.

I was discussing last night with someone about upgrading Ubuntu to a new version. I said I did not know much about it because I was alway trying new distros and I never keep a version long enough to upgrade. I also said I thought it was very simple. Just a few clicks and that it is done with little worry that it would break anything. I looked at the Ubuntu instructions for upgrading. It was just as I thought it is all done with no commandline or recompiling the kernel. I don’t know about it breaking stuff. I guess it’s like anything else. Some things could break.

There are a couple of problems I’m having with my new Nexus One smart phone. One is even when all of the windows are closed many of the applications continue to run. To shut them down you have to press the menu button, touch Settings, touch Applications and touch Running Services. Next you have to select the application you wish to shut down and touch stop. You could do all of this or you could install the “Advanced Task Killer” application. You open the “Advanced Task Killer” and touch Kill selected apps. You can also leave some apps running by deselecting them. That’s it! No fumbling through menus. Just two touches on the screen. Killing apps will help save your battery and save on your data consumption.

Here is a recently restored photo that I have been working on. A lot of what was wrong with this photo was not fixed by Photoshop. It was very stained and very dirty. I had to remove the dirt covering the picture first. If you Google cleaning photos it will tell you much better techniques to do this. I was doing this for free so I did not want to spend any money so I used alcohol. I stared in a corner of the photo to see if there was any problems before using it before cleaning the entire photo. After cleaning the picture and scanning it into Photoshop as a color image I then used a “Hue and Saturation adjustment layer” to to take out the yellow cast. I used a second “Hue and Saturation” adjustment layer to adjust the the lightness of the yellow around the wheel area to remove a big yellow blotch. I fixed the contrast and brightness with a “Levels adjustment layer”. Then used the “Clone Stamp Tool” and finally the “Healing Brush Tool” to take out smudges, and scratches. That’s it! More Photoshop tips!

Here’s a great Windows 7 tip from Veronica at Techzilla.

Google has just launched a new “search options” feature. To use the feature go to Google and enter a search term hit enter. As always you will see the search results. Above to results you will see the words “Show options…”. When you click that a bar will appear on the left that categorizes your results into: videos, forums, reviews, images and chronological order. There are other features I really haven’t looked at like “Wonder Wheel“. I don’t know what that is!

Just like on the previous PhotoShop tip I use the “Pen Tool” to select the subject (fireplug in this case). Invert the selection. Open “Hue and Saturation”. I reduce “Saturation” to -100. This photo has a second “saturation layer” that brightens the yellows in the leaves in the foreground making them brighter and reduced the greens and blues in the background to darken the foliage.

This is a photo taken with my new Canon 50D but what I am most excited about is the Photoshop skill the I perfected. You see this photograph had terrible clutter in the background. (I think there was even a guy with his finger in his nose back there. Otherwise it is a great picture.) The cure of course is you select the background and then blur it. The question is, “How do I make an accurate selection?”. The answer is “the Magic Wand Tool”. Just kidding! The correct tool to use is the “Pen Tool”. If you practice with the “Pin Tool” you can make a very accurate selection. It is very difficult to get use to and you kinda just have to figuer it out. Here are is a tutorial that will try to explain it.