The “Leica” Look and Classic Film Actions With Photoshop
I was trying to give my photos that “Leica” look and was able to find a technique that allows me to do this. You can find this technique in a pretty old article on leica-users.org.
This reminded me of a bunch of Photoshop actions I had discovered a few years back that allows you to mimic different types of film, including Fuji Velvia and Kodak’s now discontinued Kodachrome. For a set of free actions, they’re not too bad. One word of warning, if you’ve got a camera that produces fairly noisy images, the noise may become more pronounced by the actions. Go to Pierre Bize’s Photoshop Actions site to find them.
Modifying the onClick value in javascript
I was trying to figure out an easy way of changing the onclick value of a click-able element in a project I’m working on and found this solution — so incredibly simple, and it works in Safari, FF and IE…
document.getElementById(‘clickable-element-id’).onclick = function() {functionname(parameterlist);};

Canon Zoombrowser Error – ZB Module Stopped Working
If you use the Canon Zoombrowser and have come across the dreaded “ZB Module Stopped Working” error, you might be in luck.
I came across a great write-up on why this problem comes up and how to solve it. In short, the problem appears to be with Windows Vista’s WCS color management system. I was able to fix the problem by simply using the system default setting for my display devices. I never saw improvements in color despite trying different profiles, so no loss.
Color photos in Russia from 1909
I didn’t realize how much work it took to create color photographs in 1909, not that current color print processing is no small feat.
Apparently Russian photographer Sergey Mikhaylovich Prokudin-Gorsky devoloped a process to accomplish this. Take a look at his photographs from a century ago. They look like they were taken just yesterday. Amazing!
http://quazen.com/arts/photography/the-incredible-century-old-color-photography-of-prokudin-gorsky
Vista moved my Videos directory…
For whatever reason, Vista decided that my Videos directory should be relocated to some awfully nested location… someplace it doesn’t below.
After Binging for a solution, the fix is easy. What’s not so easy to figure out is why Vista changed it to begin with…
The Determination to Succeed
I was looking for some photos of a vacation my family took a few years ago. It was 2005, and we were there for a 2 week vacation to enjoy Florida. As things would have it, we were also there for the first shuttle launch since the shuttle accident that resulted in the loss of all seven crew members of STS-107 in 2003.
My family had a chance to witness history in the making when STS-114 and Discovery with its crew successfully launched for the first time in a little over 2 years.
Thinking back on this reminds me of the sheer determinism that we as people have to succeed despite catastrophic failures.
Anything is possible if you’re willing to learn and honor what has been learned, but most importantly to never give up.
Windows 7 Upgrade Special
Cool – from June 26 to October 22, Microsoft is running an upgrade special to Windows 7. There doesn’t seem to be a special for upgrading to Ultimate.
- Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade – $49.99 (normally $119.99)
- Windows 7 Professional Upgrade – $99.99 (normally $199.99)
I really wish that Microsoft would adopt the Apple upgrade for Mac OS X Snow Leopard. Mac OS X Leopard owners can upgrade for $29. Despite that, I’m going to do the W7 Professional Upgrade…
Documentation for JQuery
Looking to find a visual way to traverse the JQuery documentation? Visit http://visualjquery.com/ for you visual thinkers…
10 UI Design Patterns You Should Be Paying Attention To
Smashing Magazine has a top 10 for design patterns that should be normal practice for commerce sites. These include Lazy Registration, Progressive Disclosure, Forgiving Format and more. If you’re a UI designer and don’t know what these are, take a look at the article.
In a practical sense, these types of patterns allow visitors to your site to complete their shopping tasks and move on to purchasing – the key to success for visitors to painlessly make purchases increasing your number of successful purchases.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/23/10-ui-design-patterns-you-should-be-paying-attention-to/
Running Ubuntu 9.04 on an IBM ThinkCentre M51
I’ve been running Ubuntu 9.04 on an IBM ThinkCentre M51 I picked up from MicroCenter for $150 for a little over 2 weeks now.
Almost flawless… I have a Belkin wireless card installed in the box, which as the Atheros chipset, which results in a lost wirelss connection after a few hours of use.
Ubuntu 9.04 identified the card, lauched a restricted driver dialogue. After downloading and activating the MadWiFi driver, everything’s running smoothly. It’s been over a week now and the system hasn’t lost its WiFi connection.