Windows Tips: System Information

I had trouble installing a piece of software recently and had to contact the developers for help. They recommended some steps and then asked me to send some info if that didn't help. They wanted me to send a text file with my system information to let the dev guys know my hardware set-up, installed drivers, etc.

Turns out that the System Information window has heaps of other useful info it. If you ever have q's about your system, you might be able to find some answers by looking at it.

How to find your System Information:

Click Start> click Run> type in "msinfo32" and hit Enter.

* Use File> Export to create a text file version of it.

More info...

• http://www.gtopala.com/
• http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308549
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms724953(VS.85).aspx

10 great apps for college students

This article provides links to 10 great applications every college student could use. From Google Docs to help with bibliographies this blog highlights great tools to help you get things done. A favorite from the list is MyNoteIt.com.

There are definitely some good GTD tools and cloud computing tools that allow you to work from anywhere or any computer on the web.

Ustream - stream TV of your events

Ustream TV is an incredibly useful app to stream live TV from your event. It's free accessible and takes care of all of the technical details so that you can concentrate on content. Plus, there are lots of cool live web cam applications to watch. Head over to ustream and check it out.

As always, I would love to hear your ideas and input.
phree

File Renamers - A Quick Update

In a previous post, 1,000's of Files to Rename - 1 Easy Solution, I recommended the file renamer - Denis Kozlov's ReNamer.

At first glance, there's one feature that's missing - the ability to rename folders.

Well, it IS there. You just have to dig a little to turn the option on. In the divider, between where you drag the rules and the files, you'll see some drop down menus. Choose Filters and check on Add folders as files. You'll notice that you can now drag folders into the files area and have ReNamer's rules apply their changes on the folders, too.

BOOYA! Done.

Additionally, there is another free renaming tool you can use if ReNamer doesn't do it for ya' - LupasRename. It's a favorite at work and for good reason. Give it a try!

GTD & Web Design Resources

Once again Mashable. com has put together two great lists of resources that are helpful for GTD (getting things done) and web design. So without further ado, I give you two get started sites for increasing your productivity and getting web design tools.

1. GTD toolbox 100+ tools for getting things done,
2. Web design tools: 100+ tools for web design.

Check them out and let me know which are most useful.

Cool sights for design inspiration & PSD files

Just thought I'd post a few links to sites that have abundant design resources. First up is the inspiration. From Mashable.com (a generally great site for creatives overall), we havet 100 Great Resources for Design. The article focuses on CSS resources, but there are also beautiful layouts, good color combos and nice formats for information sharing.

Second, for those who use Photoshop, the interesting article entitled Design Resource | 30+ Free Quality PSD Files to Download provides nice starter files for anyone learning to emulate good design principles.

Finally from the same design resource site,Design Resource | 15 Sites to download Free PSD files adds more files for those seeking to learn how to use Photoshop.

I hope these resources inspire you to create beautiful designs as Spring 2009 gets underway. Explore and beef up your creative chops.

Getting more financial aid

As someone who struggled financially during a long educational career, I know that times are tough and finding ways to pay for school are a top concern. That's why I'm posting the following link to a great site with fresh ideas on financial aid. Financial Aid Podcast (http://www.financialaidpodcast.com) is a great overall site for insights on paying for college; the following post addresses some of those concerns in particular: How to ask for more financial aid.

Let me know what you think....

Cities & Thinking

A new article claims that living in densely packed urban environments may actually harm our thinking processes. Read it for yourself @ How The City Hurts Your Brain. On an interpretive note, I think the article reflects the levels of stress associated with high density environments. Near the end the study's author admits that the same situations that produce stress also spur creativity. Thus, the study is a mixed bag which is why the proposed solution, creating more green spaces within city limits, takes a middle-way approach of trying to recreate the best elements of nature in parks.

If you are stressed out by the urban pace of life and lack of natural settings, this article will surely speak to you. For urbanites, it reaffirms what we know, nature escapes are necessary to recharge.

Enjoy...

All the Tech in the World Can't Save You Now

A quick note on technology... it's only as good as the PEOPLE using it.

Having the latest and greatest tech won't help a single bit, if you and your team don't make sure you know how to use it. This is a good thing to consider when starting your next project. Remember that your team's personal responsibility, creativity, resourcefulness, experience and common sense are going to be what matters in the end.

Choose wisely.

Use Wubi to learn Linux

As a huge proponent of learning new widely used technologies, I have been telling students who work with Internet technologies to learn Linux because 99% of all new web servers coming online are on Linux servers. Workplaces, especially small companies, often use linux file servers to avoid the huge licensing costs associated with Server 2007.

Now there is an easy way for beginners to install Linux on a second hard drive and play with the Ubuntu version of the Linux Hardy Heron kernel. If these terms sound like a foreign language to you, then this post is something you need. Wubi is a simple linux installer program that you can run straight from Windows. It will set up linux on the hard drive of your choice, make a boot loader and generally configure some of the more geeky settings. There are many different versions of linux and Ubuntu is one of the most popular. Check out the Ubuntu installation guide at seo.gadget and begin to learn!

Use Acrobat.com as a meeting place

Adobe's new AIR/Flash platform is ripe for application development and they are showcasing the possibilities with the latest in web 2.0 cloud computing. Acrobat.com is a powerful little conferencing application that provides for three vital functions:

1. You can make PDFs online and share them with anyone using an email address.
2. It contains a full-featured web meeting application complete with easy to use white board, web cam conferencing and telephone call-in numbers for voice only conferencing.
3. A free word processor, Buzzword, also is available for generating quick documents on the fly. You can also export them to your favorite format and save them on your local disk which is convenient for the jump drive enthusiasts.
   

Though, I love google docs/apps too, this user interface is simple, sleek and efficent in delivering the goods, all for free! Try it out and move into the sphere of cloud computing.

Get Motivated and Stay That Way!

We all know it is sometimes hard to start projects, even those we care about and want to do. Thus, today's lifehack comes from the Zen Habits blog offering The Ultimate Guide to Motivation. My favorite aspect of this article is that it breaks down two categories in which procrastination usually stops progress:

1. Getting started, and
   
2. Staying motivated when you are in the middle of the project.
   

This latter category is especially helpful because natural stalls in project workflow can make downtime, wasted time if we're not motivated to keep moving forward. Thus, for the long hot days of summer, let the zen expert be your guide.

Who Registered MY Name As THEIR Domain?!

Ever wonder who owns a domain and when it's up for grabs?

Stop wondering...

http://www.who.is/


NOTE: On certain domain registration sites, after you check the availability of a website, a bot automatically registers it. That's why you'll see so many domains owned by hosting companies. You are then forced to "make an offer" on the domain by "hiring a broker". In the end, you pay for the service to buy the domain and then pay more than necessary for the domain. I register my domain through dreamhost (my hosting company) and haven't had a problem.

Learn IA and WebDev simultaneously

Hope you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! This is a post for my fellow geeks who spend holiday weekends dreaming about new projects, software and design tools.

For all of my IMD/Web Design students and those getting ready to launch web portfolios, here are two hot links. The first is the is from one of my old school faves, Webmonkey. The tutorial covers information architecture and sets the stage for content design/management. If you are planning websites for clients this is a must read. It lays out the web site planning and content design process in detail. To design tight sites you have to know how your clients and users will view the

The second is more of an inspirational site designed to fuel your creativity. It's entitled
30 Websites to follow if you’re into Web Development and the web sites featured provide tons of code, design tips, and tutorials to get you started on an awesome adventure.

ciao!
phree


Technorati Tags: web design, information architecture, wevdev

Get out of Debt - Part 2

Though I've posted a number of finance tips in the past, recent research has turned up a host of how-to financial sites that I wish I had known about as a college student. If you are a financial wizard and understand amortization calculation, debt to income ratios and FICO scores, then the sites below are on a beginner level. However, if these terms are new to you, then the following sites are a godsend for learning about debt, money mangement, and methods of moving toward a debt-free existence.

Learning the ropes of finance 101: everything you wish someone had told you earlier...

About Debt:

1. Debt to loan Ratios the basics: http://ezinearticles.com/?Debt-To-Income-Ratio---A-Critical-Factor-In-Your-Credit-Score&id=806220
2. Debt to income ratios - part 2 from Buzzle.com
3. The Motley Fool provides a wonderful free guide and workbook for getting out of debt; this site alone is a great first step toward financial solvency.
4. Finally if you are in debt, Dave Ramsey presents an interesting take on the psychology of debt reduction with his debt snowball site.
   
5. Buzzle.com has a nice debt reduction resource list. It's a great place to survey the range of considerations necessary to make a serious go at debt.
6. The Federal Trade Commission has tons of information about credit repair, debt management, financial counseling,
   

Learn about loans and interest by playing with the amortization calculator.

Finally, the following blogs are written by people who've wrestled with debt and survived. They teach money management skills, provide goos links and provide a nice place to learn about budgeting, financial investing and resources for tracking your cash.

1. The Get Rich Slowly blog is a nice place to learn about day-to-day management issues that are critical for financial success. The tone is friendly and the posters are real folks, not account managers or sleazy "credit counselors" trolling for clients.
   
2. Ramit Sethi's I will teach you to be rich blog is valuable because it also covers business building techniques.
3. Mint Money Management free software might do the trick if you're looking for an all-in-one stop shop for organizing your finances. As always, verify that privacy concerns are respected and this could be a great tool.

So that's it, a fairly comprehensive get started set of finance tools.

Enjoy!
phree

Adobe AIR apps worth a look!

Below are two sites that feature cool Adobe AIR applications that take care of small tasks we often farm out to larger pieces of RAM hogging software. The applications run on the adobe AIR runtime platform which you can download for free here. Better yet, most of the applications are free too which means wonderful interfaces, open source design and responsiveness to user requests.

1. The first site is from Mashable and they featured a top 10 list.
2. The second site, Fresh AIR Apps, provides a stream of new tools, most of which are useful utilities you wish you had invented.

As always, feedback on these tools is appreciated.
later,
phree

Keep focused while working...

It is easy to get distracted and not get the most out of time set aside for work. Thus, in the spirit of fostering productivity, this post from Zen Habits provides numerous tips for keeping work time focused on must-do tasks. These tips fall into the "don't waste time and prioritize" categories. Though most seem like common sense, there are a few gems worth noticing:

1. Take more breaks,
2. Plan you day with details, and
3. Notice your lazy routines to name a few.

Klok is a cool Adobe Air application that allows you to keep track of the time you spend on projects. It might be useful for quoting jobs or just tracking a work session.

As always, I appreciate feedback on the application if you try it.

Now get to work!

Windows XP Quick Tip(s): The Status Bar

If you are constantly managing a lot of files, you will find this one small windows feature pretty helpful.

In any open explorer window, navigate to View> [check on] Status Bar.

You'll now see some info about the file size for the contents of the folder or the selected file(s).

That's it!

Scripting... isn't that just for programming geeks?

Silly cg artist. That's why you can't figure out why your software package won't 'work'.

The attitude that artists only make art is NOT embraced by lead cg artists. Maybe you do feel that you don't need to get a basic understanding of scripting (which is just a simpler version of programming) simply because you, "Just want to animate." Maybe that'll get you by. But do you really want to be so clueless about your tools? Every good painter knows how to use their brushes, pigments and surfaces. Can you honestly say you know how to use your software?

There are lots of resources to give you a basic idea of how programing works. That's easy to find. What isn't always so easy is finding out exactly how scripting helps you - the artist. Here's a short list of the benefits:

1. Trouble Shooting: When you understand what's happening 'under the hood', you'll be able to more quickly figure out exactly what's causing your current issue and fix or work around it. Example: You hit the "make pretty" button and nothing happens. You look in the script editor and see an error message that alerts you to the fact that you did not have an object selected to be 'made pretty' (it says something crazy like, "invalid input argument; operation failed"). You select an object, hit the button and now have 'the pretty'.
   
2. Automation: Making the computer do what is was designed for - let you be lazier more efficient. Have the software do more of the boring and/or repetitive tasks while you spend your time improving the mood of your shot. Examples: preparing characters for export to a game engine, building rigging elements you frequently use, creating automated secondary motion for tentacles, etc.
   
3. Consistency: When you script a task, you know you'll get the same result every time. This also helps to reduce human error. Example: You have scripts that build rig setups on the bones/joints you created. You don't have to spend time checking if the 291 controller objects are named correctly before passing the asset off. You can now leave work in time for your hot date AND not have your teammates later punch you in the throat for delaying the last shot for "The Land Before Time 17".
   
4. Extensibility: Sometimes the tool you need hasn't been made yet or doesn't work the way you need it to. You can often make it yourself. Additionally, you have more control and understanding of the tool, so modifying or re-purposing a part of it becomes a very appealing option.
   

Q: "Hey, I don't do 3d. This is worthless!"
A: Motion graphics artists sometimes need to write expressions for animating certain elements. They also occasionally need to duplicate a layer 243,917 times, change each new layer's overlay mode to something unique, and then derive the name from that overlay mode setting, etc. You can automate both of these silly task lists (as long as your software supports scripting). I'm willing to wager that if you started looking through this glorious world view, you'll find all sorts of ways to make your workload lighter, productivity faster and output quality higher. :D

Q: "But.. PHOTOSHOP doesn't support scripting?!! Oh, nos!"
A: You are not not not correct. Please check the first two links below, dear friend.

Further reading:

• http://www.tutorialized.com/view/tutorial/Photoshop-scripts-An-introduction/12077
  
• http://www.kirupa.com/motiongraphics/ps_scripting.htm
  
• http://www.xsibase.com/forum/index.php?board=26;action=display;threadid=16336;start=0
• http://www.bernardlebel.com/tutorials/learnscriptingxsi.htm

Clean Your Credit History

This site from the Make Your Nut blog teaches you how to give your credit history a makeover. The basic premise is that you can reset your credit history by asking the credit reporting agencies to justify the negative records that show up when a credit check is performed.


Read the story, try the techniques and provide feedback below.