Slightly Remarkable

So, I take about 140 pictures on my digital camera, and I want to resize them all and apply the Unsharp Mask filter to get a crisper image. Opening each individual image (sequentially or simultaneously) is definitely out of the question. This is where Photoshop comes to the rescue (in more ways than one).

Open one of the pictures in Photoshop, and begin recording an Action (it’s basically the Adobe term for “macro”). You should be able to hit the “Actions” tab in your History/Actions/Tool Presets window to see the default Actions that come with Photoshop. All you have to do from there is hit the circle (record), resize the image to the dimensions you want, apply the Unsharp Mask filter, and then hit the square (stop) in the Actions window. Now that you’ve recorded the action, you can tell Photoshop to open a large number of images, run the specified Action, save the images (or copy them as changed to a new directory), and close them, all automatically.

To make Photoshop run a batch operation, go to File → Automate → Batch… Select the Set you saved your Action in, and then select the Action name from the drop down menu. You can play around with the options from there, but what I did was I picked a folder of images to change, left all boxes unchecked, and changed the Destination to a new folder (so that instead of editing the images, it opened copies, edited the copies, and then saved the copies to another folder on my computer, preserving the original images). Unless you opened, saved or closed the image while you were recording the Action, it’s very important that you do not check any of the boxes.

So there you have it. It’s very quick and simple, but hopefully it’ll help out some of you who had the same problem as I did. Figuring things out on your own isn’t always fun, especially when you’re pressed for time!

I’m going to apologize ahead of time if I don’t answer any emails between now and the 2nd (or 3rd) of July. I’ll be at the beach again for most of the day today (the 26th), and the tomorrow I’ll be leaving early in the morning for Florida. I’m going to be taking a five-day programming course with a friend of mine. I’m sure it will be a very exciting experience!

So, what ever will you all do for five whole days while I’m gone? Since I know that none of you can live without me (or my blog), I’ve scheduled some entries to appear on my blog automatically while I’m away. Hopefully they’ll make this place still appear alive.

On a side note, I’ve added a portfolio/work section to the site (and replaced the “About” section with it in my main navigation), since the portfolio I had on CMM Web Design isn’t available anymore (that is, as an up-to-date resource, at least).

So, with that, I’m off to Florida! Enjoy!

As far as design and usability goes, Odeo has got it made. The design is beautiful and everything is very easy to use. If Odeo can provide the functionality that I want or think it should have (and so far, it’s delivered), there’s no doubt in my mind that it will be a success. It looks like I’ll probably be getting a little more comedy in, instead of just reading Web-related entries. (By the way, anyone care to tell me how you’d analyze or “write” code in a podcast? I know you don’t say, “Less than symbol question mark php if is set dollar sign variable name then…”)

My thing is, I don’t see how podcasting can exceed the limits it’s already reached. Podcasting is great for things like comedy or news reports, but what about video? It’s the 21st century, after all, and we are still just listening to things? I think podcasting — listening — is a half-step between reading and viewing. I think it’s just temporary, and in the near future I hope we’ll all be “vidcasting” instead. “Pardon me a moment while I go listen to a Spanish I casette tape” isn’t something you hear anymore.

The reason I don’t consider reading obsolete (as I do listening) is because reading is a part of language that simply can’t be done without. People still read news papers, but I think more people read the news off the Internet (oh, did I mention for free?), but just because people do it doesn’t mean it’s not obsolete. Another reason I prefer reading to listening (in most cases) is because I can listen to my lovely music while reading or studying. Reading also leaves no room for misinterpretation. And, like I mentioned earlier, how do you “speak” in code?

What are your thoughts? Have you tried Odeo beta? If so, what do you think of it? Do you plan on podcasting? Why or why not? Do you think podcasting is a good thing, a bad thing, or just a fad that will pass in time? Why or why not?

I got an offer from a kind gentleman who owns a hosting company. We made an exchange of sorts, and since it was an offer I couldn’t refuse, I accepted. Now, Slightly Remarkable has moved from its previous hosting package at iPowerWeb hosting to the Platinum plan by ISP Host (also the owner of Host-Blast). Basically, I have free web hosting for life!

It took me a couple of hours last night, but I exported all my MySQL databases and Wordpress files and so forth to the new server in just a few minutes (less disastrous than my previous blog relocation). Then I reset the nameservers of Slightly Remarkable at GoDaddy, and the DNS servers are updated and you are now looking at the new Slightly Remarkable. I got a swell deal (if only you knew what I had to do to get the free hosting, you’d understand).

Let me explain a little something about CMMWebDesign. Basically, it’s a group of designers/developers (that never consisted of over two people, myself and Ryan Gabbard), but we never really got off the ground. After almost two years, we didn’t get many jobs or referrals from the site, so instead we’ve both gone freelance for awhile. That means that within six months from now, CMMWebDesign.com will no longer be online. Ryan and I plan on doing some work together in the (near) future, but as grouped freelancers as opposed to coworkers under a corporate name. A corporate web firm is an idea for the future, but as of now it is not very practical for us (especially since we’re so small).

On a side note, I checked my referrer logs earlier, and noticed that Wordpress 1.6 may already have implemented Speedy Cat, making the plugin obsolete (and yes, this is a good thing). Isn’t Wordpress awesome?

My reasons are simple, but important. I think these are the same reasons which will affect others’ decisions greatly as well.

While the window is out of focus, I can browse the Internet while doing other things (for example, typing into an instant messaging window). This is both good and bad. Good because it makes multitasking a bit easier; bad because when I move my mouse pointer to another location on the screen (for example, if I’m writing an email and run over to hit the “Start” button, or if I want to go down to the taskbar to check how much battery is remaining on my laptop), I accidentally “click” a multitude of links. This is very undesirable and ends up costing me more time than the multitasking enhancement provides. It’s an unfair trade here.

I have an addiction problem: I love looking at CSS designs. I mean, I absolutely love it. I can’t get enough. Naturally, my Bloglines subscriptions include such places as CSSBeauty, Unmatched <Style>, CSSVault, CSS Drive, Style Gala, and more. As I visit the beautiful CSS designs that people have created, I have a tendency to forget to hold the Shift key (which tells Don’t Click It to halt functioning until the key is released) when hovering over menu items and such. As a result, I end up rapidly visiting many pages (often not even from the same site) that I didn’t want to see. The ability to change things on-mouse-over provides a nice feeling of interactivity with a site, and that interactivity is eliminated with Don’t Click It. I know I can hold Shift to avoid this problem, but it gets tiring after awhile…

It’s not difficult to get used to, though. I disabled the extension, but I keep putting my mouse over links and thinking “Why isn’t it going anywhere?” I’ll have to get used to clicking again now, but while it lasted, being click-free wasn’t the most uncomfortable experience — deciding when to go somewhere on my own is better for me, though.

So, what about you? Have you made the switch, or at least tried it? What did you decide to use and why?

What’s new?

• Hold the Shift key to halt all functionality; you can click or right-click objects during this time. As long as you hold down the Shift key, putting your mouse over an item won’t invoke its action.
• Hold the Ctrl key to open links in new windows/tabs. Note that this only works if your popup blocker is disabled, due to the use of the window.open() command.

You can still grab the script at the same location as before.

Here’s the idea: you find your favourite or most humourous t-shirt, take a screenshot of it, and put that screenshot in a comment on this entry.

Here’s the reason: I bought a shirt a few days ago, and I think it’s one of the coolest things in the world. I’m interested in finding other similar t-shirts that say funny things (or ask them). I figured a meme spreads fast enough, so I wanted to see how far it goes and how many new t-shirts I can find.

Here’s the prize: the winner gets the ticket. This is the part that crosses memes with contests. Instead of a traditional contest where the winner gets a prize, you just get a ticket that allows you to post this same meme on your blog. (In a normal meme there is no “winner” so I used the idea of a contest winner to replace the idea of “passing it on.” I know it’s lame, but I promise my next contest will have a real prize. I’m going out of town in a few days, so I won’t have a chance to work out prizes anyway. If someone wants to contribute a prize, though, that’d be great.) The judge will be the blogger that posts the meme — yours truly.

Here’s the rules: you can post an image (using HTML, not XHTML) in your comment (hosted on your site), but it can’t exceed 400px. If it does, post a thumbnail that links to a full-size image. You can also submit plain text ideas (that aren’t actually t-shirts), Photoshop-edits, or just concept imagery, but my preference is a real t-shirt (that I can just go and buy instead of trying to get custom-made or something).

Here’s mine:

What have you got?

Here’s a list of the changes.

• Hold Shift key to halt functionality — links will only be “clicked” on mouse over when you are not holding the shift key.
• Form field select — instead of just focusing on a field, Don’t Click It now automatically selects text within text fields.
• I was thinking about adding a timeout-function for buttons, but then I decided otherwise. Advanced uses can uncomment that part of the code in the script to enable the timeout functionality.

You can still access and install the script at the same location as before. There are going to be even more major enhancements coming soon, but I thought I should release what I worked so far.

Eric’s problem is that he is waiting for a page reload to happen, when in fact there is no page reload necessary. He doesn’t (appear to) condone the idea of simulating a refresh or creating an “Ajax Enabled” badge, but that’s perfectly reasonable. I myself see those solution temporary and inelegant. The yellow fade technique (or something similar) seems to be the best thing — it’s subtle, unobtrusive, and makes it obvious that a change has occured; another helpful idea is that of an indicator icon appearing during processing time, so as to prevent users from either halting or forgetting about the process occuring. Eric proposes that we pay more attention to the human-computer interface (HCI) to avoid similar problems like the one he has experienced. Has anyone else had a similar problem with the way Ajax works (or doesn’t work)? I’d like to get some input on various problems, so as to avoid these mistakes myself in the future (and of course, my readership or anyone searching the Web who may find this post will benefit as well — I’m not only thinking of myself).

On a completely unrelated note, a good friend of mine, Ryan Gabbard, has begun his own personal weblog. It’s powered by the almighty Wordpress blogging software; the site was designed by Ryan and integrated with Wordpress by yours truly. Check it out, I’m sure he’ll have some great stuff for us to read! (Hear that, Ryan? Yeah, you better. ;) )