When I feel most alive … go ahead, take your shoes off!

I wanted to give credit to an excellent piece of software: the GIMP. It is an open source image manipulation/editing alternative to Photoshop. It does most of what Photoshop does, and, especially for the casual user, it is more than sufficient.

I have been using Photoshop Elements 2.0 since my parents bought it for me last Christmas, and I have liked it mostly for the layers capabilities, the clone tool, and the advanced control over color. (all features that the GIMP includes)

I like Photoshop Elements, but I have also tried out the GIMP and was very pleased. It is a little more powerful with more features and options.

If you don’t want to pay $650 for Photoshop CS or even the $80 for Photoshop Elements 3.0, but want a little more control over your photos you should check out the GIMP!

It is an open source project that is making incredible progress. You can download the binary compiled for Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X. I think you will like it.

Remember when technology hated me?

First, my watch battery died… still haven’t replaced it.

Second, I couldn’t get a cell phone that worked. I took my Verizon cell phone with a broken speakerphone to be fixed and they replaced it with a phone that would drop every single call it made. I had to go back like three more times to finally get them to give me a brand new phone that actually worked. I was not happy with Verizon, but I’m glad to have a working phone finally.

Third, my Powerbook’s hard drive died. I took a trip down to the Apple Store a few days before it actually died (while it was still on the fritz and making strange knocking and clicking noises) to consult the local Mac Genius. He told me that my hard drive was definately about to die. So thankfully I have a backup hard drive that I backup everything too, it wasn’t a big deal. I ordered a new hard drive and when it gets here, I will swap it with the dead one. For now, I am booting from my external HD with all the backed-up data.

I was glad that it was just the hard drive (and that I have a backup!) since hard drives are relatively cheap and easy to replace (even though it wasn’t free since my warranty expired after 1 year) (note: the new HD has a 3-year warranty… yay)

I am waiting on my new HD to arrive any day now so I can be up and running again! Maybe technology hates me, but it got dominated by my mad skills this time!

(I was scared to touch my digital camera, for fear that it too would stop working, but it is fine thankfully!)

I recently visited Maryland for a few weeks, and encountered several computers that should not even be plugged into an Internet connection they are so unsafe. The viruses, malware, and spyware that attack Windows computers without appropriate virus and spyware protection are ridiculous.

So I took some measures to help them out… this is what I did or would at least do for the next person I encounter with issues like the people I saw recently:

1. Uninstall Internet Explorer and installed Mozilla’s Firefox (as the default) (if they can find a site that will only work in IE, then I can help them reinstall IE… yuck)

2. Recommended switching email programs away from Microsoft’s crappy Outlook and Outlook Express (most normal people don’t need the shared calendaring of Outlook, and Mozilla’s Thunderbird is a great substitute)

3. Tell them they need to get virus protection software and keep their definitions updated (even if it costs money… it’s worth it)

4. Make sure their personal software firewall (included with Windows XP) is turned on.

4. Reccommended that their next computer be a Macintosh (because as we know, they are more secure… experts agree)

So anyway, I would recommend anyone who currently has issues with their XP machine follow my instructions as well!