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Rick

Amazing Photoshop Elements: Layers

Everyone always seems mystified by Photoshop's layers features.

While layers are very complex, I believe that they are often viewed as being more complicated than they actually are.

A layer is simply a picture or transparent layer placed on top of another picture. Think of it as placing clear plastic wrap on top of a photo. By creating a layer, you prevent any damage or change to the base photo.

Here is a quick list of terms that will help you figure it all out:

Layer Pallette: You can see all of your stacked layers in the Layers Pallette.

Web Site Outage

We apologize for the web site outage today. Our host, Hostgator , has been fabulous since we switched to them a couple of years ago. Great service and response time. Today, however, they had a tough time getting our site back online again because of problems with their servers. We are up and running again, as you can see, so we again apologize for the inconvenience. Even we computer gurus have glitches too!

Changing the XP Startup Logo

Warning: If you mess something up, your operating system may not boot. 1) First, create an image that you want to use. Paint is the easiest to use. It has to be 640X480 and 16 colors(not 16 bit). Save it as “Boot.bmp“. 2) Copy Boot.bmp to the C:\Windows\ directory. 3) Right click on My Computer > Properties > select the… Read More »Changing the XP Startup Logo

Quick Access to Outlook Express Addresses

Outlook Express users can quickly access their address books by enabling the Contact view. Here's how:

 

  1. In Outlook Express, click View from the menus

     

  2. Click Layout
  3. Check the "Contacts" box
  4. Click OK

Now with this mode enabled, you can simply double-click on an address book entry to pull up a new email addressed to that person.

Remember that you can also quickly get to your address book in the new email composition window by clicking on the TO button (see picture).

OpenOffice – Revisited

I wanted to give a quick update on a product that we started talking about on the show about four years ago. It's called OpenOffice . OpenOffice is considered an open source project which means that no one entity owns it (although Sun Microsystems pushed it hard in the early going), and anyone can use it for free. OpenOffice, as the name implies, is a productivity software. It contains a Microsoft Office compatible word processor, spreadsheet, presentation manager and database. I installed it for my kids almost a year ago and have been rolling it out for more and more clients. I can honestly say that I'm impressed with the product.

Logging into Windows

I had a frantic call today from a client who couldn't get into Windows because no matter what password he tried, it wouldn't let him continue. After doing some Lamaze breathing exercises with him over the phone, I calmly asked him to leave the password field blank and click OK. I could feel the sense of relief come over his face when his desktop started to appear. 

The moral of the story:  With Windows, often times there is no password necessary to enter even if there is a box seemingly asking for one. Just click OK and you will be on your way. If you want to avoid the log on screen altogether, search our site for instructions how to do that or call us on Saturdays.

Why you shouldn’t use the same username and password for everything

I have had several clients tell me that they use the same username and password for everything so they don't forget.

While this is a personal decision, I just thought I would provide one good reason why it's not a good idea to only use one username and password.

Let's say that somehow a bad guy gets a job working for your ISP (Internet Service Provider) or perhaps he gets a job working for your newsletter about singles who collect stamps.

Typically these kinds of sites can't see your password, but they can reset your password. If this particular shady individual resets your password then you won't be able to get into the stuff related to that site that you want.

GPS Golfing

Those of you who read our columns know that I was in Texas last weekend on a golfing excursion with a couple of my college buddies. On two of the five courses we played, carts were required and were equipped with GPS caddies. Sitting in our golf carts we knew exactly how far it was to the pin on the green, to the rock on the other side of the bunker in the fairway and even how far ahead the other group was in front of us. Amazing information displayed brightly and in color right from the monitor mounted to the cart roof.

At first, I was taken back by the ultra-accurate information we were receiving. One of my friends, Mike, pointed out that the information we were receiving was no different than the info golfers who buy yardage books or use human caddies are privy to. After some thought, I conceded that he made a good point. It did seem to keep the flow of play moving a little faster because golfers weren't standing around trying to estimate how far they were from targets. I still enjoy walking courses more than riding and like the challenge of figuring out the course for myself, but overall the GPS caddy made the rounds interesting and fun. 

I’m raising my rates – here’s why

While Rick and I run seperate businesses, we each do the same thing. I spend my day travelling to various homes and businesses all over town to work on computer problems and train people how to get more from their systems.

To do this I have been charging $50/hr. for homes and $75/hr. for businesses. Does that sound like a lot? Probably not if you live in a bigger city, but let's compare that to everything else out there.

As gas prices have gone up and everything else has gone up in price right along with it, I have kept the same rates for over two years. I hate raising my rates. But, after doing some math and some research, I don't feel too bad about making the big move to raise my rates.

Restore the Show Desktop icon

I have had at least three people ask me how to do this lately, so I thought I would throw it up on the web site for all of us to have as a reference:

1.    Click Start , click Run, type notepad, and then click OK.
2.    In Notepad, type the following text on individual lines:

[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop

3.    Click File —> Save As from the menus
4.    In the Save In box, choose Desktop
5.    In the file name box type:   Show Desktop.scf
6.    Click Save