PowerBook

Apr 27 2009

Silence the Embarrassing Pops

volumebez Silence the Embarrassing Pops

I’m sure this has happened to most of you. One day, you’re giving a presentation to an important audience. It could be a PowerPoint or graphics portfolio presentation for a future employer or client. It could also be a presentation of the Return of the King: Extended Edition for your family. Either way, this presentation is taking place on your Mac (probably a PowerBook or iBook) and being run through an external system (probably speakers or a projector). Before starting your presentation, you know that you need to lower the volume on your Mac. But, what you don’t know is that the talented (and challenged) technical staff in charge of setting up your presentation rig, have left all external speakers on their maximum volume. You press the volume lowering key on your keyboard, and an enormously loud popping sound blows every speaker, and renders your entire audience deaf (either momentarily or permanently).

Ok, maybe that hasn’t happened to you, but it’s happened to me and almost everyone I know. Don’t worry, the solution is simple. Just hold down the shift key while pressing your volume keys. Look Ma, no more popping sound!

Bonus Tips:

Try holding down the shift key while doing other tasks in Mac OS X, like minimizing a window, for example.

“And should your alert volume still be set to maximum, leaving acceptable sound but a deafening beep, hold down the option key and press any volume key to bring up the System Preferences->Sound panel. (This works with other keys, like screen and key brightness on powerbooks, as well.)” ~ Anonymous

“Try turning off ‘Play feedback when volume keys are pressed’ in the Sound preference pane. Then you have to press shift to *hear* the silly pops.” ~ CCS

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Apr 27 2009

Outlining and XML

Outlining things in a hierarchy is a great way to keep track of ideas, organize data or collect a blogroll. This week we’ll hit one of the oldest outliners, and take you to the bleeding edge of outlining.

Outlining

Flat data organization, think word processing, makes organization and conceptualization difficult. In an outline you can add a new level of structure to your information. Outlining is a great way to create podcast shownotes, organize documentation and design website structures.

OmniOutliner (not free, unless it came with your PowerBook) is the outlining application. In outlining your ideas, it exports the result to an XML format called OPML. You may recognize the OPML extension if you’ve transferred your RSS feeds/blogroll between feed readers. The OPML standard is designed to hold all kinds of outlined data. Read more about the spec here.

mu Outlining and XMLMyMind

Our first outliner also supports importing and exporting OPML files. Additionally this great free program allows you to create graphic layouts of your outlines.

mymind Outlining and XML

MyMind is a great way to edit blogrolls and organize projects. Each node can have its own properties and be positioned in a parent/sibling/child relationship. MyMind is donationware, so consider send him some cash if you like his app.

blue Outlining and XMLJava Outline Editor

Here’s another excellent outliner. This SourceForge project is a powerful, feature-rich outliner written in Java. It runs well in OS X, though the interface is a little rustic. It does support importing and exporting of multiple formats, including OPML and OML.

blue Outlining and XMLMore

Here’s the granddaddy of outliners. This ancient app was orphaned by Symantec long ago, but is available to download free. It will require Classic to run.

blue Outlining and XMLMozilla Outliner

If you prefer to do your brainstorming while browsing, there’s a new Firefox/Thunderbird extension to accommodate you.

mozillaoutliner Outlining and XML

While still very basic, and with no import/export options, this solution is fast and shows promise.

Ideas are a great thing. They’re even better when they’re organized. So, impress your client, instructor or at least yourself and outline your next project with some of this week’s freeware.

Brian

mu Outlining and XMLDownloads provided by MacUpdate

blue Outlining and XMLA MacMerc Exclusive

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Apr 27 2009

Adobe Photoshop Tip– Simple Transparent Desktop effect …without cheating

These shots are all over the internet right now: a person posts a digital photograph of their computer and the desktop picture displayed on the screen seems to mimic what is behind it so faithfully that it appears that the screen is actually transparent. There are several shots I’ve seen that are done so well that you’d swear that the photographer simply removed the LCD and top bezel of his PowerBook. But these people assure me that they have perfectly lined up these shots with no fakery…

finalshot Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

and I believe them.. because I can do it and so can you.

Here’s how I did it.

Step 1: Setting the scene:

First I arranged my shot pretty much the way I wanted it composed for the final image. Below you’ll see an image of what I was going for:

setuptheshot Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

You don’t need to take a picture of this step, I’m just illustrating the point.

I set the computer on the table along with all the tchotchkes that would later be visible on its desktop. I had my iPod docked behind my PowerBook, the lazy Susan with all my fine dining paraphernalia and my foofbag all set up. Then I mounted my camera on a sturdy tripod and framed up the shot in the LCD viewfinder. Once you start taking pictures for this effect, you cannot move the camera, the tripod or the lens (I moved my lens and as you see in the first pic, a few items don’t line up–learn from my mistakes).

After I got the shot framed up, I took the PowerBook out of the scene being careful not to move any of the other items on the table or the camera rig. Then I shot the first pic:

nocomputer Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

Yeah, pretty lame, I know.

Step 2: Put the PowerBook in the Action

Next, I returned the PowerBook to its previous position on the table and prepared to take its picture using the exact same settings as the picture I took without it. Why didn’t I just snap a pic while it was there before? Because, just like the camera and the tripod, once the PowerBook is in place, it must not move–not even a little. Okay, next slide!

withcomputer Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

Notice I connected the iPod dock connector cable to the PowerBook? I thought it would add a nice touch to the final image and, as long as I didn’t change the position of the cable where it passed behind the screen, it wouldn’t hurt the final product.

Step 3: Careful Maneuvering

In the next stage, I turned off the camera in order to safely access its memory card (you still cannot let the camera move at all) and insert it gently into the PC card adapter I have in my PowerBook (again, you cannot let the PowerBook move either). If you have the ability to do so and can stretch a cable from the camera to the Mac without moving either, you could connect your camera up directly ….I didn’t, but you could.

I opened the two shots I took in Photoshop (no, I’m not going to cheat). Focusing first on the “with PowerBook” shot, I went Select>All (Command-A) and then Edit>Copy (Command-C).

Then I switched my focus to the “without PowerBook” picture and went Edit>Paste (Command-V). Then I closed the “with PowerBook” shot …leaving it open would just tempt me to cheat.

layers Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

I grabbed the Crop tool and, in the Options bar at the top of the screen, I set the Width and Height values to my screen dimensions as represented in pixels and a resolution of 72 pixels per inch. If you’re not sure of your screen dimensions, open the Displays control panel in the System Preferences and you’ll find it there.

croppart1 Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

Then I clicked and dragged the crop tool over the screen of my PowerBook in the picture.

croppart2 Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

Once a preliminary crop area is on the canvas, Photoshop changes the Options bar a bit to give you other features. I clicked the Perspective setting to the “on” position.

croppart3 Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

With that setting in place I am able to drag the corners of the crop to the corners of my pictured PowerBook screen like so:

croppart4 Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

Now when I hit the Return key, Photoshop is going to process the crop selection I have made an distort it into being an image the exact width, height and resolution of my screen — a perfect desktop image! Go ahead and hit Return and watch the magic happen…well actually there’s not much magic to watch, because, at best, you’re looking at a squared up view of your own PowerBook screen. You’ll need to delete the top layer to reveal the cropped and straightened “background.” Here’s what I got.

finisheddesktop Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

Next, I saved this image I’d made to my desktop as a JPEG and quit Photoshop and opened the System Preferences to the Desktop & Screen Saver control panel and clicked the Desktop tab. I dragged the image I’d made from the desktop to the little preview window in the control panel and, voila!

desktopcp Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

Step 4: The Final Shot

Then all I had to do was close all the windows on screen, eject the camera’s memory card from the PowerBook and place it in camera again. I powered up the camera and took the shot before I had any more opportunities to accidentally move something I shouldn’t.

Here’s that finished image again:

finalshot Adobe Photoshop Tip Simple Transparent Desktop effect ...without cheating

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