To be festive and all that I usually am not, lets take a look at what all of the "geeks" are dressing up as this Halloween. So here is my top 10 techy Halloween costumes.
1. Mozilla Firefox
Why not be the second best web browser?
2. Tetris
What better than joining a group of friends in dressing up as a great game?
3. An xbox
Simple and the best game console. Maybe not all that crafty, but it works.
3. Android
Who wouldn't want to be a trash can android for a day?
4. Cybrog
Nothing further even needs to be said.
5. Geek Squad
That little boy is just adorable.
6. Super Mario Bros.
My favorite game as a kid. I kinda wanna go make it.
Photoshop Express Online is a good alternative for minor changes to a photo. Maybe if something needs to be brightened up a little bit, or a little editing. While it is nothing compared to the actual Photoshop program, it is a helpful tool to use. It includes a few of the same features that is also included in a Photoshop license. Such as the burn and dodge tool. The photo below on the left is the original photo that I found on Google. I used the burn tool to bring out the colors on the same photo to the right. As you can see the the grass sky is a brighter blue, and there is more detail in the leaves. If you only need a photo editing tool to make some minor changes, this is a great tool that is free, and you don't have to download anything. There is also no registration required.
PicMonkey has some pretty cool features that are seasonal. This is the month of October, and there are all kinds of spooky things going on. PicMonkey allows you to make yourself into a zombie, vampire, demon and numerous other themes related to Halloween. As you can see to the right, I used PicMonkey to turn Bruce Wayne into a zombie. Among many other features that are unrelated to the time of year. This include things such as a blemish remover and teeth whitener. You can also add eye make up such as eye liner and eye shadow. There is even a weight loss tool. What more can you ask for?
There is a downfall to PicMonkey, all of its features are not free. Many of the really cool effects you must pay for. For a premium package it is either $4.99 a month or $33.00 for a year. Is it worth it? I probably wouldn't by a subscription, but it does have some handy features to play with.
BeFunky is a cool website. To me it pretty much seemed like photo editing for dummies. There are many things that you can do. I choose to use the sample photo they offered it is to the left. It put me in mind of an old diner. I decided to give it a vintage look to make it look like an old photo. The second option in the photo edit that looks like a wand gives you an abundance of effects the choose from. I choose one from "Old Photo." I then choose a frame from the instant menu. Lastly I choose a texture, which is the last choose on the task bar, to make it look scratched up. and below was my results. I am impressed with what all was offered without evening have to sign up for an account.
Fifteen years, one month, and some odd days since Google's "official birthday." How many days do you go without Google-ing something? How often do you check your Gmail account? Do you ever use YouTube? Are Google Maps essential to your travels? If it weren't for Google you wouldn't be utilizing any of these helpful tools and many more not mentioned, including reading this blog. Google has a mass impact on our lives daily. I can't think of a day I do not use at least one product powered by Google. How did Google manage to change our lives, the internet, and the way we think?
The other day I was talking to a friend about writing this blog for class, and she told me about the quote above from Boy Meets World. It made me really think about how Google really has changed the was we live. If you hand me a dictionary or an encyclopedia, I can use it. Anyone with some common sense should be able to. However, why should I look up what a word means in a dictionary when I can type it into a search bar? I can cut the time taken to find the word in half the time. A book is more than less a waste of time if we utilize the technologies in front of use in the right way. You don't even know how to spell it properly and Google can still find it!
This also leads me to another thought. Many of us take for granted the technologies and conveniences Google has laid in front of us. Imagine it taking six months thirsty for just ONE book. It took Google 0.28 seconds to find that quote above for me. To me that is completely mind blowing. I wonder how long it takes the average person to sit down and look something up in an encyclopedia or dictionary. More than likely more time than someone would be willing to give. I think it is amazing.
I have heard many older people use the phrase, "It's a small world." In all reality, the world isn't so small with over 7 billion people. What makes the world so small? One thing I know that has made the world smaller is YoutTube. There is an limitless amount of videos on YouTube which will teach you about and how to do nearly anything. At one point you could read for days about how someone lived, or maybe go to lessons and learn how to play an instrument. What would be better than hearing about a culture and all involved than coming directly from that person experiencing it everyday. With YouTube you can also get that guitar lesson for free. YouTube is good for recreational purposes. There is also so much knowledge to be gained through many of the resources offered to you from Google!
There isn't a thing in the world that is better than a family vacation where you almost make it there but not quite. You can't quite make it there because you have the navigator in the passenger seat who can't read the over-sized map, or the driver who is refusing to stop and ask for directions. Imagine a world where there are written directions provided including any planned stops. Also including traffic and weather. Tell me how Google Maps haven't changed the was we travel. I never leave the house when I do not know where I am going without Google Maps.
Google to me is essential to everyday life. There is so much offered on the web and Google helps you utilize it all. You need Google for nearly everything you do. Searching, communicating, learning, watching, entertaining, and many more features. It is unlimited. Think about it every time you search on Google, and be thankful for what all is offered to you, so quickly and free of use. Google is amazing it what it has given us, utilize it every way possible.
Who can't use somewhere to stash all of their images? If you take a lot of photos than image hosting can be idea for you. Photobucket, Flickr, Drop Box, and ImageShack are all free image hosting sites. I want to talk about how each of them are useful and then not so much useful in their own ways.
Photobucket
For the life of me I can not remember why I quit using Photobucket. Only a few years ago I used this site more than any other one. It is a great tool. Since I have been back on it, it seems like a lot has changed. Still yet is is somewhat handy. I like how you can click on the photo and everything you need is right there. If you want to share it in an email all you have to do is click it, and it automatically copies a link for you to the photo. What is really useful is that it also provides you with the html code you need to post on Blogger or somewhere else similar. Which is what I did with the image on the left.
Flickr
I have never used Flickr before today, but there is one thing that really annoys me about it. How photos can be shared. It is easy, but it isn't really all that easy to find. There is a "share" button where you can share to Facebook, email, and a few other social networking websites. You can also click that symbol to get the HTML or the link to the photo. I grabbed the HTML and put it below
Drop Box
Dropbox's user interface kind of sucks. It is difficult to figure out how to enable public preview. It would most definitely be my last choice out of all of the above. Not to mention only having 2GB of storage isn't cool either. It is currently hosting that pie I made a few months ago. While it looked good, it wasn't by any means.
ImageShack
ImageShack was never my first choice back in the day when I was still using Photobucket. As Photobucket, I haven't visited ImageShack in a long time so maybe there is some positive changes. The user interface looks nearly identical to what I saw several years ago. It is kind of disappointing that it has changed very little. It seems that Photobucket has improved in great strides in comparison with ImageShack. Sharing pictures is really easy which does make it more convenient than the other choices. You just upload it and it takes you directly to the HTML and links.
Ok so maybe not the best, but some things can be damn near close to it. As you can guess this is a blog about some sort of software. However, this isn't about your regular overly priced software. This is FREE!! What is better than that? I am going to introduce to you a few free software products that are pretty useful to me. So lets get started!
Tweet Deck
So to start off I am really not all that big of a fan of twitter. I like the idea, I just feel like the user interface sucks. That being said, that's why I never really use my account anymore than occasionally. I think I may have found away to possibly make me enjoy Twitter a little more. This is because of Tweet Deck.
Why can Tweet Deck make Twitter better? I like it just because everything is there in one screen. I can see what is going on in the timeline feed on the left. In the middle, I can see conversations I am having with other people. Lastly, on the right I can see what others are doing. Twitter still is not by any means my favorite still yet, but this is an improvement to it.
uTorrent is essentially peer-2-peer downloading client, in which you can download large files. It works by others seeding the files. When using bittorrents you are basically downloading different parts of the file from different people. Now the question is why use uTorrent over another p2p clients? It downloads large files in no time. Also, it is very small, hence the µ, which means micro- in Greek. It doesn't offer a pretty user interface or internal search such as a bittorrent program like Vuze. It comes down to what is more important to you.
Best thing since sliced bread, almost. I have been meaning to uninstall a bunch of crap that I never use for quite some time now. When is a better time than now? The PC Decrapifier makes it so easy. All I had to do was select what I wanted to uninstall and click next. It did the majority of the work for me. Beautiful! I now have no reason to be so damn lazy.
"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk
very little, yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their
selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write
and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that in the grand
scheme of things, the average piece of junk is probably more meaningful than
our criticism designating it so." -Anton Ego from Ratatouille
Before I start, I'm sorry. It’s a grade nothing personal. Enjoy! :)
You have a good looking blog. I like the color choices. The
text is also really easy to read. One thing you could probably improve on is your blog's title. I enjoyed reading through you blogs. You
write well!
No one in the world other than the few people involved in
this class is going to know what IT 104 is. I would change the title, if it
were me. I don't know what it is about the color choices, but they make me want
to leave the page as soon as I got to it. Other than that things look like they
are going smoothly!
Your blog is kind of plain. The font color does show up really well off the grey. I believe you have some broken images in your guest blog you might want to repair. I also think your about me would look better above the blog archive.
The visuals of your blog look good. The background isn't distracting from the content at all. Your photos look good as well. It looks like you are really utilizing Skitch! The only thing I really don't like is your blog's title, "Computers." That makes me not want to read any further, because it's a boring title.
That font color and font style is somewhat hard to read. It may just be the color but it looks odd. Paragraphs (multiple) rather than a paragraph will do a world of wonders as well. The image background is a good picture. I'm not really sure what is going on with your sidebars either.
James (http://jamesnhill.blogspot.com/ )
You do a really good job writing. However, the orange font is a little too much for my eyes. The size of it is also too big, almost the same size as your blogs title. You did a really good job with your pictures, but I think their might be too many. They are also huge. I feel like I am scrolling through pictures trying to find some text.
Intermission: Why am I not there?
Tyler ( http://jimison0tyler.blogspot.com )
Save a horse, ride a turtle? I like it. The three pictures I see on your blog are good. They add a not so serious feel of things. You should consider adding a few more. Other than that things look good. Best heading I have seen thus far.
Jane ( http://janiegirls.blogspot.com/ )
You have some really great pictures, but you might want to consider not putting them so close together. It messes with some of the text. In your "Open Office or Libre?" blog, you have two different font sizes. Things look good though, great job!
Scotty( http://thephoenixhub.blogspot.com )
The blog looks really good. The colors aren't too much and good pictures. There are a few minor things that need fixed. For example, the text in the guest blog with the text background color, and the picture width in your gmail blog is too wide. Things look good.
Intermission: Damn Birds
Amber ( http://amberdawnzie.blogspot.com )
Your colors flow well together. The calender looks somewhat out of place though. The pictures are great, and the blogs are well written. There is something funky going on with the guest blog though. The third extension has a white text background and black text. It matches nothing else on the blog. As a friend, I will add that you suck, not your blog. : )
Chris W. ( http://whittstopher.blogspot.com )
Your blog looks really good. I would try to find a better title other than IT Fall of 2013. I would also add some pictures to the earlier blogs. Great blog.
Chris B.( http://lordsfallenpaladin.blogspot.com )
You still aren't on the Evernote Email and Blog Links. I don't think that is your fault though. Anyways, on to the blog critique. Looks like you are doing a great job, it looks and reads good. I like that you also took screen shops of the apps in the Evernote and Springpad blog. Good job.
I have never used either Open Office or Libre Office, but my first impression when I opened them both was essentially what is the difference? Both of them look nearly identical at start up. So why choose one over the other? They both have the same applications and options with different icons, which are as well similar, to represent them. There purpose in life is to be a much, much cheaper alternative to Microsoft Office which is free. The Text Document, Spreadsheet, Presentation, and Database are all pretty well the same as in an older version of Microsoft Office. However, there is two different application that I wanted to check out: Drawing and Formula.
Text Document
As you can see both are pretty much the same. Because of this it is hard for me to choose which one I would prefer to use. Actually, I would prefer to use Microsoft Office just because of the familiarity with the newer lines of programs. But for a free product, these are pretty good.
Spreadsheet
I actually like the Spreadsheet application in these two programs better than Excel in Microsoft office. There is less features which makes it easy to use for me. I don't really think of any instances when I need anything fancy for a spreadsheet. Sometimes simple is better.
Presentation
There are some minor differences in the two presentation applications. You have a few different opens that are more convention to get to in the side bar on the right. Still yet, they both are again simple to use and free so who can complain?
Those are the three main applications that I have used in the previous years, only I used them in Microsoft Office. They did add two application that is not included in Microsoft Office called Drawing and Formula. From what I can understand Drawing is basically what it says a drawing tool, and Formula is essentially a math tool. I haven't had a chance to play with either, but they could be useful. Two extra applications for free, I'll take that. All in all, if you can't get your hands on a copy of Microsoft Office, either one of these would be a great alternative.
As far as cloud storage goes, I use Google Drive. This is simply because it is convenient. I already have an account with Google. However, which one should I be using? Which one has the better features?
Google Drive
Pros:
Media streams without having to download it.
Drive has better compatibility than Office
Google Docs user interface is very clean.
Google Docs can be saved in various formats.
You can decide which items you want synced, and on what devices they go on.
When you upgrade to any paid account within Google you get an addition 25GB of Gmail storage.
Cons:
You start out with only 5GB of free storage.
It is $60 for an additional 100GB of storage per year.
You can't earn free space by referring friends
Skydrive
Pros:
You start out with 7GB of free storage.
It is $50 a year to get 100GB of additional storage.
The office web application looks VERY similar to that on the desktop version.
You can use Office for free online, and it allows you to move back and forth between online and offline editing if you have Office installed
Cons:
Putting the entire ribbon from Office online is clutter and chaos.
Office documents are just that, no other formats can be used.
Lately we have been using two digital notebooks called Evernote and Springpad. I'm sure most have heard of both programs. There is an on going discussion on which is more efficient to use. They both have some characteristics that make them run quite closely too each other. Evernote being more popular and widely used than Springpad, will it fall off to the opposition? I doubt things being that serious, but personally I would choose Springpad over Evernote any day. As this carries on, I will explain why the visuals and the notebooks make this decision for me.
Visuals
Anyone can log into both programs and see that Springpad is so much "prettier" than Evernote. Why does that really matter though? One big reason is what is called a notebook actually looks like a notebook rather than having a similar layout to opening up Windows Explorer like Evernote does. To me this makes things look less confusing and more so organized. While I was reading about both programs I saw something that said something that said the Evernote was essentially the equivalent of a junk drawer only digital. One thing I really did like about Springpad is that it was somewhat similar to Pinterest. I use Pinterest quite frequently to stash all of the stuff that I want to do, but in reality I will never do because I am too lazy. Maybe that is what really sold me on Springpad as far as the way it looks. Evernote is just so plain. I also find that Springpad is more so similar to social networking, in the way it looks and its features. You can comment in public and private sharing, view what others have done, and spring it which saves it to your notebook. The apps for Springpad are almost identical to the web version as well. At least, for the ones I used on my iPad and Android phone.
Uses of Notebooks
The uses of notebooks in Springpad also go so much further than those in Evernote. When you create a new note there are numerous templates you have to choose from. They recipes, movies, music, books, checklists, tasks, and many more. However, with Evernote it is pretty cut and dry. The image below shows what you get when you click "new note" in Evernote.
Another really great thing about Springpad is the collaboration features offered. This is completely FREE unlike Evernote's collaborations options. In order to collaborate in Evernote you must have a paid subscription. Otherwise, your notes on Evernote can only be shared in a read-only format. Also, Springpad's collaboration is super easy to use. There is a link that you can give to other users or you can share it to Facebook if you want it to be on a more public scale. To make it more so of a private collaboration you can invite people via email.
Evernote
Don't get me wrong, Evernote is a GREAT resource. There are quite a few things I enjoy about it over Springpad. One thing that I really wish Springpad offered is a offline desktop client. Most of the places I go, I do not have internet access. So I can post a new spring if I happen to be in one of those places. Evernote does offer this along with quite a few other things. One of these other resources is called Skitch. It more so allows you to take screenshots from within the program that you download, and can add text, arrows, circle things, highlight things, and a few other options. In fact most of all the images in this blog I created in Skitch. Evernote is also idea for students. It is phenomenal for note taking, which is important to every college student.
I believe it would be easier for me to use Springpad over Evernote for most things, however, both are very useful and great products. Tell me what you think about them!
