Category: Tech

Photoshop tip

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Photoshop’s Fit Image command is a great little tool I discovered today. It’s used when creating actions to be used later in the Automate -> Batch option.

When you are recording your Action, go to the File menu and choose Automate/Fit Image instead of opting to use the usual Image Size command.

If you want each image to be no bigger than 500 pixels on the long end, for example, type “500” into the width field and “500” into the height field. This will ensure that each image you process is no larger than 500 pixels wide or high, regardless of whether it is a vertical or horizontal image.

I use the automate option when creating thumbnails for my site, so this will save even more time now that I don’t have to open the vertical and horizontal photos separately and use different actions on them.

Canon A610 & JVC GR-D270US

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I was checking online earlier to see which stores were offering pre-orders on the Canon Powershot A610 and noticed it said In Stock at bhphoto.com. Since I know they are a reputable dealer, I decided to order one. I was going to wait until they were open again on Sunday so I could call them and ask about it, but I was worried they might be out of stock by then.

Just as I was about to complete my order, I decided to give buydig.com another try even though last week when I ordered the JVC Mini DV Camcorder from them it wasn’t on their site at all. Well it’s on there now, for $299 just like bhphoto.com, but free shipping. So I ordered it from them and I should be getting it in the next week or so. I can’t wait! I so love getting new gadgets, particularly cameras. I miss having a P&S camera I can lug around anywhere. I made a mistake when I bought the Nikon 2100 two years ago because while it is smaller than the A610, it takes pretty cruddy photos. 2-megapixels cameras just don’t cut it anymore, my friend.

As for the camcorder, we decided to purchase one so we could take our own video of the wedding. I haven’t played around with it much, but damn is it small! My grandfather had one of those full-size VHS camcorders that broke your back and I was always the designated videographer at family events, so having something that is better quality and 10x smaller is pretty cool.

I ♥ my DVR

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I am a recording fiend. Joe keeps yelling at me to leave the DVR alone, but I can’t. I can finally watch all the shows I miss when I’m working or sleeping. Stuff like Premium Blend, My So Called Life, Street Smarts, and all those trashy talk shows on during the day. I don’t think I will ever watch live television again. It’s so much more fun being able to skip all the nonsense and commercials lightning quick.

There’s so many improvements to the DVR version of the channel guide. Not only does everything load much quicker, but the guide goes out two weeks instead of three days like the old cable box. Our DVR has a dual tuner, so we can watch and record at the same time, or record two shows simultaneously. You can’t accidentally stop the DVR from recording either as it will warn you and make you select “stop recording” before it does anything. It is awesome! I’m hoping eventually you’ll be able to access the box online like Tivo so I can program it from work. I can see Joe rolling his eyes now. ;)

Wedding planning & DVRs

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I actually got something accomplished today regarding our wedding. I contacted one of Florida’s county clerk offices to find out how we could obtain a marriage license via mail since we’ve decided to get married Sunday, October 23rd but won’t be in Florida until Saturday October 22nd and the courts aren’t open weekends. The marriage license clerk was a really nice guy, probably because his name is Joe. ;)

I also called one of the hotels where we’ll probably be staying to confirm some of their amenities. In addition, I found a list of people who perform ceremonies in the area, so I’ll be checking out their websites tonight. It’s about time, right?

But here’s some really really good news. Joe just came home with our DVR from the cable company. I will be playing with it half the night, I’m sure. It’s funny too, because we didn’t know we’d be getting it today, but decided to take the day off from rollerblading. And it’s rainy out anyway, so it’s like the universe is in line just for little ole me.

Firefox Bug

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Over the past week, my machine’s performance was getting worse and worse, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on. It seemed to be linked to Firefox, because it was using 99% of the CPU and way too much memory.

Today while I was using IE to see if I could replicate the problem, I decided to import my Firefox bookmarks. Imagine my surprise when I went into the default profile and saw over 5000 bookmarks.html files (they were numbered bookmarks-01.html, bookmarks-02.html, etc). Based on the create date and time on each file, it looked like Firefox was spawning a new file every 30 seconds since I reinstalled Windows XP.

I removed Firefox and reinstalled it and everything seems to be fine now. That was so freaky! I couldn’t find anything online (not that I searched all that extensively) about this, so I’m not sure what could have caused it. I suspect it had something to do with an extension I installed, so I’m not installing any for the time being.