Tag Archives: tips

My thoughts on NMX BlogWorld 2013

Almost one month has passed and I’d say it’s a good time to share my meager notes of my experience at NMX BlogWorld 2013 in Las Vegas.

If you aren’t able to help a visitor with their super–specific question(s), give at least one takeaway so they don’t leave empty–handed. For example, someone’s blog was focused on browsing sites securely, and an Incognito window with Google Chrome was new to them. That was nifty.
For the most part, most attendees are shy. If someone glances in your direction, and they’re a few feet from your booth, introduce yourself or say “hello”. You never know.
WiFi will not work consistently.
Keep your laptop and phone charged.
Save a few relevant Twitter searches for the event/conference.
Bring business cards. I didn’t, and I won’t make that mistake again.
Carry a couple pens and pocket notebook.
After seeing a panel of speakers, open your notebook and write for 5–10 minutes about anything that comes to mind. Do the same thing at the end of the day. (This is also useful for everyday life.)

I also met Brett Kelly for the first time ever in real life and we took a photo. He’s super cool. (He spoke at “Productivity Power Panel: Learn the Tools, Tactics, & Workflows of Highly Productive Bloggers”, and I’ll post my notes from that separately.)

Overall, I had a great time working at the WordPress Happiness Bar in the exhibitors’ area with several other fine Automatticians, and I look forward to more opportunities like this in the future.

Link

Shortly after OS X Mountain Lion was released, James — or J–Huff, as I’d like to call him — let me know that I should give Mail another try. (I’m a longtime Mozilla Thunderbird user.) While I don’t have a HiDPI (retina) laptop, he said I would settle into Mail just fine, and will wonder why I ever used Thunderbird.

While getting accustomed to Mail, I tried to figure out a way for a keyboard shortcut to move selected messages to a folder I designate. (Reason: Mail uses a default “Archive” folder that I can’t change like my Drafts, Sent, Trash, or Junk folder. I previously setup an “Archives” folder.)

So, I’m really glad I stumbled onto Matt Gemmell’s post, “Favorite Mailboxes in Lion Mail”. I now have keyboard shortcuts to move one or more messages to any of these folders very quickly:

Inbox (Command-Control–1)
Archives (Command-Control–2)
Automattic (Command-Control–3)
@Action (Command-Control–4)

By the way, the reason why I used Thunderbird because it’s open source, and I could switch easily from Eudora. Isn’t that a blast from the past?

If you have any other Mail tips, please leave a link in the comments. Thanks!

Drag and drop files easily with Expose and screen corners [OS X]

Pronto writing in six steps

4 Replies

I don’t like hand writing as much as typing simply because I’m a slow writer. The faster I write, the less legible my words become.

It’s incredibly easy to get going with a MacBook Air (Oct 2010), especially since it wakes up from sleep so quickly.

Mac OS X on my MacBook Air

Open lid.
Enter password.
Press Command + Spacebar to activate Spotlight (or whichever keyboard shortcut used to activate Quicksilver , LaunchBar, or Alfred App), type “Bean” or whichever text editor/word processor you use, then press Enter.
Frantically type whatever thoughts are spewing from your mind.
Command + S to save your document, then Command + Q to quit your text editor program.
Close lid.

Windows 7

You can type the program name after pressing the Windows key.

Once you’re done writing, Control + S to save your document, then Alt + F4 to close the program.

Software

Which programs do I use to write? The following are essentially free simple text editing programs, designed with minimal features so you can focus on writing. If you like any of them, please donate to the developers.

Q10 (Windows)
Dark Room (Windows)
Bean (Mac OS X)
Ommwriter (Windows/Mac OS X)

I save these small text files to a dedicated folder within Dropbox[1. Affiliate link to Dropbox. "For every friend who joins and installs Dropbox, we'll give you 500 MB and your friend 250MB of bonus space (up to a limit of 16 GB)!"] only for text files, with a specific prefix to help me find it later. (e.g. BP means blog post in “BP – Pronto writing in six steps.txt”.)

Why not use Microsoft Word, Apple iWork Pages, or OpenOffice.org Writer? If you’re only working with plain text, you don’t need the extra features and bloat.

If you don’t know the HTML tags for post formatting, copy your text[2. Select All for: (Windows) Ctrl+A; (Mac OS X) Command+A], paste it[3. Paste for: (Windows) Ctrl+V; (Mac OS X) Command+V] into your blog post, then format and/or add links accordingly.

Android apps I use, plus a few battery tips

Battery life and task killers

From what I’ve read so far, it’s only bad to have rampant apps installed if they constantly use your CPU in the background. The Android memory system is pretty solid.

You don’t need a task killer. (Or do you? See “How to properly set up and use a task killer” at Android Central)
Uninstall unused apps.
Increase the intervals in which your apps sync in the background. (e.g. My main TweetDeck column syncs every 30 minutes, while Mentions and Direct Messages check every 3 minutes.)

On Friday, I used my phone pretty heavily between classes. (TweetDeck, texting several friends with Google Voice, and Pandora.) It was unplugged between 7:00 AM and 1:45 PM. When I got home, my battery was down to 25%.

I might have to try the bumb charge method outlined in this HTC forum thread, plus remove the calendar widget. I technically don’t need it.

Actually, I should try one thing before trying another. That way, I know which factor was relevant. For now, the calendar widget is gone.

Otherwise, I’ll upgrade to the Seidio Innocell 3500 mAh Extended Life Battery shortly.

Note to self: With Auto-sync disabled and Background data enabled (Settings > Accounts & Sync), I still got notified of a text message through Google Voice.

Update 2011-01-09 22:10 — TweetDeck also updates with Auto-sync disabled. What apps are dependent on Auto-sync? (I’ll search for the answer eventually if nobody leaves a comment. Hehe.)

Update 2011-01-10

06:15 — After charging all night, powered off phone, unplugged, then replugged the power cable. The orange light appeared, meaning the battery resumed charging.
06:45 — Green light from battery charging.
09:10 — Listening to Pandora Radio, checking TweetDeck, downloaded a few PDF files, and chatted with a couple friends through Google Voice (27 messages). My phone was on vibrate the whole time.
10:50 — Battery level at 40%
11:25 — While eating lunch and reading, my battery level went down to 28%. I checked my K-9 Mail settings and disabled background sync. (Settings > Global > Network)
11:29 — Stopping the K-9 Mail service. Battery level at 27%
11:42 — In class; battery level at 26 %
12:50 — Battery level at 26%

For now, I’ve (sadly) uninstalled K-9 Mail and will resume using the built-in Mail app. I’ll resume my testing and publish a new post at the end of the week (so I don’t keep adding “clutter” to this).

Saving money on U.S. Passport photos

12 Tips for Better Sales on eBay

2 Replies

After recently selling a few things on eBay, I’ve compiled some suggestions for you in hopes it’ll increase legitimate bidding activity.

Readability

Use a large, readable font. On a 22″ wide screen LCD monitor, 14 point is ridiculously small. Try 18 point and the Georgia font.
Create sections in your auction description with bold headings. (e.g. what’s for sale, why you’re selling, item condition, shipping or local pickup, retail pricing)
Check for spelling, especially in the title.

Completeness and/or full disclosure

Explain yourself. Most auction descriptions are too brief or simply repeat the item name. Why are you selling the item? How long have you had it for? What comes in the box?
Even though eBay auctions have a built-in shipping, return policy, and payment tab, repeat the shipping, handling, and payment details in the description. (You know, for redundancy and decreasing miscommunication.)
Don’t use stock photos. The bidders will usually ask, so save them time.
Display several clear photos of the item. If you know someone with a DSLR camera, get a white foam poster board and take the photos of the item(s) on it. Try to take the photo in some shade. If it’s too bright, get a friend to hold a diffuser over the item(s). For best results, make a light tent. (See “How To: DIY $10 Macro Photo Studio” or “How to Make An Inexpensive Light Tent – DIY“)
Link to a few glowing reviews of the item.

Don’t pay unnecessary fees

Host photos elsewhere. There’s no need to pay eBay more money for photo hosting. If you have Flickr, WordPress/WordPress.com, or Tumblr, create a set/page with a gallery of photos for your item(s). Don’t forget to link to the photos within the auction description!

Increase views, watchers, and bids

Use eBay’s first free image so it shows up in the listings.
End the auction around 9:30pm, and if possible, on the weekend. This will help get more buyers looking at your auction, especially for more expensive items. If you end the auction at 3pm on a weekday, it’ll be more difficult for people at the office to participate in the last few minutes of a bidding war. Don’t forget to calculate the time zones you want to cover. (For example, if you want to end the auction at 9:30pm EST, start the auction at 6:30pm PST.)
For a fee ($0.10), eBay can schedule your auction to start at a certain time and day. If you want to save that ten cents per auction, and you’ll be at a computer when you want to start the auction, fill everything out and save as a draft. You can post it later.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to take some photos of some more items I’m going to put up for auction.

Do you have more time-tested suggestions? Please take a few minutes to share them with a comment, and explain how it’s helped you. Thanks! (Back off, spammers. I’ll nuke comments and ban IP addresses without hesitation.)

Don't let email spammers verify you

1 Reply

Automatically viewing images from specific people in your Thunderbird address book is fine.

But, don’t add your own email address(es) into your address book and check that box. If a spammer ever gets your email address, and you open that email, images displayed inside the email will verify you.

I lasted about a year in minimizing spam. It’s starting to trickle now, but I hope it doesn’t get any worse.

For further information, read “Privacy basics [for] Thunderbird” at mozillaZine.

I know about Gmail. They appear to have the best spam filters[1. Compared to the other free webmail providers]. If you’re not paranoid about Google seeing everything, they’re the way to go. Do you have your own domain but want Gmail hosting? Look at Google Apps.

Photographing my first wedding

9 Replies

Prelude: I wrote the basic outline of this blog post several days after the wedding. However, I didn’t complete my thoughts until now, 44 days after the wedding.

Last August, I received an email from Noel Besuzzi[1. I went to school with her brother, PJ.]. She expressed how much she loves my editing style and asked if I’d photograph a wedding with her. For me, it was a no-brainer. I’d get experience, expand my portfolio, and earn some money.

My overall experience was very positive. Everyone was friendly and cooperative. The staff at Black Gold Golf Club (Yorba Linda) was awesome and knew the best locations for the post-ceremony formals. The food was delicious and the music selection brought out the dancers.

Best of all: Noel is easy-going…just like she said she was! She’s receptive to ideas, and I could basically do whatever I want.

Should I talk about the day chronologically? Nah.

Here’s what I learned from the first wedding I’ve photographed:

Continue reading →

Five ways to create better photos without a dSLR camera

20 Replies

A couple weeks ago, my friend, Chris Marsden, asked me to write about how to take awesome photos without a dSLR camera. I’ll try to indulge him.

Before January 3rd, 2008, I didn’t have a dSLR camera. I used a Canon PowerShot SD600. Before that, a Canon PowerShot A40.

Knowing the limitations of a point-and-shoot camera, how do you create better photos without a dSLR camera?

Use the rule of thirds

My composition was weak sauce without the rule of thirds. Now, I’m constantly using this. Once you understand it, you’ll know when it’s okay to break it.

[Click to enlarge or View on Flickr]

Change your perspective

The majority of photos are straight up. You know, from a regular height of you standing up. Be different by squatting low, lying on the ground completely, looking up at your subject while you’re down there, or finding a higher vantage point.

[Click to enlarge or view on Flickr]

Edit your photos

Print services usually enhance your photos automatically, so the photos look great. However, photos usually lack that punch and pop straight out of the camera.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably posting most of your photos online. You’ll definitely need to work on your photos to improve them.

When I started to edit my photos, I used Paint.NET. Once I learned its limitations, I switched to GIMP. They’re both free.

What do you do to them? I adjusted contrast, saturation, colors, converted to black and white, and played with layers. If they’re crooked, straightened them out. If the composition isn’t right, crop it until it is.

I have a few GIMP bookmarks on Delicious, but if you find a Photoshop article, you can probably transpose it to GIMP.

Once you’re regularly editing a massive amount of photos, try out Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. It’s ridiculously intuitive. You’ll be churning out photos like nobody’s business.[1. Of course, you still need to be shooting constantly.]

Here’s a before and after example simply editing with Paint.NET:

[Click to enlarge or View on Flickr]

There’s a lot of purists that will cringe against this. However, unless you’re a photojournalist, I think you should do whatever you want to make the best photos possible.

Be picky

I see the photos I uploaded last year and cringe. I uploaded lots mediocre pictures and probably didn’t know any better. If you’re just doing this for friends and family to document your life, that’s fine. In a way, that’s what I was doing for awhile long time. Once you realize you want to create better photos than the average Joe or Jane, get in the habit of criticizing your photos before uploading them to Flickr.

[Click to enlarge or View on Flickr]

Constantly look at other photos

As I got more into photography, I found myself adding a lot of Flickr photographers as contacts.[2. I'll save that for another post.] Over the last 10-12 months, lot of their editing techniques and ideas have rubbed off on me. Additionally, you might find yourself thinking like them…viewing the world like them. Don’t worry, you’ll create your own style soon enough.

Conclusion

I’d like to think of this as a starting point because there are many other ways to improve your photos that I won’t cover in this post. If you’re like me, maybe you’ll upgrade eight days from now. (Probably not.) Until you upgrade to a dSLR camera, learn from yourself and other people, shoot a lot, and use what you have. Most of all, have fun!

All Narfed Up

words and photography by Bryan Villarin

Tag Archives: tips

My thoughts on NMX BlogWorld 2013

Drag and drop files easily with Expose and screen corners [OS X]

Pronto writing in six steps

Mac OS X on my MacBook Air

Windows 7

Software