1. Go to System Preferences > Expose & Spaces.
2. Under Active Screen Corners, set one or two corners as All Windows. (I have the two right corners set for All Windows, and the bottom left for Desktop.)

With the source and destination Finder windows open, drag the file(s) to one of the active screen corners, hover over the source folder, then drop onto the active window.

P.S. Hi everybody. I’m geeking out, and I’m okay with it.

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

1. Open lid.
2. Enter password.
3. 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.
4. Frantically type whatever thoughts are spewing from your mind.
5. Command + S to save your document, then Command + Q to quit your text editor program.
6. 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.

After a couple of days with it, I root my phone with unrevoked3. (Ambitious, huh? I guess Wil Wheaton recently did the same with his HTC Droid Incredible. Wheaton!!!)

Side note: Why did I want to root my phone? To uninstall apps pre-installed by Verizon Wireless that I wouldn’t use. (Crapware.)

The following is a list of Android apps I’ve installed and used so far:

• Android System Info
• Barcode Scanner – When checking prices at the Cal Poly Pomona bookstore, this saved me $162.57 (Breakdown: $62.11 immediately + $100.46 Amazon.com Buy Back, which I’ll do at the end of the quarter.)
• Chrome to Phone – Opens links from Google Chrome on my desktop to my phone.
• Clockr – A simple clock widget that displays text, not numbers.
• Dropbox – Along with Epistle (see the next item), this lets me save photos to any Dropbox folder, keeping my phone storage clear.
• Epistle – Synchronizes text files to/from a specified folder in your Dropbox account.
• Gmote – Control playback of videos and music, browse your file system, or use phone as a keyboard or mouse.
• K-9 Mail – Robust email client, better than the built-in app. I use IMAP with my email server. (See update below)
• Mint.com – View your balances and budget. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support adding cash transactions.
• Pandora [Radio] – I haven’t tried Slacker Radio yet.
• [Google] Reader – The formatting looks good. I prefer this over visiting the website on my phone.
• [Google] Shopper
• Silent Boot – Silences the “Droid” start up sound when powering your phone on. Stay discreet if you’re in a quiet room and need to restart your phone.
• Silent Sleep – Specify when your phone should be silent.
• Swype (Beta) – If you’re sick of tapping an OSK, you’ll love this app. I was comfortable using it after a couple days. I can write fairly quickly.
• Titanium Backup
• TLDR – Saves articles for later reading directly to your Instapaper account.
• TweetDeck – More powerful than the official Twitter app.
• Uninstaller
• Google Voice – I heart this.
• WordPress – In case I want to draft/publish a blog post from my phone, this works very well.

After I root my phone, I uninstalled the following pre-installed apps:

• City ID
• Footprints
• Skype – I might reinstall this if I needed. At the moment, I wouldn’t want to use it while I’m out and about.
• Twitter
• Facebook

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).

With the help of my friend, James, I took my own passport photos. I showed James how to compose the photo, stood in front of an off-white wall, then James pressed the shutter button. After making a few necessary color and lighting adjustments in Lightroom, I exported the file as a JPEG. Lastly, ePassportPhoto.com helped crop a single JPEG to output five 2″ x 2″ headshots on a 4″ x 6″ print.

I went to my nearby CVS (0.5 mi away), knowing that they charge $0.29 for an instant 4″ x 6″ print. All they had to do was take my $0.29. The kiosk did the rest. When I got the the register, cute cashier said they might charge the passport photo fee of $7.99 because of the intention of my photo. She called the manager to the front, and he told her to charge me the $0.29.

Cody, who used to work at CVS, explained that the passport photo price applies only when they take the photos for the customer.

When I went to the Temple City U.S. Post Office, I had no problems. Barbara carefully cut two photos out for me, reviewed my application, made a few corrections, then took my payment.

I submitted all that on Monday, May 10th. I’m not going anywhere, so there’s no rush. They estimated five weeks, but hopefully it won’t take as long.

P.S. I forgot to link to this blog post, “The Stupid Passport Photo Ripoff.”

Update May 28th, 2010: I just received my U.S. Passport book. That’s a turnaround of 14 business days. (Nice.) According to the information slip in the envelope, my passport card will arrive will arrive separately. None of this matters because I’m not planning on going anywhere out of the country anytime soon. I just wanted to have a a passport on hand, just in case.

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.)

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.

Related:

• Switching from Gmail to IMAP in 9 steps
• Spamgourmet
• Train others how to use email
• Email spam (Wikipedia)

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:

Get suggestions and inspiration from other wedding photographers

If you haven’t photographed a wedding, you’ll need to know the poses and framing necessary to document a wedding. My friend, Michael Kang (Static Age Photography), directed me to Digital ProTalk (by David Ziser). I also got lens advice from another friend, Jasmine.

Acquire and learn to use an external flash

Thanks to Michael Kang, I tried his Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash. I used it on-camera and it was clutch! I wouldn’t have been able to get photos from the reception.

I think there were instances that called for flash during the ceremony and for the formals immediately afterward. Fortunately for me, slight silhouettes worked to my advantage.

I bought an 8-pack of AA batteries. Four lasted for over 800 photos, most of which were at 1/2 and 1/4 power.

Learn the interests of the bride and groom

If you’re hanging out with them for several hours before the ceremony, a few nuggets of inside knowledge will help craft better photos. I basically knew nothing about the couple.

When I needed to kill time with the guys before the ceremony and hide them from seeing the bridal party, I struggled to come up with ideas for wacky photos.

I think an oddball questionnaire filled out weeks in advance would help get the creative juices flowing. (Can you think of funky questions that could help create cool poses?)

Smile

If you’re dealing with people you’ve never met before, smiling will hopefully relax family, relatives and guests of your presence at the wedding.

Bite your tongue

You’re on the job, so work hard and get the shots you’re paid for. Besides, it’s their party, not yours.

Be in the loop to help anticipate the moments

Know the schedule of the entire wedding. Be in the best location possible with the lenses needed to capture the moment, but don’t forget to…

Compliment the other photographer’s photos

Are you working with another photographer? Get photos that will compliment their photos. Find a different perspective. (Noel learned from me by using a low vantage point – very cool!)

Also, use a different lens than the other photographer at that point in time (not the entire time).

Methodically take a ridiculous amount of photos

What do I mean by that?

There might be some instances where a 3-shot burst might yield one sharp photo. Or, if you’re in a tight situation where can’t change settings freely, try auto exposure bracketing. Just deal with the extra exposures. You can nuke the extraneous ones after the fact, but you can never recreate the same [candid] scene. I think it’s worth it.

Photograph everyone

If you’re the type to give the couple all the photos on a disc, this might mean a lot to someone they know…someday. You just never know.

Additional suggestions

• Break the rules and experiment – once you have the required photos
• Focus on the eyes (duh)
• Use a reflector for tough lighting situations

Now for some photos…

Stats

For you stat junkies, here’s what I had after about eight hours:

• 2,019 photos
  • Tokina 12-24mm f/4 — 768
  • Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM — 168
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM[2. Noel let me try her rental Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM while she tried the Tokina 12-24mm during the reception.] — 83
  • Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM — 330
  • Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM — 261
  • Canon EF 135mm f/2L USM[3. Borrowed from BorrowLenses.] — 409
• Flash states
  • Did fire — 825
  • Did not fire — 1,194
• ISO Speeds
  • ISO 200 — 592
  • ISO 400 — 259
  • ISO 800 — 337
  • ISO 1600 — 831

Special thanks

• Nathaniel Perales for letting me borrow his Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM lens.
• Jay Edwards for letting me borrow his Tokina 12-24mm f/4 lens.
• Atilla Banoczy for letting me borrow his Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM lens and Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash.
• Jean Ma for letting me borrow her Canon EOS 40D as a backup camera body. Fortunately, I never had to use it.
• Jason and Stephanie for being awesome.
• Noel Besuzzi for renting a Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM lens for me, and the opportunity to photograph a wedding.
• Everyone for the compliments and inspiration, no matter how big or small.

You can see more of my photos from Jason and Stephanie’s wedding at Bryan Villarin Photography or my Flickr account. Noel also has a few photos of the wedding at her blog.

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]

[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!

At work, one of the attorneys had a humongous PDF document she needed to email a lot of other attorneys outside the office. I tried extracting pages with an old version of Adobe Acrobat (v5), but the original file still kept the same size (despite having deleted the pages).

With open source (free) software, I split the document into two separate files in a couple minutes.

Required: PDFCreator

Once you install that, open your PDF document (original_superlongdocument.pdf) in your preferred reader. Now, go to File > Print. Change your printer to PDFCreator, then change your page range so you’re only “printing” half the document. If you have a 1,000 page document, set it to 1-500.

Follow the prompts and save that new PDF file — just not over your original. (superlongdocument_a.pdf)

Now, repeat for pages 501-1000 and save that one with a different filename. (superlongdocument_b.pdf)

On Thursday afternoon, I drove all the way to the UC Forum at the University of San Diego to see Finch and Saosin. However, this time was different. At will-call, there was an all-access VIP pass with my name on it.[1. Why? Daniel Wonacott (bassist from Finch) liked my photos of their show at The Roxy Theatre last Monday. So, I asked for a photo pass and he said it wouldn’t be a problem.]

I got there late, but was fortunate because there was another band[2. I forgot who they were] before Finch and Saosin.

I walked to the front, showed security my pass and got in front of the barricade. There was a ledge there so we could sit and stay out of view from the crowd. I could also go along the sides of the stage, but I couldn’t get clear photos from those angles — they were cluttered with stuff for the next band (Saosin) or the mixer board.

This is what I learned from this experience:

• Wear earplugs or ear filters. I use the Hearos High Fidelity Ear Filters. At times, I was taking photos in front of the speakers. Without them, my hearing would be toast.
• Wear dark clothes so you don’t stand out.
• Keep moving around. If there are other photographers there, it’ll help all of you vary your angles.
• Watch out for crowd surfers. When you see the security staff moving towards your position, that means a crowd surfer is about to fly on top of you. Retreat with caution.
• Favor a waist pack over a backpack. My backpack added used up more space, making it harder to stay clear from the security staff helping crowd surfers.
• Take a lot of photos. You can always delete a lot later when you process them.
• Boast. Did you take good photo? I wouldn’t think it’s rude to share them with others. If I hadn’t posted on Finch’s Myspace, Daniel wouldn’t have got in touch with me.
• Ask. If I didn’t simply ask Daniel for a photo pass, I wouldn’t have gotten one.

Photography notes — Arnold[3. Instead of going to the concert, he took the hit of the ticket price and saw Jane Goodall speak. He met up with me to see the end of Saosin's set.] was nice enough to let me borrow his Canon EOS 40D and Tamron SP AF 17-50mm F/2.8 lens, so I had that in addition to my Canon EOS Digital Rebel 6.3MP and Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens.

Post-processing consisted of various Lightroom presets, which were downloaded for free from Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips.

Click here to view all the photos from the Finch concert at the UC Forum (University of San Diego)