One of the very first Photoshop skills we learned in my tenth grade photojournalism class was cropping the background out of images. I hated it. It was extremely time consuming, and the magnetic lasso tool never seemed to want to cooperate with me.
"We all want to escape our circumstances, don't we?" Benedict Cumberbatch may have been talking about acting, but the sentiment rings true for all of us at some point or another. Whether it's work, school, or just boredom at home—we all wish for an escape sometimes. If only.
Written news was first delivered by an elaborate courier service used by the Pharaohs nearly 4,500 years ago. About 2,300 years later, Romans would post public announcements via bulletins carved in metal or stone. Fast forward 1,600 years to the first monthly handwritten gazette published in Venice, the forefather of modern newspapers, which didn't become commonplace until the early 17th century.
There are some really talented graffiti artists out there. Some of them are good enough that businesses hire them to paint advertisements, rather than hiring someone to scrub their work off the side of the building.
Matte and flat colors have became quite popular. I was surprised to see how many cars used these colors at SEMA 2011.
With the explosion of food blogs in the last couple of years, there are more recipes available at the tip of your fingers than ever before. Craving chocolate chip cookies or Sriracha-flavored anything? You're guaranteed to have several thousand versions to choose from. So that's how they did it before the Internet...
With Google Maps, we can fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo to Paris and New York—all in a matter of seconds. We can zoom in with relative ease and flock around the city of our choice, checking out restaurants, historical landmarks, traffic and scuba divers. Easily the most recognizable and iconic part of Google Maps are the markers that signify all of these locations and point of interests. The iconic markers have already spurred artists to create Google Map inspired art pieces—with one such arti...
For most people, the battery life on a DSLR is more than sufficient, but if you want to do a really long exposure or time-lapse, one charge might not last long enough to get the shot you want. You can always connect it to an extension cord to charge while you shoot, but that can be really annoying to work around.
Are you constantly traveling? Well, as a Hilton HHonors member, you can enjoy special treatment at all of their hotels and resorts. It's free to register, but the difficulty lies in climbing up their membership level. To reach Gold elite status, Hilton HHonors requires that you have a minimum of 20 stays, 40 nights, or 75,000 base points—all in one year. While this may very will be easily attainable for those with jobs that revolve around traveling, it's almost damn near impossible for the re...
For the most part, nobody makes money off of Facebook. Sure, some people make a living by updating pages for businesses and celebrities, but hardly anyone gets a dime from the site itself.
Creating a class in Black Ops 2 is kind of like an art form. Every player has an insane amount of options for creating a character for all sorts of situations. Combining perks, with secondary weapons, and attachments allows for a wide range of killing options. But in order to unlock a lot of these perks and attachments, you need to gain XP. Gaining XP and collecting tokens is the lifeblood of the online gaming experience.
At some point or another, we've all been in that awful situation when someone walks up behind you while you're looking at something you don't want them to see. Whether you're tweeting during class, shopping for gifts online, or looking at something a little more NSFW, there are times when it would be nice to just click a button and have all your open tabs disappear.
With the new year right around the corner, it's time to talk about the end of the 19th century, a time which plays an enormous role in Steampunk. If you've done any reading of British books written from about 1890 to 1899, you may have come across the phrase 'fin de siecle' and wondered what it meant. You also may have come across this term in reading about the late Victorian era. No worries, I'll tell you all about it! Image by Giovanni Dicandia
LEGO may no longer be in its heyday, but those colored building blocks of joy can still make some really cool and creative things. I mean, take a look at these pieces from LEGO artist Nathan Sawaya. While making something like that is undoubtedly impressive, it could be just a little too difficult for the common LEGO enthusiast—and expensive (LEGOs aren't cheap these days). So, for the regular LEGO-builders, usefulness is more important that extravagance.
The reason Amazon's Kindle has become so popular over the past several years is due to the amount of digital books one can fit inside—over 1,000 for the smallest Kindle. Gone are the days of lugging around heavy books to school and the airport. Instead we can fit our e-readers snugly inside our bags and never worry about forgetting a book.
Microsoft's updated web browser, Internet Explorer 10, has only been out for a few days on Windows 8, and there is already a storm of controversy surrounding its launch.
The reason that Facebook is so popular is because it connects us to people that we could have never been connected to before. When people log on, they look for messages, comments, likes, and any other notifications that connect us to those people. These same notifications, though, distort our view of Facebook. We tend to appreciate statuses (I prefer stati) that have more likes. We're geared towards people that have more friends, so we tend to like pages that already have hundred of thousands...
What's your Twitter handle worth? If it's considered "desirable" (aka short and simple), it'll get you around 100 bucks, or, if you prefer, the affections of a teenage girl.
While becoming the next Mark Zuckerberg may be out of reach for someone just getting introduced to code, the skill has never been more valuable. Just understanding basic programming language is a great thing to put on your resume, and if you know how to code, you’re golden. Software developers and programmers have been the most resistant to the recession, as jobs in the tech industry continue to grow.
If you've ever logged on to the popular music application Pandora, your password is saved onto that computer in the local storage...for good.
The iPhone 5 will be here in no time. Pre-orders started at 12:01AM PST this morning and it's expected to start shipping in about two weeks. Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are all handling unlimited data plans differently, so if you currently have an unlimited plan and are going to get the iPhone 5, you'll want to know what your carrier is doing before you upgrade so you don't end up with a very unpleasant surprise on your next phone bill. Verizon
Facial recognition software is being more widely used with every passing day. Your local law enforcement is probably already using it, and it will be even easier for them now that the FBI handed out its own facial recognition software to state authorities. Even the fine folks at Facebook are using this technology. Obviously, this brings up some pretty serious privacy concerns amongst most people, because honestly, who wants to be tracked? Right now, there's not a lot we can do about it being ...
Considering how easy and convenient Photoshop has become, even for the average computer user, it's nearly impossible to tell whether a photo is authentic, or if it's had some "improvements."
It's already August, which means school will be back in just a few short weeks. If you're getting ready to start or go back to college, that means you'll probably be dropping a few hundred bucks on textbooks. Here are some of the best places online to buy, sell and rent textbooks so that you can get back to more important things, like making your papers look longer than they really are and getting around your school's website blockers. Plus you can spend your money on more exciting things, li...
If you've read anything in the news about Skype recently, it probably hasn't been good. First, there was the controversy over the company listening to and recording users' conversations. Now, there's a new spam tool for Skype that can harvest usernames, see whether or not you're online, and even parse your log files. Image by Lloyd Dewolf
Later today, the Olympics are kicking off in London on NBC and its partner stations. However, if you don't have cable or a television with some good reception—or if you'd rather just follow the events on-the-go or at your desk—you're not out of luck. Photo by Locog
There's nothing worse than losing your phone—except losing your phone when the ringer is silent. If you're alone, it can be excruciatingly hard to find your lost device even if the ringer is on, considering most of us don't have landlines anymore. So, the next time you find yourself hunting for your phone, don't tear your house apart until you've tried some of these quick tips.
WordPress started in 2003 with a single bit of code to enhance the typography of everyday writing and with fewer users than you can count on your fingers and toes. Since then it has grown to be the largest self-hosted blogging tool in the world, used on millions of sites and seen by tens of millions of people every day.
These days, news papers, online editorials and magazines are filled with news on Iran and Syria. Of course, that is expected, as such sources need to stay current to stay in the game. My concern is that most of these articles talk about what to do about these situations.
In the following video, I demonstrate how to create a device capable of charging the body of anyone who wears it with static electricity, allowing a powerful shock to be discharged into anything that is touched. This grants the wearer the ability to do some pretty amazing things, some of which are shown in the first segment of the video.
What Is Ferrofluid? Ferrofluid is a black, solvent-based liquid, that, in the presence of a magnetic field, becomes strongly magnetized. The fluid is made up of nanomagnetic particles coated with an "anti-stick" or surfactant compound, suspended in a "carrier", commonly an organic solvent. For mechanical applications, it is used in hard drives and speakers as a lubricant. However, it also has been implemented in artwork, as seen in the video below.
Sodium (chemical symbol Na) is an interesting element. It reacts in contact with both oxygen and water, and several sodium salts are used to produce a yellow color in fireworks.
Blogging can be a fun way to express yourself by exploring your passions and interests. It can also be lucrative, if you know how to blog and monetize your blog correctly. This video shares a number of strategies for monetizing your blog, so that you can make money online!
In a previous post, I wrote about how controversy changed SCRABBLE, about how the SCRABBLE Dictionary evolved thanks to Judith Grad and her crusade to rid the world of derogatory and racist words. She won, at least in some manner, but the fact still remains, racist or not—words are words, and they're here to stay.
Skype is definitely a revolutionary software for keeping in contact with your loved ones. It's a phone on the internet! What couldn't be good about that? If you are in Orlando, your spouse is at a conference in El Paso, your daughter’s at college in Raleigh, and your son is working in Dubai, you can keep the family in touch with Skype, a software application that lets you make free video calls over the internet.
mIQ? What is it exactly? It's a handy web service that helps you manage your mobile life, with free and easy online access to all of the content and information stored on your mobile device. How does it work? Best Buy has answers. The Best Buy Mobile team explains how simple it is to use mIQ to backup all the data on your cell phone, including messages, photos and contacts.
Your first bank account can be exciting and confusing at the same time. Check out this video and learn how to manage your money and accounts so you don't wind up in the red. You don't have to earn an MBA to make good financial decisions; this video offers plenty of suggestions to keep your accounts on track.
If you're wondering how to hack Gaia accounts, the solution may be simpler than you expect. By viewing the page's source code, one can hack their gold to 999,999 by changing a few lines of code.
Learn about basic wire jewelry techniques and tips for making various accents with wire with expert wire jewelry making tips and advice in this free online crafting video series.
Learn about wire jewelry, different types of accents for wire jewelry and more with expert wire jewelry making tips and advice in this free online crafting video series.