jcksn

If you are a web designer, or anyone that works on websites, the most important article you can read this year (and maybe even next) is “Avoid Edge Cases by Designing Up Front” by Ben Henick

Reboot the VM, and at the grub menu, hit ‘e’ and ‘e’ again to edit the kernel boot parameters.

Change the line from

kernel /boot/multiboot kernel/unix -B install_media=cdrom

to:

kernel /boot/multiboot kernel/unix -B install_media=cdrom,atapi-cd-dma-enabled=0

From spod.cx

logadm -w apache2 '/home/noel/domains/*/logs/{access,error}_log' -C 30 -a '/opt/csw/apache2/sbin/apachectl graceful' -p 1w -t '$dirname/$basename-%d.%m.%Y.log'

If you get cannot connect to Courier authdaemond in /var/log/syslog just do the following:

sudo chmod +x /opt/csw/var/spool/authdaemon

I work in Illustrator a lot when making logos (vector scaling rules!) and making business cards (again, vector scaling rules!). But I was always flustered when having to set guides for centering objects.

I figured out that you don’t have to! Just go up to your “Window” menu and select “Align”. Then on your “Align” flyout, check “Align to Artboard” and align as you please!

Background

The other day, I promised you my aritcle on GTD and Photoshop – so here it is.

I started RYNO Digital, with friend and (really amazing) photographer Ryan Michael Kelly. I have since sold the company to Ryan and moved back to Detroit, to be near my friends and family and work towards my MBA.

While I was running RYNO I created a system to handle our incoming images, based on David Allen’s GTD method.

GTD (for those that don’t know) stands for Getting Things Done.

Application

An image is just like anything else that you might use the GTD method with. It has tasks to be accomplished and it has contexts, or areas, that those tasks need to be applied to. David calls these actions and contexts.

I created this chart (available in PDF) to aid in workflow.

So, let me explain. On the left, are a list of actions and on the right are all the contexts of an image to apply these to. On the top is a spot to write in the image name.

Using the chart is easy, apply the actions to any applicable contexts:

• Open the image
• Adjust the contrast with Levels (set white and black points)
• Adjust the color with Curves
• Add on a layer of Grain
• Liquify (reshape the image)
• Heal and Clone
• Dodge & Burn
• Sharpen
• Done

Some screencasts are coming soon.

I recently spent close to two years in the New York city. During this time I dove into the world of fashion photography and subsequently retouching.

I spent a large amount of time assisting other photographers. It was this connection that allowed me to start a retouching house with a fellow photographer (Ryno Digital, LLC). After opening up shop, it took but a few months for us to call Condé Nast and Emap Publications clients.

The amount of work coming in was pretty hefty. Working aside someone else really made life easy and at the same time extremely tough. How do you know who did what to an image? How do you know if all the necessary steps have been completed on an image?

It was at the same time I was pondering these questions, that I was reading Getting Things Done by David Allen.

Lucky me.

And. Lucky you.

This week I’m going to divulge my process for working with large amounts of photos and how I used the GTD paradigm to help me, no pun intended, get things done. Keep an eye out for a few articles on the subject (and my top-secret PDF).

Everytime I reinstall OS X, I have to reconfigure apache (sometimes). Everytime I do that I can’t figure out why mod_rewrite isn’t working. Clagnut’s article does the trick everytime.

1. Download MySQL for Mac OS X. You want the “Standard” distribution.
2. Install the both the MySQL binary package and the Startup Item (which you can disable later) as well as the Preference Pane.
3. Open the MySQL System Preference Pane; Click start.
4. Set your root MySQL password, by opening the Terminal.app and typing the following /usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqladmin -u root password yourpasswordhere. This part is extremely important. Don’t screw it up!
5. Download CocoaMySQL. Make sure to get the beta if you have an Intel Mac.
6. Create your databases and have fun!

Gladwell posted an interesting story on how his father threw out his furnace in favor of geothermal heating (and cooling).

It’s really interesting to know, that we have, below our very own feet, the power to heat and cool our homes for next to nothing. Yet, we still persist to fight wars and spend money on foreign oil. It’s maddening.

I was one of those that scoffed at the idea. Web-based email. Why? I have my own server with IMAP! IMAP! IMAP! IMAP is awesome. Web-based email means I’m stuck using either plain-old POP or using their web-interface.

This scoffing stopped the minute my daily SPAM intake went from 10 (which were caught very well by the TXD SpamAssassin install) to 100+. I didn’t know what to do. I tried it all.

My last resort was to use gmail. I began forwarding my mail there and realized that the Gmail spam filter kicks some serious booty. Serious bootay.

I didn’t want to be stuck using gmail for life. Cause it didn’t allow me to access its service via IMAP, which irritated the hell out of me. What did I end up doing?

Original Mail Address -> Gmail Account -> Hidden/New Email Account.

I now check my mail from a hidden login and send out with my old login, letting gmail filter my SPAM away in the process. It works wonderfully and now I can finally rest at night, knowing that I won’t awake to hundreds of SPAM messages to deal with.

Get rid of the WWW on your .COM.