Hey guys.  Welcome back!  Tonight I just want to real quickly talk about a cool tutorial I found on YouTube today.  I was searching for a “Gold Text” effect Photoshop Tutorial when I came across this one from IceflowStudios:

Photoshop: GOLD Bling!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87CGbLRpHoo

One thing I liked about it from the git-go was he begins by saying most tutorials on how to make gold effects are insufficient.  I did the tutorial with him step by-step and was happy to discover that he explained everything very coherently, step-by-step and in the end I had a had the string “$10,000,000” in glimmering gold metal!

Just to give you a quick Idea, Here is the photograph I started with (fig. 1.0):

fig 1.0 - Photo: $1Million On Display

The only edits I had to do to prepare the original photo was just simple cropping.

Then, I typed my text “$10,000,000” in Hobo Std font because it has a nice thickness to the letters, and because that’s what the narrator says to use.  Here I am using crisp, 60 pt (Fig 1.1):

Fig 1.1 - Typing $10,000,000 in "Hobo Std" font.

Finally, we have the finished product (Fig 1.3).  From start to completion it only took about 30 minutes — 4 minutes to view the tutorial the first time to decide if it had merit, 10 minutes to perform the steps once, and another 15 minutes or so troubleshooting and tweaking my settings.

Without further adieu … BEHOLD! … I give you: $10,000,000:

Fig 1.3 - Finished Product:The Attraction of $10,000,000

This was a great tutorial and I hope it helps you complete whatever project of yours requires a great gold effect!

Live Joyously with Many Blessings!

- CodeSlayer2010

Related Links:

http://www.smartmoney.com/spend/rip-offs/10-things-your-tax-preparer-wont-tell-you-22581/

http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2011/09/24/how-to-create-a-million-dollar-business-this-weekend-examples-appsumo-mint-chihuahuas/

http://izismile.com/2011/05/31/where_can_you_hide_one_million_dollars_cash_13_pics.html

Related articles

• PSU-Create Abstract Nebula Circle In Photoshop (pluginin.org)
• How to Make a Million Dollars with $871, a DSLR, and Photoshop (petapixel.com)

Image via Wikipedia

2012.02.10

(NOTE: This article is currently just a stub … )

So, this is what I was up to tonight.  I researched and learned the following techniques:

• Excel data validation list from named range in another worksheet
• Build drop-down menu in Excel
• How to delete duplicate rows using in-place filtering
• Keyboard shortcut for entering and opening drop-down menu in an Excel cell (Hint: <ALT+down arrow> to fully open menu)
• Is it possible to do a case select statement (aka: switch statement) in Excel’s native formula apparatus?  Short answer – No.  To do something like that you have to use VBA.  … Incidentally, I’m falling asleep otherwise I’d have done VBA tutorials, but that’ll just have to wait for another blog entry.
• And finally … How to change background cell color without using VBA in Excel 2003

Now, folks, you may be wondering “Why would the CodeSlayer go to all the trouble?  What fancy project does HE have brewing?”  Well, get ready to assuage your thirst for answers because I’m about to show you what all this learning was for…. And here it is (see fig. 1.0):

fig 1.0 - Music Spreadsheet with Moods

To accomplish one of goals of sorting all my music pages that are sitting around in various piles, I decided to make an Excel spreadsheet.  I designed this spreadsheet fairly simply.  Notice it has columns to indicate song name, artist, whether I can sing it, play it on guitar, have the lyrics, or have the tablature.  I’m using a basic binary tally method (either box has a “x” indicating “yes” or it is empty, indicating “no”).  But, you’ll also notice a column called “Mood”.

Recently I’ve started to think that perhaps by continuing to sing songs like “She f***in Hates Me” or “I’m a Creep”, that I’m, by the Law of Attraction and Law of Concentration drawing those types of life experiences to me, which is emphatically NOT what I want!  Thus, I’m endeavoring to not only figure out what songs I have in my possession (to keep from wasting time re-downloading the tab or lyrics), but I’m also attempting to identify what songs express the type of vibes I want to be sending out and attracting back to me.  In this case, “Positive” and “Attractive” classifications are desired.

I’ve completed about 80 songs so far, and it’s been a work in progress, with a bit of layout refactoring here and there.  But overall, it’s been an enjoyable task so far… There’s just something completely fulfilling about seing something through to completion.  This is the type of task I believe famed motivational speaker Brian Tracy (who I’ve been listening to religiously on the way to work as an excellent alternative to the uber-negative, snarky talk radio personalities) might classify as “C” priority level, I am doing as much as I can each weekend until it’s done.  That amounts to about 4-6 hours a week.  My goal is full completion within 3 calendar weeks.  Then I’ll need to use about as much time for the 2nd phase, which is scanning all my papers to pdf files.

So anyway guys and gals, that’s the main project I worked on in free time at home tonight and I just wanted to share that with you.

Many blessings and Prosperity,

- CodeSlayer

Sources:

• Excel Data Validation List from Another Workbook
  (Contextures.com)
• http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/delete-duplicate-rows-from-a-list-in-excel-HA001034626.aspx
• http://www.keyxl.com/aaab2f6/9/Microsoft-Excel-spreadsheet-keyboard-shortcuts.htm
• http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080717082728AAOlAJ0
• http://www.techonthenet.com/excel/questions/cond_format1.php

Related articles

• vba for excel – create a validation list based on the data from another sheet in the same book (stackoverflow.com)
• Packaging and Reusing VBA Code in Excel (stackoverflow.com)

Hello folks.  I’ve been doing a Lynda.com tutorial called PHP With MySQL Essential Training.  I’ve actually been doing aboutg 2-8 hours per week of the multiple, sequential lessons that are involved in this excellent hands-on tutorial for about a month now.

1. Figure out why it is bulleting blank lines.  (NOTE: I tried doing echo/exit in the code but no avail so far)
2. Refactor to be Object Oriented.
3. Refactor to use MVC.

Anyway. that’s all stuff down the road.  My goal for completion is March31, 2012.  Wish me luck!

Until next time, HAPPY CODING!

CodeSlayer2010

Related articles

• PHP & MySQL: The Missing Manual (O’Reilly) (i-programmer.info)
• Profiling and optimising PHP / MySQL websites (stackoverflow.com)
• Three free MySQL webinars (xaprb.com)
• learning more wordpress at Lynda.com (daydreamingarts.wordpress.com)
• Speaking at MySQL Meetup in Charlotte,NC (mysqlperformanceblog.com)

TEST 1:

This example introduces a bit of test code we are calling ‘CODE SNIPPET A’. It uses the ‘sourcecode’ tag and has no language attributes or parameters.

		<form id="form1">
			<div>
				<input id="btnShowMessage" type="button" value="show message" />
				<div id="divMessage" style="background-color: yellow;">THIS IS THE MESSAGE</div>
			</div>
		</form>
	

NOTE: When you are in your dashboard editing your post you will not be able to see the syntax highlighting. Don’t freak out. Do a save and ‘preview’ and everything should be just fine.

TEST 2:

This is snippet A except now we have added the language=’html’ attribute.

	<form id="form1">
		<div>
			<input id="btnShowMessage" type="button" value="show message" />
			<div id="divMessage" style="background-color: yellow;">THIS IS THE MESSAGE</div>
		</div>
	</form>

TEST 3:

Well that’s all good for plain old html. But, what if our code is from a scripting language, such as PHP, that alternates back and forth between html and the script code? In that case, you could use something like

	[sourcecode language="php" htmlscript="true"]
		// ... Code Goes Here ...
	

[/sourcecode]

	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/1.5/jquery.min.js"></script>
		<script type="text/javascript">
		  $(document).ready(function(){
			 nameOutput = jQuery('#nameOutput');
			 nameOutput.css({'background':'yellowgreen'});
			 jQuery('body').css({
				'background':'#A66900',
				'font-family':'comic sans ms',
			 });
			 nameOutput.wrap('<span style="color:purple;">');
			 jQuery('#wrap').addClass('centered');
			 jQuery('#wrap').css({
				'background':'#F2B449',
			 })
		  });
		</script>
		<style type="text/css">
		  /****** COLORS *******
			 #A66900 // brown
		   */
		  .centered {
			margin: 0 auto;
			width: 66%;
		  }
		</style>
	<div id="wrap">
		<?php echo "Welcome to " . 'hell'; ?>
		<br />
		<?php

		  echo "<pre>";
		  print_r($_SERVER);
		  echo "</pre>";

		  $model = new stdClass();
		  $model->smurf = 'Papa';
		  echo "my smurf = " . $model->smurf;

		  $model->_name = isset($_POST['userName']) ? $_POST['userName'] : '[not defined!]';
		  echo "<pre>";
		  print_r($model);
		  echo "</pre>";
		?>
		<H1>THIS PAGE IS CURRENTLY UNDER CONSTRUCTION AND TESTING</H1>

		<form id="main" action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">
		<input type="text" name="userName" value="Enter Your Name" />
		<input type="submit" name="submit" />

		<div id="nameOutput" name="nameOutput">
		  <?php if(isset($_POST['userName'])) echo stripslashes($_POST['userName']); ?>

		</div>
	<div id="content"></div>
	</div>
	

Image via CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

Is DropBox a good alternative for a WordPress CDN (image hosting site)?

11/15/11

10:06 PM

So, tonight I’m seeking a better FREE solution for hosting my images for blogging purposes.  Up until now I have always used Photobucket, but recently I have experienced some issues with some of my images not showing up in WordPress.  It could be that the problem is with WordPress making changes; of that, I’m not sure.  Regardless, this difficulty has motivated me to see if there are any better free options.  So, today, I’m testing a service that I’m sure many of you are well aware of, but that I have only just heard about.  That service is Dropbox.com.

Step 1:Read up on DropBox.com

10:15 – 10:34

Reasearched DropBox service online. Here are some nice articles that give a good beginner’s overview:

Use Dropbox as a Free CDN for WordPress Blog_ – irnovo

How to Use Dropbox [With Video Tutorial] – irnovo

DropBox.com (Click “Watch a Video”)

Step 2: Download & Install the dropbox application

10:45

Downloaded, virus-scanned, and installed the app (Dropbox 1.2.48.exe)

Step 3: Create a new Dropbox account

10:52 – 11:08

Set email and password info and accepted terms of use. Selected 2GB Dropbox size (Free). Chose Advanced Setup type. Accepted to install Dropbox folder in “My Documents” (I’m on Windows XP Pro). Chose “Selective Sync” option. Completed installing and configuring Dropbox

Step 4: Read up on how to use Dropbox as a CDN for WordPress

11:14

Ran into a roadblock when I discovered that PLUGINS cannot be used on the WordPress.com com site! As this article states:

[sourcecode language="php" htmlscript="true"]

<!-- inline -->

<blockquote style="background: #c3d5fd; color: black!important; border: black 2px solid; margin: 5px; padding: 5px!important;"> ... </blockquote>

[/sourcecode]

/* as a css style rule */
blockquote {
	background: #c3d5fd;
        color: black!important;
        border: black 2px solid;
        margin: 5px;
        padding: 5px!important;
}

11:17

Searched for similar function “widget”, which are included on the WordPress.com blogs. No go. So now I’ve either got to convert to the self-hosted wordpress-based blog, or find a way to manually connect serve files from my dropbox account

Step 5: Create an images folder in my dropbox and try to call it in a wordpress blog post

Simple enough. Then login to dropbox online account, navigate to the image file you want to use and click on it. Then copy the url from your browser and open a wordpress post and put an <img> tag in there, using the copied url as the href. Click to the “Visual” tab and if your image shows up, then you know it is getting through

11:49 PM

VERDICT:

Dropbox is a useful tool that is good for syncing files between multiple computers and devices. It is good for what it was designed for, however, thus far, it doesn’t appear to be a viable solution for WordPress hosted blogs

Related articles

• 5 Dropbox Backup Plugins for WordPress (wpjedi.com)
• Top 10 WordPress Plugins For Manipulating and Handling Images (skyje.com)
• Does moving from WordPress.org to WordPress.com affect traffic? (billbennett.co.nz)
• Blog: Top ten apps & sites of 2011 (musingsfromsussex.com)