Top 10 Tips for Great Pictures

Do you wish you were a better photographer? All it takes is a little know-how and experience. Keep reading for some important picture-taking tips. Then grab your camera and start shooting your way to great pictures.

1. Look your subject in the eye
2. Use a plain background
3. Use flash outdoors
4. Move in close
5. Move it from the middle
6. Lock the focus
7. Know your flash's range
8. Watch the light
9. Take some vertical pictures
10. Be a picture director

See the details and howto at Kodak's web site.

Watching videos with multi-part files

Have you downloaded a video with a bunch or rar files/part files and don't want to have to uncompress them? Use NZBPlayer with VLC player.

How to Determine if an Mp3 is Truly 320kbps

How to determine if an mp3 is truly 320kbps or just a re-encode

1. Open Adobe Audition
2. Drag and Drop (or open) am MP3 file
3. Click on View > Spectral Frequency Display (Shift+F)

A true 320kbps source will be 20Hz or above.

128kbps re-encodes or 192kbps re-encodes will be stuck @ 16Hz or 18Hz

NOTE: There is an exception for this rule - oldies, acoustic, piano songs, and low volume music will have lower frequencies even if encoded with 320!

Maximize Your Laptop's CPU Speed

I just discovered that by having a different power scheme in your Power Management Settings, with Intel's SpeedStep setting set in your BIOS, that your laptop will run slower than it's rated speed. I have a laptop and used CPU-Z to check its specs- it was running at 1.6GhZ, but the core was a 2.8GhZ! Geez, what a loss of power! So I read up and discovered that the power scheme needed to be "Always On" or "Home/Office PC".

If you're using a laptop with WinXp, download CPU-Z, and see what the speed is, or just make sure your scheme is set to one listed to get the most from your CPU. However, make sure you monitor the temperature and/or use good cooling options.

Guide to Better Skin

I just found a nice eBook, an official Complete Idiot's Guide publication with great information for people of all ages, to get the facts straight about having great looking and healthy skin. Yeah, Proactiv(R) and systems like that are great, but there's more to it than that.

Maybe because I'm getting older do I care more about taking care of myself, but also everyone should have the information and truths to keep them looking great from kids to seniors. Hope this can help you out, or maybe at least your kids(if ya got any).

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Better Skin (2004)