Random thoughts on art, technology, stuff, and occasionally Real Estate: November 2007

Did everyone see Teri Lussier's post on Blooodhound Blog about using Twitter:  http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=2289

One of the points Teri makes is about connecting with people in her hometown neighborhood through Twitter.

The obvious way to do that, would be, of course, to search through Twitter "tweets" using the name of your city or neighborhood.  And that can be done in "Twitter Track", except Twitter Track can only be used with IM/mobile phones.  Web users are out of luck.

NOT.  TerraMinds came up with a micro search application for Twitter messages and users.

Try it here:  http://terraminds.com/twitter/

Type in, oh, let's say, Oakland Raiders  (Yeah, right, don't laugh.)  TerraMinds found these "tweets" about the Raiders posted within the last 3 months:  http://terraminds.com/twitter/query?query=oakland+raiders

Now, type in the name of your local community.  There you go.  Now you have a list of twitter members tweeting about your market area.  Follow them.  Read what they have to say, get on their radar, and maybe they'll start following you.

The Magic Wand is such a simple tool that it does not even have a sub-menu.   The Magic Wand makes selections by color rather than shape or outline.  It is the selection tool of choice when selecting an irregularly shaped object of a fairly uniform color.

One classic application of the Magic Wand is selecting the sky in a photo;  usually with the intent of swapping a dull sky out for a brighter one.

To start, open your image, and click on the Magic Wand.

Click on the sky.

When you release the mouse button, notice how the Magic Wand has selected all areas in a close color range to the area on which you clicked.  But you want to increase the selection area to cover the entire sky.

To add to a selection, you can hold down the SHIFT key and click on the image again, or you can click the "Add to Selection" icon,  (the two tiny overlapping blue boxes) and click on the image again.  Click on the next area you want added to the selection.

When you release the mouse button, the selection will be enlarged.

SHIFT-click (or Add to Selection-click) in the next area to add.

There.  I selected almost all of the sky in just three clicks.  But the tiny areas of blue noticable between the tree leaves still need to be added. 

SHIFT-click (or Add to Selection-click) on each small area where the sky shows between the leaves or buildings.

If you accidentially select an area you do NOT want included, ALT-click will remove it.  Or click the Subtract from Selection icon, the tiny white box overlapping the blue box, then click on the color area to remove.

Here's the final selection.

If you are planning to swap out the sky, as described here, you will want to Inverse the selection.  That is, switch the selection around so that everything is slected except the sky.  Click Select -> Inverse.

Now notice how the selection outline of "marching ants " jumps to the house, and lower edge of the image.  Click Select -> Inverse again to reselect the sky.  Select -> Inverse again to jump back to the house and shubbery.  (To do the sky swap, you want the house and shubbery selected.)

More on Photoshop Elements Selection Tools:

Being Selective: Photoshop Elements Selection Tools

Photoshop Elements Selection Tools: The Marquee Can Do More Than You Think

Photoshop Elements Selection Tools: The Magic Wand

Photoshop Elements: Fast And Easy Blue Skies

CLIFF'S NOTES:

To add to a selection:  SHIFT-CLICK

To subtract from a selection:  ALT-CLICK

Dan Wiess will probably want to throw me out of the FaceBook Tips Group for such blatantly trollish behaviour. 

But, hey, the big game is only 4 days away!  And this post is about FaceBook!  Sort of.

You probably know there are "Fan" groups on Facebook.

Well, I'm a member of the USC Football fan group.

But, please note, I am only a miserable "waterboy" because I has been remiss about recruiting other fans.

So, if you are an Active Rain member, and a Trojan Football fan, please leave a comment here, and I will send you an fan invite next time I'm logged on to FaceBook.

Maybe if I score enough points, I'll be allowed into the virtual locker room.  Ya think?  Woohoo!!!

I'm posting this little bit of info that I just discovered, it might save someone else the few minutes of befuddlement I just went through.

If you look down at the bottom of your blog page, there is a little "number page - next page" thingie that looks like this.

That image is from the bottom of my blog ..... Logically thinking, clicking on the 36 would land you on the very first blog posts I ever wrote.  NOT.

At some point they evidently scroll out of the "numbered page - next page" system.  The only way to see the first posts I wrote on Active Rain, is to click on the Monthly Archive near the bottom of the right hand column.  And yes the order in which the months appear is a little odd.

I have on occasion, wanted to revisit old posts by other members, only to find the members have deleted some of their posts, in a effort to refocus and improve their content.  I can understand their reasons, but I still think that's unfortunate, I liked some of those old posts. 

The first post I wrote here on AR was just pretty much of a test post, but I am still rather proud of the first post on my NelaLive blog.  You can see it here:  http://www.nelalive.net/2006/07/the_leap_frog_c.html

Here's my FaceBook rant, and I'm pretty sure it is an annoyance for other people as well:

Everytime you install a new FaceBook application, the app asks you to invite all your friends.  And I think most folks just click OK without giving it much thought.  Hence, all the FaceBook join this new app/join that new app emails.  The apps all offer a "Skip" option, but I'm not sure many people notice it.

Here are some other rumbles of discontent,

Trent Adams here:  http://trentadams.com/2007/08/27/facebook-apps-killing-me/

Buzz Network here:  http://www.buzznetworker.com/facebook-applications-the-new-spam-part-1/

Bogle's Blog here:  http://thebogles.com/blog/2007/11/are-facebook-apps-killing-facebook/

Guy Kawasaki linked to this in his twitter stream:  http://truemors.com/?p=18202

ResPres (AKA Jeff Turner) replied to Guy:

More:

Tech Crunch: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/08/16/facebook-takes-action-against-black-hat-apps/

Anyone else getting these?  I normally just ignore/delete, but since I have now received it twice I'd thought I ask.  The message comes over the Active Rain contact system:

The sender's IP address (IP=Internet Protocol) displays in the AR message form, and being curious, I looked it up here via a "WHOIS" search:  http://www.arin.net/whois/

This is what came up:  (I guess I won't be clicking ~that~ email link.)

There are several online resources to look-up IP addresses.  It's not a bad idea if you receive an email, and you're not quite sure whether or not it is legit.

Also, here are the tools to search if you are looking up by domain name, rather than IP number.

The Marquee tool just doesn't get any respect.

Most folks figure out how to use the Marquee tool pretty quickly.  Just click on the tool.  Click on a starting point in your image, and drag.

However, with a little ingenuity, the Marquee tool can be used to make fairly complex selections.  And it can make them easily and quickly.  For me, at any rate, in many cases, this little trick is simpler and faster than using one of the lasso tools.

Open your image.  Click on the Marquee Tool.  If the Rectangular Marquee icon is displayed, click on the tiny arrow, and choose Elliptical Marquee from the sub-menu.

Next:  And this part is the key to the whole trick:  Look up at the Options Bar  See the icon with two little blues squares? That icon indicates "Add to Selection".  Click it.  (The next icon with the white square overlapping the blue square indicates subtract from selection -- don't click that one, not yet.)

Click a starting point on the object you want to select.  Drag to form the Marquee's oval shape.  Don't try to select the whole object.

Click another starting point, drag another oval.  Overlap your first oval.  Click another starting point, drag a third oval overlapping the first or second. 

As long as the Add to Selection icon is active, each overlapping oval is added to the selected area as soon as you release the mouse button.

You'll be surprised at how quickly you can do this.  Click starting point, drag overlapping oval, release mouse button.  Repeat.

Oops.  I went too far past the edge.  To remove an area from the selection, click the Subtract from Selection icon.

Click a starting point at the edge of the object, drag the oval away from the object, release the mouse button.  Repeat until you've moved the selection line back where you want it.

Okay.  That actually only took a few minutes.  Now that I've manged to select an airbourne Police car, what shall I do with it?

To apply some special effect to the background, I'll need to "inverse" the selection.  Right now the Police car is selected.  I want to tell PSE to select everything except the Police car.  Click Select -> Inverse

I'll try a Motion Blur.  Click Filter -> Blur -> Motion Blur.

Experiment with the Angle pointer, and the Distance slider, until you see an effect you like.

To remove the "marching ants" of the selection line, click Select -> Deselect.

What can't you do with the Marquee tool?  Select a diagonal line.   But there are several other tools in the tool box to deal with that!

More on Photoshop Elements Selection Tools:

Being Selective: Photoshop Elements Selection Tools

Photoshop Elements Selection Tools: The Marquee Can Do More Than You Think

Photoshop Elements Selection Tools: The Magic Wand

Photoshop Elements: Fast And Easy Blue Skies

What the world needs now is some classic early 1960s vintage Folk Music.  Go ahead and sing along:

Here is a link to the lyrics and a little of the amazing history of this song:

http://www.mysongbook.de/msb/songs/i/ifihhamm.html

When Pete Seeger first wrote the lyrics, they were considered "radical" and the song didn't become popular until Peter, Paul and Mary revived it several years later.

If you are a frequent shopper at Amazon.com, you've seen it.

Amazon is promoting a new device toy they call "Kindle" ... which they describe as "a convenient, portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, blogs, magazines, and newspapers."

I confess.  This thing looks so tempting, it gives me goose-bumps. 

Has anyone else ordered one yet?

I just put my name on the waiting list.  (AKA Hold For Later area of my Amazon shopping cart.)

Using interesting effects in Photoshop Elements sometimes requires selecting just a portion of an image.  For example, maybe you want to select one person in a group shot.

Photoshop provides several different selection tools, but figuring out which tool to use for which job can be a challenge;  not to mention mastering the use of the particular tool.  Have you ever had the lasso go skittering across the screen with a mind of its own?   Oops.

Here is a quick review of the available selection tools.  Over the next several days, I plan to focus on some of the tools individually.

Unless you've done some serious remodeling to your program's user interface, the Main Element Toolbar is the long, vertical strip along the left side of the Full Edit window.

Notice the faint, narrow horizontal lines separating different groups of tool icons?

Notice how some of the icons have tiny arrows at their lower right corner.  The tiny arrows indicate the presence of a sub-menu with further options.

First up is the Marquee tool.  The Marquee can be either Rectangular or Elliptical.  You'd use the Marquee tool if the area you want to select in your image is just a simple square, rectangle, circle or oval shape.

Second in line is the Lasso tool.    The available options are the basic Lasso, the Magnetic Lasso, and the Polygonal Lasso.  The Basic Lasso  allows to you draw freehand on your image to make a selection.  This is not as easy as it sounds.  Trust me on that. 

The Magnetic Lasso helps by detecting (by difference in color) an object's edge, and following that edge for you.  The Polygonal Lasso also seeks and follows edges, but only draws in straight lines.  Which is useful, because it is not easy to draw a perfectly straight line with a mouse.  And as Barbara Brundage points out in the Photoshop Elements 5 The Missing Manual book, it's less likely to get itself tangled up.

The Magnetic or Polygonal Lasso can be used to select complex shapes out of complex backgrounds.

In third position is the Magic Wand.  Notice that the Magic Wand has no sub-menu of options.  It is the ideal tool when the object you need to select is fairly uniform color, but an irregular shape.

The final tool is the Selection Brush, and the Magic Selection Brush is found in the sub-menu.  With the Magic Selection brush, you to simply doodle on an object, and the tool seeks out all portions of the image with the same colors as are in your "doodle".  The Selection Brush in unique in that it is the only Elements selection tool that allows you to work in Mask Mode.  Hold that thought.  Mask Mode is easier than it sounds, and we'll come back to it.

More on Photoshop Elements Selection Tools:

Being Selective: Photoshop Elements Selection Tools

Photoshop Elements Selection Tools: The Marquee Can Do More Than You Think

Photoshop Elements Selection Tools: The Magic Wand

Photoshop Elements: Fast And Easy Blue Skies