Thomas
15 years old. I live in Saint Louis. I also love to play sports, games, watch movies, and hang out with friends.
Homepage: http://architectlounge.ucoz.com
Jabber/GTalk: Thomas
Posts by Thomas
Jun 1st
This blog post officially kicks off the Photoshop Tutorial Review mini-series, and it only seemed natural to start off with PhotoshopTutorials.ws. Entering PST, I was very happy. The site is clean, no clutter, and not over-done. The purpose of this post is not to actually be a tutorial, its for me to do the actual tutorial, and then provide anything that I believe could be improved upon, allowing you to get the best of the best. At PST, there are many different types of tutorials. There are tutorials strictly about Photoshop, but there is also photography, downloads, and forums to seek further help. One thing that separates this tutorial site from the rest is that it actually pays members who write great tutorials cash via Paypal. As I browsed the tutorials, I noticed they were very novice-friendly and detailed. After finding one that I really liked, I will walk through it beginning to end.
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May 31st
For those of you that are completely in the dark, Firefox is a Mozilla-made web browser that is completely customizable. Firefox is used by 15% of all internet users around the world. That may not seem like many people comparatively to the 78% of people that use Internet Explorer, but considering that IE is the default browser on all Microsoft PC’s, Firefox is a very popular choice. Firefox has been around for years, and now, they are finally releasing Firefox 3, which has better virus and malware protection. It features easier password management, full page zoom via keyboard shortcuts, and also scrollable tabs! There are many new updates, and they all bring exciting news to die-hard Firefox fans.
With all of that being said, Spread Firefox is trying to set a world record. If you have noticed the affiliate on the right side of the blog, you would have seen (and hopefully clicked on) it. Sometime during June Firefox 3 will be released, and it is their intent that within 24 hours of the release time, it will reach the most downloaded software in history. All you have to do is download Firefox 3 on that day in June, and you will contribute to the record. Mozilla is making this easy for you to remember by sending you an email on the day of release.
Mozilla has worked very hard on Firefox, and their many other sophisticated projects like Thunderbird. The least you could do would be to contribute a few minutes of your time downloading this fantastic web browser.
May 30th
There are very many types of art. According to dictionary.com, art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. What that means in plain terms is that art is an expression of a person, who creates a work that is pleasing to the eye, or is perhaps odd, out of place, but it is something that draws a person to it! I would like to introduce graphic design, which is the production of art using electronic devices, such as a computer, or in this case, Adobe Photoshop. Adobe was founded in 1982, and some of their main products are computer programs used to aid graphic designers. Their most famous program is called Adobe Photoshop, a graphic design editor program, who’s current version at the time of this writing is CS3.
Photoshop works in a very unique way. Picture Microsoft Paint, but way better, with way more options, and way more tools to create the artwork. But Photoshop is also a lot more expensive, and the current version is running at the upwards of $800 with a discount. The good news is that on Ebay, you can usually find a copy of Photoshop 7 for around $150 – $200. At this time Adobe has shut down all their trials, however, so unless you have the extra cash, or the access to the program through friends, you’re going to miss out.
Once you obtain the program, there are a million tools, so you better start familiarizing yourself with them! Play around with all of the stuff, messing around on blank documents, making sure you understand the program and how it works before you actually use it. I will be doing a mini-series on specific Photoshop tutorials, and some tips and tricks along with it. The tutorials I review should be very easy to follow, for beginners only, to help those who just started who have no idea where to go or what to do. If you don’t even know how to open a document (which you should, honestly), I’ll tell you how to do it. Don’t get frustrated if you cannot figure something out, just ask ask me in a comment and I’ll see what I can do to help. Just have fun with it, and be creative!
With that, expect my first post to come out soon, and you can bookmark this post as I’ll be updating it with links to each one.
May 26th
My name is Thomas, (aka Cigil), and I have recently started writing for this wonderful blog. I have known Pxl_Buzzard for a while, and it’s been my pleasure to be a blogger with him. Most of my experience in the Internet world has been forum related, where for five years I have been involved in many different forums of entertainment, which have only contributed to furthering my interest in the technicalities of programs and games. I have a large background in video games, mostly MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft and Runescape. However, even as my time is limited due to sports (football), I hope to become an active writer of this blog, using my knowledge that I have obtained in the last few years of trial and error, only now to bring you the best of Thomas.
May 25th
Typing is a very important aspect of using your computer, whether it be a Mac or PC, that takes time to master. One attempt at mastering this skill is TypeRacer, an online so called “competitive” typing game, which involves many users entering into a race, and then proceeding to all type the same random quote from a movie, book, song, and quotes from the popular media. As you type this quote, your racer icon moves along, and also displays a handy wpm (word per minute) icon by your name. The races range from a few racers to many competing to win the title of ultimate racer so that you get absolute reverence from your peers! This game also has incorporated an anti-bot, which was instituted very quickly after its release, due to the huge number of bots typing 180 wpm or higher. After the anti-bot was instituted, every time you type 110 wpm or higher (until they incorporate a permanent account system) you must complete a CAPTCHA-style paragraph in your wpm – 20 or higher. Still, even with the anti-bot, there are some true freaks typing 150 wpm or higher every day. This is one of the most effective games at boosting your typing speeds (for whatever purpose you have) because of the variety. Since the quote you type is random, you get a large variety of texts with odd punctuation here and there, to stop you from getting in bad habits. It even makes you correct every single mistake before you can move on.
I personally thoroughly enjoy TypeRacer, as it gives me a 30 second long break in between studying. The only flaw I personally can see in the game are periods of lag every few minutes, which has mostly been fixed since the launch of the game. I found that every once in a while you can learn something from the quotes, because of the diversity in the subject matter of the typing. Even though it may not be the best waste of your time on the internet (and it has it’s flaws), it certainly ranks well for its creativity.