10 Websites To Make You A Photoshop Ninja - Part II

I told You All About 5 Websites In Previous Post.
Next 5 Websites Are Here
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Photoshop Tutorials

Photoshop Tutorials combines tutorials for Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, and Photography. It covers a whole range of things, and always tells you how advanced the particular tutorial is. Some are incredibly complicated, and some are great ways to do really basic things in Photoshop.

Though it doesn’t have the largest database I found, it probably wins my award for easiest-to-follow tutorials. Users also rate and comment on tutorials, so you can see what people liked and hated on the site.

Luxa

Luxa calls itself a “social learning site for Photoshop artists.” It’s a combination of tutorials, videos, and design articles. Users suggest video and tutorial topics, and Luxa helps them learn Photoshop.

To really appreciate Luxa’s community, you’ll want to become a member, which is a bit of a pain but creates a lot of benefits. There’s also a voting system (though not an oft-used one yet) that helps bring the best to the top. In addition to all the tutorials too, Luxa also has a large collection of Photoshop brushes that will let you achieve before-impossible awesomeness.

Photoshop Contest

Photoshop Contest is one part site for Photoshop ninjas, one part site for becoming one. There are contests for people doing cool things with Photoshop, but also a big repository of tutorials and videos.

Since the makers of the tutorials are usually on the site because they know Photoshop inside and out, they often have cool tips for how to take shortcuts and “cheat” an image. Most of the tutorials are pretty basic, though at least for me, there’s nothing basic about any of Photoshop.

PSHero

PSHero gets onto the list for being the most practical of the bunch, and sharing the most tutorials that the average user would actually want. If you’re looking to do things like design a website, create logos, or make your photos grungier, you’re set with PSHero.

There’s not a lot of higher-level stuff to be found, but I found that PSHero was perfect for someone like me, who’s more likely to be creating a logo than an anime airplane eating a lion on top of a mountain. The tutorials are easy to follow, and definitely geared toward the inexperienced Photoshopper.

PSDTop

Another aggregator (I think the name might have taken from AllTop), PSDTop is a great place to find all kinds of cool Photoshop Tutorials.

Though it’s not the only site to have categories, its breakdown of the tutorials into various types (Drawing, Digital Art, etc.) is a great way to become ninja-like at a particular skill in Photoshop. Since it’s an aggregator, it too will have the occasional dud tutorial, but most are good.

From introductions to Photoshop to doing things that couldn’t possibly exist in the real world, these ten sites will help you earn your black belt in the wide world of Photoshopping. But obviously many more Photoshopping tutorial websites exist out there so tell us your recommendations in the comments below.

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10 Websites To Make You A Photoshop Ninja - Part I

Photoshop is hard. There’s all kinds of menus, commands, and keyboard shortcuts that you’ve got to figure out. Once you learn how it works, it’s an unbelievably useful and powerful tool, but the learning curve is enormous.

Using the Web though, you can learn how to do just about anything in Photoshop, and either become great at it or just get really good at faking it. Either way, you’re doing cool stuff.

Here are ten sites to learn Photoshop online and get you Photoshopping like a champion:

You Suck at Photoshop

You Suck at Photoshop is the place to start, just to defeat you a little bit and make you realize how badly you need to learn Photoshop. In all seriousness, though, Donnie Hoyle’s video tutorial series is both hilarious and informative. They’re helpful for learning how to do simple things, where to find particular tools, and how to mess with the pictures of people you love.

Tutorial9

Tutorial9 has a ton of different tutorials, including a lot of them for Photoshop. Every tutorial has step-by-step instructions, complete with pictures of the tools you need and the buttons you should click on (really helpful- what in the world does the “capture” tool look like?).

Then, for everything you need to do, there’s a quick video showing you what it looks like. There’s no narration, but that’s okay- the step-by-step instructions do everything you need. Tutorial9 helps you do all kinds of things with Photoshop- my favorite was creating burnt parchment. You know, without burning anything. Definitely agreat site to learn photoshop online.

PSDTUTS

With PSDTUTS, you’ll see lots and lots of pictures. Tutorials are made up almost entirely of pictures that give you the slightest detail instructions on how to do various things in Photoshop.

One of the best things about PSDTUTS are the comments on the tutorials, which help to iron out the possible issues with the tutorials as presented. The tutorials are long, because they’re so broken down, but if they can teach me to make a Web banner out of a motorcycle, they’re doing something right.

Good-Tutorials

There’s nothing terribly unique about Good-Tutorials, except that it’s more of a general guide to using Photoshop than a guide to achieving a particular effect in Photoshop.

Though Good-Tutorials does have those tutorials, it’s also got things like “Create a Photoshop Action for Screenshots” to help save you time and effort in Photoshop. Simple tutorials and powerful Photoshopping both come from Good-Tutorials.

Photoshop Lady

The Photoshop Lady pulls together some of the best Photoshop tutorials from around the Web, and lets you read and watch them easily. If you create an account, you can save tutorials for later, and you can also see the “Most Viewed” and “Highest Rated” tutorials to see what other people are learning how to do. Since it’s not centralized, some tutorials are better than others, but most of it is good stuff.

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22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - System Utilities

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System Utilities

Keeping my system healthy and working its best is a never ending challenge. These are some of the tools that I use to help.

CCleaner - Keep your PC squeaky clean with this System Optimization tool. It deletes just about every kind of unnecessary crap from your computer. Temporary files, Cookies and other junk from every browser, Programs running at Startup, Uninstalls software and fixes all kinds of problems in your Registry. Click about five buttons and wait about a minute and your machine is a new person. Alternatives: NCleaner – better in some ways, but worse interface. AdAware and Spybot for spyware removal.

Filezilla - My favorite FTP client. Quick, simple, and easy. FTP from your browser with FireFTP. Not secure enough, try WinSCP for secure FTP. Use Putty for Telnet and SSH access.

Rocket Dock - Do you have Mac Envy? This launching doc is nearly a dead clone of Apple’s dock. You can launch Applications, Folders, Files, and other processes so quickly and easily, you’ll never click the Start button again. Alternatives: Object Dock

7Zip - This WinZip alternative will open just about any archive file format known to man. It’s faster and lighter on resources than any archive tool I’ve used. Alternatives: There are a bunch, here is a list of free winzip alternatives.

TightVNC - Remotely view and control other computers from your desktop. Install the server software on one (remote) computer and then control it with the viewer software from your main computer. Great for helping diagnose computer problems on your family and friend’s computers. Alternatives: UltraVNC and RealVNC have comparable feature sets and decent followings. See this tutorial for Using VNC to remotely control another computer.

uTorrent - The best way to download huge files is with BitTorrent technology. My (current) favorite BitTorrent client is uTorrent. Nothing spectacular, just a solid tool that fills an important role. Alternatives: Azureus is a java based bit torrent client with similar features.

SyncBack Freeware - Very powerful backup program with numerous configuration options including: Backup and Restore of files, Synchronization of files, Zip Compression of backed up files to save space, Back up to FTP servers, Filters for choosing what to back up or ignore. Alternatives: Mozy Backup (web base $5/per month)

AVG Antivirus - Don’t destroy your computer with that garbage that Norton and McAfee are peddling. Those two applications will screw up you computer worse than any virus. AVG Antivirus (free version) protects your computer from viruses, spyware, and heebie-jeebies of all types without bogging down your computer. Alternatives: Antivir and Avast also offer very good free antivirus options.

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22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - Productivity

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Productivity

Getting things done on your computer can often cost you a pretty penny. While I’m still an advocate of forking over the money for Microsoft Office, there a lot of other areas that you can save money.

Windows Live Writer - I write every one of my blog posts using Live Writer. If you have a blog you really should try this. It handles multiple sites and has tons of extensions to customize it. Alternatives: Raven is a desktop blogging software that is a lighter alternative to WLW. Not light enough? Try the Scribefire extension for Firefox.

Notepad++ - Sure, Windows comes with a text editor built in, but not like Notepad++. You can use the tabbed interface to work on multiple documents at once. There is syntax highlighting for editing code. If I need to do minor edits to code I can open a file, make the changes, and have it closed before Dreamweaver would even begin launching. This is another application with plethora of extensions that allow you to modify it to your heart’s content.

Foxit PDF Reader - Love PDFs, but hate the bloat of Adobe Acrobat? I thought so. Foxit will open your PDF files so fast, you’ll wonder why anyone would ever use Acrobat. Get hours of your life back.

CutePDF Writer - If you need to create PDF files from your documents and don’t want to shell out for Acrobat Pro, then get CutePDF Writer. This installs on your system as a Printer. Then, you can turn any printable information from any application on your computer into a perfect PDF. Put it all together to be a PDF champion.

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22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - Internet

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Internet

This is the home of the freebies. There are so many free internet browsers and applications that I could go on all day. Actually, the follow-up article will focus on the best web-based applications.

Firefox - The Granddaddy of all free software. If there were one piece of software that I would just not give up, it’s Firefox. Alternatives: Flock (Firefox variant aimed at media and social networking), Opera (decent alternative, but no extensions), Google Chrome (lean and clean new-kid-on-the-block), Apple Safari (only for testing web development).

Google Earth - Put every inch of the Earth at the tip of your finger. I’m not sure how much anybody "needs" this software, but you know you want it. Stalk your friends, enemies, and ex, then check out the Eifel Tower and Pyramids.

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22 Most Useful Free Applications for your PC - Communication

Use your Computer, Not your Wallet

The recession is hitting everyone hard and money is tight. That doesn’t mean that can’t get the most out of your computer. There are so many great free applications that can help you do just about anything. I’m going to take a look at 22 applications that I use all the time with wonderful results.

I’m going to identify the free applications that I use in the following categories:

• Communication
• Internet
• Productivity
• Multimedia
• System Utilities

I have my personal favorites that I’m going to talk about, but those are not your only options. I’ll also list any other viable alternatives that I’m aware of for each category.

Communication

I’m a big fan of Microsoft Outlook, but I have been using Thunderbird on my computer for a while now. It’s not quite as good, but it’s constantly closing the gap. Here are some of my favorite ways to keep in touch for free.

Thunderbird - This is Mozilla’s open source answer to Microsoft Outlook. You can do Email, Contacts, and Calendaring very similarly to Outlook (minus some of the polish). It’s built using the same open, extensible platform as Firefox, so there is a steadily growing collection of extensions to augment it’s functionality. Turbocharge Thunderbird with these plug-ins. Alternatives: Gmail.

Digsby - Simply the best Instant Messenger tool available. You can connect to all of your IM networks (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, Google, ICQ, Jabber, and Facebook ) to let you chat with any of your contacts. That alone makes it valuable, but wait, there’s more: Get real-time updates on your social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and LinkedIn). You can also get updates on your inbox for just about any email account (Gmail, Yahoo, MSN, plus any IMAP and POP3 accounts). Alternatives: If you’re looking for something almost as good, try Pidgin IM or Trillian with a bunch of plug-ins. Meebo (Web Based).

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5 ways to speed up your PC - Part IV

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Protect your computer against spyware

Spyware collects personal information without letting you know and without asking for permission. From the Web sites you visit to usernames and passwords, spyware can put you and your confidential information at risk. In addition to privacy concerns, spyware can hamper your computer's performance. To combat spyware, you might want to consider using Microsoft Windows Defender, which is included in Windows Vista, and is available as a free download for Microsoft XP SP2. Alternatively, there are other free anti-spyware software programs available.
Learn all about ReadyBoost

If you're using Windows Vista, you can use ReadyBoost to speed up your system. A new concept in adding memory to a system, it allows you to use non-volatile flash memory—like a USB flash drive or a memory card—to improve performance without having to add additional memory.

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5 ways to speed up your PC -Part III

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Detect and repair disk errors

In addition to running Disk Cleanup and Disk Defragmenter to optimize the performance of your computer, you can check the integrity of the files stored on your hard disk by running the Error Checking utility.

As you use your hard drive, it can develop bad sectors. Bad sectors slow down hard disk performance and sometimes make data writing (such as file saving) difficult, or even impossible. The Error Checking utility scans the hard drive for bad sectors, and scans for file system errors to see whether certain files or folders are misplaced.

If you use your computer daily, you should run this utility once a week to help prevent data loss.

To run the Error Checking utility:

1.	Close all open files.
2.	Click Start, and then click My Computer.
3.	In the My Computer window, right-click the hard disk you want to search for bad sectors, and then click Properties.
4.	In the Properties dialog box, click the Tools tab.
5.	Click the Check Now button.
6.	In the Check Disk dialog box, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box, and then click Start.
7.	If bad sectors are found, choose to fix them.

Tip: Only select the "Automatically fix file system errors" check box if you think that your disk contains bad sectors.

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5 ways to speed up your PC - Part II

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Speed Up Access To DATA

Disk fragmentation slows the overall performance of your system. When files are fragmented, the computer must search the hard disk when the file is opened to piece it back together. The response time can be significantly longer.

Disk Defragmenter is a Windows utility that consolidates fragmented files and folders on your computer's hard disk so that each occupies a single space on the disk. With your files stored neatly end-to-end, without fragmentation, reading and writing to the disk speeds up.

When to run Disk Defragmenter
In addition to running Disk Defragmenter at regular intervals—monthly is optimal—there are other times you should run it too, such as when:

•	You add a large number of files.
•	Your free disk space totals 15 percent or less.
•	You install new programs or a new version of Windows.

To use Disk Defragmenter:

1.	Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Defragmenter. Click Analyze to start the Disk Defragmenter.
2.	In the Disk Defragmenter dialog box, click the drives that you want to defragment, and then click the Analyze button. After the disk is analyzed, a dialog box appears, letting you know whether you should defragment the analyzed drives. Tip: You should analyze a volume before defragmenting it to get an estimate of how long the defragmentation process will take.
3.	To defragment the selected drive or drives, click the Defragment button. Note: In Windows Vista, there is no graphical user interface to demonstrate the progress—but your hard drive is still being defragmented. After the defragmentation is complete, Disk Defragmenter displays the results.
4.	To display detailed information about the defragmented disk or partition, click View Report.
5.	To close the View Report dialog box, click Close.
6.	To close the Disk Defragmenter utility, click the Close button on the title bar of the window.

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5 ways to speed up your PC - Part I

By following a few simple guidelines, you can maintain your computer and keep it running smoothly. This article discusses how to use the tools available in Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) and Windows Vista to more efficiently maintain your computer and safeguard your privacy when you're online.

Free up disk space

By freeing disk space, you can improve the performance of your computer. The Disk Cleanup tool helps you free up space on your hard disk. The utility identifies files that you can safely delete, and then enables you to choose whether you want to delete some or all of the identified files.
Use Disk Cleanup to:

•	Remove temporary Internet files.
•	Remove downloaded program files (such as Microsoft ActiveX controls and Java applets).
•	Empty the Recycle Bin.
•	Remove Windows temporary files.
•	Remove optional Windows components that you don't use.
•	Remove installed programs that you no longer use.

Tip: Typically, temporary Internet files take the most amount of space because the browser caches each page you visit for faster access later.

To use Disk Cleanup

1.	Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup. If several drives are available, you might be prompted to specify which drive you want to clean.
2.	In the Disk Cleanup for dialog box, scroll through the content of the Files to delete list. Choose the files that you want to delete.
3.	Clear the check boxes for files that you don't want to delete, and then click OK.
4.	When prompted to confirm that you want to delete the specified files, click Yes.

After a few minutes, the process completes and the Disk Cleanup dialog box closes, leaving your computer cleaner and performing better.

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Computer Security Resource Center

The Computer Security Resource Center is one of eight divisions within the Information Technology Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a US federal technology agency that develops and promotes measurement, standards, and technology. The Computer Security Division is involved with many different projects and CSRC provides Webpages based on these projects.

The site provides access to documents concerned with the development of the US government's computer security policy, including definitions of encryption, cryptography and authorisation procedures. There is an up-to-date news section as well as publications available in HTML and PDF format, and links to other computer security pages.
http://csrc.nist.gov/

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Computer and Communications Security Research and Education Center

This site provides details of the research carried out at CCSC into the security of computer and communications-based systems. There are publications available to download from staff pages.

Other information includes details of the research areas pursued, projects, staff pages, some of which include teaching materials, and events.
http://www.ccsc.colorado.edu/

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Microsoft Research

This site gives a list of links to computer science projects and groups conducting research at Microsoft. It includes a searchable publications database that includes journal articles and technical reports. Free software and demonstrations are available to download.

There are also links to news articles about, and press releases from, Microsoft Research. The site is linked to the Multi University Research Laboratory (MURL) site, a collaboration between Microsoft Research, PARC and four US university departments; lectures given by members of this group can be viewed over the web.
http://www.research.microsoft.com/research/projects/

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Free online dictionary of computing

FOLDOC is a searchable dictionary of acronyms, jargon, programming languages, tools, architecture, operating systems, networking, theory, conventions, standards, mathematics, electronics, institutions, companies, projects, products and history

covering all aspects of computing. The dictionary contains over 13500 definitions.

Entries are cross-referenced to each other and to other related resources elsewhere on the Internet. Searching is done by direct entry under terms or scrolling through letters of the alphabet.
http://foldoc.org/

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Computing Reviews

Computing Reviews is a subscription–based service which publishes monthly reviews of books, articles, and other forms of publications, thus providing a critical survey of what is being published in the field at the time. Author rebuttals may be printed.

The site offers reviews organised by subject area. Reviews can be browsed or searched. Reviewer profiles and discussion forums for various topics are provided. Access requires a subscription.
http://www.reviews.com/

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Computing Research Association

Information about the CRA's work to promote research and education in the computing fields, expand opportunities for women and minorities, and improve public and policymaker understanding of the importance of computing and computing research in society is provided here.

This includes information about events, jobs, projects, and publications. A list of members and affiliated professional societies is available.

The site also contains a government affairs section with advocacy and policy analysis for the computing research community, funding papers, fact sheets, policy briefs, and surveys. The CRA newsletter and bulletin is available along with best practice reports, student/career guides, a computing research policy blog, and links to related sites.
http://www.cra.org/

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British Computer Society

This extensive site gives information about the society and its activities in the field of computers and information systems. Publications are listed, with tables of contents and abstracts of journals available to all (full-text is available to subscribers only).

Events are listed and there is information on professional development, exams, and courses offered by the society. Links to specialist groups are given along with industry and society news, careers information and information on Internet security and general computer use.
http://www.bcs.org/

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Systems and Computers in Japan

Systems and Computers in Japan is a translation of the Japanese periodical in information engineering, computer systems, and cognitive science.

The journal publishes research papers in areas such as computer networks, computer theory, formal languages, advanced digital circuitry, interface devices, signal and image processing, and biomedical applications of computers. The views expressed in this journal are exclusively those of the Japanese authors and editors. The Japanese authors are generally consulted regarding the translation of their papers, but are not responsible for the published English version.

Tables of contents and abstracts are available. The full-text is accessible by subscribers only.
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/51986

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Performance Evaluation

The journal Performance Evaluation disseminates information relative to performance aspects, in particular, performance studies of computers, computer communications,

telecommunications and distributed systems, flow control in networks, modelling and analysis methods (e.g. queuing and scheduling theory, simulation methods, data analysis), and performance evaluation applications.

Abstracts are available to all; the full-text is accessible online to subscribing institutions via ScienceDirect. There is access to author and keyword indexes and articles can be searched.
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/505618/descrip

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Journal of Computer Security

Tables of contents and abstracts are available from this subscription-based journal which focuses on the

theory, design, implementation, analysis, and application of secure computer systems.

Users within institutions that subscribe to this journal can access the full-text. A free sample copy of the journal is available upon request.
http://www.iospress.nl/html/0926227x.html

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