Random Fascinations? May 25, 12, 2:22 p.m.

Anything in particular you have a strange fascination with?

I, for example, am fascinated by the battle between snake and gator going on in the Florida Everglades. Can easily waste an hour or two every now and then searching for photos and news stories about how pythons and boas are taking over the Everglades, even killing off alligators there and several other animal species. They estimate there could be as many as 180,000 Burmese pythons living there.

http://latino.foxnews.com/latino…

Kids Helmet Dilemma May 24, 12, 10:52 p.m.

Just saw a pic on Instagram of an acquaintances niece (She's maybe 4, I've met her before and know the dad) riding her little kids scooter wearing a helmet that is way too far back on her head. Worn totally incorrectly. Anything wrong with me politely pointing this out? Kids wear helmets incorrectly all the time; they don't protect jack shit of the forehead, and it's usually the parents fault.

OK to politely point this out?

CNN Comments May 22, 12, 10:40 a.m.

LOL at this total zoo of comments on a story about a plane diverted to Maine earlier today because of suspicious person on board.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/22/us…

Apparently CNN doesn't review comments anymore, it's just a total free for all as long as you have something to log in with.

Wordpress Contact Forms? May 20, 12, 10:15 p.m.

Anyone have a good suggestion for an easy to use contact form plugin in Wordpress?

I have been struggling with both Custom Contact Forms and Easy Contact Forms (they're not) and I want something stupid easy to set up for:

Name field
Email Address
RSVP yes / no drop down
Number attending drop down
Submit button.

That's it. Anybody used anything that's very easy and works well? Thanks.

Lazy Web Design May 18, 12, 7:42 a.m.

What are your top annoyances, complaints, etc?

Currently looking at concepts someone did to "push the envelope" and "be daring" in which doing so was accomplished through vertical text on the navigation. SO WRONG.

Fast, styled web page May 16, 12, 3:46 p.m.

Got a good question for you guys:

I need to set up a short web page with text and an email address, maybe some photos, and other information. I want to set up this single page as a sub-domain on one of my websites; specifically this is for some RSVP / info details for our wedding reception.

What is the absolute easiest way that I can set up a single HTML page with CSS styles that are VERY easy to tweak so that I don't spend a ton of time to make it look nice? I know how to code, I know how to do CSS, etc. but I don't have the time to do it for this.

I really just need headings, and text, maybe a tiled background or something. I can't use Wordpress since it will be on a new sub-domain.

How would you choose to do this and keep it easy?

Weddings w/out family? May 9, 12, 8:51 a.m.

Have any of you gotten married by yourselves with no family present? Was it in the US or out of the country?

Just curious if you caught any flack from family about them not being there. I'm getting a little bit of that in preparation for our wedding, but really trying hard not to feel bad about that. We've always wanted to get married out of the country, and our rule has always been that if any one family member can't go, nobody is going to go. We're going to have photos and a video though.

Leopard>SnowLeopard>Lion May 6, 12, 8:49 a.m.

I want to upgrade my fiance's Macbook - she's still on Lion - and obviously I need to upgrade to Snow Leopard first.

I still have my old Snow Leopard install disc from my old MBP that i don't use anymore. Is it legit for me to use that disc to upgrade her computer, then upgrade digitally to Lion? Even if there were an issue with it being on multiple devices, surely on the old MBP I could just upgrade it to Lion as well and I'd only have Snow Leopard on one device, right?

Thanks.

Fear of explosions? May 5, 12, 9:27 p.m.

Do any of you have a fear of stuff blowing up? I often will be in my living room and get kind of tense thinking a house on the street might blow up, gas leak or something. Same thing happens sometimes when I'm walking outside. Or hear some huge explosion from down the street. Coincidently someone just lit off a single firework in the parking lot behind our place and since it's kind of foggy out, it was loud as fuck and made me jump.

Monitor Calibration May 5, 12, 5:54 p.m.

I"ve been making some monitor adjustments after really noticing the difference in color quality between my 2011 MacBook Pro and my 2007 Dell monitor. Different technologies, I know...

But does anyone have any tips for properly calibrating an external monitor to most closely match the color quality of a laptop screen? I can get photos to sort of look similar, but where I really notice a difference is the menu bars in Safari. I can look at them in each screen, Dell appearance is more greenish gray, and Mac appearance is more light whitish gray.

I've tried messing with the calibration for each one on Expert mode, keep the same photo on both screens, adjusting gamma, etc. and I just can't get them to be as close as I'd like. The MBP screen consistently looks the best.

Oh, and these are both matte screens.

Any tips?

Naples Italy Suggestions? May 1, 12, 7:40 a.m.

Anyone here been to Naples recently or ever? We are planning our vacation to Naples and the Amalfi Coast in a few months and then we are headed to Paris. We're getting married in Italy as well!

Any suggestions for stuff to do in Naples? Our first time to Italy and pretty excited about it. Heard Naples can be a bit sketchy in some spots but I think we can handle that.

Photo Resizing for Printing Apr 26, 12, 9:49 p.m.

I'm starting to work on some photo prints for our house and luckily have RAW images to work from to enlarge. Looking to print at 11.5 x 11.5 inches for square frames.

What I'm hoping to do is recreate some imagery I've done on my iPhone using PicFX and Instagram, I'd really like to print the Instagram photos because the sequence of steps are very few to get the exact result I want. With PS, I've got a lot more options and might not correctly duplicate it.

So that makes me think: What's the best way I can enlarge the square instagram image (612 pixels square) to print at 11.5 x 11.5 inches with no loss in quality? Is there software that can handle image enlargement with no quality loss?

This is the type of thing I'm looking to print. Yeah, I know I could do the same thing in PS, but might not get the exact same color blend.

Planning on doing several on fine art paper for a nice screen printed feel to them.

Your Fav Funny Thing? Apr 20, 12, 2:05 p.m.

Mine - 2:17 in this video:

Yours?

FMT - 04/20 Apr 20, 12, 8:55 a.m.

Here's my playlist for the day on Spotify. It's kind of dark, cold, and dreary here in Chicago today so I think this reflects my mood.

http://open.spotify.com/user/mg3…

Includes: Mogwai, Daughter, Apparat, Portishead, Keep Shelly In Athens, Active Child, Air, Chelsea Wolfe, Wye Oak, and Beacon.

Outdoor speakers? Apr 15, 12, 7:24 p.m.

Anyone have a suggestion for outdoor speakers, or a decent portable stereo with an iPod connection and specifically an aux input?

I'm going to add an Airport Express outside on our deck and need something powered for the audio cable from it to connect to. Something with good volume and bass that isn't too expensive.

Anyone have some suggestions?

Photo Gallery Style? Apr 1, 12, 11:34 a.m.

When you look at photo portfolios on web sites, do you prefer that the photo be enlarged already and feature forward/backward navigation, without thumbnails?

Or, do you prefer a page of thumbnails that uses a lightbox effect to enlarge photos, and includes navigation within the photos?

I can go either way with my website updates. If i do the first option, I have to manage the photos directly through a Wordpress gallery tool. If I go second option, I can dynamically run the galleries based on flickr sets and tags - so I only really have to manage and store photos in one location.

Just interested really in what people prefer visually.

LED TV Quality Mar 31, 12, 7:25 p.m.

Has anyone gone from an LCD tv to an LED tv at any point in the last couple years? We just got a Samsung D7000 to replace a 2009 Samsung LCD - both are 1080P. We also got a blu ray player with it.

I noticed a major difference when watching a blu ray, which I expected. The quality was almost awkward at first. I've done all the screen config based on common settings from an AV forum.

We are watching a DVD now and much like a blu ray, the quality is so different than I've seen before. everything looks like an HD tv show in terms of clarity. Movies dont look like "film" is the best way I can explain. Hope you know what mean.

So, I'm assuming this is an aspect of the TV, but what aspect in particular? LED? 240 Refresh rate? What?

2012 April Fools Mar 27, 12, 6:12 p.m.

So yeah, it's on Sunday, but I think the joke period has to extend into Monday to pull stuff off at work, right?

What are your hot ideas?

F'ing Photoshop Cursors! Mar 26, 12, 5:57 p.m.

For crying out loud, what in Photoshop causes the cursor for a brush or eraser to change from showing the exact size/shape of the brush, to just showing the little cursor?

The preferences are ALWAYS set to show the Normal Brush Tip. But in the middle of an operation, it changes to the little cursor. I've been going through this since the early 2000s. Is this a glitch they never fixed?

Trademarks - Legal Issues Mar 26, 12, 12:59 p.m.

Some of you are pretty wise here, so I have a question for you.

A friend of mine is working on getting a business going, and registered/trademarked a long-defunct brand name. He owns all of it now.

He wants to buy the domain name that someone owns that matches the brand name. This person never did anything with it, but owned the url since 2001. We think that as soon as my friend started inquiring about buying the domain through GoDaddy's domain offer service, this other guy put up a really quick temp site with an email to buy t-shirts with the logo on them that we're not fully sure he's ever actually made.

My friend offered $500 for the domain, the guy came back and said $15,000...

He's working with his lawyer on what to do next, but our main question is this: This other guy can can refuse to sell the domain, but since my friend now owns the trademark, would it be illegal for the other guy to sell any self-made merchandise with the logo on it? So, in essence, owning the url would be useless to the guy in terms of selling product, correct?

I can't at this point talk about what it is that we're working on, but will be able to eventually and actually really look forward to sharing it with you guys.