Eye Candy 6 From Alien Skin (Part 2)
Last week I showed you some of the text manipulations that are possible with Alien Skin's Eye Candy 6, but the real fun begins when you work with photographic images. That's where we'll go this week.
What if you had a photograph of a young lady and you wanted to cover her skin with fur. Why would you want to do that? Maybe you want to show your girlfriend what she would look like with fur. Maybe you've been assigned to create an image of a young lady with fur. Maybe you're some sort of crazy freak who likes fur. Never mind why you'd want to do this. Just play along with me for a moment.
Photographic Manipulations
I started with this stock photo of a pretty girl. You will note that she is not covered with fur.
It takes just a few seconds to run through several options.
Now she is covered with fur, but there's a problem. Look at your average cat, dog, hamster, gerbil, kangaroo, or wart hog and you will notice immediately that the eyes and the lips of these animals are not covered with fur.
So I modified the image to remove the effect from the girl's eyes and lips.
Now you know what this girl would look like if she happened to be fur covered.
Here's a better example. The fur is longer now and I think it looks more realistic.
Let's try something else. Eye Candy 6 is also capable of creating what are called "painterly" effects. The goal is to take a crisp, clear digital image such as the one at the right and change it so that it's more impressionistic.
This image is from the Amish area of eastern Ohio. It's a working windmill on an Amish farm.
Not every Eye Candy filter is suitable for every image. The Smear, Twisty filter just doesn't work with this image. That's why Alien Skin provides a lot of presets and allows you to modify all of the settings yourself.
The Frosted Glass filter is another example of one that just doesn't work with this image.
When I worked my way down to Small Spirals, I thought Yes! This is what I'm looking for!
It's reminiscent of Starry Nights by Vincent van Gogh, and I even get to keep my ear.
After selecting the basic look for the image, I can change specific features.
This is where your own creativity comes into play.
And here's the look that I was seeking.
The combination of presets and the ability to fine-tune the presets makes the process quick and easy.
Oh, and this same kind of filter can be applied to images of people if you don't want to cover them with fur.
Putting it All Together
Maybe TechByter Worldwide should become a multi-dollar corporation. (No, I didn't accidentally omit "million" from the previous sentence; the omission was intentional because the best I can hope for is multi-dollar success.) In that case, we would need a fancy new sign and a fancy new building. Let's see what would happen.
I would start with a heavy, bold sans face and then I would use Eye Candy 6 to create a brushed gold effect.
Now the letters are uptown brushed gold. They need to be placed on a fancy hand-cut stone wall, don't you think?
But first I'd like to make them 3-dimensional. Here I've used the extrusion effect that someone would see standing below the letters and looking up.
Here's the stone wall that I'd like to use.
And here are the letters on the stone wall. Real graphic artists will find several problems with this image. Given enough time, I might be able to solve some of them.
It's worth noting, though, that any problems you see are my errors and not shortcomings by Alien Skin.
Bottom Line: Eye Candy 6 Makes Difficult Effects Easy.
The inventors and magicians at Alien Skin have produced yet another winner in Eye Candy 6. This is a tool that both Web designers and photographers will want to have in their tool kit.
For more information, visit the AlienSkin website.
Making Excel 2007 Colors Compatible with Excel 2003
Excel 2007 offers, among other advantages, a significantly expanded color palette. Unfortunately, many of the default colors that Excel 2007 offers users are not in the Excel 2003 palette and, when the earlier version opens a sheet that was created in Excel 2007 (even if it was saved in Excel 2003 format) the colors can be hideous and unreadable.
After researching the problem, I installed a small add-in that can optionally display the 2003 palette in 2007 in addition to the 2007 palette. The add-in was written by Andy Pope at ExcelForum.com.
How to Install
Copy 2007ColorCompatibility2003.xlam (right-click and choose Save) to Excel's XLSTART directory on your computer. In the following example, "{user}" indicates the user name you use to log on to the computer.
Vista & Window 7:
C:\Users\{user}\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
Note that the AppData directory is hidden by default. You can either choose to display hidden and system files or just navigate to your {user} directory and then type "\AppData\" at the end of the address line.
Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\{user}\Application Data\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
This directory is trusted by default and any file placed here will load automatically when Excel starts.
Excel 2007 will now have a new tab ("Tab 1") on the Ribbon. There is probably an easy way to rename this, but I haven't yet figured out how. You can use the color palette from this new tab, but it's easier and faster if you place it on the Quick-Access Toolbar.
Select Tab 1 on the Ribbon.
Right-click the icon in the 2003 Color panel. (The icon is small and at the top of the panel; clicking the panel does nothing.)
Select Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
The Excel 2003 color palette will now be accessible regardless of which tab is selected. If you routinely need to share files with Excel 2003 users, use only the Excel 2003 colors and everything will work as expected.
One shortcoming to this process is that it creates a palette that's not accessible from the conditional formatting menu, so some work remains to be done.
This Con is so Laughable that You'll Think it's a Joke
This week's con is so absurd that it's difficult to comprehend how anyone could fall for it. The wording, grammar, and punctuation are so laughable that it's impossible to accept that any native speaker of English wrote it, yet it claims to be from an FBI agent. (Applicants to be FBI agents must have a law degree, so that assumes that they are reasonably conversant with English.)
Here's the ploy: The message (with a return address in Portugal) claims to be from an FBI agent who wants me to stop doing business with Nigerian scammers because I could be arrested.
The first clue that something is wrong with this message is the return address. The forged sender's address is in Portugal. Any legitimate message from the FBI will come from gov and not from pt, but it's unlikely that the FBI would make an initial contact via e-mail.
The message itself is laughable from beginning to end. I'll show you the full text in just a moment. The yellow highlights on this copy of the message illustrate the most egregious spelling, grammatical, and usage errors.
Here's the message I received, with my comments on a separate line and in italics. This is not the kind of message that's easy to accept as legitimate. Anyone who is capable of critical though and analysis will not be fooled.
FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Building
935 Pennsylvania Avenue,
NW Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
"NW" goes on the line with the address.
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION (FBI) SENIOR DEPARTMENT DESK OF DR.PAM WILLIAMS
You need a space between "DR." and "PAM".
ATTN:
Actually including a name or e-mail address here would be a nice touch.
This the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) We are writing in response to our track light monitoring device which we received today in our office about the illegal transactions that you have been involve in for a long time now.
"Of" is not capitalized in US English.
You need a period at the end of your sentence.
What is a "track light monitoring device"? You need to hyphenate the term, too.
Make that past tense ("involved"), idiot.
We understand from our general investigations that some con men from Nigeria has been ripping you off your hard earned money with the pretense of dealing with ATM CARD Company that will deliver a Card to you and the proposed amount which was to be transferred to you is the sum of $20,000,000 Usd as stated in our record here.
A plural subject requires a plural verb: "have", not "has".
The term is "ripping off" not "ripping you off". Hard-earned needs a hyphen.
We have "a bank", not an "ATM CARD Company".
"Card" is not a proper noun and need not be capitalized.
If you use the $ sign, you don't need "Usd", which should really be "USD".
Your record where?
We also got a complain from our German counterpart stating that your identity/information's was used to dupe a German business man to the tune of $9,000 Usd by some Nigerian Fraudsters which you have been in contact with for some time now.
That would be "received a complaint".
"Information's" is possessive. You want a plural. In either case, the usage is wrong.
Can you really imagine someone from the FBI writing "to the tune"?
"USD" and drop the $ sign or drop "USD" and keep the $ sign. "USD" is helpful if there's any doubt about which dollar is being discussed; because this is supposedly from the FBI, there should be little doubt about the currency.
Last time I checked, "fraudsters" was not a proper noun.
We also discovered that you have made some payments to them earlier for this same funds that was to be sent to you.
No speaker of English would write a sentence like this.
I want to use this means to let you know that you will get yourself into trouble if you dont stop communication with those scam group from Nigeria and this may lead to your arrest.
Contractions require an apostrophe, as any 5th grade English student knows.
"This scam group" or "those scam groups", not "those scam group".
Get back to me if you are ready to follow my advice and instruction so i can direct and tell you what to do next on how to get your MASTERCARD ATM CARD WHICH CONTAIN $20 MILLION USD and this include interest rate up till date.
"Get back to me" is not standard US business English.
The first-person pronoun is capitalized in English.
"Direct and tell"?
Instead of "on", try "about"; better still "what to do next to obtain".
Why the capitalization?
"Contains" and "Includes"; "rate" is unnecessary; and "up till date" is meaningless.
REMEMBER STOP CONTACT WITH THOSE INTERNET FRAUD GROUP OK AND MAKE SURE ONCE YOU RECIEVE ANY STRANGE EMAIL FROM THEM FORWARD IT TO ME SO OUR INTERNET DEPARTMENT CAN MAKE AN INVESTIGATION AND GET THEM ARRESTED OK.
Any sixth grader would write a better and more grammatically correct sentence.
AWAIT YOUR REPLY
DO NOT TYPE IN ALL CAPS.
HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY.
Yeah, the average FBI agent would say this.
Dr.pam Williams
SENIOR OFFICE DEPARTMENT
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION FBI.WASHINGTON DC.
J. Edgar Hoover Building 935
Pennsylvania Avenue,NW Washington,
D.C.20535-0001, USA
Needs a space after "Dr." and "pam" needs to be capitalized.
What is a "senior office department"?
"FBI.WASHINGTON"?
"935" goes on the line with "Pennsylvania Avenue" and you need a space after the comma. "Washington" goes on the next line.
A space is needed following the period in "D.C."
Short Circuits
China vs. Google: Who Wins?
Google continues to chafe as a result of Chinese censorship of the Internet and Google CEO Eric Schmidt said this week that something will change "soon". That brought a blunt rebuke from the Chinese government, along with the threat of retaliation.
Google has been trying to find a solution to the censorship problem for the past 2 months and if the company has a plan, nobody's discussing it publicly.
There have been rumors that Google would leave China. There have been rumors that China would relax its censorship. There have been rumors about rumors. A top Chinese official said that if Google doesn't abide by Chinese laws, it would be unfriendly and irresponsible. He threatened unspecified consequences.
Google has about a third of the Chinese search engine market and it does censor search results. The censored items are identified as being suppressed because of government restrictions.
Another Try for XXX
It's been 10 years since the proposal was put forth for an "XXX" top level domain. Forcing porn merchants to use "XXX" would make it easier to control and easier for parents to control, but the proposal continues to be controversial.
Top level domains (such as "COM", "ORG", "EDU", "US", and "INFO") can suggest something about the site. ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, is considering "XXX" again, but has once again delayed a decision.
At an ICANN meeting in Kenya, the agency's board said that it wants a decision within 2 weeks. Since being proposed in 2000, the XXX domain has been rejected 3 times. Common sense would see the logic in the proposal, but how often does common sense win the battle?
The author's image: It's that photo over at the right. This explains why TechByter Worldwide was never on television, doesn't it?
