Pushing Pixels

Is he right?

Thanks @accidentalart for reminding me about this one.

You have the change the oil in your car and your computer needs regular maintenance too. Here’s my monthly routine.

1. Updates

DriverMax

There are 3 updates you should run: Windows Update to get the latest bug fixes from Microsoft is your first stop. This includes some driver updates, but not all.

To get every latest driver I recommend DriverMax. It scans your hardware and displays the updated drivers for everything. The free version only lets you download 2 a day, so the $10 for 30 days is a pretty good deal. I try to get this once a year and install it on all my computers during that month and update them all. I had a huge meltdown when I tried to install HID-compliant mouse drivers; don’t know why but it fried my mouse and I had to reinstall the system. Ugh.

Update Star

Lastly, you’ll want to update all your software. I’ve been using UpdateStar. It scans all your installed software and finds updates. It will always try to get you the latest version: I’ve got a version 11 of a program and it will always be out of date because a version 13 is available. The trial version will give you a list and a link to download updates, but you’ll be doing most of the work. You’ll have to manually download updates and install them or run the program and find it’s Update option.

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February 12th is Darwin Day. Thanks Chuck for figuring out the whole natural selection thing. We’d be in the dark ages without it. So I figured I’d share a little so you educate yourself on something, since so many people are snowed in. Happy learning.

The International Darwin Day Foundation

They have a petition to get President Obama to make a proclamation honoring Mr. Darwin.

Creation

The new biopic of Charles Darwin starring Paul Bettany and his real-life wife Jennifer Connelly. Not playing near me unfortunately.

On The Origin Of Species

I’ve been slowly reading the book that started it all. It’s dry stuff but Darwin was an extraordinary writer; he wanted so to clearly convey his hypothesis that he took such pains to carefully craft every sentence to impart his full meaning.  It is in the public domain and can be read at Google Books.

On the Origin of Species: The Preservation of Favoured Traces

See how Darwin updated and changed his book over time with this interactive Flash program. The five subsequent editions were updated by Mr. Darwin to reflect his new data and findings.

Top 10 Recent Signs Evolution is Real

Finally a small collection of observations of evolution.

I’ve been trying out some different note taking applications like Onenote, Evernote and Google Notes (sadly no longer supported).  One of my problems was that I wanted to be able to take notes on my desktop and have them appear on my laptop. Nothing synchronized well without paying a monthly fee (Evernote gives you 40 mb free, then you pay).

So I found a nice portable app called CintaNotes. I installed it inside of my DropBox folder and now my notes are auto synchronized. YAY!

As for the software, it’s mostly a copy-and-paste organizer. You can create as many notes as you want and put text or links in them. Pictures and files would be nice. As would a folder structure, but for simple note-taking, it’s fine.

You can add tags to each note and a single link. Overall, I give it 3/5. It’s simple without a lot to learn but it’s missing features.

I’m trying out my camera:

Here’s a fun regular segment I can start: Three links to other sites (this is so much easier than writing myself).

What Graphic Design Schools are Lacking at DavidAiry.com

Students, recent-grads and professionals weigh in on the things they wish they had learned in school.

Quick Tip: Top 5 Ways to Browser-Test your Website at Net.TutsPlus.com

Every browser mangles web pages differently. These five methods show you how to test your design in different browsers without installing a bunch of different operating systems (actually one show you exactly how to virtually install another OS).

FeedIcons.com

I needed to add the RSS icon to this template and this site has a bunch of free RSS graphics in tons of formats including Illustrator and Photoshop. I’ve got the simple 12×12 in the upper right at the moment.

My students have probably heard that the webhead server decided to die over the weekend. We lost all the databases and most student files. Things may be resurrected this week, but it’s as good a time as any to do some house cleaning. The podcasts are still available, but we are missing the week of January 18-21.