Tuesday, April 23, 2013

How to "unhide" someone in your Facebook?

Unhide stories from a person, Page, group, event or app
We've all "hidden" someone, or a page, or a group, or an event or an app - from what we see on our home/wall page both intentionally and unintentionally...

When you want to "unhide" someone, it's easy to remedy:  

  • On your home/wall page, hover over news feed in the left sidebar menu.
  • Click the penciicon (which means edit) that appears to the left in that section.
  • A list of people, apps, Pages, and groups you’ve hidden or unsubscribed from will appear in a pop-up box.
  •  Click the X next to each one you'd like to remove from this list. 
  • Click Save

Friday, April 19, 2013

How much space/room is left on any drive or folder?


Check your Computer Properties (determine how much space is used/ open) To determine how much space is used – unused on a computer (C Drive), or on a flash drive, portable hard drive or memory card, or in a specific folder –such a My Documents or My Pictures?
  • Open Windows Explorer – (Quick Access: Windows Flag Key + E) which is a 2 sided screen – whatever is highlighted on the left is what you are looking at on the right..…
  • Hover your mouse over the Drive or specific folder you want to check
  • When you do this, Right Click on the Drive or folder
  • When the action list appears – find PROPERTIES at the bottom of the list
  • Now Left Click on Properties

Monday, April 15, 2013

Thoughts and prayers go out to all of you tonight

As soon as I heard the news about today's events in Boston, my heart sank - how tragic and unimaginable... I pray that your families, friends and acquaintances are all safe this evening.

I have no doubt that you will all join me in keeping those impacted by this senseless act in your thoughts and prayers...   Love to all and I'll see you in just a few weeks... Cherie Houston

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Common Digital Photo Image Types: jpeg, raw etc..


JPEG - RAW-GIFT-BMP -etc - what's the difference??

They are all "Digital Photo Image Files" the sizes for which are based on the number of pixels in an image and the color depth, or bits per pixel, of that image and images can be compressed in various ways, which are determined by their "image type"

JPEG
JPEG or JPG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is the most common Digital Photo Image type that we use.  It's the most common type accepted by 3rd party software programs like Walgreens, Shutterfly, MovieMaker and when uploading to the "clouds"...This is because JPEG's are much smaller than other image files types and ideal for storing images.. Because they are known for accurate color representation they are an ideal format for photographs - but each time a JPEG is saved, the quality becomes degraded

RAW
RAW is a raw image format that some of the better more sophisticated digital cameras use.  RAW format typically requires special software for editing.  RAW image format is used primarily for editing because it gives users complete access to the data the camera sees before any effects are applied.

GIF
GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is used for animations and for storing images with low colors because it's limited to using 256 colors but can be saved repeatedly with no loss, which is why it works well for cartoon-based images.

BMP
BMP's are Windows bitmap image files and also work with limited colors, and is an image file format originally used in Windows-based applications

TIFF
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is used most often for sending logos and other images to a printer for reproduction, so widely used by photographers and we often see this format when we are using scanner for photos

PNG
PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is the newer version of "GIF" with many of the same features, except PNG supports 16 million colors vs. only the 256 colors of GIF


JPEG or RAW... Which should you choose

Basically, Raw is the unprocessed information straight off the camera's sensor without any processing for sharpness, white balance, color or contrast.

But when cameras take a jpeg image, it takes the info from the camera's sensor and processes it inside your camera with specialized chips to make a final jpeg file.

When you take a "raw photo" you will have to convert it yourself, essentially substituting your own computer and photo conversion software for the specialized chips built into the camera, which will give you more control over how the image ends up--sharper, softer, more contrast, less contrast, white balance, etc.  But the drawbacks to Raw are that you will have to  take the time to convert your digital photo images and the most important drawback is that you can't share raw files as easily as jpeg files, because not everyone has a converter for the raw format

Now that you understand them a little more, for those of you using Picasa Free Photo Editing Software you can modify which types of Photo Image Types your Picasa will Scan/See - When you are in Picasa go to Tools (on Picasa Menu Bar) and choose "Configure Photo Viewer" and when the list appears - Check off which types of digital photos you want Picasa to Scan/See

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Which Folders And/Or Sub-Folders Will Your Picasa Scan/See


It is your choice and you can change your mind whenever you'd like as to which folder and or sub-folder it will scan...  

Maybe when you began using Picasa you thought you had to have Picasa Scan/See all your photos - Now you only want Picasa to Scan/see specific folders or sub-folders you want to work on - Then simply change those folders in Picasa's Folder Manager..

Each time Picasa is opened, Picasa will scan the computer to find the folders or sub-folders you have chosen (and photos with the compatible photo file types you choose) and display only the photos in those specific folders or sub-folders.

Photos never move to Picasa, the original photos stay in their original folder locations.

To modify which folders or sub-folders Picasa is Scanning/Seeing from your hard drive or Portable Hard Drives/memory Card or Flash Drives - use these steps once you are in Picasa:

1.    Click the Tools menu in Picasa.
2.    Select Folder Manager.
3.    Select a folder from the folder list on the left that you want to add or remove from Picasa's watch list.
4.    Select one of the following monitoring options on the right:
·       “Scan Always”: Picasa views all compatible image types in these folders, and it automatically adds new photos. Picasa actively scans this folder for changes.
·       “Scan Once”: Picasa accesses all compatible image types in these folders only once. It doesn't detect new photos added to folders with this setting.
·       “Remove from Picasa': Picasa doesn't look in folders that are marked with this status.
5.    Click the OK button to save your changes.

The folders that you've set Picasa to continuously scan are listed in the 'Watched Folders' section.

You can also set a folder to 'Remove from Picasa' by right-clicking (Windows) or Control-clicking (Mac) the folder in Picasa and selecting “Remove from Picasa.”

Remember-you can always change your mind tomorrow on what you've set this setting to by simply repeating the steps and changing your choices...