Monitoring your PC

By the same author, Alex Buturuga, an ingenious piece of software lets us monitor and calculate many different things of our personal computer. It’s called Counter (http://stud.usv.ro/~alexbu/downloads/counter21.zip ).

Many times after we have been using our own PC for a long period of time we don’t know for certain how many hours have passed, or even if we want to know how long someone else on average has been working at our computer. Here comes in Counter, which gives us all this information and more. If we want to calculate how much money we are spending on electricity while the PC is working, clicking on Show Calculator we can calculate that cost. First it calculates an average as 60% of the maximum power consumption of the PC, then it multiplies this figure with the watts per hour cost that our power company charges, which we must enter. In this way we will have a clear picture of the money we are spending working with our personal computer.

As time goes by we will have a way of knowing more about our daily use of the PC at the Statistics section where we can monitor additional parameters.

We also have the option to change skins clicking on Use Modern Skins to give it a more attractive look.

Simple and accurate, this program is truly useful. UD.

Keyboard Tweaking (for Windows)

Believe it or not there still are a few new features we can add to our old keyboard by way of a very easy to use and smart software: Keyboard Tweaker, (http://stud.usv.ro/~alexbu/downloads/keyboard23.zip ). Many of us usually use theses simple keyboard shortcuts: Ctrl+Alt+Del to open the Task Manager, Ctrl+C to copy, Ctrl+X  to cut, and  Ctrl+V to paste. Keyboard Tweaker, lets us program our keyboard to open up the programs we use most, like Excel ,Word , and so forth. Once installed we will see that there are 20 preconfigured shortcuts, most of which are all we will ever need. But anyway, we can program our own to avoid using the mouse all the time. To configure our own custom shortcuts we click on Hotkeys where we select New, here is where we will create a new shortcut.

We can also access executable files, open any file with any extension such as MP3, JPG, URLs, e-mails, etc. We can do anything with Execute that the Windows command Execute does (Start > Execute), such as accessing the Registry, etc.

This software is freeware but we need to register first in order to be able to use it.

A clever little program to get our hands off the mouse. UD.

Adobe Photoshop Express (or Photoshop.com)

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most famous programs of photographic editing. With a track of years on the market it has a spotless reputation. For experts, like designers and photographers or even aficionados, Photoshop lets you create a perfect, beautiful and extraordinary visual reality.

Now, given the "boom" of this software, Adobe launched Photoshop Express (Now its called simply Photoshop.com) (http://www.photoshop.com/express). its online version with just basic editing capabilities. In a certain way, it can be considered as a competitor for such tools as Picasa (http://picasa.google.com) from Google which offers this service for free.

This version, free for the moment, offers basic and simple tools to edit your own photos and/or images.

Benefits and disadvantages

Photoshop Express offers 2 GB of online storage for images, either to edit them or to share or forward them by e-mail. In turn, it lets you upload your images directly to places like Facebook, PhotoBucket, Flickr and Picasa.

This software was designed mainly for amateur users, so Adobe went to extremes to make it user-friendly, reaching out to a greater number of people. For that reason, for those who have experience in the use of the traditional Photoshop software or other image editors, this new version is a limiting tool if they want to accomplish finer objectives.

Our Experience

The first thing that we should do is go to http://www.photoshop.com/express. Once there, we have two options. One is to test it, double clicking on the [Test Drive] button. This option is quite limited, since, for example, it doesn't let you upload and edit your own images, only those that the program offers. Instead, if we choose to register, double clicking on the [Join Now] button, we shall be able to use all the tools freely. Once registered, you will appreciate the simple and intuitive interface, since it does not resemble in any way Photoshop’s traditional interface. Rather it looks more like Microsoft Picture Manager (though the program's template is similar to Adobe's Photoshop Lightroom ).

As we have said, this new software is characterized by its simplicity in its use of image editing tools.

With a just a click, you will be able to remove red eyes, eliminate stains, change to white and black or sepia, adjust saturation, tint, change sizes and cut the images, among other basic editing resources. Once you have uploaded your photos, and after editing them you will also be able to sort them out and fit them in different albums, to share them and to exhibit them to other users of the Photoshop Express community. Basically, the software can be handled by users without any experience in the matter. It is a good beginning for those who want to explore the world of image editing.

Let’s try it

Once we enter the website, and after registering and logging in [Sign In], a window will pop up with the option to preview your images to publish by means of [My Photos], your albums to share in [My Albumsl and also to search for albums or galleries within the community with [Browse]. The first thing is to upload one of your pictures, clicking on the [Upload Photos] button. From here you will be able to upload all sorts of images and photos to be published. Once this has been done, the option [Library/All Photos] you will be able to go through all your uploaded pictures.

To begin publishing simply click on the selected image and then with [Edit Photo], your image will expand from its center, and all the editing tools that you can apply to it will appear. Starting with the basic ones ([Basics]) as cut, change saturation, remove red eyes, etc. With [Tuning] you will be able to change the lighting, and with [Effects] you will be able to change the colors or distort the image, among other effects. Once you have edited your image, you can save it clicking on [Save], and that’s it. Your edited picture will appear together with your other previously uploaded pictures.

On the other hand, if you want to sort out and upload your images to the albums, drag your photo to the Albums folder and it will be saved automatically. If you want to share your album with other users, click on the [Share Album] button. Lastly, clicking on [Album Slideshow] your images will appear as slides in a lively presentation so that your friends can see them in a sequence with several transition effects you can choose from. UD. 

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This blog is about all digital stuff we use, be that computers, Internet, software, hardware, gadgets, technologies, and so forth. We will have tips, new gear, new software releases, discussions over all this mentioned above and more.