madbadcat | DigitalAppleJuice

(Review) FileApp: A Great iOS File Manager

September 23, 2011 By madbadcat Leave a Comment

The iPad is a great thing. It is not, however, a computer. It's a shift away from the familiar hard drive directories. The new iPad owner has to surrender to a new way : you can't really root around the hard drive looking for a file, all user experience is controlled by an app, and getting the right app is key. As most of us have found out, finding that right app is a bizarre mixture of dumb luck, suggestions from co-workers and friends and the endless lists of best 10 apps proliferating on the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apps, iOS SDK, iPad, Reviews, Workflow Tagged With: file manager, file system, ios, ipad, iPhone, iPod touch

Screenshots of FileApp on my Ipad

September 23, 2011 By madbadcat 1 Comment

App Store - FileApp (Documents & Files reader)

Read the article» … [Read more...]

Filed Under: apps, iOS SDK, iPad, Workflow Tagged With: file manager, file system, ios, ipad, iPhone, iPod touch

A Better Batch Picture Processor Script for Photoshop CS5

July 28, 2011 By madbadcat Leave a Comment

In general, I am fascinated by the scripting possibilities of Photoshop. The unspoken "BUT" is that I have to make a living and lately "A living" means more work for less money so there's more work. So it is just a romantic thought that lingers in the back of my lizard brain hoping to surface when I don't have any work or gardening or cats to feed... I had a problem recently. One that seemed destined to slow my workflow down to a crawl. To fit within a project requirement I needed to somehow … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Photoshop, Reviews, Workflow Tagged With: batch processing, photoshop, script

Recording Audio On Your Mac with Quicktime

April 6, 2011 By madbadcat Leave a Comment

Yesterday I had to record a short voice-over for a presentation. Nothing fancy. Just 3 minutes of crisp clear audio destined to be imported into Adobe Soundbooth for editing. How lucky was I that my copy of Wiretap Pro had lost its registration when I upgraded to Snow Leopard? I was even more blessed when I discovered I had no idea where my license key could be. Did I use my moo email? Or was it info or thankyou or artgoons? I'm sure there's a hard copy of the receipt and email in my tax … [Read more...]

Filed Under: MacOsX, Software, Workflow Tagged With: audio recording, MacOsX, QuickTime, wiretap

Photoshop For Beginners: Retouching Backgrounds

April 5, 2011 By madbadcat 9 Comments

This section deals with Photoshop's selections tools. Doesn't sound like much but if you follow along, the lesson is really about manipulating backgrounds to enhance your image. Adobe Photoshop CS4: An Introduction by Dr. Michael N. Roach is now for sale as a PDF Price: $4.99 Sample Pages: There are still a lot of people using Photoshop CS4 even though Photoshop CS5, and now Photoshop CS5.5, has been out for some time. We were contacted by a few students who are still … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Photography, Photoshop, Software, Workflow Tagged With: adobe photoshop, Elliptical marquee, exposure adjustment, Feather, lasso, lighting effects, magic wand, magnetic lasso, photoshop cs4, Polygonal Lasso, Quick Mask mode, Rectangular marquee

The latest Skype for Mac has some cool features

March 31, 2011 By madbadcat 2 Comments

My telephone needs are covered -- I have Skype and I have my cellphone. I used to have a never-never-land-line: the phone I never answered because it was undoubtedly some telemarketer or robocalling machine. When I figured out that I could ignore those calls for about $60 a year, I switched from land-line to voip. (I actually tried Vonage first but a phone I never answer $25/month seemed too expensive still.) My skype phone number is now the official phone number for business and home - the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Digital Lifestyles, Software, Workflow Tagged With: broadband phone, business voip, chat, digital phone service, internet, ip, mac, MacOsX, over, p2p, phone, skype, snow leopard, talk, telephony, voice, voip, voip phone, voip service providers

Download: Adjusting Perspective with Photoshop

March 28, 2011 By madbadcat 3 Comments

We were discussing Dr. Roach's ebook yesterday. By "we", I mean a motley group of photoshop users of varying degrees of experience , expertise and interest. It became very clear early on that the name of the book is deceiving. Yes, it is an introduction to Photoshop and all its possibilities. (And I do mean all) Yet, we think it would be better described as the most complete introduction to advanced techniques for beginners. Some of you may roll your eyes at this section, the squaring of images … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Photography, Photoshop, Tutorials, Workflow Tagged With: distort, guidelines, horizon line, perspective

The single stupidest thing we do as website owners

March 25, 2011 By madbadcat Leave a Comment

For the last couple of days, I have been trying to update a client's wordpress website and I am encountering yet again the mother of all problems, the root of every headache when it comes to web design. I run across the issue every single time - whether I am moving a domain and corresponding website to a new server or trying to upgrade a premium wordpress plugin. At the bottom of every complications, I find that 90% of the time, there is a set of username/email address and password … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Wordpress, Workflow Tagged With: domain registration, Web design, web development, wishlist, wordpress

Photoshop CS4: Rulers, Layers, and Type

March 24, 2011 By madbadcat 2 Comments

This section deals with the use of rulers, layers and type. The most interesting part of this section is the introduction to the use of type as a design element. Why rasterize type or choose to use type as a shape? Text styled in a particular font will lose its shape if the photoshop file is adited, possibly on another machine, without the specified font. Photoshop will attempt to use a substitute font and the look of the original text will be lost. Converting the type to a shape or raterizing … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Workflow Tagged With: distort, font, layers, photoshop, rasterize, rulers, scale, type, type as shape, warp

Photoshop CS4 : Image Editing- Adjustment WIth Curves

March 16, 2011 By madbadcat 5 Comments

Adjusting the tonal range of an image can be accomplished one of two ways: Levels (which provides only three anchor points for control: black, white, and midpoint) Curves (which allows for the use of up to 16 anchor points within the tonal range curve allowing for an increased control over the resulting tonal range) Adobe Photoshop CS4: An Introduction by Dr. Michael N. Roach is now for sale as a PDF Price: $4.99 Sample Pages: There are still a lot of people … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Photoshop, Tutorials Tagged With: adjustments, brightness, contrast, curves, dynamic range, photoshop cs4, tonal range

Photoshop CS4 : Intro to Color Settings, Menus, Tools, Healing Brushes

March 14, 2011 By madbadcat 8 Comments

This section of Dr. Roach's Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Beginners focuses on best practices when starting a project plus a guided tour through the menus and tools. You might think that this information is not useful to you but I have to admit that, even after 10 years of using Photoshop, I am learning something every time I prepared these sections for upload. Up until I read this section, I've never take the time to adjust my color settings until the end of the project when I am ready to output to … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Photoshop, Tutorials Tagged With: brush, clone tool, Crop Tool, healing tool, lasso, magic wand, marquee tool, move tool, photoshop cs4, polygon, red-eye, selection tool, slice tool

Why does Safari crash so much?

February 24, 2011 By madbadcat 16 Comments

I have hated Safari since Tiger. Granted, it was an improvement over IE for Mac but a sneeze or butterfly breeze can cause Safari to crash. Its slow response to ad servers is infuriating and, OMG! Heaven forbid a webpage like HuffPO, NYTimes or BusinessInsider has a flash ad in its header. Initially I thought it was specific to my computer, my ISP, or my deodorant. However, I never seem to have the same issues with Firefox. Sometimes Firefox launches and loads a webpage while Safari is … [Read more...]

Filed Under: MacOsX, Workflow Tagged With: browser, crash, mac, safari