Archive for December, 2008

“iykwim” – the Story of the Lost Abbreviation

By On December 30, 2008 In Archived, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to “iykwim” – the Story of the Lost AbbreviationPermalink

“iykwim”. “iykwim”. “iykwim”. My bet is that none of those abbreviations (ha ha, they’re all the same) mean anything at all to you. At most it might look like a cryptographic sequence of letters that allegedly mean something cool.
Want to know what it means? It’s a lot simpler than you thought, it simply means “if you know what I mean“. I have used this one on so many people, and I have yet to find someone who can decipher what it stands for.

Now you know, thanks to me. I’ll take the signing of autographs later!

ExpressionEngine 2.0 – When?

By On December 30, 2008 In Archived, News With 2 Comments Permanent Link to ExpressionEngine 2.0 – When?Permalink

I just can not wait anymore. The long-awaited release of version 2 of the popular content-management-system software, ExpressionEngine, has been delayed, re-delayed and delayed again.
The first few notices said we were to expect a release during the summer of 2008. It is soon 2009 and nothing has been seen yet. Yes of course there have been rumors, previews and pictures of the sought-after release, but nothing concrete to satisfy the community.
I am not putting any blame, or any form of anger, on the EllisLabs team. They must do what they must do to get this out, and of course it can take longer time than expected… Very much longer time than expected.

Enhancing Colors in Photos using Lab Color in Photoshop

By On December 24, 2008 In Archived, Technology With No Comments Permanent Link to Enhancing Colors in Photos using Lab Color in PhotoshopPermalink

Have you ever taken pictures you just wished were a lot more colorful? Ever felt the need to cram that extra little bit of color out of a seemingly perfect picture? Thanks to a tutorial and some personal research I have come up with a very simple and effective method that will highlight and increase the colors in a photo. Let’s get going!

This is the image we will come up with, in comparison with the old one.
Before and After

Steps

#1
Change the color mode to “Lab Color” inside Image > Mode > Lab Color. This is the main start-off point and plays a key role in this tutorial.
Change to LAB color

#2
Select Curves in the Image > Adjustments > Curves. Using this tool we will now edit the colors to perfection!
Select curves

#3
In the Channel drop-down, select a and b respectively and change the curves to something that resembles this.
a-curves
b-curves

#4
Revert back to RGB color mode, otherwise this can create problems when further editing the picture!
Revert to RGB color

Good job, you’ve now gotten yourself a lot more color! Is it a bit too much? Fiddle around with the Saturation settings until you get what you like!
Did you like this or have any questions? Comment!

I hate Power-Outages

By On December 18, 2008 In Archived, News With No Comments Permanent Link to I hate Power-OutagesPermalink

Power-outages… Don’t we hate them all. My server computer goes offline, killing the ten-twenty concurrent connections currently on the servers I own.
Why is there an outage? Because our electricity provider’s power stations suddenly decided to kill themselves in an attempt to annoy the whole town. Wonderful.

http://sydsvenskan.se/malmo/limhamn/article399614/Stromavbrott-i-Hyllie-och-Limhamn.html

Left 4 Dead Hamachi LAN gaming without Steam

By On December 12, 2008 In Archived, Gaming With 3 Comments Permanent Link to Left 4 Dead Hamachi LAN gaming without SteamPermalink

Another article in the series about doing LAN-gaming with Hamachi! This time I am covering Left 4 Dead, the much talked-about and highly anticipated new game based on the Source engine.
This guide only corresponds to the pirated version of the game!

Step

#1
Download, using a torrent client, this file and follow the instructions in the ReadMe. They should be fairly straightforward and only involve overwriting two or three files and editing an .ini file.

#2
Make sure Hamachi is the primary network on your computer. This is generally, whenever using Hamachi, a good idea! If you run XP this is how you do it (courtesy of Random Repository):

Reconfigure your XP’s Network connections to make it detect Hamachi first. Go to All Programs > Accessories > Communications > Network Connections. Go to the menu > Advanced > Advanced Settings. Put Hamachi on top of the list.

#3
For all players involved, please make sure you are opening the game with the extra -console startup parameter! Your parameters can be found in the .bat-file you’re using to start the game.

#4

  • For the Hoster
    • In the console, type in sv_allow_lobby_connect_only 0 and ip (the IP your computer has from Hamachi). This is to open your computer up to connection attempts at the default ports by only other Hamachi users.
    • Now type map and select in the drop-down list which map you’d like to start.
      When all this is done, all you have to do is type net_start and you’re on your way!
  • For the Players
    • Copy the hoster’s IP address and type connect (the IP address) inside the console!

Hopefully it should work as good for you as it worked for me! Let me know (by comment) if it worked or not!

Buying a Dist-Pedal for the Guitar

By On December 5, 2008 In Archived, Personal With No Comments Permanent Link to Buying a Dist-Pedal for the GuitarPermalink

The past day or so I have been actively browsing my favorite music-apparel shops in search for a dist- and overdrive-pedal for my guitar.
I currently own a Peavey BANDIT 112 amp at 80W, a wonderful amp with a lot of customization and an unbeatable sound quality. But, but, but… It lacks the kind of distortion I am looking for… The roaring kind of dist, lifting the whole room when you strike that power chord…

The amp

The BANDIT 112 in all glory – it is truly a fantastic amp – but it has a pretty dull and compressed distortion. That particular type is suitable for some songs, but I want more!
So therefore I am, as stated, looking for distortion pedals in the range of -$60 USD. That might sound as very little, but as I am selling my old effect-box for about that amount.

I have mainly been looking at the Behringer HD300 Heavy Distortion pedal. It looks amazing, I just hope it sounds as amazing!