Back Up to Speed
March 29th, 2007 at 7:56 PM by Matt FreedmanI installed a WordPress Plugin about a week ago that required me to turn off GZIP Compression for this Blog. But I didn’t really like the Plugin, so I disabled it, but forgot to turn GZIP back on. Then I was noticing that this Blog was loading really slowly. Well, I thought to myself, there are 2 videos and more image then usually on the front page, that must be it. But, when I came over here today and noticed it took 5 seconds to process the page, I knew something was wrong. So, I went into the Options and decided to try to lower the amount of Posts shown on the front page. Then, I saw it, sitting unchecked staring at me was the GZIP option. Then it hit me, my Blog was loading so slowly because I never turned GZIP back on.
I never really knew that GZIP made such a difference to loading times. So, if your Blog, Forum, Site or whatever is loading slowly, go enable GZIP, you’ll be glad you did.
So, now I have GZIP enabled and the Blog’s loading at it’s average rate of about 0.200 seconds.
Video: Bugatti Veyron Going 407 KM/H
March 25th, 2007 at 12:35 PM by Matt FreedmanI found this Video at John Chow’s Blog. It’s pretty sweet, the world’s fastest production car, faster then Formula 1 Cars, going it’s top speed of 407 KM/H (253 MPH).
Video: The Power of the Google
March 24th, 2007 at 1:13 PM by Matt FreedmanI found this Video while surfing around YouTube. It’s an interesting watch, whether you think it’s true or not, I’ll let you decide. I don’t, for the record. 😛 Enjoy.
New IE6 Virtual PC Image
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:52 PM by Matt FreedmanSince the original IE6 VPC Image is set to expire on April 1, 2007, the IE Team have released a new version. This new version (1.1) includes some security updates and is time-bombed for July 23, 2007. They say they’ll keep releasing these VPC Image’s until they see that they are no longer necessary. They’re a good way to see what your site looks like in IE6, if you have IE7 installed. Also, Virtual PC 2007 is out, so you can use that now instead of 2004.
Download Virtual PC 2007Â (about 30MBs)
Download the IE6 Virtual PC Image (WARNING: about 400MBs)
Fading Out Text
March 21st, 2007 at 2:18 PM by Matt FreedmanHave you ever wondered how people have Text on an image fade from left-to-right or from top-to-bottom, or visa versa? Well, I’m going to show you how. First of all, open up Photoshop (I’m using the CS3 Beta, but it’ll work in previous versions), and open a new document (Ctrl+N) and enter your dimensions.
Now, grab the text tool and (T) use it to put in some text.
Now, go down to your Layers Pallet (if it isn’t open, hit F7 or go Window > Layers), and click the Add Layer Mask icon.
Now, once you’ve done that, make sure you’re on the Mask (click the white rectangle on the layer’s name, if you aren’t), and go over to the Gradient Tool (G). Now click and drag your cursor from left-to-right for a faded to normal effect and right-to-left for a normal to faded effect.
You could also spruce up the text a bit by going back into the Text part of the layer (click the little “T” on the layer’s name) and add effects to it. Plus, since the text will be slightly transparent, you’ll be able to add layers underneath it to make it look even better.
This technique isn’t limited to just text, either.
Get it? Got it? Good.
