Pligg open source project is getting better and better and this time they are launching a release candidate for their major update, the RC1 is almost perfect, it comes with nice features, it feels faster and more mature, but we are always looking to adjust things to our needs and in this small tutorial I will show you how to make a few changes to the Wistie template that comes with Pligg 1.0.

The Wistie template by itself is a clean and nicely done template and can be used without any major problem, but I would like to have a top banner for my Mac related news aggregator site Macevangelism.com and this is how it is done:

1. Design your Site identification banner in Photoshop or any other graphic manipulator program, Macevangelism.com is 960 pixels by 104 pixels.

2. Save it to JPG, PNG or Gif.

3. Upload it to your server.

4. Go to your Template folder, look for the Whistie folder and open the header.tpl file.

5. Inside the header.tpl look for the logo DIV located at the top:

6. Place your logo or banner inside the logo DIV.

Something like this:

 <div id=”logo”> <div align=”left”><a href=”http://www.macevangelism.com”><img src=”http://macevangelism.com/images/macevangelism_logo.jpg” alt=”all things mac, mac os 9, mac os x, macintosh, macworld, macbook, imac, iwork, ilife, newton, apple, apple macintosh, mac evangelism, mac news, dock, G3, G4, G6, ipod, iphone, apple mail, apple, powermac, mobileme” width=”960″ height=”104″ border=”0″ /></a></div> </div>

<div id=”logo”> <div align=”left”><a href=”http://www.YOUR SITE.com”><img src=”http://ADDRESS FOR YOUR IMAGE/banner_logo.jpg” alt=”A LITTLE SEO HELP HERE” width=”960″ height=”104″ border=”0″ /></a></div> </div>

Replace the uppercase words with the correct address and image name in your server.

7. Save your header.tpl file and upload it to your Whistie folder in your template.

8. Message me at Pligg Forum [desinformado], if it doesn’t work correctly for you.

Final 10 tutorials of our “100 Hardcore Photoshop Tutorials Series”, We covered all major and profitable segments where you can use Photoshop for a living, this has been a very long journey, watching hundreds of Youtube videos, reading and browsing thousands of Photoshop Tutorials websites just to find those that qualify for a easy to follow and worthy Tutorials.

91. Turn A Car Into A Hover Car

This tutorial is about taking any car you like and Turing it into a hover car by just using Photoshop. So grab an image of a car a jet engine and a nice background image.

Video:

Go see the Tutorial here.

92. Full-size side view rendering in Photoshop

With today’s large-size printers, no one should have to go through the pain of producing a full-size, tape rendering, with all the masking and paint spraying. A scanned line drawing of your design is all you need to render your car in Photoshop, and make it look like the real thing. Print it large, hang it up on the wall, and blow away the competition…
Go see the Tutorial here.

93. Porsche Digitally rendered

This tutorial shows how to create a Porsche illustration in Photoshop starting from a scanned hand-drawn sketch.
Go see the Tutorial here.

94. How to Add Flaming Decals to a Modern Car Design – Part I

This tutorial will explain the steps needed to turn this boring Prius into an awesome street racer. This tutorial is aimed at intermediate users of Photoshop, those who know most of its basic tools and how to use them. This is Part I of a two-part series.
Go see the Tutorial here. Go see the 2nd. Part here.

95. How to airbrush a cars paint work Using Photoshop

This tutorial will show you how to create an air-brush look for you car also I have added a nice skull at the end for more affect.
Go see the Tutorial here.

96. Badass Bling Effect in Car Advertising

his tutorial will show you step by step on how to create a “Badass Bling Effect” using layer styles in Photoshop. Once you create the layer style, you can easily “blingify” any layer.
Go see the Tutorial here.

Video

97. Dramatic Car Color Change
This tutorial will guide you through the steps needed to change the color of a red car. Once you learn to do this you can use any car so don’t worry it won’t have to be a red to black change every time. If you have any questions let me know

Go see the Tutorial here.

98. Car Advertisements

Before we start, it is very important to choose a picture, where the car has the right color. We want something that is as close as possible to light-gray.
Go see the Tutorial here.

See the Gallery here.

99. Rendering in Photoshop

During sketch development I find that I understand what I would like to ’sculpture’ in my design from the section lines I draw as a base, as well as from ‘leaving out’ areas. However, if you want this to come across to the people making the decisions, you need something that stands out and jumps off the wall in a presentation.
Go see the Tutorial here.

100. Stylish Mini Car Wallpaper

Learn how to create a stylish, unique looking car wallpaper perfect for a business or an enthusiast.
Go see the Tutorial here.

We are reaching the last 20 Tutorials from our “100 Hardcore Photoshop Tutorials Series”, a tremendous collection of the most professional Photoshop tutorials aimed at young and not so young photoshop users looking to increase their skills with fresh and easy to follow courses. Finish them as soon as possible because there are 100 Hardcore Adobe Illustrator in the Pipeline and We are getting ready to post the first iLife and iWork Tutorials from a new Video Series almost finished. Feel free to add your comments, considerations, suggestions and more, you are always welcome..

81. Designing an iMac

Here you will learn how to design an Apple iMac from the ground up in Adobe Photoshop.
Go see the Tutorial here.

82. Designing a Black iMac

Some months back before the latest iMacs were released, I was musing as to what a black iMac might look like. Being a Photoshopper, I decided to try making one. After posting it on a blog, the image went viral and started appearing on Mac and technology blogs and my site was inundated with traffic.
Go see the Tutorial here.

83. Designing an iPhone

Design a sophisticated Mobile iPhone using these easy to follow steps.
Go see the Tutorial here.

84. Designing an iPod Shuffle

This Photoshop tutorial will acquaint you with the shape tools, dealing with paths, applying layer styles and dealing with shadows and lighting. This is good tutorial for practicing these techniques.
Go see the Tutorial here.

85. Designing an Apple Remote

You know those cool little Apple Remotes you’ve always wanted to make in Photoshop? Now you can!
Go see the Tutorial here.

86. Design a Shiny Photorealistic Apple Remote

Apple has so many beautiful products. Their product designs consistently attain a sought-after status, which distinguishes them as an innovative company. In this tutorial, I’ll teach you how to make a shiny new apple remote.
Go see the Tutorial here.

87. Designing a MacBook Air

Hello fellow photoshopers! In this 20-step tutorial I’ll be explaining how to make the MacBook Air ad (as shown on http://www.apple.com/macbookair). I’m not going to focus on the end result but I’ll try to explain lots of the tools I used and tell you some of the tricks to make your Photohop workflow easier! As an “Apple fanboy” I really enjoyed doing this and I hope y’all learn something!
Go see the Tutorial here.

88. iPhone Design (Video)

89. Apple Style Banner

This tutorial will teach you how to create and Apple iPod style banner for your own product.
Go see the Tutorial here.

90. Attack of the iPod People

iPod People, iCharacters, silhouettes–whatever you call them, they are those cool people who dance around in the iPod TV commercials and show up in the posters and billboards you might have seen around town and I’m going to show you how to make your own in Photoshop CS (this tutorial will work in other versions but will require some digging on your own to find out how).
Go see the Tutorial here.

Here a step by step guide to get your MobileMe Account up and running in not time, We will check all the preferences needed to have this great service synchronize all our critical information, having your push data updated simultaneously in many location and devices, keeping a fresh backup, create gallery albums, move data to the iDisk and let others access it. This guide is intended to provide an easy to follow setup. If you want to know more about Apple MobileMe and how you can benefit using its features read:

What is MobileMe and how it works?

or visit Apple MobileMe website.

MobileMe

MobileMe is a service from Apple that helps you collect all your critical information, store it in a central server (cloud server) and get it delivered to all your previously subscribed devices. MobileMe synchronizes all your business and personal information over the air, instantly and without hassles. It’s ideal for people on the go that need to have access to their information every second. In this screen you must supply your USERNAME and PASSWORD you set at the MobileMe signing window.

Account

This is your Account Summary, it shows your account name, your account type, your Mail Storage and iDisk available space.

Sync

In the Sync area you specify what part of your system will be synchronize with your other devices, you select what applications to sync: Calendars, Bookmarks, Contacts, Safari preferences, System Preferences, Mail, Mail Rules Signatures and more. We can have our MobileMe account synchronized automatically, hourly, daily, weekly or manually.

iDisk

In this section you can monitor your iDisk available space, manage your iDisk public folder, let others access it to Read or to Read and Write, set password for you iDisk folder and turn on and off your iDisk synchronization.

Back to Mac

Here your files and screen shared with your other Back to Mac enabled Macs over the net.

Login to Me.com

Once you complete the setup process of MobileMe, you can access your account atme.com providing your Login Name and Password.

Mail

Your new email is up and running, you can access in the Me.com section, filter mails, separate your junk mail, create Mailboxes, something similar to Apple Mail. To have your Apple Mail and MobileMe mail synchronized you must select it first in your MobileMe’s Sync section at the System Preferences.

Contacts

Your synchronized Contacts information will be placed here, as promised all your Mac OS X Contacts are accessible via Me.com and your other devices. You can create and delete your Contacts Groups, import and export vCards. To have your Contacts synchronized you must select it first in your MobileMe’s Sync section at the System Preferences.

Calendars

In this section you access all your iCal Calendars, Tasks and Events. To have your Calendars synchronized you must select it first in your MobileMe’s Sync section at the System Preferences.

Gallery

Gallery section is where you share all your pictures, you can group by Albums allowing uploading and downloading via the iPhone/iPhod Touch or Via email, you can sync your Albums with iPhoto or Aperture.

iDisk

Have your files synchronized using iDisk backup features, access all your sites, backups and files using the Desktop iDisk icon on the sidebar, you can upload and download manually or via Applescript all your stuff to and from iDisk.

To have your Files synchronized and backup you must select it first in your MobileMe’s Sync section at the System Preferences.

Me.com Account Setup

The account area is used to setup all your Personal/Corporate information, passwords, storage, hosted domains and Secure Certificates.

Mobile Device Setup

Once you finished setting all your MobileMe Preferences, then you need to Setup your Mobile Devices Preferences (iPhone or iPod Touch).

First setup your iPhone Fetch New Data to Push in your iPhone or iPod Touch Settings, this will enable the synchronization between your Devices and the MobileMe service over the air. Go to iTunes, selec the Info tab and verify that the Calendars, Mail Accounts, Web Browser options are set to sync with MobileM. In the Mail Accounts section you can select all your email accounts to sync, notice that not messages are synced, only your account settings will be synced on your iPhone or iPod Touch using this setting.

MobileMe Windows Sync
We will provide a in deep guide on how to setup your Windows based iPhone – iPod Touch synced using Windows OS in a different post.

This is the Internet & Network section of Mac OS X System Preferences, here We will setup our MobileMe Account, the System Network and Internet Preferences, Quicktime and Mac OS X File Sharing. This is the heart of the Network interaction of the System and how it accesses or lets other accesses its files.

MobileMe

MobileMe is a service from Apple that helps you collect all your critical information, store it in a central server (cloud server) and get it delivered to all your previously subscribed devices. MobileMe synchronizes all your business and personal information over the air, instantly and without hassles. It’s ideal for people on the go that need to have access to their information every second. In this screen you must supply your USERNAME and PASSWORD you set at the MobileMe signing window.

For more information about MobileMe Visit:
What is MobileMe and how it works?

Account

This is your Account Summary, it shows your account name, your account type, your Mail Storage and iDisk available space.

Sync

In the Sync area you specify what part of your system will be synchronize with your other devices, you select what applications to sync: Calendars, Bookmarks, Contacts, Safari preferences, System Preferences, Mail, Mail Rules Signatures and more.

iDisk

In this section you can monitor your iDisk available space, manage your iDisk public folder, let others access it to Read or to Read and Write, set password for you iDisk folder and turn on and off your iDisk synchronization.

Back to Mac

Here your files and screen shared with your other Back to Mac enabled Macs over the net.

Network

Here you can select your connection type (wireless, Built-in Ethernet, Firewire…), have it automatically setup or set your Location based network settings or better, have your network setup assisted with the Assist Me option that helps you get your network up and running in not time.

Depending on your network type you must supply the local ip address, subnet mask, router information, DNS Server IP and your Search Domains.

Quicktime

In the Quicktime Area you can provide your codes for Quicktime Pro, set how your movies behave when opened, set your Streaming Speed and set the MIME types for your Quicktime to handle.

Setting your MIME correctly will help you get the most out of internet media, because this is the only way to tell your internet media what application will handle it.

If you need to watch Live TV broadcasted using Windows Media Server you must download Flip4mac and go to the MIME section and setup Quicktime as the application that will handle all your Windows Media services, if you failed to do it so you won’t be able to watch you favorite Live TV station on Quicktime.

Sharing

In the Sharing Area you can make your CDs and DVDs available to others, share your Screen, open Access for others to your files, share your printers, setup a Web Sharing for your Intranet or Extranet, provide remote access to your files and folders, setup remote management for your System, make your computer to share or be part of a Xgrid setup and internet sharing that lets others see your computer information over internet.

You must provide privileges for your users, remember that an open network is a place for malicious activities, you must never let your System totally open, if you don’t know how to setup a protected network consult a specialist first, providing full access to your computer may damage your file integrity and compromise your personal data.

Header Image courtesy of www.sxu.com

MobileMe is a service from Apple that helps you collect all your critical information, store it in a central server (cloud server) and get it delivered to all your previously subscribed devices. MobileMe synchronizes all your business and personal information over the air, instantly and without hassles. It’s ideal for people on the go that need to have access to their information every second.

MobileMe uses a both way sync or push, it delivers your mobile information to the cloud server and once received it updates all your home or office devices, keeping all points updated with fresh information. MobileMe interface is clean, easy to use, elegant and pleasant, a mature interface that offers an easy to use layout.

MobileMe up and Running

At this year WWDC (2008), Apple retooled the .mac service and renamed it as MobileMe, a syncronization service that will have all your devices updated simultaneaously. Your Mail, Contacts, Calendar, Gallery and iDisk will be on the Cloud for you to access them whenever and whererver you like it. And the syncronization is among multiple devices, your iPhone, iPod Touch, Mac and Windows PC, the most important thing about MobileMe is that it’s an ad-free service.

MobileMe Features:

Push Email

MobileMe Mail pushes new messages to your iPhone automatically and notifies you when they arrive. You’ll instant notification for new email. On your iPhone and iPod touch, it works with the built-in Mail application. It also works with Mail on a Mac and Outlook, Outlook Express, or Windows Mail on a PC. Emails are scanned for viruses.

Push Contacts

With MobileMe Contacts, you have all your address book information at your fingertips. Any change to your Contacts and automatically all your devices will be updated-synchronized, giving you more access and control of your information anytime and anywhere.

Push Mobile Gallery

Mobile Gallery provides a destination for your friends and family, you can upload photos from your computer or iPhone to your Gallery and invite people to visit, download and share their favorites, and even contribute their own. It provides fancy and animated views, mosaic, carousel or slideshow.

Push Calendar

MobileMe pushes your calendar information to your iPhone, iPod touch, Mac, and PC. So you always know where you need to be and when you need to be there. You can make changes on one device and MobileMe automatically updates all your other devices, it works with iCal on a Mac and Outlook on Windows PC.

iDisk

MobileMe provides a virtual disk accessible from anywhere and with every browser on the market, it comes with a 20GB combined email and file storage and can be accessed from your Mac OS X Finder. iDisk is the easier and more reliable way to transport your office or personal files and access them on the road.

Prices and Availabilities

MobileMe is said to be up and running today and can be accessed from Mac and Windows computers with any browser, this technology is ready to use with your iphone and ipod touch too and there is not news about support for other mobile devices. MobileMe is a subscription based service with a price of $99 a year for indivual use with a 20GB of combined email and file storage, 200GB of monthly bandwidth and $149 for a Family Pack (4 members) with 5GB of combined email and file storage, and 50GB of monthly data transfer for each member.

Third parties support is unknown and virus or any thread is under Apple control, but the price could be a roadblock for some mac users that were expecting a cheaper price for the service.

Images courtesy of Apple. Used for editorial purpose only.

This is the Hardware section of Mac OS X System Preferences, here We will tweak the system to interact with CDs-DVDs, the Display, control how the Keyboard and Mouse behave, install printers and set the audio alerts.

CDs & DVDs

In this option, We assign a function for the System to do when a Blank CD and DVD is loaded, when a Music or Picture CD is inserted We set the application to use it, We can even tell the System what to do if a DVD Movie is loaded.

Displays

In Displays We can change our monitor resolutions, select how many colors the screen should use and even rotate our screen 90º, 180º and 270º. The System provides an automatic Display detector that helps you choose the correct resolution and color to use.

In the Color Tab you can calibrate your Display or choose a Calibration Profile provided by the System. It’s recommended to have your Display calibrated if you work in the Pre-Press, Graphic and Video Production business. Calibrating your Display helps you get a more accurate color information for all your graphic applications. Apple provides Colorsync to help you get the most realistic colors from your computer. Colorsync is used when you calibrate your Displays.

Energy Saver

Energy Saver is used to tell the computer when to go to sleep in order to stop consuming energy while idle, it tells Mac OS X that if the Computer is idle for a X period of time to shut down the Display and put the System to rest until a key or a mouse is pressed. Here We can tell the System to wake up if a network connection is detected, if the modem detects an incoming call, to use the Power Button in order to put the System to sleep and to wake up if a Energy interruption has ocurred.

Keyboard and Mouse

In this area We control the Mouse and Keyboard speed, the double click speed and the delay between clicks and assign our own keyboard combinations to any given function of the System.

Print and Fax

In the Print & Fax area We select the Printer to use, this Printer can be a USB Printer attached to the computer, a IP based printer on a network, a Windows shared Printer, a Bluetooth Printer or a Printer in an AppleTalk network. For the Fax We can use the Internal Modem if your computer has one or a USB based Modem from Apple or any other vendor.

Here We can set the Default Paper Size, check for Print Queue Jobs and Share our Printer going to the Network Printer Sharing option.

Sounds

The System Sounds, here We can assign the Default sound alert, Mute the whole System, control de Volume and assign the Output and Input ports to be used by the System (Line out – Digital out, Line in – Digital in).

Next
Internet & Network
MobileMe
Network
Quicktime
Sharing

Header Image courtesy of www.sxu.com

System Preferences

The System Preferences is where We setup almost all the features of Mac OS X, it modifies, adjusts, controls and enhances OS X. It’s like the Control Panels in Mac OS 9, it contains all the switches needed to customize every major aspect of OS X.

Appearance

In the Appearance section you can change the Color of Buttons, set the prefered color for your text selection, change the positions of the scrolling arrows (at the bottom and top or together), set the minimize option for double clicking in the title bar.

In the Appearance you set the numbers of Recent Items for Applications, Documents and Servers that will be shown in the Recent Items Menu.

Desktop and Screensaver

Desktop

This is where you place your Desktop background image, it can be set to load automatically a different image every 5 seconds to every day, even better, it can load your iPhoto Albums or Aperture Projects.

Screensaver

Here you can set your favorite Screensaver from an excellent collection supplied with Mac OS X or you can add yours from internet. Screensavers can be made from an iPhoto Album or Aperture Projects too, it can be a RSS Feed downloaded from the internet using your RSS feeds from Apple Mail and Safari.

Exposé and Spaces

Exposé

Exposé is a quick look to all your opened applications and windows, it helps you locate any file or document on the desktop or jump from one applicatio with a simple click. There’s a function key setting for All Windows, All Applications and the Desktop, you can change it anytime.

Spaces

Spaces lets you set a private area for any given application, it can help you separate and categorize the opened tasks by assigning their own space to each and everyone of them, this way you can concentrate on doing your job in a clean and organize desktop, away from your ordinary files. You can move windows from one to another space. Add and reduce the number of Spaces, assign keystrokes to travel across the spaces.

International

The International Tab lets you change your primary language of Mac OS X by dragging it to the upper position, the next time you start up your System will be in that localization. You can remove unused locatization using Monolingual.

Formats

In Formats you can set the Date, Time and Currency formats for Mac OS X, set your Calendar type and set your Measurement Unit.

Input

In Input you can change your keyboard layout.

Security

In Security you can lock some of the most important features of Mac OS X, disable autologin, lock the System Preferences and set a time for autolog out.

FileVault

FileVault is a powerful AES-128 encryption based application that lock your home directory keeping your critical information away from spying eyes. FileVault encrypts and decrypts your documents as you need them.

You can set a Master Password to lock and unlock any FileVautl account.

Firewall

The Mac OS X Firewall lets you control the access of all incoming connections, it can block connections from certain type of applications, enable the Stealth Mode that guarantees that any incoming connection doesn’t receive any notification from your mac, hiding you from the outside.

Spotlight

Spotlight provides the easier way to find anything in your mac, it indexes your information at put it in your face any time you need it, it keeps indexing the content of all your documents and lets you search inside them shorting the distance between you and what you are looking for. Spotlight can perform complex arithmetic operations, search the System Dictionary and more. You can stop Spotlight from indexing some critical information by selecting it at the Privacy tab.

What follows:
System Preferences:
CDs/DVDs
Displays
Energy Saver
Keyboard and Mouse
Print and Fax
Sound

Help us buy a New MacPro!

We are trying to replace our ultra efficient and diligent PowerMac G5, but serious economy downturns have prohibited us to do it, so a better way where everybody wins is to have Sponsor or Donation Links available for the public. This will provide a small but URGENTLY NEEDED portion of the cash to buy our MacPro. The new computer will help us create Final Cut Pro and Maya Tutorials as We enter a full time job creating tutorials for Mactrainingguide.com. We really need a new mac, it doesn’t have to be a MacPro or something that proportion, we can live with a Intel Mac, a refurbished.

We will appreciate your donation or even better, sell you a link at Mactrainingguide.com. If you donate, you will get your name posted in this page with a link to your personal web address, but if you Buy a link from us, you will get a 125×125 pixels banner with a link in every page for a month. Better, if you buy a Link for 2 months We will give you a Third month Free, but wait, there is more: If you buy a Link for 6 months, We will give you 6 Months extra.

You help us, We help you! Thank for your Support!

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All UNIX based systems has a set of Maintenance Routines that clean all temporary files by default, these Routines are set to make your System more efficient by getting rid of unused files.

The Maintenance Routines are normally set to automatically run between 03:15 and 05:30, but your computer may not be up and running every minute and can miss it and by missing the cleaning routine you may end up having an big collection of log files, crashing reports and more. But you can run the Maintenance Routines manually using MacJanitor.

MacJanitor

MaJanitor unique function is to make the Maintenance Routines set to run whenever you decide, it is a scheduler utilitiy that control how and when your next System clean up can be accomplished, it is a ultra easy to set and run.

It comes with 4 Sets (Daily, Weekly, Monthly and All Task) where you can set the right time and date for the Maintenance Routines to performance the System cleanup, you will need to enter your Administrator password in order to MacJanitor to run.

MacJanitor takes advantage of UNIX own Maintenance Routines and reschedule them to a better time, it is a basic System Utility that guarantee that Mac OS X runs flawlessly. Run MacJanitor periodically when you get a free minute every few days or weeks, it only help your System to breath clean air by trashing those logs and crash report files.

You can get MacJanitor free here.