thezero

Design Tip: Distinctive Text

2012-05-15T16:08:00.000-07:00

One of the most annoying things to see, is text in a graphic that blends in, is hard to see, and is overall not very distinctive between the rest of the graphic. Here i'll show you a few tips that will help fix that problem.
First is a simple drop shadow. In GIMP, this is under filters, and in Photoshop, it's found in the Layer Effects panel. Here is a screenshot of TheZ3ro's site header before a drop shadow:

Text that reads "the blog of Diego Segura" does have a drop shadow.
The original drop shadow was sloppily erased for this demonstration.

And here is after a drop shadow:

Color: black
Shadow radius: 15

This next tip should be common sense, but is still a problem with people. For more distinct text, switch colors! In a lot of my work for TheZ3ro with this orange color scheme, I keep it the same, but I use other ways to make it stand out. Here is TheZ3ro header with the text colors completely inverted:

The blue looks out of place with this color scheme, but is a good way to get distinct text.

The next tip is already demonstrated in the past screenshots, and you've probably already noticed it: background blur. I used a gaussian blur, so that the text is the only thing in focus. Just make sure that you are only blurring a single layer, and notmultiple layers due to merging, mis-selection (Yep, mis-selection), or anything like that.
Hopefully this helped you find new techniques in Photoshop/GIMP, and makes your designs look better. Pass this on to any of your fellow designers that might find this post useful!

Hunger Games Meme! (by: Diego Segura)

2012-04-05T04:27:00.003-07:00

Yep. :D

Visit my YouTube channel: http://youtube.com/itsdiegodoes

Follow me on Instagram: diegodoes

Follow me on Twitter: @diegodoes
(Special thanks to Lorenzo, who made this up)

Lytro Light Field Camera

2012-03-03T09:24:00.000-08:00

Lytro, a camera company recently released their Lytro, "light-field camera" to the general public. This camera has a hint of "revolutionary to it, but with many downsides. The main great feature is its ability to focus, after the picture has been taken. This is "light-field" technology. That feature is awesome, and works well with social networks, but not as smooth. There is one downside. Next is the image quality. 1 megapixel for the camera, which is mediocre, even for modern day cell phone cameras. The images are cropped also. The focusing (for me) isn't enough to keep me to buying this camera.
The design is quite rugged, with it's rectangular prism, but at the same time, doesn't seem to adapt to what the user needs, for example, like the display. The display is a tiny, 1.46 inch, and is controlled by touch. If you have large fingers, this could become a dreaded issue. Those are just my thoughts on the camera, you can be heard in the comments down below!

Apple Announcement!

2012-03-01T15:53:00.000-08:00

Just days ago, Apple sent out an invitation to the press, regarding an announcement on March 7th. To the left, you can take a look for yourself! The calendar app says March 7th, telling the date in which this will happen. The invitation was subtle, but hints something very important in technology; the next generation iPad. Of course, the media blew up when this was released, as there wasn't a home button making an appearance. This could be in landscape mode, or hinting a capacitive touch button, but we should really just wait until Apple gives us some rock solid information.

How Much Longer can Kobe Bryant Succeed in the NBA?

2012-03-01T15:39:00.001-08:00

On February 21, I started a small unofficial poll, asking the question, "How Much Longer can Kobe Bryant Succeed in the NBA?". The answer choices were, 1-3 years, 4-6 years, and 7-9 years. Over 100 people responded, and I'll share the results and comments with you. The number 1 most voted was, 1-3 years, with 46%. Just behind was 4-6 years (not surprisingly), with 42%. Last was 7-9 years, with a mere 11%. In the comments, Kobe fanboy, (username: parkside) said "Until the wheels off!" Personally I believe the wheels are coming off already. Later on, someone went against Parkside, and stated that, "He will have to adjust his game more like MJ (Michael Jordan) did when he got older." This is very true, as Kobe's skill-set will become weaker, especially with age and strength differences. (Personally I voted 4-6 years, as Kobe is a great player currently, and even If his play-level might fall, I think he can still succeed for years to come. No more than about 5 or so though. ) So, I'll leave it up to you guys, in the comments tell me what your vote would be!

a)1-3 years

b)4-6 years

c)7-9 years

Review: Moom for Mac

2012-02-26T15:56:00.001-08:00

Moom is a Mac utility for easily resizing windows. The application is available in the Mac App Store for $4.99. The gist of the app is for resizing windows based on configured presets. You can open a settings window of Moom from your taskbar at the top of your screen to access the presets, so that you can change them to your liking. You can choose for the windows to resize, move to a certain place, and many more combinations of changes. To resize windows with Moom, hover over the "+" button near the top left of your window. The default time to hover is 0.1 seconds, but you can change this setting. Once that menu appears, you can hover over your presets, and click to activate them. The one that is highlighted is the one you are currently using. There is also a "Back" button to go back to the previous size of your window.
The process, as you've seen is extremely simple. The aesthetics are also mazing, as the resizing options go with the flow of the Mac OS. For $4.99, this was a great buy, and I would recommend this to pretty much all Mac users.

Requiem Cracks iBooks DRM's

2012-02-25T10:13:00.000-08:00

Requiem, a well known DRM cracking app is at it again, and now has cracked the iBooks Store. DRM's were made when Apple made FairPlay, a content protection service. With it came DRM's, a way for Apple to monitor which devices a certain pece of content can go on. A few years ago, Requiem decided to crack those DRM's, and create a way for music from the iTunes Store, to play on virtually any device. This application works on OS 10.7 Lion, and is compatible with iTunes 10.5.3.
Apple and the developer of Requiem, Brahms, have a cat and mouse game going, and Apple will more than likely release an update to patch this problem. If I were you, I wouldn't do this, as the authors, illustrators, and publishers work hard to get these books out to you to enjoy, and stealing their property just isn't right.

50GB of Free Storage on Box

2012-02-23T18:12:00.001-08:00

The popular file sharing application, Box, is offering a free 50GB worth of memory if you sign up via their Android app! Box is a free app, similar to Dropbox, where you can share any of your files from your smartphone to your computer, or vise-versa. You have to pay for extensive data, but with this free offer, you can probably use it for a few months. I recommend you take a look at this offer before it's too late!

Review: Garmin Dakota 20 GPS

2012-02-22T13:56:00.000-08:00

The Dakota 20 GPS from Garmin is a "Rugged GPS with a 2.6 inch touchscreen. Today I'll give you a review on the device.
The screen is hideous. 2.6 inches leaves very little room for operation. The touchscreen looks to be capacitive touch, but feels like resistive. The resolution is probably 352x240, which isn't impressing whatsoever. The screen is a con, for sure.
Next is the user-interface. The UI is actually a pleasant surprise. The icons are relatively big (on the screen), which utilizes the small screen real-estate available. When you go into an "app", they have a nice transition, and doesn't lag whatsoever. Scrolling is also pretty smooth. Not perfect, but quite decent.
For functionality, the device is amazing. Built-in, there is a map, navigation, geocaching, trip computer, compass, elevation plot, su/moon, calendar, and much, much more. Again, the UI's are amazing, despite, the terrible screen resolution. Aesthetics seem to be well thought out, from icons to buttons.
Overall, the design is extremely tough and rugged, the UI is well made, and the functions the device performs, again, quite decent. The only cons (and big ones), are the screen and it's resolution. They are both quite terrible, and aren't pleasing. The thickness of the device is behind it's time, but still isn't too annoying. I still wouldn't recommend this product, al long as you have a smartphone with GPS capabilities. There is no reason to carry more than one device.

iPad 3: What to Expect

2012-02-21T19:19:00.000-08:00

The iPad 3 rumors have come and gone throughout the past few months, but it's almost time for the actual device to be revealed. So, in this post I'll go over the rumors, and tell you what you should see this coming March.
First, is the screen. The original iPad had a non-retina display, and while this was speculated in the iPad 2, it never came. Competing tablets have amazing AMOLED screens, and are usually much better than the current iPad 2's. MacRumors claims to have an iPad 3 screen. They took a look at it under a microscope, and there are twice as many pixels than there are currently. This would be a retina display, and would make any computer screen look like rubbish after using the "iPad 3".
Next is the "mini iPad". With the Kindle Fire becoming a huge competitor to the iPad (hence taking a mass amount of sales from it during the holiday season), Apple has to have a way to respond. A 6-7 inch iPad could solve that, by reducing the parts/cost, and also providing that form-factor that many like. Now, will this happen? We'll just have to wait and see in March.
One flaw with the iPad 2 were the cameras. The front camera wasn't expected to be decent at all, but the back facing camera should've been decent. But, no! Apple had to cheap out on the camera. The 5MP camera & 720p video recording was very washed out and wasn't very good frame-rate wise. With the iPad 3, I predict an 8MP camera, with 1080p video recording. No flash though, to keep the design minimal. With the vast amount of movie editing programs being released for the iPad, there is a huge market Apple could seize. Avid Studio Pro offers amazing editing, on a small, thin device. If you like making family movies/videos, you probably won't import your footage from an external camera. Rather , you will film on your iPad.
These are my predictions for the iPad 3. What about yours? Tell me in the comments below, or shoot me a tweet to my Twitter account, @DiegoDoes.

Facebook Tip: Posting to Certain Areas

2012-02-21T18:58:00.000-08:00

If your business uses Facebook for marketing, this could be the post for you. On Facebook, you may have an audience worldwide. While some might know your language, some might not. Certain regions will know certain languages. With a simple trick on Facebook, you can post different things to different countries/cities. For example, let's say you have customers in Europe, that don't speak English. You also have customers in the United States of America. When you're posting, you can click on the button that reads, "Public". The default is public, but we want to change that to, let's say, Europe. Now that you've changed your location settings, you may now write in that country/cities native language, to please them specifically. Again, you can change this for each post.

YouTube Testing "+1" Button Instead of Like/Dislike

2012-02-18T09:10:00.000-08:00

YouTube going crazy with changes, yet again. Most are annoyed. I rather like the change, and some changes can effect the YouTube community in a quite positive way. In the image above (via Twitter User @GeekAndrew), there is no Like/Dislike button. Google has been trying especially hard to integrate Google+ with Android, Blogger, Google Chrome and YouTube. There is a +1 button. On Google+, +1 is the equivalent to a like on Facebook. One problem with this is that you can't see the red/green lightsaber in order to judge whether the video is worth watching. Don't worry though, this is being tested randomly on various users, not worldwide yet.

OS X: Mountain Lion!

2012-02-16T16:49:00.000-08:00

Today, Apple announced a new version of OS X. Of course named after a cat of some sort. This time, Mountain Lion. I ain't lion! (You've cat to be kitten me!) Enough with the stupid puns, let's get to the important stuff. First off, Mountain Lion has very tight integration with Twitter. From Safari, there will be a simple button, where there is a link added, and a non-intrusive interface where you can compose your Tweet. That's nice, but not very exciting compared to the iOS like features included. Now, there will be a notification center! Yes, practically identical to iOS's, but it will appear on the right side of your screen. There is also an addition of Reminders (which might signal a revamped iCloud to sync this across all platforms. without Siri...) iMessage has basically come to Mac with Messages, which is available for download from Apple's website. Delivery receipts can be sent to your email, but only by choice. The social aspect is now becoming tightly integrated with the system, with Twitter, Messages, and also GameCenter. Nothing exciting, because GameCenter really isn't that great of a network. A notable feature is Gatekeeper, which is like a bodyguard for your Mac. There are security options for where apps are installed from, and when a password is required. This also cracks down on malware, with Developer ID's. This way, a developer ID can be taken away if there is malware made by them. These features are nice, but aside from Messages Beta, you'll have to wait until Summer to grab them. Pricing is unknown, but we'll have to just wait and see.

Musicians Not Happy with Revenue from Spotify?

2012-02-15T13:42:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago, a few artists (and their music labels) pulled numerous tracks, and even all of their songs, from the music streaming service, Spotify. One very notable artist is Paul McCartney. In fact, he pulled his music from all online streaming services. Other artists have dine this to, such as Coldplay AC/DC pulling their music from Rhapsody. The reason for these happenings are all about money; they feel their revenue isn'y sufficient. And truly, it probably isn't. The artists only get a few cents per play of the song, and mainly the musicians are at loss at Spotify. Just a few dollars a month, to listen to what might be $150 worth of songs on iTunes. What are your thoughts on the artists and their money disputes? Feel free to tell me in the comments down below.

Instagram Update!

2012-02-11T12:04:00.000-08:00

Today, the ultra popular iOS photo sharing app, Instagram was updated. Instagram is much like Flickr, only differences being that; (1) Instagram is exclusive to iOS, and (2) Instagram is much more social oriented. The app is great, and has been an amazing application since its debut. There are always advancements, which is a great thing for users. In this post I will go over the most notable features in the 2.1 update. First off is the simplistic user interface. Below is a picture with a few of the app resources used in 2.1.

Via: http://blog.instagram.com

The interface has only very minor changes, but looks very elegant compared to the previous
rendition of the app. Again, nothing big, but
surely a pleasure. The next feature is more geared
toward content creation. As you know, with
Instagram there are several filters and effects
you can use to make your pictures a bit more
interesting. With this new version, there is now
"Sierra" a brand new filter. To the right is a picture
from the Instagram blog testing out the filter.
Another new addition is Lux. Lux is similar to HDR,but is now integrated into Instagram. Camera+was the only way to achieve this without Instagram, but not anymore. There is a big difference, and you can go to the application to test it out yourself.
So, have you used the update? Are you liking it so far? Tell us in the comments below. Lucky iOS users...

Chitika Advertising Program

2012-02-08T18:50:00.000-08:00

Chitika is an advertising program kind of like AdSense, where you can make money by making posts on your blog. The program is an alternative to programs such as AdSense, or Clicksor, so I'll give my review so you can compare to your experiences with the other programs.
The first thing I will touch on is user-friendliness and design. If this is going to be used all day long, you want the best experience. Chitika's design is very simple, and looks great. On the "dashboard" you can take a look at your earnings for the past 7 days, past month, and total payments in all-time. There are also various tabs at the top of the site that take you to "Ad Setup", "Support", and "My Account". I must commend Chitika for the amazing design of the site. I was ale to jump in, and within minutes, I was accustom to the site.

The next factor in the review is the setup of the advertisements. Unlike AdSense, the service isn't tightly integrated with Google Products such as Blogger. If you have an HTML website, then you probably know how to code, so installing code should be simple. With Blogger the process is very simple too. Go to the Ad Setup tab at the top of the page, make your settings according to your liking, and copy the code. Go to Blogger, create a new gadget with the HTML/JavaScript option. Paste your doe, and within minutes, your ads are now running, and you're making money! Yet again, Chitika nailed it on the head.
Overall, the service is phenomenal, and is only for people who apply, which makes the site more sophisticated than others. In fact, a few years ago when Yahoo closed their advertising program down, they referred all of their users to Chitika. You can go to the Chitika website to apply to start using this amazing program.

Chrome For Android: No Flash?

2012-02-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

Similar to what happened to the iPhone, there will be no flash for Chrome for Android. This means that the in browser capabilities could be very limited, especially on sites such as YouTube, or any flash-heavy site. This is a big let down, as an awesome feature was the ability to run flash on Android devices.
This isn't Google's fault though. In mid-late 2011, Adobe announced that they would slowly stop Flash on mobile devices. One notable device they spoke about was the Playstation Vita. No flash for Sony! Could this vary whether or not you use Google Chrome on your Android device? Personally, not for me, as the integration with my computer and my mobile device would be amazing already.

Chrome for Android Released!

2012-02-07T15:26:00.000-08:00

Today, Google released Google Chrome for their mobile OS, Android. Google Chrome has dominated the market in desktop browsers, and should soon be released to all Android devices. The reason I say "all", is because; (1) this is a beta release and (2) this version is only available for Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich. There are ways to get around this problem, and there might be a post on that soon.
The features that are included top any other browser for Android. Chrome mobile is tightly integrated with your Google account, and desktop version of Chrome. For example, when you leave your computer and you have multiple tabs open, you can go to your Android device, and the same exact tabs will show up. Pretty cool!
I'm very excited to use Chrome Mobile, and expect a post as soon as I get my hands on it!

Blogger Help: Favicons

2012-02-07T07:22:00.000-08:00

You have your new blog, but when you see it, all your favicon shows is the Blogger logo. We want to eliminate all of the Blogger watermarks on our blog. Changing your favicon is easy, just go to "Layout", then Next to "Favicon" press "Edit". Choose a file on your computer, and within a fwe minutes, the favicon will be updated.
There are some problems though. When you upload your favicon, you might see the white background of the image. Like in the Chitika (advertising program) favicon, there is the white background, which looks somewhat tacky, and not seamless. When compared (in the image below) you will notice that the image had a white background that wasn't removed, or the image was exported as a jpg and not png. How do you fix this? Well, that's in the next paragraph.

For a cleaner look, go to your Photo editing software (GIMP/Photoshop, and remove the background layer. Make sure all you see is the checkerboard in the background. Now, export your image as a .png file, as png's carry transparency. Update your favicon and you should look a lot cleaner.
I hope this helped you out, along with our other "Blogger Help" posts.

What Devices are Soon to have Siri?

2012-02-06T17:30:00.000-08:00

Not long ago I made a video on my YouTube channel, ItsDiegoDoes, basically talking about the future of Siri. In the video, I explained why Siri should only come to the iPhone/iPod Touch. First of all, Apple would have to buy millions of dollars worth for new servers to support multiple devices using Siri. Remember, shortly after release the Siri servers were overloaded and were down for a 12-24 hours. If Apple was required to buy another set of servers for the iPad, Apple TV, and possibly Mac OS X, they would spend outrageous amounts of money. If they only bought for the iPod Touch, money wouldn't be a big deal, along with reliability.

Also, Siri needs to stay somewhat exclusive. If Apple were to release Siri to all platforms, Siri wouldn't be such a big selling point. Siri is such a big selling point that Apple needs to make it a big deal on certain products. Maybe the iPod Touch for example, would skyrocket sales, just due to the feature. Keeping it exclusive will have a much larger effect on sales.

Maybe iCloud can be synchronized with what Siri does on the iPhone. When you set a reminder, iCloud can send that reminder to your MacBook or iMac. This would be more productive, and save money.

So, what do you think about Siri's future? I'm almost positive that you're thinking the opposite of me, but I'd love to hear other people's point of view.

Super Bowl: 12,233 Tweets Per Second!

2012-02-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday of course was Super Bowl XLVI, and the giants won, fair and square... sadly. Anyway, shortly after the game, the official Twitter account of Twitter (say what?) tweeted that the highest tweets per second was at the end of the game, with a high of 12,233 tweets per second. If you ask me, that's pretty crazy. During Madonna's halftime performance, there was "an average of 8,000 tweets per second for 5 minutes." For 5 minutes straight. Remarkable. The game was great, despite the Patriots losing, but hopefully next year I'll have some more luck.

Blogger Help: Navbar Removal

2012-02-06T08:00:00.000-08:00

When we start our blogs on Blogger, we love them, and spend hours on end making changes to make our site look better. One thing that won't go away though, is that ugly navbar. Today, I'll show you how.
First of all, login to your Blogger account, and navigate to the dashboard of the blog you want to modify. Proceed to go to "Template" in the sidebar.
Second, find where the dashboard says "Live on blog". Below that caption, you should see a small window of what is currently on your blog. Now, below the picture, there is a "Customize" option. Do NOT choose that. Choose "Edit HTML".

Finally, find this section in your html code.
The code that says, "#navbar-iframe" etc,
will need to be typed in exactly as shown here.
Below the template info, (with designer and their website) press return twice. Then type,

#navbar-iframe {
display: none !important;
}

then press return two more times. Then, save your changes, and take a look at your blog. Look forward to more tips on Blogger.

Clicksor Redesign

2012-02-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

Just a few days ago, Clicksor's website got a home page redesign. If you don't know what Clicksor is, they are an advertising company, and also put ads on websites so you can make money. One thing I didn't like was the home page. It wasn't very user friendly, and wasn't visually appealing at all. Luckily, Clicksor took charge, and redesigned it. Now there is a simple green tab bar at the top, and a small introduction to Clicksor below. One downside is that only the home page is redesigned, and the dashboard isn't. Thankfullly though, the dashboard looks great how it is. You can go the site here, and check it out.

10 Awesome Desk Setups!

2012-02-04T10:56:00.000-08:00

I recently remodeled my desk a little bit, and I made the entire setup very simple. One thing I love to do is take a look at other people's setups. Here is a compilation of my favorite desk setup I've recently found across the internet. Enjoy!

Diego Segura

DeskTopped.com

js1stuff

Chris Chart

mkwhitley

Facepunch

MegaGeekTutorials

Aleyna Segura

TheRoxor

So, what does your desk look like? Tell us in the comments down below!

TheZ3ro Site Updates

2012-02-03T16:49:00.001-08:00

You might've noticed that the site looks a bit different at the moment. I am going through some design changes, in order to make our site more friendly, rather than uninviting. There might be a lack of posts due to the updates, but we'll try to keep you updated! Thanks for your patience.