http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/index/ en 74designs@gmail.com Copyright 2008 2008-01-05T18:10:01-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/places_i_have_been_to_in_2007/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/places_i_have_been_to_in_2007/#When:18:10:01Z All the places I visited in 2007. Paris, France Puerto Penasco, Sonora, Mexico Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico Denver, CO Cloverdale, CA Personal, Travel 2008-01-05T18:10:01-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/what_happened_to_my_tivo/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/what_happened_to_my_tivo/#When:02:18:00Z So a few weeks back I turned on the TV and saw the “Welcome!  Powering Up...” screen displayed by my TiVo when it powers up after powering down.  When I returned home later in the day, the same screen still displayed.  I thought great, how am I going to fix this? I first started by unplugging and plugging the TiVo back in, and checked all of the connections.  When that didn’t work, I did a search for “tivo powering up”.  There were alot of articles out there, and it looks like this was a common problem.  The problem I found could have been from either a bad hard drive, or a bad power supply.  This TiVo Troubleshooting guide said that if you have had alot of electrical storms, you could possibly be having a power supply issue.  This threw a little wrench into the equation because this is monsoon season in Arizona, and we have been having alot of lightning. After putting my ear to the TiVo, I determined that it had to be the hard drive because I could hear the drive making a perculiar noise.  Kind of like a small clicking noise, like what was trying to start but couldn’t.  This forum had alot of good information on how to replace the hard drive. After looking at all the options, I decided to search eBay for the hard drive that comes with the preloaded TiVo software.  I placed the order, and it came in less than a week by USPS. The packaging: The hard drive:  Maxtor 200GB. Next comes taking the TiVo apart and replacing the broken hard drive. I needed a hex screw driver, and unscrewed the screws on the back on the box. Then carefully removing the cover, this is what the inside looked like. After unplug the cables, I then used a different sized hex screw driver to take the broken hard drive out. After screwing in the new hard drive and reconnecting the cables, this is what it looked like.  Pretty simple. Next it was time to put the cover back on and plug it in. I held my breath as I first saw the “Welcome! Powering Up...” screen.  But then a new screen appeared, and I was confident this was a success. The TiVo then did it’s updates and has been working great ever since. Tutorials 2007-08-22T02:18:00-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/css_remix_redesign/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/css_remix_redesign/#When:06:05:02Z One of my favorite CSS gallery sites underwent a redesign. CSS Remix has a new face but without a dramatic change. One of the changes that I like is the ability to rate the site quickly and easily by clicking on the scoring meter below the thumbnail of the site.  Also new is the advertisment placement which also mimick the thumbnails of the sites being rated.  The from the archives section is great because it allows websites that were on the front page a chance to be on the front page again. You may notice that the CSS Remix is being rated as well for its new design. Overall this is a nice refresh for the site, and I will continue to get inspiration from this website.  Hopefully I will be allowed to have some of my sites on the CSS Remix as well. Design 2007-08-02T06:05:02-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/how_to_make_a_transparent_background_using_photoshop/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/how_to_make_a_transparent_background_using_photoshop/#When:01:53:00Z Today’s tutorial is going to show you how to use the Magic Wand tool in Photoshop to make a transparent background in an image that already has a background. The image we’re going to use was originally created with a white background for one of the websites that I developed.... Here is the image with the white background. In your tools window, select the Magic Wand tool as shown. In the Magic Wand tool bar, enter 0 for the Tolerance value, and Anti-alias is unchecked.  Setting Tolerance to 0 will allow the tool to select only the exact color of the pixel that the Magic Wand selects. Now in Photoshop click on the window of the image we are going to work with to give it focus. With the Magic Wand tool still selected, click on the white background. Now on your keyboard, hit the delete key.  Your image will look like this. That’s it.  You may need to do a bit of clean up on your image.  Here is the final image. Hope you find this tutorial helpful. Photoshop, Tutorials 2007-07-05T01:53:00-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/drawing_made_of_html/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/drawing_made_of_html/#When:19:13:00Z This guy made an amazing drawing using HTML tables and background color.  You can appreciate this drawing even more if you know HTML. SWEET! Cool, Design 2007-06-24T19:13:00-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/google_maps_launches_street_view/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/google_maps_launches_street_view/#When:21:24:00Z If you like to travel and see new places, this is one of the coolest things I have seen in awhile from Google. Street View is a new option available on Google Maps.  As of this writing there are 5 cities available to view Street View:  San Francisco, Denver, Las Vegas, New York, and Miami. You simply click on the Street View button, then look for the small yellow person icon.  Drag the icon to any part of a blue outlined street, and there you go. You can tell Google has put in a lot of time and energy into this project.  That was one the complaints I had with Google Maps or Google Earth, is that you can not zoom in past a certain point. Cool, Google 2007-05-30T21:24:00-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/the_web_design_survey/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/the_web_design_survey/#When:19:14:00Z Web Design has been around as a profession for more than 12 years.  Yet, not much is known statistically about the people in this profession.  If you are a web designer, go to A List Apart, and take the survey.  The survey will remain open until May 22, 2007.  After that, they will post their findings Design 2007-04-26T19:14:00-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/places_i_have_been_to_in_2006/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/places_i_have_been_to_in_2006/#When:23:08:00Z Here is a list of all the places I have been to in 2006. It was relatively slow travel year, mainly because of the new house. Puerto Penasco, Sonora Las Vegas, Nevada Payson, Arizona Silver Springs, Maryland Washington, D.C. Arlington, Virginia San Francisco, California Cloverdale, California Personal, Travel 2007-01-03T23:08:00-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/travbuddy_maps_out_all_the_places_you_have_been/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/travbuddy_maps_out_all_the_places_you_have_been/#When:21:29:03Z This cool little app maps out all of the places you have been. Just check the boxes next to the state and county you have been too.  Then click “Create Your Own Travel Map”. http://www.travbuddy.com/widget_map.php Cool 2006-11-28T21:29:03-07:00 http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/capitalism_30_a_new_way_to_think_about_what_we_own/ http://www.74designs.com/index.php?/site/capitalism_30_a_new_way_to_think_about_what_we_own/#When:18:58:00Z Dave Johnson over at The Huffington Post has an interesting review on a book he read called, Capitalism 3.0 - A New Way to Think About What We Own. His article relating to the book basically says that we need to change our view on air pollution by charging companies for the pollution they create. If companies dumped their waste into the empty lot next to your house, you would be yelling and screaming.  Pretty much anyone would.  However people don’t do this with the air we breathe.  Companies can dump waste into the air, and nobody “really” complains about it. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dave-johnson/capitalism-30-a-new-wa_b_34425.html News 2006-11-21T18:58:00-07:00