The DFN Lounge

With

Ghost Of Winter
&
Multispeed

Back It Up Jack!
By
Ghost Of Winter

Ok folks I don't NORMALLY do this, but this is a subject that is near and dear to me. That is Backing up your work. How many of you out there including the Veterans can say that if they lost EVERYTHING on their server that they would only lose a day or at MOST. The time it took to upload everything? All of you I would HOPE! How about on your Hard drive? How many of you keep a mirror image of all the domains and the layout of each file system on your hard drive? ALL of you I would hope. Now for the REAL test. How many of you if they lost everything on their Hard drives would only lose at MOST a week's worth of work?

It's a sad fact that MOST folks don't back up their work on a regular basis. I used to be this way until I found out the hard way what happens when you don't have adequate backups. I had a disk failure and lost everything on my home computer. And at the time I was still using Freehost (another article) and they went belly up as well. So I lost everything I had worked so hard to build. After this I did a couple of things. FIRST thing was get a REAL paid for host. LOL The other was set up a system where I could back up my work on a regular basis. Now some of you may not build much because you also have a full time job. Well in that case maybe only backing up once ever two weeks is fine. Maybe you do a lot of HEAVY building so you need to back up twice a week. That decision is up to you. For me I have chosen to back up my work once a week right now. That day also happens to be on Sunday. So I know that when I get the Sunday paper chocked full of ALL those ads that it's also tie to back up my work.

Ok HOW should you back it up? There are several ways you can do it. You could use an ordinary Floppy disk. Although that is not the best way it is possible. You could use a ZIP drive, or even a JAZ drive by omega. But I have looked and found the best way for ME was by burning a copy onto a CD-ROM. Now comes yet another choice. Should you use a CD-R which you just burn once then you are done? Or should you use one of those CD-RWs which allow you to burn onto them over and over again? I have looked into all the info at the time I started this and chose to use the CD-R method for a number of reasons. One is the fact that if you are burning over and over onto the same disk IMHO you stand a better chance of losing data. Couple that with the cost of a GOOD CD-R (which are about $.50 per disk or cheaper in bulk) and you would be CRAZY not to use one that you burn once and are done.

I hope this has given you an idea of how you important backing up your data is. If not then I will leave you with one simple question to ponder the next time you get a message from you computer that says "unable to read XXXXX disk error" HOW MUCH IS YOUR BUSINESS WORTH?

So remember that and this as well: this is time you WON'T regret spending, but it WILL be time you regret NOT spending!

Cool Photoshop Tricks
By
Multispeed

For those who don't have Photoshop you can get a trial version Here. First of all don't let Photoshop intimadate you. You can always start over so it may take a bit to get into the swing of things so don't get discouraged! Ready to start? Ok, here we go!

Step 1) Start By opening Photoshop and creating a new Gray scale image. Go FILE>>New and change the Mode to Grayscale. Make sure the background is black! For this example choose a larger dimension till you get use to doing this and you can create it in any dimension later. Start with 400x400 pixels. Use the text tool to add a white text. when you have done this, hit Ctrl+D to deselect your text.

Step 2) Go to Image>>Rotate Canvas>>90% CW. this is where you the fun begins. Next apply the wind filter by going to Filter>>Stylize>>Wind. Choose the settings BLAST and From The Left. Reapply the wind filter to make the flames grow taller, remember that the text fonts may control this as well. Try two to three times to begin with.

Step 3) Now rotate toe image Back to normal by going to Image>>Rotate Canvas>>90% CCW. Soften the streaks of the text by using Filter>>Blur>>Gaussian Blur. Pick a setting that looks good to you. I chose 3.0 pixels. At this point your saying this guy has lost it but it gets better. };-)

Step 4) Lengthen the flames by Filter>>Blur>>Motion Blur set the distance to about 15 to 20 pixels and the angle to -79 . Yes it does that just look at the lower right-hand of the box. Then go Filter>>Distort>>Wave to add some waviness! Try these setting to begin with then you can play with them later. Generators 1 wavelength=min. 11 max. 78 ,amplitude 6 and 6 scale=100 and 100. Next go Filter>>Distort>>Ocean Ripple to add some texture to the Flame. setting to try for now, Size to 15 and Magnitude to 2. Play around a little to see what happens.

Step 5) Now we need to copy all the channels into 1 layer. Here the tricky part so take you time the first time. Don't worry Here are the key strokes for the shortcuts! Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C, Ctrl+1, Ctrl+V. Impressive isn't it. };-) By now your saying this doesn't look like flames. It will . Now follow along and see. Go Image>>Mode>>Indexed Color. Then Go Image>>Mode>>Color Table and choose Black Body. Next switch to RGB mode by going Image>>Mode>>RGB Color. Surprise! Warming up for you.

Step 6) Now lets add the text for the center. Go File>>New and Transparent. It will bring up another layer. Yes , another one HAHA. Type your text in so that it looks about the same place as the other layer. Any color text Just remember it will have flame as a back-ground so adjust accordingly. Now select the Rectangular Marguee tool and cut the new layer out. Then Select the Move tool and slide it over to the first layer. Center the new text to the Flames, so that it fits with them.

Step 7) As a final touch you can add inner glow to the text to make it blend. Right Click the Text layer and go Blending Options>>Inner Glow and play with the settings. If you like that then on the layer palette select the text layer and Right click it the delete and repeat the move for the new inner glow text.

Have fun with this the more you do it the easier it gets!

Multispeed