Well, I installed a new video card in the PC — an ASUS GeForce 6600LE.

Its difficult to know exactly how well it stacks up re: benchmarks

Interesting thoughts:

1) it required a separate power jack — without pluging power INTO the video card, the whole PC emits a high pitched squeal loud enough to penetrate through several walls.? I’m not kidding.

2) this particular hp pavillion 763n PC has a little catch switch to let the video card go (that is, the one you’re trying to take OUT) … without it, you won’t obviously be able to take it out.

3) OTher than that, its pretty simple to put it in, and then plug in the monitor to it … away you go!

Background is is all mucked up.

Not centered — with stuff all shifted to the right.

Interesting … not done so on laptop.

Or now, on MSIE

** CORRECTION: It doesn’t render with Firefox 1.0.4 … Interesting … why is that?? Also; can’t get MSIE to run, so difficult to tell; should I use that VISTA renderer?

In what I think is a major feat for me — I have (with the help of Anita) installed some new RAM.

I used the PC GAmer BIBLE to help, as well as crucial FAQs from “crucial.com”

Through that website, I was able to tell what kind of RAM I already had, and what I had to put in.

Basically, I had DDR SDRAM 184pin DIMM type, and needed to replicate it.

So — I purchased another 512mb chip at Sonaggi, in 5 minutes, as well as a toolset **bonus!, its really helpful! **, and a few hours later up and running!

Interesting problem — actually accessing the memory bay, as it was blocked by the hard drive … there is a doo-hicky inside that allows it to swing out of the way.

Also, the crucial guide was right, you DO need a significant amount of force to get the chip IN.

Problem for us — if the chip isn’t properly aligned — i.e. perfectly parallel with the ground, it won’t go in (duh!); as well, if it the locking mechanism isn’t perfectly disengaged it won’t either (duh!) … lessons for next time.

Mini project 2: New AGP Video card!!

Previous problem: apparently thought couldn’t nest DIVs — well you can.

The problem was trying to nest divs with no content.

When you actually thrown in content there is apparently no problem at all.

Thank god there is a simple solution! :)

Ended up using Andy Budd’s simple box method:

Create a gif for the background, the top, and the bottom of the box.
Then create the box thusly:

<div id=”box”>
<h2>Header</h2>
<p class=”content”>CONTENT GOES HERE</p>
</div>

#box — background is a y-repeating background (the main background)
#box h2 — background is the “TOP” background
p.content — background is bottom background

PROBLEM:
Nexting DIVS inside the “Content” area … it breaks up the box!
It looks like the DIV is sitting on TOP of the parent DIV, without the parent DIV extending around the “child” DIV.

GRrrrrrr!

A List of Photoshop Tutorials:

1. How to create good knockouts or Masks: http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/knockout.asp?knockout=intro
2. Elegant Studio Shots: highlighting, mirroring, etc http://www.photoshoplab.com/tutorial_The-Elegant-Studio-Shot.html
3. Stencil-like image: http://tutorialseeker.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=865
4. Andy-Warhol effect on Images: http://www.melissaclifton.com/tutorial-warholphoto1.html
5. Creating a 3D Box: Using “3D Transform” http://www.spoono.com/photoshop/tutorials/tutorial.php?id=26
6. Cutout Images and Transparent Backgrounds — actually, a neat trick with magic wand to select “selectable” black areas, and then PASTE an image into those areas.
7. Pop Icon effect: http://www.fierydarts.com/effects/creating-pop-art.htm
8. 70’s Screen Effect: http://www.designerdrugs.be/?ps=that70stutorial
9. Half-tone effects: http://www.designerdrugs.be/?ps=lichtenstein
10. Che Guevara Stencil (using Filters): http://www.designerdrugs.be/?ps=cheguevara
11. Making crooked images straight: http://www.designerdrugs.be/?ps=measuretool
12. Creating “Sticky Tape” (to put on “pictures”): http://www.stealthdesignz.com/index2.php?page=photoshop/stickytape
13. Vector Masks: http://www.alanhettinger.com/tutorials/vectormask/001.php
14. Photos to line art (COOL): http://www.heathrowe.com/tuts/lineart.asp
15. Layer Mask: http://www.picturecorrect.com/photoshoptips/blending_photos.htm
16. GENERAL:
1. http://fotofects.com/authors/1/Denny-Tang
2. http://www.photoshoptower.com/tutorials/index.php?p=1

Requires a bunch of programs/ skill sets:
A background graphic — need to use Photoshop
A header/logo graphics — ditto
A navigation scheme — Photoshop or CSS, your pick

And CSS to wrap it all together.

To create that header graphic, we use Photoshop.
There are excellent tutorials on how to create, like the one at Zymic.

Basically:
Create a rectangle
Create a layer underneath it with a nice complementary color
“Cut out” parts of the rectangle with the Polygonal Lasso tool … this creates a selection that is easily “deleted”.
Then, alter the layer settings of the original triangle to look cool: embossed, drop shadowed etc.
With cut outs, you can create asymmetrical headers that look cool.