Using The Gimp to remove low frequency data from an image. When I take a picture of something I would like to use for texture, there is often a slight change in the color across the entire image. I want to keep the detail, but make the overall color even across the image. This is a picture of dusty rain marks on the hood of my car: It is l...

This might be the only "current events" post I ever do, but something has been puzzling me for the past 6-12 months. Last night, I watched the last half of the democratic candidates' debate on TV, and although it wasn't mentioned much, there were still a couple of references to a "downward economy", and the need for "job...

It's late, but I've just gotta tell ya'll what happened about an hour ago. An acquaintence of mine owns a 2007 Porsche Cayman and last Sunday, we talked and he agreed to take me out driving tonight. So, he arrives here with his beautiful car out front, with the driver's door wide open.  I say my goodbye's to the family and head out to th...

Any web developer who has been in the craft for more than a couple of days realizes how often forms are used in web development.  Well...  Where forms are used, form methods are used, and one of the crazily irritating problems with forms using a "POST" method is the fact that when the "back" button is pressed after lea...

I guess I just take for granted all the tips 'n' tricks I've learned over the past 10 years I've been building my own systems (along with most of my family's and friend's computers), so with that thought, let me try to explain how I build computers. First off, this article is intended for those people who are not necessarily tech-wizards, but ar...

Yesterday, my wife spent some time setting up her "my space page", which I absolutely refuse to do for myself, and when she got it done, she was pretty happy with herself.  I helped her with some images and that was that. Later on in the evening, she mentioned that she had received an email from Annie (my sister-in-law who I love)...

Sadly, lots of problems exist with the world today.  I guess it's human nature to create problems, and ya know...?  I'm alright with that.  Problems need to exist in order for life to be life, right?  Yup...  The eternal struggle for self-improvement, or whatever. Anyway...  One thing that irks me quite a bit, and a...

No punch line or long post here, it's freaking nasty. I'm not kidding....

So I made a mistake recently. A mistake that I knew at the time I shouldn’t make, but did anyway in the interests of “friendship”. The mistake was entering into a purchase “arrangement” for a car that I owned outright ( and didn’t have much use for) with a co-worker who is/was down on his luck. You’d think ...

Gadgets, shiny and most often expensive little doodads that kick people in the face with their awesomeness and cause strife between angsty teenagers and their "just squeaking by" parents. For some people the latest release of a gadget means improved response, better software, and more functionality. For others it's simply a way to say &qu...

 So, I was listening to, and reading, 1st Nephi chapter 4 in the Book of Mormon this morning, when a verse caught my eye, and my mind dwelt on it for a bit.  It was verse 6.  Verse 6 reads as follows: "And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." Seems pretty ino...

Happy 4th of July to everyone! We finally finished mixing and mastering Ear Candy's debut single, Tell Me Why, and quite frankly, we've loved working on it here in the studio.  The finished copy can be heard in our samples section, and Ear Candy has made it freely available to anyone and everyone who would like a copy. Just let them know h...

  Poetry 2 by Kelly Miller                                                         We Know Not What Showers Based on a talk by Dallin H. Oaks   We know not what shower...

Well...  I just spent about 2 hours writing a how-to on going from an Nvidia-based graphics system in gentoo Linux to an ATI one, but I accidentally erased the whole thing, so I'm going to try my best to be patient and do it again. When I originally got the box for my new ATI Radeon HD4850 video card this morning, I was impressed even in the ...

WOW IT IS ALREADY THE THIRD DAY INTO THE WEEK. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH THIS YEAR IS FLYING FAST. WELL I DID ALL THAT I CAN DO TO HELP MIKEYS FRIEND AS FAR AS JOBS HOPEFULLY ALL HIS WISHES WILL COME TRUE. I HAVE FAMILY COMING IN TODAY FOR MY MOMS BIRTHDAY! SHE IS GOING TO BE SO EXCITED!...

today was pretty boring and i am really tired and really sick of all the school work that we have to do most of it is pointless....

When will I ever learn to trust my wife, my brother, and my instinct?  Probably never. You see, Ryan, my brother, noted how bald the tires are on my Mustang GT about a month ago.  My wife also noted the same thing, as well as a pretty big storm coming this weekend.  Anyway...  I'll get on with the story. Sarah and I celebra...

Hehe....  I love it when I learn new stuff about Springville. I had no idea that there existed a place in Springville that was absolutely perfect for racing.  Now we're talking 0-80 MPH racing in a straight line.  Nothing curvy or anything like that.  So... Anyway... My co-worker, Steve comes into my office (or rather, the...

Ya know...  The first verses of this chapter brought back some well-known stories of Mormon culture.  The most potent one being the experience Joseph Smith had in a Missouri jail surrounded by a mob of people cursing and glorying in their raping, murdering, and wickedness against the Mormon people. Parley P. Pratt said the following in ...

Lately, I've been studying the D&C, and I came upon section 76, which isn't anything new to me, personally. I studied that section quite a bit during my mission. However, this time the coincidence of my reading this days after one of my co-workers came over and asked me"Are there any sins that Christ's atonement don't cover?" Worded that way...

I was goofing around with The Gimp and noticed it had a couple save as html options. I played around with them and settled on using the colorxhtml one. This is how I took this image and turned it into a cool text html thingy. Before: After: The process goes like this: Open the image. Make sure the image is in the cor...

something I've never really learned? Yup. Today was the day I found out that one major part of my new job is to handle a data feed made purely of XML. Do I know anything about XML? Yes.. But have I ever done anything with it? Yes. How much? One simple little flash dealio, and I did that over 3 years ago. So... My point? I've gotta learn ...

So the other night my ward had the first temple trip of the year. I was unable to hide the fact that I so badly wanted to go! I needed the peaceful easy feeling that only the temple can give, but I was also very worried at teh same time. Because the last temple trip my ward went on the youth did not behave themselves like they should've and they go...

My wife and I got a dutch oven set about a month ago. We finally decided to try it out. We have both seen and helped with dutch oven cooking before, but have never done it without the help of someone more experienced. Problem #1 You need to get the coals lit before you can cook anything. I tried a couple methods to get them started. Pile o...

Last night I was depressed, I've been that way a lot. But last night I was ready to up and walk away, I went to my room and turned on the Raido and the song that was playing was so evil! The words were playing in my head over and over last night. Until something in my shut it off and just lay there crying! I fell into a deep sleep, I dreamed abo...

First off, today was much better than yesterday as far as basing my decisions to strengthen my family. I spent the morning with Luci, and most of the afternoon and evening with Luci and Sarah. At noon, I went in to get all the paperwork taken care of for my new job, and I must say... I'm impressed, excited and anxious all in one emotion. I'm sur...

Ya know... Today I really messed up. Well, not *really*, but I messed up pretty badly if we're considering the goal I set at the beginning of this week. I decided to play Need For Speed Underground 2 (my latest addiction) for a "while" and it turned out to be for "7 hours". Yeah.. That's just not cool when all the decisions I'm making are suppos...

Okay.... Something weird is happening inside me. I feel a churning in my gut. I feel spindles on my skin... I feel hair growing out of my HEAD!!!!! Oh wait... Ummm.... No I don't. None of it is true. So..... I go to work today and I'm talking with Matt (the new developer, er... lead developer) and .... we're having a heart-to-heart and f...

All I gotta say is, I'm glad I had a lot of clothes on this morning. Yes, it was friggin' cold outside, but that was only a small nuisance. The real reason I'm glad I had many layers on was due to the large amount of crap I shot in my drawers when I checked the main server log files this morning. Around 9:30, the floor admin came to me saying he...

Man.... No wonder we're all so screwed up in this life. If someone out there honestly does not think he or she is screwed up in some manner hasn't really lived. :) The whole reason for my saying this is the very essence of my life. If I've been taught once, I've been taught 1,000,000 times that to touch a lit burner on a stove is to get B-U-R-N-E-...