fake crowd noise for UFC ppv events

Out of the 15 years or so of watching every UFC event, today was the first time I noticed fake crowd noise during the Kauffman Vs Eye event. I understand why they do it. It just looks really terrible when there is no crowd noise, but what is worse is people finding out that they are adding these sound clips for effect.

Wallpaper in Windows 7 looks terrible, low quality, and colors are off

Set BMP bitmap file as wallpaper in Windows 7

How to set original BMP file a wallpaper in Windows 7
I can't believe it is 2013 and we have 8 to 16GB of RAM on computers, and we're still facing these problems.

The problem is that when you set any image as your background, windows will convert the image to a JPG with high compression.  It will place the file here

C:\Users\%USERNAME%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper.jpg

and it will just use that file to set your background from now on.  Unfortunately, you are likely to see jpeg artifacts.  Now, if you already have a JPG file, it will not do a conversion but there is an additional problem with JPG files even at the highest settings.  You are less likely to notice this with pictures, but when you are dealing with graphics with gradients, the JPEG formats are terrible handling smooth gradients.  

So the solution is to trick Windows to using a BMP as a wallpaper, not the JPG.   So what you can do is save your wallpaper to the size of your resolution.  Then simply change your extension of the file from JPG to BMP.  Then right click on the JPG file (disguised BMP file), and choose "set as desktop background".  This sounds like your computer would horribly crash, but the thing is, it is using the file extension to detect if conversion needs to be done, and it uses the mimetype of the file to read the image (your BMP file is still mime type "image/JPEG"), so it's safe, and works well.

And it's like when you put on glasses for the first time.

Video Copilot Optical Flares light flickering problem

Been learning a lot of Adobe After effects.  When I would render a video, the light flares would flicker.  It may seem normal at first, but when you see that it's a distraction, you realize it's not how it is supposed to work.  On my computer, I have a built-in Intel 4000 HD graphics.  And I had set After Effects to render using the GPU.  I changed it back to the CPU and the flickering is gone.

Adobe CC has earned my subscription

So I finally made the jump from Adobe CS6 to Adobe CC.  I hated the concept of CC, but honestly, they've earned my subscription.  Adobe is one of the only pieces of software that I can say has made a big impact in my capabilities and livelihood.  Although the changes might seem minor, I really do look forward to their smallest of updates.  Although I wish some of their programs were better integrated to suit my needs, I understand why they are not integrated to serve the masses.  Just a year ago I've become a heavy user of their video editing features of the suite, which I had never touched previously, but now it is what I spend the most time with.

Let's hope they don't come out with something like Adobe CC2 and jack the prices up every time they add a digit.

Speaking of videos, the Samsung Galaxy Note III will be announced in about 3.5 days.  Let's hope it stirs excitement like the Note II did.  Looking forward to making videos again now that I'm done with my summer Android programming class.

Icons not showing up in Windows 7.

I ran into one of the most obscure troubleshooting tips today on the Internet.  My icons weren't showing up properly, and although the instructions were obscure, it worked like a charm.  I thought I'd echo it on my blog just in case the link changes.  http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/9973-icons-not-showing-up.html

Here's a cut and paste from that link:

1. Press Ctrl-Shift-Escape to get the task manager.
2. In the Processes tab, click on explorer.exe and click End Process. You'll get a confirmation dialog. Click "End Process" to confirm.
3. From the File menu (still in the task manager), choose New Task (Run...).
4. Copy/paste/enter the following command in the run box:
   Code:

   cmd /c del %userprofile%\AppData\Local\IconCache.db /a

5. Open the Run box again with File --> New Task (Run...). This time, enter this command:
   Code:

   explorer.exe

6. All should be okay now. Open the Start Menu and confirm that your icons are fixed now.

Plants Vs. Zombies updated on Android with Zen (Flower) Garden! Finally!!!

Well, weeks before PvZ 2 comes out, they've finally gave the Android PvZ all the features that has been on the iPhone for exactly 2 years.  Well, better late than never.  You bet I'm gonna make the most out of this app, once again.  PvZ 2 on the Android will be coming out later than the iPhone.  I hope not 2 years later.

My thoughts on the iOS 7 icons...yuck.

The icons are a designer's nightmare. The gradients on stock apps go in different directions. I can't see how this got past Jony. 3rd party apps bevel when that doesn't fit the theme. The shadow are too light and too dispersed so it doesn't give any sense of floating icons. They should keep the size of the shadow around 15 instead of 50. At the end of the design phase, I think they should have put an Android phone next to it to see if they have a better design. At that moment they should have realized they should start over.