If you run a Windows based projection system with one or two extra monitors/screens, this hack might be useful for you. Whenever you play a Flash video full screen, any keystroke or mouse click on another monitor will cause the full screen view to minimize. This could be irritating if you are trying to play an internet video on one screen and push other media to another screen at the same time. Here’s how to safely hack the Flash player.

1. Download the replacement DLL (zip container) here.
2. Open an explorer window and go to C:\windows\system32\Macromed\Flash\
3. Rename the NPSWF32.dll file to NPSWF32.dll.txt to save as a backup in case the hack doesn’t work
4. Copy the new NPSWF32.dll from the zip container to the folder.
5. Restart your browser and viola! It should work beautifully.
6. If for some reason your Flash player breaks, go back to the directory and delete NPSWF32.dll, then rename NPSWF32.dll.txt back to its original file name.

Pressing escape will minimize the Flash player once it’s been hacked.

(via Lifehacker)

This is a great resource for web designers who want to embed nice fonts in their web designs without infringing on the EULA agreements of popular fonts. Font Squirrel provides a list of dozens of free fonts to use on commercial websites. There is a nifty generator that helps you embed the fonts in your site as well. If you’re not a web designer, you can obviously use these fonts on print collateral as well. Enjoy!

Go To Font Squirrel

If you’re an IT person, Look In My PC is a software you need to add to your toolbox. It gives a complete profile of all software, hardware, network connections, windows processes, and much more in one report. You can check out a sample report on their site. Before you start troubleshooting PC problems again, use Look In My PC first.  It’s absolutely free.

Go To Look In My PC

via Lifehacker

I love Photoshop.  I’ve been using Photoshop for 14 years now.  I admit it, I’m a Photoshopaholic.

Photoshop is a funny thing in churches.  First of all is the cardiac exercise when pastors and and administrators fall out on the floor twitching when they  see the price tag of $699.00.   Next, it seems to be a craved badge of honor to say you have Photoshop on your computer especially when the bragger has no clue how to use it.  And of course there are those who think a happy cloud will fly over their head and all their design dreams will come try by installing Photoshop.   It’s um funny, hilarious, entertaining to see a person who has never touched the program, ready to conquer the world, take one look of defeat at the interface and immediately quit.  Ok, so I’m just having fun here, but Photoshop really is a quirky subject in churches.

The raging event engines of churches have to have design fuel and we need the latest and greatest version of Photoshop to design, or do we?  This crazy preconception that in order to make great art you have to have a full-blown version of Photoshop is rampant.  I get asked so many times by church workers how to get a copy of Photoshop thinking that it’s the magic tool that will cause creativity to flow.   Driven by this silly notion that you have to have a $700 program to accomplish the task, volunteers and support staff are usually left to their own devices to pirate a copy of Photoshop if the finance ministry says there is no budget.

I am against pirated software.  That’s why I am a firm believer in open source software.  It’s free, you get free upgrades, and there usually is a support community built around a good software.  There is no need to steal Photoshop these days.   You can do everything you need to do using a few cheaper and free alternatives.

• Photoshop Elements - If you are dying to have Photoshop, pick up a copy of PSE. The cost is 10-15% of what the full-fledged version costs.  PSE sports many of the awesome features of Photoshop like layers, filters, masking, and much more.  It is much more user friendly than the full version.  So, if you aren’t familiar with design, this is the product for you.  It has a huge community out there.  You can search for PSE tutorials and a ton will come up.  Grab a copy here: http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelwin/
• Gimp – This is an open source version of Photoshop.  If you run on a Mac, you probably will be annoyed (like my friend Ryan Loyd who voiced this over lunch last week) at Gimps gimpy window interface.  It’s not so bad on a Windows machine.  There are tons of tutorials out there to learn Gimp, and the best part is it is free. http://gimp.org/
• Pixelator – MAC ONLY – This is a great full-featured photo editing/design program for $59.00.  I checked out their beta version last year and I loved using the program.  Their sleek design will make you feel like a design ninja the moment you click File>New  http://www.pixelmator.com/
• Photoshop Online - This is a simple version of Photoshop that can be accessed online.  It’s completely free to use and has some basic features.  http://photoshop.com
• Piknik – Another free online photo editing application with some awesome effects, fonts, and many more great features.  You can purchase a year’s premium subscription for a mere $25 bucks.  http://www.picnik.com
• Aviary – This is a great suite of online photo editing applications.  The Phoenix image editor is amazing and sports layers, filters, layer blending modes,  and much more.  This is about as close to the basic Photoshop functions as you can get.  The best part is it’s FREE!  http://aviary.com/
• Paint.NET - This is a free Windows based software that sports Photoshop-like features.  I’ve never personally used this, but it appears to be liked on the net.  You can check out screen shots and download a free copy at: http://www.getpaint.net/features.html
• Educational Discounts – If your church has a private school, take advantage of deep discounts provided by Adobe.  You can ask for these discounts at local retailers, however the best way is through the internet.  I personally have used JourneyEd for all my software needs at church.  Since I designed for our school, it fell under the usage agreement.  Check out all the software at: http://www.journeyed.com You can also view Adobe’s educational price list here: http://www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html
• Ebay – When people upgrade to newer versions, they sell their older versions on eBay.  Do a search for CS3 or CS2 to find a good price for the whole creative suite.  Be careful to only bid on items that have actual photos of the product.  There are unscrupulous sellers that will sell you a pirated copy.  Make sure the deal is legit.  I saw a copy of the entire CS3 suite for $250.00 today.

Well, that about wraps it up for now.  There are great ways to get around dropping $700 buckaroos on PSCS4.  The creativity is in you, not the program.  If you don’t have the budget for a legal copy, let your creativity ooze through these cheaper tools and make some awesome stuff for your church.

My initial reaction to Google Chrome (Google’s new web browser) was not so good.  I’m a Mac user and I always take issue with Google shunning the Mac community with their software developments in Picasa and now with Chrome.  With that personal pet peeve aside, here are a few things I see that are positive.   First, the new Google browser has separated processes for each tab.  This means that if one of your websites ‘locks-up’ the rest of your browser doesn’t crash.  You are also able to view the memory usage right from the browser for each tab and each plugin (i.e. Flash, Silverlight, etc…) that are currently running.  You can also terminate the processes for each if they are “misbehaving”.  Anothing thing I do like about Chrome is that it is open source, so it shows Google’s commitment to bettering the internet experience and not being proprietary.

Keep in mind, the more Google products you have, you become a greater part of their audience for marketing.  One of my main concerns is how Google will use their own browser for ad sales.  One of their core features is the smart URL box that gives you suggestions for sites based on keywords.  I can see Google using Adwords to sell spots that will have greater relevance in the URL box.  I’m not too thrilled about that. Also, Google is trying to recapture third-party searches, so they don’t have to pay people like Mozilla or Apple for sending searches their way. (That cute little search screen that says firefox and google, or the browser search bar costs Google money millions of affiliate fees every year!)  The motivation behind this project is all about the benjamins.

My last concern is regarding their “incognito” browsing window.  Basically, a web user can open a ’secret’ window and surf anywhere without leaving a trail in the browser.  Once the window is closed, there is no local footprint of that session.  Parents who download this browser need to make sure their children are not surfing “incognito”.  It presents an easier way to view mature content without being tracked.  Typically, a user has to clear the history, form data, cookies etc. to cover inappropriate content usage.  This also leaves a distinct empty footprint.  With the “incognito” feature, a user will never have to clear history, cookies, etc.  They can browse whatever they wish, and then close the window without ever being detected.  Google, in my opinion has broken down yet another barrier to pornography in the home with this specific feature. If you use Chrome, please make sure you have an adequate content filtering system that will keep your users safe from mature content.

I am an avid Firefox user.  I have used it for years and I have it loaded with all of my favorite add-ons, userstyles, and Greasemonkey scripts to make my web experience more enjoyable.   I personally am not switching to Chrome as it is a first generation product.  I can see where Chrome could overtake the market in the future with it’s core processing features.  Other browsers will certainly have to come on board with this new technique.  (Side note: this is not new technology, it’s new programming technique built on the platform that Safari was created on).  All-in-all, Chrome presents a minimalistic experience that is clean and somewhat elementary in appearance.  It is made to be lightweight, very fast, dummyproof, and they are testing millions of sites on it every month to make it more stable and secure.    You can download your free copy of Chrome here and see for yourself.  I’m interested in your take on Chrome.  Leave a comment and tell us your opinion.

Check out this video for more features and a quick tour from my friend Ray Deck over at MinistryLife.org.  (If you can’t see the video here, use this link http://www.vimeo.com/1660881)

I’m sure you’ve watched a screen cast before. It’s where someone records a video of their desktop to teach others how to do something in a specific program. In its infant stages it was a bit technical to get those screen casts published to the web. Now, even a child could do screen casts with Wink. Wink is a freeware software that allows you to capture your screen and your voice and export into flash video to display on the web. For the less web savvy, you can create a pdf of the frames you captured (beware of large file sizes).

This is a great tool if you are trying to explain something to someone who is not at your location. For web developers, you can create a help section for technical parts of your website to show users where to go and what to do. And yes, the greatest part of all of this is that it is free for the taking!