I don’t really know what Google Wave is, or what it does. So, here’s what I do know. Google Wave is:

• “what email would look like if it were invented now”
• updated live. As your friend types, you see the letters appear. Coool.
• full of “gadgets”. So far, it sounds like a Google Form (which is also cool).
• able to drag-and-drop stuff from your desktop.
• embeddable. Folks can see your wave/conversation on any web site. If they comment, it updates your wave.

So, all this seems great. The big downside is that I have nobody to collaborate with. Google Wave sounds great for collaborative writing, for translating chats in real time, for updating conversations in real time, but there aren’t enough invites to go around. The people I care about aren’t on it. So, until then, I think most of my “waving” will be at the three contacts saying, “Hey. I just ‘waved’ at you.”

Here’s a nice introduction to Google Wave:

What are you using Google Wave for? Comment below, or wave at me at billselak@googlewave.com

Here is an advanced trick for Wordpress users. This is how I removed the sidebar from one specific page (titled forum) on my wordpress site. After much searching, I found that I needed to implement conditional formatting using php.

Here’s my problem:
I wanted one single wordpress page to not have a sidebar. I wanted it to take up the entire width of the page. Makes sense for a forum, right? Not so easy…

Solution:
In the wordpress dashboard, navigate to Appearance > Editor > page.php.
On page.php, I changed:

<?php get_sidebar();; ?>

to:

<?php if(!is_page('Forum')) get_sidebar();; ?>

Here’s what that means:
Typically, wp displays the sidebar. That’s what we usually want. In this case, the exclamation point means “if it is not”. So, the php translation is, “If it’s not the Forum page, then show the sidebar.”

Perfect, so far. However, there was a blank space where the sidebar used to be. Another problem. The forum should be wider. This won’t happen, though, because my stylesheet says the page can only be 510 pixels wide.

So, I went to my stylesheet and created a div titled #widecolumn with a width of 100%.

Back on page.php, I changed the original div titled #contentleft to:

<?php if(!is_page('Forum')) { ?>
<div id="contentleft">
<?php } else { ?>
<div id="widecolumn">
<?php } ?>

Again, with the php translation: “If it’s not the Forum page, use the div #contentleft (with a width of 510 px). If it is the Forum page, use the #widecolumn div that you just made (with a width of 100%).

Yay!

Deke McClelland made a screencast for Scott Kelby about masking using channels. I just finished Scott Kelby’s book on Photoshop channels. Heed this warning: this 30 minute training video is not for the light-hearted. It’s not for an intro to Photoshop. If you have some decent Photoshop chops, there are a few gems that Deke covers.

btw, if you don’t know who Scott and Deke are, go spend a day on their web pages.

1. Close-up……………………………CU

2. Medium Shot………………………MS

3. Wide Shot………………………….WS

4. Establishing Shot…………………EST

5. Closure Shot………………………CLO

6. Reverse Shot………………………REV

7. Over-the-shoulder Shot………..OS

8. Point-of-View Shot………………POV

9. Cutaway/Insert Shot…………….INS

Look at these photos to see examples.

I love using the Work menu in Microsoft Word. It lets me quickly access files that I am working on (obviously).

How to Add to Work Menu:

Open your file. Go to Work > Add to Work Menu. Beyond easy.

How to Remove From Work Menu:

In Word, this is really hard. Use the applescript RemoveWork. Download it , and place it here: username/Documents/Microsoft User Data/Word Script Menu Items.

Now, open the applescript. It looks like this:
Click on what you want to delete. Click delete. Done!

Now I know more about permalinks, and how it’s important in WordPress. A permalink is simply a URL for a WordPress entry/page. The default URL, or permalink, in WordPress look something like this: http://www.billselak.com/?p=153. Pretty ugly. Here is how to fix that in WordPress:

1. Go to Settings > Permalinks.
2. Change the radio button from Default to Numeric.
3. Save Changes.

So now, your URLs that once looked like:

http://www.billselak.com/educ525/?p=153

now look like:

http://www.billselak.com/educ525/weekly/week2

Now, when you write a new blog post or create a new page, there is a little box that lets you type in the URL you want.

If you’ve recently installed WordPress, you are all set! If, however, you already typed in the nasty default URLs, you’ll want to go back and update them. WordPress will automatically forward the old links, but it’s in bad form to leave it that way.

You need to learn where to look for information. Here’s how to be smart about finding information online:

• If I want to learn how to do something on my computer, I go to YouTube and find a tutorial.
• If I want a good teacher web site, I go to Delicious. Odds are, someone already found a great website and bookmarked it for me to easily find.
• If I want a great photo, I go to Flickr and legally use one.
• If I want general knowledge on a topic, I go to Wikipedia, where thousands of people have already edited a thorough summary.
• If I want a review of a product, I go to Amazon and see what other people have said on the product page.

Before you do a Google search, think about what you want your results to look like. Googling “imovie how to slow motion” gives you 85,000 results. Searching for that on YouTube gives you 32 results, and you get to watch somebody show you how it’s done.