While I Am Studying

A blog contains many tutorials that I collect during my study at BCIT

[joshdarmawan]

[joshdarmawan]

Managing Your Daily Class with Studiez Pro

When you are taking a course, managing time can be tricky. Suddenly common calendar application such as iCal is not enough anymore. Because now you are not just managing the schedule for the class, but also schedule for assignment deadline, schedule for group work, instructors, grades, and quizzes. 

To help me maintain my course, I am using Studiez Pro from istudentpro.com. This apps is perfect for me especially because it has  a desktop apps and mobile apps. And they sync perfectly.

To use this app, first you have to set your term, when it will begin  and when it will end. Then you can start to add your course names, instructors and time. In the instructor field, you can put their phone and e-mail address too. Also you can put notes specific for that instructor if necessary.

So, when you have done all the set-up, you will get a notification every time a class start. You can also see what is going to happen that day from the Studiez Pro page.

When your instructor give you an assignment, you can press plus sign on the right page to add an assignment, and then fill in the informations about the assignment, including the deadline and notifications. You can also put partners name if the assignment is a group assignment. When the assignment is done, you can check the checkbox and the assignment will disappear from the Studiez Pro home screen. 

The mobile companion apps look similar with the desktop version. It can sync automatically so it always up to date. Any change or new entry I make in the mobile apps will be reflected on the desktop application.

I found that this simple program can help me managed my activity. With so many assignment and different deadline, this apps can remind me 2 days before the assignment due. This way, I can always sure that I have done all the assignment. The only wish list that I have is to connect this app with a note taking website such as Evernote,

[joshdarmawan]

Overcoming Screen Real Estate Problem on Your MacBook

When you buy your MacBook, probably you did not have any problem with its screen. You choose either 13 or even 11 because you think it is the best fit with your work. But after a while, working with HTML or editing videos in After Effect suddenly you feel that your MacBook screen is too small. It is not as comfortable as it use to be.

To overcome such problem you can buy a secondary monitor and connect your MacBook using additional VGA adapter. That is the easiest solution. But this choice is good only for presentation. It is not as good for daily work, because depending on how long your VGA cable, you will be too close to the LCD TV.

Alternatively, you can utilize your LCD TV or your iPad and use it as the secondary monitor. When I did my After Effect assignment, I tried this alternative solution using my iPad Mini.

I put the canvas windows on my iPad Mini so I then can use my Macbook screen for the sequence window as in the image below.

To be able to do this, you have to download Air Display program from Avatron and install it both in MacBook and iPad. When you finished your installation, a new icon will appear on your Macbook, and it will be ready. Open the Air Display apps on the iPad and it will automatically connect. To set-up the iPad as the second monitor, go to System Preferences on your mac, and open Display. Then uncheck Mirroring so that the iPad work as a second monitor rather than just mirroring your MacBook.

Another choice, if you have an LCD TV, you can buy an AppleTV and use your LCD TV as your second monitor by utilizing Airplay option on your MacBook. 

I used this option and find it very convenient. I was using it to code with Sublime, as you can see on the image below.

To use this feature, connect your AppleTV to your LCD TC and turn it on. From your MacBook menubar, click the Airplay button, it will automatically connected.

Then, as you always do with other secondary monitor, go to Display on your System Preferences and uncheck mirroring. Now your LCD TV is ready to use as your secondary monitor.  

[joshdarmawan]

Stabilizing a Video without Using Any Software

No matter how good the content of your videos, if the camera is shaky and  moves a lot, they will look bad. Most people perceived shaky videos as unprofessional videos. So it is very important to keep your video smooth and unshaken.

But how if your videos was already taken and they were really shaky. Can we fix it? 

Of course you can. If you have video editing software such After Effect or Premiere it will not be a problem.They have a feature that can make your shaky video smooth. 

The problem is, you have to buy them first, and they are expensive. 

I found a way to stabilized a video by utilizing Youtube new feature "stabilizing videos". To use this feature, first upload your video to Youtube. Don't forget to set the privacy drop down to "private" as you don't want anyone to see the video in this stage.

After the download finish, click edit video and choose enhance video. From the menu that's come out choose "stabilize". Youtube then will help you smoothing your shaky video. As you see on the image below, you can compare the video quality before and after stabilized. For me personally, Youtube stabilize filter is good enough and can make most of my video better.

While you are here, you can also enhance other elements, such as colour, contrast, brightness, or even put certain look to the video.

When you are done, you can save the video and download it to your own machine. First, klick share button under your video, and copy the link given. Then open keepvid.com on your browser and paste the copied link. It will ask you permission and click yes to it.

Now, some links will appear to let you download the video. Choose the resolution you want, and wait while your professional smooth video is being downloaded.

[joshdarmawan]

Creating Default Signature for Apple Mail Apps

Last week I had teach you how to create HTML signature, and how important is the signature in your e-mail communication. But, put the signature every time you create an e-mail might be a tedious task, especially if you write more than 10 e-mail each day. How if the signature become a default and automatically written every time you create a new e-mail.

First, open Mail apps and check if you already have a signature for your account by going to Mail Preference.

When you are sure that you have at least one signature, you can close Apple Mail and open your your system library folder by going to finder, and from the menu click "go" while pressing "option" key, and choose  Library. If you not press option, Library is hidden, so it is important that you press "option" key. After Library folder open, go to folder  >> Mail >> V2 >> Mail Data >> Signature. Inside Signature folder, find a file with ".mailsignature" extension.

Then open the file with text edit, and see the text inside. It contains two part, meta data and html code. Replace your html code with the html code that you already create.

When you finish, close the file and lock it. This step is important, because if you not lock it, Apple Mail will replace it with the old signature. If you don't know how to lock the file, select the file, then press "cmd + i" to get info. After the info window opens, click lock as the picture below.

Now open your Apple Mail, and go back to preference window. Choose the signature that you have edited, and drag it to the account that you want to use the signature with.

Test if the signature is already attached to the account by creating a new e-mail. It should have your signature on the end of your new e-mail. I show mine below.

[joshdarmawan]

Creating Formatted Signature for Your E-mail

You always bring your name card anywhere you go, right? And every time you have a chance, you give it to someone so they will do business with you. It's one of your way to get a greater advantage compare to the competitor . You know that it worked most of the time. And how if you can give your business card  every time you communicate with them without feeling awkward? Wouldn't it even better? By having formatted signature in your e-mail it is like if you send your business card in every e-mail conversation. 

What you need is an html file consist of your card design. If you want to use logos or other images, don't attach it in your e-mail. Instead, save it in your webserver and make links  so your e-mail will be able to show it without actually have attach it. 

Here is an html sample for my signature, you don't need to copy it, instead look at how I create html for the layout and how I embed images with links. 

<html>      <head>           <title>Your e-mail signature</title>           <link href='http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Lobster' rel='stylesheet' type='text/css'>      </head> <body>      <div style="width:250px;height:100px;border-radius:15px;background:#E9F0F5;position:relative;margin:15px;">           <div style="width:56px;height:90px;position:absolute;padding:4px;"                <a href="http://yourserver.com/"><img src="http://yourserver.com/logo/youricon.png" alt="Your logo" title="Your Title"></a>           </div>           <div style="width:194px;float:right;position:absolute;left:70px;">                <h1 style="font-family: 'Lobster', cursive; font-size:20px;">Your Name</h1>                <p style="font-family:'helvetica';font-size:12px;">Your Title<br/>                     e-mail:[email protected]</p>           </div> </div> </body> </html>

After your html file is ready, you can embed it in your e-mail. And to make your life easier, save it on your mail application so that everytime you write an e-mail, it will have your designed signature automatically. 

I will show you how to bring the designed signature to Apple Mail in the next post.

[joshdarmawan]

The Easiest way to import external music to GarageBand

I stumbled upon this problem when I was creating my first video assignment. At that time, I need to insert a Japanese music instrument into my GarageBand music. It turned out that GarageBand can adjust the beat of my music perfectly, but not music from outside. The imported music has its own beat, and the GarageBand has another. The result was just awful.

To solved this problem I tried to adjust the BPM (beats per minutes) slider in GarageBand to match the imported music. But it was tedious and the result was far from perfect. So, I searched in the internet for a software that can automatically detect the BPM of any music. 

Then I came to Tap for Beat per Minute website. Just by tapping any key on my computer keyboard I can get the music BPM. This way, I can set my GarageBand BPM slider more precisely.

So then I played the Japanese music on iTunes, then tapped the keyboard following it's beats in Tap for Beat per Minute website. When I got the number, I adjust my GarageBand BPM slider, and voila! My arranged music and the Japanese music play harmoniously and perfect.

Here is the video.