So running the calibration tool is pretty easy, just follow the included directions but note, on a dual monitor setup run it on your primary monitor first. The one marked “1” in the display settings. After the tool completes its going to install an application that runs on startup and makes sure the correct profile is loaded. This profile will be put in the directory I stated above. Now after this is done, go into that directory and rename the profile. I renamed mine from Spyder2Express.icm to Spyder2Express_right.icm and when I do the left monitor I will rename that one ‘_left’.

After this you’ll want to take your monitors and switch the primary monitor to your secondary. This way you can run the software on the other monitor now. Restart the machine and once the new primary monitor is set run the Spyder2Express again. This profile will be in that same directory with the default name again. Rename this one to something, i.e. “_left”. And you’re done with the calibration tool.

Now after this I go into our color control software, be it Vista’s built in software or our downloaded applet for XP, and I select one of the monitors listed (if you have different makes and models this will be easy, if they are the same it’s a bit of guesswork) and associate it with one of the profiles made, either the _right or the _left profile. Now select the other monitor and associate with the other profile. After applying these changes restart your machine. When the Spyder2Express Software loads up you *should* see a message on each screen where it is loading up the color profile. Now in the silly case where you have two of the same monitor and the color profiles have switched ( you see the _left profile loading on the right) go back into the applet and switch the profiles.

TADA…your done ….email me or post comments on any problems/questions

After buying a second 22”Samsung LCD 226BW. I bought the first one around a year ago, right in the middle of the big panel debate (if you don’t know what I’m talking about search for that model monitor and “S panel”.) Basically Samsung outsourced its panels to a few other manufacturers and while they weren’t “bad” monitors, the Samsung made panels were far better. I got lucky and my original monitor turned out to be a S panel and I have been insanely happy with it.

Flash forward to now, I order a second monitor and receive an “A panel”. While the monitor is very good quality, no stuck pixels, etc there is one problem. The monitor has a SEVERE blue tint to it under normal setup. Using the built in color adjustment I robbed the monitor of almost all blue color, from a setting of “50” to a setting of “5” and there was still a pronounced blue tint. Doing what any normal person would do I decided to spend more money and get a monitor color calibrator.

I wasn’t aware they had dropped so greatly in price, and after searching Amazon.com I ordered this Spyder2Express.

Now after ordering I noticed a serious problem, this product only works on a single monitor. You need the $160 device to support dual monitors. So after a little searching and a little playing I figured out there are ways around it. So here I’m going to outline how to use this with dual monitors on Windows Vista and XP.

PreReq’s :

Windows Vista comes with a built in utility to manage color profiles where as Windows XP does not. Usually color profiles end with a *.icm file extension. These are stored in x:\WINDOWS\System32\Spool\drivers\Color on both a Vista machine and an XP machine.

So if you have windows XP grab the “Microsoft Color Control Applet”, it can be found here Microsoft Color Control Applet and its provided straight from Microsoft. With this applet you get the same control that they now built into Vista. This applet gets installed into the Control Panel. So before you go and run a Spyder2Express there are some things you should know. First uninstall Adobe Gamma, or any type of color profile management software. Including the monitors software i.e. Samsung. After this you’re ready to run the color calibrator.

Today marks a day, the day Mozilla’s Firefox takes on IE6 (Microsoft Internet Explorer 6). W3schools posted the statistics for September 2007: IE6 34.9% Firefox 35.4% IE7 20.8%. One year ago September 2006 Statistics had Firefox at 27.3% and IE6 at 55.6%. Why this is such a big deal, why does is call for a fresh cold one to be cracked and cheered to Mozilla? IE6 was released late August 2001 with partial support of CSS level 1. Cascading HTML Style Sheets (CSS) level 1 was finalized in December 1996 by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), CSS level 2 finalized November 1997. CSS allows web designers and coders to control a websites look across infinite pages with one file. The one file also saves download times and makes HTML easier to read for disabled users and search engines. All the beautiful sites and cool websites that are made without Flash use CSS in many ways. It took Microsoft 9 years to implement a browser (IE7) that supported CSS level 2 (CSS2). Until Mozilla started chipping user percentages away from Microsoft in 2003, Microsoft software was responsible for rendering 85% of all pages internet users browsed on the web.

Needless to say, web designers small and large have struggled to have all pages correctly render across all browsers (mozilla, safari, and internet explorers), there have been many hacks to fix IE rendering bugs. Hacks which were the last resort in the trick box of the developer after frustrating over single pixel lengths that destroyed layouts.

Why has Firefox surpassed IE6? Two main reasons: One, Firefox is customizable, more secure, and renders faster. Two, with the introduction to Windows Vista users are opening up new computers in IE7 or getting IE7 via windows update in Windows XP. IE7 is a much better browser than IE6 and supports CSS2. If Microsoft had only done this 5 years ago I wouldn’t have to keep Windows XP installed with IE6 for debugging.

So today I crack open a cold one and salute the mighty developers at Mozilla that pushed Microsoft to get their shit together. I salute to the demise of IE6 and throw it back for less debugging headaches. Call your web dev buddies and hit the bar, see you there.

P.S. Respect to Netscape and Opera, but they haven’t had the success in reaping up users like Firefox did.

There is nothing worse than a windows operating system that struggles to open the start menu. When you need to save user data such as my documents and and favorites etc before reformat and reinstall windows but it takes 10 minutes to open my computer! Use a bootable operating system like Kanotix or Knoppix, two Linux os’s that boot from a cd. Booting these os’s takes a minute or two and it auto configures all your hardware and most the times connects you to the internet. On the desktop the hard drive will appear, use a stick drive to copy over the essential files from documents and setting. (you must change the stickdrive to be writable) This saves the aggravation of a highly infected windows. Reformat collect 100 and pass go!

This how to tutorial covers finding your local IP address in windows xp and then setting your local IP static. This is useful when using port forwarding or running a server from your computer when you are behind a router.

Start with the start menu, click on run. In the run box type cmd and hit enter. This will open the windows command prompt window. Type in ipconfig hit return and you will see four lines that list your your IP Address (this is your local IP not your global IP). Subnet Mask, and Default Gateway (the address to your router). To view more information including your DNS address type in ipconfig /all and hit enter. This will return all the information you will need to set your static IP.

The left image displays ipconfig the right displays ipconfig /all

To set your static ip open up your control panel; locate and open network connections. In this window you will see local area connection, right click and open properties. This will open another dialog box. Locate and select to highlight Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click properties.

When internet protocol (TCP/IP) Properties are open select the radio boxes that give you the option to input your own addresses. Run cmd and ipconfig /all like before and copy over the information exactly as it reads. You can set a different local IP by changing the last digits of 192.168.1.100 (your local IP). When you click ok and restart this will remain your local ip. All port forwarding will stay consistent.

Living in both the design and computer world forces one to have both a PC and MAC. Commonly I’m back and forth to the pc to the mac and having two keyboards is a pain in the ass. Also shifting from typing on one board to the other get very annoying. One common solution is a KVM switch. This does not require the computers to be networked and will maximize my desk space. KVM’s are pretty cheap but os x only runs USB keyboards so its necessary to have a USB to USB KVM. Most are PS2 which is fine PC to PC. After some fishing it comes up that the IOGEAR KVM GCS623U works perfect. You can pick it up at best buy for $70.99 or AMAZON for half the price.

The iogear’s KVM was simple to set up, literally just plug in your keyboard and mouse and its switchign between the apple and pc when scroll lock is double tapped. Once installed I entered into hotkey mod (holding down the numlock key and holding the minus key for one second) and changed the double tap switch port key to CTRL. The KVM also supports VGA video and usb audio which is cool but not pratical in my situation. This KVM also saved a USB port since it combines the two peripherals into one USB plug. This is a bonus since there is only 3 ports on an iMac. The IOGEAR KVM GCS623U is an awesome investment if your stuck between Windows Xp and OS X.

A guy named W3bbo discovered a beautiful xp theme that has been hidden in Windows. You need winrar to open the file and extract into “%systemroot%\resources\themes\royale noir” To run the theme, double click on “luna.msstyles” inside the new folder (%systemroot%\resources\themes\royale noir) and select “Noir” from color scheme in the apperences dialog box. You do not need any third party hack or software to run this, Code-signed by Microsoft. Download Royal Noir Theme