Star wars effect

One of PowerPoint’s charms is the ability to visually represent information by using its large library of available graphics, such as charts and graphs. If you want to create a timeline, well, Microsoft has just the thing. Here’s how it’s done. Open your PowerPoint presentation and navigate to the slide in which you would like to add a timeline. Once there, navigate to the “Insert” tab and select “SmartArt” from the “Illustrations” group. The “Choose a SmartArt Graphic” window will appear. Here, select “Process” from the left-hand pane. A library of several different process-focused SmartArt graphics will appear. You can choose the style you like best for your timeline. In this example, we’ll use the “Basic Timeline” option. Once selected, information about the SmartArt option will be displayed in the right-hand pane. When you’re ready to insert the SmartArt, select the “OK” button. RELATED: How to Create Star Wars Scrolling Text in PowerPoint … [Read more...] about How to Create a Timeline in Microsoft PowerPoint

You can’t believe everything you read—or see. Social media is rife with manipulated or “Photoshopped” images. Here are some telltale signs you’re looking at an altered image. Airbrushing Is Easy to Spot Have you ever seen an image that just doesn’t look right? Trusting your gut might not be the most scientific approach, but you’re probably better at spotting a fake than you realize. If you see an image that sounds alarm bells, you might want to look a bit closer. You’ll probably spot some telltale signs that it’s been manipulated. Airbrushed images often fall into “ uncanny valley ” territory. Even if you have perfect skin, most light sources cast small shadows on fine wrinkles, pores, and other slight imperfections. When these imperfections are digitally removed, so is the appearance of natural lighting. Professional retouchers often strike a balance between perfection and realism, but amateurs and mobile apps rarely do. Apps, in particular, depend on existing skin tones … [Read more...] about How to Tell If an Image Has Been Manipulated or Photoshopped

On February 1, 1991, John Romero, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and Adrian Carmack officially founded id Software. The group went on to revolutionize the game industry with franchises such as Wolfenstein , Doom , and Quake . Here’s a look back at id Software over the last 30 years, with a little help from those legendary developers. id Software: The House That Keen Built The story of id Software began in the late 1980s, when John Carmack, John Romero, Adrian Carmack (no relation to John), and Tom Hall developed games for a mail-order disk magazine company called Softdisk , located in Shreveport, Louisiana. After John Carmack devised a breakthrough scrolling technique for PC games in mid-1990, Hall, Romero, and Carmack created a new platform game— Commander Keen —based on the technology while secretly moonlighting at Softdisk. Soon the talented group began communicating with Scott Miller of Apogee Software , a pioneering shareware publisher. After some … [Read more...] about From Keen to Doom: id Software’s Founders Talk 30 Years of Gaming History

Computational photography is responsible for most of the amazing strides our smartphone cameras have taken in the last decade. Here’s how it works, and how it makes our photos so much better. The Magic of Computational Photography Computational photography uses digital software to enhance the photos taken by a camera. It’s most prominently used in smartphones. In fact, computational photography does the heavy lifting to create the great-looking images you see in your smartphone photo gallery. The rapid improvement in smartphone cameras over the last few years can largely be attributed to improving software, rather than changes to the physical camera sensor. Some smartphone manufacturers, like Apple and Google, continuously improve the photo-taking capabilities of their devices year after year without ever drastically changing the physical camera sensors. Why Does Computational Photography Matter? How a camera digitally captures a photo can be roughly divided into two … [Read more...] about What Is Computational Photography?

If you see “jk” on a message you just received, that’s a sign you shouldn’t take it too seriously. Here’s what the acronym is and how you can use it to lighten up a conversation. “Just Kidding” JK stands for “just kidding.” It’s used to indicate that something you just said is a joke and is not meant to be taken seriously. It can be said in response to someone’s reaction to your joke, or it can be preemptively stated before the other person has even responded. JK is commonly written in the lowercase “jk.” Depending on when a post was written, you might also find it spelled “j/k” with a slash in between. It is often used in conjunction with other popular internet acronyms that denote laughter, such as LOL, ROFL, and LMAO. For example, you might send someone the message “lol jk” in response to their reaction to your joke. From J/K to JK JK is one of the very earliest internet acronyms to emerge, with its roots tracing back to the very earliest internet chatrooms and … [Read more...] about What Does JK Mean, and How Do You Use It?