by Adam Messinger

I do most of my graphics work in Photoshop or Fireworks. Every so often, a client sends me an Illustrator or EPS file—usually a logo—that uses CMYK color. I’ve always managed to convert these to RGB color for the web… eventually, but the options to do so aren’t that obvious and I always forget them afterward.

While struggling with this same thing again tonight, I came across a simple three-step process for the conversion. You can also use these steps to convert an illustration from RGB color to CMYK. (…)

1. Go to File » Document Color Mode and check RGB.
2. Select everything in the document and go to Filter » Color » Convert to RGB. [CS4: Edit » Edit Colors » Convert to RGB or Convert to CMYK]
3. Open the Color palette menu (use the little black arrow on the top right corner) and select RGB.

Source: http://www.zenscope.com/blog/58/illustrator-cs2-color-conversion

One of the most remarkable creatures is the Hyalinobatrachium pellucidum, also called a glass or crystal frog because you can see through its transparent flesh (right down to its guts).

Pardon the cliche, but it’s one of the holiest of Holy Grails of technology: Wireless power. And while early lab experiments have been able to “beam” electricity a few feet to power a light bulb, the day when our laptops and cell phones can charge without having to plug them in to a wall socket still seems decades in the future.

Nokia, however, has taken another baby step in that direction with the invention of a cell phone that recharges itself using a unique system: It harvests ambient radio waves from the air, and turns that energy into usable power. Enough, at least, to keep a cell phone from running out of juice.

While “traditional” (if there is such a thing) wireless power systems are specifically designed with a transmitter and receiver in mind, Nokia’s system isn’t finicky about where it gets its wireless waves. TV, radio, other mobile phone systems — all of this stuff just bounces around the air and most of it is wasted, absorbed into the environment or scattered into the ether. Nokia picks up all the bits and pieces of these waves and uses the collected electromagnetic energy to create electrical current, then uses that to recharge the phone’s battery. A huge range of frequencies can be utilized by the system (there’s no other way, really, as the energy in any given wave is infinitesimal). It’s the same idea that Tesla was exploring 100 years ago, just on a tiny scale.

Mind you, harvesting ambient electromagnetic energy is never going to offer enough electricity to power your whole house or office, but it just might be enough to keep a cell phone alive and kicking. Currently Nokia is able to harvest all of 5 milliwatts from the air; the goal is to increase that to 20 milliwatts in the short term and 50 milliwatts down the line. That wouldn’t be enough to keep the phone alive during an active call, but would be enough to slowly recharge the cell phone battery while it’s in standby mode, theoretically offering infinite power — provided you’re not stuck deep underground where radio waves can’t penetrate.

Nokia says it hopes to commercialize the technology in three to five years.

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/143945

By Tiffany Sharples – Tue Jun 16

Dreams may not be the secret window into the frustrated desires of the unconscious that Sigmund Freud first posited in 1899, but growing evidence suggests that dreams – and, more so, sleep – are powerfully connected to the processing of human emotions.

According to new research presented last week at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies in Seattle, adequate sleep may underpin our ability to understand complex emotions properly in waking life. “Sleep essentially is resetting the magnetic north of your emotional compass,” says Matthew Walker, director of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley. (See the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2008.)

A recent study by Walker and his colleagues examined how rest – specifically, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep – influences our ability to read emotions in other people’s faces. In the small analysis of 36 adults, volunteers were asked to interpret the facial expressions of people in photographs, following either a 60- or 90-minute nap during the day or with no nap. Participants who had reached REM sleep (when dreaming most frequently occurs) during their nap were better able to identify expressions of positive emotions like happiness in other people, compared with participants who did not achieve REM sleep or did not nap at all. Those volunteers were more sensitive to negative expressions, including anger and fear.

Past research by Walker and colleagues at Harvard Medical School, which was published in the journal Current Biology, found that in people who were sleep deprived, activity in the prefrontal lobe – a region of the brain involved in controlling emotion – was significantly diminished. He suggests that a similar response may be occurring in the nap-deprived volunteers, albeit to a lesser extent, and that it may have its roots in evolution. “If you’re walking through the jungle and you’re tired, it might benefit you more to be hypersensitive to negative things,” he says. The idea is that with little mental energy to spare, you’re emotionally more attuned to things that are likely to be the most threatening in the immediate moment. Inversely, when you’re well rested, you may be more sensitive to positive emotions, which could benefit long-term survival, he suggests: “If it’s getting food, if it’s getting some kind of reward, finding a wife – those things are pretty good to pick up on.”

Our daily existence is largely influenced by our ability “to understand our societal interactions, to understand someone else’s emotional state of mind, to understand the expression on their face,” says Ninad Gujar, a senior research scientist at Walker’s lab and lead author of the study, which was recently submitted for publication. “These are the most fundamental processes guiding our personal and professional lives.”

REM sleep appears to not only improve our ability to identify positive emotions in others; it may also round out the sharp angles of our own emotional experiences. Walker suggests that one function of REM sleep – dreaming, in particular – is to allow the brain to sift through that day’s events, process any negative emotion attached to them, then strip it away from the memories. He likens the process to applying a “nocturnal soothing balm.” REM sleep, he says, “tries to ameliorate the sharp emotional chips and dents that life gives you along the way.” (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.)

“It’s not that you’ve forgotten. You haven’t,” he says. “It’s a memory of an emotional episode, but it’s no longer emotional itself.”

That palliative safety-valve quality of sleep may be hampered when we fail to reach REM sleep or when REM sleep is disrupted, Walker says. “If you don’t let go of the emotion, what results is a constant state of anxiety,” he says.

The theory is consistent with new research conducted by Rebecca Bernert, a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at Florida State University who specializes in the relationship between sleep and suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and who also presented her work at the sleep conference this week.

In her study of 82 men and women between the ages of 18 and 66 who were admitted into a mental-health hospital for emergency psychiatric evaluation, Bernert discovered that the presence of severe and frequent nightmares or insomnia was a strong predictor of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. More than half of the study participants had attempted suicide at least once in the past, and the 17% of the study group who had made an attempt within the previous month had dramatically higher scores in nightmare frequency and intensity than the rest. Bernert found that the relationship between nightmares or insomnia and suicide persisted, even when researchers controlled for other factors like depression.

Past studies have also established a link between chronic sleep disruption and suicide. Sleep complaints, which include nightmares, insomnia and other sleep disturbances, are listed in the current Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s inventory of suicide-prevention warning signs. Yet what distinguishes Bernert’s research is that when nightmares and insomnia were evaluated separately, nightmares were independently predictive of suicidal behavior. “It may be that nightmares present a unique risk for suicidal symptoms, which may have to do with the way we process emotion within dreams,” Bernert says.

If that’s the case, it may help explain the recurring nightmares that characterize psychiatric conditions like posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Walker says. “The brain has not stripped away the emotional rind from that experience memory,” he says, so “the next night, the brain offers this up, and it fails again, and it starts to sound like a broken record … What you hear [PTSD] patients describing is, ‘I can’t get over the event.’ “

At the biological level, Walker explains, the “emotional rind” translates to sympathetic nervous-system activity during sleep: faster heart rate and the release of stress chemicals. Understanding why nightmares recur and how REM sleep facilitates emotional processing – or hinders it, when nightmares take place and perpetuate the physical stress symptoms – may eventually provide clues to effective treatments of painful mental disorders. Perhaps, even, by simply addressing sleeping habits, doctors could potentially interrupt the emotional cycle that can lead to suicide. “There is an opportunity for prevention,” Bernert says.

The new findings highlight what researchers are increasingly recognizing as a two-way relationship between psychiatric disorders and disrupted sleep. “Modern medicine and psychiatry have consistently thought that psychological disorders seem to have co-occuring sleep problems and that it’s the disorder perpetuating the sleep problems,” says Walker. “Is it possible that, in fact, it’s the sleep disruption contributing to the psychiatric disorder?”

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090616/hl_time/08599190456100

By Brian Clark Howard – May 12, 2009

Now that you know ketchup can be used for shining copper and repairing hair, or that vodka can be used to repel insects and freshen laundry, you may have been wondering what tasks you can get done for cheap with other household items.

Since May is National Vinegar Month (did you forget?), we thought we’d take a closer look at this inexpensive, versatile good.

According to the Vinegar Institute, the useful stuff was probably discovered by accident (most wine drinkers know what happens when you leave a bottle sitting around too long). In fact the word vinegar comes from a French translation for “sour wine.”

Over the centuries vinegar has been produced from many stocks, including molasses, dates, sorghum, fruits, coconut, honey, beer, maple syrup, potatoes, beets, grains, and more. But the principle is the same: You get acetic acid (a.k.a. vinegar) after first fermenting natural sugars to alcohol, and then fermenting again.

As Michael de Jong, The Daily Green’s Zen Cleaner and author of the Clean series of books, points out, vinegar has been pressed into service for many uses over the centuries. It has been prized as a foodstuff, condiment, preservative, and natural remedy.

What’s so great about vinegar? Besides being effective, vinegar is cheap and widely available. It is nontoxic and lasts for a very long time without losing strength. It does not pollute land, air, or water, and it doesn’t combust. It’s much safer to have under your sink than bleach, ammonia, or other toxic cleaning products. Many folks also swear by the benefits of apple cider vinegar.

In the spirit of green cleaning, green thrift, and green creativity, we put together this list of alternative uses for vinegar. Add your own in the comments!

Cure hiccups

Some have said they were able to cure pesky hiccups instantly by swallowing a teaspoon of vinegar. Most folks use white vinegar, but people have also reported success with apple cider, balsamic, and rice varieties. So you have a few options as far as taste and aroma. Hey, if the Roman legions drank it, it must be good for you, right?

Fight cramps

If you often get foot or leg cramps in the middle of the night, you may want to try boosting your potassium levels. There are a number of great superfoods rich in potassium (way beyond bananas). Some folks have also suggested trying this remedy: Mix 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, 1 teaspoon of honey, and a cup of hot water. Then drink before bed. Yummy!

Break bad bonds

Having trouble getting that annoying sticky label residue off a product? Or accidentally glue something together? Vinegar can be used as a solvent to dissolve many common adhesives. Vinegar is also good at cutting grease.

Deter cats

We love cats (even LOLcats!). But sometimes you don’t want them doing their business in the kids’ sandbox or in your flower bed. According to HomeEnvy, a simple solution is to pour vinegar around the edges of the area you want to protect every few months.

Wash produce

According to the green team at Ideal Bite, vinegar can help remove bacteria and pesticide residues from fruits and veggies. Mix three parts water to one part white vinegar, and dispense in a spray bottle. Then rinse with water. The site claims this wash kills 98% of bacteria on produce.

Clean windows

Instead of spending money on window cleaning chemicals — especially ones that include toxic or potentially toxic chemicals — make your own! Mix 2 tablespoons of white vinegar with a gallon of water, and dispense into a used spray bottle. Squirt on, then scrub with newspaper, not paper towels, which cause streaking.

Get spring-fresh laundry

Got grass stains? No problemo, says Michael de Jong. Make a mixture of one-third cup white vinegar and two-thirds cup water. Apply the solution to the stain and blot with a clean cloth. Repeat this process until you’ve removed as much green as possible, and then launder as usual.

When your big washing day comes around, toss in a capful of white vinegar. Your colors will come out bolder and your whites whiter. If you’ve recently had an encounter with a skunk, it will take more than a capful.

After washing, get a sharper crease in pants by dipping the cloth in a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water. Then wring out the cloth and press the creases. Now you look like Dilbert!

Clean carpets

According to this The Daily Green community member: “Spots in carpets often remove with a simple dilution of one part vinegar, one-sixteenth part lemon juice, and eight parts distilled water.”

Thanks for the tip!

Source: http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/60/eight-smart-uses-for-vinegar.html

By Christopher Null – May 21, 2009

It’s always fun to write about research that you can actually try out for yourself.

Try this: Take a photo and upload it to Facebook, then after a day or so, note what the URL to the picture is (the actual photo, not the page on which the photo resides), and then delete it. Come back a month later and see if the link works. Chances are: It will.

Facebook isn’t alone here. Researchers at Cambridge University (so you know this is legit, people!) have found that nearly half of the social networking sites don’t immediately delete pictures when a user requests they be removed. In general, photo-centric websites like Flickr were found to be better at quickly removing deleted photos upon request.

Why do “deleted” photos stick around so long? The problem relates to the way data is stored on large websites: While your personal computer only keeps one copy of a file, large-scale services like Facebook rely on what are called content delivery networks to manage data and distribution. It’s a complex system wherein data is copied to multiple intermediate devices, usually to speed up access to files when millions of people are trying to access the service simultaneously. (Yahoo! Tech is served by dozens of servers, for example.) But because changes aren’t reflected across the CDN immediately, ghost copies of files tend to linger for days or weeks.

In the case of Facebook, the company says data may hang around until the URL in question is reused, which is usually “after a short period of time.” Though obviously that time can vary considerably.

Of course, once a photo escapes from the walled garden of a social network like Facebook, the chances of deleting it permanently fall even further. Google’s caching system is remarkably efficient at archiving copies of web content, long after it’s removed from the web. Anyone who’s ever used Google Image Search can likely tell you a story about clicking on a thumbnail image, only to find that the image has been deleted from the website in question — yet the thumbnail remains on Google for months. And then there are services like the Wayback Machine, which copy entire websites for posterity, archiving data and pictures forever.

The lesson: Those drunken party photos you don’t want people to see? Simply don’t upload them to the web, ever, because trying to delete them after you sober up is a tough proposition.

Source: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/142366

By Lori Bongiorno – Thu Feb 26, 2009

It’s well-known that most electronic devices in our homes are sucking up energy even while they are turned off. But for all the information out there, many questions remain. I got hundreds of reader questions after writing the post What’s wasting energy in your home right now. Below are answers to the five most common inquiries:

Which electronic devices waste the most energy when they are turned off but still plugged in?

Set-top cable boxes and digital video recorders are some of the biggest energy hogs. Unfortunately, there’s little consumers can do since television shows can’t be taped if boxes are unplugged. It also typically takes a long time to reboot boxes.

However, some of the other major consumers of standby power are more easily dealt with: computers, multifunction printers, flat-screen TVs, DVDs, VCRs, CD players, power tools, and hand-held vacuums. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) measured standby power for a long list of products.

While it’s true each individual product draws relatively little standby power, the LBNL says that when added together, standby power can amount to 10% of residential energy use.

Why do electronic devices use energy when they are switched off?

Electronics consume standby power for one of two reasons, says Chris Kielich of the Department of Energy. They either have an adapter that will continue to draw electricity, or they have devices (such as clocks and touchpads) that draw power. Anything with a remote control will also draw standby power, she says, since the device needs to be able to detect the remote when it’s pushed.

Does everything suck energy when it’s plugged in and turned off?

No. If your coffeemaker or toaster doesn’t have a clock, then it’s probably not using standby power, says Kielich. Chances are your hair dryer and lamps (although they may have a power adapter for the dimmer) are not drawing standby power either, she says. Devices with a switch that physically breaks the circuit don’t consume standby power.

Will switching things on and off shorten their life?

Probably not, says Kielich. You’d have to turn devices on and off thousands of times to shorten their lives. The real downside, she says, to unplugging electronics is that clocks and remotes will not work, and you do have to reset everything.

Can you ruin batteries by unplugging battery chargers and causing batteries to completely discharge?

It could be a possibility, says Kielich. Her advice: Don’t let batteries get completely drained. But you don’t need to have things like hand-held power vacuums and drills plugged into the charger when it’s 100% charged, or even 50% charged.

Power Strip FAQs

Plugging electronics into a power strip and turning it off when you’re not using it is a widely prescribed solution for curbing vampire power. Here are answers to common questions:

• Power strips draw energy when they are turned on, but not when they are switched off.
• Any decent power strip should have surge protection, according to Kielich. Flicking your power strip on and off will not create a power surge capable of damaging electronic devices. In fact, it will protect devices from other surges.
• Several readers were worried about the possibility of fires caused by plugging too many things in at once. If you plug in the allowed number of devices, then power strips are safe, says Kielich. Just don’t plug your power strip into another power strip, or you run the risk of creating an overload.