Upon entering University, I landed a job at the local IT Support Centre which was sometimes not so enjoyable, but an invaluable experience nonetheless. As time went on I ventured more into freelancing, landing more clients, and then came the web development position at Critical Mass.

If you’re a student, you might be saying that in order to land some of the jobs I’ve gotten would require loads of luck and possession of really good skills. However it’s not just luck (although a good skillset is important) — it also depends on how well you sell yourself (and not in this way).

One piece of advice that stuck with me from the counsellor who helped me create my resumé was, “You want to sell yourself as best as possible, and show why you are the right one for the job.”
In continuation, do your best to boast about your skills that are relevant to the job.

The landscape has changed with digital

Another important thing to do this day and age is controlling your online identity. With the advent of facebook and myspace, incriminating pictures of yourself doing some regrettable actions at your friend’s house party can easily become top search results for your name. Obviously it’s best to avoid getting yourself in those situations, but it is still important to have positive search results appear by doing some of the following:

• Creating a LinkedIn Profile

  LinkedIn is another type of social network much like facebook but has more of a professional environment. Here, you essentially create an online resumé which becomes more than just a resumé on the web. Since LinkedIn is a network, potential employers looking for candidates just might stumble upon your name and actually contact you for a job.

  Your LinkedIn profile is also crawlable by search engines so creating a LinkedIn profile can help push down negative search results if you have that problem.

• Maintain a Blog

  With tons of blogging services out there (ie. WordPress, Blogger, etc.), having an online blog can help establish your presence on the web. It’s best that you blog about topics which an employer might get a positive vibe by reading (so creating an entire blog which is purely ranting about how your favorite reality TV star and how they deserved to stay on the island longer is ill-advised…unless you’re taking a comical approach and you’re looking for a job in the entertainment biz). Writing about topics about “your field” will show employers that you have knowledge, and that’s a good thing. Contrary to what I mentioned, the occasional personal post is actually fine.

  It’s also important that you blog on a platform that is crawlable by search engines. Writing blog posts on facebook notes which are usually private within a network is sort of useless since you’re limiting your exposure by doing so.

• Create a Portfolio

  If applicable, creating an online portfolio which showcases your best work is a great idea. It’s important that you try to get as many inbound links as possible so that the chances of a potential employer stumbling upon it is increased.

• Do a Little SEO for yourself

  What is SEO? It is Search Engine Optimization. This is essentially doing what you can to push desired search results to the top of the list. The best thing to do is get as many inbound links (links from other sites to your site) as possible. Inbound links are like currency to search engines so the more links you have to your site, the better. There are a few ways you can get some free links to your site to get you started: creating a claimID account, making a Spock account and listing all relevant sites to your name, getting a Ziki account, and finally, getting friends with blogs to link to you.

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The Process

Like the last tutorial, we will go about this in a similar fashion by creating a script which we will utilize as a cron job.

1. Open up your favorite text-editor and copy and paste the following snippet:
   #!/bin/bash
   mysqldump --add-drop-table -h internal-db.s99999.gridserver.com -udb99999 -pPASSWORD database_name > database_name.sql

   We will need to replace a few things here though:

   • Replace all the instances of '99999' with your gridserver account number.
   • Replace 'PASSWORD' with your mySQL password
   • Replace 'database_name' with the name of the database you'd like to backup

   If you've ever setup WordPress or some other CMS which needs a database, you've likely come across this info before.

   You could test if your command works by first SSHing in and then entering in the command. If an sql file is created, it worked.

   If you have more than one database you want to backup, just create another mysqldump command.

2. Now save this file as something like 'db-backup.sh'
3. Upload 'db-backup.sh' to your /data folder
   I chose to put the script in this folder because when it runs, the .sql files are also dumped into this folder. This folder is nice because it is only accessible by you and you wouldn't want the public to accidentally stumble upon an entire dump of your database.
4. Now log into your Media Temple Account Center
5. Go to the admin section of your primary domain and click the Cron Jobs link
   
6. Click on the 'Add a new cron job' button
   
7. Feel free to fill in your email address in the output email field if you'd like. This will send you emails whenever the cron job runs and will let you know if it was successful or not. However, the important field we need to fill out is Command to Run. In this field, enter:
   /home/99999/data/db-backup.sh

   Again, replace the '99999' with your grid-server account number (it's actually listed below 'Command to Run')

8. In the bottom half of the page, you can specify how often you'd like your script to run. This entire section is up to you. I've set mine to run daily at 2AM when traffic on my site is slower
9. Click Save and you're all done!

Now what about saving these mysql dumps to my local disk?

If you've went through part one of this tutorial and successfully set up rsync, these dumps are now part of that synchronization.

Again, if something didn't make sense or you know of some way to improve these backup processes, please feel free to leave a comment!

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It was unfortunate that their backup utility started to break. Prior to the utility being pulled, my automated backups were no longer occurring and initiating a manual backup sometimes would not work. I wanted to upgrade my WordPress install urgently, so I investigated other methods of backing up; rsync and mysqldump. After getting these processes to work, I joined them up with the best way to automate them; cron jobs.

“rsync + cron = rule”

As I was twittering my investigations of automating my backups, I got a reply saying that rsync is “the cat’s ass“…and it really is. Since setting it up, I always have a current copy of what is on my host (even from the root level!) backed up on my local hard drive. Even the data backup utility by mediatemple couldn’t touch how awesome this was.

rsync is really the way to go when cloning your stuff on the web as it doesn’t backup from scratch. Instead, rsync synchronizes the destination with the source and does so in a smart manner only replacing/copying files that are new or different, and by doing so, it saves a lot of time.

How to setup rsync + cron

Note: the following tutorial is applies to Mac OS X 10.5 and is for advanced users. It also requires some knowledge with the terminal. If you don’t understand any of the steps, feel free to leave a question in the comments and I’ll try my best to answer it.

1. The first step you’ll need to take is enabling ssh access on your grid-server. You can find out how to do this on Media Temple’s Knowledgebase.
2. Once you can successfully ssh into your grid-server, open up your favorite text editor and type in the following lines:
   #!/bin/bash
   rsync -aze ssh serveradmin%domain.com@s99999.gridserver.com:/home/99999/ [insert destination path]

   Obviously you need to do some editing so that it works with your account…

   • Replace the domain.com with your primary grid-server domain
   • Replace the two instances of 99999 with your gridserver account number
   • Insert a destination path in place of [insert destination path]. An example of a destination path is:
     /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/samlu/Backups/new
3. Save this file as something to the effect of: name.command
   This will save it as a script which should automatically open in the terminal and execute the rsync command.
4. Try running this file, if you get prompted to enter your account password, it means you’ve definitely entered the first part correctly. Enter your password and wait. If you get the message [Process Completed] with no major errors, it probably means everything worked out great. Navigate to the destination path you set and if it looks like a mirror of your grid-server, everything did work.
   

   At this point, we have rsync working, so now we will get the other part working; automating it through a cron job.

5. To automate this through a cron job, we will need to create a file which will be our crontab (short for cron table). This file is essentially the schedule that the cron process refers to on what tasks to do (feel free to refer to this article if you’d like more info).

   To make setting up this file easier, download this file which will act as your template for your crontab.

6. After downloading the sample crontab in the previous step, open the file (sample-crontab) in your favorite text editor. When it’s open, you should see the following lines:
   #min    hour        mday    month       wday   command
   #!/bin/sh
   00      15    *   *  * open /Volumes/Macintosh HD/Users/samlu/Backups/mt.command

   The way this is actually set up is like a table. Disregarding the second line, you will notice that the first column will be the minute, followed by the hour, day, month, weekday, and command. Currently, the job I have scheduled runs at 3:00pm every day and it opens up my script mt.command.

   For simplicity’s sake, what you want to change here is the path to your script (remember, it is an absolute path so you will need to start from /Volumes like I did). If you’d like to change the frequency and/or time this job runs, please refer to the article I linked to earlier.

7. If you haven’t already, move this sample-crontab file into your home folder (the same location your terminal defaults to when you open it).
8. Now we will “register” this schedule to the cron process. Open up a new terminal window and since this file should be in your home folder, just type the following command:
   crontab sample-crontab

   Now the job should be scheduled and at 3:00pm everyday a terminal will open up asking you for your grid-server account password so that you can establish the SSH connection.

Ending Notes

If all went without a hitch, all the files on your grid-server will now be automatically backed up! There is one thing to note here though; if you have any databases setup, they are not yet being backed up only with what we set up here. Stay tuned for the next part of this tutorial when I outline how to automate mySQL database backups on the server side and then will be included as part of your rsync backups.

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To get started, open up Bridge and navigate to the folder which contains all your tarnished photos.

Although you might not see it, there are specks on these photos. Here is a zoomed up version to help explain the specks I’m referring to:

I never saw this speck of dust while reviewing my photos on the LCD!

Specks can ruin an entire series of photos. The biggest issue is that you don’t even know that there is dust on your lens until you import them onto your computer and review them. Even though many digital cameras allow for review of photos through an LCD display, it is often just too small to catch these specks. Adobe has recognized this issue and came up with an awesome solution to this problem.

The next step in removing these specks is to select all your photos. While all your photos are selected in Bridge, right click any one of them and select Open in Camera Raw…

What should happen next is that you should see a new window with the photos you selected in the left pane. If you’re missing photos that you wanted to retouch, you did the last step incorrectly, so try it again.

You should see all the photos you selected in the left pane

If all is well, press the Select All button above the left pane.

Remove specks one-by-one? Heck no, Bridge will do ‘em all!

Upon doing so, all your photos in the left pane should become selected. This will allow us to do retouching to all your photos at once. This is really efficient because the location of the speck of dust should be consistent throughout your photos. Bridge is also smart enough to know which photos were taken in landscape and portrait mode, so even though you may think that speck is in a different location because of the orientation of the photo, put some faith in Bridge. It will probably know what it’s doing.

And now, the meat and potatoes of the process. With all photos selected, click the retouch tool button:

A new toolbar should appear. By default the Type should be Heal, if it’s not, set it to Heal.

Next, in the main panel (with a large version of your first photo), click a spot which will be your source for healing. As an example with my photo, I aimed for a spot in the clouds (the red circle/dot is the spot I clicked):

Then you will want to adjust how much of this source you will want to take. To do so, adjust the radius in the toolbar that appeared when you selected the Retouch tool. Adjust it so that the circle is about the size of the speck.

Now hover your cursor over that circle and click and drag the circle to the speck.

And just like that, the speck is gone. What you will want to do next is review all your photos because as we can see with my last photo, it turns out the source I used for healing wasn’t appropriate for this photo:

As you may figure, it’s pretty intuitive to adjust your source; just move the green circle.

After you’re done reviewing your photos and are happy with the results, click done and all the retouching will be applied to your photos. (Note: You will need to open up your photos through Bridge to see the changes.)

To see the full results you can get, here is a before and after shot of the ‘shoes’ photo:

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View thumbnails of your pictures larger than Finder could generate

You’ve been here before: you have a folder filled with images that look similar to each other but you want to see larger thumbnails. The Finder can only allow you to view thumbnails constrained at the size of 128×128, which is adequate for images which can differentiate each other at that size, but not in this case. You could slideshow them to see the details…but then you don’t know exactly what filename the picture is once you found it.

Even at 128×128, the thumbnails just aren’t large enough to find that exact photo

Welcome to Bridge, it allows you to scale the thumbnails up to sizes of 710×710. Perfect for browsing through mounds of pictures which are similar. To do so, just adjust the slider along the bottom left of the window.

These thumbnails are still a little small

There, that’s better

Filter your results

Looking only for a certain file format? Maybe you’re looking for photos with a certain aspect ratio, taken by a certain camera, or photos oriented in landscape? You can filter your results in Bridge so you can quickly find what you’re looking for.

Bridge also supports tagging. You can tag your files through here and in the future it will be easier to find it and it will also searchable by spotlight.

Compare multiple images

Just completed taking some photos and want to compare which ones are better? Bridge allows multiple previews. Select which ones you want to compare while in Filmstrip view (that can be done by clicking the ‘2’ icon in the bottom right) and your images will be previewed like on a light table. You can view the details with the built-in loupe as well simply by clicking on the preview.

Easily compare multiple images easily in Bridge

Can’t wait for Quick Look? Bridge can be a substitute for now

A lot of Mac users wished that Apple would implement Quick Look capabilities in the upcoming version of OSX, and thankfully, they will. However, Bridge has a few of these convenient capabilities built-in already. Want to sift through a few video files without having to open them up in another application? You can do that now with Bridge. Bridge also has the ability to preview Flash, InDesign, and PDFs as well.

Previewing videos right in Bridge

Previewing a PDF right in Bridge…oh, did I forget to mention the loupe?

If you have CS3 and ignored it till now, give it a try

Since I attended the Creative License Tour, I’ve been using Bridge a lot more over the Finder when working with Photoshop and Illustrator. It’s no longer a glorified version of the current Finder and can make things a lot more convenient when sifting through tons of files related for a project.

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Throughout the day, I found these tips I’ve learned from various sources to be really really useful. These are also geared towards intermediate digital camera owners (break out of automatic mode if you haven’t done so already!):

1. Use Speedburst mode when possible (a.k.a. Sports mode)
   For the second set of the photos I took when we went to the nearby playground to play Grounders, I applied a tip I learnt from the digital photography school blog on 11 Tips for Better Candid Photography. For any scenario where there is a lot of movement and spontaneity involved, this mode is perfect because you will capture a handful of images. Possibly one you wouldn’t expect yourself to capture such as these priceless photos I took yesterday:
   
   

2. Distance yourself and kill the flash (stay stealthy)
   Also 2 other great tips from that same post from the digital photography school blog. Distancing yourself from the action lets the people you focus on, focus on the matter at hand instead of the camera, resulting in a better candid shot. Personally, I love photos which are more candid. When filming movies, the actors should never look at the camera. I think more photographers should embrace this concept, they tell a better story.
   
   

3. Zoom in and get level (Other views aren’t as immersive)
   Also another tip that I learnt from the digital photography school, though I believe it was advice geared towards photographing children’s birthday parties.

   Zooming in allows you to capture details and essentially crop out other things that are going on nearby which can distract the viewer from the matter at hand. Of course you can take a zoomed out photograph from the beginning, but when you crop just a piece of it and want to print that out, you miss out on the details. Don’t be afraid to zoom in to different subjects and take many photos, the beauty of digital photography is that you can review what you just took later on and clear them out to make more room. If you have high capacity media for your camera, even better; you have the luxury of rejecting photographs when importing them.

   Getting level with your subjects helps the viewer of your photograph get immersed in the setting. It’s not really fun looking at a photo of a person where the photograph wasn’t taken at eye-level.

   

Of course you shouldn’t try to use these tips each time you take a photograph, otherwise you get trapped in the problem where all your photographs look like they were taken from the same perspective/angle. They also might not work sometimes, for example, you will need flash when you’re inside in low-light settings.

Most importantly, if you haven’t done so already, break out of automatic mode and try to experiment with your camera. Learning and getting used to how your camera works is essential if you want good results.

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The Best Brands of the World is a website that hosts a number of famous brand logos in vector formats. It is the #1 place I visit whenever I’m looking for a logo, and most of the time they’ll usually have exactly what I’m looking for.

On their website, you’re unfortunately presented with a ton of ads on the front page. If you didn’t look into what their site is about, you’d probably just turn your head the other way and look elsewhere for that logo you’ve always been looking for. However, “don’t judge a book by its cover”. Scrolling to the bottom of the page will present a search field where you can punch in the name of a company or organization and find their logo in EPS format. Alternatively, you can also browse their library alphabetically with the alphabet links to the bottom left.

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