Ever want to colorize an old photo? There's a real art to doing it, but it takes a lot of skill and it's not easy. Using layers and getting the colors right can definitely be tricky. I've done it and it takes hours to get it just right. (And even then it can still look wrong.)
If you want to do a down and dirty colorization of a black and white photo, you can do it online at ColouriseSG. It's not going to be a detailed colorization and sometimes the colors will come out faded and looking a bit grungy, but it serves a purpose if you don't want to spend hours picking out the details and using masks and layers to do it yourself. Pictures with a clear contrast and photos of people work best as you can see on the example below. Architecture and other man made objects fare poorly. But, the people in the picture look very good. Facial tones come out well. The program uses AI to colorize, so it is bound to get better over time. It will be interesting to go back in a year and try a same photo again. As you add pictures to it, it is learning. Before uploading pictures, please read the TOS and Privacy notice. The site is run by the Government Technology Agency of Singapore. It's Friday! So good. Fall is finally settling in around us here in the Valley. My houseplants have moved inside and the air-conditioner is no longer in the window. Sure signs that we've moved permanently to cooler days and nights.
Today's freebie is a web site called Redacted. It's an easy way to block out part of a photo that you don't want revealed on a social post. It could be anything - A name, a face, a bare butt, whatever. It's simple to use. Upload your photo, under settings pull the bar to the level of blur you want, then drag your cursor over the part you want blurred or pixelated. If you want a different type of blur, just double click on your block to change it. When you are done making changes, upload the photo and post it where you want. Redacted is an awesome web tool! I've included a before and after example below. It's Friday! I've got VPN for you today.
Firefox and Cloudflare came together and created a VPN that's built into Firefox Desktop browser. I tried it out yesterday and it is pretty fantastic. First you have to set up a Firefox account. If you don't want to use your real email account, set up a free account at one of the myriad providers available (Proton, AOL, Yandex, Mail. com, etc.) and then set up an account at Mozilla/Firefox. After you do this you will be asked to verify the account at Firefox. (This is not as involved as it sounds.) After you've verified the account, head on over to The Firefox Private Network. It's dead simple to use. On and off. If you need more granular control, you should seek out a paid VPN. When I used it yesterday, the speeds were excellent. Upload suffered a bit, but download speed was nearly as good as my non-VPN connected speed. Unlike most of the other free options for VPN, this one is actually usable. The Firefox Private Network is in beta and it is free right now as an extension. Mozilla says that they may have a paid version in the future, so this is an opportunity to give it a try for free. Mozilla is doing some awesome stuff lately. I am pleased. It's FOSS Friday!
I've been using Libre Office a lot lately and I'm completely impressed with how far it has come and how beautifully it renders documents coming from Microsoft Office. I can actually use templates from MS Office now. The documents created on Libre office also save and open in Microsoft Office flawlessly. It's super impressive how far the programs in the Libre Office Suite have progressed since the last time I used it years ago. The Suite includes:
If you have used Libre in the past and been unhappy with it, give it another go. I sincerely think that you will be pleased with it now. Plus, what have you got to lose? It's free and open source. Download the office suite today and give it a try. It's easy and free. There is a Libre Office Viewer (editing is still in development) Android Play Store. Google Docs have no problems with files from Libre Office though, so the native Google programs should handle them just fine if you don't want to bother with another program on your phone. There are paid versions of the suite on the Microsoft Store ($10) and Mac Store ($8) apps - both are LibreOffice Vanilla. (As an aside, this is how FOSS works. The developers took the free and open source software and developed it as an app for the MS and Mac platform stores. Developer then charges for the convenience of having it available on the platform. Yay for Open Source!) Again, Libre and native Microsoft play fine together, so it may not be necessary. There are other options for the program and plenty in development. If you are interested in Libre Office for business or personal use, but have questions, contact us and we'd be happy to talk about it with you. Today's freebie is a website. I don't suppose anyone will be thanking me for this, so I'll apologize in advance for your wasted day. Sorry. One of the problems coming to the Internet soon is the lack of Flash. Most browsers are already reluctant to support Flash and they certainly won't after Adobe stops development of the platform in early 2020. Flash has been a dangerous component of the Internet for a long time. After support stops, every criminal and their brother-in-law will be drooling over getting into your computer while you are playing solitaire at that Pogo mirror site. So, don't download that pirate extension and don't go to that mirror site. There are are already new sites that are far, far better than the old flash sites. I'm going to recommend one today. Neon Games. Tons of HTML5 and without the need for Flash. There are loads of clicky games to play that are fun, addictive and simple. Mahjong, Solitaire, Match3, Time Management, Hidden Object, Classic, Action and more. None of them require Flash to work and they all play right in your laptop or desktop browser. The site is well managed, new games are introduced regularly, the ads are not obtrusive and it runs smoothly on every browser I tested it in. Neon Games gets a huge thumbs up from me. And a completely wasted afternoon. Yeah, Maya Bubbles has like 120 levels. It's Friday and there's a great website with free resources just waiting for your click.
Today's clickable is all about Home Schoolers! The site is Free HomeSchool Deals. It's actually a mix of links to free stuff and and discounted items around the internet. The site is easy to follow and well laid out. Since it is a site that collates resources and sends you to other web sites, make sure you read their terms of service, which is located at the bottom before you begin gobbling up the goodies. Also, make sure that you are using a good ad blocker and anti-virus before you download anything to your computer. As always, run it through VirusTotal before you set it free on your computer. It sounds like a lot of warnings, but there's a lot of good stuff on the site and with some basic security precautions, you can really find the gems. |
The Authors
Tim and Joy Clines are the upkeepers here. Please subscribe. Archives
May 2021
Categories
All
|