sugarenia.com

My greek friends out there, enough with the FriendFeed obsession already. It seems that these days I get a request every 5 minutes or so – I’m flattered, guys, I really am. But how can you really use this thing?

I’ve tried several FriendFeed applications and widgets in the past and I cringed at the sheer amount of information tidbits coming out from anyone – do you really check all this stuff?

I hear you saying now, hypocrit Sugarenia, why do you have a FriendFeed account in the first place?

Well, I wanted to check the service when it launched last year. And I find the idea of collecting almost all of my online presence in a RSS feed practical.

What I really don’t find practical is the constant stream of bleeps and pings and pongs and comments and likes and whatnot FriendFeed produces. So time-consuming, distracting and scary.

For me, it goes like that:

• I check Twitter all the time. It’s my only so called Web 2.0 obsession – I have been using it since last year and actually found that during those months, it has become a really good way of sharing information, getting informed and having fun. I even check Twitter first thing in the morning. If you contact me there, I’ll be sure to answer.
• Flickr is my second service of choice. I check my contacts’ stream once or twice during the day, when I have time to relax and browse. If you contact me there, I’ll be glad to add you as a friend and comment on your photos.
• RSS feeds come third. I check them once – during my lunch break, and maybe during the evening if I’m really really bored at home. Again, manually, through Google Reader. If you like me to follow your blog, write decent content.
• Facebook, maybe once in a week, when I have time for gossip and silliness. If you contact me there, don’t. I never reply to Facebook.
• YouTube? I never check. Your YouTube URLs? I never check them either. I use it only once in a blue moon, to check a song before downloading it. If you contact me there, you’ll be accidentally discovered in about six months. Be patient.

I’m totally rigid on this scheme and I don’t intend to change this.

You’re free to follow my FriendFeed stream but don’t expect me to do the same.

And stop jumping to bandwagons, already.

I’ve recently installed the latest Adobe Photoshop CS4 beta and I’m really happy with it – however bloated, the application itself looks a bit more lightweight and usable than previous versions, plus the integration with the rest of the Adobe apps is pretty remarkable.

There is (about) a ton of ways to do things with Photoshop and I know that some of my methods are not the best or the most efficient. But one thing that always bugged me was this:

How can I create a new file easily, containing only a layer I select?

This is something I stumble upon all the time when slicing .psds, yet I never seem to find a proper way to handle it.

Until last week! I then discovered the (hidden) joys of Duplicate Layer.

Say you’ve got a layer (or a group of layers) that you want to transfer to a separate file. Right-click, and you’ll see the relevant Duplicate… command:

Now choose a name for the duplicate layer (or just leave it as it is) and select a target for it from the list of opened documents below. Scroll down and you’ll see a New option:

That’s what you want. Select OK and a new file will be opened automatically, containing your favourite layer.

And tada!

It’s not something new, this way, but I just discovered it (as tons of other things) and I just thought to share.

Do you have a better way to do this?

Please do, and share.

A light dose of healthy geekery and cute imagery for this Friday night.

Check out these icons:

These stand for the Coda Plug-in Creator and Coda Plug-in Samples & Source Code respectively. Got it? Code is the seed that the watering tank can help grow.

Doesn’t that make you feel all fuzzy inside? Or is it just my Friday mood?

Well played, Panic.

P.S. For those Mac-loving web designers hiding under a rock these days, Coda has launched its 1.6 version that adds plug-in support to it – you can also add your favourite Textmate bundles! Take that, Espresso.