Episode 13 Totally Geeking Out

Join Steph, Katie, Peppermint, and Debbie Hodge as they get geeky and talk about their hardware, software, and mistakes we’ve made purchasing them.

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You can download the show by right clicking and saving this link (right click and select “save link as”.

Joining the Discussion:
Steph
Katie Nelson
Peppermint Granberg
Debbie Hodge

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Picks of The Week:
Peppermint: MindBloom.com
Katie:  Dark Fleur Mouse
Steph: Deblurring Sneak Peek
Debbie: Font Combos and Autumn Moon

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91 Responses to Episode 13 Totally Geeking Out

  1. Kelly says:

    I can’t seem to play Episode 13 this morning. Error 2032 when trying to play on-line. I tried to download it also and says it can’t download.

  2. Nana Anna says:

    Glad to know I am not the only having trouble listening. Ready to get my “geek” on when it’s reloaded!

  3. Loved hearing the “pre-show” chatter. The “behind-the-scenes” audio was great! Not sure if you meant for us to hear that, but I loved it just the same….now – off to go listen to the rest of the podcast! Love you guys!

    • steph says:

      I have wanted to do that since before we ever started recording the show almost 1.5 years ago. :) I thought I our audience might think it was fun. No one knew I was going to do it though ;) They might not know unless they listen, actually…lol.

      • Katie says:

        If we knew you were doing it, we would have been nervous. lol! I think it’s interesting to hear behind the scenes. :)

    • iamdigiscrapper says:

      I agree. Totally fun!

  4. Morning ladies.
    Thanks for the show this morning, I was half asleep at work and your show always perks me up. I’m a new listener and loving every minute. I had few comments. First, I understand laptop regrets fully! I had a nightmare laptop issue with a Gateway in 2010. 3 months into buying a new one, it would overheat and shut down. I shipped it to repair under warranty and it came back damaged externally and with screen damage. 4 more trips back and forth to repair, and 8 months later, I finally got a new laptop from Gateway. The new one is a little better but still overheats. Thankfully (knock on wood) it has held up for the past 7 months. I am very interested in purchasing a Mac laptop next.

    Also, you ladies discussed the trouble in finding a laptop back big enough for the 17 inch screen. I also have a 17 inch screen but my laptop is not too heavy fortunately. I had a lot of trouble buying a bag. I ended up with an ugly but functional generic one from Best Buy. I have on my wish list to buy from Pink Punk Boutique early next year. She will customize the size of your bag to fit your laptop. I love her work and have a purse and wallet from her. I couldn’t resist sharing her work. It’s great quality. http://pinkpunkboutique.bigcartel.com/category/laptop-and-messenger-bags.

    I have a 2 TB EHD (that I’ve filled up!!) PLUS two smaller ones up to almost another TB. I’ve been scrapping since Feb. 2007 and I am thinking I need to clear some old stuff out. I wouldn’t even know where to begin! I don’t even count the storage I have on my laptop which is another 400 GB. I had to reformat it recently to clear off all the “crap”. I am pretty sure ya’ll are thinking “holy cow” right about now. lol.

    Ummm, software picks… me love you! xoxoxo Ha ha!

    Thanks, Kat

    Thanks again gals!

    • steph says:

      I had meant to share that I got one about 4-5 years ago from Jeanine King on etsy. She custom makes them to fit your laptop, I have used mine with 3 different 17 inch laptops though. This thing has been so durable, I wish she would make me a purse, they always fall apart with the amount of stuff I put in them when I travel.

      I totally get needing that much space! ;)

    • Debbie Hodge says:

      Hey, Kat, I want to add a link to my backpack for my 17″ laptop — it’s from Laurex (red blossom). I bought it on Amazon. http://www.laurex.com/new_page_1.htm

      • Katie says:

        Oh, I really like that! I just use a very plain swiss army backpack which is functional, but not very pretty. I may have to get myself a brand new bag! :)

  5. Krista Sahlin says:

    Hi ladies! Amazing show!! I love listening to all of the geek stuff and learn alot. The idea of Windows Sync Toy sounds great! I will be looking into that soon. Oh, and Peppermint… I have Avast too (it’s worked well for me so far) But I agree that lady did scare the crap out of me. HAHA!! Just an FYI that you CAN turn her off. My hubbie just did the for me yesterday. Toodles! Krista

    • Peppermint says:

      I need to look into turning her off this weekend, for sure. The other night it was dead silent in my office, I turned away for a minute to look out the window and then she came out of nowhere all “YOUR VIRUS DATABASE HAS BEEN UPDATED!!!!!!” and I almost had a cardiac event.

      I feel like the Avast woman is violating my trust.

  6. Sorry to post twice but can I just say how AMAZING that text extender is. I love the idea of using it for the coding in galleries but I also send emails to college students that are short but repetitive and now I can just type in a few letters and it types the text for me. That is way better than anything I’ve tried before. Much love to you gals for making my life easier!!

    Kat

    • Katie says:

      I’m super excited to try that one myself!

    • Debbie Hodge says:

      Funny — I keep telling people how much I love Breevy, too. There are a lot of multi-step how-tos I send to folks over and over and it’s so much easier to use this than copy and paste — plus the syncing with dropbox on all of my computers makes it even more useful.

  7. Katie says:

    No “holy cow” thoughts here – I totally get how you could use that much storage space! :)

  8. Tiffany says:

    Thank you for reading my comment from last week about the Digi Files prices. It didn’t occur to me that the question might put you on the spot or make you feel bad. So I’m happy you read the question in the spirit I intended. I’m one of that 3% that has issues with buying something blind. Even though the risk is small, the way I look at it, I could take that $5 and buy something that I know I’m really in love with. Thank you for keeping that option (cancelling the subscription) available to use cheapy frugals, and thank you also for being so gracious about it.

    Also, If I could amend my comment last week about the CT stuff. A couple years ago, or even one year ago, it seemed that store CT requirements were along the line of 3-4 layouts per month. Now, it seems the requirements are much more. I know of a couple big stores that have requirements along the lines of 3-4 layouts + substantial gallery comment quota + blog post and/or host a challenge + active forum participation. It seems like stores are asking for a lot more than they used to from their CT. I know as women we naturally give of ourselves to others, but this amount of volunteer commitment seems to take advantage of that.

    Finally, I was just thinking about getting a font managing program, so I was so glad to hear of a few to look up. Thanks!

    • mrshobbes says:

      Just to respond about CT requirements–yes, definitely store CTs have more requirements than the “usual” ones, because the task is greater: CTMs need to promote the entire store, not just a specific designer. I take that to mean all aspects of the store: the forum, the gallery, the blog, twitter, FB, etc. But–at least in the store CTs I am on–the “pay-off” is you get ALL the product in the store for FREE.

      (I also agree that these req’s have definitely changed from when I first started scrapping, but that’s also in response to the landscape of the industry changing: certainly no one thought of marketing scrapping products in Twitter or FB back in 2007-2008, and there were less designers than there are now :))

      This totally isn’t to sound defensive, because honestly I’ve had those same thoughts as you before :) What really makes all the difference for me is: I love the stores–the designers, the products, my fellow CTMs :) So any additional requirements outside of layouts I enjoy doing :) I know that may sound weird, lol. But really, if I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t be on the team. Store owners–and designers–are upfront about the requirements needed and either you as a CTM agree to their terms or not :)

      • Debbie Hodge says:

        I’ll second what mrshobbes says — if you love the product and work with designers who are up front it can be a fabulous experience. I loved my time on the Designer Digitals creative team and am so very grateful for all that the owners gave to me during that time. On a creative team, you’ve got the opportunity to work with product you might not use and you get to know fabulous people. I’ve gotten too busy to do a good job at this now, but if you love scrapbooking, I think a stint on a team for paper or digi products is a great way to “go new places.”

    • steph says:

      When I was a CTM back in the day, I decided early on that just being on individual designers teams was the best fit for me. I didn’t want to spend my time commenting in the galleries and posting in the forum instead of scrapping. That was just me though and it is different for everyone.

  9. mrshobbes says:

    Just want to say I enjoyed this geeked-out episode–it’s given me major hardware envy, lol! I now want to try a double-monitor setup :D I feel like I’m working on the most jurassic of machines, because I’m on a nine-year-old desktop running on XP, lol. I do use ESET NOD32 as my antivirus and Malwarebytes for malware/adware. Both are not heavy on my meager resources and update in the background while I work, and they’ve been really good about catching stuff–proof being this desktop is still alive! The hubs is planning on upgrading his laptop, which means I can “inherit” his–it’s got Windows 7, at least :D

    I use Fontviewer for my fonts, but it’s literally to see what fonts you have, no other organization or categorizing, at least not as far as I can tell. But it’s a light program, so it works for me. My stash is on a 320GB EHD and I have a 1TB Seagate for backup. The hubs is still iffy on online backup, but I’d really like something off-site for us, at least for important stuff like scanned documents and our photos.

    SO excited to check out Font Combos, Debbie! This is a kind of resource I will ALWAYS want to refer to! :)

  10. Melissa says:

    Hi Steph & ladies

    Loved today’s show, I may or may not have been trying to talk back on this episode! May have to blog about my thoughts on hardware now!

    Another free anti-virus option for PC people is Microsoft Security Essentials. I love it because it doesn’t affect slow down your system as much as some others, and it covers some bases that Ad-aware doesn’t. I also used AVG quite happily until they stopped their updates for free users a couple years ago (seems they do have a free version now – but much cut down from the older one we used to have).

    Just a quick tech notes – the Mind Bloom link goes to Social Gifts. http://mindbloom.com for anyone wondering where the site was.

    Also, I’m not seeing the logo for TDS come up on my ipod anymore, it’s there for the podcast, but not the individual episode.

    Anyone else having this issue?

    • steph says:

      Thanks, I’ll fix that link.

    • Deirdre says:

      Just want to second FREE Microsoft Security Essentials. Can’t believe we used to pay a lot and had terrible service when we did have an issue. We’re on year 2 without one virus or issue.

      And for the mac users, beware…my apple friends seem to be getting hit a lot lately. Maybe because of all the recent press about Apple being the 2nd wealthiest company…but do protect yourself.

  11. Melissa says:

    Oh and the trackball are fun. But my Pop got rid of his after a few years due to…. hand strain lol! I use my tablet 100% of the time

    • Melissa says:

      Katie – you should check out how I fixed the eyes/face from Pop’s face recently. I just cut a happy head out of another photo from the same day, and overlayed it on the closed eyes photo. Since it was your prom I’m sure you’d be able to find some with open eyes and fix it up! (http://mshanhun.com/photo-quick-fixes/)

      • steph says:

        I think Katie’s issue was more that every person that was in that photo (and there were a bunch from what she said) has a copy of that photo and there is no fixing that…unfortunately…lol.

        • Katie says:

          Yep, about 20 people have a hard copy of that photo, including my handsome date. I bet his wife and kids get a good laugh when they look at it! lol! :)

  12. linda says:

    I have to say it all depends on what works for you… I used to always get laptops just because it takes less space, not necessarily that I’m all over the place. I also used to be a PC user and now have an iMac. The huge screen really makes it great for designing and scrapping, everything really! I wonder if laptops would really be so popular now that many computers are getting more compact… I think to run around the house, tablets are going to be the big thing :)

  13. Lisa says:

    Peppermint is right: I’m totally RUINED. I have dual monitors and I could NEVER got back to a single monitor. Hubby doesn’t have enough room for another full monitor so he’s looking at a mini one like the touch-screen mimo monitor to hold his MP3 Player, or photoshop docks, or a movie he might have playing. It wouldn’t be big enough to work on, but it’d be great to hold those extra bits…
    Thanks for another amazing show!!

  14. iDebbie says:

    Wow, this show was a PC love fest! LOL! Where’s Izzie when the Mac girls need him??!! I still listened, but only b/c I love you gals! You’re awesome even when you’re talking PCs ;-D

    • StudioWendy says:

      I TOTALLY think they need to do an all-mac episode now to make up for not having one of us mac users represent. LOL

      • steph says:

        I know, I felt bad…for a second. But my bigget priority was to make sure I had someone that I knew could talk about their computer, their network, how they back up etc. I know it is surprising, but less than 10% of our listeners are on Macs. :(

        • StudioWendy says:

          It’s got to be at least 11%! LOL I sometimes forget since we are now a completely converted Mac household that other people even use PCs. ;)

        • Michelle says:

          Wow, I find that REALLY hard to believe, especially in the digiscrap/art/media arena!–did you take a survey? Because I must have missed it. I really would have loved at least one mac person on this episode, too.

          • StudioWendy says:

            Yep, I got the survey a while back!

          • Lisa says:

            I’m with you, Michelle. This is a light-hearted discussion, but this episode was really disappointing for a Mac user. It’s understandable that your normal panelists are PC users and if these topics come up, which of course they will when discussing digi-scrapping, the conversation is going to be PC-based. But if you’re talking Photoshop or organizing digi supplies, I can translate that to Mac terms in my head. If you’re setting out to talk specifically about what computers people use and how they use them, it was really short-sighted to completely exclude Mac users. You’ve all made it clear that you don’t “get” Macs, but those of us who use them (and I really don’t believe the 10% stat) do get it and would surely appreciate being included in the discussion. Although iDeb mentioned Izzy as the Mac angle on the old show, he wouldn’t have been able to contribute to this discussion. You needed a Mac digi-scrapper on the panel for this episode and I was really disappointed by the omission.

            • Peppermint says:

              I guess I don’t remember everything we discussed on this show anymore, and I don’t usually listen to them back. But from what I recall most of what we talked about was fairly non-OS specific, wasn’t it?

              I remember we talked about hard-drive sizes, and RAM, and different software we use (most of which is cross-platform as far as Adobe products and online services like Dropbox, etc) and about the pros and cons to laptops v. desktops, what hardware upgrades were important in our systems, what size monitor we preferred etc.

              I guess I’d have to go back and listen to it again to see if a lot of the discussion centered around things that would be WindowsOS only – but aside from the fact that all four of us were Windows PC users, I didn’t think much of what we discussed had to do with the operating systems at all? Am I not remembering it correctly?

              • Lisa says:

                Peppermint, I was a bit harsh with my comment last night, no excuses, sorry. I love the show and I don’t want you all to get the wrong idea. I just felt this particular episode was very one-sided and more effort should have been made to have a Mac representative on the panel. You knew what the topic was going to be, and it didn’t seem like any effort was made to include that portion of your audience.

                I actually went back and listened to it today so that I could respond somewhat intelligently, and the thing that struck me is that you probably did think you were talking about cross-platform things because you guys have never used Macs. The idea that a Mac is just a different operating system, is not really true. A Mac is a completely different computer-buying experience. So from the time that Katie started to talk about having Dell build her laptop, and being disappointed in how bulky is was, etc., was a departure from how Macs are produced and sold. You walk into an Apple store and you basically are choosing an iMac (desktop) or MacBook (laptop). Then there are a couple levels and sizes in each of those categories. They’re not as customizable as PCs, but they just work. You don’t need to buy a specific video card or add internal hard drives, because they come with all that stuff. You don’t have a big tower under your desk, it’s all one piece.

                When you guys discussed software, you never mentioned that these may be only PC softwares (like Unzip Them All [Macs come with this type of software and you set it up right in the file system], Windows Live Writer, Microsoft Word [which you can buy for a Mac, but Macs come with Pages which is great], and text extender apps, which I know there are Mac equivalents that you didn’t mention). When you talked about external hard drives and backing up, you never mentioned that Macs come with an awesome software called Time Machine that just does it for you (but did mention Windows sync toy which may be similar).

                The only mention that Macs got in the whole episode was when you were talking about security software and Steph mentioned that the Mac people would be rolling their eyes, but that you could search any digi forum and find threads about Mac viruses. But you didn’t have anyone on there who could tell us Mac users what software we should have to protect against that.

                So, yes, you did mention Dropbox, Lightroom, Photoshop, and other cross-platform softwares, but that was not the bulk of the discussion. I never would’ve gotten so riled up if this had been a tangent or a response in the mail segment, but when you were setting out to have a discussion about the types of computers people use and their geeky details, it was very short-sighted to not find a Mac digiscrapper who could contribute. The conversation would’ve been more robust and well-rounded if you had.

                • Katherine says:

                  Oh my gosh… I suddenly had a flashback to the early days of Macs when it was like the Christians vs. the Lions in PCland. I started programming by carrying around giant boxes of punchcards so I could input a Fortran program into a giant computer and wait for 2 hours for the lab to tell me I had a typo on line 12 that meant my program wouldn’t run. I debugged homespun accounting programs so a fellow could run his business on a brand new PC with 5-1/4 in floppies … etc etc. When the Mac came out in 1984 I bought my first and was “faithful” until 2000 when the pressures of operating in a PC-centric business world where networking Macs and PCs was a royal PITA meant it was easier to switch to a PC. Today with the relatively pervasive web, the world is somewhat more platform agnostic than it used to be and it matters a bit less than it did. But really … if you’re talking digi-scrapbooking, you have to get a techie now and then. I have to say I appreciate the show is less Apple-centric than it was under the Paperclipping umbrella, though honestly, it doesn’t matter at all. Same problem with iPhones vs. Android vs. Blackberry. Can’t make everybody happy at the same time when it comes to tech. Keep after it ladies…the show is entertaining no matter what you talk about. I get it whether you’re talking PC, Mac, iPhone, Android, or Cuisinarts.

                  • Michelle says:

                    Oh my, these replies have gotten so skinny! LOLOLOL! I will just write a little note to say that I don’t think it’s Mac vs. PC or that anyone would ever want that. I do agree, however, that a well-covered topic (regardless of topic) is better than a one-sided topic. The topic was computers so more coverage would have been good. But I can’t complain because I love the show no matter what as well! And I am glad it’s available! :)

            • Nicole says:

              I have to say that as a Mac user (and after purchasing my first almost 4 years ago, a now committed die-hard Mac lover), I loved the Geeking Out episode and didn’t think it was really lacking at all by not having a Mac user on the panel. It didn’t even dawn on me until you read the mail this week that there were no Mac peeps on the show. Keep doing what you’re doing! I know you all work really hard and sacrifice a lot of time to put the show out, and it adds so much joy to my week, especially since it’s FREE!

          • steph says:

            Nope, I have access to all of that information on the backend. You would be surprised everything site owners/podcaster can learn about users/listeners! No survey OR permission necessary!

      • Peppermint says:

        If there were an all-Mac episode it would just be radio silence while Steph, Katie and I sit there and let someone talk about their Mac. Haha.

        Steph would need to schedule 4 Mac users.

  15. coffeebabs says:

    Enjoyed the show, as usual! My husband bought me a 17″ laptop a couple of years ago and I wasn’t too excited about it when he brought it home. Too big. I almost exchanged it, but so glad I didn’t. Now that I have found digiscrap, I love it. We travel a lot and that’s why I was so excited to find digital scrapbooking. I can take my hobby with me anywhere. Now I’m going to check out the sites that’s been suggested for a bag, which has been an issue. Thanks so much! Oh, also checked out the Mindbloom site. What fun! Thanks for all your suggestions. Even if I don’t have time to listen to the show when a new show is posted, I check out your pics.

  16. Norma says:

    I can’t remember now who mentioned it (I’m thinking Peppermint, but could be wrong!), but someone mentioned a specific external hard drive that Izzy had recommended-what was that again?
    By the way, just wanted to let you know that I’m one of the paper-scrappers who enjoys listening to the show!

    • Peppermint says:

      Izzy uses an enclosure, and I forget who made it, but it’s an enclosure that you can slide bare drives into (internal hard drives), and it hooks up to his computer via an ESATA port. It’s a bit MORE than what most home users would go through, because bare drives are rather fragile, but they’re also less expensive than the external drives so if you need to store in bulk like he did (and I think Debbie said she uses bare drives, too) then it can save you a lot of money for long-term storage.

  17. Katie (sakura-panda) says:

    I enjoyed this show a lot! It’s always fun to hear about the things I should get or be using! LOL

    I keep all of my files on an EHD because I have several computers — a laptop that I use most often (with an additional external 21″ LCD monitor, wireless Logitech keyboard and mouse; the laptop monitor is my secondary monitor), a desktop that I (mostly) use for scanning my paper layouts (with a Logitech trackball), and a netbook that I take to crops so that I can see all of my photos and get the dates right (no mouse).

    (We all have quirks and mine is making sure I have the correct photo dates on my layouts.)

    I don’t keep anything on my computer’s hard drives except for program files and easily replaceable downloads. I keep the copies because if I need them, it is easier to already have them downloaded, but they are not anything I need to preserve.

    My new (bought over Labor Day weekend) 3 TB EHD is a Seagate with a dock — I bought a second dock and now I can move my EHD around without the hassle of disconnecting and reconnecting my regular set up. No more crawling under my desk and fishing wires around whenever I want to take my EHD somewhere!

    My husband is looking into setting up a network for backing up; in the meantime, I back up to my “old” EHDs (I have a 300 GB and a 500 GB that I have outgrown but still use for backup.) I am considering online backup/storage, but since I don’t leave my computer on when I’m not using it, I’m not sure if that would work.

    I’d love to hear more about Dropbox — I can’t access it from my work computer, so I always thought I wouldn’t get much benefit from it. Do I need to leave my computer(s) on all the time to use it? Is there some benefit to using that over a cloud service like Amazon’s? If I want to share a file across my platforms, I upload it into my Amazon Cloud storage and I can access it from everything.

    • I am using dropbox at work and home. What I love is that since my job has some down time, I can work on a flyer for someone (I recently did a flyer for a craft show and for the Veterans Day Parade Committee). When I run out of time, I can save it on dropbox and that folder is available at home when I am ready to take it up again. I just use the free dropbox service and I don’t think I’d pay for it since I have enough jump drives and EHD’s for storage, but it is a huge convenience and if you download it, then its basically like having a folder on your computers that go with you. <3

    • mrshobbes says:

      I use Dropbox primarily for my online writing assignments–everyone on the team accesses a central folder where assignments, edits, guidelines, etc are posted. Its main convenience for me is I can work on an article on my desktop Dropbox application, then check if my editor has sent me his revisions online on another computer/mobile device. We use the free version too, since it’s only documents and nothing too large stored in there. The free version allows for up to 2GB of stuff.

      Its this same concept that makes me love Evernote too :)

    • steph says:

      3TB EHD!!!! Wow!! Totally jealous! I would love to hear how your dh gets things networked when he does!

  18. Lindsan says:

    Thanks for a great show, as always! I was chuckling to myself as I listened to this show. I usually consider myself a pretty hitech type of person, but I realize that I do a lot of things the “old fashioned way”. And the thing is, I really haven’t mind much up until now. Like, I don’t have an organizing software, I don’t use a font manager, and I keep all my photos in regular folders. LOL!

    I agree with Peppermint about the dual screen need! I have the same at my dayjob, and I always feel handicapped when I come home to my 17 inch laptop. But the need to sit comfortably beside the hubby is greater, so I make do. :)

  19. PattiP says:

    Just wanted to share my thoughts about the Digi Files discussion. I hesitated becoming a member because of the “sight unseen” factor. I’m so happy I gave it a try. While everything in the Files doesn’t appeal to me every month, everything is really high quality, and there are always things I love.

    One thing that being a member has done is introduce me to designers I wouldn’t have bumped into otherwise. I don’t spend lots of time looking for digi supplies. I have a few trusted sites I always go to. But after becoming a member, when there is a featured designer whose kit in the Digi Files I love, I often go to their online store, wherever that is, and buy more of their products. So from that point of view, in my case anyway, the designers do benefit from being in the Digi Files. I hope that’s true across the board with most members! I know I don’t have the time or skills to create great kits for myself. I really rely on the great designers that are out there.

    • steph says:

      I really appreciate hearing this!! I do hear back from most designers that they do see a noticeable increase in sales during the time they are featured. :)

  20. Katherine says:

    Hi Katie… To solve your paucity-o-hubs problem you’ll need A self-powered USB hub (one that plugs in) to solve your all-things-at-once issue. The bus-powered hubs draw power from the computer and many devices need full power on their own so that won’t provide the oomph you need. Be sure you get a high quality hub because the cheaper hubs claim to power several devices but they really don’t send full power to all ports simultaneously. Geek out.

  21. Stefanie says:

    Hello there
    I enjoyed the latest digi show, even though a lot of it was just geek to me. I am one of those who still download photos using wires connected to pc and camera – imagine that.
    I may be late to the party with my next bit of info too, and if I am and if you’re covered it before just ignore the rest.

    In my newsletter from Chelle’s creations she linked to a video
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Rd2gDzWoik which mentions http://www.speedscraps.blogspot.com where you can download free scripts with instructions. I am a PSE 9 user and just got it all right. Not too sure if you have covered these scripts on the digi show before, but I think they’re great.

    PS would you consider allowing us to buy just one month of daily digi and not having to subscribe, just a once off paypal payment?

  22. Deirdre says:

    Stefanie: I’m pretty sure you can cancel membership at any time on the Digi Files, so you can do one month that way.

    Loved this show and learned a lot (I’m still not fully understanding “docking” despite the wiki article I just read!).

    For Valentine’s day this year, I received my first laptop–a Dell Inspiron N5010 with 3GB of RAM and a 17″ screen. I only consider it heavy when running across an airport, but I LOVE IT. Now our PC sits in our office like an overpowered EHD.
    Because I can access everything on my PC via the Windows Home Network, I save everything to the PC. I need to get another EHD to use not for back-up but as my “go to” source so that I have access to all our photos/digi supplies when traveling.

    I remember it being frustrating to listen to the Apple-only discussions on Paperclipping, so, even though I’m a big Microsoft fan, I recommend making sure your panel has both users next time the show is a geek-fest. Otherwise, GREAT show—loved learning the specifics of what you have and how you use it!

    • Deirdre says:

      One more note: I don’t use a font organizer anymore. I keep a Word Document with the 150 fonts I like best, sorted by stamped/titles/handwriting/typewriter/classic/themed and refer to it often when choosing a font, or to find out which fonts I need to install on a new system (the name will still show up when opened on that computer, but in Times Roman). All of those fonts are permenantly installed. It’s a simple thing but has had a HUGE impact on simplifying my scrapping and other work.
      A big hat tip to the Daily Digi past posts on favorite fonts that served as inspiration.

  23. Kim Shimer says:

    I have been listing to your show for several months…ironically I have never created a digital scrapbook page. ( fyi, I did answer your poll ) I have a huge amount of paper scrapbooking supplies that I keep adding to & never really use. When I sit down to scrapbook which is few & far between, I fiddle with the supplies & have trouble comiting to where I want things, or ever what photos I want to use. I am horrible at journaling. I like the idea of using my own handwriting because I think it might be neat for future generations to see my writing but I do feel that the idea that I could easily mess up my page inhibits my journaling & I write the bare minimum. Anyways, I truly feel I am meant to be a digital scrapbooker. I love playing with my photos & I think the fact that I am not “using” or “wasting” supplies will allow me to be a little more spontaneous & free with my choices because I will know that if I change my mind, it won’t be a big deal. I can always go back & change out papers/pictures etc. What is keeping me from taking the leap is that I have never seen a digital layout in person. I have seen posted many times that you need to print your layouts to appreciate them. Being a beginner, I know my first layouts will be terrible and hate to base my opinion on that, so I was wondering if any of you would be willing to share a layout or two that I can then print on my own to see in person. I would be fine if you wanted to plaster a water mark across the page, I just know there are lots of techniques that being a beginner I would need to learn before being able to replicate on my own pages. Please let me know if you would be willing to share. thank you

    • Peppermint says:

      I would be more than happy to send you a layout, Kim. Just drop me an email through the contact form on my site so I have your email address and I can send one to you to print.

    • StudioWendy says:

      It definitely sounds like digi is right up your alley! Give it a try. I highly recommend starting with Photoshop Elements (even the free trial) and some basic tutorials on templates and quick pages to get your feet wet.

  24. Melinda says:

    Peppermint, can I just say you are simply BRILLIANT!

    I have heard many of you loving up drop box for a while now and just never thought it was for me -I use only 1 laptop and 2 EH {paper scrapper here} I did not think that I had a need to up files in the drop box to access from other pc.
    BUT I stop dead in my tracks when you said Phone pictures! That was music to my ears-never have to hook my phone to my pc to get the photos off!
    Let my just tell you how it normal goes in my house…
    I have been going P365 for 3 years now; 1 photo a day and to keep track of the journaling I do a blog post daily about the photo. Since getting my Iphone I use that often to capture the POD {photo of the day}. I keep my desk in the basement and I trudge down there to hook my phone to the pc only to find that 1 of my 4 kids have “borrowed” Ipod sync cable yet again. After yelling up the stairs 10 times to get someone to return the cord with responses like “not me” and “I returned when I used last”, I trudge up to my bedroom on the 2nd story to get my charger cord and then back down to the basement to finally upload the photos from my phone. It can take 30 minutes or more every time. UGH! And ya know I have a boat of laundry that needs to be done and toilets to swish.

    Not ever again! Mommy has a new way!

    I now have dropbox app on my phone, my pc and even made hubby get the app on his phone. He protested the need for such a thing and I just gave him the look and told to do it for me and upload any photo he takes that I need to use on the blog or is “cute” of the girls to the drop box and presto it is there on my PC. I doubt he will use it, I will have to hack into his phone myself to get the photos but at least it will be easier now!

    Peppermint this has saved me so much time and hassle thank you again for showing me the light!

    maybe I could squeeze in that bubble bath now……..

    • For those who have iPhones if you download The Box app you get *50* gig free for life. I know Debbie said she was paying $10/month for that much space with Dropbox. And while it may be a hassle to move it all over it may be worth it to save some cash!

      If I can point one thing out, though. Dropbox MOVES your files over and I once had an error and totally lost the items I was putting into Dropbox. I now COPY them over and when I know they’re safe and sound I’ll delete them from my hard drive. I know it’s an extra step but I feel better…

    • Peppermint says:

      It’s the best for pictures, right? Since I use Lightroom to import/store/organize all my photos, I just run an Import session and instead of pointing it to my camera’s SD card I just choose my Dropbox folder on my computer and have it import the photos into my Lightroom catalog the same way it does the SD card. That way it pulls them in as copies onto my hard drive (and renames them the way I want them) and leaves the original in my Dropbox account. After they import I go in and delete them from Dropbox, then every couple of weeks I go through my phone and delete the images off of there, too. I don’t take a ton of phone pictures, but I do enjoy not having to hook my phone up or email the photos to myself.

      I send all sorts of other things over to my phone through Dropbox, too. Music, eBooks, PDF documents, Excel spreadsheets. When I go to my accountant at tax time I just drop all my financial documents into my Dropbox account, then print them on her WiFi printer once we’re there. I used to email those things to myself and then save them onto the phone. Dropbox is the cat’s pajamas.

    • Michelle says:

      Love you are doing P365…if you are doing it with you iPhone, there are two apps out that you store pics and journal right in the app and the photos are placed on a calendar. Just search “project 365″ in iTunes. They are great! I am using one this year and I forward right from the app to flickr. All my journaling is stored in flickr that I can access anytime and I copy and paste it into my P365 layouts.

  25. Megan (glumirk) says:

    Peppermint, to turn off the annoying lady on Avast, you just have to go to the settings and then click the Sounds tab on the left and you can turn off the sounds for the automatic updates. Or you can just turn it on Silent/Gaming mode and you won’t even get the little popups to remind you that it’s updated.

    I LOVE Avast and haven’t been infected since I got it, and I used to get randomly infected all the time with other anti-virus programs.

    • Peppermint says:

      Thank you! I still hadn’t googled it … so I just went and did this, and now feel completely inept because I had never even looked at the settings in Avast.

      I turned her off! I’d leave it on if I could choose different voice packs. Like if Mr. T was all “I pity the virus that just tried to invade your computer!” I would be all over that.

  26. Teresa Kauffman says:

    Hello – I love your show! I know I am really behind in listening, but I cannot load episode 13. I get an error 2032. Please help! Thanks!

  27. StudioWendy says:

    When I listen to the shows, I make lots of mental notes on things I want to comment on. (Well, sometimes I actually say them out loud too… I feel like I’m right there with you!) Anyway, I just remembered I wanted to mention that FontExplorer by Linotype used to be free, but several years ago, they started charging for it. Although it’s priced competitively with other font management softwares at 79EUR, I was disappointed to discover when I got my new computer last year that they went from free to what amounts to around $108 today. But, I tried out several less expensive options and still found it to be one of the most user-friendly options out there, so I still bought it.

    • steph says:

      I use FontXplorer, which I think might be different. I will have to check out the other one though if you like it that much :)

  28. Pat says:

    Sounds like it was a great episode. Any alternate way to hear it? I keep getting the 2032 error…

  29. Brenda Wilson says:

    I’ve just recently started listening to your shows and am going back listening to old episodes and am currently listening to this one. Since this topic is technology-related, I thought it a good one to include my comment (question really). By the way, I’m really enjoying your show. I use Photoshop CS3 and Bridge CS3. My husband has set up a tagging system for our photos within Bridge but I haven’t yet totally embraced using it (I use it more ‘folder’ based), but do hope to use it to add some additional tags to photos based on my scrapbooking hopes (and following Stacy Julian’s Library of Memories categorizations). I’ve heard you talking about Lightroom and have seen references in other digital/photography sites/forums. Despite reading a bit on the Adobe site, it’s not really clear to me the differences between Lightroom and Photoshop and LIghtroom and Bridge. I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to invest some time in trying out a trial version of Lightroom – either to provide better tools for photo editing and/or organization (versus Photoshop and Bridge) and/or for digital product organization and/or creating digital scrapbook pages. Any insight would be appreciated. Also, if there are online Bridge and/or Lightroom courses that you know of, I’d appreciate hearing about them.

    I also wanted to comment on a past episode when you talking about smartphone photography. I have a Blackberry (which seems to be way more limited in ‘apps’ than Android users, let alone iPhone users – so no sympathy from me for Andoid phone owners who envy the range of apps available to iPhone users) and the photos aren’t that great. However, I do find that I get very good results applying a filter Photoshop plugin called Noiseware Professional called Imagenomic. I also love it for grainier DSLR photos taken at ISO 1600 or higher. I don’t think you had mentioned such a filter when talking about ways to improve phone photos so I thought I’d mention it.