Photoshop Projects 1

Background Removal - Involves removing background and applying white background.

Backgroun removed

White background

Background removed, before and after

Photo Popup - I made the photo seem like it's a 3D image popping out of the photo itself.

Photo Enhancements - Involves skin smoothing and color adjustments. I try to edit photos and achieve a realistic instead of a "fake airbrushed" effect.

Photo Enhancement 1

Photo Enhancement 2

Photo Enhancement 3

Solved: Top Margin Is Too Large When Printing (Canon iP2700)

I was printing documents and I notice problems with the margin when I print. The top margin becomes too long compared to what I have set. I checked the printer options and changed some settings but nothing changed. Then I found the solution.

1. Go to Printer Properties (for Office 2010).
2. On Quick Setup (the first tab), look for printer paper size.
3. Change the size to what you need. In my case it was set to A4 then I changed it to Letter 8.5x11.
4. Click "Apply" button to apply changes.

Step number 4 is important because before, though I changed settings, I never clicked Apply, instead, I just clicked Okay which didn't really apply the changes I have set.

So there you go. I hope this helps.

Acer AO 725 BSOD (IRQL_GT_ZERO_AT_SYSTEM_SERVICE): Due to NCH Software

BSOD of my AO 725 laptop

About several months ago I downloaded several audio software for a transcription project that I was doing. I was looking for a software that could either download or record a streaming audio file and save as an mp3 file so that I could use it with my Dragon Naturally Speaking. I also downloaded several software from NCH (Sound Tap, Express Scribe and Express Dictate. After that day, I noticed my laptop freezing every few minutes.

At first, I thought that my computer hanged every few minutes for a few seconds due to the many programs running at the same time - which I thought was bad because my laptop was fairly new that time. I thought maybe it's either the CPU or the memory, but my small machine has 4GB of memory. Then I thought maybe my new laptop (Acer AO 725) isn't as good as my old one.

A few days after the first signs of problems showed up, my laptop showed its first BSOD. I freaked out, it was the first time I had experienced it. A few days later, it happened again. Then it became more frequent until i got used to it. I took a picture of the screen and searched for a solution.

Most posts point to either hardware (RAM or video card) or software. Some also point to virus. I scanned my computer with MS Security Essentials and Malwarebytes and the tests came out clean. Then after a few days, I started removing the audio software I have downloaded except for the NCH software. I didn't remove them as I have used them before in my old AO 721 with no problems. So among the software that i downloaded on that fateful day, the ones from NCH were the ones I am most familliar of.

Months passed and I had to endure the BSOD problem. Over the holidays, I have decided to bring my laptop to the Acer Service Center just in case it is hardware issues that is causing the error. I didn't want to open my laptop since it is still under warranty.

I was ready to bring it to the service center when a friend said it could just be some software that is causing it. I thought, okay one more try. I decided to remove some software I am not familiar of. I went over the Uninstall Program list to check which ones I should remove. I thought none of the ones there seem to be causing the problem. I then decided to remove all the NCH software since I could not use them anymore because they were all past the trial period.

After removing all of them, I decided to wait and see and observe if the BSOD would occur. It's been two weeks now since and I have never experienced the error - not even once. So I guess one or all of the three were causing the problem since I didn't uninstall any other program that day.