The “Blue” Troubled Waters of Color-Calibration

The faculty here is moving, well kicking and screaming, actually, toward teaching with digital images instead of 35mm slides. One of their favorite arguments used to stave off converting to digital is that the image quality isn’t high enough.

Last week, one professor who is interested in teaching with PowerPoint approached me to express his concern. His complaint? He said he had tried teaching a lecture in PowerPoint, but that the images had looked so terrible, that he switched immediately back to slides. I asked him for the specifics of the term “terrible.” It turns out his complaint was that the images were all yellowish-green, as though someone had slimed the entire area of the screen where the projector was projecting images.

Ah ha! A problem I could fix, not just the rhetorical “I-don’t-wanna-give-up-my-slides” rant. I took him, his Mac iBook, and my flash stick into the classroom in which he is assigned to teach. The flash stick impressed him. Why wouldn’t it? A 1 GB tiny device (barely larger than a human finger) that works like an external hard drive! (Stock up now, the holidays are coming and they make great stocking stuffers).

This little stick can hold about 20 PowerPoint lectures, filled with high resolution images. While he was learning about flash sticks, I connected his computer to the LCD projector with the VGA cord. I selected, from my flash stick, a demonstration PowerPoint lecture I had put together. The images are particularly bright in color when viewed under the correct circumstances. Indeed, they looked a sort of murky-green color as we stood there testing the machine.

The professor looked pleased that I, too, felt that the images were skewed the wrong color – and even more pleased that I told him it was an easy fix. On a Macintosh, you can click on the “Apple” menu in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Click on “system preferences” and then “displays.” In the middle of that menu screen there is a tab that says “color.” In the lower right of that screen there is a “calibrate” option. This will lead you through a series of screens – make sure you select “expert options” it will give you much more control in your selections.

There are various test pages that ask you to slide the bar up or down to increase or decrease the light amounts. There is one that asks for you to select the white point as well. Then there are a series of grids that allow you to shift the color balance. These allow you to adjust the hue and saturation.

While doing these tests, the Professor was able to find the adjustment that allowed his images to show up the way they should. The LCD projector in that classroom is the oldest, and is not quite as “true” to color as some of the newer ones. However, I created a profile for that room’s projector in his laptop and he can use that setting anytime he uses that classroom.

There are 4 art history classrooms and it would make a great deal of sense to have a setting profile for each of the classrooms allowing the user to select that room’s color settings each time they teach there. In addition, we can supply a computer for each projector and have it set up correctly.

The only caveat with this is that many will want to bring their own laptops. Either way, it will be more difficult in the future to use the “oh, but the color isn’t as good” excuse to avoid switching to teaching with digital images.

Volume Control Mystery

Question: The volume control that has always been on my task bar, no longer shows up when I turn on my computer. I have gone to sound device and it is checked to be it the task bar. I tried unchecking it, apply, the checking it again, the apply. It will show up then. But when I turn off my computer the turn it back on, it is gone. I am running Windows XP. Thank you for any help you can give me.

Answer: It’s amazing. This just happened to me. I was as perplexed about this problem as you were. So I tried it and I did exactly as you did. But in my case, it worked. I was able to anchor it to my task bar again. The only thing I did extra was to restart my computer immediately after. I have dealt with similar problems throughout my career with mysterious re-occurrences. I also noticed that whenever I fixed the problem, and did not restart the computer immediately, the problem was prone to come back. Try restarting, and if the problem comes back, we’ll explore it further.

How Did I Get Spyware?

Spyware is a phenomenon of the Internet and it is protected by legal contracts that you agreed upon. Why would you agree on something so horrible? Easy. Remember the song in Mary Poppins “Just a spoon full of sugar, makes the medicine go down, the medicine go down?” Here is how you agreed to spyware.

If you are like most people, concerned with things like the weather, you might be enticed to download a small weather program that attaches itself to the bottom right hand corner of your computer screen, known as the “system tray.” This program informs you of the exact temperature and the possibility of rain in your area. In addition, this program is absolutely free. Or, is it?

When you downloaded your new personal weather channel, you were presented with a legal contract that you had to agree to obey before you were allowed to install the “free” program. Most of these agreements are long and convoluted. In order to read the entire agreement you might need a law degree or spend hours reading it in order to understand what it is actually saying. Therefore, most people just skip actually reading it.

The installation process does not know if you read it or not. As long as you clicked the button “I agree”, the installation continues. That is where we humans lose the battle against the marketing giants. The agreement we glossed over or completely ignored spelled out exactly how they are going to stick it to us.

First, they explain that in order to offset the cost of production for your display of the temperature, they must provide you with ads from their sponsors. That is, someone paid big money for you to see their pop-up ad. And, as they say, “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”, because you are actually paying for your free weather channel via pop-ups.

In summary, if you are truly lost without that free program that predicts rain and if you are willing to endure those endless pop-ups, I would suggest you get up off your seat and look out your window. Go outside and put your hand out. If it gets wet, it’s raining. If you feel like you need a jacket, it’s cold. If your hat gets blown away, it’s windy. Not only that, it is pop-up free and you don’t need a lawyer to interpret any lengthy contracts.

Beware! some disreputable web sites have pop-up ads that advertise “free monitor”, “free dinner”, “you might be infected with spyware”, etc. and ask you to “Click Here for Yes” or “Click Here for No”. Both of these options have the same link. Why would it have the same link? Because even by clicking “No”, you are enabling the spyware to be installed in your computer.

How do I get rid of Spyware?

Once you have spyware, it can be difficult to do any real work on your computer. You might even be crippled to the extent that your computer will not be able to respond as it is busy processing all the pop-ups. Remember the earlier example of you driving in your car and being unable to get to work due to all the interruptions; the same is true of your computer not being able to perform the tasks you want due to all the pop-up interruptions it is receiving. The best solution is always prevention.

Prevention can best be achieved by not installing “free” programs. However, the assistance of an expert is always a good idea since spyware can also be installed accidentally. One program I recommend is AVG Internet Security It is very easy to use, and very inexpensive.

What Is Spyware?

Spyware is a kind of program that is created by some marketing companies to keep track of your Internet surfing trends. Why would they care, you ask? Well, imagine having your own personal shopping agent that follows you around the city throughout the day, noting everything you do, everything you buy, and even everything you window-shop. The information the agent collected is relayed to companies that want your business.

As you begin your next day, your shopping agent is now armed with the information collected on the previous day. The shopping agent will now go out of their way to show you advertisements that closely resemble your likes and needs. More specifically, say you were driving around town the previous day looking for a new car. Along the way you stopped for lunch at the local Mexican restaurant, “El Taco Grande.” After your tasty lunch you passed by a pawnshop and saw a guitar on the window. You did not stop, but your agent noted your interest anyway.

The next morning as soon as you pulled out of your driveway, a taxi cut you off with a roof ad that stated “Follow me and test drive a new Hybrid-Off-Roader.” You had to honk your horn repeatedly to make him move out of your way. Not long after you persuaded the taxi ad to move out of your way, a flyer landed on your windshield with a coupon for “Buy one get one free burrito” at the nearest Mexican restaurant. You had to pull off the road to remove the “coupon” that was blocking your view.

Once you were back on the road, a group of teenagers flagged you down to entice you to attend their yard sale where they featured a used 12-string guitar. At this rate, you never get to work because of all these interruptions. This is the job of Spyware — to report on your Internet surfing trends and then bombard you with pop-up ads in hopes of getting your business. But it’s annoying as heck.