@fredygamer: Actually, with Snagit 7 or above there is a shading tool where you select the area to be highlighted, and it automatically shades the rest of the image for you. You can even adjust the opacity of the shading. Not only that, but you can even blur the non-highlighted areas to further remove them visually.

@tmlfan81: I would expect nothing less from a Leafs fan. :^p

@Pan_theFrog: Thanks for the suggestion!

@Skorpeyon: EEK! Auto-leveling is the anti-Christ! [evil grin]

@Wit: I agree with your comment about the white point. I usually think in terms of lightness and darkness. I create a copy of the image in an adjustment layer, set the threshold to totally exaggerate light areas, mark the lightest area, then change the threshold to find the darkest area, and mark that point. I cancel…

@MyPetFly: I use LAB as well, but for the purposes of this article I think that it goes a bit beyond a 60-second photo makeover. :^)

@Thud: There are ways to simulate HDR in Photoshop without actually shooting over/under exposed and properly exposed images, which is the "right" way to start the HDR process. Basically you simply take your properly exposed image and copy it and use PS tools to underexpose one and overexpose another copy and then…

Sidebar comment related to GReader itself; I find it to be overkill for the amount of feeds I follow, and to me, for some reason, it doesn't scale down well. I can't quite put my finger on the reason why. Maybe because it's yet-another-screen-to-load on top of GMail and my other Google goodies.

@LankanDude: This I agree with 100%. I run a FreeCycle group and when I get notified by Yahoo! Groups that someone has requested to join, I simply reply to the email and the person is given access to the site as a member. When all contacts were added automatically because of a reply, I wound up with a couple hundred…

@LethAL & DogFog: Amen to that!

I get depressed seeing how much I have on my to-do list. I dropped the GTD mantra in terms of tracking things religiously because it literally caused me more stress. Now I stay focused on the job and hand and as soon as its finished I just move to the next thing.

@MichelleMyBelle: EVERYONE has something to contribute. Don't be shy! Just jump in with both feet any time you like. You'll be glad you did.

@qrius: What about auto-forwarding via POP or IMAP? Check your GMail settings to set that up.

My obligatory comments about browser speed comparisons:

@dchall8: Firefox itself isn't bloated, but when you add x number of add-ons, then can you really say it's not bloated too?

vOTe: 7-ZIp I hope this is not a duplicate — stoopid comment filter... :^p

@equazcion: Too funny.

@piesforyou: I have UAC turned off via a radio button in my user account. See this Lifehacker article for more information.

@Jagged Toaster: Thanks a bunch for those - I already have them done, actually, but I'm sure someone else will benefit from your response.

@rainbowsky: What are the most common tweaks that do work? Gotta link or two? :^)