MSI Gaming Mouse DS100 Interceptor Unboxing

MSI's DS100 Interceptor is a relatively inexpensive entry level laser gaming mouse. Boasting a sleek minimalist silhouette with "Advanced anti-slip coating" on its surface, the mouse comes with:

• 7 programmable buttons
• Multi color-lighting
• Ambidextrous Shape
• Gold-plated usb connecter
• Braided wire cable
• 4 step adjustment buttons
• 5 gaming profiles via the software (adjustable using the profile mode switch underneath the mouse)

Generic Use

The software is fairly intuitive however the tracking seems to be somewhat finicky, but currently after several tweaks and experimentation seems to offer a fairly accurate and responsive feedback. I'm assuming that gaming mice tend to be not as instantly ready to go as other consumer level devices.
Although I use it on a wooden desktop, I didn't assume the tracking should be such an issue without a mouse mat. But I will assess it after getting a good quality mouse mat.

Another hitch was the scroll wheel's rubber covering separated from the wheel after roughly 4-5 months of normal use. Luckily a drop or two of super glue underneath it completely fixed the issue - however it should not have happened at all.

The farther thumb switch on the left hand side is not easily reachable unless if you adapt a more 'mouse in palm' style grip i.e. the whole hand is resting on top of the mouse. I'll have further updates after a fair amount of gaming, so stayed tuned.

How to make custom YouTube thumbnails - Quick and Easy

So I fumbled with one key tenets of YouTube videos, amongst every other thing. That is the first impression you might make, or might not - the humble thumbnail.

It's usually what grabs a viewer's attention, almost always more than the title of the video.

For this I thought I'd take an existing video 'How to fix microphone not being picked up on Windows 10' that I have which has an auto generated thumbnail.

The basic setup is as follows, (I use Photoshop, it can easily be set in any other image editing software, see link below for .PSD file):

Width: 1920 px
Height: 1080 px
Resolution: 150 pixels/inch

The Width x Height will automatically take care of the proportions of the image. And the resolution is roughly double 72 pixels/inch - which is generically what images are set to for web based formatting, i.e. online display etcetera. I found this made the text and image assets very small when used as a thumbnail, almost to the point it defeated the purpose of a custom thumbnail to begin with.

Setting resolution at 150 pixels (which is half the industry requirement for anything that is to be printed 300 dpi, roughly translated) ensures that the graphics and text would be of a sufficiently large enough size and quality. You are more than free to go higher than 150, but definitely not smaller though.

Photoshop Template File

Photoshop .PSD file that you can use as a template with placeholders/guidelines you can use as a makeshift grid to make adjustments how you see fit.

Once you've settled on the text, image and layout:

• Save the PSD
• Flatten all the layers
• Save as Jpeg or PNG

That's all there's to it, now you can upload it as a thumbnail for your YouTube video. Here is the new thumbnail I created:

And this is how it looked previously using a thumbnail that was auto generated, which tends to get lost in most settings where it would show up:

In video promotion:

In the up next list & YouTube search results:

So now it will have more of a presence amongst all the other videos. Happy hunting.

YouTube Keyboard shortcuts

It's often easier to use keyboard shortcuts then navigating to and through menus and clicks. Most programs have handy little shortcuts to expedite processes, most of which can be configured. Websites have these too although most aren't evident until you accidentally hit upon it or the site points it outright.
Here are a list of YouTube keyboard shortcuts which will lessen the amount of clicking and mousing; some are only accessible through the shortcut keys:

Reguar Shortcuts (only works when focus is on the video)

Space - Pause/resume video
Left/Right Arrow/- Rewind or forward in 5 second increments
Up/Down Arrow - increase or decrease volume

Other Shortcuts (works regardless where the focus is)

J/L - Rewind or forward in 10 second increments

K - Pause/resume video
,   - Step backward (while paused, comma)
.   - Step forward (while paused, period)

Shift + . - Increase video speed
Shift + , - Decrease video speed

M - Mute or unmute audio
F  - Toggle fullscreen on/off
C -  Toggle captions on/off
/  - Activate search bar