James Fryer

Oops, Bad User Experience

2010-09-09T20:44:00.002-05:00

If you have been, "at the heart of the blogging and social media revolution since 2001", one expects a little more attention to design. You don't have to be all wiz-bang and ajaxy, but anticipating user expectations is something you should be able to do.

So I was rather aghast when visiting Six Apart's website to find that their nice thumbnail grid highlighting their premier clients wasn't actually clickable.

All those cute thumbnails of blogs you're just dieing to check out? Not actually links. Sorry, can you explain that to me? They show me the blogs, but then don't let me go to them? What bone head came up with that idea?

How hard would it have been to do an old school image-map? Oh, right, the image is actually hidden in the CSS. I guess that makes it easier to switch the CSS for mobile users, but since when was easy part of a good design process? So it seems we are dealing with either a lazy designer, or a clueless manager. Even so, how hard would it have been to recognize that your viewers might like to check out some of those blogs? How hard would it have been to add one little link below the thumbnail grid that links to a list of premier clients?

Windows Is OK Too You Know!

2010-05-04T17:56:00.000-05:00

Ken Rockwell likes taking little digs at us poor Windows users and today he pointed out that Apple's built in image viewer is a good tool for viewing RAW files and can also do some small edits.

Well, that's nice, but Windows users have some free apps that do that, and do it better than Apple I think. Raw Therapee (THe Experimental RAw Photo Editor) is a FREE full featured RAW viewer and editor that runs on both Windows and Linux. I reviewed it a few years ago and it looks like it has only gotten better since then.

As for a system wide image viewer that works with RAW files, there is Google Picasa. It is a free viewer that is great for organizing images and has some decent editing tools as well. But what really shines is that you can set it as your default system image viewer. If you double click an image, Picasa Photo Viewer will instantly launch and display the image. It works with JPEGs, GIFs, PNGs, TIFFs, and RAW files. You can scroll through all the images in the same directory using the arrow keys. It also lets you zoom in, star, rotate, upload, email, and edit in Picasa.

Picasa is my favorite photo organizer, but for series editing I use Adobe Lightroom. It is not free, but it is well worth it for quickly editing a lot of image with very powerful tools. It uses the same RAW processor that Photoshop uses but is much better tuned to working with a lot of images. Lightroom 3 Beta is available free now, but will only function until June 30, 2010, so grab it now and take it for an extended test drive.

Review: Air Hogs Atom

2010-03-11T20:03:00.002-06:00

The Air Hogs Atom is a truly tiny RC helicopter, it fits inside the controller! It is also very cheap, $30 at Target. It is also highly detailed and very rugged.

That is where the good news ends though. It does not fly very well. Both my four year old son and I can get it to hover relatively well, but it is too jittery and unstable to get it to fly in any one direction. It goes where it wants, but mostly stays in one limited area, slowly turning in circles. This is after I twist the trim knob on the controller to stop it from just madly spinning which is does every time I turn it on. It spins and spins, don't be shy about twisting the trim knob, it takes about a dozen full twists before it settles down.

Storm Trooper to indicate scale. Look how small it is!

Even though I can't fly it around like the Air Hogs Sharp Shooter, I still think it is a lot of fun. This little helicopter is really tough too, my son bangs it off the ceiling, the walls, the floor, the book case, my face, anything that gets in the way. And the little heli just keeps on going!

The instability might come from this heli having only one rotor, the type that has two is much more stable, like the Air Hogs Sharp Shooter. Or I might have gotten a lemon.

Tip: don't forget to turn the heli off before charging, it will not take a full charge if it is on.

Air Hogs Sharp Shooter Review

2010-03-11T19:35:00.006-06:00

I did not expect much from this little RC helicopter, but I am now impressed. It took me maybe Three or four flights before I developed a good degree of control of the Air Hogs Sharp Shooter, but now I can fly it with confidence. It's not perfect, but for $35 it is quite a great toy. My four year old has never really gotten the hang of flying this one, he is better with the Air Hogs Atom which is much smaller, more durable, but really can only hover, not fly around.

The Sharp Shooter is stable, but slow. I can fly it all around the house, but it takes patients and a lot of directional correction. It gets banged up a lot, but has only superficial damage.

Pros:

Tough
Very Stable
Just over 7 minute flight time
Highly realistic model
It shoots!

Cons:

It takes a long time to charge (at least 30 minutes)
It takes a subtle touch to control well
Control is not always predictable

Storm Trooper is used to give a sense of scale.

Flying tip - Don't count on it always turning as quickly as you expect, sometimes it is easier to spin around in the opposite direction to get it pointed where you want.

The Air Hogs Sharp Shooter is available at Amazon and Target.

Ken Rockwell on DSLR Sensor Cleaning

2009-12-02T15:20:00.004-06:00

Love him or hate him, Ken Rockwell calls 'em they way he sees 'em and I find is point of view refreshing and useful. But this note he wrote on November 29th, 2009 Ken Rockwell, is a just flat out FUD and it's disappointing to see it coming from Ken.

I'd never, ever touch my sensor. I personally know people who really have destroyed $5,000 cameras when they tried sensor swabs or whatever other Hillbilly junk is out there for do-it-yourselfers. If I can't get it off with a Shop-Vac or blower bulb, I send my camera back to its manufacturer.

If you try touching your sensor with anything, you'll just as likely wind up sending you camera to meet its maker in a different sense.

This is the email I sent him in response:

SUBJECT LINE: I clean my senor, yes I do
------------------------------------------------------
Ken,

Actually no, I don't clean my sensor. I clean the glass that sits on my sensor.

I'm sorry to say this Ken, but you really are helping to spread the FUD that surrounds senor cleaning and that is a disservice to your readers.

Are you afraid of cleaning your windows? Do you pay someone $100 to clean one square inch of glass?

I've cleaned my D70 at least half a dozen times with sensor swabs and cleaning solution from VisibleDust (visibledust.com) that I bought at B&H Photo.

You are lucky to live and shoot in a dry climate. But here in the Northeast, I work outside in and around flowing water. It is a moist environment. In this environment, moister and dust combine to make very sticky particles that just will not come off the senor by blowing on it. The moisture essentially welds the dust onto the sensor.

Camera shops love this business, it's basically highway robbery. My local camera shop charges $110 and keeps the camera for a week to clean the sensor. I spent about $50 on cleaning supplies that will last a dozen cleanings. It takes me about ten minutes to clean my sensor. At home. Whenever it needs it. An honest camera shop would charge $15 or $20 and do it while you wait.

I enjoy your site and have learned a lot from it, thank you.

Best regards,
James Fryer
------------------------------------------------------

I received no response which is understandable, he no doubt gets loads of emails everyday. And I don't need a response, what I need is for him to not post any more harmful information.

What photo gear to travel with

2009-10-31T15:44:00.016-05:00

Determining the right photographic equipment to bring when traveling can be a painful balancing act. Bring too much and you will not only hurt you back and miss a lot of shots as you juggle lenses, but will no doubt be subjected to the unapproving gaze of your spouse. Bring too little and you are constantly haunted by the shot 'that might have been' had you only had the perfect lens, filter, body, flash, etc.

Nikon D70
Nikon 60mm Macro
Sigma 10-20mm

Nikon N75
Nikon 28-200mm
Nikon 24mm

Nikon FG
Nikon 100mm
Nikon 24mm

I've got it easy, I like wide and macro. I bring only my super wide angle Sigma 10-20mm and my Nikon 60mm Macro (also doubles as a short telephoto, but the 105mm would be better still). If I want to go crazy (and I usually do), I throw in my small and lite 35mm f1.8, a great lens for candid and low light. Actually, a great lens all around and a worthy choice all by itself because it is small, lite, and offers a nice balance of not being too wide or too long.

The conventional wisdom says to just bring the super zoom. Sure, Nikon's 18-200mm has won praise and does seem to have it all. But is doesn't. First: it's huge, second: it's slow - f3.5-5.6 (Okay, for this range that is impressive, but still it's slow compared to primes): third: the wide end has so much barrel distortion that it borders on being a fish-eye. But, it does offer good macro performance.

Another option to make sure your are carrying what you will actually shoot with is get all your favorite photographs into a program like Lightroom or Picasa. Both these programs (and most others) will show you a lot of the detail recorded as meta data in each image. You can look through and see what your most used focal lengths are and that should be a good indicator as to what lenses you should bring.

In Picasa, you can see this data by double clicking on an image (so it fills the window) and then click on the little propeller beanie in the lower right side. In Lightroom, switch to the Library module and expand the Metadata tab on the right. The data might not be available if you have already processed the photo, saving the image will often strip this data from the file.

But maybe you need to go with as little gear as possible, maybe only one lens. That can be a tough call, unless you think outside the box a little. Here's my advice for going lite, find your single favorite lens and pack that. Don't worry if it's a macro or ultra wide angle, or long telephoto. You won't regret taking your favorite lens because, well, it's your favorite lens right? Now, to make up for what ever you are missing, grab your point and shoot.

Yep, it's that simple. Stop worrying about every shot being perfect, you'll get great shots with your big DSLR paired to your favorite lens, you will get the shots you really want and they will be great. For everything else, there will be that small point and shoot that is smaller than even an external flash for your DSLR. It will likely cover a wide range from wide angle to telephoto.

Other benefits of caring that point and shoot:

Video: Not only video, but good, easy video. Sure, some new DSLRs do video now, but they don't do it very well unless you have a film (as in motion picture film) degree and a boat load of lenses.
Range: Even modest point and shoot cameras have 3 to 6 times zooms, with 8 to 12 times zoom becoming more common. There are lot of compromises in these designs, but again, this is just to catch all the other stuff that is outside you main interest. And most have very good macro modes.
Options: Having a second, less expensive and much smaller camera gives you options. There may be times when traveling that you don't want to lug around a big clunky DLSR, or when it is not safe or just not feasible. But you can always slip that point and shoot into your pocket and remember, the best camera is the one you have with you.
More Options: There are a lot of water proof and ruggedized point and shoots coming out now. How about that, can your DSLR shoot under water or can you drop it six feet without breaking? What could be worse than a broken camera on vacation? That's a rhetorical question, I really don't want you to answer that.

I have a great little Canon A720 IS. Unfortunately it is no longer available, but Canon has plenty of similar cameras. Its focal range is equivalent to 35-210mm, does great macro, is relatively fast with a maximum aperture of f2.8, and has Image Stabilization to really boost it's low light performance. And shooting at ISO 80 and reducing its resolution from 8 to 5 or 3 mega pixels does help reduce the noise inherent with small point and shoot sensors.

Paired with my Sigma 10-20mm, I have an equivalent range of 15-210mm in much less space than what most people need for the equivalent of 28-300mm.

My point and shoot is also a great companion to the all around 35mm f1.8 (52.5mm equivalent) on my Nikon D70. I can pull it out when I need to go a little wider, or a whole lot longer.

Most DSLRs use the cropped sensor, so the lens length is different on these, but if you are lucky enough to have one of the professional level 'full frame' DSLRs, my favorite travel lens is a 24mm. It is great for architecture and people. I can shoot one person from head to toe, or a group of people without having to move back 30 feet. It lets me stay with them, almost like I'm part of the family and not just the photographer. You know, so I can actually be with my family on vacation. It won't do head shots though. Well, it will, you can get close enough, but you won't like the results. For that, and real low light situations, add a small and lite 50mm. If you still feel the need for the long telephoto, add a point and shoot. The Nikon 24mm is not much bigger than the Nikon 50mm and when paired to an Nikon N75, takes up very little space and needs only a small bag to carry. Yes, that's right, that's a film camera. Guess what, it works great for travel (and it is a lot cheaper than a full frame DSLR). The body is much smaller and so are older prime lenses so your whole kit gets much smaller. Sure, I have to carry around film, but I find it a lot easier to stash a few roles of film on my person than to make room for a big DSLR and its correspondingly huge lenses. And old film bodies are so cheap that you really don't have to worry about them. If they break or get lost, it is not the end of the world.

The N75 and its lenses are relatively large in comparison to a rangefinder and its lenses. If ultra portability is the goal, you really can't beat a rangefinder. But, they don't have any really long telephoto lenses, so if that's you bag, give rangefinders a pass.

And of course, you could just go with a point and shoot. The Panasonic LX3 is, by all accounts, a phenomenal camera, but it has very short range, 24-60mm. There are plenty of other great options these days. It seems like the camera makers have finally stopped with their insane megapixel arms race and are not making some cameras that really are better. Canon has done a nice job with the new G11 and the S90.

There is also a whole new field of cameras with good interchangeable lenses based on the micro four-thirds sensor, the Panasonic Lumix GF1 being my favorite. The Olympus PEN E-P1 being another favorite. Both are significantly smaller than a DSLR. Their sensors are in between a consumer DSLR and a point and shoot, but the image quality is much closer to that of the DSLR. These are essentially the modern version of the old range finders, and in the right hands, I have seen some startlingly good results.

Please, do yourself a favor and don't buy that ridiculous camera backpack. Do your really want to lug that to the top of a mountain, or even a small hill. Pack lite, pack to go, be ready to shoot. Don't waste time switching lenses. Don't risk dropping your prized lenses into a 1000 foot chasm. First and foremost, have fun when you travel, engage with the people around you and use only your single best camera with your signal best lens to get those truly memorable shots. Don't waste time with all the trivial shots everyone else is trying to get. Better to come back with three grade A shots that you print out and hang on your wall than 2000 snapshots that won't every go past your hard drive.

Showing Photographs at Northern Westchester Hospital

2009-09-02T17:01:00.005-05:00

My work will be on display at the Northern Westchester Hospital in Mt. Kisco, New York from September 24th 2009 through March 15th 2010.

In response to the call for, "calm, peaceful, joyful, uplifting, colorful, bright, abstract or realistic", I picked several images from my water series and one large rose.

The reception for friends and family is on October 3rd, 2009 from 3pm to 5pm.

Arts & Edibles in Memory of Jonathan D. Pfeffer - 2009

2009-09-02T16:27:00.003-05:00

I am participating in the second annual Arts & Edibles Fund Raiser in Memory of Jonathan D. Pfeffer benefiting the Lexington Center for Recovery.

I will have three photographs on display at Spinelli's Italian Restaurant in Mount Kisco on September 13th, 2009 from 2pm to 6pm.

Tickets cost $35 prior to the event and $40 at the door. For sponsorship information, artist participation or to purchase tickets, call (914) 666-0191 or visit the Lexington Center for Recovery web site.

Two trolleys will wind around the trail, making stops at various local restaurants at which attendees may dine on tasty treats. While enjoying the local cuisine, trolley riders can browse and purchase artwork from Hudson Valley artists on display at each location.

Participating restaurants include:

A Taste of Jamaica
Basilico
Big Apple Bagels
Cafe of Love
French American Bistro
La Camilia
Lefteris Gyro
Lexington Square Cafe
Mango Cafe
Passage to India
Pierros
Spinelli's
Starbucks
Temptation Tea House
The Fish Cellar
Tuscan Oven
Via Vanti
Woody's on Main

Cheap hotels and motels are better than fancy five star hotels

2009-07-17T21:26:00.002-05:00

I have traveled a lot, both professionally and for pleasure. I have stayed at some complete dives as well as some great places, including five star hotels. Fancy hotels and five star hotels have been OK, from my point of view, worthy of only three stars. The cheap hotels and motels are generally first rate, four or five stars.

When I am traveling, I have simple needs. I want a clean room with a good shower and free WiFi. Nail those things and you get four stars. If your hotel/motel has a great location or the staff is especially helpful and friendly, you get another star.

Now let me pick on a couple of the five star hotels I've stayed at:

Ritz Carlton, South Beach
Sure, it was swanky, but they missed the details and that is what makes the difference between good and perfection. Location was good. But, the bathroom door was broken as was one of the side tables, that's pretty tacky, -1. No free WiFi, super tacky, -1. We checked in late with a tired two year old. We wanted to go straight to bed, but a knock at the door at 10pm wakes the baby. It's a steward with a some late night night complementary snack or something. Hello, we just checked in with a tired two year old! Thanks for waking him up, now get out! -1. Five minus three leaves you with two stars, bravo.

Wynn, Las Vegas
Impressive if odd designed rooms, very, very big, very spacious, totally over the top. The bathroom was bigger than most motel rooms I've stayed at. Not my style, but it is top tier for what it is. We had some trouble when checking in as well as some billing issues, but the staff were very responsive and acted with a great deal of professionalism. They knew they were working at a five star hotel and were more than up to the challenge. Rooms were clean, shower was great. But, no free WiFi, very tacky, -1. Seriously, it costs you next to nothing to offer this to your guests, you offer free HD TVs with free cable, that costs considerably more than free internet access. And the internet access charge was not all that much, so it is not like it's a big profit center, it's just tacky. Tacky, tacky, tacky. That leaves the Wynn as a four star.

Some Nameless Five Star Hotel in Shenzhen, China
I went there in 2000 and only stayed there one night and I just can't remember anything about it other than it cost me a whopping $34, it was beautiful, and the staff were great. I have vague recollection that it did have free (or maybe really, really cheap) wired internet access (2000 would have been a little early for WiFi). OK, fair enough, that really was a five star hotel.

Compared to The Holiday Inn Express in Quakertown, PA
Clean room, free WiFi, friendly staff, and though I have not tried the shower yet, the best lit bathroom I've ever seen. It's like a professional lighting studio. Not only is the WiFi free, it's also trouble free, no stupid sign in screens. I hopped on the network from both my iPod touch and my laptop. It's a little early to be calling this one, but it's at least a four star with a good chance of another star.

See, what is comes down to is, you just have to make me comfortable and happy. Oh, and don't be tacky.

What really annoys me is that all the fancy hotels have free cable TV, but I honestly can't remember the last time I turned on a TV in a hotel room. Yet, the one cheap thing that I really want, free WiFi, I have to pay for. And I have to pay for it each day. The cost is usually $10 to $15 a day. So, in as little as three days, I get to pay the hotel for internet access as much as I pay at home for a whole month!

Texas Furniture Makers Show 2009

2009-07-11T14:40:00.003-05:00

Ten years! The TENTH Annual Texas Furniuture Makers Show will be held in Kerrville, TX and run from October 22 to December 5, 2009.

More information and entry form can be found at the KACC web site.

The Kerr Art & Culture Center has rounded up another great set of judges for this year's show:

Jonathan Binzen of New Milford, CT is a nationally known craftsman, author, contributing editor for Fine Woodworking Magazine and photographer specializing in furniture and architecture.
Spider Johnson of Mason, TX is a professional artist, writer, furniture maker, wood marquetry master and musician.
Curtis Whittington of Boerne, TX is a professional furniture maker and master craftsman.

Two dozen woodworkers have already been accepted into the show during the early registration period. If you are a Texas furniture maker, hurry to get your entry application in before August 15th.

As in past years, there will be a review with the judges the day after the reception. This is one the the smartest and most valuable programs any furniture show anywhere does.

Also, this year's continuing education will be, "The Contemporary Scene in Handmade Furniture" by show judge Jonathan Binzen.

The reception and awards ceremony will be on November 7th, 2009.

Cash Awards:
First Place - Best in Show: $1000
Best Craftsman Award: $750
Best Design Award: $750
Best Contemporary Style Furniture: $750
Best Traditional Style Furniture: $750
Best Texas Style Furniture: $750
Best Whimsical / Art Furniture Style: $750
Woodcraft's People's Choice: $300
Best Apprentice Furniture Maker: $250
Hill Country Turner's Choice Award: $100

Google OS

2009-07-08T08:24:00.004-05:00

Announced today, Google will create a computer operating system to compete with Microsoft Windows, Apple OS X, and Linux named Google Chrome OS.

Initially, Google will be making Chrome OS for netbooks, a smart place to start as there are fewer compatibility issues with the simpler netbook computers. It is a good place for Google to cut its teeth on a new operating system. Google is currently working with netbook vendors and reports that Chrome OS will be shipping on netbooks by the middle of next year. After that, the implication from their announcement is that it will work its way up into laptops and then desktops.

Will it run Microsoft Office? Will it run Adobe Creative suite? Will it run games? This question is more up to the creators of those applications than it is to Google. Microsoft, Adobe, and game makers will have to develop their applications for Chrome OS. Will they? This is a very important aspect of Chrome OS to watch, which application developers commit to creating, or porting, their applications for Chrome OS?

Will Chrome OS become a full operating system like Microsoft XP/Vista/7, Apple's OS X, and Ubuntu? It is too early to tell really what Google's full intentions are. They may be only targeting the casual netbook market. That market is both small and vulnerable. It is an awkward market as it sits between ever improving Smart Phones that are much smaller and full on laptops that are much more capable. Netbooks don't generally fill the role as a primary computer, they are secondary machines for convenience. Because of this the whole netbook category may just disappear. And there is a chance that if Google is not quick enough, Chrome OS might slip away with it.

Personally, I am very interested in Chrome OS. I use XP everyday and OS X a couple of times a week. I would use OS X more, except that the applications I use everyday are on XP and, as a web designer, I have to test my work on the most common browser, Internet Explorer anyway. Thankfully I am savvy enough to keep my machine clean without having to run any crushingly awful anti-virus software.

But, it sure would be nice to have a cleaner, faster, and more reliable operating system. There is by no means any guaranty that Google can deliver, I am wary as to whether or not they can deliver. For comparison, their web browser Chrome is great and it is my primary browser. But, I am typing this post out in Firefox because, ironically enough, Blogger (a Google property) does not work well inside Chrome. If Google can't get its own web applications to run perfectly in their own browser, how well are they going to be able to get everyone elses applications to run on their own operating system?

Another interesting question is who does this hurt and who does this help?

On the hurt side, Microsoft is the obvious target. As Rob Enderle said, "This is the first time we have had a truly competitive OS on the market in years. This is potentially disruptive and is the first real attempt by anyone to go after Microsoft." Except, of course, it is not. Rob apparently has not heard of a small company down in California called Apple. Which is funny as he tries to pass himself off as some kind of PC industry expert. I guess Rob has not noticed Apple's ever increasing market share? Or that on several college and university campuses Apple usage is over 20%? He also seems to be jumping the gun a bit here, Google does not yet have Chrome OS out. And their first foray into netbooks is a year away. So, it's not really, "...on the market.." He, and most other 'industry pundits' seem to be missing the story hear, I guess due to their Microsoft bias.

The interesting question is, how does this really effect the market? My best guess is that it has potential to hurt Apple more than Microsoft. This is because people who have a choice in what operating system they use often look for something better, faster, more reliable, and easier to use. Regardless of what fanboys on either side say, that better operating system is OS X. It is easier, it is faster (mostly), it is more reliable. It is my humble opinion that most people who use Windows are either forced to because of business issues, or they just don't know enough to look at something else. Microsoft clearly has a hold on the business community with applications like Exchange, Outlook, and MS Office. At least for the moment, Google Wave may change that. And I think Wave is more of an immediate threat to Microsoft than Chrome OS is because it might open up the business market. If that happens, the operating system people choose to use will be much less important. That, in turn, opens the door for competing operating systems to go up against Windows.

But back to why Chrome OS is bad for Apple. If Chrome OS looks to be a really strong operating system, it might draw away application developers from the Mac platform (OS X). That would be bad, because, as Steve Ballmer once said, "Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developer...." Good developers (who seem to be turning more and more to the Mac) are what drive great applications and that in turn drives the market. If Apple looses developers, Apple is less relevant.

Also, because most Apple users have a choice in what operating system they use, they can switch much more easily. If Chrome OS is as good or better then OS X, then Apple has a real problem. Except that Apple is a smart and creative company that may well figure out a way to be more competitive. Apple's reaction will be very interesting. Google and Apple are quite friendly, and they will both be running on the same core (Linux). Who knows, maybe Chrome OS will be sold on Apple hardware, maybe Chrome OS will become OS 11 (because ours goes to 11)? This is just crazy talk at this point, but with Apple and Google, I don't take anything for granted.

Artist

2009-07-06T19:56:00.003-05:00

Jeff Reese, AKA, "Solomon Kane" is a cool guy. He is a big guy, an imposing guy, a gentle guy, a sympathetic guy, a caring guy, a giving guy, a thoughtful guy, a trustworthy guy, a religious guy, a philosophical guy, a surprising guy, and a creative guy. Definitely a creative guy.

I met him many years ago when I lived in Houston and had a gallery. I was a little suspicious of Jeff the first time I met him. At the time, I was not used to people being so forthright and it threw me a little. But, thankfully for me, it did not take long to realize what Jeff is, Jeff is true.

He is a cop. He also makes trippy, colorful, crazy, and mind-bending paintings.

The point of my rambling is that I was very happy to see that he has been getting some press lately. Bravo Jeff and good luck.

Google Wave

2009-05-30T16:11:00.007-05:00

What is Google Wave?

Google Wave is a 'next generation' email system. It takes cues from Gmail and builds a new model for conversation over the web. A simplistic way of looking at it is to say that it is a mash up of an email app, IM client, Wiki, blog, and photo sharing site. A more sophisticated way of seeing it is as email reimaged, or thinking about how one would build a communication system on the web starting from scratch.

Google Wave not only changes how we use email, but also how the nuts and bolts of it work. Resources (like images) are uploaded once and then shared where ever they need to be, in a document, a photo album, a blog, etc... And Wave will allow 'drag and drop' of images (and maybe other files?) into the browser directly from your desktop onto the web.

Instant Message or Email? Yes, both.

Currently, during an Instant Message conversation, each person waits while the other types. No more, as one person types, the other sees each word, indeed each letter, as they are typed. This instant and continual connection is what dissolves the line between what an email is and what an instant message is. Conversations can be conducted as they would in a current email environment, or can be treated like a chat session.

You say 'Conversation' I say 'Wave'

One of Gmail's innovations was the inventions of 'conversations'. In the 'old days', emails would be bounced back and forth between users and would whined up scattered across the inbox. But Gmail automatically consolidated all these emails into on expandable conversation. The new basic unit in Google Wave is simply called a Wave which is basically the same thing as a current Gmail conversation, but on steroids (legal ones of course). A Wave can be replied to like a conventional email, or the recipient can insert a reply anywhere in the original wave, so the reply has context. In addition, the recipient can edit the original email, treating it like a collaborative document.

This free wheeling editing capability could get confusing and downright dangerous if not for a basic feature built into the frame work of Google Wave: a timeline. This timeline can be used to 'roll back' the conversation within the wave to see who added or deleted what and when. It is a simple and intuitive method of tracking changes and makes this whole email thing much more elegant. You can seamlessly flow from a typical 'email' into a collaborative document to a chat and back again, the hole time being able to see exactly where the story started and how it grew.

Bona Fide

If it is not clear just how big of a step forward this is, know that Wave is from the same guys who did Google Maps. Google Maps completely revolutionized online maps. Every other mapping system has been chasing (copying) Google Maps for years. I expect the same will be true of Wave.

Mobile Integration

The developers of Google Wave have worked very hard to make all different kinds of communication seamless. Wave can be used like the email you know and love or like IM. But the developer's zeal for seamlessness did not stop there, they built the system from the ground up to work beautifully both on your desktop and on your mobile phone. There certainly is a difference between the mobile and desktop versions, but the parity between them far exceeds the differences.

For you, for me, it's free, it's Open Source.

Not only is the design and functionality of Wave extraordinary, but so is Google's approach to the platform, they are giving it away. Anyone can download and install Wave on their own server and run with it, no strings attached. The code is open and the dev team has made is easy to create 'extensions' that make Wave do what you want it to do. This is extremely powerful, what we have seen of Wave so far really is just the early iterations of the dev team, but Wave is more a frame work than a final product. I expect that Wave will evolve in many different ways in the coming years and that has the power to solidify it's continued success.

But when a developer takes Wave and makes it his own, that does not leave the developer on his own lonely product fork. Nope, Google Wave is designed to work with variants of itself. You can customize it and still have it play nice with someone else's customized Wave.

Plays nice with social networks

As I mentioned at the top, one of the core ideas is to create the content once and share it where every you want. That means plopping a Wave component down into your FaceBook page, should you be so inclined. Post a 'Wave' to blog? Sure thing, and it retains all its 'Wave like' properties. If you update the Wave, the Blog reflects that change as you change it.

Powerfully extensible

Google not only lets people mess with Wave, they want people to mess with Wave. The Wave dev team created a simple API for creating extensions. By doing this, they have invited a lot of people to the party. Think about how successful Firefox has become, in no small part because that is what they did. There are thousands of extensions for Firefox that let it do all kinds of things from grabbing video from YouTube to notifying you when you have a new email. Google is not staffed by dummies and they are not to proud to take a play out of the Firefox's playbook.

The Wave dev team has built a few of their own extensions to get the ball rolling. One of the most impressive is Rosie that instantly translates Waves into your language, letting you chat (in real time) with someone typing in a foreign language.

Other examples of Wave's extensions are:

Integrated with Twitter
Play Chess in real time in a Wave
(the aforementioned) ability to automatically post a Wave to a blog

And in this corner, from Redmond, Washington...

Wave is in beta now, open only to a select group of developers. It is scheduled to be released at the end of the summer (2009). As it stands, one glaring omission from Wave is calendar functionality. I have little doubt that it will be added in at some point. Maybe it is such a large feature set that it was not ready for the preview. Or maybe that functionality will be added through an extension. Or maybe, just maybe Google did not want to scare Microsoft too much.

I can not know or speculate if Google intentionally targeted Microsoft's Exchange server (that runs most company's email systems) or if the threat that Wave posses to Exchange is just a byproduct of Google's desire to build the next generation internet communication platform. Either way, Wave certainly is the scariest thing to happen for Microsoft since Firefox. In fact, it is significantly scarier.

If Wave proves to be reliable and secure, Exchange will have a competitor like nothing it has seen before. IT departments around the world will have the option of a wildly powerful, extensible, and controllable communications platform in Wave. And it is free. Compared to a buggy, semi-secure, closed, and expensive alternative (Exchange).

Wave lacks two things that Exchange has; Exchange is the leader so it is what IT departments know, and Exchange has integration with Outlook's calendar features. Outlook lets a company know who is doing what, when, and where. It is a massively powerful tool. If and when Wave adds similar (or, based on what we have seen from Wave so far, superior) features, Microsoft will be in real danger of loosing it's grip on the business market and by extension, it's grip on the operating system market. Oh, did I not mention, because Wave is completely web based, it does not matter what operating system people are using to access it, it is all the same. Unless you are running Internet Explorer which was distinctly absent from the list of browsers that Wave will work in. But then, if you are still running Internet Explorer, you have bigger problems...

There is a lot of work still to do on Wave, and a lot of ground it has to cover before it can even be considered a threat to Microsoft. But, in my mind, it is the first real challenge that could be a serious threat to Microsoft as a whole.

And to be frank, Microsoft does not look to be in a position to deal with a serious competitor right now. They look better now than they have for years, they are set to release Windows 7 that may be their first operating system that does not suck since Windows 2000. They recently launched their new search engine, 'bing' that also does not suck. It may even be on par with Google. But, 'not sucking' is no way to compete with a serious threat. And when you release a new product, it can not be 'just as good as', it needs to be better, otherwise who cares?

Third Place

2009-05-19T08:10:00.003-05:00

I was awarded third place in the photography catagory for Mega-Mum at this years Katonah art show.

Mega-Mum

Katonah Art Show

2009-05-16T10:33:00.004-05:00

The Women's Civic Club of Katonah is holding the 2009 Annual Beaux Arts Exhibit at the Katonah Library. The show runs from May 18th through the 23rd. The reception will be on Saturday May 23rd, 2009 from 2pm until 4pm.

I have two photography works in the show:

Mega-Mum

Flower Kaleidoscope

Microsoft has dumb customers

2009-04-22T07:49:00.008-05:00

Microsoft features 'real' people in their new ads who are looking for laptops and, surprise, they find that PCs running Windows are better for them than Macs.

The first 'shopper' up was the now infamous Lauren who says she is on a strict $1000 budget. Why such a strict budget Lauren? You are driving a VW Beetle that costs a good $10,000 more then a nice little Honda or Toyota. It's a vanity car. I don't know much about clothes, but yours look trendy and expensive. And, in the end, you are 'drawn' to one laptop because of its looks.

So, the idea that you are on a budget, or that you are too smart to get suckered into the Mac simply for its design is flat our ridiculous. In reality, 9 out of 10 Laurens wind up buying a Mac

Second 'shopper' up is Giampaolo. He says he is 'technically savvy'. He drives a Ford Probe, 'nuf said.

Also note that none of these shoppers seem to do any research until they hit the floor at their local Best Buy. That's just dumb.

I'm going on about this because it is really sad that Microsoft just can't figure out how to find an ad agency with a brain.

Oh, and I own a Mac (I got a good deal on it). And I run Windows on it. And I drive a Toyota Matrix. It's not pretty or hip (it is downright ugly) but it was cheap, reliable, and is like a mini truck when I put the rear seats down.

Circus

2009-03-19T09:28:00.001-05:00

People are very upset about bonuses handed out to AIG execs. Granted, it is rather shameless for AIG to be continuing down the same seemingly greed driven path they have been on, but let's keep two things in mind. First, we don't know why the bonuses were given. There is a slight chance that these execs made some kind of herculean effort that minimized AIG's loses. Maybe without these people things would be a whole lot worse. I'm just saying it's possible. Second, it's only $165 million. That is just peanuts in the greater scheme of things. No, actually it's less then that, it's peanut shells.

Yes, it sickens me that a bunch of greedy bastards who screwed up royally are getting even more compensation for their irredeemable behavior, but this huge uproar over it is simply a side show we don't have time for. We and out leaders should be focusing on fixing the larger economic problems at hand. Spending this much time over how $165 was used is just stupid.

And, it's not AIG's fault, it was written into law. There was an amendment added that allowed any bonus stipulated before February 11, 2009 to be paid out. So can we really blame AIG for handing them out? Well, of course we can, but the bigger issue here is were did that amendment come from. There is a lot of finger pointing, but no one is fessing up.

This amendment is the much, much bigger breach of ethics then the bonuses themselves, because it is a grotesque use of political power. We need to stop talking about the bonuses and simply have the Senate setup an investigation into who added the amendment. It does not have to be a big show, put just enough people on it to get it sorted out. Once we know who did it, we know who will be resigning. Or, if they are too stupid and cowardly, who will be expelled from the Senate.

It is a bit ironic, but if the White House and Congress would spend even one percent of the time they have spent on this circus on each and every $165 million they spend, we wouldn't be in this mess to begin with.

AdSense Interest-Based Advertising

2009-03-13T08:48:00.005-05:00

Over the coming months, Google will be rolling out a new feature to their AdSense system called "Interest-Based Advertising". If you are not familiar with AdSense, scroll down a little and a look in the right hand column. See the light blue box that says at the top, "Ads by Google"? That is AdSense. Ads in that box are automatically placed there by Google. Google scans the content of my site and figures out which ads match that content. I write about photography a lot, so most of the ads are photography related. I get a couple of pennies every time those ads are clicked.

With this new "Interest-Based Advertising" system, Google will change the way it determines which ads will appear. Ad selection will now be, at least in part, determined by a visitor's profile that has been built up over time. What that means is that Google will track your movements on the Internet and determine what you are interested in. Don't get paranoid, it can only track you on Google properties and sites with AdSense. Google requires all participating sites to disclose this in their Privacy Policy. If you look at a lot of photography related sites, Google will think you are a photographer and show you photography related ads. It will not matter too much which site you are on, if the site has AdSense, Google will populate that site with photography ads.

This is the logical path for Google to follow, but I'm not crazy about it and think that, to some extent, it is a bad idea. It too easily pigeon-holes a person into being one type of shopper, in essence, one type of person. Sure, I look at a lot of photography equipment, but what if I decide I want to start scuba diving? If I go to a scuba blog, will I still see ads for photography? Now, it's reasonable to assume that Google will eventually realize I am now a photographer and a scuba diver, but how long does that take?

This may water down the effectiveness of AdSense as there will always be a lag between what Google thinks my interests are and what my interest is at that moment. For instance, if I go to a blog about baby cribs to read up on those for the first time, AdSense may show me ads for photography, because that is what Google has determined my interest to be. Well, I'm not shopping for photo gear, I'm shopping for cribs. Eventually, Google will figure that out, but that is of no use to that first web site I went to. That web site owner won't get any of my clicks because they are not relevant to what I want right now. This, ironically, may hurt the most relevant web sites that show up at the very top of Google search results as you will look at those sites before Google has a chance to figure out that you are now looking for cribs.

Can I turn "Interest-Based Advertising" off?

Yes, Interest-Based Advertising can be turned off. Both as a web site owner and a surfer.

If you are a web site owner, you can go into your AdSense account and opt out of this new system in which case, ads will be served to your site they way they have been. Here is how you turn off Interest-Based Advertising. Though, Google is implying that you may not have access to the same pool of ads because some advertisers may opt to only put ads on sites that are using Interest-Based Advertising.

If you are browsing the Internet and you don't want Google to track your activity for use with this system, you can opt out of the tracking cookie here. If you want to take advantage of this new system, but want more control, you can set your preferences here.

So far, I have only talked about the potential doom and gloom of this new system, but it can be a good thing too. It will allow advertisers to target their audience much more precisely, and most importantly, on an ongoing basis. An advertiser could setup their ads to remember how you have interacted with them in the past. For instance, say I click on an AdSense ad for camera equipment on Amazon.com. Amazon has the power now to remember the information for the next AdSense delivered ad I see from them. Maybe I clicked on an add for a specific camera and bought it. Amazon has the ability to then tailor the next ad I see from them to maybe some lens or other accessory for that camera which they currently have on sale. The interaction possibilities are almost endless and may give the consumer more timely and relevant ads. That can be good for the consumer and the web site owner because it means I will be clicking on more of their ads and they get more of Google's pennies.

And, this being Google, they are smarter then I so it is likely that they are at least aware of these pitfalls and are working to minimize them, or make them go away entirely.

I've turned off the Interest-Based Advertising on this site for now, I don't want to be part of the 'beta' project. But I will be keeping an eye on the system and experimenting with it in the coming years to see if it becomes more of a helpful or harmful service.

Buttons = Good

2009-03-11T16:49:00.009-05:00

The 2nd generation iPod Shuffle was one of the most beautifully designed mass manufactured products ever (IMHO). Granted, it had the dreaded click wheel, but its size, shape, and the fact that it was basically a clip with a music player built in made it one masterfully designed object. It bordered on being too small to be practical, but it was still large enough so that it was possible to find after you put it down.

Ever the optimist, I thought Apple would improve the Shuffle by keeping the shape, but replacing the click wheel with discrete buttons that would be easier to find and distinguish by touch. And maybe add a little screen?

Sadly, this was not to be, the new iPod shuffle eschews buttons to the point of sacrificing usability. It is also too small and nondescript. Put it down and I dare you to find it again.

The controls are on the headphones which ties the player to the headphones. Don't like the included headphones? Tough, get used to it. It's Apple's way or the highway.

Why even bother having the headphones plug in? you can not change them, so a more fully thought out design would simply integrate them with the player. There is simply no need to have them as a detachable part. It's an odd oversight for a company known for its design prowess.

Granted, most people will probably still be able to pick it up and just start using it, but there are several features that will be opaque to those who don't read the manual. But, for such a simple product, should there even be a manual?

These hidden features are all based on audio feedback feature of the new shuffle, it now talks to you. I hate the idea of my audio device talking to me, but no one will know they are there, so I guess that it's a wash.

But why build features into a product that people won't use, that people can't use because they don't know they are there.

The hardcore Apple consumers, not the fanboys, but the ones that buy a new iPod every year because they break, or loose, or just want to replace their old iPod don't read the manual. They just want to pick it up and use it, taking the cues on how to use the player from the player itself.

It's just bad design to obfuscate the functions of a product.

Edit: Almost as soon as I published this post, I realized that there are plenty of good reasons to obfuscate functions of a product, especially software. Many products (like Microsoft Word) have huge features sets that only a handful of people use. So obfusscating those features clear up the interface for the average user, but leave them there for the power user.

Now, the iPod Touch is incredible. And now that it works with the Kindle Bookstore, it's even more incredible. I had a chance to have a look at a the Kindle App for the iPhone and, though it was a little small, found it to be a cool and usable eBook reader. Granted, I'm still young enough to set the type to its smallest setting, that does make a big difference. If you can not read it at the smallest text size, it becomes very tedious to flip the page every two seconds. I wonder too if it will also cause excessive eye strain having to constantly go from line to line as you are forced to with such short lines of text.

Talk, Not Torture Wins the Day

2009-03-11T15:38:00.005-05:00

"Similarly, it was a relationship-building approach that we used to persuade a detainee to give us information on the whereabouts of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia — information that led to his being located and killed in 2006."

I wonder why no one at the Bush White House thought this was worth mentioning...

From, "Try a Little Tenderness".

Inexpensive Macro Photography

2009-02-13T06:37:00.017-06:00

I've moved this post, please head over there to see my newest photography reviews.

I am very much enthralled with the abstraction of macro photography (as seen in my photos) and I'm all about cheap. So, let me combine the two, here is a cheap way to shoot macro. The nice thing about this solution is that it will work on just about any camera, DSLRs as well as Point and Shoots.

Here it is, the Opteka 52mm 10x HD² Professional Macro Lens. This 'closeup filter' attaches to the front of a lens with a 58mm filter thread. Opteka sells this closeup filter in several different kits, each one containing a different 'step down filter adapter' that allows it to fit different lens filter sizes. 58mm is the size of many Canon lenses including the ubiquitous Canon EF-S 18-55mm IS. On this page, Amazon has a boatload of kits to fit just about any DSLR and many point and shoots.

Essentially, adding one of these to your lens is like putting a magnifying glass in front of your camera. The images below show how it compares to a true macro lens, the inimitable Nikon 60mm Micro. The first image is with the 60mm at full extension, at this 'zoom' the 60mm is a 1:1 ratio. That means that image is fully filling the sensor at a one to one scale. The next image is with the Opteka fit on the standard Nikon 18-55mm AF-S VR kit lens at 55mm and focused as close as possible. Following that, is a shot with the same lens, but without the 18-55mm so the impact of the closeup filter and be readily seen. The last image is with the Opteka attached to the wonderful Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF-D.

Click on an image to see the larger, straight from the camera, image.

Nikon 60mm Micro

Opteka on the Nikon 18-55mm AF-S VR lens

Nikon 18-55mm AF-S VR lens without the Opteka

Opteka on the Nikon 50mm f1.8 AF-D

The Opteka brings the 18-55mm quite a bit closer, almost to 1:1. Same goes for the Opteka on the 50mm. The images a softer than the 60mm Macro, but for $30, it seems like a bargain to me. On these smaller lenses at longer focal lengths there is no noticeable vignetting, but there will be on fatter lenses. The 18-55mm will show vignetting as you zoom out, but it works best for macro shots at 55mm, so there is no reason to be zooming out.

The depth of field is noticeably more shallow in the image from the 60mm, this is because the closer you get, the shallower your depth of field becomes. All the images were shot at f14 so it is apparent that a lot of light is needed to make a macro shot work. Unless you want to exaggerate the shallow depth of field, in which case, attaching the Opteka to the 50mm f1.8 really makes things interesting. Even though the 60mm is rated as an f2.8, that is not fixed, the closer you focus, the more it stops down. It is only f2.8 at about 6 feet to infinity, then starts to stop down and ends at f5 at its closest (1:1) focus.

Now, if you put the Opteka on the 50mm f1.8, it does not stop down, it shoots at whatever aperture you want from 1.8 too 22.

OK, so what happens if the Opteka is attached to the 60mm? It does get in closer, but the trade-off of sharpness is, in my opinion, is not worth it. Without the opteka, the 60mm will frame the helmet from top to bottom with a little space, with the Opteka attached, most of the domed head would be cropped out. At that point, the depth of field gets so shallow that a great deal of light is needed to stop down all the way to the 60mm's minimum aperture, f57.

One last note, I've tested the Opteka with the 50mm f1.8 on a full frame FX camera (Nikon N75) and there is no noticeable vignetting there either.

Showing at 2009 KMAA exhibition "Seasonal Shift"

2009-02-10T08:04:00.007-06:00

I had two photographs selected for the 2009 KMAA exhibition "Seasonal Shift". The show will be at Ridgefield Guild's Gallery Barn. Show details:

March 15, 4-7 PM: Artists' Reception
March 22: Gallery talk by the juror, Michael Blakeney
March 29: Last day of exhibition . Artists pick up work 4-7 PM

Ridgefield Guild of Artists

Water / Light #4

Water / Light #3

A list of the participating artists

Sally Aldrich : The Sky is Falling
Frances B. Ashfoth : Spring Field
Suzanne Ashley : Mill Street
Lois M. Barker : The Awakening
Deborah Beck : Morning Dew
Richard Bennett : Yankee Nightgame & Baseball Grid
Edward Burke : Early Spring
Sarah Corbin : Oak Spring
Ivy Dachman : Untitled43
Hilda Green Demsky : South of the Wind
Karen Williams Edelmann : The Earth. That is Sufficient
Monique Ford : Tropic Improv
Marcy B. Freedman : Ten Seconds (How Time Flies)
Randy Frost : Metro North - Harlem Division
James Fryer : Water-Light-3 & Water-Light-4
Michele Gage : Untitled (Mianus River Gorge 4)
Julia Goldberg : Lily Pond - Bronx Botanical Gardens
Patricia A. Grabel : New England Winter
H. Sitki Gulergun : Bullseye
June Gumbel : The Orchard in the Spring
Nils Hill: WNY-1
Bernie Kessler: Constitution Marsh, Garrison & Rolling Meadows
GG Kopilak : Tree Reflections
Barbara Korman : Coming Alive
Paul Krause : Crescent Pods
Elaine Krause : Lotus Variation
Martee Levi : Winter Thaw
Annette Lieblein : Transitional II
Belle Manes : The Woods are Lovely Dark and Deep…
Ronald Meyerson : Illusion #12
Bernie Mindich : Spring Forward
Nancy Egol Nikkal : Winter Thaw 2
Constance Old : Whiskmarks 0107212508
Ethel Renek : Edge of the Woods
Harriet Sadow: Four Seasons & The Midnight Wind
Renee Santhouse : March Wind on the Bay
Barbara Browner Schiller : Joie de Vivre
Wendy Shalen : Montalk Dawn
Phyllis Sinrich : A New Day
Arle Sklar-Weinstein : Message from Waccabuc
Ron Topping : Four Seasons
John Wagner : Mianus Summer
Gabriella E. Wagner : Little Raincloud

Fusion Essentials Non-Review

2009-02-08T14:15:00.003-06:00

I am in the market for a new Web Design application and NetObjects Fusion Essentials looked interesting enough to take out for a test spin.

I installed, registered it (they require an email address and verification - tacky), and started it up.

Then I tried to open a site I've been working on. Trouble is, the site is built with PHP pages, not HTML pages. Fusion Essentials does not recognize PHP files, so I could not open anything on the site.

A 'Web Design' application that can not open and edit PHP files? Seriously? Even Kompozer will open and edit PHP files. Not only that, Kompozer will render HTML markup in its WYSIWYG mode. Heck, even Notepad will at least open PHP files!

JustLooking Image Viewer for the Mac

2009-02-06T13:51:00.003-06:00

JustLooking is a nice little application for OS X that previews images and lets you scroll through all the images in a given folder. It acts like Picture and Fax Viewer in Windows XP.

It is a nice free little application I use all the time on my MacBook.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3

2009-02-03T09:40:00.003-06:00

There is a lot of chatter about Panasonic's new top end point and shoot, the Panasonic DMC-LX3, and it all seems pretty good. And with good reason, this camera looks to be the first time a big manufacturer has put image quality ahead of marketing tricks. Instead of increasing megapixles well beyond reason, Panasonic has capped it at 10MP. Granted, that's still more then is needed, but at least it is a start. For reference, 6MP is a great spot for most people. I have many prints from my 6MP D70 printed at 20x30". That is pretty big.

The constrained megapixels keep the images from being overrun with undesirable color noise that has a big negative impact on images. Because there are fewer megapixels, you can get more images on the memory card. And those smaller images take up less space on your computer. The smaller images are easier and faster to both view and edit on the computer.

But the constrained megapixel count really is only one reason for all the interest. This little camera has a very wide angle lens for a point and shoot. Its wide end is equivalent to 24mm (on a 35mm camera). Most point and shoots are 35mm at best at the wide end. There are a few that go to 28mm, but not many. Most all DSLRs from Canon, Nikon, Pentax, and Sony ship with zoom lenses with an 18mm (28mm equivalent) on the wide end of the kit lens.

But, wait, that's not all! In addition Panasonic LX3has a super 'fast lens'. It's aperture is f2 to f2.8! That is just crazy for a point and shoot. The LX3's aperture (a variable iris between the lens and the sensor) opens wider then most lenses to let more light in. That means that it can shoot in low light, but maintain a faster shutter speed. This camera can take better, less blurry and less noisy images in low light. For comparison, the kit lenses for most DSLRs are f3.5 to f5.6, that lets much less light in so it is not as good in low light. This is not to say the LX3 can really compete with a Nikon D40or Canon XSi, but it is starting to encroach in their territory. It is the most serious competition DSLRs have yet seen from the world of point and shoot cameras.

It is important to remember the that 'low light' to a camera is not the same thing as 'low light' to humans. We see in low light much better them cameras. In a typical indoor scene, we humans can see very well, there is plenty of light. But for cameras, this is considered low light. The only time a camera is really happy is outside on a bright day or when it can create its own light by using a flash.

Using a flash is convenient, but not very pleasing. First, with a compact camera, you usually wind up with 'red eye'. But more important, flashes make people look bad, they highlight blemishes and create shadows that exaggerate wrinkles and can often over expose faces and make your subject look like the undead.

So, flash = bad.

Panasonic has three techniques to let you shoot without flash:

Wide f2 aperture
Restrained 10MP sensor
Effective high ISO performance

And for shooters who know there way around photography software, the LX3 has one more trick to eek out the most from low light shooting, it can shoot in RAW. The RAW format is the 'raw' image data that the sensor captures. Then, the camera converts that data into a JPG image file. This is a handy step because it takes that raw data and refines it so the final image not only looks great, but also is easy to print and share.

But, this ease comes at a cost. When the camera converts to JPG it applies a lot of 'enhancements' that it thinks you want and discards a bunch of other image data that you might want. During the conversion, the camera will try and correct the color, adjust the contrast, sharpen the image, and even correct for barrel distortion. Most of the time, for most shooters, this really is a good thing. But, for photography pros, this is not usually desirable.

If you are a pro shooter, you have spent years learning photography and developing a process to capture the image you want the way you want. You, the pro shooter, do not need to leave the 'developing' up to some dumb camera. You can do it better, and with the RAW data, you have more latitude to make the adjustments you want to make.

With the RAW file, the pro shooter has more latitude to push the exposure, color balance, noise, and sharpening one way of the other to really get what she is after.

Now if the last few paragraphs about RAW bores you to tears, no worries, the LX3 takes great shots in JPG. Done.

The natural competitor to the Panasonic LX3is the Canon G10. Some people who have used both, like the image (and movie) quality of the LX3. They generally do bemoan the fact that the LX does not have the nice solid feeling body of the G10, or the G10's dials and buttons that allow direct control of advances features.

The G10 is definitely a beauty, but for me, the smaller size of the LX3 and, more importantly, the better image quality trump the G10.

But then, I've not shot with either of these cameras so don't take my word for it, see what the pros say:

Panasonic Lumix DMC LX3 Unboxing from Scott Bourne on Vimeo.

Scott Bourne's mini review

DPReview's complete review

Don't Buy Used Digital Cameras, Ever.

2009-01-30T13:20:00.004-06:00

Don't ever buy a used digital camera. You just never know what you are getting.

Case in point, up until about six months ago, my D70 looked almost new, almost as good as the first time it came out of the box. Since then, it has started to develop some signs of slight wear, but still looks great. I could list this on eBay and honestly say that, cosmetically, it looks like it's in great shape. I could also say that I've taken thousands of shots without any problems. I could also say the the camera's EXIF data indicates 22,113 shutter actuations. I could say all this and it is completely true.

But what is also true is that I've taken over 63,000 shots with it and that several hundred shots came out terribly and that, at one time, I was receiving regular error messages.

A savvy shopper will ask how many acutations the shutter has, but it takes a super savvy shopper to ask how many shutters has the camera gone through. See, the reason I can say that the shutter has only 22,113 actuations is because that's how many are on the new shutter. Yes, my little D70 had it's shutter replaced after about 41,000 actuations.

The number of shutter acutations is shown in the EXIF data embedded in each picture. If you have a Flickr account, the easiest way to see this data is to shoot a low quality small JPG file with your camera and upload it directly to Flickr without any alteration. Editing and saving the image in an editor will cause a great deal of EXIF data to be deleted. Here is a small JPG shot on my D70. I uploaded it directly to Flickr, as a result, you can see a boat load of EXIF data.

The new shutter for the D70 cost about $200, plus shipping and tax, it came out to about $250. As the shutter was failing, it would partially work, but leave the resulting image partially blacked out. That's where the several hundred 'bad' images came from. Also, before the repair, I was getting sporadic error messages. I'm not sure if it was related to the bad shutter, or if something else was repaired during the shutter replacement.

It is common for novices to banter about how camera manufacturers like to say that any given camera is tested to 100,000 cycles. But that's not important, what is important is what the average failure rate was. Sure, Nikon can test the D70 100,000 cycles, but they don't tell you that on average, the shutter fails at about 40,000 cycles. Talking about test cycles is useless unless it's followed by failure rates or by a warranty.

I hope this post helps to illustrate the perils of buying used digital cameras, you just never know what you are going to get. Is it really worth spending $250 on eBay for a used D70 when you can get a new Nikon D40with lens for $410 (and warranty)?

Gate Keeper

2009-01-27T22:46:00.002-06:00

I have long had a sense that the collaborative process can go very well, or very wrong. I have witnessed a group being led, not by the brightest person, but by the loudest. In my experience, the loudest is usually not the brightest, far from it. I think this behaviour stems from the general rule: when traveling abroad in a country where you do not speak the native tongue, the best way to make yourself understood is to yell louder.

This describes one pitfall for the collaborative process, but there is another for which I have always wanted to express more intelligently then simply saying, "well, the head guy just doesn't get it." That always seemed unsatisfactory to me, because it sounds like whining and a cop-out.

Today I watched a video of a speech John Gruber gave at MacWorld. In it, he nailed the idea that has been floating in my head, he put it in a way that is much more clinical, almost a formula, "The quality of any collaborative creative endeavor tends to approach the level of taste of whoever is in charge."

Picasa for the Mac!

2009-01-05T22:08:00.003-06:00

Yes, finally, one of my favorite free photo viewers/editors/organizers is now available on the Mac! I've just installed Picasa 3 Beta for the Mac and it looks great, pretty much the same way it looks on the PC. There area couple of trivial features not available yet on this Mac version, but nothing of consequence.

I will eventually get around to doing a write up of Picasa, but for now, I will just quickly tell you how I use it. It is a really fast viewer and it can view RAW files from many different cameras. Though lacking in detail, here is a list of supported RAW formats. You can make simple adjustments and export to JPG while controlling the size and compression of the conversion. This makes it very easy to quickly share your RAW images.

BUT, Picasa is not the best RAW converter. Any third party application that opens a RAW file has to 'guess' at what the image should look like. Picasa is not particularly good at guessing, so do not use the automated RAW conversion as the final word on the quality the image.

Picasa really shines because of it's speed, it whips through images faster then any other viewer I've seen. For this reason, Picasa is the first step in my work flow. I dump my images into a desktop folder then review them in Picasa. I delete the garbage and move images into either folders for more editing (with Lightroom), or permanent archive folders. All this is done from within Picasa.

One reason I've been so interested in Picasa for the Mac is that, unlike iPhoto, it does not mess with where your photos are stored. Once iPhoto gets a hold of your photos, god alone knows where they end up! I'm old enough to sort my own files, thank you!

CVS Film Processing

2009-01-04T17:27:00.002-06:00

While on vacation in Florida, I have had several roles of film developed at CVS in the Oakbrook shopping center. The results have been very good. Better by far then what I get from Target in Mount Kisco, NY and better then what I got from Mpix.com, and a lot cheaper.

I also had pretty rotten luck with the local mini labs, one at Sam's Photo in Mount Kisco and another at Katonah Photography in Katonah, NY. Katonah left long scratches on the negatives. Sam's had chemical spots and dust on the negatives.

I am sure that not all CVS stores are made the same, but this has been my experience.

What I did not like at CVS was the photo CDs I got, I tried both the CVS CD and the Kodak CD. The JPGs were scanned at about 1200x1800 which is fine, but they were compressed and that left significant JPG artifacts. This makes no sense to me, at 1200x1800 pixles, the images are no where near large enough to fill the CD. It is a dissapointment and a senseless one at that.

Mac Vacation

2009-01-04T08:58:00.007-06:00

I have had a MacBook since they came in 2006. I have always run XP on them (I'm on my second one now*) as the primary OS, booting into OS X
only to test web sites or edit video.

When I bought the latest one, I gave a good try to use OS X as my primary OS, but Adobe GoLive was just unusable with OS X's window management. XP gives each program a main 'background' window to segregate it from any other application. OS X does not have this, so I would have several HTML files open in GoLive, plus a browser window, Photoshop, an FTP client, and usually a word processor as well. It was all too hectic and impossible to keep track of the HTML documents in GoLive. So, I went back to using XP as the primary OS for work.

That is too bad because OS X (10.5) is really a joy to use. And if it were not for how I use GoLive, I probably would have switched full time to OS X.

But, now anytime I am not working, I'm in OS X.

I've been on vacation for the past week, so I've been running in OS X for the past week. It is really nice, it boots up fast, always goes to sleep when I close the lid, and lasts for hours on the battery.

So, basically, now I only run XP when I am working and plugged into the external monitor, keyboard, and power cord. Of course, when I go home and back to work, that will be most of the time.

OS X is, at the very least, a nice break from XP.

This post should be in no way seen as a dig at OS X, if I did not use GoLive, I would be in OS X a lot more. If I were a full time photographer, OS X would be my primary OS.

* I got a crazy good deal on a last gen model, no way you will see me with one of the shinny, firewire lacking, new ones!

Need to test in different browsers?

2008-12-17T23:28:00.005-06:00

The fact is, different web browsers can display the same page differently. For this reason, web designers have to test HTML web page designs in all the common web browsers or face the very real possibility that the page they design will break. It is a tedious and remarkably annoying process. But it is easier then it was. In the old days, a designer would need to have a couple of different test computers stashed in the office because, if you wanted to see how a page 'rendered' on a Mac, well, you needed a Mac. If he wanted to see how it rendered on an earlier version of Internet Explorer, he needed a different computer for each version! Windows can not run more then one version of Internet Explorer.

There really was no way around this because no browser is fully compliant with HTML or CSS standards. Though Microsoft is, by far, the least compliant and at the same time, the most buggy.

Thankfully, things have gotten easier. Internet Explorer 7 is better (not good, just better) then it was. For some reason, Apple released a version of Safari for Windows. And a few months ago, I found MultipleIEs. It is a hack (fully packaged for super easy installation) that lets me install, you guessed it, multiple versions of Internet Explorer on one Windows computer.

What a relief.

Of course, it would be a lot easier if people would just stop using Internet Explorer all together. Come on guys, you can do it!

Why I love Techbirt

2008-12-17T21:31:00.003-06:00

Techdirt is a very smart blog about creativity and laws that govern it. But I love it because the writers are clever and often, just downright funny. Like today, writing about a stupid copyright infringement case, Mike Masnick writes, "I have to admit that I don't watch reality TV or follow what's the latest in reality TV shows. I hear people talking about them, but it seems like half of them blend together with something about models who sing while cooking and designing fashions for eligible bachelors as an angry British guy yells at them and they hope they don't get voted off the island. Sometimes Donald Trump appears."

I laugh every time I read that.

Hmmm... I've just had an idea for a new reality TV show!

New Impressions Art Show

2008-11-12T13:30:00.007-06:00

I have eight photographs hanging in the New Impressions Art Show at the Mt. Pleasant Library. The gallery hours are:

Monday, Tuesday, Thurdays - 10:00 am - 9:00 pm
Wednesday - 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
Friday & Saturday - 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
Sunday - 1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

The reception is on November 15th, 2008 - 2:00 - 4:00 pm.

Pleasantville Beaux Arts

2008-11-01T23:23:00.000-05:00

Today I hung the Pleasantville Beaux Arts show and I will be judging it with John this Monday. The show will be open the rest of the week and the reception will be Saturday, Nov. 8th at the Pleasantville Library.

Browser Wars 3.0?

2008-10-28T21:44:00.007-05:00

Holy smokes! I thought the browser wars had come to a standstill with Internet Explorer as the raining champ (as far as market share goes) with Firefox slowly, but consistently nibbling away at that lead.

But suddenly, out pops Google Chrome. A browser I took for a whirl and forgot to stop using. Sure it's a bit glitchy as any beta program would be, but the speed and UI advances suite me so well that I am willing to overlook its shortcomings.

And of course, there is Safari for both the Mac and Windows. The windows version is surprisingly appealing. It did not drag me away from Firefox (like Chrome did), but I fire it more often then I do Internet Explorer.

And let us not forget Opera. The perennial 'also ran' that never gets much love but for a few fringe fanboys, has slowly morphed into a nearly prime time read app with some markedly nice and unique features. Features that other, more successful browsers had no quibbles about 'borrowing'. I may not be an Opera fanboy, but I sure have to give them the nod for coming up with a lot of brilliant stuff.

So, the original browser war (let's for the moment put Mosaic aside) was between Netscape and Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer won that war. It won based on a two prong attack: 1. Microsoft illegally leveraged it's operating system monopoly to intimidated PC makers from shipping new PCs with any browser but Internet Explorer. 2. Microsoft actually invested in making Internet Explorer a good browser. Internet Explorer 4 was truly better then Netscape. Then Netscape assisted Microsoft here by sending its own browser to new lows. Remember Netscape 6? Worst browser ever?

Round one of the browser wars goes to Microsoft.

Round two starts very much where round one left off. Firefox rises out of the ashes of Netscape and diddles around for a few years making itself into a usable browser, but posses no immediate threat to Internet Explorer. Fact is, the only real threat to Internet Explorer turns out to be Internet Explorer. Internet Explorer pretty much hit its zenith with 4. Following iterations ad bloat, bugs, headaches, and proprietary Microsoft crap.

I don't recall the exact build, but around .9, Firefox becomes what Netscape never was, an Internet Explorer killer. I switched full time to Firefox, and the slow migration from Internet Explorer begins. Internet Explorer wins round two, but Firefox has pried open the door and is making real progress in market share and has completely blown the doors off Internet Explorer in terms of performance, UI, and security.

Round three opens with Microsoft finally getting off its ass just enough to release Internet Explorer 7, which does not completely suck, but is still no match for Firefox from a performance standpoint. But I did not fully recognize round three as having started until today. Sure, Chrome and Safari had been released, and I love Chrome. But, I saw a browser today that I have to have. It came from out of the blue, like Chrome. But this one is Mac only. And worse, 10.5 only. I'm to cheap to upgrade from 10.4, so I can't get it.

But I want.

I really want.

It's called Cruz.

It has this simple little plug in that makes you think, 'Why didn't I think of that'. The plug in is called Browser Browser. It essentially lets you take one tab and split it (frame like) into two (or three) panes, so you can simultaneously see two (or three) web sites side by side. And you can control where the frame is (left, right, top, bottom) and how it behaves. Brilliant, and completely thought out.

Of course, there are plugins for Firefox that let you do something similar, but there are so badly thought out and implemented as to be useless.

Cruz is, let us remember, a brand new browser (based on webkit) and a brand new plugin for that browser. Naturally, I saw this on John Gruber's site.

The heat is on. Round three is on.

Best Apple Deal Ever?

2008-10-27T19:05:00.004-05:00

Amazingly, Amazon.com still has the last generation Apple MacBook Pro availble at a crazy low price of $1,643.99 after rebate. Just a couple of weaks ago, this was a $2500 laptop. Considering my view on the new models, this is flat out an awesome deal. Though, to be fair, the new MacBook Pro is quite a nice machine, not artificially crippled like the new MacBooks.

dead wrong

2008-10-21T15:53:00.004-05:00

I respect the heck out of John Gruber. He is smart, clever, insightful, and writes well. So it's something special when he gets it wrong. It's rare, but he did it today. In speaking about the new MaBooks:

What’s important to Apple about this process isn’t that it makes laptops cheaper. It’s that it makes them better at the same prices.

The problem is that the new MacBooks are slower then their predisesors. Their clock speeds have stepped backwards, not forwards and they are stripped of Firewire. Those two reasons are why Apple laptops got nixed off my list of potential next computers.

MacBooks are standing still in processor speed and price, but in this industry, if you are not increasing performance, you are raising prices. Oh sure, the GPUs are better, but what is that good for, games? Really Apple? Are you serious?

When I bought my MacBook, it not only had better features then a similar Dell, it was actually cheaper. Those days are long gone.

And to make matters worse, Apple still has one old school MacBook left, basically a left over the the last generation that comes in at $1,000. So Apple can say that they have dropped their price, but the reality is that the 'white' model is now the ghetto model, it says you did not have the cash for a 'real' MacBook. And this one is underpowered too!

The MacBooks now get completely spanked by competing PCs. Case in point, for $1275 I can buy an HP dv3500t with a 2.53 Ghz quad 2, 4 gigs of ram, with a 512mb geforce graphics card, running Vista 64 bit. This is all important because it will simply blow the doors off the MacBooks if you want to do some work with Adobe CS4 which, for the PC, will be 64 bit and able to use the GPU if it is a geforce with at least 512mb.

Hmmm, $1,300 for a pretty case, or $1,300 for a screaming machine that will rip the face off of CS4?

And about Industrial Design, when it is good, it makes stuff easier to use, increases performance, and reduces price. Apple forgot that this time round.

The new MacBooks are pretty though... Too bad it's only skin deep.

Elitism - Why it is Essential to America's Success

2008-10-18T14:45:00.005-05:00

Every political season, "elitist" is a dirty word slung mostly at Democrats. This is the epitome of stupidity. This is the epitome of pandering to the lowest of social standards. This is the epitome of wanting America to fail.

What is an elite? Simply, an elite is someone who excels in his or her field. An elitist is someone who surrounds, or wants to surround, themselves with the best people in their respective fields. So any politician selling themselves as not being an elitist is a flat our moron.

Getting Religion... at the wrong time

2008-10-18T11:44:00.004-05:00

I just can't stop thinking about how dumb Republican Congresspeople are. Really, first they vote against the bail-out, then for it. Granted, the bail-out is really hard to swallow, but in the end, it was clearly necessary (to anyone who has any clue about the economy).

After years of spending like drunken sailors, they finally get religion and say no to a really big spending bill. Except, it was exactly the wrong time to go against spending because it was a critical moment for the economy.

So, since Congressional Republicans dropped the ball and could not do the responsible thing, the Senate had to take up the bill and get it passed. Which they did.

Then the bill (now bloated with earmarks) went back to the House where enough Republicans decided to be flip-floppers for the bill to get passed.

This demonstrates that there is a large chunk of Republican Congresspeople who are just really dumb and don't know what they are doing or what is good for America. Bravo.

Bankers More Hated then Lawyers?

2008-09-23T10:31:00.006-05:00

One aspect of the current financial debacle that might make some happy is the very real likelihood that bankers will become even more hated then lawyers. Of course, that's only good for lawyers and is bad for bankers, but then, that is the least that bankers deserve.

Bankers should count themselves as lucky if people only hate them. By bankers, I mean mortgage lenders. Or anyone involved in 'repackaging' bad mortgages into 'securities'.

Maybe I'm being too harsh on these poor guys.

No.

These are just bad guys. Everywhere you look, you can see bad behaviour. Even big 'normal' banks like Chase were involved in irresponsible (and I think, criminally negligent) loans. If Chase is doing it, there is not doubt that everyone else was too. It was simply too big a pie for these greedy bastards to resist.

Am I sad to see poor old Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch get crushed by their own incompetence? No, their egos and pay checks were too grotesquely large for me to have any empathy for them.

And now Paulson and Bernanke want 700 billion (who are we kidding, the real number will be way north of one trillion) to fix this mess, no strings attached. They tell us we need this because the system is just, 'too big to fail'.

They have not said it yet, but they really are selling this as the only way to avoid another Great Depression. The problem (well, one of the problems) is that this is what Bernanke has dreamed about, to be the guy who gets it right this time and saves us all from another depression. Don't mess with a boy and his dream.

I am not confident that their plan will work because the greedy bastards that got us into this mess will be the ones 'we the people' will have to deal with to get through it and based on their performance so far, I think it likely that they will just grab for the money. They will sell 'we the people' bad mortgages for much more then they are worth. They will add fees and other hidden costs to get every last dime for themselves. And when it is all said and done, they will buy new politicians to deregulate some other financial sector and start all over again.

But wait, say it does work, we stabilize the financial sector and it does not crumble. What do you think will happen next?

Taxes skyrocket.

It's very simple, this mess we are now in was completely foreseeable. I started to realise the implications when my wife and I bought a home in Texas in 2001. I saw that it was way too easy to get a mortgage and I looked around and saw a lot of people with sketchy finances getting really sketchy mortgages. I'm not an economist and even I was able to see it.

So why do taxes skyrocket?

Confidence in America will crumble. President Bush has been working real hard in chipping away at our standing in this world and this crisis will be the last straw. At this point, who in their right mind would invest in this country? We throw a trillion dollars at a useless war, we throw a trillion dollars at bad mortgages, really, who wants to be around that kind of stink?

So then all those other countries that have lent us all that money to buy all that junk will start wanting their money back. And that will cause a run on the bank. But in this case, that bank is the United States of America, or 'we the people'. So to pay that bill, we will need to pay a boat load in taxes.

This storm hits before Christmas season when all the retailers make most of their money for the year. But Americans are stupid (that's what got us into this mess) and may not fully appreciate the magnitude of the catastrophe. In which case, this will be the last Christmas for a long, long while. Might as well live it up one last time, right? But if we do wake up, them Christmas won't be much fun this year. It will look like a dream compared to what 2009 will look like. And that will be a cake walk compared to 2010. And 2011, well, I think I'll stop there, lest I get depressed.

The main problem is that we are just tapped out, there is no more money and we will soon be at the end of our line of credit.

From the "You Paid for That" dept

2008-09-18T13:28:00.008-05:00

Microsoft has ended its recent ads featuring Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. It is being debated if this was premature and simply in reaction to the negative reaction the ads have received. I thought the ads were OK, even a little funny. And though they did seem to ramble with no point, there was a subtle element to them that was humanizing Bill Gates and, by extension, Microsoft. But since Bill does not run Microsoft anymore, the timing seemed a little odd.

Now Microsoft's ad company will start to air commercials with a John Hodgman look alike as a direct confrontation with Apple's, "I'm a Mac, and I'm a PC" ad campaign. Aside from being in poor taste to rip off your competitors characters, does Microsoft really think it's in their best interest to look like they are ripping off Apple... again?

Historically, one of the main complaints and accusations of Microsoft Windows was that it was just a bad rip off of Apple's OS. Now, with their ad campaign they are doing the exact same thing. Granted it worked for them in the past, but they had a lot more going for them at the time and I'm not sure that rekindling that old rip off argument will serve them well this time.

I wonder how much they paid their ad company for such a stunningly bad idea?

Even if the ads come out OK, the ridicule they will cause will likely negate any positive effect.

truth

2008-09-16T09:21:00.001-05:00

"The Fed cannot afford to stand on principle. The myth of free markets ended with the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Actually, it ended with their creation."

- Michael Lewitt

John Maeda, I think he gets it

2008-09-02T20:34:00.004-05:00

John Maeda is the new President of RISD (my alma matar). In a recent Wall Street Journal interview, he said, "Artists change how we see the world -- and that can have value in the way people do business." Having lived in Corporate America, I think he is right. But, I wonder if he will be able to sell his idea to business. They are often def to anything but thier own noise and this does not strike me as an idea that they will want to hear.

I am hopeful that he will be an effective leader for the RISD community, he is the first designer to hold this position. That strikes me as downright bizarre, it is long overdue to say the least.

During my time at RISD, I was rather disappointed that the liberal arts requirements kept going up and studio time kept going down. It looked to me like RISD was becoming just another liberal arts college. Some in the field no longer see RISD as a real contender as an elite art and design school. I think this academic shift is to blame. All it does it produce students with the same average liberal arts education as everyone else. I am hoping the Maeda sees and understands this and starts to reverse it.

Online Passwords

2008-08-22T09:33:00.003-05:00

In my never ending quest to find ways to secure my vast number of passwords, today I found an online password system that looks like Fort Knox: passpack.com. The system works well and is intuitive, but can we really trust anything online to stay secure. I'm still not convinced that the answer is yes, but passpack.com makes a strong case for trusting it and it looks a whole lot more secure then any other web site I've seen.

The only other caveat is that you need not only a user name and password (they call it simply 'Pass'), you also need a 'Packing Key'. The Pass and Pass Key need to be rather long for the sake of security. This makes it more secure, but also makes it more difficult to remember. If you forget your Packing Key, you are out of luck, it is unrecoverable. Because of this, it is not a good solution as a primary password protection system, it's just too risky.

My suggestion is to use it as a sort of last resort fall back option. If you travel a lot like I do, you can use it to store a couple of key passwords that will help you get back up and running should your computer (with all your passwords on it) die unexpectedly.

Texas Furniture Makers Show 2008

2008-07-25T14:04:00.009-05:00

The ninth annual Texas Furniture Makers Show will be held from October 23 through December 6, 2008. It is held at the Kerr Arts & Cultural Center in Kerrville, Texas.

This state wide show is a growing phenomenon open to all Texas furniture makers. Because of the large pool of interested furniture makers, work will be selected for the show by a jury. Work accepted for the show will be eligible for the following list of prizes:

First Place – Best of Show - $3,000
Best Traditional Furniture - $1,200
Best Contemporary Furniture - $1,200
Best Texas Style Furniture - $1,200
Best Whimsical/Art Furniture - $1,200
Woodcraft’s People’s Choice - $300
Show Committee’s Choice - $250
Best Apprentice Furniture Maker - $250
Best Furniture with Decorative Carving - $250
Hill Country Turners’ Choice Award - $100

The awards will be announced at the Awards Ceremony at the KACC on Saturday, November 1st 2008, 6 to 8pm.

Work will be broken into five categories:

Contemporary
Traditional
Texas Style
Whimsical/Art Furniture
Apprentice

More information and entry form can be found at the KACC web site.

This year's show will be judged by three respected and knowledgeable woodworkers:

Asa Christiana - Editor of Fine Woodworking
Michael Fortune - Designer, teacher, mentor, and one of Canada's leading creative furniture maker
Paul Sellers - Director of the School of Woodworking at the Homestead Heritage Village in Waco

The show also offers continuing education for furniture makers. This year, Michael Fortune will be giving his presentation, "Developing an Idea from Concept to Completion." One of the most intriguing things for any designer is to see how another designer works. No matter how long a designer has worked, there is still so much to learn, an opportunity like this should not be missed. The seminar costs $20 and will be held at the KACC on Saturday November 1st from 2:30 to 5:30pm. Seating is limited, so sign up soon.

The show is sponsored by: Woodcraft, Otto Dukes Machinery Company, and Fine Lumber & Plywood.

The Hill Country is a beautiful part of Texas, The Fall/Winter is a great time to see it, and there will be wonderful furniture! You would be crazy not to go.

no spit

2008-07-23T14:16:00.004-05:00

In referring to Sony's pilot program of selling PCs without a lot of junk software (crapware), Gruber sums it up as only Gruber can, "Good for Sony, but Bott’s enthusiasm is like being amazed after buying a sandwich that wasn’t spit in."

I can now almost recommend buying Sonys again, all that is left is to get their tech support up to speed.

D40 vs D60

2008-07-09T09:49:00.014-05:00

Need help deciding between a Nikon D40 and Nikon D60? This article is my effort to make that decision easier by comparing the two.
Here is the really brief recommendations. If you are a novice shooter on a budget, get the D40. If you are a novice shooter who wants to splurge a bit, get the D60. If you know something about photography already and want to get to know your camera and play with settings and maybe get a few lenses, get the D40. Why should a more advanced shooter get the D40? so you can take the money you saved by getting the D40 and put it towards software, a lens, or a flash. These things will make a bigger difference to your photography than the D60 will.

Disclosure: I do not own either of these cameras, though I have handled both and shot with a D40X. The D40X has been replaced by the D60 and can be thought of as being right in between the D40 and the D60. I own a D70 and have, to date, shot about 53,000 pictures with it. I am a semi-professional photographer in that people have paid me to take pictures and I have sold 'art' photographs as well. But I do not make a living from photography, I am primarily a designer. Though I have enough technical knowledge to shoot reasonably good 'product photography' (and have been paid to do that), I approach photography from an artistic rather then technical background and perspective.

The Body

What is the same between the D40 and the D60? They use the same camera body. This is a small camera body by DLSR standards, but has a very comfortable grip and is easy to hang onto. Because they have the same body, they both lack an auto focus motor. This means that they only auto focus with the newest (and most expensive) lenses. This is not as bad as it sounds, if you buy the camera with a lens (this is called the kit lens), that lens will have a motor built into it so it will be able to auto focus. If you plan on only using the kit lens (or lenses), you will have no problem.

If, however, you will want to buy more lenses, you will have to be careful to buy AF-S lenses as these are (practically) the only lenses that will auto focus on the D40 and D60. AF and AF-D lenses will not auto focus, but they will mount and the light meter will work. AI lenses will also mount, but will not auto focus nor will the light meter work. If you don't mind, or actually plan on manually focusing, then you have no problem. In fact, 90% of my pictures are manually focused, so I could almost as easily use a D40 as I do my D70. Where the D40 would become a problem for me is when I am shooting people with my Nikon 24mm AF lens. That is the lens I most like to shoot with at events and I always have it on auto focus. A good portion of the rest of the shots I take are 'macro' shots where auto focus does not really work anyway. If your primary purpose is macro photography, then both the D40 and D60 would serve you just as well as the D50, D70, or D80. Ken Rockwell has a great chart that shows lens compatibility.

As mentioned, this is a small body but I have seen big guys (6'4") and little gals (5'2") both handle it very comfortably. Nikon definitely has the ergonomics of this body perfected.

DOF Preview

The other feature that both these cameras lack is a DOF preview button. DOF stands for Depth Of Field. This refers to what parts of the image will be in focus. A shallow DOF means that only a little of the image will be in focus, everything else will be blurry. A deep DOF means a lot of the image will be in focus, or at least closer to being in focus. Below, the image on the left has a shallow DOF, the image on the right has deep DOF. Note the tree trunk is in focus in both pictures, but the window is much blurrier on the left.

When you have a DOF preview button, you can get a better sense of what will be in focus and what won't. But it's not a huge feature and most people will not miss it.

The Sensor

The sensor is pretty much the same on the D40 and the D60, they both use CCD (as does my D70). The D60 has a 10MP sensor where as the D40 has a 6MP.

If it is fair for me to extrapolate my experience with testing the D70 and D80 to the difference between 6 and 10 mega pixels of the D40 and D60, then I can say it makes very little difference. Granted, you could push the 10MP to a print size of 24x36" over the 6MP's 20x30" print size, but the added grain of the 10mp will be noticeable. So much so, that you may not want to print that big.

How often will you want to print 24x36"? If you want that at all, then yes, you are better off with the D60. But look at the graphic below to get a good sense of the real difference between the mega pixel sizes.

Where you really get nailed is the file size. A 2gig card will hold 360 6mp RAW files. The same card holds only 190 10mp files. The larger files are slower to work with and clog up a hard drive faster.

JPG vs RAW

Let's take a moment to look at JPG vs RAW. The D40 and the D60 can both capture pictures in both JPG and RAW. When you take a picture with any digital camera the initial information that is generated is what we call the RAW file. Almost all point and shoot digital cameras then take the RAW file and process it into a JPG file. The JPG file takes up less space in your camera and computer and it is a very common format so it is easier to share with people or to print out at a photo center. Also, when the camera converts the image to JPG, it applies a number of 'effects' to make the image look better like increasing the color saturation, sharpening the image, applying 'white balance' so the colors look more natural, etc. The JPG gives you a great finished product that can be used for many purposes.

All DSLRs and a few point and shoots give you the option to save that RAW file. The RAW file has more image data in it and is better suited for 'post processing'. Post processing is when you take the picture onto your computer and use software to make adjustments to it. It is like developing a negative. The down side is that the files take up much more space and they will not look as good as a JPG until you 'develop' them on the computer. It is also not at all practical to try and share these images with anyone else unless you convert them to JPG.

So when should you use RAW? If you know you want to do a lot of post processing and get every last ounce of quality in an image, use RAW. I use RAW when I shoot my 'art' photography. When I shoot events, people, or my family, I always switch to JPG because it is much easier to handle and the image degradation is so minor in these shots that it won't show up when viewing the pictures on a computer or even with moderate sized prints of 12x18". In fact, I could still blow a JPG image up to 20x30" and only professionals would be able to really see the difference between RAW and JPG.

So don't worry about it, shoot JPG unless you have a specific reason to shoot RAW.

The D60 has Nikon's new Expeed image processor. This is similar to what is used in the much more expensive D300, D700, and D3. It will probably create slightly nicer JPG images out of the box. But if you are willing to dive into the camera's menus, you will be able to create great results with either the D40 or the D60. If you want to pull the camera out of the box and just start shooting, get the D60.

Dust Reduction System

Another advantage the D60 has over the D40 is a dust reduction system that helps keep the sensor clean and your images spot free. If you change lenses a lot, this might be a useful feature as it is when you change a lens that you are most likely to get dust into the camera that might eventually find its way onto your sensor. If you don't change lenses much, it is unlikely that much, if any, dust will fall on the sensor. But if you want to keep your sensor super clean, you will want to swab the sensor clean occasionally. Because I swap lenses a lot (frequently outside) I clean my sensor with VisibleDust swabs and solution every few months. Most people won't need to do it that often or at all.

For people like me who have to clean the sensor anyway, this feature is not very useful. But, it is still a good feature and another thing that sets the D60 apart from and above the D40.

Flash Sync Speed

Here is one that goes into the D40's column, it has a much faster flash sync speed then the D60, 1/500th of second as opposed to the D60 1/200th of a second. This I just don't get, why does the 'better' camera have a much slower (and therefore, worse) sync speed? The sync speed is how fast your camera can shoot when using the flash. So the D40 can have an exposure time of 1/500ths of a second when shooting with the flash, but the D60 shoots more then twice as slow. A fast sync speed is helpful if you are trying to catch fast motion and freeze it without any blurring. Not something most people do a lot of. So, unless you already knew what flash sync speed was, you probably won't mind that the D60 is slower.

Active D-Lighting

Active D-Lighting is another new feature of the D60 not found in the D40. When active, it essentially lightens the dark areas of the image so that detail is not lost in areas of shadow. It is a mild effect and one that takes extra time for the camera to apply so it slows the camera down. For this reason, it is best to use the feature sparingly. This same effect can be achieved in post processing with programs like Lightroom, Photoshop, Aperture, or even free programs like Picasa or Raw Therapee.

Also, the use of 'fill flash' (with either the D4o or D60) will do a better job of lightening dark areas of the image, but only for smaller scenes. Fill flash is only as powerful as the flash that is used and no flash will be powerful enough to work on a large scene like a landscape. Fill flash is the technique of using a flash on a bright day to overcome the a bright background. For instance, if you are shooting a portrait of someone against a bright sky, the person's face will be too dark because the camera is exposing for the bright sky. If you use a flash, then the person's face will be lit properly.

Active D-Lighting is yet again another very minor benefit and one that is of no use to an advanced photographer who will be post processing anyway. But, for the novice who does not want to mess about in post processing, this is a nice feature of the D60.

VR

Now we get to the main event. VR stands for Vibration Reduction. This is a technology that Nikon (and Canon) build into their lenses to counteract camera shake to help you create sharper pictures. If the shutter speed is too slow, the image will be blurry because we can not hold our cameras still enough (unless it's on a tripod). VR smooths out our jittery nature to make sharper images. The D60's 'kit' lens has VR, the D40's 'kit' lens does not, though the D40 is compatible with VR lenses.

VR only works when you are taking pictures of still objects, it won't slow down that three year old tearing across the living room. If you are shooting a group of people who are old enough to sit still for a second, or a flower that is not being blown around in the wind, then VR can definitely help.

Other manufactures have similar technology, but they build it into the camera instead of the lenses. Lens based VR systems (known as IS - Image Stabilization - on other brands) tend to outperform camera based systems. The down side the the lens based system is the you have to pay for the technology with every lens that you buy.

For my money, VR is only significant difference between the two cameras. I have not used VR lenses much with my D70, but that's just because of the type of shooting I do. I have it on my little Canon point and shoot A720 IS and it is great, I use it all the time on that. The majority of people will find VR useful and it is the most compelling thing the D60 has going for it over the D40. But, still, I don't see it as a definite 'must have'. And that is the thing with the D60, there is no one feature that puts is over the top. Unlike the D80, if you want to use older AF lenses, the D80 has a killer advantage over the D40 and D60 because the D80 will auto focus those old lenses.

Currently (summer 2008), the D60 is $160 more then the D40 (the prices fluctuate from day to day, but this is the average). That $160 dollars can nearly buy a Nikon SB-600 Speedlight that will make more of a difference than all these little upgrades the D60 offers. Including offsetting the advantage of the VR lens, you don't need VR if you have a good, powerful flash. This is especially true if you are shooting people inside or in other low light situations.

In the end, it is a close call. If you are on a budget, or plan to get a more powerful flash, go with the D40. The D60 does have enough small improvements to warrant consideration, especially if you are not strapped for cash. I think the D60 will also serve the novice user better than the D40. All those little upgrades make is a little easier to take good pictures with the D60.

But in the end, if you want a camera to just take snap shots of your kids, a smaller and cheaper point and shoot camera like the Canon SD850 IS will be much easier to carry around and shoot with. I have a Canon A720IS for times like that.

Google Indexes Flash Content...

2008-07-07T00:54:00.006-05:00

Big news in the SEO / Web Design business last week from Google, they now can crawl content in Adobe Flash files.

What does that mean? Flash is a technology that allows for advanced animation and behavior in a web site. It is used for everything from fancy navigation buttons that fly out, to animated cartoons, to embedding video. It is very, very flexible. Flash elements (or files) can be added as parts to a web page (like the way an image is) or it can be used to build the entire web site.

But I have avoided using it in my work for a few reasons:

(Up until now) Google and other search engines could not see and index any content in Flash. So it is (was) a lot harder for people to find the information on your site.
It is a fully proprietary format, if Adobe decides to do something nasty with the technology, or just brakes is out of negligence, that's their right. They can do anything they want with it and god knows what that could entail.
It is not at all accessible to people with visual impairments. Other sites can be automatically reformatted to increase the text size, or even synthesize the text into audio.
Flash is harder to update then HTML and much harder for site owners to move from one designer to another.

The announcement last week at least fixed the search engine indexing problem, or did it? There was a lot of vague language in the announcement and it is not clear at all what will be indexed within a Flash file. At least before last week, we knew that nothing would be indexed, but this announcement suggested that the indexing could be very hit or miss. It is not even clear if the mechanism that Google its self recommends for embedding Flash content into a site will be compatible with this new indexing technology.

And what of sites that had purposely hidden their content in Flash knowing it would not be indexed? And if Google can do this, perhaps spammers will figure out a way to retrieve unprotected email addresses that where previously hidden inside Flash?

This new development is seemingly creating more questions then answers. There is no clear guidance from Google as to how or what will be indexed and that might be worse then knowing that nothing will be indexed.

And, of course, this will leave poor little MSN Search (or are they calling it Live Search now, who knows) out in the cold as it can not do this at all. It is hard to cry for Microsoft though.

Meta Keywords and Data for Web Sites

2008-07-06T14:26:00.005-05:00

Many SEO companies still talk a lot about Meta Keywords and their importance in search engine placement, but they are largely irrelevant now. Meta Keywords are terms that are added to a part of a web page that the viewer does not see. This part is called the HEAD, the part the viewer sees is called the BODY, this is where all the text and images are. In the early days of the web, Meta Keywords were a great and easy way for a search engine to know what the page was about. If you had a web page about green widgets, all you had to do was add 'green widgets' as a Meta Keyword on your page and the search engines could categorize you and serve your site up anytime a person searched for green widgets.

Unfortunately, unscrupulous 'web masters' started adding popular terms to their list of Meta Keywords to attract more visitors. Because of this, modern search engines nearly ignore Meta Keywords. So, SEO specialists who are hawking Meta Keywords as some kind of magic bullet are just plain full of it.

But, I still find value in Meta Keywords because if you focus on the few terms that make up any given web page you are trying to make, then you are more likely to create clearer, more relevant text for that page. I've used the idea of Meta Keywords to help clients focus on the main point of the page and edit unnecessary clutter while adding valuable content and focus. This helps not only the person viewing the page, but also helps the search engines to better index the page.
Other common types of Meta Data are Description and Title. The Meta Title is what shows up in the browser title bar, see image. The Description is a concise description of what is on that page and sometimes will be displayed on the search engine results page.

These three forms of Meta Data: Keywords, Title, and Description have some value and should be used, but keep it concise, don't use more then a handful of Keywords, keep the Description down to one sentence, and the title should be short and sweet.

It's Back!

2008-07-05T12:35:00.004-05:00

This tool is a great way to post your email address on a web page, but keep it safe from the prying eyes of spammers: Enkoder.

Spammers have little autonomous programs that search the web for email addresses published on web pages. It's a simple way to pick up more fodder for their evil lists and many web designers still add an email link with the email address inside.

If you have a 'contact me' link that opens an email application like Outlook when clicked, your address is vulnerable, unless it has been wrapped in protective code like Enkoder.

Creating a Web Site? Read This.

2008-07-05T12:32:00.003-05:00

A great article for anyone looking to create, or rebuild a small business web site.

Thou shalt not have sucky web sites!

2008-07-05T12:15:00.002-05:00

The 10 Commandments of Web Design, so says Business Week.

Via Daring Fireball

Picasso Thoughts

2008-06-28T15:55:00.002-05:00

Distilled and reposted from Paintalicious. I liked the quotes without any explanation better. It's a nifty blog.

"He can who thinks he can, and he can’t who thinks he can’t. This is an inexorable, indisputable law."
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working."
"Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone."
"Action is the foundational key to all success."
"Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not."
"If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes."
"Youth has no age."

Netflix does a Notflix

2008-06-18T20:25:00.003-05:00

Nasty little email from Netflix came in today stating that multiple Profiles in a Netflix account will be terminated as of September 1st.

To understand this, let's back up and examine why multiple profiles in a single account are useful. Here is a simple example, you have a spouse or a child who does not share your taste in movies, rather then fighting for control over the Que, each can have their very own queue. Each can manage it separately. Say little Bobby wants to rent The Incredibles for the 4th time, that takes a slot out of his queue, not yours. Your movies keep coming no matter how long he keeps the disc.

I use it and I like it a lot, it was just one more sign that Netflix was working to build the best movie rental system for the customer. Now it seems that they are starting to forget about the customer. This is the only thing that can kill them. Blockbuster with all their might, marketing, and cash could not. Nor could WalMart, or even Amazon. They all died at the gates because the one golden rule of Netflix was that the customer was king.

Maybe it won't be all doom and gloom, maybe I'm overreacting, maybe Netflix will survive and thrive.

I'd be a lot more optimistic had they been more honest about their reasons. Instead, they lob up some seriously lame spin, "While it may be disappointing to see Profiles go away, this change will help us continue to improve the Netflix website for all our customers."

UPDATE: Seems like Netflix has returned to its senses and reversed it's decision to do away with profiles:

We Are Keeping Netflix Profiles

Dear James,

You spoke, and we listened. We are keeping Profiles. Thank you for all the calls and emails telling us how important Profiles are.

We are sorry for any inconvenience we may have caused. We hope the next time you hear from us we will delight, and not disappoint, you.

-Your friends at Netflix

I'm guessing whoever wrote the first email got a little talking to about 'spinning' downgrades as upgrades. Perhaps in an effort to further that writer's career they allowed him to seek employment elsewhere.

bad apple

2008-06-18T14:30:00.003-05:00

My MacBook died while we were in San Antonio.

It was the logic board again. At least that is the closest I could guess, Apple Care was not overly forthcoming about it.

It was no longer under warranty as I thought $250 for and extended warranty was way too much for a $1300 computer (my last computer, a $1500 Sony, had an extended warranty of only $140).

I was annoyed.

Second major hardware defect in two years.

I called to make an appointment at a (somewhat) local Apple store to have a tech, sorry, I mean 'genius' have a look at it.

On Monday I brought it in and after 15 minutes or so of history and poking around, it was decided that the problem could not be fully diagnosed or repaired at the store.

So now I ask the dreaded, 'how much will this cost' question.

This is where things start getting a little brighter, the tech (sorry, I mean genius) says there is a flat $280 repair fee.

That is still a lot, but that covers any problem they might find. And it's a firm figure, I know what I'm looking at cost wise. And, really, the chances of getting any electronic equipment fixed for less then $250 is pretty slim. I got the impression this flat rate only applied to repairs where there was a manufacturer's defect, but I'm not certain.

Ebay tells me this Mac is worth about $600, so it's a no brainer, I tell the genius to pull the trigger and get'er gone. He boxes it up and ships it to the repair center.

That was Monday, mid day.

On Wednesday, FedEx tries to deliver a package at 9:32 am, but we are not in to sign for it.

On Thursday, I take deliver of above package.

It is the repaired MacBook.

I am $300 poorer and behind in my work having been without my tool for more then a week while I was traveling, then having it repaired. The repair was to a part Apple should have done a better job of engineering. I am annoyed and angry.

But, because Apple really does seem to go the extra mile with their customer care, I am not seething with rage.

When I bought this MacBook, it was a couple of hundred dollars less then a comparable Dell, though this is no longer the case. There are both Dell and Lenovo (IBM) ThinkPads that are similar but cheaper. Except the MacBook is still one of the very few notebooks in it's class that has a DVI port (a requirement for a desktop replacement).

So the question is, would I buy a Mac again... maybe. The size and power are good, but it lacks some basic features like a graphics card and a PCI slot. But that DVI port is a must, and not many notebooks have it. And of course, there is the advantage of being able to run both OSX and Windows on one machine.

P.S. I have a white MacBook, the picture is gray for effect only. Apple still charges a premium for the black ones, so as far as I am concerned, they can keep them.

Third Place

2008-06-03T09:22:00.005-05:00

I won third place in the photography category for 'Water and Light' at the Fifth Annual Beaux Arts Finale! It is on display through June 7th, 2008 at the Katonah Library.

Water and Light

And I showed the following two images:

First Place

2008-05-12T14:07:00.005-05:00

I won first place in the photography category for 'Water and Light' at the Women's Civic Club of Katonah Fifth Annual Beaux Arts Exhibit! It is on display through May 17th, 2008 at the Katonah Library. After that, I will enter it in the Beaux Arts Finale.

Water and Light

Katonah Art Show

2008-05-09T11:42:00.006-05:00

The Women's Civic Club of Katonah is holding the Fifth Annual Beaux Arts Exhibit at the Katonah Library. The show runs from May 12th through the 17th. The reception will be on Saturday May 17th, 2008 from 2pm until 4pm.

I have three works in the show:

Umbrella in the Sun

Water and Light

Book of Good Part One

Cognitive Surplus

2008-04-28T10:15:00.005-05:00

What a concept, worth 16 minutes to watch. I think Clay Shirky might be a little optimistic, but still a fabulous piece of thought. I hope I am just being pessimistic, watch this (or read it if you prefer) and decide for yourself.

Via Daring Fireball of course, where all quality links come from.

Cheap Digital Cameras for your Sister

2008-04-22T21:24:00.012-05:00

Edit: The digital camera world is an ever changing landscapes, camera models live for six to nine months before being replaced, so the cameras I list below are already out of date. There is still a lot of good information in the following article, just ignore the specific models. Instead, I have setup and mini Amazon store front with new models. Check it out here.

My sister asked recently for some advice on buying a new (cheap) digital camera. This is what I told her, the same advice I would give anyone:

Here are a few cameras to look at:
Canon PowerShot SD870IS - $250 - very small
Canon PowerShot A720IS - $200 or less - the one I have
Canon PowerShot A590IS - $150 - pretty close the the A720, like a little brother

'IS' at the end of the model number means it has 'Image Stabilization'. It steadies the camera to minimize blurry pictures. But it only works with still subjects, not running children.

The A720 has a very nice 6X optical zoom, the other two have 4X and that's pretty good too. There is a new bread of cameras out now called 'Super Zooms', some of which go up to 14X. But those are stupid. The further you zoom, the steadier you have to hold the camera to avoid blurry images. Also, the quality of the lens is compromised to accommodate such a wide zoom range.

'Digital Zoom' is junk. If it is possible in the menus to disable it, you should. Camera manufacturer's should be ashamed of themselves for adding this 'feature'. But they all do it, so I guess they will be able to console one another when they get sent to hell for this sin.

MegaPixel count is the other area of pure marketing hype. Anything over 6 MegaPixels is stupid on a point and shoot because the sensors are too small to really handle anything above that. The new 12 MegaPixel cameras use the same small sensor and create larger but much noisier images

Buying used does not make much sense for digital cameras, they are too delicate and you never know what you will get.

The SD 870 has a lithium-ion battery which is great, it takes more pictures on a charge and the flash cycle time between shots is much faster. But, if you have only one battery you can get stuck with a dead battery when you want to use it. So get two batteries and always have the second one charged and ready.

Flash cycle time is the amount of time between shots when using the flash. It takes time for the battery to normalize and have enough current to fire the flash again. With the flash off, the time between shots it only a second or two.

Both the A720 and A590 use AAs. Standard AAs don't last long and the cycle time between flash shots is incredibly long. Using good rechargeable batteries will work much better, but flash cycle time will still be rather long.

I hear good things about Sanyo's Eneloop rechargeable batteries.

They all take great video, but are limited by the size of the memory card, a 2gig card can store up to 15 minutes of video.

Other things you will need are:

Batteries
Camera case
Memory Card (SD Card) 1 gig would probably be OK
SD Card adapter
Picasa

The last two are optional, but it lets you avoid having to install the camera's craptacular software. I don't ever install the manufacturer's software, it is always junk that hurts more then it helps. Instead, I take out the memory card from the camera and stick into a card reader attached to my computer. The computer will treat it like an external hard drive so you can go in and manually transfer your images to your computer. Some computers have SD Card slots built right in, so you may not need that and Picasa is free, so no worries there. It's a program for organizing, viewing, and editing digital images. I have much more powerful image editing software, but I always start with Picasa and use it for cataloging my shots.

The other main difference between the the SD870 and both the A720 and the A580 is that the A series (A720 and A580) are designed with a lot of manual controls that are easy to access. The SD870 does not have as many manual controls and they are harder to get to. The SD870 really is for pointing and shooting.

But here is the thing, a good photographer can get a good picture regardless of the camera because he knows how to manipulate the camera to get the best results. All these cameras can create OK images in the Auto mode, but if you know something about photography, you will be able to get better images with the A series cameras.

What is DPI

2008-03-31T21:25:00.010-05:00

Dots Per Inch. Whether it be on paper or on a computer screen, the idea is the same: the paper, or screen, is broken into a grid, like graph paper. Each square is one dot/pixel. These dots/pixels then are used to build an image. In most cases, the pixels are too small to see and allow the image to blend together smoothly. All computer screens display images this way, so everything you see on a computer screen is broken down into these small pixel or dots.

A good visual representation of this is the painting, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte" by Georges Seurat. Seurat created this painting by applying the paint in little dots, much like pixels. This painting could be thought of as a low resolution image blown up to the point where you can see each pixel. Much like in the two examples below. The first is normal resolution, the second is the same image, but blown up so we can see the individual pixels.

In either case, the more pixels you have, the finer the detail. But, pixels alone only make up half of the equation. The other half is the physical size of the monitor or paper. For instance, if you have a one inch by one inch square and pack it with 300 pixels by 300 pixels, then you get 90,000 pixels and a very finely detailed image. And that works out to be 300 DPI. That is about as dense as would ever be necessary.

But, if you take those same 90000 pixels and stretch it out over a three inch by three inch square, then the resolution is lowered to 100 DPI. That is still not bad, but if you look closely, most people will be able to see the individual pixels and so the image will not be as sharp.

Most computer screens are somewhere between 72 and 90 DPI. A good quality print requires somewhere in the range of 150 to 300 DPI.

Note that a good quality print out has to be about double the resolution of a computer screen. Why then do the lower resolution images of our computer screens look so good? Because we are used to seeing it that way. Since we started watching TV, our eyes have grown accustomed to seeing images on screen at a low resolution. Standard definition TV is in fact, very low in resolution with a total of 480 vertical lines of resolution.

Why America is going down the tubes

2008-03-06T14:13:00.002-06:00

"By some estimates, half of American children have a television in their bedroom; one study of third graders put the number at 70 percent."

Sorry to be so blunt, but if you are a parent of an eight year who has a TV in his room, you sir or madam are an idiot.

No whining, you're an idiot. Shut up.

How to create a thinking child, start with "Toy Book"

2007-12-07T14:13:00.001-06:00

There is no lead paint in these toys (unless you add it yourself) and they are all 100% made in the USA (unless you live outside the USA). Steven Caney's Toy Book introduces your child to the world beyond prefabricated 'play modes'. If you don't like the idea of you child becoming a mindless automaton in a consumerist society, show him/her a world of his/her own making.

OK, so I'm being a little dramatic, but I like this book. I'm a designer so I am probably predisposed to the idea that your own imagination is better then the latest Spiderman toy. What is important about this book is that it not only gets some simple yet creative toys into your child's hands, but it also shows them that the world is not made up entirely of preconfigured blocks that have to be consumed as is. This book shows them they can deconstruct the world around them and remake it to suite their imagination.

This book has a series of simple instructions on how to make basic toys. One of the compelling things about these toys is that many are scientific or musical in nature, allowing you child to begin to 'play' with science or music. What a great way to get them interested in learning. The "Water scope" and "Water Lens" are two example of this, if you have a small bucket and some other household items, you can start to learn about optics and maybe demystify the pair of glasses your son or daughter just got.

I was quite excited when I saw this book, and bought it on the spot. I had Steven Caney as a design professor while I attended RISD. He had more impact on me then any other design teacher, he truly taught me to think outside the box. And yet, also how to deal with the practical side of business. After reviewing the book, I can safely say that a lot of Steven is in this book. He has a voracious appetite for invention and you can start to see the glimmer of that mind in this book. Two other great books by Steven Caney: Steven Caney's Invention Book and Steven Caney's Ultimate Building Book.

Free RAW Editor: Raw Therapee

2007-11-11T09:34:00.000-06:00

Raw Therapee (THe Experimental RAw Photo Editor) is a treasure for digital photographers who shoot in RAW. It supports many RAW files types from the most popular Digital SLRs, details on supported cameras can be found on their site.

Raw Therapee opens and edits RAW files. Just point it to a directory of RAW files and it will generate thumbnails of RAW files (and JPEG files) from that directory. Double click on a thumbnail to bring it into the main editing window. Now you can make a wide range of modifications:

White Balance
Exposure
Highlight Recovery
Shadows/Highlights
Sharpening
Color Boost
Color Shift
Luminance Curve
Luminance Noise Reduction
Color Noise Reduction

These are the main options on the right hand side of the screen. On the left is a history panel listing each change you make. This is very handy, it allows you to simply click on an earlier action to see what the image looked like at that stage. And if you want to revert to that point, simply click on that action and continue working.

It is not a great way to manage your photo collection, Picassa does a much better job of that, but it is substantially better at making adjustments to an image. My work flow still starts in Picassa to quickly review my photos. I then delete the hopeless images and pick a few for further editing in Raw Therapee. Once editing is complete in Raw Therapee, I save the photo as a PNG. This is easily done with the "Save Image" in the lower right corner of the application and can be customized in the program options.

My initial response is that it is at least as capable as Photoshop (I have CS2), but probably better for 'developing' and image and certainly a lot faster. But it's not a fair comparison, Photoshop is designed to do more then develop a photo. Raw Therapee is really in the same league as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Apple Aperture. I can not speak to how it compares to Aperture because Aperture crashed the first time I used it and I decided I did not need that in a photo editor and ended my evaluation there. I did use Lightroom during a 30 trial and really fell in love with it. I would purchase that Lightroom if it were not so overpriced. It is especially annoying to know that Lightroom was based on a free application.

The million dollar question: how well does Raw Therapee compare to Lightroom? I would prefer to use Lightroom, it has a broader set of tools. But, I use Raw Therapee because of the price. It's free, but a program of so much value, I am glad to give the developers a 'donation'. It is still under development so it might well become a threat to Lightroom.

Raw Therapee is available for Windows and Linux.

Texas Furniture Makers Show - 2007

2007-11-10T09:48:00.000-06:00

Last week was the eight annual Texas Furniture Makers Show in Kerrville Texas. Another successful show with strong work and great judges. This year the judges included Charles Kegley, Rex White, and Thomas Moser. Rex White has had work in the show several times and had won numerous awards in the past. Thomas Moser founder of Thos. Moser Cabinetmakers is well respected and was really a great choice of a judge. I don’t know anything about Charles Kegley other then that he made for a good judge and was quite affable, yet direct when fielding questions about his decisions.

From left to right: Charles Kegley, Rex White, and Thomas Moser

As always, Jim Derby did a master job of running the show.

Jim Derby at the awards ceremony

I was asked again this year co-lead a continuing education seminar and this year I was with Alton Bowmen and Frank Stazza. It was a round table discussion this year and I think that worked out quite well. I had a number of photos I took at the ICFF this past spring and I had a little slide show of these. Frank did a great demo on handtools.

Frank Strazza’s handtool demo

I thought the judges first place choice for the show was a little odd, but generally I was in agreement with their decisions, including Frank winning second overall for his Jewelry Cabinet.

Frank Strazza - Jewelry Cabinet

This has become a strong show and it is always remarkable how a show limited to state wide entrants can draw such strong work. But then, Texas is a large state.

Jim Derby will start working on the Ninth Annual Texas Furniture Makers Show in short order, I look forward to seeing it!

HTML - Definition List - My New Favorite Thing

2007-09-10T10:10:00.000-05:00

It is sad when one gets so excited with such a trivial bit of obscure code. That is what has happened to me… again. This time I stumbled across the Definition List tag. It operates similar to other types of lists, you start with a containing tag <dl> and populate it with a list of items. But, where it differs from ordered and unordered lists is that there are two item types in the list; Definition Term <dt> and Definition Definition (or Data Definition) <dd>. Most all browsers will render the two lines differently, typically indenting the <dd>, like so:

farm

a place to grow food
school: a place to grow knowledge

The code looks like this:

<dl>
<dt>farm</dt>
<dd>a place to grow food</dd>
<dt>school</dt>
<dd>a place to grow knowledge</dd>
</dl>

But, what got me so excited was the prospect of being able to seamlessly style to different types of data in a list. It is when you add CSS to the mix that things get interesting. Rather then showing you what can be done by adding CSS, I encourage you to go give it a whirl.

You might ask how I got this far without having learned anything about this before. That is one of the pitfalls of being self taught, and rather haphazardly self taught at that. I tend to wonder around HTML learning little bits here and there, I took no structured course, just learned what I needed when I needed it. It is a process that works as everything I learn gets puts into action right away and the chaff gets dismissed. But, it also leads to holes in my knowledge of HTML and CSS.

Safari on Windows?

2007-06-20T10:17:00.000-05:00

I need to have a Mac if for nothing else so I can test and debug the web sites I create. Every browser has its quirks and some of the sites I work on have a higher then average Safari user base. That’s one reason I bought the MacBook last year, even though I primarily run XP on it. But now, Apple has removed my need to have a Mac with their release of Safari for Windows.
I can only guess that they are using Safari as a tease to Windows users in an effort to wet their appetite for more Apple software that can only found on the Mac. But that seems a bit of a stretch to me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love it. As a grumpy user who is not willing to sacrifice an ounce of system performance, I run XP on my Mac with Boot Camp, not Parallels, I have to reboot into OS X to test web pages. Well, not anymore, now I can run Safari right there in XP next to Firefox and IE7.

The newest rev of the MacBook Pros really peaked my interest and I am seriously considering upgrading in the fall. But the release of Safari for Windows has given me pause, serious pause. Because now I don’t need a Mac anymore. I have to weigh if it is really worth dropping an extra $200 for Vista and Parallels if I get the MacBook Pro. Hmmm…

But, in one way this release is not out of keeping, it continues the intrusion into Windows space started with Quick Time and iTunes. And it is a nice alternative, except a great alternative already exists in Firefox.

My guess is that Safari usage (on windows) will settle down somewhere between Firefox and Opera, closer to Opera as anything past Firefox is really just for the fringe who simply want to be different, and let’s be frank, who want to be difficult. As much as I like competition in the software arena, the desktop version of Opera is pretty unattractive. I use it a few times a week, but only for testing. It’s just too buggy and I have not found that it does anything better then Firefox. Heck, I’d rather use IE7. Oh, actually, Opera (and IE7 for that matter) does do RSS better then Firefox. Firefox is poop when it comes to RSS.

XAMPP: The Easy and Simple Web Server

2007-06-04T10:44:00.000-05:00

Are you an HTML and CSS jokey like me who needs to occasionally dabble in the magical art of PHP, or some other, server side environment? Are you deathly afraid of and confused by this stuff. Me too. But I found XAMPP a couple of years ago and it is a simple and easy web server you can install on your own computer to run a web server and test out some PHP. It runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, and Solaris. I run it on XP.

Still a little nervous about installing a web server on your computer, how about installing it on a USB flash drive? No problem! Download the ZIP archive (not the EXE, that’s for regular installs) from their site and extract it onto your flash drive. Then simply run the setup_xampp.bat file, let it run for a minute and presto! Instant web server!

Now XAMPP is like any other program in that you have to start it before you use it. In the folder on the flash drive there will be file called: xampp_start.exe, double click it and the server starts up. Windows may give you a warning, click through that. A terminal window will open up (small window with black background and white type), don’t close that, just minimize it.

Now you have a web server running! Great now what. Well, first check to see if it is working, open your browser and type in http://localhost. You should see something like, “Welcome to XAMPP for Windows Version 1.6.2 !”. Yea, it works!. If it does not, you are going to have to look elsewhere, I barely know how to run it.

OK, now you want to use it to render those PHP pages you created. Here is the thing you need to know, the files you are developing need to be in the Xampp folder. Not just any folder, the htdocs folder, like: E:\xampplite\htdocs\ (assuming your flash drive is letter E). So drop a folder (let’s call it ‘web-content’) with some PHP files (one of which should be named index.php) in there and type in “http://localhost/web-content”. If your PHP files are written correctly, you will now be looking at them all processed and looking like they will when uploaded to a server (assuming that server runs PHP).

To shut the web server down, look for the “xampp_stop.exe” file in the main XAMPP folder and click that.

I run XAMPP Lite by the way. It’s a smaller install and since I don’t know how to use any of the added stuff that comes with the full XAMPP, I figured it was a better choice.

Newsletter #4

2007-01-31T10:53:00.000-06:00

Oops, looks like I missed an issue or two. No worries, I will refund all subscriptions fees for the past two months. I was too fat and bloated from the holidays to reach my keyboard, but I am back now.

This installment is designed to make you paranoid as I am discussing, once again, Scammers and Spammers.

Oh, and of some note, I have changed my name and web site. Crucible Design has been moth-balled, my new and improved business name is James Fryer Design Services. My new web site is JamesFryer.com. And accordingly, I have a new email address: jfryer@jamesfryer.com.

This month’s Main Feature was prompted by yet another piece of spam I recievied:

There are many ways to make money, some less honest then others. One of these ‘less honest’ ways involves companies representing themselves as some ‘official’ Internet source and trying to scare people into paying several hundred dollars a year for flimsy (and unnecessary) services. Here is one of the more benign examples: I received a fax the other day from “Official Internet Registry & Optimization Bureau” warning me that, “Major search engines may not be able to prioritize content on your site…” And it starts off with, “Forward to Accounts Payable” in large text. Why this sounds like a scam:

The name, there is not government mandated Bureau of Internet Registry & Optimization
The company logo is made to look like and official government seal, but it is not
It came to me as fax spam, no legitimate company uses this ‘marketing’ technique

I call this one rather benign because the fax does state in a couple of places that the service is not mandatory. But there are far more aggressive scammers out there that might contact you by fax, email, or telephone trying to convince you that there is some critical service you are missing. They may try to scam you into paying exorbitant rates for anything from Domain Registration to SEO. But they may also be interested in steeling away your domain name. So hang up the phone, throw out the fax, or delete the email. If you are concerned about the renewal of some service, call me or call the company with whom you have registared your Domain Name. Go straight to the source.

Every month (or so) the Crucible Design Newsletter will endeavor to enlighten you on issues relevant to your web site, the Internet, and related issues. The goal of this newsletter is to offer new tools, or new ways to use tools, to increases your effectiveness in the way you use the Internet and the computer.

Scammers and Spammers

Identity thieves can some times get some of your personal data, but not enough to do anything with. But they will use it when the contact you to convince you that they are someone that they are not, like your bank or credit card agency. For instance, a thief may have gotten your name and the last four digits of your credit card from a discarded reciept and looked up your phone number online, or the phonebook. Then they will call you pretending to be your credit card company and ‘prove it’ by giving you this data to ‘confirm’ their legitimacy. Once you are on their hook, they will ask for another piece of information from you, like the rest of your card number or the expiration date to ‘confirm’ that they are speaking to ‘the real you’. If you proceed to give them this information, you have completed their objective and they can now use your card, or open a line of credit, or any number of nefarious things that you will not like.

To avoid this, don’t give any information to someone who is calling you claiming to be your bank or credit card agency. If it is a legitimate call, tell the person that you will call them back, then call the institution on their main number and either continue the business they had with you, or report that there is potential fraudulent activity on your account. The same principle applies to email correspondence. If you get an email that you are unsure of, go to that companies web site and see if there are any problems. But do not click on any links in that email, they may look OK, but they may take you to a fraudulent web site.

This is an old scam that predates the Internet. And it is not limited to financial institutions, a thief might pose as your cable, phone, utility, or some other vendor company to get more information about you to use for their own ends.

I am not trying to make you paranoid, but I probably did, sorry. If you think you might be the victim of fraud or identity theft, you can put either a three month, or seven year fraud alert on you credit profile with the three major Credit Bureaus. And here they are:

Equifax
Direct Line for reporting suspected fraud: 800-525-6285
Fraud Division
P.O. Box 740250
Atlanta, GA 30374
800-685-1111 / 888-766-0008
www.equifax.com

Experian
Direct Line for reporting suspected fraud: 888-397-3742
Credit Fraud Center
P.O. Box 1017
Allen, TX 75013
888-EXPERIAN (888-397-3742)
www.experian.com

Trans Union
Direct Line for reporting suspected fraud: 800-680-7289
Fraud Victim Assistance Department
P.O. Box 6790
Fullerton, CA 92634
Phone: 800-916-8800 / 800-680-7289
www.transunion.com

The Google

Google Analytics is a free Google product that tracks detailed usage statistics of a web site. It lets you see information about who is looking at your site and how they are looking at it. It does not give you the name and address of a visitor, but it does tell you their city or town. It also offers details about their computer including the web browser, Operating System, screen size, etc… Two of the more valuable metrics are referral sources and key word usage. Referral sources tells you where your visitor is coming from, whether the be from Google, or a colleague’s web site. Key words are what your visitors are typing into a search engine that results in finding your web site.

It is also integrated with AdWords, Google’s paid advertising service, so you can closely track where your ad money is going.

It is an extremely powerful tool, but be warned, it is not terribly friendly to the uninitiated. It is a professional tool, and unless you are willing to roll your sleeves up and get your hands dirty, it will mostly just confound you. But that should not make you feel bad, I use it sporadically and it frequently confounds me.

Recommended Site

The Dilbert Blog: I thought you all might need some diversion after my little paranoia rift. Actually, the Dilbert Blog is often rather intelligent, but also rather funny, or disturbing, sometimes all three. Scott Adams is one of those people that is so smart it sometimes makes me wonder why I bother getting out of bed in the morning. I hate smart people, that is why I married one, to bring her down. Didn’t really work out that way though, she has me pretty much wrapped around her little figure. Which is a rather good trick as her little figure is really very little and I am not. Anyway, dilbert.com is also great, that is where the daily dilbert strip can be found, as well as old strips. If you have not read Dilbert before, it is not just for geeks, anyone who has worked (or visited) corporate America can appreciate Scott’s insights.

What is CSS anyway?

Casscading Style Sheets is a web technology that goes hand in hand with HTML. CSS is a method of applying style to a web page. That style can include many things including font, font size, font color, positioning of elements on the page, page color, element color, etc… In the old days of web site development, the ’style’ of an HTML page was limited and rather painstaking to declare. CSS adds many new formatting and styling options and makes is more simple to implement. It allows for the style of the web site to be controlled from a separate document. The advantage to this is that updating that separate CSS document effects all the pages in the site and saves the developer from having to update each HTML page individually.

Here are two examples of the same web page, This One has a CSS file attached to it, This One does not. See the difference? The page is the same, but with and without CSS applied.

The Return of the Peek-A-Boo

2006-12-03T11:00:00.000-06:00

I thought the Internet Explorer 7 had fixed the peek-a-boo bug, but I was wrong, it is still there. I came across this while creating a new site with a floated element. My jaw nearly fell off when I launched the new site in IE7 and saw the floated element disappear. The text in the element is still ‘there’, but invisible. I can still click on the now invisible links inside the invisible floated element.

I set the containing element’s height to 1% and the floated element is now visible in IE7 (always was in Firefox).

How amazing that Microsoft was not able to fix such a long standing bug.

Newsletter #3

2006-11-12T11:08:00.000-06:00

Welcome the third installment of the JFDS Newsletter. If you get tired of it, just let me know and I will remove your email address from this list.

Before we get to far and I loose your interest, it is worth a few moments to take a look on the horizon about what Microsoft is up to. The two rather major projects that they have been working on are here (mostly). Internet Explorer 7 is available now and will probably be part of your next Windows Update. This is a long over due update to a woefully bad browser. Microsoft has made it more secure and added 'tabbed browsing', but as a recent survey of reviews shows, it is still behind Firefox.

Windows Vista is Microsoft's next version of windows, set to replace Windows XP. This too is long over due and has been gutted of its more promising features. Never the less, if you have not heard of it, you will begin to hear about it soon as it is scheduled to be rolled out to corporate users this month and consumers on January 30, 2007. There is a new ‘rendering engine' (that is the part that controls how things look on screen) that looks nice, but is a power hog and will not run on many current computer systems. If you don't have a high powered computer, it might be wise not to upgrade just yet. And if you are looking to get a new computer next year, Vista will be your new operating system (unless you go to Apple) so make sure the computer is powerful enough to run Vista.

This is quite a big month for computer technology. Not only is there a new operating system from Microsoft, but the PlayStation 3 (a wildly expensive gaming system that I do not think will fair well against the Xbox 360 over the long haul) and the Nintendo Wii (a much cheaper gaming system) are also being released this month.

This month, in addition to the regular columns, I have added a new section: http://us.wii.com/ where one of my client's business and web site will be spotlighted (hence the name).

Every month the JFDS Newsletter will endeavor to enlighten you on issues relevant to your web site, the Internet, and related issues. The goal of this newsletter is to offer new tools, or new ways to use tools, to increases your effectiveness in the way you use the Internet and the computer.

Data Backup: Carbonite.com

I hope that none of my clients have ever had a major computer meltdown that resulted in data loss, and I hope that none ever do. But, computer failure is a real threat to your business and your personal life, how many family photos do you have on your computer? There are a dizzing array of products on the market to backup your data. Most come in the form of CDs/DVDs or external hard drives and are hard to use, time consuming, and expensive. And the biggest problem is that, most likely, the backed up data is sitting a few feat from the primary data! That is, the backup hard drive is only a foot or two from the computer it is backing up. Sure, that guards against a spontaneous computer malfunction (unless it involves an exploding battery), but what about fire, flood, act of God, annoyed cat, bored dog, or one of any number cataclysmic event?

OK, enough with the hypotheticals and scaremongering. Here is your solution: Carbonite.com. Carbonite is a service that automatically backs up your files onto the Internet as you work. The backed up data is far from your office and it's cornucopia of potential catastrophes. It is simple to setup, once you create an account and download there application, you need only choose those files and file folders that you want backed up and then let it run. The first backup may take some time depending on the size of the files you are backing up and the speed of your Internet connection. After that, Carbonite monitors the selected files and uploads them when you edit them, automatically. As Ron Popeil would say, "Set it, and forget it." Two other features of this service make it a no brainer; A) it is cheap at $50 a year, and B) there is no limit to the amount of data you can backup. got 120 GigaBytes of data, do it.

I have been using this for a few months, and it has been working well, but I have not had to use the "Restore" mechanism yet, so I can not comment on effectiveness of that. But the described process is straight forward, login to your account and hit the "Restore" button to begin the process. This can also be done as a simple way to migrate you data to a new computer. This is the simplest and cheapest backup solution I have seen.

Sorry, the Mac version is not yet available unless, like me, you are running XP on your Mac.

The Google

Last month I introduced you to Open Office, a complete and free office suite comparable to Microsoft Office. It is a great application (or suite of applications) and came in handy once again a few weeks ago when I was putting together a presentation for the Texas Furniture Makers Show in Kerrville, Texas. I used ‘Impress' their Powerpoint clone and was very pleased.

But it is not a Google product so why am I continuing to gush about it here in Google's space? Because it leads into two free Google products: Google Docs & Google Spreadsheets. As their names imply, the first is a word processor and the second a spreadsheet program. They are both rather basic so don't look to do too much advanced editing with either. Don't get me wrong, they both do what they do well and meet my needs amply. But they are no match for Open Office.

So, what then, makes them special. They are applications that run over the Internet. Think of Hotmail and Outlook, both are email applications, but the first works in a browser only when you are online, the second runs on your computer and can be used anytime (though you can not send and receive email while off line).

The benefit of an online application is that you can work on it anywhere from any Internet connected computer. That means that you don't have to bother with bringing you computer with you on your next trip, just use the computer in the hotel, Internet cafe, or the one at your parent's/child's house. Another advantage is that documents created with these online applications can be very easily shared with others. If you are developing an article with someone on the other side of the planet, you can easily collaborate on one document without emailing it back and forth.

I am writing this newsletter in Google Docs right now. I use it for the newsletter so I can get to it anytime from anywhere and add a new idea.

I have long struggled with how best to keep track of my hours (so I can bill you and afford that fancy bicycle in the window). In the past, I tried every method from paper to digital, with one unifying consequence, I would loose track of it. Google Spreadsheet offers me one central location to store my hours and it has worked for me like a charm. No mater which computer I amusing, I can easily track the hours I slave away to improve your sites.

These two applications are also very friendly in that you can upload Microsoft Office and Open Office documents into it with no problem. Also, and very importantly, you can export from Google Docs & Spreadsheets into common Microsoft Office and Open Office file types and download it to your computer. Oh, it also exports to PDF for no charge, yet another handy little feature.

Client Spotlight

MentorPath.com
Dr. Krueger mentors professionals and executives on the art and science of success strategies: 'Mind over Matters'.

In his own words:

"Success involves creating a new story inside and outside: an evolving internal model combined with new experiences. I help my clients write the next chapters in their life and business stories. As executives and self employed business people develop their success skills, they come to know themselves and others better. They apply human dynamics to strategic growth and personal fulfillment."

"Are you doing what you are passionate about? Have you fully developed your talents? And do those two go together?"

David's sight offered new challenges in integrating payment systems coupled with delivering digital downloads. He offers both audio (MP3) and book (PDF) downloads. By using the combined power of PayPal and E-Junkie (to be covered in a later issue) his site can now receive payment and deliver products automatically.

David's site also offered the opportunity to work with a graphic designer, Walid Khalil, who created a clean and expressive logo/masthead.

David was also kind enough to share his thoughts on my performance:

"As a product and web designer, James Fryer is the best. His business savvy and "No problem" approach makes him a unique collaborator. He has also empowered my clients to achieve extraordinary success."
-David Krueger

Recommended Site

Techdirt.com focuses mainly on tech related news, but from a much smarter angle then most. The writers have a much better grip on legal issues surrounding technology and they have a dangerously sharp wit. A very smart blog.

FreeWare

FileZilla is an FTP (File Transfer Protocal) program. It is simple, works flawlessly, and is free. FTP is used to transfer files over the Internet, the most common usage is to upload files to a web server. As an example, once I have finished the files that I create for your web site, I then use FilleZilla to connect to your web server (web host) and use it to transfer the files from my computer to your web site.

YouSendIt.com is not a program per say, but it is related to Filezilla in that it lets you transfer files over the Internet, but it does it more easily with email. Log on to YouSendIt.com, upload your file (using your browser), specify an email recipient, done. The recipient gets an email with a link to the file that they can then download. Sending large files as email attachments is bad because email is not designed to do that and the file can be corrupted, it can jam up your recipient's inbox, and your email service probably has limits to the file size you can send. YouSendIt.com alleviates these problems. With the free service you can send files up to 100 MegaBytes.

Web Tech Revealed:What is Flash anyway?

Flash is a web technology for creating animated and interactive content for publishing on the Internet. It is powerful and flexible. It can be used to create simple animated text to fully interactive games. It is often used to add visual interest to a web site through animation and is a good tool for telling a story visually. Flash files can be integrated into a web page or a whole web site can be created in Flash. Here is a site that is an interesting use of Flash: http://www.leoburnett.ca.

Not everyone is a fan though, Jakob Nielsen, says, "Flash tends to degrade websites for three reasons: it encourages design abuse, it breaks with the Web's fundamental interaction principles, and it distracts attention from the site's core value." Granted, this is from an article from six years ago, but, as he mentions, many of the problems remain. I am also generally not a fan of Flash. It is a little too vulnerable, can not be indexed by search engines, and can not be made to be accessible to the disabled.

Texas Furniture Makers Show - 2006

2006-10-27T22:14:00.000-05:00

Time again for the annual Texas Furniture Makers Show. As in years pass, KACC has found three talented people to judge the show: Amy Devers, Christi Farley, ASID, and Jim Wallace. KACC is offering show participants a ‘review’ session with the judges on Sunday, November 5, 2006. This is a unique opportunity for furniture makers to gain insight into the work displayed. I can not emphasis enough the value of this session, it is truly unique. This session is open only to show participants.

The show is starting earlier this year: October 26, to December 2, 2006. The reception and awards ceremony will be from 6 to 8 pm on Saturday, November 4, 2006. That is the same day Karl Muench and I will be giving another class on furniture design: "The Art and Function of Furniture". Howard Hale will also be offering a finishing class the same day: "Essential Furniture Finishing Techniques".

The winners from the 2003 show can be seen here: http://www.kacckerrville.com/2004furnitureshow.html. And the work of David A. Petersen, a former show winner (2003 President’s Award), can be seen here: http://www.masterpiecefurniture.com.

If you find yourself in or near the beautiful town of Kerrville in November, you owe it to your self to see this show.

Newsletter #2

2006-10-13T21:53:00.001-05:00

Hello again, here is the new JFDS Newsletter. The newsletter is now regularly scheduled for the 12th (or sometimes the 13th) of each month. If you get tired of it, just let me know and I will remove your email address from this list.

Every month the JFDS Newsletter will endeavor to enlighten you on issues relevant to your web site, the Internet, and related issues. The goal of this newsletter is to offer new tools, or new ways to use tools, to increases your effectiveness in the way you use the Internet and the computer. In addition to a featured topic every month, there will be regular sections devoted to special areas including; 'The Google', 'Recommended Site', 'FreeWare', 'Web Tech Revealed'.

Blogs

A blog is an online journal that is easy to manage and requires only a browser and a keyboard to work. Because Google likes websites that frequently update their content, blogs can help build your online presence and drive traffic to your site. They are easy and generally free. There are several companies that offer blogging platforms, but the two most notable (in my humble opinion) are WordPress and Blogger (owned by Google). In addition, many Web Hosting companies offer blogging features with there services, this allows you to build a blog right into your web site.

And, as I mentioned, they are easy to setup, manage, and use. When you sign up, the name you choose for your blog will become part of the URL (web address). When I signed up for one of my blogs, I named it jamesfryer , so the address became: jamesfryer.wordpress.com. If your Web Hosting company offers a good blogging tool, you may have the option of a more professional looking URL like: www.yourdomain.com/blog. But, as long as you link your blog to your web site, the potential web traffic will increase.

Once you have a blog, all you need do to start creating 'posts' is to login with your browser and start typing, then hit the 'publish' button and your latest thoughts are now shared with the world. But don't worry, you can always go back and edit a post later. Each blog comes with options like weather or not to allow comments. With most blogging platforms you can choose to let anyone leave a comment, restrict it to registered users, turn off commenting completely, or have comments stored (not displayed) until you can review and either except or reject them.

Jacquelyn Ekern, who runs EatingDisorderHope.com and whose blog can be found here, has good insight into blogging:

"Foremost, I want to caution those considering a blog on their website to carefully evaluate what level of liability this might subject their site or company to! I try to stay on top of new postings to the blog and remove anything that might be perceived as 'pro-anorexia', 'pro-eating disorders' or generally inappropriate for the blog discussions (like suicidalideation, discussion of weight loss numbers, etc)."

Additionally, she points out that a blog in a vacuum is not very helpful, better to use it with a community or have a specific purpose and plan for it:

"I have also seen the blog posting volume ebb and flow. It seemed to be most active when many of the members from an 'in person' eating disorder group I was running were posting more frequently. So, this might be a useful venue for folks who want their groups or other gatherings of folks to be able to stay in touch, build familiarity, etc."

It is important to remember that, like with anything on the Internet, there is no telling who will find it, or where your blog might turn up. Don't be surprised if Stephen Colbert starts picking on it, that's what he does. Some blogs have the option to not be "searchable" in an effort keep a blog private. Trying to keep a blog private is going to be about as effective as politely asking a bear not to eat you… while you are poking him with a stick. The eventuality of a 'private' blog breaking loose for the world to see is an absolute inevitability.

The Google

Gmail is a free webmail service offered by Google. What makes it standout from its competitors (Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, etc…) are a few things:

2.5 Gigabytes of mail storage
Email 'aliasing' - This features allows to send and receive different email accounts all through one inbox. For instance, I have five email accounts all being funneled to my Gmail account. I can send an email from any email address and I receive the email from all five accounts in my one Gmail inbox.
Free automatic forwarding and POP3 access, so you can access your mail from a desktop mail application like Outlook Express. I use this feature to backup my Gmail to my computer.
Very good Spam Filter.
Built in Chat feature.
Gmail automatically groups an email and its replies into a 'conversation'. This feature takes some getting used to, but after initially hating it, it has become one of my favorite features.
Scans all attachments for Viruses

The benefit of any webmail system is being able to access your mail anywhere, from any Internet connected computer, anytime. Gmail offers a different and more streamlined interface. Like all these services, it has an address book, filters, folders (Google calls them 'labels'). Google has a mantra of doing things differently, and signing up for a Gmail account is certainly different, because you can't. Not without giving them your mobile telephone number, or getting an invitation from a Gmail user. Don't worry, if any of my clients are interested in getting a Gmail account, all they have to do is let me know and I will send them an invitation.

Gmail is the best email solution I have used, and currently it is all I use for both my businesses and personal accounts.

Google makes money from this service in a controversial way, they serve adds to you based on the content of your emails. Google swears up and down that they do not read your email and only scan it to deliver the ads and they don't use that data for any other purpose. You have to trust Google to use this service, but the reality is that privacy is a concern with any online service.
Gmail is integrated with Google Calendar, which is also like its competitors, but better. It makes sharing calendars easy, I share my calendar with my wife and she with me, so we can always know what the other is doing. In addition to this, a Google Calendar can be shared with the world by being integrated with a web site, like so. Standard features include setting up reminders, sending invitations to events, and mobile device support.

Both Gmail and Google Calendar take full advantage of Google's search technology, so you can easily find an email or event.

Recommended Site

DownloadSquad.com is a blog dedicated to new software, software issues, and stuff that people who like to read about those topics find interesting. They cover office suites to Internet applications to silly free games. I have found a lot of great stuff there that has helped me build many of my clients' web sites. It is probably too geeky for most people, but it is my Holy Grail. You finally know just how much of a nerd I am.

FreeWare

I was on the phone with a good friend (who is older and wiser) a few weeks ago when he asked me which version of (Microsoft) Word I was using. When I responded with a perky, "What's that?" I could feel his eyes rolling up into his skull. He knew he was in for another one of my Microsoft rants.

I explained to him that I use Open Office for all my office application needs and that I don't have Word, Excel, or Power Point installed on my computer. That was as far as I got before I could sense he was glazing over. So I did not get a chance to complain about the cost, the size, the bugs, the software activation, virus vulnerability, or the system resources that Microsoft Office hogs. Open Office is a free and nearly complete Office suite similar to Microsoft Office.

Rather then ranting on and on about Micro$oft, I will just concentrate on Open Office, which is free, totally. Here is what it comes with:

Writer is the word processor, it functions in a very similar way to Word and has all the common bells and whistles, but not the more obscure functions that Word has picked up over the years.
Calc is a powerful spreadsheet with the standard tools to calculate, analyze, summarize, and present data in numerical reports or graphics. Similar to Excel
Impress stands in for Power Point. This may be the least featured and trickiest to replace of the suite compared to Microsoft, but having been exposed to the contamination that is Power Point, I will do anything to avoid future contact and Impress is my ticket.
Draw creates drawings, at least that is what I have heard. I have not used it.
Base is the database program. That's right, Open Office even includes a database application.

The feature that drew me to Open Office in the first place was its built in PDF creator, open any document and save it as a PDF.

OK, I like Open Office, but it does have some issues. It does open Microsoft documents and can even save to Word and Excel formats, but I have noticed on occasion that a Word document does not look quite right. I can see everything, but the formatting often does not come across perfectly. So it might not be the best solution for people who work with Word files all day. But I don't do that, so it is more then adequate for me.

Web Tech Revealed

What is HTML anyway?

Hyper Text Markup Language is the markup language used to create web pages. Note that I said 'markup language' and not programing language. A markup language is much simpler then a programing language. The main purpose of a markup language is to format text, where as the primary purpose of a programing language is to create simple to very complicated programs. If these types of languages were vehicles, the markup language would be a uni-cycle and the programing language would be the Star Ship Enterprise.

In the early days the Internet was used mainly to publish and share research papers and HTML was well suited for that. But as time progressed and the Internet went commercial, HTML was not adequate. So HTML began to evolve and though much of it remains as it was, it is now also a framework to hang more powerful components on like Flash for animation and java script for fancy things like online credit card processing.

One of the fun things about HTML is just how easy it can be. All you need is a text editor like NotePad and some knowledge of HTML. That is it, no advanced degree or expensive programs. Of course there are advanced degrees and expensive programs for HTML if you like those sorts of things. Another nice feature of HTML is that it is a self replicating thing, there is a boat load of tutorials and help sites online (in HTML) to get you started or to help you with HTML. Here is one Example.
What is SEO anyway?

Search Engine Optimization is the process of tweaking your web site so that it appears as high in search engine results as possible. This is accomplished by understanding what the search engine (like Google, Yahoo, and MSN) are looking for. This is obviously a great idea and can be very important to an online business. Imagine if your online company that sells fur balls comes up as the very first link when people do a search for 'fur balls'. Now image if your fur ball company comes up as search result number 7,893,635. Someone looking through those search results would need to click through 789,363 pages of search results before they got to the one that has your link on it.

Suddenly SEO seems like a brilliant idea that you are compelled to implement right now. And that would be true but for a few annoying facts:

There seem to be a number of SEO companies that are less then reputable and will promise to move you to the head of the line of search results. Well, they are frequently promising that to you and your closest 100 competitors.
Google employs the smartest programmers around in order to create a search engine that produces the best, most relevant search results. They don't share their secrets, so people practicing SEO need to be at least as smart as Google programmers. But if they were that smart, Google would hire them. Slight paradox.
Google, MSN, and Yahoo are always working to improve their search engine, that means that your web site needs to constantly shift to stay on top. That gets costly (except for my clients).

Google does have their own thoughts on SEO here.

All is not lost, Google does in fact have some guidelines for good placement (they just keep secret their big ideas). These guidelines are actually relatively straight forward and logical. They suggest to build an easy to navigate sight with good content. It is that simple. That is what they are looking for and what all their fancy algorithms are designed to seek out.

So the moral of the story is that, if you have a well laid out web site with relevant content, you are already optimized. These are the qualities I endeavor to instill in the sites I work on.

More crazy metal art

2006-10-07T22:21:00.000-05:00

These guys are crazy cool. I am way too temped but thousands and thousands of dollars worth of their work: www.robot-models.com

Dotster 'does' web design

2006-10-01T22:34:00.000-05:00

Dotster now offers 'custom' web design. The part I like best is, "And the best part is our services are affordable, starting at just $199 for a basic 1-page site." Yeah, $200 for one page, what a deal. And what do they mean by custom? Their service starts at the 'Basic' level where the ~~sucker~~ customer can, "Pick a sample design. Our designers incorporate your content." Sounds like you get to choose one of their templates and they throw a bit of stuff in for you. Funny, sounds like the same thing that both Google and Microsoft do FOR FREE, with some work from you.

Granted, with Google you don't get a professional looking domain, but you do with Microsoft's 'Basic' Office Live service and its free. I have already written. about Google Pages and Microsot Office Live.

Dotster does not stop there, you can also pay them $859 for a single web page with their 'Intermediate' service which provides, "Start with a sample site. We design around your content with lots of extra features." So maybe you get to pick from a different set of their templates and then they make some minor changes to it. Then there is their 'Advanced' service for $1299 (also just one page). But they don't even bother trying to justify the expense saying rather, "When only the best will do." Best what?

And I am guessing that with these services you get to pay Dotster for their over priced domain registrations and lack-luster web hosting.

Now with Google Pages and Microsoft's Office Live you have to make the page yourself, but the tools are easy enough if you only need one page, and did I mention that both are free. No design fee, no registration fee, and no hosting fee.

I used to love Dotster, but they are just crazy now, their web hosting barely works, their registration is over priced, and now they have a very overpriced web design service. There are many independent web designers out there (including myself: JFDS) a cheaper and better job.

Newsletter #1

2006-09-12T22:22:00.000-05:00

New Phishing Threats

Typically, a "Phishing" scam takes the form of an email that you would receive from a large company that you may have an account with. Ebay, PayPal, and City Bank have been some of the most common companies that have been used as a cover. Though Phishing emails may appear to be coming from these companies, they are not and the scam artist is hoping that you will not notice this and click on one of the links in the email. The link will take you not to Ebay’s web site, but the the scam artist’s web site (that will be made to resemble Ebay) where you will be asked to input your user name and password. Once the scammer has these, he can access your account and do things that you probably don’t want him to do (like take all your money).

I have discussed this issue with many of you in the past, but I think an update is in order as scam artists are starting to use smaller brands to hide their fraudulent emails. As reported by Techdirt, scammers are becoming aware that their methods are becoming easily recognizable and are shifting to a new model. Now it appears that they are using smaller companies, or topics of interest that you may not expect. So please be cautious when clicking on links in an email, you don’t know where you may end up. Though in some email applications and in both Internet Explorer and Firefox, you can see the full URL of the link when you roll your cursor over it. The URL appears in the status bar at the very bottom of the email or browser application window (see attached image). If the link in the status bar does not appear to match what is in the email, there may well be a problem with that link.

Metal Art

2006-08-30T22:24:00.000-05:00

Links to two artists working with reclaimed metal objects to make fantastic sculptures, eonjoy:

Edouard Martinet
http://www.edouardmartinet.com

Ptolemy Elrington
http://www.hubcapcreatures.com
http://www.canadiancontent.net/forums/about16914.html

Louisville

2006-06-11T22:25:00.000-05:00

We were in Louisville, KT for Jennifer's board exams. What I saw of the city, which was not much, is quite pleasing. I am not sure what I had expected, but it is a beautiful town.

It is a bit odd in being rather bi-polar, I have seen many people who appear not to be able to afford to take a shower walking down the street being past by Porsches and Lexuses, and not the cheap ones (these were Carreras Lexus convertibles). There is clearly a lot of disposable income in Louisville, but it does seem rather concentrated. The buildings are in a similar state. I walked down to the 'museum district' and as one would expect, that area is filled with gleaming posh businesses. I passed several expensive looking ad agencies, but right in the middle is a very dilapidated building with a tree growing out of the wall. Urban renewal seems in full swing, but looks to be a bit sporadic.
I keep ogling at all the beautiful buildings, even the ones falling down and dreamed about renovating them. This is probably just a reaction to the rather dull state of Houston architecture. I have been starved for so long that I don't think I would mind having a tree growing out of my wall, if it was a nice wall.

Jennifer is just happy to have a Whole Foods in town, and naturally, that is where we stopped first.

We took a few pleasant drives through the city which fluctuated from developed down town to more relaxed sprawl that felt more like an extended small town then 'generica', though we did eventually find our selves there.I had a nice time visiting a few museums in town, The Science Museum, Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft, and Glassworks. I was reluctant to return to College Station.

Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft

2006-06-10T22:27:00.000-05:00

While in Louisville, we visited the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. It is located not far from several hotels and is close to many other museums and places of interest.

Second floor gallery

During our visit we saw a furniture show and wood turning show. Both were enjoyable and worth seeing. The museum works to share the art and craft of Kentucky artist, but also reaches out to weave in national artists and craftspeople. It makes for a good mix. The museum is spread over three public floors and has a good amount of work on exhibit, definitely worth a trip.

Fin Spin by Bruce Mitchell

The Museums gift shop is also of note displaying the work of dozens, if not hundreds of Kentucky artists. It is a show in itself and quite densely packed, so walk through it twice, or even three times to not miss anything.

The museum also has a permanent collection, part of which is on display. I was somewhat less impressed with this section. There are several good examples of ceramics, wood turning, and an exceptional quilt, but it also had some questionable folk art, or outsider art as some like to refer to it. I appreciate genuine folk art, but it is a title used far too loosely and it did not seem to fit well with the museum's focus on craft.

sweet new blog

2006-05-02T22:37:00.000-05:00

Found a sweet new blog for people who like to make stuff, check it out: Make.

wooden bike builder

2006-05-01T08:39:00.000-05:00

There are a lot of people building a lot of crazy bikes out there, but something about this guy caught my eye.

stumbling around

2006-04-13T22:41:00.000-05:00

As is common on the web, I just sort of fell into this guy's Flickr album and was moved by the photos.

Photo Lighting

2006-04-06T22:42:00.000-05:00

Photographic lighting setups are very expensive. I have tried to do them on the cheap in the past with less then stunning results. But today there are much better options. Photoshop allows for the correction of what is typically the biggest problems of photos taken indoors and that is color correction. And the ability to do a batch color correction makes it practical. It is even easier if one is working with RAW image files and uses Photoshop's RAW pre-processor.

But still, it is much easier to just start with a well lit image and this article talks about how to get there much cheaper then ever before (unless you just shoot outside).

bunch of links

2006-03-18T22:44:00.000-06:00

Just don’t know what to do with this stuff, so I will post them here:

Cool Shelving
Solar Decathlon
Earth Shots
Cheap Daily Tech Bargins (with comentary)
Cheap CDs

About James

2005-12-07T14:49:00.004-06:00

Living in New York, after being inTexas for eight years.

With wife and child.

Designing web sites.

I also engage in quite a bit of photography. My equipment consists of:

Privacy Policy

2005-12-06T08:34:00.000-06:00

I do not collect any user data outside that which is stored in Blogger's comment system, but I do use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit this website. These third-party advertising companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address, or telephone number) about your visits to this and other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services that might be of interest to you.

Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on this site.

Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to visitors of this site based on their visit to this site and other sites on the Internet.

Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

MAC on a PC???

2005-10-20T14:38:00.001-05:00

Oh, this was cool. Download Squad has a link to FlyakiteOSX who have assembled a bunch of hacks to that lets a PC clone the look and feel of a MAC. I tried it out for a few days and was very pleased, but in the end I had to return to Windows Classic theme. It just did not seem right. And I was getting a little confused with the keyboard shortcuts. My real MAC has a Windows keyboard where the Windows button acts as the Apple button. I love Download Squad.

Massachusetts, OpenDocument, and THE Microsoft

2005-09-24T14:42:00.000-05:00

Massachusetts is proposing to implement a new file format for all government documents called OpenDocument. OpenDocument is an open source XML based standard document format for text, spreadsheet, chart, and graphical documents. It allows users to share files across different office suites seamlessly, no interpolation required.

From what I understand about OpenDocument, it is not as feature rich as Microsoft's proprietary file formats, but being an open standard the files can be traded back and forth between office suites. That is a mighty compelling feature itself. And for government work, it might not be such a bad thing to limit the amount of 'features' a document has in it. Lastly, since it is an open source standard, it is certainly possible to add more functionality later.

So is this bad for Microsoft? Possibly, but probably not, or at least not so much. First, because OpenDocument is a open standard, old MS could simply add it into their office suite. And I bet that they eventually will. If not, then there is a business opportunity here for a software company to create a plug-in for MS Office that can read and write to the OpenDocument format.

But, really, what this is about is the world being freed from the tyranny of Microsoft's proprietary file formats. That will allow us to freely choose whatever office suite we want. So how is that not bad for MS? Well, I think it is likely that people will still choose MS Office, not only because it is what they know, but also because it is just so feature rich. And the masses seem to like it. And when the customer has the chance to choose the product, they then have a stake in it and become defacto advocates for it. As an example, a few years ago I became so fed up with MS's blatant unfair practices around Internet Explorer, that I did everything I could to avoid using it. Well, after a few months I came to the conclusion that IE was in fact the best browser of the day and acknowledged that it would have become number one regardless of the games MS was playing. I was very adamant about it. Of course that changed when Firefox matured. I switched to Firefox because Mozilla had finally put out not an equal browser, but a superior one.And MS always has Outlook, the ultimate bloatware that is massively habit forming. Thunderbird (which can be integrated with OpenOffice) is light years from Outlook, it is like a better version of Outlook Express.

That is not to say that I will be using MS Office, I have already switched to OpenOffice. But I am usually in the minority, I expect that I will be in the minority on this topic as well. For me, MS Office is just too frustrating to use. I have to work to get past all the crap that they throw at the user, like the 'help' window. Just like with the new design of XP, MS Office 2003 has more stuff that does not help me use my computer, it just adds stuff that gets in my way. I am very thankful that MS incorporated the ability to change the overall GUI to that of Win2K. That is my greatest worry with Vista, that MS may abandon the 'classic' theme and have some even more hideous GUI. If that is the case, it could well send me to MAC or Linux. Though, I would not look forward to that and I have to be hopeful that Vista will be at least as good as Win2K.

Rhino 3D

2005-09-16T14:49:00.000-05:00

I just installed Rhino again on my fresh install of WinXP. I had forgotten how much I love that program. For those that do not know, it is a CAD program that uses NURBS to create complex surfaces. Simply put, it makes curvy stuff. It is very easy to learn and use, but it is not parametric, so one does need to know how to build a model in parts that can be modified later without having to rebuild the whole model. I usually do this with a combination of carefully saving all the construction input (curves) used to build any given surface and saving incremental versions of the whole file.

I had not used Rhino in more then a year (as I am now doing primarily web design instead of product design), but I was surprised how much of it I remembered. I just fell right back into it. I guess the thousands of hours spent working on it over the years had some permanent effect on my brain.

It is cheap too, it is $900 bucks now. But back when I started using it, it was $800 compared to $14K for PTC’s ProDesigner which is what I was using. ProDesigner was not only stupidly expensive, but slow, buggy, hard to use (like way hard to use) and quite limited. Over time, I completely replaced ProDesigner with Rhino for my design work which involved integrating with ProEngineer (PTC’s main app). Yes, not only did Rhino play nice with ProE (ProEngineer), over time, I found it easier to integrate then ProDesigner.

I pulled it out because I will be building a few pieces of furniture and will be modeling the design in Rhino. Yes, I do remember how to make furniture, astounding is it not? It is nice to be using one of my favorite programs of all time, three thumbs up (way up) to Rhino. Though, to be fair, Alias kicks ass, but was always just to expensive and did not have enough export options.

As for the furniture, I have a couple of new tools to help in the endevour. I won’t mention what they are until I have had time to fully test them out as a number of snooty woodworkers that I know will no doubt be looking down their noses at my new machines.

Texas Furniture Makers Show

2005-09-14T14:51:00.000-05:00

The Texas Furniture Makers Show will be held at the Kerr Arts & Culture Center in Kerrville Texas. The show opens on October 28^th and runs through December 5, 2005.

This is the sixth year of the show which has consistently been filled with a an excellent and eclectic range of finely crafted work.

I had the pleasure of judging the show in its second and third years. It has come a long way since then and now the show is judged by an ever changing three person committee of highly qualified individuals.

Jim Derby, the president of KACC (Kerr Arts & Culture Center), has done a tremendous job of building the show. Ken Malson has also been instrumental in the development of the show.

The event just keeps getting bigger and better. Last year I was fortunate enough to inaugurate a continuing education event for woodworkers focusing on design. This year in addition to the design class that I taught, KACC is also offering a great class on wood finishing, which is one of the more overlooked, yet very important parts of woodworking.

This year, Karl Muench will be teaching the design class and Curtis Whittington will be teaching the finishing class. If I can manage to get there, I will be sitting in on the design class and putting my two cents in. But I am very torn as the finishing class is held at the same time.

I highly recommend all Texas woodworkers to submit their work for the show (it is too late this year, but start thinking ahead for next year).

For anyone interested in design, this is a great show to see. If you are anywhere near Kerrville, you really should go see this show. Kerrville is quite a nice little town in the Hill Country so stay and have a look around. You will be surprised by the number of galleries the town has, I know I was.

Robert William Fryer

2005-08-25T15:53:00.000-05:00

At 2:30 PM Central time, Dr. Jennifer Fryer gave birth to Robert William Fryer. Robert weighed in at seven pounds and two ounces and was pronounced to be in good health. Both mother and son are doing well.

The eight hour labor went better then expected and much better than the pregnancy had gone up to that point.

Best Regards,
Jennifer,
Robert (W),
and James Fryer

The Colour of Magic : Lord of The Rings meets Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.

2005-07-30T22:55:00.000-05:00

Pros:
Great idea, first book in a wonderful series

Cons:
Not well crafted
The Bottom Line:
If you like Douglas Adams, you will like Terry Prachett, not necessarily this book, but definitely his later work.

Review:
Ok, maybe not the most original or clever way to start out a review, but I think it is the fastest way to get the most people to understand the basic concept of the book. The book is one part typical fantasy world and one part comedic satire, smashed together to make an original read.

The Color of Magic is about a “Wizard” (Rincewind) who cannot cast a spells, and the archetypal bumbling “Tourist” (Twoflower). Rincewind is constantly trying to get out of his own way in an effort to flee from trouble, which only leads to something worse. Twoflower is a good-natured optimist who does not have a clue, but has luck, lots and lots of luck. That and very loyal travel chest.

Be aware that this is the first book in a long, long series. Though series might be the wrong word. Most of the books can actually stand alone, but together they create quite a world. However, this book is not a masterpiece in itself. It lacks polish and seems to be in a rush to get through with itself. Youthful exuberance got in the way of craft.

The two things that got me through this book are, 1) the idea of a fantasy farce is brilliant, 2) I had already read “Good Omens” which is truly a gem, so I knew Pratchett had talent.

And I have kept on with the series. The first several books are packed with great ideas but still suffer from a lack of craft and subtlety. Pratchett eventual works out his issues and has been writing great books ever since.

Back to my opening, this is very similar in spirit to Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. If you like that, my bet is that you will like Terry Pratchett, maybe not the first few books, but certainly the last twenty or so. Both Douglas Adams and Terry Prachett take genres that are often too serious and stuffy and busted them wide open with satire.

HEY! Throw those spyware filled computers my way will ya!?

2005-07-18T15:07:00.000-05:00

Holy Crap, HOLY CRAP, NO, I MEAN HOLY CRAP!!!!

OK, I think I am better now. But wow, people are dumb, I Mean People Are Dumb, NO REALLY, PEOPLE ARE DUMB!!!!

OK, really, I will be fine.

But boy, how dumb can people be?

So here is what is happening, people (supposedly smart people with PhDs and Yale professors) are throwing out their computers because there is too much spyware on them. I know what you are thinking (Holy Crap, am I right?).

Don’t believe me? Have a look at the NY Times.

See, I was telling it straight. Now that I have had a bit of time to think on it, it strikes me as funny. Hey, you can either laugh or cry when you see the world falling apart. I prefer to laugh, because frankly, crying is a bit too damp for my taste.

One of my favorite lines was by a Microsoft exec, “We saw that a significant percentage of crashes and other problems were being caused by this.” Ya, thats it. It has nothing to do with your crappy software, it is all the spyware’s fault. It is a great scape goat, is it not? I am a little afraid that Microsoft will start making spyware so they can create an even larger smoke screen for the real problem, them. I am only a little scared, because I doubt their spyware would actually work.

OK, enough MS bashing, sorry, but you guys really asked for it that time. Really, I don’t hate MS, they make it just so easy. I actually like the Xbox (except that it is really ugly and loud). To be honest, I have more computers running windows than running OSX.

So back to the article. People, send your computers to me. I know how to fix this stuff, pretty simple really. Do a web search and most times you can get detailed info on how to fix each problem. It certainly does not take 15 hours to learn how to do this as one guy said. What was funny about that guy was that after fixing his box, he wipes his drive, nice. If all else fails, wipe and reinstall windows. It is not that difficult. And once you have a clean install, try putting some decent (and free) anti spyware on your box:
SpywareBlaster
Spybot Search and Destroy
Ad-Aware
Though, to be fair, some of the people in the article had four year old machines, so replacing them was not unreasonable.

But, overall, the article does prove my point: dumb people are stupid.

COX - overpriced and unreliable

2005-06-18T17:08:00.000-05:00

I have lived with COX in the Bryan/College Station, Texas area (internet and cable tv) for three years, the last two have been truly dreadful. My main complaint is that they continually change their services without notice in an effort to get the customer to pay more. For instance, they have changed their internet services four times since I have been with them. First I had 1mb for $30 a month, then they canceled that and I had to switch to 128 kb for the $25, then they canceled that and I had to go back to dial-up. Then they reintroduced 1mb for $30, but recently canceled that again and now I am at 4mb for $40. OK, so at least I am getting more for my money, but I don’t need 4mb, I would rather have 1mb and pay $30. There is no technical reason why they can not sell me 1mb for $30, or like the local DSL 1.5mb for $25. They just like my money and look for every angle to get more of it. Hey, I know that is business, it is just that they are so sleazy about it and I have to constantly watch my services and charges.

They are just very sleazy in the way they go about changing their services, not to give the customer better choices, but to squeeze more money out of them. I am in an area where DSL is unavailable, otherwise I would have dumped Cox and gone with DSL and DirectTV.

Cox’s Cable TV service is no better. Over the past month my channel line up has changed three times. With the last change they took away CNN, so I am left with only local channels, but I have Spanish channels. I need those like I need another whole in my head. But, I have to pay for it to get the internet access, so really, I am paying $60 for 4mb, not so much of a bargain.

Their customer service is dreadful, hold times are regularly over ten minutes and that is when I can get through, often the line is busy. Then I get bounced around from one department to another because I have multi part questions, which never seem to get answered.

Their advertising is very misleading, they are currently offering Digital Cable with a DVR for $25. Sounds great, except it is bogus, you first have to order, not one, but two tiers of digital channels to get this deal (the $25 is on top of the charge for the two tiers of digital channels) and the $25 is for the first two months only, what a joke.

And to add insult to injury, Cox’s service is unreliable. Their internet drops anywhere from one to five times a week. Usually, after restarting the modem, it comes back in just a few minutes. It typically does this at very inopportune times, like when I am sending a large email attachment or playing an online game. Ironically, their advertisements focus on how their service will not go down in a storm, like satellite, but it does. Curiously, the internet service goes down much more frequently then dose the cable tv.

I am moving next year and will be glad to be rid of Cox once and for all.