December, 2007

On Thursday, (Dec 20th, 2007), I purchased something I had been eyeing for over 2-3 years now. A DSLR. When I first felt the need to buy a DSLR, the Nikon D70s was the most popular one. At the time, I didn't have the funds to purchase it. Since then, Nikon has released a whole slew of new cameras - D40, D40x, D80, D300.

After researching, reading reviews, asking for opinions, reading some more reviews and watching tons of You Tube videos, I made up my mind to buy the Nikon D80. As far as I know, Canon doesn't have an equivalent camera. They either have the XTi which is lower/cheaper or they have the 40D which is a bit too much and out of my budget. The D80 is the perfect fit for me - the prosumer.

So here is another instalment of a PlayStation3 tip to 'enhance' your user experience.

Some of my previous tips include:

I was getting bored looking at the same PS3 XMB (XrossMediaBar) - fancy word for your main menu bar/screen. Changing the colour of the default theme was fun for a while, but now the icons and background are getting a bit repetitive.

Since there is an option in the XMB for themes, I assumed that there is some way of uploading/installing/downloading/whatever a new theme.

So after a bit of research, I found the process. It's very simple - Just 10 easy to follow steps.

Yup... Koreans and Japanese - they come up with some really smart, fancy, yet functional inventions.

If you've ever struggled with unplugging a plug from a power strip that was barely in your reach, and you couldn't use both your hands. Well, I have - my power strips are usually behind my desk or couch, and I can barely get to them with one hand - let alone a second one to hold the power strip down with.

Recently I've started getting more and more comment spam. At first it started out with one every few days, now it's about two or three a day. I actually like this - for now. It's good to see some traffic to the website, even though it may not be good traffic. It's a small indicator that the site has some exposure somewhere.

After a while this will probably get irritating, but for now, I'm happy to see it... along with real comments of course.

I added the Terinea Weblog to my Google Reader a few days ago. They have some great tips for business blogging and other popular technologies. Although business is not the goal of my blog, their tips are general enough that I can apply them for my use.

In their post - 100 Readers, Excellent, Thank You! - They mentioned a 'nofollow' tag. I had heard about it, but didn't know much about it. Their statement really got me curious:

Don't we love it when Google takes over a product, or competes against an 'inferior' product and makes it better? Yes - Of course we do. We applaud, embrace and adopt the new technology.

But this is not the same way I reacted when I heard the news that Google is starting to take on Wikipedia. I was sort of saddened, and confused. I didn't really know what this meant. Wikipedia is an effort to create an online encyclopaedia - knowledge sharing - a way to get useful, pertinent information quickly. Isn't that exactly Google philosophy as well? Then why in the world does Google want to compete with it? Are they feeling insecure that a lot of searches reveal a relevant link to a Wikipedia article – within the top 10 results?

In my opinion

I never really liked my math and statistics classes in University; they were always way to abstract. But when it comes to finding and analyzing trends at work or play, I always have fun with it.

For the past 4 years, every December, I have eagerly waited for Google to release their Zeitgeist numbers. Throughout the year, I follow the major stories, but comparing them against one another, and seeing how they rank up against other events is very interesting.

While I was playing NHL 08, I noticed that none of the teams had their revamped logos or new jerseys. I would have expected that to be the default since that was the big thing this season.

Playing around with some of the menus and option in NHL 08, I stumbled across a place where I could enter a code to unlock the jerseys. For a while I though this is something you probably have to pay for, but after a quick search, I found the code.

As a photographer, you can market yourself, and make a few bucks while you're at it or if you're a designer looking for gorgeous photos to use in your project, look no further than stock photography websites.

I wouldn't consider Flickr a stock photography website, but sites like iStock Photo, and Stock.xchng are what you should be looking at. Another good website, is Smugmug, it's a mashup between Flickr and the other stock photography website. It lets you showcase your content, and also sell it if you choose. It also allows people to rate, and comment on your work just like Flickr.

All of these websites have a huge selection of searchable photographs, vector art, 3D illustrations, and even video.

When I read the article - Starck reviews Kindle at LeWeb3 - On Robert Scoble's blog, I had no idea who Philippe Starck was.

So, after playing about 10 games under Dynasty Mode, I wanted to be sure that my progress was saved, so here is a work-around that seems to work:

Once you load up your Dynasty Mode, and play a game or make a roster change, got into 'My NHL 08', and go to 'Save Dynasty'. Then select the Dynasty that you want to overwrite and save to.

So, now that I have my PS3 connected to my gorgeous monitor, I though I'd try out a game...NHL 08 - What else. In a hockey town such as Ottawa, lot of people at work have been talking about it.

So, Patrick (our new contributor) and I played it last weekend. The game was a disappointment for the most part. Both of us were really excited that we'd start a Dynasty Mode with the Ottawa Senators, and finish it by wining the Stanley Cup... and that's where the dream ended.

We fired up the game. The first pop-up said that Auto-Save mode was enabled by default, and that it would automatically save our progress. Alright, awesome. So, we created a Dynasty Mode 'Profile', played the first few games, then decided to take a break. Since Auto-save was on, we'd be able to pick up where we had left off. Nope! When we loaded up the profile again, nothing was saved, and we were back again, at the beginning of the season with a record of 0-0-0. What??

So, we though we'd give that another try. We decided to simulate the games up to about December. BIG MISTAKE.

You know what really grinds my gears? Seeing movie commercials that you thought were already released 2 years ago. Didn't we have a National Treasure already? I know it’s a different movie and I honestly didn’t see the first one. But I’m going to guess it went something like this:

OMG there is something hidden nationally that is the most valuable item we have ever seen… that’s a national treasure!! Let’s spend lots of money to get it! Ok!

1.5 hours later…

Yay! We got it! This is most valuable thing that the nation has ever seen. Nothing can beat this

Very basic, yet very insightful - Marc Silber's eBook and did I mention it's free. It's only 11 pages long, but is very well created. I love the typography in it.

He gives a few tips that are common sense, but most of us usually never think of. There are a few shots of his work in the eBook as well.

If you like the book, he has some great shots of his work in his portfolio. Very inspirational. Now if only I could decide on a DSLR and go shoot some stuff around the city.

Thanks to Phil over at PhilsBlogging, who left a link to this in one of his comments...it perfectly compliments my discussion about the wows of social networking.

Christmas season - stuff goes on sales and seeing how the prices are dropping for certain things, I want to get my hands on a DSLR. I know I have a ton of options, but I'm mainly set on buying either the Canon Rebel XTI, or Nikon D40, D40x, or maybe the D80. I've got lots of research ahead of me to decide which one works best for me. The problem here is that $1200 or more is a pretty big commitment, and I'd like to test drive a few cameras before I settle for one.

Facebook - Is there anything it doesn't do (socially)?

For a while, I had a blog on Blogger, but it didn't give me enough freedom to style my page the way I wanted it. Therefore I bought some hosting with GoDaddy, and created this website with Drupal. I finally got around to updating my Webpage (on my Facebook profile) and a friend from university contacted me regarding it. She has a blog as well, so why not link to each other.

Remember that night when you got really drunk, stumbled into the shady tattoo parlour and engraved - "Michael Jackson is my hero" after listening to Thriller, onto your chest - of course you don't remember that, you were too drunk.

Everyone has seen at least one Apple commercial - 'Mac vs PC'. Most of the educated PC users know that Apple is making a mountain out of a mole hill when it comes to some of the issues. Vista DRM for example.

I have been using Vista for a while now and haven't come across any DRM issues. I've played DVDs, HD-DVDs and protected content, and Vista has never denied access or downgraded its quality. Is it because I have the right setup, or is it because I have a legal copy of Vista and the content I'm trying to play. All Microsoft did was try to comply with the standards. They are a big enough giant to dump the DRM protection, and the MPAA would be able to do nothing about it, but they didn't.

With holiday season in full swing, my purchasing has increased a bit. Lots of line ups at the stores, and lots of angry people in the parking lot looking for a spot. After waiting in the checkout line for 20 minutse, the thing that is really getting frustrating is when you swipe your credit/debit card, and nothing happens...then you turn your card the other way, and it works.

Every store has a different branded card reader, and every card reader wants you to swipe the card differently. Some have it stripe out, some have it stripe in, and if you swipe it the wrong way, the snappier cashier will be very quick to correct you that you have to swipe the other way - Thanks Captain Obvious, I know since I exhausted my 50% probability of getting it right the first time, it MUST be the other way around the second time.

So, now that I have my PS3 at home, it was time to up the experience by connecting it to my Samsung 226BW, and my Sony 300 watt speaker system.  The only problem here is the volume I can enjoy the movies and games at - since I live in an apartment (flat).