I recently bought a Hoya HD CPL filter for my Canon Rebel XS. I had a few minutes to spare this weekend and I wanted to you show you how it improves the images on a sunny day.
The first picture was shot without any filter.
This second picture was show with the CPL filter. Notice how much the sky is more saturated and the clouds stand out. The trees are also brighter.
Last week, I bought myself a Synology DS110j along with a 1 TB hard drive. I also took the opportunity to upgrade a segment of my network to Gigabit speed with a cheap D-Link switch. My computer and the NAS are now on that segment.
Now, I still haven’t decided what my strategy is gonna be. For now, my computer contains all the “master” files and a scheduled job synchronizes my computer with my NAS every now and then. This method has a few important advantages:
The only drawback is that my files are not live on the NAS. This means that if I download a video and want to watch it immediately on the media box in my living room, I have to run the sync job manually.
This also means that if I turn off my computer before the sync job runs, new files won’t be sent to the NAS until the computer is turned back on.
Because of that, I tried to switch roles: the NAS would store the master files and my computer would only keep backups. In normal usage, I would never use the files stored on my computer, I would always work on the NAS. All the different My Documents, My Music, My Pictures, (etc.) folders would be mapped on the NAS. This has a few drawbacks:
However, I also found out that Windows 7 won’t let me add networked folders to Libraries. So I would loose that functionality, which I actually like.
So I’m back to my original strategy: masters stored on my computer and files backed up to the NAS on a regular basis. The NAS will always be a bit “behind”, but that’s the best solution I found.
Do you have a NAS? I would like to hear different point of views on that subject.
I’ve had the opportunity to take an iPad home for a few days last week. They’re not available in Canada yet, but my boss brought one from the States. I already have an iPhone 3G so I didn’t focus on the OS or the applications.
First, it’s fast. Like, wicked fast! Moving around in the Maps application is just amazing, especially when you’re used to the iPhone 3G’s speed.
The screen is pretty much like my iPhone, but obviously bigger. The size is just perfect: not too big, not too small. But just like the iPhone, it’s glossy and hard to read outside. And the DPI is pretty much the same as on my iPhone (it’s not sharper). There also seems to be a bit of ghosting under certain circumstances. In other words, it’s not much of an improvement over the iPhone.
They keyboard is an improvement, especially in landscape mode where the keys are much larger. But you have to type with your fingers, as there is obviously no feel (like any virtual keyboard). Typing with both hands proved to be slower because one of my hands would always “drift away” from its initial position. But I must admit that I was surprised how fast I could type with only two fingers. The bottleneck was always with the accentuated characters, as you have to hold a key and wait for its alternative characters to appear (like on the iPhone). I wish the delay was shorter.
The main problem is finding a good position. On a flat surface, the optional casing does a great job giving the iPad a slight angle so it’s a bit more perpendicular with your eyes. But on the sofa or a chair, I found it really hard to be comfortable. It’s a bit heavy so holding it with one hand is only when you want to do something quick. Plus, you can’t type with both hands in that position. You really have to lay it down some way, and it’s not always elegant.
Last but not least, it desperately needs multitasking. I want to use it like a real computer, not like an iPhone! In Apple’s defense, the next version of the OS is going to come out this summer and it will have multitasking (among other things).
Is it a nice toy? Definitely. Is it worth $600+ bucks? I don’t think so, especially if you already have an iPhone.
There are countless tooltip plugins using jQuery. But not many of them use title attribute. I couldn’t find what I was looking for, so I based myself on vTip and added live() support and tweaked a thing or two.
Download it here (2.25 KB)
By default, it will only show custom tooltips for images, but you can tweak the jQuery call on line 74 to suit your needs. You can also edit lines 40-42 to change its appearance.
Last but not least, you can also edit line 17 to edit the default values for the delay and offset position.
A new release just in time for Christmas.
Upcoming features:
Remember to vote for kPicasa Gallery in the WordPress directory!
Although this is a maintenance release, there are quite a few changes in the code:
I’d like to hear what picture engine you’re using. Lightbox and Slimbox 2 can’t display videos. Video playback is buggy with Thickbox as it was not made for this, it only works after a bit of hacking. I wonder how many of you are using them.
In an attempt to resolve a conflict many people are having with other plugins, kPicasa Gallery is now loaded differently by WordPress. Thanks Salman for the solution!
If you have Google Analytics for WordPress, Digg Digg or TweetMeme installed, please let me know if my fix resolved the issue for you, or if you notice anything else unusual.
For the technical people, add_filter() is now called with priority 9 instead of default priority 10. I’m not sure if I should have went lower than 1 below the default priority. I’m very open to your comments on this!
I also applied Simon Foster‘s correction to diminish the chances of failing to load an internal file.
If your current installation is already working correctly, there’s nothing new for you this time.
Don’t forget to rate kPicasa Gallery on its WordPress plugin page. All votes are appreciated!
Here are the cameras I had in the past:
I loved both of my Canon cameras, but I found myself too limited in some situations. Particularly in low-light situations. At ISO 800, there was a lot of noise with my SD700.
I always loved photography, so after looking around for months, I finally found a great deal and bought myself a Canon EOS Rebel XS. It’s an entry-level SLR, but the level of control you have is simply in another league. I understand pretty much all the theory, but I need more practice.
For now, I only have the 18-55 IS lense that came with the body. But I might buy a 50mm f/1.8 prime lense sometime in the near future, it’s helpful in these low-light scenes such as weddings and all.
I have a few pictures in the « Experimentations » album in the kPicasa Gallery demo.
Here’s a list of my favorite applications:
And now a list of nice/useful applications that need improvement:
What are your favorite applications?
