Mangatars?
Ben at NSOP found a fun little manga-style avatar creator at FaceYourManga.com — you can go through a whole bunch of options to make it look as much like your own face as you like (or not at all). When you’re done it’ll ask you for your e-mail address to send the final result to you, but if you’re worried about getting spammed then do like I did and just take a screenshot (or in Vista, make a rectangular Snip) and upload it to the online gallery of your choice.
This is even funnier because I just spent half an hour customizing my avatar on the new Xbox Live dashboard. I don’t think I’ve played a game in months!
Switching To Lightroom
Having played with the free trial of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0, I picked up the full version yesterday. It will take some getting used to, but I do like the workflow management built into it. I’ve ordered a book to help me get a little more familiar with it and will post back when I’ve made a complete switchover — although I get the feeling that Photoshop will still be needed on occasion.
Oh yeah, I put up a couple of other photos from my first ‘pro’ photoshoot on SmugMug.
Quick YouTube Tip
Some of you may already know this, but for those who don’t, you can take most any YouTube clip you like, append “&fmt=18″ to the end of the URL, and watch it at much higher quality.
For example–
Normal-quality version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6V_DsL1×1uY
High-quality version:
Zune 3.0 Software Out Now
So I just updated my Zune to the latest software/firmware revisions, aaaaand… well, I’m feeling kinda meh about it.
Pros:
- I can play Texas Hold’Em and Hexic on my Zune now
- I can sync Channels… whatever the hell those are
Cons:
- Still can’t use a strong WPA passphrase to sync over WiFi
- Still no Canadian marketplace
Quite frankly, the cons far outweigh the pros. Oh well.
When Video Cards Go KABLOOIE
Not quite sure how this happened (click to enlarge):
My sister’s PC stopped powering up last week. Upon opening it up and yanking everything, I came across the video card and its FIVE blown capacitors.
Guess it’s time to get my RMA on.
Laptop For Sale!
Well, my trusty ol’ laptop is up for sale. It’s a Fujitsu Lifebook S6231. Here is a link to a review of a similar model, with some key differences:
- my laptop doesn’t have a DVD burner; it has a CD burner/DVD player combination;
- my laptop doesn’t come with Windows XP Pro, but rather XP Home;
- my laptop was upgraded to 2GB of RAM;
- my laptop was upgraded to a 7200RPM, 80GB hard drive;
- my laptop includes a second battery that can take the place of the DVD drive for extended run time.
I’ve still got all the boxes, software and documentation, too. The laptop is in great shape save for one or two minor scuffs on the lid, and some worn-off paint on the touchpad’s scroll button — I really baby my electronics gear.
It’s a great laptop for someone who travels, as it’s small and light — you can strip it down to just over 3.5 lbs if you forsake the second battery and the DVD drive. Fully kitted out I doubt it’s more than 5 lbs.
Note that it’s a 13.3" screen — this is smaller than most (about the same as a Macbook). It’s an excellent screen, too, usable even in direct sunlight provided you crank up the brightness.
I’ll give it to you like new, with a fresh install of XP. If you like, I’ll also install free anti-virus software so that you’re good to go.
I bought it for $1700 new and spent another $250 on the RAM and hard drive upgrades as well as the extra battery; my asking price for the whole mess is $600, plus applicable shipping.
Full specs:
- 1.6GHz Intel Pentium-M 725 processor (Dothan core, 2MB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB)
- 2GB DDR333 SDRAM (2 x 1GB)
- Intel 855GME integrated graphics
- 13.3" XGA TFT CrystalView display, 1024 x 768
- 80GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM hard drive
- Combination CD-RW/DVD-ROM modular drive
- Sigmatel AC97 6-channel sound
- Built-in 56k v.90 modem
- Built-in 10/100 Base-Tx Ethernet
- Built-in Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g wireless LAN
- Type I or Type II PCMCIA slot
- Main battery - 10.8V 4400mAh lithium ion
- Modular battery - 10.8V 3800mAh lithium ion
- Ports: 3 x USB, 1 x mini-Firewire, 1 x mini-SVideo (with adapter), 1 x VGA (supports 1280 x 1024), Memory Stick/Secure Digital card reader, 1 x headphone, 1 x microphone
- AC adapter
- Microsoft Windows XP Home (will be a fresh install and fully patched)
- Dimensions: 11.5" wide x 9.3" deep x 1.28" high
- Weight: about 3.63 lbs with weight-saver, 4.08 lbs with optical drive
Post in the comments section below if you’re interested or need more information.
And The “Slowest Site On The Net” Award Goes To…
I’ve been trying to get the ASUS website to load for the last 15 minutes. You’d think that one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computer parts would have their site running on something more recent than a TRS-80 with a 14.4kbps uplink to the Intardwebnets.
All this for a stupid BIOS update.
Upgrading the Digital Darkroom
Minor update — my PC has been a little sluggish lately, so I decided to splurge on a bit of an upgrade:
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9450 2.66GHz Processor OEM
- ASUS P5K-E ATX Motherboard
- Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X4096-6400C5 4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 RAM
- Seasonic M12 600W Power Supply
- Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64BIT OEM
The PSU was specially priced at $99 when bundled with the motherboard.
This will be joining my Seagate 7200.10 320GB SATA2 hard drive, my Pioneer DVR-112 DVD burner, and my EVGA GeForce 7600GS video card — I’ll probably upgrade the video card a little bit later, and maybe add another 4GB RAM.
I’m looking forward to seeing just how fast this bugger will rip through Noise Ninja processing and such.
InterNOT!
I’ve been sitting in a café in Toronto trying to connect to some Wifi hotspot — and it ain’t working. Apparently they’re more than happy to take my payment info and then crap out — so avoid OneZone High Speed Internet at all costs. I’ve managed to get about five minutes of surfing time in. Well done, Toronto Hydro Telecom.
Someone’s going to be receiving a very tersely worded letter soon.
Testing SmugMug Gallery
UPDATE: Turns out the is caused by saving your photo in the sRGB colour space; SmugMug will convert any other profile to sRGB upon upload, which was causing these strange colour shifts.
More info:
“SmugMug Mucking With Colour?” on NSOP forums
“SmugMug Saturates?” on DGrin forums
As a result many of the links are now dead as I’ve since cleaned up the galleries. Anyways, this is a strong argument for automating as much of your workflow as possible in Photoshop, to avoid forgetting such simple tasks. PEBKAC.
OUTDATED STUFF:
I’m trying out SmugMug right now as a host for my photography gallery. So far it’s pretty simple to use, but I’m noticing one particularly annoying thing — it seems to fudge the colours in my images, blowing out the highlights.
Below are two links to the exact same file — the first was uploaded to SmugMug, and the second was uploaded directly to my webserver via FTP. If you open the links in new tabs and flip back and forth between the two, you will notice a colour shift.
http://gongzero.smugmug.com/photos/284421678_5Ja9f-O-1.jpg
http://www.gongzero.com/images/photos/oldport-17april2006/tracks.jpg
On my PC (calibrated monitor, system-wide colour management in Vista) the second image is pretty much exactly what Photoshop shows me. The SmugMug-hosted image is not (her hair is blown out to hell, and things are typically more orange/red).
Very strange. If I can’t figure out a fix for this in my SmugMug settings then I’ll certainly be cancelling my account.
No Thanks, I’ll Take the Stairs
Daniel on the NSOP forums found this gem:
This week in the magazine, Nick Paumgarten writes about the lives of elevators, and tells the story of Nicholas White, who was trapped in an elevator in New York City’s McGraw-Hill building for forty-one hours. Here is a condensed look at White’s ordeal, as captured by the building’s security cameras.
Computer Security on the Cheap
A few folks have asked me to talk a little bit about how I protect my computers and home network, so I thought I’d oblige. My security policy stems from two things:
- I’m paranoid.
- I’m cheap.
I’m no security guru by any stretch of the imagination; I’m just interested in this stuff, and read up on the topic whenever possible. Please take anything you read here with a grain of salt. Post in the comments section if you have any corrections or additional information.
