After you finish nerding out to this 300 step Rube Goldberg machine, watch it one more time.

See the shake? See how it makes you crazy because it’s out of focus and shaking? When you create video or photos, do you have similiar feelings when viewing your creations? Your old pal db have a keen fix for you. Easy and can be relatively inexpensive and will improve everything that you do with a camera.

Use a tripod. Here is a good one to start with. It’s less than $30 and will work with any camera. If you need this for your iPhone, check out the Glif to give it a place to connect to a tripod. I swear by mine and think you will do.

Sure, we all want to feel and try to look like a professional photographer, dancing around the room snapping away as if our subject was a top super model and we are making mad bank from our photos. Truth be told, we aren’t professional photographers (yet), aren’t shooting super models with $10k worth of gear. We are taking pictures and videos of our kids, food and ourselves riding bikes.

When I take photos and video, I really like them to be clear, in focus and as shake free as possible. That’s why I use a tripod. Also, when shooting with a tripod, you will find that those shots in rooms that have less than ideal light will come out nicer, no matter what camera you are shooting with. No need to get into the nerdery of why, just know that a tripod makes things better.

Stop taking crappy video and photos. Motion blur is only cool when you are photographing F1 cars, not when you are trying to snap the kids and Grandma in front of the Christmas tree. Get a tripod and use it.

For those times when you don’t have a tripod handy, here are some of my favorite tricks to keep the shots steady.

• Find a solid flat surface and use the camera timer
• Hold the camera very tight while leaning up against a wall
• Keep your elbows in
• Get string and a eyehook. Yes, this works
• Try a monopod

Doesn’t matter if you are using an old point and shoot or a brand new fancy DSLR, a tripod will make your photos better.

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For those curious, a MacBook Air will drive 45" LCD panel at full 1080p. And sound through HDMI.Cord cutting? I haz it #cordcutting

March 10, 2012 7:54 pm via Tweetbot for iOSReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

Rolling into week 2 4 of not having cable TV. I don’t miss it even a little and I haven’t heard any complaints about it not being there from my housemates. And, at this point, I would grade the experience a solid C. A solid C that I just increased to a B+.

The biggest hurdle so far as been the Adobe Flash Player on older Apple hardware. Trying to use a first gen Intel Macbook as a home theater PC (HTPC), as it turns out, doesn’t work that great. The CPU gets hammered, there isn’t enough graphics power and it’s a little low on memory. Any video playback was poor, especially any web based video. Just not enough horsepower to get the job done.

Enter the Macbook Air. There are a pair of them in the house of the 13″ screen variety. Small, light and wicked fast. And, as it turns out, quite the video playback machine! With the correct cable connected, it will drive the 45″ LCD television in our system, at 1080p, no sweat! Even when I tried Hulu and Youtube, playback was smooth, the sound was perfect and the video output was clear and crisp. On HD Youtube videos, they look as good, if not better, than cable even did.

The next step is to streamline the setup and make it easier to operate. Currently using Plex to manage our content that is stored on an external USB drive, but Plex is installed on the machine the drive is not attached too. Makes performance a bit rough sometimes, especially when a computer goes to sleep.

Also rough when using the Macbook Air is the lack of a remote. You kids out there probably don’t remember, but there was a time when televisions did not have color screens or remote controls. Actually, that’s not 100% correct. The kids were the remote controls when Mom or Dad wanted the channel changed. TV watching was almost an aerobic activity!

This system will be a work in progress until it’s not. Ideally I would like to add a Mac Mini or build my own home theater PC running any number of linux distro’s. The trick would be to make it quiet and small enough to fit in my home entertainment system, and not run at a bazillion degrees.

Stay tuned.

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Since it is open source, anyone that uses it should feel compelled to somehow give something back to the WordPress community. Many people think that you need to spend time squashing bugs in the core code, or developing sweet plugins and themes. Sure, those all work, but I’m not really good at either of those things.

What am I good at? Training, implementing and thinking so far out of the box you can barely see the box. That’s what I do to give back and part of the reason why I volunteer at my local Wordcamp in the Rockstar Bar. That’s just a fancy term to say that if you have a question about WordPress or a problem with your WordPress or you are looking to have a discussion about WordPress, this is the place with nerds that are available to help you out. And this year I did.

• I helped troubleshoot a widget problem.
• I helped set up a contact form that worked
• I showed someone how to properly configure their WordPress settings
• I helped someone hash out a way to provide piano lessons online.

Overall, it was a pretty great day of WordPress and I’m glad I was able to take the time to participate. As an added bonus, because I showed up, I received a free-for-life account at WP Engine, a premium, WordPress-only, web host. Expect a full review of that in the coming weeks.

If you have to use WordPress, are curious about WordPress or looking for a place to meet other WordPress users to swap stories and tips, I highly recommend hitting up a Wordcamp near you.

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If a new photo gets posted to Instagram then post it to Flickr using the data from the Instagram post and these tags that I specify.

While the possibilities aren’t endless, they are pretty close. And I’m finding uses for this everyday. There is a good chance that you are reading this because you saw a link on my Facebook page. My nerd machine did that. If you ever see my profile photo change on FB, you will also see it to change on Twitter. My nerd machine did that, too. It works with Instagram, Gmail, Google Reader, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, RSS, LastFM, Evernote and more! If you can think it, it can probably do it.

Best part to all of this is that it’s free! And, since it awesome and free, I’m going to make it known right now that the second they offer a pro version that I can pay for to make sure that it sticks around for as long as possible I’m in.

The first time you log into ifttt.com you might be overwhelmed. Not a problem because it’s also social! Other nerds have shared their “recipes” within the site to give you an idea of what it can do and give you some to get you started.

Worth checking out and worth giving your time too, ifttt.com is made from pure awesome and unicorn tears. You should try it out because I’m sure it will become your new favorite thing as well.

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Additions

Needing a way to get live television into our home, I added an antenna. Nothing fancy, just an amplified indoor HD antenna from GE that I picked up at Target for $25. Luckily, here in the greater Phoenix area, over the air service, from what I have heard, is pretty great. Those stories were all correct. There are about 40 channels that I’m able to pick up, all with varying quality, over the air. For sure I get the 3 major networks (ABC, NBC, CBS), all in full HD with great sound. Picture quality as good as it was with FiOS. We are also able to pickup our local Fox affliate in ok quality and 3 PBS channels. Add to that about a dozen different hispanic channels and a very low power music video channel, and we are looking pretty good.

Wanting a way to watch shows that we miss live or aren’t available legally otherwise, I am temporarily repurposing a first gen Macbook into the entertainment center. It’s not ideal since it needs a keyboard attached to work with the lid closed, but for now, it’s a good start. I’ve bookmarked about a dozen sites for viewing television content, internet videos and photographs. I’m also going to turn this into the plex server which I hope will improve performance.

Since this is an older Macbook, video performance isn’t as good as I would like, but it does drive the 44″ LCD TV without any issues at 1280×768 (75mHZ) through the display port into the television’s VGA port. Audio will come from the headphone jack into the receiver via a Monster cable made specifically for that job. That cable was acquired back when I was still rocking an XBox in California.

Here is our current setup that we are using to make the leap into cord-cutting.

• Roku box
• Roku Soundstream box
• Macbook
• Indoor antenna
• DVD Player
• Plex media server

Next step is storage. While we don’t lack for storage, we do lack for organized storage. In total, we have almost 6TB in external storage available, but it’s scattered over 8 drives attached to 2 iMac’s. I’m going to put 2TB of that into a Network Attached Storage device that I have been testing and like quite a bit.

Overall, we are looking at saving more than $100 per month by doing this and are very excited to get started!

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Did the math last night. Cable TV is a total rip job.

January 24, 2012 6:53 am via Tweetbot for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

Something Stella and I have been talking about for a long time is cutting out cable TV. It’s expensive, and honestly, we don’t need it. With technology and some clever, here is how we are going about getting rid of the TV portion of our cable bill.

1. Most of the shows that we watch are on Hulu
2. The shows that aren’t on Hulu are available through Amazon for $1.89 an episode
3. Over-the-air TV is pretty good in our area, or so we have heard.

Of course, all of this is made possible by the Roku box that quietly lives in our entertainment center. While it’s not as slick or matching-with-the-rest-of-our-Apple-gear as an Apple TV, it’s not horrible looking, fits nicely in the rack and has a good feature set. It has HDMI out as you would expect. It also has digital audio, which comes in handy for the audio channels available (like SOMAFM, Pandora and others).

While I would love to have an AppleTV, the cost of media through the iTunes store makes it less than attractive. To be able to use it as iTunes for the entertainment system isn’t that attractive either since we have a Roku Soundbridge that will play damned near anything we want.

Ideally, I would like to add a new Mac Mini to this system with a Thunderbolt drive attached. That would give access to the web as normal like YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr and everything else we use, plus iTunes and Hulu for those shows that are still web only. With Boxee or Plex installed, a Mini would be pretty rad. It’s a pretty low priority item, so the spend can’t be justified at this time, but hopefully one day soon.

Step 1 will be adding an external antenna to see what kind of over-the-air performance we actually get. Luckily they are cheap no matter where you go. Stay tuned as I will be documenting the entire process.

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In 2007 I purchased the above camera, primarily so I would have something to take pictures with at MINI United in Zaandvort, Netherlands. I did some research, asked around and that’s the camera that was recommended more than others for high-end point and shoots. I sit here today, 5 years and close to 100,000 shots (I think) later, and it’s still a great camera.

It was with this camera that I became excited about my photography. It was with this camera that I’ve taken photos in 5 different countries and damned near every state in the US. It was with this camera that I discovered how fun it is to take photographs.

It was also, most recently, this camera that captured the following shots.

View the entire set here.

No matter what the lighting conditions are, colors are always fantastic and it’s easy to get great shots consistently. Dark rooms are still dark, but if there is any color, this camera grabs it. And, even though it shoots in jpg, the photos still take edits very well, especially for light and color correction. Much better, in fact, than many other point and shoot cameras, closer to the editability of photos taken with the iPhone.

I’m sure you keep hearing and reading that the best camera is the one that you have with you. I’m happy that this has been the one with me so often for the last 5 years. If you are in the market for a point-and-shoot camera, I wouldn’t hesitate to grab any of the Panasonic Lumix cameras.

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Tech-wise, PHL is like a step back in time. No power, no wifi. Not cool.

January 12, 2012 6:09 pm via Tweetbot for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@dbwilldo

db

Since I didn’t have WiFi and I wasn’t able to get any work done, I did some writing.

It all started back in 2007 when I acquired my very first Macbook. It was the first generation with the Intel processor and I liked it. Alot. It’s been one of the most reliable PCs I’ve had and is still in active use today.

Jump ahead to 2009 when I got my iMac. 20″ to be exact. It’s been my workhorse, being used to generate countless websites, blog posts, photos and hours of video. As it stands, it’s about the 3rd most reliable PC I’ve ever owned and if it lasts another 2 years I will jump to the number 2 spot.

For the record, the PC I have ever owned was one I built myself. A PII700 running all Intel internals with Samsung drives and Windows 2000. Got about 5 solid years of use out of that before I upgraded to something a little speedier.

I title this post 100% Mac Shop because I have always had a copy of Windows running somewhere. Either in VM on the iMac or Macbook, or in the shape of a laptop or netbook. Friends, I am here today to let you know that is no longer the case.

Instead of getting a mobile device running Windows (and saving a bunch of money) I decided to go mobile on the Mac. And not a Macbook Pro either. A 13″ Macbook Air. Thin, light and limited on storage. A machine that I know will take advantage of dropbox and iCloud. A machine that I will use primarily for editing text (or coding WordPress themes). A machine that has enough space to offload photos and videos from week long events. And if I run out of space, there is always FTP or dropbox. A true portable machine.

I will be using this for light photo editing. I might even attempt video editing on it as well. For video, I’m going to almost bet that it will not be the greatest for encoding, so I will save that for the iMac.

Toss in my iPhone and there you have it! I’m all Mac. Only took me 5 years to get here too!

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On iPhones and the Macbook Air

Recent addition to my quiver is the 13″ Macbook Air. I looked really hard at the 11″, aka the iPad Pro, but decided the larger screen and SD Card reader were a worthwhile $100 upgrade. Timing couldn’t have been better either as I picked it up barely 24 hours before I had an event to cover with a fair bit of travel. Here are a few quick notes.

• Fast – Did I say fast? Yes, fast. The best way to describe how fast is by using iPhoto. On my 13″ Air, from click to fully loaded is less than 2 seconds. On a brand new 13″ Macbook Pro (with roughly the same number of photos) from click to to fully loaded was 12 seconds. The speed makes itself known everywhere too.

• Battery life – I’m not sure about how long it will actually last, but I think the 7 hours claimed is pretty close to being accurate. Not to mention, when the lid is closed, this baby is sleeping and sleeping hard! Over night battery useage with the lid closed so far has been zero.

• Portability – It’s not as light as the 11″, but close enough. And it’s thinner than my iPhone. Yet, it doesn’t feel flimsy or cheap.

• The Screen – Something you don’t notice right away, but after you use it for a bit, you start to notice that the screen on this is pretty great.

Comments are open if you have any questions about the Air.

And, for the first time, really, I actually used my iPhone during an event. Now that I’ve had it for a few months and have my groove down, it’s the perfect device for that kind of work. I was able to do things mobile that I always had to rely on external devices to do. For the first time I went to an event with only 3 devices (and it could have been two); an iPhone, my Canon DSLR and Macbook Air.

I’m excited to see what I can really do with these in the field this year!

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Oh boy is the internet pissed at Godaddy this week! Turns out they supported SOPA (which they later changed their mind about). That was reason enough for quite a few folks to start pulling their domains and move them to different registrars. I know I did, but not because they supported SOPA. More like, that’s the straw that broke the camels back.

I’m transferring domains away from GoDaddy as fast as my checkbook will allow. I only have 8 or so left with them, and I hope to have them transferred to Hover by the end of January. This is a process I started earlier this year after Bob Parsons came home from Africa after spending some quality time shooting elephants. But that’s only part of why I’m moving my domains.

Another part is their famously awful user interface. Or the fact that they are the worst WordPress host. Or the fact that when trying to check out when purchasing anything you have to click through 10 different pages offering upgrades, magazine subscriptions and ginsu knives. But, like the other reasons, this is just a part of why I’m transferring away.

If we take a second to look at the graphic at the top of this post. That is a screen shot from my Gmail account. Please note the date stamps on each line. If you want to know why I’m transferring away from GoDaddy, it’s because they are practicing email spammers and there is no way to make it stop that I can find.

Buy a domain? 2 emails. plus the weekly “buy more domains” email. Have a domain? 9 months before it expires they start sending reminder emails to renew. As the date draws closer, the frequency of the emails increases until you are getting 2 per day (per domain). Once the expiration date has passed, they continue to send emails at the rate of not less than 1 per day per domain. And there is no way to make them stop.

Worse part is when you don’t want a domain name any more. I let about 10 go this year that I will never do anything with (or my customers won’t be using). And the damn emails never stop. It’s truly rediculous.

So, if the emails won’t stop, if the UI won’t change and if the check-out process won’t stop pushing ultra high security email and faxing from my rotary phone, then I’m out.

And now you know The rest of the story.

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